﻿llV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [MayiQIO, 



Bachelor's degree in 1874, he went to Paris and studied in the 

 Ecole de Droit as a preparation for the law, which he had by this 

 time decided to adopt as his profession. He practised in New York 

 and subsequently in Paris, where for a time he held the office of 

 Counsellor to the American Embassy. He was elected a Fellow of 

 our Society in 1S75. 



Kelly was a man of brilliant gifts, overflowing with original 

 ideas, entertaining in conversation, an acute observer of men and 

 maimers, and possessed of a personal charm which endeared him to 

 all his acquaintances. At Cambridge he was admired and loved by 

 a large circle of fellow-students, among whoin may be mentioned 

 Teall, Stratum, Jukes-Browne, and Sollas. Although he did not 

 contribute any original work to our science, he was keenly interested 

 in it. At a very early stage of his career the doctrine of Evolution 

 exercised its fascination over him, and he devoted much time and 

 thought to investigating its application to human affairs ; his con- 

 clusions were published in two notable works, ' Evolution & Effort ' 

 and ' Government or Human Evolution.' 



When Darwin wrote the ' Origin of Species 'he proposed to omit all 

 reference to Man, because, as he said, the question was so beset with 

 prejudice. Put no great interval was allowed to elapse before 

 Huxley, who was not afraid of prejudice, boldly attacked the pro- 

 blem, and endeavoured to show from anatomical evidence that Man's 

 place in nature is with the anthropoid apes, and that he is more 

 closely allied to these animals than they are to the monkeys next 

 below them in the organic scale. 



At that time the resuscitated hypothesis of evolution was a 

 discredited heresy contending for recognition ; it has now become 

 an orthodox dogma, respectable beyond reproach. Our cousinship 

 with the apes, more or less remote, is acknowledged without shame 

 on our part, and let us hope without reason for shame on theirs. 



Darwin's great work was published half a century ago, and at 

 about the same time Prestwich and Evans returned from their visit 

 to the scene of Boucher de Perthes's discoveries, and proclaimed 

 their belief in the ' Antiquity of Man.' The question of the anti- 

 quity of our race, though involved in the doctrine of descent, was 

 open to separate consideration, and was investigated not only by 



