122 EAELY DAYS OF DARWINISM 



with, which they tried to put down S. Oxon. and every one 

 else who did not subscribe to the infallibility of the God 

 Darwin and his prophet Huxley. Many sane men have 

 their monomania. Let us hope yours is only a transitory 

 one. The more I look into this renovation of Lamarck, 

 the more I see it is one blind plunge into the gulph of 

 atheism and the coarsest materialism. You cannot 

 stop. It is like a Chancery suit. 



The result of the Oxford meeting was of the nature 

 of a drawn battle between the Darwinians and the anti- 

 Darwinians. In the following year the British Associa- 

 tion met at Manchester. 



Though the ancient behefs were not much troubled, 

 it was for the last time that they could be said to prevail ; 

 and thus I look upon our meetitig in Manchester in 1861 

 as a crisis in the history of biology. All the same, the 

 ancient beliefs were not allowed to pass whoUy un- 

 challenged ; and one thing is especially to be marked — 

 they were challenged by one who was no naturalist at all, 

 by one who was a severe thinker no less than an active 

 worker ; one who was generally right in his logic, and 

 never wrong in his instinct ; one who, though a politician, 

 was invariably an honest man — ^I mean the late Professor 

 Fawcett. On this occasion he brought the clearness of 

 his mental vision to bear upon Mr. Darwin's theory, with 

 the result that Mr. Darwin's method of investigation was 

 shown to be strictly in accordance with the rules of 

 deductive philosophy, and to throw light where all was 

 dark before.* 



The whole account you will see in the AthenoBum. 

 How that we fought over Darwinism and the Gorilla. 

 It was, I think, the general impression that the former 

 subject had gained many more adherents since the last 

 meeting than any one had thought for. Even Owen is 

 prepared " to take quite a different view of what are 



* A. N., Presidential Address to the Biological Section of the British 

 Association, Manchester, 1887. 



