1 84 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xiii 



from letters . . . and from remarks, the most serious omis- 

 sion in my book was not explaining how it is, as I believe, 

 that all forms do not necessarily advance, how there can 

 now be simple organisms existing." (May 22, i860.) 



Huxley's idea, then, was to call attention to the persist- 

 ence of many types without appreciable progression during 

 geological time ; to show that this fact was not explicable 

 on any other hypothesis than that put forward by Darwin ; 

 and by paleontological arguments, to pave the way for con- 

 sideration of the imperfection of the geological record. 



Such were the lines on which he delivered his Friday 

 evening lecture on " Persistent Types " at the Royal Insti- 

 tution on June 3, 1859. 



However, the chief part which he took at this time in 

 extending the doctrines of evolution was in applying them 

 to his own subjects. Development and Vertebrate Anatomy, 

 and more particularly to the question of the origin of 

 mankind. 



Of all the burning questions connected with the Origin 

 of Species, this was the most heated — the most surrounded 

 by prejudice and passion. To touch it was to court attack ; 

 to be exposed to endless scorn, ridicule, misrepresentation, 

 abuse — almost to social ostracism. But the facts were there ; 

 the structural likenesses between the apes and man had 

 already been shown ; and as Huxley warned Darwin, " I 

 will stop at no point so long as clear reasoning will carry 

 me further." 



Now two years before the " Origin " appeared, the denial 

 of these facts by a leading anatomist led Huxley, as was his 

 wont, to re-investigate the question for himself and satisfy 

 himself one way or the other. He found that the previous 

 investigators were not mistaken. Without going out of his 

 way to refute the mis-statement as publicly as it was made, 

 he simply embodied his results in his regular teaching. But 

 the opportunity came unsought. Fortified by his own re- 

 searches, he openly challenged these assertions when re- 

 peated at the Oxford meeting of the British Association in 

 i860, and promised to make good his challenge in the 

 proper place. 



