i860 the oxford MEETING OF i860 



193 



helped to save a great cause from being stifled under mis- 

 representation and ridicvile — tliat he helped to extort for it a 

 fair hearing ; it was now that he first made himself known in 

 popular estimation as a dangerous adversary in debate — a 

 personal force in the world of science which could not be 

 neglected. From this moment he entered the front fighting 

 line in the most exposed quarter of the field. 



Most unluckily, no contemporary account of his own 

 exists of the encounter. Indeed, the same cause which 

 prevented his writing home the story of the day's work 

 nearly led to his absence from the scene. It was known 

 that Bishop Wilberforce, whose first class in mathematics 

 gave him, in popular estimation, a right to treat on scientific 

 matters, intended to " smash Darwin " ; and Huxley, ex- 

 pecting that the promised debate would be merely an appeal 

 to prejudice in a mixed audience, before which the scientific 

 arguments of the Bishop's opponents would be at the utmost 

 disadvantage, intended to leave Oxford that very morning 

 and join his wife at Hardwicke, near Reading, where she was 

 staying with her sister. But in a letter, quoted below, he 

 tells how, on the Friday afterpoon, he chanced to meet 

 Robert Chambers, the reputed author of the Vestiges of 

 Creation, who begged him " not to desert them." Accord- 

 ingly he postponed his departure ; but seeing his wife next 

 morning, had no occasion to write a letter. 



Several accounts of the scene are already in existence : 

 one in the Life of Darwin (vol. ii. p. 320), another in the 

 1892 Life, p. 236 sq. ; a third that of Lyell (vol. ii. p. 335), 

 the slight differences between them representing the differ- 

 ence between individual recollections of eye-witnesses. In 

 addition to these I have been fortunate enough to secure 

 further reminiscences from several other eye-witnesses.' 



Two papers in Section D, of no great importance in 

 themselves, became historical as affording the opponents of 

 Darwin their opportunity of making an attack upon his 

 theory which should tell with the public. The first was on 

 Thursday, June 28. Dr. Daubeny of Oxford made a com- 

 munication to the Section, " On the final causes of the sex- 

 uality of plants, with particular reference to Mr. Darwin's 



