i862 EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MAN 



209 



that the audience applauded this " anti-scriptural and most 

 debasing theory . . . standing in blasphemous contradic- 

 tion to biblical narrative and doctrine," instead of express- 

 ing their resentment at this " foul outrage committed upon 

 them individually, and upon the whole species as ' made in 

 the likeness of God,' " by deserting the hall in a body, or 

 using some more emphatic form of protest against the cor- 

 ruption of youth by " the vilest and beastliest paradox ever 

 vented in ancient or modern times amongst Pagans or 

 Christians." In his finest vein of sarcasm, the writer ex- 

 presses his surprise that the meeting did not instantly resolve 

 itself into a " Gorilla Emancipation Society," or propose to 

 hear a lecture from an apostle of Mormonism ; " even this 

 would be a less oflfensive, mischievous, and inexcusable ex- 

 hibition than was made in the recent two lectures by Pro- 

 fessor Huxley," etc. 



Jermyn Street, January 13, 1862. 



My dear Darwin — In the first place a new year's greeting 

 to you and yours. In the next, I enclose this slip (please return 

 it when you have read it) to show you what I have been doing 

 in the north. 



Everybody prophesied I should be stoned and cast out of the 

 city gate, but, on the contrary, I met with unmitigated ap- 

 plause ! ! Three cheers for the progress of liberal opinion ! ! 



The report is as good as any, but they have not put quite 

 rightly what I said about your views, respecting which I took 

 my old Hne about the infertility difficulty. 



Furthermore, they have not reported my statement that 

 whether you were right or wrong, some form of the progressive 

 development theory is certainly true. Nor have they reported 

 here my distinct statement that I believe man and the apes to 

 have come from one stock. 



Having got thus far, I find the lecture better reported in 

 the Courant, so I send you that instead. 



I mean to publish the lecture in full by and by (about the 

 time the orchids come out). — Ever yours faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



I deserved the greatest credit for not having made an on- 

 slaught on Brewster for his foolish impertinence about your 

 views in Good Words, but declined to stir nationality, which 

 you know (in him) is rather more than his Bible. 



