i862 WORKING MEN'S LECTURES 22 1 



negative evidence, how much the progressive development sys- 

 tem has been pushed too far, how Httle can be said in favour of 

 Owen's more generahsed types when we go back to the verte- 

 brata and invertebrata of remote ages, the persistency of many 

 forms high and low throughout time, how httle we know of the 

 beginning of life upon the earth, how often events called con- 

 temporaneous in Geology are applied to things which, instead 

 of coinciding in time, may have happened ten millions of years 

 apart, etc. ; and a masterly sketch comparing the past and present 

 in almost every class in zoology, and sometimes of botany cited 

 from Hooker, which he said he had done because it was useful 

 to look into the cellars and see how much gold there was there, 

 and whether the quantity of bullion justified such an enormous 

 circulation of paper. I never remember an address listened to 

 with such applause, though there were many private protests 

 against some of his bold opinions. 



The dinner at Willis's was well attended; I should think 

 eighty or more present . . . and late in the evening Huxley 

 made them merry by a sort of mock-modest speech. 



Jermvn Street, May 6, 1862. 



My dear Darwin — I was very glad to get your note about 

 my address. I profess to be a great stoic, you know, but there 

 are some people from whom I am glad to get a pat on the back. 

 Still I am not quite content with that, and I want to know what 

 you think of the argument — whether you agree with what I say 

 about contemporaneity or not, and whether you are prepared to 

 admit — as I think your views compel you to do — that the whole 

 Geological Record is only the skimmings of the pot of life. 



Furthermore, I want you to chuckle with me over the notion 

 I find a great many people entertain — that the address is dead 

 against your views. The fact being, as they will by and by 

 wake up [to] see that yours is the only hypothesis which is 

 not negatived by the facts, — one of its great merits being that 

 it allows not only of indefinite standing still, but of indefinite 

 retrogression. 



I am going to try to work the whole argument into an in- 

 telligible form for the general public as a chapter of my forth- 

 coming " Evidence " * (one half of which I am happy to say 

 is now written), so I shall be very glad of any criticisms or 

 hints. 



* Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature. 



