GENIUS AND THE EXAMINER 89 



recently made great and important changes 

 precisely in the direction I am indicating — 

 changes tending to relieve this pressure ; and we 

 in Oxford have made alterations intended to 

 produce the same effect. I believe we are 

 likely to improve still further in this matter, and, 

 without losing our modern efficiency, regain a 

 greater freedom and greater elasticity, and a freer 

 recognition of unusual powers — in these respects 

 assimilating more closely to the Universities of 

 three-quarters of a century ago. 



Turning now to the ancient Universities as the 

 lists where new ideas are compelled to undergo 

 the trial of combat, we observe that the battle of 

 evolution began with the dramatic encounter 

 between Huxley and Wilberforce at the meeting 

 of the British Association at Oxford, in 1860, 

 and, according to Professor Alfred Newton, came 

 to a close with the victory of the new teachings, 

 only two years later, at the meeting of the same 

 Association at Cambridge. 



Whatever happened in the great arena 

 furnished by the two ancient Universities, there 

 can be no doubt that for many years neither of 

 them was at all willing to accept the conclusions 

 of Darwin. One of the most strongly antagonistic 

 letters received by Darwin was written by his 

 old teacher, Sedgwick. Whewell kept the Origin 

 of Species out of the library at Trinity CoUege 

 for some years; while Professor Westwood 

 seriously proposed to the last Oxford University 



