200 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



given birth regarding the constitution of matter, the 

 conservation of energy, and evolution. 



Mention must also be made here of a chapter " On 

 the Reception of the Origin of Species" contributed to 

 Mr. Francis Darwin's Life and Letters of Charles Darwin 

 (Vol. ii, 1887, pp. 179-204). One of the concluding 

 paragraphs of this runs as follows : — 



" The known is finite, the unknown infinite ; intellectually 

 we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of 

 inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim 

 a little more land, to add something to the extent and the 

 solidity of our possessions. And even a cursory glance at the 

 history of the biological sciences during the last quarter of a 

 century is sufficient to justify the assertion, that the most potent 

 instrument for the extension of the realm of natural knowledge 

 which has come into men's hands, since the publication of 

 Newton's Principia, is Darwin's Origin of Species." 



A certain melancholy interest attaches to 1887, because 

 during its first half Huxley gave to the world the last 

 three scientific memoirs he was destined to produce : — 



1. "Preliminary Note on the Fossil Remains of a 

 Chelonian Reptile, Ceratochelys sthenurus, from Lord 

 Howe's Island, Australia" (Proc. Roy. Soc, xliii, 1887, 

 pp. 232-8. Read March 31, 1887. Sci. Mem., iv, 

 XXXV, p. 606). 



2. " The Gentians : Notes and Queries " (J. Linn. 

 Soc. (Bot.), xxiv, 1888, pp. 101-24. Read April 7, 

 1887. Sci. Mem., iv, xxxvi, p. 612). — The origin of 

 this memoir has been already alluded to {cf. p. 181), and 

 it is of considerable value as a study in comparative 

 botany. 



3. " Further Observations upon Hyperodapedon 

 Gordoni" [an extinct reptile], (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xliii, 

 1887, pp. 675-94. Read May 11, 1887. Sci. Mem., 

 iv, XXXVII, p. 636). 



