DARWIN OBITUARY NOTICE 203 



Royal Society was at last completed and published 

 (Proc. Roy. Soc, xlir, 1888. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 253). 

 In this the non-essentials of the theory of Natural 

 Selection are clearly stated : — 



" It is not essential to Darwin's theory that anything more 

 should be assumed than the facts of heredity, variation, and 

 unlimited multiplication ; and the validity of the deductive 

 reasoning as to the effect of the last (that is, of the struggle for 

 existence which it involves) upon the varieties resulting from the 

 operation of the former. Nor is it essential that one should 

 take up any particular position in regard to the mode of varia- 

 tion, whether, for example, it takes place per sahum or gradually; 

 whether it is definite in character or indefinite. Still less are 

 those who accept the theory bound to any particular views as to 

 the causes of heredity or of variation." 



1889. 



It is pleasing to know that comparative freedom from 

 illness rendered possible that " Indian summer " of life, 

 which made up Huxley's few remaining years. As Mr. 

 Leonard Huxley says : — 



" From this time on, the effects of several years' comparative 

 rest became more perceptible. His slowly returning vigour was 

 no longer sapped by the unceasing'strain of multifarious occupa- 

 tions. And if his recurrent ill-health sometimes seems too 

 strongly insisted on, it must be remembered that he had always 

 worked at the extreme limit of his powers — the limit, as he 

 used regretfully to say, imposed on his brain by his other organs 

 — and that after his first breakdown he was never very far from 

 a second. When this finally came in 1884, his forces were so 

 far spent that he never expected to recover as he did." 



The marriage of his two remaining daughters this year 

 facilitated a removal from London which had been in 

 contemplation. It was decided to build a house at East- 

 bourne, a place which had proved beneficial to his health 



