THE OXFORD MEETING 521 
encounter at Oxford, where the British Association met in 
1860. Here the Bishop, a facile and persuasive speaker, 
primed he knew not how uncandidly on a subject outside his 
range, was put up to bring the meeting to a briUiant conclusion 
by * smashing Darwin ' before a popular assembly, mainly 
recruited from those who would have held themselves, in later 
phrase, to be on the side of the angels. The result was decisive, 
because it proved that men of high standing were ready to 
speak out, to prevent reasoned conclusions from being over- 
whelmed by impassioned prejudice and tasteless ridicule, to 
carry the war into the enemy's country, if need be, and 
demand that argument should be met by argument based on 
equal knowledge. 
The scene has already been described at some length both 
in the ' Life of Darwin,' ii. 320, and in the * Life of T. H. 
Huxley,' i. 179. The ' eye-witness ' quoted in the former, 
will easily be identified from one of the letters which follow, 
as Hooker himself, who has minimised, after his manner, his 
own share in the contest. But I may be permitted to re-tell 
it briefly, in order to lead up to Hooker's own letter which tells 
the story of the day to Darwin.^ 
Feeling was already in a state of tension. A sharp passage 
of arms had taken place on the Thursday (June 28) as a sequel 
to a paper by Dr. Daubeny 2 of Oxford ' On the Final Causejs of 
the Sexuality of Plants, with particular reference to Mr. Darwin's 
Work on the Origin of Species.' Huxley was called upon to 
speak by the President of the section, but tried to avoid a 
discussion : ' a general audience, in which sentiment would 
unduly interfere with intellect, was not the pubUc before which 
such a discussion should be carried on.' 
1 My thanks have been ah'eadj^ given elsewhere to Sir Francis Darwin for 
his friendly help in the telling of this episode ; and they are warmly repeated 
here. But this is one small point only ; the whole Life of his father and the 
« More Letters ' (with Prof. Seward's collaboration) which he has given to the 
world, to me are a continual pleasure to read and an endless storehouse of 
information. 
2 Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny, M.D. (1795-1867), was successively Professor 
of Chemistry, 1822-55, of Botany from 1834, and Rural Economics, 1840, at 
Oxford ; especially dealing with the chemical side of his botanical and earlier geo- 
logical work (on volcanoes); his paper ' On the SexuaUty of Plants,' read at the 
Oxford meetingof the British Association in 1860, gave strong support to Darwin. 
