Reminiscences of Oxford . p and shudder througlithe room, the scientists uneasy, the orthodoxfurious, the Bishop wearing that fat, pro-voking smile which once, as Osborne GordonIominds us,^ impelled Lord Derby in the Houseof Lords to an unparliamentary quotation fromHamlet. I am asked, Huxley went on, if I accept Mr. Darwins book as a completecausal hypothesis. Belated on a roadlesscommon in a dark night, if a lantern wereoffered to me, should I refuse it because itshed imperfect light ? I think not—I thinknot. He met Wilberforces points, not alwayseffectively, not entirely at his ease; the ve
Reminiscences of Oxford . p and shudder througlithe room, the scientists uneasy, the orthodoxfurious, the Bishop wearing that fat, pro-voking smile which once, as Osborne GordonIominds us,^ impelled Lord Derby in the Houseof Lords to an unparliamentary quotation fromHamlet. I am asked, Huxley went on, if I accept Mr. Darwins book as a completecausal hypothesis. Belated on a roadlesscommon in a dark night, if a lantern wereoffered to me, should I refuse it because itshed imperfect light ? I think not—I thinknot. He met Wilberforces points, not alwayseffectively, not entirely at his ease; the venerable apes rude arms were chokinghim. The Bishop radiantly purged did not mean to hurt the Professorsfeelings; it was our fault—Ave had laughed,and that made him pursue the joke. Welaughed again, and Huxley was not pause, broken by a voice from thecrowd of a grey-haired, Roman-nosed, elderlygentleman. It was Admiral Eitzroy, ajidmen listened ; but when they found he had ^ Page 271, PROFESSOR a Photograph taken at the Meeting of the British Association, 1860. SCIENTIFIC SCIENCE. 53 nothing more to say than that Darwinsbook had given him acntest pain, the cry of Question silenced him. Another voicefrom the far end of the long room, a stoutman waved and slapped a l)lue-book ; told usthat he was no naturalist hut a statistician,and that if you could prove Darwins theoriesyou could prove anything. A roar of dis-pleasure proclaimed the meetings inaptitudeat that moment for statistics, and the stoutman made his exit with a defiant , we thought, foi business ; but no, therewas another act of comedy. From the backof the platform emerged a clerical gentleman,askiug for a blackboard. It was produced,and amid dead silence he chalked two crossesat its opposite corners, and stood pointing tothem as if admiring liis achievement. Wegazed at him, and he at us, but nothing cameof it, till suddenly the absurdity of the situa-ti
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