until the meeting called for him. Then he "slowly and
deliberately arose; a slight, tall figure, stern and pale, very quiet
and very grave." He began with a general statement in defence of
Darwin's theory. "I am here only in the interests of science, and
I have not heard anything which can prejudice the case of my august
client." Darwin's theory was an explanation of phenomena in Natural
History, as the undulatory theory was of the phenomena of light. No
one objected to the latter because an undulation of light had never
been arrested and measured. Darwin offered an explanation of facts,
and his book was full of new facts, all bearing on his theory. Without
asserting that every part of that theory had been confirmed, he
maintained that it was the best explanation of the origin of species
which had yet been offered. As to the psychological distinction
between men and animals, and the question of the Creation: "You say
that development drives out the Creator; but you assert that God made
you: and yet you know that you yourself were originally a little piece
of matter no bigger than the end of this gold pencil-case." Nobody
could say at what moment of the history of his development man became
consciously intelligent. The whole question was not so much one of a
transmutation or transition of species as of the production of forms
which became permanent. The Ancon sheep was not produced gradually;
it originated in the birth of the original parent of the whole stock,
which had been kept up by a rigid system of artificial selection.

But if the question were to be treated, not as a matter for the calm
investigation of science, but as a matter of sentiment, and if he were
asked whether he would choose to be descended from the poor animal of
low intelligence and stooping gait who grins and chatters as we pass,
or from a man endowed with great ability and a splendid position, who
should use these gifts to discredit and crush humble seekers after
truth, he must hesitate what answer to make.

The actual words were not taken down at the time; they were finely
eloquent, and gained effect from the clear, deliberate utterance; but
the nearest approach to them was recorded in a letter of J.R. Green,
the future historian, written immediately after the meeting:--

I asserted--and I repeat--that a man has no reason to be
ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were
an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recall