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Impressions of America

Professor Huxley's Speech at Buffalo.

BRITISH NOTIONS OF THIS COUNTRY MODIFIED AFTER ARRIVAL HERE–COMPARISON BETWEEN AMERICAN AND ENGLISH WOMEN–THE WORLD'S HISTORY RECORDED IN THE ROCKS OF THIS CONTINENT.

Prof. Huxley was present at the Buffalo meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On the morning of Friday, Aug. 25, he was introduced to the Association in a few fitting remarks by the President, Prof. Wm. B. Rogers. Prof. Huxley replied as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE: Permit me, in the first place, to offer you my most hearty thanks for your exceedingly cordial–I will not say unexpected–welcome, because everything I have experienced in America since my landing has been something of this kind. But I thank yon for this hearty welcome. You will forgive me if my words are inadequate to express how much I feel on this occasion. I am not by nature a man of many words, and have thought the highest eloquence was in condensing what one has to say., I have been told that it would be gratifying to you to have me say something, but emotion will make my speaking a difficult task. Also, I have no scientific matter especially to communicate here; and I am quite unprepared to occupy your attention on such an occasion as this. Since my arrival in America I have discovered that the great instinct of curiosity is not altogether undeveloped among you. I experienced something of this at the time of my landing, by being interviewed by two active and intelligent representatives of your press. They were good enough to put before me in writing a series of inquiries of deepest and most profound interest, each of which would require a treatise in reply; and I am afraid I had to dismiss them with scant courtesy.

It may satisfy this curiosity if I state briefly some of my general impressions of this country. Since my arrival I have learned a great many things, more, I think, than ever before in an equal space of time in my life. In England we have always taken a lively interest in America, and have our occasional controversies with her; but I think that no Englishman who has not had the good fortune to visit this country can form a real idea of what that word America means. We have no adequate idea of the extent of your country, its enormous resources, the distances from center to center of population, and we least of all understand how identical is the great basis of character on both sides of the Atlantic. A friend of mine in England went abroad for the purpose of seeing foreign countries, and has come to America. I have been talking with him since my arrival here. He says: "I cannot find that I am abroad." I am similarly impressed. The great features of your country are all such as I am familiar with in parts of England and Scotland. Your beautiful Hudson reminds me of a Scotch lake. The marks of glaciation in your hills remind me of those in Scottish high lands.

I had heard of the degeneration of your stock from the English type. I have not perceived it. Some years ago one of your most distinguished men of letters, equally loved and admired in England and America, expressed an. opinion which touched English feeling somewhat keenly–that there was a difference between your women and ours after reaching a certain age. He said our English women were "beefy." That is his word, not mine. Well, I have studied the aspect of the people that I have met here in steamboats and railway carriages, and I meet with just the same faces. the main difference as to the men being in the way of shaving. As to stature, perhaps your men have rather the best of ours. Though I should be sorry to use the word which Hawthorne did, yet in respect to the size of your fine portly women, I think the average here fully as great as on the other side. Some people talk of the injurious influence of climate. I have seen no trace of' the "North American type," to which, it was said, you were reverting. You have among you the virtue which is most notable among savages. that of hospitality. I have visited your wigwams–and they are pretty good wigwams too. You entertain us with your best, and not only give us a good dinner, but are not quite happy unless we take the spoons and plates away with us.

Another feature has impressed itself upon me. I have visited some of your great universities, and meet men as well known in the old world as in the new. I find certain differences here. The English universities are the product of Government, yours of private munificence. The latter among us is almost unknown. The general notion of an Englishman when he gets rich is to found an estate and benefit his family. The general notion of an American, when fortunate, is to do something for the good of the people and from which benefits shall continue to flow. I need hardly say which I regard as the nobler of these ambitions.

It is commonly said there are no antiquities in America, and you have to come to the old world to see the past. That may be, so far as regards the trumpery 3,000 or 4,000 years of human history. But in the larger sense, referring to the times before man made his momentary appearance on the globe, America is the country to study antiquity. I confess that the reality has somewhat exceeded my expectations. It was my great good fortune to study in New Haven the excellent collection made by my good friend, Prof. Marsh. There does not exist in Europe anything approaching it as regards extent, and the geological time it covers, and the wonderful

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light it throws on the problem of evolution, which has been so ably discussed before you by Prof. Morse, and which has occupied so much attention since Darwin's great work on species. Before the gathering of such materials as those to which I have referred, evolution was more a matter of speculation and argument, though we who adhered to the doctrine had good grounds for our belief. Now things are changed, and it has become a matter of fact and history as much as the monuments of Egypt. In that collection are the facts of the succession of forms and the history of their evolution. All that now remains to be asked is how the development was effected, and that is a subordinate question. With such matters as this before my mind, You will excuse me if I cannot find thoughts appropriate to this occasion. I would that I might have offered something more worthy. I hope that your Association may do what the British Association is doing–may sow the seeds of scientific inquiry in your cities and villages, whence by a process of natural selection those minds best fitted for the task may be led to help on the work in which we are all interested. Again I thank you for your excessive courtesy, and, I may almost say, affectionate reception.