RECORD: Stoney, G. Johnstone. 1895.05.18. Letter to Francis Darwin, recollection of the Oxford Debate. CUL-DAR107.40-41. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 8.2023. RN1
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR107 contains recollections of Darwin for Life and Letters and More letters 1882-1902 and Plant variation notes 1841-2.
Stoney George Johnstone, 1826-1911. He was President of Section A at the meeting of the British Association in 1879. He served as Vice-President of the Royal Society under Lord Lister, and also served upon the Council, 1898-1900. (Obituary Notice from Proceedings of The Royal Society, 1912.)
The event took place at the meeting of BAAS on 30 June 1860.
[1]
8 Upper Hornsey Rise, N.
1895, May 18—
Dear Mr. Darwin
I omitted one point in my letter yesterday— that the closing words of the Bishop's speechlet were what gave Huxley the opportunity to use the words he did as the opening words of his reply.
[1v]
I cannot give the words of the sentence which wound up this ororation, only its drift, except the last few words of Mr. Huxley's were a kind of echo & which were those that I place in inverted commas —
His purpose was to exhort his hearers to scout so libelous a proposition as
[1b]
that which is now put forward, both because it is dishonouring and because it is absurd— the rediculous and degrading proposition "that every one of you is descended from an ape"!
Then followed Huxley's "I would rather be the offspring of two apes than be a man and
[1bv]
afraid to face the truth."
very truly yours
G. Johnstone Stoney.
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 9 September, 2023