possessors; and it is this which especially struck Darwin, judging by the
pencil notes on his copy of the Lecture.) Though I believe, as far as my
knowledge goes, that Huxley is right, yet I think his tone very much too
vehement, and I have ventured to say so in a note to Huxley. I had not
thought of these lectures in relation to the Athenaeum (46/2. Mr. Huxley
was in 1858 elected to the Athenaeum Club under Rule 2, which provides for
the annual election of "a certain number of persons of distinguished
eminence in science, literature, or the arts, or for public services."),
but I am inclined quite to agree with you, and that we had better pause
before anything is said...(N.B. I found Falconer very indignant at the
manner in which Huxley treated Cuvier in his Royal Institution lectures;
and I have gently told Huxley so.) I think we had better do nothing: to
try in earnest to get a great naturalist into the Athenaeum and fail, is
far worse than doing nothing.

How strange, funny, and disgraceful that nearly all (Faraday and Sir J.
Herschel at least exceptions) our great men are in quarrels in couplets; it
never struck me before...


LETTER 47. C. LYELL TO CHARLES DARWIN.

(47/1. In the "Life and Letters," II., page 72, is given a letter (June
16th, 1856) to Lyell, in which Darwin exhales his indignation over the
"extensionists" who created continents ad libitum to suit the convenience
of their theories. On page 74 a fuller statement of his views is given in
a letter dated June 25th. We have not seen Lyell's reply to this, but his
reply to Darwin's letter of June 16th is extant, and is here printed for
the first time.)