“Although, then, the present occasion is not suitable for any detailed criticism of the theory, or of the objections which have been brought against it, it may not be out of place to endeavour to separate the substance of the theory from its accidents; and to shew that a variety not only of hostile comments, but of friendly would-be improvements, lose their _raison d’être_ to the careful student.” Then follows a brief but epigrammatic description, such as only Huxley could have written, of the theory, and some of the chief arguments which have revolved round it. Occasionally he speaks as if he were stating his own opinion as well as Darwin’s, but throughout it seems to me that his object is not to give his own views but to write a fair and clear account of Darwin’s theory, and to defend it from a number of criticisms and modifications which have been, from time to time, brought forward. “Darwiniana” was published in 1893, and this is the date of the Preface, in which Huxley speaks of-- “... the ancient doctrine of Evolution, rehabilitated and placed upon a sound scientific foundation, since, and in consequence of, the publication of the ‘Origin of Species....’” He thinks that readers will admit that in the first two essays (see pages 124–128 of the present volume)-- “... my zeal to secure fair play for Mr. Darwin, did not drive me into the position of a mere advocate; and that, while doing justice to the greatness of the argument, I did not fail to indicate its weak points. I have never seen any reason for departing from the position which I took up in these two essays; and the assertion which I sometimes meet with nowadays, that I have ‘recanted’ or changed my opinions about Mr. Darwin’s views, is quite unintelligible to me.” “As I have said in the seventh essay, [see pages 131, 132 of the present volume] the fact of evolution is to my mind sufficiently evidenced by palæontology; and I remain of the opinion expressed in the second, that until selective breeding is definitely proved to give rise to varieties infertile with one another, the logical foundation of the theory of natural selection is incomplete.” It is therefore clear, as I have before stated, that Huxley, in 1893, re-stated his criticisms and qualifications of thirty years before, and expressed his conviction anew of the validity of the objections which he then raised against a full and complete acceptance of natural selection. We now come to the last and most significant of all Huxley’s utterances on evolution and natural selection, made on two great occasions in the last year of his life. Lord Salisbury, in his eloquent and interesting Presidential Address to the British Association at Oxford (August 8th, 1894), had said of Darwin:--