Prof. Huxley

Prof. Huxley, the distiüguished English ecientist, now on a visit to this eountry, recently attended a meeting oi the Ariiericftn Bcie)itiflo Congress at Bnffalo, and, being called upom f or a speech, responded as follows : "Sinceiny arrival I h-.vo loarned a great many things, m r.', I think, than ever bef ore in au i qial Hpaoe of time in I my lifo. In Engbnd we have always I taken a lively interest in America ; but I ï tbink no Englishman who hns not had the göo'd ibïtttne to visit America hag any roal concfeption of the activity of the population, the encrroous distances which separate the great centers ; and least of all do Englishmen nnderstand how identical is the great basis of charñctuí on )oth sides of the Atlantic. An Euglismaü 7itb. whom I have been talking since my arrival says : ' I cannot findt)atlam abroad.' Thö great features of your country are all such as I am familiar with ia parts of England and Scotland. Your beautiful Hudson reminds me of a Scotch lake. The inarks of glaciation in your bilis remind me of those in Soottish highlands. "Ihadheurd of the degeneration of your stoek from the English type. I have not perceived it. Some years ago one of your most-distinguished men of letters, equallj' loved and admired in England and America, expreesed an opinión 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 not mine. Well, I have studied the aspect of the poople that I have me't hCre in steamboats and raiiway carriages, and Í rtieet with just the same faces, the main difFerSncé" ds to the men being in the way of shaving. Though I should be sorry to use the word which Hawthorne did, yet in respect tó stature for fine portly women, I think the age Jiere íuüy aa great as on me otner side. Some people talk of the injurious influente of frtímate. I have seen no traces of the ' Nórfh American type.' You have among you the virtue which is most notable among savages, that of hopitality. You take us to a bountiful dinner and are not quite satisfied unless we take away with us the plates and spoons. Another feature has impressed itself upon me. I have visited some of your great universities and met men as well known in the old world as in the new. I ñnd oírtain diíferenees here. The English universities are the product of Government, yours of private muniflcence. That among us is almost unknown; The general notion of au Englishman when he gets rich, is to found an estáte and beneüt his fümily. The general notion of an American when fortúnate is to do something for the good of the people and froia which benefits shall continue to flow. The latter is the nobler ambitiou. " It is popularly said abroad that you have no antiquities in America. If you talk about the trumpery of tlxreo or four thousand years of history, it is true. But, in the large sense as referring to timea before man made his momentary appearance, America is the place to study the antiquities of the globe. The reality of the enormous amount of material hfirfi has far siirnassed mv anticiüation. I have studied the collection gathered by Prof. Marsh at New Haven. Therfi is noue like it in Etirope, not only in extent of time oovered, but by reason oí ils bearing on the problem of evolution ; whereas, before this collection was made evolution was a matter o.f speciüative reasoning ; it is now a nlatter of fact and history as much as the monuments of Egypt. Iu 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, and that is a subordínate question."