The most considerable difference I note among men is not in their
readiness to fall into error, but in their readiness to acknowledge
these inevitable lapses. The Duke of Argyll has now a splendid
opportunity for proving to the world in which of these categories it
is hereafter to rank him.
* * * * *
DEAR PROFESSOR HUXLEY,--A short time before Mr. Darwin's death, I had
a conversation with, him concerning the observations which had been
made by Mr. Murray upon coral-reefs, and the speculations which had
been founded upon those observations. I found that Mr. Darwin had very
carefully considered the whole subject, and that while, on the one
hand, he did not regard the actual facts recorded by Mr. Murray as
absolutely inconsistent with his own theory of subsidence, on the
other hand, he did not believe that they necessitated or supported the
hypothesis advanced by Mr. Murray. Mr. Darwin's attitude, as I
understood it, towards Mr. Murray's objections to the theory of
subsidence was exactly similar to that maintained by him with respect
to Professor Semper's criticism, which was of a very similar
character; and his position with regard to the whole question was
almost identical with that subsequently so clearly defined by
Professor Dana in his well-known articles published in the "American
Journal of Science" for 1885.
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