Thomas Henry HuxleyI beg leave to thank you for the extremely kind and appreciative manner in which you have received the toast of Science.It is the more grateful to me to hear that toast proposed in an assembly of this kind,because I have noticed of late pears a great and growing tendency among those who were once jestingly said to have been born in a pre-scientific ageto look upon science as an invading and aggressive force,which if it had its own way would oust from the universe all other pursuit.I think there are many persons who look upon this new birth of our times as a sort of monster rising out of the sea of modern thoughtwith the purpose of devouring the Andromeda of art .And now and then a Perseus,equipped with the shoes of swiftness of the ready writer,with the cap of invisibility of the editorial artical,and it may be with the Medusa head of vituperation,shows himself ready to try conclusions with the scientific dragon.Sir,I hope that Perseus will think better of it;first,for his own sake,because the creature is hard of head ,strong of jaw ,and for some time past has shown a great capacity for going over and through whatever comes in his way;
