Thomas Henry Huxley

Kjelde:Collected Essays (bok)
Opphavleg mål: Engelsk
År: 1893

Kjelde:Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S (bok) (tale)
Opphavleg mål: Engelsk
År: 1860
Periode: Viktoriatida
Kontekst: Éin versjon av eit berømt svar Huxley kom med til biskop Samuel Wilberforce, som under ein debatt om evolusjonslæra sarkastisk hadde spurt om han stamma frå ein ape på bestemor- eller bestefarsida. "whether he was descended from an ape on his grandmother's side or his grandfather's" (30 June 1860), Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S (1900) edited by Leonard Huxley.

Møtet blei ikkje stenografert, og svaret til Huxley finst i ei rekkje ulike utformingar i dagbøker og memoar.

Andre versjonar:

• I would rather be the offspring of two apes than be a man and afraid to face the truth.

Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S (1900), redigert av Leonard Huxley.

• If the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.

Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977) av Alan L. Mackay.

• The Bishop rose, and in a light scoffing tone, florid and he assured us there was nothing in the idea of evolution; rock-pigeons were what rock-pigeons had always been. Then, turning to his antagonist with a smiling insolence, he begged to know, was it through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey? On this Mr Huxley slowly and deliberately arose. A slight tall figure stern and pale, very quiet and very grave, he stood before us, and spoke those tremendous words — words which no one seems sure of now, nor I think, could remember just after they were spoken, for their meaning took away our breath, though it left us in no doubt as to what it was. He was not ashamed to have a monkey for his ancestor; but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used great gifts to obscure the truth. No one doubted his meaning and the effect was tremendous. One lady fainted and had to carried out: I, for one, jumped out of my seat; and when in the evening we met at Dr Daubeney's, every one was eager to congratulate the hero of the day.

Mrs. Isabella Sidgwick in "A Grandmother's Tales"; Macmillan's Magazine LXXVIII, No. 468 (October 1898)