Critiques and Addresses.

London: Macmillan and Co.,, 1873. Presented to one of Huxley's close friends at the Royal Society First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title: "John Evans esq, from his friend T. H. Huxley". Huxley collaborated with Sir John Evans (1823-1908), the eminent archaeologist, in the administration of several learned societies in London, most notably the Royal Society. In 1873, Huxley was the society's biological secretary and would later serve as its president, while Evans, who was elected a fellow in 1864, would serve as its treasurer from 1878 to 1898. The two men were personal friends and corresponded on a wide range of subjects. Alongside his profession as a paper manufacturer, Evans is credited with pioneering a more scientific approach to British archaeology. In light of his friendship with Huxley, it is particularly interesting to note the paper that Evans wrote, two years after Huxley's Critiques was published, which applied Darwinian natural selection to the archaeological study of ancient British coins. The essays and addresses in this collection attest to Huxley's wide range of interests: education ("The School Boards: What they can do, and what they may do"); geology ("On the Formation of Coal"); and Darwinian evolution ("Palaeontology and the Doctrine of Evolution, Darwin's Critics"), among much else. Evans's attractive bookplate, depicting a variety of antiquities and bearing the motto "I desire to deserve", is on the front pastedown. Octavo. Original red pebbled cloth, spine lettered, ruled, and with publisher's device in gilt, covers with concentric panels in blind, dark blue coated endpapers. Leaf of publisher's advertisements at rear. Light bumping and wear to extremities, light finger soiling to covers, cosmetic split to front inner hinge, moderate foxing to endpapers, edges, and initial leaves: a very good copy.