I was once inside the linnean Society's rooms, but have no present wish to go there again; though not a man of science, however, I have never affected indifference to the facts and arguments which men of science have made it their business to lay before us; on the contrary, I have given the greater part of my time to their consideration for several years past.
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler
It arose out of a conversation with the late Mr. Alfred Tylor soon after his paper on the growth of trees and protoplasmic continuity was read before the linnean Society-that is to say, in December, 1884-and I proposed to make the theory concerning the subdivision of organic life into animal and vegetable, which I have broached in my concluding chapter, the main feature of the book.
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler
As to the actual position now occupied in Scientific opinion by Mr. Darwin's hypotheses, we may content ourselves with the declaration of Professor S. H. Vines in his Presidential address to the linnean Society, May 24, 1902. 1. It is established that Natural Selection, though it may have perpetuated species, cannot have originated any.
"The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer"
John Gerard