[In November 1859 the "Origin of Species" was published, and a new
direction was given to Huxley's activities. Ever since Darwin and
Wallace had made their joint communication to the Linnean Society in the
preceding July, expectation had been rife as to the forthcoming book.
Huxley was one of the few privileged to learn Darwin's argument before
it was given to the world; but the greatness of the book, mere
instalment as it was of the long accumulated mass of notes, almost took
him by surprise. Before this time, he had taken up a thoroughly agnostic
attitude with regard to the species question, for he could not accept
the creational theory, yet sought in vain among the transmutationists
for any cause adequate to produce transmutation. He had had many talks
with Darwin, and though ready enough to accept the main point,
maintained such a critical attitude on many others, that Darwin was not
by any means certain of the effect the published book would produce upon
him. Indeed, in his 1857 notebook, I find jotted down under the head of
his paper on Pygocephalus (read at the Geological Society),]
"anti-progressive confession of faith." [Darwin was the more anxious,
as, when he first put pen to paper, he had fixed in his mind three
judges, by whose decision he determined mentally to abide. These three
were Lyell, Hooker, and Huxley. If these three came round, partly
through the book, partly through their own reflections, he could feel
that the subject was safe. "No one," writes Darwin on November 13, "has
read it, except Lyell, with whom I have had much correspondence. Hooker
thinks him a complete convert, but he does not seem so in his letters to
me; but is evidently deeply interested in the subject." And again: "I
think I told you before that Hooker is a complete convert. If I can
convert Huxley I shall be content." ("Life" volume 2 page 221.)

On all three, the effect of the book itself, with its detailed arguments