1895- NOTES AND COMMENTS. 83 



the authenticity of the Christian revelation. It led him to an ab- 

 solutely open view as to the existence of the Deity. But these 

 opinions, important as the opinions of any able man on any serious 

 subject which he has considered seriously may be, are the individual 

 opinions of Huxley ; they are not the formulated and inevitable view 

 of science. Philosophically, Huxley was not a materialist, even in 

 the limited popular sense in which Tyndall was a materialist. He 

 was a pure idealist in the sense of Berkeley. 



Sunday Opening. 



It is to be hoped that the Select Committee of the House of 

 Lords, which is now inquiring into the working of the Lord's Day 

 Act of 1 78 1, will lead to some much needed amendments in the law. 

 We, as scientific people, are chiefly concerned with the Sunday open- 

 ing of Museums. We are glad to learn, from the evidence of Mr. 

 Shaw Maxwell, chairman of the Glasgow Sunday Society, that public 

 opinion, even in that city, is now in favour of the movement, although 

 some time ago the good citizens of Glasgow were greatly scandalised 

 by Professor Blackie's getting on the platform to sing " Let us haste 

 to Kelvin Grove," on the Sabbath. Meanwhile the various Sunday 

 societies are taking the opportunity to display more than usual 

 energy. They held a congress at Prince's Hall, London, on July i, 

 and passed the following resolutions : " That the Lord's Day Act 

 should not apply to any society or other body established and main- 

 tained for the public advantage and not for pecuniary profit." " That 

 all authorities of museums, art galleries, and other institutions open 

 on Sundays should provide for at least one day's rest in seven for the 

 whole of their servants." So far, indeed, as museums that are open 

 free are concerned, we are not aware that they require any more 

 legislation than do tobacconists and sweet-shops ; all that they need 

 is the support of public opinion, which will no doubt become more 

 healthy under the double influence of such meetings as these and the 

 attacks of the Lord's Day Society. But example is better than pre- 

 cept, and if the new Government can succeed in opening the British 

 Museum and the South Kensington Museum on Sundays, as has 

 before been attempted, then other museums are likely to follow suit. 

 Till then, the great public of week-day workers must be grateful to 

 such enlightened private individuals as Mr. Horniman, whose museum 

 at Forest Hill was visited on Sunday, June 2, by 2,976 persons. We 

 may recall here the facts that Professor Huxley gave the first lecture 

 for the Sunday Evenings for the People in 1866, and was President 

 of the Sunday Lecture Society. This year's President of the Sunday 

 Society is Canon Barnett, whose long experience of the true needs of 

 the people in the east of London, lent peculiar weight to his eloquent 

 address in favour of the Sunday opening of something other than 

 public-houses. 



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