HUXLEY'S LIFE AND WORK. 355 



of matter') is wholly just. The more I know intimately of the lives of 

 other men (to say nothing of my own), the more obvious it is to me that 

 the wicked does not flourish nor is the righteous punished." 



One of the great problems of the future is to clear away the cobwebs 

 which the early and mediaeval ecclesiastics, unavoidably ignorant of 

 science, and with ideas of the world now known to be fundamentally 

 erroneous, have spun round the teachings of Christ; and in this 

 Huxley rendered good service. For instance, all over the world in early 

 days lunatics were supposed to be possessed by evil spirits. That was 

 the universal belief of the Jews, as of other nations, 2,000 years ago, and 

 one of Huxley's most remarkable controversies was with Mr. Gladstone 

 and Dr. Wace with reference to the 'man possessed with devils/ which, 

 we are told, were cast out and permitted to enter into a herd of swine. 

 Some people thought that these three distinguished men might have oc- 

 cupied their time better than, as was said at the time, 'in fighting over 

 the Gaderene swine.' But as Huxley observed: 



"The real issue is whether the men of the nineteenth century are 

 to adopt the demonology of the men of the first century as divinely re- 

 vealed truth, or to reject it as degrading falsity." 



And as the first duty of religion is to form the highest conception 

 possible to the human mind of the Divine Nature, Huxley naturally 

 considered that when a Prime Minister and Doctor of Divinity propound 

 views showing so much ignorance of medical science, and so low a view 

 of the Deity, it was time that a protest was made in the name, not only 

 of science, but of religion. 



Theologians themselves, indeed, admit the mystery of existence. 

 "The wonderful world," says Canon Liddon, "in which we now pass this 

 stage of our existence, whether the higher world of faith be open to our 

 gaze or not, is a very temple of many and august mysteries. . . . 

 Everywhere around you are evidences of the existence and movement of 

 a mysterious power which you can neither see, nor touch, nor define, nor 

 measure, nor understand." 



One of Huxley's difficulties he has stated in the following words: 

 "Infinite benevolence need not have invented pain and sorrow at all — 

 infinite malevolence would very easily have deprived us of the large 

 measure of content and happiness that falls to our lot." 



This does not, I confess, strike one as conclusive. It seems an answer 

 — if not perhaps quite complete, that if we are to have any freedom and 

 responsibility, the possibility of evil follows necessarily. If two courses 

 are open to us, there are two alternatives; either the results are the same 

 in either case, and then it does not matter what we do; or the one course 

 must be wise and the other unwise. Huxley, indeed, said in another 

 place: "1 protest that if some great power could agree to make me 

 always think what is true, and do what is right, on condition of being 



