200 Prof. Huxley y on Species and Races. [Feb. 10, 



ocean of truth — who watch, day by day, the slow but sure advance of 

 that mighty tide, bearing on its bosom the thousand treasures where- 

 with man ennobles and beautifies his life— it would be laughable, if it 

 were not so sad, to see the little Canutes of the hour enthroned in 

 solemn state, bidding that great wave to stay, and threatening to 

 check its beneficent progress. The wave rises and they fly ; but unlike 

 the brave old Dane, they learn no lesson of humility : the throne is 

 pitched at what seems a safe distance, and the folly is repeated. 



" Surely, it is the duty of the public to discourage everything of this 

 kind, to discredit these foolish meddlers who think they do the Almighty 

 a service by preventing a thorough study of his works. 



" The Origin of Species is not the first, and it will not be the last, of 

 the great questions born of science, which will demand settlement from 

 this generation. The general mind is seething strangely, and to those 

 who watch the signs of the times, it seems plain that this nineteenth 

 century will see revolutions of thought and practice as great as those 

 which the sixteenth witnessed. Through what trials and sore contests 

 the civilized world will have to pass in the course of this new reforma- 

 tion, who can tell ? 



*' But I verily believe that come what will, the part which England 

 may play in the battle is a grand and a noble one. She may prove to 

 the world, that for one people, at any rate, despotism and demagoguy 

 are not the necessary alternatives of government ; that freedom .and 

 order are not incompatible ; that reverence is the handmaid of know- 

 ledge ; that free discussion is the life of truth, and of true unity in a 

 nation. 



" Will England play this part ? That depends upon how you, the 

 public, deal with science. Cherish her, venerate her, follow her 

 methods faithfully and implicitly in their application to all branches of 

 human thought; and the future of this people will be greater than the 

 past. 



" Listen to those who would silence and crush her, and I fear our 

 children will see the glory of England vanishing like Arthur in the 

 mist ; they will cry too late the woful cry of Guinever : 



* It was my duty to have loved the highest ; 

 It surely was my profit, had I known ; 

 It would have been my pleasure had I seen.' " 



[T. H. H.] 



