THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



properly be said to be its equivalent; the same pound 

 weight falling through a foot on a man's hand gives 

 rise to a definite amount of feeling, which might with 

 equal propriety be said to be its equivalent in con- 

 sciousness."^* At the memorable occasion when the 

 Bishop of Oxford wished to know whether it was 

 through Huxley's grandfather or grandmother that 

 he claimed descent from a monkey, Huxley is report- 

 ed, before he made his famous and crushing reply to 

 the Bishop, to have murmured, "The Lord hath de- 

 livered him into mine hands." Into whose hands has 

 the good Lord delivered Huxley'? 



The equivalence of energy, as proposed by Huxley, 

 is explicit; it is an equivalence between mechanical 

 energy and feeling, or consciousness, and does not in- 

 volve those actions of the human body which are 

 readily seen to be associated with physical forces. 

 I grant that there is a mechanical equivalent of 

 heat. If a pound weight falls through a distance of 

 778 feet it will give rise to one unit of heat; that is, 

 it will give rise to enough heat to raise the tempera- 

 ture of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. I 

 also know that if it falls twice as far it will give rise 

 to twice as much heat, and I know that I can measure 

 both quantities. But, as I accept the law of conserva- 

 tion of energy, I know also that one unit of heat can 



1* Method and Results, p. 191. The reader should refresh his memo- 

 ry with the quotation previously given where Huxley says: "I, indi- 

 vidually, am no Materialist, but, on the contrary, believe material- 

 ism to involve grave philosophical error." 



1:264] 



