SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY. 5 



to surrender our intellects to the governance of their own inter- 

 pretations of whatever may demand their exercise." 



By way of confirmation, I shall mention but one or two cases; 

 yet these are of sufficient importance to bring us to some serious- 

 ness upon this point, and to suggest questions to which I think it 

 will be our wisdom to provide distinct replies. We have, then, first 

 of all, the habit of mind evinced by a declaration of one whose re- 

 searches are connected with the study of germ-life. Mr. Huxley, — 

 to whose labours in this direction the world owes much of its 

 information respecting life in its least complex form, — seems so 

 thoroughly to have surrendered himself to the interpretations he has 

 honestly felt obliged to place upon the protoplasmic phenomena 

 presented to his view, that he commits himself to a statement, 

 which I some time ago remember to have seen quoted (without 

 approval) by Dr. Lionel Beale in his work on Bioplasm, and which 

 I give, as nearly as memory will allow, in Mr. Huxley's own terms. 

 He says: — "The tendency of modern thought lies in the direction 

 of the belief, that the time is not far distant when, in the chemist's 

 laboratory, under favourable conditions, the transition from the 

 inorganic to the organic will be successfully effected." I simply 

 leave this statement with you, asking you to note the extreme 

 caution used in the employment of terms which do nothing more 

 than announce an astounding assumption based upon a con- 

 jecture. But we have another example of self-surrender in this 

 matter of fidelity to intellect, and that of so recent publication as 

 to invest it with some interest. The Pall Mall Gazette of 23rd 

 September last contains a reply of the late Dr. Darwin to a letter 

 addressed to him by a young German student, in whom the study 

 of Darwin's books had raised religious doubts. He was in intel- 

 lectual bondage, and asked of Dr. Darwin a way of escape. The 

 following was his reply : — " Sir, — I am very busy, and am an old 

 man in delicate health, and have not time to answer your questions 

 fully, even assuming that they are capable of being answered at 

 all. Science and Christ have nothing to do with each other, 

 except in as far as the habit of scientific investigation makes a 

 man cautious about accepting any proofs. As far as I am con- 

 cerned, I do not believe that any revelation has ever been made. 

 With regard to a future life, every one must draw his own con^ 



