CHAPTER XIV 



REACTION FROM DARWINISM HUXLEY 



Reaction as to ethics Due to the vision of struggle and pain Not sympathy, 

 but justice is essential It must suspend outright the cosmic process Older 

 evolutionism (Greece, India) gave no guidance Criticism ; nature and 

 spirit are opposed Yet connected, and reason fulfils the cosmic process by 

 transforming it. 



IT will readily be divined that it is in a special sense 

 we connect the name of Huxley with reaction from 

 Darwinism. From the time when he was converted to 

 the new views, Huxley was perhaps their most brilliant 

 and successful advocate, both in scientific circles and as 

 a populariser, speaking to the world of readers. Yet, 

 in regard to ethics, he was continually restive. The 

 Romanes lecture for 1893 is only the most deliberate 

 among many striking utterances of his, tending in 

 that direction. His thesis runs to the following effect, 

 that evolutionary science has done nothing for ethics ; 

 that, on the contrary, men only become ethical as 

 they set themselves against the principles embodied 

 in the evolutionary process of the animal world. Far 

 from regarding evolution as the master-key to ethics, 

 Huxley insists that the two terms are irreconcilable. 



Plainly, Huxley has considered only one possible 

 form of union between evolution and ethics. For 

 him evolution means Darwinism ; the struggle for exist- 

 ence which is believed to have dominated the plant 



