CHAP. XIII.] CONSEQUENCES. 389 



makes clear his belief that our highest aspirations after holi 

 ness, and love of eternal goodness and beauty, are nothing 

 but modified brutal instincts of the lowest kind, developed 

 by experience and utility. Altogether, the teaching of this 

 philosopher, comprises the following dogmas : 



I. Theism is faLe and absurd. 



II. Rewards and punishments in a future life are the 

 delusions of superstition. 



III. Prayer is an absurdity, as there is no God having any 

 personal sympathy with us. 



IV. There is no difference of kind, but only of degree, 

 between the intellect of a sage or the emotions of a saint, 

 and the psychical faculties of a mud-fish. 



V. There is no such thing as free-will. No man having 

 any more real option as to his thoughts and intentions than 

 has a leaf to resist the action of the wind. 



If Mr. Spencer is more or less extensively esteemed as a 

 teacher, a far wider acceptance is enjoyed by the Professor 

 eminent naturalist Professor Huxley, who has of te^Mifg 8 

 late wandered beyond his special subjects of exposition, into 

 the wider fields of ethies, politics, and metaphysics. It is 

 difficult to exaggerate the importance of a teaching, followed 

 and accepted with so much avidity by a large section of the 

 middle and lower classes, and it will be well to consider 

 carefully the dicta put forth by so popular an authority 

 an authority, moreover, by no means relying upon the power 

 of persuasion or the force of truth, but ready, as soon as 

 practicable, to call in the aid of the &quot; secular arm &quot; to give 

 effect to the anathemas of a &quot; scientific syllabus.&quot; 



In Professor Huxley s Lay Sermons, the following pas- 



occur : 



&quot; I say that natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has 

 found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings.&quot; p. 14. 



The Gospel enunciated by this Evangelist, is, after all, 

 anything but &quot; good tidings.&quot; The Professor tells us : 

 &quot; In this sadness, this consciousness of the limitation of man, 

 this sense of an open secret which he cannot penetrate, lies 



