RESULT. 851 



loose, his ultimate position was taken on one side of 'a 

 " dilemma," on the other side of which there was (for him) 

 bigotry. Mr. Huxley, at least in those works of his 

 which are known to me, seems to write always as though 

 these were the days when Cardan submitted to torture, 

 Campanella suffered twenty-seven years of imprisonment, 

 and Bruno and Vanini perished at the stake. The 

 fanaticism of faith still lives for him. 



" Crushed and maimed in every battle, it yet seems never to be 

 slain ; and after a hundred defeats, it is at this day as rampant, 

 though, happily, not so mischievous, as in the time of Galileo. But 

 to those whose life is spent, to use Newton's noble words, in picking 

 up here a pebble and there a pebble on the shores of the great ocean 

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

 mighty tide, bearing on its bosom the thousand treasures wherewith 

 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." 



That is rhetoric that still tells ! But are not the nuts 

 hollow ? The question is, Is natural selection a pebble 

 Newton would have picked up is it a pebble that ought 

 to be picked up? The Darwinian wave, "in its beneficent 

 progress " is it indeed one a Canute could not, or ought 

 not, to make stop ? Who would force a Galileo to his 

 knees now? It is curious how differently different 

 minds look at one and the same thing. Mr. Huxley 

 seems to see Inquisitors in whom I see only adherents of 

 his own. Mr. Huxley may depend upon it, the very men 

 he has the grudge against only learn from him. His 

 books may seem against them ; but it is his books they 

 read, and, as Erasmus the younger said, " Upon my life 

 even buy!" Anything that may seem for them, let it be 

 as new as it may, can seem to them only old, old and out 



