142 



HUXLEY ON THE EXTENSION 



conviction to their minds, and which have led them to feel 

 quite sure that they have at last really discovered the truth, 

 they scoff at what we have been taught hitherto, and imply 

 that although they know much more than we do, it is scarcely 

 worth while for them to waste their time in imparting to the 

 "weak" the reasons that have induced them to accept the 

 faith that is in them. We are to discard the fictions that we 

 may have been led to think may help us to bear with patience 

 the hard work of incessant groping in the dark after truth, 

 nay, we are to leave off groping altogether, and accept what 

 they tell us as truth of the most infallible kind, which is to 

 retain its infallibility, although the terms in which it is 

 expressed may change their form from time to time. 



From many remarks made by high scientific authority, 

 one would be led to conclude that, of all infallible state- 

 ments, the most infallible must be that which implies that 

 the nature of all changes taking place in living things, and 

 in particular the changes which affect the mind of man, are 

 physical changes, and due to physics alone. Indeed, it has 

 been affirmed by many, and the statement has been repeated 

 in several different forms, that consciousness, like heat, 

 has its mechanical equivalent (p. 119). But this is another 

 of the scientific discoveries to be demonstrated by the in- 

 vestigators about to be. 



The language of Professor Huxley upon the extension 

 of the realm of matter is particularly confident, though at 

 present it is only prophetic. He remarks that, "As 

 surely as every future grows out of past and present, so will 

 the physiology of the future gradually extend the realm of 

 matter and law until it is co-extensive with knowledge, with 

 feeling, and with action. The consciousness of this great 



