12 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. I 



a higher," a mode of reasoning which he applied to 

 the possibility of miracles such as that of Cana. 



The man of science was up in arms against this 

 incarnation of abstract terms, and offered a solemn 

 protest against that modern recrudescence of ancient 

 realism which speaks of " laws of nature " as though 

 they were independent entities, agents, and efficient 

 causes of that which happens, instead of simply our 

 name for observed successions of facts. 



Carefully as all personalities had been avoided in 

 this article, it called forth a lively reply from the 

 Duke of Argyll, rebuking him for venturing to 

 criticise the preacher, whose name was now brought 

 forward for the first time, and raising a number 

 of other questions, philosophical, geological, and 

 biological, to which Huxley rejoined with some selec- 

 tions from the authentic history of these points in 

 "Science and Pseudo- Science" {Nineteenth Century, 

 April 1887, Coll. Essays, v. 90-125). 



Moreover, judging from the vivacity of the Duke's 

 reply that some of the shafts of the first article must 

 have struck nearer home than the pulpit of St. Paul's, 

 he was induced to read " The Reign of Law," the 

 second chapter of which, dealing with the nature 

 of "Law," he now criticised sharply as "a sort of 

 'summa' of pseudo-scientific philosophy," with its 

 confusions of law and necessity, law and force, " law 

 in the sense, not merely of a rule, but of a cause." ^ 



' Cf. his treatment of the subject 24 years before, vol. L 

 p. 349. 



