1888 THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN 57 



4 Marlborough Place, 



Jan. 5, 1888. 



My dear Romaxes — Tliey say ttat liars ought to 

 have long memories. I am sure authors ought to. I 

 could not at first remember where the passage Schurman 

 quotes occurs, but I did find it in the Encyclopcedia 

 Britannica article on " Evolution," ^ reprinted in Science 

 and Culture, p. 307. 



But I do not find any thins; about the " whale " here. 

 Nevertheless I have a consciousness of having said 

 sometliing of the kind somewhere.^ 



If you look at the whole passage, you will see that 

 there is not the least intention on my part to presuppose 

 design. 



If you break a piece of Iceland spar with a hammer, 

 all the pieces will have shapes of a certain kind, but that 

 does not imply that the Iceland spar was constructed for 

 the purpose of breaking up in this way when struck. 

 The atomic theory implies that of all possible compounds 

 of A and B only those will actually exist in which the 

 proportions of A and B by weight bear a certain 

 numerical ratio. But it is mere arguing in a circle to 

 say that the fact being so is evidence that it was 

 designed to be so. 



I am not going to take any more notice of the ever- 

 lasting D , as you appropriately call him, until he 



has withdrawn his slanders. . . . 



Pray give him a dressing — it will be one of those 

 rare combinations of duty and pleasure. — Ever yours 

 very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



He was, moreover, constantly interested in 

 schemes for the reform of the scientific work of the 

 London University, and for the enlargement of the 



1 Coll. Ess. ii. 223. 

 2 In "Mr. Darwiu's Critics," 1871 ; GoU. Ess. ii. 181. 



