300 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. XII 



that of Professor Seth, in a lecture entitled " Man 

 and Nature." He wrote to him on October 27 : — 



Deae Peofbssor Seth — A report of your lecture on 

 "Man and Nature" lias just readied me. Accept my 

 cordial thanks for defending me, and still more for under- 

 standing me. 



I really have been unable to understand what my 

 critics have been dreaming of when they raise the objection 

 that the ethical process being part of the cosmic process 

 cannot be opposed to it. 



They might as well say that artifice does not oppose 

 nature, because it is part of nature in the broadest sense. 



However, it is one of the conditions of the " Eomanes 

 Lecture " that no allusion shall be made to religion or 

 politics. I had to make my omelette without breaking 

 any of those eggs, and the task was not easy. 



The prince of scientific expositors, Faraday, was once 

 asked, " How much may a popular lecturer suppose his 

 audience knows ? " He replied emphatically, " Nothing." 

 Mine was not exactly a popular audience, but I ought not 

 to have forgotten Faraday's rule. — Yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



A letter of congratulation to Lord Farrer on his 

 elevation to the peerage contains an ironical reference 

 to the general tone of the criticisms on his lecture : — 



HoDESLEA, June 5, 1893. 



Ci DEVANT CiTOTEN POTION (autjcfois Ic vertueux) — 

 You have lost all chance of leading the forces of the 

 County Council to the attack of the Hor-se-Guards. 



You will become an emigre, and John Burns mil have 

 to content himself with the heads of the likes of me. 

 As the Jacobins said of Lavoisier, the Kepublic has no need 

 of men of science. 



