22 SELECTIONS FROM HUXLEY 



to toil in the service of natural knowledge. I think I would 

 just as soon be quietly chipping my own flint ax, after the 

 manner of my forefathers a few thousand years back, as be 

 troubled with the endless malady of thought which now in- 

 5 fests us all, for such reward. But I venture to say that such 

 views are contrary alike to reason and to fact. These who 

 discourse in such fashion seem to me to be so intent upon 

 trying to see what is above Nature, or what is behind her, 

 that they are blind to what stares them in the face, in her. 



10 I should not venture to speak thus strongly if my justifi- 

 cation were not to be found in the simplest and most obvious 

 facts, if it needed more than an appeal t the most notori- 

 ous truths to justify my assertion, that the improvement of 

 natural knowledge, whatever direction it has taken, and how- 



15 ever low the aims of those who may have commenced it 

 has not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, in so do- 

 ing, has effected a revolution in their conceptions of the uni- 

 verse and of themselves, and has profoundly altered their 

 modes of thinking and their views of right and wrong. I say 



20 that natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has 

 found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings. I 

 say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of 

 comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to 

 lay the foundations of a new morality. 



25 Let us take these points separately; and, first, what 

 great ideas has natural knowledge introduced into men's 

 minds ? 



I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural 

 knowledge were laid when the reason of man first came face 



30 to face with the facts of Nature : when the savage first learned 

 that the fingers of one hand are fewer than those of both; 

 that it is shorter to cross a stream than to head it; that a 

 stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and that it drops 



