ii8 Thomas Henry Huxley 



ordinarj' laws of animal life, and peculiar to themselves ' ; 

 of the rudiments of physiology, that he cau ask, 'what ad- 

 vantage of life could alter the shape of the corpuscles into 

 which the blood can be evaporated ? ' Nor does the reviewer 

 fail to flavour this outpouring of incapacity with a little stimu- 

 lation of the odium theologicu})!. Some inkling of the history 

 of the conflicts between astronomy, geology, and theology 

 leads him to keep a retreat open by the proviso that he cannot 

 ' consent to test the truth of Natural Science by the Word of 

 Revelation,' but for all that he devotes pages to the exposition 

 of his conviction that Mr. Darwin's theory ' contradicts the 

 revealed relation of the creation to its Creator,' and is ' incon- 

 sistent with the fulness of His glory.' " 



In a footnote to this passage, Huxley wrote that he 

 was not aware when writing these lines that the author- 

 ship of the article had been avowed publicly. He adds, 

 however : 



"Confession unaccompanied by penitence, however, aflfords 

 no ground for mitigation of judgment ; and the kindliness 

 with which Mr. Darwin speaks of his assailant. Bishop Wil- 

 berforce, is so striking an exemplification of his singular 

 gentleness and modesty, that it rather increases one's indigna- 

 tion against the presumption of his critic." 



As a matter of fact Wilberforce was a man of no par- 

 ticular information in letters or in philosophy, and his 

 knowledge of science was of the vaguest : a little 

 natural histor}^ picked up from Gosse, the naturalist 

 of the seashore, in the course of a few days' casual 

 acquaintance at the seaside, and some pieces of ana- 

 tomical facts with which he was provided, it is sup- 

 posed, by Owen, for the purposes of the review. But 

 he bore a great name, and misused a great position ; he 

 was a man of facile intelligence, smooth, crafty, and 

 popular, and in this case he was convinced that he was 

 doing the best possible for the great interests of religion 



