236 Thomas Henry Huxley 



reproduce, tlie writer continues: — 'When, therefore, upon 

 such slender grounds, it is determined, in answer to those who 

 insist on its universality, that the Mosaic Deluge must be con- 

 sidered a preternatural event, far beyond the reach of philo- 

 sophical enquiry ; not duly as to the causes employed to produce 

 it, but as to the effects most likely to result from it ; that de- 

 termination wears an aspect of scepticism, which, however 

 much soever it may be unintentional in the mind of the writer, 

 yet cannot but produce an evil impression on those who are 

 already predisposed to carp and cavil at the evidence of 

 Revelation.' " 



The great evil of authority' was its tendency to erect 

 itself into some form of infallibility of universal appli- 

 cation. When, for a time, the geological victory was 

 won, and the supporters of authority had comforted 

 themselves with reconciliations, there arose the much 

 greater and more serious opposition between authority 

 and the conceptions involved in evolution. Huxley, 

 as we have seen in an earlier chapter, found that all 

 the old weapons of authority were resumed with a re- 

 newed assurance, and his advocacy of the duty of 

 doubt became not merely the defence of a great princi- 

 ple but a means of self-defence. The conception of 

 infallible authorit}^ had been transferred by Protestants 

 from the Church to the Bible, and against this Huxley 

 strove with all his might. It is convenient to reserve 

 a full treatment of Huxley's attitude to the Bible for a 

 separate chapter, but at this point a quotation will 

 shew his general view. 



a^ 



" The truth is that the pretension to infallibility, by whom- 

 soever made, has done endless mischief; with impartial ma- 

 lignity it has proved a curse, alike to those who have made it 

 and those who have accepted it ; and its most banetul shape is 

 book infallibility. For sacerdotal corporations and schools 



