246 Thomas Henry Huxley 



He tells lis as a matter of fact that in 1850, nine years 

 before the appearance of The Origin of Species, he 

 had "long done with the Pentateuchal cosmogony 

 which had been impressed on his childish understand- 

 ing as divine truth." In the chapter he contributed to 

 the Life of Darwvi he wrote that in his opinion 

 " the doctrine of evolution does not even come into con- 

 tact with theism, considered as a philosophical doc- 

 trine." The reason of his general attitude to the Bible 

 was simply that his application to it of the agnostic 

 method led him to the view that there was not sufficient 

 evidence for the pretensions assigned to it ; the reason 

 of his coming forward as a public and active champion 

 of his views in this matter was partly to make a counter 

 attack on the enemies of science, and partly his innate 

 respect for the propagation of truth. He had the inev- 

 itable respect of an Englishman for the English Bible 

 as one of the greatest books in our language, and we 

 have seen how he had advocated its adoption in schools. 

 He had the veneration for its ethical contents common 

 to the best thinkers of all ages since it came into exist- 

 ence, and few writers have ever emploj^ed loftier or 

 more direct language to express their respect and ad- 

 miration. As a venerator of freedom and of liberty he 

 regarded the Bible as the greatest text-book of freedom. 



"Throughout the history of the Western world," he wrote, 

 " the Scriptures, Jewish and Christian, have been the great in- 

 stigators of revolt against the worse forms of clerical and poli- 

 tical despotism. The Bible has been the Magtia Charta of the 

 poor and of the oppressed ; down to modern times no State has 

 had a constitution in which the interests of the people are so 

 largely taken into account, in which the duties, so much more 

 than the privileges, of rulers are insisted upon, as that drawn 

 up for Israel in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus ; nowhere is the 

 fundamental truth that the welfare of the State, in the long 



