38 Teachings of Thomas Huxley 



preconceived notions will doubtless have to 

 be changed, but that change must be gradual, 

 as the facts upon which those notions are based 

 are gradually arrived at. In these days of 

 apostacy it sometimes looks as though nothing 

 short of a revelation will satisfv men of the 

 truth or untruth of the fundamentals upon 

 which Christian belief is based. The probable 

 lack of such an occurrence gives little hope for 

 the future welfare of a homogeneous and 

 world-embracing faith, so that we may reason- 

 ably expect dissensions and the springing up 

 of new creeds throughout Christendom so long 

 as the desire of men to know the truth con- 

 cerning a future state exceeds their power of 

 finding out anything certain either of its ex- 

 istence or probable character. As to this spirit 

 of unrest, Huxley saw in perspective what its 

 outcome is likely to be when he said: "Modern 

 thought is making a fresh start from the base 

 whence Indian and Greek philosophy set out ; 

 and, the human mind being very much what it 

 was six-and-twenty centuries ago, there is no 

 ground for wonder if it presents indications of 

 a tendency to move along the old lines with the 

 same results." 



