Teachings of Thomas Huxley 83. 



help thinking that if his mind had been given 

 to religious things he would have been an ex- 

 emplar of piety and devotion. He had the 

 essential passion without the constructive imag- 

 ination of the truly devout. He could not be- 

 lieve in old-world prejudices and follies because 

 he thought them untrue, however much spir- 

 itual comfort they might bring to others. His 

 faith in humanity, however, was boundless. He 

 believed that mankind was easily misled but 

 not wilfully so, and that wrongdoing was most 

 often due to ignorance of its results or to lack 

 of restraint, causes both entirely remediable 

 through mental and moral education. An early 

 study of Carlyle had taught him the despica- 

 bility of shams, hence he hated them with all 

 the ardor of that great and peculiar intellect. 

 Yet there was nothing in the world which he 

 believed to be absolutely bad, for everything 

 must have its place and purpose. It was simply 

 man's duty to discover what that purpose en- 

 tailed, and here was the basis of all true sci- 

 ence. 



In spite of his bent Huxley did not take 

 much stock in the speculations of the philoso- 

 phers, old or new. Plato he considered to be 

 "The founder of all the vague and unsound 

 thinking that has hindered philosophy, desert- 

 ing facts for possibilities, and then after long 

 and beautiful stories of what might be, telling 

 you he doesn't believe them himself." As for 



