( ii ) 83 



Two corresponding parts would thus seem to be pre- 

 scribed to any full discussion of the essay ; and of 

 these, in the present needs of the world, it is evidently 

 the latter that has the more promising theme. The 

 truth is, however, that Mr. Huxley, after having exerted 

 all his strength in his first part to throw us into " the 

 materialistic slough," by dear necessity of knowledge, 

 only calls to us, in his second part, to come out of this 

 slough again, on the somewhat obscure necessity of igno- 

 rance. This, then, is but a lop-sided balance, where a 

 scale in the air only seems to struggle vainly to raise 

 its well-weighted fellow on the ground. Mr. Huxley, 

 in fact, possesses no remedy for materialism but what 

 lies in the expression that, while he knows not what 

 matter is in itself, he certainly knows that casualty is 

 but contingent succession ; and thus, like the so-called 

 " philosophy" of the Revulsion, Mr. Huxley would only 

 mock us into the intensest dogmatism on the one side 

 by a fallacious reference to the intensest scepticism on 

 the other. 



The present paper, then, will regard mainly Mr. Hux- 

 ley's argument /#/- materialism, but say what is required, 

 at the same time, on his alleged argument which is 

 merely the imaginary, or imaginative, impregnation of 

 ignorance against it. 



Following Mr. Huxley's own steps in his essay, the 

 course of his positions will be found to run, in sum- 

 mary, thus : 



What is meant by the physical basis of life is, that 

 there is one kind of matter common to all living beings, 

 and it is named protoplasm. No doubt it may appear 

 at first sight that, in the various kinds of living beings, 

 we have only difference before us, as in the lichen on the 



