26 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



aspirations which he desired to see inspired. 

 With its beautiful lauguage and its old associa- 

 tions, it seemed to him a means of awakening the 

 moral sense and pointing out the duty of man, 

 such as he could not find elsewhere, such at least 

 as he could not wisely put on one side. 



He was well aware that in it the great moral 

 lessons which he sought to enforce were closely 

 wrapped up in other things, were, indeed, con- 

 veyed by means of teachings, many of which he 

 was convinced were erroneous, some of which he 

 held to be mischievous. But he thought that this 

 difficulty was largely met by the decision that the 

 Bible was to be taught in the school in such a way 

 as to be free from dogma. And, weighing one 

 thing against the other, he accepted Biblical 

 teaching as what in the language of the world is 

 called a practical compromise. He was the more 

 inclined to this step because he believed and 

 hoped that it was the beginning of other things. 

 He took it for granted that this Biblical teaching 

 would be placed in the hands of laymen, and 

 moulded by the thoughts of laymen. Laymen 

 would, he conceived, be more and more drawn to 

 his own way of thinking, and out of the teaching 

 which he had helped to institute would be evolved 

 another simpler ethical teaching free from all 

 theological conceptions. He failed to realise 

 that to make the Bible the chosen and sole means 

 of enforcing moral lessons strengthened the ties 

 binding the teaching of moral duties to the accept- 



