32 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



Natural knowledge, moreover, gave man, in 

 his opinion, not only directive agencies, but also 

 moving powers for the conduct of life. It not 

 only laid bare the laws according to which man 

 must walk, but also, rightly grasped, raised up 

 visions which awakened or which strengthened 

 the emotions and affections needed to bear man 

 up in his efforts so to walk, following right and 

 shunning wrong. Love of good, hatred of evil, 

 feelings of awe and reverence, such as must ever 

 arise when man tries to pierce below the surface 

 of things, yearnings for and strivings towards a 

 goal of ideal perfection, nearness to which is the 

 true measure of real happiness these seemed to 

 him the heart of every true religion whatever 

 might be its doctrinal wrappings. Of all these 

 he believed natural knowledge to be, and in the 

 struggles of his own life had found it to be, a 

 true, potent, and yet simple nurse. 



He knew that in this view of the work and 

 power of natural knowledge he was looking 

 ahead ; he was aware how little had as yet been 

 achieved in the improvement of natural know- 

 ledge, how much had yet to be done before that 

 which it promised could be accomplished. But 

 the way to effective truth had been entered upon, 

 time and labour only were needed for the rest. 

 Filled as he was with this dominant conviction of 

 the higher power of natural knowledge and of 

 the crying need for the advance of that know- 

 ledge, it is no wonder that he felt, and felt 



