42 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



He thought otherwise. He was convinced, and 

 increasingly convinced as years went on, that 

 natural knowledge could not go on to that fuller 

 development which was needed to make it 

 accepted as the true guide in the whole conduct 

 of life, so long as men in general still believed 

 that as regards parts of that conduct the only true 

 guide was to be found in the teachings of the 

 Church and in these alone. He had no doubt 

 whatever that for the adequate progress of natural 

 knowledge some one must be bold enough to 

 stand up against the Church whenever it said to 

 natural knowledge, " thus far but no farther," 

 bold enough to show the world that the Church's 

 claim to dictate to natural knowledge broke down 

 when it was tried without fear and without preju- 

 dice. Seeing none other bold enough, he took 

 the task upon himself. Whether he was right or 

 wrong, the world must judge. 



He is gone; but the conflict, in which so much 

 of his life was spent, still remains with us. 

 Among the followers of natural knowledge, both 

 the workers and they who only know its ways, 

 there are and always will be they who hold that 

 natural knowledge is not merely a hewer of wood 

 and a drawer of water, a provider of physical 

 health and material benefits, but beyond that the 

 only sure guide to moral health and spiritual well- 

 being, who hold that man can only safely direct 

 his steps by frank obedience to the known laws of 

 nature, the more safely the better and the more 



