62 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



on the contagious enthusiasms of the platform; 

 and in these days of popular government, argu- 

 ments suited to the orator are necessary in all 

 matters involving legislation. The appeal of 

 science acted on more thoughtful people, com- 

 paratively few in number, but having influence 

 out of proportion to that fewness, in virtue of their 

 intelligence, and the quiet steadiness of their con- 

 victions. The final result was a great effort of 

 national will, but it was helped on, and even made 

 possible, because emotion and intellect worked 

 on the same side. 



But now we come to other forces which are 

 mainly beyond human control, the constitution of 

 man and the human environment. Let us sup- 

 pose that there were two states existing side by 

 side; and that in one of these negro slavery was 

 abolished, while in the other it was retained. The 

 two would necessarily compete, and one would be 

 found more efficient, more successful than the 

 other. Evidently here the abolitional idea would 

 have to undergo a fresh test, that of working. 

 And apart from violent interference of one state 

 with the other, which is of course what happened 

 in the United States, the final triumph of the one 

 polity or the other must be determined by fact 

 and by event. If the idea of abolition was in 

 harmony with the facts of human nature, it would 

 triumph. But if the impulse from which it arose 

 was a baseless sentiment, if the natural rights of 

 man were a delusion, and if the men of science 



