68 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



supersession of rationalism by science. In many 

 ways it is to be deplored. The restlessness of 

 modern society is in itself a serious evil ; and one 

 looks with anxiety to see whether the great root 

 principles which have been worked into the fabric 

 of modern society will not be called in question. 

 Even such institutions as monogamy and the pos- 

 session of private property do not pass without 

 inquiry. All this, one hopes, is transitional, the 

 result of too rapid changes physical and social. 

 But whether one deplores, or whether one de- 

 fends, the change in the centre of gravity, that 

 such a change is taking place is past question. 

 A recent speaker in the House of Commons spoke 

 of the doctrine of the rights of man as ' dead as 

 Rousseau ' : and one could scarcely contradict 

 him. 



And looking in all directions for a remedy, one 

 can find it only in a broader, more human, more 

 profound, study of human phenomena, and the 

 growth of a science treating of man and his facul- 

 ties as well developed and as detailed as is the 

 study of the visible universe. No such science 

 can give us ideals; there can be no mere obser- 

 vational determination of right and wrong, good 

 and evil ; but still, fuller knowledge may serve to 

 protect us against some of the aberrations and 

 absurdities which threaten society. 



I have been reading the recently published 

 letters of a man for whom I have always had the 

 deepest respect, John Stuart Mill. Those letters 



