70 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



as a day of devotion is, according to the writer, 

 mere cant. ' The devotion which is not felt 

 equally at all times does not deserve the name/ 

 And so he proceeds. It is strange that it did not 

 occur to him to consider why in such a case the 

 observance of Sunday had so long persisted in 

 Great Britain. In some of Mill's letters one finds 

 a painful consummation to which such rationalism 

 as his may easily lead. He expresses a deliberate 

 opinion that in the government of the world the 

 spiritual power of evil is stronger than the power 

 of good. That, I think, is a conclusion which 

 will often be reached by a rationalist who first 

 determines by the light of his own sentiments 

 what a moral government of the world ought to 

 be, and then condemns that which actually exists 

 because it does not conform to such preconceived 

 notions. The spirit of science is utterly different. 

 Starting from the facts of the world and of 

 human nature, the scientist will try so far as he 

 can to understand them, and where he fails will 

 be apt to lay the blame on his own faculties. At 

 all events, taking them as they stand, he will try 

 how human conduct may best be harmonized with 

 these fixed surroundings. It is only by accepting 

 the laws of nature that practical science pro- 

 gresses; and it is only by accepting the fixed 

 tendencies of man and society that we can hope 

 to improve mankind ethically and socially. 



