28 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. I 



that all that has an unchangeable reality in it is 

 constituted by the love of some ethical ideal to 

 govern and guide conduct, "together with the awe 

 and reverence, which have no kinship with base fear, 

 but rise whenever one tries to pierce below the 

 surface of things, whether they be material or 

 spiritual." And in fact a cleavage took place between 

 him and the seven extreme " secularists " on the 

 Board (the seven champions of unchristendom, as 

 their opponents dubbed them) on the question of the 

 reading of the Bible in schools (see below, p. 

 31). 1 



One of the earliest proposals laid before the Board 

 was a resolution to open the meetings with prayer. 

 To this considerable opposition was offered; but a 

 bitter debate was averted by Huxley pointing out 

 that the 'proposal was ultra vires, inasmuch as under 

 the Act constituting the Board the business for which 

 they were empowered to meet did not include prayer. 

 Hereupon a requisition in which he himself joined 

 was made to allow the use of a committee-room to 

 those who wished to unite in a short service before 

 the weekly meetings., an arrangement which has 

 continued to the present time. 



At the second meeting, on December 21, he gave 

 notice of a motion to appoint a committee to consider 



1 Bishop Barry calls particular attention to his attitude on this 

 point, "because," he says, "it is (I think) often misunderstood. 

 In the Life (for instance) of the Right Honourable W. H. Smith, 

 published not long ago, Huxley is supposed, as a matter of course, 

 to have been the leader of the Secularist party." 



