234 HUXLEY 



course I will keep absolutely clear of theology. But 

 I have long had fermenting in my head some notions 

 about the relations of ethics and evolution (or rather 

 the absence of such as are commonly supposed) 

 which, I think, will be interesting to such an audi- 

 ence as I may expect." 1 The discourse provoked 

 much controversy and even more misunderstanding, 

 causing Huxley regret that he did not remember 

 Faraday's useful precept to lecturers, to assume that 

 even "select and cultivated" listeners knew nothing 

 whatever of the subject. 2 



Some of Huxley's audience took the lecture as a 

 senile recantation of the faith as it is in Evolution ; 

 while, since there is no logical halting-point between 

 Agnosticism and Catholicism, the late Professor St. 

 George Mivart, whose fate it was to be excommuni- 

 cated by his Church because he refused to sign a 

 monstrous assent to everything in the Bible, wel- 

 comed the lecture as indicating a possible reconcilia- 

 tion of Huxley with the Vatican. 3 



Ethics and Evolution, to the preparation of which 

 Huxley gave the utmost care, and which will abide as 

 a masterpiece of sonorous English prose, was the 

 amplification of arguments used by him in various 

 previous utterances. It was an effort, he explained 



1 II. 350. 2 Coll. Essays, ix. p. vii. 



3 Nineteenth Cenitiry, Aug., 1893, p. 210. 



