236 HUXLEY 



He tries to escape from his place in the animal king- 

 dom, founded on the free development of the prin- 

 ciple of non-moral evolution, and to establish a king- 

 dom of Man, governed solely upon the principle of 

 moral evolution. For society not only has a moral 

 end, but, in its perfection, social life is embodied 

 morality. 1 



In 1890 Huxley writes: " Of moral purpose I see 

 no trace in Nature. That is an article of exclusively 

 human manufacture — and very much to our credit. 2 

 George Meredith gives rhythmic expression to that 

 view in his great poem on man's relation to Nature : — 



" He may entreat, aspire, 

 He may despair, and she has never heed ; 

 She drinking his warm sweat will soothe his need, 

 Not his desire." 3 



To the many the argument seemed paradoxical, for 

 how, it was asked, could ethical nature, as the off- 

 spring of cosmic nature, be at enmity with it ? In a 

 Prolegomena, 4 which is longer than the lecture, Hux- 

 ley contended that the seeming paradox is a truth. 



Taking, as an example, the ground on which his 

 house was built, he shows how the industry of man 

 has converted a patch of weed-choked, economically 

 unproductive soil into a fruitful garden, and how, if 



1 Coll. Essays, ix. pp. 202, 205. ' II. 268. 



3 Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth, p. 1 19. 



4 Coll. Essays, ix. pp. I-45. 



