456 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XXIII 



were to a great extent cleared up; but the former 

 remained all the more clearly defined in logical 

 nakedness for the removal of the side issues and the 

 personal idiosyncrasies which often obscured the main 

 issues. Indeed, when this point was reached by both 

 parties, when the origins and consequences of the 

 fundamental principles on either side had been fully 

 discussed and mutual misunderstandings removed to 

 the utmost, so that only the fundamentals themselves 

 remained in debate, there was nothing left to be 

 done. The Society, in fact, as Huxley expressed it, 

 "died of too much love." 



Indeed, it is to be noticed that, despite the strong 

 antagonism of principle and deductions from principle 

 which existed among the members, the rule of mutual 

 toleration was well kept. The state of feeling after 

 ten years' open struggle seemed likely to produce 

 active collision between representatives of the oppos- 

 ing schools at close quarters. " We all thought it 

 would be a case of Kilkenny cats," said Huxley many 

 years afterwards. " Hats and coats would be left in 

 the hall, but there would be no owners left to put 

 them on again." But only one flash of the sort was 

 elicited. One of the speakers at an early meeting 

 insisted on the necessity of avoiding anything like 

 moral disapprobation in the debates. There was a 

 pause ; then W. Gr. Ward said : " While acquiescing 

 in this condition as a general rule, I think it cannot 

 be expected that Christian thinkers shall give no 

 sign of the horror with which they would view the 



