262 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 60. 



the ground that the docti-ine was in opposi- 

 tion to revealed religion. The naturally 

 combative' disposition of Huxley was much 

 aroused by this opposition, and the antag- 

 onism early engendered was kept aglow dur- 

 ing his entire life. Meanwhile it had been 

 discovered by many of the more sagacious 

 and learned clergymen that there was no 

 real antagonism between the Scriptural ac- 

 count of Creation and evolution, but that 

 the two could be perfectly reconciled. The 

 reconciliation had been effected between 

 Genesis and astronomy and between Genesis 

 and geology, and was continued on the same 

 lines for Genesis and evolution. But Huxley 

 would have none of it. He gave expression 

 to his convictions in the following words: 



" For more than a thousand years, the 

 great majority of the most highly civilized 

 and instructed nations in the world have 

 confidently believed and passionately main- 

 tained that certain writings, which they 

 entitle sacred, occupy a unique position in 

 literature, in that they possess an authority, 

 different in kind, and immeasurably su- 

 perior in weight, to that of all other books. 

 Age after age, they have held it to be an 

 indisputable truth that, whoever may be 

 the ostensible writers of the Jewish, Chris- 

 tian, and Mahometan Scriptures, God Him- 

 self is their real author ; and, since one of 

 the attributes of the Deity excludes the 

 possibility of error and — at least in relation 

 to this particular matter — of wilful decep- 

 tion, they have drawn the logical conclu- 

 sion that the denier of the accuracy of any 

 statement, the questioner of the binding 

 force of any command, to be found in these 

 documents is not merely a fool, but a blas- 

 phemer. From the point of view of mere 

 reason he grossly blunders ; from that of re- 

 ligion he grievously sins. 



" But, if this dogma of Rabbinical inven- 

 tion is well founded ; if, for example, every 

 word in our Bible has been dictated by the 

 Deity; or even if it be held to be the Divine 



purpose that every proposition should be 

 understood by the hearer or reader in the 

 plain sense of the words employed (and it 

 seems impossible to reconcile the Divine 

 attribute of truthfulness with any other 

 intention), a serious strain upon faith must 

 arise. Moreover, experience has proved 

 that the severity of this strain tends to in- 

 crease, and in an even more rapid ratio, 

 with the growth in intelligence of mankind 

 and with the enlargement of the sphere of 

 assured knowledge among them. 



" It is becoming, if it has not become, 

 impossible for men of clear intellect and 

 adequate instruction to believe, and it has 

 ceased, or is ceasing, to be possible for such 

 men honestly to say they believe that the 

 universe came into being in the fashion de- 

 scribed in the first chapter of Genesis ; or 

 to accept, as a literal truth, the story of the 

 making of woman with the account of the 

 catastrophe which followed hard upon it, in 

 the second chapter; or to admit that the 

 earth was repeopled with terrestrial inhab- 

 itants by migration from Armenia to Kur- 

 distan, little more than 4,000 years ago, 

 which is implied in the eighth chapter ; or 

 finally, to shape their conduct in accord- 

 ance with the conviction that the world is 

 haunted by innumerable demons, who take 

 possession of men and may be driven out 

 of them by exorcistic adjurations, which 

 pervades the Gospels." 



So far even Huxley was not in disagree- 

 ment with some of the most eminent and 

 learned of theologians. Those of you who 

 are interested will be able to recall utter- 

 ances of enlightened clergymen which would 

 differ from Huxley's only in the absence of 

 the leaven of sarcasm that permeates his 

 lines. At a late Congress of the Church of 

 England, held at Norwich, the Rev. Canon 

 and Professor Bonney gave voice to words 

 that convey the same ideas as Huxley's. 



" I cannot deny," he said, " that the in- 

 crease of scientific knowledge has deprived 



