i885 SCIEJCCE AT OXFORD 



127 



can be tested, the Pentateuchal writer states that which is not 

 true. What, therefore, is his authority on the matter — creation 

 by a Deity — which cannot be tested? What sort of "inspira- 

 tion " is that which leads to the promulgation of a fable as 

 divine truth, which forces those who believe in that inspiration 

 to hold on, like grim death, to the literal truth of the fable, which 

 demoralises them in seeking for all sorts of sophistical shifts to 

 bolster up the fable, and which finally is discredited and repudi- 

 ated when the fable is finally proved to be a fable? If Satan 

 had wished to devise the best means of discrediting " Revela- 

 tion " he could not have done better. 



Have you not forgotten to mention the leg of Archaeopteryx 

 as a characteristically bird-like structure? It is so, and it is to 

 be recollected that at present we know nothing of the greater 

 part of the skeletons of the older mesozoic mammals — only teeth 

 and jaws. What the shoulder-girdle of Stereognathus might be 

 like is uncertain. — Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



The following letters have a curious interest as showing 

 what, in the eyes of a supporter of educational progress, 

 might and might not be done at Oxford to help on scientific 

 education : — 



4 Marlborough Place, Dec. 21, 1885. 



My dear Master * — I have been talking to some of my 

 friends about stimulating the Royal Society to address the Uni- 

 versities on the subject of giving greater weight to scientific 

 acquirements, and if I find that there is a better prospect than I 

 had hoped for of getting President and Council to move. But I 

 am not quite sure about the course which it will be wisest for 

 us to adopt, and I beg a little counsel on that matter. 



I presume that we had better state our wishes in the form of 

 a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, and that we may prudently ask 

 for the substitution for modern languages (especially German) 

 and elementary science for some of the subjects at present re- 

 quired in the literary part of the examinations of the scientific 

 and medical faculties. If we could gain this much it would be 

 a great step, not only in itself, but in its reaction on the schools. 

 —Ever yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



* This is from the first draft of the letter. Huxley's letters to 

 Jowett were destroyed by Jowett's orders, together with the rest of his 

 correspondence. 



