t 68 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, x 



of " laws of nature " as though they were independent enti- 

 ties, agents, and efficient causes of that which happens, in- 

 stead of simply our name for observed successions of facts. 



Carefully as all personalities had been avoided in this 

 article, it called forth a lively reply from the Duke of 

 Argyll, rebuking him for venturing to criticise the preacher, 

 whose name was now brought forward for the first time, and 

 raising a number of other questions, philosophical, geologi- 

 cal, and biological, to which Huxley rejoined with some 

 selections from the authentic history of these points in 

 " Science and Pseudo-Science " (Nineteenth Century, April 

 1887, Coll. Essays, v. 90-125). 



Moreover, judging from the vivacity of the Duke's reply 

 that some of the shafts of the first article must have struck 

 nearer home than the pulpit of St. Paul's, he was induced 

 to read " The Reign of Law," the second chapter of which, 

 dealing with the nature of " Law," he now criticised sharply 

 as " a sort of ' summa ' of pseudo-scientific philosophy," with 

 its confusions of law and necessity, law and force, " law in 

 the sense, not merely of a rule, but of a cause." 



He wound up with some banter upon the Duke's picture 

 of a scientific Reign of Terror, whereby, it seemed, all men 

 of science were compelled to accept the Darwinian faith, 

 and against which Huxley himself was preparing to rebel, 

 as if, 



forsooth, I am supposed to be waiting for the signal of " revolt," 

 which some fiery spirits among these young men are to raise 

 before I dare express my real opinions concerning questions 

 about which we older men had to fight in the teeth of fierce 

 opposition and obloquy — of something which might almost justify 

 even the grandiloquent epithet of a Reign of Terror — before our 

 excellent successors had left school. 



Here for a while the debate ceased. But in the Sep- 

 tember number of the Nineteenth Century, the Duke of 

 Argyll returned to the fray with an article called " A Great 

 Lesson," in which he attempted to offer evidence in support 

 of his assertions concerning the scientific reign of terror. 

 The two chief pieces of evidence adduced were Bathybius 

 and Dr. (now Sir J.) Murray's theory of coral reefs. The 



