298 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xvii 



In the former case, the statement is to be taken as true, in the 

 latter as untrue; until something arises to modify the verdict, 

 which, however properly reached, may always be more or less 

 wrong, the best information being never complete, and the best 

 reasoning being liable to fallacy. 



To quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us in intellectual 

 affairs would be about as reasonable as to object to live one's 

 life, with due thought for the morrow, because no man can be 

 sure he will be alive an hour hence. Such are the conditions 

 imposed upon us by nature, and we have to make the best of 

 them. And I think that the greatest mistake those of us who are 

 interested in the progress of free thought can make is to over- 

 look these limitations, and to deck ourselves with the dogmatic 

 feathers which are the traditional adornment of our oppo- 

 nents. Let us be content with rational certainty, leaving irra- 

 tional certainties to those who like to muddle their minds 

 with them. 



As for the difficulty of believing miracles in themselves, 

 he gives in this paper several examples of a favourite saying 

 of his, that Science offers us much greater marvels than the 

 miracles of theology; only the evidence for them is very 

 different. 



The following letter was written in acknowledgment of 

 a paper by the Rev. E. McClure, which endeavoured to place 

 the belief in an individual permanence upon the grounds 

 that we know of no leakage anywhere in nature ; that matter 

 is not a source,- but a transmitter of energy ; and that the 

 brain, so far from originating thought, is a mere machine 

 responsive to something external to itself, a revealer of 

 something which it does not produce, like a musical instru- 

 ment. This " something " is the universal of thought, which 

 is identified with the general Adyos of the fourth gospel. 

 Moral perfection consists in assimilation to this ; sin is the 

 falling short of perfect revealing of the eternal kayos. 



Huxley's reply interested his correspondent not only for 

 the brief opinion on the philosophic question, but for the 

 personal touch in the explanation of the motives which had 

 guided his life-work, and his " kind feeling towards such of 

 the clergy as endeavoured to seek honestly for a natural 

 basis to their faith." 



