318 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xviii 



There is no need to recapitulate these ; they may be read 

 in Science and Christian Tradition, the fifth volume of the 

 Collected Essays, but it is worth noticing that in conclusion, 

 after rejecting " a great many supernaturalistic theories and 

 legends which have no better foundations than those of 

 heathenism," he declares himself as far from wishing to 

 " throw the Bible aside as so much waste paper " as he was 

 at the establishment of the School Board in 1870. As Eng- 

 lish literature, as world-old history, as moral teaching, as 

 the Magna Charta of the poor and of the oppressed, the 

 most democratic book in the world, he could not spare it. 

 " I do not say," he adds, " that even the highest biblical ideal 

 is exclusive of others or needs no supplement. But I do be- 

 lieve that the human race is not yet, possibly may never be, 

 in a position to dispense with it." 



It was this volume that led to the writing of the maga- 

 zine article referred to above. The republication in it of the 

 " Agnosticism," originally written in reply to an article of 

 Mr. Frederic Harrison's, induced the latter to disclaim in 

 the Fortnightly Review the intimate connection assumed to 

 exist between his views and the system of Positivism de- 

 tailed by Comte, and at the same time to offer the olive 

 branch to his former opponent. But while gratefully ac- 

 cepting the goodwill implied in the offer, Huxley still de- 

 clared himself unable to " give his assent to a single doctrine 

 which is the peculiar property of Positivism, old or new," 

 nor to agree with Mr. Harrison when he wanted 



to persuade us that agnosticism is only the Court of the Gentiles 

 of the Positivist temple ; and that those who profess ignorance 

 about the proper solution of certain speculative problems ought 

 to call themselves Positivists of the Gate, if it happens that 

 they also take a lively interest in social and political questions. 



This essay, " An Apologetic Irenicon," contains more 

 than one passage of personal interest, which are the more 

 worth quoting here, as the essay has not been republished. 

 It was to have been included in a tenth volume of collected 

 Essays, along with a number of others which he projected, 

 but never wrote. 



