340 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxiii 



'of a teacher rather than an iconoclast. The question began 

 to be not whether such opinions are wicked, but whether 

 from the point of view of scientific method they are irre- 

 fragably true. 



The net philosophical result of the society's work was 

 to distinguish the essential and the unessential differences 

 between the opposite parties; the latter were to a great ex- 

 tent cleared up ; but the former remained all the more clearly 

 defined in logical nakedness for the removal of the side 

 issues and the personal idiosyncrasies which often obscured 

 the main issues. Indeed, when this point was reached by 

 both parties, when the origins and consequences of the 

 fundamental principles on either side had been fully dis- 

 cussed and mutual misunderstandings removed to the ut- 

 most, so that only the fundamentals themselves remained 

 in debate, there was nothing left to be done. The so- 

 ciety, in fact, as Huxley expressed it, " died of too much 

 love." 



Indeed, it is to be noticed that, despite the strong an- 

 tagonism of principle and deductions from principle which 

 existed among the members, the rule of mutual toleration 

 was well kept. The state of feeling after ten years' open 

 struggle seemed likely to produce active collision between 

 representatives of the opposing schools at close quarters. 

 " We all thought it would be a case of Kilkenny cats," said 

 Huxley many years afterwards. " Hats and coats would be 

 left in the hall, but there would be no owners left to put 

 them on again." But only one flash of the sort was elicited. 

 One of the speakers at an early meeting insisted on the 

 necessity of avoiding anything like moral disapprobation 

 in the debates. There was a pause ; then W. G. Ward said : 

 " While acquiescing in this condition as a general rule, I 

 think it cannot be expected that Christian thinkers shall 

 give no sign of the horror with which they would view 

 the spread of such extreme opinions as those advocated 

 by Mr. Huxley." Another pause ; then Huxley, thus chal- 

 lenged, replied : " As Dr. Ward has spoken, I must in 

 fairness say that it will be very difficult for me to con- 

 ceal my feeling as to the intellectual degradation which 



