444 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxviii 



terialists, for I am utterly incapable of conceiving the existence 

 of matter if there is no mind in which to picture that existence ; 

 not among atheists, for the problem of the ultimate cause of 

 existence is one which seems to me to be hopelessly out of reach 

 of my poor powers. Of all the senseless babble I have ever had 

 occasion to read, the demonstrations of these philosophers who 

 undertake to tell us all about the nature of God would be the 

 worst, if they were not surpassed by the still greater absurdities 

 of the philosophers who try to prove that there is no God. 



This essay was delivered as an evening address on 

 August 24, the Monday of the Association week. A vast 

 stir had been created by the treatment of deep reaching 

 problems in Professor Tyndall's presidential address ; in- 

 terest was still further excited by this unexpected excursion 

 into metaphysics. " I remember," writes Sir M. Foster, 

 " having a talk with him about the lecture before he gave 

 it. I think I went to his lodgings — and he sketched out 

 what he was going to say. The question was whether, in 

 view of the Tyndall row, it was wise in him to take the line 

 he had marked out. In the end I remember his saying, 

 ' Grasp your nettle, that is what I have got to do.' " But 

 apart from the subject, the manner of the address struck 

 the audience as a wonderful tour de force. The man who 

 at first disliked public speaking, and always expected to 

 break down on the platform, now, without note or refer- 

 ence of any kind, discoursed for an hour and a half upon 

 a complex and difficult subject, in the very words which 

 he had thought out and afterwards published. 



This would have been a remarkable achievement if he 

 had planned to do so and had learned up his speech; but 

 the fact was that he was compelled to speak off-hand on the 

 spur of the moment. He describes the situation in a letter 

 of February 6, 1894, to Professor Ray Lankester : — 



I knew that I was treading on very dangerous ground, so I 

 wrote out uncommonly full and careful notes, and had them in 

 my hand when I stepped on to the platform. 



Then, I suddenly became aware of the bigness of the audi- 

 ence, and the conviction came upon me that, if I looked at my 

 notes, not one half would hear me. It was a bad ten seconds. 



