504 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxxi 



recollect that this is a sacrifice, and that you should not be 

 surprised' if it occasionally happens that you see a biologist 

 apparently trespassing in the region of philosophy or poli- 

 tics; or meddling with human education; because, after all, 

 that is a part of his kingdom which he has only volun- 

 tarily forsaken " — how to learn biology, the use of Muse- 

 ums, and above all, the utility of biology, as helping to give 

 right ideas in this world, which " is after all, absolutely gov- 

 erned by ideas, and very often by the wildest and most 

 hypothetical ideas." 



This lecture on Biology was first published among the 

 American Addresses in 1877. 



It was about this time that an extremely Broad Church 

 divine was endeavouring to obtain the signatures of men 

 of science to a document he had drawn up protesting 

 against certain orthodox doctrines. Huxley, however, re- 

 fused to sign the protest, and wrote the following letter of 

 explanation, a copy of which he sent to Mr. Darwin. 



Nov. 18, 1876. 



Dear Sir — I have read the " Protest," with a copy of which 

 you have favoured me, and as you wish that I should do so, I 

 will trouble you with a brief statement of my reasons for my 

 inability to sign it. 



I object to clause 2 on the ground long since taken by 

 Hume that the order of the universe such as we observe it 

 to be, furnishes us with the only data upon which we can 

 base any conclusion as to the character of the originator 

 thereof. 



As a matter of fact, men sin, and the consequences of their 

 sins affect endless generations of their progeny. Men are 

 tempted, men are punished for the sins of others without merit 

 or demerit of their own; and they are tormented for their evil 

 deeds as long as their consciousness lasts. 



The theological doctrines to which you refer, therefore, are 

 simply extensions of generalisations as well based as any in 

 physical science. Very likely they are illegitimate extensions of 

 these generalisations, but that does not make them wrong in 

 principle. 



And I should consider it waste of time to " protest " against 

 that which is. 



