1 86 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



edition, 1893), and which adheres to the old views in 

 regard to the authorship of the Pentateuch : — 



" There is no living biblical scholar who can ignore authorities 

 of the rank of Reuss and Wellhausen, of Robertson Smith, and 

 Kuenen, without gross presumption ; I might even say without 

 raising a serious doubt of his scientific integrity. . . . 



" If I were to publish ' Helps to the Study of Zoology,' for 

 popular use, in which the progress of science in the last fifty 

 years was ignored, and every recent authority passed over in 

 silence, I am afraid, and indeed hope, that I should get into great 

 trouble. But to be sure I should be judged by mere lay standards 

 of right and wrong." 



The essay itself (" Evolution of Theology," Coll. 

 Essays, iv, p. 287) is a study in anthropology, for which 

 the Old Testament furnishes the material : — 



" In this venerable record of ancient life, miscalled a book, 

 when it is really a library comparable to a selection of works 

 from English literature between the times of Beda and those of 

 Milton, we have the stratified deposits (often confused and even 

 with their natural order inverted) left by the stream of the 

 intellectual and moral life of Israel during many centuries. And, 

 embedded in these strata, there are numerous remains of forms of 

 thought which once lived, and which, though often unfortunately 

 mere fragments, are of priceless value to the anthropologist. 

 Our task is to rescue these from their relatively unimportant 

 surroundings, and by careful comparison with existing forms of 

 theology, to make the dead world which they record live again. 

 In other words, our problem is palasontological, and the method 

 pursued must be the same as that employed in dealing with other 

 fossil remains." 



Part of the concluding paragraph runs as follows : — 



" It is my conviction that, with the spread of true scientific 

 culture, whatever may be the medium, historical, philological, 

 philosophical, or physical, through which that culture is conveyed, 

 and with its necessary concomitant, a constant elevation of the 

 standard of veracity, the end of the evolution of theology will be 



