SCIENCE AND MORALS 187 



like its beginning — it will cease to have any relation to ethics. 

 I suppose that, so long as the human mind exists, it will not 

 escape its deep-seated instinct to personify its intellectual concep- 

 tions. . . . So, it may be, that the majority of mankind may 

 find the practice of morality made easier by the use of theological 

 symbols. And unless these are converted from symbols into 

 idols, I do not see that science has anything to say to the practice, 

 except to give an occasional warning of its dangers. But, when 

 such symbols are dealt with as real existences, I think the highest 

 duty which is laid upon men of science is to show that these 

 dogmatic idols have no greater value than the fabrications 

 of men's hands, the stocks and the stones, which they have 

 replaced." 



The second essay " Science and Morals " (Coll. Essays, 

 ix, p. 117) appeared in the Fortnightly Review for Nov- 

 ember, by way of reply to Mr. W. S. Lilly, who 

 in a previous contribution to that periodical, entitled 

 " Materialism and Morality," impugned the views of 

 W. K. Clifford, Herbert Spencer and Huxley, on account 

 of their supposedly materialistic character. 



Huxley's article, as usual, is not only incisive, but in- 

 cludes some fine writing. The relation of Science, the 

 "Cinderella" sister of Philosophy and Theology, to 

 Morals, is admirably summed up in the last two para- 

 graphs : — 



" Cinderella is modestly conscious of her ignorance of these 

 high matters. She lights the fire, sweeps the house, and provides 

 the dinner ; and is rewarded by being told that she is a base 

 creature, devoted to low and material interests. But in her 

 garret she has fairy visions out of the ken of the pair of shrews 

 who are quarrelling downstairs. She sees the order which per- 

 vades the seeming disorder of the world ; the great drama of 

 evolution, with its full share of pity and terror, but also with 

 abundant goodness and beauty, unrolls itself before her eyes ; 

 and she learns, in her heart of hearts, the lesson, that the founda- 

 tion of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying ; 

 to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no 



