GLADSTONE CONTROVERSY 179 



The second event was the unveiling of the Darwin 

 statue (June 9), and its formal presentation to the 

 Trustees of the British Museum (cf. p. 164). 



A gradual improvement of health followed resignation, 

 and the early stage of a somewhat acrimonious contro- 

 versy with Mr. Gladstone towards the end of the year 

 seems to have proved a very effective pick-me-up. In 

 the November number of the Nineteenth Century Glad- 

 stone in his article " The Dawn of Creation and 

 Worship," had traversed the views expressed by Dr. 

 Reville in his Prolegomena to the History of Religions, and 

 tried to show that the order of creation given in the first 

 chapter of Genesis is in harmony with the conclusions of 

 science. 



Huxley's reply appeared in the December number of 

 the same periodical, and was entitled " The Interpreters 

 of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature" (Coll, Essays, 

 iv, p. 139). It sets forth in detail the untenability of 

 Gladstone's position, and concludes with remarks on the 

 general question of Science versus Religion : — 



" The antagonism between science and religion, about which 

 we hear so much, appears to me to be purely factitious — fabri- 

 cated, on the one hand, by short-sighted religious people who 

 confound a certain branch of science, theology, with religion ; 

 and, on the other, by equally short-sighted scientific people who 

 forget that science takes for its province only that which is 

 susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension ; and that, outside 

 the boundaries of that province, they must be content with 

 imagination, with hope, and with ignorance. . . . 



" The antagonism of science is not to religion, but to the 

 heathen survivals and the bad philosophy under which religion 

 herself is often well-nigh crushed. And, for my part, I trust 

 that this antagonism will never cease ; but that, to the end of 

 time, true science will continue to fulfil one of her most beneficent 

 functions, that of relieving men from the burden of false science 

 which is imposed upon them in the name of religion." 



