254 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



had such need for deliverance from the so-called 

 " believers " in it. Its value is only to be realized in 

 the degree that theories of its inspiration are aban- 

 doned. Then only is it possible to treat it like any 

 other literature of the kind; to discriminate between 

 the coarse and barbaric features which evidence the 

 humanness of its origin, and the loftier features of 

 its later portions which also evidence how it falls into 

 line with other witnesses of man's gradual ethical 

 and spiritual development. 



Huxley's breadth of view, his sympathy with 

 every branch of culture, his advocacy of literary in 

 unison with scientific training, fitted him supremely 

 for the work of the School Board, but its demands 

 were too severe on a man never physically strong, 

 and he was forced to resign. However, he was 

 thereby set free for other work, which could be only 

 efifectively done by exchanging the arena for the 

 study. The earliest important outcome of that re- 

 lief was the monograph on Hume, published in 1879, 

 and the latest was the Romanes lecture on Evolu- 

 tion and Ethics, which was delivered in the Shel- 

 donian Theatre at Oxford on the i8th of May, 1893. 

 Between the two lie a valuable series of papers deal- 

 ing with the Evolution of Theology and cognate sub- 

 jects. In all these we have the application of the 

 theory of Evolution to the explanation of the origin 

 of beliefs and of the basis of morals. To quote the 

 saying attributed to Liebnitz, both Spencer and 

 Huxley, and all who follow them, care for " science 



