175 
views have not induced the learned Professor to withdraw his 
work : the fourth edition of these sermons is that from which I 
quote, and this edition, issued in 1872, is now, as I find, in full 
sale, and much sought after. 
6. It is with great respect and admiration for the truth-loving 
character of his mental constitution, as evidenced in his works, 
that I name Professor Huxley. The outspoken fearlessness 
with which he propounds his convictions, is worthy of a better 
creed and of sounder philosophy. I have never listened with 
so much pleasure to any scientific instructor ; and it is of course 
with reluctance that I feel compelled to differ so absolutely 
from his conclusions as will presently appear. He inspires 
his hearers with a wholesome confidence in their power to 
understand propositions expounded to them in well-chosen 
English phrases ; and does not attempt the mystification which 
clothes learned ignorance under the specious guise of trans- 
cendent absurdity wrapped up in high-sounding Greek. Even 
when he verges on this objectionable course— as I think 
that he does in the properties which he attributes to proto- 
plasm— \t seems to me that the defect arises from his miscon- 
ception of the nature of the subject on which he treats. In 
the commencement of his lecture* on “The Physical Basis of 
Life,” he says, “ In order to make the title of this discourse 
generally intelligible, I have translated the term f Protoplasm/ 
which is the scientific name of the substance of which I am 
about to speak, by the words ' the Physical Basis of Life/ ” 
7. Now, I must be permitted, and Professor Huxley himself 
would specially urge it upon me, to bring this information into 
correlation with whatever knowledge I may previously have 
acquired. In the first place, then, I am dissatisfied with the 
word itself, since ttqojtov 7r\d(jfxa would, if I mistake not, most 
correctly mean “the first image,” or “the first fable or 
fiction.”t But let this pass, and take it, as I suppose is meant, as 
“ the first thing formed.” Then I have a right to inquire who 
or what is the former ; and also where is the proof of its being 
the first thing formed. Professor Huxley himself, in treating 
of “ vitality ” and “ aquosity,” brings from amongst the im- 
ponderables the electric spark; and by means of this unites his 
oxygen and hydrogen to form water, the properties of which 
* “ The substance of this paper was contained in a discourse which was 
delivered in Edinburgh on the evening of Sunday, the 8th of November, 
1868, being the first of a series of Sunday evening addresses upon non- 
theological topics, instituted by the Rev. J. Cranbrook .” — Lay Sermons, &c., 
p. 120. 
t Liddle & Scott’s Lexicon , &c. 
