LECTURE II1 HUXLEY, AND THE PROBLEM OF THE NATURALIST ALL thoughtful students will prize the essays and addresses on Education which make up the third volume of Huxley's "Collected Essays." When written, these were regarded by most readers as special pleas for scientific education; but nothing could be farther from the truth, although the prominence of "science" in their titles gives some ground for this impression. They who read them now, after scientific education has become an assured fact, will find that Huxley shows, here as elsewhere, that he is no radical, seeking to sweep away the ancient landmarks, but an enthusiastic admirer of all that is good in the old, as well as a zealous advocate for the new in education. While he improves every opportunity to set forth the need for scientific education, he tells the student that he is a man and a citizen as well as a student; and the delights and the discipline of literature and art and history are emphasized again and again, and each essay is a plea for liberal culture; although he never fails to demand the removal of the accumulated ashes, and the rekindling of the pure flame, until the very air the student breathes shall become "charged with that enthusiasm for truth, that fanaticism of veracity, which is a greater possession than much learning; a nobler gift than the power of increasing knowledge." No one Huxley least of all-would dream of attributing the "New Reformation" to any one man, and he speaks of himself as "a full private who has seen a good deal of service in the ranks" of the army ranged around the banner of physical science; but the object to which he tells us he has devoted his life-the diffusion among men of the scientific spirit of "organized common sense" 1 This lecture is part of a Review of Huxley's Essays, which was printed in the Forum, November, 1895. has made notable progress during his lifetime, and in this assurance he tells us at its end that he "shall be content to be remembered, or even not remembered," as one among the many who have brought it about. Of all Huxley's essays, those which deal with the development rather than the application of the method of using one's reason rightly in the search for truth are of most value to the student. Among them are the whole of Volume VI., "Hume; with Helps to the Study of Berkeley"; as well as the one "On Descartes' Discourse Touching the Method of Using our Reason Rightly; and of Seeking Scientific Truth" (I. iv.), and many others, such as "Possibilities and Impossibilities (V. vi. 1891), and "Scientific and Pseudo-Scientific Realism" (V. ii. 1887). The opening paragraph of the book on Hume's Philosophy (VI. 57) may be taken as a statement of the purpose of all these essays: "Kant has said that the business of philosophy is to answer three questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? — and, For what may I hope? But it is pretty plain that these three resolve themselves in the long run into the first. For rational expectation and moral action are alike based upon belief, and a belief is void of justification unless its subject-matter lies within the boundaries of possible knowledge, and unless its evidence satisfies the conditions of credibility. . . . Fundamentally, then, philosophy is the answer to the question, What can I know?" ... Huxley is not drawn into this province by the fierce joy of controversy, nor by any desire to join those who flit forever over dusky meadows, green with asphodel, in vain search for some reality which is not within the reach of all. His motive is the most practical and serious one we know, "to learn what is true in order to do what is right." This, he tells us, "is the summing up of the whole duty of man, for all who are not able to satisfy their mental hunger with the east wind of authority." The conclusion of the whole matter is that "there is but one kind of knowledge and but one method of acquiring it." This is the melody which runs through all the nine volumes; now loud and clear, now hidden by the minor interest of a scientific topic, or by the heat of controversy or by the charm of literary genius; but always present, and easy-for one who listens to detect. It is because scientific education helps. us to acquire the method of using our reason rightly in the search |