Collected essays

Bibliographic Data

ID5841389
AuthorsThomas Henry Huxley (corresponding author)
Year1893
Publication date1893-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
PublisherMacmillan (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5962/bhl.title.30529
OpenAlexW4241197574
LanguageEN
Citations received17

Anp when I consider, in one view, the many.things...... which I have upon my hands, I feel the burlesque of being employed in this manner at my time of life.But, in another view, and taking in all circumstances, these things, as trifling as they may appear, no less than things of greater importance, seem to be put upon me to do,..... -Bishop Butler to the Duchess of Somerset.THE "many things" to which the Duchess's correspondent here refers are the repairs and improvements of the episcopal seat at Auckland.one time had a high reputation.I am not aware _ that any portents preceded my arrival in this world, but, in my childhood, I remember hearing a traditional account of the manner in which I lost the chance of an endowment of great practical value._ The windows of my mother's room were open, in consequence of the unusual warmth of the _ weather.For the same reason, probably, a neigh-_bouring beehive had swarmed,and the new colony, _ pitching on the window-sill, was making fts way into the room when the horrified nurse shut down the sash.If that well-meaning woman had only abstained from her ill-timed interference, the swarm might have settled on my lips, and I should have been endowed with that mellifluousL eloquence which, in this country, leads far more _ surely than worth, capacity, or honest work, to the highest places in Church and State.But the _ opportunity was lost, and I have been obliged to content myself through life with saying what I 'mean in the plainest of plain language, than which, _ I suppose, there is no habit more ruinous to a | man's prospects of advancement.London; and, in September of that year, a heap of ashes and the indestructible energy of the people were all that remained of the glory of fivesixths of the city within the walls._ Our forefathers had their own ways of account-'ing for each of these calamities.They submitted to the plague in humility and in penitence, for they believed it to be the judgment of God.But, towards the fire they were furiously indignant, c 2 20 ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE : interpreting it as the effect of the malice of man, -as the work of the Republicans, or of the Papists, according as their prepossessions ran in favour of loyalty or of Puritanism.It would, I fancy, have fared but ill with one who, standing where I now stand, in what was then a thickly-peopled and fashionable part of London, should have broached to our ancestors ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGEa peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever upward, heavily burdened, and with mind bent only on her home; but yet without offort and without thought, knitting for her Now stockings are good and comfortable and the children will undoubtedly be much the better for them; but surely it would be shortsighted, to say the least of it, to depreciate this toiling mother as a mere stocking-machine-a mere provider of physical comforts ?' However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a few of them, who take this view of natural knowledge, and can see nothing in the bountiful mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine.According to them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has been, and always must be, synonymous with no more than the improvement of the material resources and the increase of the gratifications of men.Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of mankind, bringing them up with kindness, and, if need be, with sternness, in the way they should go, and instructing them in all things needful for their welfare ; but a sort of fairy godmother, ready to furnish her pets with shoes swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omnipotent Aladdin's lamps, so that they may have telegraphs'to Saturn, and see the other side of the moon, and.thank God they are better than their benighted ancestors, : **. ., When in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 35 _ For example, what could seem wiser, from a 'mere material point of view, more innocent, from 'a theological one, to an ancient people, than 'that they should learn the exact succession of the seasons, as warnings for their husbandmen; or the position of the stars, as guides to their tude navigators ?But what has grown out ofthis search for natural knowledge of so merely useful a character?You all know the reply.Astronomy,-which of all sciences has filled men's minds with general ideas of a character most foreign to their daily experience, and has, more 3 an any other, rendered it impossible for them accept the beliefs of their fathers.Astronomy, hich tells them that this so vast and seemingly d earth is but an atom among atoms, whirling, > man knows whither, through illimitable space ;ich demonstrates that what: we call the peaceful 'aven above us, is but that space, filled by an 4 ir itely subtle matter whose particles are sthing and surging, like the waves of an angry ea ; which opens up to us infinite regions where thing is known, or ever seems to have been 10wn, but matter and force, operating accord-' to rigid rules; which leads us to conmplate sohetleheia the very nature of which en morstrates that they must have had a beinning, and that they must have an end, but e very nature of which also proves that the inning was, to our conceptions of time, r D2'indebted to my friend and colleague, ..S., for the many acute criticisms and 3 respecting the ultimate problems of s favoured me, and by which I have | * I am aware that this proposition may be challenged.It ' to which the stone travels-as if, in other words, VOL, I

Sociology · Australian History and Society · Historical Architecture and Urbanism · Scottish History and National Identity

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access