The New York herald., 1876-09-19
PROFESSOR HUXLEY,
The Direct Evidence of Evolution
Lecture at Chickering Hall.
t H E Fl R S T S II o T
The Gauntlet Thrown Down by Modem
Science to Revealed Religion.

Hall 10 audience who Il very evident, had not
come for hours light entertainment To tho eye,
as it wandered over the house. the proportion OF gray
anu bald heads aud the lines in which thought had
scored itself the faces OF the majority Of those pres
very noticeable. considerable sprnking
of ladies graced tho occasion, but tho Professor had
gone far into his subject boiore Is be-
came evident that the atmosphere OF italian
| opera ,s much more congenal to them than
| the serene and .rigid intellectual heights where
the highest school Of modern scientists delights TO
dwell. Tho audience received tho emnont Engishman
with warmth and allowed themselves to be betrayed
into applause but three times during tho
of the lecture. They wore evidently intont upon
the subject in hand that applause TO them
less than secondary consideration. They
seemed 10 remember tho Horatan request, 'Jdvete
hnguis and testified by their earnest silence TO
appreciation gratifying to man who has roaly
any thing to say than tumultuOus paudhs.
The lecture itself may perhaps be properly described
rather INTRODUCE ory to the main body Of what Pro-
fessor Huxley has TO PROFOUND theory than any
exposition OF that theory Itself The Professor is evil
IDENTIFY proceeding on tho common sense principle that
order properly to build house must have iounda-
tons; that order to get good foundations digging is
necessary that such obstacles encountered the
digging be removed In the process proper
of tiggng night the foundations the theory of
theories which ru.hlcssy removed a word or two
with regard 10 Mr. Huxley's style and of lee
turing may be out OF place. Ho self possessed,
unimpassioned and deliberate. For an cxtempore
speaker his language sInguarly coar cogont a3d In
cisive. But possibly his most marked feature IL
remc caution in the selection OF words and the thor
ough fitness OF the words when chosen. His whole
.tyie suggestive Of great and highly ntclec
tual power, tempered by extreme caution and backed
by immense reserve force. All this in extsmpore
speaker will give tho OF tho man with the
pen
LECTURE
Tho lecturer opened his remarks by saying that wo
live in system of things countless in number, diver
sity and complexty, called nature and that 1t is u
matter Of the deepest interest to to form just
conception OF that system and OF Its past Man, in
lation to the universe be considered really
| little moro than a mathematical point reod ;
but, as Pascal said "A thinking reed, who. by
| virtue Of his inherent powers Of thought frames
| 10 himself symbolic conception of this universe 4"
| Now, this conception may itself be imperfect;
but still IL IS accurate enough to him guide
and map In all the practical concerns OF lfe IL has
taken ages tor man by ing adily at tho
magora of to pick out what is stable from what
unstable ard to sit the regular and constant from
the irregular and uctuating. Out of this contcmpla
iion of nature there has arisen tho conception OF
| the regularity and constancy OF the laws
cordine to which 1t and this conception has be-
l
present day is almost inconceivabe thar any OF
thought could bo found who would maintain that
chance could havo any place in tho universe. We
have TO look upon the present as the child and
fruit OF the past and upon the past the parent OF
the present and men have come TO look upon
tho order which pervades nature in the present.
and presumably must have done SO In the past as
idea worthy OF consideration. Every intelligent
person risks his lie and stakes his fortune upon tho
conancy OF tho laws OF nature and upon the relations
Of and effect unchanged This underlics tacitly
every process OF rcasoning Is based tho broad.
est and widest nductvo process aud Is verified by tho
| best OF deductive processes We remember now
ever that every human ceief however well founded IL
may appear amounts oniy at most to the highest de-
gree OF probability in he hand, and although
may be of nature In the present, 1t does
follow that are justified In extending all that
predicate OF her INTO tho past or that We should deny
and effect did hold the relations
one another then in all phenomena that they hold
Hero the speaker detailed the various safeguards
adopted by tue cautious thinker In his Investigations
| and passed to the subject proper OF the lecture
| riIE PAST ORDER OF NATURE.
The past order OF nature said Professor Huxley, in
order dealt with properly BIO histor-
icaly. In order TO mako clear TO tho audience the
method which hc wished to adopt ne would say q lew
words upon three essential points,
Firsf-Tho order OF nature In the past.
Second-The evidence in our possession with regard
to that order.
7nird-Thc by which that evidence must bo
interpreted.
With regard TO the order Of in tho past there
are only three hypothesis which clam attention The
first is the assun pton that the present rs
has always oblaned-hat is, that it has from
all eternity. The second Is that tho present ordor OF
things has had but q limited duration and
that at ,s. period Sss the Pass as the prss
by the action OF force outside OF nature herself
The third is that the present order has had but a
limited DURATION and has proceeded naturally from
another antccedent order and this from another,
until the notion Of fixing limit to this
ccsson of slow and gradual changes ID given up
Professor Huxley next asked what these three b ypo-
theses individually involved According to the hrs.
past ow remote sosSo wou
have seen n world similar 10 ours; plants and
animals mountain and ocean, with conformation OF
the earth much as II is to-day This the Wow Of
antiquity, aud survived nearly TO our times and,
although not identical with, Is still allied to tho
view Of Hutton and Lye, according 10 which tho
same powers which have shaped the world o.
To day to-day shaping tho world of tho future
just in the same manner as they acted in the past
This may bc termed the seltadjusting power Of tho
torccs OF the universe and in tho earth is repre-
scnted chiefly by the volcanic processes Tho
logical development OF this theory might be the
eternity OF The universe substantially as we see u
to-day. This idea applied to the sun and planets
we'll a or~n globe.
The second hypothesis IS tho doctrine stated In the
immortal poem of John Milton, paradise Lost, to
which, slyIy observed Nr Huxley, and to what We
learned in childhood, Is probably due the perma-
nencc OF this hypothesis among those who read tho
English tongue Here the passages descriptive OF crea.
lion in the SIX days read the creation OF tho
rious animals beng assigned to the different days
Tue third hypol lhesis-that OF cvOution-supposcs
that at any period IN tho past we should meet with a
OF things less similar to the present. but
less In proportion to tho remoencss OF the period
chosen Tor investigation. This would be true 0f the
lama aud flora OF the earth, OF the sun,
pfauels and slara In duo time should
rive at tho conception OF geiatnous mass which,
as lar know, is the foundation OF all life and
this would again be traceabc into n nebuIous mass
having properties common to the gelatiDous aud
to all that form the present universe This
hypothesis supposcs no breach OF continuity In which
could that ona was "A natural aud the other
nun-natural process
Tho lecturer then said that IN dealing with these
three hypotcses wo should dscar all priori con.
sdcratons The questions to be considered wero ques
tions OF fact, the man one being. How did this uni
into existcncey II beng distinctly under
stood that the question referred not to cause, but "a
manner
For the purpose OF making clear the line OF evidence
TO be relied upon In the inquiry the learned lecturer
distinguished between aud illustrated testimonial evi
dencc and circuDstantal evidence; tho former being
human and either direct or indirect; tho latter bens
not human evidence. The superiority of circuinstsn
al evidence IN the present case was fully dwct upon