New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-07-23
THE WORDS OF WISE MEN.
GOkTHE'S REFLECTIONS" AND MR.. HUI
LEY'S ROMANES LECTURE.

Up. 223. Macmillan Co.
EVOLUTION AND ETHICS. By Thomas II. Huxley
FRS. PIP. 81. Macmillan d Co. Che RomancS
Lecture, 1899
There Is a valid personal reason for grouping
these two books together Professor Huxley Ind
much to do with both Of them. In the one case
he gives his own views of some aspects of the
world problem in the other he has supplied Mt
Saunders with selection OF the scientific apoph-
thegms of Goethe Both books are the record OF
an autumnal maturity OF thought Though Goethes
reflections were the product of many years. they
still had his approval in the last days OF his long
life In the Romanes lecture Mr.. Huxley spcaks as
a veteran in the struggle of life. The chief value
of the victories that have been won seems TO him
the indication they give Of future lines oil attack
and the hope they inspire of future triumph I've
NAV almost be said 10 illustrate by his discourse
the little essay of Goethe on the philosophy APP
propriate to each age of man-realism 10 the child
idcalism to youth, sccpticisn to the iran, ana
mysticism. rather the pessimism OF experience
TO gray hairs The old man. according to Mr.
Sa,nders's translation, "secs that much seems
10 DEPEND on chance; that folly succeeds and
wisdom fsilss. that good and evil fortune are
brought unexpectedly to the same level: so il is
AID so st has been, and old age acquiesces in that
which IA and was and will be-" SO Mr.. Huxley
saws: "If there is generalization from the facts OF
human life which has the assent of thoughtful
men in every age and country it is that the
violator of ethical rules constantly escapes the
punishment which he deserves that the wicked
flourish like green bay tree, while the righteous
begs his bread that the sins of the fathers are
visited upon the children: that, in the realm OF
mature. ignorance is punished just as severely az
wilful wrong and that thousands upon thousands
Of innocent beings suffer for the crime or the I'M
intentional trespass of one" lie points out that
these conclusions Of mature experience ana oo-
servation not modern.
The world as he sees it was also seen IN the
ZANE light by the sages of old. Greek ana
Semitic and Indian are agreed upon this subject
The Book of Job is at one with the works ana
DAYS and the Buddhist Sntras: the Psalmist ana
the Preacher of Israel with the tragic poets OF
Greece, But job and-onc might say after the
prologue TO "Faust"-his great disciple, Goethe.
avoid all attempts TO harmonic the affairs OF the
world and of humanity. or even to decide in the
case between Mr.. I1uXleys micro"osmlc atom ana
his illimitable macrocosm. Mr.. Huxley himself
proposes q verdict tentative rather than final lie
reason which deferred both Job and Goethe was
doubtless practically the same They would have
had to speculate about something Of which elch
was clear-headed enough 10 sec that he coull know
nothing. The Greek and the lIndoo, "less wise,
perhaps" says Mr. Huxley. tried to reconcile the
irreconcilable' He does not object to these an
tiaue systems on the ground OF logical defects.
The transmigraton theory of Brahmin and Buddh-
list seems to him as plausible defence OF the
cosmic order against the charge of cruelty as any
that have been invented. He offers the argument
from heredity, from the transmission OF character
the Karma of the Indian philOsophers-to show
that. like the doctrine of evolution itself. that
of transmigration has its roots in the world o.
reality: ard it may claim such support as inc
great argument from analogy is capable OF supply
ing. The real trouble with all these theories is
that they do not solve the problem which they
were intended to solve. The true solution OF n
difficulty appeals to all men alike, to the sceptic
os well as TO the believer. Nobody thinks OF
questioning the method by which a circumference
IA drawn through three points not in the same
strair ht line; but when il comes TO the anairs OF
another world a very considerable minority of the
human race is represented by Goethe when ne
SAYS as Englished by Mr. Saunders Man Is
placed az real being in the midst of real world,
and endowed with such organs that lie can per-
ceiye and produce the real and also the possible
All healthy men have the conviction OF their own
exist nee and of an existence arouni them How
ever, even the brain contains hollow Spot-ti' u
to say place in which no object Is mlrrored JUST
as in the eve itself there is little spot that docs
IL
this spot and is absorbed in it, he falls into state
of mental sickness, has prcsentiments of things of
another world which ale in reality no things at
all (: possessing neither form nor limit. hut alarm
ing him like dark, empty tracts Of night an pur.
sizing him as something more than phantoms, II
. he does not tear himself free from them u
was with thoughts like these in mind that Goethe
asserted what is unqucstionably true that men
whose whole personality is almost all idea are en-
trenely shy of all fantasy, and pointed for Illus
tration TO IIamann to whom the mention of an
other world was intolerable.
Goethe must not be understood here "a denying
the possibility of another world, but only a. as
serfing that all human maginings on the subject
are futile and perilous. Nature alone knows
what she Means SAYS he, and again in another
place speaking. it is true. of natural science, bnt
usinc words of the widest application" Let ~
remember that we have always to deal with an
ipsolut,le problem" lie deems il the finest
achievement for a man of thought to have faith
omed what may he iathomed. and quietly to re-
we're the unfathOmablc." To the 10. here anu
40 there of those who think they nave 'he
other world fettcred like captive balloon. Goethe
must have replied. TO he consistent, Go your
VANS; am busy with subjects which hope to
understand For Goethe. a true product of the
eighteenth century, did not disguise his antago-
pis.r to merer theories. The common mistake OF
peope,,he Thought, doubling what was Ger
tain and trying TO establish what was uncertain,
and he led up TO this by a sentence which Mr.
Saunders has put in beautiful phrase " Hypothesis
are cradle-songs by which the teacher luis his
scholars TO sleep" Again Theories are usually
heo9ethssty efforts of an impatient unaers'a ding
that would gladly be rid of phenomena. and SO
puts IN their place pictures. notions nay, often
mere words' lie saw that there could be no limit
IN the increase OF human experience that is to the
accumulation of facts discovered in the ro0l world,
but theories good, bad or Indifferent, must always
remain mere furniture OF the mind. If they are
satisfactory TO man he calls them true AM
,,n.ao;ncs tho world contriyed in accordance with