New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-08-02
SCIENCE AND MORALS.
MR.. HUxLEYS VIEWS ON THE ONE AND sR.
GLADSTONE AS AN EXAMPLE OF
THE OTHER.
London, July q.

reference to his speech ut the Virchow dinner last
March, has been my desk for some months and
! would have been used before il I had been quite
| sure had right to refer to il in print. l now
have the permission wanted. His speech was
| in fact unsupported, and the comments based on
n misleading report were themselves misleading;
mine among the rest. 1t is not Mr.. Huxley's
wav to concern himself Overmuch about such
matters but his friends and the public, IL their
memory goes back to period so remote as last
March. will he glad Of one or two rectifcations
The report in Tho Times had the air Of being
verbatim few sentences were Mr.. Huxleyo
own the rest were more less modified and
msinterpreted by the reporter sub-editor. Such
are some Of the freaks Of rapid journalism They
are rather too frequent.
| Mr. Huxley was made to say, for example. that
Germany has all along taken the leading part
| 50 far as biology and medicine concerned, and
tbe largest share Of the changes in medicine 40
| immense as to be almost incredible, has been
dine 70 Professor virchow.' What Mr.. Huxley
really said was that "a large share dus
| to Professor Vrchow,-" large share Of the prog
ress in biology it bears on medicine lie
adds Enthusiastically, If had used the words
attributed to me. everybody would have laughed.
Virchow included"
Nor did Mr.. Huxley say, as he was reported
TO have said that TO the scientific work OF the
century the contribution from Germany had been
greater than that Of " all other nations In
quoting this statement at the time doubted the
accuracy of the report; rightly and / may now
quote what Mr.. Huxley gays in his letter:
As TO German scientific work. / very
careful to refer to what has been done elsewhere,
indeed. spoke Of what VirchOw had himself said
in his Royal Society paper with reference TO other
nations I certainly did not say that Germany
| bab mr. han al
| did speak very strongly Of the total amount
of good solid work. in every study in which
scientific method applies which Germany has
"Of course the French don't like to hear Of
this Up to the thrties they had the heCenony
of European science. but II passed over TO Cor
many about generation before Sedan fact
worth pOnderng.'
Then Mr. Huxley adds, on the point how far
England claim to rival Germany
ENGLAND has had. in every century, three OF
| four men who could hold their own AGAINST tho
field. But in puantity-I mean Of work of good
| qualty-she has been nowhere against Germany"
To that extent the expression / gave Of Mr.
| HuAleys views about the relative superiorities Of
England and Germany has to be modified. What
follows has deeper and more direct interest for
Americans.
Thirty years hence If is not improbable that
the centre Of scientific activity may be in tho
United States,
If it be not may have TO thank Mr. Glad
stone for divertng it 10 England. In Mr.. Hux'
ley's words: 'Or, if the pure Scotchman'
succeeds in reducing Britain to the
position Of thirdrae power, our native capacity,
no longer drafted off into business and into poll
tics. may show itsef in the scientific field
A very indirect way, surely, Of comforting bless
ings on the country he rules and disciplincs,'
but Mr.. Gladstone has always been fond Of In
direct methods, and nobody can assert confidently
4 Gin fTn
think that Empire is only dream, and that tho
true greatness Of England is TO be found in pure
intellectual effort not in the arts of imperial gov
eminent Of imperial craftsmanship The ex.
IRENE circuitousness of the process by which such
result is TO be brought about is no argument
against the probability Of its adoption by Mr..
! Gladstone. 1t may BE doubted whether anybody
| has ever completely fathomed the mysterious
workings Of that mysterious mind There are.
however. in the late y published Souvenirs dAlexN
de Tocqueville. two passages very curiously illus
tratve OF Mr.. Gladstone. To whom Tocquevills
certainly intended reference when he wrote
them The first relates 10 Dufaure:
Advocates at the bar can hardly escape from
one of two habits. Either they accustom them
selves TO plead a cause In which they do not be.
lieve, or to convince themselves very readily OF
what they wish 10 argue. Dufnnre was Doult on
this last model The incentive Of public opinion,
or OF his own passions or his own interest. woula
never have led him 10 embrace cause he thoughs
bad, but IT made him wish 10 find II good, anu
that was often sufficient. His mind. naturally
uncertain, ingenious, and subtle, turned him lttle
by little in that direction. and he sometimes
ended not only by believing in this bad cause bus
by adopting it with enthusiasm. Many tlmes
have | been astOnished 10 see him defend wltn
such immense energies theories which he had 40
cepted after long hesitation"
Could there be a truer account Of Mr. Glad
stones attitude toward Home Rule? Yet Toclue'
in l>r
years before NJ Gladstone. in speech at Aoer'
deem. ut out with a lucid force seldom sur
passed. the dangers and absurdties of the policy
he was subsequently TO adopt
Tn, second passage is an analysis of the char
actcr of FallouX:
Il don't know that in all my political career s
| ever met ii man who belonged TO r.tc.
species He possessed at the same time u" twSS
qualities most essential to the management o.
PARTIES an ardent conviction which impellri MN
steadily forward and from which he alio"eI
disappointment or danger to turn HIM - de- anu
an intelligence supple as ii was solid, when
applied to the execution of single plan pro.
digous variety and multiplicity of means. no
he often said, only his cause and not his prlva,ss
interest: yet he was, nevertheless. crafty. ano
me craft .. Kn" ooed unusual u; he All" tbr true
with the false in his own belief before servinS
cut this mixture TO others the only secret when
combines tho advantages of sincerity with TING
! advantages of fasehood and enables YOU to LEAD
gently into the error you think useful mos
with whom you are associated. or those VINO
| look to you guide
| 1t is not TO be expected that the American
idolater will recognize the features OF his ldoi
in either Of these portraits. belief in Mr. Giad'
stones moral infallibility is of the essence OF ts
idolatry which attends him. do not ask any.
| body to accept Tocqueville prophet.
onN offer his vivid sketch to the contempia-
ton, prayerful or otherwise. Of Mr.. Gadstones
hero-worshippers in this country whose disunion
he once desired as ardently he now desires
the disunion OF the United Kingdom Of Greas
] will alsa nnS