The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-02-11
rhetoric ard distract the attention Of his
hearers by eloquent appeals TO religious

rhetoric ard distract the attention Of his
hearers by eloquent appeals TO religious
Two years before he had issued his
Mans Place in Nature" the conclusion of
the Darwinian teaching that Darwin with
held In the 'Origin'-that man was de-
scended from lower forms. He closed the
book with the memorable prophecy: After
passion and prejudice have died away. the
same result will attend the teachings or the
naturalist regarding that great Alps and
Andes of the living workman. Our rev.
erence for the nobility of manhood VIII
not DC iessened by the knowledge that man
is in substance and in structure one with
the brutes; for he alone possesses the mar
Vicious endowment of intelligent and ration
al speech, whereby in the secular period of
his existence he has slowly accumulated
and organized the experience which is al
most wholly lost with the cessation or
every individual life in other animals, so
that ne now stands raised upon Ii as on a
mountain top-far above the level OF his
humble fellows, and TRANSPORTED from his
grcSSer nature by rejecting here and there
q ray from the infinite source of truth
For a young man, then was
always poor in -money-such a DOCK and
such an utterance was a bold step, and tho
Clergy was provoked to the extent of COM
hating HIM as the representative OF the de-
stroyer OF the faith of the fathers. But the
sentence quoted above shows at least MS
power of statement
AS a lecturer Huxley displayed his SUD-
ject rather than himself. He did not, like
the fluent speaker, with no sense OF enofe
or nervousness, cover up and obscure MS
subject by overuse of rhetoric. Some audi
ences did not understand him. and one IN
stitute petitioned not to have that young
| scientist again. One unfriendly critic said
Huxley was no great speaker-that all ne
did was TO set out some interesting tneorV
unadorned before his audience, n sue
success as he attained was due TO the COM
polling nature of the subject itself-a greas
compliment to his simplicity and lucloitY-
Perhaps his greatest lecture was the hlsS
and Progress of Paleontology" before. the
British Association in 1881, given without
a note, and never written down In any
form, though he said he had rejected
much upon the subject He had the rare
power of talking in cold print !,
Huxley's power and style as a writer OF
English was due to the ordering OF his
ideas rather than OF his words. The Life
and Letters" make ii certain that he felt
the 'sedulous concern for words as things
valuable and delightful, the delight OF the
of being a great writer of English as well
as a great English writer" The Life and
! Letters" show that his essays are easy
and pleasant reading" because they were
plains to his sister q, 11S), 1854, My pen
Is not a very facile one, and what L write
costs me a great deal O of trouble And An
is to write and rewrite until by some sort
of instructive process things acquire the
condensation and symmetry which satisfies
me-" But shortly before his death he said,
Il have q great respect and love for my
1 native tongue, and take great pains TO use
1t properly. Sometimes / write essays half
a dozen times before ! get them into the
proper shape. and 1 believe 1 become more
fastidious as I grow Older" The result of
such love and duty appears In his adj
dresses. which for purity. terseness. vigor
and comprehension of the English Ian
guage are fairly comparable with those of
any writer of Victorian times.
ley's death, Professor Ray Lancaster
said: Now that Huxley's splendid
spirit and delightful presence has
gone from us, l feel that the
world has shrunk and become a poor
thing" He carried on the warfare in be-
life was an effort to bring about the most
favorable conditions for the pursuit OF
truth, and to make the people heed the
truth when it has been found.
These volumes will be the definitive word
as to Prof. Huxley's life and Relationship
for what he really was-the embodiment OF
the scientific spirit of the age-a high
priest of nature in the strictest sense; a
man essentially OF facts rather than OF
theory or tradition. He thought the idea
of God beyond human perception, and sc
his clash with orthodoxy was natural, bul
not, like Mr.. Ingersolrs, iconoclastic. 1t was
the scientific instinct which demands that
reason shall be dominant, or at least noi
subsidiary to tradition, however cherished
that may be. These volumes by his sor
and himself show all the inner springs and
motives of his thought and actions as fal
as they may be revealed in letters, fol
Huxley was frank and loved sympathy
They show the profound influence he ex-
erted on education, science, theology ant
ethics. They show the beautiful relation:
Of his life to his family and to society; they
English science and English letters as well
A. w II.