Thomas Henry Huxley, vol 3 | Page 7

letters on kindred subjects may appropriately follow in this place.
Thanking M. Henri Gadeau de Kerville for his "Causeries sur le
Transformisme," he writes (February 1):--]
Dear Sir,
Accept my best thanks for your interesting "causeries," which seem to
me to give a very clear view of the present state of the evolution
doctrine as applied to biology.
There is a statement on page 87 "Apres sa mort Lamarck fut
completement oublie," which may be true for France but certainly is
not so for England. From 1830 onwards for more than forty years
Lyell's "Principles of Geology" was one of the most widely read
scientific books in this country, and it contains an elaborate criticism of
Lamarck's views. Moreover, they were largely debated during the
controversies which arose out of the publication of the "Vestiges of
Creation" in 1844 or thereabouts. We are certainly not guilty of any
neglect of Lamarck on this side of the Channel.
If I may make another criticism it is that, to my mind, atheism is, on
purely philosophical grounds, untenable. That there is no evidence of
the existence of such a being as the God of the theologians is true
enough; but strictly scientific reasoning can take us no further. Where
we know nothing we can neither affirm nor deny with propriety.
[The other is in answer to the Bishop of Ripon, enclosing a few lines on
the principal representatives of modern science, which he had asked
for.]
4 Marlborough Place, June 16, 1887.
My dear Bishop of Ripon,
I shall be very glad if I can be of any use to you now and always. But it
is not an easy task to put into half-a-dozen sentences, up to the level of
your vigorous English, a statement that shall be unassailable from the
point of view of a scientific fault-finder--which shall be intelligible to
the general public and yet accurate.
I have made several attempts and enclose the final result. I think the
substance is all right, and though the form might certainly be improved,
I leave that to you. When I get to a certain point of tinkering my
phrases I have to put them aside for a day or two.

Will you allow me to suggest that it might be better not to name any
living man? The temple of modern science has been the work of many
labourers not only in our own but in other countries. Some have been
more busy in shaping and laying the stones, some in keeping off the
Sanballats, some prophetwise in indicating the course of the science of
the future. It would be hard to say who has done best service. As
regards Dr. Joule, for example, no doubt he did more than any one to
give the doctrine of the conservation of energy precise expression, but
Mayer and others run him hard.
Of deceased Englishmen who belong to the first half of the Victorian
epoch, I should say that Faraday, Lyell, and Darwin had exerted the
greatest influence, and all three were models of the highest and best
class of physical philosophers.
As for me, in part from force of circumstance and in part from a
conviction I could be of most use in that way, I have played the part of
something between maid-of-all-work and gladiator-general for Science,
and deserve no such prominence as your kindness has assigned to me.
With our united kind regards to Mrs. Carpenter and yourself, ever yours
very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[A brief note, also, to Lady Welby, dated July 25, is characteristic of
his attitude towards unverified speculation.]
I have looked through the paper you have sent me, but I cannot
undertake to give any judgment upon it. Speculations such as you deal
with are quite out of my way. I get lost the moment I lose touch of
valid fact and incontrovertible demonstration and find myself
wandering among large propositions, which may be quite true but
which would involve me in months of work if I were to set myself
seriously to find out whether, and in what sense, they are true.
Moreover, at present, what little energy I possess is mortgaged to quite
other occupations.
[The following letter was in answer to a request which I was
commissioned to forward him, that he would consent to serve on an
honorary committee of the Societe des Professeurs de Francais en
Angleterre.]
January 17, 1887.
I quite forgot to say anything about the Comite d'honneur, and as you

justly remark in the present strained state of foreign politics the
consequences may be serious. Please tell your colleague that I shall be
"proud an' 'appy." You need not tell him that my pride and happiness
are contingent on having nothing to do for the honour.
[In the meantime, the