Essays Upon Some Controverted QuestionsHuxley, Thomas Henry
Religion
Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
The whole thing perplexes me much; and I am {217} sure there must be an
explanation which will leave Mr. Lilly's reputation for common sense and
fair dealing untouched. Can it be--I put this forward quite
tentatively--that Mr. Lilly is the victim of a confusion, common enough
among thoughtless people, and into which he has fallen unawares? Obviously,
it is one thing to say that the logical methods of physical science are of
universal applicability, and quite another to affirm that all subjects of
thought lie within the province of physical science. I have often declared
my conviction that there is only one method by which intellectual truth can
be reached, whether the subject-matter of investigation belongs to the
world of physics or to the world of consciousness; and one of the arguments
in favour of the use of physical science as an instrument of education
which I have oftenest used is that, in my opinion, it exercises young minds
in the appreciation of inductive evidence better than any other study. But
while I repeat my conviction that the physical sciences probably furnish
the best and most easily appreciable illustrations of the one and
indivisible mode of ascertaining truth by the use of reason, I beg leave to
add that I have never thought of suggesting that other branches of
knowledge may not afford the same discipline; and assuredly I have never
given the slightest ground for the attribution to me of the ridiculous
contention that there is nothing true outside the bounds of physical
science. Doubtless people who wanted to say something damaging, without too
nice a regard to its truth or falsehood, have often enough misrepresented
{218} my plain meaning. But Mr. Lilly is not one of these folks at whom one
looks and passes by, and I can but sorrowfully wonder at finding him in
such company.
So much for the three theses which Mr. Lilly has nailed on to a page of
this Review. I think I have shown that the first is inaccurate, that the
second is inaccurate, and that the third is inaccurate; and that these
three inaccurates constitute one prodigious, though I doubt not
unintentional, misrepresentation. If Mr. Lilly and I were dialectic
gladiators, fighting in the arena of the _Fortnightly_, under the eye of an
editorial lanista, for the delectation of the public, my best tactics would
now be to leave the field of battle. For the question whether I do, or do
not, hold certain opinions is a matter of fact, with regard to which my
evidence is likely to be regarded as conclusive--at least until such time
as the telepathy of the unconscious is more generally recognised.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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