Evolution and Ethics, and Other EssaysHuxley, Thomas Henry
Philosophy
Evolution and Ethics, and Other Essays
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Capital; Ethics, Evolutionary; Salvation Army
"It has not been without considerable thought and a good deal of urging
that the following pages have been given to the public. But though we
would have shrunk from a labour so distasteful, and have gladly
avoided a notoriety anything but pleasant to the feelings, or
conducive to our material welfare, we have felt that in the interests
of the benevolent public, in the interests of religion, in the
interests of a band of devoted men and women whose personal ends are
being defeated, and the fruit of whose labour is being destroyed, and,
above all, in the interests of that future which lies before the
Salvation Army itself, if purged and purified in its executive and
returned to its original position in the ranks of Canadian Christian
effort, it is no more than our duty to throw such light as we are able
upon its true inwardness, and with that object and for the [297]
furtherance of those ends we offer our pages to the public view."
The preface is dated April 1889. According to the statement in the
"Toronto Telegram" which Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn does not
dare to dispute, his Canadian fellow-"Commissioner" bought and
destroyed the whole edition of "The New Papacy" about the end of the
third week in April. It is clear that the writer of the paragraph
quoted from the preface was well out of a "hot fit," if he had ever
been in one, while he had not entered on the stage of repentance
within three weeks of that time. Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn's
scandalous insinuations that Mr. Sumner was bribed by "a few
sovereigns," and that he was "bought off," in the face of his own
admission that Mr. Sumner "offered to order its suppression if the
army would pay the costs already incurred, and which he was unable to
bear" is a crucial example of that Jesuitry with which the officials
of the army have been so frequently charged.
Mr. "Commissioner" Booth-Clibborn says that when "London headquarters
heard of the affair, it disapproved of the action of the
Commissioner." That circumstance indicates that headquarters is not
wholly devoid of intelligence; but it has nothing to do with the value
of Mr. Sumner's evidence, which is all I am concerned about. Very
likely London headquarters will disapprove of its French [298]
"Commissioner's" present action. But what then? The upshot of all this
is that Mr. Booth-Clibborn has made as great a blunder as simple Mr.
Trotter did. The pair of Balaams greatly desired to curse, but have
been compelled to bless. They have, between them, completely justified
my reliance on Mr. Sumner as a perfectly trustworthy witness; and
neither of them has dared to challenge the accuracy of one solitary
statement made by that worthy gentleman, whose full story I hope some
day or other to see set before the public. Then the true causes of his
action will be made known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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