Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
in Nature
. Lightman has shown that similar religious themes were com-
monly taken up within the broader agnostic movement, by such members
of Huxley's inner circle as Leslie Stephen, William Clifford, and John Tyn-
dall.
69
A chief source of this religious inspiration came not so much from
Huxley as from the “natural supernaturalism” that he and other agnostics
had imbibed from Thomas Carlyle.
70
But the manner in which this pattern
arises in
Man's Place in Nature
stands apart in one critical way. Unlike Car-
lyle and other romantic thinkers such as Goethe, Schiller, and Fichte, who
had also influenced the similarly pantheistic
Naturphilosophie
movement,
Huxley was weaving these themes into a scientific treatment of human evo-
lution, and this is what makes evolutionism distinctive. It is by virtue of its
entry into a scientific genre that this metaphorical impersonation of evolu-
tionary history gains its greater mythical and rhetorical force. The technical
authenticity of evolutionary science enabled such pantheistic meanings to
maintain a scientific transparency. Those reading Goethe or Carlyle would
easily recognize that the religious ideas encountered there arose out of liter-
ary imagination, but those reading
Man's Place in Nature
would not.
The attentive reader might notice the relaxation of scientific rigor that
occurs as Huxley turns from those concrete evidences for evolution elabo-
rated in the chapter's middle section to the “analogy of natural operations”
that frames its closing. But the presumption of an overarching scientific
standard overshadows this shift. Even as Huxley begins to move back once
again into the realm of evolutionary myth, he works to keep scientific stan-
dards in sight by reminding his readers of the empirical discipline that
reigns over science.
Science has fulfilled her function when she has ascertained and enun-
ciated truth; and were these pages addressed to men of science only, I
should now close this Essay, knowing that my colleagues have learned to
respect nothing but evidence, and to believe that their highest duty lies in
submitting to it, however it may jar against their inclinations.
But, desiring as I do, to reach the wider circle of the intelligent pub-
lic, it would be unworthy cowardice were I to ignore the repugnance with
which a majority of my readers are likely to meet the conclusions to which
the most careful and conscientious study I have been able to give the mat-
ter, has led me.
71
If we pay close attention, we will notice that Huxley is performing a sleight
of hand as he transitions into his peroration. He gestures with one hand
toward the “careful and conscientious study” that has formed the foundation
