"By the Tiber, as by the Ganges, ethical man admits that the cosmos is too strong for him and, destroying every bond which ties him to it by ascetic discipline, he seeks salvation in absolute renunciation" (p. The Buddhistic and the Stoic attempts to grapple with the problem are considered, and are found to end alike in absolute renunciation. "The dread problem of evil," "the moral indifference of nature," "the unfathomable injustice of the nature of things"this is the aspect of the world which has burned itself deeply into the writer's soul, and which speaks in moving eloquence from his pages. The problem of suffering and the almost complete, absence of any relation between suffering and moral desert is the theme from which he starts, and to which he continually returns. The outstanding feature of that argument is the sharp contrast drawn between nature and ethical man, and the sweeping indictment of "the cosmic process" at the bar of morality. This is the more desirable, as no critic has dealt with the scope of Professor Huxley's argument as a whole. The opportunity of elucidation is therefore in the best sense timely, and no apology seems needed for an attempt to recall attention to the points in dispute and to accentuate their significance. The questions at issue, moreover, are not merely speculative already they cast their shadow upon literature and life. Professor Huxley's argument and the criticisms it has called forth illuminate most instructively some deep-seated ambiguities of philosophical terminology, and at the same bring into sharp relief the fundamental difference of standpoint which divides philosophical Popular interest was also excited by the nature of the conclusion reached, which, in the mouth of the pioneer and prophet of evolution, had the air of being something like a palinode.Ĭriticisms of the lecture appeared at the time by Mr, Leslie Steph en in the ∜ontemporary Review' and by Mr Herbert Spencer in a letter to the "Athenaeum but it appears to me that the subject has been dismissed from public attention before its significance has been exhausted, or, indeed, properly grasped. Professor Huxleys Romanes lecture on "Evolution and Ethics," published during the summer, deservedly attracted a large amount of attention, due not only to the importance of the subject handled and the reputation of the lecturer, but quite as much to the breadth and scope of the treatment, the nobility of tone, and the deep human feeling which characterise this important utterance.
Man's Place in the Cosmos (1893) Mans Place in the Cosmos Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine 1893
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