六 10-10 Thomas Henry Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley

May 5,1883

I beg leave to thank you for the extremely kind and appreciative1 manner in which you have received the toast of Science.It is the more grateful to me to hear that toast proposed in an assembly of this kind,because I have noticed of late pears a great and growing tendency among those who were once jestingly said to have been born in a pre-scientific age to look upon science as an invading and aggressive force,which if it had its own way would oust2 from the universe all other pursuit.I think there are many persons who look upon this new birth of our times as a sort of monster rising out of the sea of modern thought with the purpose of devouring3 the Andromeda of art .And now and then a Perseus,equipped with the shoes of swiftness of the ready writer,with the cap of invisibility of the editorial artical,and it may be with the Medusa head of vituperation,shows himself ready to try conclusions with the scientific dragon.Sir,I hope that Perseus will think better of it;first,for his own sake,because the creature is hard of head ,strong of jaw4 ,and for some time past has shown a great capacity for going over and through whatever comes in his way;and secondly,for the sakeof justice,for I assure you ,of my own personal knowledge that if left alone,the creature is a very debonair5 and gentle monster.As for the Andromeda of art ,he has the tenderest respect for that lady,and desires nothing more than to see her happily settled and annually6 producing a flock of such charming children as those we see about us.

But putting parables7 aside ,I am unable to understand how any one with a knowledge of mankind can imagine that the growth of science can threaten the development of art in any of its forms.If I understand the matter at all,science and art are the obverse and reverse of Nature's medal;the one expressing the rternal order of things,in terms of feeling,the other in terms of thought.When men no longer love nor hate;when suffering causes to thrill,when the lily of the field shall seem no longer more beautifully arrayed than Solomon in all his glory,and the awe8 has vanished from the snow-capped peak and deep ravine,then indeed science may have the world yo itself ,but it will not be because the monster has devoured9 art ,but because one side of human nature is dead ,and because men have lost the half of their ancient and present attributes.