“Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed but a method, the essence of which lies in a rigorous application of a single principle.  That principle is of great antiquity; it is as old as Socrates; as old as the writer who said, ’Try all things, hold fast by that which is good’; it is the foundation of the Reformation, which simply illustrated the axiom that every man should be able to give reason for the faith that is in him; it is the great principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental axiom of modern science.  Positively the principle may be expressed:  In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration.  And negatively:  In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable.  That I take to be the agnostic faith, which, if a man keep whole and undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the face, whatever the future may have in store for him.”

CHAPTER XV

THE BIBLE AND MIRACLES

Why Huxley Came to Write about the Bible—­A Magna Charta of the Poor—­The Theological Use of the Bible—­The Doctrine of Biblical Infallibility—­The Bible and Science—­The Three Hypotheses of the Earth’s History—­Changes in the Past Proved—­The Creation Hypothesis—­Gladstone on Genesis—­Genesis not a Record of Fact—­The Hypothesis of Evolution—­The New Testament—­Theory of Inspiration—­Reliance on the Miraculous—­The Continuity of Nature no a priori Argument against Miracles—­Possibilities and Impossibilities—­Miracles a Question of Evidence—­Praise of the Bible.

Huxley was by training and habit of mind a naturalist, busy with dissections and drawings, pursuing his branch of science for itself and with no concern as to its possible relation to philosophical speculation or religious dogma.  It is possible that, had his life been passed under different conditions, his intellectual activities might have been spent entirely on his scientific work.  As it was, he became almost more widely known as a hostile critic of accepted religious doctrine than as a man of science.  Many causes contributed to this effect, but the chief reason was the contemporary attitude of the churches to Darwinism.  He tells us as a matter of fact that in 1850, nine years before the appearance of The Origin of Species, he had “long done with the Pentateuchal cosmogony which had been impressed on his childish understanding as divine truth.”  In the chapter he contributed to the Life of Darwin he wrote that in his opinion “the doctrine of evolution does not even come into contact with theism, considered as a philosophical doctrine.”  The reason of his general attitude to the Bible was simply that his application to it of the agnostic method led him to the view that there was not sufficient evidence for the pretensions assigned