Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley Part 2

x.x.xV

Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and self-respect, are the qualities which make a real gentleman, or lady, as distinguished from the veneered article which commonly goes by that name.

x.x.xVI

The higher the state of civilisation, the more completely do the actions of one member of the social body influence all the rest, and the less possible is it for any one man to do a wrong thing without interfering, more or less, with the freedom of all his fellow-citizens.

x.x.xVII

I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment, by every man, of all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminis.h.i.+ng the happiness of his fellow men.

x.x.xVIII

Education promotes peace by teaching men the realities of life and the obligations which are involved in the very existence of society; it promotes intellectual development, not only by training the individual intellect, but by sifting out from the ma.s.ses of ordinary or inferior capacities, those who are competent to increase the general welfare by occupying higher positions; and, lastly, it promotes morality and refinement, by teaching men to discipline themselves, and by leading them to see that the highest, as it is the only permanent, content is to be attained, not by grovelling in the rank and steaming valleys of sense, but by continual striving towards those high peaks, where, resting in eternal calm, reason discerns the undefined but bright ideal of the highest Good--"a cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night."

x.x.xIX

Missionaries, whether of philosophy or of religion, rarely make rapid way, unless their preachings fall in with the prepossessions of the mult.i.tude of shallow thinkers, or can be made to serve as a stalking-horse for the promotion of the practical aims of the still larger mult.i.tude, who do not profess to think much, but are quite certain they want a great deal.

XL

Proclaim human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve his brother.

XLI

There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics--none in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a single, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high.

XLII

The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.

XLIII

For the welfare of society, as for that of individual men, it is surely essential that there should be a statute of limitations in respect of the consequences of wrong-doing.

XLIV

"Musst immer thun wie neu geboren" is the best of all maxims for the guidance of the life of States, no less than of individuals.

XLV

The population question is the real riddle of the sphinx, to which no political OEdipus has as yet found the answer. In view of the ravages of the terrible monster, over-multiplication, all other riddles sink into insignificance.

XLVI

The "Law of Nature" is not a command to do, or to refrain from doing, anything. It contains, in reality, nothing but a statement of that which a given being tends to do under the circ.u.mstances of its existence; and which, in the case of a living and sensitive being, it is necessitated to do if it is to escape certain kinds of disability, pain, and ultimate dissolution.

XLVII

Probably none of the political delusions which have sprung from the "natural rights" doctrine has been more mischievous than the a.s.sertion that all men have a natural right to freedom, and that those who willingly submit to any restriction of this freedom, beyond the point determined by the deductions of _a priori_ philosophers, deserve the t.i.tle of slave. But to my mind, this delusion is incomprehensible except as the result of the error of confounding natural with moral rights.

XLVIII

The very existence of society depends on the fact that every member of it tacitly admits that he is not the exclusive possessor of himself, and that he admits the claim of the polity of which he forms a part, to act, to some extent, as his master.

XLIX

Surely there is a time to submit to guidance and a time to take one's own way at all hazards.

L

Individualism, pushed to anarchy, in the family is as ill-founded theoretically and as mischievous practically as it is in the State; while extreme regimentation is a certain means of either destroying self-reliance or of maddening to rebellion.

LI

A man in his development runs for a little while parallel with, though never pa.s.sing through, the form of the meanest worm, then travels for a s.p.a.ce beside the fish, then journeys along with the bird and the reptile for his fellow travellers; and only at last, after a brief companions.h.i.+p with the highest of the four-footed and four-handed world, rises into the dignity of pure manhood.

LII

Not only does every animal live at the expense of some other animal or plant, but the very plants are at war.... The individuals of a species are like the crew of a foundered s.h.i.+p, and none but good swimmers have a chance of reaching the land.

LIII

When we know that living things are formed of the same elements as the inorganic world, that they act and react upon it, bound by a thousand ties of natural piety, is it probable, nay is it possible, that they, and they alone, should have no order in their seeming disorder, no unity in their seeming multiplicity, should suffer no explanation by the discovery of some central and sublime law of mutual connection?

LIV

The student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo.