But the text! It was in the course of his famous--and
furious--controversy with Mr. Gladstone that Huxley paid his homage to
the text. He was pleading for a better understanding between Religion
and Science.
'The antagonism between the two,' he said, 'appears to me to be purely
fictitious. It is fabricated, on the one hand, by short-sighted
religious people, and, on the other hand, by short-sighted scientific
people.' And he declared that, whatever differences may arise between
the _exponents_ of Nature and the _exponents_ of the Bible, there can
never be any real antagonism between Science and Religion themselves.
'In the eighth century before Christ,' he goes on to say, 'in the eighth
century before Christ, in the heart of a world of idolatrous
polytheists, the Hebrew prophets put forth a conception of religion
which appears to me to be as wonderful an inspiration of genius as the
art of Pheidias or the science of Aristotle. "_What doth the Lord
require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with thy God?_" If any so-called religion takes away from this great
saying of Micah, I think it wantonly mutilates, while if it adds
thereto, I think it obscures, the perfect ideal of religion.'
And it was on the ground of their common admiration for this text--the
_worst_ text in the world, the _best_ text in the world--that Mr.
Gladstone and Professor Huxley reached some kind of agreement. Not to be
outdone by his antagonist, Mr. Gladstone raised his hat to the text.
'I will not dispute,' he says, 'that in these words is contained the
true ideal of discipline and attainment. Still, I cannot help being
struck with an impression that Mr. Huxley appears to cite these terms of
Micah as if they reduced the work of religion from a difficult to an
easy program. But look at them again. Examine them well. They are, in
truth, in Cowper's words:
Higher than the heights above,
Deeper than the depths beneath.
_Do justly_, that is to say, extinguish self; _love mercy_, cut utterly
away all the pride and wrath and all the cupidity that make this fair
world a wilderness; _walk humbly with thy God_, take his will and set it
in the place where thine own was wont to rule. Pluck down the tyrant
from his place; set up the true Master on His lawful throne.' In the
text--the _worst_ text in the Bible; the _best_ text in the Bible--Mr.
Gladstone and Professor Huxley find a trysting-place. We may therefore
leave the argument at that point.