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The Lights of the Church and the Light of Science

by Thomas Henry Huxley







There are three ways of regarding any account of past

occurrences; whether delivered to us orally or recorded

in writing。



The narrative may be exactly true。 That is to say; the words;

taken in their natural sense; and interpreted according to the

rules of grammar; may convey to the mind of the hearer; or of

the reader an idea precisely correspondent with one which would

have remained in the mind of a witness。 For example; the

statement that King Charles the First was beheaded at Whitehall

on the 30th day of January 1649; is as exactly true as any

proposition in mathematics or physics; no one doubts that any

person of sound faculties; properly placed; who was present at

Whitehall throughout that day; and who used his eyes; would have

seen the King's head cut off; and that there would have remained

in his mind an idea of that occurrence which he would have put

into words of the same value as those which we use to

express it。



Or the narrative may be partly true and partly false。 Thus; some

histories of the time tell us what the King said; and what

Bishop Juxon said; or report royalist conspiracies to effect a

rescue; or detail the motives which induced the chiefs of the

Commonwealth to resolve that the King should die。 One account

declares that the King knelt at a high block; another that he

lay down with his neck on a mere plank。 And there are

contemporary pictorial representations of both these modes of

procedure。 Such narratives; while veracious as to the main

event; may and do exhibit various degrees of unconscious and

conscious misrepresentation; suppression; and invention; till

they become hardly distinguishable from pure fictions。

Thus; they present a transition to narratives of a third class;

in which the fictitious element predominates。 Here; again; there

are all imaginable gradations; from such works as Defoe's quasi…

historical account of the Plague year; which probably gives a

truer conception of that dreadful time than any authentic

history; through the historical novel; drama; and epic; to the

purely phantasmal creations of imaginative genius; such as the

old 〃Arabian Nights〃 or the modern 〃Shaving of Shagpat。〃 It is

not strictly needful for my present purpose that I should say

anything about narratives which are professedly fictitious。

Yet it may be well; perhaps; if I disclaim any intention of

derogating from their value; when I insist upon the paramount

necessity of recollecting that there is no sort of relation

between the ethical; or the aesthetic; or even the scientific

importance of such works; and their worth as historical

documents。 Unquestionably; to the poetic artist; or even to the

student of psychology; 〃Hamlet〃 and 〃Macbeth〃 may be better

instructors than all the books of a wilderness of professors of

aesthetics or of moral philosophy。 But; as evidence of

occurrences in Denmark; or in Scotland; at the times and places

indicated; they are out of court; the profoundest admiration for

them; the deepest gratitude for their influence; are consistent

with the knowledge that; historically speaking; they are

worthless fables; in which any foundation of reality that may

exist is submerged beneath the imaginative superstructure。



At present; however; I am not concerned to dwell upon the

importance of fictitious literature and the immensity of the

work which it has effected in the education of the human race。

I propose to deal with the much more limited inquiry: Are there

two other classes of consecutive narratives (as distinct from

statements of individual facts); or only one? Is there any known

historical work which is throughout exactly true; or is there

not? In the case of the great majority of histories the answer

is not doubtful: they are all only partially true。 Even those

venerable works which bear the names of some of the greatest of

ancient Greek and Roman writers; and which have been accepted by

generation after generation; down to modern times; as stories of

unquestionable truth; have been compelled by scientific

criticism; after a long battle; to descend to the common level;

and to confession to a large admixture of error。 I might fairly

take this for granted; but it may be well that I should entrench

myself behind the very apposite words of a historical authority

who is certainly not obnoxious to even a suspicion of

sceptical tendencies。





Time wasand that not very long agowhen all the relations of

ancient authors concerning the old world were received with a

ready belief; and an unreasoning and uncritical faith accepted

with equal satisfaction the narrative of the campaigns of Caesar

and of the doings of Romulus; the account of Alexander's marches

and of the conquests of Semiramis。 We can most of us remember

when; in this country; the whole story of regal Rome; and even

the legend of the Trojan settlement in Latium; were seriously

placed before boys as history; and discoursed of as

unhesitatingly and in as dogmatic a tone as the tale of the

Catilline Conspiracy or the Conquest of Britain。 。。。



But all this is now changed。 The last century has seen the birth

and growth of a new sciencethe Science of Historical

Criticism。 。。。 The whole world of profane history has been

revolutionised。 。。。





If these utterances were true when they fell from the lips of a

Bampton lecturer in 1859; with how much greater force do they

appeal to us now; when the immense labours of the generation now

passing away constitute one vast illustration of the power and

fruitfulness of scientific methods of investigation in history;

no less than in all other departments of knowledge。



At the present time; I suppose; there is no one who doubts that

histories which appertain to any other people than the Jews; and

their spiritual progeny in the first century; fall within the

second class of the three enumerated。 Like Goethe's

Autobiography; they might all be entitled 〃Wahrheit und

Dichtung〃〃Truth and Fiction。〃 The proportion of the two

constituents changes indefinitely; and the quality of the

fiction varies through the whole gamut of unveracity。

But 〃Dichtung〃 is always there。 For the most acute and learned

of historians cannot remedy the imperfections of his sources of

information; nor can the most impartial wholly escape the

influence of the 〃personal equation〃 generated by his

temperament and by his education。 Therefore; from the narratives

of Herodotus to those set forth in yesterday's 〃Times;〃 all

history is to be read subject to the warning that fiction has

its share therein。 The modern vast development of fugitive

literature cannot be the unmitigated evil that some do vainly

say it is; since it has put an end to the popular delusion of 

less press…ridden times; that what appears in print must be

true。 We should rather hope that some beneficent influence may

create among the erudite a like healthy suspicion of manuscripts

and inscriptions; however ancient; for a bulletin may lie; even

though it be written in cuneiform characters。

Hotspur's starling; that was to be taught to speak nothing but

〃Mortimer〃 into the ears of King Henry the Fourth; might be a

useful inmate of every historian's library; if 〃Fiction〃 were

substituted for the name of Harry Percy's friend。



But it was the chief object of the lecturer to the congregation

gathered in St。 Mary's; Oxford; thirty…one years ago; to prove

to them; by evidence gathered with no little labour and

marshalled with much skill; that one group of historical works

was exempt from the general rule; and that the narratives

contained in the canonical Scriptures are free from any

admixture of error。 With justice and candour; the lecturer

impresses upon his hearers that the special distinction of

Christianity; among the religions of the world; lies in its

claim to be h

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