Essays of a Biologist by Sir Julian Huxley

First published: 1923

Type of work: Studies on scientific and religious themes

Critical Evaluation:

ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST contains seven essays, besides the preface, which is an essay in itself. According to the author, the two most important studies are at the beginning and the end, but all are variations on the same theme.

Huxley’s main purpose in all the essays is to demonstrate that biological science can be the basis of a new and stimulating religion. It is easier to explain what this religion is not than what it is, a fact which is perfectly understandable when one considers how complicated human knowledge and human culture have become. According to Huxley, a primitive religion based upon supernaturalism is for primitive people, but as science advances knowledge, and human relations become more and more complex, religion must adapt itself if it is to be effective. In ancient times, when little was known about the universe or man’s place in it, a religion based upon supernaturalism, ritual, revelation, and priestcraft was sufficient, but in the twentieth century it is an anachronism.

If religion is to serve modern man, it must first be stripped of all outworn and antiquated theology. To people bred in the Christian tradition, such a stripping would seem to destroy religion entirely. Huxley believes, however, that it would only clear the way for a more realistic, powerful, and effective religion. It would be like tearing down an old building which had outlived its usefulness to build in its place a fine new structure, architecturally planned to fit present conditions.

Although Huxley never mentions the word semantics, he applies the principles of semantics to such words as religion and God. He does not discard the symbols, as some humanists have done, but seeks, rather, to give them new meaning. Both word symbols have meant many things to many people, and still do. In the terms of semantics, they are “loaded” words, more fraught with connotation than denotation. In seeking to give these words new meaning, therefore, Huxley is merely doing what many scholars, both religious and secular, have attempted to do, each according to his convictions. Because of his beliefs, Huxley has been called an atheist, but the word atheist is more often a term of vituperation than an exact, descriptive term. If it denotes the denial of any God whatsoever, then Huxley is not an atheist, but the founder and prophet of a new religion based on biological science.

Biology has reached the same point that physics and chemistry reached a century before: the extension of control. But, whereas control in chemistry and physics has enabled man to do more and experience more, biological science can give man control over body and mind to the extent that his entire view of the universe and his relation to it is transfigured.

The biologist, by studying evolution, has discovered proof that progress in the development of living organisms is not a delusion but a fact. This progress can be demonstrated in a purely objective manner, as Huxley shows in the essay “Progress, Biological and Other.” Among living organisms, progress can be measured by (1) increasing efficiency of body organs, (2) improved co-ordination, (3) growth in size, (4) increasing accuracy and range of senses, (5) the development of capacity for knowledge, (6) memory and educability, and (7) emotional intensity. That these are actual gains can be proved by the fact that they all lead to greater control over the external world and greater independence from environment.

But progress is no longer merely physical and organic. In man, evolution has entered a “Psychozoic Era” in which progress will be measured in terms of the mind rather than of the body. Before the development of self-consciousness in man, evolution was entirely blind, depending on chance variation and selection. Now, through man, evolution is conscious of itself and therefore better able to guide and control itself. Unfortunately, man has always shown a pronounced aversion to taking any responsibility for the state of the universe. It is much easier to shift the responsibility to Fate, God, Nature, and other such capital-letter abstractions. So long as man believes that the ordering of the universe is in the hands of an omnipotent Providence, he will continue to shun responsibility and will do little or nothing to advance the process of evolution.

In all the essays, but particularly in “Progress, Biological and Other,” “Biology and Sociology,” “Rationalism and the Idea of God,” and “Religion and Science: Old Wine in New Bottles,” Huxley repeatedly seeks to convince the reader that man must be responsible for progress and improvement in the world, that he can no longer afford to shift the burden on supernatural powers and other convenient abstractions. Man is himself a part of Nature and, most important, the conscious part. Evolutionary progress will henceforth be in the mind, in developing new and more effective psychical powers, and man, the only creature in which self-consciousness has occurred, must assume full responsibility for good or evil in the world.

A religion based on science, rather than on theology, has the following characteristics and advantages: (1) It stresses religious experience rather than belief in any particular dogma. (2) It recognizes that religious experience is psychological, a product of the living mind, and not something inspired from without by supernatural powers. (3) It emphasizes the need for tolerance and enlightenment. Because it is based on no fixed creed, it can expand and adapt itself as man adds new facts to his knowledge of the world. (4) It recognizes that morals have evolved and should continue to evolve. The idea that morals are a fixed code established in the remote past by divine command has led to the present confused attitude toward sex as something shameful, unnatural, and sinful. (5) It makes possible a unified Weltanschauung in place of the present dual system of science and religion, natural and supernatural. (6) It maintains that if religious experience is accepted as psychological sublimation, the need for special priests or clerical mediators will be eliminated. Sublimation can be inspired by music, painting, sculpture, literature, philosophy, communion with nature, or by any deeply felt experience. There will be no need for a set “place of worship,” or any set time. Men will be able to worship anywhere at any time.

The other three essays included in the book are of lesser import and will be treated briefly.

“Ils N’ont que de L’Ame: An Essay on Bird Mind” states that birds represent an evolutionary line of descent in which the development of emotions has superseded that of intellect. There are many examples of the apparent stupidity of birds, but Huxley is chiefly interested in convincing the reader that whatever birds lack in intelligence, they make up in emotions. He develops this theme by describing in some detail the courtship rites of such birds as egrets, grebes, kestrels, penguins, water turkeys, and others, some observed in Louisiana and some in England.

In “Sex Biology and Sex Psychology” Huxley discusses both the biological and the psychological aspects of sex. Under biology, he discusses the importance of the gonads and the entire endocrine system in the proper development of sex. He believes that at least some of the so-called Freudian complexes are physiological rather than psychological. Nevertheless, psychological maladjustments and conflicts are real enough, and many of these could be averted by proper sex education for children. Total repression of sex is very injurious, but so is complete indulgence purely on the physical level. In man, sex is no longer a mere reproductive instinct as it is in the lower animals. Because of his superior intellectual and social development, man has made sex an important part of his mental organization, where it can do great harm or great good. Harm comes when the sex drive masters all others, or when it is suppressed, or when it is sublimated to an unnatural extent. It can do the most good when it is subordinated to higher drives, but still permitted to fulfill the normal physical needs of the organism.

The remaining essay, if it can be called such, consists of two entirely different fantasies loosely joined by an informal running commentary. Although the title, “Philosophic Ants: a Biologic Fantasy,” would lead the reader to expect only a fable concerning ants, equal space is given to a story about a scientist who invents a machine capable of altering the rhythm at which human beings live. The latter, as Huxley notes, is similar to “The New Accelerator,” by H. G. Wells, but not influenced by it, since he was unfamiliar with the story when he wrote his fantasy. The “moral” of both fantasies concerns “biological relativity,” meaning that what we perceive in the world about us is relative to the fluctuations of our environment, our own mental and emotional states, and the particular rhythm at which we live.