WHAT DARE I THINK ?
By Professor Julian Huxley
Everything which Professor Julian Huxley writes has distinction and interest. As a vivid scientific journalist who never descends to cheapness, he is unrivalled among living authors. Thus his new book, What Dare I Think ? (Chatto and Windus, 7s. 6d.), though slighter than its predecessors, is sure of respectful attention. It includes the substance of his Henry La Barre Jayne Lectures delivered in Philadelphia this year ; and deals partly with the reaction of biology on the chief problems of human life, partly with the function of religion in the modern world. Religion is for Professor Huxley a sort of ductless gland : it leads nowhere, but we must have it. It is " a reaction of the human mind," which, kept in its place, performs a useful function ; but It tells us nothing about reality, and can be entirely dissociated from any belief in God. As usual in discussions of this kind beliefs which are held by no educated theist are given a prominent place. More profitable are Professor Ilukley's positive recommendations. These are summed up under the title of Scientific Humanism the object of which shall be, to give the race a " more abundant life," teaching man to control his environment and his destiny and reconcile the conflict between logical science and wayward human nature, in a new attitude to existence. Some of the pages devoted to this subject—especially those dealing with the romance of science, and with man and his heredity—are among the most brilliant that have conic' even 'friim this expert pen.
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