gestions of
simple Bible teaching they did so not because they believed, as he
did, that the Bible was simply great literature, great tradition, and
great morality, but because they believed it to be direct, inspired
authority. It is a curious coincidence that Huxley himself did so much
to spread knowledge of the new criticism, and that a first result of
this diffusion was to overthrow the compromise arranged largely by his
influence, and which for many years provided a middle way in which
sensible persons avoided the extremes of theological and
anti-theological zealots.

Early in the course of his career as a member of the London School
Board, Huxley crystallised his views as to the general policy of
education in a phrase which perhaps has done more than any other
phrase ever invented to bring home to men's minds the ideal of a
national system of education. "I conceive it to be our duty," he said,
"to make a ladder from the gutter to the university along which any
child may climb." We have seen the nature of his views as to the
lowest rungs of this ladder; we may now turn to his work and views as
to the higher stages. He expressed these views in occasional speeches
and articles, and he had many important opportunities in aiding to
carry them into actual practice. He was a member of a number of
important Royal Commissions: Commission on the Royal College of
Science for Ireland, 1866; Commission on Science and Art Instruction
in Ireland, 1868; Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and the
Advancement of Science, 1870-75; Royal Commission to enquire into the
Universities of Scotland, 1876-78; Royal Commission on the Medical
Acts, 1881-82. From the beginning, he was closely associated with the
Science and Art Department, the operations of which threw a web of
education, intermediate between primary and university education, all
over Britain. A number of the teachers under that department were
trained by him, and as examiner to the department he took the greatest
care to reduce to a minimum the evils necessarily attendant on the
mode of payment by results. A certain number of teachers made it
their chief effort to secure the largest possible number of grants.
Huxley regarded these as poachers of the worst kind, and did all he
could to foil them. He did all he could to promote systematic
practical instruction in the classes, and to aid teachers who desired
to learn their business more thoroughly. He insisted again and