In 1860, when he was 4 years old, little Noel Huxley died of
diphtheria. The Reverend Charles Kingsley, muscular Christian
and author of stirring books for boys, wrote to the grieving
father, offering sympathy and the comforts of religion. Even in
the depths of his grief, Thomas Henry Huxley, anatomist,
controversialist, and friend and supporter of Charles Darwin,
felt compelled to reply at length, articulating how he placed
his hopes not in faith but in the stern task of living in the
present in this world of ours, especially as it is revealed
through science. Deliberately appropriating a religious
metaphor, Huxley wrote: “Science seems to me to teach in the
highest and strongest manner the great truth which is embodied
in the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of
God. Sit down before the fact as a little child, be prepared to
give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to
whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I
have only begun to learn peace of mind s