ABSTRACT
Mr. Aldous Huxley does not interpret life, on his own admittance, in those exciting and emotional terms which persuade the generality of men. His followers are confronted, moreover, with the astonishing fact that even some of the intellectual and sophisticated minority fail completely to understand or to like his work. Very few of Mr. Huxley's readers, apparently, take the trouble to discover the true implication and importance of his satire. As with all satire worthy the name, the reader must discover in this instance the point of view or philosophy that in the first place dictated the satiric criticism, which is, with novelists who are not also essayists, an inductive process of no little difficulty. Fortunately, to construct the positive philosophy from the negative material of satire, though entirely possible because his philosophy is implicit in each of his works, is not necessary with Mr. Huxley. In numerous essays and in isolated passages in his novels, he has clearly set forth his attitude. A true understanding of Mr. Huxley's philosophy indicates, contrary to the common American conception, that his novels are genuinely significant works; the unit of his thought, his intellectual acumen, his humanity, above all, his morality (for he describes immorality only to condemn it) become crystal clear. Mr. Huxley then stands out as one of the important social thinkers, as well as critics and creative writers, of our time.
