ABSTRACT
Among the members of this group Huxley stands out as the most erudite, cultured, and 'scientific' writer. The orthodox history of literature declares that the scientific spirit of the nineteenth century dominated the philosophical outlook of the representative Victorians. In reality, however, none of them endeavors to realize, in terms of literature, the genuine scientist's ideals. It is another thing to seek truth for truth's sake than to seek it for some ulterior end, be it beauty, vitality, or some ethical good. George Eliot makes an exception, she alone has power of detachment and intellectual universality. She does not write, as Browning and Meredith, primarily from a preoccupation with ethical questions, but chiefly intent on bringing order and clearness into her conception of the world. Apart from her there is hardly another novelist, either contemporary or in the past, who can be compared to Huxley. For him too, literature is only a possible approach to an end to which science as yet fails to provide an access.
