I myself entirely agree with another sentiment of the philosopher of Malmesbury, “that the scope of all speculation is the performance of some action or thing to be done,” and I have not any very great respect for, or interest in, mere knowing as such.  I judge of the value of human pursuits by their bearing upon human interests; in other words, by their utility; but I should like that we should quite clearly understand what it is that we mean by this word “utility.”  In an Englishman’s mouth it generally means that by which we get pudding or praise, or both.  I have no doubt that is one meaning of the word utility, but it by no means includes all I mean by utility.  I think that knowledge of every kind is useful in proportion as it tends to give people right ideas, which are essential to the foundation of right practice, and to remove wrong ideas, which are the no less essential foundations and fertile mothers of every description of error in practice.  And inasmuch as, whatever practical people may say, this world is, after all, absolutely governed by ideas, and very often by the wildest and most hypothetical ideas, it is a matter of the very greatest importance that our theories of things, and even of things that seem a long way apart from our daily lives, should be as far as possible true, and as far as possible removed from error.  It is not only in the coarser practical sense of the word “utility,” but in this higher and broader sense, that I measure the value of the study of biology by its utility; and I shall try to point out to you that you will feel the need of some knowledge of biology at a great many turns of this present nineteenth century life of ours.  For example, most of us attach great importance to the conception which we entertain of the position of man in this universe and his relation to the rest of nature.  We have almost all been told, and most of us hold by the tradition, that man occupies an isolated and peculiar position in nature; that though he is in the world he is not of the world; that his relations to things about him are of a remote character; that his origin is recent, his duration likely to be short, and that he is the great central figure round which other things in this world revolve.  But this is not what the biologist tells us.

At the present moment you will be kind enough to separate me from them, because it is in no way essential to my present argument that I should advocate their views.  Don’t suppose that I am saying this for the purpose of escaping the responsibility of their beliefs; indeed, at other times and in other places, I do not think that point has been left doubtful; but I want clearly to point out to you that for my present argument they may all be wrong; and, nevertheless, my argument will hold good.  The biologists tell us that all this is an entire mistake.  They turn to the physical organisation of man.  They examine his whole structure, his bony frame and all that clothes it.  They resolve