312 THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [i860. 



tion to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as 

 plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of 

 design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me 

 too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that 

 a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly 

 created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their 

 feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat 

 should play with mice. Not believing this, I see no necessity 

 in the belief that the eye was expressly designed. On the 

 other hand, I cannot anyhow be contented to view this won- 

 derful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to 

 conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am 

 inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, 

 with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out 

 of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all 

 satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too 

 profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well 

 speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and 

 believe what he can. Certainly I agree with you that my 

 views are not at all necessarily atheistical. The lightning kills 

 a man, whether a good one or bad one, owing to the exces- 

 sively complex action of natural laws. A child (who may 

 turn out an idiot) is born by the action of even more complex 

 laws, and I can see no reason why a man, or other animal, 

 may not have been aboriginally produced by other laws, and 

 that all these laws may have been expressly designed by 

 an omniscient Creator, who foresaw every future event and 

 consequence. But the more I think the more bewildered I 

 become ; as indeed I have probably shown by this letter. 

 Most deeply do I feel your generous kindness and interest. 



Yours sincerely and cordially, 



Charles Darwin. 



[Here follow my father's criticisms on the ' Edinburgh 

 Review ' : 



