66 RELIGION. [ch. iii. 



" Another source of conviction in the existence of God, 

 connected with the reason and not with the feelings, im- 

 presses me as having much more weight. This follows 

 from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of con- 

 ceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including 

 man with, his capacity of looking far backwards and far 

 into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. 

 When thus reflecting, I feel compelled to look to a First 

 Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous 

 to that of man ; and I deserve to be called a Theist. This 

 conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as 

 I can remember, when I wrote the Origin of Species, and it 

 is since that time that it has very gradually, with many 

 fluctuations, become weaker. But then arises the doubt 

 can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been de- 

 veloped from a mind as low as that possessed by the 1ow t - 

 est animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclu- 

 sions ? 



" I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such 

 abstruse problems. The mystery of the beginning of all 

 things is insoluble by us, and I for one must be content to 

 remain an Agnostic." 



The following letters repeat to some extent what is given 

 above from the Autobiography. The first one refers to The 

 Boundaries of Science : a Dialogue, published in Macmil- 

 lan's Magazine, for July 1861. 



C. D. to Miss Julia Wedgivood, July 11 [1681]. 



Some one has sent us Macmillan, and I must tell you 

 how much I admire your Article, though at the same time 

 I must confess that I could not clearly follow you in some 

 parts, which probably is in main part due to my not being 

 at all accustomed to metaphysical trains of thought. I 

 think that you understand my book * perfectly, and that I 

 find a very rare event with my critics. The ideas in the 

 last page have several times vaguely crossed my mind. 

 Owing to several correspondents, I have been led lately to 

 think, or rather to try to think, over some of the chief 

 points discussed by you. But the result has been with me 

 a maze something like thinking on the origin of evil, to 

 which you allude. The mind refuses to look at this uni- 



* The Origin of Species. 



