ch. xiil] REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS, 18G0. 249 



of our cleverest periodicals) of May 5th, p. 573, there is a 

 nice article on [the Edinburgh} review, defending Huxley, 

 but not Hooker ; and the latter, I think, [the Edinburgh 

 reviewer] treats most ungenerously.* But surely you will 

 get sick unto death of me and my reviewers. 



With respect to the theological view of the question. 

 This is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no 

 intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot 

 see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evi- 

 dence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There 

 seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot per- 

 suade 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 cater- 

 pillars, or that a cat should play with mice. Not believing 

 this, I see no necessity in the belief that the eye was ex- 

 pressly designed. On the other hand, I cannot anyhow be 

 contented to view this wonderful 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 neces- 

 sarily atheistical. The lightning kills a man, whether a 

 good one or bad one, owing to the excessively complex ac- 

 tion 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 in- 

 deed I have probably shown by this letter. 



Most deeply do I feel your generous kindness and interest. 



Yours sincerely and cordially. 



* In a letter to Mr. Huxley my father wrote : " Have you seen the last 

 Saturday Review ? I am very glad of the defence of you and of myself. I 

 wish the reviewer had noticed Hooker. The reviewer, whoever he is, is a 

 jolly good fellow, as this review and the last on me showed. He writes 



