Sexual Selection 115 



Books of the Hindoos; the miracles by which Christianity is sup- 

 ported, the discrepancies between the accounts in the different 

 Gospels, gradually led him to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine 

 revelation. "Thus," he writes 1 , "disbelief crept over me at a very 

 slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt 

 no distress." But Darwin was too modest to presume to go beyond 

 the limits laid down by science. He wanted nothing more than to be 

 able to go, freely and unhampered by belief in authority or in the 

 Bible, as far as human knowledge could lead him. We learn this 

 from the concluding words of his chapter on religion : " The mystery 

 of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us ; and I for one must 

 be content to remain an Agnostic 2 ." 



Darwin was always very unwilling to give publicity to his views in 

 regard to religion. In a letter to Asa Gray on May 22, I860 3 , he 

 declares that it is always painful to him to have to enter into 

 discussion of religious problems. He had, he said, no intention of 

 writing atheistically. 



Finally, let us cite one characteristic sentence from a letter from 

 Darwin to C. Ridley 4 (Nov. 28, 1878). A clergyman, Dr Pusey, had 

 asserted that Darwin had written the Origin of Species with some 

 relation to theology. Darwin writes emphatically, " Many years ago, 

 when I was collecting facts for the 'Origin,' my belief in what is 

 called a personal God was as firm as that of Dr Pusey himself, and 

 as to the eternity of matter I never troubled myself about such 

 insoluble questions." The expression "many years ago" refers to 

 the time of his voyage round the world, as has already been pointed 

 out. Darwin means by this utterance that the views which had 

 gradually developed in his mind in regard to the origin of species 

 were quite compatible with the faith of the Church. 



If we consider all these utterances of Darwin in regard to religion 

 and to his outlook on life (Weltanschauung), we shall see at least so 

 much, that religious reflection could in no way have influenced him 

 in regard to the writing and publishing of his book on The Descent 

 of Man. Darwin had early won for himself freedom of thought, and 

 to this freedom he remained true to the end of his life, uninfluenced 

 by the customs and opinions of the world around him. 



Darwin was thus inwardly fortified and armed against the host of 

 calumnies, accusations, and attacks called forth by the publication of 

 the Origin of Species, and to an even greater extent by the appearance 

 of the Descent of Man. But in his defence he could rely on the aid 

 of a band of distinguished auxiliaries of the rarest ability. His 



1 Life and Letters, Vol. i. p. 309. 2 Loc. cit. p. 313. 3 Ibid. Vol. n. p. 310. 



4 Ibid. Vol. in. p. 236. ["C. Ridley," Mr Francis Darwin points out to me, should be 

 H. N. Ridley. A.C.S.] 



82 



