126 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, ix 



But this I feel, that expiation is a want to me. Pardon is 

 not sufficient, and without expiation I cannot enter into 

 the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is a 

 state, not a place the peace of God in one's own heart. 

 Expiation is a necessity to my own heart, and not to God. 

 There are those who have never wilfully sinned, they can- 

 not therefore feel this want. Christ has said, He was not 

 sent to the Whole, but to the Sick. Therefore it is not 

 true that He considers all sinners. ... I find in the Bible 

 all [my heart] wants, without believing that every word is 

 inspired. History is not inspiration, for example. What 

 puzzles me too much, or appears contradictory, I lay to the 

 faults of the many hands through which it reaches me, and 

 still clasp it to my heart as a divine book, however it may 

 have been perverted by the perverse. . . . 



Leonard Darwin, rny mother's fourth son, was born on 

 January 15th, 1850. 



Madame Sismondi to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood at Down, 



January 24, 1850. 



... I have not begun this awful date, a half century is 

 awful, very merrily. The loss of two friends and contem- 

 poraries before the year is out of bud, strikes the clock 

 somewhat solemnly. For myself I wish I may pass away 

 as gently, as painlessly as Mrs Waddington. I enclose 

 you Mrs Bunsen's letter. Such a death is worth knowing, 

 and her way of telling it pleases me exceedingly ; it is strong 

 feeling concisely and tenderly expressed. Mrs Hughes's 

 death-stroke could hardly be called a sorrow, but the 

 passing away of such a love as hers is very mournful. I can 

 never win such another, fancy or engouement as it was, it 

 lasted her poor life, and I regret that, not her death. . . . 



