Bishop of Oxford in his emptiness. ** I often had oc- 

 casion on board the ' Beagle ' to reprove Mr. Darwin 

 for his disbelief in the First Chapter of Genesis," 

 solemnly said the Admiral. And Francis Darwin writes 

 it down w^ithout comment, probably to show^ how 

 much the Volunteer Naturalist w^as helped, aided and 

 inspired by the Captain of the Expedition. 

 But the reply of Huxley was a shot heard round the 

 w^orld, and for the most part the echo w^as passed 

 along by the enemy. Huxley had insulted the Church, 

 they said, and the adherents of the Mosaic account 

 took the attitude of outraged and injured innocence. 

 <J As for himself, Darwin said nothing. He ceased to 

 attend the meetings of the scientific societies, for fear 

 that he would be drawn into debate, and while he felt 

 a sincere gratitude for Huxley's friendship, he depre- 

 cated the stern rebuke to the Bishop of Oxford. "It 

 will arouse the opposition to greater unreason," he 

 said ^ J^ 



And this w^as exactly "what happened. Even the Eng- 

 lish Catholics took sides with W^ilberforce the Protes- 

 tant, and Cardinal Manning organized a society '* to 

 fight this new, so-called science that declares there is 

 no God and that Adam w^as an ape." 

 Even the Non-Conformists and Jew^s came in, and 

 there w^as the peculiar spectacle w^itnessed of the 

 Church of England, the Catholics, the Non-Conform- 

 ists and the Jew^s aroused and standing as one man, 

 against one quiet villager w^ho remained at home and 

 said, " If my book cannot stand the bombardment, why 



183 



LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



