BISHOP COLENSO 57 



principle ' ; but tells Darwin he withholds his name ' as my 

 poor mother would take it so to heart/ as well as to avoid the 

 practical unwisdom of seeming to make a party cry of it. 

 His attitude towards the man and his cause appears from 

 letters to Brian Hodgson and to Darwin. 



To B. H. 



JDecember 6, 1862. 



Of Bishop Colenso and his writings I cannot say much. 

 I have heard his book discussed repeatedly but have not 

 read it, and sometimes by clergymen, and by these always 

 with a total want of candour, but candour in a clergyman 

 when discussing theological questions is a thing almost 

 unknown. One will not read the book ; another has and 

 can see nothing in it ; a third sees plenty in it and says all 

 educated clergymen know this, but rightly hide it from the 

 laity lest it should do mischief ; as if truth could do mischief ! 

 The most candid clerical disputant I met with would allow 

 the freest and fullest discussion, but only in Latin ! 



The Press is, I regret to say, not one whit more truthful. 

 One paper fills its columns with a few mistakes of the author ; 

 another condemns * cobweb theories ' (a curious name for 

 plain facts) ; a third considers Arithmetic and common 

 sense not applicable to the case ; a fourth wonders what all 

 the fuss is about, and says it is all true but of no consequence 

 and so on. The grave fact that our youth when educated 

 for clergy are systematically kept in ignorance of there 

 being two opinions on these subjects, and left till after they 

 have sworn to an uncompromising belief before they can find 

 out what they have sworn to is ignored by all. No doubt 

 Colenso will be followed by a host of men, good, bad and 

 indifferent, whose eyes once opened their tongues will be 

 let loose. The worst of it is that the present condition of 

 things prevents the rising talent and candid thinkers from 

 entering the Church at all, and we shall be bepastored with 

 fools, knaves or imbeciles. 



To B. H. Hodgson 



April 19, 1863. 



Of the biblical question I have heard nothing. I am 

 not an admirer of McCaul or the Bishop of Manchester, and 

 as you know I distrust all theologians ; there seems to me 



