58 1860-1865 : PERSONAL 



a total want of candour and of charity amongst them in all 

 public matters, their minds are those of women a very good 

 type in woman, a very bad one in man. I have glanced 

 at Stanley's sermons and can detect an undercurrent of 

 Colensoism in them very obviously. I had thought that all 

 educated clergymen had long ago abandoned the verbal, 

 literal inspiration of the Bible, e.g. the worship of the letter, 

 the Genesis creation, the Flood, 1 tower of Babel, &c., &c.; &c., 

 plus much of the so-called Mosaic narrative ; but this is 

 either not so, or the educated ones hold their tongues 

 perhaps the latter is the case, for after all it is curious to 

 observe how few deans, archdeacons and other dignitaries, 

 professors, &c., come forward to condemn Colenso it -is 

 the Bishops and noisy theologians who usurp the press and 

 pulpits and fill them with denunciations. 



I think I told you that I stayed a couple of days with 

 Colenso in the country, and was pleased with his calmness, 

 dignity and charity towards his opponents. He is a tall, 

 grave, very striking man, with a quiet determination of 

 mouth, and candid, broad forehead and open eyes, that 

 together produced an impression of power and dignity; 

 He has, however, calculated without his host, and for this 

 he has his education to thank, rather than his judgment or 

 faults. He might in my opinion have said ten times as 

 much as he has in different language and he would have 

 created no sensation at all. I think Stanley implies in many 

 of his writings as much at least as Colenso insists upon, but 

 puts a fine spiritual varnish over it all. 



To C. Darwin 



February 16, 1864. 



I am not quite sure about Colenso himself he ought to 

 go further. My hope is, that after the trial he will go out 

 just to assert his position, and then retire. His holding his 

 Bishopric in Natal can only breed intolerable confusion and 

 do his cause mischief ; and as to his going out to convert 

 Zulus, why, he has Christians here to convert, and the Zulus 

 are not worth a thought. He might come back with great 



1 As he writes to Darwin, October 25, 1862 : ' What a nice simple book 

 Parrott's Ararat is : it is refreshing to read his simple faith in the Ark being 

 still under the enow ! ' 



