66 1860-1865 : PERSONAL 



Greg's 1 ' Enigmas ' is one of the most eloquent books I 

 ever read, and it quite fascinated me by its manner, not by its 

 matter, which is singularly weak and inconclusive. I wrote 

 to him combating some of his positions, and met him soon 

 after and had a delightful conversation. As to the poor 

 man's faith, he frankly admitted to me that, as I put it, all 

 scientific evidence is in favor of extinction upon death; 

 and that any -reasoning to the contrary was ' ingenious 

 wriggling.' I quite agreed with him, however, that this 

 was not conclusive and that there was no inexcusable pre- 

 sumption in the conclusion, that there was a future state. 

 It is a book that cannot but be disappointing : remember 

 all it pretends to do is, not to crush hope, but to foster the 

 presumption of hope being tenable barely tenable perhaps ! 



We have just returned from a visit to Cardwell's, near 

 Godalming ; both he and his wife are singularly pleasing 

 persons at home. He is almost a religious man, or I should 

 say a devout one perhaps. We had some long talks about 

 faith and prayer ; he was very frank, admitting to the full 

 how much more difficult it was for a scientific man to believe 

 than for any other ; that the Miracles were open questions, 

 of evidence entirely ; and that prayer in the common sense 

 was wrong ; he much regretted such occasional outbursts 

 as Huxley's, but blamed the clergy more. He was singularly 

 earnest, candid and calm, even on such matters as Darwinism ! 

 which he only a little believes much disliking some of the 

 results (Monkeydom &c.), but could see even to this no 

 opposition to any religion worth holding. 



The other two citations are from letters to Huxley. One 

 Huxley had sent him proofs of his chapter ' On the Eeception 

 of the " Origin of Species/' ' which was to appear in the * Life 

 and Letters of Charles Darwin.' On October 21, 1886, he 



1 William Rathbone Greg (1809-1881) began life as a cotton spinner, 

 following in his father's footsteps. His literary activities and his removal 

 from Bury to the Lakes on account of his wife's health hindered him in his 

 business, and he gave up his mill in 1850. In 1856 he was appointed a Com- 

 missioner on the Board of Customs, and from 1864-77 was Comptroller of 

 the Stationery Office. He was distinguished as a thoughtful and prolific essayist 

 on religious, political, and economic subjects, and equally ardent in his philan- 

 thropy and his disinterested love of truth, which balanced generous enthusiasms 

 with an unflinching view of the difficulty and complexity of modern problems. 

 His first book, The Creed of Christendom, appeared in 1851 ; the Enigmas of 

 Life, mentioned here, in 1872. 



