RELIGION. 317 



much interested me. I have indeed cause to apologise for 

 troubling you with my impressions, and my sole excuse is 

 the excitement in my mind which your book has aroused. 



I beg leave, to remain, 

 Dear Sir, 



Yours faithfully and obliged 



CHARLES DARWIN, 



[My father spoke little on these subjects, and I can contribute 

 nothing from my own recollection of his conversation which 

 can add to the impression here given of his attitude towards 

 Religion. Some further idea of his views may, however, be 

 gathered from occasional remarks in his letters.]* 



* Dr. Aveling has published an atheist is one who, without denying 

 account of a conversation with my the existence of God, is without 

 father. I think that the readers of God, inasmuch as he is unconvinced 

 this pamphlet (' The Religious of the existence of a Deity. My 

 Views of Charles Darwin,' Free father's replies implied his prefer- 

 Thought Publishing Company, ence for the unaggressive attitude 

 1883) maybe misled into seeing of an Agnostic. Dr. Aveling seems 

 more resemblance than really (p. 5) to regard the absence of 

 existed between the positions of aggressiveness in my father's views 

 my father and Dr. Aveling : and I as distinguishing them in an un- 

 say this in spite of my conviction essential manner from his own. 

 that Dr. Aveling gives quite fairly But, in my judgment, it is precisely 

 his impressions of my father's views. differences of this kind which dis- 

 Dr. Aveling tried to show that the tinguish him so completely from 

 terms "Agnostic" and "Atheist" the class of thinkers to which Dr. 

 were practically equivalent that an Aveling belongs. 



