All the Articles of the Darwin Faith. 33 



which appears to us scarcely less unsatisfactory than his 

 inquiry into its mental and moral bearings. He simply 

 accumulates a variety of points of similarity between the 

 human frame and that of animals." 



" There is much reason to fear that loose philosophy 

 stimulated by an irrational religion, has done not a little 

 to weaken the force of these religious principles in France, 

 and that this is at all events one potent element in the 

 disorganization of French society. A man incurs a grave 

 responsibility, who, with the authority of a well earned 

 reputation, advances at such a time the disintegrating 

 speculations of this book. He ought to be capable of 

 supporting them by the most conclusive evidence of facts. 

 To put them forward on such incomplete evidence, such 

 cursory investigation, such hypothetical arguments as we 

 have exposed, is more than unscientific it is reckless." 



" We wish we could think that these speculations were 

 as innocuous as they are unpractical and unscientific, but 

 it is too probable that if unchecked they might exert a very 

 mischievous influence. We abstain from noticing their 

 bearings on religious thought, although it is hard to see 

 how, on Mr. Darwin's hypothesis, it is possible to ascribe 

 to man any other immortality or any other spiritual 



