Ch. III.] RELIGION. 65 



can add to the impression here given of his attitude towards 

 Eeligion.* Some further idea of his views may, however, be 

 gathered from occasional remarks in his letters. 



* Dr. Aveling has published an account of a conversation with my father. 

 I think that the readers of this pamphlet (The Religious Views of Charles 

 Darwin, Free Thought Publishing Company, 1883) may be misled into 

 seeing more resemblance than really existed between the positions of ray 

 father and Dr. Aveling : and I say this in spite of my conviction that 

 Dr. Aveling gives quite fairly his impressions of my father's views. Dr. 

 Aveling tried to show that the terms "Agnostio" and "Atheist" am 

 practically equivalent — that an atheist is one who. without denying the 

 existence of God, is without God, inasmuch as he is unconvinced of the 

 existence of a Deity. My father's replies implied his preference for tho 

 unaggressive attitude of an Agnostic. Dr. Aveling seems (p. 5) to regard 

 the absence of aggressiveness in my father's views as distinguishing them 

 in an unessential manner from his own. But, in my judgment, it is 

 precisely differences of this kind which distinguish him so completely 

 from the class of thinkers to which Dr. Aveling belongs. 



