ii8 MEMORIAL SKETCH. 



to me to strike at the root of all moral responsibility. I am 

 going to reply to this in the Contemporary Review for Feb- 

 ruary. I know that there are a number of thoughtful people, 

 especially among the clergy, who look to me for guidance on 

 these matters, and I am anxious not to fail in giving it. I have 

 the greatest confidence in the ultimate prevalence of truth ; and 

 the surging up of the depths only makes me feel that the 

 bottom is reached more nearly than on previous occasions. 



The interest excited by these varied labours was in- 

 dicated in the letters which Dr. Carpenter often received 

 from those who were eminent in philosophy, in public 

 affairs, and literature, of which the following criticisms and 

 acknowledgments may serve as specimens : — 



From the Rev. Dr. Martineau. 



Dolgelly, September 8, 1872. 

 I was presuming enough to hope for an authorized copy of 

 your Address,* and so refrained from looking at the imperfect 

 newspaper reports which fell in my way. Your kind remem- 

 brance of me in your presentations has enabled me to read it 

 with the careful attention it requires and repays. It is full of 

 interest from beginning to end ; and I need not say that its 

 main drift and purpose appear to me at once philosophical and 

 seasonable. The distinction on which you insist between the 

 " law " and the " cause " of phenomena is assuredly real and 

 of the utmost moment : and no survey of the ultimate logic of 

 science can be long regarded as adequate which does not pro- 

 vide for it. If I had taken in hand to enforce it, I should have 

 expressed myself (doubtless to the great disgust of my hearers) 

 in terms more metaphysical than you have deemed it needful to 

 employ, being convinced— possibly through over-estimate of my 

 habitual pursuits— that there is no firm basis for the distinction, 

 unless we resort to the d priori postulates of thought. For 

 science, in its researches into Nature, I do not see how we can 



* The Address delivered at the Brighton meeting of the British Association 

 in the previous August. See p. 185. 



