286 RELIGION. 



for the progress of civilization than you seem inclined to 

 admit. Remember what risk the nations of Europe ran, not 

 so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks, 

 and how ridiculous such an idea now is ! The more civilized 

 so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in 

 the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very 

 distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will 

 have been eliminated by the higher civilized races through- 

 out the world. But I will write no more, and not even men- 

 tion the many points in your work which have much inter- 

 ested me. I have indeed cause to apologise for troubling 

 you with my impressions, and my sole excuse is the excite- 

 ment 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 con- 

 tribute 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, how- 

 ever, 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 po- 

 sitions of my father and Dr. Aveling : and I say this in spite of my con- 

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

 views. Dr. Aveling tried to show that the terms " Agnostic " and " Atheist " 

 were 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 

 the 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. 



