Charles Robert Darwin. 45 



der physical difficulties which would have converted nine 

 men out of ten into aimless invalids, it was not these (qual- 

 ities, great as they were, which impressed those who were 

 admitted to his intimacy with involuntary veneration, but 

 a certain intense and almost passionate honesty by which 

 all his thoughts and actions were irradiated as by a central 

 fii-e." 



How does the thought of Darwin stand related to our 

 faith in human nature and in God '.' This is a secondary 

 question. First we must ask if it is true ; and if it is, how- 

 ever it may stand related to our faith in God or in human 

 nature, we must adjust ourselves to it as best we can. But 

 the question. Is it true ? has been already asked, and the 

 world of scientific thinkers and explorers to-day, with hard- 

 ly a dissenting voice, agrees that it is so. And, being so, how 

 does it stand related to our faith in human nature and in 

 God ? 



To our faith in human nature. How fares it with that 

 dignity of which Channing spoke so well ? It is strange that 

 the defenders of the popular religion should think them- 

 selves entitled to attack it on this ground. Yes, it is pass- 

 ing strange ! For what Darwin called the descent of man is 

 surely an ascent. And what an ascent from the invertebrate 

 amphioxus to the Darwin who can read the riddle of this 

 mighty evolution ! And over against this ascent the popular 

 religion sets the Fall of Man — a fall which left the descend- 

 ants of the perfect Adam a race of intellectual and moral 

 idiots, in their flesh dwelling no good thing. I prefer to 

 this the Darwinian doctrine of the Rise of ]\Ian. I prefer 

 it every way. It is not only a glorious history, but it is 

 also a glorious prophecy. The way that we have come hints 

 at the way we are to go. The force of natural selection is 

 still operative in the world. And it is reinforced by the 

 conscious and deliberate selection of the human mind. Let 

 the good work go on, and when the race has marched as far 

 beyond its present camping-ground as this is distant from 

 the ascidian prototype millions of years behind us, may it 

 be granted us to see, unblinded, from some height of heaven, 

 what a piece of work is man. And what a piece of work 

 he is to-day ! By the grace of God I am what I am, I care 

 not by what means. Such as are good enough for the Eter- 

 nal Power are good enough for me, while in my heart arise 



