The Rev. G. Kingsley 8i 



him, as we have seen, and then science began to pick quarrels 

 v/ith reUgion, or was accused of doing so, and social questions 

 became increasingly pressing. Socialism rattled its bones and 

 gave people cold shivers, and Kingsley dallied with it, or at any 

 rate he agreed with some of its principles, to the unbounded 

 horror of his cloth. Dissatisfaction awoke in the land, and the 

 anger that set Watts painting his accusatory pictures " Mam- 

 mon " and " Hope," sent Kingsley off at score on the ideal of 

 Christian socialism. Among other good things this was to 

 reconcile science and religion, for, in his love of science, he had 

 greeted the revelations of Darwin and Huxley with open arms, 

 while his interest in economic questions led him to correspond 

 with John Stuart Mill. 



Then came the cause of women's rights, and this too he was 

 quite ready to consider ; but certain tendencies he perceived in 

 this movement led him, after a time, to withhold his support. 



He believed it would be good for the race generally if women 

 qualified as medical practitioners. On this subject he was 

 enthusiastic. He wrote a good deal about it, as well as other 

 matters, under the nom-de-plume of " Parson Lot." 



It will be seen that he was fairly deep in the questions of the 

 day. Science he was convinced could walk hand-in-hand with 

 religion amicably enough. This sounds a tame idea now, but 

 at that time Bishops had not got over being called monkeys ; 

 and dallying with Darwin was a first-class misdemeanour. 

 Once, when preaching in a London church on " The Message 

 of the Church to the Working Man," the incumbent became so 

 infuriated by his discourse that he jumped up and protested. 

 A rumpus of the first magnitude ensued, and in due course the 

 thunders were invoked in the shape of the Bishop of London, 

 who decreed that Kingsley should preach no more in the churches 

 of liis diocese. 



A controversy that troubled him far more, was one between 

 himself and Newman (afterwards Cardinal Newman). 



Kingsley had written an article in Macmillan' s Magazine 

 in which he said that Newman did not consider truth a necessary 

 virtue, that Papal prerogatives cannot touch the civil allegiance 

 of Catholics, etc. 



The main point at issue was not really the personal integrity 

 of Doctor Newman, but the question whether the Roman 



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