Sexual Selection 115 
Books of the Hindoos; the miracles by which Christianity is sup- 
ported, the discrepancies between the accounts in the different 
Gospels, gradually led him to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine 
revelation. “Thus,” he writes1, “disbelief crept over me at a very 
slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt 
no distress.” But Darwin was too modest to presume to go beyond 
the limits laid down by science. He wanted nothing more than to be 
able to go, freely and unhampered by belief in authority or in the 
Bible, as far as human knowledge could lead him. We learn this 
from the concluding words of his chapter on religion: “The mystery 
of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must 
be content to remain an Agnostic?.” 
Darwin was always very unwilling to give publicity to his views in 
regard to religion. In a letter to Asa Gray on May 22, 1860, he 
declares that it is always painful to him to have to enter into 
discussion of religious problems. He had, he said, no intention of 
writing atheistically. 
Finally, let us cite one characteristic sentence from a letter from 
Darwin to C. Ridley* (Nov. 28, 1878). A clergyman, Dr Pusey, had 
asserted that Darwin had written the Origin of Species with some 
relation to theology. Darwin writes emphatically, “Many years ago, 
when I was collecting facts for the ‘Origin,’ my belief in what is 
called a personal God was as firm as that of Dr Pusey himself, and 
as to the eternity of matter I never troubled myself about such 
insoluble questions.” The expression “many years ago” refers to 
the time of his voyage round the world, as has already been pointed 
out. Darwin means by this utterance that the views which had 
gradually developed in his mind in regard to the origin of species 
were quite compatible with the faith of the Church. 
If we consider all these utterances of Darwin in regard to religion 
and to his outlook on life (Weltanschauung), we shall see at least so 
much, that religious reflection could in no way have influenced him 
in regard to the writing and publishing of his book on The Descent 
of Man. Darwin had early won for himself freedom of thought, and 
to this freedom he remained true to the end of his life, uninfluenced 
by the customs and opinions of the world around him. 
Darwin was thus inwardly fortified and armed against the host of 
calumnies, accusations, and attacks called forth by the publication of 
the Origin of Species, and to an even greater extent by the appearance 
of the Descent of Man. But in his defence he could rely on the aid 
of a band of distinguished auxiliaries of the rarest ability. His 
1 Life and Letters, Vol. 1. p. 309. 2 Loe, cit. p. 313. 3 Ibid. Vol. 11. p. 310. 
4 Ibid. Vol. 11. p. 236. [**C. Ridley,” Mr Francis Darwin points out to me, should be 
H.N. Ridley. A.C.§.] 
8—2 
