i860,] CLERICAL OPINIONS. 8l 



you for your generous aid in discussing a view, about which 

 you very properly hold yourself unbiassed. 



My dear Gray, yours most sincerely, 



C. Darwin. 



P.S. — Several clergymen go far with me. Rev. L. Jenyns, 

 a very good naturalist. Henslow will go a very little way 

 with me, and is not shocked with me. He has just been 

 visiting me. 



[With regard to the attitude of the more liberal repre- 

 sentatives of the Church, the following letter (already referred 

 to) from Charles Kingsley is of interest :] 



C. Kifigsley to C. Darwin. 



Eversley Rectory, Winch field, 



November 18th, 1859. 



Dear Sir, — I have to thank you for the unexpected 

 honour of your book. That the Naturalist whom, of all 

 naturalists living, I most wish to know and to learn from, 

 should have sent a scientist like me his book, encourages me 

 at least to observe more carefully, and think more slowly. 



I am so poorly (in brain), that I fear I cannot read your 

 book just now as I ought. All I have seen of it awes me ; 

 both with the heap of facts and the prestige of your name, 

 and also with the clear intuition, that if you be right, I must 

 give up much that I have believed and written. 



In that I care little. Let God be true, and every man a 

 liar ! Let us know what is, and, as old Socrates has it, 

 lirea-Oat r<2 Aoyw — follow up the villainous shifty fox of an ar- 

 gument, into whatsoever unexpected bogs and brakes he may 

 lead us, if we do but run into him at last. 



From two common superstitions, at least, I shall be free 

 while judging of your books : — 



(1.) I have long since, from watching the crossing of do- 

 mesticated animals and plants, learnt to disbelieve the dogma 

 of the permanence of species. 



