276 



RELIGION. 



so, with so much devotion and zeal. But I cannot comply 

 with your request for the following reasons ; and excuse me 

 for giving them in some detail, as I should be very sorry to 

 appear in your eyes ungracious. My health is very weak : 

 I never pass 24 hours without many hours of discomfort, when 

 I can do nothing whatever. I have thus, also, lost two whole 

 consecutive months this season. Owing to this weakness, 

 and my head being often giddy, I am unable to master new 

 subjects requiring much thought, and can deal only with old 

 materials. At no time am I a quick thinker or writer : what- 

 ever I have done in science has solely been by long ponder- 

 ing, patience and industry. 



" Now I have never systematically thought much on relig- 

 ion in relation to science, or on morals in relation to society ; 

 and without steadily keeping my mind on such subjects for a 

 long period, I am really incapable of writing anything worth 

 sending to the Index." 



He was more than once asked to give his views on relig- 

 ion, and he had, as a rule, no objection to doing so in a pri- 

 vate letter. Thus in answer to a Dutch student he wrote 

 (April 2, 1873) :— 



" I am sure you will excuse my writing at length, when I 

 tell you that I have long been much out of health, and am 

 now staying away from my home for rest. 



" It is impossible to answer your question briefly ; and I 

 am not sure that I could do so, even if I wrote at some length. 

 But I may say that the impossibility of conceiving that this 

 grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose 

 through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the exist- 

 ence of God ; but whether this is an argument of real value, 

 I have never been able to decide. I am aware that if we ad- 

 mit a first cause, the mind still craves to know whence it 

 came, and how it arose. Nor can I overlook the difficulty 

 from the immense amount of suffering through the world. I 

 am, also, induced to defer to a certain extent to the judg- 

 ment of the many able men who have fully believed in God ; 

 but here again I see how poor an argument this is. The 



