i88 3 .] 
Charles Darwin. 
203 
reciprocity of all solar with all planetary phenomena, the 
interchange of matter between the bodies of the system 
cannot be questioned ; and I may some day ask your per- 
mission, Mr. Editor, to speak about its manner in the 
“Journal of Science.” 
III. CHARLES DARWIN : HIS BIOGRAPHERS 
AND HIS TRADUCER* 
fKllE discussion of these brief but important and appre- 
v|\ ciative sketches of Charles Darwin, as a geologist, a 
botanist, a zoologist, a psychologist, and as a man, is 
rendered the more seasonable by a singular incident. A 
voice has been raised against the great naturalist from an 
unexpected quarter. One Henry G. Atkinson has seen fit 
to write and to publish these words “ Carlyle says truly, 
‘ A good sort of man is this Darwin, and well-meaning, but 
with very little intellect.’ ” (!) Again All agree that his 
[Darwin’s] introducing a Creator to breathe the breath ot 
life into the first form was mere subterfuge. Carlyle says 
that the three Darwins— grandfather, father, and Charles— 
were Atheists ; and as he knew them all, his statement may 
be taken as thoroughly reliable.” , f 
To adjudicate on the religious orthodoxy or heterodoxy ot 
scientific men is certainly not, under any ordinary circum- 
stances, our duty; but the imputation of Atheism is here 
mixed up with a charge of dishonesty, and with such an 
amazingly impertinent attempt to disparage Darwin intel- 
lectually, that we feel bound to exhibit the accuser and his 
witness in their true colours. 
We ask, firstly, Did Carlyle really and truly commit him- 
self to the utterances which are here ascribed to him, and 
especially did he lay claim to a personal knowledge of the 
three Darwins ? If so, he was guilty of a grave departure 
from the truth. It is known that he was born in 1795, at 
Ecclefechan, where he spent his childhood. It is equally 
* Charles Darwin. Memorial Notices reprinted from Nature. London: 
Macmillan and Co. 
