CARLYLE ON THE ATHEISTIC DARWINS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 201, 9 February 1877, Page 7

CARLYLE ON THE ATHEISTIC DARWINS.

Cabltle is now very feeble, through age, but his memory is still marvellous, and the flow of his talk— doubtless the most eloquent of the age — is unabated. Take this for a sample :—": — " About thirty years ago a book was published here called the 'Vestiges of Creation.' It ran quietly through five editions ; men read it with bated breath, in silence, and marvelled at its audacity. It was like a pinch of snuff, and now whole wagon-loads of it are thrown down in the public highways, and atheistic sneezing has become the fashion. So-called literary and scientific classes in England now proudly give themselves to protoplasm, origin of species, and the like, to prove that God did not build the Universe. I hare known three generations of tho Darwina ; grandfather, father, and son : Atheists all. The brother of the present famous naturalist, a quiet man who lives not far from here, told me that among hia grandfather's effects he found a seal engraven with this legend — • Vmnia ex conchis ;' everything from a clam-shell! I saw the naturalist not many months ago ; told him that I had read hia ' Origin of Species,' and other books ; that he had by no means satisfied me that men were descended from monkeys, but had gone far toward persuading me that he and his so-called scientific brethren had brought the present generation of Englishmen very near to monkeys. A good sort of man is this Darwin, and wellmeaning, but with very little intellect. Ah, it is a sad and terrible thing to see nigh a whole generation of men and women, professing to be cultivated, looking round in a purblind fashion, and finding no God in this universe. I suppose it is a reaction from the reign of cant and hollow pretence, professing to believe what in fact they do not believe. And this is what we have got to •• All things from frog spawn ; the gospel of dirt the order of the day. The older I grow — and I now stand upon the brink of eternity— -the more comes back to me the sentence in the catechism, which. I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes — ' What is the great end of man ? ' 'To glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.' No gospel of dirt, teaching that men have descended from the frogs through monkeys, can ever set that aside." It is really wonderful to hear the old man's talk, for he pours his whole soul into his conversation. Its key, as you know, is a Scotch monotone ; but at time 3he rises to the height of fiery enei^y, and almost of overwhelming eloquence. — ' Reay's Letter to Hartford Courant '