Charles Kingsley and ScienceAuthor(s): Mary Wheat HanawaltSource: Studies in Philology, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct., 1937), pp. 589-611Published by: University of North Carolina PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4172388Accessed: 26/01/2009 22:04

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CHARLES KINGSLEY AND SCIENCE

By MARY WHEAT HANAWALT

Opinions vary concerning Charles Kingsley's place in his cen- tury and in literature.' He is usually dismissed by writers with the statement that he was an exponent of Christian socialism and sanitary reform. The part which his scientific study had in the development of his philosophy is ignored. The use of science in his novels is summarily dismissed by one critic with the verdict that we spend too much time with atoms and minutiae under a microscope, instead of the fortunes of human beings.2 In Two Years Ago, the novel referred to in this criticism, the scientific background plays an integral part in the development of the indi- viduals, as will be pointed out more fully later. In Kingsley's opinion, science could not be separated from human conduct and progress. In a lecture, "The Ancien Re'gime," he maintained that it was inductive physical science which " helped more than all to break up the superstitions of the Ancien Regime, and to set man face to face with the facts of the universe." 3 Leslie Stephen was somewhat unfair in analyzing Kiingsley as being the type of person who insists " on seeing the facts through the medium of the imagination, and substituting poetic intuition for the slow

1 Some examples follow: "Mr. Kingsley is one of those men whom we could with most decision fix upon as representative of his age." Peter Bayne, Essays in Biography and Criticism (Boston, 1858), p. 2. "He was too timid or too impatient to work out consistent theories or acquire mnuch depth of conviction." Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (London, 1919), III, 58. "Charles Kingsley has such a place, not by reasoni of any supreme work or any very rare quality of his own, but by virtue of his versatility, his verve, his fecundity, his irresistible gift of breaking out in some new line, his strong and reckless sympathy, and above all by real literary brilliance." Frederic Harrison, Early Victorian Literature (Lon- don, 1902), p. 164. ":His name really stands so high and has had so wide an influence that in that tangled mass of conflicting interests and aims which we have learnt to call the nineteenth century, Kingsley (and all

that Kingsley stands for) explains far more than the work of greater men." William F. Lord, The Mirror of the Century (London, 1905), p. 190.

2 Stanley Baldwin, Charles Kingsley (Cornell University Press, 1934), p. 123.

8 Historical Lectures and Essays (London, 1893), p. 149.

589

590 Charles Kingsley and Science

and chilling processes of scientific reasoning." 4 The lecture just referred to, for instance, while not an example of " slow and chill- ing " scientific reasoning, is no less an example of clearly defined logical thinking.

The nature of Kingsley's philosophy and art, then, has been misunderstood because his interest in science has been ignored. If possible, this study will correct this misunderstanding, first. by showing Kingsley's lifelong interest in science; secondly, by con- sidering the relation of this study and research to his theory of art as revealed in his novels and poetry; thirdly, by presenting in a discussion of his belief in science and his religion further evi- dence of his realization of the importance of science in man's exist- ence; and fourthly, by showing the influence of science upon such a philosophy as he held.

Kingsley's early concentration on scientific study has been ob- served bv his biographers.5 Naturally, this liking for scientific observation was reflected in his school career.6 His research and collections were continued throughout his life. Study at Torquay in 1845 yielded him a list of about sixty species of molluska, anne- lids, crustacea, and polypes.7 I)uring the year in which he was considering the writing of The Autobiography of a Cockney Poet,8 be spent a majority of the time collecting shells and zoophytes.

This interest in science was not abandoned when he left college and entered upon what was to be a long career of service in Eversley parish. He sought for, and obtained, acquaintance with

4 Op. cit., III, 8. Stephen describes Coleridge, Maurice, and Carlyle in this manner, and includes Kingsley in the group.

6 Moritz Kaufmann, Charles Kingsley, Christian Socialist and Social Reformer (London, 1892), p. 10; Letters and Memories of His Life, edited by Mrs. Charles Kingsley (London, 1894) (hereafter referred to as Letters), I, 9; Henry Evershed, " Canon Kingsley as a Naturalist and Country Clergyman," Living Age, CLXXII (January, 1887), p. 98; James C. Bow- man, editor, Essays, " My Winter Garden," by Charles Kingsley (New York, 1918), p. 144.

6 Richard Cowley Powles, a schoolmate at Helston, stated that " Charles' chief taste was for physical science." Letters, I, 15; see also pages 14 and 25.

71bid., I, 316. 8 This developed into Altor, Locke.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 591

men of science, who were impressed by his zeal and his sincerity.9 Of this association, there are many records.10 George Eliot at one time wrote to a friend to inform her of a group of " scientific and philosophic men " who were organizing " for the sake of bringing people who care to know and speak the truth as well as they can, into regular communication.""11 Thomas Huxley was the presi- dent of the group, and Charles Kingsley, the vice-president. In 1854, Kingsley spent his time collecting data on the sea-anlimals of Torbay to be sent to the naturalist, Philip Henry Gosse.'2 That his observations were accurate and important is shown by the fact that his work is cited by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man.13 Darwin and Huxley both respected the intellectual ability of the novelist, and corresponded with him, often sending him copies of their books. On November 18, 1859, Kingsley wrote to thank Darwin for a copy of The Origin of Species.'4 Later, in 1863, he

9 With all who came to Eversley, he discussed science as extensively as theology and art. Letters, II, 46. He once stated that his favorite kind of literature was that of physical science. Ibid., II, 298..

10 He mentioned repeatedly such works as the following: Darwin's The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man and Orchids are Fertilized, Asa Gray's pamphlet on Darwin, Hugh Miller's Footprints of the Creator, White's History of Selborne (an earlier book), and Chambers' Vestiges of Creation. In this connection, note the following: Letters, I, 315; II, 154-55, 254, 256; Glaucus (London, 1890), p. 8, p. 13; Health and Educa- tion (N. Y., 1893), p. 173-74; "Natural Theology of the Future," Mac- millan's, XXIII, 369; Charles Darwin, Life and Letters, edited by Francis Darwin (N. Y., 1890), II, 81-2. References to his acquaintance with scientists include: Letters, I, 299, 315; II, 154-57, 277; Darwin, op. cit., II, 81-2; Thomas Huxley, Life and Letters, edited by Leonard Huxley (N. Y., 1901), I, 233, 238, 266-67, 297-98, 323-24. References to his

correspondence with these men: Letters, I, 315; II, 114-15, 126, 154-55, 198, 226, 254, 258, 266; Huxley, op. cit., I, 257-61; James Marchant, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences (N. Y., 1916), p. 287.

"'-Kaufmann, op. cit., pp. 242-43. 12 Letters, I, 299, 313. These data may have been used in Gosse's Manual

of Marine Zoology for the British -Isles. 13 The Descent of Man (N. Y., 1898, first published in 1871), p. 354.

An article by Kingsley in Nature (May, 1870), p. 40, is used by Darwin as a basis for a passage on the noises made by fishes.

14 Darwin, Life, II, 81-2. " 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."

592 Charles Kingsley and Science

studied Darwin's Orchids are Fertilized, and informed the author that he had made nature "a live thing" for him.15 Huxley ex- changed books with Kingsley, sending him in 1863 a copy of his lectures and, later, of his book, Man's Place in lVature, and ex- pressing his sympathy with Kingsley's concern to save the old faith."' When Huxley's son died in 1863, there followed a long correspondence between Huxley and Kingsley on the subject of immortality.17 In 1866, the scientist expressed his intention of bearing Kingsley preach at the Royal Institution.'8 The two men agreed in their disapproval of Comte's doctrines.19 Huxley is one of the few who believed Kingsley right in the controversy with Newman, and he described Newman as "the slipperiest sophist I have ever met with."20 Kingsley also corresponded with John Stuart MVill, discussing with him the rights of women, and Huxley's philosophv.21 Among the other scientists with whom Kingsley Corresponded, A. R. Wallace is perhaps the most important. Kingsley read his Essay on Natural Selection, and praised it highly.22

Further evidence that his interest in science was more than that of a dilettante is furnished by the record of his participation in the activities of scientific societies. He was elected president of

Letters, II, 155. 1" Huxley, op. cit., I, 257-60. Huxley writes: " I have a great respect for

all the old bottles, and if the new wine can be got to go into them and not burst them I shall be very glad. . . ." Again, he writes: "It is a great pleasure to me to be able to speak out to any one who, like yourself, is striving to get at truth through a region of intellectual and moral influences so entirely distinct from those to which I am exposed."

17Ibid., I, 233 ff. Huxley here speaks " openly and distinctly " of his own disbelief in immortality. " I write this the more readily to you, because it is clear to me that if that great and powerful instrument for good or evil, the Church of England, is to be saved from being shivered into fragments by the advancing tide of science . . . it must be by the efforts of men, who, like yourself, see your way to the combination of the practice of the Church with the spirit of sciene. . . . I have always said I would swear by your truthfulness and sincerity, and that good must come of your efforts. The more plain this was to me, however, the more obvious the necessity to let you see where the men of science are driving, and it has often been in my mind to write to you before."

18 Ibid., I, 297-98. 21 Letters, II, 226. 18 Ibid., I, 323-24. 22 Ibid., p. 254. 20 Ibid., II, 240.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 593

the Devonshire Literary and Scientific Association at Bideford, in 1871. The following year he was made president of the Natural Science Society at Chester, an organization which he had been instrumental in founding. Honors in science came to him early. In 1857 he was made a Fellow of the Linnean Society; and six years later, became a Fellow of the Geological Society, his member- ship having been proposed by Sir Charles Bunbury and seconded by Sir Charles Lyell.23 In addition to lending his influence on behalf of scientific societies, Kingsley did science no small service in his many lectures.24

II

Kingsley's interest in science and activity in its behalf are definitely reflected in his novels-are even, in some cases, almost their raison d'etre. He believed that art must be purposeful. Con- tent concerned him more than form. For this reason, he con- demned " high art " in Germany:

I mean to run amuck against all this talk about genius and high art, and the rest of it. It will be the ruin of us, as it has been of Germany. They have been for fifty years finding out, and showing people how to do everything in heaven and earth, and have done nothing. They are dead even yet, and will be till they get out of the high art fit.'5

This view is also presented in Yeast.26 Lancelot is represented as believing in the interrelation of art, science, religion-of every- thing that touches upon man's existence.'7 The fullest expression of this view is to be found in a letter from the novelist to a friend:

I want to talk to you about Yeast, and in doing so consolidate my owll

notions on it. . . . In Yeast, as its name implies, I have tried to show the feelings which are working in the age, in a fragmentary and turbid

23 Ibid., p. 45, pp. 140-41. 24 Kaufmann, op. cit., p. 212. References to his lectures include: Letters,

II, 2, 45, 69, 279-80, 367. Many of his lectures were concerned with sanitary reform, evidence that he was one of the first to recognize the close connection between science and health. Note Kaufmann's discussion, op. cit., p. 8, and the analysis of Kingsley's view of sanitary reform in C. W. Stubbs, Charles Kingsley and the Christian Social Movement (London, 1899), p. 177. See also Letters, I, 176; II, 67, 87-8.

25 Alton Locke (N. Y., 1911), Prefatory Memoir by Thomas Hughes, p. xxviii.

20 Yeast (N. Y., 1888), p. 335. 2 Ibid., p. 373.

594 Charles Kingsley and Science

state. In the next part, The Artists, I shall try to unravel the tangled skein, by means of conversations on Art, connected as they will be neces- sarily with the deepest questions of science, anthropology, social life, and Christianity. . . . Thus I think Lancelot, having grafted on his own naturalism, the Christianity of Tregarva, the classicism of Mellot, and the spiritual symbolism of Luke, ought to be in a state to become the mesothetic artist of the future, and beat each of his tutors at their own weapons.28

Chaotic his purpose is, indeed, and justifies critics for condemn- ing "his half-animal impatience which cannot be satisfied with working out patiently a single idea." 29 Throughout this chaos, however, runs the thread of his interest in science, and his desire for its widespread appreciation and application. There is perhaps a reflection of his own experience in the following description of Lancelot's journalistic career:

He had the unhappiest knack (as all geniuses have) of seeing connections, humorous or awful, between the most seemingly antipodal things; of illustrating every subject from three or four different spheres which it is anathema to mention in the same page. If he wrote a physical-science article, able editors asked him what the deuce a scrap of high-churchism did in the middle of it? If he took the same article to a high-church magazine, the editor could not commit himself to any theory which made the earth more than six thousand years old. ...0

Kiingsley, like Lancelot, considered art an excellent means for conveying to all men a realization of the importance and power of science. In the fairy tale, The Water-Babies, it was the writer's purpose to adapt Darwin's theory of the natural selection of species for children's information.31 Two Years Ago is the instructive biography of a man of science. Yeast is an attempt to analyze the influence of scientific discoveries upon the youth of the nineteenth century. Kingsley beheld the young men of his day " fast parting from their parents and each other; the more thoughtful . . . wan-

28 Letters, I, 181-82. Sir Oliver Lodge (Past Years, London, 1931, p. 265) considered Yeast a true picture of eonditions in the ' forties.'

29" Review," Living Age, LXXVII (June 20, 1863), p. 567. 30 Yeast, ed. cit., pp. 273-74.

31In 1862 he wrote to Maurice (Letters, II, 127): "I have tried, in all sorts of queer ways, to make children and grown folks understand that there is a quite miraculous and divine element underlying all physical nature. . . . Meanwhile, remember that the physical science in the book is not nonsense, but accurate earnest, as far as I dare speak yet."

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 595

dering either towards Rome, towards sheer materialism, or towards an unchristian and unphilosophic spiritualism." 32 He recognized a need for ethical guidance, and attempted to provide it in his novels.

Now, didactic art tends also to be an art which reflects life closely. When Alton Locke aspires to write of missionaries and sin in pagan islands, the grim realist, Sandy Mackaye, informs him that there is sufficient sin in London for his pen to portray:

Look! there's not a soul down that yard but's either beggar, drunkard, thief, or warse. Write anent that! Say how you saw the mouth o' hell, and the twa pillars thereof at the entry-the pawnbroker's shop o' one side, and the gin palace at the other-twa monstrous deevils, eating up men, and women, and bairns, body and soul. Look at the jaws o' the monsters, how they open and open, and swallow in anither victim and anither. Write anent that.38

If art wishes to aid in improving the material and spiritual condi- tion of the world, then, in Mackaye's opinion, it must deal with reality.34 Similarly, Kingsley defends Yeast on the ground that it is a picture of the age.35 Why did not this realistic impulse carry Kingsley on into scientific naturalism? Leslie Stephen be- lieves that he was rescued, " as other men have been rescued, by the elevating influence of a noble passion." 36 Undoubtedly this acted as a deterrent force, but broader and more important reasons will emerge as this article proceeds.

Kingsley's study of science influenced not only his choice of themes, but his literary method as well. The realistic nature of his theory of art may be seen in several details. Not one of his novels dealing with his own century lacks a man of science for its central figure. These characters vary from dilettante students of science to medical men definitely interested in records and research. The descriptions of the explorations by Tom Thurnall are reminiscent of Darwin's voyage on the Beagle and of Huxley's career on the Rattlesnalce. Around this character, Tom Thurnall, a doctor, much of the science in the novel Two Years Ago centers. Kingsley had studied medicine,37 and -had a brother in the profession. One is

82 Yeast, ed. cit., p. xviii. 34 Ibid. " Alton Locke, ed. cit., p. 67. 86 Yeast, ed. cit., Epilogue, p. 364. 88 Hours in a Library, III, 33-4. 87 Letters, I, 64 (letter to his wife, 1842).

596 Charles Kingsley and Science

not surprised, therefore, to find the character Thurnall depicted with realism. Besides his interest in medical science, he shares his father's enthusiasm for geology and botany. His friend, Major Campbell, is a portrayal of Kingsley's ideal soldier, since he is in- terested in physical science as well as military.38 These men are both students of photography, a comparatively new science in the nineteenth century. Campbell speaks of being tired of painting nature clumsily, and then seeing a sun-picture outdo all his efforts. In The Water-Babies, Kingsley pointed forward to further inven- tions in this science when he mentioned color photography.39

This inclusion of men of science as characters in the novels naturally involves the use of many scientific terms. An article is mentioned in Yeast, for instance, which Lancelot is writing on the Silurian system.40 Dean Winnstay has written a " diatribe on the Geryon Trifurcifer." Tom Thurnall and Major Campbell hold long conversations concerning the insects which they are collect- ing. Microscopes are familiar stage property. The vocabulary of medical science is freely introduced.4' Scientific terminology is also employed in the nature descriptions throughout the novels.42

However, in spite of the fact that the novels are often set in surroundings with which the author is intimately acquainted, he does not let his knowledge betray him into long technical descrip- tions which might detract materially from interest in the novels themselves. The nature background of Two Years Ago is definitely involved in the development of both Elsley Vavasour and Tom Thurnall. It should be recognized that science is the basis of the novel. Science must almost be accepted as a silent actor, though not one possessing deterministic power and exercising it upon the human characters of the story. It is, for instance, a definite part

38 See the view expressed in Health and Education, ed. cit., p. 156. S The Water-Babies (London, 1922, first published in 1863), p. 186. 40 Kingsley was interested in geology, and in Madam How and Lady Why

(N. Y., 1898), pp. 171-72, speaks of Sir Roderick Murchison's Siluria, as "that great book."

41 See, for example, Two Years Ago (London, 1911, first published in 1857), pp. 74, 87.

42 Ibid., p. 5. In addition, see " My Winter Garden," ed. cit., p. 163. Bayne (op. cit., 44) states that a comparison of the descriptions of South American river scenery in Westward Ho! with those of Humboldt reveals "minute accuracy " in the novel.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 597

of Tom Thurnall's character, and it offers a basis for the friend- ship of Thurnall and Campbell. The normality of Thurnall's character as contrasted with the mentally unbalanced nature of Elsley Vavasour, may in part be ascribed to the former's scientific pursuits. In so far as this deliberate character contrast is a matter of art, Kingsley's scientific knowledge may be said to become here a part of his artistic technique.

Kingsley's plots are not deterministic. He recognized the influ- ence of environment upon character, as in Alton Locke, but he made this influence secondary to that of the human will. Each one of his characters is represented as free to behave as he wishes, a result of the author's faith in the natural goodness of man. The character of Tom Thurnall is perhaps the best exemplification of this Rousseauistic belief. Though tempted, Tom trusts his in- stincts, yielding to neither environment nor supernatural guid- ance, until the end, when, almost as an afterthought, he admits that he can not do " well enough " without God. Because of this reliance on self, the development of character is impulsive, and not the result of cause and effect relationships. No strong chain of circumstances, for instance, causes Elsley Vavasour's downfall, but rather self-deception and a refusal to trust his own ability.

Alton Locke appears, at first glance, to be the victim of unavoid- able circumstances. His poverty and environment prevent the realization of his ambitions. But this is part of the author's tech- nique in motivation of plot and character, rather than part of his philosophy of life. Locke, according to Kingsley, has happiness within his reach, but forfeits it by striving to attain a goal not intended for him by God. He stated that the moral of Alton Locke was to show " that the working man who tries to get on, to desert his class and rise above it, enters into a lie, and leaves God's path for his own-with consequences." 43 The direct cause of Locke's fall, then, is not environment, but his own unwise desires. It should be noted that the author did not attempt to decide whether it was right or wrong that Locke should be condemned to either of two alternatives-to remain a workingman, or to perish unhappily in his attempt to rise above his class. It is not the environment which matters, according to Kingsley, but man's attitude toward it.

Man is thus free to follow the path of either good or evil. How-

" Letters, I, 199.

598 Charles Kingsley and Science

ever, free will is not, to Kingsley, the same as wilfulness. The individual must not, as Alton Locke did, " leave God's path for his own." So long as the individual follows the guide of his con- science, he is following God. The Dean tells Alton Locke that man must obey not merely the laws of outward nature; he must obey also " the inner ideas, the spirit of Nature, which is the will of God." 4 This identification is made the basis for action in cer- tain instances in Kingsley's novels. The natural act becomes the moral act. Argemone desires to enter a convent, but she dis- covers that her " womanhood " yields to Lancelot's " manly will." In other words, as Lancelot tells her, God is leading her to him.45 To follow " the inner ideas of Nature " is to follow God, according to Kingsley. This is also evidence of his belief in reliance on in- stinct.46 Tom Thurnall's final turning to God indicates that he has not been looking deep enough to discover the " inner ideas."

Another characteristic of the novels attendant upon Kingsley's study of science is the realism, borderiing upon naturalism, which enters into his descriptions of disease and sin.47 A well-known illustration is Alton Locke's strange fever dream. The passage deals with an imaginary evolution through various stages of life: a madrepore, then, in turn, a shell, a remora, ostrich, mylodon, an ape, and finally, a human being.48 The chapter is not without power in its approach to modern symbolism. There is a curious parallel to it in a poem written by Kingsley in early boyhood.49 In relating Sandy Mackaye's walk with Alton Locke around Lon-

44 Alton Locke, ed. cit., p. 291. 45 Yeast, ed. cit., pp. 193-94. 46This also explains Kingsley's objection to asceticism and celibacy, as

he expressed it in The Saint's Tragedy and Hypatia. They are " unnatural" rather than " natural," in his opinion.

47 The literary realism in the novels of the nineteenth century is ascribed to scientific influence by Madeleine Cazamian (Le Roman et les Idees en Angleterre, L'Influence de la Science 1860-1890, Oxford University Press, 1923): " Le realisme litteraire est en partie fonde, on le verra, sur une conception scientifique de l'art; les th4ories nouvelles ont dans une tres large mesure oriente les vues et eclaire les horizons des romanciers; et lorsque ceux-ci expriment leurs idWes personelles, ils restent en rapport intime avec le mouvement intellectuel de leur temps."

48 Ed. cit., pp. 265-69. 49 PoeMs (London, 1907), p. 206, " Hypotheses Hypochondriacae," written

in 1835.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 599

don to prove to Locke that vice in his own city justifies a protest in art, the author includes another bit of realism to illustrate Mackaye's lesson:

It was a foul, chilly, foggy Saturday night. From the butchers' and greengrocers' shops the gas-lights flared and flickered, wild and ghastly over haggard groups of slip-shod dirty women, bargaining for scraps of stale meat and frost-bitten vegetables, wrangling about short weight and bad quality. Fish-stalls and fruit-stalls lined the edge of the greasy pave- ment, sending up odours as foul as the language of sellers and buyers . . . while above, hanging like cliffs over the streets-those narrow, brawling torrents of filth, and poverty, and sin,-the houses with their teeming load of life were piled up into the dingy choking night. A ghastly, deafen- ing, sickening sight it was. Go, scented Belgravian! and see what London is! and then go to the library which God has given thee-one often fears in vain-and see what science says this London might be! 30

The village revel to which Lancelot is taken by Tregarve,51 and the chapter in Two Years Ago entitled "Baalzebub's Banquet," afford further illustration of the novelist's method.

This realism is allowed further scope, because Kingsley used the novel as a vehicle for his views concerning the need of equal oppor- tunities for knowledge among all classes. Museums were to be an important factor in the dissemination of knowledge.52 Stangrave finds it "very hopeful to see your aristocracy joining in the gen- eral movement, and bringing their taste and knowledge to bear on the lower classes." 5 Kingsley also supported Mechanics' Insti- tutes.54 Lack of proper facilities for the education of the poor, in his opinion, would lead to " unhealthy superstition." "

50 Alton Locke, ed. cit., pp. 66-7. 51 Yeast, ed. cit., pp. 226-64, " The Village Revel." 52 Letters, I, 136-37, 279; II, 145-46, 150-51; Hypatia (London, 1913),

p. 11; Health and Education, ed. cit., pp. 6.5-6. This statement made by Kingsley in Politics for the People (June, 1848), p. 183: "The British Museum is my glory and joy; because it is almost the only place which is free to English citizens as such-where the poor and the rich may meet together, and . . . feel that 'The Lord is the Maker of them all,' " is repeated in essence by Mellot (Two Years Ago, ed. cit., p. 5): "I find everywhere schools, libraries, and mechanics' institutes springing up: and rich and poor meeting together more and more in the faith that God has made them all."

53 Two Years Ago, ed. cit., p. 11. 5' Ibid., p. 6. These educational societies were called by one nineteenth-

century writer, " mere vehicles for the transmission of heretical doctrines" (Felicia Skene, S. Alban's; or The Prisoner of Hope, London, 1853).

55Health and Education, ed. crit., pp. 144, 259.

4

600 Charles Kingsley and Science

In spite of his serious interest in scientific research, however, Kingsley could not resist ridiculing the unduly serious naturalist. There is, indeed, so much ridicule of science and men of science in The Water-Babies, that one wonders how the author expected to convey a serious impression of Darwinism. Professor Ptthmlln- sprts is obviously a comic figure.56 Kingsley was present at the debate between Owen and Huxley on the hippocampus question,57 and he seized upon the idea for a parody.58 It is significant that he refused to be concerned with the fundamental issue, perhaps because be considered the whole matter indefinite and hence not to be taken seriously until established more conclusively.

III

The nineteenth century witnessed a long quarrel between science and religion.59 To what extent did K-ingsley participate in the argument and allow it to enter into his novels? As early as 1843 he recognized that a struggle was coming.60 It is a simple matter to state that the novelist "took ground directly in Darwin's favor "; 61 it is just as easy to state that he was a devout believer in the tenets of the English Church.62 However, it is not directly

56 The Water-Babies, ed. cit., pp. 117-19. 57 Letters, II, 129. 58 The Water-Babies, ed. cit., p. 120. 69 One of the most comprehensive studies of this quarrel is contained in

J. M. Robertson's A History of Free Thought in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1919). There is a complete historical survey by Andrew D. White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology (N. Y., 1877). The terms " science" and "religion " are used in this study in their general meanings; " science to include its various branches and methods; "religion," of course, to denote systems of faith and worship of the spiritual. The terms, while not as exact as could be desired, are neverthe- less expedient because they are used so often in the period under con- sideration. For instance, note their use in the following: Fleeming Jenkin, "Technical Education," Fortnightly Review, X (July, 1868), 197-228; and Darwin, Life, ed. cit., I, 276.

10 Letters, I, 82: "In the present day a struggle is coming. A question must be tried-Is intellectual Science or the Bible, truth; and all Truth?" He does not attempt to answer the question.

I" White, op. cit., p. 82: " Men of larger mind like Kingsley and Farrar, with English and American broad churchmen generally, took ground directly in Darwin's favor."

82 Robertson, op. cit., II, 420: " Kingsley, as we have seen, stood at once by the Athanasian Creed and by Darwinism."

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 601

possible to reconcile these two views. He never ventured to do it for himself.63 His attitude, however, can be defined and the diffi- culties in his position indicated.

Iypatia, to which Kingsley gave the sub-title Old Foes with a New Face, is made the vehicle for the author's views concerning the state of religion in the nineteenth century. Then, as in the Alexandrian era, " the minds of men, cut adrift from their ancient moorings, wandered wildly over pathless seas of speculative doubt.

64 The faults of his characters, whether the result of futile philosophy, worldliness, love of power, agnosticism, or ignorance, were also the faults of Kingsley's contemporaries, in his opinion.65 In its condemnation of asceticism, the novel offers an interesting contrast to Newman's Callista. Kingsley believed in the teach- ings of science too wholeheartedly to countenance nunneries and monasteries:

C'est un roman historique, impr4gn6 d'intentions religieuses; le mouve- ment d'Oxford, l'?tglise romaine, le celibat des pretres et l'ideal monastique, tels sont les adversaires contemporains auxquels Kingsley fait la guerre, en decouvrant leurs origines ou leurs analogies dans l'Alexandrie du Ve si6cle.68

Philammon's monkish ignorance of the world and iypatia's trust in " wire-drawn dreams of metaphysics "

67 are both indications of the author's belief that no one should abandon trust in his own instincts and natural desires. Hypatia's world was a "brilliant cloud-world." 68 She did not wish to descend from " the moun- tain heights of science" into "the foul fields and farmyards of earthly practical life. . " 69 There is no direct statement of the

63 Other novelists asserted themselves more decisively. See, among these, DuMaurier, Trilby (N. Y., 1894), p. 275; Disraeli, Coningsby (London, 1919, first published in 1844), p. 152; Disraeli, Lothair (London, 1920, first published in 1870), pp. xv-xvi; also p. 409.

64 Hypatia, ed. cit., p. ix. 85 Ibid., p. 345. 68 Louis Cazamian, Le Roman Social en Angleterre, 1830-1850 (Paris,

1903), p. 527. For a discussion of Kingsley and the Oxford movement, see Fritz KWhler, Charles Kingsley als religibser tendenzschriftsteller (Mar- burg, 1912), p. 8.

67 Hypatia, ed. cit., p. 38. 68 Ibid., p. 307. 69 Ibid., p. 36.

602 Charles Kingsley and Science

quarrel between science and religion, although Kingsley's neo- Platonic views are set forth in Hypatia's lectures, and his belief in the creation as evidence of a divine creator is stated by Pambo.70 The niovel, as a whole, reflects the confusion of thought existing in the author's own century.

Kingsley himself, in his early years. did nTot know what phi- losophy to adopt as his own, and not until 1841, after a long period of religious doubt,71 did he decide to become a minister in the Church of England.72 Nor did he feel that any inconsistency existed between his religious beliefs and his scientific knowledge.73 He was influenced by his reading of Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, relying on its doctrine of first cause, and its assertion that no con- flict need exist between the natural and the supernatural, the seen and the unseen. It is necessary to keep in mind the eclectic nature of Kingsley's philosophy. When planning a life of St. Theresa, for example, he decided to read, as he wrote in a letter in 1841, " Tersteegen, Jacob Behmen, Madam Guyon, Alban, Butler, Fanelon, some of Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus, and Cole- ridge's Aids, etc., also some of Kant, and a German history of mysticism." 74 He was a student of Paley's doctrines, accepting natural theology without reservation.75 In a letter to Frederick Maurice, his master, he spoke of working out points of natural theology by the light of Huxley, Darwin, and Lyell.76 In his opinion:

... we might accept all that Mr. Darwin, all that Professor Huxley, all that other most able men, have so learnedly and so acutely written on

70 Ibid., p. 92. Pambo speaks of the whole creation as a book wherein the word of God may be read. Ibid., p. 114.

71 Letters, I, 49. 72 Ibid., I, 34. 7s Coleridge, confronted by a not dissimilar problem, had no difficulty in

resolving it. See Robert Shafer, Christianity and Naturalism (Yale Uni- versity Press, 1926), p. 41.

74 Letters, I, 48. 75 Natural theology to him meant "what can be learned concerning God

Himself " from the universe. Westminster Sermons (London, 1894), pp. v-vi. This, however, did not imply speaking of God in materilal terms. See the objection to this in Literary and Historical Essays (London, 1888), p. 157, " Phaethon."

78 Letters, II, 155.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 603

physical science, and yet preserve our natural theology on exactly the same basis as that on which Butler and Paley left it.7

This is not a satisfactory statement, but it must be remembered that many of the startling discoveries in scienice were then recent,78 and that it was possible for one to maintain his belief in religion on the ground of the tentative nature of the discoveries. Kingsley held to his faith that matter reflected spirit.79 He stated to a friend that matter should be studied, not for its own sake, but as the countenance of God.80 Believing, as he did, that a "divine element " underlay all physical nature,81 he maintained that all the discoveries made in physical science simply added to the glory of the Creator. In one of his lectures, he argued further:

We shall dread no inroads of materialism; because we shall be standing upon that spiritual ground which underlies . . . the material.82

That it is not always possible to begin with the spiritual, Kingsley recognized, at least in part for he caused Lancelot to argue against it: Those laws of Nature must reveal Him, and be revealed by Him, whatever else is not. Man's scientific conquest of Nature must be one phase of His kingdom on Earth, whatever else is not.83

Alton endeavors to argue with Dean Winnstay on a similar point, but loses.84 The Dean maintains that even miracles may be the orderly result of some natural law which man has not yet dis- covered.V5 Barnakill promises to lead Lancelot to a land where such laws may be found.86

The main difficulty lies in Kingsley's attempt to identify spirit- ual or moral law with physical law.87 In this attempt he was not alone. Later in the century, Henry Drummond asked:

Westminster Sermons, ed. cit., p. xxii. 78 L. T. Townsend, The Bible and other Ancient Literature in the Nine-

teenth Century (N. Y., 1889), p. 24. 79 My Winter Garden," ed. cit., p. 153. 80 Letters, I, 63. 81 Ibid., II, 127. 82The Roman and the Teuton (London, 1891), pp. 341-42. 88 Yeast, ed. cit., pp. 96-7. 8" Ibid., p. 289. 84 Alton Locke, ed. cit., p. 291. 88 Yeast, ed. cit., pp. 346-47. 87 Spiritual and physical law should not be identified. The first may be

called "prescriptive," while the second is primarily "descriptive." How-

604 Charles Kingsley and Science

. . is it not plain that one thing thinking men are waiting for is the introduction of Law among the Phenomena of the Spiritual World? Whein that comes we shall offer to such men a truly scientific theoloay. And the reign of Law will transform the whole Spiritual World as it has already transformed the Natural World.88

Kingsley's theory of moral evolution, as will be shown in the next section, embodied this belief in spiritual law.89 He also main- tained a peculiar theory that the soul secreted the body.90 Huxley pointed out to him the absurdity of any possibility of proving this.9'

Such theories, however, were not his only applications of science to religion. He called upon his knowledge of natural science to prove and defend his faith. He was one of the first to urge upon travelers a scientific exploration of Palestine, in order to aid in determining the chronology of the Bible.92 Then, too, in matters of doctrine, he turned to science for evidence. In writing to Thomas Cooper, concerning the doctrine of the " Three in One," he argued that this was no more contrary to experience than were certain scientific peculiarities which could not be explained.93

Here it appears that Kingsley's religion was unshaken by scien- tific discoveries because he felt that science had not proved itself omniscient. He did not recognize the serious problem that would be raised were science to find a material explanation for " multi- plicity in unity" and the other matters on which he rested his faith. If God is given the province of the " unknowable," then, in proportion as the knowledge of science becomes greater, the province

ever, Kingsley appears to have recognized this difficulty. See, for example, The Roman and the Teuton, ed. cit., pp. 317-18.

88 Natural Law in the Spiritual World (N. Y., 1885), p. ix. It was against such a philosophy that Huxley argued in a letter to Kingsley, May 22, 1863 (Huxley, op. cit., I, 261): " I know nothing of Necessity, abominate the word Law (except as meaning that we know nothing to the contrary). . . . My own fundamental axiom of speculative philosophy is that materialism and spiritualism are opposite poles of the same ab- surdity-the absurdity of imagining that we know anything about either spirit or matter. . .."

89 Drummond maintained (op. cit., p. xiii), that the application of physical law to the spiritual world did not differ from Bagehot's ex- tension of natural science to the political world, or Spencer's application of natural law to the social world.

90 Letters, II, 133 and 156. 92 Letters, II, 141-42. 91 Huxley, op. cit., I, 261. 93 Ibid., I, 311.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 605

of God must conceivably become narrower, until, if science ex- plained every phenomenon, then God would be "explained away." 94 Kingsley failed to perceive this problem, but he was not alone in failing to perceive it. His mistakes, do not seem so serious, for example, as those of his contemporary, Philip Henry Gosse, the author of Omphalos.95

While it is true, then, that Kingsley deliberately avoided coming to terms with the problems raised by science, it is equally true that he did not dogmatically refuse to consider the propositions set forth by science.96 He definitely stated in his novels, sermons, and letters, his opinion that where science and religion seem to con- flict, " it is our duty to believe that they are reconcilable by fuller knowledge." 97 To Kingsley, as to Dr. Benjamin Jowett, his con- temporary, science " had revealed . . . that the progress of mankind lay in complete resignation to the Divine Will, and in obedience to the laws of nature in conjunction with it." 98 In view of his liberal attitude, we cannot condemn Kingsley for his refusal to enter into the strife, and call him superficial.99 So far as he held

94 Shafer in Christianity and Naturalism (pp. 6-7) recognizes the serious effects of this belief. Compare also the arguments in Samuel Butler, The

Fair Haven (London, 1913, first published in 1873). 6 Edmund Gosse in Father and Son (N. Y., 1907), pp. 115-17, pointed

out the seriousness of his father's unfortunate attempt to reconcile re-

ligion and the discoveries of nineteenth-century geologists. " This was

interpreted as meaning that God put the fossils in rocks to test man's

faith . . . even Charles Kingsley, from whom my father had expected the

most instant appreciation, wrote that he could not give up 'the painful

and slow conclusion of five and twenty years' study of geology, and believe

that God has written on the rocks one enormous and superfluous lie.'"

Note Hugh Miller's mistaken conception of geology in Footprints of the

Creator (Edinburgh, 1872), p. 12; also Drummond's attitude in The

Ascent of Man (N. Y., 1894), pp. 341-42. 96In a lecture at Bideford, 1871 (Letters, II, 278) Kingsley maintained

that " the physical origin of man was strictly a physioloaical and anatomical question.... However physical science may decide the controversy, I say

boldly, as a man and as a priest, that its decision will not affect one of my

duties here, one of my hopes for hereafter...

97 Alton Locke, ed. cit., p. 133. 98 E. F. Benson, As We Were (London, 1931), p. 129. For another point

of view, see John Stuart Mill, Three Essays on Religion (N. Y., 1874).

99See the passage in Robertson, op. cit., II, 327, beainning: "Kingsley deserves commemoration as the Anglican cleric who in his time, following

in the steps of Baden Powell, most enercretically urged his fellow-Christians to recognize the importance of science and accept its established conclusions."

606 Charles Kingsley and Science

it consistent with his religious beliefs, he accepted science and did all that lay within his power to advance the cause of scientific knowledge.100 Where the two conflicted, he remained true to his religious beliefs, trusting in the future to find the solution.

IV

That very science which led many to despair in the nineteenth century led Kingsley to hope. Every evidence of order in Nature was to him further proof that the world had not been abandoned to the moral chaos which would of necessity follow a belief in the ineluctable nature of determinism.101 His study of science might well have forced upon him a distrust of Nature as it did upon so many of his contemporaries.102 To him, it was a matter of the point of view adopted; for he believed Nature to be both kind and cruel,103 and one's final attitude, therefore, dependent on the emphasis.104 He himself believed that kindness predominated. His faith in Nature induced him to have faith in science, faith that the scientific discoveries would be blessings to mankind. However, his was not a blind admiration. He could foresee a time when " the triumphs of science " might be a curse:

100 Ibid. 101 The Water of Life, ed. cit., pp. 180-81: "Horrible, I say, and in-

creasingly horrible, not merely to the sentimentalist, but to the man of sound reason and of sound conscience, must the scientific aspect of nature become, if a mere abstraction called law is to be the sole ruler of the universe."

102 See the passage in Mill, op. cit., pp. 28-30, beginning: "In sober truth, nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another are Nature's every day performances. Killing, the most criminal act recognized by human laws, Nature does once to every being that lives, and in a large proportion of cases after protracted tortures such as only the greatest monsters whom we read of ever purposely in- flicted on their living fellow-creatures." Note the similarity between this and a lecture by Kingsley, in 1859 (Letters, II, 97) in which he said: "Nature, insidious, inexpensive, silent, sends no roar of cannon, no glitter of arms to do her work; she gives no warning note of preparation; she has no protocol, nor any diplomatic advances. . . . By the very same laws by which every blade of grass grows, and every insect springs to life in the sunbeam, she kills, and kills, and kills, and is never tired of killing.

103 Miscellanies, ed. cit., II, 306, "North Devon." 104 Letters, II, 283.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 607

I can conceive them-may God avert the omen! -the instruments of a more crushing executive centralisation, of a more utter oppression of the bodies and souls of men, than the world has yet seen. I can conceive-may God avert the omen!--centuries hence, some future world-ruler sitting at the junction of all railroads, at the centre of all telegraph wires-a world- spider in the omphalos of his world-wide web; and smiting from thence everything that dared to lift its head or utter a cry of pain, with a swiftness and surety to which the craft of a Justinian or a Philip II, were but clumsy and impotent.105

But even then, it was not an agency outside of man which was to be all-evil, but rather, an agency within man himself, his own will. " All, all outward things," he further stated in the lecture quoted above, "be sure of it, are good or evil, exactly as they are in the hands of good men or of bad." If the good predominate, " science may scale Olympus after all." 10'

Kingsley was primarily interested in science because it could ameliorate the condition of mankind; and hence, pure science was secondary, in his opinion, to humanitarianism.'07 However, in at least one essay, he recognized the other point of view as important:

Perhaps we are now entering upon it; an age in which mankind shall be satisfied with the "triumphs of science," and shall look merely to the greatest comfort (call it not happiness) of the greatest number. . . . But one hope there is, and more than a hope-one certainty, that however satisfied enlightened public opinion may become with the results of science, and the progress of the human race, there will be always a more en- lightened private opinion or opinions, which will not be satisfied there- with at all; a few men of genius. . . . These will be the men of science, whether physical or spiritual. Not merely the men who utilise and apply that which is known (useful as they plainly are), but the men who themselves discover that which was unknown, and are generally deemed useless, if not hurtful to their race.108

lie continually stressed the belief that science existed not merely for the good of man, but also for what he called "the glory of God." 109 His novels served both causes, pointing out the prac- tical effects of science, and representing its truths as evidence of the glory of God.

10' Historical Lectures and Essays, ed. cit., pp. 230-31. 10e Ibid., pp. 233-34. 107 Health and Education, ed. cit., pp. 290-91. 108 Historical Lectures and Essays, ed. cit., p. 232. 109 Sermons on National Subjects (London, 1890), pp. 110- I.

608 Charles Kingsley and Science

This aspect of Kingsley's philosophy explains his activity in the Christian Socialist movement.110 Men in the early nineteenth century had regarded poverty as inevitable, aiid hence, supported charity rather than reform. This point of view, however, changed, as science showed disease to be curable, and as it also introduced industry which promised work for all. Improvement of condi- tions, if not actual progress, appeared possible, in spite of the fact that organized religion still maintained that only the future life could be perfect.-11 Maurice, Kingsley, and their associates in the movement, attempted to direct reform along Christian lines. Kingsley declared in a placard addressed to the workmen of Eng- lalnd that there could be no true freedom "without virtue, no true science without religion, no true industry without the fear of God, and love to your fellow-citizens." 112 He contributed liberally to Politics for the People,'13 and to The Christian Socialist.114 If the conditions of the working-men improved as a result of the Christian Socialist movement, no small credit must be given to the efforts of 'Kingsley.115

The humanitarianism of Kiingsley did not, however, become

110 The movement was directed against the prevalent laissez-faire attitude regarding the condition of the laboring class. It is discussed here only 4s it pertained to Kingsley and his attitude toward science. Complete discussions of its various aspects may be found in the following: H. De B. Gibbins, English Social Reformers (London, 1902); Kohler, op. cit.; Hugh Martin, editor, Christian Social Reformers of the Nineteenth Cen- tury (London, 1927); Charles E. Raven, Christian Socialism (London, 1920); Stubbs, op. cit.

11Maurice was deprived of his post at King's College because "he dared to maintain that eternal life was a state in which men could live here on earth, and to act up to his belief." Raven, op. cit., p. 13.

Letters, I, 119. 13Politics for the People (London, 1848), pp. 5, 28, 38, 58, 136, 183,

228, 246. 114 His contributions to The Christian Socialist were chiefly to show that

the Bible does not support " priestcraft, superstition and tyranny .

(i, 9), Raven, op. cit., p. 159. 11 Stubbs, op. cit., p. 104, speaks of Kingsley as " the popular hero of

the movement," and calls Maurice " its directing spirit." In the opinion of Raven, op. cit., p. 97, without Kingsley " the movement might never have been started at all: without him it could never have achieved its speedy recognition or its lasting influence." See also Raven's estimate of Alton Locke in this connection, pp. 170-71.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 609

sentimental. No one could win his respect who was not morally strong."16 His nature was emotional, but not extremely passionate. He considered discipline more essential than feeling.117 This Platonistic view is reflected in the author's attitude toward Christ- mas, "a blest day," which

. . .aye reminds us, year by year, What 'tis to be a man: to curb and spurn The tyrant in us; that ignobler self Which boasts, not loathes, its likeness to the brute, And owns no good save ease, no ill save pain, No purpose, save its share in that wild war In which, through countless ages, living things Compete in internecine greed.:1"

Kingsley's study of science impressed upon him a realization of the continual change taking place in matter." " All but God is changing day by day," the novelist maintained.'20 With this con- cept of change in Kingsley's philosophy is involved the concept of moral evolution and the belief in progress through continual change. The Water-Babies reveals Kingsley's peculiar interpre- tation of Darwin's theory. Physical evolution became moral evolu- tion in his thought. For each physical change in life, some moral reason could be found, for instance, industriousness or kindness.'21 Believing in design in Nature, Kingsley therefore also believed

11" He believed that individual reform was imperative. "I don't deny, my friends, it is much cheaper and pleasanter to be reformed by the devil than by God; for God will only.reform society on condition of our reform- ing every man his own self-while the devil is quite ready to help us to mend the laws and the parliament, earth and heaven, without ever starting such an impertinent and 'personal' request, as that a man should mend himself." Politics for the People, ed. cit. (May 13, 1848), p. 29.

117 Kingsley once stated: "When I talk, then, of excitement, I do not wish to destroy excitability, but to direct it into the proper channel, and to bring it under subjection. I have been reading Plato on this very sub- ject. . . ." Letters, II, 33.

118 Poems, ed. cit., pp. 317-18, "Christmas Day." 119 See, for example, Two Years Ago, ed. cit., p. 14. 120 Poems, ed. cit., p. 10, "The Saint's Tragedy." 121 See his arguments in The Water-Babies. As has been indicated

earlier, the analogy between physical and moral law is not sound. See also Hugh Miller's viewpoint, op. cit., p. 300.

610 Charles Kingsley and Science

that purpose motivated each change.122 He expressed this teleo- logical view often in his letters 123 and in his poetry.12'

Kingsley's faith in progress was not unalloyed with doubt, His own century, at first so full of discovery and advancement, seemed, at the mid-turn, almost " on the eve of stagnation." 125 His genera- tion, in his opinion, was living on the labours of an earlier one.120 Railroads, telegraphs-these were not progress, but " the fruits of past progress ":

Progress is inward, of the soul. . . . The self-help and self-determination of the independent soul-that is the root of progress, and the more human beings who have that, the more progress there is in the world.127

This statement perhaps marks him a deeper thinker than those who believe in wholesale progress. Science was not able to delude him into blind adoration of its material discoveries, though he considered moral progress entirely probable:

If there be an order, a progress, they must be moral; fit for the guidance of moral beings; limited by the obedience which those moral beings pay to what they know. And such an order, such a progress as that, I have good hope that we shall find in history.128

The same spirit is evident in his poem, " The World's Age":

Still the race of Hero-spirits Pass the lamp from hand to hand.129

Science was able to show him nothing that could contradict this belief in order and moral progress. Evolution, interpreted as moral, strengthened his hope. Alton Locke in his fever dream sees a vision of a maiden who prophesies to him man's return to Paradise:

122 Madam How and Lady Why, ed. cit., p. 6. 123 Letters, II, 254. 124 Poems, ed. cit., p. 319, " September 21, 1870." 125 Hlistorical Lectures and Essays, ed. cit., p. 229. In Two Years Ago,

ed. cit., p. 254, he speaks of " this blessed age of ignorance, yclept of progress and science," and of "how our grandchildren will laugh at the epithets! "

126 Yeast, op. cit., p. 8. 127 Historical Lectures and Essays, ed. cit., p. 230. 128 The Roman and the Teuton, ed. cit., pp. 337-38. 129 Poems, ed. cit., p. 245.

Mary Wheat Hanawalt 611

You went forth in ignorance and need-you shall return in science and wealth, philosophy and art.180

Thus, science is discovered to have played no minor role in the life of Charles Kingsley. It enriched his art and gave to it a definite value beyond contemporary initerest. He, in his turn, re- paid his teacher well, popularizing scientific knowledge and the advantages of scientific study. It is true that he was not always con- sistent-but he was as consistent as a man who was both a clergy- man and an amateur scientist could be in the nineteenth century. In a letter to John Bullar, he speaks of himself as a man contain- ing "the strangest jumble of superstition and . . . reverence for scientific induction which forbids me (simply for want of certain facts) to believe heaps of things in which I see no a priori impos- sibility." 131 He realized that his sanction of both religion and sci- ence would cause some people to misunderstand him:

I shall, in due time, suffer the fate of most who see both sides and be considered by both parties a hypocrite and a traitor.'82

This receptivity to ideas, however, has been one reason for his continued literary reputation; and until a later generation may succeed in solving the problems introduced into philosophy by sci- ence, there may be many who will continue to accept Kingsley's attitude of compromise.133

Waterloo, Iowa.

130 Alton Locke, ed. cit., p. 275. 181 Letters, II, 50. 182 Ibid., p. 160.

133 The following passage from Madam How and Lady Why (ed. cit., pp. 320-21) embodies a full statement of his philosophy: "All we can do is, to keep up the childlike heart, humble and teachable, though we grew as wise as Newton or as Humboldt; and to follow, as good Socrates bids us, Reason whithersoever it lead us, sure that it will never lead us wrong, unless we have darkened it by hasty and conceited fancies of our own.... But if we love and reverence and trust Fact and Nature, which are the will, not merely of Madam How, or even of Lady Why, but of Almighty God Himself . . . we shall have our reward by discovering continually fresh wonders and fresh benefits to man; and find it as true of science, as it is of this life and of the life to come-that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what God has prepared for those who love Him."