win to C. Ridley[88] (Nov. 28, 1878). A clergyman, Dr. Pusey, had
asserted that Darwin had written the _Origin of Species_ with some
relation to theology. Darwin writes emphatically, "Many years ago when
I was collecting facts for the 'Origin,' my belief in what is called a
personal God was as firm as that of Dr. Pusey himself, and as to the
eternity of matter I never troubled myself about such insoluble
questions." The expression "many years ago" refers to the time of his
voyage round the world, as has already been pointed out. Darwin means
by this utterance that the views which had gradually developed in his
mind in regard to the origin of species were quite compatible with the
faith of the Church.

If we consider all these utterances of Darwin in regard to religion
and to his outlook on life (Weltanschauung), we shall see at least so
much, that religious reflection could in no way have influenced him in
regard to the writing and publishing of his book on _The Descent of
Man_. Darwin had early won for himself freedom of thought, and to this
freedom he remained true to the end of his life, uninfluenced by the
customs and opinions of the world around him.

Darwin was thus inwardly fortified and armed against the host of
calumnies, accusations, and attacks called forth by the publication of
the _Origin of Species_, and to an even greater extent by the
appearance of the _Descent of Man_. But in his defence he could rely
on the aid of a band of distinguished auxiliaries of the rarest
ability. His faithful confederate, Huxley, was joined by the botanist
Hooker, and, after longer resistance, by the famous geologist Lyell,
whose "conversion" afforded Darwin peculiar satisfaction. All three
took the field with enthusiasm in defence of the natural descent of
man. From Wallace, on the other hand, though he shared with him the
idea of natural selection, Darwin got no support in this matter.
Wallace expressed himself in a strange manner. He admitted everything
in regard to the morphological descent of man, but maintained, in a
mystic way, that something else, something of a spiritual nature must
have been added to what man inherited from his animal ancestors.
Darwin, whose esteem for Wallace was extraordinarily high, could not
understand how he could give utterance to such a mystical view in
regard to man; the idea seemed to him so "incredibly strange" that he
thought some one else must have added these sentences to Wallace's
pa