Subsequent to my trip to Carlyle's house I came across this. Fascinating.
Thomas Carlyle made the the following
biting remarks to a friend who visited
him a short time before his death:
"The 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 have
known three generations of the Darwins
- 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 his grand-father's effects he found a seal engraven
with this legend: Omnia ex conchis (everything from a cockle shell)! I saw
the naturalist not many months ago;
told him that I had read his Origin of
Species and other books; that he had by no means satisfied me that men were
descended from monkeys, but had gone
far towards 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
well-meaning, 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 around 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. All things from frog-spawn;
the gospel of dirt the order of the day.
The older I grow - and now I 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 enjoy Him for ever.'
No gospel of dirt, teaching that men have
descended from frogs through monkeys can ever set that aside."
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