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[...]

Before concluding, I may, without violation of any confidence, mention that both viva voce and in writing, Mr Darwin was

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much less reticent to myself than in his letter to Jena. For, in answer to the direct question I felt myself justified, some years since, in addressing to that immortal expert in biology as to the bearing of his researches on the existence of an anima or soul in man, he distinctly stated that, in his opinion, a vital or 'spiritual' principle, apart from inherent somatic energy, had no more locus standi in the human than in the other races of the animal kingdom - a conclusion that seems a mere corollary of, or indeed a position tantamount with, his essential doctrine of human and bestial identity of nature and genesis.-

Robert Lewins, M.D.