RECORD: Anon. 1877. Mr. Carlyle on Darwinism. The Times (17 January): 5. CUL-DAR132.3a. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 2.2021. RN2

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin.

According to the editors of the Correspondence, this was a "'forged letter', purportedly written by Thomas Carlyle to a friend". A comic poem referring to this appeared in Punch 27 January 1877, p. 34. See CUL-DAR200.3.72.


[page] 5

MR. CARLYLE ON "DARWINISM."—The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald publishes the following extract of a letter written to a friend by Mr. Carlyle:—"A good sort of man is this Darwin, and well-meaning, but with very little intellect. Ah, it's 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 pretense, professing to believe what 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 chief 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."

[in Darwin's hand:] Times Jan. 1877.


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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

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