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If I want some good passages against opposition of divines to progress of knowledge, see Lyell¹ on Scrope, Quarterly Review. 1827?

Descent of Man

In Walter Scotts² life. Tom Purdie, (beginning of Vol V) finally says "he knew no more what was pretty & what ugly than a cow—" so it is with all uneducated. — — Old man at Cambridge observed the ignorant, merely looked at picture as works of imitation. — Hence pleasure in the beautiful, (distinct from sexual beauty) is acquired taste. — Whilst music extremely primitive. — almost like tastes of mouth & smell.³

1. Scrope, G. P., Memoir on the Geology of Central France; Including the Volcanic Formations of Auvergne, the Velay, and Vevarais, with a Volume of Maps and Plates, Murray, London, 1827; Quarterly Review, 36:437—483, 1827. Passages in this review of Scrope by Lyell to which Darwin must have had reference are: p. 440, footnote, "In short, Mr. Scrope's elastic vehicle is the counterpart of Lamarck's nervous fluid, that 'subtle and invisible agent,' to which he attributes not only muscular motion, but ideas, sentiment and intelligence. (Philosophie Zoologique, Part 3, Chap. 2.) If in attempting to trace back the phenomena of heat, as well as those of the vital functions, we ultimately reach a point which eludes the gross apprehension of our senses, why not unreservedly avow our utter inability to solve such problems?" P. 475, "But the discoveries of astronomy were most pre-eminently beneficial, not so much from their practical utility, although in this respect their services were of inestimable value, but because they gave the most violent shock to the prejudices and long-received opinions of men of all conditions. . . . [Galileo's] sufferings in the cause of truth did not extinguish the spirit of the Inquisition, but gave a death blow to its power, and set posterity free, at least from all open and avowed opposition, to enlarge the Boundaries of the experimental sciences."
2. Scott, Walter: this reference not traced.
3. The words "Descent of Man" are crayoned in above this paragraph.

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Understanding language seem simplits case of Association. — Elephant often given food & word open your mouth said, recognizes that sound as perfectly as a man. — Probably, language commenced in some necessary connexion between things & voice, as roaring for lion &c &c. (in same way alphabet, arose from letters, symbol of word beginning with the sound of letter) — crying yawning laughing being necessary sounds . . . not produced by will by but by corporeal structure. —

Devotional feelings, probably some distant power of the mind — superstition & charity & prayer, or eloquent request.