A New Medley of Memories Part 16

Goethe, W. von ... "Draw back the curtains, and let in more light."

Goldsmith, Oliver (to the question, "Is your mind at ease?" in a melancholy voice) ... "No, it is not."

Haydn, Joseph ... "G.o.d preserve the Emperor!"

Hood, Thomas (in a tone of relief) ... "Dying--dying."

Humboldt, A. von ... "Wie herrlich diese Strahlen! sie schienen die Erde zum Himmel zu rufen."

Jerrold, Douglas, asked how he felt, said "he felt like one who was waiting and was waited for."

Johnson, Samuel ... "G.o.d bless you!"

Keats, John ... "I feel the flowers growing over me."

Knox, John ... "about 11 of the clock gave a deep sigh, exclaimed, 'Now it is come,' and presently expired."

Lacordaire, Henri ... "Mon Dieu! mon Dieu! ouvrez-moi, ouvrez-moi."

Mackintosh, Sir James ... "Happy!"

Mary Queen of Scots ... "In Te, Domine, speravi."

Mathews, Charles ... "I am ready."

Mezzofanti (Cardinal) ... "Andiamo, andiamo presto in Paradiso!"

Mirabeau, Victor ... "Let me die to the sounds of delicious music."

Napoleon Bonaparte ... "Tete d'armee."

Pope, Alexander ... "There is nothing meritorious but virtue and friends.h.i.+p; and indeed friends.h.i.+p itself is but a part of virtue."

Rabelais ... "Je vais querir le grand peut-etre."

Scott, Walter ... "G.o.d bless you!"

Ta.s.so, Torquato ... "In ma.n.u.s Tuas, Domine."

Wordsworth, William ... "G.o.d bless you!"

Ximenes, Cardinal ... "In Te, Domine, speravi."

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II. PAGE 136.

DARWIN'S CREDO

"Science and Christ have nothing to do with each other, except in as far as the habit of scientific investigation makes a man cautious about accepting any proofs. _As far as I am concerned, I do not believe that any revelation has ever been made_. With regard to a future life, every one must draw his own conclusions from vague and contradictory probabilities."--(Letter to a Jena student, dated June 5th, 1879.)

"Mr. Darwin was much less reticent to myself than in his letter to Jena. He distinctly stated that, in his opinion, a vital or somatic principle, apart from the somatic energy, had no more _locus standi_ in the human than in any other races of the animal kingdom--a conclusion that seems a mere corollary of, and indeed a position tantamount with, his essential doctrine of human and b.e.s.t.i.a.l ident.i.ty of nature and genesis."--(Dr. Robert Lewins, in the _Journal of Science_.)

It may be instructive to subjoin to the above _Credo_ of Darwin those of three other eminent Victorians, whom the present generation would probably p.r.o.nounce it unkind and ill-mannered to brand as atheistical or un-Christian. Let them speak for themselves:--

_Stuart Mill_: "This world is a bungled business, in which no clear-sighted man can see any signs either of wisdom or of G.o.d."

_Huxley_: "Scepticism is the highest of duties: blind faith the one unpardonable sin."

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_Matthew Arnold_: "The existence of G.o.d is an unverifiable hypothesis."

Dr. Liddon, preaching in St. Paul's Cathedral on the Sunday after Darwin's death, devoted his matchless oratory to a eulogy in which there was not the remotest reference to the fact that the subject of it was a man who had formally repudiated not only Christianity but revealed religion. Here are the eloquent canon's opening words:--

"These reflections may naturally lead us to think of the eminent man, whose death during the past week is an event of European importance; since he is the author of nothing less than a revolution in the modern way of treating a large district of thought, while his works have shed high distinction on English science."

Dr. Laing, of Cambridge University, on the other hand, expressed with refres.h.i.+ng candour his objections to the proposed interment of Darwin in Westminster Abbey:--

"They urged his claim to Abbey honours on the very ground of his having been the chief promoter of the atheistic mock-doctrines of evolution of species and the ape-descent of man. It is, therefore, as the high priest of dirt-wors.h.i.+p that the English nation has a.s.signed to him the privilege of being interred in a temple dedicated to the service of his Creator."