THE PEOPLE'S COLUMN

Northern Advocate, 20 February 1926, Page 6

THE PEOPLE'S COLUMN

[Our columns are quite open to tht public for the discussion of m:itti>Tt of public concern. We invite cor responded ce, but do not identify ourselves with the views expressed by our correspondents.— Ed.] DARWIN'S DEATH-BED. (To the Editor). Sir, —T had not intended returning to this question, though Mr Mitchell's request to produce Sir Francis Darwin's denial of Lady Hope's article amounts almost to a challenge of the veracity of my statement that Lady Hope's assertions had been authoriatively denied by Sir Francis Darwin. But in looking the matter up, a few illuminating sidelights have appeared, which show to what extraordinary

lengths emotionalism can cerry certain I natures —and naturally, a mind swayed by emotionalism cannot be amenable to pure reason. The emotionalism of the Lady Hope type is a positive danger to all intellectual honesty; and unfortunately it appears in its most flagrant forms in connection with differences of religious views. Lady Hope's ease is. by no means isolated. Scores of cases can be found where emotionalism of this kind has produced hallucinations, so that the person, ap parently in all sincerity, states as truth what can be demonstrated to be falsehood; and usually the statements are so circumstantial that it is difficult for the ordinary mind to grasp they arc the product of a mind unbalanced by .emotionalism. It is, indeed, a form of hysteria. Lady Hope's statement appeared in the ''Boston Herald" in the column written by "The Religious i Rambler" Lady Hope is a pronounced pietest of the Evangical type, and is stated by the writer "to have spent a considerable time in the United States, attending the Billy Sunday meetings, the Northficld conferences and other similar gatherings" Any woman who could spend much time attending the Billy Sunday meetings as a means of religious uplift, must necessarily be unbalanced emotionally, for Billy Sunday is notorious as possessing the most comprehensive vocabulary of vulgar slang of any man who ever spoke in public. Before taking up Sir Francis Darwin's denial, let us consider some "probabilities." Is it probable, that a person of Lady Hope's views would have been '' asked to sit by the bedside of Darwin?" Is it probable that the great naturalist was poring over the book of Hebrews in rapt devotion, or that he should call it the "Royal book?" Is it it probable he should have been "greatly distressed" at having the "unformed ideas" of. earlier years recalled. Darwin's "earlier years" were spent in pure scientific research; why should this distress him? And what is meant by "his ideas took like wildfire and people made a religion of them." This reference cannot be to anything published before "The, Origin of Species," and when that book was published Darwin was fifty years of age, so that Lady Hope's statement that Darwin was greatly distressed- at having the unformed ideas of earlier years recalled, and that his ideas took like wildfire and people made a religion of them" is demonstratab'y untrue. Lady Hope states "Darwin was almost bedridden some months before he died." Darwin died on April 19, 1882. On the previous December 13 he paid a, visit to London for a week. Later he had several heart attacks, but continued to get about, and only two days before his death he recorded the progress of experiments on which his son was engaged. The letter written by Sir Francis Darwin to the Watchman Examiner" in 1915, is not obtainable at the moment; but I re- i produce a letter written a little later by Sir Francis, saying lie had written to the above paper denying Lady Hope?s statements, but as the denial is staged in this letter it is sufficient. It may be interesting to note that the same article containing Lady Hope's statement contained ' an equally false statement about Professor Huxley. Tt would bo an object lesson for the general reader to travese this also, as another example of how a certain type of mind perverts the truth when emotionalism gains the ascendency.—l am, etc. T. A. BLACK. (From the Literary Guide, January 1, 1916). December 5, 'ls. Dear Sir, —I have already seen Lady Hope's account of my father and his religious views and have written to the editor of- the ■'' Watchman Examiner'' denying the genuineness of her stater ments. Neither I, nor any. member of my family, have any knowledge of ( Lady Hope or of her visits to the Down. And in what she writes there is. internal evidence that her statements cannot possibly lie true. My father could not have become actively I md openly Christain without the knowled of his family. And, in fact, no such change occurred. His account of lis religious views, published in "The Life .and Letters of Charles Darwin" hov/ i|:n to have been an Agnostic, ■iid th.-re is not the slightest reason " !■;■■;,■• n thr.*- he changed his views : * vr'tiii': the autobiography.—■ <■■■■■■■ ''-:'!-hfuliy. , FRANCIS DARWIN. f j