Charles Darwin Author:Charles Darwin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER in. RELIGION. My father in his published works was reticent on the matter of religion, and what he has left on the subject was not written with a v... more »iew to publication. I believe that his reticence arose from several causes. He felt strongly that a man's religion is an essentially private matter, and one concerning himself alone. This is indicated by the following extract from a letter of 1879 :—f " What my own views may be is a question of no consequence to any one but myself. But, as you ask, I may state that my judgment often fluctuates . . . In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an Atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. I think that generally (and more and more as I grow older), but not always, that an Agnostic would be tho more correct description of my state of mind." He naturally shrank from wounding the sensibilities of others in religious matters, and he was also influenced by the consciousness that a man ought not to publish on a subject to which he has not given special and continuous thought. That he felt this caution to apply to himself in the matter of religion is shown in a letter to Dr. F. E. Abbott, of Cambridge, U.S. (September 6, 1871). After explaining that the weakness arising from bad health prevented him from feeling " equal to deep reflection, on the deepest subject which can fill a man's mind," ho goes on to say: " With respect to my former notes to you, I quite forget their contents. I havo to write many letters, and can reflect but little on what I write; but I fully believe and hope that As an exception, may be mentioned, a few words of concurrence with Dr. Abbott's Truthi for tlte Times, which my father allowed to be published in the Index. t Addressed to Mr. J. Fordyce, and published by him in h...« less