ear 1859,
the tenure of my office had depended upon my adherence to the
doctrines of Cuvier, the objections to them set forth in the "Origin
of Species" would have had a halo of gravity about them that, being
free to teach what I pleased, I failed to discover. And, in making
that statement, it does not appear to me that I am confessing that I
should have been debarred by "selfish interests" from making candid
inquiry, or that I should have been biassed by "sordid motives." I
hope that even such a fragment of moral sense as may remain in an
ecclesiastical "infidel" might have got me through the difficulty; but
it would be unworthy to deny, or disguise, the fact that a very
serious difficulty must have been created for me by the nature of my
tenure. And let it be observed that the temptation, in my case, would
have been far slighter than in that of a professor of theology;
whatever biological doctrine I had repudiated, nobody I cared for
would have thought the worse of me for so doing. No scientific
journals would have howled me down, as the religious newspapers howled
down my too honest friend, the late Bishop of Natal; nor would my
colleagues of the Royal Society have turned their backs upon me, as
his episcopal colleagues boycotted him.

I say these facts are obvious, and that it is wholesome and needful
that they should be stated. It is in the interests of theology, if it
be a science, and it is in the interests of those teachers of theology
who desire to be something better than counsel for creeds, that it
should be taken to heart. The seeker after theological truth and that
only, will no more suppose that I have insulted him, than the prisoner
who works in fetters will try to pick a quarrel with me, if I suggest
that he would get on better if the fetters were knocked off: unless
indeed, as it is said does happen in the course of long captivities,
that the victim at length ceases to feel the weight of his chains, or
even takes to hugging them, as if they were honourable ornaments.[100]

FOOTNOTES:

[81] The substance of a paragraph which precedes this has
been transferred to the Prologue.

[82] I confess that, long ago, I once or twice made this
mistake; even to the waste of a capital 'U.' 1893.

[83] "Let us maintain, before we have proved. This seeming
paradox is the secret of happiness" (Dr. Newman: Tract
85, p. 85).

[84] Dr. Newman, _Essay on De