who are
scrupulous in their adherence to engagements, whose words are their
bond, and to whom moral shiftiness of any kind is subjectively
unknown; if I wanted a loving father, a faithful husband, an
honourable neighbour, and a just citizen--I should seek him, and find
him among the band of 'atheists' to which I refer. I have known some
of the most pronounced among them not only in life but in death seen
them approaching with open eyes the inexorable goal, with no dread of
a 'hangman's whip,' with no hope of a heavenly crown, and still as
mindful of their duties, and as faithful in the discharge of them, as
if their eternal future depended upon their latest deeds.

In letters addressed to myself, and in utterances addressed to the
public, Faraday is often referred to as a sample of the association of
religious faith with moral elevation. I was locally intimate with him
for fourteen or fifteen years of my life, and had thus occasion to
observe how nearly his character approached what might, without
extravagance, be called perfection. He was strong but gentle,
impetuous but self-restrained; a sweet and lofty courtesy marked his
dealings with men and women; and though he sprang from the body of the
people, a nature so fine might well have been distilled from the
flower of antecedent chivalry. Not only in its broader sense was the
Christian religion necessary to Faraday's spiritual peace, but in what
many would call the narrow sense held by those described by Faraday
himself as 'a very small and despised sect of Christians, known, if
known at all, as Sandemanians,' it constituted the light and comfort
of his days.

Were our experience confined to such cases, it would furnish an
irresistible argument in favour of the association of dogmatic
religion with moral purity and grace. But, as already intimated, our
experience is not thus confined. In further illustration of this
point, we may compare with Faraday a philosopher of equal magnitude,
whose character, including gentleness and strength, candour and
simplicity, intellectual power and moral elevation, singularly
resembles that of the great Sandemanian, but who has neither shared
the theologic views nor the religious emotions which formed so
dominant a factor in Faraday's life. I allude to Mr. Charles Darwin,
the Abraham of scientific men--a searcher as obedient to the command
of truth as was the patriarch to the command of God. I cannot
therefore, as so many de