zerland
'Apostle skulls,' as I imagine that in life they must have resembled the
type of Peter, the Apostle, as represented in Byzantine-Nazarene art."

In face of such a spirit, can it be wondered at that disputants have grown
warm? Moreover, in estimating the vehemence of the opposition which has
been offered, it should be borne in mind that the views defended by
religious writers are, or should be, all-important in their eyes. They
could not be expected to view with equanimity the destruction in many minds
of "theology, natural and revealed, psychology, and metaphysics;" nor to
weigh with calm and frigid impartiality arguments which seemed to them to
be fraught with results of the highest moment to mankind, and, therefore,
imposing on their consciences strenuous opposition as a first duty. Cool
judicial impartiality in them would have been a sign perhaps of
intellectual gifts, but also of a more important deficiency of generous
emotion.

It is easy to complain of the onesidedness of many of those who oppose
Darwinism in the interest of orthodoxy; but not at all less patent is the
intolerance and narrow-mindedness of some of those who advocate it,
avowedly or covertly, in the interest of heterodoxy. This hastiness of
rejection or acceptance, determined by ulterior consequences believed to
attach to "Natural Selection," is unfortunately in part to be accounted for
by some expressions and a certain tone to be found in Mr. Darwin's
writings. That his expressions, however, are not always to be construed
literally is manifest. His frequent use metaphorically of the expressions,
"contrivance," for example, and "purpose," has elicited, from the Duke of
Argyll and others, criticisms which fail to tell against their {15}
opponent, because such expressions are, in Mr. Darwin's writings, merely
figurative--metaphors, and nothing more.

It may be hoped, then, that a similar looseness of expression will account
for passages of a directly opposite tendency to that of his theistic
metaphors.

Moreover, it must not be forgotten that he frequently uses that absolutely
theological term, "the Creator," and that he has retained in all the
editions of his "Origin of Species" an expression which has been much
criticised. He speaks "of life, with its several powers, having been
originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms, or into one."[9] This
is merely mentioned in justice to Mr. Darwin, and by no means because it is
a