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Opinions vary concerning Charles Kingsley's place in his century and in literature.' He is usually dismissed by writers with
the statement that he was an exponent of Christian socialism and
sanitary reform. The part which his scientific study had in the
development of his philosophy is ignored. The use of science in
his novels is summarily dismissed by one critic with the verdict
that we spend too much time with atoms and minutiae under a
microscope, instead of the fortunes of human beings.2 In Two
Years Ago, the novel referred to in this criticism, the scientific
background plays an integral part in the development of the individuals, as will be pointed out more fully later. In Kingsley's
opinion, science could not be separated from human conduct and
progress. In a lecture, "The Ancien Re'gime," he maintained
that it was inductive physical science which " helped more than all
to break up the superstitions of the Ancien Regime, and to set
man face to face with the facts of the universe." 3 Leslie Stephen
was somewhat unfair in analyzing Kiingsley as being the type of
person who insists " on seeing the facts through the medium of
the imagination, and substituting poetic intuition for the slow
1 Some examples follow: "Mr. Kingsley is one of those men whom we
could with most decision fix upon as representative of his age." Peter
Bayne, Essays in Biography and Criticism (Boston, 1858), p. 2. "He was
too timid or too impatient to work out consistent theories or acquire mnuch
depth of conviction." Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library (London, 1919),
III, 58. "Charles Kingsley has such a place, not by reasoni of any
supreme work or any very rare quality of his own, but by virtue of his
versatility, his verve, his fecundity, his irresistible gift of breaking out
in some new line, his strong and reckless sympathy, and above all by real
literary brilliance." Frederic Harrison, Early Victorian Literature (London, 1902), p. 164. ":His name really stands so high and has had so wide
an influence that in that tangled mass of conflicting interests and aims
which we have learnt to call the nineteenth century, Kingsley (and all
that Kingsley stands for) explains far more than the work of greater men."
William F. Lord, The Mirror of the Century (London, 1905), p. 190.
Charles Kingsley (Cornell University Press, 1934),
2 Stanley Baldwin,
p. 123.
8 Historical Lectures and Essays (London, 1893), p. 149.
589
590
Kingsley's early concentration on scientific study has been observed bv his biographers.5 Naturally, this liking for scientific
observation was reflected in his school career.6 His research and
collections were continued throughout his life. Study at Torquay
in 1845 yielded him a list of about sixty species of molluska, annelids, crustacea, and polypes.7 I)uring the year in which he was
considering the writing of The Autobiography of a Cockney Poet,8
be spent a majority of the time collecting shells and zoophytes.
This interest in science was not abandoned when he left college
and entered upon what was to be a long career of service in
Eversley parish. He sought for, and obtained, acquaintance with
4 Op. cit., III, 8. Stephen describes Coleridge, Maurice, and Carlyle in
this manner, and includes Kingsley in the group.
6 Moritz Kaufmann,
Charles Kingsley, Christian Socialist and Social
Reformer (London, 1892), p. 10; Letters and Memories of His Life, edited
by Mrs. Charles Kingsley (London, 1894) (hereafter referred to as Letters),
I, 9; Henry Evershed, " Canon Kingsley as a Naturalist and Country
Clergyman," Living Age, CLXXII (January, 1887), p. 98; James C. Bowman, editor, Essays, " My Winter Garden," by Charles Kingsley (New
York, 1918), p. 144.
6 Richard Cowley Powles, a schoolmate at Helston, stated that " Charles'
chief taste was for physical science." Letters, I, 15; see also pages 14 and
25.
71bid.,
8
I, 316.
591
men of science, who were impressed by his zeal and his sincerity.9
Of this association, there are many records.10 George Eliot at one
time wrote to a friend to inform her of a group of " scientific and
philosophic men " who were organizing " for the sake of bringing
people who care to know and speak the truth as well as they can,
into regular communication.""11 Thomas Huxley was the president of the group, and Charles Kingsley, the vice-president. In
1854, Kingsley spent his time collecting data on the sea-anlimals
of Torbay to be sent to the naturalist, Philip Henry Gosse.'2 That
his observations were accurate and important is shown by the fact
that his work is cited by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man.13
Darwin and Huxley both respected the intellectual ability of the
novelist, and corresponded with him, often sending him copies of
their books. On November 18, 1859, Kingsley wrote to thank
Later, in 1863, he
Darwin for a copy of The Origin of Species.'4
9 With all who came to Eversley, he discussed science as extensively as
theology and art. Letters, II, 46. He once stated that his favorite kind of
literature was that of physical science. Ibid., II, 298..
10 He mentioned repeatedly such works as the following: Darwin's The
Origin of Species, The Descent of Man and Orchids are Fertilized, Asa
Gray's pamphlet on Darwin, Hugh Miller's Footprints of the Creator,
White's History of Selborne (an earlier book), and Chambers' Vestiges
of Creation. In this connection, note the following: Letters, I, 315; II,
154-55, 254, 256; Glaucus (London, 1890), p. 8, p. 13; Health and Education (N. Y., 1893), p. 173-74; "Natural Theology of the Future," Macmillan's, XXIII, 369; Charles Darwin, Life and Letters, edited by Francis
Darwin (N. Y., 1890), II, 81-2. References to his acquaintance with
scientists include: Letters, I, 299, 315; II, 154-57, 277; Darwin, op. cit.,
II, 81-2; Thomas Huxley, Life and Letters, edited by Leonard Huxley
(N. Y., 1901), I, 233, 238, 266-67, 297-98, 323-24. References to his
correspondence with these men: Letters, I, 315; II, 114-15, 126, 154-55,
198, 226, 254, 258, 266; Huxley, op. cit., I, 257-61; James Marchant,
Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences (N. Y., 1916), p. 287.
"'-Kaufmann, op. cit., pp. 242-43.
12
Letters, I, 299, 313. These data may have been used in Gosse's Manual
of Marine Zoology for the British -Isles.
13
The Descent of Man (N. Y., 1898, first published in 1871), p. 354.
An article by Kingsley in Nature (May, 1870), p. 40, is used by Darwin
as a basis for a passage on the noises made by fishes.
14 Darwin,
Life, II, 81-2. " I have to thank you for the unexpected
honour of your book. That the Naturalist whom, of all naturalists living,
I most wish to know and to learn from, should have sent a scientist like
me his book, encourages me at least to observe more carefully and think
more slowly."
592
Further evidence that his interest in science was more than that
of a dilettante is furnished by the record of his participation in
the activities of scientific societies. He was elected president of
Letters, II, 155.
1"Huxley, op. cit., I, 257-60. Huxley writes: " I have a great respect for
all the old bottles, and if the new wine can be got to go into them and
not burst them I shall be very glad. . . ." Again, he writes: "It is a
great pleasure to me to be able to speak out to any one who, like yourself,
is striving to get at truth through a region of intellectual and moral
influences so entirely distinct from those to which I am exposed."
17Ibid., I, 233 ff. Huxley here speaks " openly and distinctly " of his
" I write this the more readily to you,
own disbelief in immortality.
because it is clear to me that if that great and powerful instrument for
good or evil, the Church of England, is to be saved from being shivered
into fragments by the advancing tide of science . . . it must be by the
efforts of men, who, like yourself, see your way to the combination of the
practice of the Church with the spirit of sciene. . . . I have always said
I would swear by your truthfulness and sincerity, and that good must
come of your efforts. The more plain this was to me, however, the more
obvious the necessity to let you see where the men of science are driving,
and it has often been in my mind to write to you before."
18 Ibid., I, 297-98.
21 Letters,
II, 226.
22 Ibid., p. 254.
18 Ibid., I, 323-24.
20 Ibid., II, 240.
593
pp. 140-41.
Kaufmann, op. cit., p. 212. References to his lectures include: Letters,
II, 2, 45, 69, 279-80, 367. Many of his lectures were concerned with
sanitary reform, evidence that he was one of the first to recognize the
close connection between science and health. Note Kaufmann's discussion,
op. cit., p. 8, and the analysis of Kingsley's view of sanitary reform in
C. W. Stubbs, Charles Kingsley and the Christian Social Movement
(London, 1899), p. 177. See also Letters, I, 176; II, 67, 87-8.
Memoir by Thomas Hughes,
25 Alton Locke (N. Y., 1911), Prefatory
24
p. xxviii.
20
Ibid., p. 373.
594
state. In the next part, The Artists, I shall try to unravel the tangled
skein, by means of conversations on Art, connected as they will be necessarily with the deepest questions of science, anthropology, social life, and
Christianity. . . . Thus I think Lancelot, having grafted on his own
naturalism, the Christianity of Tregarva, the classicism of Mellot, and
the spiritual symbolism of Luke, ought to be in a state to become the
mesothetic artist of the future, and beat each of his tutors at their own
weapons.28
Chaotic his purpose is, indeed, and justifies critics for condemning "his half-animal impatience which cannot be satisfied with
working out patiently a single idea." 29 Throughout this chaos,
however, runs the thread of his interest in science, and his desire
for its widespread appreciation and application. There is perhaps
a reflection of his own experience in the following description of
Lancelot's journalistic career:
He had the unhappiest knack (as all geniuses have) of seeing connections,
humorous or awful, between the most seemingly antipodal things; of
illustrating every subject from three or four different spheres which it is
anathema to mention in the same page. If he wrote a physical-science
article, able editors asked him what the deuce a scrap of high-churchism
did in the middle of it? If he took the same article to a high-church
magazine, the editor could not commit himself to any theory which made
the earth more than six thousand years old. ...0
31In 1862 he wrote to Maurice (Letters, II, 127): "I have tried, in
all sorts of queer ways, to make children and grown folks understand that
there is a quite miraculous and divine element underlying all physical
nature. . . . Meanwhile, remember that the physical science in the book
is not nonsense, but accurate earnest, as far as I dare speak yet."
595
If art wishes to aid in improving the material and spiritual condition of the world, then, in Mackaye's opinion, it must deal with
reality.34 Similarly, Kingsley defends Yeast on the ground that
it is a picture of the age.35 Why did not this realistic impulse
carry Kingsley on into scientific naturalism? Leslie Stephen believes that he was rescued, " as other men have been rescued, by the
elevating influence of a noble passion." 36 Undoubtedly this acted
as a deterrent force, but broader and more important reasons will
emerge as this article proceeds.
Kingsley's study of science influenced not only his choice of
themes, but his literary method as well. The realistic nature of his
theory of art may be seen in several details. Not one of his novels
dealing with his own century lacks a man of science for its central
figure. These characters vary from dilettante students of science to
medical men definitely interested in records and research. The
descriptions of the explorations by Tom Thurnall are reminiscent
of Darwin's voyage on the Beagle and of Huxley's career on the
Rattlesnalce. Around this character, Tom Thurnall, a doctor,
much of the science in the novel Two Years Ago centers. Kingsley
had studied medicine,37and-had a brother in the profession. One is
82
596
597
of Tom Thurnall's character, and it offers a basis for the friendship of Thurnall and Campbell. The normality of Thurnall's
character as contrasted with the mentally unbalanced nature of
Elsley Vavasour, may in part be ascribed to the former's scientific
pursuits. In so far as this deliberate character contrast is a matter
of art, Kingsley's scientific knowledge may be said to become here a
part of his artistic technique.
Kingsley's plots are not deterministic. He recognized the influence of environment upon character, as in Alton Locke, but he
made this influence secondary to that of the human will. Each
one of his characters is represented as free to behave as he wishes,
a result of the author's faith in the natural goodness of man. The
character of Tom Thurnall is perhaps the best exemplification of
this Rousseauistic belief. Though tempted, Tom trusts his instincts, yielding to neither environment nor supernatural guidance, until the end, when, almost as an afterthought, he admits
that he can not do " well enough " without God. Because of this
reliance on self, the development of character is impulsive, and not
the result of cause and effect relationships. No strong chain of
circumstances, for instance, causes Elsley Vavasour's downfall, but
rather self-deception and a refusal to trust his own ability.
Alton Locke appears, at first glance, to be the victim of unavoidable circumstances. His poverty and environment prevent the
realization of his ambitions. But this is part of the author's technique in motivation of plot and character, rather than part of his
philosophy of life. Locke, according to Kingsley, has happiness
within his reach, but forfeits it by striving to attain a goal not
intended for him by God. He stated that the moral of Alton Locke
was to show " that the working man who tries to get on, to desert
his class and rise above it, enters into a lie, and leaves God's path
for his own-with consequences."43 The direct cause of Locke's
fall, then, is not environment, but his own unwise desires. It
should be noted that the author did not attempt to decide whether
it was right or wrong that Locke should be condemned to either of
two alternatives-to remain a workingman, or to perish unhappily
in his attempt to rise above his class. It is not the environment
which matters, according to Kingsley, but man's attitude toward it.
Man is thus free to follow the path of either good or evil. How" Letters, I, 199.
598
45
599
don to prove to Locke that vice in his own city justifies a protest
in art, the author includes another bit of realism to illustrate
Mackaye's lesson:
It was a foul, chilly, foggy Saturday night. From the butchers' and
greengrocers' shops the gas-lights flared and flickered, wild and ghastly
over haggard groups of slip-shod dirty women, bargaining for scraps of
stale meat and frost-bitten vegetables, wrangling about short weight and
bad quality. Fish-stalls and fruit-stalls lined the edge of the greasy pavement, sending up odours as foul as the language of sellers and buyers . . .
while above, hanging like cliffs over the streets-those
narrow, brawling
torrents of filth, and poverty, and sin,-the
houses with their teeming
load of life were piled up into the dingy choking night. A ghastly, deafening, sickening sight it was. Go, scented Belgravian! and see what London
is! and then go to the library which God has given thee-one often fears
in vain-and
see what science says this London might be! 30
600
57
69
601
Ibid., p. 307.
Ibid., p. 36.
602
quarrel between science and religion, although Kingsley's neoPlatonic views are set forth in Hypatia's lectures, and his belief
in the creation as evidence of a divine creator is stated by Pambo.70
The niovel,as a whole, reflects the confusion of thought existing in
the author's own century.
Kingsley himself, in his early years. did nTot know what philosophy to adopt as his own, and not until 1841, after a long period
of religious doubt,71 did he decide to become a minister in the
Church of England.72 Nor did he feel that any inconsistency
existed between his religious beliefs and his scientific knowledge.73
He was influenced by his reading of Coleridge's Aids to Reflection,
relying on its doctrine of first cause, and its assertion that no conflict need exist between the natural and the supernatural, the seen
and the unseen. It is necessary to keep in mind the eclectic
nature of Kingsley's philosophy. When planning a life of St.
Theresa, for example, he decided to read, as he wrote in a letter in
1841, " Tersteegen, Jacob Behmen, Madam Guyon, Alban, Butler,
Fanelon, some of Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus, and Coleridge's Aids, etc., also some of Kant, and a German history of
mysticism." 74 He was a student of Paley's doctrines, accepting
natural theology without reservation.75 In a letter to Frederick
Maurice, his master, he spoke of working out points of natural
theology by the light of Huxley, Darwin, and Lyell.76 In his
opinion:
... we might accept all that Mr. Darwin, all that Professor Huxley, all
that other most able men, have so learnedly and so acutely written on
70
Ibid., p. 92. Pambo speaks of the whole creation as a book wherein
the word of God may be read. Ibid., p. 114.
71Letters, I, 49.
Ibid., I, 34.
Coleridge, confronted by a not dissimilar problem, had no difficulty in
resolving it. See Robert Shafer, Christianity and Naturalism (Yale University Press, 1926), p. 41.
74 Letters, I, 48.
75 Natural theology to him meant "what can be learned concerning God
Himself " from the universe. Westminster Sermons (London, 1894), pp.
v-vi. This, however, did not imply speaking of God in materilal terms.
See the objection to this in Literary and Historical Essays (London, 1888),
p. 157, " Phaethon."
78 Letters, II, 155.
72
7s
603
on exactly
the
in the Nine-
604
. . is it not plain that one thing thinking men are waiting for is the
introduction of Law among the Phenomena of the Spiritual World? Whein
that comes we shall offer to such men a truly scientific theoloay. And
the reign of Law will transform the whole Spiritual World as it has
already transformed the Natural World.88
605
of God must conceivably become narrower, until, if science explained every phenomenon, then God would be "explained
away." 94 Kingsley failed to perceive this problem, but he was
not alone in failing to perceive it. His mistakes, do not seem so
serious, for example, as those of his contemporary, Philip Henry
Gosse, the author of Omphalos.95
While it is true, then, that Kingsley deliberately avoided coming
to terms with the problems raised by science, it is equally true that
he did not dogmatically refuse to consider the propositions set
forth by science.96 He definitely stated in his novels, sermons, and
letters, his opinion that where science and religion seem to conflict, " it is our duty to believe that they are reconcilable by fuller
knowledge." 97 To Kingsley, as to Dr. Benjamin Jowett, his contemporary, science " had revealed . . . that the progress of mankind
lay in complete resignation to the Divine Will, and in obedience
to the laws of nature in conjunction with it." 98 In view of his
liberal attitude, we cannot condemn Kingsley for his refusal to
enter into the strife, and call him superficial.99 So far as he held
94 Shafer in Christianity and Naturalism (pp. 6-7) recognizes the serious
effects of this belief. Compare also the arguments in Samuel Butler, The
Fair Haven (London, 1913, first published in 1873).
6 Edmund Gosse in Father and Son (N. Y., 1907), pp. 115-17, pointed
out the seriousness of his father's unfortunate attempt to reconcile re" This was
ligion and the discoveries of nineteenth-century geologists.
interpreted as meaning that God put the fossils in rocks to test man's
faith . . . even Charles Kingsley, from whom my father had expected the
most instant appreciation, wrote that he could not give up 'the painful
and slow conclusion of five and twenty years' study of geology, and believe
that God has written on the rocks one enormous and superfluous lie.'"
Note Hugh Miller's mistaken conception of geology in Footprints of the
Creator (Edinburgh, 1872), p. 12; also Drummond's attitude in The
Ascent of Man (N. Y., 1894), pp. 341-42.
96In a lecture at Bideford, 1871 (Letters, II, 278) Kingsley maintained
that " the physical origin of man was strictly a physioloaical and anatomical
However physical science may decide the controversy, I say
question....
boldly, as a man and as a priest, that its decision will not affect one of my
duties here, one of my hopes for hereafter...
97 Alton Locke, ed. cit., p. 133.
98 E. F. Benson, As We Were (London, 1931), p. 129. For another point
of view, see John Stuart Mill, Three Essays on Religion (N. Y., 1874).
99See the passage in Robertson, op. cit., II, 327, beainning: "Kingsley
deserves commemoration as the Anglican cleric who in his time, following
in the steps of Baden Powell, most enercretically urged his fellow-Christians
to recognize the importance of science and accept its established conclusions."
606
103
104
607
But even then, it was not an agency outside of man which was to
be all-evil, but rather, an agency within man himself, his own will.
" All, all outward things," he further stated in the lecture quoted
above, "be sure of it, are good or evil, exactly as they are in the
hands of good men or of bad." If the good predominate, " science
may scale Olympus after all." 10'
Kingsley was primarily interested in science because it could
ameliorate the condition of mankind; and hence, pure science was
secondary, in his opinion, to humanitarianism.'07 However, in at
least one essay, he recognized the other point of view as important:
Perhaps we are now entering upon it; an age in which mankind shall be
satisfied with the "triumphs of science," and shall look merely to the
greatest comfort (call it not happiness) of the greatest number. . . . But
one hope there is, and more than a hope-one
certainty, that however
satisfied enlightened public opinion may become with the results of science,
and the progress of the human race, there will be always a more enlightened private opinion or opinions, which will not be satisfied therewith at all; a few men of genius. . . . These will be the men of science,
whether physical or spiritual. Not merely the men who utilise and apply
that which is known (useful as they plainly are), but the men who
themselves discover that which was unknown, and are generally deemed
useless, if not hurtful to their race.108
lie continually stressed the belief that science existed not merely
for the good of man, but also for what he called "the glory of
God." 109 His novels served both causes, pointing out the practical effects of science, and representing its truths as evidence of the
glory of God.
10' Historical
Lectures and Essays, ed. cit., pp. 230-31.
10eIbid., pp. 233-34.
107
Health and Education, ed. cit., pp. 290-91.
108 Historical
Lectures and Essays, ed. cit., p. 232.
109
Sermons on National Subjects (London, 1890), pp. 110- I.
608
609
sentimental. No one could win his respect who was not morally
strong."16 His nature was emotional, but not extremely passionate.
He considered discipline more essential than feeling.117 This
Platonistic view is reflected in the author's attitude toward Christmas, "a blest day," which
. . .aye reminds us, year by year,
What 'tis to be a man: to curb and spurn
The tyrant in us; that ignobler self
Which boasts, not loathes, its likeness to the brute,
And owns no good save ease, no ill save pain,
No purpose, save its share in that wild war
In which, through countless ages, living things
Compete in internecine greed.:1"
610
that purpose motivated each change.122 He expressed this teleological view often in his letters 123 and in his poetry.12'
Kingsley's faith in progress was not unalloyed with doubt, His
own century, at first so full of discovery and advancement, seemed,
at the mid-turn, almost " on the eve of stagnation." 125 His generation, in his opinion, was living on the labours of an earlier one.120
Railroads, telegraphs-these were not progress, but " the fruits of
past progress ":
Progress is inward, of the soul. . . . The self-help and self-determination
of the independent soul-that
is the root of progress, and the more human
beings who have that, the more progress there is in the world.127
The same spirit is evident in his poem, " The World's Age":
Still the race of Hero-spirits
Pass the lamp from hand to hand.129
Science was able to show him nothing that could contradict this
belief in order and moral progress. Evolution, interpreted as
moral, strengthened his hope. Alton Locke in his fever dream sees
a vision of a maiden who prophesies to him man's return to
Paradise:
122
123
124
125
Hlistorical Lectures and Essays,
ed. cit., p. 254, he speaks of " this
progress and science," and of "how
epithets! "
126 Yeast,
op. cit., p. 8.
127
Historical Lectures and Essays,
128 The
Roman and the Teuton, ed.
129 Poems, ed. cit., p. 245.
611
This receptivity to ideas, however, has been one reason for his
continued literary reputation; and until a later generation may
succeed in solving the problems introduced into philosophy by science, there may be many who will continue to accept Kingsley's
attitude of compromise.133
Waterloo, Iowa.
130
181
182
Ibid., p. 160.
The following passage from Madam How and Lady Why (ed. cit., pp.
320-21) embodies a full statement of his philosophy: "All we can do is,
to keep up the childlike heart, humble and teachable, though we grew as
wise as Newton or as Humboldt; and to follow, as good Socrates bids us,
Reason whithersoever it lead us, sure that it will never lead us wrong,
unless we have darkened it by hasty and conceited fancies of our own....
But if we love and reverence and trust Fact and Nature, which are the
will, not merely of Madam How, or even of Lady Why, but of Almighty
God Himself . . . we shall have our reward by discovering continually
fresh wonders and fresh benefits to man; and find it as true of science,
as it is of this life and of the life to come-that
eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what
God has prepared for those who love Him."
133