Blinderman, Charles S. “Huxley and Kingsley,”
Victorian
Newsletter No. 20 (1961): 25-28.
Blinderman studies the relationship between Kingsley and T. H. Huxley.
Both men enjoyed a close personal friendship. However, Blinderman
argues that despite such surface similarities as their mutual approval
of determinism and Stoicism, their dislike of Positivism, their popularization
of science, and the fact that both were charged with unorthodoxy, in certain
fundamental respects, particularly their underlying attitudes to science
and to religion, they were quite dissimilar and distinct. “A study
of the relationship between Huxley and Kingsley suggests that while friendship
can provide a forum for the cordial debate of ultimate issues, ideological
differences, however, obscured by social amenities, prevail as barriers
to the reconciliation of irreconcilable world-views” (28).
Huxley
; Science
; Religion
.
Hawley, John C., S. J. "Charles Kingsley and
the Book of Nature," Anglican and Episcopal History Vol. 61, No.
4 (December 1991): 461-479.
Hawley examines Kingsley as natural theologian and his views on the
“meaning” of nature. He discusses Kingsley’s attempt to bridge the
ever widening gap between the claims of science and religion and to establish
a vocabulary that would be intelligible to and supportive of both fields.
In this respect he provides a comparison of Kingsley’s views on the theological
beliefs of and the search for meaning in Arnold, Huxley, and Darwin.
Kingsley’s aim, according to Hawley, “was to circumvent fears and cynicism,
and to move his readers into a world of scientific endeavor and Christian
cooperation. In choosing the commitment of faith over strict empiricism
he became for many, in an age of increasing dichotomy between the realms
of science and religion, a model of a Christian who hoped that the truths
of both would ultimately coalesce” (479).
Nature
; Science
; Religion
; Natural
Theology ; Arnold,
Matthew ; Huxley
; Darwin
.
Hodgson, Amanda. "Defining the Species: Apes,
Savages and Humans in Scientific and Literary Writing of the 1860s," Journal
of Victorian Culture Vol. 4, No. 2 (Autumn 1999): 228-251.
Hodgson examines The Water-Babies, and particularly the characterization
of Tom, in the context of the contemporary desire to distinguish humans
from animals, especially apes, and the complementary efforts to define
the distinctions between white civilized Europeans and "savages".
Her principal aim is to examine the relationship of this children's story
to contemporary scientific theories on the nature of species as well as
to compare the novel to Browning's 'Caliban upon Setebos'.
The
Water-Babies ; Science
; Evolution
; Huxley
; Characterization
in Novels .
Huxley, Leonard. Life and Letters of Thomas Henry
Huxley. 2 Vols. (New York: D. Appleton, 1901, c1900).
Particularly interesting are two letters from Huxley to Kingsley. The
first is a reply (23 September, 1860) to a letter of sympathy from Kingsley
regarding the death of Huxley’s young son in which Kingsley sets forth
his views on the purpose of life and his belief in immortality. Huxley’s
letter is friendly and respectful but displays very different views on
religion to those of Kingsley. The second letter (8 November 1866) sets
forth Huxley’s reasons for joining the Jamaica Committee which advocated
the prosecution of Governor Eyre. Kinsley was a supporter of Eyre.
Huxley,
T.H. ; Eyre,
Governor ; Religion
; Science.
Irvine, William. Apes, Angels, & Victorians:
The Story of Darwin, Huxley, and Evolution (New York: Time, 1963; 1st
published 1955).
Irvine discusses the relationship and correspondence between Kingsley
and Thomas Henry Huxley, stressing their views on science and religion.
Despite their radically different attitudes towards religion, both men
had a strong mutual respect for each other. Irvine mentions the openness
and honesty of Huxley’s attitude towards Kingsley.
Huxley
; Religion
; Science
.
White, Paul. Thomas Huxley: Making the “Man of Science”
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
White discusses the long friendly relationship between Kingsley and
Thomas Huxley especially as manifested in their correspondence. He considers
their shared deep interest in science and evolutionary theory as well as
their quite opposing views on religion, particularly their attitudes to
the existence of the soul and to the persistence of life after death. Though
attempting over the years to reach a mutually respectful common ground
on matters of religion and science, great disparities continued to exist
in their respective fundamental beliefs. However, White argues that the
great respect each had for the other and their mutual openness to reasoned
debate ensured that their friendship would surmount their intellectual
differences.
Huxley,
T.H. ; Religion
; Science.
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