Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your answer, & for your pamphlet which I am glad to possess although I had procured the Transactions.² With respect to the subject of your note, it seems to me perfectly clear that my views on the Origin of Species do not bear in any way on the question whether some one organic being was originally created by God, or appeared spontaneously through the action of natural laws. But having said this, I must add that judging from the progress of physical & chemical science I expect (not that my knowledge entitles me to judge) that at some far distant day life will be shewn to be one the several correlated forces & that it is necessarily bound up with other existing laws. But even if it were ever proved that a living being thus appeared, this belief, as it appears to me, would not interfere with that instinctive feeling which makes us refuse to admit that the Universe is the result of chance.

It is not at all likely that you wd wish to quote my opinion on the theological bearing of the change of species, but I must request you not to do so, as such opinions in my judgment ought to remain each man’s private property. I am much obliged to you for informing me about the discussion at the Church congress, of which I had heard nothing.—³

With sincere respect I beg leave to remain | Dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin