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To J. N. Hoare   18 July [1875]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

July 18.

Dear Sir

I have read with much interest the pages which you have been so kind as to point out, & the facts were quite new to me. There are not many persons who could thus illumine a sermon, but I have often regretted, how rarely sermons are made the means of instruction in the place of mere exhortation.2

Dear Sir Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

LS

1
The year is established by the publication date of Hoare 1875.
2
Hoare preached a sermon titled ‘Hospital Sunday’, on 15 November 1874; it was published in January 1875 (Hoare 1875, p. 3). The sermon advocated support for hospitals as a Christian duty, and argued that care for the sick in other religions was extended to animals as well as people. An appendix includes references to a number of ancient texts, including the Koran, and to Buddhist doctrine which, according to Hoare, ‘applies the law of evolution to the human soul’, the progress of which through an infinite series of births in the animal world being sufficient to explain ‘this peculiar tenderness and care for the domestic animals’ (Hoare 1875, p. 22).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10562,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10562