From James Craven   May 17th, 1849

Halifax. May 17th, 1849.

My dear Tyndall,

Tom in his letter¹ to you has given you an account of our proceedings both with respect to our Geological enquiries in this neighbourhood and the progress and difficulties we have met with in our Chemical studies. I have little – very little news – to communicate, however I intend to give you a tolerably large dose (as my paper seems to indicate) of the subjects which I introduced in my last.² You say they afforded you ‘the pleasure of a most healthful cachination’.³ I am glad of it. I doubt not that ere you have got to the end of this you will do the same – and some benefit at all events will have arisen from this subject – for I guess that it is not often that you indulge in a hearty laugh. You proceed to say I am greatly entangled with Combe’s opinion.⁴ I am certainly in favour of his views and consequently see things in a very different light from many around me – instead of the perpetual interferences of God which Protestants of all denominations conjure up at will, to account for all the evils which are continually arising, I see or rather in most instances can trace them to the <1 word excised> of laws established by a great wise Being which in themselves are wise and just. You laugh and say ‘it is incomplete and utterly useless as an agent of Religious Instruction’.⁵ But my notions are that if Combe’s hypothesis be right the Bible is virtually set aside – for where is the need of Prayer? I grant you that it is not entirely dispensed with – but the command so often reiterated is in a great measure unneeded. The deceitfulness of sin – the wiles of the Devil and all the wiles to which he resorts are all humbug – for man has always good and evil placed before his eyes and happiness or unhappiness must necessarily follow as the result. In short it seems to me if not directly to set aside the Bible, it does so, indirectly, inasmuch as most of the precepts and commands there laid down are nullified. On this argument I do not lay much stress – but on the next one I must say I find a great deal which I cannot in the least grasp. I cannot get it between my finger and thumb and hold it – in fact I cannot reduce it to such a state that I can reason upon it and draw my conclusion. I often think – well, the Bible certainly as a book is divine – the writers seem elevated above the common level of men – and their writing is perfectly in accordance. But then when I begin to look into it and there see that such a fact must be most truly and faithfully believed in – when I see that this is the sole ground on which I can hope to gain happiness hereafter – when I consider the improbabilities which are upon the face of the fact – the mystery which surrounds it – both as to its actual occurrence and numerous other particulars – do you not think it right – nay, can you expect that I should give an unequivocal assent to the whole? Does it not seem to you in discordance with a Great Being’s justice and mercy? For Him to say that unless we believe a most curious fact for which no true motive can be assigned? I must confess this is a curious question enough – especially when you know that God has given me powers intellectually for no other purpose than to examine – to compare and to decide upon the various phenomena brought before my notice. Is it not right that upon this all-important question I should bring these powers into play? Surely they should form the principal basis on which I ground my faith. Why then are the facts etc. so mysteriously connected that this mainstay is or cannot be brought into play!

I have gone on this rambling cross-questioning long enough. You will understand no doubt what I mean – and let me tell you I would not have so freely told them any one, but knowing you to be one who has been in a similar position, and knowing that you are always ready to assist, I at once tell you my doubts, believing that in matters of so grave an import we must not make ourselves to believe that we do believe, but genuine and sterling faith must be the basis. Perhaps too I have gone a step further than the spot where my opinions rest; but at all events it is a stage which is but little removed and in the same direction. I have read ‘Yeast’⁶ – I have a little paragraph (the last in the novel) inserted in my journal, I will give it you as it is about the only one which I know that agrees the nearest with my present views.

The character Launcelot⁷ is one which is a facsimile of yourself nearly, at least you are the nearest one that I can remember just now. The writer gives his opinions thus:– ‘For Launcelot alone, who has cast off all outward forms, customs, respectabilities, in the hope that he that loseth this life in the old system may find it in the new;⁸ – in the hope of reaching some ground of truth and righteousness, some everlasting rock stratum whereon to build, utterly careless what the building may be, how contrary so-ever to prejudice and precedent, provided God and nature help him in its construction, for him alone I see land – while all who set sail with him are tossed back at starting by the breakers or swept into dull whirlpools, there to revolve and rot; for him, far across the deep Atlantic islands bloom. But alas! between are vast, raging waters, foul mudbanks, thick with dragons and syrens; and many a bitter day and blinding night, in cold and hunger, spiritual, perhaps physical, await him. For it was a true vision that John Bunyan⁹ saw, and one which as the visions of wise men are wont to do, meant far more than the seer thought, when he beheld in his dream that there was indeed a land of Beulah¹⁰ and Arcadian shepherd paradises,¹¹ on whose mountain tops the everlasting sunshine lay; but that the way to them, as this year 1848 is preaching to us, lies past the mouth of Hell, and through the Valley of the Shadow of Death’.¹²

This is really beautiful and when one looks round at all the hypocrisy that exists on this one subject Religion one wonders that there is so much prejudice – for outwardly they confess that God is just, merciful and gracious, but when weather or any little matters do not come about in a desirable manner they at once complain, which has been the case with everybody lately on the first occurrence, it having been fine and rain being wanted to bring things round. Thus I contend that by finding fault they prove that they themselves are neither meek nor lowly nor possess any of the Christian virtues – this same thing is asserted in nearly every action of their lives. Yet tell them they are not what they pretend and you offend them. Surely it is a strange world.

But I must pull in or else some dire calamity will overtake you. You see you do not often laugh and I am afraid that something serious might happen were I to continue this strain longer, as the violent convulsions which you have suffered for the last few minutes are such as to betoken that the dose already administered is a pretty strong one. So now for the sugar, first however taking this pill. ‘Read the Book carefully, seriously, reverently, and compare it with the unfolding of your own life and you will by this means penetrate its meaning – the moment you cast about for exterior support that moment you leave the right track’.¹³ Do you mean I am not to examine it with reference to external objects – that I am not to question the motives, and the opinions therein contained or what – there’s the rub! Am I or am I not to reason upon it? or am I blindly, because the style and the writing is such as to touch a chord in my heart, to follow it without further enquiry – Such I think is not your meaning, for it does not seem exactly sensible.

As I said at the beginning I have very little sugar and what I had the mice have run away with it, so you must be content with what you can get. Plainly speaking there is not a particle of news – i.e. I have not seen or heard of anything likely to interest you. My brother in town¹⁴ is coming on gloriously. He is wanting me very much indeed to go to him when my time for recruiting comes, and as my intentions of taking a continental jaunt have changed both in consequence of the unsettled state of the continent and the opportunity of having good company and someone to show me round London as well as of seeing John I have determined to go there in the middle of July. By the bye Continental affairs are but in a very dilapidated state¹⁵ – poor France a spark would set in a blaze, so inveterate is one party against the other. All indeed seem agitated except England where a happy contrast at present exists. Our mills, our workpeople, are all busy – trade and everything is coming round, and everything seems to bespeak a good harvest. Probably it was this which caused the House of Peers to give their assent to the Navigation Laws¹⁶ which at the 2nd Reading was carried by a majority of 10. You will be aware that had this not have passed Stanley¹⁷ would in all probability have been Prime Minister and formed his own Cabinet since Lord John¹⁸ would not carry on.

But I must now draw to a close. I trust the remarks herein contained will not lead you to think any worse of me for if I thought they would I would not have written them.

My brother in his letter wishes to be remembered to you as he always does, but owing to my neglectfulness all are forgotten. The same with my father¹⁹ and others among the rest myself. Trusting then that you are in the enjoyment of good health and that you will continue so,

Believe me dear Tyndall | Yours very very sincerely, | James Craven.

P.S. If this tracing paper is not good to read on let us know and we will adopt our former kind.

RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3530-3533

LT Transcript Only