far as I can remember, was ever yet won, was probably if the truth
were known, a person of the sincerest piety. It is the unconscious
unbeliever who is the true infidel, however greatly he would be
surprised to know the truth. Mr. Spurgeon was reported as having
recently asked the Almighty to "change our rulers AS SOON AS
POSSIBLE." There lurks a more profound distrust of God's power in
these words than in almost any open denial of His existence.

So it rather shocks us to find Mr. Darwin writing ("Plants and
Animals under Domestication," vol. ii., p. 275): "No doubt, in every
case there must have been some exciting cause." And again, six or
seven pages later: "No doubt, each slight variation must have its
efficient cause." The repetition within so short a space of this
expression of confidence in the impossibility of causeless effects
would suggest that Mr. Darwin's mind at the time of writing was,
unconsciously to himself, in a state of more or less uneasiness as to
whether effects could not occasionally come about of themselves, and
without cause of any sort,--that he may have been standing, in fact,
for a short time upon the brink of a denial of the indestructibility
of force and matter.

In like manner, the most perfect humour and irony is generally quite
unconscious. Examples of both are frequently given by men whom the
world considers as deficient in humour; it is more probably true that
these persons are unconscious of their own delightful power through
the very mastery and perfection with which they hold it. There is a
play, for instance, of genuine fun in some of the more serious
scientific and theological journals which for some time past we have
looked for in vain in " --- ."