FASCINATING 12pp EXTENSIVE ALS BY GEORGE CAMPBELL, 8TH DUKE OF ARGYLL, CHRISTIAN, AND POLYMATH, ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS OF INTELLECTUAL DOUBT.

Addressed to Rev. William T. McCormick, minister at Bournemouth I believe. Apparently McCormick has written to Argyle to help him engage young Christians with some questions of intellectual doubt. Argyll was known as an intelligent, thinking, and flexible person. He was one of the first to admit evolution into his Christian scheme of thought, insisting only that it be theistic rather than organic. In fact, he was a leading voice of faith in the life of Darwin, for whom he served as a pall bearer. [See biography below]

Excerpts include:

"You specify the Trinity and Inspiration as the two special difficulties felt by your friend in Xian belief. I confess I do not think that either of them is insurmountable, or even really serious."

"But in itself, the idea of a Trinity in Unity, or even a multiplicity in Unity is not at all inconceivable. There are analogies which ought to make this clear. The body, soul, & spirit - in ourselves . . . "

"Inspiration is to me no difficulty at all. We must distinguish between its nature - the possibility of it - in particular embodiments, and the fact of its embodiment in any one case. I look on Inspiration as meaning, in itself, nothing more than knowledge conveyed to the Human Mind by the Universal Mind in nature, otherwise than by any processes of learning or observation. Now, of such kind of knowledge the world is full. All our natural instincts partake of this character."

"The fact of Inspiration in the human mind can be judged by all the evidences applicable to the case & question. There are degrees of Inspiration. The Old & New Testaments are, in my opinion, writings that Shine as Inspired by their own internal light."

etc. etc. etc.

George Campbell 8th Duke of Argyll [1823-1900] was a British polymath and statesman. He made a significant geological discovery in the 1850s when his tenant found fossilized leaves embedded among basalt lava on the Island of Mull. He also helped to popularize ornithology and was one of the first to give a detailed account of the principles of bird flight in the hopes of advancing artificial aerial navigation (i.e. flying machines). In 1866, he was a founding member of the world's first aeronautical society, the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain (later renamed the Royal Aeronautical Society) and served as its president from 1866 to 1895. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1869. In 1886, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. His literary output was extensive writing on topics varying from science and theology to economy and politics. He was a pallbearer at the funeral of Charles Darwin in 1882, though he himself believed evolution to be theistic rather than organic.

He was widely considered to be one of the greatest gifted minds of the 19th century, comparable in genius to Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin of the 18th and early 19th centuries.