¹ See Newsome, David, ‘How Soapy was Sam? A Study of Samuel Wilberforce’, History Today, September 1963, 624–32 Google Scholar, for an assessment of Bishop Wilberforce’s somewhat notorious eponym. For assessments written soon after his death by contemporaries, see Phillimore, Lucy, Bishop Wilberforce: A Sketch for Children (London, 1876)Google Scholar; Pinches, Thomas, Samuel Wilberforce. Faith: Service: Recompense. Three Sermons (London, 1878), 16–76, 157–59 Google Scholar; Burgon, John William, Lives of Twelve Good Men, 2nd edn (London, 1888), 1: viii, 2: xii, 1–70 Google Scholar; Daniell, George W., Bishop Wilberforce (London, 1891)Google Scholar; Baring-Gould, S., The Church Revival: Thoughts thereon and Reminiscences (London, 1914), 174–76 Google Scholar. For a twenty-first-century assessment, see Redfern, Alistair, ‘Oversight and Authority in the Nineteenth-Century Church of England: A Case Study of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bristol, 2001).Google Scholar

² The latter name was given to the radical clergyman Robert Taylor (1784-1844). Desmond, Adrian and Moore, James apply it to Darwin, who was a student at Cambridge when Taylor challenged members of the University to a debate on the merits of Christianity in 1829: Darwin (London, 1992), 70–73, 84–85, 677.Google Scholar

³ Essays and Reviews, published in 1860, was an attempt by seven Anglican authors to reconcile contemporary knowledge in science, philosophy and theology with the traditional understanding of the truths of Christianity. Wilberforce wrote a review of the book and was a leader in the formulation of an episcopal condemnation of it: Meacham, Standish, Lord Bishop: The Life of Samuel Wilberforce 1805–1873 (Cambridge, MA, 1970), 220–23, 241, 247–50 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilberforce, Reginald G., Life of the Right Reverend Samuel Wilberforce. D.D. Lord Bishop of Oxford and afterwards of Winchester with Selections from His Diaries and Correspondence, 3 vols (London, 1882), 3: 1–11.Google Scholar

⁴ Perhaps Wilberforce was one of those who advised Queen Victoria not to give Darwin a knighthood in 1859. This is stated in Desmond and Moore, Darwin, 488, but the authors admit that they could not find the evidence used by their source, Bunting, James, Charles Darwin: A Biography (Folkestone, 1974), 88 Google Scholar; Wilberforce’s supposed interference is not recorded by any of his biographers.

Several historians have attempted to describe and analyse the Oxford incident; see Altholz, Josef L., ‘The Huxley-Wilberforce Debate Revisited’, Journal of the History of Medicine 35 (1980), 313–16 Google ScholarPubMed; Jensen, J. Vernon, ‘Return to the Wilberforce-Huxley Debate’, British Journal for the History of Science 21 (1988), 161–79 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Brooke, John Hedley, ‘The Wilberforce-Huxley Debate: Why did it Happen?’ Farmington Papers, Science and Christianity 15 (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar. I use the word ‘incident’ because, as most historians now recognize, there was not a debate in the sense that the word is commonly used.

⁵ A contemporary report of the meeting is in The Athenaeum, 14 July 1860, 64–65.

⁶ Chambers (1802–1871) had written Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (London, 1844), the first major work in English advocating a theory of evolution.

⁷ Henslow (1796–1861) was Regius Professor of Botany at Cambridge and an Anglican clergyman. He had recommended Darwin for the position of ship’s naturalist on the Beagle: Francis, Keith A., Charles Darwin and The Origin of Species (Westport, CT, 2007), 22–23.Google Scholar

⁸ See Altholz, ‘Huxley-Wilberforce Debate’, 315–16; Jensen, ‘Return’, 165–69.

⁹ [Samuel Wilberforce], ‘Art. VII. – On the Origin of Species, by means of Natural Selection; or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S. London, 1860’, Quarterly Review 108 (1860), 225–64; Letter 2700, Charles Darwin to Charles Lyell, ‘15th’ [February 1860]; Letter 2853, Darwin to Joseph D. Hooker, ‘Monday night’ [2 July 1860]; Letter 2854, Darwin to Thomas H. Huxley, ‘July 3^d’ [1860]; Letter 2855, Darwin to Asa Gray,’July 3^d’ [1860]; Letter 2860, Darwin to Lyell,’Thursday, 5^th’ [July 1860]; all online at the Darwin Correspondence Project, <http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk>, accessed 12 July 2008.

¹⁰ Letter 2873, Darwin to Huxley, ‘July 20^th’ [1860], Darwin Correspondence Project, <http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk>, accessed 13 July 2008; [‘Wilberforce’], ‘Art. VII, 237.

¹¹ Oxford, Bodl., Wilberforce Family Papers, MS. Wilberforce d.29, Samuel Wilberforce to Sir Charles Anderson, 3 July 1860.

¹² This point has been made most forcefully by Brooke, John Hedley, in Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge, 1991).Google Scholar

¹³ The books were The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs; Being the First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle, under the Command of Capt. Fitzroy R.N. during the Years 1832 to 1836 (London, 1842); A Monograph on the Fossil Lepadidae, or, Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain (London, 1851); A Monograph on the Sub-Class Cirripedia, with Figures of All the Species: The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes (London, 1851); A Monograph on the Sub-Class Cirripedia, with Figures of All the Species: The Balanidae, (or Sessile Cirripedes); The Verrucidae, etc., etc., etc. (London, 1854); A Monograph on the Fossil Balanidae and Verrucidae of Great Britain (London, 1854);Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. from 1832 to 1836 (London, 1839).

¹⁴ On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing (London, 1862)Google Scholar; Insectivorous Plants (London, 1875)Google ScholarPubMed; The Power of Movement in Plants (London, 1880).Google ScholarPubMed

¹⁵ [Wilberforce],’Art. VII’, 225.

¹⁶ Meacham, Lord Bishop, 236—46. I am grateful to Bob Tennant, Honorary Fellow of the University of Glasgow, for drawing my attention to this latter point.

¹⁷ Darwin, Francis, ed., The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, including an Autobiographical Chapter, 3 vols (London, 1887), 1: 47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁸ Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford in St. Mary’s Church, in the Years MDCCCXXXVII, MDCCCXXXVIII, MDCCCXXXIX (London, 1839)Google Scholar; Sermons Preached and Published on Several Occasions (London, 1854)Google Scholar; Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford: Second Series, from MDCCXLVII. TO MDCCCLXII (Oxford, 1863)Google Scholar; Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford: Third Series, from MDCCCLXIII to MDCCCLXX (Oxford, 1871)Google Scholar; Sermons Preached on Various Occasions (Oxford, 1877).Google Scholar

¹⁹ The exact number is difficult to ascertain as there is no formal list of Wilberforce’s published sermons; individual sermons published as tracts can be found in several libraries. This lack of a database of published sermons for Wilberforce (or any other preacher) will be corrected in the soon-to-be-created British Pulpit Online web site.

²⁰ This is not a surprise; my analysis reveals that few preachers from the different denominations addressed the subject of evolution directly: ‘Nineteenth-Century Sermons on Evolution and The Origin of Species:The Dog that Didn’t Bark?’ in Robert Ellison, ed., A New History of the Sermon:The Nineteenth Century (forthcoming).

²¹ e.g.’The Temper of Mind in which to Receive the Christian Mysteries’, Sermons in St. Mary’s Church, 65–97 Google Scholar; ‘Pride a Hindrance to True Knowledge’, Sermons: Second Series, 1–19 Google Scholar; ‘Personal Affiance in Christ the Soul’s Safeguard’, Sermons: Third Series, 89–104.Google Scholar

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²³ For this paper I have used the first edition, which is entided On the Origin of Species.

²⁴ Paley, William, Natural Theology: or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature (London, 1802), 1—52.Google Scholar

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²⁶ Paley, , Natural Theology, 19–41, 227–71, 282–314, 324–45 Google Scholar; Darwin, , Origin of Species, 186–200, 207–44, 434–39 Google Scholar. Paley used the word ‘compensation’ for co-adaptation.

²⁷ [Wilberforce],’Art. VII’, 231–46.

²⁸ Paley, , Natural Theology, 231.Google Scholar

²⁹ Darwin, Charles, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, 2 vols (London, 1868), 2: 2 Google Scholar. Paley makes a similar point in Natural Theology, 273–74.

³⁰ Wilberforce, , ‘The Naturalist in Sussex’, in idem, Essays, 1: 5–6.Google Scholar

³¹ Paley, Compare, Natural Theology, 324–97, 409–38 with Darwin, , Origin of Species, 207–44, 312–45.Google Scholar

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³³ Darwin, , Origin of Species, 172, 227 Google Scholar. In his other works, see, e.g., Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom (London, 1876), 2, 5 Google Scholar; The Differing Forms of Flowers on Plants (London, 1877), 3–4.Google ScholarPubMed

³⁴ See Darwin, , Origin of Species, 73–74.Google Scholar

³⁵ [Wilberforce],’Art. VII’, 226.

³⁶ See Burgon, , Twelve Good Men, 2: 68 Google Scholar; Daniell, , Wilberforce, 147.Google Scholar

³⁷ For an analysis of Darwin’s writing style and organization, see Beer, Gillian, Danvin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot, and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (London, 1983)Google Scholar; eadem,’ Darwin’s Reading and the Fictions of Development’, in Kohn, David, ed., The Darwinian Heritage (Princeton, NJ, 1985), 543–88.Google Scholar

³⁸ Darwin, Charles, The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants, 2nd edn, revised (London, 1875), 206.Google Scholar

³⁹ Wilberforce, , ‘The Relation of Man to the Natural World’, Sermons on Various Occasions, 182–94, at 185.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ibid. 194.

⁴¹ Darwin, Origin of Species, 186, 188, 189, 413 (twice), 435, 488.

⁴² e.g. ibid. 6, 129, 138, 159, 167, 185, 244, 483, 487, 488.

⁴³ Ibid. 61; see also ibid. 30, 73, 82, 83, 147, 194, 242, 292, 390, 467, 469.

⁴⁴ Paley, , Natural Theology, 1—19.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Wilberforce, , Sermons on Several Occasions, 188.Google Scholar

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⁴⁸ Darwin, Charles, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 2 vols (London, 1871), 2: 405.Google Scholar

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