Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
Written from "7 Lifton Place / Leeds."
The year of writing is not given, however, Carpenter refers to Martineau's criticism on Tyndall. An article from the October 11, 1874 issue of The Spectator discusses Martineau's lecture on Tyndall at the session opening of New Manchester College.
Discussing, at length and in detail, the obligation of liberal thinkers to serve as missionaries for their ideas; commenting on Knight's trip to America and his own wish to see Niagara Falls one day; thanking him for his "...trouble about the little hymnbook" and discussing hymns and hymnbooks; asking if Knight had met O.B. Frothingham while he was in New York and commenting that "Mr. Frothingham would have had little hesitation in answering the question which occupies your thoughts. Nor do I see how it can be doubted that liberal thinkers have a missionary function. If one has any convictions at all, one must surely desire that others should embrace them also. How is the general mind to be leavened with new ideas, unless we ourselves do our share in the mixing; and if we meantime sit apart in philosophic calm, will not the process take effect beyond our control and out of reach of our sympathies and result in new forms of life and thought from which we shall be aliens & outcasts? After all, every faith must have its apostles, perhaps even its martyrs: Stoicism could produce an Aurelius, but it needed a Jesus and a Paul to regenerate the world; and why should we expect that the ages will progress while we are sitting still & doing nothing? [Illegible] can only progress when each one uses his opportunities and speaks the word wh. to him is real and true. Of course, if religion is only a slender probability, men cannot be expected to be very much in earnest about it: and if belief is only a big venture, it will not inspire an enthusiasm: but then the affirmations which liberal thought offers in place of the old dogmatisms are recognised by the soul as realities of which it is as confident as it is of its own existence. In these - in the inward perceptions by which alone we have knowledge of divine things, is there not a basis of assurance sufficient to support a new and larger temple than any of the elder church? Take any of the questions on wh. liberal thought has already delivered itself clearly - the inspiration of the Bible, everlasting punishment & the like. Who is to help on the new reformation if it is not ourselves, and those who think like us?...How much organisation is possible among liberal thinks, is a very difficult question. Our attempts in that direction have not, so far, been very successful; but the growing sympathy wh. underlies all diversities of creed, is daily rendering organisation less needful; it is creating a new fellowship among the most isolated and independent, and knitting in one bond of endeavour those whose visible spheres are far enough apart. The union thus effected seems to me far more real than that of outward association: and it is certainly as helpful for everything that concerns the inner life;" mentioning Martineau's criticism of Tyndall; adding that he hopes to hear from him and perhaps to see him in the spring.