Besides being a remarkably clever woman and a brilliant writer, she had the prestige of a great name, being the niece of Charles Kingsley and the daughter of George Kingsley; a name of such historical significance in the Church of England that we should naturally expect Miss Kingsley to be in intellectual and moral sympathy with the Christian religion. Such however is by no means the case. She avows her disbelief in Christianity and frankly tells us that Spinoza is the exponent of her creed,[4] which is therefore pure pantheism. God does not transcend nature; nor is He separable from it. Moreover, Miss Kingsley does not hold this opinion dispassionately. For instance, the effort to draw moral inspiration from our relation to a personal God (which she chooses to call “emotionalism”), she tells us she regards with “instinctive hatred.”[5] Footnote 4: _West African Studies_, p. 112. Footnote 5: _Travels in West Africa_, p. 506. With such views Miss Kingsley finds, when she comes to the study of fetishism, that she half believes in it herself, and she is reluctant to speak against it. She says: “It is a most unpleasant thing for any religious-minded person to speak of a religion unless he either profoundly believes or disbelieves in it. For if he does the one he has the pleasure of praise; if he does the other, he has the pleasure of war, but the thing in between these is the thing that gives neither pleasure; it is like quarrelling with one’s own beloved relations. Thus it is with fetish and me!”[6] Footnote 6: _West African Studies_, p. 113. We need not be surprised, then, when Miss Kingsley frankly says: “I am unsympathetic, for reasons of my own, with Christian missions.”[7] Footnote 7: _Travels in West Africa_, p. 214. And not only was there a want of intellectual sympathy with the Christian religion, but a want of moral sympathy as well. Miss Kingsley says: “An American magazine the other day announced, in a shocked way, that I could evidently ‘swear like a trooper.’ I cannot think where it got the idea from.”[8] I _can_. And I venture the simple guess that the editor had read Miss Kingsley’s books—for instance, the interesting _preface_ to _West African Studies_. Footnote 8: _West African Studies_, p. 299. But there are several more serious phases of this want of sympathy with the spirit of Christianity which would militate against Miss Kingsley’s competence as a critic of missions, namely, her avowed belief in _slavery_, in _polygamy_, and in the _liquor traffic_. Miss Kingsley, after contending that domestic slavery is “for divers reasons essential to the well-being of Africa,” appends the following opinion in a foot-note: “I am of the opinion that the suppression of the export slave trade to the Americas was a grave mistake.”[9] Even more vehemently does Miss Kingsley defend native polygamy; and still more vehemently the liquor traffic. Footnote 9: _Travels in West Africa_, p. 514.