The resemblance pleased him.
Privately he accepted the theory of organic evolution, reconciling it with a very broad Anglicanism; in his public utterances he touched upon the Darwinian doctrine with a weary disdain.

This contradiction involved no insincerity; Mr.Lashmar merely held in contempt the common understanding, and declined to expose an esoteric truth to vulgar misinterpretation.

Yet he often worried about it--as he worried over everything.
Nearer causes of disquiet were not lacking to him.

For several years the income of his living had steadily decreased; his glebe, upon which he chiefly depended, fell more and more under the influence of agricultural depression, and at present he found himself, if not seriously embarrassed, likely to be so in a very short time.

He was not a good economist; he despised everything in the nature of parsimony; his ideal of the clerical life demanded a liberal expenditure of money no less than unsparing personal toil.