The English dissenting colleges laid great emphasis on the study of German higher criticism (in the fields of history, philology, science, and theology), as it was seen to challenge and undermine Anglican orthodoxy.

Charles Bradlaugh, the President of the National Secular Society (NSS) stated clearly: "Dr. E. B. Aveling has been deprived of his lectureship on Comparative Anatomy at London Hospital because he has publicly identified himself with us.

[41] Newth had also written elementary textbooks on natural philosophy in the early 1850s, thus together with Edwin Lankester's own writings in this field, it is not difficult to see Aveling carrying on this tradition in his own instructional works.

[42] Aveling's laboratory was situated in the tower of New College, from the outset it had been "fitted up with every convenience for chemical and scientific experiments",[43] and Edwin Lankester had been the co-founder of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (Vol.

"[52] In November 1882, Aveling heard Carlo Alfredo Piatti perform Beethoven's Trio in G major at St James's Hall, London, accompanied by Wilma Neruda and Ludwig Strauss.

[55] Aveling particularly praised the impresario Carl Rosa (1842–1889) and his company as "a musical missionary" and he was clearly familiar with his work, writing that "He brings the classical compositions of foreign composers within the understanding hearing of English people who only know their own language.

In one review Aveling referred to a performance of Hector Berlioz' opera La Damnation de Faust at the Albert Hall, on Thursday, Feb. 7 1884, that despite his inability to attend, was clearly a favourite piece of his and he was already familiar with it: "Unfortunately, I could not be there.

Uncertain therefore of my own power, doubtful of my own worthiness, but full of confidence in freedom of thought and of desire to work therefore I ask for admission into the army of freethinkers and I devote to the cause that is dear to them such thing as I possess..."[61] He said here that he claimed to have held secularist views for two or three years prior to this credo, this has genuine echoes of Shelley's "The Revolt of Islam" and his fashioning of "linked armour for my soul, before it might walk forth to war among mankind"[62] Before 27 July he had hidden his identity by signing articles in the National Reformer with the initials "E.D."

Annie Besant's words of approval and gratitude for this deliverance of a "New Soldier" within the ranks of the army of freethinkers, were as follows: "His language is exquisitely chosen and is polished to the highest extent, so that the mere music of speech is pleasant to the ear.

Since to this artistic charm are added scholarship and wide knowledge, with a brilliancy of brain I have not seen surpassed, and a capacity for work without which the intellectual power would be half wasted, our friends will not wonder that we who know him rejoice that our Mistress Liberty has won this new Knight".

This young man, in January, 1879, began writing under initials for the National Reformer, and in February I became his pupil, with the view of matriculating in June at the London University, an object which was duly accomplished.Aveling's chemistry class was taken by 42 people including the sisters Alice and Hypatia Bradlaugh.

This state of affairs enraged the establishment anti-secularists and in particular the Conservative MP Sir Henry Tyler, who disliked Bradlaugh, and he brought into question the appropriateness of Aveling's employment with the Science and Art Department of the Government.

He was concerned "....whether it was correct that Dr. Aveling [who] had recently written that the principles involved in the construction of the frog were "condemnatory of God," and whether he considered that anyone publishing such ideas was a fit teacher for a school in connection with the Science and Art Department, and whether such teaching received the sanction of Her Majesty's Government?

The reference to certain properties of the frog was Aveling's clever rejoinder to the teachings of the theologian William Paley and his watchmaker analogy as an attempt at a teleological argument for the existence of God using specified complexity.

Following Foote's imprisonment and Wheeler's tragic illness, Aveling became the editor of this magazine from April 1883-March 1884, it is claimed that he was assisted by Annie Besant, Eleanor Marx and William Archer.

I must confess that though I don't intend to give way to Engels his advice is valuable; and on this point I am inclined to agree.The first number with Morris as editor and Aveling as sub-editor appeared at the beginning of February 1885.

[108] In 1886, Eleanor Marx and Aveling travelled to New York on the SS City of Chicago arriving on 31 August to tour the United States and to campaign for the Socialist Labor Party of America.

It was declared: "Dr. Aveling, the English Socialist who has come to this country to rescue the Chicago Anarchists from the gallows...", Eleanor was called his "vitriolic spouse", and any respectable Americans should have nothing to do with these "firebrands of the Aveling-Liebknecht variety".

During the fifteen weeks' stay in the United States, forty-four towns in all were visited, and in his capacity as lecturer, journalist, and dramatic critic, the writer came into contact with a great number of Americans of all grades of society, and all shades of opinion.

On their return, the Avelings stayed with Engels working on the translation of Das Kapital and they wrote about America, co-authored articles appeared in "Die Neue Zeit" and in "To-Day" on the Chicago anarchists.

On 23 March 1887, Aveling gave a lecture on "Socialism in America" at Clerkenwell in the Hall of the Socialist League, 13 Farringdon Road, E.C., it was reported "to a large and attentive audience; good discussion followed.

"[139] What Frederick Engels called a flying visit ("eine Spritztour"), primarily to see his nephew, went off quietly and intentionally in secret so as not to arouse the attention of German socialists in New York.

[148] Friedrich Engels in a letter to Conrad Schmidt, London 12 September 1892, had read an essay of his in Die Neue-Zeit and had written: "If there were a review over here that would take it, I would, with your permission, get Aveling to translate it under my supervision.

If the petty private ambitions and intrigues of the London would-be-greats are slightly held in check here and the tactics do not turn out too wrong-headed, the Independent Labour Party may succeed in detaching the masses from the Social-Democratic Federation and in the provinces from the Fabians too, and thus forcing unity.

The "Dramatic Notes" on the theatre that they had written together are probably the most intimate sounding of their works and their common love for Henry Irving and his Shakespearian roles always shines through: "We have in another place, long ago, recorded the extraordinary impression that performance made on us.

At first for students, and then as a result of his secularism, that together with Eleanor Marx would later intensely embrace socialist politics, this desire to popularize and communicate Darwinian evolution to the working classes became an idée fixe.

The complete translation of the letter, however, was published by Aveling in the National Reformer (1 October 1882) and in an article that appeared the following week from Annie Besant, with the title: "Darwin and Haeckel", she addressed this suppression and censorship "It is not credible that a high-class scientific journal could stoop to pander in this fashion to the cant of its own time.

The following year Aveling's translation appeared in the series International Library of Science and Freethought, that included a number of Haeckel's works from the "Gesammelte populäre Vorträge aus dem Gebiete der Entwickelungslehre"[Collected popular lectures from the field of evolutionary theory] under the title "The Pedigree of Man.

Her biographer, Yvonne Kapp provides full details of the suicide, and that the post mortem examination concluded that the cause of death was poisoning by prussic acid, purchased at the local chemist by the maid.

It remarked on the fact that there was not much fanfare "Strange to say, however, although Dr. Aveling was considered to be one of the most prominent leaders of the Socialist movement in England, he having been closely identified with it since its inauguration, no representatives of this society were present at the last obsequies.