I have already stated to you that the inquiry respecting the causes of
the phenomena of organic nature resolves itself into two problems--the
first being the question of the origination of living or organic
beings; and the second being the totally distinct problem of the
modification and perpetuation of organic beings when they have already
come into existence. The first question Mr. Darwin does not touch; he
does not deal with it at all; but he says--given the origin of organic
matter--supposing its creation to have already taken place, my object is
to show in consequence of what laws and what demonstrable properties of
organic matter, and of its environments, such states of organic nature
as those with which we are acquainted must have come about. This, you
will observe, is a perfectly legitimate proposition; every person has a
right to define the limits of the inquiry which he sets before himself;
and yet it is a most singular thing that in all the multifarious, and,
not unfrequently, ignorant attacks which have been made upon the
'Origin of Species', there is nothing which has been more speciously
criticised than this particular limitation. If people have nothing else
to urge against the book, they say--"Well, after all, you see, Mr.
Darwin's explanation of the 'Origin of Species' is not good for much,
because, in the long run, he admits that he does not know how organic
matter began to exist. But if you admit any special creation for the
first particle of organic matter you may just as well admit it for all
the rest; five hundred or five thousand distinct creations are just as
intelligible, and just as little difficult to understand, as one." The
answer to these cavils is two-fold. In the first place, all human
inquiry must stop somewhere; all our knowledge and all our
investigation cannot take us beyond the limits set by the finite and
restricted character of our faculties, or destroy the endless unknown,
which accompanies, like its shadow, the endless procession of
phenomena. So far as I can venture to offer an opinion on such a