304 THE CAUSES OF THE xi 



attention of all and the curiosity of all have been 

 probably more or less excited on the subject of 

 that work. All I can do, and all I shall attempt 

 to do, is to put before you that kind of judgment 

 which has been formed by a man, who, of course, 

 is liable to judge erroneously ; but, at any rate, of 

 one whose business and profession it is to form 

 judgments upon questions of this nature. 



And here, as it will always happen when dealing 

 with an extensive subject, the greater part of my 

 course if, indeed, so small a number of lectures 

 can be properly called a course must be devoted 

 to preliminary matters, or rather to a statement of 

 those facts and of those principles which the work 

 itself dwells upon, and brings more or less directly 

 before us. I have no right to suppose that all or 

 any of you are naturalists ; and, even if you were, 

 the misconceptions and misunderstandings prev- 

 alent even among naturalists, on these matters, 

 would make it desirable that I should take the 

 course I now propose to take, that I should 

 start from the beginning, that I should endeavour 

 to point out what is the existing state of the 

 organic w r orld that I should point out its past 

 condition, that I should state what is the precise 

 nature of the undertaking which Mr. Darwin has 

 taken in hand ; that I should endeavour to show 

 you what are the only methods by which that 

 undertaking can be brought to an issue, and to 

 point out to you how far the author of the work 



