276 Britain's Heritage of Science 



attempted answer falls within the scope of scientific method. 

 If, however, the final answer should be in the affirmative 

 we should then know that all matter is living, but we should 

 be no nearer to the attainment of a notion of the origin of 

 life. No body of scientific doctrine succeeds in describing in 

 terms of laws of succession more than some limited set of 

 stages of a natural process ; the whole process if, indeed, it 

 can be regarded as a whole must for ever be beyond the 

 reach of scientific grasp. The earliest stage to which Science 

 has succeeded in tracing back any part of a sequence of 

 phenomena itself constitutes a new problem for Science and 

 that without end. There is always an earlier stage and to an 

 earliest we can never attain. The questions of origins 

 concern the theologian, the metaphysician, perhaps the poet. 

 The fact that Darwin did not concern himself with questions 

 as to the origin of life nor with the apparent discontinuity 

 between living and non-living matter in no way diminishes 

 the value of his work. The broad philosophic mind of the 

 great Master of inductive method saw too fully the nature of 

 the task he had set before him to hamper himself with 

 irrelevant views as to origins. 



No well-instructed person imagines that Darwin spoke 

 either the first or the last word about organic evolution. 

 His ideas as to the precise mode of evolution may be, and 

 are being, modified as time goes on. This is the fate of all 

 scientific theories; none are stationary, none are final. 

 The development of Science is a continuous process of evolu- 

 tion, like the world of phenomena itself. It has, however, 

 some few landmarks which stand out exceptional and 

 prominent. None of these is greater or will be more enduring 

 in the history of thought than the theory associated with 

 the name of Charles Darwin. 



But in reading his writings and his son's admirable " Life " 

 one attains a very vivid impression of the man. One of 

 his dominant characteristics was simplicity--simplicity and 

 directness. In his style he was terse, but he managed to 

 write so that even the most abstruse problems became clear 

 to the public. The fascination of the story he had to tell 

 was enhanced by the direct way in which he told it. 



One more characteristic. Darwin's views excited at the 



