XI 



ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE CAUSES 

 OF THE PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC 

 NATURE 



[Six Lectures to Working Men. 1863.] 

 I. 



THE PRESENT CONDITION OF ORGANIC NATURE. 



WHEN it was my duty to consider what subject I 

 would select for the six lectures which I shall now 

 have the pleasure of delivering to you, it occurred 

 to me that I could not do better than endeavour 

 to put before you in a true light, or in what I 

 might perhaps with more modesty call, that which 

 I conceive myself to be the true light, the position 

 of a book which has been more praised and more 

 abused, perhaps, than any book which has appeared 

 for some years ; I mean Mr. Darwin's work on the 

 "Origin of Species." That work, I doubt not, 

 many of you have read ; for I know the inquiring 

 spirit which is rife among you. At, any rate, all 

 of you will have heard of it, some by one kind of 

 report and some by another kind of report ; the 



