360 THE CAUSES OF THE 



XI 



have hitherto been accessible and studied, they 

 have shown themselves capable of yielding to 

 scientific investigation, we may accept this as 

 proof that order and law reign there as well as 

 in the rest of Nature. The man of science says 

 nothing to objectors of this sort, but supposes 

 that we can and shall walk to a knowledge of the 

 origin of organic nature, in the same way that we 

 have walked to a knowledge of the laws and 

 principles of the inorganic world. 



But there are objectors who say the same from 

 ignorance and ill-will. To such I would reply 

 that the objection comes ill from them, and that 

 the real presumption, I may almost say the real 

 blasphemy, in this matter, is in the attempt to 

 limit that inquiry into the causes of phenomena, 

 which is the source of all human blessings, and 

 from which has sprung all human prosperity and 

 progress; for, after all, we can accomplish com- 

 paratively little ; the limited range of our own 

 faculties bounds us on every side, the field of 

 our powers of observation is small enough, and 

 he who endeavours to narrow the sphere of our 

 inquiries is only pursuing a course that is likely 

 to produce the greatest harm to his fellow- 



men. 



But now, assuming, as we all do, I hope, that 

 these phenomena are properly accessible to inquiry ; 

 and setting out upon our search into the causes 

 of the phenomena of organic nature, or at any 



