CHAP, vii EVOLUTION IN DARWIN 6/ 



the effort required to deal with it, was strictly limited. 

 It lay within the world of .organic life. It sought to 

 account for the origin of distinct species among plants 

 and animals. Organic evolution, as taught by Dar- 

 win, means, one takes it, the evolution of organisms, 

 a doctrine of evolution versus (special) creation as 

 accounting for species, though the phrase organic evo- 

 lution is sometimes perhaps used by other writers 1 

 in a wider, or vaguer, or deeper significance. Darwin 

 himself, as a specialist, had nothing to say to us on 

 the origin of life, nothing, assuredly, on the origin 

 of the universe. At one point, indeed, he unavoid- 

 ably opened up very deep problems. For among 

 the species with which he dealt was the human race ; 

 and a discussion of the origin of mind involves a 

 reference to the beginnings and ends of all things ; 

 it forces us back to first principles and drives us on 

 to the final problems. But of this, perhaps, Darwin 

 was never adequately aware. Every one who has 

 studied philosophy sees it, but Darwin, though a 

 specialist of genius, and a specialist on a great scale, 

 was still, after all, a specialist. And he never claimed 

 to bring the world a new cosmical philosophy ; it was 

 enough for him to introduce one new hypothesis, link- 

 ing together all forms of life, and to see this hypoth- 

 esis conquering mind after mind, until the whole 

 civilised world seemed to bow to its discoverer. Dar- 

 win dealt with the evolution of species, Spencer has 

 dealt with the evolution of the universe. 



What, again, was the special contribution made 

 by Darwin to his problem so old a problem, with 



1 eg. Dr. E. Caird. In a deeper significance, perhaps, as implying 

 necessary or organic relation between the organism and its environment 



