The Method by which the Causes of the Present and Past Conditions of Organic Nature Are to Be Disco | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Amy E. Zelmer.

THE METHOD BY WHICH THE CAUSES OF THE PRESENT AND
PAST CONDITIONS OF ORGANIC NATURE ARE TO BE
DISCOVERED.--THE ORIGINATION OF LIVING BEINGS
by Thomas H. Huxley

In the two preceding lectures I have endeavoured to indicate to you the
extent of the subject-matter of the inquiry upon which we are engaged;
and now, having thus acquired some conception of the Past and Present
phenomena of Organic Nature, I must now turn to that which
constitutes the great problem which we have set before ourselves;--I
mean, the question of what knowledge we have of the causes of these
phenomena of organic nature, and how such knowledge is obtainable.
Here, on the threshold of the inquiry, an objection meets us. There are
in the world a number of extremely worthy, well-meaning persons,
whose judgments and opinions are entitled to the utmost respect on
account of their sincerity, who are of opinion that Vital Phenomena,
and especially all questions relating to the origin of vital phenomena,
are questions quite apart from the ordinary run of inquiry, and are, by
their very nature, placed out of our reach. They say that all these
phenomena originated miraculously, or in some way totally different
from the ordinary course of nature, and that therefore they conceive it
to be futile, not to say presumptuous, to attempt to inquire into them.
To such sincere and earnest persons, I would only say, that a question
of this kind is not to be shelved upon theoretical or speculative grounds.
You may remember the story of the Sophist who demonstrated to
Diogenes in the most complete and satisfactory manner that he could
not walk; that, in fact, all motion was an impossibility; and that
Diogenes refuted him by simply getting up and walking round his tub.
So, in the same way, the man of science replies to objections of this
kind, by simply getting up and walking onward, and showing what
science has done and is doing--by pointing to that immense mass of
facts which have been ascertained and