Why should you or I speak of variation
as having been ordained and guided, more than does an astronomer, in
discussing the fall of a meteoric stone? He would simply say that it was
drawn to our earth by the attraction of gravity, having been displaced
in its course by the action of some quite unknown laws. Would you have
him say that its fall at some particular place and time was "ordained
and guided without doubt by an intelligent cause on a preconceived and
definite plan"? Would you not call this theological pedantry or display?
I believe it is not pedantry in the case of species, simply because
their formation has hitherto been viewed as beyond law; in fact, this
branch of science is still with most people under its theological phase
of development. The conclusion which I always come to after thinking of
such questions is that they are beyond the human intellect; and the less
one thinks on them the better. You may say, Then why trouble me? But I
should very much like to know clearly what you think.

LETTER 133. TO HENRY FAWCETT.

(133/1. The following letter was published in the "Life" of Mr. Fawcett
(1885); we are indebted to Mrs. Fawcett and Messrs. Smith & Elder for
permission to reprint it. See Letter 129.)

September 18th [1861].

I wondered who had so kindly sent me the newspaper (133/2. The newspaper
sent was the "Manchester Examiner" for September 9th, 1861, containing
a report of Mr. Fawcett's address given before Section D of the British
Association, "On the method of Mr. Darwin in his treatise on the
origin of species," in which the speaker showed that the "method of
investigation pursued by Mr. Darwin in his treatise on the origin of
species is in strict accordance with the principles of logic." The "A"
of the letter (as published in Fawcett's Life) is the late Professor
Williamson, who is reported to have said that "while he would not say
that Mr. Darwin's book had caused him a loss of reputation, he was sure
that it had not caused a gain." The reference to "B" is explained by the
report of the late Dr. Lankester's speech in which he said, "The facts
brought forward in support of the hypothesis had a very different value
indeed from that of the hypothesis...A great naturalist, who was still a
friend of Mr. Darwin, once said to him (Dr. Lankester), 'The mistake is,
that Darwin has dealt with origin. Why did he not put his facts before
us, and let them rest?'" Another speaker, the Rt. Hon. J.R. Napier