The Method by Which the Causes of the Present and Past Conditions of Organic Nature Are to Be Discovered; the Origination of Living Beings Lecture III. (of VI.), "Lectures to Working Men", at the Museum of Practical Geology, 1863, on Darwin's Work: "Origin of Species"

In this lively lecture, Huxley turns the audience’s curiosity toward the very foundations of life itself. He begins by laying out the scope of what we already know about past and present organic forms, then asks how we might uncover the underlying causes that shape them. Using vivid analogies—like the philosopher who tried to prove motion impossible only to be out‑walked by Diogenes—he shows that scientific inquiry can tackle even the most stubborn questions about vitality.

Huxley confronts the skeptics who deem the origin of living things a realm beyond reason, arguing that the same methods that reveal the laws of rocks and rivers apply to biology. He points to an expanding catalogue of facts in morphology, development, and distribution, insisting that these patterns reveal a lawful, observable world. Listeners are left with a clear sense that the search for life’s beginnings is a genuine, methodical adventure, not a mystical or speculative pastime.