No doubt these are all caused by some unknown law, but I cannot believe they were ordained for any purpose, and if not so ordained under domesticity, I can see no reason to believe that they were ordained in a state of nature.

Of course it may be said, when you kick a stone, or a leaf falls from a tree, that it was ordained, before the foundations of the world were laid, exactly where that stone or leaf should lie.

In this sense the subject has no interest for me.
Once again, many thanks for the orchids; you must let me repay you what you paid the collector.
LETTER 132.

TO C.LYELL.
(132/1.

The first paragraph probably refers to the proof-sheets of Lyell's "Antiquity of Man," but the passage referred to seems not to occur in the book.) Torquay, August 21st [1861].
...I have really no criticism, except a trifling one in pencil near the end, which I have inserted on account of dominant and important species generally varying most.