my understanding was that darwin was interested in the origin of species, not the origin of life.
does anyone on this thread know if darwin ever claimed that life originated from non-living matter?
His actual, published theory said that the first life was "breathed by the Creator." (Origin of Species, last page.) In one of his diaries (not intended to be published, and published only long after his death), he speculated that life may have begun in a puddle of chemicals on the early earth. But that was clearly speculation; he never published it because he had no evidence for it.