I THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS 21 
on 
brought to the test of observation and experiment. 
The path he bids us follow professes to be, not a 
mere airy track, fabricated of ideal cobwebs, but a 
solid and broad bridge of facts. If it be so, it 
will carry us Gy over many a chasm in our 
knowledge, and lead us to a region free from the 
_ snares of those fascinating but barren virgins, the 
_ Final Causes, against whom a high authority has so 
_ justly warned us. “ My sons, dig in the vineyard,” 
_ were the last words of the old man in the fable: 
and, though the sons found no treasure, they made 
EB tet fortunes by the grapes. 
a io. 
