An Introduction to a Biology 



And when his labours are over he sings : 



" Life is a vale, its paths are dark and rough 

 Only because we do not know enough. 

 When Science has discovered something more, 

 We shall be happier than we were before." l 



He thinks that he has become far removed from 

 the jagged crust of phenomena in the vale that was 

 dark and rough. And so he has. He thinks that he 

 has burrowed through the soil, which was easy ; 

 through the subsoil, which was not so easy ; through 

 the intervening strata, which was still more difficult, 

 until at last he has reached fundamental principles 

 and stands upon the Bedrock of certainty itself. 

 But he does not. It is all an illusion. It is true 

 that he has become removed from the crust of pheno- 

 mena. But it is in the other direction. He has 

 flown upwards on the wings of his imagination, in 

 the machine which he has made, and will soon 

 become a tiny speck, infinitesimal against the 

 evening sky. 



I have endeavoured to give some idea of the 

 dangers which beset the path of him who is not 

 satisfied with a mere description of Life, but sets out 

 to understand her and to convey his interpretation 

 to others. If these dangers are so great as to be 

 insuperable, would it not be safer and simpler, we 

 ask in despair, to rest content with a mere descrip- 

 tion, with a photograph instead of a picture of Life ? 

 If we did this, we should certainly make fewer mis- 

 takes ; but we should not make much progress. 



1 " Lambkin's Remains," p. 20. Published by the proprietors of the 

 J. C. R., at J. Vincent's, 96, High Street, Oxford, 1900. 



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