I85Q.] THE 'TIMES' REVIEW. 49 



hypothesis enables us to give a reason for many apparent 

 anomalies in the distribution of living beings in time and 

 space, and that it is not contradicted by the main phenomena 

 of life and organisation, appear to us to be unquestionable." 

 Mr. Huxley goes on to recommend to the readers of the 

 1 Origin ' a condition of " thatige Skepsis "—a state of " doubt 

 which so loves truth that it neither dares rest in doubting, nor 

 extinguish itself by unjustified belief." The final paragraph 

 is in a strong contrast to Professor Sedgwick and his " ropes 

 of bubbles " (see p. 298). Mr. Huxley writes : " Mr. Darwin 

 abhors mere speculation as nature abhors a vacuum. He is as 

 greedy of cases and precedents as any constitutional lawyer, and 

 all the principles he lays down are capable of being 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 safely over many a chasm in our know- 

 ledge, 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." 



There can be no doubt that this powerful essay, appearing 

 as it did in the leading daily Journal, must have had a strong 

 influence on the reading public. Mr. Huxley allows me to 

 quote from a letter an account of the happy chance that threw 

 into his hands the opportunity of writing it. 



" The ' Origin ' was sent to Mr. Lucas, one of the staff of 

 the Times writers at that day, in what I suppose was the 

 ordinary course of business. Mr. Lucas, though an excellent 

 journalist, and, at a later period, editor of ' Once a Week,' 

 was as innocent of any knowledge of science as a babe, and 

 bewailed himself to an acquaintance on having to deal with 

 such a book. Whereupon he was recommended to ask me to 

 get him out of his difficulty, and he applied to me according- 

 ly, explaining, however, that it would be necessary for him 

 formally to adopt anything I might be disposed to write, by 

 prefacing it with two or three paragraphs of his own. 



" I was too anxious to seize upon the opportunity thus 

 27 



