'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 below). 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 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."

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 accordingly, 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 offered of giving the