dation of a philosophy nobler and deeper than all the human counterfeits of these latter days."
Winds of Doctrine: being an Examination of the Modern Theories of Automatism and Evolution. By Charles Elam, M. D. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Pp. 163.
This is a work of a similar stripe to that just noticed. The contents of the volume first appeared in the Contemporary Review, in three articles, and coming from a medical man, the presumption should be that it is a scientific discussion, but it is rather a piece of violent rhetorical denunciation. The author contributes nothing to the scientific illumination of the subject, and takes his cue from some of the outgivings of Prof. Mivart in his recent criticisms of Darwinism. But while Mr. Mivart, like most of the eminent biologists of the time, admits evolution as a great historic fact of Nature, however deficient may as yet be its explanation, Dr. Elam scouts it in every form and degree as a pure figment of the imagination, and an idle absurdity. His virtual position is, that the naturalists are under an hallucination, and that Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, and Spencer especially, to whom he gives his main attention, are little better than fools so far as this subject is concerned. Like Prof. Birks, Dr. Elam writes in the interest of popular traditions and for miscellaneous readers, and has no scruple about his course so he can make out a specious case. He quotes Huxley copiously, but prefers to use his cautious statements, made twelve or fifteen years ago, rather than his later utterances which represent the progress that has been made within that time. With equal unfairness he goes back to Spencer's "Social Statics," published twenty-six years ago, and quotes opinions which Mr. Spencer has stated that he now holds only with important qualifications, instead of judging him by the work upon the same general subject that he is now elaborating.
The spirit here evinced is that of the advocate and partisan, rather than of the candid and earnest inquirer after truth.
There are difficulties with evolution, many, and various, and formidable; and none better understand this, or more freely acknowledge it, than those who have studied the subject most profoundly. There are not only inherent difficulties in the discussion from imperfect knowledge, but there are extrinsic difficulties in bringing before the general mind the nature and force of its proofs, and from its conflict with long-established and widely-cherished beliefs. It is therefore a perfectly easy thing to make objections to the doctrine which many will think annihilating. It is an easy thing to accumulate and ring rhetorical changes on old objections, and with a little license of misrepresentation, and a fresh battery of depreciatory adjectives, to make out a killing case in the estimation of those whose minds are made up beforehand, and who know little of the real issues of the subject. If, on any plain and simple question, arising out of an open transaction between two neighbors who have become involved in law, the hireling attorneys can so confuse and confound all common-sense that a jury is as likely to give a wrong verdict as a right one, what may we not expect when a great, complex, wide-reaching, and newly presented scientific question becomes a matter of controversy before ill-instructed people, with loud and angry protestations that it involves the very existence of morality, religion, and God? The skillful counselor, who cares only to produce an impression, has obviously a great advantage here.
But while the pert and supercilious critic is carrying all before him, and proving to those who knew it all before that evolution is a baseless fancy, a mere transient gust of wild and absurd speculation, the disciplined, sober-minded, and thoroughly instructed naturalists, guided by the light it affords, are penetrating deeper into the secrets of phenomena, making further discoveries, and rapidly extending the bounds of our knowledge of Nature.
Inventional Geometry. A Series of Problems intended to familiarize the Pupil with Geometrical Conceptions, and to exercise his Inventive Faculty. By William George Spencer. With a Prefatory Note by Herbert Spencer. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 100. Price, 50 cents.
This is a small and a modest book, but a very important one for all who have a concern about the quality and character of education. It is not a book that will work
