to which persons are often subject through defective action of the senses or false interpretations of their impressions. The facts are well interpreted and the accompanying comments judicious. He closes with a reference to spiritualism, and insists upon the need that it should be investigated by experts in matters of evidence.
Haeckel's Genesis of Man; or, History of the Development of the Human Race. Being a Review of his Anthropogeny; and embracing a Summary Exposition of his Views, and of those of the Advanced German School of Science. By Lester F. Ward, A. M. Philadelphia: Ed. Stern &. Co. Pp. 64.
We have read this able and admirable pamphlet with much pleasure. As a review of the principal works and a condensed exposition of the thought of the great German biologist, it is executed with judgment, and as an introduction to the study of evolution from a point of view with which the public is not generally familiar, it will prove useful and be welcomed by many readers. And to these merits of the brochure it must be added that it is clearly, effectively, and at times eloquently written. To any beginner who proposes to enter upon Haeckel's works, we should say, read this first; and that he will not be misled is sufficiently sure from the fact that Haeckel himself testifies to the substantial correctness with which this essay represents his position.
In stating this position, and in estimating Haeckel's claims, the writer inevitably opens the question of the claims of other men, and has to dwell on points of rivalry, priority, and originality. To whom belongs mainly the credit of working out the theory of dissent, or of establishing the doctrine of development? Thus far Mr. Darwin has had a virtual monopoly of the honor; but, while nobody will grudge him a liberal share of it, it begins to be seen that justice has something to do with it, and that there has been a great deal of loose exaggeration of Mr. Darwin's share in the work. Mr. Ward says that "Professor Haeckel is no mere disciple of Darwin," but has independently cultivated a great biological province, which bears directly upon development, but which Darwin hardly touched, viz., the province of embryology, which has for its object the study of transformations. This department Haeckel has made his own, and, as Mr. Ward shows, it furnishes the most impressive and overwhelming proofs of the truth of evolution that are to be gathered from any special source. This subject Mr. Darwin barely touched in his first book.
Mr. Ward recognizes that Darwin was "diaplomatic," and there can be no doubt, both that this is true and that it had much to do with the success of the "Origin of Species." In that work he invoked supernatural intervention where his scientific explanations were faulty; and he abstained from applying his theory to man. Haeckel had nothing of this quality; he was simply logical, and applied the law of descent to the human race at the outset. The consequence was, that he was bitterly attacked, not only by anti-Darwinians but also by Darwinians, who charged that "he was more Darwinistic than Darwin himself." Darwin afterward published "The Descent of Man," but Haeckel had to take the first brunt of the opposition in Germany.
In reviewing the history of the subject, Mr. Ward, following Haeckel, credits Erasmus Darwin, Goethe, and Lamarck with the honor of founding the doctrine of evolution. Lamarck's "Philosophic Zoölogique" was published just fifty years before the "Origin of Species," yet Mr. Ward goes so far as to say that every important principle embraced in the latter work is also contained in the former—except the principle of "natural selection." That principle, moreover, had been long recognized, and the doctrine of the fixity of species was undermined. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace independently showed how "natural selection" may give rise to new species.
It would have afforded a still further illustration of the ripeness of thought upon this subject, and increased the equity of Mr. Ward's distribution of honors, if he had stated that, before Mr. Darwin had published at all on the subject, Spencer had drawn up in full detail his prospectus of the evolution philosophy, covering the whole ground, in ten volumes, and that the subsequent contribution of Mr. Darwin did not make it necessary to disturb the order of his work by so much as the introduction of an additional chapter. The new contribution fell into its proper place in an already organized body of thought.
