ee 
SERENO WATSON. 
Dr. Sereno Watson, after the death of Dr. Gray the foremost 
botanist of America, died at Cambridge, March 9, 1892, in the 66th 
year of age.” 
The many and important works which he has contributed to the 
knowledge of American Botany will form his best and most endur- 
ing monument. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Human Progress, Past and Future. By ALFRED RussEL WAL- 
LACE. Arena, January, 1892, pp. 145—159- An attempt is being 
made at the present day by the followers of Prof. Weismann to ap- 
ply the Neo-Darwinian theories to all departments of scientific in- 
vestigation. The natural impression has existed among many sci- 
entists that an acceptance of these views would lead to a very pes- 
simistic outlook for man’s future, but Mr. A. R. Wallace in the 
article under consideration takes the opposite stand. He points out 
the two significations of the term progress, which may mean either 
advance in material civilization, which he believes is cumulative and 
continuing at the present day, or advance in the mental and moral 
nature of man, which he thinks may be at a standstill. He con- 
tends, as many others have done, that the great works of antiquity 
have not been surpassed at the present day. Thus he says: “ The 
earliest known architectural work, the great pyramid of Egypt, in 
the mathematical accusacy of its form and dimensions, in its precise 
orientation, and in the perfect workmanship shown by its internal 
structure, indicates an amount of astronomical, mathematical and 
mechanical knowledge, and an amount of experience and practical 
skill, which could only have been attained at that early period of 
man’s history by the exertion of mental ability in no way inferior to 
that of our best modern engineers. In purely intellectual achieve- 
ments the Vedas of ancient India, the Iliad of Homer, the Book of 
Job and _ the writings of Plato, will rank with the noblest works of 
modern authors.’? More than this, Mr. Wallace thinks that the 
high-water mark of intellectual activity has sunk rather than risen — 
