SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



707 



best men." Such an ideal adjustment can not become speedily prevalent; 

 but a few successful efforts " might be the germs of a s|)reading organiza- 

 tion. Admission to them would be the goal of working-class ambition. 

 They would tend continually to absorb the superior, leaving outside the in- 

 ferior to work as wage-earners; and the first would slowly grow at the ex- 

 pense of the last. Obviously, too, the growth would become increasingly 

 rapid; since the master-and-workman type could not withstand competi- 

 tion with- this co-operative type, so much more productive and costing so 

 much less in superintendence." 



For the present, Mr. Spencer sees the rhythmic principle exemplified in 

 all evolutionary processes carrying us inevitably toward a regime of so- 

 cialistic experimentation. Militantism is reviving in Europe and America. 

 Equality is the ideal of the modern statesman, economist, and politician, 

 rather than liberty. "There is small objection to coei-cion if all are equally 

 coerced." This process can only be arrested by a great spread of co-opera- 

 tive production, which is not probable. Nations may perish, civilizations 

 may decay, under this downward tendency. How long it will last and 

 what will ultimately check it we can not now foresee. The processes of 

 evolution will go on, however, gradually ultimating in that complete adap- 

 tation of human nature to the social state which is its ideal end and aim. 

 This end will be proximated and preceded by a federation of nations where- 

 by wars will be prevented and "the rebarbarization which is continually 

 undoing civilization " will come to an end. Peace is the essential condition 

 to that equilibrium between inner faculties and outer requirements, between 

 man and society, which will constitute the final stage of human evolution. 

 By a faith in eternal principles as constant and exalted as that of the reli- 

 gious saint, Mr. Spencer sees beyond the reversion implied in present down- 

 ward tendencies the vision of man finally triumphant over false theories 

 and the delusions of ignorance, at last completely fulfilling the demands of 

 his higher nature in the organization of a society which may well be 

 likened to the kingdom of heaven foretold by the founder of Christianity. 

 May we not hope that the treaty of arbitration between Great Britain and 

 the United States will constitute an initial step in the direction of this better 

 day ? 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



We have received a couple of attractive- 

 ly got up books, one on A7igling and one on 

 Huniivg^^ whicb are apparently the first two 

 of a new series, to be called the " Out-of-door 

 Library." The books are made up of short 

 papers by different writers, all of which have 

 appeared in Scribner's Magazine. The sto- 

 ries are for the most part accounts of trips 

 to special regions famed for some particular 

 game. The first chapter in Angling is a 

 discourse on fly fishing. The Land of the 

 Winanische is the account of a fishing trip 

 to Lake St. John and its surroundings, where, 



* The Out-of-door Library. Angling, pp. 305, 

 $150. Hunting, pp. 3^7, $1.50. New York: 

 Charles Scribner's Sons. 



it seems, the winanische or ouinaniche is 

 localized. Nepigon River fishing, striped 

 and black sea bass, and tarpon fishing in 

 Florida are accounts of similar excursions. 

 A chapter on American game fishes, and 

 finally one on Izaak Walton, which describes 

 his home and fishing grounds in Dovedale, 

 complete the volume on angling. Hunting 

 contains eight chapters. The first one, en- 

 titled Hunting American Big Game, is an 

 account of the game conditions in Wyoming 

 some fifteen or twenty years ago. Camping 

 and Hunting in the Shoshone gives a general 

 desciiption of the Rocky Mountain scenery in 

 this district, and describes exciting incidents 

 from a number of hunting trips which the 



