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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



no more " speculative " than are the 

 widest truths established in each of the 

 sciences. 



Again : the writer in the Nation 

 points his contrast by characterizing 

 Mr. Darwin's mental processes as prop- 

 erly Newtonian, while Mr. Spencer's are 

 un-Newtonian. He says that Mr. Spen- 

 cer has lately put forward the claim 

 that "his method is justified hy New- 

 ton's precepts and practice ; " and he 

 adds that, according to " the leading 

 physicists of the day," this claim is not 

 substantiated. Of this it may be said 

 that Mr. Spencer put forth no such 

 claims until he had been first attacked 

 on this score by the Cambridge mathe- 

 maticians; and "leading physicists of 

 the day " are not wanting who regard 

 the attack as a conspicuous failure. 

 But, if the case is to go by the force of 

 authority, does the writer in the Nation 

 suppose that there are not plenty of 

 "leading physicists of the day" who 

 regard Mr. Darwin's method of rea- 

 soning as eminently un-Newtonian? 



But to come back to the practical 

 questions put by the correspondent of 

 the Nation, we should say with Huxley 

 that, if he wants information on the 

 " theory of evolution " in any complete 

 or adequate shape, he can find it in the 

 works of Spencer more fully and system- 

 atically presented than anywhere else. 

 He will find the theory expounded in 

 the first volume of the "Philosophy;" 

 and its biological, psychological, and 

 sociological applications are elaborately 

 presented in the subsequent divisions 

 of the work. In Mr. Fiske's " Cosmic 

 Philosophy " he will also find a mas- 

 terly exposition of the whole subject, 

 in its broad, philosophical aspects, com- 

 plete in two volumes. 



Darwin's various works are, of 

 course, of great value, but they are volu- 

 minous, while Oscar Schmidt's newly 

 published "Doctrine of Descent and 

 Darwinism" is undoubtedly the best 

 summing up of the discussion in the 

 biological field that has yet been pub- 



lished. The works of Haeckel, trans- 

 lations of which will soon be printed, 

 have the reputation of being learned 

 and powerful, but they are limited to 

 the field of zoology, and no more treat 

 of the general "theory of evolution" 

 than do the works of Darwin. The 

 last edition of Lyell's "Principles of 

 Geology" adopts the development the- 

 ory and applies it to the course of geo- 

 logical life. The strongest books on 

 the other side of the question are prob- 

 ably those of Agassiz, Mivart, and Daw- 

 son ; and they are, moreover, moderate 

 in size and popular in treatment. There 

 are numerous other books of minor 

 merit, like Lowne's and Henslow's 

 "Prize Essays," but, unless a person 

 has a passion for this kind of literature, 

 and desires to pursue it in all its ex- 

 pressions, it will not be worth while 

 to w T aste time and money on them when 

 better works are procurable. 



INCENTIVES IN EDUCATION. 



We last month passed some strict- 

 ures on the prevailing practice of 

 stimulating educational competition by 

 the offer of money-prizes. The de- 

 fenders of the policy are, of course, not 

 without their excuses, and the most 

 plausible of them takes this form : "If 

 life is an arena of competition a strug- 

 gle for existence and the school is to 

 be a preparation for life, how can the 

 competitive element be excluded ? Life 

 has its prizes to be striven for ; a few 

 win and many lose. The school should 

 teach the youth in its charge how to 

 comport themselves under the strains 

 of rivalry that will bo put upon them 

 in their subsequent social experience." 



To this it may be replied that there 

 are plenty of necessary strife and strug- 

 gle in the school without superadding 

 to them artificial provocatives. Class- 

 ing always leads to comparison, and 

 gradation to estimates of capacity 

 which inevitably arouse self-regard, 

 vanity, and the love of approbation. 



