EVOLUTION IN PROFESSOR HUXLEY. 319 



told or arrested (prevented ?).... When a train is on a double- 

 tracked road, the danger is reduced, I may say, one hundred per 

 cent." 



The first statement of this superintendent, if spoken hastily, 

 without thought, may be excused as a careless utterance ; but as 

 a deliberate opinion that this railroad slaughter is not prevent- 

 able, and that there is nothing left for the public but to submit to 

 its continuance, it is simply atrocious and worthy of a savage of 

 the Congo. 



Such a statement from a railroad official, into whose hands we 

 must perforce place our lives and those of our wives and children, 

 is ample ground for impeachment. It makes one's blood boil. 



It is to put up a sign over every station entrance on the New 

 York Central : " Slaughter permitted here. Accidents can not be 

 prevented." Yet, in the next breath, this superintendent adds 

 " Double-tracking the road reduces the accidents one hundred 

 per cent" {sic). 



It seems, then, that one hundred per cent of the accidents were 

 not only preventable, but that on the New York Central they had 

 been so prevented. When the road was the source of danger, the 

 weakness was met and overcome by re-enforcing the road. Now 

 that the weakness is found to reside in the men, the slaughter of 

 to-day makes an imperative demand for an augmentation of the 

 forces, at the present moment, so inadequately and disastrously 

 attempting control. 



EVOLUTION IN PROFESSOR HUXLEY. 



Br St. GEORGE MIVART, Ph. D., F. R. S. 



SO many adventures of gods and heroes, alternately defeated 

 and restored, with so many other myths of earlier religions, 

 merely (we are told) describe, in figurative language, the simplest 

 physical phenomena, that most of us now expect to find "the 

 dawn," or " sunset," latent in every one newly met with. 



Our fairy tales also may be similarly treated, but most of them 

 will also serve to represent, under an allegory, notable events or 

 circumstances of human life. 



The history of that gentle animal, beloved of our childhood, 

 the White Cat an enchanted princess, doomed to bear that feline 

 form till freed, through the loss of head and tail, by the sharp 

 sword of her royal lover admits such an allegorical interpretation. 



Some learned professor might tell us its real purpose was to 

 show that pain and loss can serve to restore a noble soul, deformed 

 by evil influences. He might also enlarge upon the text, describ- 

 ing how the spellbound maid herself demands the blow, and point 



