The Scottish Naturalist. 331 



contained in " several modern works of considerable standing." 

 Did our critic never hear of "Satan reproving Sin? " His critical 

 faculty, however, is so keen and so tender, that he thrusts forth 

 from the category of Fact everything that he regards as Incredi- 

 ble — oblivious of what is itself a well-known Fact, that — 



" Truth is always strange, 

 Stranger than fiction." .... 



The volume of the "International Scientific Series" — by 

 Professor Bernstein, of Halle — on " The Five Senses of Man," 

 has for its motto Goethe's saying, that " Man must persist in 

 believing that the Inconceivable is Coficeivable, or he will never 

 make a Discoverer." Our compiler, on the other hand, holds 

 that what he, with his obviously limited knowledge and erro- 

 neous preconceptions, considers improbable 7nust be untrue. He 

 professes to " select only those incidents which bear upon their 

 face the Stamp of Truth." His ideas of what is, or constitutes, 

 the " Stamp of Truth," and of Untruth, are, however, peculiar ; 

 and the whole book is vitiated by the author's own assump- 

 tions and preconceptions. 



In reviewing the works of others he — unwittingly — expresses 

 various opinions that have the most apposite application to his 

 own book. Thus he speaks of " people who are evidently in- 

 nocent of the faculty of testing Evidence," and who " keep alive 

 purposeless discussions as to whether animals are guided by 

 Reason or Instinct, most of the disputants being incapable of 

 judging how far acts, which are merely Instinctive, may approach 

 or surpass the Lower Reasoning faculties" (preface, p. ix). Un- 

 fortunately all that the author says in propria persona leads to 

 the conclusion that he himself is one of these incompetent dis- 

 putants ! Here is another most pertinent remark of his, that 

 might form an appropriate motto to his own book : " Works 

 on Natural History are studded with stories and assertions 

 which are destitute of Truth and Probability — as the slightest 

 consideration would show. Yet we have them repeated again 

 and again ; and what is worse, the Habit or Incident, which to 

 the original narrator was a mere Report or Conjecture, is given 

 as an ascertained Fact, by some careless successor" (p. 297). 



In illustration he quotes three " Stories — . . which have 

 a place in a recent work on Natural History of considerable 

 magnitude and importance" — as incredible — as mere " travellers' 

 tales" — that have found their way into "ambitious books on 



