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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



plex mental nature. The volume is full of 

 fresh and suggestive facts, and the author 

 discusses the doctrines put forth by some 

 of the recent biologists in the most liberal 

 temper. Natural selection is recognized as 

 a true principle of Nature, producing real 

 effects ; but it is held insufficient to account 

 for much that is attributed to it. We cor- 

 dially indorse his claim for greater breadth 

 of culture as indispensable to a true under- 

 standing of the science of human nature : 

 " It is with a deep conviction of the need of 

 the hearty cooperation of the cultivators of 

 different fields of science, especially of Nat- 

 uralists and Mental Philosophers, in the full 

 study of man, that these Lectures are pre- 

 sented to the public. Broad culture as a 

 foundation for scientific attainments, respect 

 for other sciences than our own, and inter- 

 course with those who view the same sub- 

 jects from other stand-points than our own, 

 are absolutely essential for safe generaliza- 

 tions in those complex sciences that relate to 

 animal and rational life." 



The To-morrow of Death ; or, the Future 

 Life according to Science. By Louis 

 Figuier. Roberts Brothers. 



In this little book the great French 

 compiler turns religious romancer, as he has 

 a perfect right to do if it suits him. But 

 the pretence that his childish vagaries are 

 "according to science" is in the last de- 

 gree absurd. A great deal of talk about sci- 

 ence is mixed up with the most preposter- 

 ous speculations concerning the super- 

 natural, until the reader is puzzled to decide 

 whether the writer is wag, fanatic, or fool. 

 If honest, it is a case of emotion upsetting 

 intellect. The author begins by propound- 

 ing to the reader the safe induction that he 

 must die. He then says that he lost a be- 

 loved son, and, falling into great grief, he at 

 once began to speculate about the future 

 life and the spiritual world, and came to the 

 conclusions that light and heat are emana- 

 tions of soul-substance ; that some human 

 souls migrate into the bodies of new-born 

 children ; and that the sun is the home of 

 human souls after death. The book is not 

 worth reading, and would not be worth men- 

 tioning, but that the writer has a sort of repu- 

 tation which may mislead many as to the 

 character of his performance. 



A Dictionary of English Etymology, by 

 Hensleigh Wedgewood. Maemillan & Co. 



This is a painstaking and exhaustive 

 work on the derivation of English words 

 from other languages, and the origin and 

 history of their meanings. It has passed 

 to a second edition, and the author has had 

 the assistance of Mr. George P. Marsh in 

 making its thorough revision. We took it 

 up in utter innocence, supposing it to be 

 sound and safe, and never for a moment 

 dreaming of any thing wrong or dangerous 

 between its honest-looking lids. But what 

 was our astonishment to find that the pes- 

 tilent doctrine of " Darwinism," that is 

 thrusting itself into every place where it is 

 not welcome, and taking away the peace of 

 so many worthy people, had got in here 

 also. Darwinism, rank and outright, in an 

 arid etymological dictionary ! It seems that 

 the author could not escape it. Etymology 

 opens the question of the origin of words 

 and language. It goes back to begin- 

 nings, and is fundamentally concerned to 

 know by what law or method language has 

 been formed. As language is an attribute 

 of man, it links itself at once to the ques- 

 tion of the origin of man. Were man and 

 language created perfect at first, and has 

 their onward course been a movement of 

 degeneracy ; or did they begin low and im- 

 perfect, and has the movement been a grad- 

 ual unfolding an evolution ? This is more 

 than a mere speculative question ; it in- 

 volves the interpretation that shall be given 

 to the facts before us. If man and language 

 have come to be what they are through a 

 principle of slow and gradual evolution, our 

 mode of regarding them will be very differ- 

 ent from that which must be adopted if they 

 came by an opposite method. And so the 

 author prefixes to the second edition of his 

 volume an elaborate essay on the origin of 

 language, in which he rejects the old and 

 still current view, and declares for the doc- 

 trine of evolution. We extract a portion 

 of his statement : " If man can anyhow 

 have stumbled into speech under the guid- 

 ance of his ordinary intelligence, it will be 

 absurd to suppose that he was helped over 

 the first steps of his progress by some su- 

 pernatural go-cart, in the shape either of 

 direct inspiration, or, what comes to the 

 same thing, of an instinct unknown to us at 



