110 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



TILE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 



THE editor of Scribner's Magazine, 

 in a leading article in the October 

 number, attempts to bring The Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly into reproach for 

 its obnoxious opinions. There is a cer- 

 tain doctrine lately much talked about 

 that is known to be odious among a 

 great number of magazine-buying peo- 

 ple. It is charged (on what authority 

 is not stated) that the editor of The 

 Popular Science Monthly is an irre- 

 pressible partisan of this doctrine, and 

 that, having made certain specious 

 promises to its readers to furnish them 

 with good, sound, scientific reading, he 

 has betrayed their confidence by set- 

 ting his pages ablaze with expositions 

 of this doctrine, that so many people 

 are known to regard with detestation. 

 The little game here undertaken is old, 

 and has been often played with suc- 

 cess; but, with the growth of intelli- 

 gence and liberality, it is getting dis- 

 reputable, and our neighbor is welcome 

 to all he can make by it. It is cus- 

 tomary in such cases not to be very 

 scrupulous about the means resorted 

 to for effecting the object, and the 

 present instance is no exception to the 

 custom. The editor commences by try- 

 ing to be ironical about the claims of 

 science in culture, and quotes from 

 our prospectus the remark that it is 

 " of the highest concern that thought 

 should be brought into the exactest 

 harmony with things." "We are still 

 of opinion that the neglect of this re- 

 quirement is the fundamental defect 

 of education, and we venture to inti- 

 mate to our critic that this is exactly 

 " what's the matter with him." His 

 statements not only fail to harmonize 

 with the things he is talking about, 

 but they grossly misrepresent them. 



After quoting some sentences from our 

 prospectus, the editor says : 



" It is therefore painful to find that, when 

 we pass from the well-taken prospectus to 

 the actual monthly, the strict inductive in- 

 quiry fades softly away, as in a dissolving 

 view, and in its place blazes out one of the 

 most high-flown of human speculations. 

 The strong bias of the editor as an evolu- 

 tionist cannot be repressed, and the attempt 

 is made to educate the public mind-into the 

 phraseology and methods of what is at best 

 a speculation, under the name of science 1 

 If this were called the Youmans, or Evolu- 

 tion Monthly, the mischief would be cir- 

 cumscribed ; but, as the doctrine of Evolu- 

 tion, with its offspring, Darwinism, is noth- 

 ing more yet than a provisional hypothesis, 

 based on a priori reasonings, and not on 

 any valid induction of facts, the attempt to 

 clothe it in the imperial garb of science, and 

 set it for an arbiter of all beliefs, is greatly 

 to be deprecated in the interest of true cul- 

 ture." 



The statement here made, tnat 

 under editorial bias our pages have 

 been set ablaze with evolution spec- 

 ulations in violation of prospective 

 pledges, is simply not true. "We prom- 

 ised our readers to represent the pres- 

 ent state of thought on the leading 

 questions that are agitating the scien- 

 tific world. The doctrine of evolu- 

 tion, as everybody knows, is one of 

 these questions, and had we avoided 

 it we should have broken our prom- 

 ise, and broken faith with our read- 

 ers. Nor has the subject received the 

 excessive attention that is charged. 

 Our first volume, just completed, con- 

 tains about a hundred main or lead- 

 ing articles, and of these but three deal 

 with the subject of Evolution or Dar- 

 winism, and one of them is an attack 

 upon its fundamental principle. Of 

 the articles contributed by the editor, 

 not one has been devoted to the object 

 alleged "that of educating the pop- 



