LITERARY NOTICES. 



271 



with war and gratifying the savage in- 

 stincts by descriptions of bloody victo- 

 ries with the poetry of modern times, 

 in which the sanguinary forms but a 

 small part, while a large part, dealing 

 with the gentler affections, enlists the 

 feelings of readers on behalf of the 

 weak, we are shown that, with the de- 

 velopment of a more altruistic nature, 

 there has been opened a sphere of en- 

 joyment inaccessible to the callous ego- 

 ism of barbarous times" (page 215). 

 We have marked many other passages 

 for quotation, not in the Data of Ethics 

 alone, but in other works of Mr. Spen- 

 cer's as well, but our limits forbid the 

 use of them. Enough has been pro- 

 duced, however, to prove to any un- 

 prejudiced reader that the accusation 

 brought against Mr. Spencer of counsel- 

 ing selfishness is, as we said before, 

 "absolutely without foundation," and 

 does signal injustice to a man the whole 

 of whose philosophy is so strongly in- 

 spired by a social motive. In the matter 

 of moral science many people are to- 

 day in the position in which men in gen- 

 eral were some generations ago in rela- 

 tion to physical science. Just as the 

 alchemists of a former time were bent 

 on achieving the transmutation of met- 

 als, and the astrologists on reading in 

 the stars the destinies of individuals 

 and of states ; and just as these precur- 

 sors of the scientific workers of our time 

 would have been greatly discouraged 

 and would perhaps have abandoned their 

 labors if persuaded that their methods 

 were vain and their hopes visionary and 

 unrealizable ; so, if we may be allowed 

 to say so, the pre-scientific or anti-scien- 

 tific moralists of our own time are dis- 

 posed to spurn any ethical system that 

 is not transcendental in its character 

 and does not nourish boundless hopes. 

 Truth, however, is making its way in 

 the world ; and gradually all intelligent 

 men will be led to see that better, wider, 

 and more permanent results can be 

 achieved by working on the moral lines 

 laid down by science, than by striving, 



with the older philosophies and theol- 

 ogies, to scale the heaven of an un- 

 attainable virtue. Let us hope that the 

 present discussion may have a little in- 

 fluence in this direction. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Journal of Researches into the Natural 

 History and Geology of the Countries 

 visited during the voyage round the 

 World of II. M. S. Beagle, under the 

 Command of Captain Fitz Roy, R. N. 

 By Charles Darwin. A new edition, 

 with Illustrations. New York : D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co. Pp. 551, with Maps. 

 Price, $5. 



There are only a few books that have 

 the qualities of an originality and freshness 

 that never wear out. Darwin's Naturalist's 

 Yoyage must be conceded a prominent place 

 in the list. It has been a little more than 

 fifty years since it was first published. That 

 is a very long time in the life of a book of 

 science and even of a book of travels. Ei- 

 ther is likely to become antiquated and ob- 

 solete in that period. The book of science 

 comes to be read largely as a curiosity, and 

 to derive its chief interest as being a land- 

 mark from which the advance accomplished 

 may be measured. The book of travels be- 

 comes a kind of history, and is valued for 

 the illustrations it furnishes of the scenes 

 and conditions that once prevailed. Mr. 

 Darwin's Journal, in whichever aspect we 

 regard it, seems as life-like, real, and saga- 

 cious as if it were the fresh record of the 

 latest observer. The prediction made by 

 the Quarterly Review on its first appearance, 

 that " it must always occupy a distinguished 

 place in the history of scientific investigation," 

 is more than fulfilled. The work accom- 

 plished by Darwin on this voyage has been 

 gone over, in its various parts, many times, 

 with all the advantages of increased knowl- 

 edge and approved appliances and methods 

 of investigation ; and it is surprising how 

 little of it has to be rewritten. So far from 

 any of its science seeming obsolete, we find 

 all through the narrative observations which 

 are in effect unconscious predictions, the 

 product of the author's peculiar way of look- 

 ing at things, of what has since been de- 

 termined; and we are also constantly re- 

 minded that the later determinations are to 



