EDITOR'S TABLE. 



7SS 



difficulties, some inconsistencies, and 

 much to learn, and there may remain be- 

 yond much which we shall never know ; 

 but I cannot conceive any doctrine pro- 

 fessing to bring the phenomena of em- 

 bryonic development within a general 

 law which is not, like the theory of 

 Darwin, consistent with their funda- 

 mental identity, their endless varia- 

 bility, their subjugation to varying ex- 

 ternal influences and conditions, and 

 with the possibility of the transmission 

 of the vital conditions and properties, 

 with all their variations, from indi- 

 vidual to individual, and, in the long 

 lapse of ages, from race to race. 



" I regard it, therefore, as no ex- 

 aggerated representation of the present 

 state of our knowledge to say that the 

 ontogenetic development of the indi- 

 vidual in the higher animals repeats in 

 its more general character, and in many 

 of its specific phenomena, the phyloge- 

 netie development of the race. If we 

 admit the progressive nature of the 

 changes of development, their similar- 

 ity in different groups, and their com- 

 mon characters in all animals, nay, 

 even in some respects in both plants 

 and animals, we can scarcely refuse to 

 recognize the possibility of continuous 

 derivation in the history of their origin ; 

 and however far we may be, by reason 

 of the imperfection of our knowledge 

 of paleontology, comparative anatomy, 

 and embryology, from realizing the pre- 

 cise nature of the chain of connection 

 by which the actual descent has taken 

 place, still there can be little doubt re- 

 maining in the mind of any unpreju- 

 diced student of embryology that it is 

 only by the employment of such an hy- 

 pothesis as that of evolution that fur- 

 ther investigation in these several de- 

 partments will be promoted so as to 

 bring us to a fuller comprehension of 

 the most general law which regulates 

 the adaptation of structure to function 

 in the universe." 



THE DECLINE OF PARTIES. 



"We print the able and suggestive 

 essay of Prof. Goldwin Smith on " The 

 Decline of Party Government." He 

 opens an interesting question, which, 

 in one shape or another, is bound to 

 force itself more and more upon think- 

 ing people. The customary short logic 

 of the case is that we cannot have gov- 

 ernment without politics, and we can- 

 not have politics without partisanship ; 

 this is, therefore, a necessary thing, 

 which must hold the same ascendency 

 in the future that it has held in the 

 past, so that all ideas of doing without 

 it are futile, and all inquiries respecting 

 its decline superfluous. We do not sup- 

 pose that political parties are to cease, 

 or that partisans have the slightest occa- 

 sion for anxiety respecting their contin- 

 uance ; but we do not believe that the fu- 

 ture is to repeat the past in this matter. 

 The progress and diflFusion of science, the 

 formation of scientific habits of thought, 

 and an increasing faculty of observing 

 and reasoning directly upon the facts of 

 life, are going to interfere materially 

 with the ideas and interests of politics. 

 Thus far politics has been a blind and 

 bungling art, necessary indeed, but so 

 crude, loose, and wasteful in its prac- 

 tices, and so much a matter of rule-of- 

 thumb, and transient experience, and 

 the manipulation of men, that all idea 

 of far-reaching principles in the polit- 

 ical sphere is currently scouted. Yet 

 this is not the region of chaos, and 

 there are laws in political phenomena, 

 deeper than legislative enactments. 

 These are to be gradually worked out 

 into scientific expression, and in pro- 

 portion as this is done political parti- 

 sanship must undergo important modi- 

 fication. It may be, as Prof. Smith as- 

 sumes, that partisanship must decline 

 for lack of serious issues upon which 

 multitudes of men can be kept in prop- 

 er antagonism. But we calculate upon 

 a growing dissatisfaction with the meth- 

 \ ods by which the most valid political 



