SERENO WATSON. 



Dr. Sereno Watson, after the death of Dr. Gray the foremost 

 botanist of America, died at_Cambridge, March 9, 1892, in the 66th 

 year of age. 



The many and important works which he has contributed to the 

 knowledge of American Botany will form his best and most endur- 

 ing monument. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Human Progress, Past and Fntiire. By Alfred Russel Wal- 

 lace. Arena, January, 1892, pp. 145-159. An attempt is being- 

 made at the present day by the followers of Prof. Weismann to ap- 

 ply the Neo-Darwinian theories to all departments of scientific in- 

 vestigation. The natural impression has existed among many sci- 

 entists that an acceptance of these views would lead to a very pes- 

 simistic outlook for man's future, but Mr. A. R. Wallace in the 

 article under consideration takes the opposite stand. He points out 

 the two significations of the term progress, which may mean either 

 advance in material civilization, which he believes is cumulative and 

 continuing at the present day, or advance in the mental and moral 

 nature of man, which he thinks may be at a standstill. He con- 

 tends, as many others have done, that the great works of antiquity 

 have not been surpassed at the present day. Thus he says: " The 

 earliest known architectural work, the great pyramid of Egypt, in 

 the mathematical accuracy of its form and dimensions, in its precise 

 orientation, and in the perfect workmanship shown by its internal 

 structure, indicates an amount of astronomical, mathematical and 

 mechanical knowledge, and an amount of experience and practical 

 skill, which could only have been attained at that early period of 

 man's history by the exertion of mental ability in no way inferior to 

 that of our best modern engineers. In purely intellectual achieve- 

 ments the Vedas of ancient India, the Iliad of Homer, the Book of 

 Job and the writings of Plato, will rank with the noblest works ot 

 modern authors." More than this, Mr. Wallace thinks that the 

 high-water mark of intellectual activity has sunk rather than risen 



