LITERARY NOTICES. 



127 



are shaken off by this atavism, have refer- 

 ence to secondary adaptations, to new cir- 

 cumstances, and, in many cases, to the 

 wants of man, this reversion is virtually 

 a retrogression under feeble progressive 

 forces. . . . New powers and new beauties 

 may arise in the transfer of inheritance un- 

 der inscrutable causes, and yet may be tak- 

 en up by heredity and consolidated among 

 more primitive endowments." 



Now, having gone so far, we see not 

 how Dr. Bascom could refrain from going 

 further, and carrying out the doctrine to 

 its logical consequences. For, if evolution 

 be true at all, its truth is fundamental ; and, 

 if it have any influence upon ethical method, 

 it must be a determining influence. If de- 

 velopment be the method of nature, as Dr. 

 Bascom tacitly admits, then must the moral 

 sentiments and faculties of man be a prod- 

 uct of it ; and, if man's moral attributes 

 have been evolved in immense time by slow 

 experience, if our present morality has been 

 derived from a lower stage by processes 

 that are carrying it to a higher stage, then 

 surely we have upon us the most important 

 of all ethical questions, viz., by what causes 

 and under what conditions is morality grow- 

 ing better ? We have forced upon us the 

 problem of the genesis of moral relations — 

 how lower conduct is passing into higher 

 conduct — what are the present imperfec- 

 tions of moral impulse and guidance which 

 may be expected to disappear in the future 

 — and how far is ethical requirement rela- 

 tive to the progress of the social state. It 

 may not detract from the practical value of 

 Dr. Bascom's manual, that these considera- 

 tions are not pursued with the thoroughness 

 and in the direction implied by his title 

 and commencing chapter ; but the failure 

 of the exposition in this respect leaves it 

 open to the charge of not fully representing 

 the present state of ethical inquiry. 



Dr. Bascom makes frequent and critical 

 reference to the ethical views of Herbert 

 Spencer as presented in his " Social Statics," 

 published twenty -nine years ago. But it is 

 nowhere stated, as we observe, that this 

 was a transitional work that no longer ac- 

 curately represents Mr. Spencer's views, 

 and that, because of its unsatisfactoriness, 

 he entered into a more extensive develop- 

 ment of the subject, in which the " Princi- 



ples of Morality " were to be treated after an 

 exhaustive elucidation of the chief sciences 

 that bear upon the subject. If it was 

 worth while to quote Spencer at all — if his 

 views of a generation ago have still suffi- 

 cient insight to demand critical attention — 

 it would certainly have been propcr'to state 

 that the author held them so insufficient 

 that he has devoted his life to the task of 

 placing morals upon a sounder and more 

 scientific basis than was possible when his 

 first work was written. 



Freedom in Science and Teaching. From 

 the German of Ernst Haeckel. With 

 a Prefatory Note by T. H. Hpxley, F. 

 R. S. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 121. 

 Price, $1. 



The collision of two such minds as those 

 of Yirchow and Haeckel over the evolution 

 question could not fail to strike fire and 

 create light. Much able discussion has fol- 

 lowed, in which certain important aspects of 

 the question have been scanned and sifted 

 with a thoroughness that would hardly have 

 been secured in the absence of conflict. 

 The reply to Virchow that has been called 

 out from Haeckel and fills this volume is 

 an extremely interesting and instructive 

 contribution to the popular literature of the 

 subject. 



It needs hardly to be said that in his 

 celebrated address, which has been received 

 with such favor by the non-scientific por- 

 tion of the public, and by such scientific 

 persons as are dominated by traditional 

 ideas, Virchow took the ground that evolu- 

 tion is an hypothesis not proved, and that 

 therefore it should not be taught in the 

 German schools; that the evidence of an- 

 thropology is thus far against the doctrine 

 of the derivation of man from lower forms 

 of life ; and, finally, that there is such an 

 affiliation of Darwinistic theories with mod- 

 ern communism as to raise the question 

 whether the state is not justified in inter- 

 fering for the suppression of a dangerous 

 teaching. For the reply that Professor 

 Haeckel makes to Virchow's charge that 

 evolution is an "unproved hypothesis," we 

 must refer the reader to the book, which is 

 valuable as showing — 1. What kind of evi- 

 dence is required ; 2. That it is abundant in 

 quantity ; and, 3. That the difficulty with 



