PALEONTOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. 219 



The best way to compare the two methods would be to try them 

 upon some of the contested questions of life and society. Mr. Spencer 

 incidentally overhauls a good many of the commonplace usages and 

 views, and rectifies them upon his principles. He shows the absurdity 

 of men living and woi'king all for the future, and depriving themselves 

 of nearly every present indulgence. He earnestly inculcates the neces- 

 sity of counting the present loss in the estimate of the future gain. 

 This, it might be said, is merely empirical Hedonism. So it is, with 

 this addition, that loss of pleasure is loss of vitality ; the question of 

 pleasure and pain being now resolvable into the question. To be or not 

 to be ? Of course, such a sweeping doctrine is to be held with certain 

 qualifications and exceptions ; and the point is. Can these qualifica- 

 tions be rendered definite ? A rule with well-defined exceptions is 

 practically universal. 



Without assuming that Mr. Spencer has propounded a new doc- 

 trine, the antithesis of the doctrine of utility, he may claim to have 

 put forward a new point of view, in the working out of the doctrine ; 

 a point of view that does not admit of being reargued until it has been 

 tried. "Who shall say what amount of gradual transformation of ethi- 

 cal conceptions will follow from steadily regarding conduct under the 

 lights that he has afforded ? He will be a bold man that can treat the 

 regard to the physical organism, its capacities and developments, as of 

 no importance in the Hedonic computation ; and, if it is of importance, 

 Mr, Spencer shows the way to turn it to account. 



The bright future of complete accommodation of man to his cir- 

 cumstances, brought about by evolution, is cheerful to contemplate ; 

 and, if it be a work of imagination, it is at least based on science. 

 The socialism that Mill would work out by a long course of education 

 is clinched, according to Mr. Spencer, by inherited modifications and 

 material suarantees. Our fervent wishes are with both. — 3find. 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF PALEOXTOLOGICAL 

 DISCOYEEY.* 



By Professor 0. C. MAESH. 



I. 



IN the rapid progress of knowledge, we are constantly brought face 

 to face with the question, What is life ? The answer is not yet, 

 but a thousand earnest seekers after truth seem to be slowly approach- 

 ing a solution. This question gives a new interest to every department 

 of science that relates to life in any form, and the history of life offers 

 * President's address delivered before the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, at Saratoga, Xew Yorlv, August 28, 18'79. 



