LITERARY ^WTICES. 



707 



Mliich ought to be offensive to those who 

 still accept that inspiration ; rather is there 

 abundant material for a careful resurvey of 

 tlieir position in the face of the new facts. 

 The archaeologist and philologist will find 

 tuany new points in the book, which is note- 

 worthy for its additions to science as well 

 as for its distinctive literary merits. 



The Physical History of the Triassic 

 Formation of New Jersey and the Con- 

 necticut Valley. By Israel C. Rus- 

 sell. 1878. 



The Triassic of New Jersey and of the 

 Connecticut Valley are supposed by the 

 author to be parts of one formation, which 

 was continuous over the intervening area. 

 The deposit, he thinks, could not have been 

 less than 25,000 feet thick, all or nearly 

 all of which has been removed by denuda- 

 tion, excepting the beds which remain in 

 the Connecticut Valley and New Jersey. 

 Professor Dana, commenting on this sub- 

 ject in the April number of the " American 

 Journal of Science and Arts," says, " That 

 a thickness of 25,000 feet of water made 

 sandstone over an area of metamorphic 

 rock a hundred miles wide, as in the pres- 

 ent instance, implies a subsidence of the 

 region of 25,000 feet during its formation." 

 There must also have been an elevation 

 of not only 25,000 feet, but enough more 

 to give a pitch of the slopes of about 15° as 

 now shown. This would put the western 

 side of the Connecticut Valley 20,000 feet 

 above the eastern side, and the site of New 

 York City some 15,000 to 20,000 feet above 

 its present level, with 25,000 feet of sand- 

 stone over it. 



Erasmus Darwin. By Ernst Krause. 

 Translated from the German by W. S. 

 Dallas, with a Preliminary Notice by 

 Charles Darwin. Portrait and Wood- 

 cuts. Pp. 216. Price, $1.25. 



Tnis interesting little volume will be wel- 

 comed by many readers, as it gives a fresh 

 and compendious account of a man of ge- 

 nius whose name was celebrated in the last 

 century, and is now brought into new prom- 

 inence by the world-wide eminence of his 

 grandson. Dr. Erasmus Darwin, who was 

 born in 1731, and died in 1802, made a con- 

 siderable impression upon his age as a poet 

 and naturalist. He took a view of organic 



nature very similar to that developed in our 

 own time by Mr. Charles Darwin, although 

 his speculations were crude from the imper- 

 fection of knowledge, and were, of course, 

 regarded as in the last degree wild and base- 

 less. His poetry, although in some respects 

 meritorious, was not of the highest order, 

 and was but little read after he had passed 

 away ; and, as his biological doctrines were 

 regarded as futile and worthless, there was 

 little to keep his memory alive in the present 

 century. But attention to what he did in 

 science has been recently revived, and the 

 more critical study of his works now shows 

 that his claims and character have been 

 greatly depreciated. The present volume 

 has first done justice to his fame. 



Mr. Charles Darwin, in his "Origin of 

 Species," made a short note concerning his 

 grandfather's biological opinions, and this 

 struck the attention of Dr. Krause, a Ger- 

 man savant, who entered upon a careful 

 study of the writings of the elder Darwin, 

 and published a biographical and critical es- 

 say upon the subject in the " Kosmos." In 

 this essay Dr. Krause says : " This man, 

 equally eminent as philanthropist, physician, 

 naturalist, philosopher, and poet, is far less 

 known and valued by posterity than he de- 

 serves, in comparison with other persons who 

 occupy a similar rank. It is true that what 

 is perhaps the most important of his many- 

 sided endowments, namely, his broad views 

 of the philosophy of nature, was not intel- 

 ligible to his contemporaries ; it is only now, 

 after the lapse of a hundred years, that by 

 the labors of one of his descendants we are 

 in a position to estimate at its true value the 

 wonderful perceptivity, amounting almost to 

 divination, that he displayed in the domain 

 of biology. For in him we find the same 

 indefatigable spirit of research, and almost 

 the same biological tendency, as in his grand- 

 son ; and we might, not without justice, as- 

 sert that the latter has succeeded to an in- 

 tellectual inheritance, and carried out a pro- 

 gramme, sketched forth and left behmd by 

 his grandfather." 



Mr. Charles Darwin procured a transla- 

 tion of Dr. Krause's article, and, being in 

 possession of much information that he had 

 gathered in relation to his eminent ancestor, 

 he has written a preliminary sketch which 

 occupies 127 pages of the volume before us. 



