LITERARY NOTICES. 



701 



history of our globe, there are some 

 which baffle comprehension. In a cer- 

 tain sense evohition itself may be said 

 to baffle comprehension, since the hu- 

 man intellect can never fully under- 

 stand how one thing cau become any- 

 thing else ; but the general processes of 

 evolution are at least illustrated by facts 

 which long and repeated experience has 

 rendered very familiar. On the other 

 hand, there is notliing analogous to any 

 well-established human experience in 

 the miraculous interference which those 

 have to postulate who either reject evo- 

 lution altogether, or only recognize it to 

 a limited extent. 



Our correspondent also objects to 

 our statement that "all persons with 

 any pretensions to education or intelli- 

 gence believe in evolution as applied to 

 the physical history of our globe." At 

 the moment we were thinking more of 

 the globe itself than of its living in- 

 habitants; and before objecting to our 

 statement our correspondent might 

 properly have raised with himself the 

 question whether we meant more than 

 we actually said. However, on points 

 like these there will, of course, be dif- 

 ferences of opinion, and we must only 

 ask our correspondent to believe that 

 we meant no disrespect in anything that 

 we said to persons of his way of think- 

 ing. "We believe in evolution because it 

 has already explained so many things, 

 and because its scope as a scientific the- 

 ory is continually widening. If our cor- 

 respondent declines to accept it on such 

 grounds as he alleges in his article, he is 

 quite within his right. What he has not 

 shown us is what phenomena or events 

 to which the doctrine of evolution has 

 no application he really understands. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



My Canadian Journal, 1872-'Y8. By the 

 Marchioness op Dufferin and Ava. New- 

 York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 456. $2. 



The Journal consists of extracts from 

 letters written home to the author's mother 

 while Lord Dufferin was Governor-General 



of Canada. Although — the letters having 

 been written from twelve to twenty years 

 ago — it is rather an account of the past 

 than a description of the present, and Can- 

 ada has undergone a great development, its 

 villages having become towns and new rail- 

 ways having developed cities in what was 

 the wilderness, the Journal has lost none of 

 its freshness ; for it is the record, made on 

 the spot and at the moment, by a keen ob- 

 server of cultivated intelligence, disposed 

 to make the best of everything that she 

 saw and experienced ; and such records are 

 always fresh. So we are given, in the famil- 

 iar style which intimate friendship author- 

 izes, yet always graceful, sketches of travel, 

 adventure, scenery, society, social and eco- 

 nomical conditions, sports, more serious oc- 

 cupations, and whatever is of the life of the 

 country. The pictures are of all seasons 

 through eight years ; they cover all parts of 

 Canada, the St. Lawrence, the lakes, the 

 Maritime Provinces, the west, northwest, and 

 Pacific coast, and the Eastern Townships, with 

 occasional excursions into the United States, 

 concerning which the author is sorry to pass 

 so lightly over the cordiality and the friend- 

 liness that were invariably shown her and 

 her husband — " for whether we were travel- 

 ing officially through Chicago or Detroit, or 

 went as ordinary visitors to New York or 

 Boston, we were always received with a kind- 

 ness and cordiality which we can never for- 

 get." 



Studies in Aerodynamics. By S. P. Lang- 

 ley. Smithsonian Institution. 1891. 



This monograph of Prof. Langley is the 

 record of four years' experimental work with 

 the inclined plane, to determine the condi- 

 tions to be complied with in moving such a 

 plane through the air, the power required, 

 etc. His work has thoroughly convinced 

 him of the practicability of moving such 

 planes through the air with our present 

 means of propulsion. It has generally been 

 thought that the one essential element need- 

 ed to be provided, in order to make mechan- 

 ical flight possible, was an extremely light 

 and powerful motor. But Prof. Langley's 

 experiments have shown that we need not 

 make a search for such a motor, as the 

 steam-engine, in the forms we now possess 

 it, is quite equal to the occasion. His ex- 



