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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and, further, as " a survival of the most in- 

 ert." But, " as inertness consists in sta- 

 bility, and in fitness to resist alike the chemi- 

 cal and the mechanical agencies which de- 

 stroy other species, it is evident that his 

 phraseology is but another statement of the 

 formula of ' the survival of the fittest.' The 

 great principle of the change of the mineral 

 matters which existed in former conditions 

 of our planet, into other forms more stable 

 under the altered conditions of later ages, is 

 but an extension to the mineral kingdom of 

 the laws already recognized in astronomical 

 and biological development." 



Training t'ae Emotions. — It has been 

 proposed to give some attention to regulating 

 the development of the emotions, both in 

 the young and in the adult public. Frances 

 Power Cobbe, in the "Fortnightly Review," 

 maintains that emotions come to persons by 

 a sort of contagion far oftener than they 

 spring up of themselves in the human breast. 

 Any attempt to communicate our emotions 

 by command, however, tends rather to pro- 

 duce the opposite feelings. In order to 

 educate the emotions of others, we must cm- 

 ploy this natural agency, contagion. In or- 

 der to inspire a person with a given feeling, 

 we must exhibit the feeling in ourselves. 

 Parents, duly impressed with the importance 

 of the subject, would carefully suppress, or 

 at least conceal, such of their own emotions 

 as they would regret to see caught up by 

 their children. A teacher who has the re- 

 spect and esteem of his pupils will affect 

 their emotions for evil or good according as 

 he betrays enthusiasm or aversion for selfish 

 and sanguinary conquerors, according as he 

 justifies or condemns assassins and anarch- 

 ists, according as he represents science as 

 seeking triumphs or truths, and according as 

 he treats efforts for the elevation of man- 

 kind with levity or respect. The companions 

 of the )'oung have a great influence on the 

 development of their emotions. As regards 

 girls, their doubly emotional natures make it 

 a matter of moral life and death that their 

 companions should be pure and honorable- 

 minded. Too little precaution is taken, es- 

 pecially in American public schools, against 

 the herdiug of innocent children with others 

 who have been familiar with vice. As re- 

 gards the education of the emotions of the 



community, an excessively demoralizing in- 

 fluence was removed when the public was 

 excluded from executions. Admirable ma- 

 chinery for the communication of noble emo- 

 tions through the masses is furnished by 

 majestic public functions and by funerals of 

 distinguished men. Literature has an im- 

 mense power to sway tlie emotions of all 

 educated people. The stage is another great 

 agency for training the emotions of the 

 public, and, even when it produces only 

 harmless merriment, its influence is whole- 

 some and beneficent. Music and the beauty 

 of nature and of art are also jiowerful levers 

 of the higher emotions, which it becomes us 

 to use for the benefit of our fellows when- 

 ever it is practicable to do so. 



The Botanical Ontloolt. — In his address 

 to the Biological Section of the British Asso- 

 ciation, Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, while as- 

 serting the importance of botany, admitted 

 that the outlook for systematic botany was 

 at present somewhat discouraging. France, 

 Germany, and Austria, he said, " no longer 

 possess anything like a school on the sub- 

 ject, though they still supply able and dis- 

 tinguished workers. That these are, how- 

 ever, few, may be judged from the fact that 

 it is difficult to fill the place of the lamented 

 Eichler in the direction of the Botanic Gar- 

 den and herbarium at Berlin. Outside of 

 our own country Switzerland is the most im- 

 portant seat of general systematic study, to 

 which three generations of De Candolles have 

 devoted themselves. The most active cen- 

 ters of work at the moment are, however, to 

 be found in our own country, in the United 

 States, and in Russia, And the reason is, in 

 each case, no doubt the same. The enor- 

 mous area of the earth's surface over which 

 each country holds sway brings to them a 

 vast amount of material which peremptorily 

 demands discussion. . . . The data of sys- 

 tematic botany, when properly discussed, lend 

 themselves to very important generalizations. 

 Perhaps those which are yielded by the study 

 of geographical distribution are of the most 

 general interest. The mantle of vegetation 

 which covers the earth, if only we could right- 

 ly unravel its texture, would tell us a good 

 deal about geological histoiy. The study of 

 geological distribution, rightly handled, af- 

 fords an independent line of attack upon the 



