42 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Darwin and after Darivin. Vol. II. — Post-Darwinian Questions — 

 Heredity and Utility. By tlje late George John Romanes, 

 M.A., LL.D., F.ii.S. Pp. xii, 344. 8vo. Price 10s. 6d. 

 With portrait of Author. London: Longmans. 1895. 



The notice of the first volume of this book, devoted ti an 

 exposition of Darwinism, which appeared in the Journnl (1892, 

 p. 311), conveyed the reviewer's opinion that it failed to expound 

 with lucidity a subject that was already fairly clear to all cultured 

 minds. It was, in fact, not a literary success. It was not a book 

 that was much needed, and there was therefore no great disappoint- 

 ment about it. It is otherwise here. If ever a book were needed, 

 one containing an examination of post-Darwinian questions, as they 

 are called, is most decidedly that book. A considerable number of 

 mutually destructive and even self-destructive theories have been 

 introduced to the speculative public, and the ordinary working 

 naturalist has had fits of trying to understand them and reconcile 

 them with what he knows, generally ending in the reflection that 

 evolution seems to have liappened somehow, but that we appear to 

 be further than ever from accounting for it. Darwinism, with its 

 wealth of observation, its splendid success in fascinating men's 

 minds, its calm and serene purpose, produced a rising market for 

 theories, most of them the product of fireside reflections, conjured 

 up from the inner workings of a ferment of ideas with random 

 recollections of facts to support them — without grit or staying- 

 power. These were fondly hoped to place their authors on pinnacles 

 only a little less than the central Darwin peak. At first the public 

 bought eagerly in this market, but now the prices are all down. 

 Some, like Weismannism, have gone in for re-construction 

 occasionally, but the new issues have fallen flat. " What price 

 Panmixia?" Buyers must remember that this stock is the same 

 as the Cessation, of Selection of Mr. Eomaues, issued earlier. 



I had hoped that this volume was to take stock of whatever 

 advance had been made, or to destroy by judicial examination the 

 claims of false prophets, and to clear the minds of such of us as had 

 got confused, but it is too much a continuation of the wrangle. 

 The judicial examination is sometimes like that of a French tribunal, 

 where the judge himself accuses the unhappy man at the bar, and 

 even the witnesses. " Don't bring your Panmixia here. It is my 

 own offspring, and I ought to know." Be all these things as they 

 may, this book is a much better book than Volume I. It does 

 guide us, — it has the eft'ect of making us read again with a better 

 understanding passages in other books that were obscure ; it is 

 written in much clearer style, and it shows an extraordinary 

 mastery of the literature and grip of elusive ideas. It is very 

 nearly a great book, and certainly confirms one in an old and long 

 cherished belief that its amiable and much lamented author was 

 often on the point of becoming a great man. There was never a 

 human being but would have gladly welcomed this success had it 



