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NATURAL SCIENCE. Dec. 



the Pisces, then the Amphibia, then the Reptilia, then the Aves, 

 then— What ? The Mammalia, The Mothers. There the series 

 stops. Nature has never made anything since . . . the one 

 motive of organic Nature was to make Mothers. Ask the Zoologist 

 what Nature aspired to from the first, he could but answer 

 Mammalia — Mothers." And so on. Surely, like the old maid in the 

 story, those young men from Harvard shouted back to the Professor, 

 " Speak for Yourself, Sir ! " 



But, after all, there are many worthy people, especially among 

 the purchasers of Christmas booklets, who adore Mr. Drummond's 

 eloquence, so we will not mar the goodwill of the season by over- 

 insistence on our own squeamishness. Only, if the odious comparison 

 be for a moment allowed, we would venture a word of praise for the 

 sober and lucid style of the professor's rival in this field, Mr. 

 Benjamin Kidd. A book may be written well or ill ; its solid 

 scientific or, if you prefer it, theological merit is not thereby affected. 

 It is when rhetoric usurps the place of reason and leads to an 

 irreverent disregard of truth that we have a right to complain of its 

 abuse. And it cannot be denied that there are in this book many 

 mistakes, perhaps of no great importance, but which, when found in 

 the writings of a professor, it is kinder to ascribe to rhetoric than to 

 ignorance. Here is a curious instance (p. 14), " The man who is 

 busy with the stars will never come across Natural Selection, yet 

 surely must he allow for Natural Selection in his construction of the 

 world as a whole. He who works among stnr-fish will encounter little of 

 Mental Evolution, yet will he not deny that it exists." We should think 

 not, indeed. Has Mr. Drummond ever heard of G. J. Romanes, 

 whose work "Jelly-fish, Star-fish and Sea Urchins" was distinctly 

 subservient to his work " Mental Evolution " ? Here is another 

 case, more patent and less excusable (p. 240), " The Birds took one 

 road, the Vertebrates another; the Vertebrates kept to the ground, 

 the Birds took to the air." There are, it is true, people who still 

 insist that " an animal " must have four legs and a tail ; but surely 

 even a Professor of Pseudo-biology might be expected to put the 

 Birds among the Vertebrates. Here again are two statements, either 

 of which is questionable, but which, occurring in adjacent chapters, 

 also involve a contradiction : on page 245 it is written, " The first 

 law of Evolution is simply the first law of motion. ' Every body 

 continues in a _state of rest, etc' " ; but on page 309 it is written, 

 " The first commandment of Evolution is ' Thou shalt mass, segregate, 

 combine, grow large.' " We hope that Mr. Drummond is obeying 

 the former rather than the latter, we had liefer see him in a state of 

 rest than growing large. 



Mr. Drummond will complain that we are trifling with him and 

 not arguing. That is so ; but then Mr. Drummond should not trifle 

 with us. The lapses to which we have referred will mislead no 

 sensible person ; it is merely inexcusable that a sensible person should 



