Bibliographical Notices. 155 
has been entirely rewritten, and the broad features of fossil faune, 
favourable to the doctrine of ‘‘ progressive development” or of “ pro- 
gressive evolution,” are fairly stated, and the probability of other 
data turning up in favour of “uniformity” is also insisted on, as 
well as “the unvarying constancy of the laws of nature,” enabling 
us to reason ‘‘ from the present to the past in regard to the changes 
of the terrestrial system, whether in the organic or inorganic world.” 
The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth chapters are also quite 
new, treating of the changes of climate,—lIst, as proved by reference 
to successive and different geological formations, 2ndly, as resulting 
from various geographical conditions, and, 3rdly, as possibly caused 
by astronomical changes, such as variations in the excentricity of the 
earth’s orbit, changes in the obliquity of the ecliptic, and different 
phases of the precession of the equinoxes. Mr. Croll’s suggestion as 
to the probable effects of a large excentricity in producing glacial 
epochs is fully discussed, and the question is entertained whether 
geological dates may be obtained by reference to the combined effects 
of astronomical and geographical causes. Many points illustrative 
of changes in the inorganic world, now in progress, are elucidated in 
this volume with new woodcuts, or with the description of new facts, 
or both. The enlargement and emendation of those chapters com- 
prised in the second volume, and treating of voleanic phenomena 
and earthquakes, and of the changes of the organic world now in 
progress, are very extensive. Under the first-mentioned head comes 
the subject of upheaval and subsidence of large areas of the earth’s 
surface, the internal condition of the earth, metamorphic rocks, &e. 
Under the other heading we have several rewritten chapters,—on 
Lamarck’s theory of transmutation, Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ 
and ‘ Pangenesis,’ Natural and Artificial Selection (Darwin’s hypo- 
thesis being fully accepted), geographical distribution of animals 
and plants, the extinction of species, &c. The forty-third chapter 
is devoted to the consideration of Man, his origin and distribution, 
calmly treated, and leading to the clear belief in man’s uprising by 
progressive development from a lower stage of being, and adopting 
the fact of early man having been totally ignorant and barbarous. 
“We are sometimes tempted to ask whether the time will ever 
arrive,” says our veteran and thoughtful teacher (p. 493), ‘‘ when science 
shall have obtained such an ascendency in the education of the millions 
that it will be possible to welcome new truths instead of always looking 
upon them with fear and disquiet, and to hail every important victory 
gained over error, instead of resisting the new discovery long after the 
evidence in its favour is conclusive. The motion of our planet round the 
sun, the shape of the earth, the existence of the antipodes, the vast anti- 
quity of our globe, the distinct assemblages of species of animals and 
plants by which it was successively inhabited, and, lastly, the antiquity 
and barbarism of Primeval Man,—all these generalizations, when first 
announced, have been a source of anxiety and unhappiness. The future 
now opening before us begins already to reveal new doctrines, if possible 
more than ever out of harmony with cherished associations of thought. 
It is therefore desirable, when we contrast ourselves with the rude and 
superstitious savages who preceded us, to remember, as cultivators of 
