NATURE 



67 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1915. 



BEAUTY AND DESIGN IN NATURE. 



(i) Genetic Theory of Reality : being the Outcome 

 of Genetic Logic as Issuing in the /Esthetic 

 Theory of Reality called Pancalism. With an 

 extended glossary of terms. By Dr. J. M. 

 Baldwin. Pp. xvii + 335. (New York and 

 London : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915.) 7s. 6d. 

 net. 



(j) The Natural Theology of Evolution. By J. N. 

 Shearman. Pp. xv + 288. (London: George 

 Allen and Unwin, Ltd., n.d.) 10s. 6d. net. 



^~^HIS book cannot be adequately reviewed 

 without embarking more or less on an 

 examination of the distinguished author's whole 

 system as largely presented in his earlier monu- 

 mental works. Moreover, being concerned with 

 technical philosophy — though a philosophy which 

 accepts and includes science — its appeal is 

 primarily to readers other than those of this 

 journal. It will suffice, therefore, to indicate 

 briefly its scope and purport. The essence of the 

 ()ancalistic doctrine is its emphasis on beauty. 

 Science tells us what is true; that is science's 

 [)rerogative. But the universe has beauty and 

 i,nx)dness as well as truth. How reconcile and 

 unify? The pancalistic answer is that the good 

 and the true is so because it is beautiful. The 

 final court of appeal is aesthetic. Nothing can be 

 true without being beautiful, nor anything that is 

 in any high sense good. The ascription of beauty, 

 a reasoned, criticised, thought-out ascription of 

 : esthetic quality, is the final form of our thought 

 about nature, man, the world, the all. The 

 \olume under notice is an unfolding of this idea, 

 dealing with the aspects of morphology, inter- 

 pretation, religion (mysticism), and logic. 



(2) An excellently written but somewhat diffuse 

 restatement of Paley's argument for design. The 

 author points out that the work of Darwin and 

 his successors does not rule out design; it only 

 requires the supposition that the designing mind 

 \\(^rks slowly, experimenting through many ages. 

 As to those variations which have turned out 

 failures — the flying reptiles and other extinct crea- 

 tures of earlier periods — the author makes the sug- 

 i^estion that the direction of variation may to some 

 t xtent be deputed by God to angels, in the same 

 \\ ay as free-will and power is granted to man ; 

 and that these failures are the experiments of 

 the angel-subordinates. But the author is not in 

 tlie least a crank, and he puts forward this fresh 

 and interesting hypothesis (which some would call 

 fantastic) as a speculation only. His main point 

 is that though the Darwinian natural selection is 



a true cause of change in species, the variations 

 which tend to progress and greater complexity 

 caimot be attributed to chance. They are evidence 

 of a guiding mind which sees and knows before it 

 produces on the material plane. 



'^This, and the accompanying question of what 

 we mean by "chance," is an extremely thorny 

 problem, as the author indeed recognises. His 

 treatment of it is lucid, sincere, and able, whether 

 readers fully agree with it or not. Certainly there 

 is a greater tendency among men of science at the 

 present day to accept a philosophy of Platonic or 

 idealistic type — which looks on Mind as the prius, 

 and the material world a manifestation thereof — 

 than at any time since modern scientific method 

 appeared ; and to many this very interesting 

 volume will be welcome and useful. It deserves 

 to be widely read. 



LIME-SAND BRICKS AND ALLIED 

 PRODUCTS. 

 Bricks and Artificial Stones of Non-plastic 

 Materials : their Manufacture and Uses. By 

 A. B. Searle. Pp. vi + 149. (London : J. and 

 A. Churchill, 1915.) Price 85. 6d. net. 



AS intimated by the author in the preface, this 

 book is intended : " (a) to supply reliable and 

 unbiased information to those firms and individuals 

 who contemplate making or buying bricks and 

 artificial stones from non-plastic materials ; (b) to 

 assist manufacturers in solving the problems 

 which occur in the course of their work, to enable 

 them to remedy defects and to avoid other tech- 

 nical difficulties." In proceeding to carry out 

 these objects, Mr. Searle treats in some detail the 

 modes of production and uses of lime-sand bricks, 

 clinker bricks, slag bricks, bricks made of crushed 

 rock, concrete bricks and blocks, and various 

 types of artificial stone, etc. As he points out, 

 these products can often be made advantageously 

 in districts where the manufacture of burnt bricks 

 and tiles would be impracticable. Thus in some 

 places the absence of suitable clay, or the want 

 of a readily available supply of coal, would render 

 any attempt to make bricks unprofitable ; whilst, 

 on the other hand, the presence in such a district 

 of abundant deposits of sand might make the 

 manufacture of lime-sand bricks perfectly feasible 

 from a commercial viewpoint. It is even prac- 

 ticable in some cases for the two classes of pro- 

 ducts to be made side by side, the sand frequently 

 found overlying the brick clays being beneficially 

 utilised for the production of lime-sand bricks 

 instead of being simply put away as so much 

 waste material of 'no value. 



A considerable amount of attention and space 

 is devoted to a description of the raw materials, 



