40 



of supporting them by the most conclusive evidence of facts. To put them 

 forward on such incomplete evidence, such cursory investigation, such 

 hypothetical arguments as we have exposed, is more than unscientific it is 

 reckless." 



"We wish we could think that these speculations were as innocuous as 

 they are unpractical and unscientific, but it is too probable that if 

 unchecked they might exert a very mischievous influence. We abstain 

 from noticing their bearings on religious thought, although it is hard to see 

 how, on Mr. Darwin's hypothesis, it is possible to ascribe to man any other 

 immortality or any other spiritual existence, than that possessed by the 

 brutes. But, apart from these considerations, if such views as he advances 

 on the nature of the moral senses were generally accepted, it seems evident 

 that morality would lose all elements of stable authority, and the ' ever 

 fixed marks ' around which the tempests of human passion now break 

 themselves, would cease to exert their guiding and controlling influence." 



" It should be the work of science to reveal this difference, 

 not to construct theories on its mere apparent maguituude. But Mr. 

 Darwin urges that this hornological construction of the whole frame in the 

 members of the same class is intelligible if we admit their descent from a 

 common progenitor, together with their subsequent adaption to diversified 

 conditions. ' On any other view,' he says ' the similarity of pattern 

 between the hand of a man or monkey, the foot of a horse, the flipper of a 

 seal, the wing of a bat, etc., is utterly inexplicable.' We fail to see the in- 

 exph'cability. What is there unreasonable in the supposition that they 

 have all been formed on the same general plan? Mr. Darwin's only 

 objection is that ' this is no scientific explanation,' but this is simply to beg 

 the question." 



" We fear the truth is that the study of mental philosophy, under the 

 disastrous influence of one or two popular writers, has of late years become 

 extremely loose and superficial, and Mr. Darwin does but illustrate the 

 general vagueness of thought which prevails on such subjects." TIMES. 



Here are a few more instances of the way in which these would-be 

 Philosophers have been set down by the London Press. The next is from 

 the " JOHN BULL." 



" There is still, it seems, some uncertainty at one stage of the evolution : 

 No one can at present say by what line of descent the three higher and related 

 classes namely, mammals, birds, and reptiles were derived from either of the two 

 lower vertebrate classes, namely, amphibians and fishes. (Vol. I., p. 213.) 



" The remaining steps, however, ' are not difficult to conceive.' Possibly 

 not, if you start as Mr. Darwin does, by assuming his principle of evolution 

 as the sole origin of species, and rejecting separate creation as 'un- 

 scientific.' In other words, you must first grant that man is descended 

 from a monkey, and then it is ' not difficult to conceive ' the intermediate 

 steps ; but if you decline to admit this petitio principii, you are wilfully 

 closing your eyes to what Mr. Darwin assures you is the fact. Such is the 

 entire circle of this gentleman's logic. The book is full of interesting 

 observations on natural history, exhibiting more or less relevancy to the 

 argument it seeks to sustain ; but the induction never advances a step 

 without a confession of logical defectiveness. We are treated to tendencies, 

 and probabilities, and conjectures, which derive all their force from a 

 previous assumption of the point to be proved. Take away this, and there 

 is hardly a proposition in the whole work which could pretend to the 

 character of a logical conclusion. 



" The yobemouches who swallow for science all that comes from scientific 

 men were confounded to hear of this secret laboratory of imagination. The 

 Times protested against the notion that experimental philosophers ever 

 draw bills. But Tyndall and Darwin know better. 



