248 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



that the human frame, as a machine, might at any time generate 

 within itself those parts which would raise it to a type specifically 

 higher or lower than itself. But we know of no such provision. 

 Whenever a species stanJs above or below another, though in the 

 ■same group, it is supplied with additional parts, or else there is 

 a modification of parts unknown to those near to which it stands. 



In a machine which can change its law by the development of 

 •structures within itself, it would be impossible for any finite mind 

 to know what it might produce — its law could be understood 

 only by infinite intelligence ; certainly, the human machine is 

 not intended thus to work. The development of sex, does not 

 come within this form of the law ; the change of stamens into 

 petals, by feeding, and other analagous changes, is a very different 

 matter from that of change from species to species. The devel- 

 opment of the queen bee, by an instinctive management of the 

 workers, is but a part of the economy of the bee ; the queen of 

 the bee is produced, but they cannot produce a queen of any other 

 species of bee : much less a wasp or hornet. 



The work, from the 179th page, and onwards, to its conclusion, 

 is devoted to an exposition of the Macleay system of animated 

 nature, the early history of mankind, the purpose and general con- 

 dition of the animated creation, and the mental constitution of an- 

 imals. We can cheerfully recommend those subjects to the reader ; 

 they are well treated and worthy of a careful perusal. 



We have, however, in conclusion, a few remarks which we 

 have reserved for this place. We take upon ourselves the respon- 

 sibility of saying, that geology lends only a feeble support, if any, 

 to the peculiar views of the author so far as they relate to organ- 

 ic progress. 



There are some analogies in the vegetable and animal kingdom, 

 which may be brought in incidentally, which have a remote bear- 

 ing upon the subject. Thus a barren soil first produces a green 

 mould ; next, mosses, and the larger plants of this class, and 

 finally shrubs and trees. So, in the earlier periods, the seas pro- 

 duced (it may be) only the humbler animals, which vegetated, as 

 it were, like the mould and the mosses of an unfertile spot of earth. 

 But what does this amount to, if proved 1 Mosses and mould, as 

 well as well polypi and monads, are the humble tenants of the 

 soil and of the waters now ; and the great and the humble com- 



