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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



posits of unconsolidated material that make 

 up the regolith, and tells something of their 

 chemical, mineral, physical, and other char- 

 acteristics. The volume contains a total of 

 twenty-five plates and forty-two smaller fig- 

 ures, and the mechanical execution of both 

 illustrations and letterpress is excellent. 



The secret of Darwin's strength, accord- 

 ing to Prof. Poulton* lay in the perfect bal- 

 ance between his powers of imagination and 

 those of accurate observation. His heredi- 

 tary endowment unquestionably fitted him to 

 become a typical scientific discoverer, whether 

 or not this nice adjustment of the creative 

 and critical faculties would have produced 

 equally well a poet or a historian, as, it is 

 claimed here. It is a noteworthy example, 

 however, of the immeasurable stimulation of 

 thought that both Darwin and Wallace should 

 ascribe to a reading of Malthus's Essay on 

 Population the discovery of the principle of 

 natural selection. Wallace constructed al- 

 most the whole of the theory in two hours, 

 and in three evenings finished his paper on 

 the subject. Darwin devoted four years of 

 study to the hypothesis before writing it out 

 fully, two years more to the collection of 

 further data and enlargement, and after 

 fourteen years of deliberation gave the the- 

 ory to the public in the Origin of Species. 

 The effect of this doctrine upon Lyell, Gray, 

 Hooker, and other scientific men, the misun- 

 derstanding and opposition it incurred, the 

 position of Huxley in regard to it, and his 

 noble championship of the fundamental truth 

 of evolution, are topics of especial interest 

 discussed by the author. Brief accounts of 

 other works of Darwin, some letters not here- 

 tofore published, and an index are also in- 

 cluded in the volume, which, for the most 

 part, was first given during 1894 and 1895 

 in the form of lectures in Oxford University 

 Museum. 



A most valuable and scholarly contribu- 

 tion to Egyptology is Religion of tlie Ancient 

 JZgyptians, by Alfred Wiedemann. Written 

 by a professor in the University of Bonn, 

 the subject is handled with German thor- 

 oughness and accuracy. He does not theo- 

 rize on the religion, maintaining that to be 



* Charles Darwin and the Theory of Natural 

 Selection. By Edward B. Poulton, F. R. S. New 

 York : The Macmillan Co. Pp. 224. Price, $1.25. 



fruitless in our present limited state of 

 knowledge of the subject; he investigates 

 the data found in the records and inscrip- 

 tions concerning the beliefs of a people 

 whose whole life was dominated by religion. 

 The writer's aim " is a modest one ; avoid- 

 ing any attempt to interpret or to system- 

 atize, he has endeavored to set before the 

 reader the principal deities, myths, reli- 

 gious ideas, and doctrines as they are to be 

 found in the texts, more especially dwelling 

 on such as have important bearings on the 

 history of religion." The worship of the 

 sun occupying an important place in the 

 Egyptian ritual, the sun god Ra is discussed 

 at some length, together with the solar 

 myths, and the subordinate deities entering 

 into them. There are chapters devoted to 

 the other deities, both domestic and of for- 

 eign origin, the worship of animals and 

 plants, Osiris and his cycle, and the Osirian 

 doctrine of immortality, magic, sorcery, and 

 amulets. The author has admirably suc- 

 ceeded in getting order out of the complica- 

 tions of the Egyptian pantheon in which the 

 many deities of the numerous provinces en- 

 tered, each province claiming superiority for 

 its own deity. Many passages have been 

 translated from the Book of the Dead, hymns 

 and sepulchral texts, and numerous illustra- 

 tions from the monuments accompany them.* 



The author of I Diseredati f believes that 

 outer material influences, instead of being 

 the single predominant factor in social phe- 

 nomena, as is commonly believed, are only 

 one of several concomitant elements of which 

 the social fact is the resultant He seeks to 

 present in their exact proportions the im- 

 portance of the material element in social 

 development, and the influence exercised by it 

 upon the institution of property. The error 

 pointed out is supposed to be accompanied 

 by grave consequences in legislation and 

 practical life. In the former, civic capital- 

 ism has been created, and the doctrine has 

 been inculcated that the state should provide 

 for everything, depriving the individual of 

 his initiative and responsibility. The in- 

 stitution of wages is condemned as disor- 



* The American supply of the work is im- 

 ported by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1897. 



1 1 Diseredati e i loro Diritti (The Disinherited 

 and their Bights). By Pietro Pellegrini. Borgo a 

 Mozzano, Italy. 



