II. 



MR. MIVART ON DARWINISM. 



IT can hardly be said that in this volume 1 

 Mr. Mivart has brought any new contribution to 

 the discussion of evolution and its consequences, 

 though he has succeeded in marshalling together, 

 in a goodly phalanx, the various doubts, objec- 

 tions, and misconceptions with which the question 

 has disturbed the peace of his mind. The book 

 is so polemic as quite to belie its placid and deco- 

 rous title. The " Lessons from Nature " turn out 

 to be a series of eager assaults upon " Darwinians " 

 and " Agnostics," mingled with jeremiads over 

 the tendency of the times when such perverted 

 thinkers can obtain such extensive following. 

 Though it would be unfair to say that there is no 

 trace of a disposition to interrogate nature calmly 

 and accept the results, yet this disposition is well- 

 nigh paralyzed by a strong mental bias towards 

 considering facts only in their supposed bearing 



1 Lessons from Nature, as mnniftsted in Mind and Matter. By 

 St. George Mivart. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1876. 



