THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 219 



" Darwin is an accomplished Naturalist, 

 with rare powers of observation, and 

 an entertaining and often graceful power 

 of describing the results of his prolonged 

 investigations. But the importance of the 

 principle has been greatly overrated. 

 Darwin is as little of a philosopher as any 

 man who ever lived. His genius is one of 

 observation and narration, with very faint 

 powers of argument, and with no depth of 

 synthetic insight. He fails frequently to 

 understand the true meaning of the facts 

 which he describes, and still more fre- 

 quently the higher conclusions to which 

 they lead. He is weak in logic, and 

 especially weak in every attempt to rise 

 into the higher region, which he some- 

 times essays, of abstract discussion. If 

 Darwin* and Herbert Spencer and others 



* The French savans do not recognise Mr. 

 Darwin's claims in the same way as Professor 

 Huxley and others do at home. I believe he was 

 rejected three times from admission into the French 

 Academy, on account of the unscientific nature of 

 his theories. 



