Notices of New Books. 7579 



We disagree witli the deductions Mr. Darwin draws, but should 

 nevertheless like to see him fairly treated. We cannot admit that 

 Dr. Bree does this, or goes the right way to work successfully to 

 gainsay the issues of the argument ; here and there he twitches at a 

 weak thread, without, however, doing much damage to Mr. Darwin's 

 elaborately-woven fabric. 



Dr. Asa Gray's pamphlet is a graceful summing up of the argu- 

 ments pro and con Natural Selection, in favour of the views enun- 

 ciated by Mr. Darwin. He also takes up a further stage of the 

 question, which the author of the 'Origin of Species' passes by 

 almost unnoticed, and endeavours to prove the compatibility of the 

 development of species by natural selection with final cause and 

 design. 



Dr. Freke's little book differs widely from any of the others, both 

 in its matter and style. After Mr. Darwin's clearness and Dr. Bree's 

 eloquence it reads most stiffly. Parentheses, here and there, are all 

 very well and admissible, as a means of avoiding an extra sentence, 

 but under any circumstances are merely a licensed deviation from 

 grammatical expression, and when too freely indulged in become 

 very objectionable. Dr. Freke throughout his book is painfully 

 parenthetical, and every now and then, in endeavouring to express 

 too much with a few words, loses himself in a whirlpool of paren- 

 theses. An idea expressed by two or three sets of parentheses, fitting 

 into each other, must be lost to an ordinary reader, and involves the 

 use of a greater number of words than good common-place English. 

 Italics may also, now and then, be used to define the exact point of a 

 sentence ; but when every third or fourth word, or bit of a word, is 

 written in Italics, this Jinesse of expression may easily be mistaken 

 for pedantry. Dr. Freke considers himself a supporter of Mr. Darwin's 

 deductions, but on different grounds : he appears to believe that 

 species have been gradually developed from one primordial form, 

 under laws of organic aflinity somewhat parallel to those laws of 

 chemical aflSnity defining the individual character and composition of 

 inorganic compounds. 



Mr. Darwin's volume, now published, is merely the abstract of a 

 larger work, the author informs us, in his Preface, he has been occu- 

 pied upon since his return from the voyage of the exploring ship 

 ' Beagle,' and promises to complete it in two or three years. By it 

 we are to be supplied with the details of the facts, forming the basis 

 of his theory, he has been patiently accumulating and reflecting upon 

 for more than twenty years. 



