7580 Notices of New Books. 



To express Mr. Darwin's views in a few words : — Froin certain 

 facts he observed regarding the distribution of the inhabitants of 

 South America, and the relations of the present to the past inha- 

 bitants of that continent, he has been led through a course of obser- 

 vation and reflection, to the conclusion that organic bodies now indi- 

 vidualized under the term species were not independently created, 

 but are the descendants of a few much simpler forms, modified and 

 multiplied under circumstances parallel with those now existing; that 

 there has been no break between the present and the geological 

 epoch during which the organic forms with which we are now sur- 

 rounded were in process of manufacture ; that this advancement and 

 modification indirectly result from the power of organic reproduction 

 being vastly in excess of the means of sustenance, which, in the 

 resulting competition for existence, give variations from the normal 

 type, having any profitable quality in the economy of life, the advan- 

 tage both as to existence and power of reproduction ; the quality of 

 variability being inherited, and the steps of improved variation accu- 

 mulated, through several generations, produce as a result the multipli- 

 cation and advancement of species. Intermediate links, or those that are 

 too nearly resembling their brethren to settle down into distinct arenas 

 of nature, strive with them for the mastery, the weaker becoming ex- 

 tinguished, those that remain appropriating subdivisions of the district 

 of nature occupied by their common parent, according to their new 

 gradations of habit and functions; and the special qualities of each, 

 being reacted upon by their specialized habits of life, become inten- 

 sified, first into specific differences, and subsequently, by throwing off 

 series upon series of varying descendants, take higher rank in what 

 Mr. Darwin says is the genealogical order of nature. 



The matter of the work, consisting of fourteen chapters, seems to 

 be naturally separable into three divisions — 1st, direct evidence in 

 favour of the theory ; 2nd, collateral or constructive evidence ; 3rd, 

 the difficulties of the theory. Chapter II., on variation under nature; 

 Chapter X., on the geological succession of organic beings ; part of 

 Chapters XI. and XII., on geographical distribution, and the affinity 

 of the productions of the same continent ; and Chapter XIII., on the 

 mutual affinities of organic beings, deal with prima facie evidence. 

 Chapter I., on variation under domestication ; Chapter III., on the 

 struggle for existence ; Chapter IV., on natural selection ; and Chap- 

 ter v., on the laws of variation, relate to less direct evidence, and the 

 assumed active processes connected with the elimination of species. 

 Chapters VI., VIL, VIII. and IX., and part of Chapters XI. and XII., 



