TuHE ZooLocist—Auvcust, 1872. 3177 
gravitation, and what? the sidereal system, and its movements? the Spratt, 
that breathes through illimitable space, and lives through an eternity of 
time ? 
“The very grandeur of the subject, too vast to contemplate, would be a 
sufficient answer to the puny efforts of man to solve the great problem and 
mystery of existence; while the mathematical certainty attached to all that 
is known of astronomy makes it quite certain that the details of life on one 
speck of the universe are not left to mere chance, or the destruction of the 
weak by the strong, resulting in what is termed the ‘ survival of the fittest.’ 
The chance operation of force in the production of abnormities in nature is 
distinctly answered by the fact that all force is guided. The earth, as is 
beautifully expressed by Professor Haughton, is a geometer, because she 
forms within her the five typical geometrical forms which a geometrician 
alone could make. The animal frame is formed upon a plan which is 
altered to suit circumstances of existence, and is brought into being by the 
Power which directs the forces of nature. How, man is not permitted to 
know, inasmuch as his intellect is limited. His reason cannot solve 
mysteries which by their very nature it cannot compare. The finite can 
only reason out the infinite by inductions drawn from its own incom- 
petency. Meanwhile, let us remember that the deep investigations of a 
truly philosophic mind will be directed rather in unfolding the productions 
of nature than in dogmatising upon the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ such pro- 
ductions are formed. Take away from our studies the charm that this 
‘how’ and this ‘why’ are the workings of a Power which is reasoning, 
adaptive, infinite in knowledge, in power and in existence, and science 
becomes a dark, repulsive pursuit, which must end in its own destruction 
and the extinction of all theistical belief." —P. 184. 
There are many such passages as this, which I have quoted 
without alteration or abbreviation, and I acknowledge it leaves on 
my mind an unsatisfied feeling. I cannot say to the author rem 
acu tetigisti, “there thou hast Mr. Darwin on the hip”; but I can 
say, “Thou hast written a passage that reads well and pleasantly, 
still I do not see exactly how it serves to support the case which we 
desire to make out.” 1 do not say that this feature in the discussion 
is confined to the labours of Dr. Bree. Delighted with Mr. Darwin’s 
volumes, particularly the last on the ‘ Origin of Man,’ if I may so 
call it in contradistinction to the more general title ‘The Origin of 
Species, I have read on and on, and have been obliged to ask, 
Quo tramite tendis? “Do thy multitudinous facts, which follow 
one another like the waves of the ocean, leave any more im- 
pression than the waves themselves make on the surface of the 
