NATURE 



429 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1881 



THE STUDENT'S DARWIN 

 The S/iidt-iit's Darwin. By Edward B. Aveling, D.Sc, 

 Fellow of University College, London. International 

 Library of Science and Freethought. Vol. IL (London: 

 Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, 1881.) 



SEVERAL months ago we reviewed the first volume 

 of this series, and now in reviewing the second we 

 are still of opinion that the promoters of the series are 

 mistaken, so far as they may have the interests of science 

 ^t heart, in associating their endeavours to render science 

 popular with their systematic onslaught against theistic 

 belief. In itself science has no necessary relation to any 

 such belief; it is neither theistic nor atheistic; it is 

 simply extra-theistic. It is but an e.xtension of common 

 experience, and as such has to deal only with the facts of 

 ordinary knowledge without at any point being able to 

 escape from the sphere of the phenomenal ; in so far as 

 any inferences are extended from this domain they are not 

 scientific but metaphysical. Therefore, although it may 

 be of use in the interests of " Freethought " to represent 

 science as not merely neutral but negative in its bearings 

 upon religion, the attempt to do so is detrimental to the 

 interests of science ; so far as it may be successful it can 

 only tend to increase the suspicious dislike of scientific 

 knowledge which large masses of the general public are 

 already too apt to harbour. Still, as the leading object of 

 the " International Library " is no doubt that of advancing 

 anti-theistic dogma, its promoters are probably careless 

 whether in so doing they are either loyal or just to the 

 cause of science, under whose banner and in whose name 

 they profess to march. 



But beyond recording our dissent from the unreason- 

 able and, from our point of view, pernicious association 

 of " Science " with '• Freethought " which is being carried 

 through the " International Library," we have nothing 

 further to do with this matter ; in these columns we have 

 only to deal with the science, and so shall not again refer 

 to the freethought, although it may be noted as a curious 

 illustration of the contrast between "the solid ground of 

 nature'' and the quicksands of speculative thinking, that 

 one of our most recent reviews was that of a book by Dr. 

 Lauder Brunton, who is certainly no less an authority in 

 science than Dr. Aveling, and whose whole object was 

 seen to be the exact reverse of that which appears in 

 " The Student's Darwin,'' — viz., to show that Darwinism 

 is not opposed to theism. For ourselves, it is needless to 

 add, we hold that the theory of evolution resembles all 

 other scientific theories in having no point of legitimate 

 contact with any ulterior question of metaphysics, further 

 than that of removing from metaphysics certain erroneous 

 arguments previously based upon imperfect knowledge. 



Dr. Aveling has been a diligent student of Mr. Darwin's 

 books, and on reading his epitome of them, even in the 

 most cursory way, one is more than ever amazed at the 

 enormous fertility of Mr. Darwin's work. At every page 

 one feels how meagre the epitome is — often little better 

 than an index — and yet for more than 300 pages the 

 index runs on showing as in a sketch what the mind of 

 one man has accomplished, till the reader who is able to 

 Vol. XXIV. — No. 619 



remember how many and minute are the details which 

 the index embraces is glad to agree with an introductory 

 remark of the writer, " It is well that all of us shouli 

 know at least the outline of the work that has been done 

 by this man. For as the name of Chaucer marks the 

 fourteenth, and the name of Shakespeare the sixteenth 

 century, so probably will the name of Charles Darwin 

 mark the nineteenth century in the years to come." 



The object of the "Student's Darwin" is thus, as its 

 author says, to furnish a brief summary of the main 

 results of Mr. Darwin's labours, and as the abstract has 

 on the whole been well made, it ought to be found useful 

 for any one who has not time to read for himself the 

 originals. It would have been desirable to have gone 

 less into mere description of species, and more fully into 

 the theory of their origin ; for no one who is likely to 

 read the book will profit by the former, while the chief 

 object of the "Student's Darwin" ought to be that of 

 rendering a careful and complete abstract of Darwinism. 

 Yet this is far from being the case in the book before us 

 When, for instance, we have the arguments from Classi- 

 fication, Morphology, Development, and Rudimentary 

 Organs all compressed into less than two pages, it is 

 evident that the analysis is becoming much too scanty ; 

 and in fact no one depending for his information upon 

 this analysis alone could form any just idea of the mass 

 of evidence in favour of evolution and natural selection 

 which Mr. Darwin has collected. This fault is the less 

 pardonabl;, because it cannot be pleaded in excuse for it 

 that the author is pressed for space, seeing that throughout 

 the book he every here and there devotes a paragraph or 

 two to bad attempts at " fine writing," which, besides 

 being blemishes from a literary point of view, absorb a 

 number of pages which might have been profitably de- 

 voted to a further exposition of what he properly terms 

 " the tnagnitm opus." 



Dr. Aveling, however, everywhere exhibits a just esti- 

 mate of Mr. Darwin's powers, as a few quotations may 

 suffice to show. " From these pages " {i.e. those of the 

 Monograph of the Cirripedia) " the student will turn with 

 renewed reverence for the great generaliser, who is so 

 patient and so completely master of detail.'' "Precon- 

 ceived notions are not for him. He states the arguments 

 for the conclusions that would strengthen the position of 

 the great theory of evolution only less clearly than he 

 states those that tell against that theory. No man was 

 evermore of judge than he; no man was ever less of 

 advocate. . . . The obligations of Charles Darwin to 

 other workers in the same field as himself are always paid 

 with a cordiality and courtesy that must be as gratifying 

 to them as they are natural to him." " Only thirty-four 

 years and the man who has produced the new thoughts is 

 still among us ! To-day they form part of the accepted 

 creed of scientific thinkers. ... To those who remember 

 how few of the great have beheld with their own patient 

 eyes their own greatness in some faint degree recognised 

 during their own lives, their own thoughts accepted as 

 true guides by the thoughtful, assuredly there is cause for 

 comfort here." " Looking back over them again " {i.e, 

 the whole series of works), " we cannot fail to be impressed 

 with those two large attributes of genius that are especially 

 his— unrivalled powers of observation, unrivalled powers 

 of generalisation. And the' homage that we pay him 



