NATURE 



\_Nov. 5, 1874 



if" any human being will be weak enough to enter the 

 hall of dulness. As the clock hands closely approach the 

 liour a thrill of excitement passes through the lecturer and 

 the beadle. Two misguided persons have strayed into the 

 Iniilding, and on the arrival of a third depends the reading 

 of the Latin lecture, which is not delivered to a smaller 

 audience than three. Should the third unwelcome guest 

 |)iit in an appearance the deed must be done — the lecturer 

 must make a show of earning the 4/. 3^ 4"'- he gets for 

 reading the Latin discourse. Looking rather flustered— 

 perhaps by the consciousness that three wicked wags 

 have conspired to make him work — he opens a well-dog's- 

 eared manuscript, and, reading at a tremendous pace, 

 dashes through a composition which, as a rule, sets 

 criticism at defiance. The good old traditional policy of 

 driving auditors away is well kept up. Long Greek quo- 

 tations loosely patched together by a rigmarole of doubtful 

 Latinity, and rattled over with an evident intention of 

 getting to the final dixi as quickly as possible, are not 

 calculated to enchain the attention of a modern audience. 

 It is only fair to admit that the lecturer sometimes shows 

 a keen appreciation of the dreary farce in which he is 

 the chief actor, and on these occasions condescends to 

 address a few words — in English — to such of the audience 

 as may be ' in at the death.' Feeling that a lecture in 

 Latin needs not, therefore, be either tedious, stupid, or 

 confused, he acknowledges the miserable quality of the 

 rubbish he has just rattled through, and excuses it on the 

 ground that the attendance is not sufficiently great to 

 encourage the production of a good lecture ; adding, 

 moreover, that if more people came more pains would be 

 taken. This solemn mockery is repeated every term, so 

 that if all the Latin lectures were read, the majority of 

 the professors would each deliver twelve English and 

 twelve Latin discourses for his 100/. per annum— by no 

 means an excessive rate of payment if the lectures really 

 instructed anybody in anything. Unfortunately, as at 

 present conducted, Gresham College is utterly and com- 

 pletely useless to any human being save only the pro- 

 fessors and the beadles, who draw their salaries with 

 commendable punctuality. Another matter for regret is, 

 that not only is the use of a commodious building lost, 

 but that a collection of books, which if placed in the 

 City Library would be accessible to students, lies buried 

 in the unprofitable seclusion of the College. If the 

 Gresham Committee take no interest in the important 

 trust confided to them, it is indeed high time that public 

 attention was directed to an antiquated and transparent 

 sham, a disgrace alike to the age and to the city in which 

 H is perpetrated." 



We hope that this unsparing exposure will lead to an 

 inquiry into the abuse, and an appropriation of the 

 valuable funds to a purpose much more consistent 

 with the spirit of the will of the benevolent and well- 

 meaning founder. 



HMCKEL'S DEVELOPMENT OF MAN 



Aiithroppgcnie oder Entwickehingsgeschichte des Men- 

 s:hcn ; gcmcinverstandliche wissenschaftlichc Vortrage, 

 von Ernst Ha;ckel. (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1874.) 



THE new volume of so-called popular lectures by Prof. 

 Ha:ckel bears somewhat the same relation to " The 

 Descent of Man" which his " Schopfungsgeschichte " 



did to " The Origin of Species." Few who are ac- 

 quainted with Mr. Darwin's writings will agree with the 

 criticism lately put forth from the chair of the British 

 Association that they need an expounder. Those, how- 

 ever, who arc dissatisfied with his patient analysis of 

 facts and sober deduction of principles will find abundant 

 exposition and extension in such works of his disciples 

 as " The Beginnings of Life," " The History of Creation," 

 and the present volume. 



In criticising the vast system of dogmatic cosmogony 

 which is here built up in lectures before a popular audi- 

 ence, one would not for a moment confound it with 

 the flippant confidence of sciolists who attack or 

 defend the theory of evolution, not on its scientific 

 merits, but because it seems to them to support some 

 theological or antitheological prejudice. But it is a 

 matter of deep concern that so justly eminent a biologist 

 as Prof. Hitckel should allow himself, in treating a 

 subject which above all demands the dry light of im- 

 partial judgment, to adopt the style of those " who are 

 not of his school — or any school." 



The fact is, that the extremely difficult subject of the 

 philogeny of man, demanding an accurate knowledge of 

 embryology and comparative anatomy, both recent and 

 fossil, is not at all fitted for popular treatment. Popu- 

 larising science ought to mean persuading people to 

 work at some of its branches until they learn to love it 

 not altering its character so as to make it please the 

 itching ears of idlers. 



The really valuable parts of the " Schopfungsgeschichte" 

 and the " Anthropogenic " must be at once useless and 

 distasteful to such readers ; and if they accept all the 

 "advanced" theories laid cut and dried before them, 

 they will be learning a bad lesson in biology. If they 

 happen to have one set of prejudices, they will denounce 

 all science as an invention of the devil ; or if they have 

 another, they will degrade it into a mere instrument to 

 insult the feehngs of their neighbours. Prof. Hasckel 

 assures his hearers that the history of development con- 

 tains more valuable knowledge than most sciences and 

 all revelations ; but, whether more or less important, the 

 secrets of nature, like those of revelation, can only be 

 gradually learned with patient ear and reverent spirit : 

 they are meaningless or mischievous when accepted with- 

 out pains or preparation. 



Unfortunately, in these lectures the teacher frankly 

 drops the character of the student of nature 'and assumes 

 that of the combatant. Even in the preface he attacks the 

 "black International" of Rome, "jener unheilbriitender 

 Schaar," with which " at last — at last the spiritual war 

 has begun." We see " the banners unfurled," we hear 

 " the trumpets blown, which muster the hosts for this 

 gigantic struggle." We are shown " whole ranks of 

 dualistic fallacies falling before the chain-shot of monistic 

 artillery, and libraries of Kirchenweisheit and After- 

 philosophie {sic) melting into nothing before the sun of 

 the History of Development." But when these meta- 

 phors are dropt, we find that the objects of this gigantic 

 strife are to prevent certain (unspecified) teaching in 

 primary schools, to suppress convents and celibacy by 

 law, to expunge Sundays and saints' days from the 

 calendar, and to forbid religious processions in the 

 streets ! 



