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NA TURE 



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the best naturalists had speculated on the probability of 

 evolution, he for the first time found, as he innocently 

 enough observes, that evolution and natural selection are 

 not quite the same thing. Having made this highly 

 original discovery, he forthwith proceeds to display a 

 feebleness of judgment even more lamentable than his 

 previous ignorance. For he concludes that the older 

 speculations on the causes of evolution are more satis- 

 factory than those advanced by Mr. Darwin. In the 

 columns of a scientific journal any comment on such a 

 conclusion might well be deemed superfluous, although 

 Mr. Wallace, in his review above mentioned, had the 

 courtesy to e.xpose its folly. The older evolutionists 

 deserve indeed all honour for having perceived early in 

 the day that some theory of descent must be true, even 

 though they were not able to find the theory that could 

 be seen to be in any measure satisfactory. But a man who 

 in the full light of Darwin's theory can deliberately return 

 to " the weak and beggarly elements" of Lamarck — such a 

 man only shows that in judgment he is still a child. The 

 extreme weakness of Mr. Butler's argumentation has, as 

 we have said, already been shown by Mr. Wallace ; but 

 it is of more interest to ask what infatuation it 

 can have been that led him to suppose " all Europe 

 and those most capable of judging " required him as 

 an author to make himself ridiculous as an expounder 

 of this subject. The answer is not far to seek. As Mr. 

 Butler himself has told us, he has vanity, and his vanity is 

 not less childish than his judgment. Thus, to give only 

 one illustration. Of so much importance does he deem 

 his own cogitations, that in the book we are reviewing he 

 devotes two chapters, or more than thirty pages, to " How 

 I wrote ' Life and Habit,' " and "How I wrote ' Evolution, 

 Old and New'"; entering into a minute history of the 

 whole course of his speculative flounderings. This is the 

 only part of the book that repays perusal ; but that this 

 part well repays perusal may be judged from the following, 

 which we present as a sample : — 



" The first passage in ' Life and Habit ' which I can 

 date with certainty is one on p. 52, which ran as follows : 

 . . . ' " Do this, this, this, which we too have done, and 

 found our profit in it," cry the souls of his forefathers 

 within him. Faint are the far ones, coming and going as 

 the sound of bells wafted on to a high mountain ; loud 

 and clear are the near ones, urgent as an alarm of fire.' 

 This was written a few days after my arrival in Canada, 

 June 1874. I was on Montreal Mountain for the first 

 time, and was struck with its extreme beauty. . . . Sitting 

 down for a while, I began making notes for ' Life and 

 Habit,' of which I was then continually thinking, and had 

 written the first few lines of the above, when the bells of 

 Notre Dame in Montreal began to ring, and their sound 

 was carried to and fro in a remarkably beautiful manner. 

 I took advantage of the incident to insert then and there 

 the last lines of the piece just quoted. I kept the whole 

 passage with hardly any alteration, and am thus able to 

 date it accurately. . . . Early in 1876 I began putting 

 these notes into more coherent form. I did this in thirty 

 pages of closely-written matter, of which a pressed copy 

 remains in my commonplace-book. I find two dates 

 among them — the first 'Sunday, February 6, 1876" ; and 

 the second, at the end of the notes, ' February 12, 1876.' " 



This historical sketch, which is without the smallest 

 interest to any one but Mr. Butler himself, winds up with 

 the following burst of eloquence : — 



" Here, then, I take leave of this matter for the present. 



If it appears that I have used language such as is rarely 

 seen in controversy, let the reader remember that the 

 occasion is, so far as I know, unparalleled for the cynicism 

 and audacity with which the wrong complained of was 

 committed and persisted in. I trust, however, that, 

 though not indifferent to this, my indignation has been 

 mainly roused, as when I wrote ' Evolution, Old and New,' 

 before Mr. Darwin had given me personal ground of 

 complaint against him, by the wrongs he has inflicted on 

 dead men, on whose behalf I now fight, as I trust that 

 some one — whom I thank by anticipation — may one day 

 fight on mine." 



Mighty champion of the mighty dead ! When our 

 children's children shall read in Westminster Abbey 

 the inscription on the tomb of Mr. Samuel Butler, how 

 will it be with a sigh that in their day and generation the 

 world knows nothing of its greatest men ! But as it is 

 our misfortune to live before the battle over Mr. Samuel 

 Butler's memory has been fought, we respond to his 

 abounding presumption by recommending him, whatever 

 degi"ee of failure he may have experienced in art, once 

 more to "consider" himself " by profession a painter" 

 — or, if the painters will not have him, to make some 

 third attempt, say among the homceopathists, whose 

 journal alone, so far as we are aware, has received with 

 favour his latest work. George J. Romanes 



NEWTON'S BRITISH BIRDS 



A History of British Birds. By the late William Yarrell, 

 V.P.L.S., F.Z.S. Fourth Edition, revised by Alfred 

 Newton, M A., F.R.S. Part 10, November, 1876; 11, 

 September, 1877 ; 12, October, 1878 ; 13, June, 1880. 

 (London : Van Voorst.) 



WE call this work advisedly "Newton's British 

 Birds," although the title-page would seem to 

 signify that it is only a fourth edition of Yarrell's well- 

 known " History." It is however in fact a new book. 

 The text has been completely rewritten, and the familiar 

 woodcuts and vignettes alone remain to remind one of the 

 former author. 



The parts of Prof Newton's work now before us con- 

 clude the account of the Passeres and contain the com- 

 mencement of the history of the British Picaria:. We 

 need hardly say that the article upon each species is 

 worked out in the same careful and accurate way as in 

 the former portion of this work. Prof. Newton, as every 

 ornithologist knows, is our leading authority on this sub- 

 ject, which, during a course of many years of constan 

 attention, he has made specially his own. We observe 

 with great pleasure the elaborate manner in which the 

 distribution of each species is described, not only within 

 the area of the British Islands, but also wherever it is 

 known to occur on other parts of the world's surface. We 

 may likewise notice the entire absence of mispiints and 

 the excellence of the type and paper, which do credit 

 alike to the author and publisher, and will no doubt 

 greatly contribute to extend the circulation of the work. 

 Having said thus much, it is with regret that we must add 

 one word of discontent, for which we trust Mr. Van 

 Voorst and Prof Newton will alike forgive us. The rate 

 of issue of the numbers is so slow that it is difficult to 

 calcvdate when the new edition will be completed. As 

 will be seen by the heading of the article, only four parts 



