750 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 49. 



Lamarckism, on the contrary, recognizes in 

 use and disuse, desii'e and the j)hysical en- 

 vironment, immediate causes of variation 

 affecting the individual and transmitted to 

 the offspring in which it may be intensi- 

 fied again botli by inheritance and further 

 individual modification." 



The following extracts will illustrate his 

 clear and vigorous style of thought and ex- 

 pression and his attitude on the relations 

 between science and religious philosophy. 

 Regarding the question of design he 

 says : "Both Lyell and Gray believe in the 

 form of variation having been planned or 

 designed. It seems to me that the evi- 

 dences of design in nature are so overwhelm- 

 ing that its advocates have an immense ad- 

 vantage over those who would discard it. 

 A fortuitous cosmos is, to most persons, ut- 

 terly inconceivable, yet there is no other 

 alternative than a designed cosmos. To 

 accomplish anything by a process, or by an 

 instrument, argues greater, not less power, 

 than to do it directly, and even if we knew 

 to-day all the causes of variation, and un- 

 derstood more thoroughly than we do the 

 method of evolution, we should only carry 

 the sequence of causes a step further back 

 and get no nearer to the Infinite or Original 

 Cause." 



" Evolution teaches that nothing is yet so 

 perfect but it may be improved; that good 

 comes of the struggle with evil and the one 

 can never be dissociated from the other. 

 The erect position which has given man his 

 intellectual preeminence has brought him 

 manifold bodily ills. No evolutional sibyl 

 looks to a millennium. Higher develop- 

 ment must ever mean struggle. Evolution 

 shows that man is governed by the same 

 laws as other animals." " Evolution re- 

 veals a past which disarms doubt and leaves 

 the future open with promise — unceasing 

 purpose — progress from lower to higher. It 

 promises higher and higher intellectual and 

 ethical attainment, both for the individual 



and the race. It shows the power of God 

 in what is universal, not in the specific, in 

 the laws of nature, not in departure from 

 them." 



" The experience gained by those who 

 have reached the highest ethical and intel- 

 lectual growth must be formulated in pre- 

 cept and principle to be of any benefit to 

 society at large, and the higher ethical sen- 

 timent and religious belief — faith, love, 

 hope, charity — are priceless beyond all that 

 exact science can give it." 



Riley, an excellent head of a bureau, 

 but sometimes uncomfortable and too in- 

 dependent as a subordinate, at times got 

 into hot water with his superiors in the 

 Department. He was sensitive to criti- 

 cism, and was somewhat prone to contro- 

 versy, usually, however, winning in such 

 encounters. Until one came to know him 

 more intimately he was liable to be misun- 

 derstood, and by his occasional bluntness 

 made sonie enemies, but as years rolled on 

 these passing antagonisms melted awaj\ 



Vigorous in mind and body, though of 

 late years suffering from overwork, fond of 

 out-door sports, he was a fearless rider on 

 horseback, and an adept with the bicycle, 

 on which, alas, he rode to his death. 



His hospitable house at Sunbury was 

 beautified bj' rare flowers, shrubs and trees, 

 of which he was passionately fond. He was 

 domestic in his tastes, and left a wife and 

 five children to mourn his loss. 



Riley left an indelible mark on his time, 

 and the historians of natural science and 

 of agriculture in America will scarcely ig- 

 nore the results of thirty years of earnest 

 work in pure and applied entomological sci- 

 ence. 



His scientific honors were well deserved. 

 He was a member of manj^ societies at 

 home and of the entomological societies of 

 France, Berlin, Switzsrland and Belgium. 

 He was elected in 1889 an Honorary Fel- 

 low of the Entomological Society of Lon- 



