382 Miscellanies. 



appears to stand as a physical test of species. We are thus en- 

 abled in searching into the nature of a species, to strike from the 

 outside detail to the foundation law. 



The type-idea, as it presents itself to the mind, is no more a 

 subject of defined conception than any mathematical expression. 

 Could we put in mathetical terms the precise law, in all its 

 comprehensiveness, which is at the basis of the species iron, as 

 we can for one of its qualities, that of chemical attraction, this 

 mathematical expression would stand as a representative of the 

 species ; and we might use it in calculations, precisely as we can 

 use any mathematical term. So also, if we could write out in 

 numbers the potential nature of an organic species, or of its 

 germ, including 'the laws of its variables, this expression would 

 be like any other term in the hands of a mathematician ; the 

 mind would receive the formula as an expression for the species, 

 and might compare it with the formulas of other species. But, 

 after all,' we have here a mere mathematical abstraction, a sym- 

 bol for amount or law of force, which can be turned into con- 

 ceptions, only by imagining (supposing this possible) the force 

 in the course of its evolution of concrete realities, according to the 

 law of development and laws of variations embraced within it. 



Ulisallanks. 



The following is an extract from a letter lately received from 

 Dr. Gibb, of London, by a friend of his in Montreal, in which 

 reference is made to the chalk cliffs on the south-east coast of 

 England : — 



" In the month of August I spent a few weeks at Brighton, and 

 made a pedestrian tour along the south-east coast, walking from 

 Brighton to Hastings, a distance of about 48 miles with the in- 

 dentations, but shorter by railway. I do not recollect in the whole 

 course of my wanderings — I must except Niagara Falls — expe- 

 riencing such pleasure, information, and satisfaction, as on this 

 occasion, for an opportunity was afforded me of studying some of 

 the grandest objects of nature, in the truly magnificent chalk cliffs 

 along this coast. The distance from London to Brighton is 50^ 

 miles, directly south from London, and the journey is easily done 



