ARTICLES IN JOURNALS. 315 



furnishing evidence to the contrary." It dawns on this author, in 

 the next sentence, that "such might justly be deemed an unfair 

 way of putting the matter"; would that it had dawned upon his 

 mind that it is nonsense, and that he had saved reviewers the 

 disagreeable necessity of saying so. It is natural enough for Mr. 

 Romanes to comfort himself with the reflection that the geological 

 record, the blessed imperfections of which are a safe haven for him, 

 contains "numberless other cases" testifying to connecting links. 

 We do not understand that Mr. Carruthers set about denying this ; 

 he contented himself with urging objections, and the thing is no 

 more in the dispute than the rotundity of the earth. 



^ Enough has been said to show the style of argument with which 

 this exponent of "the Darwinism of Darwin" seeks to satisfy the 

 British public. This book is surely the chief penalty of the great- 

 ness of Mr. Darwin's name. It is no part of my task to say one 

 word here on the merits of this general question, — Darwin is 

 happily not to be judged by Eomanes, — but merely to show how 

 this author has acquitted himself in his unauthorised effort to 

 expound the position of that great man. 



I conclude by giving one final example, — this time it combines 

 the author's taste with his critical faculty, — from p. 412: — "All 

 nature has thus been transformed before the view of the present 

 generation in a manner and to an extent that has never before been 

 possible ; and inasmuch as the change which has taken place has 

 taken place in the direction of naturalism, and this to the extent of 

 rendering the mechanical interpretation of nature universal, it is no 

 wonder if the religious mind has suddenly awakened to a new and 

 terrible force in the words of its traditional enemy — Where is now 

 thy God?" This is the proper moment for the lecturer to stop 

 and imbibe a glass of water, and I am much inclined to leave Mr. 

 Eomanes with the cheers of the groundlings ringing in his ears ; 

 but I cannot refrain from an apt quotation, which I find in Asa 

 Gray's Darwiniajia, at p. 23-i : — " It is a singular fact that, when we 

 can find out how anything is done, our first conclusion seems to be that 

 God did not do it. No matter how wonderful, how beautiful, how 

 intimately complex and delicate has been the machinery which has 

 worked, perhaps for centuries, perhaps for millions of ages, to 

 bring about some beneficent result, if we can but catch a glimpse of 

 the wheels its divine character disappears." q § j|. 



— - 



ARTICLES IN JOURNALS. 



Awn Sciences Nat* (xiv* 5 & 6 : Aug.). — M. Gomont, • Motto* 

 graphie des Oscillariees (9 plates). — P. van Tieghem, 'Deuxieme 

 Addition aux Melastomacees.' — (xvi. 1 : Sept.). E. Auberfc, ■ Re- 

 cherches physiologiques sur les plantes grasses/ 



Bot. Centralblatt. (No. 85). — E. Wilczek, ■ Zur Kenntniss des 

 Baues der Frucht und des Samens der Cyperaceen.' — A, Rothpletz, 



* Pie Bildung der Oolithe.'~ (No, 86). P. Kunth, ■ Zur Bestaubung 



