326 Reviews — Lesley's Origin and Destiny of Man, 



III. Inorganic Sciences : — 1. Chemistry. 2. Mineralogy. 3. Metallurgy. 

 4. Geology. 5. Palaeontology, leading to the 



IV. Organic Sciences:—!. Biology. 2. Botany. 3. Zoology. 4. Medicine, 

 leading to the group of the 



V. Historical Sciences: — 1. Chronology. 2. Mythology. 3. Archaeology. 

 4. Ethnology. 5. History, leading to the 



YI. Social Sciences: — 1. Sociology or Statistics. 2, Manufacture. 3. Com- 

 merce. 4. Defence. 5. Equity, leading to the 



YII, Intellectual Sciences : — 1. Language. 2. Belles Lettres. 3. Fine Arts. 

 4. Metaphysics. 5. Education. 6. Philanthrophy. 7. Worship. 



VIII. Personal Science: — 1. Biography. 



A perusal of the first lecture reveals to us Mr. Lesley's high 

 qualifications as a teacher. His " way of putting things " is so apt, 

 and so likely to remain impressed on the memory. The growth of 

 sciences, for example, is described as analogous to that of empires. 

 '* Their boundaries shift. Smaller states are absorbed into king- 

 doms. On the other hand, empires which have been indiscreetly 

 enlarged by an agglomeration of hostile or unsympathizing nation- 

 alities, fall asunder, and out of the debris are instituted separate and 

 almost independent regimes.'" 



Mr. Lesley quotes ''Geology as illustrating both these tendencies," 

 in the following passage (p. 4) : — 



''At first it was like one of those wild tribes of Germany that con- 

 quered the Roman empire. It was a rude, undisciplined study of a 

 few of the most prominent features of the ground. But gathering 

 strength as it developed the observing faculties, and emancipating 

 itself from its aboriginal superstition of the Lusus Naturce, adopt- 

 ing the purer faith in cause and effect, it conquered and subjugated, 

 one by one, all the other branches of human knowledge. The dukes 

 of this new Burgundy outshone and outweighed their liege lords — 

 kings and emperors. Its later princes — Von Buch, De Beaumont, 

 Murchison, and Lyell formed a splendid dynasty. The wealth of 

 the whole world of science flowed into its public treasury. They 

 were even not afraid to wage war against the world of metaphysics, 

 and it seemed as though Church as well as State would be absorbed 

 into one great, upstart, irresponsible despotism." 



These extracts will give an idea of Mr. Lesley's style, and of his 

 mode of treating the subjects of his lectures. We must now give a 

 brief sketch of his book. 



Contrasting the genius and the method of the ancient sciences 

 with those of the modern, he brings out prominently the childish, 

 fanciful, credulous, and purposeless character of the former, in con- 

 trast to the practical, critical, and comprehensive nature of the latter. 

 He sums up the whole distinction of method in one sentence, by 

 saying that modern sciences replace fancy by experiment, though 

 perhaps investigation would have been a more comprehensive and 

 accurate term. 



The " Antiquity of Man " is a theme upon which Mr. Lesley has 

 naturally much to say ; and extremely well he places before an un- 

 scientific audience the facts upon which we now rely as proofs of the 

 ancient date of man's first ai)pearance on the earth. Not content, 

 however, with a bare statement of these facts, our author gives a 



