Literary Notices. 385 



derful than the methods of production we are accustomed to by the 

 development of a minute germ, nor could its appearance be a greater 

 proof of design. 



A good deal of the " Graduate's" logic chopping is devoted to 

 an attempt at showing that Mr. Darwin admits the existence of 

 species as permanent entities, while he is arguing against them. 

 Quoting a plain passage, in which Mr. Darwin speaks of the more 

 permanent varieties leading to sub-species, and species, he exclaims, 

 "Well, then, permanency is, bj Mr. Darwin's own showing, the 

 attribute of species," although the passage in question contains no 

 word to that effect, and the whole tenor of Mr. Darwin's book is to 

 show that what are called species are subject to change. This 

 shallow, flippant mode of treating a grave subject would have 

 justified our taking no notice whatever of the " Graduate's" book, 

 but although thoughtful arguments against Darwinism would be 

 valuable contributions to a very difficult discussion, and would be 

 welcomed by thinkers on both sides, it is time to put a stop to mere 

 impertinence on such important themes. 



In page 57 the " Graduate" gives a conspicuous instance of his 

 habitual, though we have no doubt unintentional misrepresentation. 

 Speaking of a well-developed tail — an organ he might possess with 

 advantage, if it were prehensile enough to grasp an argument, or an 

 idea — he exclaims " How formed ? By natural selection, of course, 

 for the theory allows no other formative power." Had he looked at, 

 and been capable of understanding, a sentence in the " Origin of 

 Species," 8th edit., p. 91, he would not have made this blunder, 

 and probably would not have written his book. 



At the place cited, Darwin says : — " Several writers have mis- 

 apprehended, or objected to the term natural selection. Some have 

 even imagined that natural selection induces variability, whereas it 

 implies only the preservation of such variations as occur and are 

 beneficial to the being under its condition of life." In page 115 

 the " Graduate" exclaims with that amusing self-confidence which 

 crass ignorance permits to grow in egotistical minds, " Let, then, 

 Mr. Darwin say what he likes, when animals cannot anywhere be 

 discovered before a certain point in the geological series, it will be 

 believed that their non-appearance is owing to their non-existence, 

 and it will also be believed that when we first find them in a certain 

 geological formation, that they then first began to exist. This is 

 the opinion of a crowd of other geologists, and is the deduction of 

 common sense" ! These things will no doubt be " believed" by 

 those who have been erroneously led to suppose that geologists have 

 been able to examine a complete series of strata, corresponding with 

 the successive groups of organized beings which have existed upon 

 the earth. Students, however, who have had any opportunity of 

 acquiring scientific knowledge on this subject, will be aware that 

 the geological record, as at present known, consists only of imperfect 

 fragments of a gigantic work, of which the missing chapters appear 

 to have been much longer than those which have been recovered, 

 and they will, instead of falling into the errors of the " Graduate," 

 VOL. XII. — NO. V. CO 



