Literary Notices. 477 



•with good print, pleasant cream-coloured paper, well-designed 

 headings, and tail-pieces to the chapters. The verses of the " Bene- 

 dicite" carry the doctor through a wide range of subjects, from 

 astronomy to natural history. Dr. Chaplin is strictly orthodox — 

 more so than is common with scientific men — but his pages are free 

 from anything like cant, and they will be welcomed in many fami- 

 lies which more elaborate treatises would not reach. The " Bene- 

 dicite" is a very favourite hymn, both on account of its literary 

 merit, and from its adaptability to music, and it is certainly desirable 

 that those who use it for the expression of their devotional feelings 

 should have some idea of the way in which " all the works of the 

 Lord do praise Him," in the thoughts which they excite in intel- 

 ligent minds. 



The Origin op Species by means op Natural Selection; or 

 the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. By 

 Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., etc. Fourth edition, with additions 

 and corrections. Eighth thousand. (Murray.) — No book of modern 

 times has contributed so much to philosophical thinking on the sub- 

 ject of natural history as the Origin of Species of Charles Darwin. 

 A considerable allowance of abuse from those whose minds were 

 ossified with old-established prejudice, did more to call attention to 

 this masterly work than to obstruct the reception of the truths which 

 it conveys, and if its author has to complain of some ill-treatment 

 on the part of those who know no better, he has the satisfaction of 

 being more or less supported by the greatest thinkers of the day. 

 Gross mistakes have been often made in treating the doctrine of 

 " natural selection" as if it were merely a hypothesis capable of 

 being entirely overthrown ; whereas the exposition of the doctrine 

 is simply a statement of facts ; and the scientific doubt pertaining to 

 it, concerns the extent of its action, and not the question of its 

 existence. That living beings succeed in hereditary series is one 

 fact ; that progeny are subject to variations from the parent type is 

 another fact ; and it is a third fact that some of these variations are 

 transmissible in long succession. Man, by careful breeding, trans- 

 mits peculiarities in horses, dogs, cattle, pigeons, etc., according to 

 his wants, or according to his whims. In nature, the permanence, 

 or long duration of a transmissible peculiarity must, as Darwin 

 shows, depend upon its adaptability to the circumstances in which 

 the modified creature finds itself. If it lessens the power of the 

 individual to fight the battle of life, it dies out, while if it assists in 

 that conflict, it remains. The hypothetical part of Darwinism con- 

 sists in the inferences which he draws, or suggests, as to the extent 

 to which these causes have operated in past times. If we suppose 

 their extent of action to be no greater than we can prove it to have 

 been, it will not account for the descent of a vast multitude of 

 divergent forms from one, or from a few parent forms ; but if the 

 positive evidence in this matter is incomplete, the negative evidence 

 is palpably afflicted with the same defect to an enormous degree. 

 If we had cause to suppose that geology and paleontology displayed 

 to us a fair and unbroken sequence of organic beings from early times 

 to our own, the negative evidence against the hypothesis would be 



