NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 523 



spell he cast over it, and to the reading public he is rather better 

 know as the daring philosopher and metaphysician than by his 

 biological discoveries. As an anthropologist and zoologist, he is 

 appreciated by that small inner circle of scientific workers whose 

 opinion alone carries any weight on these subjects ; to the world 

 at large, whose verdict is not worth too much, he is the successful 

 foe of shams and quackeries. 



Among the most interesting points in these interesting volumes 

 are Huxley's opinions of other zoologists. He soon found 

 out on board the ' Rattlesnake ' that Macgillivray was not the 

 " ignoramus in natural history " he had been told, and was at any 

 rate " a very good ornithologist," and a zealous collector ; William 

 Macleay made a good impression, and was described in 1848 as 

 " the celebrated propounder of the Quinary system." Owen " is 

 an able man, but to my mind not so great as he thinks himself. 

 He can only work in the concrete from bone to bone ; in abstract 

 reasoning he becomes lost — witness * Parthenogenesis.' " The 

 reference to the late Dr. Gray is delightful. " The dog-fox's 

 caecum is so different from the vixen's that Gray would have 

 made distinct genera of them." But in a more judicial phraseology 

 is the well-balanced verdict on his old friend Darwin : " I am not 

 likely to take a low view of Darwin's position in the history of 

 science, but I am disposed to think that Buffon and Lamarck 

 would run him hard in both genius and fertility. In breadth of 

 view and in extent of knowledge these two men were giants, 

 though we are apt to forget their services. Von Bar was another 

 man of the same stamp ; Cuvier, in a somewhat lower rank, 

 another ; and J. Muller another." 



This biography almost constitutes an abstract of the intel- 

 lectual progress made during a recent fifty years, in which zoology 

 plays a prominent part. Huxley had considerable sympathy 

 with much that he severely criticised, and his attacks seemed 

 often more severe because he kept in touch with the progress of 

 the opinions he opposed. To the superficial he was a declared 

 enemy, and they could not realise that far below the surface there 

 may be much community of thought. His published letters now 

 give a clue to this enigma. 



And now we come to the most important consideration, the 

 relation of Huxley the evolutionist, to Darwinism. In future 



