NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 35 



directly opposed in its essence to the conclusions pi'ompted by 

 the author's half-hour study of the antecedent actions. The 

 detailed observations of our contributor, Mr. Selous, in these 

 pages are an object-lesson in possible bionomics. 



The author is somewhat pessimistic as to the solution of the 

 riddle of life. He regards the questions as to " What makes 

 organic matter behave as we see it behave ? what drives the 

 wheels of life, as it drives the planets in their courses ? what im- 

 pels the egg to go through its series of developmental changes ? " 

 &c., as beyond the sphere of sci,ence, which should give one 

 answer and one only : *' Frankly, I do not know ; that lies outside 

 my province ; ask my sister Metaphysics." But this advice does 

 not prevent Prof. Lloyd Morgan from giving us a really wonder- 

 ful contribution to the psychological interpretation of animal 

 behaviour ; every sentence bears the imprimatur of " thought 

 out." Much more evidence might have been procured, but what 

 is given has been selected with care, and is exhaustively and 

 judicially considered and placed before the reader, to whom the 

 verdict must be left. As an example, we will give one more 

 extract : — " The question has again and again been asked : Do 

 animals reason ? And different answers are given by those who 

 are substantially in agreement as to the facts and their interpre- 

 tation, but are not in agreement as to their use of the word 

 ' reason.' Perhaps, if the question assume the form, Are 

 animals capable of explaining their own acts and the causes of 

 phenomena? the position of those who find the evidence of their 

 doing so insufficient may be placed in a clearer light. This is 

 what is generally meant by the statement that animals have 

 probably not reached the level of rational beings." 



Problems of Evolution. By F. W. Headley. Duckworth & Co. 



This is an able advocacy of the universal action of natural 

 selection, written by a Neo-Darwinian, who we read belongs " to 

 those Darwinians who have thrown overboard Lamarckism '' ; in 

 other words, followers of a Darwinism freed from all taint of 

 Lamarckian heresy. The book itself belongs to that ever- 

 increasing literature to which the conception of " Darwinism " 

 has given birth, and is one which cannot be neglected by the 



