DARWIN AND HUMBOLDT. 



[325] 21 



untrodden field of inqaity on the laws 

 of variation, on coi'relation, on the 

 effects of use and disuse, on the direct 

 action of external conditions" has 

 been opened up ; that our classifica- 

 tions have become " as far as they 

 can be made so, genealogies, and truly 

 give what may be called a plan of 

 creation;" that rules of classifying 

 do " become simpler when we have a 

 definite object in view;" and that 

 "aberrant species, which may fanci- 

 fully be called living fossils," actually 

 are of service in supplying "a picture 

 of ancient fonns of life?" And 

 again, must we not agree that 

 "when we can feel assured that 

 all the individuals of the same species 

 and all the closely-allied species 

 of most genera, have, within a not 

 very remote period, descended from 

 one parent, and have migrated from 

 some one birthplace ; and when we 

 better know the many means of migra- 

 tion, then, by the light which geology 

 now throws, and will continue to 

 throw, on former changes of climate 

 and of the level of the land, we shall 

 surely be able to trace in an admira- 

 ble manner the former migrations of 

 tho inhabitants of the whole woi-ld"? 

 And who is now able to question that 

 "by comparing the differences be- 

 tween the inhabitants of the sea on 

 the opposite sides of a continent, and 

 of the various inhabitants on that con- 

 tinent in relation to their apparent 

 means of migration, some light can 

 be thrown on ancient geography"? 

 Or, if we turn to "the noble science 

 of geology," do we not see that we are 

 beginning to "gauge with some 

 security the duration of intervals by 

 a comparison of the preceding and 

 succeeding forms of life " ? And last, 

 though not least, have we not found 

 this one short sentence so charged 

 with meaning that a new and extensive 

 science, second in importance to none, 

 may be almost said to have grown 

 out of what it states : " Embryology 

 will often reveal to us the structure, 

 in some degree obscured, of the proto- 

 types"? 



If the progress of science during 



the last two-and-twenty years has in 

 so astonishing a measure verified the 

 prophecy of the Origin of Species, 

 surely, in conclusion, we are more 

 than ever constrained to agree with 

 the sentiments expressed by its clos- 

 ing words : " When I view all beings, 

 not as special creations, but as the 

 lineal descendants of some few beings 

 which lived long before the first bed 

 of the Cambrian system was deposited, 

 they seem to me to become enno- 

 bled . . . There is grandeur in this 

 view of life, with its several powers, 

 having been originally breathed by 

 the Creator into a few forms or into 

 one ; and that, whilst this planet has 

 gone cycling on according to the fixed 

 law of gravity, from so simple a be- 

 ginning endless forms most beautiful 

 and most wonderful have been, and 

 are being evolved." 



VI. WORK IN PSYCHOLOGY. 



Br G. J. ROMANKS, F.B.fl. 



The effects upon Psychology of Mr. 

 Dakwin's writings have been so im- 

 mense, that we shall not overstate 

 them by saying that they are fully 

 comparable with those which we have 

 previously considered as having been 

 exerted by the same writings on geol- 

 ogy, botany, and zoology. This fact 

 at first sight can scarcely fail to strike 

 us as remarkable, in view of the con- 

 sideration that Mr. Dab ww was not 

 only not himself a psychologist, but 

 had little aptitude for, and perhaps 

 less sympathy with, the technique of 

 psychological method. The whole 

 constitution of his mind was opposed 

 to the subtlety of the distinctions and 

 the mysticism of the conceptions 

 which this technique so frequently 

 involves ; and therefore he was ac- 

 customed to regard the problems of 

 mind in the same broad and general 

 light that he regarded all the other 

 problems of nature. But if at first 

 sight we are inclined to feel surprised 

 that, although possessing none of the 



