1881.] Recent Literature. 799 
With these principles in view, and guided by them, our author 
then discusses with great originality, and chiefly by the experi- 
mental method, locomotion in general, that of man and the horse, 
and finally the flight of insects and of birds. 
researches of the biologist, who is concerned with the elusive and 
subtle laws of life and the mental and spiritual forces of man. No 
Wonder, for example, that the thinking world is profoundly moved 
by the ideas suggested by evolutionists, and by the study of the 
origin of things material, for these problems touch upon the deep- 
est, most insoluble problems of man’s nature. 
he general student of geology and biology will also read this 
fascinating volume for the sake of the author's views regarding 
the nebular hypothesis and general cosmogony. Professor Peirce » 
may be regarded as one of the founders of the nebular hypothesis 
in its modern form. In this book he guides us through the snc- 
cessive steps in nebular history—from chaos to nebula, from neb- 
ula to star, and from star to planet. 
The author in beginning his exposition of the nebular hypoth- 
€sis, regards the first chapter of Genesis, rightly interpreted, as “a 
Profound cosmogony. It may not be the revelation of an actual 
fact, but it teaches where that revelation is to be found ; that it is 
engraved on stone by the all-wise Author; that it is written in 
the sun, moon and planets; that it is inscribed on the sidereal 
"niverse, and that every star is an oracle of God.” Coming to 
the nebular theory, the author treats of nebulosity, of a nebula 
Proper, a cluster, the Milky Way, the Magellanic cloud, of an 
annular nebula and a spiral nebula; then of the star, and finally 
€ planet, comet and meteor. Geologists will be interested in 
this Philosopher’s views as to the cooling of the earth and the 
& ideality in the Physical Sciences. By BENJAMIN PEIRCE. Boston, Little, Brown 
9., 1881, 12mo, pp. 211. 
