140 The American Naturalist. [February,. 
ProressoR Wooprow WItson delivered an address at the recent 
susquicentennial anniversary of Princeton University, which contained 
pointed reference to the energy displayed by the sciences in the field of 
thought and education at the present time. This reference not only 
pointed out what the sciences are not competent to do, but was distinctly 
uncomplimentary in its allusion to supposed evil-effects on the minds 
of its cultivators, which he characterized as “ noxious gases which issue 
from the laboratory.” Whatever Prof. Wilson’s private views may be, 
his expressions in this address did not include those qualifying words. 
which are in place in dealing with the subject from the point of view 
which is to our mind the broadest and best. If the sciences do not. 
teach the humanities from the side of the ideal and the esthetic, they 
enforce them in sterner fashion by an exposition of the nature of neces- 
sity. We may also admit, that the humanities are not their field im 
general ; but they are none the less beneficial to thought as well as to- 
practical life on that account. The scientific training appears to us to- 
be of inestimable value, as supplying the habit of orderly thought, which. 
must infallibly lead to the truth in whatever field it may be applied: 
Let the humanities flourish, but let then not decline the aid of the 
sciences. Together they constitute a working partnership, which em-- 
braces the field of human culture, and gives the mind all sides of reality,. 
which includes not only “sweetness ” but “ light ”. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Bailey’s Survival of the Unlike.'—This new book from the 
facile pen of Professor Bailey consists of essays and papers all of which 
have been presented elsewhere, and now brought together in accord- 
ance with the author’s plans. Thus while a collection of essays, it is- 
not without unity. “In making these essays” the author says, “I have 
constantly had in mind their collection and publication and have,. 
therefore, endeavored to discuss the leading problems associated with 
the variation and evolution of cultivated plants, in order that the final 
collection should be somewhat consecutive.” 
The following quotations from his very suggestful preface will give 
the reader a general idea of the author’s position. “The underlying 
1 The Survival of the Unlike, a collection of evolution essays suggested by the 
study of domestic plants, by L. H. Bailey. New York, The Macmillan Com~ 
pany, 1896, 515 pp., 8vo. 
