470 
Analyses of Books. 
[July, 
Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Melbourne 
Observatory in the Years 1871 to 1875 inclusive . Under the 
direction of R. L. J. Ellery, Government Astronomer to 
the Colony of Victoria. Melbourne : J. Ferres. 
We have here a collection of observations which are of course 
valuable data for the astronomer, but which are incapable of 
being criticised. The volume opens with a notice of the exact 
position of the Observatory, upon which follow a list of the staff 
and an account of the instruments. 
The American Naturalist. May, 1880. 
Among the valuable matter found in this excellent journal we are 
particularly struck with an article by J. S. Lippincott, entitled 
*<■ The Critics of Evolution.” We have never seen a happier or 
more complete exposure and refutation of the calumnies and 
personal imputations with which some authors and orators have 
sought to encounter the doctrine of Evolution, especially in that 
phase commonly known as Darwinism. If anything could make 
such men as Joseph Cook, C. Hodge, and F. O. Morris feel 
intensely ashamed of themselves it would be a careful perusal of 
Mr. Lippincott’s statements. He shows that, so far from having 
undertaken an atheistic propagandism, as the Rev. F. O. Morris 
has dared to assert,* Mr, Darwin admits a Divine agency and 
Divine supervision in forming and peopling the world. It is 
perfectly true that in the earlier days of the Darwinian contro- 
versy the new theory — as it was supposed — was eagerly accepted 
by the so-called free-thinkers, and was advocated from heterodox 
platforms and in heterodox journals, a championship which 
official “ free-thought” now repents of, and is very little likely 
to continue. But wherefore was Evolution thus welcomed ? 
Simply because ignorant or jealous critics had pronounced it 
atheistic. Mr. Darwin’s great sin, in the eyes of the modern 
Pharisees, was that he had shed some light on God’s ways of 
working ! It is strange, but instructive, to learn that “ of all the 
younger brood of naturalists whom Agassiz educated, every one 
— Morse, Shaler, Verrill, Niles, Hyatt, Scudder, Putnam, even 
his own son — has accepted Evolution.” 
* “ I do my little best or worst to shake their faith.” See Journal of Science, 
1878, p. 468. 
