7 I 4 
Analyses of Books. 
[November, 
Prof. Asa Gray, with a catalogue of his published researches. 
Next follows a eulogy on Condorcet by Arago, and of course 
delivered a considerable time ago. A great portion of this dis- 
course is far too political in its tendencies to be dealt with in 
our columns. We must mention, however, an interpolation of 
the works of Pascal, of which Condorcet has been accused. The 
passage runs : “ Speaking according to the natural light of 
reason, if there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since 
having no beginning and no end He can have no connection 
with us. We are then capable of knowing neither what He is nor 
if He is.” The last four words are not to be found in the older 
editions of Pascal’s works, and Condorcet was therefore accused 
of a serious literary forgery. In 1803 Renouard even declared that 
“ an obstinate search through the manuscripts of Pascal in the 
Royal Library had failed to discover the contested words.” Nine 
years afterwards, however, he confessed that the words were 
really to be found on the fourth page of the manuscript exactly 
as they had been published by Condorcet, and they have further 
been discovered in an earlier edition of Pascal by Father 
Desmolets. 
The volume also include a biography of Louis Agassiz, by E. 
Favre, written in a somewhat Cuvierian spirit. The author does 
not consider that his opposition to the dodtrine of evolution re- 
sulted from prejudice. 
There is an interesting paper by F. A. Oberon the ornithology 
of the Caribbee Islands. In this narrow region he obtained 
eighteen species and varieties of birds new to science. Mr. L. 
Kumlein contributes also a short note on explorations in Green- 
land. 
Notice must also be taken of Mr. D. G. Elliot’s “ Classification 
and Synopsis of the Trochilidae.” 
Flora of Plymouth. An Account of the Flowering Plants 
and Ferns found within twelve miles of the town ; with 
Brief Sketches of the Topography, Geology, and Climate of 
the Area, and History of Local Botanical Investigation. By 
T. R. Archer Briggs, F.L.S. London : Van Voorst. 
We have here a laudable, useful, and pleasant book, yet not 
without its painful side. Painful, we say, because, like every 
local flora and fauna in the United Kingdom — we fear it might 
even be said in the civilised world — it is a record of the gradual 
disappearance and approaching extirpation of harmless arid 
beautiful species. The “ ferny dells of Devon ” have long been 
famous. But now, in a district comprising about one-ninth of 
