75 2 Analyses of Books. [December, 
it must be acknowledged that, although it has come to an end, it 
is evidently not finished. No one can read it carefully without 
thinking that, although much has been done during the thirty- 
nine years which have passed since the publication of Hassall’s 
book, as much, or more, remains to be accomplished. The Pal- 
mellaceae, Protococcaceae, and Chroococcaceae will furnish plenty 
of work for years to come to any who will devote time and leisure 
to cultivating, watching, and working out their life-history. 
Such patient and exhaustive research as that of Messrs. Dallinger 
and Drysdale on the Monads, applied to the investigation of any 
of the lower and little known organisms, must, in time, yield 
equally valuable results. Many of the forms included in the 
above-named families will probably be found to be only immature 
orms of other algae or lowly organised plants. 
The Agnostic Annual, 1885 : London : H. Cattell and Co. 
Among the essays in this annual of intensely heretical repute 
four at least especially claim our notice. The first, and 
perhaps the foremost of these is “ Pessimism and Physiology,” 
by C. N. — a refutation of the philosophy of Schopenhauer and 
his imitators. The author does not accept the view that this is 
the worst of all possible worlds ; but neither, as far as we can 
see, does he advance the inverse proposition. Either of these 
extreme views can be held only by non-observers who have 
never risen to the wisdom conveyed in the homely old proverb, 
“ it’s an ill wind which blows nobody good.” We might ask 
both optimist and pessimist what world do they mean ? The 
world as it has been, as it is, as it probably will be, or as it 
might be if man would put even his scanty present knowledge 
into practice ? We see changes for the better, due to man’s 
awakening intelligence and moral sense, and proving that the 
world cannot previously have been the best possible, since it has 
proved capable of emendation. We see, on the other hand, 
changes for the worse, due to man’s greed and ignorance. We 
see forests destroyed and the climate of extensive regions 
altered for the worse by the simple introduction of goats — 
animals which, as Sir Joseph Hooker informs us, have occa- 
sioned far greater desolation than has been due to wai\ We 
see other countries made fit only for the dwelling of demons by 
the coal-smoke and other products of modern industrialism — 
proof sufficient that our planet previously cannot have been the 
worst of all possible worlds, since it has proved capable of so 
much and far more deterioration. 
Or, if we may take the common pessimist formula that “ life 
