18S5.J 
Analyses of Books. 
679 
Cambridge, which rejoiced already in the glory of Newton, was 
now to match it by the glory of Darwin. In its academical 
course the mathematical wedge had always kept a dim path open 
for physical science.” 
In the same spirit Mr. Allen further writes : “ Fortunately for 
us, then, Darwin did not waste his time at Cambridge over the 
vain and frivolous pursuits of the classical tripos. He preferred 
to work at his own subjects in his own way, and to leave the 
short-lived honours of the ‘ schools ’ to those who cared for them 
and for nothing higher He chose that better part which 
shall not be taken away from him as long as the very memory 
of science survives.” We cannot help exclaiming, honour to 
the man who, in this land of still rampant ‘humanists,’ dares to 
speak so plainly of word-mongering ! In this work we find no 
mention of the fadb that Robert Darwin destined his illustrious 
son for the Church, and with difficulty consented to his joining 
the ever-memorable “ Beagle ” expedition. What a danger 
escaped ! 
Passing over the narrative of this voyage, the lessons of 
which are brought into full light, we come to the “ period of 
incubation,” when the observations which young Darwin had 
made in his wanderings were being co-ordinated into the great 
body of evolutionary dodtrine. Here a saying of Professor 
Fiske’s is very appositely quoted : “There is one thing which a 
man of original scientific genius in a rightly-ordered world should 
never be called upon to do. He should never be called upon to 
earn a living, for that is a wretched waste of energy in which 
the highest intellectual power is sure to suffer serious detriment, 
and runs the risk of being frittered away into hopeless ruin.” 
This is a wholesome lesson for the believers in competition ! 
Of the rank and file of scientific workers Mr. Allen speaks, as 
it seems to us, with too little respeCt. The great discoverer, in 
closing every “loop-hole of an objection,” does but repeat 
publicly the process by which he has first convinced himself. 
“ Non-biological minds ” may, perhaps, give in their adhesion 
more readily because they are not familiar with the thousand 
and one phenomena which a new theory must explain. 
Of the “ Vestiges of Creation ” we find an uncomplimentary 
notice. It is described as “ Lamarck and water, the watery 
element being due in part to the unnecessary obtrusion (more 
scotico ) of a metaphysical and theological principle into the 
physical universe.” 
It is, perhaps, surprising that attention is not called to one of 
the favourable circumstances which attended the first promulga- 
tion of the new theory. England was at rest ; the Crimean 
War and the Indian Mutiny were over, and, most of all, there 
was no political agitation on foot. Had the “ Origin of Species ” 
been first published at any date from 1S76 to the present day 
it would have excited little interest save among specialists. 
