278 
Notices of Boohs. 
[April, 
judge our age by its tendencies, when the pursuit of Science will 
have to justify itself anew to the reason of mankind.” To the 
reason of mankind it requires no justification. Whether it ever 
will succeed in justifying itself to their prejudices and their stu- 
pidity is very doubtful. That happiness does not increase “ in 
the world in the ratio of our intellectual acquirements” may be 
very true — but wherefore ? Because the increase of knowledge 
has been simultaneous with other changes with which it has no 
necessary connection. For it is not the increase of our intel- 
lectual acquirements, or our intenser and more general devotion 
to scientific research, which narrows the margin between each 
man and want, and which makes the career of the vast majority 
a mere frantic struggle for existence. If the lives of learned 
men are “ melancholy,” is it not to some extent due to the 
manner in which they are treated by their fellows ? Health may 
be injured in the workshop and the counting-house as well as 
“ in the laboratory eyesight may be “ dimmed ” by poring over 
account-books as well as by gazing at the glories of the heavens; 
“ time which never returns ” may be spent on the Stock-Exchange 
as decidedly as in the “ severities of study.” Over-work, the 
bane of our age, is in no wise peculiar to men of science, and is 
in their case accompanied with far less anxiety than among men 
of business. Nor is it safe to assume that Science may with 
impunity be negledted by a nation because some men devote 
themselves to study by an irresistible impulse. We must not 
forget that the country which gives the greatest encouragement 
to discoverers will infallibly take the lead, alike in the arts of 
war and of peace. Into the remainder of this address we can- 
not enter. 
Mr. FI. FI. Higgins takes up, again, the same subject. We 
can fully agree with him in his protest against the dodtrine, re- 
cently revived, that animals are automata. Such a view might 
be pardonable in Descartes and Leibnitz, if a man may be par- 
doned for dogmatising on subjects which he has not made his 
especial study ; but it is intolerable in Prof. Huxley, excgpt he 
is prepared to prove that he himself is an automaton. We can- 
not, however, blame him for insisting that every proposed theory 
should be allowed to stand or fall upon its own evidence. What 
court of justice, in deciding upon the guilt or innocence of an 
accused person, takes into account, as a guiding element, 
the effedt which such decision may have upon the welfare of 
others ? 
Concerning the dodtrine of Evolution the author asks — “ How 
is it there should be such difficulties, and whether their existence 
is not a significant fadt ?” Difficulties do not, so far as I know, 
beset in any like degree theories relating to things without life. 
“ Theories in Astronomy, Chemistry, Light, Heat, Magnetism, 
&c., work smoothly enough.” The answer to these questions 
lies in the far greater complexity and difficulty of the organic 
