400 
Notices of Books. 
rjuly, 
every educated man. We must confess that we see no such ob- 
ligation. The evidence upon which a scientific theory rests 
should be intelligible to a man who has made the science in 
question his study, just as the specification of a patent must be 
intelligible to men accustomed to the particular trade or manu- 
facture with which such patent is concerned ; but to demand 
more is unreasonable. It has also been urged that the procedures 
of logic, like the rules of arithmetic, are equally applicable to all 
subjects irrespective of their peculiar nature, and that a lawyer 
accustomed to take no point for granted, to require a reason for 
everything, and to scrutinise chains of argument, is the very man 
to deal profitably with such a question as Darwinism. 
All these pleas involve half-truths, or, in other words, errors of 
the most dangerous class. The accountant’s sum-total, if ob- 
tained according to arithmetical rule, is doubtless true as far as 
the figures on his paper are concerned ; but before we can grant 
their value we must ascertain whether those figures relate to 
realities or to mere assumptions. The logician’s conclusion, 
rightly drawn from his premises, will be formally true ; but be- 
fore we can accept it as of objective value we must verify his 
premises, — and this is precisely what no outsider can do. 
We may further submit that there is no necessity for a man to 
form an opinion at all concerning the origin of species. If he 
has not the time, the opportunity, and the will to make the 
question the subjeCt of his especial studies, and if he has little 
or no previous knowledge bearing on the point, his legitimate 
course is to suspend judgment. Least of all should he come 
forward as a teacher before he has been a learner. 
We may call the attention of the lawyer who thinks himself 
qualified to discuss this question to an illustration taken from his 
own profession. What would be thought of a judge who should 
pronounce an award after having listened to witnesses speaking 
a foreign tongue, and whose testimony was interpreted, if at all, 
only by partisans ? We believe we could lay before Mr. Maclaren 
evidence on the origin of species concerning which he would be 
unable to tell whether it was favourable or adverse to the views of 
Messrs. Darwin and Wallace. If we translated it for him into 
words, he would still have to decide in how far our interpretation 
was fair or in how far vitiated by party spirit. Nay, even the 
evidence which is given in books — no matter how ably, clearly, 
and candidly written — conveys to the working naturalist a very 
different meaning from what it does to the outsider. The latter 
has to deal, as it were, not with the diredt light, but with that 
which has passed through a refradting medium. 
We are highly gratified with the increased attention paid on 
all sides to Natural History, due, in no small degree, to the im- 
pulse given by Mr. Darwin and his immediate followers ; but we 
would wish all neophytes to master the alphabet of the science 
before they proceed to grapple with its greatest difficulties. We 
