ditions under which the early civilizations grew up, were such as to preclude the extended observations which have given us geology, comparative anatomy, etc.

The labours of Aristotle are thus not science. He guessed indeed at the right method of investigation, but what he has left us concerning physics is a mere chaos of isolated remarks and clever surmises, only valuable in so far as they served to stimulate a spirit of enquiry. When thus prevision is lacking, i.e. where facts contradict assumptions, we are bound to class with merely personal speculation whatever is advanced, and deny all title to the name of science. Not, however, that the deductive method is valueless: on the contrary, as hypothesis, it does useful work, but in its best sense it is merely preparatory to the inductive, and in its worst a reaction from it.

The labours of Darwin are scientific, because he on all occasions never omits to distinguish between the application of either method, and claims no more for either than that to which it is fairly entitled. His scientific merit lies properly in his critical attitude. As yet the theory of the "Origin of Species" remains theory, in spite of the vast body of facts brought forward in support of it; but, on the other hand, those facts have proved, once for all, that the traditional classification of the animal kingdom directly contradicts a large number of the phenomena it was intended to cover, and thus in a negative sense Darwin's work is truly scientific.

His example, however, has done much to mislead weaker minds. His accumulation of facts, and the use made of them, have been confounded with the hy

pothesis which he substituted for that which he proved to be false. Although many generations must certainly elapse before his theory can claim an equally firm foundation with that of gravitation, men do not hesitate to leave the still only partially explored field to plunge into regions which for science are terra incognita. The same was the case with the teachings of Adam Smith. He, by a careful limitation both of time and matter, obtained certain results which proved that his appreciation of his subject was exhaustive. A light-headed generation of imitators, following in his track, unmindful of his critical attitude, but dazzled by the definiteness and certainty of some of his conclusions, have not hesitated to claim the extension of his method to regions where the master himself would have been as helpless and incapable as the meanest of his successors.

It is to this pitiable aftergrowth that we referred in our opening paragraphs. Folly, when it is popular, is so certain of toleration that we do not wonder that this particular form has been the subject of so little animadversion; but a passage in a late address of Professor Huxley's encourages us to believe that a criticism of one of its examples will not fail altogether to meet with sympathy.

The praise of a great man does not always constitute a title to excellence. Sir Walter Scott and Goethe both prophesied immortality to scores of poetasters who vanished with a season. It is natural that men, who by the force of their individuality have overcome immense obstacles, should mistake the external imitation of their own qualities for the qualities themselves, and also that the

pleasure given by the homage thus tendered should check their inclination to criticise. It is quite within the bounds of possibility that Adam Smith would have approved of the vagaries of social science congresses, and Cobden, if he were living, might have a sneaking penchant for the Cobden Club. It is at least certain that Darwin, a man whose name will ever be ranked among the foremost of this century, has on various occasions bestowed his approval on books whose sole merit lay in the fact that their authors accepted his achievements in their entirety. Indeed it is this that has moved us to the choice of Mr. F. Galton's work on "Hereditary Genius," by which to demonstrate our conception of what we believe to be a growing evil. A great name coupled with another, otherwise worthy of distinction, is sufficient to mislead and bring to nought numbers whose characters have not attained enough of ripeness to enable them to reject unwholesome mental food; and, as the influence of Darwin is ever increasing in geometrical ratio, it is a sovereign duty to call attention to those cases in which haste or leniency of judgment has seduced him into the promotion of serious errors.

The book referred to is best characterized by a travesty of a noble saying of old. When we style it "un livre toujours sans peur et jamais sans reproche," we believe we appreciate it at its exact scientific value. It is a work written for popularity, and it appears, from some reason not stated, to have been put forward in a raw and undigested state, without that care and consideration which should characterize its author's work.

We should be sorry to overstate the case, and will therefore let the book speak for itself. The introductory chapter opens with these sentences: "I propose to show in this book that a man's natural abilities are derived by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form and features of the whole organic world. Consequently, as it is easy, notwithstanding these limitations, to obtain by careful selection a permanent breed of dogs or horses gifted with peculiar powers of running, or of doing anything else, so it would be quite practical to produce a highly gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several generations. I shall show that social agencies of an ordinary character, whose influences are little suspected, are at this moment working towards the degradation of human nature, and that others are working towards its improvement. I conclude that each generation has enormous power over the natural gifts of those that follow, and maintain that it is a duty we owe to humanity to investigate the range of that power, and to investigate it in a way that, without being unwise to ourselves, shall be most advantageous to the future inhabitants of the earth."

As is the case with all the works we class as pseudoscientific, this passage commences with a truism. No one who reflects for a moment on the facts can doubt that the relation between parent and child is the same that obtains in the rest of the animal kingdom. No one also can in consequence dispute that health as a rule begets health or that the hard head of the negro and the light foot of the Indian are inherited. All history proves that intellect goes by race, i.e., that where we find intellect we also find race, though the converse is by no means borne

out by facts. The metaphysical starts out in the third sentence. We are told of mysterious agencies working in opposition, some for the elevation, some for the degradation of our mind. Not a word is said as to the origin and relative position of good and evil, the question that has proved in the past an insurmountable obstacle to the scientific study of humanity, and will probably always continue to render such investigations futile. The writer appears to assume that his own standard is final, that his own personal belief, or that of his compeers, is sufficient to enable him to pronounce one thing excellent and the other reprobate. In the same strain he follows up the assumption with the information that as he and those affected by his views are aware of what will be best for people in the future, it is our duty to apply the tools physical science makes ready to our hand to the construction of a generation that shall answer to their requirements. From the definiteness of the announcement one is at first led to believe that one is in presence of a summary of the philosophical labours of all time: it is not till one has turned over a few dozen pages that one realizes that such things can be advanced in the nineteenth century as a contribution to science, without at least a note to indicate that the author is acquainted with the names of those who have preceded him in the attempt to better humanity.

We learn next that "high reputation is a pretty accurate test of high ability." For hundreds of years, divines have been lamenting the popular favour shown to Barabbas, but divines weigh light, it seems, in Mr. Galton's balance. Reputation is something exact. It is true that we are