Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/307

 294 NEW BOOKS. moulded by functional changes". It is from the point of view here attained that applications to psychology, ethics and sociology, briefly indicated in the preface, would be made, of which it is impossible to exaggerate the importance. The Origin of the Fittest. Essays on Evolution. By E. D. COPE, A.M., Ph. D. (Heidelberg), Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences ; Correspondent of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences. London and New York : Macrnillan & Co., 1887. Pp. xix., 467. This is a book that ought not to be overlooked either by naturalists or by those who are interested in the philosophical aspects of evolution. A majority of naturalists will probably think it carries the Lamarckian reaction against Darwinian explanations too far ; and the author's meta- physical expressions are sometimes unguarded ; but, both in its general philosophical views and in its explanations of details of structure, it offers interesting and valuable suggestions, worked out with adequate knowledge of the whole subject. Starting from the position that "survival of the fittest" can only explain why variations persist, not how or why they originate, the author puts this question : What is the origin of the fittest ? His most general answer is " addition of parts by increase and location of growth-force, directed by the influence of various kinds of compulsion in the lower, and intelligent option among higher animals" (p. 40). The " influences locating growth-force " are further divided into " physical and chemical causes," "use" and "effort" (p. 195). Evolution of organisms takes place according to the laws of " acceleration and retardation," and of " the unspecialised," the last of which in particular has important bearings on mental evolution. " The doctrine of the unspecialised teaches that the perfection produced by each successive age has not been the source or parent of future perfection. The types which have displayed the most specialised mechanism have either passed away, or, undergoing 110 change, have witnessed the progress and ultimate supremacy of those which were once their inferiors " (pp. 233-4). " The predecessors of all characteristic or specialised types have been unspecialised or generalised types " (p. 396). Consciousness is only possible to matter which has not fallen into fixed and automatic relations of its atoms (pp. 418, 442). Protoplasm, the author tries to show by chemical considerations, is such an "unspecialised" form of matter, but not necessarily the only one. " In the highest form of development, that of brain mechanism, automatism is the enemy, and consciousness the. condition of progress" (p. 402). Unconscious acts have been derived from conscious acts by organisation ; and " the vegetative and other vital functions of animals and plants are a late product of the retrograde metamorphosis of energy," which, like matter, passes from an unspecialised to a specialised state. "Automatism then represents a condition of 'lapsed intelligence' and diminished life." "Free-will," admitted as a means of accounting for "the unknown in moral progress," is comparable to "the apical bud of a growing tree" (pp. 239-40). Only a few of the author's more general speculative conclusions have been given here ; but the whole book deserves study. Luck) or Cunning, as the Main Means of Organic Modification ? An Attempt, to throw additional Light upon the late Mr. Charles Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. By SAMUEL BUTLER, Author of Life and Habit, etc. Op. 8. London : Trubner & Co., 1887. Pp. ix., 328. Mr. Butler's Op. 8, while it has all the brilliant literary qualities of his early work, is at the same time perhaps the most serious of his contribu-