[page] 133

The Origin of Species. By Charles Darwin. M.A. F.R.S., &c. Fourth edition, with additions and corrections. (Murray.)—

In this new edition of his famous work Mr. Darwin has introduced about fifty pages of fresh matter. He has spread it over the whole volume, and for the convenience of those who possess the third edition he has arranged the chief additions and corrections in a table at the beginning, with references to the pages of the two editions. The novelties are not of great importance; they are connected principally with the chapters on the glacial period and on embryology, and are developments of the views of Forbes in the one case, and of Sir John Lubbock and Fritz Müller in the other. Mr. Darwin also notices some of the objections, that have boon brought against his theory; perhaps the most interesting is the one based on the existence of beauty in nature without reference- to utility. To this he replies that brightness in the case of flowers has attracted the insects, and so led to the fertilization of the more conspicuous; and in the case of living creatures has led to sexual selection, and thus in both cases beauty has been acquired through natural selection. But Mr. Darwin, as we all know, expresses himself with due scientific modesty; he admits that his theory is by no means established yet, but he is firmly convinced that he is on the right track, and he looks forward with confidence to a time when, by persevering researches as- patient as his own, light quite different from what we are obliged to put up with now will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.