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DARWIN ON "THE DESCENT OF MAN."

NEARLY half of volume I., and the whole of volume II., are devoted to the subject of "Sexual Selection." Critics, before the book had been out a month, pronounced it "hasty," "fanciful," &c., and hinted, in a very sublime manner, that Mr. Darwin was getting out of his proper field of enquiry. It is very difficult to say, at any time, what a man's field of enquiry is. Indeed, it is no new story that a man toiling in a field may light upon a "pearl of great price." Nevertheless, he would be a "hasty" critic who should blame even a day labourer for pearl finding. We do not presume to sit in judgment upon Mr. Darwin; we can only say that, having looked through these two tempting volumes, we could almost wish that some friendly justice of the peace would snatch us away from our daily toil, and commit us to solitary confinement for a month, with these volumes in the cell. Mr. Darwin's arguments seem to us like mathematical demonstrations, conducted with the help of birds and butterflys in the place of letters and signs. His reasoning is close and sustained, his illustrations captivating, his facts wonderful in number and variety. He modestly says that many of his views are "highly speculative," and that "some no doubt will prove erroneous;" but he also adds, "I have in every case given the reasons which have led me to one view rather than to another."

Respecting his general conclusion "that man is descended from some lowly-organised form," he says, that he regrets to think it "will be highly distasteful to many persons." But, he adds, with delightful simplicity,— "there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians." Then, after describing the beastly behavior of a party of Fuegians, he says,— "He who has seen a savage in his native land will not feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some more humble creature flows in his veins;" and then follows a delightful passage which we quote in full, as the conclusion of his work and this notice of it,— "For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs—as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practises infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.

"Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best of my ability; and we must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."

The work is enriched with a magnificent Index, covering 70 pages.

*The Descent of Man, and Selection in relation to Sex. By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., &c. In two volumes. London: John Murray.