Excursions of an Evolutionist. By John Fiske. (Macmillan).— The evolution
which is the subject of Mr. Fiske's fourteen papers has a wider significance than that commonly possessed by the term. Sometimes the author ranges even beyond these wider boundaries. To the subject in its more restricted sense belongs the second essay, "The Arrival of Man in Europe," with its interesting speculations, if speculations they are to be called, of the alternations of glacial and tropical periods in the Northern hemisphere. Though we can scarcely agree that the opinion that "man was slowly developed from a race of non-human primates" is "now generally accepted," we much appreciate the lucidity and force of Mr. Flake's argument. "Our Aryan Forefathers" is another interesting paper, as is that entitled "What we Learn from Old Aryan Words," in which we find an excellent statement of some of the most practically valuable con. elusions of philology. Nothing, perhaps, is more noteworthy than Essay xii.," The Meaning of Infancy." The lower the animal, the leas there is of infancy. Monkeys, on the other hand, which are certainly man-like, have the condition of infancy prolonged ; and the more pro- longed, the higher the kind of monkey. Still, we might suggest, there is the bee and ant difficulty. Socially these approach nearer to man than any other animal ; but they have no period of infancy. In "Evolution and Religion," Mr. Fiske grasps the bull by the horns. "Is there a divine sanction," he asks, "for holiness, for divine con- demnation for sin ?" And he goes on,—" Science began to return a decidedly affirmative answer to each questions as these when it began, with Mr. Spencer, to explain moral beliefs and moral senti- ments as products of evolution." We rub our eyes as we read. We can imagine that Mr. Spencer was a little astonished as he heard. An evolved morality is, anyhow, a conception absolutely different from the poet's, when he wrote of the eternal moralities,— " OtIlip Ti 1,14, 7E KaX0S, ahA.° art 1EOTE ichth5eis °lacy 4 lirov
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