MAN; OR, TUE OLD AND NEW PHILOSOPHY.* IT is not

without a certaiu feeling of shame that we are com- pelled to acknowledge that, until very recently, we were entirely ignorant of the important fact that orthodoxy numbers the Rev. B. W. Savile among her most energetic defenders. It was, in fact, from an advertisement appended to the volume before us that we first derived the information that this divine had already entered the lists some time ago, with a work entitled "Revelation and Science in respect to Bunsen's Biblical Researches, the Evidence of Christianity, and the Mosaic Cosmogony." The present volume appears to be intended as a further advance in the same direction. So far as we can make out its purport, it appears to be directed primarily against the advocates of the theory of the origin of species by natural selection, and secondarily against Bishop Colenso and the "Essays and Reviews." But although the end aimed at in both these volumes is essentially the same, there would appear to be a vital difference between the means employed for its attainment in either case. With respect to the earlier work, the advertisement above referred to informs us, on the authority of a respected contemporary, that in it, "by means of acute and close reasoning, Mr. Savile de- molishes, bit by bit, every attempt to destroy the authority of the Holy Scriptures." This information is far from being super- fluous, for the weight of evidence to be derived from the volume before us is certainly rather against than in favour of the sup- position that Mr. Savile is possessed of any reasoning faculty at all. Having, we presume, completely exhausted his stores of serious argument in his former work, he proceeds in the present instance to give the rein to his powers of humour, and endeavours to laugh the objects of his attack out of the field. We much fear that he has undertaken a task to which he is scarcely equal. Whether it be possible to extinguish Mr. Darwin by making hint ridiculous is a point into which we need not enter at present ; but we may affirm with perfect confidence that if this be ever done, it will be by some more efficient means than senseless misrepresentation and a confused mass of jokes that are either stale or silly. Ridicule is, no doubt, a very efficient weapon

* Man ; of, the Old and New Philosophy; being Notes and Facts for the Curious, with especial reference to recent Writers on the subject of the Origin of Kau. By the Rev. B. W. &wile, author of " Revelation and Science." Loudon: Hurst and Blackett. •

when it is wielded by a skilful hand; but Mr. Savile would have done well to reflect that it is one of those edged tools with which it is proverbially dangerous to play. That he has made some one ridiculous there is, we imagine, no doubt at all ; but it is equally certain that it is not the objects of his attack who are the principal sufferers. If the reader will bear with us for a few minutes, we will endeavour to give him some idea of the means whereby this reverend controversialist attempts to dispose of what he regards as erroneous doctrine.

The first chapter of Mr. Savile's book is devoted to the refuta- tion of Mr. Darwin's theory of the origin of species. This being disposed of, our author proceeds to consider man succes- sively as a Pyrrhonist, a necromancer, an allegorist, an orator, and a homo barbatus ; and finally winds up with a chapter on epitaphs, which he introduces on the plea that, "having given so much attention to the beginning of man, we have thought it advisable to devote a chapter exclusively to the consideration of his end." We will attempt a brief analysis of the opening chapter, -which is the only one that has any kind of connection with the title of the work. After informing us that Mr. Darwin's treatise on the "Origin of Species" is a very attractive book, he proceeds, apropos of nothing at all, to tell two stories—one a very old one about Sydney Smith, and the other a "very admirable" one about Lord Lyons having told a lady, who asked him if he was related to the Lyons family of Norfolk, that he was descended from the lions to which Daniel was thrown. He then observes that the author of " Vestiges of Creation" did not go far enough when lie traced man back to a maggot, since Darwin has shown that he is really sprung from a fungus. He then turns to Haxley's "Lectures to Working Men," selecting for special ridicule a passage which speaks of the well-known power of re- producing a severed organ possessed by certain animals, which gives him an opportunity of introducing a garbled version of the time-honoured story of the two skulls of Cromwell. Next, he adverts to Darwin's speculation as to the possible transition from a bear to a whale, on which be remarks that Pope Boniface VIII. "presents in his own person a very satisfactory proof of descent from the Quadrumana Mamma lie, in addition to an intimate connection with marine monsters, for it was generally said of him after his departure that he came in like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog." He then gives us an extract from Mr. Darwin's "Botanic Garden," another from the "Poetry of the Antijacobin," and a comic story about a sweep burying some fossil bones. This last anecdote suggests another about a vicar of Kendal, who in 1785 warned his flock against microscopic researches by asking them, "What is it to us that there be four million tadpoles in a single drop of vinegar? God has wisely hidden them from our sight." Mr. Savile declares that "the example of this parson affords an excellent guide of the right course to pursue." Then follow another comic story of two quarrymen mutilating a fossil, and a brief allusion to frogs in coal, which lead naturally enough to Lord Mouboddo's theory, and to the reproduction of some funny verses on that subject, which appeared not long ago in Blackwood's Magazine. Mr. Savile then quotes Gerard's quaint account of the origin of the barnacle-bird, which he suggests may throw some light on the nature of that curious fossil the griphosaurus ; and wittily observes that the name archteopteryx lithographica which was proposed for the same fossil, "may be freely rendered The Old Bird of the Rocky Moun- tains." Next follow a few pages devoted to some grotesque Australian and Indian traditions, which Mr. Savile cites as prov- ing their Nyentors to have believed in Mr. Darwin's theory. At this point the stream of jests ceases for a moment, and Mr. Savile quotes with approbation the opinions expressed by Pro- fessor Owen, Dr. Whewell, and "another genuine philosopher "— Sydney Smith, to wit—respecting the origin of man. Refreshed by this brief pause, our author resumes his quips with increased vigour, and favours us with a burlesque police-report of an assault committed by "T. H. Huxley, well known about the town in con- nection with monkeys," on "Richard Owen, in the old bone-and- bird-stuffing line," and follows it up by a long speech which he puts into the mouth of the famous Neanderthal skull, with the object of informing us that it was the skull of an ape, not of a man. Then comes a comic list of thirty transmutations, through which Mr. Savile suggests that the original germ probably passed in the course of its development into man. This appears to be the culminating effort of Mr. Savile's genius, for after another funny story and two or three more quotations he brings the chapter to an abrupt close.

We must pass much more rapidly over the remaining sections of Mr. Savile's book. The chapter on "Man as a Pyrrhonist " is directed against the "Essays and Reviews." it contains two points which appear to us worthy of special notice. One of these is a perfectly marvellous touch of professional cant, which occurs in the closing lines of a satirical poem on the Essayists and Reviewers :—

" Commend we these sceptical, smokified seven, These sillified, stiltified, stultified seven, To the scorn of the world, and the MERCY of HEAVEN."

The other is the following passage, which we quote on the chance that some of our readers may be able to suggest a possi-

ble meaning for it

According to the diplomatic correspondence which was published after the seizure of the Confederate ambassadors on board the Trent, it appears that one of the officers of the ship was philosophically engaged at the time of the outrage in reading the famous Essays and Reviews!' What an honour, on such an occasion ! in such a latitude ! Climate and men's passions simultaneously at boiling heat! The courageous daughter offering her life in defence of her violated father! A real cases bell! And all this time one of England's gallant sons absorbed, transfixed, and captivated by the 'Essays and Reviews !' Methinks I hear some poor wretch of an author, whose works have never passed the boundaries of his own limited domestic circle, in the throes of jealousy and envy at such a testimony to the value of a work he could never understand, much less compose, exclaim, with Serjeant Buzfuz of old, ' Chops and tomato sauce !' But what are they compared with Essays and Reviews,' the Pyrrhonistic chef d'seuvre of the present day ?'

"Man as a Necromancer" is a collection of modern Roman Catholic miracles, Mr. Savile using the word "necromancer" as the opposite to " Pyrrhonist," in the sense of a foolishly credulous person. In "Man as an Allegorist " there is one passage which we must be allowed to quote as a remarkably characteristic specimen of Mr. Savile's style :—

" The potato disease, or potato rot, as it may be more homely expressed, is supposed to be caused by the rotatory motion of the earth, upon which point all the really scientific men of the day are in perfect accord ; and we recommend the Pyrrhonists, who will, of course, raise doubts upon this interpretation, to consult those who are most competent to express an opinion on the subject, viz., all commentators within their reach, i.e, every commontatur."

"Man as an Orator" is, perhaps, the most amusing chapter in the book, as it contains a couple of genuine samples of American stump eloquence which are somewhat grotesque.

The " Homo Barbatus " chapter is a plea for beards, in the course of which Mr. Savile addresses the Bishop of Rochester under the witty nickname of "the Bishop of Raw-chin-sir."

Finally, the chapter on " The End of Man" is a small collection of stale epitaphs, set in a framework of that disjointed chat of The reader who has accompanied us through our account of Mr. Savile's work will probably feel tempted to ask, in mere astonishment, what object any sane man could possibly have in writing and publishing such an astounding mass of rubbish. This is a question to which it is by no means easy to give a plausible answer. Nothing can be clearer than the fact that Mr. Savile knows no thing whatever of either physiology orgeology, and that he does not even understand the theory which he h as under- taken to confute. The following passage, in which it is difficult not to trace a conscious allusion on Mr. Savile's part to his own case,

will probably be regarded as affording strong confirmation of the truth of our conjecture. "If," he says, "men in the present day will write themselves down asses, we must bear it philosophically, and take them as we find them." We are not inclined entirely to agree with him on this head. There are circumstances under

which it is not advisable to pass over even the most abject folly in contempitious silence. Mr. Savile is personally at liberty to exhibit himself in any light he pleases, but he ought to remember that something is due to the profession to which he belongs. It is much to be regretted that a clergyman should have the dis- credit of having written the most flippant and foolish book that has been published for a considerable time.