Paradise Pound. By William S. Warren. (Sampson Low and Co.)
—.Under this strange title Dr. Warren includes a great amount of curious learning and ingenious speculation. He will have none of the Darwinian hypotheses which represent the primitive man as a blackish, woolly-haired, ape-like quadruped, probably living in trees. His theory is very different. Man, nobler far in mind and body than his descendants of to-day, dwelt in an Arctic paradise, enjoying happy conditions of climate before the cosmic changes brought on the disaster of the glacial period. In those days there was an equable tropical temperature in those regions, besides what still exists there, the " intenser terrestrial magnetism and the unparalleled electric forces." The long winter night seems a difficulty, and we cannot quite see that Dr. Warren disposes of it. The consensus of Arctic travellers seems to show that, quite apart from the cold, the long darkness has a depressing effect. And how about vegetation ? Could that have been luxuriant with the long night ? We do not suppose, indeed, that the world will be convinced by Dr. Warren's arguments ; but every one must respect his learning, and the ingenuity with which he uses it.
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