42 NOTICES OF BOOKS. Darwin and after Darwin. Vol. II. — Post-Darwinian Questions- Heredity and Utility. By tlie late Geokge John Romanes, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. Pp. xii, 344. 8vo. Price 10s. 6d. With portrait of Author. London : Longmans. 1895. The notice of the first volume of this book, devoted ti an exposition of Darwinism, which appeared in the Journal (1892, p. 311), conveyed the reviewer's opinion that it failed to expound with lucidity a subject that was already fairly clear to all cultured minds. It was, in fact, not a literary success. It was not a book that was much needed, and there was therefore no great disappoint- ment about it. It is otherwise here. If ever a book were needed, one containing an examination of post-Darwinian questions, as they are called, is most decidedly that book. A considerable number of mutually destructive and even self-destructive theories have been introduced to the speculative public, and the ordinary working naturalist has had fits of trying to understand them and reconcile them with what he knows, generally ending in the reflection that evolution seems to have happened somehow, but that we appear to be further than ever from accounting for it. Darwinism, with its wealth of observation, its splendid success in fascinating men's minds, its calm and serene purpose, produced a rising market for theories, most of them the product of fireside reflections, conjured up from the inner workings of a ferment of ideas with random recollections of facts to support them — without grit or staying- power. These were fondly hoped to place tlieir authors on pinnacles only a little less than the central Darwin peak. At first the public bought eagerly in this market, but now the prices are all down. Some, like Weismannism, have gone in for re-construction occasionally, but the new issues have fallen flat. •' What price Panmixia?" Buyers must remember that this stock is the same as the Cessation of Selection of Mr. Romanes, issued earlier. I had hoped that this volume was to take stock of whatever advance had been made, or to destroy by judicial examination the claims of false prophets, and to clear the minds of such of us as had got confused, but it is too much a continuation of the wrangle. The judicial examination is sometimes like that of a French tribunal, where the judge himself accuses the unhappy man at the bar, and even the witnesses. ** Don't bring your Panmixia here. It is my own offspring, and I ought to know." Be all these things as they may, this book is a much better book than Volume I. It does guide us, — it has the effect of making us read again with a better understanding passages in other books that were obscure; it is written in much clearer style, and it shows an extraordinary mastery of the literature and grip of elusive ideas. It is very nearly a greM book, and certainly confirms one in an old and long cherished belief that its amiable and much lamented author was often on the point of becoming a great man. There was never a human being but would have gladly welcomed this suooess had it
