New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-07-11
q NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. JUNE. The Leonard
Scott Pnbehing COMPANY.

subject of the opening ana the aDekt dItlclo III
new numbered the North British The writer meets
Mi Darwin his own ground, and brings the latest
conclusions of physical science TO combat his views
the development of species. AnOwingthe iacts adj
duced by Mr. Darwin in support of his theory to De
correct, do they warrant the differences which they
have been supposed 10 establish This IS the point OF
view from which the discussion is conducted, re-
Versing the process of Mr. DaTwins usual opponents
who deny his facts instead of calling IN question MS
reasoning The first argument is drawn from the
necessary limits Of the principle of natural selection
in producing varieties. 1t is said that if man can
produce certain differences among animals III Inn
tied space of time there is bound 10 the possible
differences in countless series OF ages mat IS, IL
Fix OF seven years selection in breeding make a
pouter ont of common pigeon, several myTiads OF
years can change pigeon to something ike thrush
But this is like saying that because cannon-ball has
trayersed a mile in q minute, therefore in an
hour it will be sixty miles of, and in the
course of ages will reach the fixed stars. The truth
il that whatever new point IN the variable beast,
bird, or flower be chosen as desirable by fancer,
this point be rapidly approached at FIRST but the
rate of approach quickly dminishes, tending to a
limit never TO be attained. Great the variability
IT, have proof that successive variations OF the
same kind kind can be accumulated.-Nor secondly,
does il follow because certain individuals of an AMI
nal species may become better adaptedth than others TO
gain better chance of life, that whole species will
gradually acquire some quality, or wholly
change in one direction and in the same manner.
For instance half the haTes which are born may be
presumed to be more like rabbits in their buITowlng
organs than the primitive ancestral hare was but
this popularity cannot be improved by natural selec-
ton until a considerable number of hares begin TO
bunow, of which yet there has been no likelihood
of their doing. In other words, admitting that nat
nra selection may improve organs already useful to
great numbers of a species, have right to con-
elude that it create development organs and so
originate species.-But the great argument which the
writer brings to bear Darwins hypothesis is taken
from the lapse of tme' which is necessary on the
hypothesis, for the development Of a species. The
most accurate methods of computation show that the
world cannot have been habitable for more than an
infinitely insufficient period for the execution of the
Darwinian transmutation. In illustration of this,
the doctrine of conservation OF force is turned to
eountin a novel aud ingenious As the total
amount of energy in the universe is constant whether
latent in action undergoing not change in
amount but change of distribution, there is a
continual dissipation of energy by which the avail
able power TO produce change in any finite quantity
of matter dmnishes at every change of the distrbu-
ton of energy Every change in the distribution of
energy depends on difference between bodies, and
any change, tends on the whole TO diminish this diff
ference and so render the total future possible
change less in amount. No sooner does energy take
the form of heat for example than il is rapidly dis
spated that is, ii is distributed amOnga large num-
Der of bodies which assume nearly equal tempera-
ture, and is thus practically lost. The equivalent of
energy is there, but it produce no change until
fresh body, at very different temperature, is
presented to it, But the suns rays take the form of
heat whether they raise water vegetation, or do
any other work, and in this form the energy quits the
earth radated into distant space. The material uni
thus tends 10 changing death and even the rate
at which the planetary system is thus dying is per-
fectly measurable, if not yet perfectly measured An
estimate of the total loss of heat from the sun
Is an estimate of the rate at which he is ap-
preaching the condition of surrounding space, after
reaching which he will Tadiate more. Admitting
that the may be supplied with heat and fuel by
absorbing certain planetary bodies, still the supply
is limited and the viii become too cold for Oar
wins purposes before many millions of along
time TO be sure but far enough from countless ages
Not any conceivable past countless ages in
somuch as the heat required by the to have al
lowed him TO cool from time immemoral, would be
such as 10 turn him into vapOr, which would
extend over the whole planetary system and evapO
rate MS entirely. Still other considerations are |
brought forward to show that the age of the in |
habted world is limited to a period wholly incOn- |
sstent with Darwins views The sum of the argu- |
ment may DO stated follows: Experiment has |
shown sharp limit to the variation of every species |
Natural selection is powerless to perpetuate or
gans even should they appear. Countless ages Of
habitable globe are proved impossible by the |
physical laws which forbid the assumption Of infinite
power in a finite mass. Hence the writer concludes
that the theory of Darwin is only an ingenious and
plausible speculation to which future Psychologists
will look back with the kind of admiration we bestow
on the atoms of Lucretius the crystal spheres Of
EudOxus, containing like these some half faint
truths marking at the ignorance of the age and
the ability of the philosopher. The theory is not
only without sufficient proof from evidence, but is
proved false by "A cumulative proof.
OF more popular interest, especially among readers
in this county, is the article American Litera
ture" chiefly devoted to discussion of the poetry of
Longfellow, Lowell Bryant, Emerson, and Whittier
Mr. Longfellow who is set down on the whole as the
greatest of American poets is characterized as fol
lows:
His works are entirely from the special defects that
stamp the national literature Of bis country He has
Of the somewhat uDcOuth power and spasmOdic exag-
geTatiOn OF his Western contemporaries; he Is all grace
and polish and nexhaustIble sweetness. one Of his |
earliest books, Hyperion, strikes the keynote of the
majority his poems source OF their inspra-
ton Outre Mer, Rhenish euda towers Flemish
towns and Alpine passes Like Irving I'm the variety and
Of his culture, and superior TO him in genius his
Imagination is rather TeutOnic than English Cut Ger
many Of his volume, and you cut nearly half He
fingers Nuremburg. Brges and Prague, and chooses
for his emblem OF LIES river, not the Ohio the Hud
son nor the Assabeth, but "the Moldaus rushing
stream" given the best TRANSACTIONS IN the
world from Swedish, German, Spanish, and Italian
authors. many OF his best avowedly sug-
gested by old proverbs, sentences, bits of old
romance. few words from an old French author give
him the burden OF the Old Clock the Stair :" leaf
out of Mathers MGg0iid Christi is rhymed into "The
Phantom Ship :" the ballad Of the Count AmaldOs sets
him dreaming over the Secret of the sea :" OF
few lines from Goethe gather up the essence Of the
he nkyellE we