WATTS’S LITERARY GUIDE. B E I N G A M O N T H L Y R E C O R D O F L I B E R A L A N D A D V A N C E D P U B L I C A T I O N S .
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No. 75.]
FEBRU ARY 15, 1892.
[Price One Penny.
N E W P U B L I C A T I O N S .
0 U R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .
T he Open Court Publishing Company have just issued an extremely valuable work by Dr. Paul Carus, entitled “ Homilies o f Science” (6s. 6d.). It consists of a collection of short ethical exhortations and sermon-like discussions of religious, moral, social, and political topics.
T he same firm also announce a cheap popular edition of Gustav Freytag’s novel, “ A Lost Manuscript” (4s. 6d.).
Great is the distance between Agnosticism and ants, bees, and spiders. Yet one may rationally connect them, thus: We who decline supernatural explanations of man must trace his derivation— above all, the derivation o f his intellect— from lower forms of l ife ; and the beginnings of thought must be sought among our humble kinsfolk of the animal world. A most attractive help to this study will be found in Dr. G. J. Romanes’
“ animal intelligence ”
T he forthcoming work by Mr. George J. Romanes, F.R.S., on “ Darwin and After Darwin,” will be divided into five parts, as follows : (1) “ Evolution,” giving the evidences in favour o f the theory of descent; (2) “ Selection,” giving the evidences in favour of, and objections against, the Darwinian theories of natural and sexual selection; (3) “ Heredity,” discussing fully Dr. Weismann’s theories, and the question as to the transmission o f acquired characters; (4) “ Utility,” similarly discussing the question as to how far this principle extends in organic nature; (5) “ Isolation,” dealing with the question as to the importance of this factor in causing divergence o f specific types, and concluding the treatise with several chapters on physiological selection. The first of the two volumes, comprising parts i. and ii., will be copiously illustrated, and sold separately as a handbook of distinctively Darwinian doctrine.
Major-General J. G. Forlong, a Freethinker whose name will be familiar to our readers, will shortly publish a work entitled “ A Dictionary o f Comparative Religion.”
Mrs. Besant is engaged upon a collection o f ghost stories by the late Madame Blavatsky, and which will be published under the title of “ Nightmare Tales.”
Mr. Rodert Forder has issued, under the title of “ True Religion” (2d.), a verbatim report of Colonel Ingersoll’s recent address before the New York Unitarian Club.
Messrs. Watts & Co. will publish at the end of the present month a new and revised edition of Mr. Charles Watts’s brochure on “ Bible Morality ” (3d.).
Y et another new Liberty journal. Mr. M. D. O ’Brien, the editor o f Free L i f e, and a contributor to “ A Plea for L ib erty” and “ The Agnostic Annual,” announces the In d iv id ua lis t, a monthly advocate of the rights o f capital and labour, personal liberty, private property, and free trade. The price of the magazine will be sixpence.
T he second number o f the Liberty o f Bequest Intelligencer, which will be issued shortly, will contain the form o f the Bill intended to be introduced into Parliament during the present session. There will also be given valuable particulars in reference to the Gifford and the Hibbert Trusts, concerning which much controversy has been taking place.___
(Kegan P au l ; International Scientific Series; fourth edition; 1886; 526 pp.; 5s.). While the bulk o f the work is descriptive and anecdotical, and quite easy reading to the amateur biologist, the facts are disposed in order and with a due prevision of the ultimate purpose— viz., a synthetic account of mental evolution. This account appears in the author’s subsequent treatise on “ Mental Evolution in Animals,” which we shall notice later on. A philosopher of the old school would have preferred to take animal instinct as his text. But “ instinct ” is too mechanical and narrow a term to include all the motives o f even an insect. Mind existed before man, if we take mind to signify a capacity “ to make new adjustments, or to modify old ones, in accordance with the results o f individual experience.” Instinct is “ reflex action into which there is imported the element o f consciousness,” and merely gives the animal a facility in carrying out processes familiar to its species; while reason is exercised in circumstances “ novel alike to the experience of the individual and that o f the species.” And that the lower animals display a higher power than instinct will be abundantly clear to the attentive reader of the information collected by Dr. Romanes from many books and correspondents, as well as from personal observation. A few of the stories are so amazing as to remind one suspiciously of the all-too-inaccurate Baron Munchausen. A little hesitation may be excused in face o f the narrative of a cat which spread crumbs upon the ground in order to attract innocent birds.
The first seven chapters embrace the Protozoa, Mollusca, Insects, and Articulata. Naturally the chief interest attaches to the Ants and Bees, of whose habits a very full recital is given. Our forefathers would have deemed it incredible that the miniature brains o f these creatures could have been capable of so much; and the Sceptic cannot help reflecting on the singular fact that the Bible, which is a popular authority on creation, should be silent on miracles of bee and ant-life, which it was left to Huber and Lubbock to discover. Fish and Reptiles do not offer plentiful matter to the comparative psychologist, though the author relates, on the testimony of Mr. Walter Severn, the artist, a startling tale of a python which died o f grief on beholding the corpse o f his late master. Not the least pleasing portion of the book is that devoted to Birds. O f parrots one always expects marvellous things; but most o f us would be astonished to hear o f the musical pigeon which always descended from its dovecot to the window o f a room below whenever the young lady o f the house played Handel’s “ Speri Si.”
