elaborate work might have done, with all its full details of the facts upon
which the author's sweeping conclusions have been grounded. At least it is
a more readable book: but all the facts that can be mustered in favor of
the theory are still likely to be needed.

Who, upon a single perusal, shall pass judgment upon a work like this, to
which twenty of the best years of the life of a most able naturalist have
been devoted? And who among those naturalists who hold a position that
entitles them to pronounce summarily upon the subject, can be expected to
divest himself for the nonce of the influence of received and favorite
systems? In fact, the controversy now opened is not likely to be settled in
an off-hand way, nor is it desirable that it should be. A spirited conflict
among opinions of every grade must ensue, which--to borrow an illustration
from the doctrine of the book before us--may be likened to the conflict in
Nature among races in the struggle for life, which Mr. Darwin describes;
through which the views most favored by facts will be developed and tested
by "Natural Selection," the weaker ones be destroyed in the process, and
the strongest in the long-run alone survive.

The duty of reviewing this volume in the American Journal of Science would
naturally devolve upon the principal editor,' whose wide observation and
profound knowledge of various departments of natural history, as well as of
geology, particularly qualify him for the task. But he has been obliged to
lay aside his pen, and to seek in distant lands the entire repose from
scientific labor so essential to the restoration of his health--a
consummation devoutly to be wished, and confidently to be expected.
Interested as Mr. Dana would be in this volume, he could not be expected to
accept this doctrine.

Views so idealistic as those upon which his "Thoughts upon Species" [I-2]