spiracles, or mouths of the breathing tubes, open into the space between the elytra and the abdomen, they can take in the air, and pass it through the system. Sometimes, if the observer will approach very quietly, he may see the beetles floating with the heads downward, the tips of their tails just above the surface of the water, and their hind legs spread out so as to balance the body in this strange position. All the dyticidæ employ this curious mode of supplying themselves with air, but it is most conspicuous in the large species, and is therefore described in connection with this beetle. The Jewish Temple and the Christian Church: a Series of Discourses on the Epistle to the Hebrews. By R. W. DALE, M. A. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 1871. Duodecimo, pp. 314. Mr. Dale is a prominent clergymen among the English Independents, and is well worthy of his reputation, if this volume is a specimen of his ministry. It is an admirable example of one kind of expository preaching, and deserves to be carefully studied by all who wish to unfold the word of God to their congregations. In twenty-seven sermons he discusses: The Son and the Prophets; The Son and the Angels; Drifting from Christ; The Dignity of Man; Christ perfected through Suffering; The Humanity of Christ; The Sin in the Wilderness; The Rest of God; The Sympathy of Christ; The Priesthood of Christ; Ignorance and Apathy; Hopefulness; Melchisideck; What is a Type; The New Covenant; The Old Sanctuary; Jewish Sacrifices; Access to God; The Testament; Atonement; The Great Appeal; The Cloud of Witnesses; Chastisement; Mount Sinai and Mount Sion; Precepts; Conclusion. The very titles are appetizing. The Elements of Intellectual Science. A Manual for Schools and Colleges. Abridged from "The Human Intellect." By NOAH PORTER, D. D., LL. D. New York: Charles Scribner and Co. 1871 Octavo, pp. 565. The merits of the larger work of Dr. Porter have been widely acknowledged in Europe and America. The present volume retains all the leading positions of that work, many important topics less adapted to an elementary work being omitted, and the controversial and critical observations to a large extent dropped or greatly abridged. The essential features of both works are the same. The Bremen Lectures on Fundamental, Living, Religious Questions. By various eminent European Divines. Translated from the Original German by Rev. D. HEAGLE. With an Introduction by ALVAH HOVEY, D. D. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. Duodecimo, pp. 308. A series of lectures by Drs. Zoeckler, Cremer, Fuchs, Luthardt, Uhlhorn, Gess, Tischendorf, Lange, and Disselhoff, on the Biblical Account of Creation and Natural Science; Reason, Conscience, and Revelation; Miracles; The person of Jesus Christ; The Resurrection of Christ as a SoteriologicoHistorical Fact; The Scriptural Doctrine of Atonement; The Authenticity of our Gospels; The Idea of the Kingdom of God in its Consummation, and the Significance thereof regarding Historical Christianity; Christianity and Culture. The discussions are very able and satisfactory. We would direct special attention to the lecture on Miracles. Assuredly the miracles of God are not disturbances and disorders, but precisely the high and shining points of the course of nature, where it celebrates its festivals. The miracles are not something unnatural and against nature, but the supernatural beaming forth from the innermost life-ground of nature. Not something foreign and heterogeneous is here violently introduced into it from without, but its own innermost life-spirit, which is the secret of its being comes out into the realm of the visible, the divine creative power. As the electric current, which passes through a body, under certain circumstances, concentrates and emits sparks, so with the divine power, which, as the breath of life, pervades all. Its concentrations, its scintillations, these are the miracles in nature. These are the clear flashings of the Creative Spirit through the veil of matter, while in the ordinary course of things it only shimmers through the natural event as a soft, mild radiance. But we say still more. We heighten the affirmation: the world's course endures miracles without forsaking its poles; to the other, the world's course requires miracles,-miracles are not merely possible, but also necessary; by which, it is true, we have not, first of all, thought of the individual miracles, but of the chief miracle of revelation, of the connected history of miracles, which has its central point in the person of Jesus Christ, in which, however, as we shall directly see, the individual miracles, the sensuous nature-signs, have their necessary place. The Healthy Christian: An Appeal to the Church. By Howard CROSBY. New York: American Tract Society. 18mo, pp. 153. A brave book, replete with timely Christian truth, and glowing with the earnestness of deep conviction. Its views of Christian life and duty are in closest accordance with the gospel, and are presented in a style of great simplicity and directness. We have read the book with. delight, and hope it will have thousands of readers. Its influence cannot fail of being beneficial in the highest degree. The Christian Use of Money: Especially in Relation to Personal Expenditure. By J. F. WYCKOFF. New York: American Tract Society. Duodecimo, pp. 45. An excellent treatise written by a young Christian merchant, who practices what he preaches. One good use to which money could be put, would be the wide distribution of this little book. Sacred Geography and Antiquities. With Maps and Illustrations. By Rev. E. P. BARROWS, D. D. American Tract Society. New York: Octavo, pp. 685. Into this manual a great amount of valuable information is compressed. The large, clear type and good paper add to its worth, as they do to its attractiveness. THE BAPTIST QUARTERLY. DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN DESCENT. THE The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. By Charles The Genesis of Species. By St. George Mivart, F. R. S. New HE works cited above, and we have limited our selection to these two because they may be regarded as representative,— have been so long before the public, and the views of the writers are so generally understood, that the briefest reference to them is all that is required in this place. In the two volumes on the Descent of Man, Darwin applies his theory of Natural as supplemented by Sexual Selection to the question of the origin of man. The object of the work is to prove that man is descended from pre-existing species, and to show the manner of his development and the value of the differences between the so-called races of mankind. The method of proof is by comparison of the different parts of the human structure with like parts of the structure of the lower animals, and by observation of the correspondence in the embryological development, and in the rudimentary organs of the different species. The author's vast reading and laborious accumulation of facts and illustrations bearing on these points are something astonishing. His conclusion is that man is descended, along with all other existing species, from some ancient, lower, and extinct form. The line, he I (129) thinks, can be traced provisionally through the common ancestor of the Old World apes, through the lemurs, marsupials, amphibians, and fishes, down to one of the lowest of the mollusks, resembling somewhat the larva of the modern ascidian. The immediate progenitors of our race had their home on the African continent; they were at that time covered with hair, both sexes having beards; their ears were pointed and capable of movement, and their bodies were provided with a tail; their feet were prehensile, and their lives were passed among the trees of that warm, forest-clad land. Earlier still, the progenitors of this race must have been aquatic in their habits and breathed through gills, while far lower down their ancestors lay in the mud of some tide-visited coast, alternately stuffed with food and then stinted, at regular lunar intervals. Such a pedigree, the author admits, may not seem to be of noble quality, but we need not be ashamed of our parentage, when we consider what abundant reason we have to be thankful that we are organized beings at all, and not the morganic dust under our feet.* The greater portion of the second volume is occupied with the theory of natural selection in relation to sex. Sexual selection depends on the success of certain individuals over others of the same sex in relation to the propagation of the species, the elements which chiefly determine the choice of mates being strength and beauty. The advantage will always be with those who possess these in the highest degree. This principle of sexual selection will thus go far toward accounting for the differences between the two sexes in body and mind, and, in a wider application, for the differences between the several races of men, as well as from their ancient and lowly organized progenitors. It is a fact of some significance that natural selection is not regarded by Darwin himself as competent to account for all the facts to which it was first applied, and the principle of sexual selection has now been brought forward and exalted to a coordinate rank with that of natural selection. He has not attempted to define the exact relations between the two and the part played by each in differentiating the different races of men and species of animals, but he has placed them side by side as coequal factors in the long succession of change. In the concluding chapter the author briefly defends his doctrine of the derivation of man from lower species of life against the charge of materialism and irreligion. It can be affirmed to be materialistic only upon the assumption that spiritual qualities could not be taken on during the process of development, and it cannot be shown to be *Descent of Man, p. 205. more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower form, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. Charles Darwin, we believe, professes to hold to the ordinary Christian faith, and hence must accept the Scriptures as in some sort a revelation from God. He does not put forth his views as a contribution to infidelity, nor is it our opinion that this theory of the origin of man is in any necessary conflict with the Mosaic account. But we could have wished for a distinct recognition, in some form, of a divine revelation, which, if it does not definitely pronounce on this question, at least speaks about it, and we do not think that a man of science should forget that he owes something to the Christian sentiments of society, and that when advancing views which he must know, if he is not blind to all save his own pursuits, a large portion of that society will regard as subversive of belief in all supernatural facts, he might not with propriety have indicated the method by which he reconciles his scientific theories with his own faith. The work of St. George Mivart, which presents a different view of the ultimate ground for the variations among species from that of Darwin, will attract the more attention from the fact that the author is himself a distinguished naturalist, and cannot therefore be charged with indifference to the claims of science in the interest of popular theological prepossessions. He admits the truth and value of the theory of natural selection, but assigns it a subordinate place. The final explanation of the present system of things is not, he thinks, to be found in a process of evolution and change under the influence of altered external circumstances alone, but in a process of development by virtue of an inherent tendency to change, which is to be ascribed to the creative will. Mr. Mivart's conception of the physical world is, that it is organic throughout, and that its several parts arise and go forward in one harmonious development, through special powers and tendencies existing in each part, implanted therein from the beginning by the Creator. As to the origin of man, he admits the extreme probability that the body, or animal nature, has been derived from some lower form, but affirms that we have no reason, on account of that, to doubt the Scripture record that the spirit belongs to a different order of existence, not derived, but imparted by the inbreathing of God. This question of the evolution of life, and especially of humanity from the lower forms of life, is not altogether a scientific one, and cannot be left wholly to science for its final settlement. A higher |