The Dublin Review (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 Excerpt: ...there is also a law of degeneration. Over and over again savages have been found presenting indubitable marks of having fallen from a higher, sometimes a very high, stage of civilization. Were it to the purpose, in confirmation of Christian doctrine, we might refer to a most interesting account of the populations of Easter Island and of Central America in Mr. Mott's essay "On the Origin of Savage Life." As to Mr. Spencer's demonstration, which our author brings out with a child's air of respectful triumph in something deliriously mischievous, wo can only say that if this be one of Mr. Spencer's chosen arrows, if he have nothing better in his armoury, his formidableness as an antagonist has been strangely overrated. Its efficacy as proof that man must needs, in process of time, by a necessity of nature, becomo quite perfect, depends upon a tissue of gratuitous assumptions. The conditions of existence in which a man is placed must be assumed to be themselves perfect for a perfect adaptation to them to insure perfection, or, if not perfect originally, they must themselves progress to perfection in correspondence with man's development. But in the latter case it is hard to see how such flexible conditions can be the instrument at once of trimming and developing man's faculties. In God's hands circumstances are, to some extent, such an instrument, but they cannot be conceived capable of putting themselves to such a use. Again, it is assumed that there is no such thing as free-will, by which a man can quarrel with and resist, in whole or part, the instincts of his nature. We know that Mr. Spencer is fond of illustrations, and with reason, for his illustrations are particularly felicitous, so we will essay one. Plant an acorn in a cucumber-frame, and sup...