"the survival of the fittest" was a truth which readily presented itself to any one considering the subject, and that to Darwin was due the credit of having first brought it forward and demonstrated its truth, and asserted that the destruction of the least fit was recognised thousands of years ago. But, in regard to the descent of man, it fastens specially upon the author's theory of mental and moral evolution, and declares that he has utterly failed. The Saturday Review, however, admitted the high antiquity of man, and the nearness of his bodily structure to the apes, and went much further. In discussing the evolution of morals, the author's unexampled grasp of facts, with his power of correlation, is, according to The Saturday, seen at its highest, in an exquisite chain of philosophical deduction. The mode in which, at a remote period, the races of mankind became differentiated, is declared to be the weak point in the argument.

"THE

CHAPTER VIII.

HE Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" followed "The Descent of Man" in 1872. The motive which suggested it was the desire to explain the complexities of expression on evolution principles. But the study of emotional expression had evidently engaged Darwin's attention at least from the time when the Fuegians and the Gauchos had vividly roused his imaginative faculties; and his direct observations commenced as early as 1838, when he was already inclined to believe in evolution, and were continued at intervals ever after. The third edition of Sir Charles Bell's "Anatomy of Expression," published in 1844, while greatly admired by him, was unsatisfactory in being throughout based on the conviction that species came into existence in their present condition; and notwithstanding that Bain and Herbert Spencer had made considerable advances in a treatment of the subject based on physiology, an exhaustive book was wanted, which should throw on Expression the new and interesting light of Darwinism.

What was Darwin's method?

Observation, cleverly

LIFE OF DARWIN.

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devised appeal to nature; observation over a wide field as to the varied races of man still existing, utilising the aid of travellers and residents in many lands; observation of domestic animals in familiar and in untried circumstances; observation of infants, especially his own, from a very early age; observation of the insane, who are liable to the strongest passions, and give them uncontrolled vent. It was in 1867 that Darwin circulated his group of questions designed to ascertain the mode of expressing every emotion, and their physical concomitants in every possible race. Sculpture, paintings, and engravings, afforded little evidence, because beauty is their main object, and "strongly contracted facial muscles destroy beauty." Information was specially sought as to natives who had had little communication with Europeans, and in whom imitation might not have destroyed ancestral and original expression.

The result was to develop three principles which appeared, in combination, to account for most of the expressions and gestures involuntarily used by man and animals. The first was that of serviceable associated habits certain complex actions being somehow serviceable in particular states of mind, to gratify and relieve certain sensations, desires, &c., whenever the same state of feeling is repeated, there is a tendency to the same movements or actions, though they may not then be of the least use. The second principle, that of antithesis, is the converse of the last; when an opposite state of mind is induced, there is an involuntary tendency to directly opposite movements, though of no use. The third principle, that of the direct action of the nervous

system, is independent of the will and of habit; nerve force being generated in excess by strong emotions.

In discussing all these principles we discover how every thought and every circumstance of the great naturalist seem to have been utilised in his life work. “I have noticed that persons in describing a horrid sight, often shut their eyes momentarily and firmly, or shake their heads as if not to see, or to drive away, something disagreeable; and I have caught myself, when thinking in the dark of a horrid spectacle, closing my eyes firmly." "I noticed a young lady earnestly trying to recollect a painter's name, and she first looked to one corner of the ceiling, and then to the opposite corner, arching the one eyebrow on that side, although of course there was nothing to be seen there." "Many years ago I laid a small wager with a dozen young men that they would not sneeze if they took snuff, although they all declared that they invariably did so; accordingly they all took a pinch, but from wishing much to succeed, not one sneezed, though their eyes watered, and all, without exception, had to pay me the wager." "I put my face close to the thick glass-plate in front of a puff-adder in the Zoological Gardens, with the firm determination of not starting back if the snake struck at me; but as soon as the blow was struck, my resolution went for nothing, and I jumped a yard or two backwards with astonishing rapidity. My will and reason were powerless against the imagination of a danger which had never been experienced." "I observed that though my infants started at sudden sounds, when under a fortnight old, they certainly did not always wink their eyes, and I believe never did so.

The start of an older infant apparently represents a vague catching hold of something to prevent falling. I shook a pasteboard box close before the eyes of one of my infants, when 114 days old, and it did not in the least wink; but when I put a few comfits into the box, holding it in the same position as before, and rattled them, the child blinked its eyes violently every time, and started a little." The behaviour of dogs and horses under many circumstances was watched. Cats and monkeys were most carefully scrutinised. At all moments Darwin seized upon and recorded the passing emotion and its associated movements. "I remember once seeing a boy who had just shot his first snipe on the wing, and his hands trembled to such a degree from delight, that he could not for some time reload his gun;" an instance of an emotional movement being disadvantageous.

Some of Darwin's descriptions of emotional outbursts are among the best portions of his writing; as when he speaks of a mother whose infant has been intentionally injured, "how she starts up with threatening aspect, how her eyes sparkle and her face reddens, how her bosom heaves, nostrils dilate, and heart beats." In describing a mourner when quiescent, he says: "The sufferer sits motionless, or gently rocks to and fro; the circulation becomes languid; respiration is almost forgotten, and deep sighs are drawn. All this reacts on the brain, and prostration soon follows with collapsed muscles and dulled eyes."

One of the most striking features of this book is the evidence it affords of Darwin's acuteness and persistence in observation during his travels, and of the excellence of