and incessant. I knew while I was doing this that I was tampering with my own interests, but I thought I was doing a public good, and I waived the consideration of private loss. Under these circumstances no one can charge me with mercenary motives, but whether they do so or not I shall express my opinions in any way I think proper.

I need not again repeat the expression of my admiration of Alder and Hancock's 'Nudibranchiate Mollusca.' I will only say, that this work in every respect maintains the reputation it has gained. But the Society's great work of the present year is a translation of Oken's 'Physio-philosophy,' a publication which, on its appearance, was ridiculed throughout Germany as the climax of absurdity, and which has never been tolerated by a single naturalist in that country from that day to the present. It is a mere rhapsody, written forty years ago, and, as the author expresses it, "in a kind of inspiration."

As I have no idea whatever of Oken's views, I can give none to others by an attempted abstract; but in order to bring his matter before my readers, I will transcribe a few passages which appear somewhat detached, and which I think suffer nothing from isolation : moreover, they approach more nearly to intelligibility than the greater part of the volume, and are those which a learned member of the Society has pointed out to me as favorable specimens.

"50. Still, however, there must be something which is posited and negatived. The form must have a substance.

"This something is the primary idea, or the very Eternal of mathematics, the zero; for +

= 0. The+

is naught else than

- is zero affirmed; the naught else than this + 0 negatived — — 0. Now since an affirmation once declared is identical. Zero differs only from finite unity in that it is not affirmed.

1, so are unity and zero

"51. The is not simply the want of affirmation, but its explicit abstraction. The+presupposes the 0; the the+ and 0; the 0 however presupposes neither + nor —. Purely negative quantities

are, as is known, a nonentity, because they can only bear reference to positive magnitudes. The is, indeed, the retroversion of + into 0

;

yet alone, therefore, it is not perfectly equal to 0. It is a retrovertent, and consequently the second act, which presupposes the positive. By the we know what is not; the is, however, a nothing in

every respect. The is the copula between 0 and +.

The nothing

The some

52. If the + is the 0 posited, so is it a nothing posited or determined. This position is, however, a number, and therefore a mathematical something. The nothing thus becomes a something, a Finite, a Real, through the simple positing of itself, and the something becomes a nothing by the removal of its self-position. itself is, however, the mere neglect of its self-position. thing, the + −, has consequently not arisen or emerged out of nothing, or from the latter something associated with another been produced; but it is nothing itself; the whole undivided nothing has become unity. The nothing once posited as nothing is = 1. We cannot speak of production or evolution in this case; but of the complete identity and uniformity of the nothing with the something; it is a virgin product or birth."-p. 11.

66 MAN.

❝97. Since the realization of the Eternal is a becoming self-conscious, so is the highest creature also a Self-conscious but a Singular. Such a creature is the finite God, or God become corporeal. God is Monas indeterminata, the highest creature is Monas determinata, Totum determinatum. A finite self-conscious being we call man. Man is an idea of God, but that in which God wholly, and in every single act, becomes an object unto himself. Man is God represented by God in the infinity of time. God is a Man representing God in one act of self-consciousness, without time.

"98. Man is God wholly manifested. God has become Man, zero has become + Man is the whole of arithmetic, compacted, however, out of all numbers; he can therefore produce numbers out of himself. Man is a complex of all that surrounds him, namely, of element, mineral, plant and animal.

99. The other things below man are also ideas of God, but none of these ideas is the whole representation of arithmetic. They are only parts of the divine conscience posited in time; but man is God,

=

+ no n.

planted or posited uninjured in time. Man is the object in the selfconsciousness of God; the creatures below man are, however, the objects only of the consciousness of God. Thus if God places before and from himself only single qualities, there are worldly things; if, however, God in this crowd of representations attains to his own entire representation then arises Man. God is = + 0 −, Man +0∞, the animal is The animals are only represented in part. The subject of self-consciousness is = + 0 —; the objects, however, are the numbers which are equivalent to this, being = ∞+3+2+1+0−1–2 3 Thus if all numbers, all world-elements, together with their perfections, occur in consciousness = + 0 −, there is a Man; if only single, and perhaps but few things, such as food, stones, &c. (with the entire exception of the celestial bodies), enter consciousness, there is an animal. They are represented only partly, or in a portion of the universe, but Man is represented wholly on in all its parts. Animals are fragments of man."-p. 25.

Forty-seven pages of this matter bring us to the following summary or retrospect, with which the mathesis or introductory chapter of the work terminates.

66 RETROSPECT.

"208. The Triplicity of the primary act in the universe has now been completely demonstrated. The first manifestation of God is monas; to this corresponds Gravity, Æther, darkness, the cold of chaos. The second manifestation of God is the dyas; to this corresponds the æther in a state of tension, the Light. The third manifestation of God is the trias; to this corresponds the want of form, Heat. God being in himself is Gravity; acting, self-emergent, Light; both together, or returning into himself, Heat. These are the three Primals in the world, and equal to the three which were prior to the world. They are manifested tri-unity Fire."-p. 48.

=

I am unaccustomed to use strong expressions, but this either has or has not a meaning; it is either senseless twaddle or downright blasphemy. I incline to the first definition, but I confess myself one of those to whom the author alludes as having "neither the capacity"

to understand these "higher walks of science," "nor the desire for its cultivation." The work extends to six hundred and sixty-five pages, and is divided into three thousand six hundred and fifty-two verses consecutively numbered: some of them, as we have seen, are diffuse and argumentative; others enunciate dicta in the most terse and authoritative style: here are three examples.

"2684. Pouncing is hopping in the air."—p. 444.

I once heard of the Society's "pouncing" on the 'Zoologist.' I thought it alluded to gleaning the addresses of naturalists from the pages of the 'Zoologist;' to soliciting these particular naturalists to become subscribers; to circulating the Society's prospectuses sewed up with the 'Zoologist:' I thought this was the "pouncing" to which allusion was made, but I am enlightened now: the Society was "hopping in the air." The next verse stands thus.

"2685. Diving is hopping in the water."-p. 444.

There is another application of the term diving that has a plebeian reference to pecuniary matters; I have heard this very Society irreverently charged with "diving" into our pockets, and not giving back an adequate return. This use of the term was always vulgar, and is henceforth decidedly erroneous : Diving is hopping in the

water."

"2884. A single world is dead, so also are many."-p. 473.

How sad to think that the world is dead! There is, however, a ray of comfort in the assurance that this makes no difference to the monkeys; they are extra-mundane, and feel no inconvenience from the death of one world or many: we are assured, for our consolation, that "For the Apes there is no world; but only tree-fruits female and male." What extra-mundane entity a female tree-fruit may be I have "neither the capacity" to understand "nor the desire for its cultivation." However, it is pleasing to know that for the monkeys it answers all the purposes of a world.

Here is a specimen of Oken's poetic vein.

"Gazing upon a Snail, one believes that he finds the prophesying goddess sitting upon the tripod. What majesty is in a creeping Snail, what reflection, what earnestness, what timidity and yet at the

same time what firm confidence! Surely a Snail is an exalted symbol of mind slumbering deeply within itself."—p. 657.

Enough of this! Let me in conclusion suggest that the Society should suspend the collection of its enormous revenue until it can find a rational, if not useful, mode of expending it. As now conducted the Ray Society is the opprobrium of Science.

The present volume of the 'Zoologist' fully equals those which have preceded it, both in the present interest and permanent value of its contents. In quantity of matter it far exceeds either of them, owing to the great preponderance of the smaller type.

In Quadrupeds, the discussion on the gigantic deer of Ireland (Zool. 1589 and 1620) has been pronounced by an accomplished geologist to be "of the highest possible interest.” My own opinion was so fully given in my last year's address that I need not repeat it here.

In Birds, three important additions have been made to our Fauna. Fuligula ferinoides (Zool. 1778), a duck of which three undoubtedly British specimens have occurred, and which was at first figured by Mr. Yarrell as the Fuligula mariloides of Vigors; Larus Rossii (Zool. 1782), a single specimen of which was shot at Tadcaster; and Sterna velox (Zool. 1878), killed near Dublin in 1846. Accurate and detailed descriptions of all the three will be found at the pages to which I have referred.

In Reptiles, the communications and quotations about "the Sea Serpent" are well worthy of attentive perusal : it is impossible to suppose all the records bearing this title to be fabricated for the purpose of deception. A natural phenomenon of some kind has been witnessed: let us seek a satisfactory solution rather than terminate enquiry by the shafts of ridicule. The grave and learned have often avowed a belief that toads can exist some thousands of years without food, light or air, and immured in solid stone: surely it is not requiring