in some eyebrows, we know; and as it is also clear from the
authorities first quoted, and many more that might be cited, that the
lower animals are capable of human passions, the cautious and
scientifically disposed lover of the modern epoch can hardly be asked to
take a mere manifestation of the heavenly instinct as proof of many
grades of removal, in his Dulcinea, from the condition of the oyster,
the hind, or, alas! the vulture.

Hence, even in protesting that his lady's beauty hangs on the cheek of
night like a rich jewel in an AEthiop's ear, naturally the modern Romeo
may not avoid a glance to see whether his Juliet's ear contains that
fatal auricular "blunt point" denoting assimilation to the lower
animals. And so it is with the work henceforth laid out for novelists:
the stereotyped heroine, with coral lips, pearly teeth, eyes of a
gazelle, raven locks, swan-like neck, and so on, should be carefully
guarded from too great animal resemblances, and above all from
"rudiments" or signs of reversion.

Perhaps it would be going too far to announce bluntly that "Lady
Amarantha's toes had not the remotest indication of ever having been
webbed," or to put on record the official declaration of Fifine, the
maid, that her fair mistress never had been able to erect her ears;
still the novelists might do well to take note of those two or three
points in which Mr. St. George Mivart and Mr. Wallace have pointed out
the great distinctions between men and apes, and so adroitly work them
up in those personal descriptions which form a delicious part of modern
novels, as to give their heroes and heroines a pedigree impregnable to
the most critically scientific scrutiny. Hints, also, I think, might be
gathered from the treatment of love on the evolution hypothesis, which
has been essayed by no less an authority than Herbert Spencer, who has
besides traced the changes in the methods of expressing passionate
emotions by gestures and cries, as our humble ancestry developed to
women and men.

Physiology, too, is not the only department into which the novelist of
the future must extend his studies. Under the doctrine of evolution,
sexual selection is at the basis of the variation of species; and what
new fields are open to the novelist, when he reflects for a moment that
his main task is only to depict the prosperities and adversities
attending such a mutual selection on the part of Albert and Angelina!

PHILIP QUILIBET.

SCIEN