simply the common qualities open to all observation. Such are love and hatred, emulation and jealousy, anger and revenge, gratitude, boldness and fortitude, pride, and perhaps vanity, cowardice, and cunning. These qualities are not defined by difference of species only. As in man they characterise individuals of the same species, and are innate, more or less, in the temperament of each.

It does not concern us here to trace these animal faculties and feelings downwards in the scale till they vanish in the bare instincts of existence. On this subject of Instincts, however, a few words must be said, though volumes would be needed to embrace their wonderful history. M. Laugel's title Problèmes de la Vie' well characterises phenomena, which perplexed the mind of Newton, and continue to embarrass the philosophers of our own day. We have already spoken of the affinities of Reason and Instinct. There is, in fact, a borderland, where they are strangely and inextricably blended; each invading the domain of the other, and reciprocally producing changes, which variously affect the functions of both. Acts primarily of reason and volition pass by repetition into habits having the compulsory force of instinct, and often transmissible to offspring. While instincts, forcibly interfered with, often evolve new faculties of action, which, if we shrink from calling them acts of reason, can only be understood as newly-developed forms of instinct-a difficult conception indeed, in seeking to realise which we plunge at once into the inner mysteries of the question, What is the power at work in the purely instinctive acts of animal life?—in the instincts, for example, of the bee, the ant, the spider, the salmon, the beaver, the tailor and weaver birds, and endless others? The instances most familiar to us represent in effect the marvel of the whole, and put the question of origin into its most cogent shape. Newton found no other solution than that the Author of Life is himself the moving power in the innumerable forms of instinct-risking in this the charge of Pantheism, that barrier at which so many attempts to reach what is unreachable come to an end.

We cannot err, however, in regarding Life, and the generation of life from life, as integral parts of the same great problem. Instincts, define or distinguish them as we will, are strictly appurtenances of generation-of that power which transmits hereditary likeness from one generation of a species to another. The question whether, and how far, they are dependent on mere bodily organisation, merges in this, though we can hardly say that it thereby comes nearer to any sure solution. That many instincts have a special organisation

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adapted to them is too well known to need illustration and it is equally certain that changes in organs, arising from external causes, may, and often do, produce modifications of the natural instincts, and render them hereditary in the race or species. But the fact still remains that there are numerous and extraordinary instincts which can in no wise be interpreted by organisation, though this is used for their fulfilment. The structural peculiarities of certain birds and fishes are necessary for their periodical migrations by land and sea. But the act of migration itself is the marvel; determinate as to place, time, and method-guided by no sense or reason we can define or conceive, yet fulfilling purposes with a certitude no reason could attain. Instincts prospective in their nature, as we admire them in the nests of birds-the sexual instincts and those connected with food, appetencies essential to life on the earth-the instincts of the bee-hive and ant-hill, which sacrifice the interests of the individual creature to those of the community-these and endless others come under the same head, as acts not due to reason, nor to any apparent structure. We are still then confronted by the profound problem of a power acting in and through the complex fabric of animal life, of which neither our senses nor reason can render any account. In connecting it with the larger problem of the generation of life from life, we suggest an absolute and necessary relation, but do not solve the mystery. Science is zealously working in this direction, but, as we believe, with an insuperable barrier at some point in its progress. We have spoken of a border-land between reason and instinct, where these two faculties variously and curiously commingle. It is here, if anywhere, that we may hope to obtain some enlargement and clearer definition of our knowledge. Little is gained by multiplying examples of individual instincts, wonderful though these be, and meriting a better classification than any yet adopted. What we need and desire is some great work, founded on actual research, but treating the subject also as one of general philosophy, and holding in view certain definite questions for solution. Such are, the relation as to priority or causality between the organisation and the particular instincts of species-all that concerns the hereditary nature of instincts--their dependence on habits and the casual conditions of life, including here the separation of species into races-and the influence upon them of Reason and the Will. These questions, were there no others, present ample material for future inquiry. Time, as well as combined and zealous research, will be needed even for their partial solution. But we confidently hope for some such work as that we

have indicated; giving us closer approach to that mysterious part of life, where mental and material functions, intelligence and instincts, are linked together, either in co-operation or conflict. One result of all research must be deemed certainthe recognition of an Almighty Power, far above our comprehension in its nature and attributes; but ruling throughout all creation, living and lifeless, by laws and forces which we may partially, but never can wholly understand. I had rather believe,' said Lord Bacon, all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.' To which Archbishop Whately adds, in his note upon the passage:-That the possession of power, strictly so called, by physical causes, is not conceivable, or their capacity to maintain, any more than to produce at first, the system of the Universe, whose combined existence, as well as its origin, seems to depend on the continued operations of the great Creator.'

Those who are familiar with the doctrine of Mr. Darwin as to the Origin of Species-a doctrine now so largely, though not unanimously, accepted in the scientific world--will at once see how closely it is interwoven in every part with the topics we have been discussing. The questions of origin, organisation, modes of reproduction and instincts, enter integrally and necessarily into any theory of which Life is the subject. The naturalist is amply justified in seeking all possible evidence as to the progressive evolution of genera and species, and their distribution over the earth; and here Mr. Darwin has rendered services to science which will be fully recognised hereafter, whatever exception be taken to some of the views he has espoused. But these fundamental questions still remain, and our knowledge can never be complete as long as they are unresolved.

In the foregoing article, which we must here close, we have sought to make our readers acquainted with the principal questions and objects of research on which physical science is at this time engaged; necessarily, however, omitting many which might well merit notice. At no period has there been more of grandeur in these objects, or more of genius directed to their investigation. If sometimes this genius rushes beyond human bounds into the inscrutable mysteries of the universe, it is speedily checked by the sterner demand now made for evidence of fact and truth. While even these forays, as they may be called, of speculative science (in one of which we have ourselves partially indulged), though failing to attain their pose, are not unfrequently useful in disclosing new paths and objects of pursuit, collateral to those thus vainly attempted.

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ART. VII.-1. Reports on Consular Establishments in China in 1869. Presented to Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. 1870.

2. Reports on Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for the year 1869. Published by order of the Inspector-General of Customs. Shanghae: Printed at the Customs Press.

3. Journeys in North China, Manchuria, and Eastern Mongolia, with some Account of Corea. By the Rev. ALEXANDER WILLIAMSON, Agent of the National Bible Society of Scotland. 2 vols. London: 1870.

4. The Tientsin Massacre; the Causes of the late Disturbances in China; and how to secure a Permanent Peace. By GEORGE THIN, M.D.

THE

HE Far Cathay' of Kublai Khan-of which Thomson sang and Coleridge dreamed-has been brought comparatively near to us by steam and telegraphy. From Kiachta on the border of Western Mongolia to London a message can now be sent in less than twenty-four hours. Even the transit of travellers from London or Paris to Pekin, which in the days of Marco Paolo extended over years of peril and uncertainty, may now be securely done in six or eight weeks, either by land or sea. So vast a change in the relations of time and distance could not fail to effect a corresponding change in the relations of China with the rest of the world.

But a few centuries ago, sealed to the outer world, inaccessible by sea and isolated on the land side by great deserts and inhospitable steppes, peopled only by scattered tribes of Nomade Tartars and Mongols, her people might rejoice in their isolation and security. They held sway over a vast territory and undisputed supremacy far beyond their borders. The Middle Kingdom' and the Flowery Land,' as they pleased to designate their country, was to them the Centre of the Universe. It is true they were from time to time, though at long intervals, exposed to furious raids from the wild Tartars beyond their frontiers. But they either beat them back, or absorbed and speedily assimilated them by their higher civilisation. By successive steps the whole of Eastern Asia fell under their sway, and wide as their empire stretchedfrom Samarcand and Central Asia in the West to Corea in the farthest East-they asserted a scarcely contested superiority over all peoples and tribes with whom they came in con

tact.

The Japanese came from the isles beyond their coasts

to borrow a written language, a religion, and a philosophy, and in doing so offered the sincerest homage.

It is needful to recall these great facts, for they serve to explain-and can alone explain--much that is now passing in our day, when we have forced our intercourse upon a people who once had just right to plume themselves on being heirs to an undisputed supremacy. The Chinese themselves, well versed in the actual and legendary history of their country, are familiarly acquainted with them. These traditions are the source of those pretensions which we are too apt to despise as the mere caprice of barbarism, or the offspring of ignorance, but they are facts and realities, not to be put aside by superior intelligence, or blotted out by treaties, though countersigned, at the dictation of a foreign Power, with the vermilion pencil.

No more mischievous error can well be conceived than to suppose the contrary, and nothing has more certainly contributed to our present difficulties. If we look back to the period above referred to, and fully apprehend what the Chinese nation was then absolutely in its civilisation, and comparatively as regards all the rest of Asia;-and then look upon the change which has swept over them like a flood in these latter days, placing them as low relatively to the invading peoples of the West as they once stood high above all others of whom they had any knowledge, we shall be better prepared to enter into their present feelings, and understand with what mingled fearand hate they regard us in our pride of superiority and habit of self-assertion. The millions who are saturated with a knowledge of the history and philosophy of their country' are not merely the holders of office, but all its educated men, and these are they who form and guide the public opinion of the less cultivated and the mass. They still regard all Western nations as outer Barbarians.' Much as the Byzantines of the Lower Empire regarded their Northern recruits, Goths and Visigoths, whom they subsidized to fight their battles-great in war, but not the less Barbarians.

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Are we asked to what end this study of the past? The answer has been already indicated-that we may understand the present, and what lies before us in the future. If merchants and missionaries in China had devoted a little more of their attention to the study of the people among whom their future lot was cast for good or evil, they would have made much more satisfactory progress in overcoming the obstacles in their path-each in their separate calling. The true life of nations as of individuals is written in sympathetic ink, and is only to be read between the lines which record outward events;

VOL. CXXXIII. NO. CCLXXI.

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