Two years previously, writing of the Charles-Darwinian scheme of evolution, Mr. Allen had implied it as his opinion “that all brains are what they are in virtue of antecedent function.” “The one creed,” he wrote—referring to Mr Darwin’s—“makes the man depend mainly upon the accidents of molecular physics in a colliding germ cell and sperm cell; the other makes him depend mainly on the doings and gains of his ancestors as modified and altered by himself.” This second creed is pure Erasmus-Darwinism and Lamarck. Again:— “It seems to me easy to understand how survival of the fittest may result in progress _starting from such functionally produced gains_ (italics mine), but impossible to understand how it could result in progress, if it had to start in mere accidental structural increments due to spontaneous variation alone.” {219a} Which comes to saying that it is easy to understand the Lamarckian system of evolution, but not the Charles-Darwinian. Mr. Allen concluded his article a few pages later on by saying:— “The first hypothesis” (Mr. Darwin’s) “is one that throws no light upon any of the facts. The second hypothesis” (which is unalloyed Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck) “is one that explains them all with transparent lucidity.” Yet in his “Charles Darwin” Mr. Allen tells us that though Mr. Darwin “did not invent the development theory, he made it believable and comprehensible” (p. 4). In his “Charles Darwin” Mr. Allen does not tell us how recently he had, in another place, expressed an opinion about the value of Mr. Darwin’s “distinctive contribution” to the theory of evolution, so widely different from the one he is now expressing with characteristic appearance of ardour. He does not explain how he is able to execute such rapid changes of front without forfeiting his claim on our attention; explanations on matters of this sort seem out of date with modern scientists. I can only suppose that Mr. Allen regards himself as having taken a brief, as it were, for the production of a popular work, and feels more bound to consider the interests of the gentleman who pays him than to say what he really thinks; for surely Mr. Allen would not have written as he did in such a distinctly philosophical and scientific journal as “Mind” without weighing his words, and nothing has transpired lately, _apropos_ of evolution, which will account for his present recantation. I said in my book “Selections,” &c., that when Mr. Allen made stepping-stones of his dead selves, he jumped upon them to some tune. I was a little scandalised then at the completeness and suddenness of the movement he executed, and spoke severely; I have sometimes feared I may have spoken too severely, but his recent performance goes far to warrant my remarks.