The vividness and directness of the style is second only to the bracing and stimulating quality of the matter. This book comes nearer than anything we now think of among American publications to successfully popularizing the results of science without debilitating or misinterpreting the same. The first papers of the book particularly emulate the clearness of Huxley.... It compels assent to the dreaded "new way of looking at things," but in such a way that when the assent is given the dread is all gone. It is a good book for the busy preacher on account of its wealth of facts, so arranged as to reveal the thought that lies back of each fact. Each conclusion suggests a lesson.—Unity (Chicago).
Mr. Fiske, under the above title, makes his excursions through the realms of science, and evolves "evolution" in a most admirable manner—physical and psychical—by the "testimony of the rocks," and with wonderful wisdom explains the origin of matter and man so truthfully possible that it is accepted as exceedingly probable, if not certain, by the thoughtful reader. It is fascinating to read his proofs and speculations upon a subject grown so interesting, and the reader is disposed to apply the same term of praise upon his work as he bestowed upon Clifford: "Such scientific exposition as this is as beautiful as poetry."—Hartford Post.
Mr. Fiske is the master of an extremely lucid and attractive literary style, and brings to all questions which he discusses the fruits of a very industrious reading and examination of authorities.... Whether one agrees with him or not one cannot fail to receive much instruction and definite intellectual impulse from the reading of this volume.... While heartily dissenting from many of the views advanced in this book, we commend it to all students who care for the honest judgment of an honest man.—Christian Union.
THE DESTINY OF MAN, viewed in the Light of his Origin. 16mo, pp. 121, $1.00.
Contents: Man's Place in Nature as affected by the Copernican Theory; As affected by Darwinism; On the Earth there will never be a Higher Creature than Man; The Origin of Infancy; The Dawning of Consciousness; Lengthening of Infancy and Concomitant Increase of Brain Surface; Change in the Direction of the Working of Natural Selection; Growing Predominance of the Psychical Life; The Origins of Society and Morality; Improvableness of Man; Universal Warfare of Primeval Men; First checked by the Beginnings of Industrial Civilization; Methods of Political Development and Elimination of Warfare; End of the Working of Natural Selection upon Man; Throwing off the Brute-Inheritance; The Message of Christianity; The Question as to a Future Life.
Mr. Fiske has long held rank as one of the most profound and exact of American thinkers, and his little monograph will serve to extend that deserved fame among a class of readers who are not ordinarily interested in the literature of science. Mr. Fiske's book is, in a word, a plea for faith in the immortality of man, based on the doctrine of evolution. With a superb command of all the knowledge bearing upon the philosophy of Darwinism, to which he has himself been a noteworthy contributor, Mr. Fiske sums up in eloquent periods the process of evolutionary creation from the origin of infancy to the beginnings of industrial and political development which have made human society what it is to-day; and then, looking into the future, he foretells how natural selection, working on the lines already marked out, shall attain its perfect work. The whole argument, or rather exposition, is a marvel of condensation.—Boston Traveller.
Mr. Fiske has given us in his "Destiny of Man" a most attractive condensation of his views as expressed in his various other works. One is charmed by the directness and clearness of his style, his simple and pure English, and his evident knowledge of his subject.... Of one thing we may be sure, that none are leading us more surely or rapidly to the full truth than men like the author of this little book, who reverently study the works of God for the lessons which he would teach his children.—Christian Union (New York).
Professor Fiske is always interesting. His exposition, step by step, of the doctrine of evolution, is admirably adapted for those prejudiced against it to read—simple, pleasant, and clear, and expressly designed to disarm hostility by showing that it is by no means absolutely incompatible with accepted religious beliefs—at least, with their essential qualities.—Overland Monthly (San Francisco).