LITERARY NOTICES. 



701 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Handbook of Psychology. Senses and In- 

 tellect. 1890. Pp. 343. $1.80. Hand- 

 book of Psychology. Feeling and Will. 

 1894. Pp. 339. $2. Elements of Psy- 

 chology. 1892. Pp. $1.50. By James 

 Mark Baldwin, Stuart Professor of Psy- 

 chology in Princeton University. New 

 York: "Henry Holt & Co. 



Prof. Baldwin expresses the hope in 

 the preface to Senses and Intellect that no 

 book upon psychology will hereafter sat- 

 isfy the requirements of higher education for 

 more than a generation. He says that the 

 philosophical conception of the sphere and 

 function of psychology now prevalent is 

 widely different from that of twenty years 

 ago, when many of the works were written 

 which are yet used as introduction and 

 strong support to the philosophy taught in 

 the universities " the new conception, name- 

 ly, that psychology is a science of fact, its 

 questions are questions of fact, and that the 

 treatment of hypotheses must be as rigorous 

 and critical as competent scientists are accus- 

 tomed to demand in other departments of 

 research." It is no new complaint that out- 

 worn and effete ideas continue to drag 

 through school books long after they have 

 been exploded in the world of living science. 

 The hypothesis of caloric was still taught to 

 the young when the doctrine of the correla- 

 tion and conservation of forces had become 

 firmly established in the minds of scientific 

 men. The old dual chemistry held on in 

 education, though all out of harmony with 

 well-known facts, and though discussion and 

 speculation were rife concerning the chem- 

 ical constitution of bodies. When at last 

 the compilers of text-books could no longer 

 ignore the new state of things and seriously 

 undertook to keep their works abreast of dis- 

 covery, the advance was so rapid that new 

 books and new editions were needed every 

 eight or ten years at most It is the same 

 now in psychology. The accumulation of 

 facts in this field and the activity of specu- 

 lation about them are quite as remarkable. 

 Since the appearance of Prof. Bain's great 

 work on the Senses and Intellect forty years 

 ago, wherein the physical basis of mind for 

 the first time received adequate treatment in 

 a book of instruction, there has been a most 



productive activity of observation, experir 

 ment, inquiry, and speculation, and several 

 new divisions of psychological science have 

 taken distinct form. Not to speak of psy- 

 chiatry, or abnormal psychology, we have 

 psychometry, psychophysics, and neurology 

 pursued independently and with promising 

 results. An excellent feature also is his 

 " Further Problems for Study," given at the 

 end of each chapter, indicating partially un- 

 explored fields in which students may engage 

 themselves in an original way. It is thus 

 that tastes are strengthened in early life, 

 that character is formed, and philosophers 

 are made. When, therefore, the attempt is 

 made to give such a presentation of the sci- 

 ence as will meet the needs of our higher 

 education and of an intelligent reading pub- 

 lic, great judgment is required in choosing 

 and rejecting material lest the work over- 

 run all practical bounds, like that of Prof. 

 James's, or for the most part omit the dis- 

 cussion of unsettled questions, like Sully's. 

 A judicial quality is also needed to enable 

 the author to deal fairly and in proper pro- 

 portion with all branches of his vast subject. 

 Prof. Baldwin's handbook may be com- 

 mended in both these directions. He not 

 only gives the facts, but he discusses theo- 

 ries and presents the important aspects of 

 disputed questions. He does not burden the 

 text with difficult points that are unsettled, 

 but puts them in smaller print for students 

 who like to know all sides and to go to the 

 bottom of the case. 



The first volume of the handbook, Senses 

 and Intellect, opens with a short introduc- 

 tion, of which Chapter I is on the nature of 

 psychology, Chapter II on method, and Chap- 

 ter III on classification. Part I, containing 

 two chapters, deals with the general char- 

 acteristics of consciousness and attention. 

 Part II, on the intellect, has nine chapters, 

 and the book concludes with a short chapter 

 on The Rational Function. 



Oddly enough, we have to wait till the 

 second volume, On Feeling and Will, before 

 we are given an account of the structure and 

 functions of the nervous system. Why this 

 is so does not appear, although it is evi- 

 dently by design. Prof. Baldwin states the 

 truth about the connection between mind 

 and body plainly enough, but does not empha- 

 size it or enlarge upon it. Perhaps he had 



