LITERARY NOTICES. 



26g 



Don't insist on making things out sim- 

 pler than they really are ; on the 

 other hand 



Don't affect far-fetched and over-elabo- 

 rate explanations. 



Don't be overwise. "Why should you 

 make a fool of yourself? 



Don't imagine that anything is gained 

 by juggling with words or by evad- 

 ing difficulties. 



Don't refuse to change the point of 

 view of a question, if requested by 

 an opponent to do so. A true con- 

 clusion can not be invalidated by any 

 legitimate process of argument. 



Don't be inordinately surprised when a 

 man who knows quite as much as you 

 do on a given subject, and perhaps a 

 little more, does not agree with you 

 in your conclusions thereon. Try 

 the effect of being surprised that you 

 don't agree with him. 



Don't keep on hand too many cut-and- 

 dried theories. A foot-rule is a con- 

 venient thing for a carpenter to car- 

 ry about with him ; but a man who 

 is always " sizing up " other people's 

 opinions by a private rule of his own 

 is apt to be a bore. 



Don't be in a hurry to attribute bad 

 motives or dishonest tactics to an op- 

 ponent. Try to get an outside view 

 of your own motives and tactics. 



Don't refuse to hold your judgment 

 in suspense when the evidence is not 

 sufficient to warrant a conclusion. 



Don't imagine that, because you have got 

 a few new phrases at your tongue's 

 end, yon have all the stock-in-trade 

 of a philosopher, still less that you 

 are a philosopher. 



Don't try to express your meaning till 

 you have made it clear to yourself. 



Don't argue for the sake of arguing; 

 always have some practical and use- 

 ful object in view, or else hold your 

 peace. 



Don't grudge imparting what you know, 

 and do it with simplicity. 



Don't prosecute any study out of idle 

 curiosity or vanity. If you have time 



for intellectual work, be a serious and 



honest worker. 

 Don't be too eager to "get credit" for 



what you do. 

 Don't undervalue the work of others. 



Here we have a score or so of max- 

 ims of the prohibitive kind, and the 

 number might be indefinitely increased. 

 There is no doubt the intellectual prog- 

 ress of the world might be hastened, 

 and the good order and harmony of so- 

 ciety greatly improved, if these precepts 

 and others like unto them were more 

 carefully observed. Whether we get an- 

 other " Don't " manual or not, sensible 

 people should think of these things, and 

 try to bring their intellectual habits at 

 least up to a level with their social ones. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC 8EEIES. 

 VOL. LIV. 



Comparative Literature. By Hutcheson 

 Macaulay Posnett, M. A., LL. D., 

 F. L. S., Barrister-at-Law, Professor of 

 Classics and English Literature, Uni- 

 versity College, Auckland, New Zealand, 

 author of "The Historical Method. 1 ' 

 New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1885. 



This is in many ways a remarkable book. 

 For some years, not many to be sure, a cer- 

 tain number of critics have been urging: the 

 necessity of applying to the study of litera- 

 ture the principles of scientific treatment 

 which has brought forth rich fruit from 

 many seemingly arid sources. While they 

 have been apostrophizing vaguely on the 

 general need of some such change, and gen- 

 erally with but little apparent success, we 

 have in this volume tangible proof of the 

 good results that the method can produce 

 in competent hands. Naturally enough, the 

 mere novelty of the theory excites angry 

 surprise ; then, too, the venerable habit of 

 regarding literature and science as two irrec- 

 oncilable poles of thought has opposed the 

 recognition of the inevitable advance of sci- 

 ence into every department of investigation, 

 and it has been held it is still held that 

 genius is something which defies analysis 

 as it defies definition ; that it was only neces- 

 sary to have a creative mind to create mas- 

 terpieces ; and that to attempt to show how 



