LITERARY NOTICES. 



419 



Problems of American Anthropology pre- 

 sent themselves to the English Mind"; an 

 essay by Mr. F. A. Seeley on " The Genesis 

 of Inventions " ; and a presidential address 

 by J. W. Powell on "From Savagery to 

 Barbarism." 



Essays on Educational Reformers. By 

 Robert Hebert Quick. Syracuse, N. Y. : 

 C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 330. Price, 1.50. 



The author takes for the motto of his 

 essays the words of Dr. Arnold: "It is 

 clear that, in whatever it is our duty to act, 

 those matters also it is our duty to study." 

 Being a teacher, he considers it his duty to 

 study what has been done to advance the 

 art of teaching, and this he does by study- 

 ing the lives of those who have introduced 

 new features into the work of teaching and 

 examining their work. In the list are in- 

 cluded the schools of the Jesuits, Roger 

 Ascham, Montaigne, Ratich, Milton, Coine- 

 nius, Locke, Rousseau, Basedow, Pestalozzi, 

 Jacolot, and Herbert Spencer. While the 

 author differs from Mr. Spencer in some of 

 his conclusions, he agrees with him " that 

 we are bound to inquire into the relative 

 value of knowledges, and if we take, as I 

 should willingly do, Mr. Spencer's test, and 

 ask how does this or that knowledge influ- 

 ence action (including in our inquiry its 

 influence on mind and character, through 

 which it bears upon action), I think we 

 should banish from our schools much that 

 has hitherto been taught in them." In a 

 chapter of " Thoughts and Suggestions " a 

 consideration of the ordinary methods of 

 school-teaching leads to the conclusion that 

 in subjects other than classics and mathe- 

 matics they are very commonly a failure, 

 and a failure the teaching "must remain 

 until boys can be got to work with a will 

 in other words, to feel an interest in the 

 subjects taught." To this end, and to 

 make the instruction serve its purpose, the 

 effort should be made to teach things rather 

 than words, and of things, not the dry de- 

 tails of the outside, but those points which 

 concern their essence. 



The Late Mrs. Null. By Frank R. Stock- 

 ton. New York : Charles Scribner's 

 Sons. Pp. 437. Price, $1.50. 



Mr. Stockton is the author of " Rudder 

 Grange," a short story, or episode, of do- 



mestic life, which has been commended in 

 the " Monthly " as full of harmless though 

 somewhat extravagant fun ; and he is well 

 known as the successful author of other 

 sketches which furnish enjoyable though 

 idle reading. In " The Late Mrs. Null" he 

 attempts a more elaborate story, or " his 

 first novel." 



Hobbes. By George Croom Robertson. 

 Edinburgh and London : William Black- 

 wood & Sons. Pp. 240, with Portrait. 



This is the tenth in the series of " Phil- 

 osophical Classics for English Readers," 

 by various authors, edited by Dr. William 

 Knight, and has been preceded by volumes 

 on Descartes, Butler, Berkeley, Fichte, Kant, 

 Hamilton, Hegel, Leibnitz, and Vico. What- 

 ever may be the merits of Hobbes's work, 

 he has, as the author observes, left a broad 

 mark in the history of the English mind. 

 It is sought in this book to bring together 

 all the previously known or now discover- 

 able facts of his life, and to give some kind 

 of fairly balanced representation of the 

 whole range of his thought, instead of 

 dwelling only upon those humanistic por- 

 tions of it by which he has commonly been 

 judged. The account of his " System " has 

 been imbedded in the "Life," because, 

 "more than of any other philosopher, it 

 can be said of Hobbes that the key to a 

 right understanding of his thought " is to be 

 found in his personal circumstances and the 

 events of his time." If a man's influence, 

 the author observes in the concluding chap- 

 ter of the book, and after having related 

 the controversies he provoked, " is to be 

 measured not least by the opposition that 

 he arouses, we have already had proof that 

 few thinkers have left a deeper trace upon 

 their time than Hobbes." It was not only 

 at home that he exerted influence or called 

 forth strenuous hostility, but abroad as 

 well. In England, so far as he has exerted 

 an influence in philosophy proper, "it has 

 been of the indirect kind wrought through 

 psychological science. As psychology has 

 a voice in the determination of ultimate 

 philosophical notions that belongs to no 

 other positive science, Hobbes has done 

 more for philosophy by promoting the posi- 

 tive investigation of mental functions than 

 by the abstract definitions of his own ' First 

 Philosophy,' acutely conceived as these al- 



