LITERARY NOTICES. 



559 



ter VII, on ""Writing," takes up the sub- 

 ject of picture-writing, and the formation 

 of alphabets. 



Chapters VIII, IX, X, and XI, deal 

 with the origin and development of the 

 " Arts of Life," as shown in the construc- 

 tion of weapons, tools, machines, dwellings, 

 clothing, in the means of navigation, in 

 cookery and domestic processes, glass- and 

 metal-working, money, and the operations 

 of commerce. 



Chapter XII delineates the origin and 

 history of the "Arts of Pleasure," poetry, 

 music, dancing, drama, painting, sculpture, 

 and games ; and Chapter XIII is an excel- 

 lent monograph on the origin and growth of 

 " Science." 



In Chapter XIV, under the title of "The 

 Spirit World," the religions of the lower 

 races are taken up, and a description is 

 given of the origin and influence of primitive 

 ideas of souls, a future life, demons, gods, 

 and worship. Chapter XV treats of " History 

 and Mythology " ; and Chapter XVI, which 

 is the last, and entitled "Society," discusses 

 the social stages, the family, property, jus- 

 tice, social ranks, and the growth of gov- 

 ernment. 



It will be seen, from this brief synoptical 

 view of the contents of his volume, that 

 Mr. Tylor covers broad ground, but it will 

 be found that the treatment of his topics is 

 remarkably full and satisfactory. We cor- 

 dially recommend his book to all students 

 who desire to make a systematic study of 

 man a part of their education, and we may 

 add that the ordinary reader will find it full 

 of interest and instruction. 



Illusions: A Psychological Study. By 

 James Sully. Xew York : D. Appleton 

 & Co. Pp. 372. International Scien- 

 tific Series No. XXXIV, Price, $1.50. 



The author of this work is now well 

 known to the scholarly world by his original 

 and comprehensive treatises on " Sensation 

 and Intuition," and on " Pessimism," He 

 is entirely familiar with modern philosophi- 

 cal problems, and has given critical atten- 

 tion to the bearings of science upon the 

 class of questions that has interested him. 



In the present volume he has taken up 

 the subject of " Illusions " from a new point 

 of view. Hitherto illusions have been com- 



monly regarded as of the nature of mental 

 aberrations or hallucinations, excluding the 

 idea of sane intelligence. Illusions from 

 this standpoint are allied to insanity, and 

 their study is considered as belonging to the 

 professional alienist or the physician occu- 

 pied with mental derangements. There is, 

 of course, abundant ground for this treat- 

 ment of the subject, but Mr. Sully assumes 

 that the subject has a far wider aspect, and 

 can by no means be properly confined to the 

 domain of pathology. 



The author considers, on the other hand, 

 that the liability to illusion is natural, and 

 that it is but a part of that capacity for 

 error which belongs essentially to rational 

 human nature. All men err, some more 

 habitually and more widely than others ; but 

 there are errors of illusion that belong to 

 the normal operation of the human facul- 

 ties, the study of which is quite as much 

 related to the physiology as to the pathol- 

 ogy of mind. It is therefore a legitimate 

 problem of the psychologist who analyzes 

 the conditions of sound and healthy mental 

 action. 



From this point of view the author re- 

 marks : " In the present volume an attempt 

 will be made to work out the psychological 

 side of the subject ; that is to say, illusions 

 will be viewed in their relation to the proc- 

 ess of just and accurate perception. In 

 the carrying out of this plan our principal 

 attention will be given to the manifestations 

 of the illusory impulse in normal life. At 

 the same time, though no special acquaint- 

 ance with the pathology of the subject will 

 be laid claim to, frequent references will be 

 be made to the illusions of the insane. In- 

 deed, it will be found that the two groups 

 of phenomena the illusions of the normal 

 and of the abnormal condition are so simi- 

 lar, and pass into one another by such in- 

 sensible gradations, that it is impossible to 

 discuss the one apart from the other. The 

 view of illusion which will be adopted in 

 this work is that it constitutes a kind of 

 border-land between perfectly sane and vig- 

 orous mental life and dementia." 



Thus regarded, the study of illusions be- 

 comes properly a branch of logic ; that is, it 

 involves fundamentally the discrimination 

 of that which is true from that which is 

 false. The author at the outset makes a 



