SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



659 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



KANT AND THE NEBULAR 

 HYPOTHESIS. 



Pbofessor Hastie, of Glasgow, has 

 added to his long list of editions and 

 translations a book which he calls 

 'Kant's Cosmogony' (Macmillan). It 

 forms a substantial addition to our 

 knowledge in two distinct fields. In 

 the first place, on the philosophical 

 side, it throws important light upon 

 some early phases of Kant's thought 

 and upon the problems he was revolv- 

 ing years before he began the critical 

 philosophy. In the second place, it con- 

 tains a most interesting and, in many 

 respects, valuable apparatus dealing 

 with a chapter in the history of the in- 

 teraction between scientific investiga- 

 tion and metaphysical speculation. Dr. 

 Hastie's translation of Kant's 'Universal 

 Natural History and Theory of the 

 Heavens' forms the main central por- 

 tion of the book. Around this he has 

 grouped other material, making a most 

 convenient collection. His own intro- 

 duction contains an account of the 

 status of Kant's nebular hypothesis, of 

 its place in the lifework of this thinker, 

 of its relation to other cosmogonies, of 

 its later influence and fortunes, and the 

 like, while he has added appendices af- 

 fording useful sidelights on the whole 

 discussion. In one of these, Thomas 

 Wright, of Durham, a forgotten English 

 physicist, is conclusively proved to be, 

 so far as our present knowledge goes, 

 the forerunner of Kant and the other 

 writers, to whom we owe the first 

 adumbrations of the view now generally 

 accepted regarding the ultimate nature 

 of the physical universe. A portrait of 

 this worthy is reproduced. Dr. Hastie 

 shows, too, how Kant was a forerunner 

 of Darwin. And in this connection, 

 though not directly, he hints the great 

 difference in standpoint between the 



static science of the eighteenth, and the 

 dynamic science of the nineteenth, cen- 

 tury. "Give me matter and I will build 

 a world out of it. Can we truly claim 

 such a vantage ground in speaking of 

 the least plant or insect? Must we not 

 here stop at the first step, from our ig- 

 norance of the real inner constitution of 

 the object? The structure of plants and 

 animals exhibits an adaptation for 

 which the universal and necessary laws 

 of nature are insufficient." So Kant 

 wrote, from the static standpoint. But 

 his own view, all unknown to him, al- 

 ready involved dynamic categories. For 

 its scholarship in the history of thought, 

 for its clear knowledge of the scope and 

 meaning of scientific advance, and for 

 its eminent fairness of spirit, this book 

 is to be strongly commended. The vol- 

 ume is dedicated to Lord Kelvin, as one 

 of the men of science who have done full 

 justice to Kant's attainments in the do- 

 main of 'the astronomical view of the 

 universe.' 



KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF. 



Judging from the author's remarks 

 in his preface, Mr. F. S. Turner's 

 'Knowledge, Belief and Certitude' (Mac- 

 millan) has long been in preparation. 

 As a result the argument is clearly 

 stated, the various points following upon 

 one another consecutively. The book 

 furnishes a typical specimen of English 

 philosophical writing. Indulging in no 

 flights of speculation, the writer keeps 

 firm grasp on what he sees, and so is 

 able to give an account of himself which 

 any intelligent reader can master. In 

 fact, his book commends itself as a ser 

 viceable introduction to the problems 

 with which science and philosophy deal. 

 It is divided into two 'Books.' The first 

 considers 'Abstract Knowledge.' Under 

 this head consciousness is distinguished 



