LITERARY NOTICES. 



415 



A Memoir on Loxolophodon and Uinta- 

 thehum, by Henry P. Osborn, Se. D. ; 

 accompanied by a Stratigraphical Re- 

 port of the Bridger Beds in the Wa- 

 shakie Basin, by John Bach Mc.M aster, 

 C. E., Princeton, Now Jersey. Pp. 54, 

 with Four Plates, a Map, and a Profile. 



Besides its ample collection of speci- 

 mens for college instruction, the E. M. 

 Museum of Geology and Archaeology of 

 Princeton College contains a large amount 

 of material for more advanced study in 

 the shape of fossils new to science, mainly 

 collected by the college scientific expe- 

 ditious of 1877 and 1878. The paleon- 

 tologists aud biologists connected with the 

 museum have decided to place the results 

 of their studies in a permanent and suitable 

 form before the scientific public; and, in 

 pursuance of this resolve, begin, with this 

 pair of monographs, a series of memoirs, in 

 quarto, of more mature researches, in ad- 

 dition to the bulletins of their current work 

 which they have published since 1S7S. 

 There are many persons not acquainted with 

 the early history of the institution who 

 might be glad to know the meaning of the 

 initials E. M., in the name of the museum. 



A Sketch of Ancient Philosophy, from 

 Thales to Cicero. By Joseph B. Mayor, 

 M. A., Professor of Moral Philosophy at 

 King's College. New York : Macmillan 

 & Co. Pp. 254. Price, 75 cents. 



The large divisions of this work are 

 three, as follows : (A.) The Socratic Philos- 

 ophy of Nature. (B.) Socrates to Aristotle 

 Philosophy of Nature and Man. (C.) 

 Post-Aristotelian Philosophy of Man. 



Under these divisions there is given an 

 account of 1. The Ionic School; 2. The 

 Italic School ; 3. The Ionico-Italic School ; 

 4. The Sophists; 5. Socrates; 6. The 

 Cynics; 7. The Cyrenaics ; 8. Plato; 9. 

 Aristotle; 10. The Peripatetics; 11. The 

 Skeptics; 12. The Old Academy; 13. The 

 Skeptical Academy ; 14. Stoicism; 15. Epi- 

 cureanism; 16. Eclecticism; 17. Cicero. 



As to the treatment, it is brief ; but quite 

 sufficient and most scholarly so much so, 

 indeed, as quite to unfit the book for gen- 

 eral use. It abounds with Latin and Greek 

 quotations that are not translated, and this 

 was in accordance with the author's plan, 

 which was to prepare a book expressly for 



students acquiring these languages. It is, 

 therefore, properly " A Classical Student's 

 Ancient Philosophy," and the author in- 

 tends it for " undergraduates at the uni- 

 versity," or others who are commencing the 

 study of the philosophical works of Cicero, 

 Plato, or Aristotle, in the original lan- 

 guage." Nothing could certainly be more 

 sensible than to furnish them at the outset 

 in English what they propose to get in the 

 original, but by all experience very rarely do 

 get. The author complains of his own be- 

 wilderment in early student days when he 

 was put upon the works of the classical 

 masters, and proposes to help those simi- 

 larly situated. But the question remains, 

 Is it worth while, after all, to go beyond what 

 is communicable in English ? 



Professor Mayor, of course, thinks it is, 

 as he is an inveterate classicist ; but he fur- 

 nishes a fine example of the blinding and 

 distorting bias of classical studies. Having 

 given his life to the study of the ancients, 

 all his feelings go in ..the direction of his 

 work, so that he has become a devout wor- 

 shiper of the ancients. We will not say 

 that Professor Mayor is ignorant of modern 

 science, but it is obvious that from his clas- 

 sical prejudices he has but little interest in 

 it, but little sympathy with it, and therefore 

 no just appreciation of its proper influence 

 or true value. The author is a Professor 

 of Moral Philosophy in King's College, and 

 ought, therefore, to be intelligent on this 

 subject, yet he says: "Is there any modern 

 work of systematic morality which could be 

 compared with Aristotle's ' Ethics,' for its 

 power of stimulating moral thought ? Most 

 moderns appear to write under the con- 

 sciousness that they arc uttering truisms ; 

 or, if they escape from this, it is by running 

 off from the main highway of morality into 

 by-paths of psychology, or physiology, or 

 sociology." Does he think, then, that the 

 laws of mind, the laws of life, and the laws 

 of social relations, as determined by mod- 

 ern science, have no bearing upon the laws 

 of human action and conduct ? Have the 

 nature, constitution, and conditions of man 

 nothing to do with his obligations ? 



The author agrees with Clement of Alex- 

 andria that " philosophy was to the Greek 

 what the law was to the Jew, the school- 

 master to bring him to Christ " ; but to what 



