LITERARY NOTICES. 



751 



In discussing his second [third] prob- 

 lem, " From the Known to the Unknown," 

 the author analyzes the process of the 

 growth of knowledge ; the operation called 

 by logicians Judgment ; the process of 

 Ratiocination ; Induction, Deduction, and 

 Reduction. He points out the capital error 

 of the subjective or speculative method of 

 advancing from the known to the unknown, 

 as distinguished from the objective or sci- 

 entific method. The metaphysical thinker 

 imposes his conceptions on phenomena, in- 

 stead of observing them-; he trusts the va- 

 lidity of inferences he has not tested. The 

 scientific thinker, on the contrary, is, or 

 ought to be, on his guard against unveri- 

 fied deduction, and treats it as a tentative 

 process. The process called by the author 

 Reduction serves in the hands of the sci- 

 entific investigator as a check, a test, of his 

 Inductions and deductions. Deduction and 

 induction extend knowledge by generalizing 

 acquired results, but reduction criticises 

 these results retraces their formation step 

 by step, and thus gives to inference a firm 

 basis on sensation. Thus checked and 

 tested at every step, induction and deduc- 

 tion become very serviceable instruments 

 for the discovery of truth. Without such 

 checks and tests their results are simply il- 

 lusory. 



But space fails us to follow the author 

 in his discussion of the remaining three 

 problems, " Matter and Force," " Force and 

 Cause," and " The Absolute in the Correla- 

 tions of Feeling and Motion." This work 

 of Mr. Lewes is undoubtedly entitled to 

 rank among the highest intellectual efforts 

 of the age. 



Printing for the Blind. Report of a Com- 

 mittee of the Social Science Associa- 

 tion, at the General Session in Detroit, 

 Michigan, May, 1875. Boston : Alfred 

 Mudge & Son, Printers. 



Tins report would have been more sat- 

 isfactory had it been prepared by some per- 

 son familiar with the education of the blind. 

 Some of its statements are so remarkable 

 that we are unwilling to accept them until 

 they have been indorsed by those actually 

 engaged in the work of teaching the blind. 

 In it we are informed that the blind acquire 

 knowledge through reading "painfully," 

 that " they study geography, algebra, and 



geometry under heavy disadvantages ; " 

 that " composition is for them very diffi- 

 cult because of the time and labor required 

 for the mechanical operation of writing;" 

 that "even the best -equipped asylums 

 {sic) are but scantily provided with the 

 most indispensable tools for studying geog- 

 raphy and arithmetic." All this is con- 

 trary to the generally-received opinions in 

 reference to the education of the blind. 

 We have heard that blind children of ten- 

 der years learn to read quickly and easily 

 with their fingers ; and that they enjoy 

 " Robinson Crusoe " and the " Old Curios- 

 ity-Shop," for example, as much as any chil- 

 dren. We had supposed, too, that in the 

 study of mathematics the blind possessed 

 some advantages. We had supposed that the 

 art of composition was the hardest to teach 

 to deaf-mutes, and that eminent blind writ- 

 ers as well as blind mathematicians were 

 numerous. There is no other appliance 

 for instructing children, whether sighted or 

 blind, in geography, so complete as dissect- 

 ed relief-maps. We doubt whether in all 

 the schools of New York such maps are to 

 be found except in the two schools for the 

 blind. Was it elsewhere than in a school 

 for the blind that Mr. Ruggles conceived 

 the ideas of his inventions for facilitating 

 the education of the blind ? For this re- 

 port recommends the founding of an insti- 

 tution to devise and construct such appli- 

 ances entirely separate from any school for 

 the blind. And its authors find indorsement 

 for this scheme in a resolution adopted by 

 the Association of Teachers for the Blind, 

 which, as we read it, simply declares that 

 that Association had found it impossible to 

 work with Mr. Ruggles. This report pre- 

 sents but one side of the case. We shall 

 wait to hear the other side, that of the 

 teachers of the blind, before we decide 

 upon the subject. 



Report of the Astronomer Rotal to the 

 Board of Visitors of the Royal Ob- 

 servatory, Greenwich. Read at the 

 Annual Visitation of the Royal Observa- 

 tory, June 5, 1875. 



In 1835 the present Astronomer Royal 

 (then Director of the Observatory of the 

 University of Cambridge, England) was 

 called to fill the most important astronom- 

 ical post in the world, namely, the director- 



