REVIEWS 



PHILOSOPHY 



Life and Human Nature. By Sir Bampfylde Fuller, K.C.S.I., CLE. 

 [Pp. xi + 339.] (London : John Murray, 1914. Price gs. net.) 



The distinguished author of this book claims to derive special qualifications for 

 his task from the fact that he has travelled widely, come in contact with many 

 different races of mankind, and spent many years of his life in the government of 

 men. Yet it is certainly true that there exists in the ordinary affairs of life some- 

 thing of an antithesis between theory and practice. Sir Bampfylde Fuller would 

 probably be of the opinion that a scholar who had passed his life in laboratories 

 and libraries would not thereby become fitted for the practical work of govern- 

 ment. And it may, perhaps, be permitted to a scholar to doubt whether a large 

 experience of practical affairs is of much value in the region of theory. We do not 

 expect from a politician any important contributions to the theory of government ; 

 nor do we expect from a prostitute much new light on the psychology of love. 

 These people do, indeed, come in contact with certain kinds of facts, and they 

 learn more or less unconsciously that certain things are commonly associated 

 together. But their information is quite empirical and unsystematic. It is not lit 

 up by analysis and synthesis : it is superficial, sufficient for their purpose, but not 

 truly rational. A whole multitude of convergent facts may not suffice to an 

 uninstructed man to reach a generalisation ; whereas to a trained mind the one- 

 hundredth part of those observations would issue in a clear and definite conclusion. 

 These reflections are to a large extent borne out by a perusal of the present 

 book. The ideas which underlie the book are not in any case original, but just such 

 as are commonly held by the average well-informed man, who has spent the 

 greater part of his life doing other things. The fads which illustrate those ideas 

 are, on the other hand, often interesting and sometimes novel ; but it may be 

 pointed out that illustration would, in any case, present no difficulty, for abundance 

 of familiar facts might be named in support, or apparent support, of all these ideas. 

 If Sir Bampfylde had limited himself to a mere exposition of his special experi- 

 ences he would probably have been more successful than he has been in his efforts 

 at analysis. But he did not do so : on the contrary, the book is dominated 

 throughout by ideas derived from a course of reading, which appears to have been 

 of somewhat uncritical character. Most prominent among these are the theories 

 of Bergson, and the old story of a conflict between life and matter. A doctrine of 

 human nature founded upon a metaphysical theory is inevitably like a house built 

 upon the sand. This is still more true when the writer has only had time for the 

 study of science and metaphysics in the spare moments of a busy life. Those 

 studies cannot, in these days, be adequately dealt with as the secondary hobbies of 

 a man of affairs ; they demand the exclusive time and attention of a mind 

 developed by intense cultivation, and a knowledge infinitely wider than can be 

 embraced within the first-hand experience of any single man. 



Thus we find statements of a somewhat elementary character in this book. 



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