5 8o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



improvement of the Criminal Law." They have been well advised in selecting 

 Tarde's Treatise, for it amply justifies their thesis. Tarde was at the same time 

 a philosopher and a practical man ; his philosophy, based upon a wide observation, 

 which was prompted and directed by a mind of extraordinary versatility and, what 

 too seldom accompanies versatility, precision ; his practice was guided by his 

 philosophy, which again was based upon a shrewd and instinctive common-sense. 

 As M. Bergson pointed out, Tarde was not one of those philosophers who set 

 out with a theory, and devote their labours to establishing it. He set out rather 

 with a mind alert, individual, sensitive, and in itself so well balanced and adjusted 

 that it made the natural and the right response to facts, seeing them justly, feeling 

 them accurately, and interpreting them in such a fashion as to fuse them into 

 a theory, which shows itself to be no subtle invention of the author, but rather 

 his discovery by a law, a principle of unity and intelligibility in things 

 themselves. 



It may be expected, and it is certainly much to be hoped, that Penal Philosophy ■, 

 not a new book, as we have seen, and already well known, may in this new form 

 make its way among many readers whom it has not hitherto reached. Produced 

 now, in very clear and vigorous English, for which the translator deserves high 

 praise, it is intended primarily for lawyers, and they will no doubt welcome it ; 

 but it will receive a welcome, we are confident, not only from them. It deserves 

 and should receive careful attention from those who are concerned (and who are 

 not ?) in any way with social problems and sociological investigations, from students 

 of history and anthropology and of philosophy generally. It lends powerful 

 support to the belief, constantly repeated, but perhaps rarely entertained with 

 vivid conviction, in the reality and organic development of Society. 



In criticism as well as in construction it is a great achievement. The question 

 of freedom is dealt with in a vigorous and penetrating discussion ; the theoretical 

 and practical defects, both of philosophical and of scientific determinism, are 

 adroitly and convincingly exhibited ; the doctrine that responsibility rests upon 

 freedom of the will is examined in an admirable analysis and rejected, respectfully 

 but definitely. The writer recalls Rameau's distinction drawn between the "will 

 of all" and "the general will" in an eloquent passage on the efficacy of punish- 

 ments, and the reason for which they are imposed. While refusing to admit 

 " utility " as the justification and ground of punishment, he strikes the " utilitarians " 

 with their own weapon, and yet his thrust is as gentle as it is well aimed, for 

 he finds in them a certain inconsistency — their plea is "aesthetic" after all. 

 Responsibility rests, we learn, upon identity of the self and upon similarity of 

 environment ; and to substantiate his position the writer traverses the territory 

 of the alienist and the religious teacher ; he considers the phenomena of madness 

 and of conversion ; and considers the question whether a new-comer to a society, 

 the traditions of which are wholly unlike those in which he was himself brought 

 up, can be regarded as " criminal " if he violates its rules and customs. 



It is not necessary to agree with Tarde in order to admire him ; it is impossible 

 to read a page of his work without receiving the stimulus which is to be derived 

 from witnessing the operations of an intellect, fearless and generous, as it occupies 

 itself with problems which, while they specially attract students in a particular 

 field of human inquiry, get their significance for such students because they touch 

 human experience and rouse human inquiry beyond the borders of any single 

 profession. 



E. T. C. 



