512 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The Processes of History. By Frederick J. Teggart. [Pp. ix + 162.] (New 

 Haven : Yale University Press ; Oxford University Press, 1918. Price 



81-25.) 



Prof. Teggart, of the University of California, aims in this book at dealing with 

 historical material by the methods of science. He desires to do for human history 

 what biologists are doing "for the history of the forms of life," and attempts to 

 analyse "the factors and processes manifested in the history of man." 



The book is typical of a large proportion of modern American literature. It 

 embodies an idea of considerable interest and value ; it shows penetration and 

 shrewdness ; but suffers from a certain vagueness and lack of colour in working 

 out the idea in the concrete. It is easy to read the book, without disagreeing 

 with any part of it, and yet to feel that nothing particular has been accomplished 

 in doing so. The book is a discussion, rather than a treatise leading up to positive 

 conclusions. Positive conclusions, nevertheless, there are : though of an ill- 

 defined character. The author points out the fallacy of supposing that " progress " 

 is natural to man. On the contrary, he holds progress to be exceptional ; and the 

 first subject of study must be the processes " that make for fixity and stagnation." 

 These in the main are the limitations of thought, imposed upon every individual 

 by the traditions of his human environment, by his education, and by the general 

 social tendency towards a fixation of existing ideas. Various factors tend, however, 

 to bring about change by slow and small steps. Deeper and more sudden 

 changes are due to national conflicts which subvert the former "idea-systems" of 

 the groups involved in the struggle, emancipate the mind from its normal shackles, 

 and leave the ground ready for new systems. Such subversions may be felt as 

 public calamity or personal loss, but they lead to a break-up of the old, and to 

 initiation of new ideas. 



In doctrines of such wide generality, there is not much to be said by way of 

 criticism. The author is well equipped for his task ; and it may be hoped that 

 he will later on pursue the subject into somewhat more precise channels and more 

 concrete conclusions than are here presented. 



Hugh Elliot. 



War. By Ronald Campbell Macfie, M.D., LL.D. [Pp. viii + 72.] 

 (London : John Murray, 191 8. Price 3^. 6d. net.) 



A man with a fly in his eye cannot do justice to a landscape, however beautiful. 

 In discussing Dr. Campbell Macfie's fine poem, it is advisable first to get rid of the 

 fly. No sane critic will object to an archaism or neologism as such. Le poete 

 prend son Men oil il le trouve, and the only criterion of success is "does it 

 come off?" Now, when Dr. Macfie, talking of the beginnings of vegetable life, 

 speaks of " a spark of green, a little speck, a tiny spore ... on the vast savannahs 

 of the shore," the word " savannahs " seems to us admirable ; or, again, when 

 describing the cooling of the earth, he says "A clattering clinker fell of iron 

 snow," we not only seem to witness but actually hear the very effect he describes. 



But there are several words and phrases which unfortunately evoke reminis- 

 cences of the Jabberwock or of Oliver Wendell Holmes' "evase, erump," such as 

 "the tenuous ghosts that . . . swither and sweat," the "blore of tempest," "the 

 phrentic tide ," '■'luting" (twice), "incalescent," "the tabid tundra-land." 



And now we have disposed of the fly, let us hasten to do homage to a 

 magnificent theme often magnificently thought out, especially in its opening 



