LITERARY NOTICES. 



115 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Principles op Mental Physiology: With 

 their Applications to the Training and 

 DiscipUne of the Mind, and the Study of 

 its Morbid Conditions. By William B. 

 Carpenter, M. D., LL. D. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. 737 pages. Price, 

 $3.00. 



As this work was announced to appear 

 in the " International Scientific Series," and 

 has been withdrawn from it, a word of expla- 

 nation is here desirable. In drawing up the 

 plan of this series, it was decided that one 

 of the books now most called for is a com- 

 pendious treatise upon the science of man, 

 based upon the intimate interactions of body 

 and mind, or what may be termed Mental 

 Physiology. While Prof. Bain took up the 

 theories of their relation as a philosophical 

 question, there was wanted a practical ex- 

 position of the science of Human Nature, 

 such as might become a text-book of guid- 

 ance and education in the general conduct 

 of life. Dr. Carpenter, whose numerous and 

 well-known physiological works covered this 

 ground more perfectly than those of any oth- 

 er author, was applied to as the most com- 

 petent man to prepare the work required. 

 When solicited to undertake it, although 

 much occupied with his active duties as 

 Registrar of the London University, and ab- 

 sorbed in a course of special scientific in- 

 quiries, he cordially consented, and at once 

 entered upon the labor. But it soon be- 

 came apparent that the subject was too 

 large to be compressed within the limits 

 which were thought advisable for such a se- 

 ries, and, rather than impair the value of so 

 important a work, it was found best to take 

 it from the list and issue it separately. It 

 conforms, however, to the popular style of 

 these works, and is well adapted for general 

 reading. 



Dr. Carpenter's work is neither a techni- 

 cal treatise upon physiology nor a manual of 

 scientific psychology, but it is an elaborate 

 exposition of those relations of body and 

 mind which must form a foundation of any 

 true science of human nature. Physiology 

 is generally considered as a science that be- 

 longs to the doctors, and of which it is neces- 

 sary for everybody to know something for 

 hygienic reasons. But the study of man, for 



general practical purposes, has hitherto been 

 held to consist in the study of mind, while 

 that has been considered from the metaphys- 

 ical point of view, the body being thrown 

 out of the account. This has been the 

 powerful tendency of the past, and it is still 

 so influential that books upon the so-called 

 science of man are still frequently issued 

 which are limited to one portion of his na- 

 ture, and that, too, studied by a false method 

 and out of all its actual relations. This dis- 

 ruption of man and the contemptuous dis- 

 missal of one part of his being as his " lower 

 nature," while the other is magnified and 

 dealt with apart, has been formerly defended 

 on religious grounds ; and the attempt to 

 bring his whole nature into view and to con- 

 sider it in its wonderful unity has been re- 

 sisted as involving "materialism." This 

 view is, however, latterly giving way, and it 

 is more and more recognized that man must 

 be studied in the totality and living harmo- 

 ny of his nature. Dr. Carpenter quotes the 

 impressive words of Charles Buxton in 

 his " Notes of Thought," as indicating the 

 point of view that must now be taken in 

 relation to this subject. Mr. Buxton says : 

 " Irresistible, undeniable facts demonstrate 

 that man is not a den wherein two enemies 

 are chained together, but one being — that 

 soul and body are one — one and indivisible. 

 We had better face this great fact. 'Tis no 

 good to blink it. Our knowledge of physi- 

 ology has come to a point where the old 

 idea of man's constitution must be thrown 

 aside. To struggle against the overwhelm- 

 ing force of science under the notion of 

 shielding religion is mere folly." 



Dr. Carpenter adds : " These well-con- 

 sidered conclusions of a deeply religious 

 mind may be specially commended to the 

 consideration of those who are disposed to 

 condemn without examination any thing that 

 savors of ' materialism ' which they have 

 been accustomed to regard as philosophi- 

 cally absurd and morally detestable. And 

 those who assume that physiological psychol- 

 ogy strikes atthcToot of morals and religion 

 may be fearlessly asked to show in what a 

 system which leaves the will of man free to 

 make the best use he can of the intellectual 

 and moral capacities with which his bodily 

 organism has been endowed by his Creator, 

 and which gives him the strongest and no- 



