850 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



effects are given, and an index is appended. 

 The text is concise and clear, and the book 

 can not fail to be of use to those interested 

 in the art of bronzing, or to students of met- 

 allurgy. 



A History of Modern Philosophy, from the 



Renascence to the Present. By H. C. 



Burt. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 



Two volumes. Pp. 368 and 321. Price, 



$4. 



This work aims to present in consider- 

 able fullness, yet with suitable brevity, the 

 principal content of the leading systems and 

 partial systems of philosophy in modern 

 times, together with a reasonable amount of 

 information regarding philosophical authors 

 and works. It aims to show, in a general 

 way at least, the historical connections of 

 systems, or to exhibit the historical continuity 

 of modern philosophical thought, and further, 

 to furnish materials and stimulus to the stu- 

 dent for the study of the higher genesis and 

 final values of ideas and systems. Modern phi- 

 losophy, according to the author's definition, 

 as distinguished from mediaeval philosophy, 

 is occupied with the immanent and concrete 

 rather than the transcendent and abstract ; 

 with the natural and the human rather than 

 with the unnatural and the superhuman. As 

 distinguished from ancient philosophy, it is 

 occupied with the subject rather than with 

 the object; with thought, rather than with 

 being. It may be divided into three great 

 periods, of which the first was one predomi- 

 nantly of reception and appropriation — 

 though with considerable self-assertion as 

 against medisevalism ; the second, a period 

 of original effort, very largely destructive 

 or negative — toward previous philosophy as 

 well as toward the object of thought gener- 

 ally ; and the third as a period of equal 

 originality and more constructive or syn- 

 thetic effort. Psychologically speaking, those 

 periods are periods of sense (receptive), un- 

 derstanding (analytic), and reason (synthetic) ; 

 logically they are regarded as periods of the- 

 sis, antithesis, and synthesis. Their dates are 

 from the middle of the fifteenth to the begin- 

 ning of the seventeenth century, thence to the 

 third quarter of the eighteenth century, and 

 thence down to the present. An apparently 

 disproportionate amount of space is given 

 to certain recent systems, because they have 

 not as yet become commonly known through 



other histories of philosophy. Closing with 

 a brief glance at American philosophy, the 

 author finds that the study of the science 

 has been more seriously undertaken than ever 

 before in our higher institutions — for its own 

 sake and independently of theological influ- 

 ences ; and that it seems safe to predict a 

 vigorous future for it here. 



The Beauties of Nature. By Sir John 

 Lubbock. New York : Macmillan & Co. 

 Pp. 429. Price, $1.50. 



Such lovers of Nature as Thoreau, Rus- 

 kin, and the poets give us exquisite pictures 

 of her varied moods and phases ; but men of 

 science vie with them in their enthusiasm 

 and even in charm of expression. Through- 

 out this volume are found many fine descrip- 

 tions of natural scenery culled from various 

 sources, and most vivid and glowing of all 

 are those of the naturalists. For the intro- 

 duction, the author has prepared a calendar of 

 the special charms of each month, and en- 

 courages us to closer observation by premis- 

 ing that the lover of Nature is always young 

 and can never be dull ! None can gainsay 

 his claim that science has given us a greater 

 possibility of enjoyment in revealing two 

 new worlds of beauty — the infinitely great 

 and the infinitely little. 



Animal life offers many problems for our 

 study — the extremes of temperature at which 

 animals can exist, their metamorphoses, mod- 

 ifications of growth, mimetic coloring, and 

 modes of communication. Not only do many 

 animals possess in a more acute degree the 

 senses known to us, but it is possible that 

 they also have others of which we can form 

 no conception. It has been proved that the 

 ultra-violet rays which are invisible to us are 

 perceived by some of the lower species, while 

 others have organs richly endowed with 

 nerves indicative of uses wholly unlike those 

 of man. Curious questions arise in consid- 

 ering the development of gnats and the re- 

 production of zoophytes and infusoria. We 

 can no longer define individuality with them, 

 and some species are theoretically immortal. 



Among plants it is found that the rea- 

 sons for their variation are more wonderful 

 than the old myths invented to explain them. 

 The woods and fields are full of mysteries. 

 Trees, like human beings, may have chosen 

 associates; the larch and arolla grow to- 



