January 19, 191 1] 



NATURE 



3^7 



The authors have thus rendered a signal service to 

 the cause of anthropology, nor must we overlook the 

 liberality of the Royal Society of Victoria for under- 

 taking the expensive work of publishing these 

 elaborate records. It is especially pleasing to note that 

 a strong school of physical anthropology is springing 

 up in Melbourne, one that is keenly alive to the neces- 

 sity of studying the native races as they now are, and 

 of securing permanent records of their physical char- 

 acters. 



The publication under review may be described as 

 a craniological monograph of a new type ; there is 

 rractically no letterpress, no columns of measure- 

 ments, merely tracings from which measurements may 

 !>e estimated. In brief, the authors have made a 

 large addition to Tasmanian records, but added 

 nothing to the story of this extinct native race. Ver}' 

 likely they intend to give their interpretations of these 

 tracings when they come to deal with their investiga- 

 tions of the Australian natives. Still, we are of 

 opinion that the scientific value of the present publica- 

 tion would have been greatly enhanced if the authors 

 had included the results of the elaborate study they 

 liave made of this new collection of Tasmanian crania. 



PUILOSOTHY. 

 i) Wolffsche Be griff shestimmun gen. Ein Hilfshuch- 

 lein beim Studium Kants. By Prof. Julius Bau- 

 mann. Pp. iv + 56. Price i mark. 

 (2) Wilhelm von Humboldts aiisge'ji'dhlte philoso- 

 phische Schriften. Herausgegeben von Johannes 

 Schubert. Pp. xxxix + 222. Price 3.40 marks. 

 13) Fichte, Schleiermacher , Stcffens i'lber das Wesen 

 der Universitdt. By Eduard Spranger. Pp. xlii + 

 291. Price 4 marks. 

 4) Banich de Spinoza. Ethik. Siehente Aufiage. 

 By Otto Baensch. Pp. xxxii + 315. Price 3.40 

 marks. 

 ^^) Encyklopddie der Philosophie. By A. Dorner. 

 Pp. vii4-334. Price 6 marks. 



(Leipzig : Verlag der Diirr'schen Buchhandlung, 

 1910.) 

 I) \ COMPILATION of Christian Wolff's defini- 

 ■t\ tions, by the professor of philosophy at 

 ' rottingen. Dr. Baumann made this compilation 

 ^lany years ago, for his own needs, purposely confin- 

 ng himself to the problem of the theon.- of know- 

 ledge. Recently, when re-reading Kant's *' Kritik der 

 reinen Vernunft," he took up his compilation and re- 

 ' c>gnised the parallelism with Wolff. This little book 

 - therefore now published as a help to the study of 

 Kant. It contains useful definitions, with references, 

 f terms such as Etnpfindung, Vorstellung, Wahr- 

 ehmung. Idee, Be griff, which are the chief elemen- 

 iry difficulties in the way of the student of Kant, and 

 f German philosophical writers in general. 

 {2) This selection of Humboldt's philosophical writ- 

 ngs is intended to spread the knowledge of his many- 

 -ided nature and powers among a wider circle of 

 -aders than has hitherto been reached. Those who 

 vish to go more deeply into his treatment of the sub- 

 lets may be referred to the great standard edition of j 

 is works, which appeared during the course of last { 

 NO. 2 15 1, VOL. 85] 



year. The present volume contains chosen specimens 

 on such diverse subjects as Goethe's " Hermann and 

 Dorothea," " Latium and Hellas, or Considerations 

 on Classical Antiquity," " Philosophy of Language," 

 " Philosophy of Religion," the " Bhagavad-Gita," and 

 "Pedagogy." The matter seems, naturally, a little 

 old-fashioned, and the aesthetical parts appeal chiefly 

 to readers who make a special study of the history- of 

 German literature. Humboldt was a humanistic 

 philosopher, leaving behind him the individualism and 

 general aesthetic hurly-burly of the " Sturm and 

 Drang " period. 



(3) Another book of chiefly historical interest, con- 

 sisting of reprints of various writings of the three 

 authors named, concerning ideals of university teach- 

 ing. The centenary of the Universit}- of Berlin, which 

 was recently celebrated, gives the suitable occasion. 

 Dr. Spranger furnishes an introduction in which he 

 compares Berlin with other universities. The former 

 " was born in an hour of great changes : this birth in 

 the living flux of things, permeated with the 

 thoroughly modern spirit, gave her living power, and 

 made her a model to her older sisters, who are but 

 now stripping off the old forms, and growing into the 

 new." 



(4) In his " Biographical Histon,- of Philosophy," 

 G. H. Lewes said that he never hoped to find foothold 

 in the boundless morass of metaphysics, after he once 

 fairlv saw the reasons which rendered Spinozism un- 

 acceptable. The present edition of the famous 

 " Ethics " (the seventh in German translation from 

 the original Latin) seems to indicate that there are 

 readers still to be found for the writings of the subtle- 

 minded though intensely spiritual Jew, to whom — as 

 justifiably as in the case of Novalis — the term "God- 

 intoxicated" has been applied. The translator writes 

 an introduction, in which he remarks that " Spinoza's 

 philosophy is the most impressive concentration of the 

 thought of the seventeenth centun,- into a coherent 

 view of the world and of life," even though those 

 times produced Descartes and Leibniz. And modern 

 philosophy, for the most part, will certainly agree. 



(5) Dr. Dorner, who is professor of theology at 

 Konigsberg, is a follower of Hegel rather than of the 

 great analvst whose name is inevitably recalled by 

 Konigsberg. The present volume, which is not an 

 encyclopaedia in the English sense, is a metaphysical 

 work dealing chiefly with the theon.- of knowledge 

 and doctrine of categories. The following sketch will 

 give the author's general attitude. 



The progress of philosophy seems the same now as 

 in antiquitw Kant occupies the same position in 

 modern philosophy as Socrates did in the ancient. 

 After Socrates came Plato and Aristotle, to whose 

 svstems our modern philosophy of the Absolute corre- 

 sponds. Then came the Stoics and Epicureans, with 

 a revulsion to the practical side of things. The 

 modern analogue is found in those thinkers who lay 

 emphasis on feeling and will. The chief difTerence 

 between old and new is, that the subjective side is 

 now much more in the foreground, which tendency 

 shows itself particularly in the importance assigned 

 to psychology. Some, indeed, candidly regard it as 

 the central science. Also, in modern life the empirical 



