84 



NATURE 



[September 23, 19 15 



that it is moving towards an end without clearly 

 and fully apprehending what that end is. And 

 when we have once grasped the possibility of this 

 pseudo-purposive action, we are tempted to 

 generalise it, and deny intelligent purpose in all 

 cases." So the primitive mind is guided by feel- 

 ings and impulses which it cannot fully under- 

 stand, and observers may be misled so far as to 

 assert that this or that tribe is destitute of all 

 conception of right and wrong. From the begin- 

 ning man has been bound by moral law, and the 

 author finds, throughout, "a recurrence of the 

 common features of ordinary morality, which is 

 not less impressive than the variations." Yet, 

 while " ethical progress is essentially a progress in 

 ethical conceptions, acting through tradition," the 

 question whether, "morally considered, the human 

 breed has in fact improved " is difficult to settle. 

 Here the researches of Freud into the nature of 

 the " unconscious mind " would be in point, but 

 " Morals in Evolution " is mainly a study in 

 morphology. As such it is invaluable. 



(2) Hegel argued that the State is the realised 

 ethical idea. It is interesting that Hegel com- 

 menced the sequence of ideas of which Treitschke 

 was the most spectacular exponent. Prof. Ford, 

 of Princeton, has made "a detailed survey of 

 connections between biology and politics inferable 

 from the doctrine of Darwinism." He concludes 

 that "the fundamental difference between Man 

 and other mammalia is that he is distinctly a 

 product of social evolution." "Man," as Profs. 

 Geddes and Thomson have observed, "did not 

 make society ; society made Man " ; " the indi- 

 vidual," says Prof. Baldwin, "is the result of 

 refined processes of social differentiation." Prof. 

 Ford's book seems to be a series of lectures, 

 based on appropriate quotations In biology, 

 psychology, and linguistics, to contradict the 

 theory of "individual evolution" so called. The 

 State, as Aristotle said, is prior to the individual ; 

 language and social psychoses have helped to 

 make the individual mind. There is a well-defined 

 series of stages in the social organic evolution ; 

 phylogenetic theory passes into political science. 

 The evolution of the State and the evolution of 

 the individual mind are two aspects of one pro- 

 cess, which starts from the human genius for 

 social life. The chief interest of this view is in 

 the relation between man's biology and 

 psychology, and here the advocates of what Prof. 

 Ford styles "the Social Hypothesis" have to 

 assume a "psychological chasm" between man 

 and the primates. Thus, if man's peculiar de- 

 velopment of intelligence accounts for the begin- 

 ings of a social evolution superior to others, and 

 if his peculiar intelligence is only to be explained 

 NO. 2395, VOL. 96] 



by the action of his social evolution, there is a 

 circular argument at the very starting-point of the 

 hypothesis. 



(3) In his preface to Miss Hughes's volume 

 Prof. J. H. Muirhead observes that the war will 

 pass judgment on two ideals of education, which 

 are intimately bound up with the theory of the 

 State and with the practice of government and 

 citizenship. In the one there is " the disinterested 

 development of the powers of the individual, to the 

 end of giving him his place in a community of 

 free and equal citizens with an outlook beyond 

 to a world-order of like communities." In the 

 other there is a community " narrowed down to 

 a particular nation and state, carrying with it the 

 regimentation of powers and the subordination of 

 will to the end of its own particular purpose of 

 racial predominance." Miss Hughes argues that 

 the " root causes and the root cures of social evils 

 are educational rather than economic," and she 

 pleads for more of the humanist ideal in our 

 educational system. Our elementary education 

 has been adversely criticised ; the author succeeds 

 in pointing out its real merits and in proving 

 many good results it has had upon our citizenship. 

 The problem of the school is the problem of the 

 nation, as tne Greeks realised long ago. This 

 enthusiastic teacher perhaps asks too much of the 

 average mentality of the people, but not the least 

 merit of her book is the wealth of practical sug- 

 gestions which deserve the attention of all in- 

 terested in education, since they are evidently 

 inspired by a high Idealism and based upon per- 

 sonal experience. A. E. Crawley. 



CHEMISTRY AND THE MICROSCOPE. 

 Elementary Chemical Microscopy. By Prof. E. M. 

 Chamot. Pp. xiII + 410. (New York: J. 

 Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and 

 Hall, Ltd., 1915.) 125. 6d. net. 



THIS book forms a welcome addition to the 

 very restricted literature of chemical micro- 

 scopy. It affords a considerable amount of in- 

 formation concerning the microscope Itself, and 

 its special adaptation to the purposes of the 

 chemist and metallurgist. It also places at the 

 disposal of the chemist the data for performing a 

 large number of more or less trustworthy micro- 

 chemical reactions. One notices immediately, 

 however, a singular omission, that of any repro- 

 ductions of either drawings or photomicrographs 

 of the crystals produced In these reactions as 

 observed under the microscope. A book on 

 microchemical analysis without any Indications 

 other than verbal of the appearances seen under 

 the microscope is surely like the play of " Ham- 



