December 3, 1914] 



NATURE 



361 



J. L. de Lanessan. Pp. 352. (Paris : Librairie 

 Felix Alcan, 1914.) Price 6 francs. 



(4) A History of Education in Modern Times. By 

 Prof. F. P. Graves. Pp. xv + 410. (New York : 

 The Macmillan Company ; London : Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 55. net. 



(5) Methodik und Technik des naturgeschicht- 

 lichen Unterrichts. By Prof. W. Schoenichen. 

 Pp. xiv + 611+30 plates. (Leipzig: Quelle and 

 Meyer, 1914.) Price 12 marks. 



(i) ^ I ^HERE is always an interest, and often 

 J_ no little instruction, to be derived from 

 a study of the science and relig-ion of ancient 

 civilisations, especially when considered in their 

 inter-relations. One of the newest of sciences, 

 anthropolog-y, appears to be rooted in the earliest 

 strata of thought, as, for instance, among the 

 natives of Central Australia. Greek speculation 

 upon the origin and development of mankind was 

 not limited to fairy-tales of the Golden Age type. 

 From Herodotus onward their best minds had a 

 very shrewd idea of the real process, such as we 

 have come to see it. Lucretius repeated, with ori- 

 ginal observations of his own, the anthropological 

 theories of Epicurus. But these are the culmina- 

 tion of Greek scientific thought in this direction. 

 They were foreshadowed by Aeschylus and Hero- 

 dotus, and developed later. It seems that the 

 Greeks, who certainly had considerable opportuni- 

 ties, thanks to their trade, travel, and warfare, 

 collected a considerable body of data relating to 

 savage and barbarous peoples in the west, the 

 east, and the south. There was, of course, another 

 school, the Platonic; it was true then, as ever 

 since, that a man is born either an Aristotelian or 

 a Platonist. Then, too, as now, the Platonist 

 built upon teleology. Mr. Sikes has done well to 

 collect every statement in Greek literature that 

 throws light on the scientific ideas of that "most 

 quick-witted and curious of human races," con- 

 cerning the origin and development of their own 

 species. It should be read by all anthropologists, 

 whether their Greek is "less" or more. 



(2) But the Greek mind was more interested in 

 the problems of cosmic and ultimate metaphysics, 

 and the issues waged between Determinists and 

 Creationists, or, whatever the two fundamental 

 types of mind be termed. These issues seem 

 destined to be eternal. So Dr. Paul Carus, follow- 

 ing up his interesting propaganda of many years, 

 writes some notes upon representative quotations 

 from exponents of both sides. " Mechanicalism " 

 and teleologv are first contrasted. The "contribu- 

 tions," as they may be called, to his volume in- | 

 dude some very interesting expressions of 

 opinion, especially Mark Twain's philosophy and 

 La Mettrie's famous 6xp)osition of man "as a 

 NO. 2353, VOL. 94] 



machine." It is curious that La Mettrie, when 

 persecuted for his opinions, found refuge in 

 Prussia and received a pension from Frederick 

 the Great. 



In another chapter Prof. W. B. Smith's elo- 

 quent article from the Monist works up to the 

 conclusion that "it is a false antagonism between 

 the causative and the teleological conceptions of 

 the universe." Dr. Carus 's text is that "nothing 

 moves, nothing stirs nor happens that does not 

 act in agreement with the laws of motion, and 

 there is no harm in it that man's activity takes 

 place in perfect agreement with mechanical laws. 

 A man's a man for a' that ! " As for the ancient 

 and modern puzzle — dualism or monism — he says, 

 using Ezekiel's metaphor, "There are not two 

 things, the spirit and the wheels, but there is one 

 reality." "Both spirit and machine are one, and 

 the universal dominance of the laws of form 

 determining the detailed uniformities of motion, 

 commonly called mechanics, is by no means a 

 depressing or melancholy thought. The laws of 

 form are the very means in which spirit reveals 

 itself." 



(3) That versatile writer. Prof, de Lanessan, 

 has written a critical history of the relations be- 

 tween these two modes of thought. He considers 

 that evolutionary determinism (transformistne) 

 and animistic supernaturalism (creatiouisme) ara 

 ultimately the only possible theories of the uni- 

 verse. He traces their elements back to the 

 priestly caste of Mesopotamian culture, and carries 

 his account up to Darwin. Considerable space is 

 rightly given to de Buffon, the teacher of 

 Lamarck. Except in the most recent times, the 

 great majority of determinist thinkers have fallen 

 back upon animism to explain the ultimate origin 

 of the universe, or the presence in it of mind. 

 Prof, de Lanessan promises a second volume, 

 dealing with the developments subsequent to 

 Darvv'in. 



(4) If objective science be described as the 

 obverse of human mentality, education is its 

 reverse. From another point of view, as old as 

 the Greeks, education and socialisation — "poli- 

 tics " in the Greek sense — are complementary. 

 Prof. Graves has written the history of education 

 before the Middle Ages, and from that period to 

 the eighteenth century. He now completes his 

 survey by a volume describing the progress of 

 educational theory and practice, the latter in 

 particular, from the eighteenth century (inclusive) 

 up to the present day. 



It is curious to reflect that the "classical " 

 education, still the pabulum of English upper- 

 class youth, was denounced more than a century 

 ago by the French reformer, Jlousseau. Equally 



