July 15, 1920] 



NATURE 



607 



anatomy and embryology. By his extensive and 

 ■exact knowledge of anatomy and his technical 

 skill, no less than by his personality and sound 

 judgment, Prof. J. T. Wilson will exert a great 

 influence in the encouragement of anatomical 

 research in this country. His appointment to 

 Cambridge inspires the confidence that the dark 

 days of British anatomy are numbered. 



G. Elliot Smith. 



Intellectual Stock-taking. 



(i) Science and Theology: Their Common Aims 



and Methods. By F. W. Westaway. Pp. 



xiii + 346. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 



1920.) Price 155. net. 

 (2) Recent Developments in European Thought. 



Essays arranged and edited by F. S. Marvin. 



(The Unity Series.) Pp. 306. (London : 



Humphrey Milford ; Oxford University Press, 



1920.) Price 125. 6d. net. 



THERE seems to be a general disposition at 

 the present time to take stock of the 

 achievements of the human race in the generation 

 which lived before the great cataclysm of the 

 world-war. We feel, as mankind felt a hundred 

 years ago after the great upheaval of the French 

 Revolution and the succeeding Napoleonic 

 struggle, that we are at the beginning of a new 

 age. If we are to be effective in reconstructing 

 and directing the new life of humanity, we must 

 know the nature and extent of the forces in hand 

 so far as they are under our control. The two 

 books before us attempt this task in a very dif- 

 ferent manner. The first is the effort of a single 

 worker to gather up and present, in a compact 

 form and without bias, the definite results of 

 recent scientific, religious, and philosophical re- 

 search, and where they are conflicting or anti- 

 thetical to state the case for each. The second 

 book is the joint production of several workers, 

 under the leadership of the author of "A Century 

 of Hope," to express the characteristic features of 

 the philosophy, religion, science, art, and history 

 of the last half century, or more precisely of the 

 period which begins with the Franco-German War 

 of 1870 and ends with the outbreak of the great 

 war in 1914. 



(i) Mr. Westaway 's work is primarily ad- 

 dressed to students of theology, and intended to 

 aid them in finding a philosophic basis for their 

 science. Before they can have this philosophic 

 basis, however, they must, he thinks, roaster the 

 main principles of mathematics, of science, and 

 of scientific method. If, the student is told, he 

 resorts to metaphysical arguments concerning 

 NO. 2646, VOL. 105] 



the infinite before he has made himself acquainted 

 with the nature of infinity in mathematics, he is 

 violating the first principles of common sense. The 

 same is true of physics, biology, and psychology. 

 The student, we are afraid, will think it a hard 

 saying, but then here is Mr. Westaway 's epitome 

 of the bases of all knowledge offered to him in 

 tabloid form, compact and neat as in a medicine 

 chest. Every theory that is held by anyone of 

 authority in the sciences and philosophies, or 

 which can be held, is set forth in abstract terms, 

 and each summary of results is supported by a 

 formidable list of books of reference. The# theo- 

 logical student is left without excuse. 



(2) A very different tone pervades the book 

 edited by Mr. Marvin, for in this the personality 

 of each of the twelve writers is given full ex- 

 pression. It makes the diversity more interesting 

 than the unity. Perhaps the most telling contrast 

 is between the positivistic tone of the general 

 survey with which Mr. Marvin introduces the 

 course, and the idealistic exuberance with which 

 Miss Melian Stawell closes it. But surely the 

 oddest contribution to the volume is Prof. 

 Taylor's estimate of the philosophy of the last half 

 century. It begins with a mystifying line of 

 asterisks, and ends with a "note." The note 

 is appended as an " apology " for omitting Berg- 

 son, or, rather, for refusing to regard that philo- 

 sopher as other than a transient and spent force. 

 The reason given is that his earliest work in its 

 opening chapter contains " a couple of elementary 

 blunders," and on these the whole of his philo- 

 sophy is based. The note is certainly necessary, 

 because the other essays in the volume might 

 easily lead the reader to imagine that the period 

 had been dominated by the philosophy of Bergson. 



The meed of honour in philosophy is awarded 

 by Prof. Taylor to Mr. Bertrand Russell, mainly 

 on account of his joint work with Prof. Whitehead 

 in "Mathematica Principia." He thus agrees 

 with Mr. Westaway in holding the mathematical 

 theory of infinity to be the basis on which philo- 

 sophy must build. There can be no doubt that 

 if the award is to be decided in the manner of 

 the Greeks after the battle of Salamis, Mr. 

 Russell must be acclaimed facile princeps, for 

 there is no living philosopher in regard to whom 

 such striking unanimity prevails. No one agrees 

 with him, but everyone is anxious to set forth 

 his reasons for disagreeing. Prof. Taylor is no 

 exception. He looks in vain for any recognition 

 by Mr. Russell of what he regards as the one 

 vital and absolute necessity of philosophy, the 

 attainment of knowledge about the soul and God. 

 For this he refers us to the two eminent Italian 



