798 



NATURE 



[August 26, 1920 



which it has prevailed among- the various strata 

 of the community, the results of the war as affect- 

 ing- population and health, the effect of the short- 

 age in housing on the general welfare, and other 

 questions to which the events of the decade have 

 given a new urgency ; but in all these matters 

 the principle we have just indicated of judging 

 information, not by the number of details you are 

 able to amass, but by the weight of accuracy and 

 authenticity that they bear — non numero, sed 

 pondere — will have to be borne in mind. The 

 experience of the Registrar-General, backed by 

 the enlightened enthusiasm of the Ministry of 

 Health, will have ample exercise in these respects. 

 The Act is intituled "An Act to make provision 

 for the taking from time to time of a census for 

 Great Britain or any area therein and for other- 

 wise obtaining statistical information with respect 

 to the population of Great Britain." The Regis- 

 trar-General, in addition to his formal Reports 

 on the Census Returns, is to have power to 

 supply local authorities and others concerned with 

 statistical information derived from the census 

 returns. The second branch of the title is pro- 

 vided for by section 5, which enables him also 

 to publish statistics of the number and condition 

 of the population derived from other sources, and 

 for that purpose to enter into relations with other 

 Government Departments so as to further the 

 supply and provide for the better co-ordination of 

 such information. If he were enabled to enter 

 into similar relations with other countries as well, 

 the very excellent object of obtaining uniformity 

 in the statistics of the several nationalities mig-ht 

 be materially promoted. 



Prof. Alexander's Gifford Lectures. 



Space, Time, and Deity: The Gifford Lectures at 

 Glasgow, 1916-18. By Prof. S. Alexander. 

 (In two volumes.) Vol. i. Pp. xvi-h347. 

 Vol. ii. Pp. xiii4-437. (London: Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., 1920.) Price 365. net. 



PROF. ALEXANDER has written a book 

 which requires more than cursory reading. 

 It deserves careful study. For it embodies a 

 thoroug-hly modern exposition of New Realism 

 in full detail. Moreover, these two volumes 

 are not merely the outcome of a sustained effort 

 at accurate investigation. They are distinguished 

 by their admirable tone and temper. The author 

 is throughout anxious to understand and to repre- 

 sent faithfully the views of those with whom he is 

 in controversy. His reading of what has been 

 written by the great thinkers of other schools has 

 been closer and more intelligent than that of 

 NO. 2652, VOL. 105] ^ 



most New Realists, and he displays no traces of 

 arrogance. He has done all he could to appreciate 

 the materials furnished, not merely by mathe- 

 matical and physical science, but by biology and 

 psychology ; highly important fields for his 

 inquiry. 



These very merits of Prof. Alexander's method 

 have, however, produced their drawbacks. They 

 have driven him beyond the current conceptions 

 of the New Realist type into others which are not 

 always easy to reconcile with them. In the second 

 volume, particularly, where the author is chiefly 

 concerned with such problems as those of the 

 nature of the tertiary qualities of reality, of value, 

 and of deity-, the treatment leaves the impression 

 that the subject-matter passes beyond the limits 

 which alone are for the method legitimate. None 

 the less, the effort made to be consistent is a 

 notable one. But under this head I must refer 

 the reader to the book, for the only aspect of the 

 doctrine in it with which space allows me to 

 concern myself is its cardinal principle as applied 

 to physical knowledge. 



To begin with, it is necessary to be clear as to 

 what is peculiar to himself and his school in Prof. 

 Alexander's teaching. It is not sufficiently realised 

 that to-day the New Realists comprise a variety of 

 groups divided by differences that are of far-reach- 

 ing importance. These differences relate to the 

 nature attributed to mind. For some of the most 

 prominent of the American New Realists mind has 

 no characteristic at all that distinguishes it from 

 its objective content. Seeing means colours occur- 

 ring-; hearing- means sounds occurring; thinking 

 means thoughts occurring. Mind is itself just a 

 casual selection out of the field of consciousness, 

 and has no nature distinct from that field. When 

 we speak of a mind, the grouping arises out of 

 relations possessed by the objective elements 

 themselves, relations which exist quite independ- 

 ently of our own action in perceiving. Minds are 

 thus subordinate groups in a larger universe of 

 being- which includes them, and which would be 

 unaltered if minds disappeared from it. Conscious- 

 ness is thus merely a demonstrative appellation. 



Now for Prof. Alexander, and, I think, for most 

 of the English New Realists, mind has a reality 

 independent of its object. With the latter, what- 

 ever it is, it is " compresent. " The act of perceiving 

 is one reality, the object perceived is another. 

 Left to itself, the activity which we call mind 

 reveals the object, with its relations (which may 

 be universals) just as they exist independently of 

 it. But the activity is a separate reality, which 

 does not belong to the ordinary object world, but 

 reveals itself in consciousness, in which it is said 

 by Prof. Alexander to be "enjoyed." Here 



