SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



129 



only reason why the man whom our 

 author supposes as preying upon his 

 fellows can be presumed to succeed 

 at all in his career is that he would 

 be alone in a community which had 

 a different moral code. If we sup- 

 pose him to be surrounded by men 

 like himself, as many depredations 

 would be committed upon him as he 

 committed upon others, and he would 

 quickly abandon his policy as un- 

 profitable. To accept the dictum that 

 nothing but a belief in reward or pun- 

 ishment after death can keep a man 

 from taking every possible advan- 

 tage of his fellows is to put human 

 beings lower than the beasts. It is 

 not a hope of immortal happiness that 

 causes ants of the same colony or bees 

 of the same swarm to be just, consid- 

 erate, and even generous toward one 

 another, that constrains the old males 

 of herbivorous quadrupeds to stand 

 guard over the rest of the herd, or 

 that makes it practicable for certain 

 carnivores to hunt in packs. Experi- 

 ence, individual or inherited, has 

 given them a controlling sense of 

 what conduct pays best in the long 

 run. Those creatures which do not 

 co-operate in communities are yet far 

 from trespassing upon others of the 



same species in the manner of our 

 author's u poor laborer. " If the beasts 

 can perceive so much of the order of 

 the universe as to keep their conduct 

 from becoming unduly egoistic, is 

 not man capable of learning the same 

 lesson ? The ethics of the scientists 

 is far from being such an empty husk 

 as our author represents. It is im- 

 perfect, to be sure, but can a com- 

 plete solution of so great a problem 

 be expected in a few short years ? 

 Moreover, some allowance for any 

 partial failure that may be observed 

 in its application should be made 

 on account of the frailty of human 

 nature and the disturbing influence 

 of unsympathetic associates. 



Nordau being one of the scientists 

 who upholds the new ethical theory 

 must, his critic thinks, have a bias 

 against the adherents of revealed re- 

 ligion. The critic claims to find evi- 

 dence of such a bias in Nordau's 

 book, and a large part of his criti- 

 cism is based upon this claim. Re- 

 generation is largely an effort to 

 impeach the fairness of Nordau's 

 judgment, and to discredit his diag- 

 nosis by an appeal to religious pre- 

 judice. As such it should be esti- 

 mated. 



McUntific %iUxntux&. 



SPECIAL BOOKS. 



Dr. A. F. Chamberlain has chosen for a folklore study a field made 

 doubly attractive by the newly aroused interest in the psychology of the 

 child.* Truly he has garnered an abundant harvest. It would be difficult 

 to think of any activity or relation of children that is not represented in the 

 thirty-three chapters in which he has arranged his material. From the cry 

 that it utters and the more or less ceremonial care that it receives on its 

 entrance into the world up to its admission to the society of adults, each 

 phase of childish thought or action and of parental care has its wealth of 

 customs and sayings. Thus Dr. Chamberlain tells us, on the authority of 



* The Child and Childhood in Folk-thonght. By Alexander Francie Chamberlain. Pp. 464, 8vo. 

 London and New York : Macmillan & Co. Price, $3. 

 VOL. xlix. 12 



