SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



273 



fireproof buildings are of stone, that the Japanese tobacco is moistened 

 with opium, that the Japanese street dress is full of color, are all erroneous. 

 His description of the sash worn by men is the description of the woman's 

 sash. He says " the Japanese currency before the change to dollars and 

 cents was like that of the Chinese." Had he consulted Snowden's descrip- 

 tion of ancient and modern coins, etc., he would have found this correct 

 statement in regard to Japanese coins : " In their shape, composition, and 

 relation to each other they present some striking features which set them 

 apart from every other system of coinage in the world." 



The illustrations are badly distributed. Through pages of description 

 of the Japanese and Koreans, in which little is said about the Koreans, 

 are scattered illustrations of the inhabitants of Yeso the Ainu. The illus- 

 tration of Japanese table furniture depicts only utensils for smoking and 

 wine-drinking, and some of these are erroneously labeled, as are those of 

 certain Chinese utensils. 



We trust that the Asiatic portion of this valuable work will be written 

 over again, and in doing it the author will realize that he is dealing with 

 four or five hundred million people widely separated in language, modes 

 of writing, customs, and manners ; that he will consider the Ainu, Korean, 

 Japanese, Chinese, Thibetan, and Indo-Chinese with the same thoroughness 

 that he has given to the separate groups of the African continent; that 

 he will draw his information from modern sources and collections properly 

 labeled and up to date. 



Even with the defects pointed out the work will prove of great value to 

 the American student, as it brings before him the richness of the ethno- 

 logical museums of Europe. 



GEKERAL NOTICES. 



The Development of English Thought * 

 is " an attempt to present a theory of 

 history through concrete illustrations." 

 The book does not deal with the facts 

 of history a knowledge of these is as- 

 sumed it throws into relief certain sa- 

 lient features of each epoch which were 

 instrumental in forwarding the social 

 consciousness. It may, indeed, be called 

 a philosophy of economics. It has a the- 

 ory to propound : Survival is determined 

 and progress created by a struggle for 

 the goods for which men strive, or the 

 means by which they may avert evil. 

 These goods change, together with the 

 environment dependent on them. Hence 

 arise new activities; the race is modi- 

 fied, new modes of thought come for- 

 ward, and finally the characteristics 

 of the civilization are reconstructed. 

 These changes are subject to a definite 

 law of evolution, repeated in each new 

 environment. England has been chosen 



* The Development of English Thought. A 

 Study in the Economic Interpretation of History. 

 By Simon N. Patten, Ph. D. New York: The 

 Macmillan Company. 1899. $3. 

 TOL. LV. 21 



for this economic interpretation of his- 

 tory; because of its insular position, its 

 development has been more normal and 

 indigenous, less subject to foreign influ- 

 ences since the Reformation, than any 

 continental country. An explanation of 

 the psychological theory underlying the 

 book serves as general introduction. 

 The antecedents of English thought are 

 found among the early Germans, and 

 the Early Church. The fifteenth cen- 

 tury, with its inventions and discover- 

 ies, revolutionized men's ways of living 

 and thinking. Then the Calvinists and 

 Puritans imposed their standards of 

 good and evil. These are followed by 

 the great English thinkers: Locke, who 

 marks the beginning of Deism in Eng- 

 land; Mandeville, Hume, and Smith, 

 developing the economic side; White- 

 field and Wesley leading the religious 

 revival. Later on, Malthus, Ricardo, 

 and Mill formulated the Economic Phi- 

 losophy, whereas Darwin, the first of 

 the biologists, imposed biologic habits of 

 thought on economic inquiry. The con- 

 cluding chapter, while cautious in the 



