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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[July 1, 1886. 



We can only hope that this able and eloquent book may fall 

 into the hands of persons of yet undisciplined emotional 

 temperament. They will find its teaching a wholesome 

 corrective to illusions the dispelling of which will set free 

 energies, now wasted ovei- chimeras, to be utilised for fruit- 

 ful aspirations and labours. 



The Larger Life : Studies in Hinton's Ethics. By Caro- 

 line Haddon. (London : Kegau Paul, Trench, &. Co. 

 188G.) It is probably known to most readers of Knowledoe 

 that James Hinton was an aural surgeon of eminent skill 

 and of high repute. He was also a metaphysician of 

 originality, as was shown by the volume he published more 

 than thirty years ago, under the title of " Man and his 

 Dwelling Place." His originality consisted in going a step 

 beyond the idealism of Berkeley and others, and asking the 

 question, Why do we see and feel the world to be other than 

 it is 'i The answer to that question was drawn from a 

 scrutiny of human nature, intellectual and moral, and 

 resulted in the conclusion that this misconception was due 

 to a defect in man himself, which was the cause of a false 

 consciousness in him. The application of that theory to 

 moral phenomena obviously leads to an ethical philosophy 

 unlike those built upon the opposite and common assump- 

 tion. Miss Haddon, in an earliei- volume, selected passages 

 from Hinton's unpublished writings explanatory and illus- 

 trative of his views on metaphysics, religion, and ethics, 

 which was published under the title of " Philosophy and 

 Religion." The present volume is devoted to his ethical 

 doctrines only. Its contents are partly selected from 

 Hinton's works and MSS., and are partly original. Of the 

 former, by far the most valuable are selections from letters 

 that passed between himself and Miss Haddon. The original 

 papers treat of the Philosophy and Ethics of James Hinton ; 

 of Utilitarianism and Atheism; of Hinton the Seer; and 

 concludes with a few notes on Hinton's Theology. To 

 those who know James Hinton's writings, this book is 

 heli)ful ;is increasing their knowledge of him ; to those who 

 do not know his writings it will prove a valuable intro- 

 duction to a philosophy which was at once mystical and 

 scientific. 



The Western Pacific and Nem Guinea. By Hugh 

 Hastings Romilly, Deputy Commissioner for the Western 

 Pacific. (London : John Miirray. 1886.)— This book is not the 

 result of a scamper round the globe by a tourist who wanted 

 to tell something, but of unhurried official journeys over the 

 fifteen millions of squaie miles of land and ocean embi-aced 

 under the term Western Pacific, by a shrewd and kindly 

 observer who has something to tell, and who tells it in a 

 modest fashion, all tlie more graphic and eflTeetive for the 

 lack of any varnishing of his notes. Mr. Romilly shows 

 himself a type of representatives abroad of whom his 

 country may be proud. He does not regard the native races 

 as a [lack of doomed and " damned niggei's," who ungrate- 

 fully re.sent the introduction of civilisation and covenanted 

 mercies, and he enlists our sympathies with their blood- 

 feud against the scoundrelly white traders who have 

 scourged them with smallpox and unnameable diseases, 

 kidnapped them on board sham missionary ships, en- 

 raged them by their i-apacity, and thus counteracted 

 the work of the missionaries, to the value of which Mr. 

 Romilly pays hearty acknowledgment. His remark that 

 these whites have taught the natives " to swear in a truly 

 marvellous manner " brings to mind a statement of Dr. 

 Livingstone's that the only art the Africans had acquired 

 from five centuries' acquaintance with the Portuguese had 

 been to distil spirits from a gun-barrel, and the only belief 

 the belief that man may sell his fellow-man. Mr. Romilly 

 saw much that is novel, both of the amusing and the ter- 

 rible, in his wanderings ; there is not a dull page in his book, 



and we close it asking, like Oliver Twist, for more, especially 

 where hints are given of manners and customs which he indi- 

 cates cannot be described in detail. How the ship's doctor 

 astonished the natives of Solomon Islands by dexterously 

 twisting out his false teeth, while the old chief Takki uttered 

 thankfully a Xu7ic dimittis that he had lived to see that day ; 

 how an ingenious visitor to Fiji escaped from the cannibals 

 by unscrewing his cork leg : how Mr. Romilly 's Samoan 

 partner at a. ball despoiled him of his studs, and well-nigh 

 of the shirt that they adorned ; above all, how he had the 

 rare, if unenvied chance, of witnessing a cannibal banquet, 

 the details of which are as revolting as they are valuable ; 

 with all else besides concerning the superstitions and ways 

 of life of the Melanesians generally, our readers must learn 

 for themselves. To the anthropologist this book is indis- 

 pensable ; and in commending it to a wider class as a book 

 to be bought and not borrowed, we hope that its reception 

 may encourage the author to a further record of his travels, 

 and more especially of the social institutions and mythologies 

 of the islanders, crude as these may be. The scantiness of 

 information on these subjects, together with the absence of 

 an index, are the only drawbacks to the present work. 



Six Months in Cape Colony and Xatal, and One Month 

 in Teneriffe arid Madeira. By J. J. Aubertin. (London : 

 Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 1886.)— This is a record of 

 travel of a quite ditfereut order, in a quite different and far 

 more fivmiliar field. A pleasant, lightly-written, gossipy 

 book, which people intending to visit, or rather, settle at, 

 the Cape, should put in their trunks. There is useful in- 

 formation about the South African industries, diamond- 

 seeking, ostrich-farming, wine-growing, in which last the 

 colony has much to learn ; but the author has inflicted on 

 us too much tattle of detail. That he might have stayed 

 another night at Forest Hall ; that he signed his name in 

 the visitors' book, and that he couldn't slee]"), therefore got 

 up at 1.30 A.M., may be interesting to his immediate circle, 

 but they are not matters that the world very much wants 

 to know. The political discussions in the book are happily 

 outside the serener sphere of this Journal ; but the author's 

 judgment on the Majuba business (Amajuba, meaning 

 " many pigeons," is the correct form, Mr. Aubertin tells us) 

 may be compared with the different judgment pronounced 

 upon it by Mr. Froude in "Oceana." A few excellent wood- 

 cuts fi'om photographs illustrate the text. 



JIow to Form a Library. By H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A. 

 (London : Elliot Stock. 1886.) — In this compendious and 

 choicely-printed book one of our most accomplished biblio- 

 philes gives the result of much mixing with his class and 

 their possessions. The woi-k will be found especially service- 

 able in the formation of jmblic libraries, a useful feature in 

 it being a fairly full list of books of reference, in which, by 

 the way, under " Astronomy " Miss Clerke's recent History 

 should be substituted for Prof Grant's, that being out of 

 print. We are glad to find Mr. Wheatley opposed to the 

 " best hundred books " silly craze, for, given a few general 

 directions, the attempt to control taste in any uniform 

 fashion can only end in inducing mental dyspepsia. To 

 know something of everything and everything of something 

 was an aphorism of John Stuart Mill's that we do well to 

 act upon ; as well as to remember 



No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'eu : 

 In brief, sir, stud}' what you most affect. 



The Voice: Musically and Medically Considered. By 

 Ar.mand Semple, Physician to the Royal Society of Musi- 

 cians. (Bailliere, Tindall, k. Co.) — A useful and practical 

 recast of articles from the Musical Standard, the interest of 

 which is not limited to singer-s, but extends to all persons 

 subject to throat-weaknesses, 



