LITERARY NOTICES. 



consequence, unconsciously assisted in per- 

 petuating certain offenses against good 

 taste." The feeling that prefers articles and 

 designs at first hands can hardly be called 

 an unreasonable prejudice. Whatever it is, 

 originality, with equality of merit, will go 

 far to counteract it. It will be worth trying 

 as a substitute for a McKinley tariff. Mr. 

 Barber believes that "America, within the 

 next few decades, is destined to lead the 

 world in her ceramic manufactures." The 

 work is sumptuously presented by the pub- 

 lishers in the best style of bookmaking. 



GEOLOGICAL SURTET OF NEW JERSEY. AN- 

 NUAL REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST 

 FOR THE YEAR 1892. By JOHN C. SMOCK, 

 State Geologist. Trenton : The John L. 

 Murphy Publishing Company. Pp. 367, 

 with Maps. 



IN this report are incorporated, as lead- 

 ing heads or parts thereof, the reports of 

 progress made in the various lines of inves- 

 tigation of the several departments of the 

 works of the survey, as follows: Surface 

 Geology ; Cretaceous and Tertiary Forma- 

 tions (preliminary report) ; Water-supply 

 and Water-power ; Artesian Wells in South- 

 ern New Jersey ; and the Sea Dikes of the 

 Netherlands and the Reclamation of Low- 

 lands and Tidemarsh Lands. These reports 

 are to some extent separate and independent 

 of one another, although all have for their 

 object the elucidation of the facts of the 

 geological structure and physical geology of 

 the State, and as an ultimate end the in- 

 formation of the people in order to the high- 

 est development of the natural resources of 

 the State. The administrative report, intro- 

 ductory to the reports of the several divi- 

 sions, besides remarks on the topics already 

 mentioned, has discussions of dr-ainage ; 

 natural parks and forest reservations ; the 

 work of the United States Geological Survey 

 in New Jersey ; and the geological survey 

 exhibit for the Columbian Exposition. 



The maps represent the whole State, with 

 reference to its water-supply sheds, and the 

 special geology of parts of Monmouth and 

 Middlesex Counties. The treatment of all 

 the subjects is full, satisfactory, and adapted 

 to practical ends ; and the report is, as a 

 whole, one of the most interesting the survey 

 has issued. 



PRIMER OF PHILOSOPHY. By Dr. PAUL CARUS. 

 Chicago: The Open-Court Publishing 

 Company. Pp. 232. Price, $1. 



THE author seeks to present his subject 

 in the plainest and simplest manner he can. 

 His point of view is not susceptible, he says, 

 of being classified among any of the various 

 schools of recent current thought, but repre- 

 sents rather a critical reconciliation of rival 

 philosophers of the type of Kantian apriorism 

 and John Stuart Mill's empiricism. The 

 names of positivism and monism are taken 

 as expressing the philosophical principles 

 which dominate modern thought. Either is 

 complementary to the other. Positivism 

 represents the principle that all knowledge 

 scientific, philosophical, and religious is 

 a description of facts ; monism is a unitary 

 conception of the world, presenting it as 

 an inseparable and indivisible entirety. It 

 stands upon the principle that all the differ- 

 ent truths are but so many different aspects 

 of one and the same truth. Monistic posi- 

 tivism or positive monism "is, and always 

 has been, the principle of all sound science. 

 The positive and monistic maxims of philoso- 

 phy were perhaps not sufficiently appreci- 

 ated in former ages, but they are growing to 

 be clearly understood now, and will in time 

 lead to the abandonment of all transcen- 

 dental, metaphysical, supernatural, and ag- 

 nostic speculations. Positive monism will 

 change philosophy into a systematization of 

 positive knowledge." 



NUMBER WORK IN NATURE STUDY. By WIL- 

 BUR S. JACKMAN. Chicago : W. S. Jack- 

 man. Pp. 198. Price, 60 cents. 



IN secondary schools the study of mathe- 

 matics demands a large share of the pupil's 

 attention, and little effort has been made 

 thus far to rescue the hours passed in solv- 

 ing arithmetical puzzles or algebraic enig- 

 mas. Even in grammar schools it is excel- 

 lence in arithmetic rather than in the con- 

 construction of language which forms the 

 standard of scholarship. The author of this 

 manual believes that much of the time spent 

 in mastering arithmetical processes could be 

 also utilized in Nature study. If the pupil 

 obtains material, makes his own observa- 

 tions and comparisons, the mechanism of 

 the subject will be incidental, and instead of 

 meaningless results or unintelligible values 



