LITERARY NOTICES. 



421 



ingenious spiders who build trapdoors and 

 turrets. Social homes are those of the mason, 

 carpenter, and leaf-cutting ants ; of the wasps 

 manufacturing paper and cardboard, includ- 

 ing the Nectarinia that construct globular 

 nests with a spiral flight of stairs. 



Thousands of insects possess no other de- 

 fense than their protective resemblances. 

 Other classes decoy their prey by simulating 

 some alluring object. Under the head of 

 variation of color some account is given of 

 the experiments in regard to larval suscepti- 

 bility. Brightly colored insects find protec- 

 tion in a nauseous taste or smell, irritating 

 hairs or spines, the power to discharge a 

 noxious fluid or inflict a sting. Insects other- 

 wise defenseless escape their foes by mimicry 

 of the behavior and appearance of distasteful 

 species. This curious phase of insect life is 

 considered at some length in the closing 

 chapter. 



The book is well illustrated, and contains 

 both glossary and index. 



DARWIN AND HEGEL : WITH OTHER PHILO- 

 SOPHICAL STUDIES. By DAVID G. RITCHIE, 

 M. A. London : Swan, Sonnenschein & 

 Co. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 

 285. Price, $1.50. 



THE results of the reasonings submitted 

 in the nine essays constituting this volume 

 may be regarded as having arisen from a 

 judicious survey of the branches of philoso- 

 phy treated. That on Darwin and Hegel, 

 as the author explains, has been selected as 

 the title of the work, because it emphasizes 

 more particularly the especial point of view, 

 or basic relations which form a juncture in 

 the criticisms under consideration. This is 

 certainly the pivotal essay as tending to rec- 

 oncile a measured acceptance of the " general 

 principles-" arising out of Kantian criticism 

 which governs that idealist philosophy origi- 

 nating with Plato and Aristotle, with an ac- 

 ceptation in the fullest of the intellectual 

 advances made by, residing in, and betimes 

 overlying the historical method of treating 

 institutions and ideas ; as well as the theory 

 of natural selection and its logical outcome. 



The papers now published in bulk origi- 

 nally appeared in Mind, are recorded in the 

 Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, The 

 Annals of the American Academy of Politi- 

 cal and Social Science, and other periodicals. 



Regard this book in whatever light acknowl- 

 edged scientific data may shed, evidence is 

 not lacking of Mr. Ritchie's logical acumen, 

 linked with a genuine spirit of inquiry. In 

 the general presentation of the author's po- 

 sition, these essays, if only cursorily read, 

 might seem totally isolated, whereas a care- 

 ful perusal reveals a well connected thought 

 undercurrent. The true worth of the vol- 

 ume is best attested by the number of con- 

 siderations posited in the form of queries, 

 not a few of which are solved outright in 

 Mr. Ritchie's own way, while others remain 

 to be determined by the reader or the future 

 philosopher. Besides the main essay, form- 

 ing the title, we have one on Origin and 

 Validity, which involves a briefer paper on 

 Heredity as a Factor in Knowledge. The 

 others following are, What is Reality? On 

 Plato's Phaedo ; What are Economic Laws ? 

 Locke's Theory of Property ; The Social Con- 

 tract Theory ; On the Conception of Sover- 

 eignty, and the Rights of Minorities. 



In his analysis of the philosophies of 

 Darwin and Hegel, as applied in their social 

 and scientific bearings,. the author intimates 

 that while materialism and idealism are or- 

 dinarily referred to as philosophically an- 

 tagonistic, he nevertheless endeavors to 

 prove that a certain " form of idealism " is 

 not at all incompatible with that monism of 

 materialistic teaching which has nowadays 

 become " the working hypothesis of every 

 scientific explorer." To Mr. Ritchie the 

 monism of materialism alone seems false 

 when posited as an absolute philosophy of 

 the universe. From this he is forced to in- 

 fer that any such doctrine will necessarily put 

 out of sight conditions of knowledge which 

 true philosophy must not ignore, though the 

 special sciences may. In the paper on Ori- 

 gin and Validity as applied to philosophy, 

 the cords that bind a certain class of popu- 

 lar dogmas presumed to determine real worth 

 Mr. Ritchie severs with relentless logic, and 

 then proceeds with marked caution to distin- 

 guish between the philosophical problem and 

 that of psychology and history. Dilating 

 upon what he considers most permanent in 

 Kant's Critical Philosophy, he proposes to 

 examine the relation existing between spec- 

 ulative metaphysics and Kant's theory of 

 knowledge, and supplies not a few illustra- 

 tions of the import attaching to the distin- 



