LITERARY NOTICES. 



707 



The author handles the great problems in- 

 volved with originality and power, and at 

 the same time with a clearness, a felicity of 

 illustration, and a fascination of style, that 

 give the work an unequaled claim upon 

 popular regard. And we do not for a mo- 

 ment mean by this that the treatise is low- 

 ered in quality to adapt it to uncultivated 

 minds. Its peculiar excellence is, that while 

 it treats of abstract and difficult questions, 

 in such a way that the uninitiated may pur- 

 sue the discussions with satisfaction, the 

 most adept minds will also be profoundly 

 interested. We have seen a school-boy ab- 

 sorbed in the work ; and Mr. Charles Dar- 

 win, after having gone slowly and carefully 

 through it, wrote to the author, "I never 

 in my life read so lucid an expositor — and 

 therefore thinker — as you are " ; and he 

 adds, " It pleased me to find that here and 

 there I had arrived from my own crude 

 thoughts at some of the same conclusions 

 with you, though I could seldom or never 

 have given my reasons for such conclusions." 

 The testimony of Mr. Darwin is corrobo- 

 rated by that of many others, the effect of 

 which is to accord to Mr. Fiske an eminent 

 and enviable place among those who have 

 command of the questions that are now oc- 

 cupying the most earnest attention of the 

 thinking world. 



These considerations are important in 

 their bearing upon our estimate of the pres- 

 ent volume. The most fertile conception 

 ever launched into the intellectual sphere is 

 that of universal evolution. As deep as the 

 forces of nature, it is as broad as the phe- 

 nomena of nature. It is a new view of the 

 movement of things, a new interpretation of 

 their most comprehensive relations. There 

 is hardly any great subject that escapes its 

 influence. It has necessitated a recasting 

 of the sciences, and a thorough-going re- 

 organization of knowledge. So productive 

 and all-influential an idea can be but par- 

 tially dealt with in the most systematic 

 and elaborate treatises; outstanding prob- 

 lems still remain to be solved and new ap- 

 plications of the doctrine worked out. Mr. 

 Fiske has pursued the subject, after the pub- 

 lication of his elaborate book several years 

 ago, in various aspects and in new direc- 

 tions, developing many points that were 

 there but briefly touched upon. The vol- 



ume before us consists mainly of these sup- 

 plemental excursions in various directions, 

 but all animated and characterized by the 

 fundamental doctrine to which his first work 

 was devoted. We recommend it to all stu- 

 dents of the course of modern thought and 

 the critical questions of the time, and can 

 give our readers no better idea of the vari- 

 ety and instructiveness of its contents than 

 by quoting the titles of the subjects treated. 

 These are : 



1. Europe before the Arrival of Man. 

 2. The Arrival of Man in Europe. 8. Our 

 Aryan Forefathers. 4. What we learn from 

 Old Aryan Words. 6. Was there a Primitive 

 Mother-Tongue? 6. Sociology and Hero- 

 Worship. 7. Heroes of Industry. 8. The 

 Causes of Persecution. 9. The Origins of 

 Protestantism. 10. The True Lesson of 

 Protestantism. 11. Evolution and Religion. 

 12. The Meaning of Infancy. 13. A Uni- 

 verse of Mind Stuff, 14. In Mcmoriam. 

 Charles Darwin. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES. 

 VOL. XLVII. 



Fallacies. A View of Logic from the 

 Practical Side. By Alfred Sidgwick, 

 Berkeley Fellow of Owens College, Man- 

 chester. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 375. 

 Price, $1.T5. 



It is curious that the subject, which is 

 at the same time the most important, the 

 most practical, and which involves questions 

 of the deepest intellectual interest — that is, 

 the science and art of correct reasoning — 

 should somehow have come to be regarded 

 as the dullest and heaviest of all subjects. 

 No doubt this repulsiveness of logic is very 

 much due to that ancient pedantic formality 

 which was imparted to it in scholastic times 

 and has continued ever since, and also to 

 the fact that its practical objects have been 

 forgotten in the development of its pro- 

 cesses. University drill in logic has become 

 itself the end without much reference to its 

 reduction to utilitarian practice. Whatever 

 may be the cause of the unattractivenesa 

 of logic, much of it must certainly be due to 

 prejudices arising from its imperfect pres- 

 entation. In his book on " Fallacies," Pro- 

 fessor Sidgwick has made a very success- 

 ful attempt to rescue the subject from its 

 repellent forms, and to deal with it in a 

 way that shall be interesting to the general 



