io8 



NATURE 



[April 3, 19 13 



Reality is an ever-transmutable energy, and with 

 this conception the contradiction between 

 materialism and idealism is got rid of. 



The book is well written, and contains much 

 sound analysis of perception and the like, with 

 much that is debatable but suggestive and 

 stimulating. 



(2) Lectures delivered by the author at the 

 Crane Technical High School, Chicago, in his 

 department as instructor in ethics ; the volume 

 is Book I. in a four-years' course which he is 

 working out. It is nut a text-book of "ethics" 

 as we understand the word over here, but a series 

 of mora! lessons aiming at the improving of 

 character rather than the imparting of knowledge 

 concerning a science. They arc admirably 

 arranged, and deal with honesty, industry, 

 earnestness, obedience, courtesy, self-control, 

 sport and its cruelties, &c. Suitable anecdotes 

 are introduced, and the style is breezy and inter- 

 esting. It is to be hoped that many schools will 

 use this pioneer volume as a manual. As Mr. 

 Moore remarks, we have scarcely yet begun to 

 educate the human young. When we become en- 

 lightened, we shall not consider when a new being 

 comes into the world that the first and most 

 important thing to do is to pounce upon him and 

 teach him to read and write. The art of putting 

 oneself in the place of others is a more important 

 art, and the inculcation of this is a more im- 

 portant anxiety in child education than the art 

 of reading and writing. It is noteworthy that 

 the Illinois legislature passed a law three years 

 ago requiring the teaching of morals and 

 humanity in all the public schools of the State 

 for thirty minutes every week. Illinois was the 

 fourteenth State to adopt such a law. 



(3) Mr. Harrison is always readable, and this 

 collection of essays and discourses will serve as 

 a useful popular compendium of Positivist 

 doctrine. It suffers in plai es from a certain gar- 

 rulity, and also the reader occasionally feels that 

 the author is laboriously slaying the slain — as 

 when he refutes "orthodox criticism," with its 

 "scheme of personal salvation" and its 

 " Umighty, Absolute, incomprehensible God." 

 And, in view of the parade of " science " and 

 "logic," he is rather dogmatic, though at the 

 same time vague and general — e.g. "there can 

 be little doubt that the average Orthodox Dis- 

 senter is far inferior in learning, culture, and 

 breadth of view and nature to the average 

 Churchman " (p. 171). These hasty personal 

 judgments are injudicious, and, besides, such 

 phrases as "average Orthodox Dissenter" and 



ige Churchman" are too vague to be of 

 much use. It may even be doubted whether Mr. 

 NO. 2266, VOL. Ql] 



Harrison knows much about Dissent, for he 

 speaks of some unnamed publication as the 

 "authoritative organ of Orthodox Noncon- 

 formity " (p. 207). No such publication exists. 

 Most of the greater dissenting sects have their 

 own organ, but no one of these speaks for all. 

 And, indeed, what is "Orthodox Noncon- 

 formity?" On the question of miracles, Mr. 

 Harrison uses the antiquated phrase " suspension 

 of the laws of nature," and talks of "violation" 

 quite in the style of Hume. Surely after Mill 

 and Huxley this language ought not to be used. 

 With Mr. Harrison's agnosticism about a 

 "Creator," and his emphasis on social effort and 

 character-building, probably most scientific 

 readers will heartily agree. 



(4) After Mr. Harrison's relegation of meta- 

 physics and absolutes to the lumber-room of out- 

 worn things comes Dr. Bosanquet's "truth which 

 for us is now established, of the reality and per- 

 fection of the Absolute " (p. 260). No doubt they 

 will read each other's books — or perhaps they 

 will not — and will remain of the same opinion 

 still. But there is a great difference between 

 the two, in the eyes of what Mr. Harrison would 

 probably call an "average reader." The one is 

 a litterateur, the other is a thinker and philo- 

 sopher. We have rio space for an adequate 

 review of Dr. Bosanquet's book (which embodies 

 the Gifford lectures for 1911-1912), and must 

 content ourselves with saying that the title well 

 describes the contents, and that the author's view 

 of time seems more satisfactory than that of 

 Bergson, which he criticises. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 

 Plant Diseases. By Dr. Werner F. Bruck. 



Translated by Prof. J. R. Ainsworth-Davis. 



Pp. 152. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 



1912.) Price 25. net. 

 It is difficult to see to what class of readers this 

 book can be of use. The book claims to be "a 

 concise introduction to the subject of plant dis- 

 eases," and the field surveyed is very wide, 

 fungous and animal parasites and diseases caused 

 by adverse cultural or weather conditions beinj 

 included. Except in a few instances, as, e.g. 

 the rhapters on diseases of coniferous wood and 

 on beet and mangold diseases, little is said on 

 the changes produced by disease in the plant. 

 In some cases the enumeration of the "pests" 

 carries no information at all, e.g. in the list of 

 "animal pests" of leguminous plants there is 

 bare list of nine names. L'nfortunately much 

 the information is given in so vague a manne 

 that the book cannot be recommended as 

 "primer" for the student, and it does not clai 

 to give the detailed advice as to remedies neces- 

 sary for the practical grower. One wonders what 

 idea a student would carry away after reading th 



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