696 



NATURE 



[February 27, 19 13 



arg-unient of real strength for and against the 

 woman's movement, that has been used in tlie 

 fifty odd years that followed its publication, will 

 be found summarised." 



(2) A good text-book, more than elementary 

 and well adapted for its purpose as a guide to 

 teachers. It follows James and McDougall for 

 the most part, and is provided with suitable 

 questions at the end of each chapter. Its scheme 

 is the usual modern one : first, the physiology of 

 sensation, then perception, imagination, ideation, 

 memory, conation, feeling, instincts. Through- 

 out, the practical application to the child-mind 

 is kept in view, and the writing is clear and good. 

 Mr. Dumville is master of method and lecturer 

 on education in the L.C.C. Islington Day Training 

 College. 



(3) Mr. McDovvall accepts the scientific view 

 of biological evolution, carrying it forward to a 

 higher plane. He suggests that the fact of 

 spiritual development demands a determining en- 

 vironment to call out spiritual activities. This 

 he conceives as a transcendent mind which com- 

 prehends, enfolds, includes the environment-sum 

 of the whole world. Man, however, has sinned, 

 being free ; and his only way of salvation is to 

 "accept Christ" — though if he fails to do so 

 in this life he may have a chance in the next. 

 Bishop Ryle supplies a eulogistic introduction to 

 the book, which is thoughtful and earnest, and 

 will doubtless be of use to many readers who feel 

 the need of harmonising theology with natural 

 science. 



(4) Dr. Aveling sketches the history of the prob- 

 lem of universals or general terms — i.e. roughly 

 speaking, what "man" means, apart from this 

 or that man — from Plato down to the present, 

 and then proceeds to give a detailed account of 

 his psychological experiments. These were 

 carried out with pictures and nonsense-words, 

 with various observers. The results led to the 

 conclusions — among others — that images are not 

 necessary as contents for thought, but thinking 

 always involves concepts as contents ; and that 

 "the 'universal' is phenomenologically present, 

 or tends to be present, to consciousness as a con- 

 cept or imageless substantive content." The 

 research was, of course, psychological, aiming at 

 answering the question: "What is discoverable 

 in consciousness when we think the ' universal ' 

 or the ' individual ' ? " The metaphysical question 

 ("Do universals exist in nature?") and the 

 epislemological question (" Do our universal ideas 

 correspond to reality? ") are naturally left to their 

 respective domains. 



(5) Mr. and Mrs. Whctham have once more 

 NO. 2261, VOL. go] 



produced an admirably readable yet trustworthy 

 popular-science book, and it is to be hoped that 

 it will circulate widely. The authors trace the 

 development of science from its dim beginnings — 

 dim so far as history is concerned — in Chaldea and 

 Egypt, down through Aristotle, the Arabians, 

 Aquinas, and the Renaissance, to the Baconian 

 period and the present day — including even such 

 recent events as Prof. Schafer's Dundee address. 

 i As becomes a historical survey, dogmatism and 

 partisanship are avoided, the authors refraining 

 from expressions of opinion on, e.g., vitalism. 

 The style is enlivened by a pleasant humour, as 

 when the Council of Nicsea is said to have met, 

 "with characteristic modesty, to determine the 

 true nature of God " (p. 67J, and the sequence 

 of the book is logical and smooth. Its philosophy 

 also is excellent, and many men of science might 

 do worse than read the last two chapters on the 

 scope and function of science, and its relation 

 to religion. The "laws of nature " are the logical 

 laws of the conceptual world formed by our own 

 minds, and these laws are of practical use in 

 enabling us to predict the future behaviour of 

 our own perceptions. The business of science is 

 to construct a consistent conceptual model, but 

 how far that model corresponds to " reality " is 

 not for science to say, nor can it be assumed to 

 represent reality in any final or total way. In 

 short, there is room for metaphysics and faith 

 by the side of science. 



(6) The whimsical genius of Samuel Butler is 

 best known through the satirical romance " Ere- 

 whon," but his "Life and Habit" and "Un- 

 conscious Memory " show him as a serious thinker, 

 of scientific methods, but with a spiritual and 

 teleological view of evolution, in which he was 

 in advance of his time. But his title to fame will 

 probably rest on his literary style and the flashing- 

 audacity and originality of his thoughts. This is 

 specially indicated in the volume under notice, 

 which consists of detached and fragmentary 

 notions, jotted down at odd times, on all subjects, 

 from Handel to death, from mind and matter 

 to painting. His criticisms are cruelly searching, 

 as w^hen he compares Pater's style to an old 

 woman who has had her face skilfully enamelled. 

 It is a good book to dip into when seeking smart 

 paradoxes. We recommend it to Mr. G. K. 

 Chesterton, of whom Butler often reminds us. 

 Mr. Chesterton w-ill rightly take this as a com- 

 pliment w^hen he reflects that his friend G. B. Shaw 

 has called Butler the greatest English writer, in 

 his own department, of the latter part of the 

 nineteenth centur\'. 



(7) A very similar book to Mr. McDowall's 



