714 



SCIENCE. 



FN. S. Vol. IX. No. 229. 



activities are detei'miued by that part of his 

 ideas for whicli motor reactions have been pro- 

 vided." (3) These complicated results are, of 

 course, affected profoundly by differences of en- 

 vironment. In ' local ' environments motor re- 

 actions predominate, in ' general ' environments 

 sensory ideas. Thus, ' stratification of society ' 

 does not take place in obedience to such ' super- 

 ficial ' causes as wealth and social position, but 

 must be referred to ' psychic ' characteristics. 

 " A race ideal differs from its elements or from 

 an abstract concept by having a motor reaction 

 united with it (173). * * * Before the time 

 of Locke there were three types of Englishmen 

 • — the Puritan, the dinger and the sensualist. 

 Locke's analysis had split the Puritan party 

 into two parts. One section was transformed 

 into stalwarts, who placed race ideals above 

 reason and sense impressions, and the other 

 into mugwumps, who made the opposite 

 ■choice" (185). Viewed in this light, English 

 society has consisted of four great classes — 

 ' dingers. Sensualists, Stalwarts, Mugwumps ' 

 (23-32). ' dingers ' spring from ' local ' en- 

 vironments ; ' Sensualists ' appear when ' en- 

 vironments become richer in objects; they break 

 down local traditions and stand forth as con- 

 querors. When society becomes sufficiently 

 differentiated, ' Stalwarts ' are evolved — men 

 who love creeds and react from sensualism to 

 asceticism. Finally, increased wealth produces 

 ' Mugwumps,' who evince a highly developed 

 sensory side, and so are strong in thought, but 

 weak in action. " Its members are cosmopol- 

 itan in their sympathies ; advocates of compro- 

 mise and policy in politics ; sceptical in thought, 

 and agnostic in belief. They dislike ideals, 

 creeds and Utopias^ and are ever ready to ex- 

 pose shams and cant in which other people dis- 

 guise their sentiments" (31). The history of 

 English thought is the history of the appear- 

 ance, interaction and transformation of those 

 classes. ' ' The sensualist is the original unmodi- 

 fied Englishman, who retains the dross of prim- 

 itive times. The dinger is the result of 

 qualities grafted on English nature by the 

 supremacy of the Church. The stalwart is the 

 concrete Puritan. The conflict was a three- 

 cornered fight in which either the sensualist or 

 the Puritan was the aggressor, while the din- 



ger joined in with the defensive party (139). 

 * * '•' The three-cornered fight had to go on 

 until some solution could be found other than 

 those these parties could ofler. A new type of 

 man was demanded, a type endowed with men- 

 tal qualities different from those Englishmen 

 then possessed" (141-2). If the matter be 

 treated in this way one is freed from foreign 

 methods of interpretation and gets to know 

 English character as it actually was and is, in 

 its own peculiar nature (cf. 43). It ought to 

 be said that our author himself recognizes the 

 limitations of this standpoint and not merely on 

 his title-page. "Economic conditions create 

 the primarjr motor reactions, put them to new 

 uses and give them a form quite different from 

 that they have at the outset. * * * The con- 

 sequence is that a motor reaction, after losing 

 its primal economic importance, responds to 

 abstract instead of concrete phenomena ' ' (50- 

 1). Further, it ought to be added that the 

 most interesting, and, as I believe, the most 

 effective part of the work is the second half, 

 where this limitation does not press so heavilj'. 

 The execution of this portion, which deals with 

 English thought as ruled by the 'Mugwump,' 

 is a most important contribution to the subject, 

 one that all English philosophers, especially 

 those who see no good thing outside of Ger- 

 many, would do very well to mark, learn and 

 inwardly digest. " If we view English thought 

 from this standpoint there are three clearly de- 

 fined epochs. In the first Hobbes states the 

 problem without solving it ; Locke is the econo- 

 mist on the upward curve ; Newton is the 

 thinker on the downward curve. In the 

 second Mandeville states the problem ; Hume is 

 changed from an economist into a philosopher, 

 and Adam Smith from a philosopher into an 

 economist. The third epoch, beginning with 

 Malthus, ends when Mill is transformed into a 

 philosopher and Darwin into a biologist " (55). 

 Taking the book as a whole, no one can fail 

 to be impressed with its freshness, originality 

 and great brilliance in some places. While the 

 style is plain and straightforward for the most 

 part, incisive sayings — almost epigrammatic on 

 occasions — attract attention or serve to stimu- 

 late rapid thought. Indeed, sometimes Pro- 

 fessor Patten contrives to cast a flood of light 



