Februabt 18, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



165 



the author, Washington, D. C, 1912). If it 

 should seem impracticable to name all colors, 

 a numerical system could be devised. The 

 writer has felt the need of some such set of 

 color standards in the Soil Survey work in 

 South Dakota. Perhaps others may have felt 

 the same need. 



J. G. HUTTON 



S. D. Experiment Station 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



The Letters of William James. Edited by his 

 son, Henry James. Two volumes, xx + 348 

 and xiii +382, The Atlantic Monthly Press, 

 Boston, 1920. $10.00. 



William James was one of the half dozen 

 greatest Americans of his generation; he was 

 also a past master of writing. Every one 

 with intellectual interests will wish to read 

 his letters. They will be well rewarded, 

 whether they seek better acquaintance with a 

 great man, or literature itself, or stimuli to 

 reflections upon the conditions of scholarly 

 and scientific work in America. 



The most notable fact about James himself 

 which the letters reveal and emphasize is that 

 he was from youth a philosopher and moralist, 

 tremendously interested in the world as a 

 whole and in its deeper meanings. Painting, 

 natural history and medicine, each for a brief 

 time, and psychology for almost a score of 

 years, restrained him from the study of fun- 

 damental questions and sweeping statements 

 which really had his life-long allegiance. At 

 the age of twenty-six, while studying medicine 

 and expecting to earn his living by practising 

 it, and while gaining considerable acquaint- 

 ance with the best work of the time in phys- 

 iology and psychology, he was reading Hegel 

 and writing that Kant's " Kritik " " strikes me 

 so far as almost the sturdiest and honestest 

 piece of work I ever saw." In the partial list 

 of his readings during the half year after he 

 took his M.D. philosophy and religion out- 

 weighed science and medicine nearly ten to 

 one. 



In respect to the actual working of James's 



intellect, the letters probably do not add much 

 to what the shrewd reader would infer from 

 the " Principles of Psychology," the " Varieties 

 of Religious Experience," " Pragmatism " and 

 other writings. The letters show brilliantly 

 the extreme fertility of mind, the receptivity 

 to facts, theories and viewpoints of all sorts, 

 the impulsive reaction to approve and make 

 the best out of every man's offering, the 

 intuitive sense of causes and consequences, 

 and the perfect candor and directness. They 

 do not show so well the sheer mastery in ob- 

 serving and organizing the facts of human 

 nature and behavior, the iinal recognitions of 

 truth and value, and the persistent refusal to 

 tolerate inadequacies or imperfections by 

 which James worked his way to them. 



As literature the Jetters have the verve, the 

 magic gift of epithet and the utter sincerity 

 which, writing or speaking, James never 

 lacked. His caricature, or possibly character- 

 ization, of the university professor will be 

 often quoted: 



— a, being whose duty is to know everything, and 

 have his own opinion about everything, connected 

 with his Faoh. . . . has the most prodigious fac- 

 ulty of appropriating and preserving knowledge, 

 and as for opinions, he takes au grand s4rieux his 

 duties there. He says of each possible subject, 

 "Here I must have an opinion. Let's seel 

 What shall it be? How many possible opinions 

 axe there? three? four? Yes! just four! Shall I 

 take one of these? It will seem more original to 

 take a higher position, a sort of Vermittelungs- 

 ansicht between them all. That I will do, etc., 

 etc." So he acquires a complete assortment of 

 opinions of his own; and, as his memory is so 

 good, he seldom forgets which they arel But this 

 is not reprehensible; it is admirable — -from the 

 professorial point of view. 



He tells his little daughter of a big mastiff: 



The ears and face are black, his eyes are yellow, 

 his paws are magnificent, his tail keeps wagging 

 all the time, and he makes on me the impression 

 of an angel hid in a cloud. He longs to do good. 



Of the subtleties in the theme and treat- 

 ment of his brother's latest novels he writes: 



I Ton know how opposed your wlhole "third man- 

 ner" of execution is to the literary ideals -wliich 



