348 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 374. 



as an indication of prevalent philosophical 

 tendencies in English-speaking lands. Save 

 for the sporadic efforts of Coleridge and Car- 

 lyle in Britain, of Emerson and his group in 

 this country, the English mind remained in 

 long isolation from the transitive speculation 

 of Europe, originated by Kant and Herder, 

 cast abroad by Goethe, and systematized by 

 Hegel. At length, in the sixties of the nine- 

 teenth century, thanks to Dr. Stirling, Wal- 

 lace, the brothers Caird, Mr. W. T. Harris and 

 the St. Louis circle, Hegel burst upon the 

 Anglo-Saxon world, and threatened to carry 

 all before him by the seventies. During the 

 same years, the hypothesis of evolution, to- 

 gether with certain discoveries in physiology 

 and physics, brought scientific men into con- 

 tact with metaphysical problems which had 

 been stilled awhile. Huxley's speculations, 

 significant in their changes, Clifford's 'mind- 

 stuff,' and similar so-called 'monistic' 

 theories, were the result — a belated product 

 being Haeckel's recent 'Riddle of the Uni- 

 verse.' While the immanent tendencies and 

 animating problems happened to be much the 

 same in both cases, it may be declared that 

 the Hegelian and the Clifford-Huxley expla- 

 nations could not be true together. As a matter 

 of fact, each emphasized elements incident to 

 the problem which the other minimized. A 

 few of the younger men trained, like Mr. 

 Royce, in the idealistic school, have come to 

 clear consciousness of this situation; and, re- 

 taining the essential principle for which Hegel 

 stands, have striven to rid themselves of his 

 formalistic baggage, so affording opportunity 

 for a fuller recognition of the scientific stand- 

 point and — more important — of the scientific 

 conscience. On the whole, then, these lectures 

 are essentially mediating. This constitutes 

 their strength now, and will prove their weak- 

 ness twenty years hence. They cleave to the 

 idealistic as opposed to the 'monistic' solu- 

 tion. On this ground I have no fault to find 

 with them. 



At the same time, I am by no means satis- 

 fied that the implications of 'monism' have 

 been threshed out thoroughly, even if the dis- 

 cussion differ widely, as it does, from such 

 cavalier treatment as that accorded, say, by 



Professor Pringie Pattison in the new 'Dic- 

 tionary of Philosophy.' Moreover, I have very 

 serious misgivings about the evident reversion 

 to Fichte manifested by Mr. Royce. Never- 

 theless, his lectures constitute a thoroughly 

 characteristic contribution — one that cannot 

 be overlooked — to the very meaningful de- 

 velopment within the English sub-Hegelian 

 school. And if Mr. Royce appear to look 

 back more than Mr. E. H. Bradley or Mr. 

 Ellis McTaggart, one must perhaps hold the 

 lecture-form of his work partly responsible. I 

 am still haunted by the idea, to which I have 

 given expression more than once, that it is a 

 real misfortune that Mr. Royce should have 

 produced so extended a series of books domin- 

 ated by this method. For, as he himself says, 

 'In the public lecture-room the hearer has no 

 time to meditate, and the speaker too little 

 opportunity to be either concise or exhaustive.' 

 We await the 'system' therefore. Like little 

 girls, we believe in the man in the moon, but, 

 like older girls, we would believe more in the 

 man in the honeymoon. 



R. M. Wenley. 

 University of Michigan. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



Popular Science Monthly for February is of 

 more than usual interest for the general read- 

 er. The first article, on 'Stellar Evolution in 

 the Light of Recent Research,' by George E. 

 Hale, shows how much knowledge has been 

 gained by the use of the camera and spectro- 

 scope. In 'Winged Reptiles' S. W. Williston 

 tells of the pterodactyls, and particularly of 

 the great American toothless species of the 

 genus Ornithostema, which includes the larg- 

 est flying animals. Appropriately following 

 this is 'The Journeyings of Birds,' by F. H. 

 Knowlton, which gives an excellent resume of 

 the subject of bird migration, and Otis T. 

 Mason discusses 'Environment in Relation to 

 Sex in Human Culture ' ; and R. H. Thurston, 

 in 'The College Man as Leader in the World's 

 Work,' expresses his belief that the educated 

 man will in the future be even more in the 

 front than now. Charles B. Dyke treats of 

 'Theology versus Thrift in the Black Belt,' 

 believing that the religious teaching received 



