Febbuary 9, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



223 



William Libbey : ' Physical Geography of the 

 Jordan Valley.' 



Lawrence Maetin : ' Observations Along the 

 Front of the Rocky Mountains in Montana.' 



A. Lawrence Rotch : ' Proofs of the Existence 

 of the Upper Anti-trades.' 



R. S. Tarb and Lawrence Martin : ' Observa- 

 tions on the Glaciers and Glaeiation of Yakutat 

 Bay, Alaska.' 



P. S. Smith : ' Practical Exercises in Physical 

 Geography.' 



F. P. Gulliver : ' Home Geography.' 

 • J. Russell Smith : ' The Place of Economic 

 Geography in Education.' 



Martha Kruq Genthe : ' Some Remarks on 

 the Use of Topographic Maps in Schools.' 



D. W. Johnson : ' Drainage Modifications in 

 the Southeastern Appalachians.' 



President W. M. Davis presented brief 

 summaries of papers by G. C. Curtis, on 

 ' Glacial Erosion in the Kew Zealand Alps, ' 

 and by E. Huntington, on ' Border Belts 

 of the Tarim Basin, Central Asia.' Pro- 

 fessor Davis concluded the program with a 

 paper bearing the title, ' Physiographic 

 Notes on South Africa.' Many of the 

 papers were illustrated with lantern views. 



The association does not sustain any 

 regular publication. Through the courtesy 

 of the American Geographical Society, 

 their bulletin for February of this year will 

 be mainly devoted to the proceedings of the 

 meeting. 



The officers elected for 1906 are as fol- 

 lows: 



President — Cyrus C Adams. 

 First Vice-president — Angelo Heilprin. 

 Second Vice-president — William Libbey. 

 Secretary and Treasurer — Albert P. Brigham. 

 Coxincilors — Three years, W. M. Davis; two 

 years, 1. C. Russell; one year, H. C. Cowles. 



A. P. B. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



The Life of Reason, or the Phases of Human 

 Progress. By George Santayana. First 

 volume, ' Introduction and Eeason in Com- 

 mon Sense ' ; second volume, ' Eeason in 

 Society.' New York, Charles Scribner's 



■ Sons. 1905. ■■ '' 



These two volumes, to be followed by three 

 others upon ' Reason in Art, in Religion and 

 in Science," ajfford more than the promise, 

 they afford the potency, of the -most significant 

 contribution, made in this generation, to 

 philosophic revision. The volumes evade 

 labeling by any of the nicknames of philo- 

 sophic schools. Since probably they do this 

 of conscious choice, it is discourteous to at- 

 tempt a labeling. In calling the view set 

 forth naturalistic idealism,, I shall, accord- 

 ingly, be understood to wish to phrase the im- 

 pression left upon my own mind, and to sug- 

 gest that impression to the reader, rather than 

 to classify the author. That reason is real, 

 that it is a life, that its life is the significant 

 and animating principle of all distinctively 

 human activity, that is, of commerce, gov- 

 ernment and social intercourse; of religion, 

 art and science as well as of philosophy; that 

 the life of reason so expressed is one with the 

 reflective principle in its simplest, most direct 

 expressions in common sense, that is, in the 

 perception of objects, the acknowledgment of 

 persons, and the entertaining of ideas — this 

 may well be called idealism, in the classic, if 

 not in the modern epistemologic, sense. But 

 equally marked is Dr. Santayana's insistence 

 that reason is natural and empirical; that it 

 is a direct outgrowth of natural conditions, 

 and that it refines and perfects the nature it 

 expresses; it is not transcendental either in 

 its origin, its objects — the material with 

 which it occupies itself — or in purpose. 



Nature shows itself in a life of sentiency 

 and of impulse. But some sentient mo- 

 ments mean more, satisfy more, and are 

 at a deeper level, than others. The signifi- 

 cance of such moments, persistently enter- 

 tained, constitutes reason. For so enter- 

 tained, they afford standards of estimation, of 

 criticism, of construction ; they become the 

 starting-points of sustained effort to bring all 

 experiences into harmony with themselves. 

 Vital impulse gives moments of excellence; 

 these excellences, grasped and held, modify 

 vital impulse which now veers in sympathy 

 with the judgments of past and the anticipa- 



'The first two of these are now (Jan., 1906) 

 published. 



