Februaby 1, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



179 



win teaches a dualism of subjective and outer 

 controls; but in other respects they are not so 

 far apart. 



Play, sembling and experimentation are cen- 

 tral in this theory of knowledge. In play we 

 semble, that is, we treat an object which we 

 have invented, one ' freely ' determined by 

 ' subjective control,' as though it possessed cer- 

 tain coefficients of reality which it lacks. By 

 experimentation we test these play construc- 

 tions and find that they are either mere fan- 

 cies (belonging to the inner world of subject- 

 ive control) or else sense objects (possessing 

 universality and belonging to the outer world 

 of foreign control). Thus play and experi- 

 mentation, leading to judgment, mediate be- 

 tween the ' inner ' and the ' outer,' between 

 ' subjective control ' and ' outer control.' The 

 author does not refer to language, or to sym- 

 pathy, imitation, jealousy, bashfulness, gre- 

 gariousness and other instinctive or impulsive 

 reactions which involve social situations. Why 

 should play be singled out as the only impul- 

 sive reaction contributing to the development 

 of judgment? Universality is not involved 

 in mere play because (1) few can enter into 

 a game and (2) both the objects and the self 

 of play are tentative and fictitious. Mere 

 semblance is not characteristic of objects of 

 knowledge as such. In short, we find a gap 

 between play and experimentation, between 

 sembling and judging, which the book has not 

 filled, the gap between perception and concep- 

 tion, between sense and reason, between mere 

 sentience and reflection. The author's theory 

 seems to lead to the doctrine that facts are all 

 ' outer ' — ^that they are ultimately trans-object- 

 ive — while meanings and values are all sub- 

 jective (see pp. 135 f.), and judgment must 

 perform the miracle of joining them. Beyond 

 this difficulty, the author's dualism of subject- 

 ive and outer controls would make genuine 

 experimentation and judging impossible. 

 These brief critical suggestions, of course, 

 need elaboration, but the reviewer's respect 

 for the writer's results as well as his sense of 

 the importance of this discussion incline him 

 to let them stand. 



G. A. Tawney 



THE WAYS OF SHEEP. 



The FlocJc. By Mary Austin. Pp. 266, illus- 

 trated. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 

 1906. 



Scientific observation as conducted by scien- 

 tific men is rigorous, repeated and checked by 

 the ingenious employment of experimental 

 control of conditions. Observation by the 

 nature lover may not be so guarded and tested. 

 And every publication by word of mouth or 

 impress of type of obviously mistaken record 

 of seeing or of misinterpretation of the really 

 seen that comes from the nature lover con- 

 firms the rigorous-minded scientific man in 

 the belief that only his sort of observation 

 reveals the truth. Hence we do not search 

 literary books for contributions to science: 

 which is a habit of omission that may lose to 

 us some valuable data. 



Mary Austin, an author known especially 

 to readers of the Atlantic Monthly and to 

 those generally who seek to acquaint them- 

 selves with the better sort of American writing, 

 has included in ' The Flock ' a host of singu- 

 larly interesting and suggestive observations 

 on the ways of sheep. The author has lived 

 near (in more ways than one) sheep and sheep 

 dogs and sheep men for seventeen years, and 

 is a keen and careful observer and an honest 

 and gifted recorder of her observations. Hence 

 ' The Plock ' is a book which the driven scien- 

 tific man may read for recreation and infor- 

 mation at once. How unusual! 



I shall take space to refer to but two or 

 three of Mrs. Austin's observations or summa- 

 tions of observation. The ' mob mind ' of 

 sheep is a very real thing in determining the 

 ways of the flock. In the flock 

 there are always leaders, middlers and tailera, 

 each insisting on its own place in the order of 

 going. Should the flock be rounded up suddenly 

 in alarm it mills within itself until these have 

 come to their ovm places. 



Suppose the sheep to scatter widely on a 

 heather-planted headland, the leader feeding far 

 to windward. Comes a cougar sneaking up the 

 trail between the rooted boulders toward the 

 meanest of the flock. The smell of him, the play 

 of light on his sleek flanks startles the unslumber- 

 ing fear in the meanest; it runs widening in the 



