OcTOBER 15, 1897. ] 
again he told me in full the folk-tale of the 
Mesa Encantada. No student of ethnology or 
of men, looking at that fine old face, listening 
to that voice, could ever have been so flippant 
as to suggest that he was telling ‘a tall story.’ 
He was repeating, word for word, the scrip- 
tures (we would say for a parallel) as he had 
learned them at his father’s knee, and as they 
had been ‘told down’ from father to son 
through centuries. These folk-stories are not 
told to careless strangers, nor to careful ones 
either. How difficult it is to get them in full 
has been amply recorded by Bandelier and 
Cushing, and is fully understood by all who 
have genuinely gathered Indian folk-lore. 
The matter of precedence is not vital, but 
since Mr. Hodge’s workmanlike achievement 
the final ‘round-up’ of the rock of Katzimo 
seems to be on, and it is well to have all the 
mavericks duly marked. The Indian tradition 
is vindicated, and under circumstances that, in 
any less rigorous court than that of science, 
would be deemed dramatic. 
CuHAs. F, Lummis. 
Los ANGELES, CAL. 
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 
Philosophy of Knowledge. An Inquiry into the 
Nature, Limits and Validity of Human Cogni- 
tive Faculty. By GEorGE TRUMBULL LADD, 
Professor of Philosophy in Yale University. 
_ New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1897. 
Pp. xv+614. 
Professor Ladd’s most widely known work 
has hitherto been done in the field of psychol- 
ogy. His Elements of Physiological Psychology, 
published ten years ago, was the first system- 
atic account in English of the methods and 
results of that science. Since that time there 
have appeared from the pen of the same author, 
Outlines of Physiological Psychology ; Psychology, 
Descriptive and Explanatory ; Philosophy of Mind 
(an essay on the metaphysics of psychology); 
besides a work entitled Introduction to Philoso, 
phy. It has all along been evident to readers 
of Professor Ladd’s works that his main interest 
is n those ultimate problems of theology and 
philosophy which are concerned with man’s 
nature and destiny, and which demand for their 
SCIENCE. 
597 
answer some theory of his relation to other be- 
ings and to the ground of all reality. The 
author’s procedure, however, as well as numer- 
ous explicit statements scattered throughout his. 
writings, make it clear that he has considered it 
necessary to approach the discussion of these 
problems after a thorough study of the concrete 
facts regarding the nature of the human mind 
and its relation to the bodily organism. Pro- 
fessor Ladd’s psychological labors thus furnish 
the basis for his philosophy. Having laid the 
foundation, he now proposes to see what struc- 
ture can be erected upon it; or, as he himself 
expresses it, to show what is ‘implicate’ in the 
fact of human experience. It is the main busi- 
ness of the present volume to discuss the prob- 
lems of knowledge; ontological questions are, in 
the main, reserved for future treatment. Never- 
theless, as is pointed out, it is not possible to 
separate entirely ontology and epistemology. 
‘Something as to the nature of the really exist- 
ent is interwoven inextricably with the conscious. 
life of the cognitive subject’’ (p. 348). Even in 
the present work, then, as we shall see later, a 
theory of reality is foreshadowed. 
Before examining any of the doctrines of the 
book, it seems necessary to say a word regard- 
ing its spirit and purpose. The author’s inter- 
est appears throughout to be practical quite as 
much as theoretical. ‘‘I have striven con- 
stantly,’’ he says, ‘‘ to make epistemology vital, 
—a thing of moment, because indissolubly and 
most intimately connected with the ethical and 
religious life of the age’’ (p. ix.). Anditseems 
to him of the utmost importance to refute what 
he considers false and dangerous theories of 
knowledge. ‘‘The agnostic.or despairing atti- 
tude towards the problem of knowledge itself 
lies, both logically and in fact, at the base of all 
other agnosticism, and of manifold forms of de- 
spair’’ (p. 28). If this conviction has some- 
times led the author to adopt the language of a 
moral teacher or preacher, rather than that of 
an investigator, it has doubtless rendered his 
presentation more vigorous and his book more 
interesting, from the standpoint of the general 
reader, than would otherwise have been the 
ease. It is probable, too, that in the author’s 
consciousness of a mission is to be found the ex- 
planation of the remarkable statements in the 
