July 23, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



87 



of economic life as they actually exist, blended 

 with the political, legal, and social life. It has 

 no such abstraction as the ' economic man,' but 

 thinks only of man living in state relations, under 

 the bond of law, and surrounded by the influences 

 of family, custom, and social habits. Political 

 economy is thus not isolated from the other 

 branches of social science, but finds a thousand 

 points of contact with them. It adds to theu* 

 knowledge, and in return receives from them the 

 explanation of many of its phenomena. In fact, 

 we may say that each set of phenomena is inex- 

 plicable without some knowledge of the others, 

 and to isolate them is to make each nicomj)lete in 

 itself. 



The value of this method of investigation is 

 strikingly seen in the function which political 

 economy perfoi-ms in the study of pohtical science. 

 That function is a double one. In the first place, 

 political history can never be understood without 

 a knowledge of the economic condition of the 

 community which we are studying. The feudal 

 system was possible only at a time when land was 

 the principal kind of wealth. Aristocratic city 

 republics could exist only where the growth of 

 industry and commerce enabled the burghers to 

 make themselves independent of the feudal no- 

 bility. Absolute monarchy rested on a class sufli- 

 ciently rich to pay taxes, and sufficiently interested 

 in the preservation of law and order to be willing 

 to pay them. Representative institutions arose only 

 when at last the industrial and commercial class 

 was sti'ong enough to assert itself against both 

 kingship and land-holding aristocracy. The first 

 function of pohtical economy is purely historical. 

 It investigates economic life in past ages for the 

 purpose of explaining political history. When it 

 gets down to the i^resent time, it is purely descrij)- 

 tive, for the political institutions of different na- 

 tions at the present time are conditioned by vary- 

 ing economic circumstances. 



But pohtical economy has a second function in 

 connection with the study of political science. 

 Every state action, every law that is passed, or 

 ordinance enforced, or treaty negotiated, has 

 economic consequences sometimes of the highest 

 importance. Pohtical economy must here direct 

 state action, must say what will be the conse- 

 quences of such action, and whether it wiU be for 

 good or evil. It can do this only by appeal to 

 history, by comparison of the experience of other 

 nations, and by the use of statistics. In other 

 words, we find that the most faithful ally of 

 political science is the use of the historical, com- 

 parative, and statistical method of investigation 

 in political economy. 



Richmond Mayo Smith. 



RECENT BOOKS ON PSYCHOLOGY. 



When a very successful English translation was 

 made some years ago of Ribot's ' La psychologic 

 Anglaise contemiDoraine,' it was a matter of sur- 

 prise that his ' Psychologic Allemande ' also was 

 not translated as soon as it appeared. For though 

 we may agree with Mr. James Ward, that the lat- 

 ter book is in a measure superficial and sometimes 

 misleading, it is nevertheless the only compact 

 summary of that psychological activity in Ger- 

 many that began with Herbart ; and that is that 

 represented to-day by Professor Wundt of Leij)zig. 

 We are very glad that it is now put into the hands 

 of Enghsh readers. M. Ribot has found that the 

 advance in psychological investigation between 

 1879 and 1885 has necessitated the rewriting of his 

 original work ; and it is from this second French 

 edition that the translation before us is made.^ 



This second edition is without the brief but in- 

 teresting chapter on Beneke which was included 

 in the first edition, but as compensation it covers 

 the latest discussion of Weber's law and the more 

 recent investigations of Wundt. Ribot is very 

 clear as to what he means by the German psychol- 

 ogy of to-day : he calls it the ' new ' psychology, 

 but rather exults than otherwise in the idea of ' a 

 psychology without a soul.' He describes the new 

 psychology tersely, thus : "It has for its object 

 nervous phenomena accompanied by consciousness, 

 finding in man the type most easy of recognition, 

 but bound to pursue the investigation through the 

 whole animal series, however difficult " (p. 8). This 

 is explicit enough surely, but has a strange sound 

 to the student of English psychology, who is ac- 

 customed to the discussion of problems which the 

 Germans, since Kant, have relegated to a separate 

 branch of mental science called erJcenntnissthe- 

 orie. 



For the older school of psychologists, M. Ribot 

 expresses what we may best designate as respect- 

 ful contempt. " We owe to it good descriptions, 

 excellent analyses ; but its work is done. Its prov- 

 ince now is simply details, shades of meaning, 

 refinements, subtilties " (p. 3). This is, in its way, 

 exquisite, and is one of the many passages in 

 which M. Ribot implies that Locke, Leibnitz, Berke- 

 ley, Hume, Reid, Stewart, and Hamilton can be 

 called psychologists only by historical courtesy. 

 With this narrow conception of psychology we are 

 not going to quarrel : we merely point it out as 

 the key to understanding M. Ribot's excellent 

 accounts of Herbart, Lotze, Fechner, and Wundt. 

 Nowhere else are their investigations and teach- 



1 German psychology of to-day : the empirical school. By 

 Th. Ribot. Tr. by T. M. BaldwiD, B. A., with a preface by 

 James McOosh, D.D., LL.D., Lit. D. New York, Scribner, 

 1886. 8°. 



