214 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 300 



■is the intuitional ; and the largest and best portion of his work is 

 devoted to setting forth the intuitional theory of conscience and the 

 imoral law, with criticisms of opposing views. In so doing he re- 

 veals both the strength and the weakness of his own position. The 

 ;grand defect in the utilitarian ethics has always been its failure to 

 account for the sense of obligation ; and Professor Calderwood has 

 no difficulty in showing that all their attempts to derive this senti- 

 ment by association or evolution from the lower feelings of our 

 nature have thus far been unsuccessful. In discussing the views 

 of the Hegelians and Neo-Kantians, our author has the same diffi- 

 culty that others have in understanding what they mean by ' self- 

 realization,' and how this can be made the basis of moral conduct. 

 Professor Calderwood's own theory, however, has in our eyes a 

 defect hardly less momentous than those he points out in the others ; 

 namely, its failure to reduce the moral law to one fundamental 

 principle. Our conscience, he says, knows intuitively that we 

 ought to be industrious, truthful, temperate, and so forth ; but each 

 •of these is given as a distinct and independent law, having no con- 

 nection with the rest. He maintains, indeed, that all the various 

 moral laws are in perfect harmony with one another ; but, if this is 

 the case, there must be some deeper principle on which that har- 

 mony depends, and this principle must be the fundamental inoral 

 law. It is obvious, however, that a purely intuitional ethics, which 

 irejects all reference to ends, can never supply such a principle, but 

 we must look for it in some other direction. 



Western China : A Journey to the Great Buddhist Centre of 

 Mount Omei. By Rev. ViRGIL C. Hart. Boston, Ticknor. 

 12°. ^2. 



The author of this interesting description of western China and 

 its temples and sceneries is so well versed in the Chinese language, 

 and so well acquainted with Chinese customs, that his book can- 

 not fail to be full of material of the greatest interest. During a 

 twenty-two years' residence in China, more particularly in the central 

 parts of the empire, he has acquired a thorough knowletlge of the re- 

 ligion of the Chinese, and therefore his descriptions and explanations 

 •of the great religious centre in western China are full of interest to the 

 student of Buddhism. In 1887 the author was appointed to visit 

 western China and re-open a mission at Chung King, which had 

 tieen destroyed by a mob. After re-establishing the mission, he 

 made a visit of a month's duration to Mount Omei, which is one of 

 ■the great centres of Buddhistic worship. It is the adventures of 

 this journey and his observations on Mount Omei which the author 

 •describes in his book. The produce of the districts he visited, and 

 "the mode of life and the trades of the inhabitants, as well as the 

 wonderful scenery of the gorges of the Yang-tse,are the subjects of 

 ■the author's interesting descriptions. But the reader will be es- 

 pecially attracted by his observations on the wonderful works of 

 .art^ in this region. The author says, " Here, near the borders of 

 Chinese civilization, we find a region of unequalled sublimity, a 

 combination of lofty mountains, of swift rivers, of valleys of won- 

 drous fertility. Then, also, of the works of man there are many, 

 such as thousands of brine-wells, a great silk-culture, of which it is 

 the centre, a white-wax industry, mountains chiselled into the forms 

 ■of idols, colossal bronze statues, pagodas, and one temple wholly of 

 rich bronze." Valuable translations of Chinese inscriptions found 

 in these regions make the author's descriptions still more interest- 

 ing, opening, as they do, a view upon the ancient history of this 

 district, and upon the state of mind in which the pilgrim gazes at 

 these works of religious devotion. 



Eleme9itary Classics. London and New York, Macmillan. 24°. 



40 cents each. 



Three new volumes of this useful series have reached us. Rev. 

 G. H. Nail has edited ' Stories from Aulus Gellius,' with notes, ex- 

 ercises, and vocabularies for the use of lower forms, and intended 

 as a pleasant change to young boys after a course of 'Cornelius 

 Nepos,' and ' Eutropius.' The language of the original has been 

 simplified in part, and some rare or late words and constructions 

 •have been cut out. Rev. H. M. Stephenson has edited the fourth 

 book of the ' .^neid ' on the same plan as the ninth, which was pub- 

 lished a short time ago. The third volume of the series are selec- 

 tions from Xenophon's 'Anabasis,' Book IV., edited by Rev. E. D. 

 Stone, and accompanied by an historical introduction, notes, exer- 



cises, and a vocabulary. This special portion has been selected as 

 a record of hardihood and adventure likely to be of special interest 

 to boys. 



Talks on Psychology applied to Teaching. By A. S. WELCH. 

 New York and Chicago, E. L. Kellogg & Co. 16°. 

 The present little volume has been written from an educational 

 point of view, its object being to give a review of psychology as ap- 

 plied to teaching. Many instructors in our common and graded 

 schools are familiar with the branches they teach, but deficient in 

 knowledge of the mental powers whose development they seek to 

 promote. The teacher, however, must comprehend fully not only 

 the objects studied by the pupil, but the efforts put forth in study- 

 ing them, the effect of these efforts on the faculty exerted, and their 

 result in the form of accurate knowledge. These have been the 

 leading considerations in determining the character and scope of 

 the book. The first part of the book is a brief summary of psycho- 

 logical data, while the second contains their special application to 

 teaching-purposes. 



A First Book in German. By H. C. G. Brandt. Boston, AUyn & 

 Bacon. 12°. %\. 



The present volume is the first part of Brandt's ' German Gram- 

 mar,' bound together with ' The Student's Manual of Exercises,' 

 prepared and arranged by A. Lodeman to accompany the former. 

 Thus a book is obtained that is well adapted for use in secondary 

 schools. The first part is an unaltered reprint from the fourth edition 

 of the grammar, which is very concise and clear. Accidence and 

 syntax are completely separated. The syntax is treated to a cer- 

 tain extent from an historical standpoint. Although in the first 

 part only brief remarks on this subject are found, they will interest 

 the pupil. The present partial edition has been prepared at the 

 suggestion of teachers, and will undoubtedly prove very useful. 



Macmillan s Greek Cozirse. London and New York, Macmillan. 

 16". 

 JVlR. H. G. Underhill has compiled a series of 'Easy Exercises 

 in Greek Accidence,' and Mr. W. Gunion Rutherford has used the 

 occasion to prepare a new edition of his ' First Greek Grammar,' 

 which, in its general arrangement, remains as the former editions, 

 although it has been thoroughly revised and partly rewritten. The 

 first part of the grammar is a drill-book for beginners, i' more 

 accurately compiled than those generally in use," while all advanced 

 matter is confined to a second part. The grammar, in its original 

 form, gained many friends, and it has become still more useful in 

 its revised form, and by the addition of the collection of exercises 

 by Mr. Underhill, of which it is the starting-point. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The committee on scieiice and the arts, of the Franklin Insti- 

 tute of Pennsylvania, is empowered to award, or to recommend the 

 award of, certain medals fou meritorious discoveries and inventions. 

 These medals are (i) the Elliott Cresson medal (gold), founded by 

 the legacy of Elliott Cresson of Philadelphia ; and (2) the John 

 Scott legacy premium and medal (twenty dollars and a medal of 

 copper), founded, in 1816, by John Scott, a merchant of Edinburgh, 

 Scotland, who bequeathed to the city of Philadelphia a considerable 

 sum of money, the interest of which should be devoted to reward- 

 ing ingenious men and women who make useful inventions. Upon 

 request made to the secretary of the Franklin Institute, Philadel- 

 phia, full information will be sent respecting the manner of making 

 application for the investigation of inventions and discoveries. 



— In his annual report, Surgeon-General Moore says of the 

 health of the United States Army that the mean strength of the 

 ariny for the year, including officers and both white and colored 

 enlisted men, is stated at 23,841, of which 21,601 were whites and 

 2,240 were colored. The total admissions to sick report were 

 29,727 (white, 26,600; colored, 3.137); ratio of all admissions per 

 1,000 of all mean strength, 1,231.42 white, and 1,395.98 colored; 

 deaths froin all causes, 188 white, 26 colored, — total, 214; ratio 

 of deaths per 1,000 of mean strength, 7.88 white, 10.71 colored, — 

 total 8.12. The death-rate was somewhat lower than the rate 

 for the previous decade, which was 11.4. The death-rate of the 



