June 27, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



389 



various vicissitudes he experienced in consequence of the frequent 

 changes of government, culminaling in a ten-years' exile in Hol- 

 land. These ten jears were quite probably the most important in 

 his whole life ; for it was chiefly during this time that he thought 

 out and composed his "Essay on the Human Understanding," 

 and also some of his most important political treatises. The later 

 events of his life, together with the histoi-y of his various works, 

 are related by Professor Fraser with care, and with as much ful- 

 ness as most readers will desire. 



The account of Locke's life, however, is kept subordinate to the 

 analysis and criticism of his philosophy, — a task which Professor 

 Fi'aser ha^ performed with great clearness and philosophical acu- 

 men. He remarks in his preface how great has been the influ- 

 ence of Locke's "Essay" upon subsequent thought, and that it 

 '■seems in excess of the author's speculative depth and subtlety or' 

 grandeur of character, — a remark with which most readers of the 

 work at the present day are likely to agree. Professor Fraser 

 shows, however, in another place, to what this influence is really 

 due. Locke was the first thinker to place at the very portal of 

 philosophy the question as to the "origin, certainty, and extent 

 of human knowledge;" and, though he failed to answer the ques- 

 tion himself, it has been recognized ever since as the main prob- 

 lem in human thought. When Professor Fraser comes to inquire 

 why it was that Locke failed to solve the problem, he shows 

 plainly that it was due to an insufficient comprehension of the 

 intuitions of reason and of their philosophical importance. Locke 

 did not deny their existence, — on the contrary, he expressly rec- 

 ognized their truth and self evidence, — but he assigned them a 

 subordinate place in his scheme, and therefore failed to give a 

 satisfactory account of our ideas of substance, infinity, causation, 

 and others,which cannot be derived from external or internal sense. 

 Professor Eraser's discussion of this point is very able; and all 

 who wish to understand Locke's work, and his place in the his- 

 tory of philosophy, will do well to read this book. 



Eussia: its People and its Literature. By Emilia Paedo BazIn. 

 Tr. by Fanny Hale Gardiner. Chicago, McClurg & Co. 16°. 



$1.25. 



The object of this work is to give an account of the present 

 state of society and opinion in Russia, with a more particular ex- 

 amination of the works of the Russian novelists. Senora Bazan 

 tells us at the outset that she is not acquainted with the Russian 

 language; but she has read largely of the works in other lan- 

 guages that treat of Russia, together with all the translations 

 from Russian literature that have appeared. She has also asso- 

 ciated considerably with Russian authors and revolutionists in 

 Paris, and by all these means has obtained materials for an inter- 

 esting book. Of course, in a small book prepared in this way, we 

 cannot expect any thing specially nevv or original; but the reader 

 will find in it a clear and instructive delineation of the more im- 

 portant phases of Russian life and literature as the authoress un- 

 derstands them. She begins by briefly noting the leading points 

 in Russian history, and then gives us a study of nihilism, which 

 to our mind is the most interesting part of the book; while the 

 rest of her remarks relate mainly to the new school of Russian 

 novelists, beginning with Gogol, and ending with Tolstoi. Ni- 

 hilism, she thinks, as others have thought, is in great part the 

 product of the atheistical and pessimistic philosophy of Germany, 

 though political discontent has had a share in forming it; and she 

 shows clearly that it is confined to the more active and educated 

 classes, the peasantry and workingnien generally showing thus 

 far no sympathy with it. The characteristics of Russian fiction 

 are attributed partly to nihilism, and partly to the spirit of "real- 

 ism" which pervades all the fiction of the age. After spending 

 several years, however, in the study of her subject, Sefiora Bazan 

 confesses herself somewhat bafiled, and ends with the remark, 

 "Russia is an enigma; let those solve it who can — I could not." 



Festalozzi, his Life and Work. By Roger De Guimps. Tr. by 

 J. Russell. (International Education Series.) New York, 

 Appleton. 12°. $1.50. 



About a year ago we had occasion to notice a translation of De 

 Guimps's "Life of Pestalozzi," by Miss Crombie, and we are now 



favored with another by a different hand. Of the two, the ren- 

 dering by Mr. Russell seems to us the best. We have not the 

 French original at hand to test the accuracy of the work, but this 

 is vouched for by Rev. R. H. Quick, who writes a brief introduc- 

 tion; and the translation reads like an original composition in 

 English, thus making an interesting book. Moreover, it is com- 

 plete, the narrative being given entire, with very copious extracts- 

 from Pestalozzi's own writings. It is therefore the best account 

 of his life and work to be found in English, and is well worthy of 

 a place in the series to which it belongs. 



Of Pestalozzi himself we have perhaps said enough in former 

 articles ; but we may cite a few remarks by Mr. W. T. Harris in 

 the "Editor's Preface," which he contributes to the volume. He 

 holds, and rightly, that the Swiss educator's importance consists 

 not so much in his method of teaching as in his ardent desire for 

 the education and elevation of the poorer classes, who, previous 

 to his time, had had virtually no education at all. According to 

 Mr. Harris, "he is the first teacher to announce convincingly the 

 doctrine that all people should be educated," — a doctrine now held 

 and more or less effectively practised in all civilized countries. 

 It was to this end that all his labors were directed, and he had 

 thus the honor of leading the movement for universal education. 

 Of his method of teaching, Mr. Harris does not speak so highly, 

 believing in particular that he laid too much stress on the mere 

 training of the senses, and too little on the development of the 

 thinking faculty. With these views we agree; and we cannot 

 help adding, that, in our opinion, an efficient practical, method 

 was just what Pestalozzi lacked, the failure of all his educational 

 experiments pointing strongly to this conclusion. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



In the Atlantic for July, Professor Shaler writes about "Sci- 

 ence and the African Problem." Mr. Albert Bushnell Hart's pa- 

 per on "The Status of Athletics in American Colleges" may be 

 called "timely." 



— Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce a revised edition of "Our Gov- 

 ernment," by Jesse Macy, professor of constitutional history and 

 political economy in Iowa College. 



— Edward Heron-Allen, the well-known expert in palmistry ,^ 

 has an article upon "The Cheiromancy of To- Day" in Lippin- 

 cott's Monthly Magazine for July. 



— The July number of the Contemporary Review, issued in this 

 country in the original English form by the Leonard Scott Publi- 

 cation Company, New York, will contain a paper by Edward 

 Bellamy. 



— Any of our readers who are planning a trip to Europe should 

 look at the "Guide to Europe" published by Houghton, Mifflin, & 

 Co., and edited by the well-known Stoddard. The book is of 

 convenient size, is well made for its special pm'pose, and contains- 

 just the information required by the vacation tourist. A new 

 edition appears each year. 



— The contents of the first number of the fourth volume of the 

 Journal of Morphology (Boston, Ginn & Co.) are as follows: 

 "The Origin of the Cerebral Cortex and the Homologies of the 

 Optic Lobe Layers in the Lower Vertebrates," by Isaac Nakagawa, 

 B.Sc, Princeton College; "The Skeletal Anatomy of Amphiuma 

 dm-ing its Earlier Stages," by O. P. Hay; "The Segmentation of 

 the Primitive Vertebrate Brain," by Charles F. W. McClure, fel- 

 low in biology at Princeton; "The Life-History of the Formed 

 Elements of the Blood, especially the Red Blood Corpuscles,'" and 

 "Observations upon the Occurrence, Structure, and Function of 

 the Giant Cells of the Marrow," by W. H. Howell, Ph.D., lecturer 

 in physiology and histology. University of Michigan. 



— Some weeks ago we noticed the proposed series of popular sci- 

 ence books to be published in this country by Macmillan. The first of 

 this series, which appears under the general title "Science in Plain 

 Language," is by William Durham, a fellow of the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh, and consists of a number of short essay son evolution, 

 antiquity of man, bacteria, the basis of life, ancient lake dwell- 

 ings, etc. The titles would lead one to suppose the book to be of 

 a somewhat disjointed character, but the author's aim was to 



