142 Notices respecting New Books. 



enclosed in brackets. The first defines the meaning of the word 

 experience, viz. " Personal knowledge. It is identical with the facts 

 of our consciousness." The second is an extract from Kant in 

 illustration of the opinion that men have knowledge a priori. 



A dictionary, as it consists of a number of separate articles, can- 

 not be adequately criticised without goiug into details to an extent 

 that our limits forbid. It will be enough to say that the articles for 

 the most part are, as far as we can venture to judge, accurately and 

 instructively written. In some cases attention is drawn to important 

 distinctions which might easily be overlooked. Thus attention is 

 drawn to the two meanings of the word realism, by giving a sepa- 

 rate heading and article to each :— to realism as opposed to idealism, 

 i. e. the doctrine that in perception there is an immediate cognition 

 of the external object; and to realism as opposed to nominalism, 

 i. e. the doctrine that Genus and Species are real things, existing 

 independently of our conceptions and expressions. Again, under 

 the word substance attention is drawn to its twofold derivation : viz. 

 from subsistens {ens joer se subsistens), that which subsists of or by 

 itself; or from substans (id quod substat), that which lies under 

 qualities. 



in drawing up such a book as the present, one of the chief diffi- 

 culties, we should suppose, is to determine what words are proper 

 to be admitted and what to be excluded. "We are inclined to think 

 that this difficulty has not been very successfully dealt with in the 

 present case. Thus, " of providence, foreknowledge, will, and 

 fate," articles are allotted to' providence, will, and fate, or at least 

 fatalism, but none to foreknowledge. Again, there is an article on 

 Gynmosophist, but hardly on Sophist ; so there is one on Mani- 

 chean, but not on Gnostic; and on Sabism but not on Buddhism. 

 Still more strange is the insertion of so unusual a word as Hylo- 

 zoism, and the omission of Evolution. This can only be due to an 

 oversight ; for the author does not refuse to insert words of recent 

 invention : e. g. he thinks it necessary to give a definition of such 

 a phrase as "Endogamous Marriage," though it can have been used 

 but rarely by any one but the author who invented it ; and, besides, 

 it is quite on the borderland, if it be within the region, of the 

 "Vocabulary of Mental, Moral, and Metaphysical Philosophy." 



Dr. Calderwood's purpose in the present edition has been to keep 

 the book " as nearly as possible in the form in which it came from 

 the hands of Professor Fleming." He has, however, occasionally 

 withdrawn quotations, introduced new matter from the author's 

 notes, added a few new words, and, besides, "has ventured to intro- 

 duce definitions of the leading vocables." The additions are placed 

 between brackets ; but it is to be presumed that the editor is solely 

 responsible for them only in the cases in which they are marked 

 " Ed." The additions are of very unequal value : not unfrequently 

 they distinctly improve the article in which they are inserted ; but 

 sometimes they are unnecessary, and sometimes open to exception. 

 Thus credxdity is said to be "a disposition to believe [without evi- 

 dence"] what others tell us." The words within the brackets are 



