2<5g 



SCIENCE. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



British Thoughts and Thinkers— Introductory 

 Studies— Critical, Biographical and Phil- 

 osophical. By George S. Morris, A.M. Lecturer 

 on Philosophy in the Johns Hopkins University, Bal- 

 timore — S. C. Griggs and Company, Chicago. 1880 



To trace the progress of the human mind and its high- 

 est aspirations, must always demand the close attention 

 of an author of the highest intelligence and perfectly un- 

 biased reasoning faculties ; because it is easy to under- 

 stand that, with such a mass of material to draw from, de- 

 ductions of the most varied character may be drawn, 

 which may accord with almost any form of belief or sys- 

 tem of philosophy, by a mere judicious selecting and re- 

 jection of authorities. 



The present author has evidently commenced his task 

 with certain philosophical convictions strongly established 

 in his own mind, and the purpose of his book is to place 

 them in proper order before his readers, showing the high 

 authorities that may be cited for their support and as evi- 

 dence of their truth. 



The aim of Professor George S. Morris is to assert the 

 idealism which is innate in the univeisal mind of ma n , 

 which is no accident, but a constituent and necessary ele- 

 ment of human nature, and in fact, that which constitutes 

 it. This idealism teaches mind to have laith in itself, to 

 know itself. He relers to mind, or conscious intelligence, 

 as an active function, not simply a passive possession ; 

 strictly passive, it were no longer intelligence, for then in- 

 active, it would not have intelligence of itself. He states 

 still fur. her that intelligence is only of the intelligible, 

 reason apprehends only what is rational — mind therefore 

 can comprehend no world which is not permeated with 

 its own attributes; the absolutely unintelligible, irrational, 

 being inconceivable, and hence utterly incapable of being 

 brought into relation to mind is for it no better than the 

 non-existent. 



Mind therefore seeks itself in the universe, chiefly in 

 forms of law, order, purpose, beauty — it must reduce its 

 conception of the universe, given first in the form of iso- 

 lated, unexplained impressions, to the oider and harmony 

 of a rational and hence explicable apprehtnsible whole. 

 And this search, this necessiy of mind, again, precisely, 

 is idealism. 



Such in the view of Professor Morris, is the law, the 

 universal tendency and the inherent necessity of mind. 



Man having no exact conception of an idea apart from 

 the mind which possesses it, cannot conceive rationality, 

 except as the attribute and living function of a mind or 

 spuit. The rationality therefore found in nature is an 

 absurdum unless viewed as the direct or indirect effect 

 and function of self-conscious spirit. The idealism (in 

 theory) which holds fast to these axioms, acknowledges 

 God, whose rational power and wis om it detects in all 

 things. So man in his humble way is brought into di- 

 rect and sympathetic relation with the universal, all-per- 

 vading, all-explaining power. 



Such being the strung belief of Professor Moirishe I 

 naturally reads with honor, in the works of Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer, of M'm being merely sensi ive fl;sh, and 

 morality the irresponsible result of physico-organic 

 evolution, and not the self sustaining work or require- 

 ment ol the ideal true man. 



As representatives oi two opposite shades of opinion, it 

 would sc ireely be possible lo select more appropriately, 

 two men with more dtvulgeni views than Professor 

 Morris and Mr. Spencer, The former se s no limit to the 

 possibilites ol Ins system ol reasoning, while the latter 

 insists ih it whatever is no! COgniz able, through the in- 

 vestigations of phenomena by the peculiar method, and \ 



with the peculiar and generally recognized limitations of 

 physical science, is arbitarily held to be unknowable. 



It is clear that Professor Morris approaches the subject 

 of Mr. Spencer's system of philosophy strongly biased 

 against it, and when he stigmatizes Spencer's views as 

 gratuitous, extra-scientific, absurd, contradictory and dog- 

 matic, we would caution students, for whom this work is 

 principally wri:t?en, to read the works of Spencer before 

 accepiing Professor Morris's conclusions. 



The work wrrch we now review will doubtless com- 

 mand a large circulation. It was founded on a course of 

 lectures delivered at the Johns Hopkins University, Bal- 

 timore, and is, therefore, well adapted for students, but 

 as a work for the general reader it willpn:ve highly at- 

 tractive, presenting in a small compass a synopsis of the 

 works and record of the lives of such men as Edmund 

 Spenser, Richard Hooker, Shakespeare, Bacon, Hobbes, 

 John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, Sir William 

 Hamilton, John Stewart Mill, Herbert Spencer, and 

 others. 



Credit is due to Professor Morris for his skillful 

 method of handling subjects presenting so many difficul- 

 ties, and the general arrangement of the work is harmoni- 

 ous, consistent and intelligible. The appearance of this 

 work at the present time is most opportune, and as an in- 

 troduction to the line of thought which speculative phil- 

 osophy has taken, from Lord Bacon's time to the present 

 day, a more useful book cannot be selected. The de- 

 liberate opinions, so forcibly and ably engrafted through- 

 out the work, while merely intended to point the 

 way to correct views, considered from the position taken 

 by the author, may even carry conviction with them. 

 We, however, strongly advise the student to accept the 

 book in the spirit in which it is offered, and to regard it as 

 an invitation to reflection and more systematic study 

 rather than as a substitute for it. 



PHYSICAL NOTES. 



Polar Electricity in the Hemihedral Crystals with 

 Inclined Surfaces. — MM. Jacques and Pierre Curie have 

 shown that all the facts hitherto observed agree in showing 

 that in all the non-conductive substances with inclined sur- 

 faces which have been examined there is the same connection 

 between the position of the hemihedral facettes and the di- 

 rection of the phenomenon of polar electricity. The physi- 

 cal signification of the above will be better understood by 

 saying more colloquially, but more tersely, that the more 

 pointed extremity of the hemihedral form corresponds to 

 the positive pole by contraction, whilst the more obtuse ex- 

 tremity corresponds to the negative pole. — M. P. Thenard 

 claims that the same phenomenon was observed by his son 

 fifteen years ago. 



Production ok Crystals of Chromium Sesquichloride 

 of a Persistent Green Color. — M. A. Meng'eot allows 

 hydrochloric acid to act upon potassium bichromate dis- 

 solved in water. If the solution is allowed to evaporate for 

 about ten months the bottom of the vessel is found lined 

 with deep violet crystals of chromium sesquichloride, but 

 among these huge violet crystals are some small green crys- 

 tals of a salt of chromium. According to all authorities ilic 

 green salts are only formed at IOO ; they are not crystalline, 

 and they gradually pass into the violet condition. J Jut the 

 production of these green crystals takes place at common 

 temperatures, and they have remained green for more ihan 

 two years. 



Researches on Basic Salts and on Atacamite. — M. 

 Berthelol considers that in this compound, CuCl,3CuO,- 

 4I I<), the water selves as the chief connecting link. A me- 

 tallic salt may be completely precipitated and the resulting 

 liquid neutralized without an equivalence between the pre- 

 cipitating alkali and the acid of the metallic sail, a portion 

 of the lattar being carried down in the precipitate. A great 



number Of metallic salts behave in an analogous manner. 



M. Berthelol has also found that the transformation of the 

 simple ethers into alcohols corresponds in a state of solu- 

 tion to a theimii phenomenon, which is almost ;///. 



