LITERARY NOTICES. 



501 



Prof. A. P. Peabody, D. D., Cambridge, 

 Mass. III. Deep-Sea Exploration, by Prof. 

 Wm. B. Carpenter, M. D., LL. D., F. R. S., 

 London. IV. Universal Education, by Ray 

 Palmer, D. D., New York.. V. The Prus- 

 sian Church Law, by Baron Franz von 

 Holtzendorfp, LL. D., Munich. VI. In- 

 ternational Arbitration, by Theodore D. 

 Woolsey, D. D., LL. D., New Haven. 



It is always unfair to judge a periodical 

 enterprise like this by its first number ; for, 

 although, in the present case, there has 

 been long preparation, nothing can com- 

 pensate for want of experience and the ad- 

 vantages of public criticism. The present 

 number contains much good reading, al- 

 though it is rather the opposite of lively. 

 Half its articles are by D. D.'s, which gives 

 promise that it is to be safely and conserva- 

 tively conducted. This i3 important, as we 

 must have ratchet-gear to hold what the 

 driving impulses of advancing thought have 

 gained. Yet it is very easy to pass from 

 conservation to obstruction ; and the some- 

 what spiteful kick given to Prof. Bain for 

 his little book on " Mind and Body," while 

 it seems to indicate the whereabouts of the 

 International, suggests also that its editor 

 may be in danger of overlooking the above 

 distinction. The position taken being im- 

 portant as a symptom of the future course 

 of the Review, it is worthy of some re- 

 mark. 



The school of mental philosophy, of 

 which Bain is a leading representative, 

 differs from the old metaphysical school in 

 considering mind and body together, in 

 their connections, interactions, and depend- 

 encies ; and in maintaining that there can 

 be no true mental philosophy without taking 

 both factors into account. The old meta- 

 physicians attended to the one and neglect- 

 ed the other; and what was worse, they 

 magnified the one and decried the other, 

 drawing perpetual contrasts between spirit- 

 ual mind and "mere brute matter." An 

 undoubted and very important step forward 

 has been made in the scientific study of 

 both orders of phenomena, as we find them 

 related in Nature and in fact. Modern psy- 

 chology, indeed, differs from the old meta- 

 physics simply in conquering its prejudices, 

 in taking into account all the elements of 

 the problem, and treating them by the sci- 



entific method. Very naturally, the special 

 work to be done has been to bring forward 

 and assign its proper place to the neglected 

 element, matter ; whereupon the partisans 

 of the old view make an endless ado about 

 the encroachments of Materialism. When 

 Prof. Bain refers to the structure of the 

 brain, in the albuminous tissues and cor- 

 puscles of which all our natural and ac- 

 quired aptitudes are stored up, the writer 

 in the International is offended at such a 

 " gross form of expression," and sighs for 

 the good old times of Reid and Stewart, 

 who " seem like intellectual giants when 

 compared with the Professor of Aber- 

 deen." 



The writer observes that "nothing is 

 more certain than our ability to separate 

 mental and physical phenomena," and he 

 might have added that bullets, strychnine, 

 and lightning, are the most effectual means 

 of doing it. But, when the separation is 

 effected, mental phenomena disappear, and 

 there is, therefore, an end to the study of 

 mind. Of mental phenomena dissociated 

 from physical phenomena we know abso- 

 lutely nothing. If the writer means that 

 " nothing is more certain than our ability 

 to separate mental and physical phenom- 

 ena " for the purpose of inquiring into their 

 nature and laws, then we say that nothing 

 is more false than the statement. We 

 know nothing of mind, except as limited 

 and conditioned by association with matter. 

 The mode of union is a mystery, but the 

 fact of union and of unity is undeniable. 

 The very essence of the mystery is the one- 

 ness of that which exhibits such widely-dif- 

 ferent effects. The animate organism mani- 

 fests at the same time psychical and mate- 

 rial properties. We may confine our at- 

 tention to either, or to parts of either, but 

 we cannot separate them. Theory after 

 theory has been offered for thousands of 

 years to explain the relation. Science 

 takes things as it finds them, and occupies 

 itself in tracing the relations and dependen- 

 cies among the phenomenal effects. This 

 is Prof. Bain's method, and he has made it 

 his great task to bring forward the long- 

 neglected corporeal side of the inquiry, and 

 to include the body in the study of the 

 mind. Metaphysics does not require this, 

 but science does require it, and the later 



