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B E I N G A M O N T H L Y R E C O R D O F L I B E R A L A N D A D V A N C E D P U B L IC A T IO N S .
No. ]
FEBRU ARY 15, 1891.
[P rice One Penny.
N E W P U B L IC A T IO N S .
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Mr. G. H. Martin’s handsome volume, “ A Song for My S o n ” (2s. 6d.), is issued. The militant tone o f the work and the author’s deep earnestness are bound to attract attention to the meritorious poem. The book will be reviewed in these columns next month.
T he first and second parts of Julian’s examination o f the Old and New Testament are ready. The titles of the chapters are “ What the Old Testament Says About Itse lf” (id .) and " T h e Old Testament Unhistoric and Unscientific ” (id.).
A posthumous work, from the pen o f the late Mr. Bradlaugh, will be published immediately. It is entitled “ Labour and L aw ” (5s.).
A new “ Life o f Adam Smith,” by Mr. John Rae, the author of “ Contemporary Socialism,” will be published immediately.
M r. G. J. H olyoake will contribute to the forthcoming series of essays entitled “ Social Questions o f the Day.”
M r. H erbert Spencer will publish next month an entirely new edition, in three octavo volumes, o f his “ Essays: Political, Scientific, and Speculative.” It will contain many new essays not included in the previous editions, and will be uniform in size with his other works,
M essrs. Macmillan & Co. have published, under the title “ Social Diseases and Worse Remedies ” (is.), Professor Huxley’s letters to the Times in examination of the scheme o f General Booth. As an introductory essay is reprinted an article on “ Industrial Development,” which originally appeared in the Nineteenth Century.
T he second course o f Professor Max Muller’s Gifford Lectures on “ Physical Religion, or the Infinite in Nature ” (10s. 6d.) is now ready.
M essrs. K egan Paul & Co. have issued in their “ English and Foreign Philosophical Library ” Lioy’s “ Philosophy o f Right,” translated from the Italian by Mr. W. Hastie, with the sanction of the author.
Mention should be made in these columns o f Miss Olive Shreiner's new and remarkable work, “ Dreams ” (6s.). It will be remembered that Miss Schreiner is the author o f the Agnostic novel, “ The Story of an African Farm.”
M essrs. M acmillan & Co. are about to publish “ Outlines o f Psychology,” by Professor Harald Hoffding, o f Copenhagen, translated by Miss Mary E. Lowndes. The greater part of the book is occupied with an exposition of the psychology of cognition, o f feeling, and o f the will. The author is as strongly opposed to Materialism as to Spiritualism, but is at pains to show what light has been thrown by physiology on psychological problems.
OU R L I B R A R Y S H E L V E S .
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T hese are times when no right-thinking man should dream away his days in abstract philosophy. The perils that threaten society demand his study, and the hope of salvation which is kindling the horizon calls for his aid in its realisation. After saying this, we do not deem ourselves inconsistent in strongly advising the student who loves the every-day world even more than his library to read, mark, and learn such a work as Professor Bain’s
“ mental and moral science” (Longmans; 751 p p . ; with appendix and index 109 pp.; 10s. 6 d . ; or, separately, Part I., “ Psychology,” 6s. 6 d . ; Part II., “ Ethics,” 4s. 6d.). For in psychology and ethics one descries the springs and motives of human actions. The kaleidoscopic movements of civilisation, the influence of art and literature, the developments of science, the crimson terrors of social revolution, all lead, in their last analysis, to the fundamental ideas, volitions, and emotions of the human soul. Hence only through the wicket-gate of mental and moral science can we enter into possession of just and broad conceptions of man and society.
The Professor’s diction is not remarkable for fluidity or grace, but it is strong, clear, and terse; in a word, it is scientific. The work is divided into sections and chapters, each complete in its particular sphere; and the chapters, again, are broken up into numbered paragraphs, in which the leading propositions are printed in more conspicuous type, and the illustrations and commentaries follow in smaller type. The whole opus is so illuminated with plain heads and titles that it is impossible to lose one’s way through all the elaborate maze of exposition. The stages are short, the pace easy; nevertheless, the reader must be prepared to make his way steadily, seriously, and diligently. This is no popular treatise, neither is it oppressively learned. We do not hesitate to say it contains all that is practical and valuable in modern philosophy.
Mind, says the Professor, has three properties or functions— Feeling, Will or Volition, and Thought or Intellect. On this triple basis the entire work is built up. Book i. deals with Muscular Movement, Sensations, and Instinct; book ii. with the Intellect, considered in detail under its attributes of Difference, Agreement, and Retentiveness— that is, our power o f discriminating between various objects, our faculty o f perceiving likenesses and making comparisons, and our ability to retain and associate ideas. The latter chapters of this book treat o f Abstraction and Knowledge, and include most interesting and useful summaries of the theories of Berkeley, Hume, Reid, Stewart, Hamilton, etc. Book iii. turns to the Emotions, classified and separately dealt with, from the simple feeling o f Surprise and Wonder, up to the complex appreciation of Beauty; and at this latter point the author introduces an epitome o f the aesthetic principles of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Shaftesbury, Addison, etc. Book iv. discusses the Will, the action of desire and belief, and concludes with a history o f the controversy on the subject of Free Will and Necessity, the resume extending