truth. This fact, however, does not preclude the possibility of reaching conditions which on the whole, and when there is no special reason to override them, mark off certain forms of art from others. We could wish that Mr. Sime had criticised both the Laokoon and the Dramaturgy with a fuller recognition of the essential character of art principles. Had he done so, he would not so lightly have rejected some of Lessing's conclusions respecting the visual arts as wholly arbitrary, merely because he was able to find a number of exceptions to Lessing's rule even among works admitted to be excellent. Thus, for instance, it may be, on the whole, undesirable to present the fugitive and evanescent in permanent pictorial representation, even though Mr Poynter, for the sake of a rich and striking effect, chooses to represent Atalanta in the act of stooping to pick up the golden apple as she runs. On the whole, however, Mr. Sime's remarks on Lessing's theory of art are just and discriminating. [J. S.]

New and Old Methods of Ethics, or "Physical Ethics" and "Methods of Ethics". By F. Y. EDGEWORTH, M.A. Oxford and London: Parker & Co., 1877. Pp. 92.

THIS is an attempt to mediate between the conceptions of a Physical and an Introspective Ethics as represented by Mr. A. Barratt and Mr. H. Sidgwick, and also to develop these conceptions more fully than has yet been done. Section I. takes up the principal points at issue between these two writers. Intuitivism as defined and justified by Mr. Sidgwick is defended as against the Egoistic Hedonism of Mr. Barratt. At the same time the possibility of placing an adequate ethical doctrine on a physical basis is fully maintained. The conditions necessary to this perfection of ethical science are said to be: (1) That all non-hedonistic action (if such there be) is of the nature of personal or ancestral habit; (2) that the physical conditions of the genus non-hedonistic action and the species sympathy are discoverable; (3) that the physical conditions of this perception of rightness (sentiment of duty, &c.) are discoverable. The writer seeks to obviate the objection of J. S. Mill (repeated by Mr. Sidgwick) that the imperatives of Ethical Science cannot be deduced from propositions relating to matters of fact. Under Section II. various points raised in the Methods of Ethics are more directly dealt with. By far the largest part of this section is taken up with an elaborate attempt to "extricate a clear, and, as it may be termed, a mathematical conception of exact Utilitarianism". Setting out from Bentham's formula "the greatest happiness of the greatest number " (which though unsatisfactory is said to contain implicitly the idea of an exact Utilitarianism) and fully equipped with the latest conceptions of psychophysics as defined by Fechner, Wundt, &c., and with those formulæ of the calculus of variations which are applicable to the problem, the writer reaches a number of conclusions respecting the best possible (that is the most felicific) distribution of the external means of happiness. These results "neither unexpected nor yet

distinctly foreseen by common sense may be gathered up as follows: (1) In the case of races or societies so nearly related in the order of evolution as the Aryan, equality of distribution is the law; only when there is a great interval (as between highly civilised races and savages) is the superior class to be privileged. (2) Population ought to be limited. (3) As to the quality of the sentients or recipients, this should be as high as possible, as measured by the scale of Evolution (which tends to increase indefinitely the capacity for happiness);

number and quality should ultimately come into competition, the indefinite improvement of quality is no longer to be wished. That is to say, if in a stationary state of industry an increase of culture, owing to its material cost, is only possible by means of a diminution of population, it should not be aimed at. "Not the most cultivated coterie, not the most numerous proletariate, but a happy middle class shall inherit the earth." The pamphlet contains a large number of suggestive criticisms on other recent ethical writers besides the two put prominently forward.

The Methods of Ethics. By HENRY SIDGWICK, M.A., Prælector in Moral and Political Philosophy in Trinity College, Cambridge. Second edition. London: Macmillan, 1877. Pp. 469.

THE alterations and additions in the second edition of Mr. Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics are so extensive that the Supplement (issued in a separate form, for the convenience of possessors of the first edition) runs to over 120 pages: there is, however, no important change of view on any essential point, and the additions being mostly substitutions, the volume is not increased in size. Nearly half of the new matter belongs to Book I. The introductory chapter has been nearly rewritten, and § 1 of ch. ii. entirely; the latter now containing a much more luminous discussion of the relation of Ethics to Politics both from the Utilitarian and Intuitional points of view. Ch. iii. again,

on "Reason and Feeling," is almost all new, and gives a more thorough and distinct account of the author's theory of Reason as a moral faculty, which is the key of his position. Perhaps the most serious change of opinion which the new edition shows is contained in ch. iv. on "Pleasure and Desire" (§ 1). Mr. Sidgwick formerly maintained that the psychological doctrine that volitions are always determined by the greatest pleasure (or relief from pain) in prospect is incompatible with any Method of Ethics except Egoistic Hedonism. But this he has seen fit to retract, on reflecting that to conscientious persons the pleasurableness of conduct is more or less dependent on its rightness. Ch. v., on "Free Will," in spite of some difference in the exposition, is not materially altered. Towards the end of ch.vi.§ 2, a short paragraph on the evolutional interpretation of "Conformity to Nature" deprecates any hasty assumption that we may identify "what ought to be" with "what certainly will be". Amidst the new matter in ch. vii. occurs the significant remark that "the notion of self-realisation is to be avoided in a treatise on Ethical method, on account of its in

definiteness". The chief additions in Book II., chs. ii. and iii., are foot-notes in answer to objections urged by Mr. Green. A clearer account of the notions of Motive and Intention has been inserted in Book III., ch. i. In ch. ii., § 2, an alteration appears in the definition of Virtue. In ch. xiii., there are extensive modifications: the intuitive principle, that it makes no difference to the general sum of good to what subject any part of it belongs, is perhaps less distinctly expressed (§ 3); and the misunderstood passage (§ 5) concerning the "suppression of Egoism" has itself been suppressed. Readers of MIND will recognise in ch. xiv. some ideas which were published in No. V., in an article by the author on "Hedonism and Ultimate Good". Interest in the alterations in Book IV. will probably centre in the last chapter : it has been re-cast, but the doctrine of the "Dualism of Practical Reason" remains.

The Principles of Science: a Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method. By W. STANLEY JEVONS, LL.D., &c. Second edition, revised. London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 1877. Pp. 786. THIS second and cheaper edition has been revised throughout and appears with a great number of verbal and other changes, but none of them radical. In a new preface (pp. xxvi.), the author gives a number of interesting historical references, and replies to some of the critics of his first edition. It appears that the well-known (third) Lord Stanhope long ago busied himself, among his other inventions, with a mechanical device for the representation of logical inferences, and, his Demonstrator (as he called it) having lately been placed with his papers in the hands of the Rev. R. Harley, F.R.S., some account of it may shortly be expected. The other historical matter of chief importance into which Prof. Jevons enters is Leibnitz's anticipation of the Principle of Substitution, to which his attention has been called by Prof. Adamson. He replies to his critics (among others his critic in MIND, No. II.), in a very candid spirit, though he shoots rather wide of some of the objections urged against him. One or two of the corrections suggested in this journal he has accepted. It is a pity, when he was about it, that he did not accept some others. We are still, for example, told, at p. 63, that a valid conclusion may be obtained from two negative premisses, when it is plain that either there are four terms, or if three terms then only one negative premiss. Also, at p. 58, where he gets the conclusion AB from the two premisses AAB, B = BA, he still goes on to say, with a singular inversion of the plain meaning of words, followed at once by an absolute refutation of himself, that "the conclusion is more simple and general than either of the premisses, and contains as much information as both of them put together". How can a compound be more simple" than its elements? How can a special relation that holds only under two relations taken together be "more general" than either of them? Or how can that which "is more simple and general than either of the premisses" contain "as much information as both of them put together " This, of course, is but a sample of

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what must happen, if one will start, in Logic, from A B as a "Simple Identity". A simple identity it may be, but Prof. Jevons himself here proves it to be anything but a simple proposition. No doubt, however, a change at this point would have been very radical.

Life and Habit. By SAMUEL BUTLER. London: Trübner, 1878. Pp. 307.

The

AN attempt by the author of Erewhon to consider, in a popular way, whether the unconsciousness, or quasi-unconsciousness, with which we perform certain acquired actions, throws light on embryology and inherited instincts, also upon the question of the origin of species and the continuation of life by successive generations. phenomena of heredity he finds to be so like those of memory, and to be so utterly inexplicable on any other supposition, that it is "easier to suppose them due to memory in spite of the fact that we cannot remember having recollected, than to believe that because we cannot so remember therefore the phenomena cannot be due to memory ". Our inherited experience was gained by us when we were in the persons of our forefathers. The accumulation of variations which in time amounted to specific and generic differences of living things, was due to intelligence and memory in the creature varying, rather than to natural selection. "Life is that property of matter whereby it can remember. Matter which can remember is living; matter which cannot remember is dead."

Diseases of the Nervous System: their Prevalence and Pathology. By JULIUS ALTHAUS, M.D., &c. London Smith, Elder & Co., 1877. Pp. 366.

THE author has "endeavoured to elucidate the part played by diseases of the Nervous System in national pathology, and to show the laws to which their occurrence and fatality are subject". He has also "fully entered into the special pathology of the several diseases of the nervous centres". "The pathology of peripheral nerve-diseases, and the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the entire class of these maladies will be considered in a subsequent volume."

What is Play? Its bearing upon Education and Training. A
Physiological Inquiry by JOHN STRACHAN, M.D.
Douglas, 1877. Pp. 108.

Edinburgh:

Taking

A VERY interesting and, in the main, a wise little book. Play to mean all "active exercise in the young, prompted by natural inclination and producing pleasure," the author first shows its importance for bodily "development," as opposed to mere "growth" (such as goes on without development in a bedridden child). He then passes to Play as an exercise of the Mind, and comes to the conclusion "that exceptional mental development is always preceded, and is indeed produced, by an exceptional amount of exercise in play of the special faculties concerned". Play is, in fact, found to be in all

cases a preparation for Work, differing from work only in its motive and object; and the different play-instincts both of the sexes and of individuals should be regarded by the educator as indications of the right courses to follow in express training.

Theism being the Baird Lecture for 1876. By ROBERT FLINT, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh, author of The Philosophy of History in Europe. Edinburgh & London: Blackwood, 1877. Pp. 432.

"The lectures in this volume have been delivered in Glasgow, St. Andrews and Edinburgh, in connection with the lectureship founded by the late Mr. James Baird of Auchmedden and Cambusdoon. They will be followed by a volume on Antitheistic Theories, containing the Baird Lectures for 1877."

"Contents: (1) Issues involved in the question to be discussedWhence and how we get the idea of God. (2) General idea of Religion -Comparison of Polytheism and Pantheism with Theism-The three great Theistic Religions-No religious progress beyond Theism. (3) The nature, condition and limits of theistic proof. (4) Nature is but the name for an effect whose cause is God. (5) The argument from Order. (6) Objections to the argument from Order examined. (7) Moral argument-Testimony of Conscience and History. (8) Considerations of objections to the Divine Wisdom, Benevolence and Justice. (9) A priori theistic proof. (10) Mere Theism insufficient."

In an appendix (pp. 323-425) the author has a number of notes, chiefly controversial, on different philosophical aspects of the question.

The Causational and Free Will Theories of Volition: being a review of Dr. Carpenter's Mental Physiology. By MALCOLM GUTHRIE. London: Williams & Norgate, 1877. Pp. 106.

The author supplies the following statement:

"Part I. is an exposition of the Causational Theory, followed by a reply to the objections brought against it by Dr. Carpenter, namely: (1) That it involves Materialism. (2) That it makes man an automaton: the employment of which term in modern discussions is condemned, while in practical use it is shown to be identical with either causation' or involuntary'. (3) That Choice is incompatible with Causation; the reply being that choice is the exercise of Practical Reason, which is defined. (4) That Effort is incompatible with Causation; the reply being the suggestion of a motive having for its object the effectuation of Volitions. (5) That on the Causational Theory there can be no blameability or responsibility.

"Part II. is a statement of the Free Will Theory, with an examination of the terms employed. Then follows a criticism of the Self-Determining Power to ascertain where the breach of continuity of sequence occurs, showing that the said power must eventually be regarded as a faculty having its due place amongst others. The concluding section shows by means of extracts from Dr. Carpenter's work, that, whatever it is, it is subject to laws of Heredity, Education, Adaptation, &c., the same as every other human activity.

"An appendix contains a criticism of Mr. Bradley's Ethical Studies, Essay I.