The Herbartian Psychology applied to Education, being a series of Essays applying the Psychology of Johann Friedrich Herbart.

By John Adams, M.A., B.Sc., Fellow of the College of Preceptors, President of the Educational Institute of Scotland, 1896-7, Rector of the Free Church Training College, Aberdeen. London: Isbister & Co., 1897. Crown 8vo, pp. 284. Price, 2s. 6d.

THE translation of Wundt's Ethics confers a great boon on English students of philosophy. There is no book in our language which covers the same ground, or is constructed on a similar plan. The system of Ethics, when the whole of it is translated, will extend to three volumes, and of these the translation of the first two now lies before us. The first volume deals with the facts of the moral life, and the second is a compact historical sketch and brief criticism of ethical systems. This work is done to prepare the way for his own constructive system, the translation of which will, no doubt, speedily follow. As to the system of Wundt, its merits or defects, we shall say nothing at present, reserving criticism until the translation appears. We shall speak shortly on the two volumes already in English.

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We have read them with delight, and with much interest. translation is done in a most scholarly fashion, with a due regard no less to the meaning of the author than to the demands of the English tongue. It is really rendered into English which is both graceful and idiomatic.

The treatise is worthy of an adequate rendering, for it is one of the most valuable and instructive on its subject it has been our fortune to read. Professor Wundt has set himself in a thorough way to ascertain the facts of the moral life. A brief introduction deals with Ethics as the science of norms, sets forth the methods of ethics, and describes the problems of ethics. Then he proceeds to find the facts of the moral life. He believes that these may be found by an examination of these workings of the human mind which are objectively manifested in language, in religion, in custom and in civilisation generally. While he does not neglect the introspective method, he does not lay stress on it. Indeed it is only in an occasional manner that he casts a glance into the mind of the individual. But his investigation into language, religion, custom, and into the conditions of moral evolution in civilisation and in savagery, with a view to ascertain the facts of the moral life, is most instructive, as well as original. It is a useful work, exceedingly well done. It is a field of inquiry that has been

wrought by comparatively few, and as it is a very fruitful field, we may expect that the labourers will increase. The first chapter interrogates language with a view to ascertain what light it may cast on the general idea of morality, and on the development of special ethical ideas. The second chapter inquires into the contribution which religion has made to morality, and it dwells on such subjects as myth and religion, the Gods as moral ideals, and on religion and the moral order of the world. We wish that we had space to dwell on some of the sections of this chapter, and to indicate the fine, clear and scientific result of his investigation into the religious history of mankind in its bearing on the nature and growth of morality. As much might be said on the third chapter on custom and the moral life. It must be remembered that he writes on these things not for their own sake, but for the light they cast on the facts of the moral life. Yet the case is so lucidly dealt with, and so clearly set forth, that we have really a history of religion and a history of custom of a very valuable sort. While he tells us what custom is, and how it grew, he is also telling us of the ethical significance of this custom and of that. Thus we learn of the ethical significance of the forms of social intercourse, of the feelings of sympathy and filial affection, and of the legal system. Perhaps the quickest way of letting the reader know the results of the whole investigation is to quote:-"Wherever we can trace the development of moral conceptions with sufficient fulness, we find that it falls into three stages. Each of these has its own distinguishing marks, mainly determined by the relations in which the various parallel part-developments stand to another at any given time. In its first beginnings the moral life is very much the same the world over: the growth of the social impulses, overrun as they are by the selfishness of barbarism, is greatly confined: and consequently certain external advantages that are useful to their possessor and to his associates are held in chief esteem as virtues. The first stage in which there is an almost total lack of moral incentive is transcended for the most part under the interactions of religious feelings with the social impulses. Morality thus enters on its second stage, in which the differences in religious and social conditions are paralleled by a growing differentiation of views of life. We may therefore term it the age of the differentiation of moral ideas. The third stage is introduced by yet another change in religious conceptions, and characterised by the gradual growth of philosophical influence. Religion and philosophy continue to further that humanistic tendency in the moral life whose preponderance always marks the maturity of the moral consciousness: so that under this influence the differences of national standpoint are effaced again. This law

of the three stages, or of the successive differentiation and unification of moral ideas is as fully attested by the change in the meaning of words as it is by the history of religious civilisation."

If the method of Professor Wundt has not enabled him to ascertain all the facts of the moral life, it certainly has enabled him to find many of them, to classify them, and to regard them in their history and development, but criticism we reserve till his system is before us, then we shall be able to look at his preliminary studies in the light of his completed work.

He passes on to a history of ethical systems, and here his work might be fitly compared with the similar work of Professor Sidgwick. Here, too, he applies the idea of development, and strives to trace the history of ethical systems as an evolution. The general title of the second volume is, "the development of moral theories of the universe." It is a difficult task, for a history of the development of ethical system is bound to be exhaustive and complete. As a matter of fact, the history is limited to the line of Western thought on ethics, and any contribution from India or ancient Persia is quite ignored. He begins with Greek ethics, then passes to Christian ethics, and then gives a full history of modern ethics. Indeed, it would seem to be taken for granted that there has been no ethical development outside of these Western lands. There are, however, traces of the influence of Eastern thought on the life and thought of Europe, and some recognition of this fact might have found a place in a volume which professes to trace the development of moral theories of the universe. The influence of Persia on European theories can be traced, and we have evidence of the influence of India in many ways, even so recently as the case of Schopenhauer.

Still what we get is of supreme worth. The sketch of Greek ethics is luminous, and the development of Greek thought in this sphere of thought is adequately and firmly traced. The transition from ancient ethics to Christian is set forth in an instructive, if in a somewhat partial manner. In the description of Christian ethics a comparatively large space is given to Augustine and the Pelagian controversy, which had so decisive an influence on later Christian thought and life. Scholastic ethics is well treated, and the description of the fall of scholasticism is most graphic. There is a good sketch of the ethics of the reformation. His strength is chiefly put forth in his description and criticism of modern ethical systems. Full justice is done to the ethical systems, which had their rise in our country. Bacon and Hobbes, Locke, Shaftesbury, the English Deists, and Hume duly appear, for the Germans are familiar with these; for they flourished before Germany had arrived at the consciousness of her destiny, and before she had made much of a con

tribution to ethics or philosophy. The absence of Butler's name from the list of British moralists gives rise to many reflections, which we have not space to express. From England he passes to France, and gives us a lucid description of the ethics of French Materialism. The metaphysical ethics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, associated with the names of Spinoza, Leibnitz, Descartes, Wolff, and the German Enlightenment being dealt with, he passes to the ethics of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and thence to the realistic ethics of Herbart, and to the various naturalistic theories of ethics current in England and Germany, and finally to utilitarian ethics as affected by the influence of evolution.

The final chapter of the volume deals with the classification of ethical systems. We can only give the general scheme, which is this, Authoritative ethical systems, Eudaimonistic systems, and Evolutionary ethical systems. It will be readily seen that this is a great and noteworthy contribution to the literature of ethics. We look forward with eagerness to the reading of Wundt's own contribution to this great subject.

The Introduction to Philosophy by Professor Külpe is the very book which a student needs, in order to give him a general notion of philosophy as a whole, and of the particular philosophical sciences, before he begins a special study of one of them. The only Introduction to philosophy which we know as a book likely to be useful to the student, is the one written by Professor Ladd of Yale, and it is too awful to be put into the hand of a student. Professor Ladd is a voluminous writer, who has written many books on philosophy, and these books contain many good things, but they are too long, and are badly expressed, and are hard to be understood. The book before us is brief, it is also clear in style, lucid in thought, artistically divided, and the arrangement of topics leaves nothing to be desired. It is the book we should place in the hands of a beginner in philosophy, it is a book to put into the hands of a specialist in one of the departments of philosophy, to remind him of the height, depth, length, and breadth of philosophy; and the veteran student can learn something from its masterly pages. We know the philosophical views of Professor Külpe from his other works, but this book is written not to set forth his own views, but to give us an objective knowledge of the general idea of philosophy, and of the problems set to the particular philosophical disciplines. It is splendidly done, calmly and objectively he sets forth the views of those with whom he has to deal, and strives to do so without bias. He has not allowed a difference of view to bias his statement, and on the whole he has succeeded in treating with uniform interest and impartiality ancient and modern systems of philosophy, those

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he approves of and also those from whose teaching he dissents. is impossible to criticise a book like this which travels over the whole sphere of philosophy, deals succinctly with all the problems of its special disciplines, and leaves no philosophical problem untouched. We can only say that the spirit and ability of the book are excellent.

The lectures delivered by Professor Seth at Princeton, on a memorable occasion, are now published, and are worthy of the man and of the occasion. They form a great contribution to the history and to the solution of the theistic problem. The gift of exposition of Professor Seth is as remarkable as his speculative power and his wide knowledge. He is a metaphysician and a poet, and he always makes us acquainted with the concrete implications of any matter he discusses. In these lectures the theistic question is not lost sight of in abstract discussions nor drowned in verbal argumentation. He begins with a reference to deism, pantheism, theism-old friends whose garbs have been worn threadbare by frequent discussion, and in his hands they become fresh, vigorous and vital. We see them in their historical setting as they appeared in English, German and French thought in the eighteenth century, and their nature and interrelations are vividly and truly described. They prepare the way for the great names of Kant and Hegel, and the value of their contributions to the theistic argument are set forth with that lucid ability characteristic of the author. He acknowledges freely the great value of their work, no less freely he points out their defects and their shortcomings, and this part of his work will command the gratitude of all who know. Hegelianism attracts a large share of his attention, and Bradley's book on "Appearance and Reality finally is dealt with in some remarkable paragraphs. Many books on Theism have appeared in recent years, but these two lectures are as valuable a contribution to the literature of Theism as any of them. We wish Professor Seth would give us a treatise on the subject.

Mr Adams is recognised to be one of our foremost educationalists, and the honours of his profession have been showered on him. Trained at our normal colleges and at our universities, master of all that they could teach him, he has continued to work and to study, and has ever striven to use all that science and philosophy can give him in the service of education. He is an enthusiastic teacher, and all his resources are ready to his hand. From this book we can see that he has studied psychology in many schools, and is acquainted with the method and results of them all. While he has studied psychological schools for their own sake, we can see how the

Vol. VIII.-No. 1.

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