Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/890

 874 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Degeneracy, too, is a term to be scrutinized. It implies a condition resulting from imperfect growth, and hence when we are asked to admit that an individual has suddenly become degenerate in his maturer years, having previously been normal, we have a right to ask whether such a fact squares with terms employed. The manner in which these authors run their fingers down the annals of history and from time to time attach uncomplimentary labels to those who have figured as the world's great men finds an historic parallel in the method of making witches once used in Salem. Before a solemn but credulous court an "afflicted girl" pointed to a person who did not please her, called her "witch," and the case was closed. Without doubt some "common scolds" and other obnoxious persons were thus eliminated from the community, but the method failed of general approval.

No one denies that pathological individuals have at times claimed the world's attention, but this does not make true the inverted state- ment that those who gain this attention are probably pathological. Dr. Hirsch combats in detail some things which Nordau has to say on art and literature as expressing the degeneracy of authors and artists, and there is also a special defense of Richard Wagner. By way of preface there is given an account of Wagner's artistic productions, as an expression of his mental development, which cannot fail to interest many readers apart from the bearing that it has on the main argument. This book therefore goes far towards neutralizing the influence of the alarmist school by putting the laity in a position to test critically such productions. H. H. DONALDSON.

Rich and Poor. By MRS. BERNARD BOSANQUET. Macmillan & Co.,

1896. Pp. 216. $1.50.

THE author prepared herself for this work by living among the poor in East London. Her observations are all at first hand, fresh and vivid. We are directed by her method and attracted by her style of presentation. She insists that relief of poverty is essentially an affair of character and education far more than mere change of phys- ical environment. Her attack on the church for its bribery of doles, its giving premiums to promote hypocrisy, the neglect of its high spiritual mission, its materialism, its want of confidence in its peculiar ministry and in the spiritual capacities of the poor, is one of the most important parts of the volume.