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 134 NEW BOOKS. De Platonicis Mythis, thesim Facultati litterarum Parisiensi proponebat LUDOVICUS COUTURAT, Scholae Norinalis olim alumnus. Parisiis edebat Felix Alcan bibliopola MUCCCXCVI. Pp. 118. In his thesis M. Couturat offers, as a means towards understanding Plato, an inquiry into the interpretation of the Platonic myths. This in turn depends on the answer to the question, How is the mythical part of Plato to be distinguished from the non-mythical ? The first book of the thesis is occupied with the latter inquiry, the second with the former. In an introduction Plato's use of the word fj.vdos is gathered from the various passages hi which it occurs. The result of the first book is to define ' mythical ' hi such a way that not only the obvious myths, but also the allegories, and even whole dia- logues, are included under the term. To give an example of the extreme view maintained in the thesis : The Republic, which depends on the analogy between man and the state, is regarded as mythical, Respublica tota nihil nisi magna et mera allegoria esse videtur, quod etiam ex indiciis multis concludere licet, quae mythum plane denuntiant (p. 49). One of these indicia is the reference to the goddess at the beginning of the dialogue (TTpoo-ev^d/Aei/o? T rfj $e<a KOL a/xa rfjv foprfjv /3ovfi.tvos 0eacrafr#at, 327 A). In reality the subject of the second book is not so much the interpreta- tion of the Platonic myths as a discussion whether the leading Platonic doctrines are mythical or not. And, with the exception of the doctrine of ideas, they are all condemned : the doctrine'of the gods, the doctrine of the genesis of the noa-pos, the doctrine of the soul, reminiscence, im- mortality, and the future life. This conclusion seems too sweeping. The contradictions in Plato cannot be resolved into mere differences in the mythical expression of his real view. The doctrine of reminiscence, for instance, must be regarded as a vital part of the theory of ideas, or at least, if it is to be regarded as a myth, it is a myth whose vnovoia was not clearly distinguished by Plato himself from its expression. Enough perhaps has been said to indicate that M. Couturat's thesis is to be regarded rather as an academic exercise than as an important con- tribution to the study of Plato. At the same time it is not without interest from the clearness of the exposition and the simplicity of the view maintained. RECEIVED also : E. B. Titchener, An Outline of Psychology, New York, Macmillan & Co., 1896, pp. xiv., 352. G. W. Leibnitz, New Essays concerning Human Understanding, together with an Appendix consisting of some of his shorter pieces (trans- lated by A. G. Langley), New York, Macmillan & Co., 1896, pp. xix., 861. H. Hughes, Religious Faith, London, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1896, pp. xvi., 337. G. C. Robertson, Elements of Psychology (edited from notes of lectures by C. A. Khys Davids), New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896, pp. xiii., 268. A. C. Fraser, Philosophy of Theism, being the Gifford Lectures for 1895-96, second series, Edinburgh and London, W. Blackwood & Sons, 1896, pp. xiii., 283. W. S. McKechnie, The State and the Individual, Glasgow, James Mac- Lehose & Sons, 1896, pp. xv., 451.