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 VII. NEW BOOKS. Elements <>f Psychology. By GEORGE GROOM ROBERTSON. Edited by C. A. FOLEY RHYS DAVIDS, M.A. London : John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1896. Pp. xi., 268. Elements of General Philosophy. By GEORGE GROOM ROBERTSON. Edited by C. A. FOLEY RHYS DAVIDS, M.A. London : John Murray, Albe- marle Street, 1896. Pp. xiii., 365. THE first of these works the Elements of Psychology is noteworthy on more accounts than one. It is, almost from beginning to end, the repro- duction from students' notes, of the late Prof. Groom Robertson's lectures so successfully done that those who knew Robertson personally, feel, at every turn, that he is here faithfully and accurately represented. This is encouraging, surely, to toiling and desponding professors, who are often haunted by the fear that their teaching is but imperfectly caught by their pupils. But the book is further remarkable for its strict adher- ence to the psychological standpoint, and its clear and methodical treat- ment of the subject in hand tracing with much insight the growth and development of the mind, and weaving into the exposition so much of historical matter as is necessary for lucidity, and not overcrowding with detail. It becomes, on this account, eminently suitable for the end that the series of University Extension Manuals in which it appears has in view. In order, however, to judge it fairly, we must be ready to make one or two allowances. We must not forget that there is nothing here pre- pared for publication by Robertson himself ; nothing, therefore, that received his own final revision. The consequence is that some things are stated too bluntly particularly some criticisms on contemporary writers ; and positions that are reiterated, or that crop up at various points, are not always enunciated with the same degree of emphasis. It is puzzling to a learner to find a statement made with confidence in one place and thrown out tentatively, or rather timidly, in another. All this, of course, would have disappeared had the author himself had the oppor- tunity of revising. Several gaps also would have doubtless been filled in. Robertson would not have allowed a work like this out of his hands without some treatment of the psychological aspect of Cause and Causa- tion ; nor would he have omitted, as is here done, to give some account of Time and of Number. All this is mentioned simply in justice to Robertson himself, who was, above all things, conscientiously exhaustive ; not with any view to detract from the value of the production itself. The standpoint throughout is, of course, that of Experientialism ; but it is Experientialism in its ripest and most efficient form. Everywhere there is shown a thorough acquaintance with and interest in the latest psychological doctrines and researches ; and, no matter from what