Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/432

 416 CRITICAL NOTICES : A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century. By JOHN THEODOKE MEBZ. Vol. i. Introduction Scientific Thought, part i. Edinburgh and London : Wm. Black-wood & Sons, 1896. Pp. xiv., 458. IT would be absurd to attempt any hurried appreciation of this work. Only one volume is before us, and the whole of its con- tent depends, for fulfilment or for complement, on what is yet to come. Further, the work is one which stands altogether above immediate criticism. The incalculable labours of its preparation, its novel and possibly unique method, and the perfect clarity of its form, place it among those books which are judged by time and use. The abiding interest of its subject, its probable isolation, and the uncommon fitness of the author, would more than justify such a statement. Few men possess at once the literary art, the philosophic standpoint and the scientific information and sym- pathy of Mr. Merz ; perhaps no other so equipped will devote a lifetime to a labour which requires no less. All who are interested in science owe very much to the author ; he has rescued for every one the history of the most complex period of thought, and has presented it in a moving form. He has done nothing lightly ; the reading involved in his study appears to have been positively exhaustive, yet his pages are read with remarkable pleasure. If the student will look for evidence of the author's intimate and practical knowledge of the very diverse writings and theories with which he has had to do, he will find it, but learning does not dis- turb the clear movement of the argument. The quality which most claims attention is a certain rare restraint and maturity ; the work seems to have perfectly attained the proportions w T hich are proper to it. We have before us the Introduction and the first part of the study of Scientific Thought. The latter gives the movement of the scientific spirit in France, in Germany and in England, and proceeds to the exhibition of the astronomical and atomic views of nature. This section will be completed by the consideration of the mechanical, the physical, the biological, the statistical, and the psycho-physical views of nature ; the second main division is to be occupied with the study of Philosophic Thought; and the third part will include the study of that great body of undefined and unmethodical thought which is predominantly personal and individual in character, constituting the twilight from which the other forms arise into their focal illumination. This third sec- tion, not easily named uniformly with the others, will be entitled Religious Thought. The first three chapters, dealing w T ith the three countries, are rich in content, omitting, so far as it is possible to judge, no significant factors in the development of European science, yet presenting us with short and well- wrought pictures ; one receives the impression of life and movement in the development. In