Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/563

 VII. CRITICAL NOTICES. The Will to Believe ; and other Essays in Popular Philosophy. By WILLIAM JAMES. London, New York and Bombay : Long- mans, Green & Co. Pp. xvii., 332. AT the risk of seeming to use the language of extravagant eulogy I should like to call this collection of Prof. James' essays a wholly admirable book, alike in form and in matter. That the form of any of Prof. James' literary productions should be deserving of the highest praise was indeed no more than would be anticipated by all who had ever enjoyed the grace of his style, the raciness of his phrases, the stimulus of his originality, in short the deft- ness of the manipulations whereby he is wont to charm the heavy indigestible dough of philosophic discussion to rise up into dainty shapes that need be disdained by no intellectual epicure. But it is the matter even more than the manner of Prof. James' teachings that renders his volume a delight to all lovers of philosophic literature. That a volume of essays on various topics, ranging in date from 1879-96, should possess a substantial unity surpassing that of many formal treatises is indeed a marvel, explained only by the fact in this case that they are welded together by the unity of a strong and picturesque personality. But the attitude towards philosophic problems taken up in these essays seems to me more remarkable even than the unity given to them by Prof. James' personality, and in a technical journal it is the more necessary to lay stress on this point as its hnportance is otherwise likely to be cloaked by the literary charm of Prof. James' manner, by his avoidance of cumbrous technicalities and formal elaboration, and by the engaging frankness and modesty with which he pretends only to express his personal feelings. There is a real danger that professed philosophers should come to believe that nothing can be profound but what is obscurely put, and that they should con- sequently pass over too lightly the lucidity which seems to reveal the depths of philosophic problems even to the uninitiated. Prof. James' essays are popular in this highest sense, that they can arouse the enthusiasm of the many without ceasing to stimulate the few. And yet he in no wise departs from the doctrine of sound science which he has expounded so brilliantly in his Principles of Psychology. It is true that we here have Prof. James making