Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/136

 122 NEW BOOKS. We are concerned here with only two chapters, those on the neglect of phrenology and on the opposition to hypnotism and psychical re- search. The first presents the case for phrenology in a strangely ex parte way. No one who knows the literature of phrenology will be able to accept Dr. Wallace's account of it. As for the radical error of phrenology, it is of course the psychological error of regarding mind as a bundle of faculties, rather than as a stream of processes or system of functions. That Huxley should not have seen this (p. 182) is not surprising to those who have read his little book on Hume, and ac- quainted themselves with the psychology that underlies it. Nor is Dr. Wallace happier in his championship of psychical research, to say nothing of the fact that, with such protagonists as Sir W. Crookes upon the scientific, and Mr. Andrew Lang upon the literary side, the ' problems ' of psychical research are rather likely to crowd out those of psychology proper than to be themselves ousted from the field. The Study of the Child : A Brief Treatise on the Psychology of the Child, with Suggestions for Teachers, Students and Parents. By A. K. TAYLOR. International Education Series, No. 43. New York : D. Appleton & Co., 1898. Pp. xliii., 215. Price $1.25. The American book market is just now flooded with works, of all degrees of merit, upon child study and educational psychology. Some, like Dr. Oppenheim's Development of the Child, possess a permanent value ;. many have the stamp of the ephemeral clearly upon them. The present work is somewhat difficult to estimate. The editor (Dr. W. T. Harris) calls it " sound and wholesome " ; and so, for the most part, it is on its practical side. The psychology is scrappy and the biology hazardous ; for proof of the former statement one has only to refer to the definitions of will, feeling and attention (pp. 106 ft, 114, 124), for proof of the latter to the discussion of heredity (pp. 182, f). But the author's enthusiasm, modesty and constant reliance upon his own teaching experience may go far to recommend him to the teachers and parents to whom he appeals. The student will pass on to writers of a more severe type. The book begins with chapters on the senses, apperception (conscious- ness and attention), symbolism, muscular control, feeling and will. Then follow discussions of the intellectual functions, habit and character, in- stincts and plays, manners and morals, normal and abnormal develop- ment, stages of growth, fatigue, etc. An Appendix gives a selected list of reference books and papers. The Psychology of Peoples : its Influence on their Evolution. By G. LE. BON. London and New York : Macmillan & Co., 1898. Pp. xx., 236. $1.50. M. Le Bon is already favourably known to English readers by his recently translated Psychology of the Crowd. In the present volume he has gathered together, in brief summary, the conclusions of the various works in which he has treated of the history of civilisations. The style is clear and forcible, tending, indeed, at times to an almost brutal frank- ness ; and the book grows in interest as one reads. The contrast drawn between the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon races, the pictures of North and South America and the discussions of Japan and India, are of especial interest. The author's central thesis is that chance, environment and institu- tions play but secondary parts in the history of a people. Character (race) is the important thing. This character a people's morality and