Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/137

 126 NEW BOOKS. comparison of the brain of anthropoids with the human brain, and a short discussion, anatomical and psychological, of some cases of microcephaly. It is found that in these cases the negative but not the positive characters of the intelligence of apes can be detected ; "the instinctive side of psy- chical activity " being (as Virchow's researches led him to conclude) " almost wholly absent". In anatomical structure, on the other hand (including that of the brain), the ape-like character is often very strongly marked. Jacob Bohme : His Life and Teaching, or Studies in Theosophy. By the late Dr. HANS LASSKX MARTKXSKX, Metropolitan of Denmark. Trans- lated from the Danish by T. RHYS EVANS. London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1885. Pp. xvi., 344. This book, the last of Dr. Martensen's three most important works to be translated into English, is a very intelligible and sympathetic presenta- tion of the theosophical speculations of Jacob Bohme. Some introdu sections (pp. 1-52) give a short account of the life of Bohme, and of theo- sophy and its problem as conceived by him. The author himself distin- guishes theosophy as "objective theoretical mysticism " from "subjective- practical mysticism". He thus distinguishes Bohme's conception of God from that of the mystics : " While Mysticism .... defines God as the unvarying nameless One, for whom every designation is inadequate and who transcends every conception, because every conception contains con- trasts while God is above all contrasts, Bohme demands a God who mani- fests himself in differences, in contrasts, in definite relations ; and only this God is to him the true God." There is a pantheistic element in Bohme; but Hegel wrongly interpreted him "in a purely pantli sense," having but a superficial acquaintance with his writing.-, and being disposed to " Hegelianise him". Bohme's special forerunners were "the whole band of German mystics, Eckehart, Tauler, Suso and the author of the Theologia Germanica " ; and, although it is impossible to prove any direct influence, " still an indirect influence from mediaeval Mysticism as well as from the Kabbala," Dr. Martensen thinks, "can scarcely be denied". He was, besides, influenced by 16th century ideas of magic and alchemy, and especially by the ideas of Paracelsus as well as " by his certainly barbarous terminology". The Blot upon the Brain: Studies in History and Psychology. By Viu.i.M V. IHKI.AND, M.D., Edin. ; Formerly of II. M. Indian Armv, &<. Edinburgh: Bell & Bradfute ; London: Simpkin, Mar- shall & Co., Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1885. Pp. 374. The papers collected in this volume deal chiefly with hallucinations and the phenomena of insanity continuous with them. "A hallucination,'' tin- author holds, "is always something pathological." "There is no dividing line between sanity and insanity. As the eye is not perfectly achromatic, the mind is probably never perfectly sane." Three papei.- are devoted to "The Hallucinations of Mohammed, Luther, and Swedenborg," "The Character and Hallucinations of Joan of Arc," and "St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the Indies " ; two to " The Insanity of Power " and " The Hereditary Neurosis of the Royal Family of Spain". The subjects of other papers are "Fixed Ideas," "Folie a deux, "Unconscious ( Vivhra- tion," "1 hough t without Words and the Relation of Words to Thought," M Left-handednese and Hight-ht-adedne.-s/' "Mirror-writing," "The Dual Functions of the Double Brain". The author has collected information from a wide range <>f authorities. On the whole he shows himself more anxious to give the facts copiously than to come to definite conclusions as