Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/298

 NEW BOOKS. 297 Ideale Fragen, in Reden und Vortragen behandelt von Prof. Dr. M. LAZARUS. Dritte, durchgesehene Auflage. Leipzig : C. F. Winter, 1885. Pp. 414. The aim of these essays (first published in 1878 and now appearing in a third edition), so far as they are philosophical, is, by bringing into view the conception of the whole and the ideal side of things, to do something towards counteracting the narrowing influence of scientific " division of labour," which the author finds to be the foundation of the chief charac- teristics, good and bad, of the spirit of the present time. All of them have been, at least in portions, delivered orally ; the first being a discourse held at the unveiling of the monument oi. Herbart at Oldenburg on the centenary of his birth, 4th May, 1876. The remaining essays are (2) "A Psychological Glance into ^our Times," (3) " The Heart," (4) and (5) psychological studies of "Time" and "Conversation," (6) "Thoughts on Enlightenment ". They are all excellent specimens of the author's psycho- logical art and welcome pendants to the larger " monographs " of the Leben der Seele. Gesammelte Schriften von A. SPIR. I., II. Denken und WirUichheit. III. Schriften zur Moralphilosophie. IV. Schriften vermischten Inhalts. Leipzig : J. G. Findel, 1884, 1885. Pp. 416, 322, 285, 226. The second edition of the first two volumes of these Collected Writings was noticed in MIND, Vol. ii. 276. They now appear in a third edition, revised and in part rewritten, and take their place as the metaphysical basis of the author's moral and religious philosophy, set forth in vol. iii. The first part of vol. iv. consists of essays dealing with various aspects of the principles explained systematically in the other volumes ; the latter part (" Vereinzelte Anschammgen und Gedanken," pp. 157-226) is a series of detached reflections. The author's metaphysical doctrine is, briefly, that since "the things of experience have no true being of their own," therefore " the true being of things lies outside experience ". It has been the merit of experientialism, especially as carried out by Hume, to show that both inner and outer experience is illusory ; that external things are not, as we take them to be, substances identical with themselves, but only our own impressions variously grouped ; and that our impressions are a perpetual flux and our individuality a mere succession of states, not a permanent thing. The a priori school, on the other hand, has had the merit of seeing that there really is a " norm " to which the true being of things must be conformable. The norm, the fundamental law of thought, is that " every object is in its own being identical with itself". Since experience seems to correspond to this norm but does not, it must be described as "a systematically organised illusion". To escape, by means of intellectual insight, from this illusion is the aim of morality. The highest good for the "true self," which is outside the " individuality," is attainable by action in accordance with the " nor- mal," as distinguished from the " empirical " nature ; that is, by action according to a principle opposed to "natural egoism". The element of illusion and evil in the world, the " abnormal " character of the empirical nature of tilings, shows us that "the unconditioned," "the norm," which is at once " self-identical," as being conformable to the fundamental law of thought, and an ideal of moral perfection, cannot be the ground or cause of experience any more than it can be part of experience. The object of religion, therefore, ought not to be any power active in nature, but " the true, higher being of man himself as of all things," "not the Ruler, but the Ideal". "Belief in God is the condemnation of Nature, of common 20