Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/435

 434 NEW BOOKS. filling the gap so long apparent in English philosophical literature. Schwegler's sketch of the history of philosophy, in spite of its undeniable merits (increased in Dr. J. H. Stirling's translation), does by no means satisfy the needs of the English student, and Mr. Bax was evidently not unaware of the opportunity he had when he deliberately elected to give, in a single handy volume, an original survey of the development of philoso- phical thought, instead of accepting the humbler task of re-editing for pre- sent use that other German manual by Tennemann which had been trans- lated before Schwegler's. The result is not satisfactory. Mr. Bax has genuine philosophical interest and even enthusiasm, writes fluently and sometimes forcibly, and could not work over the ground to the extent that he has done without expending a great deal of labour ; yet "students" cannot be advised to turn to his book. He is not nearly accurate enough for them in his facts, and he is terribly viewy. The viewiness (joined with a too magisterial assumption) cannot easily be illustrated here, but will immediately strike anyone who looks, in the interest of students, for the positive and balanced instruction expected of a Handbook. His accuracy may be gauged by what he tells us (p. 378) of James Mill as " in the direct line of the Scotch psychological school," which must be the same as that of which Reid (p. 201) is declared " the progenitor " ; or (p. 203) of Thomas Brown as teaching Reid's philosophy; or (p. 211) of D'Holbach as having published the Systeme de la Nature " under the name of the elder Mirabeau (!) ; or (p. 168) of Leibniz, who in 1663 went (for a session) to Jena, as there reading " Hobbes and Locke" (when Locke's Essay did not appear till 1690). Inaccuracies of this kind and there are many more of them are serious enough when " students" have not the knowledge with which to be able to discount them. (Errors of a still more obvious sort, inflicted in large numbers upon Mr. Bax by the carelessness of his printers, he has, we understand, taken measures to remove from all but the first impression of his book.) Great familiarity, at first hand, with the literature of philosophy is necessary before a man can hope to write a useful sketch of its history. It is a pity Mr. Bax was not content to revise Tennemann as far as Tennemann (in his day) went, and, having gained space by throwing out the more antiquated and useless of Tennernami's over-abundant references, to occupy it with a carefully written supplement, bringing the history, in a subdued business-like style, down to the present time. Students would then have been more in his debt than they are how likely to be, and between Schwegler and such a Tennemann, backed always by Ueberweg, have been able to do fairly well till the time when some coming English historian of philosophy on the large scale may complete his work (like another Zeller) by writing, out of the fulness of knowledge, a compendium also. Natural Causes and Supernatural Seemings. By HEXRY MAUDSLEY, M.D., LL.D. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, 1886. Pp. 368. " A plain scientific obligation," the author holds, lies on those who do not believe that there is any "accessible supernatural," "to explain the natural origin of human belief respecting that which is beyond the reach of human thought". The causes of belief in the supernatural are treated under the heads of " Fallacies incident to the Natural Operations of Sound Mind" (part i., pp. 7-145) ; " Unsound Mental Action" (part ii., pp. 149- 261) ; and "The Attainment of Natural Knowledge by Divine Illumina- tion" (part iii., pp. 265-353). All three parts are full of psychological interest independently of the main argument. The errors considered in part i. are first of all those that are due to purely intellectual causes, among which the author finds that the tendency of the mind to be