Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/438

 NEW BOOKS. 437 to Moral Philosophy and containing a brief sketch of the leading English Moralists". " There is the additional reason," he adds, " for publishing these chapters in a separate form, that they alone received Prof. Wilson's final imprimatur. Should the remaining chapters ever appear, though they -will contain many of Mr. Wilson's ideas, expressed, at times, in his own language, the responsibility for the opinions adopted in them will rest mainly with me." Ch. i. (pp. 1-22) is on the definition and divisions of Moral Philosophy, and on its relation to other sciences and to religion. Ch. iii. (pp. 114-133) on the " Method of Morals". Ch. ii. is a " Review of the earlier English Moralists" from Hobbes to Bentham. Hobbes is criticised on the ground that his system is " unhistorical ". By the distinc- tion of ethics and politics, discussed in ch. i., both Hobbes and Bentham are defended, on the ground that they aimed at constructing a political rather than an ethical system, from the strictures of those who object that they do not take sufficient account of the higher ethical emotions. " The speculations of Hobbes," it is said, " created English Moral Philosophy by antagonism " (p. 35). As representatives of the two lines of speculation, that of rationalism and that of " moral sense," " conscience " or " sympathy," which sprang from reaction against Hobbes, the systems of Cud worth and Clarke, Hutcheson, Butler, Hume, Adam Smith and Price are selected for special exposition. Hume receives the praise of having " reduced to order and symmetry all the elements of moral theory existing in his time" besides making advances on his predecessors (p. 61). A section on Kant is interpolated because his system is closely akin to English rationalism, especially to the system of Price. Having hitherto considered writers who " admit, though presenting many minor differences, of being ranged under two heads," the authors next proceed to notice some of those who cannot be classified strictly under either head ; selecting for exposition Mande- ville, Hartley, Locke, Tucker, Paley and Bentham. The general conclusion of the historical chapter is that the writers noticed " all called attention to important aspects of the subject, and erred not so much in positive mis- statement as in the omission of some essential consideration. Thus, Hobbes drew special attention to the action of law in modifying conduct and to the strength of the self-regarding feelings ; Shaftesbury, Hutcheson and Butler to the existence of the benevolent and more distinctively moral side of human nature ; Mandeville to what may be called the semi-social feelings ; Hartley to the influence of association in the formation of our more complex states of mind, and Bentham to the necessity of an external test of actions " (p. 113). The Method of Morals, it is concluded in the last chapter, must be a posteriori as opposed to a priori. Further, it must be historical : for morality is progressive ; and it is by the historical method of study that we can best learn to make improvements in inherited morality. Tlie Philosophy of Art. An Introduction to the Scientific Study of JEsthe- tics. By HEGEL and C. L. MICHELET. Translated from the German by W. HASTIE, B.D. Edinburgh : Oliver & Boy d, 1886. Pp. xv, 118. A translation of Hegel's Introduction to the ^Esthetik (pp. 1-46) and of Michelet's Summary of Hegel's Philosophy of Art (pp. 49-118). In his preface the translator enthusiastically commends Hegel's teaching to the attention of English artists. The World as Will and Idea. By ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER. Translated from the German by R. B. HALDANE, M.A., and J. KEMP, M.A. Vols. II., III. London: Trubner, 1886. Pp. viii., 496; viii., 509. With these handsome volumes (xxiii., xxiv. of the " English and Foreign Philosophical Library ") ; the translators complete their arduous task begun in 1883. Vol. i. then published contained a short statement (see MIND,