Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/486

 NEW BOOKS. 473 After having, in two former volumes, written the history of "positivist" and " traditionalist " philosophy in France in the 19th century, the author how goes on to the history of the spiritualist school, of which he is himself an adherent. His method is to deal separately with the chief writers of the school (living writers being excluded), in chapters that are chiefly biogra- phical and expository, but also to some extent critical. The writers dealt with are Mine, de Stael, Laromiguiere, Maine de Biran, Ampere, Royer- Collard, De Gerando, Victor Cousin (pp. 181-278), Theodore Jouffroy (pp. S- 79-361), Guizot, Charles de Remusat, Adolphe Gamier, and lmile Saisset. In a concluding chapter ("Developments of Spiritualism," pp. 441-66), a brief account is given of some less known members of the school and of its influence. While conceding that it has neglected science, especially physiology, and has been too opportunist in politics and education, M. Ferraz contends that, in spite of all its defects, " spiritualistic philosophy is still to-day the only philosophy that can satisfy elevated minds and serve as the basis of free institutions ". For the doctrine of inviolable personal rights is a corollary of the rationalism of the spiritualist school, but cannot be based on any form of sensationalism. Hence the title of the volume " Spiritualism and Liberalism," which has reference also to the fact that the writers dealt with were all adherents of the constitutional doctrines of the early part of the century. In the actual treatment of his subject, the author gives most attention to psychology, and his account, in some of the earlier chapters, of the way in which new psychological doctrines came to be substituted for those of Condi llac, has much scientific as well as literary interest. Nouvelles Etudes familieres de Psychologie et de Morale. Par FRANCISQUE BOUILLIER, Membre de 1'Institut. Paris : Hachette, 1887. Pp. iii., 341. These studies are a sequel to the author's volume noticed in MIND x. incursions into the ou Etude sur la Foi," v. " Patrio- The vi. without parade of technical apparatus, and are good examples of the author's method. In the first, he argues that the historian ought not to be content with simply narrating facts, but has to pass moral judgment on them ; the ideas of justice and injustice being applicable from the beginning of history. Judgments must of necessity be pronounced with reference to the average morality of the present day, but must be graduated according to age and place. * The general rule is, " indulgence for the past, severity for the present". This rule receives some practical illustration in the political studies. The last study, which is partly ethical, has for its conclusion that " love of others " is not in reality opposed to " love of self," but is its con- tinuation, while "egoism," in the bad sense, is its perversion. Love of others, being based on the feeling of personal identity, does not imply identity of substance of all beings, as is contended, for example, by philo- sophers so different as Schopenhauer and M. Secretan, but is sufficiently explained by resemblance. For a certain degree of sympathy, resemblance in the mere fact of sentiency is enough. The most interesting study is probably the fourth, which contains in its last section an extremely good defence of the psychological hypothesis of "latent ideas" as the true explanation of memory and its degrees.