Page:Philosophical Review Volume 24.djvu/355

No. 3.] each other. Bergson has described the common life of men only in terms of their intellectual acquisitions and practical achievements; but beyond these there is, correlative with the differentiation of personality, a social interpenetration on the deeper levels of intuition which is the method of real freedom.

Without aiming to contradict Bergson's non-teleogical theory of evolution, the author presses as far as she can those general tendencies of the life-impulse that make for progress of a more or less definite character. She gets here something very like a purpose. "The direction of the life-principle is surely being best expressed in so far as there is fuller realization of social harmony as based on the interpenetration of the deeper experiences of men." This direction of life toward social harmony gives a standard of value, in terms of which Mrs. Sait then works out acutely and in some detail a general ethical theory of good and evil, right and wrong, and the various moral attitudes toward these. In this she has been influenced by the point of view of Professor Dewey. For the student of Bergson the contributions of special value here are the suggested enlargement of Bergson's view of freedom on the side of its social significance, and the interpretation of the fundamental movement of life as in some sense purposive.

The author of this monograph has not been successful in showing that Milton was influenced by Boehme, nor is she able to give objective evidence that the poet knew of the work of the "Teutonic philosopher"; though his "industrious and select reading," and his promiscuous perusal of "all manner of tractates" make it probable that he had seen some of Boehme's writings. Miss Bailey's failure to appreciate the range of Milton's reading, with her consequent attribution to Boehme of ideas drawn from other sources, is the weak point in her book. She assumes that the poet was affected chiefly by the popular ideas of his time, and forgets the more important literary influences. For example, his account of the earthly paradise (p. 157) may be fully explained by reference to many authors with whom he was well acquainted, from Ovid to Samuel Purchas. On occasion, she even overlooks his familiarity with the Bible, and makes the words

a proof of the similarity of his beliefs to those of the German, from whom she quotes: "the stars or constellations operate in man," etc. Milton is obviously thinking of Job 38. 31: "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?" And to make the poet's allusions to astrology an evidence of his affinity with Boehme is absurd. Indeed, there seems to be in him little trace of the doctrines