Page:Philosophical Review Volume 25.djvu/97

No. 1] or ethics, but he had the metaphysical craving and was gifted with a profound philosophical insight; indeed, no philosopher felt more keenly the desire to know

and no poet attained a loftier and more ennobling world-view than did he. Dr. Carus has produced a book which the reader desiring an introduction to the study of Goethe will find helpful and inspiring, and from which students of Goethe can gain many suggestions. It is written in a clear and pleasing style and is interesting throughout. Many poems are quoted, both in the original and in translations; nearly all of the latter, except those taken from Faust, have been made by Dr. Carus himself and are well done.

The purpose of this book, as the preface declares, is "to unify the various factors in education into an organic whole." It consists of three chapters: I, The Relation of Philosophy and Education; II, The Philosophical Significance and Implications of (a) Educational Facts, and (b) Basal Concepts in Education; III, An Educational Interpretation of Metaphysics. To this is added a bibliography. If a miscellaneous assortment of philosophical opinions wrenched from their respective systems without the semblance of proof or context and made to do duty as axioms can be called metaphysics, the book is properly named. The reader is puzzled to discover the unity of principle to which the preface refers, unless it be the merely mechanical unity of the juxtaposition of the words 'philosophy' and 'education.' The author shows a certain factual familiarity with several philosophical systems, but the work is so fragmentary and uncritical, and withal, so inaccurate and slipshod, that it cannot be regarded as a contribution to the subject. Indeed, far from satisfying a definite need, it has increased the need for systematic and careful studies of the metaphysics of education. The bibliography is surely not a bibliography of the subject but rather a more or less accurate list of some books that the author had been reading. Some of the titles and authors are hardly recognizable as they appear in the bibliography. 'N. T. Harris' and 'L. F. Hobhouse' have a very strange appearance; but when one sees Henry Jones credited with a book called Idealism as a Practical Guide and Josiah Royce named as the author of Spirits of Modern Philosophy it is enough to raise some very sober questions about the freedom of the press. Even in the body of the book (p. 31) we read: "John Locke was both a philosopher and educator; he wrote an essay On the Human Understanding and Thoughts Concerning Education."