Page:Philosophical Review Volume 31.djvu/421

No. 4.] require the entire sacrifice of happiness or life on the part of an individual. To say that the individual so sacrificed realizes his own highest good in sacrificing himself is at best a half truth." As a matter of fact under the imperfect conditions of a non-harmonious social order, it is simply the least bad thing for the individual. "It is his duty; and the worst thing he can do is to shirk his duty." Hence there is such a thing as self-sacrifice which has no completely adequate compensations. "The realization of the common good cannot, therefore, be regarded in an optimistic spirit as a simple sum of self-realizations."

In the end Mr. Hobhouse joins forces with the modern psychologist. "Psychoanalysis tells us that the first step towards reastablishingreestablishing [sic] harmony is to bring the hidden discrepancies to light; and that is the service which a sound ethical logic performs for the individual." But in joining forces with the psychologist, he nevertheless reestablishes the rule of Reason Reason as the principle of harmonic system and so points to the essentially philosophical impulse that is really at the basis of the modern psychologies of conflict and integration.

The translation of these important texts, which constitute what is undoubtedly the oldest extant Indo-European prose, affords an additional avenue for an understanding of the mind and temper of ancient India, which is now 'on the map,' so to speak, for the student of the history of philosophy. These two texts, the older of which was composed not later than 600 B.C., antedate considerably the philosophic speculation that begins in the Upanishads and culminates in the later systematic treatises of the various schools of thought. There is a single reference to 'death over and over again' as a process from which there is a way of escape; and 'union with Brahman,' mentioned once, is a germinal indication of what was later to become a cardinal doctrine. In the main, however, the texts deal with various phases of the priestly ritual and its applications. The story of the intended sacrifice of Sunahsepa by his father furnishes an interesting parallel to the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. The scholarly quality of the volume deserves high praise, and an appropriate external form has been provided by the able editor, Professor Lanman, whose Harvard Oriental Series ranks among the foremost products of American scholarship.