Page:Philosophical Review Volume 9.djvu/469

453 are so selected as to show at once the different aspects of his work, and the general trend of the whole. While all of Nietzsche's books are represented, the larger part of the space is given to Also sprach Zarathustra. In addition to the explanatory and bibliographical preface to each group of selections, the introduction contains an account of Nietzsche's personality, as it is exhibited in his life and philosophy. The whole is little more than a popularized form of certain portions of the writer's former book, La philosophie de Nietzsche.

This investigation is devoted to three main problems. The first considers the relative times of eye-movements and reading pauses. The rate of eye-movements and the length of each pause were both found to be nearly constant at all times, so that the rate of reading is largely determined by the number of pauses to the line. It was found that the number of pauses was nearly constant under the same conditions, but varied with the familiarity of the matter, were more frequent for foreign languages than for the mother tongue, and were also more frequent at the beginning than at the end of the line. The explanation is, of course, that in familiar matter less needs to be clearly seen, and more is supplied from the context. Therefore, the pauses need not be so frequent.

The second problem was the older one of Cattell and Goldscheider as to how many things may be seen at the same time. Here the results of the authors confirm those of Cattell, that four or five separate letters can be seen at once, and that four or five times as many can be recognized if they are grouped in words. A study was also made of the errors that occur in reading words that are only indistinctly seen. On the basis of the facts thus obtained, the conclusion is reached that the words are read as wholes in terms of the outline, and that the letters are distinctly seen, and the words not spelled through letter by letter.

The experiments on the last question (the reaction times of reading) also bear upon the controversy of the alienists as to the way in which words are read, and serve to confirm the view advocated. It was seen that words of four letters can be read more quickly than single letters, and that the time of reading increases with the length of the word. Incidentally the general question of the computation of psychical times is subjected to a thorough criticism, and the conclusion is reached that the method of Cattell is not adequate to the facts.

There is little that can be said in general criticism of the book. The problems are thoroughly worked through, and the answers are apparently reliable, particularly as they, for the most part, serve merely to confirm the studies of earlier investigators in the same field.