Page:Philosophical Review Volume 9.djvu/695

679 to the knowledge of humanity. And thus beauty initiates us into humanity."

The moral philosophy of the book combines a Kantian doctrine of freedom with the teaching, more characteristic of later systems, of the moral world as a universe of inter-related selves. The essence of the moral life is freedom, which is alike a "mode of decision," and "the end of action" (p. 123); but such spiritual freedom is impossible to us unless we "envelop humanity in our will of freedom." Thus the law of morality is no external authority, but the "bond which unites the individual to humanity." The discussion in the final chapter of the religious life is a brilliant illustration of the common tendency to confuse religion, which is a personal relation, either with philosophical reflection or with moral activity. The first of these confusions is manifest in the suggestion that religion is the recognition of that fundamental unity which "has no need of raison d'être, because "it is raison d'être"; the second appears in the definition of religious thought as une volonte de perfection spirituelle" (p. 166); both recur in the implication (p. 195) that the ideal of the religious life is the communion of all beings in the principle of unity.

In conclusion, one can hardly fail to question the effective utility of the book. The idealist in philosophy will find, to be sure, a brilliant and often forcible statement of doctrines which he already believes; but the opponent of these doctrines encounters hardly a trace of argument, and is unlikely to admit that the mere exposition of idealism is an adequate proof of it. The book is of little use to the professional reader, because of its lack of historical comment and its almost total suppression of argument; and its condensation unfits it for the use of the young student except as a summary of more detailed expositions or lectures. There are indications that this was its original use.

One finds it difficult to know just what to say about the value of a book of this sort. It is the work of a Protestant Episcopal clergyman, who has written extendedly on theology, and has devoted a good deal of study, apparently, to German metaphysics. His conclusions on the subject of ethics are contained in the present volume, which, though not written primarily for this purpose, the author hopes may be of use as a text book. It is, however, of no possible value for teaching purposes. Its style is that of the preacher rather than the teacher or controversial writer; that is, it is the style of the man who has been used to expressing himself according to his own fancy, not of the man who has been compelled to make sure that he was understood. Moreover, the structure of the book is unsystematic; the chapters have no organic relation to one another. There is practically