Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/866

846 of philosophers and their true relationship to each other. The points of agreement, for example, between Plato and Aristotle, as indicated by the author, are very impressive. The relations of pre-Socratic ethics to these latter are well shown. The translation of εὺδαιηοία by "well-being," instead of the usual "happiness," gives us quite a different conception of much of the Greek ethical philosophy. The contrasts between Stoicism and Epicureanism are sharply and truthfully drawn. The influence of the Roman jurisprudence upon ethical development is exhibited in a manner indicating the author's knowledge and appreciation of the work of scholars like Sir Henry Sumner Maine. Mediæval ethics and Christianity are treated without leaving the reader's mind in a state of hopeless confusion respecting the landmarks of progress and the work of individuals with whose names we are familiar, but of whose special value we can ordinarily learn but little from philosophical and religious histories. The chapter on modern English ethics is conspicuously free from controversial matter and from the animus of the partisan. All through, we find new ideas which reveal critical acumen, and compel us, if not to change, at least to reconsider our conclusions on many special points of historical fact. For instance, we are somewhat startled by the opinion that in the latter part of Plato's life, when he wrote the "Timæus," he did not believe in the immortality of the individual soul. Again, the average reader will probably be somewhat surprised to learn that Bishop Butler held self-love and conscience to be independent principles, and so far coordinate in authority that neither should be overruled by the other; if either were to give way, it must be conscience. Also, the importance of such works as Price's "Review of the Chief Questions and Difficulties of Morals" (1757), and Gay's "Essay," prefixed to Law's translation of King's "Origin of Evil" (1731), in the history of English ethics, is seldom considered and nowhere else saliently brought out.

All these considerations awaken regrets that the work before us is avowedly incomplete. The author says, by way of explanation, that, since the foundation of this book was an article written for the "Encyclopædia Britannica," after some hesitation he concluded to retain his original plan, and deal only with modern ethical systems as they relate to English moralists. We think this was decidedly a mistake. It detracts very considerably from the usefulness of the treatise. There is no utility, even for English readers, in presenting the ethical movements of Continental thought as an appendage to English ethics. The French and German systems have contributed powerfully to form the principles of morals, and very extensively to determine character and conduct. The French Revolution was primarily a political convulsion, but the ethical influences contributing to bring it about, and which it in turn generated, were very noticeable and important. They ought to be fully traced out in a history of ethics. So, too, the Kantian philosophy is surely worthy of a more thorough exposition and criticism than that of a half-dozen pages at the end of the volume. Again, the leading phases of Oriental ethical development are of the highest consequence in such a history. These defects could have been supplied, not, indeed, without enlarging the book; but we think the resultant advantage would have been ample justification for the addition.

is an arithmetic for primary schools, and is the first in the series of "Appletons' Standard Arithmetics." It is the fruit of many-years of careful preparation, combined with extended research as to the best methods now in use, and much experience in class-room work and school supervision. Its design is to familiarize the child with numbers and their combinations by some better and more lively method than the mechanical and rote repetition of the formulae of the addition and subtraction and other tables. Instead of this, it attempts to provoke observation of the things the numbers represent, and to lead the pupil to the utterance of the formula as a statement of his own experience. In the earlier lessons, in the first part of the book, the properties of numbers are illustrated by the aid of three series of pictures