Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/433

Rh same time interesting problems of anthropology." The author defines marriage as a more or less durable connection between male and female, lasting till after the birth of the offspring. The lowest animals among which traces of such a connection are found are the turtles. With the birds it is an almost universal institution, while among the mammals it is restricted to certain species. In the lower animals reproduction is timed with reference to the season of plentiful food supply, and, as there are seasons of plenty and scarcity of the food of man, the author believes that in primitive times there was a human pairing season. Some of the lowest race? actually have such a season at the present time, and certain peoples of a little higher grade have yearly nuptial festivals, while in civilized countries it has been found that more children were born at one or two periods in the year than at other times. The view that primitive men and women lived in promiscuous sexual relations is opposed by Dr. Westermarck, who sees no ground for this hypothesis in the customs of uncivilized tribes of the present time. Passing on to the mode of contracting marriage, the author gives a wealth of information concerning customs of courtship among various peoples and also concerning the related subjects of means of attraction and the liberty of choice. By a chapter on sexual selection among animals he leads up to a consideration of the same process in the human species, his treatment of this subject being one of the points to which Mr. Wallace calls especial attention in the introduction The author maintains that man in the choice of a mate prefers the best representatives of his particular race because a full development of racial characters indicates health, while a deviation from them indicates disease. The production of the instinct which esteems beauty above ugliness is ascribed to natural selection. "According to Mr. Darwin," says Dr. Westermarck, "racial differences are due to the different standards of beauty, whereas, according to the theory here indicated, the different standards of beauty are due to racial differences." The prohibition of marriage between kindred is almost universal, but, as our author shows, all sorts of differences exist as to the unions that are regarded as incestuous by different peoples. His study of this matter has brought him to the conclusion that it is not the relationship but living in the same household that causes the repugnance to marriage between kindred, and that this feeling by no means results from observed bad effects of in-breeding. Among the other subjects examined in this work are marriage by capture and marriage by purchase, marriage-rites, polyandry, polygyny, and divorce. A copious list of authorities quoted and an excellent index are appended. The treatise is marked throughout by evidences of thorough study, clear insight, and sound reasoning.

work of Herbart now presented to English readers in a translation from the revised edition of 1834 is described by the author as "an attempt to found the science of psychology on experience, metaphysics, and mathematics." For a quarter of a century, beginning in 1809, Herbart occupied the chair at the University of Königsberg that had previously been filled by the celebrated Kant. In directing a pedagogical seminary, or normal school, which he founded, he applied philosophy to the art of education. The central thought of the present treatise, as is pointed out by Dr. Harris in the editor's preface, concerns the act of apperception. The book thus constitutes a sequel to the writings of Pestalozzi. For, while Pcstalozzianism enforces the importance of perceiving fully and accurately by the senses what is to be learned, the Herbartian pedagogics is occupied mainly with the second step in the learning process—the recognizing of what is perceived as identical with or similar to something that has been perceived before. An impression stored in the mind by a former experience may be out of consciousness at a given moment, but may be brought up into consciousness by some kindred idea. Herbart's theory concerning these phenomena represents ideas as connected in groups, and the forces with which they interact upon each other he represents by mathematical formulas.

The foregoing are among the