Kant's views on the subject of moral education derive considerable importance for our day from the fact that he insisted on the possibility and necessity of moral instruction independent of religion. From this standpoint he constructed a moral catechism, which has had the high compliment paid it of being made the model of the moral catechism in the most widely-used of French primers of moral instruction, that of M. Compayré. In spite of this, however, it is to be feared that Kant's catechism would foster priggishness rather than morality, and we are not surprised to find that high authorities entertain grave doubts as to the practical success of the French "éducation du sens moral." We may conclude this notice with a reference to the treatment of the sense of shame proposed by Kant. It should be appealed to, he says, only in cases of untruthfulness, for nature has given man the sense of shame in order that, when he lies, he may betray himself. If, therefore, children are not taught to be indiscriminately ashamed, they will continue to blush with shame, in the attempt to lie, when they are grown up.
The inclusion of a translation of part of Hegel's Philosophie des Rechts in Dr. Sneath's Ethical Series is a fresh indication of the interest which Hegelianism continues to excite among philosophical students throughout the English-speaking world. The present volume, containing not only about one-half of the Philosophic des Rechts but also well-chosen extracts from those of the other works of the great idealist in which his ethical and ethico-historical views are to be found, offers a fairly complete presentation of the Hegelian theory of morals. The translation is preceded by a short but sufficient biographical sketch, and a clear and interesting exposition of the connection of Hegel's ethics with the rest of his philosophy, and of its relation to preceding ethical systems.
Professor Sterrett disclaims any intention of endeavoring to make his translation easy reading. It is, in fact, rather more dry and crabbed than the original German; and in this respect it compares unfavorably with Wallace's translation of the smaller Logik, in which accuracy of rendering is combined with no inconsiderable degree of clearness and simplicity of style. But Hegel's philosophy is at best so nearly untranslatable that we may welcome any painstaking and conscientious attempt to present it in an English dress, even though the result is not altogether attractive. The student, indeed, who makes his first acquaintance with Hegelianism through
