NEW BOOKS. 259 of the hypnotist's mise en scene in most of Home's performances ! What, then, is Mr. Podmore's explanation of the power he finds in Home to impose on other persons hallucinatory experiences ? Suggestion hypnotic and waking we know, and every one is ready nowadays to see in it a vera causa. Thought-transference Mr. Podmore believes in just as firmly. It is admitted that we are ignorant even of the condi- tions, much more of the limits of operation of either. Mr. Podmore straightway assumes that they have no limits and that they will explain everything. It may be even as he believes. His conviction at least is not that of scientific knowledge. Surely it were better to confess the very real ignorance which he shares with a number of other fairly competent and critical minds. F. N. HALES. Philosophy of Conduct. A Treatise of the Facts, Principles and Ideals of Ethics. By GEORGE TRUMBULL LADD, Professor of Philosophy in Yale University. London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1902. Pp. xxii., 663. The scope and aim of this voluminous treatise are stated by the author as follows : " To raise, even if it cannot completely answer, the more ultimate problems of conduct as our experience forces them upon the reflective thinking of mankind " ; or, stated more fully, " to investigate the nature of man as moral (capable of conduct), to classify and discuss the different forms of his conduct as coming under moral law and con- stituting the so-called ' duties ' and ' virtues,' and to treat speculatively the ultimate ethical conceptions regarded as having their ground in the existing system of the Universe. ' Such a treatment naturally results in the three following divisions of the one treatise of the Philosophy of Conduct : (1) The Moral Self ; (2; The Virtuous Life ; (3) The Nature of the Bight." On the other hand, although the treatise is a ' Philosophy,' and Ethics
- one of the Sciences of man,' 'we must ever remember that " Aristotle's
caution applies. It is not fitting, in accordance with the very nature of the subject to expect, or even to seek for, that more perfect accuracy which is demanded of the physical and natural Sciences. Neither in respect of minuteness of detail, nor of mathematical exactness, nor of definiteness, nor of finish, nor of justifiable subtlety of argument shall we expect, or strive, to rival the work of the physicist, the chemist, or even the physiologist or biologist." This portion of the spirit of Aristotle (to whom reference is made in every chapter) pervades the whole work. Moderation in all things, even in cogency of reasoning, is, throughout, the characteristic note. Hence the critical estimate of the value of this treatise will vary with the tem- perament of the reader. The ' practical ' mind will award it unqualified praise ; the scientific temper will incline to rate it much below its true merit. For, indeed, the greater portion is of the nature of a sermon rather than of a science. It is dedicated to " a good man " ; its keynote is the " Might of Goodness " ; such sciences as psychology, episteinology, and metaphysics are of value only in so far as they are " directed to the rational and practical betterment of the life of conduct " ; this betterment is the " end in view " which, in all his investigations, the writer has had ; he expects " indifference, if not secret or more open antagonism," to his "'efforts to elevate the tone of the prevalent consciousness," from the "relatively low and nerveless ethical condition of the current Chris- tianity " ; but in full confidence that moral principles and ideals will
