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420 PHILOSOPHICAL PERIODICALS. inviting task of rendering such an interpretation articulate to thought. That which the poet sees, the philosopher must define " : cf. the relation between Goethe and Spinoza.] K. Gordon. ' Spencer's Theory of Ethics in Its Evolutionary Aspect.' [In all the four views (physical, psycholo- gical, biological, sociological) under which Spencer formulates his ethical doctrine, " the end of moral action is for him a fixed end, a goal, a static goal. The Good is variously expressed as the equilibrium of forces, as the balance of functions, as habit completed and pleasure attained, and as society perfected." A consistently evolutionary theory would insist that there is no last limit or final goal of evolution ; that critical moments and unsettled problems are the very condition of conscious life and moral action. In Spencer's exposition, evolution is merely incidental, an his- torical accident.] Discussion. H. Barker and E. Albee. ' A Recent Criticism of Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics.' [Criticism of Albee's position in his History of English Utilitarianism, and reply.] Reviews of Books. Summaries of Articles. Notices of New Books. Notes. PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW. Vol. ix., No. 5. G-. M. Stratton. 'Studies from the Psychological Laboratory of the University of California.' in. G. M. Stratton. 'Visible Motion and the Space Threshold.' ["The doctrine that visual motion is a primitive form of sensibility independent of local discrimination finds no experimental warrant. The perception of motion seems to be ... the perception that a sensation is changing its space relations, the motion itself furnishing a decidedly favourable, but by no means unique, set of conditions for appreciating such differences of space relationship." The discrimination is often immediate ; but even so- the apparently simple ' psychic stroke ' is really a complex act.] iv. G. M. Stratton. 'The Method of Serial Groups.' [An attempt to legitimate the blank experiment, to introduce it as a continuous and regular element of the procedure, in the method of minimal changes.] v. M. L. Nelson. ' The Effect of Subdivisions on the Visual [Estimate of Time.' [In in- tervals between three and sixty seconds, there is a "temporal illusion very similar to the space illusion of sight ". The filled ' stretch ' is over- estimated. A single division, however, does not, as Meumann found it did, shorten the temporal estimate. As the standard interval is in- creased, the illusion decreases, till it is finally lost.] R. Macdougall. ' The Relation of Auditory Rhythm to Nervous Discharge.' [The ele- mentary condition of the phenomenon of rhythm is threefold : the periodic accentuation (not necessarily connected with any specific type of objective change) of an auditory succession (i.e., a repetition of func- tionally integrated groups) under specific temporal relations (a narrowly limited range of rates). It is given with "the laws of periodicity of functioning in the bodily organism ". The mechanism involved is two- fold : " a periodical facilitation and inhibition of nervous activity," arising from the relation between the periodicity of its own rhythm of function- ing "and certain intervals in the objective series of stimulations, and " a motor accompaniment in the form of sensation reflexes occurring in some part of the bodily organism". The rhythm activity represents a relatively undifferentiated type of reaction. " Its appearance as a spontaneous exercise and as a reflex accompaniment is a manifestation of the primitive tendency to reaction towards presented objects, and of an equally primitive tendency to perpetuate a movement once made." It belongs to the activities of early ages of development, and of the lower parts of the nervous system : cf., the persistent and exaggerated types of rhythmical motor activity shown in certain abnormal conditions. Hence dominant and effective rhythm can exist only in simple musical and poetic compositions ; in the ' higher ' kinds, secondary factors, more