Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/559

NEW BOOKS. 545 1888, against the sacrifice of education to examination in our present educational system. The first of these three papers is a defence of the position that, helpful though experiment and all the objective methods are towards the under- standing and elucidation of mind, the leading psychological method is and ever must be Introspective. While quite welcoming the efforts of the psycho-physicist, it has a keen appreciation of their limits and is concerned with pointing out the hopeful regions of research and with indicating the precautions necessary for success. The same subject is so far pursued in the next paper, which has for its specific object, how- ever, determination of the province of Anthropology, and should be taken in conjunction with a previous article on the " Definition and Demarcation of the Subject-sciences," so as to obtain a complete view of the author's handling of this important topic. In the last of the papers, Dr. Bain gives his views on the ever-present question of the pressure of examinations. His position is marked by great moderation. Fully alive to the abuses of the examination system, he is by no means prepared to pass unmitigated condemnation. On the contrary, speaking out of his own experience both as student at the University of Aberdeen in earlier days and as professor later on, he throws the weight of his authority in favour of examinations, maintaining that " the evils com- plained of are not universal, nor are they inherent in the system ". The psychology of the matter is laid down in the concluding paragraph : " It has not escaped observation, since this question was mooted, that competition is but a phase of the race of life the struggle for existence. Not merely is there the scramble for the means of decent livelihood ; there is, besides, the intoxication of being first. Nor is this the whole matter. The general multitude prefer to have their sentiment of ad- miration concentrated upon one winner in a contest. The greatest opponent of the Prize system that I ever knew was De Morgan : I have heard him describe the senior wranglership at Cambridge as the upas tree which poisoned all around it. Human nature is to blame for the dis- proportionate exaltation of the first in a race, although winning only by half a neck. The tendency would appear to be of a piece with the love emotion, which, for its highest flight, needs concentration upon one. Whether either of these tendencies will ever be rationalised, it is not for the present generation to pronounce." This volume appears very opportunely. In the midst of competing and conflicting methods, it is well to have the attention directed anew to a mode of handling psychological and philosophical problems that has been of great service to philosophy, but which does not always at the present moment get its due and yet cannot be ignored without loss. It is well also, after years of silence, to be brought afresh into immediate contact with the author's subtle analytic power and keen dialectic, which are always stimulating, and to be made to realise the value of felicitous illustrations for the elucidation of truth. In an emphatic manner, also, these papers bring out two traits of the author's character which deserve to be specially noted, viz., his open-mindedness and his generosity to- wards those who differ from him. The volume comes to us in a very pleasant form as to type and bind- ing, and its value and utility are enhanced by the carefully-prepared abstracts prefixed to the articles. WILLIAM L. DAVID&ON. 35