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NEW BOOKS. 553 Kanfs Lehre vom Genie und die Entstehung der Kritik der Urtheilskraft. Von Dr. OTTO SCHLAPP, an der Universitat Edinburgh. Gottingen : Vandenhoeck & Reysrecht, 1901. Pp. xii, 463. The task which Dr. Schlapp has set himself in this work was suggested by the remark which occurs in Windelband's History of Modern Philo- sophy : " Kant construes the conception of Goethe's poetry ". His volume may be looked upon as the historical exposition and justification of this statement. The philosophical interpretation of Goethe's poetry can only be regarded, however, as a part of a general aesthetic theory, and thus the inquiry is strictly synonymous with the history of Kant's Critique of Judgment, or more particularly with that part of it which is concerned with the Critique of Taste, and the Judgment on the Beautiful. Kant's aesthetic theory is, according to the thesis of the book, not only inti- mately related to, but directly influenced by, his theory of genius (pp. 387-388) ; hence the history of the Critique of Judgment and that of Kant's theory of genius necessarily form one and the same inquiry. The author gives a short Introduction to indicate the general literary spirit at work in Kant's time, and to show the intellectual and aesthetic setting over against which Kant's theory was to take shape. This is very interesting reading, and might well have been made a little longer. The main body of the work is divided into four sections : (1) The begin- nings of Kant's Critique of Taste and of Genius, 1764-1775 ; (2) his views of genius and the aesthetic between 1775-1789 ; (3) those in the Critique of Judgment (1790) ; (4) those after the Critique of Judgment. The great interest and the chief value of Dr. Schlapp's historical survey will be found to lie in the sources which he has laid under contribution for trac- ing the development of Kant's views. The material he employs is for the most part quite new as yet to the student of Kant. It consists largely of hitherto unedited copies of Kant's class lectures on Logic, Metaphysic and Anthropology. These cover a period of about thirty years and were taken down and preserved by different members of his class. Of these various lectures, forming over seventy documents, only one course is reproduced in Hartenstein's edition of Kant that on Logic edited by Jasche (which is dated at 1800 by Hartenstein and at about 1780 by Dr. Schlapp). In addition to the class notes Dr. Schlapp also makes use of such relevant material as is to be found in Hartenstein, in Benno Erdmann's Kant's Reflexionen, and in the Lose Blatter cms Kants Nachlass, collected by Eeicke. All these sources have been carefully explored for remarks, criticisms, etc., bearing on art and genius, and the result is as detailed and exhaustive a review of the history of Kant's opinions on these subjects as the most exacting Kantforscher could desire. Especial stress is laid on Kant's indebtedness to a little known Essay on Genius published in 1774 and written by a Scotsman, Alexander Gerard, who appears to have given lectures on this subject in Aberdeen. Kant expressly declares how highly he thinks of this essay (p. 244), a long extract from which is given at the end of this volume. On the whole perhaps the first two stages above mentioned might have been put into shorter compass, though thoroughness is of course very difficult to reconcile with conciseness, more especially in a historical statement. Much of what is extracted from the lectures is little better than a round of shrewd commonplaces, Kant's satisfaction with which is ,no doubt due to the self-contained isolation of the detached recluse. Some judicious compression would not have lessened the value of the argument, least of all when done by such a devoted expositor. A useful summary at the end of each section recapitulates the results of the dif-