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272 NEW BOOKS. get rid of the false notion of substance which he has borrowed from Kant, and pursue in freedom the course which his personal researches indicate to him, he would be logically compelled to adopt the fundamental theories of Aristotle's psychology." M. Mercier has set forth his own psychological doctrine in another work. In the present volume he contents himself with a chapter on " Psychology and Anthropology," in which he deprecates the arbitrary restriction which substitutes the study of the soul (I'Sme) for the study of man as a whole. Three chapters are devoted to the criticism of idealism, mechanism and positivism, or agnosticism in metaphysics, and the concluding chapter deals with Neo-Thomism. In M. Mercier's opinion, the decadence of Scholasticism has been much exaggerated. Its revival in this century was brought about, not only by the need of combating the anti-christian philosophies of Germany and England, but also by the unsuccessful efforts made within the Church to find a refuge in Cartesian spiritualism or in ontologism. Since the Encyclical of Leo XIII., Neo-Thomism has made great progress within the Church. It has a prominent place in the teaching of the Catholic universities, and seven journals of Catholic philosophy have been founded since 1880. M. Mercier lays great stress on the importance of scientific and, in parti- cular, of psycho-physical research, and charges all Catholics to meet their opponents by a diligent study of science, and a resolute adherence to Aristotelian and Scholastic philosophy. The book is written for Catholics, and neither its arguments nor its conclusions are likely to commend themselves to readers outside the Church. E. F. STEVENSON. La Famille dans les Diffdrentes Societes. Par C. N. STARCKE, Privat docent & 1'Universite de Copenhague, Membre de 1'Institut Inter- national de Sociologie. (Bibliotheque Sociologique Internationale xvi.) Paris : V. Giard & E. Briere, 1899. Pp. ii., 276. (Broche, 5 fr.) Dr. Starcke has already done excellent work on the primitive constitutior of the family. The present book is ethical rather than sociological in it aim ; but the author connects these two studies very closely. According to him we cannot know what life ought to be unless we understand whs it really is and how it has developed. The present work contains a full account of existing laws, customs anc ideas concerning marriage and the family in the various nations of Europe with sufficient indications of the changes which they have undergone ii the course of history. In particular, the author brings out clearly the contrast between the modes of thought of the Latin and of the Teutonic nations. For the Latins, marriage is primarily an alliance betweei families, and the claims of the individual are with them subordinat The Teutonic view is that marriage is primarily a social relation betwee individuals. Its essential purpose is the full development of the more and intellectual life of the individual persons who enter into this mos intimate of social unions. It is the Teutonic point of view which Dr. Starcke himself favours For him marriage is a means for self-realisation in the Hegelian sense. Thus his treatment of the question from an ethical point of view will be welcome and helpful to the prevailing English school of ethical thinking as represented by such writers as Muirhead and Mackenzie. The whole question of the position of woman and the transition which it is under- going at the present moment is treated from this standpoint. No one can complain of a lack of chivalry in Dr. Starcke. He holds that wome