Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/441

PHILOSOPHICAL PERIODICALS. 427 mental, observation under conditions which ask a question and favour the obtaining of an answer. Illustrations from vorticella, wasps, chicks and rats.] E. C. Sanford. ' Minor Studies from the Psychological Labor- atory of Clark University.' xii. G-. M. Whipple. ' On nearly Simul- taneous Clicks and Flashes.' [Flash-click recognition takes less time than click-flash, for series of stimulus pairs as well as for one pair. Serial repetition reduces the time of recognition. The click is retarded, by the greater attention-claiming power of the flash.] xiii. P. W. Cole- grove. ' The Time required for Recognition.' [Central process in recognition of pictures requires 0'2 sec. or less. Expectation decides the relative duration of judgments of recognition and of non -recognition. Interest of pictures shortens recognition time, as does increasing famili- arity.] xiv. F. W. Colegrove. ' Notes on Mental Standards of Length.' [We have separate mental standards of the inches and half inches ; finer estimation is made after these rough measurements are completed.] E. Flood. 'Notes on the Castration of Idiot Children.' [Bibliography and Brief Abstracts.] A. F. Chamberlain. 'On the Words for Fear in Certain Languages: a Study in Linguistic Psychology.' Book Notes. Notes and News. W. S. Monroe. ' A Study of Taste Dreams.' [Taste test gives 7 per cent, gustatory dreams to 48 per cent, visual ; visual test, 3 per cent, gustatory to 60 per cent, visual.] Books received. REVUE PHILOSOPHIQUE. April, 1899. L. Dauriac. ' La Philosophic de R. Wagner ' [(Founded on Richard Wagner, poete et penseur, by H. Lichtenberger). The philosophy of Wagner is a religion rather than a philosophy. It is concerned solely with human life, and may be summed up in the words : " to live is to renounce ". The good will is the will to renounce. (Illustrated in detail from the Niebelungen Ring). But re- nouncement is not an end but a method. By destroying the egoistic feelings we reach to the higher life, the life in all and for all. The poet looks to human renouncement for human redemption. Parsifal is a religious work, composed to the glory of Jesus. He came not to bring resurrec- tion and eternal life, but to teach men they may win the redemption of themselves and of others by means of individual renouncement. This negation of the will is not suicidal, however. ' The life of the saint is not an anticipation of death, but a higher state of life which can only be attained by the exercise of the highest energy of the will.'] J.-J. van Biervliet. ' L'homme droit et I'hoinme gauche.' [The asymmetry of function. After dealing with the effect of asymmetry on locomotion, etc., the writer passes on to discuss the question of its origin.] H. Bois. ' La Dissolution de la Foi' (fin). [Writer denies that historical criticism is capable of destroying the basis on which Christianity rests. This basis is twofold, consisting of (1) certain material facts ; (2) inter- pretation of these facts. The religious interpretation lies beyond the reach of historical criticism and this criticism has not, it is averred, succeeded in proving that the facts on which Christianity is based admit of a natural explanation. The moral miracle remains.] Revue Critique. F. Pillon. ' La Psychologic Analytique d'apres Stout.' [In a twelve-paged review we get no allusion to anything beyond the first fifteen pages of the book under review. Mr. Stout's account of the nature of psychology, i.e. t as a positive but non-physical science, is contrasted with that of Comte, for whom physical = positive. With regard to method, while Comte denied the distinction between internal and external observation, Mr. Stout quotes three psychological methods : (1) introspection ; (2) retrospection ; (3) observation of certain outward signs. Reviewer quotes from M. Bonnet to show that (2) may be regarded as a species of (1). In a short concluding paragraph it is suggested that the author