Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/554

540 CRITICAL NOTICES: pological work, 1 is at least in the forefront, if not a bit ahead, of the time. To make it at all plausible, however, Mr. Marshall must study far more " folk-lore " than that which he discovers in the Bible. He is a psychologist of considerable distinction ; but ne sutor . E. E. MARETT. Psychology and Life. By HUGO MDNSTERBEBG. Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. xiv., 286. THE essays reprinted in this volume have for the most appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, and this perhaps explains, if it does not excuse, the combination of a popular tone with professorial dog- matism which its discussions display. The style forms another stumbling-block. It was hardly judicious for Prof. Miinsterberg to ' commence author ' in English with a work whose semi- popular character renders any deficiency in his power over that medium of expression much more glaring, and he should at least have chosen his literary advisers among his colleagues in the English department of Harvard University, instead of leaving to his laboratory assistants the " helpful retouching of his language ". As it stands, the book reads like a bad translation from the German, of which tongue the English reader desirous of under- standing it, will require a competent knowledge, and it is to be feared that in spite of Prof. Mvinsterberg's assurance (p. x.) that " I do not want to entertain by these papers," his " unamusing book " will provide not a little involuntary entertainment to the aforesaid personage. Prof. Miinsterberg's literary audacity is well matched by his scientific pugnacity. His avowed purpose is polemical; " I want to fight " he frankly declares in his preface, nor is it possible to mistake the warlike ardour which has been engendered in him by the action of the new American imperialism upon the military instincts of a German. Whether he will be able to show as much stomach for the fight after his adversaries have replied, must remain to be seen. Still, as he only desires to fight, it is possible that he may have an equal appetite for battle whatever the issue, and in that case, if his critics do their duty, it is conceivable that his ideas may be so licked into shape that his enterprise may turn out to have been at least subjectively worth adventuring. A person so valorous and aggressive must needs be pachydermatous to criticism ; but it will be surprising if, after reading the replies he is sure to provoke, Prof. Miinsterberg does not regret that he did not show rather more discretion in choosing his fighting- ground, before proceeding to run amuck in the philosophic world. For certainly the metaphysical basis from which he starts in all his arguments, appears to need a good deal of explanation, if not of justification. It is best stated in the attempt at a classifica- tion of the sciences on p. 205. Psychology, we are told, is the 1 The Making of Religion. Longmans, Green & Co. 1898.