Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/119

Selections from Berkeley, with an Introduction and Notes for the use of Students in the Universities. By Alexander Campbell Fraser, D.C.L., Oxon. Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. Fourth edition, revised. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Macmillan & Co. 1891. — pp. liii, 402.

Since bringing out this new edition, Professor Fraser has resigned the chair in which he succeeded Sir William Hamilton. Like his great predecessor he has done eminent service to philosophy, not only as a writer and a teacher, but also as an editor and interpreter. It is scarcely too much to say that his splendid edition of the works of Berkeley was a revelation to the modern world of that great thinker's philosophy, or at any rate of what was deepest in it. Of that ripe fruit of his studies on Berkeley the present volume is, as it were, the must. There is no need at this late date of reviewing a volume which is already so well known to the public. I believe there is no better introduction to philosophy — none at once so simple and so profound, so original and so comprehensive, so stimulating and so fascinating, as the beautiful and masterly writings of Berkeley, which are here illuminated and set in their historical framework by Professor Fraser's keen, sympathetic, clear, and exhaustive commentaries. This new edition is the best evidence of the estimation in which the book is held. As to changes other than considerable verbal improvements, Professor Fraser has characteristically added some new philosophical problems, thus increasing the suggestiveness of the work. Furthermore, the design in each of the three parts into which the Selections is divided has been made more obvious. The first part, which includes the "Principles," aims to show that Matter is necessarily dependent on percipient mind, thus disposing of the materialistic theory of being and causation. The second part, which includes Berkeley's writings on Vision, consists of psychological analyses intended to prove that our perception of the visible world unconsciously presupposes a faith in Divine Reason. The third part, made up of extracts from Siris, endeavors to illustrate the immanence of Active Reason in the universe and in man. The entire book is intended "as an aid to reflection on the spiritual constitution of man and the universe, in connection with fundamental questions raised by contemporary Materialism." As such it can be safely and even urgently recommended to every student of metaphysics and metaphysical psychology.

J. G. S.