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No. 2.]
REVIEWS OF BOOKS.
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not succeed in finding any new solutions, the old truths are nevertheless put with a new emphasis. Philosophical students will await with interest the appearance of their promised expositions of the metaphysical and ethical systems of Spinoza.

J. E. Creighton.
The Philosophy of Locke in extracts from the Essay concerning Human Understanding. Arranged with introductory notes by John E. Russell, A.M., Mark Hopkins Professor of Philosophy in Williams College. [Series of Modern Philosophers. Edited by E. Hershey Sneath, Ph.D.] New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1891. — pp. iv, 160.

This is the initial volume of a Series of Modern Philosophers to be published under the editorial supervision of Dr. E. Hershey Sneath. The plan of the series, as described by the editor in his prospectus, is to present "the substance of the representative systems of modern philosophy in selections from the original works." Each volume is also to contain a biographical sketch of the author; a brief exposition of the system with a statement of its historical relations ; and a bibliography. Seven volumes (dealing with Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Reid, Kant, and Hegel) have already been undertaken by such well-known scholars as Ex-President Porter, Professor Fullerton, Professor Royce, and others. The publishers have also purchased Professor Watson's favorably known work, Extracts from the Philosophy of Kant, and have incorporated it in the series. Other volumes may follow, and the editor, with commendable enterprise, is also projecting a similar series of English ethical writers.

The primary object of this series is to promote the study of the history of philosophy by making it more easily possible to bring students into direct communication with the original works, and allowing them to become acquainted with the authors at first hand. Another class of readers, whose wants the editor has in view, is the large number of professional men, particularly clergymen, who desire to extend their knowledge of philosophy, but whose time for such reading is necessarily limited.

It is doubtful if any greater service could be rendered to philosophy than to place before the public, in a convenient and attractive form, the classical presentations of its greatest masters. Every one interested in the advancement of philosophical knowledge in this country will admit the importance of making the works of the great thinkers more accessible to students and to the public generally. These writings have not been treated as they deserve. They have not, by any means, received