In short, the translator has provided his readers with a really useful introduction, which, however, is likely to prove more satisfactory as a commentary on the translation than as a preparation for it. While one may disagree in certain respects with his point of view, one must recognize that his treatment of Spinoza's system is the more valuable for being so completely sympathetic. If these two volumes were incorporated into one,—which need not be at all bulky,—they would probably constitute a better text-book, on the whole, than we now have for the student of Spinoza.
In closing, one is tempted to quote a remark which the translator makes in a footnote to the introduction (p. xli): "The present opportunity may serve for saying that Sir F. Pollock's Spinoza is a book which must be read by those who wish to study Spinoza. It is a type of what such a book should be, a model of accurate scholarship and of that genuine criticism which judges sympathetically after comprehension." One can hardly imagine any sufficient reason why this admirable book should remain out of print. The author's own view of particular sides of Spinoza's doctrine may have changed in the years past, and, as his work is now in quite another department than philosophy, he may not care to take time for revision; but, in the meantime, the loss must be felt wherever philosophy is taught. It is probably not too much to say that no single work, in English, French, or German, is so well calculated to serve as an introduction to the study of Spinoza as Sir Frederick Pollock's Spinoza: His Life and Philosophy.
Director of the Psychological Laboratory in Yale University.
Chautauqua Century Press, Meadville, Pa., 1895.—pp. xii, 304."This is the first book on the new or experimental psychology written in the English language. That it has been written expressly for the people will, I hope, be taken as evidence of the attitude of the science in its desire to serve humanity." Such is Dr. Scripture's own statement with regard to his book. It will be seen that he is a philanthropist. He lives up to the motto of his publishers,—"The Many, not the Few." Now we have no desire to belittle the work of those whose aim is to write scientific books that shall be intelligible and interesting to all persons, whether previously informed on the subject or not. But there is a formidable danger attaching to such
