nally, there are ten pages of interesting notes, giving items of psychological importance.
Since the publication of "Mind" was commenced, no periodical has appeared of such fair promise for the promotion of psychological knowledge and inquiry. Professor G. Stanley Hall has made his mark in this department of science, and is thoroughly equipped for the work of conducting such a journal. We wish the enterprise every success, and believe that it will receive a cordial support from all those who are competent to judge of the value of a scientific pursuit of psychological study.
The Science of Politics. By Walter Thomas Mills. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1887. Price, $1.
This book is not exactly what its title would seem to indicate. The author defines political science as the science of the state and also of citizenship, but the latter is the exclusive subject of this work. It does not treat of the functions of the state or of its historical evolution, but of the practical duties of the citizen, especially with regard to political parties. Hence, it is practical rather than philosophical, and for that very reason will probably interest a larger number of readers. The style is journalistic, and the book is cut up into a large number of short chapters, so that it reads like a series of newspaper articles.
The author's views on the subject of parties are, for the most part, those of the best public opinion of the country at the present time. He holds fast to the doctrine that a political party exists solely to carry into effect some recognized principle or principles which its members believe in, and consequently that when a party refuses to act on principle it has no longer any reason to be. He is no believer in the doctrine that a man must always indorse the action of his party, whether he approves it or not; and he has a clear sense of the despotism of party managers and of the mischief they often do. He shows that a party is not, like the state itself, a permanent organization, but a temporary one, and that when a party has outlived its usefulness it ought to perish and give way to a new organization that will deal with the problems of the day. He is, perhaps, a little too ready to break off from established parties because of disagreement with them on a single issue, the particular issue that he is interested in being that of prohibiting the sale of liquors. But he shows throughout his book the preference of public ends to private and partisan ones which is now happily characteristic of the best young men of America. In short, while there is little in the book that will be new to the political philosopher or the instructed statesman, there is much that will be useful to ordinary voters if they should study it.
We are sorry to find the book disfigured by a great number of misspellings, such as "weich" for which, "squarly" for squarely, "Leiber" for Lieber, and so on, some pages having two or three words misspelled. Such blunders are not creditable to either author or publisher.
The Gnostics and their Remains, Ancient and Mediæval. By C. W. King. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 466. With 15 Plates.
The author's original work upon Gnostic remains was published about 1864, and met with strong commendation or reprehension, according as it fell in with or contradicted cherished notions. The most really complimentary criticism to his own mind was the assertion made by one reviewer that he had displayed in the work more the spirit of a Gnostic—that is, of "one addicted to knowledge"—than of a Christian. He claims to have continued to pursue his investigation with the motive thus described, of studying the subject for the sole purpose of understanding the truth. New and extremely valuable sources of information have come to his hand since the publication of the first edition, to which no previous author had access: in the shape of the tract the "Refutation of All Heresies," by an author, perhaps Origen or Hippolytus, who was intimately acquainted with the doctrines he exposed, and illustrated them by many extracts from the Gnostic literature, then copious enough; and of the "Pistis Sophia," the only one left of the once numerous Gnostic Gospels, and a most important book for his own purpose. Mr. King's especial field of research is the archæological side of the
