world already by various articles in the Études and by two or three æsthetic works, has published a philosophical textbook adapted to the needs of candidates for the classical baccalaureate. The first volume is entitled Psychologie Expérimentale and the second deals with Logic, Ethics, Esthetics, and Metaphysics. The reader, however, must not conclude that the first volume is devoted to what we would call in English "Experimental Psychology"; for Empirical Psychology would be the term really descriptive of this treatise. The present name has been chosen-somewhat inconsistently-for the reason that the treatment of Rational Psychology is relegated to the Book on Special Metaphysics. Regarding the method properly called " experimental," our author remarks, not unjustly, that it labors under a great number of limitations; but he appears to entertain no illusion as to his ability to prophesy concerning its possible value in the future, after it shall have enjoyed an opportunity of growing during some six or seven hundred years. Having professed a dislike for the too prevalent custom of wrapping philosophy up in rhetoric, Père Sortais dares, nevertheless, to draw largely upon his literary and classical learning for illustrations and quotations and succeeds in illustrating his points very happily sometimes. But clearly his forte is analysis and division; and as affording a ready view of the whole subject commonly discussed under the rubric "Philosophy" his work is particularly successful. He arranges and classifies and subdivides with admirable lucidity; his indices especially betraying the clear mind and careful method of their maker. The physiological summarizing in the Psychology appears to have been done rather hastily. Sometimes brevity interferes with thoroughness and confidence begets a dogmatic tone. Moreover, in certain places the arguments presented are deficient without any appearance of their author's having been conscious of that fact. Again, it seems strange that he should define sensation as "an agreeable or painful phenomenon of consciousness preceded by a nervous impression transmitted to the brain," and follow up this definition with a discussion of the question whether or not any sensations lack the pain-pleasure element. But on the whole the book deserves consideration, and, especially by its good mapping out of the field, will benefit students who remember that it is a text-book. The chapter dealing with the • Traité de Philosophie. Par le P. Gaston Sortais, S. J. Two vols. Paris: P. Lethielleux. relations of the physical and the moral status are outspoken and enlightened. 4. The Rev. Charles Bodington contributes to the Oxford Library of Practical Theology a volume on Books of Devotion.* It aims at making the reader acquainted with the various holy thoughts that may be gathered in the fields of devotional literature, attention being given almost exclusively to works in English. A prominent defect of the book is its lack of thoroughness; a great medley of writers is referred to and an immense variety of tendencies is represented; yet no line of thought or subject of study is treated exhaustively. This is rather disappointing to readers given to reflection, or accustomed to scholarly methods. It might be supposed that few others would take up and enjoy a volume like the present; this, however, is a mistake. Any serious-minded person will find the book an instructive one to dip into for an occasional visit to the land of good spiritual literature. The author contents himself for the most part with summaries of the books before him, refraining from comment or criticism-consequently he has put the kernel of a great many fine works at the reader's disposal. But, as was said above, the absence of a principle of selection seems to be responsible for a generally unsatisfying impression which the book is apt to leave. Most of the writers quoted from are Anglicans; Catholic authors when used are treated with all consideration. A strong plea is made for the legitimacy of Invocation to the Saints and other Catholic practices, but the line is drawn at Scaramelli's presentation. 5. All who are interested in the question of social reform will gladly welcome this second volume † by Mr. Woods and his associates in the South End Settlement House of Boston. As their first volume, The City of Wilderness, which was published about four years ago, was a description of the conditions in the South End, so this book is a detailed study of the peoples and their environment in the two principal immigrant districts of that city, known as the North and West Ends. *Books of Devotion. By the Rev. Charles Bodington. London, New York, and Bombay: Longmans, Green & Co. Americans in Process. Edited by Robert A. Woods. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The writers have gone among the inhabitants of these sections, noted carefully the traits peculiar to the different nationalities, and estimated their value from the view-point of American citizenship. They point out many existing evils which, though differing in detail, are much the same as those which obtain in every city having a large immigrant population. The principal suggestions offered are a better organization, trade unions, and a more far-sighted municipal policy. This would mean better care of the streets, more rigid building laws, more opportunities for fresh air and personal cleanliness; the erecting in each district of a hall where good books and good music may be had, and especially the establishing of technical training schools. The facts related in the book and the suggestions offered deserve serious consideration, not only by the people of Boston but also by all who are interested in the future of our American cities. Mr. Woods admits the great influence for good which the Catholic Church exerts upon her immigrant children, but finds fault with particular aspects of her belief and practice. He seems to account it a great loss that scepticism has had so little effect among Catholics, and that the church holds to-day to the creed she has professed from the beginning. Mr. Woods can scarcely find ground for his complaint, if we inform him that the teachings of Catholicity are the utterances of the Most High, who knows no vicissitude nor shadow of change. A strange thing, this non-Catholic inability to understand that there may be in the world a religion not made by men but revealed by God, and consequently no more subject to revision than the divine veracity can be subject to delusion. 6.-Murder, sensuality, lying, the horrible Inquisition, wily Jesuits, misguided women-what is this? A yellow, paperbound volume published many years ago by the firm of Little, Known, and Co. ? No, indeed; it is an ornamented, clothbound book,* printed on good paper, with excellent typography, in the year of Christian civilization 1903, by the reputable firm of The Macmillan Company. After reading it one wonders at the reason of the title, but that lack of appropriateness is soon forgotten amid the great mass of glaring inconsistencies and errors. The author's pur • The Pagan at the Shrine. By Paul Gwynne. New York: The Macmillan Company. pose, to be brief, is to show that the Catholic religion is merely a matter of emotion without a real, rational basis, carried on as a humbugging scheme by dishonest priests, accepted only by the ignorant and by the intelligent ones who would make capital out of this ignorance. The hero of the book is a man who gives up Catholicism for atheism, and of course he is the only character that has a spark of virtue. He is noble, honest, sincere, and pure. All the Catholics and the Catholic population of the country-Spain-are immoral, or very close to it, and to the diseased ear of the author all things of God's creation, even the peaceful zephyr of evening, brings a message of sensuality. To the evil-minded all things are evil. The author has a remarkable power in coloring his scenes well and depicting his characters with many an artistic detail. pity that he should thus prostitute it after the Gautier or a Zola, and that his labors, for he labored, should go to the service of evil and his own disgrace, rather than to God's glory and his own. No matter that he should misrepresent and vilify the greatest institution of souls upon earth; that his ignorance or his maliciousness should lead him to insult a country whose peasantry is one of the purest on earth; caricature the administration of the Sacraments, lie about confession, outstrip even the notorious Llorente in the matter of the Inquisition, picture general flirtations among the Catholics in church, insult religious orders, and make priests ridiculous-all this he does, and then with equal effrontery presents his work to an intelligent public through one of our most reputable publishing houses. More's the manner of a certainly has We had almost believed that the day had past when a leading publishing firm would father such a grievous, public offence against truth and morality. 7.-The Rise of Ruderick Clowd is the interesting lifestory of a criminal told by Mr. Josiah Flynt, whose writings on the methods and habits of the world of "graft" are now quite well known. Ruderick Clowd even from his birth has the marks upon him of an outcast and a rebel against honest society. An illegitimate child, he is shunned by all until he wins recognition by his physical powers. His mother's advice is He begins to pick pockets, then to go after larger *The Rise of Ruderick Clowd. By Josiah Flynt. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. not heeded. "jobs," and finally has the proud name of being one of the most successful "crooks" in the country. Mr. Flynt throughout gives us the criminal's point of view. His account of reform schools is a very sorry one, and he would seem to give no room for amendment or repentance in prison life. The book is rich in pictures of the Under World, full of the professional vocabulary of the "crooks," and abounds in detailed descriptions of their methods, whether working alone or in gangs on big "jobs." But Mr. Flynt must have a hero in his book, and at the end Ruderick becomes very much of a one; yet he is not the least sorry for his years of sin, has no word of regret for them, and his transition from a "crooked" to to a "straight" life is stated but not justified, which is, to say the least, inartistic. 8. This small volume of the series of Little Novels by Favorite Authors is a story of student days at Harvard. All who enjoyed Mr. Wister's classic story of Western life in the Virginian will find an agreeable half-hour in reading Philoso phy 4. There are two heroes who, boldly undertaking the course in philosophy, attend but few of the lectures, and consequently have to "plug" continuously for a few days before the exams, under the guidance of a tutor. In spite of a wild. time in the country the day before, they succeed with remarkable credit to themselves. Mr. Wister represents his heroes as not being serious students, but the language he puts into their mouths contradicts all that, else they never could have uttered the many bright criticisms that demolish conceptualism and that do credit to Mr. Wister himself. And after all, in spite of the author's sarcasm, a man would be just as successful in life and do just as much good to himself and to his fellow-men, and most probably much more, even if he were only a bookreviewer on the Evening Post, and not the treasurer of the New Amsterdam Trust Company. 9.-To read of lives wasted away in struggling to preserve the only true religion in a land where religious liberty was denied, is at times a tonic to our lethargic spirituality. We have such a reinvigorator in this Catholic London Missions. It is a collection of the fragmentary accounts that have Philosophy 4. By Owen Wister. New York: The Macmillan Company. + Catholic London Missions. By Johanna H. Harting. St. Louis: B. Herder. |