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many things which they never thought it could do. Not nearly all the deductions from the principles of equality have been correct. The growth of democracy has dissipated a good many fears about the •mob;' but on the other hand it has failed to realize a good many expectations about its conduct of government." In pursuit of the purpose thus indicated, Mr. Godkin devotes chapters to " Former Democracies;" "Equality;" "The Nominating System;" "The Decline of Legislatures ; " " Peculiarities of American Municipal Gov- ernment ; " " The Growth and Expression of Public Opinion ; " " The Australian Democracy."
The tone of the book has not quite the quality which has come to be expected of the author. There is much less of his own opinion, and much more analysis of objective conditions, than we are familiar with in Mr. Godkin. The consequence is that many readers who are forearmed with prejudice against the author's beliefs about policies will find themselves accepting his diagnosis of conditions. In fact, the book contains analysis and interpretation which equals the keenest and strongest in Montesquieu, Tocqueville, Bagehot, and Bryce. There are passages which suggest these writers in turn. Until the temper of American democracy so changes as to make Mr. Godkin's diagnosis obsolete, his book will have an educational value not exceeded in their time by that of the Spirit of the Laws, and Democracy in America. If I were to name the books which best deserve study by American citizens, this latest volume by Mr. Godkin would be placed high in the list. A. W. S.
Principe sSociologiques. Par Charles Mismer. Deuxieme edition, revue et augmentee. One volume. Paris : Felix Alcan. Pp. 287, 8vo. F. 5. More sociological " principles " ! We must take them as they come, and perhaps their very futility and fatality will convince us at last that it were better to settle upon a method. Let the author speak for him- self : "The conception which dominates this work has its point of departure in gravitation, unique first cause, generative principle of all forces and all laws. The general movement which draws the universe along subjects all the elements which compose it to a law of solidarity and to a law of perfectibility. Man being part of nature, solidarity and perfectibility are necessarily applicable to the social order. But that which applies to the social order applies equally to the moral order. Solidarity and perfectibility offer the best criterion of morality and
