REVIEWS.
When Mr. M'Dougall a dozen years ago published his Introduction to Social Psychology, a critic acidly remarked, "He seems to do a great deal of packing in preparation for a journey on which he never starts." This stricture was quite unfair in that the implications of the word "Introduction" were left wholly out of account. At most it might be urged that the writer thereby laid himself under an obligation to follow up his prolegomena by a substantive treatment of social psychology as he would have it be. That pledge, then, is now redeemed most handsomely, and the foreshadowed work has become a reality. It is true that Mr. M'Dougall modestly terms it a sketch. Let no one, however, understand by this that there is any failure to get down to fundamentals. On the other hand, though the author has never wrought more solidly and successfully in the construction and presentation of an organised scheme of thought, he contrives with rare skill to keep the argument free from technicalities, and throughout to deal with broad issues in plain language. After all, human nature is a subject in which the average human being may claim to take an interest; and in these days, when so many have taken to heart the precept "Know thyself," the psychologist is sure of a hearing if only he will imitate Mr. M'Dougall's resolve to think synthetically and write simply.
