612 XEW BOOKS. of the freedom of human spirits as real beings among the other real beings, not free, composing the system of nature (the demonstration being condensed, as the author claims, for the first time in history, into a definite mathe- matical formula) ; containing also a highly detailed theory of the relations of soul and spirit (distinguished from one another) to the nervous system the doctrine falls into four sections entitled, Die Gemisspflege, Die Arbeits- pflege, Die Gestaltungspflege, Die Bewusstseinspflege, dealing respectively with the sensual enjoyments depending on the contained visceral system, with the higher life of sense dependent on the containing bodily system with its active members subject to the controlling mind, with the inner elaboration of sense-impressions (in memory, idealisation, thought and science), and, lastly, with the manifestations of consciousness in general as a unity. The book abounds in assertions which it is little to describe as bizarre, and pre- sents confusions of thought from which the author might have been saved by a little more patient study of the "Herren Philosopheu" whom he would leave behind. Yet it is impossible to read more than a few pages of his peculiar diction without recognising in him a strenuous and in his way acute thinker from whom there is not a little to be learned. Especially at the present time it is of interest to meet with one who is not content to proclaim in general terms the monadological conception but essays to work it out into all the details of a scientific theory of the world, life and mind. Handbuch der Moral. Von Dr. ADOLF ROTHENBUCHER. Cottbus : Jaeger, 1884. Pp. 223. The author, who is at the head of an institution for the higher instruc- tion of girls in the town of Cottbus in Prussia and has distinguished himself by his zeal and intelligence as an educator, brings here a wide range of philosophical reading and no little vigour and independence of thought, with warmth and vivacity of written style, to the task of incul- cating a practical doctrine of morals. The book falls into four Parts : (1) " Foundations of Morality " ; (2) " Conditions of Moral Action " ; (3) "Morality and Virtues"; (4) "Education in Morality". The aim i* thoroughly practical to edify and produce a disposition, more than to instruct ; but throughout the treatise, many striking side-lights are thrown upon questions of moral theory. Most remarkable is the manner in which the author is able to combine with strenuous recognition of plain scientific fact the maintenance of a high ideal. The physical and social bases of morality are brought specially into view in Part i. ; while in Part ii. " Freedom " and " Conscience " are discussed with sobriety and candour. Towards the close, the exposition becomes more suffused with emotion, but the author's enthusiasm has always light shining through it. Biologische Probleme zugleich als Versuch zur Enlwicklung einer rationellen Ethik. Von W. H. ROLPH. Zweite, stark erweiterte Auflage. Leip- zig : Engelmann, 1884. Pp. vi., 238. This second much-enlarged edition of a work which originally appeared in 1882, had for the most part been got ready by the author when he suc- cumbed to pulmonary disease in 1883 ; Prof. v. Gi^ycki of Berlin has
- it tended to the revision of the remainder and seen the whole through the
press. Son of an English father (but of a German mother and born at Berlin in 1847, educated too in Germany and advanced to the position of Frivat-docent of Zoology in the University of Leipsic before ill-health broke up his career), Dr. Rolph had first meant to write in English a merely critical discussion of some ethical views, with more especial re- ference to Mr. Spencer's Data of Ethics, but was led on to an independent investigation of what seemed to him the underlying biological questions,
