which even Professor Watson has not wholly succeeded in fusing into a unity. We need greatly a book which shall give in moderate compass a statement of Idealistic Philosophy, as it is to-day held by those thinkers who, versed in contemporary thought, are also at home alike in Plato, in Berkeley, in Fichte, and Hegel. Professor Watson is eminently qualified to write such a work; indeed, he is preëminently qualified: not more, I suspect, than two or three writers equally competent will be discovered on a survey of the English-speaking world. Let us hope that the debt he owes to Idealistic Philosophy will ere long be paid!
That the volume before us will be helpful to students of philosophy, goes without saying. It is really a more constructive piece of work than the title indicates. It is an exposition of Idealistic Philosophy in connection with a criticism of opposing schools, and its tenor would be more clearly indicated if the double title were transposed, that is, if "Comte, Mill, and Spencer" were made the sub-title. The author has demonstrated that the empiricist's determination of the real by such categories as coexistence, succession, and causality, while valid within certain limits, becomes false when affirmed to be final. And, though it would be going too far to pretend that the author had shown that what the various sciences report, are the different phases of one evolving self-conscious life, he has certainly followed up his criticisms of the agnostic and the empiricist with hints and observations which suggest that the universe at heart is purposive and rational. Unfortunately, the reader of Professor Watson's book gets much less of his philosophy than the students for whom the volume was originally prepared, as the latter have the benefit of informal remarks and discussions which constitute, we are informed, the most important part of Professor Watson's class-room work. Yet, after all abatement is made, this "Outline of Philosophy" will form a most helpful contribution to contemporary thought.
The first chapter of the volume discusses the problem of Philosophy, more particularly by contrast with mathematics. It is shown that Philosophy deals with the nature both of knowledge and reality. This prepares the way for the criticism of Positivism or Agnosticism in the second chapter, which I should rank with the account and defense of Philosophical Idealism in the eighth chapter, as the most profound and valuable portions of the entire volume. Chapters III, IV, V, VI, are devoted to the Philosophy of Nature; the last dealing with Darwinian Biology, and the other three with Mill's theory of Geometry, Arithmetic and Algebra, and the Physical Sciences.
