Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 34.djvu/435

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LITERARY NOTICES.
421

with facts as facts, and are not directly concerned about a theory of God or the universe. "Physical science is a kind of external ladder by which the human mind endeavors to ascend, step by step, to the topmost height (as it were) of all knowledge. The higher it mounts, the more certain it is to find itself entering into the still higher realm of the internal and metaphysical, ending only in the universal and absolute." A metaphysical system is likewise insufficient without the verification of its conclusions by a thorough science of external nature. If philosophy has hitherto failed to furnish a satisfactory theory, the greater is the need that it should still endeavor to accomplish it. A condition is that "it must be able to take up all science, all nature, all humanity, into clear solution, leaving nothing out, or nothing but nothing." Of the four theories of the universe that stand before the world for consideration, the biblical-supernatural theory leaves philosophy to become impossible and impertinent; the materialistic-machine theory has no room for anything but physical science; and in the mystical-idealistic theory—which supposes that we have no certain knowledge of external nature, but only of the ideas or images which are formed in our minds on sensation and sense-perception—the business of philosophy is to make it as intelligible, credible, and acceptable as possible. The realistic-ideal theory, or realistic idealism, which gives the name to the book, holds that the real and the ideal are not two distinct worlds, but only the two sides or aspects of one and the same whole actuality of real essence and power. "Its method is both analytical and synthetical, is neither exclusively dialectical and deductive, nor wholly experimental and inductive, but is both at once; it is, in short, the universal method of the metaphysical logic which takes up all science into intelligible and clear solution." It is the purpose of the work to unfold, explain, and establish this theory. The book is a hard one to read, but the difficulty lies in the nature of the subject, and the fullness of the author's thought, requiring corresponding fullness in expression, and not in any defect of the workmanship. The author has studied the subject, and has mastery of his thought and knowledge of what he wishes to say.

The Tenth and Twelfth Books of the Institutes of Quintilian. With Explanatory Notes. By Henry S. Frieze. New edition, revised and improved. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 294. Price, $1.40.

The value of Quintilian in classical study consists in the opportunity which his work furnishes for at once getting knowledge which has a direct bearing on professional life, and for attaining a higher scholarship in the Latin language. The Institutio Oratoria, or "Education of the Orator," is an invaluable contribution both to polite literature and to liberal education, and capable of being made practically useful to young men in their preliminary training for public life. The tenth and twelfth books are selected for the purposes of the present text because of the interest and importance of the topics discussed in them: the former book relating to the practical studies and exercises that contribute to the formation of a good style, and the twelfth presenting a kind of outline of what the character and life of an orator should be. Prof. Frieze's work in this preparation is based most largely on the labors of Prof. Bonnell and those German scholars who have given most attention to Quintilian. The present new edition has been revised in view of the later labors of Carl Halm and G. T. A. Krüger; and the notes have been amplified, with the view to making them helpful wherever help may seem to be needed.

Antiquities of the State of Ohio. By Henry A. Shepherd. Cincinnati: John C. Yorston & Co. Pp. 139.

This monograph is a portion of the author's "Popular History of the State of Ohio." It deals with the ancient inclosures, mounds, caches, tombs, etc., located in that State, and the objects found within them. In Ohio alone there have been till recently not less than ten thousand mounds and from fifteen hundred to two thousand inclosures. In other parts of the Mississippi Valley they are so numerous that no attempt has ever been made to count them all. The inclosures are usually regular in outline, and vary in size from an acre or less to three hundred and fifty or four hundred acres. Most of them appear to have been designed for religious purposes, while others were appar-