vantages, and probable future, and a comparison of it with other forms of government, more especially parliamentary government with restricted suffrage. It is quite impossible in the space allowed a single review to give any adequate notion of the very wide field which is covered by these two volumes. The work opens with a consideration of English representative government in the eighteenth century, which, with a few modifications, seems to be Mr. Lecky's idea of the best form of polity. The growth of Rousseau's doctrines in France and England and a brief study of the French democracy are followed by about seventy pages on "American Democracy," which, while somewhat tinctured by the proverbial English ingenuousness regarding tales about the wild doings over here, point out the most pronounced of our political faults and weaknesses. Mr. Lecky sums up as follows: "American democracy appears to me to carry with it at least as much of warning as of encouragement, especially when we remember the singularly favorable circumstances under which the experiment has been tried and the impossibility of reproducing those conditions at home." Legislative changes in England, the Irish land question, and the various attempts to legalize attacks on property, successful and otherwise, are discussed in the second chapter. The influence of democracy on individual liberty is shown to be not uniformly favorable, and attention is especially called to the great danger of systems of class legislation, such as the income tax. Aristocracies and upper chambers are given considerable space, including an extended survey of the history of the English House of Lords. The changes which the growth of democracy has brought about in international politics are noted at some length, as is also its effect on religious liberty, Sunday legislation, and marriage laws. In commenting on socialism and labor questions, Mr. Lecky says: "But the proposed changes which conflict with the fundamental laws and elements of human nature can never in the long run succeed.… The essential difference of men in aptitudes, capacities, and character are things that never can be changed, and all schemes and policies that ignore them are doomed to ultimate failure." The changes which have taken place in the position and education of women are considered in the last chapter. Mr. Lecky thinks that, owing to their special interests, it is impossible to deny their claim to representation, and that if their demand for the suffrage prove growing and persistent, they will eventually obtain it. As is natural, most of the questions are considered mainly with reference to their bearing on the English polity; but they are questions common to all modern civilized societies, and Mr. Lecky's views, while not perhaps always tenable, are always deserving of attention.
Most of those who have tried it will remember that the study of psychology, aided by the ordinary text-books and carried on after the usual methods of the class room, was about the driest and in many ways the least agreeable of their school-day experiences. Indeed, the study was such uphill work, and had so little that was enticing about it, that the subject was usually put off until the latter part of the school or college course, when it was expected that the more mature minds, especially if backed by a fondness for the science, would be able to struggle through its puzzling abstractions. The book before us[1] is an attempt to place this study on a better footing. After teaching the subject for a number of years, the author became convinced that there are no such serious difficulties in its pursuit as has been supposed. He found that it can be made attractive, and that, when suitably presented, pupils of average intelligence have little trouble in grasping the essentials of the science. His book is the outcome of this teaching experience, and embodies the plan which the author found most successful in arousing the interest and reaching the understanding of the learner. This plan consists simply in an abundant use of familiar illustrations, with so much of anecdote and of the application of principles as will serve to hold the attention and give the mind of the pupil something tangible to work upon. The illustrative matter is drawn from a great variety of sources, and, as a rule, is very apt.
Mr. Halleck presents his subject from both the introspective and the physiological
- ↑ Psychology and Psychic Culture. By Reuben Post Halleck. New York: American Book Company. Pp. 368. 12mo. Price, $1.25.
