Jump to content

Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/436

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
423
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

were, fell by the way during the writer's own struggle to the Logik and the Encyclopaedie. The thought of publishing them was not entertained at the time, but, while some of them were destroyed before any such thought occurred, what remain are given unchanged; and the hope is entertained that "they may assist, or, should they fail to assist, they may succeed to encourage; for, representing various stages of success or unsuccess in the study of Hegel, they may be allowably expected to have peculiar meaning for more than one student, who, finding his own difficulties reflected in what claims to have passed them, may feel himself stimulated afresh to a renewed attempt."

A new feature presents itself at first sight in the volume on metals of Mr. Bailey's Tutorial Chemistry[1] Chemical physics is given prominence, and the first place. Yet the author has sought to include only such topics as are essential to a due appreciation of the modern science. The section, however, contains many subjects that are not commonly brought before the student at so early a stage. The elements are taken in the order suggested by the periodic system, and the characteristic properties of each family are summarized. This has been done, the author says, so as to bring out the relationships which exist between the different members of the same family, and so as to represent (by a consideration of these summaries progressively) the whole of the chemical elements in a continuous series. A list of experiments is given in the appendix. The literary style of the book is concise and clear.

Professor Ladd has written his Outlines of Descriptive Psychology[2] with the definite intention constantly in view of adapting it to certain beginners—students in colleges and normal schools—with an average grade of culture and the average amount of time at disposal. He has therefore had in mind throughout both the pupil and the teacher in their mutual relations, and has taken all pains so to present the subject that it can be "intelligently and 'economically' yet thoroughly studied and successfully taught." The subject, the phenomena of human mental life, is treated from the different points of view, and with the aid of all the methods of research, particularly those of experimental and physiological investigations, which belong to modern psychology. These investigations are, however, at least for the present, liable to the criticism that they are unable to deal with the later and more complex developments of the mind. "Unless we describe, and as far as possible explain, the growth of intellect, the knowledge of self and of things, the formation of the higher sentiments and emotions, and the conditions for the attainment of character, we neglect the main part of the task of the psychologist." Without overlooking the treatment of more fundamental processes, the author has tried to give these "higher faculties" the amount of space they deserve and require. Admitting that the value and success of the experimental method ought not to be questioned. Professor Ladd believes that its representatives are tempted to exaggerate its promise and its superior productiveness, and maintains that it can never be pursued without dependence upon introspection. Both the analytic and the genetic methods of treating the subject are followed. In the first part of the work. The Processes of Mental Life, those elementary forms of functioning which analysis discovers as entering into all mental life are described. In the second part. The Development of Mental Life, the evolution of the principal faculties of mind is traced as much as possible in their combined and interdependent action. Clearness, conciseness, and order are sought in the presentation.

Mr. Edward Bradford Titchener aims in his Primer of Psychology[3] to outline, with as little of technical detail as is compatible with accuracy of statement, the methods and results of modern psychology, and to stimulate the reader by means of questions and


  1. The University Tutorial Series. The Tutorial Chemistry. Part II, Metals. By G. H. Bailey. Edited by William Briggs. London: W. B. Clive, University Correspondence Press. New York: Hinds & Noble, Cooper Institute. Pp. 300
  2. Outlines cf Descriptive Psychology. A Textbook of Mental Science for Colleges and Normal Schools. By George Trumbull Ladd. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 428. Price, $1.50.
  3. A Primer of Psychology. By Edward Bradford Titchener. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 314. Price, $1.