Page images
PDF
EPUB

ern science have raised new questions concerning it. But Mr. Fiske shows that the supposed new questions are really old questions, and that modern science has done nothing to impair the standard arguments for immortality. A single quotation, correcting a widespread misconception concerning the uniformity of nature, is specially worthy of note:

"The maxim that Nature makes no leaps is far from true. Nature's habit is to make prodigious leaps, but only after long preparation. Slowly rises the water in the tank, inch by inch through many a weary hour, until at length it overflows and straightway vast systems of machinery are awakened into rumbling life. Slowly grows the eccentricity of the ellipse as you shift its position in the cone, and still the nature of the curve is not essentially varied, when suddenly, presto! one more little shift, and the finite ellipse becomes an infinite hyperbola mocking our feeble powers of conception as it speeds away on its everlasting career. Perhaps in our ignorance such analogies may help us to realize the possibility that steadily developing ephemeral conscious life may reach a critical point where it suddenly puts on immortality” (pp. 84–85).

CHRISTIAN ORDINANCES AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. Being the William Belden Noble Lectures for 1900. By Rev. W. H. FREMANTLE, D.D., Dean of Ripon; author of "The Influence of Commerce on Christianity," "The Gospel of the Secular Life, "Church Reform," etc. 12mo. Pp. xvi, 278. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1901. $1.50.

[ocr errors]

These lectures are variations on the theme which the author treated so effectively some ten years ago when he published that striking book, "The World as the Subject of Redemption." That theme is the universal reach of the Christian religion, as pertaining to the whole of life and forbidding us to regard anything as secular in the sense of being outside of religion. These who recall President Finney's fervid presentation of the all-embracing morality of religion may find here the same essential thought expressed in very different form. Only the ignorant and unsteadfast will wrest any of our author's expressions to make them secularize the sacred instead of hallowing the secular. Christianity will not have reached its goal until it has permeated with a new spirit not only business and politics, but also art and practical science and even amusements. Preaching and public worship and all the ordinances of the church are rightly judged by what they contribute to social progress. It is very refreshing to follow this dean of the Church of England through his vindication in the last lecture of freedom in church organization.

W.E.C.W.

THE SOCIAL PROBLEM: Life and Work. By J. A. HOBSON. Pp. x, 295. New York: James Pott & Co. 1901. $2.00, net.

As stated by Mr. Hobson, the Social Question resolves itself into the following problem: "Given a number of human beings, with a certain development of physical and mental faculties and of social institutions,

in command of given natural resources, how can they best utilize these powers for the attainment of the most complete satisfaction?" The answer is a distinctly socialistic one, and outlines a scheme of social reform which breaks completely with the individualism of orthodox English economics. In his earlier works, "The Evolution of Modern Capitalism," "John Ruskin, Social Reformer," and "The Economics of Distribution," Mr. Hobson had severely criticised the weaknesses of the modern system of production and the unfair character of the distribution of wealth, but in his latest volume he has shown himself so radical as almost to deserve the name of socialist.

In the first part of the book the author discusses the science of social progress, and pleads for a new and broader sociology. Before we can deal satisfactorily with the Social Question, we must recast our theory of social science. Political economy, as at present taught, neglects the essentially organic unity of society; so soon as it attempts to go behind the objective industrial phenomena and inquire into human motives and human welfare, it breaks down. As a "huckster science," it is fairly successful, but we cannot consider man merely as a commercial being; we must deal with him as a social, moral, ethical, human member of a complex society. We must face the question, too, which the economist shirks, as to what "ought" to be, as well as what "is." If, then, economics is to answer the Social Question, it must broaden its scope so as to include all the conscious activities of man.

More interesting than the theoretic discussion, however, is the second part of the book, which deals with the art of social progress. The rights of private property are shown to be narrowly limited by considerations of social utility; the utility of bequest or inheritance is denied; and a leisured class is held to be wholly undesirable. The extension of public ownership and enterprise is logically advocated, though the author stops short of complete land nationalization. In this connection he concludes, "The housing problem and the nationalization of railroads are the most urgent land reforms, because the monopoly of space is the most dangerous of all monopolies." But Mr. Hobson goes furthest in his attacks on the present methods of distribution of wealth, and his advocacy of distribution according to needs. Such a scheme involves thoroughgoing communism, and short of this Mr. Hobson will probably not stop.

What lends a charm and a value to all Mr. Hobson's writings is not so much the originality of the ideas, as the clear and forcible way of stating them, the freshness of his point of view, and his subtlety of analysis and criticism. There is nothing dangerous in the book, and it may even be recommended as an excellent presentation of "Humanitarian Socialism.”

E.L.B.

THE ANCIENT LOWLY: A History of the Ancient Working People. Vol. II. ORIGINS OF SOCIALISM. By C. OSBORNE WARD. Pp. 716. Washington: W. H. Lowdermilk & Co. 1901. $2.00.

No one can read Mr. Ward's book without a feeling of growing wonder, for it is a remarkable work. The author, who is connected with the United States Department of Labor, is of undoubted erudition, and has laboriously collected an enormous amount of scattered material bearing on the theme of the present volume. But it is so confused, so undigested, so unsifted, presented in such a turgid style and with such a fiercely partisan bias, that it would take the discriminating patience of an Egyptologist to weed out the fact from the fable. The bulky volume "centers down to prove that the thing we call 'our era' originated in and was no other than a vast working people's movement; and the outcasts themselves undertook, by a desperate effort, having for a short time for their teacher and exponent a workingman from among themselves and a carpenter by trade, to push and pry the socialism of the original family, as well as Solon's microcosm of the secret trade union, out of its occultism, up into the open world."

Without passing further judgment on the book, we will try to set forth its contents. The original idea of socialism was based on the family, ruled over by the father, and having a common table and common possessions. But the father turned aristocrat, converted the children to slaves, and filled the earth with an outcast class. Next, to remedy this and springing from it, came Solon's scheme. This was to enlarge the family microcosm into a brotherhood or trade-union, composed of all these laboring outcasts. These unions were organized on the basis of the family, with a common table, and with the votive franchise. For hundreds of years these unions flourished and extended to all parts of the world- to India, Africa, Great Britain. But with their growth came opposition; the aristocrats feared and determined to crush them. That gigantic scheme for the destruction of the poor, the Roman conquests, was deliberately planned, and resulted in the decimation of the human race. However, the principle of the trade-union could not be crushed out; they only became more secret. When Christianity appeared, its leader himself a laborer, it used the organization of the union to promulgate its teachings. "Go forth and preach the Word" really means "Go forth and preach the Work," that is, spread the gospel of socialism. The oppression of the early Christians was directed not so much against the religion as against the unions which professed it. However, the jealous and avaricious church" itself proved the worst enemy of the trade-union, which received its death blow in an edict of the Council of Laodicea, in A.D. 363, forbidding the members from enjoying their common table. "Out of its maggot-breeding cadaver a horrid demidæmon grew in shape of the mediæval guilds, fit mongrel of the feudal ages" (p. 200).

VOL. LIX. No. 233. 14

Comment is unnecessary. One can correct misstatement, but not perversion of history. Some interesting sidelights are thrown on various important historical events. That the insurrection of the gladiators under Spartacus should be viewed by the author as an organized strike does not surprise us, but it does seem a little forced to regard the Exodus of the Jews as another great strike, in which Aaron and Moses figured as (walking) delegates of the union. If these ideas appeal to our readers, they may find many similar suggestive views in Mr. Ward's book.

E.L.B.

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MUNICIPAL PROBLEMS AND CITY CONDITIONS. By ROBERT C. BROOKS. Second Edition. Pp. 346. New York: Reform Club.

1901.

Samuel Johnson once said, “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we inquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it." In this day of many books, knowledge of the second kind is particularly valuable, and it is this which Dr. Brooks's comprehensive bibliography affords us in its special field. The aim has been to give a list not merely of the best literature on municipal problems, but to make an exhaustive bibliography of all writings on the subject. It is an ambitious aim, but it seems to have been fully realized. Certainly no one who is interested in the conditions in our cities, political, social, or economic, can afford to be without this guide. It may be recommended, not only to political organizations, business men, and reformers, but to all students of these problems, and especially to ministers who wish to acquaint themselves with the literature in this field.

The present volume, published as the March number of Municipal Af fairs, is the second edition, and has grown to three times the size of the first. The compiler is instructor in Economics at Cornell University.

E.L.B.

A STUDY OF SOCIAL MORALITY. BY W. A. WATT, M.A., LL.B., D.Phil. Pp. xiii, 293. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901. $2.00, net. This is a remarkably suggestive book. "Ownership, considered in its largest sense, may be regarded as the means by which a man's personality is extended through the objects of the outer world" (p. 23). "Criminal punishment ordinarily acts as a public assertion on the part of the State against a man who is not wholly dissociated from his fellows" (p. 35). "Our morality must be toned with a great compassion, if it is to meet the needs of mankind" (p. 75). Speaking of the dealings of civilized nations with primitive peoples, "On the whole, it is peculiarly true in this relationship, that if we take care of our duties, our rights will take care of themselves " (p. 128). Family life must not be praised "at the expense of the wider moral life. It is rather educative than ul

timate" (p. 156). Speaking of the moral education of the young, he says: "We must supply their minds with something better than the memory-image of a stick. The fostering of moral habits; the danger of setting up as final a truth which is only relative, and will some day be found wanting; the value of historical examples of nobility of character and of similar examples from the humbler sphere of unrecorded life; the risks which beset effective punishment; the difficulty of communicating the necessary knowledge of evil without overstepping the limits of prudence; above all, the necessity of awakening interest in the good as well as respect for it, of rousing the intellect and imagination to play their part, these and many other points increasingly demand study" (p. 214). These quotations, taken at random, show the quality of the book. Its most frequent appeal is to "common sense" and to that which is “reasonable." While elaborating no system of ethical theory, it shows wide familiarity with the countless shades of interpretation which characterize the field of ethical literature, and gives a many-sided view of ethical questions. The reader who complains that he is still left without a positive answer to most of these questions will admit that he is furnished with many terse texts and comprehensive briefs relating to every province of morals. The whole effect is to broaden the meaning of the word "morality," and to emphasize caution in regard to extreme views, while not in the least weakening the force of moral sanctions.

W.E.C.W.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF LEIBNIZ. By BERTRAND RUSSELL, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Pp. xvii, 311. Cambridge: At the University Press.

In his Preface Mr. Russell draws a broad line of distinction between those treatments of past systems of thought which concern themselves primarily with the outward connections or relations of the systems and those which endeavor to enter into the inner life of the systems and to estimate their present value. This latter method Mr. Russell believes to be the only one which will turn the history of philosophy into a process of philosophizing, and will develop a critical inquiring spirit with reference to the great systems of the past. In his application of the critical method to the system of Leibniz, Mr. Russell has been exceedingly successful. He lays bare with no uncertain hand the strong and weak points of the statesman-philosopher's thought. The inconsistencies of Leibniz, due in most cases to what, speaking frankly, we must call a time-serving spirit, are carefully separated from those portions of his system which show the mind of a master. Had Leibniz been less careful of the praises of princes and of the good-will of ecclesiastical authorities, he would have been counted a smaller man in his own, and a larger one in our day. As matters stand, the critic must search below the too often rhetorical form of Leibniz's utterances, and in out-of-theway and hidden places, for the might of the master's thought. And that Leibniz was much more than an eclectic and mere adjuster, Mr.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »