MC gee] ANTHROPOLOGIC LITER A TURE 1 85
if not all of the more strikingly original features of the book may be reduced to these fundamental ideas. A literary feature of
the book is the definite terminology deemed necessary to express the comprehensive ideas set forth in its pages ; the terms are to some extent novel, though far less so than the ideas which they are made to convey ; and readers assimilating the fundamental ideas will probably have little difficulty in understanding the terms, though the more superficial reader will undoubtedly find the specific and definite ter- minology hard, even repellent. Yet few of the terms are new ; it seems to have been the method of the author rather to employ old terms with restricted meaning. It is an open question whether language is better enriched by coining new terms to fit new ideas, or by redefining old terms as ideas grow more definite ; certainly the author of Truth and Error has adopted the latter course ; certainly, too, the reader will find his task difficult unless he recognizes the exceptional definiteness of the terminology extending from the introductory chapter to the summary. The book-making is neat and simple, weakened by
a dedication and strengthened by a fair index to the difficultly indexi- ble contents.
W J McGee.
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