REVIEWS OF BOOKS.
This volume will make as admirable a text-book for beginners in Ethics as the author's Handbook of Psychology has already approved itself for beginners in Psychology. Professor Murray has the rare capacity for writing good elementary text-books. He knows thoroughly the subjects on which he writes; he is luminous and orderly in his expositions; his style is attractive, and at times it almost glows with literary feeling; and his sense of proportion is so faultless that as a rule he says just what beginners ought to know and leaves unsaid what would only confuse them. It is a high compliment to the earlier manual that students have been known to re-read it for holiday entertainment solely; and the present volume seems to maintain the same high level.
The work is composed of two books. The first book (pp. 9-138), after a glimpse at Man Natural, discusses Man Moral, treating the Moral Consciousness, in three chapters, as Cognition, as Emotion, and as Volition. The second book (pp. 139-407), which is devoted to Ethics Proper, — for the first book gives the Psychological Basis of Ethics, — falls into three parts. The first part (pp. 141-240) examines the Supreme Laws of Duty, under the heads of Epicurean and Stoical Theories, especial attention being given to the Utilitarianism of Mill, though the author himself accepts the Kantian principle, of which a short account is given. The second part (pp. 241-346) is devoted to a classification and description of moral obligations. These are (1) the personal duties of bodily, intellectual, and moral culture, and (2) the social duties of Justice and Benevolence (the latter is very briefly discussed). The third part (pp. 347-407) treats of Virtue, — as an intellectual, an emotional, and a volitional habit.
In the first book the two chapters on the Cognitive and the Volitional Moral Consciousness are of the greatest interest. The former leaves nothing to be desired, either in matter or manner. It is a history of the growth of moral cognition, an analysis and speculative interpretation of it, and a criticism of the empirical theory to which
