In the first chapter, "Jural Aspects of Ancient Ethics," is shown how the Greeks gradually differentiated the word "norms" from the rest, and in the Stoic system reached the conception of a moral "law of nature." The second chapter shows the tendencies towards juralism in Christian ethics. The jural aspect of mediæval ethics is indicated by a study of the place which the idea of law held in the moral philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Chapter three presents the typical form which the concept of moral law has assumed in modern thought as exemplified in the systems of Hobbes, Locke, Paley, and Kant. The fourth and last chapter aims to establish a clear distinction between the jural and the physical senses of the term "law" as used in ethics. A bibliography is appended.
The rise and growth of modern methods of instruction, of educational systems and organizations, are depicted in this work of Professor Williams in a clear and judicious manner. After tracing in broad outlines the preliminary stages of modern education, the author turns his attention to the beginnings of education in the Renaissance, follows its course through the succeeding centuries, and ends with a portrayal of the educational characteristics of the present age. The material offering itself to the student in this connection is, of course, abundant and complex, and no more can be done in a work of small compass than to select representative facts and personages. Where so much is given to choose from, it is no easy task to hit upon the essentials. Professor Williams has succeeded in meeting this difficulty in a very satisfactory manner. He takes up the matter by centuries, treats of the characteristics of education in these respective periods, then explains the various educational opinions and systems prevalent in the times under consideration, and notices their prominent teachers and reformers. The references to early American efforts in this line, to the founding of colleges and the enactment of the first school laws in the United States, will also interest the student. With a careful discussion of the relative disciplinary value of studies, in which the writer reveals the opposing tendencies of our own age, the book closes.
The work attempts to exhibit the content of the leading modern systems of philosophical thought with considerable fulness, and without presuming too much upon the reader's familiarity with the subject or thrusting upon him, directly or indirectly, any preconceived theory of the history of philosophy in general. The most recent systems have in it received fuller notice than in former histories, while some earlier systems, entirely ignored in other histories, have received the attention which they deserve. Only so much biographical and bibliographical information is offered as suffices to show the proper identity of authors and of their works, and the natural connection of
