Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/620

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6 1 o Reviews of Books first time. The new material is partly of philosophical, partly of his- torical interest. The most important part of the book for the student of philosophy is what the editor has called the Regimen, for which Shaftes- bury's own name was Askemata (exercises). This occupies 272 pages, and consists of a series of reflections and monitions modeled largely in both form and contents on the writings of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Some passages lay more emphasis upon the functions of reason and will in the moral life than we find in the Characteristics, where the stress falls upon feeling as the most important factor. Whether such passages mark an earlier stage in Shaftesbury's philosophy, or are rather an indi- cation that he pitched the note of his own striving in a more strenuous key than that of his essays for the public, can not be determined from the text, as the editor has not preserved the chronological order of the original, but has ordered the contents under topics. The historical interest of the volume lies in the letters to prominent men, written for the most part between 1700 and 171 2. These show Shaftesbury the earnest supporter of the Whig cause, the promoter of a better understanding between England and Holland in the struggle against Louis, the faithful friend of the French Protestants, the statesman to whose vision it seemed possible to carry "the point of liberty and balance further than first intended or thought of, so as to bring not Europe only but Asia and in a manner the whole world under one com- munity ; or at least to such a correspondence and intercourse of good offices and mutual succor as to render it a more humane world than it was ever known. ' ' The private letters show a sincere generous character, worthy of the man who gave a new and distinctly upward turn to the ethical and social theories of the eighteenth century. James H. Tufts. Logs of the Great Sea-Fights, 1794-1805, edited by T. Sturges Jackson, Rear-Admiral. Vol. II. (London, Navy Records Society, PP- 343)- The plan of Admiral Jackson's second volume is precisely like that of the first, which we reviewed last year (V. 793). That vol- ume embraced the battles of the First of June, St. Vincent and Camper- down. The present is devoted to the Battle of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. In each fight the record is made almost complete, for there are logs or official journals for nearly every vessel engaged, even including in the case of the last two combats (it will be remembered that at the Nile there were no secondary vessels), the logs of frigates and sloops and bomb-vessels and fire-ships, which often, from their position, external to the main conflict, are able to afford an interesting contribu- tion of fact. As largely as possible, and especially in the case of Tra- falgar, the record presented in the logs is supplemented by letters written within a few days after the fights by the commanders or lieutenants of ships. Captain Hood's letter from Aboukir, that of Captain Miller, already printed by Nicolas, and that of Rear-Admiral Graves from