Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/115

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REVIEWS 99

allow interest to droop until he closes his second volume with the opin- ion of socialist doctrines in the French parliament : "One may indeed read them for instruction in manners, but it is vain to apply them to establish any doctrine."

The work has been so advertised that many will be disappointed by their first reference to the table of contents. It does not, and does not profess to, undertake for France all that Bryce has done for the United States. It may well be compared with that portion of Bryce which treats of the American constitution. The author's own state- ment is : "The capital subject of these volumes is 'Political France after a Century of Revolution.' " An introductory chapter of sixty-two pages presents social and industrial France in bird's-eye view. This ground has been more fully, if not so philosophically, covered in the two series of essays of Miss Betham-Edwards : " France of Today" (1892 and 1894). No book has done for English readers what Mr. Bodley has accomplished in the succeeding chapters. His main topics are: Book I, "The Revolution and Modern France;" Book II, "The Constitution and the Chief of the State;" Book III, "The Parlia- mentary System ;" Book IV, " Political Parties." A. W. S.

The Social Mind and Education. By George Edgar Vincent, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the University of Chi- cago. New York : The Macmillan Co., 1897. Pp. ix+152. Si. 25.

This book is a clear and firm presentation of educational doctrine under the conception of the social mind. It shows how the individual " writ large " in social progress finds the aim and method of his devel- opment in that progress. " The thought of social philosophy which sees in the development of society the growth of a vast psychic organ- ism, to which individuals are intrinsically related, in which alone they find self-realization, is of the highest significance for the teacher, to whom it suggests both aim and method." The whole exposition rises out of, and has its validity in, the intrinsic relation of the individual to the social whole. The book is, therefore, a contribution to educa- tional philosophy from the standpoint of social philosophy.

There are three distinct points of value in the treatment : one of method and two of result. Teachers are not accustomed to approach educational problems from the sociological point of view; yet such