REVIEWS 68 s
the ends of conduct, are the persistent endeavors of John Ruskin's teaching. His hope and his appeal as reformer of society is to those misdirected or ill- directed forces of character which have made us so successful as individuals and as nations in the grosser forms of activity, and which, well economized for nobler purposes, might secure for us a "greatness" measurable neither in miles ot territory, millions of population, nor in volume of commerce, but in "the multiplication of human life at its highest standard."
This book will serve as a guide to the writings of Mr. Ruskin which should not only be invaluable to all students of his books, but should lead to a wider reading and appreciation of his work as a whole. It is a piece of work which probably only Mr. Hobson was prepared to do, and seems almost beyond criticism.
Charles Zueblin.
Imtinct and Reason: An Essay concerning the Relation of Instinct to Reason, with some Special Study of the Nature of Religion. By Henry Rutgers Marshall, M.A. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1898. Pp. vii + 574. S3. 50.
This is a large book on an old question, and one is prepared to find an important contribution to psychology in it, or to be somewhat annoyed. It turns out, however, that the volume is not primarily on the relation of instinct to reason, but is a biological plea for religion. Religion is regarded as a part of the machinery of natural selection, and the race has survived because through systems of religion checks have been established on individual conduct to the advantage of the group to which the individual belongs. Three classes of instincts are considered in some detail : (i) those of service to the individual ; (2) those of service to the race, that is, relating to the reproduction of the race; and (3) those of service to the group. Religion, it is claimed, is an instinct, and an instinct of service to the group, its function being the regulation of group conduct. Mr. Marshall makes the very inter- esting claim, also, that, generally speaking, instinct is a safer guide than reason, reason being the variant principle, and instinct the beaten path. The standpoint naturally throws great stress upon the idea of duty, and the subordination of the individual. "Under my view, what is here called the suppression of our will to a higher will may be expressed in psychological terms as the restraint of individualistic impulses to racial ones ; that such restraint has effect upon the moral character being, of course, granted" (p. 329). ". . . . The function
