NEW BOOKS. 123 Tlw Principles of Sociology. Bv HERBERT SPENCER. Vol. iii. London : Williams & Norgate, 1896. Pp. 635. We gladly join in the congratulations which Mr. Spencer has received from all quarters on the occasion of his completing the great task to which he has dedicated so large a portion of his life. In the preface to the present volume he tells us that it is six and thirty years since he commenced his system of Synthetic Philosophy. During that period no less than ten volumes have proceeded from his pen, and the present volume brings the series of works which represent his philosophical system to a close. In so far as he has succeeded amid many interrup- tions from ill-health in writing ten volumes, he has fulfilled his original purpose. But he tells us that he has not devoted these ten volumes to the subjects which he had at first in view. The first two volumes of The Principles of Sociology have expanded into three, and the third, which if written would now be the fourth, remains unwritten. This unwritten volume was to have treated of " Progress : Linguistic, Intellectual, Moral, ^Esthetic ". But Mr. Spencer says that the task of writing a satisfactory volume on such complex topics is beyond the powers of an invalid of seventy -six. It is interesting to hear what Mr. Spencer has to say of his feelings now that his work is done. " On looking back over the six and thirty years which have passed since the Synthetic Philosophy was com- menced, I am surprised at my audacity in undertaking it, and still more surprised at its completion. How insane my project must have seemed to onlookers may be judged from the fact that before the first chapter of the first volume was finished one of my nervous breakdowns obliged me to desist. But imprudent courses do not always fail. Sometimes a for- lorn hope is justified by the event. Though along with other deterrents many relapses, now lasting for weeks, now for months, and once for years, often made rne despair of reaching the end, yet at length the end is reached. Doubtless in earlier days some exultation would have resulted ; but as age creeps on feelings weaken, and now my chief pleasure is in my emancipation. Still there is satisfaction in the con- sciousness that losses, discouragements, and shattered health have not prevented me from fulfilling the purpose of my life." The present volume is devoted to an examination of the origin and development of Ecclesiastical Institutions, Professional Institutions, In- dustrial Institutions. The division on Ecclesiastical Institutions appeared more than ten years ago, the division on Professional Institutions ap- peared in the shape of review articles. The only portion of the book which is new are the chapters on Industrial Institutions. Detailed notice will follow. Schopenhauer's System in its Philosophical Significance. By WILLIAM CALD- WELL, M.A., D.Sc. London : Blackwood & Sons, 1896. Pp. x., 538. This book, fuller notice of which is deferred for want of space, is the expanded adaptation of the author's Shaw Fellowship lectures delivered in 1893, and incorporates besides the substance of other lectures and of articles contributed to this journal. Holding that Schopenhauer and von Hartmann represent one-half of the philosophy of to-day, Professor Caldwell here presents us, not, according to his original intention, with a study of pessimism as represented by them, but with a study from a wider standpoint of the former thinker, reserving his say on the latter.
