428 NEW BOOKS. reminds one throughout of Hteckel's P< rifieneais of Placidities, and often of the Leibnitzian system. The book is slight and facile in manner ; the author does not seem to be altogether aware of the present difficulties of his subject or of the past contributions to it. Geschichte der Logosidee in der Grit-chischen Philosophic. Von AXATHOX AALL. Leipzig, 1896. London : "Williams & Norgate. Pp. xix., 251. This work traverses the same ground as Heiiize's treatise on ; Die Lehre vom Logos,' published in 1872. It is an attempt to trace the rise and development of the doctrine of the Logos from Heraclitus to the Neo- Platonists. The author deserves the thanks of theological as well as philosophical students for so careful and elaborate a piece of work on a subject of so much interest and importance in the history of human thought. We shall best obtain a clear idea of the development of the Logos- doctrine if we cite a sentence or two from the author's introduction. " Ihre eigenthiimliche Gestalt gewinnt die Idee nur von dem Augenblick an, da sie sich jedenfalls von dem transcendenteii Gottesbegriff emanxi- piert. . . . Ihre Existenz verdankt die Idee vom Logos nicht dem Bediirfniss Gott, sondern dem Bediirfniss, die Welt zu eikldren. . . . Thatsachlich ist durch sie das Gottliche, wie sonst nirgends, der "Welt der Menschen und der Welt der Natur nahegebracht. :; l The gradual emancipation of the idea of Logos from the idea of the Supreme God, between whom and the world the Logos is a mediator, is the theme of the book. In developing his plan, the author begins with a short account of the theological doctrine of Thales and the Eleatics. Although the substan- tive doctrine of the Xo'yor is foreign to their teaching, they nevertheless make room for Reason among the attributes of the First Cause. As a separate and distinct conception, however, it is to Heraclitus that the doctrine is due ; and Aall accordingly devotes a considerable section of his book to an account of that philosopher. If we understand him rightly, Aall refuses to allow that Heraclitus' Xtiyoj is organically con- nected with what (in common with many other writers) he regards as the fundamental tenet of his philosophical system that the O-TOI^F iov of all things is Fire. He complains not, we think, without reason of the tendency of critics to equate Xoyoy with -niip, tyvr}- and ava&vtuturts, and gives strong reasons for believing that the idea of avaQvplams in Hera- clitus is a later accretion due to the Stoics. Aall himself explains Hera- clitus' Xoyoy as follows : It is, on the one hand, Reason regarded as the universal TrapaSeiy/^a for the human spirit. Our duty is to follow its guidance ; when we desert it, we do so in consequence of moral anarchy within us. The same reason manifests itself, on the other hand, in the external world, which is created in its image. It is therefore a universal cosmic principle: at once "die intellektuelle Basis der Welt wie der Wahrheit zuverlassigstes und klarstes Ideal".- Although we cannot assign to it personality, yet its affinities with the Christian doctrine are sufficiently close to have induced Justin Martyr to claim Heraclitus among the Christians before Christ/' 1 P. xix. 2 P. 55.
- ! Aall cites in this connexion the following remarkable passage from
Justin : KOI ot pfra oyov (should we not read Xdyov?) &ia>rravrs pirr- riavoi fieri, icav a&toi tvofl4<r&f)tray, nlov eVEXX/ycri SwKpHTi;? Kai 'HpUKXetTo? KOI ol ofjinini avro'is. No doubt Heraclitus' doctrine of the Xoyoj had some- thing to do with the estimate formed of him by early Christian authors.
