VII. NEW BOOKS. Talks to Teachers on Psychology : and to Students on some of Life's Ideals. By WILLIAM JAMES. New York : Henry Holt and Company, 1899. IN these talks Mr. James has deliberately set himself to eliminate so far as possible the formal side of psychology. He is careful to guard his readers from expecting too much from his science. He does not go the length of saying that the teacher is of necessity an empiric, but he makes it very clear that the whole value of psychological knowledge to the teacher lies in the power of applying general principles to this or that child at a given moment. To be a good teacher is to be a good practical psychologist : but the converse does not hold. Under these circum- stances we are not surprised to find nothing new in the psychology of the volume. Those familiar with Mr. James's writings know exactly what to expect, so far as the psychological ground-work is concerned. What gives the volume its value in addition to the brilliant style in which the author cannot help expressing himself is the insight it gives into the principles of applying psychology to life in general, and to teaching in particular. It is greatly to his credit that our author makes such restricted use of what he modestly calls the Lange-James theory of the relation between emotion and expression. Readers of his Prin- ciples cannot fail to be struck by the difference of his treatment of this subject in comparison with all the other subjects he handles. Else- where he is the outside critic sympathetic and interested no doubt, but still outside here he becomes, for the time being, a pleader. This being so, we cannot too much praise his self-restraint in limiting his use of this theory to a single chapter in a book in which it might have legitimately bulked very largely ; for few theories in psychology have anything like the importance that this theory may fairly claim in education. The theory itself has been already examined in these pages, and, while we cannot accept it, we are convinced that there is no intelligent teacher who does not wish he could. Further, while in the ultimate resort the theory must be held to be false, it is supported by so many arguments that as a practical hypothesis it is not without its value in guiding teachers. Few, we think, will be found to dispute the practical con- clusions arrived at in the chapter on " The Gospel of Relaxation ". The book is probably hardly dull enough to satisfy teachers on this side of the Atlantic, but they may rest assured that it is accurate so far as it goes, and that it goes a great deal farther than many much duller books. Psychology in tlie Schoolroom. By T. F. G. DEXTER and A. H. GAELICK. London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green & Co., 1898. Pp. viii., 413. There is in this book a good deal too much of the schoolroom especi- ally of the schoolroom during examination and a good deal too little
