Page:Philosophical Review Volume 7.djvu/230

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THE PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW.
[Vol. VII.

ered successively. Their chief problems and conclusions are presented, supported, and clarified, largely by arguments in the writer's own language. It is highly probable that pupils will find their way to Kant much more easily in the first than in the second half of this exposition. A short conclusion intimates what becomes of Kant's agnosticism in the succeeding Critiques. The short list of original 'Texts' of Kant's works, 'Translations' and 'Aids' in English is, perhaps, less efficient than the glossary of a dozen or so technical terms and biographical notes which conclude the work.

Professor Wenley has written in a clear, concise way, which will appeal to pupils. The book is, however, a sketch to be read after the study of the Critique, or Watson's Selections, serving to bring Kant's problems and general results into an easily encompassed group. The chief value of the Outline is in adding the reënforcement of the printed page to the voice of the instructor—no small gain in itself. A number of misprints have escaped the proof-reader. The third sentence on page 75 should read affirmatively instead of negatively. Several dates affixed to names and books at the close are inaccurate.

Edward Franklin Buchner.

Religion et critique. Par L'Abbé de Broglie. Paris, Victor Lecoffre, 1896.—pp. ix, 360.

This is a posthumous collection of lectures on Christian apologetics, delivered chiefly at the Institut catholique de Paris during the eighties. The method is what the writer of the preface, the Abbé C. Piat, calls the historical, in distinction from the metaphysical. This means that the problems connected with the existence of God are postponed until after history and the comparative study of religion have had their say. The author first defines religion as belief in an invisible and superior world, distinct from the actual world, in which the object of human aspirations—the beautiful, the good, and ideal perfection—is realized. Next, the true religion, that is, the completely true one, is defined as a system of objective and real relations with the Creator of the universe, joined with doctrinal teaching whose truth is guaranteed by an authentic word of God, the authenticity of that word itself being guaranteed by transcendent historical proofs. The historical and comparative study of religion now comes in to show that the definition of the true religion is applicable to no religion but the Christian. The scholastic method here is characteristic; indeed, the author looks for and aims to promote a revival of scholastic philosophy. Advancing from the historical argument to the metaphysical, he opposes to the positivistic denial of the possibility of metaphysics the doctrine that the sciences themselves deal with causes and substances in the metaphysical sense of these terms. He does not prove this by analysing the structure of knowledge, however, but by frankly accepting the metaphysics of uninstructed common sense—that we directly observe real space, bodies, persons,