It is not necessary to indicate the important ethical writers omitted in the work, as any moderately informed person can supply them himself. It is very amusing to see Darwin discussed and Sidgwick only mentioned to say that he belongs to the theological school, or to find so much attention bestowed upon Secretan whom nobody here in France even seems to know, and Paulsen, Jodl, Wundt, and Ziegler not named in the work. But if we examine the nature of the discussion we very easily discover why this is. The author has a morbid antipathy to every proposition which anybody might happen to use for theological purposes. He cannot keep a balanced judgment whenever he comes across such a proposition, and when he can find no other objection to some opinion which he does not like, he simply says that it is a modified form of some hated theological doctrine which he has demolished or proceeds to demolish. Not that we ourselves would go into a defense of all theological theories of Ethics, for a great many of them are exposed to just and severe criticism. But it is not necessary to go into convulsions whenever we see a word or proposition which might be construed in favor of a theological dogma. Chivalry and moral self-control might have saved the author from making himself ridiculous.

The same spirit characterizes his criticism of Kant. Indeed, the examination of Kant did not properly come within the limits of his subject; but he deliberately goes out of his way and consumes more than one fourth of his work in one of the most ignorant assaults upon Kant we have ever read. The author evidently does not understand a single position of the Kantian Ethics, or if he does he deliberately misrepresents them for the pleasure of attacking them. He never allows himself to make an admission that might recognize the least sanity or truth in Kant, a rather remarkable fact when we look at the influence of that philosopher on the history of thought. Not that a critic must agree with Kant, for every one knows there are weaknesses in his system. But the influence he has actually had upon human thought, whether his system be true or false, demands that he be both understood and intelligently criticised. Neither of these conditions is fulfilled by our author. On the contrary, the manner and spirit with which he attacks every single principle in Kant reminds one of Cato in his animosity against Carthage. The author could hardly be more absurd if he had terminated every paragraph, like Cato, with delenda est. But what is the secret of all this hostility? The answer to this question, as well as the clue to the author's whole temper of mind, is shown in a sentence at the beginning of his criticism against Kant, where he formulates Kant's motive in producing his philosophy in the following way: "I must abolish science in order to make a place for faith." The summary more distinctly indicates the author's conception of Kantianism and the purpose of attacking it. Here he states six characteristics which are regarded as the essence of the system. They are: that "the categorical imperative is a return to the ancient spiritualism"; that "the system maintains the theological spirit in morals"; that it is "semi-mystical"; that it is only "formalism"; that it shows "no connection between the noumenal and the phenomenal world"; and that it is a system of "dogmatism." Such a characterization of Kant has only to be mentioned to be laughed at. Kant a dogmatist! Kant aiming to "abolish science in order to make a place for faith"! Every tyro in philosophy knows that Kant annihilated dogmatism" as a method, and that his first as well as distinctly de

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clared motive was to determine a basis for science which Hume had practically destroyed. But these facts are stated to show the very limited intelligence of Kant's self-styled critic. Why, the author proceeds in a spirit that would make the reader think he had gotten angry because he could not understand Kant and had resolved to refute him on that account.

We have spoken of the author thus severely because of several facts. The first is that he has gone entirely out of his way to discuss Kant, and shows a spirit in it that is not only far from moral, but is also a proof that there was more of spleen than love of truth in his motives. This is a hard charge to make against an author; but it can be very well sustained in this case. The second fact, and it is a remarkable one showing a great defect in the work, is that in the discussion of every system undertaken by the author there is no historical statement whatever of the man's views to be examined, such as Guyan gives and would give. Fouillée begins almost anywhere with some statement of an author, and proceeds to discuss it out of its proper relations in the system. He makes no effort to put himself en rapport for the time with the systems he is to criticise, but, on the contrary, has either the simplicity or the audacity to imagine that their language must have the meaning which he has been accustomed to give them in his own experience or philosophy. This is a vice of too many critics, and is the source of most of the world's misunderstandings. The third and most important fact is that the author does not assume or present a single principle throughout his work by which to criticise the ethical theories of others. He simply hunts about for statements with which to quarrel, and does not seem to aim at presenting any truth as his result, except the conviction that the object of his attack is no philosopher. The consequence is that he often falls into contradictions growing out of the want of a principle of criticism. Not a moral axiom or principle is announced in the book, or at least any such as would be recognized by any philosopher from Plato to the present. The author has a fundamental principle, which is that Ethics are based upon Metaphysics, and that the principle influencing the will is an "idee-force." But in no place does he define "Metaphysics," a thing very much needed on his part because he excludes "theological" Ethics and the systems of Hegel and Schopenhauer from the sphere of "Metaphysics." This is, however, very probably one of his caprices for which there is no accounting. Again, his "idee-force " is not an ethical principle at all. It is nothing more than a scientific principle of explanation, a ratio fiendi, not a ratio essendi, of phenomena in the moral world. But he even makes no use of this principle, and contents himself with assaulting everything he approaches without impressing us that he has any moral motives in doing so. The most remarkable fact is that the author seems to be utterly devoid of all appreciation for the sentiment of duty. If he admits the term into Ethics at all it is only after having divested it of all meaning by his criticism of its functions in the systems of others. These faults of the author are all the more remarkable for the reason that he professes to be an idealist, and is recognized in his own country as exceptionally idealistic for a Frenchman. We read the work with the hope of being instructed by it, and are sorry to say that it will have no other use for us but as an object which will give us very good texts for strong criticism. J. H. Hyslop.

American Statesmen. - JOHN JAY. By GEORGE PELLEW. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 1890. pp. vi, 374. $1.25. It would have been well if this life had been prefaced by Dr. Francis L. Hawks's noble essay on John Jay. The author seems to have allowed the modesty of relationship to restrain somewhat the freedom of his style. It is plain and accurate, however, and is fortunate in having for its subject one for whom it is not necessary to stop to make apologies.

Jay, next to Washington and Hamilton, kept us anchored to our proper English antecedents, when everything else conspired to whirl us off into the current of the French madness. Washington was of the purest English blood; Jay had not a drop of English or British blood in his veins, and was all the more effective for that, in view of his diplomatic connections. His French and his Dutch descent combined to leave him an agreeable and sociable man, but thoroughly cool-headed. Firm in his religious belief, and only a century removed from the persecutions which had driven his Huguenot ancestry to America, he was repelled from any excess of friendship for France alike as a Protestant and as a Christian. 66 Piety, independence, and a keen sense of justice were natural birthrights in the Jay family; to these several generations of successful business men had added the more worldly virtues of prudence and perseverance, while from his father John Jay seems to have inherited a firmness of character which, in excess, would have been obstinacy, and a strength of feeling seldom suspected because united with unusual selfcontrol." This combination did excellent service at home, but its central effectiveness, unquestionably, was displayed in Paris. Franklin alone could never have made head against the wiles of the French Duessa, who was bent on flattering us into a peace that would have left us a weakly cohering string of feeble states along the seaboard. We should hardly have held together, and in any event we should have had no future of national grandeur. It was the wish of France that we should have just strength enough, by timidly clinging to her skirts, to save ourselves from being reappropriated by England. And she came pretty near compassing her end. There have been few more eventful displays of critical good sense than when Jay cut the coils of Vergennes by suddenly dispatching the Englishman Vaughan to London, to impress upon the minds of the ministry "that, as every idea of conquest had become absurd, nothing remained for England but to make friends with those whom she could not subdue; and that the way to do this was by liberally yielding every point in the negotiation essential to the interest and happiness of America." Then at last our independence was achieved. The cordial and loyal adhesion of Franklin to this policy of resoluteness completed the good work.

Mr. Pellew gives a full and very amusing description of the infinite vexations and irksomeness of Jay's three years as minister to Spain. It is the comedy of the book, although poor Jay found it anything but comical. France was crafty and agreeable; Spain was craftier and odious. She was living in the dregs of the inquisition and in the dregs of her colonial tyranny. She hated us as heretics, and feared us as the future masters of the Mississippi and the Gulf. We certainly had some very queer allies, to whom it seems decidedly supererogatory to pay any extensive toll of gratitude.

The manner in which Jay subsequently sacrificed his popularity and VOL. XIV. - NO. 83.

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the prospects of the Presidency, by negotiating the treaty with England, against the incredible madness of the people, is simply sublime. But his twenty-eight years of retirement, though saddened by the early loss of his wife after retiring, were easily borne. He was eminently

"A soul whose master bias leans

To home-felt pleasures and to gentle scenes."

Jay's six years as Governor of New York needed a cool head and a firm mind, and found them. New York politics do not seem to have been any less then than now one infinite complication of intrigue. His moral nerve was shown best, where moral nerve is most required, against the unrighteous wishes of his friends. The choice of Jefferson or Adams hung on the vote of New York. It lay within the will of Jay to secure a law that would have given the New York electors to his side. Hamilton urged it, Schuyler urged it. "The Federalists," says Mr. Pellew, "had created a nation out of a confederation, and in the spirit of latterday Republicans who felt that they had saved the country from dismemberment, they were convinced that on their continuance in power depended the conservation and prosperity of the State. A party which tacitly or openly holds such a belief will naturally justify any measure to secure itself in power by the final appeal to national self-preservation; but such a party, in control of the government, is a menace to popular liberty, and in any healthy state of public opinion is doomed to swift defeat, and perhaps, as happened in this case, to extinction. Jay, though as 'stalwart' a Federalist as any, nevertheless did not believe that a good end ever justified bad means; and he contented himself with simply indorsing on Hamilton's letter the significant words: Proposing a measure for party purposes which I think it would not become me to adopt.'

John Jay, like his son William, was a loyal Low Church Episcopalian. If he were living now we know well whether or not he would stand by the side of the present diocesan of New York in his warnings against that great conspiracy of capitalists and bummers, which is endeavoring to prostitute mighty memories to its own schemes of wholesale plunder.

Jay was not a genius like Franklin or Hamilton, nor was his life filled with picturesque incident, like various other founders, but his central services in France and England almost obscure various titles to greatness any one of which would have filled out a handsome ambition. He helped to coerce the beginnings of the Revolution in New York into the paths of decent self-restraint; he wrote many of those grave and weighty papers which astonished Europe at the wisdom of the new colonial Senate; he helped guide New York when she was wavering between loyalism and patriotism; he helped mainly to create the constitution which served New York for two generations; he was for a while the man of highest rank in the country as President of Congress; he was for five years foreign Secretary; he was a writer in the "Federalist; and, more than all, he was the first Chief Justice of the United States. A life without stain, and ending" in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope." We note two slips of the pen on page 83, "Rhode Island" for "Long Island," and on page 257, "Philadelphia," we suppose for "Newburg." Charles C. Starbuck.

ANDOVER.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, Boston and Chicago. Current Discussions in Theology. By the Professors in Chicago Theological Seminary. Vol. vii. Pp. 410. 1890. $1.50. The Story of a Heathen and his Transformation. By H. L. Reade, with illustrations. Pp. 82. 60 cts. Ginn & Company, Boston. Sir Philip Sidney. The Defense of Poesy. Otherwise known as an Apology for Poetry. Edited with Introduction and Notes by Albert S. Cook, Professor of the English Language and Literature in Yale University. Pp. xlv, 143. 1890. 90 cts. Reference Handbook for Readers, Students and Teachers of English History. By E. H. Gurney. Pp. 114. 1890. 85 cts.

Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. Aztec Land. By Maturin M. Ballou. Pp. x, 355. 1890. $1.50; Civil Government in the United States considered with some reference to its Origins. By John Fiske. Pp. xxx, 360. 1890. $1.00. Aids to Scripture Study. By Frederic Gardiner, late Professor in the Berkeley Divinity School; author of "The Old and New Testaments in their Mutual Relations"; of Commentaries on Leviticus, on 2 Samuel, and on Ezekiel, etc., etc. Pp. xii, 284. 1890. $1.25.- Economic and Social History of New England. 1620-1789. By William B. Weeden. In Two Volumes. Vol. 1. Pp. xvi. Vol. 2. Pp. xiv, 964. 1890. $4.50,

set.

Occult Publishing Co., Boston. The Finding of the Gnosis, or Apotheosis of an Ideal. An Interior-Life Drama, wherein is brought to Light the inmost Secret of all Veritable Religion, the Mystery of the Divine Self. Authorized Version. Pp. 74. 1890. 50 cts.

A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York. The Expositors' Bible. The Gospel according to St. Luke. By the Rev. Henry Burton, M. A. Pp. vii, 415. $1.50. For sale by De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston. The Expositors' Bible. The Gospel of St. Matthew. By John Monro Gibson, M. A., D. D., London, author of "The Ages before Moses," "The Mosaic Era," etc. Pp. viii, 450. $1.50. For sale by De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston. The Expositors' Bible. The Book of Exodus. By the Very Rev. G. A. Chadwick, D. D., Dean of Armagh, author of "Christ Bearing Witness to Himself,' "As He that Serveth," The Gospel of St. Mark," etc. Pp. xx, 422. $1.50. For sale by De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston. Jesus of Nazareth. I. His Personal Character. II. His Ethical Teachings. III. His Supernatural Works. Three Lectures before the Y. M. C. A. of Johns Hopkins University, in Levering Hall. John A. Broadus, D. D., LL. D., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Pp. 105. 1890. 75 cts. For sale by De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Boston.

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The Century Company, New York. Laudes Domini. A Selection of Spiritual Songs, Ancient and Modern. Edited by Charles S. Robinson, D. D., LL. D. Pp. 520. Abridged Edition. Laudes Domini. A Selection of Spiritual Songs, Ancient and Modern. Edited by Charles S. Robinson, D. D., LL. D. Pp. 261. Laudes Domini. A Selection of Spiritual Songs, Ancient and Modern. For use in the Prayer-Meeting. Edited by Charles S. Robinson, D. D., LL. D. Pp. 244. Laudes Domini. A Selection of Spiritual Songs, Ancient and Modern, for the Sunday-school. Edited by Charles S. Robinson, D. D., LL. D.. Burning Questions of The Life that Now Is, and of That which is to Come. By Washington Gladden. 12mo. Pp. 248. 1890. $1.50.

The Christian Literature Company, New York, Oxford, and London. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Second Series. Translated into English, with Prolegomena and Explanatory Notes, under the Editorial Supervision of Philip Schaff, D. D., LL. D., and Henry Wace, D. D. Vol. I. Eusebius: The Church History of Eusebius. Translated, with Prolegomena and Notes, by the Rev. Arthur C. McGiffert, Ph. D.,