not only of all the precritical (vorkritischen) ethical utterances of Kant that have been hitherto known, but of a fragment on moral philosophy from his Literary Remains, which has been published in the twenty-fourth volume of Rudolf Reicke's Altpreussiche Monatsschrift, and, also, of a manuscript collection of hitherto unpublished ethical reflections by Kant, in the possession of Professor Benno Erdmann, who placed it at Dr. Foerster's disposal. In this way the author has succeeded in reconstructing in its essential outlines the historical preparation for the moral system of Kant. For good reasons he puts the date of the important fragment of Reicke at about the year 1774, whilst Reicke assigned it to the eighties. Reicke's fragment entirely differs from the later system of strict duty, in proposing as the moral principle a form of eudemonism,viz., self-satisfaction; and as to method, it contradicts the principles, which Kant, in part in the "Critique of Pure Reason," and definitively in the "Critique of Practical Reason," indicated as alone applicable to investigations in moral philosophy. It must have originated not only before the elaboration of the doctrine of the Categorical Imperative, but also before the discovery of Transcendental Freedom. It represents the transitional stage from material to formal principles in the Kantian ethics. To the same transitional period (between 1770 and 1772), Dr. Foerster assigns Kant's Lectures on Metaphysics, published by Politz (placed by Emil Arnoldt after 1781), which contain some remarkable ethical reflections. And in this same period the author puts, also, some remarks of Kant from Erdmann's collection, which he uses. From these utterances of Kant, first given to the world in Dr. Foerster's treatise, I should like to quote this: "The feeling of life is increased in sensation, but I feel a greater life in voluntary movement, and I feel the greatest principle of life in Morality." (Das Gefühl des Lebens ist in der Empfindung grösser, aber ich fühle ein grösseres Leben in der willkürlichen Belebung, und ich fühle das grösste Principium des Lebens in der Moralität.) Kant's effort in this last precritical period was to win the highest approval for morality, which can be known independently of experience, and can be designated therefore as universally valid,-an approval, which, according to him, attaches itself to the good, since the latter brings freedom with it, and this signifies the highest ascent of life. But Kant was not able to maintain this stand-point long, and passed over to the self-legislation of the Pure Practical Reason. Dr. Foerster's treatise gives not only an excellent account of the precritical ethics of Kant, but it contains, also, well-considered judgments on Kant's ethical system. Quite correct is his remark, that the idea of the moral law as a means for freeing man from the dominion of sense, governs more or less the entire Kantian Ethics, and allows the social origin and the social mission of morality to retreat into the background, just as the doctrine of the salvation of the soul has done in many periods of Christian ethics. Among the factors that helped to form Kant's view of life, Dr. Foerster justly makes prominent the pietistical education which he received (something which, in my opinion, he might have still more emphasized), as well as the influence of Wolff, of Rousseau, and the English philosophers. Rousseau's influence was-as the author rightly maintains-far more powerful than that of the Englishmen. This excellent treatise will undoubtedly meet with the recognition among specialists which it deserves. UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. G. VON GIZYCKI. London: THE CHRISTIAN ETHIC. By William Knight, LL.D., Professor of This little book reproduces in a clear and pleasant style the current estimate of the contrast between Christian and Pagan Ethics. It seems true, as the author maintains, that there is no impossibility in ascertaining the general or fundamental features of Christian Morality. In an interesting section of the Prolegomena to Ethics, the late Professor Green furnished some aids to such an estimate, and to bring together the essence of this and other representations in a popular form would have been a task worth attempting. Professor Knight's work, however, is more direct, indeed, than such a study would have been, but is also less profound and less precise. In laying principal stress on the universal mission of Christianity as prescribed by its doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, I imagine that he is on safe ground. When he further proceeds to approve the common-place estimate, according to which individual immortality is a central Christian doctrine, and one of the most powerful of moral levers, we are in more debatable territory. The virtue of "self-sufficience"-though its alleged relation to a Greek virtue of autarkeia seems to cover something which would demand criticism in a fuller notice-and the virtue of humility may fairly be taken as distinctively Christian, and so to a great extent may the recognition of woman as man's equal, and the general regard for humanity. So long as we keep to generalities, indeed, we find little in the book that might not have its truth; but it seems difficult to imagine that a reader, who should need instruction of this kind, would not be seriously puzzled or misled by the more definite statements to which Professor Knight commits himself. Can it be true that before the introduction of Christianity the poor and the rich hardly ever met on equal terms? And is it not terrible, if true, that "Christianity has proved to the rich that the poor are as necessary to them to give them a sphere for work and well-doing, as the rich are needed by the poor to aid them in difficulty or distress?" The thought seems throughout, after this fashion, to play on the surface; and it would hardly be possible to regard the work as a thorough study of the question with which it deals, though its gentleness of tone and liberality of spirit make it pleasant reading. LONDON. BERNARD BOSanquet. THE LABOR MOVEMENT. By L. T. Hobhouse, M.A., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. With preface by R. B. Haldane, M.P. London: Fisher Unwin. Pp. xii., 98. It would not be too much to say that this is a book which no "Reformer's Library" should be without, and what is more, it is a book which no one who desires to take up an intelligent attitude towards the labor movement can afford to neglect. And this, after all, ought to mean every one; for at a time when "things are in the saddle, and ride mankind," no one can form an ideal of duty without some guidance on industrial questions. Mr. Hobhouse's brochure will add not only strength, but substance, to those who dream dreams, and it will rouse out of their "dogmatic slumber" those who are content to acquiesce in a world of commercial competition as the best of all possible worlds. I cannot hope to do more than indicate the general outline of Mr. Hobhouse's argument, which is as skilful and suggestive in execution as it is resolute and vigorous in conception. Mr. Hobhouse may be said to start from the direct antithesis to the point of view summed up in the declaration of Gambetta, that "there is no social movement, but only social movements." That would mean that trade unionism, co-operation, municipal and state socialism, are merely empirical and disconnected movements, seeking merely partial objects by partial methods, with no consciousness of being parts of a whole, of being "greater than they know." So long as this is so, their significance and range of action are proportionately lowered: their aims appear to be narrow and material, not only to those who judge them from the outside, but, what is much worse, to those who are directly engaged in them. A deeper understanding of them, apart from its importance to the intelligent citizen, will not only bring the movements themselves into a closer alliance, but raise them through fruitful interaction to a higher power. Such an understanding will be found in the organic idea which underlies them all, and this idea is nothing less than a new spirit and a new conception of industry," a feeling for the common good, a readiness to forego personal advantage for the general gain, a recognition of mutual dependence." But an idea cannot work without machinery, and the machinery by which "the new spirit can make its mark upon the economic world" is provided by trade unionism, co-operation, and state and municipal socialism. The primary requisite of any economic reform is, "that the means of livelihood should be shared by all [working?] members of society, and this in such a way that all should have a chance, not merely of living, but of making the best of themselves and their lives." This elementary requirement-the substructure of any sound economic system-is met by trade unionism. The significance of trade unions lies in the substitution of collective for individual bargaining, and, quite generally, in securing a standard remuneration and standard conditions of labor for the worker,. whether by the compulsion of the law or of the trade. The nearest policy of trade unionism is to extend and perfect itself upon its own lines and it would appear that it cannot discharge its elementary function in an industrial system without becoming ultimately coextensive with the whole body of wage-earners. Mr. Hobhouse finds "grounds of hope" in the "signs" of federation, national and international, and also in the increasing tendency of co-operative and public bodies to fix wages by a standard of life rather than by "the higgling of the market." But, however perfect their organization, there is a limit to the work of trade unions. They cannot control the fluctuations of industry, arising out of the precarious and wasteful adjustment of production to consumption under a régime of individual competition, and they cannot, therefore, provide against the problem of the unemployed. Now, demand and supply can be only "correlated" through the organization of production by consumers. Mr. Hobhouse, following closely upon the lines of Mrs. Webb's "Cooperative Movement," finds an adumbration of the solution of this problem in workmen's co-operative stores. And here, again, "consumptive co-operation" must endeavor by means of federation to become a national organization. But we must go further: there are many things which cannot be left to voluntary co-operation, things that all members of the community require, and in which there is not much room for variety or idiosyncrasy of taste. There is the appropriate sphere for the compulsory co-operation of the municipality, or of the state, according to the nature and extent of the commodity. Under such a system the whole body of consumers, formed into a co-operative group or groups, would supply its own wants, use the profits of production in relief of taxation or prosecution of public purposes, and control the remunerations and conditions of labor. But, however far this principle of the control of production by consumption may be carried (and Mr. Hobhouse would admit that it would be difficult to apply it to foreign trade), trade unions will be just as much needed to represent the interest of the body of producers. But the main function of the State is, after all, not so much to administer as to control: to be the supreme regulative authority over all that is most vital to society as a whole, balancing and harmonizing sectional interests, and exercising that kind of regulation which cannot be appropriately left to the control of any particular set of producers. There, then, are the main forms of "collective control at work," -trade unionism, co-operative consumption,-voluntary, municipal, and national,-and the state as "architectonic." But this is not all: the full remuneration of labor implies the diminution and final disappearance of a class living on the surplus produce of labor,-of the unemployed receivers of rent and interest. The existence of such a class and of such a body of wealth is plainly at variance with the idea of an industrial democracy, in which all are workers and wage-earners, and is equally incompatible with the essentials of a thoroughly economical system of production, which requires "that only good and useful commodities |