12 APRIL 1890, Page 23

An Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy. By F. Howard Collins.

(Williams and Norgate.)—The object of this volume, says the author, "is to give in a condensed form the general principles of Mr. Herbert Spencer's philosophy, as far as possible in his original words." And he goes on to explain that each section has been reduced to one-tenth. Mr. Spencer himself furnishes an intro- duction, in which he says that though he has "been prevented by ill-health from reading through "—and we mean no disrespect when we say that philosophy in this highly concentrated form requires no little vigour in the reader—he has found whatever portions he has examined to have been "very well done."