18 MAY 1901, Page 24

The Human Nature Club. By Edward Thorndike, Ph.D. (Longmans and

Co. 6s.)—Dr. Thorndike, who is a lecturer on "Genetic Philosophy" in an American University, has put this "Introduction to the Study of Mental Life" into dialogue form, and has done this with marked success. The subjects which his dramatis personse discuss are presented in a very lively and effective way. Of habit, heredity, the results, conscious or un- conscious, of past experiences, and such matters this is not the occasion to treat, but we may say that the reader will find a lucid exposition of them, defended from more or less varying points of view, in these pages. The illustrations from life which are introduced into the discussion are often very effective.