19 JULY 1879, Page 23

Common Mimi Troubles, and The Secret of a Clear Head.

By J. Mortimer Granville. (Hardwick° and Bogne.)—These are two little books which deserve considerable praise. in both Dr. Granville gives his renders some shrewd advice, and informs thorn of valuable facts; but tlie philosophy which he incidentally devolopes in the second, we =list take leave to say, is detestable. "Man is so thoroughly selfish in his moral nature, that it is a purely groundless assumption to suppose that he ever really denies his dominant inclination." What, thou, of the struggles, often so agonisingly painful, between inclination and duty ? "After all," says our now teacher, to the man who has plucked out his right e3-o lest it should offend him, "you have done what was most pleasant to you." This seems to us mere playing with words, but it is a dangerous playing. " If cannot but choose what is the more pleasant, why all this Struggle ?" True, Dr, Granville would prefer " truo and worthy forms of gratification," So Epicurus held that virtue was the highest Pleasure, but for all that, the outcome of his philosophy was the `Rpicuri tie grego porous." Can we expect anything better from the teachings of a philosopher who speaks of the "cant of self- sacrifice ? "