5 JULY 1890, Page 35

Insignia Vita. By C. H. Waterhouse, M.D. (I. S. Virtue.)—

In these "Five Essays on Life and Character," Dr. Waterhouse touches on many important subjects. The moral order of the world, and its reference to the Theistic argument; hence the more recondite phenomena of personality, as divided consciousness, hypnotism, and phantasms ; the functions of conscience ; the phenomena of heredity; and finally, the relation of the sexes,—are among his themes. He is always reasonable, sometimes, perhaps, a little trite, and is, we venture to think, least successful where he should be most interesting, in his last essay.