What is History ? By Karl Lamprecht, LL.D. Translated from
the German by E. A. Andrews. (Macmillan and Co. 5s. net.)— These "Lectures on the Modern Science of History" are as tough a morsel as we have had experience of. The science of history we should have been disposed to define, or, perhaps we should say, describe, by such terms as an absolutely dispassionate treatment, the absence of all prejudices, the careful weighing of the tendencies of the age, and the judicial appreciation of evidence, the treating of history, in short, as if it were a statical or dynamical problem. Dr. Lamprecht goes quite a different way to work. He puts together a number of philosophical or quasi- philosophical terms, the " sono-psychic," the "individual psychic," "autonomous reactions," "high tides of stimuli "—what a strange metaphor !—and we know not what else. There is a meaning, we doubt not, in his words, but it is very hard to get at. Perhaps others may be able to learn more from the book than it has been our lot to compass.
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