Development and Purpose: an Essay towards a Philosophy of Evolution.
By L. T. Hobhouse. (Macmillan and Co. lOs. net.)— We have space only to record the appearance of this interesting work. Professor Hobhouse takes the whole universe for his theme. Proceeding along the two distinct lines of empirical observation and philosophical reasoning, he is led to the sane optimistic con- ception of "the world-process as a development of organic harmony through the extension of Mind operating under mechanical con- ditions which it comes by degrees to master." Life, he is brought to believe, is "full of hopeful purpose"; Man can justly recognize in the nature of the universe "something that meets his hopes and answers to his aspirations," and "can make himself a religion without self-deceit." Such are Professor Hobhouse's conclusions ; the arguments by which he reaches them deserve to be carefully studied.
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