Man Considered Socially and Morally. By G. Sparkes, late Madras
Civil Service. (Longman.)—Mr. Sparkes has by no means misspent his leisure time in India. He gave up to divine philosophy the hours rescued from cutcherry, and has produced a useful little manual on moat subjects connected with man—his constitution and relations. It is a fault that these are not arranged in any order. One has to look in the summary of contents for a topic, and then one finds the results of careful reading put shortly and clearly. The author does not add much to what he has found in Aristotle, Plato, Locke, or Mill, but he has assimilated and reproduces lucidly and concisely the thought of these writers on such subjects as the sources of knowledge, the schools of philosophy, the formation of character, selfishness, and self-love. In more abstruse matters, as the origin of evil, and the existence of angels, his speculations are not very valuable, and he gets common- place towards the end on such topics as old age, death, and consolation in affliction, where he serves up our old friend Sulpicius's musings on the ruins of Corinth and the Peirasus. The little work will be found useful by those who are beginning or returning to these studies. The latter class will perhaps appreciate the classical quotations, which are rather numerous, and evidently dear to the author's heart.
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