OMNISCIENCE BY INSTALMENTS.*
THE new issues of these three well-known cheap " libraries " fully maintain the standard of the earlier volumes. A vast field is covered (from the natural history of the flea to experi- mental aesthetics), and the task is executed by competent hands. Not the least interesting of the volumes concerned are the two which deal with the second of the two subjects mentioned— The Beautifisl,by "Vernon Lee," in the" Cambridge Manuals," and The Experimental Psychology of Beauty, by Mr. C. W.
• (1) Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature. Vols. 'LlOr.1..I.XXX. Cambtidge : at the University Press. [Cloth. la net; leather, 2s. 62. net, mob.) --(2) The Home University Library. Vols.LXICVL.LEME. London: Williams and Notgate. [Cloth, Is. net; leather, Its. 62. net, each.]—(3) The People's .13.41. 12 vole. London T. C. and E:C. Jack. Led. net ench.1 - , .
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Valentine, in " The People's Books." The authors of these approach their subject from quite different points of view, the lady who calls herself "Vernon Los" from the theoretical, and Mr. Valentine from the experimental. "Vernon Leo's" method is scarcely at all inferential; her object is to explain. To her "beautiful" means satisfactory for contemplation, i.e., for reiterated perception, and the process which makes con- templation pleasurable is that to which, since the work of Lippe and Titchener, psychologists have attached the name of "empathy." By " contemplation " must be understood con- templation of two-dimensional shapes, for it is, according to our authoress, only in connexion with these that " empathy " (the unconscious projection of self into the characteristics of the aspect contemplated) can take place. It must not be supposed, however, that the creation of empathy is the deliberate object of the artist any more than its enjoyment is the conscious aim of the spectator. It is rather the unrealized condition under which the artist works. This "Vernon Lee" states clearly enough. None the less, she is in danger of attributing too independent and absolute a value to "empathy." Surely this two-dimensional design, to which empathy owes its existence, is always in fact subservient to some other pur- pose—not only in the mind of the artist, but also in actual aesthetic result. What this other purpose will be must depend in each case on the personality of the artist and the fashion of his age. This "Vernon Lee" would apparently deny, but in order to deny it she is compelled to assume as an axiom that the artist who shows most imagination and power in accom- plishing these secondary purposes will also be the most efficient in the sphere of two-dimensional design. Mr. Valentine's attack proceeds on very different lines. He has no theory to prove. Indeed, his experiments might perhaps be more fruit- ful if lie had approached them with a more comprehensive grasp of the theoretical side of his subject. He does, however, show clearly enough the great number of different elements which enter into the aesthetic pleasure we derive from a picture. For him empathy is only one among many elements, and some of his experiments, such, for instance, as that illustrat- ing the very irregular and jerky course followed by the eye in tracing an easy and agreeable curve, seem to indicate that, on the physiological side at least, the importance of this particular element may easily be overrated. In other respects his con- clusions often support "Vernon Lee's." Both recognize, as one of the chief elements of aesthetic pleasure, the realization of successful mental activity, the excitation and satisfaction of attention; but Mr. Valentine takes us further into the investigation of the effects of colour, association, and other matters into which we have no space to follow him.
By way of relief from these very difficult speculations, we may turn to Mr. H. Russell's admirable little treatise on The Flea (" Cambridge Manuals "). It is only in recent years that the ilea has, owing to its agency as a transmitter of plague, become the subject of wide and systematic scientific study. This agency seems now to be definitely established, and the pages in which Mr. Russell describes the discovery are among the most inter- esting in a book which abounds in interesting matter. Thus we learn that monkeys have no fleas, except (as Mr. Russell shrewdly remarks) those which they may catch in captivity from the human beings who crowd round their cages. Hooved animals, too, are almost equally fortunate, and it is curious to learn that the human inhabitants of the Hansa countries and the oases of the Sahara share the same exemption. Very inter- esting, also, is the discovery of one solitary fossil flea in perfect preservation, and hardly differing in construction from the flea of to-day (it belongs to a genus found on moles and shrews). These are but a few of the points of interest of Mr. Russell's fascinating littlb book, and it may be added that he has succeeded in the exoeedingly difficult task of treating his subject clearly, simply, and without jocularity. With Mr. Russell's treatise it is natural to compare Professor G. H. Carpenter's Life Story of Insects in the same series. This is, of course, on much more general lines, but it covers a very wide and enthralling subject with clearness and accuracy. Professor Carpenter shows that (in spite of the conflicting views of earlier naturalists) the remark- able processes of insect development, such as that from egg, through caterpillar and chrysalis, to winged fly, with which we are all familiar, are merely special cases of growth, the characteristics of the final inatar being in many cases -traceable in each of the others.- He sees, too, iv. these instanaaa '
of apparent discontinuity additional evidence of the possibility of similar revolutions in the agelong process of evolution, which men of science were wont to regard as uniformly gradual. Two other interesting books of the "Cambridge Manuals" are those on The Peoples of India, by Mr. J. D. Anderson, teacher of Bengali at the University, and The Evolution of Japan, by Mr. J. H. Longford, lately Consul at Nagasaki and now Professor of Japanese at King's College. Mr. Anderson has an exceedingly perplexing and complicated subject, and, on the whole, his treatment is successful. His book inevitably follows to a large extent the now standard work of Mr. E. A. Gait and Sir H. H. Risley, while his examination of the language question is based chiefly on Sir G. A. Grierson's well-known treatise. It was unfortunate that the book could not be kept back for the Census Report (1911), but it is none the less remarkably fall and compre- hensive. Mr. Longford has not such difficulties to contend with, and his short history of the evolution of new Japan is an admirable piece of work. He writes (as does Mr. Anderson) from personal experience, and his book is exceedingly candid, without in any way depreciating the wonderful achievement of the Japanese race during the past sixty years. In particular one is glad to see his full appreciation of the career of Sir Harry Parkes, whose services to the growth of Japan and to the spread of British influence 'in the Far East have, in spite of the existence of a full-dress biography, never perhaps been quite sufficiently recognised.
The volumes which deal with literature are, on the whole, less interesting than those already mentioned. Professor C. E Herforcl's Goethe and Mr. S. L. Bensusan's Coleridge, though sober and accurate, are neither of them quite so good as Mr. Waterlow's excellent Shelley, recently issued among the "People's Books." Professor Herford is too much absorbed in the task of exposition for the benefit of the unlearned English reader, while Mr. Bensusan goes to the other extreme and almost entirely sacrifices exposition to biographical detail. Mr. H. N. Brailsford, however, in his volume on Shelley, Godwin, anti their Cii.cle (" Home University Library ") makes areal contribution to our knowledge of the origins of Shelley's poetry, although he obviously goes too far when he says that it would be as hard to understand Shelley without the aid of Godwin as to appreciate the genius of Milton without a know- ledge of the English Bible. None the less, his chapters on Tom Paine, Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft are admirably sympathetic, and, making allowance for a slight excess of enthusiasm, just. The "Home University Library" contains also a valuable and very opportune treatise by Mr. Aneurin Williams, M.P., on Copartnership and Profit-Sharing, and another on The Ocean, in which the late Sir John Murray embodies conclusions drawn from his unequalled experience in the "Challenger Office." Mention may also be made of Mr. J. H. Hill's very impartial Spiritualism (" People's Books"), which contains much interesting matter, some drawn from the writer's own experience and not before made public.
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