Outlines of Lectures on the History of Philosophy. By J.
J. Elmendorf.
(New York, Putnam.)—This is a student's manual or syllabus of philo- sophy. It takes for granted that he is attending lectures in philosophy,
and its object is to present him with a comprehensive view of the various phases through which philosophy has passed. Perhaps the most
useful part of the book is the information which it briefly gives as to the precise periods when the great thinkers of the world lived. This, for purposes of reference, is convenient. We confess we are at a loss to imagine what special class of students would be materially helped by this manual. Advanced students would hardly require it, and beginners could make but little of it. A philosopher's system can hardly be con- densed into a few sentences in such a way as to give a student much real light. Philosophy can only be made intelligible when its growths and de- velopments are historically traced in connection with some particular age and period. The technical phrases with which this volume bristles would be quite enough to repel an ordinary reader who wanted to get some insight into the thoughts and ideas of the founders of the principal systems of philosophy. The author will say, perhaps, that it is not meant for such. Possibly it may bit made to serve as a cram-book for the students of Racine College, in which, it seems, the author is a professor- It has struck us that a good deal of it might be put into simpler and less metaphysical language. The author seems to us to have attempted what it was quite impossible for him to do satisfactorily within the limits of 300 pages. Ho could do but little but give us, as he has done, the dry bones of philosophy, and even these are not always very clearly exhibited.
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