The Morality of Nations. By Hugh Tayler. (Kegan Paul, Trench,
and Co.)—Mr. Tayler is not fax wrong in assuming, as he does in his preface, that an inquiry into the course of Nature, if conducted with care and industry, is generally valuable and always interesting. With regard to the volume before us, we cannot say that we have discovered much that is valuable, as throwing new light on vexed questions ; but to those who are interested in the study of sociology, it will no doubt afford plenty of interest. Mr. Tayler has a chapter on the difference between national and individual morality, but he seems to leave it much where it was before. Why should not the same code exist for nations that exists for individuals ? This is a question which puzzles many people, and among them Mr. Tayler. On the whole, however, he seems to arrive at the satisfactory conclusion that the standard of national morality is progressing upwards, if, indeed, somewhat slowly. In one place we find him congratulating himself that the reign of physical strength has departed. "It retains now," he says, " only the lingering spell of a lost supre- macy." To a certain extent this may be true, but not quite so true as Mr. Tayler may think. Might—we mean physical might—has still a good deal to say on most subjects. Whether it ought to have, is quite another matter.
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