The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-06
NEWS OF THE BOOK WORLD
a Psychologists Appreciation Of Herbert
SPencer-Plcture OF and a Poem by
Miss Peabody, Whose Poetry is At
tracing. Attention Just Now-vyhat
Morley Received for His "LIfe of
Gladstone

Appropriations of Herbert Spencer vie
with articles relating to William B. Yeats
1or hrst place in the magazines and lit
erary reviews Of the month, the former
because their subject is dead-the latter
because theirs has just arrived" at least
IN the modern way, in this country. OF
all the apprecia tions Of Spencer we have
seen, that by William James In The Critic
Tor January seems the most satisfactory
IL Is written In Professor James luminous
style which in itself is enough to at
tract readers, and it points out with keen
perception the value of sSpencer's work.
Says Professor James,: :
Long before any Of his contemporaries
had seized it's universal import. he grasped
a great. light-giving truth-the truth of
evolution So - Moreover, altho Spen-
GERS intellect is essentially of the deduc-
tive and priori order, starting from uni
versal abstract principles and thence pro-
ceeding down to facts, what strikes one
more than anything else in his writings
is the enormous number Of facts from
every conceivable quarter which he brings
to his support, and the unceasing study of
minutest particulars which he is able to
keep up
Yet continues Professor James, his
facts seem all to have been collected FOR
purpose. ':.Those. which help the pur
pose are never forgotten, those which are
alien to it have never caught his .eye.''
.Mr. Spencer's attitude toward religion,
again, is slightly paradoxical. Few men
have paid 1t more sincere, explicit respect;
and the part called The Unknowable' Of
his First Principles celebrates the; ulti-
mate mysteriousness Of things, and the
existence of a Supreme Reality behind
the veil, in terms whose emphatic char
acter it is hard elsewhere to match.
The mystery of things, instead of
being somnipresent,' is all neatly swept
together into one chapter, and then dis
missed with an affectionate goodby; while
all the particular mysteries which later
present themselves are quickly explained
away, life being but complicated mech
anism, and consciousness only physical
force TRANSFORMED ETC."
Speaking of the ''Data of Ethics" Pro-
fessor James says: ideals as manly. as
humane, as broadly inclusive, and as for
chilly expressed are always a force in the
worlds destinies. The, Data Of Ethics
will therefore long continue to be read"
Again he says Of First Principles" ;:
"Altho from strict point OF viewr1t Is
far more vulnerable than anything its au-
thor ever wrote, it is the work, by which
the Synthetic Philosophy will remain
best known to the reading world.
"This, however, is very likely as 1t
should be. A man like Spencer can afford
to be judged. not by his infalliblllty In
details, but by the bravery Of his attempt.
He sought to see truth as a whole He
brought us back to the old ideal Of phil
osophy, which since Locke's: time had
well-night taken f1ight-the ideal, namely,
of a completely unified knowledge
The other starred features of the
Critic for January are American Portrait
Painters" by Charles H. Caffin and San
ecdotes of Theodor Mommsen,' by Frank
Barley Copley. William B. Yeats is not
omitted, however, and ':The4 Lounger" has
much,very much that is interesting to say.
Singing Leaves" published by Hough-