-in a Greece long since dead, or a Denmark that never was-if it but express Life as experience, looking back on its own course, finds it essentially to be, it is shrined with earth's undying treasures.

It may be contended that too slight a part has here been assigned to the play of emotion, in both the creation and appreciation of beauty; and, as against this, too prominent a function to thought and its expression. Rather is the contrary true; for there can be no Beauty without respondent emotion; even grief and tragedy must be beautiful ere they can be fit subject matter for poetry. That which makes Poetry is the translation of the World, of Life, of Reality, into Beauty. That which makes great Poetry is deep and profound Reality—or what is the same thing for our finite and limited minds-profound Thought, radiant in perfect Beauty.

Current Thought

"THE MEANING OF MEANING"

Mind for October, 1920, contains a most interesting discussion of the Meaning of Meaning, by F. C. S. Schiller, Bertrand Russell and H. H. Joachim. For those who enjoy the intellectual parry and thrust it furnishes high diversion. To the personalistic spectator a high point of interest is the affirmation by both Schiller and Russell of the personalistic conception of knowledge though Russell claims for his view of personality a different content than that given by Schiller.

A NEW THEORY OF DREAMS

In the light of present discussion and interest in psycho-analysis Eugenio Rignano's New Theory of Sleep and Dreams (Mind, July, 1920) will seem to many to be far more sane and reasonable than the Freudian theories.

MORE LETTERS BY HENRY ADAMS

To those who have acquired special interest in the work of Henry Adams, the publication by the Yale Review (October) of two new sets of letters will be an event of no small significance. These letters pertain especially to the period of his researches in Mediaeval French literature.

THE FALLACY OF THE UNIVERSAL

Many readers of Mr. Hoare's essay on The Conditions of an Effective Idealism in the Hibbert Journal for July will be reminded of the manner in which the former students of Bowne were warned against the fallacy of the universal. Mr. Hoare shows the fundamental weakness of ethical abstractions such as world-love, pacificism, and the like.

ROMANTICISM IN THEOLOGY

An article of unusual interest and timeliness by Herbert L. Stuart appears in the Harvard Theological Review for October under the title, Theology and Romanticism. Romanticism in literature and in government is so close to the religious movements we have been wont to praise that we have often overlooked the connection between them. This is here shown with great clearness.

THE PRESENT STANDPOINT OF IDEALISM

Those who prize a summing up of the present situation in philosophy with some prophecies and foregleams of the future will not want to miss the article Modern Idealism by Dr. Edgar Sheffield Brightman, in the Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods for September 23d. He concludes: "If we look ahead in the light of the recent history of thought, we may venture the opinion that the outlook for idealism, and for personalism in particular, is by no means unfavorable."

The same Journal of August 12th contains a Criticism of Croce's Logic by J. E. Turner who writes on What is Poetry? in this number of THE PERSONALIST.

PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE

Andrè Lalande contributes to the September number of the Philosophical Review a most careful and judicious summary of the philosophical situation in France in 1919.

BANISHMENT OF MIND AND SOUL

Perhaps these words are severe but to our way of thinking a materialism which makes mind and soul but functions of physical activities does thus effectively remove all values important to life and progress. It is worth while however to read R. W. Sellers' Evolutionary Naturalism and the Mind-Body Problem, in the Monist for October. It will show a popular modern standpoint and also the absurdities to which this type of thinking can go in its effort to trace all effects to material causes. Thus with a certain sang froid not to say blindness the matter of human freedom and moral responsibility are chosen as quite dispensable if one can only retain the superstition of words which he calls "modern" and "scientific." If one is to be materialistically scientific he must not balk at the price.

THE CASE OF PROFESSOR CRAWFORD

The Weekly Review proves itself more and more indispensable to all those who would keep abreast of the times. We turn aside to notice Dr. Jastrow's suggestions of the part which credulity plays in the most modern of so-called researches in psychic phenomena. He discusses the experience and the volume of Professor Crawford on "The Reality of Psychic Phenomena," showing the looseness of some claims to scientific accuracy and the deep-seated desire to be deceived. It will be found in The Weekly Review of November 3d.

Book Reviews

PUBLIC OPINION AND THEOLOGY (Earl Lectures of the Pacific School of Religion). By Bishop Francis John McConnell. The Abingdon Press, N. Y., 1920. Pp. 259.

One would expect clearness in any statement which came from Bishop McConnell, and this book is no exception to his well-earned reputation of being able to handle profound subjects in a lucid way. He shows the bearing which the growth of ethical feeling has upon a receivable theology. The historian in theology is made very conscious of this relationship. Our idea of God is inevitably tinged by what we consider most praiseworthy in the character of man. An age when men think in terms of human cruelty will emphasize the sterner aspects of the divine character to the exclusion of the gentler ones. With a rising humanitarianism man demands a God who shall not be less loving than the best men that he knows. This human factor in theology forms the theme of these lectures. They are so clear-cut, so commanding and so satisfying in their statements that we are tempted to quote at very great length.

Of the divine responsibility the author writes:

"The inescapable requisite is that in working out our theories of God we represent him in terms of moral responsibility. . . . If we must have a merely arbitrary divinity, then let us recognize at the outset that any man holding power and using it under a consciousness of moral responsibility is superior to an arbitrary God." Of freedom, he says:

"The usual definition of freedom has turned round the idea that the individual is free as long as his liberty does not interfere with the liberty of some one else. Just as the definition of liberty as freedom from external constraint has been found inadequate, so we must point out the inadequacy of the definition of freedom as the liberty to develop oneself within the limit set by the good of others. Underneath this definition is the old implication of individuals as set in almost artificial separateness one from another, the individual being a unit on his own account who presumably could continue to exist if there were no other individuals in existence besides himself. The conception of freedom has to be so

modified as to make the interrelations of men a positive power in bringing the individuals to their own largest development."

Of revelation he says:

"If it is true that the mind is an active agent in knowledge, we repeat that knowledge can come only as the mind stirs itself to understand. This elementary notion in itself does away at one stroke with all claim upon the divine source of truth for a mechanically dictated revelation. .

"Incarnation itself implies a progressive adjustment of spirit to things as they are-living spirit acting and reacting against the earthly environment in which it finds itself."

"There are still revelations of God to come through the Church to mankind-revelations awaiting the creation of an organ great enough to seize them."

But buy the book for yourself. It teems with rich and suggestive matter.

A BOOK ABOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE. By JOSIAH H. PENNIMAN, Ph. D., L.L.D., Vice-Provost and Professor of English Literature in the University of Pennsylvania. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1919. Pp. IX & 444.

The books about the English Bible which bring a fresh and vivid treatment in such form as to be of popular value are unusual and this is one of the unusual books. It will prove highly valuable as an introduction to the study of the literary values of the Bible and is given in so concise a form as to make its contents easily available to all readers.

THE RIDDLE OF PERSONALITY. By J. ADDINGTON BRUCE. The Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York and London. ($1.50.)

There can be no doubt that in the past thirty years or more, especially since the publication of F. W. H. Myers' notable book, "Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death," the field of psychology has been enlarged. The Cambridge savant gave a new term to philosophy, the "Subliminal Self"; by which is covered "all that takes place beneath the ordinary margin of consciousness." He conceived that "no Self of which we can here have cognizance is in reality more than a fragment of a larger Selfrevealed in a fashion at once shifting and limited through an organ