NEW BOOKS. 625
morality ; those that are contrary to morality ; those that morality approves because it finds in them auxiliaries ". The character that conduces to success in the struggle for existence, and the character that conforms to the higher moral ideal, are in many respects different. Which character, then, shall parents and teachers strive to produce ? This question, it is suggested, may be ultimately insoluble without the assumption of a supernatural order ; but in practice it is partially resolved by the observation that the power of conquering the inclinations, of putting forth energy by ail effort of " free-will," is common to both characters. This power, therefore, is to be especially cultivated. The habit of obedience is favourable to the development of energy of will ; but authority must not be all-embracing or too minute, and the space within which the free-will of the scholar can exercise itself should be gradually extended with advancing age. Science et Psychologic. Nouvelles (Euvres inedites de MAIXE DE BIRAN. Publiees avec une Introduction par ALEXIS BERTRAND, Professeur de Philosophic a la Faculte des Lettres de Lyon. Paris : E. Leroux, 1887. Pp. xxxiv., 352. All those who are of opinion that French thinking never reached a higher level than in Maine de Biran will welcome this important addition to the list of his published works. It consists of six pieces under the following titles : (1) Rapports de I' Ideologic et des Mathematiques, pp. 1-22 ; <2) Observations sur le fysteme de Gall, pp. 23-71 ; (3) Commentaire sur les Meditations de Descartes, pp. 73-125 ; (4) Rapports des Sciences Naturelles avec la Psychologic, pp. 127-288 ; (5) Notes sur I' Abbe' de Lignac, pp. 289- 317; (6) Notes 'sur V Ideologic de M. de Tracy, pp. 319-50. The first is from the period when Maine de Biran still belonged to the ideological .school ; the others, falling within 1808-15, were written in his second period of independent philosophical thought before he passed into the mystic vein of his last years. It was the Commentary on Descartes, which Prof. Bertrand, the editor, wished to study, that first made him apply to JVI. E. Naville of Geneva, the possessor of Maine de Biran's MSS. M. Naville, who issued a full account of these in 1851, and who himself pub- lished in 1859 the three volumes that so effectively supplemented Cousin's four from the year 1834 (ten years after the philosophers death), gave willing access to the whole mass of the unpublished writings, and it is not without the help of his experience and constant guidance that the present .selection has been made. It comes forth as vol. ii. of the "Library of the Faculty of Letters of Lyons," a series of independent volumes now substi- tuted for an earlier yearly publication of papers in history, literature and philosophy. Still more important than the Commentary on the Meditations (i., ii., iv.), though that is of great value both intrinsically and for the understanding of Maine de Biran's own development towards his latest phase of thought, is the fourth piece dealing with the relation of Psychology to the Natural Sciences. It is a mere fragment, but has not less interest now than when it was written as a plea for the independent scientific character of pure psychology, and it contains a scientific doctrine of reason and belief that is missed in the Essai sur les fondements de la Psychologic, the most finished work of Maine de Biran's pen (issued by M. Naville in 1859). Its relation to the Essai is very hard to determine. The conclusion to which M. Naville lias finally come is that it dates from 1813, after the Essai was practically completed, but, remaining itself incomplete, was passed over when, after a time of political distraction, the Essai was taken up again and finally disposed of towards 1815. M. Bertrand had intended to include in the volume the correspondence of Maine de Biran with Oabanis, Ampere, Destutt de Tracy and others, but this has had to be kept back for the present.