6. A noted German metaphysician who has only recently died is Friedrich Paulsen (1846-1908), whose work, "An Introduction to Philosophy" (translated by Frank Thilly, New York: Henry Holt and Company. $2.50), is of the first importance to the general reader. This is not a book about philosophy, but it is philosophy. Paulsen works out his own system of thought from foundation to turret in the most thorough and finished manner. His thought and style are transparently lucid, and he is always understandable. He is as readable and interesting as William James, and for a German this is saying much. Paulsen is a thoroughgoing idealist, and if the general reader is limited to one book, this is the one for him to read. 7. Books by living authors are increasingly numerous, as metaphysics is reviving in popular interest and is now having its day. Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard University, is one of the foremost American metaphysicians, and his "The World and the Individual" (The Macmillan Company, two volumes. $4) is one of the most imposing metaphysical structures yet reared in this country. It is idealism carried to the very verge of pantheism, yet, he maintains, it escapes this pit. It is a strong piece of reasoning, subtle and eloquent. A more popular book is his" The Spirit of Modern Philosophy" (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company. $2.50), which treats many of the problems and applications of philosophy from the idealistic point of view. 8. Professor William James, the colleague of Pro fessor Royce in Harvard University, has set sail on the sea of metaphysics in "A Pluralistic Universe" (New York: Longmans, Green, and Company. $1.50), an immensely interesting book, as all his writings While Professor James differs at many points from Professor Royce, and generally disclaims idealism, yet he arrives at a view of ultimate reality that is idealistic. are. 9. Professor Borden P. Bowne, of Boston University, is a leading American philosophical thinker and teacher, and his books are marked by brilliant epigrams and flashes of wit. His "Metaphysics" (New York: Harper and Brothers. $1.75) is a formal statement of his views, and his "Personalism" (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company. $1.50) is a more popular presentation. He is a thorough idealist, and is one of its most illuminating and convincing advocates.1 10. Professor Alexander T. Ormond, of Princeton University, is a solid and sane thinker whose" Concepts of Philosophy" (New York: The Macmillan Company. $4) is a broad and strong working out of idealistic principles, reaching the conclusion that "consciousness is the great reality," "revealing in its activity the truth and significance of the inner nature of things." His "Basal Concepts of Philosophy" (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50) is a briefer book which aims to show that "a completely rational idea of being can be achieved only 1 Professor Bowne died, on April 1, 1910, as this book was passing through the press. II. A small book of much value is "The Religious Conception of the World," by Professor Arthur Kenyon Rogers, Professor of Philosophy in Butler College (New York: The Macmillan Company. $1.50), in which idealism is applied in concrete explanation of the world. 12. A "System of Metaphysics," by George Stuart Fullerton, Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University (New York: The Macmillan Company. $4), a book far from containing a complete "system," is an ¦ able presentation of the principles of dualism. 13. If the reader wishes to bite into a hard piece of metaphysics, let him try his intellectual teeth on "Appearance and Reality," by F. H. Bradley (London: Swan, Sonnenschein, and Company). In the First Book, on Appearance, the universe is resolved into a mass and mist of contradictions, which, in the Second Book, on Reality, the author endeavors, but with small success, to put together again. The work lands one in a Hegelian Absolute, which may be described as "An immense solitary specter it hath no shape, it hath no sound, it hath no time, it hath no place. It is, it will be, it is never more nor less, nor sad nor glad. It is nothing and the sands fall down in the hour glass, and the hands sweep around the dial, and men alone live and strive and hate and love and know it." It is a pessimistic book, but one feels that it contains profound thinking, and is repaid for reading it. i While these few representative books are only a small selection out of the vast literature of this subject, yet they will give the reader a general view of and a good grounding in the systems and principles of metaphysics. INDEX Absolute, the. See God. Archimedes, his pou sto by which to Art, as expression of feeling, 100, 148. Augustine, idealistic in theology, 297. Browning, Robert, quoted, 120, 245, 247, 252, 271, 275, 285, 286. Calkins, Mary Whiton, her "Persistent 225. Bastian, Dr. H. Charlton, on spontane- ity, 147-150. Berkeley, on the reality of the phe- Bible, the, saturated with idealism, Body, the, a unit in the stream of Bowne, Prof. Borden P., on personality Bradley, Francis H., his "Appearance and Reality," 309. ity, 254-256; as the Incarnation of Darwin, on design in nature, 144; his Dastre, A., on life on matter, 128. Browning, Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett, Death, idealistic interpretation of, |