of human beings stand helpless. The swift defense which social groups have ever exercised against the malignor is not theirs to wield. They cannot edit the things said about them as can other races and people. But it is possible for the most discredited of their race to gain now and then by singular accident and the exigencies of the book market, respectful hearing and wide advertisement. One discouraging cause of this, is the more or less unconscious Wish for the Worst in regard to the Negro, to satisfy the logic of his anomalous situation. If the Negro will kindly go to the devil and make haste about it, then the American conscience can justify three centuries of shameful history; and hence the subdued enthusiasm which greets a sensational article or book that proves all Negroes worthless.

All men know that the American Negro is ignorant and poor, with criminal and immoral tendencies. And some of us know why. Nevertheless the Negroes are not as ignorant as the Russians, nor as poor as the Irish, nor as criminal as the English and French workingmen, nor sexually as incontinent as the Italians. If there is hope for Europe there is abundant hope for the Negro. And if there is hope, then in the name of decency let the American people refuse to use their best agencies for publicity in distributing exaggerations and misrepresentations such as "The American Negro." W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS.

Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga.

FACT AND FABLE IN PSYCHOLOGY.*

The optimistic scientist is wont to regard Occultism as a kind of feeble intellectual parasite, unfit to cope with the strenuous conditions of modern life and consequently doomed to speedy extinction. To the dispassionate observer, however, certain contemporary tendencies suggest in the surviving species of the occult a tenacity of life, which threatens a serious postponement of the scientific millenium. One certainly cannot view such psychic epidemics, as the spread of Spiritualism during the years 1848-50, and the wave of Christian Science and Faith Healing in the present decade, without discerning that for large portions of even the educated public, to say nothing of the intellectually submerged tenth, both the spirit and the letter of exact science are closed.

*FACT AND FABLE IN PSYCHOLOGY. By Joseph Jastrow. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

books. It is, therefore, a matter of no small importance to clear up the precise nature of the quarrel which science has with these movements, and to locate, if possible, the boundary line between knowledge and superstition, between science and mysticism. Professor Jastrow's "Fact and Fable in Psychology," which furnishes our text, is an admirable brief for the scientific side of this case.

The general charge which science brings against Occultism, is that of ignorant contempt for the majesty of natural law. The cruder forms of Occultism, exemplified by some of the ebullitions of theosophists, are chiefly notable as evidences of colossal insensibility to fact. They have no more bearing on the real development of intelligence than have the delusional theories of the insane. The real controversy is with a much more masterful adversary.

There is a considerable group of highly cultivated men, among them some conspicuous scientists, for whom scientific orthodoxy is tested not more by assent to the finality of such laws as science has already formulated, than by the maintenance of a catholic and open-minded attitude toward fresh knowledge, however revolutionary, in whose light the older principles may be newly interpreted. These men are the bitter enemies of intolerant dogmatism, whether it pose as science or as religion, and they insist that science is nowadays guilty of intolerable bigotry in its refusal to countenance well-attested facts, simply because they are seemingly irreconcilable with accepted physical principles.

Clearly the outcome of this protestant reactionary attitude of mind will depend altogether on the sobriety with which it is employed. Such a position may lead simply to an enlargement of knowledge concerning the interrelations of different forces in the universe. But it is only a step to a totally different consequence, in the shape of a practical abandonment of belief in the inviolability of demonstrated uniformities in nature. Undoubtedly the rain descends upon the just and the unjust without regard to ethical decency, and no one's faith is thereby disturbed. But if spirits can lift tables and hold them suspended in the air, in spite of the operation of gravity, then knowledge is at an end, the whole fabric of science deliquesces into a mere logomachy, human conduct degenerates into a gambling upon chance, and man himself becomes the plaything of every eddy that may happen to roil the waters of his ignorance.

No amount of juggling with the ancient theological device for explaining the miraculous will, the scientist insists, do away with this dilemma. If, in such a case as that of our illustration, one speaks of the operation of a higher law, which somehow transcends temporarily the law of gravity, one of two things is meant either some force other than gravity, say magnetism, has momentarily obscured the apparent operation of gravity - and this is wholly conformable to the strictest conception of immutability in natural law, or gravity is or gravity is not an invariable principle displayed in the relations of masses to one another. The latter alternative, if true, annihilates science.

Naturally the advocates of liberalism in this controversy would resent the name Occultism as applied to them. They are nothing, if not defenders of the idea of law. They contend, however, for the whole law, and protest against identifying with this whole the trivial segment which physical science, with its mechanical conceptions, has thus far succeeded in deciphering. But in actual practice much of their procedure becomes indistinguishable from that of the genuine occultist, because they are ready to recognize causes unknown to science (e. g., telepathy) in explanation of phenomena which scientists regard as partially spurious, and in the remaining instances as entirely explicable upon the basis of accepted principles. In almost every instance the real controversy will be found to reduce itself to the question of whether the operations of physical forces are ever modified or suspended by non-physical agencies. This issue is raised in connection with spiritualism, mesmerism, Christian Science, necromancy, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. Did the liberalists mean by their agencies (as, for instance, telepathy) simply some hitherto unidentified physical process, such as the Roentgen ray, the present dispute would never have arisen. Unfortunately, so far as concerns the preservation of the peace, this is not the case with most of them. To compromise with this mood is, the scientist maintains, to barter the birthright of one's rationality for the pottage of lunacy.

Probably no one in America has done more than Professor Jastrow to disarm the common forms of Occultism of their more pernicious consequences. He has made himself widely known as a lucid and vigorous essayist, whose forceful expositions of the conservative scientific attitude on such subjects as we have been discussing have won him a well-merited repute.

In his present volume he has gathered together eleven of his previously published papers, submitting them to a careful revision, which in one or two instances amounts to a re-writing. The articulation of the several members of the series is much more successful than commonly occurs in books made up in this fashion.

An admirable essay on the Modern Occult, canvassing theosophy, Christian Science, etc., stands first in the series and sounds the keynote of the whole book. This is followed by a somewhat drastic criticism of the Society for Psychical Research, and a depreciatory estimate of the results and future possibilities of such work. Mr. Jastrow gives the devil his due in acknowledging the accumulation by this organization of much valuable psychological material, but the balance sheet still shows, in his opinion, a heavy deficit by reason of the damage done by the Society to the psychologist's scientific reputation. An examination of mental telegraphy, issuing in a conclusion of its probably fictitious character, is fittingly followed by a description of the psychology of deception, as illustrated by the conjurer and the ordinary medium. An essay upon involuntary muscular movements, including a discussion of muscle-reading, is closely connected in subject matter with the last mentioned papers, although given a later position in the volume. Spiritualism and hypnotism each receive scholarly treatment, partly historical and partly analytical. An entertaining paper on mental prepossession is in many ways intimately connected with the second of these topics. The dreams of the blind are ably discussed, although the subject seems a trifle aside from the main stream of the essays. Probably the least important of the chapters is upon the mind's eye, under which title the familiarities of the psychological texts upon perception and illusion are briefly set forth. An extremely able paper upon argument from analogy furnishes in a sense the logical fulcrum of the whole volume and completes the list of essays.

Taken in its entirety, Mr. Jastrow's argument consists in showing how strange and baffling phenomena, for whose explanation supernatural causes have been invoked, have one after another been reduced to cases of intelligible and often familiar occurrences distorted by mal-observation and defective reasoning. It is of course impossible in any brief résumé to convey a just impression of the cumulative force of an argument of this type,

when applied successively to the several groups of phenomena which have afforded occasion for the majority of supernaturalistic hypotheses. Suffice it to say, the achievement is thoroughly skilful, and Mr. Jastrow's book may be safely prescribed in large doses for all cases of incipient occultism. The moral, as well as the intellectual, advantages of scientific conservatism are made abundantly evident. But to the end, temperamental rather than purely logical considerations will doubtless determine the attitude toward these problems of many presumably intelligent persons. There are, moreover, profounder forms of mysticism than any of these with which Mr. Jastrow has chosen to deal. They contain, however, no serious menace to science, and their omission is accordingly justifiable. JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL.

CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY.* In no line of historical writing has there been such marked advancement in recent years as in "state" histories. Formerly the term meant a series of reminiscences of early comers in which tradition, anecdote, and a thousand trifling details occupied the place of leading facts, logical development, and scholarly deductions. Or it meant a "guide for emigrants," giving a kind of encyclopædic summary, which grew into a subscription book, with a number of plates of important personages at so much per plate.

Only too rarely has the scholarly business man had the zeal to turn aside and enter a field which has no special attraction for the professional historical writer. Such a man was the late Edward G. Mason, for some time President of the Chicago Historical Society, and to whom that institution owes much of its present flourishing condition. Although only an adopted citizen of Illinois, having been born in Connecticut and educated at Yale, he entered upon a special study of the early days in the Illinois country with a zest and a training which made him an authority upon that topic. His enthusiasm has placed in the Chicago Historical Society many priceless records which would otherwise have gone the primrose way of their fellows to destruction. It was the of Mr. Mason to write a purpose scholarly history of Illinois-one which should go to original sources for material, should be

*CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY. By Edward G. Mason. With portrait. Chicago: Herbert S. Stone & Co.

readable, and which should eliminate entirely the commercial phases of the subscription history. This high purpose was cut short by his untimely death, and finds but a sad kind of fulfillment in the present posthumous work entitled "Chapters from Illinois History."

One of the shorter chapters, "Illinois in the Eighteenth Century," consists of a description of the beginnings of American rule in Illinois under Colonel John Todd, who became Virginia governor after the conquest by George Rogers Clark. A second sketch is an excellent description of a personal visit to old Fort Chartres near the Mississippi below St. Louis, in which the ruins are rebuilt in the author's fancy and re-peopled by Makarty, Renault, and the early French. The chapter on "The March of the Spanish Across Illinois" is a plausible argument that this expedition from Spanish St. Louis in 1781, against the English at St. Joseph, was intended to aid in the Spanish claim to the country east of the Mississippi when negotiations to close the Revolutionary War should be entered upon. Two lesser chapters, Illinois in the Revolution" and "The Chicago Massacre" (of 1812), are sufficiently described in their titles.

Two of the five chapters named above were previously printed, and the whole would no doubt have been incorporated in the finished work. They are fragmentary. But the first "chapter" of the book, "The Land of the Illinois," is of sufficient length to manifest the literary style, the thoroughness of detail, and the balance of topics, which would have characterized the whole had the original plan been carried out.

Mr. Mason begins with the reference by Champlain on his map to "a nation where there is a quantity of buffalo," as indicating the land of the Illinois Indians. Thence the story is carried forward through Marquette, who the author thinks receives the credit naturally belonging to Jolliet; through the heroic achievements of LaSalle and Tonty, to the death of the former. The recital closes abruptly with the reappointment of Frontenac as governor of Canada in 1689.

The sudden death of the author in his prime has a sad parallel in this sudden termination of the story in the height of its excellence. The enthusiasm of Mr. Mason over the stirring deeds of LaSalle and his great lieutenant is evident in every line. He leaves Tonty, governor of his lofty Fort St. Louis, looking down the valley of the Illinois, awaiting the return

of his captain who lies in the far south, stricken down by a treacherous hand.

Of course Mr. Mason had to depend upon the "Relations" of the Jesuits for his information, but he has supplemented them when ever possible. His array of references is at first startling, and then begets confidence. Where authorities differ, he has weighed the arguments with the training of the lawyer. The style is plain but the composition faultless. The purpose evidently is to convey the meaning to the reader with a view to the " economy of attention." Of the many writings upon Illinois history, it is probably safe to say that none is so scholarly, so careful, and so trustworthy as these "chapters" from the pen of Mr. Mason. EDWIN E. SPARKS.

BUDDHISM, TRUE AND FALSE.* Suppose that in this day and age of the world a "life of Jesus" should be written, purporting to be a veritable history, and based on the so-called Apocryphal Gospels and similar authorities. Suppose, further, that the latter part of this life" should be taken up with an argument, buttressed by citations, to prove that Mohammedanism was really a complete plagiarism of Christianity. Of equal scientific value and of a similar type of content is Mr. Arthur Lillie's "Buddha and Buddhism," a new volume in the series of "The World's Epoch Makers." What is presented as a "life" of Buddha is taken largely, without hint of the character of the sources, from the highly poetical, fanciful, and legendary stories about Buddha contained in the late northern litera

ture.

The story is told for the most part in a series of independent paragraphs whose primary aim is to show how similar to incidents in the life of Jesus are certain events in Buddha's career. Ever and anon such statements appear as this: "There is scarcely a doubt now with scholars that the early Christians borrowed the solution of earth's mighty problem from India" (p. 20). One entire chapter is given to the argument that the Essenes were Buddhists and

BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM. By Arthur Lillie. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

THE DHAMMA OF GOTAMA, the Buddha, and the Gospel

that Jesus was an Essene. The mode of argument is illustrated by the following remarks: "Historical questions are sometimes made more clear by being treated broadly. Let us first deal with this from the impersonal side, leaving out altogether the alleged words and deeds of Christ, Paul, etc." (p. 159). In other words, Mr. Lillie instead of giving a clear and scientific narrative of what is really known about Buddha, and stating frankly the character and value of his authorities early and late - a piece of work much to be desired, has produced a polemic maintaining that Christianity, posing as the religion of Jesus, is really a wholesale plagiarism from Buddhism. The book is no more than a rehash of the author's previous writings on the same subject, and is of like importance.

A strange coincidence has brought together in the same year this amorphous book of Mr. Lillie, and a treatise on the same subject by Dr. C. F. Aiken, in which the desirable and serviceable about Buddha and his system have been said with clearness, accuracy, and sobriety. The title is badly chosen, and will frighten off the very persons who would profit most by reading the book. The treatment is in three parts, first, a discussion of the relation of Buddhism to the antecedent Brahmanism; second, the presentation of the system itself in its historical development, containing a chapter on Buddha's life from the earliest and most trustworthy sources; third, an examination of the alleged relations of Buddhism with Christianity. In view of the unfounded assertions on this last topic in Mr. Lillie's work, the third part makes very interesting and profitable reading. The author takes up with painstaking thoroughness and unwearied pursuit of details the various and devious allegations of the school to which Mr. Lillie belongs, with the result anticipated, indeed, but none the less satisfactory that these writers are convicted of misrepresentations, garbled quotations, anachronisms, and "fictions" (to use Mr. Aiken's mild term). It is almost incredible that writers claiming to be scientific scholars could be guilty of such charges, but ample proof is given in the course of this critical and unsparing examination. The argument amounts to a demonstration. Dr. Aiken has rendered a service to

lations of Buddhism with Primitive Christianity. By Charles Francis Aiken, S.T.D. Boston: Marlier & Co., Ltd.

ACVAGHOSHA'S DISCOURSE ON THE AWAKENING OF FAITH IN THE MAHAYANA. Translated for the first time from the Chinese version, by Teitaro Suzuki. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Co.

notable contribution to the cause of sound learning and scientific truth. He has added, besides, a valuable bibliography of Buddhist texts and modern treatises.