James Seth

“ The treatment is systematic and thorough, and he displays throughout an intimate acquaintance with the works of the authors under consideration. The manner of presentation, too, is delightfully clear and vigorous, and one feels that the author has in a large measure caught the spirit of his teacher, Kuno Fischer. ”

“ The first two chapters are occupied with discussions of Locke's relations to Bacon, and to Descartes. Under the first heading the author finds that Locke was greatly influenced by Bacon. His assertion that all knowledge must begin with experience is taken almost verbatim from the latter. Dr. Thilly also discovers a parallel between Bacon's demand that the mind be cleared of idola, and Locke's polemic against innate ideas. On the other hand, Locke's relation to Descartes is a purely negative one, and it is mainly against him that the arguments of the first book of the essay are directed. ”

“ Stirling's Hamilton and the Philosophy of Perception, is a little unguarded. No mention is made of the important and interesting development of Reid's principle by Professor Campbell Fraser, in his insistence upon the ultimate philosophical necessity of a faith which, if unreasoned or only in part reasoned out to logical coherence, is, none the less, of the essence of reason. ”