Books of the Day [pp. 377-384]

BOOKS OF THIE DAY.
excellence was constant, uniform, perhaps somewhat
too evenly distributed. He wrought in his place day
after day, season after season. He submitted to the
good laws of use and wont. He grew stronger,
calmer, more full-fraught with stores of knowledge,
richer in treasure of the heart. Time laid its hand
upon him gently and unfalteringly: the bounding
step became less light and swift; the ringing voice
lapsed into sadder fits of silence; the raven hair
changed to a snowy white; only still the indefatiga ble eye ran down the long folio columns, and the in defatigable hand still held the pen-until all true life
had ceased. When it has been said that Southey
was appointed Pye's successor in the laureateship,
that he received an honorary degree from his uni versity, that now and again he visited the Continent,
that children were born to him from among whom
death made choice of the dearest; and, when we add
that he wrote and published books, the leading facts
of Southey's life have been told. Had he been a
worse or a weaker man, we might look to find mys teries, picturesque vices, or engaging follies; as it
is, everything is plain, straightforward, substantial.
What makes the life of Southey eminent and singu lar is its unity of purpose, its persistent devotion to
a chosen object, its simplicity, purity, loyalty, forti tude, kindliness, truth."
The opening passage of the memoir will appro priately supplement the above, and complete Pro fessor Dowden's view of Southey's life and work:
"No one of his generation lived so completely in
and for literature as did Southey.' He is,' said By ron,' the only existing entire man of letters.' With
him literature served the needs of the material life
and of the life of the intellect and imagination; it
was his means of earning daily bread, and also the
means of satisfying all his highest ambitions and desires. This, which was true of Southey at five-andtwenty years of age, was equally true at forty, fifty,
sixty. During all that time he was actively at work
accumulating, arranging, and distributing knowledge; no one among his contemporaries gathered so
large a store from the records of the past; no one
toiled with such steadfast devotion to enrich his age;
no one occupied so honorable a place in so many
provinces of literature. There is not, perhaps, any
single work of Southey's the loss of which would be
felt by us as a capital misfortune. But the more we
consider his total work, its mass, its variety, its high
excellence, the more we come to regard it as a memorable, an extraordinary achievement."
DESIGNED originally for a volume in the "International Scientific Series," Dr. NV. Lauder Lindsay's
treatise on "Mind in the Lower Animals in Health
and Disease " * grew to such dimensions on his hands
that he was constrained to abandon the original in
* Mind in the Lower Animals in Health and Disease. By XV. Lauder Lindsay, M. D., F. R. S. E., F.
L. S. Vol. I. Mind in Health. Vol. II. Mind in
Disease. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 8vo, pp.
xvn.-543, 57x.
tention and present it as an independent and much
larger work, treating comprehensively and systemati cally of the varied phases or phenomena on the one
hand of healthy, and on the other of diseased, mind.
From the view-point of popularity and immediate
effect there can be no doubt that this change of plan
was unfortunate, both for author and reader. A
compendious volume of three or four hundred pages,
stating concisely the author's conclusions, and forti fying them with the most pertinent and striking re sults of observation and experiment, would have been
far more efficient in securing public attention for the
startling and profoundly important questions which
he raises than is likely to be accomplished by the pres ent voluminous and learned treatise; yet it is easy to
understand the author's reluctance to discard so large
a portion as this would have involved of those vast
accumulations of material which he had brought to gether for his work. As it now stands, the work is a
complete and exhaustive digest; not only of all the
opinions that have been expressed on the subject of
mind in the lower animals by competent thinkers
and observers, but also of those multitudinous anec dotes which it has always been the delight of natu ralists to bring together in illustration of animal traits
and intelligence. The mere Index to the work fills
nearly a hundred closely printed pages; and even
this conveys but an imperfect idea of the copiousness
and variety of the materials that have been employed
in its preparation. It is the profusion of these ma terials, indeed, that has expanded the work to its
present dimensions; for the author relies for the force
of his argument much more upon facts than upon
reasoning, and his method consists mainly in the con cise statement of a proposition and its resultant
corollaries, and the citation of evidence in support
of it.
At the very beginning'of his treatise Dr. Lindsay
warns the reader that he has studied the subject of
mind in other animals as compared with that of
man simply as a phjysician-naturalist. "Regarding
the whole subject of mind in animals from a medical
and natural history point of view, I have studied it
from first to last without any preconceived ideaswith no theory to defend, support, or illustrate-and
ready throughout, without effort or regret, to renounce any belief which fact or truth might show to
be scientifically untenable." As we have not the
space to follow the exposition through its several
phases or stages, we will show at once what are the
results of such study by quoting the summary prefixed by Dr. Lindsay to his section on "Practical
Conclusions ":
The lower animals, or, at least, certain of them-I.
Possess both feelings and ideas akin to our own; 2. Are
highly sensitive, not to physical only, but also to moral
influences; 3. Are as capable as we are of the sensations
of pleasure and pain, mental as well as bodily; 4. Are
subject to the same kind of diseases produced by the same
kind of causes; and, in especial-5. Are liable to mental
disorders of the same character as those of man, and generally described as insanity; 6. Are subject, moreover, to
bodily ailments of various kinds, resulting from purely
moral or mental causes; 7. Possess moral as well as in
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