Welsh Journals

civilized European has outgrown. Mr. Webb undertakes to show that this emphasis on the difference between the mental functions in primi- tive and in civilized man respectively is excessive and disproportionate. Students of epistimology will find much of in- terest to them in Mr, Webb's treatment of the French Sociologists' claim that a new theory of knowledge may be based upon their sociological researches, namely the theory that the categories of time, space, substance, and so forth are products of collective thinking. On the constructive side, the chapter on individual religion is very valuable. The group theories of religion fail to do justice to individual religion which must for them, in fact, be nothing but illusion. Mr. Webb warns us against the danger alike of adopting an individualistic standpoint, on the one hand, and its extreme opposite on the other. In an eloquent passage, we are exhorted to steer the middle course. We shall have learned little from the history of philosophy if we do not expect to find that between the Scylla of a Nominalism to which Reality is a mere aimless to and fro of unconnected atoms, and the Charybdis of a Pantheism to which it is the blank and unrelieved darkness of a night in which nothing can be distinguished, there lies a stormy and a perilous passage To no kind of experience can either Scylla or Charybdis really prove the haven where it would go. But religion is of all other forms of ex- perience the one to which the inhospitable character alike of the rock and of the whirlpool is most obvious. The religious soul will not be content to see its God dashed to pieces on the one, or to suffer its own self, which it knows to be God's darling, to be overwhelmed in the other." The French Sociologists have erred on the side of over-emphasis on the worth of what has merely public or abstractly universal significance, and individual religion has only been overshadowed. but ruled out of existence. The logical outcome is that all religion is illusory. Mr. Webb, on the other hand, not only believes in the objective validity of religion, but maintains that it is also the guarantee of art and morality, as laying hold of the one and same Reality as itself. Welsh students of religion will admit their in- debtedness to the French Sociologists for giving a distinct impetus to the scientific study of religion but we venture to believe that the majority of them will be cordially in agreement with the main theses of Mr. Webb. The very brilliancy of the French School occasionally seems to lead it into reckless and dogmatic assertions. The critical acumen and sound scholarship of this work will help us to avoid these extravagances. The substance of the book was delivered in the form of lectures by the author in 1914, as Wilde Lecturer in the University of Oxford, and the work, though of unassuming dimensions, is a solid con- tribution to learning, and will be quite indispensable to all students of the Philosophy and the Comparative Science of Religion. y. O. S. "Sintram ai Ddau Cydymaith." Rhamant Ddammegol gan v Barwn F. de la Motte Fouque. Cyfieithiedig o'r Almaenaeg gan y Parch. J. Evan Williams, periglor Llanwenllwyfo. Lampeter: Welsh Church Press. A useful service has been done in translating this fine tale into Welsh, but the rendering fails to conceal the fact that it is a translation. There is no effort at introducing the Welsh idiom, and the following phrase, out of many, will serve to illustrate our com- plaint ac yr oedd yr olwg arno bron megys pe wylai," which would read much easier if rendered thus: ac edrychai fel pe bron wylo." Most Welsh Presses having by now adopted the new orthography, the Welsh Church Press might surely fall into line. Hasty proofreading is another noticeable defect. E. A. W. WELSH PERIODICALS Cymru Plant. Hughe* a'i Fah. Gwrecsam. 1c. In their remarks To the Children the Editors of this popular monthly make the welcome announcement that more room will be devoted in the 1917 numbers to tales of adventure. This is a kind of literary material which has hitherto been much overlooked in the Welsh Press. and we have often deplored the absence in the vernacular of such tales as appear in The Boy'* Own Paper and other English children's periodical. Cymru. Cwmni y Cyhoeddwyr Cymreig. Caernarfon. 6c. The late Mr. T. Mathews and Mr. D. Davie*. Ton. are given the place of honour in this month's Cymru in the form of a tender appreciation. A realistic pen picture by C. C. Jones of the Gallipoli campaign provides good reading. Y Cerddor. Hughes a'i Fab. Gwrecsam. 2g. The feature of this month'* Cerddor is the Archdmid'* apprecia. tion of Ap Madoc. Dr. Vaughan Thomas's adjudication on one of the Aberystwyth Eisteddfod items will be read with eagernet* by those interested, while the Student** Comer supplies much useful information. Yr Ymofynydd. J. D. Lewis, Llandyssui. 2c. The progress of Unitarian Sunday Schools in Cardiganshire, Glamorganshire, and Monmouthshire is shown by R. J. J. in this number,