main tendencies of the modern mind. Although Mr. Zueblin has had a theological training, his treatment of religion is that of a social reformer and his spirit is thoroughly human and humane. The subjects of the chapters are "temperament and personality, the constraint of orthodoxy, the decay of authority, religion and the church, religion and the state, an impersonal immortality." Each person must have his own religion, his "expression of man's relation to the universal, ultimate, and infinite." "Religion is to be less dogmatic, more spontaneous, more genuine, more personal, and at the same time more social. It is good to live for others; it is better to live for all the others. That is the religion of a democrat." "The measure of both religion and morality is social efficiency." "In a deep and real sense, democracy is the only morality, but democracy must mean the sovereignty of the people in all human relationships." "Democracy means nothing less than the life of all, by the co-operation of all for the welfare of all." "So the state is far more important to religion than the church, as to the future of religion." Positivism has had its day: ethical culture still illumines the way, but the future seems to belong to some form of socialism." In the closing chapter "impersonal immortality" (evidently the belief of the author, though not held dogmatically) is defined as "the perpetuation of oneself through the individuals, the institutions, and the ideals of the years to come."

The few sentences quoted will give an indication of the independence, ethical fervor, and general sobriety of Mr. Zueblin's book. One should not expect here the precise definition and the exact analysis of an elaborate treatise. Still, somewhat more pains might well have been spent on such points as the statement of the six great wants of man (p. 175, and elsewhere): "sociability" and "taste," surely, are not what the writer intends, but much rather "society" and "beauty" for two of these wants-wealth, health, knowledge, and righteousness being the four others. The reader cannot fail to be quickened and profited by so thoughtful, unconventional, and earnest a discussion of the great religious realities. N. P. GILMAN

Essais sur le régime des castes. Par C. BoUGLÉ. Paris: Felix Alcan, 1908. Pp. 278.

This essay forms one of a series of volumes published by L'Année Sociologique under the direction of Emile Durkheim. In

an introductory note addressed to the readers of L'Année Durkheim explains that those who have been responsible for its publication during the last ten years propose to issue a series of monographs in book form supplementary to the composite and somewhat discursive character of L'Année.

Bouglé fixes upon three essential characteristics of caste : “Répulsion, hiérarchie, specialization héréditaire; l'esprit de caste réunit ces trois tendances. Il faut les retenir toutes trois si l'on veut obtenir une définition complète du régime des castes" (p. 4).

Where caste reigns these three characteristics are found by law as well as by custom. These fundamental tendencies exert their influence in society everywhere, but only in a few places and periods of the world's history have they been actually established as a régime of social order. In ancient Egypt, for example, caste was established by custom, but not by law. There is no definite evidence that the transposition of classes in Egypt was interdicted by law; promotion to high office for men of low station by birth was possible. Even in India, pre-eminently the land of caste, castes are not absolutely immobile, but such mobility as exists is collective rather than individual (cf. p. 20). Whole families do sometimes pass to new occupations, but it required a death rate of thirty per one hundred before the weavers of Bengal, ruined by English importation, found a new occupation.

Bouglé brushes aside the oft-repeated explanation of castes in India, that they are the invention of Brahminical priests. “L'étude impartiale des institutions a montré que celles qui sont fondées sur le seul charlatanisme sont rares et fragiles" (p. 36).

The early history of India is permeated by the influence of industrial guilds.

Les plus basses sont celles qui conservent les modes d'activité seul connus

aux phases

chasseurs.

Primitives de l'histoire humaine: les castes des pêcheurs et de Les castes d'agriculteurs sont déjà plus nobles, et plus nobles encore les castes d'artisans. Celles qui pratiquent les métiers plus simples, connus avant Pâge de la métallurgie, comme les castes de vanniers, de potiers, de fabricants d' huile, occupent les rangs inférieurs; celles qui usent des metaux travillés ont plus de prestige. Il semble ainsi qui la dignité d'une caste se measure tant à l'utilité qu'à la difficulté du métier qu'elle exerce (p. 39).

Bouglé recognizes that the stages of the Hindu hierarchy correspond, in a general way, to the phases of industrial evolution and that economic phenomena explain the superposition of castes as well as their differentiation (cf. p. 40). The explanation of caste

as a natural and secular institution derived from the guild shows at the same time that in the civilization which is most profoundly dominated by religion, it is industry which has fashioned in its own way the dominant social form.

But Bouglé is far from insisting on an exclusive economic interpretation of the history of India. In a chapter on the opposition of caste to the family and another on the hierarchy of caste and the priesthood, he recognizes other roots of the régime of caste than those which are essentially of industrial origin.

Having discussed in the first part of his essay the origin of the régime of caste, he devotes a second part to the study of the vitality of the régime of caste in two chapters, one on caste and the Buddhist revolution, the other on caste under the English administration. The essay concludes with a third part devoted to the consideration of the effects of the régime of caste on races in India and their distribution, on Hindu law, on the economic life of India in the twofold aspect of consumption and production, and on the literature of India.

STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

ISAAC ALTHAUS LOOS

Factory Legislation in Maine (Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, edited by the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1). By E. STAGG WHITIN. New York: Columbia University (Longmans, Green & Co., Agents), 1908. Pp. 145. $1.00.

The first part of this important technological essay is a very comprehensive historical treatment. It traces the conditions of the industrial and the legislative acts from 1821 to 1907. The second part is equally instructive and deals with administration and the factory law of 1908. The critique of the child labor law, pp. 130 ff., is especially apt. A complete index of the labor laws of Maine in force in 1908 is appended to this very valuble little book.

HUGO P. J. SELINGER

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