Morris 1927

Journal of Philosophy, Inc.
Review
Author(s): Charles W. Morris
Review by: Charles W. Morris
Source: The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 24, No. 21 (Oct. 13, 1927), pp. 581-583
Published by: Journal of Philosophy, Inc.
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BOOK REVIEWS 581
biologists to ignore the fact that bodies have minds as it is for psy-
chologists to ignore the fact that minds have bodies" (p. 176).
And in the course of his discussion of "the nature of society" he
attributes to men, conceived as lying "somewhere in the scale of
complexity between protozoa and nations, not only the properties
of "laughing and climbing trees," but those of "thought, will, or
interest" (p. 429). In a word, Perry holds explicitly or implicitly
a psychological conception of interest, or valuing, as conscious ex-
perience. The conception of psychology at the basis of this doctrine
differs even more radicalry from the merely biological theory which
ignores or denies consciousness than from the strictly, or narrowly,
personalistic conception which attributes consciousness to selves as
distinguished from conscious organisms.
MARY WHITON CALKINS.
WELLESLEy COLLEGE
BOOK REVIEWS
Le Livre des Symboles: Dictioqnnaire. de: Symbolique et de Mythologie.

GEORGES LANOE-VILLNE, Paris: Editions Bossard. 1927. Pp.
199.
In the first volume of Le Livre des Symboles, Georges Lano6-Vil-

1ene presents the first fruits of a long and interesting work, the pres-
ent volume covering the letter A of his proposed dictionary of sym-
bolism and mythology. Although the book does not, like Cassirer
in the Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, attempt a compre-
hensive philosophical study of the symbolic expressions of language,
art, mythology, religion, and the knowledge process; nor pretend like
Ogden and Richards in The Meaning of Meaning to give a psycho-
logical account of the symbol; nor aim like Mackenzie in The Mi-
gration of Symbols to take an anthropological attitude to the mean-
ing, development, and history of symbols; nor attempt like Eaton in
Symbolism. and Truth to exhibit the logical superstructure built upon
and understood by the symbol function; yet it does claim in com-
mon with these books to deal with a phase of the science of symbolism.
An almost complete identification of symbolism and the symbolism
of mythology furnishes the clue to the argument and purpose of
the volume. Because of this use of the term, the claim of the book
to expose the general laws of the science of symbolism is misleading.
The actual range of the work is further limited by a recognized pre-
occupation with the marvellous and the miraculous, so that in reality
guishable in the statement "the self has a body" alike from the behavorist's
teaching that " the self is a body " and from the psycho-biologist's assertion that
"the self is a conscious body. " This third view, a genuinely psychological
conception, is that of Perry. Cf. my "Converging Lines in Contemporary Psy-
chology," British JournaZ of Psychology (General Section), 1926, xvi, 171-179.
582 JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY
the treatment of the science of symbolism becomes a presentation of

the symbols of ancient occultism. The separate articles of which
the book is composed are mainly accounts of what natural objects
meant in terms of primitive occult conceptions. Thus the following
is given of the bee and honey:
"The Bee.-In the metaphysical order: symbol of the impalpable
atom, carrying across the ether the psychic qualities emanated from
the being of God for the continual maintenance of our spirituality.
In the social order: symbol of order and of civilization, of collective
work; symbol of a people submissive to its king; of people living in
a communal state (the bee-hive, especially, is the emblem of these
last situations). Name of certain priestesses of Greek antiquity."
"Honey.-In the metaphysical. order: symbol of the ineffable
psychic nourishment, issuing from the throne of God, and carried
by the bee. In the social order: symbol of all spiritual, religious,
artistic, and scientific nourishment, pleasant to receive, as sweet to
the understanding as to the heart." So bees were said to have
formed a comb of honey in the mouth of the infant Plato, and to
have fed the infant Pinda.r. "
In a like manner, the acanthus was a symbol of the earliest man-
kind; wings symbolized the ascent of the spirit towards God; garlic
indicated sorrow and mortification (incidentally, those who had eaten
garlic were prevented from attending the mysteries because of their
"halitosis "); brass was a sign of the starred vault of heaven; the
ass was politically a sign of temporal power, socially, a sign of stu-
pidity; amber indicated divine and spiritual attraction; ambrosia
stood for "the celestial waters made spiritual by the energies ema-
nating from a portion of Bralhma"; the alchemists's philosopher's
stone signified God, and the transmutation of metals indicated the
changes in the life of the occultist's disciple.
The heart of this first volume is found in the article on the rain-
bow, where all of the general principles of "symbolism", are said to
be gathered together. The author believes in the existence of a
cult practiced by all, past-oral peoples of prehistory, which he desig-
nates as "primitive delphism." The outlines of this universal re-
ligion are built upon the three great divisions of the universe: the
earth and the inside of the globe, the space between the earth and
the moon, and t.he heaven beyond the moon extending in the direction
of the sun. These three realms give rise to three orders of gods, the
interior of the earth being the domain of destructive gods, while
the heavenly realm is the domain of constructive spirits ruled by a
beneficent God. The intermediate realm of our atmosphere is the
resultant of these two sets of forces. The gods of this "Trimourti"
are symbolized by the colors of the rainbow, while the rainbow itself
JOURNALS AND NEW BOOKS 583
is a manifestation of the supreme God. The author claims that this

fundamental symbolism is found in all countries, and is clearly evi-
dent in the early cult of Apollo. It also is supposed to provide the
framework for the religious and philosophical structures of later
thought.
Without attempting to appraise this suggestive hypothesis, it may
be fairly said that the work too often reads clear and abstract ideas
back into the earlier levels of thought. The author admits, for in-
stance, that Plato was practically ignorant of the symbolism, and
has to maintain that Plutarch and Pliny erred in taking literally
what they did not understand symbolically. This would make pre-
Platonic thought a much more sophisticated affair than it is generally
supposed to be. Then, too, from the point of view of a general
symbolism, the book suffers from its excessive preoccupation with
the occult aspects of primitive symbolism. The book does ex-
hibit strikingly, however, how the mind of man grows in utilizing
natural objects as vehicles and embodiments of intellectual concep-
tions, and how these objects inevitably take on a symbolic status.
The history of mind is the history of symbols and the primitive
mentality is exhibited best by the comprehension of primitive sym-
bols. While Le Livre des Symboles deals with only a very restricted
part of this field, and is in no sense a complete study of the symbol
process, it is also fair to say that except for isolated statements the
book makes no such general claim. As it stands it is a work of par-
ticular interest to students of mythology as a guide to certain neg-
lected phases of the primitive mentality. An excellent alphabetical
index renders the detailed portions of each article readily available.
CHARLES W. MORRIS.
RicE INSTiTUTE.
JOURNALS AND NEW BOOKS
THE AUSTRAiASIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PHIOSOPHY.

Vol. V, No. 3. Some Concepts in Relation to Social Science: T. A.
Huvnter. Maori Culture, and Modern Ethnology: A Preliminary
Survey, II: 1. L. G. Sutherland. Descartes' Theory of Knowledge:
W. A. Merrylees. Do Linguistic Group Tests of Intelligence, Non-
linguistic Group Tests of Intelligence, and Scholastic Tests Measure
the Same Thing: J. G. Cannon. A Bi-manual Co-ordination Test:
J. T. Dingle.
THE NEW SCHOLASTIcsM. Vol. I, No. 4. Theories of Matter:
J. A. Mo}Williams. Propositinus Cancellarius Parisiensis: George
Lacombe. Fondement de la Distinction de Puissance de Acte selon
Saint Thomas: Reg. Garrigou-Lagrange. An Introductory Study of

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Journal of Philosophy, Inc.

Le Livre des Symboles: Dictioqnnaire. de: Symbolique et de Mythologie.

In the first volume of Le Livre des Symboles, Georges Lano6-Vil-

the treatment of the science of symbolism becomes a presentation of

is a manifestation of the supreme God. The author claims that this

JOURNALS AND NEW BOOKS

THE AUSTRAiASIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PHIOSOPHY.

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