Book Notes

BOOK REVIEWS 355 BOOK NOTES Religion of the American Enlightenment. By G. Adolf Koch. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1968. Apollo Books. Pp. xviii+334. Paper, $2.45) This work, published originally in 1933 by Henry Holt under the title Republican Reh'gion, has long been out of print. The foreword to the new edition by G. Adolf Koch very well explains both rifles and indicates why there is a permanent interest in the subjectmatter of this book. It is the only comprehensive survey of the religious radicalism that was an essential aspect of the American Enlightenment. Much of this radicalism is still embedded in our heritage and culture, but the literature described in this volume is largely unknown. A few militant rationalists like Ethan Allen and Tom Paine are still celebrated, but few readers are familiar with the Reverend William Bentley and the irreverent Elihu Palmer. The thirty-page bibliography of source-materials indicates the significant body of literature and of ideas that were current among the Founding Fathers and are now largely forgotten. It is our very good fortune to have this rare and important volume back in print. --H. W. ~ E R Studi Vichiani. By Giovanni Gentile. Vol. XVI of the new edition of the complete works of Giovanni Gentile; 3rd ed. revised and enlarged by Vito A. Bellezza. (Florence: Sansoni, 1968. Pp. xi+436. L 6000) These studies of Giambattista Vico are worthy of special attention since, in 1968, the tercentenary of Vico's birth was celebrated. The first edition appeared in 1914, the second in 1927. The new material in this third edition constitutes Appendix H. These three new items are all important for anyone studying Vico. One is an address delivered in 1936 in Vico's native Naples on the occasion of the Celebrazioni Campane by the Confederation of the Professions and Artists; it gives a brief account of Vico's career and the development of his thought. Another is an address before the Accademia d'Italia on March 19, 1944, in celebration of the bicentenary of Vico's death; it relates the philosophy of Vico to the Italian Renaissance on the one hand, and to the Resorgimento (especially to Gioberti) on the other. It also discusses the relations of Vico's historicism and empiricism to Cartesian rationalism , British empiricism, and idealistic romanticism. Most interesting, however, for the critical history of philosophy is the third addition, a communication to the Accademia dei Lincei in 1938 for the discussion of Vico's relations to Descartes. Here Gentile, in succinct outline, discusses how Vico was awakened from his dogmatic slumbers by the cogito ergo sum and how he freed himself from Cartesian mathematical method by distinguishing the immediacy of consciousness from scientific certitude and by relating such certitude to natural facts and historical deeds. This is certainly a noteworthy volume in the very fine edition of Gentile's works. --H. W. S. BooKs RECEWED First Editions Barnes, Wesley. The Philosophy and Literature of Existentialism. Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron's Educational Series, 1968. Pp. x+245. $4.50; Paper, $1.75. Beaucamp, Evode. Les Proph&tes d'lsra#l ou le drame d'une Alliance. Qutbec: Presses de l'Universit6 Laval, 1968. Pp. 300. Paper, $3.50. Beaucamp, Evode. Les Sages d'lsra~l ou le fruit d'une Fiddlitd. Qutbec: Presses de l'Universit6 Laval, 1968. Pp. 286. Paper, $3.50. Bolle, Kees W. The Freedom of Man in Myth. Nashville: Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 1968. Pp. xiv+199. $5. ...