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diff --git a/20522.txt b/20522.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b191632 --- /dev/null +++ b/20522.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7950 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Mind, by James Mark Baldwin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of the Mind + +Author: James Mark Baldwin + +Release Date: February 6, 2007 [EBook #20522] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE MIND *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Case Western Reserve University Preservation +Department Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + + THE + + STORY OF THE MIND + + + + BY + + JAMES MARK BALDWIN + + + + _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + + + + NEW YORK + + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + 1905 + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1898, 1902, + + BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + * * * * * + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In this little book I have endeavoured to maintain the simplicity +which is the ideal of this series. It is more difficult, however, to +be simple in a topic which, even in its illustrations, demands of the +reader more or less facility in the exploration of his own mind. I am +persuaded that the attempt to make the matter of psychology more +elementary than is here done, would only result in making it untrue +and so in defeating its own object. + +In preparing the book I have secured the right and welcomed the +opportunity to include certain more popular passages from earlier +books and articles. It is necessary to say this, for some people are +loath to see a man repeat himself. When one has once said a thing, +however, about as well as he can say it, there is no good reason that +he should be forced into the pretence of saying something different +simply to avoid using the same form of words a second time. The +question, of course, is as to whether he should not then resign +himself to keeping still, and letting others do the further speaking. +There is much to be said for such a course. But if one have the right +to print more severe and difficult things, and think he really has +something to say which would instruct the larger audience, it would +seem only fair to allow him to speak in the simpler way also, even +though all that he says may not have the merit of escaping the charge +of infringing his own copyrights! + +I am indebted to the proprietors of the following magazines for the +use of such passages: The Popular Science Monthly, The Century +Magazine, The Inland Educator; and with them I also wish to thank The +Macmillan Company and the owners of Appletons' Universal Cyclopaedia. + +As to the scope and contents of the Story, I have aimed to include +enough statement of methods and results in each of the great +departments of psychological research to give the reader an +intelligent idea of what is being done, and to whet his appetite for +more detailed information. In the choice of materials I have relied +frankly on my own experience and in debatable matters given my own +opinions. This gives greater reality to the several topics, besides +making it possible, by this general statement, at once to acknowledge +it, and also to avoid discussion and citation of authorities in the +text. At the same time, in the exposition of general principles I have +endeavoured to keep well within the accepted truth and terminology of +psychology. + +It will be remarked that in several passages the evolution theory is +adopted in its application to the mind. While this great theory can +not be discussed in these pages, yet I may say that, in my opinion, +the evidence in favour of it is about the same, and about as strong, +as in biology, where it is now made a presupposition of scientific +explanation. So far from being unwelcome, I find it in psychology no +less than in biology a great gain, both from the point of view of +scientific knowledge and from that of philosophical theory. Every +great law that is added to our store adds also to our conviction that +the universe is run through with Mind. Even so-called Chance, which +used to be the "bogie" behind Natural Selection, has now been found to +illustrate--in the law of Probabilities--the absence of Chance. As +Professor Pearson has said: "We recognise that our conception of +Chance is now utterly different from that of yore.... What we are to +understand by a chance distribution is one in accordance with law, and +one the nature of which can, for all practical purposes, be closely +predicted." If the universe be pregnant with purpose, as we all wish +to believe, why should not this purpose work itself out by an +evolution process under law?--and if under law, why not the law of +Probabilities? We who have our lives insured provide for our children +through our knowledge and use of this law; and our plans for their +welfare, in most of the affairs of life, are based upon the +recognition of it. Who will deny to the Great Purpose a similar +resource in producing the universe and in providing for us all? + +I add in a concluding section on Literature some references to various +books in English, classified under the headings of the chapters of the +text. These works will further enlighten the reader, and, if he +persevere, possibly make a psychologist of him. + +J. MARK BALDWIN. + +PRINCETON, _April, 1898_. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER + +I. THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND--PSYCHOLOGY + +II. WHAT OUR MINDS HAVE IN COMMON--INTROSPECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY + +III. THE MIND OF THE ANIMAL--COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY + +IV. THE MIND OF THE CHILD--CHILD PSYCHOLOGY + +V. THE CONNECTION OF BODY WITH MIND--PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY--MENTAL + DISEASES + +VI. HOW WE EXPERIMENT ON THE MIND--EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY + +VII. SUGGESTION AND HYPNOTISM + +VIII. THE TRAINING OF THE MIND--EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY + +IX. THE INDIVIDUAL MIND AND SOCIETY--SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY + +X. THE GENIUS AND HIS ENVIRONMENT + +XI. LITERATURE + + * * * * * + + + + +LIST OF DIAGRAMS. + + +FIGURE + +1. Origin of instinct by organic selection + +2. Reflex and voluntary circuits + +3. Outer surface of the left hemisphere of the brain + +4. Inner surface or the right hemisphere of the brain + +5. The speech zone (after Collins) + +6. Mouth-key + +7. Apparatus for optical experiment + +8. Memory curves + + * * * * * + + + + +THE STORY OF THE MIND + +CHAPTER I. + +THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND--PSYCHOLOGY, + + +Psychology is the science of the mind. It aims to find out all about +the mind--the whole story--just as the other sciences aim to find out +all about the subjects of which they treat--astronomy, of the stars; +geology, of the earth; physiology, of the body. And when we wish to +trace out the story of the mind, as psychology has done it, we find +that there are certain general truths with which we should first +acquaint ourselves; truths which the science has been a very long time +finding out, but which we can now realize without a great deal of +explanation. These general truths, we may say, are preliminary to the +story itself; they deal rather with the need of defining, first of +all, the subject or topic of which the story is to be told. + +1. The first such truth is that the mind is not the possession of man +alone. Other creatures have minds. Psychology no longer confines +itself, as it formerly did, to the human soul, denying to the animals +a place in this highest of all the sciences. It finds itself unable to +require any test or evidence of the presence of mind which the animals +do not meet, nor does it find any place at which the story of the mind +can begin higher up than the very beginnings of life. For as soon as +we ask, "How much mind is necessary to start with?" we have to answer, +"Any mind at all"; and all the animals are possessed of some of the +actions which we associate with mind. Of course, the ascertainment of +the truth of this belongs--as the ascertainment of all the truths of +nature belongs--to scientific investigation itself. It is the +scientific man's rule not to assume anything except as he finds facts +to support the assumption. So we find a great department of psychology +devoted to just this question--i.e., of tracing mind in the animals +and in the child, and noting the stages of what is called its +"evolution" in the ascending scale of animal life, and its +"development" in the rapid growth which every child goes through in +the nursery. This gives us two chapters of the story of the mind. +Together they are called "Genetic Psychology," having two divisions, +"Animal or Comparative Psychology" and "Child Psychology." + +2. Another general truth to note at the outset is this: that we are +able to get real knowledge about the mind. This may seem at first +sight a useless question to raise, seeing that our minds are, in the +thought of many, about the only things we are really sure of. But that +sort of sureness is not what science seeks. Every science requires +some means of investigation, some method of procedure, which is more +exact than the mere say-so of common sense; and which can be used over +and again by different investigators and under different conditions. +This gives a high degree of verification and control to the results +once obtained. The chemist has his acids, and reagents, and blowpipes, +etc.; they constitute his instruments, and by using them, under +certain constant rules, he keeps to a consistent method. So with the +physiologist; he has his microscope, his staining fluids, his means of +stimulating the tissues of the body, etc. The physicist also makes +much of his lenses, and membranes, and electrical batteries, and X-ray +apparatus. In like manner it is necessary that the psychologist should +have a recognised way of investigating the mind, which he can lay +before anybody saying: "There, you see my results, you can get them +for yourself by the same method that I used." + +In fulfilling this requirement the psychologist resorts to two methods +of procedure. He is able to investigate the mind in two ways, which +are of such general application that anybody of sufficient training to +make scientific observations at all can repeat them and so confirm the +results. One of these is what is called Introspection. It consists in +taking note of one's own mind, as all sorts of changes are produced in +it, such as emotions, memories, associations of events now gone, etc., +and describing everything that takes place. Other persons can repeat +the observations with their own minds, and see that what the first +reports is true. This results in a body of knowledge which is put +together and called "Introspective Psychology," and one chapter of the +story should be devoted to that. + +Then the other way we have is that of experimenting on some one else's +mind. We can act on our friends and neighbours in various ways, making +them feel, think, accept, refuse this and that, and then observe how +they act. The differences in their action will show the differences in +the feelings, etc., which we have produced. In pursuing this method +the psychologist takes a person--called the "subject" or the +"re-agent"--into his laboratory, asks him to be willing to follow +certain directions carefully, such as holding an electric handle, +blowing into a tube, pushing a button, etc., when he feels, sees, or +hears certain things; this done with sufficient care, the results are +found recorded in certain ways which the psychologist has arranged +beforehand. This second way of proceeding gives results which are +gathered under the two headings "Experimental" and "Physiological +Psychology." They should also have chapters in our story. + +3. There is besides another truth which the psychologist nowadays +finds very fruitful for his knowledge of the mind; this is the fact +that minds vary much in different individuals, or classes of +individuals. First, there is the pronounced difference between healthy +minds and diseased minds. The differences are so great that we have to +pursue practically different methods of treating the diseased, not +only as a class apart from the well minds--putting such diseased +persons into institutions--but also as differing from one another. +Just as the different forms of bodily disease teach us a great deal +about the body--its degree of strength, its forms of organization and +function, its limitations, its heredity, the inter-connection of its +parts, etc.--so mental diseases teach us much about the normal mind. +This gives another sphere of information which constitutes "Abnormal +Psychology" or "Mental Pathology." + +[Illustration: PLATE I.] + +[Illustration: PLATE II.] + +There are also very striking variations between individuals even +within normal life; well people are very different from one another. +All that is commonly meant by character or temperament as +distinguishing one person from another is evidence of these +differences. But really to know all about mind we should see what its +variations are, and endeavour to find out why the variations exist. +This gives, then, another topic, "Individual or Variational +Psychology." This subject should also have notice in the story. + +4. Allied with this the demand is made upon the psychologist that he +show to the teacher how to train the mind; how to secure its +development in the individual most healthfully and productively, and +with it all in a way to allow the variations of endowment which +individuals show each to bear its ripest fruit. This is "Educational +or Pedagogical Psychology." + +5. Besides all these great undertakings of the psychologist, there is +another department of fact which he must some time find very fruitful, +although as yet he has not been able to investigate it thoroughly: he +should ask about the place of the mind in the world at large. If we +seek to know what the mind has done in the world, what a wealth of +story comes to us from the very beginnings of history! Mind has done +all that has been done: it has built human institutions, indited +literature, made science, discovered the laws of Nature, used the +forces of the material world, embodied itself in all the monuments +which stand to testify to the presence of man. What could tell us more +of what mind is than this record of what mind has done? The +ethnologists are patiently tracing the records left by early man in +his utensils, weapons, clothing, religious rites, architectural +remains, etc., and the anthropologists are seeking to distinguish the +general and essential from the accidental and temporary in all the +history of culture and civilization. They are making progress very +slowly, and it is only here and there that principles are being +discovered which reveal to the psychologist the necessary modes of +action and development of the mind. All this comes under the head of +"Race Psychology." + +6. Finally, another department, the newest of all, investigates the +action of minds when they are thrown together in crowds. The animals +herd, the insects swarm, most creatures live in companies; they are +gregarious, and man no less is social in his nature. So there is a +psychology of herds, crowds, mobs, etc., all put under the heading of +"Social Psychology." It asks the question, What new phases of the mind +do we find when individuals unite in common action?--or, on the other +hand, when they are artificially separated? + +We now have with all this a fairly complete idea of what The Story of +the Mind should include, when it is all told. Many men are spending +their lives each at one or two of these great questions. But it is +only as the results are all brought together in a consistent view of +that wonderful thing, the mind, that we may hope to find out all that +it is. We must think of it as a growing, developing thing, showing its +stages of evolution in the ascending animal scale, and also in the +unfolding of the child; as revealing its nature in every change of our +daily lives which we experience and tell to one another or find +ourselves unable to tell; as allowing itself to be discovered in the +laboratory, and as willing to leave the marks of its activity on the +scientist's blackened drum and the dial of the chronoscope; as subject +to the limitations of health and disease, needing to be handled with +all the resources of the asylum, the reformatory, the jail, as well as +with the delicacy needed to rear the sensitive girl or to win the love +of the bashful maid; as manifesting itself in the development of +humanity from the first rude contrivances for the use of fire, the +first organizations for defence, and the first inscriptions of picture +writing, up to the modern inventions in electricity, the complex +constitutions of government, and the classic productions of literary +art; and as revealing its possibilities finally in the brutal acts of +the mob, the crimes of a lynching party, and the deeds of collective +righteousness performed by our humane and religious societies. + +It would be impossible, of course, within the limits of this little +volume, to give even the main results in so many great chapters of +this ambitious and growing science. I shall not attempt that; but the +rather select from the various departments certain outstanding results +and principles. From these as elevations the reader may see the +mountains on the horizon, so to speak, which at his leisure, and with +better guides, he may explore. The choice of materials from so rich a +store has depended also, as the preface states, on the writer's +individual judgment, and it is quite probable that no one will find +the matters altogether wisely chosen. All the great departments now +thus briefly described, however, are represented in the following +chapters. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WHAT OUR MINDS HAVE IN COMMON--INTROSPECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. + + +Of all the sources now indicated from which the psychologist may draw, +that of so-called Introspective Psychology--the actual reports of what +we find going on in our minds from time to time--is the most +important. This is true for two great reasons, which make Psychology +different from all the other sciences. The first claim which the +introspective method has upon us arises from the fact that it is only +by it that we can examine the mind directly, and get its events in +their purity. Each of us knows himself better than he knows any one +else. So this department, in which we deal each with his own +consciousness at first hand, is more reliable, if free from error, +than any of those spheres in which we examine other persons, so long +as we are dealing with the psychology of the individual. The second +reason that this method of procedure is most important is found in the +fact that all the other departments of psychology--and with them all +the other sciences--have to use introspection, after all, to make sure +of the results which they get by other methods. For example, the +natural scientist, the botanist, let us say, and the physical +scientist, the electrician, say, can not observe the plants or the +electric sparks without really using his introspection upon what is +before him. The light from the plant has to go into his brain and +leave a certain effect in his mind, and then he has to use +introspection to report what he sees. The astronomer who has bad eyes +can not observe the stars well or discover the facts about them, +because his introspection in reporting what he sees proceeds on the +imperfect and distorted images coming in from his defective eyesight. +So a man given to exaggeration, who is not able to report truthfully +what he remembers, can not be a good botanist, since this defect in +introspection will render his observation of the plants unreliable. + +In practice the introspective method has been most important, and the +development of psychology has been up to very recently mainly due to +its use. As a consequence, there are many general principles of mental +action and many laws of mental growth already discovered which should +in the first instance engage our attention. They constitute the main +framework of the building; and we should master them well before we go +on to find the various applications which they have in the other +departments of the subject. + +The greater results of "Introspective" or, as it is very often called, +"General" psychology may be summed up in a few leading principles, +which sound more or less abstract and difficult, but which will have +many concrete illustrations in the subsequent chapters. The facts of +experience, the actual events which we find taking place in our minds, +fall naturally into certain great divisions. These are very easily +distinguished from one another. The first distinction is covered by +the popularly recognised difference between "thought and conduct," or +"knowledge and life." On the one hand, the mind is looked at as +receiving, taking in, learning; and on the other hand, as acting, +willing, doing this or that. Another great distinction contrasts a +third mental condition, "feeling," with both of the other two. We say +a man has knowledge, but little feeling, head but no heart; or that he +knows and feels the right but does not live up to it. + +I. On the side of Reception we may first point out the avenues through +which our experiences come to us: these are the senses--a great +number, not simply the five special senses of which we were taught in +our childhood. Besides Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, and Touch, we now +know of certain others very definitely. There are Muscle sensations +coming from the moving of our limbs, Organic sensations from the inner +vital organs, Heat and Cold sensations which are no doubt distinct +from each other, Pain sensations probably having their own physical +apparatus, sensations from the Joints, sensations of Pressure, of +Equilibrium of the body, and a host of peculiar sensational conditions +which, for all we know, may be separate and distinct, or may arise +from combinations of some of the others. Such, for example, are the +sensations which are felt when a current of electricity is sent +through the arm. + +All these give the mind its material to work upon; and it gets no +material in the first instance from any other source. All the things +we know, all our opinions, knowledges, beliefs, are absolutely +dependent at the start upon this supply of material from our senses; +although, as we shall see, the mind gets a long way from its first +subjection to this avalanche of sensations which come constantly +pouring in upon it from the external world. Yet this is the essential +and capital function of Sensation: to supply the material on which the +mind does the work in its subsequent thought and action. + +Next comes the process by which the mind holds its material for future +use, the process of Memory; and with it the process by which it +combines its material together in various useful forms, making up +things and persons out of the material which has been received and +remembered--called Association of Ideas, Thinking, Reasoning, etc. All +these processes used to be considered as separate "faculties" of the +soul and as showing the mind doing different things. But that view is +now completely given up. Psychology now treats the activity of the +mind in a much more simple way. It says: Mind does only one thing; in +all these so-called faculties we have the mind doing this one thing +only on the different materials which come and go in it. This one +thing is the combining, or holding together, of the elements which +first come to it as sensations, so that it can act on a group of them +as if they were only one and represented only one external thing. Let +me illustrate this single and peculiar sort of process as it goes on +in the mind. + +We may ask how the child apprehends an orange out there on the table +before him. It can not be said that the orange goes into the child's +mind by any one of its senses. By sight he gets only the colour and +shape of the orange, by smell he gets only its odour, by taste its +sweetness, and by touch its smoothness, rotundity, etc. Furthermore, +by none of these senses does he find out the individuality of the +orange, or distinguish it from other things which involve the same or +similar sensations--say an apple. It is easy to see that after each of +the senses has sent in its report something more is necessary: the +combining of them all together in the same place and at the same +time, the bringing up of an appropriate name, and with that a sort of +relating or distinguishing of this group of sensations from those of +the apple. Only then can we say that the knowledge, "here is an +orange," has been reached. Now this is the _one typical way the mind +has of acting_, this combining of all the items or groups of items +into ever larger and more fruitful combinations. This is called +Apperception. The mind, we say, "apperceives" the orange when it is +able to treat all the separate sensations together as standing for one +thing. And the various circumstances under which the mind does this +give the occasions for the different names which the earlier +psychology used for marking off different "faculties." + +These names are still convenient, however, and it may serve to make +the subject clear, as well as to inform the reader of the meaning of +these terms, to show how they all refer to this one kind of mental +action. + +The case of the orange illustrates what is usually called Perception. +It is the case in which the result is the knowledge of an actual +object in the outside world. When the same process goes on after the +actual object has been removed it is Memory. When it goes on again in +a way which is not controlled by reference to such an outside +object--usually it is a little fantastic, as in dreams or fancy, but +often it is useful as being so well done as to anticipate what is +really true in the outside world--then it is Imagination. If it is +actually untrue, but still believed in, we call it Illusion or +Hallucination. When it uses mere symbols, such as words, gestures, +writing, etc., to stand for whole groups of things, it is Thinking or +Reasoning. So we may say that what the mind arrives at through this +its one great way of acting, no matter which of these forms it takes +on, except in the cases in which it is not true in its results to the +realities, is Knowledge. + +Thus we see that the terms and faculties of the older psychology can +be arranged under this doctrine of Apperception without the necessity +of thinking of the mind as doing more than the one thing. It simply +groups and combines its material in different ways and in ever higher +degrees of complexity. + +Apperception, then, is the one principle of mental activity on the +side of its reception and treatment of the materials of experience. + +There is another term very current in psychology by which this same +process is sometimes indicated: the phrase Association of Ideas. This +designates the fact that when two things have been perceived or +thought of together, they tend to come up together in the mind in the +future; and when a thing has been perceived which resembles another, +or is contrasted with it, they tend to recall each other in the same +way. It is plain, however, that this phrase is applied to the single +thoughts, sensations, or other mental materials, in their relations or +connections among themselves. They are said to be "associated" with +one another. This way of speaking of the mental materials, instead of +speaking of the mind's activity, is convenient; and it is quite right +to do so, since it is no contradiction to say that the thoughts, etc., +which the mind "apperceives" remain "associated" together. From this +explanation it is evident that the Association of Ideas also comes +under the mental process of Apperception of which we have been +speaking. + +There is, however, another tendency of the mind in the treatment of +its material, a tendency which shows us in actual operation the +activity with which we have now become familiar. When we come to look +at any particular case of apperception or association we find that the +process must go on from the platform which the mind's attainments have +already reached. The passing of the mental states has been likened to +a stream which flows on from moment to moment with no breaks. It is so +continuous that we can never say: "I will start afresh, forget the +past, and be uninfluenced by my history." However we may wish this, we +can never do it; for the oncoming current of the stream is just what +we speak of as ourselves, and we can not avoid bringing the memories, +imaginations, expectations, disappointments, etc., up to the present. +So the effect which any new event or experience, happening for the +first time, is to have upon us depends upon the way it fits into the +current of these onflowing influences. The man I see for the first +time may be so neutral to me that I pass him unregarded. But let him +return after I have once remarked him, or let him resemble a man whom +I know, or let him give me some reason to observe, fear, revere, think +of him in any way, then he is a positive factor in my stream. He has +been taken up into the flow of my mental life, and he henceforth +contributes something to it. + +For example, a little child, after learning to draw a man's face, with +two eyes, the nose and mouth, and one ear on each side, will +afterward, when told to draw a profile, still put in two eyes and +affix an ear to each side. The drift of mental habit tells on the new +result and he can not escape it. + +He will still put in the two eyes and two ears when he has before him +a copy showing only one ear and neither eye. + +In all such cases the new is said to be Assimilated to the old. The +customary figure for man in the child's memory assimilates the +materials of the new copy set before him. + +Now this tendency is universal. The mind must assimilate its new +material as much as possible, thus making the old stand for the new. +Otherwise there would be no containing the fragmentary details which +we should have to remember and handle. Furthermore, it is through this +tendency that we go on to form the great classes of objects--such as +man, animal, virtue--into which numbers of similar details are put, +and which we call General Notions or Concepts. + +We may understand by Assimilation, therefore, the general tendency of +new experiences to be treated by us in the ways which similar material +has been treated before, with the result that the mind proceeds from +the particular case to the general class. + +Summing up our outcome so far, we find that general psychology has +reached three great principles in its investigation of knowledge. +First, we have the combining tendency of the mind, the grouping +together and relating of mental states and of things, called +_Apperception_. Then, second, there are the particular relations +established among the various states, etc., which are combined; these +are called _Associations_ of Ideas. And, third, there is the tendency +of the mind to use its old experiences and habits as general patterns +or nets for the sorting out and distributing of all the new details of +daily life; this is called _Assimilation_. + +II. Let us now turn to the second great aspect of the mind, as general +or introspective psychology considers it, the aspect which presents +itself in Action or conduct. The fact that we act is of course as +important as the fact that we think or the fact that we feel; and the +distinction which separates thought and action should not be made too +sharp. + +Yet there is a distinction. To understand action we must again go to +introspection. This comes out as soon as we ask how we reach our +knowledge of the actions of others. Of course, we say at once that we +see them. And that is true; we do see them, while as to their thoughts +we only infer them from what we see of their action. But, on the other +hand, we may ask: How do we come to infer this or that thought from +this or that action of another? The only reply is: Because when we act +in the same way this is the way we feel. So we get back in any case to +our own consciousness and must ask how is this action related to this +thought in our own mind. + +To this question psychology has now a general answer: Our action is +always the result of our thought, of the elements of knowledge which +are at the time present in the mind. Of course, there are actions +which we do from purely nervous reasons. These are the Instincts, +which come up again when we consider the animals. But these we may +neglect so long as we are investigating actions which we consider our +own. Apart from the Instincts, the principle holds that behind every +action which our conduct shows there must be something thought of, +some sensation or knowledge then in mind, some feeling swelling within +our breast, which prompts to the action. + +This general principle is Motor Suggestion. It simply means that we +are unable to have any thought or feeling whatever, whether it comes +from the senses, from memory, from the words, conduct, or command of +others, which does not have a direct influence upon our conduct. We +are quite unable to avoid the influence of our own thoughts upon our +conduct, and often the most trivial occurrences of our daily lives act +as suggestions to deeds of very great importance to ourselves and +others. For example, the influence of the newspaper reports of crime +stimulate other individuals to perform the same crimes by this +principle of suggestion; for the fact is that the reading of the +report causes us to entertain the thoughts, and these thoughts tend to +arouse in us their corresponding trains of suggested action. + +The most interesting and striking sphere of operation of the principle +of Suggestion (of other sorts as well as motor) is what is commonly +known simply as Hypnotism. To that, as well as to further +illustrations of Suggestion, we will return later on. + +We are able, however, to see a little more in detail how the law of +Motor Suggestion works by asking what sort of action is prompted in +each case of thought or feeling, at the different levels of the mind's +activity which have been distinguished above as all illustrating +Apperception--e.g., the stages known as Perception, Imagination, +Reasoning, etc. + +We act, of course, on our perceptions constantly; most of our routine +life is made up of such action on the perceptions of objects which lie +about us. The positions of things in the house, in the streets, in the +office, in the store, are so well known that we carry out a series of +actions with reference to these objects without much supervision from +our consciousness. Here the law of Motor Suggestion works along under +the guidance of Perception, Memory, and the Association of Ideas. Then +we find also, in much of our action, an element due to the exercise of +the Imagination. We fill in the gaps in the world of perception by +imagining appropriate connections; and we then act as if we knew that +these imaginations were realities. This is especially true in our +intercourse with our fellow-men. We never really know what they will +do from time to time. Their action is still future and uncertain; but +from our familiarity with their character, we surmise or imagine what +they expect or think, and we then act so as to make our conduct fit +into theirs. Here is suggestion of a personal kind which depends upon +our ability, in a sense, to reconstruct the character of others, +leading us out into appropriate action. This is the sphere of the most +important affairs of our lives. It appears especially so when we +consider its connection with the next great sort of action from +suggestion. + +This next and highest sphere is action from the general or abstract +thoughts which we have been able to work up by the apperceiving +activity of the mind. In this sphere we have a special name for those +thoughts which influence us directly and lead us to action: we call +such thoughts Motives. We also have a special name for the sort of +action which is prompted by clearly-thought-out motives: Will. But in +spite of this emphasis given to certain actions of ours as springing +from what is called Will, we must be careful to see that Will is not a +new faculty, or capacity, added to mind, and which is different from +the ways of action which the mind had before the Will arose. Will is +only a name for the action upon suggestions of conduct which are so +clear in our minds that we are able to deliberate upon them, acting +only after some reflection, and so having a sense that the action +springs from our own choice. The real reasons for action, however, are +thoughts, in this case, just as in the earlier cases they were. In +this case we call them Motives; but we are dependent upon these +Motives, these Suggestions; we can not act without Motives, nor can we +fail to act on those Motives which we have; just as, in the earlier +cases, we could not act without some sort of Perceptions or +Imaginations or Memories, and we could not fail to act on the +Perceptions or other mental states which we had. Voluntary action or +Will is therefore only a complex and very highly conscious case of the +general law of Motor Suggestion; it is the form which suggested action +takes on when Apperception is at its highest level. + +The converse of Suggestion is also true--that we can not perform an +action without having in the mind at the time the appropriate thought, +or image, or memory to suggest the action. This dependence of action +upon the thought which the mind has at the time is conclusively shown +in certain patients having partial paralysis. These patients find that +when the eyes are bandaged they can not use their limbs, and it is +simply because they can not realize without seeing the limb how it +would feel to move it; but open the eyes and let them see the +limb--then they move it freely. A patient can not speak when the +cortex of the brain is injured in the particular spot which is used in +remembering how the words feel or sound when articulated. Many such +cases lead to the general position that for each of our intentional +actions we must have some way of thinking about the action, of +remembering how it feels, looks, etc.; we must have something in mind +_equivalent_ to the experience of the movement. This is called the +principle of Kinaesthetic Equivalents, an expression which loses its +formidable sound when we remember that "kinaesthetic" means having the +feeling of movement; so the principle expresses the truth that we must +in every case have some thought or mental picture in mind which is +equivalent to the feeling of the movement we desire to make; if not, +we can not succeed in making it. + +What we mean by the "freedom" of the will is not ability to do +anything without thinking, but ability to think all the alternatives +together and to act on this larger thought. Free action is the fullest +expression of thought and of the Self which thinks it. + +It is interesting to observe the child getting his Equivalents day by +day. He can not perform a new movement simply by wishing to do so; he +has no Equivalents in his mind to proceed upon. But as he learns the +action, gradually striking the proper movements one by one--oftenest +by imitation, as we will see later on--he stores the necessary +Equivalents up in his memory, and afterward only needs to think how +the movements feel or look, or how words sound, to be able to make +the movements or speak the words forthwith. + +III. Introspection finds another great class of conditions in +experience, again on the receptive side--conditions which convert the +mind from the mere theatre of indifferent changes into the vitally +interested, warmly intimate thing which our mental life is to each of +us. This is the sphere of Feeling. We may see without more ado that +while we are receiving sensations and thoughts and suggestions, and +acting upon them in the variety of ways already pointed out, we +ourselves are not indifferent spectators of this play, this +come-and-go of processes. We are directly implicated; indeed, the very +sense of a self, an ego, a me-and-mine, in each consciousness, arises +from the fact that all this come-and-go is a personal growth. The mind +is not a mere machine doing what the laws of its action prescribe. We +find that nothing happens which does not affect the mind itself for +better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, for pleasure or for +pain; and there spring up a series of attitudes of the mind itself, +according as it is experiencing or expecting to experience what to it +is good or bad. This is, then, the great meaning of Feeling; it is the +sense in the mind that it is itself in some way influenced for good or +for ill by what goes on within it. It stands midway between thought +and action. We feel with reference to what we think, and we act +because we feel. All action is guided by feeling. + +Feeling shows two well-marked characters: first, the Excitement of +taking a positive attitude; and, second, the Pleasure or Pain that +goes with it. + +Here, again, it may suffice to distinguish the stages which arise as +we go from the higher to the lower, from the life of Sensation and +Perception up to that of Thought. This was our method in both of the +other phases of the mental life--Knowledge and Action. Doing this, +therefore, in the case of Feeling also, we find different terms +applied to the different phases of feeling. In the lowest sort of +mental life, as we may suppose the helpless newborn child to have it, +and as we also think it exists in certain low forms of animal life, +feeling is not much more than Pleasures and Pains depending largely +upon the physical conditions under which life proceeds. It is likely +that there are both Pleasures and Pains which are actually sensations +with special nerve apparatus of their own; and there are also states +of the Comfortable and the Uncomfortable, or of pleasant and +unpleasant feeling, due to the way the mind is immediately affected. +These are conditions of Excitement added to the Sensations of Pleasure +and Pain. + +Coming up to the life of Memory and Imagination, we find many great +classes of Emotions testifying to the attitudes which the mind takes +toward its experiences. They are remarkably rich and varied, these +emotions. Hope gives place to its opposite despair, joy to sorrow, and +regret succeeds expectation. No one can enumerate the actual phases of +the emotional life. The differences which are most pronounced--as +between hope and fear, joy and sorrow, anger and love--have special +names, and their stimulating causes are so constant that they have +also certain fixed ways of showing themselves in the body, the +so-called emotional Expressions. It is by these that we see and +sympathize with the emotional states of other persons. The most that +we have room here to say is that there is a constant ebb and flow, and +that we rarely attain a state of relative freedom from the influence +of emotion. + +The fixed bodily Expressions of emotion are largely hereditary and +common to man and the animals. It is highly probable that they first +arose as attitudes useful in the animal's environments for defence, +flight, seizure, embrace, etc., and have descended to man as +survivals, so becoming indications of states of the mind. + +The final and highest manifestation of the life of feeling is what we +call Sentiment. Sentiment is aroused in response to certain so-called +ideal states of thought. The trend of mental growth toward constantly +greater adequacy in its knowledge leads it to anticipate conditions +when its attainments will be made complete. There are certain sorts of +reality whose completeness, thus imagined, arouses in us emotional +states of the greatest power and value. The thought of God gives rise +to the Religious sentiment, that of the good to the Ethical or Moral +sentiment, that of the beautiful to the Esthetic sentiment. These +sentiments represent the most refined and noble fruitage of the life +of feeling, as the thoughts which they accompany refer to the most +elevated and ideal objects. And it is equally true that the conduct +which is performed under the inspiration of Sentiment is the noblest +and most useful in which man can engage. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MIND OF THE ANIMAL--COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY. + + +It has already been pointed out that the animal has a very important +share of the endowment which we call mind. Only recently has he been +getting his due. He was formerly looked upon, under the teachings of a +dualistic philosophy and of a jealous humanity, as a soulless machine, +a mere automaton which was moved by the starting of certain springs to +run on until the machine ran down. There are two reasons that this +view has been given up, each possibly important enough to have +accomplished the revolution and to have given rise to Animal +Psychology. + +First, there is the rise of the evolution theory, which teaches that +there is no absolute break between man and the higher animals in the +matter of mental endowment, and that what difference there is must +itself be the result of the laws of mental growth; and the second +reason is that the more adequate the science of the human mind has +become the more evident has it also become that man himself is more of +a machine than had been supposed. Man grows by certain laws; his +progress is conditioned by the environment, both physical and social, +in which he lives; his mind is a part of the natural system of things. +So with the animal. The animal fulfils, as far as he can, the same +sort of function; he has his environment, both physical and social; he +works under the same laws of growth which man also obeys; his mind +exhibits substantially the same phenomena which the human mind +exhibits in its early stages in the child. All this means that the +animal has as good right to recognition, as a mind-bearing creature, +so to speak, as the child; and if we exclude him we should also +exclude the child. Further, this also means--what is more important +for the science of psychology--that the development of the mind in its +early stages and in certain of its directions of progress is revealed +most adequately in the animals. + +_Animal Instinct._--Turning to the animals, the first thing to strike +us is the remarkable series of so-called animal Instincts. Everybody +knows what animal instincts are like; it is only necessary to go to a +zooelogical garden to see them in operation on a large scale. Take the +house cat and follow her through the life of a single day, observing +her actions. She washes her face and makes her toilet in the morning +by instinct. She has her peculiar instinctive ways of catching the +mouse for breakfast. She whets her appetite by holding back her meal +possibly for an hour, in the meantime playing most cruelly with the +pitiful mouse, letting it run and catching it again, and doing this +over and over. If she has children she attends to their training in +the details of cat etiquette and custom with the utmost care, all by +instinct; and the kittens instinctively respond to her attentions. She +conducts herself during the day with remarkable cleanliness of life, +making arrangements which civilized man follows with admiration. She +shows just the right abhorrence of water for a creature that is not +able to swim. She knows just what enemies to fly from and when to turn +and fight, using with inborn dexterity her formidable claws. She +prefers nocturnal excursions and sociabilities, having eyes which +make it safe to be venturesome in the dark. She has certain vocal +expressions of her emotions, which man in vain attempts to eradicate +with all the agencies of domestication. She has special arts to +attract her mate, and he in turn is able to charm her with songs which +charm nobody else. And so on, almost _ad infinitum_. + +Observe the dog, the birds of different species, the monkeys, the +hares, and you find wonderful differences of habit, each adapting the +animal differently, but with equal effectiveness, to the life which he +in particular is called upon to lead. The ants and bees are +notoriously expert in the matter of instinct. They have colonies in +which some of the latest principles of social organization seem to +find analogues: slavery, sexual regulations, division of labour, +centralization of resources, government distribution of food, capital +punishment, etc. + +All this--not to stop upon details which the books on animal life give +in great abundance--has furnished grounds for speculation for +centuries, and it is only in the last generation that the outlines of +a theory of instinct have been filled in with substantial knowledge. A +rapid sketch of this theory may be drawn in the following pages. + +1. In instinct in general there is a basis of inherited nervous +tendency toward the performance of just the sort of action which the +instinct exhibits. This nervous tendency shows itself independently of +learning by the individual in a great many cases, as in the instinct +of sucking by young animals, pecking for food by young fowls, the +migrating actions of adult mammals and birds, the courting movements +of many varieties of animal species. In all this we have what is +called the "perfect" instinct. To be perfect, an instinct must be +carried out successfully by the animal when his organism is ready, +without any instruction, any model to imitate, any experience to go +upon. The "perfect" instincts are entirely congenital or inborn; the +nervous apparatus only needs to reach the proper stage of maturity or +growth, and forthwith the instinctive action is performed as soon as +the external conditions of life are such as to make its performance +appropriate and useful. + +2. On the other hand, many instincts--indeed, probably the greater +number--are not perfect, but "imperfect." Imperfect instincts are +those which do not fully equip the animal with the function in +question, but only take him part way to the goal. He has a spontaneous +tendency to do certain things, such as building a nest, singing, etc.; +but he is not able to do these things adequately or perfectly if left +to himself from birth. This sort of endowment with imperfect instincts +has been the field of some of the most interesting research in animal +psychology, and has led to a new view of the relation of instinct to +intelligence. + +3. It has been found that young animals, birds, etc., depend upon the +example and instruction of adults for the first performance of many +actions that seem to be instinctive. This dependence may exist even in +cases in which there is yet a congenital tendency to perform the +action. Many birds, for example, have a general instinct to build a +nest; but in many cases, if put in artificial circumstances, they +build imperfect nests. Birds also have an instinct to make vocal +calls; but if kept from birth out of hearing of the peculiar notes of +their species, they come to make cries of a different sort, or learn +to make the notes of some other species with which they are thrown. + +4. The principal agency for the learning of the animals, and for the +supplementing of their instincts, is Imitation. The sight of certain +movements on the part of the adult animals, or the hearing of their +cries, calls, notes, etc., leads the young to fall into an imitation +of these movements or vocal performances. The endowment which such a +young animal has in the direction of making movements and cries +similar to those of his species aids him, of course, in imitating +these in preference to others. So the endowment and the tendency to +imitate directly aid each other in all such functions, and hurry the +little creature on in his acquisition of the habits of his species. We +find young animals clinging even in their imitations pretty closely to +their own proper fathers and mothers, who are thus enabled to bring +them up _comme il faut_. + +5. There is every reason to think, moreover, that the tendency to +imitate is itself instinctive. Young animals, notably the monkey and +the child, fall spontaneously to imitating when they reach a certain +age. Imitation shows itself to be instinctive in the case of the +mocking bird, the parrot, etc. Furthermore, the mechanism of this +function of imitation is now very well known. The principle of +psychology recognised above under the phrase Kinaesthetic Equivalents, +teaches us that the idea of a movement, coming into the mind through +sight or some other sense, stirs up the proper apparatus to bring +about the same movement in the observer. This we see in the common +tendency of an audience to repeat the gestures of a speaker, and in +many similar cases. When this principle is extended to include all +sorts of experiences besides those of movement, we have what is +generally called Imitation. Moreover, every time that by action the +child imitates, he perceives his own imitation, and this again acts as +a "copy" or model for another repetition of the act, and so on. This +method of keeping himself going gives the young animal or child +constant practice, and renders him more and more efficient in the acts +necessary to his life. + +6. It is evident what great profit accrues from this arrangement +whereby a general instinct like imitation takes the place of a number +of special instincts, or supplements them. It gives a measure of +plasticity to the creature. He can now respond suitably to changes in +the environment in which he lives. The special instincts, on the +contrary, are for the most part so fixed that the animal must act just +as they require him to in this or that circumstance; but as soon as +his instinct takes on the form of imitation, the resulting action +tends to conform itself to the model actions of the other creatures +which set "copies" before him. + +These more or less new results due to recent research in the province +of Instinct have had direct bearing upon theories of the origin of +instinct and of its place in animal life. + +_Theories of Instinct._--Apart from the older view which saw in animal +instinct simply a matter of original created endowment, whereby each +animal was made once for all "after his kind," and according to which +there is no further reason that the instincts are what they are than +that they were made so; apart from this "special creation" view, two +different ideas have had currency, both based upon the theory of +evolution. Each of these views assumes that the instincts have been +developed from more simple animal actions by a gradual process; but +they differ as to the elements originally entering into the actions +which afterward became instinctive. + +1. First, there is what is called the Reflex Theory. This holds that +instincts are reflex actions, like the closing of the eye when an +object threatens to enter it, only much more complex. They are due to +the compounding and adding together of simple reflexes, in greater and +greater number, and with increasing efficiency. This theory attempts +to account for instinct entirely in terms of nervous action. It goes +with that view of evolution which holds that the nervous system has +had its growth from generation to generation by the continued reflex +adjustments of the organism to its environment, whereby more and more +delicate adaptations to the external world were secured. In this way, +say the advocates of this theory, we may account for the fact that the +animal has no adequate knowledge of what he is doing when he performs +an act instinctively; he has no end or aim in his mind; he simply +feels his nervous system doing what it is fitted to do by its organic +adaptations to the stimulations of air, and earth, and sea, whatever +these may be. + +But it may be asked: Why do succeeding generations improve each on its +parents, so that there is a gradual tendency to perfect the instinct? + +The answer to this question brings up another great law of +biology--the principle of Variations. This principle states the common +fact that in every case of a family of offspring the individual young +vary slightly in all directions from their parents. Admitting this, we +will find in each group of families some young individuals which are +better than their parents; these will have the advantage over others +and will be the ones to grow up and have the children of the next +generation again, and so on. So by constant Variation and Natural +Selection--that is, the "Survival of the Fittest" in competition with +the rest--there will be constant improvement in the Instinct. + +2. The other theory, the rival one, holds that there are some +instincts which show so plainly the marks of Reason that some degree +of intelligent adjustment to the environment must be allowed to the +animal in the acquiring of these functions. For example, we are told +that some of the muscular movements involved in the instincts--such, +for example, as the bird's nest-building--are so complex and so finely +adjusted to an end, that it is straining belief to suppose that they +could have arisen gradually by reflex adaptation alone. There is also +a further difficulty with the reflex theory which has seemed +insurmountable to many of the ablest psychologists of animal life; the +difficulty, namely, that many of the instincts require the action of a +great many muscles at the same time, so acting in "correlation" with +or support of one another that it is impossible to suppose that the +instinct has been acquired gradually. For in the very nature of these +cases we can not suppose the instinct to have ever been imperfect, +seeing that the partial instinct which would have preceded the perfect +performance for some generations would have been not only of no use to +the creature, but in many cases positively injurious. For instance, +what use to an animal to be able partly to make the movements of +swimming, or to the birds to build an inadequate nest? Such instincts +would not be usable at all. So we are told by the second theory that +the animals must have had intelligence to do these things when they +first acquired them. Yet, as is everywhere admitted, after the +instinct has been acquired by the species it is then carried out +without knowledge and intelligent design, being handed down from +generation to generation by heredity. + +This seems reasonable, for we do find that actions which were at first +intelligent may be performed so frequently that we come to do them +without thinking of them; to do them from habit. So the animals, we +are told, have come to do theirs reflexly, although at first they +required intelligence. From this point of view--that although +intelligence was at first required, yet the actions have become +instinctive and lacking in intelligent direction in later +generations--this is called the theory of Lapsed Intelligence. + +This theory has much to commend it. It certainly meets the objection +to the reflex theory which was stated just above--the objection that +some of the instincts could not have arisen by gradual reflex +adaptations. It also accounts for the extremely intelligent appearance +which many instincts have. + +But this view in turn is liable to a criticism which has grown in +force with the progress of biological knowledge in recent years. This +criticism is based on the fact that the theory of lapsed intelligence +demands that the actions which the animals of one generation have +acquired by their intelligence should be handed down through heredity +to the next generation, and so on. It is evident that unless this be +true it does no good to the species for one generation to do things +intelligently, seeing that if the effects on the nervous system are +not transmitted to their children, then the next and later generations +will have to start exactly where their fathers did, and the actions in +question will never become ingrained in the nervous system at all. + +Now, the force of this criticism is overwhelming to those who +believe--as the great majority of biologists now do[1]--that none of +the modifications or so-called "characters" acquired by the parents, +none of the effects of use or disuse of their limbs, none of the +tendencies or habits of action, in short, none of the changes wrought +in body or mind of the parents during their lifetime, are inherited by +their children. The only sorts of modification which show themselves +in subsequent generations are the deep-seated effects of disease, +poison, starvation, and other causes which concern the system as a +whole, but which show no tendency to reproduce by heredity any of the +special actions or functions which the fathers and mothers may have +learned and practised. If this difficulty could be met, the theory +that intelligence has been at work in the origination of the complex +instincts would be altogether the preferable one of the two; but if +not, then the "lapsed intelligence" view must be thrown overboard. + +[Footnote 1: The matter is still under discussion, however, and I do +not mean in any way to deny the authority of those who still accept +the "inheritance of acquired characters."] + +Recent discussion of evolution has brought out a point of view under +the name of Organic Selection which has a very fruitful application to +this controversy over the origin of instincts. This point of view is +one which in a measure reconciles the two theories. It claims that it +is possible for the intelligent adaptations, or any sort of +"accommodations," made by the individuals of one generation, to set +the direction of subsequent evolution, even though there be no direct +inheritance of acquired characters from father to son. It proceeds in +the case of instinct somewhat thus: + +Suppose we say, with the first theory given above, that the organism +has certain reflexes which show some degree of adaptation to the +environment; then suppose we admit the point, urged by the advocates +of the lapsed intelligence theory, that the gradual improvement of +these reflexes by variations in the endowment of successive +generations would not suffice for the origin of instinct, seeing that +partial instincts would not be useful; and, further, suppose we agree +that many of the complex instincts really involved intelligent +adaptation in their acquisition. These points carefully understood, +then one new and further principle will enable us to complete a theory +which will avoid the objections to both the others. This principle is +nothing else than what we have seen already--namely, that the +intelligence supplements the partial instincts in each generation and +makes them useful in the respects in which they are inadequate, and so +keeps the young alive in successive generations as long as the +instinct is imperfect. This gives the species time gradually to +supplement its instinctive endowment, in the course of many +generations each of which uses its intelligence in the same way: time +to accumulate, by the occurrence of variations among the offspring, +the changes in the nervous system which the perfect instinct requires. +Thus as time goes on the dependence of each generation upon the aid of +intelligence is less and less, until the nervous system becomes +capable of performing the function quite alone. The result then will +be the same as if the acquisitions made by each generation had been +inherited, while in reality they have not. All that this theory +requires in addition to what is admitted by both the historical views +is that the species be kept alive long enough by the aid of its +intelligence, which supplements imperfect instincts, to give it time +to produce sufficient variations in the right direction. The instinct +then achieves its independence, and intelligent supervision of it is +no longer necessary (see Fig. 1). + +[Illustration: FIG. 1,--Origin of instinct by Organic Selection: _A +n_, perfect instinct. 1, 2 ... _n_, successive generations. Solid +lines, nervous equipment in the direction of the instinct. Dotted +lines, intelligence supplementing the nervous equipment. The +intelligence is relied upon to keep the species alive until by +congenital variations the nervous equipment becomes "perfect."] + +This theory is directly confirmed by the facts, already spoken of, +which show that many instincts are imperfect, but are pieced out and +made effective by the intelligent imitations and acquisitions of the +young creatures. The little chick, for example, does not know the +value of water when he sees it, as essential as water is to his life; +but he depends upon imitation of his mother's drinking, or upon the +mere accident of wetting his bill, to stimulate his partial instinct +of drinking in the peculiar fashion characteristic of fowls, by +throwing back the head. So in other functions which are peculiar to a +species and upon which their very lives depend, we find the delicate +adjustment between intelligent adaptation by conscious action and the +partially formed instincts which the creatures possess. + +In the theory of Organic Selection, therefore, we seem to have a +positive solution of the question of the origin of instinct. It is +capable of a similar application in other cases where evolution has +taken certain definite directions, seemingly guided by intelligence. +It shows us that mind has had a positive place in the evolution of +organic nature. + + * * * * * + +_Animal Intelligence._--Coming to consider what further equipment the +animals have, we light upon the fact just spoken of when we found it +necessary to appeal in some measure to the animal's Intelligence to +supplement his instincts. What is meant by Intelligence? + +This word may be used in the broad sense of denoting all use of +consciousness, or mind, considered as a thing in some way additional +to the reflexes of the nervous system. In the life of the animal, as +in that of man, wherever we find the individual doing anything with +reference to a mental picture, using knowledge or experience in any +form, then he is said to be acting intelligently. + +The simplest form of intelligent action in the animal world and that +from which most of the higher forms have arisen is illustrated in the +following example: a chick will peck at a strange worm, and, finding +it unpalatable, will then in the future refuse to peck at worms of +that sort. This refusal to do a second time what has once had a +disagreeable result is intelligent. We now say that the chick "knows" +that the worm is not good to eat. The instinctive action of pecking at +all worms is replaced by a refusal to peck at certain worms. Again, +taking the reverse case, we find that the chick which did not respond +to the sight of drinking water instinctively, but had to see the +mother drink first, acted intelligently, or through a state of +consciousness, when it imitated the old hen, and afterward drank of +its own accord. It now "knows" that water is the thing to drink. + +The further question which comes upon us here concerns the animal's +acquisition of the action appropriate to carry out his knowledge. How +does he learn the muscular combinations which supplement or replace +the earlier instinctive ways of acting? + +This question appears very clearly when we ask about the child's +acquisition of new acts of skill. We find him constantly learning, +modifying his habits, refining his ways of doing things, becoming +possessed of quite new and complex functions, such as speech, +handwriting, etc. All these are intelligent activities; they are +learned very gradually and with much effort and pains. It is one of +the most important and interesting questions of all psychology to ask +how he manages to bring the nervous and muscular systems under greater +and greater control by his mind. How can he modify and gradually +improve his "reactions"--as we call his responses to the things and +situations about him--so as to act more and more intelligently? + +The answer seems to be that he proceeds by what has been called +Experimenting. He does not simply do things because he has +intelligence,--simply that is, because he sees how to do them without +first learning how; that is the older and probably quite erroneous +view of intelligence. The mind can not move the body simply by its +fiat. No man can do that. Man, like the little animal, has to try +things and keep on trying things, in order to find out the way they +work and what their possibilities are. And each animal, man, beast, or +bird has to do it for himself. Apart from the instinctive actions +which the child does without knowing their value at all, and apart +from the equally instinctive imitative way of doing them without +aiming at learning more by the imitations, he proceeds in all cases to +make experiments. Generally his experiments work through acts of +imitation. He imitates what he sees some other creature do; or he +imitates his own instinctive actions by setting up before him in his +mind the memories of the earlier performance; or, yet again, after he +has struck a fortunate combination, he repeats that imitatively. Thus, +by the principle already spoken of, he stores up a great mass of +Kinaesthetic Equivalents, which linger in memory, and enable him to +act appropriately when the proper circumstances come in his way. He +also gets what we have called Associations established between the +acts and the pleasure or pain which they give, and so avoids the +painful and repeats the pleasurable ones. + +The most fruitful field of this sort of imitative learning is in +connection with the "try-try-again" struggles of the young, especially +children. This is called Persistent Imitation. The child sees before +him some action to imitate--some complex act of manipulation with the +hand, let us say. He tries to perform it in an experimental way, using +the muscles of the hand and arm. With this he strains himself all +over, twisting his tongue, bending his body, and grimacing from head +to foot, so to speak. Thus he gets a certain way toward the correct +result, but very crudely and inexactly. Then he tries again, +proceeding now on the knowledge which the first effort gave him; and +his trial is less uncouth because he now suppresses some of the +hindering grimacing movements and retains the ones which he sees to be +most nearly correct. Again he tries, and again, persistently but +gradually reducing the blundering movements to the pattern of the +copy, and so learning to perform the act of skill. + +The massive and diffused movements which he makes by wriggling and +fussing are also of direct use to him. They increase remarkably the +chances that among them all there will be some movements which will +hit the mark, and so contribute to his stock of correct Equivalents. +Dogs and monkeys learn to unlock doors, let down fence rails, and +perform relatively complex actions by experimenting; persistently +with many varied movements until the successful ones are finally +struck. + +This is the type of all those acts of experimenting by which new +complex movements are acquired. In children it proceeds largely +without interference from others; the child persists of himself. He +has greater ability than the animals to see the meaning of the +completed act and to really desire to acquire it. With the animals the +acquisitions do not extend very far, on account of their limitation in +intelligent endowment; but in the training of the domestic animals and +in the education of show-animals the trainer aids them and urges them +on by making use of the associations of pleasure and pain spoken of +above. He supplements the animal's feelings of pain and pleasure with +the whip and with rewards of food, etc., so that each step of the +animal's success or failure has acute associations with pain or +pleasure. Thus the animal gradually gets a number of associations +formed, avoids the actions with which pain is associated, repeats +those which call up memories of pleasure all the way through an +extended performance in regular steps; and in the result the +performance so closely counterfeits the operations of high +intelligence--such as counting, drawing cards, etc.--that the audience +is excited to admiration. + +This first glimpse of the animal's limitations when compared with man +may suggest the general question, how far the brutes go in their +intelligent endowment. The proper treatment of this much-debated point +requires certain further explanations. + +In the child we find a tendency to act in certain ways toward all +objects, events, etc., which are in any respect alike. After learning +to use the hands, for example, for a certain act, the same hand +movements are afterward used for other similar acts which the child +finds it well to perform. He thus tends, as psychologists say, to +"generalize," that is, to take up certain general attitudes which will +answer for a great many details of experience. On the side of the +reception of his items of knowledge this was called Assimilation, as +will be remembered. This saves him enormous trouble and risk; for as +soon as an object or situation presents itself before him with certain +general aspects, he can at once take up the attitude appropriate to +these general aspects without waiting to learn the particular features +of the new. The ability to do this shows itself in two rather +different ways which seem respectively to characterize man on the one +hand and the lower animals on the other. + +With the animals this tendency to generalize, to treat objects in +classes rather than as individuals, takes the form of a sort of +composition or direct union of brain pathways. Different experiences +are had, and then because they are alike they tend to issue in the +same channels of action. The animal is tied down strictly to his +experience; he does not anticipate to any extent what is going to +happen. He does not use one experience as a symbol and apply it +beforehand to other things and events. He is in a sense passive; +stimulations rain down upon him, and force him into certain attitudes +and ways of action. As far as his knowledge is "general" it is called +a Recept. A dog has a Recept of the whip; so far as whips are not too +different from one another, the dog will act in the same way toward +all of them. In man, on the other hand, the development of mind has +gone a decided step further. The child very quickly begins to use +symbols, words being the symbols of first importance to him. He does +not have, like the brute, to wait for successive experiences of like +objects to impress themselves upon him; but he goes out toward the +new, expecting it to be like the old, and so acting as to anticipate +it. He thus falls naturally into general ways of acting which it is +the function of experience to refine and distinguish. He seems to have +more of the higher sort of what was called above Apperception, as +opposed to the more concrete and accidental Associations of Ideas. He +gets Concepts, as opposed to the Recepts of the animals. With this +goes the development of speech, which some psychologists consider the +source of all the man's superiority over the animals. Words become +symbols of a highly abstract sort for certain classes of experiences; +and, moreover, through speech a means of social communication is +afforded by which the development of the individual is enormously +advanced. + +It is probable, in fact, that this difference--that between the +Generalization which uses symbols, and mere Association--is the root +of all the differences that follow later on, and give man the +magnificent advantage over the animals which he has. From it is +developed the faculty of thinking, reasoning, etc., in which man +stands practically alone. On the brain side, it requires special +developments both through the preparation of certain brain centres +given over to the speech function, and also through the greater +organization of the gray matter of the cerebral cortex, to which we +revert again in a later chapter. Indeed, looked at from the side of +the development of the brain, we see that there is no break between +man and the animals in the laws of organization, but that the +difference is one of evolution. + +Later on in the life of the child we find another contrast connected +with the difference of social life and organization as between the +animals and man. The animals probably do not have a highly organized +sense of Self as man does; and the reason doubtless is that such a +Self-consciousness is the outcome of life and experience in the very +complex social relations in which the human child is brought up, and +which he alone is fitted by his inherited gifts to sustain. + +_The Play of Animals._--Another of the most interesting questions of +animal life is that which concerns their plays. Most animals are given +to play. Indeed that they indulge in a remarkable variety of sports is +well known even to the novice in the study of their habits. Beginning +when very young, they gambol, tussle, leap, and run together, chase +one another, play with inanimate objects, as the kitten with the ball, +join in the games of children and adults, as the dog which plays hide +and seek with his little master, and all with a knowingness and zest +which makes them the best of companions. The volumes devoted to the +subject give full accounts of these plays of animals, and we need not +repeat them; the psychologist is interested, however, mainly in the +general function of play in the life of the individual animal and +child, and in the psychological states and motives which it reveals. +Play, whether in animals or in man, shows certain general +characteristics which we may briefly consider. + +1. The plays of animals are very largely instinctive, being indulged +in for the most part without instruction. The kitten leaps impulsively +to the game. Little dogs romp untaught, and fall, as do other animals +also, when they are strong enough, into all the playful attitudes +which mark their kind. This is seen strikingly among adult animals in +what are called the courtship plays. The birds, for example, indulge +in elaborate and beautiful evolutions of a playful sort at the mating +season. + +2. It follows from their instinctive character that animal plays are +peculiar to the species which perform them. We find series of sports +peculiar to dogs, others to cats, and so on through all the species of +the zooelogical garden, whether the creatures be wild or tame. Each +shows its species as clearly by its sportive habits as by its shape, +cry, or any other of what are called its "specific" habits. This is +important not only to the zooelogist, as indicating differences of +evolution and scale of attainment, environment, etc., but also to the +psychologist, as indicating differences of what we may call animal +temperament. Animals show not only the individual differences which +human beings do, one liking this game and another that, one being +leader in the sport and another the follower, but also the greater +differences which characterize races. The Spaniards love the bull +fight; other nations consider it repulsive, and take their fun in less +brutal forms, although, perchance, they tolerate Rugby football! So +the animals vary in their tastes, some playing incessantly at +fighting, and so zealously as to injure one another, while others +like the milder romp, and the game with flying leaves, rolling stones, +or the incoming waves on the shore. + +3. Psychologically, the most interesting characteristic of animal, as +of human, play is what is called the "make-believe" state of mind +which enters into it. If we consider our own sports we find that, in +the midst of the game, we are in a condition of divided consciousness. +We indulge in the scheme of play, whatever it be, as if it were a real +situation, at the same time preserving our sense that it is not real. +That is, we distinguish through it all the actual realities, but make +the convention with our companions that for the time we will act +together as if the playful situation were real. With it there is a +sense that it is a matter of voluntary indulgence that can stop at +anytime; that the whole temporary illusion to which we submit is +strictly our own doing, a job which we have "put up" on ourselves. +That is what is meant by make-believe. + +Now it is clear that the animals have this sense of make-believe in +their games both with other animals and with man. The dog plays at +biting the hand of his master, and actually takes the member between +his teeth and mumbles it; but all the while he stops short of painful +pressure, and goes through a series of characteristic attitudes which +show that he distinguishes very clearly between this play biting and +the real. If perchance the master shows signs of being hurt, the dog +falls into attitudes of sorrow, and apologizes fulsomely. So also when +the animals play together, a vigorous squeal from a companion who is +"under" generally brings him his release. + +The principal interest of this make-believe consciousness is that it +is considered by many to be an essential ingredient of AEsthetic +feeling. A work of art is said to have its effect through its tendency +to arouse in us a make-believe acceptance of the scene or motive +presented, while it nevertheless remains contrasted with the realities +of our lives. If this be true, the interesting question arises how far +the animals also have the germs of AEsthetic feeling in their +make-believe situations. Does the female pea-fowl consider the male +bird, with all his display of colour and movement, a beautiful object? +And does the animal companion say: How beautiful! when his friend in +the sport makes a fine feint, and comes up serene with the knowing +look, which the human on-looker can not fail to understand? + +In some cases, at any rate, we should have to reply to this question +affirmatively, if we considered make-believe the essential thing in +aesthetic enjoyment. + +_Theories of Animal Play._--The question of the meaning and value of +play to the animals has had very enlightening discussion of late. +There are two principal theories now advocated. + +I. The older theory considered play simply the discharge of surplus +nerve force in the animal's organism. He was supposed to play when he +felt fresh and vigorous. The horse is "skittish" and playful in the +morning, not so much so at night. The dogs lie down and rest when they +are tired, having used up their surplus energies. This is called the +Surplus-Energy Theory of play. + +The difficulty with this theory is that it is not adequate to explain +any of the characteristics of play which have been given above. Why +should play be instinctive in its forms, showing certain complex and +ingrained channels of expression, if it were merely the discharge of +surplus force? We are more lively in the morning, but that does not +explain our liking and indulging in certain sorts of complex games at +all hours. Moreover, animals and children will continue to play when +greatly fatigued. A dog, for example, which seems absolutely "used +up," can not resist the renewed solicitations of his friends to +continue the chase. Furthermore, why is it that plays are +characteristic of species, different kinds of animals having plays +quite peculiar to themselves? It is difficult to see how this could +have come about unless there had been some deeper-going reason in +accordance with which each species has learned the particular forms of +sport in which it indulges. + +The advocates of this theory attempt to meet these objections by +saying that the imitative instinct accounts for the particular +directions in which the discharges of energy occur. A kitten's plays +are like those of the cat tribe because the kitten is accustomed to +imitate cats; when it falls to playing it is with cats, and so it +sheds its superfluous energies in the customary imitative channels. In +this way it grows to learn the games of its own species. There is a +good deal in this point; most games are imitative in so far as they +are learned at all. But it does not save the theory; for many animal +plays are not learned by the individual at all, as we have seen above; +on the contrary, they are instinctive. In these cases the animal does +not wait to learn the games of his tribe by imitation, but +starts-right-in on his own account. Besides this there are many forms +of animal play which are not imitative at all. In these the animals +co-operate, but do not take the same parts. The young perform actions +in the game which the mother does not. + +All this goes to support another and most serious objection to this +theory--in the mind of all those who believe in the doctrine of +evolution. The Surplus-Energy Theory considers the play-impulse, which +is one of the most widespread characters of animal life, as merely an +accidental thing or by-product--a mere using-up of surplus energies. +It is not in any way important to the animals. This makes it +impossible to say that play has come to be the very complex thing that +it really is by the laws of evolution; for survival by natural +selection always supposes that the attribute or character which +survives is important enough to keep the animal alive in the struggle +for existence; otherwise it would not be continued for successive +generations, and gradually perfected on account of its utility. + +On the whole, therefore, we find the Surplus-Energy Theory of play +quite inadequate. + +II. Another theory therefore becomes necessary if we are to meet these +difficulties. Such a theory has recently been developed. It holds that +the plays of the animals are of the greatest utility to them in this +way: they exercise the young animals in the very activities--though in +a playful way--in which they must seriously engage later on in life. A +survey of the plays of animals with a view to comparing them in each +case with the adult activities of the same species, confirms this +theory in a remarkably large number of cases. It shows the young +anticipating, in their play, the struggles, enjoyments, co-operations, +defeats, emergencies, etc., of their after lives, and by learning to +cope with all these situations, so preparing themselves for the +serious onset of adult responsibilities. On this theory each play +becomes a beautiful case of adaptation to nature. The kitten plays +with the ball as the old cat handles the mouse; the little dogs +wrestle together, and so learn to fight with teeth and claws; the deer +run from one another, and so test their speed and learn to escape +their enemies. If we watch young animals at play we see that not a +muscle or nerve escapes this preliminary training and exercise; and +the instinctive tendencies which control the play direct the +activities into just the performances which the animal's later +life-habits are going on to require. + +On this view play becomes of the utmost utility. It is not a +by-product, but an essential part of the animal's equipment. Just as +the infancy period has been lengthened in the higher animals in order +to give the young time to learn all that they require to meet the +harsh conditions of life, so during this infancy period they have in +the play-instinct a means of the first importance for making good use +of their time. It is beautiful to see the adults playing with their +young, adapting their strength to the little ones, repeating the same +exercises without ceasing, drilling them with infinite pains to +greater hardihood, endurance, and skill. + +On this theory it is also easy to see why it is that the plays are +different for the different species. The actual life conditions are +different, and the habits of the species are correspondingly +different. So it is only another argument for the truth of this theory +that we find just those games natural to the young which train them +in the habits natural to the old. + +This view is now being very generally adopted. Many fine illustrations +might be cited. A simple case may be seen in so small a thing as the +habit of leaping in play; the difference, for example, between the +mountain goat and the common fawn. The former, when playing on level +ground makes a very ludicrous exhibition by jumping in little +up-and-down leaps by which he makes no progress. In contrast with this +the fawn, whose adult life is normally in the plains, takes a long +graceful spring. The difference becomes clear from the point of view +of this theory, when we remember that the goat is to live among the +rocks, where the only useful jump is just the up-and-down sort which +the little fellow is now practising; while the deer, in his life upon +the plains, will always need the running jump. + +Finally, on this theory, play becomes a thing for evolution to +cultivate for its utility in the progress of animal life, and for that +reason we may suppose it has been perfected in the remarkable variety +and beauty of form which it shows. + +On the psychological side, we find a corresponding state of things. +The mind in the young animal or child gets the main education of early +life through its play situations. Games have an extraordinary +pedagogical influence. The more so because they are the natural and +instinctive way of getting an education in practical things. This +again is of supreme utility to the individuals. + +Both for body and mind we find that play illustrates the principle of +Organic Selection explained above. It makes the young animal flexible, +plastic, and adaptable; it supplements all his other instincts and +imperfect functions; it gives him a new chance to live, and so +determines the course of evolution in the direction which the playful +animal represents. The quasi-social and gregarious habits of animals +probably owe much of their strength to the play-impulse, both through +the training of individual animals and through the fixing of these +tendencies as instincts in various animal species in the way just +mentioned. + +In another place below I analyze a child's game and draw some +inferences from it. Here it may suffice to say that in their games the +young animals acquire the flexibility of mind and muscle upon which +much of the social co-operation, as well as the individual +effectiveness, of their later life depends. With children, it is not +the only agency, of course, though its importance is not less. We have +to carry the children further by other means; but the other means +should never interfere with this natural schooling. They should aim +the rather by supplementing it wisely to direct its operation and to +extend its sphere. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE MIND OF THE CHILD--CHILD PSYCHOLOGY. + + +One of the most interesting chapters of modern psychology is that +which deals with the child. This is also one of the topics of general +concern, since our common humanity reacts with greater geniality upon +the little ones, in whom we instinctively see innocence and +simplicity. The popular interest in children has been, however--as +uncharitable as it may seem to say it--of very little service to the +scientific investigation of childhood. Even to-day, when a greater +body of valuable results are being secured, the main danger to the +proper study of the child's mind comes from the over-enthusiasm and +uninstructed assurance of some of its friends. Especially is this the +case in America, where "child study" has become a fad to be pursued by +parents and teachers who know little about the principles of +scientific method, and where influential educators have enlisted +so-called "observers" in taking indiscriminate notes on the doings of +children with no definite problem in view, and with no criticism of +their procedure. It is in place, therefore, to say clearly, at the +outset, that this chapter does not mean to stimulate parents or +unpsychological readers to report observations; and further to say +also that in the mind of the writer the publications made lately of +large numbers of replies to "syllabi" are for the most part worthless, +because they heap together observations obtained by persons of every +degree of competence and incompetence. + +On the other hand, the requisites here, as in every other sphere of +exact observation, are clear enough. The student of the child's mind +should have a thorough knowledge of the principles of general +psychology, in order to know what is characteristic of the child when +he sees it, and what is exceptional; and he should also have enough +originality in his ideas and interpretations to catch the valuable in +the child's doings, distinguishing it from the commonplace, and to +plan situations and even experiments which will give him some control +upon those actions of the child which seem to be worth it. The need +of these qualities is seen in the history of the problems of the +child's growth which have been taken up even by the most competent +psychologists. The results show a gradual attainment of control over +the problem in hand, each observer criticising the method and results +of his predecessor until certain rules of observation and experiment +have been evolved which allow of the repetition and repeated +observation of the events of the child's life. + +As illustrating the sort of problems in which there has been this +careful and critical work, I may instance these: the child's reflex +movements, the beginnings and growth of sensation, such as colour, the +rise of discrimination and preference, the origin of right and +left-handedness, the rise, mechanism, and meaning of imitation, the +acquisition of speech and handwriting, the growth of the child's sense +of personality and of his social consciousness, and the laws of +physical growth, as bearing upon mental development. In all these +cases, however, there is again a greater and a less exactness. The +topics with the reports of results which I am going on to give may be +taken, however, as typical, and as showing the direction of complete +knowledge rather than as having in any one case approached it. + +Before we take up particular questions, however, a word may be allowed +upon the general bearings of the study of the child's mind. I do this +the more willingly, since it is still true, in spite of the hopeful +outlook for positive results, that it is mainly the willingness of +psychology to recognise the problems and work at them that makes the +topic important at present. To investigate the child by scientific +methods is really to bring into psychology a procedure which has +revolutionized the natural sciences; and it is destined to +revolutionize the moral sciences by making them also in a great +measure natural sciences. The new and important question about the +mind which is thus recognised is this: _How did it grow?_ What light +upon its activity and nature can we get from a positive knowledge of +its early stages and processes of growth? This at once introduces +other questions: How is the growth of the child related to that of the +animals?--how, through heredity and social influences, to the growth +of the race and of the family and society in which he is brought up? +All this can be comprehended only in the light of the doctrine of +evolution, which has rejuvenated the sciences of life; and we are now +beginning to see a rejuvenation of the sciences of mind from the same +point of view. This is what is meant when we hear it said that +psychology is becoming "genetic." + +The advantages to be derived from the study of young children from +this point of view may be briefly indicated. + +1. In the first place, the facts of the infant consciousness are very +simple; that is, they are the child's sensations or memories simply, +not his own observations of them. In the adult mind the disturbing +influence of self-observation is a matter of notorious moment. It is +impossible for me to report exactly what I feel, for the observation +of it by my attention alters its character. My volition also is a +complex thing, involving my personal pride and self-consciousness. But +the child's emotion is as spontaneous as a spring. The effects of it +in the mental life come out in action, pure and uninfluenced by +calculation and duplicity and adult reserve. There is around every one +of us adults a web of convention and prejudice of our own making. Not +only do we reflect the social formalities of our environment, and thus +lose the distinguishing spontaneities of childhood, but each of us +builds up his own little world of seclusion and formality with +himself. We are subject, as Bacon said, not only to "idols of the +forum," but also to "idols of the den." + +The child, on the contrary, has not learned his own importance, his +pedigree, his beauty, his social place, his religion; he has not +observed himself through all these and countless other lenses of time, +place, and circumstance. He has not yet turned himself into an idol nor +the world into a temple; and we can study him apart from the complex +accretions which are the later deposits of his self-consciousness. + +2. The study of children is often the only means of testing the truth +of our analyses. If we decide that a certain mental state is due to a +union of simpler elements, then we may appeal to the proper period of +child life to see the union taking place. The range of growth is so +enormous from the infant to the adult, and the beginnings of the +child's mental life are so low in the scale, in the matter of mental +endowment, that there is hardly a question of analysis now under +debate in psychology which may not be tested by this method. + +At this point it is that child psychology is more valuable than the +study of the mind of animals. The latter never become men, while +children do. The animals represent in some few respects a branch of +the tree of growth in advance of man, while being in many other +respects very far behind him. In studying animals we are always +haunted by the fear that the analogy from him to man may not hold; +that some element essential to the development of the human mind may +not be in the animal at all. Even in such a question as the +localization of the functions of the brain described later on, where +the analogy is one of comparative anatomy and only secondarily of +psychology, the monkey presents analogies with man which dogs do not. +But in the study of children we may be always sure that a normal child +has in him the promise of a normal man. + +3. Again, in the study of the child's mind we have the added advantage +of a corresponding simplicity on the bodily side; we are able to take +account of the physiological processes at a time when they are +relatively simple--that is, before the nervous system has grown to +maturity. For example, psychology used to hold that we have a "speech +faculty," an inborn mental endowment which is incapable of further +analysis; but support for the position is wanting when we turn to the +brain of the infant. Not only do we fail to find the series of centres +now known to be the "speech zone," but even those of them which we do +find have not yet taken up this function, either alone or together. In +other words, the primary object of each of the various centres +involved is not speech, but some other and simpler function; and +speech arises by development from a union of these separate functions. + +4. In observing young children, a more direct application of +experiment is possible. By "experiment" here I mean both experiment +on the senses and also experiment directly on consciousness by +suggestion, social influence, etc. In experimenting on adults, great +difficulties arise through the fact that reactions--such as performing +a voluntary movement when a signal is heard, etc.--are complicated by +deliberation, habit, custom, choice, etc. The subject hears a sound, +identifies it, and presses a button--_if he choose_ and agree to do +so. What goes on in this interval between the advent of the incoming +nerve process and the discharge of the outgoing nerve process? +Something, at any rate, which represents a brain process of great +complexity. Now, anything that fixes or simplifies the brain process, +in so far gives greater certainty to the results. For this reason +experiments on reflex actions are valuable and decisive where similar +experiments on voluntary actions are uncertain and of doubtful value. +Now the child's mind is relatively simple, and so offers a field for +more fruitful experiment; this is seen in the reactions of the infant +to strong stimuli, such as bright colours, etc., as related further +on. + +With this inadequate review of the advantages of infant psychology, it +is well also to point out the dangers of the abuse of it. Such dangers +are real. The very simplicity which seems to characterize the life of +the child is often extremely misleading, and this because the +simplicity in question is sometimes ambiguous. Two actions of the +child may appear equally simple; but one may be an adaptive action, +learned with great pains and really very complex, while the other may +be inadaptive and really simple. Children differ under the law of +heredity very remarkably, even in the simplest manifestations of their +conscious lives. It is never safe to say without qualification: "This +child did, consequently all children must." The most we can usually +say in observing single children is: "This child did, consequently +another child may." + +Speaking more positively, the following remarks may be useful to those +who have a mind to observe children: + +1. In the first place, we can fix no absolute time in the history of +the child at which a certain mental process takes its rise. The +observations, now quite extensively recorded, and sometimes quoted as +showing that the first year, or the second year, etc., brings such and +such developments, tend, on the contrary, to show that such divisions +do not hold in any strict sense. Like any other organic growth, the +nervous system may develop faster under more favourable conditions, or +more slowly under less favourable; and the growth of the mind is +largely dependent upon the growth of the brain. Only in broad outline +and within very wide limits can such periods be marked off at all. + +2. The possibility of the occurrence of a mental state at a particular +time must be distinguished from its necessity. The occurrence of a +single clearly observed fact is decisive only against the theory +according to which its occurrence under the given conditions may not +occur. For example, the very early adaptive movements of the infant in +receiving its food can not be due to intelligence and will; but the +case is still open as to the question what is the reason of their +presence--i.e., how much nervous development is present, how much +experience is necessary, etc. It is well to emphasize the fact that +one case may be decisive in overthrowing a theory, but the conditions +are seldom simple enough to make one case decisive in establishing a +theory. + +3. It follows, however, from the principle of growth itself that the +order of development of the main mental functions is constant, and +normally free from great variations; consequently, the most fruitful +observations of children are those which show that such an act was +present _before another_. The complexity becomes finally so remarkable +that there seems to be no before or after at all in mental things; but +if the child's growth shows a stage in which any process is clearly +absent, we have at once light upon the laws of growth. For instance: +if a single case is conclusively established of a child's drawing an +inference before it begins to use words or significant vocal sounds, +the one case is as good as a thousand to show that thought may develop +in some degree independently of spoken language. + +4. While the most direct results are acquired by systematic +experiments with a given point in view, still general observations +carefully recorded by competent persons, are important for the +interpretation which a great many such records may afford in the end. +In the multitude of experiences here, as everywhere, there is +strength. Such observations should cover everything about the +child--his movements, cries, impulses, sleep, dreams, personal +preferences, muscular efforts, attempts at expression, games, +favourites, etc.--and should be recorded in a regular daybook at the +time of occurrence. What is important and what is not, is, as I have +said, something to be learned; and it is extremely desirable that any +one contemplating such observations should acquaint himself beforehand +with the principles of general psychology and physiology, and should +seek also the practical advice of a trained observer. + +As yet many of the observations which we have in this field were made +by the average mother, who knows less about the human body than she +does about the moon or the wild flowers, or by the average father, who +sees his child for an hour a day, when the boy is dressed up, and who +has never slept in the same room with him--let alone the same bed!--in +his life; by people who have never heard the distinction between +reflex and voluntary action, or that between nervous adaptation and +conscious choice. The difference between the average mother and the +good psychologist is this: she has no theories, he has; he has no +interests, she has. She may bring up a family of a dozen and not be +able to make a single trustworthy observation; he maybe able, from one +sound of one yearling, to confirm theories of the neurologist and +educator, which are momentous for the future training and welfare of +the child. + +As for experimenting with children, only the psychologist should +undertake it. The connections between the body and the mind are so +close in infancy, the mere animal can do so much to ape reason, and +the child is so helpless under the leading of instinct, impulse, and +external necessity, that the task is excessively difficult--to say +nothing of the extreme delicacy and tenderness of the budding tendrils +of the mind. But others do experiment! Every time we send a child out +of the home to the school, we subject him to experiment of the most +serious and alarming kind. He goes into the hands of a teacher who is +often not only not wise unto the child's salvation, but who is, +perchance, a machine for administering a single experiment to an +infinite variety of children. It is perfectly certain that a great +many of our children are irretrievably damaged or hindered in their +mental and moral development in the school; but we can not be at all +sure that they would fare any better if they were taught at home! The +children are experimented with so much and so unwisely, in any case, +that possibly a little intentional experiment, guided by real insight +and psychological information, would do them good. + +_Methods of experimenting with Children._--In endeavouring to bring +such questions as the degree of memory, recognition, association, +etc., present in an infant, to a practical test, considerable +embarrassment has always been experienced in understanding the child's +vocal and other responses. Of course, the only way a child's mind can +be studied is through its expressions, facial, lingual, vocal, +muscular; and the first question--i.e., What did the infant do? must +be followed by a second--i.e., What did his doing that mean? The +second question is, as I have said, the harder question, and the one +which requires more knowledge and insight. It is evident, on the +surface, that the further away we get in the child's life from simple +inherited or reflex responses, the more complicated do the processes +become, and the greater becomes the difficulty of analyzing them, and +arriving at a true picture of the real mental condition which lies +back of them. + +To illustrate this confusion, I may cite one of the few problems which +psychologists have attempted to solve by experiments on children: the +determination of the order of rise of the child's perceptions of the +different colours. The first series of experiments consisted in +showing the child various colours and requiring him to name them, the +results being expressed in percentages of correct answers to the whole +number. Now this experiment involves no less than four different +questions, and the results give absolutely no clew to their +separation. It involves: + +1. The child's distinguishing different colours displayed +simultaneously before it, together with the complete development of +the eyes for colour sensation. 2. The child's ability to recognise or +identify a colour after having seen it once. 3. An association between +the child's colour seeing and word hearing and speaking memories, by +which the proper name for the colours is brought up in his mind. 4. +Equally ready facility in the pronunciation of the various names of +the colours which he recognises; and there is the further +embarrassment, that any such process which involves association of +ideas, is as varied as the lives of children. The single fact that +speech is acquired long after objects and some colours are +distinguished, shows that results reached by this method have very +little value as far as the problem of the first perception of colours +is concerned. + +That the fourth element pointed out above is a real source of +confusion is shown by the fact that children recognise many words +which they can not readily pronounce. When this was realized, a +second phase in the development of the problem arose. A colour was +named, and then the child was required to pick out that colour. This +gave results different from those reached by the first method, blue +and red leading the list in correct answers by the first method, while +by this second method yellow led, and blue came near the end of the +list. + +The further objection that colours might be distinguished before the +word names are learned, or that colour words might be interchanged or +confused by the child, gave rise to what we may call the third stage +in the statement of the problem. The method of "recognition" took the +place of the method of "naming." This consisted in showing to a child +a coloured disk, without naming it, and then asking him to pick out +the same colour from a number of coloured disks. + +This reduces the question to the second of the four I have named +above. It is the usual method of testing for colour blindness, in +which, from defects of vision, certain colours can not be perceived at +all. It answers very well for colour blindness; for what we really +want to learn in the case of a sailor or a signal-man is whether he +can recognise a given signal when it is repeated; that is, does he +know green or red to be the same as his former experience of green or +red? But it is evident that there is still a more fundamental question +in the matter--the real question of colour perception. It is quite +possible that a child might not recognise an isolated colour when he +could really very well distinguish the colours lying side by side. The +last question, then, is this: When does the child get the different +colour _Sensations_ (not recognitions), and in what order? + +To solve this question it would seem that experiments should be made +upon younger children. The results described above were all secured +after the children had made considerable progress in learning to +speak. + +To meet this requirement another method may be used which can be +applied to children less than a year old. The colours are shown, and +the child led to grasp after them. This method is of such a character +as to yield a series of experiments whose results are in terms of the +most fundamental movements of the infant; it can be easily and +pleasantly conducted; and it is of wide application. The child's hand +movements are nearly ideal in this respect. The hand reflects the +child's first feelings, and becomes the most mobile organ of his +volition, except his organs of speech. We find spontaneous arm and +hand movements, reflex movements, reaching-out movements, grasping +movements, imitative movements, manipulating movements, and voluntary +efforts--all these, in order, reflecting the development of the mind. + +To illustrate this method, I may cite certain results reached by +myself on the questions of colour and distance perception, and +right-handedness in the child. + +_Distance and Colour Perception._--I undertook at the beginning of my +child H.'s ninth month to experiment with her with a view to arriving +at the exact state of her colour perception, and also to investigate +her sense of distance. The arrangements consisted in this instance in +giving the infant a comfortable sitting posture, kept constant by a +band passing around her chest and fastened securely to the back of her +chair. Her arms were left bare and quite free in their movements. +Pieces of paper of different colours were exposed before her, at +varying distances, front, right, and left. This was regulated by a +framework, consisting of a horizontal rod graded in inches, projecting +from the back of the chair at a level with her shoulder and parallel +with her arm when extended straight forward, and carrying on it +another rod, also graded in inches, at right angles to the first. This +second rod was thus a horizontal line directly in front of the child, +parallel with a line connecting her shoulders, and so equally distant +for both hands. This second rod was made to slide upon the first, so +as to be adjusted at any desired distance from the child. On this +second rod the colours, etc., were placed in succession, the object +being to excite the child to reach for them. So far from being +distasteful to the infant, I found that, with pleasant suggestions +thrown about the experiments, the whole procedure gave her much +gratification, and the affair became one of her pleasant daily +occupations. After each sitting she was given a reward of some kind. I +give the results, both for colour and distance, of 217 experiments. Of +these 111 were with five colours and 106 with ordinary newspaper +(chosen as a relatively neutral object, which would have no colour +value and no association, to the infant). + +_Colour._--The colours range themselves in the order of +attractiveness--blue, red, white, green, and brown. Disregarding +white, the difference between blue and red is very slight, compared +with that between any other two. This confirms the results of the +second method described above. Brown, to my child--as tested in this +way--seemed to be about as neutral as could well be. A similar +distaste for brown has been noticed by others. White, on the other +hand, was more attractive than green. I am sorry that my list did not +include yellow. The newspaper was, at reaching distance (9 to 10 +inches) and a little more (up to 14 inches), as attractive as the +average of the colours, and even as much so as the red; but this is +probably due to the fact that the newspaper experiments came after a +good deal of practice in reaching after colours, and a more exact +association between the stimulus and its distance. At 15 inches and +over, the newspaper was refused in 93 per cent of the cases, while +blue was refused at that distance in only 75 per cent, and red in 83 +per cent. + +_Distance._--In regard to the question of distance, the child +persistently refused to reach for anything put 16 inches or more away +from her. At 15 inches she refused 91 per cent of all the cases, 90 +per cent of the colour cases, and, as I have said, 93 per cent of the +newspaper cases. At nearer distances we find the remarkable uniformity +with which the safe-distance association works at this early age. At +14 inches only 14 per cent of all the cases were refused, and at 13 +inches only about 7 per cent. There was a larger percentage of +refusals at 11 and 12 inches than at 13 and 14 inches, a result due to +the influence of the brown, which was refused consistently when more +than 10 inches away. The fact that there were no refusals to reach for +anything exposed within reaching distance (10 inches)--other +attractive objects being kept away--shows two things; (1) the very +fine estimation visually of the distance represented by the +arm-length; and (2) the great uniformity at this age of the phenomenon +of Motor Suggestion upon which this method of child study is based, +and which is referred to again below. In respect to the first point, +it will be remembered that the child does not begin to reach for +anything that it sees until about the fourth or sixth week; so it is +evident at what a remarkably fast rate those obscure factors of size, +perspective, light and shade, etc., which signify distance to the eye, +become associated with arm movements of reaching. This method, applied +with proper precautions, obviates many of the difficulties of the +others. There are certain requirements of proper procedure, however, +which should never be neglected by any one who experiments with young +children. + +In the first place, the child is peculiarly susceptible to the appeals +of change, novelty, chance, or happy suggestion; and often the failure +to respond to a stimulus is due to distraction or to discomfort rather +than to lack of intrinsic interest. Again, fatigue is a matter of +considerable importance. In respect to fatigue, I should say that the +first signs of restlessness, or arbitrary loss of interest, in a +series of stimulations, is sufficient warning, and all attempts at +further experimenting should cease. Often the child is in a state of +indisposition, of trifling nervous irritability, etc.; this should be +detected beforehand, and then nothing should be undertaken. No series +longer than three trials should be attempted without changing the +child's position, resting its attention with a song, or a game, etc., +and thus leading it fresh to its task again. Furthermore, no single +stimulus, as a colour, should be twice repeated without a change to +some other, since the child's eagerness or alertness is somewhat +satisfied by the first effort, and a new thing is necessary to bring +him out to full exercise again. After each effort or two the child +should be given the object reached for to hold or play with for a +moment; otherwise he grows to apprehend that the whole affair is a +case of "Tantalus." In all these matters very much depends upon the +knowledge and care of the experimenter, and his ability to keep the +child in a normal condition of pleasurable muscular exercise +throughout. + +In performing colour experiments, several requirements would appear to +be necessary for exact results. Should not the colours chosen be equal +in purity, intensity, lustre, illumination, etc.? In reference to +these differences, I think only that degree of care need be exercised +which good comparative judgment provides. Colours of about equal +objective intensity, of no gloss, of relatively evident spectral +purity, under constant illumination--this is all that is required. The +variations due to the grosser factors I have mentioned--such as +condition of attention, physical unrest, disturbing noises, sights, +etc.--are of greater influence than any of these more recondite +variations in the stimulus. Intensity and lustre, however, are +certainly important. It is possible, by carefully choosing a room of +pretty constant daylight illumination, and setting the experiments at +the same hour each day, to secure a regular degree of brightness if +the colours themselves are equally bright; and lustre may be ruled out +by using coloured wools or blotting-papers. The papers used in the +experiments given above were coloured blotting-papers. The omission of +yellow is due to the absence, in the neighbourhood, of a satisfactory +yellow paper. + +The method now described may be further illustrated by the following +experiments on the use of the hands by the young child. + +_The Origin of Right-handedness._--The question, "Why are we right or +left-handed?" has exercised the speculative ingenuity of many men. It +has come to the front anew in recent years, in view of the advances made +in the general physiology of the nervous system; and certainly we are +now in a better position to set the problem intelligently and to hope +for its solution. Hitherto the actual conditions of the rise of +"dextrality" in young children--as the general fact of uneven-handedness +may be called--have not been closely observed. It was to gain light, +therefore, upon the facts themselves that the experiments described in +the following pages were carried out. + +My child H. was placed in a comfortable sitting posture, the arms left +bare and free in their movement, and allowed to reach for objects placed +before her in positions exactly determined and recorded by the simple +arrangement of sliding rods already described. The experiments took +place at the same hour daily, for a period extending from her fourth to +her tenth month. These experiments were planned with very great care and +with especial view to the testing of several hypotheses which, although +superficial to those who have studied physiology, yet constantly recur +in publications on this subject. Among these theories certain may be +mentioned with regard to which my experiments were conclusive. It has +frequently been held that a child's right-handedness arises from the +nurse's or mother's constant method of carrying it, the child's hand +which is left free being more exercised, and so becoming stronger. This +theory is ambiguous as regards both mother and child. The mother, if +right-handed, would carry the child on the left arm, in order to work +with the right arm. This I find an invariable tendency with myself and +with nurses and mothers whom I have observed. But this would leave the +child's left arm free, and so a right-handed mother would be found with +a left-handed child! Again, if the mother or nurse be left-handed, the +child would tend to be right-handed. Or if, as is the case in civilized +countries, nurses largely replace the mothers, it would be necessary +that most of the nurses be left-handed in order to make most of the +children right-handed. Now, none of these deductions are true. Further, +the child, as a matter of fact, holds on with both hands, however it is +itself held. + +Another theory maintains that the development of right-handedness is +due to differences in weight of the two lateral halves of the body; +this tends to bring more strain on one side than the other, and to +give more exercise, and so more development, to that side. This +evidently assumes that children are not right or left-handed before +they learn to stand. This my results given below show to be false. +Again, we are told that infants get right-handed by being placed on +one side too much for sleep; this can be shown to have little force +also when the precaution is taken to place the child alternately on +its right and left sides for its sleeping periods. + +In the case of the child H., certain precautions were carefully +enforced. She was never carried about in arms at all, never walked +with when crying or sleepless; she was frequently turned over in her +sleep; she was not allowed to balance herself on her feet until a +later period than that covered by the experiments. Thus the conditions +of the rise of the right-handed era were made as simple and uniform as +possible. + +The experiments included, besides reaching for colours, a great many +of reaching for other objects, at longer and shorter distances, and in +unsymmetrical directions. I give some details of the results of the +experiments in which simple objects were used, extending over a period +of four months, from the fifth to the ninth in her life. The number of +experiments at each sitting varied from ten to forty, the position of +the child being reversed as to light from windows, position of +observation, etc., after half of each series. + +No trace of preference for either hand was discernible during this +period; indeed, the neutrality was as complete as if it had been +arranged beforehand, or had followed the throwing of dice. + +I then conceived the idea that possibly a severer distance test might +affect the result and show a marked preferential response by one hand +over the other. I accordingly continued to use a neutral stimulus, but +placed it from twelve to fifteen inches away from the child. This +resulted in very hard straining on her part, with all the signs of +physical effort (explosive breathing sounds resulting from the setting +of the larynx, rush of blood to the head, seen in the flushing of the +face, etc.). The number of experiments in each series was +intentionally made very small, from one to twelve, in order to avoid +fatigue. + +The results were now very interesting. During the month ending June +15th the child showed no decided preference for either hand in +reaching straight before her within the easy reaching distance of ten +inches, but a slight balance in favour of the left hand; yet she was +right-handed to a marked degree during the same period as regards +movements which required effort or strain, such as grasping for +objects twelve to fifteen inches distant. For the greater distances, +the left hand was used in only five cases as against seventy-four +cases of the use of the right hand; and further, all these five cases +were twelve-inch distances, the left hand being used absolutely not at +all in the forty-five cases at longer distances. + +In order to test this further, I varied the point of exposure of the +stimulus to the right or left, aiming thus to attract the hand on one +side or the other, and so to determine whether the growth of such a +preference was limited to experiences of convenience in reaching to +adjacent local objects, etc. + +The deviation to the left in front of the body only called out the +right hand to greater exertion, while the left hand fell into still +greater disuse. This seems to show that "dextrality" is not derived +from the experience of the individual in using either hand +predominantly for reaching, grasping, holding, etc., within the +easiest range of that hand. The right hand intruded regularly upon the +domain of the left. + +Proceeding upon the clew thus obtained, a clew which seems to suggest +that the hand preference is influenced by the stimulus to the eye, I +introduced hand observations into a series of experiments already +mentioned above on the same child's perception of the different +colours; thinking that the colour stimulus which represented the +strongest inducement to the child to reach might have the same effect +in determining the use of the right hand as the increased distance in +the experiments already described. This inference is proved to be +correct by the results. + +It should be added that in all cases in which both hands were used +together, each hand was called out with evident independence of the +other, both about the same time, and both carried energetically to the +goal. In many other cases in which either right or left hand is given +in the results, the other hand also moved, but in a subordinate and +aimless way. There was a very marked difference between the use of +both hands in some cases, and of one hand followed by, or accompanied +by, the other in other cases. It was very rare that the second hand +did not thus follow or accompany the first; and this was extremely +marked in the violent reaching for which the right hand was mainly +used. This movement was almost invariably accompanied by an objectless +and fruitless symmetrical movement of the other hand. + +The results of the entire series of experiments on the use of the +hands may be stated as follows, mainly in the words in which they were +summarily reported some time ago: + +1. I found no continued preference for either hand as long as there +were no violent muscular exertions made (based on 2,187 systematic +experiments in cases of free movement of hands near the body--i. e., +right hand, 577 cases; left hand, 568 cases--a difference of 9 cases; +both hands, 1,042 cases; the difference of 9 cases being too slight to +have any meaning); the period covered being from the child's sixth to +her tenth month inclusive. + +2. Under the same conditions, the tendency to use both hands together +was about double the tendency to use either (seen from the number of +cases of the use of both hands in the figures given above). + +3. A distinct preference for the right hand in violent efforts in +reaching became noticeable in the seventh and eighth months. +Experiments during the eighth month on this cue gave, in 80 cases, +right hand, 74 cases; left hand, 5 cases; both hands, 1 case. This was +true in two very distinct classes of cases: first, reaching for +objects, neutral as regards colour (newspaper, etc.), at more than the +reaching distance; and, second, reaching for bright colours at any +distance. Under the stimulus of bright colours, from 86 cases, 84 were +right-hand cases and 2 left-hand. Right-handedness had accordingly +developed under pressure of muscular effort in the sixth and seventh +months, and showed itself also under the influence of a strong colour +stimulus to the eye. + +4. Up to this time the child had not learned to stand or to creep; +hence the development of one hand more than the other is not due to +differences in weight between the two longitudinal halves of the body. +As she had not learned to speak or to utter articulate sounds with +much distinctness, we may say also that right or left-handedness may +develop while the speech centres are not yet functioning. Further, the +right hand is carried over after objects on the left side, showing +that habit in reaching does not determine its use. + +_Theoretical_.--Some interesting points arise in connection with the +interpretation of these facts. If it be true that the order of rise of +mental and physiological functions is constant, then for this question +the results obtained in the case of one child, if accurate, would hold +for others apart from any absolute time determination. We should +expect, therefore, that these results would be confirmed by +experiments on other children, and this is the only way their +correctness can be tested. + +If, when tested, they should be found correct, they would be +sufficient answer to several of the theories of right-handedness +heretofore urged, as has been already remarked. The rise of the +phenomenon must be sought, therefore, in more deep-going facts of +physiology than such theories supply. Furthermore, if we go lower in +the animal scale than man, analogies for the kinds of experience which +are urged as reasons for right-handedness are not present; animals do +not carry their young, nor pat them to sleep, nor do animals shake +hands! + +A full discussion would lead us to the conclusion that dextrality is +due to a difference in development in the two hemispheres of the +brain, that these differences are hereditary, and that they show +themselves toward the end of the first year. + +It is a singular circumstance that right-handedness and speech are +controlled by the same hemisphere of the brain and from contiguous +areas. It would explain this--and at the same time it seems probable +from other considerations--if we found that right-handedness was first +used for expression before speech; and that speech has arisen from +the setting aside, for further development, of the area in the brain +first used for right-handedness. Musical expression has its seat in or +near the same lobe of the brain. + +_The Child's Mental Development in General_.--The actual development +of the child, as observations from many sources indicate it, may be +sketched very briefly in its main outlines. It is probable that the +earliest consciousness is simply a mass of touch and muscular +sensations experienced in part before birth. Shortly after birth the +child begins to connect his impressions with one another and to show +Memory. But both memory and Association are very weak, and depend upon +intense stimulations, such as bright lights, loud noises, etc. The +things which most effect him at these early stages are those which +bring him into conditions of sharp physical pain or give him acute +pleasure. Yet it is a remarkable fact that at birth the pain reflex is +wanting. His whole life up to about the fourth month turns upon his +organic and vegetative needs. At three months the young child will +forget his mother or nurse after a very few days. Attention begins to +arise about the end of the first quarter year, appearing first in +response to bright lights and loud sounds, and being for a +considerable time purely reflex, drawn here and there by the +successive impressions which the environment makes. With lights and +sounds, however, movements also attract the infant's attention very +early; and the passage from reflex attention to a sort of vague +interest seems to arise first in connection with the movements of the +persons about him. This interest goes on to develop very rapidly in +the second half year, in connection more particularly with the +movements which are associated with the child's own comfort and +discomfort. The association of muscular sensations with those of touch +and sight serves to give him his first clear indications of the +positions of his own members and of other objects. His discrimination +of what belongs to his own body is probably aided by so-called "double +touch"--the fact that when he touches his own body, as in touching his +foot with the hand, he has two sensations, one in the foot and the +other in the hand. This is not the case when he touches other objects, +and he soon learns the distinction, getting the outlines of his own +body marked out in a vague way. The learning of the localities on his +body which he can not see, however, lags far behind. The movements of +his limbs in active exploration, accompanied by sight, enables him to +build up his knowledge of the world about him. Learning this he soon +falls to "experimenting" with the things of space. Thus he begins to +find out how things fit together, and what their uses are. + +On the side of his movements we find him going through a series of +remarkable adaptations to his environment. At the beginning his +movements are largely random discharges, or reflexes of an instinctive +character, such as sucking. Yet in the first month he shows the +beginning of adaptation to the suggestions of his daily life, the +first manifestations of acquired Habit. He learns when and how long he +is expected to sleep, when and how much to eat; he very soon finds out +the peculiar touch and vocal tones of this person or that, and acts +upon these distinctions. He gets to know the meaning of his food +bottle, to understand the routine movements of persons about the +room, and the results of violations of their order. His hat, wraps, +carriage, become in the first half year signals to him of the outdoor +excursion. He no longer bobs his head about when held erect, and +begins to control his natural processes. The remarkable thing about +all these adaptations is that they occur before the infant can in any +sense be said to have a Will; for, as has been said, the fibres of the +brain necessary to voluntary action--in the cortex of the +hemispheres--are not yet formed. + +The realization of this extraordinary adaptiveness of the very young +child should save parents many an anxious day and sleepless night. +There is practically nothing more easy than to impress upon the child +whatever habits of daily--and nightly!--routine one wishes to give +him, if he be taken early enough. The only requirements are knowledge +of what is good for him, and then _inviolable regularity_ in +everything that concerns him. Under this treatment he will become as +"obstinate" in being "good" as the opposite so-called indulgent or +capricious treatment always make him in being "bad." There is no +reason whatever that he should be walked with or held, that he should +be taken up when he cries, that he should be trotted when he awakes, +or that he should have a light by night. Things like this are simply +bad habits for which the parents have themselves to thank. The child +adapts himself to his treatment, and it is his treatment that his +habits reflect. + +During the second half-year--sooner or later in particular cases--the +child is ready to begin to imitate. Imitation is henceforth, for the +following few years, the most characteristic thing about his action. +He first imitates movements, later sounds, especially vocal sounds. +His imitations themselves also show progress, being at first what is +called "simple imitation" (repeating a distinction already spoken of +in the chapter on animals), as when the child lies in bed in the +morning and repeats the same sound over and over again. He hears his +own voice and imitates it. In this sort of imitation he simply allows +his instinct to reproduce what he hears without control or +interference from him. He does not improve, but goes on making the +same sounds with the same mistakes again and again. But a little later +he begins what is called "persistent imitation"--the "try-try-again," +already spoken of--which is a very different thing. Persistent +imitation shows unmistakably the presence of will. The child is not +satisfied with simple imitation or mere repetition, whether it be good +or bad in its results. He now sees his errors and aims consciously to +improve. Note the child's struggles to speak a word right by imitation +of the pronunciation of others. And he succeeds. He gradually gets his +muscles under control by persistence in his try-try-again. + +Then he goes further--about the beginning of his second year, usually. +He gets the idea that imitation is the way to learn, and turns all his +effort into imitations experimentally carried out. He is now ready to +learn most of the great processes of his later culture. Speech, +writing, this special accomplishment and that, are all learned by +experimental imitation. + +The example of the child's trying to draw or write has already been +cited. He looks at the copy before him; sets all his muscles of hand +and arm into massive contraction; turns and twists his tongue, bends +his body, winds his legs together, holds his breath, and in every way +concentrates his energies upon the copying of the model. In all this +he is experimenting. + +He produces a wealth of movements, from which, very gradually, as he +tries and tries again, the proper ones are selected out. These he +practises, and lets the superfluous ones fall away, until he secures +the requisite control over hand and arm. Or suppose a child +endeavouring, in the crudest fashion, to put a rubber on the end of a +pencil, after seeing some one else do it--just the sort of thing a +year-old child loves to imitate. What a chaos of ineffective +movements! But with repeated effort he gets nearer and nearer to it, +and finally succeeds. + +On the side of action, two general principles have been formulated in +child psychology, both illustrated in the cases and experiments now +given: The one, Motor Suggestion, is, as we saw, a principle of +general psychology. Its importance to the child is that by it he forms +Habits, useful responses to his environment, and so saves himself many +sad blunders. The other principle is that of Imitation; by it the +child learns new things directly in the teeth of his habits. By +exercising in an excessive way what he has already learned through his +experimental imitations, he is continually modifying his habits and +making new adaptations. These two principles dominate the active life +of the adult man as well. + +_Personality Suggestion._--A further set of facts may be cited to +illustrate the working of Suggestion, now in the sphere of the +receptive life. They are important as showing the child's progress in +learning the great features of personality. + +One of the most remarkable tendencies of the very young child in its +responses to its environment is the tendency to recognise differences +of personality. It responds to what have been called Suggestions of +Personality. As early as the second month it distinguishes its +mother's or nurse's touch in the dark. It learns characteristic +methods of holding, taking up, patting, kissing, etc., and adapts +itself, by a marvellous accuracy of protestation or acquiescence, to +these personal variations. Its associations of personality come to be +of such importance that for a long time its happiness or misery +depends upon the presence of certain kinds of "personality +suggestion." It is quite a different thing from the child's behavior +toward things which are not persons. Things come to be, with some few +exceptions which are involved in the direct gratification of appetite, +more and more unimportant; things may be subordinated to regular +treatment or reaction. But persons become constantly more important, +as uncertain and dominating agents of pleasure and pain. The sight of +movement by persons, with its effects on the infant, seems to be the +most important factor in this peculiar influence; later the voice +comes to stand for a person's presence, and at last the face and its +expressions equal the person in all his attributes. + +I think this distinction between persons and things, between agencies +and objects, is the child's very first step toward a sense of +personality. The sense of uncertainty or lack of confidence grows +stronger and stronger in his dealings with persons--an uncertainty +aroused by the moods, emotions, changes of expression, and shades of +treatment of the persons around it. A person stands for a group of +quite unstable experiences. This period we may, for brevity of +expression, assuming it to be first in order of development, call the +"projective" stage in the growth of the child's personal +consciousness. + +It is from this beginning that the child goes on to become fully +conscious of what persons are. And when we observe his actions more +closely we find no less than four steps in his growth, which, on +account of the importance of the topic, may be stated in some little +detail. + +1. The first thing of significance to him, as has been said, is +_movement_. The first attempts of the infant at anything like steady +attention are directed to moving things--a swaying curtain, a moving +light, a stroking touch, etc. And further than this, the moving things +soon become more than objects of curiosity; these things are just the +things that affect him with pleasure or pain. It is movement that +brings him his bottle, movement that regulates the stages of his bath, +movement that dresses him comfortably, movement that sings to him and +rocks him to sleep. In that complex of sensations, the nurse, the +feature of importance to him, of immediate satisfaction or redemption +from pain, is this--movements come to succour him. Change in his +bodily feeling is the vital requirement of his life, for by it the +rhythm of his vegetative existence is secured; and these things are +accompanied and secured always in the moving presence of the one he +sees and feels about him. This, I take it, is the earliest reflection +in his consciousness of the world of personalities about him. At this +stage his "personality suggestion" is a _pain-movement-pleasure_ +state of mind; to this he reacts with a smile, and a crow, and a kick. +Undoubtedly this association gets some of its value from the other +similar one in which the movements are the infant's own. It is by +movements that he gets rid of pains and secures pleasures. + +Many facts tend to bear out this position. My child cried in the dark +when I handled her, although I imitated the nurse's movements as +closely as possible. She tolerated a strange presence so long as it +remained quietly in its place; but let it move, and especially let it +usurp any of the pieces of movement-business of the nurse or mother, +and her protests were emphatic. The movements tended to bring the +strange elements of a new face into the vital association, +pain-movement-pleasure, and so to disturb its familiar course; this +constituted it a strange "personality." + +It is astonishing, also, what new accidental elements may become parts +of this association. Part of a movement, a gesture, a peculiar habit +of the nurse, may become sufficient to give assurance of the welcome +presence and the pleasures which the presence brings. Two notes of my +song in the night stood for my presence to H., and no song from any +one else could replace it. A lighted match stopped the crying of E. +for food in her fourteenth week, although it was but a signal for a +process of food preparation lasting several minutes; and a simple +light never stopped her crying under any other circumstances. + +2. With this first start in the sense of personality we find also the +beginning of the recognition of different personalities. It is +evident that the sense of another's presence thus felt in the infant's +consciousness rests, as all associations rest, upon regularity or +repetition; his sense of expectancy is aroused whenever the chain of +events is started. This is soon embodied largely in two indications: +the face and the voice. But it is easy to see that this is a very +meagre sense of personality; a moving machine which brought pain and +alleviated suffering might serve as well. So the child begins to +learn, in addition, the fact that persons are in a measure individual +in their treatment of him; that their individuality has elements of +uncertainty or _irregularity_ about it. This growing sense is very +clear to one who watches an infant in its second half year. Sometimes +its mother gives it a biscuit, but sometimes she does not. Sometimes +the father smiles and tosses the child; sometimes he does not. Even +the indulgence of the grandmother has its times and seasons. The child +looks for signs of these varying moods and methods of treatment; for +his pains of disappointment arise directly on the basis of that former +sense of regular personal presence upon which his expectancy goes +forth. + +This new element of the child's sense of persons becomes, at one +period of its development, quite the controlling element. His action +in the presence of the persons of the household becomes hesitating and +watchful. Especially does he watch the face, for any expressive +indications of what treatment is to be expected; for facial expression +is now the most regular as well as the most delicate indication. +Special observations on H.'s responses to changes in facial expression +up to the age of twenty months showed most subtle sensibility to +these differences; and normal children all do. Animals are also very +expert at this. + +All through the child's second year, and longer, his sense of the +persons around him is in this stage. The incessant "why?" with which +he greets any action affecting him, or any information given him, is +witness to the simple puzzle of the apparent capriciousness of +persons. Of course he can not understand "why"; so the simple fact to +him is that mamma will or won't, he knows not beforehand which. He is +unable to anticipate the treatment in detail, and he has not of course +learned any principles of interpretation of the conduct of father or +mother lying back of the details. + +But in all this period there is germinating in his consciousness--and this +very uncertainty is an important element of it--the seed of a far-reaching +thought. His sense of persons--moving, pleasure-or-pain-giving, uncertain +but self-directing persons--is now to become a sense of agency, of power, +which is yet not the power of the regular-moving door on its hinges or the +rhythmic swinging of the pendulum of the clock. The sense of _personal +agency_ is now forming, and it again is potent for still further +development of the social consciousness. It is just here, I think, that +imitation becomes so important in the child's life. This is imitation's +opportunity. The infant watches to see how others act, because his own +weal and woe depends upon this "how"; and inasmuch as he knows not what to +anticipate, his mind is open to every suggestion of movement. So he falls +to imitating. His attention dwells upon details, and by the principle of +adaptation which imitation expresses, it acts out these details for +himself. + +It is an interesting detail, that at this stage the child begins to +grow capricious himself; to feel that he can do whatever he likes. +Suggestion begins to lose the regularity of its working, for it meets +the child's growing sense of his own agency. The youthful hero becomes +"contrary." At this period it is that obedience begins to grow hard, +and its meaning begins to dawn upon the child as the great reality. +For it means the subjection of his own agency, his own liberty to be +capricious, to the agency and liberty of some one else. + +3. With all this, the child's distinction between and among the +persons who constantly come into contact with him grows on apace, in +spite of the element of irregularity of the general fact of +personality. As he learned before the difference between one presence +and another, so now he learns the difference between one _character_ +and another. Every character is more or less regular in its +irregularity. It has its tastes and modes of action, its temperament +and type of command. This the child learns late in the second year and +thereafter. He behaves differently when the father is in the room. He +is quick to obey one person, slow to obey another. He cries aloud, +pulls his companions, and behaves reprehensibly generally, when no +adult is present who has authority or will to punish him. This stage +in his "knowledge of man" leads to very marked differences of conduct +on his part. + +4. He now goes on to acquire real _self-consciousness_ and _social +feeling_. This stage is so important that we may give to it a separate +heading below. + +It may not be amiss to sum up what has been said about +Personality-Suggestion. It is a general term for the information which +the child gets about persons. It develops through three or four +roughly distinguished stages, all of which illustrate what is called +the "projective" sense of personality.[2] There is, 1. A bare +distinction _of persons from things_ on the ground of peculiar +pain-movement-pleasure experiences. 2. A sense of the irregularity or +capriciousness of the behaviour of these persons, which suggests +_personal agency_. 3. A distinction, vaguely felt perhaps, but +wonderfully reflected in the child's actions, between the modes of +behaviour or _personal characters_ of different persons. 4. After his +sense of his own agency arises by the process of imitation, he gets +what is really _self-consciousness_ and _social feeling_. + +[Footnote 2: It is very remarkable that in the child's bashfulness we +find a native nervous response to the presence of persons. And it is +curious to note that, besides the general gregariousness which many +animals have, they show in many instances special responses of the +presence of creatures of their own kind or of other kinds. Dogs seem +to recognise dogs by _smell_. So with cats, which also respond +instinctively with strong repulsion to the smell of dogs. Horses seem +to be guided by _sight_. Fowls are notoriously blind to shapes of +fowls, but depend on hearing the cries of their kind or their young.] + +_Self-consciousness._--So far as we have now gone the child has only a +very dim distinction between himself as a person and the other persons +who move about him. The persons are "projective" to him, mere bodies +or external objects of a peculiar sort classed together because they +show common marks. Yet in the sense of agency, he has already begun, +as we saw, to find in himself a mental nucleus, or centre. This comes +about from his tendency to fall into the imitation of the acts of +others. + +Now as he proceeds with these imitations of others, he finds himself +gradually understanding the others, by coming, through doing the same +actions with them, to discover what they are feeling, what their +motives are, what the laws of their behaviour. For example, he sees +his father handle a pin, then suddenly make a face as he pricks +himself, and throws the pin away. All this is simply a puzzle to the +child; his father's conduct is capricious, "projective." But the +child's curiosity in the matter takes the form of imitation; he takes +up the pin himself and goes through the same manipulation of it that +his father did. Thus he gets himself pricked, and with it has the +impulse to throw the pin away. By imitating his father he has now +discovered what was inside the father's mind, the pain and the motive +of the action. + +This way of proceeding in reference to the actions of others, of which +many examples might be given, has a twofold significance in the +development of the child; and because of this twofold significance it +is one of the most important facts of psychology. Upon it rest, in the +opinion of the present writer, correct views of ethics and social +philosophy. + +1. By such imitation the child learns to associate his own sense of +physical power, together with his own private pleasures and pains, +with the personal actions which were before observed, it is true, in +other persons but not understood. The act of the father has now become +his own. So one by one the various attributes which he has found to be +characteristic of the persons of his social circle, become his, in +his own thought. He is now _for himself_ an agent who has the marks of +a Person or a Self. He now understands _from_ _the inside_ all the +various personal suggestions. What he saw persons do is now no longer +"projective"--simply there, outside, in the environment; it has become +what we call "subjective." The details are grouped and held together +by the sense of agency working itself out in his imitative struggles. + +This is what we mean by Self-consciousness. It is not an inborn thing +with the child. He gradually acquires it. And it is not a sense of a +distinct and separate self, first known and then compared with other +persons. On the contrary, it is gradually built up in the child's mind +from the same material exactly as that of which he makes up his +thought of other persons. The deeds he can do he first sees others +doing; only then can he imitate them and find out that he also is a +being who can perform them. + +So it goes all through our lives. Our sense of Self is constantly +changing, constantly being enriched. We have not the same thought of +self two days in succession. To-day I think of myself as something to +be proud of, to-morrow as something to be ashamed of. To-day I learn +something from you, and the thought that it is common to you and to me +is the basis of my sympathy with you. To-morrow I learn to commit the +unworthy act which Mr. A. commits, and the thought that he and I are +so far the same is the basis of the common disapproval which I feel of +him and me. + +2. The second result of this imitative learning about personality is +of equal importance. When the child has taken up an action by +imitation and made it subjective, finding out that personality has an +inside, something more than the mere physical body, then he reads this +fact back into the other persons also. He says to himself: "He too, my +little brother, must have _in him_ a sense of agency similar to this +of mine. He acts imitatively, too; he has pleasures and pains; he +shows sympathy for me, just as I do for him. So do all the persons +with whom I have become so far acquainted. They are, then, 'subjects' +as I am--something richer than the mere 'projects' which I had +supposed." So other persons become essentially like himself; and not +only like himself, but identical with himself so far as the particular +marks are concerned which he has learned from them. For it will be +remembered that all these marks were at first actually taken up by +imitation from these very persons. The child is now giving back to his +parents, teachers, etc., only the material which he himself took from +them. He has enriched it, to be sure; with it he now reads into the +other persons the great fact of subjective agency; but still whatever +he thinks of them has come by way of his thought of himself, and that +in turn was made up from them. + +This view of the other person as being the same in the main as the +self who thinks of the other person, is what psychologists mean when +they speak of the "ejective" self. It is the self of some one else as +I think of it; in other words, it is myself "ejected" out by me and +lodged in him. + +_The Social and Ethical Sense._--From this we see what the Social +Sense is. It is the feeling which arises in the child or man of the +real identity, through its imitative origin, of all possible thoughts +of self, whether yourself, myself, or some one else's self. The bond +between you and me is not an artificial one; it is as natural as is +the recognition of personal individuality. And it is doing violence to +this fundamental fact to say, as social science so often assumes, that +the individual naturally separates himself or his interests from the +self or the interests of others. He is, on the contrary, bound up with +others from the start by the very laws of his growth. His social +action and feeling are natural to him. The child can not be selfish +only nor generous only; he may seem to be this or that, in this +circumstance or that, but he is really social all the time. + +Furthermore, his sense of right and wrong, his Ethical Sense, grows up +upon this sense of the social bond. This I can not stop to explain +further. But it is only when social relationships are recognised as +essential in the child's growth that we can understand the mutual +obligations and duties which the moral life imposes upon us all. + +_How to Observe Children, with Especial Reference to Observations of +Imitation._--There are one or two considerations of such practical +importance to all those who wish to observe children that I venture to +throw them together--only saying, by way of introduction, that nothing +less than the child's personality is at stake in the method and matter +of its imitations. The Self is really the form in which the personal +influences surrounding the child take on their new individuality. + +1. No observations are of much importance which are not accompanied by +a detailed statement of the personal influences which have affected +the child. This is the more important since the child sees few +persons, and sees them constantly. It is not only likely--it is +inevitable--that he _make up his personality_, under limitations of +heredity, by imitation, out of the "copy" set in the actions, temper, +emotions, of the persons who build around him the social enclosure of +his childhood. It is only necessary to watch a two-year-old closely to +see what members of the family are giving him his personal "copy"--to +find out whether he sees his mother constantly and his father seldom; +whether he plays much with other children, and what in some degree +their dispositions are; whether he is growing to be a person of +subjection, equality, or tyranny; whether he is assimilating the +elements of some low unorganized social personality from his foreign +nurse. The boy or girl is a social "monad," to use Leibnitz's figure +in a new context, a little world, which reflects the whole system of +influences coming to stir his sensibility. And just in so far as his +sensibilities are stirred, he imitates, and forms habits of imitating; +and habits?--they are character! + +2. A point akin to the first is this: the observation of each child +should describe with great accuracy the child's relations to other +children. Has he brothers or sisters? how many of each, and of what +age? Does he sleep in the same bed or room with them? Do they play +much with one another alone? The reason is very evident. An only child +has only adult "copy." He can not interpret his father's actions, or +his mother's, oftentimes. He imitates very blindly. He lacks the more +childish example of a brother or sister near himself in age. And this +difference is of very great importance to his development. He lacks +the stimulus, for example, of games in which personification is a +direct tutor to selfhood, as I shall remark further on. And while he +becomes precocious in some lines of instruction, he fails in variety +of imagination, in richness of fancy, at the same time that his +imaging processes are more wild and uncontrolled. The dramatic, in his +sense of social situations, is largely hidden. It is a very great +mistake to isolate children, especially to separate off one or two +children. One alone is perhaps the worse, but two alone are subject to +the other element of social danger which I may mention next. + +3. Observers should report with especial care all cases of unusually +close relationship between children in youth, such as childish +favoritism, "platonic friendships," "chumming," in school or home, +etc. We have in these facts--and there is a very great variety of +them--an exaggeration of the social or imitative tendency, a narrowing +down of the personal sensibility to a peculiar line of well-formed +influences. It has never been studied by writers either on the genesis +of social emotion or on the practice of education. To be sure, +teachers have been alive to the pros and cons of allowing children and +students to room together; but that has been with view to the +possibility of direct immoral or unwholesome contagion. This danger is +certainly real; but we, as psychological observers, and above all as +teachers and leaders of our children, must go deeper than that. +Consider, for example, the possible influence of a school chum and +roommate upon a girl in her teens; for this is only an evident case of +what all isolated children are subject to. A sensitive nature, a girl +whose very life is a branch of a social tree, is placed in a new +environment, to engraft upon the members of her mutilated self--her +very personality; it is nothing less than that--utterly new channels +of supply. The only safety possible, the only way to conserve the +lessons of her past, apart from the veriest chance, and to add to the +structure of her present character, lies in securing for her the +greatest possible variety of social influences. Instead of this, she +is allowed to meet, eat, walk, talk, lie down at night, and rise in +the morning, with one other person, a "copy" set before her, as +immature in all likelihood as herself, or, if not so, yet a single +personality, put there to wrap around her growing self the confining +cords of unassimilated and foreign habit. Above all things, fathers, +mothers, teachers, elders, give the children room! They need all that +they can get, and their personalities will grow to fill it. Give them +plenty of companions, fill their lives with variety; variety is the +soul of originality, and its only source of supply. The ethical life +itself, the boy's, the girl's, conscience, is born in the stress of +the conflicts of suggestion, born right out of his imitative +hesitations; and just this is the analogy which he must assimilate and +depend upon in his own conflicts for self-control and social +continence. So impressively true is this from the human point of view +that, in my opinion--formed, it is true, from the very few data +accessible on such points, still a positive opinion--friendships of a +close exclusive kind should be discouraged or broken up, except when +under the immediate eye of the wise parent or guardian; and even when +allowed, these relationships should, in all cases, be used to entrain +the sympathetic and moral sentiments into a wider field of social +exercise. + +One of the merits of the great English schools and of the free schools +of America is that in them the boys acquire, from necessity, the +independence of sturdy character, and the self-restraint which is +self-imposed. The youth brought up to mind a tutor often fails of the +best discipline. + +4. The remainder of this section may be devoted to the further +emphasis of the need of close observation of children's games, +especially those which may be best described as "society games." All +those who have given even casual observation to the doings of the +nursery have been impressed with the extraordinary facility of the +child's mind, from the second year onward, in imagining and plotting +social and dramatic situations. It has not been so evident, however, +to these casual observers, nor to many really more skilled, that they +were observing in these fancy plays the putting together anew of +fragments, or larger pieces, of the adult's mental history. Here, in +these games, we see the actual use which our children make of the +personal "copy" material which they get from you and me. If a man +study these games patiently in his own children, and analyze them out, +he gradually sees emerge from within the inner consciousness a picture +of the boy's own father, whom he aspires to be like, and whose actions +he seeks to generalize and apply. The picture is poor, for the child +takes only what he is sensible to. And it does seem often, as Sighele +pathetically notices on a large social scale, and as the Westminster +divines have urged without due sense of the pathetic and home-coming +point of it, that he takes more of the bad in us for reproduction than +of the good! But, be this as it may, what we give him is all he gets. +Heredity does not stop with birth; it is then only beginning. And the +pity of it is that this element of heredity, this reproduction of the +fathers in the children, which might be used to redeem the new-forming +personality from the heritage of past commonness or impurity, is +simply left to take its course for the further establishing and +confirmation of it. Was there ever a group of school children who did +not leave the real school to make a play school, setting up a box for +one of their number to sit on and "take off" the teacher? Was there +ever a child who did not play "church," and force the improvised +"papa" into the pulpit? Were there ever children who did not "buy" +things from fancied stalls in every corner of the nursery, after they +had once seen an elder drive a trade in the market? The point is this: +the child's personality grows; growth is always by action; he clothes +upon himself the scenes of the parent's life and acts them out; so he +grows in what he is, what he understands, and what he is able to +perform. + +In order to be of more direct service to observers of games of this +character, let me give a short account of an observation of the kind +made some time ago--one of the simplest of many actual situations +which my two little girls, Helen and Elizabeth, have acted out +together. It is a very commonplace case, a game the elements of which +are evident in their origin; but I choose this rather than one more +complex, since observers are usually not psychologists, and they find +the elementary the more instructive. + +On May 2 I was sitting on the porch alone with the children--the two +mentioned above, aged respectively four and a half and two and a half +years. Helen, the elder, told Elizabeth that she was her little baby; +that is, Helen became "mamma," and Elizabeth the "baby." The younger +responded by calling her sister "mamma," and the play began. + +"You have been asleep, baby. Now it is time to get up," said mamma. +Baby rose from the floor--first falling down in order to rise!--was +seized upon by "mamma," taken to the railing to an imaginary +washstand, and her face washed by rubbing. Her articles of clothing +were then named in imagination, and put on, one by one, in the most +detailed and interesting fashion. During all this "mamma" kept up a +stream of baby talk to her infant: "Now your stockings, my darling; +now your skirt, sweetness--O! no--not yet--your shoes first," etc., +etc. Baby acceded to all the details with more than the docility which +real infants usually show. When this was done--"Now we must go tell +papa good-morning, dearie," said mamma. "Yes, mamma," came the reply; +and hand in hand they started to find papa. I, the spectator, +carefully read my newspaper, thinking, however, that the reality of +papa, seeing that he was so much in evidence, would break in upon the +imagined situation. But not so. Mamma led her baby directly past me to +the end of the piazza, to a column in the corner. "There's papa," said +mamma; "now tell him good-morning."--"Good-morning, papa; I am very +well," said baby, bowing low to the column. "That's good," said mamma, +in a _gruff, low voice_, which caused in the real papa a thrill of +amused self-consciousness most difficult to contain. "Now you must +have your breakfast," said mamma. The seat of a chair was made a +breakfast table, the baby's feigned bib put on, and her porridge +carefully administered, with all the manner of the nurse who usually +directs their breakfast. "Now" (after the meal, which suddenly became +dinner instead of breakfast), "you must take your nap," said mamma. +"No, mamma; I don't want to," said baby. "But you must."--"No; you be +baby, and take the nap."--"But all the other children have gone to +sleep, dearest, _and the doctor says you must_," said mamma. This +convinced baby, and she lay down on the floor. "But I haven't +undressed you." So then came all the detail of undressing; and mamma +carefully covered her up on the floor with a light shawl, saying: +"Spring is coming now; that'll be enough. Now shut your eyes, and go +to sleep."--"But you haven't kissed me, mamma," said the little one. +"Oh, of course, my darling!"--so a long siege of kissing! Then baby +closed her eyes very tight, while mamma went on tiptoe away to the end +of the porch. "Don't go away, mamma," said baby. "No; mamma wouldn't +leave her darling," came the reply. + +So this went on. The nap over, a walk was proposed, hats put on, etc., +the mamma exercising great care and solicitude for her baby. One +further incident to show this: when the baby's hat was put on--the +real hat--mamma tied the strings rather tight. "Oh! you hurt, mamma," +said baby. "No; mamma wouldn't draw the strings too tight. Let mamma +kiss it. There, is that better, my darling?"--all comically true to a +certain sweet maternal tenderness which I had no difficulty in +tracing. + +Now in such a case what is to be reported, of course, is the facts. +Yet knowledge of more than the facts is necessary, as I have said +above, in order to get the full psychological lesson. We need just the +information which concerns the rest of the family and the social +influences of the children's lives. I recognised at once every phrase +which the children used in this play, where they got it, what it meant +in its original context, and how far its meaning had been modified in +this process, called in a figure "social heredity." But as that story +is reported to strangers who have no knowledge of the children's +social antecedents, how much beyond the mere facts of imitation and +personification do they get from it? And how much the more is this +true when we examine those complex games of the nursery which show the +brilliant fancy for situation and drama of the wide-awake +four-year-old? + +Yet we psychologists are free to interpret; and how rich the lessons +even from such a simple scene as this! As for Helen, what could be a +more direct lesson--a lived-out exercise--in sympathy, in altruistic +self-denial, in the healthy elevation of her sense of self to the +dignity of kindly offices, in the sense of responsibility and agency, +in the stimulus to original effort and the designing of means to +ends--and all of it with the best sense of the objectivity which is +quite lost in wretched self-consciousness in us adults, when we +personate other characters? What could further all this highest mental +growth better than the game by which the lessons of her mother's daily +life are read into the child's little self? Then, in the case of +Elizabeth also, certain things appear. She obeys without command or +sanction, she takes in from her sister the elements of personal +suggestion in their simpler childish forms. Certainly such scenes, +repeated every day with such variation of detail, must give something +of the sense of variety and social equality which real life afterward +confirms and proceeds upon; and lessons of the opposite character are +learned by the same process. + +All this exercise of fancy must strengthen the imaginative faculty +also. The prolonged situations, maintained sometimes whole days, or +possibly weeks, give strength to the imagination and train the +attention. I think, also, that the sense of essential reality, and its +distinction from the unreal, the merely imagined, is helped by this +sort of symbolic representation. Play has its dangers also--very +serious ones. The adults sometimes set bad examples. The game gives +practise in cunning no less than in forbearance. Possibly the best +service of observation just now is to gather the facts with a view to +the proper recognition and avoidance of the dangers. + +Finally, I may be allowed a word to interested parents. You can be of +no use whatever to psychologists--to say nothing of the actual damage +you may be to the children--unless you _know your babies through and +through_. Especially the fathers! They are willing to study everything +else. They know every corner of the house familiarly, and what is done +in it, except the nursery. A man labours for his children ten hours a +day, gets his life insured for their support after his death, and yet +he lets their mental growth, the formation of their characters, the +evolution of their personality, go on by absorption--if no worse--from +common, vulgar, imported and changing, often immoral attendants! Plato +said the state should train the children; and added that the wisest +man should rule the state. This is to say that the wisest man should +tend his children! Hugo gives us, in Jean Valjean and Cosette, a +picture of the true paternal relationship. We hear a certain group of +studies called the _humanities_, and it is right. But the best school +in the humanities for every man is in his own house. + +With this goes, finally, the highest lesson of sport, drama, +make-believe, even when we trace it up into the art-impulse--the +lesson of _personal freedom_. The child himself sets the limitations +of the game, makes the rules, and subjects himself to them, and then +in time pierces the bubble for himself, saying, "I will play no more." +All this is the germ of self-regulation, of the control of the +impulses, of the voluntary adoption of the ideal, which becomes in +later life--if so be that he cling to it--the pearl of great price. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE CONNECTION OF BODY WITH MIND--PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY--MENTAL +DISEASES. + + +In the foregoing pages we have had intimations of some of the +important questions which arise about the connection of mind with +body. The avenues of the senses are the normal approaches to the mind +through the body; and, taking advantage of this, experiments are made +upon the senses. This gives rise to Experimental Psychology, to which +the chapter after this is devoted. Besides this, however, we find the +general fact that a normal body must in all cases be present with a +normal mind, and this makes it possible to arrange so to manipulate +the body that changes may be produced in the mind in other ways than +through the regular channels of sense. For example, we influence the +mind when we drink too much tea or coffee, not to mention the greater +changes of the same kind which are produced in the mind of the drinker +of too much alcohol or other poisonous substances. All the methodical +means of procedure by which the psychologist produces effects of this +kind by changing the condition or functions of the body within itself +belong to Physiological Psychology. So he modifies the respiration, +changes the heart beat, stimulates or slows the circulation of the +blood, paralyzes the muscles, etc. The ways of procedure may be +classified under a few heads, each called a method. + +1. _Method of Extirpation._--This means simply the cutting away of a +part of the body, so that any effect which the loss of the part makes +upon the mind may be noted. It is used especially upon the brain. +Pieces of the brain, great or small--indeed, practically the whole +brain mass--may be removed in many animals without destroying life. +Either of the cerebral hemispheres entire, together with large +portions of the other, may be taken from the human brain without much +effect upon the vital processes, considered as a whole; the actual +results being the loss of certain mental functions, such as sight, +hearing, power of movement of particular limbs, etc., according to the +location of the part which is removed. Many of the facts given below +under the heading of Localization were discovered in this way, the +guiding principle being that if the loss of a function follows the +removal of a certain piece of the brain, then that portion of the +brain is directly concerned in the healthy performance of that +function. + +2. _Method of Artificial Stimulation._--As the term indicates, this +method proceeds by finding some sort of agent by which the +physiological processes may be started artificially; that is, without +the usual normal starting of these processes. For example, the +physician who stimulates the heart by giving digitalis pursues this +method. For psychological purposes this method has also been fruitful +in studying the brain, and electricity is the agent customarily used. +The brain is laid bare by removing part of the skull of the animal, +and the two electrodes of a battery are placed upon a particular point +of the brain whose function it is wished to determine. The current +passes out along the nerves which are normally set in action from this +particular region, and movements of the muscles follow in certain +definite parts and directions. This is an indication of the normal +function of the part of the brain which is stimulated. + +Besides this method of procedure a new one, also by brain stimulation, +has recently been employed. It consists in stimulating a spot of the +brain as before, but instead of observing the character of the +movement which follows, the observer places galvanometers in +connection with various members of the body and observes in which of +the galvanometers the current comes out of the animal's body (the +galvanometer being a very delicate instrument for indicating the +presence of an electric current). In this way it is determined along +what pathways and to what organs the ordinary vital stimulation passes +from the brain, provided it be granted that the electric current takes +the same course. + +3. _Method of Intoxication, called the "Toxic Method._"--The remarks +above may suffice for a description of this method. The results of the +administration of toxic or poisonous agents upon the mind are so +general and serious in their character, as readers of De Quincy know, +that very little precise knowledge has been acquired by their use. + +4. _Method of Degeneration._--This consists in observing the progress +of natural or artificially produced disease or damage to the tissues, +mainly the nervous tissues, with a view to discovering the directions +of pathways and the locations of connected functions. The degeneration +or decay following disease or injury follows the path of normal +physiological action, and so discloses it to the observer. This method +is of importance to psychology as affording a means of locating and +following up the course of a brain injury which accompanies this or +that mental disease or defect. + +_Results_--_Localization of Brain Functions._--The more detailed +results of this sort of study, when considered on the side of the +nervous organism, may be thrown together under the general head of +Localization. The greatest result of all is just the discovery that +there is such a thing as localization in the nervous system of the +different mental functions of sensation and movement. We find +particular parts of the nervous organism contributing each its share, +in a more or less independent way, to the whole flow of the mental +life; and in cases of injury or removal of this part or that, there +is a corresponding impairment of the mind. + +First of all, it is found that the nervous system has a certain +up-and-down arrangement from the segments of the spinal cord up to the +gray matter of the rind or "cortex" of the large masses or hemispheres +in the skull, to which the word brain is popularly applied. This +up-and-down arrangement shows three so-called "levels" of function. +Beginning with the spinal cord, we find the simplest processes, and +they grow more complex as we go up toward the brain. + +The lowest, or "third level," includes all the functions which the +spinal cord, and its upper termination, called the "medulla," are able +to perform alone--that is, without involving necessarily the activity +of the nervous centres and brain areas which lie above them. Such +"third-level" functions are those of the life-sustaining processes +generally: breathing, heart-beat, vasomotor action (securing the +circulation of the blood), etc. These are all called Automatic +processes. They go regularly on from day to day, being constantly +stimulated by the normal changes in the physiological system itself, +and having no need of interference from the mind of the individual. + +In addition to the automatic functions, there is a second great class +of processes which are also managed from the third level; that is, by +the discharge of nervous energy from particular parts of the spinal +cord. These are the so-called Reflex functions. They include all those +responses which the nervous system makes to stimulations from the +outside, in which the mind has no alternative or control. They happen +whether or no. For example, when an object comes near the eye the lid +flies to reflexly. If a tap be made upon the knee while one sits with +the legs crossed the foot flies up reflexly. Various reflexes may be +brought out in a sleeper by slight stimulations to this or that region +of his body. Furthermore, each of the senses has its own set of reflex +adjustments to the stimulations which come to it. The eye accommodates +itself in the most delicate way to the intensity of the light, the +distance of the object, the degree of elevation, and the angular +displacement of what one looks at. The taking of food into the mouth +sets up all sorts of reflex movements which do not cease until the +food is safely lodged in the stomach, and so on through a series of +physiological adaptations which are simply marvellous in their variety +and extent. These processes belong to the third level; and it may +surprise the uninitiated to know that not only is the mind quite "out +of it" so far as these functions are concerned, but that the brain +proper is "out of it" also. Most of these reflexes not only go on when +the brain is removed from the skull, but it is an interesting detail +that they are generally exaggerated under these conditions. This shows +that while the third or lowest level does its own work, it is yet in a +sense under the weight--what physiologists call the inhibiting +action--of the higher brain masses. It is not allowed to magnify its +part too much, nor to work out of its proper time and measure. The +nervous apparatus involved in these "third-level" functions may be +called the "reflex circuit" (see Fig. 2), the path being from the +sense organ up to the centre by a "sensory" nerve, and then out by a +"motor" nerve to the muscle. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--_s c mt_ = reflex circuit; _s c sp mp c mt_ = +voluntary circuit.] + +Going upward in the nervous system, we next find a certain group of +bodies within the gross mass of the brain, certain centres lying +between the hemispheres above and the medulla and spinal cord below, +and in direct connection by nervous tracts with both of these. The +technical names of the more important of these organs are these: the +"corpora striata," or striped bodies, of which there are two, the +"optic thalami," also two in number, and the "cerebellum" or little +brain, situated behind. These make up what is called the "second +level" in the system. They seem to be especially concerned with the +life of sensation. When the centres lying above them, the hemispheres, +are removed, the animal is still able to see, hear, etc., and still +able to carry out his well-knit habits of action in response to what +he sees and hears. But that is about all. A bird treated thus, for +example, these second-level centres being still intact while the +hemispheres are removed, retains his normal appearance, being quite +able to stand upon his feet, to fly, walk, etc. His reflexes are also +unimpaired and his inner physiological processes; but it soon becomes +noticeable that his mental operations are limited very largely to +sensations. He sees his food as usual, but does not remember its use, +and makes no attempt to eat it. He sees other birds, but does not +respond to their advances. He seems to have forgotten all his +education, to have lost all the meanings of things, to have +practically no intelligence. A dog in this condition no longer fears +the whip, no longer responds to his name, no longer steals food. On +the side of his conduct we find that all the actions which he had +learned by training now disappear; the trick dog loses all his tricks. +What was called Apperception in the earlier chapter seems to have been +taken away with the hemispheres. + +Coming to the "first level," the highest of all, both in anatomical +position and in the character of the functions over which it presides, +we see at once what extraordinary importance it has. It comprises the +cortex of the hemispheres, which taken together are called the +cerebrum. It consists of the parts which we supposed cut out of the +pigeon and dog just mentioned; and when we remember what these animals +lose by its removal, we see what the normal animal or man owes to the +integrity of this organ. It is above all the organ of mind. If we had +to say that the mind as such is located anywhere, we should say in the +gray matter of the cortex of the hemispheres of the brain. For +although, as we saw, animals without this organ can still see and hear +and feel, yet we also saw that they could do little else and could +learn to do nothing more. All the higher operations of mind come back +only when we think of the animal as having normal brain hemispheres. + +Further, we find this organ in some degree duplicating the function of +the second-level centres, for fibres go out from these intermediate +masses to certain areas of the hemispheres, which reproduce locally +the senses of hearing, sight, etc. By these fibres the functions of +the senses are "projected" out to the surface of the brain, and the +term "projection fibres" is applied to the nerves which make these +connections. The hemispheres are not content even with the most +important of all functions--the strictly intelligent--but they are +jealous, so to speak, of the simple sensations which the central brain +masses are capable of awaking. And in the very highest animals, +probably only monkeys and man, we find that the hemispheres have gone +so far with their jealousy as to usurp the function of sensation. This +is seen in the singular fact that with a monkey or man the removal of +the cortical centres makes the animal permanently blind or deaf, as +the case may be, while in the lower animals such removal does not have +this result, so long as the "second-level" organs are unimpaired. The +brain paths of the functions of the second and first levels taken +together constitute the so-called "voluntary circuit" (see Fig. 2). + +In addition to this general demarcation of functions as higher and +lower--first, second, and third level--in their anatomical seat, many +interesting discoveries have been made in the localization of the +simpler functions in the cortex itself. The accompanying figures +(Figs. 3 and 4) will show the principle centres which have been +determined; and it is not necessary to dwell upon additional details +which are still under discussion. The areas marked out are in general +the same on both hemispheres, and that is to say that most of the +centres are duplicated. The speech centres, however, are on one side +only. And in certain cases the nervous fibres which connect the cortex +with the body-organs cross below the brain to the opposite side of the +body. This is always true in cases of muscular movement; the movements +of the right side of the body are controlled by the left hemisphere, +and _vice versa_. The stimulations coming in from the body to the +brain generally travel on the same side, although in certain cases +parallel impulses are also sent over to the other hemisphere as well. +For example, the very important optic nerve, which is necessary to +vision, comes from each eye separately in a large bunch of fibres, and +divides at the base of the brain, so that each eye sends impulses +directly to the visual centres of both hemispheres. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Outer surface of left hemisphere of the brain +(modified from Exner): _a_, fissure of Rolando; _b_, fissure of +Sylvius.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Inner (mesial) surface of the right hemisphere +of the brain (modified from Schaefer and Horsley). In both figures the +shaded area is the motor zone.] + +Of all the special questions which have arisen about the localization +of functions in the nervous system, that of the function of certain +areas known as "motor centres" has been eagerly discussed. The region +on both sides of the fissure of Rolando in Fig. 3 contains a number of +areas which give, when stimulated with electricity, very definite and +regular movements of certain muscles on the opposite side of the body. +By careful exploration of these areas the principal muscular +combinations--those for facial movements, neck movements, movements of +the arm, trunk, legs, tail, etc.--have been very precisely +ascertained. It was concluded from these facts that these areas were +respectively the centres for the discharge of the nervous impulses +running in each case to the muscles which were moved. The evidence +recently forthcoming, however, is leading investigators to think that +there is no cortical centre for the "motor" or outgoing processes +properly so called, and that these Rolandic areas, although called +"motor," are really centres for the incoming reports of the movements +of the respective muscles after the movements take place, and also for +the preservation of the memories of movement which the mind must have +before a particular movement can be brought about (the mental images +of movement which we called on an earlier page Kinaesthetic +Equivalents). These centres being aroused in the thought of the +movement desired, which is the necessary mental preparation for the +movement, they in turn stimulate the real motor centres which lie +below the cortex at the second level. This is in the present writer's +judgment the preferable interpretation of the evidence which we now +have. + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--The speech zone (after Collins).] + +_The Speech Zone._--Many interesting facts of the relation of body and +mind have come to light in connection with the speech functions. +Speech is complex, both on the psychological and also on the +physiological side, and easily deranged in ways that take on such +remarkable variety that they are a source of very fruitful indications +to the inquirer. It is now proved that speech is not a faculty, a +single definite capacity which a man either has or has not. It is +rather a complex thing resulting from the combined action of many +brain centres, and, on the mental side, of many so-called faculties, +or functions. In order to speak a man normally requires what is called +a "zone" in his brain, occupying a large portion of the outside +lateral region (see Fig. 5). It extends, as in the figure, from the +Rolandic region (_K_), where the kinaesthetic lip-and-tongue memories +of words are aroused, backward into the temporal region (_A_), where +the auditory memories of words spring up; then upward to the angular +gyrus in the rear or occipital region (_V_), where in turn the visual +pictures of the written or printed words rise to perform their part in +the performance; and with all this combination there is associated the +centre for the movements of the hand and arm employed in writing, an +area higher up in the Rolandic region (above _K_). In the same general +zone we also find the music function located, the musical sounds being +received in the auditory centre very near the area for words heard +(_A_) while the centre for musical expression is also in the Rolandic +region. Furthermore, as may be surmised, the reading of musical +notation requires the visual centre, just as does the reading of +words. In addition to this, we find the curious fact that the location +of the whole speech zone is in one hemisphere only. Its location on +the left or the right, in particular cases, is also an indication as +to whether the person is right-or left-handed; this means that the +process which makes the individual either right or left-handed is +probably located in the speech zone, or near it. A large majority of +persons have the speech zone in the left hemisphere, and are +right-handed; it will be seen that the figure (5) shows the left +hemisphere of the brain, and with it the right hand holding the pen. + +_Defects of Speech--Aphasia._--The sorts of injury which may befall a +large zone of the brain are so many that well-nigh endless forms of +speech defect occur. All impairment of speech is called Aphasia, and +it is called Motor Aphasia when the apparatus is damaged on the side +of movement. + +If the fibres coming out from the speech zone be impaired, so that the +impulses can not go to the muscles of articulation and breathing, we +have Subcortical Motor Aphasia. Its peculiarity is that the person +knows perfectly what he wants to say, but yet can not speak the words. +He is able to read silently, can understand the speech of others, and +can remember music; but, with his inability to speak, he is generally +also unable to write or to perform on a musical instrument (yet this +last is not always the case). Then we find new variations if his +"lesion"--as all kinds of local nervous defects are called--is in the +brain centre in the Rolandic region, where arise the memories of the +movements required. In this latter case the aphasic patient can +readily imitate speech so long as he hears it, can imitate writing so +long as it lies before him, but can not do any independent speaking or +writing for himself. With this there goes another fact which +characterizes this form of aphasia, and which is called Cortical, as +opposed to the Subcortical Motor Aphasia described above, that the +person may not be able even to think of the words which are +appropriate to express his meaning. This is the case when those +persons who depend upon the memories of the movements of lip and +tongue in their normal speech are injured as described. + +Besides the two forms of Motor Aphasia now spoken of, there are +certain other speech defects which are called Sensory Aphasia. When a +lesion occurs in one of the areas of the brain in the speech zone in +which the requisite memories of words seen or heard have their +seat--as when a ball player is struck over the sight centre in the +back of the head--special forms of sensory aphasia show themselves. +The ball player will, in this case, have Visual Aphasia, being unable +to speak in proportion as he is accustomed in his speaking to depend +upon the images of written or printed words. He is quite unable to +read or write from a copy which he sees; but he may be able, +nevertheless, to write from dictation, and also to repeat words which +are spoken to him. This is because in these latter performances he +uses his auditory centre, and not the visual. There are, indeed, some +persons who are so independent of vision that the loss of the visual +centre does not much impair their normal speech. + +When, again, an injury comes to the auditory centre in the temporal +region, we find the converse of the case just described; the defect is +then called Auditory Aphasia. The patient can not now speak or write +words which he hears, and can not speak spontaneously in proportion as +he is accustomed to depend upon his memories of the word sounds. But +in most cases he can still both speak and write printed or written +words which he sees before him. + +These cases may serve to give the reader an idea of the remarkable +delicacy and complexity of the function of speech. It becomes more +evident when, instead of cases of gross lesion, which destroy a whole +centre, or cut the connections between centres, we have disease of the +brain which merely destroys a few cells in the gray matter here or +there. We then find partial loss of speech, such as is seen in +patients who lack only certain classes of words; perhaps the verbs, or +the conjunctions, or proper names, etc.; or in the patients who +speak, but yet do not say what they mean; or, again, in persons who +have two verbal series going on at once, one of which they can not +control, and which they often attribute to an enemy inside them, in +control of the vocal organs, or to a persecutor outside whose abuse +they can not avoid hearing. In cases of violent sick headache we often +miscall objects without detecting it ourselves, and in delirium the +speech mechanism works from violent organic discharges altogether +without control. The senile old man talks nonsense--so-called +gibberish--thinking he is discoursing properly. + +In the main cases of Aphasia of distinct sensory and motor types +psychological analysis is now so adequate and the anatomical +localization so far advanced that the physicians have sufficient basis +for their diagnosis, and make inferences looking toward treatment. +Many cases of tumour, of clot on the brain, of local pressure from the +skull, and of haemorrhage or stopping up of the blood vessels in a +limited area, have been cured through the indications given by the +particular forms and degrees of aphasia shown by the patients. The +skull is opened at the place indicated by the defect of speech, the +lesion found where the diagnosis suggested, and the cause removed. + +This account of Localization will suggest to the reader the truth that +there is no science of Phrenology. No progress has been made in +localizing the intelligence; and the view is now very general that the +whole brain, with all its interchange of impulses from part to part, +is involved in thinking. As for locating particular emotions and +qualities of temperament, it is quite absurd. Furthermore, the +irregularities of the skull do not indicate local brain differences. +It is thought that the relative weight of the brain may be an +indication of intellectual endowment, especially when the brain weight +is compared with the weight of the rest of the body, and that culture +in particular lines increases the surface of the cortex by deepening +and multiplying the convolutions. But these statements can not be +applied off-hand to individuals, as the practise of phrenology would +require. + +_Defects of Memory--Amnesia._--The cases given just above, where the +failure of speech was seen to be due to the loss of certain memories +of words, illustrate also a series of mental defects, which are +classed together as Amnesias. Any failure in memory, except the normal +lapses which we call forgetfulness, is included under this term. Just +as the loss of word memories occasions inability to speak, so that of +other sorts of memories occasions other functional disturbances. A +patient may forget objects, and so not know how to use his penknife or +to put on his shoes. He may forget events, and so give false witness +as to the past. + +One may forget himself also, and so have, in some degree, a different +character, as is seen, in an exaggerated way, in persons who have +so-called Dual Personality. These patients suddenly fall into a +secondary state, in which they forget all the events of their ordinary +lives, but remember all the events of the earlier periods of the +secondary personality. This state may be described as "general" +amnesia, in contrast to the "partial" amnesia of the other cases +given, in which only particular classes of memories are impaired. + +The impairment of memory with advancing years also illustrates both +"general" and "partial" Amnesia. The old man loses his memory of +names, then of other words, then of events, and so gradually becomes +incapable of much retention of any sort. + +_Defects of Will--Aboulia._--A few words may suffice to characterize +the great class of mental defects which arise on the side of action. +All inability to perform intentional acts is called Aboulia, or lack +of Will. Certain defects of speech mentioned above illustrate this: +cases in which the patient knows what he wishes to say and yet can not +say it. This is the type of all the "partial" Aboulias. There may be +no lack in determination and effort, yet the action may be impossible. +But, in contrast with this, there is a more grave defect called +"general" Aboulia. Here we find a weakening of resolution, of +determination, associated with some lack of self-control showing +itself frequently by a certain hesitation or indecision. The patient +says: "I can not make up my mind," "I can not decide." In exaggerated +cases it becomes a form of mania called "insanity of doubt." The +patient stands before a door for an hour hesitating as to whether he +can open it or not, or carries to its extreme the experience we all +sometimes have of finding it necessary to return again and again to +make sure that we have locked the door or shut the draught of the +furnace. + +With these illustrations our notice of mental defects may terminate. +The more complex troubles, the various insanities, manias, phobias, +etc., can not be briefly described. Moreover, they are still wrapped +in the profoundest obscurity. To the psychologist, however, there are +certain guiding principles through the maze of facts, and I may state +them in conclusion. + +First, all mental troubles involve diseases of the brain and can be +cured only as the brain is cured. It does not follow, of course, that +in certain cases treatment by mental agencies, such as suggestion, +arousing of expectation, faith, etc., may not be more helpful here, +when wisely employed, than in troubles which do not involve the mind; +but yet the end to be attained is a physical as well as a mental cure, +and the means in the present state of knowledge, at any rate, are +mainly physical means. The psychologist knows practically nothing +about the laws which govern the influence of mind on body. The +principle of Suggestion is so obscure in its concrete working that the +most practised and best-informed operators find it impossible to +control its use or to predict its results. To give countenance, in +this state of things, to any pretended system or practice of mind +cure, Christian science, spiritual healing, etc., which leads to the +neglect of ordinary medical treatment, is to discredit the legitimate +practice of medicine and to let loose an enemy dangerous to the public +health. + +Moreover, such things produce a form of hysterical subjectivism which +destroys sound judgment, and dissolves the sense of reality which it +has taken modern science many generations to build up. Science has all +along had to combat such wresting of its more obscure and unexplained +facts into alliance with the ends of practical quackery, fraud, and +superstition; and psychologists need just now to be especially alive +to their duty of combating the forms of this alliance which arise when +the newer results of psychology are so used, whether it be to +supplement the inadequate evidence of "thought-transference," to +support the claims of spiritualism, or to justify in the name of +"personal liberty" the substitution of a "healer" for the trained +physician. The parent who allows his child to die under the care of a +"Christian Science healer" is as much a criminal from neglect as the +one who, going but a step further in precisely the same direction, +brings his child to starvation on a diet of faith. In France and +Russia experimenting in hypnotism on well persons has been restricted +by law to licensed experts; what, compared with that, shall we say to +this wholly amateurish experimenting with the diseased? Let the +"healer" heal all he can, but let him not experiment to the extremity +of life and death with the credulity and superstition of the people +who think one "doctor" is as good as another. + +Second, many experts agree that diseases of the mind, whatever their +brain seat may be, all involve impairment of the Attention. This, at +any rate, is a general mark of a deranged or defective mind. The idiot +lacks power of attention. The maniac lacks control of his attention. +The deluded lacks grasp and flexibility of attention. The crank can +only attend to one thing. The old man is feeble in the attention, +having lost his hold. So it goes. The attention is the instrument of +the one sort of normal mental activity called Apperception, and so +impairment of the attention shows itself at once in some particular +form of defect. + +Third, it is interesting to know that in progressive mental failure +the loss of the powers of the mind takes place in an order which is +the reverse of that of their original acquisition. The most complex +functions, which are acquired last, are the first to show impairment. +In cases of general degeneration, softening of the brain, etc., the +intelligence and moral nature are first affected, then memory, +association, and acquired actions of all sorts, while there remain, +latest of all, actions of the imitative kind, most of the deep-set +habits, and the instinctive, reflex, and automatic functions, This +last condition is seen in the wretched victim of dementia and in the +congenital idiot. The latter has, in addition to his life processes +and instincts, little more than the capacity for parrot-like +imitation. By this he acquires the very few items of his education. + +The recovery of the patient shows the same stages again, but in the +reversed direction; he pursues the order of the original acquisition, +a process which physicians call Re-evolution. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HOW WE EXPERIMENT ON THE MIND--EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. + + +In recent years the growth of the method of experimenting with bodies +in laboratories in the different sciences has served to raise the +question whether the mind may not be experimented with also. This +question has been solved in so far that psychologists produce +artificial changes in the stimulations to the senses and in the +arrangements of the objects and conditions existing about a person, +and so secure changes also in his mental states. What we have seen of +Physiological Psychology illustrates this general way of proceeding, +for in such studies, changes in the physiological processes, as in +breathing, etc., are considered as causing changes in the mind. In +Experimental Psychology, however, as distinguished from Physiological +Psychology, we agree to take only those influences which are outside +the body, such as light, sound, temperature, etc., keeping the subject +as normal as possible in all respects. + +A great many laboratories have now been established in connection with +the universities in Germany, France, and the United States. They +differ very much from one another, but their common purpose is so to +experiment upon the mind, through changes in the stimulations to which +the individual is subjected, that tests may be made of his sensations, +his ability to remember, the exactness and kind of movements, etc. + +The working of these laboratories and the sort of research carried out +in them may be illustrated best, perhaps, by a description of some of +the results, apparatus, methods, etc., employed in my own laboratory +during the past year. The end in view will, I trust, be considered +sufficient justification for the degree of personal reference which +this occasions; since greater concreteness and reality attach to +definite descriptions such as this. The other laboratories, as those +at Harvard and Columbia Universities, take up similar problems by +similar methods. I shall therefore go on to describe some recent work +in the Princeton laboratory. + +Of the problems taken up in the laboratory, certain ones may be +selected for somewhat detailed explanation, since they are from widely +different spheres and illustrate different methods of procedure. + +I. _Experiments on the Temperature Sense._--For a score of years it +has been suspected that we have a distinct sense, with a nerve +apparatus of its own, for the feeling of different temperatures on the +skin. Certain investigators found that this was probably true; it is +proved by the fact that certain drugs alter the sensibility of the +skin to hot and cold stimulations. + +Another advance was made when it was found that sensations of either +hot or cold may be had from regions which are insensible at the same +time to the other sort of stimulation, cold or hot. Certain minute +points were discovered which report cold when touched with a cold +point, but give no feeling from a hot object; while other points would +respond only with a sensation from heat, never giving cold. It was +concluded that we have two temperature senses, one for hot and the +other for cold. + +Taking the problem at this point, Mr. C.[3] wished to define more +closely the relation of the two sorts of sensation to each other, and +thought he could do so by a method by which he might repeat the +stimulation of a series of exact spots, very minute points on the +skin, over and over again, thus securing a number of records of the +results for both hot and cold over a given area. He chose an area of +skin on the forearm, shaved it carefully, and proceeded to explore it +with the smallest points of metals which could be drawn along the skin +without pricking or tearing. These points were attached to metallic +cylinders, and around the cylinders rubber bands were placed; the +cylinders were then thrust in hot or cold water kept at certain +regular temperatures, and lifted by the rubber bands. They were placed +point down, with equal pressure, upon the points of the skin in the +area chosen. In this way, points which responded only to hot, and also +those responding only to cold, were found, marked with delicate ink +marks in each case, until the whole area was explored and marked in +different colours. This had often been done before. It remained to +devise a way of keeping these records, so that the markings might all +be removed from the skin, and new explorations made over the same +surface. This was necessary in order to see whether the results +secured were always the same. The theory that there were certain +nervous endings in the skin corresponding to the little points +required that each spot should be in exactly the same place whenever +the experiment was repeated. + +[Footnote 3: Mr. J. F. Crawford, graduate student.] + +Mr. C. made a number of so-called "transparent transfer frames." They +are rectangular pieces of cardboard, with windows cut in them. The +windows are covered with thin architect's paper, which is very +transparent. This frame is put over the forearm in such a way that the +paper in the window comes over the markings made on the arm. The +markings show through very clearly, and the points are copied on the +paper. Then certain boundary marks at the corners are made, both on +the paper and on the arm, at exactly the same places, the frame is +removed, and all the markings on the arm are erased except the +boundary points. The result is that at any time the frames can be put +over the arm again by matching the boundary points, and then the +original temperature spots on the skin will be shown by the markings +on the paper window. + +Proceeding to repeat the exploration of the same area in this way, Mr. +C makes records of many groupings of points for both hot and cold +sensations on the same area; he then puts the frames one upon another, +holds them up before a window so that they have a bright background, +and is thus able to see at a glance how nearly the results of the +different sittings correspond. + +His results, put very briefly, fail to confirm the theory that the +sense of temperature has an apparatus of fixed spots for heat and +other fixed spots for cold. For when he puts the different markings +for heat together he finds that the spots are not the same, but that +those of one frame fall between those of another, and if several are +put together the points fill up a greater or smaller area. The same +for the cold spots; they fill a continuous area. He finds, however, as +other investigators have found, that the heat areas are generally in +large measure separate from the cold areas, only to a certain extent +overlapping here and there, and also that there are regions of the +skin where we have very little sense of either sort of temperature. + +The general results will show, therefore, if they should be confirmed +by other investigators, that our temperature sense is located in what +might be called somewhat large blotches on the skin, and not in minute +spots; while the evidence still remains good, however, to show that we +have two senses for temperature, one for cold and the other for hot. + +II. _Reaction-Time Experiments._--Work in so-called "reaction times" +constitutes one of the most important and well-developed chapters in +experimental psychology. In brief, the experiment involved is this: +To find how long it takes a person to receive a sense impression of +any kind--for example, to hear a sound-signal--and to move his hand or +other member in response to the impression. A simple arrangement is as +follows: Sit the subject comfortably, tap a bell in such a way that +the tapping also makes an electric current and starts a clock, and +instruct the subject to press a button with his finger as soon as +possible after he hears the bell. The pressing of the button by him +breaks the current and stops the clock. The dial of the clock +indicates the actual time which has elapsed between the bell (signal) +and his response with his finger (reaction). The clock used for exact +work is likely to be the Hipp chronoscope, which gives on its dials +indications of time intervals in thousandths of a second. For the sake +of keeping the conditions constant and preventing disturbance, the +wires are made long, so that the clock and the experimenter may be in +one room, while the bell, the punch key, and the subject are in +another, with the door closed. This method of getting reaction times +has been in use for a number of years, especially by the astronomers +who need to know, in making their observations, how much time is taken +by the observer in recording a transit or other observation. It is +part of the astronomer's "personal equation." + +Proceeding with this "simple-reaction" experiment as a basis, the +psychologists have varied the instructions to the subject so as to +secure from him the different times which he takes for more +complicated mental processes, such as distinguishing between two or +more impressions, counting, multiplying, dividing, etc., before +reacting; or they have him wait for an associated idea to come up +before giving his response, with many other variations. By comparing +these different times among themselves, interesting results are +reached concerning the mental processes involved and also about the +differences of different individuals in the simpler operations of +their daily lives. The following research carried out by Mr. B.[4] +serves to illustrate both of these assertions. + +[Footnote 4: The writer.] + +Mr. B. wished to inquire further into a fact found out by several +persons by this method: the fact that there is an important difference +in the length of a person's reaction time according to the direction +of his attention during the experiment. If, for example, Mr. X. be +tested, it is possible that he may prefer to attend strictly to the +signal, letting his finger push the key without direct care and +supervision. If this be true, and we then interfere with his way of +proceeding, by telling him that he must attend to his finger, and +allow the signal to take care of itself, we find that he has great +difficulty in doing so, grows embarrassed, and his reaction time +becomes very irregular and much longer. Yet another person, say Y, may +show just the opposite state of things; he finds it easier to pay +attention to his hand, and when he does so he gets shorter and also +more regular times than when he attends to the signal-sound. + +It occurred to Mr. B. that the striking differences given by different +persons in this matter of the most favourable direction of the +attention might be connected with the facts brought out by the +physiological psychologists in connection with speech; namely, that +one person is a "visual," in speaking, using mainly sight images of +words, while another is a "motor," using mainly muscular images, and +yet another an "auditive," using mainly sound images. If the +differences are so marked in the matter of speech, it seemed likely +that they might also extend to other functions, and the so-called +"type" of a person in his speech might show itself in the relative +lengths of his reaction times according as he attended to one class of +images or another. + +Calling this the "type theory" of reaction times, and setting about +testing four different persons in the laboratory, the problem was +divided into two parts; first, to direct all the individuals selected +to find out, by examining their mental preferences in speaking, +reading, writing, dreaming, etc., the class of images which they +ordinarily depended most upon; and then to see by a series of +experiments whether their reaction times to these particular classes +of images were shorter than to others, and especially whether the +times were shorter when attention was given to these images than when +it was given to the muscles used in the reactions. The meaning of this +would be that if the reaction should be shorter to these images than +to the corresponding muscle images, or to the other classes of images, +then the reaction time of an individual would show his mental type and +be of use in testing it. This would be a very important matter if it +should hold, seeing that many questions both in medicine and in +education, which involve the ascertaining of the mental character of +the individual person, would profit by such an exact method. + +The results on all the subjects confirmed the supposition. For +example, one of them, Mr. C., found from an independent examination of +himself, most carefully made, that he depended very largely upon his +hearing in all the functions mentioned. When he thought of words, he +remembered how they sounded; when he dreamed, his dreams were full of +conversation and other sounds. When he wrote, he thought continually +of the way the words and sentences would sound if spoken. Without +knowing of this, many series of reaction experiments were made on him; +the result showed a remarkable difference between the lengths of his +reactions, according as he directed his attention to the sound or to +his hand; a difference showing his time to be one half shorter when he +paid attention to the sound. The same was seen when he reacted to +lights; the attention went preferably to the light, not to the hand; +but the difference was less than in the case of sounds. So it was an +unmistakable fact in his case that the results of the reaction +experiments agreed with his independent decision as to his mental +type. + +In none of the cases did this correspondence fail, although all were +not so pronounced in their type preferences as was Mr. C. + +The second part of the research had in view the question whether +reaction times taken upon speech would show the same thing; that is, +whether in Mr. C.'s case, for example, it would be found that his +reaction made by speaking, as soon as he heard the signal or saw the +light, would be shorter when he paid attention to the signal than when +he gave attention to his mouth and lips. For this purpose a mouth key +was used which made it possible for the subject simply by emitting a +puff of breath from the lips, to break an electric current and thus +stop the chronoscope as soon as possible after hearing the signal. +The mouth key is figured herewith (Fig. 6). + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Mouth-key (Isometric drawing) The metallic +tongue E swings over the mercury H, making or breaking the circuit A H +E D B or C E H A. The tongue is moved by a puff of air through the +funnel F. (Devised by Prof. W. Libbey.)] + +This experiment was also carried out on all the subjects, none of them +having any knowledge of the end in view, and the experimenters also +not having, as yet, worked out the results of the earlier research. In +all the cases, again, the results showed that, for speech, the same +thing held as for the hand--namely, that the shortest reaction times +were secured when the subject paid attention to the class of images +for which he had a general preference. In Mr. C.'s case, for example, +it was found that the time it took him to speak was much shorter when +he paid strict attention to the expected sound than when he attended +to his vocal organs. So for the other cases. If the individual's +general preference is for muscular images, we find that the quickest +time is made when attention is given to the mouth and lips. Such is +the case with Mr. B. + +The general results go to show, therefore--and four cases showing no +exception, added to the indications found by other writers, make a +general conclusion very probable--that in the differences in reaction +times, as secured by giving the attention this way or that, we have +general indications of the individual's temperament, or at least of +his mental preferences as set by his education. These indications +agree with those found in the cases of aphasia known as "motor," +"visual," "auditory," etc., already mentioned. The early examination +of children by this method would probably be of great service in +determining proper courses of treatment, subjects of study, modes of +discipline, tendencies to fatigue and embarrassment, and the direction +of best progress in education. + +This research may be taken to illustrate the use of the reaction-time +method in investigating such complex processes as attention, +temperament, etc. The department which includes the various time +measurements in psychology is now called Mental Chronometry, the older +term, Psychometry, being less used on account of its ambiguity. + +III. _An Optical Illusion._--In the sphere of vision many very +interesting facts are constantly coming to light. Sight is the most +complex of the senses, the most easily deranged, and, withal, the most +necessary to our normal existence. The report of the following +experimental study will have the greater utility, since, apart from +any intrinsic novelty or importance the results may prove to have, it +shows some of the general bearings of the facts of vision in relation +to AEsthetics, to the theory of Illusions, and to the function of +Judgment. + +Illusion of the senses is due either to purely physiological causes or +to the operation of the principle of Assimilation, which has already +been remarked upon. In the latter case it illustrates the fact that at +any time there is a general disposition of the mind to look upon a +thing under certain forms, patterns, etc., to which it has grown +accustomed; and to do this it is led sometimes to distort what it sees +or hears unconsciously to itself. So it falls into errors of judgment +through the trap which is set by its own manner of working. Nowhere is +the matter better illustrated than in the sphere of vision. The number +of illusions of vision is remarkable. We are constantly taking shapes +and forms for something slightly different from what, by measurement, +we actually find them to be. And psychologists are attempting--with +rather poor success so far--to find some general principles of the +mechanism of vision which will account for the great variety of its +illusions. + +Among these principles one is known as Contrast. It is hardly a +principle as yet. It is rather a word used to cover all illusions +which spring up when surfaces of different sizes and shapes, looked at +together or successively, are misjudged with reference to one another. +Wishing to investigate this in a simple way, the following experiment +was planned and carried out by Mr. B. + +He wished to find out whether, if two detached surfaces of different +sizes be gazed at together, the linear distances of the field of +vision (the whole scene visible at once) would be at all misjudged. To +test this, he put in the window (W)[5] of the dark room a filling of +white cardboard in which two square holes had been cut (S S'). The +sides of the squares were of certain very unequal lengths. Then a slit +was made between the middle points of the sides of the squares next to +each other, so that there was a narrow path or trough joining the +squares between their adjacent sides. Inside the dark room he arranged +a bright light so that it would illuminate this trough, but not be +seen by a person seated some distance in front of the window in the +next room. A needle (D) was hung on a pivot behind the cardboard, so +that its point could move along the bright trough in either direction; +and on the needle was put the armature (A) of an electro-magnet which, +when a current passed, would be drawn instantly to the magnet (E), and +so stop the needle exactly at the point which it had then reached. A +clock motor (Cm) was arranged in such a way as to carry the needle +back and forth regularly over the slit; and the electro-magnet was +connected by wires with a punch key (K) on a table beside the subject +in the next room. All being now ready, the subject, Mr. S., is told to +watch the needle which appears as a bead of light travelling along the +slit, and stop it when it comes to the middle point of the line, by +pressing the electric key. The experimenter, who stands behind the +window in the dark room, reads on a scale (mm.) marked in millimetres +the exact point at which the needle stops, releases the needle by +breaking the current, thus allowing it to return slowly over the line +again. This gives the subject another opportunity to stop it at what +he judges to be the exact middle of the line, and so on. The +accompanying figure (Fig. 7) shows the entire arrangement. + +[Footnote 5: This and the following letters in parentheses refer to +Fig. 7] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7] + +A great many experiments performed in this way, with the squares set +both vertically and horizontally, and with several persons, brought a +striking and very uniform result. The point selected by the subject as +the middle is regularly too far toward the smaller square. Not a +little, indeed, but a very appreciable amount. The amount of the +displacement, or, roughly speaking, of the illusion, increases as the +larger square is made larger and the smaller one smaller; or, put in a +sentence, the amount varies directly with the ratio of the smaller to +the larger square side. + +Finding such an unmistakable illusion by this method, Mr. B. thought +that if it could be tested by an appeal to people generally, it would +be of great gain. It occurred to him that the way to do this would be +to reverse the conditions of the experiment in the following way: He +prepared the figures given in Plate I, in which the two squares are +made of suitable relative size, a line is drawn between them, and a +point on the line is plainly marked. This he had printed in a weekly +journal, and asked the readers of the journal to get their friends, +after merely looking at the figure (i. e., without knowing the result +to be expected), to say--as the reader may now do before reading +further--whether the point on the line (Plate I) is in the middle or +not; and if not, in which direction from the true middle it lies. The +results from hundreds of persons of all manner of occupations, ages, +and of both sexes, agree in saying that the point lies too far toward +the larger square. In reality it is in the exact middle. This is just +the opposite of the result of the experiments in the laboratory, where +the conditions were the reverse, i. e., to find the middle as it +appears to the eye. Here, therefore, we have a complete confirmation +of the illusion; and it is now fully established that in all cases in +which the conditions of this experiment are realized we make a +constant mistake in estimating distances by the eye.[6] + +[Footnote 6: In redrawing the figure on a larger sheet (which is +recommended), the connecting line may be omitted, only the mid-point +being marked. Some get a better effect with two circles, the +intervening distance being divided midway by a dot, as in Plate II.] + +For instance, if a town committee wish to erect a statue to their +local hero in the public square, and if on two opposite sides of the +square there are buildings of very different heights, the statue +should not be put in the exact middle of the square, if it is to give +the best effect from a distance. It should be placed a little toward +the smaller building. A colleague of the writer found, when this was +first made public, that the pictures in his house had actually been +hung in such a way as to allow for this illusion. Whenever a picture +was to be put up between two others of considerable difference of +size, or between a door (large) and a window (small), it had actually +been hung a little nearer to the smaller--toward the small picture or +toward the window--and not in the true middle. + +It is probable that interesting applications of this illusion may be +discovered in aesthetics. For wherever in drawing or painting it is +wished to indicate to the observer that a point is midway between two +lines of different lengths, we should find that the artist, in order +to produce this effect most adequately, deviates a little from the +true middle. So in architecture, the effect of a contrast of masses +often depends upon the sense of bilateral balance, symmetry, or +equality, in which this visual error would naturally come into play. +Indeed, it is only necessary to recall to mind that one of the +principal laws of aesthetic effect in the matter of right line +proportion is the relation of "one to one," as it is called, or equal +division, to see the wide sphere of application of this illusion. In +all such cases the mistake of judgment would have to be allowed for if +masses of unequal size lie at the ends of the line which is to be +divided. + +IV. _The Accuracy of Memory._--Another investigation may be cited to +illustrate quite a different department. It aimed to find out +something about the rate at which memory fades with the lapse of time. +Messrs. W., S., and B.[7] began by formulating the different ways in +which tests may be made on individuals to see how accurate their +memories are after different periods of time. They found that three +different tests might be employed, and called them "methods" of +investigating memory. These are, first, the method of Reproduction. +The individual is asked to reproduce, as in an oral or written +examination, what he remembers of something told him a certain time +before. This is the ordinary method of the schools and colleges, of +civil-service examinations, etc. Second, the method of Identification, +which calls upon the person to identify a thing, sentence, report, +etc., a second or third time, as being the same in all respects as +that which he experienced the first time it appeared. Third, the +method of Selection, in which we show to the person a number of +things, sentences, reports, descriptions of objects, etc., and require +him to select from them the ones which are exactly the same as those +he has had before. These methods will be better understood from the +account now to be given of the way they were carried out on a large +number of students. + +[Footnote 7: Prof. H. C. Warren, Mr. W. J. Shaw, and the writer.] + +The first experiments were made by Messrs. S. and B. in the University +of Toronto on a class of students numbering nearly three hundred, of +whom about one third were women. The instructors showed to the class +certain squares of cardboard of suitable size, and asked them to do +the following three things on different days: First, to reproduce from +memory, with pencil on paper, squares of the same size as those shown, +after intervals of one, ten, twenty, and forty minutes (this gives +results by the method of Reproduction); second, to say whether a new +set of squares, which were shown to them after the same intervals, +were the same in size as those which they had originally seen, +smaller, or larger (illustrating the method of Identification); third, +they were shown a number of squares of slightly different sizes, again +at the same intervals, and asked to select from them the ones which +they found to be the same size as those originally seen (method of +Selection). + +The results from all these experiments were combined with those of +another series, secured from a large class of Princeton students; and +the figure (Fig. 8) shows by curves something of the result. The +figure is given in order that the reader may understand by its +explanation the "graphic method" of plotting statistical results, +which, with various complications, is now employed in psychology as +well as in the other positive sciences. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Memory curves: I. Method of Selection. II. +Method of Identification.] + +Briefly described in words, it was found that the three methods agreed +(the curves are parallel)[8] in showing that during the first ten +minutes there was a great falling off in the accuracy of memory (slant +in the curves from 0 to 10); that then, between ten and twenty +minutes, memory remained relatively faithful (the curves are nearly +level from 10 to 20), and that a rapid falling off in accuracy +occurred after twenty minutes (shown by the slant in the lines from 20 +to 40). + +[Footnote 8: This figure shows curves for two of the methods only, +Selection and Identification.] + +Further, the different positions of the curves show certain things +when properly understood. The curve secured by the method of +Reproduction (not given in the figure) shows results which are least +accurate, because most variable. The reason of this is that in drawing +the squares to reproduce the one remembered, the student is +influenced by the size of the paper he uses, by the varying accuracy +of his control over his hand and arm (the results vary, for example, +according as he uses his right or left hand), and by all sorts of +associations with square objects which may at the time be in his mind. +In short, this method gives his memory of the square a chance to be +fully assimilated to his current mental state during the interval, and +there is no corrective outside of him to keep him true. + +That this difficulty is a real one no one who has examined students +will be disposed to deny. When we ask them to reproduce what the +text-book or the professor's lectures have taught, we also ask them to +express themselves accurately. Now the science of correct expression +is a thing in which the average student has had no training. With his +difficulty in remembering is connected his difficulty of expression; +and with it all goes a certain embarrassment, due to responsibility, +personal fear, and dread of disgrace. So the results finally obtained +by this method are really very complex. + +One of the curves, that given by the method of Selection (I), also +shows memory to be interfered with by a certain influence. We saw in +connection with the experiments reported above that, even in the most +elementary arrangements of squares in the visual fields, an element of +contrast comes in to interfere with our judgment of size. This we find +confirmed in these experiments when the method of Selection is used. +By this method we show a number of squares side by side, asking the +individual to select the one he saw before. All the squares, being +shown at once, come into contrast with one another on the background; +and so his judgment of the size of the one he remembers is distorted. +This, again, is a real influence in our mental lives, leading to +actual illusion. An unscrupulous lawyer may gradually modify the story +which his client or a witness tells by constantly adding to what is +really remembered, other details so expertly contrasted with the +facts, or so neatly interposed among them, that the witness gradually +incorporates them in his memory and so testifies more nearly as the +lawyer desires. In our daily lives another element of contrast is also +very strong--that due to social opinion. We constantly modify our +memories to agree more closely with the truths of social belief, +paring down unconsciously the difference between our own and others' +reports of things. If several witnesses of an event be allowed to +compare notes from time to time, they will gradually come to tell more +nearly the same story. + +The other curve (II) in the figure, that secured by the method of +Identification, seemed to the investigators to be the most accurate. +It is not subject to the errors due to expression and to contrast, and +it has the advantage of allowing the subject the right to recognise +the square. It is shown to him again, with no information that it is +the same, and he decides whether from his remembrance of the earlier +one, it is the same or not. The only objection to this method is that +it requires a great many experiments in order to get an average +result. To be reliable, an average must be secured, seeing that, for +one or two or a few trials, the student may guess right without +remembering the original square at all. By taking a large number of +persons, such as the three hundred students, this objection may be +overcome. Comparing the averages, for example, of the results given +by the men and women respectively, we found practically no difference +between them. + +This last point may serve to introduce a distinction which is +important in all work in experimental psychology, and one which is +recognised also in many other sciences--the distinction between +results obtained respectively from one individual and from many. Very +often the only way to learn truth about a single individual is to +investigate a number together. In all large classes of things, +especially living things, there are great individual differences, and +in any particular case this personal variation may be so large that it +obscures the real nature of the normal. For example, three large sons +may be born to two small parents; and from this case alone it might be +inferred that all small parents have large sons. Or three girls might +have better memories than three boys in the same family or school, and +from this it might be argued that girls are better endowed in this +direction than boys. In all such cases the proper thing to do is to +get a large number of cases and combine them; then the preponderance +which the first cases examined may have shown, in one direction or the +other, is corrected. This gives rise to what is called the statistical +method; it is used in many practical matters, such as life insurance, +but its application to the facts of life, mind, variation, evolution, +etc., is only begun. Its neglect in psychology is one of the crying +defects of much recent work. Its use in complicated problems involves +a mathematical training which people generally do not possess; and its +misuse through lack of exactness of observation or ignorance of the +requirements is worse than its neglect. + +Another result came out in connection with these experiments on +memory, which, apart from its practical interest, may serve to show an +additional resource of experimental psychology. In making up the +results of a series of experiments it is very important to observe the +way in which the different cases differ from one another. Some cases +may be so nearly alike that the most extreme of them are not far from +the average of them all; as we find, for example, if we measure a +thousand No. 10 shot. But now suppose we mix in with the No. 10 some +No. 6 and some No. 14, and then take the average size; we may now get +just the same average, and we can tell that this pile is different +from the other only by observing the individual measurements of the +single shot and setting down the relative frequency of each particular +size. Or, again, we may get a different average size in one of two +ways: either by taking another lot of uniform No. 14 shot, let us say, +or by mixing with the No. 10 a few very large bullets. Which is +actually the case would be shown only by the examination of the +individual cases. This is usually done by comparing each case with the +average of the whole lot, and taking the average of the differences +thus secured--a quantity called the "mean variation." + +In the case of the experiments with the squares, the errors in the +judgments of the students were found to lie always in one direction. +The answers all tended to show that they took, for the one originally +shown, a square which was really too large. Casting about for the +reason of this, it was considered necessary to explain it by the +supposition that the square remembered had in the interval become +enlarged in memory. The image was larger when called up after ten or +twenty minutes than it was before. This might be due to a purely +mental process; or possibly to a sort of spreading-out of the brain +process in the visual centre, giving the result that whenever, by the +revival of the brain process, the mental image is brought back again +to mind, this spreading out shows itself by an enlargement of the +memory image. However it may be explained, the indications of it were +unmistakable--unless, of course, some other reason can be given for +the uniform direction of the errors; and it is further seen in other +experiments carried out by Messrs. W. and B. and by Dr. K.[9] at a +later date. + +[Footnote 9: Dr. F. Kennedy, demonstrator, now professor in the +University of Colorado (results not yet published).] + +If this tendency to the enlargement of our memories with the lapse of +time should be found to be a general law of memory, it would have +interesting bearings. It would suggest, for instance, an explanation +of the familiar fact that the scenes of the past seem to us, when we +return to them, altogether too small. Our childhood home, the old +flower garden, the height of house and trees, and even that of our +hero uncle, all seem to the returning traveller of adult life +ridiculously small. That we expect them to be larger may result from +the fact that the memory images have undergone change in the direction +of enlargement. + +V. _Suggestion._--Space permits only the mention of another research, +which, however, should not be altogether omitted, since it illustrates +yet other problems and the principles of their solution. This is an +investigation by Messrs. T. and H.,[10] which shows the remarkable +influence of mental suggestions upon certain bodily processes which +have always been considered purely physiological. These investigators +set out to repeat certain experiments of others which showed that if +two points, say those of a pair of compasses, be somewhat separated +and put upon the skin, two sensations of contact come from the points. +But if while the experiment is being performed the points be brought +constantly nearer to each other, a time arrives when the two are felt +as only one, although they may be still some distance apart. The +physiologists argued from this that there were minute nerve endings in +the skin at least so far apart as the least distance at which the +points were felt as two; and that when the points were so close +together that they only touched one of these nerve endings, only one +sensation was produced. Mr. T. had already found, working in Germany, +that, with practice, the skin gradually became more and more able to +discriminate the two points--that is, to feel the two at smaller +distances; and, further, that the exercise of the skin in this way on +one side of the body not only made that locality more sensitive to +minute differences, but had the same effect, singularly, on the +corresponding place on the other side of the body. This, our +experimenters inferred, could only be due to the continued suggestion +in the mind of the subject that he should feel two points, the result +being an actual heightening of the sensibility of the skin. When he +thought that he was becoming more sensitive on one side--and really +was--this sense or belief of his took effect in some way in both +hemispheres of his brain, and so both sides of the body were alike +affected. + +[Footnote 10: G. A. Tawney, now professor in Beloit College, and C. W. +Hodge, now professor in Lafayette College.] + +This led to other experiments in Princeton in which suggestions were +actually made to the subjects that they were to become more or less +sensitive to distance and direction between the points on the skin, +with the striking result that these suggestions actually took effect +all over the body. This was so accurately determined that from the +results of the experiments with the compasses on the skin in this case +or that, pretty accurate inferences could be made as to what mental +suggestions the subject was getting at the time. There was no chance +for deception in the results, for the experiments were so controlled +that the subject did not know until afterward of the correspondences +actually reached between his states of mind and the variations in +sensibility of the skin. + +This slight report of the work done in one laboratory in about two +sessions, involving a considerable variety of topics, may give an +idea, so far as it goes, of the sort of work which experimental +psychology is setting itself to do. It will be seen that there is as +yet no well-knit body of results on which new experiments may proceed, +and no developed set of experimental arrangements, such as other +positive sciences show. The procedure is, in many important matters, +still a matter of the individual worker's judgment and ability. Even +for the demonstrations attempted for undergraduate students, good and +cheap apparatus is still lacking. For these reasons it is premature as +yet to expect that this branch of the science will cut much of a +figure in education. There can be no doubt, however, that it is making +many interesting contributions to our knowledge of the mind, and that +when it is more adequately organized and developed in its methods and +apparatus, It will become the basis of discipline of a certain kind +lying between that of physical science and that of the humanities, +since it will have features in common with the biological and natural +sciences. Its results may be expected also to lead to better results +than we now have in the theory and practice of education. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SUGGESTION IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS--HYPNOTISM. + + +In an earlier place certain illustrations of Suggestion have been +given. By Suggestion we mean the fact that all sorts of hints from +without disturb and modify the beliefs and actions of the individual. +Certain cases from my own observation may be given which will make the +matter clear. + +_Physiological Suggestion._--Observation of an infant for the first +month or six weeks after birth leads to the conviction that his life +is mainly physiological. When the actions which are purely reflex, +together with certain random impulsive movements, are noted, we seem +to exhaust the case. + +Yet even at this remarkably early stage H. was found to be in some +degree receptive to certain Suggestions conveyed by repeated +stimulation under uniform conditions. In the first place, the +suggestions of sleep began to tell upon her before the end of the +first month. Her nurse put her to sleep by laying her face down and +patting gently upon the end of her spine. This position soon became +itself not only suggestive to the child of sleep, but sometimes +necessary to sleep, even when she was laid across the nurse's lap in +what seemed to be an uncomfortable position. + +This case illustrates what may be called Physiological Suggestion. It +shows the law of physiological habit as it borders on the conscious. + +The same sort of phenomena appear also in adult life. Positions given +to the limbs of a sleeper lead to movements ordinarily associated with +these positions. The sleeper defends himself, withdraws himself from +cold, etc. Children learn gradually to react upon conditions of +position, lack of support, etc., of the body, with those actions +necessary to keep from falling, which adults have so perfectly. All +secondary automatic reactions may be classed here; the sensations +coming from one action, as in walking, being suggestions to the next +movement, unconsciously acted upon. The consciousness at any stage in +the chain of movements, if present at all, must be similar to the +baby's in the case above--a mere internal glimmering. The most we can +say of such physiological suggestion is, that there is probably some +consciousness, and that the ordinary reflexes seem to be abbreviated +and improved. + +_Subconscious Adult Suggestion._--There are certain phenomena of a +rather striking kind coming under this head whose classification is so +evident that we may enumerate them without discussion of the general +principles which they involve. + +_Tune Suggestion._--It has been pointed out recently that dream states +are largely indebted for their visual elements--what we see in our +dreams--to accidental lines, patches, etc., in the field of vision +when the eyes are shut, due to the distended blood vessels of the +cornea and lids, to changes in the external illumination, to the +presence of dust particles of different configuration, etc. The other +senses also undoubtedly contribute to the texture of our dreams by +equally subconscious suggestions. There is no doubt, further, that our +waking life is constantly influenced by such trivial stimulations. + +I have tested in detail, for example, the conditions of the rise of +so-called "internal tunes"--we speak of "tunes in our head" or "in our +ears"--and find certain suggestive influences which in most cases +cause these tunes to rise and take their course. Often, when a tune +springs up "in my head," the same tune has been lately sung or +whistled in my hearing, though quite unnoticed at the time. Often the +tunes are those heard in church the previous day or earlier. Such a +tune I am entirely unable to recall voluntarily; yet when it comes +into the mind's ear, so to speak, I readily recognise it as belonging +to an earlier day's experience. Other cases show various accidental +suggestions, such as the tune Mozart suggested by the composer's name, +the tune Gentle Annie suggested by the name Annie, etc. In all these +cases it is only after the tune has taken possession of consciousness +and after much seeking that the suggesting influence is discovered. + +Closer analysis reveals certain additional facts: The "time" of such +internal tunes is usually dictated by some rhythmical subconscious +occurrence. After hearty meals it is always the time of the heart +beat, unless there be "in the air" some more impressive stimulus; as, +for example, when on shipboard, the beat is with me invariably that of +the engine throbs. When walking it is the rhythm of the footfall. On +one occasion a knock of four beats on the door started the +Marseillaise in my ear; following up this clew, I found that at any +time different divisions of musical time being struck on the table at +will by another person, tunes would spring up and run on, getting +their cue from the measures suggested. Further, when a tune dies away, +its last notes often suggest, some time after, another having a +similar movement--just as we pass from one tune to another in a +"medley." It may also be noted that in my case the tune memories are +auditive: they run in my head when I have no words for them and have +never sung them--an experience which is consistent with the fact that +these "internal tunes" arise in childhood before the faculty of +speech. They also have distinct pitch. For example, I once found a +tune "in my head" which was perfectly familiar, but for which I could +find no words. Tested on the piano, the pitch was F-sharp and the time +was my heart beat. Finally, after much effort, I got the unworthy +words "Wait till the clouds roll by" by humming the tune over +repeatedly. The pitch is determined probably by the accidental +condition of the auditory centre in the brain or by the pitch of the +external sound which serves as stimulus to the tune. + +_Normal Auto-Suggestion._--A further class of Suggestions, which fall +under the general phrase Auto-suggestion, or Self-suggestion of a +normal type, may be illustrated. In experimenting upon the possibility +of suggesting sleep to another I have found certain strong reactive +influences upon my own mental condition. Such an effort, which +involves the picturing of another as asleep, is a strong +Auto-suggestion of sleep, taking effect in my own case in about five +minutes if the conditions be kept constant. The more clearly the +patient's sleep is pictured the stronger becomes the subjective +feeling of drowsiness. After about ten minutes the ability to give +strong concentration seems to disintegrate, attention is renewed only +by fits and starts and in the presence of great, mental inertia, and +the oncoming of sleep is almost overpowering. An unfailing cure for +insomnia, speaking for myself, is the persistent effort to put some +one else asleep by hard thinking of the end in view, with a continued +gentle movement, such as stroking the other with the hand. + +On the other hand, it is impossible to bring on a state of drowsiness +by imagining myself asleep. The first effort at this, indeed, is +promising, for it leads to a state of restfulness and ease akin to the +mental composure which is the usual preliminary to sleep; but it goes +no further. It is succeeded by a state of steady wakefulness, which +effort of attention or effort not to attend only intensifies. If the +victim of insomnia could only forget that he is thus afflicted, could +forget himself altogether, his case would be more hopeful. The +contrast between this condition and that already described shows that +it is the Self-idea, with the emotions it awakens,[11] which prevents +the suggestion from realizing itself and probably accounts for many +cases of insomnia. + +[Footnote 11: A friend informs me that when he pictures himself dead +he can not help feeling gratified that he makes so handsome a +corpse.] + +_Sense Exaltation._--Recent discussions of Hypnotism have shown the +remarkable "exaltation" which the senses may attain in somnambulism, +together with a corresponding refinement in the interpretative +faculty. This is described more fully below. Events, etc., quite +subconscious, usually become suggestions of direct influence upon the +subject. Unintended gestures, habitual with the experimenter, may +suffice to hypnotize his accustomed subject. The possibility of such +training of the senses in the normal state has not had sufficient +emphasis. The young child's subtle discriminations of facial and other +personal indications are remarkable. The prolonged experience of +putting H. to sleep--extending over a period of more than six months, +during which I slept beside her bed--served to make me alive to a +certain class of suggestions otherwise quite beyond notice. It is well +known that mothers are awake to the needs of their infants when they +are asleep to everything else. + +In the first place, we may note the intense auto-suggestion of sleep +already pointed out, under the stimulus of repeated nursery rhymes or +other regular devices regularly resorted to in putting the child +asleep. Second, surprising progressive exaltation of the hearing and +interpretation of sounds coming from her in a dark room. At the end of +four or five months, her movements in bed awoke me or not according as +she herself was awake or not. Frequently after awaking I was +distinctly aware of what movements of hers had awaked me.[12] A +movement of her head by which it was held up from the pillow was +readily distinguished from the restless movements of her sleep. It was +not so much, therefore, exaltation of hearing as exaltation of the +function of the recognition of sounds heard and of their +discrimination. + +[Footnote 12: This fact is analogous to our common experience of being +awaked by a loud noise and then hearing it after we awake; yet the +explanation is not the same.] + +Again, the same phenomenon to an equally marked degree attended the +sound of her breathing. It is well enough known that the smallest +functional bodily changes induce changes in both the rapidity and the +quality of the respiration. In sleep the muscles of inhalation and +exhalation are relaxed, inhalation becomes long and deep, exhalation +short and exhaustive, and the rhythmic intervals of respiration much +lengthened. Now degrees of relative wakefulness are indicated with +surprising delicacy by the slight respiration sounds given forth by +the sleeper. Professional nurses learn to interpret these indications +with great skill. This exaltation of hearing became very pronounced in +my operations with the child. After some experience the peculiar +breathing of advancing or actual wakefulness in her was sufficient to +wake me. And when awake myself the change in the infant's respiration +sounds to those indicative of oncoming sleep was sufficient to suggest +or bring on sleep in myself. In the dark, also, the general character +of her breathing sounds was interpreted with great accuracy in terms +of her varied needs, her comfort or discomfort, etc. The same kind of +suggestion from the respiration sounds now troubles me whenever one of +the children is sleeping within hearing distance.[13] + +[Footnote 13: This is an unpleasant result which is confirmed by +professional infants' nurses. They complain of loss of sleep when off +duty. Mrs. James Murray, an infants' nurse in Toronto, informs me +that she finds it impossible to sleep when she has no infant in +hearing distance, and for that reason she never asks for a vacation. +Her normal sleep has evidently come to depend upon continuous +soporific suggestions from a child. In another point, also, her +experience confirms my observations, viz., the child's movements, +preliminary to waking, awake her, when no other movements of the child +do so--the consequence being that she is ready for the infant when it +gets fully awake and cries out.] + +The reactions in movement upon these suggestions are very marked and +appropriate, in customary or habitual lines, although the stimulations +are quite subconscious. The clearest illustrations in this body of my +experiences were afforded by my responses in crude songs to the +infant's waking movements and breathing sounds. I have often waked +myself by myself singing one of two nursery rhymes, which by endless +repetition night after night had become so habitual as to follow in an +automatic way upon the stimulus from the child. It is certainly +astonishing that among the things which one may get to do +automatically, we should find singing; but writers on the subject have +claimed that the function of musical or semi-musical expression may be +reflex. + +The principle of subconscious suggestion, of which these simple facts +are less important illustrations, has very interesting applications in +the higher reaches of social, moral, and educational theory. + +_Inhibitory Suggestion._--An interesting class of phenomena which +figure perhaps at all the levels of nervous action now described, may +be known as Inhibitory Suggestions. The phrase, in its broadest use, +refers to all cases in which the suggesting stimulus tends to +suppress, check, or inhibit movement. We find this in certain cases +just as strongly marked as the positive movement--bringing kind of +suggestion. The facts may be put under certain heads which follow. + +_Pain Suggestion._--Of course, the fact that pain inhibits movement +occurs at once to the reader. So far as this is general, and is a +native inherited thing, it is organic, and so falls under the head of +Physiological Suggestion of a negative sort. The child shows +contracting movements, crying movements, starting and jumping +movements, shortly after birth, and so plainly that we need not +hesitate to say that these pain responses belong purely to his nervous +system; and that, in general, they are inhibitory and contrary to +those other native reactions which indicate pleasure. + +The influence of pain extends everywhere through mental development, +however. Its general effect is to dampen down or suppress the function +which brings the pain; and in this its action is just the contrary to +that of pleasure, which furthers the pleasurable function. + +_Control Suggestion._--This covers all cases which show any kind of +restraint set upon the movements of the body short of that which comes +from voluntary intention. The infant brings the movements of his legs, +arms, head, etc., gradually into some sort of order and system. It is +accomplished by a system of organic checks and counter-checks, by +which associations are formed between muscular sensations on the one +hand and certain other sensations, as of sight, touch, hearing, etc., +on the other hand. The latter serve as suggestions to the performance +of these movements, and these alone. The infant learns to balance his +head and trunk, to direct his hands, to grasp with thumb opposite the +four fingers--all largely by such control suggestions, aided, of +course, by his native reflexes. + +_Contrary Suggestion._--By this is meant a tendency of a very striking +kind observable in many children, no less than in many adults, to do +the contrary when any course is suggested. The very word "contrary" is +used in popular talk to describe an individual who shows this type of +conduct. Such a child or man is rebellious whenever rebellion is +possible; he seems to kick constitutionally against the pricks. + +The fact of "contrariness" in older children--especially boys--is so +familiar to all who have observed school children with any care that I +need not cite further details. And men and women often become so +enslaved to suggestions of the contrary that they seem only to wait +for indications of the wishes of others in order to oppose and thwart +them. + +Contrary suggestions are to be explained as exaggerated instances of +control. It is easy to see that the checks and counter-checks already +spoken of as constituting the method of control of muscular movement +may themselves become so habitual and intense as to dominate the +reactions which they should only regulate. The associations between +the muscular series and the visual series, let us say, which controls +it, comes to work backward, so that the drift of the organic processes +is toward certain contrary reverse movements. + +In the higher reaches of conduct and life we find interesting cases of +very refined contrary suggestion. In the man of ascetic temperament, +the duty of self-denial takes the form of a regular contrary +suggestion in opposition to every invitation to self-indulgence, +however innocent. The over-scrupulous mind, like the over-precise, is +a prey to the eternal remonstrances from the contrary which intrude +their advice into all his decisions. In matters of thought and belief +also cases are common of stubborn opposition to evidence, and +persistence in opinion, which are in no way due to the cogency of the +contrary arguments or to real force of conviction. + +_Hypnotic Suggestion._--The facts upon which the current theories of +hypnotism are based may be summed up under a few headings, and the +recital of them will serve to bring this class of phenomena into the +general lines of classification drawn out in this chapter. + +_The Facts._--When by any cause the attention is held fixed upon an +object, say a bright button, for a sufficient time without +distraction, the subject begins to lose consciousness in a peculiar +way. Generalizing this simple experiment, we may say that any method +or device which serves to secure undivided and prolonged attention to +any sort of Suggestion--be it object, idea, anything that is clear and +striking--brings on what is called Hypnosis to a person normally +constituted. + +The Paris school of interpreters find three stages of progress in the +hypnotic sleep: First, Catalepsy, characterized by rigid fixity of the +muscles in any position in which the limbs may be put by the +experimenter, with great Suggestibility on the side of consciousness, +and Anaesthesia (lack of sensation) in certain areas of the skin and in +certain of the special senses; second, Lethargy, in which +consciousness seems to disappear entirely; the subject not being +sensitive to any stimulations by eye, ear, skin, etc., and the body +being flabby and pliable as in natural sleep; third, Somnambulism, so +called from its analogies to the ordinary sleep-walking condition to +which many persons are subject. This last covers the phenomena of +ordinary mesmeric exhibitions at which travelling mesmerists "control" +persons before audiences and make them obey their commands. While +other scientists properly deny that these three stages are really +distinct, they may yet be taken as representing extreme instances of +the phenomena, and serve as points of departure for further +description. + +On the mental side the general characteristics of hypnotic +Somnambulism are as follows: + +1. _The impairment of memory_ in a peculiar way. In the hypnotic +condition all affairs of the ordinary life are forgotten; on the other +hand, after waking the events of the hypnotic condition are forgotten. +Further, in any subsequent period of Hypnosis the events of the former +similar periods are remembered. So a person who is frequently +hypnotized has two continuous memories: one for the events of his +normal life, exercised only when he is normal; and one for the events +of his hypnotic periods, exercised only when he is hypnotized. + +2. _Suggestibility_ to a remarkable degree. By this is meant the +tendency of the subject to have in reality any mental condition which +is suggested to him. He is subject to Suggestions both on the side of +his sensations and ideas and also on the side of his actions. He will +see, hear, remember, believe, refuse to see, hear, etc., anything, +with some doubtful exceptions, which may be suggested to him by word +or deed, or even by the slightest and perhaps unconscious indications +of those about him. On the side of conduct his suggestibility is +equally remarkable. Not only will he act in harmony with the illusions +of sight, etc., into which he is led, but he will carry out, like an +automaton, the actions suggested to him. Further, pain and pleasure, +with their organic accompaniments may be produced by Suggestion. The +skin may be actually scarred with a lead pencil if the patient be told +that it is red-hot iron. The suggested pain brings about vasomotor and +other bodily changes that prove, as similar tests in the other cases +prove, that simulation is impossible and the phenomena are real. These +truths and those given below are no longer based on the mere reports +of the "mesmerists," but are the recognised property of legitimate +psychology. + +Again, such suggestions may be for a future time, and be performed +only when a suggested interval has elapsed; they are then called +Deferred or Post-hypnotic Suggestions. Post-hypnotic Suggestions are +those which include the command not to perform them until a certain +time after the subject has returned to his normal condition; such +suggestions--if of reasonably trifling character--are actually carried +out afterward in the normal state, although the person is conscious of +no reason why he should act in such a way, having no remembrance +whatever that he has received the suggestion when hypnotized. Such +post-hypnotic performances may be deferred by suggestion for many +months. + +3. So-called _Exaltation_ of the mental faculties, especially of the +senses: increased acuteness of vision, hearing, touch, memory, and the +mental functions generally. By reason of this great "exaltation," +hypnotized patients may get suggestions from the experimenters which +are not intended, and discover their intentions when every effort is +made to conceal them. Often emotional changes in expression are +discerned by them; and if it be admitted that their power of logical +and imaginative insight is correspondingly exalted, there is hardly a +limit to the patient's ability to read, simply from physical +indications, the mental states of those who experiment with him. + +4. So-called _Rapport_. This term covers all the facts known, before +the subject was scientifically investigated, by such expressions as +"personal magnetism," "will power over the subject", etc. It is true +that one particular operator alone may be able to hypnotize a +particular patient; and in this case the patient is, when hypnotized, +open to suggestions from that person only. He is deaf and blind to +everything enjoined by anyone else. It is easy to see from what has +already been said that this does not involve any occult nerve +influence or mental power. A sensitive patient anybody can hypnotize, +provided only that the patient have the idea or conviction that the +experimenter possesses such power. Now, let a patient get the idea +that only one man can hypnotize him, and that is the beginning of the +hypnotic suggestion itself. It is a part of the suggestion that a +certain personal _Rapport_ is necessary; so the patient must have this +_Rapport_. This is shown by the fact that when such a patient is +hypnotized, the operator _en rapport_ with him can transfer the +so-called control to any one else simply by suggesting to the patient +that this third party can also hypnotize him. _Rapport_, therefore, +and all the amazing claims of charlatans to powers of charming, +stealing another's personality, controlling his will at a +distance--all such claims are explained, so far as they have anything +to rest upon, by suggestion under conditions of mental hyperaesthesia +or exaltation. + +I may now add certain practical remarks on the subject. + +In general, any method which fixes the attention upon a single stimulus +long enough is probably sufficient to produce Hypnosis; but the result is +quick and profound in proportion as the patient has the idea that it is +going to succeed, i. e., gets the suggestion of sleep. It may be said, +therefore, that the elaborate performances, such as passes, rubbings, +mysterious incantations, etc., often resorted to, have no physiological +effect whatever, and only serve to work in the way of suggestion upon the +mind of the subject. In view of this it is probable that any person in +normal health can be hypnotized, provided he is not too sceptical of the +operator's knowledge and power; and, on the contrary, any one can +hypnotize another, provided he do not arouse too great scepticism, and is +not himself wavering and clumsy. It is probable, however, that +susceptibility varies greatly in degree, and that race exerts an important +influence. Thus in Europe the French seem to be most susceptible, and the +English and Scandinavians least so. The impression that weak-minded +persons are most available is quite mistaken. On the contrary, patients in +the insane asylums, idiots, etc., are the most refractory. This is to be +expected, from the fact that in these cases power of strong, steady +attention is wanting. The only class of pathological cases which seem +peculiarly open to the hypnotic influence is that of the +hystero-epileptics, whose tendencies are toward extreme suggestibility. +Further, one may hypnotize himself--what we have called above +Auto-suggestion--especially after having been put into the trance more +than once by others. When let alone after being hypnotized, the patient +usually passes into a normal sleep and wakes naturally. + +It is further evident that frequent hypnotization is very damaging if +done by the same operator, since then the patient contracts a habit of +responding to the same class of suggestions; and this may influence +his normal life. A further danger arises from the possibility that all +suggestions have not been removed from the patient's mind before his +awaking. Competent scientific observers always make it a point to do +this. It is possible also that damaging effects result directly to a +man from frequent hypnotizing; and this is in some degree probable, +simply from the fact that, while it lasts, the state is abnormal. +Consequently, all general exhibitions in public, as well as all +individual hypnotizing by amateurs, should be prohibited by law, and +the whole practical application as well as observation of Hypnosis +should be left in the hands of physicians or experts who have proved +their fitness by an examination and secured a certificate of licence. +In Russia a decree (summer, 1893) permits physicians to practise +hypnotism for purposes of cure under official certificates. In France +public exhibitions are forbidden. + +So-called Criminal Suggestions may be made, with more or less effect, +in the hypnotic state. Cases have been tried in the French courts, in +which evidence for and against such influence of a third person over +the criminal has been admitted. The reality of the phenomenon, +however, is in dispute. The Paris school claim that criminal acts may +be suggested to the hypnotized subject, which are just as certain to +be performed by him as any other acts. Such a subject will discharge a +blank-loaded pistol at one, when told to do so, or stab him with a +paper dagger. While admitting the facts, the Nancy theorists claim +that the subject knows the performance to be a farce; gets suggestions +of the unreality of it from the experimenters, and so acquiesces. This +is probably true, as is seen in frequent cases in which patients have +refused, in hypnotic sleep, to perform suggested acts which shocked +their modesty, veracity, etc. This goes to show that the Nancy school +are right in saying that while in Hypnosis suggestibility is +exaggerated to an enormous degree, still it has limits in the more +well-knit habits, moral sentiments, social opinions, etc., of the +subject. And it further shows that Hypnosis is probably, as they +claim, a temporary disturbance, rather than a pathological condition +of mind or body. + +There have been many remarkable and sensational cases of cure of +disease by hypnotic suggestion, reported especially in France. That +hysteria in many of its manifestations has been relieved is certainly +true; but that any organic, structural disease has ever been cured by +hypnotism is unproved. It is not regarded by medical authorities as an +agent of much therapeutic value, and is rarely employed; but it is +doubtful, in view of the natural prejudice caused by the pretensions +of charlatans, whether its merits have been fairly tested. On the +European Continent it has been successfully applied in a great variety +of cases; and Bernheim has shown that minor nervous troubles, +insomnia, migraines, drunkenness, lighter cases of rheumatism, sexual +and digestive disorders, together with a host of smaller temporary +causes of pain--corns, cricks in back and side, etc.--may be cured or +very materially alleviated by suggestions conveyed in the hypnotic +state. In many cases such cures are permanently effected with aid from +no other remedies. In a number of great city hospitals patients of +recognised classes are at once hypnotized, and suggestions of cure +made. Liebeault, the founder of the Nancy school, has the credit of +having first made use of hypnosis as a remedial agent. It is also +becoming more and more recognised as a method of controlling +refractory and violent patients in asylums and reformatory +institutions. It must be added, however, that psychological theory +rather than medical practice is seriously concerning itself with this +subject. + +_Theory._--Two rival theories are held as to the general character of +Hypnosis. The Paris school already referred to, led by the late Dr. +Charcot, hold that it is a pathological condition which is most +readily induced in patients already mentally diseased or having +neuropathic tendencies. They claim that the three stages described +above are a discovery of great importance. The so-called Nancy school, +on the other hand, led by Bernheim, deny the pathological character of +Hypnosis altogether, claiming that the hypnotic condition is nothing +more than a special form of ordinary sleep brought on artificially by +suggestion. Hypnotic suggestion, say they, is only an exaggeration of +an influence to which all persons are normally subject. All the +variations, stages, curious phenomena, etc., of the Paris school, they +claim, can be explained by this "suggestion" hypothesis. The Nancy +school must be considered completely victorious apart from some facts +which no theory has yet explained. + +Hypnotism shows an intimacy of interaction between mind and body to +which current psychology is only beginning to do justice; and it is +this aspect of the whole matter which should be emphasized in this +connection. The hypnotic condition of consciousness may be taken to +represent the working of Suggestion most remarkably. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE TRAINING OF THE MIND--EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. + + +A great deal has been said and written about the physical and mental +differences shown by the young; and one of the most oft-repeated of +all the charges which we hear brought against the current methods of +teaching is that all children are treated alike. The point is carried +so far that a teacher is judged from the way he has or has not of +getting at the children under him as individuals. All this is a move +in the right direction; and yet the subject is still so vague that +many of the very critics who declaim against the similar treatment +which diverse pupils get at school have no clear idea of what is +needed; they merely make demands that the treatment shall suit the +child. How each child is to be suited, and the inquiry still back of +that, what peculiarity it is in this child or that which is to be +"suited"--these things are left to settle themselves. + +It is my aim in this chapter to indicate some of the variations which +are shown by different children; and on the basis of such facts to +endeavour to arrive at a more definite idea of what variations of +treatment are called for in the several classes into which the +children are divided. I shall confine myself at first to those +differences which are more hereditary and constitutional. + +_First Period--Early Childhood._--The first and most comprehensive +distinction is that based on the division of the life of man into the +two great spheres of reception and action. The "sensory" and the +"motor" are becoming the most common descriptive terms of current +psychology. We hear all the while of sensory processes, sensory +contents, sensory centres, sensory attention, etc.; and, on the other +hand, of motor processes, motor centres, motor ataxy, motor attention, +motor consciousness, etc. And in the higher reaches of mental +function, the same antithesis comes out in the contrast of sensory and +motor aphasia, alexia, sensory and motor types of memory and +imagination, etc. Indeed the tendency is now strong to think that when +we have assigned a given function of consciousness to one or other +side of the nervous apparatus, making it either sensory or motor, then +our duty to it is done. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the +distinction is throwing great light on the questions of mind which +involve also the correlative questions of the nervous system. This is +true of all questions of educational psychology. + +This first distinction between children--as having general +application--is that which I may cover by saying that some are more +active, or motile, while others are more passive, or receptive. This +is a common enough distinction; but possibly a word or two on its +meaning in the constitution of the child may give it more actual +value. + +The "active" person to the psychologist is one who is very responsive +to what we have called Suggestions. Suggestions may be described in +most general terms as any and all the influences from outside, from +the environment, both physical and personal, which get a lodgment in +consciousness and lead to action. A child who is "suggestible" to a +high degree shows it in what we call "motility." The suggestions which +take hold of him translate themselves very directly into action. He +tends to act promptly, quickly, unreflectively, assimilating the newer +elements of the suggestions of the environment to the ways of +behaviour fixed by his earlier habits. Generally such a person, child +or adult, is said to "jump" at conclusions; he is anxious to know in +order to act; he acts in some way on all events or suggestions, even +when no course of action is explicitly suggested, and even when one +attempts to keep him from acting. + +Psychologically such a person is dominated by habit. And this means +that his nervous system sets, either by its hereditary tendencies or +by the undue predominance of certain elements in his education, +quickly in the direction of motor discharge. The great channels of +readiest out-pouring from the brain into the muscles have become fixed +and pervious; it is hard for the processes once started in the sense +centres, such as those of sight, hearing, etc., to hold in their +energies. They tend to unstable equilibrium in the direction of +certain motor combinations, which in their turn represent certain +classes of acts. This is habit; and the person of the extreme motor +type is always a creature of habit. + +Now what is the line of treatment that such a child should have? The +necessity for getting an answer to this question is evident from what +was said above--i. e., that the very rise of the condition itself is +due, apart from heredity, oftener than not to the fact that he has not +had proper treatment from his teachers. + +The main point for a teacher to have in mind in dealing with such a +boy or girl--the impulsive, active one, always responsive, but almost +always in error in what he says and does--is that here is a case of +habit. Habit is good; indeed, if we should go a little further we +should see that all education is the forming of habits; but here, in +this case, what we have is not habits, but habit. This child shows a +tendency to habit _as such_: to habits of any and every kind. The +first care of the teacher in order to the control of the formation of +habits is in some way to bring about a little inertia of habit, so to +speak--a short period of organic hesitation, during which the reasons +pro and con for each habit may be brought into the consciousness of +the child. + +The means by which this tendency to crude, inconsiderate action on the +part of the child is to be controlled and regulated is one of the most +typical questions for the intelligent teacher. Its answer must be +different for children of different ages. The one thing to do, in +general, however, from the psychologist's point of view, is in some +way to bring about greater complications in the motor processes which +the child uses most habitually, and with this complication to get +greater inhibition along the undesirable lines of his activity. +Inhibition is the damming up of the processes for a period, causing +some kind of a "setback" of the energies of movement into the sensory +centres, or the redistribution of this energy in more varied and less +habitual discharges. With older children a rational method is to +analyze for them the mistakes they have made, showing the penalties +they have brought upon themselves by hasty action. This requires great +watchfulness. In class work, the teacher may profitably point out the +better results reached by the pupil who "stops to think." This will +bring to the reform of the hasty scholar the added motive of +semi-public comparison with the more deliberate members of the class. +Such procedure is quite unobjectionable if made a recognised part of +the class method; yet care should be taken that no scholar suffer +mortification from such comparisons. The matter may be "evened up" by +dwelling also on the merit of promptness which the scholar in question +will almost always be found to show. + +For younger pupils as well as older more indirect methods of treatment +are more effective. The teacher should study the scholar to find the +general trend of his habits. Then oversight should be exercised over +both his tasks and his sports with certain objects in view. His +habitual actions should be made as complicated as his ability can cope +with; this in order to educate his habits and keep them from working +back into mere mechanism. If he shows his fondness for drawing by +marking his desk, see that he has drawing materials at hand and some +intelligent tasks in this line to do; not as tasks, but for himself. +Encourage him to make progress always, not simply to repeat himself. +If he has awkward habits of movement with his hands and feet, try to +get him interested in games that exercise these members in regular and +skilful ways. + +Furthermore, in his intellectual tasks such a pupil should be trained, +as far as may be, on the more abstract subjects, which do not give +immediate openings for action. Mathematics is the best possible +discipline for him. Grammar also is good; it serves at once to +interest him, if it is well taught, in certain abstract relationships, +and also to send out his motor energies in the exercise of speech, +which is the function which always needs exercise, and which is always +under the observation of the teacher. Grammar, in fact, is one of the +very best of primary-school subjects, because instruction in it issues +at once in the very motor functions which embody the relationships +which the teacher seeks to impress. The teacher has in his ear, so to +speak, the evidence as to whether his instruction is understood or +not. This gives him a valuable opportunity to keep his instruction +well ahead of its motor expression--thus leading the pupil to think +rather than to act without thinking--and at the same time to point out +the errors of performance which follow from haste in passing from +thought to action. + +These indirect methods of reaching the impulsive pupil should never be +cast aside for the direct effort to "control" such a scholar. The very +worst thing that can be done to such a boy or girl is to command him +or her to sit still or not to act; and a still worse thing--to make a +comparative again on the head of the superlative--is to affix to the +command painful penalties. This is a direct violation of the principle +of Suggestion. Such a command only tends to empty the pupil's mind of +other objects of thought and interest, and so to keep his attention +upon his own movements. This, then, amounts to a continual suggestion +to him to do just what you want to keep him from doing. On the +contrary, unless you give him suggestions and interests which lead his +thought away from his acts, it is impossible not to aggravate his bad +tendencies by your very efforts. This is the way, as I intimated +above, that many teachers create or confirm bad habits in their +pupils, and so render any amount of well-intended positive instruction +abortive. It seems well established that a suggestion of the +negative--that is, not to do a thing--has no negative force; but, on +the contrary, in the early period, it amounts only to a stronger +suggestion in the positive sense, since it adds emphasis, to the thing +which is forbidden. The "not" in a prohibition is no addition to the +pictured course to which it is attached, and the physiological fact +that the attention tends to set up action upon that which is attended +to comes in to put a premium on disobedience. Indeed, the philosophy +of all punishment rests in this consideration, i. e., that unless the +penalty tends to fill the mind with some object other than the act +punished, it does more harm than good. The punishment must be actual +and its nature diverting; never a threat which terminates there, nor a +penalty which fixes the thought of the offence more strongly in mind. +This is to say, that the permanent inhibition of a movement at this +period is best secured by establishing some different movement. + +The further consideration of the cases of great motility would lead to +the examination of the kinds of memory and imagination and their +treatment; to that we return below. We may now take up the instances +of the sensory type considered with equal generality. + +The sensory children are in the main those which seem more passive, +more troubled with physical inertia, more contemplative when a little +older, less apt in learning to act out new movements, less quick at +taking a hint, etc. + +These children are generally further distinguished as being--and here +the antithesis to the motor ones is very marked--much less +suggestible. They seem duller when young. Boys often get credit for +dulness compared with girls on this account. Even as early as the +second year can this distinction among children be readily observed in +many instances. The motor child will show sorrow by loud crying and +vigorous action, while the sensory child will grieve in quiet, and +continue to grieve when the other has forgotten the disagreeable +occurrence altogether. The motor one it is that asks a great many +questions and seems to learn little from the answers; while the +sensory one learns simply from hearing the questions of the other and +the answers given to them. The motor child, again, gets himself hurt a +great many times in the same way, without developing enough +self-control to restrain himself from the same mistake again and +again; the sensory child tends to be timid in the presence of the +unknown and uncertain, to learn from one or a few experiences, and to +hold back until he gets satisfactory assurances that danger is absent. +The former tends to be more restless in sitting, standing, etc., more +demonstrative in affection, more impulsive in action, more forgiving +in disposition. + +As to the treatment of the sensory child, it is a problem of even +greater difficulty and danger than that of his motor brother. The very +nature of the distinction makes it evident that while the motor +individual "gives himself away," so to speak, by constantly acting out +his impressions, and so revealing his progress and his errors, with +the other it is not so. All knowledge that we are ever able to get of +the mental condition of another individual is through his movements, +expressive, in a technical sense, or of other kinds, such as his +actions, attitudes, lines of conduct, etc. We have no way to read +thought directly. So just in so far as the sensory individual is less +active, to that degree he is less expressive, less self-revealing. To +the teacher, therefore, he is more of an enigma. It is harder to tell +in his case what instruction he has appreciated and made his own; and +what, on the other hand, has been too hard for him; what wise, and +what unwise. Where the child of movement speaks out his impulsive +interpretations, this one sinks into himself and gives no answer. So +we are deprived of the best way of interpreting him--that afforded by +his own interpretation of himself. + +A general policy of caution is therefore strongly to be recommended. +Let the teacher wait in every case for some positive indication of the +child's real state of mind. Even the directions given the child may +not have been understood, or the quick word of admonition may have +wounded him, or a duty which is so elementary as to be a commonplace +in the mental life of the motor child may yet be so vaguely +apprehended that to insist upon its direct performance may cost the +teacher all his influence with the pupil of this type. It is better to +wait even at the apparent risk of losing valuable days than to proceed +a single step upon a mistaken estimate of the child's measure of +assimilation. And, further, the effect of wrong treatment upon this +boy or girl is very different from that of a similar mistake in the +other case. He becomes more silent, retired, even secretive, when once +an unsympathetic relationship is suggested between him and his elder. + +Then more positively--his instruction should be well differentiated. +He should in every possible case be given inducements to express +himself. Let him recite a great deal. Give him simple verses to +repeat. Keep him talking all you can. Show him his mistakes with the +utmost deliberation and kindliness of manner; and induce him to repeat +his performances in your hearing after the correction has been +suggested. Cultivate the imitative tendency in him; it is the handmaid +to the formation of facile habits of action. In arranging the +children's games, see that he gets the very active parts, even though +he be backward and hesitating about assuming them. Make him as far as +possible a leader, in order to cultivate his sense of responsibility +for the doing of things, and to lead to the expression of his +understanding of arrangements, etc. In it all, the essential thing is +to bring him out in some kind of expression; both for the sake of the +improved balance it gives himself, and as an indication to the +observant teacher of his progress and of the next step to be taken in +his development. + +It is for the sensory child, I think, that the kindergarten has its +great utility. It gives him facility in movement and expression, and +also some degree of personal and social confidence. But for the same +reasons the kindergarten over-stimulates the motor scholars at the +corresponding age. There should really be two kindergarten +methods--one based on the idea of deliberation, the other on that of +expression. + +The task of the educator here, it is evident, is to help nature +correct a tendency to one-sided development; just as the task is this +also in the former case; but here the variation is on the side of +idiosyncrasy ultimately, and of genius immediately. For genius, I +think, is the more often developed from the contemplative mind, with +the relatively dammed-up brain, of this child, than from the +smooth-working machine of the motor one. But just for this reason, if +the damming-up be liberated, not in the channels of healthy +assimilation, and duly correlated growth, but in the forced discharges +of violent emotion, followed by conditions of melancholy and by +certain unsocial tendencies, then the promise of genius ripens into +eccentricity, and the blame is possibly ours. + +It seems true--although great caution is necessary in drawing +inferences--that here a certain distinction may be found to hold also +between the sexes. It is possible that the apparent precocious +alertness of girls in their school years, and earlier, may be simply a +predominance among them of the motor individuals. This is borne out by +the examination of the kinds of performance in which they seem to be +more forward than boys. It resolves itself, so far as my observation +goes, into greater quickness of response and greater agility in +performance; not greater constructiveness, nor greater power of +concentrated attention. The boys seem to need more instruction because +they do not learn as much for themselves by acting upon what they +already know. In later years, the distinction gets levelled off by the +common agencies of education, and by the setting of tasks requiring +more thought than the mere spontaneities of either type avail to +furnish. Yet all the way through, I think there is something in the +ordinary belief that woman is relatively more impulsive and more prone +to the less reflective forms of action. + +What has now been said may be sufficient to give some concrete force +to the common opinion that education should take account of the +individual character at this earliest stage. The general distinction +between sensory and motor has, however, a higher application in the +matter of memory and imagination at later stages of growth, to which +we may now turn. + +_Second Period._--The research is of course more difficult as the +pupil grows older, since the influences of heredity tend to become +blurred by the more constant elements of the child's home, school, and +general social environment. The child whom I described just above as +sensory in his type is constantly open to influences from the +stimulating behaviour of his motor companion, as well as from the +direct measures which parent and teacher take to overcome his +too-decided tendencies and to prevent one-sided development. So, too, +the motor child tends to find correctives in his environment. + +The analogy, however, between the more organic and hereditary +differences in individuals, and the intellectual and moral variations +which they tend to develop with advance in school age, is very +marked; and we find a similar series of distinctions in the later +period. The reason that there is a correspondence between the +variations given in heredity and those due in the main to the +educative influences of the single child's social environment is in +itself very suggestive, but space does not permit its exposition here. + +The fact is this: the child tends, under the influence of his home, +school, social surroundings, etc., to develop a marked character +either in the sensory or in the motor direction, in his memory, +imagination, and general type of mind. + +Taking up the "motor" child first, as before, we find that his +psychological growth tends to confirm him in his hereditary type. In +all his social dealing with other children he is more or less +domineering and self-assertive; or at least his conduct leads one to +form that opinion of him. He seems to be constantly impelled to act so +as to show himself off. He "performs" before people, shows less +modesty than may be thought desirable in one of his tender years, +impresses the forms of his own activity upon the other children, who +come to stand about him with minds constrained to follow him. He is an +object lesson in both the advantages and the risks of an aggressive +life policy. He has a suggestion to make in every emergency, a line of +conduct for each of his company, all marked out or supplied on the +spur of the moment by his own quick sense of appropriate action; and +for him, as for no one else, to hesitate is to be lost. + +Now what this general policy or method of growth means to his +consciousness is becoming more and more clear in the light of the +theory of mental types. The reason a person is motor is that his mind +tends always to be filled up most easily with memories or revived +images of the twitchings, tensions, contractions, expansions, of the +activities of the muscular system. He is a motor because the means of +his thought generally, the mental coins which pass current in his +thought exchange, are muscular sensations or the traces which such +sensations have left in his memory. The very means by which he thinks +of a situation, an event, a duty, is not the way it looked, or the way +it sounded, or the way it smelt, tasted, or felt to the touch--in any +of the experiences to which these senses are involved--but the means, +the representatives, the instruments of his thought, are the feelings +of the way he has acted. He has a tendency--and he comes to have it +more and more--to get a muscular representation of everything; and his +gauge of the value of this or that is this muscular measure of it, in +terms of the action which it is calculated to draw out. + +It is then this preference for one particular kind of mental imagery, +and that the motor, or muscular kind, which gives this type of child +his peculiarity in this more psychological period. When we pass from +the mere outward and organic description of his peculiarities, +attempted above in the case of very young children, and aim to +ascertain the mental peculiarity which accompanies it and carries on +the type through the individual's maturer years, we see our way to its +meaning. The fact is that a peculiar kind of mental imagery tends to +swell up in consciousness and monopolize the theatre of thought. This +is only another way of saying that the attention is more or less +educated in the direction represented by this sort of imagery. Every +time a movement is thought of, in preference to a sound or a sight +which is also available, the habit of giving the attention to the +muscular equivalents of things becomes more firmly fixed. This +continues until the motor habit of attention becomes the only easy and +normal way of attending; and then the person is fixed in his type for +one, many, or all of his activities of thinking and action. + +So now it is no longer difficult to see, I trust, why it is that the +child or youth of this sort has the characteristics which he has. It +is a familiar principle that attention to the thought of a movement +tends to start that very movement. I defy any of my readers to think +hard and long of winking the left eye and not have an almost +irresistible impulse to wink that eye. There is no better way to make +it difficult for a child to sit still than to tell him to sit still; +for your words fill up his attention, as I had occasion to say above, +with the thought of movements, and these thoughts bring on the +movements, despite the best intentions of the child in the way of +obedience. Watch an audience of little children--and children of an +older growth will also do--when an excited speaker harangues them with +many gestures, and see the comical reproduction of the gestures by the +children's hands. They picture the movements, the attention is fixed +on them, and appropriate actions follow. + +It is only the generalizing of these phenomena that we find realized +in the boy or girl of the motor type. Such a child is constantly +thinking of things by their movement equivalents. Muscular sensations +throng up in consciousness at every possible signal and by every train +of association; so it is not at all surprising that all informations, +instructions, warnings, reproofs, suggestions, pass right through such +a child's consciousness and express themselves by the channels of +movement. Hence the impulsive, restless, domineering, unmeditative +character of the child. We may now endeavour to describe a little more +closely his higher mental traits. + +1. In the first place the motor mind tends to _very quick +generalization_. Every teacher knows the boys in school who anticipate +their conclusions, on the basis of a single illustration. They reach +the general notion which is most broad in extent, in application, but +most shallow in intent, in richness, in real explaining or descriptive +meaning. For example, such a boy will hear the story of Napoleon, +proceed to define heroism in terms of military success, and then go +out and try the Napoleon act upon his playfellows. This tendency to +generalize is the mental counterpart of the tendency to act seen in +his conduct. The reason he generalizes is that the brain energies are +not held back in the channels of perception, but pour themselves right +out toward the motor equivalents of former perceptions which were in +any way similar; then the present perceptions are lost in the old ones +toward which attention is held by habit, and action follows. To the +child all heroes are Napoleons because Napoleon was the first hero, +and the channels of action inspired by him suffice now for the +appropriate conduct. + +2. Such a scholar is very _poor at noting and remembering +distinctions_. This follows naturally from the hasty generalizations +which he makes. Having once identified a new fact as the same as an +old one, and having so reached a defective sense of the general +class, it is then more and more hard for him to retrace his steps and +sort out the experiences more carefully. Even when he discovers his +mistake, his old impulse to act seizes him again, and he rushes to +some new generalization wherewith to replace the old, again falling +into error by his stumbling haste to act. The teacher is oftener +perhaps brought to the verge of impatience by scholars of this class +than by any others. + +3. Following, again, from these characteristics, there is a third +remark to be made about the youth of this type; and it bears upon a +peculiarity which it is very hard for the teacher to estimate and +control. These motor boys and girls have what I may characterize as +_fluidity of the attention_. By this is meant a peculiar quality of +mind which all experienced teachers are in some degree familiar with, +and which they find baffling and unmanageable. + +By "fluidity" of the attention I mean the state of hurry, rush, +inadequate inspection, quick transition, all-too-ready-assimilation, +hear-but-not-heed, in-one-ear-and-out-the-other habit of mind. The +best way to get an adequate sense of the state is to recall the pupil +who has it to the most marked degree, and picture his mode of dealing +with your instructions. Such a pupil hears your words, says "yes," +even acts appropriately so far as your immediate instructions go; but +when he comes to the same situation again, he is as virginly innocent +of your lesson as if his teacher had never been born. Psychologically, +the state differs from preoccupation, which characterizes quite a +different type of mind. The motor boy is not preoccupied. Far from +that, he is quite ready to attend to you. But when he attends, it is +with a momentary concentration--with a rush like the flow of a +mountain stream past the point of the bank on which you sit. His +attention is flowing, always in transition, leaping from "it to that," +with superb agility and restlessness. But the exercise it gains from +its movements is its only reward. Its acquisitions are slender in the +extreme. It illustrates, on the mental plane, the truth of the +"rolling stone." It corresponds, as a mental character, to the +muscular restlessness which the same type of child shows in the +earlier period previously spoken of. + +The psychological explanation of this "fluid attention" is more or +less plain, but I can not take space to expound it. Suffice it to say +that the attention is itself, probably, in its brain seat, a matter of +the motor centres; its physical seat both "gives and takes" in +co-operation with the processes which shed energy out into the +muscles. So it follows that, in the ready muscular revivals, +discharges, transitions, which we have seen to be prominent in the +motor temperament the attention is carried along, and its "fluidity" +is only an incident to the fluidity of the motor symbols of which this +sort of a mind continually makes use. + +Coming a little closer to the pedagogical problems which this type of +pupil raises before us, we find, in the first place, that it is +excessively difficult for this scholar to give continuous or adequate +attention to anything of any complexity. The movements of attention +are so easy, the outlets of energy, to use the physical figure, so +large and well used, that the minor relationships of the thing are +passed over. The variations of the object from its class are swept +away in the onrush of his motor tendencies. He assumes the facts which +he does not understand, and goes right on to express himself in +action on these assumptions. So while he seems to take in what is told +him, with an intuition that is surprisingly swift, and a personal +adaptation no less surprising, the disappointment is only the more +keen when the instructor finds the next day that he has not penetrated +at all into the inner current of this scholar's mental processes. + +Again, as marked as this is in its early stages, the continuance of it +leads to results which are nothing short of deplorable. When such a +student has gone through a preparatory school without overcoming this +tendency to "fluid attention" and comes to college, the instructors in +the higher institutions are practically helpless before him. We say of +him that "he has never learned to study," that he does not know "how +to apply himself," that he has no "power of assimilation." All of +which simply means that his channels of reaction are so formed already +that no instruction can get sufficient lodgment in him to bring about +any modification of his "apperceptive systems." The embarrassment is +the more marked because such a youth, all through his education +period, is willing, ready, evidently receptive, prompt, and punctual +in all his tasks. + +Now what shall be done with such a student in his early school years? +This is a question for the secondary teacher especially, apart from +the more primary measures recommended above. It is in the years +between eight and fifteen that this type of mind has its rapid +development; before that the treatment is mainly preventive, and +consists largely in suggestions which aim to make the muscular +discharges more deliberate and the general tone less explosive. But +when the boy or girl comes to school with the dawning capacity for +independent self-direction and personal application, then it is that +the problem of the motor scholar becomes critical. The "let-alone" +method puts a premium upon the development of his tendencies and the +eventual playing out of his mental possibilities in mere motion. +Certain positive ways of giving some indirect discipline to the mind +of this type may be suggested. + +Give this student relatively difficult and complex tasks. There is no +way to hinder his exuberant self-discharges except by measures which +embarrass and baffle him. We can not "lead him into all truth"; we +have to drive him back from all error. The lessons of psychology are +to the effect that the normal way to teach caution and deliberation is +the way of failure, repulse, and unfortunate, even painful, +consequences. Personal appeals to him do little good, since it is a +part of his complaint that he is too ready to hear all appeals; and +also, since he is not aware of his own lack nor able to carry what he +hears into effect. So keep him in company of scholars a little more +advanced than he is. Keep him out of the concert recitations, where +his tendency to haste would work both personal and social harm. +Refrain from giving him assistance in his tasks until he has learned +from them something of the real lesson of discouragement, and then +help him only by degrees, and by showing him one step at a time, with +constant renewals of his own efforts. Shield him with the greatest +pains from distractions of all kinds, for even the things and events +about him may carry his attention off at the most critical moments. +Give him usually the secondary parts in the games of the school, +except when real planning, complex execution, and more or less +generalship are required; then give him the leading parts: they +exercise his activities in new ways not covered by habit, and if he do +not rise to their complexity, then the other party to the sport will, +and his haste will have its own punishment, and so be a lesson to him. + +Besides these general checks and regulations, there remains the very +important question as to what studies are most available for this type +of mind. I have intimated already the general answer that ought to be +given to this question. The aim of the studies of the motor student +should be discipline in the direction of correct generalization, and, +as helpful to this, discipline in careful observation of concrete +facts. On the other hand, the studies which involve principles simply +of a descriptive kind should have little place in his daily study. +They call out largely the more mechanical operations of memory, and +their command can be secured for the most part by mere repetition of +details all similar in character and of equal value. The measure of +the utility to him of the different studies of the schoolroom is found +in the relative demand they make upon him to modify his hasty personal +reactions, to suspend his thoughtless rush to general results, and +back of it all, to hold the attention long enough upon the facts as +they arise to get some sense of the logical relationships which bind +them together. Studies which do not afford any logical relationships, +and which tend, on the contrary, to foster the habit of learning by +repetition, only tend to fix the student in the quality of attention +which I have called "fluidity." + +In particular, therefore: give this student all the mathematics he +can absorb, and pass him from arithmetic into geometry, leaving his +algebra till later. Give him plenty of grammar, taught inductively. +Start him early in the elements of physics and chemistry. And as +opposed to this, keep him out of the classes of descriptive botany and +zooelogy. Rather let him join exploring parties for the study of +plants, stones, and animals. A few pet animals are a valuable adjunct +to any school museum. If there be an industrial school or machine shop +near at hand, try to get him interested in the way things are made, +and encourage him to join in such employments. A false generalization +in the wheels of a cart supplies its own corrective very quickly, or +in the rigging and sails of a toy boat. Drawing from models is a fine +exercise for such a youth, and drawing from life, as soon as he gets a +little advanced in the control of his pencil. All this, it is easy to +see, trains his impulsive movements into some degree of subjection to +the deliberative processes. + +With this general line of treatment in mind, the details of which the +reader will work out in the light of the boy's type, space allows me +only two more points before I pass to the sensory scholar. + +First, in all the teaching of the type of mind now in question, pursue +a method which proceeds from the particular to the general. The +discussion of pedagogical method with all its ins and outs needs to +take cognizance of the differences of students in their type. The +motor student should never, in normal cases, be given a general +formula and told to work out particular instances; that is too much +his tendency already--to approach facts from the point of view of +their resemblances. What he needs rather is a sense of the dignity of +the single fact, and of the necessity of giving it its separate place, +before hastening on to lose it in the flow of a general statement. So +whether the teacher have in hand mathematics, grammar, or science, let +him disclose the principles only gradually, and always only so far as +they are justified by the observations which the boy has been led to +make for himself. For the reason that such a method is practically +impossible in the descriptive sciences, and some other branches, as +taught in the schoolbooks--botany, zooelogy, and, worse than all, +history and geography--we should restrict their part in the discipline +studies of such a youth. They require simple memory, without +observation, and put a premium on hasty and temporary acquisition. + +As I have said, algebra should be subordinated to geometry. Algebra +has as its distinctive method the principle of substitution, whereby +symbols of equal and, for the most part, absolute generality are +substituted for one another, and the results stand for one fact as +well as for another, in disregard of the worth of the particular in +the scheme of nature. For the same reason, deductive logic is not a +good discipline for these students; empirical psychology, or political +economy, is a better introduction to the moral sciences for them when +they reach the high school. This explains what was meant above in the +remark as to the method of teaching grammar. As to language study +generally, I think the value of it, at this period, and later, is +extraordinarily overrated. The proportion of time given to language +study in our secondary schools is nothing short of a public crime in +its effect upon students of this type--and indeed of any type. This, +however, is a matter to which we return below. The average student +comes to college with his sense of exploration, his inductive +capacity, stifled at its birth. He stands appalled when confronted +with the unassimilated details of any science which does not give him +a "key" in the shape of general formulas made up beforehand. Were it +not that his enlarging experience of life is all the while running +counter to the trend of his so-called education, he would probably +graduate ready for the social position in which authority takes the +place of evidence, and imitation is the method of life. + +Second, the teacher should be on the lookout for a tendency which is +very characteristic of a student of this type, the tendency, i. e., to +fall into elaborate guessing at results. Take a little child of about +seven or eight years of age, especially one who has the marks of motor +heredity, and observe the method of his acquisition of new words in +reading. First he speaks the word which his habit dictates, and, that +being wrong, he rolls his eyes away from the text and makes a guess of +the first word that comes into his mind; this he keeps up as long as +the teacher persists in asking him to try again. Here is the same +tendency that carries him later on in his education to a general +conclusion by a short cut. He has not learned to interpret the data of +a deliberate judgment, and his attention does not dwell on the +necessary details. So with him all through his training; he is always +ready with a guess. Here, again, the teacher can do him good only by +patiently employing the inductive method. Lead him back to the +simplest elements of the problem in hand, and help him gradually to +build up a result step by step. + +I think in this, as in most of the work with these scholars, the +association with children of the opposite type is one of the best +correctives, provided the companionship is not made altogether +one-sided by the motor boy's perpetual monopolizing of all the avenues +of personal expression. When he fails in the class, the kind of social +lesson which is valuable may be taught him by submitting the same +question to a pupil of the plodding, deliberate kind, and waiting for +the latter to work it out. Of course, if the teacher have any +supervision over the playground, similar treatment can be employed +there. + +Coming to consider the so-called "sensory" youth of the age between +eight, let us say, and sixteen--the age during which the training of +the secondary school presents its great problems--we find certain +interesting contrasts between this type and that already characterized +as "motor." The study of this type of youth is the more pressing for +reasons which I have already hinted in considering the same type in +the earlier childhood period. It is necessary, first, to endeavour to +get a fairly adequate view of the psychological characteristics of +this sort of pupil. + +The current psychological doctrine of mental "types" rests upon a +great mass of facts, drawn in the first instance from the different +kinds of mental trouble, especially those which involve derangements +of speech--the different kinds of Aphasia. The broadest generalization +which is reached from these facts is that which marks the distinction, +of which I have already said so much, between the motor and the +sensory types. But besides this general distinction there are many +finer ones; and in considering the persons of the sensory type, it is +necessary to inquire into these finer distinctions. Not only do men +and children differ in the matter of the sort of mental material which +they find requisite, as to whether it is pictures of movements on the +one hand, or pictures from the special senses on the other hand; but +they differ also in the latter case with respect to which of the +special senses it is, in this case or that, which gives the particular +individual his necessary cue, and his most perfect function. So we +find inside of the general group called "sensory" several relatively +distinct cases, all of which the teacher is likely to come across in +varying numbers in a class of pupils. Of these the "visual" and the +"auditory" are most important. + +There are certain aspects of the case which are so common to all the +cases of sensory minds, whether they be visual, auditory, or other, +that I may set them out before proceeding further. + +First, in all these matters of type distinction, one of the essential +things to observe is the behaviour of the Attention. We have already +seen that the attention is implicated to a remarkable degree--in what +I called "fluid attention" above--in the motor scholar. The same +implication of the attention occurs in all the sensory cases, but +presents very different aspects; and the common fact that the +attention is directly involved affords us one of the best rules of +judgment and distinction. We may say, generally, of the sensory +children, that the attention is best, most facile, most +interest-carrying for some one preferred sense, leading for this sense +into preoccupation and ready distraction. This tendency manifests +itself, as we saw above, in the motor persons also, taking effect in +action, speed, vivacity, hasty generalization, etc.; but in the +sensory one it takes on varying forms. This first aspect of our +typical distinction of minds we may call "the relation of the +'favoured function' to the attention." + +Then, second, there is another and somewhat contrasted relation which +also assumes importance when we come to consider individual cases; and +that is the relation of the "favoured function"--say movement, vision, +hearing, etc.--to Habit. It is a common enough observation, that habit +renders functions easy, and that habits are hard to break; indeed, all +treatment of habits is likely to degenerate into the commonplace. But, +when looked at as related to the attention, certain truths emerge from +the consideration of habit. + +In general, we may say that habit bears a twofold relation to +attention: on the one hand, _facile attention shows the reign of +habit_. The solid acquisitions are those with which attention is at +home, and which are therefore more or less habitual. But, on the other +hand, it is equally true that _attention is in inverse ratio to +habit_. We need to attend least to these functions which are most +habitual, and we have to attend most to those which are novel and only +half acquired. We get new acquisitions mainly, indeed, by strained +attention. So we have a contrast of possible interpretations in all +cases of sharp and exclusive attention by the children: _does the +attention represent a Habit in this particular action of the +child_?--or, _does it represent the breaking up of a habit, an act of +Accommodation_? In each case these questions have to be intelligently +considered. The motor person, usually, when uninstructed and not held +back, uses his attention under the lead of habit. It is largely the +teacher's business in his case, as we saw, to get him to hold, +conserve, and direct his attention steadily to the novel and the +complex. The sensory person, on the other hand, shows the attention +obstructed by details, hindered by novelties, unable to pass smoothly +over its acquisitions, and in general lacking the regular influence of +habit in leading him to summarize and utilize his mental store in +general ways. + +The third general aspect of the topic is this: the person of the +sensory type is more likely to be the one in whom positive derangement +occurs in the higher levels, and in response to the more refined +social and personal influences. This, for the reason that this type +represents brain processes of greater inertia and complexity, with +greater liability to obstruction. They are slower, and proceed over +larger brain areas. + +With these general remarks, then, on the wider aspects of the +distinction of types, we may now turn to one of the particular cases +which occurs among sensory individuals. This is all that our space +will allow. + +_The Visual Type._--The so-called "visuals," or "eye-minded" people +among us, are numerically the largest class of the sensory population. +They resort to visual imagery whenever possible, either because that +is the prevailing tendency with them, or because, in the particular +function in question in any special act, the visual material comes +most readily to mind. The details of fact regarding the "visuals" are +very interesting; but I shall not take space to dwell upon them. The +sphere in which the facts regarding the pupil of this type are +important to the teacher is that of language, taken with the group of +problems which arise about instruction in language. The question of +his symbolism, and its relations to mathematics, logic, etc., is +important. And finally, the sphere of the pupil's _expression_ in all +its forms. Then, from all his discoveries in these things, the teacher +is called upon to make his method of teaching and his general +treatment suitable to this student. + +The visual pupil usually shows himself to be so predominately in his +speech and language functions; he learns best and fastest from copies +which he sees. He delights in illustrations put in terms of vision, as +when actually drawn out on the blackboard for him to see. He +understands what he reads better than what he hears; and he uses his +visual symbols as a sort of common coin into which to convert the +images which come to him through his other senses. In regard to the +movements of attention, we may say that this boy or girl illustrates +both the aspects of the attention-function which I pointed out above; +he attends best--that is, most effectively--to visual instruction +provided he exert himself; but on the other hand, it is just here that +the drift of habit tends to make him superficial. As attention to the +visual is the most easy for him, and as the details of his visual +stock are most familiar, so he tends to pass too quickly over the new +matters which are presented to him, assimilating the details to the +old schemes of his habit. It is most important to observe this +distinction, since it is analogous to the "fluid attention" of the +motor scholar; and some of the very important questions regarding +correlation of studies, the training of attention, and the stimulation +of interest depend upon its recognition. _Acquisition best just where +it is most likely to go wrong_; that is the state of things. The +voluntary use of the visual function gives the best results; but the +habitual, involuntary, slipshod use of it gives bad results, and tends +to the formation of injurious habits. + +For example, I set a strongly visual boy a "copy" to draw. Seeing this +visual copy he will quickly recognise it, take it to be very easy, +dash it off quickly, all under the lead of habit; but his result is +poor, because his habit has taken the place of effort. Once get him to +make effort upon it, however, and his will be the best result of all +the scholars, perhaps, just because the task calls him out in the line +of his favoured function. The same antithesis comes out in connection +with other varieties of sensory scholars. + +We may say, therefore, in regard to two of the general aspects of +mental types--the relation of the favoured function to attention, on +the one hand, and to habit, on the other--that they both find emphatic +illustration in the pupil of the visual type. He is, more than any +other sensory pupil, a special case. His mental processes set +decidedly toward vision. He is the more important, also, because he is +so common. Statistics are lacking, but possibly half of the entire +human family in civilized life are visual in their type for most of +the language functions. This is due, no doubt, to the emphasis that +civilization puts upon sight as the means of social acquisition +generally, and to our predominantly visual methods of instruction. + +The third fact mentioned is also illustrated by this type; the fact +that mental instruction and derangement may come easily, through the +stress laid upon vision in the person's mental economy. I need not +enlarge upon the different forms of special defect which come through +impairment of sight by central lesion or degeneration of the visual +centers and connections. Suffice it to say that they are very common, +and very difficult of recovery. The visual person is often so +completely a slave to his sight that when that fails either in itself +or through weakness of attention he becomes a wreck off the shore of +the ocean of intellect. When we consider the large proportion just +mentioned of pupils of this type, the care which should be exercised +by the school authorities in the matter of favourable conditions of +light, avoidance of visual fatigue, proper distance-adjustments in all +visual application as regards focus, symmetry, size of objects, +copies, prints, etc., becomes at once sufficiently evident to the +thoughtful teacher, as it should be still earlier to the parent. There +should be a medical examination, by a competent oculist, before the +child goes to school, and regular tests afterward. School examiners +and boards should have qualifications for reporting on the hygienic +conditions of the school as regards lighting. The bright glare of a +neighbouring wall before a window toward which children with weak eyes +face when at their desks may result not only in common defects of +vision but also in resulting mental and moral damage; and the results +are worse to those who depend mainly on vision for the food, drink, +and exercise, so to speak, of their growing minds. + +As to the methods of teaching these and also the other sensory pupils, +the indications already given must suffice. The statement of some of +these far-reaching problems of educational psychology, and of the +directions in which their answers are to be sought, exhausts the +purpose of this chapter. In general it may be said that the +recommendations made for the treatment of sensory children at the +earlier stage may be extended to later periods also, and that the +treatment should be, for the most part, in intelligent contrast to +that which the motor pupils receive. + +_Language Study._--From this general consideration of the child's +training it becomes evident that the great subjects which are most +useful for discipline in the period of secondary education are the +mathematical studies on the one hand, which exercise the faculty of +abstraction, and the positive sciences, which train the power of +observation and require truth to detail. If we should pursue the +subject into the collegiate period, we should find mental and moral +science, literature, and history coming to their rights. If this be in +the main psychological, we see that language study, as such, should +have no great place in secondary education. The study of grammar, as +has been already said, is very useful in the early periods of +development if taught vocally; it brings the child out in +self-expression, and carries its own correctives, from the fact that +its results are always open to social control. These are, in my mind, +the main functions of the study of language. + +What, then, is the justification for devoting ten or twelve years of +the youth's time to study of a dead language, as is commonly done in +the case of Latin? The utility of expression does not enter into it, +and the discipline of truth to elegant literary copy can be even so +well attained from the study of our own tongue, which is lamentably +neglected. In all this dreary language study, the youth's interest is +dried up at its source. He is fed on formulas and rules; he has no +outlet for invention or discovery; lists of exceptions to the rules +destroy the remnant of his curiosity and incentive; even reasoning +from analogy is strictly forbidden him; he is shut up from Nature as +in a room with no windows; the dictionary is his authority as absolute +and final as it is flat and sterile. His very industry, being forced +rather than spontaneous, makes him mentally, no less than physically, +stoop-shouldered and near-sighted. It seems to be one of those +mistakes of the past still so well lodged in tradition and class +rivalry that soundness of culture is artificially identified with its +maintenance. Yet there is no reason that the spirit of classical +culture and the durable elements of Greek and Roman life should not be +as well acquired--nay, better--from the study of history, archaeology, +and literature. For this language work is not study of literature. Not +one in one hundred of the students who are forced through the +periodical examinations in these languages ever gets any insight into +their aesthetic quality or any inspiration from their form. + +But more than this. At least one positively vicious effect follows +from language study with grammar and lexicon, no matter what the +language be. The habit of intellectual guessing grows with the need of +continuous effort in putting together elements which go together for +no particular reason. When a thing can not be reasoned out, it may +just as well be guessed out. The guess is always easier than the +dictionary, and, if successful, it answers just as well. Moreover, the +teacher has no way of distinguishing the pupil's replies which are due +to the guess from those due to honest work. I venture to say, from +personal experience, that no one who has been through the usual +classical course in college and before it has not more than once +staked his all upon the happy guess at the stubborn author's meaning. +This shallow device becomes a substitute for honest struggle. And it +is more than shallow; to guess is dishonest. It is a servant to +unworthy inertia; and worse, it is a cloak to mental unreadiness and +to conscious moral cowardice. The guess is a bluff to fortune when the +honest gauntlet of ignorance should be thrown down to the issue. + +The effects of this show themselves in a habit of mind tolerated in +persons of a literary bent, which is a marked contrast to that +demanded and exemplified by science. I think that much of our literary +impressionism and sentimentalism reveal the guessing habit. + +Yet why guess? Why be content with an impression? Why hint of a +"certain this and a certain that" when the "certain," if it mean +anything, commonly means the uncertain? Things worth writing about +should be formulated clearly enough to be understood. Why let the +personal reaction of the individual's feeling suffice? Our youth need +to be told that the guess is immoral, that hypothesis is the servant +of research, that the private impression instructs nobody, that +presentiment is usually wrong, that science is the best antidote to +the fear of ghosts, and that the reply "I guess so" betrays itself, +whether it arise from bravado, from cowardice, or from literary +finesse! I think that the great need of our life is honesty, that the +bulwark of honesty in education is exact knowledge with the scientific +habit of mind, and, furthermore, that the greatest hindrance to these +things is the training which does not, with all the sanctions at its +command, distinguish the real, with its infallible tests, from the +shadowy and vague, but which contents itself with the throw of the +intellectual dice box. Any study which tends to make the difference +between truth and error pass with the throwing of a die, and which +leads the student to be content with a result he can not verify, has +somewhat the function in his education of the puzzle in our society +amusements or the game of sliced animals in the nursery. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE INDIVIDUAL MIND AND SOCIETY--SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. + + +THE series of questions which arise when we consider the individual as +a member of society fall together under the general theory of what has +been called, in a figure, Social Heredity. + +The treatment of this topic will show something of the normal relation +of the individual's mind to the social environment; and the chapter +following will give some hints as to the nature and position of that +exceptional man in whom we are commonly so much interested--the +Genius. + +The theory of social heredity has been worked up through the +contributions, from different points of view, of several authors. +What, then, is social heredity? + +This is a very easy question to answer, since the group of facts which +the phrase describes are extremely familiar--so much so that the +reader may despair, from such a commonplace beginning, of getting any +novelty from it. The social heritage is, of course, all that a man or +woman gets from the accumulated wisdom of society. All that the ages +have handed down--the literature, the art, the habits of social +conformity, the experience of social ills, the treatment of crime, the +relief of distress, the education of the young, the provision for the +old--all, in fact, however described, that we men owe to the ancestors +whom we reverence, and to the parents whose presence with us perhaps +we cherish still. Their struggles, the orator has told us, have bought +our freedom; we enter into the heritage of their thought and wisdom +and heroism. All true; we do. We all breathe a social atmosphere; and +our growth is by this breathing-in of the tradition and example of the +past. + +Now, if this be the social heritage, we may go on to ask: Who are to +inherit it? To this we may again add the further question: How does +the one who is born to such a heritage as this come into his +inheritance? And with this yet again: How may he use his +inheritance--to what end and under what limitations? These questions +come so readily into the mind that we naturally wish the discussion to +cover them. + +Generally, then, who is eligible for the social inheritance? This heir +to society we are, all of us. Society does not make a will, it is +true; nor does society die intestate. To say that it is we who inherit +the riches of the social past of the race, is to say that we are the +children of the past in a sense which comes upon us with all the force +that bears in upon the natural heir when he finds his name in will or +law. But there are exceptions. And before we seek the marks of the +legitimacy of our claim to be the heirs of the hundreds of years of +accumulated thought and action, it may be well to advise ourselves as +to the poor creatures who do not enter into the inheritance with us. +They are those who people our asylums, our reformatories, our jails +and penitentiaries; those who prey upon the body of our social life by +demands for charitable support, or for the more radical treatment by +isolation in institutions; indeed, some who are born to fail in this +inheritance are with us no more, even though they were of our +generation; they have paid the penalty which their effort to wrest the +inheritance from us has cost, and the grave of the murderer, the +burglar, the suicide, the red-handed rebel against the law of social +inheritance, is now their resting place. Society then is, when taken +in the widest sense, made up of two classes of people--the heirs who +possess and the delinquents by birth or conduct who have forfeited the +inheritance. + +We may get a clear idea of the way a man attains his social heritage +by dropping figure for the present and speaking in the terms of plain +natural science. Ever since Darwin propounded the law of Natural +Selection the word Variation has been current in the sense explained +on an earlier page. + +The student in natural science has come to look for variations as the +necessary preliminary to any new step of progress and adaptation in +the sphere of organic life. Nature, we now know, is fruitful to an +extraordinary degree. She produces many specimens of everything. It is +a general fact of reproduction that the offspring of plant or animal +is quite out of proportion in numbers to the parents that produce +them, and often also to the means of living which await them. One +plant produces seeds which are carried far and near--to the ocean and +to the desert rocks, no less than to the soil in which they may take +root and grow. Insects multiply at a rate which is simply +inconceivable to our limited capacity for thinking in figures. Animals +also produce more abundantly, and man has children in numbers which +allow him to bury half his offspring yearly and yet increase the adult +population from year to year. This means, of course, that whatever the +inheritance is, all do not inherit it; some must go without a portion +whenever the resources of nature, or the family, are in any degree +limited and when competition is sharp. + +Now Nature solves the problem among the animals in the simplest of +ways. All the young born in the same family are not exactly alike; +"variations" occur. There are those that are better nourished, those +that have larger muscles, those that breathe deeper and run faster. So +the question who of these shall inherit the earth, the fields, the +air, the water--this is left to itself. The best of all the variations +live, and the others die. Those that do live have thus, to all intents +and purposes, been "selected" for the inheritance, just as really as +if the parents of the species had left a will and had been able to +enforce it. This is the principle of "Natural Selection." + +Now, this way of looking at problems which involve aggregates of +individuals and their distribution is becoming a habit of the age. +Wherever the application of the principles of probability do not +explain a statistical result--that is, wherever there seem to be +influences which favour particular individuals at the expense of +others--men turn at once to the occurrence of Variations for the +justification of this seeming partiality of Nature. And what it means +is that Nature is partial to individuals _in making them_, in their +natural heredity, rather than after they are born. + +The principle of heredity with variations is a safe assumption to make +also in regard to mankind; and we see at once that in order to come in +for a part in the social heritage of our fathers we must be born fit +for it. We must be born so endowed for the race of social life that we +assimilate, from our birth up, the spirit of the society into which we +are reared. The unfittest, socially, are suppressed. In this there is +a distinction between this sphere of survival and that of the animal +world. In it the fittest survive, the others are lost; but in society +the unfittest are lost, all the others survive. Social selection weeds +out the unfit, the murderer, the most unsocial man, and says to him: +"You must die"; natural selection seeks out the most fit and says: +"You alone are to live." The difference is important, for it marks a +prime series of distinctions, when the conceptions drawn from biology +are applied to social phenomena; but for the understanding of +variations we need not now pursue it further. The contrast may be put, +however, in a sentence: in organic evolution we have the natural +selection of the fit; in social progress we have the social +suppression of the unfit. + +Given social variations, therefore, differences among men, what +becomes of this man or that? We see at once that if society is to live +there must be limits set somewhere to the degree of variation which a +given man may show from the standards of society. And we may find out +something of these limits by looking at the evident, and marked +differences which actually appear about us. + +First, there is the idiot. He is not available, from a social point of +view, because he varies too much on the side of defect. He shows from +infancy that he is unable to enter into the social heritage because he +is unable to learn to do social things. His intelligence does not grow +with his body. Society pities him if he be without natural protection, +and puts him away in an institution. So of the insane, the pronounced +lunatic; he varies too much to sustain in any way the wide system of +social relationships which society requires of each individual. Either +he is unable to take care of himself, or he attempts the life of some +one else, or he is the harmless, unsocial thing that wanders among us +like an animal or stands in his place like a plant. He is not a factor +in social life; he has not come into the inheritance. + +Then there is the extraordinary class of people whom we may describe +by a stronger term than those already employed. We find not only the +unsocial, the negatively unfit, those whom society puts away with pity +in its heart; there are also the antisocial, the class whom we usually +designate as criminals. These persons, like the others, are +variations; but they seem to be variations in quite another way. They +do not represent lack on the intellectual side always or alone, but on +the moral side, on the social side, as such. The least we can say of +the criminals is that they tend, by heredity or by evil example, to +violate the rules which society has seen fit to lay down for the +general security of men living together in the enjoyment of the social +heritage. So far, then, they are factors of disintegration, of +destruction; enemies of the social progress which proceeds from +generation to generation by just this process of social inheritance. +So society says to the criminal also: "You must perish." We kill off +the worst, imprison the bad for life, attempt to reform the rest. +They, too, then, are excluded from the heritage of the past. + +So our lines of eligibility get more and more narrowly drawn. The +instances of exclusion now cited serve to give us some insight into +the real qualities of the man who lives a social part, and the way he +comes to live it. + +Passing on to take up the second of the informal topics suggested, we +have to find the best description that we can of the social man--the +one who is fitted for the social life. This question concerns the +process by which any one of us comes into the wealth of relationships +which the social life represents. For to say that a man does this is +in itself to say that he is the man society is looking for. Indeed, +this is the only way to describe the man--to actually find him. +Society is essentially a growing, shifting thing. It changes from age +to age, from country to country. The Greeks had their social +conditions, and the Romans theirs. Even the criminal lines are drawn +differently, somewhat, here and there; and in a low stage of +civilization a man may pass for normal who, in our time, would be +described as weak in mind. This makes it necessary that the standards +of judgment of a given society should be determined by an actual +examination of the society, and forbids us to say that the limits of +variation which society in general will tolerate must be this or that. + +We may say, then, that the man who is fit for social life _must be +born to learn_. The need of learning is his essential need. It comes +upon him from his birth. Speech is the first great social function +which he must learn, and with it all the varieties of verbal +accomplishment--reading and writing. This brings to the front the +great method of all his learning--imitation. In order to be social he +must be imitative, imitative, imitative. He must realize for himself +by action the forms, conventions, requirements, co-operations of his +social group. All is learning; and learning not by himself and at +random, but under the leading of the social conditions which surround +him. Plasticity is his safety and the means of his progress. So he +grows into the social organization, takes his place as a Socius in the +work of the world, and lays deep the sense of values, upon the basis +of which his own contributions--if he be destined to make +contributions--to the wealth of the world are to be wrought out. This +great fact that he is open to the play of the personal influences +which are about him is just the "suggestibleness" which we have +already described in an earlier chapter; and the influences themselves +are "suggestions"--social suggestions. These influences differ in +different communities, as we so often remark. The Turk learns to live +in a very different system of relations of "give and take" from ours, +and ours differ as much from those of the Chinese. All that is +characteristic of the race or tribe or group or family--all this sinks +into the child and youth by his simple presence there in it, with the +capacity to learn by imitation. He is suggestible, and here are the +suggestions; he is made to inherit and he inherits. So it makes no +difference what his tribe or kindred be; let him be a learner by +imitation, and he becomes in turn possessor and teacher. + +The case becomes more interesting still when we give the matter +another turn, and say that in this learning all the members of society +agree; _all must be born to learn the same things_. They enter, if so +be that they do, into the same social inheritance. This again seems +like a very commonplace remark; but certain things flow from it. Each +member of society gives and gets the same set of social suggestions; +the differences being the degree of progress each has made, and the +degree of variation which each one gives to what he has before +received. This last difference is treated below where we consider the +genius. + +There grows up, in all this give and take, in all the interchange of +suggestions among you, me, and the other, an obscure sense of a +certain social understanding about ourselves generally--a _Zeitgeist_, +an atmosphere, a taste, or, in minor matters, a style. It is a very +peculiar thing, this social spirit. The best way to understand that +you have it, and something of what it is, is to get into a circle in +which it is different. The common phrase "fish out of water" is often +heard in reference to it. But that does not serve for science. The +next best thing that I can do in the way of rendering it is to appeal +to another word which has a popular sense, the word Judgment. Let us +say that there exists in every society a general system of values, +found in social usages, conventions, institutions, and formulas, and +that our judgments of social life are founded on our habitual +recognition of these values, and of the arrangement of them which has +become more or less fixed in our society. For example, to be cordial +to a disagreeable neighbour shows good social judgment in a small +matter; not to quarrel with the homoeopathic enthusiast who meets +you in the street and wishes to doctor your rheumatism out of a +symptom book--that is good judgment. In short, the man gets to show +more and more, as he grows up from childhood, a certain good judgment; +and his good judgment is also the good judgment of his social set, +community, or nation. The psychologist might prefer to say that a man +"feels" this; perhaps it would be better for psychological readers to +say simply that he has a "sense" of it; but the popular use of the +word "judgment" fits so accurately into the line of distinction we are +now making that we may adhere to it. So we reach the general position +that the eligible candidate for social life must have good judgment as +represented by the common standards of judgment of his people. + +It may be doubted, however, by some of my readers whether this sense +of social values called judgment is the outcome of suggestions +operating throughout the term of one's social education. This is an +essential point, and I must just assume it. It follows from what we +said in an earlier chapter to be the way of the child's learning by +imitation. It will appear true, I trust, to any one who may take the +pains to observe the child's tentative endeavours to act up to social +usages in the family and school. One may then actually see the growth +of the sort of judgment which I am describing. Psychologists are +coming to see that even the child's sense of his own personal self is +a gradual attainment, achieved step by step through his imitative +responses to his personal environment. His thought of himself is an +interpretation of his thought of others, and his thought of another +is doe to further accommodation of his active processes to changes in +his thought of a possible self. Around this fundamental movement in +his personal growth all the values of his life have their play. So I +say that his sense of truth in the social relationships of his +environment is the outcome of his very gradual learning of his +personal place in these relationships. + +We reach the conclusion, therefore, from this part of our study, that +the socially unfit person is the person of poor judgment. He may have +learned a great deal; he may in the main reproduce the activities +required by his social tradition; but with it all he is to a degree +out of joint with the general system of estimated values by which +society is held together. This may be shown to be true even of the +pronounced types of unsocial individuals of whom we had occasion to +speak at the outset. The criminal is, socially considered, a man of +poor judgment. He may be more than this, it is true. He may have a bad +strain of heredity, what the theologians call "original sin"; he then +is an "habitual criminal" in the current distinction of criminal +types; and his own sense of his failure to accept the teachings of +society may be quite absent, since crime is so normal to him. But the +fact remains that in his judgment he is mistaken; his normal is not +society's normal. He has failed to be educated in the judgments of his +fellows, however besides and however more deeply he may have failed. +Or, again, the criminal may commit crime simply because he is carried +away in an eddy of good companionship, which represents a temporary +current of social life; or his nervous energies may be overtaxed +temporarily or drained of their strength, so that his education in +social judgment is forgotten: he is then the "occasional" criminal. It +is true of the man of this type also that while he remains a criminal +he has lost his balance, has yielded to temptation, has gratified +private impulse at the expense of social sanity; all this shows the +lack of that sustaining force of moral consciousness which represents +the level of social rightness in his time and place. Then, as to the +idiot, the imbecile, the insane, they, too, have no good judgment, for +the very adequate but pitiful reason that they have no judgment at +all. + +This, then, is the doctrine of Social Heredity; it illustrates the +side of conformity, of personal acquiescence on the part of the +individual in the rules of social life. Another equally important +side, that of the personal initiative and influence of the individual +mind in society, remains to be spoken of in the next chapter. Social +Heredity emphasizes _Imitation_; the Genius, to whom we now turn, +illustrates _Invention_. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE GENIUS AND HIS ENVIRONMENT. + + +The facts concerning the genius seem to indicate that he is a being +somewhat exceptional and apart. Common mortals stand about him with +expressions of awe. The literature of him is embodied in the alcoves +of our libraries most accessible to the public, and even the +wayfaring man, to whom life is a weary round, and his conquests over +nature and his fellows only the division of honours on a field that +usually witnesses drawn battles or bloody defeats, loves to stimulate +his courage by hearing of the lives of those who put nature and +society so utterly to rout. He hears of men who swayed the destinies +of Europe, who taught society by outraging her conventions, whose +morality even was reached sometimes by scorn of the peccadilloes which +condemn the ordinary man. Every man has in him in some degree the hero +worshipper, and gets inflamed somewhat by reading Carlyle's Frederick +the Great. + +Of course, this popular sense can not be wholly wrong. The genius does +accomplish the world movements. Napoleon did set the destiny of +Europe, and Frederick did reveal, in a sense, a new phase of moral +conduct. The truth of these things is just what makes the enthusiasm +of the common man so healthy and stimulating. It is not the least that +the genius accomplishes that he thus elevates the traditions of man +and inspires the literature that the people read. He sows the seeds of +effort in the fertile soil of the newborn of his own kind, while he +leads those who do not have the same gifts to rear and tend the +growing plant in their own social gardens. This is true; and a +philosophy of society should not overlook either of the facts--the +actual deeds of the great man with his peculiar influence upon his own +time, and his lasting place in the more inspiring social tradition +which is embodied in literature and art. + +Yet the psychologist has to present just the opposite aspect of these +apparent exceptions to the Canons of our ordinary social life. He has +to oppose the extreme claim made by the writers who attempt to lift +the genius quite out of the normal social movement. For it only needs +a moment's consideration to see that if the genius has no reasonable +place in the movement of social progress in the world, then there can +be no possible doctrine or philosophy of such progress. To the hero +worshipper his hero comes in simply to "knock out," so to speak, all +the regular movement of the society which is so fortunate, or so +unfortunate, as to have given him birth; and by his initiative the +aspirations, beliefs, struggles of the community or state get a push +in a new direction--a tangent to the former movement or a reversal of +it. If this be true, and it be farther true that no genius who is +likely to appear can be discounted by any human device before his +abrupt appearance upon the stage of action, then the history of facts +must take the place of the science or philosophy of them, and the +chronicler become the only historian with a right to be. + +For of what value can we hold the contribution which the genius makes +to thought if this contribution runs so across the acquisitions of the +earlier time and the contributions of earlier genius that no line of +common truth can be discovered between him and them? Then each society +would have its own explanation of itself, and that only so long as it +produced no new genius. It may be, of course, that society is so +constituted--or, rather, so lacking in constitution--that simple +variations in brain physiology are the sufficient reason for its +cataclysms; but a great many efforts will be made to prove the +contrary before this highest of all spheres of human activity is +declared to have no meaning--no thread which runs from age to age and +links mankind, the genius and the man who plods, in a common and +significant development. + +In undertaking this task we must try to judge the genius with +reference to the sane social man, the normal Socius. What he is we +have seen. He is a person _who learns to judge by the judgments of +society_. What, then, shall we say of the genius from this point of +view? Can the hero worshipper be right in saying that the genius +teaches society to judge; or shall we say that the genius, like other +men, must learn to judge by the judgments of society? + +The most fruitful point of view is, no doubt, that which considers the +genius a variation. And unless we do this it is evidently impossible +to get any theory which will bring him into a general scheme. But how +great a variation? And in what direction?--these are the questions. +The great variations found in the criminal by heredity, the insane, +the idiotic, etc., we have found excluded from society; so we may well +ask why the genius is not excluded also. If our determination of the +limits within which society decides who is to be excluded is correct, +then the genius must come within these limits. He can not escape them +and live socially. + +_The Intelligence of the Genius._--The directions in which the genius +actually varies from the average man are evident as a matter of fact. +He is, first of all, a man of great power of thought, of great +"constructive imagination," as the psychologists say. So let us +believe, first, that a genius is a man who has occasionally greater +thoughts than other men have. Is this a reason for excluding him from +society? Certainly not; for by great thoughts we mean true thoughts, +thoughts which will work, thoughts which will bring in a new area in +the discovery of principles, or of their application. This is just +what all development depends upon, this attainment of novelty, which +is consistent with older knowledge and supplementary to it. But +suppose a man have thoughts which are not true, which do not fit the +topic of their application, which contradict established knowledges, +or which result in bizarre and fanciful combinations of them; to that +man we deny the name genius; he is a crank, an agitator, an anarchist, +or what not. The test, then, which we bring to bear upon the +intellectual variations which men show is that of truth, practical +workability--in short, to sum it up, "fitness." Any thought, to live +and germinate, must be a fit thought. And the community's sense of the +fitness of the thought is their rule of judgment. + +Now, the way the community got this sense--that is the great result we +have reached above. Their sense of fitness is just what I called above +their judgment. So far, at least, as it relates to matters of social +import, it is of social origin. It reflects the outcome of all social +heredity, tradition, education. The sense of social truth is their +criterion of social thoughts, and unless the social reformer's thought +be in some way fit to go into the setting thus made by earlier social +development, he is not a genius but a crank. + +I may best show the meaning of the claim that society makes upon the +genius by asking in how far in actual life he manages to escape this +account of himself to society. The facts are very plain, and this is +the class of facts which some writers urge, as supplying an adequate +rule for the application of the principles of their social philosophy. +The simple fact is, say they, that without the consent of society the +thoughts of your hero, whether he be genius or fool, are practically +valueless. The fulness of time must come; and the genius before his +time, if judged by his works, can not be a genius at all. His thought +may be great, so great that, centuries after, society may attain to it +as its richest outcome and its profoundest intuition; but before, that +time, it is as bizarre as a madman's fancies and as useless. What +would be thought, we might be asked by writers of this school, of a +rat which developed upon its side the hand of a man, with all its +mechanism of bone, muscle, tactile sensibility, and power of delicate +manipulation, if the remainder of the creature were true to the +pattern of a rat? Would not the rest of the rat tribe be justified in +leaving this anomaly behind to starve in the hole where his singular +appendage held him fast? Is such a rat any the less a monster because +man finds use for his hands. + +To a certain extent this argument is forcible and true. If social +utility be our rule of definition, then certainly the premature genius +is no genius. And this rule of definition may be put in another way +which renders it still more plausible. The variations which occur in +intellectual endowment, in a community, vary about a mean; there is, +theoretically, an average man. The differences among men which can be +taken account of in any philosophy of life must be in some way +referable to this mean. The variation which does not find its niche at +all in the social environment, but which strikes all the social +fellows with disapproval, getting no sympathy whatever, is thereby +exposed to the charge of being the "sport" of Nature and the fruit of +chance. The lack of hearing which awaits such a man sets him in a form +of isolation, and stamps him not only as a social crank, but also as a +cosmic tramp. + +Put in its positive and usual form, this view simply claims that man +is always the outcome of the social movement. The reception he gets is +a measure of the degree in which he adequately represents this +movement. Certain variations are possible--men who are forward in the +legitimate progress of society--and these men are the true and only +geniuses. Other variations, which seem to discount the future too +much, are "sports"; for the only permanent discounting of the future +is that which is projected from the elevation of the past. + +The great defect of this view is found in its definitions. We exclaim +at once: who made the past the measure of the future? and who made +social approval the measure of truth? What is there to eclipse the +vision of the poet, the inventor, the seer, that he should not see +over the heads of his generation, and raise his voice for that which, +to all men else, lies behind the veil? The social philosophy of this +school can not answer these questions, I think; nor can it meet the +appeal we all make to history when we cite the names of Aristotle, +Pascal, and Newton, or of any of the men who single-handed and alone +have set guide-posts to history, and given to the world large portions +of its heritage of truth. What can set limit to the possible +variations of fruitful intellectual power? Rare such variations--that +is their law: the greater the variation, the more rare! But so is +genius; the greater, the more rare. As to the rat with the human hand, +he would not be left to starve and decay in his hole; he would be put +in alcohol when he died, and kept in a museum! And the lesson which he +would teach to the wise biologist would be that here in this rat +Nature had shown her genius by discounting in advance the slow +processes of evolution! + +It is, indeed, the force of such considerations as these which have +led to many justifications of the positions that the genius is quite +out of connection with the social movement of his time. The genius +brings his variations to society whether society will or no; and as to +harmony between them, that is a matter of outcome rather than of +expectation or theory. We are told the genius comes as a +brain-variation; and between the physical heredity which produces him +and the social heredity which sets the tradition of his time there is +no connection. + +But this is not tenable, as we have reason to think, from the +interaction which actually takes place between physical and social +heredity. To be sure, the heredity of the individual is a +physiological matter, in the sense that the son must inherit from his +parents and their ancestors alone. But granted that two certain +parents are his parents, we may ask how these two certain parents came +to be his parents. How did his father come to marry his mother, and +the reverse? This is distinctly a social question; and to its solution +all the currents of social influence and suggestion contribute. Who is +free from social considerations in selecting his wife? Does the +coachman have an equal chance to get the heiress, or the blacksmith +the clergyman's daughter? Do we find inroads made in Newport society +by the ranchman and the dry-goods clerk? And are not the inroads which +we do find, the inroads made by the counts and the marquises, due to +influences which are quite social and psychological? Again, on the +other hand, what leads the count and the marquis, to lay their titles +at Newport doors, while the ranchman and the dry-goods clerk keep +away, but the ability of both these types of suitors to estimate their +chances just on social and psychological grounds? Novelists have rung +the changes on this intrusion of social influences into the course of +physical heredity. Bourget's Cosmopolis is a picture of the influence +of social race characteristics on natural heredity, with the reaction +of natural heredity again upon the new social conditions. + +A speech of a character of Balzac's is to the point, as illustrating a +certain appreciation of these social considerations which we all to a +degree entertain. The Duchesse de Carigliano says to Madame de +Sommervieux: "I know the world too well, my dear, to abandon myself to +the discretion of a too superior man. You should know that one may +allow them to court one, but marry them--that is a mistake! Never--no, +no. It is like wanting to find pleasure in inspecting the machinery of +the opera instead of sitting in a box to enjoy its brilliant +illusions." To be sure, we do not generally deliberate in this wise +when we fall in love; but that is not necessary, since our social +environment sets the style by the kind of intangible deliberation +which I have called judgment and fitness. Suppose a large number of +Northern advocates of social equality should migrate to the Southern +United States, and, true to their theory, intermarry with the blacks. +Would it not then be true that a social theory had run athwart the +course of physiological descent, leading to the production of a +legitimate mulatto society? A new race might spring from such a purely +psychological or social initiation. + +While not agreeing, therefore, with the theory which makes the genius +independent of the social movement--least of all with the doctrine +that physical heredity is uninfluenced by social conditions--the hero +worshipper is right, nevertheless, in saying that we can not set the +limitations of the genius on the side of variations toward high +intellectual endowment. So if the general position be true that he is +a variation of some kind, we must look elsewhere for the direction of +those peculiar traits whose excess would be his condemnation. This we +can find only in connection with the other demand that we make of the +ordinary man--the demand that he be a man of good judgment. And to +this we may now turn. + +_The Judgment of the Genius._--We should bear in mind in approaching +this topic the result which follows from the reciprocal character of +social relationships. No genius ever escapes the requirements laid +down for his learning, his social heredity. Mentally he is a social +outcome, as well as are the fellows who sit in judgment on him. He +must judge his own thoughts therefore as they do. And his own proper +estimate of things and thoughts, his relative sense of fitness, gets +application, by a direct law of his own mental processes, to himself +and to his own creations. The limitations which, in the judgment of +society, his variations must not overstep, are set by his own +judgment also. If the man in question have thoughts which are +socially true, _he must himself know that they are true_. So we reach +a conclusion regarding the selection of the particular thoughts which +the genius may have: _he and society must agree in regard to the +fitness of them_, although in particular cases this agreement ceases +to be the emphatic thing. The essential thing comes to be the +reflection of the social standard in the thinker's own judgment; _the +thoughts thought must always be critically judged by the thinker +himself; and for the most part his judgment is at once also the social +judgment_. This may be illustrated further. + +Suppose we take the man of striking thoughts and withal no sense of +fitness--none of the judgment about them which society has. He will go +through a mighty host of discoveries every hour. The very eccentricity +of his imaginations will only appeal to him for the greater +admiration. He will bring his most chimerical schemes out and air them +with the same assurance with which the real inventor exhibits his. But +such a man is not pronounced a genius. If his ravings about this and +that are harmless, we smile and let him talk; but if his lack of +judgment extend to things of grave import, or be accompanied by equal +illusions regarding himself and society in other relationships, then +we classify his case and put him into the proper ward for the insane. +Two of the commonest forms of such impairment of judgment are seen in +the victims of "fixed ideas" on the one hand, and the _exaltes_ on the +other. These men have no true sense of values, no way of selecting the +fit combinations of imagination from the unfit; and even though some +transcendently true and original thought were to flit through the +diseased mind of such a one, it would go as it came, and the world +would wait for a man with a sense of fitness to arise and rediscover +it. The other class, the _exaltes_, are somewhat the reverse; the +illusion of personal greatness is so strong that their thoughts seem +to them infallible and their persons divine. + +Men of such perversions of judgment are common among us. We all know +the man who seems to be full of rich and varied thought, who holds us +sometimes by the power of his conceptions or the beauty of his +creations, but in whose thought we yet find some incongruity, some +eminently unfit element, some grotesque application, some elevation or +depression from the level of commonplace truth, some ugly strain in +the aesthetic impression. The man himself does not know it, and that is +the reason he includes it. His sense of fitness is dwarfed or +paralyzed. We in the community come to regret that he is so +"visionary," with all his talent; so we accommodate ourselves to his +unfruitfulness, and at the best only expect an occasional hour's +entertainment under the spell of his presence. This certainly is not +the man to produce a world movement. + +Most of the men we call "cranks" are of this type. They are +essentially lacking in judgment, and the popular estimate of them is +exactly right. + +It is evident, therefore, from this last explanation, that there is a +second direction of variation among men: _variation in their sense of +the truth and value of their own thoughts_, and with them of the +thoughts of others. This is the great limitation which the man of +genius shares with men generally--a limitation in the amount of +variation which he may show in his social judgments, especially as +these variations affect the claim which he makes upon society for +recognition. It is evident that this must be an important factor in +our estimate of the claims of the hero to our worship, especially +since it is the more obscure side of his temperament, and the side +generally overlooked altogether. This let us call, in our further +illustrations, the "social sanity" of the man of genius. + +The first indication of the kind of social variation which oversteps +even the degree of indulgence society is willing to accord to the +great thinker is to be found in the effect which education has upon +character. The discipline of social development is, as we have seen, +mainly conducive to the reduction of eccentricities, the levelling off +of personal peculiarities. All who come into the social heritage learn +the same great series of lessons derived from the past, and all get +the sort of judgment required in social life from the common exercises +of the home and school in the formative years of their education. So +we should expect that the greater singularities of disposition which +represent insuperable difficulty in the process of social assimilation +would show themselves early. Here it is that the actual conflict +comes--the struggle between impulse and social restraint. Many a +genius owes the redemption of his intellectual gifts to legitimate +social uses to the victory gained by a teacher and the discipline +learned through obedience. And thus it is also that many who give +promise of great distinction in early life fail to achieve it. They +run off after a phantom, and society pronounces them mad. In their +case the personal factor has overcome the social factor; they have +failed in the lessons they should have learned, their own +self-criticism is undisciplined, and they miss the mark. + +These two extremes of variation, however, do not exhaust the case. One +of them tends in a measure to the blurring of the light of genius, and +the other to the rejection of social restraint to a degree which makes +the potential genius over into a crank. The average man is the mean. +Put the greatest reach of human attainment, and with it the greatest +influence ever exercised by man, is yet more than either of these. It +is not enough, the hero worshipper may still say, that the genius +should have sane and healthy judgment, as society reckons sanity. The +fact still remains that even in his social judgments he may instruct +society. He may stand alone and, by sheer might, left his fellow-men +up to his point of vantage, to their eternal gain and to his eternal +praise. Even let it be that he must have self-criticism, the sense of +fitness you speak of, that very sense may transcend the vulgar +judgment of his fellows. His judgment may be saner than theirs; and as +his intellectual creations are great and unique, so may his sense of +their truth be full and unique. Wagner led the musical world by his +single-minded devotion to the ideas of Wagner; and Darwin had to be +true to his sense of truth and to the formulations of his thought, +though no man accorded him the right to instruct his generation either +in the one or in the other. To be sure, this divine assurance of the +man of genius may be counterfeited; the vulgar dreamer often has it. +But, nevertheless, when a genius has it, he is not a vulgar dreamer. + +This is true, I think, and the explanation of it leads us to the last +fruitful application of the doctrine of variations. Just as the +intellectual endowment of men may vary within very wide limits, so may +the social qualifications of men. There are men who find it their meat +to do society service. There are men so naturally born to take the +lead in social reform, in executive matters, in organization, in +planning our social campaigns for us, that we turn to them as by +instinct. They have a kind of insight to which we can only bow. They +gain the confidence of men, win the support of women, and excite the +acclamations of children. These people are the social geniuses. They +seem to anticipate the discipline of social education. They do not +need to learn the lessons of the social environment. + +Now, such persons undoubtedly represent a variation toward +suggestibility of the most delicate and singular kind. They surpass +the teachers from whom they learn. It is hard to say that they "learn +to judge by the judgments of society." They so judge without seeming +to learn, yet they differ from the man whose eccentricities forbid him +to learn through the discipline of society. The two are opposite +extremes of variation; that seems to me the only possible construction +of them. It is the difference between the ice boat which travels +faster than the wind and the skater who braves the wind and battles +up-current in it. The latter is soon beaten by the opposition; the +former outruns its ally. The crank, the eccentric, the enthusiast--all +these run counter to sane social judgment; but the genius leads +society to his own point of view, and interprets the social movement +so accurately, sympathetically, and with such profound insight that +his very singularity gives greater relief to his inspiration. + +Now let a man combine with this insight--this extraordinary sanity of +social judgment--the power of great inventive and constructive +thought, and then, at last, we have our genius, our hero, and one that +we well may worship! To great thought he adds balance; to originality, +judgment. This is the man to start the world movements if we want a +single man to start them. For as he thinks profoundly, so he +discriminates his thoughts justly, and assigns them values. His +fellows judge with him, or learn to judge after him, and they lend to +him the motive forces of success--enthusiasm, reward. He may wait for +recognition, he may suffer imprisonment, he may be muzzled for +thinking his thoughts, he may die and with him the truth to which he +gave but silent birth. But the world comes, by its slower progress, to +traverse the path in which he wished to lead it; and if so be that his +thought was recorded, posterity revives it in regretful sentences on +his tomb. + +The two things to be emphasized, therefore, on the rational side of +the phenomenally great man--I mean on the side of our means of +accounting for him in reasonable terms--are these: first, his +intellectual originality; and, second, the sanity of his judgment. And +it is the variations in this second sort of endowment which give the +ground which various writers have for the one-sided views now current +in popular literature. + +We are told, on the one hand, that the genius is a "degenerate"; on +another hand, that he is to be classed with those of "insane" temper; +and yet again, that his main characteristic is his readiness to +outrage society by performing criminal acts. All these so-called +theories rely upon facts--so far as they have any facts to rest +upon--which, if space permitted, we might readily estimate from our +present point of view. In so far as a really great man busies himself +mainly with things that are objective, which are socially and morally +neutral--such as electricity, natural history, mechanical theory, with +the applications of these--of course, the mental capacity which he +possesses is the main thing, and his absorption in these things may +lead to a warped sense of the more ideal and refined relationships +which are had in view by the writer in quest for degeneracy. It will +still be admitted, however, by those who are conversant with the +history of science, that the greatest scientific geniuses have been +men of profound quietness of life and normal social development. It is +to the literary and artistic genius that the seeker after abnormality +has to turn; and in this field, again, the facts serve to show their +own meaning. + +As a general rule, these artistic prodigies do not represent the union +of variations which we find in the greatest genius. Such men are often +distinctly lacking in power of sustained constructive thought. Their +insight is largely what is called intuitive. They have flashes of +emotional experience which crystallize into single creations of art. +They depend upon "inspiration"--a word which is responsible for much +of the overrating of such men, and for a good many of their illusions. +Not that they do not perform great feats in the several spheres in +which their several "inspirations" come; but with it all they often +present the sort of unbalance and fragmentary intellectual endowment +which allies them, in particular instances, to the classes of persons +whom the theories we are noticing have in view. It is only to be +expected that the sharp jutting variation in the emotional and +aesthetic realm which the great artist often shows should carry with it +irregularities in heredity in other respects. Moreover, the very habit +of living by inspiration brings prominently into view any half-hidden +peculiarities which he may have in the remark of his associates, and +in the conduct of his own social duties. But mark you, I do not +discredit the superb art of many examples of the artistic +"degenerate," so-called; that would be to brand some of the highest +ministrations of genius, to us men, as random and illegitimate, and to +consider impure some of our most exalting and intoxicating sources of +inspiration. But I do still say that wherein such men move us and +instruct us they are _in these spheres_ above all things sane with our +own sanity, and wherein they are insane they do discredit to that +highest of all offices to which their better gifts make legitimate +claim--the instruction of mankind. + +Again one of Balzac's characters hits the nail on the head. "My dear +mother," says Augustine, in the Sign of the Cat and Racket, "you judge +superior people too severely. If their ideas were the same as other +folks they would not be men of genius." + +"Very well," replies Madame Guillaume, "then let men of genius stop at +home and not get married. What! A man of genius is to make his wife +miserable? And because he is a genius it is all right! Genius! genius! +It is not so very clever to say black one minute and white the next, +as he does, to interrupt other people, to dance such rigs at home, +never to let you know which foot you are to stand on, to compel his +wife never to be amused unless my lord is in gay spirits, and to be +dull when he is dull." + +"But his imaginations...." + +"What are such imaginations?" Madame Guillaume went on, interrupting +her daughter again. "Fine ones are his, my word! What possesses a man, +that all on a sudden, without consulting a doctor, he takes it into +his head to eat nothing but vegetables? There, get along! if he were +not so grossly immoral, he would be fit to shut up in a lunatic +asylum." + +"O mother, can you believe?" + +"Yes, I do believe. I met him in the Champs Elysees. He was on +horseback. Well, at one minute he was galloping as hard as he could +tear, and then pulled up to a walk. I said to myself at that moment, +'There is a man devoid of judgment!'" + + * * * * * + +The main consideration which this chapter aims to present, that of the +responsibility of all men, be they great or be they small, to the same +standards of social judgment, and to the same philosophical treatment, +is illustrated in the very man to whose genius we owe the principle +upon which my remarks are based--Charles Darwin; and it is singularly +appropriate that we should also find the history of this very +principle, that of variations with the correlative principle of +natural selection, furnishing a capital illustration of our +inferences. Darwin was, with the single exception of Aristotle, +possibly the man with the sanest judgment that the human mind has ever +brought to the investigation of nature. He represented, in an +exceedingly adequate way, the progress of scientific method up to his +day. He was disciplined in all the natural science of his +predecessors. His judgment was an epitome of the scientific insight of +the ages which culminated then. The time was ripe for just such a +great constructive thought as his--ripe, that is, so far as the +accumulation of scientific data was concerned. His judgment differed +then from the judgment of his scientific contemporaries mainly in that +it was sounder and safer than theirs. And with it Darwin was a great +constructive thinker. He had the intellectual strength which put the +judgment of his time to the strain--everybody's but his own. This is +seen in the fact that Darwin was not the first to speculate in the +line of his great discovery, nor to reach formulas; but with the +others guessing took the place of induction. The formula was an +uncriticised thought. The unwillingness of society to embrace the +hypothesis was justified by the same lack of evidence which prevented +the thinkers themselves from giving it proof. And if no Darwin had +appeared, the problem of evolution would have been left about where it +had been left by the speculations of the Greek mind. Darwin reached +his conclusion by what that other great scientific genius in England, +Newton, described as the essential of discovery, "patient thought"; +and having reached it, he had no alternative but to judge it true and +pronounce it to the world. + +But the principle of variations with natural selection had the +reception which shows that good judgment may rise higher than the +level of its own social origin. Even yet the principle of Darwin is +but a spreading ferment in many spheres of human thought in which it +is destined to bring the same revolution that it has worked in the +sciences of organic life. And it was not until other men, who had both +authority with the public and sufficient information to follow +Darwin's thought, seconded his judgment, that his formula began to +have currency in scientific circles. + +Now we may ask: Does not any theory of man which loses sight of the +supreme sanity of Darwin, and with him of Aristotle, and Angelo, and +Leonardo, and Newton, and Leibnitz, and Shakespeare, seem weak and paltry? +Do not delicacy of sentiment, brilliancy of wit, fineness of rhythmical +and aesthetic sense, the beautiful contributions of the talented special +performer, sink into something like apologies--something even like +profanation of that name to conjure by, the name of genius? And all the +more if the profanation is made real by the moral irregularities or the +social shortcomings which give some colour of justification to the +appellation "degenerate"! + +But, on the other hand, why run to the other extreme and make this +most supremely human of all men an anomaly, a prodigy, a bolt from the +blue, an element of extreme disorder, born to further or to distract +the progress of humanity by a chance which no man can estimate? The +resources of psychological theory are adequate, as I have endeavoured +to show, to the construction of a doctrine of society which is based +upon the individual, in all the possibilities of variation which his +heredity may bring forth, and which yet does not hide nor veil those +heights of human greatness on which the halo of genius is wont to +rest. Let us add knowledge to our surprise in the presence of such a +man, and respect to our knowledge, and worship, if you please, to our +respect, and with it all we then begin to see that because of him the +world is the better place for us to live and work in. + +We find that, after all, we may be social psychologists and hero +worshippers as well. And by being philosophers we have made our +worship more an act of tribute to human nature. The heathen who bows +in apprehension or awe before the image of an unknown god may be +rendering all the worship he knows; but the soul that finds its +divinity by knowledge and love has communion of another kind. So the +worship which many render to the unexplained, the fantastic, the +cataclysmal--this is the awe that is born of ignorance. Given a +philosophy that brings the great into touch with the commonplace, that +delineates the forces which arise to their highest grandeur only in a +man here and there, that enables us to contrast the best in us with +the poverty of him, and then we may do intelligent homage. To know +that the greatest men of earth are men who think as I do, but deeper, +and see the real as I do, but clearer, who work to the goal that I do, +but faster, and serve humanity as I do, but better--that may be an +incitement to my humility, but it is also an inspiration to my life. + + + + +LITERATURE[14] + +[Footnote 14: Only books in English. The order of mention is without +significance.] + + +GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY--SYSTEMATIC TREATISES. + +Bain, _The Senses and the Intellect_ (New York: Appletons London: +Longmans). + +----, _The Emotions and the Will_ (the same). + +James, _Principles of Psychology_, 2 vols. (New York: Holt & Co. +London: Macmillans. Abridged in Briefer Course). + +Ladd, _Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory_ (New York: Scribners. +London: Longmans. Abridged in _Elements of Descriptive Psychology_). + +Stout, _Analytic Psychology_, 2 vols. (London: Sonnenschein. New York: +Macmillans). + +Wundt, _Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology_ (the same). + +Hoeffding, _Outlines of Psychology_ (Macmillans). + +Sterrett, _The Power of Thought_ (New York: Scribners). + +Baldwin, _Handbook of Psychology_, 2 vols. (New York: Holt. London: +Macmillans. Abridged in _Elements of Psychology_). + +----, Articles in _Appletons' Universal Cyclopaedia_ (New York: +Appletons). + + +PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CHILD. + +Preyer, _The Mind of the Child_, 2 vols. (New York: Appletons). + +Compayre, _Intellectual and Moral Development of the Child_, 2 vols. +(New York: Appletons). + +Sully, _Studies of Childhood_ (New York: Appletons. London: +Longmans). + +Baldwin, _Mental Development in the Child and the Race_ (New York and +London: Macmillans). + + +PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY. + +Ziehen, _Introduction to Physiological Psychology_ (London: +Sonnenschein. New York: Macmillans). + +Ladd, _Elements of Physiological Psychology_ (New York: Scribners. +London: Longmans. Abridged in _Outlines_). + +Donaldson, _The Growth of the Brain_ (London: Walter Scott. New York: +Scribners). + + +EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. + +Kuelpe, _Outline of Psychology_ (London: Sonnenschein New York: +Macmillans). + +Sanford, _Course in Experimental Psychology_ (Boston: Heath & Co.). + +Scripture, _The New Psychology_ (London: Walter Scott. New York: +Scribners). + + +ANIMAL AND EVOLUTION PSYCHOLOGY. + +Romanes _Mental Evolution in Animals and Man_, 2 vols. (New York: +Appletons). + +----, _Animal Intelligence_ (New York: Appletons). + +----, _Darwin and After Darwin_, 3 parts (Chicago: Open Court Company. +London: Longmans). + +C. Lloyd Morgan, _Comparative Psychology_ (London: W. Scott. New York: +Scribners). + +----, _Animal Life and Intelligence_ (London and New York: Arnold). + +----, _Habit and Instinct_ (the same). + +Groos, _The Play of Animals_ (New York: Appletons. London: Chapman & +Hall). + +Spencer, _Principles of Psychology_, 2 vols. (New York: Appletons). + +Hudson, _The Naturalist in La Plata_ (London: Chapman & Hall). + +Darwin, _Descent of Man_ (New York: Appletons). + +-----, _Origin of Species_ (the same). + +Wallace, _Darwinism_ (New York and London: Macmillans), + +Stanley, _The Evolutionary Psychology of Feeling_ (London: +Sonnenschein, New York: Macmillans). + +Baldwin, _Mental Development in the Child and the Race_ (New York and +London: Macmillans). + + +MENTAL DEFECT AND DISEASE. + +Maudsley, _Pathology of Mind_ (Macmillans). + +Starr, _Familiar Forms of Nervous Disease_ (New York: Wood). + +Collins, _The Faculty of Speech_ (Macmillans). + +Hirsch, _Genius and Degeneration_ (Appletons). + +Tuke, _Dictionary of Psychological Medicine_ (Philadelphia: +Blakiston). + + +HYPNOTISM AND ALLIED TOPICS. + +Moll, _Hypnotism_ (London: Scott. New York: Scribners). + +Binet, _Alterations of Personality_ (New York: Appletons. London: +Chapman & Hall). + +Parish, _Hallucinations and Illusions_ (London: Scott. New York: +Scribners). + + +SOCIAL AND ETHICAL PSYCHOLOGY. + +Tarde, _The Laws of Imitation_ (New York: Holt). + +Le Bon, _The Crowd_ (London: Scott. New York: Scribners) + +Royce, _Studies in Good and Evil_ (Appletons). + +Baldwin, _Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development_ +(Macmillans). + + +EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. + +Spencer, _On Education_ (Appletons). + +Guyau, _Education and Heredity_ (Scribners). + +Herbart, _The Application of Psychology to Education_ (Scribners). + +Harris, _The Psychologic Foundations of Education_ (Appletons). + + +PHILOSOPHY. + +Paulsen, _Introduction to Philosophy_ (Holt). + +Royce, _The Spirit of Modern Philosophy_ (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & +Co.). + +Ormond, _Basal Concepts in Philosophy_ (Scribners). + +James, _The Will to Believe_ (Longmans). + + +PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY (over the whole field), + +_Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology_, with full +bibliographies, French, German, and Italian equivalents, etc. +(Macmillans). + + +UNCLASSIFIED. + +Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_ (Appletons). + +Giddings, _Principles of Sociology_ (Macmillans). + +Mackensie, _Introduction to Social Philosophy_ (Macmillans). + +Marshall, _Pain, Pleasure, and AEsthetics_ (Macmillans). + +Galton, _Inquiries into Human Faculty_ (Macmillans). + +----, _Natural Inheritance_ (Macmillans). + +Pearson, _The Chances of Death_ (Arnold). + + +JOURNALS. + +_The Psychological Review_ (Macmillans, all departments). + +_The American Journal of Psychology_ (Worcester: Orpha, experimental). + +_Mind_ (London: Williams & Norgate, mainly for philosophy). + + + + +INDEX + + +A. + +Abnormal psychology, 4. + +Aboulia, 119. + +Action, 16, 22. + See Conduct. + +AEsthetic feeling, 46, 133. + +Algebra, study of, 187, 188. + +Amnesia, 118. + +Anaesthesia, 158. + +Animal psychology, 2, 24, 55. + +Animals, instinct of, 25; + intelligence of, 36; + mind in, 1, 24; + play of, 43. + +Ants, instinct of, 26. + +Aphasia, 114, 132, 190; + auditory, 116, 132; + motor, 114, 132; + sensory, 115; + visual, 116, 132. + +Apperception, 12, 15, 17, 42, 108, 121. + +Assimilation, 14, 41, 133. + +Association of ideas, 11, 13, 15, 18, 39, 42, 76. + +Attention, 76, 121, 182, 191. + +Auto-suggestion, 151, 163. + + +B. + +Bashfulness, 87 note. + +Bees, instinct of, 26. + +Birds, instinct of, 26. + +Body, relation of mind to, 101. + +Brain, 102. + + +C. + +Cat, instinct of, 25. + +Catalepsy, 158. + +Cerebellum, 107. + +Chance, vii. + +Child, development of the, 28, 37, 50, 76, 167. + +Child Psychology, 2, 25, 37, 51. + +Children, play games of, 95. + +Christian Science, 120. + +"Chumming," 93. + +Cold sensations, 124. + +Colour blindness, 63. + +Colour sensations, 62, 64. + +Comparative psychology, 2, 24. + +Concept, the, 42. + +Conduct, 9, 16. + See Action. + +Contrariness in children, 86, 157. + +Contrary suggestion, 157. + +Contrast, law of visual, 136. + +Control suggestion, 156. + +Copora striata, 107. + +Cortex of brain, 105, 108. + +Criminals, 205. + +Cures, mental, 120. + + +D. + +Darwin, Charles, 229. + +Degeneracy, 104, 122, 226. + +Dextrality, 53, 69. + +Diseases of mind, 4, 101, 114. + +Distance, perception of, 64, 66. + +Dog, instinct of, 26, 39. + +Doubting insanity, 139. + +Dual personality, 118. + + +E. + +Eccentricity, 176. + +Educational psychology, 5, 166. + +Ejective self, 90. + +Electric stimulus, 103. + +Emotional expressions, 22. + +Environment, 24. + +Equivalents, kinesthetic, 20, 28, 38, 112. + +Ethical sense, the, 90. + +Evolution, theory of, vi, 24, 31, 33, 54, 202, 229. + +Exaltation, sense, 153. + +Exaltation of the faculties in hypnosis, 160. + +Excitement, 21. + +Experimental psychology, 4, 101, 122. + +Experimenting with children, 6, 57, 61. + +Expressions of emotions, 22. + +Extirpation method, 102. + + +F. + +Feeling, 10, 21. + +Fluid attention, 182. + + +G. + +Galvanometer experiment, 103. + +Games, of animals, 42; + of children, 95; + value of, 50. + +Generalization, 41, 181. + +Genetic psychology, 2. + +Genius, 208, 211. + +Geometry, study of, 187, 188. + +Grammar, study of, 187, 188, 197. + +Guessing, 189, 198. + + +H. + +Habit, 77, 80, 168, 192. + +Hallucination, 12. + +Heating, 10. + +Heat and cold sensations, 10, 124. + +Heredity, 32, 58, 75,95, 169, 177, 200, 204, 218. + +Heredity, social, 200. + +Hypnotic cures, 164. + +Hypnotism, 17, 121, 148, 158. + + +I. + +Idiocy, 205. + +Illusions, 12; + optical, 132. + +Imagination, 12, 17, 22, 214. + +Imitation, 28, 38, 47, 53, 78, 80, 88, 91, 211; + persistent, 39. + +Individual psychology, 5. + +Inhibitory suggestion, 155, 170. + +Insanity, 205. + +Inspiration, 227. + +Instinct, 17, 25; + lapsed intelligence theory, 31; + reflex theory, 30, 34; + theory of, 26. + +Intelligence, 36, 214; + animal, 36. + +Intoxication, 102, 104. + +Introspection, 3, 8. + +Invention, 211. + + +J. + +Judgement, 133, 208, 220. + + +K. + +Kinaesthetic equivalents, 20, 28, 38, 112. + +Kindergarten, value of, 175. + +Knowledge, 9, 13, 22. + + +L. + +Laboratories, psychological, 132. + +Language, study of, 183, 197. + +Lapsed intelligence theory of instinct, 31. + +Left-handedness, 53, 69. + +Levels, of brain functions, 105. + +Life, sensory and motor periods of, 167. + +Localization of brain inactions, 102, 104. + + +M. + +"Make-believe," in animals and children, 45. + +Mathematics, study of, 187, 197. + +Medulla, 105. + +Memory, 11, 12, 18, 22, 76, 138, 150; + defects of, 118. + +Mental pathology, 4, 101. + +Mind cure, 120. + +Mind, of animals, 1, 24; + relation of body to, 101. + +Monkeys, instinct of, 26, 39. + +Motives, 18. + +Motor centres of brain, 111 + +Motor period, 167. + +Motor suggestion, 17, 67, 80. + +Muscle sensations, 10. + +Musical expression, 76. + + +N. + +Natural selection, 202. + + +O. + +Optic thalami, 107. + +Optical illusion, 132. + +Organic selection, principle of, 34, 50. + +Organic sensations, 10. + + +P. + +Pain, 21, 156. + +Pain-movement-pleasure, 83. + +Pathology, mental, 4, 101. + +Pedagogical psychology, 5. + +Perception, 12, 17, 22. + +Personality, dual, 118. + +Personality suggestion, 80. + +Phrenology, unreliableness of, 117. + +Physiological psychology, 4, 101, 122. + +Play of animals, 43; + of children, 95. + +Pleasure, 21, 156. + +Post-hypnotic suggestion, 160. + +Projection fibres, 109. + +Psychology, 1, 55; + abnormal, 4; + animal, 2, 24; + child, 2, 25, 37, 51; + comparative, 2, 24; + educational, 5, 166; + experimental, 4, 101, 122; + genetic, 2; + individual, 5; + introspective, 3, 8; + pedagogical, 5; + physiological, 4, 101, 122; + race, 6; + social, 6, 200; + variational, 5. + +Punishment, effect of, 172. + + +R. + +Race psychology, 6. + +Rapport, 161. + +Reaction-time experiments, 126. + +Reason in animals, 31. + +Reasoning, 11, 13, 17. + +Recept, the, 41. + +Reception, 10. + +Re-evolution, 122. + +Reflex actions, 57, 105, 53. + +Reflex theory of instinct, 30, 34. + +Right-handedness, 53, 69. + +Rolandic region, 112. + + +S. + +Schools, public, advantages of, 95; + dangers of, 61. + +Selection, natural, 31, 202; + organic, 34, 50. + +Self-consciousness, 43, 54, 80, 86. + +Self-suggestion, 151. + +Sensation, 10, 21, 22, 107, 109, 146, 179. + +Senses, the, 10, 101, 107, 109. + +Sense exaltation, 153. + +Sensory period, 167. + +Sentiment, 23. + +Sexes, difference in mental disposition, 176. + +Sight, 10; + experiments on, 132. + +Smell, 10. + +Social heredity, 200; + social psychology, 6, 200. + +Social sense, the, 90. + +Somnambulism, 153, 159. + +Speech, 75, 79; defects of, 114. + +Speech zone, 56, 109, 112. + +Spinal cord, 105. + +Spiritual healing, 120. + +Statistical method of investigation, 143. + +Stimulation, artificial, 103. + +Subconscious suggestion, 149. + +Suggestion, 17, 21, 67, 80, 120, 145, 148, 168, 172. + +Suggestion, motor, 80. + + +T. + +Taste, 10. + +Temperature sense, 10, 124. + +Thought, 9, 11, 12, 21, 23. + +Thought-transference, 120. + +Touch, 10. + +Toxic method, 104. + +Tune suggestions, 149. + + +V. + +Variation, 202; + theory of, 30, 218. + +Variational psychology, 5. + +Vision, 133. + +Visual type of mind, 128, 193. + + +W. + +Will, 19, 78; + defects of, 119 + +Writing, 14, 79. + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE + +LIBRARY OF USEFUL STORIES + + +The Library of Useful Stories. + +_A series of little books dealing with various branches of useful +knowledge, and treating each subject in clear, concise language, as +free as possible from technical words and phrases, by writers of +authority in their various spheres. 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Therefore every +contribution toward a means of clearer vision is most welcome, above +all when it comes from one who knows the ground on which he stands, +and has conquered his right to be there.... Professor Le Conte is a +man in whom reverence and imagination have not become desiccated by a +scientific atmosphere, but flourish, in due subordination and control, +to embellish and vivify his writings. Those who know them have come to +expect a peculiar alertness of mind and freshness of method in any new +work by this author, whether his conclusions be such as they are ready +to receive or not."--_The Nation._ + +_RELIGION AND SCIENCE._ A Series of Sunday Lectures on the Relation of +Natural and Revealed Religion, or the Truths revealed in Nature and +Scripture. 12mo. 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Cloth, $3.50. + +Dr. Hirsch's acute and suggestive study of modern tendencies was begun +before "Degeneration" was published, with the purpose of presenting +entirely opposite deductions and conclusions. The appearance of Dr. +Nordau's famous book, with its criticisms upon Dr. Hirsch's position, +enabled the latter to extend the scope of his work, which becomes a +scientific answer to Dr. Nordau, although this was not his specific +purpose originally. Dr. Nordau has startled the reading world by his +cry of "Degeneration"; Dr. Hirsch opposes his conclusions by +demonstrating the difference between "Genius" and "Degeneration," and +analyzing the social, literary, and artistic manifestations of the day +dispassionately and with a wealth of suggestive illustrations. + +"The first intelligent, rational, and scientific study of a great +subject.... In the development of his argument Dr. Hirsch frequently +finds it necessary to attack the positions assumed by Nordau and +Lombroso, his two leading adversaries.... Only calm and sober reason +endure. Dr. Hirsch possesses that calmness and sobriety. His work will +find a permanent place among the authorities of science."--_New York +Herald_. + +"Dr. Hirsch's researches are intended to bring the reader to the +conviction that 'no psychological meaning can be attached to the word +genius.'... While all men of genius have common traits, they are not +traits characteristic of genius; they are such as are possessed by +other men, and more or less by all men.... Dr. Hirsch believes that +most of the great men, both of art and science, were misunderstood by +their contemporaries, and were only appreciated after they were +dead."--_Miss J. L. Gilder in the Sunday World._ + +"'Genius and Degeneration' ought to be read by every man and woman who +professes to keep in touch with modern thought. It is deeply +interesting and so full of information that by intellectual readers it +will be seized upon with avidity."--_Buffalo Commercial._ + + * * * * * + + +"A SUBJECT GREAT AND FASCINATING." + +Degeneration. + +By Professor MAX NORDAU. Translated from the second edition of the +German work. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50. + +"A powerful, trenchant, savage attack on all the leading literary and +artistic idols of the time by a man of great intellectual power, +immense range of knowledge, and the possessor of a lucid style rare +among German writers, and becoming rarer everywhere, owing to the very +influences which Nordau attacks with such unsparing energy, such eager +hatred."--_London Chronicle_. + +"Let us say at once that the English-reading public should be grateful +for an English rendering of Max Nordau's polemic. It will provide +society with a subject that may last as long as the present +government.... 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It is not literary +criticism pure and simple, though it is not lacking in literary +qualities of a high order, but it is something which has long been +needed, for of literary criticism, so called, good, bad, and +indifferent, there is always an abundance: but it is scientific +criticism--the penetration to and the interpretation of the spirit +within the letter, the apprehension of motives as well as means and +the comprehension of temporal effects as well as final results, its +explanation, classification, and largely condemnation, for it is not a +healthy condition which he has studied, but its absence, its loss; it +is degeneration.... He has written a great book, which every +thoughtful lover of art and literature and every serious student of +sociology and morality should read carefully and ponder slowly and +wisely."--_Richard Henry Stoddard in the Mail and Express_. + + * * * * * + + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS + +_EVOLUTION OF MAN AND CHRISTIANITY._ + +New edition. By the Rev. HOWARD MACQUEARY. With a new Preface, in +which the Author answers his Critics, and with some important +Additions. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75. + +"This is a revised and enlarged edition of a book published last year. +The author reviews criticisms upon the first edition, denies that he +rejects the doctrine of the incarnation, admits his doubts of the +physical resurrection of Christ, and his belief in evolution. The +volume is to be marked as one of the most profound expressions of the +modern movement toward broader theological positions."--_Brooklyn +Times_. + +_HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE._ By Dr. JOHN +WILLIAM DRAPER. 12mo, Cloth, $1.75. + +"The keynote to this volume is found in the antagonism between the +progressive tendencies of the human mind and the pretensions of +ecclesiastical authority, as developed in the history of modern +science. 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