ELEMENTARY P SYCHOLOGY PHILLIPS HaU QlolUge of AgticuUurK 3tt)ata. ^. 1. ffiibrarg BF 131.P5''™""""'e™«y Library Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014474104 AN ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY SUGGESTIONS FOE THE INTERPEETATION OP HUMAJsr LIFE BY D. E. PHILLIPS, Ph.DI > /' / / READ OF THE DEPARTMEHT OF PSYOHOLOOY AND EDnOATION THE UNIVERSITY OF JSENVEB GINN AND COMi'ANY BOSTON • NEW TOKK • CHICAGO • LONDON ATLANTA • DALLAS ■ COLUMBUS • SAN FKANCISCO COPYRIGHT, 1913, UY D. E. PHILLIPS ALL BIGHTS EBSERVED 519.11 ?5 ^ tb^S6 gfte atftenanm jgrets GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A., PREFACE In presenting this volume to the public I am simply seeking to arouse a deeper interest in a general science of far-reaching and practical importance to every individual. During twenty years of experience in starting young stu- dents in this science, I have noted the different topics, the chief lines of interest, the oft-repeated questions, the out- side material needed to render any satisfaction to the in- quiring mind. I am convinced that the problems of deepest interest and some of the most valuable material are not presented in the svhject matter' of the general textbook on psychology. To create a wide and permanent interest in any science is certainly as necessary as to add facts to that science. This volume lays no claim to any great addition to human knowledge. Experience has proved that the fundamental and practical facts of psychology can be made intensely interesting and educsftive to high-school students and to the general public. There is nothing in this volume that cannot be comprehended by the begin- ning student to the extent of luring him on and filling him with enthusiasm to know and with a desire to solve the problems of life and conduct. Experience has also proved that it is wise and pedagogicaUy valuable to stimulate interest by giving a wide view of the science, even, to the extent of suggesting hidden mysteries and unanswerable questions. It is the stimulus that sets the soul on fire. iv ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY The entire new arrangement of subject matter may be justified by tlie ease and interest of presentation as com- pared with, that order in which the physiological and ab- stract parts of psychology are first presented. I can only hope that the style, arrangement, and method of treatment win prove as stimulating and interesting to the general reader as they have proved to my own classes. I also believe that some such order wUl prove to be in every way pedagogical and profitable. The logical order and the pedagogical order are not always the same, as experience has amply shown; therefore, while logical unity has not been ignored, it has been consciously sacrificed to other quali- ties which are more essential to the purpose of this book. For the introduction of such material as Relation of Psychology and Evolution, Heredity and Environment, Suggestion and Mental Healing, Magic and Spiritualism, Psychology in Literature, I offer no apology. The general necessity for some information on these topics, the broad view developed, the permanent interest created, and the bet- ter understanding which they give of such common subjects as memory, reason/will, and the entire relation and develop- ment of mental life are ample justification for their intro- duction. The study of psychology requires some knowledge of the leading facts of evolution. To assume such knowledge on the part of the beginning student is a mistake. Striving for accurate definitions and distinctions is to be avoided ui the beginning of such a gre it and necessa- rily indefinite subject as this. It is dangerous and leads to the greatest disease in all education — word-learning without a ghost of a content. An attitude of soul aris- ing from many examples and questions is deemed of more PEEFACE V importance for general purposes than accurate scientific defi- nitions. The definitions given are tentative and suggestive. The omission of the conventional questions and refer- ences at the end of each chapter is desirable for three reasons: First, experience and inquiry prove that they are seldom used. Second, the questions are in nowise likely to be such as the student would ask. A better method is to allow perfect freedom of questions and discus- sion on each topic. It will be found that the suggestions concerning larger problems are such as to call forth many natural questions which the students may be requested to investigate. A list of references is given at the close of the book. Third, such questions have undoubtedly a detrimental effect on the teacher. The extreme form of such ready-made questions was once found in our histories and geographies. When our pedagogy is properly developed, the general read- ing book will take the place of the formal textbook. Each year's reforms make this more and more apparent. That I owe much to various authors and publishers for the permission to use certain cuts, I trust is made clear in the text. All references to authors and authority for quotations will be found at the close of the book in an alphabetic list. Besides my indebtedness to friends for examination and correction of manuscript, I am under special obligations to my colleague Dr. S. A. Lough for valuable help and careful examination of proof ; to my assistant. Miss Kate Howland, for critical suggestions and final preparation of manuscript; and to Miss Helen Howland for valuable drawings and indexing. D. E. P. The University of Denver CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 1 The Will ob Dbsike to Live 3 Instinct as a Fountain of Conduct 7 The Migratory Instinct, 8. Striking Instinctive Activities, 10. The Social Instinct, 10. Instinct of Reproduction, 12. In- stinct and Intelligence, 13. Human Instincts, 14. Definition of Instinct, 20. Imitation as a Fountain of Human Conduct 23 CHAPTER II FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT (Continued) .... 31 Habit 31 Reflex Action, 31. Wide View of Habit, 35. Habit in the Nervous System, 37. Power of Habit and Education, 38. The Habit of breaking Habits, 41. CHAPTER III FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT (Continued) .... 46 Feelings and theie Development 46 Importance of the Feelings, 48. Classification of Feelings and Emotions, 51. Chief Characteristics of Feeling, 63. Feel- ing and Literature, 64. The Sentiments, 66. Education of the Emotions, 69. vii viii ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER IV PAGE I"0UNTAINS or human conduct (Continued) .... 78 Apperception '^8 Examples of Apperception, 79. Suggested Apperception, 82. Definition of Apperception, 88. Factors determining the Strength and Direction of the Apperceptive Power, 88. Is Apperception a Good or a Bad Thing ? 92. CHAPTER V RELATION OF PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION .... 94 General Statement, 94. Natural Selection or the Struggle for Existence, 98. Survival of the Present and Survival of the Past, 99. Individual and Collective Survival, 100. Sexual Selection, 102. Sources of Advantages and Varia- tions necessary for Advancement and Survival, 103. Evo- lution of Language, 106. Time and Change, 110. Evolution of Mind, 111. CHAPTER VI THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, ITS FUNCTION, AND EDUCA- TION 114 Divisions of the Nervous System, 115. Importance of the Cerebrum, 116. Composition of the Nervous System, 117. Growth of the Nervous System, 121. Functions of the Dif- ferent Parts of the Nervous System, 124. Education of the Nervous System, 128. How Knowledge of the Nervous Sys- tem helps us to Interpret Human Life, 131. CHAPTER VII SENSATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENSES 134 The Stimulus and Nerve Action, 134. Sensation and Per- ception, 135. The Special Senses and their Adaptation to Stimuli, 136. Sensations arising from the Skin, 139. Sensa- tions of Taste and Smell, 144. Sensations of Smell, 144. CONTENTS ix PAGE Sensations of Hearing, 146. Sensations of Sight, 148. Re- action Time, 153. Subjective Sensations, 155. Quality and Intensity of Sensations and of Sense Perceptions, 155. Prac- tical Significance of these Facts, 159. CHAPTER VIII RELATION AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 163 The Rapidity of Thought, 165. The Fundamental Law of Association of Ideas, 167. Laws of Practical Educational Value, 168. Association in Dreams, 176. Practical Results of the Association Method, 178. CHAPTER IX FUNCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF MEMORY AND IMAGINATION 180 Memory and Imagination in Animals, 180. Varieties of Memory, 182. The Physical Basis of Memory, 186. Relation of Imagination and Memory, 188. Strange Visual Images, 189. Values and Dangers of Imagination, 192. The Educa- tion of Memory and Imagination, 194. Suggestions for saving Time and Energy, 196. Memory and Court Testimony, 197. CHAPTER X PROBLEMS OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT ... 199 Meaning of Heredity, 201. Whence come these Heredi- tary Qualities with which every Child begins Life ? 205. We inherit Things only potentially, 208. A Chart to suggest Ideas of Individual Variations, 209. Relation of Environ- ment to Heredity, 211. Education must build on what Nature furnishes, 212. CHAPTER XI THE THINKING PROCESS AND ITS DEVELOPMENT . . 214 Degree of Thinking, 214. Thought and Progress, 217. Causes of Inaccurate Reasoning, 218. Proper Positive Education of X ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY PAGE the Thinking Process is the Supreme Demand in all Educa- tion, 222. The Formation and Development of Concepts, 223. Genius, the Star of Hope, 225. Language and Thought- Discipline, 227. CHAPTER XII SUGGESTION AND MENTAL HEALING 232 Degrees of Suggestibility, 233. History of Hypnotic Phe- nomena, 236. How Increased Suggestibility, called Hypnosis, is produced, 238. Phenomena of Hypnotic Suggestion, 239. Popular Errors concerning Hypnotic Suggestion, 240. Our Mental Life outside the Stream of Consciousness, 243. Hid- den Powers of Men, 247. Mental Healing, 249. Normal and Abnormal Psychology, 253. CHAPTER XIII SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 257 Importance of Social Psychology, 257. What is meant by Social-Mind, 258. The Suggestibility and Credulity of Crowds, 260. The Successful Leader of Crowds, 262. The School as the Only Hope for Political Education, 262. A Few General Conclusions, 264. CHAPTER XrV WILL, FREEDOM, AND EDUCATION 267 Biological and Evolutionary Investigations, 268. Kinds and Sources of Human Action, 268. Volition appears to direct Thoughts and Feelings as well as to inaugurate Action, 273. Deliberation is the Conflict of Ideas and Feelings behind which lie the Instincts, Habits, and Past Experiences of the Individual, 275. Education and Freedom, 276. Common Evasions of the Problem, 278. Feeling of Freedom, 279. Ways of conceiving Freedom, 282. The Moral Aspect, 284. CHAPTER XV MAGIC AND SPIRITUALISM 287 Historic Development, 287. Necessity for Knowledge on these Topics, 288. Interrelation of Magic and Spiritualism, 289. CONTENTS xi PAGE High Points in the History of Magic, 291. A Few Explana^ tlons of Magic, 293. Spiritualism, 296. CHAPTER XVI PSYCHOLOGY IN LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND ART . . 303 Inadequacy of the Present System, 304. Laws of Grammar, Literature, and Art, 305. Simple Psychic Elements in Literature, 307. The Eirst Necessity for either the Produc- tion or the Appreciation of Literature and Art is Soul-Free- dom, 811. Symbolic andFigurative, orPsy chological. Nature of Characters in Literature, 313. Reading into Literature what is not there, 317. The Psychic Atmosphere about Literature and Art, 319. By what Standard shall we judge Literature and Art 1 320. Music and Art, 322. CHAPTER XVII REFLECTIONS ON THIS HUMAN CONFLICT 325 Summary of Previous Pages, 325. Pursuit of Happiness is everywhere the End of Action so far as it is directed by Consciousness of the Individual, 327. Human Life is in- consistent and contradictory, 330. Needed Reforms in our Moral Education, 333. INDEX OF AUTHORS 343 INDEX 345 AN ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY SUGGESTIONS FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF HUMAN LIFE CHAPTEE I FOUNTAmS OF HUMAN CONDUCT L The Will to Live. II. Instinct. III. Imitation The average man, as he journeys on the bosom of a mighty river winding through mountains and valleys, comprehends not and thinks little of the many thousands of fountains, subterranean and otherwise, that combine to produce this sublime piece of nature. So human life is a majestic river that ever bears us on to the hidden sea of eternity. Few are the souls that stop to discover the fountains from which it is fed, and the combinations of forces that are manifest before our eyes every day. Indeed many, either through sheer aversion to all effort to solve the problems of life or on accoupt of some dogma star- ing them in the face, say we should not attempt to dis- cover these fountains. They say it is not only useless but impossible. In this chapter our aims are simple and unpretentious. With morbid daily introspection and self- cross-examination we have no sympathy, and with the 1 2 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY origin and deepest nature of life we are not concerned. The ultimate nature of motion which produces the phenomena of thunder and lightning no man knows. Yet our investi- gations in this line have not exactly been a failure. Is there any good reason why we should not have driven supersti- tion and night from the clouds, revealed the nature of thunder and lightning, and harnessed electricity to do our work, even if we cannot know the nature of the Eternal Energy lying behind such phenomena ? Why should a physician inquire into the ancestry of the mentally unbal- anced ? Every act of life has its ancestors, and only by some knowledge of these past forces which compel pres- ent action shall we ever properly comprehend and treat crime aright, shall we ever abstain from harsh and unjust judgments, shall we ever, even partially, obey the injunc- tion " judge not," or exercise " charity toward all men." In order to secure an adequate comprehension of the so-called higher powers of man and aU their various com- binations, it is necessary to give passing attention to at least six of these hidden Fountains of Conduct. These are (1) The "Will or Desire to Live ; (2) Instinct ; (3) Imita- tion ; (4) Habit ; (5) Feelings ; (6) Apperception. Some of these will be taken up again for further consideration, but we must first have sufficient comprehension of these six forces to be able to discover their manifestations and power in general psychological phenomena. Without some knowledge of the force and extent of these streams always pouring into our daily conduct, how shaU we fathom even the simplest affairs of human life ? This division is only a method of presenting as forcibly as possible a few ideas. There is no intention of suggesting FOUNTAINS OP HUMAN CONDUCT 3 that six is the limit. The number and combinations are certainly beyond our power to catalogue as yet. Nor is there anything involved in this conception akin to the old faculty psychology, which distinctly separated the powers of the soul. Throughout this work soul is used as synony- mous with the sum total of all psychic experiences, activi- ties, feelings, and possibilities of man. Let us look at a few facts which any observer of life can comprehend. I. The "Will oe Desieb to Live Look about you ! On every hand observe the whole wide world teeming with the various forms of life. See the millions of insects and other animals, high and low, big and little, as soon as born, ever thirsting for growth, for development, for more life ; ever struggling for food, to escape death, and to propagate their kind as if the whole world depended upon it. See the wonderful adjustments the ages have produced to meet conditions, lest life in any line should come to an end. See how human beings cling to life under any conditions and at any cost. What is the one common element that lies in plain view as the prompter of all these activities, manifesting itself in a miUion forms and at every moment ? Ask a class of thirty or forty healthy men and women why they live. At first they are almost sure to give the proper answer — laugh as if it needed no answer. But soon that false psychology which hopes to explain life and conduct from the so-called rational element in man, as if distinct from everythiag else, produces an array of apparent reasons why we live and should live. These old psychologists would almost make us 4 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY believe that we reason ourselves into and out of existence. Animals, they say, may live by force of impulse or instinct ; man lives by reason. How necessary that we first learn something of the fountains of life that constantly prompt our reason, memory, imagination, etc., before we begin to talk blindly about these powers of man. The correct answer was in the laugh, and our speculations about why we live are quite superficial. We live because we cannot help it; because that insatiable thirst for life, more life, which fills the earth with countless millions of organisms, pushes us on. Was it any speculations about life that kept the countless millions of savages and animals struggling ? Or did the force that for ages kept and still keeps the rest of creation going, step aside for us when some convention of men met and told us why we should live, and made us a/raid of death? By no means. At best man's specula- tions have produced only minor modifications. The first great fountain of human conduct is this same universal, ever-present desire to live. With our present advance of knowledge it seems incredible that any one's powers of observation should be so blunted by theory as not to see this great biological law. Give your attention to these astounding facts. The Will to Live, as the background of life already briefly suggested, is so closely related to the instincts that it might, from one standpoint, he called tlie funda^ mental instinct. At least it stands in such relation to all others that no instincts and no fundamentals in evolution, such as the Struggle for Existence, could be conceived without it. One is never more amazed than when he beholds some of the hard conditions under which life, FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 5 animal and vegetable, is maintained, and the tools with which organisms are provided to meet these conditions. The different forms of organic life not only possess as- tounding equipments and manifest marvelous activities for warding off danger and preserving life against the many destructive elements, but they also show the most marvel- ous and constant manifestation of an inner, active tendency to further life and bring it to the highest degree possible. Perhaps you already know something of the smallest unit of life — the cell. Its complexity, the activities that go on within it, and its division into two cells in order to further its own growth — these are in reality among the wonders of life; yet they are all prompted by this im- pulse common to all living things. Again, germ cells are often capable of considerable movement in order to unite for furthering life ; some organisms that live in water move only by changing their weight by mixing two liquids or gases, or by squeezing out air. Scarcity of food, lack of proper moisture, unfavorable temperature, are overcome in thousands of organisms by bringing the life processes practically to a standstill until the conditions are again favorable. In many cases the impulse to live is so strong that almost any part of the organism develops into a complete individual. The Nais cut into many pieces de- velops as many individuals ; in the case of the Zumbricus, each stump generates a head and lives as an individual; mere fragments of the sea urchin's egg grow into complete eggs ; each piece of the hydra becomes a new organism. The will to live is behind all this activity. Everything strives toward existence, toward life, then toward the highest forms of life. 6 ELEMENTAKY PSYCHOLOGY These few facts of the lower biological world are only mentioned to give some notion of the extent and intensity of this universal impulse. Countless thousands might he added, but for psychological material the common observa- tions of life are ample. I am sometimes astounded by the weU-known fact that sweet peas struggle on for months to produce flowers and seeds if the flowers be continually cut ; otherwise they cease to bloom. It is also true that fowls will lay many more eggs before setting if the eggs are removed from the nest. This same desire for life is only keener and more intensified in human nature. This desire to live feeds on the life of other organisms and even on human beings, that it may maintain itself. From one standpoint it converts the world into an immense slaughterhouse. In these and numerous other facts any observer may discover the force of the will to live, either for the individual or for the species. On the other hand, we see how the will to Live struggles in behalf of the species. The true meaning of everything seems to lie in the care for and perpetuation of the species. The supreme efforts and energy of all living things, man included, are directed by the desire to live and to care for the young. "We often see a mother clinging against all hope to physically and intellectually defective children, or sacrificing her life in order to preserve that of her children. All this takes place not because we have reasoned out the value of life, but because of the inner nature of life itself — the universal desire for life. TOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 7 II. Instinct as a Fountain of Conduct Give me your explanation of instinct and I will teU you your philosophy of the universe. However, in this presen- tation we shall not deal with any explanation, hut only with practical apphcations of instinct as one of the foun- tains of human conduct. Broad reading and many examples with an imaginary application to conditions develop an attitude of mind not easily expressed in concise definitions, but far superior to the ordinary brain-racking, hairsplitting definition process. If I were to give you a great number of pieces of paper varying from intense blackness to snow-whiteness and ask you to classify them into black and white, you would be able to select readily those at the extreme ends of the series. Yet if you should be required to begin at either end and pass through the series, you would find many doubtful cases, and be unable to decide anything without contrasting with the extreme ends. It may be possible for some trained eyes to detect thirty thousand shades of color, but we have comparatively few names to designate these sHght variations. From the lowest plant life, consisting of a single microscopic cell and of activities discernible only under the microscope, up to that fullness of life manifested in the highest specimens of man, we have as yet been able to name only a few rounds on the ladder. A striking illustration is found in the growth of any individual. Infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, and old age have definite meanings for us when taken in their large aspects. But just when did we pass from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth ? This same difficulty 8 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY will be found in dealing with aU the psychic activities of man. The intellect forms its clearest ideas of things by considering them as discontinuous ; but that is due to our habits of conceiving things, and not necessarily to the things themselves. This idea is fundamental for any profit- able study of psychology. In the study of animal activities we may begin with the simplest reflex actions, such as are found in proto- plasm, pass to the more and more complex reflex processes, from these arbitrarily into simple instinctive actions, thence to the highly complex and astonishing instincts. Now by another arbitrary process we leap across the border line between instinct and reason, or accept a mixture of the two, and finally arrive at the most colossal monuments of human reason. In this wonderful gradation of mind activ- ities there are many points where the classification must depend almost whoUy on some arbitrary definition. As gradual and as imperceptible as a delicate change of colors on an evening sky are these changes, when all of the phe- nomena are arranged in proper order. Abandon any idea of a definition until we examine many of the activities usually included under instinct. The Migratory Instinct has been extensively studied. Many birds like the swallow, the cuckoo, the nightingale, the redwing, the fieldfare, the sanderling, the turnstone, the plover, the knot, the duck, the goose, and others mi- grate north or south according to season. The distance traveled sometimes exceeds seven thousand miles. The sanderling nests in Iceland, and in winter has been found as far south as Cape Colony. The turnstone nests in FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 9 Greenland or on the coast of Scandinavia, and winters in Australia, South. America, etc. The American golden plover breeds in arctic regions from Alaska to Green- land, but in autumn passes through Nova Scotia, and striking boldly out to sea, sails on over the ocean until it reaches the "West Indies. Although the routes traveled are not always the sanie, yet there can be no doubt that birds return to the very spot from whence they started six months before. They have often been known to fly at a height estimated from one to three miles. But the in- stinct is not confined to birds. President Jordan gives the remarkable case of the fur seal, which twice a year makes a journey of nearly three thousand miles, through a track- less, stormy, foggy sea, from the Pribilof Islands to the Santa Barbara Islands. The seals arrive at their destina- tion seldom too early or too late, and land at the same place each year. The mother seal often leaves her young near the shore and goes two hundred miles in search of food, and returning in a week or two, finds them. She knows her young amidst ten thousand other young and they know her. The homing instinct of the cat is so well known as to have been famed in song. Some reptiles are said to possess it in a high degree. Eomanes gives a case of a pet snake stolen from Dr.. Vigot during the French invasion of Madras and carried in a carriage over one hundred miles. After some time the snake found its way home. It has now been proved that the homing ability of the bee is independent of sight and sound. We are told that the wandering savage, traveling in the trackless forest, possesses this instinctive sense of direction to a certain degree. The migratory impulse is seen in the roving youth. 10 ELEMENTAKY PSYCHOLOGY Striking Instinctive Activities. The horsefly lays its eggs on the shoulders or legs of the horse ; they are then bitten off by the horse and the larva matures in the digestive tract. Some species of wasps sting their prey so as to paralyze it without killing it, but different species vary their stinging according to the insects on which they prey. Some prey upon spiders, beetles, and caterpillars, which they reduce to a motionless condition for a certain number of days, thus furnishing the newly hatched young with fresh meat. The yellow-winged sphex has three pairs of nerves that govern its legs. These are each stung by the wasp in proper order. Another species stings its prey nine successive times in nine nerve centers. How wonderful is that apparently wise little beetle, the sitaris ! It lays its eggs at the mouth of an underground passage of a species of bee. After hatching, the larva waits until it can fasten itself upon the back of the male bee as he goes out, and clings there until the " wedding flight,'' when it passes from the male to the female. Here it stays until the eggs are laid, and finally it attaches itself to the egg, devours it in a few days, and rests in the shell for protection while it undergoes further transformation. The Social Instinct. Among animals that display a re- markable mixture of instinct and intelligence are the beavers. They live in towns, but each male lives with his female in his own house. At three years of age the young seek their mates and establish homes for themselves. Their homes are constructed with great mechanical and artistic skill. Some years ago I traveled several miles up a Eocky Mountain stream in order to reach one of these •FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 11 beaver towns. The animals displayed sense and forethought in selecting a site, both as to food and natural defense. High up against the mountain side I sawed off the re- maining stumps of trees cut down by the beavers. From their homes I brought many varying lengths of wood, the lengths having a marked relation to the thickness of the timber. They often fell a tree so as to submerge the limbs and branches in the water, thus preserving it for winter food. Their dams and canals for floating down their wood are nothing short of psychological puzzles for the student of comparative ps-ychology. Agassiz estimated one beaver dam to have been about one thousand years old. They often build a second dam below the main one, apparently as a precaution. The marvelous instinct of bees and ants is well known. Some species of ants keep slaves that do all the work and even feed their masters. When they migrate the slaves take the lead. The slave-making ants know one thing well — how to make war in an effective, systematic way. The whole nest marches out as one .army against the ants they would enslave. Even the mildest things that are re- lated about these campaigns, such as the care of the dead, etc., are sufi&cient to excite intense interest and disturb many cherished theories. Various species of ants keep aphides, which supply them with a nutritive secretion. Some of the leaf-cutting ants of the Amazon Eiver district make use of certain leaf bugs as slaves and compel them to carry the leaves they cut to their nest. Then the bugs are shut up in the colony. The practical application and relation of these activities to human conduct and intelli- gence will appear in later chapters. 12 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY Instinct of Reproduction. It is not our purpose to give a catalogued list of animal instincts, but rather to form a background sufficient to show how instinct becomes one of the fountains of human life, and influences human conduct and reason. To this end, consider the wonderful operation of instinct in connection with mating, reproduc- tion, and the rearing of the young. Later we shall con- sider the complicated and far-reaching import of sexual selection. During the mating season many animals, es- pecially the males, take on beautiful and brilliant colors and select a mate, usually for the season, but often for life, as in the case of the beaver, the ostrich, the stork. The pairing is often preceded by strange prelimiaaries designated by naturalists as courtship. In an article on " The lines and Laws of North American Birds," the pair- ing of several species is shown to be at least coincident with a maximum of " music and dancing." Evans says the final purpose of the nutritive impulse, and all second- ary impulses, is the preservation of the species. " Seeking food, fighting foes, forming friendships, sexual attraction, care of offspring, social feelings, love, hatred, fear, jeal- ousy, cruelty, kindness, revenge, deceit — all tend to this great end." Some of the species of the cuckoo seem to have a per- verted instinct. They do not build a nest, but lay their eggs in other birds' nests. The eggs are now left to be hatched by the foster mother. But should there also be hatched any of the rightful heirs to the nest, the young cuckoo gets rid of them in a very curious way — by crowd- ing them out of the nest to die. There are also several other birds that possess this parasitic instinct. rOUNTAINS OP HUMAN CONDUCT 13 Instinct and Intelligence. So astounding are the activi- ties connected with the rearing of the young in the animal kingdom that it seems utterly impossible to explain all without introducing an element of intelligence. I shall now call attention to a few of these and to some other activities that demand the thoughtful consideration of every student of psychology. Wild ducks, larks, whip- poorwUls, and many other birds, being surprised near their young, wOl cry aloud, feign lameness, and flutter along in front of you, solely to attract attention from their young. In a similar manner the doe and hind attract the hunter or dog in the opposite direction. When pursued by the hunter the sea otter dives with her young, and com- ing to the surface for air, she hides them and receives the hunter's shot. The immense seals that live near New Zealand swim in herds and observe certain tactics' because of the terrible enemies of the deep. The females bring forth their offspring on shore. While they are suckling them, which lasts some seven or eight weeks, the males form a circle around the young and their mothers, lest the mothers, driven by hunger, should enter the sea. They bite the females should they attempt to enter the water. Thus all fast for weeks lest the offspring should enter the sea before they are able to swim and observe the neces- sary precautions. Many animals such as the crow, raven, stork, turkey, beaver, wild dog, deer, monkey, zebra, and wild horse, post sentinels who warn the rest of approach- ing danger. Before migrating, some animals send scouts to ascertain conditions as to danger and food supply. The zebra and ostrich are often companions, not through friend- ship but because the zebra profits by the ability of the 14. ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY ostrich to scent approaching danger. Jabson, in speaking of the emotional element in monkeys, says that when one of his party would shoot an orang-utan from the boat, the body was carried off by the others before his men could reach the shore. Forbes tells how thirty-four monkeys attacked a cabin, apparently begging for the dead body of one of their tribe, and would not be pacified until it was delivered ; and the men who witnessed it resolved never again to fire at a monkey. Without doubt many of the higher animals exhibit sympathy, fidelity, vengeance, pride, jealousy, curiosity, teasing, a sense of joy, imitation, some- times almost to the extent of being dramatic. Human Instincts. Having briefly presented some notion of instinct in animal life, let us see what connection it has with the psychology of man. Shall we agree vdth the older psychologists and theologians that animals are gov- erned by instinct, man by intelligence ? Or wiU not even a careless observation of human life confirm James's state- ment that man has all the instincts of all the animals plus a great many more; he has so many they block each other's way ? Every biological investigation of life re- veals the great power of instinct in human conduct both individual and social. Whenever we seek for the primary forces behind memory, imagination, attention, interest, the rise and decline of an emotion, will power, social activity of any kind, we are always sure to discover one or more instincts as one of the fundamental factors. Watch the power and manifestation of the child-imagination in con- nection with the play instinct, and the flights of the poet- imagination under the sway of the love impulse. Let the FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 15 reader honestly describe the nature of the thing he most readUy remembers and then answer why. See how interest always has as a bed rock some instinct either relating to the individual's present or remote welfare. Strong emo- tions of fear are produced by slight stimuli. A lost pig running by my house may call forth a sense of humor, but a lost child fiUs me with indescribable pity and pro- duces will power to act in its behalf. The latter appeals to a deep instinct which has developed a strong parental feeling and sympathy. Even in the intellectual giants of the world you find the power of the instinctive thirst for leadership, fame, or curiosity ever spurring them on ; and often, like Goethe, they must proclaim, " I write because I cannot help it." The instinct for social preferment, to have, to hoard, and to possess, the love impulse, the sexual iustinct, the instinct of self-gratification and of self-preser- vation, the play instinct, and others, are wrought so deep in human society that even the powerful instinct to conceal them is not sufficient to hide them from view. Birds build nests and sing songs to their young, we build houses and schools; animals lie in wait for their prey, we form intrigues. 1. Sexual instinct. As already stated, some authorities would reduce all instincts to two or three general ones with their mixed and modified forms. Drummond thinks everything may be reduced to the instincts of nutrition or self-preservation, and that of reproduction. For practical purposes we must examine the more specific forms. The reproductive instinct is certainly one of the main powers behind life, and manifests itself in many forms and various combinations. Perhaps no one has so well presented the 16 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY strength and especially the unconscious manifestations of this instinct in human life as Schopenhauer iu his rather poetic chapter on "The Life of the Species." He describes its great power in animals ; shows how it is even greater in man but directed in regard to ways and means by reason ; how it triumphs over self-love and even extends to the sacrifice of life itself. Speaking of the important rSle which the relation of the sexes plays ia the world of man, he says : " It is really the invisible central point of all action and all conduct, and peeps out everywhere in spite of all veils thrown over it. It is the cause of war and the end of peace, the basis of what is serious and the aim of the jest, the inexhaustible source of wit, the key to all allusions, and the meaning of all mysterious hints, of all unspoken offers, and all stolen glances. ... It is, however, the piquant element and the joke of life that the chief concern of all men is secretly pursued and ostensibly ignored as much as possible. But, in fact, we see it every moment seat itself, as the true and hereditary lord of the world, out of the fullness of its own strength, upon the ancestral throne, and looking down from thence with scornful glances, laughs at the preparations which have been made to bind it, imprison it, or at least to limit and, wherever it is possible, to keep it concealed, or even so to master it that it shall only appear as a subordinate, secondary concern of life." For the wide scientific view of this instinct we must be- come familiar with Dr. Hall's great work on "Adolescence." Here he shows how love sensitizes the soul to the influences of nature, and thereby becomes a great factor in the evolu- tion of art, literature, and natural religion ; how it develops FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 17 into a great multiplicity of sentiments and actions ; how it radiates or, so to speak, gets behind the love of race or enthusiasm for humanity and the thirst for knowledge. Only get the absolute facts from a boy or girl during the golden age of this instinct and you find everything else subordinated to it. Ask the young man why he is struggling under such difficulties to complete his educa- tion. He will probably say at first that he wants a job. But, my promising lad, why do you want a job ? Have you not something beyond this to which your job only serves as a means? The psychological observer cannot help but be amazed at the success with which the aver- age adolescent conceals his or her real motives even from parents. Finally, my readers, just as we shall never make any substantial progress toward the solution of the moral problems of life until we learn how to regulate this in- stinct that exalts to heaven and debases to heU, so we wiU never be able to comprehend two thirds of human conduct until we realize the depth and power of this biological impulse. 2. Parental instinct. Parental care is the most direct radiation or completion and extension of the sexual instinct. It has been developed in all the higher animals and in some to a very marked degree. This instinct is certainly stronger in women than in men. It would be impossible to find in the whole domain of psychology such direct evidence of the creation of will power by instinct as may be seen in the transition of a frivolous, frolicsome, selfish, irritable, impatient girl into a patient, thoughtful, self- sacrificing mother. The apparent miracle, the creation of wiU. power, apparently out of nothing, the complete reversal 18 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY of her reasoning processes, are all due to the turning loose of an instinct as old as the first animal mother. Then, like Tolstoi's Anna, she thinks she has found her real self, and is glad to face even death to further the life of her offspring. 3. Fear instinct. Fear seems to be wrought into our bones. It is one of the oldest elements of the human soul. It shows its powers early in the deep-seated childish fears ; it is with us in some form until the dreaded grave swallows us up. Fear comes in conflict with other instincts, such as anger, pugnacity, initiative, curiosity, sexual instinct, thus producing a strain and hesitation. This hesitation is pro- duced in the higher animals as weU as in man. There are many instinctive fears, but in man, under certain circum- stances, the general instinctive tendency to fear may take almost any form. When we contrast our fears with those of the primitive savage we see one great difference between the animal and human instincts — plasticity due to intelli- gence. Intelligence and civilization have removed many of the original causes of fear, but they have also given us others, perhaps of a milder form. We have arrived at a point where the dread of disease has become an important practical problem of science. There is an old saying that the plague hath slain its thousands, but the fear of the plague its tens of thousands. Behold men and women ever haunted by some fear of disease, of loss of property, of social standing, of positions, of friends, fear of being found out, fear lest sacred beliefs crumble in the dust and all the world be lost, fear of some false doctrine, of desertion even by those who love them most, of approaching old age and death. Truly it seems that man is born, lives, and dies in a state of fear. FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 19 On the other hand, fear is one of the greatest educators in the world. To fear aright is invaluable to both animals and man. All kinds of enemies assail us to do us physical, economic, intellectual, and moral harm. Proper fear in the- form of anticipatory paiii is often our only protection. In childhood the memory of physical pain acts as an inhibi- tory force. Later the fear of mere negative consequences gradually develops into, or is supplemented by, the fear of losing the positive good in the form of a reward. This fear acts as a constant stimulus on all of us. Moral life and regularity of conduct would be in great danger of ship- wreck if it were not for the fear of social blame. Fear of future consequences to humanity has helped to fill the hearts of reformers with enthusiasm for their cause. 4. Property instinct. That animal inheritance and the long struggles of primitive man to sustain life have handed down to us a genuine instinct to hoard, to have, and to possess is now absolutely evident. The kleptomaniac who steals solely for the sake of stealing is the most animal- like manifestation of this hoarding instinct ; but from the kleptomaniac all the way up to the man who desires the world, even though the intellect presents various reasons for his conduct, there is no sharp line of separation. Further- more, this instinctive power is never absent in the hoarding of wealth. It is always fertilizing the intellect with motives. We cannot doubt the force of Schopenhauer's remark that selfishness often beguiles a man into believing that he is serving others when in reality he is prompted to service by his own instinctive tendencies. The purpose of this work will not' permit a more ex- tended presentation of the large number of human instincts 20 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY not yet mentioned. "We may only call attention to such as the play ■ instinct, which has great significance and value for man ; curiosity, the spur of the intellect ; social instinct, giving the proper soil for the formation of cliques, groups, organizations, society, the mob ; jealousy, sympathy, pity, modesty, cleanliness, hunting, fighting, anger, and many physical activities of children, such as crying, suck- ing, biting, clasping, — these are all instinctive activities, furnishing a part of the hidden fountains of human life. Definition of Instinct. A vast number of definitions might be culled from books. They vary from the appar- ently simple statement of Dr. Brinton that " instinct is nothing but petrified habit," to the more elaborate and well-scrutinized definitions, such as Mr. Morgan's state- ment that " instincts are congenital, adaptive, and coor- dinated activities of relative complexity, and involving the behaviour of the organism as a whole." James gives us a very clear and comprehentive defini- tion : " Instinct" he says, " is the faculty of acting in such a way as to -produce certain ends, without foresight of the ends, and without previous education in the performance." I have no inclination to criticize definitions. Such criticism is tinprofitable and narrowing. The great variety of defi- nitions indicates the difficulties of the subject with which we deal. A brief summary and a few general statements concerning instincts may be of more service than definitions and may lead to a clearer idea of the subject. 1. All instinctive tendencies are first manifested as im- pulses, hut not all impulses are instincts, because many impulses may be individual, while instinctive impulses FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 21 belong to a whole group or species. For example, impulsive suicide is not an instinct, even though it be, as Eibot sug- gests, a perverted instinct. It is too individualistic to be classed as an instinct. 2. The strength of these innate tendencies and instincts varies in different individuals and in different races, and they are favored or checked in their development in pro- portion to their original strength, according to the degree of intellectual development and to the different environ- mental conditions. This difference in original strength of these tendencies and in the favorable or unfavorable con- ditions, taken in totality, accounts for all the differences among men. 3. These instinctive reactions may be produced by direct perception of the objects or by ideas of the objects, and, through the association of ideas, by quite different ideas. Thus in man many instincts may be aroused at the same time. 4. Largely through imitation and habit instinctive ten- dencies become crystallized about certain related groups of objects or ideas. 5. The time order of the appearance of the various in- stincts is not so regular or so well marked in man as in animals. 6. The manifestation of the many powerful emotional, instincts of adolescence is often entirely overlooked or inade- quately conceived because of the intellectual power accom- panying them and once supposed to have the right of way. 7. Instincts that, under normal conditions, appear, run their course, and give way to others may often be confirmed by habit; others may be entirely suppressed. Even instinct is not so persistent as is commonly supposed. The individual 22 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY may inherit the potentiality, but soon loses it if not stimulated at the right time. An incubator chick does not follow a hen any sooner than it follows other animals. Goslings and ducks kept away from the water for a few months after hatching lose their instinctive tendency for water and even fear it. 8. Undue alarm is often felt concerning supposed detri- mental instincts that appear, but simply have their fling, wane in strength, or almost suddenly disappear. How- ever, we do not mean to say that such tendencies should be entirely neglected. Abnormal forms of instincts that need the most skilled treatment may occasionally appear and milder forms may be persisted in too long. Dramatic, imaginative lying, fighting,, the destructive craze often of an apparently cruel nature, spasmodic hoarding or stealing, pride, easily confirmed by imitation and habit, these and many others are usually of the nature above mentioned. 9. As before noted, instincts often contradict each other, thus causing a conflict and hesitation in conduct, indeed, often producing contradictory characters and ap- parent hypocrites. A man possessed of a strong desire to have and to hold this world's goods, and also possessed of an intense desire for social preferment, finds it difficult to act with any degree of consistency. 10. As manifested in man, after the first brief period of life and after experience, instinct is neither blind Tior without variation ; and while intelligence may guide as to ways and means, we must not, in general, asswme it to he the cause of action. 11. Lastly, instinct is the basis of the emotional life and consequently of character, as we shall prove later. FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 23 III. Imitation as a Fountain of Human Conduct So universal and important is the. instinct to imitate,, — important not only in its relation to all the other instincts, but also to all the activities of life, — that with- out special consideration of it, one of the greatest factors of human conduct will remain hidden from us, and we wiU ever be wanting a key to many of the problems of life. Look at the great world, everywhere teeming with life ; nearly every form of conscious life tends to respond in a similar way to some other form of conscious life round about it. The early activities of most of the higher animals, and especially of the human animal, whether they be movements, cries, or whatnot, are mainly imita- tions of the corresponding kind of life surrounding them. Morgan points out the important place which imitation plays ia the animal world and shows how it takes the place of many apparently specific instincts. This strong instinctive tendency is usually without any conscious intention. There is some difference of opinion as to whether imita- tion should be regarded as an instinct. James, Baldwin, and many other writers consider it an instinct. James says, "This sort of intelligence is possessed by man in common with other gregarious animals, and is an instinct in the fuUest sense of the term." A careful and distin- guished recent writer, McDougaU, so defines instinct as to exclude imitation. One objection his definition raises is that imitative actions are so extremely varied that there is no specific movement or end. His chief objection is that there is no common feeling-state imderlying all these 24 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY varieties of imitative action. This would bring it in con- flict with his definition which requires an instinct to have a definite feeliag-state. But certainly imitation is rarely guided by intelligence; it cannot be explained under re- flex action ; no previous education is needed for its appli- cation; it is an inherent tendency to repeat the actions of the other individuals of the same species, and is fre- quently strong enough to extend to the imitation of other species. This instinct differs from the others in that it joins its power to any and all the other instincts, modifying and fixing them in conformity to the older activities then in vogue, whenever the conflict is not too great. Its end is correspondence, uniformity; it manifests itself in two forms — conscious and unconscious. So powerful is uncon- scious imitation that even conscious effort not to imitate often avails nothing, such as our efforts not to absorb the undesirable habits and customs of people with whom we come in contact. Even the simple things, like the movements and positions of the head, walking, talking, yawning, laughing, stammering, and stuttering are often spread by imitation, even agains.t. determined effort to ward them off. Quite unconsciously we acquire what once seemed to us strange and peculiar accents and variations of speech. Certain gestures may spread through a whole nation. Phrases and forms of prayers are often extensively imitated. The keen observation of Aristotle led him to declare that man is the most imitative of all the animals, that "imitation is innate in men from childhood." Darwin was astonidied at the imitative power of the Fuegians, FOUNTAIN'S OF HUMAN CONDUCT 25 whoj " as often as we coughed or yawned, or made any odd motion, . . . immediately imitated us." Even insanity may be imitated to the extent of becoming real in the person imitating it. The French have a special word -to designate such insanity. If unconscious imitation were not so common as not to attract attention, it would appeal to us as one of the wonders of life. An act is performed in the presence of another organism, or a sound is uttered, and then, without any desire to imitate it or any con- sciousness of the power that presides over it, the appro- priate nervous and muscular action follows. One of the rules of simple morals is — do yourself what you wish children to do, and do it without comment. The first principle in training feeble-minded and idiotic children is appeal to this fountain of human life. Place yourself on a level with them and do the simple things most natural for them to do in their state of development, gradually rising higher and higher. In a very large de- gree the development and training of animals depend upon their instiuctive tendency to imitate other trained animals and the trainer. I once saw several horses in training for the first time. I was perfectly astounded at the readiness with which they imitated the acts of the regulars and even of the circus manager. So powerful is this instinct to act in conformity to others, that the wild children that have been found with animals went on all fours, growled, and acted like the animals with which they lived. Some dozen or more of such children have been found. Some years ago two noted specimens, supposed to be twelve or fourteen years old, were found and brought to London Both went on hands and feet and growled like animals. 26 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY This power of imitation, seated on the throne beside its helpmate, habit, presides over the general trend of human activity and directs for better or worse the destiny of .millions. It is the indirect agent in the formation of the life and character of the child; it seizes a whole organization, crowd, or nation of people; it is one of the powerful factors iti preserving the customs and traditions of the ages; it establishes fashions, creates constitutions and laws, helps to spread reKgion and education. Charac- ter is largely unconscious imitative absorption. A superficial view of imitation would limit its power to physical activities, but a proper analysis shows that it pervades the whole of mental and evolutional life, and, as stated above, seizes a whole people. The initiative are few, the imitative are legion. We constantly tend to imitate others ia thoughts, modes of- thinking and feeling, and even in religion, as well as in physical activity. In a great city like Constantinople one is amazed at the strange life and customs pervading the whole people, and seeks iu vain for what he would call a reasonable explanation for the cohtinuatioh of such conditions. Alas ! he looks in the wroiig direction for an answer. The answer is found in two words — imitation and habit. When imitation takes the form of the dramatic it soon passes into the creative and rises even to its opposite — the initiative. In like manner it is related to emulation and rivalry. Conscious imitation develops out of unconscious imita- tion. The higher forms of imitation are accompanied and guided by intelligence; but intelligence does not say, " Come, let us imitate." The desire arises from a deep FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 27 underlying impulse. Intelligence seeks ways and means for carrying out this tendency. In proportion as one acts rationally he either becomes original and initiative or rationally imitates what he deems the best, whether it be of the past or of the present, of his own or other nations, of the upper or lower classes. Such an individual is both conservative and radical. It may be safely stated that few minds rise to this height. We tend to imitate those in power, such as kings and rulers. The poor tend to imitate the rich ; the unsuccessful the more successful ; the country imitates the city ; the high schools imitate the colleges; the supposed superior institutions are largely imitated by the others. Tarde, in his great work on " The Laws of Imitation," declares that " everything which is social and nonvital or nonphysical in the phenomena of societies is caused by imitation." Under such forms as passive imitativeness and self-originating imitation he gives a power to imitation never before realized. He draws his copious illustrations from social resemblances, from archeological records, from religion, from governments, from custom and fashion, from literature and art. The stage is the best place to see this wavering between conscious imitation and initiative. It is also the place to observe the genuine pleasure we derive from imitation. Thus, whatever we may think of its possible extension into these fields, nothing is more evident than the fact that imitation is one of the sources from which proceed many of the manifestations of conduct, both animal and human ; and even what we call reason is often only dis- guised imitation. 28 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY Tarde's law that imitation proceeds from within outward finds a clear appKcation in all cases where our imitation is dominated by a sense of prestige or superiority. Witness the great tendency in us to imitate our supposed superiors in dress, in furniture, in social customs, in education, in occupations, in speech, in reading, in art and literature, in systems of thought and religion. Of course we save our respectability and keep down the feeling of humility by making ourselves believe that we do it all because it is. highly reasonable ; but it is safe to say that in most of such cases prestige or the sense of superiority first con- quered us and prepared the way for our conclusions. In like manner weak nations do not often imitate their supe- riors until they begin to feel their own weakness and the others superiority. In such cases we delude ourselves into believing that these things really express our truest indi- viduality. But James well says, " As a matter of fact we find ourselves believing, we hardly know how or why." " The spirit of the age " reigns because of unconscious imitation. It took men a long time to discover the atmos- phere, because everything is seen through that medium. Likewise, it has taken long to realize that " the spirit of the age" is conventionality and custom, because "they form a psychic atmosphere in which all minds are bathed and through which everything is viewed. Well may we emphasize the saying of Plato, " The many have only imitated the opinions of others." Imitation is the instinctive tendency to respond either consciously or unconsciously to suggested movements, con- duct, or behavior of any and all kinds, hy repeating or approximating the same. Conclusion. It is' necessary to repeat that this presen- tation of The Will to Live, of Instincts, and of Imitation as sources of human conduct in no wise aims to be a com- plete treatment of these topics. It is, we hope, a suitable approach to the problems of psychology. The significance of the ideas developed will become clearer and grow in importance as we apply these ideas to the various prob- lems of this science. Numerous questions have arisen in the mind of the reader. Some will be answered; many cannot be answered. But stimulus to thinking is the end of all study. If we wish to push our inquiry to larger problems, we may ask if all instiucts were once preceded by insight or intelligence which directed activity to specific ends; if such activity then became crystallized into habit, and the habit was then transmitted to posterity as an instinct. Would such a view confer upon the lower animals an incredible amount of intelligence? But how are these potential activities preserved and what guides them with such unerring certainty ? Does intelligence gradually de- velop out of instinct? Or, put in a more concise form, is instinct ' lapsed intelligence or intelligence in the making ? After what is the will to live striving ? What guides it in its struggles ? In the unconscious imitation of others, what presides over the muscular activities ? If imitation plays such a large part in life, what becomes of our boasted originality and independence? With these and other forces behind conduct what can be the authority for and use of punishment ? Some kind of an answer to these and other problems may dawn upon us as we proceed. 30 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY It is hoped that the iatimate relations of all the forces of mind have begun to be e\ddent. to the student. The will to live is inseparable from the other instincts. The instincts aH bear an essential and often complicated rela- tion to each other. Imitation is the essential instinct for the conformity and direction of the other instincts. The reader must constantly bear in mind that we are investi- gating a great network of forces that have recently been shown to influence human conduct. Many of them, hke the unobserved aesthetic beauties of daily life, are not felt simply because of their continual presence; and others are the deeper, subtler, finer and more powerful forces, the discovery of which has characterized modern science. Any effort to regulate or comprehend the life of man is wise and valuable in proportion as these forces and their relar tions are understood. We now pass to the intimatdy related subject of Halit as the power which confirms, inwardizes, and personalizes imitation. CHAPTEE II FOUNTAIKS OF HUMAN CONDUCT (Continued) IV. Habit as a Fountain of Human Conduct The sum total of the psychical processes are so depend- ent, interdependent, and related one to another that it becomes difficult to maintain a separate presentation of them. The realization of this complicated relation is one of the main achievements of modern psychology. It is not to be regretted, but it must be admitted that such realiza- tion multiplies the difficulty of our problem and makes some repetition imperative. It is also a psychological fact that a problem viewed from many sides gives an attitude of mind far superior to any list of distinctions and definitions. Eeflexive, habitual, instinctive, impulsive, conceptual, and volitional activities are in some phases so distinct that con- fusion need not occur ; in others they are so dependent, related, and mixed that any unadulterated definition or distinction is impossible. Reflex Action. As a preliminary step to the considera- tion of habit I deem it wise to call attention to the chief facts about refiex action. Historically and biologically it is the oldest of all the activities, and directly or indirectly the basis of many of the other responses. In the chemical laboratory I find a common match. It is a simple explosive, 31 32 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY capable of a definite response to certain disturbances. Nitroglycerin is another compound capable of respond- ing to slight and varied stimuli. Again, guncotton wiU respond to even a slight change in temperature, and iodide of nitrogen explodes from a slight motion of the paper on which it rests or from a disturbance caused by walking over the floor. From the lowest to the highest de- gree of responsiveness to outside agencies there are many gradations of chemical compounds. In like manner, from the comparatively simple response of the amoeba to outside forces there are all conceivable degrees of ever-increasing readiness to respond to slight changes in conditions and to a greater multiplicity of disturbances until we reach man, whose accumulated complexity of structure, instincts, im- pulses, and feelings gives a possibility of response surpass- ing all comprehension. In the lower organisms, and to quite an extent in man, this response to external condi- tions is what we call reflex action. At present I shall not attempt a complete differentiation of reflex action from instinct and impulse, but leave this for future considera- tion under will. Suffice it now that we have examples sufficient to establish an idea. To avoid confusion I shaU give them under two divisions — conscious and unconscious reflex actions. When a boy I remember having shot a furtle's head to fragments. Having left it in the water, three days later I was astounded beyond measure to find its body still "alive." Its reflex actions were many and varied. The entire brain of a frog may be destroyed, and yet after many days, if kept in water, the frog is still capable of remarkable reflex movements. A paper with acid on it wiU be removed FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 33 from its back if the frog can at all reach it with its foot. Finally, after all force seems spent, an injection of strychnine into the frog wiU temporarily restore the reflexes. Again, without entering into the dispute as to just what acts of the lower organisms are conscious and what \uiconscious, we wOl have no trouble in finding many that must be classified as unconscious reflex actions. Many rather exact unconscious reflex movements are often performed during sleep. A fly or any other object irritating any accessible part of the body will be removed. The cold may compel us unconsciously to pull up the cover. The somnambuhst, or sleep walker, is not uncommon. We may cough or sneeze unconsciously. Under the influence of anaesthetics the unconscious reflexes may be very great, including unconscious reflexive laughing or crying. By imperceptible degrees of intensity of stimuli do we pass from unconscious to conscious reflex action. No one can tell just what faint degree of consciousness marks the difference, and always when and where it comes in. In conscious reflex acts consciousness is present, hut it is not the ruling cause which prompts the action. Such action has no directing idea of purpose. At a sudden, unexpected noise you may jump, scream, or cling to some object; a harmless mouse produces a profusion and a confusion of conscious reflexes. I threaten to throw my book at you ; you know I will not, yet many reflex movements follow. Hysterical laughing, crying, twitching, etc., are conscious reflex actions. In all of these movements we are conscious that they are taking place, but consciousness does not prompt them and is powerless to govern them or at least entirely to prevent them. The degree of consciousness 34 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY varies in different people and in different acts. As we shall see later, consciousness does come in as a prompting and guiding power in the higlier acts of human life, but even here the reflex tendency is generally present either as an antagonizing or as a cooperative force. Hence a comprehension of such activities is essential to a proper xmderstanding of their higher products, which we shaU. study later. The nearest relative of reflex action, is habit. Eeflex action is the physiological stuff out of which habit is made. " Man is born, lives, and dies in a state of slavery. At his birth he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, at his death he is nailed in his coffin," cried the great soul of Eousseau as it rebelled against the power of habit. He did not rise to that larger truth that the best things in the world are also the most dangerous. For instance, a vivid imagination is the mother of art, poetry, and literature; but it may also be the source of crime and hallucinations. An intense emotional life moves humanity ; but, if turned in the wrong direction, it is dangerous beyond measure. We might demonstrate this truth by the whole list of the most highly appreciated qualities of mankind. I should like to modify the oft-quoted phrase of Well- ington, " Habit is ten times nature," into Habit is partic- ularised and confirmed nature. The instinctive tendencies to act along general lines are one and all inherited habits, but not necessarily in the sense that they originated from previous habit, or, as Dr. Brinton would have us believe, that " instinct is nothing but petrified habit." In this brief treatment we shall be concerned chiefly with habits devel- oped in living organisms during the life of such organisms. FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 35 Wide View of Habit. At first it may seem ridiculous to speak of the habits of material objects or of chemical compounds, but in a large and true sense habit is simply predisposition to respond more readily in a similar way under similar circumstances and conditions. Every one knows how the structure of a chemical compound deter- mines its predisposition to respond in a certain way. A bar of iron acquires a new habit by becoming magnetic. The same chemical molecules that produce the harmless acetic acid, by some strange rearrangement become the poisonous butyric acid — quite a contrary habit is acquired. The most delicately balanced scales are never the same after the touch of the human hand. Delicate musical instruments acquire habits of response. Wires, cables, and countless other objects acquire habits of position and response. That habit is essentially physical cannot be denied. " The laws of Nature are nothing but immutable habits." In the organic world a high degree of complexity and plasticity gives a habit formation commensurate with the same. With highly complex and consequently plastic organisms the modifications in predisposition of response are practically unlimited. The plasticity of plants permits them to acquire a countless number of habits. Under the skillful guidance of the great botanist, Dr. Bessy, I saw plants flourishing under various kinds of artificial conditions : some were growing under aU degrees of light, from the strong, constant electric light down to long periods of darkness with slight periods of light ; others under many different rates of motion ; still others with certain gases pouring on them all the time. These and many other 36 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY conditions were forcing on these plants habits never before a part of their response. Thousands of experiments have been made with the lower animal organisms, establishing in them modes of response of which they were once supposed incapable. In the great field of observation of animals Morgan assures us that many specific activities once assigned to inherited instinctive reactions are habits acquired in the liftetime of the organism. In our own bodies do we not find that a sprained limb, an inflamed gland, position of limbs, any drug or food pro- ducing a violent disorder of the stomach, cases of neuralgia and rheumatism, leave the part or tissue so modified that even a compa?ratively slight stimulus will tend to reinstate a similar bodily condition ? Primitive peoples often modify the shape of the skuU, size of the Hmbs, etc. by forcing them to a habit of growth. Note how habit adapts our whole organism to certain positions. We stand in a given way, we unconsciously hold our pen, knife, fork, comb, razor, tools in a given way. By habit we come to like a certain chair, bed, place in a car or at the table; certain modes of dress are often defended as artistic and sensible when in reality there is nothing in their favor but the power of habit. The habits of playing with one's watch chain, of swinging the foot while sitting, of biting the naUs, of nodding assent to what we do not hear or ap- prove, of continual tapping on the desk, often of yawning and sneezing, are simple confirmed reflex actions of which we may be conscious ; yet consciousness is not the cause of them. In like manner the repetition of various physical activities at a certain tipie and imder certain conditions may occur by force of habit alone. FOUNTAIlSrS OF HUMAJST CONDUCT 37 Habit in the Nervous System. In the last analysis we must center our attention on the nervous system and its incomprehensible complexity and plasticity as the great source of this liahit-forming power. Modern science has established beyond question not only that the nervous system controls all bodily movements, but also that cer- tain definite parts of this system- control definite specific movements. All bodily tissues are capable of playing a part in habit formation, but nervous tissue is sensitive to an ex- tent which baffles the imagination. Only when we come to consider the extraordinary powers of the senses can we fully appreciate this statement. So sensitive is the nervous system that the slightest, even unconscious, movements, the odors of flowers and foods, the conscious and uncon- scious position of the vocal organs, the chirp of the cricket, the song of birds, the sound of a violin, the delicate forms of touch, and slight variations in form and color, all so modify the structure of the nervous system as to establish a predisposition to respond more readily in a similar way again. All things else being equal, the oftener such nerve action is repeated the more ready is the response, and the more unlikely is any other response in the presence of simi- lar stimuli. Just what takes place in these millions of delicate fibers that make up our sense organs; and just how so many modifications can be made on so small a structure, perhaps to remain in some form for life, we can- not comprehend. James says, " Nothing is easier than to imagine how, when a current has once traversed a path, it should traverse it more readily still a second time." While this is true, it gives no notion of the nature of these delicate modifications. 38 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY Power of Habit in Education. We cannot escape habits no matter how loud Kousseau's cnj against them may- ring out. A large number of our first general responses are inherited predispositions. The general lines, con- stantly narrowed by the repeated activities of life, ere life is far advanced, wonderfully and permanently reduce the great plasticity of the nervous system. We have no choice but to form habits. Every moment we drift toward the destiny they create. Before the thirties are reached you see the lines are being drawn. The move- ments, gestures, and postures of the body are well fixed ; the voice, even though it be annoying to most other people, is fixed and is a satisfactwn to the individual ; the responses to music, poetry, art, religion, and science are rapidly drifting to their final destiny ; some profession has set its mark on each individual, and habit precludes his thinking of any other ; habit has fixed his social rank and made -him reasonably content with it. If habit did not prevent us from dwelling on these limitations, advanc- ing years would be accompanied by a tinge of pathos; indeed, in many cases such limitations are keenly realized. But usually a man deals with his habits as he does with his perverted religious or political notions ; it is the other fellow whose hfe and general welfare is threatened by them. So it is with habit; it is the other fellow who is the victim of habit. " I regulate my life by reason and good sense and could break through my few habits if I wanted to do so." We often hear the argument that people who have reached maturity with little or no appreciation of music, poetry, art, or science, have the power to become developed in any one of these lines if they would only FOUNTAINS 01' HUMAN CONDUCT S9 devote their whole energy to it. This is lilce a thousand other forms of false_ reasoning. That little word if begs the whole problem. The confirmed • opium eater coidd stop if Tie would only try hard enough. But where resides the power to cause him to try 1 Suppose I am told at the age of thirty or forty that I might yet become the greatest violinist in the world ; is there a shadow of . foundation for such a statement ? If the ear ever possessed the won- derfiil power of those fine discriminations necessary for such art, has not habit long since established reactions which make these impossible? Aside from this, you at once encounter the supreme difficulty — I tell you that I do not care to become a violinist. If I ever had any ambition in that line, it is gone. Indeed, I am much more satisfied and happy to spend my days teaching and writ- ing books. You tell me of some noted cases of achieve- ments late in life, and of great plasticity carried late into the seventies or eighties. I am little affected by this, for, in spite of dogmatic theology, I instinctively know that there are aU grades of soid. life, and I look around for the average of mankind. So far as either ability or obstacles are concerned, the transition from a scientist to a theolo- gian, or vice versa, does not seem difficult ; yet how seldom do you hear of such a thing. Certainly aU we have said concerning the force of bodily and inteUfectual habits applies with even greater force in relation to the passions and appetites, with the possible reservation that many of the passions and appetites natu- rally decline with years, and in early life any single one usually encounters great antagonism from the others. Alas, we lack no proof that lying, theft, anger, nervousness, 40 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY melancholy, drunkenness, and immorality set their mark upon their victims and usually accompany them to the grave. Lest vre tend toward pessimism recall the maxim, The best things in the world are also the most dangerous. With- out hahit individuality and personality would be lost, and we could not be relied upon ; great achievements in any one line would be impossible ; so much energy would be squandered as to threaten the existence of life itself ; per- manency and order would give way to chaos ; dissatisfac- tion with ourselves, our condition, and station in Uf e would become intolerable. Habit economizes energy and makes us immeasurably more efficient than we could be without it. While we are busy with these thoughts, habit is moving our muscles and executing our words. Behold the wonder- ful efficiency in aU games, due to habit; the astounding achievements of animals; the ease and efficiency of the circus performer ; the skill of the piano player whose habit seems unconsciously to abide in the finger tips ; the habits of the fingers, the Ups, and sometimes of the toes, by which means the blind are able to read ; the ability of the deaf and dumb to understand us by the movements of our muscles of speech ; or turn to the efficient accountant whose extraordinary skill and accuracy the average individual can scarcely comprehend. Again, habit often converts even the apparent burdens of life into pleasures. We marvel at the sacrifice of the Six Hundred, but largely through accumulated predispo- sition and the habit of obedience to commands, "into the jaws of d«ath rode the Six Hundred." Habit makes the relation between master and slave appear to each as the most natural and proper one. The burdens &i the FOUNTAINS OE HUMAN CONDUCT 41 destined poor are greatly lightened by habit. It is a great thing to form the habit of truthfulness, of honesty, of self- control, of prolonged attention, of supreme effort, of intense study, of great physical and intellectual endurance, of self- sacrifice, of being content with the misfortunes of Life. If we were obliged to fight over our moral battles each time without the assistance and strength of accumulated habits, the devil might get us alL The Habit of Breaking Habits. Not only must we con- stantly aim to form good habits, but bad ones that have crept in must be rooted up and others put in their places. And even habits that under certain circumstances and at certain periods are good, must be modified to permit of growth and proper adjustments to changing conditions. 1. The first step is a feeling of necessity for breaking a habit. In general language, a peculiar person is usually one who has habits differing in some marked degree from ours. We wonder why he does not abandon such pecu- liarities ; we proclaim it easy if he only had sense enough to try. If he should turn upon us and say : " Why do you walk so heavily ? What makes you talk so quickly and sharply ? Or why do you constantly frown when you talk to people, or look away off into the distance ? Why don't you reform yourself before you begin to reform others ? " the first and most common answer is a smile or a sneer which says: "That is my business. Am I not satisfied with myself? Am I not all right?" A more critical answer would be : "I do not believe you are right. I am not conscious of doing anything of the kind. Even if I do, it does not affect people so seriously as your habits." 42 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY Finally, if we should be brought to realize the truth of his criticism, in many cases we would say to ourselves, " The game is not worth the powder." That is, the meager -results will not justify the effort needed to abandon our ways. If one will only note the criticisms which people make concerning each other and analyze the attitude toward such criticisms, he can verify the above state- ments daily. But aside from our troublesome and danger- ous bodily habits, we must keep alive some form of change in order that growth may continue at all. In the simplest things of life He many mysteries, and they are present ia many of the cases of changing habits. It may be noted that no one changes his habits of life without a strong feeling of the necessity for doing so. Often reason as to the outcome of the habit may furnish this force. But why do some individuals reason as to the outcome while others do not? Why is reason sometimes so delayed ? Self-deception is the greatest°enemy of human life. One point may be found in the fact that most of the passions that enslave a man with bad habits tend to wane and die with advancing years. The period of " sowing wild oats " is not normally the whole life. Again, " life is a constant adjustment of inner to outer relations." Any modification of either of these tends to beget a modification of life. Often it is the very excess of the habit itself that inaugurates desire for change. A friend of mine had once unconsciously acquired the habit of taking his handker- chief from his long-tailed-coat pocket during his sermon and simply drawing it across his mouth and then replacing it. More than once I directed his attention to the bad effect of this oftrrepeated habit, but all to no avail. His sister FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 43 and others did likewise. Finally, one Sabbath his sister kept account ■ and afterwards announced with authority thirty-four repetitions of this habit during a single service. Next Sabbath the handkerchief was left at home, and curious nervous movements took the place of the habit. For some years a gentleman was addicted to drinking in a mild way. Often did his best friends admonish him to stop. He made many efforts. About a year ago he entered the car one evening sufficiently intoxicated to cause him to say many absurd things. Several months after that I was quite astonished when he refused wine at a banquet. He then turned to me and said : " That night was a blessing to me. It settled what I had often tried in vain to settle. I am free forever." The student can readily think of many examples similar to these. How strange that sometimes we must look into the very mouth of destruction in order to escape it. So the first step m breaking a habit is a strong feeling of the necessity for doing so. 2. We must act with our whole being. James says, " Laimch yourself with determined effort." Here I fear that all possible words at my command will fail to de- scribe just what is meant by these statements. I refer to the fact that signing a pledge or making a vow, although consciously sincere, does not always include the whole being. As all sciences have their yet unsolved and, in many. cases, mysterious problems, so here I refer to such a problem in psychology. You may honestly resolve on New Year's Day that you will never smoke another ciga- rette or tell another lie. You may launch yourself with elaborate vows and meditations as if you expected a bitter 44 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY war. Later your soul is besieged by violent agitations and the expected war is on. Soon fleeting, half-subconscious suggestions of holding out for one year, or one month, or of just one more indulgence, come and go. Only this, and probably the battle is lost. It is my conviction that in the majority of such cases these possible lines of retreat lurked down deep in the soul of the individual at the very time of making the vow and anticipating a tattle. A large part of human conduct is dominated by these possible lines of variation or retreat, held in the very depth of the souL Who does not know, better than I can ever describe it, the power,, peace, and serenity that result from the surrender of the whole leing ? Cut off all possible lines of retreat and your battle is more than half won. So long as we argue a line of conduct with ourselves or with others, the whole being is not in it. The almost in- credible valor, strength, and endurance so often exemplified in man are largely due to the fact that all lines of retreat are cut off and the whole being is in it. 3. Value of increased confidence. If five days after your good resolution never to smoke again, your friend offers you a cigarette, politely but promptly and without argument refuse it. This first step will add confidence and consciousness of power. This feeling of increased power, to which is soon added that feeling of power which results from the restoration of proper normal physiological conditions, constitutes reserve force for all future contests. " Nothing succeeds like success." 4. Effects of habit continue long after we think them abolished. When you feel that you have eliminated every FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 45 trace of your bad habit, be not deceived into again experi- menting with it. In most cases its resurrection will prove only too easy. If you have been accustomed to having the ink on your right, place it on the left, and note how long it requires to establish the habit of going to the proper place for ink. When you think it is firmly established, place the ink back on the right side and observe what a comparatively short time is required to reestablish the old habit. Fatigue is sometimes all that is necessary to open the way for apparently lost habits to manifest themselves. This is especially true with habits of speech. The physio- logical effects of smoking, drunkenness, immorality, and general dissipation are not eradicated by any conversion or regeneration. Down even to the grave, all things else being equal, the individual remains more susceptible to attacks in these lines than he would, had such never in- vaded his system. Vital and important as this subject is as a fountain of human conduct, I must now leave the reader to widen the thought by his reading, experimenta- tion, and observation. In a later chapter a few words will be added on the ethical aspects, of habit. Suffice it to say here that the most efficient moral individual is not the highly rationalized ethical individual, but the most per- fectly habituated machine. I hope the foregoing is sufficient to leave no doubt that habit is one of the fountains of hu/man conduct. CHAPTEE III FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT (Continued) V. Feelings and their Development To describe au immediate feeling or an emotion or to reproduce one in memory is one of the most difficult arts of life; to Hve it is one of the most real and powerful phases of human existence. When they are not mere imi- tation, art, music, and literature at their best are the prod- ucts of a desperate effort of one person to make others reahze similar feelings and emotions. It is a struggle to objectify the deepest life of the soul. Occasionally we are overpowered by a dim remembrance of some strong feeling of childhood which no language can describe, yet we value it beyond power to estimate. In our own hearts we may discover an indefinable, all-powerful restlessness, a longing or an ambition for something we know not what, a " call of the wild," or of some deep instinct ; now a positive self- feeling which exalts us among the powerful, next a neg- ative self-feeling which brings us down from the clouds and fiUs us with loneliness and humility. Fear, anger, disgust, wonder, hate, and tenderness in some of their multiple forms have left their permanent stamp on our souls. Few individuals are so poverty-stricken as never to have kept company with admiration, gratitude, scorn, envy, reproach, revenge, sympathy, pity, and love. What normal, 46 FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 47 matured individual has never been tossed to and fro by anger, regret, remorse, shame, love, jealousy, or hatred ? Well might Goethe exclaim : " What a thing is the heart of man ! It is the sole source of everything — of our strength, happiness, and misery." The above-mentioned feehngs, together with their many and often indescribable combinations, constitute a foun- tain of conduct which, both consciously and unconsciously, largely directs and controls no small part of human con- duct, reason, memory, and will. It is that we may better understand such topics as reason, will, apperception, sug- gestion, social psychology, morality, and the whole of daily conduct that I present the simpler phases of this great theme now. With the many disputed problems, careful distinctions, classifications, and definitions of advanced analytical psychology I cannot deal in a work intended for beginners. To be effective we must fed first and define, later. Excepting a few simple classifications, distinctions, and definitions, no one is better qualified to follow what I shall here present than the adolescent reader. " The life of feeling," says Dr. Hall, " has its prime in youth and we are prematurely old and too often senile in heart. What does the psychologist of the study know of hate that makes men mad or bestial, of love that is not only uncalculating but stronger than life, of fear that shakes the pulses, and of courage that faces death in its crudest forms, unflinch- iugly? . . . What we feel is secondhand, bookish, shop- worn, and the heart is parched and bankrupt." In ordinary language feeling is used in a very wide sense. Common sensations such as touch, pain, hunger, thirst, temperature, are spoken of as feelings. Again, we 48 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY refer to love, hate, joy, sorrow, hope, anxiety, pride, vanity, wonder, awe, honor, truth, virtue, doubt, approbation, rever- ence for the past, etc. as feelings. We include also the more intense psychological states known as the emotions, which are simply intensified and complex feelings usually accom- panied hy some marked bodily manifestations. Some rep- resentative idea into which imagination may enter greatly intensifies emotions, but such is not a necessary condition of emotion. These examples will suggest the enormously wide use of this word. Has this common psychology any justification ? Cer- tainly it has. Just as suicide and melancholy have their true causes hidden from the careless observer, so back of this apparent loose use of the word " feeling " lie at least two common elements. If we disregard the dispute about neutral states, all feelings referred to under this use of the word are in some degree either pleasurable or painful. Later, I shall present an apparent paradox imder the title of pleasurable pain. Again, any and all such uses of feel- ing refer to an internal, subjective condition of the indi- vidual as opposed to the knowledge-side of sensations and impressions, which refer to an outer world. On seeing a beautiful display of roses we attribute the color to the flowers, but the pleasurable feeling is in us. Thus feeling is simply the pleasurable or painful side of any and all states of consciousness. Importance of the Feelings. Observation and analysis of one's own mental content wUl soon reveal the fact that everything has value in proportion as it affects the feel- ings. Goethe makes Werther say of his friend, " He values FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 49 my understanding and talents more highly than my heart, but I am proud of the latter only." One of the three greats est advances of modem psychology is exactly and conclu- sively to reverse the places assigned to feeling and intellect by the old psychology. From the days of Plato the old psy- chology proclaimed the supremacy of the rational element in man. Modem biological psychology demonstrates that the intellect operates under the guidance of the feelings. Com- mon and imiversal beliefs usually have some element of truth, more or less dimly apprehended, and it is this modem, clearly revealed truth that lurks behind the uni- versal tendency to exalt the heart above the head. Euskin says, " I am certain that in the most perfect human artists reason does not supersede instinct, but is added to an in- stiact." The feelings are fundamental, while the intellect is a secondary product. The chief business of the intellect is to devise ways and means to satisfy the deep longings of the human heart. The impetus to life and to great undertakings is not given by the intellect, but by the feel- ings. Strong desire, love, anger, fear, vengeance, ambition, inspire men with ideas. History demonstrates that the chief force of civilization resides in the feelings. When you find a man defending a given policy or line of conduct, look not to his logic but search diligently for what he feels to be his interest. In most cases the facts accepted or rejected, as well as his logic, are governed by it. I do not mean that he is necessarily a hypocrite or dis- honest, but deep desire makes straight for its object and focuses the intellect in one definite direction. Nor does this apply to achievements of selfish ends only. It applies with equal force to the moral reformer. Here, for the feeling 60 ELEMEiSTTAEY PSYCHOLOGY of 'personal interest is substituted the feeling of duty or alligation. As viewed in after years the shortsighted- ness of most moral reformers is incomprehensible to the historian who seeks for logical reasons. Quietly and pas- sively he reasons at his desk, while the doers of these deeds reasoned from an inner-court of feelings Vhich circum- stances forever bar him from entering. So it is with indi- vidual conduct. In Goethe's" Meister " one of the characters, Aurelia, gives the highest possible praise to her uncle's intellectual powers, and then says : " With me he did not prosper quite so well, for here the question was about emotions, of which he had not a glimpse ; and, with what- ever tolerance and sympathy and rationality he spoke about my sentiments, it was palpable to me that he had not the slightest notion of what formed the ground of all of my conduct." Every reader may find in the depth of his own soul some proof of this statement. You well know that in the last analysis the real cause of much of your conduct and of your intellectual inclinations is hidden from general observation, and that outwardly you are misjudged, some- times to your great satisfaction. In the consideration of Apperception I hope to make clear how love, anger, hate, fear, jealousy, personal interest, habit, past experiences, political and religious sentiments, unconsciously direct reason and control the general trend and interpretation of our matured observations. From an educational stand- point, fire a soul with a burning desire to accomplish something and the chief work is done. To my young readers I should like to say, if you have no destined aim that absorbs your whole being, no ambition to achieve rOUNTAIKS OF HUMAN COKDtJCT 61 things in life, no desire to excel at least in some line, no longing to be genuinely useful in the world, then I care not how much money you may have, nor how much knowledge you may absorb, nor how many degrees you may buy, I cannot expect anything of consequence from you. Classification of Feelings and Emotions. Here I shall only suggest some of the different standpoints of classifica- tion and give at least a working basis in order that we may the better understand the different works on feeling and emotion. These subjects, usually presented separately, I present together, for the simple reason that the distinction between feeling .and emotion is purely arbitrary and one of degree. Those who reserve the use of the term " feeling" to designate the consciousness of pleasantness and un- pleasantness certainly do not help matters by placing such mild and relatively continuous states of consciousness as friendship, dislike, pride, humility, and vanity under the emotions. We probably never experience the primary or fundamental emotions and feelings in their pure forms. The current names designate mixed, secondary, and complex states. To get back to the simple states out of which our feel- ings and sentiments are compounded has led to various efforts to analyze and classify this field of mental activity. Descartes specifies six primary or fundamental passions — desire, hatred, admiration, love, joy, and sadness. All others are compounded and derived from some of these six. From a biological basis, Drummond, Ward, and others would reduce them all to hunger and love; or, stating them in another form, nutrition and reprodttction, which 52 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY terms are used in the widest sense as synonymous with selfishness and altruism. These two they claim are uni- versal, belong to all creatures, and are not derived from any antecedent ones. These two are the chief sources of aU action, and out of them all other feelings have been evolved. They gain rather than lose strength as they blend and mix with the later-evolved forms of feeling, so that in society selfishness and altruism become the principal social forces and the foundations of sociology. Bentham gives sixty-four English words practically used as synonyms for selfishness. Spencer finds love composed of at least a dozen strong, cooperative feelings. Some writers classify the emotional feelings as Altru- istic, Egoistic, Esthetic, Intellectual, Moral, and Eeligious. For practical psychological purposes this classification has much merit, and we shall discuss these groups of feelings later. Like Bain, we may adopt a classification based on observation of similarity and difference. Again, we may adopt the method of the botanist and attempt to discover classes, genera, species, and varieties, but I fear we shall be hopelessly entangled before we get far in the varieties. Herbart inaugurated the attempt to classify according to the ideas or intellectual states behind the feeling. One of the latest and most suggestive analyses is that presented by Mr. Shand, and adopted by McDougall in his " Social Psychology." The last mentioned gives seven pri- mary emotions — fear, disgust, wonder, anger, negative self- feeling, positive self-feeling, and tender emotion. These, plus the feeling of pleasure and pain, are compounded to produce aU others. At the same time the sentiments are distinguished from the primary emotions and made the FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 53 chief agents in compounding the latter. Our emotions tend to become organized or centered about some object, and this organized system he calls a " sentiment." The existence of such an organized system is readily shown by a single illustration. You have acquired the sentiment of love for some object ; now you are liable to experience tender emotions in its presence, fear or anxiety when it is in danger, anger when it is threatened, sorrow when it is lost, joy when it is restored to you, and gratitude when it is well treated by others. AU these feelings are connected ■with a single object of love. In a similar way it can be shown that an object of hate may. excite fear, pugnacity, curiosity, submission, anger, self-assertion. I believe the general idea here involved must be accepted as a valuable addition to our analysis of this subject ; but it would be a rather easy matter to show that no satisfactory classifica- tion has yet been made, and each student must accept that classification that serves his immediate purpose, and must finally learn to view the same thing from many different angles. Chief Characteristics of Feeling. 1. Measure and pain are characteristic qualities to which we must give great importance. They are signals of welfare and danger. To gain the one and avoid the other are constant motives of action. Nearly every morning my boy of six leaves his bed and rushes to the window to see the beautiful eastern sky. The feeling is cesthetic and the quality is pleasure- able. Later he is angry because his stock show has suf- fered some disarrangement during his sleep. The feeling ia egoistic and painful. The pleasurable feelings we strive 68 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY there was usually mingled some ulterior motive. For pleasure in moral pain James's chapter on the Sin-Sick Soul is supreme. "The normal process of life," says he, " contains moments as bad as any of those with which insane melancholy is filled. . . . The limatic's visions of hor- ror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. ... If you protest, my friend, wait until you arrive there yourself." We may mention also the pleasure which is often taken in bloody spectacles and cruel torture. In contrast with this there are many people to whom constant fear is a daily enjoyment. But the best examples for the student are those of daily occurrence under the head of common despondency or melancholy, which may be seen any day in the lover, artist, poet, musician, homesick student, and in the general restlessness and despondency of the indefinite adolescent feelings. As a rule these people do not want to be relieved of their suffering. Instead of accepting relief they do that which feeds the feeling. I once knew a professor who, after seven years of suffering from the loss of his wife, refused all offers to change some of the old, worn-out furniture for new or to have his room papered. It must be left exactly as it was when she died. The picture of her grave was hung where he could see it every morning on waking. Yet he was a sane man. Did you ever try to console a melancholy lover or a homesick person, and ten minutes later find the individual reading something like "The Sorrows of Werther," or play- ing " Home Sweet Home " ? This is what Spencer calls the luxury of grief, and it seems to grow with civilization. The three possible explanations offered by different writers FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN" CONDUCT 59 for these phenomena are so speculative that we have no space for them. But that there is such a thing as sweet sadness, and that sorrow-charmed souls exist, are not matters of speculation. c. Physical basis of pleasure and pain. A few words must be said on the physical aspects of pleasure and pain. In our body as a whole and in any and all of its parts there are ever present two processes, a katabolic and an anabolic — a tearing down and a building up, a destruction and a reconstruction. According to Eibot and others the degree of domiuance of one of these processes over the other in the whole organism or in any part thereof deter- miues the degree of pain or pleasure experienced. Eibot says : " In most cases, if not in aU, two contrary processes are going on simultaneously — one of increase, the other of diminution; what comes into consciousness is only the result of a difference" — a difference between receipt and expenditure. That the nervous system is a storehouse for energy we know, and, when well fiUed, pleasure comes from a normal expenditure of it. With a surplus of energy the dance or any athletic activity is pleasurable, but it it be carried to where the waste exceeds the repair, fatigue and pain result. The same thing occurs in mental activity. If I continue writing for hours, the tearing-down process will exceed the building-up process in my arm, and writ- ing becomes painfuL If mental activity be greatly pro- longed, the same condition wUl exist in my brain. But aU normal exercise helps the nervous system to store up energy for future use. Any dissipation that squanders energy faster than it is generated draws on the reserve and must soon result in pain. Also constant anxiety, worry, 66 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY acute pain gives way to pleasure. In some cases pleasure, due to other associated ideas and feelings, may develop. This condition is especially manifest in those who rejoice in persecution even unto death. Many have declared that their severest physical torture was the happiest moment of their lives. Bruno is imprisoned for many years; finally he is bound to the stake, surrounded by the multi- tude of scoffers and onlookers ; his priestly accusers wish some excuse to let him go, and when they, ask him if he has anything to say, with scorn for them and rejoic- ing in his. persecution, he replies, "I foresee that you dread this more than I do." But, as already stated, such are not parallel cases to those given under transitions of pleasure. ■ There are, however, two things that must be noted. First, pleasure is often greatly intensified by contrast with previous pain. Again, by force of habit, by association of ideas, and, in many cases, by the developing of a sentiment, many painful physical and mental activities, and even the so-called painful performance of duties, may become genuine pleasures. Such transitions take place in physical taste and in the aesthetic feelings. Certain foods and forms of dress that at first we can hardly tolerate may later become pleasing. Moreover, daily disagreeable tasks come to be agreeable by force of some one or all three of the factors mentioned. In a similar manner many forced intel- lectual pursuits not only lose their painful aspect, but pleasure accompanies them. These differ from the cases under " pleasure " in not being the result of any single, continued performance. The cause of the cases where pleasure gives place to pain is found chiefly in fatigue, FOUNTAINS OP HUMAN CONDUCT 57 while in the cases where pain seems to pass into pleasure it is chiefly habit, association of ideas, and the gradual development of sentiments. h. Pleasurahle pain — a psychological paradox. In order to avoid confusion it seems desirable to say a few words on this strange subject while treating of the quali- ties of feeling. When Dickens, in describing the death of Little Nell, says, "The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we do not wish to be divorced," his psychology is very misleading. There is not only one sor- row, but there are many from which we do not wish to be divorced.. Spencer treated this subject as one involv- ing great mystery. Such strange psychological conditions include many physical, aesthetic, intellectual, and moral states. In these peculiar states the individual is pleased with his own suffering. It is no new development or dis- covery. All peoples and all ages have furnished examples of it. "We find it distinctly manifested in the literature of India. Speaking of the ancient Persian poem by Omar Khayyam, Dr. Jordan, in his little book, " Philosophy of Despair," says : " It is the sweetness of philosophical sor- row which has no kinship with misery or distress. In the strains of the saddest music the soul finds the keenest delight. The same sweet, sorrowful pleasure is felt in the play of the mind about the riddles which it cannot solve." Who has not felt this sweet sadness in some form ? Homer represents a man " rejoicing in his tears " ; and the Bible contains many such references. Eibot gives several cases of taking pleasure in physical pain. A man may willfully torture his own body until he slieds tears. The days of asceticism wUl furnish many examples, but in asceticism 58 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY there was usually mingled some ulterior motive. For pleasure in moral pain James's chapter on the Sin-Sick Soul is supreme. "The normal process of life," says he, " contains moments as bad as any of those with which insane melancholy is filled. . . . The lunatic's visions of hor- ror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. ... If you protest, my friend, wait until you arrive there yourself." We may mention also the pleasure which is often taken in bloody spectacles and cruel torture. In contrast with this there are many people to whom constant fear is a daily enjoyment. But the best examples for the student are those of daily occurrence under the head of common despondency or melancholy, which may be seen any day in the lover, artist, poet, musician, homesick student, and in the general restlessness and despondency of the indefinite adolescent feelings. As a rule these people do not want to be relieved of their suffering. Instead of accepting relief they do that which feeds the feeling. I once knew a professor who, after seven years of suffering from the loss of his wife, refused all offers to change some of the old, worn-out furniture for new or to have his room papered. It must be left exactly as it was when she died. The picture of her grave was hung where he could see it every morning on waking. Yet he was a sane man. Did you ever try to console a melancholy lover or a homesick person, and ten minutes later find the individual reading something like "The Sorrows of Werther," or play- ing " Home Sweet Home " ? This is what Spencer calls the luxury of grief, and it seems to grow with civilization. The three possible explanations offered by different writers POUNTAIKS OF HUMAK COKDUCT 59 for these phenomena are so speculative that we have no space for them. But that there is such a thing as sweet sadness, and that sorrow-charmed souls exist, are not matters of speculation. c. Physical basis of pleasure and pain. A few words must be said on the physical aspects of pleasure and pain. In our body as a whole and in any and all of its parts there are ever present two processes, a katabolic and an anabolic — a tearing down and a building up, a destruction and a reconstruction. According to Eibot and others the degree of dominance of one of these processes over the other in the whole organism or in any part thereof deter- mines the degree of pain or pleasure experienced. Eibot says : " In most cases, if not in all, two contrary processes are going on simultaneously — one of increase, the other of diminution; what comes into consciousness is only the result of a difference " — a difference between receipt and expenditure. That the nervous system is a storehouse for energy we know, and, when well filled, pleasure comes from a normal expenditure of it. With a surplus of energy the dance or any athletic activity is pleasurable, but if it be carried to where the waste exceeds the repair, fatigue and pain result. The same thing occurs in mental activity. If I continue writing for hours, the tearing-down process will exceed the building-up process in my arm, and writ- ing becomes painful. If mental activity be greatly pro- longed, the same condition wiU exist in my brain. But all normal exercise helps the nervous system to store up energy for future use. Any dissipation that squanders energy faster than it is generated draws on the reserve and must soon result in pain. Also constant anxiety, worry, 60 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY fear, and grief consume nervous energy rapidly and may finally send their victim to the insane asylum. All forms of activity are accompanied by some waste, and there must be periods of restoration. There is a very suggestive book entitled " "Worry, the Disease of the Age." On the psychological basis of pleasure and pain as states of consciousness, it would be impossible to maintain Eibot's thesis without several very important exceptions. There are many painless diseases that gradually consume all of one's energy without causing pain save when exertion is undertaken. Again, as I shall show in another chapter, it is astonishing how far suggestion may control, augment, or diminish pain. 2. Difference in intensity is a specific characteristic of feeling and emotion. That feelings and emotions vary in intensity and duration needs no argument or examples for any reader. But why do they thus vary ? Not only will toothache, anger, love, and sorrow vary in intensity, as your experience proves, but some people attempt a quan- titative comparison of these feelings with each other. This is evidenced by all efforts to estimate the relative amounts of pleasure and pain we suffer in life. To some, life is not worth living because the pain seems quantitatively to exceed the pleasures of life. Again, the same stimuli produce widely different effects at different ages. It is also true that the same intensity of stimuli produces widely different intensity of feeling for different individuals, but we have no exact means of measuring s\i.c]i psychic intensity. Can we find any of the factors producing these variations ? a. The organization of our nervous system which hered- ity donates to us has much to do with tbe' intensity of FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 61 feeling and emotion. Whether we attempt to hold the old division of four kinds of temperament — phlegmatic, melancholic, choleric, and sanguine — or not, we must freely admit that all are not born into the world with the same characteristic temperament; and, all things else being equal, this difference in inherited nervous systems wiU produce corresponding variations throughout life. 6. It is also true that, through disease or shocks, the nervous system may receive striking modifications that ever after help to determiae the intensity and prolonga- tion of feelings. c. The nature, strength, and development of the instincts to which the stimuli appeal, are powerful elements in de- termining this variation. The instincts are the background of aU emotions. All things else being equal, the sight of a starving child will not produce the same effect on a man, on an unmarried woman, and on a mother. Not only that, but the same sight will produce quite a different intensity of feeling in the same woman, in proportion as the mother instinct is developed. d. The intensity and prolongation of all feelings, and especially all bodily feelings, are greatly affected by the strength and continuation of the stimuh. When these reach a certain degree the sensibility to response is decreased. e. Habit is also present in all our emotional reactions. We may acquire the habit of shedding tears or becoming angry at the slightest stimulus. /. Also the presence or absence of counteracting feel- ings varies the intensity. This is one of the effects of a well-educated and cvliViveA feeling-life. 62 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY g. Associated ideas and mental images vary the in- tensity and prolong emotions, apparently without limit. In this manner even physical pains and pleasures are in a marked degree modified. The thought that grippe is keeping me from my work adds to the intensity of my suffering, and the mental image of lying sick for three weeks reenforces it. The effect of images on our feelings is wonderfuL We may know from careful statistics that five thousand fishermen are yearly lost on the high seas, that one thousand employees are annually killed on the rail- road ; but the effect on our emotional life is zero as com- pared with that produced by the statement that a steamer, after gradually fiUing up with water, and many jumping overboard, sunk with all of its twelve hundred passengers, or that three hundred miners are hopelessly entombed in the earth. As we shaU see later, the dynamic power of social reform is not essentially found in reason, but in the feeling evoked by the mental images the leaders may skillfully paint. 3. Feelings are re/erred either to the soul or to bodily conditions. The third characteristic of feeling need not detain us long. Judged from our own consciousness, feelings attach themselves either to changing bodily conditions or to ideas. In a limited elementary work it is not desirable to go into the physiological theories of emotion, such as the James-Lange Theory and that of the opposing school. For two reasons it is well to state James's theory, which has caused so much comment since its first presentation. Briefly stated it is, that the feel- ing side of the emotions is simply consciousness of the bodily disturbances. FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 63 The feelings we call love, anger, fear, sorrow, are simply the consciousness of indefinite, unlocalizable, bodily dis- turbances. This iacludes not simply the visible dis- turbances, as the careless reader might infer from such statements as, " we are sorry because we cry," and we are "afraid because we run"; it includes every possible disturb- ance of circulation, respiration, digestive functions, every change of tissue, and every muscle affected. These cooperate to give the sum total of consciousness designated as such and such a feeling. It is now a scientific fact that different colors and sounds produce even in dogs a marked change ia circulation, respiration, and other bodily functions. Every stimulus apphed to the nervous system tends to diffuse its effects to every part of the organism. Every strong stimulus inevitably does so. On being startled, the circulation and respiration are disturbed. Fear, shame, and anger change the blood supply to the skin. HaUer foxmd that the beat of a drum caused the blood to flow faster from an open vein ; and Masso demonstrated that different sensations cause a change of the circulation in the brain. Certain stimuli cause all the muscles to become tense. These and thousands of other bodily changes can- not take place without producing fundamental changes in the states of consciousness. Will these changes account for the whole of emotional feelings ? James says they will. I have stated this theory for two reasons. In the first place any student of the subject must detect a large ele- ment of truth in it, even if he fails to give it an imlimited application. I have had a good dinner. I have a. feeling of satisfaction. I do not locate it in the stomach or in any part of the body, yet I well know it is due to a bodily 64 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY condition. Subtract from any one of the conscious states called anger, fear, jealousy, hatred, love, sorrow, or joy, even the bodily sensations you are readily able to detect, and you will see at once that you have greatly reduced the emotion. Again, this suggestion does help to account for the great complexity and variability of feelings, because the bodily conditions are capable of an indefinite number of combinations and variations. Here I leave the reader to extend the inquiry and make other applications. Feeling and Literature. In another chapter I shall call attention to psychology in literature, but here I wish the student to see the practical value of this subject as it affects his study of literature. Literature is an effort to portray in a vivid form the feelings we have been consider- ing. It is only by catching these feelings in the strongest manifestations that we can recognize their wonderfully compound nature. You may not call it psychology and you may not get it from a book so labeled, but some psychology of the emotions you must have for a keen appreciation and study of literature. Let me offer just a few general sug- gestions, which make no pretense of being absolutely cor- rect, as to some of these elements in literature. All writers must present some one or more characters for admiration. What a complex feeling ! What is neces- sary to awaken in you this feeling ? Certainly wonder and the feeling of submission and of self-abasement are present. But this is not all ; the impulse of curiosity is there, ,and the negative self-feeling, as being in the presence of a supe- rior, is manifested, but the latter in turn is essentially re- lated to the social feelings. Since admiration requires FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 65 humility and generosity, the conceited person is in a meas- ure incapable of admiration. Admiration mingled with fear is soon transformed into awe. Awe becomes compounded with gratitude and we have reverence. But gratitude is it- self a compound of at least two or three other feelings. So we might examine envy, jealousy, love, shame, joy, pity, demonstrating their complexity. I hear the reader say, " Well, what of it ? Of what good is it to know this ? " For one thing it will help us to correct our absurd judg- ments of human acts, and learn that when men assert a single motive for their conduct it is not true. Either con- sciously or unconsciously they are wrong. In the whole interpretation of human life there exists no greater error than this. I may tell you I am going to the South Sea Islands as a missionary, purely from a sense of d^oty. But later you learn of my lifelong desire to cross the water and to travel in foreign lands; of my strong curiosity-tempera- ment ; that I am to receive a good salary ; that I am to control other men in which my soul takes great delight; and that I am fond of lecturing as a means of securing the admiration of my feUow men. May not all of these be parts of my pure sense of duty ? I may also he honest or dishonest in part or in all. But whether we are aware of ■ it or not, conduct rarely ever proceeds from a single motive. Human conduct is rarely ever purely good or purely bad. The young hank cashier who supports a spendthrift wife and mother-in-law may finally rob the bank, not as a pure thief, but from a combination of the forces of love, fear, pride, humility, ambition, desire for gain, etc. It is the business of literature to portray these combinations and antagonistic feelings that constitute life and conduct. 66 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY Hundreds of pieces of literature could be. named in which just this kind of psychology constitutes the pri- mary interest and the sublime climax. The teacher of Kterature must know this great web of emotional life. She may name it psychology or what she pleases, only she must know it, and ever utilize the great moral power of these feelings to the limit. In literature knowledge for the sake of knowledge is a sin against the developing soul, and should be reserved for the word-made soul that no longer has an emotional life to corrupt. Shakespeare and Ibsen everywhere abound in this keen analysis of compounded and conflicting emotions. " Mac- beth," " Hamlet," and other plays rise mountain high in this entanglement of feelings and emotions. In " Brand " the great tragedy consists in trying to force one emotion, or rather sentiment in the form of an ideal, in spite of all other conflicting feelings, upon all other men and women. In Shakespeare's " Coriolanus " what appears about to be- come the highest elevation of the hero is converted into his overwhelming downfall by the gradual growth of his unconquerable pride. True literature consists of the web of the emotional life set in artistic form. True study of literature is inner realization of these relations, comhina- tions, and warring combats. The Sentiments. A group of feelings centered about some object or person may be designated as a sentiment. Such a designation must be taken only in the most general way. I do not attempt to draw any sharp line between feeling, emotion, and sentiment. They are inseparable parts of one great phase of mental life. Among those who FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 67 have treated the sentiments there is no agreement. Spencer says : " Nothing more is possible than the arrangement of them into groups that graduate one into another, but yet as wholes are broadly distinguishable. Bearing in mind this qualification, the word " sentiments," as used in this and succeeding chapters, must be taken to comprehend those highest orders of feelings which are entirely re-repre- sentative." He then treats of egoistic, ego-altruistic, altru- istic, and aesthetic sentiments. Eibot calls attention only to religious, aesthetic, and intellectual sentiments, while McDougaU places such feeUngs as love, surprise, sorrow, joy, and others under the sentiments. There are, however, certain sentiments quite distinguish- able from the more fundamental feelings. The two great factors in the development of a feeling into a sentiment are habit and the association of ideas or transferred feel- ings. The sentiments are the chief storehouse of all social force and the chief basis of valuation. Not long ago I observed a neat little church rising on lots adjoining an old dilapidated church. The contrast was unpleasant ; yet the people who had attended church there so long, cheer- fully sacrificed much to buy a new site and preserve with care this unsightly dilapidated building.- This is sentiment, or a group of feelings and their associated ideas, centered about an object. You can think of a thousand similar cases. The flag of a man's country becomes the object of a group of feelings and sentiments capable of exciting many min- gled and different emotions. What mingled sentiments arise as one stands on the battlefield of Waterloo! Yet one sees only pasture fields and a high mound of dirt. We transfer many feelings and sentiments to this object. 68 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY For thousands of years we have been creating sentiments about individuals, art, literature, and religion, and these sentiments so completely dominate our judgments that absolute truth becomes a psychological impossibility. As a general rule the probability of getting the truth decreases as age and sentiment increase. Some of us believe that we are now far from knowing what Shakespeare intended to say ; but, if the Shakespeare sentiment grows for a thou- sand years, what shall we say then ? Our protection and redemption, or substitute for truth, lie in the psychological fact that such sentiments always tend toward the idealis- tic. In so far as ideals are more valuable and powerful than the realistic, just in so far are these sentiments above the truth. These historical poems and books of comment about the great past are largely lorn of our ,ideals and sentiments projected into the future. If efficacy be the stand- ard, they will ever remain far above the scientific truth. But, again, the warning that the test things in the world may also he the worst must be sounded: The manner in which sentiments of the kind above mentioned stand in the way of progress is so evident as to need no comment. I shall make no effort to differentiate or classify the sen- timents. I only desire to call attention to this application of the sentiments, usually omitted by the psychologists. AU through this chapter the chief aim has been to show how feeling is one of the great fountains of human conduct, which pours its waters into the great stream of Mfe. If I have given you even a glimpse of its fundamental impor- tance, and shown how we cannot properly interpret any of the other mental powers without its consideration, my end is accomplished. It is an attitude of mind we need. FOUNTAINS OF HUMAiT CONDUCT 69 Education of the Emotions. It is hardly proper to close such a vital chapter as this without sayiog a few direct words about the greatest problem in all education — marv- aging the feelings. Any education that kills feeling kills life. At least such historic efforts are on record ; and ever since the day that Plato exalted intellect and compared feeling to the sensuous wild horse that ever pulls down- ward, and compared will to the driver, we have had psy- chologists and educators who have directed their eiforts to slay feeling or at least to let it die of atrophy. Feelings may be regulated, educated, and refined to some extent, but when they are destroyed you have an extinct volcano on your hands. No amount of intellect can say, " You ought to have sympathy, to love your neighbor, to give to the poor, to appreciate a beautiful sunset, to pity the unfortu- nate, to love God," and thereby create the power that does such things. The immediate antecedent of right condiict is either right feeling or correct habit. Habit is fundamental in the education of the feelings, not habit that results from intentional repetition, but rather habit that unconsciously results from environment and conditions. Imagine a man who, Eobinson Crusoe-like, has always lived alone on an island. I might offer him a reward to form the habit of eating once a day, of rising at four o'clock in the morning, and a multitude of other sim- ilar things ; and by intentional repetition he may succeed. But how shall he proceed to form the habit of sympathy ? This may appear extreme, but it illustrates the need of environment. Much of the psychological and moral advice about setting yourself the task of doing certain things to develop certain emotional habits is mostly speculative 70 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY waste, because few there are who ever attempt such a thing. Those who only feel are sometimes contrasted with those who act, as if those who act do not also fed. 1. A practical educational division of the emotions. The classification of emotions as Egoistic, Altruistic, Es- thetic, Intellectual, Eeligious, and Moral has already been mentioned. For educational purposes and to give some degree of definiteness to our efforts there is no more prac- tical classification than this. But we must expect only practical and partial, not absolute, distinctions. An un- mixed moral emotion is hard to find, but one in which the moral element predominates is not. Again, it is the intense form of these emotions that is most easily recog- nized and analyzed. a. Education of the selfish or egoistic emotions. Such a topic will appeal to many as almost ridiculous. Do we need to educate selfishness? Is it not, as Buddha said, the source of all evil? Has it not already ruined the world ? Are not men, as some pessimists say, wholly selfish, and all self-sacrifice only a cloak and a pre- tense? Enlightened feeling directed toward healthy ac- tion is everywhere the fundamental aim of education. Under egoistic must be included all emotions that directly or indirectly affect individual welfare. It is likewise not diflBcult to see that self-preservation is the fundamental condition of all other functions. Without health and energy, industrial, parental, social, and moral functioning is for- ever impaired or impossible. How fortunate that nature provides for self-preservation chiefly through instincts and these egoistic emotions rather than leave it to the blunders of men ! Yet there is an education given to these selfish FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 71 emotions, chiefly, as already indicated, by unconscious hahit formation, which may greatly hinder or improve the efficiency of the individual. Fear, anger, jealousy, pride, positive self-feeling, desire for approbation, for superiority, for power, and the thirst for ambition we would not destroy if we could. On the contrary, a wholesome environment may give these such a development as is very necessary for the other functions of life. Scientific works on educa- tion will give the detailed ways and means. 6. Altruistic and moral emotions. Here we deal with a group of feelings presumably the direct opposite of the ones above mentioned, but by no means so clearly defined. They include all feehngs whose end is in any way the welfare of others. Drummond calls altruism " otlierism." Altruism is an extension of the general use of the word " love " or " self-sacrifice " to include not only the conscious giving up of self, but also any unconscious self -surrender to further the welfare of others. The mother's love for her child is always designated as the purest example. The complex sympathetic emotion is perhaps its most general form. We cannot believe that selfishness and fear alone hold society together. The social and sympathetic feelings TTkahe possible any ethical basis ef life. They are behind every moral feeling of ought. How necessary is the ful- fillment of the command, "Eejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." This is sympathy. Let us suggest some of the chief factors in the education of these emotions : The environment is all-important. The child's love for God must find its fountain source in the love for its mother. When will we learn that emotions are not inaugurated by T2 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY command or by popular suffrage ? How cruel is our treats ment of some children and often of adults, all because they do not have the qualities we think they ought to have. On what ground do you demand or expect sympathy from an individual that has never known any ? Shut off from the world, one cannot grow in sympathetic emotion. With a little material the imagination may go a long way, but it has its limitations. The sympathizer must observe, if not experience, sickness, disappointments, hap- piness, joy, misery, poverty, ignorance, and suffering of a thousand forms from this powerful hand of nature. At what age such observations shall begin aiid to what extent _ they shall be carried, pedagogical sense and the nature of the child must determine. After observation comes good literature as a means of educating the altruistic life. But past experiences and the imagination are the only means by which a child can get anything out of literature. The nohle lives of self-sacrificing men and women exercise a powerful influence in awakening and developing similar emotions in children. Finally, we must not forget the power of suitahle music. You may sing a dozen emotions into an individual while you are vainly trying to argue one into him. Emotions are propagated chiefly by contagion, and music is one of the best-known agents for such propagation. Music is the deepest, oldest, and most universal language of the heart. The heart is a musical instrument whose many strings are the emotions of life. Music of the proper kind at the proper time is the most powerful known agent for the development and refinement of the emotions. Now that FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 73 we have learned that proper morals depend upon the fed- ing-life, how imperative that we substitute for the formal rehearsal of music the soul and life-giving elements of music ! Instead of music teachers standing around listen- ing to see how well the children strike the high or low notes, they had better be looking for what fires have been kindled withia the soul. I cannot refrain from q^uoting from that recent masterful treatment of the educational value of music, by Dr. Hall : " The prime end of musical education in the grade's is to train the sentiments; to make children feel nature, reli- gion, country, home, duty, and all the rest; to guarantee sanity of heart out of which are the issues of life. To this, technic and everything else should be subordinated. . . . Much school music is now chosen merely with reference to some scheme of pedagogic, systematic progression. Much method here is a sin against the holy ghost of music itself. Every tune introduced should have a moral and aesthetic justification. . . . We persistently and with stupidity ineffable assume that musical education is all in performance. . . . Now this is just as absurd as it would be to estimate the child's literary knowledge by what it can actually read itself. Over against all this lies the far wider domain of musical appreciation. Children should, in fact, hear vastly more music than they sing or play; and this should be a prominent, if not a pre- dominant, part of their musical training. They must listen and be taught how to do so by abundant experi- ence and practice." Under the influence of music the soul is inspired to dream dreams and see visions of a vastly larger life than 74 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY ever illumines our pathway at any other times. "We glimpse the abysses of woe and the shining pinnacles of every joy." c. ^Esthetic education. A few facts about aesthetic emo- tion must suffice. Its probable origin and evolution we must omit. It is manifested in all peoples, in aU tribes, among the savages, even in animals, and is found in all countries and in all ages. In nations of eesthetic repute it has only taken another form of development. The expres- sive side is symbolic ; that is, it represents some feeling or state of mind. .^Esthetic emotion is therefore as unhmited in its scope as the feelings and ideas of man. It also em- ploys the idealizing power of the imagination. Artistic enjoyment differs primarily from aU other emotions in that its end is individual, immediate pleasure. A beautiful sun- set, as an aesthetic emotion, belongs to me and to that immediate moment. It is not for others, neither is it aimed at my self-preservation unless quite indirectly my pleasur- able frame of mind contributes to my physical health. Elements of (esthetic enjoyment. ..Esthetic enjoyment as we find it in ourselves will usually be found to contain three elements. A beautiful sunset contains (1) a pleas- ing sensuous element which results from a stimulus of strong or effectively blended colors ; (2) for the artist, and, in a degree, for all who know some of the laws of light, physics, etc., there is present an intellectual element. The uneducated find little real aesthetic beauty in our great art galleries. There is, at least, some aesthetic value in the ability to see proportion, symmetry, and unity in variety. Again, cultivated attention is essential to the appreciation of aU the finer distinctions in art. (3) If this impression FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 75 be associated in memory with a sunset, seen in childhood or at sea, there will be introduced the associative element, always present in such a high degree in aU. religious and artistic enjoyment. It is this that gives the Madonnas such a preponderating effect over other works of art. The clothes worn by foreign peoples appeal to us as ugly, and, in many cases, ridiculous ; yet those who wear them come to con- sider them as beautiful — time and the association of other ideas are the only agents needed to produce this change. Those who succeed in overcoming their fear of snakes tell us that snakes are really beautiful. The variety of aesthetic tastes, the impossibility of any one standard, and also the power of the associative element in music and literature wUl be considered in the section on Psychology in Art. Esthetic education should begin early. The general prin- ciples suggested imder altruistic education will apply here. Few people realize the necessity for early development of an appreciation of the beautiful. I have just returned from a school filled with neglected children ranging in age from twelve to fourteen years. They care little or nothing for the appearance of their faces and hair. Conditions that would be perfectly satisfactory to them would be a shock to thousands of children even much younger, but surrounded by different environment. These children are intelligent, and you may readily develop that side of their nature; but do not dream that you have the same chance to develop their emotional life. Habit and con- ditions have set their mark on these children. Besides this we now know that children have a period in their development when poetry, music, art, etc. make their 76 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY strongest appeal to them, and when it is easiest to make a lasting impression. Such periods we call nascent stages. It is conceivable that a natural-born musician like Mozart, if deprived of the privilege of hearing music until the age of ten or twelve, might ever afterwards have only a common interest in this art. Early aesthetic education is imperative. When habits and tastes are already formed, simply to say that you may will to enjoy or not to enjoy, to be happy or unhappy, is sheer stupidity. Esthetic enjoyment must be inner and genuine. "What intellectual state could be more miserable than that found in those poverty-stricken, abortive souls who daily try to pose as lovers of music, art, literature, and science with- out a single idea or feeling of their own ! They run to everything that comes along and generally read all the comments of the press, but all the while the carrying-out of the pretense becomes more and more difficult. If the fashionable world were only as honest as that humble Darwin, there would be thousands of confessions reveal- ing souls more barren, so far as music, poetry, and art are concerned, than his soul ever was ; and we would no longer display our poor psychology by citing his confession. Chil- dren must not have their aesthetic ideas imposed on them from without. To develop in children, directly or in- directly, the tendency to rely on some one else and to quote some one else as an authority as to what is beautiful or otherwise, is erroneous and antipedagogical. We should always be able to make a chUd feel what we say and let him be true to his feelings even if they chance to differ from ours. d. The culture of the intellectual emotions. All intel- lectual activity is accompanied by feeling in some degree. FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 77 Often it may be so intense as to become a powerful emo- tion. Intellectual curiosity and a deep thirst for knowledge often dominate every other tendency of life. These forces dominated Socrates, and he was so able to impart this spirit to others that Alcibiades says : " My tears are poured out as he talks. Often and often have I wished that he were no longer to be seen among men. But if that were to happen, I well know that I should suffer far greater pain; so that where I can turn, or what I can do with this man, I know not. All this have I and many others suffered from the pipings of this Satyr." Curiosity is the bud of intellect, and it should always be encouraged. All teaching that destroys it is fatal. Great truths partly revealed and partly concealed should ever stare the youth in the face. Finality in teachers and textbooks is the worst enemy of intellectual develop- ment now in use in our educational systems. Something on which a trained imagination can work is a powerful factor in intellectual emotion. No greater calamity could befall the human race than the final solution of all our problems. But fortunately such a state of mind comes only to the ignorant, who think they know all things. A sense of the ridiculous, of the ludicrous, of wit, of humor, should be cultivated. Finally, there is a serenity of soul that comes from in- tellectual poise. We read it in men whose wide knowl- edge enables them to look calmly on at the social, ethical, and religious struggles, knowing in some degree the out- come. Our goal is enlightened feeling directed to healthy, sane action. CHAPTEE IV FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT (Contikued) VI. Apperception As a spring of human life which exerts a great modify- ing influence on all other mental processes and upon human conduct, few can be given a more important place than what should properly be included in the term " apper- ception." One inevitable conclusion of the very topic we are considering is that we should not introduce new sub- jects by words foreign to the student ; especially is this true should the words have a variable meaning in scien- tific circles. Apperception is one of these words ; but owing to its importance in this connection, to its wide use in education, and to my inability to separate its essential element — interest — from its minor qualities, I justify its use here. Many writers treat the subject in connection with other topics only. It is also quite customary to treat all these springs of life after perception, attention, associ- ation of ideas, memory, imagination, and reason have been considered. But the chief object of these six fountains of conduct is to show how such processes cannot be prop- erly comprehended without some previous comprehen- sion of these springs of life. Witmer has a "similar idea when he presents apperception as the first chapter in his " Analytical Psychology." 78 FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 79 Examples of Apperception. With the theories and dif- ferent applications of this word it is not wise to deal Let everyday examples develop in the mind of the reader a practical definition suitable to this elementary work. I once saw a little girl of two and a half years patting a large fur cape thrown across the shoulders of a lady in front of the child, and at every stroke the child said " doggie." Experiences with a large black dog had so completely taken possession of the child's mental con- sciousness in the past as to cause all other qualities present in the sense impression to be ignored. A number of children seeing for the first time a zoological garden or a circus will each name the animals according to his past experiences ; and, as far as they can be made to fit, accord- ing to his chief interest. The tiger will be saluted as " kitty," and others in a similar fashion. Observe a number of chil- dren endeavoring to interpret the " funny page " in the Sun- day newspaper. The mind is very early directed to the meaning aspect of all impressioris. This is not done by conscious comparison, but is forced on by a content of the mind that does not wait for comparison such as a scientist uses in classification. The child is in the main uncon- scious of the past feelings and ideas that now direct his attention to this or that point. The statement made by one writer that association and thought are only disguised apperception is too wide a use of the word ; but appercep- tion is largely the power behind these processes. Any teacher can daily discover dozens of similar cases in children. But apperception is not confined to the sense perceptions of children. Experience does not tend to cor- rect these false impressions of the external world, but only 80 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY to intensify them in other directions. To illustrate apper- ception the Germans use a fine story, the essence of which is duplicated a thousand times a day in every city. A boy conceals himself in a forest to watch the passers-by. Soon one man says to his companion, "What a fine stick of timber," and the boy says, " Good morning, Mr. Carpenter." Another comments on the size of the bark, and the boy says, " Good morning, Mr. Tanner." Soon another declares the land good for wheat, and the boy says, " Good morning, Mr. Farmer." Still another thinks it a good place for squir- rels, and the boy says, " Good morning, Mr. Hunter." The same thing is before the eyes of these men, but their deep semiconscious and subconscious interest and past experi- ence determine what each shall see. The process is not one particle dififerent whether half a dozen men of different callings read the same book, listen to the same sermon, hear the same political argument, view a beautiful paint- ing, witness a mob, or gaze on the beauties of nature. Each has already withia him the powers that will mainly deter- mine his mental reaction to these things. We, shall never know the truth about those who are held up to us as heroes or as villains. Whether we see their acts in daily life or read of these acts in history, previous feelings and ideas will largely determine what interpretation we shall put upon them. The simplest tone of voice from one who has insulted us, a look from our enemy or from,, one who has suspected us, or a meaningless remark made to others, even the silence of those whom we mistrust — all these have a different meaning for us from that conveyed to any other observer. In the interpretation of such things those whom we call sensitive cannot even approximate the truth. FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 81 A thousand different denominations read the same Bible and each puts a different interpretation upon it. Is this difference due to different degrees of intelhgence, or, as some think, to intentional misinterpretation ? The broad- minded student cannot accept either. In our low degree of culture we considered others either dishonest or igno- rant. The average Christian who reads the ten command- ments of Buddha never dreams of putting into them what the devout Buddhist sees concealed therein; the reverse is equally true. In all cases similar to the foregoing it is of fundamental importance to note how absolutely certain we are that our interpretations are the correct ones. Do we not know when people intend to insult us ? Do we not feel and know that sensitiveness and prejudice do not determine our judg- ment ? A gentleman informed me that he was summoned to serve on a jury in a criminal case. When asked if he had any prejudice for or against the criminal, he said, " I do not know." He was asked to stand aside, while one after another said Yes or No and was rejected or accepted. He was the only one of many who realized that his judg- ment might be influenced by apperceptive processes not then in the focus of consciousness. Some states prohibit butchers from serving on a criminal jury. Do you see why ? It is the entire history of a man's hfe that goes into his judgments, interpretations, and con- duct. How can any one interpret history without a knowl- edge of apperception ? Wlien the North and South stood armed against each other, each declaring the other inten- tionally and knowingly wrong, each interpreting the same constitution and laws differently, each charging that the 82 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY other was dominated by selfish interest only, what should be the verdict of the true historian ? Shall we not proclaim that the vast majority on both sides were honest and con- scientious ? But, at the same time, was not this difference of interpretation due chiefly to the unconscious influence of long-accumulated interest, prejudice, and envy ? Nowhere does apperception exert such a powerful influ- ence as in political and religious presentations. This is due to the intense personal interest, accumulated feelings and ideas, and to habits of thought, all of which enter into every new or contrary idea. The fundamental aim of the foregoing examples has been to bring out the chief element in apperception — the power of past experience, feelings, and ideaSy to modify unconsciously every new presentation, and to thrust upon us the feeling that we have perceived correctly the essentials and given the proper interpretation. Suggested Apperception. "What is here designated as suggested apperception is treated by Witmer as prepercep- tion under apperception. As a method of approach to this topic examine Fig. 1. Fig. 1 is only thirty-nine straight lines symmetrically arranged on a white sheet of paper, yet it may be seen as any one of four or five different things. In the first place it is possible to think of it simply as so many straight lines. Investigations strongly indicate that many high-school students execute drawings that pass with high merit, yet they never see anything but lines on a plain surface. Observe this figure. It is a staircase you are about to ascend. Is it not there ? No, you are mistaken ; it is not FOUNTAINS OP HUMAN CONDUCT Fig. 1 a staircase ; it is simply a cardboard, bent in the shape of stairs and suspended on a white wall. Think intensely of this and see if you do not get it. You can, if you first fix this image vividly before your mind. Now look at the angles. Are they right or obtuse ? Think intensely and you may get what you look for. " The anticipation of a perception by a thought, idea, or mental image," Dr. Witmer calls preperception. I prefer to designate it apperception due to direct suggestion. 84 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY Let us examine a few more figures, in order that this idea of direct suggestive ap;pereeption may be definitely fixed. Fig. 2 is not quite so simple as you may think. Is it only a design in black and white ? Do you see it ? Now think of a series of six-sided boxes with white edges, piled one upon another. Do you not see them ? With eyes partly closed. fe/i mmwmmSSvPi Fig. 2 look steadily at the black parts and think that they are only six-sided holes in a white surface. But after all it is only a honeycomb. The degree of persistency with which it tends to appear as a honeycomb will depend upon our previous experience, for its objective reality is only dark spots on a white background. Fig. 3 consists of many regular, straight lines on a white background. At first they give the appearance FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 85 of a design containing diamond-shaped figures. Think of three rectangular boxes to your left and two to the right, with the open ends toward you. Look, for they are there. Now make the section abed project in the center, forming right angles from you, and you may see the boxes to the left with closed ends pro- jecting. Note how you can make the center of abed project or recede, forming right angles to or from you just as rapidly as you change your thoughts about it. From the right end look at the a figure lengthwise and note the effect. Fig. 4 is a black ball on a white background. Do you see it? No; you have made a mistake. It is just the reverse. Perhaps it is only a circular design in black and white. The reader must not lose sight of the fact that it is appereeption due to past experience that enables us to name these lines "staircase," "honeycomb," " boxes," "ball" etc. The images are not inherent in the Hnes, but they are due to past experiences concealed in the mind. The savage who never saw one of these objects wUl, with just as good authority, make something else out of the lines. What is true of these lines is also true of Shakespeare's " Hamlet," Fig, 3 86 ELEMENTAEY 'PSYCHOLOGY save that the conditions and possibilities are infinitely more complicated. The true teacher of literature simply stimulates apperception by appropriate suggestions. The judgments concerning many characters depend upon a suggestion, whether autosuggestion or otherwise. Pig. 4 Fig. 5 may be seen either as a duck or a rabbit, according to which is uppermost in consciousness. I showed this drawing to a physician whose chief sport is duck hunting. He pronounced it a duck, and it was with difficulty that he ever saw it as a rabbit. Will not a POtJifTAll^S OF HUMAK COlSTDtJCT^ 87 moment's reflection convince us that life is filled with thousands of important interpretations that rest on the same foundation as this one ? Does it not often happen that a word, a look, an act, a deed, involving the peace and happiness or misery of many, a phrase in law 'on which hinges great destinies, a religious difference involving gen- erations yet unborn, is as capable of a double, interpretation as this simple figure ? Is it not also true that mental pre- possession or direct suggestion may determine the interpre- tation that shall dominate? How unfortunate that the study of psychology has not yet brought men to a keener realization of this universal fact of life ! Let a man get a mental prepossession that you are bad and untrustworthy, and no matter what you do or say he will find a dozen ^i**- ^ ways to show wherein it dif- fers from the acts and words of good, honest people. Between the real Eoosevelt and the ideas of him there exists a gulf over which neither friends nor foes shall ever pass. Apperception and suggestion made the gulf and now maintain it. I71 proportion as a man knows apperception vnll he grow in charity for his fellow men — even his enemies. With a certain background in mind we see words on the printed page that are not there. Have you never been astonished at your own misinterpretations of certain headlines in the newspapers, or at finding yourself half- imconsciously hunting for that which you condemn as 88 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY unfit for the newspapers ? The literary composer cannot be trusted to correct his own proof. He is likely to see it not as it is but as it should be. Definition of Apperception. Wide examples are the only possible road to an adequate comprehension of any defini- tion of wide application. So we must now leave the reader to supply other illustrations. Even at the risk of criticism by those who love finality, a somewhat arbitrary, simple, and limited definition is desirable for our purposes. We will therefore consider apperception as the unconscious or dimly conscious influence of past tendencies, feelings, ideas, and experiences to modify new experiences, impressions, feelings, and ideas. The most important words are " unconscious or dimly conscious influence." The fact that this influence is not distinctly felt in consciousness produces that feeling of certainty that our interpretation is correct. This limitation of apperception to the uncbnscious or dimly conscious Lq- fluence of the past will prevent us from confusing it with the entire association of ideas and the thought process. While one object of this presentation is to show that ap- perception is a power always lying behind these and other processes, yet it is unwise to confuse them. Factors determining the Strength and Direction of the Apperceptive Power. 1. Strong natural impulses and instincts unconsciously influence the interpretation of any present experience. This you may witness in animals, children, and men. War is instinctive, and every presenta- tion pertainiag thereto must be submitted to a certain amount of this influence. The play instruct in children FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 89 demands its right in determining the line of their observa- tion and interpretations. The love iastinct unconsciously injects itself into thousands of adolescent interpretations. The same love novel has quite different meanings to the same person at different ages. 2. Strong personal interests are like "coming events that cast their shadows before." How shall the millionaire, even though he consciously and honestly try, ever see the glories of socialism so long as his own personal interests unconsciously cast the shadow of his own doom before him ? How shall the poor and distressed whose heart's desire is foreshadowed in socialism see its possible dangers ? How impossible for them to believe that their pure hearts could ever become ensnared by a blind thirst for wealth if only the opportunity presented itself ! How easily we believe the slanders of graft and dishonesty when made against those who stand in the way of our deepest desires ! The owner of slaves m,ust view slavery differently from others. To own a big silver mine is a great help toward making one sensitive to all the arguments for free silver. To be a great banker in New York is enough to blind the eye of reason to these same arguments. I insist that, in nine cases out of ten, neither the capitalist nor the socialist, the saloon keeper nor the minister, the be- lievers in slavery nor their opponents, are hypocrites. Their own interests unconsciously Hind them until they cannot see things otherwise while conditions remain as they are. Do not such facts alone make reasonable a demand for the diffusion of some practical, psychological knowledge ? " It is worth noticing that back of the act lies an interest ; ih the act lies the seed of a habit ; ahead 90 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY of the act lies behavior, which grows into conduct, this into character, and character into destiny." 3. Mental assimilation feeds this hidden fountain of apperception. Schiller once said that no knowledge is effective until it has been dipped into the nectar of the soul and lost its identity as knowledge. "We may safely say that many students and college professors mistake the means for the end in education. Facts are valuable mainly for creating an attitude of mind and for developing per- manent interests in the great problems of life, and not as material to stock the mind like a great and well-classified museum. What we have forgotten has a thousand times more influence on us than what we remember. "We can no more escape from the results of our past thinking, even though it is forgotten, than we can escape the law of gravity. 4. Strong sentiments of love and hate, of prejudice and jealousy, of religion and patriotism, give a domination to apperception perhaps unequaled elsewhere. In general the individual is either unconscious or dimly conscious of this influence. He honestly believes his interpretations correct. In many cases", no matter how kind your acts may be, they will be given exactly the opposite interpretation ; and so evident and sincere is this estimate in the mind of your interpreter, that attempted explanations make it worse. In like manner the religious conservative has always viewed his brother heretic as intentionally wrong and dis- honest, and has only scorned his attempted explanations. 5. Thfi power of mental habit becomes dominant. The more limited the intelligence and narrow the experience of an individual the more powerful is apperception in its FOUNTAIN'S OF HUMiJST CONDUCT 91 accustomed line of activity. For example, it is usually labor lost to attempt to convert to a modern scientific view a man of maturity, whose reading has been narrow and whose thinking has been Hmited to a simple phase of life. Such people are usually the most certain of their ideas and most confident of the correct interpretation of any new ideas. This they manifest in their irony, sarcasm, and contempt for new views. New ideas are either absurd or they are proclaimed to be old ideas under another name. The history of the idea of evolution would furnish vol- umes of illustrations. 6. Certain physical conditions may greatly facilitate or retard apperception. Illness and fatigue, which have a general weakening effect upon the body, modify and pro- long the apperceptive process. Nervous disorders which result in despondency give the apperceptive basis for a pessimistic interpretation of everything. The fact that nerv- ous fatigue and exhaustion are never distinctly in con- sciousness as such, while their effects are unconsciously manifested in all the physical activities, makes any explana- tion to the individual useless. Modern research is giving us some idea of how much the soul activities are dependent on the cooperative action of the nervous system. So at least these six elements or sources of appercep- tive power may be distinctly recognized. All of these enforce the essential features of the tentative definition suggested above. -It is necessary to reiterate that psy- chological processes are so intimately related that some repetition is necessary ; but viewing things from different standpoints prevents that narrow condition of thinking fatal to aU study. 92 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY Is Apperception a Good or a Bad Thing? Can we free ourselves from it? If not, is it possible ever to know the truth, at least outside of the mathematical quanti- tative sciences ? The first question might be asked about any of the conditions of human life, wherever we can imagine how it might have been bettered in the maMng. The greatest evU concerning apperception lies in the igno- rance of its existence and of its power in directing our interpretations. On account of this ignorance, persecution and hatred exist where charity and tolerance should pre- dominate. Bigotry and dogmatism reign where humility and intellectual progress should be. We can free ourselves from the extreme dangers of false interpretations just in proportion to the breadth of our knowledge and experience. But the law is inevitable. The age at which such knowl- edge and experience is acquired is important. A man whose apperceptive tendency is well fixed may later acquire a certain verbal facUity in views contrary to his, but this remains essentially objective and insufficient to modify, to any marked extent, his interpretations. So, reasonably early and wide knowledge, wide experience with mankind, and the psychological consciousness that we are ever likely to give a false interpretation due to our past experiences, are the main avenues of freedom from the dangers of this psychological law. Darwin once said, " Learning is humble compared with the pride of ignorance." That this very psychological law forpver bars us from absolute truth in all matters where our past experience enters into our judgments, — social, political, religious, moral, aesthetic, and judgments of the character and con- duct of our fellow men, — should be frankly admitted and FOUNTAINS OF HUMAN CONDUCT 93 made the basis of all such thinking. All boasted finality in interpreting the past is absurd. Well may we assent to Goethe's words : Ay, truly I even to the loftiest star I To us, my friend, the ages that are passed A book with seven seals close-fastened are ; And what the spirit of the times men call, Is merely their own spirit after all. Having called your attention to six great springs of human life, — the Will or Desire to Live, Instinct, Imita- tion, Habit, Feeling, and Apperception, — we shall not pass to the technical and physical part of our subject \mtil we have examined the great modern idea of evolution. As evolution is the foundation of any proper interpretation of psychical phenomena and of the social sciences, logi- cally it should come first. But Chapters I, II, and III furnish a background for the comprehension of what is now to follow, and are doubtless more interesting and practical. The material ia these chapters must have de- veloped in the mind of the reader the conception of evolu- tion without any definite presentation as such ; it is all evolutionary iu its nature. Hence, in the following chapter we pass to a more systematic and comprehensive explana- tion of that material and the facts which it contains. CHAPTEE V RELATION OF PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION General Statement. The dominant idea of tlie past fifty years has been Evolution. Without some notion of what is involved in this, the greatest generalization of the human race, the true significance of even the commonplace thuigs of Kfe is impossible. Within this short period evolution, by appeal to man's judgment and sense, has peaceably and quietly conquered the whole scientific world. When one has finished a good review of the progress and practical application of nineteenth-century science, so vast and accurate in detail, with so many false views and theories buried, with such noble surrender in the face of facts as witnessed in that memorable Weismann-Spencer con- troversy, he arises as from a dream ; and this feeling that it can be only a dream is greatly intensified when he turns to contemplate our social and moral organizations, our legal notions of crime and administration of justice, our political machinery and our educational systems. How can such " hit^or-miss " methods, such contradictory ideas, such clinging to theories in the face of facts, exist side by side with this mighty onward march of science ? Alfred Wallace once said: " Compared with our astound- ing progress in physical science and its apphcation, our system of government, of administrative justice, and of 94 PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 95 Dational education, and our entire social and moral organ- ization, remain in a state of barbarism." Nothing but a thorough knowledge and careful application of the laws under which these institutions have developed can bridge this chasm. If the deepest meaning of the world is not moral, then it has no meaning, or at least must remain an enigma to man. Yet, concerning the general development of morality in the human race, and concerning the physio- logical and biological conditions of morality, the laws of heredity and their effects upon morality, it is safe to say that there are few subjects on which ignorance is so uni- versal — yes, worse than ignorance ; myth and superstition usurp the place of knowledge. The whole high-school course should be saturated with the great doctrine of evo- lution and modern psychology; not necessarily as sepa- rate studies, but the teacher, once master of these subjects, will make them the background of all teaching whatsoever. A true knowledge of man and his institutions and a knowl- edge of evolution are inseparable. Any adequate idea of psychology involves some comprehension of evolution. Many hundred years ago Buddha declared that aU liv- ing beings are what their past actions have made them, and that the law of cause and effect is uniform and with- out exception. The universality of cause and effect, the dominating influence of the past, the power of animal in- stincts, are vital truths which evolution has proclaimed with unmistakable evidence, and which are indispensable to a proper comprehension of human life. A simple pres- entation of evolution in such a manner as to avoid that religious shock that beginners sometimes feel, will now occupy our attention. 96 ELEMBNTAEY PSYCHOLOGY A remarkable statement of evolution was published in 1784, in John Wesley's " Compendium of Natural Phi- losojphy," in the chapter on A General "View of the Gradual Progression of Beings. We read of the " ostrich with the feet of a goat which unites birds to quadrupeds. ... By what degrees does Nature raise herself to man? . . . How will she rectify this head that is always inclined toward earth? How change these paws into flexible arms ? What method will, she make use of to transform these crooked feet into skillful and supple hands ? Or how will she widen and extend this contracted stomach ? In what manner will she place the breasts and give them a roundness suitable to them ? The ape is this rough draft of man, this rude sketch, an imperfect repre- sentation which nevertheless bears a resemblance to him, and is the last creature that serves to display the admir- able progression of the works of God. . . . Such is man in the highest degree of earthly perfection. But mankind have their gradations as well as other productions of our globe. There is a prodigious number of continued links between the most perfect man and the ape." What a mar- velous statement from such an unexpected source ! The theory of evolution as conceived to-day is based upon the orderly and systematic arrangement of an almost innumerable number of otherwise ordinary facts about living organisms, about the development of mind, morality, religion, and all of man's social institutions. These facts bear such a relation to each other as to compel every one who thoroughly investigates them to conclude that plants and animals did not suddenly come into existence as they are now, but that their present form is the result of a PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 97 long, long series of changes. Not only do individuals and species arise in this manner, but institutions, governments, languages, and religions obey the same general laws of development. The conception and development of this world-sweeping idea we owe mainly to such mighty souls as Schelling, Oken, Goethe, Lamarck, Darwin, Spencer, Wallace, Huxley, Haeckel, and Weismann. At the present time thousands of men are daily employed in subjecting to the severest criticism all the details of this wonderful theory. In these details many modifications take place yearly ; but it is safe to say that all research and every test have with one voice proclaimed the truth, value, and univer- sality of this great Darwinian vision. No thinking individual need any longer apologize for believing in evolution ; he need rather apologize for lack of ability to comprehend it. Just reflect a moment on what changes have been pro- duced through the domestication of plants and animals within the short memory of a generation. Growers and breeders find countless variations — some for better and some for worse, some in color, some in size, some in strength and endurance, some in swiftness, some in beauty of form and shape, some in pleasure afforded man, some in gentleness and kindness, some in reproductive power. They select the most suitable males and females, and, breeding from these, they soon startle the world with their biological productions. But Nature runs a labo- ratory infinitely larger than all the other laboratories in the world, and still holds locked in her bosom many of the mysteries of its operation. Evolution as a science rests entirely upon the discovery and systematic arrange- ment of some of these mysteries. m ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY Natural Selection, or the Struggle for Existence. The number of creatures 1)0™ and desiring to live is immenselj- in excess of what the conditions permit to live. Any spe- cies, even of a low degree of fertility, if left to live and die a natural death, in a few centuries would fill the earth. The slowest animal in the world to propagate and bring its young to maturity is the elephant. Yet, if aU the off- spring of a single pair of elephants lived, propagated, and died a natural death, in seven hundred fifty years there would be nineteen million elephants. " Small as bacteria are," says Dr. Hodge, " they possess a power of growth and multiplication not paralleled by any other living forms. It is estimated that if all the oceans were nutrient broth, with an average depth of one mile, the prog- eny of one microbe might fill them fuU in less than five days." This is prevented by the incessant struggle for exis- tence always taking place among species as well as among individuals of the same species. No two individuals of any species enter the world equally equipped or with equal tenacity of life. Thus Nature, not by deliberation but by conditions, constantly selects those best fitted to meet the conditioros in which they must live. Hence we have two great terms of evolution — natural selection, which is the very complicated process by which the vast majority of organisms are weeded out, or soon prevented from propa- gating their kind ; and survival of the fittest, which is the product of natural selection. Natural selection, or the struggle for existence, is not carried on simply by brute force. Many elements enter into it — far too many to enumerate here. In the first place, heat and cold, rain and sunshine, natural conditions PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 99 of country, floods and droughts, inequality of hereditary force and tenacity of life, intellectual superiority or infe- riority of individuals and species, difference in ability to resist disease, presence or absence of other species, mode of reproduction, number of offspring, care and protection of the same, are factors in natural selection. Also tender- ness, kindness, unselfishness, self-sacrifice, become in the higher stages of evolution means of carrying on the strug- gle and of sifting out those least fit to survive. Might, therefore, is by no means the sole factor of this com- plicated struggle. If any nation would to-day substitute for its army and navy, love and charity for all mankind, it is at least conceivable that such a nation might make so deep an impression on other nations as to have a better means of survival than she now has. However, we have reason to hope that, concerning the ages yet unborn, this is not simply a wild dream. While justice, love, and charity may never become the sole standards of survival, yet the struggle among men has been and will doubtless continue to be made milder by these factors. It is hard to make war on unadulterated love and justice. The thoroughly disarmed Quakers of Pennsylvania seem to have been at no disadvan- tage iu the struggle for survival among the Indians. Spinoza or Socrates could confront a mob and, by that justice and truth that radiated from them, stultify the whole of it. Survival of the Present and Survival of the Past. Do the fittest survive ? Here we encounter a question which is often a great stumblingblock to many. Survival of the fittest is not synonymous with survival of the hest in an absolute sense. You may be earning fifty dollars per month, 100 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY which is the best conditions will aUow; but you may imagine -conditions that give better results. When we were children certain ideas survived in us as the fittest because conditions would permit of no other. First, do not forget that everything in this world is subject to the laws of evolution — even governments, institutions, religions, feelings, and ideas. Again, there is a survival for this moment and a survi- val for each and all past moments. The survival of this moment could only be made the survival for any past moment by changing the conditions which made the past what it was. For example, we may now think single marriage the proper survival of all sex relations ; but what chance had this idea to be the dominant survival among low, wandering, savage races ? Or how could justice, love, and charity now be the test of survival among the cretins of Aosta, who go about with their hands up, their mouths open, and their minds empty ? " Democracy," you say, " is the survival of the fittest among governments." But how could it be the survival of the fittest for the Hottentots, either in idea or as an institution ? What is true of these cases is true of every other condition that may be men- tioned, only in most cases the factors are so many and so complex that they are not discernible. In reality our thinking on such lines is always accompanied by a sup- pressed condition — if things were so and so. This condition we tend to ignore in our thinking. Individual and Collective Survival. There is also an individual and a collective survival Nothing can be more important than to note this in regard to our feelings and PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 101 ideas. In my mind it is wrong to make war on any people because they resent our efforts to give them our religion. That idea is the survival of the fittest in my mind. But history shows that even down to the present time it is not the idea that has survived in the mind of the public. As an American, should there survive in your mind the idea and feeling that a monarchy is better than a re- public, for you this would be the survival of the fittest both in institution and in idea; but it shows no sign of being the survival of the fittest collectively. Among our ideas and feelings such a struggle for survival is always going on. Any ideas and feelings that have the right of way in your soul must, from your basis of consideration, appear to be the most fit to survive, even if the people round about you hold contrary ideas and feelings. The first is individual survival, the second collective survival. Have we not advanced far enough to see that what is most fit for any given individual or any given age is not necessarily most fit for all other individuals and for all other ages ? Do you see the two different standards by which the fittest is tested ? A yoimg minister of my acquaintance feels very intensely that all modem science is wrong. When re- minded that this is not the attitude taken by most of his associates, he asked, " Do you believe that all ministers are rehgious, and have taken their guidance from God ? " This imphes how firmly he considers his ideas the fittest to survive. It is hoped that any class or individual reading this book wiU ere long be made conscious of the struggle of ideas. In any class the final survival of ideas in a few 102 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY individuals may be quite different from the general sur- vival of the ideas of the class as a whole. Nevertheless such individuals must consider theirs the fittest to survive. These examples, with others that will readily be sug- gested, should leave no doubt as to the proper answer to the question : " Do the fittest survive ? " Sexual Selection. Among animals of the same species wUl be found remarkable variations in color, in sweetness and power of song, in the power and manifestations of instincts, in organs of defense, etc. In nearly all the ani- mal world the males struggle, often unto death, for the possession of the female. Thus the strongest, shrewdest, and best equipped propagate their kind. The female is also active in selectiag her mate. Color and song are the courting equipment of the animal world. In some myste- rious way form, color, song, and movement stimulate the sex instinct and thus furnish a basis of selection. Darwin called this sexual selection. Increased biological knowledge gives more and more importance to sexual selection as a factor of evolution. Another kind of sexual selection has recently been given great importance as an evolutionary force. It is an instinc- tive tendency of like to mate with like. In a wide sense this is evident to any one, but the principle has been recently applied, not only to account for failure of species to cross, but to show how species naturally break up into smaller and smaller groups, as variations come within the species. For example, in nature, should variations of white or black ducks occur in a species, or unusua,lly small or large ones, there may exist a tendency for white ones to PSYCHOLOGY AKD EVOLUTIOK 103 mate with each other, all things else being equal ; and so on with the black, the small, and the large ones. A very exhaustive work recently published suggests that this prin- ciple apphes strongly to human marriage. In another chapter we have found the sex instinct manifesting itself in human life as a true psychological explanation of many acts otherwise incomprehensible. Sources of Advantages and Variations necessary for Advancement and Survival. Now I am anticipating in the mind of the reader questions of far-reaching import. Whence arise the multiplicity of individual variations which furnish the basis of natural and sexual selection ? 1. Acquired variations. During the life of an organ- ism any of its parts will develop or degenerate according as such parts ^ire used or fail to be called into use. Mode of life,, food, climatic conditions, and a thousand other things may produce changes in the organism during the run of its natural life. But many thinkers now believe that these modifications are rarely, if at all, transmitted to the offspring. They point to the fact that scars, burns, mutilations, amputated limbs, blindness acquired during the lifetime of the individual, show no signs of appearing in the children ; while any deformity or exceptional quality which the child brings into the world, tends to reappear in the offspring. Defective hearing and sight, harelip, double thumbs, idiocy, imbecility, criminal tendencies, special gifts or talents, etc., due not to conditions in life but to what the individual brings into the world, all tend to reappear in the offspring. Into this memorable and scholarly controversy we will not enter save to say that 104 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY three things seem evident. First, that the lower an organ- ism is in the scale of evolution, the more likely are these modifications to appear in the offspring ; while the higher it is, the less likely and the more indefinite will be their appearance. Second, that psychic modifications, if they appear at all, tend to appear as vague and indefinite feel- iDgs. Third, that poisons, such as alcohol, may act upon the germ cells so as to produce modifications in the off- spring, but not of any specific determined nature. 2. Spontaneous variation. AH evolutionists are agreed that whenever two germ cells unite to form a new hfe, there is a strong tendency to vary from the original type. Eecent research and artificial crossing of plants and ani- mals have only begun to reveal how enormous this varia- tion may be. Since the time of Darwin we have called this spontaneous variation ; not that it is without a cause, but simply that the cause is unknown to us. Universality of causation is the corner stone of evolution. Eecently extensive investigations have been made con- cerning the causes of variations. Many writers now designate these spontaneous variations, originating from and depending . on the inner nature of the germ cell, as discontinuous variation or variation hy mutation. One writer has presented a large volume entitled " Evolution by Mutation." Discontinuous variation suggests a con- siderable degree of unlikeness to the parents, or, in some cases, a radical difference ; while spontaneous variation primarily implies that the causes are hidden in the nature of the germ cells. By exposing the eggs and pupse of insects to abnormal conditions of heat, cold, and other dis- tiKbing factors, it is found that extreme variations will PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 105 occur in a small proportion of those treated, and milder variations ia a much larger number. These experiments indicate that extreme conditions may upset the stability of the germ cells ; but the alterations do not necessarily occur in the same line as the normal variation, or in conformity with the environment. After all, it goes back to sponta- neous variation, for it is the nature of the germ cell that determines whether it will vary and to what extent. Also, germ cells, even of the same parent, are demonstrated to he unlike iu their deepest nature. Note the great variety of white fowls now in domesti- cation. Such are the products of these variations. Internal causes, not outside conditions, have produced these effects. In nature white fowls were generally at a great disadvan- tage in the struggle for life ; hence they are rarely found. Many believe that spontaneous variations are the only mod- ifications sent on to the next generation, and that such variations furnish all the material for selection. 3. Rhythmic tendency to vary. The far-reaching ex- periments conducted by De Vries and others in recent years strongly indicate that species have rhythmic periods of strong tendency to vary in many directions from the general type. This theory states that after a long period of relative stability the entire species is moved by an-inner tendency to vary, and under favorable conditions change is very rapid. This theory of transition of species by varia- tions lying deep in the organism makes possible more rapid changes than were conceived of by the early writers on evolution. All the evidence seems to indicate that the later writers are essentially correct on one point — that' the primary causes of variation are inherent in the individual 106 ELBMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY organisms and not in the experiences or behavior of the individual during its lifetime. In the last edition of " The Origin of Species" Darwin admits that he has not previously paid sufficient attention to these inner forces. Evolution of Language. In order to comprehend the gen- eral processes of thinking, to understand education aright, to clear up the many tangles in morals and religion, nothing is more important than a thorough conception of the evo- lution of language. Countless are the educational and moral blunders and crimes committed under the assump- tion that sometime, some place, somehow, words dropped down from heaven with fixed, ready-made meanings ; or, as Paulsen says, that some clever fellow among these speech- less men sat down one day and devised a language, and then called a convention to promulgate his discovery. Pray in what language did he call the convention ? Did one in- vent verbs, another adverbs, another conjugations, another declensions, and so forth? As well say that intelligence was similarly invented. John Kske tells us that previous to this discovery of the evolution of language, " no end of books were written to prove that all known languages were in some way descended from Hebrew," because it was presumably the language of God and therefore the uncorrupted dialect of mankind. All this is labor lost. Language was never made nor invented; it simply grew, and keeps on eter- nally growing and changing. Yet thousands of people go on proclaiming one fixed and only correct meaning for words, which may be obtained provided we can chase it through roots and relations enough. Others teach bare PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION" 107 words as if they had some magic power to cause a cor- responding knowledge to spring up in the soul. What is language and how did it come into existence ? "Without an adequate answer to this question morality and religion soon come to exalt form above content, and deprive the individual of all consciousness of natural in- ternal insight. I in no wise depreciate the value of philol- ogy and the science of language. It is the superstitious worship of words, of the past, and the ignorance concern- ing whence comes the meaning which we daily put into words, that are alarming. In the widest sense language is any gesture, sign, or sound by which one individual is able to make others aware of feelings, ideas, and states of soul, similar to those that prompted such gestures, signs, and sounds in him. On the supposition that a parrot puts no meaning into the many words he learns to utter, we could not properly speak of such vocabulary as the parrot's language. Neither can we speak of the thousand or two words, whether foreign or native, that an individual learns to utter with- out having any feeling or state of soul corresponding thereto, as his vocabulary. The ability to communicate thoughts, feelings, and ideas to one another is not a special gift of the gods to man ; but wherever organisms live in groups or herds it is coextensive with even com- paratively indefinite states of sensation, perception, and feelings. "We now have the necessary history to prove the development of language from the earliest to the most recent modifications of our own English speech. The gesture-sign language so dominant among the higher animals still forms no small part of the human 108 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY language. Nearly all the ways and means of expressing the many complex emotions and feelings common to the brute creation are still preserved by man. Enter one of our modern picture shows and note how, with very slight clues, whole stories are correctly' iaterpreted mainly by means of signs and gestures. The successful animal trainer becomes one with his animals in that he assumes their language signs. I listen to a man making a speech, to a woman paying her respects by a formal call and conver- sation, to a witness testifying iu court, to a musical con- cert, to a student reciting in my classroom, and in no case are the bare words the main clue to the state of mind that lies behind the screen ; but the eye, the innumerable varia- tions of the voice, the muscular movements, the position of the mouth, of the eyebrows, variations in color, a vast number of minor signs — all speak a language that has from long experience become almost instinctively intelligible. The deep basis of the gesture-sign language lies in the fact that every psychic change or disturbance of the soul tends to be manifested in some motor response. G. Stanley Hall has given an elaborate account of these gestures. Greetings on meeting friends, strangers, supe- riors, etc., are of many kinds, and have constituted a real means of communication. Many gestures and ceremonies express social and personal relations. Often images of memory and imagination are communicated by signs, movements, and drawings in the air. Moral and immoral qualities are often designated by signs. Facial movements and changes may be so varied as to express almost every emotion known to man. In 190 A.D. six thousand so- called dumb actors were retained in Rome in spite of the PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 109 intense famine. They were the interpreters of people of unknown tongue, and some accompanied armies on their conquests to act as revealers of the lives of great men. All this was accomphshed by the gesture-sign language. In this almost mysterious abOity to infer meanings from so many sources lies the main reason why no written words or books can ever more than approximate the mean- ings conveyed by the living speaker. The speaker always conveys to his hearers either more or less than his written words would convey. His very silence is sometimes the most powerful speech. Maeterlinck's " Voice of Silence " is a paradox not without meaning. Music is a language far surpassing all other means of expressing the truest and deepest nature of the soul. In- stinct, feeling, and impulse lie far deeper than thought and reason. Music is the expression of the former, speech of the latter. All this proclaims that in all education, in all study of human life, we must remember that words have no fixed meaning save in so far as there exist in human souls simi- lar feelings, sentiments, and ideas. These preceded lan- guage in its development and should do so to-day in all our educational processes. Words are the tools of thoughts and feelings, but they have no magic power to create their own content. This power of communication grew in the animal kingdom as thought developed and necessity de- manded. Man's early language was an outgrowth of these beginnings and at first was largely signs and gestures. Then, in the long ages of man, one variety of communica- tion after another sprang up ; some survived and became more and more perfected ; countless multitudes were lost 110 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY and forgotten. The process is not and never will be ended while there is any form of intellectual evolution. In a similar way it might easily he shown that all other institu- tions of man, such as governments, constitutions, social conditions, education, morality, religion, are one and all the products of the eternal laws of evolution. Time and Change. As Darwin long ago said, one of the chief difficulties in the way of conceiving this wonder- ful development is our perverted and inadequate notion as to the time that man has been on this planet. John Fiske says, " We now know that, at least four hundred thou- sand years ago, the American contiaent was inhabited by human beings." Why do we not see animals becoming men? is an ever-recurring question. Can we see through a hundred thousand or a million years ? Again, evolution has limitations — yes, fundamental laws of limitation. For example, the line it takes is largely dependent upon external conditions; and probably no given set of conditions was ever exactly repeated. With the new conditions produced by the civilization of man, evolution becomes less active in the physical and more pronounced in other lines, such as moral and intellectual evolution ; yet the physical has not and cannot cease. Conditions remaining practically unchanged for some time, such as the human evolution in China, tend to produce an unchanging type of organisms ; hence the universal law that all things tend toward a state of equilibrium, or to a relatively stable and unchanging condition. Complete stability checks evolution in the line in which it occurs. So progress, growth, development, evolution, alw?iys mean PSYCHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 111 change — continual change. Likewise failure or inability to change and adapt to new conditions ultimately means death. Here we encounter the supreme dUenama, espe- cially when applied to human progress. The law of progress requires not only occasional but constant adjustment to ever-changing conditions. The rapidity of such change will depend on the complexity of conditions. Our politi- cal, social, educational, and rehgious institutions form no exception to this law. Men are caught m this dilemma : they cling to the permanent, the unchangeable, yet every growing soul seeks progress which says, " Bury the dead and move on." Ibsen sees the struggle to hold to the past and yet the desire for progress, when he makes one of his characters tell how one night he stood on the deck, and looking on the throng of passengers, each the victim of some brooding melancholy, seemed to hear a voice crying, " There 's a corpse on board." Most reformers will give the careless thinker the im- pression that ere long various institutions will have made all the adjustments ever necessary, and henceforth a;gita- tion will cease. Some institutions have ceased, and more may cease to adjust themselves to new conditions, but that very hour they begin to die ; and just as it is in all of Nature's vast laboratory, isolation alone can save them from death. Truly," in the midst of life we are in death." Evolution of Mind. The evolution of mind, hand in hand with the evolution of the brain and nervous system, is now evident. Just as in man we find the nervous sys- tem in aU its stages of development, so in the animal Idngdom we find mind in all its stages of development. 112 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY By degrees organisms rise to the more and more complex activities of the higher animals and man. In the individual we find this same mental evolution, and that mental develop- ment depends upon the development of the nervous system. In the whole animal kingdom the gradual growth of . mind power has more and more made unnecessary certain physical evolution and physical adjustment. Cunningness and far-reaching instincts take the place of strength and endurance of body. Everywhere do we find development of instincts from the simple to the more complex, from the immediate ends to the more remote ends, to be served thereby ; everywhere do we find increasing cunning, in- creasing care, and more evidence of purpose, together with developing powers of perception, budding powers of appar- ent forethought, memory, imagination, and thinkmg. That mind has had a long evolution, that higher powers have developed out of lower ones, and that there are many degrees of these powers are presuppositions of all modern psychology. This mental evolution may be arrested both from inter- nal and from external causes. The low degree of devel- opment as found in the cretin of Aosta was once supposed to be due to persistent, internal, hereditary causes. This opinion prevailed when Dr. Jordan discussed their mental degeneracy in his " Foot-Notes to Evolution." However, suc- cess has apparently resulted from the recent discovery of the cure for this degeneracy. In 1892 it was found that cretinism might be overcome by the artificial use of thyroid extract. The treatment was tried on one of these cretins in 1893, and in 1908 he entered college. For the extent and thoroughness of this experiment we must await future developments. PSYCHOLOGY AJSTD EVOLUTION 113 We are now ready to proceed to the more technical parts of our subject, to some consideration of the mechanism used for these manifestations, and. to the other powers of mind associated with and growing out of these fountains of conduct. The object so far has mainly been twofold : (1) to create a vital interest in the practical interpretation and study of human life; (2) to give the reader ideas fundamental for the interpretation of the other phenomena of mind that are to follow. CHAPTER VI THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, ITS FUNCTION AND . EDUCATION Every living organism, with all that it may now con- tain, began its existence as an individual ia the form of a single miuute cell whose complexity and mysteries furnish one of the most attractive fields of study in the universe. The solution of each problem seems to give birth to many larger ones. This original cell is only a small fraction of a millimeter in diameter. On beginning to grow it soon divides into 2 cells, these into 4, these into 16, these into 256, then these into 65,536, and so on untU our whole body is completely formed. Finally, there are by rough calculation about 26,500,000,000,000 cells in our body. Of these only about 4,000,000,000,000 are what we call fixed cells ; the others are in the blood. However, to imagine that what we call the body is entirely composed of these cells is quite erroneous. Besides much purely mineral and waste material, from 55 to* 80 per cent of the entire body is water, varying and decreasing veith age. Yet this almost incomprehensible number of cells forms a great complex, cooperative whole. The problems and mysteries of growth in general are never ending. We must be con- tent to present here only the necessary facts about the growth of the nervous system, to show the dependence of mind upon it, and to become familiar with terms con- stantly occurring in psychological works. 114 THE KEEVOUS SYSTEM 115 Divisions of the Nervous System. The entire nervous system consists of two divisions — jperipJieral and central. The peripheral includes all the nervous elements outside the train and spinal cord. It consists of thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves, originating in the spinal cord and diffused to all parts of the body ; and twelve pairs of cranial nerves, originating in the brain, but reaching the surface of the body directly and without passing down the cord. The latter are such as the nerves of taste, smell, hearing, sight, the oculomotor (producing certain movements of the eye), the facial, the trifacial, the vagus (which controls the heart). The peripheral system includes, then, the thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves; the twelve pairs of cranial nerves and aU their branches, diffused to all parts of the body ; the sensory cell bodies, such as the end organs of sight, hear- ing, and touch; and the ganglionic nerve cells outside the brain and spinal cord. The central nervous system is naturally divided into the brain and spinal cord. The spinal cord, a cylindrical pro- longation of the central nerve mass, is composed of nerve cells, collections or aggregates of cells (called ganglia), and nerve fibers. It occupies only about two thirds of the length of the spinal cavity or canaL It is about eighteen inches long in the adult. From birth to maturity it increases in size about seven and one-half times. Close examination shows that it is divided into several distinct tracts, each the highway of certain nerves running to and from the brain. The most important divisions of the brain are : (1) the cerebrum, or large brain, with its two hemispheres ; (2) the cerebellum, or small brain ; (3) the medulla oblongata, or first enlargement of the cord. 116 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY An internal view of one half of the entire brain is shown in Fig. 7, which gives a good idea of these, divi- sions and proportions. This cut also shows the sensory and motor areas, the area for sight, and several of the minor divisions and parts of the brain ; but its maiu object is to Arachnoid Tig. 7 (After Whitaker) emphasize the proportions and relations of the three chief divisions — cerebrum, cerebellum, and medulla. You will notice the whitish appearance of the medulla, due to vast numbers of fibers passing to and from the brain. The func- tions of the meduUa are mainly like those of the spinal cord. Importance of the Cerebrum. The gray appearance of' the large brain is due to a larger proportion of ganglion cells than fibers. The fibers are practically colorless and THE NEEVOUS SYSTEM 117 are almost transparent; when they are massed together the whole is whitish. The cell body contains a dark pig- ment, but when fibers and cells are mingled, the mass has a reddish-gray appearance which varies according to the proportion of the fibers to cells. Psychologically the cerebrum is our chief concern. Its degree of folds or convolutions was once supposed to measure the degree of intelligence. These convolutions are seen much better from the surface side. The cortex, or cortical surface, is a term frequently used ia psychology. In general use it simply means the surface, but iu pyschology it usually refers to the thin outer layer of the cerebrum, averaging about one eighth of an inch in thickness and com- posed of three or four distinct layers of cells of different shapes and sizes. The cortical layers of both the large and small braiu increase in thickness as the brain increases in size. There is some reason to believe that the cerebral cortex grows in thickness until the fortieth year. This is probably accomplished by the development of small nerve elements. These elements are found even in mature brains. In their smallest form they are known as granules, which later develop into neuroblasts, which may be expanded into weU-marked cfiUs. This is significant as a possibility of late intellectual growth. Composition of the Nervous System. The unit of the nervous system is the nerve cell A nerve cell differs from other cells by having prolongations, often to the extent of having a mass or volume of over five hundred times that of the cell body from which these branches originate. These prolongations are called fibers, and vary in length 118 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY from a small fraction of an inch to several feet. Once the fiber and the cell were considered separate, but many recent writers use the term " neuron " to include both. We shall use the term "cell " or " nerve cell " to include the entire unit and shall then speak of the two chief parts as cell body or ganglion cell, and fiber. The same cell body may have many fibers of varying sizes and lengths. Some of these fibers start from the cells in the cortex, and, extend- ing the full length of the cord, pass out to the ex- tremities of the body. When well developed, the fiber us- ually has a sheath around it, which causes an aggregate of them, such as found in the medulla, to present a white appearance. Nerves, such as the thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves and the twelve cranial nerves, often contain thousands of fibers, each inclosed in its own covering ; then within the main covering we find various bundles of fibers all, in turn, inclosed in another sheath. They are like a great number of wires starting together from a large central office and then branching off at the proper places. Fig. 8 represents the cut end of one of these small bundles. In the optic nerve is found the enormous number of more than a million fibers. Nerve fibers vary from about one twelve-himdredth to one fifteen-thousandth of an inch Fig. 8. A thin slice from the end of a cut nerve, magnified two hun- dred times (After Overton) a, nerve thread ; 6, connective tissue binding the threads into a cord THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 119 in diameter. The number of sensory fibers is greatly in excess of the number of motor fibers. The number of motor fibers coming out from the spinal cord by way of the thirty- one sensory roots is placed at about five hundred thousand. These are vastly mviltiplied by further divisions, in their service to all parts of the body. When the cranial nerves are considered, the proportion of sensory to motor nerves is found to be the enormous relation of thirty to one. The sensory area in the cortex is correspondingly large. Con- nective nerve fibers in the central nervous system are also very important ; their function is to bind the parts together. _ The cell hody is a mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus. A cell is not simply a hollow space surrounded by solid walls. Under an education that placed words and definitions above content, I once so conceived it. Examination of Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 wiU give you more information about cells and their fibers than any dozen definitions. Pig. 9 shows a vast number of fibers passing into the brain from the cord and the cranial nerves, such as the optic and auditory nerves, and their separation and termination in the cortex. In Fig. 10 we have a large nerve cell, presenting a good idea of the cell body and its fibers. JV indicates the nucleus ; P indicates pro- toplasm. Fig. 11 gives a good conception of the extensive multiplication of fibers that may proceed from a single cell body. Fig. 12 presents some idea of the different shapes and sizes of nerve cells as found in the different layers of the human cortex. In Fig. 13 the structure of the cerebellum is suggested. This also shows different layers of nerve cells. The enormous complexity of the nervous system cannot be presented in a work of this kind, 120 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY but the idea that it is almost iacomprehensibly complex must be in the background of all psychological thinking. Nerve cells are of various shapes, and vary in size from one three-hundredth to one five-thousandth of an inch in diameter. The entire nervous system probably contains Pig. 9 (After Donaldson) four billion nerve cells. Donaldson estimates that the cen- tral nervous system contains three billion. By a little arithmetic you will soon see that one hundred years contain only about three billion seconds, so a long life would not be sufficient to count the number .of nerve cells in your nervous system. Cells are capable of six impor- tant functions — nutritionj^ reproduction, contractUity, irri- tability, conductivity, and coordination or cooperation. THE NEEVOUS SYSTEM 121 Growth of the Nervous System. The number of cells that the nervous system will contain are all present before birth, and no new nerve cells will be formed during the life- time of the individual. When nerve cells are destroyed in toto they are never replaced by multiplication of new ones, Fig. 10 (After Donaldson) as in the case of the skin and many other parts of the body. The growth from birth on is by the enlargement of cells and the prolongation of fibers. Nerve fibers when cut may, after sufiBcient time has elapsed, reunite and function as before, but the destruction of the cell body leads to a gradual decay of aU of its fibers. The brain increases in size nearly 30 per cent during the first year, and 10 per cent 122 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY during each, of the second and third years. " During the fourth year alone it increases more than it mil during aU the rest of life, and it is nearly finished grow- ing by the sixth year. After eight it grows but little." It now in- creases slowly uiitil the fourteenth, year, and some investigations in- dicate slight increase even to the age of thirty. In the average individ- ^^fr.cyl ual, from fifty-five on, the brain begins to lose in size and weight. It reaches its maximmn size early, but we must distinguish this from development or differen- tiation for the purpose of action or function- ing. For example, the pianist does not in- crease the mass of mus- cles in his fingers. He only differentiates, de- velops, and brings them under control. The fundamental muscles function first; then the accessory or finer ones are coordinated. This order of development has great educational significance. Fig. 11 (After Van Gehuchten) Fas^tnn Trian^lar P^lygonat PoTyiHorphffUS tayi Fig. 12 (After Whitaker) 123 124 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY Functions of the Different Parts of the Nervous System. Beginning with, the peripheral nervous system, we note that its millions of fibers are of two kinds — sensory and motor, or afferent and' efferent. The terms " sensory " and Cerebellum — Structure Large granular- Middle layer ^ ^or layer of ^Pwrlnnjis cells fnHopkavu prixess Large molecular' cell Neuroglia, cells of JPwrkinje's cell \faBsfibre9 Axoneof large molecular cell Fig. 13 (After Whitaker) " afferent " are both applied to all nerves that transmit dis- turbances to ganglionic centers or to the central system. But " afferent " is, properly speaking, a wider term inas- much as it includes all nerves that transmit a stimulus to the central system, whether such transmission affects con- sciousness or not. The terms " motor " and " efferent " are both applied to all nerves that transmit impulses from THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 125 the central system to the muscles. The two different proc- esses, afferent and efferent, are not both accomplished by the same fiber. This has been thoroughly proved by carefvd experiments. A bundle of nerve fibers before en- tering the spinal cord divides and enters by two different roots, one composed of sensory and the other of motor nerves. Cutting the sensory root, destroys feeling in the parts supplied by that bundle of fibers, while motion in the same parts remains undisturbed. Exactly the reverse is true when the motor root is cut. The hand may be burned and pain result, without any power to move the hand. The temporary destruction of the sensory function of sen- sory nerves while the motor function remains intact is now quite common as a result of the apphcation of drugs. Again, any motor center in the brain stimulated by a discharge of electricity produces movement in the part of the body controlled by that center. Also the removal of certain cortical areas in the brain produces disturbances in the dermal sensations. All sensory impressions carried to the braia from the trunk and extremities terminate on the opposite side of the body from which they originate. Ingoing fibers^ aU cross in the meduUa ; for example, the sensory center for the left arm is in the cortex of the right hemisphere. Generally spealdng, the same is true of motor discharges originating in the brain. They are conveyed downwards from the brain, and most of them cross in the medulla, but some cross lower down in the cord. The spinal cord, besides transmitting the nervous dis- charges to and from the brain, is a great storehouse of nerve batteries. These are centers of reflex action. In man 126 ELEMENTAKY PSYCHOLOGY the spinal cord is largely under the control of the higher centers, but even here the number of reflexes is very great. It may also inhibit reflexes. In the lower animals these reflexes are more numerous, definite, complicated, and efifective. Destroy the entire brain of a frog and its Hmbs assume a natural position and resume that position again when disturbed. If its body be irritated, its limbs make definite movements for the purpose of rehef. It will lie flat on its abdomen, and, if kept in water, will remain sen- sitive to irritation for days. The functions of the medulla are conduction and reflex action. The medulla is a solid network of fibers. Through it must be transmitted aU nervous discharges passing to and fro between the brain and spinal cord. It also con- trols very important reflexes, especially respiration. It in some degree controls the sympathetic system. This in turn regulates the lungs, heart, blood vessels, and certaia abdominal organs, over which we have practically no voluntary control. In the frog and similar animals, so long as the medulla remains intact, respiration and life may be maintained. The functions of the cerebellum are not well defined. In itself it is entirely insensible to irritation. The gradual cut- ting away of the cerebellum produces a corresponding loss of power to coordinate the muscular movements, but does not destroy volition and sensation. The cerebelliim is neither the seat of sensory nor of intellectual functioning, but of the power to combine actions and preserve equilibrium. The functions of the cerebrum, or large brain, are many and varied. Examination of Fig. 14 will give some idea of its complication, but this barely suggests what must exist. < m 1 a, V ^ ^^m ■§■ ^M ^^jL^ g, ■^ ^r %. •Si. § >- w 00 .0 « .g, . ^^ THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 127 Experimentation shows (1) that the large brain is the seat of the special senses — sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and muscular discrimination; (2) that it is the organ which receives, records, and reproduces for pur- poses of judgment the clear and vivid impressions; (3) that the cerebral cortex is the instrument of wiU. so far as deliberation is concerned ; (4) that the cerebral cortex is the source of the higher emotions and feelings ; (5) that memory and imagination have their storehouse some- where in the cerebrum. The foregoing facts, chiefly established by experimenta- tion on animals, find tonfirmation in human beings. (1) Inherited and abnormal defects in the cerebrum are generally accompanied by corresponding intellectual defi- ciencies and disturbances of the higher instincts. (2) Any severe injury to this organ instantly deprives man of his mental faculties. (3) Through the whole course of development of the nervous system, the size of the hemispheres, in proportion to the other parts, seems to bear a relation to the increase in general intelligence. (4) The fact that in certain diseased conditions indi- viduals may partially or completely lose many highly specialized functions, vdth slight or no other disturbance, indicates more detailed location of function than we have yet been able to prove. The power to remember proper names may be lost without any other observable effect. I once saw a girl sixteen years old, who, by injury from a fall, was deprived of all power to recaU proper names ; but she could describe any person so completely that you could readily identify the person from her description. 128 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY Also any one may lose the power to write, to read, to speak, etc., with but slight additional disorders. Such individ- uals simply seem to forget how. Pain sensations may exist in parts of the body where there is entire loss of the touch and temperature sensations. In some cases tem- perature and touch sensations may remain where those of pain are destroyed. The foregoing illustrates what is known as localization of function. Its profound importance to psychology will at once be evident. The sense organs and the spinal nerves transmit motion to certain parts of the brain. In Pig. 9 we have the suggestion of a great rietwork of telegraphic fibers conveying messages to all the different parts of the brain. It is probable that the entire front portion of thfe cortex is devoted to the higher thought activities. Division of labor is the law of the organic, industrial, and intellectual worlds. Education of the Nervous System. How to make the most of this life cycle during which the nervous system undergoes its growth, development, and decay is the supreme problem of education. Upon what does our potential intelli- gence depend, and how can we unlock it to best advantage ? Attempted answers to the first question have been : 1. Brain mass, or mass in proportion to body weight, was supposed to determine the possible intelligence. Great difficulties lie in the way of accepting this. Compara- tive study of nervous systems, however, shows that man's brain is nearly three times as heavy as that of any other animal approaching him in size ; but this does not hold aa a basis of intelligence when human beings are compared THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 129 with each other. In absolute weight the male's brain is heavier than the female's, but when taken in propor- tion to body weight the female's brain is heavier than the male's. 2. Next, the proportion of gray matter to white matter was seized upon as the secret of intelligence. But gray matter simply indicates the cell body, and the white matter is its medullated fibers. This relation does not give a satisfactory explanation. Nerve cells without their developed fibers would be an inadequate equipment for intellectual activity. 3. Then, the number and depth of the convolutions were supposed to reveal the secret. But Donaldson and others have discredited this theory save as a possible factor in increasing the cortical area. 4. Finally, there is a tendency to consider more than one cause as a basis for di£f erences in intelligence — extent of cortical area, variations in inherited composition of the nervous system, variations in relations and adjustments of all parts of the organism. The very act of living is itself the beginning of the education of the nervous system. We have already con- sidered the great power of habit in determining life, and discovered its basis in the nervous system. Every reaction to new conditions is educational. It is a mistake to think of education chiefly as formal. Formal education has two supreme problems so far as the nervous system is con- cerned: (1) to avoid permanent damage by precocity, by overeducation, or by undue strain; (2) to develop the different functions by the proper stimulus at the proper time. 130 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY The premature forcing of growth is everywhere damag- ing. The ' eyes of kittens may be artificially opened before the normal time, and apparently with advantage to the animals, but later blindness and disorder follow. What can be done with the chUd may not be what sliould be done. . But immediately the second problem confronts us. The nervous system develops quite early, and unless we watch our opportunity our efforts may lose half their efficiency. What a painful sight to see people struggling to learn Latiu at thirty or thirty-five years of age ! Both the stimulus and the time are out of joint. Since we cannot observe these developing processes in the brain, our only possible guide is the intensity and permanence of interest and curiosity as the indices of these internal changes. To ignore these, the only signs of the order of developing brain power, is a sin against the growing, unfolding child, which no re- pentance will ever alter. Once you have passed the nascent stage in the growth of any power or forced another to take its place, nothing can atone for the loss. Forced to the conclusion that the developing powers of the soul are, one and all, dependent upon the development and functioning of the brain, what do those who oppose the doctrine of interest propose to offer us as a guide tO these hidden inner processes ? Do they still hope to switch these brain processes to suit their own imposed ends ? Or have they developed clairvoyant powers ? Fatigue is a danger signal. Long fatigue changes the size and color of the cells ; it also produces a poisonous product in the nervous system. Eest and sleep are the nor- mal processes of restoration. Li mild fatigue change of THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 131 work will often bring the proper relief. Generally there is a tendency to run down about the middle of the afternoon, with a return of stTsngth later in the day ; this is due in part to the great fundamental rhythms of life. After rest and sleep the cells are full-sized, and a much slighter stimulus produces a response. In starvation the nervous system maintains its weight at the expense of other parts of the body. While there is always danger in undue strain, yet we probably go through life with a vast amount of pos- sible, unutilized power. In maturity examination proves the presence of many undeveloped cells. The problem of fatigue is of great practical importance. Our scientific knowledge regarding the effects of adolescent fatigue, and regarding ability to resist it, is as yet very limited. Periods of rapid growth are supposed to be peri- ods of greatest susceptibility to fatigue, but this is still uncertain. Fatigue is manifested in different forms. Some children are by nature slow plodders and incapable of in- tense application. Others work in moods of intense appli- cation or not at all. Studies in what is known as second breath are quite suggestive. Investigations indicate a loss of power to resist fatigue at about eight years of age, and the maximum endurance at about fifteen. To learn to uti- lize all our possible resources in this short life cycle is the pressing problem of future science. How Knowledge of the Nervous System helps us to interpret Human Life. 1. It is evident that we came into the world with many preformed adjustments of the nerv- ous system ready to respond in a definite way to certain outside conditions. In the chick the preformed mechanism 132 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY is so definite that a slight stimulus is sufficient to produce a definite response in the act of walking, pecking, etc. The same thing is true of all the activities of the newborn child. But milder degrees of this original, inherited adjust- ment are present in nearly all human activity. One writer even suggests that the nervous mechanism which underlies our concepts of space and time may exist more or less adjusted before birth, and may therefore need but a small amount of experience to become efficient. This is a com- promise view of innate ideas. Be this as it may, it is evi- dent that the intensity of the response and the vividness of sensation do not correspond to the amount of motion received by the sense organ. They rather correspond to the biological adjustments in the brain. Whatever view we may hold concerning a specific instinctive fear of rep- tiles, common observation compels us to admit that here the response is wholly out of proportion to the compara- tive amoimt of motion received by the nervous system, or to the actual danger. A previous adjustment in the nerv- ous system is the only thing that will explain it. May we not also some day recognize that the preformed adjust- ment may be such in some people as to cause small stimuli to call forth monstrous crimes ? In cases of kleptomania and many similar conditions we have no other possible explanation. 2. A knowledge of the functions of the nervous system explains many abnormalities and strange psychic mani- festations. Once the insane were supposed to be possessed of demons ; now we know the trouble lies in the function- ing of the brain processes. Those afflicted with neurasthe- nia, melancholia, and similar nervous disorders, look for the THE NEEVOUS SYSTEM 133 cause in conditions or in their treatment by others. This is due to the fact that the cause is hidden from them, deep in the organization and conditions of the nervous system. 3. As we have abeady seen, the nerve paths in the brain furnish the only possible explanation of the formation and persistency of Tiabit. The coordination of brain processes explains the great ease with which the acrobatic performer, whether animal or man, does what seems incredible. The brain processes have taken the place of that intense con- scious effort that the onlooker feels must be exerted. In like manner habit establishes relations in the nervous sys- tem that- to some degree extend ta the whole of human conduct. Even though blood and intelligence, muscle and will, be joined in an insoluble mystery, without some knowledge of the nervous system and its relation to mental activity we shall ever be wanting one of the keys to the solution of human conduct. CHAPTEE VII SENSATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENSES The special senses must furnisli us with all knowledge of the external world. Even the instincts must rely upon the senses for guidance. The deepest instinct needs a stimulus and some sense organ for its manifestation. The Stimulus and Nerve Action. The senses are always brought into action by some external or internal agencies which we call stimuli. A stimulus is anything that acts on our nervous system in such a manner and with such intensity as to produce either reflex action or a change in consciousness. In the simplest forms of sensation such con- sciousness may only make us aware of some disturbance without giving us any information about the external object, such as the child's earliest sensations of light, color, temperature, sound, taste, etc. It would seem simple and comprehensive to say, as some writers do, that a stimulus is anything that produces action in the nervous system. But no doubt there are countless thousands of nervous actions that are not discernible either in consciousness or by observation. Digestion ; circulation of the blood ; slight variations in the atmosphere and in temperature; vibrations of air below 16 and above 40,000 per second, the limits for hearing; vibrations of ether below 400,000,000,000,000 1S4 SEKSATIOlSr AND THE SENSES 135 times per second and above 800,000,000,000,000 times per second, which are the limits for color — all these and many more subtle forces doubtless produce and modify nerve action. The discovery of the imconscious influence of many of these forces is one of the greatest revelations of modern psychology, and we shall return to their impor- tance under another topic. Electrical changes, caused by 8.n approaching storm, may be such as to produce an effect on some animals, and may be the cause of the pecu- liar sensations that many people experience just before a thunderstorm. For all practical purposes we had better think of a stimulus as producing some observable sign of nervous disturbance or some conscious modification of our mental states. Sensation and Perception. A pure sensation is a rare thing and belongs to a stage of development so early that memory does not seem to retain any trace of it. Our sensations pass into perceptions so rapidly that we no longer have simple states of consciousness. We immedi- ately perceive the disturbance as belonging to some one of the senses and refer it to some perceived object. Simple mental states unmodified by past experiences do not exist so far as we are concerned. The sight of an orange, the sound of a bell, and all other impressions that might be mentioned involve sensations, but these sensations im- mediately pass into the perceptions orange, bell, etc. So popular speech is not entirely wrong in refusing to sepa- rate these two terms. Sugar may give us the sensations we designate as sweet, soft or hard, pleasant or unpleasant, white or brown, rough 136 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY or smooth — all these according as the attention dwells now oh this, now on that, quality. But even these are never given in consciousness independent of past experi- ence and of reference to some object. Yet sense percep- tion such as the sight of sugar, owing to past experiences, habit, and association of ideas, involves these complex im- pressions. To grasp an orange in the hand is only a small part of the perception. Some notion of its taste, its color, its interior condition, its use, its peeling and seeds, or « absence of seeds, are included in this great complexus called perception. To be consistent and conform to gen- eral usage we should call the act of grasping the orange sense perception, and this great complexus, perception. The Special Senses and their Adaptation to Stimuli. The special senses now recognized in psychology are touch, sight, hearing, smeU, taste, muscular discrimination, with the probability of a temperature sense, and some indica- tions of special pain nerves. Even these do not seem to be sufficient to account for all the facts and possible sen- sations presented to the mind. It has recently been dis- covered that the inner ear contains a sense organ that gives us sensations about positions of the head and in- directly of the whole body. The semicircular canal, once supposed to be an organ of hearing, is now proved to be also an organ of motion and position. Any rapid move- ment of the body in a circle, suddenly stopped, gives the impression of movement in the opposite direction. Strange sensations of opposite movements are felt on the sudden stopping of an elevator. These are due to a change in the fluid in the sacs of the internal canals. SENSATION AND THE SENSES 137 Are not hunger, thirst, and nausea sensations ? What are their sense organs ? True, we think of them as bodily- conditions, but by what physiological process is the mind • made aware of them ? There must be some special kind of sense organs for these. This list does not yet explain all sensations. We have special sensations of bodily comfort, discomfort, satisfied feelings resulting from a good meal, etc. These we put under the general name of organic sensations. By gradual adaptation and specialization these senses have limited their response to certain conditions and cer- tain stimuli. The skin, as the organ of touch, responds to contact, heat, cold, pressure, pain, slight contact called tickling, and also gives the sensation of general shudder. The eye responds only to a limited range of vibrations of ether, such as above stated. The ear responds only to limited molecular motion or waves of air varying from 16 to 40,000 per second. The olfactory nerve responds to quite a variety of small particles of external substances ; whether by chemical action or by some other means is yet one of the unsolved problems. The taste organs are excited only by certain chemical actions. The muscles respond to pull or strain. All sense organs are capable of being stim- ulated by electricity. Such is a rough, general classifica- tion of the stimuli affecting the sense organs. We have already called attention to the fact that, through a process of biological selection and heredity, the individual senses are adjusted to respond more readily to some stimuli than to others. The kind of response is not measured by the intensity of motion received. The amoeba responds to four kinds of stimuli, — electrical, chemical. 138 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY mechanical, and thermal, — but aU parts respond equally ■well. With man and the higher animals some parts are much more sensitive to these stimuli. Experimentation shows that animals often respond readily and violently to , certain slight sounds, while they absolutely ignore others of much greater intensity. The slight sound or the odor of the rattlesnake often produces a vivid and intensive response. Man also reacts to certain stimuh, even of a comparatively slight intensity, more readily than to others. Every one knows something of this kind of response in cases of danger or fear. There can be no doubt that the senses have gradually evolved to their present wonderful perfection and speciali- zation. AU animals and "some plants possess some degree of sensitiveness to external disturbances. Touch is the oldest of all the senses ; all others appear to be modifica- tions of it. Sight began with only pigment spots in the skin. Many lower forms are devoid of the sense of sight, but they respond rather readily to the stimulus of light. Some of the lower forms will respond not only to vari- ations in intensity of light, but to different colors, even after the visual organs are cut out. In many, taste and smell are either entirely wanting or quite defective. Food is often absorbed through the surface of the body. Taste organs have not yet been found in insects. Smell seems to have developed before taste. Some animals have senses unknown in man, and some possess a few of the senses that are common to man, developed far beyond man's. Probably some birds have little or no power to detect odors. In a general way it appears that power of hearing and sight increases with intelligence. Again, life may go SENSATION AND THE SENSES 139 on, as in the case of Helen Keller, with the loss of these higher senses. In such cases it is rather mystifying to note how touch seems to assume, in a measure, the func- tions of the other senses. In some way such individuals may get a complete education in a variety of things, in- cluding the appreciation of music. Sensations arising from the Skin. The skin is sup- plied with milhons of nerve endings. When these are disturbed by the proper stimuli and to a certain inten- sity, a nervous discharge is carried to the brain. As already stated, these discharges are classified by us as contact or simple tomch, heat, cold, pressure, pain, tick- ling, and shudder. Hairs on the skin often serve as organs of touch, and are often more sensitive than the skin beneath. In some animals these tactile hairs acquire great length and firmness. Sea animals are often able to detect pressure and movements at a considerable dis- tance. Probably in this manner whales are protected from shoals. Animals that burrow have delicate organs of touch in the feet and nose. 1. The sensitiveness of the skia has been minutely in- vestigated along two different lines. The first has to do with the ability to discriminate two simtdtaneous contacts of the points of a compass as two separate touches. Tliis ability varies considerably on different parts of the surface. The fineness of this sensibility varies from -^-^ of an inch on the tip of the tongue to over 2\ inches on the upper arm, thigh, and back. The tip of the tongue, tips of the fingers, lips, and palms of the hands have a much greater sensitiveness of this 140 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY kind than other parts of the body. There are many con- ditions and applications of drugs that increase or diminish this ability. 2. Sensitiveness to pressure is another problem. What is the smallest pressure that will produce a sensation on different parts of the body? What is the smallest differ- ence in such pressure that can be detected ? These ques- tions have been thoroughly investigated. The general results show that the forehead, temples, back of the hand, and forearm are most sensitive to pressure. These parts detect about .03 of a grain or .002 of a gram, while the nose, chin, and abdomen detect only about .6 to .7 of a grain. You will notice that the parts having the greatest sensitiveness to pressure are not the same as those having greatest discrimination. 3. Weber's Law. What part of any given stimulus pro- ducing a sensation must be subtracted or added so that we may realize that there has been a change ? This is our second question in another form, and its answer is known as Weber's Law. It applies to all the senses. Its general principle is that, to increase or to diminish the intensity of any given sensation so as to be just able to note the difference, we must each time add or subtract a certain per cent of the present stimulus. This constant ratio of in- crease or decrease of stimulus to produce a just observable change in sensation varies for the different senses. For sight it is approximately one one-hundredth of the given intensity of the light ; for muscular sensations, about one twentieth ; for pressure, noise, and temperature, about one third of the given stimulus. This means that a light of fifty candle power must be increased one-half candle power SENSATION AND THE SENSES 141 before we are aware of the change. A weight of twenty pounds must be increased one pound. A pressure of six pounds must be increased two pounds before we detect the change. This law does not hold with any great accu- racy for sensations of a low or high intensity. Fechner, building on this law, tried to find out what relation exists between our judgment of the degree of increase of the intensity of a sensation and the actual increase of the outside stimulus. If we declare, for example, that the temperature of water is ^, J, |-, or twice as hot as a previous given sensation, what change has actually taken place in the temperature! Similar tests have been made for all the senses. The uncriticised, psychological Judgment asserts that they are essentially the same. But there is a great divergence, and experiments prove a tendency to a constant ratio, especially so 4ong as we avoid the high and low intensities. Fechner's statement of this relation is that the sensation varies in an arithmetical ratio, while the stimulus varies in a geometrical ratio. A little knowledge of mathematics will show you how wide this divergence soon becomes. While we cannot mathematically measure our feelings of joy and sadness, yet it is probably the indefinite operation of this law that causes serious mis- judgments in these lines. I may be happy over the pos- session of one thousand dollars and probably think that ten thousand dollars would make me ten times as happy. Or I may have endured a small calamity, and, comparing my depressed feeling with that of individuals whose stim- ulus is many times greater so far as outside influences are concerned, I am amazed to know how they can bear their condition. I find myself very cold at a temperature 142 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY of ten degrees below zero ; I am told of people who en- dure sixty degrees below zero, and I shake my head in despair. In these and thousands of other cases I am trying to measure the future or foreign sensation by the absolute increase of stimulus. 4. Other sensations of the skin. The popular notion of touch also includes pain, temperature, pressure, and even the muscular sense. These have lately been differentiated. Specialists claim that pain may be destroyed in any given part of the body by disease or application of drugs, while susceptibility to sensations of heat and cold remain. Sen- sations of pain may be destroyed while those of touch re- main intact. At least two normal examples showing the independence of touch and pain may be mentioned. Con- tact with the cornea of the eye gives no touch sensation, but pain. Piercing odors produce pain without touch. The areas of greatest sensitiveness to touch are not identical with those of greatest sensitiveness to tem- perature. We may test the skin and find that the points of greatest sensitiveness to cold are not those of greatest sensitiveness to warmth. The cold spots, at least, are easily discernible simply by passing a steel pen lightly over the skin. 5. TJie muscular sense is, in general, confused with that of pressure. But this confusion is probably due to the fact that there exists a group of sensations from joints, tendons, muscles, and sensory nerves, together with motor sensa- tions. It is now some forty years since sensory nerve cells were discovered in the muscles and in the tendons. The surface of the joints is furnished with nerve cells. Electrical stimulation of the joints modifies our estimation SENSATION AND ±HE SENSES 143 of weight and movement. Thus we have muscular, ten- donous, and articular sensations joined in our judgment of weight and movement. The general term " kinesthetic " is applied to this group of sensations. For example, a three-pound weight resting on the hand placed on a table gives quite a different sensation than if it be held by a handle or string and suspended in iihe air. It will also seem heavier if lifted slowly than if lifted rapidly. It will also seem heavier if, while lifting it with one hand, the other hand be clenched tightly. A combination of pressure and this group of sensations known as the kinesthetic gives us the best knowledge of weight. Again, touch is not the only factor in telhng us the position of our limbs. The muscular sense plays an important part. 6. The education of the sense of touch is possible to an extent scarcely credible. The blind may be educated to read with ease, rapidity, and accuracy, either through the fingers, or in case the hands are wanting, through the lips or toes. The blind learn to distinguish color, and develop a marvelous sense of direction and of the nearness of objects. Helen Keller received an all-roimd college education through the sense of touch. But the education of touch, while most manifest in the blind, is not limited to them. Many men develop the ability to shave without a mirror and with a common razor, even on a moving train. There once Hved in Denver a man without arms, who could shave without a mirror and with an unprotected razor, by tak- ing the razor between his toes. Instrumental musicians have a highly developed sense of touch and muscular movement in the hands and arms. 144 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY Sensations of Taste and Smell. The statement that pure water is tasteless makes us wonder if we have ever tasted pure water. The trouble lies in the fact that what we call taste is really a combination of taste, smell, sight, touch, pressure, and temperature sensations. Pure water gives us the sensations of touch and temperature. There are only four distinct taste sensations ; namely, salt, sweet, sour, bitter. Some writers add alkaline and metallic. These sen- sations are probably caused by some kind of chemical action. But the possible mixtures and different degrees of intensity, combined with the great number of touch, smell, pressure, and temperature sensations, seem to give us a great variety of taste sensations, such as those from the different kinds of vegetables, meats, liquids, and the various possible com- binations. The loss of smell has a marked effect on taste. Note the difference in the ordinary taste of an onion and the sensation if tasted while you hold the nose and cease to breathe. Through suggestion sight also has an influence on taste. The attractive appearance of candies, foods, etc. modifies our notion of their taste. The sense of taste is well-developed at birth, but is often quite defective in feeble-minded children. Sensations of Smell are exceedingly Numerous. Just how they are produced we cannot say. Inconceivably small particles probably exist in the air. Air containing odors may be passed through a tube well packed with cotton wool, which retains all particles larger than ■^ of an inch, and still the odor will remain. A grain of musk wiU fill the air of a room with odor for years and stOl not lose weight that can be detected. It is said that ^ of SENSATION ANP THE SENSES 145 a grain of musk and ^eoooVooopo ^^^ °* mercaptan will each produce a distinct sensation of smell. Great differences exist in regard to disagreeable odors. What is intolerable to some people is even pleasant to others. Certain animals spend their life amid odors that would be very painful to us. The cause of this exceedingly- wide variance in regard to agreeable and disagreeable odors is unknowii. The possible development of the sense of taste and of smeU. is far greater than we would suppose. The highest development of taste is found among the wine tasters. Here the power is developed to a striking degree of accu- racy and fineness. Many animals far surpass man in the power of smelL The range is widened in man, but the power is diminished. The dog tracks the wild animal many hours after its pas- sing by, and scents his master's trail on the pavement amidst thousands of others. It is the test of self-preserva- tion that tells how far any sense may be developed. The Indians of Peru can scent a stranger while he is yet afar off, and tell if he be an Indian or a negro. The Arabs of Sahara smell fire at a distance of thirty miles or more. Tobacco buyers cultivate a keen sense of smell. The blind exhibit marvelous power in this line. A girl in Massachusetts was able to recognize persons she had met by the smelL of their gloves. This girl by the same power was said to be able even to sort the clothes as they came from the laundry. Helen Keller detects an approaching storm, teUs the time of day, knows the nature of the house she enters, recognizes individuals, aU by the sense of smelL 146 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY Sensations of Hearing. Hearing was once the primary means of communicating knowledge from one person to another, of learning all languages, and of communicating thoughts. The two ears do not give us two simultaneous sensations, but contrast of the difference in intensity is the chief means in helping us to locate the direction of sound, which is never very accurate. By means of the intensity of sound and of various apperceptive ideas we judge of dis- tance. Just now I heard a clock striking in a distant room ; but, had I judged it to be a bell, the faint stroke would have caused me to locate it far away. The ear is an exceedingly complicated organ, but we shall not concern ourselves with the anatomy of it. The external conditions for producing sound are simple and well known. Longitudinal periodic vibrations of the mole- cules of air are the sole conditions. If these vibrations are irregular, the result is what we call noise. If they are regular, we have tones or music. The range of vibra- tions that may be heard is usually between 16 per second and 48,000 per second. Some writers even give 50,000. Some ears are better developed than others, but the great majority of musical experiences are between 64 and 5000 per second. Over 500 simple noises may be detected and about 11,000 different tones. This number may be greatly va- ried according to our conception of simple and compound tones. A common noise usually contains several simple noises and many elements of tone. Tones are also accom- panied by some noise. The detection of these elements is in either case dependent largely upon training and the psychological attitude. Ttve poet often hears music in the SENSATION AND THE SENSES 14T running brook, in the mud whistling through the trees, and in the roaring ocean, where others hear only distress- ing noises. Sound has four distinct characteristics : 1. Intensity, or loudness, which depends upon the ampli- tude of vibration. The prongs of a tuning fork pressed together gently give a low sound ; the same fork pressed harder changes the amplitude of vibration and produces a louder sound. 2. The pitch, which is determined by the number of vibrations per second. When the pitch is very high the effect is unpleasant or even painful. 3. The quality, or timbre, which is due to the source from which the vibrations come. For example, the same pitch from a violin, a drum, a flute, a piano, a horn, the human voice, each has a quality which enables us to dis- tinguish it from the others. Of course in some cases a certain amount of training is necessary. Some writers designate pitch as the quality of a tone sensation. It is the shrillness or mellowness that constitutes the quahty. Pitch may affect these qualities by varying the over- tones. By slight variation in degrees of intensity we may pass from one color to another almost by impercep- tible changes. In like manner we may pass from one pitch to another if only the instruments are properly arranged. Aside from the variation of the overtones pitch is variation in intensity. 4. Finally, we have already seen that the relation the vibrations bear to each other classifies the sound as noise or music. The psychological and educational value of hear- ing as compared with sight is usually underestimated. 148 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY Sensations of Sight. The eye is one of the most delicate organs of the body. Some of the lower animals, having no eyes, have spots that are sensitive to light. Sensations of sight are supposed to be produced by vibrations of the ether.^ The range of such vibrations that may produce a sensation is between 400,000,000,000,000 per second and 912,000,000,000,000 per second. The qualities of visual Compoaite i ■ Beam of J Ether Waves I Vibrations ^ Ultra Red Rays Temperature and leas J Stimuli (B) 450. Med (C) 472. Orange (D) 626. Yellow (E) 689. Green iF) 640. Blue (^G) 722. Indigo (JT) 790. Violet VStrations " and more , Light Rays Retinal SHmuii Ultra Violet Rays Chemical Stimuli Fig. 15 (After Witmer) sensation are very numerous. The colors of the spectrum and the number of million million vibrations per second necessary to produce them you will see in Fig. 15. In order they are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. 1. There are many other color sensations for which we have names, but there are also thousands of sensations for which we do not have any names. It is said that great artists have distinguished 30,000 different shades of color. More than 700 shades can be distinguished in passing from intense white to intense black. A well-knovm German 1 Some recent investigations seem destined to change all our views about ether. See Bragg, Campbell, Einstein, in index. SENSATION" AND THE SENSES 149 writer suggests that there are perhaps a million color sen- sations. The dogma that " if you know a thing you can tell it " is quite absurd when put to the psychological test. Natives of Central Africa are practically limited to two words for color — red and black, but it is hardly conceiv- able that this is the limitation of their possible color sen- sations. I once witnessed a magnificent thunderstorm and cloud effect, high on the mountaius, in which I was con- scious of a great number of distinct sensations of shades, colors, and combinations, most of which I was powerless to express in any way. When we are told in physics that black and white are not colors, because the one is the absence of all colors and the other the presence of aU colors, we must not consider this a true psychological statement. The question with us is not one of composition, but whether the sensation has a quality of its own which we call black or white. For psy- chology they are colors as much as red and green. 2. Complementary colors. Colors may be combined in almost endless varieties. Certain colors when combined produce white or grayish-white. These are called comple- mentary colors. The chief combinations are red and blue- green, yellow and indigo-blue, green and purple, blue and orange, violet and yellow-green. Such effect cannot be secured by mixing these colors in paints, but by rapid motion on the color mixer. Complementary colors placed side by side in a stationary position have the effect of intensifying each other. 3. Color-blindness has considerable psychological and educational value. It also presents some interesting prob- lems in heredity. Our color sense has been developed 150 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY gradually, and is siisceptible to extensive education. But lack of education in discriminating and classifying tints, degrees of saturation, and intensities of color must not be confused with color-blindness, the fundan^ental form of which is a difficulty to distinguish red from green, and is called red-green blindness. Blue-yellow blindness and blue-violet blindness are less common forms. Color- blind people do not always confuse these colors, but they always fail to distinguish red and green more fre- quently than the average individual. The brightness of the colors plays an important part with some color- blind individuals. A great variety of individual varia- tions has been found. Color-blindness has been proved to exist among some animals. About one in twenty men and probably not more than one in a thousand women are in some degree color- blind. It is transmitted by heredity, but in a very interest- ing way. Neither the disorder nor the potentiality to transmit it to others is inherited by a son from a father having the disorder ; but the daughter inherits not the actual disorder but the potentiality or possibility of trans- mitting it to any male children in actuality and to female children in potentiality. A color-blind father who has sons but no daughters thereby cuts short this hereditary disorder, for he does not himself transmit the potentiality to his sons, but only to his daughters. The daughters of the color-blind father are not color-blind, but they inherit the potentiality to transmit it to their sons, should they have any. There are all degrees of color-blindness, even to absolute color-blindness in a few cases. The cause is un- known ; it is incurable. SENSATION AND THE SENSES 161 A most remarkable case of heredity and sight-variation is what is known as " night-blindness." One remarkable example of this disorder has been traced through nine gen- erations. This defect renders the patient entirely blind in duU light. Otherwise he is perfectly normal. Night-blind- ness is just the opposite of color-blindness in one point — only the individuals actually having the disorder can transmit it. 4. The world of vision includes the rather wide range of knowledge which we seem to take in through the eye. It comprises (1) perception of individual objects ; (2) the color of objects ; (3) the shape and size of objects ; (4) per- ceptions of solidity; (5) estimates of distance; (6) lumi- nosity or intensity of color tone ; (7) motion of objects in space ; (8) smoothness and roughness. In the development of these concepts apperception is an important factor. This is well established by surgical operations which have given sight to several individuals born blind. If we ever knew, we have long since forgotten how we acquired the world of vision and all its percep- tions. Through the unconscious process of apperception we may now use many transferred perceptions that never originated under sight. One of the latest and most inter- esting of these cases is that reported by Dr. Ayers con- cerning a man who first used his sight at forty. He had developed marvelous skill with his other senses. Now he must acquire this new world of vision and all its percep- tions by conscious comparison. Distance, size of objects, shape and form, motion, especially the number of objects before him, all are great puzzles to him. Objects have only extension and do not appear differentiated. He was shown 152 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY a ball and a square box. He could not teU the shape until he placed his hands on them. A stick twelve inches long and one inch thick he called four inches and the size of his finger. " It took four or five trials to learn to count one, then two, and finally five." A very excep- tional thing is recorded of him — that in the color test he named red, yellow, green, and blue correctly without touch. The details of this case are exceedingly valuable for psychology. Now we can return to the field of vision with new light on the subject. The sensation of oneness arises mainly from the habitual use of certain areas of the retinae. Touch plays a large part in the formation of most visual perceptions. By apperception these perceptions are gradually and un- consciously transferred to sight. The comparison of even minute muscular efforts in the eye is another source. The size of objects primarily depends upon the size of the retinal image, but this in turn depends upon the distance. Judgment of distance, in a measure, depends upon the degree of muscular effort to converge — the nearer the object the greater is the effort. Our estimate of distance also depends upon dimness or definiteness of outline. Ob- jects seen in a fog appear immensely large. Intervening objects increase our estimate of distance and hence of size. The full moon at the horizon appears larger than at the zenith because intervening objects increase our notion of distance. The inexperienced have little knowledge of distance at sea. Should the distance of any object, such as a bird in air or a ship, be misrepresented to us by one who we have reason to believe knows, we are sure to mis- judge its size accordingly. Movement of an objectin space SENSATION AND THE SENSES 153 is estimated from the movement of the image on the retina and from the movement of the eyes in following it. This last factor causes near objects to appear to move much more rapidly than distant ones. These examples and hundreds that might be given all show how the mind constantly cooperates with sight, uncon- sciously using the great storehouse of all its past experience, so that in the last analysis it is impossible to say what be- longs to mere sensation and what to the influence of the mind in the use of apperceptive ideas. Reaction Time. The entire time that elapses from the moment a stimulus strikes the nerve ending until there is some response is called reaction time. 'It has been the subject of much experimentation in connection with sen- sation. This time is naturally divided into four parts. Suppose the right toe is touched by a current of electricity and we are requested to move it as soon as we get the shock. (1) There is time occupied in conveying this nervous dis- charge to the brain. This can be measured, for it moves at the average rate of about one hundred twenty feet per second. (2) There is time required for the mind to per- ceive or become conscious of this disturbance. (3) Some time is required to issue the proper command so as not to move the wrong foot; we may call this decision time. (4) Some time is necessary to carry back the impulse to the muscles of the toe. It is q-uite evident that conditions will vary the re- action time : 1. It will vary with the intensity of the stimulus, all things else being equal. 154 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY 2. It will vary with the different senses. 3. The degree of attention will vary the reaction time. 4. The physical condition of the individual will affect it. 5. Fatigue will lengthen it. 6. Stimulants will shorten it at first and lengthen it later. 7. Complication of stimuli will lengthen it. Suppose we are told to move the right foot for an electric shock, or the left for a flash of light. Evidently both number two and three of the reaction time wiU be lengthened. Such complications may go on almost indefinitely. 8. Conflicting ideas prolong the time. Taking it out of the fleld of laboratory experimentation, suppose you call me a har. With no conflicting ideas the reaction may soon come ; but if the pohce be standing by, it may be delayed. 9. In every line practice or habit shortens the re- action time. 10. General temperament or mental disposition of the individual will vary the reaction time wherever decision is necessary. " How many things are herein mentioned as varying the reaction time ? " Suppose this question be asked of several students, and suppose they know equally well and are equally attentive, the response wiU not be given with equal promptness in all cases. In some of the investiga- tions made on school children, results strongly indicate that rapidity and accuracy of physical movement are ac- companied by a corresponding rapidity and accuracy of mental response. On this mental and physical relation Locke defended the dance. SENSATION AND THE SENSES 155 Subjective Sensations. By this term we mean actual sensations that have no external stimulus corresponding thereto. Taste sensations may be produced by electrical stimulus and by mechanical pressure on parts of the taste organ. It is also difficult to separate the external from the internal causes of sensation. Certain smell sensations are excited by electrical stimulation ; but even aside from this, purely subjective sensations of smell are quite frequent. This is common among nervous people. They frequently declare the presence of various odors that no one else can detect. This may happen to any one occasionally. Sugges- tion and autosuggestion, as we shall see later, are powerful factors in producing these sensations. The suggestion at the table that pure meat is tainted may produce the sub- jective sensation in all present. Du Bois gives the case of a man who, after a certain fall, always smelled bad odors. Dr. Frederic Burk, who had abandoned the habit of smok- ing, told me that the taste and smell of tobacco smoke were very distinct whenever he had a cold. Eitter found that electric currents excite sounds. Ring- ing and buzzing in the ears are common sensations of irri- table and nervously exhausted individuals. Besides these we have the subjective sensations of sounds and noises, due to illusions and haUueinations. These, together with the illusions of sight, will be presented under the section on illusions and hallucinations. Quality and Intensity of Sensations and of Sense Per- ceptions. Properly speaking, n6 sensation can have quality save as it partakes of perception. We have already given some attention to intensity in considering Weber's Law. 156 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY 1. The quality is that characteristic that causes us to differentiate a sensation from others and give it a name, designating such differences as red, hlue, green, sunset, sour, rough, smooth, sound of a bell, violin, etc. The fol- lowing are factors in determining quality. a. The largest differentiation is due to the different senses. In a normal condition we do not confuse sight and sound, taste and smell, touch and temperature. h. Changing the point of application of the stimulus changes the quality. This in particular covers the many qualities of touch as applied to our own bodies. If you press gently on my ankle, and equally on any other part of the body, something about the sensations enables me to properly locate the two. As may be seen from facts stated on page 139, the bod^ is very sensitive to the quality of touch. The sense of localization is limited in the newborn child but gradually becomes more developed. Finally it becomes so habitual that in those who have lost a leg or an arm a stimulus of cold to the old nerve ends appears to come from the hand or foot. The habit of localization continues. c. Different kinds of stimiili applied to the same sense organ will produce a difference in quality. Between my forefinger and thumb I may pass an indefinite number of objects, each giving me a different quality. Here past per- ception, transferred perception, apperception, and even the reasoning process become helpful allies. As I now look at my bookcase one of the qualities of that visual sensation is smoothness. But this Vas originally acquired by the sense of touch. Hence it is a transferred perception. This process is quite common. I tap a dish and I know by the SENSATION AND THE SENSES 157 quality of the sound that it is a broken dish. We have already seen how extensively taste borrows from smell, temperature, and touch. d. Fatigue produced by prolonged application of the stimulus may change the quality. A five-pound pressure on the tip of the finger, if much prolonged, will change the quahty of sensation. In five minutes an outstretched arm will give more than one quahty of sensation. Color sensa- tions are greatly affected by continuous stimulation. e. We have already seen that sensations have an emo- tional quality of pleasure or pain. /. If the stimulus be constant, or periodic and contin- ually changing, the quality of sensation is modified. This is especially marked in the periodic stimulation by colors. g. The relation of one stimulus to another may modify the quality. All sensations differ because of their relation to others. Color contrast gives us some good examples. Successive tasting of different substances produces great variation and inaccuracy. If the hand be held in cold water a few minutes, and then placed in water of ordinary temperature, it feels warm. h. Occasionally a stimulus to one sense will produce dis- tinct sensations in some other sense. With some people high notes give distinct sensations of certain colors. In- tense colors sometimes produce a sensation of temperature or of faint sounds. The names of the numerals produce the sensation of a number form. Number forms exist in about one out of every fifteen individuals. They are mental numeral frames, which may be of almost any shape and size. Frequently the sound of the numbers 4, 5, 6, etc. pro- duce regularly the visual image of some object, as square 158 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY box, fat duck, etc. A few iadividuals have certain color sen- sations accompanying the letters of the alphabet. Professor Jastrow has printed a page colored as it appeared to one man. These variations occur in otherwise perfectly normal people. 2. The intensity of a sensation includes all variations which do not produce a feeling for a necessity to change the name. An object may be smooth and less smooth, but finally there is at least a noticeable necessity for some other name. The color red may be weakened in its intensity until there is felt a necessity for some other name to designate it. That moment the quality changes whether we have any name for it or not. This means a change, — a transition in consciousness. The intensity is modified by (1) increase or decrease in stimulus; (2) continuation of stimulus to a certain point; (3) extent of surface stimulated ; (4) physical and mental condition of individual ; (5) suggestion and attention ; (6) contrast. A certain intensity of stimulus is necessary to arouse any of the sense organs to action. This is called the threshold of sensation. Then under Weber's Law we noted that a certain per cent of the present stimulus must be added or subtracted before we realize in consciousness that the intensity has changed. Nervous or physically or mentally fatigued persons exaggerate the intensity of a stimulus as compared with normal iadividuals. Suggestion that it is twenty degrees below zero undoubtedly modifies the intensity of the sensation in some degree for most people. Attention to toothache, headache, a boil, etc. un- doubtedly modifies the intensity of pain. The contrast of a hot day with a cold one, of a sad state of mind with a happy one, modifies the intensity. SENSATION AND THE SENSES 159 It is in color that quantity and quality of sensation are most difficult to distinguish, and this probably is due in part to the poverty of our language. Some writers add duration, extension, and clearness as distinct characteris- tics of sensation. Practical Significance of these Facts. We no longer believe that knowledge gained through the senses is " of the earth earthy," and that there is some higher source which invalidates this knowledge. If it is knowledge of a low order, then let us be humble, for this is the only source of knowledge we have. Everything depends, upon the proper physical condition, education, and constant use of the senses. Such knowledge is the only material for the use of imagination, memory, and reason. There is no other road to intellectual salvation and safety. AU education that is not founded on what the senses furnish is vain show and empty words. What practical suggestions and guidance for the expla- nation of human conduct can we draw from the foregoing facts about the senses, sensation, and sense perception ? 1: We may expect all the higher powers of man to vary and be defective in proportion as these primary sources vary or are defective. Give all the credit possible to logic, but it must be admitted that defective thought-power goes back of formal logic. Eraser emphasized the fact that thought may be carried on in terms of several sense images, and this often leads to confusion and apparent contradictions among certain philosophical writers. The employment of visual images, for example, may bring pre- cision, but at the cost of limitations. One finds a good 160 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY example of this in the confusion produced by Spencer's test of truth as being the conceivable. But there is a multitude of simpler things that cause variation iu the mental world. In the first place, the physiological condition of the senses is rarely ever the same, and in many cases diverges to an extent that makes a Hke content impossible. The extreme forms of such variations produce illusions of a marked character. Then, we have seen that many condi- tions vary the quality and intensity of sense perceptions, and these conditions will seldom be the same for any two individuals. Again, great differences exist even in the nor- mal power of the senses. Finally, the opportunity or lack of opportunity for proper exercise of the senses, and the directing power of education, create different mental worlds for us. Is it at all remarkable that there are so many different interpretations and reasoned conclusions concern- ing this world that surrounds each of us ? What is called scientific observation and experimentation is the only pos- sible compass to guide us in this foggy sea, and that can never be final. 2. The foregoing facts should teach us the necessity for the proper care of the sense organs. A good physiology should be consulted. Some defects are readily removed by the skUlfuI surgeon; a vast number of minor defects may be prevented by proper hygienic care. 3. Extensive and early cultivation of the senses is abso- lutely imperative. This fills the mind's storehouse for future use. The great and the small, all are alike limited by it. All learning is in some way a response to the conditions in which we Uve. The value of proper sensory and motor SENSATION AND THE SENSES 161 activity cannot be overestimated. We early move out of simple sensation into sense perception; then to observa- tion, which is sense perception guided by definite purpose ; finally we have experimentation requiring weU-trained perceptive powers. There are some important factors in the education of sense perception, especially under the form of observation. Eead emphasizes the influence of interest, habit, and ex- pectation. We soon acquire certain habits of seeing, hear- ing, and all similaf reactions, which in a large measure determine all future observation. These habits may be for or against us. They may become so strong as to deceive us into thinking we get sense perceptions when we do not. The constant appearance of Mr. Jones in a given place in church may become so habitual that his absence may not be noted, and afterwards we may be willing to argue that he was there. Through habit the expert observer marches on to his destiny with ease and accuracy. Interest is a powerful element in determining both the vividness and the extent of our sense perceptions. Hence wide interest should be cultivated; if this is not done, habit will lead to a narrowing of our interests and cause other impressions to be ignored. We have already noted how animals come to ignore even strong stimuli that are not of interest in the way of self-prptection. So we soon drift into responding to certain classes of stimuli and ignor- ing or only imperfectly responding to others. Keen are the observations of men where their personal interest or safety is involved. Mental prepossession or expectation, while related to habit and interest, is not entirely caused by them. Tor 162 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY example, the many illusions and deceptions produced by the magician on the stage are largely dependent upon mental prepossession and inertia. This is accomplished mainly by suggestion, which plays a large part in aU our sense perceptions whenever directed by another. "The Garden of the Gods" is a good example of perverted sense perception due to the ingenious suggestions of guides, concerning noses, faces, hands, heads of lions, etc. in the water-worn rocks. Some writers would have us believe that these three factors of interest, habit, and expectation are only different forms of attention, but we prefer to believe that they are the stuff out of which attention is made. CHAPTEK VIII RELATION AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS Few things create more general interest than the appar- ently strange relation of our daUy flow of ideas. How is it that the word " whistle " may suggest to one mind a mouth whistle made from the bark of a piece of wood six inches long, to others, according to circumstances and experience, a locomotive, a street car, a steamboat, a foghorn, a story, N"ew Year's night, a bare piece of metal through which steam escapes, a runaway horse, a railroad wreck, a song, a child in danger, Santa Glaus, etc. The word " play " will suggest or be associated with an indefinite number of things in different minds. Some think of games; others of pieces of literature ;* others of things apparently unre- lated. The name " Isaac " may recall only a printed word, a preacher, a merchant, a book some one gave you, a wrong done you, the "Merchant of Venice," or a father offering up his son as a sacrifice. What are the laws that govern these associations and relations of ideas ? The difficulty in studying association is that so much is intentionally and unintentionally suppressed and so modified by an oral record of it, that there is little agree- ment with the original. Since I have been at work on this book a thousand isolated, quite vmimportant, long-past, and presumably forever-lost incidents, scenes, dreams, etc. have crossed the threshold of consciousness and forcibly 163 164 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY interrupted the direction of the stream of thought. When I am intent on some line of thought, whence come these strangers that seem to play ball in the background of con- sciousness ? Why are they sometimes so monstrous that I am shocked at their presence ? Observation of our own stream of thought will soon reveal the presence of what appears to be a subcurrent. Once while speaking to a small group concerning this subject I suddenly detected in the undercurrent of consciousness the thought, " What if I had been the fellow who killed Garfield ? " On one occasion I asked a class of fifty to observe for one-half minute what passed in consciousness. Unexpectedly I then began to ask them to relate everything that had entered ■ the field of consciousness. Some related an astonishingly long hst and stopped, saying it had been impossible to keep up with their thoughts and that many had escaped them. One girl, after much hesitation, said, "To tell the truth, I spent most of the time trying to keep from thinking of things I would not wish to teU." I then asked how many had discovered in consciousness something they would not wish to tell. This condition was almost unanimous. Into the most serious moments of life creep strange gods. Why do these unbidden guests of all descriptions and characters continually come and go ? Whether in deepest sadness or supremest joy, past regrets and future fears knock at the door. Our consciousness is to our stream of thought like an observer on a winding river. He can see but little of whence he came or whither he goes. Knowest thou whither thy thoughts will bear thee the next moment? There are laws of mental life that determine the direction RELATION AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 165 of this stream of ideas, but their operations and causes pre- cede the entrance of ideas into the stream of consciousness and we really have no conscious power over them. Present thinking depends largely on past conditions. The order of . our mental world depends more on the inner, hidden nature of the individual than upon outer conditions. This inner nature has heen determined chiefly by heredity, early ex- perience, and training, and is the chief deciding influence. The Rapidity of Thought has attracted popular attention from remote times. But our increased knowledge of this rapidity makes it still more wonderful. In one half minute I have just glanced over a new page of printed matter. A friend then questions me concerning the contents. In some way I have taken note of nearly aU of its four hundred words. But these words are made up of characters that must be noted in some way. A record of all thoughts in- augurated in this brief time would fill several pages. Like a flash and unexpectedly the scenes of a whole day's journey in Alaska pass in consciousness. In a few minutes we can rehearse in our mind a speech of great length and be sure it is all there. Many experiments show that simple associ- ation time is a very small part of a second, but even this time would be greatly reduced could we take into account every association that actually passes in consciousness. Having used James's classic term, stream of thought, which Morgan calls wave of consciousness, we must specify some of its characteristics. If we examine this stream of thought going on within us we will find : 1. That it seems to le continuous. On waking from sleep we seem to take up the process where we left off. Long 166 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY loss of consciousness due to anaesthetics or hypnotism, lapses of personality due to disease,, or alternating personalities continuing many months are all followed, on return to normal condition, hy a consciousness of continuity. The most noted case of careful scientific record is that of Dr. Hanna, who lost consciousness on being thrown from his buggy. Eestoration of consciousness found him a chUd with no memory of his past existence. Some two months after this he awoke from a short sleep and immediately asked where he was, and inquired about his horse and buggy. He had made the imion with his old personality. It is this consciousness of continuity that gives yaa. personality. 2. Tliat it is ever changing. This needs no demonstra- tion for any one who has even the shghtest ability to note what is going on within. 3. That we are continually interested in some parts of this stream, more than in others. At any passing moment the stream of consciousness carries a multitude of diverse ideas. As I now write I am primarily interested in the flow of ideas connected with this topic, but, aU the while, the sighing of. the wind, the roar of the water, the towering mountains in front of me, the waving trees, the passing shadows, the lowing of cattle — these and many more, to say nothing of the bodily sensations, are all borne along on the stream of consciousness. Now that I have singled them out for use in this illustration, I become succes- sively interested in them. This apparent diversity of ideas, nevertheless, forms a continuous whole, each having some influence on the qther. 4. That we claim every part of this stream as our thoughts, feelings, and ideas. EELATION AND ASSOCIATION" OF IDEAS 167 5. That the outgoing ideas fade away gradually, often disappearing and reappearing many times in a few minutes, while the incoming ideas are growing in intensity. These outgoing ideas, like individuals, do not die or disappear with- out leaving their influence upon the newcomers. It is also true and proved experimentally that there is some prepara- tion before these newcomers obtain a place in the focus of consciousness. Perhaps on the physical side it is the adjust- ment of nerve action. However, there is often something taking place that greatly affects present consciousness. The Fundamental Law of Association of Ideas is that the simultaneous or successive appearance of two or more distinct impressions in consciousness tends to reappear in the same way. It is called the law of contiguity. So long as we knew nothing of the physical basis of association of ideas due to associated nerve paths, and accepted the current popu- lar idea that things were related in mind because of their similarity or striking contrast, no possible explanation could be given for the apparent jumble of ideas that often comes and goes, and aU the strange guests we have mentioned. Satisfactory explanation of the relation and association of ideas must he based on the physical processes in the nervous system. The first step is physiological habit. In the morn- ing I take up my razor to shave. A great number of muscu- lar habits wiU simultaneously be operative in my fingers and hands, even the larger muscles maintaining a given posture. But as I proceed successive habits will determine the otder — all because they were at one time simultaneously or successively produced. Such habits must also prevail in the paths, fibers, and cells of the nervous system, only with a 168 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY thousand times more detail. It is now universally admitted that tliought is determined by physiological conditions, and the order of ideas hy the association of brain processes. The fundamental law of contiguity is hased upon the simul- taneous or successive activities of brain processes. They are the laws of habit in the nervous system. But this is not a fact to be regretted, for it is these hasal habits of associ- ation that make memory possible. A recent theory concerning the physical basis of associ- ation and habit of the nervous system holds that these processes are due to the action of the synapses. The con- nection between neurone and neurone is called a synapse. From this we are to understand that a stimulus weakens the resistance of a discharge in its passage from neurone to neurone. The character of these synapses differ greatly at birth, and this difference is intensified by stimuli and education. The physiological details of this theory are too minute for a work of this character. Suffice it to say that there are many problems it does not answer. Are we to suppose that no modifications exist elsewhere ? How then can we speak of habit where there are no synapses? Or how account for the tendency of cells to divide before synapses are formed?. What abides in the neurones that causes them to reach out for the purpose of bridging the gap? Modifications ? We might enumerate many more difficul- ties, but we leave the subject for more advanced study. Laws of Practical Educational Value. Not aU things have the same power in producing habits in the nervous system. We must therefore seek for the causes of these variations. Without doubt we inherit predispositions to RELATIOlSr AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 169 respond more readily in some lines than in others. Or, to express it in another way, habit is guided to some extent by instinct. We shall find other factors determining these variations. Such causes we call Secondary Laws of Associa- tion, inasmuch as they operate under the Fundamental Law of Contiguity. These are usually given under four heads. 1. The Law of Repetition tends to make permanent the modifications of brain fibers or ceUs whose activity is simul- taneously or successively repeated. Viewing mental life as a whole, probably nothiug else plays such a large part in the permanent association of ideas and consequently in memory. The existence of other factors accompanying mere repeti- tion can easily be determined by a simple test or two that wiU also have a practical bearing on memorizing. Test I consists of ten short Norwegian words, with ten numbers opposite them. Commit them to memory by placing a card- board over all except the first pair and then moving down to the last, repeating the pairs. Do this without stopping, until you can say them with your eyes closed. Eecord the entire time and the number of repetitions. Let the whole class do this. Then compare and search for individual differences. Test I Igaar 3 EUers 11 Kro 8 Ven 22 Herling 6 Afkrog 17 Gnist 21 Spag 4 Fri 12 Baade 9 170 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY Following the same directions as above, commit Test II and record entire time and number of repetitions. Test II Horse 12 City 7 Sea 23 Fire 14 Books 2 Pig 19 Home Travel 29 Justice 5 English 40 Compare the records for individual differences, and also compare this result with the previous record as to time and number of repetitions. FoUowiag the same directions, memoriae Test III, which will not take you long. Test III Love Marriage School Study Murder Penitentiary Mother Child Sun Moon Cause Efeect War Death Dance Music Steamer Ocean Sunday Church Many interesting facts may be discovered in these tests. We progress from purely mechanical association, especially if we are ignorant of the Norwegian language, to causal relations and to where we draw largely from our past EELATION AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 171 experience and ideas. The first is about on a par with the old system of forcing on a child a meaningless alphabet and the spelling of meaningless words. Investigation would doubtless prove that much of the child's study, either by necessity or by not knowing how to study, is still of this nature. Repetition will finally beget the results, but in all these cases it is not a question as to what can be done ; it is a question of economy and of wholesome effect upon the mind. The comparison of results of these three tests made by several individuals will probably make clear certain peculiarities of different minds.. For example, I have found that the novelty of Test I will often have a bene- ficial effect in helping to memorize it. Emotional interest fixes attention. In case two or more successive words begin with the same letter, this association is utilized. In Test III the majority never pay any attention to the second series of words after the first rehearsal. Former associations are dominant. Should the words and numbers in Test I be so com- pletely forgotten that you could not be certain of a single one of them as ever having appeared in the list, and then should half or more of them be injected into another list, the iofluence of past experience would be unconsciously manifest so as to render this test easier. To show this clearly a longer test should be selected. By careful tests it has been recently shown that not only are the immediately successive impressions thus associated, but every second, third, fourth, or fifth one bears a relation to a corresponding one. For example, in a list of five hundred syllables there may exist some association between every 172 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY third, fourth., fifth, or sixth one. Having apparently for- gotten such a list of nonsense syllables, it is still evident that a series composed of every third or fifth one selected from such a list is much more readily learned than a new list of the same number of nonsense syllables, though there may not be any conscious recognition of these words as having been seen before. Again, suppose you are to commit to memory fifty lines of poetry. Select fifty lines from Tennyson ; repeat them twice in the morning and twice in the evening untU. you can repeat all without the book. Then select fifty similar lines from the same author and selection and repeat as many times as you can without reaching a marked de- gree of fatigue. If necessary, try again as soon as fatigue has disappeared. Then compare the number of repetitions and time spent on the two. It wiU doubtless be found that the first test economizes time and energy. Again, commit to memory twenty-five or fifty lines by learning only a few at a time, and then a few more, untU the whole is learned. Under the same conditions commit to memory a similar number of liues from the same selec- tion; only read the entire number each time until you are sure of the whole. Carefully record the time in each case. Which wiU have the advantage in saving time ? In justice I should not tell you, but lest you never try it and because of its practical application to study, I say the com- plete readiag each time has an immense advantage. The reason why this is not the customary method is due to the fact that the student becomes discouraged because several readings apparently bring no results. But when memory comes under such conditions, it comes all at once, and EELATION AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 173 then has the immense advantage of being under a con- tinuous train of associations. In repeating the work it is not divided into sections that must be put together. It forms one whole. 2. The Law of Emotional Interest plays an important part in the association of ideas and fully explains many a strange combination of ideas. For example, my earliest recollection is that of being hurt by a horse ; and associ- ated with this incident is a vivid image of an old barn, even to the minutest detail. An emotional undertone often colors all the associations of a given impression. A whole multitude of thoughts and impressions may be permanently cemented by an abiding undertone emotion. Lovers and homesick people know what I mean. The very thought of a Turk first brings to my consciousness the vision of an old, dilapi- dated bridge across one arm of the sea at Constantinople, the moon-lit hills of the Asiatic shore, the soimd of the ships, the songs of some laboring Turks, and then a countless number of impressions concerning the general conditions. Because of the mingled feelings of joy and sadness prevailing that night, this vision is the starting point of days of reminiscences. Interest of all kinds, and especially interest as presented in connection with apperception, gives direction to the association and relation of ideas. In the case of natural- born geniuses it is emotional interest that guides the association and relation of ideas. Here we must look deeper, for hereditary tendency helps to determine reaction in certain lines, just as the instinctive tendencies of ani- mals give preference to certain stimuli. 174 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY No process of teaching or education can ignore the law of emotional preference. It operates always and everywhere in spite of our attitude. We should study it and turn it to positive use. 3. The Law of Logical Relation hinds together by means of cause and effect, or of some common elerrient. We have already had many examples of what we might properly call accidental connection of thoughts and ideas, due to their relation in time and space. The thought of my brother suggests a little mountain town, a beautiful river that glides by it, a canoe upset in the water, a runaway team. There is no logical connection or common element here. These impressions simply occurred at the same time and place. Without realizing it, our educational system once rested largely upon this accidental association. Many are still content with it in spite of the great superiority of logical connections. The life of Socrates is naturally associated with that of such noble souls as Bruno, Spinoza, and Savonarola, be- cause of the common elements. Nero may suggest Martin Luther because they differ in the quality of goodness. The causes of the American Eevolution, for the logically trained mind, connect with many remote events of the hvmian race. Sociological history that proceeds by means of cause and effect, and by common elements, is so superior to history of accidental association that it must eventually supplant the latter. For this reason science is proving herself superior to many other studies as a mental discipline. 4. Voluntary attention is usually stated as one of these secondary laws of association. I believe the term is difficult and unfortunate, as wUl be seen in the chapter on Will. RELATION AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 175 A better term would be Consciousness of Effort. But we shall make clear what is generally meant by the term voluntary attention. Concentrate your attention upon the next htmdred words so you wiU know when you have covered a hundred words, and at the same time you must know something of what is said in these words. Now do it. Begin. You are at this moment changing your mental attitude. There is a certain tension which you feel in your muscles. A feeling of effort is the result. Strange ideas try to crowd you off the track, to confuse your counting, but you must succeed. You are probably form- ing an association, never before formed, between the line and the number of words in it. Perhaps you have some idea of the number of lines on a page. Hereafter you will remember where you did this, your position, surroundings, etc. If you have obeyed me, you know the Law of Volun- tary Attention. It is more easily remembered than defined. By this concentration of attention some ideas are given vigor. A number of noises are disturbing me now as I write. Should I focus attention upon them with a view to analyzing them and ascertaining the number, they would become prominent in the stream of consciousness and permanently associated. Even this has caused my atten- tion to turn to them, and ever after these pages will prob- ably suggest this series of impressions. That it is a cold, dark night will be, by accidental association, connected with this occasion. I agree with James that this voluntar/ effort endures only for a few moments. We launch ourselves and soon we are carried on by the stream of thought. But the mis- leading thing is that we do not launch ourselves without a 176 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY cause, as is usually implied by this term. Why did you count those hundred words ? Had I not commanded it, would you have counted ? But this fact remains : Concen- tration increases brain modification whatever the cause may be, and thereby furthers the association of ideas. Association in Dreams. Many valuable investigations have recently been made on the subject of Dreams. Dreams are lighter and more logical during daytime than at night. The structure of the dream also bears some relation to the deepness of the sleep. A French investigator, N. Vaschilde, claims to have foujid a brief period of forgetfulness on waking. He discusses to some extent "How to Control Dreams." All efforts to control the hour of waking affect dreams. The influence of suggestion can hardly be over- estimated. The most thorough and systematic research into dream- land is Freud's " Traumdeutung." On account of its im- portant relation to the general problems of association of ideas the chief principles must be reviewed. The psy- chologist can no longer consider dreams a senseless com- plex of hallucinations, roaming lawlessly in the brain of the sleeper, nor simply psychic reactions to outside stimuli. Down deep in the subconscious is hidden a dream material that is coherent and logical. The dream is ihe translation of this hieroglyphic, symbolic material or record of the past life into common speech. Impressions in life, long past, especiaUy'shocks, strong feelings, desires, etc. are held symbolically. The translation is made by what he caUs free association. We all have, treasured in the subcon- scious mind, many wishes suppressed since childhood. In RELATION AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 177 short, dreams are the fulfillment of repressed wishes. To secure pleasure and avoid pain is the law that reigns in the subconscious. The conscious dream-content which we relate is not the real dream-thought; it is only accentuated parts of it. The whole association and interpretation of symbols are secured from the individual by means of psychoanalysis. The details of this process we cannot enter into here, notwithstanding its great bearing on association of ideas. " The dream," says Freud, " is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious in the soul" Under such an interpretation of dreams a much wider scope is given to the association of ideas ; they almost seem to resort to subterfuge, disguising themselves as strangers. Whatever we think of the theory, the facts presented by Trend and others make it certain that we can no longer explain the associations in dreams simply as the free play of the nervous system in response to stimuh. Under apper- ception we have already seen how ideas are often disguised by associated ideas. Any strong outside stimidus may inject itself into a dream ; but that is one thing, and being the cause of the dream is quite another. Any unexpected stimulus is likely to be injected into our waking thoughts and to modify them. Our dream critics say that every dream contains some- thing from the last waking state. An amusing, a sad, or a serious incident fixed on the mind to-day may reappear in a dream to-night. But all this may occur without these things being the primary basis of the dream-thought ; and they become very misleading because they are likely to form a part of the conscious dream idea. I have no doubt that this scientific study wiU finally result in showing us 178 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY a greater and greater similarity between dream life and waking consciousness. If one could keep a perfectly accurate record of all ideas that follow any given joke or any sudden idea, such record would reveal strange associations of ideas. Practical Results of the Association Method. Professor Jung of Jena has developed an elaborate system of tests in association. The work is related to and bears out the con- clusion of the Freudian school. For practical tests a list of one hundred common words is carefully selected. The list has been perfected so as to strike readily all the practi- cal occurrences of Ufe. The words are then pronounced one after another, and the person tested is instructed to answer as quickly as possible with the first word that enters the field of consciousness. The time necessary for a response is carefully recorded. It is not so easy and simple as it appears. In the first place many individuals show a marked pro- longed reaction time. This slowness of response does not depend on intellectual difficulties, hit on emotions involved'. For example, the word hride or bridegroom will not produce a simple reaction in a young lady, but the time wiU be influenced by the feeling evoked. Sometimes the individual cannot react readily to some words. In cases of hysteria there are many failures to react at all. Sometimes , the first word that occurs is suppressed, and then the individual is not content with a single word and gives several in which the original one will prob- ably appear. The hysterically inclined individual makes everything personal. KELATION AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 179 This system can be applied to a number of persons sus- pected of a crime. Professor Jung gives many practical experiments. In one case he detected a thief among six nurses. A pocketbook had been stolen. He selected a number of suitable words, such as door, hey, open, cup- hoard, names of things connected with the stealing, and then the names of all the things the purse contained. Other suitable words, such as suspicion, theft, steal, police, lie, fear, etc. were added. These were distributed among twice as many indifferent words. It is impossible to recite here the long process and the variations of reaction time. But the thief was successfully caught and openly confessed the crime. The system may also be applied to AeteeX, feigned insanity. Another very suggestive application of these tests is the examination of several whole families. The most general conclusion drawn from these investigations is that all the members of a family seem to have a similarly lengthened reaction time for certain words involving peculiarly affec- tive states, even though such states belong only to one of the family. Our writers conclude that it is due to the unconscious infection of the whole group. " Every patient," says Jung, " furnishes contributions to this subject of the determination of destiny through the influence of the family." This emphasizes the importance of the emo- tional life in early childhood. It is not so much the open teaching that forms the character of the child as the permanent moods and undertone feelings of the parents, or the concealed discord, the secret worry, the repressed wishes. All these unconsciously work their way into the child's mind. These movements may reveal much of the hidden soul life through the association of ideas. CHAPTEE IX PUNCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF MEMOEY AND IMAGINATION Memory and Imagination in Animals. Gradually we are passing from the old theological idea that animals have only instincts, man intellect. This doctrine my first teacher of psychology taught without compromise. Yet she was injudicious enough to mention the case of her dog that was kept in the house during the time he had a broken leg. She stated that months after he was well, when scolded for being in the house, he would feign lameness. I have often wondered if she was stupid or only bookish, that she did not see that this case involved som0 kind of memory, imagination, and inference or rea- soning — some kind, I say. In proportion as our knowledge of the wonderful power of animals to modify instinctive activity has advanced, have we been compelled to concede the modifying influence of some kind of intelligence. Our chief difficulty lay in our desire for classification and nomenclature. We may look in vain for any time or place where memory, imagina- tion, and thinking came into existence as we find them in ourselves. They are the products of a gradual evolution, from older and more imconscious forms. They exist now even in human beings in all kinds of forms, combinations, and degrees. 180 MEMORY AND IMAGINATION 181 Six new psyohologiea on my desk are each much con- cerned as to whether animals have ideas in the form of images. I am reminded of James's great address on " Hu- man Immortality," in which he said to a band of mission- aries: " Be honest ; not one of you ever pictured to yourself a heaven overflowing with Chinamen. Why should I be jealous if even the leaves on the trees are immortal?" Is an image an absolute necessity for memory ? If so, it proves too much. The power of image formation varies in all degrees with human beings. In my hmited inves- tigations I have found at least a half-dozen students practically devoid of any visual imagery. Galton in his pioneer work on these lines says, " To my astonishment I found that the great majority of the men of science to whom I first applied, protested that mental imagery was imknown to them." Eomanes has given a number of cases of memory in birds, horses, elephants, dogs, and monkeys, which any one can verify by observation of the higher animals, and which certainly involves some kind of conscious memory. I can- not subscribe to the statement that "there is no good reason for believing that any animal possesses memory in this, its truest form." On the other hand, the facts com- pel me to concede the statement of Miss Washburn, that " it is not likely that any such gulf separates the human mind from that of the higher animals as would be involved in the absence from the latter of all images of past experi- ences." The evidence of memory and imagination in ani- mals will become clearer when we consider varieties of memory and imagination. The common interpretation of animal activities assumes the existence of these powers. 182 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY Varieties of Memory. 1. Since Hering's remarkable analysis of organic memory the use of this term is not only proper but necessary. It includes the power of or- ganic tissue to retain past impressions which predispose to certain future lines of action. The powerful force of heredity has its basis in organic memory. This is also manifested in the reflex activities already considered. In the highly developed reflexive and often habitual activity, consciousness may accompany the process, but the cause seems to abide in the organic tissue. The many acquired secondary reflexes, such as walking, highly perfected playing of musical instruments, perform- ances of thoroughly trained animals, expert marksman- ship, seem to have lost in a large measure their dependence on consciousness, and the power seems to abide in the muscles. To know that this power exists and how to con- ceive it are two different propositions. Houdin, having practiced until he was able to keep four balls in the air at once and at the same time to read from a book with- out hesitation, says that after thirty years, with scarcely any practice, he was able to read while keeping up three balls. The question of conscious memory in animals is largely a question as to how much organic memory can explain. 2. Semieonscious memory is a term I would apply to a large field of psychic activities not exactly re/lex or habit- ual. One writer has presented some of this material under noninstinetive adjustments on the organic level of conscious- ness. " In walking we go through the crowds, turning this way and that way without bumping into anybody. We avoid stumbUng over rough places, turn aside for trees, for stones, for muddy spots. We come to a stream and give MEMORY AND IMAGINATION 183 just the right spring to leap across it. We balance on one foot, we shoot a target, we hit or catch a baseball that is thrown. We drive a tennis ball aright, walk on the rail of a railway track, or even learn to walk a tight rope." These and hundreds of other adjustments that might be mentioned, such as bicycle riding, dancing, circus perform- ing, coming down a flight of stairs in the dark, turning to the proper corner for the book one happens to want, while apparently occupied with something else, are generally not whoUy unconscious ; but no image of any past performance seems to be necessary. The conscious part seems concerned only vnth the end to he accomplished. In a much larger way many dim memories of past ex- perience exercise a control over our flow of ideas and over our conduct, without thrusting any vivid images into con- sciousness. A sudden shock, an insult, a fright, a sad story, a grand theatrical performance, a powerful book— none of these lose their guiding effect on life as soon as they cease to be evoked in the form of conscious images. Shall we then say they are in no wise remembered ? 3. Recognition and the feeling of familiarity are forms of memory that are doubtless more primitive than memory images. Such are probably quite common to animals and are always evident in human experience. Neither are they the same as anticipatory images, such as the child forms in anticipating the outcome of a story. These images are constructed by imagination out of memory material. The lower orders of anticipatory images, such as some writers believe to be the only kind of imagery in animals, need not involve consciousness of past experiences; but they are the raw material for memory images, and it seems 184 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY hardly probable that the result of actions can be anticipated by animals without some aid from sources such as are presented under semiconscious memory. Can we not recall many cases when a given passage, a poem, a story, a person, a place, an anecdote, or an incident seemed familiar, yet we were unable to locate it in any definite past experience ? Sometimes this may be due to a past similar experience which we do not recognize because we are confusing similarity with identity, but- it may also be due to partial memory. A strange speculative theory about a past existence has been invoked to explain the feeling that we have been here before when we know we have not. In all such cases, what is not due to auto- suggestion is undoubtedly due to a past similar experience not then recognized. Again, there are countless numbers of experiences that wUl never again be in consciousness unless similar experi- ences are thrust upon us. Then we recognize them. We may even be sure of the experience, but unable to locate it in time and place. Eecently a young lady called to see me. I felt positively sure I recognized her. I secured her name, acted as if I had always known her, and, being so sure, I said, " Where did I meet you ? " She replied, " No- where." I am still at a loss for an explanation of this positive feeling of certainty, but it must be related to some past impression of some one else that now dominates this interpretation but. does not fuUy rise in consciousness. 4. Memory images of the different senses. Visual im- ages predominate in most people, and with some they are almost the only mode by which memory and imagination represent the past to the individual. It will be an easy MEMOEY AJ^TD IMAGINATIOlSr 185 matter to get an insight into this individual variation. Select forty or fifty words, such as dancing, battle, thunder- storm, merry-go-round, coffee, toothache ; request the class to note what first comes into consciousness as you utter these imexpected words. Some will see the dance hallj the battlefield, the lightning and the sky, the steam rising from the coffee. Some will hear the music, the cannon roar, the music of the merry-go-round. Others wiU/eeZ the movement of the dance or of the merry-go-roimd, the shud- der produced hy the thunder. A few will smell or taste the coffee. If this be carried far enough, careful selections made, and records kept, you can discover the dominant tendency of each person. Eemarkable individual differences exist and should be taken into accoimt in our educative process. Persons strongly inclined to be visual-minded find it difficult to learn a foreign language through the ear. It is this type of mind that may play a half-dozen games of chess at once, blindfolded. Those ear-minded find the oral language easy. To have images of taste, smell, and movement is not com- mon, but many very marked cases may be found. Very few individuals are limited exclusively to any one of these kinds of memory, but in most people either visual or audi- tory images predominate, and motor are perhaps next in generality. 5. The complete memory process. This includes (1) re- tention of past impressions; (2) recall of such impres- sions ; (3) recognition as a past experience ; (4) location in space and time ; (5) association of impressions in nor- mal relations. Certainly it has now become evident that we have not only memory, but memories ; that memory 186 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY is the product of a developing process, as are all other faculties and powers of man ; that memory is inseparably joined to imagination. Another important fact should be noted in this connec- tion. We have memories for dates, for names, for poetry, for events, etc., that are comparatively distinct. Cultiva- tion of memory in any one line adds little power in others. The mail clerk who can call twelve or fifteen thousand people by name on sight has not, in any discernible degree, increased his power to commit poetry to memory. Some minds are, by their very inherited constitution, more in- cHned to some lines than to others. The musical or mathematical prodigy furnishes a good example. In other cases interest, habit, and exercise determine our chief memory abihty. The Physical Basis of Memory. It is now conceded (1) that memory is wholly conditioned on brain paths and their connections ; (2) that no past event can appear in consciousness unless the same fibers and cells are again stimulated to action quite siJnilar to the original; (3) that retention and recall are but the law of habit in the ner- vous system ; (4) that when certain parts of the brain fail to function or are destroyed there is temporary or perma- nent damage to memory. Such diseases of memory are well described by Eibot. Aphasia is the loss of the power of speech, due not to any defect in articulation or in general inteUigence ; it is for- getting how. Agraphia is a disorder by which the indi- vidual forgets how to write. The muscles are all right, but .memory of the past art is wanting. Alexia is loss of MEMORY AND IMAGIKATIOlsr 187 memory of the process of reading. We also have many cases of purely intellectual phenomena in which memory fails in particular liues only. The loss of the power to remember proper names, while memory for all other things is normal, is occasionally found. Eeference has already been made on page 127 to the personal observations on a physician's daughter, who had received a severe injury by falling from a third-story win- dow. When I met her she was perfectly well, but very deformed, had regained her mental power and vigor except the ability to call proper names. As a substitute she de- scribed in minute detail until the person or object referred to was clearly recognized. Such diseases of memory, as well as other disorders that might be mentioned, together with the results of many surgical operations, compel the conclusion not only that memory has a physical basis but also that special memories use specific parts of the brain. How these impressions are retained in the nervous sub- stance is entirely beyond the power of imagination and belongs to the absolutely inconceivable. It was once generally believed, and still is by some, that aU ideas that were once in consciousness, and that may still be recalled, contimie to exist somewhere as ideas. But this baffles my imagination. Perhaps a scientific fact might help us in our conception of the way these impres- sions are treasured up. While the records of a Victrola lie unoperated on my table are there, in reality, any songs, operas, voices of men and women, emotions of love, religion, etc., or only the potentiality or possibility ? While probably no imagination will ever be powerful enough to picture Jiow these millions of delipate and different impressions 188 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY are treasured in the nervous system, and, what is still harder, how they are again brought into living reality, yet it seems that this is the only possible direction ia which the Iruth can lie. However, let no one suppose that this gives any support to materialism. Whether the essence of things is materialistic or spiritualistic is a philosophical problem, and from speculative considerations we are compelled to a spiritualistic rather than to a materialistic philosophy. Relation of Imagination and Memory. To make a com- plete separation of these two functions of mind is impos- sible. Pure meTWory is consciousness that the phenomenon has existed in the past and essentially/ as it is now. Pure imagination is consciousness that this particular represen- tation has not yet existed for us as it is now in conscious- ness. Between these two statements there is a distinct difference. But we have taken only the extreme forms of both processes. Let us take a few different cases. I once saw a boy stab another. Many times my imagination or memory (which shall I say ?) pictured the scene. When called before the jury I had a definite image before my mind as to how it all happened. Suppose the image was all wrong, shall I charge the lie to the memory or to the imagination ? In dealing with children the pedagogue recognizes the lie of the imagination. Do such lies exist among big children ? Yesterday I read a description of a sinking ship. Suppose I now make a drawing of it. Is that memory or imagina- tion ? Last year I saw the parliament building in Victoria. I will now draw the front lawn, putting ten trees in the MEMORY AND IMAGINATION 189 front row. Suppose there were only eight, yet my imagi- nation makes me believe there were ten, because it harmo- nizes with what / think would he the proper number. Are there not thousands of false memories due to this under- tone desire to have things harmonize to suit us ? Suppose at first I knowingly put these extra trees there, but later come to think ten the original number ? James long ago placed all memory images under the imagination, showed how vague and indefinite they usu- ally are, and how they vary in different individuals. I am sure these suggestions will suffice to make clear the close relation of memory and imagiuation and justify their joint consideration. One difference between an image of past ex- perience, or memory image, and the true imaginary image, is often the extreme changeableness of the latter. Often these imaginary images are as changeable as moving pictures. Strange Visual Images. Some years ago I was very much interested in number forms and collected about one hundred forty-seven, to which I have since added several. I not only found that about one in every fourteen persons has one of these strange number forms, but that many have forms for the days of the week, months of the year, and the twenty-four hours of the day. Some have forms for certain anthems, the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, and the alphabet. A few see the printed page in various colors, certain letters always appearing in a given color. Some see certain colors when some specific high notes are struck. The general character of a number form is such that whenever a number is thought of, it appears in the same place on a visual diagram which is invariably called up 190 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY and viewed by the mental eye. Sometimes these diagrams are enormously large. Galton, who first studied these phenomena, says : " Sometimes a form has twists as well as bends, sometimes it is turned upside down, sometimes it plunges into an abyss of immeasurable depth, or rises and disappears in the sky." These forms are useful to the individual. I found but six who could remember when and how the forms originated, 90. 100. Fig. 16 and in no case was the explanation satisfactory, even to the individual. In spite of their early and mysterious origin I cannot believe, as Galton does, that they are hereditary. Their origin lies in the early, free play of the imagination. These forms do not constitute a class of distinct phenomena. They are a part of the endless variety of mental imagery. Not only is this true, but there are many indefinite and embryonic number forms. Many MEMOKY AND IMAGINATION 191 children when counting simply have a sensation that the numbers go to the right, up, or down. A noted mathe- matician said he had no number form, but that his number series contracted as it advanced into the thousands. CApr.) ( j^arT^ ^N^ DecjCjJsD (jan) Fig. 16 is the number form of a professor of phi- losophy. He was astonished to learn that any one could conceive numbers in any other way. Fig. 17 is a young man's form for the months of the year. No two forms I have ever seen bear any close resemblance. The varieties are as great as the number of forms. The great lesson to be drawn from all this is that we must not believe that 192 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY our mode of conceiving things is the hest, the only cor- rect, or the only possible way. What may be impossible to us may be easy and natural to others. Values and Dangers of the Imagination. The best things in the world are also the most dangerous. This will certainly apply to the imagination. Let us note briefly its immense value. 1. Appreciative imagination. In the production and en- joyment of literature' and art, imagination is the supreme factor. In reference to Maeterlinck's " Blue Bird," which has been enjoyed so much, a cultured gentleman lately said, "Maeterlinck's imagination must be wild almost to the point of insanity." " Yes," said I, " and the individual who gets and enjoys his meaning must have a wild imagina- tion behind which abides the guiding hand of large ideas." ' 2. Constructive imagination is the pilot of science and invention. Without this, invention would come to a standstill. 3. Idealistic imagination. The imagination is a power- ful element in producing character under the guidance of ideals. An individual without effective ideals is a drifter without a destiny. From the daily experiences of Ufe and from the noble characters of history and literature the imagination may construct these ideals. I have little hope for the young man or woman who has not sufficient am- bition, interest, and imagination to construct an ideal destiny. 4. Music-imagination. Imagination puts a soul into both the production and the enjoyment of music. This is one of the elements that comprehensible words add to musia MEMORY AND IMAGINATION 193 The words must be such as to provoke mental images within the range of the experiences of the individuals. This alone wHlgive life and interest. A soul rich in past emotional experience and gifted with imagination cannot fail to be moved by appropriate music. The disregard of these factors in much of the music for children and by many music teachers in our public schools is a serious blunder. Music must not be regarded simply as a science, an art, an accomplishment; its supreme function is to enrich human feelings and add joy to life. 5. Reminiscent imagery. The enjoyment of the past is chiefly the result of a vivid imagination. Here good ha,bits and education play an important part. If not, the mind comes to dwell upon the dark side of life, to magnify this darkness out of all due proportion, to get sorrow even out of past pleasures because they come not again. " Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay," and a thou- sand other phrases, so keenly enjoyed by many, are echoes of this tendency. But they are stiU. in the land known as the luxury of grief, and may never pass into despair. 6. Sympathetic imagination. Sympathy with others is largely dependent upon that power of the imagination by which one lives in the conditions of another. Those who have never known need, want, poverty, are one step re- moved from the possibility of genuine sympathy for the starving thousands. Those who have neither known these things nor observed the conditions of the poverty-stricken are two steps removed from the possibility of genuine sym- pathy. You blame them to no effect. They may give of their goodsi but for sympathetic feeling they are lacking in material. 194 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY The dangers of imagination may be briefly presented under three heads : (1) Criminal imagination. Imaginary crime tends to become realized. There is a practical essay by Holland on " The Sins of the Imagination." It is full of psychological truth. In psychology we recognize sudden psychic breaks, and the explosive character is not uncom- mon; but for most objective crimes vre have reason to believe that a period of incubation in the imagination is necessary. (2) Pathological imagination. Serious bodily and mental disorders are often the product of the imagina- tion, and those that have some other origin are often greatly increased by the imagination. This topic wUl re- ceive further consideration in the chapter on Mental Healing. (3) Idle daydreaming may be pleasurable, but it is detrimental to mental discipline and squanders time that could be put to better use. The Education of Memory and Imagination. 1. The ways, means, and extent to which these powers may be and should be improved are still problems in education. Some years ago Professor James startled the educational world by saying that " no amount of culture would seem capable of modifying a man's original retentiveness." His original power is based on the number of brain cells and their connections. But the same writer added that " aU improvement of memory consists in the improvement of one's habitual methods of recording facts." The elabora- tion of our methods of association is still, in some degree, at our command. The more I study the educational process the more I am convinced that what we chiefly do for these powers MEMORY AND IMAGINATION 195 of memory and imagination is to direct their energies in certain lines rather than actually to increase their power. I have little hope of inflaroing a flickering spark of imagi- nation into a consuming fire. Of course many will cite cases of sluggish imagiaations becoming creative and pow- erful under stimuli I have seen that happen to many children under no stimulus save their natural develop- ment. General education is destined to become more and more a directive force. Its second great function will be to economize time and energy. We have overestimated our ability to rectify the supposed mistakes of Nature. 2. The Laws of MeTuory are essentially the Laws of Asso- ciation of Ideas, already considered in a previous chapter. Their importance justifies a brief restatement, (a) Relation hy means of cause and effect or by adequate classification of facts gives us the highest form of memory and ike one to be sought in our educative process, (b) Clear, vivid images are most easily recalled, (c) Emotional interest is a powerful factor in determining what shall become a permanent part of one's stock of past experiences, (d) Repetition deepens the brain paths and helps to insure association and recall, (e) Voluntary attention, being accompanied by effort, secures a more vivid image and strengthens memory. (/) Other things being equal, the most recent impressions are the most likely to be reproduced, (jg) This new memory, ma- terial may seem permanent, but soon it begins to slip away very rapidly. At first this process of forgetting goes on so rapidly that it seems that all will soon be gone ; but what remains goes slower and slower. Ebbinghaus, after .many tests, declared that a person may retain almost as much after thirteen months as after twelve months. 196 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY Suggestions to the Student for saving Time and Energy. 1. In applying the law of logical connection seek for the natural grouping and relation of things, no matter in what class or book such facts be encountered. Learn to see the psychology there is in literature, the lessons of sociology contained in novels, etc. The mind I appreciate most is not the one that presents the greatest number of facts, first, second, etc., but the one that sees the relations, agreements, or disagreements. Seek relations everywhere. Every lesson has some examples for other lessons if prop- erly seen. Never throw your mind into chaos by cramming disconnected facts for examination. Your mind is worth more than your grade. 2. Where only an ordinary comprehension is desired, it is a mistake to read with the reserved understanding that the material is to be read again. Such understand- ing lurking in the dimness of consciousness will help to dissipate attention. As a rule, read rapidly and with the positive understanding that you must get it then or never. 3. Time and energy are saved by reading the whole from beginning to end each time until it is learned. 4. Rapid repetitions are much better than slow ones. Slow movement of thought allows foreign ideas and associ- ations to be formed. For all occasions rapid reading secures better results than slow reading. 5. In learning anything that requires several repetitions, after a few repetitions it saves time and energy to allow some time to elapse before returning to it again. Just what the greatest lapse of time between repetitions, and the greatest number of repetitions at any one time should be, wUl depend somewhat on the length of the material MEMOEY AND IMAGINATION 197 to be memorized, the physical condition of the individual, the tendencies to fatigue, and the relation of recalluig to forgetting. Eefer to tests given under association. 6. If possible, first understand what you are to learn. We should never compel memory first and hope for under- standing later. 7. Finally, let no one attempt to carry a mass of rubbish and junk in his mind. To burden the mind with the non- essential and trivial is to forget the more essential. It is a waste of precious energy and life to insist on carrying a jumble of stuff on the assumption of disciplining the mind; there are enough useful things to discipline the mind. I respect the individual who refuses to carry in his mind the names of all the capes of Europe and the cross- roads of Texas. Judicuma forgetting is a necessary adjunct of a good memory. Memory and Court Testimony. Evidence in court was once considered to be either conscious truth or willful lying. That both lies and truth might be told unintention- ally was not dreamed of. Browning, in his great work, " The Eing and the Book," makes a literary attempt to show how impossible it is " to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." But the subject has recently received scientific investigation, and I append here the chief conclusions of the principal investigator. Professor Stem of Breslau University. Experiments made on students as to the number of pic- tures in a room showed that by " narration " immediately after observation five per cent were in error, and some weeks later, ten per cent. By " interrogation " the per cent of 198 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY error increased to twenty or twenty-five. Another set of experiments which involved the simple incident of a gen- tleman entering the room, conversing briefly, taking a book from the shelf and departing, showed a week later twenty- five per cent in error by simple " narration," and fifty per cent in error by " interrogation." We must now state the practical conclusions without further rehearsal of experiments. In home and school dis- cipline we should not consider a report demonstrably false necessarily a lie and to be punished accordingly. The un- conscious power of fancy, imagination, and faulty memory may account for it. Falsification by children when under fire of questions and suggestions is natural and almost unavoidable. The sworn testimony of a competent witness can no longer be regarded as consciously true or false. The more a witness is left to spontaneous narration and the less suggestive questions he is asked, the less will be the danger of falsification. AVhenever identification is involved the witness should make it without suggestions as to features, dress, etc. Colors are poorly remembered, and after lapse of time testimony concerning clothing is almost worthless. Short intervals of time are liable to be overestimated, es- pecially under emotional excitement. The testimony of children and adolescents should be given special consider- ation. Lawyers should occasionally be the subjects of mem- ory tests, in order that they may see how the answering of questions is actually performed. The practical application of psychology was first directed to education. It is now being extended to medicine and law with every evidence of fruitful results and, great modi- fications of old beliefs. CHAPTER X PROBLEMS OF HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT The old adage, " Better to be born lucky than rich," has its root in observation, but is the result of misinterpreted facts. Luck and chance, implying the absence of adequate cause, have no place in this universe of order. The adage should be, " Better to be well born than rich," because the only degrees of wealth in this world are the degrees of life. " There is no wealth but life," says Euskin. There is no problem of modern science which cries so loudly for public attention and information. It is the su- preme demand of the hour, because it is here that the cost of ignorance is paid in direct terms of human life. Here the old impressions of the populace are frequently contrary to the well-established facts of science; but without public opinion nothing can be made practical. Some surmise of its importance might be gained even by a glimpse of the work going on in this, line all over the civilized world. Oxford University has recently appropriated a large sum of money for special researches in heredity. The old doctrine declared that each individual has the same kind of a soul with equal potentialities. Science says no two souls come into the world alike. No two indi- viduals start life equal, either physically, intellectually, or morally. The strongest statement we can make concerning equality is that individuals may vary from approximate 199 200 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY sameness to all degrees of unlikeness. Galton made exten- sive studies along these lines, including some twenty cases of ■ twins. In nearly every case he found evidence to the effect that " their increasing dissimilarity must he ascribed to a natural difference of mind and character, as there has been nothing in their treatment to account for it." Mr. Galton's impression is finally summed up as follows : " The impres- sion that all this leaves on the mind is one of some wonder whether nurture can do anything at all, beyond giving in- struction and professional training. There is no escape from the conclusion that nature prevails enormously over nur- ture when the differences of nurture do not exceed what is commonly to be found among persons of the same rank of society and in the same country." Suppose training and environment are able to strengthen some relatively weak powers of the original nature, and prevent the development of stronger ones; that is no ar- gument for denying the existence of such qualities or af- firming that it is a wise thing to do. Do a man's inherent qualities so combine as to make him a poet or a painter, a scientist or a mathematician ? That depends upon the degree of original organization and unity. In the greatest geniuses, yes ; for the majority of cases the inner natures only indicate a general direction. By putting a false meaning into heredity, never applied by science, the get-there-quick reformer would instruct the public to ignore heredity and base all reform on environ- ment. This is contrary to the important revelations of modern science. By minimizing and ignorrag the primary cause these reformers become more hopeful in dealing with the secondary cause — environment. Suppose that by some HEEEDITY AND ENVIEONMENT 201 Faust-like magic we could rid the world of objective evils and the objective conditions leading to those evils, such as saloons, dens of vice, fraud, and dishonesty. Still, would not the same inherent nature that developed these condi- tions develop similar ones in the process of time ? Viewing conditions as they now are, this phase of psy- chology is more important than any other. In a book like this everything must be elementary and introductory. Therefore we shall attempt a simple statement of some facts and problems, with a hope that such may arouse in- terest, lead to further study, and to a better-informed public. Meaning of Heredity. Heredity, as used in ordinary speech, has two meanings — one now scientifically proved false, the other only a part of the truth. Heredity is often used to cover only the qualities, habits, and char- acteristics acquired by parents in their lifetime; but these functional and structural changes produced in an individual by conditions are not now generally believed to be transmitted. Such modifications must be distin- guished from the poisonous effects of certain diseases and of drugs that act directly on the germ cell to poison and deteriorate the same. For thirty years all efforts to pro- duce any evidence of the transmission of these functional and structural changes acquired during the lifetime have failed. There is a wide difference between an acquired function, such as swiftness of foot, facUity in the use of many languages, skiUfulness in piano playing, acquired diseases that do not act as a poison on the germ cells, crimes for which conditions are responsible, and the effect produced hy saturating the system with a poisonous alcohol. Poisons 202 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY act directly on the germ cells. There is no proof, nor are there any indications, that these first-mentioned acquired functions are inherited. Slum children are horn ready to start where their parents started, in spite of the deteriora- tion of their parents. It has been proved that their stunted growth and proneness to disease are due to their environ- ment. Have not the retinal and optic nerves of our ances- tors been stimulated by images from the external world probably for half a million years ? Yet the naturally blind have no images or tendency to form them. What hope then may we entertain that a few hours of muscular exercise, of mathematical thinking, of piano playing, etc., will ever modify the course of our offspring ? Mention should be made of two popular beliefs con- cerning heredity. One of them is the belief that a female's offspring, animal or human, by a second mate will tend to resemble the first mate. Darwin cited one case as sci- entific. But all efforts to produce satisfactory proof have failed. The belief is certainly founded on the tendency to draw conclusions from individual cases of coincidence and suggested resemblances. The other is that almost universal belief that the mother's mental condition during pregnancy may mod- ify the offspring even to the extent of marks and physical deformity. There is no scientific evidence for this wide- spread belief. Many children are born with some abnor- mality and a large proportion have some mark on the skin. Coincidence and suggestion are probably the sources of this belief. We shall continue to look with interest upon the efforts to prove the inheritance of acquired characteristics. It HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 203 is certainly not proved yet, and all indications render it doubtM. Even if it were true, experiments have now proved that such heredity must always remain a compar- atively small factor in the development of the race. If the activities and conditions of the organism during its natural existence affect the coming generations, such effect is almost an imperceptible accumulation, and especially inclined to be manifest in some indefinite form. Is this a denial of heredity ? " Now who could have predicted," says Dr. Saleeby, " that this plain and simple truth would be regarded by some people as constituting a denial of the principle of heredity. ' The bubble of heredity has been pricked,' says Mr. Bernard Shaw." Many advo- cates of environment have seen only this much iu heredity. Again, in ordinary speech, heredity means that we can trace the given characteristics in some one or more of the ancestors. This is an accurate use of the term, but it is not all of the truth. There are also hereditary qualities that cannot he traced in the ancestors. Such are those that belong to spontaneous variations. Such variations are constantly occurring throughout nature, and man is no exception. They are also being greatly multiphed artificially. Dr. Saleeby tells us that Professor Biff en " has called into existence a new kind of wheat such as never existed before." There are thousands of qualities and combinations both physical and intellectual coming into existence by what I have called creative variation. Idiots, imbeciles, and de- formed children are often born of parents iu whose ancestors we cannot trace these characteristics. Geniuses are often like products. All such variations tend to he inherited. In- vestigations show that children from parents born deaf are 204 ELEMENTAKY PSYCHOLOaY more than two hundred fifty times as likely to be deaf as children of parents whose hearing was not impaired. Other physical defects follow similar ratios. It is also equally true that the spontaneous mental variations, whether good or bad, tend to reappear in the offspring ; that is to say, that the children of naturally gifted parents have many more chances to be gifted than the average child. But by creative variation, which works from inner causes un- known to us, may come naturally gifted individuals from any people. Once started, these qualities tend to persist. Imbe- cility and idiocy may occasionally appear among the chil- dren of naturally intelligent parents, but the struggles of the past have been against the propagation of these qualities. Dr. Saleeby takes Shakespeare as an example of the hereditary genius in whose ancestors his talent cannot be traced. He says no one would say that Shakespeare's genius was hereditary in the sense that it can be traced in his ancestors. Are we, then, to say that it was acquired? Would not every one protest that a poet is born, not made ? Was his genius then neither inherent nor acquired ? What a dilemma ! But his genius was inherent in him at birth, and in some mysterious way was given to him through his parents. Now what is true of this case may be true in an infinite nmnber of cases and of any quality or lack of quality. In any accurate sense of the word these qualities are hereditary and tend to reappear in the offspring. Children born blind are likely to have children of defective eyesight, and ere long, as we have abimdant proof with animals, these qualities become permanent possessions of the race. The bubble of heredity has not been pricked, for heredity now speaks with a power and authority never HEEEDITY AND EISTVIEONMENT 205 before dreamed of. There are enough plain, simple facts about any farmyard to substantiate the claims of heredity. It is by taking advantage of these variations that the as- tounding results in horticulture and the improvement of animals have been accomplished. Heredity includes every possession, actual and potential, that the organism brings into the world, no matter whether such be the gift of the gods or of parents. Whence come these Hereditary Qualities with which Every Child begins Life? We may simplify our prob- lem by stating these sources under five different heads. Of course it is not possible to make a classification of these characteristics and tendencies so as to indicate the origin of each. 1. Characteristics of humanity. Everywhere men have certain inherited qualities in common. They have physical form, organs of sense, feelings, passions, intelligence, and will. The general forms of these are descended by heredity from countless ages of the past. These children of human- ity are subject to the same diseases, sustained by the same food, and filled with similar longings and emotions. All battle with Nature. By his inheritance of humanity man triumphs where other animals fail. Some one has said : " Man is Nature's rebel. Where Nature says Die ! man says, ' I will live.' " But man does not will Will. He inherits it by being a man. 2. Race inheritance. Without taking into account what is purely habit, custom, and what abides only because it is acquired by each generation anew, we must admit that there are certain parts of each one's heredity that are racial and 206 ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY that cause him to differ in some degree from individuals of other races. Ethnologists have studied these physical and racial traits with great care, and believe them to be ac- companied by mental traits that divide races and determine their progress. Dr. Brinton says, " The differences among men are the results of physiological processes proceeding in definite directions under fixed laws." The Negro, the Mongolian, the Latin races, the Anglo-Saxon ^ all have many characteristics of humanity in common, but each has, in addition thereto, many traits not common to the others. Latourneau states that the races and subraces can be classi- fied according to their mental traits, characteristics, and differences. Many writers on sociology now believe that the inherent nature and tendencies of a race, such as the Teutonic or Latin, have more to do in determining the nature of the religion accepted than the religion has to do in forming these qualities. 3. Characteristics of the father and mother. Every child tends to inherit the qualities of its father and mother, but chiefly the qualities which they brought into the world, not those habits, characteristics, and modified structures which they have acquired during their lifetime. It is im- possible for the child to inherit all the features and qualities of both parents. What combination wiU take place is a problem of future embryology. Whenever two cells unite to form a new organism, one half of the chromatin bodies which are the bearers of heredity are cast off. In each cell there is always an even number of these bodies, and the new ceU stiU contains the same number after the two have united. This process is a powerful factor in determin- ing variations in heredity. HEEEDITY AND ENVIEONMENT 207 4. Individual characteristics due to certain variations. The general tendency is to be like the parents, but there also exists a tendency to be xmlike in some measure. In evolution this is known as spontaneous variation. It is chiefly by these quahties tha.t the individualis distinguished from the mass. One's variations in size, in color of hair or eyes, in structure and general features, in passions, in emotional temperament, in intellect, and in an infinite va- riety of gradations and combinations of qualities — aU are possible inheritances for future generations, and are likely to reappear in the future offspring. That natural, sponta- neous variations favorable to moral and intellectual development may be transmitted is now proved. 5. Latent potentialities, capabilities, and limitations. It often happens that a specific and prominent inherent char- acteristic of the father or mother may not 'appear in their posterity for several generations. This was originally called atavism, but recently some objections have been raised to this use of the word. Fortunately the idea can be secured without disputiug about the name. A few cases will illus- trate this principle. Color-blindness is inherited chiefly by the male. A father who is color-blind may have a half-dozen daughters with perfect power for discriminat- ing colors. These in turn may have children and no color-blindness is likely to appear until a male child is bom. Haemophilia is an incurable blood disease of which the victim dies in maturity. It is hereditary but chiefly inherited by the male children. A mother per- fect in health may give birth to a son who wiU die of the disease later because his grandfather or great-grandfather had the disease. Spencer traced the case of double 208 ELEMENTAEY PSYCHOLOGY thumbs through several generations, found many varia- tions, sometimes double toes also, and found, moreover, that the quality often remained latent for one or two generations. What is true of these physical characteristics is also true of mental and moral variations, and of limitations. They are carried as potentialities for an indefinite time, and, under causes which we cannot discover, may reappear. Some believe that in this manner we inherit from our most remote ancestors — that there is latent in us an infinite number of characteristics and impulses. Jack London's "