concerned with human thought, feeling and action would be based upon it. The orator and actor would seek from psychology knowledge of the laws governing the feelings of an audience; the man of business would ask from psychology an account of the motives which influence men in buying and selling; the teacher would derive his methods from a consideration of the psychological laws of learning; the statesman would study psychology to find the probable effect on a population of a certain law or policy; the manufacturer would obtain the advice of a psychological expert concerning the conditions under which his employees would work most intelligently and efficiently.

Psychology is not sufficiently advanced as yet to give the man engaged in the control of human forces much more useful knowledge than he can obtain by direct observation of his own special problems and common sense inferences from what he sees in daily life. And the only practical sphere in which there has yet been any important relation between the science of psychology and the arts of control over mental life is that of education. In this case the value of the science has been perhaps exaggerated. The art of teaching has been improved by being based upon the science of psychology, but not so much as one might hope.

As the science progresses, it will more and more provide with useful rules all the arts that aim to influence men, and will more and more be recognized as a part of the equipment of the teacher, business man, clergyman, employer, statesman or writer. Even now there are signs of a rapidly growing recognition of its importance by practical men.

Psychology and Education.-Education was mentioned as the one art which has been commonly supposed

to rest upon a foundation of psychology. The supposition has a far better warrant now than it had fifty or even ten years ago.

Besides the general recommendations concerning the best ways to get boys and girls to study, to notice, attend to, understand, remember and apply knowledge, to form habits and develop capacities, which spring out of the facts of general psychology, there are three lines of special psychological knowledge which are influencing the practical work of education. (1) The psychology of childhood has acquired facts concerning instinctive tendencies, the gradual maturing of capacities, the tendencies useful and harmful in children's habits of observing, associating and reasoning, the actual kinds and amounts of knowledge which they may be expected to possess at different ages and under different conditions, their likes and dislikes, the relation of their mental to their physical well being and the like. You will hardly find a book or address on the art of teaching before 1890, which pays any attention to the fact of instinctive tendencies and you will hardly find one after 1900 which does not. The knowledge of these facts is altering the treatment of children in homes as well as in schools. (2) The results of researches in dynamic psychology, mostly quantitative, into the nature and amount of individual differences, the relative shares of original nature and experience in the formation of human intellect and character, the relationships between various factors in education and certain traits of mind, and other allied topics, are being studied by the men and women who plan educational systems, construct the programs of studies for the schools and select the methods of teaching to be followed,-who, that is, administer the affairs of education. For instance, the old practice of trying to get everyone in a class to the same level of

achievement is fast vanishing as a result of increasing knowledge of individual differences. (3) The detailed studies of special topics, such as the time taken to perceive objects, or the nature of eye-movements, or the course of fatigue, or the relation of motor skill to intellectual capacity, frequently provide some fact or theory upon which those who have charge of school systems or classes of scholars base changes in their practice. For instance, manual training, though introduced into the schools largely because of the belief that in some subtle way the acquisition of bodily skill improved the intellectual powers, is coming year by year, as later studies show this relationship between bodily skill and intellect to be not at all close, to base its claims rather upon the value of the knowledge of physical things, the appreciation of industry and art, the actual skill and the interest in constructive activity which it produces.

§ 65. The Relations of Psychology to the Personal Conduct of Life

Knowledge of psychology should make one better able to control his own mental life. Man is more nearly master of his own intellect and character than of anything else in nature. The mind is readily influenced, the nervous system being the most modifiable of all the bodily organs, and one has a power over himself that he has over no other mind. 'Psychologist, improve thyself' is an even more just command than ‘Physician, heal thyself.'

The application of psychological knowledge to the work of self-improvement has important limitations, however. The first is due to the same fact that limits its application to the arts of controlling others, the incompleteness of the science: we do not know enough about psychology to give us self-knowledge and self-control.

In the second place, making the most of one's own intellect and character depends largely upon the knowledge of one's own individual psychology, of the mental characteristics peculiar to oneself, of one's special variations from the common human type. But this knowledge the study of general psychology does not supply; it must be gained by direct observation. In the third place, the habit of taking an impartial, purely scientific view of oneself is rare. To see ourselves as others see us, or as a scientific observer would see us-who of us even tries to do that?

Even with the limitations of the inadequacy of psychology, the indispensability of direct observation of individual make-up, and the rarity of a scientific attitude toward oneself, psychology can minister to the art of selfimprovement. Although this book presents but the outlines of the science, it should teach a number of lessons in the conduct of life. A brief mention of some of these may indicate what the student could expect from further knowledge of psychology.

It is a natural tendency, when disturbed by any unpleasant fact, to do one thing after another blindly in the hope of getting rid of or altering the fact. This holds of mental as well as bodily life. If we find that we are not very well liked by some companion, we do this or that to please him in a hit or miss fashion; if we grow irritable during the day, we try to work it off in a fit of scolding or we go out doors for a tramp or we do nothing; if we become discouraged and pessimistic, we resort to prayer or to drink or to a change of air as our habits may be, from no rational idea of what is the matter with us or what is its best remedy. Now every step in psychological study teaches us that for everything in mental life there is a reason, that what anyone thinks or feels or does at any time is the result of causes, and that these are to at

least some extent knowable. When in mental difficulty, do not worry or aimlessly try this or that, but seek the reason, is the plain teaching of psychology. The advice is worth following. The cause will not always be found; when it is found, to avoid it or to find a remedy for its action will in some cases be impossible. But there will be very many cases where an intelligent search for the reason of a mental fact will soon disclose both it and the means of preventing it.

Too often the energy of life is wasted in sickly thought or unproductive emotion. Life is wrecked morally for anyone who is content with fine thoughts and fine feelings. Psychology, in teaching us that the function of mental life is to arouse and guide action, warns us against the errors of the sentimentalist and emotional enthusiast. The lessons of church and of school are unfortunately often insufficient, and even misleading, here. To feel love toward God and righteousness, to thrill with admiration for the heroes of history and fiction, to say fine things about truth and duty-these are too often accepted as virtues in and of themselves. Psychology teaches us that they are worthy only in so far as they are expressed in worthy conduct,-that, as mere feelings, they may even be vices because they may encourage the habit of feeling satisfied with being a wolf in action with a sheep's clothing of sentiment. This is a sound lesson. Not only the hateful Pecksniffs and the charming Sentimental Tommys, but every one of us, needs it. You think and feel so as to do, and what you do that and that alone you will really be.

It is a common fallacy in human conduct to try to do a thing merely because someone else has done it with success. Jones made a fortune by speculating in stocks. Why not I? Miss Smith went on the stage and is a