stones of metaphysics, of our final and comprehensive view of the universe." And in this emphasis these later thinkers are following directly in the footsteps of Kant and Fichte.

There is a moral tonic in the very atmosphere of these men-Kant with his tremendous emphasis on the "practical reason"-on will; Fichte with his constant sense of "vocation." Paulsen himself says of Kant: "The worth of a man depends on his will, not on his knowledge ;-that is the cardinal doctrine upon which Kant's entire philosophy really turns." "In one word," says Fichte, "it is only by thorough amelioration of the will that a new light is thrown on our existence and future destiny; without this let me meditate as much as I will, and be endowed with ever such rare intellectual gifts, darkness remains within me and around me." "I know immediately what is necessary for me to know, and this will I joyfully and without hesitation or sophistication practice." This message of Fichte, Carlyle, in his own way, catches up in the familiar words of his Sartor Resartus: "Doubt of any kind cannot The Facts of the Moral Life, p. VI. A System of Ethics, Eng. Tr., p. 200.

be removed, except by action. On which ground, too, let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that dawn may ripen into day, lay this other precept well to heart-Do the duty which lies nearest thee."

We may hope that the real ground of this counsel is becoming increasingly clear to our later thinking; but it was never mere shallow advice to forget one's questions in doing. The ethical attitude and action were felt to be necessary to reach the point of view whence a solution was possible. The significance of the situation opened itself only so. Action brought experience of some new value that we could not choose before with full heart, because we did not know it. New ends, as we have found Wundt suggesting, have arisen for us.

Our own generation, we have seen, is inclined to add that the ultimate problems are, in the nature of the case, such as to make a purely theoretical solution impossible. So James says: "If we survey the field of history and ask what feature all great periods of revival, of expansion of the human mind, display in common, we shall find, I think, simply this: that each and all of them have

said to the human being, "The inmost nature of the reality is congenial to powers which you possess."" "In a word, 'Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee!' is the only revelation of truth to which the solving epochs have helped the disciple. But that has been enough to satisfy the greater part of his rational need."

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Since doubt is never a reason for action, this willingness to use one's powers implies faith, and so this passage of James becomes practically parallel to one from Goethe: "The deepest, nay, the only theme of the world's history is the conflict of faith and unbelief. The epochs in which faith, in whatever form it may be, prevails, are the marked epochs in human history, full of heart-stirring memories and of substantial gain for all after times."

It is noteworthy that the two books of the Bible that alone may be called philosophical— Job and Ecclesiastes—give, also, only a practical solution. Job's problem gets no complete theoretical solution, though light is thrown upon it; only in the completer revelation of what God is, he gets patience to wait. His vision of the majesty of God

gives faith in a solution which as yet he cannot see. And that other curiously modern book-that of "the debater concerning life's meaning" and value, Ecclesiastes-has only to say at the end, after all attempted and partial solutions, and in a kind of protest against any merely theoretical solvent: "And furthermore, my son, be admonished; of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard; fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole of man." Only the right life could satisfy.

1

I was interested to notice how often, among Christian university students in Berlin, the practical solution was chosen, in the emphasis on Christ's words: "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from myself." Christianity is no ready-made and all-inclusive answer to curious questions, but brings only that fundamental assurance that suffices for faith and work. But the spirit which Christianity so calls forth is the very spirit in which one will most surely find the world a rational world by using his powers in it.

1 Ecclesiastes, 12:12, 13.

VII. SOME CURRENT PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPHASES

Not only the express testimony of psychologists, but current phenomena in psychological literature bear witness to this "voluntaristic trend." James' vigorous complaint of the neglect by the English empiricist school of "the perpetual presence of selective attention," and his own constant emphasis on it, evince a strong sense of the active elements in consciousness.1 Baldwin's like complaint of the "extraordinary neglect" by psychologists of the topic of imitation, and the fundamental and continuous place, which he, as well as Professor Royce, give to imitative activity in all development, both of the individual and of society, show the same trend. Both volumes of Baldwin's Mental Development may be said, indeed, to be almost devoted to the proof of the importance of "conscious imitation." Now, whether Baldwin's precise formulation of his thesis be accepted or not, the phenomena to which he appeals in proof do show the tremendous importance of volitional activity. In quite another way, Dr. Harris' constant use, in his Psychological Foundations of Education, of the principle

1 Psychology, Vol. I, p. 402.