sel is not new, it comes with fresh force, when its psychological justification can be clearly shown. Manifold as, no doubt, the shortcomings of this book are, it is still no hasty compilation, but embodies those suggestions which, through a number of years, have appealed both to myself and to many others as of interest and importance. I have found myself using so often, in practical counsel and in ethical and theological inquiry, the psychological principles here appealed to, that it has seemed reasonable to hope that the book might have some real service to render to others. For it is but too obvious, on the one hand, that many students complete their courses in psychology with but small sense of its direct bearing on life, and so fail to grasp its real significance, through the very lack of application. of its principles; and, on the other hand, that men generally need, and are able intelligently to receive, much of the best that psychology has to give, but that it is difficult to find in any fullness except in more or less technical treatises. There seemed, therefore, to be a place and a need for the attempt here made. While, then, the book does not aim to be a technical treatise upon psychology, nor profess to embody the results of original psychological investigation, it does distinctly aim to make generally available the most valuable suggestions for living that can be drawn from the results of the best workers in this field. I have, consequently, quoted freely and sometimes at length, both to give the reader immediate access to the original authority for the psychological facts, and to give him opportunity to judge of the justness of the inference drawn in any given case. For I, of course, do not mean to hold those from whom I quote responsible for all my inferences, though I have meant that these should be reached with scrupulous care. The very plan of the book makes my indebtedness to others very large-an indebtedness which I have intended to recognize in each case by specific reference. At the same time, it is hoped that the book does not lack the original suggestiveness and the unity that should give added significance to the individual suggestions. The grouping of the material, and some of the indicated ethical, religious, and generally practical applications and implications of psychological principles, it is hoped, may not be without interest even to those who have given considerable attention to psychological study. The discussion aims to give in the field of practical living something of that sense of unity and sureness that the investigator in natural science has, and that can come only from a knowledge of the laws involved. In this aim it joins hands with all those writings - much more numerous of late—that have sought to give to both ethics and religion a true psychological basis. The material is gathered under four great and closely interwoven inferences from modern psychology. These constitute the four main divisions of the book. Under each division an attempt is made to give briefly but sufficiently the psychological basis, and then to point out the most important derived practical suggestions. Even in the statement of the psychological facts, however, it will be seen-in order to save repetition-the practical has not been entirely excluded. The title of the book, thus, grows directly out of its precise aims. At the same time, it has not seemed wise to exclude all consideration of the broader philosophical bearings of the discussions; and at certain points their consideration has seemed almost required for a really satisfactory result, especially in parts of the last two divisions of the book. These parts are necessarily somewhat more difficult reading; but they will be readily recognized, and may be, perhaps, well enough omitted by those who are seeking only practical results. For the more philosophically inclined, it is hoped that these brief philosophical digressions may add somewhat to the value and suggestiveness of the book. HENRY CHURCHILL KING. OBERLIN COLLEGE, June, 1905. |