No eye could be too sound To observe a world so vast; No patience too profound To sort what's here amassed.-Matthew Arnold. Between the muscle-nerve preparation at the one limit, and our conscious willing selves at the other, there is a continuous gradation without a break; we cannot fix any linear barrier in the brain or in the general nervous system, and say "beyond this there is volition and intelligence, but up to this there is none.”—Michael Foster. 68007 BI ·SP4 PREFACE WHAT more interesting study can there be than that of the Mind of Man? Tennyson wrote enthusiastically of "the fairy tales of science," having in view only the results of physical research, and yet, manifestly, the exploration of the realm of mind must yield. information which is no less fascinating. To observe the mind at work-thinking, or imagining, or feeling, or dreaming-must assuredly rival what is given by geology or by astronomy. The scientific study of mind, however, is not only interesting; it has far-reaching consequences. The principles of education and those of morals and æsthetics are closely bound up with it, while even such sciences as political economy and sociology are likely to be transformed through its influence. Furthermore, a science of mind must revolutionise the whole of philosophy. By determining the nature of mental process and the nature of mind, it will set at rest once for all those discussions which have raged around a unitary conception of the universe. Physical science and mental science will then no more form two independent and hostile camps, and speculative metaphysics will cease to exist, handing over its many interesting problems to science. If psychology cannot as yet boast of any great truths, that is because Introspection has been unjustifiably regarded as impossible or impracticable. Yet, as we shall see, this mode of investigation offers no great difficulties and may be applied with marked advantage. The chapters which follow represent an attempt to apply the scientific method in Psychology. The reader, therefore, will not find here mathematical demonstrations in the style of Herbart, nor will he meet with a neatly elaborated system seemingly flawless in every detail like that of Herbert Spencer. Speculation, metaphysical and non-metaphysical, and hypotheses, large and small, have been severely boycotted, their place being taken by a ceaseless |