Little Masterpieces of Science: Mind

Part 1

LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE

Little Masterpieces of Science

Edited by George Iles

MIND

John Fiske Oliver W. Holmes James Sully Henry Maudsley Francis Galton William B. Carpenter William H. Hudson Thomas H. Huxley

NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

1902

Copyright, 1900, by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

Copyright, 1902, by Doubleday, Page & Co.

Copyright, 1895, by D. Appleton & Co.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Hyphenated and accented words have been standardized. Obvious printers errors, including punctuation have been silently corrected. Undevelopment, unseizable, traru, although not valid words, make sense in the context and I have therefore left them as in the original. All other inconsistencies have been left as in the original except where noted at the end of this file.

PREFACE

The study of mind was advanced as remarkably during the nineteenth century as any of its sister sciences. Here, as elsewhere, observation grew keener, new instrumental tests were adopted, and interpretation became more sagacious. A fact as commonplace as the length of human babyhood, when it came under the eye of John Fiske, went far to explain the foundations of the family, and how it came about that primitive man, to whom much was given, so added to his gifts that at last the gulf betwixt him and his next of kin became all but infinite. Of the new study of children, which owes a weighty debt to Darwin and Preyer, Professor Sully is a worthy exponent. In this volume he has something to say of the deepest interest to parents, to all students of the early unfolding of human faculty. In the inquiry of Mr. Galton regarding Twins we have a sterling example of the statistical method. Who shall call that method dry and unfruitful after he reads what it brought to this patient and discerning investigator?

If it be assumed that there is nothing in the mind that has not been in the senses, it becomes a question of importance, How may sight, the noblest of the senses, come to its best estate? Has it been affected for good or harm by civilized life? This question is discussed with shrewd humour by Mr. Hudson in his chapter on the sight of savages. One of the most promising fields of research directs its quest to the riches commonly hid beneath the surface of the mental sea. It seems probable that before the close of the twentieth century means may be discovered of sounding the depths of unconscious and sub-conscious being, means comparable with the powers of exploration which the X-ray has bestowed upon the physicist. To this alluring field of inquiry no better introduction can be given than Dr. Holmes affords us in this volume. Dr. Maudsley's chapter on Memory treats a faculty which lies at the base of all mental wealth, the talent for accumulation, the ability to command at will every item of the mind's crowded treasure-house. Whether remembered or forgotten, every impression stamped upon a sound, capable brain, goes to build up and refine the judgment. This power, under the name of Common Sense, is treated by Dr. Carpenter with the fulness of suggestion which always marked that veteran thinker.

The main value of the study of the mind is after all, to direct the development of mind. No spokesman of science ever urged the reform of education with so much force as Huxley. Two of his pleas are here presented; they have lost little of their point with the flight of years. His argument for laboratory practice has, happily, borne abundant fruit on both sides of the Atlantic. Manual training, the elementary form of that practice, is now taught in thousands of our public schools, and should be freely offered in all. It means putting boys and girls in full possession of themselves, with a profound impetus to intelligence when a knowledge of things replaces the repetition of symbols.

The reader may wish to extend his survey of the science of mind beyond the books laid under contribution in this volume. No better author can be recommended than Professor William James, of Harvard University. His "Talks to Teachers on Psychology" is as instructive and delightful to the ordinary reader as to the audience for which it was specially written. Professor James's "Principles of Psychology," in two volumes, and "Briefer Course in Psychology," in one volume, are for systematic study. All three works are published by Henry Holt & Co., New York.

GEORGE ILES.

CONTENTS

FISKE, JOHN

THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN.

Wallace pointed out that when once the intelligence of man became dominant, his body would change but little. Wallace brought up a baby orang-outang which had a period of infantile helplessness much longer than that of a lamb or a calf. The still longer infancy of the human babe was most significant to John Fiske. It showed that the highest nervous development is the slowest. The prolongation of infancy lengthens the period of maternal affection, tends to keep parents and children together, and thus the institution of the family is founded. Progress has been in the direction of bringing out the higher spiritual attributes of man: hence the elemental truth of religion. 3

SULLY, JAMES

THE NEW STUDY OF CHILDREN.

Man has the child always with him. The study of the child is now scientific. The unfoldings of an infant mind throw light on the development of the human race. Child-study is necessary if education is to be rightly directed. Children often reticent: sometimes ask strange questions. To understand children, love and knowledge are required. Observation, experiment and their records. Individual cases should be compared on a large scale. 21

GALTON, FRANCIS

TWINS, THEIR HISTORY AS A CRITERION OF THE RELATIVE POWERS OF NATURE AND NURTURE.

Twins alike by nature may as adults be compared to note how far diversity of circumstance has been influential. Twins unlike by nature and educated alike show how far nurture compares with inherited qualities as determining character. Extraordinary cases of resemblance: twins widely separated develop the same disease or mania at the same time. Only illness or accident causes difference between twins alike in early life. Twins originally unlike so remain, although educated alike. Nature vastly stronger than nurture in the making of man. 53

Part 2

HUDSON, WILLIAM H.

SIGHT IN SAVAGES.

Keen observation of cards by a player whose vision otherwise was ordinary. We see what we look for. Sight in savages is trained to detect particular objects,--men, beasts and birds of prey, reptiles, game and the like. Sight in civilized man is just as sharp, but is directed to different objects, the letters of a printed page, for example. 79

HOLMES, OLIVER W.

MECHANISM IN THOUGHT AND MORALS.

Do we ever think without knowing that we are thinking? Leibnitz long ago said yes. We remember a name by ceasing the conscious search for it. One goes to sleep with a problem in mind, and awakens with the solution clear. The man of genius is inspired he knows not how: the deepest things are not in the consciousness. How Burns composed his poems. An idea planted in a thinker's mind will grow when he is least conscious of growth. 95

MAUDSLEY, HENRY

MEMORY.

Unless the mind retains impressions and can recall them, no development is possible. Acts at first difficult become easy because nerves and muscles remember. Attention is the mother of memory. The more various and intimate the association of ideas the better. 115

CARPENTER, WILLIAM B.

COMMON SENSE.

Walking and other common movements of the body become all but automatic. In much the same way mental experiences become organized into judgments which are largely or wholly true. Judgment in mathematics or other sciences demands special training. Grammar is often unconsciously acquired. The intuitions of the practised detective. The desire to do right strengthens the intellect. A wise man trusts to the spontaneities of his mind, just as a rider may trust his horse to find its way home. The human race, like the individual man, grows in common sense, abandons absurd practices and beliefs. 131

HUXLEY, THOMAS H.

A LIBERAL EDUCATION.

If we are to win the game of life we must understand and obey its rules. No man wholly uneducated. A liberal education makes the most of body, mind and heart. Education to the poor is of supreme importance: reading and writing are merely the means of education. The classics should be taught in a scientific way. Thorough knowledge of the earth as a centre from which study may proceed. Literature and history are indispensable. 151

HUXLEY, THOMAS H.

SCIENCE AND CULTURE.

The themes of classical education are less important than those of science. For culture an exclusively scientific education is at least as effectual as an exclusively literary education. New knowledge has so much increased in modern times as to sway daily life. The scientific method is now recognized as the one mode of discerning or discovering truth. What in the past men said about things is vastly less to the point than what can be learned now at first hand. The Greeks looked to Nature, let us also look to Nature and not merely repeat what the Greeks reported. Modern languages, especially English, as means of culture. Science cannot be applied unless its principles are understood. The mastery of these principles is culture. Art and letters, no less than science, are needed for a well-rounded mind. 171

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