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