EDITOR'S TABLE. 



699 



teachers be at full liberty to expound 

 the laws of human life and well-being 

 to their pupils. Let them show them 

 what they are and what they are adapt- 

 ed for, and how each kind and grade 

 of happiness physical, intellectual, 

 moral, personal, domestic, social at- 

 tainable by human beings, depends on 

 the wise and patient exercise of specific 

 faculties and powers, on the steady pur- 

 suit of specific courses of action. Let 

 him appeal less than has hitherto been 

 done to the coarse and often hurtful 

 stimulus of individual ambition, and 

 more to the sense of comradeship and 

 mutual good-will which is never wholly 

 lacking in children. Let him exhibit 

 civilization, as we now enjoy it, as the 

 joint product of unnumbered minds 

 and hands co-operating, often uncon- 

 sciously, toward a common end ; and 

 let him point out that greater triumphs 

 still are to be wrought in the future 

 when the thought of the common good 

 shall be present to every mind, and 

 more or less sweeten every day of toil. 

 The trouble with multitudes of men 

 and women is that their true self-re- 

 spect has never been properly aroused. 

 Dreams of ambition may have been 

 presented to their minds, but they have 

 not been sedulously taught to consider 

 themselves as capable of good things. 

 They have heard in all probability that 

 they have souls to be saved (or the re- 

 verse), but it has not been sufficiently 

 impressed on them that they have char- 

 acters to be refined, that they have the 

 germs of a hundred good qualities which 

 a little generous nurture would quicken 

 into vigorous and beautiful life. From 

 this point of view the old Socratic max- 

 im, ''Know thyself," acquires a new 

 and powerful significance. To know 

 one's self is to know one's own best 

 capacities, and to know these is to de- 

 sire to exercise them. To know one's 

 self is to know one's weaknesses, and to 

 know these is to be more or less on 

 one's guard against them. In one aspect, 

 therefore, the teaching of morals is 



simply the unfolding of the actual facts 

 of human life. When the facts are 

 once exhibited in their proper order 

 and relation, the inferences to be drawn 

 from them hardly require pointing out. 

 Far, therefore, from the teaching of 

 morals in this sense being unsuited to 

 the public schools, we conceive that it 

 is precisely this that they should most 

 earnestly concern themselves with. The 

 system of state education is upheld on 

 the ground that the stability of the 

 state depends on the character of its 

 citizens, and that this in turn depends 

 on education. We do not now discuss 

 that theory ; we only say that a prime 

 inference to be drawn from it is that 

 whatever bears directly on character 

 and conduct should take precedence, in 

 state education, of what only bears in- 

 directly thereon. And we hold not 

 only that morals can be taught apart 

 from theology, but that the less moral 

 teaching is complicated with theology, 

 provided only it is delivered with con- 

 viction, the better effects it will pro- 

 duce. We want to Mow the reactions 

 that different courses of conduct pro- 

 duce in this world, not to speculate as 

 to the reactions they may produce in a 

 world of wholly different constitution. 

 In all probability it may be difficult for 

 a long time to come to obtain a genera- 

 tion of teachers capable of expounding 

 a scientific morality with intelligence, 

 conviction, and enthusiasm ; but none 

 the less is it clear that the only morali- 

 ty that can gain a permanent footing 

 in the public schools is one capable of 

 demonstration, one founded on the laws 

 of life. 



PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE. 



In looking over the various depart- 

 ments of special scientific study mapped 

 out in the organization of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, one searches in vain for any rec- 

 ognition of psychology. In the various 

 sections provided for by the Constitu- 



