104 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



full meaning of the term, with all the previous achievements of 

 physics for its use. 



With a real science of the facts of consciousness at hand, the 

 attempt at a " mental physiology " appears as absurd as an at- 

 tempt to establish a science of meteorology from the twitterings 

 of the birds especially when the birds are imaginary ones. The 

 physicists have thus not only given to the new psychology its 

 basis, but have also freed it from the rubbish of an overheated 

 imagination. 



There is still another source which we must consider, namely, 

 the old psychology. By the " old psychology " we mean psychol- 

 ogy before the introduction of experiment and measurement ; in 

 its last forms it is the psychology of the Herbartians or of the 

 English associationalists. 



We have already seen how the fundamental method, that of 

 observation, was established by the old psychology. The method 

 of direct observation of mental life is the only possible one, and 

 until it had received a firm basis any science of psychology was 

 impossible. As has been explained in Part I, all the other 

 methods of psychology are only refinements of this method. 

 The new psychology is thus merely a development on the basis 

 of the old ; there is no difi^erence in its material, no change in its 

 point of view, and no degeneration in its aim. What the old 

 tried to do, namely, to establish a science of mind, and what it 

 did do, as far as its means allowed, the new psychology with 

 vastly improved methods and facilities is striving to accomplish. 



This close connection, however, must not involve us in a false 

 estimation of the direct results accomplished by the old psychol- 

 ogy. The method of unaided observation was applied to exhaus- 

 tion, and the later works contained little more than the earlier 

 ones. Indeed, the final sum total of psychological knowledge 

 acquired by this method can be stated to be a mass of ingenious 

 speculations, of endless discussions, and of true and untrue facts ; 

 even such achievements as the laws of association have, in the 

 light of newer methods, been shown to be merely superficial 

 arrangements of facts. It has been claimed that unaided ob- 

 servation has yielded valuable storehouses of facts, and it fur- 

 nishes a special satisfaction to some people at the present day 

 to point out guesses of this older psychology forestalling achieve- 

 ments of the newer science. Among the clever observations con- 

 cerning facts of mental life and the ingenious guesses at their 

 laws, there are and must be some which are ultimately found 

 to be partially or wholly correct. As Helmhoitz remarks: "It 

 would be a stroke of skill always to guess falsely. In such a 

 happy chance a man can loudly claim his priority for the dis- 

 covery ; if otherwise, a lucky oblivion conceals the false conclu- 



