6i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



pered blending, related emjohasis of traits stand as the normal issue ; the 

 divergence or failure thereof becomes the abnormal. The abnormal 

 in excess or defect takes its place as an instrument of analysis and 

 an enlargement of data. It is a distinctively modern resource, par- 

 ticularly in the refinement of its application. 



It is in such general terms that the line of descent of the present 

 psychological interpretation of human endowment proceeds. The more 

 specific history of the attempts to formulate the resultant positions is 

 brief. The classic chapter (Book VII., Chapter V.) "Of Ethology, 

 or the Science of the Formation of Character," in John Stuart Mill's 

 "System of Logic" (1843), though a programme rather than a contri- 

 bution, still has significance. The project was undertaken by Alexan- 

 der Bain in a volume bearing the title " On the Study of Character " 

 (1861). Though Bain wrote at a time when psychology had made 

 rapid advances and the vagaries of phrenology had been retired to their 

 proper place, he devoted a considerable portion of his book to a refuta- 

 tion of the phrenological position. He thus conferred an undeserved 

 dignity upon these findings and gave his constructive views an unfor- 

 tunate setting. The subject was independently pursued by a group 

 of writers (mainly in France and Italy), whose contributions in part 

 belong to the living literature of the subject.'^ 



It remains to touch upon the collateral streams of interest which in 

 modern times maintained the study in one or another aspect, thus 

 bridging the gap between the old and the new learning. Among these 

 is the attempt, never wholly absent in practical ages, to guide training, 

 to indicate on the basis of an analysis of character the promise of youth, 

 and the direction of vocation — all in the spirit of a worldly wisdom. As 

 an example of the earlier period, the work of the Spaniard, Huarte 

 (1530-1592) "The Trial of Wits," may be cited, since it seems to have 

 attained a large circulation, was translated into several languages (the 

 English edition appearing in 1698), and the German so late as 1752 

 by the great Lessing (1729-1781). There were other writings of simi- 

 lar import both before land after Huarte. It is, however, difficult to esti- 

 mate their influence in the current of thought destined to be re- 

 directed in a more scientific analytic interest. There is no hesitation, 

 however, in recognizing in the works of Kant (1724-1804) a dominant 

 influence in the rehabilitation of the subject. This appears not alone 

 in his recognition of the claims of the practical reason, but notably in 

 his " Anthropology" (1798). Indeed Kant's use of this term corre- 

 sponds more closely to a study of the individual differences of men — 

 which the problems of character and temperament consider — than to 

 the content of the science which now bears that name. Special atten- 

 tion should also be directed to his "Observations on the Sense of the 

 Beautiful and Sublime," in which is given in a modern vein a detailed 



7 See previous note. 



