1 86 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and experiment to fit itself into the social order, and we are always 

 experimenting on it and trying to make it different from what it is. 

 All our systems of education, our churches, our legal systems, our gov- 

 ernments and the rest are applied psychology. It may be at present 

 pseudo-science, in the sense that we have drawn conclusions without 

 adequate knowledge, but it is none the less the best we can do in the 

 way of the application of systematized knowledge to the control of 

 human nature. 



It certainly is not essential and perhaps is not desirable for every 

 mother, for every teacher, for every statesman, to study psychology, 

 especially the kind of psychology at present available. It is not neces- 

 sary for a man to be either a psychologist or a fool at forty; he may, 

 for example, be both. But surely it is possible to discover whether or 

 not it is desirable to feed a baby every time it cries, to whip a boy when 

 he disobeys or to put a man in prison when he breaks a law. If each 

 man were given the work he is most competent to do and were pre- 

 pared for this work in the best way, the work of the world all the way 

 from the highest manifestations of genius to the humblest daily labor 

 would be more than doubled. I see no reason why the application of 

 systematized knowledge to the control of human nature may not in the 

 course of the present century accomplish results commensurate with 

 the nineteenth century applications of physical science to the material 

 world. 



The present function of a physician, a lawyer, a clergyman, a 

 teacher or a man of business is to a considerable extent that of an 

 amateur psychologist. In the inevitable specialization of modern 

 society, there will become increasing need of those who can be paid 

 for expert psychological advice. We may have experts who will be 

 trained in schools as large and well-equipped as our present schools 

 of medicine, and their profession may become as useful and as honor- 

 able. Such a profession clearly offers an opportunity to the charlatan, 

 but it is not the only profession open to him. For the present the 

 psychological expert should doubtless be a member of one of the recog- 

 nized professions who has the natural endowments, special training 

 and definite knowledge of the conditions that will make his advice and 

 assistance of value. But in the end there will be not only a science 

 but also a profession of psychology. 



