462 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to adapt the methods of assimilation to the apperceptive appetite of the 

 young. And the extreme instance of such misapplication is in the 

 efforts of those who attempt to assimilate the education of women to 

 that of men, and who take as their model the type of masculine educa- 

 tion against which these strictures most especially apply. ]STot that the 

 author is arguing against the higher education of women or even specif- 

 ically against all forms of coeducation, but that he makes a plea both for 

 young men and for young women, for that form of education, and for 

 such favorable conditions of growth, as correspond in both cases most 

 nearly to their individual and very different needs. Thus psychology — 

 properly interpreted as the study of the evolution of mental functions — 

 at once appraises the value of mental traits, and in recovering the trade- 

 routes of the past, points to the most profitable highways of the future. 

 Psychology of this type and temper remains the supreme guide of 

 education. The discussion as to what benefit this or that teacher, or 

 teachers as a whole, may derive from the study of psychology is not 

 prominently considered; yet the affirmative attitude towards the 

 problem is implied. But particularly are we asked to discountenance 

 as of slight profit, or even as pernicious, that type of psychologizing 

 that remains unrelated to the vital functions of life, ' If truth is edifica- 

 tion, the highest criterion of pure science is its educative value.' 



With this estimate of the nature and purpose of psychological in- 

 quiry, Dr. Hall attacks with an almost bewildering variety of equip- 

 ment the entrenched position of adolescence. This is central, the key 

 to the situation, because the maturing of mind and body which then 

 takes place represents the key-stone of the arch which up to then has 

 been building. It indicates that the stages of mental growth antici- 

 pating adolescence form a separate and formative type of psychological 

 study; that a knowledge of the changes which then take place is as 

 vital a matter of human concern as can well be imagined; and that 

 the shaping of interest, which then first buds, remains the supreme 

 question of educational practice. Thus both for education and for 

 psychology, adolescence has a directive importance. The weakness, 

 alike of education and of psychology is, in Dr. Hall's opinion, largely 

 due to the comparative neglect of those interests that the study of 

 adolescence discovers and illuminates. Education and psychology are 

 in danger of becoming scholastic because they are fashioned too much 

 in the study and by the book, and reflect too little knowledge of the 

 world and of the byways as well as of the highways of life. It is, after 

 all, but a small part of psychology that can profitably concern itself with 

 how the mental processes of the adult consciousness can best be presented 

 and explained. A far more vital and comprehensive problem is the 

 comprehension of how men and women, and particularly boys and girls, 

 feel and act as well as think. The study of impulse and motives, not 

 merely of such as lie in a direct line or cultural advance, but equally 



