156 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



appreciation of the problem, however, a few considerations on the point 

 seem worth while. First, we register our belief in its existence by such 

 expressions as " mind growth," naivete, self-activity, spontaneity, 

 genius, " mental initiative," and by more remote terms like open mind, 

 youthful mind, unprejudiced mind, simple mind. Second, many stu- 

 dents of mind tacitly accept it and forthwith attempt its description. 

 This is clone by Professor Eoyce in his " Outlines of Psychology." 

 Professor Shaler expresses his conviction of its existence as follows : 



One of the results of the marvelously swift, absolutely free development of 

 man's spirit is that there has as yet been insufficient time for it to become 

 organized as are the conditions of the body. Working in the instinctive manner 

 in which the lower species do their complicated work through the fore-deter- 

 mined mental processes we term instincts, there are always gauges and stand- 

 ards for the endeavors in the mind as there are in the bodily frame. With us, 

 however, all kinds of thinking are still a hurly burly, a confusion, to which 

 time and culture may possibly bring something like the order it has in the 

 lower life, but which probably is ever to remain in its present uncontrolled 

 shape. 13 



Third, biologists are generally agreed that the human hand, the vocal 

 organs and the cerebral cortex have developed possibilities far beyond 

 present realization. Their possibilities are as yet unknown. The 

 capacity of the cortex appears to be infinite with only a small portion 

 reduced to law and order. If we can so confidently assert unlimited 

 capacity of these physical structures, then any lesser conception of mind 

 is, indeed, an untenable one. It does not yet appear what we shall be, 

 but there is a general agreement that the immediate path of evolution 

 will be spiritual rather than physical. And if spiritual, it can only 

 go on in the free portion of mind, in those parts not yet harnessed to 

 matter and frozen into laws and habits. Of course there is universal 

 agreement that the mind should be mechanized to the extent of the 

 needs of common life, of routine business, of the alphabets of learning 

 and of the elements of culture, but anything beyond these points is 

 inimical not only to individual development, but to racial evolution. 

 While, on the other hand, influences that tend to check mechanization 

 and to incline the mind to grapple with the ideal, the novel, the reali- 

 ties rather than the formalities of life prolong the possibilities of 

 spiritual development. Humor and play are two such influences, with 

 the honors in favor of humor. It stands guard at the dividing line 

 between free and mechanized mind, and like play, it keeps the indivi- 

 dual young, projects the best of youth into adult life, sets metes and 

 bounds to " docility " and prevents the mental life of the race from 

 hardening into instinctive and hereditary forms of action. It saves 

 to the world its geniuses and saves the individual from the blighting 

 influence of commercial and utilitarian ideals, 



13 Shaler, N. S., " The Measure of Greatness," Atlantic Monthly, December, 

 1900, p. 751. 



