STUDY OF PHYSICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 165 



in directions at right angles to their previous method of thinking, 

 and there may be minds which possess what is analogous to the 4th 

 dimension in space an ability to think in all azimuths. It is strange 

 that there are so few psychological impostors in the world ; for the first 

 class of minds, those who only think from A to B when a new class of 

 facts are presented to them, is very large. An ingenious man can 

 make a small magnetic motor which apparently runs with only the as- 

 sistance of permanent magnets, and by means of extremely small clock- 

 work maintain the motion beyond the period which a mind of class 1 

 is willing to give to an observation. It would naturally occur to such 

 a mind to take the motor to pieces and examine the casings or box. 

 If it finds nothing, and perceives that, when the apparatus is put to- 

 gether and is placed by the inventor on his table, it still runs, the 

 investigation ceases, and another story confirms the previous rumor of 

 a new marvel. A mind of class 2 goes over the same process of rea- 

 soning, and moves the instrument to different points for fear of con- 

 cealed mechanism under the table or in the wall. A skillful manipu- 

 lator, however, can still edge the motor to a third or fourth position, 

 where other concealed clockwork can be taken advantage of, and in 

 this way exhaust the number of what may be termed linear combina- 

 tions of the investigator. The success of impostors in spiritualism and 

 of the fabricators of new motors which are built to delude people 

 resides in this, that they restrict the liberty of this system of reversals, 

 or the spirit of investigation. 



Any plan of education which prevents a man or woman from be- 

 coming the dupe of those who pretend to use natural or supernatural 

 forces is to be commended. One of the quickest ways of training the 

 mind in the logical process which I have indicated is to undertake 

 some simple investigation in physics. Here mere observation is com- 

 bined with a careful study of the interaction of various forces, and the 

 mind must assign a logical weight to different observations. One truth, 

 moreover, is forcibly brought forward that, generally speaking, a num- 

 ber of observations under varying conditions must be made to prove 

 the correctness of any result. The man who has been through the 

 process will not be found among those who are convinced by a single 

 manifestation of clairvoyance or of spiritualism. He will not spread 

 the stories of a wonderful new motor until he has put it to an exhaus- 

 tive test. 



It would be well if our common schools made some provision for a 

 certain amount of experimental work in physics to illustrate this 

 method of studying. A great deal of education is comprised in the 

 knowledge of how to change the conditions of an experiment in the 

 process which I have termed a reversal, and also in the process of de- 

 pending only upon a number of observations taken under different 

 conditions. It would certainly be a great boon to the world if the 

 general level of scientific education could thus be raised, so that each 



