850 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of education as, upon the whole, superior to 

 the system which prevails in any one of the 

 States. But the educational methods of both 

 countries are closely associated with features 

 of their political systems ; and " neither the 

 United States nor Canada can adopt, without 

 radical changes of another kind, some of the 

 admirable features of the educational system 

 which exists on the opposite side of the inter- 

 national boundary line." 



The office of education is, according to 

 Dr. Harris,* " to bi-ing the child most expe- 

 ditiously into a correct understanding of his 

 relation to the race and into a helpful ac- 

 tivity within civilization. The school with 

 its various courses furnishes only one factor 

 in this process ; the institutions of family, 

 church, and state, art and religion, play and 

 work, each help in the development. The 

 study of this mental unfolding and the influ- 

 ence of each modifying force is one of the 

 provinces of psychology and one of great 

 value to the educator. But of more impor- 

 tance to him than any theory of growth or 

 classification of faculties is the profounder 

 task accomplished by this science " in show- 

 ing the ability of the mind to grasp ultimate 

 reality." The old and new psychologies are 

 sharply distinguished in methods and results. 

 The former, whether rational or empirical, 

 proceeds by introspection, and finds an inde- 

 pendent self-activity with three modes of 

 knowing: that of sense perception^ which 

 dwells upon things as realities ; the under- 

 sfanding, which investigates relations ; the 

 reason, or insight, which apprehends absolute 

 principles. The " new psychology," includ- 

 ing physiological investigation and child 

 study, exhibits the conditioning of man. As 

 the old philosophies teach him what he is 

 and should be, the new explain how he may 

 grow to his full stature. There is also the 

 dangerous possibility of arrested develop- 

 ment, which further experiment may show 

 him how to avoid. Too much memorizing or 

 calculating at an early age brings the child 

 into a rut of thought from which it is not 

 easily extricated. Even scientific study may 

 accomplish this by sharpening the mind to 

 notice mere likeness or difference, and to 



* Psychologic Foundations of Education. By 

 W. T. Harris, A. M., LL. D. New York : D. 

 Appleton and Company. Pp. 400. Price, $1.50. 



search for causal relations. The new psy- 

 chology has this field of research, and can 

 also instruct in regard to the care of the 

 nervous system, and give us a store of path- 

 ological knowledge, but Dr. Harris considers 

 it " safe to assert that no positive results in 

 pure psychology will ever be reached in its 

 laboratories." It is by means of introspect 

 tion alone that we arrive at the highest stage 

 of thinking, 6ewpe7p, philosophic or theologic 

 knowing. The old psychology thus attains 

 the ideas of God, freedom, and immortality, 

 " knows that the absolute is a person," and 

 furnishes ideals of education, religion, and 

 life. Unfortunately for the majority of sci- 

 entific people, they flounder in the quagmire 

 of the understanding and never reach the 

 height of " angelic knowing." Isaac Newton 

 is called the great schoolmaster in this sec- 

 ondary stage of thinking, which is exempU- 

 fied in later times by the doctrine of the 

 correlation of forces. Mr. Herbert Spencer, 

 following the lead of Mansell and Sir Wil- 

 liam Hamilton, is dragged down by his theory 

 of the relativity of knowledge and incon- 

 ceivability of the infinite into an abyss of 

 false psychology. Dr. Harris states that the 

 trouble is " the confusion of mental images 

 with logical thought." Agnostics, relativists, 

 and all others must agree with him, " if we 

 really can know the infinity of space and 

 time and the absoluteness implied in cau- 

 sality, it is a matter of great concern." In 

 his doctrine of persistent force, Mr. Spencer 

 attains almost to the stage of insight, " it is 

 the highest reach of the understanding, and 

 a logical investigation would prove that Per- 

 sonal Being is presupposed as its true form. 

 It is another phase of the negative unity of 

 Spinoza and the Eleatics, and to fully realize 

 it is to know its own futility." Among other 

 conclusions which are doubtless reached 

 through the higher knowing are the affirma- 

 tions that man has " two selves," "is a spir- 

 itual being existing in opposition to Nature,'''' 

 " fate rules in Nature, but man emerges out 

 of Nature in time and space into human na- 

 ture," " human society is founded on the 

 deep mystery of vicarious atonement which 

 is announced in the creeds of Christendom." 

 If these and similar dogmas prove difficult 

 for the scientific mind to assimilate, it is not 

 without warning from Dr. Harris. He tells 

 us that methods of science study have not a 



