§44 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reading in the highest (third year) class 

 " expressionless, thoughtless, and me- 

 chanical." On the other hand, the Bos- 

 ton grammar schools were found, on 

 the whole, to be highly efficient — a cir- 

 cumstance, however, which can in no 

 sense be regarded as an offset to the 

 inferior condition — if Dr. Rice's criti- 

 cisms are well founded — of the primary 

 schools. 



To our mind it is perfectly plain that 

 the modern world has not yet discov- 

 ered the true method of grappling with 

 the educational problem, and that sooner 

 or later it will have to revert to individ- 

 ual responsibility and individual effort 

 for its solution. "We do not deny that 

 relatively satisfactory results may here 

 and there be reached under the pres- 

 ent system ; but any system which to a 

 large extent prevents the special talent 

 that is available for a given task from 

 being applied to that task is fatally de- 

 fective ; and that, as we conceive, is the 

 case with state education. The born 

 educators, those possessing by nature 

 the aptitudes and the sympathies re- 

 quired for educational work, those who 

 could — granted, of course, proper train- 

 ing — redeem such work from drudgery 

 and make it a true process of thought 

 and soul development, will not in general 

 take service in state-directed schools, 

 and, at the same time, they will be de- 

 barred, by the competition of the state, 

 from what would be their most con- 

 genial employment. Such is the di- 

 lemma; and the conclusion to which it 

 points is that some day we must retrace 

 our steps, and make education the busi- 

 ness of the family to be obtained as 

 other good things are obtained — as all 

 best things are obtained — by effort and 

 sacrifice. 



THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL 

 ASSOCIATION. 



The first regular meeting of the 

 American Psychological Association, a 

 short account of which is given on an- 

 other page, was a very significant gath- 



ering. It is an evidence of the fact that 

 a common bond of scientific interest in 

 the study of mental phenomena is now 

 sufficiently strong and sufficiently ex- 

 tended to warrant a comprehensive or- 

 ganization. This most disputed field of 

 mental science has, in recent years, been 

 rendered subject to an increasing extent 

 to scientific methods, and a psychologi- 

 cal laboratory is no longer regarded as 

 a curiosity, but as an essential depart- 

 ment in every higher institution of learn- 

 ing. It is notable that, since the foun- 

 dation, some ten years ago, of the first 

 laboratory, by Prof. G. Stanley Hall, at 

 Johns Hopkins University, others have 

 been instituted one after the other, so 

 that at the present time there are more 

 such laboratories in this country than 

 in Europe. It was only natural that, 

 when Prof. Hall became the President 

 of Clark University, the formation of a 

 strong psychological department should 

 have been one of the prominent subjects 

 to engage attention. Soon afterward, 

 laboratories were founded by Prof. Cat- 

 tell at the University of Pennsylvania, 

 later at Columbia College ; by Prof. Jas- 

 trow, at the University of Wisconsin, 

 and at other institutions ; and within 

 the past year Harvard has set a noble 

 example by equipping a magnificent 

 laboratory and securing for its director 

 that eminent psychologist, Prof. Muen- 

 sterberg, of Freiburg. Yale has like- 

 wise founded a laboratory, and placed 

 Prof. Scripture at its head; and anuther 

 laboratory is soon to be opened in an- 

 other prominent Eastern college. Nor 

 does the list end here ; it includes a 

 dozen more colleges of various degrees 

 of prominence. All this gives evidence 

 of wide interest in a strictly scientific 

 method of research, and promises to 

 make the study of psychology something 

 far different from what it has hitherto 

 been. The organization of this small but 

 influential body of men engaged in this 

 work is therefore significant of a tend- 

 ency of modern thought which seems 

 destined to become particularly impor- 



