Literary Notices. yy 



urements upon which its conckisions are based must be exact. We 

 have a body of general but inexact knowledge about instincts, habits, 

 memory, attention, interest, reasoning. We have descriptions of these 

 in the literature of child-study and methods of teaching. We have a 

 great many general ideas about the influence of inheritance, environ- 

 ment and general mental development. But we have little or no ac- 

 curate knowledge on these points. 



Not much value is attributed to those "Broader Studies of Hum.m 

 Nature'' (Chapter XIV), carried on mainly by the questionnaire method, 

 which have emanated from the Clark University school of child-study. 

 The possibility of a scientific study of the loves and hates, fears, inter- 

 ests, ideals, habits, motives and opinions, influence of books, games, 

 toys, etc., is not denied but doubt is cast upon the accuracy of the 

 methods used and the reliability and importance of the generalizations. 

 "Information about looo people with respect to one trait is of far less 

 importance than information about loo traits in each of lo individu- 

 als" (p. i6i). 



After discussing the possibility of mental measurement (Chapter 

 II), the author takes up the problem of "The Distribution of Mental 

 Traits" (Chapter III). Is there any law of distribution of mental traits 

 in groups of individuals ? As between the sexes ? As between groups 

 having different inheritance or different training ? Can we treat cour- 

 age, honesty, ambition, eminence, as we can treat color of eyes or 

 hair or weight, statistically? The reply is in the affirmative. But we 

 must beware of imagining "that nature has provided distinct classes 

 corresponding to our distinct words, e. g., normal and abnormal, ordi- 

 nary and exceptional," genius and idiot, precocious and retarded, 

 bright and dull, etc. (p. 22). 



In Chapter IV we have a discussion of "The Relationships Be- 

 tween Mental Traits." Alteration of one function involves others. 

 Educational problems involving this principle are the question of the 

 disciplinary value of studies, arrangement of groups of electives, sys- 

 tems of grading and promodon, tests of mental growth and condition. 

 The relationships are often very different from what the educational 

 literature would have us believe. "The striking thing is the compara- 

 tive independence of different mental functions even where to the ab- 

 stract psychological thinker they have seemed nearly identical" (p. 28). 

 The mind is a dynamic, organic, functional whole; not a mechanical 

 whole. It is like the nervous system — a hierarchy of relatively inde- 

 pendent activities, "a collection of protoplasmic bands." We have 

 memories not memory, specific habits of attention not a general faculty 



