53 
PSYCHOLOGICAL NOTES. 
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 
THE Hon. PERCY WYNDHAM, M.P. 
(Delivered at Maryport, May, 1880. ) 
Has PsyCHOLOGY ANY EXISTENCE AS A SCIENCE? 
Are not all the ideas that are held on the subject capable of clas- 
sification under two heads? One heading would include those tenets 
on the subject of Psychology which were taught us from our earliest 
childhood, and which, with many of us, has been allowed to lie in 
our minds fallow and unquestioned, or at least labelled unques- 
tionable; the other would include those ideas in Psychology which 
are evolved from the inner consciousness, touching ground seldom 
and at rare intervals, and bearing little relation to ascertained facts. 
Were this all they had to go upon, they might say that no such 
science existed. ‘ Psychology,” to use the words of the late Serjeant 
_ Cox, “in the metaphysical form in which it has been hitherto, with 
rare exceptions, presented to the student, has appeared to him 
difficult, dry, and almost repulsive ; a science of abstractions and 
unrealities based upon argument alone, with the very slightest 
reference to facts.” The Psychology to which I would draw your 
attention is, to quote the same authority, “a science to be pursued 
like other physical sciences, by observing phenomena, trying 
experiments, applying tests, and collecting the facts which are to 
