53 
readily see how students of environment and environmental influences are 
not likely to be misled by the present fad of psychotherapy. Ward also 
refers to much of our literature as being simply a jugglery of words, 
pleasing to the ears, but of little value in keeping man acquainted with his 
environment. 
Perhaps few of us realize fully the importance of environmental in- 
fluences, of how our life and our very thoughts and actions are dependent 
thereon. No doubt many of us have at times wondered what our own life 
and the life of others would be under different surroundings. 
The field is a large one, and by way of delimitation I may say that 
my original observations and studies are confined largely to one phase of 
the subject, that of air conditions. The problem is this: To what extent 
do the effects of air conditions crop out in biography? 'To answer this 
requires, first a study of men who are today living under good and bad 
air conditions; it means to contrast lives of men, those who live under 
good air conditions with those living under bad air conditions; it requires, 
moveoyer, observation of individuals who alternately live under good and 
bad air conditions. Secondly, it requires the ‘fossil remains,’ so to speak, 
which can be studied, just as the paleontologist studies fossil remains which 
enable him to reconstruct and explain past animal life—the material in 
the present instance being biographical remains, books that are often 
known under the name of Life and Letters, as those of Huxley and of 
Darwin. 
We all like to read about great men and emulate them; their lives are 
held up as examples to follow, yet the number of great men living at any 
one time is small, and where one becomes great, there will be thousands 
and thousands who are mediocre. A biographer scarcely deems it worth 
while to pick out the life of one of this latter class. 
It may be entertaining to the average man to read the biography of 
a literary man, of a poet, or of a musician, but he may get comparatively 
little instruction from it. On the other hand, he may read the life of a 
common fellow citizen and get many ideas that will be of value to him in 
the conduct of his own life. This is a fact that seems to be little realized 
by biographers, but it has been appreciated by certain novelists who write 
about the common people, and such books are therefore very popular. 
Formerly novelists were concerned chiefiy with the life of the ‘upper 
classes,’ but since they have begun to write of the ‘common man,’ to depict 
his life, we now know that such ‘lives’ can be made of general interest. 
[5—21363] 
