Introduction 3 



account of the history and present position of the idea to which 

 students of psychogenesis may refer, and its one merit is that 

 it stands for a conscientious attempt to understand and report 

 some of the more obvious aspects of the discussion. At some 

 future time someone with the requisite knowledge of biology, 

 anthropology, and psychology will do full justice to the topic 

 and supply us with an authoritative account of the matter. 

 Meanwhile we can at least clear away the superficial obstacles 

 and prepare ourselves for the more complete statement. 



No one can justly object to a desire on the part of students 

 of childhood to know its biological history and its nature in con- 

 sequence. It is at least a legitimate object of curiosity. More 

 than this, no situation ever failed to become more intelligible, 

 and so more amenable, in the perspective yielded by its history. 

 On the side of possible cultural homologies in infancy and child- 

 hood there is the chance of a more direct usefulness. Some 

 years ago Professor Dewey inquired pointedly as to what good 

 could come from a knowledge of the historical genetic order, 

 when an argument from it directly to the proper treatment of 

 growth is not warranted. And it must be admitted that there 

 are positive limits to the use of principles derived from this 

 source. Education must be based primarily upon a knowledge 

 of the ontogenetic order itself. But it appears already that the 

 ontogenetic order is not easy of discovery. Although childish 

 and youthful performances can be objectively described and 

 in many cases measured, the true inward significance of 

 these performances is determined with the greatest diffi- 

 culty, because it is ultimately a matter of interpretation. Is 

 it not possible, then, that a knowledge of historical processes 

 may have something to offer, not as principles upon which ac- 

 tion shall be based, but as cues and hypotheses with which to 

 approach the exceedingly intricate phenomena of individual 

 psychogenesis? Historical processes expressed themselves slow- 

 ly. They were made with difficulty and became registered 

 step by step in objective products which lie open the world 

 over for sympathetic inspection. If a warrant can be found in 

 general terms for some degree of correspondence between in- 

 dividual psychogenesis and social or historical development, 

 it seems not impossible that a close study of the latter order 

 may yield suggestions of real value with which to approach 



