OF THE SOUL. 269 



ing the three principal lines on which psychology has 

 developed in the course of the last forty years. The 

 first writer is M. Ribot in France, the second Professor 

 James Ward in England, the third Eduard von Hart- 

 mann in Germany. 



In dealing with them as representatives of three 

 distinct lines of research, I shall have occasion to 

 mention many other names, some of which are of equal 

 importance. But it is impossible, in a field so largely 

 cultivated as has been that of psychology within the last 

 forty years, to do more than sample the fruits which it 

 has produced. The choice also of special authors and 

 waitings is a matter of individual taste, and cannot avoid 

 being to some extent casual. 



It has been claimed for psychology that it has grown 

 into an independent science, that it has become detached 

 from the parent stock. If this is so, it consists like other 

 sciences to a large extent of knowledge brought together 

 from many sides and by many workers, but only partially 

 systematised and unified. As it is the youngest of the 

 sciences, its fragmentary nature will be more pronounced. 

 It will stand, as it were, at the furthest end in that 

 hierarchy of the sciences, specified by Comte, which 

 begins with the most perfect of all natural sciences, viz., 

 physical astronomy. M. Eibot, who has himself con- 53 

 tributed largely to modern psychological literature, both H 

 from the physiological and introspective points of view, is 

 well aware of this. Probably no two works have done 

 more to diffuse clear ideas as to the different lines of 

 psychological research than his treatise on ' Contemporary 

 English Psychology,' which appeared in 1870, and that 



