SOURCES OF THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY. 105 



sions. The adherents of such a process are glad to certify the 

 value of a first thought. Conscientious workers, who are shy at 

 bringing their thoughts before the public until they have tested 

 them in all directions, solved all doubts, and have firmly estab- 

 lished the proof ; these are at a decided disadvantage. To settle 

 the present kind of questions of priority only by the date of 

 their first publication, and without considering the ripeness of 

 the research, has seriously favored this mischief. 



" In the type-case of the printer all the wisdom of the world is 

 contained which has been or can be discovered ; it is only requi- 

 site to know how the letters are to be arranged. So, also, in the 

 hundreds of books and pamphlets which are every year published 

 about ether, the structure of atoms, the theory of perception, as 

 well as on the nature of the asthenic fever and carcinoma, all the 

 most refined shades of possible hypotheses are exhausted, and 

 among these there must necessarily be many fragments of the 

 correct theory. But who knows how to find them ? 



" I insist upon this in order to make clear to you that all this 

 literature, of untried and unconfirmed hypotheses, has no value 

 in the progress of science. On the contrary, the few sound ideas 

 which they may contain are concealed by the rubbish of the rest ; 

 and one who wants to publish something really new facts sees 

 himself open to the danger of countless claims of priority unless 

 he is prepared to waste time and power in reading beforehand a 

 quantity of absolutely useless books, and to destroy his reader's 

 patience by a multitude of useless quotations." * 



In order to give a psychological illustration, I will refer to the 

 case of mediate association of ideas. \ The existence of such asso- 

 ciations was discovered in the course of an extended experimental 

 investigation of the manner in which ideas were associated. It 

 was proved, for the first time, that such associations are made. 

 A single personal observation of this sort is to be found in 

 Hamilton's works. A still earlier one is reported from Hume, 

 and a favorable perusal of the works of Aristotle would probably 

 reveal something similar. Such cursory observations, fruitless 

 and unconfirmed, do not entitle the makers to any special credit. 

 The credit of an experimental discovery remains with the dis- 

 coverer, regardless of previous guesses that may have hit the 

 truth. 



The debt of the new psychology to the old psychology of the 

 past does not involve any claims by the " sensation-psychology " 

 of the present. Among the pupils of the old psychology there 



* Helmholtz, Popular Lectures, Second Series, p. 228. New York, 1881. 

 f The idea, C, follows a totally unrelated idea, A. A and C had previously been inde- 

 pendently associated with B, but now B is not thought of, or is entirely forgotten. 

 VOL. LI. 8 



