FOREWORD 



THE unique characteristic of modern times 

 one which gives every indication of being 

 permanent is that the world, both personal 

 and external, is to an apparently increasing 

 degree in a state of change. The immense 

 significance of this fact is as yet but dimly 

 perceived. The new modifies the old or dis- 

 places it in every department of life without 

 exception and with increasing rapidity. New 

 ideas, new movements, new ways of looking 

 at things present themselves for attention for 

 the first time or call upon people to change 

 their attitude towards things they had con- 

 sidered settled. This state of the world ren- 

 ders the practical problems of personal con- 

 duct and social policy increasingly vital and 

 complex, and makes the task of a college in 

 its relation to them as much more difficult as 

 an institution is less mobile than an indi- 

 vidual. 



To assist Amherst College, therefore, in 

 throwing light in a genuinely scientific spirit 

 upon the relation of the research, discovery, 



