258 



PART V WORKING STAGE. 



It may not be out of place to supply a graded series of cases 

 for the purpose of elucidating the full signification of direct 

 observation: (1) Some one has completed a direct, extensive, 

 historical, and exhaustive study of the nature and habits of 

 sheep ; (2) he has had frequent occasions to observe and study 

 sheep 'in their appropriate surroundings ; (3) he has casually seen 

 sheep" on the hill slopes; (4) he has seen one hustled through 

 his street; (5) he saw once a stuffed sheep in a natural history 

 museum; (613) he has seen a large (small) coloured 

 (uncoloured) model (picture or print) of one or more sheep; 

 (1417) he has read (heard) a full and accurate (short and 

 inaccurate) description of sheep; (1819) he acquired his in- 

 formation a long time ago from vague hearsay about sheep, 

 and cannot, besides, trust his memory. It is manifest that a 

 very appreciable difference exists between (1) and (19), and it 

 is to be deplored that outside recognised scientific research 

 in the physical and biological sciences, there is no adequate 

 apprehension of the need of keeping closely to (1), whilst a 

 tendency exists to look indulgently on (18) and (19). 



Owing to what seems an unconsciousness of the necessity 

 of examining facts at first hand and thoroughly, a century of 

 continuous movement in the sphere of psychology has yielded 

 no conspicuous fruits. The proper nature of the principal 

 divisions of the mind, even pleasure-pain and the sensations, 

 are to-day no less and no more known, one might almost say, 

 than they were a hundred years ago. The views of the psycho- 

 logist, as his terminology evidences, have remained in essence 

 those of the man in the street. This disregard of the rule of 

 turning directly to the facts and of challenging the scientific 

 value of pre-scientific classifications, has been powerfully pro- 

 moted by the belief that effective introspection is impossible a 

 belief grounded on speculative considerations and on the ex- 

 perience that beginners find it difficult to introspect impartially 

 or well, 1 as they would find it difficult to do ANYTHING impar- 

 tially or well. On this account an eminently simple science, 



1 For instance, it has been said that we cannot examine the conditions 

 of fear and other strong feelings, when what should have been stated is 

 that we cannot examine directly the first moments of a fierce passion. Or 

 it has been contended that we cannot attend to what we are attending, when 

 we are engaged on this the whole day almost. Or it has been argued that 

 introspection only refers to one individual; but it has been fprgotten that 

 that individual lives for many years and must of necessity reflect the most 

 general laws of mind. Here is a comparatively recent statement pertaining 

 to the alleged drawbacks to introspection: "Analytic observation of mental 

 processes is difficult just because they are processes and not fixed, enduring 

 objects. We cannot examine at leisure and again and again the same mental 

 process; for, as we try to notice its peculiar quality and complexity, it changes 

 every moment, and it can never be perfectly recovered or restored; and it 

 changes, or rather gives place to another process, all the more quickly, 

 just because we direct our attention to it." (W. McDougall, Psychology, 

 1912, p. 46.) 



