210 
such a way that she knows herself with ref- 
erence to her possibilities as a singer better 
than she could possibly have learned in 
any other way. Her future career as a 
singer may be determined by this and like 
knowledge which may be gained from time 
to time. Itis doing for her what an invoice 
does for the banker before he makes a 
large investment. If her case is promising 
the record is most stimulating and en- 
couraging. If there is insuperable cause 
for failure, it may in a very true sense save 
life by preventing its wreckage upon the 
stage after long wasted effort. The record 
shows whether she is by nature endowed 
with the mind and body of a natural 
singer, and to what extent for each item; 
and it points out to her the high places and 
the low places in her capacities and possi- 
bilities. It substitutes procedure with 
knowledge, for the haphazard procedure 
which has always been followed in music. 
In giving and taking advice of this sort 
we must, however, not forget the enormous 
resourcefulness of the human will, and the 
possession of latent powers. A one-legged 
man may become a rope dancer, a blind 
man a guide, a man with wretched voice an 
orator. Furthermore, art is possible only 
where there is willingness to overlook 
faults. A singer may be permanently 
lacking in some fundamental capacity and 
yet have such merits in other respects, or 
have such exceptional ability in covering, 
that she may be successful in spite of an 
overt handicap. But even then psychol- 
ogy has warned and explained. 
This invoice also serves to explain ex- 
perience of the past which may not have 
been understood. If the singer has had 
defeat, it will show exactly why. If she 
has been misguided in musical training, it 
may show the nature of the error and its 
results. If the singer is conscious of lack 
in some capacity, the record shows the na- 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 893 
ture of this lack and may even suggest a 
remedy, if such there be. Even among 
the best musicians it is rare to find some 
one who does not have some type of diffi- 
culty. Indeed, the difficulties of the singer 
are notoriously great. If psychological 
measurement can lend a hand through the 
laying bare of the condition of the diffi- 
culty and by determining its nature and 
extent, as well as by discovering those who 
may not be aware of their genuine ability, 
it will indeed be in this respect a hand- 
maid of music. 
Another effect of such measurements is 
not only to objectify the elements of music- 
al appreciation and expression in such a 
way as to deepen insight in the expert, the 
teacher and the pupil; but it will also be 
reflected in the science and art of music as 
the scientific conceptions become generally 
known. The measurements will furnish a 
sort of skeleton for the psychology of 
music. 
From the very nature of his art, the 
musician, as a rule, takes the same kind of 
attitude toward his performance as an au- 
thor of high national reputation took to 
the Ouija board, which I had the pleasure 
of observing in action. In a certain sitting 
where the Ouija board was being shown, I 
remarked upon the extraordinary quickness 
of the sitter’s eye in reading the spelled 
words. ‘‘Hye,’’ he said. ‘‘Do you think I 
use my eyes?’ ‘‘Let us try it. Close 
your eyes and proceed.’’ Just as he 
started, I slid the board an inch to the side, 
and of course the rider did not hit a letter 
correctly. The performer was completely 
astonished. He had engaged in more than 
one hundred and fifty successful sittings, 
and yet he had not become aware of the 
fact that the use of his eyes was essential 
to his success. The message had come to 
him as a communication from without. 
The demand for so-called inspiration in 
