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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXSII. No. 824 



emotional theory, we see the predominant 

 influence of his physiological studies; and 

 his insistence upon the foundation of a 

 psycho-physical laboratory in connection 

 with his university tells the same story. 



He had, to be sure, no mean artistic en- 

 dowment, as was indicated by the promise 

 of his youthful work as a student under 

 masters of painting; and fully demon- 

 strated in the inimitable literary quality 

 that made his writings in diverse fields so 

 fascinating, and in the fertility of imagi- 

 nation displayed in every piece of work he 

 undertook. Nevertheless, it is easy to see 

 that, had the circumstances of his early 

 years been but slightly different, he might 

 very well have devoted his life to pure sci- 

 ence alone. 



Even when he finally turned his energies 

 to the study of the fundamental problems 

 upon which all science must in the end be 

 based, he held his hearers and readers, not 

 only by his matchless mode of expression, 

 nor only because of the keenness of his 

 criticism and the value of his teachings, 

 but also in large part because his utter- 

 ances were appreciated to be those of a 

 man who exemplified to the full the atti- 

 tude of the faithful devotee of science. 



In fact, as I think of his work as a whole, 

 I am prepared to believe that his readers 

 of the future will find his most striking 

 traits to have been the very ones that men 

 of science hold as their ideals; viz., an in- 

 tense interest in investigation in all matters 

 to which his attention was turned; and an 

 equally intense devotion to the search for 

 truth, with which was joined an unwilling- 

 ness to treat lightly any data whatever that 

 might possibly be found to be significant. 



And yet it has become apparent to us to- 

 day that he was first and foremost a psy- 

 chologist. And to service in that field he 

 devoted all of the artistic gift that was his, 

 and all the powers that he had gained in 



the study of the more rigid sciences: and 

 had he ceased writing twenty years ago, 

 when his masterly "Principles of Psychol- 

 ogy" appeared, he would perhaps have 

 been known only as James the psychologist. 



That he was the ablest and most influ- 

 ential psychologist of our time can not be 

 questioned ; and I am inclined to agree with 

 Professor Dewey that men of future gen- 

 erations may look upon him as the greatest 

 psychologist that has ever lived. 



His work, it is true, was not, strictly 

 speaking, systematic. As he wrote to me 

 in one of his familiar letters, he always 

 found it necessary "to overcome a certain 

 primary repugnance for everything put in 

 abstract and schematic shape." But this, 

 after all, was natural to a man of his 

 temper. For the sj^stem-maker, dealing as 

 he does with broad generalizations, must 

 inevitably fail to cover by his formulations 

 many details that are imperfectly compre- 

 hended; and must be constantly tempted 

 to pass these by as less significant than they 

 really are. For James these very obdurate 

 details had especial interest. He delighted 

 to lay them bare even though they could 

 not be systematized: and being the soul of 

 candor, he found himself utterly incapable 

 of hiding from his fellows any insight that 

 he had gained through his exceptional 

 powers of analysis, which often brought to 

 light a multiplicity of interesting elements 

 in what had too commonly been assumed 

 to be unanalyzable. These acute analyses, 

 so constantly illustrated by reference to 

 concrete instances, have furnished to the 

 psychologist of the future the richest of 

 data, a veritable mine of wealth for the 

 scheme maker of a later day. 



During the last years of his life, how- 

 ever, James, in his published writings, dealt 

 especially with subjects philosophical 

 rather than psychological. But even in 

 this realm which the man of science hesi- 



