June 4, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



88.: 



hazardous to predict the general uature of the 

 contents of a volume upon the basis of the oc- 

 currence of the word ' Psychology ' on its title- 

 page. 



The two works are, moreover, quite similar in 

 size and scope ; they are equally methodical and 

 systematic ; they reflect iu each case the well 

 defined convictions of the author, and the author 

 in each case is an experimentalist thoroughly in 

 touch with a rigid scientific conception of the 

 methods and problems of mental investigation. 

 A still further note of agreement is to be found in 

 the strong insistence upon the specifically psy- 

 chological aspect of the questions considered ; 

 physiological considerations are reduced to a 

 minimum, and philosophical speculations are, 

 in almost all instances, avoided, except when 

 they seem to be required to furnish a basis for 

 psychological interpretations. The reader never 

 loses sight of the fact that the subject uuder 

 discussion, whether sensation or perception, 

 whether attention or movement, whether the 

 sentiment or reasoning, is always treated as a 

 strictly and exclusively psychological problem, 

 as a description, classification, interpretation, 

 analysis and explanation of a mental process or 

 product. This trait gives a very impressive 

 sense of consistency, order and completeness 

 to the expositions. It arouses the agreeable 

 feeling that, in spite of all the discussions and 

 controversies, iu spite of all schools and atti- 

 tudes, there really is a science of psychology ; 

 that psychology is not merely a shapeless re- 

 gion as yet unoccupied by the adjoining do- 

 mains of the sciences and upon which these 

 sciences may encroach at pleasure, but a defi- 

 nitely organized country with distinctly recog- 

 nizable boundary lines. Of course, this agree- 

 able feeling is apt to be disturbed when we 

 turn to other phases of modern psychological 

 literature; but it is a welcome resource, and par- 

 ticularly so for the student to have such an ex- 

 position to fall back upon. This end is gained 

 at a considerable saccrifice of suggestiveness 

 and attractiveness ; but it is obviously the de- 

 liberate plan of both authors, and in both cases 

 the plan is well carried out. 



As between the two — for the odium of com- 

 parison does not obtain, when the two things 

 compared are really comparable — the prefer- 



ence of American teachers and readers will be 

 for Professor Titchener's work. The American 

 student seems to require not merely a road-map 

 and sign-posts, but a personal guide, or at least 

 an illustrated and attractive guide-book ; he 

 needs not merely an opportunity to go right, but 

 an incentive to keep going, as well as frequent 

 corrections of tendencies to pursue misleading 

 and aimless side paths. Such direction he is 

 much more likely to find in Professor Titchen- 

 er's pages than in those of Professor Wundt ; 

 he is not likely in either case, however, to find 

 as attractive a path as he had hoped for, and 

 will find many regions through which the path 

 is difficult to follow and by no means easy when 

 found. Psychology has a very unfortunate 

 reputation in the minds of the college student, 

 as a study peculiarly difficult, to be pursued by 

 methods unusual and intricate. A perfect text- 

 book would minimize the grounds for such a 

 reputation by constantly assimilating the un- 

 familiar by the aid of the familiar. Many a 

 student who enters upon the study of that sec- 

 tion of psychologic optics dealing with the per- 

 ceptive powers of the outlying parts of the 

 retina fails to obtain the proper results, because 

 of his difficulty iu fixing his gaze at oue point 

 and his attention at another, or because he 

 allows his eyes to roam about when they should 

 be rigidly fixed. The usual and useful method 

 of seeing is to focus the gaze and the attention 

 together and to allow the eyes freely to move 

 about and explore the field of view, but for the 

 study of the analysis of space perception it is 

 necessary to overcome this tendency and to 

 acquire an unusual mode of vision. Such, in 

 some measure, is the relation between the daily 

 mental experience by means of which every one 

 acquires a real acquaintance with mental pro- 

 cesses and results and the technical study of 

 psychology. But the contrast between these 

 two attitudes should not be allowed to interfere 

 with the easy and attractive transition from 

 one to the other, nor with the correct apprecia- 

 tion of the function and place of each. The 

 student should not be tempted to observe the 

 world by indirect vision, but he should be led 

 to acquire the tendency to observe unapparent 

 details and to gain an insight into the signifi- 

 cance of what is common and obvious. It is 



