502 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 92, 



ception, and takes up the argument as follows: 

 ' ' Now, it may be asked whether all this ana- 

 logical extension of imagery to what seem to us 

 such incongruous objects involves a vivid and 

 illusory apprehension of these as transformed. 

 * * * A conjectural answer can be given. In 

 this imaginative contemplation of things the 

 child biit half observes what is present to his 

 eyes, one or two points only of supreme interest 

 in the visible thing, whether those of form, as 

 in assimilating the piano-hammer to the owl, or 

 of action as the falling of the leaf, being selec- 

 tively alluded to, while assimilative imagina- 

 tion overlaying the visual impression with the 

 image of a similar object does the rest. In this 

 way the actual field of objects is apt to get 

 veiled, transformed by the wizard touch of a 

 lively fancy." 



Now, from the standpoint of a certain psy- 

 chology, the customary one, this is very well 

 said. But it merely assumes, without ques- 

 tioning, two things which the facts discussed 

 are well adapted to make us question: the 

 ' actual field of objects,' ' what is present to the 

 eyes ' on one side and the imagination or fancy, 

 as some sort of distinct power on the other. 

 But is not this somewhat naive ? Is this refer- 

 ence to the 'actual field of objects' anything 

 more than making the special constructions of 

 the adult consciousness, made from the stand- 

 point of its supreme interests, the fixed stand- 

 ard ? Is the problem how and why the child 

 overlays the things present to his eyes with 

 fanciful unrealities one of his own inner being ? 

 Or is it why and how the growing conscious- 

 ness gradually shears down the original experi- 

 ence, inhibiting the larger part of the interests 

 which determined it, and gradually confines 

 itself to one or two definite ends and habits in 

 selecting the qualities which shall constitute 

 the world of things ? In a word, is the child 

 object the adult (' or real ') object with an over- 

 plus of fanciful fringe, or is the adult-object the 

 child-object pared down and rearranged to meet 

 the dominant needs of mature life — one being 

 just as 'real' as the other in an abstract or 

 metaphysical sense ? 



I do not mean to affirm that Mr. Sully is 

 wrong in choosing the former alternative. But 

 the fact that he has adopted it without consid- 



ering there is an alternative, indicates to my 

 mind that, for the most part, he is just classify- 

 ing the new scientific material under the old 

 headings, instead of remaking thepoint of view. 

 From the standpoint of the scientific psy- 

 chologist this is an important qualification re- 

 garding Mr. Sully's work. Quite probably, 

 however, it fits the book all the better for the 

 task of mediating between the psychologist and 

 the public of parents and teachers into whose 

 hands the book will fall; and, as there are many 

 signs that this is the end the book has in view^ 

 it is a pleasure to add that it fulfills this par- 

 ticular purpose better than anything as yet pub- 

 lished upon child psychology. A good index 

 adds materially to the usability of the book. 



John Dewey. 

 University of Chicago. 



The Whence and Whither of Man : A brief his- 

 tory of his origin and development through 

 conformity to environment, being the Morse 

 lectures (at Union Theological Seminaiy) for 

 1895. By John M. Tyler, Professor of Bi- 

 ology, Amherst College. Charles Scribner's 

 Sons, New York. $1.75. 

 The Morse lectureship was founded by Prof, 

 S. F. B. Morse in 1865 at Union Theological 

 Seminary, the lectures to deal with ' the rela- 

 tion of the Bible to any of the sciences. ' These 

 lectures for 1895, which are just published, deal 

 with some of the most fundamental of all the 

 relations between scientific and religious belief, 

 and that in such a candid and fearless spirit as 

 to at once win the attention and respect of all 

 persons who love the truth and believe that a 

 free expression of opinion is the best way of ad- 

 vancing it. The lectures include such topics a& 

 the fundamental properties of living things ; a 

 brief consideration of Classification, Ontogeny 

 and Phylogeny ; the probable course of evolu- 

 tion from amceba to man ; the history of men- 

 tal development and its sequence of functions 

 from reflex-action to reason and altruism ; nat- 

 ural selection and environment, making at first 

 for digestion and reproduction preeminently,, 

 then for muscular strength and activity, then 

 for shrewdness, finally for unselfishness and 

 righteousness; conformity to environment ; man 

 from the biological, social and religious stand- 



