LITERARY NOTICES. 



7S3 



those facts ? The naturalists, and not the 

 psychologists. If we were to go further, 

 we might show that ordinary psychology, in 

 restricting itself to man, has not even in- 

 cluded the whole of mankind ; that it has 

 taken no heed of the inferior races (black 

 and yellow); that it has contented itself 

 with affirming that the human faculties are 

 identical in nature and various only in de- 

 gree, as if the difference of degree might 

 not sometimes be such as to be equivalent 

 to a difference of nature ; that in man it 

 has taken the faculties already constituted, 

 and rarely occupied itself with their mode 

 of development; so that, finally, psychol- 

 ogy, instead of being the science of psy- 

 chical phenomena, has simply made man, 

 adult, civilized, and white, its object. 



" We have seen how psychology under- 

 stands its object, let us now see how it un- 

 derstands its method. This consists en- 

 tirely in reflection, or interior observation. 

 Assuredly, no one believes more firmly than 

 we do in the necessity of this mode of ob- 

 servation ; it is the point of departure, the 

 indispensable condition of all psychology, 

 and those who have denied it, like Bvous- 

 sais and Auguste Comte, have so completely 

 gone against evidence, and given the game 

 to their adversaries, that their most faith- 

 ful disciples have not gone so far with them. 

 It is certain that the anatomist and the 

 physiologist might pass centuries in study- 

 ing the brain and the nerves, without ever 

 suspecting what a pleasure or a pain is, if 

 they have not felt both. 



" No testimony is so valuable on this 

 point as that of consciousness, and we are 

 always brought back to that saying of an 

 anatomist — 'In the presence of the fibres 

 of the brain, we are like hackney-coach- 

 men, who know the streets and the houses, 

 but know nothing of what takes place in- 

 side them.' It is also certain that the ob- 

 jections made to this method of observation 

 have been very well discussed. But is it 

 true that interior observation is the unique 

 method of psychology ? that it reveals 

 every thing, that it suffices for every thing ? 

 Taken in its rigorous meaning, this doctrine 

 would lead to the impossibility of the sci- 

 ence. For, if my reflection apprises me of 

 that which passes in me, it is absolutely in- 

 capable of enabling me to penetrate into 



vol. iv. — 48 



the mind of another. A more complicated 

 process is necessary for that. We are talk- 

 ing ; a man present at our conversation 

 joins in it with an absent manner, says a 

 few words with evident effort, and forces a 

 smile ; I conclude from all this that he is a 

 prey to some hidden trouble. I may soon 

 divine its causes if I have a penetrating 

 mind, and if I am acquainted with this man 

 and his antecedents. But this psychologi- 

 cal discovery is a very complex operation, 

 of which the following are the stages : per- 

 ception of signs and gestures, interpretation 

 of those signs, induction from effects to 

 causes, inference, reasoning by analogy. It 

 has nothing in common with interior obser- 

 vation except that aptitude for knowing 

 others better which comes from knowing 

 one's self better. Thus, one of two things 

 is the case : either psychology is limited to 

 interior observations, and, these being com- 

 pletely individual, it has no longer any 

 scientific character ; or else it is extended 

 to other men, it searches out laws, it prac- 

 tises induction, it reasons, and then it is 

 susceptible of progress ; but its method is 

 to a great extent objective. Interior obser- 

 vation alone is not sufficient for the weak- 

 est psychology." 



INTEENATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SEEIES, 

 NO. VIII. 



Animal Locomotion ; or, Walking, Swim- 

 ming, and Flying. With a Dissertation 

 on Aeronautics. By J. Bell Petti- 

 grew, M. D., F. R. S. New York : D. 

 Appleton & Co. 264 pp. Illustrated. 

 Price, $1.75. 



Locomotion by steam began but a few 

 years since ; its principles are simple, and 

 the machines by which it is accomplished 

 are all of one general construction ; yet we 

 have already whole libraries of literature 

 — folios, quartos, and octavos, cyclopaedias, 

 essays, and catechisms, technical and popu- 

 lar — expounding and explaining it. Much 

 also has been written in elucidation of the 

 principles and mechanisms Of progression 

 that are illustrated in the animal kingdom ; 

 but the present volume of Dr. Pettigrew is 

 the first popular monograph on the subject 

 that we have seen, and, although not large, 

 it contains much curious and interesting 

 information upon all. aspects of it.. But the 



