REV. F. STORES TURNER, B.A., ON 



endeavouring to build up a superstructure on old foundations 

 which have given way. 



Eev. John Tuckwell, M.R.A.S.— If psychology is what this 

 paper seems to indicate, it appears to me that it comprehends all 

 philosophy, all metaphysics, all science, the whole universe, the 

 human self and its environment. If this be so, then there is no 

 such thing as psychology, and we have simply to drop the word 

 and go on with our study of the other branches of science as we do 

 now. But there is a limitation generally understood within the 

 wider subject of metaphysics that comes under the title of psycho- 

 logy. As I understand it, the term psychology is intended more 

 especially to refer to the human soul or spirit in its own personal 

 -consciousness and in its experiences as known and taught by that 

 consciousness. There are some sentences in the paper which need 

 correction, and others which I think the writer could hardly have 

 meant at all. The author says, " the mind, soul, or spirit is a 

 unity of successive times." What can a unity of successive times 

 mean % There is an entity which is conscious of successive times, 

 but the times arc not a portion of that entity. Then he adds, 

 and successive experiences." But still that entity is not a series 

 of successive experiences, but something that passes through 

 successive experiences. Nor is it a unity " of receptivity and 

 activity " and " of endless diversities." Receptivity and activity 

 may be contemplated by themselves in an abstract way, but 

 psychology is supposed to deal with the conscious substance which 

 displays these phenomena. He tells us also, that " no difficulty, no 

 perplexity, is felt until we make the mistake of regarding the body 

 as a real thing by itself, and the soul as another real thing by 

 itself." But surely if there is a body it is a real thing, and by and 

 by it will be a real thing by itself, and when that soul will have 

 left, it is a real thing and will also be a real thing by itself. What , 

 is that real thing 1 It is the business of psychology to tell us some- 

 thing about it, and something about its moral relations to its fellow 

 souls around it, and to that Divine Creator under whose laws it has 

 been made and whose laws it must obey. 



