THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 
413 
WILLIAM JAMES 
Is there left to us in this land a 
man so great as William James? If, 
the list of our leaders is scanned, men 
eminent in philosophy, science, art or 
letters, in education, law, politics or 
business, is there a single one to be 
placed beside him? He excelled in so 
many ways, in science, in philosophy, 
in letters, as a teacher, as a leader in 
good causes and lost causes, before all 
as a man—kind and generous beyond 
measure, of remarkable individuality 
and distinction. 
The “Principles of Psychology,” 
published in 1890, is a scientific and 
literary classic. No one can foretell 
whether it will be permanently in the 
group of philosophical masterpieces, 
beginning with the dialogues of Plato, 
but there is no contemporary Amer- 
ican work and possibly no European 
work since the “Origin of Species,” 
which has an equal chance. 
Wilhelm Wundt and William James 
are the founders of psychology, a sci- 
ence which in a single generation has 
assumed a place coordinate with the 
other leading sciences. Both men— 
like their forerunners, Lotze and von 
Helmholtz—had an education in medi- 
cine and the natural sciences, with 
strong natural interests in philosophy 
and metaphysics. They established 
- laboratories of psychology at about the 
same time, neither of them did experi- 
mental work of consequence, both pre- 
pared treatises which to a remarkable 
extent established the lines of develop- 
ment for a science. Wundt’s “ Physi- 
ologische Psychologie” is more sys- 
tematic than James’s “ Principles of 
Psychology”; it is more of an en- 
eyclopedia. For that reason it could 
be brought out in various editions, 
corrected and_ enlarged. James’s 

“Psychology ” is more of a work of 
art, exhibiting the subject as he left 
it twenty years ago. 
It is truly a remarkable book, com- 
bining physiology, pathological psy- 
chology, comparative psychology, ex- 
perimental psychology, introspective 
psychology and philosophy into one 
whole which has dominated the sci- 
ence. The author is always accurate 
in his scientific material and clear in 
his statements, but frank in his criti- 
cism and daring in his conclusions. 
His own contributions on the stream 
of thought, the perception of things 
and of space, the emotions, instinct, 
habit and in many other directions are 
of fundamental importance. The work 
has an extraordinary vitality and in- 
viduality which make it a work of art 
and a classic. 
In his “Talks to Teachers” and 
“Varieties of Religious Experience,” 
James extended the field of psychology 
in two important directions. Nearly 
all his work was done in a somewhat 
opportunistic fashion. He made an 
engagement to give lectures, perhaps 
cancelled it or tried to do so, felt he 
could not prepare them and _ finally 
produced a masterpiece. “The Will to 
Believe ” was acollection of addresses; 
the volume on “ Religious Experience ” 
was Gifford lectures, the “ Prag- 
matism ” Lowell lectures, “A Plural- 
istic Universe” Hibbert lectures. 
Although the interest in problems of 
philosophy and the pluralism, prag- 
matism and empiricism may be traced 
backward to his earlier publications, 
they were given full and vigorous ex- 
pression only in these later volumes, 
when James had passed the age of 
sixty and was already suffering from 
disease of the heart. It would be idle 
