The elements of psychology
•/^ss'^:.>s:.v' &x^%-!<^: v:<i<v:'>: mm '^y^^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ®|ap-- - '^mm¥ ■?» - Shelf .....C.(x-4- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY Br GABRIEL COMPAYRE \\ GRADUATK OF THE ECOLE NORMAL SUPii:RIEUKE, FELLOW IN PHILOSOPHY, DOCTOR OF LETTERS, PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM H. PAYNE, Ph.D., LL.D. I CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE, AND PRESIDENT OF THE PEABODY NORMAL COLLEGE; AUTHOR OF "CHAPTERS ON SCHOOL SUPERVISION," ** OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL DOCTRINE," AND " CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SCIENCE OF EDU- CATION " ; TRANSLATOR OF COMPAYREl'S •'HISTOIRE DE PEDAGOGIE " AND "COURS DE PEDAGOGIE" BOSTON MDCCCXC LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 MILK STREET NEXT " THE OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE " NEW YORK CHAS. T. DILLINGHAM 718 AND 720 Broadway •(2 64- Paris, June 13, 1890. Prof. W. H. PAYNE. Dear Sir: — Full authorization is granted you for the trans- lation of my Psychologie. I thank you for tlius adding my Notions Elementaires de Psychologie to your beautiful translations of my Histoire de la Pedagogic and my Lemons de Pedagogic. Yours, under great obligations, GABRIEL COMPAYRE. Copyright, 1890, By William H. Payne. THE ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. Though many works on Psychology have been pub- lished within the last few years, the feeling is still very general that even the best of them are not well adapted to the needs of teachers who are in quest of principles and doctrines which may serve as a basis for rational methods. It is to be recollected that neither the high- est generalizations nor the mere empirical rules of a science can be turned to profitable account in the way of practical applications ; the first are too vague to admit of ready interpretation and use ; and the second are too narrow to be fruitful in adaptations to an art where versatility is so necessary. A book to serve the needs of the general teaching class should have, it would seem, the following qualities : — 1. It should contain only the essentials of psychol- ogy ; it should not be a cyclopaedia of psychological science. 2. It should not be a work of erudition or learned research, designed for the specialist and the proficient ; but a book for the dissemination of scientific truth among persons who need it first of all for the applica- tions they can make of it. iv TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 3. It should be written in terms readily intelligible by ordinary readers ; it should not require any extraor- dinary scientific acumen or power of interpretation. 4. As most teachers of youth are believers in the spirituality of the soul, and in the absolute dissimilarity of mind and matter, they prefer a book whose tone and treatment are in accord with the Christian spirit. It is because Compayre's Notions Elemcntaircs dc Psychologie SQQxns to embody these qualities to a greater degree than any other book with which I am acquainted, that I have undertaken its translation. Those who are acquainted with M. Compayre's excel- lences as a thinker and a writer will need no assurance that his Psychologie is characterized by philosophic insight, wisdom in the selection of m.atter, accuracy of views, and absolute clearness in exposition. M. Compayre's experience as an instructor in nor- mal schools has enabled him to determine the kind and amount of matter, mode of exposition, and sequence of topics, which are best adapted to the intellectual and professional needs of the teaching class. One charm of the book lies in the fact that Psychol- ogy, under this mode of treatment, has all the concrete interest of physical science. The subject is no longer enveloped in transcendental obscurity, but is brought within the compass of the ordinary intelligence by being presented as an experimental science, or science of observation. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE V M. Compayrc's philosophy will be congenial to Eng- lish readers, for it is the philosophy of common-sense. '' Spontaneity, impersonality, and universality," says M. Jaques, "are the characteristics of truths of covnnon- seiise ; and hence their truth and certainty. The moral law, human liberty, the existence of God, and immortality of the soul, are truths of conwioii-senser My immediate purpose in making this translation has been to provide a suitable book for the large classes of professional students in the Peabody Normal College ; but my thought beyond this has been to provide the thousands of readers of Compayre's History and Lectures with a companion volume and sequel. W. H. PAYNE. University of Nashville, Peabody Normal College, May 14, 1890. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Introduction i I. Object of Psychology. Definition and Classifi- cation OF Psychological Facts .... 23 II. Physical Activity: Movements, Instincts, Habits, 41- III. Physical Sensibility: Pleasure and Pain, Sensa- tions AND Feelings, Wants and Appetites. 56 IV. The Intelligence in General. Division of Intel- lectual Facts j^ V. Consciousness and Attention 88 VI. Outward Perception. The Five Senses. 102 VII. Analysis and Explanation of the Phenomena of Memory 119 VIII. The Law of the Association of Ideas. 134 IX. The Imagination and its Different Forms. 149 X. Abstraction and Generalization. Abstract Ideas AND General Ideas 163 XL Judgment and Reasoning 180 XII. The Reason : Notions and First Truths. 193 XIII. Language and its Relations with Thought. 210 XIV. Moral Sensibility. Personal Inclinations. 224 XV. The Social Inclinations and the Ideal Inclina- tions 240 XVI. The Will and Habit 259- XVII. Liberty and Determinism 273 XVIII. Conclusion of the Psychology. Mind and Body, 288 Index 305 INTRODUCTION REASONS FOR TEACHING PSYCHOLOGY, AND THE METHOD BY WHICH IT SHOULD BE TAUGHT 1. Object of this Introduction. — Before entering upon the subject proper two preliminary questions ought to be settled : — 1. Why has the study of Psychology, hitherto re- served by way of privilege to collegiate instruction of the classical type, been recently introduced into our primary instruction, and into the programme of our normal schools, just as, still more recently, it has been included to a certain extent in the course of study for special schools ? 2. How shall Psychology be taught, and what are the best methods to be employed for acclimating this philosophical science on this new territory, in order that it may produce all its results in minds apparently ill prepared for this class of studies ? 2. General Utility of Psychology. — Though the prog- ress of thought has transformed human knowledge and has created new sciences of marvellous scope, we are still justified in repeating, after the lapse of two 2 INTRODUCTION thousand years, what Socrates attempted to teach each of his disciples : the first and the most useful of the sciences is that which is summed up in this simple maxim, ''Know thyself." In fact, the knowledge of one's self is the key to all the moral sciences. History would be but an incoherent succession of facts, an enigmatic procession of characters whose parts are not understood, for one who has not learned, in the school of psychology, to disentangle the inner motives, ideas, sentiments, or passions which move hu- manity, — for one who cannot analyze the characters of the men who, by their preponderant action, are the principal makers of history. So also, without a knowledge of men, one would never be more than a mediocre statesman ; for, to gov- ern men, the first condition is to know what are the essential instincts, the natural aspirations of humanity. How can we assume to direct forces whose nature is unknown to us ? 3. Psychology and Morals. — But the utility of psychol- ogy is made manifest still more strikingly in its rela- tions to ethics and pedagogy. TJicorctically^ ethics is based on psychology. Liberty, which conditions the existence of morals, and con- INTRODUCTION 3 science, which is its governing law, — liberty and con- science are psychological facts. The principles of ethics are really intelligible only to those who have traced their origin to psychology and have tested their validity in their own consciousness. On the other hand, the theory of duty is nothing but an induction, an inference from psychological facts. It is what we are that teaches us to determine what we ought to be. It is the knowledge of his own nature that reveals to man his destiny. For the most part, duties are but( natural tendencies moderated and governed by thcj reason. Practically^ ethics has no less need of psychology. How many faults we might have shunned, how many virtues we might have acquired, had we been able to reflect as psychologists on the efficacy of an effort of a courageous will, on the omnipotence of habit, on the inevitable fatality of a passion which is not controlled by reflection and repressed by the will ! 4. Psychology and Pedagogy. — What shall we say of the influence exercised by a well-constructed system of psychology on pedagogy, or the science and art of education t ^ With respect to moral education, it is evident that we shall make a clumsy use of the means of discipline, that we shall be unskilful in correcting the faults and 1 On the relations between pedagogy and psychology consult Compayre's Lectures on Pedagogy^ Chapter I. 4 INTRODUCTION in developing the virtues of our pupils, if psychology does not enable us to analyze the feelings and the passions of the child, their origin and their progress. How shall we handle punishments and rewards with tact, if we do not take account of the emotions which they excite in the heart of the pupil, if we do not know what fear and shame, what self-love and emulation are ? How shall we be successful in promoting the develop- ment and progress of moral qualities, if we have not reflected on the relations between feelings and ideas, and on the formation of habits ? If it is a question of intellectual education, the neces- sity of psychological knowledge is made still more manifest. What more efficient preparation could we devise for a future educator of the mind than a study of the mind itself, of the different faculties of which it is composed and of the laws which govern its organiza- tion and determine the relation of its parts ? And when it becomes necessary to select the best methods of teaching, to adapt them to the powers of the child, and to bring them into conformity with the progress of his intelligence, is it enough simply to have a good knowledge of what we teach, say of history or geom- etry ? Is it not indispensable, in order that the matter taught may be thoroughly appropriated, to know the working of the intellectual faculties, just as the farmer is not satisfied when he has selected his seed, but must also know the nature of the soil on which he sows it ? INTRODUCTION 5 5. Psychology and Primary Instruction. — These con- siderations are amply sufficient to justify the introduc- tion of psychology into the course of study for normal schools. No doubt this is knowledge which the pupil- teacher will have no occasion to communicate directly to his future pupils. It is not proposed to introduce the study of the human mind into the primary schools, notwithstanding the opinion of certain Spanish teachers who believe they can initiate their pupils into the ele- ments of psychology, without difficulty and even with success, at the earliest period of their school life ; ^ and also notwithstanding the declaration of our French edu- cator, Condillac, who considered the study of psychology as the instrument best adapted to illumine the mind of the child at the beginning of his studies. But these conditions no longer affect the pupil-teacher, who is already an adolescent, accustomed to intellectual toil ; he is surely in a condition to acquire psychologi- cal knowledge without special difficulty, and, once acquired, this knowledge will be to him of inestimable value : I. For his Professional Education. — As a teacher, he will be required to give instruction in morals. How can he do this satisfactorily if psychological reflection 1 We allude to the programme now followed by the professors of the Free Academy of Madrid. 6 INTRODUCTION has not prepared him to comprehend the delicate and profound ideas which underh'e a course in ethics, and to assimilate, by a personal effort, the abstract maxims with which he attempts to indoctrinate the mind and heart of his pupils ? On the other hand, for the other parts of his work, as in civics and especially in history, psychology will afford him general insight and illumination which will vivify and elevate his instruction. We hear it said over and over again that the mission of teachers is to make men. How can they do this if they are ignorant of what human nature is ? 2. For /its General Editcation. — The normal school is not simply a manufactory of teachers ; it owes to its pupils, in addition to the professional education which fits them for their future vocation, the general educa- tion which develops and exalts their faculties. From this point of view, psychological studies are also of the highest importance. They alone reveal to us the dignity of human nature ; they alone assign to man his proper rank, neither too high nor too low, by giving him a clear comprehension of what he is. 6. Method of Teaching Psychology. — But, that the pupil may actually derive these advantages from the study of psychology, the thing which is important above everything else is the manner in which this science is to be taught. Let us note in the first place that we too often forget INTRODUCTION 7 the difference which exists between the scientific study of psychology, and elementary study in psychology. Psychology properly so called, psychology considered as a science, the object of profound philosophic research, is one thing ; while the psychology for school use, the psychology that is taught, is quite another. This dis- tinction has long been observed in the case of sciences that are even more readily acquired, as history, for example. We are in no danger of confounding an histo- rian, and a professor of history; a book of scholarly erudition like Henri Martin's Histoire de France^ and books for school use like the manuals which are in the hands of pupils. The authors of treatises on psychology are not always inspired by the same wis- dom. Their works are monuments erected in behalf of science, rather than books for popular use and general education. The teacher of psychology will then recollect, at the very start, that in the science which he teaches there is a choice to be made between discussions that are merely scholarly or knotty, useless facts, trifling details, and really useful questions which are of practical inter- est and which, at the same time, by their simplicity and clearness, are within easy comprehension of younger minds. Even these questions he will not profess to fathom or to exhaust ; he will not discuss them as a scholar who ventures to the very limits of his researches, but he will make them as light as possible to his pupils. 8 INTRODUCTION and will grasp only their substance, their essential parts. In a word, he will recollect that he is not a thinker who is toiling and speculating for the advancement of pure science, but a teacher who selects, who appropriates, who simplifies scientific notions for the instruction of his pupils. 7. Different Aims of a Course in Psychology. — The teaching of psychology takes different forms according to circumstances. It may follow different directions according to the end which is kept in view. If we are to teach psychology to future statesmen, lawyers, and embryo magistrates, it is evident that they must be made to study chiefly the psychology of the mature man, because in the practice of their profession they will have to do only with grown men. But as it is the purpose of the normal school to train future teachers who will have the direction of children, their attention must be called, not only to the adult faculties in their regular and systematic play, in the perfect and unchange- able forms of maturity, but particularly to the psychol- ogy of the child, to the laws which regulate the growth, development, and progressive organization of his facul- ties. Doubtless psychology is one, and in the normal school, as well as in the college or the university, it always admits the same questions, studied almost in the same order. However, by reason of the nature of his instruc- tion, the normal-school professor must needs give prof- INTRODUCTION 9 erence to certain subjects, as the laws of habit, for ex- ample ; but will pass rapidly over others, such as the origin of ideas. He will adapt the development of his theme to the practical utility of the subjects treated. Finally, to all the questions which he discusses, he will give that particular treatment indicated by the special destination of the pupils to whom he addresses him- self. 8. Natural Psychology. — But, it will be said, however delicate the discernment of the teacher in the choice of subjects, and in the treatment of his themes, psycho- logical notions are nevertheless obscure notions, difficult to comprehend, and unintelligible to certain minds. '' Psychology," contemporary authorities ^ are fond of saying, "is an abstract and austere science;" and com- mon opinion is in accord with this assertion. Are not psychologists themselves somewhat at fault if their science is encumbered with these prejudices and with this unenviable reputation ? Have they al- ways made sufficient effort to find, in the very experi- ence of the child, the starting-point for their theories } A prudent teacher will be able to make his pupils comprehend, at the very beginning of his instruction, that the principles of psychological knowledge are already within their reach. '' Of all the facts of which he speaks to his pupils, there is not one in reality which is not already known to them, which does not come each moment within their experience, and the expres- 1 M. Janet, Conrs dc Morale^ Introduction. lO INTRODUCTION sion of which they have not found an hundred times in the authors which they have read. The teaching of philosophy, then, does not begin by throwing the pupil into an unknown world ; on the contrary, it places him on his most familiar soil ; it takes for basis a science which he has already acquired, that natural psychology, common to all, which it merely aims to transform into a truly scientific psychology through exact analyses which end in precision, in classification, and in defini- tion." ^ Let there be a constant appeal, then, to the personal observation of the pupil, who has only to retire into himself to find there, in very fact, the phenomena whose laws his teacher is expounding. Psychological truths do not descend from the clouds of abstract thought ; they proceed, so to speak, from the very heart of man ; each one carries them within himself. There is needed, doubtless, in order to disengage them, an effort of the reflective consciousness ; but the instinctive conscious- ness which accompanies all the acts of the moral life is the natural starting-point for this scientific observation. " No knowledge of mental science," say American teachers, " is of any value to the teacher, which does not arise from the conscious examination and classifica- tion of the phenomena and faculties of his own mind. . . . The study of a text-book on psychology may be as purely an objective process as the examination of a 1 M. Rabier, Discourse pronounced at the distribution of yixiz&s. Journal qffi- ciel, August 4j 1886. INTRODUCTION 1 1 mineral." ^ In order, then, to make the text -book use- ful, and the instruction of the teacher fruitful, the pupil must supplement them by subjective observation, and must test them by a personal verification of the facts stated and the laws formulated. If this is the best means of making clear a course of instruction in psychology, it is also the true way to make it useful ; for it is much more important to inspire pupils with a taste for reflection, and to give them the habit of studying themselves, than to communicate to them the results of a ready-made science ; just as in morals the purpose is much rather to awaken the moral sense and a vivid and profound consciousness of obliga- tion, than to teach a catalogue of duties or a series of subtile distinctions as to good and evil. 9. Intuition in Psychology. — It follows from what precedes, that the intuitive method will find an easy application in the teaching of psychology. In fact, in- tuition assumes that children are put in the presence of things, and that they are first shown the facts, with which they are the most familiar. Now what is more really present to the mind than the mind itself ? What is nearer us and more familiar to our thoughts than the daily events of our moral life ? It is wrong to represent psychological facts as abstractions. They do not fall under the senses, it is true ; but they are immediately apprehended by the consciousness and gathered up by 1 See the report of the St. Cloud Normal School, for the year 18S6-87. 12 INTRODUCTION the memory. In their way, they are real, concrete things, which the pupil may constantly place under his gaze. Memory, attention, reason, will, are facts just as truly as weight, light, and electricity are. Conceived in this spirit, with a constant appeal to the conscious- ness of the pupil, the lesson in psychology may become a real object lesson. 10. The Socratic Method. — The teacher of psychology will not then depend on the didactic method alone. He will not be satisfied with giving, ex profcsso, precise definitions and exact descriptions. He will interrogate his pupils as much as possible ; he will ever call into play their own powers of observation ; he will demand of them illustrations which they will find in themselves ; by directing their attention he will lead them to discover what he wishes to teach them. It is precisely to ques- tions of the psychological order that Socrates applied the method that bears his name. When history is taught, the teacher, so to speak, is the only one who talks; he has nothing, or almost nothing, to expect from the co-operation of his pupils ; he discovers to them facts of which they previously had no idea. When he teaches psychology, on the contrary, he may, if he knows how to go about it, have his pupils for active co- adjutors ; he may make them discover for themselves, for example, the conditions of attention, the principal laws of memory, the advantages and disadvantages of the imao-ination. The consciousness and the memory INTRODUCTION 13 are for each one of us an inner museum where the dif- ferent facts which constitute the object of psychologi- cal research have been successively accumulated since our infancy, since our entrance into conscious life. The task of the teachers of psychology is merely to classify these facts, to define them, and finally to intro- duce a scientific order into this confused and disordered collection of inner recollections. 11. Inward Observation and the Observation of other Men. — Just as inward observation is the basis of scien- tific researches into human nature, so it ought to re- main the principal instrument for the teaching of psy- chology. Of all the sciences, psychology is the one which is best adapted to be taught by the same method by which it was discovered, — by a perpetual return of man upon himself. But it is also proper not to neglect the other sources whence may be drawn a more com- plete knowledge of human nature. The teacher of psy- chology, while inviting the pupil to observe himself, will also lead him to observe his comrades and men in general. If it is not really possible to penetrate directly into the consciousness of his fellows, he may at least divine their thoughts and emotions through gestures and signs, — the language, in a word, which expresses them. 12. Psychology and the other Sciences. — Psychologists generally make great efforts to prove that theirs is a distinct science, that it has its own proper object irre- 14 INTRODUCTION ducible to any other. We do not deny this ; but in the teaching of psychology it would be very dangerous, un- der pretext of specializing this study, to isolate it from all others and to neglect to profit by the aid that is offered it by other sciences which, after having con- tributed towards establishing it, may contribute still more towards simplifying and vivifying the teaching of it. Of this number are language, history, and literature. 13. Psychology and Grammar. — It is so far from being true that psychology is a science so entirely distinct from others^, and of a nature to disconcert pupils by its absolute novelty, that, on the contrary, it has intimate relations with the first science which the child under- takes, namely, grammar. A good knowledge of gram- mar is an excellent preparation for an important part of the course in psychology. Psychology, as we know, studies the laws of thought, and grammar, the laws of language. Now language is but the expression of thought. How then can we take account of the value of words, of their relations, of the rules of syntax which determine their correct use, without at the same time acquiring some idea of the inner processes of thought ? We are studying psychology without knowing it when we make a logical analysis of the sentence, — when we distinguish the subject, the verb and predicate, which are precisely the elements of the judgment. When we state the grammatical theory of the substantive and the INTRODUCTION 15 adjective, we apply, without suspecting it, one of the rational principles determined by psychology, namely, the principle of substance, which is sometimes enun- ciated as follows : " There is no quality or mode without substance." 14. Psychology and History. — Complaint is made, and not without reason, of the barrenness of a mere psycho- logical statement which is limited to generalities on human nature. An excellent remedy for this tedious dryness felt by young minds, is to find in historical events and in the biography of illustrious men, exam- ples corresponding to the different faculties which are studied. It is not merely to supply the defects of indi- vidual observation, which never presents to us more than an imperfect specimen of man, that we must put history under contribution ; but chiefly that we may cause instruction to be penetrated with interest and life. Make your pupils perceive that in history, Newton represents attention ; Caesar, ambition ; Shakespeare, imagination ; Descartes, reason, and they will listen to you with redoubled curiosity. Make them comprehend what motives Charles IX. obeyed when he ordered the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; Charlotte Corday, when she killed Marat ; and you will have done much to initiate and interest your auditors in the study of the sensibilities. 15. Psychology and Literature. — We also recommend that the teacher unite psychology and literature as closely as possible. The writings of moralists, the memoirs of literary men, and the works of dramatic poets are psychological documents of incomparable value. They unveil the human soul, some in the dis- order of its passions, others in the heroism of its will. " For the study of the laws of the understanding, we must know men of letters ; while in the tragic poets we must make an intimate study of heart, passion, and will." 1 The reading of a page of Descartes to explain the process of reasoning ; of a play of Racine or of Corneille, to analyze the play of the passions ; these will come as a happy relief to didactic instruction in psy- chology. 16. Comparative Psychology. — Psychology furnishes man with his true titles of nobility by revealing to him the dignity of his nature ; but it should also teach him in what respect he resembles other animals. For the study of the lower faculties of human nature, — instinct, .physical activity, sense-perception, memory, — animal life offers points of comparison to which the teacher of 1 M. Janet, La PsycJiologic dc Racine^ Revue des Deux-Mondes, SeiDtember 15, 1S75. INTRODUCTION I7 psychology will not fail to have recourse. Children and youth have a particular taste for the observation of lower animals. We should know how to take advantage of this disposition, inasmuch as comparative psychol- ogy— the study of the animal — will contribute towards promoting the study of man. *' If there were no ani- mals," said Buffon, "the nature of man would be much more incomprehensible." If the Fables of La Fontaine are often lessons in morals, a given page of natural his- tory may be also a lesson in psychology. 17. Psychology of the Child. — The study of a child, even more than the observation of animals, will furnish the psychologist with useful and interesting information. Anecdotes borrowed from the acts and pranks of chil- dren will come in play to embellish the somewhat monot- onous ground-work of psychological theory. Moreover, the psychology of the child forms an integral part of a course in psychology, if it is true, as we have said else- where, that psychology is not a geometry of invariable theorems, but a history which relates the progressive evolution of the soul. However, a start has been made in this direction ; books on childhood are multiplying ; ^ and now what we have to fear in this direction is abuse and excess, rather than negligence or oversight. We have read, not without some solicitude, the dissertation of a teacher on the development of the intelligence, in 1 The reader will consult with profit the books so suggestive and so rich in facts, which Perez has devoted to the study of childhood. 1 8 INTRODUCTION which he speaks for several pages of the first sensations of the child before its birth ! 18. Practical Advice. — We have attempted to define the general method of teaching psychology ; but, after all, it must be remembered that the best method will never supply the place of talent and learning on the part of the teacher. The lessons most in accord with the plans which we have sketched will still amount to nothing if the teacher does not know how to animate them by exactness and vivacity of exposition, and by the accent of personal conviction. However, each lesson in psychology must provide for definitions and descriptions, or rather analyses, which are but more exact descriptions. Psychology does not deserve the reproach of not being able to escape vagueness and uncertainty ; this is true only of rational psychology, which raises the metaphysical questions of substance and of the spirituality of the soul. But elementary psy- chology, which contents itself with stating facts and de- fining their relations, — empirical psychology, which does not pass the limits of observation, — is a science as solid and as exact as physics or chemistry, with only ^ this difference, that it cannot apply numerical formulae to the phenomena which it studies. We must endeavor, therefore, to adopt a rigor of treatment which it is not impossible to attain, while shunning, as much as possi- ble, technical terms, and taking care, every time that we employ them, to show that they have equivalents in INTRODUCTION 19 common language, — that sensibility and understanding, for example, are called in every-day language, heart and intellect. The examples borrowed from history, and the literary comparisons, will come into play only to complete and illustrate the didactic part of the exposi- tion, like illustrations in the text. 19. Written Reviews. — But besides paying due re- gard to precision and exactness of exposition, the teacher must assure himself by frequent interrogations that the pupil has comprehended and retained what has been taught him, and must be made to add to this, from his own resources, something coming from personal reflec- tion.. In order to fix the oral instruction, it will also be well to employ the process of written review ; on condition that no abuse is made of it, and that the long task of reproducing each lesson is not imposed on every pupil. It is sufBcient that pupils take turns in re- stating the teacher's exposition. This unique recitation, in which the pupil will be able, on certain points at least, to do original work, and which will not be merely a servile and mechanical reproduction of what has been said in class, — this written review, once revised and corrected by the teacher, will become for every pupil the exact incmento of each part of the course. 20. Use of the Text-Book. — Under these conditions, it would seem that the text-book is not useless ; and it certainly is not. Of all the sciences, philosophy perhaps is the one which can be the least content with an oral 20 INTRODUCTION exposition, even when excellently made ; it demands, in addition, the toil of meditation and of reflective reading. Hence the necessity of a book which is a commentary on the teacher's lessons, and which, having more precision and briefer developments than an oral exposition, fixes and holds under the pupil's eyes the fundamental notions of the science. 21. General Characteristics of Psychology. — When thus taught, we do not hesitate to say that psychology may be made for young people a study relatively easy and interesting. It is with this hope that we have written the modest treatise which we now offer to our readers. May they acquire by studying it the taste for psycho- logical studies, and the sense of the moral life, which the rising generation is in danger of losing through the development of the physical sciences ! We hope at least that they will learn to esteem psychology and to comprehend its scope. The moral world, like the physical world, is subject to law ; so that while study- ing himself a man studies all men, just as by studying one mineral or one plant, he studies all minerals and all plants. Whatever may be said of it, psychology is a positive science which, on valid grounds, aspires to cer- titude. It reveals to us one part of the universal order, — the order which presides over the development of our moral nature. We are not prepared to believe that it loses its value and its interest because it has waived, after the example of the physical sciences, the insoluble INTRODUCTION 21 problems with which the human reason will always come into collision, and which fall within the domain of metaphysics, — because it has reduced its pretensions to the classification and analysis of facts which serve as the bases for moral rules and educational methods. THE ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY Note. — This mark (*) refers the reader to the Special Index of Proper Names and Technical Terms, at the end of this volume. CHAPTER I OBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY. DEFINITION AND CLAS- SIFICATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTS 22. Definition of Terms. — Psychology — {from two Greek words signifying science of the soul) — is a philo- sophical science which studies the inner facts of the moral life of man ; just as physiology is a biological science whose object is the functions of the organic life. Psychology is thus a science of facts which, like all facts, may be called pJienoinena, that is, things which appear ; which facts are also functions or operations, if we regard them as the prolonged manifestations of one and the same force ; and which, finally, having the common characteristic of being conscious, may be called states of conscionsness. Consciousness is the immediate knowledge which we have of whatever takes place in any given part of our being. The facts revealed by consciousness are con- nected with what is called the moral nature of man, 24 ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY or, in other terms, with the spirit or soul ; the facts which escape consciousness, and which can be known only through the medium of the senses, constitute, on the other hand, the pJiysical nature of man, or, in other terms, the organism, the body. Psychology thus stud- ies the facts of which we are conscious, and establishes the laws which regulate them. Law is the constant relation which exists between two phenomena, one of which is the antecedent, or cause, and the other the consequent, or effect. 23. Empirical Psychology and Rational Psychology. — Psychology proper, or Evipirical Psychology^ which re- stricts itself to observation and experience, does not speculate upon the nature of the principle underlying the facts which it studies. Whether this principle be the material organism, and in particular the brain, or, on the contrary, an immaterial cause, an independent substance, is in one sense of little importance to this science ; it studies real facts, and this suffices for it. If psychology wishes to go farther and pronounce upon the existence or the nature of the soul, it becomes Rational Psychology, which is but a part of metaphysics, that is, of that collection of researches whose object is whatever passes beyond nature, moral nature as well as physical nature.^ But just as the physicist and the physiologist refer the facts which they observe to a 1 Of the eighteen chapters composing this book, the last is the only one per- taining to rational psychology. OBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY 25 single principle, matter, however embarrassed they may be to tell in just what matter consists ; so, psycholo- gists, in order to designate the supposed cause of the states of consciousness, employ the word spirit or the word soul, although they do not always trust themselves to define its nature. Were it only for clearness of ex- position, it would still be necessary to hold to the word ''soul" as the synonyme for the body of moral facts or conscious facts, even were it to be proved that all the conditiDns, all the causes, of psychological facts reside in the material organism of man. 24. History of the Idea of the Soul. — The soul has been conceived under a multitude of forms. Among primitive peoples, it seems that the belief in the soul was created by the phenomena of dreaming and the manifestations of life. On the one hand, struck by see- ing again in their dreams, as if they still lived and were really present, persons whom space or death had sepa- rated from them, savages were naturally led to believe in phantoms and spirits. On the other hand, the con- cealed power which animates the living man and which vanishes when he dies, was early taken as a distinct principle, independent of the body. The vital soul, the phantom soul, — such are the two forms conceived by the gross spiritualism of infant peoples. For them the soul is not the prerogative of man ; there is a soul in the animal and even in the plant. Just as humanity began with polytJieisvi * in its conception of God, so it 26 ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY began ^Nith. polyaiiiinisi/i* in its conception of the soul. The primitive races readily regarded animals as fellow- creatures of men, attributing to them immortal souls and believing in a paradise of animals. The Esqui- maux, it is said, bury in the tomb of little children the head of a dog, so that the soul of the dog may serve as a guide, towards the sojourn of the happy, to the soul of the child still incapable of self-conduct. For a long time there was a belief in the soul of plants. In the time of St. Augustine* the Mani- chaeans * maintained this belief. Not only so, but in- animate things, such as minerals, tools, and arms, were at first thought to have souls. Among the Fijians, in Oceanica, paradise receives the souls of hatchets and shears when these instruments have been broken in the service of men. In a word, at the beginning of human thought, the soul was considered as a universal principle inherent in all things ; in inanimate things the soul was the principle of permanence and form ; in animals and plants it was the principle of life, of sensibility, and of motion. 25. Material Souls. — But the sensible imagination of men for a long time regarded these multiple souls as material. According to the early Greek philosophers, the human soul is of the same nature as the material elements of the universe ; at one time it is confounded with the air, and at another with fire. The early theo- OBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY 2^ rists of the soul were particularly struck with the idea that it is a principle of motion ; so it was conceived as something winged or mobile. The butterfly is taken as the symbol of the soul, and the Greek word Psyche has these two meanings. Democritus * conceives the soul as a spheroidal atom, because round bodies move more easily and glide over things more readily. We also meet with this same materialistic conception of the soul in the early fathers of the Christian church. Ter- tullian,* Arnobius,* St. Irenaeus,* and St. Justin ^ still believe that the soul is a body. Among the Chinese, when a man is dead a hole is made in the roof in order that the soul may escape ; and among certain savage tribes a hole is made in the grave with the same intent. Even to-day, in certain parts of Europe, the custom is still kept up of leaving a door or a window open in the chamber of the dead. 26. The Immaterial Soul. — The idea of an immaterial soul, absolutely distinct from the body, is an idea rela- tively new in the history of the human mind. Plato,* a Greek philosopher, St. Augustine,* a father of the Church, and Descartes,* a French philosopher, are the real founders of the doctrine of spirituality. For Plato,* the soul is in the body like a prisoner in his cell or like a pilot in his boat. *' Everything which is not matter," says St. Augustine, ''and which still exists, is called spirit." Finally, Descartes, with still more precision, opposed unextended and invisible 28 ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY thought to material extension, and hence inferred the existence of a spiritual soul. But Descartes, while attempting to make more clear the difference between the soul and the body, restricted and narrowed the notion of the soul, since he reduced its content to thought alone, and assigned to its activity no other domain than the intellectual world of ideas. The spiritualist philosophers who have succeeded Descartes have enlarged anew the somewhat narrow, point of view occupied by the author of the Discourse on Method. They have restored to the soul the phe- nomena of sensibility, which Descartes was too much disposed to relegate to the lower regions of the organic life ; consequently they speak again of the soul of ani- mals, which, for Descartes, were no more than machines or automata.* Some of them have even gone so far as to attribute to the soul the phenomena of animal life and the physiological functions of the human body.^ 27. The Soul and Psychological Facts. — These histori- cal explanations were necessary in order to understand the direction of our studies and to define with exactness the domain of psychology. It is not necessary at present to take sides for or against spiritualism. Our only concern is with facts immediately present to our consciousness. The soul is not a fact of experience. It is a hidden 1 This is the doctrine called ant7nism, in opposition to vitalism, which admits a vital prindple to explain the functions of life. It is now the general tendency to consider the organic functions as the result of purely material phenomena. OBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY 29 cause of which we know directly only the effects ; an unknown substance of which we apprehend only the particular and successive modifications. But these effects, these modifications, to whatever principle we are hereafter to refer them, constitute a distinct and irreducible category of phenomena which ought to be the essential object of psychological research. The great number of contradictory conceptions of the soul, considered by some as the principle of thought alone, by others as a principle that feels, thinks, and wills, and by still others as the sole cause of life and thought, suffice to prove how very necessary it is to postpone, if not entirely to waive, the obscure and controverted question of the nature of the soul. 28. Consciousness the Limit of Psychology. — Psycho- logical facts will therefore be defined as conscious facts, or at least as facts susceptible of becoming conscious. Consciousness is the natural limit of psychology. Whatever is known through consciousness — all the phenomena which succeed each other in our spiritual tribunal, instinctive or voluntary actions, sensations, or feelings, ideas or judgments, which sleep alone sus- pends or at least retards, and which, in order to be known, do not require the mediation of the senses, — all these are included within the domain of psychology ; everything, on the contrary, which escapes conscious- ness, remains outside of psychology. It is true that psychologists claim, and not without 30 ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY reason, the study of certain unconscious phenomena, for example, those thousands of latent recollections which lie dormant in our mind, but which may be sud- denly awakened by one circumstance or another ; but these facts, actually unconscious, may from moment to moment reappear in the light of consciousness ; they are, so to speak, only provisionally unconscious ; while the phenomena of animal life, such as circulation, res- piration, and digestion, are unconscious naturally and always ; they would be unknown, they would remain buried in the mysterious night and the obscure depths of the organism, if the senses did not penetrate there to discover them. 