 |
These two extremes of variation, however, do not exhaust the case. One of them tends in a measure to the blurring of the light of genius, and the other to the rejection of social restraint to a degree which makes the potential genius over into a crank. The average man is the mean. Put the greatest reach of human attainment, and with it the greatest influence ever exercised by man, is yet more than either of these. It is not enough, the hero worshipper may still say, that the genius should have sane and healthy judgment, as society reckons sanity. The fact still remains that even in his social judgments he may instruct society. He may stand alone and, by sheer might, left his fellow-men up to his point of vantage, to their eternal gain and to his eternal praise. Even let it be that he must have self-criticism, the sense of fitness you speak of, that very sense may transcend the vulgar judgment of his fellows. His judgment may be saner than theirs; and as his intellectual creations are great and unique, so may his sense of their truth be full and unique. Wagner led the musical world by his single-minded devotion to the ideas of Wagner; and Darwin had to be true to his sense of truth and to the formulations of his thought, though no man accorded him the right to instruct his generation either in the one or in the other. To be sure, this divine assurance of the man of genius may be counterfeited; the vulgar dreamer often has it. But, nevertheless, when a genius has it, he is not a vulgar dreamer.
This is true, I think, and the explanation of it leads us to the last fruitful application of the doctrine of variations. Just as the intellectual endowment of men may vary within very wide limits, so may the social qualifications of men. There are men who find it their meat to do society service. There are men so naturally born to take the lead in social reform, in executive matters, in organization, in planning our social campaigns for us, that we turn to them as by instinct. They have a kind of insight to which we can only bow. They gain the confidence of men, win the support of women, and excite the acclamations of children. These people are the social geniuses. They seem to anticipate the discipline of social education. They do not need to learn the lessons of the social environment.
Now, such persons undoubtedly represent a variation toward suggestibility of the most delicate and singular kind. They surpass the teachers from whom they learn. It is hard to say that they "learn to judge by the judgments of society." They so judge without seeming to learn, yet they differ from the man whose eccentricities forbid him to learn through the discipline of society. The two are opposite extremes of variation; that seems to me the only possible construction of them. It is the difference between the ice boat which travels faster than the wind and the skater who braves the wind and battles up-current in it. The latter is soon beaten by the opposition; the former outruns its ally. The crank, the eccentric, the enthusiast—all these run counter to sane social judgment; but the genius leads society to his own point of view, and interprets the social movement so accurately, sympathetically, and with such profound insight that his very singularity gives greater relief to his inspiration.
Now let a man combine with this insight—this extraordinary sanity of social judgment—the power of great inventive and constructive thought, and then, at last, we have our genius, our hero, and one that we well may worship! To great thought he adds balance; to originality, judgment. This is the man to start the world movements if we want a single man to start them. For as he thinks profoundly, so he discriminates his thoughts justly, and assigns them values. His fellows judge with him, or learn to judge after him, and they lend to him the motive forces of success—enthusiasm, reward. He may wait for recognition, he may suffer imprisonment, he may be muzzled for thinking his thoughts, he may die and with him the truth to which he gave but silent birth. But the world comes, by its slower progress, to traverse the path in which he wished to lead it; and if so be that his thought was recorded, posterity revives it in regretful sentences on his tomb.
The two things to be emphasized, therefore, on the rational side of the phenomenally great man—I mean on the side of our means of accounting for him in reasonable terms—are these: first, his intellectual originality; and, second, the sanity of his judgment. And it is the variations in this second sort of endowment which give the ground which various writers have for the one-sided views now current in popular literature.
We are told, on the one hand, that the genius is a "degenerate"; on another hand, that he is to be classed with those of "insane" temper; and yet again, that his main characteristic is his readiness to outrage society by performing criminal acts. All these so-called theories rely upon facts—so far as they have any facts to rest upon—which, if space permitted, we might readily estimate from our present point of view. In so far as a really great man busies himself mainly with things that are objective, which are socially and morally neutral—such as electricity, natural history, mechanical theory, with the applications of these—of course, the mental capacity which he possesses is the main thing, and his absorption in these things may lead to a warped sense of the more ideal and refined relationships which are had in view by the writer in quest for degeneracy. It will still be admitted, however, by those who are conversant with the history of science, that the greatest scientific geniuses have been men of profound quietness of life and normal social development. It is to the literary and artistic genius that the seeker after abnormality has to turn; and in this field, again, the facts serve to show their own meaning.
As a general rule, these artistic prodigies do not represent the union of variations which we find in the greatest genius. Such men are often distinctly lacking in power of sustained constructive thought. Their insight is largely what is called intuitive. They have flashes of emotional experience which crystallize into single creations of art. They depend upon "inspiration"—a word which is responsible for much of the overrating of such men, and for a good many of their illusions. Not that they do not perform great feats in the several spheres in which their several "inspirations" come; but with it all they often present the sort of unbalance and fragmentary intellectual endowment which allies them, in particular instances, to the classes of persons whom the theories we are noticing have in view. It is only to be expected that the sharp jutting variation in the emotional and aesthetic realm which the great artist often shows should carry with it irregularities in heredity in other respects. Moreover, the very habit of living by inspiration brings prominently into view any half-hidden peculiarities which he may have in the remark of his associates, and in the conduct of his own social duties. But mark you, I do not discredit the superb art of many examples of the artistic "degenerate," so-called; that would be to brand some of the highest ministrations of genius, to us men, as random and illegitimate, and to consider impure some of our most exalting and intoxicating sources of inspiration. But I do still say that wherein such men move us and instruct us they are in these spheres above all things sane with our own sanity, and wherein they are insane they do discredit to that highest of all offices to which their better gifts make legitimate claim—the instruction of mankind.
Again one of Balzac's characters hits the nail on the head. "My dear mother," says Augustine, in the Sign of the Cat and Racket, "you judge superior people too severely. If their ideas were the same as other folks they would not be men of genius."
"Very well," replies Madame Guillaume, "then let men of genius stop at home and not get married. What! A man of genius is to make his wife miserable? And because he is a genius it is all right! Genius! genius! It is not so very clever to say black one minute and white the next, as he does, to interrupt other people, to dance such rigs at home, never to let you know which foot you are to stand on, to compel his wife never to be amused unless my lord is in gay spirits, and to be dull when he is dull."
"But his imaginations...."
"What are such imaginations?" Madame Guillaume went on, interrupting her daughter again. "Fine ones are his, my word! What possesses a man, that all on a sudden, without consulting a doctor, he takes it into his head to eat nothing but vegetables? There, get along! if he were not so grossly immoral, he would be fit to shut up in a lunatic asylum."
"O mother, can you believe?"
"Yes, I do believe. I met him in the Champs Elysees. He was on horseback. Well, at one minute he was galloping as hard as he could tear, and then pulled up to a walk. I said to myself at that moment, 'There is a man devoid of judgment!'"
* * * * *
The main consideration which this chapter aims to present, that of the responsibility of all men, be they great or be they small, to the same standards of social judgment, and to the same philosophical treatment, is illustrated in the very man to whose genius we owe the principle upon which my remarks are based—Charles Darwin; and it is singularly appropriate that we should also find the history of this very principle, that of variations with the correlative principle of natural selection, furnishing a capital illustration of our inferences. Darwin was, with the single exception of Aristotle, possibly the man with the sanest judgment that the human mind has ever brought to the investigation of nature. He represented, in an exceedingly adequate way, the progress of scientific method up to his day. He was disciplined in all the natural science of his predecessors. His judgment was an epitome of the scientific insight of the ages which culminated then. The time was ripe for just such a great constructive thought as his—ripe, that is, so far as the accumulation of scientific data was concerned. His judgment differed then from the judgment of his scientific contemporaries mainly in that it was sounder and safer than theirs. And with it Darwin was a great constructive thinker. He had the intellectual strength which put the judgment of his time to the strain—everybody's but his own. This is seen in the fact that Darwin was not the first to speculate in the line of his great discovery, nor to reach formulas; but with the others guessing took the place of induction. The formula was an uncriticised thought. The unwillingness of society to embrace the hypothesis was justified by the same lack of evidence which prevented the thinkers themselves from giving it proof. And if no Darwin had appeared, the problem of evolution would have been left about where it had been left by the speculations of the Greek mind. Darwin reached his conclusion by what that other great scientific genius in England, Newton, described as the essential of discovery, "patient thought"; and having reached it, he had no alternative but to judge it true and pronounce it to the world.
But the principle of variations with natural selection had the reception which shows that good judgment may rise higher than the level of its own social origin. Even yet the principle of Darwin is but a spreading ferment in many spheres of human thought in which it is destined to bring the same revolution that it has worked in the sciences of organic life. And it was not until other men, who had both authority with the public and sufficient information to follow Darwin's thought, seconded his judgment, that his formula began to have currency in scientific circles.
Now we may ask: Does not any theory of man which loses sight of the supreme sanity of Darwin, and with him of Aristotle, and Angelo, and Leonardo, and Newton, and Leibnitz, and Shakespeare, seem weak and paltry? Do not delicacy of sentiment, brilliancy of wit, fineness of rhythmical and aesthetic sense, the beautiful contributions of the talented special performer, sink into something like apologies—something even like profanation of that name to conjure by, the name of genius? And all the more if the profanation is made real by the moral irregularities or the social shortcomings which give some colour of justification to the appellation "degenerate"!
But, on the other hand, why run to the other extreme and make this most supremely human of all men an anomaly, a prodigy, a bolt from the blue, an element of extreme disorder, born to further or to distract the progress of humanity by a chance which no man can estimate? The resources of psychological theory are adequate, as I have endeavoured to show, to the construction of a doctrine of society which is based upon the individual, in all the possibilities of variation which his heredity may bring forth, and which yet does not hide nor veil those heights of human greatness on which the halo of genius is wont to rest. Let us add knowledge to our surprise in the presence of such a man, and respect to our knowledge, and worship, if you please, to our respect, and with it all we then begin to see that because of him the world is the better place for us to live and work in.
We find that, after all, we may be social psychologists and hero worshippers as well. And by being philosophers we have made our worship more an act of tribute to human nature. The heathen who bows in apprehension or awe before the image of an unknown god may be rendering all the worship he knows; but the soul that finds its divinity by knowledge and love has communion of another kind. So the worship which many render to the unexplained, the fantastic, the cataclysmal—this is the awe that is born of ignorance. Given a philosophy that brings the great into touch with the commonplace, that delineates the forces which arise to their highest grandeur only in a man here and there, that enables us to contrast the best in us with the poverty of him, and then we may do intelligent homage. To know that the greatest men of earth are men who think as I do, but deeper, and see the real as I do, but clearer, who work to the goal that I do, but faster, and serve humanity as I do, but better—that may be an incitement to my humility, but it is also an inspiration to my life.
LITERATURE[14]
[Footnote 14: Only books in English. The order of mention is without significance.]
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY—SYSTEMATIC TREATISES.
Bain, The Senses and the Intellect (New York: Appletons London: Longmans).
——, The Emotions and the Will (the same).
James, Principles of Psychology, 2 vols. (New York: Holt & Co. London: Macmillans. Abridged in Briefer Course).
Ladd, Psychology, Descriptive and Explanatory (New York: Scribners. London: Longmans. Abridged in Elements of Descriptive Psychology).
Stout, Analytic Psychology, 2 vols. (London: Sonnenschein. New York: Macmillans).
Wundt, Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology (the same).
Hoeffding, Outlines of Psychology (Macmillans).
Sterrett, The Power of Thought (New York: Scribners).
Baldwin, Handbook of Psychology, 2 vols. (New York: Holt. London: Macmillans. Abridged in Elements of Psychology).
——, Articles in Appletons' Universal Cyclopaedia (New York: Appletons).
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CHILD.
Preyer, The Mind of the Child, 2 vols. (New York: Appletons).
Compayre, Intellectual and Moral Development of the Child, 2 vols. (New York: Appletons).
Sully, Studies of Childhood (New York: Appletons. London: Longmans).
Baldwin, Mental Development in the Child and the Race (New York and London: Macmillans).
PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY.
Ziehen, Introduction to Physiological Psychology (London: Sonnenschein. New York: Macmillans).
Ladd, Elements of Physiological Psychology (New York: Scribners. London: Longmans. Abridged in Outlines).
Donaldson, The Growth of the Brain (London: Walter Scott. New York: Scribners).
EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.
Kuelpe, Outline of Psychology (London: Sonnenschein New York: Macmillans).
Sanford, Course in Experimental Psychology (Boston: Heath & Co.).
Scripture, The New Psychology (London: Walter Scott. New York: Scribners).
ANIMAL AND EVOLUTION PSYCHOLOGY.
Romanes Mental Evolution in Animals and Man, 2 vols. (New York: Appletons).
——, Animal Intelligence (New York: Appletons).
——, Darwin and After Darwin, 3 parts (Chicago: Open Court Company. London: Longmans).
C. Lloyd Morgan, Comparative Psychology (London: W. Scott. New York: Scribners).
——, Animal Life and Intelligence (London and New York: Arnold).
——, Habit and Instinct (the same).
Groos, The Play of Animals (New York: Appletons. London: Chapman & Hall).
Spencer, Principles of Psychology, 2 vols. (New York: Appletons).
Hudson, The Naturalist in La Plata (London: Chapman & Hall).
Darwin, Descent of Man (New York: Appletons).
——-, Origin of Species (the same).
Wallace, Darwinism (New York and London: Macmillans),
Stanley, The Evolutionary Psychology of Feeling (London: Sonnenschein, New York: Macmillans).
Baldwin, Mental Development in the Child and the Race (New York and London: Macmillans).
MENTAL DEFECT AND DISEASE.
Maudsley, Pathology of Mind (Macmillans).
Starr, Familiar Forms of Nervous Disease (New York: Wood).
Collins, The Faculty of Speech (Macmillans).
Hirsch, Genius and Degeneration (Appletons).
Tuke, Dictionary of Psychological Medicine (Philadelphia: Blakiston).
HYPNOTISM AND ALLIED TOPICS.
Moll, Hypnotism (London: Scott. New York: Scribners).
Binet, Alterations of Personality (New York: Appletons. London: Chapman & Hall).
Parish, Hallucinations and Illusions (London: Scott. New York: Scribners).
SOCIAL AND ETHICAL PSYCHOLOGY.
Tarde, The Laws of Imitation (New York: Holt).
Le Bon, The Crowd (London: Scott. New York: Scribners)
Royce, Studies in Good and Evil (Appletons).
Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development (Macmillans).
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.
Spencer, On Education (Appletons).
Guyau, Education and Heredity (Scribners).
Herbart, The Application of Psychology to Education (Scribners).
Harris, The Psychologic Foundations of Education (Appletons).
PHILOSOPHY.
Paulsen, Introduction to Philosophy (Holt).
Royce, The Spirit of Modern Philosophy (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.).
Ormond, Basal Concepts in Philosophy (Scribners).
James, The Will to Believe (Longmans).
PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY (over the whole field),
Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, with full bibliographies, French, German, and Italian equivalents, etc. (Macmillans).
UNCLASSIFIED.
Spencer, Principles of Sociology (Appletons).
Giddings, Principles of Sociology (Macmillans).
Mackensie, Introduction to Social Philosophy (Macmillans).
Marshall, Pain, Pleasure, and AEsthetics (Macmillans).
Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty (Macmillans).
——, Natural Inheritance (Macmillans).
Pearson, The Chances of Death (Arnold).
JOURNALS.
The Psychological Review (Macmillans, all departments).
The American Journal of Psychology (Worcester: Orpha, experimental).
Mind (London: Williams & Norgate, mainly for philosophy).
INDEX
A.
Abnormal psychology, 4.
Aboulia, 119.
Action, 16, 22. See Conduct.
AEsthetic feeling, 46, 133.
Algebra, study of, 187, 188.
Amnesia, 118.
Anaesthesia, 158.
Animal psychology, 2, 24, 55.
Animals, instinct of, 25; intelligence of, 36; mind in, 1, 24; play of, 43.
Ants, instinct of, 26.
Aphasia, 114, 132, 190; auditory, 116, 132; motor, 114, 132; sensory, 115; visual, 116, 132.
Apperception, 12, 15, 17, 42, 108, 121.
Assimilation, 14, 41, 133.
Association of ideas, 11, 13, 15, 18, 39, 42, 76.
Attention, 76, 121, 182, 191.
Auto-suggestion, 151, 163.
B.
Bashfulness, 87 note.
Bees, instinct of, 26.
Birds, instinct of, 26.
Body, relation of mind to, 101.
Brain, 102.
C.
Cat, instinct of, 25.
Catalepsy, 158.
Cerebellum, 107.
Chance, vii.
Child, development of the, 28, 37, 50, 76, 167.
Child Psychology, 2, 25, 37, 51.
Children, play games of, 95.
Christian Science, 120.
"Chumming," 93.
Cold sensations, 124.
Colour blindness, 63.
Colour sensations, 62, 64.
Comparative psychology, 2, 24.
Concept, the, 42.
Conduct, 9, 16. See Action.
Contrariness in children, 86, 157.
Contrary suggestion, 157.
Contrast, law of visual, 136.
Control suggestion, 156.
Copora striata, 107.
Cortex of brain, 105, 108.
Criminals, 205.
Cures, mental, 120.
D.
Darwin, Charles, 229.
Degeneracy, 104, 122, 226.
Dextrality, 53, 69.
Diseases of mind, 4, 101, 114.
Distance, perception of, 64, 66.
Dog, instinct of, 26, 39.
Doubting insanity, 139.
Dual personality, 118.
E.
Eccentricity, 176.
Educational psychology, 5, 166.
Ejective self, 90.
Electric stimulus, 103.
Emotional expressions, 22.
Environment, 24.
Equivalents, kinesthetic, 20, 28, 38, 112.
Ethical sense, the, 90.
Evolution, theory of, vi, 24, 31, 33, 54, 202, 229.
Exaltation, sense, 153.
Exaltation of the faculties in hypnosis, 160.
Excitement, 21.
Experimental psychology, 4, 101, 122.
Experimenting with children, 6, 57, 61.
Expressions of emotions, 22.
Extirpation method, 102.
F.
Feeling, 10, 21.
Fluid attention, 182.
G.
Galvanometer experiment, 103.
Games, of animals, 42; of children, 95; value of, 50.
Generalization, 41, 181.
Genetic psychology, 2.
Genius, 208, 211.
Geometry, study of, 187, 188.
Grammar, study of, 187, 188, 197.
Guessing, 189, 198.
H.
Habit, 77, 80, 168, 192.
Hallucination, 12.
Heating, 10.
Heat and cold sensations, 10, 124.
Heredity, 32, 58, 75,95, 169, 177, 200, 204, 218.
Heredity, social, 200.
Hypnotic cures, 164.
Hypnotism, 17, 121, 148, 158.
I.
Idiocy, 205.
Illusions, 12; optical, 132.
Imagination, 12, 17, 22, 214.
Imitation, 28, 38, 47, 53, 78, 80, 88, 91, 211; persistent, 39.
Individual psychology, 5.
Inhibitory suggestion, 155, 170.
Insanity, 205.
Inspiration, 227.
Instinct, 17, 25; lapsed intelligence theory, 31; reflex theory, 30, 34; theory of, 26.
Intelligence, 36, 214; animal, 36.
Intoxication, 102, 104.
Introspection, 3, 8.
Invention, 211.
J.
Judgement, 133, 208, 220.
K.
Kinaesthetic equivalents, 20, 28, 38, 112.
Kindergarten, value of, 175.
Knowledge, 9, 13, 22.
L.
Laboratories, psychological, 132.
Language, study of, 183, 197.
Lapsed intelligence theory of instinct, 31.
Left-handedness, 53, 69.
Levels, of brain functions, 105.
Life, sensory and motor periods of, 167.
Localization of brain inactions, 102, 104.
M.
"Make-believe," in animals and children, 45.
Mathematics, study of, 187, 197.
Medulla, 105.
Memory, 11, 12, 18, 22, 76, 138, 150; defects of, 118.
Mental pathology, 4, 101.
Mind cure, 120.
Mind, of animals, 1, 24; relation of body to, 101.
Monkeys, instinct of, 26, 39.
Motives, 18.
Motor centres of brain, 111
Motor period, 167.
Motor suggestion, 17, 67, 80.
Muscle sensations, 10.
Musical expression, 76.
N.
Natural selection, 202.
O.
Optic thalami, 107.
Optical illusion, 132.
Organic selection, principle of, 34, 50.
Organic sensations, 10.
P.
Pain, 21, 156.
Pain-movement-pleasure, 83.
Pathology, mental, 4, 101.
Pedagogical psychology, 5.
Perception, 12, 17, 22.
Personality, dual, 118.
Personality suggestion, 80.
Phrenology, unreliableness of, 117.
Physiological psychology, 4, 101, 122.
Play of animals, 43; of children, 95.
Pleasure, 21, 156.
Post-hypnotic suggestion, 160.
Projection fibres, 109.
Psychology, 1, 55; abnormal, 4; animal, 2, 24; child, 2, 25, 37, 51; comparative, 2, 24; educational, 5, 166; experimental, 4, 101, 122; genetic, 2; individual, 5; introspective, 3, 8; pedagogical, 5; physiological, 4, 101, 122; race, 6; social, 6, 200; variational, 5.
Punishment, effect of, 172.
R.
Race psychology, 6.
Rapport, 161.
Reaction-time experiments, 126.
Reason in animals, 31.
Reasoning, 11, 13, 17.
Recept, the, 41.
Reception, 10.
Re-evolution, 122.
Reflex actions, 57, 105, 53.
Reflex theory of instinct, 30, 34.
Right-handedness, 53, 69.
Rolandic region, 112.
S.
Schools, public, advantages of, 95; dangers of, 61.
Selection, natural, 31, 202; organic, 34, 50.
Self-consciousness, 43, 54, 80, 86.
Self-suggestion, 151.
Sensation, 10, 21, 22, 107, 109, 146, 179.
Senses, the, 10, 101, 107, 109.
Sense exaltation, 153.
Sensory period, 167.
Sentiment, 23.
Sexes, difference in mental disposition, 176.
Sight, 10; experiments on, 132.
Smell, 10.
Social heredity, 200; social psychology, 6, 200.
Social sense, the, 90.
Somnambulism, 153, 159.
Speech, 75, 79; defects of, 114.
Speech zone, 56, 109, 112.
Spinal cord, 105.
Spiritual healing, 120.
Statistical method of investigation, 143.
Stimulation, artificial, 103.
Subconscious suggestion, 149.
Suggestion, 17, 21, 67, 80, 120, 145, 148, 168, 172.
Suggestion, motor, 80.
T.
Taste, 10.
Temperature sense, 10, 124.
Thought, 9, 11, 12, 21, 23.
Thought-transference, 120.
Touch, 10.
Toxic method, 104.
Tune suggestions, 149.
V.
Variation, 202; theory of, 30, 218.
Variational psychology, 5.
Vision, 133.
Visual type of mind, 128, 193.
W.
Will, 19, 78; defects of, 119
Writing, 14, 79.
THE END.
* * * * *
THE
LIBRARY OF USEFUL STORIES
The Library of Useful Stories.
A series of little books dealing with various branches of useful knowledge, and treating each subject in clear, concise language, as free as possible from technical words and phrases, by writers of authority in their various spheres. Each book complete in itself. Illustrated. 18mo. Cloth. 35 cents net per volume; postage, 4 cents per volume additional.
THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST. By ROBERT E. ANDERSON. M.A., F.A.S.
THE STORY OF ALCHEMY. By M. M. PATTISON MUIR.
THE STORY OF ANIMAL LIFE. By B. LINDSAY.
THE STORY OF THE ART OF MUSIC. By F. J. CROWEST.
THE STORY OF THE ART OF BUILDING. By P. L. WATERHOUSE.
THE STORY OF BOOKS. By GERTRUDE B. RAWLINGS.
THE STORY OF KING ALFRED. By Sir WALTER BESANT.
THE STORY OF THE ALPHABET. By EDWARD CLODD.
THE STORY OF ECLIPSES. By G. F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S.
THE STORY OF THE LIVING MACHINE. By H. W. CONN.
THE STORY OF THE BRITISH RACE. By JOHN MUNRO, C.E.
THE STORY OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. By JOSEPH JACOBS.
THE STORY OF THE COTTON PLANT. By F. WILKINSON, F.G.S.
THE STORY OF THE MIND. By Prof. J. MARK BALDWIN.
THE STORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY. By ALFRED T. STORY.
THE STORY OF LIFE IN THE SEAS. By SYDNEY J. HICKSON.
THE STORY OF GERM LIFE. By H. W. CONN.
THE STORY OF THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE. By D. ARCHIBALD.
THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE EAST. By ROBERT ANDERSON. M.A., F.A.S.
THE STORY OF ELECTRICITY. By JOHN MUNRO, C.E.
THE STORY OF A PIECE OF COAL. By E. A. MARTIN, F.G.S.
THE STORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. By G. F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S.
THE STORY OF THE EARTH. By H. G. SEELEY, F.R.S.
THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. By GRANT ALLEN.
THE STORY OF "PRIMITIVE" MAN. By EDWARD CLODD.
THE STORY OF THE STARS. By G. F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S.
OTHERS IN PREPARATION.
* * * * *
PROF. JOSEPH LE CONTE'S WORKS.
ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. A Text-Book for Colleges and for the General Reader. With upward of 900 Illustrations. New and enlarged edition. 8vo. Cloth, $4.00.
"Besides preparing a comprehensive text-book suited to present demands, Professor Le Conte has given us a volume of great value as an exposition of the subject, thoroughly up to date. The examples and applications of the work are almost entirely derived from this country, so that it may be properly considered an American geology. We can commend this work without qualification to all who desire an intelligent acquaintance with geological science, as fresh, lucid, full, and authentic, the result of devoted study and of long experience in teaching."—Popular Science Monthly.
EVOLUTION AND ITS RELATION TO RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. With numerous Illustrations. New and enlarged edition. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
"The questions suggested by this title must weigh with more or less persistence on the mind of every intelligent and liberal thinker.... The man who can keep his science and his religion in two boxes, either of which may be opened separately is to be congratulated. Many of us can not, and his peace of mind we can not attain. Therefore every contribution toward a means of clearer vision is most welcome, above all when it comes from one who knows the ground on which he stands, and has conquered his right to be there.... Professor Le Conte is a man in whom reverence and imagination have not become desiccated by a scientific atmosphere, but flourish, in due subordination and control, to embellish and vivify his writings. Those who know them have come to expect a peculiar alertness of mind and freshness of method in any new work by this author, whether his conclusions be such as they are ready to receive or not."—The Nation.
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"We commend the book cordially to the regard of all who are interested in whatever pertains to the discussion of these grave questions, and especially to those who desire to examine closely the strong foundations on which the Christian faith is reared,"—Boston Journal.
SIGHT. An Exposition of the Principles of Monocular and Binocular Vision. With Illustrations, 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
"Professor Le Conte has long been known as an original investigator in this department; all that he gives us is treated with a master hand. It is pleasant to find an American book that can rank with the very best of foreign books on this subject."-The Nation.
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A STUDY IN PSYCHOLOGY.
Genius and Degeneration.
By Dr. WILLIAM HIRSCH. With a Preface by Prof. Dr. E. Mendel. Translated from the second edition of the German work. Large 8vo, uniform with Nordau's "Degeneration." Cloth, $3.50.
Dr. Hirsch's acute and suggestive study of modern tendencies was begun before "Degeneration" was published, with the purpose of presenting entirely opposite deductions and conclusions. The appearance of Dr. Nordau's famous book, with its criticisms upon Dr. Hirsch's position, enabled the latter to extend the scope of his work, which becomes a scientific answer to Dr. Nordau, although this was not his specific purpose originally. Dr. Nordau has startled the reading world by his cry of "Degeneration"; Dr. Hirsch opposes his conclusions by demonstrating the difference between "Genius" and "Degeneration," and analyzing the social, literary, and artistic manifestations of the day dispassionately and with a wealth of suggestive illustrations.
"The first intelligent, rational, and scientific study of a great subject.... In the development of his argument Dr. Hirsch frequently finds it necessary to attack the positions assumed by Nordau and Lombroso, his two leading adversaries.... Only calm and sober reason endure. Dr. Hirsch possesses that calmness and sobriety. His work will find a permanent place among the authorities of science."—New York Herald.
"Dr. Hirsch's researches are intended to bring the reader to the conviction that 'no psychological meaning can be attached to the word genius.'... While all men of genius have common traits, they are not traits characteristic of genius; they are such as are possessed by other men, and more or less by all men.... Dr. Hirsch believes that most of the great men, both of art and science, were misunderstood by their contemporaries, and were only appreciated after they were dead."—Miss J. L. Gilder in the Sunday World.
"'Genius and Degeneration' ought to be read by every man and woman who professes to keep in touch with modern thought. It is deeply interesting and so full of information that by intellectual readers it will be seized upon with avidity."—Buffalo Commercial.
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"A SUBJECT GREAT AND FASCINATING."
Degeneration.
By Professor MAX NORDAU. Translated from the second edition of the German work. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50.
"A powerful, trenchant, savage attack on all the leading literary and artistic idols of the time by a man of great intellectual power, immense range of knowledge, and the possessor of a lucid style rare among German writers, and becoming rarer everywhere, owing to the very influences which Nordau attacks with such unsparing energy, such eager hatred."—London Chronicle.
"Let us say at once that the English-reading public should be grateful for an English rendering of Max Nordau's polemic. It will provide society with a subject that may last as long as the present government.... We read the pages without finding one dull, sometimes in reluctant agreement, sometimes with amused contempt, sometimes with angry indignation."—London Saturday Review.
"Herr Nordau's book fills a void, not merely in the systems of Lombroso, as he says, but in all existing systems of English and American criticism with which we are acquainted. It is not literary criticism pure and simple, though it is not lacking in literary qualities of a high order, but it is something which has long been needed, for of literary criticism, so called, good, bad, and indifferent, there is always an abundance: but it is scientific criticism—the penetration to and the interpretation of the spirit within the letter, the apprehension of motives as well as means and the comprehension of temporal effects as well as final results, its explanation, classification, and largely condemnation, for it is not a healthy condition which he has studied, but its absence, its loss; it is degeneration.... He has written a great book, which every thoughtful lover of art and literature and every serious student of sociology and morality should read carefully and ponder slowly and wisely."—Richard Henry Stoddard in the Mail and Express.
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D. APPLETON AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS
EVOLUTION OF MAN AND CHRISTIANITY.
New edition. By the Rev. HOWARD MACQUEARY. With a new Preface, in which the Author answers his Critics, and with some important Additions. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.
"This is a revised and enlarged edition of a book published last year. The author reviews criticisms upon the first edition, denies that he rejects the doctrine of the incarnation, admits his doubts of the physical resurrection of Christ, and his belief in evolution. The volume is to be marked as one of the most profound expressions of the modern movement toward broader theological positions."—Brooklyn Times.
HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE. By Dr. JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER. 12mo, Cloth, $1.75.
"The keynote to this volume is found in the antagonism between the progressive tendencies of the human mind and the pretensions of ecclesiastical authority, as developed in the history of modern science. No previous writer has treated the subject from this point of view, and the present monograph will be found to possess no less originality of conception than vigor of reasoning and wealth of erudition."—New York Tribune.
A CRITICAL HISTORY OF FREE THOUGHT IN REFERENCE TO THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. By Rev. Canon ADAM STOREY FARRAR, D. D., F. R. S., etc. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
"A conflict might naturally be anticipated between the reasoning faculties of man and a religion which claims the right, on superhuman authority, to impose limits on the field or manner of their exercise. It is the chief of the movements of free thought which it is my purpose to describe, in their historic succession and their connection with intellectual causes. We must ascertain the facts, discover the causes, and read the moral."—The Author.
CREATION OR EVOLUTION? A Philosophical Inquiry. By GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS, 12mo. Cloth, $2.00.
"A treatise on the great question of Creation or Evolution by one who is neither a naturalist nor theologian, and who does not profess to bring to the discussion a special equipment in either of the sciences which the controversy arrays against each other, may seem strange at first sight; but Mr. Curtis will satisfy the reader, before many pages have been turned, that he has a substantial contribution to make to the debate, and that his book is one to be treated with respect. His part is to apply to the reasonings of the men of science the rigid scrutiny with which the lawyer is accustomed to test the value and pertinency of testimony, and the legitimacy of inferences from established facts."—New York Tribune.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
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