HUGO MUNSTERBERG HIS LIFE AND WORK
HUGO MUNSTERBER HIS LIFE AND WORK
BY MARGARET MUNSTERBERG
\\ M
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK : LONDON : MCMXXIt
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
PBINTBD IN THE UNITID STATBB OF AMERICA
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to express her thanks to Professor GEORGE HERBERT PALMER for his inspiration, encourage- ment and suggestions, to Professor MARY WHITON CALKINS and to Professor GEORGE FOOT MOORE for their generous and invaluable aid in revising manuscript and proofs, and to Miss ZORA P. WILKINS for her devoted work in collect- ing and preparing the material for this book.
FOREWORD
This volume is the record of a scholar's life cut off in the midst of its years, but abundant in accomplishment beyond most of those who have completed their full tale. Coming in his thirtieth year to a new country and a strange language to develop research in experimental psychology which William James had initiated at Harvard, Miinster- berg rapidly acquired a fluent English in speech and writ- ing, and, besides doing his own work in the laboratory and directing the investigations of advanced students, was soon teaching large classes of undergraduates in Harvard and Radcliffe. He frequently urged the establishment in American universities of research professorships whose in- cumbents should be released from the burden of teaching and be free to devote themselves wholly to science; but, whatever he may have imagined of the comforts of an easy chair, he was the last man who would have been happy in such seclusion. There are scholars to whom learning is like the Stoic " virtue," the self -rewarding highest good, and who feel no impulse to share their good with the world; there are others who devote themselves to their science and seek no audience beyond the few but fit among their fellow investigators. Miinsterberg did not belong to either class. To give out was as necessary to him as to take in; to popularize science, as to promote it. Nor did this urgent impulse find scope enough in academic instruction ; it over- flowed to the uncollegiate public in numerous volumes, and in a steady stream of articles in popular periodicals, most of which were subsequently collected in volumes. In this way he illustrated another ideal which he often held up to
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viii FOREWORD
us — productive scholarship. Of his own astounding pro- ductivity and of the wide variety of subjects over which it ranged, this biography first gives an adequate notion. He came to be in great demand also for public lectures and addresses on all manner of occasions and often in remote places, and responded to such invitations with an alacrity that must have taxed his strength as well as absorbed his time. He loved to get out of the academic environment and into the stir of life, to mingle with men of many minds, to have the ear of the public.
One task which he felt to be set for him by his inter- national position was to dispel the mutual prejudices of Germans and Americans and cultivate better understanding by a more faithful portrayal of their respective character- istics. As might have been anticipated, neither people was altogether satisfied with the likeness, especially when it was held up to them as a mirror for their improvement. Americans, who had been painted by so many impression- ists in search of subjects and snap-shotted by so many tourists from transcontinental trains, had come to dislike the proceeding, even when the author was as friendly as Miinsterberg and the picture on the whole not unflattering. Nor did all he had to say about the latent idealism of the American character and other redeeming qualities avail to overcome German opinion to the contrary. He labored in other ways to promote good will among nations, especially through the influence of men of light and leading. The Congress at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 which brought together such a notable concourse of savants from all coun- tries was largely of his planning, and to its success he gave unstintingly of thought and labor.
When the War broke out in 1914 and the current of American sentiment at the very beginning set strongly against Germany as the aggressor, Miinsterberg sprang to correct the unfavorable impression and to explain the
FOREWORD ix
European situation and the causes of the War from the German point of view. It was, I suppose, what an Ameri- can long resident in England might have done in 1861, when the British press was delivering itself of daily tirades against the North, not infrequently seasoned with evidences of our barbarism. The War was a complete surprise to all but the few Americans who had closely followed recent European diplomatic history and knew how narrowly it had more than once been averted. Of its immediate ante- cedents there was no trustworthy information, and of the remoter antecedents, reaching back to the Congress of Ber- lin in 1878, little knowledge. Nor did Mlinsterberg's arti- cles throw much light on either point ; they were a protest, and an ineffectual plea. Most of his readers had simplified for themselves a complicated historical problem into the question, "Who did it!" and did not hesitate over their answer.
He persevered, however, notwithstanding the increasing irritation his utterances provoked. As months passed, public opinion became more and more violently intolerant of everybody that did not join in the cry, Delenda est Ger- mania! Miinsterberg was made to feel this keenly in the behavior of some of his closest colleagues. He was hurt by the estrangement of old friends more than by the vitu- peration of declared foes; but he went steadily on his way, persuaded, like many Americans at the time, that in seconding the efforts of the president of the United States to keep the country out of war he was serving the best in- terests of a land to which he was sincerely attached, and always hopeful of the speedy return of European peace. His death (December 16, 1916), several months before the declaration of war by the United States, spared him the disappointment of these hopes.
Miinsterberg was of a buoyant temperament, and pre-
* FOREWORD
served into middle life his youthfulness of spirit. His biographer has more than once used of him the adjective " guileless. " He was in fact a singularly unsuspicious nature, and not infrequently was imposed on by astute men. It was another exemplification of this unsuspecting temper that he did not stop to imagine how his words would be taken by others — a reflection which is, after all, the condition of understanding ourselves. I do not think it ever occurred to him, for instance, that any American might feel toward some of his writings much as the self- respecting heathen feel toward a missionary, nor why his endeavors to gain a hearing for Germany's cause only made many Americans believe that he was a political agent — a role for which, it must be admitted, few men could have been less fitted.
Besides his voluminous popular writings, Miinsterberg produced several considerable treatises of more deliberate preparation and more permanent intention both in the field of psychology and of philosophy, and on these his reputa- tion must finally rest. The analysis of these works in the present volume will enable the unprofessional reader to ac- quaint himself with the ruling ideas of his psychology and of his system of philosophy. In the remarkable group of mien who represented in Harvard University at the begin- ning of the century the varieties of philosophy which William James wittily characterizes in one of his letters, Miinsterberg contributed to our "philosophic universe" his own variety of idealism, which he embodied in the ' ' Eternal Values. " A system of philosophy is not merely an intel- lectual construction ; it is the expression of a man 's whole attitude to the universe. "The Eternal Values" is an idealist's confession of faith.
GEORGE F. MOORE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. CHILDHOOD 1
II. SCHOOL YEARS 13
III. STUDENT YEARS AND BEGINNING OP CAREER . 19
IV. UNDER THE HARVARD ELMS 30
Y. BLACK FOREST INTERLUDE 53
VI. TAKING ROOT 61
VII. PHILOSOPHERS AND STATESMEN 69
VIII. THE WORLD'S SCHOLARS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR 90
IX. SAGES AND SINNERS 130
X. TEMPORAL CURRENTS AND ETERNAL VALUES . 160
XL AN ACADEMIC ENVOY 187
XII. BACK AT HARVARD 208
XIII. IN SUNLIGHT 238
XIV. UNDER THE SHADOW 256
APPENDIX
CHAPTER III . . 303
CHAPTER IV 308
CHAPTER VI 308
CHAPTER VII 316
CHAPTER IX 362
CHAPTER X 382
INDEX 439
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
HIS LIFE AND WORK
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD
jf THE beautifuf mediaeval city of Danzig — the Venice of
the North)— was the birthplace of Hugo Miinsterberg and the home of his childhood. The setting of Danzig has all the peculiar beauties of the northeastern European land- scape built, as it is, on the two rivers, the Mottlau and the Vistula, that flow into the Baltic sea. The wide, flat plains, the broad rivers with their floats and slow, heavy barges, the long beaches, brooded over by a sky that seems habitually veiled, though not sinister or really clouded — these give one a feeling of infinity, of a contemplative mood, if not of melancholy. The city seems to stoop over the river, to cast its black reflections on the broad water and at the same time to raise its dark gables and spirals into the pale gray sky. It must not be supposed, however, that Danzig, with its Venetian melancholy, was merely a dirge in stone; no, the great Hansa city of the past had at the time of Hugo's youth, an active, throbbing present. Not only the slow characteristic floats and barges made up the traffic, but brisk steamers and schooners and fishing craft of all kinds brightened the river. On fish-market days there was a tumult on the bank of the Mottlau beneath the gables of the venerable black-beamed houses of trade that outdid any scene of passionate barter with the scream- ing of the market women, the whistling of the boats and the
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
bustling of eager buyers. Besides, the inhabitants of the somber city had a special reputation for their love of pleasure and, on the summer evenings with their long twi- light, one side of the main street of the city was devoted to gay and flirtatious youth, while on the other side the sober and older citizens went discreetly about their busi- ness.
And yet the dominant note of Danzig is a mesmeric reliving of a beautiful past, and as you walk along the rows of gabled, dark stone houses, some of them adorned with dignified carvings and frescoes, past the stone porches with their peculiar, great balls of stone on the railings — seen nowhere else in the world — you seem to be walking in the Middle Ages.
In one of these houses on a picturesque and ancient street, Hugo Miinsterberg was born in the year 1863. His father, Moritz Miinsterberg, was a prominent lumber merchant who bought forests in Russia which came sailing through the Baltic Sea and down the Weichsel as majestic rafts and were then sold to England. The nature of this business, dependent as it was on international relations, on a mental horizon far beyond the bounds of one's native land, was a substantial symbol of the brisk and broad spirit that reigned in the house of Moritz Miinsterberg — a spirit which the boy could not help breathing from his earliest years, and which became a motive power in the decisions and actions of his later life. At least once a year Moritz Miinsterberg journeyed on business to a foreign countrv, usually to England, and in his time this signified enter- prise quite above the usual. Prom his journeys the mer- chant brought home relics and spirited accounts which made his family conversant with thoughts of other lands and peoples.
Hugo 's mother, Anna Miinsterberg, was a woman of rare gifts whose influence over her son was constant and strong
2
CHILDHOOD •
throughout his_ life. She was an artist, and, although she had the care of four sons and a large household, she never neglected her painting and her delicate pen and ink draw- ings. In her home, love and respect for the beautiful in art, music, and letters were planted deeply. In this re- gard the mother's influence by no means counteracted the father 's, but both father and mother, who were said to have led an ideal married life, were one in their reverence for intellectual and artistic achievement and their eagerness to encourage this among their sons. Indeed, Moritz Miinster- berg was one of those merchants to whom the earning of a fortune was of secondary importance, whereas the desire to live a harmonious life and foster intellectual interests was paramount. In the Miinsterberg household, the com- panionship of jgood-. books was taken for granted and the father's travels extended his readings into foreign litera- tures. Music, too, was accorded an honored place. The oldest son, Otto, played the violin and JIugp learned to play the 'cello.
Hugo was one of four brothers who throughout their lives kept up a loyal devotion unmarred by enforced sep- arations. Otto and Emil were respectively ten and eight years older than Hugo, but his brother Oskar was only two years younger and, therefore, his playmate. The child- hood of the two little boys was one of care-free, untroubled happiness, although study claimed their serious interest much earlier than it does a boy's life at the present time.
It is worth while to consider the influence that the city of Danzig itself must have had on the imagination of a thoughtful boy. The architecture of the city mirrors its history, and the dramatic history of Danzig from its be- ginning in the tenth century cannot fail to thrill one with a sense of the marvelous changes in the destinies of peoples. The marks left by the current of history were all famil- iar to Hugo. On the Long Market-Place, the center of the
3
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
city, stands the ancient City Hall with its delicate spire, its dignified halls, full of relics and mellow portraits, where momentous decisions have been made, both under Polish and under Prussian suzerainty. Near the City Hall is the old Corn Exchange, rich in frescoes and carvings, where once the merchant kings, not unlike the Doges of Venice, made their fortunes with bold traffic overseas.
The prominent feature in the profile of Danzig as one approaches the city from the river and, indeed, from most points of view, is the unique St. Mary 's church. Its square, gray tower which never received the pointed steeple that was intended to complete it, rises stern and solemn above the irregular line of gabled roofs. Though the church is Gothic in design — at least an early Gothic, emerging out of the Romanesque — there could be no greater contrast to the delicate lace-work steeples of Strassburg, Freiburg and Cologne. It seems to brood over the city and to carry with a somber dignity all the weight of its rich past. The church holds, in a niche apart, a famous altar picture, a triptych by Memling which Napoleon brought to Danzig as a spoil of war. In its stern, nai've beauty and partly, perhaps, too, because of its isolated position in the gray old church and the perfect harmonizing of its spirit with that of its background, this "Last Judgment" cannot fail to make a lasting impression on the beholder.
Steeped as Danzig was with enchanting traces of the past, it was, nevertheless, in Hugo's childhood also the scene of living and stirring events, ^n later life Hugo Munsterberg often recalled one scene as* his earliest recollec- tion— the passing underneath his window of troops going into the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He also remem- bered how his mother with other ladies had eagerly made bandages for the wounded soldiers.
The country about the old city offers a manifold beauty to the eyes and hearts of young and old. Hugo and his
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CHILDHOOD
brothers had the happiest opportunity for enjoying these beauties. As soon as May touched the grty city with its sunshine and waked the lilac and syringa bushes in the surrounding gardens, the Miinsterberg family moved into its summer house in the suburb, Langfuhr a white stone house with a large rambling garden which was a veritable paradise for the four brothers. Next door to them was the house and equally big and alluring garden of their young boy cousins and playmates — a garden which in later years became the permanent homestead of Hugo's oldest brother, Otto, where he built his villa and lived until a few years before his death. .
During Hugo Miinsterberg 's later life the garden in Langfuhr stood for the incarnation of his happy boyhood. It was the kind of garden that must bloom on forever in the hearts of those who have once played or rambled in it, ^or read romances in its shady bowers. On its lawn sported a little lamb, the pet of the four-year-old Hugo, and pigeons fluttered overhead. Gymnastic apparatus, swing, and see- saw were at the disposal of brothers and cousins, as were the ever-hospitable currant and gooseberry bushes. In- deed, the feasts in the garden long remained tender mem- ories for those who had partaken of them. First came the luxurious strawberries, then, in the glow of midsummer, an abundance of shining red and yellow currants that re- quired no stooping, but simply rained down into eager hands and mouths. It was among the tall gooseberry bushes, though, that the little boys liked to hide and hunt the well protected, leaf -colored berries and, wrapped in an air of mystery and adventure, revel in their clandestine feasts. As autumn drew near, apples and pears ripened on the trellises and there were harvest joys.
A great locust tree in the garden was renowned in the family history because so much of the happy summer life was passed beneath its benevolent boughs. There Hugo,
5
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
when he, had outgrown the age for pet lambs and goose- berries,'read his classics — poetry and drama — for he was an avid reader from the earliest age. Then, for contem- plation or leisurely talk, there was a lane of shady lindens to stroll in, and for study or play alike a summer-house. This also served as a stage, when the boys were old enough for/theatricals; the performance, one summer, of Scribe's Un Verre d'Eaii was looked back on by the brothers with a special delight.
With all its other attributes, the garden, of course, did not lack flowers. On the first of June, to adorn Hugo's birthday, the famous lilac bushes of Langfuhr were in their most gloriou^ bloom. Beneath them Hugo did not cele- brate alone /little Selma, a distant cousin, whose parents lived in Danzig during her early childhood, had her birth- day, too, on the first of June, and the two7 children were feted together in the garden of Langfuhr, although the /little girl found Hugo's younger brother Oskar much more congenial, as he was less of a bookworm and did not scorn to play dolls. It was not little Selma 's fault that the future was veiled to her, while she played under the lilacs, and she could not dream that, after years of separation, it was to be the wise and elder Hugo who would lead her away as his bride.
When the lilac blooming was over, the summer flowers had their turn, some well ordered in formal beds of orna- mental design, others with more native freedom. All the old-fashioned flowers were there; especially the fragrance of gilly-flowers and mignonette pervaded the memories of Hugo's childhood. Roses crowned the garden, roses in profusion — quaint monthly roses on bushes and lavish, per- fect roses on trees. "The roses in Langfuhr!" came to be a saying fraught with remembrances of joy and beauty.
Only a few minutes' walk from the garden, across a stretch of fields flaming with wild poppies, were the woods
6
CHILDHOOD
of Langfuhr. There was not a grove in these woods, not a vista from any of the rambling hills that Hugo and Oskar did not know. They were not wild woods, but carefully cleared from rough underbrush, with smooth, broad paths accessible to young and old, with benches here and there from which one could look over the gentle slopes sometimes as far as the Baltic Sea. Nevertheless, among the oak and beech trees and in the solemn groves of pines and firs lurked gnomes and fairies enough to capture Hugo's imagination, and there was one dell that he and his brothers named the * ' enchanted spot ' ' that kept this designation for decades later. Indeed, the fairies of the Langfuhr woods and the mermaids of the Baltic Sea had no mean share in Hugo's education, and it was due to their early influence over an apt pupil that throughout his life, to the very end, he could read the beauties of woods and sea, wherever he found them, as in an open book.
Not only were the boys free to roam in the woods so near their home at their own pleasure, but the recreation of the whole family on Sunday afternoons was nothing more or less than walks together through woods and fields. Then the father would call his sons' attention to some sport in nature or to some strange flower or beetle. At one time, too, the boys had collections of butterflies that they .caught themselves, according to the fashion of the times. ( On these Sunday rambles the father had long talks with his sons on all topics, free from the restrictions of the weekly routine and business cares, and devoted his experi- enced and active mind to their development.
Besides their "own" woods of Langfuhr, the boys had at their disposal for their holiday the woods, fields, and beaches of the many other enchanting spots round Danzig. There was Oliva with its old, melancholy, summer palace and rambling, formal gardens where kings used to take their ease. The grounds of this palace offered to the chil-
7
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
dren the richest food for their imagination. The little trees clipped in the French style like poodles, set in ceremonious rows, whispered of roccoco days when sad-eyed princesses laced in shimmering brocade tripped over the fine lawn to sigh and meditate. There was the somber gold-fish pool and the long lane of poplar trees which by an artificial device had been made to look as if it stretched out end- lessly as far as the sea, although in reality it was short with a deceptive view of the actually distant sea at the end. The boys' delight were the whispering grottoes — two sky- blue artificial grottoes some distance apart yet endowed with a miraculous quality by which a word whispered against the wall of one grotto can be heard by any one standing in the other. So they would stand facing the mysterious blue walls and wonder what they could whisper, and, after pondering, confide some inanity with great mirth to the transmitting powers of the magic grotto.
From the drowsy king's garden they would step out into the sunny genial landscape — the country roads with cheerful cottages, the waving golden grain fields flooded with scarlet poppies. Woods and fields, however, were not enough; beyond them beckoned the Baltic Sea. When Hugo was a student, he dedicated to his first niece a fairy tale called : The Amber Princess. Search for the precious amber on the beaches held a special glamour for the boys, who were proud when, among the many quaint sea shells, they found a chip of lucid golden amber. At an early age the boys experienced the joys of bathing and rowing and of lying in the sand of the high white dunes. In Zoppot, the popular watering place, charming woods sloped gently down to the sea, and from the gay, swarming life of the summer guests — among them many Russians and Poles— on the piers and the beach, and the gardens of the many little cafes, one could turn aside into the seclusion of gentle pine forests. Then there were the fishermen 's villages with
8
CHILDHOOD
the little huts by the sea and nets spread out on the sand, the great lighthouses on the sandspit, and, what was im- printed especially on Hugo's imagination, so that he spoke of it often as a grown man, was the appearing of mirages, especially the image of Helgoland in the sky.
Beauty that was thus impressed on Hugo at an early age could be found even in the work-a-day scenes of his father's business. Not far from Langfuhr, across low, level plains, was Legan, the lumber-yard. What delight it was to climb over slippery piles of long smooth logs, to hear the Polish laborers shouting at their work, to watch the majestic floats glide down the canal that flowed through the lumber-yard to the bright, bustling Mottlau beyond and, in the excitement of watching, now and then to tumble into the water! Then to cross the Mottlau in a rowboat, to watch the lading of the steamers and sail-boats, the pushing of the great square barges, the fascinating per- formance of the never-weary dredging machine! Polish cries sounded from boat to shore; the broad, brown faces of the Poles looked up from the wharfs. On the boats waved not only German, but Russian and English, flags: here blew the breath of overseas traffic, of peaceful, bold, and adventurous intercourse among nations. It was not by chance, then, that Hugo, a score or so of years later, should have found in his nature a strong willingness to heed the call of "Westward-ho!" Although, throughout his boyhood and youth, he had a home in the most com- plete sense, where the family roots were deeply planted, and knew the claims of a native city that had no rival in his affections, although he felt the charms of a secluded garden and dreamy woods, nevertheless the spirit of ''hands across the sea" must have been breathed into the boy by the wind that swelled the sails on the Mottlau.
Thus his native city and the country round about helped to influence the boy's imagination. These influences were
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
supplemented at an earlier age than is customary nowadays "by contact with books. The fostering of liberal interests in his father 's house has been pointed out before. The knowl- edge and ideas that the parents acquired were not hoarded for the miserly use of the individual, but were lavished freely on the children. Intercourse with books and a mind receptive to general interests thus became for Hugo a neces- sary demand on life. It has been said before, too, that his gifted young mother led him into the world of art. The little Hugo was taken into the studio of his mother 's paint- ing teacher, Streowski, to admire his paintings — dramatic pictures of life among the Galician Jews or fantastic ones of fairy creatures. At an early age, too, Hugo and his Brothers were led through the small, but by no means in- significant, Art Museum where they could not gaze enough at their favorite picture, a large sea piece, popularly called "the blue wonder/' because of the rare intensity of the sea's blue. Although Hugo never learned to draw, nor betrayed the least talent in that line, this early initiation into the world of art was not without fruit; indeed, it planted the seed for7 a profound delight in painting and sculpture, a lasting reverence for artistic creation, and a perfectly sure sense of beauty. His later life gave him ample opportunity to exercise this sense. Not only was he an appreciative and keen judge of the work of his wife, who did not begin a serious study of painting until after her marriage, but in the adornment of his home he took an eager and active part and gathered such objects of art and decoration as were within his means. His travels, too, allowed him to enjoy art treasures in several countries, and he never lost interest in aesthetic problems.
The little Hugo's relation to music was a more active one, as he began lessons on the 'cello at nine years. Although he did not keep up his playing very long after his student days and never pretended to attain distinction in it, he
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CHILDHOOD
was musical by nature and a good judge of music. In the very last years of his life, symphony concerts were the one recreation of his serious winters.
£ Of all the arts, however, it was poetry that took the most powerful hold on Hugo as a child,^ and it was in this field of artistic activity that he readied some achievement. He wrote his first poem at the age of seven and from that time on continued to write lyric poetry and later epics and drama. Poetry in Europe and especially in those days was not considered an intellectual luxury; it was rather a vital part of mental life. In the evenings Hugo 's father read to his little sons from the classical poets, so that the boys were introduced to the world of letters long before school opened the gates to it.
Hugo's education outside of his home began withjdnder- * . . garten, followed by a private school until, at the age_pf nine, he entered the "Gymnasium" of Danzig. The Ger- man ' t Gymnasium ' ' was the standard school, which, though it was a city institution, was regulated by the state govern- ment, something as state universities are controlled in America, except that the same standard for all Gymnasia — later for all Gymnasia of the same kind, as there came to be three different varieties — was enforced throughout the state. This school offered a curriculum that would cor- respond to both the grammar school and the high school, leading to a point reached at the end of the Sophomore year by a student in a first-class American college. Yet a Gymnasium, in contrast to a college, maintained through- out the last years, thef strictly prescribed course and jdisci- pline of a school. The passing of a final examination or "Abiturium" opened to the graduate of the Gymnasium the door of any German university. The young student passed then from severest mental discipline into the un- bounded freedom of European academic life.
With this ultimate aim in view, the nine-year-old Hugo
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
entered on his school career. In his day, more than at the present time, the amount and quality of work demanded in the Gymnasium was so great that it would make an American boy of to-day gasp. Nevertheless hard study did not cloud Hugo 's happy childhood, as he was naturally gifted for it, and it did not dampen his zest for reading outside of school. School days were full of hard work, but holidays were all the more joyful, and little Hugo's life continued bright, stimulating, and cheerful until a great shadow fell upon it.
^When Hugo was twelve years old, his mother died. She died a young woman, worshiped by her family, and left her sons disconsolate and her husband heart-broken. Al- though her ennobling influence over Hugo had been limited to twelve years of her life, it lasted with wonderful potency to the very end of his own. On Anna Miinsterberg 's tomb- stone was engraved the epitaph : " Your life was sunshine."
(Deprived of this sunshine Hugo turned from a carefree child into a serious boy.V
CHAPTER II SCHOOL YEARS
HUGO MUNSTERBERG'S school years were full of exacting intellectual labor under stern mental discipline. Tasks were set that to-day no schoolboy would dream of fulfilling. For instance, the boys in Hugo's Greek class were given passages from Schiller's Maid of Orleans to translate into Greek hexameter. But as Hugo had natural aptitude for all branches, mathematics and science as well as the classics and history, he did not regard as a burden the hard study that was required. On the other hand, he cultivated so many outside interests, partly roused by the school studies, that at times he neglected his prescribed work in a way that would have had awkward results if he had not entered school so young that a little lagging behind once or twice made no difference in the end.
The foremost of these distracting sirens was literature. Hugo read an enormous amount, particularly drama. He kept on writing poetry and fiction. When he was fourteen years old, he wrote a ballad on a legendary theme out of which his father had already made a ballad before him and which a generation later one of his children put into ballad form again, so as to keep this chain of ballads continuous in the family. The theme was the story of Kunigunde of Kuhnhast, the princess who required her suitors to ride round her castle on the narrow top of a high wall on the edge of a precipice and who was disdained by the one suitor who performed the feat and whom she loved. Imaginative material of this kind appealed to Hugo. A year later he wrote a long epic poem "On the Shore of the North Sea"
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
and two years after that a story about the mermaid Melu- sine. Verse he wrote throughout his school years and gathered his poems in an ' 'album." In the days of his boyhood, to be sure, the muse of poetry was a more frequent guest in any educated household than it is to-day, and it was the usual remedy for a love-lorn youth to write sonnets to "his mistress' eyebrows." Hugo's friendship with the muse was, however, less conventional; with him it was a deeply rooted passion, so that for a time it was his serious intention to devote his life to her service. Although later, when he entered the University, he decided at the cross- roads to take the path of scholarship rather than that of literature, nevertheless he was never faithless to his first love, but kept for her always a warm place in his heart.
Together with a friend, Hugo brought out a magazine, Loose Leaves, something in the nature of a college period- ical. Besides literature the problems of language itself attracted Hugo. When he was only fifteen, he compounded a " Lexicon of Foreign Words used in German and their Etymology." This pastime he practiced outside of school hours. As a diversion, too, he studied Arabic and reached a point at which he could read the Koran ; with a friend he also explored the mysteries of Sanskrit.
The same spirit of scholarly adventure that inspired Hugo to study etymology led him also to the pursuit of archaeology. This was an especially absorbing study, be- cause in cities near Danzig, Tolkuit and Elbing, there was opportunity for excavation. Young archaeologists, under the guidance of trained older men, dug out urns with faces on them, relics from Roman days. It is not hard to imag- ine the impression such intimate contact with the very substance of the past must have made on a boy whose "his- toric-mindedness" was already highly developed; through- out his life reverence and fondness for beautiful messen- gers from remote ages clung to Hugo. It was in the last
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SCHOOL YEARS
years of his life, at a time when cares weighed heavily on him, that he went to the Boston Art Museum to search for the exquisite little statue of the snake goddess from Crete, a rarely modern looking lady from the year 1600 B. c. He found her, she thrilled and delighted him. The study of archaeology, which began as an avocation, Hugo later combined with his school work, and the final thesis he offered for his diploma before leaving the Gymnasium was on "West Prussia in Prehistoric Times/'
In spite of these more scholarly interests, Hugo did not neglect his 'cello playing. One of his friends formed an amateur orchestra in which Hugo played. In Danzig, moreover, there was no dearth of concerts, op-era, theater, and lectures. At the theater, especially, there was always a repertoire of good plays, so that the boy's acquaintance with classic drama was, as it were, first hand and intimate. Operas that are now called old-fashioned were then in vogue and were received with enthusiasm by the musical world of Danzig, operas such as ' ' The White Lady, ' ' Lort- zing's "Czar and Carpenter," "Undine," Flotow's "Mar- tha," Meyerbeer's "Prophet"; others, too, that have out- lasted fashion, such as "Carmen," and Wagner's early operas were given alternately with the plays at the city theater.
In his varied pursuits Hugo was by no means a recluse. He enjoyed a circle of friends who shared one or the other of his interests. He belonged to a club that amused itself in a way that would seem strangely serious to school boys of to-day. The friends read plays together, each choosing a part and reading it instead of acting it out. Later another literary club was formed with the high sounding name Mnemosyne in which drama was read aloud, and the members also read their own productions. In this circle Hugo found a responsive audience for his own poetic works.
Not all the social pastimes, however, were on the plane
15
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
of music and literature. The happy summer life in garden, woods, and fields has been spoken of in the previous chapter. Boys learned to swim as a matter of course. In the stern northern winters, when the rivers were frozen, skating was the great amusement for the young people of Danzig. Skating was considered less a sport than a social pleasure and "going skating" meant skating with girl friends in the brisk cold air with mirth and healthy joy of living.
Dancing school held an honored place in an older boy's life in those days, for dancing was not taught to children, but to young men and girls old enough for flirtations. In Hugo 's school years dancing played a stimulating part.
In spite of the rich and varied claims on Hugo, his family still held the uppermost place in his affection, even after the death of his mother, and among the four brothers there continued a rare devotion.
While Hugo and Oskar were still very young, they played mischievous pranks on the elderly ladies engaged to take charge of the motherless household; but Oskar was generally the livelier and naughtier of the two. The oldest brother, Otto, had entered his father's business and was therefore settled in Danzig; the second brother Emil was a law student at Zurich, Leipzig, and Gottingen. In his vacations Emil found his greatest pleasure in traveling, especially in wandering on foot through the mountains. On one of these wanderings, through the "Riesengebirge" in Silesia he took his two younger brothers, and on Hugo 's imagination these mountains, the home of Riibezahl and other legendary folk, made a deep impression.
Although journeys for pleasure were but occasional and Hugo's youth really belonged altogether to Danzig, contact with the outside world was never lost because his father continued to travel on business in foreign countries, and to fill the minds of his sons with the problems of ex-
16
SCHOOL YEARS
change, economic and intellectual, among nations. In his diary Moritz Miinsterberg wrote meditations on what he saw and heard and, on his return, his experienc.es were lived through again to be shared by his eager sons.
It was immediately after his return from Lisbon in 1881 that Hugo's father was overtaken by an acute illness and lied. So at eighteen Hugo was an orphan. Otto, the oldest brother, who continued his father's business, was now the head of the family and the younger brothers looked to him for advice and authority.
The following year Otto married the daughter of a prominent citizen of Danzig. Hugo"s young sister-in-law took a maternal attitude toward her husband's younger brothers who lived in her household. She was a brilliant pianist and had also a fine sense for literature. The married life of Otto Miinsterberg and his wife was steep-ed in music. They played duets ; often Hugo joined them with his 'cello in a trio, and musical friends helped to form quartets and quintets on long summer evenings, so that harmonies of Beethoven and Brahms would float out of the wide windows over the fragrant garden. To his sister-in- law Hug'o also owed summer vacations on Dombrovken, the large country estate of her relatives, where Hugo and Oskar became acquainted with real farm life in its peculiar characteristic form in the northeast.
Hugo's last school year was- naturally overshadowed by grief; nevertheless, he plunged into work for the "Abitu- rium" or final examination that opens the door to any university. This examination was most rigorous and in- cluded oral as well as written tests in all subjects; those, however, who passed the written ones with unusual distinc- tion were exempt from the harrowing oral examination. It was Hugo's good fortune that his written tests possessed the required excellence and he was spared further effort.
17
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
In 1882 he had passed his "Abiturium" and was entitled to wear the traditional red cap flaunted by all the proud graduates of the Gymnasium as a symbol of passing from the confinement of school and authority into the free, open world.
CHAPTER III
STUDENT YEARS AND BEGINNING OF CAREER
THE transition from school to university life, in Con- tinental Europe, does not mean, as it does in America, a step from a small institution to a larger, broader, and more advanced one : it means a step from severe mental discipline and many restrictions to the happy life of unbounded free- dom. There is no tender pledge of faith to one Alma Mater; there are not even the well defined duties and obligations that form the framework of American college life. But the European rtudent chooses the several uni- versities that he attends for the illustrious scholars in his chosen field that draw him there, or for the cities and towns in which they are located where he promises himself the greatest amount of pleasure or inspiration. Furthermore, he is not obliged to study. To be sure, if he desires to pass the examination for a doctor's degree, he cannot do so without having at his disposal a very definite store of information ; but no one cares how this was acquired. The fountain of knowledge pours forth its waters abundantly, and those that will can slake their thirst; and those who prefer, may turn away and " sport with Amaryllis in the shade. "
Miinsterberg, only nineteen when he was ready to enter the university, at a stage comparable to the end of the sophomore year in our colleges, was in no hurry to rush into professional studies. Except for occasional vacation visits, Miinsterberg had hitherto spent all his childhood and youth in his native city of Danzig with its mediaeval towers and gray northern skies. It was natural that he should have the desire to try breathing a different air among
19
HUGK) MUNSTERBERG
strange people, to see a part of the world unknown to the northern youth. He chose Geneva. There he could spend a summer semester lean>Jjig French — that is, improving and expanding the knowledge of French gained at school — enjoy the beauties of lake and mountains, as well as meet other students who flocked there from all countries. Had some prophet foretold Hugo Miinsterberg that he would spend the greater part of his life in an English-speaking country and write the majority of his books in the English language, perhaps, considering that he had not learned it at school, he would not have turned so eagerly to the pur- suit of French.
As it happened, he found a number of Englishmen lodg- ing in the same " pension " with him. Indeed, there on the shores of the blue lake, in which the ' ' eternal prison of the chainless mind ' ' mirrors its gray towers, Miinsterberg must have gained a foretaste of international society with which he was destined to become thoroughly acquainted later in his life. In an album of the kind in vogue during the more sentimental decades, in which school and university friends inscribed lines by which they hoped to be remembered, a woman medical student, rare in those days, wrote :
Je vous souhaite que votre desire d'etre utile a 1'humaiiite par vos ceuvres litteraires et scientifiques soit couronne (Tun plein succes; et je serai tres heureuse si jamais je rencontre votre nom parmi les celebrites. Quant a moi, je ne cherche pas de gloire, je voudrais seulement pouvoir soulager les souffrances de mes malades aux lits dequels je passerai presque tout mon temps.
Geneve 1882 MINA LAPINE (stud, med.)
The spirit of French literature took hold of the young Miinsterberg so firmly that he ventured to translate into verse of his own tongue long narrative poems by Francois Copee and Sully Prudhomme. Two of these translations were first published in a magazine for foreign literature
20
STUDENT YEARS
and afterward included in a volume of verse published more than a dozen years later.
At the close of the summer semester — during which the young man, no doubt, did not overburden himself with work, but read, listened to general lectures, and broadened his horizon — Hugo was joined by his older brother Emil, and together the two brothers journeyed on foot through the beautiful mountain region. From the glories of the Chamony valley Miinsterberg finally descended through the Gotthard and visited the three northern Italian cities — Milan, Verona, and Bologna. Little did he realize that this first visit to these cities was destined also to be his last and that his wish to see the great historic centers of Italy would remain unfulfilled because circumstance always con- spired against it; only fleeting glimpses of Genoa and Naples were vouchsafed him at the end of the last Euro- pean journey of his life.
When the happy summer was over, Miinsterberg returned to the north and reached Leipzig at the end of September, 1882, to begin his serious vocational studies. Here at Leipzig it may be said that Miinsterberg enjoyed his stu- dent days proper. For although his studies both at Leip- zig and at Heidelberg were important for his scholarly development, yet at Heidelberg, as will be seen, his stu- dent life was distracted by another preoccupation, whereas at Leipzig he plunged, heart and soul, into that unfettered, care-free, glorious life of exploration in the luxuriant realms of thought and letters, of gay, hearty companion- ship, of joy in youth and enthusiasm for beauty, of high and boundless aspirations — that life that comes to the ardent university man only once and never again.
For Miinsterberg 's academic career the influences at Leipzig were most significant. He had originally planned to devote his studies chiefly to social psychology, but changed his mind and decided in favor of medicine. Ac-
21
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
cordingly he took lecture courses with such medical author- ities as His, Brunner, Ludwig, Kolbe, Wiedeman, and Henkel, and worked in the medical laboratories, although he found time also for general lectures on various topics outside of his specialty. But in the summer of 1883 Miin- sterberg for the first time attended the lectures of Wilhelm Wundt, the father of modern psychology.
This marked the turning point in Miinsterberg 's intel- lectual life : from now on he pledged himself to psychology. To be sure, he remained faithful to his medical studies, planning to combine psychology and medicine. In 1883 he worked in the laboratory of Professor Wundt. This laboratory was very meagerly equipped compared with the psychological laboratories of to-day, but it is doubtful if the leading American laboratories would have had their remarkable development if their directors for many forma- tive and significant years had not received inspiration and training in the simple workshop from the pioneer of ex- perimental psychology. A fellow student in the laboratory was a young American, James McKeen Cattell, who was destined to become Professor of Psychology and Director of the Psychological Laboratory in Columbia University.
In the summer of 1884 Miinsterberg was able to pass what was called the "physikum" or preliminary examina- tion for the degree of M.D. He did not intend to take this degree at Leipzig, however, but to work for the philo- sophical doctor's examination in psychology. This exam- ination he passed in July, 1885; his chief examiners were the scholars Wundt, Leukhardt, and Henkel. The doc- tor's dissertation was on "The Doctrine of Natural Adapta- tion."
Miinsterberg devoted himself to his studies with ardor and diligence; yet these happy student years at Leipzig, though their academic content formed the groundwork for his future research, by no means monopolized his time and
22
STUDENT YEARS
thought. From a list of books purchased by him during his student days that is recorded in an account book of that time, the wide range of his interests is apparent. Not only philosophical and scientific works attracted him, but new appearances on the literary horizon. In the theater, the opera, the concert hall, Miinsterberg sought a substan- tial part of his education and no small part of his pleasure. Neither did he cease literary creation, for which he had shown so much enthusiasm during his schooldays, but found time to write stories and poems. His interest in music he kept up actively by playing quartets with friends. Leip- zig, which Goethe called "Little Paris," abounded in stimuli as the stronghold of booksellers, the possessor of excellent theater companies and good music. The profes- sors opened their houses hospitably to their students ; young men met in their favorite restaurants for evenings of jovial companionship. All these distractions Hugo enjoyed wholeheartedly and remembered in later life as only happy student days are remembered.
A pamphlet on "Student Duties and Student Rights," written and printed in 1884, shows how early Miinster- berg began to extend his influence from his own theoretical sphere of interests to the active social life about him.
His vacations Hugo spent in Danzig. In the summer of 1885, when he had passed his Pn.D. examination, young Dr. Miinsterberg left Leipzig with the intention of con- tinuing his studies and working for the medical degree at the ancient University of Heidelberg. Before the fall opening of the semester, Miinsterberg traveled to Strass- burg in Alsace to attend a large congress of naturalists that promised to include many eminent scientific men. In Strassburg the young student took the opportunity to re- new his friendship with the family of his father's cousin, Dr. Oppler, whom he had not seen since they left Danzig in his early childhood. With these relatives, especially
23
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
with their daughter Selma with whom he had played under the lilacs in Danzig, young Miinsterberg attended the bril- liant festivities with which the beautiful city welcomed the scientists. On the afternoon of September 27 he went to Heidelberg to devote himself once more to serious study. But in the morning of the next day he had changed his mind and suddenly appeared again in Strassburg and in the house of his cousins. On the afternoon of that day he was engaged to Selma Oppler. That he did not return immediately to the university may be supposed. Yet, when by the middle of October duty called to the not far distant Heidelberg, he had the satisfaction of pro- spective weekly visits to Strassburg, and a year later to Weissenburg, whither the family of his fiancee re- moved.
At Heidelberg Miinsterberg divided his attention between biological and philosophical studies. The celebrated and exceedingly popular philosopher Kuno Fischer was then lecturing at the University. Other prominent scholars whose lectures Miinsterberg attended were Erb, Fiirstner, Czerny, and Kiihne. Miinsterberg 's experimental work centered chiefly round a study of eye estimate under the guidance of Professor Haise; the result of these experi- ments formed Miinsterberg 's doctor's thesis, which was later included in his volume of Beitrdge zur experimen- tellen Psychologic.
In Heidelberg Miinsterberg concentrated upon his studies with professional seriousness. His social life was restricted by his weekly excursions to Alsace and the attending pre- occupation. His chief relaxation — strangely unrelaxing as such strenuous mental exercise may seem — was the scholar 's game of chess, then in vogue among students. Of his friends at Heidelberg, the nearest was an author and poet, Wolfgang Alexander von Meyer-Waldeck, a brother of the
24
STUDENT YEARS
Meyer- Waldeck who later became Governor of Kiauchow in China and in- the World War was captured by the Japanese.
Years spent at the old university with its mediaeval buildings, its history and traditions, in the idyllic town of Heidelberg, one of the most enchanting places of southern Germany, could not fail to leave a deep impress on a beauty- loving mind. The venerable castle ruin, rising from the wooded hill and overlooking the shining river, the gentle forests, the quaint angular streets and squares, the cheerful gardens and ancient walls, ivy-overgrown — these endear themselves to all who have lived and thought among them. Of this town the poet rightly sang :
Old Heidelberg-, I love thec,
Thou town of honors fine. Ah, there is none above thee,
By Neckar or the Rhine.
With youth in pleasure glowing,
With wisdom blessed and wine! How clear thy stream is flowing —
Blue eyes like sunlight shine!
And when rough winter leaves thee, And northward turns the spring,
A bridal gown it leaves thee Of blossoms shimmering.
Thy name is written clearly
Upon my heart's own ground, And like a bride's so dearly
I love thy name's sweet sound.
When cruel thorns shall sting me,
And dreary grows the land, I'll spur my horse to bring me
Back unto Neckar's strand!
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
During Miinsterberg 's sojourn there, the university cele- brated with splendid festivities the fifth centenary of its founding. Miinsterberg was not the only Harvard phi- losopher who drew inspiration from this ancient seat of learning: for among the old towers of Heidelberg Josiah Royce, logician and metaphysician, and Miinsterberg 's col- league at Harvard, imbibed the philosophy that left unmis- takable traces on his own.
There is only one other town in southern Germany that compares in picturesque beauty with Heidelberg or even excels it, and that is Freiburg in the Black Forest, also in what was then the Grand Duchy of Baden.
At the University of Freiburg Miinsterberg decided, after ample deliberation, to begin his university career. It was the custom in Germany for a young scholar not to wait, as in the American college system, for an appointment as instructor with a small salary, but to ask permission to establish himself independently at any university and give lectures there. He was then called a "Privatdocent" or ' ' private lecturer ' ' and received no salary — indeed no com- pensation whatever, except the small fee that every student paid for attendance at his lecture — until some university called him to fill a vacant professorship. To obtain per- mission to lecture at a university, an examination was re- quired, besides a proof of capacity for original creative work in the form of a thesis. Miinsterberg 's dissertation was on "Will Activity, a Contribution to Physiological Psychology .' ' In July, 1887, he p-assed the required ex- amination at Freiburg, and immediately after that passed the examination for the medical doctor's degree at Heidel- berg. Equipped with both the M.D. and the Pn.D. he had completed his university studies.
On August 7, 1887, Hugo Miinsterberg was married in the little town in the Vosges, Weissenburg, and after an exten- sive wedding journey, settled at Freiburg to begin teaching.
26
f
«j b .^j
f
4
STUDENT YEARS
Miinsterberg's lectures were chiefly philosophical. His first course was on philosophy of the natural sciences and Schopenhauer ; later he lectured on psychology, education, and the history of modern philosophy. A so-called ' ' pub- lic'* lecture course, that is a course open to all students and to guests, he gave on 1 1 Custom and Morality. ' ' From this field of contemplation also sprang Miinsterberg 's phil- osophical book The Origin of Morality. Although his teaching from the lecture platform was thus mainly along theoretical, philosophical lines and although he became more and more absorbed in problems of epistomology, yet at the same time he was carrying on psychological labora- tory experiments. Laboratory equipment for psychologi- cal experiments was rare in universities of that time, and Freiburg had none. Therefore Miinsterberg fitted out rooms in his own house with apparatus and turned them into a laboratory where students worked with the tense eagerness of pioneers. Young psychological students from all parts of the country and from foreign countries, too, were attracted to this work.
Besides lecturing, experimenting, and guiding the ex- periments of students, Miinsterberg collaborated in the editing of a philosophical monthly, contributed to a medi- cal encyclopedia, to a magazine for psychology, and wrote his philosophical and psychological books. He communi- cated with his colleagues at various universities — with his revered teacher Wundt, with the philosophers Vaihinger, Stein, and Windelband, one of the foremost idealists of the age, with the psychologists Natorp, Ebbinghaus, Lipps, the geographer Gerland, and others. His friends outside of Freiburg were Max Dessoir, the aesthetician and psycholo- gist and the philosopher, Paul Hensel, both of whom visited him in America in later years. On the faculty of Freiburg University were several prominent scholars, among them the zoologist Weissmann, the botanist Hilde-
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
brand and the mathematician Liiroth ; the leading philoso- pher, and what might correspond to the head of the depart- ment in an American university, was Professor Alois Riehl. Many years later, in the winter 1913-1914, Miin- sterberg had the pleasure of introducing to an audience in Emerson Hall at Harvard, Professor Riehl, who came as a visitor from Berlin University.
During these early years at Freiburg one influence of supreme importance made itself felt : that was the intimate friendship with a brilliant philosopher of Miinsterberg 's own age, even a native of his own city Danzig — Heinrich Rickert. For leisurely contemplative intercourse Freiburg was ideal. The two young philosophers used to leave be- hind them the beautiful town, famous for its exquisite Gothic cathedral with the spire like lacework, its mediaeval gates and gables, and its cheerful new villas at the out- skirts, to walk for hours over hills and dales, past lakes and hamlets, through the enchanting Black Forest. During these walks the friends gave and took of new ideas and spun fine epistomological and metaphysical arguments. Both were decided idealists and later became a common target for the attacks of positivists and pragmatists. Yet there were shades of difference in the theories of Rickert and of Miinsterberg, and this made an unreserved ex- change of ideas helpful and fruitful for both.
Another friend, though a less intimate one, was Rickert 's brother-in-law, Dr. Franz Keibel, a distinguished anatomist and biologist, who, already honored by St. Andrew Uni- versity in Scotland, in the year 1910 was especially invited by President Lowell to attend the opening of the Harvard Medical School and receive an honorary LL.D.
In 1891 Miinsterberg was appointed what may be called Assistant Professor at Freiburg. Through his original ex- periments and through his publications he had become well known, had aroused the attention of the academic world,
28
STUDENT YEARS
of those who agreed with his theories and those who dis- agreed, and did not spare those sharp criticisms that give zest and spice to scholarly life in Europe. His reputation, as will be seen, extended beyond his own country, even be- yond the ocean.
Miinsterberg's sojourn in the charming Black Forest town was broken by several short journeys, mostly visits to relatives, also excursions to Switzerland, to Belgium, and, in 1889, to Paris, where he attended the first international congress of psychologists. There he met and made experi- ments together with the well known psychiatrist Schrenck- Notzing. But far more important was his meeting there with William James, the great Harvard psychologist, who was to shape the destiny of his young colleague.1
i For literature written during the period covered by this chapter see Appendix, pages 303-307.
CHAPTER IV
UNDER THE HARVARD ELMS
(1892—1895)
INTO the quiet study at Freiburg, through the murmur of the Black Forest pines, floated a voice from across the seas. The young psychologist had sent some pamphlets of his Contributions to Experimental Psychology to his colleague at Harvard University, William James. This led to lively correspondence, although a short meeting at the congress in Paris had been the only face-to-face acquaint- ance that destiny had granted them. A young student, moreover, who had studied under James at Harvard, en- tered the laboratory at Freiburg to do experimental work with Miinsterberg; this student was Mr. Delabarre, now professor at Brown University. Regarding him "William James wrote to his young, as yet little known, colleague on August, 1890 :
I am glad you can put him at some muscular sense experiments, and I am sure he will find it a most inspiring thing to work with a man in whose hands things are as plastic as they are in yours. If one has not a natural taste for experimenting, the habit of it must be formed when young, and kept up assiduously ... I naturally hate experimental work myself and all my circum- stances conspired (during the important years of my life) to prevent me from getting into a routine of it, so that now it is always the duty that gets postponed. There are plenty of others to keep my time as fully employed as my working powers per- mit!— I wish that you could have stayed longer in Paris; it turned out very agreeable. But I am truly rejoiced that there is some prospect of your paying us a visit here, and I hope it may be soon. I have already read your third Heft (pamphlet) with avidity. Unfortunately it reached me too late to be used in the appropriate chapter of my psychology of which I finished the proofs a fortnight ago. The same is true of your little paper on
30
UNDER THE HARVARD ELMS
association, which I received just a fortnight ago in the Zeit- sclirift, and which entirely knocks the bottom out from under a little speculation of my own about association-paths in the brain. I mention it in a note, but could not otherwise consider it. I must say that you seem to me to be doing more to open out new vistas in psychology than any one to-day, and your fertility in ideas and sagacity in making distinctions are only equaled by the promptitude with which you fall to work at them. More- over, you handle things with such a broad, light touch in writing about them that it is a constant pleasure to read what you say. ... I look forward with great eagerness to your larger book. Fm inclined to think that a manual of psychology must be an extraordinarily .difficult task — all existing ones have such flagrant defects. The truth is that psychology is yet seeking her first principles, and is in the condition of physics before Galileo or Newton. Nerve physiology has some laws, even of a quasi elementary sort ; but of a law connecting body and mind, or indeed of what is the elementary fact of mind, we have not at present even the beginning of a hypothesis which is valuable. Meanwhile all books are valuable if they have any freshness in them at all, and nothing would please me so much as to think that you could find any suggestions in any part of mine. Of course I will send you a copy when it appears in September. With renewed thanks for your kind letter, believe me
Always cordially yours,
WM. JAMES
A year later, when the young psychologist's theories had been attacked by an older professor in a sharp re- view, Miinsterberg found a champion across the sea. In a letter of ' ' consolation ' ' James wrote in July, 1891 :
. . . But I find in you just what is lacking in this critique of Mutter's, a sense for the perspective and proportion of things. . . . Whose theories in psychology have any definitive value to- day? No one's! Their only use is to sharpen further reflection and observation. The man who throws out most new ideas and immediately seeks to subject them to experimental control is the most useful psychologist in the present state of the science. No one has done this as yet as well as you. If you are only flexible towards your theories, and as ingenious in testing them
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
hereafter as you have been hitherto, I will back you to beat the whole army of your critics before you are forty years old. . . .
And referring to a temporary ailment of Miinsterberg's about which he had heard from Mr. Delabarre who had re- turned from Freiburg, James wrote in the same letter :
What a wasteful thing is nature, to produce a fellow like you, and then play such a trick with him ! Bah ! — But I prefer to think that it will be no serious impediment, if you only go piano, piano. You will do the better work doubtless for doing it a little more slowly. — Not long ago I was dining with some old gentlemen, and one of them asked "What is the best assurance a man can have of a long and active life?" He was a doctor; and presently replied to his own question: "To be entirely broken down in health before one is 35 1" — There is much truth in it ; and though it applies more to nervous than to other diseases, we all can take our comfort in it. I was entirely broken down before I was thirty.
Yours cordially,
W. JAMES
It is needless to say that such letters were a source of delight to Miinsterberg who throughout his life attached much value to friendly correspondence.
Then one spring day came a letter, written in Cam- bridge on February 21, 1892, which turned the current of Miinsterberg 's life. The destiny with which this letter was pregnant brought to him treasures of experience, of new ideas and ideals, a wide sphere of influence, warm response, honors, fame and friends. Of all this he had not as yet the faintest surmise.
But now the young scientist, only twenty-eight years old, guilelessly sitting among his books, opened the letter with the foreign stamp, expecting at most another re- sponse to one of his publications or a casual letter of friendly intercourse, inviting exchange of ideas. He read :
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UNDER THE HARVARD ELMS
a5 Irving St.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Feb. 21, '92 DEAR DR. MUNSTERBERG,
Is it conceivable that if you should be invited, you might agree to come and take charge of the Psychological Laboratory and the higher instruction in that subject in Harvard University for three years at a salary of say 3,000 dollars (12,000 Marks) ?
This is a private question of my own, and not an inquiry on the part of our University authorities. My mind is in travail with plans for regenerating our philosophical department, and the importation of you has come to figure amongst the hypotheti- cal elements of the case. I cannot of course go on with the com- binations till I know whether or not that particular feature is im- possible. So pray tell me.
The situation is this: We are the best university in America, and we must lead in psychology. I, at the age of 50, disliking laboratory work naturally, and accustomed to teach philosophy at large, altho I could, tcmt bien que mal, make the laboratory run, yet am certainly not the kind of stuff to make a first-rate director thereof. We could get younger men here who would be safe enough, but we need something more than a safe man, we need a man of genius if possible. Meanwhile there is no additional money at the disposal of our philosophical department, and if you were to come, it would be necessary to raise money for three years expressly by appealing to friends of the cause. Such a thing might possibly succeed. After three years (if it did suc- ceed) you would know us, we should know you, and it might be possible to make the arrangement permanent. You would have to contemplate, in deciding to accept such an invitation, the pos- sibility of going back to Germany after an experiment of three years. Of course we should hope for permanence. Our uni- versity is one you need not be ashamed of. I got a fund of 4,300 dollars last year to start a laboratory, of which some 1,600 still remains unspent. You would have an assistant (or two if needful) and of actual teaching would not be called to do more than six hours a week, or less.
Once more, this is a private question from me to you, and you will oblige me by not making it public. The scheme will require m/uch labor to carry it into effect, and I cannot begin the work at all unless I have something definite to go upon on your side.
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
At your age and with your facility I am sure the language won't trouble you after the first year.
Faithfully yours,
WM. JAMES
To a man of youth and vigor and healthy curiosity not only about his special field, but the great world, such a letter could bring nothing but joyful surprise. This invitation from the senior philosopher whom he so much admired Munsterberg regarded as an honor, and the suggested enterprise seemed to him a great adventure. In those days America was not the place to visit by European travelers that it became fifteen years later; in 1892 the Atlantic Ocean was still a formidable barrier, life on the other side still an " undiscovered country from whose bourne " few travelers returned, and those who did, with tales of mythical wealth and uncouth customs. The traveler's blood that had sent his father to England and Portugal at a time when such journeys were unusual, now stirred in Hugo's veins and spurred him "westward- ho!" The warning from Professor James that Miin- sterberg would have to "contemplate, in deciding to ac- cept such an invitation, the possibility of going back to Germany after an experiment of three years" was by no means a damper on the young philosopher's enthusiasm, but the very condition of his being able to undertake the experiment with such a light heart. To the young scholar, educated as he had been for an academic career in his own country — a career highly honored by the com- munity, full of freedom, opportunity for achievement and many social pleasures — it did not occur that he might give up this ambition for activities on some remote and foreign shore. But such an opportunity to become acquainted, through daily intercourse, with a strange people and new modes of thought, was altogether welcome. Above all, the
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prospect of working in a finely equipped new laboratory was most alluring to the psychologist. Miinsterberg 's young wife, herself eager to see the new world, and accus- tomed from her childhood to a fairly nomadic life, encour- aged him to try the adventure. There was then no obsta- cle in the way of three years' work at Harvard and so William James was informed.
On receiving the affirmative answer, James wrote to the young psychologist who had just acquired the title of Professor at Freiburg University:
95 Irving Street CAMBRIDGE, MASS. March 23, '92 DEAR PROFESSOR,
First let me congratulate you on the possession of that well deserved title, and then let me say that I am extremely glad to hear what you say in your letter of the 7th about coming here. I feared it would be negative.
I can well understand your desire to have so important a mat- ter settled at the earliest possible date. But we must all have a little patience. The plan, as I explained to you in my letter is only my plan, so far.
The matter has not been brought in any shape before the "President a.id Fellows" (our governing body) yet — it is merely a dream of mine in which I ask you to play a non-resistant part, until other forces, more powerful than my will, come into play. I promise you that as soon as anything is definitively decided, I will immediately let you know by telegraph what it is. It seems to me incredible that with your German Beredsamkeit you should not soon be master of English. But I believe that Victor Hugo could never learn English; so, whilst hoping for the best, am prepared for the worst! . . .
Yes, Cambridge is a dear place to live in. ...
Then followed a cablegram with the two potent words: "Alles gelungen" (Everything settled) and Munster- berg's cabled reply. On April 13 James informed his colleague by letter that the President of Harvard had
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written from California that Miinsterberg was to be in- vited to Harvard and some practical details connected with the invitation. As yet nothing had been done officially. On April 19, 1892, James wrote :
95 Irving St. CAMBRIDGE, MASS. April 19, '92 MY DEAR MUNSTERBERG (let us drop titles of ceremony hereafter)
Your letter of the 8th reaches me this morning just as I am about to write to you. Our treasurer, Mr. Hooper, is just back from Washington, and informs me that your appointment must first be officially voted on by the "Corporation" of the Uni- versity which meets on Monday the 25th. There is no reason whatever to expect any obstacle or delay after this, and I sin- cerely trust that your reply will be prompt and affirmative. . , . I think you ought to bind yourself for three years at least — of course not for more; though my own hope is that by the end of that time you will have become an enthusiastic Yankee and have forgotten your mother tongue! Then we may hope to keep you for a longer time.
We are now preparing our pamphlet of courses to be given next year. Naturally if you are coming we wish your name to figure therein, and it must be published by June first. You see therefore how desirable it is to get from you a prompt answer. I will telegraph you that an official invitation is on its way to you, as soon as the Corporation votes. After the necessary de- lay, you will then please telegraph your own decision; and if it be affirmative we can immediately proceed to print your name.
I rather advise you to take a furnished house for the first year. Pack your own furniture . . .
I advise you if you have a good servant, especially a good cook, to bring her with you. Our servants are the weakest spot of our civilization — mostly Irish, ill-trained, very independent, and able to ask enormous wages. ... On the other hand, our housekeep- ing is made easy by a number of mechanical arrangements which are possibly not yet so common in Germany. But if you have two faithful servants, bring them mit!
Hoping erelong to shake you by the hand, I am
Always truly yours,
WM. JAMES 36
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After James ' prophetic letter, the formal invitation from Harvard was wired across the sea and Miinster- berg's acceptance cabled back. James wrote a letter of joyful exclamation, and then another:
95 Irving St. CAMBRIDGE, MASS. May 15, '92
MY DEAR MUNSTERBERG,
I am now in receipt of three letters from you, one written just before, the other just after, your telegram accepting the place, and the third written on the 3 of May about . . .
I have laughed most heartily at your psychological description of yourself in the last days of April, for I know just what the agonizing feeling of indecision is before one makes so important a venture. I believe that writing that letter cleared your mind of the cobwebs, and enabled you to say "yes" with relative ease ! The letter will remain a valuable document humain. To us who live here, and find everything tolerable and comfortable, the tragic aspect of the case does not present itself so vividly. But your fears about disappointing us by not picking up the English soon enough I believe are groundless. The German brain always manages, in a couple of years, to get along with a foreign tongue. Even if you should keep a foreign accent, and still make some mistakes, I think (judging by all the analogous precedents which we have) that you will be able in two years to lecture with com- parative ease to yourself. Agassiz, who came here from Switzer- land at about your age, soon became a most effective lecturer, the most generally popular lecturer we ever had. ... I think you had better dismiss all anxiety on that score. But, in fairness to yourself, I think it would be well that you should give during the first year some popular lectures in your own tongue. . . .
Yours fraternally,
WM. JAMES
A promised visit to Freiburg came about as planned. Miinsterberg and his wife found keen happiness in wel- coming Professor and Mrs. James who had brought such a great and significant adventure into their lives. They never dreamed, to be sure, at the time of how much pith
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and moment this adventure was to be in shaping their destiny. Between the psychologists cordial relations sprang up naturally. A supper party, according to the fashion of the day and place, was given for the guests from Harvard, to which prominent members of the Uni- versity were invited. Moreover, leisurely conversation in his own home made it possible for Miinsterberg to be set at ease about many problems of his new life and to re- ceive the benefit of James's guidance of which he would unluckily be deprived during the first year in Cambridge. The James family journeyed southward to Switzerland. Not content with the Harvard psychologist's short visit, Miinsterberg paid him a call at the Lake of Lucerne where the mountains echoed lively talk of the Harvard labora- tory and life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Thereafter, conversation had to be resumed by letter. On August 24, 1892 James wrote:
Pension Cruchon
Vers chez LE BLANC SUB LAUSANNE Aug. 24, '92
MY DEAR MUNSTERBERG — if you call me verehrter Herr Professor any more, I shall refuse to speak to you when we meet, and send your letter back unread ! ! — So now you are warned !
On returning yesterday from a tramp through the mountains ... I got your letter, and your card from the steamer. I meant to have sent you a card of adieu which you should have received on board, but I let the date pass by unperceived. How glad I am that you start with so smooth a sea. May it remain so to the end!
I am glad you got my letter after all. . . . When you get this, you will be housed in Sumner Street, and I can only hope that the shock of our bad streets and wooden houses will not be too great. Remember that the first weeks are always the lonely and unnatural ones, and that when work begins, your whole feeling towards America will change. I hope that Miss G. will take you into my library and offer you the use of any books there which you may need. You will have a terribly hot week (we always do) the first week in September. After that it grows
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cool With warmest regards and best wishes from both of us, to both of you, I am
Ever truly yours,
WM. JAMES
In the meantime Munsterberg had obtained a leave of absence for three years from the Minister of Education in Baden, as the University was controlled by the State. Then in August, 1892, Hugo Munsterberg and his wife set sail on the S. S. Columbia of the Hamburg-American Line for New York, the city of mythical repute. In those days there was still an element of adventure in a journey to America and much glamour about an ocean voyage. None of Munsterberg 's kin had ever crossed the Atlantic, except his younger brother Oskar, who had traveled round the world and, since he was familiar with New York, had been able to give Hugo some advice and addresses, including that of a banker who was to meet him at the dock and help him with his practical affairs.
So it happened that when the young pair landed at Hoboken, helpless in a strange continent, unfamiliar with the new language, in the midst of the uproar of the dock, there was nothing for them to do hut to stand and cry out the name of the gentleman who was to meet them until he should appear and identify himself. At last he came, and a few hours later Munsterberg and his wife were driving through New York, marveling at the sky- scrapers and at all things new and strange that met their eyes. They stayed three days at the Plaza Hotel of that time and drank in all they could of the huge, be- wildering city, before journeying on to Boston and Cam- bridge.
At the station in Boston, ready to meet them, stood an eminent representative of Harvard, no one less than the philosopher Josiah Royce, who when Munsterberg was still at Freiburg and in lively correspondence with William
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James, had also sent the young psychologist a warm letter of welcome.
And now, at the station, Professor Royce greeted the newcomers and with them Dr. Herbert Nichols, who was to be Miinsterberg's assistant in the Harvard laboratory. The kindness and devoted helpfulness of the senior phi- losopher immediately won the young psychologist's heart, and the hand extended to him in simple cordiality on Hugo's arrival became his guide during the first weeks in Cambridge. Guidance, indeed, was necessary during th.e first weeks of bewilderment.
The Psychological Laboratory, however, where he had direction of the advanced work, Miinsterberg found im- mediately congenial. He worked in harmony with his assistant, Dr. Nichols and, in spite of language difficulties, felt drawn to his students and took a warm interest in them. The well equipped laboratory in the old, long since demolished Dane Hall where he could work out his ideas freely was, of course, a constant pleasure, and so he wrote to Italy. James replied :
16 Piazza dell' Indipendenzia
FLORENCE, Nov. 24, '92
MY DEAR MUNSTERBERG,
I am in your debt for two letters and the 4th part of your Beitrdge. The first letter, of Oct. 9th, was a fairly encyclopaedic document, with its Antrittsrede and list of subjects for possible investigation. I congratulate you heartily on the fact that your English goes so well. If you composed those remarks without assistance or correction, it shows that your progress has been very rapid, and that you have nothing to fear, for there are^no mistakes. Nichols in fact wrote me some time since that he thought you would be able to lecture without difficulty in six months. Well, I am delighted to find, from both of your letters, how well the University, and America in general, seem to agree with you. Your program of occupations in your last letter indicates what is called "a full life." The excitement of novelty won't last forever, so keep it up whilst the mood continues ! Only
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I'm afraid that by spring time you may experience a sort of fatigue which you haven't been accustomed to feel in Germany. Over-stimulation and depressive reaction are the great evils of our otherwise interesting and on the whole, it seems to me, beauti- ful climate. You are experiencing one great exemption, which if you stay much longer, you will hardly escape — I mean serving on various committees of the faculty. They eat the very soul out of one with their tediousness and consumption of time. Keep clear of them and of the faculty as long as you can ! I am much pleased that you and Nichols have established a modus vivendi which is cordial. . . .
Your Beitrdge came some weeks ago, but owing to occupation with other things, I didn't get to reading them till a few days ago. They are simply charming; and I don't see what your worst enemy can say, except with reference to the last few pages, which seem to me a speculation in rather too simplified a form. If your record of Harvard work at the end of the year results in a volume at all comparable with this, it will be magnificent.
Good-by! Pray give the best regards of both of us to your wife, be industrious and cheerful!, and believe me always yours affectionately,
WM. JAMES
The difficulties of the daily life — the somewhat irritat- ing background to the essential work which the newcomer thoroughly enjoyed — were soon removed too. The board- inghouse life was exchanged for the adventures of house- keeping under strange conditions. The Miinsterbergs, whose household goods had been left in Freiburg, moved into a furnished house, hitherto occupied by a New England clergyman. Hugo, who by natural taste and education, had been accustomed to surroundings — not, indeed, of luxury, but of artistic appeal, felt himself a stranger among the* severe furniture and pictures and the sot>er books in locked bookcases in the Colonial wooden house. Yet the spirit of old New England with its gravity and simplicity made a deep impression on Miinsterberg, and it was the austere yet kindly idealism of the academic community in-
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stead of the briskness and expanse of business enterprises or the luxuries of wealth and fashion that formed his first, hence his most lasting, impression of American life. All the mythical conceptions of America's sordid materialism crumbled before the actual high thinking and plain liv- ing practiced in Cambridge.
Miinsterberg had indeed reached Cambridge in the golden age, when Charles Eliot Norton, for example, gathered chosen spirits in his hospitable old house on the hill in "Norton's woods" — now long since cleared and divided into lots with new houses of concrete; when the sprightly Kentuckian, the geologist Nathaniel Shaler, the philosophers Royce and Palmer and, after his return from Europe, James, the venerable Greek scholar Goodwin, the physiologist Bowditch, and the inimitable President of Harvard himself, entertained companies remarkably har- monious, serious and genial withal. Miinsterberg, not yet thirty, a Professor at the age when most young men on the faculties of American colleges are assistants or at most in- structors, was treated by his older colleagues as one of them and he and his young wife received the honors usually ac- corded an older generation.
The spirit within the philosophical department was unique. No words can depict it better than those of Profes- sor George Foot Moore which he spoke in remembrance twenty-five years later :
Palmer . . . James, Royce, Miinsterberg, and, a little later, Santayana, made such a constellation as no American University has seen or may perhaps see again in our time. They were men of widely diverse types; fundamentally different philosophies and opposite ways of approaching all philosophical problems were represented among them. It was no "Harvard School," having a system to inoculate the minds of docile pupils with, but so many vigorous and independent thinkers, fit to inspire students to thought by their very disagreements. For in fact they agreed on little else than freedom to disagree, and in
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their generous admiration and affection for one another. Uniform- ity of opinion on things human or divine they had no wish to see among themselves or in their pupils, knowing that it is purchas- able only by renunciation of a man's right to think for himself, which is worth more to him than even the possession of the truth. Into this circle, whose senior members were then but fifty years of age, Miinsterberg came in 1892, a man of twenty-nine, beyond his years in maturity and attainment, yet as youthful in spirit as the oldest of them. He brought to Cambridge, to the labora- tory where James had introduced new methods of experimental psychology a thorough training in both philosophy and physiol- ogy, brilliant promise, and enthusiasm for the nascent science. To have enjoyed the fellowship, the esteem, the affection of such colleagues was the greatest distinction, as it must have been the greatest satisfaction of his life.
The cordiality of these colleagues extended beyond the academic pale into the social life of the harmonious com- munity at Cambridge. George Herbert Palmer, the in- carnation of the noblest heritage of New England tra- ditions, who was destined to be and to remain to the end a loyal friend of Miinsterberg, invited the newcomers to his idyllic farmhouse in Boxford, among orchards and pine woods, and initiated them into the charms of New Eng- land country life.
So friendly was the tone among the philosophers and so simple the social life that Professor Royce jocosely wrote to Miinsterberg, whose turn it was to entertain stu- dents at his house after a conference, that he must uphold the noble ideal of plain living and high thinking and warned him lest ' ' ice cream or salad, or any such pernicious luxury should creep into our suppers." The fact that he had allowed a little bit of sherry to appear at his conference meeting he excused, saying that he * * wanted only to display my dark red decanter. ' '
It was not, however, in the lighter vein that intercourse with Royce was most characteristic. When mourning came
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to Miinsterberg 's house through news of the death of his wife's father, it was the unaffected kindness of Professor Royce, his warm compassion, that brought a welcome ray of solace.
A community from which sprang such genuine helpful- ness could not long seem strange. Soon came another and severe trial for the young philosopher and his wife when Munsterberg was stricken with diphtheria. For the young wife, quarantined, away from any kin, the only nurse of her dangerously stricken husband, those weeks of care were severe ones in spite of the extraordinary devotion, gener- osity, and helpfulness of the physician, Dr. Walter Wes- selhoeft. During this time the Harvard friends stood with earnest inquiries outside of the windows of the isolated house. A joint letter from the members of the Psycholog- ical Seminary reflects the spirit of that time.
Harvard University Psychological Laboratory
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. March 1, 1893 DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
The Psychological Seminary meets this evening for the first time since your illness was announced to us. As we begin our evening task, our thoughts turn, as you may well imagine, to you, and we miss you very sadly. Our topic this evening, as you may remember, is "The Joyful Emotions," and it seems to us, under the circumstances, a very incongruous one. But we must to our task; yet, meanwhile, our first act this evening is to prepare this word of hearty greeting to you, and to join in an expression of our warmest wishes for your quick and complete recovery, and for your restoration to your place as our leader.
Good wishes are of small aid, and we have all deeply felt our helplessness, in this crisis, to be of service to you in any material way. But what we can give, we give in earnest. It has given us all great satisfaction to hear news of your con- valescence, and we look forward with the strongest hopes to a speedy, deliverance from our separation from you.
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Believe us, dear Professor, your most loyal friends, and your sincere wellwishers.
JOSIAH ROYCE HERBERT NICHOLS EDGAR PIERCE ARTHUR R. T. WYLIE W. E. PARSONS W. T. BUSH NARIAKI KOZAKI GEORGE F. JOHNSON OLIVER B. HENSHAW ARTHUR H. PIERCE WAYNE P. SMITH JOHN BIGHAM
Sympathy came also from the absent Harvard psy- chologist, and, at the time of Miinsterberg 's convalescence, James wrote:
FLORENCE, April 13, 1893
MY DEAR MiJNSTERBERG,
I have just received your good long letter of the 27th March, on my return from a short trip in the country. It is sad to see the change in your handwriting, and to think of the weeks during which you will still be below par in strength and in feeling of strength. You must have had a hellish time of it; but it will end, and in the next couple of months no one will expect great achievements from you. So "take things easy!" What I should like to know is where you caught the d — d thing. Poor Mrs. Miinsterberg too ! I hope that by this time she has rested from her fatigues, but she must have had some pretty distressful weeks.
Your letter is full of the most interesting matters to me, but I write this morning only with reference to the courses for next year. . . . You really must not hold out to any one now the hope of succeeding you in 1895. You can't tell how you may feel about staying then, if the Corporation ask you to do so, and you mustn't complicate your decision by anything which you may be saying now. Leave that decision as free and open to yourself as possible.
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
Well! May good health now attend you all, and serenity follow in its train.
Yours always,
WM. JAMES
James, Royce, and Palmer, the senior philosophers of Harvard — all three so diverse in style and temperament — were joined by a younger star in the constellation, one who differed radically from the other stars in glory — one to whom nevertheless Miinsterberg felt drawn most strongly. This was the poet-philosopher, George Santayana. A Spaniard by birth, he was nevertheless a master of Eng- lish prose style and an exquisite poet. In the group of Harvard philosophers he represented not only in his scholarly work and literary output, but in his whole man- ner of living, the aesthetic side of philosophic thought. For Miinsterberg aesthetic contemplations had always had a strong appeal and so it was natural that Santayana who, idolized though he was by a special group of students, nevertheless appeared to most men strange and even eccen- tric, should have been a frequent visitor at the young col- league *s house and found there a free outlet for his gay wit and delicate irony. The fact that Miinsterberg was himself in leisure hours a poet and always a profound lover of poetry ^became a further bond. The radical difference between the philosophical systems of the two scholars — for Santayana, notwithstanding all his preoc- cupation with beauty is a hard realist — cast no shadow on their friendly intercourse. Some years later, when the question arose of Santayana 's advance to a Professorship, it was Miinsterberg who pointed out to the President the significance for Harvard of retaining an intellect of such individuality and keenness, a productive scholar who could not be spared.
In the spring of 1893 Miinsterberg was restored to health and able, in the summer, to pay a short visit to the Chicago
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Exposition, which shall be mentioned in another connec- tion. Rest and recreation he and his wife found at the seashore. In Swampscott, the pretty fisherman 's town and summer resort, they first learned to love the North Shore of Massachusetts, to which they remained faithful through- out their long life in America.
At the opening of the new academic year, in the autumn of 1893, Miinsterberg left the little furnished shelter of the first year and moved into a typical Cambridge house with a broad yard, on Quincy Street, the street on which only the President and professors lived. Opposite this house was the large, old residence of Mrs. Louis Agassiz, who became a most attentive and stimulating neighbor, and whose friendship was highly valued and always grate- fully remembered. Louis Agassiz, the greatest American naturalist, who had left his native land to bestow the treasures of his mind and the fruits of his toil on another country, stood for a noble precedent to which young Miin- sterberg turned with special interest ; and thus the cordial intercourse with Agassiz 's widow was a particular source of inspiration. Another bond with Mrs. Agassiz was Miin- sterberg's active interest in the scholarly opportunities for women, and so he admired her as the first President of Radcliffe College, then called the Harvard Annex.
The ampler quarters of the Quincy Street house offered more facilities for the entertaining in which Miinsterberg always took such distinct pleasure. A visit from the great physicist Helmholtz, in the year of the Chicago Exposition, marked the first of a long stream of visits of eminent scholars from abroad to whom Miinsterberg presented his Harvard colleagues in his own house. This custom he con- tinued throughout his career and in it he found one of the chief adornments of his life in Cambridge.
In the -meantime the psychologist felt more and more at home in his laboratory. He had the confidence of his
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students and took more than a merely academic interest in them. Some of these students became his friends. lAmong these was Arthur Pierce who later was Professor at Smith college and whose untimely death in the winter of 1914 brought sorrow to his former teacher. Another student, Edwin Holt, later assistant in the laboratory, instructor, and finally Professor at Harvard, was for many years a family friend. In the first winter of laboratory work, William James, who felt his responsibility from a distance, wrote:
16 Pa dell' Indipendenza,
FLORENCE Jan. 7, '93 MY DEAR MUNSTERBERG,
Your welcome letter of Dec. 23rd arrived yesterday, and all your cordial Gluckwunsche are "reciprocated" with a high rate of interest, by both of us. Long may your satisfaction with Cam- bridge last. Royce writes me that you are considered on all hands as "an immense success." The President writes "Miinsterberg is doing splendidly"; so, since the organism seems so perfectly adapted to its environment, all that is needed is that the en- vironment should continue to please the organism; and that I privately continue to hope, will be the case even after the three years' contract has come to an end. In other words, I have been speculating all along on the possibility that your three years term might end by being indefinitely prolonged, and I think that any very anxious canvassing of the question "who shall be M's successor?" is certainly not called for at the present time.
The first academic year passed in the intimacy of the laboratory walls, and Miinsterberg did not yet trust his English enough to lecture in it. In February, 1894, how- ever, at the opening of the second academic half-year, he gave his first English lecture at Radcliffe College. Here the chronicler must pause and look ahead with sorrow. To those who have at heart the scholarship of women, it cannot fail to be a precious symbol that Hugo Miinsterberg
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gave to the same woman's college not only his first lecture held in America, but even his last — indeed, his very last life breath.
In order to leave no phase of academic life untried, Miinsterberg taught also at the summer school in the sum- mer of 1894, while his wife preceded him to the Adiron- dacks, to the eccentric philosophic camp of the Scotchman Thomas Davidson, the popular, non-academic, wandering philosopher.
When the duties of summer school were over, Miinster- berg joined his wife. She had been having some trying experiences in the ascetic ' ' simple life ' ' required by David- son who reigned, an absolute despot, over the inmates of his camp. The young students, some of them from the Harvard laboratory, lived in tents in the woods, the ladies of the camp resided under the one wooden roof. In the dining hall, before, breakfast, Davidson read aloud from Confucius and exacted absolute attention. Once when a baby, which, by the way, belonged to Miinsterberg, dared to laugh at the solemn company during the reading, Davidson promptly expelled it from the room.
When Miinsterberg arrived, he took his wife to a hotel where she could enjoy the beautiful primeval forests under less rigorous conditions, and he himself gave a series of lectures to the philosophers assembled in the woods. The last weeks of the summer were again spent in Swamp- scott. There Miinsterberg passed many pleasant hours with the psychologist from Princeton, Mark Baldwin, and his family.
Now Miinsterberg lectured not only in the class room and under the pine trees of the Adirondacks, but, after the ice had once been broken, he began to speak in public. His first public speech in English was in 1894 before the Boston Schoolmaster's Club in a debate about the place of psychology in education, with Professor Stanley Hall, who
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
later became President of Clark University at Worcester, Massachusetts. In Cambridge Miinsterberg gave a lecture with demonstrations on optical plasticity; he spoke to the eager Radcliffe Philosophical Club, and thus gradually he acquired the ease that, a few years later, he mastered, of adjusting himself to a variety of audiences.
As early as the winter of 1893 Miinsterberg had attended the Psychological Congress in Philadelphia, where he had met Stanley Hall, a year before the above mentioned de- bate. In the summer of 1893 Miinsterberg and his wife enjoyed the Chicago "World's Fair, which was attracting the curious from far and wide, as the first exposition of the new world. It was there that Miinsterberg for the first time met Carl Schurz whom he greatly admired.
In his three years of American experience, Miinster- berg was eager to see as much as possible of the country. During the first winter he and his wife received a last- ing impression of Niagara turned into a cataract of ice. In the third winter, during the mid-year examination period, he journeyed through Kansas and Nebraska to California, and came home with Indian relics and oranges that he had plucked.
At the end of the winter 1894-95, Miinsterberg found that the three years of " adventure " in America were by no means the closed episode that he had expected them to be. Harvard had offered him a permanent Professorship and was willing to wait two years for his decision. Again he experienced the qualms that attend a decision of mo- ment; and the two years of grace were truly needed.
The three years at Harvard had indeed been happy. Except for two dark periods of illness — his own and later his wife's — the years had been filled with most congenial work, inspiring colleagues, interesting students, a social life that appealed to him with its quiet grace and in which he felt thoroughly welcome. The fragmentary impres-
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sion that he had gained of western cities left unslaked his thirst for more knowledge of the great country, its life and thought and possibilities. Above all, he could no longer look upon this country with the objective view of a wanderer, for it had already won his heart. The desire that was to be one of the mainsprings of his life — to bring this country and his own closer together— was already clamoring for a hearing ; it was impossible to return home calmly as from a visit successfully completed to be stored away among pleasant memories.
In May Miinsterberg and his wife gave a farewell re- ception, then their temporary household was dissolved, and soon the Hamburg-American Line steamer Columbia carried them homeward. After a three years ' separation, Hugo longed to go back to his own land and his brothers, and yet the three years behind him were more than a happy past; they were the seed of a future full of great achievements, innumerable joys — and ultimate sorrow. But of this he had no surmise, and it was with the ardor of happy and ambitious youth that he stood on the deck of the steamer and gazed back at the majestic outline of New York.1
i For literature written during the period covered by this chapter see Appendix, page 308.
CHAPTER V
BLACK FOREST INTERLUDE } (1895—1897)
ONCE more Hugo Miinsterberg found himself settled in Freiburg on the banks of the Dreisam, with the hemlocks of the Black Forest murmuring near. In the beautiful mediaeval university building -with its gray courtyard and its gables, he lectured on ethics, now as Professor of Phi- losophy.
The chief beauty of these two years in Freiburg was the continuance of Miinsterberg 's close friendship with the brilliant young philosopher, Heinrich Rickert. Through the beautiful mysterious woods the two young scholars wandered together, and for hours spun intricate philosophi- cal theories. This free and intimate exchange of the pro- foundest ideas with his friend was unique in Miinster- berg 's life, for with his other colleagues, except on the de- bating platform or in print, his intercourse, when not con- cerned with actual administrative academic problems, was, for the most part, purely social.
The dark forests, the gentle mountain slopes, and peace- ful, flowering valleys made a fit background not only for serene philosophic thought, but for the freer meditations of the poet. Here it was that Miinsterberg found his old Muse again and wrote numerous charming poems, some betraying the philosopher, some purely lyric; many of them were in melodious blank verse, mostly in a minor key, others followed a rigorous pattern of rhythm and rhyme. A few of these poems were printed in the maga- zine Jugend, one of them illustrated by his wife ; but the greater part, including a few written in America, he kept by him until in July, 1897, shortly before he left Frei-
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burg, a graceful little volume of poems appeared under the transparent pseudonym Hugo Terberg. In this little book there are also translations from the French and Eng- lish— translations of two long narrative poems by Francois Coppee, which he had made in his student days, and one of Robert Browning's Andrea del Sarto. At this period of his life, Miinsterberg again found pleasure in playing his 'cello in quartets. In this art, however, he never aspired toward any achievement, and so, in the following years, as other interests crowded in upon him, the deep- voiced instrument of his youth was doomed to stand in a corner, neglected. But he did not cease to write poetry, although never again as often as in the early years in the Black Forest. It is a pity that his first volume of verse, which was well received and gave more than passing plea- sure to its readers, was not followed by a second.
A very different current from that of contemplative seclusion and the joy of artistic creation ran through Miinsterberg 's two years at Freiburg : it was his continued interest in things American and his spread of that interest among his acquaintances at home.
In his laboratory, which was at first again in two large, empty rooms of his dwelling, Miinsterberg joyfully wel- comed a considerable number of American and English students. One was Edwin Holt, who had followed his Harvard teacher to Freiburg and was a frequent guest in Miinsterberg 's house, where the advanced students, scarcely younger than their professor, felt much at ease, brought and found congenial spirits and good cheer. It was par- ticularly at Carnival time which, in the Catholic state of Baden, was celebrated with full southern gaiety, that the youthfulness of students and professor alike blossomed out in merry abandon : so one sunny Carnival afternoon Miin- sterberg's house was invaded by a band of students dressed as babies in long bright coloured dresses who sang in
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unison a sprightly song composed for the occasion in honour of their delighted teacher.
Another American student was Miss Ethel D. Puffer, a singularly gifted student whose special field was the psychology of beauty, and who was eager to make experi- ments in aesthetics under Miinsterberg's guidance. This was the time in America's intellectual history when her universities were drawing inspiration most avidly from the European, especially the German, seats of learning,
Besides these permanent students, there were other American visitors to Freiburg who helped to remind Miin- stertoerg that his three years in America could never re- main a closed episode. One November, even, there were enough Americans in Freiburg to make possible a Thanks- giving party given in their honor at Miinsterberg 's house with an American turkey and cranberry sauce, and with the American flag above the door.
But as Miinsterberg had not forgotten his friends in America, so they had not forgotten him. In September, 1896, James had written in his old spontaneous way:
Auditorium Hotel, Chicago. September 2nd, 1896 DEAR MUNSTERBERG:
I don't remember whether I wrote you a letter at the end of the term in Cambridge. I am afraid I may not have done so, because I was as usual very much overworked and in arrears with everything. I have not had much rest since, having been starring about the country giving lectures to teachers on psychology, — some at Cambridge, some at Buffalo, one at Chautauqua, and now a course at Chicago. Fortunately in two days I can go to the Adirondacks and have some hygienic vacation.
I have just had a few words about the Congress from Wads- worth, Strong, and Baldwin. Baldwin speaks of having met you but says nothing more about you. A Berlin paper has been sent me with a letter from Munich, which said that the "psycho- logical pope of the old world, Wundt, and the psychological pope of the new world, James, were both distinguished by their
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absence." I am becoming illustrious! I am also becoming pos- sessed of the Chicago spirit, for I am writing letters for the first time in my life by dictating to a stenographer. I hope you sympathize.
I lunched with Loeb yesterday, who seems on the whole well contented here and who (I think with great sincerity) expressed the opinion that he thought you would make a mistake not to return to this country. The conditions strike him as so much healthier than those of Germany; and truly enough, going around among the teachers as I have lately done, seeing the magnificent development of the university here and feeling the fermentation that everywhere exists in education, one cannot doubt that learn- ing has a great future in America. If a few men of genius spring up in the next generation, fifty years will see us perhaps in the very first rank.
I hope you enjoyed and profited by the Congress. I extremely regret not having been there, but it was — impossible. I have not the least idea how many pages you have written of your magnum opus, but I sincerely hope you have not experienced the usual disappointment of finding that to plan a book is one thing and to write it something quite different. It almost always turns out so, but for many reasons I want your book out early.
I regret to say that my brain has been so bad that after agreeing to review Stout's book for Mind and keeping the volumes two months, I had to back out and hand the job over to Royce who is ready for everything in this world or the next. He seems in splendid condition and has been reading and writing vigorously all summer in Cambridge. Titchener*s book is out, but I have not read that either. I am just beginning to read a little for my Kant course next winter. You see my "jammerliches" con- dition more or less continues, but I did get on to some new thoughts in my seminary last year, which I may be able to work out and which give me some small consolation.
Your old house has a tenant at last and looks less lonesome.
The political campaign goes on admirably, — splendid speeches and documents on both sides. It seems difficult to doubt of the essential soundness of people where such a serious mass of discussion, pursued on the whole in such a dignified tone, is a regular incident of life. Of course, the Silver Party must be beaten, but they have much that is ideal on their side.
Good-by, dear old Miinsterberg. Keep in good health. Write
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like a steam engine through next winter and be ready to resume your old place a year from no.w. Cordialest greetings to the "gnadige Frau" and the children, who havfe probably forgotten me, and best wishes to yourself,
from yours always truly WM. JAMES
With the advent of the year 1897 the time drew near for Miinsterberg to make the momentous decision of his life. This time it was not the question of a three years' adven- ture, but the turning of the current of his daily work onto American soil. Miinsterberg loved his country; he never for a moment considered leaving it in the spirit of an emigrant who seeks his happiness in another land; neither did he doubt at the time that his mos-t profound creative work should be dedicated to his countrymen and written in their language or that he shotfld end his days in the land of his fathers.
Yet he did not have the heart to cut off forever the new and already dear ties that .drew him to Harvard. His opportunity for influence there, especially the direction of the excellent laboratory that offered him unlimited chance for the development of his ideas had given him much happiness at the beginning and promised to give him more and more satisfaction in years to come. More- over, he believed that by including the intellectual life of two countries in his interest and affection, he would not only be immeasurably enriching his own life, but expand- ing his field for fruitful work. And even as he was eager to unite both countries in his own life work, so he hoped that the countries would be united by bonds of intellectual understanding.
On January 14, 1897, James reminded his colleague of the impending decision, and the day after he had written, the President wrote :
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Harvard University, CAMBRIDGE, January 15th, 1897 DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG,
We shall soon be arranging1 our philosophical courses for the year 1897-98, and on this account it becomes necessary for me to ask you what your decision is with regard to returning to Harvard University next September. Your salary would be $3,500 a year at first, rising in all probability after five years of service to $4,000, and after another five year's to $4,500. This increase of salary is the common practice of the Corporation, although they have no fixed rule on the subject. Your title might be your present title, or if you preferred a wider field, the title could doubtless be arranged to suit you. Professor James has no particular attachment to his present title, and the field is entirely open. You may feel assured that your return is desired by the Governing Boards of the University, the Faculty, and your immediate colleagues in the Department of Philosophy. You would be in every sense welcome as a permanent officer of the University, and I believe that the American professors of psy- chology would think your permanent settlement at Harvard a reenforcement for their body.
Since you left Cambridge there has been no important change. Last year there was a large gain of students; this year there is a small gain; but still a gain. The Graduate School is larger than ever, and contains a fine body o'f students. The laboratory which you established has been kept up and carried on in a wholly creditable manner. ... So far as I know there are no new conditions in the problem which is before you.
I understand that an incomplete proposition from Zurich has interested you. Perhaps the necessity of arriving at a con- clusion with regard to your return to us will enable you to bring the Zurich offer to a point. Our committee on Instruction has already gone to work on the program for next year; but there is ample time for the interchange of letters between us, and indeed you could defer your final decision till February 13th if you would then notify me of it by cable.
Please commend me to Mrs. Miinsterberg's kind remembrance, and believe me with all good wishes
Very truly yours, CHARLES W. ELIOT
The proposition from Zurich referred to, it may here be
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explained, was a unanimous election of Miinsterberg by the faculty of the University at Zurich, Switzerland, to fill a vacant full professorship. The Swiss Government, however, as Miinsterberg explained in his reply to Presi- dent Eliot, wished "not to appoint anybody in the vacant place on account of economy. " This episode, therefore, could not affect Miinsterberg 's decision between Freiburg and Harvard.
Glad as- Miinsterberg was to follow the call to Harvard, he could not make up his mind immediately to disrupt his life in Freiburg and transplant his family to Cambridge. Therefore he wrote to the President that he should like at first to come alone, without his family, and, as he was unwilling to part from wife and children for a whole year, he proposed that he might come for the first academic half- year and compress into it a whole year's work. To this proposal, however, the President would not consent:
Harvard University, CAMBRIDGE, March 3d, 1897 DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG,
Your letter of February 2nd reached me in due course of mail, and has been carefully considered both by the professors of Philosophy and by the President and Fellows. We have come to the unanimous conclusion that it is not in the interest of the University to accede to the precise proposal which your letter contains, — that is, the proposal that you spend only the first half of the year at Cambridge in 1897-98. It seems to us that the last half of the year is more important in the laboratory than the first half, and that the department really needs your presence during the whole year, or say from October 1st to June 1st.
I ought also to say to you frankly that the University will not be content to have you return hither without "burning your ships"; the University will desire that you return with the in- tention to remain in its service, just as any American accepts a professorship here with the definite intention of spending his life in all probability at Harvard. I do not mean that professors are not perfectly free to accept better appointments elsewhere
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if such are offered to them — they are entirely free in that regard — but in accepting a professorship which is not limited to a term of years the incumbent is expected to have the present intention to remain.
We wish now to put the Department of Philosophy on a definite footing with a good promise of stability for several years to come, and we should very much like to include you in our plan. We value highly, however, the element of stability and continuity. Given this element of fixed intention on your part, we shall be glad to welcome you alone for service next year from October 1st to June 1st; but we should of course greatly prefer that you come with your family, making a visible transfer to this country of your household and your household goods.
I am very sorry to hear that you have had any return of nervous disorders. Would not you be less liable to such attacks if you too settled down upon a fixed and definite course of life, settling once for all the great question of the country in which you will pass your prime, and your children will grow up? I can easily understand that to have such an important question open for years might be very disturbing.
You may be very sure that all your colleagues in the depart- ment and in the Faculty will be very glad to have you decide to cast in your lot with them, and I assure you that I shall share their satisfaction.
On account of the shortness of the time which now remains before the issue of the announcements for next year I must beg you to cable a Yes or a No as soon as you have made up your mind on the proposal contained in this letter. You can use as an address, "Eliot, Harvard University, Cambridge."
Mrs. Eliot and I are both well, and send our best wishes to you and Mrs. Miinsterberg.
Believe me, with great regard,
Very truly yours, CHARLES W. ELIOT
Previously James, whom Miinsterberg had also informed of his plan had written:
CAMBMDGE, MASS, Feb. 27, 1897 MY DEAR MUNSTERBBRG:
The President's letter will reach you simultaneously with
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this, and I am sure I don't know exactly what he is going to say, though probably he will say that a full year's service is indis- pensable; and I think you will recognize yourself that a great institution like this cannot maintain very long a provisional state of things in its laboratory, because in the sharp rivalry of other institutions rumors get around, the current of students is diverted, and two or three years are lost in wiping out the impressions. I hope therefore that you will come now for the entire year, whatever your decision as to permanency may there- after be. On the supposition that you will do so, I wish to write a word about the courses. . . .
I need not say how much we are all hoping for a favorable decision from you, or how inferior every other alternative seems to us to be. But I recognize the momentousness of the decision for yourself, and can sympathize with the difficulty that you may find in it. I am excessively sorry to learn from your letter to the President that you have had a recurrence of your malady. I doubt myself whether climatic conditions can have much to do with such things, and hope that you will outgrow it anywhere. Why consider that it should weigh against America rather than against Germany in your final choice, since you have had it as badly at Freiburg as in Cambridge? Pray let us know every- thing at the very earliest possible moment, and believe me, with best regards to Mrs. M.,
Always affectionately yours-,
WM. JAMES
So all hesitation had to be thrown to the winds, and Miinsterberg wired his "Yes." In reply he received the cablegram:
Welcome.
ELIOT
Hugo Miinsterberg 's fate was decided, and in September, 1897, he and his wife and children set sail for the new life.
CHAPTER VI TAKING ROOT (1897—1899)
IN September, 1897, Miinsterberg and his family arrived in Cambridge once more with 80 /boxes containing a transplanted household. Once established in a house on Harvard Street in which, to be sure, they stayed only one year, it was not difficult to fall again into the rhythm of Cambridge academic life. In his psychological labora- tory Hugo felt immediately at home, and with his young assistant there, Robert McDougall, he came to be on very friendly terms. In the second year Miinsterberg 's lec- tures were held in the old Massachusetts Hall before a large class. His smaller classes of eager, enthusiastic women students at Radcliffe he enjoyed no less. It gave Miinsterberg and his wife especial pleasure to open their doors not only to colleagues, but to graduate students, some of whom were not much younger than their hosts.
Before the opening of the second academic year, Miin- sterberg moved with his family to the house on Ware Street in which he lived till the end of his life. This house lent itself picturesquely to entertaining, and was at the same time a restful home. Along the walls of the library, with the high, frescoed ceiling, stood the solemn company of several thousand books that had crossed the ocean with their owner. A short flight of steps led upward from this wide, dark library to the philosopher's retreat — a quaint, original room with a cheerful brick fireplace and chimney and a large north window filling nearly the space of a whole wall. This room was study and studio at once. There stood the great oaken desk at which, until the days of Emerson Hall, Miinsterberg did all his creative work ; here
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also were the easles, paintboxes, and palettes of his wife, and sketches hung on the spaces of the walls not covered by philosophical books.
The beautifying of his house was Miinsterberg's dearest recreation. Particularly in the first years of its adorn- ment, he scented rare antiques in town and brought home now a Bokhara rug, now an old carved chair, now a fantastic bronze vase or a Japanese lacquer screen with designs in ivory and mother-of-pearl, now an embroidered Mexican priest's robe for drapery, or an old Russian samo- var; now an Indian totem or a Tiffany lamp. The pur- chase of paintings by artists whom he knew gave him special pleasure, although most of the paintings in his house, chiefly landscapes and sea pieces, were made by his wife.
In his house Miinsterberg loved to gather congenial spirits. The scholars who had welcomed him into their quietly hospitable houses during his* first three years at Harvard were still giving grace and a certain inimitable dignity to the social life of Cambridge. Professor Shaler, the Kentuckian, and his brilliant, handsome wife were still extending Southern hospitality ; Professor and Mrs. Picker- ing received on the top of the hill where the Harvard Observatory stood; Professor Farlowe, the botanist, gathered stimulating men round his table. It was a joy to meet on Shady Hill, in Charles Eliot Norton's low, gray house where the words of Dante glowed anew. With his colleagues James, Royce, and Palmer, Miinsterberg re- mained on the same cordial terms. Warm and friendly re- lations with Professor Kuno Francke were developed ; and valuable intercourse was kept up with such scholars as the theologians and historians, Toy, Lyon, Macvane, the philol- ogist, von Jagemann, and the economist, Taussig.
But their special delight Miinsterberg and his wife found
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in gathering under their roof the younger men, young instructors and advanced students, and some young women distinguished for their charm and intellectual achieve- ments. Among these the most intimate friend of the house was Miss Ethel D. Puffer who continued the work in aes- thetics she had begun in Freiburg at the Harvard Psycho- logical Laboratory with Munsterberg 's instruction and passed a brilliant examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. In Miinsterberg 's early years at Harvard also began his cordial relations to the excellent psycholo- gist, Mary Whiton Calkins, in whose career and achieve- ments he took a life-long interest and for whose creative work he had a great admiration, as will be shown in later chapters. In the charming New England parsonage of Miss Calkins' parents at Newton, Munsterberg and his wife spent many a valuable evening. A welcome guest of the Cambridge house at this time was the poet Josephine Pea- body who not infrequently met there her future husband, Professor Lionel Marks. George Santayana, the philos- opher-poet, who had appealed so strongly to Munsterberg during his first three years at Harvard, and who was a great favorite in aesthetic circles in Cambridge, was nowhere more welcome than at the house of the psycholo- gist. Other young friends were the two scholars in English, then instructors and later professors, Fred Norris Robin- son and William Henry Schofield. Munsterberg and his wife delighted in giving student receptions. One such evening remained memorable at which Miss Puffer read in the form of a Platonic dialogue some of her own philos- ophic thoughts, and George Santayana read from his beautiful drama Lucifer. At other times Josephine Pea- body, a fairy figure in the dark library, read her own poems with great sprightliness.
Occasional recreation Munsterberg found in playing the
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'cello to the piano accompaniment of a young, musical psychologist, Dr. Burnett.
Meanwhile Miinsterberg was identifying his interests more and more with those of the University he was serv- ing. He was eager to lay at Harvard 's feet his experience, which his peculiar destiny had made manifold in spite of his youth, his ideas which could not be one-sided because he had looked at problems from both sides of the ocean. It was just at this time, when Miinsterberg was beginning to feel himself an organic part of Harvard, that the first temptation came to establish his work and life nearer home. The call came from Oxford, the city of classic traditions, the Alma Mater of the great torch bearers of English thought and letters. A new Readership, which corresponds to a Professorship except that the "readers" in Oxford are appointed by election, was being founded in psychology and the young Harvard psychologist was urged to accept the nomination for that post. A former pupil, William Gill, who had studied with Miinsterberg in his laboratory at Freiburg, sent the invitation. Gill wrote :
You would be much nearer to Germany and might find Oxford a pleasant residence. And then you would have time for writing.
Experimental work is excluded from the course of teach- ing. . . . And then, if I may say something personal, . . . your talent, which I admire exceedingly, has always seemed to me of a much wider scope than experimentation. I have regretted seeing it confined within those limits. It has seemed to me that you would do very brilliant work in other branches of psychology. I don't know whether an article of yours in the North Atlantic Review signifies that you are now inclined to put experimentation rather in the background. ... I am not an elector myself, but knowing what the field is likely to be, I feel pretty sure that, if you should apply, you would be elected; especially if you did not attach primary importance to experimentation. I should be very glad to see you elected.
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Miinsterberg was not insensitive to the glamour that hovers round the name of Oxford. Moreover, the circum- stance that he would have only the Channel instead of a whole ocean between himself and his brothers was an elo- quent incentive in favor of life in England for both Miin- sterberg and his wife. And yet he had a presentiment that in Oxford, steeped as it is in its own peculiar traditions, he might always feel a stranger ; whereas at Harvard, out- growth though it is of the English college system, at Har- vard with its hospitality toward Continental European thought and methods, he was already feeling at one with its interests and aspirations. Moreover his work, his col- leagues, the life at Cambridge, and the spirit of the country were congenial to him and he felt no desire to exchange them for another country not his own. Therefore he de- cided to remain.
That Miinsterberg 's devotion to Harvard was recognized and his service esteemed was given outward expression by the raising of his salary and the prospect of an additional raise that would depend, as President Eliot put it, "upon your increasing influence at the University and among learned men/' The President added further, in a letter of October 19, 1898: "You may be sure that this action on the part of the corporation is evidence of the high value which they set upon your services to the University."
Content with his decision to remain, Miinsterberg turned with renewed zest to his academic work, which now was beginning to be supplemented by some of those outside activities that in later years were to be so numerous. These were for the most part, however, merely within extended fields of academic interest.
Although he was probably at the time the youngest Pro- fessor at Harvard, Miinsterberg was made President of the American Psychological Association. As the presidential
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address he delivered a paper on Psychology and History. The reputation of the psychologist was fast spreading over the country. He was invited to cities of New York and the Middle West to discourse on psychological and philosophi- cal topics. During all his life Miinsterberg was earnestly interested in problems of education, and for leading educa- tors who had contributed to their field he had a profound respect. His friend and neighbor, Alice Freeman Palmer, the wife of his colleague, and former President of Wellesley College, he admired as a pioneer in the field of woman's education in the United States and as an ideal administra- tor. With special delight, therefore, he welcomed an oppor- tunity to address the Harvard Teachers' Association to- gether with Mrs. Palmer. This was at the time when the question of what part psychology was to play in the schools was very much debated. Miinsterberg, although he did not ignore the value that the study of psychology had in the preparation of the teacher, was opposed to the teacher's deliberate view of the pupil as a psychological subject, rather than as a responsible individual in whose soul ideals are to be planted and whose intellect is to be dis- ciplined for the better pursuit of that ideal. Hence it appeared to those who had different theories at the time, that Miinsterberg minimized the importance of psychology in education.
Miinsterberg 's interest in women's colleges he manifested in diverse ways. His teaching at Eadcliffe was far more than the usual routine. He took a strong interest in the students of his seminary class, some of whom were excep- tional— among them was Miss Bertha Boody, later Dean of Eadcliffe College — and invited them to his house. He also enjoyed his visits to the neighboring college of Welles- ley, where Miss Calkins was Professor of Philosophy and Psychology. It was in the early years at Harvard, when
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college festivities were still a novelty to the young profes- sor, that he was invited to the commencement exercises of Smith College. The charm of that celebration made a deep impression on him, which, in after years he remembered with pleasure, especially the ivy oration spoken by a senior of that day, Miss Josephine Daskam, now Josephine Das- kam Bacon, the well known writer.
As the work and social life of Harvard and Boston be- came more and more congenial to Miinsterberg during the academic year, so the beauty of the New England land- scape appealed to him during the long summer vacations. In the spring of 1898 he wandered along the North Shore between Boston and Marblehead in search of a* summer dwelling, and found at Clifton a little secluded cottage in the midst of fields and orchards which he felt immediately would be the ideal for his wife and little children as well as a fit retreat for his "vacation work/' In that same cottage, in later years enlarged and improved by himself, Miinsterberg and his family spent every summer except those in which they traveled abroad, until the very last.
Vacation for Miinsterberg did not mean a stopping of work, but merely a ceasing of distracting academic and administrative activities, to concentrate upon creative labor. He did not confine himself to his desk, however, during the golden summer months at the shore, but took his books and papers out on the veranda -and when he looked up from them, let his eyes wander over the peaceful landscape. His recreation he found in sea bathing with his children, and especially in long solitary walks, during which, however, he never quite dismissed his scholarly prob- lems from his thoughts. His favorite walk was along the beach that stretched out from Clifton to Swampscott, a beautiful broad expanse at low tide, where clouds and sun- set tints cast exquisite reflections on the glistening sand
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as the tide receded and where the great surf thundered and little white caps tumbled in sport. Of this walk he never tired and he came to be a familiar figure against the de- serted stretch of bea.ch, pacing slowly, in deep thought. Though he preferred solitude during his walks, peopled as it was with a throng of ideas, he was nevertheless a gay companion to his family. The landscape painting of his wife he followed with critical judgment and took a whole- souled interest in his children's work and play. While they were not yet in their teens, he read to them history, poetry, and plays. Many quiet summer evenings especially were given over to thrilling historical dramas.
It was in the summer, in this happy seclusion, that his imagination once more peopled the sea with mermaids and the shore with legendary folk, such as he had known in his childhood. In the summer of 1898 he wrote a play in verse, wrote it actually on the beach, to the rhythm of the surf. The setting of the play is mediaeval and fantastic, a fairy- tale, but the theme, symbolical rather than allegorical, be- trays the philosopher behind the poet.
To those who think of the psychologist as one who habitually dissects the souls of his fellow men, it may be said that in his private life MHinsterberg, though always the philosopher, was far more poet than scientist. In friendly intercourse he left psychology behind, and his in- terpretation of human motives often bordered on the ro- mantic.1
i For literature written during the period covered by this chap- ter see Appendix, pages 308-316.
CHAPTER VII
PHILOSOPHERS AND STATESMEN (October, 1899—1902)
MUNSTERBERG was made Chairman of the Philosophical Department at Harvard. This office exacted many labor- ious administrative duties, but he discharged them with energy and enthusiasm, for he had the life and growth of the Department much at heart. The work of the Psycho- logical Laboratory went on under his direction in the rather inadequate quarters of the little building called Dane Hall, now no longer in existence. Lectures on philosophy and psychology were given in halls in the Harvard yard that harbored lectures on all subjects. More and more the need arose for philosophy and its kindred studies to have a house of their own. No one was more eager to see this desire fulfilled than Miinsterberg, who together with the other members of the Philosophical Department began in the academic year 1900-1901 to arouse interest among pos- sible donors for the erection of a house devoted to philoso- phy. This building, to his mind, was to be not merely a convenient shelter for various professors of philosophy and their classes, it should be more — nothing less than an out- ward symbol of the inner unity of all philosophical studies. Gathered under one roof, the logician and metaphysician, the teachers of ethics and of aesthetics should have their quiet, secluded studies as well as lecture rooms, the psy- chologist should have his laboratory, the scholar in Christ- ian ethics and sociology the facilities that suited his needs ; and each and all should feel that, however diversified their separate pursuits, they were nevertheless all servants of Philosophy. Professor George Herbert Palmer suggested
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that this house commemorate some tradition peculiar to Harvard and New England. Who other than the Sage of Concord, whose hundredth birthday was near, could aptly characterize the New England tradition and give an appro- priate name to the home of philosophy at Harvard ! So he proposed to name the desired building Ralph Waldo Emer- son Hall.
The need of such a hall was expressed in a letter from Miinsterberg as Chairman of the Philosophical Depart- ment to the Visiting Committee. This was in part:
To the Visiting Committee of the Philosophical
Division in Harvard University GENTLEMEN :
The philosophical work in Harvard has in the last twenty years gone through an inner development which has met with a hearty response alike on the part of the University and of the students. The students have attended the courses in constantly growing numbers, the Governing Boards have provided the Division amply with new teachers, steadily increasing the number of professors, instructors, and assistants. The outer growth of the Division has corresponded thus most fortunately to the internal development, by an harmonious cooperation of the administration, the teachers, and the students of the University. And yet there remains one other factor as an essential condition for the healthy life of the department, a factor which cannot be provided by the University itself and for which the help must come from without. Our work needs a dignified home where under one roof all the varied philosophical work now carried on at Harvard may be united. The need has been urgently felt for many years, but only with the recent growth has the situation become intolerable. It is therefore the unanimous opinion of the department that we must ask the public for the funds to build at Harvard a "School of Philosophy," in the interest of the students and of the teachers, in the interest of the department and of the University, in the interest of culture and of scholarship.
The present work of the Philosophical Division can be indicated by a few figures. ... It is easy of course at once to say that the truth of a metaphysical thought does not depend upon the room
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in which it is taught, and that the philosopher is not like a physicist or chemist dependent upon outer equipments. But this is but half true and the half of the statement which is false is of great importance.
The dependence upon outer conditions is perhaps clearest in the case of psychology which has been for the last twenty-five years an objective science with all the paraphernalia of an ex- perimental study: the psychologist of to-day no less than the physicist needs a well equipped laboratory. Harvard has given the fullest acknowledgment to this modern demand and has spent large sums to provide the university with the instruments of an excellent psychological laboratory; the one thing which we miss is room, simply elbowroom. . . .
Thus what we need is clear. We need a worthy monumental building at a quiet central spot of the Harvard yard, ...
Such a home would give us firstly of course the room and the external opportunities for work on every plane, it would give us also the dignity and the repose, the unity and the comradeship of a philosophical academy. It would give us the inspiration result- ing from the mutual assistance of the different parts of philos- ophy, which in spite of their apparent separation are still to-day parts of one philosophy only. All this would benefit the students of philosophy themselves, but not less good would come to the University as a whole. The specialization of our age has brought it about that in the organization of a university even philosophy, or rather, each of the philosophical branches, has become an iso- lated study coordinated with others. The average student looks to psychology as to physics or botany; he thinks of ethics as he thinks of economics or history; he hears about logic as coordi- nated with mathematics and so on. The University has some- what lost sight of the unity of all philosophical subjects and has above all forgotten that this united philosophy is more than one science among other sciences, that it is indeed the central science which alone has the power to give inner unity to the whole uni- versity work. Every year our universities reward our most ad- vanced young scholars of philology and history, of literature and economics, of physics and chemistry, of mathematics and biology with the degree of PH.D., that is of Doctor Philosophic, sym- bolically thus expressing that all the special sciences are ulti- mately only branches of philosophy, but the truth of this symbol has faded away from the consciousness of the academic com- munity. All knowledge appears there as a disconnected mass of
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scattered information and the fact that they all have once been parts of philosophy, till one after the other has been dismissed from the mother arms, has been forgotten. A school of phil- osophy as a visible unity in the midst of the yard will renew this truth and thus give once more to the overwhelming multitude of intellectual efforts of our university a real unity and inner con- nection; the external connection of administration will be ree'n- forced by the inner unity of logical interdependence.
The beautiful building which we see in our minds should not be devoted to a single system of philosophy. In its hall we hope to see as greeting for every student the busts of Plato the Idealist and Aristotle the Realist, of Descartes and Spinoza, of Bacon and Hobbes, of Locke and Hume and Berkeley, of Kant and Fichte and Hegel, of Comte and Spencer, of Helmholtz and Dar- win. The School of Philosophy will be wide open to all serious thought as indeed the members of the department to-day repre- sent the most various opinions and convictions. This ought never to be changed; it is the life-condition of true philosophy. Yet there is one keynote in all our work: a serious, critical, lofty idealism which forms the background of the whole department and colors our teaching from the elementary introductions to the researches of our candidates for the doctor's degree. All the public utterances which have come from the department in recent years are filled with this idealism, in spite of the greatest possible variety of special subjects and special modes of treatment. Here belong The Witt to Believe and the Talks to Teachers by William James, the Noble Lectures and the Glory of the Imperfect by George Palmer, Poetry and Religion by George Santayana, The Principles of Psychology and Psychology and Life by Hugo Munsterberg, Jesus Christ and the Social Question by Francis Peabody, Educational Aims and Educational Values by Paul Hanus, Shaftesbury by Benjamin Rand, the Conception of God and The World and the Individual by Josiah Royce.
We have sought whose name might give symbolic expression to this underlying sentiment of idealism and might thus properly be connected with the whole building. It cannot be a technical philosopher. Such a name would indicate a prejudice for a special system of philosophy while we want above all freedom of thought. It ought to be an American, to remind the young genera- tion that they do not live up to the hopes of the School of Phil- osophy if they simply learn thoughts imported from other parts of
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the world but that they themselves as young Americans ought to help the growth of philosophical thought. It ought to be a Har- vard man — a man whose memory deserves that his name be daily on the lips of our students, and whose character and whose writing will remain a fountain of inspiration. Only one man fulfills all these demands perfectly: Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is our wish and hope that the new, dignified, beautiful home of philos- ophy may soon rise as the moral and intellectual center of Har- vard University and that over its doors we shall see the name : Emerson Hall — School of Philosophy.
Respectfully yours,
HUGO MUNSTERBERG,
Chairman of the Philosophical Division
Harvard University March 20, 1901.
The reception of this idea may be illustrated by the response of two colleagues. Professor Norton wrote:
SHADY HILL, 20 April, 1901 MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
I am greatly obliged to you for sending me a copy of the letter of the Philosophical Department to the Visiting Com- mittee. The importance of the Department in the University, its present strength and success, and the pressing need of proper accomodation for it, are set forth in the letter with convincing force and ability.
I trust that the desire of the Department will speedily be ful- filled, and that an Emerson Hall may soon be added to the great Halls of instruction of the University, and be dedicated as you so excellently suggest on the one hundredth anniversary of Emerson's birthday.
Quam venerationem illis praeceptoribus generis humani debe- mus, a quibus tanti boni initia fluxerent.
These words of Seneca's which I happened to be reading to-day came to my mind as I read your paper.
Very sincerely yours,
C. E. NORTON
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Harvard University
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Nov. 15, 1901 MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
I regret to say that I have a long standing arrange- ment to go away this evening at seven o'clock to spend Sunday, and must miss the meeting of our Department. I need not assure you of my eager sympathy with your hopes. It is a daily in- convenience and regret to me that I am obliged to lecture under conditions unsuggestive of my subject and its ideals; and quite beyond any personal concern I appreciate the significance for the study of Philosophy which such a building as you propose would give. Pray count on me for any possible cooperation in the undertaking.
Cordially yours, FRANCIS G. PEABODY
The plan found favor with Harvard's President and Cor- poration, and as early as December, 1901, President Eliot wrote to Miinsterberg that he might ask an architect if he would like to make sketches for Emerson Hall, "on the chance of the Department 's finding money to build it. ' '
Miinsterberg spared no effort to insure this necessary condition of the enterprise. In the fall of 1901 he made a speech in Boston in behalf of Emerson Hall and this speech fell on good ground. At the Harvard Commencement he addressed the Alumni with a plea for his darling project. Professor Palmer, in the summer of 1902, made a speech in the interest of Emerson Hall at the dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa, and this, too, promised to bear good fruit. In 1902 a committee with George R. Dorr as Chairman and Richard H. Dana, Dr. Richard Cabot, Joseph Lee, D. Ward and Reginald C. Robbins undertook active work in stimulating and gathering subscriptions. With Mr. Dorr, Miinster- berg was in constant communication ; he himself composed a circular setting forth the needs of and plans for Emer- son Hall, which was sent to the Harvard Alumni.
Of the response to these circulars, of the committee 's de-
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voted work, of the gradual creation of Emerson Hall, ac- count shall be given in the following chapter.
Although psychology was housed in too narrow quarters, it was nevertheless expanding rapidly. Miinsterberg, as Director, was assisted by two especially gifted and devoted young scholars, Dr. Holt and Dr. Yerkes. Both were more than assistants : they were young friends, not only in the laboratory, but in the psychologist's house. Dr. Yerkes became an expert in animal psychology and later super- vised the laboratory for animal psychology in Emerson Hall.
That the Harvard Psychological laboratory was con- sidered one of the first in the land was proved by the frequency with which Miinsterberg 's advice was solicited both here and abroad. Professor Cattell, the psychologist of Columbia, asked Miinsterberg 's cooperation when he started the Journal of Psychology in 1898.
From England, William McDougall, who became one of the greatest psychologists at Oxford and is at the time of the present writing Miinsterberg 's successor at Har- vard, wrote to ask his "advice as to the course of study that I should follow in order to prepare myself to be a worker and teacher in experimental psychology. You are, of course, aware that in this country experimental psychol- ogy is in a very backward state, that we have but very few workers and very inferior laboratories. I am anxious to do something to remove this reproach from us and mean to devote myself to the advancement of this branch of science. . . ." With the French psychologist Janet, Miin- sterberg had pleasant relations, as will be shown in con- nection with the Congress at Paris. But, above all, Miin- sterberg enjoyed the friendship of his colleagues at home. In the work of the young psychologist, Arthur Pierce, and of the philosopher, H. Norman Gardiner, both at Smith College, he took a warm interest, and especially in the ca-
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reer of the distinguished psychologist, Mary Whiton Calkins.
Miss Calkins, it will be remembered, was anxious to study vith Miinsterberg in the Harvard laboratory. Since women at that time were not admitted to any department of Har- vard, according to the decision of the President and Fel- lows, she had been invited to work in the laboratory as a guest of the University, where she proved herself a guest of distinction. When Miss Calkins had brilliantly passed the examinations and met the requirements, the Harvard department recommended her for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and Miinsterberg, as her champion, tried to secure for her this degree which was denied to her because she was a woman. His efforts failed, however, for the Cor- poration decided in the negative. There remained only the possibility that Radcliffe College, as the women's college equivalent to Harvard, with only Harvard instructors on its faculty, should confer the degree of philosophy on her who had won it within the Harvard walls. Not until May, 1902, when three other women had also passed their Doc- tor's examinations, was it decided that the Radcliffe PH.D. was actually the form of the Harvard degree for women, and Miinsterberg did his best to persuade Miss Calkins, who was at that time traveling abroad, to accept her well earned honor in this form. He wrote: "We are all very anxious that you do so, as just by the cooperation of you four prominent women with you as acknowledged leader, the new degree would command at once highest respect in
the whole academic world, certainly superior to the
degree or similar degrees. It will be the Harvard degree. ... Of course it is too late for correspondence. You must cable a word to Radcliffe ; be sure and cable : 1 1 Yes ! ' ' Miss Calkins, however, remained firm and answered ' ' No " ; she would have the Harvard degree or none at all !
With Miinsterberg 's Harvard colleagues James, Royce,
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and Palmer, the old cordial spirit prevailed. Here is a letter from James, exiled on account of his poor health, from the academic life at home.
OTJCHY, June 18, 1900. DEAR MUNSTERBERG:
... I continue to be greatly flattered at the notion of your dedicating your new volume to me. My "reputation" needs all the contributions it can get from benevolent well-wishers, in the present state of decay of my organism. I feel a certain compunction, however, on the score of imperfect sympathy with some of your theoretic conclusions. The rule in dedications is that they should express either intellectual indebtedness or in- dicate Geistesverwandtschaft; yet, as it turns out, there is hardly a distinction made in your psychology and life, of which I wouldn't make a different systematic use from the what you do. If, as I suppose, this book is a more technical statement of the theses of that one, it may find in me one of its worst enemies! And how will that comport with the dedication? Can I then criticize it openly, if the devil tempts me so to do? And if I do, won't you feel as if you had thrown a good dedication away? — pearls before swine, etc.? I state this frankly, because now is the time to make sure there shall be no misunderstandings. For my own part, dear M., I am as much pleased by your desire to dedicate the book to me, as I should be by the dedication — for the most precious thing about it is the manifestation of per- sonal regard. Whether the more intellectual aspect of the mat- ter ought not, however, to prevail, is a thing which I think you ought now at the last moment to reconsider, and possibly to con- clude not to carry out a plan made many years ago in a less evolved state of the cosmos, merely in order that you may remuin unerschutterlich consequent. You see my main object is to set you entirely free from the past, and to have you act in the light of purely present conditions. If then, as a new-born resolve, you still think me to be the worthiest being now living on the surface of the globe for the honor of such a dedication, in spite of the unaccountable hardening of my heart toward many of your beliefs, Heaven knows I shall be gratified enough. But I shall not be in any way made miserable, or accuse you of being a promise-breaker, if on opening the volume, I see no dedication, or else some entirely unknown name ! Don't write anything about
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this now, but let me wait to see what I shall see! — when the volume comes out. It will be a riddle and communicate a zest to life. In any case I hope that you will succeed in getting the proofs corrected this summer, though it will doubtless be hard work. Shall you go to the Paris Congress?
I much enjoyed reading the Atlantic article. I think it is the cleverest thing you have written so far, and the English absolutely idiomatic. It will doubtless have a great effect. It is possible to interpret it as a document in favor of the elective system: If a curriculum which so many persons condemn, can produce such good results merely because it is well taught, why attribute such importance to the curriculum? Anything will suffice, if only the teaching be in good hands — I must say that is largely my own opinion.
With best regards from both of us, and wishes for a happy German summer to you all, especially to the girls, I am as ever
Affectionately yours,
WM. JAMES
Address: Brown, Shipley & Co., London, S. W. — we are un- certain for the next fortnight.
A letter from Professor Palmer, as a response to a sur- prise on his birthday, is characteristic.
11 Quincy St. March 20
DEAR DR. MUNSTERBERG:
... I was so overwhelmed last night with what you brought me that I am sure I did not adequately express my sense of gratitude for the thought and labor that brought it all about. It must have been an enormous task to communicate so suddenly with all my graduate students, to arrange for obtaining their photographs, and to present the results in such exquisite form. Nothing could please me more. And I am especially thankful that no gift from you, my colleagues, was attempted. And yet it makes me sore to think that this work should have fallen on you, just when you should have been resting yourself after the toils undertaken in another public interest. If I did not know
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how natural kindness is to you and how much refreshment you always seem to derive from it I should condemn Mrs. Palmer's exposure of my advancing years as a cruel mistake. But I have no heart for condemnation after so much enjoyment. I can only feel a tightening of ties that always have been dear and a desire to be more like the person my friends generously imagined me to be. "You flatter me. But please continue" said the French lady. So I will say.
Sincerely and gratefully yours,
G. H. PALMER
It was less than a year later that news came from Pro- fessor Palmer at Paris, which cast a shadow not only on the social life at Cambridge, but on a wide circle outside— news of the death of Alice Freeman Palmer. As enthusi- astic educator and pioneer in the field of women 's collegiate education, as the wise and youthful President of Wellesley College, and finally as the devoted companion of the Har- vard philosopher, she had been greatly beloved and was now mourned profoundly. To Miinsterberg and his wife who were warm friends and admirers of Mrs. Palmer her passing meant a keen loss.
Intimately bound up as Miinsterberg was with the life of Harvard, he was nevertheless not a ' ' Harvard man ' * in the technical sense, as he had spent his student days else- where. To remedy this circumstance, the Corporation resolved to bestow upon him an honorary degree of Master of Arts, to make him a "son of the house." So at Com- mencement in June, 1901, he received this courtesy which set upon him the stamp of a "Harvard man/'
Although the interests of scholarship and the affairs of Harvard in particular absorbed the greater part of Miins- terberg's day, his sympathies extended beyond the aca- demic pale. One friendship he valued especially at this time and drew from it great inspiration — friendship with
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the distinguished and public-spirited lawyer Frederic Wil- liam Holls. In all the country hardly another .man could have been found who had had direct contact with so many influential men in America and Europe — including the Pope and numerous monarchs — as Mr. Holls, who could not only give entertaining accounts of such meetings, but draw profit from them for the common good. Balfour wrote to him in 1899: "I trust that the new German Agreement will greatly strengthen the bonds of amity between the two countries — an object which I regard as only second in importance to that of drawing closer the English-speaking races on the two sides of the Atlantic/' A strong hope for a cordial alliance of the three Teutonic nations — Eng- land, Germany, and the United States — Holls shared with Miinsterberg who was destined to utter this hope in the last year of his life under the darkest possible cloud, long after his friend had been laid to rest, spared the anguish suffered by all friends of international amity.
Miinsterberg enjoyed men who were both statesmen and scholars, at once men of letters and men of the world. Such a man was Theodore Roosevelt, whose friendship Miinster- berg treasured to the end of his life. The beginning of this bond was made in 1901, when Roosevelt wrote to him after having read the Harvard philosopher's article in the Atlantic Monthly on "Productive Scholarship."
THE VICE PRESIDENT'S CHAMBER WASHINGTON, D. C.
OYSTER BAY, N. Y., May 1th, 1901 PROF. HUGO MUNSTERBERG, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
MY DEAR MR. MUNSTERBERG I
It seems to me that your Atlantic Monthly article teaches the most needed lesson that we here have to learn in matters af- fecting the student. Now that you have pointed out the facts, they
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seem so obvious that I feel as though I must have realized the con- ditions before; but I did not. I have always felt uncomfortable over our very small output of really serious scholarly work, but I have never in the least understood where the trouble lay — or to speak more accurately, I felt it, but I have not been able to formulate it even to myself. For example, I had never appreci- ated the absolute need of an utter divorce between the kind of work which we would have the right to expect from teachers of history to ordinary classes in an ordinary college, and the work which we ought to expect from a serious historian — a man who would be in history what Lounsbury is in old English poetry, who ought to receive an appointment in a university mainly be- cause of the likelihood of his doing the kind of work tfMch would add to the sum of national achievement.
Perhaps you will pardon me a personal reference. There is nothing I should like more than to become connected with a uni- versity as a "decent," a professor of history who would deal only with graduate students who had a serious purpose, and who would be expected in addition himself to do, or at any rate to try to do, serious scholarly work of a type which should go on the shelves at least with Charles Henry Lee and John Fiske, if not with Parkman and Motley. Rut I should not want to go into mere history teaching with an ordinary college class, for I would feel that such work stood in the way of, instead of aiding me in doing my part in what this country so greatly need's, what you have called Productive Scholarship.
One of our troubles is that our small men who appreciate our inferiority on these points compared with Germany often make the mistake of copying the Ge'rman non-essentials, to their own hurt, because they believe them to be the essentials. For instance, when I was at Harvard, the scientific professors believed they were living up to the German standard by refusing to recog- nize the possibility of doing biological work save by studying his- tology, or at the utmost the lowest and most minute forms of marine life through a microscope. This was not alone in Harvard. The tendency was universal in our colleges. I cannot see that any great good was done by this course to the cause of scientific thought in this country; that any original thinkers and workers were produced; while on the other hand one incidental result was absolutely to crush out the old school of faunal naturalists — of men like Audubon. So much has this been the case that Hart Merriam, the mammalogist at Washington, tells me that it has
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been hopeless to try to get from the colleges assistants for field work — the average unfortunate student who has taken up scien- tific work in the colleges having been carefully trained not to do the field work which in the past has aided in producing men like Humboldt; while on the other hand once he had graduated, he found no possible opening, such as he would have had in Germany, to do university work of a great and serious type.
In a republic like ours, as in every other form of government, we of course tend to have the defects of our qualities, and one of the least attractive of these defects is our tendency to produce an immense amount of good second-rate work instead of the first- rate work which alone has permanent value. Whatever remedy we seek to apply, we shall meet with plenty of difficulties, and I do not suppose that any one remedy would be all sufficient. But I do most firmly believe that yours is the best diagnosis that has yet appeared of the conditions that tell against productive schol- arship here, and that you have pointed out the remedy that would be most efficient.
Do you ever get to New York? If so, won't you let me know so that I may have you spend the night here ? There is so much that I should like to talk over with you.
Sincerely yours, THEODORE ROOSEVELT
It is significant that it was not a political or diplomatic problem that brought the statesman and the scholar to- gether, but a common belief in the worth of the highest pos- sible intellectual achievement. Again, it was under the roof of an academic hall that Miinsterberg first met Roose- velt, who was then Vice-President of the United States. This was on the occasion of Harvard Commencement in June, 1901, when Harvard made herself Miinsterberg 's Alma Mater and had bestowed the honorary LL.D. degrees upon the great Danish physicist, Van't Hoff, and the Ger- man Ambassador, Theodor von Holleben.
A prominent interest of the day was the progress of plans for the Germanic Museum at Harvard — plans that had al- ready been introduced by Professor Francke at the time of
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Baron von Holleben's first visit to Harvard two years be- fore. The University was now ready to turn the old Gym- nasium— used at the time by the Engineering Department — into a temporary museum in which the first art objects were to be kept. A Germanic Museum Association had been formed, with Carl Schurz as President, and as one of its Vice-Presidents Gustav von Bezold, Director of the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg, which was a model for the Harvard Museum. The national scope of the Asso- ciation is shown by the names of the other Vice-Presidents, among whom were Vice-President Roosevelt, Ambassador Andrew D. White at Berlin, the poet Charles Godfrey Leland who resided in Italy, and professors from Colum- bia, Leland Stanford, the University orf Pennsylvania, of Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins, and others. Miinsterberg, to- gether with his colleagues Prancke, von Jagemann, and George A. Bartlett were the Harvard members of the board of directors of which Henry W. Putnam was Chairman. Miinsterberg liked especially to emphasize that the Mus- eum was not a local interest, but one of international significance. It was eight months after Holleben's visit, on March 6, 1902, that the- gift of valuable reproductions of German art treasures, from the German emperor to the Harvard Museum was presented to Harvard officially — this time not by his ambassador, but by his brother, Prince Henry.
Here it is time, to pause and reflect. The events about to be chronicled, so charged with genuine enthusiasm and earnest aspirations at the time of their happening, are not only obscured but distorted when looked at in the light of the time of the present writing. Enthusiasm turns to irony, ideals into empty bubbles. It is the task of the humblest historian, however, to present the past untarn- ished by events that followed. Moreover, it is the duty of those who believe in the worth of human endeavor, to trust
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that noble efforts, which through the course of later events have been apparently in vain, may yet have scattered seed that in some remote day will bear unexpected and benef- icent fruit. "Till Burnham forest come to Dunsinane" were the words of unbelief destined to be thwarted, and the leaves on Tannhauser's barren rod sprouted through the power of faith.
The festive visit of Prince Henry, the brother of Em- peror William, to the United States was an event to which many looked forward with high hopes for the good feeling that would result from it. It was natural that Miinster- berg felt himself to no small degree responsible for the reception of the royal visitor at Boston and particularly at Harvard.
It was towards the end of his. strenuous journey that the Prince came to Boston. He had witnessed the launching of his brother's yacht Meteor, which had been built in the United States, and its christening by the President's daugh- ter, Miss Alice Roosevelt. He had not only been enter- tained at the White House with a banquet of state and in the Presidential family circle, but he had enjoyed a wild horseback ride, on a horse owned by Senator Lodge, tete-a- tete with the Rough Rider President. He had seen the country in its holiday mood, had sat at gorgeous tables and listened to innumerable toasts, had heard complimentary airs played by numberless bands. But hje had also attended the memorial services to President McKinley, had laid a wreath on the tomb of Washington at Mount Vernon, and had planted a tree in front of a monument to Lincoln.
When the ceremonies at Boston were over, the character- istic part of the day's program began. It had long been a matter of conjecture whether or not Harvard University would bestow upon the Prince an honorary degree. The rumor had been emphatically denied, for the venerable custom at Harvard prescribed that degrees be given only
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at Commencement time, which is in June. Since the Prince 's visit was in March, it seemed impossible, therefore, that he should receive this highest honor of the oldest Uni- versity in the land. Before his arrival, however, the Cor- poration finally decided that the exceptional occasion war- ranted an exception to the time-honored rule, and for the second time in 70 years a Harvard degree was given out of season. The first had been bestowed on President An- drew Jackson; fifteen years later the same exception was made for General Joffre of France. After the ceremony in Memorial Hall, the Prince met the officers of the University at a luncheon in University Hall and then was received at the Harvard Union by the student body with an out- burst of cheering. Major Henry L. Higginson welcomed him in behalf of the Alumni.
On the invitation of the Germanic Museum Association, two hundred guests were assembled at Miinsterberg 's house. In the philosopher's library the Prince heard the greeting spoken by Henry W. Putnam, who took the place of Carl Schurz, the President of the Association, who was kept away by illness. Then the Prince, with cordial words of dedication, handed over to President Eliot photographs of monuments that were going to be reproduced in casts for the Harvard Germanic Museum and that were to be ready to send in four months.
And President Eliot answered:
We wish to acknowledge our sincere thanks for this splendid gift from your brother and sovereign. We feel that he is act- ing in this respect in full accord with the American methods of promoting education. He has given it as an endowment, and this University is constructed by means of the endowments of friends.
I need not say that such an action as this practical endowment will be of the highest value, not only in teaching the history and development of the German people, but will also serve as an illustration of that nation's intelligence, power, and progress.
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And as Mr. Putnam has already said, we trace our lineage back to yours, and we know that this collection which His Majesty the Emperor has given us will represent to the people of Cambridge the ancient arts of Germany, whose civilization was developed even before the white man had obtained a footing upon these shores.
Will yon have the kindness to carry to your brother the most hearty thanks of Harvard University for those valuable contri- butions to its collections.
Thereupon the Prince added spontaneously: "I hope it will promote good feeling between the two nations."
Rich and manifold as these years were for Miinsterberg, with their academic, public, and social interests, his private life was also full of varied joys and cares. It was a great delight for him in the summer of 1900, to take his family abroad to visit his relatives, for the first time as a traveler only, whose hearth was on the other side of the Atlantic. It was his intention henceforth to visit his native land, if possible, every other summer.
Miinsterberg 's first vacation abroad, however, could not pass without psychology. It was the year of the great Paris Exposition, at a time when educated people were not yet jaded from world 's fairs. Scientific congresses attached themselves to the general international ado of the great Fair and one was that of the psychologists. It was the fourth international Congress of Psychology that met at Paris in August, 1900, with Professor Richet as Vice-Presi- dent and Dr. Pierre Janet as Secretary. From the latter Miinsterberg received a letter in May :
Congres International de Psychologic
8/5X00 a PARIS, Aout 1900
MONSIEUR & HONORE COLLEGUE
je vous envoie ci joint votre carte de membre du Congres de Psychologie. Vous savez que nous serions tres honores et tres heureux si vous vouliez bien faire au congres une communi-
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cation qui serait placee a votre choix .dans un seance generate ou dans une seance de section. Vous seriez bien aimable de m'en envoyer le plutot possible le titre et un court resume. En at- tendant nous vous prions die vouloir bien collaborer avec nous en faisant une propagande active pour notre congres. Si vous con- naissiez quelques uns de vos eleves ou euelques autres personnes qui puissent s'y interesser et qui n'-aient pas encore e*te prevenues, veuillez m'envoyer leurs noms et adresses afin que je puisse leur faire expedier nos circulaires de convocation.
Je serai tres heureux, mon cher collegue, de cette occasion de faire votre connaissance et je vous prie de croire a Passurance de mes sentiments tres distingues.
P. JANET
Miinsterberg, who believed in the value of direct social intercourse among specialists, gladly responded to this call. It was at this Congress that he presided over meetings in English, gave his chief lecture in German, and took part in the discussions in French. Outside of the hours belonging to the Congress proper, he enjoyed the brilliant hospitality of Prince Bonaparte, of Professor Richet and Dr. Janet, with whom pleasant relations were continued. After the Congress, Dr. Janet wrote to his colleague :
29 Sept. '00
Tous mes remerciements, cher monsieur Miinsterberg, pour votre aimable lettre et votre bon souvenir. Nous esperons bien que votre indisposition n'a pas ete serieuse. Nous serions tres heureux ma femme et moi d'aller vous voir en Amerique et nous vous remercions ainsi que Madame Miinsterberg de votre aimable invitation. Mais vous savez eomme les franc,ais sont casaniers, nous croirions a une grande aventure si nous nous decidions a traverser Pocean. Mais, qui sait? Nous faisons peu a peu quelques progres. , . .
Avec nos meilleurs sentiments
P. JANET
This prediction was destined to come true five years later when the French psychologist and his wife ventured, aftej*
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all, to cross the seas in order to attend the St. Louis Con- gress, and, on their way through Boston, visited Miinster- berg's house.
Full of stimulus and happiness as the three years here chronicled proved to be for Miinsterberg, they were not without the shadows caused by illness in his family. He himself fell prey once more to the malignant disease diph- theria. He had gone on a lecture tour to Detroit, thence to Vassar College, where he was treated by the college physi- cian; and on his return journey to New York was overtaken with the malady. There, separated from his family, he passed disagreeable, trying days, but, under the care of his friend, Dr. Emanuel Baruch, was restored in a remark- ably short time, and returned to his summer cottage in Clifton. By the end of June he was well enough to attend the Harvard Commencement.
Back at his seashore cottage, Miinsterberg plunged im- mediately into concentrated work on his comprehensive German book, The Americans. He underrated the tax on his strength made by his recent illness, and suffered a nervous breakdown. For some months following, his health was not what he desired, and his ever urgent zest for work had to be curbed. His tremendous creative energy, as well as the ready sympathy of his colleagues, are reflected in some of their remarks.
Professor Palmer wrote on December 1, 1902:
... It grieves but does not surprise me to hear that your health is in a low case. You served the University and the country so largely last year that I feared you would suffer. You must learn how to shirk, as the rest of us do. I wonder if you ever sit with folded hands? I waste time admirably over news- papers. It is good to hear that James is well. I hope Royce is in good order too. . . .
Royce himself also wrote to express his regrets at his
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colleague's poor health and offered to relieve him of a course in philosophy, adding characteristically that this offer of help was, after all, a selfish suggestion, since he should enjoy the course. William James, hearing of his colleague 's illness, wrote :
CHOCOBUA, N. H., July 11 (1902) DEAR MUNSTERBERG,
I am grieved beyond measure at what you write me. Diph- theria ! ! ! Hell ! I understand your need of quiet. Yet it might be that the absolute quiet of this country, all woods and fragrance, might later be just the thing you need as a change from your literary labors. So we will keep it open as a trump card, and see in August or September how things go. I am get- ting better here apace. — I came back in poor nervous condition.
I lecture in Cambr. on Monday and Tuesday. If I go on at this rate, they'll make me a bishop. As for my book, don't read it till you're on your deathbed when it will save your soul. I fancy you're destined to abhor it if you look at it now. I am glad to hear that Mrs. Miinsterberg likes it already.
Pray don't use up all your vacation gains of strength by pur- suing that literary composition !
Yours always,
WM. JAMES
The book referred to was the Varieties of Religious Ex- perience.1
i For literature written during the period covered by this chap- ter see Appendix, pages 316-331.
CHAPTER VIII
THE WORLD'S SCHOLARS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR (October, 1902-^Octobe^ 1905)
THE years between October, 1902, and October, 1905, which are to be chronicled in this chapter, were rich in events, fruitful and, it may well be said, characteristic years — years characteristic of Miinsterberg's varied yet harmonious, fields of activity.
First; the interest nearest home, that is, the plan for a fit habitation for his daily work and that of his colleagues and students was growing encouragingly. By the time of the celebration of Emerson 's hundredth birthday, on May 25, 3903, enough donations had been collected to make possible the building of Emerson Hall. The gifts ranged from Alfred J. White's $50,000 and Andrew Carne- gie's $12,000 to one and two dollars from " Lover of Emerson" and other enthusiasts. It was natural, of course, that Bostonians should be prominent on the list of contributors toward the memorial to the Sage of Con- cord. Special provision was made by Mr. White for the equipment of the Department of Social Ethics under Professor Francis Peabody. Two years later, when Emer- son Hall was already built, the important gift of the Bobbins Library was made by Reginald G. Robbins, that is, of a fund by which Emerson Hall was provided with a philosophical library, containing chiefly books on meta- physics.
On Monday, May 25, 1903, the hundredth anniversary of the Concord philosopher's birthday, the corner-stone
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was laid for Emerson Hall. An Emerson Memorial, spread over the week before the anniversary, was held at the university in the form of lectures, readings, and a ser- mon. On Monday, May 18, Miinsterberg spoke to a large audience on " Emerson as a Philosopher," on the follow- ing Wednesday Mr. C. J. Copeland, so beloved by the stu- dents for his eccentricities, his humor, his excellent reading and his extraordinary gift for inspiring others, read from Emerson's poetry and prose. On Friday Professor San- tayana, himself a poet-philosopher, spoke on "Emerson as a Poet. ' ' On Sunday, Professor Francis Peabody preached in Appleton Chapel on "Emerson as a Religious Teacher" and on Monday, the day of the anniversay, Dickinson Mil- ler lectured on "Emerson as an American."
On that day Munsterberg spoke in Concord, Massa- chusetts, the hallowed ground of the noblest New England tradition. The occasion was a banquet given by the his- toric Social Circle of Concord, about which Ralph Waldo Emerson had written to a friend in December 17, 1844:
"Much the best society I have ever known is a club in Concord called the Social Circle, consisting always of twenty-five of our citizens, doctor, lawyer, farmer, trader, miller, mechanic, etc., solidest of men, who yield thie solidest of gossip. Harvard Uni- versity is a wafer compared to the ^)lid land which my friends represent."
Munsterberg was susceptible to the charm of Concord, that gentle stronghold of idealism and veneration for the thought treasures of the past. The Colonial houses with their simple dignity, the drowsy gardens, the beautiful graveyard "Sleepy Hollow" with many honored graves, the historic houses, "The Old Manse," the "Grape Vine Cottage" wherie the Alcotts used to live, the "Wayside" with the garret where Hawthorne wrote looking down on
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a restful grove of pines — all this had an aroma quite of its own.
With the son of the Concord philosopher, Dr. Edward Emerson, M'imsterberg had a very pleasant acquaintance, as will be shown in the following chapter, and it was natural, of course, that Dr. Emerson should take the keen- est interest in the growth of Emerson Hall.
That the larger educated public of New England might understand the deeper inner relation between the new Harvard home for philosophy and the teachings of the Concord sage, the address that Miinsterberg delivered at the Harvard celebration appeared a few days later in the Bostcfn Transcript, and was called "Emerson the Phi- losopher— a Plea for a. Revival of Idealism. ' '
While plans were growing for the new habitation of philosophy, daily work was going on in the old, narrow quarters. Psychological problems, moreover, were often carried beyond the frontiers of the University. Indeed, the years from the winter of 1902 to the winter of 1905 may well be called years of scientific congresses for Miin- sterberg. Not only did the great international Congress, which shall be given chief attention in this chapter, ab- sorb a large part of his time, energy, and enthusiasm, but he found it worth while also to attend the meetings of the Psychological Association for several consecutive years. In December, 1902, the psychologists met at Washington; in 1903, just before the opening of the World's Fair, at St. Louis; and in 1904, at Philadelphia. There Miinsterberg delivered two lectures very different from each other, one of interest to specialists, on the acoustic theory, the other with a broad, philosophic significance on the " System of Values" — his own system of philosophy, which he was con- stantly perfecting.
With the psychologists of Yale, Columbia, Princeton,
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Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Clark, and the University of Pennsylvania, Miinsterberg was in frequent communica- tion. With Professor Cattell of Columbia, for whom he always had a high regard, his relations were most cordial. There were various joint enterprises at that time which, though they have lost their immediate importance when looked back upon years later, were nevertheless valuable factors in the promotion of specialized intercourse among scientific minds — intercourse that by its stimulus must ultimately be fruitful of new ideas. Thus, in the spring and summer of 1904 there was lively correspondence be- tween Miinsterberg and colleagues from Yale and Colum- bia in regard to the best way of publishing the reports, hitherto too scattered, of the research work done in the different American psychological laboratories, as a series of monographs under one editorship, possibly under the supervision of the American Psychological Association. Half a year earlier, in the winter of 1903-04, the Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Method was called intd being, of which Professor Cattell, who was widely experienced in the managment of scientific priodicals, was editor. In December, 1903, Professor Cattell wrote to Miinsterberg:
I am much indebted to you for your letter and for the en- couragement that you gave. ... It will be a great privilege to begin the new journal with an article by you. Woodbridge and I discussed your suggestion of the title "The Journal of Phi- losophy and Science" and nearly adopted it. It, however, seemed rather too inclusive, promising more than could be given. It is intended to be a trade journal for students of philosophy, psy- chology, and the principles of science, and this is indicated by the title proposed.
In the second half of the college year 1903-04 Miinster- berg did not confine even his academic teaching to his own University, but, in response to an invitation from Prof es-
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sor Cattell, gave a course of lectures on experimental psy- chology at Columbia University.
Not only the eastern universities claimed Miinsterberg 's services and interest ; those of the Middle West invited him, and he was eager to grow acquainted with their lives and problems. With President James of the University of Illinois he had very pleasant relations and enjoyed his hospitality during visits to the typical middle western col- lege town Champaign-Urbana, where Miinsterberg also knew members of the faculty. In February, 1905, he delivered lectures at the Illinois State University and car- ried home with him a more thorough understanding of the special vocation of the Western state universities with their coeducation, the prominence given to practical arts and studies, the limitations imposed by the state legisla- tures and the advantages of vigorous, ambitious student material.
It was in June, 1904, that Miinsterberg responded to an invitation from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, to give the commencement address at the graduat- ing exercises. A visit to the great prairie state attracted the Harvard philosopher and he found it a most congenial task to address the graduating class and the assembled alumni of the Western seat of learning, to join in its festivities, and to receive its hearty hospitality.
It was in the same June at St. Louis, at the animated time of the great World's Fair, that Washington Univer- sity bestowed upon Miinsterberg the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. That this distinction should be offered him by Washington University, in the midst of the Louisi- ana Purchase Exposition, had for him a most gratifying significance, because it harmonized with and, in a certain measure, crowned his devoted work for the supplementing and perfecting of the Exposition through the concourse of
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representative scholars that was to take plape a few months later. The "Washington University Alumni Day" was kept as part of the W'orld 's Fair festivities. The addresses on that afternoon were "by Hugo Munsterberg, PH.D., Professor of Psychology in Harvard University; Hon. D. R. Francis, A.B., class of '70; W. S. Chaplin, LL.D., Chancellor of the University; C. M. Woodward, PH.D., Dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture." At the commencement ceremonies in the morning, Dean Woodward spoke thus:
MR. CHANCELLOR:
I have the honor in behalf of my associates to present for the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, Professor Hugo Munster- berg of Harvard University. I do this with the greater pleasure inasmuch as he represents not only a great Nation across the sea, but a great University across our own land.
Professor Munsterberg received the degree of Doctor of Phi- losophy at Leipzic, the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Heidel- berg-. He is thus familiar with the best that Germany has to give.
For twelve years he has filled with distinguished honor the chair of Psychology at Harvard University. As a writer he has served both continents. He has given us a truer insight and a more in- timate knowledge of Germans and of Germany. In turn the Germans and Germany are indebted to him for a better knowl- edge of America and Americans. He has won an international reputation as a teacher and expounder of philosophy. American education and American scholarship are indebted to him for emi- nent service.
We welcome him to St. Louis to-day. This University will honor itself in conferring upon him its highest title, the degree of Doctor of Laws.
In order to understand the importance of Munsterberg 's relation to the St. Louis Exposition, it is necessary to trace completely the history of the great international con- gress of scholars in September, 1904.
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Previous world's fairs — at Paris in 1878 and 1889, at Philadelphia in 1876, at Vienna in 1873, at Chicago in 1893 — had been supplemented by scientific congresses, and the Paris Exposition of 1900 had 125 congresses connected with it. This accumulation of specialists' gatherings had not, however, been well attended. In the words of Howard J. Rogers, the Director of Congresses at St. Louis:
If this condition could prevail in Paris, the home of arts and letters, in the immediate center of the great constituency of the University and of many scientific circles and learned societies, and within easy traveling distance of other European university and literary centers, it was fair to presume that the usefulness of this class of congress was decreasing. It certainly was safe to assume, on the part of the authorities of the St. Louis Exposi- tion of 1904, that such a series could not be a success in that city, owing to its geographical position and the limited number of uni- versity and scientific circles within a reasonable traveling distance. Something more than a repetition of the stereotyped form of con- ference was admitted to be necessary in order to arouse interest among scholars and to bring credit to the Exposition.
The need of departure from tradition was felt, while there was a decided unwillingness to give up the inter- course of active thoughts as the living accompaniments to the material exhibitions. The problem of just what new form of communion could be devised occupied the minds of the president of the St. Louis Exposition, Mr. Francis, the director of exhibits, Mr. Skiff, the chief of the Depart- ment of Education, and of Mr. Rogers. These officials further sought the advice of President Butler of Columbia, President Harper of Chicago University and Frederick William Holls. It was in September, 1902, two years be- fore the embodiment of the project now discussed, that a conference took place at the house of Mr. Holls in Yonkers, to which he had invited Miinsterberg that he might help with possible suggestions. Mr. Skiff had emphasized the
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desirability of offering something more than a scattered row of isolated congresses; Mr. Holls proposed a series of lectures by men prominent in science or literature to be invited and paid by the Exposition, and Mr. Holls and President Butler both decided thad; it would be best to have these lectures concentrated in one month. Thereupon Miinsterberg brought forward the idea which was the nu- cleus of the great undertaking that followed. It seemed to him that the opportunity offered by the gathering of scholars at a World's Fair might be used for some con- structive, creative work. He believed that "a series of unrelated lectures, even though given by most eminent men, would have little or no scientific value, but that if. some relation or underlying thought could be introduced into the addresses, then the best work could be done, which would be of real value to the scientific world."
On the one hand, the participants, who should be leaders in their fields and drawn from all parts of the scientific world, would be more attracted by the idea of sharing in a new contribution to scholarship than by honoraria alone; on the other hand, the service that might be ren- dered would be valuable in itself. The unification of all branches of knowledge into one synthetic system under which experts in each branch could state authoritatively its relation to all other branches and to the whole would in itself be a service to scholarship. Indeed, the time was ripe for such a unification. The scattering of sciences and the isolation of much specialized research, while the rela- tion of each to each and each to the whole of knowledge was being lost sight of, had already" made itself felt as a great defect; the philosophical tendency that was now in the ascendant once more demanded harmony of scientific en- deavor. The establishment of such harmony seemed to
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Miinsterberg a task most worthy of the best scholars in the world; he proposed it, therefore, as the aim and substance of an international congress of scholars. This idea met immediate response, and, at the request of Mr. Holls, Miin- sterberg, in a letter of October 20, 1902, laid before the Exposition authorities the logical basis of the plan for the one large, all-inclusive congress.
After this preliminary conference and the presenta- tion of a logical plan as groundwork for further develop- ments, the congress administration was formed. Howard J. Rogers was appointed Director of Congresses, and was assisted by an advisory board that later became the Ad- ministrative Board with the following members : Chairman, President Butler of Columbia; President Harper of Chi- cago University; Frederick W. Holls; President R. H. Jesse of the University of Missouri; President Henry S. Pritchett of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress; and Frederick J. V. Skiff, Director of the Field-Columbian Museum. The first official meeting of the Director with the Administrative Board took place on December 27, 1902, in New York. At this meeting recommendations were made to the Exposi- tion authorities. It was recommended that the Congress be held within a period of four weeks, beginning Septem- ber 15, 1904, that various groups of learned men who might come together be asked to discuss their several sciences or professions with reference to some theme of universal in- terest in order that thereby a certain unity of interest and of action may be had, in such a way that these groups would form sections of one single congress; that "The Progress of Man since the Louisiana Purchase, " that is, throughout the century just completed, be considered as a fit theme for the discussions of the Congress; that the participants of the Congress be leading men in the fields
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of natural science, of historical, sociological, and economic studies, of philosophy and religion, of medicine and sur- gery, of law, politics, and government and of applied sci- ence; that a committee of seven be appointed for the pur- pose of working out the details of the plan for the Con- gress. These recommendations were approved by the Com- mittee on Congresses as well as by the Executive Committee and the President of the Exposition. Then came the formation of the Committee on Plan and Scope from which the officers of the Congress were chosen. The Com- mittee, which as such was short-lived because its purpose was solely the drawing up of a suitable plan, consisted of the following members: Dr. Simon Newcomb, retired Professor of Mathematics, United States Navy, Chairman ; Professor Hugo Miinsterberg, Professor of Psychology, Hairvard University; Professor John Bassett Moore, ex- Assistant secretary of State and Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Columbia University; Professor Al- bion W. Small, Professor of Sociology, University of Chi- cago; Dr. William H. Welch, Professor of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University; Honorable Elihu Thompson, Consulting Engineer, General Electric Company ; and Pro- fessor George F. Moore, Professor of the History of Reli- gion, Harvard University. The first meeting of the Com- mittee took place at the Hotel Manhattan, New York. As a basis for preliminary discussions the recommendations of the Administrative Board were used and the plan laid out by Miinsterberg in his letter to Mr. Holls. At a second meeting, on January 17th, a report on decisions reached was drawn up for the Administrative Board which met two days later. Three plans had been offered to the Commit- tee of Plan and Scope — one by Professor Miinsterberg, one by Professor Small, one by Professor Newcomb. Miinster- berg's plan aimed at showing the advancement of scholar-
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ship in the past century in a logically classified system that would bring out the relation of all branches of knowl- edge and the unity of scholarly endeavors. Professor Small proposed a plan by which ''the scholar's interpreta- tion of progress in civilization in general" should be rep- resented, with the following divisions of the topic: I, The Promotion of Health; II, The Promotion of Wealth; III, The Harmonizing of Human Relations; IV, Progress in Religion. The plan of Professor Newcomb favored the idea of "a congress of publicists and representative men of all nations and of all civilized peoples which should dis- cuss relations of each to all the others and throw light on the question of promoting the unity and progress of the race."
After due consideration, a resolution was made that "Mr. Miinsterberg 's plan be adopted as setting forth the general object of the Congress and defining the scope of its work, and that Mr. Small's plan be communicated to the general Committees as containing suggestions as to de- tails, but without recommending its adoption as a whole."
The date of the Congress was set for the week beginning September 14, 1904. All in all, it was estimated that 340 papers would be read. Miinsterberg 's plan, though modi- fied in detail, was carried out in principle. It was further decided that the addresses on the topics of the large gen- eral divisions and departments should be made by Ameri- cans as a special contribution of American scholarship. The advice and assistance of the various learned societies of the country were strongly recommended in the prepara- tion for the Congress, and it was also thought desirable that scientific bodies hold their meetings during the week after the international Congress.
When the report of the decisions made by the Committee of Plan and Scope were presented to the Administrative
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Board, Miinsterberg was invited to be present for discus- sion. At this point the International Congress of Arts and Science was actually created. On the recommenda- tions of the Administrative Board, the scheme of the Com- mittee on Plan and Scope was adopted and the Exposition authorities named Professor Simon Newcomb President of the International Congress of Arts and Science and Profes- sor Miinsterberg and Professor Small Vice-Presidents. The Administrative Board remained for general over- sight, whereas the details of the work were now entrusted to the officers of the Congress.
It was decided that invitations to the foreign scholars, for whom a journey to St. Louis in the summer naturally meant a formidable undertaking, would have more weight if presented personally by one of the officers of the Con- gress. Accordingly the President and two Vice-Presidents were scheduled to sail in the summer of 1903 to see the leading scholars of western and central Europe and ask them to participate in the Congress at St. Louis. Profes- sor Newcomb was to invite the learned men from France, Professor Small those from England, Russia, Italy, a part of Austria, and Miinsterberg those from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This mission was most congenial to him and harmonized well with his private plan of spending, if possible, alternate summers in Europe. In 'January, 1903, Miinsterberg went to St. Louis to consult with Presi- dent Francis, Mr. Lehmann, and various others in author- ity on Exposition projects, and in the summer of 1903 he set sail with his family for his tour of invitations. Pro- fessor Newcomb sailed on May 6, Miinsterberg on May 30, and Professor Small on June 6. Besides the invitations to foreign scholars, the three officers of the Congress each 'undertook the general oversight of studies especially in their line of scholarship. Thus Professor Newcomb made
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himself responsible for the best possible representation of mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and technology; Professor Small for that of politics, law, economics, theol- ogy; and Miinsterberg for that of philosophy, philology, art, education, psychology, and medicine.
Before going on to tell the history of the Congress, it is well to consider the plan as Miinsterberg had conceived it and worked it out and as it was embodied, with only those modifications that practical circumstances de- manded, in the living assembly and its work. The St. Louis Congress was unique among Congresses for this very reason, that it was the actual and visible realization of an ideal system of unified knowledge — that the ideal was first and its embodiment came after, just as in the creation of a work of art.
Miinsterberg anticipated the objection of specialists who, distrustful of generalizations, might maintain that a classification of the sciences had interest only for the logician, and not for those who had the progress of the sciences themselves at heart. He took care, therefore, to provide that the organizers confine themselves to a mini- mum of logical classification, to the mere building of a framework, whereas the actual relation of science to science should be worked out by the contributors themselves in the various lectures.
To understand this framework, we must once more use the language of Miinsterberg^ philosophical writings. It will be remembered that he looked upon our world as one of subjects and objects. The pure experience of will he recognized as subject, and the world upon which the will acted as object. The acts of the will themselves he considered as over-individual and individual will-acts, the objects as over-individual and as individual objects. Now it is the over-individual will-acts, that is, the norms of truth, beauty, and morality, that make the substance
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of the normative sciences; the individual will -acts, the acts of individuals communicating with and influencing one another, are the substance of the historical sciences, The over-individual objects, that is, the objects common to several subjects, are material for the physical sciences; the individual objects, or objects that are possible only for single subjects, are material for the mental sciences. Thus the world of purpose and the world of phenomena are clearly differentiated and the wide, complex field of knowledge is divided according to its primal essences. To the large divisions of normative science, historical science, physical science, and mental science, were added the three divisions of practical sciences: utilitarian sciences, sci- ences of social regulation, and sciences of social culture. Miinsterberg believed that these so-called " practical sci- ences" had a legitimate place among the essential groups of knowledge, for the study of the application of knowl- edge he considered as belonging to science and not to the arts. In this sense he even considered all knowledge fundamentally theoretical, even when it is concerned with the solving of practical problems, in contrast to the claim of pragmatists that all knowledge is practical. Moreover, applied sciences, in his view, were not merely theoretical sciences applied, but the sciences of applica- tion, which, though equally self-dependent, have — through a shifting of the center of gravity of interest — different purposes from those that are purely theoretical.
These seven large divisions were again divided into main departments and these into special sections. Thus the division of normative science was subdivided into the departments of philosophy and mathematics, the divi- sion of historical science into seven departments: political and economic history, history of law, history of language, history of literature, history of art, and history of re- ligion. In the same way physical science was divided into
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physics, chemistry, astronomy, sciences of the earth, biol- ogy, anthropology ; and mental science into psychology and sociology. The division of utilitarian sciences consisted of the departments of medicine, technology and economics ; the division called "social regulation " of the departments of politics, jurisprudence, and social science; the division "social culture" of the departments education and re- ligion. Within these departments the specialized sections gave the expert opportunity to make his contribution toward the ideal synthesis.
It was at the section meetings that the distinguished foreign guests were invited to deliver their lectures. The International Congress at St. Louis was unique primarily because it was the first academic alliance between the United States and Europe. On the one hand, personal contact between the American scholarly public and the European leaders of thought, on the other hand, the recognition of American scholarship by European savants, sealed by their living and active presence, were forces of the utmost importance. Munsterberg had so strongly ad- vocated the plan of emphasizing the unity of knowledge and the interrelation of sciences rather than the service of scholarship to practical progress, largely because he was eager to convince skeptical scholarly Europe of the high standard of American scholarship that had been repeatedly accused of servility to practical ends — an accusation that Munsterberg had ardently refuted in an essay in a Ger- man magazine that Ambassador Andrew D. White cir- culated all over Europe.
It was with great enthusiasm that Munsterberg set sail to call the masters of foreign scholarship to the sun- baked capital of Missouri. He was well aware that St. Louis must seem endlessly more remote from the various European seats of learning to the invited scholars than to himself, that there were many obstacles in the way of
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realizing his ideal plan, and that his task was delicate indeed.
Many of the scholars, he knew, were quite absorbed in work and so contentedly settled that a long journey to the heat and swarm of St. Louis at the time of the World's Fair would be a formidable prospect unless they were convinced that the undertaking was undoubtedly worth while. His enthusiasm was rewarded by warm interest on the part of the European scholars, and a respectful ap- preciation of the honor implied in the invitation. In- deed, the three learned emissaries from America had no reason for complaint: the 150 personal invitations pre- sented in the summer of 1903 were rewarded by 117 ac- ceptances for lectures in 128 sections of the program. In Berlin Munsterberg communicated with Althoff and with his friend Friedrich Schmidt, who administered educa- tional affairs and from them he received earnest support for the international academic assembly.
At Berlin Munsterberg also secured the contributing attendance of a scholar of world fame, Adolph Waldeyer, the anatomist, who was made one of the honorary Vice- Presidents of the Congress. At Leipzig Munsterberg visited his old teacher, Wundt, whom he could not allure away, however, from his laboratory at home. The his- torian Lamprecht and the philologist Sievers from the same university accepted the American invitation. Further visits to scholars in Munich, Heidelberg, Breslau, and Kiel were, on the whole, satisfactory and fruitful. When an invitation was declined, it was not from lack of interest, but generally because of the exactions of the long journey — for many of the savants were old men — or else because of pressure of duties at home. The frailty of the flesh was, indeed, the greatest enemy that threatened the per- fection of the Congress; in several cases acceptances had to be withdrawn on account of illness just before the date
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of the expected sailing, so that Professor Newcomb was at one time inspired to write to Miinsterberg: "I doubt whether any plague recorded in history ever attacked the population of a city in such a proportion as sickness has attacked our foreign speakers." In spite of these disappointments, the invitation tours were well rewarded. Newcomb, Small, and Miinsterberg met in Munich to compare notes. Again they gathered on a sunny day among the beauties of the little international paradise Lucerne, in the garden of the Swiss Hotel, while the snow mountains looked down on the three eager scholars, with their plans and programs, among the idle tourists round about. In Switzerland Miinsterberg visited and invited scholars at Zurich, Basel, and at Berne where the plans for the Congress interested David Jayne Hill, the United States Minister, who was himself a thorough scholar and who readily consented to contribute to the section on Diplomacy.
The stimulating work of the summer in Europe was suddenly overshadowed by news of the untimely death of Frederick William Holls. That this most public- spirited practical idealist could not live to see the fulfill- ment of the idea that he had so largely inspired was a great sorrow to Miinsterberg, who felt keenly, moreover, the loss of an honored friend.
On the voyage home, Miinsterberg and his family saileji on the same steamer with Professor Small and his wife and daughter, together with Professor Thomas Hall of the Union Theological Seminary, also a participant in the Congress, whose ever bubbling Irish humor delighted his fellow passengers, so that the professorial party had a congenial and spirited crossing.
On their return, the three American scholars could present the Exposition authorities with an impressive list of foreign learned men who had accepted their invita-
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tions. Secretary Hay and Assistant-Secretary Loomis as well as the Commissioners-General to the Exposition, La- grave from France and Lewald from Germany, had given valuable suggestions in regard to foreign participation. Now the officers of the Congress, returning from their in- vitation tours, were able to place on the Congressional program the names of such men as the three French mathematicians, M. Gaston Darboux, Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, Professor Emile Picard, and Professor Henri Poincare of the Sorbonne; the historians and theologians, Harnack, Pfleiderer, and Troeltsch from Berlin and Heidelberg ; the chemists Sir William. Ramsay of London and Professor Van't Hoff of Berlin, and Pro- fessor Henri Moissan from the Sorbonne; the geographers Penck from Vienna, Dr. Hugh R. Mill from London, Sir John Murray from Edinburgh, and Professor K. Mitsukuri from the University of Tokio ; the Russian astronomer, Dr. Oskar Backlund ; the psychologists Hoeffding from Copen- hagen and Janet from Paris ; Honorable James Bryce from London who spoke on national administration; Waldeyer from Berlin who spoke on human anatomy; Sir Felix Semon from London, Physician Extraordinary to his Majesty the King, who spoke on otology and laryngology; Field Marshall Gustav Ratzenhofer from Vienna and Pro- fessor Toennies from Kiel who spoke on social structure; Dr. Emil Miinsterberg, President of City Charities in Berlin, brother of Hugo, who spoke on "The Dependent Group" in the Department of Social Science. On the list were many others besides these names mentioned, of equal renown and merit.
The next step was to secure the seven speakers for the main divisions and the forty-eight speakers for the large departments, as well as the chairmen for these depart- ments, who were all to be American scholars; also the American specialists in various fields who, together with
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the foreign gu.ests, were to contribute to the section meet- ings. In the delicate task of choosing just the right mind for each place, the advice of learned societies and heads of universities was sought and the responsibility for these discussions and the invitations was shared by the three officers of the Congress. To Miinsterberg again fell the provision for the fields of philosophy, art, education, psy- chology, and medicine ; moreover he was charged specially with invitations to scholars of New England. The re- sponses from the learned men at home made a good study in comparative enthusiasm. On the whole, however, there were many more acceptances than declinations. The ac- ceptances showed' enthusiasm for the enterprise and a sense of the honor of being asked to contribute to its per- fection; the declinations were mostly on account of ill health or pressure of duties at home, or in rare cases, as in that of William James, because of the secluded scholar's aversion to the crowds and exactions of congresses and expositions. "I am very sorry to be so persistently dis- obliging," he wrote on a spontaneous post-card from his forest retreat in the White Mountains. "But I have noth- ing, absolutely nothing for which that Congress seems a proper frame. ... As for my brother, he is less available for St. Louis than I am. I pity your Uberburdung." Absent though he chose to remain himself, he gave Miin- sterberg suggestions for the choice of philosophers. "I certainly hope that the thing may succeed, for the greater honor of yourself and the committee, without having to resort to the outsiders and cranks." This fear, which was due, as James himself expressed it, to "the laziness of my own imagination," was unnecessary; the International Congress at St. Louis was unique for its absence of cranks and its orderly cooperation of recognized leaders of thought.
The earnest interest of the invited scholars was im-
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mediately revealed by their responses. A few of these may be quoted at random. Professor A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard wrote:
843 Exchange Building, BOSTON, January 15, 1904 DEAR MR. MUNSTERBERG :
I feel very much honored in being asked to be one of the two American speakers on the subject of political theory at the Congress of Arts and Sciences at St. Louis; and the sub- ject of the present problems in that field would be very attractive to me. I therefore take great pleasure in accepting.
Yours very truly,
A. LAWRENCE LOWELL
Professor Barrett Wendell, invited to be Chairman of the section on English Literature, responded with his usual grace:
358 Maryborough Street
BOSTON, 25 Feb., 1904 MY DEAR SIR:
It gives me great pleasure to accept the very kind in- vitation of the Congress of Arts and Sciences to be the Chair- man of its Section English Literature. The only cloud on the satisfaction which this honor brings me comes from the news that my dear old friend, Mr. Stedman, who would have filled the place so much more worthily, is unable to do so.
Very respectfully yours,
BARRETT WENDELL
Professor Wendell, however, was prevented after all from presiding over his section, because of a lecture jour- ney to France.
President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton provided Mlin- sterberg with a full list of the scholars at Princeton best suited to speak with authority in their special fields. He was himself one of the seven speakers for the main divi- sions. Just before the opening of the Congress, he wrote :
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15 September, 1904 MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
I am very much obliged to you for your kind letter of September 14th and am most unaffectedly sorry to find that I am already promised for the evening of October 8th. I am OE that evening to address the School Masters' Club of New York.
I shall look forward with pleasure to seeing you in St. Louis and cannot sufficiently regret that my visit must be only a flying one.
Very sincerely yours,
WOODROW WILSON
Miinsterberg had been happy to secure the participation of the Honorable Andrew D. White, who only two years before the date of the Congress had been the distinguished Ambassador to Berlin, who had previously been, together with Ezra Cornell, the founder of the great University at Ithaca, New York, its first president and constant guide and benefactor ; who had combined in a singularly fruitful life the excellent qualities of statesman, educator, his- torian, and author. That Mr. White was later obliged to withdraw his acceptance was regarded as a great loss. He wrote characteristically :
September 8, 1904
PROFESSOR HUGO MUNSTERBERG, LL.D., Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass. MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG,
Infinitely to my regret and with the greatest reluctance, I am compelled to inform you that I cannot be present at the meetings proposed at St. Louis, to which you have so kindly in- vited me and in which you have assigned me so honorable and attractive a place.
The simple facts are that returning to America this spring after my seven years' absence, I found a great mass of deferred matters of business, including sundry very important legal proceedings, awaiting me, as well as certain pledges of literary work which had to be redeemed. I have been obliged to give considerable at-
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tention to these and to work steadily through the summer. The result is that I am in no condition to go to St. Louis, and under advice, indeed under strict orders from my physician, am forced to give up for the time being everything which will affect me or prevent proper repose. Were I a younger man I would break away in spite of these orders, but at seventy-two years of age, with much unfinished work upon my hands, I dare not.
Under these circumstances, I trust that you and your colleagues will excuse me. I must throw myself upon your forbearance, but I feel you will easily find some one who will discharge the honorable duties very much better than I could possibly do in my present condition. Will you kindly inform your associates for me, conveying to them my sincere thanks for the honor they have done me, and
I remain,
Most respectfully and sincerely yours,
AND. D. WHITE
It was vouchsafed the venerable scholar to live four- teen more fruitful years and to survive by two years the younger colleague to whom this letter was addressed.
A noteworthy company of American scholars in all branches of learning finally assembled at St. Louis. The speakers for the seven large divisions were the following: for normative science, Professor Josiah Royce, Harvard's profound idealistic philosopher; for historical science, President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton University; for physical science, Professor Robert S. Woodward of Colum- bia University; for mental science, President G. Stanley Hall of Clark University ; for utilitarian sciences, President David Starr Jordan of Leland Stanford Jr. University; for social regulation, Professor Abbott Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University; and for social culture the Hon- orable William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education. Beside the chief speakers on the program, a considerable number of specialists were asked to read ten- minute papers at the section meetings which lasted three hours each; of such papers there were 102. Invitations
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to attend the Congress had been sent to scientific societies, to college faculties, and all appropriate bodies, and personal letters had even been sent to leading members of the sciences and professions.
The Congress met at St. Louis in the week of September 19-25. Other Congresses met there purposely at the same time ; the International Geographic Congress had adjourned from Washington to St. Louis to enable its members to attend the Congress of Arts and Science. A reception committee had been formed at New York as well as at St. Louis in order to welcome the foreign guests. The courtesies of the Century and the University Clubs were extended to the visitors and all possible attention shown the scholars who had torn themselves away from their quiet productive work to exchange ideas in what must have seemed to them a very remote spot. On their way to St. Louis some of them stopped at Chicago, where they were entertained by President Harper of Chicago Univer- sity and Professor Small. At St. Louis prominent citizens most hospitably opened their houses to the guests of the Congress who brought their wives or other family members with them. Those who came singly were housed in the dormitories of Washington University. It was no easy ta*sk to insure not only the smooth carrying out of the scholarly program, but the comfort and good cheer of the guests in the September heat of St. Louis and amid the tangle and swarm of a World's Fair. Dr. L. O. Howard, who brought with him much experience as Permanent Secretary of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, was appointed Executive Secretary and provided with a bureau and staff. He and Dr. H. J. Rogers shared the labor of managing the details of the business and the entertaining.
It may well be imagined that Miinsterberg took an active and enthusiastic part in promoting the spirit of
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good fellowship among the guests, particularly among those whom he had invited, and he rejoiced to see their com- bined efforts crowned by success. The formal opening of the Congress took place at 2.30 on September 19, in Festival Hall. In the words of Howard J. Rogers, who has written the history of the Congress:
In the audience were the members of the Congress represent- ing the selected talent of the world in their field of scientific en- deavor, and about them were grouped an audience drawn from every part of the United States to promote by their presence the success of the Congress and to do honor to the noted personages who were the guests of the Exposition and of the Nation.
The organ played the national airs of the various coun- tries whose scholarship was represented at the Congress .and closed with the national anthem of the United States. Dr. Rogers presided, and the first speaker was President Francis of the Exposition, who spoke on the aims of the St. Louis World's Fair and welcomed the International Congress. He ended with these words:
May the atmosphere of this universal exposition, charged as it is with the restless energies of every phase of human activity and permeated by that ineffable sentiment of universal brotherhood engendered by the intelligent sons of God, congregating for the friendly rivalries of peace, inspire you with even higher thoughts — imbue you with still broader sympathies, to the end that by your future labors you may be still more helpful to the human race and place your fellow men under yet deeper obligations.
Then Frederick J. V. Skiff, Director of Exhibits, spoke of the harmony between the exhibitions and the Congress. In his speech he said:
The plane upon which the Congress had been inaugurated, the aim, the broad intent, seemed beyond the merits, if not beyond the capacity, of this hitherto not widely recognized intellectual center. But the courage of the inception, the
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loftiness of the purpose, appealed so profoundly to the toilers for truth and the apostles of fact, that we find gathered here to-day in the heart of the new Western continent the great minds whose impression on society has rendered possible the intellectual heights to which this age has ascended and now beckon forward the students of the world to limitless possibil- ities.
Later he said :
This universal exposition is a world's university. The Inter- national Congress of Arts and Sciences contitutes the faculty; the material on exhibition are the laboratories and the museums; the students are mankind.
Replies to these addresses of welcome were made by the honorary Vice-Presidents of the Congress who were rep- resentatives of foreign countries. Each spoke with en- thusiasm for the common enterprise from the special point of view of the country he represented. First spoke Sir William Ramsay, in place of the Honorable James Bryce, the first of the honorary Vice-Presidents, after him Pro- fessor Jean Gaston Darboux, Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, Professor Wilhelm Waldeyer of Berlin, Dr. Theodore Escherich of Vienna, Dr. Oskar Backlund of the Astronomical Observatory at Pulkowa, Russia, Professor Nobushige Hozumi of Tokio, Japan, and finally Signor Attilio Brunialti. The Chairman of the Administrative Board, President Butler, was unavoidably absent; so in his place President Harper spoke on the idea and growth of the Congress and the work of the Board.
After these preliminary speeches, Professor Newcomb gave the first address of the Congress proper, which was intended as an introduction to all the lectures that were to follow. It was on "The Evolution of the Scientific Investigator, " a historical address, beautiful in the clear- ness of the presentation, wide in its scope and precise in
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its detail, as only the address of a philosophical and broad- minded scholar can be.
The following day was devoted to the speakers for the seven main divisions and for the twenty-four departments, for each of which one lecturer spoke on the fundamentals and methods of the subject, and another on its history and development during the last century. The other days of the week were given over to section meetings at which the foreign guests shared the work with the Ameri- can scholars; and on Saturday the program had been covered, except for the section meetings on Religious In- fluence, which were appropriately given on Sunday in Festival Hall. Professor Small gave a review of the week 's accomplishment and the Congress was closed. The lectures, each read once in a fleeting hour, were gathered together as the property of the Congress and preserved in lasting form in eight substantial volumes edited by Mr. Rogers and published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. These include also a history of the Congress by the editor and an ex- position of "The Scientific Plan of the Congress" by Hugo Miinsterberg.
The academic work of the Congress was accompanied by brilliant festivities that had for a background the mag- nificent buildings of the World's Fair. On the opening Monday night of the Congress a "lagoon fete" was held on the Exposition grounds during which the Grand Basin was magically illuminated; a brilliant garden fete was given to the members of the Congress at the French National Pavilion by the Commissioner-General from France, and Commissioner-General Lewald entertained the same guests at the beautiful German "State House." It was thought most fit that in this year, so memorable to St. Louis, the "Shaw banquet" — a dinner given annually to men of science, letters, and affairs, as provided by the will of Henry B. Shaw, the founder of the Missouri Botani-
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cal Gardens — should be given in honor of the foreign scholars. The crowning festivity was the general dinner to the speakers and officials of the Congress in the banquet- hall of the "Tyrolean Alps." A rare company was gathered there, a congregation of distinguished minds in- carnate. With the sense of having accomplished harmoni- ously a unique task, the spirits of the participants were high and the toasts inspired. These were spoken by Presi- dent Francis, by James Bryce, by Professor Darboux, who alluded gracefully to the transfer of the beautiful terri- tory of Louisiana, which was being commemorated by the World's Fair. There were speeches also by Commissioner- General Lewald who dwelt on the large contribution of German universities to the educational department of the Exposition, and ended with a toast to the "continued cor- dial relations of Germany and America through its uni- versity circles and scientific endeavors." Other toasts were spoken by the eloquent Italian delegate Signor At- tilio Brunialti and by the Japanese Professor Hotzumi. The latter made a remark on this occasion that roused the united enthusiasm of the assembly and that Miinster- berg took great pleasure in recalling long after the Con- gress was over. At a moment when the Russo-Japanese war was being fought, the Japanese scholar said that "of all places where men meet, and of all places sunned by the light of heaven, this great Congress, built on the high plane of the brotherhood of science and the fellow- ship of scholars, was the only place where a Japanese and a Russian could meet in mutual accord, with a common purpose, and clasp hands in unity of thought."
Such a sentiment must convince one of the real worth of international gatherings for intellectual purposes, even in the face of skeptics. If only a tenth of the energy and treasure spent on international destruction could be spent on international approach through the channels of science,
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art, and literature — how much nearer the nations would be to that ideal of harmony longed for by all, but never attained !
Miinsterberg in the course of the Congress had found not only deep satisfaction in its success and in seeing his ideal conception realized, but he had gained much pleasure of a more intimate and private nature. It was a delight to clasp hands again with colleagues from across the sea whom he had invited, several of whom were good friends. During the summer, before the opening of the Congress, he had received genial visits from three of these scholars and, •above all, had the happiness of welcoming his brother Emil.
When the Congress had adjourned, the foreign guests still had receptions awaiting them at Washington, at Boston, especially at Harvard, and finally in New Haven as guests of President Hadley of Yale University. At Washington it gave Miinsterberg pleasure to introduce the visitors, at a reception at the White House, to President Roosevelt, who had a warm welcome for the scholars, particularly his fellow historians.
It was on the whole a gratified, earnestly interested, and in part enthusiastic company that arrived at Boston in the first week of October, where it was entertained by Harvard University and in Miinsterberg 's house. When the last functions relating to the Congress were over, there re- mained for Miinsterberg his share in the task of organiz- ing the publication of the addresses, considerable fatigue from the exertions of the past weeks, and a happy memory of an enterprise conceived with ardor and achieved with success, and a strong hope for good fruits of the seed sown at St. Louis and for a lasting good-will among learned men.
During the years between the autumn of 1902 and that of 1905 Miinsterberg received many interesting guests
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in his house besides those connected with the Congress. It was during the earlier visit, in 1902, of the anatomist Waldeyer from Berlin, that the first definite discussions took place about the advisability of a professorial ex- change between Harvard and Berlin Universities. The conception of an intellectual exchange had originated four years earlier, at the time of Baron von Holleben's visit to Miinsterberg, when the latter proposed to the ambas- sador some institution that would, in a serious and sys- tematic way, promote academic intercourse between the two countries. For this plan, Miinsterberg 's friend and colleague, Professor Kuno Francke, had much enthusiasm, and both he and Miinsterberg interested Dr. Althoff in it, although all those who favored the project did not have in mind exactly the same forms of exchange. As the profes- sorial exchange came to be an established institution three years later, it would be well at this point to glance at the cross-currents of opinion.
Miinsterberg, from the start, believed that an exchange of students would be more fruitful than an exchange of professors. A student, more especially an advanced stu- dent, equipped with the necessary will power and en- thusiasm, could readily enter into the atmosphere of the foreign university and absorb all possible inspiration from it, while he was gaining expert instruction from masters in his line ; but a professor who spoke a strange language and who joined the faculty of the foreign university only for a brief period could not hope to enjoy the same sphere of influence as the native professor who already had his accustomed groove in the academic routine and who, above all, addressed the students in their own tongue. When, after all, the idea of a professorial exchange, rather than a students' exchange, proved to be the one that found the most approval, Miinsterberg did his best to promote it. He did try, however, to prevent certain aspects of it that
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he believed were bound to produce unfavorable results. Thus he urged that the professor sent from Germany — it was decided that, although Berlin managed the exchange, the scholar sent might be from any Prussian university — by all means should be a professor of Germanic language or literature, because a lecturer in any other field would attract too small a number of students because of the barrier of language. Miinsterberg warned also against possible disappointment because of the difference in social life at Berlin and at Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Ber- lin the visiting guest was considered, more or less, the guest of the state, entertained by high officials of the state as well as of the University, was given guest privi- leges at the royal opera and theater, besides having at his disposal the sights and sounds of a metropolis. In Cam- bridge there was no effort at official entertaining, there was the material disadvantage of the absence of hotels and suitable quarters, and the quiet charm of Cambridge life was one that required more than an academic half-year to- appreciate. Notwithistanding these warnings, Presi- dent Eliot approved of the plan, as it was afterward carried out, of sending an eminent professor from Har- vard to Berlin University for an academic half-year, and a professor from a German university to Harvard for the same length of time. After this scheme was once decided upon, Miinsterberg endeavored to have it carried out as successfully as possible.
Another guest whom Miinsterberg received in his house, was Carl Schurz. He was then very old, but full of kindliness, geniality, and charm, which endeared him to all who knew him and gave special joy to Miinsterberg who had always admired him profoundly.
On October 22, 1903, memorial services in honor of Frederick William Holls were held at Columbia Univer- sity. It was an impressive ceremony at which a bust of
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the beloved deceased was dedicated to the- Faculty of Political Economy at Columbia. President Butler pre- sided and the memorial addresses were spoken by two warm friends and admirers of Holls — Ambassador Andrew D. White and Hugo Miinsterberg.
It was in the year 1904 that the Germanic Museum at Harvard was formally opened. The collection, including the large gift from Germany, was housed only provision- ally in a vacant building, once the Gymnasium, opposite Memorial Hall. At the opening the first Secretary of the German Embassy, Mr. Busche-Haddenhausen, was present and made a further offering of gifts for the Social Museum. On this occasion Miinsterberg delivered an ad- dress.
A year later, in March, 1905, Miinsterberg was invited by the Cosmopolitan Club of Detroit, a club including in its membership the leading professional men and men of affairs of that city, to deliver an address at one of its meetings that took the form of a banquet. The Harvard psychologist proposed to speak on a scientific subject ; the Club insisted, however, that he should present them with the substance of his new book The Americans. This book was the translation of a German book in which he had given enthusiastic interpretations of the essential features of American life. Miinsterberg complied with the wishes of the club, and the address was received with warm ap- plause. Inspired by Miinsterberg 's speech, there arose a brisk discussion at the banquet table, which was destined to kindle a wildfire of newspaper sensation throughout the country. The discussion hinged round a comparison of the monarchical with the republican form of government, and, in the course of the debate, Miinsterberg remarked about Roosevelt what he had already said in his book, namely, that " never in his speeches or writings had he cited that socially equalizing Declaration of Independ-
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ence." In a previous speech, a democratic Congressman, when warmly defending Jeffersonian principles, said that he knew of certain people in high official circles at Washington who looked upon the Declaration of Independ- ence as made up of "glittering generalities. " These two statements were mixed in characteristic sensation-monger fashion and the publicity of the discussion was perversely enhanced by the fact that before mentioning some con- versation between himself and Roosevelt, Miinsterberg asked that his remarks be considered private and not published by the press.
Miinsterberg left the Club in good spirits, satisfied with an evening full of stimulus. Great was his consterna- tion, therefore, when the next morning he found the De- troit papers full of startling headlines with the news of his statement that Roosevelt had called the Declaration of Independence nothing but glittering generalities. Nor, as he found out soon enough, was this news confined to Detroit papers, but flashed to all leading news centers throughout the country. Reporters besieged the Detroit hotel, where Miinsterberg was staying a day longer, be- cause he had promised to speak on Schiller to a German society, " Harmonic, " in the evening. Telegrams from all points between the Pacific and the Atlantic poured in. Never in all his varied contact with the press had the guileless savant been so distressed by misrepresentation. After he left Detroit, the papers continued the storm with such headlines as "Declaration of 1776 scorned?" "Country is Stirred up by Speech," "Says Roosevelt Knocked Declaration of Independence," "Miinsterberg makes Defense" etc. His explanation, to be sure, was printed, too, but it requires little knowledge of the psy- chology of the newspaper reader to know that the first shocking impression of the loud headline lingers in the mind and the sober explanation is forgotten. The banquet
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at the Cosmopolitan Club not only provided the papers with news items, but inspired numerous editorials which, read in the present, after so many momentous changes have taken place in the political arena, throw light on the opinions of that time. An editorial of the Detroit Journal ended in this way:
Whether or not Mr. Roosevelt went as far as the professor's remarks imply that he went in disparaging certain conceptions and certain phraseology contained in that immortal instrument, the Declaration of Independence, is not particularly important.
We all know that Thomas Jefferson, the author of that instru- ment, does not appeal to Mr. Roosevelt. He seems to take a delight in playing the iconoclast with this idol of the American* people. He ridicules Jefferson's horror of militarism and great love for peace and in fact practically all ideas that may be clas- sified as distinctively Jeffersonian.
However, we may be content in the assurance that, ambitious as he is in a literary way, Mr. Roosevelt will never write any- thing that will exert so profound an influence on the destiny of the peoples of the whole world, including Mr. Roosevelt him- self, for without that Declaration of Independence Mr. Roose- velt wouldn't even have a country to be president over.
Another editorial in the Detroit Tribune:
What a tempest in a teapot has been raised by a chance remark by my old friend, Dr. Hugo Miinsterberg. Detroiters are actually taking sides to discuss whether or not social and political in- dependence is truly realized in free America. To my mind the worst detail of the unhappy affair is that Miinsterberg's private club talk has been telegraphed around the world. What a breach of etiquette, to say nothing about good breeding ! It 's going to be so, by and by, that a chap daren't say anything in confidence at his club. He '11 wake up to find it in the newspapers. Club- babble fellows ought to permit the widest latitudes of speech ; and if Miinsterberg sticks a few pins into American social tendencies, that is, our striving toward aristocracy, why, let him do it ! ...
Come now, let us be frank, just among ourselves. Isn't it true that the poor Polish laborer, who shovels the snow in front of Mr. Russel's house this winter, is as good as Mr. Russel ?
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"Ahem, well, yes, the fellow is as good" I hear some one reply, "that is, as good as, well, politically, don't you know, but other- wise—"
Yes, of course; we thought so.
Gentlemen, Detroit women have more common sense about these things! They do not lose their heads about a lot of "in free America" glittering generalities. Let us be honest. A man need n't be less a lover of his country to concede, if he has an eye in his head to see, that American women are united on this little matter of social inequality. Getting on in the world, climb- ing, is mighty serious business with the women; and they do not take refuge in stuff about fundamental political principles. The humblest shop girl in Detroit already dreams of the time when she is to ride in her own private carriage. If it be treason for Miinsterberg to chaff us, gently, on this seeming contradiction of American social equality — make the most of it! However the men may puff and huff and try to blow Miinsterberg's argument aside, the women, I am sure, will be quietly laughing in their sleeves and agreeing with the Harvard savant.
The New York Sun summed up the situation with characteristic aptitude :
Prof. Munsterberg in his speech before the Cosmopolitan Club at Detroit brought the Declaration of Independence and its rela- tion to American ideals of to-day into rather sudden prominence. The professor was quoted and misquoted until he was accused of declaring the national document a mass of glittering general- ities, and of implying that the President of the United States held the same opinion. As a matter of fact, the lecturer gave a brief summary of his book, The Americans, as he was asked to do, in which he stands on record as pronouncing the Declaration of Independence "a corollary of that system of moral ideals which is indissolubly combined with the American character," and as for what the President thinks about it, Prof. Munsterberg confines himself to stating that "never in his speeches or his writings has he cited it." However, in the avalanche of telegrams which fol- lowed the speech from friends and enemies of the Declaration of Independence and of President Roosevelt, there were $24 worth marked "collect."
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During the years chronicled in this chapter, Miinster- berg became a member of various clubs and societies. He was never a clubman, however, and, preferred to spend his evenings with his family and his books. Therefore those clubs that are popular chiefly as convenient quarters or as meeting places had no interest for him. Societies, however, in which opportunity was given, now and then, to exchange ideas either with colleagues or with original and distinguished men, Miingterberg enjoyed as well as purely social functions. It was in November, 1902, that he became a member of the Thursday Evening Club, that characteristically Bostonian society in which the leading professional men, scholars, and authors among its members provided the stimulus and inspiration in the form of lectures, and the men of wealth the entertainment in their houses.
The Clover Club in Philadelphia, whose most cordial hospitality he enjoyed in a later year, Miinsterberg re- membered pleasantly and used to quote its motto with a special glee:
When we live, we live in clover, When we die, we die all over.
That Miinsterberg belonged to scientific organizations is a matter of course. His presidency in 1898 of the American Psychological Association has already been men- tioned. In 1901 the Philosophical Association was formed and Miinsterberg joined it, for he always felt himself one of the family of philosophers, though officially he filled the Chair of Psychology at Harvard. It was character- istic of James that he declined to join not only because of ill health, but also because he considered philosophy "a lone beast that avoids crowds." Of the Association Miinsterberg was to be President in 1908.
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In 1900 Miinsterberg was made non-resident member of the Washington Academy of Sciences. In 1902 he was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of which Alexander Agassiz was President; in 1903 the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine elected Miinsterberg to membership. He became a mem- ber of the Boston Authors' Cltfb and, several years later, charter member of the Poetry Society of America.
Into the serenity of this industrious and happy life there fell like a bombshell that torture of the human mind — the necessity of making a quick and vital decision. On March 14, 1905, Miinsterberg received a call to fill the chair of Philosophy at the University of Konigsberg, the chair once occupied by Immanuel Kant. Miinster- berg felt the honor of such a call, and the thought of teaching on the very spot where the father of modern idealistic philosophy had spoken his classic words, of be- coming, as it were, one of his successors — this thought had a most powerful attraction. Added to this symbolic aspect was the nearness of Konigsberg to his old home, Danzig, where his oldest brother was still living. Above all, he had hoped to end his career and his life in the land of his birth and his youth, and now the door was open wide for his return. His brothers immediately cabled their delight at the prospect of his return, and advised him to accept the call. His old friend Heinrich Rickert who had taught philosophy tranquilly in the Black Forest town while Miinsterberg had found a new home, new friends, new labors across the sea, now cabled these words : " Accept for the sake of German scholarship." And Miin- sterberg accepted. He accepted under certain conditions, which were likely to be fulfilled; one of these was his re- maining at Harvard until the spring of the following year, because he could not possibly leave Harvard at the very moment when Emerson Hall, for which he had toiled so
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long, was to be dedicated. It was on March 30 that he sent his conditional acceptance. Then something happened that Miinsterberg has thus told of in his reminiscences:
At the beginning of the century the University of Konigs- berg called me. It was near to my beloved Danzig home, and it was the chair of the great Immanirel Kant; that fascinated me, and I cabled that I should probably accept. But then Josiah Royce sat with me a long Sunday morning and insisted that it was my higher duty to stand by my Harvard post. Others might fill that German chair, he said, but here I was needed for more than the mere professional work. The philosopher must not be a patriot only, but at the same time a citizen of the spiritual world in all lands, and I should be among true friends here my life long. That night I sent a second telegram declining the calL
This was a momentous decision in Miinsterberg 's life, more momentous for his future than he could dream — for that future, which was to bring him many precious ties, work more and more absorbing, numberless joys and un- foreseen problems of infinite complexity.
In America, and especially at Harvard, his decision was hailed with hearty approval. A few letters of that time reflect the prevailing sentiment.
Professor Palmer wrote*:
11 Quincy Street, CAMBRIDGE April 12
DEAR DR. MUNSTERBEKG:
You must know how happy your note makes me. It insures the continuance of affectionate ties which have grown closer with every year. Now you will be ours permanently. And I cannot believe you would have found any such opportunity for scholarly or public work in Konigsberg as Cambridge affords. We are pretty near the center of the earth. It isn't suitable to confine a man like you to some spot on its circum- ference. So I can allow myself to believe that public advan-
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tage here harmonizes with our private desires and can be deeply glad that we are to continue a united family.
Affectionately yours,
G. H. PALMER
The attitude of the Overseers of Harvard was thus ex- pressed by one of them, H. P. Walcott :
CAMBRIDGE, 12 April, 1905 DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
I have received your note of 11 April. The very flattering invitation to Konigsberg must have been most attractive to you, and I can [imagine] how you must have hesitated about declining it.
I hope, most sincerely, that you may never find occasion to regret a decision which is the source of a great and well founded pleasure to the Authorities of Harvard College. . . .
Very sincerely yours
H. P. WALCOTT
Colleagues not only from Harvard, but from other universities, too, applauded Miinsterberg 's decision. Professor Cattell wrote:
GABRISON-ON-HUDSON, N. Y.
April 7, 1905. DEAR MUNSTERBERG:
Davis tells me that you are seriously considering the offer of the chair at Konigsberg. It will certainly be an honor to be Kant's successor there, but I trust that you will not leave us. The loss, not only to Harvard, but to the whole country, would be irreparable. I understand that in any case you will not go until after the dedication of Emerson Hall. . . .
Very truly yours,
J. McK. C.
And, after the final decision had been made, the psy- chologist of Columbia responded:
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GABRISON-ON -HUDSON, N. Y.
April 22, 1905. DEAR MUNSTERBERG:
I am very glad to hear directly from you, what I had already been told, that you have declined the call to Kb'nigsberg. I can appreciate the difficulty of the decision, but we in this country are to be congratulated on it.
Very truly yours, J. McK. CATTELL
This is the voice of a younger colleague :
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
April 22, 1905 DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
We are all glad and proud that America is to keep you. It is a good thing for us youngsters to have before our eyes men like Professor James, yourself, and Professor Cattell who are psychologists and a good deal more besides.
Yours sincerely EDWARD L. THORNDIKB
Now when Miinsterberg had sealed his fate, which bound his work for an indefinite time to his second home, Ms desire to visit his native shores was doubly strong-. Two years had passed since he visited Germany and Switzer- land to invite the participants of the St. Louis Congress, and now the turn for a European summer had come again. This time the visits to his brothers and his vaca- tion travels were more carefree, but they were not wholly unoccupied with duties. The equipment of Emerson Hall was foremost in his mind and he used his journey to pur- chase books and apparatus. He also responded to a re- quest by the editors of the Cyclopedia Americana and sought contributors for them among European scholars eminent in their special fields. Further, now that Presi- dent Eliot had determined upon a special form of ex- change professorship, Miinsterberg did his best to make its beginning successful. He therefore gave advice to
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Professor Ostwald, the chemist, at Leipzig, who was chosen as the first German Exchange Professor to Harvard.
During his vacations abroad, it was Miinsterberg 's de- sire, in the short time left after visits to relatives, to lead his family at least to one country not yet known to them and himself. This summer they traveled through Holland, where Miinsterberg reveled in the paintings of Rem- brandt, Franz Hals, van der Hoist, and the rest of the master realists. From Holland Miinsterberg made his first visit to England. After wandering about London with his family, he made a solitary pilgrimage to Oxford, that haunted home of great departed spirits, whither he had once been called.
It was from the chalk cliffs of Dover that he set sail once more in time for the beginning of the college year and the opening of Emerson Hall.1
i For literature written during the period covered by this chap- ter see Appendix, pages 331-362.
CHAPTER IX
SAGES AND SINNERS (October, 1905— October, 1908)
EMERSON HALL was built. Uhder the graceful, tower- ing oaks near the Quincy Street border of the Harvard yard the house of philosophy stood completed. The archi- tectural design is simple, adequate, without superfluous ornamentation, and harmonious with Robinson Hall op- posite. It is built of red bricks, still light red, but they may be stained by the dye of time, like the ivyclad sister buildings in the College Yard. Over the main entrance in large letters is the name "Emerson Hair*; along the cornice above the side entrance is the inscription: "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" On en- tering at the side door, one comes straight upon a bronze statue by Duveneck of Emerson seated. A year after the completion of Emerson Hall, Dr. Edward Emerson pre- sented Harvard with a portrait of his father, a life-size enlargement of a daguerreotype made by Haw's in 1856.
On the ground floor of Emerson Hall is a very large lecture room. The second floor, which also contains a lecture room, was devoted to social ethics, under Professor Francis Peabody, as well as to the Robbins Library. There are on both floors numerous smaller rooms for conferences, for seminary and department meetings, and quiet rooms, combining the function of office and study, for professors. On the third floor is the Psychological Laboratory. Not long before the opening of Emerson Hall, Nelson Robinson had made a generous gift for additions to the equipment of this laboratory, and the result of careful planning and wise forethought in the arrangement and furnishing of
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the twenty-four rooms was most satisfactory and a de- light to those whose lot it was to work within them. The rooms in the laboratory are adapted to a large variety of experiments, so as to allow the greatest possible flexi- bility. There are several dark rooms, a sound-proof room, a photography room, a battery room, an instrument room, etc. The animals used in the courses on animal psychology were later given exclusive habitation of the third floor, where Professor Yerkes reigned; but at the time when work first began in Emerson Hall, animal and human psychology were studied on the same floor.
The growth of Emerson Hall has already been traced in previous chapters: how the desirability of uniting all branches of philosophy made itself felt more and more, together with the urgent need for better quarters for the Psychological Laboratory work; how Professor Palmer made the inspired suggestion that a hall of philosophy be made a memorial to Ralph "Waldo Emerson; how Miinsterberg wrote a plea for a fit house of philosophy which the Philosophical Department of Harvard sent to the Visiting Committee; that this committee under the chairmanship of G. R. Dorr diligently and enthusias- tically roused the interest of the public, until gifts from most varied quarters made possible the enterprise; and how on the hundredth anniversary of Emerson's birth the cornerstone was laid for Emerson Hall. Now the house of philosophy was ready to open its doors wide to the ardent young lovers of wisdom for generations to come.
The opening ceremony was set for the 27th of December, 1905, at a time when the Philosophical and Psychological Associations were holding their meetings at Harvard. It was thought fit that instead of a purely formal celebration, a debate among scholars should usher in the life and work in Emerson Hall. The subject for the debate was
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"The Place of Experimental Psychology/' a problem that, to be sure, as far as Harvard was concerned, had already been solved in practice, for psychology was lodged peace- fully with ethics, logic, and metaphysics in the new shelter of Emerson Hall.
Preceding the debate in which members of the American Philosophical and Psychological Association took part, was a short, simple dedication ceremony. It was natural that the son of the Concord sage should be asked to take an active part in the opening of the memorial to his father. In reply to Miinsterberg 's invitation Dr. Edward Emerson wrote:
CONCORD, November 7, 1905. MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG,
I am honored by the invitation extended to me by you on behalf of the University, and shall gladly be present at the ceremony of the opening of Emerson Hall, and try to say some- thing of my father which may be appropriate. I certainly shall not occupy much time,
It is very pleasant to me and all the members of our family that this hall, thus named in honor of a faithful scholar and man, should stand at Cambridge to harbor thought. We remem- ber also with gratitude your words and works towards accomplish- ing this end.
Sincerely yours,
EDWARD WALDO EMERSON
On the 27th of December, accordingly, Duveneck's statue of Emerson was unveiled in the entrance hall, and in the large new lecture room on the ground floor assembled the members of the Philosophical and the Psychological Associations, the Harvard faculty, the lovers of philosophy and of Emerson who had come to witness the dedication of Emerson Hall. First President Eliot spoke the words of dedication, then Dr. Emerson in memory of his father:
Mr. President, Officers of the College, Scholars, Ladies and Gentlemen : The University has thought fit to give to this Hall,
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From left to right: Professor Josiah Boyce; Professor William James; Professor George Herbert Palmer
SAGES AND SINNERS
given by the loving hands of many, the name of a scholar who eighty-eight years ago came here looking to her for food for growth of his mind and his soul. His hereditary destiny seemed to be that for which our Puritan fathers founded this college — Christ o et Ecclesice labor are; but, "heedless of the Eastern oracle, "Enlarge not thy destiny," he soon passed on to the broader worship — and work — for the truth, the eternal VERITAS. Because I bear his name I am bidden by your committee to answer for it to-day. Honored by their confidence, I will say what seems to me the appropriate word, of Emerson's years of study, its blossom in Thought and its fruit in Action; also recall some words of his own on the privileges and resulting duties of scholars and of universities. When he was born, the habits, alike of rich and poor, were simpler, discipline and — more important — the ideals of youth other than those prevalent now. Wealth was rare; work universally expected. Soul came first, then Mind, last Body. The invisible world seemed near and real. The eternal might well outweigh the transient.
For Mr. Emerson's philosophy seems more like that of the men we strangely call the ancients — why not the youths? — since they lived when, in a sense, the earth was young. In those morn- ing days in larger Hellas, religion, poetry, art, and philosophy were not separated. There was no dull classification and the terminology was simple and beautiful as poetic minds could make; or better, they symbolized their highest thought. In later years Mr. Emerson wrote, "Philosophy will one day be taught by poets. The poet is in the natural attitude. He is believing; the philosopher, after some struggles, having only reasons for believing."
And so he sat him down in a quiet river town, a helpful, friendly man. No profit came from the small farm in his hands. He earned his living by his lectures, in cities at first, but soon the lyceums spread through New England to all the raw towns of the prairie and pineries, and the ports of the great conti- nental rivers. It should be remembered that all the essays, from "Farming" and "Works and Days" to "Illusion," the "Over- Soul," and "Spiritual Laws" were written for delivery to miscel- laneous audiences. Hermann Grimm said that Emerson re- sembled Shakespeare "in that he can be read without prepara- tion." It was truly "philosophy for the people." He never
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"came down to their level," as the unhappy phrase runs, but
held that
"To clothe the fiery thought In simple words succeeds, For still the craft of genius is To make a king in. weeds."
It was reported by more than one of Mr. Emerson's friends that he told them that it would have been agreeable to him at any time in his life had any college, large or small, offered him a chair of rhetoric and oratory. "I am no orator," he said, "but I could teach one." It is pleasant to recall, Sir, that in the early days of your presidency he was called to the University to give courses on Philosophy. He came with pleasure, but his failing forces did not suffer him to do justice, in his own opinion, to the opportunity so congenial to his taste. But early in life he received and obeyed a higher call, to be, in his country, a teacher-at-large for life, of the theory and practice of Phi- losophy for the People, and his audience was, and is, large. He was not a technical metaphysician, but made a high philosophy the guide of his daily life. Plutarch, in a letter to his wife, declared that he "found no erasure, as in a book well written, in the happiness of his life." The same might have been said by this lover of Plutarch. The processional days brought him their gifts, and he early learned to recognize the pearls and diamonds among them. He did his day's work bravely and was helpful. He had no need of hope or faith, because he saw. Were he to have written an inscription over the door of a temple of Philosophy, it might have been
WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH.
The week that embedded this epoch-making celebration in the history of philosophy at Harvard was further filled with the activities of the two visiting- Associations. The leading psychological address before these bodies was held by Miss Mary Whiton Calkins.
At the conclusion of this academic year distinguished by the opening .of Emerson Hall, came the end of Miinster- berg's six years* chairmanship of the Philosophical De- partment. He was now given the official title of Director
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of -the Psychological Laboratory. It was in his own room on the third floor o-f Emerson Hall, with "Prof. Hugo Miinsterberg" printed in large black letters on the door, the cheerful room on a level with the oak-tree tops, that he was henceforth to spend literally the greater part of his life. Here he not only gave counsel to students and colleagues, but received what seemed an infinite variety of visitors who sought help of some kind; here he healed afflicted nerves, mastered a voluminous correspondence and, above all, dictated many and diverse books, to which the perplexed questioner has access still, long after the door has closed fast that used to open so often during the day in response to his characteristic, gentle : ' ' Come ! ' ' In January, 1906, Miinsterberg was invited to deliver an address at Yale. It was in the foregoing autumn that the Corporation of Yale University resolved to invite some Harvard professors every winter to speak at Yale "to cement the friendship between the two oldest universities of the country." President Eliot had made the opening address, Professor Palmer had then held a series of lec- tures, and now an address by Miinsterberg was to close the first year's program. The theme of the lecture was "Science and Idealism, " a subject that at the time was in the air not only of the academic world but of the thinking public at large. Moreover the representative of Harvard came to the sister institution still aglow with delight in the new house of philosophy and the attitude it symbolized. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." And so Miinsterberg made his address with the following introduction :
It is my good fortune to be to-day the messenger of cordial feeling which Harvard, in old friendship, cherishes for Yale. You will not expect from me a chronicle of this year's academic events, but I cannot refrain from a reference to the opening of one most welcome edifice. Perhaps you may consider it as
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professional egotism, ye.t I must insist that last winter's most important and most happy change in our Harvard College Yard has been the erection of a noble monumental building as a home for Philosophy — Emerson Hall. The philosophical work in Harvard had been scattered under many roofs. Now at last it has unity and dignity, and its imposing quarters have quickly become a new center for Harvard's intellectual life. TShe significance of this movement is evident. It indicates pri- marily an increased interest in philosophy; it harmonizes with many other signs, all suggesting that the antiphilosophic period of the last half -century is ebbing and a new philosophic grasp of the deepest world-problems is being felt in the academic realm. The analysis of observation is being at last supplemented by the synthesis of thought. Every scholar, be he physicist or biologist, historian or mathematician, philologist or theologian, feels again the need for a critical examination of the funda- mental conceptions which he is using for his special work; and such a stu.dy of the foundations is after all the* meaning of philosophy. It had been too long neglected throughout a period whose world-view was superficial in spite of the thoroughness of its narrow, specialized research.
But the significance of .our Harvard movement lies still deeper. The philosophical problems may be solved in different ways. The materialist and the skeptic, the mystic and the realist, may each answer the fundamental questions after his own temper. But Harvard has called its house of wisdom, Emerson Hall, and has indicated by choosing the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson that the philosophy of our time ought to be guided by the spirit of idealism. Emerson, whose bronze statue adorns the entrance of our new philosophy building, was not a technical scholar, yet no one in this country stood more warmly, more luminously, more whole-heartedly for the deepest convictions of idealistic philosophy: he believed in the freedom of man and in the ab- solute value of man's ideals.
The times have changed since Emerson wrote his immortal essays. The wonderful progress of knowledge has transformed our world into a gigantic mechanism in which every atom moves according to laws, every mind works by necessity, and in which no room is left for ideals and eternal duties. And yet the old problems do return in the midst of the triumphant days of science. The erection of Emerson Hall means that our scientific time ought to ask once more: Is there anything in
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this world which is really valuable in itself, anything which justifies the idealistic belief in absolute values? And therefore I thought that an answer to this life-question would be the most fitting message from our Harvard world. Of course our time is not satisfied with an appeal to emotions. No Emersonian enthusiasm can overcome the arguments of reason, and every inconsistent short cut of thought must lead us to abysses. To claim such absolute values by hopes or inspirations, to preach ideals, is a most important practical task; but it is not that of the philosopher. His aim must be to understand the ideals. But to understand them means ultimately to deduce them all from one central, necessary principle, just as modern science since Newton deduces all movements in the universe from one formula. This hour calls indeed for an effort to reach the real depths of the problem, however dry and technical and unin- spiring the method must be, and however imperfect such an effort must remain.
That Miinsterberg believed in intercollegiate contact among scholars and in excha'nge of ideas outside of the family of one's own university has often been pointed out. In December, 1907, two years after the Philosophical and Psychological Associations had helped to baptize Emerson Hall and had gathered festively in his own house, M-iinsterberg was made President of the American Philosophical Association. The following spring he invited experimental psychologists from various universities to gather in the new laboratory at Emerson Hall. This gave opportunity for the immediate exchange of ideas among specialists without the pomp and circumstance of general congresses, for direct demonstrations and — not the least important factor — for admiring the excellent and up-to- date equipment of the Harvard laboratory.
Because Miinsterberg kept in touch with the ideas de- veloped in other universities besides his own and more especially because his ideas found response all over the country, he received invitations that were often difficult for a busy man to accept and sometimes difficult to decline.
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To the latter class belonged a call from President Wheeler of the University of California to lecture there through the summer session of 1906. To Miinsterberg who had seen California once and had felt the spell of its beauty, such an invitation to lecture at Berkeley was not without its strong attraction. But he had graver work to do. Fully ripened in his mind, the plan for a complete and thorough presentation of his own system of philosophy was ready to be carried out. This was to be, in a sense, a crowning labor, a consummation of all that the philosopher had hitherto thought and written and lived. For such a work the tranquility of a country retreat was needed. Instead of traveling to California, he stayed in his accustomed pastoral cottage in Clifton and worked, usually on the piazza looking upon a quiet field, for ten or twelve hours daily, from June 15th to September 25th on his Philosophic der Werte. This he later rewrote in English under the title The Eternal Values.
A summer in retirement, devoted to concentrated pro- duction, could well be attained; for that is the beauty of the long vacations in the academic year, that those who will may idle and those who are, above all, creative scholars, when freed from teaching and administrative obligations, may employ their undiminished powers for the advance- ment of their sciences. For Miinsterberg, in particular, such a summer was a blessing, because with the beginning of the academic year, not only the routine duties began, but innumerable other demands were made on him beside.
In the season preceding the quiet summer, he had been called upon to give various lectures to university and other clubs and societies. In April, 1907, a Peace Confer- ence took place in Carnegie Hall under the direction of that untiring supporter of hopes and projects for the maintenance of peace, Andrew Carnegie. For three days,
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speeches were made by undaunted enthusiasts who happily could not see at the end of the next seven fat years, the specter of the lean and bloody years that held their futile efforts in derision. Miinsterberg 's speech on this occasion, which he began, as a philosopher, with the mention of Kant's book on Everlasting Peace, roused a slight con- troversy with Mr. Carnegie of which, as usual, the papers made much. In the words of a witness : 1 1 The papers in New York seemed to make more account of the little talk between you and Mr. Carnegie on the platform than of the great speeches, just as they attack our President for trifles, mainly imaginary, with scarcely a reference to the really mighty work that he has done for his country and mankind."
That the controversy with Mr. Carnegie did not result in any prolonged state of chill was proved by the fact that Miinsterberg by his persuasions finally "crystallized" Mr. Carnegie's resolution to make a large donation toward the "Koch Institute," a medical research institute at Berlin for the benefit of all mankind, in memory of the great bacteriologist, Robert Koch. Carnegie ended his letter to Miinsterberg in which, on February 1, 1908, he announced his contribution of a million marks to the Koch Institute with these words: "Pasteur, Koch, Jenner, Lister, Simpson and others of that class, whose mission was and is to save or serve their fellows, are the true heroes of civilization."
In June, that month which in the educational world represents an interlude between routine activities and complete freedom, the month in which the wise men of the land are called upon to perform Polonius duty toward the youth of numberless academies, and the academies, in turn, bestow on men of wisdom and of action their vener- able distinctions in the month of June, 1907, Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, celebrated its 75th anniversary and
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its President, Dr. Warfield, asked Miinsterberg to give a commencement address and to receive the degree of Doctor of Literature. Miinsterberg gladly took the desired active part in the celebration. Those who received honorary degrees with him on that day were three sons of the College, Dr. J. W. Bright of Johns Hopkins University, Dr. C. P. G. Scott, editor of the Century and revised Worcester Dictionaries, and Miinsterberg 's friend, the psychologist, Professor James McKeen Cattell of Columbia University, whose father had been President of Lafayette College ; also the Governors of Pennsylvania and New York, respectively, the Honorable Edwin S. Stuart, and the Honorable Charles E. Hughes who was destined to become Justice of the Supreme Court, Presidential candidate in 1915, and Secretary of State in 1921.
The celebrations were held from June 16th to 19th with all the traditional dignity and half -rural charm that is so peculiar to college festivals. The Alumni dinner was held in a large tent under the trees, because no building could contain the guests and sons of the college. The for- mal addresses were by James McKeen Cattell, William Owen of Lafayette College, and Hugo Miinsterberg. The Harvard philosopher, now Doctor of Literature, spoke on the mission of the American college, the peculiar advan- tages of the college systems, which he was at the time en- deavoring to introduce into Continental Europe. He be- gan his address with these words :
It seems so natural and delightful to listen on such festival days of college joy and of college pride to the voices of men whose memories are intertwined with the noble traditions of the celebrat- ing college. Those who rejoiced in the happy days of inner growth from the immaturity of school work to the maturity of life work on the lovely campus of Lafayette are the welcome speakers, indeed, to-day, and their words, filled with gratitude, transform this huge assembly into a mighty family circle. But
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harsh and disturbing seems in such hours of intimacy the word of an outsider who never before enjoyed the charm and inspira- tion of this place. If you are yet generous enough to invite the stranger's intrusion into your assembly of alumni, yes, if you kindly welcome the messenger of the Harvard Faculty, your motive, it seems, can be only one : on such a day of historic retro- spection Lafayette College desires to acknowledge the unity of the country's growth and academic development, desires to re- member, venerable to-day herself, those places of learning which were venerable when she began her successful career, and there- fore, looks back in friendly fellowship to the oldest university of the tend. Simple arithmetic leads us quickly back to those an- cient days. It was 75 years ago that Lafayette College was born ; if we double the figure, exactly 150 years ago, in 1757, the gallant Frenchman was born for whom this college was named; and if we double that figure, exactly 300 years ago, in 1607, was born the pious Englishman who founded the first American college, John Harvard. What a glorious national development in the lifetime of a few generations! John Harvard's foundation is flourishing to-day in the midst of hundreds of other colleges, of which even the least stands higher than the Harvard of the old days. And Harvard College never looked with misgivings on the wonderful growth of her young rivals; on the contrary, Harvard knew that her own steady progress resulted first of all from the spreading of the collegiate spirit over the country; every college which devotes itself with earnestness to the high task helps every other college, and if a younger institution can prove that through three-quarters of a century it has lived up to the noblest ambitions and to the most idealistic hopes, then it is a matter for sincere rejoicing to the older colleges, and for none more than to the oldest. To be allowed to bring to you to-day the message of such Harvard sentiments and the sincere congratulations of America's largest university, is the privilege which makes me most grateful.
It was in that same June that Miinsterberg went on a unique journey to Boise, Idaho, one which was a veritable cause celebre because of its social significance. Harry Orchard, a depraved murderer of eighteen human beings, the last among whom was ex-Governor Steunenberg, had turned state's evidence and confessed not only that the
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bombing of the ex-Governor, but all the crimes that he had done had been ordered, directed, and paid for from the fund of the Western Federation of Miners by its inner circle — Haywood, Moyer, Pettibone, and Simpkins. Or- chard was now the star witness for the prosecution against the labor leaders, and not only the fate of these men, but the reputation of the Western Federation of Miners and of unionism in the West depended on the truthfulness of Orchard's confession.
It may well be asked: what had the Harvard psycholo- gist to do with this sensational Western murder case? So we must turn for a moment from the courtroom of Idaho tc the laboratory in Emerson Hall. At the time considered in this chapter, Munsterberg had been making experiments with his students which threw light on psy- chological methods that might be applied to legal pro- ceedings. Moreover, his experience with hysterical and other patients, troubled mentally and emotionally, sug- gested to Munsterberg ways in which a scientific knowledge of the behaviour of the mind might do valuable service in court. Mere association tests could bring out secret thoughts of the patient. A young college girl, for in- stance, once sought the psychologist's advice because her poor health and poor spirits prevented her from doing her work, although she declared that she ate regular whole- some meals and was not allowed to buy sweets. By a test of words associated in the girl's mind, the psychologist, through the suspicious occurrence of words like " choco- late" and "sweets," the evasive answer to the word "candy" and the length of the reaction time in every case, found out that the neurasthenic girl was a victim to the candy habit, which had spoiled her health. After this discovery of her secret, she confessed and reformed and was soon normal again.
If a girl who had denied her passion for sweets could
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thus unwittingly be led to betray herself, a criminal by methods adapted to his particular case might also be tested for the reaction to suspicious words connected with his crime. Psychology could further perform a negative function. The evils of the third degree were well known, the forcing of untrue confessions made merely for relief from torture. The substitution of trained laboratory methods for such brutal remnants of the Dark Ages, would in itself be a blessing. This is not the place for a detailed account of the various experiments or of the recording instruments used in their service; more- over, the suggestions drawn from them for application to problems of crime were presented to the public in various popular articles and eventually in a volume, On the Wit- ness Stand.
Now of all phenomena in the recent history of crime, Harry Orchard was the most baffling. The hardened multi- murderer seemed to have experienced a conversion and had confessed his crimes. Was this confession on which the fate of the far more important labor leaders depended, a lie to save his life, or was it true? If the methods of the psychological laboratory were of any avail in the de- tection of guilt, here was a chance to test their power — as yet purely in the interest of the science and of the future in which the new applied science might become a recognized aid in legal proceedings. Miinsterberg was strongly drawn to Boise where the trial was held, and he turned his desire into action.
It need not be said that Miinsterberg had not the slight- est intention of influencing the trial; until the psycho- logical expert was recognized as indispensable, like the chemical expert, he could, of course, assume no part in the proceedings. In Miinsterberg 's own words : "To deny that the experimental psychologist has possibilities of determining the 'truth telling powers' is as absurd
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as to deny that the chemical expert can find out whether there is arsenic in the stomach. " But as yet it was the psychologist's task merely to test the possibilities of his science, not to make it serve any practical end. For this reason Miinsterberg did not grant any information regard- ing his tests to newspaper reporters, and he had the satis- faction of knowing that the outcome of his experiments could not reach the jury during the trial. It was his intention to give the records of his experiments to scien- tific journals and scholarly archives and, as interest in the possibilities of applied pyschology had taken hold of the public, to write an easy presentation of his tests and their results for a popular magazine, to appear — after the trial.
No difficulty was put into the way of the psychologist in carrying out his experiments. At the end of June, 1907, Miinsterberg defied the heat and traveled straight from Boston to Boise, Idaho, four days and four nights, with a trunk full of psychological apparatus, and spent there four days crowded with new impressions. Six ses- sions Miinsterberg attended at the courtroom, where the twelve jurymen sat rocking, each in his own rhythm, in twelve rocking chairs. On the day of Miinsterberg 's ar- rival, he had immediate opportunity to see Orchard on the witness stand, cross-examined by the defense. The scholar felt a strong aversion for the criminal with his brutal, vulgar jaw, his small sparkling eyes and deformed ears; Miinsterberg 's sympathies instinctively went out to Haywood, with the head of a brilliant thinker; and as Miinsterberg said himself after his return: " — but for a real man, for a man who has ideals and is ready to fight for them against this commonplace social body, a man of the type of those who ultimately build up the world and master fate — for a real man give me Haywood."
Nevertheless, the psychologist's self-imposed duty de-
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manded perfect objectivity and did not allow private sym- pathies and aversions to intrude. Accordingly, he drove with the Governor of the State, Mr. Frank Gooding, who extended every courtesy to the guest from New England, through the pretty streets of the mountain town to the State penitentiary. There Miinsterberg, filled with dis- gust, convinced that the murderer was also a liar, shud- dered at the touch of the assassin's hand. Yet he con- versed with him and received a different impression of the strange criminal through these conversations. Such impressions, however, did not alter Miinsterberg 's convic- tions, for he relied solely on his psychological investiga- tions. He made about a hundred tests and experiments, for which Orchard was a willing subject, since unwillingness would have looked like a bad conscience and, moreover, the criminal easily trusted his own skill in hiding what he desired to hide. Miinsterberg by no means hypnotized his subject, as rumors spread by those sympathizing with the defense asserted; he simply told the criminal that he had come to examine his mind and sound his heart, and then applied his tests. The association test applied to the murderer was the same, in principle, as that applied to the girl patient who was convicted of the candy habit; and through this test it appeared that Orchard's mind, which reacted on words vitally connected with his crimes or his conversion at the same pace as on indifferent words, had nothing to hide and felt no emotional disturbance at the mention of the significant words. This association test gave by no means the whole clew to Orchard's character; it remained to be tested whether this candid state of mind and absence of the feeling of guilt were normal or produced by some auto-suggestion, hypnotism, or disease. Indeed, numerous experiments, too minute and technical to be reported to the public, had to be faithfully worked out before the psychologist could reach his conclusion.
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This conclusion, contrary to his first decided impression and instinctive sympathies, was that Orchard undoubtedly spoke the truth. His conversion, evidently, was not a sham. From experiments Miinsterberg found out that Orchard had keen acoustical and optical memories that the past was vivid and plastic in his mind; and this explained the ultimate dissatisfaction found in the life of the professional assassin. For such a life requires a mind preoccupied with the present or constantly urging on toward the future, but unencumbered with the ob- truding past which must eventually have the effect of a guilty conscience. The life of the criminars past — his early belief, his mother, his first wife and child who were cruelly deserted — persistently demanded harmony with the present and this could only be reached by the phe- nomenal conversion that led to the confession of his crimes and the circumstances connected with them.
Miinsterberg was convinced of the reliability of his ex- periments, no matter what the verdict of the jury might be. He knew that there could be no doubt about the subjective truth of Orchard's statements, although he was well aware that the complete objective truth with which the trial was concerned might require more proof than the confession of one witness.
When, after four days, Miinsterberg had satisfied him- self as to the fruit of his experiments, he journeyed home again for four days and four nights, carrying in his arms a parting gift from Governor Gooding, a beautifully bead- embroidered case for an Indian papoose. After a most fatiguing journey in the hot sleepers, he reached Boston somewhat exhausted, and boarded the local train to Clifton, bound toward his cool summer cottage. But in this train he was accosted by a reporter who was riding to Clifton for the purpose, and, overtired as he was, the Psychologist yielded after vain resistance to the "third degree " of the
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newspaper man and admitted that he believed that Or- chard had spoken the truth. Unwilling as he was to re- veal even so much of his doings at Boise, until the time should come, after the trial, to give his own presentation of his experiments, he trusted that this meager bit of in- formation would not escape outside of the next morn- ing's Boston papers.
Great was his surprise and disappointment when he per- ceived the next day that his extorted remarks had been wired all over the country. Another interviewer appeared and he was forced, now that his statement had been given such unintended publicity, to sketch the way in which he had reached his conclusion about Orchard's truth- fulness. All the while he drew comfort from knowing that the jury was safe from newspaper stories and could in no way be influenced by the importunate haste of the press.
But that was not the end. A flood of newspaper com- ments poured out all over the country giving absurd ac- counts of the psychologist's interview with the criminal. One California paper went so far as to state, under the heading "Swelled Heads," that the scientist had tested his subject by measuring the thickness and dimensions of his skull and ended with the witticism : ' 1 1 '11 bet a dollar to two bits that Prof. Miinsterberg has a head like a prize pumpkin." The inevitable followed. Annoyed by the publicity of the statements in favor of Orchard's con- fession, the lawyers for the defense accused Miinsterberg of graft. They declared that he was the guest of the prosecution ; that he had not seen the witness in the court- room; further, they dwelt on the fact that he had offered an article on his experiments with Orchard to a popular magazine. They did not consider that Miinsterberg had done so at a time when he believed that his investigations would result unfavorably for the criminal. Further, they
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paid no attention to the fact that the magazine had as- sured him of its indifference to the result and its respect for the scientist's complete objectivity and of holding back publication of the article till after the close of the trial. The situation was falsely represented, as if the magazine had engaged the psychologist to construct a story in favor of Orchard. Miiusterberg of course cleared himself of these charges; but it is the insidious evil of newspaper calumnies that they leave some poison in the impressionable mind, regardless of logic or fact.
•Still Miinsterberg refrained from publishing his ex- periments. The impatient public meanwhile was appeased by a lengthy article written by a young colleague of Miinsterberg' for the New York Herald which described, with illustrations, some of the apparatus used in the psychological laboratories, of the kind that might be ap- plied in detecting crimes. The apparati described were chiefly the automatograph, which records involuntary movements; the pneumograph, which records the rate and rhythm of breathing; and the sphygmograph, which, at- tached to the wrist, records the heart beats. This hy- pothetical article soon reappeared in a Boston paper as a statement of fact, giving the impression that Miinsterberg had actually used every one of these instruments in Boise. But that was not all. It was cabled to London that the Harvard psychologist's "crowning life work" was the in- vention of an apparatus by which he could detect lies. Thus the myth of Miinsterberg's "lying-machine" was born. The momentous news was cabled back again to America, as also to France and Germany, and the differ- ences in the reactions of the press in these four countries make a good study in comparative public curiosity. In America the comments all took a political turn. A fic- titious interview in no less venerable a paper than the New York Times began: "As soon as I heard that Prof.
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Hugo Monsterwork of Harvard had invented a machine for detecting liars in the act, I said to myself melodramati- cally : ' Ho ! ' For I saw at once the invention was fraught with the gravest danger for the inhabitants of the whole country outside of Sagamore Hill."
In England the social significance of the lying-machine was elaborated upon with abundance of wit; in France main emphasis was laid on the part it would play in love affairs and its usefulness in proposals of marriage. The sphygmograph seemed to be the favored apparatus that imagination turned into the lying-machine, and a wrong translation of the word " wrist" by the equivalent for ''back" made it appear that this demoniac machine was strapped to the victim's back to test his truthfulness.
{Such were the tortures, not unrelieved by spasms of humor, of a misrepresented servant of science?) The psychologist withdrew the popular article on his experi- ments with Orchard, because it appeared that the verdict of the jury would be for Haywood and Miinsterberg felt that embarrassment might result for the magazine. Later he set forth some of the methods employed in his testing of Orchard in one of the essays in On the Witness S-tand. The records of the experiments themselves remained valu- able documents; Miinsterberg stayed convinced of the re- liability of his investigations and gained from them im- portant suggestions for the future of psychology as ap- plied in the courtroom.
It must not be supposed that the sensational publicity which the new applied science received through the press was the only symptom of interest aroused among the general public. As every conceivable new movement — from religious movements to fashions of the day — has fea- tures that lend themselves to exaggeration, misrepresenta- tion, and ridicule and yet may exert its influence steadily and continuously, so the interest in applied psychology
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was taking more and more hold of serious minds. "Psy- chology and Law" was now most in demand as a lecture topic. To be sure, Munsterberg spoke also on other sub- jects during the season of 1907-08, for he was continually desired as international interpreter; yet those clubs and societies that wanted the most advanced ideas that science had to offer were eager to hear about the new possibilities of psychology.
In January, 1908, Munsterberg went to Chicago, where he spoke to the City Club on "Psychology and Law."
Munsterberg could not be in Chicago without a visit to Chicago University, where Professor Albion Small, his cooperator for the success of the St. Louis Congress, gave him a cordial welcome. Munsterberg spoke at the Univer- sity of Chicago on "Educational Aim." In this lecture the Harvard philosopher presented his philosophical and educational theories which were opposed to those prevalent among his audience. Nevertheless, to quote from a letter of Professor Small:
Instead of being in any other sense displeased with what you said, they all expressed themselves to me as delighted to have you put your own views in your own forcible way before our com- munity. They take issue, of course, as you knew beforehand, but they were glad to have you state your case in your own way. They would also be glad if it could be made possible some time in the future for you to be here long enough to fill out the state- ment with a full argument.
Personally you will always find the latch string out, not merely at our house, but in a great many others whenever you can visit us. ...
On the way back from Chicago, Munsterberg visited Buffalo, where he also gave an address on "Educational Aims," and on "Psychology and Law" — a sign that the problems of legal psychology were filling the atmosphere
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of public interest as the " latest" and most fascinating subject. In connection with his role as educator, the psy- chologist was led about on a visiting tour to schools of the city by the Superintendent of Schools in Buffalo. In one large high school the teacher of Roman history asked a boy: "Can you tell me the chief difference between the life of the Romans and our own life?" Thereupon the boy answered promptly: "In Rome the father was the head of the family. ' ' This little incident Miinsterberg delighted in telling at his own table ever afterward.
Before returning to Boston, Miinsterberg stopped at New York to take part in and speak at the reception of wel- come given in New York to Professor Burgess who had just returned from Berlin where he had lectured during the winter months as Roosevelt Professor sent by Columbia University.
It was not possible for Miinsterberg to accept every invitation, however desirable it might be. President Schurman of Cornell, who had invited him to Ithaca, wrote in December, 1907: "As to a lecture we want by all means to have one from you. I am most attracted by the first subject you mention, namely 'Psychology and Law' — '' Difficulties in settling on a date, however, pre- vented Miinsterberg from carrying out his plan of re- sponding to the invitation, and presenting his ideas on the applied science. He was prevented from accepting invi- tations not only to Cornell University, where his eminent friend and colleague, Professor Titchener, found the ideal surroundings for his work, but also to others, as the Uni- versity of Minnesota, and the Kansas State Agricultural College. Indeed when Kansas was blessing its alumni whom Miinsterberg was to address, he was sailing on the high seas.
There was one city that Miinsterberg visited without lecturing or making speeches of any kind, but where he
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found stimulus in plenty and entertaining hospitality, and that city was Washington. In November, 1906, just before a short winter voyage to Europe, he enjoyed such a visit in the capital, where Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House. Munsterberg found the President always accessible, hospitable to new ideas, intellectually agile in identifying himself with any interests of others and, in spite of his delightful self-assertion, ready to follow sug- gestions with which he agreed.
During his visit to Washington in November, 1906, Munsterberg attended a luncheon at the White House to- gether with Elihu Root, the Secretary of State and Wil- liam H. Taft, the Secretary of War. A little incident at that luncheon amused Munsterberg later when he recalled it in the days of the Taft administration. He had been seated between Mrs. Taft and Mrs. Root and heard how the President jocosely made some flattering remarks to Mrs. Root. All at once the host of the White House turned seriously to Munsterberg and said:
''This may sound as if I were talking to the future President's wife, but the future President's wife is sit- ting at the other side of you."
This visit took place at a time when the President took a lively interest in those educational and cultural bonds — more subtle and supple than political or commercial ties — that were to bring about understanding, hence sympathy and, if possible, harmony among nations; and no one set more ardent hopes on the virtue of these ties and worked more eagerly to fashion them than the Harvard psycholo- gist.
A man whose appointment as American Ambassador to Berlin Munsterberg eagerly desired, encouraged and had the satisfaction of seeing made actual was that of the scholar, David Jayne Hill, who had previously been Min- ister to 'Switzerland and to the Netherlands. In him
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Miinsterberg saw a worthy successor to Andrew D. White, one who would carry into his office the high ideals and broad outlook of a historian as well as a statesman. Both Mr. White, the veteran statesman and scholar, and the younger aspirant to his post had been college presidents as well as teachers and productive scholars, both were historians and, remarkable as such a minute coincidence may seem, both had studied and written about the life and work of Hugo Grotius.
Here are two letters from Mr. Hill just after he had been appointed Ambassador.
WASHINGTON, D. C. Nov. 18, 1907. DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
Please to accept my sincere thanks for your charming letter of the 13th, which has given me great pleasure. I deeply appreciate your friendly sentiments, and also your earnest desire to promote the good understanding between our tTO> coun- tries, in which you have been so useful.
To my regret, I shall not be able to see you in New York next Thursday, but I hope to have an opportunity before I return to my post toward the end of December. The transfer to Berlin will not take place until next spring.
I am certain at some time to need your valuable advice, and you have generously made access to you for counsel so available that I shall not hesitate to knock at your door when occasion may arise.
With great appreciation of your friendship and kindness, and the hope that I may be of service in the good cause which is near the hearts of us both, I am, my dear Professor Miinsterberg,
Faithfully yours,
DAVID J. HILL
Dec. 6, 1907. MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG,
I have received with great pleasure your recent letter, •with enclosure, your letter written to me at The Hague, and your cablegram of congratulations on my appointment as Ambassador to Berlin. I had hoped to be able to see you in person before returning to my old post, and to thank you with the living voice
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for all the friendship and interest you- have shown to me and find, however, that I must hasten back to Europe, and it is now quite certain that I shall not be able to visit Boston before my depar- ture as I had intended.
I devoutly hope that Mrs. Hill and I may be able to fulfill all expectations of our friends in our new and responsible position. We shall enter upon our task with an earnest desire to promote in every way the good understanding between the two countries. Naturally, we shall do all in our power to strengthen the aca- demic bond, for this seems to me one of the most natural and potent of all. We shall want to know the men of learning, and shall feel honored by their acquaintance and society, if they are generously disposed to permit us to enjoy them. We cannot if we would, and we would not if we could, set up an establishment notable for its luxury or magnificence. We should like better, if circumstances prove favorable, to offer a modest, but a cordial hospitality to these who find satisfaction in the interchange of ideas and are disposed to cultivate sentiments of good will and mutual understanding between our country and the Empire. We shall look for friends everywhere, and I hope we shall find them.
I shall be very happy always to hear from you, and shall ap- preciate your counsels.
Faithfully yours,
DAVID J. HILL
A letter, written in the same year by another diplomat who also was both statesman and scholar, may be of interest for the light it throws on the state of the world's mind at the time before the great upheaval.
Mar. 12, '07. DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG,
Thank you very much for your kind letter, as also for the newspaper cutting giving your denial to the misleading statements of the European interviewer — I am sorry to hear that transatlantic interviewing methods have found their way into Germany, as they had already into England. I had not seen the statement attributed to you, but knew that some journals had ascribed an anti-German motive or intention to my going to the United States which, however absurd to those who knew the facts, might have been believed by some, so I am glad you have given it so vigorous and decided a contradiction. I need not tell you
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nothing was further from the mind of the British Foreign Of- fice. Had they desired a Germanophobe here, they would have shown great stupidity in their selection.
No one here, where all have been most friendly, has been more friendly than the German Ambassador. He and his wife are extremely pleasant and cultivated people, and I trust to find much pleasure in their society.
I have promised to be at Harvard in June, and look forward to seeing you there.
Yours sincerely,
JAMBS BRYCE
On March 3, 1909 ended the brilliant administration of Theodore Roosevelt, so abundant in good fruit and so firmly stamped with his individuality.
In the quiet conservatism, of Roosevelt 's own chosen successor, in his sound judgment and reliability Miinster- berg placed much confidence. While still the candidate of the Republican party, Mr. Taf t wrote :
CINCINNATI, OHIO,
October 21, 1908. MY DEAR SIR,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favor of the 13th of October, and thank you for writing me and for the interest and support which you are giving my candidacy. I appreciate what you have done in the past, and will be glad to let you know in case I know of any way in which you can be of further assistance.
Very sincerely yours,
WM. H. TAFT
Munsterberg's winter trip abroad was in no academic or public interest ; he traveled straight to his old home Danzig to take part in the silver-wedding celebration of his oldest brother, Otto. This journey covered the Christmas vaca- tion at Harvard and the midyear examination period with
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only a short extra ' ' leave of absence " ; it was taken up for the mctet part with family reunions, although Miinsterberg managed to renew contact not only with his old friend Rickert at Freiburg, but with various other scholars of note such as Harnack, Wundt, Waldeyer, and others.
The following summer vacation, as well as the preceding one, was passed on the New England coast, and not till the summer of 1908 did Miinsterberg spend the summer abroad. At Berlin he was glad to have conversations with Mr. Hill, now installed as Ambassador. This was also the time when the first seed for the America Institute, which two years later proved to be a valuable enterprise, sprang up in the mind of Althoff, the brilliant and power- ful administrator of Prussian academic affairs, shortly before his death in October, 1908. This institute will be described fully in another chapter.
It was never Miinsterberg 's custom to pass in comparative idleness even the vacations he spent abroad; and so, at the peaceful country house of his oldest brother, with an outlook over a rambling flower garden, he dictated and made ready for the printer a German book that appeared soon after, under the title Aus Deutsch-Amerika.
During that summer, however, there was not much time for quiet work; for it was especially a summer of con- gresses. In Berlin Miinsterberg had attended the Inter- national Historical Congress; in Heidelberg, during the first week of September, he took active part in the Inter- national Congress of Philosophers. No more charming background for a festive assembly of the lovers of wis- dom from other lands could have been chosen than the mediaeval town on the banks of the Neckar, girt round by lovely woods and crowned by the aged castle ruin that overlooks the smiling valley. The town was not only decorated with flags and garlands to receive the philosophic guests who swarmed in happy holiday mood
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through the quaint winding streets, but the whole popula- tion radiated welcome, so that even the advertisements in the window bore courteous quotations from Kant. The meetings were held in the historic halls of the mediaeval university, and the President of the Congress was the venerable philosopher of Heidelberg, the leader of the Idealists, Professor Windelband. Eminent philosophers had come from different countries, conspicuous among them the French thinker and President of the Fondation Thiers, Professor Emil Boutroux, who afterwards visited America and lectured at Harvard. American philosophy was repre- sented by Josiah Royce, who delivered one of the leading addresses. Never did Miinsterberg forget how, the first day in Heidelberg, he met Royce wandering in blissful solitude about the dreamy nooks and corners of the castle, reviving memories of his happy student days in those very haunts thirty years before. Miinsterberg him- self presided over the psychological sections. Although there were undoubtedly valuable scholarly contributions — and the impetus generated by sharp conflicts of opinion was of no small importance — yet on the whole, it was the social contact, the harmonious congregation of philosophers in holiday spirits, and the feeling that distinctions of age, nationality, and custom dissolved in the warmth of the common devotion to the ultimate problems that made such a Congress really worth while. No more joyful fes- tivities could have been planned for the members of the Congress and their families than the joint excursions into the fragrant woods where rustic inns were opened hospit- ably to the jovial company of thinkers, or the evening sails in large decorated river launches down the Neckar while the night was made brilliant with fireworks and the illumination of the aged castle.
At the end of the summer, Miinsterberg visited Paris
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with his family and his youngest brother, and sailed from Cherbourg in time for the opening of college. This brief tourist's visit was destined to be his last one to Paris, where he had formerly taken active part in psychological congresses and had even met his fate in the form of William James.
At his house in Cambridge, Munsterberg 's social life, during the period just chronicled, continued to be varied and a source of pleasure. Many men either distinguished or entertaining in some sphere of interest crossed his threshold, among them Professor Simon Newcomb, with whom he had been so closely associated in the work for the great Congress at St. Louis.
In the autumn of 1906 a purely social organization was formed in Boston at the instance of Professor Kuno Francke, for the cultivation of interest in German art and literature, particularly for the benefit of those Bos- tonians whose interest had been roused through foreign travel. This organization had a most flourishing career, with ever-growing membership, so that at one Christmas entertainment there was an attendance of six hundred spectators. Illustrious scholars and well known authors who happened to be traveling in the country were asked to lecture or read, beginning with the theologian and historian, Pfleiderer. The first president of this Boston German Society was Mrs. Higginson, wife of Major Henry L. Higginson of Boston, the founder and supporter of the Boston Symphony. Munsterberg was president from 1908 -1910.
In November, 1907, a congress for experts in municipal and other charities assembled in New York. This was of interest to Munsterberg because his brother Emil, a leader in this field, was one of the delegates. The latter's daughter, Else Munsterberg, who a few years later trans-
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lated Jane Addams' Twenty Years in Hull House, and afterwards married the English author, William Harbutt Dawson, remained in Cambridge and spent a winter in the household of her uncle Hugo. 1
i For literature written during the period covered by this chap- ter see Appendix, pages 362-382.
CHAPTER X
TEMPORAL CURRENTS AND ETERNAL VALUES (October, 1908— July, 1910)
IN the autumn of 1908 a new division became part of the organization of the Harvard Psychological Laboratory, namely, that of Applied Psychology. This meant the coming of age of the youngest science that had grown in recent years on Harvard ground under Miinsterberg 's per- sistent care. In this academic year, moreover, Miinster- berg 's salary was raised to the maximum sum with which a scholar was ever recompensed at Harvard. Perhaps it might be said that in this year, which was remarkably fruitful, the recognized influence of the Harvard psychol- ogist had reached it high watermark, though, to be sure, such a statement is arbitrary and the image is not meant to suggest an ebb thenceforward.
Miinsterberg, the psychologist, never ceased to be the philosopher. Indeed, we must not forget that the system- atic presentation of his philosophy had already appeared in 1907 and was to be published in English form in 1909 under the title " Eternal Values." Thus he lived and moved in the midst of philosophic ideas, in spite of the more popularly assertive nature of the psychological inter- ests, and this faithfulness to the eternal problems was grate- fully recognized by students and colleagues. In 1908-1909 Miinsterberg was President of the American Philosophical Association. At its eighth annual meeting at Johns Hop- kins University on the last day of the year 1908, he de- livered the presidential address on "The Problem of Beauty." The address began with these words:
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The masterly presidential address of my predecessor in this office was devoted to "The Problem of Truth." He spoke with authority a unifying word in the struggles which characterize American philosophy of to-day. He focused the interest of our Association on the one central point from which our discussions in recent years have been derived, and there certainly can be no higher mission for such presidential addresses than to give ex- pression in this way to that which stands in the foreground of our thoughts. Yet, is it merely the law of psychical contrast which makes me believe that there is one thing not less impor- tant than the center of our interests, namely, the center of our neglects? Am I entirely wrong in thinking that if such a presi- dential address has to accentuate a certain problem, it may be right to work against philosophical one-sidedness by emphasiz- ing not those problems which are daily with us but those which we have forgotten and almost lost? One-sidedness is nowhere more dangerous than in philosophy, for every true philosophical question and answer is related to the whole philosophical uni- verse. To give attention to a fraction only must always lead to a distorted view of reality. In every other field of intellectual effort the division of labor may demand a one-sided concentra- tion, and perhaps without serious harm. In philosophy there never was, and never can be, a movement which does not pay a grave penalty for the neglect of any fundamental side of life. Truth and morality, beauty and religion give meaning to our life; and the experience which philosophy seeks to interpret and to understand is falsified, if you substitute one single color for the rainbow of reality, if you discuss the question of truth alone.
Surely, I have no right to say that this has occurred wholly. The philosophical problems of morality and religion have been unduly suppressed by the interest in the problem of truth, but they were never really brought into silence. Their inner life en- ergy makes them heard even where they seem to be unwelcome. Only one ideal has suffered the full severity of the situation; while no one in his fights about truth has dared entirely to forget that there is morality in the world too, American philosophers, with two or three notable exceptions, have not cared to remember that beauty also is interwoven in the life we aim to understand. I claim that, without forgetting that the empirical psychology of the sense of beauty, the experimental analysis and the physio- logical explanation, have given us some strong contributions to a psychological aBsthetics. The psychologist has not to speak the
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last word here, and nobody would suppose that he has, if we had not so carelessly and so persistently neglected the philosophy of beauty.
In December, 1909, the Psychological Association, with Professor Judd of Yale as President, met at Harvard, where it had last convened at the time of the opening of Emerson Hall.
Again Miinsterberg 's mail was flooded with invitations to lecture. Although a large part of these had to be declined, he yet responded to not a few. The women's colleges seem to have been especially favored; yet even schools were not neglected. The Commercial Club of Chicago, the Contemporary Club of Philadelphia, the Canadian Club of Toronto, the New York Booster's Club won response to their invitations. ' ' Practical Psychology ' ' was the most favored topic, yet the delicate subject of "Prohibition" was also in demand; the heated discus- sion that swept round Miinsterberg 's address to the Con- temporary Club has already been anticipated in a previous chapter. He gave lectures of a more academic nature at Cornell University, where he was welcomed by his friend and colleague, Professor Titchener, the incarnation of the psychological research work at Cornell. In November, 1908, President James H. Baker asked Miinsterberg to give the commencement address at the University of Colo- rado. A call so far west, however, he could not follow; but in January, 1910, he delivered an address before the Ohio State University. Miinsterberg also gave university extension courses at Philadelphia, and lectured to theolo- gians at the Harvard Summer School. An idea of the strenuousness of his intellectual life may be had by con- sidering that such a lecture program, which involved considerable traveling and often tiring social intercourse with strangers, was carried out merely as a lighter ac-
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companiment to the academic routine and concentrated creative work.
For a man who pervades all his activities with a certain intellectual intensity, it is difficult, nay, aimless, to dis- tinguish between duty and pleasure. In his case duty will be turned into pleasure, and enterprises that are intended as pleasure will invariably be carried out with a sense of duty. Into this doubtful category falls a most pleasurable, yet, in spite of its luxurious accompaniment, decidedly fatiguing journey through Canada in the society of prominent British and American scholars.
The British Association for Advancement of Science was to meet in a great congress of naturalists at Winnipeg, and in order to attract prominent scientists from Eng- land, the Canadian Government invited them to a jour- ney on a special train from Winnipeg to the Pacific Coast through all the marvelous beauties of the Canadian high- lands. As a further inducement, they were to be given the opportunity of meeting a few scientists from American universities who were also to be guests of the Government.
One of these was Miinsterberg. After some hesitation about leaving his quiet, contemplative summer retreat for the whirlpool of a congress and a long journey during which privacy was impossible, he decided to accept the invitation, and on August 25, 1909, he found himself in the Royal Alexandra Hotel at Winnipeg in a company of British scientists. Of his journey thither he wrote home: "My incognito did not work — the whole train is swarming with science, whereby the heat is not diminished. ' ' And another time : ' ' The long ride was like a steamer trip ; every one knew every one ; one made calls on one another, sat round in groups and chatted till five o'clock in the morning/' At Winnipeg 1,500 scientists, mostly Englishmen, were gathered for a week of lecturing, talking, banqueting, and the like. The congress was opened with an impressive
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ceremony. "I sat on the stage of the theater," Miinster- berg wrote home. "The brilliant address of President Thompson and the speech of Lord Strathcona, who has come over here now at 89 years of age, after he had, fifty years ago, as simple workman created Winnipeg out of the desert — these were indeed unforgettable impressions be- cause of the historic contrast."
Miinsterberg took a lively part in the discussions in the educational section; his lecture on "Psychology and Edu- cation" was followed by a vote of thanks. He was prob- ably the only psychologist in the convention, which was composed, for the most part, of physicists and chemists.
The city of Winnipeg seemed to Miinsterberg a "peculiar mixture of civilization and prairie." He saw it in its festive attire, as there was a round of those festivities that always attend congresses, but this time with a flavor belonging to the special place of meeting. A lawn party was given by the President of the Hudson Bay Company, and receptions by the Governor and by Lord Strathcona. On September 2nd the honored guests of the Government, some of them accompanied by their families, started out on their memorable journey: 180 travelers there were in the luxurious special train, 20 in each car, including three reporters and a photographer. It was a unique company that sped across the continent, with uninterrupted leisure for inspired exchange of ideas or entertaining yarns. Among the names of those whom Miinsterberg ever afterward associated with this congenial gathering were J. J. Thompson, Waller, Armstrong, Goldstein, Wat- son, Bigwater, Holland, Richardson, Smith, Reiehenheim and William White. The journey was made with an almost miraculous punctuality; there was a special rail- road official in the train whose function it was to see that this "scientific" train had precedence over all others, so that other trains had to wait till it had passed by.
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Through Regina, Calgary, Banff to Vancouver the scien- tists were carried as through a wonderland, and wherever they stopped, they were welcomed by the inhabitants of the town or village.
One stop at an Indian settlement Miinsterberg used to recall with special pleasure. An Indian deputation of chiefs, in full gala costumes of their tribe, which they donned only on supreme occasions, was at the station to honor the Dominion's guests with noble ceremony. Dis- creet inquiry was made by the scientists what the heart's desire of these true aristocrats might be, and after it had been confided, immediately a sum was raised by which the Indians were to be presented with two fine new ponies. The glories of the gigantic highlands near Banff and be- yond enchanted the nature lover in Miinsterberg. From the last mountain stop, Glacier, British Columbia, he wrote enthusiastically of his two ideal days in the mountains, spent walking and climbing in perfect ease and delight, braced by the wonderful rare mountain air. On September 7th the company reached Vancouver, and from there embarked for Victoria, where great festivities were planned. Miin- sterberg, however, went alone by the night boat to Seattle where he wished to look at the Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Ex- position. For a day he wandered about, no doubt enjoy- ing this brief solitude on the exposition ground. The ex- hibitions of Alaska and Japan impressed him, the rest not at all; but he bought some bronzes that after his return adorned his house in Cambridge and brought to his mind the British Association with a Rocky Mountain back- ground. At Vancouver he rejoined his fellow travelers and started on the smooth, swift " extra" journey to Win- nipeg, where the congenial party disbanded, and the guest from Harvard entrusted himself to ordinary trains that carried him home, ready for tranquility and work.
The academic year of 1909-1910 opened by no means with
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the usual routine. This was the time when President Charles William Eliot stepped down from his presidential seat, after forty years of eminent administration, during which he had raised Harvard to one of the great scholarly universities of the world. Miinsterberg had always had a profound admiration for President Eliot as well as an affectionate regard. Therefore, whenever their opinions conflicted, which happened not infrequently, and even led to temporary friction, there always remained a foundation of mutual kindliness. The chief of these discords, strange as this may seem to-day in the light of subsequent dis- tortions of history, was due to Miinsterberg 's very much qualified approval of the international professorial ex- change. The shadow of this difference, however, passed away ; and when President Eliot, still as vigorous as a man in his prime, of his own will stepped aside for a younger successor, Miinsterberg felt only regret that Harvard should lose at once its builder and its chief buttress, and gratitude to the educator who had always understood the spirit of the creative scholar and valued the fruit of this spirit. Five years earlier, after the world and the Harvard world in particular had celebrated Eliot 's seventieth birth- day, he had written to Miinsterberg:
Harvard University, CAMBRIDGE, M&rdh 22, 1904. DEAR DR. MUNSTERBERG:
I shall be very glad to read your book on American life next summer at Mt. Desert. That is the only time of year when I can read much.
You have been witness to a rather striking demonstration of the spirit and behavior of Harvard graduates and undergraduates when they really set about telling a veteran in their service what they think of him. Although rather inexpressive in ordinary life, at a crisis they manage to express themselves with some force.
Your coming to the University, and your service to it, have
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been among the very interesting features of my work during the last twelve years. Thirty years from now I think you will be able to record many remarkable changes in American life since you first surveyed it; and the changes in the University will not be the least interesting.
Very truly yours, CHARLES W. ELIOT
"Thirty years from now — "! At the present time, eighteen years later, President Emeritus Eliot, still erect and brisk, is surveying "remarkable changes " not only in America, but in the whole world ; the eyes of the younger sage, to whom his prophecy was spoken, have mercifully been closed.
The inauguration of the new president, though it had no immediate effect on Miinsterberg 's life, marked so prominent an epoch in the history of Harvard that it cannot well be passed over. As a matter of fact, Professor Lowell had already been acting president since the be- ginning of 1909, and had conferred degrees at Commence- ment.
The inauguration ceremonies were remarkably pictur- esque, and impressive also because of the symbolic and historic significance of the three hundred foreign and domestic delegates, come to honor- the newest president of one of the oldest colleges in America. Wednesday, Oc- tober 6, 1909, was a brilliant October day ; sunshine, from a deep blue sky brightened the ivy on the venerable crimson buildings. On this day under the open sky in the college yard the ceremonies were enacted. A platform was raised in front of University Hall, bearing 900 chairs for the dignitaries, guests, and delegates, with a canopied dais in the center for the President. The alumni chorus was seated in front of the platform, and the spectators sat in the still, brisk open air on eight thousand seats, or, if they were undergraduates, on the roofs of the college
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buildings. Stately was the procession, led by the chief Marshal, T. N. Perkins '91 of the Corporation, of the President Emeritus, the Overseers, deans, and professors; the column of foreign and national delegates led by the University Marshal, M. H. Morgan; Governor Draper with the Lieutentant-Governor, the Governor's military staff, etc.; and finally the Latin orator, the Secretary, the Bursar, and the Librarian with seal, keys,, and the college charter on a parchment roll, the Bishop, the President of the Board of Overseers, ex-Governor Long, and the Presi- dent-Elect. A dignified, mediaeval ceremony was the solemn induction of the President by ex-Governor Long with charter, seal, and keys, and the new President's formal reply.
The President's inaugural address expressed high ideals. The immediate practical program was concerned mainly with a reaction against th.e extreme elective system that had flourished under his predecessor, a proposal for the concentration on one line of study combined with a grounding in various other subjects. The hopes set on the leavening and democratic effect of the freshman dormitories were given special emphasis. But the sentiment thajt must have kindled faith in the breasts of creative scholars like Miinsterberg was the declaration of the glory of scholarship in words like these r
"We do not make our" students enjoy the sense of power that flows from the mastery of a difficult subject, and on a higher plane we do not make them feel the romance of scholarly dis- covery. . . . Too often a professor of original power explains to docile pupils the process of mining intellectual gold, without seeking nuggets himself. . . ." And the closing words : "When th*e young men shall see visions, the dreams of old men will come true."
The new President's first duty, to which he turned im- mediately, was to confer honorary degrees on a great
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number of distinguished delegates who had come, many from very far, to do him honor. The art of bestowing degrees gracefully with the apt word for each recipient, President Lowell mastered. It is well known that to many, such ceremonies and official compliments seem vain and shallow. These scoffers, like unmusical people at a sym- phony, must be excused because of their lack of that historic and aesthetic sense that sees substance in symbols. On that bright October day the many colored hoods on the academic gowns of all the great universities of the world were a gay sight, conspicuous among them the white fleece of the Oxford hood. Honorary degrees were be- stowed upon representatives of Oxford, Cambridge, Glas- gow, Liverpool, Copenhagen universities, the College de France, universities at Groningen, Berlin, McGill, Cape of Good Hope, and upon presidents of the American uni- versities Columbia, Virginia, Union Theological Seminary, Illinois, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Chicago.
Some of the speeches with which the degrees were be- stowed may well be quoted as examples of aptness, and also as historic curiosities when viewed from the angle of subsequent events:
Doctor of Letters :
James Bryce, delegate from the University of Oxford; guide, honored and beloved by all students of political science, whose portrayal of our Government will last as long as books are read ; an envoy who has earned the gratitude of two nations by draw- ing closer the ties that bind the children of a common stock.
Doctor of Letters :
Joseph Bedier, delegate from the College de France; a scholar who adds luster to a famous chair; a Frenchman, inspired by the literary splendors of his country, who has illuminated the origins of French romance.
Doctor of Letters :
Eduard Meyer, classical historian, unsurpassed by living man;
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doubly welcome here, as delegate from the University of Berlin, and as our fellow teacher and comrade for the coming year.
Doctor of Laws:
Otto Gierke, delegate from the University of Berlin; soldier, historian, jurist; who as a youth won the Iron Cross at the siege of Mezieres, and as a man has compelled the admiration of all scholars by his unmatched knowledge of legal and political thought since the Middle Ages.
At the luncheon after the ceremony a telegram was read from Adolphus Busch announcing an increase of his gift from $100,000 to $150,000 for the Germanic Museum at Harvard. A second telegram was read from President Taft who was in San Francisco.
For Miinsterberg, the academic year opened much as had preceding years, and it was only in the course of time that the change in the administration made itself felt.
It has been said at the beginning of the chapter that the Harvard Psychological Laboratory had now a new division for applied psychology. In the foregoing chapter we have observed a concentration on the application of psychology to the problems of law and criminology. Miinsterberg 's experience in psychotherapy has been mentioned fre- quently, and it has been shown how familiarity with the methods of treating mental symptoms was a decided help in solving the problems of justice and crime. The year 1908-09, however, stood preeminently under the sign of psychotherapeutic interests. It was at this time that the psychologist was gathering his material, the fruit of his manifold experiments, into a comprehensive study of the whole field of psychotherapy. It must not be forgotten that, although the cases he accepted from among the many that came to him were all chosen for their scien- tific value, it was none the less his heart's desire to help the suffering patients. And, indeed, he was a " beloved
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physician." Weeks of patient devotion to a case were rewarded by the happiness of the sufferer who, restored to health and fitness, walked cheerfully forth into the sunshine. But to watch the painful struggle of tortured patients against destructive habits and perversities often meant a strain on the nerves of the healer, which were sensitive, and the fulfillment of this self-imposed duty required no small sacrifice. Most varied was the pro- cession of the tortured who approached him with a last ray of hope. There was the man who had heard of a woman's suicide by poison soon after meeting her at a gay dinner, and had, ever after the shock of this contrast, been haunted, particularly at meals, by the vision of a woman drinking a glass of poison ; there was the physician who felt a scratching and cutting sensation in his wrist at the sight of a knife or razor; the school teacher who, though she knew no man, had a morbid fear of having a child; the young writer who felt herself under the un- canny influence of an editor, and who, after tearing her- self away from his domination, found that she could not write at all. There was the young scholar who suffered whenever he was either in a crowd or in some high place looking down ; the lady who had lost her husband and who from seeing headlines in the newspaper announcing his death by suicide, had such a shock that the sight of scis- sors brought about torturing hallucinations of daggers. An epileptic young woman came who had all her life been troubled by hearing voices; a man who could not over- come a fear of walking in the street; stammerers sought relief. Finally a young woman who ever since she once noticed a certain man whose two eyes were of different colors was found to look from one eye to another of every face she saw, till she was driven almost to distraction.
Strange symptoms these, and to the robust and ignorant layman they may even seem absurd. Truly he who does
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not know the gloom, the utter misery of these seemingly flimsy maladies cannot measure the blessing of relief from such torment more horrible than bodily pain. Some of the cases mentioned above were cured by hypnotism ; some by suggestive treatment without the need of hypnotic sleep; a number of patients were even treated by sug- gestion through the mail without personal contact. The details of the curative methods shall not here be con- sidered, for they are recorded in the volume Psychotherapy which shall be examined later.
Not only strange, eccentric symptoms, like those de- scribed above, were cured by hypnotic treatment, but those vices that are universally known to be destructive. The case has elsewhere been cited of the miserable morphinist who with devotion on the part of the hypnotist and pain- ful struggles on his own part was restored to normal life and happiness. Even through correspondence Miinster- berg was able to help distant sufferers by starting and guiding their autosuggestions. With the cocaine habit it was the same as with the morphine habit, also with the combination, which is frequent, of morphine and cocaine. One patient, a physician, who became a slave to cocaine which poisoned his brain, was tormented by sound-hal- lucinations that he believed to be the .voice of an accusing brother. After ten days of hypnotic treatment he gave up cocaine entirely, after three weeks the voices dis- appeared and slowly the other symptoms faded away. The pathological idea of the telepathetic influence lasted a while after the voices had gone until this idea, too, yielded to suggestion. It still took six weeks before he himself felt that he was entirely normal.
Munsterberg treated drunkards, too, and his experi- ence with them gave him additional authority to judge the problem of prohibition. Although he won success in this field, he came to recognize the possible presence of
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one almost insurmountable difficulty — deceit practiced by the patient. This fact was brought home through a keen disappointment. A brilliant and charming young short- story writer, whose tales Munsterberg himself read with much pleasure, could not write without the inspiration of whiskey, and had become a desperate drinker. His parents came to Boston to have their son treated at the Harvard Laboratory and kept him closely guarded at the hotel and on the way to the psychologist's room. The young man, a former student of Miinsterberg, was little more than a boy and won the heart of his new physician, who called him by his first name. The youth was pledged, not to stop drinking, but to confess whenever he touched whiskey. To Munsterberg 's surprise the patient, after the first day of the treatment, which had so far consisted only of a tentative suggestion, assured his physician that he had awakened that morning with a sense that he should never touch whiskey again. This assurance was repeated. The next four days this continued until before the fifth day Munsterberg discovered that the young man had on his arrival at the hotel bribed a laundress to bring him a pint of whiskey every day, which he drank in the night. Then, of course, Munsterberg declined to continue the treatment. The young man has since led a notorious life and of his authorship little more has been heard.
An extraordinary case happened in 1908 which was of the greatest possible importance to the community. Two mysterious train wrecks had occurred in Michigan on the Grand Trunk Railroad, evidently due to the turning of a switch by some unknown hand. On the 8th of January, 1908, Munsterberg received a letter from a woman, ap- parently fairly well educated, in Michigan, near the scene of the railroad wrecks. The letter began : ' * Your article in Jan. McClure's Magazine on 'Hypnotism and Crime7 was read with interest by me, but failed to satisfy me along
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one line of your argument, wherein you state that hypnotic power cannot be exerted in a manner which seems wrong- ful, by a distant hypnotizer. Recent occurrences at this and other places cause me to differ from you on that point." Then she went on to tell how two railroad wrecks on the Grand Trunk Railroad had followed severe paroxysms of grief she had had over wrongs done to her and her family by the railroad company; how dreams had foretold the calamities and how her own intense thought of her wrongs was sure to be followed by some disaster.
Miinsterberg felt immediately that this was a case that not only promised unusual material for scientific investi- gation, but which he was in duty bound to examine further in order to protect the community. He immediately wrote to officials of the Grand Trunk Railway, who were grateful for his information and interest in the case and asked him to investigate it further. To the woman he replied thus:
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. January 17, 1908.
MY DEAR MBS.
I was very much interested indeed in receiving your letter of January eighth. I should have replied before this if I had not been ill with the grippe. Your statements are very suggestive and my psychological interest in your case leads me to beg you for further details. Of course, there are many mysterious con- nections in the world and science is only at the beginning of the discovery of them. The more it is necessary that we gather all possible details in every important case.
Now, I understand that you believe yourself that the last rail- road wreck, which occurred through the opening of a switch by an unknown hand, was really the result of your justified excite- ment and anger, as the Company had ignored your requests for justice. Now I should like to know more in detail how you would be able to prove to science this connection. Had you, for in- stance, a clear visual image of the coming wreck a short time before the collision occurred ? Or did you dream in your imagina-
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tion of yourself as opening the switches? Or did you see any one else opening them? Do you remember where you were when the collision occurred? And how long before you had been in the neighborhood of that switch? It, of course, would not have been impossible that the influence of your justified excitement made not only your mind but also your hand, without your knowl- edge, and of course without your responsibility, a passive instru- ment of the punishment of the Company. I wish very much that you would tell me every little thing about it, as such mysterious connections and evil influences are often best understood when all the little particulars are brought to light. I shall be very much interested to hear all the details from you which refer to your mysterious relation to those last two wrecks. I shall then write to you my opinion. As a matter of course, this letter is only for your private use, and I trust that you do not bring any- thing into the newspapers, as publicity is the very worst thing for such inquiries.
With many thanks,
Very sincerely yours,
HUGO MUNSTERBERG.
The correspondence continued and all doubt was re- moved that the woman in a morbid condition had turned the switch, although, when the deed was done, she had no recollection of herself as agent. This discovery made a strong impression on the mind of the public. That even such an abnormal personality as this dangerous woman may be influenced by the subtle methods of the patient and discriminating psychologist appears in a letter she wrote a year later:
12-27-08
MR. HUGO MUNSTERBEUG,
Professor of Psychology at Harvard College. DEAR SIR:
When your favor of the 19th reached me, my first thought was, did I make him write me, or, did he make me review the happenings of a year ago, which also included your correspon- dence concerning it all as I recalled the whole scene a few evenings before as I stood looking out into a foggy close of a dreary day, at a passing train, but, though the sense of in-
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jury, at the hands of the station agent, and railroad officials, is as strong as ever, the absence of the bitter, revengeful feeling before felt, surprised me. Have you helped me to overcome it?
Indeed, as Miinsterberg wrote to an official in the Grand Trunk Railway's legal department:
I am afraid that if Mrs. is approached directly, either by
the court or by a lunacy commission, the mental traces of the true facts will be lost and you would probably be unable to de- liver her to a place of safety. Detectives might, of course, put an end to further crime by watching her, but they would be unable to clear up the past. The only scientific way to bring out the whole truth . . .
And the scientific way was justified by its results.
The attitude of Miinsterberg, the psychotherapist and psychologist, toward the so-called "mystical" phenomena and activities that absorb the attention of spiritualists has already been presented in a previous chapter. His article "Communication with the Dead" had been a popular statement of his attitude, and it was generally known that he would have nothing to do with mediums and the like. It was at the close of the year 1909 that the coming of the famous Italian medium, Mme. Eusapia Palladino, was heralded in America. She it was who had astounded and completely mystified scientists, among them Lombroso, the renowned Italian criminologist. Her manager in America, Herewar"d Carrington, had originally traveled to Naples as a skeptic — it was said, in order to expose her — and had become a firm believer in her mysterious powers. This Mr. Carrington wrote to Miinsterberg, and asked him if he would consent to investigate Mme*. Palladino 's mediumship, in cooperation with professors from Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and other universities.
The names of the scientists invited to attend the extraor- dinary seance planned by Mr. Carrington were im-
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mediately blazoned abroad by the press, to the disgust of Miinsterberg and others among the possible participants. It might have been expected tha.t Miinsterberg would refuse point-blank to be involved in this occult program: yet it seemed to him wiser not to flee the spirit world always, but to make up his mind to face it for once. His motives for this decision appear in a letter tjo Dr. Dana, the psychiatrist, who refused absolutely to take part in the so-called "investigation."
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
November 19, 1909. MY DEAR DR. DANA:
I am very greatly obliged to you for your very kind letter concerning the Palladino humbug. ... Of course I also entirely agree with your views that the conditions planned for those seances are contrary to the spirit of a really scientific investigation.
Yet after some hesitation I believe that I shall have to come to a different conclusion from these premises. My natural in- stinct, of course, would be not to touch that whole affair. But this has been my attitude anyhow all my life long. I have steadily refused to have anything to do with Mrs. Piper and with all the other mediums whom for years I have been urged to ex- amine. I felt that all those phenomena were presented in a form in which a real, scientific study was improbable. But the result has been an increasing sharpness of attack against me. My friend and colleague, William James, only a few weeks ago declared in a public club meeting, as the newspapers reported, that my standpoint is that of shallow dogmatism, which, as he said, is in no way more scientific than that of mystical supersti- tion. This is exactly the kind of talk which I have now heard for years and which in the eyes of wide circles makes me unfit to fight at all the humbug which is going on all around us, and here in Boston more than at other places.
I was feeling tired of this kind of attack when Mr. Carring- ton's invitation came, and therefore declared that this time I should do what they wanted me to do. There has never been a moment when I doubted that the whole thing is trickery and I felt sure from the. start that the thing would go on under condi-
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tions which have nothing to do with a scientific investigation. The development as to the conditions — not as to the publicity which I did not foresee — corresponds therefore exactly to my antici- pations. It is just for that reason that I shall go on. I shall do what they want of me, shall submit to their humbug and shall then at least be justified in future in telling them that I have now yielded to their wishes and entered into their so-called best case and yet that I found it humbug from the start to the finish and therefore shall never in my life touch these matters again. If I decline to take part now, I should only have to hear the old story and am unable to stand out against the illusions which, of course, will very soon creep up in the newspapers and magazines of the country.
Of course I should not wonder if that spiritualistic clique should find a pretext to exclude me after all from the seances, as they evidently distrust me more than any one. They have al- ready started the neat legend that I was not invited but that it was my wish to take part and that they are ready to yield to it. As a matter of course I yielded to their urgent lequest and even those newspaper interviews . . . saying that I am delighted with the prospect of having a chance to examine Palladino are pure invention.
Very sincerely yours,
HUGO MtJNSTERBERG
The sitting with the scientists was postponed till Feb- ruary; Miinsterberg foresaw that, in the meantime, the publicity of the scholars' names, including his own, would continue, apparently having the effect of an advertisement for the medium. To this he objected, and declined to participate at all unless he were given opportunity to take part in a regular, ordinary seance in December. It was finally arranged that Minister berg was to join the party of a Bostonian, with whom he was already well acquainted, at the first seance, after which he would decide whether or not he desired to "sit" again. His condition for taking part was that he should sit at the medium's side, holding her hand; he also made it clearly understood that he
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should be free to give the result of his investigation to the public.
Miinsterberg was well aware that he lacked the desir- able equipment with which to meet the mystery, for no one is so habitually trustful of his collaborators as the scientist. As he said later in his account of his experience :
The lawyer is on the lookout, the physician has to examine whether the hysteric patient is telling him the truth, the business man hardly expects always to hear the whole truth, the politician is skeptical, the journalist does not believe anything; but the scientist lives in the certainty that every one who enters the temple of science considers truth the highest godhead. And now he, with his bland naivete and his training in blind con- fidence, is again and again called to make inquiries which would demand a detective and a prestidigitator.
The party that attended the seance was very congenial and, as it were, " worked together. "
It was in the Lincoln Square Arcade, in an atmosphere of occultism, that Eusapia Palladino held her court. Miin- sterberg did not find the Italian woman of peasant origin nearly so disagreeable as he had been warned; he went so far as to concede her a certain charm and humor. In the room where the seance was held, there was a partition with a little board cabinet built into it. In front of the cabinet hung two black curtains, and behind those stood a light little table holding a guitar and other musical instruments. The chair of the medium was about a foot from the curtains and in front of her stood a light, roughly made table. Electric burglar alarms were attached to the windows to remove all suspicion of help entering from outside. After the party had sat three minutes, the table began to lift its legs first on one side, then on the other, and to fall back suddenly after a few seconds; then the whole table was raised into the air, while Mme. Palladino 's
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hands were removed from it and the hands of the others touched it lightly. Strong rappings on the table gave commands to the sitters to fulfill her conditions, such as the holding of each other's hands in the chain; hiccoughs indicated the deeper trance of the medium. The room was darkened for the more favorable manifestations of the spirit "John," as the occult power was called. "John" produced strong breezes from the cabinet, the curtain was blown on the table. After four raps on the table, as a signal that the sitters should talk more, sud- denly the little table in the cabinet crept out and tones rose from the guitar. While Mme. Palladino's hands, knees, and feet were held by members of the party — her feet in the form of having her feet rest on one foot of each of her two neighbors — these neighbors were touched on the arm and the back and had their sleeves pulled by the spirit "John." Munsterberg stood by the curtain and felt it bulge, as if a balloon were pressing against it. Uncanny though the performances of this spirit were, it was noteworthy that they never occurred more than three feet away from the medium.
It was at the second and last seance which Munsterberg attended that the spirit ' ' John ' ' reached a crisis. Munster- berg was sitting on the medium's left, another well known scientist on her right; her left hand and left foot were in contact with Munsterberg 's hand and foot, her right hand and right foot in contact with hand and foot of her other neighbor. Now Mr. Carrington begged "John" to come and touch Munsterberg 's arm and lift the table in the cabinet. The spirit obeyed and indeed touched Munsterberg on the hip, then on the arm, and pulled his sleeve so that he seemed to feel thumb and fingers. He was holding the medium's hand, he felt her foot pressing upon his; the table in the cabinet was about to lift when all at once a wild, yelling scream pierced the air. In the
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cabinet a man lay on the floor who had seized Mme. Pal- ladino's foot by the heel, in the act of its fishing for the table about to be raised, and the spirit "John" was defeated. It was Edgar Scott, of Philadelphia, who at the time did not wish to have his name made known, who had the dexterity to catch the culprit foot. On Miinster- berg's suggestion that there might be wires connected with her body, it was planned that Mr. Scott should wriggle his way like a snail into it and fish about there during the performance. To prevent the medium from detecting this maneuver, some one had dashed into the cabinet and out again, thereby distracting her, as Miinsterberg had planned. Mr. Scott, at the given moment, had found not wires, but a live foot. His impressions of that critical moment Miin- sterberg gave in the following letter to a participant in the seances :
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
January 19, 1910. MY DEAR MR. DORR:
In accordance with your request I state here hi writing what I at once told you orally after our seance with Madame Palladino on December 18th, the second in which I took part. I understand that you are interested only in a statement concern- ing those observations which have reference to Madame Palladino's situation at the time when her foot was grasped in the cabinet.
At the moment when her screaming indicated that she was grasped, I felt sure that I held her left hand with my right hand and that I felt her left shoe on my right foot. Moreover I felt sure that no change in the pressure of the shoe had occurred dur- ing the preceding minutes. I believed myself to feel both the heel and the sole of her left shoe while it was her left foot which reached out for the table in the cabinet. Inasmuch as the gentle- man on her right side also felt her whole foot on his foot, I con- sider it impossible that a substitution had set in by which her right foot gave to both her neighbors the feeling of being touched by her shoe. As throughout that part of the seance I gave my fullest attention to my foot sensations, I must believe that her right foot remained on the foot of her right neighbor and that her left shoe remained on my foot.
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The skill with which she succeeded in removing her foot from the shoe without giving me the slightest suspicion appears to me marvelous. By my laboratory work I am accustomed to care- ful observation of impressions. I gave my full attention to the tactual sensations which her shoe produced on my foot and yet I did not notice anything of the change until the scream occurred. On the other hand I confess that the surprise of the scream with- drew my attention for a few seconds so fully from the tactual sensations that later I was unable to remember what happened immediately after the surprise. Certainly when I turned my at- tention to my foot again, her foot was in the shoe once more. But it may be that a minute had elapsed since thte excitement which the scream produced.
Let me add that the gentleman who caught Madame Palladino's foot in the cabinet told me a few minutes afterwards that he had grasped it near the heel and that the foot was without a shoe. The tactual sensations which I perceived at the arm were also such as an unshod foot might easily produce with the toes, while a shoe could not have given them.
Very truly yours, HUGO MUNSTERBERG
For Miinsterberg there was no longer any doubt, that, as he had suspected from the start, all Palladino 's wonders were done by trickery, marvelous though they were as feats of dexterous juggling that required life-long prac- tice.
It must not be supposed, however, humbug though her spiritual power was, that Miinsterberg considered Eusapia Palladino a calculating deceiver. He attributed her alert- ness and cunning during her trance state and her apparent unconsciousness of what she had done after she was back in a normal condition, to a case of hysteric double or "split-off personality" resulting from abnormal inhibi- tions of the brain.
In an article in the Metropolitan Magazine Miinsterberg gave his views on the sensational medium as well as an account of his experience with her. Quotations from this
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article, comments upon it, and varied journalistic em- broideries upon the theme of Miinsterberg's episode with Palladino flooded the press. That the exposure of the medium should gain such wide publicity was what Miinster- berg desired — not indeed, from any resentment against the ignorant Italian peasant woman, still less against her manager who was a devoted believer in her powers, but because of the danger to sound reasoning and to the recognition of scientific truth that lay in the belief inj table-lifting and sleeve-pulling spirits. If these phenom-) ena had been genuine, they would have shattered the whole laborious edifice of science to bits — for to find one loophole in the structure of cause and effect was to deny its necessity, hence its existence; and it was consolation indeed to find that, as far as Eusapia and the spirit ' i John-' ' were concerned, the venerable pile was still built on rock. On the other hand, it is not necessary here to assert that Miinsterberg was not a materialist, not even a pragmatist like his friend William James, but a pure idealist. As such it was that he demanded the construction of an orderly world of cause and effect to fulfill the ideal will to seek truth ; as idealist he could tolerate no trifling with this constructed world of law and order. In his own words : "The principle of ultimate truth must be sought in our own logic and reason, and no philosophy can be found by watching the psychic of the Lincoln Square Arcade."
Among the vapors of occult spiritualism and in the gloomy atmosphere of the mental diseases that he studied and cured, Miinsterberg did not lose access to the sunny fields of art. He could strip off the scientific view of the world and enter with naive, though discriminating, en- thusiasm into the enjoyment of a picture, a symphony, or a play. It happened curiously, however, that one of the essays he had given the world as a scientist suggested a play to a popular playwright. Charles Klein read the
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book On the Witness Stand and was particularly impressed with the chapter ' * Untrue Confessions ' ' in which the story was told of the young man who by the " third degree" method was forced to confess a murder, though he was innocent. Upon this basis Mr. Klein built his play The Third Degree in which the brutal extortion of a confession from an innocent man is made into a dramatic scene. Mr. Klein asked Miinsterberg 's advice during his work on the play, and this counsel both as psychologist and as lover of the drama he delighted in giving.
"The play is evidently whetting the public mind in a subject far above the reach of the average intelligence," the playwright wrote to the psychologist " — the play edu- cates them up to the subject of the book and in that way it may benefit." In a postscript Mr. Klein was able to add: "The play is doing an enormous business." Indeed, it began its career with a run of seven months at the Hudson Theater in New York. Even in the days of the present writing, The Third Degree is being shown as a photoplay and is thus reaching a still larger public. And numberless minds are reflecting on the words of the devoted young wife of the innocent victim in the play, who tries untiringly to win for him the defense of a noted lawyer in whom she has confidence, but who declares that he does not take criminal cases: "I don't want you to defend him because he is a criminal : I want you to defend him because he is not a criminal."
In April, 1909, Miinsterberg combined his attendance at the psychological congress in Baltimore with a short visit to Washington. This was in the time of the Taft administration and Miinsterberg and his wife enjoyed an intimate luncheon at the White House. There were problems of international, though non-political, interest that Miinsterberg was eager to lay before the President, from whom he received warm response.
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Indeed, a project that concerned the status of American educational and scholarly life and its influence abroad was underfoot, a project that could be much benefited by those leaders who not only desired the advancement and spread of knowledge, regardless of national boundaries, but the beneficent cultural relations of countries for their own sake and the sake of the good fruits they bring. Men- tion has been made before of Miinsterberg 's talks, when abroad, with Dr. Althoff and Friedrich Schmidt about the founding of an America-Institute in Berlin. This plan was now being carried out. Early in the year 1910 Miinsterberg was asked by cable to make a budget for the needs of such an institute, which he did with devoted diligence and hope- ful enthusiasm. His optimism was in every way justified. As to the necessary material side of the enterprise — a short stay of Miinsterberg 's in New York in May, 1910, during which he called on James Speyer and Jacob Schiff, re- sulted in generous support from these two benefactors.
That Miinsterberg could create this designed institute with the ocean between himself and the city in which it was to stand was, of course, impossible. But circumstances conspired in a felicitous way to further the plan. Har- vard appointed Miinsterberg as Exchange Professor at Berlin University for 1910-11. It was customary for the Harvard Exchange Professor to lecture at Berlin for one semester or academic half-year only ; but at the request of the German Government, Miinsterberg 's term was ex- tended to cover the whole academic year, so that during that time he might organize the new America-Institute and, as it were, put it into running order before he re- turned to Harvard.
With full enthusiasm for the work before him, with the blessing of his friends, of Harvard, and of the Presi- dent of the United States, Miinsterberg closed his duties at Cambridge and, with his family, sailed on July 3, 1910.
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President Taft wrote to him:
The White House
Washington June 14, 1910. MY DEAR MR. MUNSTERBERG:
I sincerely hope that you will find it possible to bring about the relation between the United States and Germany which you have made your ideal, and that you may achieve the end you have in view, in which you have my full sympathy.
With very warm regard and respect, believe me,
Sincerely yours,
WM. H. TAFT
And when his energetic work abroad was about to begin, Munsterberg received a letter of farewell from his dear colleague at Harvard, Josiah Royce, who sent him hearty good wishes for the year and regrets that they would no longer have their friendly occasional meetings in the door- ways of Emerson Hall. * ' You always cheer me, ' ' he wrote, "and I shall miss you." *
i For literature written during the period covered by this chap- ter see Appendix, pages 382-418.
CHAPTER XI
AN ACADEMIC ENVOY (July, 1910— September, 1911)
IN July, 1910, the 8- 8. America carried the Harvard Exchange Professor and his family from New York to Hamburg. It was a voyage full of expectations, of high hopes. The America-Institute was to be called into exist- ence, and Miinsterberg saw before him the task of turning an ideal vision into a real and preeminently practical in- stitution. He not only faced this task undaunted by the difficulties that awaited him, but looked forward to it with enthusiasm.
When the preliminary problems had been solved at Ber- lin, Miinsterberg retired to Karlsbad, where he gathered vigor for the strenuous winter before him, not only by tak- ing the cure, but by cutting himself off from social inter- course, except for the genial companionship of a former fellow student and friend, the psychologist Dessoir and his wife, who were visiting the watering place at the same time. When his cure was finished, Miinsterberg enjoyed a fortnight of solitude as an " after-cure ' ' in the highlands of Saxony, and at the beginning of September, while his family was still idling in the country, he plunged into work at Berlin.
Before his academic tasks began, indeed, even before the University opened, Miinsterberg devoted himself to the creation of the America-Institute. Since this work commanded by far the greatest part of his time through- out the year, and since it was an unusual work that filled a definite, imperative, yet hitherto unrecognized demand,
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let us consider the rise and growth of the America- Institute from the earliest beginning.
The character and object of this Institute can be pre- sented best in Miinsterberg 's own words. The following is an extract from a letter to President Pritchett of the Carnegie Institute:
My visit was in the service of a plan which I think I men- tioned to you once before and as to which I am anxious to in- form you somewhat in detail. I refer to the America-Institute which the German Government is to found in Berlin. The Government has asked me to organize it during the next year while I am to stay in Berlin as Harvard exchange professor at the University of Berlin. The idea is to found an Institute which can become a clearing house for all the cultural delations between Germany and the United States. The emphasis will lie on educa- tional and scholarly matters; and, in a secondary way, social, economic, legal, artistic, and literary problems will be involved. It will undertake for the circulation and distribution of printed matter what the Smithsonian Institute is doing on this side by its international exchange. It will serve all Americans who come to Germany for serious study, not only students but every one who wants to make use of the resources of Germany, and cor- respondingly it will aid Germans who want to make studies in America. It will classify the American students for the German universities and will fulfill many similar functions. In a time in which commerce and cultural relations take more and more the lead in the international connections as against the mere polit- ical relations, it seems necessary indeed to organize these cultural relations too from country to country, and I think the Com- missioner of Education is right in claiming that this project introduces a new period of internationalism.
I was delighted to find a most cordial welcome for the plans in all important Washington Departments, and not the least with President Taft. Of course the greatest interest came from the Smithsonian Institute, the Congressional Library, and the Bureau of Education, but Mr. W . saw clearly that the Carnegie In- stitute may profit in many respects from this Berlin America-In- stitute. May I not say that this is still more true for the Car- negie Foundation. I expect, for instance, that functions like those of the teachers' exchange will very soon silently go over
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into the care of the America-Institute on the German side. I imagine that as soon as the Institute is in working order, its sphere will be steadily enlarged and there will be plenty of op- portunities to be serviceable to your purposes. On the other hand I know how often we shall have to ask your help for the Institute which anyhow is not meant to serve one country only but which in every pulse beat will be devoted to both countries alike. . . .
The claim that this eminently practical and useful institution was introducing a new period of international- ism throws upon it the light of a broader and far-sighted point of view. It was Miinsterberg's conviction that harmony among nations must be brought about not by mere talk about peace and the horrors of war, which are the negative means, but rather by strengthening of cultural ties, by uniting in common interests and for common purposes, which are the positive forces that hold peoples as well as men together. The former course might be compared to the antiseptic method of prevent- ing disease by killing harmful germs; and the latter course to the aseptic method, which makes the growth of such germs impossible.
This idea appears also in a letter to Mr. Carnegie:
. . . Moreover while this Institute will be built in Berlin un- der the supervision of the German Government, it can hardly be called simply a German cause. It is an international one in the noblest sense of the word. Yes, I may say that the first idea of it came to me in a conversation which I had with the American Ambassador, my friend Mr. Hill, who pointed out how desirable it would be for America if Germany had a distributing bureau for printed matter like the Smithsonian Institute. . . .
And in another connection :
. . . The America-Institute in Berlin is planned as a great
tlearing house for the cultural, non-political interests which Germany shares with the English-speaking nations. While it 189
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
is at first to be confined to particular relations between Germany and the United States, I hope that it will soon develop into a general American-British Institute.
Later Miinsterberg wrote from Berlin to the German Ambassador at Washington:
. . . Indeed the Institute aims toward a consideration of all international relations, and I am already at work trying to ex- tend our influence to England. You will remember, from your stay in London, Professor Breul in Cambridge. Through him I am trying to stimulate similarly minded circles in England . . so that our Institute may grow into an England-America-Institute and finally into a general International Institute.
An extract from the letter to Professor Breul of Cam- bridge, England, may as well be quoted directly :
. . . The ideal of the whole new movement would be of course to have a complete network of international institutes, in which each country strengthens systematically its cultural ties with all the leading nations. To be sure, it was a fortunate choice to be- gin with Germany and America, because just here there is no reason for any suspicion of political by-thoughts. But now since a start has been made and the principle of such cultural institutes has been acknowledged, it seems to us artificial not to go forward.
There can be hardly any doubt that the next great step must be the development of this Institute for cultural foreign relations in the direction of England. Even the Americans strongly felt, when we discussed the plans over there, that it would strengthen this whole ideal plan, if Germany's relations to England should be organized in a similar way. Much of the work which we plan will be of service to England anyhow. But this strengthening of the German-English ties ought not to remain a chance by-product of the Institute. There is no need of my telling you how endlessly much these higher relations of non-political character between Germany and England might still be improved. No one has given more attention to this whole situation than you, and your words of approval have illumined the situation. The real postulate of the day would be the establishment of a great insti- tution in London on English ground in cooperation with this Institute in Berlin, which at that moment would be expanded in-
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AN ACADEMIC ENVOY
to an England-America-Institute. The conviction here is wide- spread that no plan at present could do more toward the establish- ment of cordial relations between England and Germany and that such an organization by its quiet, steady, systematic work in cultural fields would do more than any sporadic movements to abolish harmful prejudices and to harmonize the English and German nations. I think no one would be better prepared than you to undertake such a task in England. . . .
This was the high hope for the future at a time when the bitterness that it held in store could not be foreseen.
The plans for this Institute had been under way for some time, but had been delayed by the death of Dr. Althoff, a dominant figure and during his lifetime the greatest force in the higher educational life of Germany, with whom for years Miinsterberg had been on cordial terms, and who, together with Dr. Friedrich Schmidt, was an enthusiastic supporter of the project of founding the America-Institute. Finally, in 1910, the time was ripe for the Institute to be actually called into being. It was to be an institution of the German Government, and its headquarters were to be in a section of the great new University library. Through the orders of the German Chancellor and of the ' * Kultusminister, " or secretary for educational and intellectual affairs, all the universities, schools of technology, etc. were informed in detail about the America-Institute.
The financial existence of the institute was made pos- sible by the gifts of James Speyer of New York and Mr. Koppel, a prominent business man of Berlin, and a fund was added by Jacob Schiff of New York for the equip- ment and maintenance of a library on all topics con- nected with a study of American life.
On September sixth, Miinsterberg began his task in the provisional rooms of the as yet embryonic institute with a small staff of secretaries, among them his own secretaiy,
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
Miss Zora P. Wilkins, whom he considered particularly fit for the work because of her familiarity with the special problems of the Institute and who had therefore been trans- planted from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Berlin. Later the staff was increased by more secretaries, trained librarians, and by an assistant. Not until December first could the staff move into its real abode, an adequately and tastefully equipped suite of rooms in the large University library, where the director had a dignified and artistic office for himself.
But before the outer shell of this complex creation was ready, the activities of the Institute were manifold. By November 18, 1910, the so-called " American library " of books pertaining to the study of America had already reached a good size and included the library of 5,000 vol- umes of the late Professor von Halle, the best German authority on American economic life, which contained very valuable material and was bought by the Institute. Spe- cial emphasis, in the upbuilding of the library, was laid on industrial, political, social, and educational problems.
The enterprises of the Institute may be grouped under the following headings: first, problems of the exchange of printed matter and the international book trade; second, problems of educational and scholarly intercourse ; third, an examination of the activities of the press as affecting international relations; fourth, general problems of international concern outside of the realm of commerce and industry or politics.
On the first of January the Institute undertook the complete exchange of printed matter, pamphlets, docu- ments, etc., with the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, D. C. This involved the handling of 34,591 packages during the first year, and greater numbers in the years that followed. From the Institute the publications were distributed to their proper destinations: libraries, uni-
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AN ACADEMIC ENVOY
versities, etc. Further, the problems of international copy- right were examined and by a special arrangement with the United States Copyright Office the America-Institute was made the central office where German authors and publishers were helped to secure copyrights for German books in the United States. Over 2,500 German books were copyrighted through the Institute. A work of dis- tinct importance was the cooperation of the Institute with the federation of German booksellers in their efforts to extend the market for their books to America. The sig- nificance of this can be appreciated only if one considers the important position of the bookseller in Germany. In the United States there are only a very few booksellers on a large scale and of real influence on the book world; in Germany, on the other hand, the middleman is the real distributing power and consequently the one to ap- proach on questions of international trade in books. Not only the distribution of books, but the translation of those that were significant for international understanding, was furthered by the Institute, which had translations made of American books into German and of German books into English. These books were carefully chosen, not only with literary judgment but with exact knowledge of con- ditions; for statistical investigations were made in the field of translations from the German into English and vice ver&a. The Institute also examined the number and choice of books pertaining to America extant in the twenty- five larger libraries of Berlin.
The problems of exchange in the field of education, particularly of university education, were difficult and urgent, because the German system of school and university life and requirements was radically different from the English and American plan, and there was no absolute scale by which to measure the relative standing of uni- versities of different countries. Nevertheless great
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numbers of students with American college degrees flocked to German universities, eager to pass the Doctor examina- tions there. Accordingly the America-Institute undertook to examine the curricula of six hundred colleges and universities in the United States, also to study the pos- sibilities of counting the years of study at an American college toward a German doctor's degree. A document treating on these problems was written for and distributed among the German universities. The Institute corre- sponded with the six hundred colleges, requested them for their publications — catalogues, pamphlets, etc. — and offered its services in the interest of international student problems. At the same time written inquiries were made of all Americans who were studying at German universities about their previous preparations and their present studies, about their academic wishes and disappointments, and their ideas were requested in regard to the increase of student exchanges.
The school teacher was not neglected: aid was given to Germans who sought teaching positions in American col- leges. But more important still than aid and information given to individuals were the Institute's services in the interest of pure scholarship — scholarship that cannot re- main national, but needs fructification by ideas from be- yond national borders. The Institute corresponded with German scholars who desired information about American problems ; it communicated with various organizations with a view to promoting international scholarship, among* others, on the American side, with the Institute at Phila- delphia conducted by Professor Marion Learned who was in Berlin at the time of the opening of the America- Institute.
The America-Institute did not strive so much to create new demands as to fulfill demands already existing which were either unrecognized or incapable of being satisfied.
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AN ACADEMIC ENVOY
Remedies were not offered until the diseases were exactly known. Therefore, in order to discover the existing de- mands, the Institute sent out its feelers in the form of letters to 1,400 Americans whose names were in Who's Who who had studied in Germany, asking them to give suggestions for the improvement of the intellectual rela- tions between the two countries.
Thus the America-Institute sought information as eagerly as it gave it out. Yet in its giving it was tireless. Of- ficials of the German government who desired not only information but sympathetic illumination of American problems received what they sought. Germans who planned to visit the United States with special interests were given introductions to experts of institutions in their particular fields. In this way mistakes, waste of time, and disappointments were forestalled and that wrong impres- sion of the " other " country, which is the inevitable result of blunders, was avoided. Lectures on American problems were arranged for the purpose of rousing interest where it lay dormant, encouraging it where it was already aroused, and correcting wrong judgments with the light of first- hand knowledge and sympathetic understanding.
The abundance of seed scattered was truly justified by the harvest. Miinsterberg, from September, 1910, till August, 1911, spent every week day at the Institute, with interruptions only for a few journeys.
He did not even feel free, in the long Easter vacation of the University, to carry out his heart's desire to travel in Italy, which he had never seen, although the use of the Villa Palconiere was offered to him and his family. In order to have perfect freedom in developing his ideas, Miinsterberg accepted no salary for his position as Director of the America-Institute. The success of his work exacted new labors: aid and information were sought by scholars, students, authors, publishers; ever new problems arose
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HUGO MUNSTEKBERG
that could be solved only with the special knowledge of the America-Institute.
When, in midsummer of 1911, Miinsterberg had to give up his post as Director of the American-Institute, because of his return to Harvard, there was no one to take his place. It was decided then, that, instead of appointing a successor to JVTiinsterberg as director who had complete authority and bore all the responsibility, this authority and responsibility should be delegated to a board consisting of two officials of the German Government, with one of them, Dr. Friedrich Schmidt, the enthusiastic promoter of the In- stitute, as its official curator; the rector of the Univer- sity, who corresponds to the president of an American university, except that he is elected annually from among the professors; the dean of the philosophical faculty, the professor of English, and the two exchange professors. Under the direction of this board, Dr. Drechsler, the young assistant of Miinsterberg who had worked with him faith- fully and efficiently and understood his ideas, was given the executive management. In subsequent years the In- stitute continued to grow along the paths laid out by Miinsterberg. This is well illustrated by the increase in the exchange of printed matter with the Smithsonian institute as shown by the following table :
|
From America |
From Germany |
|||
|
1911 |
20,188 packages |
376 boxes |
11,694 packages |
179 boxes |
|
1912 |
21,672 |
334 " |
13,882 |
238 " |
|
1913 |
28,729 " |
417 |
12,619 |
239 " |
|
Total |
70,539 packages |
1,127 boxes |
38,195 packages |
656 boxes |
In 1912, 1,000 books were copyrighted through the In- stitute and in 1913, 974. Moreover the Institute was active
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in opposing the American tariff of 15 per cent, on foreign books, so dangerous to American scholarship and edu- cation. The library in the Institute grew until, in the spring of 1914, it had reached the number of 13,000 volumes. When visitors, distinguished in the world of education or letters, came to Berlin, the America-Institute opened its doors to welcome them. Among these were Professor George P. Baker who came to Berlin to study the modern theaters there, and President Abbott Lawrence Lowell of Harvard, who was given a most cordial recep- tion by the University of Berlin and entertained not only with the usual banquets, but with a concert given by a large student chorus especially -arranged for the oc- casion, and a flight over Berlin in an airship. Later, at the time when the World's Fair in San Francisco was planned, the Institute worked in favor of participation by German exhibitors.
Though the upbuilding and directing of the America- Institute required the greatest part of his time and atten- tion during the year in Berlin, Miinsterberg took keen delight in his academic activities. In the first half of the academic year, the so-called " winter semester" from Octo- ber to Easter, he gave a course, four hours in the week, on Applied Psychology, a field in which he had been a pioneer in America and which was beginning to rouse interest in Germany. Miinsterberg also gave a so-called "public" lecture course to which, though it belonged to the regular curriculum, students from all departments as well as spe- cial students were admitted. Once a week, in a hall filled to overflowing, six hundred listened to the lectures on 11 Idealistic Philosophy." In this course, which was a suitable complement to the specialized lectutre on Applied Psychology, Miinsterberg presented an outline of his own system of philosophy. In the summer semester — from the end of the long Easter vacation till the middle of August
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HUGO MUNSTERBERG
— his more technical course, two hours a week was an in- troduction into philosophy, and the public course on "Freedom of the Will."
It is customary in a German university for a new full professor to deliver a formal inaugural address, some- thing in the nature of the inaugural speeches made by new presidents of colleges in this country, in which he ex- plains his ideals and the contributions toward the life and scholarship of the university which he intends to offer. In the case of the exchange professors who were not only new members of the faculty but honored representatives of their native universities, the occasion was made es- pecially solemn and distinguished. On the ninth of November, accordingly, a new, impressive lecture hall was filled with official and academic dignitaries and their ladies who waited for the entrance of the Empress and the Emperor. The Roosevelt Professor, or the professor sent to Berlin by Columbia, not necessarily himself a Columbia professor, was Alphonso Smith, Professor of English at the University of Virginia. His address was delivered first, then followed Miinsterbergys exposition of the reasons for and the purposes of his exchange professor- ship for the academic year.
Of his American experience he said:
. . . there was much to teach and still more to le&rn and the prejudices brought with me from my home faded away like morning mist. What Carl Schurz said of politics was true for me in regard to my academic life: "The German University I revered like a mother and the American one I loved like a bride."
Then he spoke of his opportunity for binding together the thoughts of the old and the new world in his capacity as director of the America-Institute:
. . . The halfnesses of a colorless cosmopolitanism lie far be- hind our time ; we of the present know that science is and should
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be thoroughly national. For the truth which scholarship seeks is not, as it may seem to superficial philosophical insight, some- thing complete which is merely hidden and can be discovered by research. No, truth is something ever to be created, to be formed, for truth is the reality of experience worked over so that it is made serviceable to the ultimate purposes of thought. All truth, like all beauty, all right and all faith should therefore bear the seal of its creators and above all, that of the nationality which brought it forth.
But the international relations in research and education, in literature and art, in welfare work and law, in commerce and industry, in morals and faith have become so alive and so mani- fold that they undeniably demand an organization with definite aims.
After expressing his hope that the America-Institute would be followed by similar German institutes in co- operation with other countries he added : ' ' . . . And finally the other nations will follow the German example, until a carefully woven net of international politics of culture will enwrap the whole globe. "
Then he explained his choice of applied psychology as the subject for his chief lecture course. The young science psychology had been born and bred in Germany, and had spread nowhere so widely and rapidly as in America; hence its most recent outgrowth, applied psychology, was finding there most fertile soil for new development. As an exponent of American scientific progress as well as in the interest of the science itself, he was giving the first regular course ever offered at a university in applied psychology.
" Among English speaking people to-day," he said, "Harvard is considered the stronghold of philosophy. Nowhere do so many different philosophical movements clash as in Harvard; philosophy has nowhere a prouder home. . . . The name of Ralph Waldo Emerson is to the American the symbol for the search after ultimate truth, after deepest meaning."
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Outside the University, too, Miinsterberg was called upon to lecture. The topics of these lectures were much like those on which he was accustomed to speak before similar organizations in America. But beyond scholarly contributions, Miinsterberg 's special position demanded of him that he should interpret the land from which he came as academic messenger. Hence he was invited to talk to large audiences on " American Culture" and "American Intellectual Life/' In these interpretations he emphasized as the three mainsprings of American de- velopment: puritanism, the democratic belief in the equal rights of men, and belief in the intrinsic value of work; and he dwelt on the good fruits of these influences. Particularly he desired to weed out the erroneous European idea that American life centered round material interests; he pointed out that, on the contrary, he who looked beneath the surface must perceive that the eager and restless ac- tivity of the American worker is for him not merely a means toward gain, but an end in itself, and that this same spirit has imparted to American intellectual life breadth and energy.
It was a source of special delight to Miinsterberg that he was asked to address students in his old home, his native town of Danzig. The Institute of Technology of Danzig is located in the suburb Langfuhr, where he had spent his boyhood and where his oldest brother had his home. To the students of this technological institute Miinsterberg spoke on the "Technic of the Soul."
Through Miinsterberg 's efforts an international students' club was founded at the Berljn University; this was fol- lowed by one at Leipzig, and when the movement had once started, it spread, in subsequent years, to other universities in Germany. The aims that Miinsterberg had in mind when, together with Dr. Nasmith of Cornell, he founded the International Students' Club, will appear most
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clearly in his own words with which he addressed the charter members at the first meeting :
In this spirit and animated by these wishes, I sat in my study in the America-Institute when Dr. Nasmith of Cornell University, a student in Berlin this winter, called on me and asked me if it were not possible to found at the Berlin University an interna- tional club like those already existing for years in his university, Cornell, and in my university, Harvard. He had scarcely spoken, when memories rose in my mind of unforgettably stimulating hours which I had enjoyed many a time as member of the Cos- mopolitan Club of Harvard. I thought of our last banquet in the club rooms to which the German, the English, and the Jap- anese Ambassador had come from Washington to Boston and at which we listened to festive speeches in ever new languages, and enjoyed Hindu and Chinese songs with Russian and Japanese beverages. I thought of all the friendly relations which had been established there before my very eyes not only between German and American students, but among academic men of all nations of the globe. And I felt clearly that he who would promote cul- tural relations among peoples, as the spirit of the America-In- stitute demands — that he must indeed think first of the academic young men who represent the best forces of every land and who are brought together in their best, their most impressionable and most fruitful years. Hence I could not hesitate and gladly I promised to see to it that in the sphere of the University and equivalent institutions in Berlin a Cosmopolitan Club should be called into life in which students of every nation should find a most cordial welcome. . . .
He emphasized, however, that the spirit of this new or- ganization should be not " cosmopolitan, " but " inter- national. "
Let me begin with a negative point. The spirit of the new club is not cosmopolitan, and it is not a matter of chance, but of principle, that we have changed the name, although we have imitated the American Cosmopolitan Clubs in many ways in drawing up our constitution. We do not plan a cosmopolitan, but an international club and this distinction which may seem to some scarcely perceptible, is in fact an essential one — indeed
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one of the greatest importance in the interpretation of cultural relations. . . .
. . . We want to make sure that our organization is not cosmopolitan in the sense that the national idea is destroyed by international hopes. The characteristics, independence, and con- scious worth of each special nation are taken for granted and are the starting-point for all over-national relations which we cultivate and desire to serve.
Then he pointed out that the nation, not the race, should be considered the unit. Just asr cosmopolitanism was the outgrowth of eighteenth century rationalism, so the race doctrine was a result of the strong naturalistic conception that triumphed in the latter half of the nine- teenth century.
But in- the twentieth century men want to think historically once more and aim toward a new idealism which takes hold of the youth of all lands. From the rationalistic point of view, nation- ality is merely a restriction and the aim of rationalism is that which all rational beings have in common; and as three times three is nine for every one, so truth must speak the language of colorless logic and all culture must be ordered according to a scheme of rational thought. We, however, feel from the depth of our historic spirit that truth must be created and that in every truth the character of the creator is made manifest. It is senseless in the same way to strive after one art and one law; but the culture of the world must develop in the whole fullness and manifoldness of truths, of beauties, moralities, and sacrednesses.
In the same way, he explained, we can no longer recog- nize the naturalistic view, for the time when
. . men were hypnotized by natural science they forgot that after everything explicable in the life, of peoples had been explained, no real historic problem had been touched, much less solved. For the human beings who enter into history as striving person- alities are not those biological organisms whom the scientist contemplates from the point of view of race, but they are
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personalities with free wills who must be understood in the spirit of their wills. Not what nature has created, but the ideal that is powerful within them separates them and binds them together. To be an American does not mean to have inherited a special form of the skull or to be descended from ancestors who had immigrated, a hundred years ago, with this or that racial group — to be an American means, for any one who wants to understand the country historically at all, to make his will a part of a network of hope and strivings, of political and legal and commercial aims which must be the common good of all citizens of this particular nation. . . .
Further" he said : * ' In the world of culture, in contrast to the world of commerce, it is true that the more is given, the greater the gain, and that he who keeps his goods for himself, must lose."
Again he emphasized that the more understanding the academic youth acquires, with the aim of destroying narrow prejudices, the sooner its idealism will overcome the over- estimation of mere technical progress: "Good will pene- trates farther than any wireless telegraphy, enthusiasm dares to soar higher than any airship, mutual understand- ing prevents more misery than any antitoxin. ' '
Then he expressed the belief that conversation with one who knows a foreign country thoroughly, such conversation as is made possible in the new students' club, has more value than a superficial first-hand knowledge of the country.
Things are, after all, what they are for the living spirit and a sensible word with a friend who knows his home land may re- veal to us more about a foreign country than the most faithful wandering with Baedeker in hand. . . . Understanding means influence, understanding means peace, understanding means human worth, and yo.ur university years can give you nothing more glorious for life than this spirit of understanding respon- siveness to the whole of the world's culture. And so each one of you, Frenchman and Russian, Japanese and American, South African and Australian, Chinese and German be welcome here to give and to take. Let each be filled with a glowing conscious-
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ness, each convinced that his own home offers something peculiar and of lasting value and that the way of the others is no less necessary. For here it shall be as in the great roal world, where the symphony of the world culture would not be conceivable, if all the instruments were only flutes or only bass viols. The violins must sing and the trumpets flourish and the horns blow and the harps resound, for then only the Lord of world history mounts the conductor's platform and jubilantly beats the time.
Thus Miinsterberg 's executive duties on the one hand, academic duties on the other, and manifold interests beside, made stern demands on his time and strength. Neverthe- less he entered with full enthusiasm into the social life of the capital, for an exchange professor was feted with exuberant hospitality. The professors at Berlin were ac- customed to entertaining. Outside the academic circle proper and that of the higher officials connected with the University, Miinsterberg had many ties among pulblic men, financiers, authors, artists, men in almost every sphere of interest. Active social life under these peculiarly ad- vantageous conditions, Miinsterberg considered not merely a recreation or pastime, but in itself a duty as a field in which seed was planted for most valuable intercourse and exchange of ideas. Although evenings passed in brisk con- versation after days of tense work were an additional tax on his nervous strength, nevertheless he never felt that he was wasting his energies on vapid conventionalities; for the gilded shell which, with his innate sense of beauty, he also enjoyed, always held a solid kernel.
The season opened with a festive event that was really academic, but that carried in its trail many social functions. The University of Berlin — one of the young universities in a country where academic life had flourished in the Middle Ages — was celebrating its one hundredth anniversary. In the first week of October there was an official celebration on a magnificent scale at the University, in which all the dig-
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nitaries partook, and the state was represented by the Emperor and the imperial family. Honorary degrees were conferred by deans of the four faculties of the University, and delegates from foreign universities were solemnly re- ceived. The mathematician Poincare, delegate from France, was given a tumultuous ovation; an enthusiastic welcome was accorded to the American delegates, Profes- sor Peabody of Harvard, the first exchange professor; the late Professor Learned from the University of Pennsyl- vania; and President Butler of Columbia.
Other occasions on the borderland between the social and purely intellectual were the congresses in which Miin- sterberg took part. The Naturalists' Society met at his native city Danzig. The International Congress of Psychi- aters came together at Berlin where the members were given an official reception.
Of purely social gatherings there was a multitude. Dur- ing September, while he was occupied with the America- Institute in its early stages, Miinsterberg lived in the house- hold of his brother, Dr. Emil Miinsterberg. It was Hugo's greatest delight that the year in Berlin brought him, after long sojourn across the seas, near his brothers. Otto, the oldest brother, was still carrying on his father's busi- ness in Danzig, and had his hospitable house and large garden in the suburb where Hugo had played as boy; the youngest brother Oskar, then a bachelor, who lived in Leipzig, spent a great part of his time at Berlin, where he was well known in business and art circles. He was an authority on Chinese and Japanese art and had pub- lished numerous scholarly books.
On the first of October Hugo left his brother's house to meet his wife and daughters who came from the Vosges, and to take them into their new quarters in the Palast Hotel. This hotel was on a lively square in the heart of the city, with life surging about it at all hours of the
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day and a great part of the night. A flock of flower venders always made the square bright and picturesque, like a garden growing on the pavement. From this center, the University, the theaters, the Tiergarten or large park, shops and residences could be reached with equal ease.
At Thanksgiving a banquet was given by and for the large American colony which gathered with sentiment, turkey and cranberries to celebrate its holiday. Miinster- berg and his colleague, Professor Alphonso Smith, were the two speakers, and when they had finished, Ambassador David Jayne Hill, in a jocular vein, told the story of an old man who on Thanksgiving wanted to be grateful and acknowledged that he had only two teeth, "but they hit." "And so," said Mr. Hill, "we have had only two speeches, but they hit."
Christmas was heralded in Berlin by forests of Christ- mas trees that sprang up on the open squares, booths with tinsel and toys, a profusion of flowers — for the climate was mild — and green everywhere on the streets, including mistletoe for the Americans.
On the sixteenth of January Miinsterberg and his wife, who had hitherto entertained only in small groups and mostly their American friends, gave a dinner which a hundred guests attended. Among them were statesmen, scholars, authors, artists, and financiers with their wives and daughters. Graceful toasts were spoken by Ambas- sador Hill ; by the former German Ambassador to Washing- ton, Theodor von Holleben; by the theologian, Harnack; the historian, Eduard Meyer; and Professor Alphonso Smith. In Ambassador Hill's speech the grace of the diplomat was combined with the depth of the scholar. He alluded to Miinsterberg 's book The Eternal Values and spoke of the eternal values that bind together men and nations.
Not many days after this festivity, a dark shadow fell
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on Miinsterberg 's bright life. His brother Emil, while tramping in the snow on a vacation tour in the mountains, caught a severe cold that turned into pneumonia. On the twenty-sixth of January he died in his brother Hugo's arms. After the funeral, a public memorial meeting was arranged in honor of this much loved and widely honored philanthropist. This took place in a large hall on the second of April and memorial orations were delivered by prominent men who had been associated with Emil Miin- sterberg in his distinguished, fruitful, and far-reaching administrative, scholarly, and charitable work.
The summer semester in a German university does not close until the end of July: on the 27th of the month Miinsterberg gave his formal "farewell address," and until that time the affairs of the America-Institute, too, demanded his presence. On the twenty-eighth, at last, he took his vacation. For a complete rest, after a year in which all his energies had been used to the utmost, he took the cure at Kissingen, and there spent a few weeks of leisure and solitude. He then joined his wife and daughters, and with them embarked on the 8. S. Cleveland, westward bound for America and Harvard. He was grieved to part from the two brothers left him, who stood waving at the pier, but happy to carry back with him im- measurably precious memories and the unclouded feeling that his labor of love had borne and would, in the future, bear good fruit.
CHAPTER XII
BACK AT HAEVARD
(September, 1911— -October, 1912)
AFTER a year of adventurous undertakings, of manifold new ties, of new responsibilities and exacting festivities, the following academic months back at Harvard were, from without at least, less striking. They were, how- ever, rich with the never waning interest in academic duties, with prolific writing, and numerous outside lec- tures on scientific themes as well as on problems of public life. They were also distinguished from foregoing years by excursions into a new field, namely, the application of psychology to industrial life. The beginning of sympa- thetic cooperation with men in practical industrial life marked the emergence of applied psychology from its academic four walls into the world of affairs, and as this development gave its peculiar coloring to Miinsterberg 's public life in the year 1911-12, let us consider first his contribution to applied psychology, which was now absorb- ing not only the attention of scientists, but of the public at large.
In previous years, as has been shown, Miinsterberg gave much attention to applied psychology, so that in his year as Harvard Exchange Professor in Berlin, he considered it imperative to present this young science, above all, to his new students. Moreover, the help that psychology can offer in practical life he had made accessible to the public in popular books : On the Witness Stand, Psychotherapy, and Psychology and the Teacher. Psychology was now to be made applicable to the human element in industrial
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life — the element that science had hitherto neglected while perfecting the chemistry, physics, and mechanics of in- dustrial processes and products. Miinsterberg did not at- tempt to interest the public or single manufacturers in the psychology of the worker until he believed that enough experiments had been made by advanced graduate students in the Harvard Psychological Laboratory to warrant the use, outside of laboratory doors, of knowledge thus gained. Moreover, interest in the new practical possibil- ities of psychology was growing in academic circles. President Richmond of Union College, in Schenectady, New York, invited Miinsterberg to give a course on "Ap- plied Psychology" at that college during the months of February and March, 1912. Miinsterberg gladly re- sponded, and made several journeys to Schenectady where he found much pleasure during his week-end visits in the charming and musical household of that amiable Scotch- man, President Richmond.
Miinsterberg 's writing, too, in this year was devoted largely to applied psychology, as will be shown later. All in all, this was a year auspicious for the launching of psychology into the sea of practical industrial life.
Since it was Miinsterberg 's habit to seek as well as to give information, he desired to acquaint himself at first hand with the work in and management of large factories. Accordingly, under the guidance of directors or head managers, he investigated the General Electric Company, in Lynn, the International Harvester Company, in Chicago, the Plimpton Press, the Waltham Watch Company and others. Manufacturers met him half way and expressed much confidence in the eventual benefits to be gained from the new science. Miinsterberg himself had faith in the growing interest of business men, and this faith was amply rewarded. He sent out a circular letter to 1,000 leading manufacturing companies requesting information about the
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mental traits which they considered essential in their em- ployees of various classes and kinds. The ready response of these companies was a most hopeful sign. Several hundred replies were received, some of them detailed and worked out with earnest care and attention. Among the more elaborate replies were letters from Tiffany and Com- pany, New York, the Oakland Chemical Company, New York, the Northern Pacific Railroad, the Lanston Mono- type Machine Company, Philadelphia, Armour and Com- pany, Chicago, the Armstrong Transfer Express Com- pany, Boston, the Boston Elevated Railway Company, and the Gillette Safety Razor Company.
From this last report which, as the representative of the Gillette Safety Razor Company said himself, had been prepared with considerable pains and made as specific and complete as possible, let us quote a few passages here and there, merely by way of showing examples. The labor of the employees is divided into several headings, such as "Hand work requiring dexterity/' "Hand work of less skill, ' ' " Inspection of various unfinished processes, ' ' etc., and these again have subdivisions such as ' ' grinding, ' ' * ' honing, " " strapping, ' ' etc. The requirements for * ' hon- ing" are described thus:
On this process, for a few minutes at a time (2 out of every 6) the operator requires immediate focused attention while turning blades. Then the attention is diverted to lading the machine. In the first process, the thought is on the danger of touching blades and destroying; in the second, the thought is for the safety of fingers. Nervous girls can never become expert on this work, because of destroying blades and cutting themselves. Operators* require fearlessness, combined with caution. . . .
And the requirements of men employed in printing, pol- ishing, and machine adjustment:
... A person who is satisfied with hasty setting or who stops
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when a thing is "good enough" is useless on this work — must not overlook small differences. Requires discretion and alert- ness to distinguish factors entering into and causing defects. . . . Standard is rigid and precise and operator requires attitude of regular conformity more than personal decision.
The inspection of blades:
This work requires speed without a sense of haste. I mean, doing rapidly, regardless of the flight of time. To insure this self-reliance and sureness of decision are necessary. The eye test is supplemented by a tactual and cutting test. The tactual requires delicacy of touch. The action is a very light contact, scarcely heavy enough to be called pressure, combined with a gliding over the edge of a very small surface of the finger. Operators easily learn to distinguish extreme roughness by a granular feeling, but a small number distinguish between a slight roughness, which gives a sticky, clinging sensation of cutting, in contrast to the quick cutting of the finest edges. In the one, there is a perceptible feeling of width, which is lacking on the sharpest blades. This same feeling of width is perceptible to persons of the finest sensibility in separating dullness from smoothness. . . .
Intelligent and careful response of this kind furnished the psychologist with suggestive data and proved, more- over, that the offer of scientific help was enthusiastically received in the world of affairs. Of course it was not the professor's intention to devise tests in his laboratory for a razor-blade inspector or a silversmith or an engineer or a salesman. The main issue was to determine a principle by which any candidate for any industrial job might be tested at any time. It was obvious that the possible locomotive engineer of a railroad company cannot be pro- vided with two trains about to collide for the sake of test- ing his promptness and presence of mind; a possible salesman cannot be provided with a horde of customers to test his patience. Therefore it was necessary to repro- duce the situation in which the candidate was to act or
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react, in the simplest possible form, so that no more material should be needed than a pack of cards or a sheet of paper. It was demanded, therefore, that the psycholo- gist should determine exactly what the mental process was that the accomplishment of a given task required and, instead of reproducing the situation in miniature, to reproduce the process in a parallel situation.
This method Miinsterberg used in testing about thirty girls employed by the New England Telephone Company. This company looked eagerly to psychology for help in its problems, because it found, to its economic loss and the disappointment of employees, that girls who had been carefully trained by the company were leaving be- cause unable to do the work. The description of the tests actually made, can best be given in Miinsterberg 's own words by quoting from his account of them in Psychology and Industrial Efficiency:
These common tests referred to memory, attention, intelli- gence, exactitude, and rapidity. I may characterize the experi- ments in a few words. The memory examination consisted of reading to the whole class at first two numbers of 4 digits, then two of 5 digits, then two of 6 digits, and so on up to figures of 12 digits, and demanding that they be written down as soon as a signal was given. The experiments on attention, which in this case of the telephone operators seemed to me especially sig- nificant, made use of a method the principle of which has fre- quently been applied in the experimental psychology of indi- vidual differences and which I adjusted to our special needs. The requirement is to cross out a particular letter in a connected text. Every one of the thirty women in the classroom received the same first page of a newspaper of that morning. I empha- size that it was a new paper, as the newness of the content was to secure the desired distraction of attention. As soon as the signal was given, each one of the girls had to cross out with a pencil every "a" in the text for six minutes. After a certain time, a bell signal was given and each then had to begin a new column. In this way we could find out, first, how many
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letters were correctly crossed out in those six minutes, secondly, how many letters were overlooked, and, thirdly, how the recog- nition and the oversight were distributed in the various parts of the text. In every one of these three directions strong individual differences were indeed noticeable. Some persons crossed out many, but also overlooked many, others overlooked hardly any of the a's, but proceeded very slowly so that the total number of the crossed-out letters was small. Moreover, it was found that some at first do poor work, but soon reach a point at which their attention remains on a high level; others begin with a relatively high achievement, but after a short time their atten- tion flags, and the number of crossed-out letters becomes smaller or the number of unnoticed, overlooked letters increases. Fluc- tuations of attention, deficiencies, and strong points can be discovered in much detail.
Besides these tests, a general intelligence test was used that had already been tried in schools as a test of the relative intelligence of pupils, and furthermore, each girl was given some individual tests. Of these the following is interesting as especially adapted to try fitness for a particular function:
The following experiment which referred to the accuracy of movement impulses demanded that every one try to reach with the point of a pencil 3 different points on the table in the rhythm of metronome beats. On each of these three places a sheet of paper was fixed with a fine cross in the middle. The pencil should hit the crossing point, and the marks on the paper in- dicated how far the movement had fallen short of the goal. One of these movements demanded the full extension of the arm and the other two had to be made with half-bent arm. I introduced this last test because the hitting of the right holes in the switchboard of the telephone office is of great importance.
Averages were taken on the results of all the tests for each girl.
With this average rank list, we compared the practical results of the telephone company after three months had passed. These three months had been sufficient to secure at least a certain
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discrimination between the best, the average, and the unfit. The result of this comparison was on the whole satisfactory. First, the skeptical telephone company had mixed with the class L, number of women who had been in the service for a long while and had even been selected as teachers in the telephone school. I did not know, in figuring out the results, which of the participants in the experiments these particularly gifted outsiders were. If the psychological experiments had brought the result that these individuals who stood so high in the estima- tion of the telephone company ranked low in the laboratory experiment, it would have reflected strongly on the reliability of the laboratory method. The results showed, on the contrary, that these women who had proved most able in practical service stood at the top of our list. Correspondingly, those who stood the lowest in our psychological rank list had in the mean time been found unfit in practical service and had either left the company of their own accord or else had been eliminated. . . .
On the other hand, Miinsterberg was quite willing to admit that achievement in practice and achievement in the tests cannot correspond with mathematical accuracy, be- cause features other than special mental fitness enter into the fulfillment of the daily task, such as poor health as a hindrance or strong will as an aid. Moreover, this method of testing was merely the beginning of a science that had still to be perfected.
The development of such a method had to overcome first an instinctive reluctance on the part of thorough scholars who were accustomed to long, minute laboratory experiments, which of course were not adapted to use in practical affairs. But as the psychologists' interest in individual differences, as opposed to general laws, grew, this prejudice waned.
Where theoretical questions are to be answered and scientific studies concerning the laws and variations of the mind are to be undertaken, the long series of laboratory experiments carried on with patience and devotion are indispensable and can never be replaced by the short-cut methods of the tests. But where
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practical tasks of pedagogy or jurisprudence or medicine, or especially of commerce and industry, are before us, the method of tests ought to be sovereign. It can be adapted to the special situations and can succeed perfectly, if the task is to discover the outlines of the mental individuality for particular practical work.
The Boston Elevated Railway Company welcomed Miin- sterberg no less enthusiastically than the New England Telephone Company, and gave him generous opportunity to test the fitness of motormen for the work which involves not only great possible loss for the company, but the safety of human lives. In the winter of 1911-1912 the American Association of Labor Legislation met for the purpose of studying the problem of accidents on street railways and their possible prevention. Representatives of companies from various cities were present as well as economic, physiological, and psychological specialists. It was sug- gested at this meeting that Miinsterberg make a psycholog- ical analysis of the mental processes of the motorman, ex- periment in the psychological laboratory, and then make a report of his methods and conclusions at another large meeting of the American Association of Labor Legisla- tion on June 5th at Atlantic City. Miinsterberg readily consented to do this; and, after he had devised in the laboratory a method of testing motormen, he was given opportunity by the Boston Elevated Company to apply the tests in March, 1912.
The mental and temperamental demand made on a motor- man was recognized as particularly complicated, and Miin- sterberg decided that it was more advantageous, instead of resolving this complex state into its elements, to under- stand it in its totality.
... I abstracted from the study of single elementary functions and turned my attention to that mental process which after some careful observations seemed to me the really central one for the
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problem of accidents. I found this to be a particular com- plicated act of attention by which the manifoldness of objects, the pedestrians, the carriages, and the automobiles, are con- tinuously observed with reference to their rapidity and direction in the quickly changing panorama of the. street.
For test purposes the car, the street, and the obstacles were not to be reproduced in miniature, since past ex- perience had proved such miniature situations misleading. "The essential point for the psychological experiment is not the external similarity of the apparatus, but exclusively the inner similiarity of the mental attitude. " After some experimenting, he finally decided on the following test: j^ A card 9 half-inches broad and 26 half-inches long represented the street. Two heavy lines half an inch apart ran lengthwise through the center of the card, and a space of 4 half -inches remained on either side. The whole card was divided into small half -inch squares, which were considered as the units. Thus there was in any cross- section one unit between the two central lines and 4 units on either side. Lengthwise there were 26 units. The 26 squares that lay between the two heavy central lines were marked with the printed letters of the alphabet from A to Z. These two heavy central lines represented an electric railway track on a street. On either side the four rows of squares were filled in an irregular way with black and red figures of the three first digits. The digit 1 always represented a pedestrian who moved just one step, and that means from one unit into the next; the digit 2 a horse, which moved twice as fast, that is, which moved 2 units ; and the digit 3 an automobile which mo.ved three times as fast, that is, 3 units. Moreover, the black digits stood for men, horses, and automobiles that moved parallel to the track but could not cross the track, and were, therefore, to be disregarded in looking out for dangers. The red digits, on the other hand, were the
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dangerous ones. They moved from either side toward the track. The idea was that the man to be experimented on was to find as quickly as possible those points on the track that were threatened by the red figures, that is, those letters in the 26 track units at which the red figures wou,ld land, if they made the steps their numbers indicated. A red digit 3 that was 4 steps from the track was to be disregarded, because it would not reach the track. A red digit 3 that was only 1 or 2 steps from the track was also to be disregarded, because it would cross beyond the track, if it took 3 steps. But a red 3 that was 3 units from the track, a red 2 that was 2 units from the track, and a red 1 that was 1 unit from the track would land on the track itself; and the aim was to find quickly these points. The task was difficult, because the many black figures diverted the attention, and because the red figures too near or too far were easily confused with those that were just at the dangerous distance.
As soon as this principle for the experiment was recognized as satisfactory, it was necessary to find a technical device by which a movement over this artificial track could be produced in such a way that the rapidity could be controlled by the subject of the experiment and at the same time measured. Again we had to try various forms of apparatus. Finally we found the following form most satisfactory. Twelve such cards, each pro- vided with a handle, lie one above another under a glass plate through which the upper card can be seen. If this highest card is withdrawn, the second is exposed, and, from below, springs press the remaining cards against the glass plate. The glass plate with the 12 cards below lies in a black wooden box and is com- pletely covered by a belt 8 inches broad made of heavy black velvet. This velvet belt moves over two cylinders at the front and the rear ends of the apparatus. In the center of the belt is a window 4*72 inches wide and 2^ inches high. If the front cylinder is turned by a metal crank, the velvet belt passes over the glass plate and the little, window opening moves over the card with its track and figures. The whole breadth of the
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card, with its central track and its 4 units on either side, is visible through it over an area of 5 units in the length direction. If the man to be experimented on turns the crank with his right hand, the window slips over the whole length of the card, one part of the card after another becomes visible, and then he simply has to call the letters of those units in the track at which the red figures on either side would land, if they took the number of steps indicated by the digit. At the moment the window has reached Z on the card, the experimenter withdraws that card and the next becomes visible, as a second window in the belt appears at the lower end when the first disappears at the upper end. In this way the subject can turn his crank un- interruptedly until he has gone through the 12 cards. The experimenter noies down the numbers of the cards and the letters which the subject calls. Besides this, the number of seconds required for the whole experiment, from the beginning of the first card to the end of the twelfth, is measured with a stopwatch. This time is, of course, dependent upon the rapid- ity with which the crank is turned. The result of the experiment is accordingly expressed by three figures : the number of seconds ; the number of omissions, that is, of places at which red figures would land on the track which were not noticed by the subject; and, thirdly, the number of incorrect places where letters were called in spite of the fact that no danger existed. In using the results, we may disregard this third figure and give our attention to the speed and the number of omissions.
A satisfactory average was taken for each case by multi- plying the number of omissions by 10 and adding this result to the number of seconds, thus leaving a formula of one figure for each case instead of the two— the number of seconds and the number of omissions.
This test was tried on a number of motormen in the service of the Boston Elevated Company, of whom some had the best, some average records, while others were barely efficient enough to keep their positions.
. . . The test of the method lies first in the fact that the tried motormen agreed that they really pass through the ex- periment with the feeling which they have on their car. The
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necessity of looking out in both directions, right and left, for possible obstacles, of distinguishing those which move toward the track from the many which move along the track, the quick discrimination among the various rates of rapidity, the steady forward movement of the observation point, the constant tempta- tion to give attention to those which are still too far away or to those which are so near that they will cross the track before the approach of the car, in short, the whole complex situation with its demands on attention, imagination and quick adjustment, soon brings them into an attitude which they themselves feel as identical with that in practical life. On the other hand, the results show a far-reaching correspondence between efficiency in the experiment and efficiency in the actual service. . . .
Of course, as in the case of the tests with the Telephone Company's employees, correspondence between achieve- ment in the tests and achievement in practical work can- not be attained to a degree of mathematical accuracy, because into the task of the motormen, too, secondary features may enter in actual practice that cannot be re- produced in the test. On the whole, however, the results of the tests, as compared with the records of the men, were satisfactory, particularly since these tests were the first of their kind.
When the American Association of Labor Legislation met in June at Atlantic City, Miinsterberg was able to give a full and satisfactory report of the results of his experiments.
More responsible for life even than those who steer on land are the men on the bridge of the merchant ships. The director of a large steamship company asked Miinster- berg if some method could not be devised by which ship officers unfit to cope in the right way with " unexpected suddenly occurring complication" might be eliminated. According to him, there were men who, uncertain whether to respond to one impression or another, are limited in their actions; others who react swiftly, but obedient to
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a first rash impulse without judgment, and therefore wrongly ; and the fit men who ' ' in the unexpected situation quickly review the totality of the factors in their relative importance and with almost instinctive certainty im- mediately come to the same decision to which they would have arrived after quiet thought. ' ' Miinsterberg was much interested in the problem presented to him, for he real- ized how much depended on the psychical make-up of the man who in one moment of peril could prevent or bring on a fateful collision, and how much disaster might be forestalled if the instinctive reaction of a man in a complex situation of danger could be tested before that final test in practical life that may bring with it terrible calamities. These preliminary tests, of course, could not be made with ships on the sea; but again the situation and the mental reaction upon it had to be clearly understood, and the process reproduced in a parallel situation, however out- wardly different it might be. Accordingly a test that re- quired no more elaborate apparatus than a pack of cards was worked out and tried on advanced students in the laboratory.
As in the experiments with motormen, so here in the experiments with students, a definite scheme of taking the average of each subject's achievement was decided upon, and in this case the relative gravity of a mistake according to the difficulty of the task was indicated by a high or low number and the sum of these numbers, for each subject, was multiplied with the number of seconds required; the product represented the subject's average achievement. Moreover, the person with the smallest product felt a distinct joy in the experiment, while the one with the largest passed through painful minutes that put him to real organic discomfort.
These experiments in the interest of ship service were welcomed not only by the merchant marine company that
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suggested them, but in a very different quarter, quite out- side the realm of industry, namely, in the United States Naval War College at Newport. The President of the War College invited Miinsterberg to talk before the whole college on June 4, 1912, on the problems of the navy man — enlisted man or officer — from the point of view of the psychologist.
This invitation Miinsterberg accepted, and he was de- lighted with the warm reception and the attentions ac- corded him at the Naval War College, where he was shown all about the institution. He found particular relish, later, when he gave his friends an account of his visit, in telling how the men stood at rigorous attention when- ever the high officer who was his guide entered a room, and how in one hall where house-cleaning was going on, the men presented their brooms and mops with a military dash that could not have been more inspired with rifles and bayonets.
The lecture delivered before the war college in June appeared under the title " Psychology and the Navy" in the North American Review for February, 1913, and was then reprinted in pamphlet form. Quotations at random from this address to the naval men may serve to illustrate this novel contact between psychology and the man behind the gun.
The problems of choosing men fit to act wisely in a crisis which applied to the merchant marine were of course just as vital to the navy, and the test that had been care- fully worked out at the suggestion of the ship company was equally useful for navy purposes. Beyond this, how- ever, Miinsterberg pointed out that there were problems peculiar to the warship navigator.
The officer in the navy, however, does not think primarily of those psychological features which are as important for the
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ocean greyhounds of the commercial fleet as for his ironclad floating fortresses. His interest naturally turns to those traits of the mind which are more directly connected with the success or failure in warfare. Hence let us consider that wide region of higher mental activities, the interplay of emotion and voli- tion, judgment and imagination, intellect and instinct. But then we shall do best in our survey to discriminate between the minds of the officers and those of the crew. What are the mental characteristics of the many to whom the few have to give their orders? One psychological fact ought not to be for- gotten. The many are not simply a large number of single minds ; they are not only many, but they are at the same time one. They are held together — more, they are forged together into one compact mental mass in which no single mind which entered has remained unchanged in its structure or in its ener- gies. Let us by no means believe that this is only a metaphor or a picturesque expression which is to symbolize the fact that those hundreds of men have certain ideas or desires or emotions or feelings or prejudices or hopes or fears in common, and that the superior may simply rely on those common factors and, accordingly, ignore the individual differences among the men. Their unity is not a simple uniformity; their minds are inter- related and not simply added to one another. Yet we must keep just as far from any reminiscences of popular mystical ideas, as if by a kind of telepathy one mind reaches out to another and fuses with it in a spiritual communion. Seen from a psychological standpoint, the personality is completely con- fined to the impressions, memories, imaginations, emotions, and volitions which originate in its own compass, and no mind can intrude into this mental individuality. Whatever comes to the individual mind from without must come through the senses in the form of impressions and sense perceptions. But when these impressions are perceptions not of the dead things around us, but of living beings animated by interests like ours and engaged in action with us, the impression influences the whole setting of the mind in one characteristic direction. The psychologist char- acterizes this as an increase of suggestibility. The particular man becomes more suggestible to all propositions which his senses receive from his companions. This psycho-physical in- crease of suggestibility transforms the individuals now into a crowd, now into a rushing mob, now into an enthusiastic army, and whoever deals with such a group of men in which every
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one knows himself as a part of the cooperating whole must be fully aware of the advantages and of the dangers which are created by this reenforcement of suggestibility.
But with normal men there is no more effective cause for increase of suggestibility than the forming of a mass in which every one sees and knows that all the others share his fate, have the same to perform and to enjoy and to suffer. The children in a class, the laborers in a factory, the voters in a massmeeting, the spectators on the bleachers at a game, the crowd assembled at a fire or an accident, form various types of such organized units held together by increased suggestibility, through which every single member is liable to act in a way which would be un- natural to him if he were alone. He may do acts or say things or risk dangers which he would fear if he stood by himself. He has not really become more courageous, but his increased sug- gestibility makes him imitative and ready to do what the others seem willing to do and to ignore the warning voice of his reason or his cowardice. He also becomes a little more foolish than he would be in isolation, he may shout words or indulge in actions which would appear to him silly or inconsiderate if he were alone; but the crowd consciousness has control of him; he has become insensitive to the opposing voice of wisdom. He laughs w'lere he would never laugh alone; he runs away where his normal instincts would teach him to hold on; he gets discouraged or excited where the cold facts would not warrant either. The mass can hold his mind down to a level far below its true nature and can lift it up to a height which it could never reach unsupported.
Among all lasting conditions of human life, none seems more predisposed to create this increased suggestibility of a mass than the life on a warship. Every man on board feels how his fate is bound up with that of all the others. He knows that they all are detached for months and years from the life of the millions; they feel the same pulse of the engines; they are lifted by the same waves; they know that the same danger would threaten all of them. The individual has given up a part of his possibilities. If the hour of a battle were to come, every man knows that for him no individual rushing forward is possible, as for the soldiers on the battlefield. He cannot escape the ship which carries them all and with which they all will sink if it goes to the bottom. A closer union of a multitude of strangers cannot be imagined; the suggestibility
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must, therefore, be tremendously increased, and that means that the powers of the man are reenforced fo.r g'ood or for evil, that his individual resistance to the imitative impulses is de- creased, and that he has become to a certain degree a passive instrument for the will of the leader.
This suggestibility of the social group" which composes the crew stands in an especially significant relation to the mental function which, after all, is the backbone of military service — obedience. Where the spirit of discipline is lacking, the military cause is lost. There never has been a victorious navy without obedience. To a certain degree the necessity of a dogged sub- mission to the order has in the most modern ship become still more necessary than ever before, because the individual man is more isolated in his duties than in former times. He does not know what is going on in the battle; he does not see the others; he cannot understand the situation; he cannot lose a moment of time to find out what is going on; he simply has to obey his orders as long as life flickers in his soul. He cannot even be trained for his obedience in the hour of battle, because all training and all exercises and all maneuvers necessarily elimi- nate the mental factor which is ultimately the most important in the hour of the real fight, the emotion of fear. Whether the man will carry out the movements which the maneuver has taught when the cannons not only are thundering, but the balls really are splintering the ship, depends upon the one decisive question of whether an obedient submission to the order of the superior has become an instinct for his mind. . . .
Munsterberg further pointed out the importance of mak- ing obedience habitual through training, so that eventually it would become a matter of course instead of requiring
excessive effort:
/
Yet the true meaning of military .discipline would be entirely missed if automatic obedience were considered as the only im- portant demand, and if another postulate were neglected which stands in every respect coordinate, the demand for a spirit of initiative. Without this spirit the fighter would become a slave, and no nation can rely on its moral slaves. Initiative does not stand in a psychological contradiction to obedience. On the contrary, even the training in obedience demands a background
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of initiative, as the overcoming of the resistance will be success- ful only if every single act of submission is supported by a feeling of confidence and reliance in the leader, and this reli- ance, however much it may result from the imitative crowd consciousness, remains ultimately an act of personality and initiative.
But the spontaneity which the service has to develop in every man must 0:0 far beyond this mere internal free option for a leader. iLe commander controls a well disciplined crew only if he can know that every man is ready to give orders to him- self in the spirit of the whole when orders from above are lacking. Every man in the crew must be able and must be con- scious of his ability to step into a position of responsibility. His intelligence and power of decision, accordingly, demand as much stimulation as his habit of submission. It is this which ennobles the modern navy and gives to it values far beyond those of a mere mechanical fighting-machine. . . .
In regard to the officers, Miinsterberg emphasized the necessity of giving them practical exercises in which the mental actions and reactions demanded in real warfare may be displayed, to supplement the acquiring of knowl- edge. In this way only can they learn to master a complex situation, which is more than a knowledge of its parts. Both practice and knowledge are necessary ; a third factor, however, is just as essential :
But there is no calling, high or humble, in which an emotional interest does not give force and meaning to the knowledge and abilities of the man. The knowledge and the ability of the naval officer, the one resulting from the intellectual functions of his mind, the other from the volitional powers of his mind, would indeed be deprived of their real efficiency and value unless a strong, deep stream of interest flowed from the emotions of his mind. .
The speaker pointed out the danger in the way of the '" steam-yachtsman's" spirit, the spirit of ease and comfort and sportsmanship so different, though the difference be
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not always apparent, from the true and rigorous spirit of naval duty. A still greater danger he considered a navy man's lurking disbelief- in the justification of his calling.
A scholar may be convinced that the poet's imagination is a noble gift for the artist ; and yet he must not allow himself to be carried away or even to be touched by this longing for imagina- tive flight when he is in the path of scholarship. The minister may be convinced that there is high value in the materialistic work of the naturalist; and yet his religious attitude must not be shaken by the demand for a godless universe. The ideals of the artist and of the scholar and of the preacher, of the peace reformer and of the warrior, are all true ideals, are each worthy to give a meaning and significance to the life which is devoted to them.
But this significance and this meaning ultimately lie in de- votion, and the deepest value is therefore lost if the faithful belief in any one of these ideals is choked by rival ideals. There is no fitness to win without unity of mind and certainty of purpose.
This address roused enthusiastic response at the War College, and kindled a live interest in the receptive minds of the officers and men.
The President of the War College expressed to Miinster- berg the wish of the College that he address it again the following summer, and asked the psychologist's advice on certain specific problems in the instruction of enlisted men.
This was in 1913, when war was still an abstract con- ception. If a corner of the veil over the pregnant future could have been lifted only for a moment to the scholar's gaze, how the irony of it all would have shot through him with a pang! But no surmise lurked in his heart of the suffering that awaited him in the land in which he had contributed with enthusiasm not only to its scholar- ship, literature, and education, but to its industrial and
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national life and finally even to the effectiveness of its armament.
It has been said that the psychological tests whether actually u^ed in the practical world or whether merely in- tended for such use, all emerged from within the four walls of the laboratory. The experiments for applied psy- chology, however, represented only a fraction of the work done in the Harvard Laboratory, where it was never in- tended that the inroad of the youngest science should cause neglect of the purely scientific psychology. Mean- while the attendance of Miinsterberg's yearly half -course in elementary psychology reached the number of 425 students.
In the academic year 1911-12 the interests of psychology — even apart from applied psychology — did not allow Miinsterberg to stay in the shade of the Harvard elms; it was, rather, a year of congresses. In the Christmas vacation he attended the congress of the Psychological Association in Washington.
Besides the one at Washington, there was another psychological congress that Miinsterberg was eager to attend. This met in April, 1912, in Berlin. To quote his own words from his unfinished reminiscences :
I got the program of the Congress one afternoon, and saw a paper announced in it which interested me; one hour later President Lowell had given me leave of absence for two weeks, and the next morning I sailed from New York. I left the boat at Plymouth, rushed through England, reached Berlin the next afternoon at four, heard the paper at half-past four, and at five I took part in the discussion.
He never regretted this little holiday trip on the spur of the moment; on the contrary, he often looked back on it with a special pleasure, because he had found it completely worth while. For Miinsterberg was a gifted
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traveler, and with the faculty for concentration which he used in his work, he found a keen delight in packing as many valuable impressions as possible into a given short time. He sailed from New York on the S. S. Fin- land, White Star" Line, and from London traveled straight on to Berlin, where he attended the Psychological Congress from April 12th to April 20th. There, much to their surprise, he met his German colleagues whom he knew well, Stumpf, Erdmann, Kiilpe, Stern, Miiller, and others. At a banquet for the members of the Congress held in the Zoological Garden, Miinsterberg made a speech in the name of the foreign guests, for he had come as the psy- chologist from Harvard. On April 21st he left his col- leagues for a day's visit to his brother in Danzig, re- turned to Berlin on the 22nd, and set sail in the best spirits from Bremen for New York and his duties at Har- vard.
In this year, devoted so largely to psychological interests, Miinsterberg nevertheless was called upon to deliver numerous addresses on non-scientific occasions. Among these was the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the University Settlements in New York. In his philosophical address to the social workers, he mentioned the peculiar fitness of settlement workers for influencing the vocational guidance of boys and girls. He ended the talk with these words :
You work with all the means of science and knowledge and yet in the center of your work stands an enthusiastic belief and a thorough reliance in the value of your purposes. Those who mold the children of the tenements into American citizens may calculate neatly how the different racial elements bring differ- ent mental dispositions and what mental influences are necessary to secure certain mental changes. But you do much better. You .do not ask where they come from but where they ought to go. You do not ask what the mental equipment is, but what ideals ought to fill their hearts. You make them believe in
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democratic responsibility because you make them feel that you yourselves believe in it. You are convinced that to be an American does not mean to have certain racial mental qualities, but to be devoted to certain lasting ideals, and when you in- spire the youth of your neighborhood with the belief in beauty and morality and civic decency, you may use all the means of knowledge to secure your ends, but you are powerful because you hold those ends firm in your own enthusiastic belief. What- ever modern knowledge supplies is put into the service of the settlements, but their ends are chosen through free will and through moral consciousness.
The real strength of their work lies in the belief in the living relation of man to man. Their neighborhood work would be in vain if it were done only after psychological prescriptions. It lives and is a blessing because it is informed and molded by the moral belief in ideals and by the human belief in the neighbor. The work which you are doing with the help of hygiene, of biology, of economics, and in the future perhaps with the help of psychology, belongs in the realm of causes and effects which are embedded in the span of time and in that realm we may fittingly and gladly celebrate the anniver- saries. But the work which is done from man to man, carried on by belief in values and ideals is not bound up with cause and effect, and cannot be measured by the months and years; it is work done in the spirit of eternity.
Almost all of Miinsterberg 's addresses were extemporan- eous; his scientific lectures he never wrote out before- hand, neither did he use notes on the lecture platform. Miinsterberg did not, however, attend official functions only when he was the speaker. He went to New York, for instance, to be present at a dinner given in honor of William Dean Howells on his seventy-fifth birthday; for the psychologist was a true admirer of Howells and liked to remember the pleasure he felt on first reading The Rise of Silas Lapham.
From his various journeys, Miinsterberg always returned to his family with a sense of content to be at home again. He delighted in telling about his experiences and to bring
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back to the academic town a pocketful, as it were, of little observations from the West or from the metropolis. During his regular life in Cambridge, Miinsterberg 's days, except for the breaks made by his lectures and his Thursday afternoon seminary class in Radcliffe College, were spent at his room in Emerson Hall. There he i directed the work in the Laboratory, and students could I at any time come in and consult him. There he was accessible, too, between ten and one, to any one from any- where who wanted to ask his counsel, from a colleague who desired his cooperation in some new scientific enter- prise to some "down-and-out" who longed to be helped out of his "slough of despond/' The less frequently in- terrupted hours in the laboratory — and he counted usually on a fairly unbroken afternoon — were spent in steajdy dicta- tion to his still devoted secretary, Miss Wilkins.
Most of Miinsterberg 's evenings at home were passed in his genial study, in his big armchair with an array of books and papers spread out on a lap-board that lay on the arms of his chair — a device that allowed him to work in a relaxed position. His study was always shared by his wife, often, particularly on Sunday evenings, by the whole family. In these later years Miinsterberg rarely gave up his evenings at home for social pleasures, unless he could promise himself hours of real stimulus. As soon as he was at a dinner or reception, however, he entered into the spirit of the event with the same whole- heartedness with which he gave an address or conducted an experiment.
The social life in the academic circles of Cambridge had in later years become somewhat subdued. The reason for this was not apparent, except that many of the older distinguished, genial men who, with their wives, had led in hospitality and had given to the society of the college town its peculiar flavor of intellectual communism — men
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like Professor Charles Eliot Norton, Professor Shaler, and Professor Goodwin — had been called away by death. Some newer ties, however, enriched Miinsterberg 's socia-1 life, conspicuous among them his intercourse with Professor George Foote Moore, the historian and theologian.
Miinsterberg and his wife, moreover, continued their habit of welcoming the newcomer, whether colleague, student or stranger, who promised to offer some new point- of-view or contact with some new sphere of interest. The advanced students of the Psychological Laboratory and of the seminary met in the professor 's house, together with some of their teachers, in the old way at informal smokers. Individual students were invited to dinner in small groups, and occasionally those who were far from home gathered round the Thanksgiving turkey.
Among the foreign guests, it was a special pleasure for Miinsterberg to welcome his old friend, the philosopher Paul Hensel, the genial and brilliant interpreter of Swift and Carlyle. Poets, indeed, artists of all kinds, were es- pecially welcome in the house of the scholar within its book-lined walls. Maude Adams had been entertained there a few years before ; and this year its door was opened to an actress of a very different appeal and temperament, who had tried to rouse the scientist's interest in the psychological aspect of a new French comedy in which she was acting — the piquant and passionate Russian, Nazim- ova.
When the academic season drew to a close, Miinsterberg and his family were once more making cheerful prepara- tions for a summer in Europe. Although it was an un- written law for them not to travel abroad oftener than every two years, and although they had already spent the two preceding summers in Europe, nevertheless they had a good excuse for another visit in the summer of 1912. For in August of that year Hugo and his wife wanted to
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celebrate their silver wedding in the same old house in which they were married.
Shortly before he sailed, on the night of the first of June, when Miinsterberg was approaching his house — he had just taken his family to the moving pictures of Ramy's hunt in Africa, which had a particular charm for him — he was surprised by a burst of cheering. By moon- light and the faint illumination of the street lantern on Ware Street, he then discerned a host of college boys — the men from his large lecture class — who gave him an ovation not only because it was the night of his birthday, but because, at the end of this college year, he had completed twenty-five years of academic work.
With the cheers of the college boys still ringing in his mind, Miinsterberg soon embarked for Europe, in the most sanguine spirits, never surmising that this was des- tined to be his last visit.
The voyage on the Victoria Luise was not only cheerful, but jolly. A number of friends, mostly young or youth- ful people, were on board and the afternoons and evenings on the perfectly equipped steamer, with its swimming- tank and ballroom, passed with much merriment. Only on ocean voyages — and, to be sure, during his cures at European watering places — did Miinsterberg allow his mind to relax. Not that he played cards or sought new acquaintances in the smoking room. To lie on the steamer-chair with a novel or scientific book, to watch the horizon from the upper deck, and then to enjoy a graceful tea hour with his family and some sprightly lady or entertaining youth — a little music, a little banter, and a satisfied return to his book — that was all the relaxation he desired. Once or twice he was inveigled to try his long rusty skill at the game of his youth — the laborious pastime of scholars, chess.
Once back in the whirlpool of interests at Berlin, in-
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numerable ties demanded Miinsterb erg's attention. Th« young staff of the America-Institute eagerly looked to its founder for further guidance; colleagues, friends, and relatives pressed him with their hospitality. And yet he worked in his brother's study with two secretaries, one for the morning, one for the afternoon, as persistently as if he had been in his room at Emerson Hall. From June 17th to July 8th the greatest part of his days were thus devoted to intense work and accordingly, at the time set by himself, he had completed his German book on applied psychology, Psychologic und Wirtschaftsleben, the equiva- lent of Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, which he wrote the following autumn.
After these diligent weeks of production, Miinsterberg realized that the time had come for a real vacation, and on July llth, after his family had already migrated south- ward, he left his brother's house for the familiar promen- ades and wholesome springs of Kissingen where, once more, he found rest in almost complete solitude.
Miinsterberg left Kissingen on the fourth of August, met his wife and with her journeyed to the old home of her mother. On the seventh of August Miinsterberg and his wife celebrated their silver wedding in the same room in which they had been married twenty-five years before. The same old family paintings of ^vanished ladies" looked down at them, the same old piano on which Mrs. Miinsterberg 's mother had played before her hands grew stiff, the same old-fashioned sewing table and quaint vases and embroideries surrounded them now as on that seventh of August of their youth. Again a flood of summer flowers, fresh from the garden, graced and rejuvenated the old room. The celebrant pair spent the fete day in idyllic quiet, amid their family, with letters and gifts, with happy reminiscences and thankfulness for the blessings that a quarter century had brought.
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For the end of the summer, Munsterberg carefully and minutely planned out a ' 'silver-wedding journey" in which, to be sure, his daughters were not to be left behind. As has been said before, Munsterberg was a gifted traveler, and knew how to choose the essential beauties of a region as well as how to fit as many as possible of the most valuable impressions into a given time. He had, moreover, the rare gift of enjoying a journey completely. No one else with whom he traveled had his peculiar capacity for sinking altogether into the contemplation of a beautiful landscape, picture, or statue; no one else could be as ob- livious of minor disturbances, of non-essentials in the face of great beauty. Where others felt pleasure or in- terest, he felt a joy that sprang from the depth of his being.
Upon this particular journey, the highlands surrounding Salzburg were a revelation to Munsterberg. One of the Humboldts once said that the landscapes about Salzburg, Naples, and Constantinople were the most beautiful in the world ; to Munsterberg who had never seen Constantinople and who was to see Naples in three weeks for the first time, the beauty of Salzburg made a deep impression. The ideal union of landscape and architecture, the same charm that makes Heidelburg the Mecca of romanticists, is even more perfectly represented by Salzburg. The mediaeval castle that towers above the historic gabled town seems to have grown inevitably out of the gray rocks of the mountain it crowns, and the oak woods that gird it are as intrinsic parts of the gray romantic pile as any pinnacle or buttress. Munsterberg roamed through the ancient halls of the castle and admired, from the top of a mountain, the dazzling ring of snow mountains in their austere majesty. By way of contrast, he enjoyed the delicate, artificial gardens of a pampered prince of the "roccoco" age. But what appealed most profoundly to his sense of
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beauty was the day at Berchtesgaden when he glided over the magic "King's Lake" — that shadowy, somber water walled in by stee^ rocky, almost perpendicular mountain sides — the most romantic mountain lake in all that rugged solitude.
At Innsbruck, the home of Andreas Hofer, the historic charm appealed to Miinsterberg most strongly, for, though a scientist and a philosopher, he had to a remarkable degree the "historic-mindedness" that enables one to transpose one's own point of view into the spirit of a bygone age. Through the stern, romantic scenery of the Tirol, Miinsterberg, with his family, sped south to the sunny, smiling landscape of Switzerland, to the village of Wesen on the Walensee, not far from Zurich. Once before, when Miinsterberg was a young unmarried student, he had passed by this lovely lake and had then said to himself: "Here I should like to bring my future wife some day!" And so he had chosen this blessed spot as an ideal resting place between the rugged northern and the languid Italian highlands. Here he took his pleasure in the exquisite light blue lake with the ring of sunny green mountains round about and the snow mountains beyond, gleaming like crystal against the cloudless sky.
At Lugano, finally, as he gazed leisurely at the olive- tinted lake, the languid lines of the mountain slopes, the white villas and serene gardens with black southern pine and slender cypress trees, his sense of beauty found com- plete satisfaction. The stern romantic beauty of the north- ern "King's Lake," and the sunny charm of the blue lake in Switzerland were rivaled, if not surpassed; for later Miinsterberg said to his family, after deliberate reflection : "I am not sure but that Lugano was the most beautiful of all!" On the pleasure boat in which they crossed the lake to the picturesque Italian village, Porlezza, the philosopher kept in his pocket a little slender volume of
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verse by his favorite modern poet, the Austrian, Rilke, which he took out and read at intervals between gazing at the narcotic landscape.
Both Hugo's brothers, Oskar and Otto, planned to sail with him and his family to America. For Oskar, a busi- ness trip to America was nothing new; for Otto, how- ever, whose duties held him in Europe, this first visit to America was to be the long postponed fulfillment of a cherished desire. His immediate excuse for making the visit at this time was the International Congress of Cham- bers of Commerce held in Boston, to which he was a dele- gate; his real purpose was to become acquainted at first hand with the American life of his kin and to see their distant home.
On the train to Genoa the oldest brother joined the others and together they wandered through the swarm- ing Italian streets and the old palaces, and finally em- barked on the S. S. Moltke, on a dazzling Italian day when the sea wore its deepest, most tropical blue. The one day on land allowed the passengers at Naples was a day after Hugo's heart. The classic statues at the Museum, the magic of Vesuvius and the Bay, the silent eloquence of Pompeii 's ruddy ruins — for all these wonders, accepted by countless Baedeker tourists as their due or even as an obligation, Hugo Miinsterberg felt a profound awe and the simple gratitude of a mind that, however productive it may be, never ceases to learn and never loses its genius for enthusiasm.
The long voyage to New York was a period of unusual happiness. To spend restful sunny days, carefree, to look back on hours of great beauty and forward to a year of brisk work — all this put him into the most cheerful spirits. An entertaining acquaintance, a quixotic globe-trotter who had taken part in one of Roosevelt's African expeditions, adorned the evenings in the smoking-room with absorb-
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ing yarns. But more significant was a budding inter- national romance. Oskar Miinsterberg, the youngest of the brothers and the only bachelor among them, loved at first sight a young American girl, a graduate of Vassar College, to whom he easily obtained an introduction. The friendship begun on the steamer was continued after land- ing, and was destined to end in a happy marriage.
Back in Cambridge, Miinsterberg found much happi- ness in seeing his oldest brother in his house for the first time. The International Congress of the Chambers of Commerce was a brilliant affair honored by the presence of President Taft. Otto Miinsterberg enjoyed the hospi- tality of Boston during the days of the Congress and praised it with enthusiasm in one of a series of sketches that appeared later in the form of a booklet called "Im- pressions of America. ' ' He gave an address as a delegate to the Congress at one of the official meetings, for, thanks to his annual journeys to England, he spoke English fluently. The three brothers were united for a few har- monious days, never surmising that such a reunion was never to occur again. On Thanksgiving Day, in the Hotel Plaza in New York, Oskar Miinsterberg and Helen Rice, the lady of the steamer, became engaged. This romance delighted Hugo, for it meant one more significant link in the chain that bound together, in his own life, the land of his birth and the land of his activity. i
iFor literature written during the period covered by this chap- ter see Appendix, pages 418-424.
CHAPTER XIII
IN SUNLIGHT (October, 1912— August, 1914)
THE season of 1912-1913 was in the main devoted to aca- demic work and constant literary production, with con- tinued activities in the interest of applied psychology. The academic rhythm was broken, now and then, by journeys to the Middle West, to Washington, to New York, and by the pleasures of hospitality.
In Emerson Hall, some external changes had taken place. Koom for laboratory experiments had been found insuffi- cient, especially since the Psychological Department had been enlarged to include educational psychology. To make room for this new field, therefore, the fourth floor of Emer- son Hall had been rebuilt and fitted out entirely for experi- mental work on animal psychology under the direction of Professor Yerkes ; it became, accordingly, the psychological zoo of Emerson Hall.
The more and more apparent demand for a larger lec- ture hall in Emerson Hall, however, had not been satisfied. In Miinsterberg 's elementary psychology course there were 426 men, too many for any of the rooms in Emerson Hall, so that the lectures were held in the large New Lecture Hall, a separate building, and the apparatus used for demon- strations had to be carried across the street.
This is not the place for a scientific exposition of the ex- periments made at the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. Suffice it to say that the attitude of the research students was one of conscientious attention to the individual dif- ferences of subjects in introspection and to the rich variety of results gained, whether these results were expected or
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baffling; further, that there was no insistence on generaliza- tion, unless it was perfectly warranted by data, and then only with an accurate statement of exceptions to rules. Merely as an example of the devotion to detail necessary to gain even the smallest substantial result in experimenting, the following may be cited from the conclusion a stu- dent's thesis on "The Psycho-physiological Effect of the Elements of Speech in Relation to Poetry":
Eight years of work culminate in the results we have brought forward, in which years eighteen thousand lines of poetry were phonetically measured and tabulated, involving the enumeration of nearly 540,000 sounds; the measurements of the records ob- tained in the laboratory involved nearly 300,000 bits of data; the computation of the mean, the mean variation, and the range for all the experiments and the making of rank lists brings the total number of computations to more than a million.
Miinsterberg welcomed eagerly the cooperation of other institutions with the Harvard laboratory. Dr. Langfeld, for instance, helped with studies carried on in the Nutri- tion Laboratory on the psychophysiological effects of pro- longed fasting. It was of decided significance that Pro- fessor Yerkes was appointed psychologist to the Psycho- pathic Hospital in Boston, not because the hospital of- fered opportunity for specialized research, but because it was a wholesome sign of the close relation between the psychological workshop and the world's work.
In the Harvard curriculum, psychology experienced a further coming of age, in regard to a technical point: in the year 1912-1913 the Department of Philosophy was turned into the Department of Philosophy and Psychology, and by this transformation psychology won the freedom under which doctor examinations could be concentrated on psychology proper, no longer embedded in general philosophy. Miinsterberg 's satisfaction with this new in-
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dependence of his science in the administrative scheme was, however, to quote his own words, * ' in no way an expression of the wish to draw a sharper demarcation line between philosophy and psychology, and the Psychological Labora- tory continues to be conducted in the spirit of a firm belief that the psychologist needs a philosophical background." It was not only in this spirit of the psychologist who looks with filial reverence upon "divine philosophy/' but with the kindred sense of one who is and always has been himself a philosopher that Hugo Miinsterberg welcomed as Exchange Professor to Harvard the venerable and re- nowned scholar, Rudolf Eucken. Thus Miinsterberg opened his speech at the meeting of the Philosophical Club in honor of the guest:
... I am grateful for this visit not only as man, but as philosopher. To be sure most of you of the younger set look on me only as a psychologist whose professional right is only to be a specialist and who therefore ought not to bother the world with his philosophical creed. But I have never denied that I stick to the old-fashioned belief that the psychologist needs a philosophical background and that my philosophy is thoroughly idealistic. This is not the trend of our day. Many another phil- osophical ism tinkles merrily in our ears. The idealist has not the slightest objection to such varieties of the philosophical tem- perament, as he knows too well that all those partial truths will find their ultimate place in the embracing system of idealism, which can hold them all and can harmonize them all. And yet it is delightful at least sometimes to hear the real voice of ideal- ism itself. Idealism is the keynote of those eloquent speeches which Professor Eucken has brought to the students and to the community.
In the season of 1913-1914 the Harvard Philosophical Department received into its household the Japanese Ex- change Professor, Anesaki, with whom Miinsterberg came to be on very pleasant terms. Another visiting philosopher was Professor AJois Riehl, who, at the beginning of Miin-
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sterberg's career, had been at the head of the Philosophical Department in Freiburg. At a philosophical dinner Miin- sterberg began his speech thus:
GENTLEMEN: There seems to be a wonderful preestablished harmony in our university system. Whenever the visiting com- mittee feels ready for a philosophical celebration, there are some philosophical foreign guests on the spot worthy to be celebrated. Last year we had dear old Eucken with us, and this year philos- ophy comes in still more international garb, one of our friends bringing us the spirit of Japan, and the other born in Germany, nursed in India, trained in England, teaching in Africa, and stimulating us in America.1 But they are not the only philoso- phers from abroad. We are looking forward to Russell, we have just listened to the masterly addresses of Riehl, and the most marked foreign guests before in the university were probably Bergson and Boutroux. No other department can boast of such a foreign court of honor. It seems to me this is not a chance, I should even say that this predominance of philosophy among the guests of the university itself reflects light on the meaning of philosophy. By an instinctive selection the academic world seeks to attract those foreigners who can add the most distinctive con- tribution. Why do we not expect such gain from a mathema- tician or a chemist, from a philologist or a doctor? They all would be able to bring us important facts and to distribute a knowledge which might be a full-fledged addition to all which we have in our circle. The universities evidently feel that such mere additional knowledge and such supplementary facts are not significant, and that mere facts and mere knowledge are better distributed by those who are familiar with our methods and ac- customed to our schemes. They discriminate only in favor of the philosopher. Does this not indicate that philosophy has a dif- ferent purpose, that it does not give account of existing facts, but moves in a sphere of decisions and obligations, in a sphere in which the personal attitude is the last resort? Idealistic phi- losophy has always taken it as its central conviction that the kind of philosophy you have depends upon the kind of man you are. This would be absurd for mathematics or chemistry. The philosopher of a foreign land brings a really new attitude. He does not come as a member of another race. That would draw
i This was a reference to Professor Alfred Hoernle" of the Harvard Philosophical Department.
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down the difference to the level of mere biology. Then the dif- ference would be a disturbance rather than a gain. He comes to us as a member of another nation, and that means as a rep- resentative of a new group of will attitudes, and therefore only he can bring us something which another land cannot possibly have. This instinctive preference for philosophers as academic guests thus strikes me as a wonderful historic plea for the truth of philosophic idealism, and even when our guests are realists, they help to prove by their very coming the correctness of the idealistic philosophy.
Munsterberg was made a delegate from Harvard to the opening of the new Princeton Graduate School. This unique institution, which was to represent a serene com- munity of men devoted to the ideals of scholarship, undis- tracted by hurried preparation for a gainful pursuit, this Graduate School that had emerged at last out of the clouds of stormy debate, Munsterberg greeted with these words :
MB. PRESIDENT: GENTLEMEN: To come to beautiful Prince- ton in these days of rejoicing stirs in my mind most strongly the feeling of contrast between to-day and the past, as the campus of Princeton was one of the first places I visited when I landed in the new world more than a score of years ago.
There is perhaps no land on the globe for which high scholar- ship to-day has such an important message, far more important than it had twenty-five years ago. When I came to this country, I saw a nation controlled and disciplined by two powers which are not without inner connection, puritanism and capitalism. The aristocracy of wealth and the restraint of moral tradition gave to the nation a firm inner unity. We all know how the times have changed. Not wealth has decreased, but the belief in its rights of leadership, and the forms of life are more and more dictated by the anti-puritanic Broadway. The people, who crush the monopolies and at the same time crave tango dances, have reached a stage at which the old leadership has lost its hold, and no new leaders are in sight, unless the aristocracy of scholarship is prepared to inspire the masses with new ideals. If this influence
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does not become powerful, our culture will be left to the lower in- stincts. We all know how easy it is to gain a million readers for a magazine, and a thousand performances for a play, and twenty thousand students for a university, as soon as we appeal to the cheaper and more trivial longings. But America cannot rely on an intellectual referendum and a spiritual recall.
How can this mastership be hoped for from the men whose scholarly work is nothing but work, and nothing but scholarly? Work, efficient work, it must be, but it ought to be at the same time joy and promise and fulfillment. Scholarly, thoroughly scholarly, it must be, but it ought to be at the same time human and inspiring and beautiful. We cannot substitute committees where a genius is needed: we cannot recommend scientific man- agement for culture, if devotion and belief are the requisite. A national uplifting can be hoped for only from men who know that the most useful and the most practical things in the world are the abundance and the luxury of the overflow, men who see the small things small and the large things large, and everything on the golden background of eternal values. The graduate work in this country stands at the parting of the ways. It may be- come more and more the domain of the men with blinders, the kind of men who would plod faithfully through any task and who will go where small fellowships drag them. Or the graduate work may expand into an ideal comradeship of high-minded scholars who take their task as a mission, who feel themselves not artisans, but creators. If only the way of the specialists is open, the flabby weaklings would choose it, but the men of vitality would leave it in order to rush toward law and industry and banking and world enterprises. If the born leaders of the nation are ever to be attracted, we must show them a way which demands lofty courage and noble strength. The type of men is the alpha and omega. If we have the wrong type, the scholar will play no better role in the nation than the poorly paid school teacher plays. If we have the right type, the country will learn to discriminate between them. If we have the right type, the scholar will be the hero and the leader. And if he ever comes to that leadership in the new aristocracy which must form itself out of this transition period of to-day, it will enrich and uplift the whole nation and will reflect new luster on all the academic institu- tions of the land. The youngest as well as the oldest will re- ceive new impulse. The youngest may speak for itself, but in the name of the oldest, which has sent me here to-night, I pledge
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to old Princeton heartfelt thanks for its courageous choice at the parting of the ways. It saw the way of the feeble, but it chose the glorious path of the strong.
In order not to lose contact with colleagues outside of the Harvard precincts, Miinsterberg attended various scientific congresses. At the Sociological Congress in December, 1912, he contributed an address in which he pointed out the urgent need of the help that only experi- mental psychology can give in solving problems of manu- facture, transportation, and commerce and especially the employment of labor. It is interesting to note that this address was held in the same month in which Miinster- berg 's Vocation and Learning appeared, a book that can- not aptly be called a treatise on vocational guidance, be- cause, as will be seen in another context, it is itself a vocational guide.
A year later, from December 29th to 31st, the Association of Philosophy and of Psychology met at New Haven. Miinsterberg attended this meeting, and especially enjoyed a luncheon given to him by a dozen of his former labo- ratory students, now his colleagues, who had all assembled at the Congress.
Miinsterberg 's contribution at the Congress was an ad- dress in which he opposed the prevalent movement to separate psychology from philosophy, for he never lost his broad philosophical point of view, however intricate the pathways of his special science had come to be.
At a Psychological Congress, in the spring of 1913, which was held in Middletown, Connecticut, Miinsterberg gave an account of his observations on the phenomenal child, Beulah Miller, and the explanatory conclusions that he had drawn from this study. Three times he had journeyed to her pastoral home in the little town of Warren, Rhode Island. There, with pockets full of candy, he had
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come to be a welcome guest of little Beulah, of her twelve- year old sister Gladys, and of her sensible, warm-hearted mother, and felt quite at home in the rustic kitchen where the cat purred and, now and then, the pet lamb sauntered in from the pasture.
Beulah Miller, a simple and quite artless village child, was said to be endowed with marvelous powers of mind- reading; and after this gift had once been discovered by press reporters, newspaper rumors raised it to the fabulous, asserting that Beulah, by some mystic power, could give names or dates or facts not known to any one in her presence. It was the danger of poison for the public mind from pseudo-scientific occultism that brought Miinsterberg to Warren, Rhode Island, fully as much as purely psychological interest in the case. Indeed, he came armed in the defense of his science, just as he had set out to Madame Eusapia Palladino's murky, occult seances. But here, in contrast to the squalor, the atmosphere of fraud and the "intellectual underworld" in which the medium sat enthroned, he found a country idyll and an honest, sincere family with no motives of gain. On ac- count of this very absence of deceit, the case was all the more baffling and, to put the dilemma of psychology into Miinsterberg 's own words: "If Beulah Miller's little hands are to set the torch to the whole pile of our knowl- edge, we ought first to be perfectly sure that there is really nothing worth saving. We cannot accept the theory of the apostles of mind-reading until we know surely that Beulah Miller can receive communications which cannot possibly be explained with the means of science. "
Beulah 's strange power was noticed first when the Miller family played "Old Maid," and the child always knew where the queen was to be found; then experiments with cards showed that Beulah could tell on which ones her mother and sister had fixed their minds. The child's
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power became known to her friends, and Sunday-school children reported it to the minister of the town, who ac- cordingly visited Beulah and by his own experiments was convinced of her gift for mind-reading. Through the minister, Reverend H. W. Wat j en and his friend, Judge Mason, a resident of Warren for over thirty years, the public came to know of Beulah 's wonders and these two gentlemen asked the Harvard psychologist to investigate the case.
With all the accuracy of scientific methods, hitherto not employed by the laymen who had marveled at Beulah, Miinsterberg took notes on all that he observed. He found, indeed, that while he was sitting with the mother and sister on one side of the room and Beulah on the other, the child could tell correctly what playing-card the other three were looking at. Or when these others were looking at three letters of the alphabet, each on a cardboard square, drawn at random and put into the cover of a box, Beulah, sitting beside the rest, but gazing at the ceiling, could guess the right letters, sometimes after one or two, but never after more than two, wrong attempts. She was just as successful in guessing words at which the others looked, and always spelled them out, letter by letter.
Astounding though these feats were, they did not threaten to overthrow the whole structure of science. This was proved by certain facts definitely observed. One of these was Beulah 's inability to perform any of her feats when blindfolded; another the circumstance that Beulah was not successful in the experiments unless her mother or sister were in the room; a third, that when she read the words of which the others were thinking, these words never came to her as a whole, but always spelled out slowly, letter by letter. From these undeniable facts Miin- sterberg concluded that Beulah was simply supersensitive to signs given unconsciously, as in this case by her mother
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and sister — signs no more marked than, for instance, an involuntary movement of the foot or head. These signs can be received through the child's oversensitive skin or the ears or with the side parts of the eyes, which are made more susceptible to slight impressions when the centers of the eyes are fixed on some point, as when Beulah stared at the ceiling and yet may have perceived the move- ments of her mother and sister. The fact that blindfolding took away Beulah 's power, did not convince Miinsterberg that her power was due wholly to the receptiveness of her eyes ; he believed, rather, that seeing her mother and sister brought about a state of autosuggestion which sharpened her other senses, even though it may have been through touch and hearing* that the impressions were actually re- ceived. Indeed, a sign of the child's suggestibility might be found in the help gained when she touched the card she tried to read. Furthermore, Beulah belonged ap- parently to the class of individuals, recognized by scien- tists, who with their very sensitive ears receive impressions that are recorded in what is popularly called the sub- conscious mind, impressions that later crop out after they seem to have been slumbering in this subconscious- ness. This diagnosis accounted for the' fact that, al- though the minister had merely whispered in an ad- joining room that he had in his pocket a glass of honey, Beulah, when he asked her later what he was carrying in his pocket, could tell correctly what it was, although she had not consciously heard any whispering.
So, when Miinsterberg left the quaint village for the last time, he returned with a pleasant remembrance of the hours spent there, convinced that Beulah Miller with her extraordinary gifts was indeed highly interesting to the psychologist, but that, as he put it himself ''the edi- fice of science will not be shaken by the powers of my little Rhode Island friend."
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Interest in applied psychology, to which so much space has been given in the preceding chapter, was by no means wailing in the year 1912-4913. It was during this academic season that Miinsterberg wrote his book Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, a virtual translation of the German work that had already appeared. Moreover, he had ample opportunity to bring his ideas directly before the public, since organizations of all kinds were clamoring for lectures on applied psychology.
But the most significant development of the year in the effort to apply psychology was the interest to which Miin- sterberg roused the Government of the United States. The creation of a Government bureau devoted to scientific research in the application of psychology to all the prob- lems of commerce and industry was a scheme that Miinster- berg had much at heart. In the spring of 1913 he went to Washington and talked with President Wilson, Secre- tary of Commerce Eedfield, and the Secretary of Labor, W. B. Wilson. Encouraged by the interest with which his plan was met at Washington, Miinsterberg gave it further careful attention and on May 24, 1913 he wrote the following letter to the Secretary of Commerce, and the same to the Secretary of Labor :
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
January 4th, 1915. To the Secretary of Commerce,
Department of Commerce,
Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR:
In accordance with your recent suggestion, I beg to submit a few outlines of the" work which I hope the present admin- istration will undertake in connection with the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor. After my visit in Washington and my conversation with you, I intentionally post- poned writing for a few weeks in order to hear the views of many advisers in theoretical and practical fields. After a large
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number* of consultations of this kind, I feel to-day still more cer- tain than at the time of my visit that the Government would un- dertake a most important and most helpful w.ork, a work ex- cellently fitted to help towdfrd the solution of our present indus- trial and commercial difficulties, if it were to create such scien- tific bureaus as I suggested. They would mean for the industrial life of the najfcion what the agricultural stations mean for the farmers, and they would do work which could not be done other- wise.
It may be emphasized first of all that such work would have certain points of contact with the recent movement for scien- tific management which is clearly ebbing all over the country. It is recognized that a real solution of the problems could not be gained in that way and that many serious humanitarian interests were overlooked and neglected. The work on the basis of scien- tific psychology would go the opposite way and could from the beginning counjt on the earnest sympathy of both the employees and the employers. In the same way the routine movements for vocational guidance have shown a regrettable one-sidedness, as they also have neglected the factor of the human mind. On the other hand, the necessity of working in both directions with really scientific methods is just at present most evident, as both popular movements are threatened with being switched off into directly dangerous dilettantic fads. The scientific management is sliding over into the hands of those who want to select the laborers with reference to the angles of their physiognomy and the structure of their hstnds. And even the vocational bureaus, as the news- papers report from Washington, D. C., seem to be coming under the control of vocational quacks, who rely on their personal im- pressions in distributing young people to the vocations for which they consider them fit. If such caricatures of vocational work are endorsed by serious boards, it is the fullest time for the Government to undertake the establishment of really scientific institutes before one of the most promising movements of our time is turned into a farce.
Moreover, the methods of selecting fit individuals for work and fit work for individuals would be only a fraction of the ques- tions which such a scientific bureau of psychological standards would undertake to study. The nation needs a research institute where the whole psychology and psychophysiology of manufac- ture, transportation, and distribution may be studied with com- plete impartiality so as to help both employers and employees
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and to further the interests of American industry and commerce. The mental elements are more important for the inner and outer success and satisfaction than the raw material and the machines. While to-day the greatest care is devoted to the problems of such material and equipment, all questions of the mind, questions like fatigue, monotony, interest, learning, practice, skill, rest, refresh- ment, recess, eagerness, appetite, thirst, joy in work, excitement, depression, reward, attention, memory, will energy, and instinct and many similar mental states are dealt with by laymen without any scientific understanding.
Moreover it is doubtful whether even the scientists could furnish sufficient aid at the present time, because the work of the scholarly students of the mind has had too little contact with the practical problems. Only in recent days the laboratory studies of the ex- perimental and physiological psychologists have been brought in- to intimate relation to education and medicine and into slighter relations to law, but of relations to the economic life, only the first beginnings exist. It cannot be expected that the university laboratories can go far in this direction. They can give sugges- tions and stimulate some original investigations in such lines, but they have neither the means nor the time nor the opportunities to carry on such researches in the expansive form in which they may become of decisive importance for the commonwealth. On the other hand, it cannot appear a desirable solution for such broader researches to be carried on under the control of manufac- turers or commercial associations. Some efforts of this kind may be noticed, but the temptation is too great to sift the results and to bring to the notice of the community only that which harmonizes with one-sided interests.
It is most desirable that also in the future the university labora- tories help to originate new plans and that commercially in- terested groups undertake the carrying on of practical investiga- tion. But the central place for such research ought to be a governmental bureau with a staff of scientifically trained men and women who combine psychological and physiological knowl- edge and experimental methods with a thorough acquaintance with the realm of economic problems. The cruel and uneconomic waste of human material by un fitness for work, by. accidents, by incompetence, by badly adjusted methods, and by wrong dis- tribution of energies can be brought to an end. Such a central agency could bring new life and new interests and new standards to the commercial and industrial activity of the whole country,
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and above all it could secure new joy in work and new stability to the industry of the nation.
There would be no need to begin with palatial institutions. A few thoroughly well carried out researches which bring into clear relief the values of the new methods would be at first more important than a f actorylike undertaking of many routine studies. The chief thing would be to secure a few strong minds with con- structive imagination, and the facilities of offices through which contact with the economic establishments could be maintained. As soon as a beginning is made, such a bureau will grow up by itself and will soon reach an importance fully equal to that of the agricultural stations. It will become the authoritative center to which not only the manufacturers and commercial associations will turn, but also the municipal and state boards in the interest of social reform.
Very respectfully yours,
HUGO MUNSTEBBERG
Communications about this plan were continued in the year 1913-1914.
Meanwhile some of the more enlightened men in the commercial world, who saw the possibilities in the coopera- tion of science and industry, turned to the psychologist for advice. A letter from the Safety Supervisor of the El Paso and Southwestern Railway is merely an example.
DEAR SIR:
Please pardon the liberty I am taking in encroaching on your valuable time with this letter. My only excuse, however, is that I know that any new field for applied psychology is of in- terest to you. Your book On the Witness Stand I have read with intense interest, as a three years experience as Assistant District Attorney under Mr. Jerome has proved to me a hundred times over, if your psychological suggestions were applied to legal pro- ceedings, especially criminal ones, a great improvement would be made in the administration of justice in the United States. At the present time I am interested in railroad work, and am safety supervisor for the El Paso and Southwestern system. I have just finished a careful examination and report on the largest railroad safety organizations.
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As you may not be familiar with this work, pardon a slight explanation of it. ... etc. etc. . . .
It has struck me forcibly that every method of impressing the men that has been evolved, is, unconsciously to its origina- tor who was in every case a railroad man, a purely psycho- logical one. For this reason I am sure that a little psychologi- cal investigation would soon prove which methods were most efficacious in eliminating what we call "human element," and would soon develop new and more forcible ways of impressing the men with the Safety First idea. Two thirds of the accidents on railroads are preventable ones, due entirely to the negligence or disobedience of orders of some employee — the human element. When you know that 10,585 persons were killed, and 169,538 per- sons were injured on the railroads of the United States, during the year ending June 30, 1912, and when you know that two-thirds of these accidents are preventable, you can easily realize the humanitarian and economic value of this work.
One step farther should be taken. There should be a psycho- logical test to prove a man fitted for his work, before he shall be employed in the operation department of any railroad. . . .
After I have perfected the safety organization for the El Paso and Southwestern system, which will take me at least four or five months, I would very much like to make some arrangement with you, if it were possible, to work out these various tests in your laboratory under your guidance and lead. . . .
As Miinsterberg was called upon to present the new science to diverse audiences, he had occasion to meet men of varied occupations, with most divergent points of view. Although he was not a " mixer " in the current sense of the term, his mind was eagerly open to the ideas of the earnest spokesman for any cause, whether it was that of the dry-goods business, of settlement work, of opera sing- ing, or philosophy. For dilettantism and bluff he had no patience; for expertness in any worthy line he felt the profoundest respect So he endeavored, whenever oc- casion demanded, not only to give his best to any group
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eager to learn, but, what is more difficult for a thinker accustomed to impart rather than to partake, he was al- ways ready, where new significant facts or new points of view appeared, to listen and learn from others.
During the season of 1912-1913, interests other than applied psychology called Munsterberg away from his by no means cloistered study. In New York a new monument to Carl Schurz was unveiled, and Munsterberg spoke at the banquet that celebrated this event. On the 13th of December, 1912, he attended in New York the banquet in honor of the British Ambassador, James Bryce, given by the American Committee for the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of Peace among English- speaking peoples.
Untouched by any forebodings of the darkness that was to cover the nations little more than a year hence, Munster- berg made an enthusiastic speech at a banquet in Chicago in 1913 after the presentation and unveiling of the Goethe monument by the sculptor Hahn. This statue does not represent the poet's features but a symbolic figure of a young Titan. When Munsterberg was in Chicago for the unveiling of this monument, he was asked to speak in the afternoon at Brandt Park to a large audience of school children and young people; this he gladly consented to do and delighted in the unaccustomed out-of-door preach- ing.
Numerous though Munsterberg 's travels were in this period, his social life at home did not lack pleasure and variety; indeed, during the season of 1912-1913 and the following one many interesting visitors passed through Cambridge, and stopped at the philosopher's house. A " philosophical dinner" that Munsterberg gave in honor of Professor Riehl was characteristic. The guests were Professor Royce, the metaphysician; Professor George Herbert Palmer, the beloved expositor of ethics; Profes-
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sor George Foote Moore, the Harvard theologian; and a visiting theologian, Professor von Dobschiitz; Professor Francis Peabody, teacher of Christian ethics and philan- thropy, who had been the first Exchange Professor from Harvard; Professor Baldensperger, Harvard's visitor from France ; the Japanese philosopher, Professor Anesaki ; and Dr. Muck, conductor of the Boston Symphony orches- tra.
At the close of the academic year, Miinsterberg sought quiet once more in Clifton, and in this pastoral summer retreat he celebrated his fiftieth birthday happily with his family, and received congratulatory visits, gifts and let- ters.
From the first of June to the first of August, Miinster- berg dictated to a German secretary his comprehensive book on applied psychology: Grundzuge der Psychotech- nik. Not until this period of intense productive work was ended, did his real vacation begin.
In June, however, his work was interrupted by the joy- ful occasion of his brother Oskar's wedding, which took place in a romantic chapel above the sea on a rocky promon- tory of Kennebunk port, Maine. An hour later, in the cottage where the wedding supper was held, while waves swished round it, Hugo, as best man, toasted his brother's bride and spoke of the ocean as a symbol of their union:
. . . You do not lose your own country by gaining a new one. Yes, you will discover what we have found through long years of happiness, that the ocean yonder does not sever the lands, but unites them.
But the ocean is not only a reminder of past times, and a suggestion of future times: it is a symbol of timeless eternity. The meaning of the ocean has always been the eternal mystery, the unknown depths which surround us. ... Yes, whenever we build our house on the rock of life, around it widens the ocean of the eternal, and thus it is a wonderful symbol, this wedding on the rock surrounded by the ocean. . . .
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A month later the daughter of Emil Miinsterberg, the deceased older brother of Hugo, was married to the well known English writer, William Harbutt Dawson of Lon- don. Now Hugo felt that his family was truly interna- tional, and he liked to look upon these marriages of his brother and his niece as a symbol for that ideal of his public life — harmony among the United States, Germany, and England.
It was less than a year later, at Easter time, 1914, that the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, gave a course of lectures at the Lowell Institute in Boston. Miinster- berg, who was charmed with his wit and valued his scholarly distinction, entertained him at his house. This was Munsterberg 's last festivity before the war. A few days later his daughter was stricken with scarlet fever. This was an accident that affected his destiny, for it was now necessary to give up the intended voyage to Europe for which passage had already been engaged on the 8. 8. Cincinnati. To Miinsterberg this forced change of plans meant merely at the moment a postponement of another summer abroad, but in reality it was thus decreed that he should never see his native land again.1
* For literature written during the period covered by this chap- ter see Appendix, pages 424-437.
CHAPTER XIV
\
UNDER THE SHADOW (August, 1914— December, 1916)
WHEN, in August, 1914, Miinsterberg's textbook, Psy- chology: General and Applied, appeared, he said wistfully that under normal conditions the publication of this book, which comprised the fruit of his life work in his chosen field, would have given him a profound satisfaction; that now, however, the shadow that hung over the world eclipsed all things else. Miinsterberg was in his seashore cottage at Clifton when the newspapers first brought the reports of the mobilization of armies, then the staggering account of the world fire. Soon followed accounts of bloody havoc among the Germans on their way to Liege, and from every printed sheet streamed a flood of denun- ciations. Miinsterberg, whose very life breath was the furtherance of international friendship, was more than cast down by grief. Moreover he felt anxiety for the fate of his native land and, naturally, for the safety of his kinsfolk. The city of his youth, Danzig, might al- ready be overrun by Russians his relatives in Alsace might be endangered.
On August 3rd Miinsterberg had promised to make the festal address at Utica, New York, at the unveiling of a statue of Steuben. It is not an easy task to speak to a large, expectant audience when one's heart is heavy with
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sorrow. Yet the accomplishment of this task had a tonic effect upon Miinsterberg. He faced an assembly of men and women who had gathered to honor the memory of the German general who helped Washington to make pos- sible the United States — an assembly that, like the speaker, was anxious for the endangered land of its fathers and bewildered by the hostile voices round it. These men and women looked upon him as one who would protect their faith in justice against the onrush of one-sided judgment. And they did not look to him in vain. In his speech he said:
Fortunately America has now been for almost a hundred years at peace with the country against which the American armies fought under von Steuben. But with the fatherland of Steuben America has always been at peace. This peace ought never to be broken.
With the tremendous applause of his audience in his ears and the confidence and sympathy of many an earnest American in his heart, he returned to his seashore solitude.
Immediately upon his return, he planned a book, in the form of a diary, which was to appear, as soon as his swift creative powers would allow, as the first war book in the country under the title ' ' The War and America. ' ' A rep- resentative of D. Appleton and Company, of New York, came to Clifton to talk over plans for the publication of the book, and Miinsterberg dictated to his secretary, Miss Wilkins, with remarkable speed and concentration through- out the month of August.
It will be remembered that the German cables were cut from the start, that America received her news and the coloring of her public opinion from England. Therefore it was quite legitimate that the other side of the conflict should be presented. It must be emphasized, moreover,
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that in his interpretation of Germany's course Miinster- berg brought no railings against its enemies, and, although the struggle in its initial stages seemed to him a contest between Slav and Teuton supremacy in Europe, he never- theless recognized the Slavic aspiration as historically jus- tified and not immoral, however dangerous he believed such dominion for the civilization of Europe.
The book included a number of articles written in the heat and stress of the moment, which first appeared in newspapers and magazines. In the first weeks of the war the Boston Herald printed Miinsterberg 's plea for "Fair Play." This article made an immense sensation; it was reprinted in the New York Times, New York Post, and numerous other papers; it was quoted, praised, and at- tacked, in short, it ran like wild fire across the country. The Editor of the Boston Herald, Robert O'Brien, wrote to Miinsterberg:
BOSTON, August 12, 1914. PROFESSOR HUGO MUNSTERBERG, Clifton, Mass.
MY DEAR PROFESSOR:
I am in receipt of your letter of August 9. It is very odd the vogue which your article in The Herald had. It was one of those proclamations which everybody in the United States seems to have read. At least, all editorials were based on the assumption that the contents of your article were generally known. I am, of course, very grateful to you for allowing The Herald to be the vehicle of such an article. I am always pleased to have the largest possible identification of you and your work with The Boston Herald. .
Very sincerely yours,
ROBERT L. O'BRIEN
On August 9th there appeared, in three million copies of Sunday papers, Miinsterberg 's reply to the statement
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made by H. G. Wells in England and cabled over the world, in which he condemned Germany and painted a picture of the calamity that would befall Europ-e if Russia were not victorious. In this reply Miinsterberg said:
From Mr. Wells, the fanatic, we ought to appeal to Mr. Wells the delightful novelist, whose feeling for poetic balance could not approve such a story in which chivalrous heroes stand against villains and brutes.
In the chapter of his book entitled "Philosophers," Miinsterberg recalled friendly conversations he had had at Harvard a few years before with Mr. Wells, who had then just read Miinsterberg 's book The Americans; and he also recalled how in the most friendly spirit he had pre- sided at a Psychological Congress in Paris together with Professor Bergson. To these two he appealed in his dis- appointment :
Of course, you and I and men of our type everywhere have no personal taste for the instruments of force, for armies and navies and all that stern militarism, but at least we know that no single people is responsible for these sharp-edged tools of power which the jealousy of the nations never allows to become dulled. We may regret that no better means have been discovered. Yet why must it make us unjust and unfair toward one people which is exactly like the others? And must it destroy all our historic understanding as if the excitement of the hour could lower the philosopher to the level of the unthinking crowd?
In spite of the war estrangement, Miinsterberg still had private correspondence with H. G. Wells, which, on the part of the versatile Englishman, was individual and char- acteristic.
In this connection it may be said that the last novel that Miinsterberg read and, indeed, read with pleasure and admiration, was Mr. Brittling Sees It Through.
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Newspaper comments and replies, in letters and edito- rials, to Miinsterberg's presentations came fast and hard. The press clippings, heaped high on the psychologist's breakfast table, brought him daily surprises. An edito- rial in the New York World attacked the " sophisms of a Miinsterberg." To this he replied in a letter of August 12th in the Post. Newspapers were storming Miinster- berg for contributions; even such a thoroughly anti-Ger- man paper as the New York World asked to be favored. On August 17th, accordingly, the World printed an article that was published simultaneously in Chicago, Boston, and St. Louis, and the New York paper assured him that it would be willing to print anything that he cared to write and as often as he wished.
Surfeited as the public was with almost unrelieved de- nunciation, an immense curiosity arose to hear something from the other side. Miinsterberg Js mail grew volum- inous; the little post office in Clifton had never known so much business. There were letters and postcards of all kinds, as Miinsterberg expressed it himself: "Informal letters, warm or cool, polite or sharp, grammatical or otherwise." Many of them were barbaric ebullitions, out- bursts of spiteful and insulting attacks which stirred the recipient's sense of humor; there were long arguments on either side, including many protests against the unfair judgment inspired and fostered by a one-sided press and molded into public opinion.
A volume could be filled with the correspondence of that first month alone which would be invaluable material alike for the historian and the social psychologist. Un- doubtedly it gave Miinsterberg an insight into the real thought of the people which was denied to the usual news- paper reader.
In a magazine, too, first appeared another chapter of
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the book: "The Threatened Provinces. " As it happened, the threatened provinces were closely connected with Miin- sterberg'^ own life, and this chapter holds reminiscences of his home Danzig in the north and of Weissenburg in Alsace where he married and which he had since visited often. He ends with the reflection: "They may think that Germany, after all, is hardly changed if such slices on the east and on the west are cut off by its neighbors, as the diagrams of this morning's paper suggest. But I know one who would feel that Germany had perished if "Weissenburg became French and Danzig became Russian. ' ' The opaque veil that screened the fateful future from his gaze was never lifted.
It was an odd bit of irony that in the first week of August a steamer from England brought Miinsterberg a letter from the President of the International Congress of Philosophy, inviting him to deliver the first address at the psychological meeting of the Congress, which was to be held in London the following summer. Miinsterberg and his family, who had last attended the International Congress of Philosophy when it met at Heidelberg in 1908, had long looked forward to the assembly of scholars in London and to English hospitality. Now. the philosopher's golden dream of English, American, and German friendship and of cultural communion was shattered ; no one suffered more from this collapse than Miinsterberg. It was also in the first week of the war that he made a luncheon engagement in Boston with an English clergyman who had been given an introduction to him. This divine had been on the high seas when England declared war. Nevertheless, in Miinsterberg 's own words, "through long stages of our talk he and I were not aware that the world was ablaze and we discussed heartily the recent tendencies in the philosophy of the soul and the theories of the subconscious.
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All that time we forgot that our native lands are hostile to each other. The coast of the philosophers' country cannot be threatened by battleships." Alas, the for- tresses of divine philosophy did not prove strong enough to keep out the invaders!
The little book The War and America, dictated between August 5th and September 5th, was actually the first war book to appear, not only in America, but in the whole western world. It was published on September 21, 1914. The stir it made can be imagined, also the ardent praise and blame it inspired. Miinsterberg had to suffer what he had endured more or less throughout his public career, but which now was practiced in a specially high degree — namely, the perversion of his utterances. Not only were there wrong quotations, but the much more subtle and ingenious quotations of isolated passages without the mod- ifying complementary parts of his arguments. Never- theless his work brought him much gratitude. To many bewildered hearts the little book brought courage, to many confused minds clearness, to many lovers of justice, satis- faction.
Miinsterberg's prominence on the battle ground of public opinion had many satisfying, many painful, and many queer results. One of these last was a telegram sent on September 4, 1914, by the New York Times:
Would you entertain proposition to go to Berlin to represent us during wax crisis?
This was followed by another dispatch an hour later:
Referring to suggestion in previous telegram we might be able to make it worth while to obtain leave of absence for purpose mentioned if that is possible. May we send a man to see you about it?
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Needless to say, such a proposition was not given a moment's serious consideration.
The summer was drawing to a close. Except for the aforementioned journey to Utica and two visits to New York, in September, Miinsterberg had taken his active share in the excitement of the times from his quiet sea-shore retreat. Return to work and life among col- leagues under the new conditions was a prospect of doubtful charm.
Meanwhile the mail continued to bring, among letters of thanks and requests for more information and enlighten- ment, thoroughly offensive communications, even threats against the scholar 's life. Although the psychologist knew well enough that the spiteful emotions of the man who threatened to shoot him in the College Yard had found ample discharge in the threat itself, without further need of action, nevertheless, in those early days, whenever Miin- sterberg left his house in Cambridge, the possibility of his being attacked by some fanatic on the way to Emerson Hall was present in his mind.
Yet that was not the worst. The air that he was wont to breathe, the calm, pleasant, warm air of the academic community, had suddenly grown chill and raw. The es- trangement of colleagues and acquaintances that made it- self felt in a hundred more or less delicate ways did not penetrate into the classroom or into the laboratory in Emerson Hall, where work with students and immediate colleagues was resumed with undisturbed vigor. Miin- sterberg retained to the last the happy faculty of becoming absorbed in whatever problem he undertook to solve without allowing the cares or grief in the background of his mind to affect either his capacity or his interest. Therefore he went cheerfully about his daily duties.
With his social life it was otherwise. From October on, Miinsterberg stayed away for a year from that small
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number of distractions that his constant work allowed him — from the Symphony concerts, which he so enjoyed, from occasional club meetings, from dinner parties and receptions. On October 14, 1914, Miinsterberg appeared for the last time at a faculty meeting of Harvard.
On September 26th, the London Times printed a slander- ous article, sent anonymously from New York, called * ' The Kaiser's Agents in America." This calumny, based on falsehood, Miinsterberg recognized as the probable incen- tive to a new and grotesque outburst against him. A young man of wealth in London, who had once spent some time at Harvard, offered to leave the University ten million dollars in his will if Miinsterberg were dismissed. Now this bomb burst at a time when venomous attacks by mail were pouring in upon Miinsterberg, including the uncanny threats against his life. Various Harvard alumni urged Miinsterberg 's removal from the university. Fur- thermore, gossip brought to him the expressed wishes of some colleagues that he resign. Therefore, on October 14, 1914, he offered his resignation, on the condition that five million of the promised ten million be paid to the univer- sity immediately. The Corporation, however, stood firm for the freedom of its teachers to express their thoughts in a proper way, even though these were contrary to the prevailing public opinion; and Miinsterberg 's resignation was not accepted. The psychologist's mail was now filled with letters of rejoicing, and for some time the denuncia- tions and threats were silenced.
It seemed to Miinsterberg that hostility began at home. In spite of his painful experiences at Harvard, he enjoyed lively exchange of views with leading men of thought and action throughout the country. His correspondence with Roosevelt was particularly brisk from August 8, 1914, on. Miinsterberg always enjoyed letters from Roosevelt, whether their contents agreed with his views or not; for
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they were poignant, spontaneous, unique. The spontane- ity expressed itself in a characteristic habit that might be called an overflow of thought. There was scarcely one long dictated and typewritten letter that Roosevelt had signed without inserting a number of forceful additions in his own handwriting. These individual touches made Roosevelt's letters precious living documents.
Early in November, 1914, Roosevelt invited Miinsterberg to Sagamore Hill and asked him to bring with him Edmund von Mach, author of What Germany Wants. Miinsterberg had hitherto been the Colonel's guest only at the White House ; this opportunity of seeing his home was therefore most welcome. These are Miinsterberg 's own words in a letter to Roosevelt a month later :
I carry with me most delightful reminiscences of the morning in Oyster Bay. It is now fifteen years since you wrote to me the first time that I ought to stay a night with you in Oyster Bay, but I did not come to it. Ever since that time I have had the wish to see you on the background of your trophies. My visit the other day to Sagamore Hill was therefore to me an especial delight, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
What Miinsterberg enjoyed especially was the sense of freedom that he felt in the presence of Roosevelt's vigor- ous, versatile mind, which made possible a perfectly frank discussion of the vital problems of the world situation, even though their views diverged. Roosevelt was at that time still eager to hear and study both sides of the terrible conflict.
When he came to Harvard for an Overseers' meeting, Roosevelt was the guest of Miinsterberg at a luncheon in his house to which he invited a group of colleagues and friends concerned and conversant with the great inter- national problems. Roosevelt wrote:
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January 4th, 1915. MY DEAR MUNSTEBBERG: I look forward eagerly to that luncheon; but I am really
distressed at what you tell me about H . and T . I know
perfectly well that I am an object of animosity to the German- Americans; and while it grieves me very much and while I think it unjust and improper, still I understand it. But I am ab- solutely at a loss to understand any American feeling hostile to a German, even although on the question of Belgium he takes the view that I do.
Faithfully yours,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT and in retrospect :
MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG :
Your volume has just come. I thank you for it. Will you give my warm regards to your family? I shall always remem- ber my lunch at your house as a particularly pleasant one!
Faithfully yours,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Miinsterberg felt the pulse-beat of different nations and groups of nations. Not only did the upholders of most varied political faiths in America approach him, not only did he keep in touch, as well as the hampered means of communication allowed, with the moods and opinions in Germany, but on conditions in England, too, he became well informed — the England as seen from the inside and not through the spectacles of the newspapers. An English acquaintance, in fact, sent him torrents of keen, eloquent letters that traced the fluctuations of governmental and public thought and feeling in Great Britain. The picture that Miinsterberg had of the world situation was thus far from one-sided. The influence he was able to exert was never used to inflame anger, but always to prevent further hostility; he was an eager champion, but never an aggressor. His attitude is apparent in a letter to his English correspondent :
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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
January, 19, 1916 DEAR MR. :
I am in the possession of two letters of yours, both referring to the psychological problems involved in the atrocity stories. I apologize for not having replied to the first. It came at a time at which I was so overwhelmed by the anti-German fury of America that I had to concentrate all my correspondence and work on doing my little share in stemming the flood of hatred which was to destroy all the pleasant international re- lations to which I had devoted the work of the last twenty years. You know it has always been the aim of my work to secure real harmony between America, Germany, and England. I had even hoped that America would be the element by which that most regrettable antagonism of England and Germany would be relieved. You can imagine with how much sadness and disappointment the last months have filled my mind.
But my reluctance to write to Englishmen grew when I saw how unfairly English newspapers have distorted my in- tentions. The attitude which controlled all my writings here was that this war was one of historical necessity and that no one was to be blamed. I emphasized a hundred times that I had no word of moral opprobrium for England or France and that I regret the anti-English passion which has swept over Germany since the war broke out. I felt in the position of an accused who had no defender. In such a position I had no right to take part in movements which under normal conditions would have found me most willing to respond and to assist. The movement to examine the atrocity stories from a legal and at the same time a scientific point of view belongs to this group.
Yet if I consider the excitements of this unparalleled time, I hardly imagine that a scientific or legal inquiry by men who all belong to one side is possible yet; and a cooperation of men from both sides is practically out of the question. Witnesses who believe that they are performing a patriotic duty by lying and still more witnesses who in the face of those horrors of war lose the ability of objective observation and see atrocities by autosuggestion would be abundant. I hardly think that the time has come to sift the reliable evidence.
But while I do not see my way to any practical work in these days of confusion and bewilderment, I am anxious to assure you of my deepest sympathy with your attitude. I remember
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you very well from those days in Winnipeg and hope cordially that the time may be near when Englishmen and Germans can meet again anywhere in the world on terms of sincere and hearty cooperation.
Faithfully yours,
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
Whatever advice Miinsterberg was able to give to the German Government was always in the interest of concilia- tion and in consideration of the American point of view. If this had been known to those who accused him unjustly of unfriendliness toward the American people, they might have refrained from their attacks. If it had been Miinster- berg's custom to flatter before one's face and criticize behind one's back, he would no doubt have chosen a shrewder course and exposed himself less to misunder- standing. As it was, although in social intercourse he was agreeable and suave rather than what is called ' ' plain- spoken," in his public life he had always offered criticism intended to help the public he addressed, and had tried to interpret and commend the other group or nation from which it might learn.
The same motive that prompted his advice to the German Government, namely, the desire to prevent further hos- tility in word and deed and to prevent the ultimately possible entrance of America into the war, also prompted his suggestions to the occupant of the White House. These were received with ready interest. In the opening page of a letter to President Wilson, written on February 24, 1915, Miinsterberg 's attitude is set forth in his own words:
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
February 24, 1915. DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
You have repeatedly allowed me to speak when special political questions were involved — I cannot remain silent when the most general question, that of a possible war between America and
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Germany, stands before the world. I have now spent twenty- three years with the one purpose of strengthening the ties between the United States and Germany, and until the last day of July of securing friendship between the United States, Germany, and England. I was grieved beyond words when all the efforts for Germany and England failed, but I should see my lifework crumbling if the day really came when America and Germany, too, were at war. Yet as Boston is discussing this ghastly possibility almost as probable, I must face the terror. And yet, as I have said in all my letters to papers in Germany, I trust with every fiber of my heart in your s\)ber judgment and in your power to think independently from the furor of the masses. . . .
Of the acknowledgements from the White House, the following is perhaps couched in the most characteristic language :
THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON.
May 7, 1915. MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
May I not acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April twenty-eighth and express my appreciation of the confidence you repose in me in being so kind as to give me the information it contains? I hope that you will rest assured that I am not suspicious either of conduct or of motive and find it not difficult to understand just what extraordinary influences are at work.
Sincerely yours,
WOODROW WILSON
At Easter, 1915, another little book of Miinsterberg's was laid before the public. Its title, which characterized the aim of all his efforts, was The Peace and America. This volume was, in a way, a response to the flo©d of letters that he had received after the publication of his articles and first book on war problems. In spite of the misinter- pretations and opposition he had to encounter, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his efforts to inspire fair
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judgment were not in vain. For every skeptical or hostile letter he received, five or ten or twenty letters came that responded to his arguments with enthusiasm. The greater part of those responsive letter writers, who either firmly and openly or stealthily declared that they shared his views or had been convinced by them, were Americans of other than German descent. Among those abnormal few who expressed hopes that America might fight on the side of Germany and suggested means of bringing about such a decision there was not one German-American. Moreover, such propositions were immediately rejected by Miinsterberg, who longed for nothing more than that Amer- ica should keep her peace and bring peace to the world. The little book did not pretend to be a scholarly and objective estimate of events; he knew too well that the time was not yet ripe for cool analysis. In the opening pages of the first chapter called " Peace" he said:
I do not wish and do not pretend to be scholarly — I cannot promise anything but to be sincere. I do not want to convince any one by arguments, and still less do I want to persuade. I want only to be a witness because I feel in the depths of my soul the need of professing my faith and my conviction. The human aspect of war and peace fills my heart and head, not the scientific aspect of academic history.
It must not be forgotten that at the time when this book was written, America was officially neutral. Yet though technically at peace, she was ravaged by the pas- sions of war just as were the battlefields of Europe.
Peace — we had it, and we hardly knew it. We do not think of the fresh air we breathe and of the sunlight which floods about us and of the health of our body until pure air or light or strength are failing. Now the air is filled with miasmas and about us is darkness and our strength is broken; and suddenly we know how glorious and inspiring it was to breathe and to see and to feel the peace of the civilized world. It was not
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only a peace which protected the house and the body; it was a peace which ennobled the mind.
Thus spoke the sorrowing philosopher; and further: "Passionate hatred has taken possession of the sober and quiet pilgrim of yesterday. The rifle bullets kill men of flesh and blood, but the thoughts that curse bring thou- sandfold greater misery. ' ' To him it seemed that America had the glorious opportunity of remaining above the con- flict and eventually making peace, and the loss of this op- portunity, which America's unique historical and geo- graphical position seemed to demand, was to him a pro- found disappointment. Yet it will be seen that, before the book of his life was closed, this hope of America as peacemaker, though slain, was not dead, but rose again with daring optimism.
In his attempt, throughout the volume, to find the rea- son why men within America were "so hopelessly torn asunder," Miinsterberg wrote a chapter on "The So-called Facts, ' ' which is the contribution of the psychologist. He knew the complexity of the mind, and he realized the sig- nificant complexity of diplomats' minds, which may be perfectly sincere in opposite directions.
Such melodrama-psychology which knows only angels and liars is too clumsy. Hence, even if we analyze the multi-colored books of documents, we cannot find the real facts and cannot discover what this or that statesman really wanted. He probably wanted many opposite things; that is, opposite ideas were scattered in his mind and each had in itself the tendency to become effective. . . .
But, above all, he knew that those facts are most easily assimilated which the mind is ready to receive, whereas the others are ignored. Moreover, facts change as they are seen through the spectacles of different national, racial, or social prejudices. "You say the facts are mountains firm as rocks: clouds they are. 'Do you see yonder cloud
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that is almost in the shape of a camel — methinks it is like a weasel — or like a whale — they fool me at the top of my bent/ " Furthermore, leading men of letters have praised sincerely in time of peace the same object that they denounce or belittle with equal sincerity in time of war. They contradict themselves, but know it not. ' * Are facts only fables and fancies?" asks the psychologist. "Does every untruth really become a fact if it is repeated often enough? Does only the one fact stand: that there are no facts ? ' '
In the chapter on "The Highest Values" not Miinster- berg the psychologist, but Miinsterberg the philosopher spoke. He ascribed the difficulty of understanding an- other nation's motives and actions to the difference of the highest values in which natio'ns believe. Of this national philosophy the majority of citizens may not be conscious at all, yet it is ultimately the motive power that determines and interprets all acts. Miinsterberg con- trasted the utilitarian standard of the Anglo-Saxon world, which aims toward the greatest happiness of the greatest number with the goal of the Teutonic nations who believe in the service of ideals, regardless of the p.rofit or pleasure to individuals. There is then an obvious dilemma: if those highest values differ by which deeds are measured, how can one judge actions at all f To this the philosopher replied that there is one highest moral law, binding for all, and that is the fulfillment of its duty as each nation sees it. If the American public had realized that in the great struggle each nation was trying to do its duty, much partial and impassioned judgment might have been avoided. And America seemed to Miinsterberg the chosen nation for such spiritual neutrality because with its heterogeneous population it should not be difficult to blend both of the highest values — that of utilitarianism and that of philo- sophic idealism.
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Other chapters in the book will be of great historical value when the passions and prejudices that are not only war's accompaniment but also its aftermath shall have cooled. They will be valuable as expressions of living convictions that remain historic truths, regardless of sub- sequent events. Indeed, the history of convictions is more significant than the history of facts, or rather, as Miinster- berg declared himself, facts are determined by convictions. The chapter on England ends with this outlook:
But peace will come. Hatred and injustice will become silent on both sides when the thunder of the cannons is stilled. Eng- land and Germany will respect each other and will acknowledge that each was trying to fulfill a great historic mission. But Americans ought to appreciate the lofty meaning of this tre- mendous battle long before the war comes to an end. The more deeply they feel that the two nations, both eternally valuable for the ideal meaning of mankind, are doing their God- given duties in loyalty and devotion, the more they can con- tribute to the coming of the day of peace.
There is a chapter on the letters the author had re- ceived— undercurrents of fearless sentiments in the swift stream of public opinion — and there is the final chapter called " To-morrow. " In that heavily veiled "To-mor-
Peace can come only from within. As soon as the civilized nations are filled with the real sense of inner peace, the time will come when international agreements will naturally grow; they may help to postpone martial conflicts and to find com- promises where compromises are possible. But they must be the ripe fruit; they must be the end, not the beginning.
And this seems almost like an unconscious prophecy :
To start with such agreements when the tears of the war are not yet dried would be only a new diplomatic mistake at the end of the war added to the many at the war's beginning. It
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would be inexcusable if the conferences which must end this world war were burdened with labors to find new international schemes by which the peace of the future may be secured. Two years after the date when the last prisoner has gone home, it will be right to negotiate about new international forms to insure international good-fellowship.
In this hope for the future of Europe, Miinsterberg once more drew the distinction that he had often empha- sized, between what he called " colorless cosmopolitanism" and that internationalism which allows each nation to live out its historical destiny, but which bases the peace of the nations on good-will and intelligent and sympathetic under- standing of one another's motives and ideals. Most sorrowfully Miinsterberg lamented the fate of those who had worked for the harmonious relations of two countries only to see their life work fall in ruins. There is nothing left in this dilemma but the desperate hope: "From the blood-soaked battlefields of the intellect a lasting peace will spring."
In the summer of 1915, Miinsterberg found his much needed rest, that is, the small rest that his ever-working brain allowed, in the seclusion of Clifton, where the bright shore, serene fields, and friendly neighbors offered their narcotics and seemed to mock at strife. During this summer Miinsterberg wrote five essays, which, with the exception of one, were quite detached from all political excitement. He also began his studies in the psycho- logical aspect of the photoplay art, which will be con- sidered later. These studies involved some hours of alter- nate amusement and boredom at moving-picture theaters, and this distraction, together with the gentle pastime of photography, gave his harrowed nerves some needed re- laxation.
Another summer occupation was less restful. Not far from Miinsterberg 's cottage, in a neighboring town, a
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young manufacturer was making instruments of war that he supplied to the Allies. The young manufacturer was subject to a grave nervous disorder that brought him in- tense suffering and pain. He came to Munsterberg for help. The first consultation led to1 a regular, or rather, irregula.r, therapeutic treatment, for it happened not in- frequently that late on a calm summer's night, Munster- berg was summoned to the relief of the sufferer. He never refused to go, but he most emphatically refused to receive any compensation whatever for his aid, even in the form of gifts, at the time and in the future.
Serene and friendly though all the surroundings of Munsterberg 's summer life had been, the post office was only three minutes fr'om his door, and into the pigeon- holes of that little building penetrated the evil rumors of the great arguing, fighting, maligning world. Reporters, too, with their winged-Mercury heels, found their way to the little red orchard cottage.
Munsterberg accordingly determined to shake off private care — the world's woe he never could forget — and to seek refreshment in a little voyage to Mount Desert. But sor- row pursued him. At Bar Harbor, on returning from a walk along the cliffs, he took up a Boston Transcript in the hotel reading room and on the first page he read a cable report that his oldest brother, Otto, of Danzig, had died. This news was a great shock to Hugo, .for whom his oldest brother had taken the place of a father in his youth, and who had kept for him a rare devotion ; and this shock and grief was intensified by the way in which the news reached him through the newspaper.
Although Munsterberg, as men say, " never got over" this grief, he returned with external cheer and calm to the tasks still before him. Before the end of the college vacation, he once more wrote a timely article that helped to make the cauldron of public opinion bubble. "The
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Impeachment of the German-Americans " appeared on September 19, 1915, in the Sunday Magazine section of that paper about which Miinsterberg had not long ago said in jest: "The Times is out of joint." The theory that Miinsterberg asserted in this article, a theory based on solid fact, that all Europe was the mother country of the United States, was not here advanced for the first time and surely not created under the stress of hostilities ; for the idea had already found expression before the war in the essay called "American Patriotism." He was now more convinced than ever that Americans, of whatever descent they might be, should contribute the special racial virtues and ideals of their fathers' countries. "America does not mean a reminiscence, but a task."
This article, which appeared in the Times and the Sun- day Herald at the same time, made a great stir and in- spired many responses, among them an article by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, to which Miinsterberg replied in order to clear up a misunderstanding of the premises.
In the fall of 1915 Miinsterberg returned to Cambridge and to the academic routine. The Psychological Labora- tory was filled with students, and so were his lecture- rooms. It was a great satisfaction to Miinsterberg in this restless and passionate time that his students remained loyal and undisturbed, in contrast to many of his col- leagues. As Miinsterberg walked to and from his work through the serene streets of Cambridge, where he had walked for twenty-five years, men who formerly had stopped him with a pleasant word or a joke, now passed by with a stiff bow, and still others passed without bowing at all. "Et tu, Brute!" was the leading motive of those Cambridge walks. Nevertheless, though these intended insults must have worn gradually on the most robust nerves and surely on those of one who was living under
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constant stress, the philosopher did not allow himself to be downcast by disagreeable encounters.
As in the previous year, it was at home that Miinsterberg had to suffer most, in spite of the fact that not a word of politics or international affairs was breathed in his class- rooms. Outside of Boston and Cambridge he was eagerly sought, though he declined most invitations to lecture. In December, 1915, he spoke at the Brooklyn Institute to an audience of three thousand.
Before the eventful year had drawn to a close, Miinster- berg had written one more article that was taken up by the newspapers and roused much stormy comment. It was an open letter printed in The Fatherland that referred to the coming elections of 1916 and the dilemma of the German- American voter. This was at a time when Roose- velt had by characteristically violent tirades against the "hyphen" made the German element of the population hostile toward him, and the supporters of Wilson there- fore felt free to indulge in denunciations of the German- Americans because the latter would not vote for Roosevelt anyway. As a warning against this situation, Miinsterberg reminded the Americans of German descent that after all the Rough Rider's bite was not as bad as his bark; that it was natural for him to use temperamental ad- jectives once circumstances at the opening of the war had launched him in the Allies' camp. This letter, which was written chiefly to open the eyes of the Wilson supporters, caused excited protests, largely from the German-Amer- icans who had been too gravely wounded to tolerate such a portrait of the Colonel. Roosevelt's own reaction is ex- pressed in a letter: OYSTEE BAy>
LONG ISLAND, N. Y. January 19, 1916.
MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG: — Your letter interests me, touches me, and puzzles me. The
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journalist who told you that I was much astonished by your statement expressed the truth very mildly. I was dumbfounded. I have hoped that after the war is over my many German friends may resume cordial relations with me, (and it has been a sincere grief to me to have to sunder myself from them) — but I have had no idea that they would do so while the war was going on. Moreover, it seems to me that your openly expressed views, and my no less openly expressed views, are as far apart as the poles.
Then follow six pages of vehement, spontaneous as- sertion of his doctrine, which is too familiar to the public to need repetition, ending with no less strongly expressed comments on the administration in power.
It must not be supposed that when Miinsterberg was not teaching in the laboratory, or lecturing to his classes, he was wholly absorbed in the problems of the war. Other interests still found their way into his so well organized mind ; and, indeed, it was largely for the sake of his soul 's health that the psychologist prescribed for himself certain distractions in the fields of science and of general interests.
Although, after the appearance of Psychology: General and Applied, Miinsterberg wrote no scientific book on a larger scale, he brought out several shorter publications. First, however, must be mentioned the fourth volume of the Harvard Psychological Studies, which appeared in November, 1915, the last volume edited by Miinsterberg.
In January, 1915, Colonel George Harvey's North Ameri- can Review celebrated its 100th anniversary, and to mark the jubilee, the number brought out a specially chosen array of contributors, including William D. Howells, Julius H. Ward, Henry Mills Alden, Sir Oliver Lodge, Agnes Repplier, and others. Among them was Miinster- berg, as philosopher, with an essay on ' ' The Return of the Soul." " 'Morley was dead, to begin with,' " so the essay starts out " . . . but there is no doubt whatever about
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it — the soul was as dead as a door nail." Then the psychologist traces the means of explaining mental life which indeed link every physical phenomena to a phys- ical process. Yet, though mental life cannot be ex- plained by means of a soul, it must be understood with- out explanation of any kind, through its inner meaning. In the life of meaning and purpose the soul holds its own. * ' The meaning of inner life will soon be admitted through the wide-open door of the temple of science. Then we shall have two independent systems of psychology — a causal and a purposive one." . . . "Both are perfectly justified as long as they are not carelessly mixed and as long as neither is pushed forward as complete."
During November and December, 1915, Miinsterberg dictated a book at the request of the La Salle Extension University for the use of its students who desired to learn the application of psychology to commercial life. This book, called Business Psychology, is written in a simple, direct style which any high school graduate can under- stand; yet it is not a superficial skimming of the subject, but leads the student carefully through the principal topics of scientific psychology, gives him a thorough grasp of the function of psychology, of the possibilities for its application, and, finally, explains the methods by which psychology may help in the choice of vocations and in the problems of work and business. There are illustra- tions by photographs of the use of certain psychological laboratory instruments. Above all, there are, at the end of each chapter, test questions for the student on the contents of the foregoing pages. This book, which was used by the La Salle Extension University as one of its courses, became popular and proved a useful contribution toward the education of practical American youth.
In the summer of 1915 Miinsterberg wrote a paper called "How Men Differ" in which he gave the results of an
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experiment made with advanced students in the laboratory, each of whom gave judgments, as objective as possible, about his fellows, and his own mental qualifications. The results showed that even among the most highly educated observers, judgment of others and of self in regard to such qualifications as power of attention, literary or mechanical ability, etc., is very unreliable, and that the only thoroughly accurate tests of such qualities must be made by exact laboratory methods.
Another article of the same summer was based on a concentrated study of the new method of multiplication proposed by Ferrol, which was just then introducing revolutionary ideas into the world of arithmetic and of education. Miinsterberg was convinced that the new method had advantages over the old, and he presented his championship in an article called "Efficiency in the three R's." An article on "Efficiency in Advertising," also written in the summer 1915, appeared in Printer's Ink.
If the passions of the war thrust themselves into the foreground of the public mind during these last years, there were nevertheless plenty of people left who still sought Miinsterberg as psychologist. In January, 1916, he addressed the New York Cornell Club; in February of the same year he spoke on "Psychology and Light " to the Illuminating Engineering Society at a meeting in New York in honor of Edison. This address was an important contribution toward the psychological problems of street lighting, not so much because of the results of experiments, but because of the laboratory methods pointed out. Psychology as applied to those public utilities that serve man's senses was coming into its own. In the summer of 1914, Dr. Burtt, an assistant of Miinsterberg 's at the Harvard laboratory, was invited by the Joint Street Lighting Committee to make experiments on the effects
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of various kinds of street illumination. These experi- ments Dr. Burtt practiced in the laboratory under con- ditions that artificially reproduced those of the streets, and he was there enabled to solve complex problems which the conditions outside of the laboratory did not allow. Another assistant of Miinsterberg 's, Mr. Pressy, was en- gaged in measuring the psychological effects of red, green, yellow, blue, and white lights. There were infinite pos- sibilities of applying the knowledge that the laboratory experiments might produce, not only to street lighting, but also to indoor lighting, to the use of light signals, to film effects, etc.
An outward expression of the growing importance at- tached to the help of psychology in industrial life was the founding of the Economic Psychology Association. Miinsterberg spoke at its first meeting in New Ybrk in 1916.
Miinsterberg 's pioneer spirit was not content. A new interest had taken hold of him, one that appealed at the same time to the psychologist and to the lover of art — an interest in the photoplay. In this new study Miinster- berg sought distraction for himself from the wearing anxieties caused by the international stress, and at the same time hoped to make the imagination of the public link his name with a more serene interest.
Miinsterberg had not been a " movie " patron; indeed, he had looked upon motion pictures, with the exception of travel pictures like Ramy's Hunt, as rather in a class with vaudeville, which he never approached. On a journey, however, he saw Annette Kellermann's mermaid pranks in " Neptune's Daughter," and this not only de- lighted him, but opened his eyes to the distinctive character and possibilities of the photoplay. During the summer of 1915 he spent many hours in motion-picture houses. In June of that year the Vitagraph Company in New
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York showed him, with ready hospitality, its studios, its methods, its actors and actresses. A snapshot picture was taken of Miinsterberg listening attentively to Anita Stewart. He was an eager pupil and the more he studied this fascinating field, the more he was convinced of the uniqueness of its artistic mission. The photoplay was not, what it first seemed to be, a substitute for the spoken drama, any more than sculpture is a substitute for paint- ing. Since all art is a representation of life, with certain definite limitations, so the photoplay is defined by the absence of depth and color and voice, yet given infinite possibilities of expression through its peculiar attributes. There is the power of commanding attention toward some isolated detail through the use of the " close-up "; there is the reenforcement of memory through flashing scenes of bygone events into the midst of the story; there is the freedom from the limitations of space, by which simul- taneous events may be shown in quickly alternating pic- tures; emotional effects may be heightened by the rapid and skillful succession of scenes. All in all, the photo- play has its own characteristics, its own possibilities, and there is no reason why these should not be utilized in the service of the highest art.
In the Cosmopolitan Magazine for December, 1915, Miinsterberg published a popular article called "Why We Go to the Movies" which heralded his book on the subject. Between October and the end of December, 1915, Miinster- berg wrote a volume of 232 pages that appeared in April, 1916, under the title The Photoplay, a Psychological Study. This book contains an Introduction of two chapters that gives the history of the moving-picture art : one the history of the outer, that is, the technical, development from the first simple devices for producing the illusion of move- ment, invented in the first half of the 19th century; the other, the history of the inner development, that is, of
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the contents of the pictures after the perfection of the technique had granted free scope to the imagination. After the Introduction, the book is divided into two parts, "The Psychology of the Photoplay" and "The ^Esthetics of the Photoplay." In the first part the psychologist explains the mental processes of the spectator as affected by the ways and means of the moving pictures. Thus he discusses the perception of depth and movement, the acts of attention, the effect of photoplay devices on the memory and the imagination and finally on the emotion. Such an explanation of the part that the human mind it- self plays when it enjoys a performance was the contri- bution of the scientific psychologist. Yet the philosopher in Munsterberg never allowed the scientist to say the last word on any problem of real life. It is the philoso- pher and the lover of beauty who, in the first chapter of the second part, sets forth ' ' The Purpose of Art. " ' ' The work of art shows us the things and events perfectly com- plete in themselves, freed from all connections which lead beyond their own limits; that is, in perfect isolation." This isolation is to secure that harmony and perfection which only rare moments of real life can give. * ' That rest- ful happiness which the beautiful landscape or the har- monious life relation can furnish us in blessed instants of our struggling life is secured as a joy forever when the painter or the sculptor, the dramatist or the poet, the composer or the photoplaywright, recomposes nature and life and shows us a unity which does not lead beyond itself, but is in itself perfectly harmonious." Artistic isolation requires some restriction in the means of reproducing life; and these limitations accordingly are the source of strength in any form of art. "A work of art may and must start from something which awakens in us the in- terests of reality and which contains traits of reality, and to that extent it cannot avoid some imitation. But it
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becomes art just in so far as it overcomes reality, stops imitating and leaves the imitated reality behind it." These conditions the photoplay, with its obvious limitations, fulfills, and rises thereby far above an imitation of the spoken drama. "The drama and the photoplay are two coordinated arts, each perfectly valuable in itself." A consideration of "The Means of the Various Arts" leads to a study of the peculiar "Means of the Photoplay." This youngest of the arts is neither music nor drama nor painting; but "it shares something with all of them" and it has its own laws. The conclusion at which we arrive is that "the photoplay shows us a significant con- flict of human actions in moving pictures which, freed from the physical forms of space, time, and causality, are ad- justed to the free play of our mental experiences and which reach complete isolation from the practical world through the perfect unity of plot and pictorial appearance." We realize the need of serious photoplay writing by true "photopoets" who recognize the special demands of the art, so that the dramatization of novels or the bringing on to the screen of plays not intended for it will no longer be necessary ; we realize also that long explanatory leaders should be eliminated as much as possible, and good ac- companying music should be introduced. Finally, in ' * The Function of the Photoplay," we are reminded of the great power for good which a form of entertainment that appeals to great masses may exert. This good lies not so much in the instruction that the pictures may impart, or in the morally wholesome air that they may and ought to offer, but more^ especially in the education for true beauty. "Only the future can teach us whether it will become a great art, whether a Leonardo, a Shakespeare, a Mozart will ever be born for it." Yet "for the first time the psychologist can observe the starting of an entirely new aesthetic development, a new form of true beauty in the
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turmoil of a technical age, created by its very technic and yet more than any other art destined to overcome outer nature by the free and joyful play of the mind."
Miinsterberg 's great hope for the future of the moving pictures thus centered round the photoplay as art. Never- theless he thought the plan of making it a vehicle for public instruction also worthy of encouragement. When the Paramount Company started its Pictographs or the ' ' magazine on the screen ' ' for public instruction in science, history, current events, etc., it asked Miinsterberg to be among the first contributors. The psychologist prepared a series of pictures which he called "Testing the Mind" and which were to introduce a new element, namely, the active mental participation of the audience. The methods of testing attention, memory, constructive imagination, capacity for making quick estimates, etc., which he had worked out for purposes of vocational guidance, were now presented in the form of pictures. A puzzle, as, for instance, a jumble of letters, which, if assorted, would spell the name of a city, or a room full of people whose number is to be estimated, is thrown upon the screen and, after an exposure long enough to let the audience answer the question, the correct solution is given. This unique feature was received with enthusiasm. An ardent article in "Motography" expressed the significance of the novelty in this way: "Intellectually, the world has been divided into two classes — the ' highbrows ' and the 'lowbrows.' The Pictograph will bring these two brows together." Miinsterberg also began to work out graphic ways of presenting history on the screen, but his efforts in this direction were never completed.
His new interest in this cheerful art brought Miinster- berg many letters from men who had the future of the moving pictures at heart, letters that he thoroughly en-
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joyed. A letter to Mr. Edwards is merely an example of the correspondence that afforded him much pleasure.
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
April 5, 1916. MY DEAR SIB:
In going over some piles of old letters, I stumble upon a letter from you written on February 16th which bears no mark of having been answered. If that is the case, I am very sorry that you remained six weeks without reply. Yet as your prob- lem is not one for a single day or week, a word of interest in your plans may still be in order.
I have given much attention to moving-picture problems in recent times. The book The Photoplay: A Psychological Study, which will appear at the end of this week with D. Appleton and Co., New York, is an external symptom of it. But I have also approached your special field, the educational picture, inas- much as I have furnished the Paramount Pictures Corporation with material for a series of psychological tests on the screen, which appear in their weekly Paramount Pictograph. As far as I can judge, these psychological test demonstrations in mov- ing-picture form have stirred up a very considerable interest for mental life in many cities, and this success encourages me greatly in the belief that the film can become a tremendous educational agency.
For this reason I endorse most heartily your plan to special- ize in educational films. The idea of presenting the Montes- sori system, for instance, seems to me excellent, and every move- ment toward bringing geography to the attention of the masses in a striking way certainly deserves the warmest sympathy, as the defects of popular education are nowhere so glaring as in geography.
I think the greatest trouble in the moving-picture world to- day is the lack of discrimination and differentiation. While everybody in a large city knows which theatres appeal to serious taste and which to mere vulgarity, or which magazines are of high value and which are cheap and trivial, nobody knows what he will get hi the next moving-picture show. This lack of differentiation is certainly a symptom of the crude state of the moving-picture industry as yet. In a few years such differentia- tion will be demanded everywhere, and one of the first steps toward it ought to be a clean division of labor among the
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producing companies. I welcome it as a very promising step that you intend to specialize in the educational field and to set this off as a great work of its own, separated from the mere amuse- ment plays. Your chances are tremendous. I think there is hardly a science which could not be cleverly presented in fascin- ating moving pictures. I shall be very glad to hear from you again.
Very truly yours,
HUGO MUNSTERBERG
Miinsterberg was now invited to speak on the Psychol- ogy of the Photoplay. An article on "Moving Pictures and the Child" appeared in the Mother's Magazine, to which Miinsterberg previously contributed essays on voca- tional guidance for boys and girls. But talking and writ- ing was not enough; the moving-picture world, now that Miinsterberg had become one of its champions, did not let him rest, but made him a judge of one of its prize contests. The Traveler-Herald offered prizes to the public for the best scenarios, and Miinsterberg was to be one of the five judges together with Winthrop Ames, E. Winthrop Sargent, Leon Dadmun, and Miss Salita Solano. On a hot summer night on his veranda in Clifton, he read the thirty scenarios sifted from the great bulk of competing literature, and shook his head in wonder at the poor quality. Within the last weeks of his life he attended the "movie ball" at which the prizes for the competition were given, sitting in a box for the judges of the contest.
It appears from the various activities just chronicled, that Miinsterberg 's ever alert mind knew no idleness and no exclusive preoccupation with any one interest, however absorbing it might be. When the summer vacation of 1916 came, he was in need of rest. Nevertheless, he con- sented to give a course of public lectures at the Harvard Summer School, for which he rode back and forth from Clifton. The last summer at the beloved seashore Miinster-
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berg enjoyed to the full. The war clouds that had threatened most darkly in the spring were now lifted and the danger of America's entrance into the war seemed happily removed. Hugo's thoughts were directed toward the future, his spirits were buoyed up by hope. So he took his accustomed solitary walks on the long, beautiful beach between Clifton and Swampscott; he sat on his piazza, dictating to his secretary, Miss Wilkins, or reading with a notebook at his side, and let his eyes wander con- tentedly over the peaceful field before him and the long row of wind-touched willows, or watched the play of the pet pigeons on the lawn. Sometimes the train from Boston that passed close by the little cottage would bring friends to spend a rural day, and from the broad piazza behind the green vine and bright fuchsias and geraniums, genial voices would sound and merry laughter. A day spent quietly upon the water gave Miinsterberg a special sense of repose. One of the last voyages of this kind was one with his daughter to Provincetown and back on a cloudless summer day; and his last voyage he made with his wife late in September on a visit to friends in Blue Hill, Maine. The many photographs he took during the last summer witness his never-wearying delight in natural beauty on land and sea.
In August, 1916, the World War was two years old, and this date made all thinking men reflect. The New York Times invited Miinsterberg to contribute his ideas on the occasion of this grim anniversary. He complied with this request, and sent out into the world an article that set free a flood of varied opinions and that was character- istically not a retrospect, but an outlook, called "The Allies of the Future."
In this meditation Miinsterberg spoke for those who, with him, had worked for and set their hopes upon harmony among England, Germany, and the United States
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and whose hopes had been ruined by the conflagration of August, 1914. Yet his daring to hope did not fail him.
Without petty prejudices and without selfish wishes we must turn our face to the future: what can, what must it bring? But behold! The future does not appear bewildering. If we look at it earnestly, the chaos seems to yield to order, and if we ask boldly the final question, we get one and only one simple clear-cut reply: the ultimate outcome of the World War will be just what we had hoped before the war, a firm alliance of America, Great Britain, and Germany.
Miinsterberg was well aware that the war would leave a strengthened and deepened nationalism in every country; yet "the memory of the world disaster cannot fade away in the next generation; the longing for peace will curb every unhealthy outgrowth of nationalism which threatens to disturb the development of neighbors." But how is this peace to be secured? The output of munitions can hardly be expected to stop ; neither can one have any more illusion about extensive preparation for war as a preven- tion of war. No. "Peace must be secured from within; not fortresses and guns but good-will must prevent strife in the future." Commerce and industry must needs be international, and the interests of the mind will follow: "World's fairs and world's vanity fairs will flourish again and the fashions of the intellectuals will soon enough glitter in all national tints and hues."
Yet this interdependence did not prove strong enough when the crisis came. There is The Hague. But history has shown that when nations feel their honor to be at stake and righteous cause opposes righteous cause, no judge can make a decision. Neither would a year's enforced delay help the cause of peace, for such a year would only be used, on the one hand, for martial preparation, on the other, for fanning the flames of passion. Moreover, if, according to the plan of the League to Enforce Peace,
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all other nations would be obliged to make war on a nation unwilling to allow a year of hostile preparation against it — why then, what might otherwise remain a local- ized conflict, would be bound to turn into a world war. "Truly such a ' League to Enforce Peace' would be a league to endanger peace." It is not by abstract pre- scriptions and force from without that the world peace can be kept; it must spring "from a true living alliance of nations . . . Such an alliance would not be bound by treaties and penalties, but by inner affinity, by loyalty to common ideas, by unity of national mission and inter- national purpose. " That the present alliance against Germany, fashioned for a special task, would outlast its common activity, Miinsterberg could not believe. Most es- pecially did a continued alliance between England and her great rival Russia seem impossible. "For a day they can make a partnership against their energetic neighbor, but when the local warfare ceases, they cannot forget the world problems which keep them separated forever. And Russia's new partner, Japan, laughs. That is the future of the Allies, but who will be the allies of the future?"
A possible alliance between Russia and Germany, which Austria, Turkey, and Japan would be likely to join, seemed to Miinsterberg fraught with the gravest dangers, for it would inevitably lead to a war of revenge against England, which would be a superwar and involve Asia and America. There remains only one course, for Germany and England to become allies. America, to protect itself from Russia and Japan united to uphold the Asiatic Monroe Doctrine, and to insure the freedom of its commerce, would have to join the English-German alliance. Such a league, round which the western European countries and Austria, as well as the great South American republics, would natur- ally cluster, seemed to Miinsterberg the only safeguard of peace. "If America, Great Britain, and Germany frankly
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and heartily decide to stand together, the war of to-day may be the last great war for a century." To be sure, there is the great obstacle to such an alliance — hate. But the optimistic philosopher said : * ' No, and a hundred times no, because British and Germans and Americans are not Sicilians and Corsicans who swear vendetta. . . . Among the many feelings in which these three noble peoples will find their union, there will surely be the common feeling of shame at the absurd extent of their loathing." There will be a realization that errors were made on all sides, that one side was not black and another white, and there will be respect for the achievements of the opponent. Old enemies, as history has always shown, will become new friends. And now Miinsterberg staked his hope upon a practical deed in the near future :
If the world wants real peace for the twentieth century, it must prepare for it by the term of Christmas, 1916. The one alliance which can save Western Europe will not come if it is not initiated by the spirit of this fall's peace negotiations. If any great nation leaves the field humiliated, its rankling wound will endanger the future. . . . The triumph of past conflicts was to see the foe in the dust; in our age of the new idealism the greatest triumph in the struggles of war as in the battles of social reform is not to crush the enemy, but the enmity.
The salvation for which he hoped must come from Amer- ica. " Sensationalists have tired our ears with their cries of remember this and remember that and remember every- thing; it is a greater art and a higher task to forget. If America will, both Germany and England can for- get. ..." It was more especially upon the three men of the hour that the philosopher's hopes were concen- trated, upon Woodrow Wilson, Bethmann Hollweg, and Lloyd George, and chief among these was Woodrow Wilson. To the psychologist it appeared that "Woodrow Wilson 's mind is essentially aesthetic. ' ' The aesthetic ideals
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would enable him, in spite of prejudice, to carry out with enthusiasm the role that history was demanding of him, the inspired and glorious role of mediator among the warring nations.
This vision of peace, sent broadcast before the passion ridden world was really ripe for it, fell upon barren ground and among thorns, but it also took root in hearts that still had strength to hope and were starved for some to*ken of good-will.
And then, before the summer was over, Hugo Miinster- berg wrote his last book, which, like the hopeful clarion call of Chanticleer, was to herald the dawn. It was called To-morrow. At first it was printed serially during August and September in the English section of the Sunday Sup- plement to the Illinois Staats-Z eitung , edited by Dr. Michael Singer; but in October, 1916, it appeared in book form, published by D. Appleton and Company.
To-morrow is written in the form of "Letters to a Friend in Germany. " The tone of these letters, which, as the Postscript explains, never reach their destination, thanks to the British censor, is friendly, intimate, con- versational, full of a genuine warmth that came straight from the heart of the writer. The words of Sophocles, which the philosopher often delighted to quote, may be taken as the keynote: "My task is not to share your hatred but your love.'* One would not give a true impres- sion of the book by making, an abstract of its contents. It is the spontaneity and charm of these letters that bring home the ideas and hopes that they contain; for To-mor- row is not a presentation of arguments, but one of feel- ings and beliefs. It is to such living documents as these letters that the future historian will have to turn in his arduous search for the truth, rather than to statistics and records of so-called facts. Indeed, are not feelings and convictions the most solid facts of all?
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Now that the scroll of history is unrolled beyond the point that Hugo Miinsterberg was vouchsafed to read, it seems that he hoped too well. Whether some remote future may not yet justify his- convictions — ^who can say? Yet these letters, though they point toward a To-morrow, contain pic- tures of what was To-day in the time of their writing, pictures in bold, masterful strokes that reveal the pene- trating insight of one who could stand above the struggle.
The writer spoke' of the new nationalism that has be- come so deeply and firmly rooted in every land, particu- larly of the new nationalism that is asserting itself in America against .the old American ideals. This new nationalism that lays stress upon fine points of national honor, makes possible enthusiasm for military prepared- ness, once so foreign to American sentiments, and insists on economic protection, must express itself in a unity of common tasks and political ideals, rather than in a com- mon loyalty to traditions. This new nationalism marks the rise of a new idealism, the idealism that makes Amer- icanism a desired end, in itself, as opposed to the individ- ualistic idealism of. old.
There is a letter on the sad chapter of the German- Americans, their misunderstood loyalty, their abuses, and sufferings, a letter written in a mood colored by "a gray sky over a gray sea." There is a letter on "Idealism in America" which contains a brilliant impressionistic pic- ture of the three presidential candidates of 1916 : Wilson, the lyric, of the aesthetic nature, who must strike an at- titude and be seen, who "likes to speak about his mental pains, his joys, his moods"; Roosevelt, the dramatic, the man of natural impulsive action, whose "life element is the conflict with beasts or with men, with parties or with nations"; Hughes, the epic, who aims at the persistent fulfillment of tasks and is ruled by "the deliberate de- cisions of the mind." But most individual of all is the
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vision of Bryan as possible ambassador in Berlin, as "the 'guileless fool' in Klingsor's magic garden." There is a letter on "The- New Pacifism," that new-born child of the most terrible war, a letter that contains many grave lessons that the war has taught, chief among them the realization that the ultimate causes for war are not justifi- able. The New Pacifism, if it would be a real force, must be "The New Internationalism." It is upon the power- ful binding force of intellectual goods, of scholarship and art, that Miinsterberg bases his hope for future amity. The United States of the World are his heart's desire; yet "world federation ought to be an ideal, but cannot pos- sibly be a platform." The future world peace must rely upon alliances in which each country maintains its own peculiar nationalism, yet is at the same time bound to the other countries by common interests, tasks, and ideals. In the last letter, on "The Reconstruction," the Harvard scholar once more reveals, this time to his colleague across the sea, the vision of the Anglo-German-American alliance. It is a vision, and the seer knows that many will sneer, as they have already sneered, that many have protested and more will protest, but that many others will follow its light. As a psychologist he knows that no suggestion can be made too early, and that "the harmony of the leading nations cannot become a reality unless we make the very thought of this inner approach habitual." His last letter ends:
Peace must come soon, and who knows, my friend, when the roses bloom again in your beautiful garden, one of the German ships interned here in Boston harbor may have brought me back to the fatherland to you. I am sure in one wondrous hour at home I can tell you face to face so much more than I have told you in these letters. Yes, when the roses bloom . . .
When the book To-morrow appeared, the author sent a
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copy to Roosevelt. Upon the fly-leaf he inscribed: "In spite of it."
The summer vacation now drew to a close and the serene, beautiful autumn days at the seashore, which, with their radiance, belied the ugliness of the world, had to be ex- changed once more for the academic routine. The chief annoyance for Miinsterberg at this time was the interfer- ence with his mail. Whereas he had previously been able to correspond with his friends and relatives abroad, this was now almost impossible: nine-tenths of his letters no longer arrived. Indeed, the British censor evinced a most flattering curiosity about his correspondence. Accordingly, when Miinsterberg sent a letter to Germany, he knew that he was writing perhaps, by a bare chance, to the addressee, but most likely to the eager censor and possibly to the British and thence to American newspapers. When, there- fore, an intercepted letter of his to the Chancellor of that time, Bethmann-Hollweg, actually did appear in all the newspapers of the country, his surprise was very slight. Here it may be said again that whenever Miinsterberg communicated with the German Government, it was upon his own initiative and wholly in the interest of mediation and of p-eace. As one who had identified himself with American life for twenty-five years, he felt called upon to prevent misunderstandings by interpreting American public opinion and urging consideration for American sentiment. His advice was always in the direction of avoiding acts that might arouse hostile feeling and eventu- ally lead to active hostility.
For almost a year Miinsterberg had refused to talk pub- licly about the international situation. Among many others, the Forum, a club in Hoboken, had invited him to speak in the spring of 1916, but he had declined, because that was a time of extreme tension. When the same club asked him again in the autumn, he no longer refused, be-
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cause he believed that the air was clear and peace not far away. Therefore, at the beginning of November, he gave to an enthusiastic audience some of his vision of the fu- ture. The speech suffered to an extreme degree the fate of many previous speeches. It was garbled beyond recognition in the newspaper reports and made the basis for innumerable editorials. The President of the Forum apologized for the newspaper absurdities to which the speaker was subjected.
This address was the occasion of Miinsterberg 's last visit to New York, where he had so many friends and ad- mirers, and where he had spent brisk, crowded days — so often, indeed, that the staff of the Manhattan Hotel came to look upon him as a familiar patron and was always eager to carry out the wishes of "the Professor." This time, in contrast to his usual hurried trips, he was ac- companied by his wife, and made a holiday out of his visit, never surmising that it was to be his last.
The heavy thoughts that had weighed upon him in many a gloomy, ominous hour, though never allowed to hamper action or slay hope, seemed to have lifted during those last two months, and his spirits were exhilarated by a firm belief in the dawn of peace. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." When a newspaper man asked him over the telephone what he thought of the German peace offer of November, 1916, he answered gleefully: "As a philosopher I must say: the ethics of it are good, the psychology even better, and I hope the Allies will have the logic to accept it."
Into Hugo Miinsterberg 's buoyant spirits, so full of vitality and eager plans for the future, there crept quite a different mood. Was it a premonition that his years were numbered that made him look backward upon his pilgrimage ? Although his working strength was unabated, although his program for future work was always filled
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faster even than his tasks were accomplished — he planned to write a Psychology of War in future peace time — yet he knew that his health was vulnerable. Various doctors, especially his old friend, Dr. Pfaff, and, in later years, his family physician, Dr. Jouett, had again and again warned him against overwork. Yet, though Miinsterberg readily and conscientiously obeyed doctors' orders in all other respects, on this one point he remained disobedient; he could not stop work. The dangers of overwork were now combined with those resulting from the constant strain and suffering of the last years. Miinsterberg knew too well that some day his extraordinary creative powers might sud- denly be crippled. He never let his ' ' native hue of resolu- tion ' ' be dimmed by such reflections ; and yet it seemed as if those last weeks of his life were mellowed by that con- templative charity that we are wont to link in our minds with the gentle and yet solemn mood of parting. On Thanksgiving Day he took a walk with one of his daughters to the little colonial house in which he had become initiated into Cambridge life twenty-five years ago. He stood long in front of it, regretting the neglect into which it had fallen, and recalled the happy year spent within its walls and the cordial advances of colleagues and neighbors.
Out of this reminiscent mood sprang the plan for a book of memories that Miinsterberg wished to call Twenty- five Years in America. Already in the summer, in a con- versation with a charming old lady on his cottage piazza, he had asked her: "How old do you think a man ought to be to write an autobiography?" "Without a moment's hesitation, she looked at him archly and said : ' 1 Oh, about your age."
The book was not, however, intended to be a formal autobiography; for that he did not consider himself old enough. It was rather to be a reminiscent view of the rich life in which he had taken part, of the many noble,
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brilliant or powerful men with whom his destiny had brought him into contact, of the varied movements and achievements he had watched or helped to advance in the fields of scholarship, education, public and social life. A manuscript outline of this book is extant ; in it the fourteen chapters planned have been given these headings: The Pilgrimage, In the World of Teachers (or Among Teachers and Scholars) , Among the Colleagues, Theory and Practice, Social Problems, The Woman's Mind, Among the Philoso- phers, In the Home of Beauty, The Message from Home, The American Messsage, Hands across the Sea, Among the German-Americans, The Cataclysm. This book was des- tined to remain an unfinished symphony. The first chapter only, "The Pilgrimage, ' ' was written, which is the story, briefly told, of Hugo Miinsterberg 's twenty-five years in America from the first letter of William James, inviting him to Harvard, to the out- break of the war. This fragment was not offered to the public till February, 1917, when the Century Magazine printed the posthumous chapter — a low voice in the rising clamor of America's entrance into the war.
During the last months, Miinsterberg was made to feel especially that his popularity with the students had not suffered. One of his very last contributions, written on November 29, 1916, was to the December number of the Harvard Illustrated Magazine, a periodical edited by undergraduates. This article, called "The Freshman Studies," gives the average result of psychological intel- ligence tests made in the spring of 1916 with 276 under- graduates in Miinsterberg 's beginning psychology class, and the surprising correlation of these results with the average standing of the same students in their freshman studies. This led to the conclusion that, on the whole, the men with the greatest mental powers were not those who
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did the best work, in other words, that many of the most talented students were apt to be careless or lazy.
Miinsterberg's interest in his students never ebbed, however high the tide of his many cares might rise; and the students, in turn, were loyal to him. Deliberately he had avoided in the classroom any mention of war or politics, and refused to speak to student clubs upon these inflammatory topics. But in October, 1916, when the International Polity Club, a student organization, in- vited him to speak in Phillips Brooks House, he saw fit to break his silence. His motives for doing so he has expressed himself in the introductory remarks of the ad- dress in which he gave his ideas on the reconstruction of the world :
I want to speak to you about peace: but I cannot speak of peace without saying war. And while I say war, I cannot help feeling a deep emotion at the thought that it is the first time since the outbreak of the war twenty-seven months ago that I have spoken about the war in a hall of Harvard Univer- sity. Needless to say that I have never mentioned the war in a lecture, but I have also refused every invitation to speak in a students' club, just as I have avoided speaking on political subjects before public audiences, declining more than two hun- dred invitations for political addresses. Why have I done so? I came here to Harvard for scientific interests, but they were soon intertwined with a cosmopolitan interest. The more I became absorbed and fascinated by American life, the more I became anxious to interpret American ideals to the European continent where they were pitifully misunderstood; and the more I saw how little the Americans understood the aims of my fatherland, the more I tried to interpret German ideals in America. So for a quarter of a century I have tried to serve the mutual harmony of Germany and the United States by strengthening a mutual understanding, and my whole career shows that by an inner union of Germany and America I always meant one in which England too is included. Now when two years ago the war broke out and all of America's public opinion was stampeded into the camp of Germany's enemies, and especially
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New England for natural reasons and for artificial reasons became pro-ally, I should not have lived up to that old task if I had not tried to counteract this one-sidedness. Hence my role was necessarily that of protest against unfairness. The role was not new to me. In the time of the Spanish- American war the majority of the Germans took sentimentally the side of the weaker and many prejudices against America were felt; and at that time I defended America in Germany as I worked for Germany now in America. I was not afraid of the effects of my words. Hence, needless to say, I never published anything without my name. But I did feel strongly that such a fight against the surrounding opinions ought to be kept away from the university campus. So 1914 and 1915 passed by; but with 1916 the times have changed. We begin to see the end. We look forward toward the peace to come. Our thoughts move from the battlefields to the new harvests of civilization in a better future. It is no longer a question of victor and vanquished, no longer a concern of this or that nation : the task before the world to-day is a world task, and not the politician, but the philosopher, the psychologist, the social moralist feels himself touched by the new issues, and in this new period there seems no longer any reason to a- void a word about peace and war before serious students whose minds are directed toward the problems of international policy.
Miinsterberg was not only in demand as a prophet by audiences eager to hear him. During those last weeks, business men's organizations of industrial cities in Massa- chusetts, like Brockton and Fall River, as well as of Boston, asked him to instruct them in applied psychology. Whenever his time and strength allowed it, he followed these requests, never without enjoying new enthusiastic acquaintances or fresh impressions. But it was to a student body that his last address was spoken. On the evening of Friday, December 15th, he was the guest of honor at the banquet of the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa chapter in Memorial Hall. It was not the first time that he had spoken to Phi Beta Kappa men, but it was the last.
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On the next morning a Boston physician was inspired to write thus to Miinsterberg:
December 16th, 1916. MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
An Englishman by birth, an American by choice, I have welcomed every word from your virile pen. . . .
I was avid for To-morrow and, judging from the tone of my vigor, digested it.
I have passed around the little book, To-morrow; to-day it goes to the Faelten Brothers, those wonderful teachers ... I trust no violence is done by these words scribbled on fly leaf: Who loves his fellowmen, shall read To-morrow To find solution for the cruel grief Inherent in the pentecost of sorrow Now raging in the world. While sheaf on sheaf Of unnamed heroes to the pyre is thrown, Nor foe, nor friend of FREEDOM bears the fault — As who shall say — The guilty stand alone; All bleeding now, have erred! And to exalt The essential aim of Man: Good Will to know, Fight on, 0 Brave ! till sleeps its every foe.
Yours to an understanding of the various means pursued by nations to attain the one great end: Peace and Good Will.
For you and yours and all the World, come happy, happier, happiest days!
ALBERT EVANS
Saturday, December 16, 1916, was a brisk, cold winter day, dazzling with fresh snow. In Miinsterberg 's house on Ware Street there was already a bustle of Christmas preparations. This was to be once more a Christmas of true joy, as of old, because above the clamor of war, the song of good will toward men seemed to be faintly rising into the air. According to his custom, Miinsterberg had made his secret purchases of surprises to be spread under the lighted Christmas tree, in more than ample time. Nevertheless this Saturday afternoon he would not return
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to Emerson Hall, but would go to town for a final inter- view with Santa Glaus.
It was time for his "nine o'clock'* lecture at Radcliffe College. A sharp wind was storming outside. Brisk walking against the cold wind had been found to be injurious to his health, and, to avoid it, he had sometimes driven to his early lecture. But on this morning the sun- light was smiling so brightly on the snow, that from his window the philosopher could not see that the day might "smile and smile and be a villain"; and so he did not hesitate to walk.
The morning paper brought discussions of the latest offer of reconciliation. And Hugo Miinsterberg said to his wife with cheerful confidence :
"By spring we shall have peace!"
Then he put on his fur coat and his overshoes and walked out into the snow and wind, for the students at Radcliffe were waiting for their professor. The gale was strong and sharp — deadly sharp. He struggled against it and reached the College, exhausted. Yet, after a short rest, he entered the lecture room and mounted the plat- form. He began to lecture, but, with the words of in- struction on his lips, he fell to the floor. The great heart of love stood still : to him had come the everlasting peace.
APPENDIX
A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE WRITTEN BY
MtJNSTERBERG DURING THE PERIODS
COVERED BY THE FOREGOING
CHAPTERS
CHAPTER III
THE literature produced by Miinsterberg during the period chronicled in this chapter, particularly during the early years of his career, is significant for the future tend- encies of his contributions to theoretical and experimental psychology and to philosophy. ' ' The child is father of the man." So the works of the young scholar bore seed that, in the course of his lifetime, was to yield abundant fruit. Yet the output of these early years represents far more than the direction given to the future work ; the several volumes have scholarly importance in themselves and at the time of their appearance roused the attention of colleagues and established the reputation of the rising psychologist.
During Miinsterberg '& student years, his scientific writ- ing was naturally concentrated on his doctor 's thesis. For the rest, besides the pamphlet, already mentioned, on "Students' Eights," his literary excursions were into the fields of poetry and fiction, where he found recreation and delight.
The dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and printed in Leipzig in 1885 was Die Lehre von der naturlichen Anpassung, or Doctrine of Natural Adaptation, a historical and critical examination of this biological theory. The thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine was Augenmass or Eye Estimate. This is an ex- perimental study of the problem based upon a realization of how insufficient the experimental data and how incon- sistent the methods had been hitherto. The particular
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series of experiments is connected with the author's under- lying theory of the nature of consciousness and its contents. The thesis was later incorporated into the second volume of Miinsterberg's Beitrdge znir experiment ellen Psycholo- gic-
Of the period at Freiburg, the first publication in 1888 was a psychological dissertation called Willenshandlung or Activity of the Will. The early works of Miinster- berg will not here be considered in detail, because his psychological and philosophical contributions appeared later both in more comprehensive, systematic form and in more accessible popularized versions. It must suffice to point out that in this early study of will activity we find those theories asserted that in later years were still empha- sized and more fully developed. The book is divided into three parts: "Will Actions as Movements"; "Will Ac- tion as a Conscious Process"; "Will Action as Conscious Movement." Emphasis is laid on the recognition of will action as a series of motor processes, started by the concep- tion of the first means of approach toward a desired end. It will be seen that in later years Miinsterberg*'s psychol- ogy became identified with the "action theory" which makes the motor processes and the disposition of the brain centers toward the motor responses of central significance for psychical life. Further, the resolution of will activ- ity into explainable motor processes makes unnecessary the intrusion of some immaterial force into the chain of functioning matter. There is one point, moreover, that the psychologist never ceased to emphasize henceforth, whether in scholarly work or popular essay : namely, that the last word about the soul must be left to metaphysics, and that psychology must limit its search to that condition which alone is consistent with the very existence of an ex- planatory science at all — that is, the continuity of pro- cesses. This can be found only in the physical realm and
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the psychical phenomena can be explained only as accom- panying the connected physical processes The young psychologist examined in this treatise the theories of his colleagues Munck, Meynert, Schiff, Goltz, and Exner.
In 1891 a volume Aufgaben und Methoden der Psycholo- gie (Aims and Methods of Psychology) was published at Leipzig as one of the publications of a Society for Psycho- logical Research. In this volume, too, certain essentials were emphasized that Miinsterberg reiterated in later works. Here the "I," studied by the psychologist, is de- fined as the content of consciousness, to which all analysis must refer, whereas consciousness itself is merely an ab- straction. The aim of psychology is to examine the psychi- cal phenomena of the individual consciousness, and all the light that historical or economic facts may throw upon such phenomena should not distract from the real aim, which is not the disco.very of the historical or economic facts themselves. The consistent separation of psychological in- quiry from the problems of epistemology is demanded once more. In an apt simile the author compares the philosophi- cal offering of pure reason with gold which has the greater and more lasting value, and the toil of a science like psy- chology with nourishing and necessary bread. He ends the volume with a plea for special chairs of psychology in the German universities, where psychology had been taught by philosophers merely as one branch of their subject and could not be given full justice. Allied with this plea is one for psychological laboratories in the universities.
Allusion to the fact that the number of completely equipped psychological laboratories did not exceed the num- ber of Graces is made in the introduction to the Beitrdge zur experiment ellen Psychologic or Contributions to Ex- perimental Psychology, issued in the form of pamphlets of which four appeared between 1889 and 1892. These "con- tributions" contain experiments and conclusions drawn
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from the experiments made by Miinsterberg who, though assisted by his students, was always the experimenter him- self. In his introduction Miinsterberg replied to a criti- cism, then prevalent, of the new experimental movement — that the numerical results of experiments were overrated ; he declared that the numerical results must indeed receive their meaning from self-observation and from ideas based on self -observation. The "Contributions" contain, besides the before-mentioned doctor's dissertation on Eye Estimate, •experiments on the sense of time, on the fluctuations of at- tention, on the ear's sense of space, etc. For a medical encyclopedia Miinsterberg wrote psychological articles on attention, association, consciousness, and the like. His lecture on Thought Transference was published in 1890.
It must be remembered that, although his reputation as experimental psychologist was constantly growing, Miin- sterberg's lectures to his students were for a large part purely philosophical. Therefore it is not surprising that he should have left also a volume of philosophy as a docu- ment of this early period. This is a treatise on The Origin of Morality (Ur sprung der Sittlichkeit), which contains praise and critical examination of the Ethics by his teacher Wundt. The young philosopher characterizes the essence of moral action as the will toward a particular ac- tion as such, in contrast to the will toward a desirable effect. Here we find the seed of that distinction between ethical and aesthetic motives that was, many years later, to be developed elaborately in The Eternal Values. In this early treatise Miinsterberg reasons that morality may be preceded and followed by morally indifferent motives, inasmuch as the ideal development of humanity demands the creation of certain commandments, but neither the establishment of commandments for worthy ends, nor the natural obedience to commandments when they have once
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become familiar, involve morality, which is attached merely to the performance of the moral deed for its own sake, and to the suppression of -an action that leads to a desired end but is undesirable as action. The author is led to ques- tion the right of superiority of the moral deed over those deeds that do not involve the essentially ethical character- istics but which nevertheless lead to worthy ends. Moral- ity is valuable because it serves the perfection of man- kind ; yet this perfection is not valuable because it corres- ponds with morality; indeed, human development pres- cribes morality and not morality the development. The special emphasis on the equality of desirable non-moral attributes with moral ones and the possibility of the for- mer's even greater value gave way in Miinsterberg 's riper years to a dispassionate juxtaposition of the logical, aesthetic, and ethical values in the harmonious system of The Eternal Values.
Philosopher and scientist, Miinsterberg yet remained a poet. The poems written in various moods, contemplative, enthusiastic, and humorous, were not yet intended for the public, but they were written and polished with full serious- ness. Miinsterberg 's taste for the drama, acquired in his boyhood and fostered during his student years at Leipzig, was given an interesting expression: he made a new arrangement of Goethe's " Faust " so that, by skillful cut- ting and adaptation, both parts, hitherto given on sepa- rate nights, could be presented on one evening. This arrangement was. accepted by a leading playhouse in Frankfurt am Main, though it was never used. Even this avocation was a forerunner of later pursuits and pointed not only to the play writing with which, in later years, Miinsterberg embellished his summer vacations, but to the enthusiasm with which, in the very last exacting and clouded years of his life, he gave earnest attention to the young art of the photoplay.
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APPENDIX CHAPTER IV
The literary output of the first three years in America was, of course, slight. Miinsterberg did not feel at ease enough in the English language to try any ambitious authorship. Nevertheless he wrote an article on the Psy- chological Laboratory that was published in the Harvard Graduate's Magazine, also a pamphlet with an account of the laboratory for the Harvard exhibition at the Chicago "World's Fair. Further he prepared three boxes of Pseudoptics — material for psychological experiments with supplementary text — for school and popular use that were printed by the Milton Bradley Company in Springfield. The forerunners of Miinsterberg 's work as interpreter of American life were three essays written for a German newspaper on "The Americans."
During his three years at Harvard Miinsterberg made serious studies in preparation for his large scientific work in German, Grundzuge der Psychologie. He never for a moment doubted that all his serious creative work would always be in German and never dreamed that one day he should find himself one of the most widely read scien- tific authors in America.
CHAPTER VI
Miinsterberg welcomed the Muse of Poetry as a summer guest; his authorship, however, lasted all the year round. Various essays appeared at this time: " Psychology and History" in the Psychological Review, the ones on the re- lations of Psychology to Mysticism, to Art, to Real Life, besides "The Danger from Experimental Psychology" and "The Teacher and the Laboratory" in the Atlantic Monthly, the favorite in academic circles.
All these essays, with the exception of the last two, Miinsterberg decided to gather into a book, his first in the
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English language. This book, called Psychology and Life was published by Houghton & Mifflin in 1899; it not only gained the attention of scholars, but it won an unexpected popularity, and it was destined to be the first of a long procession of books — philosophical, psychological and social — that brought Hugo Miinsterberg the reputation of one of the really influential authors in America.
" Psychology and Life," the title essay, contains the an- swer to the many eager inquirers who stand before science baffled and return to life confused. In it the author has presented his own philosophical attitude toward the science of psychology, — the attitude that permeates all his work and has since then been asserted again and again in ever new connections. For here he has brought out the episte- mological distinction between the subject and object of consciousness. Psychology, like all sciences, in order to explain mental life must fit into a system of causally con- nected elements, which is the only way at all in which any- thing can be explained. Therefore it is the function of psychology to reconstruct life into an artificial system, to analyze mental life into elements parallel to the elements of matter that physics reconstructs, and further to con- sider every phenomenon as an object of consciousness. Even personality is for the psychologist nothing but a complex central combination of psychical elements. But the author declares emphatically that the life of will and purpose, the life that is interpreted and connected by his- tory, by logic, aesthetics, and ethics and that is transcended by religion, has its subjective and immediate reality, which must not be confused with the objective existence postu- lated by psychology — psychology that is itself merely the tool of the will to understand mental life. At the end of the essay there is a suggestion, one may say a prophesy, of "Purposive Psychology," though not yet called by its name — the science, that, in contrast to causal psychology,
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interprets the purposes of life. Seventeen years later Miinsterberg presented a developed treatment of these parallel conceptions in his comprehensive textbook Psy- chology : General and Applied.
The underlying thought — the necessity for causal psy- chology to transform real life into a system of causally con- nected elements for the purpose of explaining it — runs also through the following essays. In ' ' Psychology and Physiol- ogy" light is thrown on the necessity for the psycho- physical parallel that is the working basis for psycholog- ical study, because "Psychology needs the physiological connection for its own special work, needs it as a logical supposition without which it cannot fulfill its proper task." Psychical phenomena as such, which unlike physical objects, are incapable of being shared or held fast, can never be forced into the causal chain. It is necessary, therefore, in order to explain mental life, to recognize a physical coun- ter-part in the brain for every psychical action. It is the physical process, then, not its psychical accompaniment that is linked causally and explained. For this purpose it is necessary to resolve psychical states into elements that can correspond to elemental parts of the physical system. Ideas which, unlike feelings and emotions, can alone find logically satisfactory description in psychology, are for this •purpose analyzed into elements called sensations. To make feelings, volitions, etc., also describable was not the least part of the work in psychology of the last twenty years. This can be done by analyzing them into describable sensa- tions that have their physical counterparts. The author further explains the action theory in contrast to the as- sociation theory and the apperception theory. The action theory, although it agrees with both the latter theories in some respects, goes beyond them and supplements them where they are deficient. The keynote of this theory is the postulate that " every psychical sensation as an element of
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the content of consciousness is the accompaniment of the physical process by which a centripetal stimulation becomes transformed into a centrifugal impulse," that is, by which a stimulus from without that reaches the brain is turned into an active impulse issuing from the brain. The author's presentation of his action theory is too tech- nical to be given here and has since been expounded at greater length in his Psychology: General and Applied. The last paragraph of the paper may be quoted, however, to illustrate the quick, but well controlled, transition from exact psychological explanation to the broad philosophi- cal outlook :
The scientist must do his work continually with the feeling that he seeks and discovers facts which preceded his seeking and which he merely brings to view. But the philosopher, at least, cannot forget that the work is a transformation of the reality for the fulfillment of our logical ideals which takes place ulti- mately in the service of our duties. The seeker for truth is not a miner who digs and digs in the clay of reality till he by chance finds a lump of gold with his shovel, gold which has slumbered there for eternities. The seeker for truth creates like the sculptor who takes the valueless clay of reality to transform it under his hands into the precious plastic work which harmonizes with his ideals.
The essay on " Psychology and Education" presents those views of Miinsterberg on education that were at variance with views much in vogue at the time of its publication. It was a time when psychology invaded nearly every sphere of intellectual life. In the words of the author : "Certainly the good appetite of psychology has sometimes become voracity in our days and she has begun to devour all mental sciences, history and social life, ethics and logic, and finally, alas! metaphysics; but that is not a development, it is a disease, a misfortune."
Thus psychology, also, came to be considered helpful to teachers. This view, held by some prominent educators,
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was not shared by Munsterberg. In the essay he allows that high school teachers should have an elementary knowl- edge of psychology as part of their general education and that this knowledge may be applied to other subjects, such as physics, drawing, history, etc., as, indeed, the knowl- edge of one science often supplements that of another. But that has nothing to do with the use of psychology as a guide for the teacher in the work of teaching and his treat- ment of the pupils.
Child study ought to be a method, not an end. For the purpose of experimental study in the laboratory it plays no different role from animal psychology or abnormal psychology. The individual case has to be studied and the great amount of statistics more or less instructive and entertaining1 on the mental traits, habits and preferences of children are of no real psycho- logical value. Scientific child study, in turn, as well as long experimental or physiological psychology cannot be of the slight- est use to the teacher. All talk about the brain is, from the standpoint of the teacher, merely cant, and I say this frankly at the risk of giving pleasure to those who do not deserve it — to those who are only too lazy to study anatomy.
The mainspring of educational work is the belief in ideals with which the spirit of the teachable youth is to be filled.
For this purpose it is essential that the pupils be considered free subjects who themselves are capable of having ideals and acting in response to them. . . . You also destroy the values of our practical life if you force on them the categories of psychol- ogy > • • • y°u do worse than if you should offer to a thirsty man one balloon filled with hydrogen and another with oxygen instead of a good swallow of water. The chemist is quite right: that is water. The fainting man insists that it is not, and life speaks always the language of the thirsty.
It is the attitude of immediate life with its wills and aims, not of life as it is reconstructed for the purpose of science, which must be the teacher's. This does not mean,
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however, that psychology may not greatly benefit the theory of education. The scholar working in education, unlike the practical teacher, may easily alternate between the two at- titudes— that of real life and that of scientific observation — and he may use his knowledge of psychology like that of any other natural or historical science in building up the science of education. This science, which is far too wide a field for the individual teacher to survey, must be left to the complete attention of the expert. The fruit of this expert scholarly research will then be at the disposal of the teacher. "The bread which the teacher bakes for his classes comes indeed partly from the wheat on psychologi- cal fields, but the corn must be ground beforehand in the educational mills/* For the part which psychology is to play in the science of pedagogy the author expresses high hopes. The establishment of psycho-educational labo- ratories seems to him the most natural step in this direc- tion. In such laboratories only such material would be selected for experimentation as bears upon educational problems. That there will be no lack of such material the author firmly believes, and that new and ever new prob- lems will arise when the work is once begun.
In the essay on "Psychology and Art" the importance of art education in the schools is emphasized because it is in the schoolroom that the nation's sense of beauty must be roused and developed in the right direction. The part that psychology can play in art education is not great. To be sure, psychological correctness is demanded of every representation of human life, just as botanical correctness is demanded of the picture of a tree, but for such conform- ity the study of psychology is no more necessary in the one case than the study of botany in the other.
The psychological study of art is concerned with two kinds of problems : with those of art creation, and those of art enjoyment. For the study of the first group biological
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and sociological material is required, that is, tlie develop- ment of art production is traced from the earliest begin- nings of savages, even from the similar pursuits of animals. For the second group direct experiments in aesthetic enjoy- ment are made in the laboratory. Indeed, aesthetic emo- tions are excellent material for experimental study as, un- like those of practical experience, they are independent of individual circumstances. From the fruits of such ex- perimentation the teacher of art may profit somewhat, for from them some prescription may be deduced for achiev- ing aesthetic results. The study that pertains to the crea- tion of art, however, is not desirable for specific educa- tional use. Psychology cannot make a genius, not even a man of talent. Moreover, the artificial adoption of a pseudo-primitive style and other fads in schools shows the need of a wholesome attitude that must be instilled not by psychological study, but by a firm belief in the ideals of beauty. "Truth and beauty represent duties, logical and aesthetical duties, just as morality represents ethical duties." And "whoever understands art as will-function believes in art and appreciates it as a world of duties/' Psychological aids may be useful in the teaching of art, but belief in absolute values is essential.
In the essay on "Psychology and History" the author has shown the difference in attitude between the two sciences toward their material. The real difference between psychology and history is a difference of aim. In psychol- ogy, as in physics, every object is considered as the cause of an expected effect, and laws are types of causal connection. For this purpose objects are transformed into combinations of elements. History, too, reconstructs life into a complete system in the service of connection: this is not a causal system, however, but a teleological system of individual will relations. The antithesis between psychology and
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history is not that of law and single event, but of causality and freedom.
Psychology and history cannot help each other and cannot interfere with each other as long as they consistently stick to their own aims. That history stands nearer to real life than psychol- ogy is obvious; indeed the material of the historian and that of the poet are often alike. The wills and purposes of individuals are considered in their connection with each other and their relation to the over-individual values, such as duty which stands above the single desire.
In the last paper of the book, "Psychology and Mysti- cism," Miinsterberg began his warfare against occultism and spiritualism which became well known to the public throughout his career. In this essay the author first throws some light on those cases in which apparently mysterious occurrences can be explained by psychological methods.
Spiritualism the psychologist rejects completely, and calls attention to the large amount of fraud and clever trickery with which the believing public is misled. "I used — or ought I to say misused? — my last summer vaca- tion in working through more than a hundred volumes of the so-called evidence." A«nd this study only seemed to confirm his convictions. Modestly he defends his unwill- ingness to attend seances himself and investigate the methods employed. "I know I should be the last man to see through the scheme and discover the trick. I should certainly have been deceived by Madame Blavatsky, the theosophist, and by Miss Palladino, the medium. I am only a psychologist, not a detective." He did not dream, when writing these words, that about ten years later the headlines of the newspapers would be full of Professor Miinsterberg 's sensational exposure of Madame Palla- dino 's fraud.
The author's serious quarrel, however, is not with the clever impostors, but with those champions of occult
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sciences who befog the mind of the public. The danger, a« the psychologist sees it, lies in the fact that the valuations of real life with its meanings and purposes are projected into the psychological reconstruction of life by which every phenomenon has to fit into the causal chain. Such trans- gression of concepts from the world of values into the world of causality can result only in a hopeless confusion. And the author believes that this confusion is dangerous not only to the interests of science but to the true understand- ing of real life with its purposes and ideals. For "to mix values with laws destroys not only the causal links, but also the values. The real world loses its values, and the scientific world loses its order ; they flow together in a new world controlled by inanity and trickery unworthy of our scientific interests and unfit for our ethical ideals."
CHAPTER VII
The years here chronicled, full as they were of man- ifold interests and distractions, nevertheless were exceed- ingly productive of literature.
The book, Psychology and Life, summarized in the pre- vious chapter, was cast in a form accessible to the more energetic general reader. At the same time Miinsterberg was covering these same problems as parts of a complete systematic construction in a large technical book intended to be the first of two volumes, addressed to the scholarly psychologist and philosopher. Grundzuge der Psychologic, written in the language that was still, at this period, his more pliant and natural medium, was yet intended as his peculiar contribution to psychology in whatever land its devotees might dwell. The book appeared in September, 1900, and was dedicated to "his dear colleague at Harvard University, William James, in sincere admiration and cor- dial friendship."
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This first volume of the Grundziige der Psychologic, which, as a matter of fact, was never followed by a second, was designated as the general part. This is again divided into three parts: "The Function of Psychology/' "The Psychical Objects'' and "The Psychical Connection." It is not necessary here to examine the two latter parts of the volume, particularly since, fourteen years later, in his com- plete English textbook Psychology: General and Applied, Miinsterberg set forth his attitude toward the various exist- ing theories in psychology as well as the arguments in favor of his own. The first part of his earlier book, however, The Function of Psychology, contains a complete statement of the author's conception of the broad philosophical basis for the science of psychology, a statement that illuminates not only his definition of psychology and its functions, but the whole depth of his philosophy. This central theory, which formed the foundation of all his work, technical as well as general, scientific as well as popular, cannot be repeated too often and since it was set forth for the first time with systematic completeness in this comprehensive volume, it is due to a study of the author's life not to pass by this exposition without a closer regard.
It is the aim of the volume to define the nature and limits of psychology in its relation to other sciences and particu- larly to epistemology ; the book is therefore an epistemologi- cal investigation of the material and terms with which psychology has to do and which it takes for granted. The first chapter contains a survey of tendencies of prevalent psychological theories, and those of Wundt, Brentano, Kiilpe, Avenarius, Schuppe, James, Dilthey, Natorp, and Windelband are touched upon. From comparisons with other definitions of the nature of psychology, the author crystallizes his own. He does not, like his teacher, Wundt, consider psychology, despite its significant material, the basis for the subjective, that is, the historical and normative
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studies ; indeed, in his view, the function of these sciences has nothing in common with that of psychology. This we realize when we make naive, practical life our starting point in which we do not recognize the contrast of psychi- cal and physical phenomena, but of subject and object. In the same way the self is felt to be neither the central group of all given objects nor merely the subjective consciousness; it is in its immediacy the subject with its wills and purposes for which all things else are objects. This immediate self and the world it acts upon — and not a complex of elements — are reality. Indeed, the world outside of me, in order to become a complex of facts, hence material for description and explanation, must first be separated from the willing self. It is epistemologically wrong, therefore, to say that psychology deals with reality in as far as it is dependent on the subject; on the contrary, reality must be made independent of the willing subject in order to become the object of scientific inquiry, although for psychological pur- poses, to be sure, mental life may be considered dependent on the psycho-physical individual, which, how- ever, must not be confused with the actual self of real life. There was a tendency among contemporary psychologists, to contrast a "descriptive" psychology, related to the humanistic sciences, with the explanatory or constructive psychology, related to natural sciences. This view, how- ever, overlooks the fact that only such objects as can also be explained can be described, and that description as well as explanation are the functions of constructive psy- chology, whereas the other ways of studying mental life belong to history, education, ethics — that is, to the his- torical and normative sciences.
Further, the author considers the distinction made by Windelband between natural sciences seeking general laws and historical studies seeking accounts of single events. To Miinsterberg this distinction does not seem essential, or
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rather, it seems a purely methodological one and not one of definition. For psychology may well consider a single occurrence, though always from the objectifying point of view, and history may well set up generalities, though always with reference to wills and purposes of subjects. Moreover, the generality of a law is fully as valid when applied to a large abstraction as when applied to a single specifically defined phenomenon. The methodological dis- tinction between psychology and history therefore is re- duced to a matter of chance, whereas the ontological dis- tinction makes essential the question of values.
In the second chapter we come to the epistemological basis for psychology. Immediate experience, even in mem- ory or imagination, refers to "real things, not to concepts within me. ' ' At the same time the true experiencing self is not given and perceived, but is a unit that takes attitudes in actuality. The experience of the self as well as of otjier individuals as wills is not reached by metaphysical specula- tion, but is most immediate. All objects, moreover, are the objects of the will taking attitudes. The whole science of psychology, as, indeed, every science, is merely the crea- tion of the subjective will which, for purposes of observa- tion, description, and explanation, conditions the conception of a world stripped of values; and this transformation of reality into a system of perceivable objects may be called the most significant deed of valuating thought. Iteal ob- jects, then, are valuable; but physical and psychical ob- jects, separated as they are from immediate reality, have not value, but existence. Though by this logical process — and it is a purely logical, not a psychological process — all the relations to the actual self are dispensed with, yet the relations to the experiencing self must be maintained, even when a psycho-physical subject has been put in place of the real self, because through this relation objects have their existence. The distinction between subject and object is
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the essential condition for descriptive sciences. Further, it is the objectifying treatment that characterizes the descriptive or explanatory sciences in contrast to the sub- jectifying treatment of the historical sciences. Never- theless, neither the subjectifying nor the objectifying view alone make a science. The natural viewpoint of naive prac- tical life is subjectifying; yet every view of objects as exist- ing independently of the valuating self is an objectifying view, such as we may take at any moment of our own or- ganism or of the body of a fellow man, without necessarily being scientific. Nevertheless the same distinction holds for the two kinds of sciences, the historical and normative sciences, which subjectify their material and connect and order by values, and the natural or descriptive sciences, which objectify their material and resolve it into elements. For the descriptive sciences, as has been said, in fact, for every science, it is the distinction between subject and ob- ject that is essential, and not the distinction between psy- chical and physical phenomena. Whence th^n comes the distinction between physical and psychical? The world considered as object is in time and space, whereas the act of the subject is out of time and space, that is, it is not concerned with these categories at all. This time-and- spaceless subject cannot be characterized as psychical, for the subject that takes attitudes cannot be described, but is understood. If the self that takes attitudes cannot be described, a describable self must be put in its place for the purpose of observation; therefore the self to which objects are given, that is, the perceiving self, is substituted for the willing self. Now physical things are the objects valid for several actual subjects considered as perceivable objects, separated from actuality. Thus it will be seen that even in the recognition of physical objects, the sub- jective self is always the starting point and not the per- ceiving substitute or consciousness. If those objects that
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several subjects may perceive, or rather that are perceiv- able by consciousness in general, are called physical, there remain those objects that can be experienced by one sub- ject only, or those objects that are given only to the in- dividual consciousness — the psychical objects. The con- ception of physical and psychical phenomena, accordingly, is quite distinct from the conception of the rabjective and the objective.
This definition of psychical and physical phenomena is not enough ; there is a more significant principle by which the antithesis is made, though one bound up with the prin- ciple just stated. We must inquire first what conditions causal necessity, without which scientific explanation is unthinkable. Mere regularity of occurrence does not make causal necessity, neither is the principle of cause and ef- fect enough, because it cannot state which is cause and which is effect. The solution is that all causal connection is a seeking after the identity of objects, just as all logical connection is a seeking after the identity of subjective acts. Identity is attained in physics through the conception of unperceived parts by which phenomena are explained — in the postulating of energies as well as of atoms. It is in the interest of recognizing this connection through identity for the purpose of description and explanation that physi- cal nature is deduced from immediate reality. Now, after this transformation has been made, when all objects that may be identified in all their stages, hence brought into causal connection, have been abstracted from reality, there remain the psychical phenomena, or those that cannot be brought into a causal connection. It is in the interest of recognizing connection that the division of objects into psychical and physical has been created. It is the prac- tical scientific interest in the connection of objects that may determine the behavior of fellow man, on the one hand, and the theoretical interest in psychical phenomena for
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truth's sake, on the other, that condition the science of psychology.
The actual subjective attitude* is not psychical, it has not existence, but validity. Therefore the study' of the real will does not belong to psychology, but to ethics, and the pre-scientific view, of life has no reason to observe sub- jective functions psychologically. When the individual is objectified, the time-and-spaceless acts fall away, and there remain his objects and ideas, on the one hand, and his body on the* other. It is the body which, in the psycho- physical world, is the constant center for individual de- termination of objects and acts and ideas, whereas the personality is the center in the world of values. This psy- cho-physical conception of self is naturally derived from the conception of other individuals. After the psycho- physical organism has been substituted for the actual sub- ject, the attitudes taken by the original subject, even when they have been objectified, cannot justifiably be classed with ideas. It is thus the epistemological origin of wills that justifies psychology in separating them from ideas. Nevertheless, it must be kept in mind that the psychological subject knows nothing through its ideas and wants nothing by* its volitions, that both ideas and volitions are merely observable phenomena, describable objects, in spite of the distinction derived from their subjective origin. For this reason the distinction between intellectual and voluntary psychology is meaningless because such distinction belongs to the subjectifying view. Only where the subject has been transformed into a perceiving consciousness can psy- chical objects be found; but where there never was an actual subject transformable into a psycho-physical organ- ism, there can be no psychical phenomena either. Thus the psychical attributes of animals can be recognized only in as much as animals are originally considered willing subjects. The monistic theory according to which each
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atom is supposed to have a psychical accompaniment is vulnerable on this point: the resolution of any phenome- non into a psycho-physical duality is possible only where a subject is recognized, therefore animism is possible only when all nature is recognized as subject.
Now that the science of psychology has been defined epistemologically, the author in the following chapters il- luminates the relation of psychology to history, to ethics, to religion, to law, to education.
Sciences must deal with general principles in as much as they bind together single facts, and with single facts in their subordination to general principles. History rep- resents events that have happened once; natural sciences, too, often give accounts of single occurrences. The antithe- sis between science as dealing with general principles and history as concerned with single occurrences therefore can- not be made. History, like the natural sciences, seeks identity in connection. The identity, however, is not causal, but teleological, and the units of a historical sys- tem are wills. The object of history is to transform our and others' wills so that they may fit into a system of con- nected wills. History, then, has in common with natural science a seeking after identity in a connected system. The aims of both history and science contrast, in this point, with the aim of art, which seeks not connection, but isolation, as this is the condition for the beauty of any object of art. In both history and art the subjective treatment is essential. The material that history treats may, however, be material for psychology also — that is, it may be objectified instead of subjectified, and fitted into a causal system of connected elements instead of a teleo- logical system of connected wills. Social psychology to- gether with social physiology make the science of sociology, which considers social groups in such causal systems and determines their laws. It is absolutely necessary, how-
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ever, that the subjective and the causal systems be kept distinct, else the inexplicable phenomena of the one will be pushed over into the other with resulting confusion.
The contrast between subjectified and objectified mate- rial holds true also when one considers the relation between psychology and the normative sciences. Morality, beauty, and truth are determined by absolute values, and these can never be exchanged for psycho-physical entities. To deny these values involves a contradiction, for the denial itself relies on the absolute validity of its truthfulness. The same holds true of ethical values, for no denial of them can be made that does not involve a claim to the ethical quality of truthfulness on the p-art of the one who denies. In the realms of ethics and esthetics, however, the overindividual will, which creates the values, is al- ways accompanied by an individual will. Thus a thing of beauty is at the same time a pleasure to the individual, and a deed of absolute worth is at the same time desirable for one or more individual wills. The material for these individual wills can be psychologized, that is, it can be objectified and fitted into a causal connection. Thus the act of a hero or the work of a sculptor may be studied as psychological phenomena ; but the absolute truth or beauty of the moral deed or of the artistic creation is not affected thereby.
As for logic, its relations, no less than the demands of ethics and aBsthetics, do not depend on psychology ; indeed, logical relations can only exist between non-psychological subjects, and the object of logical thought is not a psycho- logical object. The logical acts that create the entire sys- tem of psychological connections can obviously not depend on that which they have created. Logical generalizations are not laws of nature, but laws of valuation, and the logical principle of connection may be considered parallel
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to, but can never be identical with, the causal la%7 of the psychological processes.
Nevertheless, although the logical process as such is be- yond the pale of psychological rules, this process may voluntarily be transformed into psycho-physical material, by considering it as object separated from the original sub- ject. It must be kept in mind, however, that the psycho- logical content of consciousness is never knowledge, and that logical reality cannot be proved by psychological facts. For ultimate truths are not found, but demanded, and there is no fact about which psychology and epistemology can decide jointly.
Finally, in considering the relation of psychology to re- ligion, the author has pointed out the absolute value of re- ligion demanded by the over-individual will, which has its reality aside from and beyond the religious hopes and ex- periences of the individual. The religious life of the in- dividual, however, though still distinct from the absolute realities of over-individual religion, is none the less entirely non-psychological. In all sciences, whenever there is a gap in what is known, this can be filled out only by something possible to experience. Religion supplements the experi- enceable. The subjective activity of the self, the recognizd subjective activity of others and the objects of such activity are supplemented respectively by conceptions as of eternal life, of sinless personalities, and of heaven. The totality of all personalities, that is, the over-individual will, is sup- plemented by the idea of divinity. A psychological study of the objects of religion, that is, of that by which ex- perience is supplemented, is, of course, impossible ; for eter- nal life no psycho-physical substitute is conceivable. The subjective processes of the believing individual, however, like his logical or ethical processes, may be objectified for psychological observation, and a psycho-physical organism
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substituted for the original subject. In this way religious experience is frequently material for sociological study. Yet this study of objectified processes must never be con- fused with normative religion, for the religious realities can never be approached, much less studied or judged by psy- chology.
The author's views about the relation of psychology to practical life, to mysticism, to law, to education have been illumined so well in more popular presentations, that it would be redundant to give them here, although they com- plete the first part of the comprehensive Grundzuge der Psychologic or Principles of Psychology.
An altogether different book appeared in November, 1901, a volume of essays that won a popularity not only sudden but lasting and was a herald of the author's career as a publicist and critic of current life and thought. "The American Traits" was the first spontaneous expression of the hearty and thoughtful interest that the young scholar felt for his surroundings, which he could not yet take for granted, but which suggested to him problems that would easily escape the indifferent or the too accustomed observer. It was said of him at the time that he looked at "the American world through German eyes with Harvard astig- matism." The resulting views were crystallized in popu- lar essays that first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and in the International Monthly and were then gathered into a volume. This was dedicated to ' * Frederic William Holls, Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, Ideal Type of the American of German descent."
It would have been easy for Miinsterberg throughout his life, while he had the welfare of two countries equally at heart, to praise each to its face and reserve blame for the one to which he was not speaking. Nevertheless, though nothing was more foreign to his nature than harshness or
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severity, and he advocated the principle of audiatur et altera pars rather than that of finding fault, yet he chose the thornier path of showing each country its own faults and the virtues of the other, believing this method more wholesome than that of flattery. This principle he ex- plains himself in the preface to American Traits :
I have published on the other side scores of articles and essays, end shall soon put before the German public an entire book on American life, a book which is far less fragmentary than this, and deals in a detailed way with the political, economic, intel- lectual and social aspects of American culture. Its purpose is to illuminate and defend a culture which I have learned to ad- mire and which is so greatly misunderstood over there; it seeks to interpret systematically the democratic ideals of America. It will be written for Germans only.
American Traits was written for Americans only.
The opening essay "The Americans" was his first plea for a better understanding between the two great peoples, a plea that he was destined to repeat throughout his life, prompted by an ever broadening vision. In this essay he considers as the keynote of the lack of understanding the prejudiced and erroneous belief on the part of Germans that Americans have no idealism and on the part of Ameri- cans that Germans have no freedom. , It was his earnest belief that by revealing the error of such prejudices, a more sympathetic approach might be accomplished.
The author begins the essay on "Education" with a reminiscence of his own childhood. "There was no lack of opportunity to follow up our inclinations; to use the terminology of modern pedagogy, we 'found' ourselves. I found myself, too; but — in this respect I did not behave exactly according to the prescribed scheme of this same pedagogy, I am sorry to say — I found myself every two or three years, as some one very different from the former individual whom I had had the pleasure to discover." He
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sums up the list of his passions — first for botany ; then for electrical machines ; then at fifteen for comparative religion, including the study of Arabic and reading of the Koran; later that for ethnology and excavations, and so on till finally, ' ' in the middle of my philosophical studies, I came to psychology and the lightning struck. ' ' In spite of these many distractions, Miinsterberg graduated easily from the " Gymnasium " at eighteen, which meant that he had reached a point in his education as advanced as that of the end of the sophomore year in a good American college. That the comparatively advanced age of high school and college graduates made him reflect on its causes is not surprising. It was his conviction that the success of the methods used in the schools of his youth lay in the fact that the teachers mastered their subjects and could there- fore impart them with the enthusiasm of true scholars. Through better teachers the high school and college age would be reached sooner; therefore future teachers would be able, without loss of time, to spend more years on their preparation.
The schools of this country seem to him to suffer also from the application either of the university or of the kindergarten method, that is, the tendency to prepare the pupil too ybung for his future professional life or to cater to his liking and eliminate effort as much as possible. Against the plan of preparing for professional studies at an early age he objects that the mental discipline as well as the cultural inspiration from such studies as Greek and Latin can be won by the pupil only now or never, whereas the knowledge necessary for the individual profession may be gained later. The greater danger seems to him the appeal to the whims of the pupil. ' ' All instruction which is good must be interesting; but does it follow therefrom that all instruction which is interesting must also be good ? ' '
The essay on ''Education" leads up to the one on
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" Scholarship/ ' which made a decided impression at the time of its first appearance in the Atlantic Monthly. Miin- sterberg could not argue enough for an intellectually free, productive scholarship in American universities. In this es- say he maintains that what is needed is an original, fearless, critical point of view, and that the fact is overlooked that 11 highest independence of character can go hand in hand with the most slavish intellectual dependence." To the author teaching and scholarship seem as different as pho- tography and art. He pleads that every one intending to teach in a college or high school should take a doctor's degree, for "the spark of active scholarship must have touched him" to make him a truly effective teacher. But above all, the university teacher should be a creative thinker who has made some original contribution to scholar- ship and does not content himself with merely presenting what has been contributed before him. Many of the young scholars, whose doctor theses promise a fruitful future, prove disappointing after they have once entered the rut of college teaching. They become overbur'dened with recita- tion work, blue-book reading, elementary teaching, etc. and productive work is postponed from year to year until the necessary enthusiasm and initiative are lost. Moreover, the small salary forces the university teacher into lucrative writing to the neglect of scholarly work which promises no immediate financial return and which requires strength and leisure. Nevertheless it is not so much the lack of time and money that keeps back the university teacher, as the "absence of a decided premium* upon scholarly production." The ideals of the scholar are not valued by the trustees or by the alumni of most universities, nor are they respected enough by the general public. As money is the recognized measure of success in America, a high salary offered to a creative scholar of the first rank would raise the social prestige of scholarship in the eyes of the
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public, would attract the best young men who are now frightened away from a career that promises so little reward, and would give the professors themselves repose for creative work.
The essay on ' ' Women ' ' may surprise those who remem- ber with what devoted enthusiasm' Miinsterberg promoted the work of his women students, how serious an interest he took in the intellectual life and the careers of the women he knew. But this essay, although in it he deplores the prev- alent tendency of the woman with college education to turn away from marriage, as the lesser happiness, to other vocations, after all is not a plea for the decrease of women 's intellectual equipment, but for an increase of man's share in the cultural life of the country. In the realms of cul- ture it seems to the author that not an equality between men and women has been established, bat an artificial in- equality, which developed naturally from the pioneer con- ditions during the early life of the nation by which the un- folding of the country's resources became the function of man and the task of importing European ready-made cul- ture and with it leavening the nation's life fell to women. Hence the intellectual and artistic life of the country has a decided feminine stamp, and until within a decade of the author's writing the characteristically feminine atti- tude toward scholarship, that is, the receptive, not the critical, attitude, was prevalent. It is the author's hope that for the sake of a healthy development of the country's cultural life this artificial inequality may be ended, and he exhorts Eve to divide the apple with Adam.
In the final essay on ''American Democracy" Miinster- berg pointed out that whether, as the result of historic development, a country has a monarchical or a democratic government, both aristocratic and democratic tendencies may coexist in the same nation. Realistic and idealistic views of life have alternated for centuries and noble, un-
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selfish men have been devoted to the aims of both. Real- ism brings with it democracy and utilitarianism; in the train of idealism follow aristocracy, nationalism, imperial- ism. The alternation of these philosophic tendencies does not represent merely a simple pendulum movement, but progress through this very alternation; it is, indeed, not a pendulum, but a spiral movement, ever leading upward. That the idealistic movement is now in the ascendent in the United States the author has no doubt. This is manifest not only in the growth of aristocratic customs and tastes in the social life of the country, in the establishment of a leisure class, in the fostering of ideal cultural pursuits, but also in the aspirations of national life.
But even when we turn to the really aristocratic symptoms of national life, the question is not whether we welcome or deprecate them; we are interested merely in the question whether the phe- nomena exist. Thus it cannot be our task here to inquire whether the United States is wise or unwise in its policy of aggressive ex- pansion, whether it would be better to remain loyal to the prin- ciples of the past, which reduced the chances of friction with other nations, and thus saved to the land the burdens of milita- rism, or whether the progress of the country demands that new responsibilities be courageously faced. For us it is sufficient that imperialism is a symptom of the aristocratic attitude towards man, and that imperialism is the creed of the country.
The political form of government is no longer problem- atic, but taken for granted, whereas "the 'problem' has become a social one" and it is through the social move- ments that a harmonization of aristocratic and demo- cratic energies has been reached.
CHAPTER VIII
The activities of the years covered in this chapter were accompanied by no small amount of creative work. It has been pointed out before that Miinsterberg 's labors
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in behalf of the Congress of Arts and Science were not wholly practical and administrative, but that the con- ception and working out of the plan for the Congress was in itself a contribution to theoretical knowledge. Various essays that he wrote for magazines at home and abroad were expositions of a new classification of the sciences, as much as heralds of the coming Congress.
Currents of new ideas will not be confined to the special vessels for which they were designed, but will overflow and make fertile ever new regions. As early as January, 1903, at the time when plans for the St. Louis Congress were still in the making, Miinsterberg embodied in the first volume of Harvard Psychological Studies, which he edited, a treatise on the "Position of Psychology in the System of Knowledge.'' In this he briefly defined the function of psychology as he had done in a complete way in his Grundzilge. The placing of psychology in the whole system of knowledge gave Miinsterberg opportunity to use that logical classification of all sciences which was the foundation of the St. Louis Congress — this time, how- ever, for a purely theoretical purpose.
The first volume of the Harvard Psychological Studies is a stout, imposing book that contains fifteen minute presentations of experiments carried on by advanced gradu- ate students in the Harvard Psychological Laboratory, and the conclusions drawn from these experiments. Since all the experimental work at the Laboratory was done under Miinsterberg 's supervision, he was also the editor of this volume, which was intended to preserve the re- sults of investigations in a more unified and substantial form than the loose and scattered means of publication hitherto employed.
Miinsterberg 's most comprehensive and sustained liter- ary work of these years was, however, along a quite different line. The time had come when, after so many
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years of eager activity among the people of the New World, he could no longer wait to tell Europeans how distorted and full of arbitrary prejudices was their mental picture of the Americans. He knew that these prejudices had sprung up from a lack of knowledge of real conditions and from the chance superficial impressions of tourists. * ' The land of the almighty dollar ' ' was not only misunder- stood, but not known from within as it was to the Harvard scholar whose first American welcome had been from a metaphysician. So Miinsterberg wrote in German, not a sketchy impression, but a thorough, two-volume study called The Americans (Die Amerikaner) , which appeared in 1903. The aim of the book is to explain and interpret the life of the American people as it was manifest at the time of its writing, and although it contains much his- torical material and careful studies of institutions, never- theless these institutions are of interest only in as much as they express the desires and the activities of the people. These two volumes made a stir among readers and, to a remarkable degree, awakened interest in American life. It even inspired readers to set sail and see for themselves the land that had been painted in such appealing colors. The secret of the book's influence was not so much the clearly presented new information, as the convincing power of the enthusiastic author behind its statements.
It was Miinsterberg 's unworldly, but dauntless con- viction that it was salutary, instead of praising a people, to call attention to its shortcomings and to the ways in which it might learn from other nations to its own profit; at the same time he was eager to reveal to an- other country the admirable traits of the people whom he had just criticized for its own good. In other words, helpful criticism was to be spread abroad. It was from this conviction that American Traits with its critical at- titude had been written for American consumption and
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The Americans for Germany. In spite of this principle, Miinsterberg yielded to persuasion and decided to bring out an English version of the book also, and to let the Americans see themselves as others see them. Dr. Edwin B. Holt, who had been Miinsterberg 's assistant in the Harvard laboratory, made an excellent translation of The Americans, which appeared in the fall of 1904.
In a preface to the German book Miinsterberg had said : "The book itself gives no account of personal experiences. Not a word touches upon my own life ; by the time I shall begin to exhibit my reminiscences and gather my notes together this book will long be antiquated." Therein he was mistaken. Ten years later, in 1914, the publishers brought out a new and revised edition of The Americans; and it was not long after he had written the preface to this new edition, that Miinsterberg began to gather his notes together for reminiscences of Twenty-Five Tears in America, which was destined never to be more than begun.
The Americans is divided into four large main parts: Political Life, Economic Life, Intellectual Life, and Social Life. The first chapter in each division gives the keynote to the particular phase of national life to be considered; these chapters are called respectively: "The Spirit of Self-Direction/' which dominates the political life; "The Spirit of Self -Initiative," which conditions the economic life; "The Spirit of Self-Perf ection, ' ' which creates the intellectual life; and "The Spirit of Self -Assertion/ ' which colors the social life.
The spirit of self-direction the author holds to be the essence of American political life from the foundation of the Republic, which was itself the creation of a moral will. Action according to this spirit is that which, rather than race or attachment to the native soil, makes the American. "To be an American means to cooperate in perpetuating the spirit of self -direction throughout the body politic;
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and whosoever does not feel this duty and actively respond to it, although perhaps a naturalized citizen of the land, remains an alien forever."
The eagerness to act out this fundamental ideal has re- sulted in a certain missionary spirit, an eagerness to instil these ideals; and the danger lurking in this slogan of democracy is self-satisfied dilettantism — "danger not from wild lawlessness but from crass philistinism. ' ' Neverthe- less the author is well aware of political counter-currents that are keeping this democracy from being too one-sided and losing its balance. He appreciates, moreover, the unique fitness of the constitution for the nation — a fitness proved by its adaptation to undreamed of geographical expansion as well as momentous inner changes. Coupled with this great self-confidence and supplementary to it is the belief in the integrity of one's neighbor as well as the recognition of his right. This recognition leads to a will- ing and remarkably docile submission to the majority. Without this willingness to submit where the rules of the game or the success of an enterprise demand it, the Ameri- cans could not have developed their unique talent for organization. It is this natural instinct for coordination that in European countries has to be replaced by discipline from without.
Miinsterberg gives considerable attention to the study of the political parties — those powerful parties that prac- tically divide the whole country into two great political camps and that could not be so powerful if, as in other countries, there were more than two. This is not the place to report in detail the author's observation of the political machinery. Suffice it to point out, merely as an example of his clear view of the mainsprings that move the political life, that he recognized the inner consistency of the two party ideas throughout the change of circumstances, al- though he realized fully the remoteness of the present
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party issues from the historic origin of the party ideals. No matter how varied the conditions under which they have had to assert themselves may have been, the Repub- licans stood consistently for centralization and the Demo- crats for anti-centralization. The Republicans are im- perialists and protectionists, the Democrats anti-imperial- ists and free-traders; the Republicans defended the uni- fied gold standard, the Democrats the more flexible double standard. The seeming paradox that the Republicans fought against slavery and the Democrats, the ardent champions of individual freedom, fought to maintain slavery is removed if one considers the contrast in the true historical light. The Democrats appear then con- sistently as the champions of the individual states' rights, that is, of the anti-centralizing forces, as against the Republicans who supported the Union or the centralization of power. The author speaks of the unique party loyalty, of that conservatism that is the natural result of a con- stant appeal to party principles and party patriotism.
A chapter is given to the office of President, to its con- stitutional limitations and its immense power. The author explains the party mechanism by which the President ic, made, the obsolete electoral system; he traces the careers, so markedly different, of McKinley, "the accomplished politician, the interesting leader of Congress, the sympa- thetic man who had no enemies" and Bryan, the silver- tongued Nebraskan. Of the safe and tranquil office of Vice-President he also speaks, and of the stroke of destiny that made its most dynamic incumbent the leader of the land. His unique career is traced and of the Rough Rider President's administration the author says:
For the fanatics of party Roosevelt has been, of course, too independent, while to the opponents of party he has seemed too yielding. Both of these criticisms have been made, in many different connections, since everywhere he has stood on a watch
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tower above the fighting lines of any party. When in the strug- gles between capital and labor he seriously took into account the just grievances of the workingman, he was denounced as a Socialist. And when he did not at once stretch out his hand to demolish all corporations, he was called a servant of the stock exchange. When he appointed officials in the South without reference to their party allegiance, the Republicans bellowed loudly; and when he did not sanction the Southern outrages against the negro, the Democrats became furious. When everything is considered, however, he has observed the maxim of President Hayes: "He best serves his party, who serves his country best."
In the description of the Cabinet offices, warm tribute is paid to the statesman who at that time was Secretary of State, John Hay.
A chapter is devoted to Congress. Accounts are given of the work of the House with its entire complex of committees; of the hazardous "pilgrimage" of a bill from its proposal to the acceptance or veto by the President, of the ' ' Senatorial courtesy, ' ' and its results, and the chap- ter is closed with the comment:
Yet, on looking at Congress as a whole, one has the impres- sion that it accomplishes a tremendous amount of work, and in a more sober, businesslike, and efficient way than does any other parliament in the world. There is less talking against time; in fact, there is less talking of any kind, and because the Administration is not represented at all there is less fight- ing. Tflhe transactions as a whole are therefore somewhat less exciting, a single Congressman has less opportunity to become personally famous. Yet no American would desire to intro- duce a ministerial bench at the Capitol, or to have the next Congress adopt Austrian, French, German, or English methods.
In the chapter on " Justice" Miinsterberg explains the "common law" — that legal system which, in such sharp contrast to the Continental European law, derives its authority from decisions in precedent cases, and thereby throws on each new judicial decision the enormous weight
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of responsibility not only for the single case, but for similar cases in all the future. The author describes * ' sta- tute law," explains the Constitution, its relation to juris- diction, and the momentous power of the Supreme Court, the highest law in the land.
A chapter is given to the study of city and state gov- ernments and the spirit of self-determination is shown everywhere at work. Another chapter is devoted to that elusive, but all-powerful factor in American political life : public opinion. It is public opinion that balances the struggle of parties, indeed, according to the author, public opinion is to party opposition as the upper house of a legislative body is to the lower house. "Probably the most characteristic traits of public opinion are a patient oversight of mistakes and weaknesses, but relentless con- tempt and indignation for meanness and lack of honor. This is in both respects the very reverse of the party spirit, which is too apt to hinge its most boasted reforms on trivial evils, and pass over the greatest sins in silence. " The volatile humor of public opinion, moreover, is con- trasted with the sobriety that is the dominant note in office and in the party game and the often bombastic seriousness with which party campaigns are fought. The author tells of the various channels through which public opinion flows: the newspapers, to which he pays high and indulgent tribute; the numerous magazines; the countless lectures; the clubs; the after-dinner speeches; in short, all those subtle, yet powerful influences that are over and above, yet react upon, political life.
In the chapter on "Problems of Population " the Indian problem is considered and that most gloomy problem of all — the negro question with all its infinite complexity. The author describes the passionate prejudices and cross currents of Northern and Southern feelings, of personal antipathy mingled with enthusiasm for race equality, and
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of natural familiarity from old custom mingled with social and political disdain. This spectacle could be viewed impartially only by one who, like Miinsterberg, had not been reared with one prejudice or the other.
One chapter is given to the " Internal Political Prob- lems," another to the "External Political Problems." In the account of internal problems the author describes the civil service, the spoils system under Andrew Jackson, the reaction against it, the Civil Service Commission under Grant, its cessation and partial reinstatement and further developments along that line ; the fight against corruption, in the Republican party from above, in the Democratic party from below; the institution of Tammany Hall and the natural popularity of its leaders; and of the ultimate triumph of public opinion. In the chapter on "External Political Problems" Miinsterberg emphasizes how America has always stood before the world as the natural guardian of peace, untroubled by the struggles and clashes of the nations across her two great frontier oceans; he tells of the decisive moral and material support of the Peace Tribunal at the Hague. Yet he is not blind to "the other side of the shield":
". . . all Europe has become quite accustomed to considering the Republic across the water as the firmest partisan of peace. The Republic has in fact been this, is now, and always will be so ; while the riddle is — how can it be such a friend of peace when it was conceived in war, has settled its most serious problems by war, is at war to-day, and presumably will be at war many times again."
The author then traces the arguments for and against imperialistic treatment of the Philippines, and points out the growth of imperialism of which the attitude toward rebellious Panama was a characteristic symptom. He also considers the relation of America to Canada, the
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reciprocity question and the strong attraction which the great, still uncultivated tracts of land in the Canadian Northwest have for the enterprising Western farmer of the United States. Lastly the Monroe Doctrine is exam- ined in detail, its historic origin in the desire for self- protection and the fight against absolutism, and its present obsoleteness. The writer points out that the arbitrary misrule in the South American republics is a greater con- tradiction to the spirit of an ideal democracy than the governments of European constitutional monarchies; that no conceivable conflict could arise from European colonies in South America; that Europe is practically nearer, that is, more quickly accessible, to the United States than South America, with which trade is but small; that desirable immigration to the South American republics was restricted through protection by the Monroe Doctrine ; finally, that the United States, while maintaining the Doctrine, is refraining from responsibility for these re- publics and is even rousing their mistrust. Yet, in spite of the obsoleteness of the Doctrine, Miinsterberg was convinced that
opposition to the doctrine from the side of Europe would be foolish, because no European country has any vital reason for calling it in question, and there would be a very lively war indeed if Europe were to try to overstep the Monroe Doctrine as long as the great mass of the American people still hold it sacred. The Monroe Doctrine must and will succumb, but it will only be through the convictions of the Americans, never because some European nation threatens to batter down the wall.
In the second part of the book, "The Economic Life," the author has had special opportunity to assert, in the face of fast ingrained European prejudices, his belief in the idealistic foundation of American life. Here it is the spirit of self -initiative, which, together with the unrivaled
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natural resources of the land, made possible the great economic rise of the United States. "A magnificent eco- nomic life such as that of America can never spring from impure ethical motives, and the person is very na'ive who supposes that a great business was ever built up by mere impudence, deception, and advertising."
Any one who observes American economic life sympa- thetically cannot fail to understand that its great charac- teristic is not the passive possession of money, but the in- dustrious restless earning of it. This fundamental trait is proved by the average American's innate contempt for dower hunting and lottery, methods by which wealth is gained but not earned, and in a smaller way, by the aversion to tips, which is foreign to the European street- car conductor or newsboy. It is the value set on the deed itself by which material goods are won, and not on the enjoyment of material possession that convinced Miinster- berg of the idealistic motives of American commercial life. "For in the ethical world a materialistic position would be one in which the aim of life was enjoyment, while that point of view would be idealistic which found its motive not in the pleasant consequences of the deed, but in the value of the deed itself."
The author points out some of the traits that have made Americans so successful in business. Among these are a clever disposition of time, promptness, and accuracy, the accomplishment of the greatest labor with the least friction, by means of the precise adaptation of part to part. This adjustment leaves the business man a far greater amount of free time than European prejudice has supposed. Further the freedom from jealousy and the readiness to rely on the self-respect of his neighbor gives the American vigor and confidence for industrial enter- prises, and he is helped by his natural talent for in- vention, which flourishes with the spirit of self -initiative.
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That there are dangers also in this industrial life the author is well aware — that confidence in the other man may lead to over-confidence, carelessness, and wastefulness ; that success and money as the measurement of success may lead to easy display; and that the constant forward rush into the future must deprive the restless worker of that lingering attitude that contemplates the past and adorns the present with beauty. Yet it is not perfection that counts in American economic life, but the act of perfecting. "In this sense the American expresses his pure idealism in speaking of the * glory of the imperfect.' '
In the chapter on "The Economic Rise" the author traces some of the main movements of the economic history of the country, but always with the interest focused not on the facts as such but on the human and national traits that have brought them about. Accounts are given of the six great crises from the first one in 1814 through the one in 1893, of the revival, the prosperity attending the great harvests from 1897 to 1903, with the rapid building of railroads and the opening of new areas to trade and of the tremendous rate of production. Finally symptoms are traced of a counter-movement against this ' ' tempestuous expansion, ' ' an increased solidity and safety in the building and operating of railroads, a greater soundness in industry, and the improbability of another panic largely because of the country's independence of Eu- ropean capital, through the fixed nature of the currency, the growing independence of the agricultural West and the in- creased prosperity of the South.
The "Economic Problems" are considered not from the point of view of the economist, but as problems affecting the thoughts and lives of Americans. The history of the silver question is told, with its division of the Democratic party into the Gold Democrats under Cleveland and the Silver Democrats under Bryan, and the clamor of the silver fanatic
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is recognized as a means by which a technical controversy was raised far beyond its starting point and made a watch- word and principle, as it was a symptom of the growing aversion to the wealthy classes. The author illumines the tariff question and emphasizes, in spite of the ascendancy of the protectionists at the time of his writing, that the subconscious wish of the entire nation was for reciprocity, a wish expressed by McKinley in his last speech at Buffalo, "the same McKinley . . . who more than any one else was morally responsible for the high-tariff movement in the United States."
The absorbing question of the trusts is considered in detail. The author points out how the concentration of power rather than the concentration of ownership consti- tuted the problem; he shows the great advantages in the trust system, such as the saving of expenses, the liberty to fix prices, the accumulation of capital, etc. The writer also calls attention to some dangers felt to attend the trust system. He tells of the relations of the trusts to the state and federal legislation, especially of the inherent Anglo- Saxon aversion to restraint of trade that has roused the hostility of public opinion. Light is thrown on the skill- ful evasion of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law by corporations nominally established in one state only, while owning fac- tories all over the country; on the diversity of state laws in regard to trusts, the hopelessness of bringing trusts under Federal control by a Constitutional amendment, and the saving possibility of the Supreme Court's decision that the trusts were after all transacting interstate commerce, and therefore must be brought under the control of Federal law. Finally the author believes that the trust problem will regulate itself, because the centralization demanded by industrial development will be offset and counterbal- anced by the spirit of self -initiative.
In considering the "Labor Question/' Miinsterberg
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points out first the striking prosperity of the American as compared with the Continental European laborer, due largely to the comparative cheapness — when he wrote — of necessities and goods made by machinery in large quanti- ties. He speaks also of the laborer's belief in the worth of his contribution to the social organism, a belief that makes for self-respect. Socialism, moreover, has no firm foothold among the laboring classes because of the be- lief in equal opportunity for the reward of achieve- ment. The development of the labor organizations is traced, of the Knights of Labor with their moral purpose but impractical system, and of the trade-unions proper. Account is given of the independent and the federated unions, their growing power, and their fight not only for the increase of wages and curtailment of working hours, but for the recognition of the union as a power. The author describes the effect of union pressure on the stat- utes of various states, among which Massachusetts has been a leader in salutary labor legislation. The bureaus for labor statistics in the different states and the establish- ment of the Department of Labor in Washington are pointed out as symptoms of the ever growing importance of labor problems. During the great coal strike in 1902, Roosevelt's first step in settling the grave conflict by arbitration is emphasized as a precedent action and one that marked the turning point in public opinion.
And so public opinion has come round to think that violence on the part of workingmen, and refusal to treat with trades- unions on the part of employers are equally to be condemned. The community will hardly again permit capital and labor to fight out their battles in public and make the whole nation suffer. It demands that, now that labor is actually organized in unions, disputes shall be brought up .for settlement before delegates from both sides, and that where these cannot come to a solution, the matter shall be brought before a neutral court of arbitration which both sides agree to recognize.
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The tendency of both trusts and unions to be tyrannical is not overlooked, it is a tendency apparent in the forma- tion of employers' unions and in the agreements between such employers' unions and the trade-unions.
In the third part of the book, a contemplation of Ameri- can ''Intellectual Life," the spirit of self-perfection is given as the keynote. The growth of this spirit is traced from its origin with the early settlers, particularly those of New England whose intellectual life colored that of all the Colonists. This leadership was maintained from the founding of Harvard in 1636 and the time when Cot- ton Mather and later Jonathan Edwards exerted their learned and religious influence, through the golden age of New England, when Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes, Whit- tier, and Hawthorne gave the moral vigor of their thoughts and the dignified charm of their imaginations, and the School of Philosophy grew round "the Sage of Concord. ' ' Here it was that the leading intellectual maga- zines first sprang up, that Parker, Garrison, Phillips, and 'Sumner roused the public with their moral protests, here historians like Prescott, Sparks, Bancroft, Parkman and Motley applied the methods of quiet scholarly investiga- tion; here serious music was first cultivated and the first large public library established.
The dominant feature of the intellectual life of New England that impressed its stamp on that of the whole country was Calvinistic Puritanism, the very force that had driven the pilgrims to the strange rugged shores — and the essence of this Puritanism was the perfection of the individual before God.
From the1 meagre days of the Pilgrim Fathers down to the time when Emerson in rhapsodic flights preached the ethical idealism of Fichte and Longfellow wrote his "Psalm of Life," the old Puritan spirit remained predominant.
One fundamental note sounded through the* whole. Life
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was not to be lived for the sake of pleasure, but for the sake of duty. Existence got its sense and value only in ethical endeavor; self-perfection was the great duty which took preced- ence over all others.
This spirit of self-perfection, rooted as it was in Puri- tanism, did not seek to create science and art for their own sake, but for the sake of their power to purify and ennoble the individual soul. "In the language of the newer time we might say that a community developed under Puritan influences care,d considerably more for the culture of its individual members than for the creation of things intellectual, that the intellectual worker did not set out to perfect art and science, but aimed by means of art and science to perfect himself. " Parallel with the ethical idealism of New England ran that other motive common to the pioneers in all parts of the country — utilitarianism. "A greater antithesis could hardly be thought of; and nevertheless the desire for self-perfection is common to both ..." for it is in the interest of the greatest prosperity and the greatest possible well-being of the greatest number that the mind of the individual should be trained for the best intellectual achievement. Ben- jamin Franklin, who was moralist as well as scientist and statesman, was an exponent of utilitarianism and did not feel at home in Boston where "for the best people life was thought to be a 'trembling walk with God!' ' Es- pecially from the West, with its practical problems, utili- tarianism has made itself felt; yet its intellectual out- come ddes not differ much from that of the Puritan mo- tive. The actual state of the national culture can be understood only as a working together of these two types of the spirit of self-perfection; and eVen to-day, the Puritan spirit is the stronger — the spirit of New England is in the lead.
The native hue of American culture has been somewhat
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lost to the sight of the onlooker, because of considerable foreign influence, due to the American's love of travel, the tendency to imitate, and the effect of immigration; more- over, the large purchasing power of the masses pushes the more trivial taste rather into the foreground. Never- theless, through all distracting appearances, the desire for self-perfection is everywhere manifest.
It is not our intention to examine in detail the author's thorough presentation of the chief movements and the various institutions in the school and university life of the country, and the relations of the institutions to the states and the local communities. Miinsterberg 's critical views of the educational life of the country, moreover, appear in other writings. Suffice it to say that in the school life he sees at work the spirit of self-perfection united with the spirit of self-determination. He speaks of the absence of a uniform school system throughout the land, which allows free play for local differences, of the sliding scale of gradations instead of definite lines of demarcation in schools. He speaks of coeducation; of the unique preponderance of women teachers and their stamp on the school life ; of the imported kindergarten movement, of the university extension courses and the extraordinary multitude of opportunities for intellectual self-perfection given to those who have finished school and cannot continue their formal instruction.
After having dwelt on the kindergarten, one is somewhat tempted to think also of these as men and women gardens. There is really some resemblance to a sort of intellectual garden, where no painful effort or hard work is laid out for the young men and women who wander there carelessly to pluck the flowers. But it is, perhaps, rather too easy for the trained person to be unjust to such informal means of culture.
With sympathetic understanding Miinsterberg tells of
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the origin and growth of the unique Chautauqua institu- tions. Of their founder, Bishop Vincent, he says:
He has done more than any one else toward bringing harmony into the monotonous and intellectually hungry lives of hun- dreds and thousands throughout the country, and especially of public-school teachers. And in this work of instruction, the religious strengthening, the instillation of personal contentment, patriotic enthusiasm, aesthetic joy in life, and moral inspiration, are not to be separated.
The author further emphasizes not only the great num- ber of lectures held during the year, but the remarkable excellence of many of these, particularly their perfection of form. The various institutes for popular lectures by men of high scholarship are of course considered, and es- pecially that pinnacle of the lecture system — the Lowell Institute in Boston. That there is a certain danger to creative scholarship in the great emphasis on elegance of form and popular presentation in the public lecture sys- tem, the author is well aware, yet he finds promising signs of tendencies to overcome this danger and, above all, values the immeasurable service of these popular lectures. "It is at least clear that they have spread everywhere the most profound desire for culture and enlightenment, and for this reason they have been the necessary system for a people so informed with the spirit of individual self- perfection."
In the chapter on the universities the author gives an account of the almost infinite variety of learned standards, from those used by the small colleges, equivalent to pre- paratory schools, to those of the large universities with their complexes of professional schools. He traces the origin of the college in the English idea of providing edu- cation for a gentleman and emphasizes the important position of the college in university life. "The college
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is the soul of the university. The college is to-day, more than ever, the soul of the whole nation." He points to the fact, so astonishing to Europeans, that in the academic history of the country the private institutions have largely outranked the state universities. A sketch is made of the history of Harvard, the oldest and largest of the colleges, through its remarkable growth into a great university un- der the administration of President Eliot. The author pays enthusiastic tribute to this greatest leader of Amer- ican intellectual life. The opposed tendencies within the typical faculty are mentioned, of those, particularly among the older men, who lay chief emphasis on teaching as such and on the cultivating function of liberal education and of the others who lay stress on productive scholarship and its accompanying factor of high specialization. The Law and the Medical Schools are described. The author dwells also on that social life that is so potent a force that the loyalty it engenders lasts not only a lifetime, but through many generations. Short characterizations are given of Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Leland Stanford, and the University of Chicago, of the state universities, and of those smaller idyllic colleges like Williams, Brown, Amherst, and Dartmouth, which have a peculiar mission of their own.
In the chapter on "Science," in which the writer sur- veys the scholarly achievements of the country, he men- tions first the handicaps to free productivity. Among these are the fact that instructors in the Graduate School are not promoted on the strength of their standing as investiga- tors only and the obvious overburdening of the professors with lectures and administrative work that leave them small leisure for creation. The system of allowing volun- tary docents at the universities, which in Europe gives such admirable free play to the exercise of original talent regardless of vacancies and appointments, is only just
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beginning in America. Furthermore, the high cost of printing prevents much possible publication of special- ized investigation. Yet, in spite of these handicaps, the author is optimistic. He enumerates also such advan- tages as the free aid in the form of fellowships, traveling scholarships, and the like, and the institution of the "sab- batical year" for professors. The habit of work acquired in the more supervised life than that of the Continental European universities is a decided advantage.
And most of all, the intellectual make-up of the American is especially adapted to scientific achievements. This tempera- ment, owing to the historical development of the nation, has so far addressed itself to political, industrial, and judicial problems, but a return to theoretical science has set in; and there most of all, the happy combination of inventiveness, en- thusiasm, and persistence in pursuit of a goal, of intellectual freedom and elasticity, of feeling for form and of idealistic instinct for self-perfection will yield, perhaps soon, remarkable triumphs.
The author gives a survey of the excellent government institutions at Washington, of the Bureaus where research is carried on in the service of the country. He gives an account of the unique history and position of the Smith- sonian Institute, and speculates as to the possibility of a great university above other universities. The author then mentions the approach to such an establishment in the form of the Carnegie Institution, and speaks further of the numerous scientific, historical, and educational societies and associations, the scholarly publications — university journals and the like — all of which help to stimulate scholarly production. Miinsterberg then sur- veys the achievements in each separate field of knowledge — philosophy, history, economics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc., — and names the leading scholars who have contributed toward these achievements. It is on the per-
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sonal factor that the future of American scholarship de- pends, and to Miinsterberg the value of great endow- ments lies chiefly in their power to attract better human material; and he hails with high hopes the growing tend- ency of the most promising young men to devote them- selves to scholarship. "This social reappraisement of sci- ence and its effect on the quality of men who become pro- ductive scholars, are the best indication of the coming greatness of American science."
In the chapter on "Literature," Miinsterberg refutes the absurd European idea of American booklessness and even maintains that nowhere else are so many books read as in the United States. With enthusiasm he tells about the excellent public libraries, especially those in Massa- chusetts, and of the pioneer work that the libraries ac- complished as centers for public education. Another proof of the American reading capacity is the immense number of periodicals published, more than in all Europe. Native American literature is characterized, again in refu- tation of European prejudices. "An enthusiastic Ameri- can has said that to be an American means to be both fresh and mature, and this is in fact a combination which is new, and which well characterizes the literary tempera- ment of the country." A certain youthful enthusiasm, a desire to reform and improve is combined with a mature sense for perfection of form. "And so we find in the American temperament a finished feeling for form, but a more ethical than artistic content — ," also an absence of the half-tones that appeal to more melancholy and medita- tive temperaments, although, to be sure, such exceptions as Poe, Hawthorne, Whitman, and Henry James defy a too fixed generalization. The essay, both "fresh and mature" is pointed out for its great popularity and the remarkable perfection it has achieved in America. Further the writer mentions the forceful, personal style
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prevalent in the distinguished historical and even scien- tific works, as in William James' Principles of Psychology, and he emphasizes the great role that oratory, that "off- shoot of actual literature," has played in the life of the nation. Miinsterberg surveys the development of Ameri- can literature, he points out the short story as the form peculiarly adapted to American talent, and calls atten- tion to the generous output of poetry, including verse of true excellence.
In the chapter on "Art," the author accounts for the great artistic dearth in the life of the theater. The Puri- tan spirit that so long swayed the intellecual life of the country still prevents public-spirited benefactors from endowing theaters. Hence the dependence of the theater on patronage, its necessary appeal to the majority of theater goers with low artistic standards, the formation of the theater trust, the management of the theater as a business enterprise, the "star" system, and the repeti- tion of the same play night after night. In music, on the other hand, endowment has helped to establish excellent symphony concerts and opera performances and to de- velop the taste of the public. The American love of music is proved, moreover, by the large number of oratorio sing- ing societies and the high quality of church music. Of distinguished native creation in music there is little to show at the time of writing.
In painting, on the other hand, America has cultivated her own, not only in the form of framed pictures, but also in wall paintings and ornamentations of public build- ings that are encouraged as democratic because visible to all. The fame of Sargent and Whistler is established, but, according to the author, "it becomes plainer every day that landscape painting is the most typical American means of expression." Moreover, the paintings of Sar- gent and Whistler are not characteristically American.
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"In painting, as in so many other branches, the United States has developed from the provincial to the cosmopol- itan and from the cosmopolitan to the national, and is just now taking the last step."
From an account of the development of painting, the author turns to sculpture which awoke much later, but has nevertheless produced such a monument as the Shaw Memorial in Boston by St. Gaudens. But architec- ture,
although it more slavishly followed the mother country than any other art, was the earliest to strike out in some respects on an independent course. It borrowed its forms, but originated their applications . . . More than any other feature of her civiliza- tion, American architecture reveals the entire history of the people from the days when the Puritans lived in little wooden villages to the present era of the skyscraper of the large cities.
The various styles of architecture are traced and their development is explained. Mention is made of the care- ful art training in schools, as by the Prang system, and finally of the excellent accomplishment in arts and crafts, and in landscape gardening.
In the chapter on "Religion" the author cannot em- phasize too much the profound religiousness of the true American, a trait that necessarily accompanies strong in- dividualism. The strict separation of church and state, which first strikes a European, is by no means a contra- diction of the religious spirit. This separation was made to avoid friction and to leave the life of the church all the more unhampered; the* "state and church move in separate dimensions of space, as it were, and are there- fore never brought into conflict."
Although no political obligation whatever is attached to the individual's relation to the church, the social obliga- tion is remarkably great.
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One may see even from the grouping of sects, how much the church is supported by society. If anywhere democracy seems natural, it should be in the eyes of God ; and yet, if the Americans show anywhere social demarcations, it is in the province of religion. This is true, not only of different churches where the expense of membership is BO unequal that in large cities rich and poor are farther apart on Sundays than on week days; but it is true of the sects themselves.
The author remarks on the unique variety of religious sects that "make the distinction between related faiths extremely small, sometimes even unintelligible to all ex- cept the theological epicure; and, indeed, they often rest on purely local or ancestral distinctions. " The history of the various leading Protestant sects is traced and their characteristics are pointed out, as well as the history of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Jewish faith in America. It appears not only from the history of the church sects themselves, but from the history of the country that religion, which inspired the Pilgrim fathers to seek strange, inhospitable shores and brave all hard- ships, has pervaded the life of the nation long aiter the original zeal and severity of Puritanism must have passed away. The great influence of eminent preachers — an in- fluence quite separate from any political current — has marked the spiritual history of the country, like the never forgotten influence of Phillips Brooks. In contrast to European churches, moreover, where the sermon is more limited to theological spheres., the sermon in America has direct bearing on the worldly life of the congregation, a function that even colors the often decidedly mundane vocabulary of the preacher. Again, in striking contrast to European customs, the church in America has a frankly secular mission that finds expression in the institution of the parish house and in the many philanthropic and
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purely social organizations and gatherings round the church as a social center.
The author points out the large number of theological seminaries, also the many sectarian colleges and the in- fluence of religion on the great universities. Finally, he speaks of the sects of the Advent ists, the Mormons, the Shakers, the Spiritualists, and the Christian Scientists. He closes with a consideration of the good effects of the religious life on the country, the high moral tone, the prevalent desire for purity and temperance, the ready charity and the willingness to sacrifice.
The keynote to the last part of the book, on " Social Life" is the spirit of self-assertion. The idea of equality in American life is quite distinct from the religious idea of equality before God which brings with it a certain humility in the life of the world. The American belief is in the equal- ity of man before man which brings with it the spirit of self-confidence and of self-assertion. This makes the act- ual and thoroughly recognized social distinctions no more essential than the different roles in a play that the actors play seriously, but without believing in their real exist- ence. The belief in comradeship is a purely social and not strictly a moral one, for the comradeship is limited to a special community — in this case, to be sure, the whole nation. For this reason the lack of envy is so conspicuous, and because of the lack of envy, American life makes but poor ground for Socialism. Hence also the respectability of almost any kind of labor. On the other hand, the aversion to servant's work is striking, and the unwilling- ness of native Americans to enter domestic service, be- cause such work involves dependence on individuals.
All in all, a man's position is less associated with his work than in Europe, the main emphasis is laid on his personality, independent of the accident of occupation; hence the extraordinary readiness to change professions.
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A great equalizing factor, moreover, that binds together men of all classes and degrees of education is the universal interest in sport. There is one even more powerful equal- izing force — American humor. "No immoderation, no improper presumption and no pomposity can survive the first humorous comment, and the American does not wait long for this. The soap bubble is pricked amid general laughter, and equality is restored."
The duty imposed by the feeling of equality is the duty of being a gentleman. American hospitality, even toward strangers, is unique, and the spirit of helpfulness is prev- alent. This spirit is not a condescending one, however, but one that sees in poverty an enemy that threatens to debase the free personality. Over against the many vir- tues of this spirit of equality, the author sets a few of its dangers. One of these is chiefly a danger to aesthetic development, but may also become one to the intellectual life, that is, the too great uniformity of style, manner, and habits of thought that tends to breed mediocrity. Another danger lies in the indulgent good nature, in the smile that will not wear off even in the face of faults and neglects.
This consideration of self-assertion in general leads the author to a chapter on the " Self -Assertion of Women" in particular. He speaks of the peculiarly happy lot of the American woman, of the many roads to self-perfection and self-assertion that lie open to her. He gives an ac- count of the school life, of coeducation, of the college life, especially of the idyllic charm of the woman's colleges, and of the occupations followed by women. He empha- sizes the influence and scope of activities by women who are not working professionally, in cultural, philanthropic, and social affairs, of their leadership in social life and of the cultural superiority of the wife over the husband in the average American home. The suffrage question is
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touched upon, and observations are made on the attitude of the American woman toward marriage. Finally he speaks of the growing usurpation by women of the teach- ing profession ; of the alarmingly one-sided feminine stamp impressed on the culture of the country due to the early preoccupation of men with political and industrial work; of the desirability of a masculine reaction to counter- balance this stamp; and he ends with the remark that " woman will never contribute momentously to the culture of the world by remaining intellectually celibate."
The last chapter of the book is given to the observa- tion of "Aristocratic Tendencies" that are bound to arise in the most confirmed democracy. There is, to be sure, no desire to imitate the European aristocracy; there is an aristocracy of American make. Neither do the Four Hun- dred of New York and Newport who, in spite of the dis- tortions of the sensational press, well deserve to lead "in that world where one is to be amused expensively at any cost," constitute the real American aristocracy.
But the author discerns the rising of an aristocracy of education and talent. "The influence of wealth is not absent here, but it is not mere wealth as such which exalts these people to the nobility; nor is the historical principle of family inheritance left out of account, al- though it is not merely the number of one's identifiable ancestors that counts. It is, most of all, the profounder marks of education and of personal talent." In Roose- velt, at the time of writing President of the United States, Miinsterberg sees the embodiment of this aristocracy.
The leaven of aristocratic forces is at work everywhere, not to destroy democracy, but to modify it. "The desire for the beauty and dignity of culture, for authority and thoroughness, is creeping into every corner of Ameri- can life." Parallel with these modifications of social life is a growing conception of the country as an abstract en-
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tity over and above the individual. "This tendency is still in its beginning, and will never be so strong as in Europe, because the self-assertion of the individual is too lively. Nevertheless, these new notes in the harmony are much louder and more persistent than they were ten years ago."
The Americans found warm response and a wide range of readers. President Eliot commented upon it thus:
Harvard University CAMBRIDGE, December 14, 1904. DEAR MB. MUNSTERBERG :
I find The Americans in its English dress very interesting and informing. To my thinking, it does not injure it at all for Americans that in its original dress it was intended for Germans. De Tocqueville's Democracy in America was not in- tended for Americans; and I have lately heard Mr. James Bryce say that his American Commonwealth was intended for his own countrymen, and that he was surprised at its sale in America. I am, with many thanks,
Very truly yours,
CHARLES W. ELIOT
From the survey of this comprehensive study The Ameri- cans, it will appear what thorough labors were involved in the creation of a book that, after all, was a " vacation work" running alongside of Munsterberg 's strictly scien- tific production. Of his profound epistemological work, Grundzilge der Psychologie extensive account has been given; in the season of 1904-1905 he began the English translation of this book which, however, he later aban- doned. Into this period falls the treatise on the theory of sound perception which was first read before the Associa- tion of Psychologists at Philadelphia and then published in the Psychological Review.
A characteristic little book appeared in 1905, the volume published by the Prang Educational Co., The Principles
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of Art Education. In this treatise Miinsterberg has spoken as philosopher, as psychologist, and as educator; this triple role he was destined to play again four years later when he brought out Psychology and the Teacher.
The book is divided into three parts — philosophical, aesthetics!, psychological — and a conclusion. In the first part the philosopher examines the values that the usual school boards, superintendents, and teachers attribute to art instruction in the schools. These values are the ac- quirement of accuracy in drawing for the purpose of skill- ful representation, and the training in the careful ob- servation of nature. But the author points out that in order to win these values, lessons in scientific drawing such as might be given in the science courses would be quite enough; art instruction would be superfluous. But the real purpose of art differs altogether from the purpose of science. Science describes and explains; description and explanation are the search for the connection of things, they do not tell us what the things themselves are in their immediate reality. "Thus, if you really want the thing itself, there is only one way to get it : you must separate it from everything else, you must disconnect it from causes and effects, you must bring it before the mind so that nothing else but this one presentation fills the mind . . ." Such repose in a completely isolated object is the enjoy- ment of beauty. True beauty, like true knowledge, is in- dependent of individual desire and has its "ought" as insistent as the "ought" of morality and of truth. The youth of the country need to know the demands of beauty, and, above all, they must learn to seek rest in the con- templation of isolated objects of our world — in the en- joyment of beauty. Philosophy points out the purpose of art; aesthetics shows the means by which the complete isolation of things is brought about.
In the second, the "aesthetical" part of the book, we
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fina tne seed of Miinsterberg 's theory of aesthetics, which was later perfected in The Eternal Values. The author asserts that the demands of aesthetics are not satisfied either with a realism that copies slavishly from nature, nor with an idealism that insists on beautiful models. An ugly model may be used for a beautiful picture, provided that the representation isolates it from the rest of the world. The two-dimensional plane of painting and the uniform color in sculpture serve to emphasize the isolation. In a picture the harmonious filling of space by lines, lights, and colors, on the one hand, and the con- tent of the representation, on the other, must form a com- plete unity. This unity must be a unity of meaning : the object represented and the lines and colors that represent it must all be understood as one expression. The child must be taught to discriminate between the reproduction of nature and the representation of meaning. The author advises, therefore, that the child be given some exact, un- interesting copies of nature to transform into artistic, ex- pressive pictures. Further, in order to understand the movements and tensions of lines, the child should divide spaces into parts or fill it with lines; the characteristic differences, moods and meanings of colors he should learn by mixing the colors himself. The understanding of the harmony of form and content, however, can be acquired best by the interpretation of works of art in school and familiarity with good reproductions of masterpieces.
In the third, or ' * psychological ' ' part which considers no longer the object of art, but the subjective perception of it, the author emphasizes that laboratory methods are necessary for the study of the mental states. He gives a brief psychological explanation of the processes involved in the perception of space divisions and of colors; he shows how light sensation is coupled with movement sen- sation, and that the optical sensations and the eye muscle
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sensations must agree with the natural sensations of the organism in order to satisfy; in the same way colors, whose quality affects the breathing, blood circulation, mus- cular strain, etc., must balance to correspond with the tonus of the organism. The content of the picture must be impressed through associations. Yet, though the sen- sations by which lines, colors and content are perceived, all lead to motor impulses, these impulses must end in themselves and not lead to action, as in practical life. Therefore the inhibition of disturbing associations is the central phenomenon of the aesthetic process.
In the "Conclusion," the psychologist turns into the educator, and as such warns against the emphasis on psy- chology as a help in the teaching of art. The teacher can hardly have complete psychological knowledge; and even if he were so equipped, he could not affect the brain cells of the child. ". . . we cannot indulge in microgym- nastics." But, above all, there is danger in a scientific attitude on the part of the teacher, for such an attitude is opposed to the true spirit of aesthetics. This must be imparted to the pupils by the teacher. The aesthetic train- ing through exercises as indicated above and through see- ing good reproductions of paintings must be supplemented, of course, by technical training of eye and hand, which can be acquired best by faithful copying from nature. But most important of all is the influence of the teacher, who should inspire a sense of beauty and inhibit ugliness and vulgarity from every mind. The aim of art instruction in the school is not only the possible ultimate achievement of great national art ; its chief purpose is
to open the eyes and minds of ... millions to the sunshine of beauty, to carry happiness and idealism into the hearts of those young people, into the homes of the whole American nation. Their entire school knowledge and surroundings train them for practical needs, for skill and achievement; that must be so,
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and it is well. Let them fight and run and pull and push, but let them never forget that the fight is not merely for the fight- ing; we must aim for an end in which we can find satisfaction, repose, and happiness.
A first sketch of Miinsterberg 's System of Values was the herald of his systematic contribution to philosophy, The Eternal Values, which will be considered closely in another chapter.
From the same fountain as The Eternal Values, a streamlet flowed in advance. A little book — a holiday book it may be called — appeared in 1905 at Easter time and has enjoyed a remarkable popularity ever since. It was called The Eternal Life. Its opening page reads:
"Come, dear friend, sit down here by the open fire. It was cold and penetrating out there at the burial; — come, warm your hands, and let us talk of the companion we have lost. How often he sat with me here through the winter evenings, and brightened my dusky library with his genial humor and good cheer! We shall not hear his voice again. . . ."
And then follows an elucidation, not technical, and yet profound, of that belief in eternal life which is a con- viction, not of the endless extension beyond death of the individual life in time and space, but of the eternity of each life of will and purpose, outside of and independent of the realm of space and time, and unaffected, therefore, by the accidental sting of death.
CHAPTER IX
Miinsterberg 's literary labors from the autumn of 1905 to the autumn 1908 were manifold and most significant. First of all, this was a period of intense philosophic pro- duction. How Munsterberg devoted a summer of concen- trated work to the creation of his chief philosophical book has already been told. This book, completed in November, 1907, appeared in 1908 under the title Philosophic der
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Werte. Soon it was to be rewritten in English for con- sumption by the serious English reading public, out- side of the immediate circle of scholars who could ap- proach it in German; therefore it is better not to an- ticipate at this point a closer examination of the views set forth in The Eternal Values.
A creative mind cannot be absorbed by fundamental ideas without in turn reflecting them on the various problems that it has to solve. Thus the slender volume Eternal Life, which appeared in April, 1906, was a fore- runner of The Eternal Values, and so was the little book, brought out by Houghton, Mifflin Co. a year later, called Science and Idealism. Hardly a problem could be called more characteristic of the age in which Munsterberg was living and thinking than the earnest desire to under- stand the relation between science and religion or, in a more esoteric sphere, between science and philosophical idealism. As in his more comprehensive philosophical works, so here, Munsterberg emphasized that life is a system of subjects in will-relations; that the reality of the whole does not depend on the individual conception, but on that which is common to all and is therefore an independent, self-willed reality. "To have a world means to hold up the flying experience as something which is to be not experience only, but is to be itself." And again: ' ' To make a world out of our experience means, and cannot mean anything else than to apperceive every bit of the chaos as something which must will itself." The philos- opher further traces those four systems that endow phe- nomena with identity and connection: the world of outer things, or nature; the system of historical and human re- lations; the system of logical relations as exemplified by the normative sciences; the aesthetical world with its isola- tion of the single experience. All are ultimately har- monized by religion which is the fulfillment of the de-
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mand for unification of the whole through convictions. But as religion builds a harmonizing and fulfilling super- structure upon life, so philosophy builds a substructure by which the apparently conflicting demands of the dif- ferent systems of values are grasped in their totality. ' 'But the metaphysical conceptions of philosophy and re- ligion are thus by different means aiming towards the same goal." Finally, it is the very condition of science that the absoluteness of truth should be unquestioned. "We must decide for ourselves what ideals we wish to uphold, whether we want the world to be a world for us or merely a dream and a chaos; but this at least we must understand, that science falls asunder if we disbelieve in absolute ideals."
That those philosophers whom the author of Science and Idealism called the New Sophists — the Empiriocritics and Pragmatists who, like the Sophists of old, stopped half- way— that those opponents of idealistic philosophy should be roused to criticism is natural.
In response to a request from the editors of the En- cyclopedia Americana, Miinsterberg wrote for them philo- sophical surveys of "Normative Science," "Philosophy of History," and "The Classification of Science"; also con- tributions on German universities and on the history of German Science and philosophy. The second volume of the Harvard Psychological Studies, which Miinsterberg edited, appeared in 1906. During this period of pro- duction, Miinsterberg contributed to various magazines of large circulation, as the best means of spreading ideas among the reading public at large.
Before going on to speak of the popular magazine art- icles, mention must be made of a contribution to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology as part of a "Symposium on the Subconscious" arranged by the editor, Dr. Morton Prince — a symposium in which Professor Theodore Ribot
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of the College de France and Professor Joseph Jastrow of the University of Wisconsin also took part. Miinster- berg in his review defines and interprets three types of the subconscious which he recognizes as merely a logical construction for the purposes of explanation. These three types are conditioned firstly by the layman's approach to the observation of mental phenomena, secondly by the physician's approach, and thirdly by the approach of the theoretical psychologist. The layman's emphasis is on the apparent mysteriousness of mental phenomena not in consciousness, which are interpreted as a second personal- ity. The physician constructs the realm of the uncon- scious so as to bring into relief the way in which certain psychical phenomena differ from normal mental life. The theoretical psychologist, finally, approaches the phenomena with an explanation that covers both the abnormal facts and the normal processes. This explana- tion recognizes that the " subconscious is not psychical at all," but physiological brain action — even as physiolog- ical brain processes are the measurable basis for normal psychical phenomena. Thus, as a new perception or idea in normal mental life is explained by the physiological brain activity, so also the recurrent or apparently slumber- ing and awakening idea may be explained by a recurrent brain activity. The existence of psychical phenomena is consciousness, or psychical phenomena are in conscious- ness as physical phenomena are in nature. What is ap- parently subconscious is merely the continuation of the brain process without mental accompaniment. Such a con- struction for the purpose of causal explanation is a philosophical deed, and the layman's mystical definition of subconscious mental life, far from having any scientific value, is also inconsistent with philosophical insight. * * The physiological psychologist thus ought carefully to avoid the
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language of the subliminal self theory as it flows over too easily into antiphilosophy."
From the Journal of Abnormal Psychology to the Sunday magazine page is an abrupt jump; yet it is one of the blessings of American public life that the same experts are willing to supply both the technical journal and the popular magazine. In November, 1907, there appeared in a Sunday magazine section the article "Communicat- ing with the Dead. " It is well known how fast a hold the belief in spiritualistic messages from the dead through mediums had taken on the superstitiously inclined public, and even on men of serious thought. Most prominent in his field was Professor Hyslop, the founder of the American Society for Psychical Research, and it was he who, at the time of Miinsterberg's writing, had been receiving mes- sages from his friend Richard Hodgson of Boston, who had also been a devoted supporter of spiritualistic re- search. That Miinsterberg was thoroughly opposed to this unscientific science is well known, and he welcomed the opportunity to expose its vulnerable parts in a publication that reached a multitude and variety of readers. Again we come upon a theory of the subconscious as a deeper personality endowed with mystical insight, and again Miinsterberg explained the fallacy of such a supposition and proved that the automatic writing of the medium is not due to a supernatural power but merely to an abnor- mal brain process. But above all Miinsterberg lays stress on the disappointing and somewhat revolting fact that the supposedly returned spirits have only the most trivial messages to convey from the Beyond. The coincidence of the messages received through different mediums, to which Professor Hyslop attached much value, was easily ex- plained by the obvious fact that these messages were so commonplace and so consistent with the prevalent jargon of the spiritistic circles that nothing could be more natural
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than such coincidence. Indeed, in view of the fact that Mr. Hodgson had asserted through two different mediums, one in Boston and one in St. Louis, that he was "fine," Miinsterberg proved his theory further. He suggested to a patient of his, while in a deep hypnotic sleep, that he would hear the voice of Mr. Hodgson, and to the question "How are you, Dr. Hodgson?" the patient replied: "Just fine." With characteristic irony the author goes on to say: "... the 'fine' has certainly supernatural origin, as it seems evidently more reasonable to throw overboard all that two thousand years of human science has brought us than to imagine that two neurotic women and a co- cainist react with the same obvious word on a trivial ques- tion."
In the Metropolitan Magazine, in June, 1908, appeared an article on "Hypnotism and Freedom." In this article Munsterberg answers the scruples of those who believe that hypnotism is immoral and objectionable because it deprives the hypnotized subject of his own free will, thereby making even a beneficial change in his life in- valid because it has been achieved without "the free control and exercise of those powers of the soul upon which his individual responsibility and moral status depend." The author, however, denies that in cases of hypnotic treatment destructive habits are overcome by the patient without moral, even heroic efforts on his part. In the very case of a young man whom the psychologist himself cured of the morphine habit, the final victory over his passion cost the patient constant and desperate struggles and suf- fering from the diminished doses, and yet he obeyed the orders of the hypnotist, although he had a thousand tablets of morphine in his desk. The hypnotic state is, after all, merely a state of artificially increased suggesti- bility which makes it easier for the patient to follow sug- gestions. Not only is a voluntary subjection to the in-
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fluence of the hypnotist necessary for reaching the hypnotic state, but exertion of will power is required to carry out the dictates of the hypnotist, even though he is helped by the increased suggestibility on the part of the patient. "We do not eliminate the free will, but we remove some unfair obstacles from its path. We have no mystical power by which our will simply takes hold of the other man's will, but we inhibit and suppress by influence on the imagination those abnormal impulses which resist the sound desires. " And indeed the aid of suggestion is and should be used not only by the hypnotist but in education, in art, and all spheres of high minded private and public life, by inhibiting evil and harmful impulses and reenforcing or giving rise to good ones. "That is the glory of life, that the suggestive power may belong to moral values instead of mere pleasures, but it is not the aim of life to remain untouched by suggestions. And he who by suggestion helps the weak mind to overcome ob- stacles which the strong mind can overthrow from its inborn resources, works for the best of the individual and of the community, in the spirit of eternal morality. "
The problem of psychology as applied in the courtroom was acquiring more and more prominence. Not only was Miinsterberg much absorbed in laboratory experiments sug- gestive of practical application, but the alert public was ripe for such suggestions. Accordingly Miinsterberg pub- lished in various magazines articles that threw light on this newest applied science. "Untrue Confessions'' ap- peared in the Times Magazine in January, 1907, and "On the Witness Stand" in March, 1907; "Suggestions in Court" in the Readers' Magazine in April, 1907; "Noth- ing but the Truth" in McClure's Magazine in September, 1907; "The Third Degree" in McClure's, "Traces of Emo- tion and the Criminal" in the Cosmopolitan Magazine, "Hypnotism and Crime" in McClure's Magazine in Janu-
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ary, 1908, and "Prevention of Crime " in the same period- ical in March, 1908. All of these articles were gathered to- gether in a book that appeared in March, 1908, under the title On the Witness Stand. This book won great popularity and influenced the ideas of jurists and the general public. A brief consideration is due to this volume which left so strong an impress on the thought of the time. The chapters of On the Witness Stand do not all bear the headings of the original magazine articles. In the first chapter called "Illusions" the psychologist points out that even the best trained observers are swayed by illusions of sight, sound, perception of distance, etc. How much more true is this of the average untrained witness who, with the best intention, tells "the whole truth, and nothing but the truth "I Miinsterberg had made experi- ments with the students of his large lecture class at Har- vard. For instance, he showed them a cardboard with a number of black squares on it for five seconds and asked them to state the number of squares that they had seen; or he made two loud clicks and asked them to state the time that had elapsed between these sounds; or he told them to judge the speed of a pointer that moved over the dial of a large clock; to identify the sound of a tuning- fork that was invisible to them; to tell what object, if held at arm's length, would cover the moon from sight. A most startling variety of results for each experiment proved that even well trained observers were decidedly subject to illusions. That the more suggestible mind is also more easily prey to illusions was proved by experi- ments which showed that the students who had pronounced a given shade of light gray darker than a given shade of dark blue, merely because grayness suggested darkness, were the same who, during a performance by the experi- menter in which he made various small movements with his left hand while whirling a color -disk in his right,
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had remained perfectly oblivious of all the lefthand move- ments, while their attention, obedient to suggestion, was fixed on the more conspicuous action. The suggesti- ble mind is prepared to see what it expects, and, consider- ing besides this indisputable fact, the manifoldness of illusions — of taste, feeling for temperature, feeling of sharpness or dullness, etc. — the significance of the problem which the testimony of a chance witness in court presents may well be understood.
For the chapter "The Memory of the Witness " the author did not have to go far out of his way for experi- mental material. He himself, when on the witness stand at the trial of a thief who had broken into his house, made numerous mis-statements under oath, such as the one that the burglars had entered by the window, where- as he found out later that they had broken open the cellar door. There was no doubt that he had spoken the subjec- tive truth to the best of his ability; nor was there any doubt about the quality of memory of one who, during the last eighteen years, had given 3,000 university lectures without notes. The distinction between subjective and ob- jective truth has not been- recognized enough ; hence false statements on the witness stand are usually attributed to deceit and not to the illusory memory that in many cases has caused them. Neither are the errors of memory always due to lack of attention, but, on the contrary, the oath, for instance, by which the effort to remember cor- rectly is reenforced, often has a constraining eifect that impedes or distorts the memory. Criminologists have made experiments with scientific audiences by means of suddenly enacting dramatic, uproarious scenes which have been previously rehearsed. The startled witnesses are then told of the harmless nature of the performance and asked to write exact accounts of what has happened. These ac- counts, though written truthfully, abound in remarkable
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digressions from the actual truth. Moreover, the feeling of sureness that one's own judgment is correct does not coincide with objective correctness. The correlation be- tween attention, recollection, and the feeling of certainty is indeed highly complex. The mysterious sense, familiar to many people, of having passed through an experi- ence before, is a warning signal that the "feeling of certainty in recollection ' ' does not secure objective truth. The fulfillments of dreams and prophesied fortunes may be traced in many cases to illusions of the memory which, obedient to suggestion, fit the dream or the fortune-telling to the event that is supposed to be a fulfillment. Under certain conditions memory impressions may even be felt as new impressions. There are, moveover, different types of memory — the visual, the acoustical and the motor type — and there are types of memory more affected by the recency than by the frequency of events and vice versa. It is evident that all these factors are of the utmost im- portance in judging the character of witnesses and the validity of their statements. The author maintains that, although "no railroad or ship company would appoint to a responsible post in its service men whose eyesight had not been tested for color blindness — " yet "in the life of justice trains are wrecked and ships are colliding too often, simply because the law does not care to examine the mental color blindness of the witness's memory."
In the chapter on "The Detection of Crime" Miinster- berg points to the brutalities of the third degree methods by which a criminal is forced to confess — barbarisms not far behind the tortures of the Middle Ages. Moreover, not only have these enforced confessions often been untrue, but false details of the supposed crime have been added by the helpless, distorted imaginations of the accused. It would be a blessing indeed if these extortions could be replaced by the quiet, reliable experiments of the trained
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psychologist. By the fine and exact measurement of as- sociation time the psychologist is able to trace the guilt or the innocence of the accused. The chronoscope, the instrument which measures the association time, has be- come, and will become more and more, for the student of crime what the microscope is for the student of disease. A criminal would not refuse to have his reaction time measured, because such a refusal would arouse suspicion. If in an assortment of words, some are interspersed which are connected with the crime, various results will appear: in the first place, though reference to the crime will be skillfully avoided, the concealed associations connected with it will color the following associations, because the mind cannot be freed from their persistence; secondly, if the series of words once given is repeated, the suspicious words are likely to call forth different associations the second time, whereas the indifferent ones show the same reaction; thirdly, there is a retardation in the associating process not only immediately after the suspicious word, but even after those that follow it, due to the emotional shock given by the suspicious one. It is this method that Miinsterberg used in testing the truthfulness of Harry Orchard in Boise, Idaho. This new method of testing guilt is as yet only in its first stages, but the psychologist believed that the time must come when the help of psychol- ogy will be indispensable.
This chapter is supplemented by the one that follows on " Traces of Emotion." That changes in emotion are betrayed by external signs, such as pallor, trembling, and the like, has been known not only to Hamlet but through all ages. But the psychologist can register the most deli- cate fluctuations of emotion. Various instruments that have "belonged for decades to the household equipment of every physiological laboratory'' have only in recent years been used to measure emotions. A most subtle new
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experimental method of tracing emotion has been tried by measuring the variations of resistance to an electric current. These experiment'al methods are still too unde- veloped to be made the basis of legal decisions ; besides, the presence of the emotional excitement does not necessarily point to guilty emotion. Yet these devices may be very useful and devoid of danger when used to find out whether a suspected person has knowledge of certain names, places, people, etc. connected with a crime. But the future of these methods cannot yet be foreseen and later develop- ments may bring with them more and more possibilities for use.
In the chapter on " Untrue Confessions" Miinsterberg, whose mail has been flooded with inquiries from strange, unbalanced people, complains that the psychologist is now- adays called upon to fulfill detective functions for which the guileless scholar is ill fitted. "But," he says, "if the psychologist has thus not seldom the wish that the de- tective were consulted in his place, that does not prevent his regretting sometimes that the world relies on the de- tective instead of calling in the psychologist." That a man should confess to a crime he has not committed, does not appeal to common sense and therefore confessions have so often led to the punishment, even fatal punishment, of innocent victims. The psychologist, however, knows better and recognizes conditions that lead inevitably to untrue confessions. There are, of course, social motives for such confessions, such as the fear inspired by threats or the voluntary taking upon one's self of another's guilt, or the hope of an ameliorating of the death sentence by confession when evidence is overwhelming. Yet these are not the cases with which the psychologist is most con- cerned. There are conditions under which a disturbed mind, even though sane, may be distracted until a mental dissociation takes place and what may be called a "split-
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off" personality is formed. This is what happened to Ann Foster at Salem Village in 1692 when she was ac- cused of being a witch and confessed to her intercourse with the devil. Self -accusation is a symptom of melan- cholia. Yet hysteric and autohypnotic states that lead to erratic action may develop from emotional shock or strain in otherwise healthy brains; indeed, no sharp demarcation line can be drawn between symptoms of disease and varia- tions of normal life. Dreams, for instance, are hallucina- tions, though harmless ones, because they cannot lead to actions. The memory for dreams, moreover, varies. Miin- sterberg himself used to astound his friends by declar- ing that he had never had a dream; yet he was well aware that this was merely a popular way of expressing that he never remembered a dream after waking; for that he actually did dream was proved by his habit of talking confusedly, as if under the influence of a fresh impression, when he was waked out of sleep. Many mental attributes and defects are not known by ourselves, yet "the psychological examination furnishes indeed to-day a kind of mental Roentgen rays which illumine the in- ternal happenings. " Now the abnormal symptoms that the tortured victims of false accusations develop are in the borderland between normal variations of personality and complete pathological self-destruction. A glaring ex- ample of a dissociated mental state was revealed in a notorious murder case in Chicago in 1906. A young man who had found the body of a murdered woman was pressed by accusations until, in spite of his innocence and in contradiction to his first denials, he not only con- fessed the murder, but told the story of it in fantastic, impossible details that did not even agree with his alibi. Miinsterberg was convinced at the time that the young man was innocent, that the abnormal confession was due to some shock that had dissociated the mental processes.
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The psychologist declared his conviction in public, but was rewarded with a storm of protest from the Chicago press. His belief was justified; for suddenly the unfor- tunate victim awoke from his unnatural state and denied his guilt completely; he even denied all knowledge of his confessions, or, in fact, of anything that had happened to him after seeing the flash of steel of a revolver pointed at him. " Everything about that time/' he declared, "is a blur, a blank to me." It was the shock of this sudden impression upon the harassed mind that had brought about the abnormal condition which had led to the false confes- sion— exactly as the psychologist had diagnosed the case. It was, however, too late to save the victim of ignorance from the death punishment.
In the chapter "Suggestions in Court " the author em- phasizes the power of suggestion, not only in the extreme cases of hypnotized patients whose power of inhibition is broken down and who are obedient to the most fantastic suggestions of the hypnotist, but even in perfectly normal life. This is, of course, very significant for the juryman whose decisions may be swayed considerably by suggestion, according to his individual suggestibility. Tests in the psychological laboratory have proved the substantial in- fluence of suggestion in the normal, intelligent mind. Suggestion always involves inhibition — that is, when one idea is strongly suggested, the opposite idea is inhibited. According to the action theory, when the channels for motor discharge that leads to a certain action are open, the channels for discharge that leads to the opposite action are closed at the same time. Moreover, "the ideas which accompany the sensory brain processes become vivid only when these channels of discharge are open" and become suppressed when those channels are closed. The effect of alcohol, which has the power of increasing suggestibility not unlike that of hypnotism, has been tested experi-
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mentally. The suggestibility of the individual in a crowd, especially during a panic, has often been manifest, and the power of suggestion in public: life, particularly in politics, has become only too evident. There- are indeed innumerable ways of suggesting ideas and inhibiting the opposite ideas; and the dangers of suggestibility loom es- pecially large when they affect the mind of the responsible juryman.
In the chapter " Hypnotism and Crime" the author re- flects on the mistaken popular views of hypnotism. It has been supposed that criminals could be hypnotized into a revelation of their deeds. Although, indeed, a truth will come out when the hypnotized subject's power of deceit is inhibited, yet enforced hypnosis is impossible, because the subject must put himself willingly into the hands of the hypnotist if any effect is to be gained, and must supplement suggestions received with his own imagination. Moreover, the court would not be mo.rally or legally justified in relying on evidence from a hypno- tized subject who in his hypnotized state is no longer his complete self. Much more even than in the question of hypnotizing the accused, popular belief has gone astray in its distrust of the criminal hypnotist. Belief in mes- meric powers, the "evil eye" and the like have always held the popular imagination and this ingrained super- stition coupled with pseudo-scientific knowledge has led to fear of the man endowed with mysterious hypnotic powers who performs criminal acts through hypnotized agents, or who tortures victims with his uncanny persecution. All this is impossible, and the statement of Punch that "Pro- fessor Munsterberg of Harvard and other learned men have set themselves to show that hypnotic power may become a most dangerous asset of the criminal" could not have been more ungrounded. In fact, Munsterberg was con- vinced that in principle any one could hypnotize any
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one, after he had acquired the necessary technique and used skill and patience, though only the physician ought to attempt it, and certain qualifications may make a hypno- tist more or less successful, or a patient more or less easily hypnotized. As in the article * ' Hypnotism and Freedom, ' ' so here the psychologist once more reminds the world of the help the hypnotist may give to a diseased nature by removing the morbid handicap and restoring a man to health and normal life.
Through all the discussion of the detection of crime and the treatment of criminals, it must be kept in mind that nothing is so important as the "Prevention of Crime/' the subject of the last chapter. While curing a ruined morphinist, Miinsterberg had "to think of the cruelty with which society has treated him. He was not born a 'dope fiend'; he did not choose the poison. Organized society injected it into his system — a small dose only, but enough to make the craving irresistible, and when it had grown to disastrous proportions, society was ready to despise and to condemn him. ' ' No man is born a criminal. In each life there is a balancing of ideas and opposing ideas, and no sharp demarcation line can be drawn between the motives of a criminal and of a non-criminal life. More- over, no brain or temperament is perfect; for men are born with qualities that lead to lack of success along certain lines, but not necessarily to crime: some have too strong impulses, some too weak inhibitions, and so on. Although the average of criminals shows a lower mental equipment than that of the average of students, nevertheless "no one is predestined by his brain to the penitentiary." If is of the utmcist importance that mental or tempera- mental weakness should be counteracted by influences that make it harmless. Here the work of the psychologist with his exact measurements and unprejudiced observation can lead t.o most helpful suggestions. The psychologist who.
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has tested experimentally the great influence of imitation knows that the influence of the vulgar newspapers, full of stimulating stories of crime, must be to promote crime. The effect on mental processes of alcohol and other stimu- lants may also be more safely entrusted to the experimental psychologist than to the layman. "That is just the wonderful power of the psychological experiment, that it can analyze the largest social movements in the smallest and most schematic miniature copies of the mental forces involved, and from the subtle analysis is only one step to the elimination of dangers." The psychologist more- over, cannot see in the fear of severe punishment the safest prevention of crime, for men may live in an at- mosphere of crime and contempt for law in which jail is merely an incident. More effective than all punish- ment is a condition of preventive hygiene — and mental hygiene is sur'ely as important as physical. "There is no gain if we avoid typhoid epidemics and fall into epidemics of insanity. " It is of supreme importance that positive good influences should work as counter ideas to the wrong impulses. "To create a public life which is an example and an inspiration to the humblest, which fills with civic pride the lowest, means to abolish the penitentiaries. ' '
The book On the Witness Stand, as has been said, at- tained an extraordinary popularity with a large variety of readers. A few months after its appearance, the news- paper world resounded with echoes of an article published in McClure's Magazine upon an immediate problem of American public life as viewed from the standpoint of the psychologist. Scarcely another of Miinsterberg's popular articles rivaled this one in the vehemence of the controversy it aroused. This literally "much abused" and voluminously quoted article was called "Prohibition and Social Psychology." To eliminate possible misunder- standing and to show that his private interest in the
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problem was nil, the author confessed that he neither smoked cigars, nor played cards, had not touched beer for years, except once in the company of an Episcopal clergy- man whom he did not wish to disappoint in his hospitality — in fact, that he had never taken any pleasure in beer drinking and had never drunk a cocktail. He, moreover, enjoyed living in the non-license atmosphere of Cam- bridge which he hoped would continue thus "as long as freshmen stroll over the old Harvard Yard."
His interest in the problem was then entirely due to his interest in public welfare, and the criticism he had to offer against the fanatic prohibitionists was that of the psychologist, not of the economist or the politician. To be sure, he touched upon the oft asserted objection that the prohibition laws would be an infringement of personal liberty; yet he maintained that upon closer examination every law will be seen in some measure to curtail indi- vidual liberty. Miinsterberg's chief point, however, was his belief that prohibition would not do away with the evil it intended to destroy. Thus the saloon with its immoder- ate drinking of strong intoxicants should be abolished, the psychologist agreed perfectly; but that with the discon- tinuance of the saloon all consumption of alcohol should stop, seemed to him fraught with new dangers. Indeed, the "lonely drinker of the temperance town'' who uses the drug store for his bar and finds no limit to his lonely debauch is a far greater menace to wholesome national life than the man who drinks light beer or wine in company. Further, the opponents of the rash prohibition law will spitefully disregard a law that was forced on them and that is repugnant to them; hence a spirit of lawlessness will be fostered. "Hasty and hysterical that kind of law- making is indeed, and might be compared with a forbidding of meat consumption because scientists have become con- vinced that people eat too much meat." In the eagerness
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of emotional law-making, the benefits which the temperate consumption of alcohol in mild forms may and does bestow in many cases are naturally overlooked. Prejudices are strong and ascribe evil effects to even the smallest dose of alcohol. Yet this is arbitrary: "To climb Mont Blanc would overtax my heart, " said the psychologist, "is it therefore inadvisable for me to climb the two flights to my laboratory?" What alcohol does is to inhibit certain brain functions, to set free the impulses that otherwise would have been restrained. Yet, if this influence is not inordinate, it can do no more harm than countless other agents that inhibit brain centers, as, for instance, an act of attention or our indispensable sleep. Moreover, if wine can bring harmless relief by this power of liberating im- pulses and undoing emotional checks, it may serve a good purpose by helping toward enthusiasm, cheer, and temporary freedom from the oppression of small cares. Artistic and aesthetic life is benefited by this liberating effect; by it also the will and energy for new enterprises are encouraged. Though individuals, especially among the educated, may not need this stimulus, the nation as a whole is in need of it. If the opportunity for temperate use of light stimulants is withheld, then men will seek more harmful substitutes and prohibition will defeat itself. Therefore the saloon should be abolished, and harmless, social drinking in wholesome surroundings established in its stead.
This article, of course, inspired a storm of protest from the prohibitionists. No thrust was spared : all the subtleties of dialectics and all the harshness of invective were directed against the guileless scholar who, surely without passion for any cause, had merely stated his views and based them on his science. Soon after his article had appeared, McClure's Magazine published an article in favor of prohibition by Dr. Henry Smith Williams who
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maintained that alcohol was harmful in any quantity. Not a few newspapers compared these two articles, or quoted extensively not only from Miinsterberg's writings, but from the pamphlets that were aimed at him. Against a bitter and merciless attack from the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Prohibition Party, Miinsterberg was gal- lantly defended by Dr. Arthur Cabot, Winslow Warren, and Thomas Nelson Perkins. Eloquent arguments against the temperance views of the Psychologist were poured forth by clergymen, by a professor in Clark University, by ardent prohibitionists from far and near. Neverthe- less sober voices, too, were heard above the tumult.
An attacking pamphlet, moreover, was answered by Dr. Charles Loomis Dana, who denied that moderate use of alcohol was necessarily harmful. Now that the discussion had once started, there seemed to be no end. Before the Contemporary Club in Philadelphia Miinsterberg was in- vited to meet in, debate the two prohibitionists, Professor Patten of the University of Pennsylvania and the Reverend Samuel J. Barrows of the International Prison Commis- sion, and accounts of this debate again filled the news- papers. In a speech to the Economic Club in Boston, Miinsterberg referred to a previous address by President Eliot, who had recently declared himself for prohibition. Although very intelligent readers rallied to his defense, Miinsterberg found himself between Scylla and Charybdis — between the attacks of the prohibitionists and the praise of the liquor interest. That his article was reprinted and circulated by the Personal Liberty League of Ohio, that violent attacks were followed by disagreeable insinuation, could not be avoided, and was merely the price to be paid for candor.
Finally, one more book belongs to this period, the German volume Aus Deutsch-Amerika, a collection of ad- dresses and articles that treat on relations between America
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and Germany. The last essay in this volume is the me- morial tribute to Miinsterberg 's distinguished friend, Frederick William Holls, and the book is dedicated "to the memory of Carl Schurz."
On glancing back upon the literary output of the period just chronicled, it may be said that, although Miinsterberg devoted his chief attention and the largest amount of labor to the creation in book form of his system of philos- ophy, nevertheless he had given to the world a liberal measure of other fruit, both technical and popular, con- tributing toward the solution of various social problems, especially those in the field of legal psychology.
CHAPTER X
The year 1909 was perhaps the most remarkably fruit- ful of all these years so rich in literary output, and it may well be looked upon as the most characteristic. Some idea may be gained of the intense concentration with which Miinsterberg dictated his books, if one considers that Psychotherapy was written between January 2nd and Feb- ruary 12th; The Eternal Values between February 25th and April 1st; and Psychology and the Teacher between April 15th and June 20th. An abundance of essays, too, were written in this year and the next, and they appeared in various periodicals. In 1910 they were gathered to- gether in a volume named American Problems. This im- mense productivity would not have been possible without the faithful cooperation of his secretary, Miss Zora P. Wilkins, who from the year 1909 to the last day of his life, devoted herself to Miinsterberg 's work. She not only " wrote all his books" as Miinsterberg often humorously declared, but was the actual first reader of his works, and
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her reaction upon them was often found to be full of valu- able suggestion and wise help.
The seer in Miinsterberg gave the world The Eternal Values, the healer, Psychotherapy. In the latter the psychologist gave a new and urgently needed contribution to the science of curing mental and bodily disorders through influence on the mind; in the former, the philos- opher gave profoundly and completely his view of the world of values.
Psychotherapy came just in time. There had been too much misguided curiosity on the part of the public, too much dabbling in psychological half -knowledge and, on the part of the physicians, too much ignorance of the curative virtues of psychological treatment. In the inter- est of physicians who needed information, not from a psychiatrist but from an experimental psychologist, and in the interest of the public groping among the mists of indefinite conceptions, there was needed such a book. Ac- cordingly, as soon as it was published, it was devoured by hungry readers. Psychotherapy appeared at the be- ginning of May, 1909, and at the end of June 3,000 copies had been sold.
Miinsterberg not only had studied medicine and taken the degree of M. D., but he had, in his earliest years of university teaching, given what was probably the first course in hypnotism. His familiarity, as years went on, with the actual practice of hypnotic treatment is well known. Therefore he felt called upon to clarify the popu- lar confusion in regard to the nature and functions of psychotherapy. At the same time he wished to argue for the necessity of physicians' studying psychology — normal psychology in college, abnormal psychology in the medical school.
"Psychotherapy is the practice of treating the sick by in- fluencing the mental life." This is a definition that
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Miinsterberg gave in his introductory chapter, with em- phasis on the distinction from psychiatry, which is the treatment of mental diseases. Here also he has pointed out the odd position of psychotherapy in modern life which has made this young science, on the one hand, the apex of the realistic movement that subordinates all things, even mental life, to natural laws, and, on the other hand, a symptom of the rising idealistic movement that makes mind supreme over matter. It is the confusion between these two aspects that needs to be dispelled.
After the introduction, the book is divided into three parts: "The Psychological Basis of Psychotherapy," "The Practical Work of Psychotherapy," and "The Place of Psychotherapy."
In the chapter on "The Aim of Psychology" the dis- tinction between the purposive and the causal view of the world, which cannot be reiterated too often, is given due emphasis. "Life is bigger than thought." Only by recognizing the whole scientific causal system merely as a tool for the living purpose of explaining true relations, not as itself the beginning of truth, can the aim of psychol- ogy be understood. "Causal truth can be only the second word ; the first word remains to purposive truth. ' '
Psychology is a descriptive science as much as physics, and for the purpose of description the psychical phenom- ena must be reduced to elements, even as physical substances are reduced to atoms. Moreover the psychical experience is private property, that is, begins and ends with the in- dividual consciousness, and the only element to which it can be reduced is the individual sensation.
In the following chapter on "Mind and Body" we come to the basis of modern psychological study: the psycho- physical parallelism. In order that any phenomenon may be explained scientifically, it must be a link in a causal chain. Mental phenomena cannot be explained at all, un-
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less they can be brought into some causal connection. This can be done only by considering each isolated phenom- enon as the accompaniment of a physical brain process; for the brain processes, like all physical phenomena, can be explained in their causal connection.
For a hundred years "the simple scheme of the physi- ology of association has given a most decided impulse to the progress of psychology." The association theory recognizes the "path of least resistance" once established between brain centers stimulated at the same time. Recog- nition of the "switch-board" function of certain brain cells, which do not themselves receive sensory impressions but transmit impressions from one center to another, has further strengthened the association theory. This account of the psychical processes, however, was found not to be enough to explain the full complexity of mental life with its variety of vividness and clearness, its suppression and inhibition. It has been recognized, finally, that the cortex is not only the recipient, but also the starting point for motor processes, that the centrifugal processes, issuing from the brain, are fully as important as the centripetal processes leading to the brain. A unified arc of sensory and motor processes as a means of the organism's ad- justment to its surroundings is a biological necessity. Further, the vividness of sensation elements can be ex- plained by the opening or closing of motor channels, in- asmuch as those ideas are vivid that find the motor chan- nels open while the opposite ideas are inhibited through the closing of the channels for the opposite action. The part that not only the motor activity, but the whole motor setting plays in mental life is of the utmost importance for the understanding of psychotherapy. In the infinite complexity of mental life, with its manifold sensation elements and motor activities, the freedom of man, in the psychological sense, must be conceived as the "unity of an
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interconnected composite and the freedom of causal deter- mination through normal cooperation of all of its parts." This biological conception of freedom must not be confused with the real freedom of will and purpose that has merely postulated the whole causal system for ends of its own.
In the chapter "Psychology and Medicine," this dis- tinction between free, immediate life and the artificial reconstruction of life into a causal system for the purpose of scientific observation is given special emphasis. In response to "discussions of Christian Scientists and Christian half -scientists " the psychologist points out that for the purposes of medicine the inner life must be con- sidered as part of a causal system. The same influence, such as the advice of a minister, which in immediate life has its independent purpose value, must, when used by the physician, become merely part of a method adapted to a necessary system of cause and effect. Applied psychol- ogy, of course, is in a peculiar position. It is not by means of the causal science itself that the aims for which psychology should be applied can be determined: these must be chosen by free motives quite outside of the scientific, causally constructed world. After the aim has once been set, whether in the field of education, of law, or of medicine, psychology must apply its own strictly scientific methods for the attainment of this aim. The aims and motives of practical life must determine the pur- pose of the physician, which is evidently to cure the patient. After this purpose has once been given, the method of the physician is wholly scientific, no matter what material he may decide to use, even if such material should seem to belong to the world of purposes and ideals. There is need for applied psychology as a distinct science related to psychology, as engineering is related to physics and chemistry.
The field of psychomedicine does not cover psycho-
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therapy alone. Psychology is needed in diagnosis as well as in therapeutics. Cases for psychological diagnosis are manifold: there are those in which the mind itself is ab- normal ; those in which the normal mind is affected by ab- normal parts of the body; and those in which abnormal bodily processes are influenced by the normal mind. In- deed, the psychical factor enters constantly into the cal- culations of the physician, and makes a thorough knowl- edge of psychology indispensible. The author emphasizes the importance of psychodiagnostics, although this field lies outside the compass of his book. He advocates the attachment of psychological laboratories to psychiatric clinics, particularly to fill the need for psychological treat- ment of those mild abnormalities and nervous disorders that lie outside of insanity. Not only will the complex, delicate apparatus of the psychological laboratory serve to diagnose cases, but association and memory tests that require no elaborate outfit whatever, may also be of the greatest service. The methods of the psychological labora- tory furnish means of detecting not only mental, but physical, disorders ; for instance, by the right use of hypno- tism, certain diseased conditions may be diagnosed as well as cured.
Normal and abnormal psychology are not widely apart. iMental disease introduces no new elements not known in health, but the abnormal phenomena are rather like carica- tures of the normal. "The only real test of health is the serviceableness to the needs of life," and the borderland region between the obviously normal and abnormal is re- markably large. Although there is 'a far-reaching in- dependence between the apparent mental variations and the seriousness of the brain affection," nevertheless the whole postulate of psychological knowledge makes it im- perative to postulate that every mental disturbance must accompany a pathological change in the anatomy of the
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brain, even though this change be undiscernible by the microscope; the popular distinction, therefore, between or- ganic and functional diseases is unscientific. Finally, the methods of psychotherapy must cooperate with physical applications, and the suggestive words spoken by the psychologist to the patient must be measured by exactly the same standard as a curative electric current or opiate or douche.
A chapter is devoted to " Suggestion and Hypnotism." Psychotherapy, which is the ' ' effort to repair the disturbed equilibrium of human functions by influencing the mental life," has no more powerful tool than that of suggestion. A suggestion is "an idea which has a power in our mind to suppress the opposite idea." This influence is con- stantly at work in greater or lesser degrees of intensity, and the special state of hypnotism is merely an artificial in- crease of suggestibility. The impulse to one action makes the impulse to the opposite action impossible; hence by reenforcing in larger and larger parts of the central content of consciousness the idea of one goal, the idea of the opposite goal is inhibited.
The problem of suggestion is closely bound up with that of attention. Attention to one idea involves inhibition of the opposite idea. When the channels for one set of psycho-motor reactions are open, those for the opposite complex of actions are closed. Attention has the power of adjusting the motor-setting and opening or blocking channels for the discharge in action. Suggestion, how- ever, goes further than attention. The motor response in attention works towards a fuller clearness of an idea; the motor response in suggestion works toward practical action in which the object of the idea is accepted as real. Not ideas, but "actions and beliefs are the only possible material of any suggestion." "In attention, we change the object in making it clearer; in suggestion, we change
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ourselves in adapting ourselves to the new situation in which we believe/' The use of suggestion, of course, is a powerful tool of the psychotherapist. The various hyp- notic states he may bring about in his patient are merely increased states of suggestibility, secured through over- attention to the suggestions of the hypnotizer. The arti- ficial state of hypnosis and the pathological state of hysteria represent the highest degrees of suggestibility. Between these two and the normal state, there lie number- less steps of transition, and no sharp demarcation line can be drawn between suggestions received in a waking state and those received in a hypnoid state.
' ' The story of the subconscious mind can be told in three words: there is none." Thus Miinsterberg begins the chapter on the "Subconscious," that subject so fascinat- ing to the popular imagination and so largely misunder- stood. In the popular mind the subconscious personality seems to have an independent existence or to be some metaphysical power that manifests itself through the in- spirations of a medium; it is often conceived as a lower personality that needs to be subdued. But the psychol- ogist can have nothing to do with these vagaries. It must be understood that facts are referred to the subconscious which are merely processes in the physical organism or processes in the conscious mind abnormally connected. As consciousness is only the subject of awareness, "to have psychical existence at all means — to be object of awareness for a consciousness." Psychical objects below conscious- ness are therefore as impossible as "a wooden piece of iron." Indeed, "consciousness is an inactive spectator for the procession of the contents." It has no unity in itself and whatever unity there is belongs to the organiza- tion of its contents. Thus consciousness, which is merely a constant condition for the existence of its contents, cannot have different degrees. Further, it must be borne
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in mind that the appearance of an idea can be explained causally only through physiological processes, that hence not the impressions remain in the mind, but the dispositions of physiological centers. As the brain excitement explains the new perception in the mind, so the renewed brain excitement explains the renewed perception in the mind. Thus in a hypnotic state, channels long closed may be reopened for discharge. The dispositions of the brain centers, moreover, may cause physiological processes that lead to actions or influences on other mental processes. The psychological switch system may have been dis- ordered by some emotional experience, yet into the dis- turbed process no mental factor need enter. Another group of processes called "subconscious" is actually within consciousness, but not object of attention or recogni- tion. "Much that figures in literature as subconscious means indeed nothing else but the unattended." In the abnormal sphere we come upon those so-called "uncon- scious" phenomena which are nevertheless in conscious- ness, but dissociated from the organized personality. Such unconscious processes, however, are not confined to the ab- normal; isolated impressions that do not connect them- selves through memory with the idea of the whole personal- ity are frequent in normal life. Where such a situation appears in an extreme form, the abnormality, as in the case of the somnambulist, lies in a lack of memory connec- tions, not in an absence of consciousness. No phenomenon, however pathological, in any way involves the existence of subconsciousness.
The second part of the book, on "The Practical Work of Psychotherapy" Miinsterberg begins with a survey of the 4 ' Field of Psychotherapy. ' ' He points out the two schools of psychotherapy that are both mistaken: the one that bases its theories on the contrast between the conscious and the unconscious; the other that lays stress on the
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power of the mind over the body. Both lead to mystical conceptions -and to confusion of the main issue. For psychotherapy goes hand in hand with physical therapy and in no way desires to displace direct physical applica- tions. " There is no opposition between psychophysio- logical and physiological means of influencing the brain/' 1 1 Suggestions and bromides together ' ' may cure the patient. The disturbance that requires psychotherapeutic treatment may be in the psychophysical system itself or outside of it; the disturbance within this system may come from without or it may be due to an abnormal constitution of the system itself. The disturbances from without and their effects are manifold, and need not here be enumerated. Among these effects belongs neurasthenia, which offers a specially large field for psychotherapy. The kind of neu- rasthenia, however, which results from inherited disability, as well as psychasthenia — an abnormal suggestibility for autosuggestions — belongs to that group of disturbances which are due to abnormalities of the brain. Numerous symptoms in this group may be removed by psychothera- peutic treatment, although some, such as epilepsy and paranoia, can gain small help from psychotherapy. It must not be forgotten, however, that the psychothera- pist removes symptoms, but does not thereby pretend to cure the complete disease without resource to other cura- tive means. "The physician has to be much more than a psychotherapist," but it cannot be often enough repeated that "whatever else he may be, he must be also a psycho- therapist."
In the chapter on the "General Methods of Psycho- therapy" Miinsterberg lays special stress on the warning that schematic treatment in psychotherapy is disastrous, for " there are no two cases alike and the most subtle dif- ferences among patients must be taken into account." Miinsterberg, on the whole, is not inclined to believe that
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the noise and hurry of modern civilization has increased the nervous troubles of our age, but rather that the tech- nical devices of to-day tend to make life more smooth and to save nervous energy. The psychologist recommends contact with beauty, moderate sport, pleasant company, avoidance of excitement, reduction of stimulants, for those nervous patients who require a change. But often the training for work is more necessary than rest. Superfi- cial training, " go-as-you-please " methods, following the paths of least resistance, frequently lead to "the disor- ganization of the brain energies. " Whereas the well or- ganized brain by its controlling idea is able to inhibit its opposite, the undisciplined brain is prey to any chance in- trusion. Idleness, absence of a central life purpose, dreary monotony are all harmful for the nervous system. In the treatment of nervous cases, it is essential that the patient should feel sure of the physician's sympathy, and this sympathy, on the other hand, must not be over- done or fail to be combined with authority. The help of religious emotion may be valuable. All in all, the ut- most tact and skill of the physician is required to apply exactly the right measure for every case.
In the chapter on "Special Methods" the author empha- sizes the important salutary effect of suggestion. With a psychasthenic patient the suggestion may even be given in the form of an argument; but where reasoning is not ef- fective, persuasion must set in. "Persuasion relies on personal powers to secure conviction where the logic of the argument is insufficient to overcome contradictions." This kind of persuasion is merely one kind of suggestion ; and there are many subtle methods which the psycho- therapist may use, but which cannot here be described in detail. He may assure a patient that a certain improve- ment will set in at a certain time; he may use make be- lieve treatments, although these are to be avoided if pos-
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sible; he may resolve an inhibited action into its com- ponent parts and show a patient that he is quite capable of performing the separate parts of the impossible ac- tion ; by opening the paths for its motor expression, he may reenforce the opposite of a troublesome idea; to gain a better effect, he may give a suggestion merely as a passing hint, as in cases of " negativism " or abnormal obstinacy. Suggestions given to the patient while in a normal state are helpful only to the suggestible mind. Those not so equipped must have their suggestibility heightened. There are various simple means of bringing about this heightened suggestibility, such as laying the hand gently upon the patient's forehead, stroking movements, artificial positions of the patients, monotony of speech. And these aids lead to the use of the hypnoid and hypnotic states. From the fullness of his practical experience, the psychologist describes the various methods of influencing the patient through suggestion during natural sleep, during hypnoid and full hypnotic states, and the methods by which patients are brought into these conditions. There are still other means of curing disturbances in the mind. One is the " cathartic" method by which the patient is skillfully led to the discharge of the original trouble that caused sup- pressed emotion and hence mental disorder; for through the motor discharge of the emotions accompanying the original experience the trouble is relieved. Another method is the side-tracking of the original emotion, which has caused a disturbance, into harmless paths. The source of the disturbance may be detected by skillfully given association tests during which the reaction time of the patient is measured and pulse, breathing, and involun- tary movements are registered by instruments. If these methods of reaching the pristine disturbance fail, the phy- sician may resort to the hypnotic state that ree'nf orces the memory or to a loose dreamy play of ideas by which the
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lost emotion is brought forward — a process called the psycho-analytic method.
In the chapter on "The Mental Symptoms " the psychol- ogist gives accounts of special cases he has treated him- self. Though a large number of sensational cases came under his treatment, nevertheless he has purposely given here only examples of nervous afflictions that are typical and may be found in any community. He emphasizes once more that he is here not concerned with the insane and that psychotherapeutic methods are on the whole in- effective in the asylum. The experiences that Miinsterberg recounts are various: there are cases of obsessions cured through suggestions in hypnotic or in waking states; cases of cures by side-tracking ideas into new associational tracks through helpful autosuggestion or reenforcement of opposite ideas.
In the chapter on " Bodily Symptoms " the psychologist declares that in cases of diseased peripheral organs the psychophysical effect of mental treatment is far more important and more reliable than the healing effect. Indeed, it may often happen that the pain from a diseased organ is removed by suggestion while the disease, though apparently cured, continues. Sometimes, in his practical experience, the psychologist found that while he was cur- ing mental symptoms, he had at the same time removed bodily pain. That a suggested feeling of improvement may be an important factor in healing, accounts for the quick results in miracle cures and the like. The effect of hypnotic and autosuggestive influence is especially marked in the fields of seeing and hearing. A psychophysical laziness in the accoustical center — a laziness that is itself often the result of autosuggestion — may be favorably affected by countersuggestions. In cases of hysterical anaesthesias, further, although the organs remain unaffected, neverthe- less the symptoms may be removed, particularly by re-
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moving the mental starting point that first gave a shock to the diseased system. Even a patient suffering from paralysis of the arm, as the result of a hemorrhage, may, through suggestion, acquire new motor adjustment, hence the use of the paralized member. The power of suggestion is also strong in cases of insomnia. Nervous troubles of the stomach, of the heart, and ansemia are all open to hypnotic treatment. Various other diseases, too, may be helped by hypnotism, sometimes in an indirect way through suggestion of the right diet, through aid in securing sleep, through removal of pain by suggestion, or through the elimination of worry or emotional shock. The same results that psychotherapy achieves have sometimes been reached by Christian Science and other cures. But the psychologist says:
The psychotherapeutic energies which work for real health out- side of the medical profession form a stream of vast power, but without solid bed and without dam. That stream when it over- floods will devastate its borders and destroy its bridges. The physicians are the engineers whose duty it is to direct that stream into safe channels, to distribute it so that it may work under con- trol whepever it is needed, and to take care that its powerful en- ergy is not lost for suffering mankind.
The third part of the book, which considers ' ' The Place of Psychotherapy, " opens with a chapter on "Psycho- therapy and the Church, " a problem which, at the time when the book appeared, was in the limelight of public at- tention. A survey is given of the role that the power of miraculous healing plays among primitive and half -civil- ized peoples and throughout history, leading up to the Society of Emmanuel in England, and, in America, Christian Science and Dr. Worcester's " Emmanuel Move- ment ' ' in Boston. This movement distinguished itself from Christian Science : for the latter is based wholly on a meta- physical conception and is not open to the arguments of
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science; whereas the Emmanuel movement represented a cooperation of minister and physician. In former cen- turies, to be sure, the priest was physician and teacher of the community besides, but in our time of intense special- ization and the high development of natural science, such a combination of functions is impossible. Dr. Worcester accordingly left the examination of patients to the phy- sician, and only those diseases that had been pronounced functional and not organic were accepted by the church to be healed through religious influence. Even with such a division of labor, there are still grave dangers. There is the possibility of a wrong diagnosis, if the patient is not under constant observation of the physician. Fur- ther, after the patient has once been given over into the hands of the minister, he is deprived of the benefits of physical treatment, which may be desirable along with the mental treatment, even though the disease is only func- tional. Some ministers are even hostile to medical treat- ment in their insistence on " non-drug " healing. How can the half-baked medical knowledge of a divinity student compare with the thorough knowledge of a physician ? The clergyman cannot enter into the full complexity of men- tal life, because his method is wholly synthetic and not analytic. From a purely psychological point of view, there may be such a thing as too much religious fervor for the health of a patient; but it is inconceivable that a clergyman should take such a point of view. On the other hand, if the minister has to resort to physical aids in his treatment, as is often the case, he merely competes with the physician who is better equipped. Then there is the other side of the question. Is it, after all, desirable that the Church take upon itself the task of the physician ? Is not its religion cheapened by the emphasis on comfort and health? In the effort to abolish pain, surely the impor- tance of pain is given undue emphasis. The psychologiz-
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ing Church indeed shares its powers with the primitive healers, for it is not the religion, but the psychological ef- fect of religious emotion upon the patient, that has the healing value. Further, the division, accepted by Dr. Worcester, of diseases into organic and functional is an inconsistency of which Christian Science, which attributes every ill to the evil spirit, is not guilty; for such a divi- sion shows the intrusion of a scientific conception into the religious sphere or rather a removal of the whole problem into the realm of causality. The ideal solution would be a cooperation between the minister and the physician, in which the minister would not deviate from his strictly reli- gious, purposive path and the physician would apply the tools of his causal science.
In the chapter on "Psychotherapy and the Physician," the psychologist points out the long road in history that knowledge of mental influence over the body has had to travel through mists of superstition. The simple explana- tion that mental symptoms start from the workings of the mind and not from outside influences represents the last word after centuries of search. A historical survey is given of the field of speculation concerning influences on the mind from the earliest astrological suppositions through theories of magnetic influence, culminating in the mesmer- ism of the eighteenth century. Then, onward from Faria 's significant discovery, in 1819, that magnetic influences issue not from any outside force but from the patient or subject himself, we are led through the development of modern psychological theories to the most recent con- tributors to the impressive fund of psychotherapeutic knowledge. The author deplores, however, that psycho- therapy is still confined to leaders in the field, whereas it ought to be used by every physician. One reason for this is that "physicians do not like to touch a tool which has been misused so badly." They refrain from studies
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that appear to them not sharply enough divided from the practices of spiritists, clairvoyants, and the like. But the author suggests an improvement of this condition: "The more the true physicians undertake psychothera- peutic work, the more it will carry with it that dignity which is now too often lost by the predominance of those who treat without diagnosis and cure by mere appeal to superstition." Another obstacle to the average physician's use of psychotherapy is the great amount of time that such treatments, as for instance, psycho-analysis, require. But the chief stumbling-blocks are, on the one hand, the physician's fear to tread in paths his ignorance of psychology forbids and, on the other, this ignorance itself. It is the author's conviction that psychology ought to enter into every medical course. It would be best if the future physician, in the studies preceding the medical school course, could lay a solid foundation in empirical psychology, then take a more advanced theoretical or an experimental training course and, if possible, do graduate work in a research laboratory. In the medical school, abnormal psychology should be studied by all means, even if the study of psychiatry is omitted. For psychiatric treatment may later be left to the specialist, whereas the average physician will be held responsible for discrimina- tion between such cases as neurasthenia and insanity. A physician untrained in psychology is not ready to apply psychotherapy; neither should a " Psychological Clinic" be managed by an experimental psychologist who is not a Doctor of Medicine. It is the psychologically trained physician, and he only, who should administer psycho- therapy. In the interest of the community, psychical hy- giene is as important as physical hygiene. For social hy- gienic ends, the purposive point of view of the educator and the moralist should be brought into harmony with the causal view of the scientist. In education the training of
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the will is more important than the curing of certain bad habits through hypnotism; but in cases of abnormal de- velopment the psychotherapist must set in. In the sphere of law and order, the abnormal variations of minds that lead to crimes are manifold within the limits of health, and no one is born a criminal ; but where the will is power- less to overcome anti-social tendencies, the physician must take the place of the criminologist. Highly important for the prevention of unsound developments are the positive factors in the community, such as happy homes, schools that teach mental and moral discipline, inspired churches, firm laws, and the training of emotions in childhood through imaginative play and later through ennobling a^rt and literature. "A good conscience, a congenial home, a serious purpose are the safest conditions for a healthy mind." But for the improvement of its mental life, the community may gain much help from the psychotherapist. The meaning of the life of the community, to be sure, musj; be found in its ideal aims and purposes. The psycho- therapist, in order to secure the right service of these aims, must transform life into a system of causes and effects. * ' But even the fact that he decides in favor of those ends, that he aims towards their realization, binds him to a world of purposes, and therefore he, too, with his whole psycho- physical work, stands with both feet in a reality of will which is controlled not by causes, but by purposes, not by natural laws but by ideals. "
Psychotherapy, though a continuous and thorough pre- sentation of the subject, in contrast to some of Miinster- berg's collections of light, popular essays, was nevertheless intended for a wide and varied public. Not so The Eternal Values. It will be remembered that his comprehensive philosophical book in the German language, Philosophic der ffierte, which appeared in 1908, was a .profound ex- position of his own philosophical system. The warmth
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with which this was received in circles far outside those of the technical philosopher prompted Miinsterberg to make the ideas embodied therein accessible to the English read- ing public also. The result is not wholly a translation, for certain parts of the German text were omitted, and others added in the English version, particularly those referring to recent American discussions. Miinsterberg did not make concessions, however, to the popular taste, but kept the book on its pristine serious and scholarly plane. Nevertheless, tLe material of the book is not ab- stract speculation, but real life. "The discussion on truth and beauty, on happiness and love ; on science and art, on development and progress, on industry and law, on moral- ity and religion, fills the bulk of the book and is not at all metaphysical." Only the last chapter is devoted to metaphysical problems. However universal in its sig- nificance the substance of the book may be, the treatment is systematic and scholarly, and not from the point of view of "common sense. " In the Preface the author justifies this method :
. . . Just as the physicist must work out his formulae, in a way which the average reader would hardly understand, before his calculations can harness nature in the service of the millions, so the philosopher too will build up and reform and serve human progress only if he makes no concession to "common sense." Common sense, with reference to the problems of world and life, always means only the echo of the scholarly philosophy of pre- ceding centuries. If serious, thorough thought has distilled some truth, it will be distributed quickly enough through thousands of popular channels.
In the Introduction the aim of the book is given. It is nothing less than the logical justification of idealism. En- thusiastic affirmation is not enough; dispassionate argu- ment is the way of sober philosophy. Our time rejects the superficiality with which physical and psychological
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knowledge are raised to the dignity of philosophies. For the study of special facts does not belong to the domain of philosophy. "The meaning of what is valuable must decide our view of the world"; hence it is the task of philosophy to understand the fundamental meaning of any valuation and to examine in what sense absolute valuation is possible. "Philosophic theory of \*alues seeks only what it means to have values. ' '
The main body of the book is divided into five parts: 1 'The Meaning of Values," "The Logical Values," "The ^Esthetic Values," "The Ethical Values," and "Meta- physical Values."
The philosopher's search for the existence of values is a search for unconditional, absolute values. Relative values exist obviously — that is values for single persons under special conditions or even the social and economic values derived from those referring to individual pleasure and displeasure. But from these conditional values there is no bridge that leads to the absolute values. The uncon- ditional absolute values, that is, those that are valid not for single individuals or groups of individuals, but for all possible individuals, can be found only in the demands of the will. The will must not be confused here with desire ; the will is the essence of every personality that by demanding its own fulfillment asserts its share in the world and binds itself to other wills and to the totality of wills that make up the world. The self -asserting will must demand that life, in order to have any value at all, must consist not of flashlike isolated experiences, but of a content that, in ever new experience, remains identical with itself. This identity in experience is found in the fulfillment of a three-fold demand of the will : the value of conservation, the value of agreement, and the value of realization. In other words, the wills for truth, beauty
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and morality are original postulates, and life, if it is to have any value at all, must consist of the striving to ful- fill these demands.
In contemplating the logical, the aesthetic, and the ethical values, the philosopher divides each sphere of values into naive or life-values, that is, values as they are found in immediate daily life, and cultural values or those de- manded in the upbuilding of civilization. Further, the values are classified as belonging to the outer world, the fellow-world, or the inner world.
The logical values in the experience of naive life are the values of existence ; in the cultural realm they are the values of connection. The value of existence adheres to a thing that remains identical in ever new experience and that may be experienced by more than one, that is, by all possible individuals. In other words, only those objects have existence that may be experienced by all possible subjects. Existence, however, belongs not only to objects, but also to subjects, provided only that these subjects may be related to every possible object and that they maintain themselves through* ever new acts of will. The existing objects are endowed with the forms of space and time, the existing subjects remain outside of space and time and assert themselves through interrelation of wills. Not only subjects and objects, but the values themselves have existence while they remain identical throughout changing experience in the life of reason.
Whereas the values of existence are demanded in im- mediate life, the values of connection are demanded by civilization. In the outer world the demand for these values has created the system of nature — that unbroken chain of cause and effect in which existing objects retain their identity through change. Things in nature are rethought for the purpose of maintaining this constant identity in connection; and the things are rethought as
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possessing not qualities, but merely the attributes of space, time, and mass.
In the fellow-world, the cultural values must also ful- fill the demand for identity through connection. This is found in the interplay of fellow-wills as it manifests it- self in history. We find here the connection of will with will, and the preservation of the single will in the net- work of wills.
In the life of reason, even as in the outer world and in the fellow-world, the cultural values are values of connection. Here the value is the unit, instead of the object, as in the outer world, and the subject, as in the fellow-world; here, too, the single value remains identical through change in the logical, aesthetic, ethical, and re- ligious system of values.
The demand for aesthetic values, in contrast to the demand for logical values, is a demand for values of unity in naive life and for values of beauty in the life of civiliza- tion. In the outer world, the values of unity and of agree- ment are maintained by the harmonious landscape in which line agrees with line and every part is an expression of the whole. In the fellow-world, the values of unity are manifested in human sympathy, in friendship, in love. In the inner world, the values of unity are expressed in the agreement of inner wills or in happiness.
The demand for the cultural value of beauty is ful- filled in the outer world by art, in the fellow-world by literature, in the inner world by music. In each of these spheres, the work of art is isolated, complete in itself, valuable not because of its connection with anything out- side of itself, but because of the perfect unity of wills within itself.
The ethical values in immediate life are the values of development ; the ethical values of civilization are the values of achievement. The value of development adheres to
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the process of change from the given to the not-given — to the process itself, and not to the resulting state. Develop- ment "is not being, but becoming/' This becoming de- pends upon the will, and the will is the ethical element.
In the outer world or nature, development is manifest as growth, in the fellow-world or society as progress, in personality as self-development. The cultural values of achievement are served in the outer world by industry, in the fellow-world by law, in the inner world by morality. The philosopher emphasises that the kind of ethics which refers only to the content of will and deed is still at a pre- moral point. Real morality involves the choice between opposite courses. The critical life-situation in which values may be either upbuilt or destroyed, and either the one action or the other must be chosen and carried out — that is the field for morality.
Finally, the threefold valuation, the logical, aesthetic, and ethical, would fill life with "the tension of ... oppos- ing forces" in the conflict of values, if they were not some- how reconciled and harmonized. Hence the demand for the values of completion or the metaphysical values. In immediate life-experience this unifying value is sought in religion; the conscious elaboration of its principle through the effort of civilization is sought in philosophy. Thus both religion and philosophy "aim to apprehend the worlds of values as ultimately identical with each other. " The unifying values of religion and philosophy, which the philosopher calls the values of holiness and the values of absoluteness, "demand a progression over the limits of the experienceable. ' ' This transcendent or over-experi- ence has not existence in the sense in which subjects and objects have existence, but it is the content of convic- tion. In religion the conviction that transcends experi- ence is belief. The complete harmony of values religion creates is manifest in the outer world by creation, in the
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fellow-world by revelation, in the inner world by salvation.
Both religion and philosophy have the same goal, but the approach is different. In philosophy we examine, by deliberate, systematic thought, the inner conditions of valuation. A beyond of experience must be postulated in which all the experienceable values can be unified. This ultimate fact is postulated not by knowledge, but by con- viction; moreover, "the certainty of conviction is not based on logical knowledge. ' ' The identity of all the mutu- ally opposing values is reached by understanding all the values as expressions or realizations of a last self -asserting reality. This absolute is "the over-experienceable in which all experience comes to completion." This over-self strives eternally to maintain its own content: the fundamental reality is thus seen to be a deed. As manifestations of the eternal will the individual wills acquire their significance and uniqueness. On the other hand, a conscious denial of the values is a rejection of the meaning of reality. "The I which seeks only its pleasure is banished into eternal solitude. " In the eternal self-realization "every single enhancement of the will is ... absolutely valuable, and nothing can be still more valuable than that which is absolutely valuable.'*
A closer view of The Eternal Values must be reserved for the student; suffice it to have given here but a bare outline of its content.
After Miinsterberg had thus given the world his system of philosophy, his productivity did not cease. The Eternal Values had appeared in the end of May, 1909 ; in October, 1909 appeared Psychology and the Te'acher. The book was dedicated most aptly "To George Herbert Palmer, In Gratitude."
This volume, which became and remained very popular, will not be examined in detail here. For when once his ultimate view of the world has been laid down in a
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system of reason, "it must follow as the night the day" that all Miinsterberg's attitudes toward special phases of social and intellectual life take their direction and their force from this central philosophy. Yet, though Psychol- ogy and the Teacher is philosophical at the core, as the title suggests, it is also one of the contributions to applied psychology.
In fact, the chief emphasis is laid on the division of labor between psychology and philosophy in the educational field. The science of education has its own problems, which belong only in part to the sphere of psychology. " ... No knowledge of facts in the world can ever tell us what we ought to do, ... no science can teach us what our aim and our duty, our purpose, and ideal must be." It is philosophy which must set the ideal for education, which must decide what ought to be achieved ; then psychol- ogy may step in and offer the means to reach the goal.
The aim of education, prescribed by that philosophy which has been set forth in The Eternal Values is to make the pupil "willing and able to help in the realization of ideal values." To achieve this end, psychology may offer considerable help. Yet more is required than the mere textbook knowledge of psychology on the part of the teacher. Indeed, "the personal equation" of each mind requires long series of tests and observations that cannot be carried out in the classroom, and the teacher who pretends to psychological equipment can at best make a crude and clumsy use of it. There is, therefore, an obvious need for the science of educational psychology, which concerns itself with the application of psychology to the special demands of education. This new science parallel to legal, medical, aesthetic, and industrial psychol- ogy was, at the time of the author's writing, still at the beginning ; yet its future was unlimited. Applied psychol- ogy requires more than the mere taking over of material
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from general theoretical psychology; it must include ex- periments in the service of its special tasks. Nevertheless, it is embedded in general psychology. In the psycholog- ical part of the book, the author has given in several chapters psychological information that refers to the mind of the pupil. In the objective study of the pupil's mind, the strictly biological view must replace the philo- sophical one that has set the aims of education. The fundamental principle of the motor theory is set forth, which is of great importance in educational psychology. Indeed, from the point of view of causal psychology, "the pupil is a reaction apparatus." Chapters are devoted to apperception, to memory, association, attention, imitation and suggestion, will and habit, feeling and individual differences, in their relations to the problems of the school.
Finally, in the ' ' Educational Part, ' ' by a combination of ethics and psychology, the author has given guidance to educators. In order to realize the aim, set by ethics, of making the child able and willing to realize ideal purposes, the child must gain ability by acquiring knowledge and by training in activities; it must also be made willing' by being filled with enthusiasm. Both knowledge and activ- ity must refer to the outer world or nature, the fellow- world and the self. The acquisition of knowledge and the training in activity make the pupil able to accomplish work in later life that will serve ideal ends. But the most important task of the teacher is to inspire enthusiasm for truth as it manifests itself in the sciences, in history, in the life of reason; for ideal harmony, which manifests itself in the purest forms through the fine arts in the world of things, literature in the world of man, and poetry and music in the inner world; for progress and for loyalty. Although philosophy and religion be absent from the curriculum, "yet there is no school and no teacher who
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can afford to teach without implanting in the young souls a religious and philosophical longing." In giving suggestions for the school curriculum, the author has emphasized the much needed prevention of delay in the school life which ought to enable the pupil to reach at fif- teen or sixteen the point generally reached at eighteen years of age. The reasons for the delay are lack of discip- line, unwillingness to force attention, unequal preparation of teachers, ill-adjusted plans of instruction, dreary repeti- tions, short school days and years, and, a factor of supreme importance, the school's lack of support at home. Mental training and formal knowledge should have, as far as pos- sible, important subject matter, which serves at the same time to inspire enthusiasm. On the other hand, a cater- ing to the pupil's inclinations in the choice of studies car- ries with it the danger of superficiality. Thoroughness is essential and "the child must learn that great human art of providing interest out of his own resources. ..."
The most important factor of all, however, is the teacher. The highest point of effectiveness is reached when enthusi- asm for teaching is combined with enthusiasm for the sub- ject taught. Indeed, the teacher's insufficient preparation and lack of thorough knowledge are the chief stumbling- blocks. There has been danger ever in the neglect of knowledge for the technique of teaching. "Fear pre.- vailed that the thorough study of methods might become a method of escaping thorough study." The danger of a haphazard admixture of psychology, however, has decreased as pedagogical experiments have become organized and ap- plied educational psychology has become more developed. Yet it must be remembered that psychology can help only after the aims of the teacher have been determined by the independent inquiry of the philosopher. The author ends with the wish: "May this book help to bring us nearer to the day when such harmony of ethics and psychology
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becomes a living and joyful power in the happy heart of every true teacher !"
The three significant books that appeared in 1909, Psychotherapy, The Eternal Values, and Psychology and the Teacher, made each its characteristic impression upon the reading public. The wide circulation of Psychotherapy has already been pointed out. Of course, The Eternal Values, alth.ough it, too, was read widely outside of the esoteric circle of philosophers, nevertheless roused a lively response chiefly from scholars. When the most profound, the ultimate, problems have been treated, and the most serious convictions have been touched by a book like The Eternal Values, there will follow in its wake enthusiastic assent and vigorous opposition. The earnest praise and study accorded his book both in America and in Germany Munsterberg gladly acknowledged. In the only scholarly magazine devoted to aesthetics, there appeared this state- ment:
Rarely has any one come so near to the real aesthetic experience and to the meaning of the a3sthetic as Huga Munsterberg in the aesthetic part of his Philosophic der Werte. And this is be- cause he boldly makes a sharp demarcation line between the theoretical and aesthetic valuation; and he does it so fully that even a psychological aesthetics with its conceptional constructions vanishes like a world of ghosts when seen from the standpoint of such really living valuation.
The opponents of Munsterberg 's philosophical system ranged from his friend William James, the pragmatist, and Professor W. M. Urban of Trinity College, Hartford, whose realistic book Valuation, its Nature and Laws, ap- peared in the same week wifh The Eternal Values, to those who substituted caricature for serious discussion, chief among these G. E. Moore of London-. In reply to his serious critics, Munsterberg wrote a short article that filled the October number .of- the Psychological Bulletin,
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in 1909, called the " Opponents of Eternal Values, " in which he elucidated those points in his philosophy upon which disagreements seemed to converge.
Two letters from the household of Harvard represent not indeed the critical response to the publication of The Eternal Values but its reception by those who had a warm interest in the philosopher himself and had watched his development.
Thus wrote the fellow philosopher ;
DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG:
I can acknowledge at once your beautiful and generous gift because I have already read it in the German, and know how profound i£ is and of what special importance for my own part of Philosophy. I am glad you have brought it over into English, into your own admirable English* Not only will more Americans be able to get at it, but even those who can make it out in Ger- man will assimilate its teachings better in their own tongue. And I am mistaken if it does not find as many readers in this country as in Germany.
Gratefully yours,
G.. H. PALMER
May 20, 1909
<
Miinsterberg had made a special effort to complete The Eternal Values, the final embodiment of the philosophy that he was sending out into the world with a Harvard stamp, in time to present it to Harvard's great President before he left the University that owled to him its great- ness. The parting gift was acknowledged thus:
May 22, 1909. DEAR DR, MUNSTEHBERG:
I shall value highly the copies of your works which have ap- peared since you became Professor in Harvard University — all of which you have been good enough to send me — and particularly this last volume on Eferncd Values which came to me on May 18. I believe that I told you some years ago that it was Professor
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William James who first brought your name to my attention as that of a young experimental psychologist whom it would be well to invite to Harvard University. Doubtless you knew this fact at the time; but now that I am retiring from office I feel like giving you this assurance myself. Professor James in the earlier part of his career was very much interested in physiology as well as psychology, and had a firm belief that psychology could be greatly furthered by making use of experimental laboratory methods with physical apparatus. It was through him that the authorities of Harvard became interested in experimental psy- chology. Professor James, however, wished to be wholly re- lieved of responsibility for an experimental laboratory that he might devote himself to the theoretical aspects of the subject; and I have been much interested to see in you a similar tendency. Perhaps this is an inevitable effect of advancing age in a phil- osopher.
Wishing you a secure and tranquil life with durable satisfac- tions and contentment, I am
Sincerely yours,
CHARLES W. ELIOT
As for Psychology and the Teacher, which was ad- dressed less to technical philosophers than to educators and those of the general public who had the problems of education at heart, this book won a popularity second only to that of Psychotherapy, and, it may be said, a more lasting one. Translated into Spanish, it has awakened a peculiar response to this very day, not only in Spain but among Spanish-speaking peoples elsewhere. The mission of the book has been designated by one of the greatest educators of America in a letter to the author on January 4, 1910:
PROFESSOR HUGO MUNSTERBERG,
Cambridge, Mass. MY DEAR PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG,
In consequence of a long absence from home and of almost con- stant labor on arrears of work since my return I have only very recently been able to take up your book on Psychology and the Teacher, which you have so kindly sent me.
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And in taking it up I have only had time, as yet, to run rapidly through it, but I have lingered upon many of its pages and found so much that has deeply interested me that I cannot resist the impulse to thank you for the profit and pleasure you have already given me and for that which I shall derive from the more careful reading which I purpose to give the whole dur- ing the winter evenings which are approaching.
It seems to me, from first to last, an admirable treatment of the great subject concerned and it will, I fully believe, exercise a powerful influence for good upon thoughtful men and women in the great army of teachers throughout our country. With renewed thanks,
I remain, my dear Professor,
Very sincerely yours,
AND. D. WHITE
William James' response to Psychology and the Teacher was characteristic :
CAMBRIDGE, January 1st, 1910. DEAR MUNSTERBERG :
I have to thank you for the book on Education, which I was just about to buy, but of which I have as yet read only the last part, which seems to me very sensible and useful. (This must not be understood, however, to commit me to "absolute values" in any but a pedagogical sense!!) I hope your whole family is in better health than mine. I wish Mrs. M. and the girls as good things for 1910 and am
Very truly yours,
WM. JAMES
Miinsterberg's creative powers were not exhausted by the three large books of 1909. A number of essays, most of them written in March and April or in August, found their way into various magazines. In compliance with a request, Miinsterberg wrote, as an introduction to a general history of science, an essay "Psychology and Philosophy." In the Philosophical Review appeared the scholarly treatise on * l The Problem of Beauty. ' ' The more popular essays were later collected and published in April, 1910,
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in a book called American Problems from the Point of View of the Psychologist. The first of these essays is "The Fear of Nerves." It is directed against the ten- dency of our time to believe in general nervousness. This belief, as a matter of fact, is an illusion, for the technical improvements of our day tend rather to make life smoother than in the days of our grandfathers and the excitements to which nerves are subjected are relative anyhow. Further, the increased recognition of nervous cases does not mean an increase of cases; the contemplation of imagined symptoms, on the other hand, may actually bring about disease. The author warns against the overestima- tion of physical exercise for recreation, against the lack of self-control, which is often mistaken for nervousness and is caused by lack of discipline in the school. "The schoolteacher is more important for curing the nervous- ness of our time than the physician." This essay called forth the following response from William James:
CAMBRIDGE, Aug. 27. DEAR MUNSTERBERG:
I have inscribed a sentiment and mailed it to ...
I have also read with great approval and admiration for the way of putting it, your article "Nerves." It is a most timely warning, and will make lots of people sit up and say "of course ! !" It will make a big stir. I think it a splendid article.
Hoping that you are all well and having less dust, drought and caterpillars than Chocorua treats us to, I am, ever truly yours,
WM. JAMES
"The Choice of a Vocation" appeared under the title "Finding a Life Work" in McClure's Magazine in Feb- ruary, 1910. This article was the forerunner of work in the field of vocational guidance to which Miinsterberg was yet to give more detailed attention. Here the author deplores the haphazard drifting into work and shifting from one kind of employment to another. He warmly commends the activities of Professor Parsons who intro-
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duced the idea of vocation bureaus. Yet his hope for these bureaus rests with the application of psychological methods, of tests by which, with simple equipment, the various types of attention, memory, rapidity of reaction, etc. may be examined accurately and far better than by self -analysis or the judgment of a layman. The ideal set by the author is the institution of psychological labora- tories as part of municipal vocation bureaus.
"The Standing of Scholarship," which first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly of October, 1909, presents a grave problem that Miinsterberg had much at heart. It seems to the author that the decisive factor in the disappointing results of present-day education is the comparatively low standing of scholarship in the social world outside of the college. The average American college man's pride is in the graduates of his college, that of the European university man in the scholars of his Alma Mater. The standing of an American professor is judged often by the administrative positions he holds in his university or by some independent popular reputation that he has won, not by the intrinsic quality of his scholarship. Con- tribution to scholarship appeals only to a limited circle of colleagues and is not rewarded by any outward sign of recognition. Hence it is not surprising that the most talented and enterprising young men should turn to busi- ness, industry, law, and medicine and leave the graduate school to men who, as an average, are second-class in energy and ambition. The philosopher finds the root of this evil in the positivistic view of life which, in its concern for the greatest happiness of the greatest number, supports the dissemination of knowledge, but not the advancement of scholarship for its ideal value. Yet the author ob- serves symptoms of the rise of idealism in America; and upon this he plants his hope for reviving changes in the school, college, and vocational life of the country.
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The article on " Prohibition and Temperance" need not be considered here, since it has been given ample attention in another chapter. An epilogue had been added to the original argument, in view of the heated discussion of this firebrand topic.
"The Intemperance of Women, " written in a light, humorous vein for the Ladies' Home Journal, sets over against the intemperance of men in the consumption of alcohol, the intemperance, unrecognized as such, of rest- less, fashion-chasing, candy-eating women, as seen with the eyes of the psychologist. This widely read and enter- taining essay found praise from an unexpected quarter* The famous Evangelist Billy Sunday wrote:
1002 South Seventh Street, SPRINGFIELD, ILL., March 2, 1909. MY DEAR PROFESSOR:
I have read with unspeakable delight and profit your magnificent article in the Ladies' Home Journal, entitled "In- temperance among Women" and coming from a man of your un- questioned and universally acknowledged authority it will have untold weight for good.
I have felt constrained to write you for another reason, and that is, the young man who had been my assistant in evangelistic work for the past two years, Rev. C. P. Pledger, was a student at Har- vard, and often spoke of you, your winning personality and your encouraging words to the student body; and that of all the fac- ulty, he derived no greater benefit than through the instruction received from you. He found it of great value in his work in preaching the gospel. It grieves me to inform you that Mr. Pledger died of pneumonia in Spokane, Wash., February 12th, just after the close of our campaign there.
I would like the privilege of quoting a portion of your article in some of my sermons, for everywhere men of letters and knowledge take their hats off to Professor Munsterberg.
With assurance of my high esteem and best wishes for a long and happy life, I am,
Cordially yours,
W. A. SUNDAY 415
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The substance of the sprightly essay, "My Friends, the Spiritualists, " which appeared in the Metropolitan Magazine in February, 1910, has been made familiar in another place, and may therefore be passed over here. "The Market and Psychology/ ' which first appeared in McClure's Magazine in November, 1909, heralded that new activity in the field of applied psychology for which Miinsterberg a few years later won special renown with his books on psychology applied to industry. In this article the author points out the enormous importance of testing the employees of steamship and railway com- panies by psychological methods, for color blindness, for the rapidity and accuracy of perceptions and the like, so that accidents may be prevented. But even where there is no danger of accidents, misfits and efficiency may be avoided by testing the types of mental equipment of telegraphers, of factory workers, of mechanics, in fact, of all workers in industry. Also advertising and salesman- ship may profit from psychological advice. Chance tradi- tions and superficial ideas may establish harmful methods. As psychology applied at random from textbooks, how- ever, is liable to be applied wrongly, special laboratories for applied psychology should be established, and it is hoped that in the future the Department of Commerce and Labor may found experimental stations for the ap- plication of psychology to industry.
"Books and Bookstores," which first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Disorganization of the Book Trade," is a plea for the live, well equipped bookstore that is fast disappearing. The author deplores the fact that books, which might be circulated through bookstores where readers can quietly choose the volumes that appeal to them, should depend on publishers ' ad- vertisements, a fact that makes it hazardous to publish a book that cannot be expensively advertised. The
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American publishers' opposition to new editions because books are printed from plates that cannot well be changed, is a further obstacle to the continued life of a book. In the author's opinion, "the reader without a bookstore becomes uncritical." Therefore it seems to him desirable that a publishers' association should prevent the selling of books except through bookstores at fixed prices, and that publishers should create and finance bookstores in their own interest and for the ultimate benefit of the in- telligent public.
The last essay of the book, "The World Language," is full of charm and delicate irony. It is a response to the invitation of the Simplified Spelling Board to criti- cize its improvement of the English language, which the Board believes will become the world language when once the obstacles of the difficult spelling have been removed. Miinsterberg objects to the declaration that simplified spelling will make English more easily ac- quired by the foreign child. It is not uniformity, but the odd characteristics of a word that make it linger in the memory, and the removal of such characteristics makes learning more difficult. Further, the inner relation of words, as expressed by such conjugated endings as "ed" in "blessed," would be lost through artificial uniformity. The other claim of the Board that if the difficulties of spelling were removed, the American school child would be less backward in its studies, the author answers with the query whether inaccuracy in arithmetic, too, would be cured by simplified spelling. It is mental discipline in the schools, not spelling reforms, that is needed. Then he makes a plea for the enrichment of language given by that historical flavor that clings to the traditional spelling forms. "Our simplifiers want us to write good-by; but when the last good-bye has been spoken, will the simpler form still bring to our imagination the suggestion of 'God
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be with you ? ' ' The hope of the board that English shall become the world language, Miinsterberg considers illu- sory. He points out the fallacy of any world language, like Esperanto, which was concocted from the French and Spanish and which would naturally be pronounced quite differently in Nebraska and in Roumania and would remain unintelligible to natives of different lands. But the claim of one living language to dominate could never be realized because the self -consciousness of the other nations would never allow it. "The times of long ago, when the scholarly men, at least, all spoke and wrote in Latin, cannot come back. There is to-day only one international language necessary and possible; the language of good- will and peace and international friendship with the serious effort to understand the motives of our national neighbors and to respect their efforts." And there is no better way to international understanding than to study sympathetically the living languages of other coun- tries. "What is gained by an international word code which aids congresses and travelers and commercial clerks, if it decreases the number of those who can enjoy the lan- guage of Shakespeare and Goethe and Moliere and Dante ? ' ' Of another popular book, Vocation and Learning, which Miinsterberg wrote between November 1st and December 27th, 1909, account will be given in another chapter. Suffice it to have looked over Psychotherapy, The Eternal Values, Psychology and the Teacher, and American Problems, all belonging to the year 1909; for indeed, the harvest was plentiful.
CHAPTER ZII
The year 1911-1912 did not fall behind the others in productivity. As the new and keen interest in applied psychology lent its peculiar coloring to the research work
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of this period, so also Miinsterberg's literary work was largely concerned with the new science. The book on ap- plied psychology on which he worked this year, did not, however, satisfy him. He did not publish it, therefore, but used the material contained in it for several other books : the German Psychologic und Wirtschaftsleben and its English equivalent, Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, and later the more comprehensive German Psychotechnik and the complete English textbook Psychology: General and Applied. Mention has already been made of the short, concentrated period in which Miinsterberg dictated Psychologic und Wirtschaftslelen in the early summer in Berlin. The book appeared in the fall of 1912.
A large number of essays, both English and German, from Miinsterberg 's pen — or rather from his lips, for he dictated all his work — appeared in this period. Striking among these was a short essay, ' ' Better than Arbitration, ' ' which was printed in the International in March, 1912. Here Miinsterberg gave pithy utterance once more to his conviction that mutual sympathetic understanding and cooperation between countries are more vital means of preventing war than the establishment of a court of ar- bitration. "Truly to-day it seems more important to prevent the falsehoods which awaken ill feelings and mad prejudices than to prevent the final outbreak when the feelings and fears become intolerable. Whatever arbi- tration may be able to do when war is threatening, it is better to prevent the hatred and the rage without which no war is possible. " For the "poisoning of the wells" of international sympathy Miinsterberg blamed first the malicious humorists. "Instead of throwing poison into the wells, some pour into them befuddling beverages until every one who drinks from them grins and grins and has a funny feeling of self-importance, and sees the other nation as a laughable and half contemptible mass of
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fools/' Next he blamed the anonymous newspaper re- porters who " supply some acid of their own making to these public fountains. " But the author put the most blame on those who profess to have confidential informa- tion and subtly poison the believing public with false- hoods or distortions. It was his most earnest hope, there- fore, that the poisoning of the wells be forbidden "in times of peace also and not only in the midst of war."
Although the volume American Patriotism did not ap- pear until 1913, published by Moffat Yard, New York, and by Fisher Unwin in England under the title Social Studies of the Day, it will be considered at this point because most of the essays it embodies appeared in 1911 and 1912 or even earlier. The essay that gives the book its title, American Patriotism, appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in February, 1912.
Here Miinsterberg presented his conception of all Europe as the mother country of America.
The American nation is an entirely new people which, like all the other great nations of the world, has arisen from a mixture of races and from a blending of nationalities. The ties of kinship do not connect it with England more than with Ireland or Hol- land or Germany or Sweden. All these races are united and as- similated here — not by a common racial origin, but by a com- mon national task. They must work out in unity the destiny of a nation to which all the leading countries of Europe have con- tributed their particular traits and ideals. A new patriotism has sprung up that does not aim toward the conservation of an Eng- lish people, but hopes for the highest development of a unique nation in which the finest qualities of all Europe will be blended.
And the essay ends with words:
True patriotism cannot demand that the American people draw apart and fall asunder when their hearts turn lovingly to their ancestral homes. There ought not to be civil war on the battle- fields of European memories.
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The second essay, "The Educational Unrest " appeared in the Metropolitan Magazine in July, 1910. Here the author pointed out the needs and defects of American school life and more especially that of the university, for he realized that the entire educational life of a country was determined by the quality of its highest institutions.
The next essay, "The Case of the Reporter" appeared in McClure's Magazine in February, 1911. It is an ex- position of the sensational and distorting methods of the news service with many amusing accounts of the author's own experiences with reporters.
"Germany of To-day" appeared under the title "The New Germany" in the North American Review in Feb- ruary, 1912. It is a presentation of various currents and cross-currents in modern German life, based on Miinster- berg's own observations during his year in Berlin. Two more essays in this volume containing observations on German life are "The German Woman" and "The Germans at School, ' ' which appeared in the Popular Science Monthly in December, 1911.
The paper on "Coeducation" came out under the title "Bi-education vs. Coeducation" in the Ladies' Home Journal in May, 1911. Miinsterberg was always an en- thusiastic believer in woman's work in all fields of art, science, and education; he also believed coeducation to be the only wise and expedient method in professional trajn- ing or the advanced work of graduate students. It was for schools and colleges, however, that he believed in bi- education. In his own words:
And if I recall the long line of women who took their psycho- logical doctor's degree after years of such coeducational studies under my charge, I hardly think they can be equaled. There were Mary Whiton Calkins, whose psychological contributions have made a decided impression on the development of psychol- ogy; Ethel Puffer, whose Psychology of Beauty stands foremost
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in American aesthetics; Eleanor Rowland, whose Eight to Believe is a little masterpiece of philosophical discussion, and many others. I hope many still will follow and every one will be most welcome in our company of men scholars. Nevertheless I profess my be- lief that the high schools and above all the colleges ought not to be coeducational, and that coeducation ought not to begin below the level of graduate work.
For this belief several arguments are advanced, chief among them the desirability of recognizing not, by any means, a superiority of boys' intellects over girls' or vice versa, but of given characteristic differences of mental behavior.
We know to-day that the thought and the imagination, the memory and the attention of the boys and girls are characteristi- cally different, we know that the whole rhythm of development is unlike and that on the higher levels their tendency to concen- tration, to suggestibility, to mental resistance, to productiveness, to emotion, and to will action shows important differences. It is entirely meaningless to say that the one is more excellent than the other, but it is very clear that to force both to the same work in the same rhythm must be a handicap for both.
Indeed, Miinsterberg in public as well as private life could not emphasize enough the value of fine differentia- tion as opposed to a thoughtless uniformity. And he ends the essay thus:
To make society uniform is always moving downward. The recognition of the different aims and duties of the different types of intellect and of emotion, of the different rhythms of development and of the different predominant interests must be to-day the most important demand in American education. Thus true progress can be secured only through bi-educational work.
"The Household Sciences," which first appeared as "The College and the Household Sciences" in the magazine Good Housekeeping in January, 1913, is the presentation
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of another educational problem. It is a plea for the in- cluding of a " scholarly study of household management" in the curriculum of a girls* college. This was not to be in the nature of technical training, bjit a cultural illumination of domestic problems. "The college is no place to learn cooking and mending, but what the true studies in domestic science offer with their wealth of historical, sociological, biological, chemical, aesthetic, and economical information, is endlessly better and it ought not to be missed in any woman's college which aims to-- ward real culture." Indeed it is the purpose of culture to make one "see nothing in isolation, but everything against the background of the natural laws and of the history of civilization : this characterizes the truly educated, as it makes him able to see foreground and background in their true proportions."
The last article in the book, "Psychology and the Navy," which embodied Miinsterberg 's address before the Naval War College at Newport, R. L, and then appeared in the North American Review, has already been extensively quoted. It closed the volume called American Patriotism.
The press comments which the book excited, some of which appeared in Englan'd, showed especially careful and serious authorship. The English reaction on a book ad- dressed to Americans is naturally different from that of the public addressed, and is therefore of some interest on account of its detachment from the subject matter. The Saturday Review said:
Professor Miinsterberg is one of the few men of ability and wide views resident in the United States who have the courage or take the trouble to tell their countrymen the truth. He also em- ploys a sound and attractive style, and his book makes good read- ing for Europeans no less than Americans. He has a good deal to say about modern Germany which we can read in England with signal profit. . . .
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And the Westminster Gazette:
If we can judge him at all from this collection of essays, Pro- fessor Miinsterberg is making rapid advance in the process of Americanization. We do not mean that he is losing any of that German thoroughness or solidity which characterizes the many psychological and philosophical studies of his which have come under our notice, but we have found in him increasing evidence of a more or less typical American attitude, which seems to be the outward expression of a change or development of character. In effect he is out to defend America against the world, and if he is severe in his criticisms on her institutions, her methods of thought, or her journalistic^ mannerisms, we perfectly understand that it is all done for her own good.
CHAPTER XIII
The period of Miinsterberg 's life reviewed in this chapter, bore a rich harvest of literature. Five books appeared, and numerous essays besides. The books were: Vocation and Learning, Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, Psychology and Social Sanity, Grundziige der Psycho- technik, and Psychology: General and Applied. Further, he edited Volume III of the Harvard Psychological Studies, of which one half was devoted to studies in human psychol- ogy and the other half to experiments in animal psychology. Miinsterberg^ Americans also appeared in a new edition for which he wrote a preface.
In December, 1912, the People's University published Vocation and Learning, a book that Miinsterberg had written at its request. This People's University was an organization of many thousands of members that centered at University City, St. Louis, for the purpose of spreading enthusiasm for learning. Miinsterberg said in the Preface :
Its leaders pointed out to me how much a serious book on the demands of the vocations was needed as an introduction to their work, and they suggested that I write it to help the many thou-
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sand members of their organization. The idea coincided so fully with my plan that I assented without hesitation.
But the book, thus written at first for a narrower circle, needed only a few changes in order to be adjusted to the wider public. In this revised form I send k out into the world to-day, with the sincere hope that it may help toward a fuller understanding of a social problem in which perhaps all the other problems of society are rooted.
It must not be supposed that this book presents a psychological scheme for testing the fitness of individuals for certain professions, like somei of the chapters in Psychology and Industrial Efficiency; no, this little book designed for the general public, especially for ardent, ambitious young men and women who need guidance in the choice of their life work, is educational in its purpose and philosophical in its method and point of view. As in his comprehensive philosophical book, The Eternal Values, Miinsterberg elaborated a system of values, so here, in a more popular style and one easily understood without philosophical training, he worked out a methodic classifi- cation of the motives, the knowledge, and the abilities re- quired for the different vocations, under the large general headings " Happiness, " ' ' Knowledge, " "Work," "Voca- tion," "Study." The philosopher, moreover, divided any life experience into three aspects: of knowledge, of feel- ing interest, and will activity. From these in turn he developed the three primal interests that are the leading motives for all vocations: interest in the knowledge of ex- perience, interest in the fulfillment of demands, and interest in the intended changes of experience. Each of these three interests is again minutely subdivided so that they present complete systems of knowledge, of activities, of satisfactions. This classification is illustrated by a dia- gram: a circle, which stands for life experience, is con-
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structed within a triangle ; points of the triangle are feel- ing, thinking, and willing ; smaller triangles superimposed upon the three parts of the circumference marked off by the sides of the larger triangle, stand for the three interests. The systems of interest are thus built upon the circle of life experience, and from each point of the large triangle the center of the circle may be reached. The classifi- cations within th.e angles of the interests are again shown by diagrams. Further, there is a diagram for every voca- tion, for that of the farmer, the teacher, the physician, etc., in which the particular vocation is represented by a small triangle within the circle of life experience. The system of the vocations in their relations to thought and to life experience is followed by general advice on the recognition of dispositions and talents and on methods of study.
After Vocation and Learning, appeared Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, published by Hough ton, Mifflin and Company in Boston in February, 1913. From this book such extensive quotations have already been made to illu- minate Miinsterberg 's experiments in applied psychology and his contact with the industrial world to which his psy- chology was to be applied, that it will not be necessary here to examine the book in detail.. It is a complete presenta- tion of Miinsterberg 's ideas on the application of psychol- ogy to problems of industrial life, and of the experiments hitherto made in the service of these ideas, as well as of the psychologist's experience in the realm of industry. After an explanatory introduction, the book is divided into three parts: "The Best Possible Man," "The Best Possible Work," and "The Best Possible Effect." The first part of the book considers the demands made on the minds and the nervous systems of individuals by different special vocations; the second treats of problems of movement, of monotony, of attention, of fatigue, and so on; in the third part, psychological light is thrown on such phases of
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business life as the effects of advertisements, of window display, of illegal imitation, of buying and selling. The last chapter, on the " Future of Economic Psychology," ends with this outlook:
And if it is true that difficulties and discomforts are to be feared during the transition period, they should be more than outweighed by the splendid betterments to be hoped for. We must not forget that the increase of industrial efficiency by future psychological adaptation and by improvement of the psychophysical conditions is not only in the interest of the em- ployers, but still more of the employees; their working time can be reduced, their wages increased, their level of life raised. And above all, still more important than the naked commercial profit on both sides, is the cultural gain which will come to the total economic life of the nation, as soon as every one can be brought to the place where his best energies may be unfolded and his greatest personal satisfaction secured. The economic experimental psychology offers no more inspiring idea than this adjustment of work and psyche by which mental dissatisfaction in the work, mental depression, and discouragement may be re- placed in our social community by overflowing joy and perfect inner harmony.
In February, 1914, Miinsterberg 's comprehensive Ger- man work on applied psychology appeared in Leipzig under the title Grundzilge der Psychotechnik.
But, above all, the winter of 1914 was significant as the one in which Miinsterberg wrote his textbook, which, to be sure, is more than a mere textbook for college use, but rather a systematic and at the same time colorfully represented survey of the wide field, Psychology: General and Applied. This book was begun on January first, the first draft was finished on May 20th, and the volume was on the market in August.
Psychology: General and Applied is significant for three reasons. First, it includes the whole field of applied psychology; second, the survey contains social psychol-
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ogy as well as individual psychology; third, not only the descriptive and explanatory psychology is presented here, but, for the first time, that psychology of purpose which had hitherto been little recognized and is the psychology of the future. As a philosopher of broad vision, Miinster- berg was especially called upon to introduce this new aspect of the science, and indeed, here the connection of psychology with biology, usually emphasized, is given no greater prominence than the intimate and fundamental relation of the science of the mind to philosophy.
It must suffice here to give a brief outline of the contents of the book. A philosophical introduction pre- sents the two motives for approach to the study of the mind: one, the intention to explain mental life, which, in order to be explained at all, must be transformed into an unbroken chain of causes and effects; the other, the desire to understand mental life, which, in order to be understood, must be considered, not as cause and effect, but as meaning wills and purposes. The meeting point of these two aspects of the mind is applied psychology, where both have to be considered. Hence the book is divided into Causal Psychology, Purposive Psychology, and Applied Psychology.
The basis of causal psychology is shown: a system of causal connection is the necessary postulate for the ex- planation of mental life, but for psychical phenomena no direct causal connection is possible ; hence the necessity of considering every mental state as an accompaniment of a respective brain process. The brain with its biological processes can indeed be studied as an unbroken causal chain. This psychophysical parallelism is the foundation of causal psychology. After this explanation, a survey of scientific methods is given: those of self-observation, of the observation of others, and of experimental methods. Then follows a study of the various psychical phenomena,
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of stimulation, visual and auditory, of movement, of feel- ing sensations, of association, reaction, inhibition. Con- spicuous in the study of the two latter topics is Miinster- berg's action theory, the theory that the readiness of the nerve centers for kinesthetic response, that is, the motor setting of the brain complex determines the effect of stimuli, as opposed to the theory that the impressions them- selves are the starting-points for motor reactions. "We all perceive the world just as far as we are prepared to react to it. Our ability to respond is the true vehicle of our power to know." Further, the action theory dominates in the explanation of perception, of memory and imagina- tion, in the realm of ideas, of activity, of feeling for pleasure and displeasure, and of emotion. "There is no perception of space in which muscle activity is not origi- nally involved." "The real test of a perception lies in the reaction with which we respond." The condition for any special kind of idea — whether a memorized, an im- aginative, or an abstract general idea — is "the motor set- ting of preparation for further developments in my psychophysical system." Activity and attention — also thought which is "psychologically a prolonged attention process" — are determined by the "whole setting of the psychophysical system" as the result of vivid impressions, of inhibitions, of active impulses, and of the kinesthetic adjustment of the body. In the consideration of the feelings of pleasure and displeasure Miinsterberg explains that "in the association theory we can reckon only with a host of cells each of which has its special psychical sensa- tion as accompaniment. In the action theory every cell can itself pass through many changes of its inner excite- ment through its various outgoing responses." The emo- tions beyond such mere feelings of pleasure and displeasure, moreover, depend on "a complex connection of nerve centers by which a normally useful reinforcement of re-
429
APPENDIX
actions is secured. " Finally the whole personality, that is, the self as the scientist can conceive of it, is defined not as the subject of awareness, but as the unified content of consciousness, influenced by the world and reacting on the world.
After a presentation of individual psychology follows that of social psychology, with an account of racial charac- teristics ; of the symptoms of mental life in the social body, such as suggestion and self-assertion, imitation and sym- pathy; finally, of the complex social processes such as organization and social achievement.
The second part of the book, ''The Principles of Pur- posive Psychology/' as has been pointed out before, is a new contribution. Miinsterberg showed how the same men- tal material that has been explained causally, may be viewed from a different standpoint, the standpoint of meaning and purpose. Yet this psychology of purpose should by no means be treated as a poetic fancy, but as a theoret- ical science — not of causes and effects, but of systematic understanding. Causal psychology Miinsterberg calls "a tremendous transformation of reality." Moreover, al- though for the student of psychology it is enough that he should recognize both systems, the causal and the pur- posive, as parallel, the philosopher cannot refrain from regarding one as logically previous to the other. "It is not the structure of mental objects which is the cause of our purpose, but it is our purpose which transforms our purposive life into a causal structure. " This doctrine of the dependence of the causal system upon an act of the will had long been one of the keynotes of Miinsterberg^ philosophy.
At the center of purposive psychology is the theory of the soul. The soul is the self, conceived as a system of purposes that remains identical with itself in developing its potential acts as real experiences. Here, accordingly,
430
APPENDIX
is a unit defined by identity through change, which, like the atomic theory in physics, forms a working basis for scientific treatment. Scientific treatment is, indeed, desirable, but not explanatory treatment: the soul needs no explanation, because there is nothing to explain. The soul, defined as identical with itself throughout its wills and experiences, demands not explanation, but understand- ing. This science of understanding is as yet undeveloped, and Miinsterberg had to confine himself to pointing out a few of its essential features. Light is thrown on the un- derstanding of the creative act and of social relations, and of the normative or ideal acts which are measured by overpersonal norms.
The third part of the book is devoted to principles of applied psychology. Here is a survey of the different fields that had been treated in detail in Miinsterberg 's various books on practical psychology, such as Psycho- therapy, On the Witness Stand, Psychology and fne Teacher, and Psychology and Industrial Efficiency. In an introduction to this realm the author points out, by way of warning, the limitations of practical psychology. This science can give an insight into the means needed for certain ends, but cannot select the ends themselves, as, for instance, "no educational psychology can determine what pedagogical ends should be reached by the instruc- tion." But psychology can indeed improve the methods of the teacher. The application of psychology to the study of history is first considered — history that may be illumined, according to the special aim, by either causal or purposive psychology. Then follow expositions of the vari- ous ' ' psychotechnical sciences. ' ' First educational psychol- ogy is considered and its application to the methods of imparting information or of training the pupil by knowl- edge of such mental states as attention, suggestion and fatigue, and by the use of intelligence tests; then legal
431
APPENDIX v
psychology is presented with its invaluable aid in judg- ing the reliability of testimony. The psychotechnics of science and industry are set forth with an account of the problems and experiments to which the psychologist had recently devoted so much thought ; also medical psychology with its important help in diagnosing diseases, in study- ing the effects of drugs, and especially the functions and methods of psychotherapy. Finally cultural psychology is introduced with its yet undeveloped possibilities, the application of psychological knowledge to aesthetic achieve- ment, as in the fine arts, music, and poetry, also to the work of the scientist, the historian, and the philosopher. And Miinsterberg ends by pointing out that one who can- not but profit from a knowledge of psychotechnics and from its application to his work is — the psychologist him- self.
A large crop of essays, more or less popular in tone, appeared in these years. Most of these essays, published in various magazines, were gathered together in January, 1914, in a book called Psychology and Social Sanity.
Among them were the paper on Beulah Miller in the Metropolitan Magazine, and an article called "Naive Psychology" in the Atlantic Monthly. This essay, quite original in its subject, has a peculiar gprightliness and charm. The moral of the tale is simply that the so-called naive psychology, the psychology of laymen that is popu- larly supposed to be so much more sensible and reliable for use in practical life than the pedantic advice of scientists is, on closer scrutiny, after all very meager, or really no psychology at all. Miinsterberg ends his essay: "Mankind has no right to deceive itself with half -true, nai've psychology of the amateur, when our world is so full of social problems which will be solved only if the aptitudes and the workings of the mind are clearly recog-
432
APPENDIX
nized and traced. The naive psychology is sometimes stimulating and usually delightful, but if reliable psychol- ogy is wanted, it seems after all that only one way is open — to consult the psychologists. ' ' But on the way to this conclusion the author gives examples of "naive psychol- ogy " which he has chosen carefully from many thousands of wise sayings from the poetry and philosophy of India, from Homer, from the Bible, from Dante, from Shake- speare, from the wide store of English proverbs, from the coiners of epigrams, La Rochefoucauld and Lichtenberg, from Lessing, Goethe, Rabelais, and more. This garden of proverbs, looked at for the first time from the point of view; of the psychologist, must appeal not only to those curious about things psychological, but also to the student of literature.
A very different essay, much more popular and im- mediate in its appeal, appeared in the Century Magazine with the title "The Mind of the Juryman." Here the psychologist has examined the institution of the jury, not as a political reformer, but strictly as an impartial scien- tist. The greater part of the article is a report of experi- ments that Miinsterberg made with his classes at Harvard and Radcliffe. He did not indeed imitate a trial in court, but, just as he had done in trying out tests in the service of industrial efficiency, he determined what the essential mental processes were during trial by jury, and repro- duced the conditions for these processes in a simplified form. This is Miinsterberg 's own description:
I settled on the following simple device: I used sheets of dark cardboard. On each were pasted white paper dots of different form and in an irregular order. Each card had be- tween ninety-two and a hundred and eight such white dots of different sizes. The task was to compare the number of spots on one card with the number of spots on another. Perhaps I held up a card with a hundred and four dots above, and below
433
APPENDIX
one with ninety-eight. Then the subjects of the experiment had to decide whether the upper card had more dots or fewer dots or an equal number compared with the lower one. I made the first set of experiments with eighteen Harvard students. . . . The eighteen men sat around a long table and were first allowed to look for half a minute at the two big cards, each forming his judgment independently. Then at a signal, every one had to write down whether the number of dots on the upper card was larger, equal, or smaller. Immediately after that, they had to indicate by a show of hands how many had voted for each of the three possibilities. After that, a discussion began. Indeed, the two cards offered plenty of points for earnest and vivid discussion. . . . The discussion was sometimes quite excited, three or four men speaking at the same time. After exactly five minutes of talking the vote was repeated, again at first being written and then being; taken by show of hands. A second five minutes' exchange of opinion followed with a new effort to convince the dissenters. After this period the third and last vote was taken. This experiment was carried out with a variety of cards .with smaller or larger difference of numbers, but the difference always enough to allow an uncertainty of judgment. Here, indeed, we had repeated all the essential conditions of the jury vote and discussion, and the mental state was characteris- tically similar to that of the jurymen.
After the results of these tests had been calculated, the outcome was that 52 per cent of the first votes had been correct and that 78 per cent of the final votes were correct. So it appeared that the discussion had led to an improvement of 26 per cent, of all the votes, or to an in- crease of correct votes by one half of the number origi- nally correct. That it was the discussion and not the show of hands that brought about the decided change was proved by another experiment.
Without any prejudice or even an interest in com- paring the reactions of men and women, but merely to amplify his material, Munsterberg tried the experiment described above on a class of women students at Radcliffe College. To his astonishment, he found, although the
434
APPENDIX
correctness of the first judgment was shown to be nearly the same as that of the men, that this was the final result : "The first votes were 45 per cent, right, and the last votes were 45 per cent, right. In other words, they had not learned anything from discussion." This is the conclusion which the author draws from his various experiments: "All results, therefore, point in the same direction: it is really the argument which brings a cooperating group nearer to the truth, and not the seeing how the other men vote. Hence the psychologist has every reason to be satisfied with the jury system as long as the women are kept out of it."
This article, written quite dispassionately and with a purely objective interest, inspired an overwhelming flood of newspaper comments. The conclusion drawn by the scientist from his little, quiet experiment in the Radcliffe class was made a sensation of the day, spread like fire through the press of the country and even reached Euro- pean newspapers, which announced that in the United States a violent controversy was raging over the fitness of women to serve on the jury. It seemed as if every reporter in America had seized upon this innocent article or the rumors about it, to exercise his cleverness. Head- lines from a few of the almost innumerable newspaper comments may be quoted to show the reception that a popular scientific article may inspire:
WOMEN STUBBORN; MEN ARE FIRM A POLKA DOT PROFESSOR
WOMEN NOT FIT FOR JURY WORK
So Says Professor Miinsterberg, But Boston
Women Lawyers Challenge Harvard
Savant's Conclusions
435
APPENDIX
ANGRY AT MUNSTERBERG
Suffragists Say Women Are Fit For Jury
Duty
MUNSTERBERG IS ALL WRONG, JURY FOREWOMAN DECLARES
PROFESSOR HUGO MUNSTERBERG ON FEMALE STUBBORNNESS
The article on "Sex Education/' which first appeared in the New York Times*, also roused much controversy. Miinsterberg pleaded against deliberate sex education for the young and for the general public in the form of en- lightening plays and moving pictures. As a psychologist, he was convinced that the more the air was charged with an erotic atmosphere, the greater the dangers for youth and for the harmless public through the infectious stimulus to the imagination, and he believed that the old-fashioned policy of silence was the most beneficial. Better for the young mind than the trumpeting out of the so-called truth was an education in moral discipline and ideal aims.
Not the laws of physiology, but the demands of logic, ethics, aesthetics, and religion control the man who makes history and who serves civilization. He who says that the child's questions ought to be answered truthfully means in this connection that lowest truth of all, the truth of physiology, and forgets that when he opens too early the mind of the boy and the girl to this materialistic truth, he at the same time closes it, and closes it perhaps forever, to that richer truth in which man is understood as historic being, as agent for the good and true and beautiful and eternal.
This prophylactic theory, it may be here remarked, is parallel to Miinsterberg's attitude toward peace propa- ganda, in which he believed that the negative method of painting the horrors of war worked harmfully upon the imagination and hence might bring about dangerous re-
436
APPENDIX
sponse, in contrast to the positive emphasis on harmonious cooperation and common ideals.
A review of Miinsterberg 's literary output in the years 1912-1914 ought not to be closed without the mention of one quaint little literary performance which, to be sure, was not intended for the American public. Naoichi Nasa- oka, a Japanese author who had visited the United States when accompanying Baron Kamura, the peace envoy to Portsmouth in 1909, asked Miinsterberg to write an in- troduction to a book that he was writing, America and the Americans. To this request Miinsterberg gladly responded and wrote a short interpretation, for the Japanese mind, of American national ideals, for which the author across the Pacific thanked him thus:
DEAR PROFESSOR,
As I promised you in my last letter thanking for your valuable contribution to my book America and the Americans, I send you a copy of it under separate cover. It is a pity that this book should have been printed in a language entirely strange to you. The Japanese translation of that article which you kindly furnished me with appears on pages ... I pin up those pages and affix a mark thereon in red.
I am very glad to inform you that, among the learned classes in Japan, your various works, particularly the latest one, are being received with greatest respects. Your visit to this country would be quite welcome to many Japanese including myself.
Very sincerely yours,
NAOICHI NASAOKA
THE END
INDEX
Adams, Maude, 231
Addams, Jane, 158
^Esthetic values. See Eternal Values
JEsthetical part in Principles of Art Education, 359, 360
^Esthetics of the photoplay. See Photoplay
Agassiz, Alexander, 125
Agassiz, Louis, 37, 47
Agassiz, Mrs. Louis, 47
Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposi- tion, 165
Alden, Henry Mills, 278
Allies, The Allies of the Future, 288-292
Althoff, Dr., 105, 118, 156, 185, 191
America Institute, plans for,
156, 185
establishment and growth of, 187-197, 233
American Association of Labor Legislation, 215, 219
American committee for celebra- tion of 100 years' peace with England, 253
American Patriotism, 276, 420- 424
American Problems, 382, 413- 418
American Psychological Asso- ciation. See Psychology
American Traits, 327-331
Americans, The, (Die Ameri- kaner),8S, 259, 333-358, 424
Ames, Winthrop, 287
Anesaki, Professor, 240, 254
Applied psychology, last talks
on, 300
lectures on, at Berlin, 197 lectures on, at Union College,
Schenectady, N. Y., 209 manufacturers' interest in,
209-212, 215, 251, 252 new division, at Harvard, 160 practical tests in industry,
209-220
suggestion for government re- search bureau, 250, 251 See also Law Business Psychology Psychology and Industrial
Efficiency
Psychology and the Navy Psychology and the Teacher Psychotechnik Psychotherapy Arbitration, Better than, 419-
420 Armstrong, member of British
Association, 164 Art, Principles of Art Educa- tion, 358-362 See also Eternal Values
Photoplay
Aufgaben und Methoden der Psychologie (Aims and Methods of Psychology), 305
kugenmass (Eye Estimate] , 303 Aus Deutsch-Amerika, 381, 382
Backlund, Dr. Oskar, 107, 114 Bacon, Josephine Daskam, 67 Baker, Professor George P., 197
439
INDEX
Baker, President James H., of University of Colorado, 162
Baldensperger, Professor, 254
Baldwin, Professor Mark, 49, 54
Balfour, Hon. A. J., 80
Barrows, S. J., 381
Bartlett, Professor George A., 83
Baruch, Dr. Emanuel, 88
Beauty, The Problem of Beauty, address before American Philosophical Association, 160-162, 412
Bedier, Joseph, 169
Beitrage zur Experiment ellen Psychologic (Contribu- tions to Experimental Psychology), 304
Bergson, Professor, 241, 259
Berlin, University of, centen- ary celebration, 204, 205
Better than Arbitration, 419, 420
Bezold, Gustav von, 83
Bigwater, member of British Association, 164
Boise, Idaho, Orchard trial, 141-149
Bonaparte, Prince, 87
Boody, Bertha, Dean of Rad- cliffe College, 66
Boutroux, Professor Emil, 157, 241
Bowditch, Professor, 42
Breul, Professor of Cambridge, England, 190
Bright, Dr. J. W., 140
British Association for ad- vancement of science, 163-165
Brunialti, Professor Attilio, 114, 116
Brunner, Professor, 22
440
Bryan, William Jennings, 336 Bryce, James, 107, 114, 116,
154, 155, 169, 253 Burgess, Professor John Wil- liam, 151 Burnett, Dr., 64 Burtt, Dr., 280, 281 Busch Adolphus, 170 Busche-Haddenhausen, von, 120 Business Psychology, 279 Butler, President Nicholas Mur- ray, 96, 98, 114, 205 memorial address for F. W. Holls, 120
Cabot, Dr. Arthur, 381 Cabot, Dr. Richard, 74 Calkins, Mary Whiton, 63, 66,
76, 134, 421 Canada, Miinsterberg's journey
through, 163-165 Carnegie, Andrew, donation
for Koch Institute, 139
gift to Emerson Hall,
90
letter to Carnegie, 189 Peace Conference, 138,
139 Carrington, Herreward, 176,
180 Cattell, Professor James Mc-
Keen, 75, 93, 94, 127,
128, 140 Chairman of Philosophical D2-
partment, 69 Chaplin, W. S., 95 Clover Club, Philadelphia, 124 Coeducation, Bi-education vs.
Coeducation, 421, 422 Concord, Mass., Miinsterberg's
speech at Social Circle,
91 Congress of Arts and Science
at St. Louis, 96-117 Copeland, Charles T., 91
INDEX
Cornell University, 162 Cosmopolitan Club, Detroit,
Miinsterberg's speech at,
120-123 Cosmopolitan students' clubs.
See International Czerny, Professor, 24
Dadmun, Leon, 287
Dana, Dr. Charles, 177, 381 letter to, 177
Dana, Richard H., 74
Danzig, Miinsterberg*s native city, 1-9, 14, 15, 155, 205, 228, 261
Institute of Technology, 200 meeting of naturalists, 205
Darboux, Gaston, Perpetual Secretary of French Academy of Science, 107, 114, 116
Davidson, Thomas, 49
Dawson, William Harbutt, 158, 255
Delabarre, Professor, 30, 32
Dessoir, Professor Max, 27, 187
Detroit, speech at Cosmopoli- tan Club, 120-123
Deutsch-Amerika, Aus, 381, 382
Dobschiitz, Professor von, 254
Dorr, George R., 74 letter to G. R. Dorr about Mme. Palladino, 181-182
Draper, Governor, 168
Drechsler, Dr. Walter, 196
Duveneck's statue of Emerson,
130, 132
Ebbinghaus, Professor, 27
Economic life in The Amer- icans, 340-345
Economic Psychology Associa- tion, founding of, 281
Edison, banquet of Illuminating Engineering Society, 280
Education, Educational unrest, 421
Principles of Art Education,
358-362
Psychology and Education,
address at Winnipeg, 164
Psychology and Life, 311-
313
Psychology and the Teacher, 382, 405-409, 411, 412, 418, 431
The Household Sciences, 422 See also Coeducation Edwards, letter to Mr. Edwards on moving pictures, 286 Eliot, President Charles W., 42, 46, 48, 56-60, 65, 74, 85, 119, 128, 132, 135, 166, 167, 349, 358, 410, 411 Emanuel movement in Boston, in Psychotherapy, 395- 397
Emerson centenary, 90 Emerson, Dr. Edward, 92, 130,
132-134
account of Emerson Hall in lecture at Yale, 136, 137 corner stone, 90-92 equipment for, 130-134 first plans, 69-75 remodelling, 238 visiting psychologists, 137 Epistemology. See Grundzuge
der Psychologic Eternal Values Erb, Professor, 24 Erdmann, Professor, 228 Escherich, Dr. Theodor, 114 Eternal Life, The, 362, 363 Eternal Values, The, 307, 362, 363, 383, 399-405, 406, 409, 410, 418, 425 original German version, Philosophic der Werte, 138, 362, 363, 399 survey of Eternal Values, logical, aesthetic, ethical, metaphysical values, 399- 405
441
INDEX
Ethical values. See Eternal
Values
Eucken, Professor Rudolf, 240 Evans, Dr. Albert, 301 Exchange professorship, first
plans, 118, 119 Munsterberg as exchange
professor at Berlin, 187-
207
Experiments with Orchard. See Orchard
Faelten Brothers, 301 Farlowe, Professor, 62 FerroPs reform in arithmetic,
280
Fischer, Professor Kuno, 24 Forum, address before, 295,
296 Francis, Hon. D. R., President
of St. Louis Exposition,
95, 96, 101, 113, 116 Francke, Professor Kuno, 62,
82, 83, 118, 158
Freiburg, University of, 26, 52 Freshman, The Studies, 298 Fiirstner, Professor, 24
Gardiner, Professor H. Norman,
75 Geneva, Miinsterberg's study
at, 20
George, Lloyd, 291 Gerland, Professor, 27 German Society of Boston,
founding of, 158 Germanic Museum at Harvard,
82, 83, 120 Gierke, Professor Otto von,
170
Gill, W- of Oxford, 64 Goldstein, member of British
Association, 164 Gooding, Frank, Governor of
Idaho, 145, 146 Goodwin, Professor, 42, 231
442
Grand Trunk Railway mystery, 174-176
Grundziige der Psychologic (Principles of Psychol- ogy), 308, 316-326, 332, 358
Hadley, President of Yale, 111
Hahn, sculptor, 253
Haise, Professor, 24
Hall, President Stanley, 49, 50, 111
Hall, Reverend Thomas, 106
Halle, Professor von, 192
Harnack, Professor Adolf, 107, 156, 206
Harper, President, 96, 98, 112, 114
Harris, Hon. William T., U. S. Commissioner of Ed- ucation, 111
Hart, Professor Albert Bush- nell, 276
Harvard Psychological Studies. See Psychology
Harvey, Colonel George, 278
Hay, Secretary, 106, 337
Haywood, of Western Federa- tion of Miners, 142, 144, 149
leidelberg, Miinsterberg's study at, 24-26
Helmholtz, Professor, visit to Cambridge, 47
Henkel, Professor, 22
Henry, Prince, visit to Har- vard, 83-86
Hensel, Paul, 27, 231
Higginson, Henry L., 85, 158
Higginson, Mrs. Henry L., 158
Hildebrand, Professor, 27
Hill, Hon. David Jayne, 106 letters from, 153, 154 ambassador to Berlin, 152, 156, 189, 205, 206
His, Professor, 22
INDEX
Hodgson, Richard, 366, 367 Hoefding, Professor, 107 Hoernle, Professor A., 241 Holland, member of British
Association, 164 Holleben, Theodor von, 82, 83,
118, 206 Holls, Frederick William, 80,
81, 96-99, 382 death of, 106
memorial services, 119, 120 Holt, Edwin B., 48, 53, 75, 334 Howard, Dr. L. 0., 112 Howells, William Dean, 75th
birthday, 229, 278 Hozumi, Professor Nobushige,
114, 116 Hughes, Hon. Charles E., 140,
293 Hypnotism and Freedom, 367,
368, 377 Hyslop, Professor, 366
Illinois State University, 94
Inauguration of President Lowell, 167-170
Intellectual life, in The Amer- icans, 345-355
International Congress of Arts and Science at St. Louis, 96-117
International Congress of His- torians, 156
International Polity Club, Miinsterberg's speech, 299-300
International students' clubs, Miinsterberg's speech, 200-204
Jagemann, Professor von, 62,
83 James, President of Illinois
University, 94
James, Professor William, 29- 38, 40, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, 54, 55, 59, 60, 62, 76- 78, 89, 108, 158, 177, 188, 409, 412, 413
Janet, Professor Pierre, 75, 86, 87, 107
Jastrow, Professor Joseph, 365
Jesse, President of University of Missouri, 98
Jordan, President David Starr, 111
Jouett, Dr. Fred, 297
Journal of Philosophy, Psy- chology, and Scientific Method, 93
Judd, Professor C. H., 162
Jury, The Mind of the Jury- man, 433
Kamura, Baron, 437 Kansas, University of, 94 Keibel, Professor Franz, 28 Klein, Charles, 183, 184 Kolbe, Professor, 22 Kb'nigsberg, Munsterberg's call
to University of, 125-
128
Koppel, philanthropist, 191 Kuhne, Professor, 24 Kiilpe, Professor, 228
Lafayette College, 75th an- niversary, 139-141 Miinsterberg's address, 140, 141
Lagrave, Commissioner-General to St. Louis exposition, 106, 115
Lamprecht, Professor, 105
Langfeld, Professor Herbert S., 239
Lasalle Extension University, 279
443
INDEX
Law (see Psychology and Law) Hypnotism and Crime, 368,
376, 377
Nothing but the Truth, 368 On the Witness Stand, 369-
378
Suggestions in Court, 368 Third Degree, The, 368 Traces of Emotion, 368, 372,
373 Untrue Confessions, 368, 373-
375
See also Jury Learned, Professor Marion, 194,
205
Lee, J., 74
Lehmann, F. W., 101 Lehre von der naturlichen, An- passung, Die (Doctrine of Natural Adaptation ) , 303 Leipzig, Miinsterberg's study
at University of, 21-23 Leland, Charles Godfrey, 83 Leukhardt, Professor, 22 Lewald, Commissioner-General to St. Louis Exposition, 107, 115, 116 Lipps, Professor, 22 Lodge, Senator Henry C., 84 Lodge, Sir Oliver, 278 Logical values. See Eternal
Values
Lombroso, 176 Long, ex-Governor 168 Loomis, Assistant-Secretary,
106 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
See St. Louis Lowell, President A. Lawrence,
109, 111, 197, 227 inauguration of, 167-170 Ltiroth, Professor, 28 Lyon, Professor David, 62
MacDougall, Professor Robert,
61
Mach, Edmund von, 265 Macvane, Professor, 62 Marks, Professor Lionel, 63 Marks. See Peabody, Joseph- ine
Mason, Judge, 514 McDougall, Professor William,
75
Metaphysical values. See Eter- nal Values
Meyer, Eduard, 169, 170, 206 Meyer- Waldeck, W. A., 24 Mill, Dr. Hugh, 107 Miller, Beulah, experiments
with, 244-247, 432 Miller, Dickinson, 91 Mitsukuri, Professor K., 107 Moissan, Professor Henri, 107 Moore, John Basset, 99 Moore, Professor George Foot,
42, 99, 230, 254 Moore, G. E., 409 Morgan, University Marshall.
168
Moving Pictures. See Photo- play Moving Pictures and the Child,
287
Muck, Dr. Karl, 254 Muller, Professor, 228 Miinsterberg, Else, niece of H. Miinsterberg, 158, 255 Emil, brother of H. Miinster- berg, 3, 16, 21, 107, 117, 158, 205-207, 236 Oskar, brother of H. Miinster- berg, 3, 6, 16, 17, 39, 157, 205, 236, 237, 254 Otto, brother of H. Miinster- berg, 3, 5, 17, 155, 205, 275 Murray, Sir John, 107
Nasaoki, Naochi, 437 Nasmith, Dr., 200, 201 Natrop, Professor, 27
444
Naval War College, 221-226
INDEX
Nazimova, Mme. Alia, 231 Newcomb, Professor Simon, 99-
102, 106, 114, 158 Nichols, Dr. Herbert, 39, 40 Norton, Professor Charles
Eliot, 42, 62, 73, 231
O'Brien, Robert, editor of
Boston Herald, 258 Ohio State University, 162 On the Witness Stand, 143, 149,
184, 208, 369-378, 431 Orchard, Harry, trial of, 141-
149
experiments with, 145, 146
newspaper reports, 146-149
Ostwald, Professor, 129
Owen, Professor William, 140
Oxford, Miinsterberg's call to,
64, 65
seance
Palladino, Eusapia, with, 176-188
Palmer, Alice Freeman, 66 death of, 79
Palmer, Professor George Her- bert, 42, 43, 46, 62, 69, 74, 76, 78, 79, 88, 126, 127, 131, 135, 253, 405, 410
Paris, congress of psychol- ogists, 29, 86 Exposition, 86
Peabody, Professor Francis, 74, 90, 91, 130
Peabody, Josephine Preston, 63
Peace and America, The, 269- 274
Patten, Professor, 381
Penck, Professor, 107
Perkins, Thomas Nelson, 168, 381
Pfaff, Dr. Franz, 297
Pfleiderer, Professor, 107, 158
Phi Beta Kappa, Miinsterberg's speech, 300
Philosophic der Werte, 138, 362, 363, 399, 409
Philosophy, founding of Amer- ican Philosophical As- sociation, 124 meeting at Harvard, 131,
132, 134 Munsterberg's presidency,
131, 160
International Congress of Philosophers. See In- ternational
Miinsterberg Chairman of Philosophical Depart- ment, 69
Miinsterberg's system of phi- losophy. See Eternal Values
Photoplay, interest in, 281-287
Photoplay, The, a Psychological Study, 282-285
Picard, Professor Emil, 107
Pickering, Professor and Mrs., 62
Pierce, Professor Arthur, 45, 48, 75
Poincare, Professor Henri, 107, 205
Political parties in The Amer- icans, 335, 336
Political problems in The Americans, 338-340
Pressy, experiments with street lighting, 281
Prince Henry. See Henry
Prince, Dr. Morton, 364
Princeton Graduate School, Miinsterberg's speech at opening, 242-244
Pritchett, President Henry S., 98, 188
Prohibition and Social Psychol- ogy, 378-381
Prohibition and Temperance, 415
445
INDEX
Psychical Research. See Spir- itualists
Psychology, Grundzuge der Psychologic (Principles of Psychology), 316-326
Harvard Psychological Stud- ies, volume i, 332 volume ii, 364 volume iii, 424 volume iv, 278
Miinsterberg's decision to study, 22
American Psychological As- sociation, 65, 92, 93, 124, 131, 132, 134, 162, 227, 244
Business Psychology, 279
Economic Psychology Asso- ciation, 281
Position of Psychology in System of Knowledge, 332
Psychologic und Wirtschafts- leben, 233, 419
Psychology and Education in Psychology and Life, 311-313 address at Winnipeg, 164
Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, 212, 233, 248 419, 424-427, 431
Psychology and Law, 150, 151 See also On the Witness Stand
Psychology and Life, 309-316
Psychology and Light, speech before Illuminating En- gineering Society, 280
Psychology and the Navy, 221-226, 423
Psychology and Social San- ity, 424, 432-436
Psychology and the Teacher, 382, 405-409, 411, 412, 418, 431
Psychology General and Ap-
446
plied, 256, 278, 310, 311,
317, 424, 427-432 Psychotechnik, Grundzuge
der, 227, 254, 424 Psychotherapy, practice of,
170-176 Psychotherapy, 208, 382-399,
409, 411, 418, 431 Puffer, Ethel D., 54, 63, 421 Purposive psychology. See
Psychology General and
Applied
Putnam, Henry W., 83, 85, 86 Putnam, Herbert, 98
Radcliffe College, 47, 48, 302
Ramsay, Sir William, 107, 114
Rand, Benjamin, 72
Ratzenhofer, Field Marshall Gustav, 107
Redfield, Secretary of Com- merce, 248
Reichenheim, member of British Association, 164
Religion, chapter on, in The
Americans, 353-355 See Eternal values
Metaphysical values Eternal Life
Repplier, Agnes, 278
Ribot, Professor, 364
Richardson, member of British Association, 164
Richet, Professor, 86, 87
Richmond, president of Union College, 209
Rickert, Professor Heinrich, 28, 52, 125, 156
Riehl, Professor Alois, 28, 240, 241, 253
Robbins, R. C., Robbins Li- brary, 74, 90, 130
Robinson, Professor Fred, 63
Robinson, Nelson, 130
Rogers, Howard J., 96, 98, 112, 113, 115
INDEX
Roosevelt, Alice, 84
Roosevelt, Theodore, 80-82, 84, 152, 155, 277, 278, 293, 336, 337, 344, 357
Root, Secretary of State and Mrs., 152
Rowland, Eleanor, 422
Royee, Professor Josiah, 39-46, 48, 55, 62, 76, 83, 88, 89, 111, 126, 157, 186, 253, 264, 265
Russell, Bertrand, 241, 255
Santayana, George, 42, 46, 63, 91
Sargent, E. Winthrop, 287
Schiff, Jacob, 185, 191
Schmidt, Dr. Friedrich, 105, 185, 191, 196
Schrenck-Notzing, 29
Schurz, Karl, 50, 83, 85, 119, 198, 253, 382
Science and Idealism, lecture at Yale, 135-137
Science and Idealism, 363-364
Semon, Sir Felix, 107
Settlements, speech at 25th an- niversary of university settlements, 228-229
Shaler, Professor Nathaniel, 42, 62, 231
Shaw banquet at St. Louis, 115, 116
Sievers, Professor, 105
Singer, Dr. Michael, 292
Skiff, Fiederick J. V., 96, 98, 113, 114
Small, Professor Albion W., 99-102, 106, 112, 150
Smith, Alphonso, 198, 205, 206
Smith, member of British As- sociation, 164
Smithsonian Institute, 188, 189, 192, 196
Social Circle of Concord, 91
Solano, Salita, 287
447
Soul, The Eeturn of, 278-279 Speyer, James, 185, 191 Spirit of Self -Assertion in The
Americans, 355-358 Spirit of Self -Direction in The
Americans, 334-340 Spirit of Self -Initiative in The
Americans, 340-345 Spirit of Self-Perfection in The Americans, 345-355 Spiritualists. See Palladino Communication with the
Dead, 366, 367 My Friends, the Spiritualists,
416
St. Louis, Washington Univer- sity, degree from, 94, 95
World's Fair, Congress of Arts and Science, 96-117 Stein, Professor, 27 Stern, Professor, 228 Steuben, unveiling of statue at
Utica, N. Y., 256-257 Steunenberg, ex-Governor, mur- der of, 141
Strathcona, Lord, 163, 164 Stuart, Hon. Edwin S., 140 Studies, The Freshman, 298 Stumpf, Professor, 228 Subconscious, symposium on
the, 364-366
In Psychotherapy, 389, 390 Sunday, Billy, 415
Taft, William Howard, Sec- retary of War, 152, 155 President, 170, 184, 186, 188,
237
Taussig, Professor F. W., 62 Telephone, tests with New Eng- land telephone, 212-214 Terberg, Hugo, pseudonym, 53 Third, The Degree, play by Chailes Klein, 183, 184 Thompson, Hon. Elihu, 99
INDEX
Thompson, President of British
Association, 163, 164 Thorndike, Professor Edward
L., 127 Titchener Professor E. B., 55,
151, 162
Toennies, Professor, 127 "To-morrow," 292-295
chapter in The Peace and
America, 273, 274 Toy, Professor, 62 Troeltsch, Professor, 107 Twenty-five Years in America,
297, 298
Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., 209
Universities, chapter on, in The Americans, 348, 349
University Settlements, 25th an- niversary, 228, 229
Urban, Professor W. M., 409
Ursprung der Sittlichkeit (Ori- gin of Morality), 306
Vaichinger, Professor, 27 Van't Hoff, Professor, 82, 107 Vocation, Choice of a, 413, 414 Vocation and Learning, 244, 418, 424-426
Walcote, H. P., 127
Waldeyer, Professor Adolf, 105, 107, 114, 118, 156
Waller, member of British As- sociation, 164
War and America, The, 257- 262
Ward, D., 74
Ward, Julius, 278
Warfield, President of Lafay- ette College, 139
Warren. Winslow, 177, 381
448
Washington University, LL. D.
from, 94, 95
Watjen, Reverend H. W., 246 Watson, member of British As- sociation, 164 Weissman, Professor, 22 Welch, Dr. William H., 99 Wells, H. G., 258, 259, 260 Wendell, Professor Barrett,
106
Wesselhoeft, Dr. Walter, 44 Wheeler, President of Univer- sity of California, 138 White, Alfred T., gift to
Emerson Hall, 90 White, Andrew D., 83, 104, 110, 111, 120, 152, 411, 412
White, William, member of British Association, 164 Wiedemann, Professor, 22 Wilkins, Zora P., 192, 230, 257,
288, 382
Willenshandlung (Will Activ- ity), 304, 305 Williams, Dr. Henry Smith,
177, 380 Wilson, Woodrow, President
of Princeton, 109, 111 President of U. S., 248, 268,
269, 277, 291, 293 Wilson, W. B., Secretary of
Labor, 248
Windelband, Professor, 27, 157 Winnipeg, Congress of British
Association, 163 Woodward, C. M., 95 Woodward, Robert S., Ill Worcester, Dr., Emanuel Move- ment in Psychotherapy, 395-397
World's Fair. See St. Louis Wundt, Professor, 22, 27, 54, 105, 156
INDEX
Yale, lectures by Harvard pro- fessors, 135
Miinsterberg's lecture at Yale, 135-137
Yerkes, Professor Robert M., 75, 131, 238, 239
Zurich, University of, 57, 58
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