in their science, and thus are rendered powerless to
inspire thought. They never meditate; they read a great deal;
they think in mental images which no more represent facts
than a diagram on the blackboard represents a living organ;
and these images differ among different psychologists, but
their language is always the same. They do all this believing
they are making progress, and instead of training their
pupils to observe for themselves without prejudice, they
instil their own prejudices into the minds of the students,
cramming them with definitions and descriptions of the
strangest and most amorphous kind, which effectually prevent
them from thinking for themselves.

But within the tree there is the fundamental structure which
they have not begun to examine, though the revelation of this
would explain all the external data. The details would
diminish in importance; all these details issuing from a
single root might be classified in the simplest manner. This
"science" reminds me of that antiquated lore which dealt
with the constellations, when the laws of planetary motion
were not yet known, and the so-called science confined itself
to descriptions of the "Great Bear," the "Crab," the "Goat,"
etc.

I detest those dryasdusts who, unaware of their own
ignorance, write enormous arid tomes with an air of great
majesty, as if they were revealing absolute knowledge, books
that lie heavy on the minds of the students, making them dry
as their teachers. But the students seem to me to care only
about passing their examinations and to have no thought of
discovering new knowledge; and the professors "serve" them to
this end. Thus we are all in a state of servitude due to a
mistaken system of education, which calls loudly for reform.

III

MY CONTRIBUTION TO EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

=The organization of psychical life begins with the characteristic
phenomenon of attention=.--My experimental work with little children
from three to six years old has been, in fact, a practical
contribution to research which has for its aim the discovery of the
treatment required by the soul of the child, a treatment analogous to
that which hygiene prescribes for its body.

I think, therefore, that it is essential to record the fundamental
fact which led me to define my method.

I was making my first essays in applyin