mined by the psychical reactions it is capable of
producing and maintaining permanently. It is the psychical reaction,
therefore, that in this case determines and establishes the systematic
"mental test." The psychical reaction which constitutes the sole basis
of comparison in the determination of the tests, is a _polarization of
the attention_, and _the repetition of the actions_ related to it.
When a stimulus corresponds in this manner to the "reflex
personality," it serves, not to _measure_ but to _maintain_ a lively
reaction; it is therefore a stimulus to the "internal formation."
Indeed, upon such activity, awakened and maintained, the accompanying
organism initiates its internal elaborations in relation to the
stimuli.

This does not penetrate into the ancient ambit of pedagogy as a
science that _measures_ the personality, as the experimental
psychology introduced in schools has hitherto done, but as a science
that _transforms_ the personality, and is therefore capable of taking
its stand as a true and real pedagogy. Whereas the ancient pedagogy in
all its various interpretations started from the conception of a
"receptive personality"--one, that is to say, which was to receive
instructions and to be passively formed, this scientific departure
starts from the conception of an _active_ personality--reflex and
associative--developing itself by a series of reactions induced by
systematic stimuli which have been determined by experiment. This new
pedagogy accordingly belongs to the series of modern sciences, and not
to antique speculations, although it is not directly based on the
purely metric studies of "positive psychology." But the "method,"
which informs it--namely, experiment, observation, evidence or proof,
the recognition of new phenomena, their reproduction and utilization,
undoubtedly place it among the experimental sciences.

* * * * *

=External stimuli may be determined in quality and quantity=.--Nothing
can be more interesting than such experiments. By their means external
stimuli may be determined with the greatest precision, both as regards
quality and quantity. For instance, very small objects of various
geometric forms will only attract the fugitive attention of a child of
three years old; but by increasing the dimensions gradually, we arrive
at the limit of size when these objects will fix the attention; then
such objects excite an activity which becomes permanent, and the
result