This article is an application of a few psychological conceptions to certain problems in sociology. The difficulty arising from the lack of progressive wants in some men is explained psychologically as a lack of disturbance of the mental equilibrium. The remedy is found in compelling both children and grown persons to struggle mentally in solving their own life problems. When means to ends are discovered, mental stability is renewed. The law is that the more mental equilibrium is disturbed, the more exposed it is to fresh disturbances. Hence every new interest multiplies interests, and the danger of becoming automatic at a low stage of development is diminished. Mr. Stout's theory of noetic synthesis when applied to sociology means (1) that the new cannot be assimilated unless the mind is prepared to receive it; (2) that society is held together by the presence, in its individuals, of similar affections, tendencies to gregariousness, and reasoning powers; (3) that the higher the stage of development, the more definitely organized is the reasoning process of the individual minds and the society constructed by those minds. The individual is governed in his reasoning by the idea of the whole matter under consideration rather than by the special idea last emerging. Children and the poor should be taught to find means to ends. The incentive to action should be neither fear of punishment nor hope of reward apart from the consequences of the action itself. It should be interest in definite ends and the means leading to ends as organic parts of life.
A small object was fixated for a few minutes by the subject immediately before sleeping at night. The following morning the dream of the night was recorded. Some 300 experiments were made upon people of various ages and occupations. It was found that the color, form, and size of the object often appeared, in the dream. Sometimes a complementary color appeared. The qualities of the object appeared in new combinations, and often elements from previous experiences were intermingled. The author concludes that the visual apparatus reproduces just before awakening the conditions of the previous evening. The fact that elements from daily experience and from the special presentation of the evening unite in various new syntheses, he explains by independent functioning of the various brain cells involved in perception.
This is a continuation of two articles summarized in a previous number of the Review (VI, 3). The third stage in the development of speech is
