State Board of Charities of New York of the much-discussed George Junior Republic. The republic was a sort of "co-ed" institution of correction. Its boys and girls were to govern themselves. They were to try, sentence, and imprison, for whatever period they wished, all offenders among their members. According to its founder, one might see at this institution "boys and girls as they really are." Now after a thorough investigation the State Board not only criticizes the moral conduct of the founder, William R. George, but also finds that his example had the effect of leading to immoral acts on the part of a number of the older boys and girls. THE report of the Board recommends the removal of the girls from the colony, and condemns practically every feature that has characterized the "republic" idea. But the most germane contribution from the report to the matter we are discussing, is its finding that the republic gave too great emphasis to the exposition and discussion of crime, and that this in turn generated crime. Now, according to some modern educators, knowledge of evil and of the wretched consequences of sin, will inevitably check the growth of evil and of sin. 66 Put before them the horrible results, show them the far-reaching evil effects, and they will halt. Paint the picture in all its horror, and anyone who sees will never again offend." THE root am this that is ever HE root fallacy of all this is that it forgets that if a man is ever to be virtuous, he must love virtue for itself. Vice has enough attraction in it to win him, and enough power to persuade him that he can have the pleasure without the penalty. It is strong enough sometimes to win him, even though he knows he must pay the penalty. 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Some particular aspect of a problem we are engaged in considering, monopolizes our attention; some luminous spot in the object of our search darkens the rest of our field of vision. A mysterious form of hypnotism steals over us; consciousness becomes for the time being partially eclipsed; we have failed to control our ideas, and they retaliate by controlling us. If you have ever pored over the history of philosophy, you must have turned from its pages with a feeling of surprise, amounting almost to bewilderment, at the amount of incomplete thinking there recorded. Nearly everybody appears to be basking in the light of his own predilections. It veritably seems as if the systembuilders were incapable of seeing the truth in all its relations, and foredoomed to see it in but one; and that not always the broadest, nor the most inclusive, though constantly mistaken for such by its devotees. Were another Ruth to follow in the wake of these gleaners, she would find enough unused material for a second reaping, and be well rewarded for her search. A history of human oversights would make a fine companion volume to the history of philosophy. It is not necessary, however, to go so far afield in quest of VOL. XCVIII.-37 IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. instances. These may be discovered closer to hand in the intimacy of your own mental life-in the profiles of truth so often mistaken for its full-faced picture; in the opinions once held with pride, and later abandoned in humiliation, when the limited sweep of your vision was suddenly pointed out in blinding clearness by a mind more penetrating than your own. It is hard for any of us to realize how easily his attention may be monopolized. Victims of ideas seem to be less conscious of their enslavement than victims of passion and habit. Psychologists say it is all a matter of temperament, this tendency of the mind to confine attention unduly to one side of a problem. The reasons underlying it, in other words, are temperamental rather than logical-matters pertaining more to the different way individuals are affected by their environment, and to their greater or less ability to assimilate it, than to any radical difference in the structure of the mind itself. This explanation is made to cover all the differences of opinion appearing in the history of philosophy from Thales to James. In fact, the recent philosophy of Pragmatism might justly be called the autobiography of this temperamental theory. There is, indeed, an original capacity, a native disposition of mind, differing in each individual, and determining to a large extent how he shall assimilate his environment, and be affected by it. Things and interests that rouse your soul to a high pitch of enthusiasm may leave mine cold, indifferent, and unresponsive. The way I think, feel, and respond to the same stimulus differs from yours, though we both possess a common nature. A varying power of assimilation, a different receptive capacity, is the badge of all our tribe. Lazarus may have a richer vision than Dives, notwithstanding the difference in economic ease and comfort. The unconsidered remainder of truth too often lies, like an undiscovered country, beyond the range of the temperamental choices peculiar to each of us as individuals. But this does not mean that character is the joint product of heredity and environment. Nurture, no less than nature, is at play in the making of men. Our native capacities are easily enlarged by training, they are not predestined to move in appointed grooves. Be the explanation of our mental shortsightedness, therefore, what it may, the fact is more important than the theory. One concerns life; the other, knowledge. It is enough if we realize that we lack, in no small measure, what has recently been well called "the ability to see things steadily, and to see them whole." There is no need to pursue the matter further in the introduction to the present theme. We have the power within ourselves to correct and overcome this defectiveness of vision. A more careful training of the attention, a more severe exercise of our reasoning powers, less chasing after metaphors, images, analogies, and suggestive figures of speech, not to mention that other chief prerequisite the elimination of judgments based wholly on the personal temperament of the individual—will go a long way, if not, indeed, the full length, towards effecting a cure. Recurrences of the same fault should not stay our efforts to accomplish this mental reform. Robert Bruce took heart at the sight of a spider, repeatedly trying, in the face of many failures, to remount the filmy ladder leading to his web. Success favors the persistent, as fortune the brave. The possession of a fixed idea or principle may be a sign of perfection in matters that concern the performance of duty, public and private. The road of the moral conscience is unbending, lit with the silvery light that makes good resplendent, and leaves evil dark. A definite moral sense of direction is not a limitation of action, so much as a free, unwavering choice of a particular destiny, and the means that lead thereunto. But when we leave the sphere of matters moral, and enter that of truths to be seen rather than of things to be done; when we step, so to speak, out of conscience into consciousness, it must be confessed that the world which floods our vision with the rich variety of its contents is not one that may be written out in a simple formula, or exhausted in a single line of thought. Your Socialist, therefore, and your biologist, all the men, in fact, who sing one song, and thrum a single string, have not caught the music of the spheres, nor gathered in and garnered the full meaning of life. This requires a chorus for its rendering; no solo could ever do it justice. Accordingly, the purpose of what follows is simply to show, by means of several shining examples to the contrary, what a redeeming thing it is to be able to complete the thinking which others leave unfinished; to consider the unconsidered remainder, and escape out into the open from the imprisoning theories of men. Let the account, usually given, of the American Revolution lead the way in the line of instances. It is one of the straws showing how steadily the wind blows over the fields of history; and, inci |