As the French National Scientific Association, in their meeting at
Grenoble, two years ago, recognized in their most startling form the
phenomena of human impressibility which are illustrated in the "Manual
of Psychometry," and reported the most marvellous experiments in
medicines,--an act of liberality which has no parallel in
English-speaking nations,--so at the late meeting of their Scientific
Congress, as I learn from the German magazine, the _Sphinx_, the new
principle of education was broached which I feared to present in the
"New Education," and was received with general approbation by that
learned body.
Of course there was not a complete presentation of the subject, for
that would require a complete knowledge of the brain, which no
scientific association claims at present, and which will have its
first presentation to the readers of the JOURNAL OF MAN, but the
process of educational development was studied by the French _savants_
from the standpoint of mesmeric science and its leading methods, which
are now (freed from the name of an individual) styled _hypnotism_; or,
the sleep-producing process.
In that passive and impressionable condition which is called hypnotic,
mesmeric, somnambulic, or somniloquent, it has long been known that
the subject may be absolutely controlled by the operator, or by a
simple command or suggestion, or by his own imagination. This has been
so often demonstrated before many hundred thousands of spectators,
that it is a matter of general knowledge everywhere among intelligent
people,--everywhere except, perhaps, in the thick darkness of medical
colleges, where ignorance upon such subjects has long been made the
criterion of respectability, and perhaps among a few very orthodox
congregations, where such things have been associated with the idea of
witchcraft, and considered very offensive to the Lord. Such was the
doctrine of my old contemporary at Cincinnati, Dr. Wilson, at the head
of the leading orthodox congregation; and it was equally offensive to
the champion debater of Presbyterian orthodoxy, the Rev. N. L. Rice,
whom I arraigned before a vast audience for his antiquated falsehoods.
If the church and the college are getting a _little_ more enlightened
now, I cannot forget the condition in which I found them, of stubborn
hostility to scientific progress, and these things _should not be
forgotten_ until they have repented, reformed, and ceased to be a
stationary obstruction.
We are not accustomed to look to a Catholic country like France for
advanced thought, yet, in these instances just mentioned, we find
French scientists entertaining advanced ideas which the leaders of
American science treat with either indifference or hostility. The
_Popular Science Monthly_ and medical journals generally treat all
such matters with stubborn aversion and injustice. The learned
collaborators of Johnson's Cyclopedia were unwilling even to have the
science of psychometry mentioned in it, and it was introduced by the
publisher against their protest. These things I mention now, that the
great public to which I appeal may better understand the real value of
the opinions of those who stand in positions of authority and
influence.
I would not wish to diminish by harsh criticism the sentiment of
reverence which is already too feeble in the American mind. We cannot
be too reverent to real intellectual and moral greatness, but to
reverence beyond their worth the teachers of old inherited falsehoods,
is to be a traitor to truth. The literature of to-day is controlled by
ancient or mediaeval errors, and the fresh science seeking expression
in the JOURNAL OF MAN could not have found expression in periodical
literature. Our leading periodicals would not have opened their pages
to the exposition of educational methods which is to be given in this
essay. _Intolerance_ is the inheritance which the generation of to-day
has received from ancestors who two or three centuries ago delighted
in hanging or even burning the exponents of opinions contrary to their
own; and where intolerance is not in the way, the energy of literary
cliques is exerted to hold exclusive possession of the field.
With this exordium, which the occasion seemed to require, let us
proceed to consider the most powerful and radical measure, which
belongs to the science of education, and which has been developed by
the science of anthropology.