Essays and debates tending to clear up
and expound systematic psychology and systematic logic should make a
full half of the society's work.
Does any one feel a doubt upon the point, as so stated? If so, it will
be upon him to show that Psychology, in its methodical pursuit, is a
needless and superfluous employment of strength; that the problems of
ethics, ontology, &c., can be solved without it--a hard task indeed, so
long as they are unsolved in any way. I have no space for indulging in
a dissertation on the value of methodical study and arrangement in the
extension of our knowledge, as opposed to the promiscuous mingling of
different kinds of facts, which is often required in practice, but
repugnant to the increase of knowledge. If you want to improve our
acquaintance with the sense of touch, you accumulate and methodize all
the experiences relating to touch; you compare them, see whether they
are consistent or inconsistent, select the good, reject the bad, improve
the statement of one by light borrowed from the others; you mark
desiderata, experiments to be tried, or observations to be sought.
All that time, you refrain from wandering into other spheres of mental
phenomena.
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