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Bain, Alexander, 1818-1903

"Practical Essays"

With them the distinction is thoroughly ingrained, and comes
to hand at a moment's notice. If I am to review in detail what may be
considered the practical or applied departments of logic and psychology,
I am in danger of trenching on their "bread-and-butter" region. Before
descending, therefore, into the larder, let us first spend a few seconds
in considering psychology as the pursuit of _truth_ in all that relates
to our mental constitution. If difficulty be a stimulus to the human
exertions, it may be found here. To ascertain, fix, and embody the
precise truth in regard to the facts of the mind is about as hard an
undertaking as could be prescribed to a man. But this is another way of
saying that psychology is not a very advanced science; is not well
stored with clear and certain doctrines; and is unable, therefore, to
confer any very great precision on its dependent branches, whether
purely speculative or practical. In a word, the greatest modesty or
humility is the deportment most becoming to all that engage in this
field of labour, even when doing their best; while the same virtues in
even greater measure are due from those engaging in it without doing
their best.


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