But Germany has
furnished great individual workers, such as Fechner, Helmholtz, and
Wundt. Collective investigation was necessary to separate individual
peculiarities from general laws. Science of course aims at changing
the study of individual minds/into "a valid science of mind." Mr. J.
Jacobs wished a Society to be organised for the purpose of measuring
mind, measuring our senses, and for testing our mental powers as
accurately as weight and height are tested now, and also for
experimenting on will practice. He believed it possible to train the
will on one thing until we got it perfectly under control, and in so
doing we should modify character immensely. If this proved possible,
we ought to persevere until conduct becomes an art, education a
principle, and mind is known as a science is known. Mr. Jacobs wanted
systematic enquiries to be made into powers of attention, such as "Can
we listen and read at the same time, and reproduce what we have read
and heard." And into the faculties of observation and memory, with
after images, and the capacity for following trains of reasoning,
&c., &c., "When we read a novel, do we actually have pictures of the
scenes before our minds?" Mr.
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