A manual of psychology / by G.F. Stout.

  • George Frederick Stout
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A manual of psychology / by G.F. Stout. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    709/800 page 685
    is fully understood, it can no longer be regarded as a separate and independent agency prompted by internal impulses, analogous to tlie will of personal beings. But where the principle of action is regarded as something ultimate and independent, intrinsic to the nature of the individual thing, there is nothing to prevent the mind from treating the agency as personal or quasi-personal. The cataract or the whirlpool appears a living thing to the poet in his poetic moods ; for in these moods he ignores the fact that the water is simply behaving in accordance with certain abstract laws under certain given conditions. This fact is not ignored by the savage; it has never been realised by him. Hence, what may be a transient play of imagination in the civilised mind, is the permanent and serious attitude of the savage mind. It is permanent and serious because it is prompted and upheld by practical needs. In presence of personal agencies, he can never feel himself utterly helpless. He can always attempt to in- fluence them as he influences his own fellows in society. He can propitiate them by offerings, by prayers, by self- humiliation, by flattery, and even by threats and punish- ments. Of course, these means often fail; but they fail frequently in the case of human beings. Personal caprice and perverseness introduce incalculable elements into the problem. But this only serves to make possible the survival of the anthropomorphic point of view. Failure can always be explained, and apparent success can always be regarded as convincing evidence. Continued malignancy on the part of the supposed personal agency can always be ascribed to deep resentment of neglect shown to it, or of injury done to it, consciously or unconsciously. Besides, it is always possible to say that things would have been still worse if proper methods had not been taken. It has been shown that the primitive conception of
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