e martë, 23 tetor 2007

The case is no different with regard to sound



The case is no different with regard to sound. When we speak of a sound
coming from a bell, what we really mean is that the vibrations of the
bell have set up waves in the air between it and our ear, which have
produced corresponding vibrations in the ear; that a nerve current was
thereby produced; and that a sound was heard. But the sound (i.e.,
sensation) is a mental thing, and exists only in our own consciousness.
What passed between the sounding object and ourselves was waves in the
intervening air, ready to be translated through the machinery of nerves
and brain into the beautiful tones and melodies and harmonies of the
mind. And so with all other sensations.




The keen eye and rapid hand of gain, of what Jouffroy calls



self-interest well understood, is sometimes quicker than the brain and
will of philanthropy to discern and inaugurate reform
The keen eye and rapid hand of gain, of what Jouffroy calls
self-interest well understood, is sometimes quicker than the brain and
will of philanthropy to discern and inaugurate reform. An illustration
of this statement, and a practical recognition of the physiological
method of woman"s work, lately came under my observation. There is an
establishment in Boston, owned and carried on by a man, in which ten
or a dozen girls are constantly employed. Each of them is given and
required to take a vacation of three days every fourth week. It is
scarcely necessary to say that their sanitary condition is
exceptionally good, and that the aggregate yearly amount of work which
the owner obtains is greater than when persistent attendance and labor
was required. I have never heard of any female school, public or
private, in which any such plan has been adopted; nor is it likely
that any similar plan will be adopted so long as the community
entertain the conviction that a boy"s education and a girl"s education
should be the same, and that the same means the boy"s. What is known
in England as the Ten-hour Act, which Mr. Mundella and Sir John
Lubbock have recently carried through Parliament, is a step in a
similar direction. It is an act providing for the special protection
of women against over-work. It does not recognize, and probably was
not intended to recognize, the periodical type of woman"s
organization. It is founded on the fact, however, which law has been
so slow to acknowledge, that the male and female organization are not
identical.[35]




NOT REALLY DIFFERENT KINDS OF ATTENTION



NOT REALLY DIFFERENT KINDS OF ATTENTION.--It is not to be understood,
however, from what has been said, that there are _really_ different
kinds of attention. All attention denotes an active or dynamic phase of
consciousness. The difference is rather _in the way we secure
attention_; whether it is demanded by sudden stimulus, coaxed from us by
interesting objects of thought without effort on our part, or compelled
by force of will to desert the more interesting and take the direction
which we dictate.




e hënë, 22 tetor 2007

The Ideal Commonwealth supposed established, is doomed to degradation



and decay; passing through Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, to
Despotism, with a corresponding declension of happiness
The Ideal Commonwealth supposed established, is doomed to degradation
and decay; passing through Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, to
Despotism, with a corresponding declension of happiness. The same
varieties may be traced in the Individual; the "despotized" mind is
the acme of Injustice and consequent misery.




He adduces a number of illustrations to show that reason alone is



insufficient to make a moral sentiment
He adduces a number of illustrations to show that reason alone is
insufficient to make a moral sentiment. He bids us examine Ingratitude,
for instance; good offices bestowed on one side, ill-will on the other.
Reason might say, whether a certain action, say the gift of money, or
an act of patronage, was for the good of the party receiving it, and
whether the circumstances of the gift indicated a good intention on the
part of the giver; it might also say, whether the actions of the person
obliged were intentionally or consciously hurtful or wanting in esteem
to the person obliging. But when all this is made out by reason, there
remains the sentiment of abhorrence, whose foundations must be in the
emotional part of our nature, in our delight in manifested goodness,
and our abhorrence of the opposite.




Surely, when all is said, the ultimate objection to the English



public school is its utterly blatant and indecent disregard
of the duty of telling the truth
Surely, when all is said, the ultimate objection to the English
public school is its utterly blatant and indecent disregard
of the duty of telling the truth. I know there does still
linger among maiden ladies in remote country houses a notion
that English schoolboys are taught to tell the truth, but it
cannot be maintained seriously for a moment. Very occasionally,
very vaguely, English schoolboys are told not to tell lies,
which is a totally different thing. I may silently support
all the obscene fictions and forgeries in the universe,
without once telling a lie. I may wear another man"s coat,
steal another man"s wit, apostatize to another man"s creed,
or poison another man"s coffee, all without ever telling a lie.
But no English school-boy is ever taught to tell the truth, for the
very simple reason that he is never taught to desire the truth.
From the very first he is taught to be totally careless about whether
a fact is a fact; he is taught to care only whether the fact can
be used on his 'side' when he is engaged in 'playing the game.'
He takes sides in his Union debating society to settle whether
Charles I ought to have been killed, with the same solemn
and pompous frivolity with which he takes sides in the cricket
field to decide whether Rugby or Westminster shall win.
He is never allowed to admit the abstract notion of the truth,
that the match is a matter of what may happen, but that Charles I
is a matter of what did happen--or did not. He is Liberal or Tory
at the general election exactly as he is Oxford or Cambridge
at the boat race. He knows that sport deals with the unknown;
he has not even a notion that politics should deal with the known.
If anyone really doubts this self-evident proposition,
that the public schools definitely discourage the love of truth,
there is one fact which I should think would settle him.
England is the country of the Party System, and it has always
been chiefly run by public-school men. Is there anyone
out of Hanwell who will maintain that the Party System,
whatever its conveniences or inconveniences, could have been
created by people particularly fond of truth?




e diel, 21 tetor 2007

THE Missouri Botanical Garden has recently celebrated the



twenty-fifth anniversary of its foundation and the New York
Botanical Garden its twentieth anniversary
THE Missouri Botanical Garden has recently celebrated the
twenty-fifth anniversary of its foundation and the New York
Botanical Garden its twentieth anniversary. Within these short
periods these gardens have taken rank among the leading
scientific institutions of the world. Botanical gardens were
among the first institutions to be established for scientific
research; indeed Parkinson, the 'botanist royal' of England, on
the title page of his book of 1629, which we here reproduce,
depicts the Garden of Eden as the first botanical garden and
one which apparently engaged in scientific expeditions, for it
includes plants which must have been collected in America.
However this may be, publicly supported gardens for the
cultivation of plants of economic and esthetic value existed in
Egypt, Assyria, China and Mexico and beginning in the medieval
period had a large development in Europe there being at the
beginning of the seventeenth century botanical gardens devoted
to research in Bologna, Montpellier, Leyden, Paris, Upsala and
elsewhere. An interesting survey of the history of botanical
gardens is given in a paper by Dr. A W. Hill assistant director
of the Kew Gardens, prepared for the celebration of the
Missouri Garden, from which we have taken the illustration from
Parkinson and the pictures of Padua and Kew.




Book Tenth discusses Pleasure, and lays down as the highest and perfect



pleasure, the exercise of the Intellect in Philosophy
Book Tenth discusses Pleasure, and lays down as the highest and perfect
pleasure, the exercise of the Intellect in Philosophy.




This is a school for girls; and we may properly appeal to the women of



Massachusetts to do their duty to this institution, and to the cause it
represents
This is a school for girls; and we may properly appeal to the women of
Massachusetts to do their duty to this institution, and to the cause it
represents. We can already see the second stage in the existence of many
of those who are to be sent here; and there is good reason to fear that
the relation of mistress and servant among us is in some degree
destitute of those moral qualities that make the house a home for all
who dwell beneath its roof. But, whether this fear be the voice of truth
or the suggestion of prejudice, that woman shall not be held blameless,
who, under the influence of indolence, pride, fashion, or avarice, shall
neglect, abuse, or oppress, the humblest of her sex who goes forth from
these walls into the broad and dangerous path of life. But this day
shall not leave the impression that they who are most interested in the
elevation and refinement of female character are indifferent to the
means employed, and the results which are to wait on them.




e shtunë, 20 tetor 2007

If, instead of the simpler sensory processes which we have just



considered, we take the more complex processes, such as memory,
imagination, and thinking, the case is no different
If, instead of the simpler sensory processes which we have just
considered, we take the more complex processes, such as memory,
imagination, and thinking, the case is no different. Who has not reveled
in the pleasure accompanying the memories of past joys? On the other
hand, who is free from all unpleasant memories--from regrets, from pangs
of remorse? Who has not dreamed away an hour in pleasant anticipation of
some desired object, or spent a miserable hour in dreading some calamity
which imagination pictured to him? Feeling also accompanies our thought
processes. Everyone has experienced the feeling of the pleasure of
intellectual victory over some difficult problem which had baffled the
reason, or over some doubtful case in which our judgment proved correct.
And likewise none has escaped the feeling of unpleasantness which
accompanies intellectual defeat. Whatever the contents of our mental
stream, 'we find in them, everywhere present, a certain color of passing
estimate, an immediate sense that they are worth something to us at any
given moment, or that they then have an interest to us.'




The house you have erected is not so much dedicated to the school as to



the public; the institution here set up is not so much for the benefit
of the young women who may become pupils, as for the benefit of the
public which they represent
The house you have erected is not so much dedicated to the school as to
the public; the institution here set up is not so much for the benefit
of the young women who may become pupils, as for the benefit of the
public which they represent. The appeal is, therefore, to the public to
furnish such pupils, in number and character, that this institution may
soon and successfully enter upon the work for which it is properly
designed.




e premte, 19 tetor 2007

There is no doubt that Jenner"s medical contemporaries, at



least in England, failed to appreciate the magnitude of the
gift their colleague had presented not merely to his own
country, but to the world at large
There is no doubt that Jenner"s medical contemporaries, at
least in England, failed to appreciate the magnitude of the
gift their colleague had presented not merely to his own
country, but to the world at large. The discovery had, of
course, been led up to by several different lines of
indication, but this in no way detracts from the genius of
Jenner in drawing his memorable inductions from the few facts
which others had known before his time. The fame of Newton is
no whit diminished because Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo lived
and worked before him, the credit due to Harvey is none the
less because many before his time had worked on the problem of
the heart and vessels, and because some of them, notably
Cesalpinus, came within a very little of the discovery of the
circulation; the achievements of Darwin are not to be belittled
because Lamarck, Malthus or Monboddo had notions in accordance
with the tenor of his great generalization of evolution among
living beings. Certainly Jenner had precursors; but it was his
genius and his genius alone which, putting together the various
fragments of knowledge already possessed, gave us the grand but
simple induction based on his own experiments that vaccinia
prevents from variola. It was too simple and too new to be
appreciated in all its bearings either by the medical men or
the laity of his own day. Its impressiveness is not inherent in
it, as it is in the mathematical demonstration of universal
gravitation, as it is in the atomic theory or in that of the
survival of the fittest through natural selection. The English
country doctor merely said in essence--'let me give you cowpox
and you will not get smallpox.' Unless the fact of this
immunity is regarded as possessed by all the nations of the
world for ever more there is nothing particularly impressive in
it; and so it failed to impress his contemporaries. It is only
when we contrast the loathsomeness and danger of smallpox with
the mildness and safety of vaccinia and varioloid that we grasp
the greatness of the work which Jenner did for mankind. The
very simplicity of vaccination detracts from its impressiveness
unless its results are viewed through the vista of the
centuries. We need the proper historical perspective in this as
in all else. Thus viewed, however, the simplicity of the
procedure and the universality of its application are most
imposing. Vaccination does not, indeed, dazzle the scientific
imagination like some of the other generalizations of biology,
but it is one that has been gloriously vindicated by the
subsequent history of the world"s hygiene.




e enjte, 18 tetor 2007

Until recently would-be food reformers have made the mistake of seeking



to secure concentrated dietaries, especially for army rations
Until recently would-be food reformers have made the mistake of seeking
to secure concentrated dietaries, especially for army rations. It was
this tendency that caused Kipling to say, 'compressed vegetables and
meat biscuits may be nourishing, but what Tommy Atkins needs is bulk in
his inside.'




Medical treatment by a physician can always mitigate and shorten the



duration of a cold and lessen the danger of complications, the symptoms
of which can not always be appreciated by the patient
Medical treatment by a physician can always mitigate and shorten the
duration of a cold and lessen the danger of complications, the symptoms
of which can not always be appreciated by the patient.




e mërkurë, 17 tetor 2007

In spite of these qualifications, however, it becomes apparent



that the statistics above established can not be rejected
In spite of these qualifications, however, it becomes apparent
that the statistics above established can not be rejected.
Although they do not exactly justify Dr. Woods"s conclusions,
they at least show that the intellectual achievements of
different races vary. They also show that a much more extensive
study of the subject must be made before any conclusions can be
established as final.




It is an art to observe well--to go through the world with our eyes



open--to see what is before us
It is an art to observe well--to go through the world with our eyes
open--to see what is before us. All men do not see alike, nor see the
same things. Our powers of observation take on the hues of daily life.
The artist, in a strange city or foreign land, observes only the
specimens of taste and beauty or their opposites; the mechanic studies
anew the principles of his science as applied to the purposes of life;
the architect transfers to his own mind the images of churches,
cathedrals, temples, and palaces; while the philanthropist rejoices in
cellars and lanes, that he may know how poverty and misery change the
face and heart of man.




An erect posture is attractive from an esthetic point of view, and for



that reason is sure again to become fashionable with women, after a due
reaction from the present slouching vagary
An erect posture is attractive from an esthetic point of view, and for
that reason is sure again to become fashionable with women, after a due
reaction from the present slouching vagary. It is also closely
associated with self-respect. We know that any physical expression of
an emotion tends reflexly to produce that emotion. Therefore, not only
does self-respect naturally tend to brace a man"s shoulders and
straighten his spine, but, conversely, the assumption of such a
braced-up attitude tends to 'brace up' the man"s mind also. Tramps and
other persons who have lost their self-respect almost invariably slouch,
while an erect carriage usually accompanies those feeling their
respectability. We jokingly refer to those whose self-respect verges on
conceit as 'chesty,' while we compliment one who is not so extreme by
saying, 'He is no slouch.'




At once the old questions arise



At once the old questions arise. Are these processes
fundamentally peculiar to the life of organisms? Does the
capacity of the organism thus to adjust itself to its
environment involve factors not found in the operations of
inorganic nature? Our answers will be determined essentially by
the nature of our interest in the organism--whether we regard
its existence as the END or merely an incidental EFFECT of its
activities. The first alternative is compatible with
thoroughgoing vitalism. The second, emphasizing the nature of
the processes rather than their usefulness to the organism,
relieves biology of the embarrassments of vitalistic
speculation, and allies it at the same time more intimately
than ever with physics and chemistry. This alliance promises so
well for the analysis of adaptations, as to demand our serious
attention.




2



2. In the long run, we must expect the stars to grow colder, at
least as to the surface strata. What the average interior
temperatures are is another question; the highest interior
temperatures are thought to be reached at an intermediate or
quite late stage in the process, in accordance with principles
investigated by Lane and others; but the temperatures existing
in the deep interiors seem to have little direct influence in
defining the spectral characters of the stars, which are
concerned more directly with the surface strata.[1] We should
therefore expect the simpler types of spectra, such as we find
in the helium and hydrogen stars, in the early stages of the
evolutionary process. The complicated spectra of the metals,
and particularly the oxides of the metals, should be in
evidence late in stellar life, when the atmospheres of the
stars have become denser and colder.




e martë, 16 tetor 2007

He first quotes Butler to show that all virtue is not summed up in



Benevolence; repeating that there is an intrinsic rectitude in keeping
faith; and giving the usual arguments against Utility, grounded on the
supposed crimes that might be committed on this plea
He first quotes Butler to show that all virtue is not summed up in
Benevolence; repeating that there is an intrinsic rectitude in keeping
faith; and giving the usual arguments against Utility, grounded on the
supposed crimes that might be committed on this plea. He is equally
opposed to those that would deny disinterested benevolence, or would
resolve beneficence into veracity. He urges against Hutcheson, that,
these being independent and distinct virtues, a distinct sense would be
necessary to each; in other words, we should, for the whole of virtue,
need a plurality of moral senses.