A handbook of psychology / by J. Clark Murray.

Date:
[1888]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of psychology / by J. Clark Murray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    22/456 (page 6)
    fore the Science of Language will be found of continual service to the psychologist; for whether in the wide re- searches of comparative philology, or in the etymology of isolated words, the speech of men often reveals the histoiy of ideas and feelings and mental habitudes, which could not otherwise be traced with so sure a step. 2. The origin of language is hidden in the trackless distance of a prehistoric past; so also is the origin of society and of the system of life which society entails. But the actual condition of society, both in our own day and throughout historical periods, is within our reach ; and there are few more fascinating branches of study than that which investigates the picturesque varieties of moral standard, of social custom, of political institutions, by which human life is diversified under different climates and at different stages of civilisation. The accumulation of evidence on these subjects, especially in recent times, throws occasionally a welcome light, if not on the origin, at least on the development of many feelings and ideas and convictions, which play an important part in the human consciousness. The collection and preservation of accurate statistics with regard to the existing pheno- mena and the current changes of society, are becoming a serious work among all civilized nations; and the facts thus obtained may often be consulted for evidence of the operation of great mental laws. 3. The studies, which have just been indicated, belong to what older writers, with some propriety, were wont to describe as the Natural History of Man. But the civil or political history of man,—what we understand by history simply, including, of course, biography, which is but the history of individuals—is not without its value to the psychologist, as revealing the mental influences by which human life receives its determinate character in any