The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-17
AT THE UNIVERSITY.
LECTURE ON "THE SPIRIT OF
THE AGE"
A Large Audience Listens to Fine
Effort by Professor Roylance-
Professor Stewart Lectures Next
Tuesday.

The regular weekly lecture at the
university last night was delivered by
Professor w. C. Rovlance on the sub
ject, The Spirit of the Age 6The lee
turer said in beginning that it was his
purpose TO give a brief explanation,
from the point of view of psychology,
of the phenomenon variously known as
thought transferencc, emotional conta-
gion, psychic atmosphere and the spirit
of the age; and in these remarks l
shall use the expression spirit of the
age. since it most nearly describes the
phenomenon in question. and is, l
think. quite generally used in the sense
in which 1 shall here employ it.
Most persons speak of there being
some sort of subtle spiritual bond unit
ing groups of individuals associations
of friends. families, communities, ma
tions. races-as though it were a famil-
lar fact which none would question;
but if questioned closely concerning
their belief in the actual existence of
such = bond thew will be almost sure
to say they have been speaking fig
uratively, or that the reality. if it is
a reality. is one of the mysteries OF
existence. 1 believe that here, as is
often the case, the popular belief is
that the spiritual bond uniting groups
of human individuals is as real as the
spiritual existence of the individuals
severally, and that there may be pSy-
choiOgy of crowds. communities, ma
lions and races, which will be as truly
a science as that which aims to give
an account of the individual mind Is
it objected that the latter is not a sci
ence: that il cannot ex9lain the ulti-
ORIGIN nf n1in62 The
answer is that no careful psychologist
makes any such claim for it, Psychol-
ogy, like the physical sciences, deals
with relative truth. with phenomena
as thew are observed and interpreted;
like the physical sciences, it interprets
q given experience by means OF other
experiences; and like them it IS COM
pletelv in the dark as to absolute be-
ginings The elementary datum of the
physical sciences is a simple sense pre-
sentation; that of mental science is a
simple feeling; these are essentially
the same, and they are psychic facts
facts of the inner life of the indivld-
ual and not of an outer world existing
apart from and independent of the IN
dividual.
But 10 person can give an account
of his inner life except through sys-
lem of representations which constr-
ality. Thought must be obiectified to
be conveyed from one mind to another
No matter what subtle means of COM
munication we assume the thought that
awakes in the mind of any individual
is his thought and his alone. Tne
simplest realities and the DrotoundeSt
truths alike come to each person as
unique possession; he can never share
them with another nor exchange them
for the like possessions Of others. In
this sense each individual has sepa-
rate world. and in this world he is
s.cabined. cribbed, confined" more
closely than ever was prisoner in the
deepest dungeon of the gloomiest cas-
ties of olden times. But in another and
more COMPREHENSIVE sense. he is in
timately connected with every other be-
ing whose physical organization is like
his own. So far as we knew, no mind
exists apart from a nervous system.
This is the necessary basis of mental
life. It is through and by means of
the nervous system that the Individual
mind comes into contact with the world
of nature and with other individual
minds. But it may be shown that the
world of nature itself is reducible to
psychic or spiritual terms. as l have
intimated. Our familiar objects are
points of contact between different
minds. and it would be extremely diff
cult to show that they are anything
else. There is constant interaction be-
tween these and our nervous systems,
which. indeed are but objects of the
same sort themselves; and the psychic
or spiritual accompaniment of all this
interaction is thought and feeling that
makes up the throbbing reality of life.
But. if all these thoughts and feel