Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/429

ALBERT LEVY, Psychologic du Caractere. 413 it is only capable of explanation on the hypothesis of free-will in one sense or another. But it would be unfair to judge the author's work as a whole by this part of it. He not only furnishes an interesting historical account of the various attempts which have been made since the appearance of Kant's Anthropology toward constructing the pro- posed science, and adds a much-needed bibliography of the subject, but he has given the most complete account which I have yet seen of the various influences in the environment, whether social or merely physical, which go to the formation of character ; the gifts of health, beauty and strength, and their contraries ; the changes of the organism from infancy to old age ; the effects pro- duced by different kinds of nutrition, by various diseases, by hot and cold climates, by the richness and poverty of the soil, by various social influences, by opinion and custom, by the impulse of imitation in the child. On the other hand he has not succeeded in formulating these influences and the changes of character that seem to accompany them as scientific laws of tendency universally valid. It is difficult to do more than to point to certain conjunc- tions as probable or as frequently found to exist. And among such empirical generalisations it is rare to find any careful and precise analysis of the qualities of character or of the particular change in the environment or organism which seems to produce them. Thus M. Levy remarks that the character of the sexes, which before puberty appears almost the same, at that epoch becomes clearly differentiated, " more sweetness, timidity, delicacy and sensibility fall to girls ; the boys become more active, im- petuous, audacious " (p. 103). Now is it certain that these changes of character are due to a change in the reproductive organs, and is it certain what precisely they are for all members belonging to the same sex ? Do boys become more active after puberty than in childhood, and what precisely does this activity mean ? Children appear in general more active than adults, if we confine ourselves to the physical activity we can all see. They play and romp while the nurse sits looking on or sewing. But if we do not confine our- selves to physical activity, how can we be sure of its increase or decrease, and by what common standard can we measure physical and mental activity? And is it certain that boys become more courageous and girls more timid at puberty, or is the increase of courage of the former due to the general growth of the organism and the consciousness of increasing strength that accompanies it ? Does it include moral as well as physical courage ? Again, is the increase of timidity in girls due not directly to the bodily condition, but to the consciousness of a state which has to be concealed and a new danger connected with it? With regard to the last, it will depend largely on their personal attractions. If they are ill- favoured and no youth pay court to them, they will scarcely, unless blinded by conceit or stupidity, be conscious of a danger. And if this increase of timidity where it occur as a fact may be