factors. A period elapses before the pressure is changed into a nervous message or impulse. This time is very short in the case of touch; but light working on the retina seems to effect chemical changes in it, and these take up some little time, probably about onefiftieth of a second. After a nervous impulse has been generated it moves along the nerve and spinal cord to the brain, not traveling with immense rapidity like light, but at the rate of an express train. In the brain it must move on to a center having to do with sensation, where changes are brought about, through which a further impulse is sent on to a center having to do with motion, and a motor impulse having been prepared there is sent down to the hand. Another pause, of from one two-hundreth to one-hundreth of a second now occurs, while the muscle is being excited, after which the fingers are contracted and the reaction is complete. The entire time required is usually from one-tenth to one-fifth of a second. The reaction-time varies in length with different individuals and for the several senses, but as long as the conditions remain the same the times are very constant, only varying a few thousandths of a second from each other. One may wonder how it is possible to measure such short times and with such great accuracy. It would not be easy if we had not the aid of electricity; but when it is called to mind that a movement made in London is almost instantaneously registered in Edinburgh, it will not seem inconceivable that we can record to the thousandth of a second the instant a sense-stimulus is produced and the instant a movement is made. The time passing between these two events can be measured by letting a tuning-fork write on a revolving drum. The tuning-fork can be regulated to vibrate with great exactness, say five hundred times a second; it writes a wavy line on the drum, each undulation long enough to be divided into twenty equal parts, and thus time can be measured to the ten-thousandth of a second.

The psychologist is chiefly interested in what goes on in the brain and mind. It seems that about one-half of the entire reaction-time is spent while brain changes take place, but we know very little as to these changes, or as to how the time is to be allotted among them. It is probable that in the case of the simple reaction the movement can be initiated before the nature of the impression has been perceived. We can, however, so arrange the conditions of experiment that the observer must know what he has seen, or heard, or felt, before he makes the movement. He can, for example, be shown one of a number of colors, and not knowing beforehand which to expect, be required to lift his finger only when red is presented. By making certain analyses and subtracting the time of the simple reaction from the time in the more complex case, it is possible to determine with considerable accuracy the time it takes to perceive, that is, the time passing from the moment at which an impression has reached con

sciousness until the moment at which we know what it is. In my own case about one-twentieth of a second is needed to see a white light, one-tenth of a second to see a color or picture, one-eighth of a second to see a letter, and one-seventh of a second to see a word. It takes longer to see a rare word than to see a common one, or a word in a foreign language than one in our native tongue. It even takes longer to see some letters than others.

The time taken up in choosing a motion, the "will-time," can be measured as well as the time taken up in perceiving. If I do not know which of two colored lights is to be presented, and must lift my right hand if it be red and my left hand if it be blue, I need about one-thirteenth of a second to initiate the correct motion. I have also been able to register the sound waves made in the air by speaking, and thus have determined that in order to call up the name belonging to a printed word I need about one-ninth of a second; to a letter one-sixth of a second; to a picture one-fourth of a second; and to a color one-third of a second. A letter can be seen more quickly than a word, but we are so used to reading aloud that the process has become quite automatic, and a word can be read with greater ease and in less time than a letter can be named. The same experiments made on other persons give times differing but little from my own. Mental processes, however, take place more slowly in children, in the aged, and in the uneducated.

It is possible, further, to measure the time taken up in remembering, in forming a judgment, and in the association of ideas. Though familiar with German, I need on the average one-seventh of a second longer to name an object in that language than in English. I need about one-fourth of a second to translate a word from German into English, and one-twentieth of a second longer to translate in the reverse direction. This shows that foreign languages take up much time even after they have been learned, and may lead us once more to weigh the gain and loss of a polyglot mental life. It takes about two-fifths of a second to call to mind the country in which a wellknown town is situated, or the language in which a familiar author wrote. We can think of the name of next month in half the time we need to think of the name of last month. It takes on the average one-third of a second to add numbers consisting of one digit, and a half-second to multiply them. Such experiments give us considerable insight into the mind. Those used to reckoning can add two to three in less time than others; those familiar with literature can remember more quickly than others that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. In the cases which we have just been considering a question was asked admitting of but one answer, the mental process being simply an act of memory. It is also possible to ask a question that allows of several answers, and in this case a little more

time is needed; it takes longer to mention a month when a season has been given than to say to what month a season belongs. The mind can also be given still further liberty; for example, a quality of a substantive, of a subject or object for a verb, can be required. It takes about one-tenth of a second longer to find a subject than to find an object; in our ordinary thinking and talking we go on from the verb to the object. If a particular example of a class of objects has to be found, as "Thames" when "river" is given, on the average a little more than a half-second is needed. In this case one nearly always mentions an object immediately at hand, or one identified with one's early home; this shows that the mind is apt to recur either to very recent or to early associations. Again, I need one second to find a rhyme, one-fifth of a second longer to find an alliteration. The time taken up in pronouncing an opinion or judg ment proved to be shorter than I had expected; I need only about a half-second to estimate the length of a line, or to say which of two eminent men I think is the greater.

Our thoughts do not come and go at random, but one idea suggests another, according to laws which are probably no less fixed than the laws prevailing in the physical world. Conditions somewhat similar to those of our ordinary thinking are obtained, if on seeing or hearing a word we say what it suggests to us. We can note the nature of the association and measure the time it takes up, and thus get results more definite and of greater scientific value than would be possible through mere introspection or observation. By making a large number of experiments, data for laws of association can be collected. Thus if a thousand persons say what idea is suggested to them by the word "Art, "the results may be so classified that both the nature of the association and the time it occupies throw much light on the way people usually think. Such experiments are useful in studying the development of the child's mind; they help us to understand the differences in thought brought about by various methods of education and modes of life, and in many ways they put the facts of mind into the great order, which is the world.-J. MCK. CATTELL., in The Nineteenth Century.

CURRENT THOUGHT.

KINGLAKE'S "INVASION OF THE (gaged for a score of years in writing the CRIMEA."-The Crimean War lasted not quite two years, from September, 1854 to July, 1856. It was by no means a gr at war, either in object, execution, or results. Not so thinks Mr. Alexander William Kinglake, who has been en

history of the war. After the preparatory labor of several years, he put forth four volumes in 1863; a fifth volume appeared in 1875, and a sixth in 1879. And now when verging upon fourscore, the author issues the seventh and eighth

volumes of a work which he took in | Providence, which will realize Mr. Kinghand at the age of forty-five. Surely lake's forebodings."

THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE.

so little a war as that in the Crimea was ever so largely written about. Of this work and its author the Pall Mall Gazette-Only one specimen of the handwriting

says:

of John Harvard has been known to be in existence, and is his signature to a document deposited in the Registry of the English University of Cambridge. Another document containing his signature and that of his brother Thomas, has just been brought to light. Of this a correspondent of the Athenæum writes:

"There is something pathetic in the spectacle which Mr. Kinglake has just presented to the world in the completion of his History of the Invasion of the Crimea. It affords an instance rare in our times of a brilliant author consecrating his life to the production of a single work. Mr. Kinglake has written "I ask a small portion of your space Eothen, but he has put his life into his for the purpose of recording the discovery Invasion of the Crimea. The seventh of an autograph of John Harvard, and and eighth volumes, which have just also of his brother Thomas, of whom appeared, bringing the history down to I believe no other writing has been found. its close, are an opportune reminder that The brothers, as is known, held certain even in this age of journalism and elec- property by lease from the Hospital of St. tricity we are not lacking in the famous Katharine, near the Tower of London. type of the patient and laborious stu- Communications were, therefore, opened dent who spends with unremitting zeal with the present authorities of the Hoshis allotted span of life in the production pital, by whom they were very kindly of one book. Mr. Kinglake's dedication received, and a thorough search of the of more than thirty years of existence very numerous muniments of the hospital to the literary task which he has just was made by direction of Sir Arnold brought to its intended close carries the White, the Chapter Clerk of St. Kathanind back to the days when Europe rine's. The result, now first made public, was full of pale and patient toilers who was the bringing to light of the original in the seclusion of their monastic cell counterpart lease from the hospital to wrought their life into their work, de- John Harvard, Clerke, and Thomas Har voting fifty years to the illumination of vard, Cittizen and Cloth worker of London,' a single missal. Mr. Kinglake's History of certain tenements in the parish of Allis not unlike their work. He is an his-hallows, Barking, the lease bearing date torical missal painter, and he has ex-July 29th, 1635, and the counterpart being hausted upon the Invasion of the Crimea executed by John Harvard and Thomas as much patience and devotion as ever enthusiast lavished over the illustration of the Gospel or the adornment of his breviary. It is ended now. The long labor is over, and Mr. Kinglake's work is done. It used to be said that he shrank from finishing it because he felt that when his book was done his life would close. We hope that brighter days and better health may still await this literary veteran, but at present we regret to hear that age and the increasing infirmities which wait in its train give him but too much ground for fearing that his melancholy prognostic may come true. And yet why melancholy? Nothing seemed to cause Carlyle greater regret and excite more impatient resentment against the inscrutable purpose of the Unseen Powers than the fact that they kept him lingering superfluous in the world after his work was done. It MR. DONNELLY AND SHAKESPEARE.may be no evil destiny, but a beneficent The London Athenæum, not long ago,

Harvard. A feature of no little interest is that this is not an antiquarian curiosity whose history has to be traced, with more or less of uncertainty and doubt, from one hand to another during a period of 250 years, but a document which not only is in legal custody, but in the selfsame custody into which it passed so soon as the ink of the signatures to it was dry, and in which, I may add, it will remain so long as it shall endure. Custody is a point the supreme importance of which will be recognized without the need of further remark from me. Thanks to permission courteously given, a facsimile, of the full size of the original-some 17 in. by 20 in. and in the very best style, is now being executed, copies of which will very shortly be procurable.'

64

published, as a bit of "Gossip," that book, What I Remember, he describes the in spite of the patent absurdity of the author of Romola, whom he seems to have theory, Messrs. Sampson Low & Com-known very well :pany intend to bring out Mr. Donnelly's volume." To this Messrs. Low & Company rejoin:

She was not, as the world in general is aware, a handsome, or even a personable woman. Her face was long; the eyes "We trust you will allow us to say, I think, of a greyish blue-the hair, which not large nor beautiful in color-they were, that we think it would only have been fair to Mr. Donnelly, as the author, and she wore in old-fashioned braids coming ourselves as the publishers, of a work low down on either side of her face, of a one-half of which is not yet printed, rather light brown. It was streaked with Her figure was had you suspended your judgment as grey when last I saw her. to this patent absurdity,' until the com- of middle height, large-boned and powerplete volumes had been in your hands. ful. Lewes often said that she inherited It may interest some of your readers to from her peasant ancestors a frame and be informed that the writer of the ar- constitution originally very robust. Her ticles in the Daily Telegraph has not head was finely formed, with a noble and seen a sixth part of the proof-sheets of well-balanced arch from brow to crown. the complete work, and that only in de- The lips and mouth possessed a power of tached portions; and yet he, stout Shak- infinitely varied expression. George Lewes spearean though he certainly is, has been once said to me, when I made some obsersufficiently impressed with Mr. Donnelly's vation to the effect that she had a sweet intense earnestness and honesty to speak face (I meant that the face expressed great of his immense labors and extraordinary sweetness), 'You might say what a sweet ingenuity with respect; he does not pro- in amazement. Her countenance is conhundred faces! I look at her sometimes nounce him a fool or a charlatan, as many have flippantly done without any stantly changing.' The said lips and knowledge whatever of what he has really mouth were distinctly sensuous in form done. For ourselves, since you, not and fullness. She has been compared to pleasantly, point to us as the future pub- the portraits of Savonarola (who was lishers of this patent absurdity,' we think frightful) and of Dante (who, though it is only necessary to say that, except Something there was of both faces in stern and bitter-looking, was handsome). within certain bounds of decency and respectability, we cannot be held responsible George Eliot's physiognomy. Lewes told for the opinions or convictions of our us in her presence of the exclamation utauthors. It will be our endeavor to tered suddenly by some one to whom she put this work before the public as was pointed out at a place of public enterquickly and as decently as tainment: That,' said a by-stander, 'is Then you, and Mr. Donnelly, and the George Eliot.' The gentleman to whom she public can thresh the question out be- was thus indicated gave one swift, searchtween you, whilst we stand and look ing look and exclaimed, sotto voce, 'Dante's on, holding still to the old motto, Magna aunt!', Lewes thought this happy, and he est veritas et prævalebit.' In a few weeks recognized the kind of likeness that was the volume will be issued." meant to the great singer of the Divine Comedy. She herself playfully disclaimed any resemblance to Savonarola. But, although such resemblance was very distant-Savonarola's peculiarly unbalanced countenance being a strong caricature of hers-some likeness there was."

we can.

GEORGE ELIOT'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE.-Mr. Thomas Adolphus Trollope has certainly seen a good many persons and things during the seven-and-seventy years of his life. In his recently published