sort make up for the destruction of the humus, and the rocks may again be clothed. But it will be a long time.

The sunset was behind this fortress, and the black, quiet water at its feet. As we stood and pitied, shading our eyes, we were aware of the approach of a small boat. It was empty but for one oar whose blade was black and charred, and in the bottom of it was a dark gleam of water. It came broadside; there was a path on the water, an odd, straight mark showing a current. It was a wearylooking Thing, and the Other Traveler, going out on a log with a pole, tried to coax it to shore; but, like some wandering ghost that peers through your window wistfully at midnight but may not come in and rest, it hesitated a moment, then, with a little shiver, went quietly by, and on and on, growing smaller in the dull sunset color.

66 "Huh! That's no good," shouted our driver from the road. "It's be'n in the water three years, ever since the fire."

Three years! A long time for a small boat to be voyaging. Imagine it! In the first place, the enormous flames sweeping down upon it, cutting its rope and setting it free. Days it lay under the smoke, unable to see what had happened; then the rain, and at last the blackened and distorted rim of forest. The cottage burned where its owner had lived, and, for miles about, the boat was itself the most nearly living thing in existence, able at least to move about. Three winters it had been frozen in ice and filled with snow, three springs have set it free to sail through the lily-pads on the black water. Thunderstorms have rocked it, moonlight has been reflected in the dark lapful of water that is its only freight, and still it goes on and

We have been lost! That is, not exactly, for we could see the mountains and tell in a general way the right direction and hold to it, but after we had gone up and down the road to Round Pond, and then turned to go back, suddenly the trail was swamped by brambles, and we must boldly strike out a new way for ourselves through a sea of red raspberry bushes, under which lurked all sorts of derelict charred stumps and logs, abysses formed by the 'beds of long-dry brooks, and doubtful footing of all sorts. Sometimes a log that lay before us like a bit of good pavement would crumble to powder under our feet, sometimes blackened gridiron that had once been corduroy would look as if it could help us in our trouble, only to give way like dry bones and let us through into a kind of sub-cellar which in some other climate would have been full of snakes. But most bewildering, perhaps, was the multitude of tiny paths, trails evidently, which led confidently for a little way, then stopped abruptly in a trampled circle of raspberry vines.

a

After we had followed several of these only to disappointment, one of us, with a countenance both stern and brave, remarked: "Those paths are not made by people, but by deer and-bears. Truly bears. They come after the raspberries."

And hardly was this announcement made when from our right came a crash and snort, the flash of a large dun body and a white tail, and a long series of very rapidly receding crashes. We had started up a deer. We were glad we had seen the dun and white of it, otherwise one might have imagined that it was a black thing with claws, and might have been nervous. As it was, we kept on with good heart enough, but it was a bitter journey, some of it, and we thought now and then of the one who had been hurt on the mountain, and how easy it would be for one of us to be suddenly crippled there in the bramble forest. But at last we came out and down, worse only in our clothes, which were not such as we should have voluntarily chosen upon such an adventure; came down to a good yellow road, and so to our wondering driver, and to the hotel only three hours later than we had planned.

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OME time ago there appeared in the columns of a periodical devoted to the interests of advertisers an article from the pen of a leading American psychologist dealing with one of the principal laws of "suggestion "-the power of the direct command. The writer drew attention to the universal tendency of mankind, proved alike by observation and experiment, to execute almost automatically orders given in such a form as not to arouse antagonistic ideas; and he pointed out several ways by which, in his opinion as a scientific student of the workings of the human mind, advertisers might utilize the suggestive force of the direct command to better advantage than they were then doing.

Among those who read this article was the advertising manager of one of the largest cereal manufacturing firms in the United States. It was a firm that already advertised extensively and to good effect, but it had never tried to increase the sale of its products by advertising them in accordance with the ideas set forth by the psychologist, whose arguments so strongly impressed the manager that he determined to put them to a practical test. After careful study, a display advertisement was prepared having as its most striking feature a picture of a well-gowned woman at a boudoir desk, and opposite this, in good clear type, the legend: "Sit right down and write for a sample of – No special effort at publicity was made, the advertisement being published in only the magazines and newspapers regularly 'patronized by the firm. But the response it elicited was amazing. As the manager stated in an enthusiastic communication to the editor of the periodical in which the helpful article had appeared:

"We wish to say that our February advertisement, embodying 'the direct command' advised by Professor Scott, is bringing far greater returns than any advertisement we have ever before published, and this is surprising in view of the fact that the public are overloaded with free samples of hundreds of cereals,

and are so confused thereby that they hardly know what they want.

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Another advertising manager to read and profit from the same article was Mr. John A. Thayer, the originator of the well-known catch phrase, "Just get the 'Delineator,'" a phrase that undoubtedly has been very influential in increasing the circulation of that magazine for women. In relating, in "Printer's Ink," how he happened to think of it, Mr. Thayer said: I had tried for more than a year to hit upon a suitable phrase, but nothing would come to me. One day I read an article by Professor W. D. Scott, in which he showed that if the words, Cut this coupon out and mail it to-day,' were used instead of 'Use this coupon,' there would be a larger number of replies. It is his theory that people will follow a definite direction of this sort, and the theory appealed to me. So I formulated my phrase in the belief that its suggestion would be followed, especially by women. Results have proved that it is an effective phrase. To my personal knowledge the catch line has tantalized even men until they bought copies to see the publication for themselves.

Incidents like these, of which a great number might be cited, have helped to awaken the advertising world to an appreciation of the aid available through the researches of the expert psychologist into the factors that catch and hold the attention, arouse interest and desire, and lead to action—the aim and end of all advertising. To be sure, the awakening is as yet far from complete. I was astounded, in talking recently with the advertising manager of one of Boston's big department stores, to learn that he had not even glanced at a certain text-book on the psychology of advertising that is brimfull of valuable information from an advertiser's point of view. I mention other books on the same order.

"I guess I've missed those, too," said he.

"Don't you think," I suggested, "that it might be advisable to read them ?"

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"Oh, I don't know," was his reply. "Things look pretty good to me as they are. I might as well stand pat and jog along the old way."

Another advertising man in the same city contemptuously and somewhat profanely declared that he had never received, and never expected to receive, any help from psychologists. He concluded by asking:

"What the mischief does a psychologist know about business, anyhow?"

He had missed the point completely. It is not that the psychologist claims to be a business man, but that he claims to possess, and does possess, methods for studying human nature, its motives, its likes and its dislikes, with an exactness and ease impossible to the business man, who must, at that, be a pretty good student of men himself in order to be successful. Moreover, by his expert knowledge the psychologist is able to save the business man from making costly mistakes-such as investing a large sum of money in an advertising campaign along lines that violate psychological laws, and hence are foredoomed to failure. By enlisting the aid of the psychologist and submitting proposed advertisements to him for criticism and revision a heavy and sometimes disastrous loss might be averted.

This is precisely what not a few American advertisers are doing to-day, and what they are likely to do in increasing numbers. Psychologists of such standing as Professors Scott and Münsterberg are frequently called upon to test specific advertisements, sent to them by progressive manufacturers and dealers for the purpose of determining in advance of publication the probable suggestive value of their wording and general appear

ance.

Even such a seemingly trivial matter as the kind of type used may be fatal to an advertisement's effectiveness. If it is to be illustrated, much will depend on the character of the illustration, which, if unwisely chosen, is sure to suggest to the mind of the prospective customer ideas altogether different from the ideas the advertiser wishes to convey. Special attention has to be paid to the position and comparative conspicuousness of the various textual elements-the name of

the commodity, its description, the seller's name and address, etc. Concerning these and all similar problems the psychologist is in a position to give valuable advice, because of the special knowledge he has gained through his scientific study of mental operations in the individual and in the race.

In the selling of merchandise across the counter or "on the road" the business man can also profit greatly by utiliz ing the results of psychological research as an aid in increasing his power to make sales. Indeed, it is not too much to say that every salesman who would really master his vocation should study psychology as earnestly as he studies the goods he is trying to sell. In order to sell them it obviously is necessary for him to induce a favorable mood in those whom he approaches, and, while many men seem to know instinctively how to do this or have learned in the hard school of experience how to do it, there can be no doubt that even the most expert salesman would find his efficiency, and consequently his earning capacity, considerably enlarged by a careful study of, for example, the psychology of suggestion.

To many people the word " suggestion has a sinister meaning, and implies some uncanny, occult force applicable only under abnormal conditions, as when a person is hypnotized or is mentally weakened by disease. In reality there is nothing supernatural about it; it is a fact of universal occurrence, and it is applicable to everybody. By suggestion is meant nothing more than the implanting of an idea into the mind so skillfully that it disarms opposing ideas and tends to realize itself in action. Every salesman is striving to do this very thing. It is his object, above all else, to carry conviction with regard to the goods he offers, to inspire a belief that their purchase is desirable, and to transform that belief into an actual purchase. Only in so far as he is able to do this is he a successful salesman.

Now, during recent years some of the foremost psychologists of this country and abroad have been conducting exhaustive experiments to ascertain the factors of suggestibility-the principles by which ideas may be most readily and effectively

conveyed with suggestive force from one mind to another. The result of their efforts has been the accumulation of a great variety of data and the formulation of some definite laws, knowledge of which is of extreme importance to salesmen. No matter how confident a man may be that he already knows all there is to be learned with regard to handling other people and my personal investigations have satisfied me that many salesmen, like many advertising men, feel that they stand in no need of outside and academic" assistance there is no one who would not profit from a close acquaintance with the psychology of suggestion. Beyond any question, there is a science of salesmanship, rooted in the scientific scrutiny and analysis of the workings of the mind; and the day must come when the business world as a whole will recognize this.

That its general recognition is indeed almost at hand is indicated pretty clearly by the success that has attended the efforts of a progressive Westerner to establish a school of salesmanship having among its principal courses instruction in business psychology. This man, a graduate of the University of Michigan, started his school in Chicago in 1902. To-day he has branch schools in many of the leading cities of the United States and Canada, and the services of his instructors are constantly in demand by big business firms as well as by individual salesmen and heads of sales departments. Some firms have even retained him to map out selling talks" for their travelers, in order to enable them the more easily to apply in a concrete way the psychological principles taught in the regular courses of instruction. And, judging from the appreciative letters he has received, it would seem that recourse to his advice and tuition has been of widespread benefit. Thus the Washington, D. C., superintendent of one of our largest life insurance companies declares :

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but my efficiency has been greatly increased by the knowledge you give regarding whys and wherefores. Your lessons, especially on The Psychology of Selling,' are most practical. My opportunities have increased marvelously because of my increased ability in the work of instructing, directing, and encouraging my staff."

On the other hand, it must be said that an attentive reading of the prospectus of this school of salesmanship leaves the impression-at any rate, has left it on the present writer-that, although it certainly represents a step in the right direction, it claims too much in its implications that by conscientiously mastering its teachings anybody can become a successful salesman. If the researches of the modern psychologist have established any one fact, it is that the choice of a vocation is a matter that should receive far more thought than most people at present give to it. For it is now known that success in any calling depends on something more than industry, training, and interest in one's work. All these make for success, but there is need also for taking into the strictest account one's physiological and psychological fitness for the particular task.

Usually this is the last thing thought of, if it is thought of at all-personal inclination, the financial possibilities of certain occupations, or mere chance being the determining factor in the vocation choice. And because of this neglect of what ought to be a fundamental consideration many men go through life, so to speak, like square pegs trying to fit themselves into round holes. Too often they are complete failures; sometimes they achieve a partial success, but nothing like the success that would have been theirs had they, before definitely choosing their calling, allowed themselves to be scientifically tested as to their psycho-physiological fitness for ittested, for example, as to their type of memory, their type of attention, the rapidity of their reactions to various stimuli, and so forth. With regard to all such problems the modern psychologist, by the use of his delicate instruments and ingenious methods of experimentation, is able to offer the greatest assistance. And they are problems of far more than theoretical importance to the young man or woman choosing a career. As was pointed out

not long ago by Professor Münsterberg in the course of a discussion of this subject:

"There are mills in which everything depends on the ability of the workingman to watch at the same time a large number of moving shuttles, and to react quickly on a disturbance in any one. The most industrious workman will be unsuccessful at such work if his attention is of the type that prevents him from such expansion of mental watchfulness. The same man might be most excellent as a worker in the next mill, where the work demanded was dependent upon strong concentration of attention on one point. There he would surpass his competitors just because he lacked expanded attention and had the focusing type. The young man with an inclination to mill work does 'not know these differences, and his mere self-observation would never tell him whether his attention was of the expansive or of the concentrated type.

"The psychological laboratory can test these individual differences of attention by a few careful experiments. . .. Moreover, the psychological experiment can analyze the great varieties of fatigue, the fluctuations, the chances for a restitution of energy after fatigue; and it is evident that every result can be translated into advice or warning with regard to the vocational choice of the boy or girl. There are machines to which people with one type of fatigue could never be adapted, while those with another type might do excellent work. Even the natural rhythm of motor functions is different for every individual. The pace at which we walk or speak or write is controlled by organic conditions of our will, and is hardly open to any complete change. Again, it is Again, it is clear that the thousands of technical occupations demand very different rhythms of muscular contraction. If a man of one natural rhythmical type has to work at a machine that demands a very different rhythmical pace, life will be a perpetual conflict in which irritation and dissatisfaction with his own work will spoil his career and will ruin his chances for promotion. In a similar way, simple experiments might determine the natural lines of interest in a boy or girl."

As is well known, growing appreciation

of the need for reforms in this matter of vocation-choosing has led, quite recently, to the establishment in various American cities of vocation bureaus and schools. Not one of these, so far as I have been able to discover, has thus far made any systematic use of the resources of the psychologist to aid it in its work. According to Mr. Meyer Bloomfield, Director of the Boston Vocation Bureau, the pioneer institution of its kind, this is partly due to a belief that the experimental methods of the psychological laboratory are not as yet exact enough for the vocation bureau's purposes, and also it is due to a fear that the introduction of laboratory methods would "frighten people off."

"You see," Mr. Bloomfield explained, "if we were to attempt to test boys and girls the way Professor Münsterberg suggests, their parents would at once leap to the conclusion that we thought there was something the matter with them, and that would be the last we should see of them. People, as you know, are extremely suspicious of things they do not understand, and psychology is a sealed book to most laymen."

None the less, it is safe to predict that the vocation bureau, if it is to justify its existence, will before long have to bid defiance to popular prejudices in this respect. And for this reason:

That the business men of the United States, waking up to the great waste of National efficiency involved in the unguided selection of vocations by the workers of the country, are themselves beginning to test employees by the rigid methods of psycho-physiological investigation, and are beginning to enforce a vocational change on those whose "reactions" indicate that they are not properly qualified for the work they have set out to do.

This, assuredly, is the central and most significant fact in the new movement for "scientific management," concerning which we have heard so much lately. Its founder, Mr. Frederick W. Taylor, of Philadelphia, and the business experts associated with him, aim, on the one hand, at increasing the industrial output, with increased profits to employer and employee, yet with a decreased cost of production, so that the consumer also shall benefit; and, on the other hand, as indis