Page:First steps in mental growth (1906).djvu/29

 attempts to find definite, elementary, mental processes like willing, remembering, and the like, and uses such terms to describe concrete bits of infant activity he will surely miss the wood among the trees, and what is worse he will see trees where there is only a tangle of underbrush. And yet, while one wishes to lay stress upon the importance of keeping constantly in mind that wholeness of view is a necessary condition of truthful interpretation, one remembers, on the other hand, that description involves a process of analysis. The situation is a complex, and one cannot say everything at once. It is just as futile to sit and gaze pensively at the whole of a piece of conduct as it is apt to be misleading to detach its elements for closer scrutiny. It is necessary to see that the wood is made up of trees, and it is necessary that we know the trees if we would know the wood. To drop the figure, one does not search for elements of child activity merely for the purpose of "psychologizing" that activity. The process of resolving a complex situation, of rendering its meaning clear, of getting at its significance involves a description of the elements entering into the complex. The only question is—are the elements there, and do they exist in the way they are said to exist? The latter question settled, settles also the question as to what shall be done about the elements.