Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 9.djvu/497

 TIIK PBINCIl'I-K OK I, K VST U'TION, KTC. supposition that the heavenly bodirs were divine and in- corruptible and must therefore move in circles. Even Kepler himself, to whom the refutation of this hoary prejudice is due, only refuted it by following up into its consequences a presupposition that was strangely similar to it, namely that the Creator must have been a geometer, and that the orbits of the heavenly bodies must have been arranged if not on a circular, then on some other geometrical pattern. This tendency not to renew where it is possible to modify and not to supersede where it is possible to renew is an indis- pensible condition of all continuous growth. The abrupt supersession of one system or one interest by another would mean discontinuity of growth and involve a violation of the fundamental principles of mental development. But to take full advantage of accumulated experience in any direction is not a matter of Least Effort, but a matter of continuous interest. Interest implies a concentration of conative activity either for the breaking down of obstructions or the further- ance of success. Where we are genuinely interested we lavish our energy, the interest is in fact a sign that powers of ours have found suitable material, that some hungry expectant activity sees a chance of getting food. Are we to conclude then that the principle of Least Effort has no place among the fundamentals of Psychology ? As a positive principle of mental development I should unhesi- tatingly condemn it as a fiction that totally misrepresented the facts. Attentive mental process means striving to know and do, not striving to know and do as little as possible. But it cannot mean a striving to know and to do everything. This would involve a dissipation of interest that could only succeed in disintegrating, instead of building up, the Unity of Consciousness. The greater the persistency, indeed, and the intensity, with which any single interest is followed up, the greater the indifference to what we may call alien or out- lying interests. Hence I should be fully prepared to admit as a negative principle of Psychology the law of Eelative Inertia or Eelative Least Effort, if by this is simply meant the fact that attentive mental process involves a complete lack of interest in whatever is unrelated to the process, and that when once interested in anything we give no attention except under compulsion to whatever distracts us from that interest, and that if compelled to give a certain attention, we give the minimum and that grudgingly. Relative mental inertia in any direction means then com- plete lack of interest in that direction, and it is clear that where such complete lack of interest exists there will be a