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All of our mental life consists of the two processes of assimilation and dissimilation. In some cases these processes are the product, in others the occasion, of each other and of consequent mental acts. The mind analyzes only in order to recompound, it synthesizes only what has been previously analysed. Some minds incline too much towards analysis and have a mass of material, but build up no structure; others synthesize too quickly and the result is useless; others both analyze and synthesize proportionately and attain to more or less harmony. Spontaneous analysis consists in breaking up psychical phenomena into their elements. It is a sort of indirect and delicate observation, and should not be confused with incoherence, for this does not presuppose any analysis. There are many minds which cannot be characterized as analytic or synthetic, because they are neither the one nor the other, or, more rarely, because they are both in equal degree. The author then describes the different forms of the analytic mind, and their effects in art, music, literature, science, psychology, and philosophy. He then discusses the defects of the analytic type. Too great deliberation tends to inaction, and too excessive attention to details overcomes the symmetry of the whole. Extreme analysis tends to weaken the mind, especially if it does not finally result in decided thought or action. This incapacity to synthesize may be due to verbal or psychical blindness. Analysis is only one link in the chain of mental action, synthesis is the other, and only when we have both do we have equilibration.

In seeking for a definition we must remember that science excludes the accidental, hence the science of character has yet to be born. In order to study the formation of character, a certain number of human beings must be studied from infancy; but, since experiment under fixed and controlled conditions is scarcely possible, the investigation becomes merely a deduction controlled by observation. The old method was to combine certain proportions of intelligence, sensibility, and will, and to deduce from this mixture certain kinds or classes of character. When observation was added to this, all precision disappeared and the result was unscientific. Apperception, imagination, and reason are the results of a vigorous attention, i.e., the effects of certain qualities of the will, calm and prolonged. With education the individual's characteristics become more unified and stable; the whole effort of education consists in ensuring the predominance of certain tendencies over other adverse ones. Character supposes unity and stability, is not given by nature, but is a slow and acquired formation given by environment, imitation, and education in the broad sense of the word.