Let the students solve by observation and experiment the questions and
problems raised in the text and the exercises. The exercises should
prove to be the most valuable part of the book. The first two chapters
are the most difficult but ought to be read before the rest of the book
is studied. If you think best, merely read these two chapters with the
pupils, and after the book is finished come back to them for careful
study.

In the references, I have given parallel readings, for the most part to
Titchener, Pillsbury, and Münsterberg. I have purposely limited the
references, partly because a library will not be available to many who
may use the book, and partly because the young student is likely to be
confused by much reading from different sources before he has worked out
some sort of system and a point of view of his own. Only the most
capable members of a high school class will be able to profit much from
the references given.


TO THE STUDENT

You are beginning the study of human nature. You can not study human
nature from a book, you must study yourself and your neighbors. This
book may help you to know what to look for and to understand what you
find, but it can do little more than this. It is true, this text gives
you many facts learned by psychologists, but you must verify the
statements, or at least see their significance to _you_, or they will
be of no worth to you. However, the facts considered here, properly
understood and assimilated, ought to prove of great value to you. But
perhaps of greater value will be the psychological frame of mind or
attitude which you should acquire. The psychological attitude is that of