Analyzing Character | Page 7

wait for the final work of the mathematician; but, with plain
common sense, let us apply such knowledge as we have at hand. This
knowledge should be the result of careful observation, of a careful and
prolonged study of all that science has discovered in regard to man, his
origin, his development, his history, his body, and his mind. Every
conclusion reached should be verified, not in hundreds, but in
thousands of cases, before it is finally accepted.
The perfection of such a science requires the united efforts of many
investigators, experimenters, and practical workers, such as teachers,
employers, social workers, parents, and men and women everywhere,
each in his own way and in the solution of his own problems. Were a
uniform method adopted and made a part of the vocational work of our
social settlements, our public schools, our colleges and universities, and
other institutions, also by private individuals in selecting their own
vocations; were uniform records to be made and every subject analyzed
followed up, and his career studied, we should, in one generation, have
data from which any intelligent, analytical mind could formulate a
science of human analysis very nearly approaching exactitude.
As a result of the application of such a uniform method, the principles
of human analysis would rapidly become a matter of common
knowledge and could be taught in our schools just as we to-day teach
the principles of chemical, botanical, or zoological analysis. In the

industries, the scientific selection, assignment and management of men
have yielded increases in efficiency from one hundred to one thousand
per cent. The majority of people that were dealt with were mature, with
more or less fixity of character and habits. Many of them were
handicapped by iron-clad limitations and restrictions in their affairs and
in their environments. What results may be possible when these
methods, improved and developed by a wider use, are applied to young
people, with their plastic minds and wonderful latent possibilities, we
cannot even venture to forecast.
While we are accustomed to thinking of unfitness for our tasks as the
one form of maladjustment due to our ignorance of human nature in
general and individual traits in particular, there are other forms which,
in their own way, cause much trouble and the remedying of which leads
to desirable results. These are many and varied, but may be grouped,
perhaps, most conveniently under two or three general headings.
First, there is the relationship between employers and employees. The
disturbances and inharmony which mark this relationship, and have
marked it throughout human history, are due as much, perhaps, to
misunderstanding of human nature as to any one other cause. When
employers select men unfitted for their tasks, assign them to work in
environments where they are handicapped from the start, and associate
them together and with executives in combinations which are
inherently inharmonious, it is inevitable that trouble should follow.
The larger aspects of the employment problem are treated in the second
part of this book. Inasmuch, however, as the subject has been more
fully discussed in another volume,[1] no attempt is made to go into
details.
Adjustment to environment means very largely the ability successfully
to associate with, cooperate with, and secure one's way among one's
fellow men. In order to be successful in life, we must first live on terms
of mutual cooperation with our parents; second, secure the best
instruction possible from our teachers; third, make social progress;
fourth, secure gainful employment, either from one employer, as in the
case of the laborer and the executive, or from several, as in the cases of
professional men. Having secured employment, our progress depends
upon our ability to attain promotion, to increase our business or our
practice, to add to our patrons. Salesmen must sell more, and more

advantageously. Attorneys must convince judges and juries, as well as
obtain desired testimony from witnesses. Preachers and other public
speakers of all classes must entertain, interest, arouse, and convince
their audiences. Writers must each appeal successfully to his particular
public as well as to his publisher. Engineers must establish and sustain
successful relationship with clients, employers, and employees.
In the third part of this book, therefore, we deal more or less at length
with the psychological processes of persuasion and their application in
various forms and to the varied personalities of those whom we wish to
persuade.
Finally, in the fourth part, we devote three chapters to a consideration
of the Science of Character Analysis by the Observational Method, the
principles of which underlie all of the observations and suggestions
appearing in the first three parts.
In presenting the material in this volume, our aim has been not to
propound a theory, but merely to make practical, for the use of our
readers, so far as possible, the