al dispositions
which may still be quite undeveloped and which may unfold only under
the influence of special conditions in the surroundings; but, on the
other side, it covers the habitual traits of the personality, the
features of the individual temperament and character, of the
intelligence and of the ability, of the collected knowledge and of the
acquired experience. All variations of will and feeling, of perception
and thought, of attention and emotion, of memory and imagination, are
included here. From a purely psychological standpoint, quite
incomparable contents and functions and dispositions of the
personality are thus thrown together, but in practical life we are
accustomed to proceed after this fashion: if a man applies for a
position, he is considered with regard to the totality of his
qualities, and at first nobody cares whether the particular feature is
inherited or acquired, whether it is an individual chance variation or
whether it is common to a larger group, perhaps to all members of a
certain nationality or race. We simply start from the clear fact that
the personalities which enter into the world of affairs present an
unlimited manifoldness of talents and abilities and functions of the
mind. From this manifoldness, it necessarily follows that some are
more, some less, fit for the particular economic task. In view of the
far-reaching division of labor in our modern economic life, it is
impossible to avoid the question how we can select the fit
personalities and reject the unfit ones.

How has modern society prepared itself to settle this social demand?
In case that certain knowledge is indispensable for the work or that
technical abilities must have been acquired, the vocation is
surrounded by examinations. This is true of the lower as well as of
the higher activities. The direct examination is everywhere
supplemented by testimonials covering the previous achievements, by
certificates referring to the previous education, and in frequent
cases by the endeavor to gain a personal impression from the
applicant. But if we take all this together, the total result remains
a social machinery by which perhaps the elimination of the entirely
unfit can be secured. But no one could speak of a really satisfactory
adaptation of the manifold personalities to the economic vocational
tasks. All those examinations and tests and certificates refer
essentially to what can be learned from without, and not to the true
qua