time we find everywhere an oversupply of mediocre aspirants. This,
however, does not in the least imply that there really are not enough
personalities who might be perfectly fit even for the highest demands
of the vocations; it means only that as a matter of course the result
in the filling of positions cannot be satisfactory, if the placing of
the individuals is carried on without serious regard for the personal
mental qualities. The complaint that there is lack of fit human
material would probably never entirely disappear, as with a better
adjustment of the material, the demands would steadily increase; but
it could at least be predicted with high probability that this lack of
really fit material would not be felt so keenly everywhere if the
really decisive factor for the adjustment of personality and vocation,
namely, the dispositions of the mind, were not so carelessly ignored.

Society, to be sure, has a convenient means of correction. The
individual tries, and when he is doing his work too badly, he loses
his job, he is pushed out from the career which be has chosen, with
the great probability that he will be crushed by the wheels of social
life. It is a rare occurrence for the man who is a failure in his
chosen vocation, and who has been thrown out of it, to happen to come
into the career in which he can make a success. Social statistics show
with an appalling clearness what a burden and what a danger to the
social body is growing from the masses of those who do not succeed and
who by their lack of success become discouraged and embittered. The
social psychologist cannot resist the conviction that every single
one could have found a place in which he could have achieved something
of value for the commonwealth. The laborer, who in spite of his best
efforts shows himself useless and clumsy before one machine, might
perhaps have done satisfactory work in the next mill where the
machines demand another type of mental reaction. His psychical rhythm