When we inquire into the qualities of men, we use the word here in its widest meaning.  It covers, on the one side, the mental 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 qualities of the mind and the deeper traits.  The so-called impressions, too, are determined by the most secondary and external factors.  Society relies instinctively on the hope that the natural wishes and interests will push every one to the place for which his dispositions, talents, and psychophysical gifts prepare him.