THORNDIKE TO START JAMES SERIES TODAY

The first of a series of ten lectures to be given this fall in connection with the annual William James Lectureship, will be delivered this afternoon at 4 o'clock in Emerson D by Professor emeritus of Columbia Edward Lee Thorndike.

Open this season to all men, in addition to those taking Professor Thorndike's seminar, the James lectures are an institutions of over 10 year's standing. Originally they were established by a bequest of Edgar Pierce '06, and have been presented annually since then, always on some subject within the fields of philosophy or psychology.

"Original Nature of Man"

Professor Thorndike's lecture today is entitled "The Original Nature of Man; the Genes of the Mind", and together with his second talk next week, which will discuss environment, forms an introduction to the series. All ten lectures are designed to cover the field of "Human Nature and Human institutions", with emphasis on the social behavior of man.

Recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Laws at the Harvard Tercentenary five years past, Professor Thorndike feels that his later lectures in the series this fall will be of more interest to the "unpsychologized" layman. As he develops his general theme from week to week the speaker hopes to apply his theories of human nature more and more to such fields as the government and welfare of man.