G. Stanley Hall had been to the mountaintop, he had seen the promised land, he had as it were “achieved another new birth superimposed on that of adolescence.”’ He had achieved a new vision, and thus a new birth, the birth of a “superman.” Hall believed that like Jesus and Buddha before him he was called to preach a new gospel, a new dispensation which would lift “Mansoul” to its next higher stage of evolutionary development. That new dispensation was, for Hall, the “New Psychology” which he helped structure and create. Thus in the end, Hall saw himself as a prophet of a new faith, indeed, a new religion. He had pierced the veil of appearances, he had seen the path that “Mansoul” must take if it was going to avoid “slipping backward along the upward path.”
Only a year after Hall wrote those words, his remains lay in state. As the local minister rose to eulogize his memory he started out with every apparent intent of praising him. Shortly, however, the minister lost control of himself and ended his eulogy by severely attacking Hall, thereby creating somewhat of a small scandal.
