---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,transcriber's ,note3 ,this version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects4 ,italics are delimited with the #8' character as italic4 ,a carat 7#8'7 is used to mark superscripted characters4 ,footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced4 ,minor errors1 attributable to the printer1 have been corrected4 ,please see the transcriber's note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,studies ,,of ,,childhood ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,studies ,,of ,,childhood ,,by ,,james ,,sully1 ,m4 ,a41 ,,ll4 ,d4 ,,grote ,,professor ,,of ,,philosophy ,,of ,,mind ,,and ,,logic1 ,,university ,,college1 ,,london ,,author ,,of ,,outlines ,,of ,,psychology1 ,,etc4 ,,new ,,york ,d4 ,,appleton ,,and ,,company #ahif ,,copyright1 #ahie1 ,,by ,d4 ,,appleton ,,and ,,company4 ,,preface4 ,the following ,studies are not a complete treatise on child-psychology1 but merely deal with certain aspects of children's minds which happen to have come under my notice1 and to have had a special interest for me4 ,in preparing them ,i have tried to combine with the needed measure of exactness a manner of presentation which should attract other readers than students of psychology1 more particularly parents and young teachers4 ,a part of these ,studies has already appeared elsewhere4 ,the ,introductory ,chapter was published in the ,fortnightly ,review for ,november1 #ahie4 ,the substance of those from ,,ii4 to ,,viii4 has been printed in the ,popular ,science ,monthly of ,new ,york4 ,portions of the 8,extracts from a ,father's ,diary0 appeared in the form of two essays1 one on 8,babies and ,science0 in the ,cornhill ,magazine in #ahha1 and the other on 8,baby ,linguistics0 in the ,english ,illustrated ,magazine in #ahhd4 ,the original form of these1 involving a certain disguise--though hardly one of impenetrable thickness--has been retained4 ,the greater part of the study on 8,george ,sand's ,childhood0 was published as two articles in ,longmans' ,magazine in #ahhi and #ahij4 ,like all others who have recently worked at child-psychology ,i am much indebted to the pioneers in the field1 more particularly to ,professor ,w4 ,preyer4 ,in addition to these ,i wish to express my obligations to my colleague1 ,dr4 ,postgate1 of ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge1 for kindly reading through my essay on children's language1 and giving me many valuable suggestions2 to ,lieutenant-,general ,pitt ,rivers1 ,f4,r4,s41 and ,mr4 ,h4 ,balfour1 of the ,museum1 ,oxford1 for the friendly help they rendered me in studying the drawings of savages1 and to ,mr4 ,e4 ,cooke for many valuable facts and suggestions bearing on children's modes of drawing4 ,lastly1 ,i would tender my warm acknowledgments to the parents who have sent me notes on their children's mental development4 ,to some few of these sets of observations1 drawn up with admirable care1 ,i feel peculiarly indebted1 for without them ,i should probably not have written my book4 ,j4 ,s4 ,,hampstead1 ,november1 #ahie4 ,,contents4 ,,page ,i4 ,,introductory1 #a ,,ii4 ,,the ,,age ,,of ,,imagination1 #be ,why we call ,children ,imaginative1 #be ,imaginative ,transformation of ,objects1 #bh ,imagination and ,play1 #ce ,free ,projection of ,fancies1 #ea ,imagination and ,storyland1 #ed ,,iii4 ,,the ,,dawn ,,of ,,reason1 #fd ,the ,process of ,thought1 #fd ,the ,questioning ,age1 #ge ,,iv4 ,,products ,,of ,,child-,,thought1 #ia ,the ,child's ,thoughts about ,nature1 #ia ,psychological ,ideas1 #aji ,theological ,ideas1 #abj ,v4 ,,the ,,little ,,linguist1 #acc ,prelinguistic ,babblings1 #acc ,transition to ,articulate ,speech1 #ach ,beginnings of ,linguistic ,imitation1 #adg ,transformation of our ,words1 #adh ,logical ,side of ,children's ,language1 #afj ,sentence-building1 #agj ,getting at our ,meanings1 #ahc ,,vi4 ,,subject ,,to ,,fear1 #aia ,children's ,sensibility1 #aia ,startling ,effect of ,sounds1 #aid ,fear of ,visible ,things1 #aih ,the ,fear of ,animals1 #bjg ,fear of the ,dark1 #baa ,fears and their ,palliatives1 #bai ,,vii4 ,,raw ,,material ,,of ,,morality1 #bbh ,primitive ,egoism1 #bbh ,germs of ,altruism1 #bdb ,children's ,lies1 #bea ,,viii4 ,,under ,,law1 #bfg ,the ,struggle with ,law1 #bfg ,on the ,side of ,law1 #bgg ,the ,wise ,law-giver1 #bij ,,ix4 ,,the ,,child ,,as ,,artist1 #bih ,first ,responses to ,natural ,beauty1 #cjj ,early ,attitude ,towards ,art1 #cjg ,beginnings of ,art-production1 #cag ,x4 ,,the ,,young ,,draughtsman1 #cca ,first ,attempts to ,draw1 #cca ,first ,drawings of the ,human ,figure1 #cce ,front and ,side ,view of ,human ,figure1 #cef ,first ,drawings of ,animals1 #cgb ,men on ,horseback1 etc41 #cgg ,rsum of ,facts1 #chb ,explanation of ,facts1 #che ,,xi4 ,,extracts ,,from ,a ,,father',s ,,diary1 #cii ,first ,year1 #djj ,second ,year1 #daf ,third ,year1 #dcf ,fourth ,year1 #deb ,fifth ,year1 #dfd ,sixth ,year1 #dhj ,,xii4 ,,george ,,sand',s ,,childhood1 #dhi ,the ,first ,years1 #dhi ,a ,self-evolved ,religion1 #ejf ,bibliography1 #eae ,index1 #eai ,,studies ,,of ,,childhood4 ,i4 ,,introductory4 ,man has always had the child with him1 and one might be sure that since he became gentle and alive to the beauty of things he must have come under the spell of the baby4 ,we have evidence beyond the oft-quoted departure of ,hector and other pictures of childish grace in early literature that baby-worship and baby-subjection are not wholly things of modern times4 ,there is a pretty story taken down by ,mr4 ,leland from the lips of an old ,indian woman1 which relates how ,glooskap the hero-god1 after conquering all his enemies1 rashly tried his hand at managing a certain mighty baby1 ,wasis by name1 and how he got punished for his rashness4#a ----- ,footnote #a3 ,quoted by ,miss ,shinn4 ,overland ,monthly4 ,january1 #ahid4 ----- ,yet there is good reason to suppose that it is only within comparatively recent times that the more subtle charm and the deeper significance of infancy have been discerned4 ,we have come to appreciate babyhood as we have come to appreciate the finer lineaments of nature as a whole4 ,this applies1 of course1 more especially to the ruder sex4 ,the man has in him much of the boy's contempt for small things1 and he needed ages of education at the hands of the better-informed woman before he could perceive the charm of infantile ways4 ,one of the first males to do justice to this attractive subject was ,rousseau4 ,he made short work with the theological dogma that the child is born morally depraved1 and can only be made good by miraculous appliances4 ,his watchword1 return to nature1 included a reversion to the infant as coming virginal and unspoilt by man's tinkering from the hands of its ,maker4 ,to gain a glimpse of this primordial beauty before it was marred by man's awkward touch was something1 and so ,rousseau set men in the way of sitting reverently at the feet of infancy1 watching and learning4 ,for us of to-day1 who have learned to go to the pure springs of nature for much of our spiritual refreshment1 the child has acquired a high place among the things of beauty4 ,indeed1 the grace of childhood may almost be said to have been discovered by the modern poet4 ,wordsworth has stooped over his cradle intent on catching1 ere they passed1 the #8visionary gleams' of #8the glories he hath known'4 ,blake1 ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson1 and others1 have tried to put into language his day-dreamings1 his quaint fancyings4 ,dickens and ,victor ,hugo have shown us something of his delicate quivering heart-strings2 ,swinburne has summed up the divine charm of 8children's ways and wiles04 ,the page of modern literature is1 indeed1 a monument of our child-love and our child-admiration4 ,nor is it merely as to a pure untarnished nature that we go back admiringly to childhood4 ,the sthetic charm of the infant which draws us so potently to its side and compels us to watch its words and actions is1 like everything else which moves the modern mind1 highly complex4 ,among other sources of this charm we may discern the perfect serenity1 the happy #8insouciance' of the childish mind4 ,the note of world-complaint in modern life has penetrated into most domains1 yet it has not1 one would hope1 penetrated into the charmed circle of childish experience4 ,childhood has1 no doubt1 its sad aspect3-- ,poor stumbler on the rocky coast of woe1 ,tutored by pain each source of pain to know3 neglect and cruelty may bring much misery into the first bright years4 ,yet the very instinct of childhood to be glad in its self-created world1 an instinct which with consummate art ,victor ,hugo keeps warm and quick in the breast of the half-starved ill-used child ,cosette1 secures for it a peculiar blessedness4 ,the true nature-child1 who has not become blas1 is happy1 untroubled with the future1 knowing nothing of the misery of disillusion4 ,as1 with hearts chastened by many experiences1 we take a peep over the wall of his fancy-built pleasance1 we seem to be taken back to a real golden age4 ,with ,amiel1 we say3 8,le peu de paradis que nous aperevons encore sur la terre est du sa prsence04 ,yet the thought1 which the same moment brings1 of the flitting of the nursery visions1 of the coming storm and stress1 adds a pathos to the spectacle1 and we feel as ,heine felt when he wrote3-- ,ich schau' dich an1 und ,wehmuth ,schleicht mir ins ,herz hinein4 ,other and strangely unlike feelings mingle with this caressing1 half-pitiful admiration4 ,we moderns are given to relieving the strained attitude of reverence and pity by momentary outbursts of humorous merriment4 ,the child1 while appealing to our admiration and our pity1 makes a large and many-voiced appeal also to our sense of the laughter in things4 ,it is indeed hard to say whether he is most amusing when setting at naught in his quiet1 lordly way1 our most extolled views1 our ideas of what is true and false1 of the proper uses of things1 and so forth1 or when labouring in his perfectly self-conceived fashion to overtake us and be as experienced and as conventional as ourselves4 ,this ever new play of droll feature in childish thought and action forms one of the deepest sources of delight for the modern lover of childhood4 ,with the growth of a poetic or sentimental interest in childhood there has come a new and different kind of interest4 ,ours is a scientific age1 and science has cast its inquisitive eye on the infant4 ,we want to know what happens in these first all-decisive two or three years of human life1 by what steps exactly the wee amorphous thing takes shape and bulk1 both physically and mentally4 ,and we can now speak of the beginning of a careful and methodical investigation of child-nature1 by men trained in scientific observation4 ,this line of inquiry1 started by physicians1 as the ,german ,sigismund1 in connection with their special professional aims1 has been carried on by a number of fathers and others having access to the infant1 among whom it may be enough to name ,darwin and ,preyer4 ,a fuller list of writings on the subject will be given at the end of the volume4 ,this eagerness to know what the child is like1 an eagerness illustrated further by the number of reminiscences of early years recently published1 is the outcome of a many-sided interest which it may be worth while to analyse4 ,the most obvious source of interest in the doings of infancy lies in its primitiveness4 ,at the cradle we are watching the beginnings of things1 the first tentative thrustings forward into life4 ,our modern science is before all things historical and genetic1 going back to beginnings so as to understand the later and more complex phases of things as the outcome of these beginnings4 ,the same kind of curiosity which prompts the geologist to get back to the first stages in the building up of the planet1 or the biologist to search out the pristine forms of life1 is beginning to urge the student of man to discover by a careful study of infancy the way in which human life begins to take its characteristic forms4 ,the appearance of ,darwin's name among those who have deemed the child worthy of study suggests that the subject is closely connected with natural history4 ,however man in his proud maturity may be related to ,nature1 it is certain that in his humble inception he is immersed in ,nature and saturated with her4 ,as we all know1 the lowest races of mankind stand in close proximity to the animal world4 ,the same is true of the infants of civilised races4 ,their life is outward and visible1 forming a part of nature's spectacle2 reason and will1 the noble prerogatives of humanity1 are scarce discernible2 sense1 appetite1 instinct1 these animal functions seem to sum up the first year of human life4 ,to the evolutionist1 moreover1 the infant exhibits a still closer kinship to the natural world4 ,in the successive stages of ftal development he sees the gradual unfolding of human lineaments out of a widely typical animal form4 ,and even after birth he can discern new evidences of this genealogical relation of the 8lord0 of creation to his inferiors4 ,how significant1 for example1 is the fact recently established by a medical man1 ,dr4 ,louis ,robinson1 that the new-born infant is able just like the ape to suspend his whole weight by grasping a small horizontal rod4#b ----- ,footnote #b3 ,the ,nineteenth ,century 7#ahia74 ,cf4 the somewhat fantastic and not too serious paper by ,s4 ,s4 ,buckman on 8,babies and ,monkeys0 in the same journal 7#ahid74 ----- ,yet even as nature-object for the biologist the child presents distinctive attributes4 ,though sharing in animal instinct1 he shares in it only to a very small extent4 ,the most striking characteristic of the new-born offspring of man is its unpreparedness for life4 ,compare with the young of other animals the infant so feeble and incapable4 ,he can neither use his limbs nor see the distance of objects as a new-born chick or calf is able to do4 ,his brain-centres are1 we are told1 in a pitiable state of undevelopment--and are not even securely encased within their bony covering4 ,indeed1 he resembles for all the world a public building which has to be opened by a given date1 and is found when the day arrives to be in a humiliating state of incompleteness4 ,this fact of the special helplessness of the human offspring at birth1 of its long period of dependence on parental or other aids--a period which1 probably1 tends to grow longer as civilisation advances--is rich in biological and sociological significance4 ,for one thing1 it presupposes a specially high development of the protective and fostering instincts in the human parents1 and particularly the mother--for if the helpless wee thing were not met by these instincts1 what would become of our race8 ,it is probable1 too1 as ,mr4 ,spencer and others have argued1 that the institution by nature of this condition of infantile weakness has reacted on the social affections of the race1 helping to develop our pitifulness for all frail and helpless things4 ,nor is this all4 ,the existence of the infant1 with its large and imperative claims1 has been a fact of capital importance in the development of social customs4 ,ethnological researches show that communities have been much exercised with the problem of infancy1 have paid it the homage due to its supreme sacredness1 girding it about with a whole group of protective and beneficent customs4#c ----- ,footnote #c3 ,see1 for example1 the works of ,h4 ,ploss1 ,das ,kind in ,brauch und ,sitte1 and ,das kleine ,kind4 ----- ,enough has been said1 perhaps1 to show the far-reaching significance of babyhood to the modern savant4 ,it is hardly too much to say that it has become one of the most eloquent of nature's phenomena1 telling us at once of our affinity to the animal world1 and of the forces by which our race has1 little by little1 lifted itself to so exalted a position above this world2 and so it has happened that not merely to the perennial baby-worshipper1 the mother1 and not merely to the poet touched with the mystery of far-off things1 but to the grave man of science the infant has become a centre of lively interest4 ,nevertheless1 it is not to the mere naturalist that the babe reveals all its significance4 ,physical organism as it seems to be more than anything else1 hardly more than a vegetative thing indeed1 it carries with it the germ of a human consciousness1 and this consciousness begins to expand and to form itself into a truly human shape from the very beginning4 ,and here a new source of interest presents itself4 ,it is the human psychologist1 the student of those impalpable1 unseizable1 evanescent phenomena which we call 8state of consciousness10 who has a supreme interest1 and a scientific property in these first years of a human existence4 ,what is of most account in these crude tentatives at living after the human fashion is the play of mind1 the first spontaneous manifestations of recognition1 of reasoning expectation1 of feelings of sympathy and antipathy1 of definite persistent purpose4 ,rude1 inchoate1 vague enough1 no doubt1 are these first groping movements of a human mind3 yet of supreme value to the psychologist just because they are the first4 ,if1 reflects the psychologist1 he can only get at this baby's consciousness so as to understand what is passing there1 he will be in an infinitely better position to find his way through the intricacies of the adult consciousness4 ,it may be1 as we shall see by-and-by1 that the baby's mind is not so perfectly simple1 so absolutely primitive as it at first looks4 ,yet it is the simplest type of human consciousness to which we can have access4 ,the investigator of this consciousness can never take any known sample of the animal mind as his starting point if for no other reason for this1 that while possessing many of the elements of the human mind1 it presents these in so unlike1 so peculiar a pattern4 ,in this genetic tracing back of the complexities of man's mental life to their primitive elements in the child's consciousness1 questions of peculiar interest will arise4 ,a problem which though having a venerable antiquity is still full of meaning concerns the precise relation of the higher forms of intelligence and of sentiment to the elementary facts of the individual's life-experience4 ,are we to regard all our ideas1 even those of ,god1 as woven by the mind out of its experiences1 as ,locke thought1 or have we certain #8innate ideas' from the first8 ,locke thought he could settle this point by observing children4 ,to-day1 when the philosophic emphasis is laid not on the date of appearance of the #8innate' intuition1 but on its originality and spontaneity1 this method of interrogating the child's mind may seem less promising4 ,yet if of less philosophical importance than was once supposed1 it is of great psychological importance4 ,there are certain questions1 such as that of how we come to see things at a distance from us1 which can be approached most advantageously by a study of infant movements4 ,in like manner ,i believe the growth of a moral sentiment1 of that feeling of reverence for duty to which ,kant gave so eloquent an expression1 can only be understood by the most painstaking observation of the mental activities of the first years4 ,there is1 however1 another1 and in a sense a larger1 source of psychological interest in studying the processes and development of the infant mind4 ,it was pointed out above that to the evolutional biologist the child exhibits man in his kinship to the lower sentient world4 ,this same evolutional point of view enables the psychologist to connect the unfolding of an infant's mind with something which has gone before1 with the mental history of the race4 ,according to this way of looking at infancy the successive phases of its mental life are a brief resum of the more important features in the slow upward progress of the species4 ,the periods dominated successively by sense and appetite1 by blind wondering and superstitious fancy1 and by a calmer observation and a juster reasoning about things1 these steps mark the pathway both of the child-mind and of the race-mind4 ,this being so1 the first years of a child1 with their imperfect verbal expression1 their crude fanciful ideas1 their seizures by rage and terror1 their absorption in the present moment1 acquire a new and antiquarian interest4 ,they mirror for us1 in a diminished distorted reflection no doubt1 the probable condition of primitive man4 ,as ,sir ,john ,lubbock and other anthropologists have told us1 the intellectual and moral resemblances between the lowest existing races of mankind and children are numerous and close4 ,they will be illustrated again and again in the following studies4 ,yet this way of viewing childhood is not merely of antiquarian interest4 ,while a monument of his race1 and in a manner a key to its history1 the child is also its product4 ,in spite of the fashionable ,weismannism of the hour1 there are evolutionists who hold that in the early manifested tendencies of the child1 we can discern signs of a hereditary transmission of the effects of ancestral experiences and activities4 ,his first manifestations of rage1 for example1 are a survival of actions of remote ancestors in their life and death struggles4 ,the impulse of obedience1 which is as much a characteristic of the child as that of disobedience1 may in like manner be regarded as a transmitted rudiment of a long practised action of socialised ancestors4 ,this idea of an increment of intelligence and moral disposition1 earned for the individual not by himself but by his ancestors1 has its peculiar interest4 ,it gives a new meaning to human progress to suppose that the dawn of infant intelligence1 instead of being a return to a primitive darkness1 contains from the first a faint light reflected on it from the lamp of racial intelligence which has preceded that instead of a return to the race's starting point1 the lowest form of the school of experience1 it is a start in a higher form1 the promotion being a reward conferred on the child for the exertions of his ancestors4 ,psychological observation will be well employed in scanning the features of the infant's mind in order to see whether they yield evidence of such ancestral dowering4 ,so much with respect to the rich and varied scientific interest attaching to the movements of the child's mind4 ,it only remains to touch on a third main interest in childhood1 the practical or educational interest4 ,the modern world1 while erecting the child into an object of sthetic contemplation1 while bringing to bear on him the bull's eye lamp of scientific observation1 has become sorely troubled by the momentous problem of rearing him4 ,what was once a matter of instinct and unthinking rule-of-thumb has become the subject of profound and perplexing discussion4 ,mothers--the right sort of mothers that is--feel that they must know au fond this wee speechless creature which they are called upon to direct into the safe road to manhood4 ,and professional teachers1 more particularly the beginners in the work of training1 whose work is in some respects the most difficult and the most honourable1 have come to see that a clear insight into child-nature and its spontaneous movements1 must precede any intelligent attempt to work beneficially upon this nature4 ,in this way the teacher has lent his support to the savant and the psychologist in their investigation of infancy4 ,more particularly he has betaken him to the psychologist in order to discover more of the native tendencies and the governing laws of that unformed child-mind which it is his in a special manner to form4 ,in addition to this1 the growing educational interest in the spontaneous behaviour of the child's mind may be expected to issue in a demand for a statistic of childhood1 that is to say1 carefully arranged collections of observations bearing on such points as children's questions1 their first thoughts about nature1 their manifestations of sensibility and insensibility4 ,the awakening in the modern mind of this keen and varied interest in childhood has led1 and is destined to lead still more1 to the observation of infantile ways4 ,this observation will1 of course1 be of very different value according as it subserves the contemplation of the humorous or other sthetically valuable aspect of child-nature1 or as it is directed towards a scientific understanding of this4 ,pretty anecdotes of children which tickle the emotions may or may not add to our insight into the peculiar mechanism of children's minds4 ,there is no necessary connection between smiling at infantile drolleries and understanding the laws of infantile intelligence4 ,indeed1 the mood of merriment1 if too exuberant1 will pretty certainly swamp for the moment any desire to understand4 ,the observation which is to further understanding1 which is to be acceptable to science1 must itself be scientific4 ,that is to say1 it must be at once guided by foreknowledge1 specially directed to what is essential in a phenomenon and its surroundings or conditions1 and perfectly exact4 ,if anybody supposes this to be easy1 he should first try his hand at the work1 and then compare what he has seen with what ,darwin or ,preyer has been able to discover4 ,how difficult this is may be seen even with reference to the outward physical part of the phenomena to be observed4 ,ask any mother untrained in observation to note the first appearance of that complex facial movement which we call a smile1 and you know what kind of result you are likely to get4 ,the phenomena of a child's mental life1 even on its physical and visible side1 are of so subtle and fugitive a character that only a fine and quick observation is able to cope with them4 ,but observation of children is never merely seeing4 ,even the smile has to be interpreted as a smile by a process of imaginative inference4 ,many careless onlookers would say that a baby smiles in the first days from very happiness1 when another and simpler explanation of the movement is forthcoming4 ,similarly1 it wants much fine judgment to say whether an infant is merely stumbling accidentally on an articulate sound1 or is imitating your sound4 ,a glance at some of the best memoirs will show how enormously difficult it is to be sure of a right interpretation of these early and comparatively simple manifestations of mind4#d ----- ,footnote #d3 ,these difficulties seem to me to be curiously overlooked in ,prof4 ,mark ,baldwin's recent utterance on child psychology4 7,mental ,development in the ,child and the ,race1 chap4 ii47 ,in this optimistic presentment of the subject there is not the slightest reference to the difficult work of interpretation4 ,child-study is talked of as a perfectly simple mode of observation1 requiring at most to be supplemented by a little experiment1 and1 it may be added1 backed by a firm theory4 ----- ,things grow a great deal worse when we try to throw our scientific lassoo about the elusive spirit of a child of four or six1 and to catch the exact meaning of its swiftly changing movements4 ,children are1 no doubt1 at this age frank before the eye of love1 and their minds are vastly more accessible than that of the dumb dog that can only look his ardent thoughts4 ,yet they are by no means so open to view as is often supposed4 ,all kinds of shy reticences hamper them3 they feel unskilled in using our cumbrous language2 they soon find out that their thoughts are not as ours1 but often make us laugh4 ,and how carefully are they wont to hide from our sight their nameless terrors1 physical and moral4 ,much of the deeper childish experience can only reach us1 if at all1 years after it is over1 through the faulty medium of adult memory--faulty even when it is the memory of a ,goethe1 a ,george ,sand1 a ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4#e ----- ,footnote #e3 ,in these days of published reminiscences of childhood it is quite refreshing to meet with a book like ,mr4 ,james ,payn's ,gleams of ,memory1 which honestly confesses that its early recollections are almost nil4 ----- ,even when there is perfect candour1 and the little one does his best to instruct us as to what is passing in his mind by his #8whys' and his #8,i 'sposes1' accompanied by the most eloquent of looks1 we find ourselves ever and again unequal to comprehending4 ,child-thought follows its own paths--roads1 as ,mr4 ,rudyard ,kipling has well said1 8unknown to those who have left childhood behind04 ,the dark sayings of childhood1 as when a child asks1 #8,why am ,i not somebody else8' will be fully illustrated below4 ,this being so1 it might well seem arrogant to speak of any #8scientific' investigation of the child's mind2 and1 to be candid1 ,i may as well confess that1 in spite of some recently published highly hopeful forecasts of what child-psychology is going to do for us1 ,i think we are a long way off from a perfectly scientific account of it4 ,our so-called theories of children's mental activity has so often been hasty generalisations from imperfect observation4 ,children are probably much more diverse in their ways of thinking and feeling than our theories suppose4 ,but of this more presently4 ,even where we meet with a common and comparatively prominent trait1 we are far as yet from having a perfect comprehension of it4 ,i at least believe that children's play1 about which so much has confidently been written1 is but imperfectly understood4 ,is it serious business1 half-conscious make-believe1 more than half-conscious acting1 or1 no one of these1 or all of them by turns8 ,i think he would be a bold man who ventured to answer this question straight away4 ,in this state of things it might seem well to wait4 ,possibly by-and-by we shall light on new methods of tapping the childish consciousness4 ,patients in a certain stage of the hypnotic trance have returned1 it is said1 to their childish experience and feelings4 ,some people do this1 or appear to do this1 in their dreams4 ,i know a young man who revives vivid recollections of the experiences of the third year of life when he is sleepy1 and more especially if he is suffering from a cold4 ,these facts suggest that if we only knew more about the mode of working of the brain we might reinstate a special group of conditions which would secure a re-emergence of childish ideas and sentiments4 ,yet our case is not so hopeless that we need defer inquiry into the child's mind until human science has fathomed all the mysteries of the brain4 ,we can know many things of this mind1 and these of great importance1 even now4 ,the naturalist discusses the actions of the lower animals1 confidently attributing intelligent planning here1 and a germ of vanity or even of moral sense there2 and it would be hard were we forbidden to study the little people that are of our own race1 and are a thousand times more open to inspection4 ,really good work has already been done here1 and one should be grateful4 ,at the same time1 it seems to me of the greatest importance to recognise that it is but a beginning3 that the child which the modern world has in the main discovered is after all only half discovered3 that if we are to get at his inner life1 his playful conceits1 his solemn broodings over the mysteries of things1 his way of responding to the motley show of life1 we must carry this work of noting and interpreting to a much higher point4 ,now1 if progress is to be made in this work1 we must have specially qualified workers4 ,all who know anything of the gross misunderstandings of children of which many so-called intelligent adults are capable1 will bear me out when ,i say that a certain gift of penetration is absolutely indispensable here4 ,if any one asks me what the qualifications of a good child-observer amount to1 ,i may perhaps answer1 for the sake of brevity1 #8a divining faculty1 the offspring of child-love1 perfected by scientific training'4 ,let us see what this includes4 ,that the observer of children must be a diviner1 a sort of clairvoyant reader of their secret thoughts1 seems to me perfectly obvious4 ,watch half a dozen men who find themselves unexpectedly ushered into a room tenanted by a small child1 and you will soon be able to distinguish the diviners1 who1 just because they have in themselves something akin to the child1 seem able at once to get into touch with children4 ,it is probable that women's acknowledged superiority in knowledge of child-nature is owing to their higher gift of sympathetic insight4 ,this faculty1 so far from being purely intellectual1 is very largely the outgrowth of a peculiar moral nature to which the life of all small things1 and of children more than all1 is always sweet and congenial4 ,it is very much of a secondary1 or acquired instinct2 that is1 an unreflecting intuition which is the outgrowth of a large experience4 ,for the child-lover seeks the object of his love1 and is never so happy as when associating with children and sharing in their thoughts and their pleasures4 ,and it is through such habitual intercourse that there forms itself the instinct or tact by which the significance of childish manifestation is at once unerringly discerned4 ,there is in this tact or fineness of spiritual touch one constituent so important as to deserve special mention4 ,i mean a lively memory of one's own childhood4 ,as ,i have observed above1 ,i do not believe in an exact and trustworthy reproduction in later life of particular incidents of childhood4 ,all recalling of past experiences illustrates the modifying influence of the later self in its attempt to assimilate and understand the past self2 and this transforming effect is at its maximum when we try to get back to childhood4 ,but though our memory of childhood is not in itself exact enough to furnish facts1 it may be sufficiently strong for the purposes of interpreting our observations of the children we see about us4 ,it is said1 and said rightly1 that in order to read a child's mind we need imagination1 and since all imagination is merely readjustment of individual experience1 it follows that the skilled decipherer of infantile characters needs before all things to be in touch with his own early feelings and thoughts4 ,and this is just what we find4 ,the vivacious1 genial woman who is never so much at home as when surrounded by a bevy of eager-minded children is a woman who remains young in the important sense that she retains much of the freshness and unconventionality of mind1 much of the gaiety and expansiveness of early life4 ,conversely one may feel pretty sure that a woman who retains a vivid memory of her childish ideas and feelings will be drawn to the companionship of children4 ,after reading their autobiographies one hardly needs to be told that ,goethe carried into old age his quick responsiveness to the gaiety of the young heart2 and that ,george ,sand when grown old was never so happy as when gathering the youngsters about her4#f ----- ,footnote #f3 ,since this was written the authoress of ,little ,lord ,fauntleroy has shown us how clear and far-reaching a memory she has of her childish experiences4 ----- ,yet valuable as is this gift of sympathetic insight1 it will not1 of course1 conduce to that methodical1 exact kind of observation which is required by science4 ,hence the need of the second qualification3 psychological training4 ,by this is meant that special knowledge which comes from studying the principles of the science1 its peculiar problems1 and the methods appropriate to these1 together with the special skill which is attained by a methodical1 practical application of this knowledge in the actual observation and interpretation of manifestations of mind4 ,thus a woman who wishes to observe to good effect the mind of a child of three must have a sufficient acquaintance with the general course of the mental life to know what to expect1 and in what way the phenomena observed have to be interpreted4 ,really fine and fruitful observation is the outcome of a large knowledge1 and anybody who is to carry out in a scientific fashion the observation of the humblest phase of a child's mental life must already know this life as a whole1 so far as psychology can as yet describe its characteristics1 and determine the conditions of its activity4 ,and here the question naturally arises3 8,who is to carry out this new line of scientific observation80 ,to begin with the first stage of it1 who is to carry out the exact methodical record of the movements of the infant8 ,it is evident that qualification or capacity is not all that is necessary here2 capacity must be favoured with opportunity before the work can be actually begun4 ,it has been pointed out that the pioneers who struck out this new line of experimental research were medical men4 ,the meaning of this fact is pretty apparent4 ,the doctor has not only a turn for scientific observation3 he is a privileged person in the nursery4 ,the natural guardians of infancy1 the mother and the nurse1 exempt him from their general ban on the male4 ,he excepted1 no man1 not even the child's own father1 is allowed to meddle too much with that divine mystery1 that meeting point of all the graces and all the beatitudes1 the infant4 ,consider for a moment the natural prejudice which the inquirer into the characteristics of the infant has to face4 ,such inquiry is not merely passively watching what spontaneously presents itself2 it is emphatically experimenting1 that is1 the calling out of reactions by applying appropriate stimuli4 ,even to try whether the new-born babe will close its fingers on your finger when brought into contact with their anterior surface may well seem impious to a properly constituted nurse4 ,to propose to test the wee creature's sense of taste by applying drops of various solutions1 as acid1 bitters1 etc41 to the tongue1 or to provoke ocular movements to the right or the left1 would pretty certainly seem a profanation of the temple of infancy1 if not fraught with danger to its tiny deity4 ,and as to trying ,dr4 ,robinson's experiment of getting the newly arrived visitor to suspend his whole precious weight by clasping a bar1 it is pretty certain that1 women being constituted as at present1 only a medical man could have dreamt of so daring a feat4 ,there is no doubt that baby-worship1 the sentimental adoration of infant ways1 is highly inimical to the carrying out of a perfectly cool and impartial process of scientific observation4 ,hence the average mother can hardly be expected to do more than barely to tolerate this encroaching of experiment into the hallowed retreat of the nursery4 ,even in these days of rapid modification of what used to be thought unalterable sexual characters1 one may be bold enough to hazard the prophecy that women who have had scientific training will1 if they happen to become mothers1 hardly be disposed to give their minds at the very outset to the rather complex and difficult work1 say1 of making an accurate scientific inventory of the several modes of infantile sensibility1 visual1 auditory1 and so forth1 and of the alterations in these from day to day4 ,it is for the coarser fibred man1 then1 to undertake much of the earlier experimental work in the investigation of child-nature4 ,and if fathers will duly qualify themselves they will probably find that permission will little by little be given them to carry out investigations1 short1 of course1 of anything that looks distinctly dangerous to the little being's comfort4 ,at the same time it is evident that a complete series of observations of the infant can hardly be carried out by a man alone4 ,it is for the mother1 or some other woman with a pass-key to the nursery1 with her frequent and prolonged opportunities of observation to attempt a careful and methodical register of mental progress4 ,hence the importance of enlisting the mother or her female representative as collaborateur or at least as assistant4 ,thus supposing the father is bent on ascertaining the exact dates and the order of appearance of the different articulate sounds1 which is rather a subject of passive observation than of active experiment2 he will be almost compelled to call in the aid of one who has the considerable advantage of passing a good part of each day near the child4#g ----- ,footnote #g3 ,the great advantage which the female observer of the infant's mind has over her male competitor is clearly illustrated in some recent studies of childhood by ,american women4 ,i would especially call attention to a study by ,miss ,m4 ,w4 ,shinn of the ,university of ,california 7,development of a child4 ,notes on the writer's niece71 where the minute and painstaking record 7e4g41 of the child's colour discrimination and visual space exploration7 points to the ample opportunity of observation which comes more readily to women4 ----- ,as the wee thing grows and its nervous system becomes more stable and robust more in the way of research may of course be safely attempted4 ,in this higher stage the work of observation will be less simple and involve more of special psychological knowledge4 ,it is a comparatively easy thing to say whether the sudden approach of an object to the eye of a baby a week or so old calls forth the reflex known as blinking3 it is a much more difficult thing to say what are the preferences of a child of twelve months in the matter of simple forms1 or even colours4 ,the problem of the order of development of the colour-sense in children looks at first easy enough4 ,any mother1 it may be thought1 can say which colours the child first recognises by naming them when seen1 or picking them out when another names them4 ,yet simple as it looks1 the problem is in reality anything but simple4 ,a ,german investigator1 ,professor ,preyer of ,berlin1 went to work methodically with his little boy of two years in order to see in what order he would discriminate colours4 ,two colours1 red and green1 were first shown1 the name added to each1 and the child then asked3 8,which is red80 8,which is green80 ,then other colours were added and the experiments repeated4 ,according to these researches this particular child first acquired a clear discriminative awareness of yellow4 ,preyer's results have not1 however1 been confirmed by other investigators1 as ,m4 ,binet of ,paris1 who followed a similar method of inquiry4 ,thus according to ,binet it is not yellow but blue which carries the day in the competition for the child's preferential recognition4 ,what1 it may be asked1 is the explanation of this8 ,is it that children differ in the mode of development of their colour-sensibility to this extent1 or can it be that there is some fault in the method of investigation8 ,it has been recently suggested that the mode of testing colour-discrimination by naming is open to the objection that a child may get hold of one verbal sound as #8red' more easily than another as #8green' and that this would facilitate the recognition of the former4 ,if in this way the recognition of a colour is aided by the retention of its name1 we must get rid of this disturbing element of sound4 ,accordingly new methods of experiment have been attempted in ,france and ,america4 ,thus ,professor ,baldwin investigates the matter by placing two colours opposite the child's two arms and noting which is reached out to by right or left arm1 which is ignored4 ,he has tabulated the results of a short series of these simple experiments for testing childish preference1 and supports the conclusions of ,binet1 as against those of ,preyer1 that blue comes in for the first place in the child's discriminative recognition4#h ,it is however easy to see that this method has its own characteristic defects4 ,thus1 to begin with1 it evidently does not directly test colour discrimination at all1 but the liking for or interest in colours1 which though it undoubtedly implies a measure of discrimination must not be confused with this4 ,and even as a test of preference it is very likely to be misapplied4 ,thus supposing that the two colours are not equally bright1 then the child will grasp at one rather than at the other1 because it is a brighter object and not because it is this particular colour4 ,again if one colour fall more into the first and fresh period of the exercise when the child is fresh and active1 whereas another falls more into the second period when he is tired and inactive1 the results would1 it is evident1 give too much value to the former4 ,similarly1 if one colour were brought in after longer intervals of time than another it would have more attractive force through its greater novelty4 ----- ,footnote #h3 ,mental ,development in the ,child and the ,race1 chap4 iii4 ----- ,enough has been said to show how very delicate a problem we have here to deal with4 ,and if scientific men are still busy settling the point how the problem can be best dealt with1 it seems hopeless for the amateur to dabble in the matter4 ,i have purposely chosen a problem of peculiar complexity and delicacy in order to illustrate the importance of that training which makes the mental eye of the observer quick to analyse the phenomenon to be dealt with so as to take in all its conditions4 ,yet there are many parts of this work of observing the child's mind which do not make so heavy a demand on technical ability1 but can be done by any intelligent observer prepared for the task by a reasonable amount of psychological study4 ,i refer more particularly to that rich and highly interesting field of exploration which opens up when the child begins to talk4 ,it is in the spontaneous utterances of children1 his first quaint uses of words1 that we can best watch the play of the instinctive tendencies of thought4 ,children's talk is always valuable to a psychologist2 and for my part ,i would be glad of as many anecdotal records of their sayings as ,i could collect4 ,here1 then1 there seems to be room for a relatively simple and unskilled kind of observing work4 ,yet it would be a mistake to suppose that even this branch of child-observation requires nothing but ordinary intelligence4 ,to begin with1 we are all prone1 till by special training we have learned to check the inclination1 to read far too much of our older thought and sentiment into children4 ,as ,m4 ,drox observes1 nous sommes dupes de nous-mmes lorsque nous observous ces chers bambins4#i ----- ,footnote #i3 ,l',enfant1 p4 #adb4 ----- ,again1 there is a subtle source of error connected with the very attitude of undergoing examination which only a carefully trained observer of childish ways will avoid4 ,a child is very quick in spying whether he is being observed1 and as soon as he suspects that you are specially interested in his talk he is apt to try to produce an effect4 ,this wish to say something startling1 wonderful1 or what not1 will1 it is obvious1 detract from the value of the utterance4 ,but once more the saying which it is so easy to report has had its history1 and the observer who knows something of psychology will look out for facts1 that is to say1 experiences of the child1 suggestions made by others' words which throw light on the saying4 ,no fact is really quite simple1 and the reason why some facts look so simple is that the observer does not include in his view all the connections of the occurrence which he is inspecting4 ,the unskilled observer of children is apt to send scraps1 fragments of facts1 which have not their natural setting4 ,the value of psychological training is that it makes one as jealously mindful of wholeness in facts as a housewife of wholeness in her porcelain4 ,it is1 indeed1 only when the whole fact is before us1 in well-defined contour1 that we can begin to deal with its meaning4 ,thus although those ignorant of psychology may assist us in this region of fact-finding1 they can never accomplish that completer and exacter kind of observation which we dignify by the name of ,science4#aj ----- ,footnote #aj3 ,since writing the above ,i have had my opinion strongly confirmed by reading a record of sayings of children carried out by women students in an ,american ,normal ,college 7,thoughts and ,reasonings of ,children1 classified by ,h4 ,w4 ,brown1 ,teacher of ,psychology in ,state ,normal ,school1 ,worcester1 ,mass41 with introduction by ,e4 ,h4 ,russell1 ,principal3 reprinted from the ,pedagogical ,seminary74 ,many of the quaint sayings noted down lose much of their psychological point from our complete ignorance of the child's home-experience1 companionships1 school and training4 ----- ,one may conclude then that women may be fitted to become valuable labourers in this new field of investigation1 if only they will acquire a genuine scientific interest in babyhood1 and a fair amount of scientific training4 ,that a large number of women will get so far is ,i think doubtful3 the sentimental or sthetic attraction of the baby is apt to be a serious obstacle to a cold matter-of-fact examination of it as a scientific specimen4 ,the natural delight of a mother in every new exhibition of infantile wisdom or prowess is liable to blind her to the exceedingly modest significance of the child's performances as seen from the scientific point of view4 ,yet as ,i have hinted1 this very fondness for infantile ways1 may1 if only the scientific caution is added1 prove a valuable excitant to study4 ,in ,england1 and in ,america1 there is already a considerable number of women who have undergone some serious training in psychology1 and it may not be too much to hope that before long we shall have a band of mothers and aunts busily engaged in noting and recording the movements of children's minds4 ,i have assumed here that what is wanted is careful studies of individual children as they may be approached in the nursery4 ,and these records of individual children1 after the pattern of ,preyer's monograph1 are ,i think our greatest need4 ,we are wont to talk rather too glibly about that abstraction1 #8the child1' as if all children rigorously corresponded to one pattern1 of which pattern we have a perfect knowledge4 ,mothers at least know that this is not so4 ,children of the same family will be found to differ very widely 7within the comparatively narrow field of childish traits71 as1 for example1 in respect of matter-of-factness1 of fancifulness1 of inquisitiveness4 ,thus1 while it is probably true that most children at a certain age are greedy of the pleasures of the imagination1 ,nature in her well-known dislike of monotony has taken care to make a few decidedly unimaginative4 ,we need to know much more about these variations3 and what will best help us here is a number of careful records of infant progress1 embracing examples not only of different sexes and temperaments1 but also of different social conditions and nationalities4 ,when we have such a collection of monographs we shall be in a much better position to fill out the hazy outline of our abstract conception of childhood with definite and characteristic lineaments4 ,at the same time ,i gladly allow that other modes of observation are possible and in their way useful4 ,this applies to older children who pass into the collective existence of the school-class4 ,here something like collective or statistical inquiry may be begun1 as that into the contents of children's minds1 their ignorances and misapprehensions about common objects4 ,some part of this inquiry into the minds of school-children may very well be undertaken by an intelligent teacher4 ,thus it would be valuable to have careful records of children's progress carried out by pre-arranged tests1 so as to get collections of examples of mental activity at different ages4 ,more special lines of inquiry having a truly experimental character might be carried out by experts1 as those already begun with reference to children's 8span of apprehension10 i4e41 the number of digits or nonsense syllables that can be reproduced after a single hearing1 investigations into the effects of fatigue on mental processes1 into the effect of number of repetitions on the certainty of reproduction1 into musical sensitiveness and so forth4 ,valuable as such statistical investigation undoubtedly is1 it is no substitute for the careful methodical study of the individual child4 ,this seems to me the greatest desideratum just now4 ,since the teacher needs for practical reasons to make a careful study of individuals he might well assist here4 ,in these days of literary collaboration it might not be amiss for a kindergarten teacher to write an account of a child's mind in co-operation with the mother4 ,such a record if well done would be of the greatest value4 ,the co-operation of the mother seems to me quite indispensable1 since even where there is out-of-class intercourse between teacher and pupil the knowledge acquired by the former never equals that of the mother4 ,,ii4 ,,the ,,age ,,of ,,imagination4 ,why we call ,children ,imaginative4 ,one of the few things we seemed to be certain of with respect to child-nature was that it is fancy-full4 ,childhood1 we all know1 is the age for dreaming1 for decking out the world as yet unknown with the gay colours of imagination2 for living a life of play or happy make-believe4 ,so that nothing seems more to characterise the #8,childhood of the ,world' than the myth-making impulse which by an overflow of fancy seeks to hide the meagreness of knowledge4 ,yet even here1 perhaps1 we have been content with loose generalisation in place of careful observation and analysis of facts4 ,for one thing1 the play of infantile imagination is probably much less uniform than is often supposed4 ,there seem to be matter-of-fact children who cannot rise buoyantly to a bright fancy4 ,mr4 ,ruskin1 of all men1 has recently told us that when a child he was incapable of acting a part or telling a tale1 that he never knew a child 8whose thirst for visible fact was at once so eager and so methodic04#aa ,we may accept the report of ,mr4 ,ruskin's memory as proving that he did not idle away his time in day-dreams1 but1 by long and close observation of running water1 and the like1 laid the foundations of that fine knowledge of the appearances of nature which everywhere shines through his writings4 ,yet one may be permitted to doubt whether a writer who shows not only so rich and graceful a style but so truly poetic an invention could have been in every respect an unimaginative child4 ----- ,footnote #aa3 ,prterita1 p4 #gf4 ----- ,perhaps the truth will turn out to be the paradox that most children are at once matter-of-fact observers and dreamers1 passing from the one to the other as the mood takes them1 and with a facility which grown people may well envy4 ,my own observations go to show that the prodigal out-put of fancy1 the revelling in myth and story1 is often characteristic of one period of childhood only4 ,we are apt to lump together such different levels of experience and capacity under that abstraction #8the child'4 ,the wee mite of three and a half1 spending more than half his days in trying to realise all manner of pretty1 odd1 startling fancies about animals1 fairies1 and the rest1 is something vastly unlike the boy of six or seven1 whose mind is now bent on understanding the make and go of machines1 and of that big machine1 the world4 ,so far as ,i can gather from inquiries sent to parents and other observers of children1 a large majority of boys and girls alike are for a time fancy-bound4 ,a child that did not want to play and cared nothing for the marvels of story-land would surely be regarded as queer and not just what a child ought to be4 ,yet1 supposing that this is the right view1 there still remains the question whether imagination always works in the same way in the childish brain4 ,science is beginning to aid us in understanding the differences of childish fancy4 ,for one thing it is leading us to see that a child's whole imaginative life may be specially coloured by the preponderant vividness of a certain order of images1 that one child may live imaginatively in a coloured world1 another in a world of sounds1 another rather in a world of movements4 ,it is easy to note in the case of certain children of the more lively and active turn1 how the supreme interest of story as of play lies in the ample range of movement and bodily activity4 ,robinson ,crusoe is probably for the boyish imagination1 more than anything else1 the goer and the doer4#ab ----- ,footnote #ab3 ,the different tendencies of children towards visual1 auditory1 motor images1 etc41 are dealt with by ,f4 ,queyrat1 ,l',imagination et ses varits chez l'enfant4 ,cf4 an article by ,w4 ,h4 ,burnham1 8,individual ,differences in the ,imagination of ,children10 ,pedagogical ,seminary1 ii41 #b4 ----- ,with this difference in the elementary constituents of imagination1 there are others which turn on temperament1 tone of feeling1 and preponderant directions of emotion4 ,imagination is intimately bound up with the life of feeling1 and will assume as many directions as this life assumes4 ,hence1 the familiar fact that in some children imagination broods by preference on gloomy and terrifying objects1 religious and other1 whereas in others it selects what is bright and gladsome2 that while in some cases it has more of the poetic quality1 in others it leans rather to the scientific or to the practical type4 ,enough has been said perhaps to show that the imaginativeness of children is not a thing to be taken for granted as existing in all children alike4 ,it is eminently a variable faculty requiring a special study in the case of each new child4 ,but even waiving this fact of variability it may1 ,i think1 be said that we are far from understanding the precise workings of imagination in children4 ,we talk1 for example1 glibly about their play1 their make-believe1 their illusions2 but how much do we really know of their state of mind when they act out a little scene of domestic life1 or of the battle-field8 ,we have1 ,i know1 many fine observations on this head4 ,careful observers of children and conservers of their own childish experiences1 such as ,rousseau1 ,pestalozzi1 ,jean ,paul1 ,madame ,necker1 ,george ,sand1 ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson1 tell us much that is valuable3 yet ,i suspect that there must be a much wider and finer investigation of children's action and talk before we can feel quite sure that we have got at their mental whereabouts1 and know how they feel when they pretend to enter the dark wood1 the home of the wolf1 or to talk with their deities1 the fairies4 ,perhaps ,i have said enough to justify my plea for new observations and for a reconsideration of hasty theories in the light of these4 ,nor need we object to a fresh survey of what is perhaps the most delightful side of child-life4 ,i often wonder indeed when ,i come across some precious bit of droll infantile acting1 or of sweet child-soliloquy1 how mothers can bring themselves to lose one drop of the fresh exhilarating draught which daily pours forth from the fount of a child's phantasy4 ,nor is it merely for the sake of its inherent charm that children's imagination deserves further study4 ,in the early age of the individual and of the race what we enlightened persons call fancy has a good deal to do with the first crude attempts at understanding things4 ,child-thought1 like primitive folk-thought1 is saturated with myth1 vigorous phantasy holding the hand of reason--as yet sadly rickety in his legs--and showing him which way he should take4 ,in the moral life again1 we shall see how easily the realising force of young imagination may expose it to deception by others1 and to self-deception too1 with results that closely simulate the guise of a knowing falsehood4 ,on the other hand a careful following out of the various lines of imaginative activity may show how moral education1 by vividly suggesting to the child's imagination a worthy part1 a praiseworthy action1 may work powerfully on the unformed and flexible structure of his young will1 moving it dutywards4 ,imaginative ,transformation of ,objects4 ,the play of young imagination meets us in the domain of sense-observation3 a child is fancying when he looks at things and touches them and moves among them4 ,this may seem a paradox at first1 but in truth there is nothing paradoxical here4 ,it is an exploded psychological fallacy that sense and imagination are wholly apart4 ,no doubt1 as the ancients told us1 phantasy follows and is the offspring of sense3 we live over again in waking and sleeping imagination the sights and sounds of the real world4 ,yet it is no less true that imagination in an active constructive form takes part in the very making of what we call sense-experience4 ,we read the visual symbol1 say1 a splash of light or colour1 now as a stone1 now as a pool of water1 just because imagination drawing from past experience supplies the interpretation1 the group of qualities which composes a hard solid mass1 or a soft yielding liquid4 ,a child's fanciful reading of things1 as when he calls the twinkling star a 7blinking7 eye1 or the dew-drops on the grass tears1 is but an exaggeration of what we all do4 ,his imagination carries him very much farther4 ,thus he may attribute to the stone he sees a sort of stone-soul1 and speak of it as feeling tired of a place4 ,this lively way of envisaging objects is1 as we know1 similar to that of primitive folk1 and has something of crude nature-poetry in it4 ,this tendency is abundantly illustrated in the metaphors which play so large a part in children's talk4 ,as all observers of them know they are wont to describe what they see or hear by analogy to something they know already4 ,this is called by some1 rather clumsily ,i think1 apperceiving4 ,for example1 a little boy of two years and five months1 on looking at the hammers of a piano which his mother was playing1 called out3 #8,there is owlegie' 7diminutive of owl74 ,his eye had instantly caught the similarity between the round felt disc of the hammer divided by a piece of wood1 and the owl's face divided by its beak4 ,in like manner the boy ,c4 called a small oscillating compass-needle a #8bird' on the ground of its slightly bird-like form1 and of its fluttering movement4#ac ,pretty conceits are often resorted to in this assimilation of the new and strange to the familiar1 as when a child seeing dew on the grass said1 #8,the grass is crying1' or when stars were described as 8cinders from ,god's star10 and butterflies as 8pansies flying04#ad ,other examples of this picturesque mode of childish apperception will meet us below4 ----- ,footnote #ac3 ,the references to the child ,c4 are to the subject of the memoir given below1 chap4 xi4 ,footnote #ad3 ,w4 ,h4 ,burnham1 loc4 cit41 p4 #bab f4 ----- ,this play of imagination in connexion with apprehending objects of sense has a strong vitalising or personifying element4 ,that is to say1 the child sees what we regard as lifeless and soulless as alive and conscious4 ,thus he gives not only body but soul to the wind when it whistles or howls at night4 ,the most unpromising things come in for this warming vitalising touch of the child's fancy4 ,he will make something like a personality out of a letter4 ,thus one little fellow aged one year eight months conceived a special fondness for the letter ,w1 addressing it thus3 #8,dear old boy ,w'4 ,another little boy well on in his fourth year1 when tracing a letter ,l happened to slip so that the horizontal limb formed an angle thus1 ,l-like character4 ,he instantly saw the resemblance to the sedentary human form and said3 8,oh1 he's sitting down04 ,similarly when he made an ,f turn the wrong way and then put the correct form to the left thus1 ,f reversed ,f1 he exclaimed3 8,they're talking together04 ,sometimes this endowment of things with feeling leads to a quaint manifestation of sympathy4 ,miss ,ingelow writes of herself3 ,when a little over two years old1 and for about a year after 8,i had the habit of attributing intelligence not only to all living creatures1 the same amount and kind of intelligence that ,i had myself1 but even to stones and manufactured articles4 ,i used to feel how dull it must be for the pebbles in the causeway to be obliged to lie still and only see what was round about4 ,when ,i walked out with a little basket for putting flowers in ,i used sometimes to pick up a pebble or two and carry them on to have a change3 then at the farthest point of the walk turn them out1 not doubting that they would be pleased to have a new view40#ae ----- ,footnote #ae3 ,see her article1 8,the ,history of an ,infancy10 ,longman's ,magazine1 ,feb41 #ahij4 ----- ,this is by no means a unique example of a quaint childish expression of pity for what we think the insentient world4 ,plant-life seems often to excite the feeling4 ,here is a quotation from a parent's chronicle3 8,a girl aged eight1 brings a quantity of fallen autumn leaves in to her mother1 who says1 #8,oh6 how pretty1 ,f46' to which the girl answers3 #8,yes1 ,i knew you'd love the poor things1 mother1 ,i couldn't bear to see them dying on the ground'4 ,a few days afterwards she was found standing at a window overlooking the garden crying bitterly at the falling leaves as they fell in considerable numbers40 ,i need not linger on the products of this vitalising and personifying instinct1 as we shall deal with them again when inquiring into children's ideas about nature4 ,suffice it to say that it is wondrously active and far-reaching1 constituting one chief manifestation of childish fancy4 ,now it may be asked whether all this analogical extension of images to what seem to us such incongruous objects involves a vivid and illusory apprehension of these as transformed4 ,is the eyelid realised and even seen for the moment as a sort of curtain1 the curtain-image blending with and transforming what is present to the eye8 ,are the pebbles actually viewed as living things condemned to lie stiffly in one place8 ,it is of course hard to say1 yet ,i think a conjectural answer can be given4 ,in this imaginative contemplation of things the child but half observes what is present to his eyes1 one or two points only of supreme interest in the visible thing1 whether those of form1 as in assimilating the piano-hammer to the owl1 or of action1 as the falling of the leaf1 being selectively alluded to3 while assimilative imagination overlaying the visual impression with the image of a similar object does the rest4 ,in this way the actual field of objects is apt to get veiled1 transformed by the wizard touch of a lively fancy4 ,no doubt there are various degrees of illusion here4 ,in his matter-of-fact and really scrutinising mood a child will not confound what is seen with what is imagined3 in this case the analogy recalled is distinguished and used as an explanation of what is seen--as when ,c4 observed of the panting dog3 #8,dat bow-wow like puff-puff'4 ,on the other hand when another little boy aged three years and nine months seeing the leaves falling exclaimed1 8,see1 mamma1 the leaves is flying like dickey-birds and little butterflies10 it is hard not to think that the child's fancy for the moment transformed what he saw into these pretty semblances4 ,and one may risk the opinion that1 with the little thinking power and controlling force of will which a child possesses1 such assimilative activity of imagination always tends to develop a degree of momentary illusion4 ,there is1 too1 as we shall see later on1 abundant evidence to show that children at first quite seriously believe that most things1 at least1 are alive and have their feelings4 ,there is another way in which imagination may combine with and transform sensible objects1 viz41 by what is commonly called association4 ,mr4 ,ruskin tells us that when young he associated the name #8crocodile' with the creature so closely that the long series of letters took on something of the look of its lanky body4 ,the same writer speaks of a ,dr4 ,grant1 into whose therapeutic hands he fell when a child4 ,the name 7he adds7 is always associated in my mind with a brown powder--rhubarb or the like--of a gritty or acrid nature4444 ,the name always sounded to me gr-r-ish and granular4 ,we can most of us perhaps1 recall similar experiences1 where colours and sounds1 in themselves indifferent1 took on either through analogy or association a decidedly repulsive character4 ,how far1 one wonders1 does this process of transformation of things go in the case of imaginative children8 ,there is some reason to say that it may go very far1 and that1 too1 when there is no strong feeling at work cementing the combined elements4 ,a child's feeling for likeness is commonly keen and subtle1 and knowledge of the real relations of things has not yet come to check the impulse to this free far-ranging kind of assimilation4 ,before the qualities and the connexions of objects are sufficiently known for them to be interesting in themselves1 they can only acquire interest through the combining art of childish fancy4 ,and the same is true of associated qualities4 ,a child's ear may not dislike a grating sound1 a harsh noise1 as our ear dislikes it1 merely because of its effect on the sensitive organ4 ,en revanche it will like and dislike sounds for a hundred reasons unknown to us1 just because the quick strong fancy adding its life to that of the senses gives to their impressions much of their significance and much of their effect4 ,there is one new field of investigation which is illustrating in a curious way the wizard influence wielded by childish imagination over the things of sense4 ,it is well known that a certain number of people habitually #8colour' the sounds they hear1 imagining1 for example1 the sound of a vowel1 or of a musical tone1 to have its characteristic tint which they are able to describe accurately4 ,this #8coloured hearing1' as it is called1 is always traced back to the dimly recalled age of childhood4 ,children are now beginning to be tested and it is found that a good proportion possess the faculty4 ,thus1 in some researches on the minds of ,boston school-children1 it was found that twenty-one out of fifty-three1 or nearly #dj per cent41 described the tones of certain instruments as coloured4#af ,the particular colour ascribed to an instrument1 as also the degree of its brightness1 though remaining constant in the case of the same child1 varied greatly among different children1 so that1 for example1 one child #8visualised' the tone of a fife as pale or bright1 while another imaged it as dark4#ag ,it is highly probable that both analogy and association play a part here4#ah ,as was recently suggested to me by a correspondent the instance given by ,locke of the analogy between scarlet and the note of a trumpet may easily be due in part at least to association of the tone with the scarlet uniform4 ----- ,footnote #af3 ,see the article by ,g4 ,stanley ,hall1 8,the ,contents of ,children's ,minds10 ,princeton ,review4 ,new ,series1 #ahhc4 ,cf4 the same writer's volume1 ,the ,contents of ,children's ,minds on entering ,school1 #ahid4 ----- ,footnote #ag3 ,ibid41 p4 #bfe4 ,footnote #ah3 ,this has been well brought out by ,professor ,flournoy of ,geneva in his volume ,des ,phnomnes de ,synopsie 7audition colore71 chap4 ii4 ----- ,i may add that ,i once happened to overhear a little girl of six talking to herself about numbers in this wise3 8,two is a dark number10 8forty is a white number04 ,i questioned her and found that the digits had each its distinctive colour2 thus one was white2 two1 dark2 three1 white2 four1 dark2 five1 pink2 and so on4 ,nine was pointed and dark1 eleven dark green1 showing that some of the digits were much more distinctly visualised than others4 ,just three years later ,i tested her again and found she still visualised the digits1 but not quite in the same way4 ,thus although one and two were white and black and five pink as before1 three was now grey1 four was red1 nine had lost its colour1 and eleven oddly enough had turned from dark green to bright yellow4 ,this case suggests that in early life new experiences and associations may modify the tint and shade of sounds4 ,however this be1 children's coloured hearing is worth noting as the most striking example of the general tendency to overlay impressions of the senses with vivid images4 ,it seems reasonable to suppose that coloured hearing and other allied phenomena1 as the picturing of numbers1 days of the week1 etc41 in a certain scheme or diagrammatic arrangement1 when they show themselves after childhood are to be viewed as survivals of early fanciful brain-work4 ,this fact taken along with the known vividness of the images in coloured hearing1 which in certain cases approximate to sense-perceptions1 seems to me to confirm the view here put forth that children's imagination may alter the world of sense in ways which it is hard for our older and stiff-jointed minds to follow4 ,i have confined myself here to what ,i have called the play of imagination1 the magic transmuting of things through the sheer liveliness and wanton activity of childish fancy4 ,how strong1 how vivid1 how dominating such imaginative transformation may become will of course be seen in cases where violent feeling1 especially fear1 gives preternatural intensity to the mind's realising power4 ,but this will be better considered later on4 ,this transformation of the actual surroundings is of course restrained in serious moments1 and in intercourse with older and graver folk4 ,there is1 however1 a region of child-life where it knows no check1 where the impulse to deck out the shabby reality with what is bright and gay has all its own way4 ,this region is ,play4 ,imagination and ,play4 ,the interest of child's play in the present connexion lies in the fact that it is the working out into visible shape of an inner fancy4 ,the actual presentation may be the starting-point of this process of imaginative projection3 the child1 for example1 sees the sand1 the shingle and shells1 and says1 #8,let us play keeping a shop'4 ,yet this is accidental4 ,the source of play is the impulse to realise a bright idea3 whence1 as we shall see by-and-by1 its close kinship to art as a whole4 ,this image is the dominating force1 it is for the time a veritable ide fixe1 and everything has to accommodate itself to this4 ,since the image has to be acted out1 it comes into collision with the actual surroundings4 ,here is the child's opportunity4 ,the floor is instantly mapped out into two hostile territories1 the sofa-end becomes a horse1 a coach1 a ship1 or what not1 to suit the exigencies of the play4 ,this stronger movement and wider range of imagination in children's pastime is explained by the characteristic and fundamental impulse of play1 the desire to be something1 to act a part4 ,the child-adventurer as he personates ,robinson ,crusoe or other hero steps out of his every-day self and so out of his every-day world4 ,in realising his part he virtually transforms his surroundings1 since they take on the look and meaning which the part assigns to them4 ,this is prettily illustrated in one of ,mr4 ,stevenson's child-songs1 8,the ,land of ,counterpane10 in which a sick child describes the various transformations of the bed-scene3-- ,and sometimes for an hour or so ,i watched my leaden soldiers go1 ,with different uniforms and drills1 ,among the bed-clothes through the hills2 ,and sometimes sent my ships in fleets1 ,all up and down among the sheets2 ,or brought my trees and houses out1 ,and planted cities all about4 ,who can say to how many and to what strange play-purposes that stolid unyielding-looking object a sofa-head has been turned by the ingenuity of the childish brain8 ,the impulse to act a part meets us very early and grows out of the assimilative instinct4 ,the very infant will1 if there is a cup to hand1 pretend to drink out of it4#ai ,similarly a boy of two will put the stem of his father's pipe into1 or1 if cautious1 near his mouth1 and make believe that he is smoking4 ,a little boy not yet two years old would spend a whole wet afternoon 8painting0 the furniture with the dry end of a bit of rope4 ,in such cases1 it is evident1 the playing may start from a suggestion supplied by the sight of an object4 ,there is no need to suppose that in this simple kind of imitative play children knowingly act a part4 ,it is surely to misunderstand the essence of play to speak of it as a fully conscious process of imitative acting4#bj ,a child is one creature when he is truly at play1 another when he is bent on astonishing or amusing you4 ,it seems sufficient to say that when at play he is possessed by an idea1 and is working this out into visible action4 ,your notice1 your laughter1 may bring in a new element of enjoyment2 for as we all know1 children are apt to be little actors in the full sense1 and to aim at producing an impression4 ,yet the child as little needs your flattering observation as the cat needs it1 when he plays in the full sense imaginatively1 and in make-believe1 with his captured mouse1 placing it1 for example1 deliberately under a copper in the scullery1 and amusing himself by the half-illusion of losing it4 ,indeed your intrusion will be just as likely to destroy or at least to diminish the charm of a child's play1 if only through your inability to seize his idea1 and1 what is equally important1 to rise to his own point of enthusiasm and illusive realisation4 ,perhaps1 indeed1 one may say that the play-instinct is most vigorous and dominant when a child is alone1 or at least self-absorbed2 for even social play1 delightful as it is when all the players are attuned1 is subject to disturbance through a want of mutual comprehension and a need of half-disillusive explanations4#ba ----- ,footnote #ai3 ,of course1 as ,preyer suggests1 this drinking from an empty cup may at first be due to a want of discriminative perception4 ,footnote #bj3 ,m4 ,compayr seems to go too far in this direction when he talks of the child's play with its doll as a charming comedy of maternity 7,l',evolution intell4 et morale de l',enfant1 p4 #bgd74 ,footnote #ba3 ,for a good illustration of the disillusive effect of want of enthusiasm in one's playmates1 see ,tolstoi1 ,childhood1 ,boyhood1 ,youth1 part i41 chap4 viii4 ----- ,the essence of children's play is the acting of a part and the realising of a new situation4 ,it is thus1 as we shall see more fully by-and-by1 akin to dramatic action1 only that the child's #8acting' is like ,m4 ,jourdain's prose1 an unconscious art4 ,the impulse to be something1 a sailor1 a soldier1 a path-finder1 or what not1 absorbs the child and makes him forget his real surroundings and his actual self4 ,his day-dreams1 his solitary and apparently listless wanderings while he mutters mystic words to himself1 all illustrate this desire to realise a part4 ,in this playful self-projection a child will become even something non-human1 as when he nips the #8bread-and-cheese' shoots off the bushes and fancies himself a horse4#bb ,it is to be noted that such passing out of one's ordinary self and assuming a foreign existence is confined to the child-player2 the cat or the dog1 though able1 as ,mr4 ,darwin and others have shown1 to go through a kind of make-believe game1 remaining always within the limits of his ordinary self4 ----- ,footnote #bb3 ,uninitiated1 p4 #aj4 ----- ,such play-like transmutation of the self extends beyond what we are accustomed to call play4 ,one little boy of three and a half years who was fond of playing at the useful business of coal-heaving would carry his coal-heaver's dream through the whole day1 and on the particular day devoted to this calling would not only refuse to be addressed by any less worthy name1 but ask in his prayer to be made a good coal-heaver 7instead of the usual #8good boy'74 ,on other days this child lived the life of a robin redbreast1 a soldier1 and so forth1 and bitterly resented his mother's occasional confusion of his personalities4 ,a little girl aged only one year and ten months insisted upon being addressed by a fancy name1 ,isabel1 when she was put to bed1 but would not be called by this name at any other time4 ,she probably passed into what seemed to her another person when she went to bed and gave herself up to sweet #8hypnagogic' reverie4 ,in the working out of this impulse to realise a part the actual external surroundings may take a surprisingly small part4 ,sometimes there is scarcely any adjustment of scene3 the child plays out his action with purely imaginary surroundings4 ,such simple play-actions as going to market to buy imaginary apples occur very early1 one mother assuring me that all her children carried them out in the second year before they could talk4 ,another mother writes of her boy1 aged two and a half years3 8,he amuses himself by pretending things4 ,he will fetch an imaginary cake from a corner1 rake together imaginary grass1 or fight a battle with imaginary soldiers40 ,this reminds one of ,mr4 ,stevenson's lines3-- ,it is he1 when you play with your soldiers of tin1 ,who sides with the ,french and who never can win4 ,this impulse to invent imaginary surroundings1 and more especially to create mythical companions1 is very common among lonely and imaginative children4 ,a lady friend1 a ,german1 tells me that when she was a little girl1 a lonely one of course1 she invented a kind of alter ego1 another girl rather older than herself1 whom she named #8,krofa'--why she has forgotten4 ,she made a constant playmate of her1 and got all her new ideas from her4 ,mr4 ,canton's little heroine took to nursing an invisible #8iccle gaal' 7little girl71 the image of which she seemed able to project into space4#bc ,the invention of fictitious persons fills a large space in child-life4 ,perhaps if only the young imagination is strong enough there is1 as already hinted1 more of sweet illusion1 of a warm grasp of living reality in this solitary play1 where fictitious companions perfectly obedient to the little player's will take the place of less controllable tangible ones4 ,but such purely imaginative make-believe1 which derives no help from actual things1 is perhaps hardly #8play' in the full sense1 but rather an active form of day-dreaming or romancing4#bd ----- ,footnote #bc3 ,the ,invisible ,playmate1 p4 #cc ff4 ,footnote #bd3 ,i fail to understand what ,professor ,mark ,baldwin means by saying that an only child is wanting in imagination 7op4 cit41 p4 #ceh74 ,in his emphasising of the influence of imitation and external suggestion the writer seems to have overlooked the rather obvious fact that childish imagination in its intenser and more energetic forms means a detachment from the sensible world1 and that lonely children are1 as more than one autobiography1 as well as mother's record1 show1 particularly imaginative just because of the absence of engaging activities in the real world4 ----- ,in much of this playful performance all the interference with actual surroundings that the child requires is change of place or scene4 ,here is a pretty example of this simple type of imaginative play4 ,a child of twenty months1 who is accustomed to meet a bonne and child in the ,jardin du ,luxembourg1 suddenly leaves the family living-room1 pronouncing indifferently well the names ,luxembourg1 nurse1 and child4 ,he goes into the next room1 pretends to say 8good-day0 to his two out-door acquaintances1 and then returns and simply narrates what he has been doing4#be ,here the simple act of passing into an adjoining room was enough to secure the needed realisation of the encounter in the garden4 ,the movement into the next room is suggestive4 ,primarily it meant no doubt the child's manner of realising the out-of-door walk2 yet ,i suspect there was another motive at work4 ,children love to enact their little play-scenes in some remote spot1 withdrawn from notice1 where imagination suffers no let from the interference of mother1 nurse1 or other member of the real environment4 ,how many a thrilling exciting play has been carried out in a corner1 especially if it be dark1 or better still1 screened off4 ,the fascination of curtained spaces1 as those behind the window curtains1 or under the table with the table-cloth hanging low1 will be fresh in the memory of all who can recall their childhood4 ----- ,footnote #be3 ,egger quoted by ,compayr1 op4 cit41 pp4 #adi1 #aej4 ----- ,a step towards a more realistic kind of play-action1 in which1 as in the modern theatre1 imagination is propped up by strong stage effects1 is taken when a scene is constructed1 the chairs and sofa turned into ships1 carriages1 a railway train1 and so forth4 ,yet1 after all1 the scene is but a very subordinate part of the play4 ,next to himself in his new part1 proudly enjoying the consciousness of being a general1 or a school-mistress1 a child who is not content with the pure creations of his phantasy requires the semblance of living companions4 ,in all play he desires somebody1 if only as listener to his talk in his new character2 and when he does not rise to an invisible auditor1 he will talk to such unpromising things as a sponge in the bath1 a fire-shovel1 a clothes' prop in the garden1 and so forth4 ,in more active play1 where something has to be done1 he generally desires a full companion and assistant1 human or animal4 ,and here we meet with what is perhaps the most interesting feature of childish play1 the transmutation of the most meagre and least promising of things into complete living forms4 ,i have already alluded to the sofa-head4 ,how many forms of animal life1 vigorous and untiring1 from the patient donkey up to the untamed horse of the prairies1 has this most inert-looking ridge served to image forth to quick boyish perception4 ,the introduction of these living things seems to illustrate the large compass of the child's realising power4 ,mr4 ,ruskin speaks somewhere of 8the perfection of child-like imagination1 the power of making everything out of nothing04 8,the child10 he adds1 does not make a pet of a mechanical mouse that runs about the floor4444 ,the child falls in love with a quiet thing--with an ugly one--nay1 it may be with one to us totally devoid of meaning4 ,the besoin de croire precedes the besoin d'aimer4 ,the quotation brings us to the focus where the rays of childish imagination seem to converge1 the transformation of toys4 ,the fact that children make living things out of their toy horses1 dogs and the rest1 is known to every observer of their ways4 ,to the natural unsceptical eye the boy on his rudely carved 8gee-gee0 slashing the dull flank with all a boy's glee1 looks as if he were realising the joy of actual riding1 as if he were possessed with the fancy that the stiff least organic-looking of structures which he strides is a very horse4 ,the liveliness of this realising imagination is seen in the extraordinary poverty and meagreness of the toys which to their happy possessors are wholly satisfying4 ,here is a pretty picture of child's play from a ,german writer3-- ,there sits a little charming master of three years before his small table busied for a whole hour in a fanciful game with shells4 ,he has three so-called snake-heads in his domain2 a large one and two smaller ones3 this means two calves and a cow4 ,in a tiny tin dish the little farmer has put all kinds of petals1 that is the fodder for his numerous and fine cattle4444 ,when the play has lasted a time the fodder-dish transforms itself into a heavy waggon with hay3 the little shells now become little horses1 and are put to the shafts to pull the terrible load4 ,the doll takes a supreme place in this fancy realm of play4 ,it is human and satisfies higher instincts and emotions4 ,as the ,french poet says1 the little girl-- ,rve el nom de mre en berant sa poupe4#bf ----- ,footnote #bf3 ,goltz1 ,buch der ,kindheit1 pp4 #d1 #e4 ----- ,i read somewhere recently that the doll is a plaything for girls only3 but boys1 though they often prefer india-rubber horses and other animals1 not infrequently go through a stage of doll-love also1 and are hardly less devoted than girls4 ,endless is the variety of rle assigned to the doll as to the tiny shell in our last picture of play4 ,the doll is the all-important comrade in that solitude deux of which the child1 like the adult1 is so fond4 ,mrs4 ,burnett tells us that sitting holding her doll in the armchair of the parlour she would sail across enchanted seas to enchanted islands having all sorts of thrilling adventures4 ,at another time when she wanted to act an ,indian chief the doll just as obediently took up the part of squaw4 ,very humanely1 on the whole1 is the little doll-lover wont to use her pet1 even though1 as ,george ,sand reminds us1 there come moments of rage and battering4#bg ,a little boy of two and a half years asked his mother one day3 8,will you give me all my picture-books to show dolly8 ,i don't know which he will like best40 ,he then pointed to each and looked at the doll's face for the answer4 ,he made believe that it selected one1 and then gravely showed it all the pictures1 saying3 8,look here1 dolly60 and carefully explaining them4 ----- ,footnote #bg3 ,see the study of ,george ,sand's childhood below1 chap4 xii4 ----- ,the doll illustrates the childish attitude towards all toys1 the impulse to take them into the innermost and warmest circle of personal intimacy1 to make them a living part of himself4 ,a child's language1 as we shall see later1 points to an early identification of self with belongings4 ,the #8me' and the #8my' are the same1 or nearly the same1 to a mite of three4 ,this impulse to attach the doll to self1 or to embrace it within the self-consciousness or self-feeling1 shows itself in odd ways4 ,in the grown-up child1 ,laura ,bridgman1 it took the form of putting a bandage like her own over her doll's eyes4 ,this resembles a case of a girl of six1 who when recovering from measles was observed to be busily occupied with her dolls1 each of which she painted over with bright red spots4 ,the dolly must do all1 and be all that ,i am3 so the child in his warm attachment seems to argue4 ,this feeling of oneness is strengthened by that of exclusive possession1 the sense that the child himself is the only one who really knows dolly1 can hear her cry when she cries and so forth4#bh ,it is another manifestation of the same feeling of intimacy and solidarity when a child insists on dolly's being treated by others as courteously as himself4 ,children will often expect the mother or nurse to kiss and say good-night to their pet or pets--for their hearts are capacious--when she says good-night to themselves4 ----- ,footnote #bh3 ,cf4 ,perez1 ,l',art et la ,posie chez l'enfant1 p4 #bh4 ----- ,here1 nobody can surely doubt1 we have clearest evidence of play-illusion4 ,the lively imagination endows the inert wooden thing with the warmth of life and love4 ,how large a part is played here by the alchemist1 fancy1 is known to all observers of children's playthings4 ,the faith and the devotion often seem to increase as the first meretricious charms1 the warm tints of the cheek and the lips1 the well-shaped nose1 the dainty clothes1 prematurely fade1 and the lovely toy which once kept groups of hungry-looking children gazing long at the shop-window1 is reduced to the naked essence of a doll4 ,a child's constancy to his doll when thus stript of exterior charms and degraded to the lowest social stratum of dolldom is one of the sweetest and most humorous things in child-life4 ,and then what rude unpromising things are adopted as doll-pets4 ,mrs4 ,burnett tells us she once saw a dirty mite sitting on a step in a squalid ,london street1 cuddling warmly a little bundle of hay tied round the middle by a string4 ,here1 surely1 the besoin d'aimer was little if anything behind the besoin de croire4 ,do any of us really understand this doll-superstition8 ,writers of a clear long-reaching memory have tried to take us back to childhood1 and restore to us for a moment the whole undisturbed trust1 the perfect satisfaction of love1 which the child brings to its doll4 ,yet even the imaginative genius of a ,george ,sand is hardly equal1 perhaps1 to the feat of resuscitating the buried companion of our early days and making it live once more before our eyes4#bi ,the truth is the doll-illusion is one of the first to pass4 ,there are1 ,i believe1 a few sentimental girls who1 when they attain the years of enlightenment1 make a point of saving their dolls from the general wreckage of toys4 ,yet ,i suspect the pets when thus retained are valued more for the outside charm of pretty face and hair1 and still more for the lovely clothes1 than for the inherent worth of the doll itself1 of what we may call the doll-soul which informs it and gives it1 for the child1 its true beauty and its worth4 ----- ,footnote #bi3 ,for her remarkable analysis of the child's feeling for his doll1 see below1 chap4 xii4 ----- ,yet if we cannot get inside the old doll-superstition we may study it from the outside1 and draw a helpful comparison between it and other known forms of nave credulity4 ,and here we have the curious fact that the doll exists not only for the child but for the 8nature man04 ,savages1 ,sir ,john ,lubbock tells us1#cj like toys1 such as dolls1 ,noah's ,arks1 etc4 ,the same writer remarks that the doll is 8a hybrid between the baby and the fetish1 and that it exhibits the contradictory characters of its parents04 ,perhaps the changes of mood towards the doll1 of which ,george ,sand writes1 illustrate the alternating preponderance of the baby and the fetish half4 ,but as ,sir ,john also remarks1 this hybrid is singularly unintelligible to grown-up people1 and it seems the part of modesty here to bow to one of nature's mysteries4 ----- ,footnote #cj3 ,origin of ,civilisation1 appendix1 p4 #eba4 ----- ,it has been suggested to me by ,mr4 ,f4 ,galton that a useful inquiry might be carried out into the relation between a child's preference in the matter of doll or other toy and the degree of his imaginativeness as otherwise shown1 e4g41 in craving for story1 and in romancing4 ,so far as ,i have inquired ,i am disposed to think that such a relation exists4 ,a lady who has had a large experience as a ,kindergarten teacher tells me that children who play with rough shapeless things1 and readily endow with life the ball1 and so forth1 in ,kindergarten games are imaginative in other ways4 ,here is an example3-- ,p4 ,mc4 ,l41 a girl1 observed from three and a half to five years of age1 was a highly imaginative child as shown by the power of make-believe in play4 ,the ball of soft india-rubber was to her on the teacher's suggestion1 say1 a baby1 and on it she would lavish all her tenderness1 kissing it1 feeding it1 washing its face1 dressing it in her pinafore1 etc4 ,so thorough was her delight in the play that the less imaginative children around her would suspend their play at #8babies' and watch her with interest4 ,whilst a most indifferent restless child at lessons1 whenever a story was told she sat motionless and wide-eyed till the close4 ,children sometimes make babies of their younger brothers and sisters1 going through all the sweet solicitous offices which others are wont to carry out on their dolls4#ca ,this suggests another and closely related question3 ,do the more imaginative children prefer the inert1 ugly doll to the living child in these nursing pastimes8 ,what is the real relation in the child's play between the toy-companion1 the doll or india-rubber dog1 and the living companion8 ,again1 a child will occasionally play with an imaginary doll4#cb ,how is this impulse related to the other two forms of doll-passion8 ,these points would well repay a careful investigation4 ----- ,footnote #ca3 ,baldwin gives a pretty example of this1 op4 cit41 p4 #cfb4 ,footnote #cb3 ,an example is given by ,paola ,lombroso1 ,psicologia del ,bambino1 p4 #abf4 ----- ,the vivification of the doll or toy animal is the outcome of the play-impulse1 and this1 as we have seen1 is an impulse to act out1 to realise an idea in outward show4 ,the absorption in the idea and its outward expression serves1 as in the case of the hypnotised subject1 to blot out the incongruities of scene and action which you or ,i1 a cold observer1 would note4 ,the play-idea works transformingly by a process analogous to what is called auto-suggestion4 ,how complete this play-illusion may become here can be seen in more ways than one4 ,we see it in the jealous insistence already illustrated that everything shall for the time pass over from the every-day world into the new fancy-created one4 8,about the age of four10 writes ,m4 ,egger of his boys1 8,felix is playing at being coachman1 ,emile happens to return home at the moment4 ,in announcing his brother1 ,felix does not say1 #8,emile is come1' he says #8,the brother of the coachman is come'40#cc ----- ,footnote #cc3 ,quoted by ,compayr1 op4 cit41 p4 #aej4 ----- ,as we saw above1 the child's absorption in his new play-world is shown by his imperious demand that others1 as his mother1 shall recognise his new character4 ,pestalozzi's little boy1 aged three years and a half1 was one day playing at being butcher1 when his mother called him by his usual diminutive1 #8,jacobli'4 ,he at once replied3 8,no1 no2 you should call me butcher now04#cd ,here is a story to the same effect1 sent me by a mother4 ,a little girl of four was playing #8shops' with her younger sister4 8,the elder one was shopman at the time ,i came into her room and kissed her4 ,she broke out into piteous sobs1 ,i could not understand why4 ,at last she sobbed out3 #8,mother1 you never kiss the man in the shop'4 ,i had with my kiss quite spoilt her illusion40 ----- ,footnote #cd3 ,de ,guimp's ,life of ,pestalozzi 7,engl4 trans471 p4 #da4 ----- ,the intensity of the realising power of imagination in play is seen too in the stickling for fidelity to the original in all playful reproduction1 whether of scenes observed in everyday life or of what has been narrated4 ,the same little boy who showed his picture-books to dolly was1 we are told1 when two years and eight months old1 fond of imagining that he was ,priest1 his grandmamma's coachman4 8,he drives his toy horse from the arm-chair as a carriage1 getting down every minute to #8let the ladies out1' or to #8go shopping'4 ,the make-believe extends to his insisting on the reins being held while he gets down and so forth40 ,the same thing shows itself in acting out stories4 ,the full enjoyment of the realisation depends on the faithful reproduction1 on the suitable outward embodiment of the distinct idea in the child's mind4 ,the following anecdote bears another kind of testimony1 a most winsome kind1 to the realising power of play4 ,one day two sisters said to one another3 8,let us play being sisters04 ,this might well sound insane enough to hasty ears2 but is it not really eloquent8 ,to me it suggests that the girls felt they were not realising their sisterhood1 enjoying all the possible sweets of it1 as they wanted to do--perhaps there had been a quarrel and a supervening childish coldness4 ,and they felt too that the way to get this more vivid sense of what they were1 or ought to be1 one to the other1 was by playing the part1 by acting a scene in which they would come close to one another in warm sympathetic fellowship4 ,but there is still another1 and some will think a more conclusive way of satisfying ourselves of the reality of the play-illusion4 ,the child finds himself confronted by the unbelieving adult who questions what he says about the doll's crying and so forth4 ,one little girl1 aged one year and nine months1 when asked by her mother how her doll1 who had lost his arms1 ate his dinner without hands1 quickly changed the subject4 ,she did not apparently like having difficulties brought into her happy play-world4 ,but the true tenacious faith shows itself later when the child understands these sceptical questionings of others1 and sees that they are poking fun at his play and his day-dreamings4 ,such cruel quizzings of his make-believe are apt to cut him to the quick4 ,i have heard of children who will cry if a stranger suddenly enters the nursery when they are hard at play1 and shows himself unsympathetic and critical4 ,play may produce not only this vivid imaginative realisation at the time1 but a sort of mild permanent illusion4 ,sometimes it is a toy-horse1 in one case communicated to me it was a funny-looking toy-lion1 more frequently it is the human effigy1 the doll1 which as the result of successive acts of imaginative vivification gets taken up into the relation of permanent companion and pet4 ,clusters of happy associations gather about it1 investing it with a lasting vitality and character4 ,a mother once asked her boy of two and a half years if his doll was a boy or a girl4 ,he said at first1 8,a boy10 but presently correcting himself added1 8,i think it is a baby04 ,here we have a challenging of the inner conviction by a question1 a moment of reflexion1 and as a result of this1 an unambiguous confession of faith that the doll had its place in the living human family4 ,here is a more stubborn exhibition on the part of another boy of this lasting faith in the plaything called out by others' sceptical attitude4 ,when 7writes a lady correspondent7 he was just over two years old ,l4 began to speak of a favourite wooden horse 7,dobbin7 as if it were a real living creature4 #8,no tarpenter 7carpenter7 made ,dobbin1' he would say1 #8he is not wooden but kin 7skin7 and bones and ,dod 7,god7 made him4' ,if any one said #8it' in speaking of the horse his wrath was instantly aroused1 and he would shout indignantly3 #8,it6 ,you mutt'ent tay 8it10 you mut tay he'4 ,he imagined the horse was possessed of every virtue and it was strange to see what an influence this creature of his own imagination exercised over him4 ,if there was anything ,l4 particularly wished not to do his mother had only to say3 #8,dobbin would like you to do this1' and it was done without a murmur4 ,there is another domain of childish activity closely bordering on that of play where a like suffusion of the world of sense by imagination meets us4 ,i refer to pictures and artistic representations generally4 ,if in the case of adults there is a half illusion1 a kind of oneirotic or trance condition induced by a picture or dramatic spectacle1 in the case of the less-instructed child the illusion is apt to become more complete4 ,a picture seems very much of a toy to a child4 ,a baby of eight or nine months will talk to a picture as to a living thing2 and something of this tendency to make a fetish of a drawing survives much later4 ,but it will be more convenient to deal with the attitude of the child-mind towards pictorial representations in connexion with his art-tendencies4 ,the imaginative transformation of things1 more particularly the endowing of lifeless things with life1 enters1 ,i believe1 into all children's pastimes4 ,whence comes the perennial charm1 the undying popularity1 of the hoop8 ,is not the interest here due to the circumstance that the child controls a moving thing which in the capricious variations of its course simulates a free will of its own8 ,as ,i understand it1 trundling the hoop is imaginative play hardly less than riding the horse-stick and slashing its flanks4 ,who again that can recall early experiences will doubt that the delight of flying the kite1 of watching it as it sways to the right or to the left1 threatening to fall head-foremost to earth1 and most of all perhaps of sending a paper #8messenger' along the string to the wee thing poised like a bird so terribly far away in the blue sky1 is the delight of imaginative play8 ,the same is true of sailing boats1 and other pastimes of early childhood4 ,i have here touched merely on the imaginative and half-illusory side of children's play4 ,it is to be remembered1 however1 that play is much more than this1 and reflects much more of the childish mind4 ,play proper as distinguished from mere day-dreaming is activity and imitative activity2 and children show marked differences in the energy of this activity1 and in the quickness and closeness of their responses to the model actions of the real nurse1 real coachman1 and so forth4 ,that is to say1 observation of others will count here4 ,again1 while social surroundings1 opportunities for imitation1 are important1 they are by no means all-decisive4 ,children show a curious selectiveness in their imitative games1 germs of differential interest1 sexual and individual1 revealing themselves quite early4 ,it may be added that a child with few opportunities of observation may get quite enough play-material from storyland4 ,but play is never merely imitative1 save indeed in the case of unintelligent and #8stoggy' children4 ,it is a bright invention into which all the gifts of childish intelligence may pour themselves4 ,the relation of play to art will engage us later on4 ,free ,projection of ,fancies4 ,in play and the kindred forms of imaginative activity just dealt with1 we have been concerned with imaginative realisation in its connexion with sense-perception4 ,and here1 it is to be noticed1 there is a kind of reciprocal action between sense and imagination4 ,on the one hand1 as we have seen1 imagination interposes a coloured medium1 so to speak1 between the eye and the object1 so that it becomes transformed and beautified4 ,on the other hand1 in what is commonly called playing1 imaginative activity receives valuable aid from the senses4 ,the stump of a doll1 woefully unlike as it is to what the child's fancy makes it1 is yet a sensible fact1 and as such gives support and substance to the realising impulse4 ,now this fact that imagination derives support from sense leads to a habit of projecting fancies1 and giving them an external and local habitation4 ,in this way the idea receives a certain solidity and fixity through its embodiment in the real physical world4 ,this incorporation of images in the system of the real world may1 like play1 start at one of two ends4 ,on the one hand1 the external world1 so far as it is only dimly perceived1 excites wonder1 curiosity1 and the desire to fill in the blank spaces with at least the semblance of knowledge4 ,here distance exercises a strange fascination4 ,the remote chain of hills faintly visible from the child's home1 has been again and again endowed by his enriching fancy with all manner of wondrous scenery and peopled by all manner of strange creatures4 ,the unapproachable sky--which to the little one1 so often on his back1 is much more of a visible object than to us--with its wonders of blue expanse and cloudland1 of stars and changeful moon1 is wont to occupy his mind1 his bright fancy quite spontaneously filling out this big upper world with appropriate forms4 ,this stimulating effect of the half-perceivable is seen in still greater intensity in the case of what is hidden from sight4 ,the spell cast on the young mind by the mystery of holes1 and especially of dark woods1 and the like1 is known to all4 ,c4's peopling of a dark wood with his btes noires the wolves illustrates this tendency4 8,what 7writes a ,german author already quoted7 all childish fancy has almost without exception in common1 is the idea of a wholly new and unheard-of world behind the remote horizon1 behind woods1 lakes and hills1 and all objects reached by the eye4 ,when ,i was a child and we played hide and seek in the barn1 ,i always felt that there must or might be behind every bundle of straw1 and especially in the corners1 something unheard of lying hidden4 ,and yet ,i had no profane curiosity1 no desire to experiment by turning over the bundle of straw4 ,it was just a fancy1 and though ,i half recognised it as such it was lively enough to engage me as a reality40 ,the same writer goes on to describe how his imagination ever occupied itself with what lay behind the long stretch of wood which closed in a large part of his child's horizon4#ce ----- ,footnote #ce3 ,goltz1 ,das ,buch der ,kindheit1 p4 #bgf4 ----- ,this imaginative filling up of the remote and the hidden recesses of the outer world is subject to manifold stimulating influences from the region of feeling4 ,we know that all vivid imagination is charged with emotion1 and this is emphatically true of children's phantasies4 ,the unseen1 the hidden1 contains unknown possibilities1 something awful1 terrible1 it may be1 to make the timid wee thing shudder in anticipatory vision1 or wondrously and surprisingly beautiful4 ,how far the childish attitude is from intellectual curiosity is seen in the remark of ,goltz1 that no impious attempt is made to probe the mystery4 ,the other way in which this happy fusion of fancy with incomplete perception may be effected is through the working of the impulse to give outward embodiment to vivid and persistent images4 ,all play1 as we have seen1 is an illustration of the impulse1 and certain kinds of play show the working of the impulse in its purity4 ,it extends1 however1 beyond the limits of what is commonly known as play4 ,the instance quoted above1 the peopling of a certain wood with wolves by the child ,c41 was of course due in part to the fact that the small impressionable brain was at this time much occupied with the idea of the wolf4 ,dickens and others have told us how when children they were wont to project into the real world the lively images acquired from storyland4 ,when suitable objects present themselves the images are naturally enough linked on to these4 ,thus ,dickens writes3 8,every burn in the neighbourhood1 every stone of the church1 every foot of the churchyard had some association of its own in my mind connected with these books 7,roderic ,random1 ,tom ,jones1 ,gil ,blas1 etc471 and stood for some locality made famous in them4 ,i have seen ,tom ,piper go climbing up the church steeple2 ,i have watched ,strap with the knapsack on his back stopping to rest himself on the wicket-gate40#cf ----- ,footnote #cf3 ,quoted by ,forster1 ,life of ,charles ,dickens1 chap4 i4 ----- ,along with this attachment of images to definite objects there goes a good deal of vague localisation in dim half-realised quarters of space4 ,the supernatural beings1 the fairies1 the bogies1 and the rest1 are1 as might be expected1 relegated to these obscure and impenetrable regions4 ,it would be worth while perhaps to collect a children's comparative mythology1 if only to see what different localities1 geographic and cosmic1 the childish mind is apt to assign to his fabulous beings4 ,the poor fairies seem to have been forced to find an abode in most dissimilar regions4 ,the boy ,c4 selected the wall of his bedroom--hardly a dignified abode1 though it had the merit of being within reach of his prayers4 ,a child less bent on turning the superior personages to practical account will set them in some remoter quarter1 in a vast forest1 or deep cavern1 on a distant hill1 or higher up in the blue above the birds4 ,but systems of child-mythology will occupy us again4 ,imagination and ,storyland4 ,we may now pass to a freer region of imaginative activity where the child's mind gives life and reality to its images without incorporating them into the outer sensible world1 even to the extent of talking to invisible playmates4 ,the world of story1 as distinct from that of play1 is the great illustration of this detached activity of fancy4 ,the entrance into storyland can only take place when the key of language is put into the child's hand4 ,a story is a verbal representation of a scene or action1 and the process of imaginative realisation depends in this case on the stimulating effect of words in their association with ideas4 ,now a word has not for a child the peculiar force of an imitative sensuous impression1 say that of a picture4 ,the toy1 the picture1 being1 however roughly1 a likeness or show1 brings the idea before the child's eyes in a way in which the word-symbol cannot do4 ,yet we may easily underestimate the stimulating effect of words on children's minds1 which are much more tender and susceptible than we are wont to suppose4 ,to call out to a child1 #8,bow1 wow6' or #8,policeman6' may be to excite in his mind a vivid image which is in itself an approach to a complete sensuous realisation of the thing4 ,we cannot understand the fascination of a story for children save by remembering that for their young minds1 quick to imagine and unversed in abstract reflexion1 words are not dead thought-symbols1 but truly alive and perhaps 8winged0 as the old ,greeks called them4 ,it may not be easy to explain fully this stimulating power of words on the childish mind4 ,there is some reason to say that in these early days spoken words as sounds for the ear have in themselves something of the immediate objective reality of all sense-impressions1 so that to name a thing is in a sense to make it present4 ,however this be1 words as sense-presentations have a powerful suggestive effect on children's imagination1 calling up particularly vivid images of the objects named4 ,the effect is probably aided by the child's nascent feeling of reverence for another's words as authoritative utterances4 ,this impulse to realise words makes the child a listener much more frequently than we suppose4 ,how often is the mother surprised and amused at a question put by her child about something said in his presence to a servant1 a visitor1 or a workman2 something which in her grown-up way she assumed would not be of the slightest interest to him4 ,in this manner1 words soon become a great power in the new wondering life of a child4 ,they lodge like flying seedlings in the fertile brain1 and shoot up into strange imaginative growths4 ,but of this more by-and-by4 ,this profound and lasting effect of words is nowhere more clearly seen than in the spell of the story4 ,we grown-up people are wont to flatter ourselves that we read stories3 the child1 if he could know what we call reading1 would laugh at it4 ,with what deftness does the little brain disentangle the language1 often strange and puzzling enough1 reducing it by a secret child-art to simplicity and to reality4 ,a mother when reading a poem to her boy of six1 ventured to remark1 8,i'm afraid you can't understand it1 dear10 for which she got duly snubbed by her little master in this fashion3 8,oh1 yes1 ,i can very well1 if only you would not explain04 ,the explaining is resented because it interrupts the child's own spontaneous image-building1 wherein lies the charm1 because it rudely breaks the spell of the illusion1 calling off the attention from the vision he sees in the word-crystal1 which is all he cares about1 to the cold lifeless crystal itself4 ,and what a bright vision it is that is there gained4 ,how clearly scene after scene of the dissolving view unfolds itself4 ,how thrilling the anticipation of the next unknown1 undiscernible stage in the history4 ,perhaps no one has given us a better account of the state of absorption in storyland1 the oneirotic or dream-like condition of complete withdrawal from the world of sense into an inner world of fancy1 than ,thackeray4 ,in one of his delightful 8,roundabout ,papers10 he thus writes of the experiences of early boyhood4 ,hush6 ,i never read quite to the end of my first ,scottish ,chiefs4 ,i couldn't4 ,i peeped in an alarmed furtive manner at some of the closing pages4444 ,oh1 novels1 sweet and delicious as the raspberry open tarts of budding boyhood6 ,do ,i forget one night after prayers 7when we under-boys were sent to bed7 lingering at my cupboard to read one little half-page more of my dear ,walter ,scott--and down came the monitor's dictionary on my head6 ,as one thinks of the deep delights of these first excursions into storyland one almost envies the lucky boys whom the young ,charles ,dickens held spellbound with his tales4 ,the intensity of the delight is seen in the greed it generates4 ,who can resist the child's hungry demand for a story8 ,edgar ,quinet in his ,histoire de mes ,ides tells how when a child an old corporal came to drill him4 ,he had been taken prisoner by the ,spaniards and placed on an inaccessible island4 ,edgar loved to hear the thrilling story of the old soldier's adventures1 and scarcely was the narrative finished when the greedy boy would exclaim1 8,encore une fois60 ,heine's delight when a boy at ,dsseldorf in drinking in the stories of ,napoleon's exploits from his drummer is another well-known illustration4 ,through the perfect gift of visual realisation which a child brings to it the verbal narrative becomes a record of fact1 a true history4 ,the intense enjoyment which is bound up with this process of imaginative realisation makes children jealously exact as to accuracy in repetition4 ,the boy ,c4 when a story was repeated to him used to resent even a small alteration of the text4 ,woe to the unfortunate mother who in telling one of the good stock nursery tales varies a detail4 ,one such1 a friend of mine1 repeating #8,puss in ,boots' inadvertently made the hero sit on a chair instead of on a box to pull on his boots4 ,she was greeted by a sharp volley of #8,no's6' ,the same lady tells me that when narrating the story of #8,beauty and the ,beast' for the second time only she forgot in describing the effect of the ,beast's sighing to add after the words #8till the glasses on the table shake' #8and the candles are nearly blown out'2 whereupon the severe little listener at once stopped the narrator and supplied the interesting detail4 ,the exacting memory of childhood in the matter of stories is the product of a full detailed realisation4 ,in the case just quoted the reality of the story was contradicted by substituting a stupid conventional chair for the box1 and by omitting the striking incident of the candles4 ,happy age of childhood1 when a new and wondrous world1 created wholly by the magic of a lively phantasy1 rivals in brightness1 in distinctness of detail1 aye1 and in steadfastness too1 the nearest spaces of the world on which the bodily eye looks out1 before reflexion has begun to draw a hard dividing line between the domains of historical truth and fiction4 ,as the demand for faithful repetition of story shows1 the imaginative realisation continues when the story is no longer heard or read4 ,it has added something to the child's inner supplementary world1 given him one more lovely region in which he may live blissful moments4 ,the return of the young mind to the persons and scenes of story is forcibly illustrated in the impulse1 already touched on1 to act out in play the parts of this and that heroic figure4 ,with many children any narrative which holds the imagination delightfully enthralled is likely to become more fully realised in a visible embodiment4 ,for instance1 a child of five years1 when told a story of four men going along a railway to stop a train before it neared a bridge which was on fire1 at once proceeded to play the incident with his toy train4 ,here we see how story by contributing lively images to the child's brain becomes one main stimulative and guiding influence in the domain of play4 ,in like manner the images born of story may1 as in the case of ,dickens1 attach themselves permanently to particular localities and objects4 ,to this lively imaginative reception of what is told him the child is apt very soon to join his own free inventions of figures1 human1 superhuman1 or subhuman4 ,the higher qualities of this invention properly come under the head of child-art1 and will have to be considered in another chapter4 ,here we may glance at these inventions as illustrating the realising power of the child's imagination4 ,this invention appears in a sporadic manner in occasional #8romancings' which may set out from some observation of the senses4 ,a little boy aged three and a half years seeing a tramp limping along with a bad leg exclaimed3 8,look at that poor ole man1 mamma1 he has dot 7got7 a bad leg04 ,then romancing1 as he was now wont to do3 8,he dot on a very big 'orse1 and he fell off on some great big stone1 and he hurt his poor leg and he had to get a big stick4 ,we must make it well40 ,then after a thoughtful pause3 8,mamma1 go and kiss the place and put some powdey 7powder7 on it and make it well like you do to ,i04 ,the unmistakable childish seriousness here1 the outflow of young compassion1 and the charming enforcement of the nursery prescription1 all point to a vivid realisation of this extemporised little romance4 ,this child was moreover more than commonly tender-hearted1 and perhaps the more exposed on that account to such amiable self-deception4 ,another small boy when a little over two years1 happening to hear a buzzing on the window1 said3 8,mamma1 bumble-bee in a window says it wants a yump 7lump7 of sugar03 then shaking his head sternly1 added3 8,soon make you heat-spots1 bumble-bee04 ,other examples of this romancing will be met with in the notes on the child ,c4 ,in such simple fashion does the child build up a tiny myth on the basis of some passing impression1 supplying out of his quaintly stored fancy unlooked-for adornments to the homely occurrences of every-day life4 ,partly by taking in and fully realising the wonders of story1 partly by the independent play of an inventive imagination1 children's minds pass under the dominion of more or less enduring myths4 ,the princes and princesses and dwarfs and gnomes of fairy-tale1 the workers of ,christmas miracles1 ,santa ,claus and ,father ,christmas1 as well as the beings fashioned by the child's imagination on the model of those he knows from story1 these live on like the people of the every-day world1 are apt to appear in dreams1 in the dark1 at odd dreamy moments when the things of sense lose their hold1 bringing into the child's life golden sunlight or black awful shadows1 the most real of all realities4 ,this childish belief in myth is often curiously tenacious4 ,a father was once surprised to find that his boy aged five years and ten months continued navely to believe in the real personality of ,santa ,claus4 ,it was ,christmastide and the father1 in order to test the child's credulity1 put his own pocket-knife into the stocking which ,santa ,claus was supposed to fill4 ,the child1 though he knew his father's knife very well1 did not in the least suspect that the knife he found in the stocking had been placed there by human hands1 but expressed himself as pleased that ,santa ,claus had sent him one like his father's4 ,when his father followed this up by telling him that he had lost his knife1 and by searching for it in the boy's presence1 the latter asked whether ,santa ,claus had stolen the knife--thus showing how its close similarity to the knife he had received had impressed him1 though he would not for a moment doubt the fact of its coming from the mysterious personage4 ,it might be thought that this child was particularly stupid4 ,on the contrary he was well above the average in intelligence4 ,in proof of this ,i may relate that the ,christmas before this1 that is to say when he was under five years1 he was the only one among thirty children who recognised his uncle when extremely well disguised as ,father ,christmas4 ,when asked by his father why he thought it was his uncle1 he said at first he didn't know1 but thinking a moment he added1 8,i don't see who else there is10 showing that he had reasoned out his belief by a method of exclusion4 ,of course it will be said that ,i am here selecting exceptional cases of childish imagination4 ,i am quite ready to admit the probability of this4 ,the best examples of any trait of the young mind will obviously be supplied by those who have most of this trait4 ,yet ,i very much suspect that ordinary and even dull children are wont to hide away a good deal of such superstitious belief4 8,one of the greatest pleasures of childhood10 says ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes in ,the ,poet of the ,breakfast ,table1 8is found in the mysteries which it hides from the scepticism of the elders and works up into small mythologies of its own40 ,i have treated the myths of children as a product of pure imagination1 of the impulse to realise in vivid images what lies away from and above the world of sense4 ,yet1 as we shall see later1 they are really more than this4 ,they contain1 like the myths of primitive man1 a true germ of thought4 ,in ,george ,sand's recollections we shall meet with a striking illustration of how the vivid imagination of supernatural beings is followed up by a reflective and half-scientific effort to connect the myth with the facts and laws of the known world4 ,this infusion of childish reason into wonderland1 the first crude attempt to adjust belief to belief1 and to find points of attachment for the much-loved myth in the matter-of-fact world1 is apt to lead1 as we shall see1 to a good deal that is very quaint and characteristic in the child's mythology4 ,the conclusion which observation of children leads us to is that1 as compared with adults1 they are endowed with strong imaginative power1 the activity of which leads to a surprisingly intense inner realisation of what lies above sense4 ,for the child1 as for primitive man1 reality is a projection of fancy as well as an assurance of sense4 ,now this conclusion is1 ,i think1 greatly strengthened by all that we know of the conditions of the brain-life in children1 and of the many perturbations to which it is liable4 ,with respect to this brain-life we have to remember that in the first years the higher cortical centres which take part in the co-ordinative and regulative processes of thought and volition are but very imperfectly developed4 ,hence the centres concerned in imagination--which1 if not identical with what used to be called the sensorium or seat of sensation1 are in closest connexion with it--are not checked and inhibited by the action of the higher centres as is the case with us4 ,by exercising a volitional control over the flow of our ideas1 we are able to reason away a fancy1 and generally to guard ourselves against error4 ,in young children all ideas that grow clear and full under the stimulus of a strong interest are apt to persist and to become preternaturally vivid4 ,as has been suggested by more than one recent writer on childhood and education1 the brain of a child has a slight measure of that susceptibility to powerful illusory suggestion which characterises the brain of a hypnotised subject4 ,savages1 who show so striking a resemblance to children in the vivacity and the dominance of their fancy1 are probably much nearer to the child than to the civilised adult in the condition of their brain4 ,this preternatural liveliness of the images of the imperfectly developed brain exposes children1 as we know1 to disturbing illusion4 ,the effect of bad dreams1 of intense feeling1 particularly of fear1 in developing illusory belief in sensitive and delicate children is familiar enough1 and will be dealt with again later on4 ,some parents feel the dangers of such disturbance so keenly that they think it best to cut their children off from the world of fiction altogether4 ,but this is surely an error4 ,for one thing children who are strongly imaginative will be certain to indulge their fancies1 as the ,bront girls did1 even when no fiction is supplied and their eager little minds are thrown on the matter-of-fact newspaper4 ,a child needs not to be deprived of story altogether1 but to be supplied with bright and happy stories1 in which the gruesome element is subordinate4 ,specially sensitive children should1 ,i think1 be guarded against much that from an older point of view is classic1 as some of the #8creepy' stories in ,grimm1 though there are no doubt hardy young nerves which can thrill enjoyably under these horrors4 ,as to confusing a child's sense of truth by indulging him in story1 the evil seems to me problematic1 and1 if it exists at all1 only slight and temporary4 ,but ,i hope to touch on this aspect of the subject in the next chapter4 ,,iii4 ,,the ,,dawn ,,of ,,reason4 ,the ,process of ,thought4 ,to treat the child's mind as merely a harbourer of fancies1 as completely subject to the illusive spell of its bright imagery1 would be the grossest injustice4 ,it is one of the reputable characteristics of childhood that it manages to combine with so much vivacity and force of imagination a perfectly grave matter-of-fact look-out on the actual world4 ,and here ,i should like to correct the common supposition that children are imaginative or observant of their surroundings1 but not both4 ,i have no doubt that there are many children who show a marked preponderance of the one or of the other tendency3 there is the fanciful and dreamy child1 and the matter-of-fact child with a tenacious grasp on the realities of things4 ,i have but little doubt1 too1 that in the case of children who show the two tendencies1 the one or the other is apt to preponderate at a certain stage of development3 many boys1 for example1 have their dreamy period1 and then become almost stolidly practical4 ,all that ,i am concerned to make out here is that the two tendencies do co-exist1 and as a number of parents have assured me may co-exist each in a high degree of intensity in the same child2 the really intelligent children1 boys as well as girls1 being dispassionate and shrewd inquirers into the make of the actual world while ardently engaged in fashioning a brighter one4 ,the two tendencies belong to two moods1 one of which may be regent for days together1 though they often alternate with astonishing rapidity4 ,more particularly the serious matter-of-fact mood readily passes1 as if in relief from mental tension1 into the playful fanciful one1 as when the tiny student1 deep in the stupendous lore of the spelling-book1 suddenly dashes off to some fanciful conceit suggested by the #8funny' look of a particular word or letter4 ,the child not only observes but begins to reflect on what he observes1 and does his best to understand the puzzling scene which meets his eye4 ,and all this gives seriousness1 a deep and admirable seriousness1 to his attitude4 ,so much is this the case that if we were called on to portray the typical mental posture of the child we might probably do so by drawing the erect little figure of a boy1 as with widely open eye he gazes at some new wonder1 or listens to some new report of his surroundings from a mother's lips4 ,hence1 one may forgive the touch of exaggeration when ,mr4 ,bret ,harte writes3 8,all those who have made a loving study of the young human animal will1 ,i think1 admit that its dominant expression is gravity and not playfulness04#cg ,we may now turn to this graver side of the young intelligence4 ----- ,footnote #cg3 ,works1 vol4 iii41 p4 #cif4 ----- ,here1 again1 ,i may as well say that ,i prefer to observe the phenomenon in its clearer and fuller manifestations1 that is to say1 to study the serious intelligence of the child in the most intelligent children1 or at least in children whose minds are most active4 ,this does not mean that we shall be on the look-out for precocious wisdom or priggish smartness4 ,on the contrary1 since it is childish intelligence as such that we are in search of1 we shall take pains to avoid as far as possible any encounter with prodigies4 ,by these ,i mean the unfortunate little people whose mental limbs have been twisted out of beautiful child-shape by the hands of those in whom the better instincts of the parent have been outweighed by the ambition of the showman4 ,we shall seek more particularly for spontaneous openings of the mental flower under the warming rays of a true mother's love1 for confidential whisperings of child-thought to her ever-attentive and ever-tolerant ear4 ,in order fully to understand the serious work of childish intelligence1 we ought to begin with a study of early observation4 ,but ,i must pass by this interesting subject with only a remark or two4 ,much has been written on the deeply concentrated all-absorbing scrutiny of things by the young eye4 ,but to say how much an infant of nine months really sees when he fixes his wide eyes on some new object1 is a matter of great uncertainty4 ,what seems certain1 is that the infant has to learn to see things1 and very probably takes what seems to us an unnecessarily long time to see them at all completely4 ,we find when the child grows and can give an account of what he notes that his observation1 while often surprisingly minute in particular directions1 is highly restricted as to its directions1 being narrowly confined within the limits of a few dominant attractions4 ,thus a child will sometimes be so impressed with the colour of an object as almost to ignore its form4 ,a little girl of eighteen months1 who knew lambs and called them #8lammies1' on seeing two black ones in a field among some white ones called out1 8,eh6 doggie1 doggie60 ,the likeness of colour to the black dog overpowered the likeness in form to the other lambs close by4 ,within the limits of form-perception again1 we may remark the tendency to a one-sided mode of observing things which has in it something of an abstract quality4 ,for the child ,c4 the pointed head was the main essential feature of the dog1 and he recognised this in a bit of biscuit4 ,we shall find further examples of this abstract observation when we come to consider children's drawings4 ,this same partiality of observation comes out very clearly in a good deal of the early assimilation or apperception already referred to4 ,the reason why it is so easy for a child to superimpose a fanciful analogy on an object of sense1 is that his mind is untroubled by all the complexity of this object4 ,it fastens on some salient feature of supreme attractiveness or interest1 and flies away on the wings of this1 to what seems to us a far-off resemblance4 ,this detaching or selective activity in children's observation1 which in a manner is a defect1 is also a point of superiority4 ,it has this in common with the observation of the poet1 that it is wholly engrossed with what is valuable4 ,thus one main feature of the eye-lid is certainly that it opens and closes like a curtain2 and it is its resemblance to the mysterious curtain shutting out the daylight1 which makes it a matter of absorbing interest4 ,here1 then1 we have1 as we shall see more fully presently1 a true germ of thought-activity embedded in the very process of childish observation and recognition4 ,for thought is precisely a more methodical process of bringing the concrete object into its relations to other things4 ,yet children's observation does not remain at this height of grand selectiveness4 ,the pressure of practical needs tends to bring it down to our familiar level4 ,a child finds himself compelled to distinguish things and name them as others do4 ,the lamb and the dog1 for example1 have to be distinguished by a complex of marks in which the supremely interesting detail of colour holds a quite subordinate place4 ,individual things1 too1 have to be distinguished1 if only for the purpose of drawing the line between what is #8mine' and #8not mine'4 ,the boy's mother1 his cup1 his hat1 must be readily recognised1 and this necessity forces the attention to grasp a plurality of marks4 ,thus the mother cannot always be recognised by her height alone1 as when she happens to be sitting1 nor by her hair alone1 as when she happens to have her hat on1 so that the weighty problem of recognising her always compels the child to note a number of distinctive marks1 some of which will in every case be available4 ,when once the eye has begun to note differences it makes rapid progress4 ,this is particularly true where the development of a special interest in a group of things leads to a habit of concentration4 ,thus little boys when the #8railway interest' seizes them are apt to be finely observant of the differences between this and that engine and so forth4 ,a boy aged two years and eleven months1 after travelling from ,dublin to ,cork1 and thence by another railway1 asked his mother if she had noticed the difference in the make of the rails on the two lines4 ,of course she had not1 though she afterwards ascertained that there was a slight difference which the boy's keener eye had detected4 ,the fineness of a child's distinguishing observation is well illustrated in his recognition of small drawings and photographs1 as when a child of two will pick out the likeness of his father from a small carte de visite group4 ,but this side of children's recognition will occupy us later on4 ,such fine and ready recognition as that just illustrated shows not merely a penetrating observation of what is distinctive and characteristic1 but also a measure of a higher power1 that of seizing in one act of attention a complex or group of such marks4 ,in truth1 children's observation1 when close and methodical1 as it is apt to be under the stimulus of a powerful interest1 is often surprisingly full as well as exact4 ,the boy1 ,john ,ruskin1 was not the only one who could look for hours together at such an object as flowing water1 noting all its changing features4 ,a mother writes to me that her boy1 when three and a half years old1 received a picture-book1 #8,the ,railway ,train1' and looked at it almost uninterruptedly for a week1 retaining it even at meals4 8,at the end of this time he had grasped the smallest detail in every picture40 ,by such occasional fits of fine exhaustive inspection1 a child of the more intelligent sort will now and again come surprisingly near that higher type of observation1 at once minute and comprehensive1 which subserves1 in somewhat different ways1 scientific discovery and artistic representation4 ,many parents when watching these exceptional heights of childish scrutiny have indulged in fond dreams of future greatness4 ,yet these achievements are1 alas1 often limited to a certain stage of intellectual progress1 and are apt to disappear when the bookish days come on1 and the child loses himself hours together over his favourite stories4 ,and in any case the germ of promise must possess a wondrous vitality if it resists all the efforts of our school-system to weed out from the garden of the mind anything so profitless as an observing faculty4 ,next to this work of observation we must include in the pre-conditions of childish thought at its best a lively retention of what is observed4 ,everybody who has talked much with little children must have been struck by the tenacity of their memories1 their power of recalling after considerable intervals small features of an object or small incidents which others hardly noted1 or1 if they noted them at the time1 have since forgotten4 ,stories of this surprising recollection may be obtained in abundance4 ,a little girl when only nine months old was on a walk shown some lambs at the gate of a field4 ,on being taken the same road three weeks later she surprised her mother by calling out just before arriving at the gate #8,baa1 baa6' ,later on children will remember through much longer intervals4 ,a little boy aged two years and ten months when taken to ,italy a second time after four or five months' absence1 remembered the smallest details1 e4g41 how the grapes were cut1 how the wine was made and so forth4 ,the gradual gathering of a store of such clear memory-images is a necessary preliminary to reflexion and thought4 ,it is because the child remembers as well as sees1 remembering even while he sees1 that he grows thoughtful1 inquiring about the meaning and reason of this and that1 or boldly venturing on some explanation of his own4 ,and just as the child's mind must take on many pictures of things before it reflects upon and tries to understand the world1 so it must collect and arrange pictures of the successive scenes and events of its life1 before it will grow self conscious and reflect upon its own strange existence4 ,the only other pre-condition of this primitive thoughtfulness is that imaginative activity which we have already considered on its playful and pleasurable side4 ,we are learning at last that the inventive phantasy of a child1 prodigal as it is of delightful illusions1 is also a valuable contributor to this sober work of thought4 ,it is just because the young mind is so mobile and agile1 passing far beyond the narrow confines of the actual in imaginative conjecture of what lies hidden in the remote1 that it begins to think1 that is1 to reason about the causes of things4 ,in the history of the individual as of the race1 thought1 even the abstract thought of science1 grows out of the free play of imagination4 ,the myth is at once a picturesque fancy1 and a crude attempt at an explanation4 ,this primitive thought is indeed so compact of bright picturesque imagery that we with our scientifically trained minds might easily overlook its inherent thoughtfulness4 ,yet a close inspection shows us that it contains the essential characteristics of thought1 an impulse to comprehend things1 to reduce the confusing multiplicity to order and system4 ,we must not hope to trace clearly the lines of this first child-thought4 ,the earliest attitude of the wakening intelligence towards the confusion of novelties1 which for us has become a world1 is presumably indescribable1 and further1 by the time that a child comes to the use of words and can communicate his thoughts1 in a broken way at least1 the scene is already losing something of its first strangeness1 the organising work of experience has begun4 ,yet though we cannot expect to get back to the primal wonderment we can catch glimpses of that later wonderment which arises when instruction supplements the senses1 and ideas begin to form themselves of a vast unknown in space and time1 of the changefulness of things1 and of that mystery of mysteries the beginning of things4 ,the study of this child-thought as it tries to utter itself in our clumsy speech will well repay us4 ,only we must be ever on the alert lest we read too much into these early utterances1 forgetting that the child's first tentative use of words is very apt to mislead4 ,the child first dimly reveals himself as thinker in the practical domain4 ,in the evolution of the race the reasoning faculty has been first quickened into action by the ferment of instinctive craving and striving4 ,man began to reflect on the connexions of things in order to supply himself with food1 to ward off cold and other evils4 ,so with the child4 ,before the age of speech we may observe him thinking out rapidly as occasion arises some new practical expedient1 as1 for example1 seizing a clothes-pin or other available aid in order to reach a toy that has slipped out of his reach2 or clutching at our dress and pulling the chair by way of signifying to us that we are to remain and continue to amuse him4 ,the observations of the first months of child-life abound with such illustrations of an initiating practical intelligence4 ,yet these exploits1 impressive as they often are1 hardly disclose the distinctive attributes of the human thinker4 ,the cat1 without any example to imitate1 will find its way to a quite charming begging gesture by reaching up and tapping your arm4 ,probably the earliest unambiguous indication of a human faculty of thought is to be found in infantile comparison4 ,when a baby turns its head deliberately and sagely from a mirror-reflexion or portrait of its mother to the original1 we appear to see the first crude beginnings of a process which1 when more elaborated1 becomes human understanding4 ,a good deal of comparison of this kind seems to enter into the mental activity of young children4 ,thus the deep absorbing attention to pictures spoken of above commonly means a careful comparison of this and that form one with another1 and in certain cases1 at least1 a comparison of what is now seen with the mental image of the original4 ,in some children1 moreover1 comparison under the form of measurement grows into a sort of craze4 ,they want to measure the height of things one with another and so forth4 ,an intelligent child will even find his way to a mediate form of comparison1 that is1 to measuring things through the medium of a third thing4 ,thus a boy of five1 who had conceived a strong liking for dogs1 was in the habit when walking out of measuring on his body how high a dog reached4 ,on returning home he would compare this height with that of the seat or back of a chair1 and would finally ask for a yard measure and find out the number of inches4 ,this comparison of things is of the very essence of understanding1 of comprehending things as distinguished from merely apprehending them as concrete isolated objects4 ,the child in his desire to assimilate1 to find something in the region of the known with which the new and strange thing may be brought into kinship1 is ever on the look-out for likeness4 ,hence the analogical and half-poetical apperception of things1 the metaphorical reduction of a thing to a prototype1 as in calling a star an eye1 or an eyelid a curtain1 may be said to contain the germ at once of poetry and of science4 ,this comparison for purposes of understanding leads on to what psychologists call classification1 or generalisation2 the bringing together and keeping before the mind of a number of like things by help of a general name4 ,the child may be said to become a true thinker as soon as he uses names intelligently1 calling each thing by an appropriate name1 and so classing it with its kind4 ,this power of infantile generalisation is one full of interest and has been carefully observed4 ,it will1 however1 be more conveniently dealt with in another chapter where we shall be specially concerned with the child's use of language4 ,while thus beginning to arrange things according to such points of likeness as he can discover1 the child is noting the connexions of things4 ,he finds out what belongs to a horse1 to a locomotive engine1 he notes when father leaves home and returns1 when the sun declines1 what accompanies and follows rain1 and so forth4 ,that is to say1 he is feeling his way to the idea of connectedness1 of regularity1 of what we call uniformity or law4 ,we now say that the child reasons1 no longer blindly or automatically like the dog1 but with a consciousness of what he is doing4 ,we little think how much hard work has to be got through by the little brain before even this dim perception of regularity is attained4 ,in some things1 no doubt1 the regularity is patent enough1 and can hardly be overlooked by the dullest of children4 ,the connexion between the laying of the cloth and the meal--at least in an orderly home--is a matter which even the canine and the feline intelligence is quite able to grasp4 ,but when it comes to finding out the law according to which1 say1 his face gets dirty1 his head aches1 or people send out their invitations to children's parties1 the matter is not so simple4 ,the fact is that there is so large a proportion of apparent disconnectedness and capricious irregularity in the child's world that it is hard to see how he would ever learn to understand and to reason1 were he not endowed with a lively and inextinguishable impulse to connect and simplify4 ,herein lies a part of the pathos of childhood4 ,it brings its nave prepossession of a regular well-ordered world1 and alas1 finds itself confronted with an impenetrable tangle of disorder4 ,how quaint it is to listen to the little thinker1 as1 with untroubled brow1 he begins to propound his beautifully simple theory of the cosmic order4 ,an ,american boy of ten who had had one cross small teacher1 and whose best teacher had been tall1 accosted a new teacher thus3 8,i'm afraid you'll make a cross teacher04 ,his teacher replied3 8,why1 am ,i cross80 ,to which he rejoined3 8,no2 but you are so small04 ,we call this hasty generalisation4 ,we might with equal propriety term it the child's innate a priori view of things4 ,with this eagerness to get at and formulate the law of things is inseparably bound up the impulse to bring every new occurrence under some general rule4 ,here1 too1 the small thinker may only too easily slip by failing to see the exact import and scope of the rule4 ,we see this in the extension of laws of human experience to the animal world4 ,rules supplied by others and only vaguely understood1 more particularly moral and religious truths1 lend themselves to this kind of misapplication4 ,the ,worcester collection of ,thoughts and ,reasonings of ,children gives some odd examples of such application4 ,american children1 to judge from these examples1 appear to be particularly smart at quoting ,scripture2 not altogether1 one suspects1 without a desire to show off1 and possibly to raise a laugh4 ,but discounting the influence of such motives it seems pretty clear that a child has a marvellous power of reading his own ideas into others' words1 and so of giving them a turn which is apt to stagger their less-gifted authors4 ,here is a case4 ,r4's aunt said3 8,you are so restless1 ,r41 ,i can't hold you any longer04 ,r43 8,cast your burden on the ,lord1 ,aunty ,k41 and ,he will sustain you04 ,the child1 we are told1 was only four4 ,he probably understood the ,scripture injunction as a useful prescription for getting rid of a nuisance1 and with the admirable impartiality of childish logic at once applied it to himself4 ,other illustrations of such misapplication will meet us when we take up the relation of the child's thought to language4 ,the ,questioning ,age4 ,the child's first vigorous effort to understand the things about him may be roughly dated at the end of the third year1 and it is noteworthy that this synchronises with the advent of the questioning age4 ,the first putting of a question occurred in the case of ,preyer's boy in the twenty-eighth month1 in that of ,pollock's girl in the twenty-third month4 ,but the true age of inquisitiveness when question after question is fired off with wondrous rapidity and pertinacity seems to be ushered in with the fourth year4 ,a common theory peculiarly favoured by ignorant nurses and mothers is that children's questioning is a studied annoyance4 ,the child has come to the use of words1 and with all a child's #8cussedness' proceeds to torment the ears of those about him4 ,there are signs1 however1 of a change of view on this point4 ,the fact that the questioning follows on the heels of the reasoning impulse might tell us that it is connected with the throes which the young understanding has to endure in its first collision with a tough and baffling world4 ,the question is the outcome of ignorance coupled with a belief in the boundless knowledge of grown-up people4 ,it is an attempt to add to the scrappy1 unsatisfying information about things which the little questioner's own observation has managed to gather1 or others' half-understood words have succeeded in communicating4 ,it is the outcome of intellectual craving1 of a demand for mental food4 ,but it is much more than an expression of need4 ,just as the child's articulate demand for food implies that he knows what food is1 and that it is obtainable1 so the question implies that the little questioner knows what he needs1 and in what direction to look for it4 ,the simplest form of question1 e4g41 8,what is this flower80 8this insect80 shows that the child by a half-conscious process of reflexion and reasoning has found his way to the truth that things have their qualities1 their belongings1 their names4 ,many questions1 indeed1 e4g41 #8,has the moon wings8' #8,where do all the days go to8' reveal a true process of childish thought and have a high value as expressions of this thought4 ,questioning may take various directions4 ,a good deal of the child's catechising of his long-suffering mother is prompted by thirst for fact4#ch ,the typical form of this line of questioning is #8,what8' ,the motive here is to gain possession of some fact which will connect itself with and supplement a fact already known4 #8,how old is ,rover8' #8,where was ,rover born8' #8,who was his father8' #8,what is that dog's name8' #8,what sort of hair had you when you were a little girl8' ,these are samples of the questioning activity by help of which the little inquirer tries to make up his connected wholes1 to see things with his imagination in their proper attachment and order4 ,and how greedily and pertinaciously the small folk will follow up their questioning1 flying as it often looks wildly enough from point to point1 yet gathering from every answer some new contribution to their ideas of things4 ,a boy of three years and nine months would thus attack his mother3 #8,what does frogs eat1 and mice and birds and butterflies8 and what does they do8 and what is their names8 ,what is all their houses' names8 ,what does they call their streets and places8' etc41 etc4 ----- ,footnote #ch3 ,the first question put by ,preyer's boy was1 #8,where is mamma8' ,die ,seele des ,kindes1 p4 #dab4 7,the references are to the third edition1 #ahij47 ----- ,such questions easily appear foolish because1 as in the case just quoted1 they are directed by quaint childish fancies4 ,the child's anthropomorphic way of looking out on the world leads him to assimilate animal to human ways4 ,one feature in this fact-gleaning kind of question is the great store which the child sets by the name of a thing4 ,m4 ,compayr has pointed out that the form of question3 #8,what is this8' often means1 8,what is it called80 ,the child's unformulated theory seems to be that everything has its own individual name4 ,the little boy just spoken of explained to his mother that he thought all the frogs1 the mice1 the birds1 and the butterflies had names given to them by their mothers as he himself had4 ,perhaps this was only a way of expressing the childish idea that everything has its name1 primordial and unchangeable4 ,a second direction of this early questioning is towards the reason and the cause of things4 ,the typical form is here #8why8' ,this form of inquiry occurred in the case of ,preyer's boy at the age of two years forty-three weeks4 ,but it becomes the all-predominant form of question somewhat later4 ,who that has tried to instruct the small child of three or four does not know the long shrill whinelike sound of this question8 ,this form of question develops naturally out of the earlier1 for to give the #8what8' of a thing1 that is its connexions1 is to give its #8why8' that is its mode of production1 its use and purpose4 ,nothing perhaps in child utterance is better worth interpreting1 hardly anything more difficult to interpret1 than this simple-looking little #8why8' ,we ourselves perhaps do not use the word #8why' and its correlative #8because' with one clear meaning2 and the child's first use of the words is largely imitative4 ,what may be pretty safely asserted is that even in the most parrot-like and wearisome iteration of #8why8' and its equivalents #8what for8' etc41 the child shows a dim recognition of the truth that a thing is understandable1 that it has its reasons if only they can be found4 ,let us in judging of this pitiless #8why8' try to understand the situation of the young mind confronted by so much that is strange and unassimilated1 meeting by observation and hearsay with new and odd occurrences every day4 ,the strange things standing apart from his tiny familiar world1 the wide region of the quaint and puzzling in animal ways1 for example1 stimulate the instinct to appropriate1 to master4 ,the little thinker must try at least to bring the new odd thing into some recognisable relation to his familiar world4 ,and what is more natural than to go to the wise lips of the grown-up person for a solution of the difficulty8 ,the fundamental significance of the #8why8' in the child's vocabulary1 then1 is the necessity of connecting new with old1 of illuminating what is strange and dark by light reflected from what is already matter of knowledge4 ,and a child's #8why8' is often temporarily satisfied by supplying from the region of the familiar an analogue to the new and unclassed fact4 ,thus his impulse to understand why pussy has fur1 is met by telling him that it is pussy's hair4 ,it is only a step further in the same direction when the #8why8' has to be met by supplying a general statement2 for to refer the particular to a general rule is a more perfect and systematic kind of assimilation4 ,now we know that children are very susceptible to the authority of precedent1 custom1 general rule4 ,just as in children's ethics customary permission makes a thing right1 so in their logic the truth that a thing generally happens may be said to supply a reason for its happening in a particular case4 ,hence1 when the much-abused nurse answers the child's question1 #8,why is the pavement hard8' by saying1 #8,because pavement is always hard1' she is perhaps less open to the charge of giving a woman's reason than is sometimes said4#ci ,in sooth the child's queries1 his searchings for explanation1 are1 as already suggested1 prompted by the desire for order and connectedness4 ,and this means that he wants the general rule to which he can assimilate the particular and as yet isolated fact4 ----- ,footnote #ci3 ,cf4 some shrewd remarks by ,dr4 ,venn1 ,empirical ,logic1 p4 #did4 ----- ,from the first1 however1 the #8why8' and its congeners have reference to the causal idea1 to something which has brought the new and strange thing into existence and made it what it is4 ,in truth this reference to origin1 to bringing about or making1 is exceedingly prominent in children's questionings4 ,nothing is more interesting to a child than the production of things4 ,what hours and hours does he not spend in wondering how the pebbles1 the stars1 the birds1 the babies are made4 ,this vivid interest in production is to a considerable extent practical4 ,it is one of the great joys of children to be able themselves to make things1 and this desire to fashion1 which is probably at first quite immense1 and befitting rather a god than a feeble mannikin of three years1 naturally leads on to inquiry into the mode of producing4 ,yet from the earliest a true speculative interest blends with this practical instinct4 ,children are in the complete sense little philosophers1 if philosophy1 as the ancients said1 consists in knowing the causes of things4 ,this discovery of the cause is the completed process of assimilation1 of the reference of the particular to a general rule or law4 ,this inquiry into origin and mode of production starts with the amiable presupposition that all things have been hand-produced after the manner of household possessions4 ,the world is a sort of big house where everything has been made by somebody1 or at least fetched from somewhere4 ,this application of the anthropomorphic idea of fashioning follows the law of all childish thought1 that the unknown is assimilated to the known4 ,the one mode of origin which the embryo thinker is really and directly familiar with is the making of things4 ,he himself makes a respectable number of things1 including these rents in his clothes1 messes on the tablecloth1 and the like1 which he gets firmly imprinted on his memory by the authorities4 ,and1 then1 he takes a keen interest in watching the making of things by others1 such as puddings1 clothes1 houses1 hayricks4 ,to ask1 then1 who made the animals1 the babies1 the wind1 the clouds1 and so forth1 is for him merely to apply the more familiar type of causation as norm or rule4 ,similarly in all questions as to the #8whence8' of things1 as in asking whether babies were bought in a shop4 ,the #8why8' takes on a more special meaning when the idea of purpose becomes clear4 ,the search now is for the end1 what philosophers call the teleological cause or reason4 ,when1 for example1 a child asks #8,why does the wind blow8' he means1 #8,what is its object in blowing8' or #8,of what use is the blowing of the wind8' ,the idea underlying the common form of the #8why8' interrogative deserves a moment's inspection4 ,a child's view of causation starts like other ideas from his most familiar experiences4 ,he soon finds out that his own actions are controlled by the desire to get or to avoid something1 that1 to speak in rather technical language1 the idea of the result of the action precedes and determines this action4 ,i have lately come across a very early1 and as ,i think1 remarkable illustration of this form of childish thought4 ,a little girl already quoted1 whom we will call ,m41 when one year eleven months old1 happened to be walking with her mother on a windy day4 ,at first she was delighted at the strong boisterous wind1 but then got tired and said3 #8,wind make mamma's hair untidy1 ,babba 7her own name7 make mamma's hair tidy1 so wind not blow adain 7again7'4 ,about three weeks later this child was out in the rain1 when she said to her mother3 #8,mamma1 dy 7dry7 ,babba's hands1 so not rain any more'4 ,what does this curious inversion of the order of cause and effect mean8 ,i am disposed to think that this little girl1 who was unusually bright and intelligent1 was transferring to nature's phenomena the forms of her own experience4 ,when she is disorderly1 and her mother or nurse arranges her hair or washes her hands1 it is in order that she may not continue to be disorderly4 ,the child is envisaging the wind and the rain as a kind of naughty child who can be got to behave properly by effacing the effects of its naughtiness4 ,in other words they are both to be deterred from repeating what is objectionable by a visible and striking manifestation of somebody's objection or prohibition4 ,here1 it seems unmistakable1 we have a projection into nature of human purpose1 of the idea of determination of action by end3 we have a form of anthropomorphism which runs through the whole of primitive thought4 ,it seems to follow from this that there is a stage in the development of a child's intelligence when questions such as1 #8,why do the leaves fall8' #8,why does the thunder make such a noise8' are answered most satisfactorily by a poetic fiction1 by saying1 for example1 that the leaves are old and tired of hanging on to the trees1 and that the thunder giant is in a particularly bad temper and making a noise4 ,it is perhaps permissible to make use of this fiction at times1 more especially when trying to answer the untiring questioning about animals and their doings1 a region of existence1 by the way1 of which even the wisest of us knows exceedingly little4 ,yet the device has its risks2 and an ill-considered piece of myth-making passed off as an answer may find itself awkwardly confronted by that most merciless of things1 a child's logic4 ,we may notice something more in this early mode of interrogation4 ,children are apt to think not only that things behave in general after our manner1 that their activity is determined by some end or purpose1 or that they have their useful function1 their raison d'tre as we say1 but that this purpose concerns us human creatures4 ,the wind and the rain came and went in our little girl's nature-theory just to vex or out of consideration for #8mamma' and #8,babba'4 ,a little boy of two years two months sitting on the floor one day in a bad temper looked up and saw the sun shining and said captiously1 #8,sun not look at ,hennie1' and then more pleadingly1 #8,please1 sun1 not look at poor ,hennie'4#dj ,the sea1 when the child ,c4 first saw it1 was supposed to make its disturbing noise with special reference to his small ears4 ,we may call this the anthropocentric idea1 the essence of which is that man is the centre of reference1 the aim or target1 in all nature's processes4 ,this anthropocentric tendency again is shared by the child with the uncultured adult4 ,primitive man looks on wind1 rain1 thunder as sent by some angry spirit1 and even a respectable ,english farmer tends to view these operations of nature in much the same way4 ,in children this anthropocentric impulse is apt to get toned down by their temperament1 which is on the whole optimistic and decidedly practical1 into a looking out for the uses of things4 ,a boy1 already quoted1 once 7towards the end of the fourth year7 asked his mother what the bees do4 ,this question he explained by adding3 8,what is the good of them80 ,when told that they made honey he observed pertinently enough from his teleological standpoint3 8,then do they bring it for us to eat80 ,this shrewd little fellow might have made short work of some of the arguments by which the theological optimists of the last century were wont to #8demonstrate' the ,creator's admirable adaptation of nature to man's wants4 ----- ,footnote #dj3 ,see note by ,e4 ,m4 ,stevens1 ,mind1 xi41 p4 #aej4 ----- ,the frequency of this kind of #8why8' suggests that children's thoughts about things are penetrated with the idea of purpose and use4 ,this is shown too in other ways4 ,m4 ,a4 ,binet found by questioning children that their ideas of things are largely made up of uses4 ,thus1 asked what a hat is1 a child answered3 8,pour mettre sur la tte04 ,mr4 ,h4 ,e4 ,kratz of ,sioux ,city sends me some answers to questions by children of five on entering a primary school1 which illustrate the same point4 ,thus the question1 #8,what is a tree8' brings out the answers1 #8,to make the wind blow1' #8,to sit under1' and so forth4 ,little by little this idea of a definite purpose and use in this and that thing falls back and the child gets interested more in the production or origination of things4 ,he wants to know who made the trees1 the birds1 the stars and so forth4 ,here1 though what we call efficient1 as distinguished from final1 cause is recognised1 anthropomorphism survives in the idea of a maker analogous to the carpenter4 ,we shall see later that children habitually envisage the deity as a fabricator4 ,all this rage of questioning about the uses and the origin of things is the outcome1 not merely of ignorance and curiosity1 but of a deeper motive1 a sense of perplexity1 of mystery or contradiction4 ,it is not always easy to distinguish the two types of question1 yet in many cases at least its form and the manner of putting it will tell us that it issues from a puzzled and temporarily baffled brain4 ,as long as the questioning goes on briskly we may infer that a child believes in the possibility of knowledge1 and has not sounded the deepest depths of intellectual despair4 ,more pathetic than the saddest of questions is the silencing of questions by the loss of faith4 ,it is easy to see that children must find themselves puzzled with much which they see and hear of4 ,the apparent exceptions to rules don't trouble the grown-up persons just because as recurrent exceptions they seem to take on a rule of their own4 ,thus adults though quite unversed in hydrostatics would be incapable of being puzzled by ,c4's problem3 why my putting my hand in water does not make a hole in it4 ,similarly1 though they know nothing of animal physiology they are never troubled by the mystery of fish breathing under water1 which when first noted by a child may come as a sort of shock4 ,the little boy just referred to1 in his far-reaching zoological interrogatory asked his mother3 8,can they 7the fish7 breathe with their moufs under water80 ,in his own investigations1 and in getting instruction from others1 the child is frequently coming upon puzzles of this sort4 ,the same boy was much exercised about the sea and where it went to4 ,he expressed a wish to take off his shoes and to walk out into the sea so as to see where the ships go to1 and was much troubled on learning that the sea got deeper and deeper1 and that if he walked out into it he would be drowned4 ,at first he denied the paradox 7which he at once saw7 of the incoming sea going uphill3 8,but1 mamma1 it doesn't run up1 it doesn't run up1 so it couldn't come up over our heads80 ,he was told that this was so1 and he wisely began to try to accommodate his mind to this startling revelation4 ,c41 it will be seen1 was much exercised by this problem of the moving mass of waters1 wanting to know whether it came half way up the world4 ,probably in both these cases the idea of water rising had its uncanny alarming aspect4 ,it is probable that the disappearance of a thing is at a very early stage a puzzle to the infant4 ,later on1 too1 the young mind continues to be exercised about this mystery4 ,our little friend's inquiry about the whither of the big receding sea1 8,where does the sea sim 7swim7 to80 illustrates this perplexity4 ,a child seems able to understand the shifting of an object of moderate size from one part of space to another1 but his conception of space is probably not large enough to permit him to realise how a big tract of water can pass out of the visible scene into the unseen4 ,the child's question1 8,where does all the wind go to80 seems to have sprung from a like inability to picture a vast unseen realm of space4 ,in addition to this difficulty of the disappearance of big things1 there seems to be something in the vastness1 and the infinite number of existent things perceived and heard about1 which puzzles and oppresses the young mind4 ,the inability to take in all the new facts leads to a kind of resentment of their multitude4 8,mother10 asked a boy of four years1 8why is there such a lot of things in the world if no one knows all these things80 ,one cannot be quite sure of the underlying thought here4 ,the child may have meant merely to protest against the production of so confusing a number of objects in the world4 ,this certainly seems to be the motive in some children's inquiries1 as when a little girl1 aged three years seven months1 said3 #8,mamma1 why do there be any more days1 why do there8 and why don't we leave off eating and drinking8' ,here the burdensomeness of mere multiplicity1 of the unending procession of days and meals1 seems to be the motive4 ,yet it is possible that the question about a lot of things not known to anybody was prompted by a deeper difficulty1 a dim presentiment of ,berkeley's idealism1 that things can exist only as objects of knowledge4 ,this surmise may seem far-fetched to some1 yet ,i have found what seem to me other traces of this tendency in children4 ,a girl of six and a half years was talking to her father about the making of the world4 ,he pointed out to her the difficulty of creating things out of nothing1 showing her that when we made things we simply fashioned materials anew4 ,she pondered and then said3 8,perhaps the world's a fancy04 ,here again one cannot be quite sure of the child-thought behind the words4 ,yet it certainly looks like a falling back for a moment into the dreamy mood of the idealist1 that mood in which we seem to see the solid fabric of things dissolve into a shadowy phantasmagoria4 ,the subject of origins is1 as we know1 beset with puzzles for the childish mind4 ,the beginnings of living things are1 of course1 the great mystery4 8,there's such a lot of things10 remarked the little zoologist ,i have recently been quoting1 8,i want to know1 that you say nobody knows1 mamma4 ,i want to know who made ,god1 and ,i want to know if ,pussy has eggs to help her make ickle 7little7 kitties40 ,finding that this was not so1 he observed3 8,oh1 then1 ,i s'pose she has to have ,god to help her if she doesn't have kitties in eggs given her to sit on04 ,another little boy1 five years old1 found his way to the puzzle of the reciprocal genetic relation of the hen and the egg1 and asked his mother3 8,when there is no egg where does the hen come from8 ,when there was no egg1 ,i mean1 where did the hen come from80 ,in a similar way1 as we shall see in ,c4's journal1 a child will puzzle his brains by asking how the first child was suckled1 or1 as a little girl of four and a half years put it1 ,when everybody was a baby--then who could be their nurse--if they were all babies8 ,the beginnings of human life are1 as we know1 a standing puzzle for the young investigator4 ,much of this questioning is metaphysical in that it transcends the problems of every-day life and of science4 ,the child is metaphysician in the sense in which the earliest human thinkers were metaphysicians1 pushing his questioning into the inmost nature of things1 and back to their absolute beginnings1 as when he asks #8,who made ,god8' or #8,what was there before ,god8'#da ,he has no idea yet of the confines of human knowledge4 ,if his mother tells him she does not know he tenaciously clings to the idea that somebody knows1 the doctor it may be1 or the clergyman--or possibly the policeman1 of whose superior knowledge one little girl was forcibly convinced by noting that her father once asked information of one of these stately officials4 ----- ,footnote #da3 ,illustrations are given by ,compayr1 op4 cit41 and by ,p4 ,lombroso1 ,psicologia del ,bambino1 p4 #dg ff4 ----- ,strange1 bizarre1 altogether puzzling to the listener1 are some of these childish questions4 ,a little ,american girl of nine years after a pause in talk re-commenced the conversation by asking3 8,why don't ,i think of something to say80 ,a play recently performed in a ,london theatre made precisely this appeal to others by way of getting at one's own motives a chief amusing feature in one of its comical characters4 ,another little ,american girl aged three one day left her play and her baby sister named ,edna ,belle to find her mother and ask3 8,mamma1 why isn't ,edna ,belle me1 and why ain't ,i ,edna ,belle80#db ,the narrator of this story adds that the child was not a daughter of a professor of metaphysics but of practical farmer folk4 ,one cannot be quite sure of the precise drift of this question4 ,it may well have been the outcome of a new development of self-consciousness1 of a clearer awareness of the self in its distinctness from others4 ,a question with a much clearer metaphysical ring about it1 showing thought about the subtlest problems1 was that put by a boy of the same age3 8,if ,i'd gone upstairs1 could ,god make it that ,i hadn't80 ,this is a good example of the type of question3 #8,can he make a thing done not to have been done8' which according to ,erasmus was much debated by theologians4#dc ----- ,footnote #db3 ,quoted from an article1 8,some ,comments on ,babies10 by ,miss ,shinn in the ,overland ,monthly1 ,jan41 #ahid4 ----- ,footnote #dc3 ,froude1 ,letters of ,erasmus1 ,lect4 vii4 ----- ,with many children confronted with the mysteries of ,god and the devil this questioning often reproduces the directions of theological speculation4 ,thus the problem of the necessity of evil is clearly recognisable in the question once put by an ,american boy under eight years of age to a priest who visited his home3 8,father1 why don't ,god kill the devil and then there would be no more wickedness in the world80 ,all children's questioning does not of course take this sublime direction4 ,along with the tendency to push back inquiry to the unreachable beginning of things we mark a more modest and scientific line of investigation into the observable and explainable processes of nature4 ,some questions which a busy listener would pooh-pooh as dreamy have a genuinely scientific value1 showing that the little inquirer is trying to work out some problem of fact4 ,this is illustrated by a question put by a little boy aged three years nine months3 8,why don't we see two things with our two eyes80 a problem which1 as we know1 has exercised older psychologists4 ,when this more definitely scientific direction is taken by a child's questioning we may observe that the ambitious #8why8' begins to play a second rle1 the first being now taken by the more modest #8how8' ,the germ of this kind of inquiry may be present in some of the early questioning about growth4 8,how10 asked our little zoologist1 8does plants grow when we plant them1 and how does boys grow from babies to big boys like me8 ,has ,i grown now whilst ,i was eating my supper8 ,see60 and he stood up to make the most of his stature4 ,clearer evidence of a directing of inquiry into the processes of things appears in the fifth and sixth years4 ,a little girl of four years seven months among other questionings wanted to know what makes the trains move1 and how we move our eyes4 ,the incessant inquiries of the boy ,clark ,maxwell into the #8go' of this thing or the #8particular go' of that illustrate in a clearer manner the early tendency to direct questioning to the more manageable problems to which science confines itself4 ,these different lines of questioning are apt to run on concurrently from the end of the third year1 a fit of eager curiosity about animals or other natural objects giving place to a fit of theological inquiry1 this again being dropped for an equally eager inquiry into the making of clocks1 railway engines1 and so on4 ,yet through these alternating bouts of questioning we can distinguish something like a law of intellectual progress4 ,questioning as the most direct expression of a child's curiosity follows the development of his groups of ideas and of the interests which help to construct these4 ,thus ,i think it a general rule that questioning about the make or mechanism of things follows questioning about animal ways just because the zoological interest 7in a very crude form of course7 precedes the mechanical4 ,the scope of this early questioning will1 moreover1 expand with intellectual capacity1 and more particularly the capability of forming the more abstruse kind of childish idea4 ,thus inquiries into absolute beginnings1 into the origin of the world and of ,god himself1 indicate the presence of a larger intellectual grasp of time-relations and of the processes of becoming4 ,our survey of the field of childish questioning suggests that it is by no means an easy matter to deal with4 ,it must be admitted1 ,i think1 by the most enthusiastic partisan of children that their questioning is of very unequal value4 ,it may often be noticed that a child's #8why8' is used in a sleepy mechanical way with no real desire for knowledge1 any semblance of answer being accepted without an attempt to put a meaning into it4 ,a good deal of the more importunate kind of children's questioning1 when they follow up question by question recklessly1 as it seems1 and without definite aim1 appears to be of this formal and lifeless character1 an expression not of a healthy intellectual activity1 but merely of a mood of general mental discontent and peevishness4 ,in a certain amount of childish questioning1 indeed1 we have1 ,i suspect1 to do with a distinctly abnormal mental state1 with an analogue of that mania of questions1 or passion for mental rummaging or prying into everything1 8,grubelsucht0 as the ,germans call it1 which is a well-known phase of mental disease1 and prompts the patient to put such questions as this3 8,why do ,i stand here where ,i stand80 8,why is a glass a glass1 a chair a chair80 ,such questioning ought1 it is evident1 not to be treated too seriously4 ,we may attach too much significance to a child's question1 labouring hard to grasp its meaning1 with a view to answering it1 when we should be wiser if we viewed it as a symptom of mental irritability and peevishness1 to be got rid of as quickly as possible by a good romp or other healthy distraction4#dd ----- ,footnote #dd3 ,cf4 ,perez1 ,l',education ds le berceau1 p4 #de ff4 ----- ,to admit1 however1 that children's questions may now and again need this sort of wholesome snubbing is far from saying that we ought to treat all their questioning with a mild contempt4 ,the little questioners flatter us by attributing superior knowledge to us1 and good manners should compel us to treat their questions with some attention4 ,and if now and then they torment us with a string of random reckless questioning1 in how many cases1 one wonders1 are they not made to suffer1 and that wrongfully1 by having perfectly serious questions rudely cast back on their hands8 ,the truth is that to understand and to answer children's questions is a considerable art1 including both a large and deep knowledge of things1 and a quick sympathetic insight into the little questioners' minds1 and few of us have at once the intellectual and the moral excellences needed for an adequate treatment of them4 ,it is one of the tragi-comic features of human life that the ardent little explorer looking out with wide-eyed wonder upon his new world should now and again find as his first guide a nurse or even a mother who will resent the majority of his questions as disturbing the luxurious mood of indolence in which she chooses to pass her days4 ,we can never know how much valuable mental activity has been checked1 how much hope and courage cast down by this kind of treatment4 ,yet happily the questioning impulse is not easily eradicated1 and a child who has suffered at the outset from this wholesale contempt may be fortunate enough to meet1 while the spirit of investigation is still upon him1 one who knows and who has the good nature and the patience to impart what he knows in response to a child's appeal4 ,,iv4 ,,products ,,of ,,child-,,thought4 ,the ,child's ,thoughts about ,nature4 ,we have seen in the previous article how a child's mind behaves when brought face to face with the unknown4 ,we will now examine some of the more interesting results of this early thought-activity1 what are known as the characteristic ideas of children4 ,there is no doubt1 ,i think1 that children1 by reflecting on what they see or otherwise experience and what they are told by others1 fashion their own ideas about nature1 death and the rest4 ,this tendency1 as pointed out above1 discloses itself to some extent in their questions about things4 ,it has now to be more fully studied in their sayings as a whole4 ,the ideas thus formed will probably prove to vary considerably in the case of different children1 yet to preserve throughout these variations a certain general character4 ,these ideas1 moreover1 like those of primitive races1 will be found to be a crude attempt at a connected system4 ,we must not1 of course1 expect too much here4 ,the earliest thought of mankind about nature and the supernatural was very far from being elaborated into a consistent logical whole2 yet we can see general forms of conception or tendencies of thought running through the whole4 ,so in the case of this largely spontaneous child-thought4 ,it will disclose to an unsparing critical inspection vast gaps1 and many unsurmounted contradictions4 ,thus in the case of children1 as in that of uncultured races1 the supernatural realm is at first brought at most into only a very loose connexion with the visible world4 ,all the same there is seen1 in the measure of the individual child's intelligence1 the endeavour to co-ordinate1 and the poor little hard-pressed brain of a child will often pluckily do its best in trying to bring some connexion into that congeries of disconnected worlds into which he finds himself so confusingly introduced1 partly by the motley character of his own experiences1 as the alternations of waking and sleeping1 partly by the haphazard miscellaneous instruction1 mythological1 historical1 theological1 and the rest1 with which we inconsiderately burden his mind4 ,as was observed in dealing with children's imaginative activity1 this primitive child-lore1 like its prototype in folk-lore1 is largely a product of a nave vivid fancy4 ,in assigning the relations of things and their reasons1 a child's mind does not make use of abstract conceptions4 ,it does not talk about 8relation10 but pictures out the particular relation it wants to express by a figurative expression1 as in apperceiving the juxtaposition of moon and star as mamma and baby4 ,so it does not talk of abstract force1 but figures some concrete form of agency1 as in explaining the wind by the idea of somebody's waving a big fan somewhere4 ,this first crude attempt of the child to envisage the world is1 indeed1 largely mythological1 proceeding by the invention of concrete and highly pictorial ideas of fairies1 giants and their doings4 ,the element of thought comes in with the recognition of the real as such1 and with the application of the products of young phantasy to comprehending and explaining this reality4 ,and here we see how this primitive child-thought1 though it remains instinct with glowing imagery1 differentiates itself from pure fancy4 ,this last knows no restraint1 and aims only at the delight of its spontaneous play-like movements1 whereas thought is essentially the serious work of realising and understanding what exists4 ,the contrast is seen plainly enough if we compare the mental attitude of the child when he is frankly romancing1 giving out now and again a laugh1 which shows that he himself fully recognises the absurdity of his talk1 with his attitude when in gravest of moods he is calling upon his fancy to aid reason in explaining some puzzling fact4 ,how early this splitting of the child's imaginative activity into these two forms1 the playful and the thoughtful1 takes place is not1 ,i think1 very easy to determine4 ,many children at least are apt at first to take all that is told them as gospel4 ,to most of them about the age of three and four1 ,i suspect1 fairyland1 if imagined at all1 is as much a reality as the visible world4 ,the disparity of its contents1 the fairies1 dragons and the rest1 with those of the world of sense does not trouble their mind1 the two worlds not being as yet mentally juxtaposed and dove-tailed one into the other4 ,it is only later when the desire to understand overtakes and even passes the impulse to frame bright and striking images1 and1 as a result of this1 critical reflexion applies itself to the nursery legends and detects their incongruity with the world of every-day perception1 that a clear distinction comes to be drawn between reality and fiction1 what exists and can 7or might7 be verified by sense1 and what is only pictured by the mind4 ,with this preliminary peep into the modus operandi of children's thought1 let us see what sort of ideas of things they fashion4 ,beginning with their ideas of natural objects we find1 as has been hinted1 the influence of certain predominant tendencies4 ,of these the most important is the impulse to think of what is far off1 whether in space or time1 and so unobservable1 as like what is near and observed4 ,along with this tendency1 or rather as one particular development of it1 there goes the disposition already illustrated1 to vivify nature1 to personify things and so to assimilate their behaviour to the child's own1 and to explain the origin of things by ideas of making and aiming at some purpose4 ,since1 at the same time that these tendencies are still dominant1 the child by his own observation and by such instruction as he gets1 is gaining insight into the #8how1' the mechanism of things1 we find that his cosmology is apt to be a quaint jumble of the scientific and the mythological4 ,thus the boy ,c4 tried to conceive of the divine creation of men as a mechanical process with well-marked stages--the fashioning of stone men1 iron men1 and then real men4 ,in many cases we can see that a nature-myth comes in to eke out the deficiencies of mechanical insight4 ,thus1 the production of thunder and other strange and inexplicable phenomena is referred1 as by the savage1 and even by many so-called civilised men and women1 to the direct interposition of a supernatural agency4 ,the theological idea with which children are supplied is apt to shape itself into that of a capricious and awfully clever demiurgos1 who not only made the world-machine but alters its working as often as he is disposed4 ,with this idea of a supernatural agent there is commonly combined that of a natural process as means employed1 as when thunder is supposed to be caused by ,god's treading heavily on the floor of the sky4 ,contradictions are not infrequent1 the mythological impulse sometimes alternating with a more distinctly scientific impulse to grasp the mechanical process1 as when wind is sometimes thought of1 as caused by a big fan1 and sometimes1 e4g41 when heard moaning in the night1 endowed with life and feeling4 ,i shall make no attempt to give a methodical account of children's thoughts about nature4 ,i suspect that a good deal more material will have to be collected before a complete description of these thoughts is possible4 ,i shall content myself with giving a few samples of their ideas so far as my own studies have thrown light on them4 ,with respect to the make or substance of things children are1 ,i believe1 disposed to regard all that they see as having the resistant quality of solid material substance4 ,at first1 that is to say after the child has had experience enough of seeing and touching things at the same time to know that the two commonly go together1 he believes that all which he sees is tangible or substantial4 ,thus he will try to touch shadows1 sunlight dancing on the wall1 and picture forms4 ,this tendency to 8reify10 or make things of1 his visual impressions shows itself in pretty forms1 as when the little girl ,m41 one year eleven months old1 8gathered sunlight in her hands and put it on her face04 ,the same child about a month earlier expressed a wish to wash some black smoke4 ,this was the same child that tried to make the wind behave by making her mother's hair tidy2 and her belief in the material reality of the wind was shown by her asking her mother to lift her up high so that she might see the wind4 ,this last1 it is to be noted1 was an inference from touching and resisting to seeing4#de ,wind1 it has been well remarked1 keeps something of its substantiality for all of us long after shadows have become the type of unreality1 proving that the experience of resisting something lies at the root of our sense of material substance4 ,that older children believe in the wind as a living thing seems suggested by the readiness with which they get up a kind of play-tussle with it4 ,that wind even in less fanciful moments is reified is suggested by the following story from the ,worcester collection4 ,a girl aged nine was looking out and seeing the wind driving the snow in the direction of a particular town1 ,milbury3 whereupon she remarked1 8,i'd like to live down in ,milbury04 ,asked why1 she replied1 8,there must be a lot of wind down there1 it's all blowing that way04 ----- ,footnote #de3 ,compare ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson's lines to the wind3 8,i felt you push1 ,i heard you call1 ,i could not see yourself at all04 ,a ,child's ,garden of ,verse1 xxv4 ----- ,children1 as may be seen in this story1 are particularly interested in the movements of things4 ,movement is the clearest and most impressive manifestation of life4 ,all apparently spontaneous or self-caused movements are accordingly taken by children1 as by primitive man1 to be the sign of life1 the outcome of something analogous to their own impulses4 ,hence the movements of falling leaves1 of running water1 of feathers and the like are specially suggestive of life4 ,wind owes much of its vitality1 as seen in the facile personification of it by the poet1 to its apparently uncaused movements4 ,some children in the ,infant ,department of a ,london ,board ,school were asked what things in the room were alive1 and they promptly replied the smoke and the fire4 ,big things moving by an internal mechanism of which the child knows nothing1 more especially engines1 are of course endowed with life4 ,a little girl of thirteen months offered a biscuit to a steam-tram1 and the author of ,the ,invisible ,playmate tells us that his little girl wanted to stroke the 8dear head0 of a locomotive4 ,a child has been known to ask whether a steam-engine was alive4 ,in like manner1 savages on first seeing the self-moving steamer take it for a big animal4 ,the fear of a dog at the sight of an unfamiliar object appearing to move of itself1 as a parasol blown along the ground by the wind1 seems to imply a rudiment of the same impulse to interpret self-movement as a sign of life4#df ----- ,footnote #df3 ,see ,p4 ,lombroso1 op4 cit41 p4 #bf ff4 ----- ,the child's impulse to give life to moving things may lead him to overlook the fact that the movement is caused by an external force1 and this even when the force is exerted by himself4 ,the boy ,c4 on finding the cushion he was sitting upon slipping from under him in consequence of his own wriggling movements pronounced it alive4 ,in like manner children1 as suggested above1 ascribe life to their moving playthings4 ,thus1 ,c4's sister when five years old stopped one day trundling her hoop1 and turning to her mother1 exclaimed3 8,ma1 ,i do think this hoop must be alive1 it is so sensible3 it goes where ,i want it to04 ,another little girl two and a quarter years old on having a string attached to a ball put into her hand1 and after swinging it round mechanically1 began to notice the movement of the ball1 and said to herself1 8,funny ball60 ,in both these cases1 although the movement was directly caused by the child1 it was certainly in the first case1 and apparently in the second1 attributed to the object4 ,next to movement apparently spontaneous sound appears to be a common reason for attributing life to inanimate objects4 ,are not movement and vocal sound the two great channels of utterance of the child's own impulses8 ,the little girl ,m41 when just two years old1 being asked by her mother for a kiss1 answered prettily1 #8,tiss 7kiss7 gone away'4 ,this may1 of course1 have been merely a child's way of using language1 but the fact that the same little girl asked to see a #8knock' suggests that she was disposed to give reality and life to sounds4 ,its sound greatly helps the persuasion that the wind is alive4 ,a little boy assured his teacher that the wind was alive1 for he heard it whistling in the night4 ,the ascription of life to fire is probably aided by its sputtering crackling noises4 ,the impulse1 too1 to endow so little organic-looking an object as a railway engine with conscious life is probably supported by the knowledge of its puffing and whistling4 ,pierre ,loti1 when as a child he first saw the sea1 regarded it as a living monster1 no doubt on the ground of its movement and its noise4 ,the personification of the echo by the child1 of which ,george ,sand's reminiscences give an excellent example1 as also by uncultured man1 is a signal illustration of the suggestive force of a voice-like sound4 ,closely connected with this impulse to ascribe life to what older folk regard as inanimate objects is the tendency to conceive them as growing4 ,this is illustrated in the remark of the boy ,c41 that his stick would in time grow bigger4 ,on the other hand1 there is in the ,worcester ,collection a curious story of a little ,american boy of three who1 having climbed up into a large waggon1 and being asked1 8,how are you going to get out80 replied1 8,i can stay here till it gets little and then ,i can get out my own self04 ,we shall see presently that shrinkage or diminution of size is sometimes attributed by the child-mind to people when getting old4 ,so that we seem to have in each of these cases the extension to things generally of an idea first formed in connexion with the observation of human life4 ,children's ideas of natural objects are anthropomorphic1 not merely as reflecting their own life1 but as modelled after the analogy of the effects of their action4 ,quite young children are apt to extend the ideas broken and mended to objects generally4 ,anything which seems to have become reduced by losing a portion of itself is said to be #8broken'4 ,a little boy of three1 on seeing the moon partly covered by a cloud1 remarked1 8,the moon is broken04 ,on the other hand1 in the case of one little boy1 everything intact was said to be mended4 ,it may be said1 however1 that we cannot safely infer from such analogical use of common language that children distinctly think of all objects as undergoing breakage and repair3 for these expressions in the child's vocabulary may refer rather to the resulting appearances1 than to the processes by which they are brought about4 ,clearer evidences of this reflexion on to nature of the characteristics of his own life appear when a child begins to speculate about mechanical processes1 which he invariably conceives of after the analogy of his own actions4 ,this was illustrated in dealing with children's questions4 ,we see it still more clearly manifested in some of their ideas4 ,one of the most curious instances of this that ,i have met with is seen in early theorisings about the cause of wind4 ,one of the children examined by ,mr4 ,kratz said the tree was to make the wind blow4 ,a pupil of mine distinctly recalls that when a child he accounted for the wind at night by the swaying of two large elms in front of the house and not far from the windows of his bedroom4 ,this reversing of the real order of cause and effect looks silly1 until we remember that the child necessarily looks at movement in the light of his own actions4 ,he moves things1 e4g41 the water1 by his moving limbs2 we set the air in motion by a moving fan2 it seems1 therefore1 natural to him that the wind-movements should be caused by the pressure of some moving thing2 and there is the tree actually seen to be moving4 ,so far ,i have spoken for the most part of children's ideas about near and accessible objects4 ,their notions of what is distant and inaccessible are1 as remarked1 wont to be formed on the model of the first4 ,here1 however1 their knowledge of things will be largely dependent on others' information1 so that the nave impulse of childish intelligence has1 as best it may1 to work under the limitations of an imperfectly understood language4 ,it is perhaps hardly necessary to remind the reader that children's ideas of distance before they begin to travel far are necessarily very inadequate4 ,they are disposed to localise the distant objects they see1 as the sun1 moon and stars1 and the places they hear about on the earth's surface as near as possible4 ,the tendency to approximate things as seen in the infant's stretching out of the hand to touch the moon lives on in the later impulse to localise the sky and heavenly bodies just beyond the farthest terrestrial object seen1 as when a child thought they were just above the church spire1 another that they could be reached by tying a number of ladders together1 another that the setting sun went close behind the ridge of hills1 and so forth4 ,the stars1 being so much smaller looking1 seem to be located farther off than the sun and moon4 ,similarly when they hear of a distant place1 as ,india1 they tend to project it just beyond the farthest point known to them1 say ,hampstead1 to which they were once taken on a long1 long journey from their ,east ,end home4 ,a child's standard of size and distance is1 as all know who have revisited the home of their childhood after many years1 very different from the adult's4 ,to the little legs unused as yet to more than short spells of locomotion a mile seems stupendous3 and then the half-formed brain cannot yet pile up the units of measurement well enough to conceive of hundreds and thousands of miles4 ,the child appears to think of the world as a circular plain1 and of the sky as a sort of inverted bowl upon it4 ,c4's sister used on looking at the sky to fancy she was inside a blue balloon4 ,that is to say he takes them to be what they look4 ,in a similar manner ,c4 took the sun to be a great disc which could be put on the round globe to make a #8see-saw'4 ,when this #8natural realism' gets corrected1 children go to work to convert what is told them into an intelligible form4 ,thus they begin to speculate about the other side of the globe1 and1 as ,mr4 ,barrie reminds us1 are apt to fancy they can know about it by peeping down a well4 ,when religious instruction introduces the new region of heaven they are apt to localise it just above the sky1 which to their thought forms its floor4 ,some genuine thought-work is seen in the effort to harmonise the various things they learn by observation and instruction about the celestial region into a connected whole4 ,thus the sky is apt to be thought of as thin1 this idea being probably formed for the purpose of explaining the shining through of moon and stars4 ,stars are1 as we know1 commonly thought of by the child as holes in the sky letting through the light beyond4 ,one ,boston child ingeniously applied the idea of the thinness of the sky to explain the appearance of the moon when one half is bright and the other faintly illumined1 supposing it to be half-way through the partially diaphanous floor4 ,others again prettily accounted for the waning of the moon to a crescent by saying it was half stuck or half buttoned into the sky4 ,the movements of the sun and other heavenly bodies are similarly apperceived by help of ideas of movements of familiar terrestrial objects4 ,thus the sun was thought by the ,boston children half-mythologically1 half-mechanically1 to roll1 to fly1 to be blown 7like a soap bubble or balloon87 and so forth4 ,the anthropocentric form of teleological explanation is apt to creep in1 as when a ,boston child said charmingly that the moon comes round when people forget to light some lamps4 ,theological ideas1 too1 are pressed into this sphere of explanation1 as in the attribution of the disappearance of the sun to ,god's pulling it up higher out of sight1 to his taking it into heaven and putting it to bed1 and so forth4 ,these ideas are pretty obviously not those of a country child with a horizon4 ,there is rather more of nature-observation in the idea of another child that the sun after setting lies under the trees where angels mind it4 ,the impressive phenomena of thunder and lightning give rise in the case of the child as in that of the ,nature-man to some fine myth-making4 ,the ,american children1 as already observed1 have different mechanical illustrations for setting forth the modus of the supernatural operation here1 thunder being thought of now as ,god groaning1 now as his walking heavily on the floor of heaven 7cf4 the old ,norse idea that thunder is caused by the rolling of ,thor's chariot71 now as his hammering1 now as his having coals run in--ideas which show how navely the child-mind humanises the ,deity1 making him a respectable citizen with a house and a coal-cellar4 ,in like manner the lightning is attributed to ,god's burning the gas quick1 striking many matches at once1 or other familiar human device for getting a brilliant light suddenly4 ,so ,god turns on rain by a tap1 or lets it down from a cistern by a hose1 or1 better1 passes it through a sieve or a dipper with holes4#dg ,in like manner a high wind was explained by a girl of five and a half by saying that it was ,god's birthday1 and he had received a trumpet as a present4 ----- ,footnote #dg3 ,see the article on 8,the ,contents of ,children's ,minds0 already referred to4 ----- ,throughout the whole region of these mysterious phenomena we have illustrations of the anthropocentric tendency to regard what takes place as designed for us poor mortals4 ,the little girl of whom ,mr4 ,canton writes thought 8the wind1 and the rain and the moon #8walking' came out to see her1 and the flowers woke up with the same laudable object04#dh ,when frightened by the crash of the thunder a child instinctively thinks that it is all done to vex his little soul4 ,one of the funniest examples of the application of this idea ,i have met with is in the ,worcester ,collection4 ,two children1 ,d4 and ,k41 aged ten and five respectively1 live in a small ,american town4 ,d41 who is reading about an earthquake1 addresses his mother thus3 8,oh1 isn't it dreadful1 mamma8 ,do you suppose we will ever have one here80 ,k41 intervening with the characteristic impulse of the young child to correct his elders3 8,why1 no1 ,d41 they don't have earthquakes in little towns like this04 ,there is much to unravel in this delightful childish observation4 ,it looks to my mind as if the earthquake were envisaged by the little five-year-old as a show1 ,god being presumably the travelling showman1 who takes care to display his fearful wonders only where there is an adequate body of spectators4 ----- ,footnote #dh3 ,the ,invisible ,playmate1 pp4 #bg1 #bh4 ----- ,finally1 the same impulse to understand the new and strange by assimilating it to the familiar is1 so far as ,i can gather1 seen in children's first ideas about those puzzling semblances of visible objects which are due to subjective sensations4 ,as we shall see in ,c4's case the bright spectra or after-images caused by looking at the sun are instinctively objectived by the child1 that is regarded as things external to his body4 ,here is a pretty full account of a child's thought about these subjective optical phenomena4 ,a little boy of five1 our little zoologist1 in poor health at the time1 8constantly imagined he saw angels1 and said they were not white1 that was a mistake1 they were little coloured things1 light and beautiful1 and they went into the toy-basket and played with his toys04 ,here we have not only objectifying but myth-building4 ,a year later he returned to the subject4 8,he stood at the window at ,b4 looking out at a sea-mist thoughtfully and said suddenly1 #8,mamma1 do you remember ,i told you that ,i had seen angels8 ,well1 ,i want now to say they were not angels1 though ,i thought they were4 ,i have seen it often lately1 ,i see it now3 it is bright stars1 small bright stars moving by4 ,i see it in the mist before that tree4 ,i see it oftenest in the misty days4444 ,perhaps by-and-by ,i shall think it is something in my own eyes4'0 ,here we see a long and painstaking attempt of a child's brain to read a meaning into the #8flying spots1' which many of us know though we hardly give them a moment's attention4 ,what are children's first thoughts about their dreams like8 ,i have not been able to collect much evidence on this head4 ,what seems certain is that to the simple intelligence of the child these counterfeits of ordinary sense-presentations are real external things4 ,the crudest manifestation of this thought-tendency is seen in taking the dream-apparition to be actually present in the bedroom4 ,a boy in an elementary school in ,london1 aged five years1 said one day3 8,teacher1 ,i saw an old woman one night against my bed04 ,another child1 a little girl1 in the same school told her mother that she had seen a funeral last night1 and on being asked1 8,where80 answered quaintly1 8,i saw it in my pillow04 ,a little boy whom ,i know once asked his mother not to put him to bed in a certain room1 8because there were so many dreams in the room04 ,in thus materialising the dream and localising it in the actual surroundings1 the child but reflects the early thought of the race which starts from the supposition that the man or animal which appears in a dream is a material reality which actually approaches the sleeper4 ,the ,nature-man1 as we know from ,professor ,tylor's researches1 goes on to explain dreams by his theory of souls or #8doubles' 7animism74 ,children do not often find their way to so subtle a line of thought4 ,much more commonly they pass from the first stage of acceptance of objects present to their senses to the identification of dreamland with the other and invisible world of fairyland4 ,there is little doubt that the imaginative child firmly believes in the existence of this invisible world1 keeps it apart from the visible one1 even though at times he may give it a definite locality in this 7e4g41 in ,c4's case1 the wall of the bedroom74 ,he gets access to it by shutting out the real world1 as when he closes his eyes tightly and #8thinks'4 ,with such a child1 dreams get taken up into the invisible world4 ,going to sleep is now recognised as the surest way of passing into this region4 ,the varying colour of his dreams1 now bright and dazzling in their beauty1 now black and terrifying1 may be explained by a reference to the division of that fairy world into princes1 good fairies1 on the one hand1 and cruel giants1 witches1 and the like1 on the other4 ,we may now pass to some of children's characteristic ideas about living things1 more particularly human beings1 and the familiar domestic animals4 ,the most interesting of these ,i think are those respecting growth and birth4 ,as already mentioned1 growth is one of the most stimulating of childish puzzles4 ,a child1 led no doubt by what others tell him1 finds that things are in general made bigger by additions from without1 and his earliest conception of growth is1 ,i think1 that of such addition4 ,thus1 plants are made to grow1 that is1 swell out1 by the rain4 ,the idea that the growth or expansion of animals comes from eating is easily reached by the childish intelligence1 and1 as we know1 nurses and parents have a way of recommending the less attractive sorts of diet by telling children that they will make them grow4 ,the idea that the sun makes us grow1 often suggested by parents 7who may be ignorant of the fact that growth is more rapid in the summer than in the winter71 is probably interpreted by the analogy of an infusion of something into the body4 ,in carrying out my inquiries into this region of childish ideas1 ,i lighted quite unexpectedly on the queer notion that towards the end of life there is a reverse process of shrinkage4 ,old people are supposed to become little again4 ,the first instance of this was supplied me by the ,worcester ,collection of ,thoughts4 ,a little girl of three once said to her mother3 8,when ,i am a big girl and you are a little girl ,i shall whip you just as you whipped me now04 ,at first one is almost disposed to think that this child must have heard of ,mr4 ,anstey's amusing story ,vice ,vers4 ,yet this idea seems too improbable3 and ,i have since found that she is not by any means the only one who has entertained this idea4 ,a little boy that ,i know1 when about three and a half years old1 used often to say to his mother with perfect seriousness of manner3 8,when ,i am big then you will be little1 then ,i will carry you about and dress you and put you to sleep04 ,i happened to mention this fact at a meeting of mothers and teachers1 when ,i received further evidence of this tendency of child-thought4 ,one lady whom ,i know could recollect quite clearly that when a little girl she was promised by her aunt some treasures1 trinkets ,i fancy1 when she grew up2 and that she at once turned to her aunt and promised her that she would then give her in exchange all her dolls1 as by that time she 7the aunt7 would be a little girl4 ,another case narrated was that of a little girl of three and a half years1 who when her elder brother and sister spoke to her about her getting big rejoined3 8,what will you do when you are little80 ,a third case mentioned was that of a child asking about some old person of her acquaintance3 8,when will she begin to get small80 ,i have since obtained corroboratory instances from parents and teachers of infant classes4 ,thus a lady writes that a little girl1 a cousin of hers aged four1 to whom she was reading something about an old woman1 asked3 8,do people turn back into babies when they get quite old80 ,what1 it may be asked1 does this queer idea of shrinkage in old age mean8 ,by what quaint zig-zag movement of childish thought was the notion reached8 ,i cannot learn that there is any such idea in primitive folk-lore1 and this suggests that children find their way to it1 in part at least1 by the suggestions of older people's words4 ,a child may1 no doubt1 notice that old people stoop1 and look small1 and the fairy book with little old women may strengthen the tendency to think of shrinkage4 ,but ,i cannot bring myself to believe that this would suffice to produce the idea in so many cases4 ,that there is much in what the little folk hear us say fitted to raise in their minds an idea of shrinking back into child-form is certain4 ,many children must1 at some time or another1 have overheard their elders speaking of old feeble people getting childish2 and we must remember that even the attributive #8silly' applied to old people might lead a child to infer a return to childhood2 for if there is one thing that children--true unsophisticated children--believe in it is the all-knowingness of grown-ups as contrasted with the know-nothingness of themselves4 ,c4's belief in the preternatural calculating powers of ,goliath is an example of this correlation in the child's consciousness between size and intelligence4#di ----- ,footnote #di3 ,that this is not the complete explanation is suggested by a story told by ,perez4 ,his nephew1 over four years1 on meeting a little old man said to his uncle3 8,when ,i shall be a little old man1 will you be young80 7,l',enfant de trois sept ans1 p4 #bai74 ----- ,but ,i suspect that there is a further source of this characteristic product of early thought1 involving still more of the child's philosophizing4 ,as we have seen1 a child cannot accept an absolute beginning of things1 and we shall presently find that he is equally incapable of believing in an absolute ending4 ,he knows that we begin our earthly life as babies4 ,well1 the babies must come from something1 and when we die we must pass into something4 ,what more natural1 then1 than the idea of a rhythmical alternation of cycles of existence1 babies passing into grown-ups1 and these again into babies1 and so the race kept going8 ,does this seem too far-fetched an explanation8 ,i think it will be found less so if it is remembered that according to our way of instructing these active little brains1 people are brought to earth as babies in angels' arms1 and that when they die they are taken back also in angels' arms4 ,now as the angel remains of constant size1--for this their pictures vouch--it follows that old people1 when they are dead at least1 must have shrivelled up to nursable dimensions2 and as the child1 when he philosophizes1 knows nothing of miraculous or cataclasmic changes1 he naturally supposes that this shrivelling up is gradual like that of flowers and other things when they fade4#ej ----- ,footnote #ej3 ,perhaps1 too1 our way of playfully calling children little old men and women favours the supposition that they are old people turned young again4 ----- ,i am disposed to think1 then1 that in this idea of senile shrinkage we have one of the most interesting and convincing examples of a child's philosophizing1 of his impulse to reflect on what he sees and hears about with a view to systematise4 ,yet the matter requires further observation4 ,is it thoughtful1 intelligent children1 who excogitate this idea8 ,would it be possible to get the child's own explanation of it before he has completely outgrown it8#ea ----- ,footnote #ea3 ,egger quotes a remark of a little girl3 8,i shall carry ,emile 7her older brother7 when he gets little04 ,this may1 as ,egger suggests1 have been merely a confusion of the conditional and the future4 ,but the idea about old people's shrinking cannot be dismissed in this summary way 7see ,perez1 ,first ,three ,years of ,childhood1 p4 #bbd74 ----- ,the origin of babies and young animals furnishes the small brain1 as we have seen1 with much food for speculation4 ,here the little thinker is not often left to excogitate a theory for himself4 ,his inconvenient questionings in this direction have to be firmly checked1 and various and truly wonderful are the ways in which the nurse and the mother are wont to do this4 ,any fiction is supposed to be good enough for the purpose4 ,divine action1 as remarked above1 is commonly called in1 the questioner being told that the baby has been sent down from heaven in the arms of an angel and so forth4 ,fairy stories with their pretty conceits1 as that of the child ,thumbkin growing out of a flower in ,hans ,andersen's book1 contribute their suggestions1 and so there arises a mass of child-lore about babies in which we can see that the main ideas are supplied by others1 though now and again we catch a glimpse of the child's own contributions4 ,thus according to ,stanley ,hall's report the ,boston children said1 among other things1 that ,god makes babies in heaven1 lets them down or drops them for the women and doctors to catch them1 or that he brings them down a wooden ladder backwards and pulls it up again1 or that mamma1 nurse or doctor goes up and fetches them in a balloon4 ,they are said by some to grow in cabbages or to be placed by ,god in water1 perhaps in the sewer1 where they are found by the doctor1 who takes them to sick folks that want them4 ,here we have delicious touches of childish fancy1 quaint adaptations of fairy and ,bible lore1 as in the use of ,jacob's ladder and of the legend of ,moses placed among the bulrushes1 this last being enriched by the thorough master-stroke of child-genius1 the idea of the dark1 mysterious1 wonder-producing sewer4 ,in spite too of all that others do to impress the traditional notions of the nursery here1 we find that a child will now and again think out the whole subject for himself4 ,the little boy ,c4 is not the only one ,i find who is of the opinion that babies are got at a shop4 ,another little boy1 ,i am informed1 once asked his mamma in the abrupt childish manner1 8,mamma1 vere did ,tommy 7his own name7 tum 7come7 from80 and then with the equally childish way of sparing you the trouble of answering his question1 himself observed1 quite to his own satisfaction1 8,mamma did tie 7buy7 ,tommy in a s'op 7shop704 ,another child1 seeing the announcement 8,families ,supplied0 in a grocer's shop1 begged his mother to get him a baby4 ,this looks like a real childish idea4 ,to the young imagination the shop is a veritable wonderland1 an ,eldorado of valuables1 and it appears quite reasonable to the childish intelligence that babies like dolls and other treasures should be procurable there4 ,the ideas partly communicated by others1 partly thought out for themselves are carried over into the beginnings of animal life4 ,thus1 as we have seen1 one little boy supposed that ,god helps pussy to have 8'ickle kitties10 seeing that she hasn't any kitties in eggs given her to sit upon4 ,psychological ,ideas4 ,we may now pass to some of the characteristic modes of child-thought about that standing mystery1 the self4 ,as our discussion of the child's ideas of origin1 growth and final shrinkage suggests1 a good deal of his most earnest thinking is devoted to problems relating to himself4 ,the date of the first thought about self1 of the first dim stage of self-awareness1 probably varies considerably in the case of different children according to rapidity of mental development and circumstances4 ,the little girl1 who was afterwards to be known as ,george ,sand1 may be supposed to have had an exceptional development2 and the accident of infancy to which she refers as having aroused the earliest form of self-consciousness was1 of course1 exceptional too4 ,there are probably many robust and dull children1 knowing little of life's misery1 and allowed in general to have their own way1 who have but little more of self-consciousness than that1 say1 of a young1 well-favoured porker4 ,the earliest idea of self seems to be obtained by the child through an examination by the senses of touch and sight of his own body4 ,a child has been observed to study his fingers attentively in the fourth and fifth month1 and this scrutiny goes on all through the second year and even into the third4#eb ,children seem to be impressed quite early by the fact that in laying hold of a part of the body with the hand they get a different kind of experience from that which they obtain when they grasp a foreign object4 ,through these self-graspings1 self-strikings1 self-bitings1 aided by the very varied1 and often extremely disagreeable operations of the nurse and others on the surface of their bodies1 they probably reach during the first year the idea that their body is different from all other things1 is #8me' in the sense that it is the living seat of pain and pleasure4 ,the growing power of movement of limb1 especially when the crawling stage is reached1 gives a special significance to the body as that which can be moved1 and by the movements of which interesting and highly impressive changes in the environment1 e4g41 bangs and other noises1 can be produced4 ----- ,footnote #eb3 ,for the facts see ,preyer1 op4 cit41 cap4 xxii42 ,tracy1 ,the ,psychology of ,childhood1 p4 #dg4 ----- ,it is probable that the first ideas of the bodily self are ill-defined4 ,it is evident that the head and face are not known at first as a visible object4 ,the upper limbs by their movement across the field of vision would come in for the special notice of the eye4 ,we know that the baby is at an early date wont to watch its hands4 ,the lower limbs1 moreover1 seem to receive special attention from the exploring and examining hand4 ,there is some reason to think1 however1 that in spite of these advantages1 the limbs form a less integral and essential part of the bodily self than the trunk4 ,a child in his second year was observed to bite his own finger till he cried with pain4 ,he could hardly have known it as a part of his sensitive body4 ,preyer tells us of a boy of nineteen months who when asked to give his foot seized it with both hands and tried to hand it over4 ,a like facility in casting off from the self or alienating the limbs is illustrated in a story in the ,worcester ,collection of a child of three and a half years who on finding his feet stained by some new stockings observed3 8,oh1 mamma6 these ain't my feet1 these ain't the feet ,i had this morning04 ,this readiness to detach the limbs shows itself still more plainly in the boy ,c4's complaining when in bed and trying to wriggle into a snug position that his legs came in the way of himself4 ,here the legs seem to be half transformed into foreign persons2 and this tendency to personify the limbs seems to be further illustrated in ,laura ,bridgman's pastime of spelling a word wrongly with one hand and then slapping that hand with the other4 ,why1 it may be asked1 should a child attach this supreme importance to the trunk1 when his limbs are always forcing themselves on his notice by their movements1 and when he is so deeply interested in them as the parts of the body which do things8 ,i suspect that the principal reason is that a child soon learns to connect with the trunk the recurrent and most impressive of his feelings of comfort and discomfort1 such as hunger1 thirst1 stomachic pains and the corresponding reliefs4 ,we know that the 8vital sense0 forms the sensuous basis of self-consciousness in the adult1 and it is only reasonable to suppose that in the first years of life1 when it fills so large a place in the consciousness1 it has most to do with determining the idea of the sentient or feeling body4 ,afterwards the observation of maimed men and animals would confirm the idea that the trunk is the seat and essential portion of the living body4 ,the language of others too by identifying #8body' and #8trunk' would strengthen the tendency4 ,about this interesting trunk-body1 what is inside it1 and how it works1 the child speculates vastly4 ,references to the making of bone1 the work of the stomach1 and so forth have to be understood somehow4 ,it would be interesting to get at a child's unadulterated view of his anatomy and physiology4 ,the ,worcester ,collection illustrates what funny ideas a child can entertain of the mechanism of his body4 ,a little girl between five and six thought it was the little hairs coming against the lids which made her sleepy4 ,at a later stage of the child's development1 no doubt1 when he comes to form the idea of a conscious thinking #8,i1' the head will become a principal portion of the bodily self4 ,in the evolution of the self-idea in the race1 too1 we find that the soul was lodged in the trunk long before it was assigned a seat in the head4 ,as may be seen in ,c4's case children are quite capable of finding their way1 partly at least1 to the idea that the soul has its lodgment in the head4 ,but it is long before this thought grows clear4 ,this may be seen in children's talk1 as when a girl of four spoke of her dolly as having no sense in her eyes4 ,even when a child learns from others that we think with our brains he goes on supposing that our thoughts travel down to the mouth when we speak4 ,very interesting in connexion with the first stages of development of the idea of self is the experience of the mirror4 ,it would be absurd to expect a child when first placed before a mirror to recognise his own face4 ,he will smile at the reflexion as early as the tenth week1 though this is probably merely an expression of pleasure at the sight of a bright object4 ,if held in the nurse's or father's arms to a glass when about six months old a baby will at once show that he recognises the image of the familiar face of the latter by turning round to the real face1 whereas he does not recognise his own4 ,he appears at first and for some months to take it for a real object1 sometimes smiling to it as to a stranger and even kissing it1 or1 as in the case of a little girl 7fifteen months old71 offering it things and saying #8,ta' 7sign of acceptance74 ,in many cases curiosity prompts to an attempt to grasp the mirror-figure with the hand1 to turn up the glass1 or to put the hand behind it in order to see what is really there4 ,this is very much like the behaviour of monkeys before a mirror1 as described by ,darwin and others4 ,little by little the child gets used to the reflexion1 and then by noting certain agreements between his bodily self and the image1 as the movement of his hands when he points1 and partly1 too1 by a kind of inference of analogy from the doubling of other things by the mirror1 he reaches the idea that the reflexion belongs to himself4 ,by the sixtieth week ,preyer's boy had associated the name of his mother with her image1 pointing to it when asked where she was4 ,by the twenty-first month he did the same thing in the case of his own image4#ec ----- ,footnote #ec3 ,see the very full account of the mirror experiment in ,preyer's book1 p4 #dei seq4 ----- ,an infant will1 we know1 take a shadow to be a real object and try to touch it4 ,some children on noticing their own and other people's shadows on the wall are afraid as at something uncanny4 ,here1 too1 in time the strange phenomenon is taken as a matter of course and referred to the sun4 ,we are told that the phenomena of reflexions and shadows1 along with those of dreams1 had much to do with the development1 in the early thought of the race1 of the animistic conception that everything has a double nature and existence4 ,do children form similar ideas8 ,we can see from the autobiography of ,george ,sand how a clever girl1 reflecting on the impressive experience of the echo1 excogitates such a theory of her double existence2 and we know1 too1 that the boy ,hartley ,coleridge distinguished among the #8,hartleys' a picture ,hartley and a shadow ,hartley4 ,c4's biography suggests that being photographed may appear to a child as a transmutation1 if not a doubling1 of the self4 ,but much more needs to be known about these matters4 ,the prominence of the bodily pictorial element in the child's first idea of self is seen in the tendency to restrict personal identity within the limits of an unchanged bodily appearance4 ,the child of six1 with his shock of curls1 refuses to believe that he is the same as the hairless baby whose photograph the mother shows him4 ,how different1 how new1 a being a child feels on a ,sunday morning after the extra weekly cleansing and brushing and draping4 ,the bodily appearance is a very big slice of the content of most people's self-consciousness1 and to the child it is almost everything4 ,but in time the conscious self1 which thinks and suffers and wills1 comes to be dimly discerned4 ,i believe that a real advance towards this true self-consciousness is marked by the appropriation and use of the difficult forms of language1 #8,i1' #8me1' #8mine'4 ,this will be dealt with in another essay4 ,sometimes the apprehension of the existence of a hidden self distinct from the body comes as a sudden revelation1 as to little ,george ,sand4 ,such a swift awakening of self-consciousness is apt to be an epoch-making and memorable moment in the history of the child4 ,a father sends me the following notes on the development of self-consciousness3 8,my girl1 three years old1 makes an extraordinary distinction between her body and herself4 ,lying in bed she shut her eyes and said3 #8,mother1 you can't see me now'4 ,the mother replied3 #8,oh1 you little goose1 ,i can see you but you can't see me'4 ,to which she rejoined3 #8,oh1 yes1 ,i know you can see my body1 mother1 but you can't see me'40 ,the same child about the same time was concerned about the reality of her own existence4 ,one day playing with her dolls she asked her mother3 8,mother1 am ,i real1 or only a pretend like my dolls80 ,here again1 it is plain1 the emphasis was laid on something non-corporeal1 something that animated the body1 and not a mere bit of mechanism put inside it4 ,two years later she showed a still finer intellectual differentiation of the visible and the invisible self4 ,her brother happened to ask her what they fed the bears on at the ,zoo4 ,she answered impulsively3 8,dead babies and that sort of thing04 ,on this the mother interposed3 8,why1 ,f41 you don't think mothers would give their dead babies to the animals80 ,to this she replied3 8,why not1 mother8 ,it's only their bodies4 ,i shouldn't mind your giving mine40 ,this contempt for the body is an excellent example of the way in which a child when he gets hold of an idea pushes it to its logical extreme4 ,this little girl by-the-bye was she who1 about the same age1 took compassion on the poor autumn leaves dying on the ground1 so that we may suppose her mind to have been brooding at this time on the conscious side of existence4 ,the mystery of self-existence has probably been a puzzle to many a thoughtful child4 ,a lady1 a well-known writer of fiction1 sends me the following recollection of her early thought on this subject3 8,the existence of other people seemed natural3 it was the #8,i' that seemed so strange to me4 ,that ,i should be able to perceive1 to think1 to cause other people to act1 seemed to me quite to be expected1 but the power of feeling and acting and moving about myself1 under the guidance of some internal self1 amazed me continually40 ,it is of course hard to say how exactly the child thinks about this inner self4 ,it seems to me probable that1 allowing for the great differences in reflective power1 children in general1 like uncivilised races1 tend to materialise it1 thinking of it dimly as a film-like shadow-like likeness of the visible self4 ,the problem is complicated for the child's consciousness by religious instruction with its idea of an undying soul4 ,as may be seen in the recollections just quoted1 this early thought about self is greatly occupied with its action on the body4 ,among the many things that puzzled the much-questioning little lad already frequently quoted was this3 8,how do my thoughts come down from my brain to my mouth3 and how does my spirit make my legs walk80 ,c4's sister when four years and ten months old wanted to know how it is we can move our arm and keep it still when we want to1 while the curtain can't move except somebody moves it4 ,the first attempts to solve the puzzle are of course materialistic1 as may be seen in our little questioner's delightful notion of thoughts travelling through the body4 ,this form of materialism1 however1 ,i find surviving in grown-ups and even in students of psychology1 who are rather fond of talking about sensations travelling up the nerves to the brain4 ,very curious are the directions of the first thought about the past self4 ,the idea of personal identity1 so dear to philosophers1 does not appear to be fully reached at first4 ,on the contrary1 as we shall see in the case of ,c41 the past self is divorced from the present under the image of the opposite sex in the odd expression3 8when ,i was a little girl04 ,this probably illustrates the importance of the bodily appearance as a factor in the self1 for ,c4 had1 ,i believe1 been photographed when in the petticoat stage1 and no doubt looked back on this person in skirts as a girl4 ,this is borne out by the fact that another little boy when about three and a half years old asked his mother3 8,was ,i a girl when ,i was small80 and that the little questioner whom ,i have called our zoologist was also accustomed to say3 8,when ,i was a 'ickle dirl 7girl704 ,but discarded petticoats do not explain all the child's ideas about his past self4 ,this same little zoologist would also say1 8,when ,i was a big man10 to describe the state of things long1 long ago4 ,what does this mean8 ,in discussing the quaint idea of senile shrinkage ,i have suggested that a child may think of human existence as a series of transformations from littleness to bigness1 and the reverse1 and here we have lighted on another apparent evidence of it4 ,for though we are apt to call children #8old men' we do not suggest to them that they are or have been big men4 ,the difficulty to the child of conceiving of his remote past1 is surpassed by that of trying to understand the state of things before he was born4 ,the true mystery of birth for the child1 the mystery which fascinates and holds his mind1 is that of his beginning to be4 ,this is illustrated in ,c4's question3 8,where was ,i a hundred years ago8 ,where was ,i before ,i was born80 ,it remains a mystery for all of us1 only that after a time we are wont to put it aside4 ,the child1 on the other hand1 is stung1 so to say1 by the puzzle1 his whole mind being roused to passionate questioning4 ,it is curious to note the differences in the attitude of children's minds towards the mystery4 ,the small person accustomed to petting1 to be made the centre of others' thought and action1 may be struck with the blank in the common home life before his arrival4 ,a lady was talking to her little girl ,h41 aged three years1 about something she had done when she was a child4 ,h4 then wanted to know what she was doing then1 and was told by her mother3 8,oh1 you were not here at all04 ,she seemed quite amazed at this1 and said3 8,and what did you do without ,h48 ,did you cry all day for her80 ,on being informed that this was not the case1 she seemed quite unable to realise how her mother could have existed without her4 ,there is something of the charming egoism of the child here1 but there is more3 there is the vague expression of the unifying integrating work of love4 ,lovers1 one is told1 are wont to think in the same way about the past before they met1 and became all in all to one another4 ,for this little girl with her strong sense of human attachment1 the idea of a real life without that which gave it warmth and gladness was a contradiction4 ,sometimes again1 in the more metaphysical sort of child1 the puzzle relates to the past existence of the outer world4 ,we have all been perplexed by the thought of the earth and sky1 and other folk existing before we were1 and going on to exist after we cease to be2 though here again1 save in the case of the philosopher perhaps1 we get used to the puzzle4 ,children may be deeply impressed with this apparent contradiction4 ,jean ,ingelow in her interesting reminiscences thus writes of her puzzlings on this head3 ,i went through a world of cogitation as to whether it was really true that anything had been and lived before ,i was there to see it4444 ,i could think there might have been some day when ,i was very little--as small as the most tiny pebble on the road--but not to have been at all was so very hard to believe4 ,a little boy of five who was rather given to saying #8clever' things1 was one day asked by a visitor1 who thought to rebuke what she took to be his conceit3 8,why1 ,m41 however did the world go round before you came into it80 ,m4 at once replied3 8,why1 it didn't go round4 ,it only began five years ago40 ,was this1 as perhaps nine persons out of ten would say1 merely a bit of dialectic smartness1 the evasion of an awkward question by denying the assumed fact8 ,i am disposed to think that there was more1 that the virtuous intention of the visitor had chanced to discover a hidden child-thought2 for the child is naturally a ,berkeleyan1 in so far at least that for him the reality of things is reality for his own sense-perceptions4 ,a world existent before he was on the spot to see it1 seems to the child's intelligence a contradiction4 ,a child will sometimes use theological ideas as an escape from this puzzle4 ,the myth of babies being brought down from heaven is particularly helpful4 ,the quick young intelligence sees in this pretty idea a way of prolonging existence backwards4 ,the same little boy that was so concerned to know what his mother had done without him1 happened one day to be passing a street pump with his mother1 when he stopped and observed with perfect gravity3 8,there are no pumps in heaven where ,i came from04 ,he had evidently thought out the legend of the ,god-sent baby to its logical consequences4 ,children appear to have very vague ideas about time4 ,their minds cannot at first of course rise to the abstraction1 time1 or duration1 or to its measured portions1 as a day4 ,they talk about the days as if they were things4 ,thus to-day1 yesterday1 and to-morrow1 which1 as we may see in ,c4's way of talking about time1 are used very vaguely for present1 past and future1 are spoken of as things which move4 ,a girl of four asked3 #8,where is yesterday gone to8' and #8,where will to-morrow come from8' ,the boy ,c4 as well as other children1 as we saw1 asked where all the days go to4 ,such expressions may of course be figurative1 a child having no other way of describing the sequence yesterday and to-day1 to-day and to-morrow2 yet ,i am disposed to think that these are examples of the child's #8concretism1' his reduction of our abstractions to living realities4#ed ----- ,footnote #ed3 ,a child quoted by ,p4 ,lombroso thought of a year as a round thing having the different festivals on it1 and bringing these round in due order by its rotation 7op4 cit41 p4 #di74 ----- ,it is equally noticeable that children have no adequate mental representations of our time-measurements4 ,as in the case of space1 so in that of time their standard is not ours3 an hour1 say the first morning at school1 may seem an eternity to a child's consciousness4 ,the days1 the months1 the years seem to fly faster and faster as we get older4 ,on the other hand1 as in the case of space-judgments1 too1 the child through his inability to represent time on a large scale is apt to bring the past too near the present4 ,mothers and young teachers would be surprised if they knew how children interpreted their first historical instruction introduced by the common phrase1 #8,many years ago1' or similar expression4 ,a child of six years when crossing the ,red ,sea asked to be shown ,pharaoh and his hosts4 ,this looks like the effect of a vivid imagination of the scene1 which even in grown people may beget an expectation of seeing it here and now4 ,the following anecdote of a boy of five and a half years sent me by his aunt more clearly illustrates a child's idea of the historical past4 8,h4 was beginning to have ,english history read to him and had got past the #8,romans' as he said4 ,one day he noticed a locket on my watch-chain1 and desired that it should be opened4 ,it contained the hair of two babies both dead long before4 ,he asked about them4 ,i told him they died before ,i was born4 #8,did father know them8' he asked4 #8,no1 they died before he was born4' #8,then who knew them and when did they live8' he asked1 and as ,i hesitated for a moment1 seeking how to make the matter plain1 #8,was it in the time of the ,romans8' he gravely asked40 ,the odd-looking historical perspective here was quite natural4 ,he had to localise the babies' existence somewhere1 and he could only do it conjecturally by reference to the one far-off time of which he had heard1 and which presumably covered all that was before the life-time of himself and of those about him4 ,theological ,ideas4 ,we may now pass to another group of children's ideas1 a group already alluded to1 those which have to do with the invisible world1 with death and what follows this--,god and heaven4 ,here we find an odd patchwork of thought1 the patchwork-look being due to the heterogeneous sources of the child's information1 his own observations of the visible world on the one hand1 and the ideas supplied him by what is called religious instruction on the other4 ,the characteristic activity of the child-mind1 so far as we can disengage it1 is seen in the attempt to co-ordinate the disparate and seemingly contradictory ideas into something like a coherent system4 ,like the beginning of life1 its termination1 death1 is one of the recurring puzzles of childhood4 ,this might be illustrated from almost any autobiographical reminiscences of childhood4 ,here indeed the mystery1 as may be seen in ,c4's case1 is made the more impressive and recurrent to consciousness by the element of dread4 ,a little girl of three and a half years asked her mother to put a great stone on her head1 because she did not want to die4 ,she was asked how a stone would prevent it1 and answered with perfect childish logic3 8,because ,i shall not grow tall if you put a great stone on my head2 and people who grow tall get old and then die04 ,death seems to be thought of by the unsophisticated child as the body reduced to a motionless state1 devoid of breath and unable any longer to feel or think4 ,this is the idea suggested by the sight of dead animals1 which but few children1 however closely shielded1 can escape4 ,the first way of envisaging death seems to be as a temporary state like sleep1 which it so closely resembles4 ,a little boy of two and a half years1 on hearing from his mother of the death of a lady friend1 at once asked3 8,will ,mrs4 ,p4 still be dead when we go back to ,london80 ,the knowledge of burial gives a new and terrible turn to his idea of death4 ,he now begins to speculate much about the grave4 ,the instinctive tendency to carry over the idea of life and sentience to the buried body is illustrated in ,c4's fear lest the earth should be put over his eyes4 ,the following observation from the ,worcester ,collection illustrates the same tendency4 8,a few days ago ,h4 7aged four years four months7 came to me and said3 #8,did you know they'd taken ,deacon ,w4 to ,grafton8' ,i4 #8,yes4' ,h4 #8,well1 ,i s'pose it's the best thing4 ,his folks 7meaning his children7 are buried there1 and they wouldn't know he was dead if he was buried here4'0 ,this reversion to savage notions of the dead in speaking of a ,christian deacon has a certain grim humour4 ,all thoughts of heaven were here forgotten in the absorbing interest in the fate of the body4 ,do children when left to themselves work out a theory of another life1 that of the soul away from the dead deserted body8 ,it is of course difficult to say1 all children receiving some instruction at least of a religious character respecting the future4 ,one of the clearest approaches to spontaneous child-thought that ,i have met with here is supplied by the account of the ,boston children4 ,many children 7writes ,professor ,stanley ,hall7 locate all that is good and imperfectly known in the country1 and nearly a dozen volunteered the statement that good people when they die go to the country--even here from ,boston4 ,the reference to good people shows that the children are here trying to give concrete definiteness to something that has been said by another4 ,these children had not1 one suspects1 received much systematic religious instruction4 ,they had perhaps gathered in a casual way the information that good people when they die are to go to a nice place4 ,children pick up much from the talk of their better-instructed companions which they only half understand4 ,in any case it is interesting to note that they placed their heaven in the country1 the unknown beautiful region1 where all sorts of luxuries grow4 ,one is reminded of the idea of the happy hunting grounds to which the ,american ,indian consigns his dead chief4 ,it would have been interesting to examine these ,boston children as to how they combined this belief in going to the country with the burial of the body in the city4 ,in the case of children who pick up something of the orthodox religious creed the idea of going to heaven has somehow to be grasped and put side by side with that of burial4 ,how the child-mind behaves here it is hard to say4 ,it is probable that there are many comfortable and stupid children who are not troubled by any appearance of contradiction4 ,as we saw in the remark of the ,american child about the deacon1 the child-mind may oscillate between the native idea that the man lives on in a sense underground1 and the alien idea that he has passed into heaven4 ,yet undoubtedly the more thoughtful kind of child does try to bring the two ideas into agreement4 ,the boy ,c4 attempted to do this first of all by supposing that the people who went to heaven 7the good7 were not buried at all2 and later by postponing the going to heaven1 the true entrance being that of the body by way of the tomb4 ,other ways of getting a consistent view of things are also hit upon4 ,thus a little girl of five years thought that the head only passed to heaven4 ,this was no doubt a way of understanding the communication from others that the #8body' is buried4 ,this inference is borne out by another story of a boy of four and a half who asked how much of his legs would have to be cut off when he was buried4 ,the legs were not the #8body'4 ,but the idea of the head passing to heaven meant more than this4 ,it pretty certainly involved a localisation of the soul in the crown of the body1 and it may possibly have been helped by pictures of cherub heads4 ,sometimes this process of child-thought reflects that of early human thought1 as when a little boy of six said that ,god took the breath to heaven 7cf4 the ideas underlying spiritus and 74 ,in what precise manner children imagine the entrance into heaven to take place ,i do not feel certain4 ,the legend of being borne by angels through the air probably assists here4 ,as we have seen1 children tend to think of people when they die as shrinking back to baby-dimensions so as to be carried in the angels' arms4 ,the idea of people going to heaven is1 as we know1 pushed by the little brain to its logical consequences4 ,animals when they die pass to another place also4 ,a boy three years and nine months asked whether birds1 insects1 and so forth go to heaven where people go when they die4 ,yet a materialistic tendency shows itself here1 especially in connexion with the observation that animals are eaten4 ,a little ,american boy in his fifth year was playing with a tadpole till it died4 ,immediately the other tadpoles ate it up1 and the child burst out crying4 ,his elder sister with the best of intentions tried to comfort him by saying3 #8,don't cry1 ,william1 he's gone to a better place'4 ,to which rather ill-timed assurance he retorted sceptically3 #8,are his brothers and sisters' stomachs a better place8' ,coming now to ideas of supernatural beings1 it is to be noted that children do not wholly depend for their conceptions of these on religious or other instruction4 ,the liveliness of their imagination and their impulses of dread and trust push them on to a spontaneous creation of invisible beings4 ,in ,c4's haunting belief in the wolf we see a sort of survival of the tendency of the savage to people the unseen world with monsters in the shape of demons4 ,another little boy of rather more than two years who had received no religious instruction acquired a similar haunting dread of #8cocky1' the name he had given to the cocks and hens when in the country4 ,he localised this evil thing in the bathroom of the house1 and he attributed pains in the stomach to the malign influence of #8cocky'4#ee ,fear created the gods according to ,lucretius1 and in this invention of evil beings bent on injuring him the child of a modern civilised community may reproduce the process by which man's thoughts were first troubled by the apprehension of invisible and supernatural agents4 ----- ,footnote #ee3 ,see ,mind1 vol4 xi41 p4 #adi4 ----- ,on the other hand we find that the childish impulse to seek aid leads to a belief in a more benign sort of being4 ,c4's staunch belief in his fairies who could do the most wonderful things for him1 and more especially his invention of the rain-god 7the 8,rainer071 are a clear illustration of the working of this impulse4 ,even here1 of course1 while we can detect the play of a spontaneous impulse1 we have to recognise the influence of instruction4 ,c4's tutelary deities1 the fairies1 were no doubt suggested by his fairy stories2 even though1 as in the myth of the ,rainer1 we see how his active little mind proceeded to work out the hints given him into quite original shapes4 ,this original adaptation shows itself on a large scale where something like systematic religious instruction is supplied4 ,an intelligent child of four or five will in the laboratory of his mind turn the ideas of ,god and the devil to strange account4 ,it would be interesting1 if we could only get it1 to have a collection of all the hideous eerie forms by which the young imagination has endeavoured to interpret the notion of the devil4 ,his renderings of the idea of ,god appear to show hardly less of picturesque diversity4#ef ----- ,footnote #ef3 ,according to ,professor ,earl ,barnes1 the ,californian children seem to occupy themselves but little with the devil and hell4 ,see his interesting paper1 8,theological ,life of a ,californian ,child10 ,pedagogical ,seminary1 ii41 #c1 p4 #ddb seq4 ----- ,it is to be noted at the outset that for the child's intelligence the ideas introduced by religious instruction at once graft themselves on to those of fairy-lore4 ,mr4 ,spencer has somewhere ridiculed our university type of education with its juxtaposition of classical polytheism and ,hebrew monotheism4 ,one might1 perhaps1 with still greater reason1 satirise the mixing up of fairy-story and ,bible-story in the instruction of a child of five4 ,who can wonder that the little brain should throw together all these wondrous invisible forms1 and picture ,god as an angry or amiable old giant1 the angels as fairies and so forth8 ,in ,george ,sand's child-romance of ,coramb we see how far this blending of the ideas of the two domains of the invisible world can be carried4 ,for the rest1 the child in his almost pathetic effort to catch the meaning of this religious instruction proceeds in his characteristic matter-of-fact way by reducing the abstruse symbols to terms of familiar every-day experience4 ,he has to understand and he can only understand by assimilating to homely terrestrial facts4 ,hence the undisguised materialism of the child's theology4 ,according to ,stanley ,hall's collection of observations1 ,god was imaged by one child as a man preternaturally big--a big blue man2 by another as a huge being with limbs spread all over the sky2 by another as so immensely tall that he could stand with one foot on the ground1 and touch the clouds1--strong like the giant1 his prototype4 ,he is commonly1 in conformity with what is told1 supposed to dwell in heaven1 that is just the other side of the blue and white floor1 the sky4 ,he is so near the clouds that according to one small boy 7our little friend the zoologist7 these are a sort of pleasaunce1 composed of hills and trees1 which he has made to saunter in4 ,but some children are inventive even in respect of ,god's whereabouts4 ,he has been regarded as inhabiting one of the stars4 ,one of ,mr4 ,kratz's children localised him #8up in the moon1' an idea which probably owes something to observation of the man in the moon4 ,we note1 too1 a tendency to approximate heaven and earth1 possibly in order to account for ,god's frequent presence and activity here4 ,thus one of ,mr4 ,kratz's children said that ,god was 8up on the hill10 and one little girl of five was in the habit of climbing an old apple tree to visit him and tell him what she wanted4 ,differences of feeling1 as well as differences in the mode of instruction and in intelligence1 seem to reflect themselves in these ideas of the divine dwelling-place4 ,as we have seen1 the childish intelligence is apt to envisage ,god as a sort of grand lord with a house or mansion4 ,two different tendencies show themselves in the thought about this dwelling-place4 ,on the one hand the feeling of childish respect1 which led a ,german girl of seven to address him in the polite form1 #8,ich bitte ,sie1' leads to a beautifying of his house4 ,according to some of the ,bostonian children he has birds1 children1 and ,santa ,claus living with him4 ,others think of him as having a big park or pleasaunce with trees1 flowers1 as well as birds4 ,the children are perhaps our dead people who in time will be sent back to earth4 ,whether the birds1 that ,i find come in again and again in the ideas of heaven1 are dead birds1 ,i am not sure4 ,while however there is this half-poetical adorning of ,god's palace1 we see also a tendency to humanise it1 to make it like our familiar houses4 ,this is quaintly illustrated in the following prayer of a girl of seven whose grandfather had just died3 8,please1 ,god1 grandpapa has gone to you4 ,please take great care of him4 ,please always mind and shut the door1 because he can't stand the draughts40 ,we see the same leaning to homely conceptions in the question of a little girl of four3 #8,isn't there a ,mrs4 ,god8' ,while thus relegated to the sublime regions of the sky ,god is supposed to be doing things1 and of course doing them for us1 sending down rain and so forth4 ,what seems to impress children most1 especially boys1 in the traditional account of ,god is his power of making things4 ,he is emphatically the artificer1 the demiurgos1 who not only has made the world1 the stars1 etc41 but is still kept actively employed by human needs4 ,according to the ,boston children he fabricates all sorts of things from babies to money1 and the angels work for him4 ,the boy has a great admiration for the maker1 and our small zoologist when three years and ten months old1 on seeing a group of working men returning from their work1 asked his astonished mother3 8,mamma1 is these gods80 8,god60 retorted his mother1 8why80 8,because10 he went on1 8they makes houses1 and churches1 mamma1 same as ,god makes moons1 and people1 and 'ickle dogs40 ,another child watching a man repairing the telegraph wires that rested on a high pole at the top of a lofty house1 asked if he was ,god4 ,in this way the child is apt to think of ,god descending to earth in order to make things4 ,indeed1 in their prayers1 children are wont to summon ,god as a sort of good genius to do something difficult for them4 ,a boy of four and a half years was one day in the kitchen with his mother1 and would keep taking up the knives and using them4 ,at last his mother said3 8,l41 you will cut your fingers1 and if you do they won't grow again04 ,he thought for a minute and then said with a tone of deep conviction3 8,but ,god would make them grow4 ,he made me1 so he could mend my fingers1 and if ,i were to cut the ends off ,i should say1 #8,god1 ,god1 come to your work1' and he would say1 #8,all right'40#eg ----- ,footnote #eg3 ,to judge from a story for the truth of which ,i will not vouch children will turn the devil to the same useful account4 ,a little girl was observed to write a letter and to bury it in the ground4 ,the contents ran something like this3 ,dear ,devil1 please come and take aunt--soon1 ,i cannot stand her much longer4 ,the burying is significant of the devil's dwelling-place4 ----- ,while this way of recognising ,god as the busy artificer is common1 it is not universal4 ,the child's deity1 like the man's 7as ,feuerbach showed71 is a projection of himself1 and as there are lazy children1 so there is a child's ,god who is a luxurious person sitting in a lovely arm-chair all day1 and at most putting out from heaven the moon and stars at night4 ,this admiration of ,god's creative power is naturally accompanied by that of his skill4 ,a little boy once said to his mother he would like to go to heaven to see ,jesus4 ,asked why1 he replied3 8,oh6 he's a great conjurer04 ,the child had shortly before seen some human conjuring and used this experience in a thoroughly childish fashion by envisaging in a new light the ,new ,testament miracle-worker4 ,the idea of ,god's omniscience seems to come naturally to children4 ,they are in the way of looking up to older folks as possessing boundless information4 ,c4's belief in the all-knowingness of the preacher1 and his sister's belief in the all-knowingness of the policeman1 show how readily the child-mind falls in with the notion4 ,on the other hand ,i have heard of the dogma of ,god's infinite knowledge provoking a sceptical attitude in the child-mind4 ,this seems to be suggested in a rather rude remark of a boy of four1 bored by the long ,sunday discourse of his mother3 8,mother1 does ,god know when you are going to stop80 ,our astute little zoologist1 when five years and seven months old1 in a talk with his mother1 impiously sought to tone down the doctrine of omniscience in this way3 8,i know a 'ickle more than ,kitty1 and you know a 'ickle more than me2 and ,god knows a 'ickle more than you1 ,i s'pose2 then he can't know so very much after all04 ,another of the divine attributes does undoubtedly shock the childish intelligence3 ,i mean ,god's omnipresence4 ,it seems1 indeed1 amazing that the so-called instructor of the child should talk to him almost in the same breath about ,god's inhabiting heaven1 and about his being everywhere present4 ,here1 ,i think1 we see most plainly the superiority of the child's mind to the adult's1 in that it does not let contradictory ideas lie peacefully side by side1 but makes them face one another4 ,to the child1 as we have seen1 ,god lives in the sky1 though he is quite capable of coming down to earth when he wishes or when he is politely asked to do so4 ,hence he rejects the idea of a diffused ubiquitous existence4 ,the idea which is apt to be introduced early as a moral instrument1 that ,god can always see the child1 is especially resented by that small1 sensitive1 proud creature1 to whom the ever-following eyes of the portrait on the wall seem a persecution4 ,miss ,shinn1 a careful ,american observer of children1 has written strongly1 yet not too strongly1 on the repugnance of the child-mind to this idea of an ever-spying eye4#eh ,my observations fully confirm her conclusions here4 ,miss ,shinn speaks of a little girl1 who1 on learning that she was under this constant surveillance1 declared that she 8would not be so tagged04 ,a little ,english boy of three1 on being informed by his older sister that ,god can see and watch us while we cannot see him1 thought awhile1 and then in an apologetic tone said3 8,i'm very sorry1 dear1 ,i can't 7b7elieve you04 ,what the sister1 aged fifteen1 thought of this is not recorded4 ,an ,american boy of five1 learning that ,god was in the room and could see even if the shutters were closed1 said3 8,i know1 it's jugglery04 ----- ,footnote #eh3 ,overland ,monthly1 ,jan41 #ahid1 p4 #ab4 ----- ,when the idea is accepted odd devices are excogitated for the purpose of making it intelligible4 ,thus one child thought of ,god as a very small person who could easily pass through the keyhole4 ,the idea of ,god's huge framework illustrated above is probably the result of an attempt to figure the conception of omnipresence4 ,curious conclusions too are sometimes drawn from the supposition4 ,thus a little girl of three years and nine months one day said to her mother in the abrupt childish manner3 8,mr4 ,c4 7a gentleman she had known who had just died7 is in this room04 ,her mother1 naturally a good deal startled1 answered3 8,oh1 no60 ,whereupon the child resumed3 8,yes1 he is4 ,you told me he is with ,god1 and you told me ,god was everywhere1 so as ,mr4 ,c4 is with ,god he must be in this room40 ,with such trenchant logic does the child's intelligence cut through the tangle of incongruous ideas which we try to pass off as methodical instruction4 ,it might easily be supposed that the child's readiness to pray to ,god is inconsistent with what has just been said4 ,yet ,i think there is no real inconsistency4 ,children's idea of prayer is1 probably1 that of sending a message to some one at a distance4 ,the epistolary manner noticeable in many prayers seems to illustrate this4#ei ,the mysterious whispering is1 ,i suspect1 supposed in some inscrutable fashion known only to the child to transmit itself to the divine ear4 ----- ,footnote #ei3 ,cf4 the story of writing a letter to the devil given above4 ----- ,of the child's belief in ,god's goodness it is needless to say much4 ,for these little worshippers he is emphatically the friend in need who can help them out of their difficulties in a hundred ways4 ,our small zoologist thanked ,god for making 8the sea1 the holes with crabs in them1 and the trees1 the fields1 and the flowers10 and regretted that he did not follow up the making of the animals we eat by doing the cooking also4 ,as their prayers show he is ever ready to make nice presents1 from a fine day to a toy-gun1 and will do them any kindness if only they ask prettily4 ,happy the reign of this untroubled optimism4 ,for many children1 alas1 it is all too short1 the colour of their life making them lose faith in all kindness1 and think of ,god as cross and even as cruel4 ,one of the real difficulties of theology for the child's intelligence is the doctrine of ,god's eternity4 ,puzzled at first with the fact of his own beginning1 he comes soon to be troubled with the idea of ,god's having had no beginning4 ,c4 showed a common trend of childish thought in asking what ,god was like in his younger days4 ,the question1 8,who made ,god80 seems to be one to which all inquiring young minds are led at a certain stage of child-thought4 ,the metaphysical impulse of the child to follow back the chain of events ad infinitum finds the ever-existent unchanging ,god very much in the way4 ,he wants to get behind this 8always was0 of ,god's existence1 just as at an earlier stage of his development he wanted to get behind the barrier of the blue hills4 ,this is quaintly illustrated in the reasoning of a child observed by ,m4 ,egger4 ,having learnt from his mother that before the world there was only ,god the ,creator1 he asked3 8,and before ,god80 ,the mother having replied1 8,nothing10 he at once interpreted her answer by saying3 8,no2 there must have been the place 7i4e41 the empty space7 where ,god is04 ,so determined is the little mind to get back to the #8before1' and to find something1 if only a prepared place4 ,other mysteries of which the child comes to hear find their characteristic solution in the busy little brain4 ,a friend tells me that when a child he was much puzzled by the doctrine of the ,trinity4 ,he happened to be an only child1 and so he was led to put a meaning into it by assimilating it to the family group1 in which the ,holy ,ghost became the mother4 ,i have tried to show that children seek to bring meaning1 and a consistent meaning1 into the jumble of communications about the unseen world to which they are apt to be treated4 ,i agree with ,miss ,shinn that children about three and four are not disposed to theologise1 and are for the most part simply confused by the accounts of ,god which they receive4 ,many of the less bright of these small minds may remain untroubled by the incongruities lurking in the mixture of ideas1 half mythological or poetical1 half theological1 which is thus introduced4 ,such children are no worse than many adults1 who have a wonderful power of entertaining contradictory ideas by keeping them safely apart in separate chambers of their brain4 ,the intelligent thoughtful child on the other hand tries at least to reconcile and to combine in an intelligible whole4 ,his mind has not1 like that of so many adults1 become habituated to the water-tight compartment arrangement1 in which there is no possibility of a leakage of ideas from one group into another4 ,hence his puzzlings1 his questionings1 his brave attempts to reduce the chaos to order4 ,i think it is about time to ask whether parents are doing wisely in thus adding to the perplexing problems of early days4 ,v4 ,,the ,,little ,,linguist4 ,prelinguistic ,babblings4 ,no part of the life of a child appeals to us more powerfully perhaps than the first use of our language4 ,the small person's first efforts in linguistics win us by a certain graciousness1 by the friendly impulse they disclose to get mentally near us1 to enter into the full fruition of human intercourse4 ,the difficulties1 too1 which we manage to lay upon the young learner of our tongue1 and the way in which he grapples with these1 lend a peculiar interest1 half pathetic1 half humorous1 to this field of infantile activity4 ,to the scientific observer of infancy1 moreover1 the noting of the stages in the acquisition of speech is of the first importance4 ,language is sound moulded into definite forms and so made vehicular of ideas2 and we may best watch the unfoldings of childish thought by attending to the way in which the word-sculptor takes the plastic sound-material and works it into its picturesque variety of shapes4 ,a special biological and anthropological interest attaches to the child's first essays in the use of words4 ,language is that which most obviously marks off human from animal intelligence4 ,one of the most interesting problems in the science of man's origin and early development is how he first acquired the power of using language-signs4 ,if we proceed on the biological principle that the development of the individual represents in its main stages that of the race1 we may expect to find through the study of children's use of language hints as to how our race came by the invaluable endowment4 ,how far it is reasonable to expect from a study of nursery linguistics a complete explanation of the process by which man became speechful1 homo articulans1 will appear later on4 ,but an examination of these linguistics ought surely to be of some suggestive value here4 ,while there is this peculiar scientific interest in the first manifestations of the speech-faculty in the child1 they are of a kind to lend themselves particularly well to a methodic and exact observation4 ,articulate sounds are sensible objects having well-defined characters which may be accurately noted and described where the requisite fineness of ear and quickness of perception are present4 ,the difficulties are no doubt great here3 but they are precisely the difficulties to sharpen the appetite of the true naturalist4 ,hence we need not wonder that early articulation fills a large place in the naturalist's observation of infant life4 ,preyer1 for example1 devotes one of the three sections of his well-known monograph to this subject1 and gives us a careful and elaborate account of the progress of articulation and of speech up to the end of the period dealt with 7first three years74 ,since these studies are especially concerned with the characteristics of the child after language has been acquired ,i shall not enter into the history of his rudimentary speech at any great length4 ,at the same time1 since language is a realm of activity in which the child betrays valuable characteristics long after the third year1 it deserves a special study in this volume4 ,as everybody knows1 long before the child begins to speak in the conventional sense he produces sounds4 ,these are at first cries and wanting in the definiteness of true articulate sounds4 ,such cries are expressive1 that is1 utterances of changing conditions of feeling1 pain and pleasure1 and are also instinctive1 springing out of certain congenital nervous arrangements by which feeling acts upon the muscular organs4 ,this crying gradually differentiates itself into a rich variety of expressions for hunger1 cold1 pain1 joy and so forth1 of which it is safe to say that the majority of nurses and mothers have at best but a very imperfect knowledge4 ,these cries disclose from the first a germ of articulate sound1 viz41 according to ,preyer an approach to the vowel sounds u 7oo7 and 7,engl4 a in #8made'74 ,this articulate element becomes better defined and more varied in the later cries1 and serves in part to differentiate them one from the other4 ,thus a difference of shade in the a 7in #8ah'71 difficult to describe1 has been observed to mark off the cry of pleasure and of pain4 ,along with this articulate sounds begin to appear in periods of happy contentment under the form of infantile babbling or #8la-la-ing'4 ,thus the child will bring out a string of a and other vowel sounds4 ,in this baby-twittering the several vowel sounds of our tongue become better distinguishable1 and are strung together in queer ways1 as ai--au-4 ,an attempt is made by ,preyer and others to give the precise order of the appearance of the several vowel sounds4 ,it is hardly to be expected that observers would agree upon a matter so difficult to seize and to describe2 and this is what we find4#fj ,after allowing1 however1 for differences in the reading off1 it seems probable that there is a considerable diversity in the order of development in the case of different children4 ,this applies still more to the appearance of the consonantal sounds which long before the end of the sixth month become combined with the vowels into syllabic sounds1 as pa1 ma1 mam1 and so forth4 ,thus1 though the labials b1 p1 m1 seem to come first in most cases1 they may be accompanied1 if not preceded1 by others1 as the back open sound ch 7in ,scotch #8loch'71 or 7according to ,preyer and others7 by the corresponding voiced sound1 the hard g4 ,similarly1 sounds as l and r1 which commonly appear late1 are said in some instances to occur quite early4#fa ,attempts have been made to show that the order of sounds here corresponds with that of advancing physiological difficulty or amount of muscular effort involved4 ,yet apart from the fact just touched on1 that the order is not uniform1 it is very questionable whether the more common order obeys any such simple physiological law4 ----- ,footnote #fj3 ,see ,preyer1 op4 cit41 ,cap4 #bj2 cf4 the account given by ,de la ,calle1 ,perez1 ,first ,three ,years1 p4 #bdh4 ,stanley ,hall observes that the first vocalisation of the infant could hardly be classified even with the help of ,bell's phonic notation or with a phonograph 7,pedagogical ,seminary1 i41 p4 #acb74 ----- ,footnote #fa3 ,preyer's boy first used consonants in the combinations tahu1 g1 7r the ,french eu71 op4 cit41 p4 #cff2 cf4 ,cap4 #ba4 ----- ,this primordial babbling is wonderfully rich and varied4 ,according to ,preyer it contains most1 if not all the sounds which are afterwards used in speaking1 and among these some which cause much difficulty later on4 ,it is thus a wondrous contrivance of nature by which the child is made to rehearse months beforehand for the difficult performances of articulate speech4 ,it is a preliminary trying of the vocal instrument throughout the whole of its register4 ,though nurses are apt to fancy that in this pretty babbling the infant is talking to itself there is no reason to think that it amounts even to a rudiment of true speech4 ,to speak is to use a sound intentionally as the sign of an idea4 ,the babbling baby of five months cannot be supposed to be connecting all these stray sounds with ideas1 if indeed it can be said to have as yet any definite ideas4 ,the only signification which this primitive articulation can have is emotional4 ,undoubtedly1 as we have seen1 it grows out of expressive cries4 ,even the happy bubblings over of vowel sounds as the child lies on his back and #8crows1' may be said to be expressive of his happiness like the movements of arms and legs which accompany it4 ,yet it would be an exaggeration to suppose that the elaborate phonation is merely expressive1 that all the manifold and subtle changes of sound are due to obscure variations of feeling4 ,the true explanation seems to be that the appearance of this infantile babbling1 just like that of the movements of the limbs which accompany it1 is the result of changes in the nervous system4 ,as the centres of vocalisation get developed1 motor impulses begin to play on the muscles of throat1 larynx1 and1 later on1 lips1 tongue1 etc41 and in this way a larger and larger variety of sound and sound-combination is produced4 ,such phonation is commonly described as impulsive4 ,it is instinctive1 that is to say1 unlearnt1 and due to congenital nervous connexions2 and at best it can only be said to express in its totality a mood or relatively permanent state of feeling4 ,as this impulsive articulation develops it becomes complicated by a distinctly intentional element4 ,the child hears the sounds he produces and falls in love with them4 ,from this moment he begins to go on babbling for the pleasure it brings4 ,we see the germ of such a pleasure-seeking babbling in the protracted iterations of the same sound4 ,the first reduplications and serial iterations1 a-a1 ma-ma1 etc41 may be due to physiological inertia1 the mere tendency to move along any track that happens to be struck1 the very same tendency which makes a prosy speaker go on repeating himself4 ,at the same time there is without doubt in these infantile iterations a rudiment of self-imitation4 ,that is to say1 the child having produced a sound1 as na or am1 impulsively proceeds to repeat the performance in order to obtain a renewal of the sound-effect4 ,this renewed impulse may be supposed further to bring with it a germ of the pleasure of iteration of sound1 or assonance4 ,the addition of a simple rhythmic character to the series of sounds is a further indication of its pleasure-seeking character4 ,indeed we have in this infantile #8la-la-ing' more a rudiment of song and music than of articulate speech4 ,the rude vocal music of savages consists of a similar rhythmic threading of meaningless sounds in which as in this infantile song changes of feeling reflect themselves4 ,we may best describe this infantile babbling then as voice-play and as rude spontaneous singing1 the utterance of a mood1 indulged in for the sake of its own delight1 and serving by a happy arrangement of nature as a preliminary practice in the production of articulate or linguistic sounds4 ,transition to ,articulate ,speech4 ,let us now seek to understand how this undesigned trying of the articulate instrument passes into true significant articulation1 how this speech-protoplasm develops into the organism that we call language4 ,and here the question at once arises3 ,does the child tend to utilise the sounds thus acquired as signs apart from the influence of education1 that is to say1 of the articulate sounds produced by others and impressed as signs upon his attention8 ,the question is not easy to answer owing to the early development of the imitative impulse and to the constant and all-pervading influence of education in the nursery4 ,yet ,i will offer a tentative answer4 ,that a child when he has reached a certain stage of intelligence would be able to make use of signs quite apart from example and education is what one might expect4 ,any one who has noticed how a young cat1 completely isolated from the influence of example1 will spontaneously hit on the gesture of touching the arm of a person sitting at a meal by way of asking to be fed1 cannot be surprised that children should prove themselves capable of inventing signs4 ,we know1 too1 that deaf-mutes will1 self-prompted1 develop among themselves an elaborate system of gesture-signs1 and further express their feelings and desires by sounds1 which though not heard by themselves may be understood by others and so serve as effective signs of their needs and wishes4 ,the normal child1 too1 in spite of the powerful influences which go to make him adopt as signs the articulate sounds employed by others1 shows a germ of unprompted and original sign-making4 ,the earliest of such unlearnt signs are simple gesture-movements1 such as stretching out the arms when the child desires to be taken by the nurse4#fb ,nobody has suggested that these are learnt by imitation4 ,the same is true of other familiar gesture-movements1 which appear towards the end of the first year or later1 as pulling your dress just as a dog does1 when the child wants you to go with him1 touching the chair when he wants you to sit down1 or 7as ,darwin's child did when just over a year7 taking a bit of paper and pointing to the fire by way of signifying his wish to see the paper burnt4 ,the gesture of pointing1 though no doubt commonly aided by example1 is probably capable of being reached instinctively as an outgrowth from the grasping movement4 ----- ,footnote #fb3 ,the nature of gesture1 its relation to language proper1 and its prevalence in infancy1 among imbecile children1 deaf-mutes1 etc41 are discussed by ,romanes1 ,mental ,evolution in ,man1 chap4 vi4 ----- ,these gesture-signs1 ,i find1 play a larger part in the case of children who are backward in talking1 and so are nearer the condition of the deaf-mute4 ,thus a lady in sending me notes on her three children remarks that the one who was particularly backward in his speech made a free use of gesture-signs4 ,when sixteen months old he had certain general signs of this sort1 using a sniff as a sign of flower1 and a mimic kiss as a sign of living things1 i4e41 all sorts of animals4#fc ----- ,footnote #fc3 ,a charming example of pantomimic gesture on the part of a little girl in describing to her father her first bath in the sea is given by ,romanes1 op4 cit41 p4 #bbj4 ----- ,just as movements may thus be used instinctively1 that is1 without aid from others' example1 both as expressing simple feelings and desires1 and also1 as in the case just mentioned1 as indicating ideas1 so spontaneously formed sounds may be used as signs4 ,as pointed out above the first self-prompted articulation is closely connected with feeling1 and we find that in the second half-year when the preliminary practice has been gone through certain sounds take on a distinctly expressive function4 ,thus one little boy when eight months old habitually used the sound #8ma-ma' when miserable1 and #8da-da' when pleased4 ,among these instinctive expressive sounds one of the most important is that indicative of hunger4 ,i find again and again that a special sound is marked off as a mode of expression or sign of this craving4 ,this fact will be referred to again presently4 ,true language-sounds significant of things grow out of this spontaneous expressive articulation4 ,thus the demonstrative sign da which accompanies the pointing1 and which seems to be frequently used with slight modifications by ,german as well as by ,english children1 is probably in its inception merely an interjectional expression of the faint shock of wonder produced by the appearance in the visual field of a new object4 ,but used as a concomitant of the pointing gesture it takes on a demonstrative or indicative function1 announcing the presence or arrival of an object in a particular locality or direction4 ,a somewhat similar case is that of #8ata' or #8tata1' a sign used to denote the departure or disappearance of an object4 ,these signs are1 as ,preyer shows1 spontaneous and not imitative 7e4g41 of #8there' 7da71 #8all gone'74 ,this is confirmed by the fact that they vary greatly4 ,thus ,preyer's boy used for 8there0 #8da1' #8nda1' #8nta1' etc41 and for 8all gone0 #8atta1' #8f-tu1' #8tuff1' etc4 ,again1 ,tiedemann's boy used the sound #8ah-ah1' and one of ,stanley ,hall's children the sound #8eh1' when pointing to an object4 ,we may conclude then that there are spontaneous vocal reactions expressive of the contrasting mental states answering to the appearance or arrival and the disappearance or departure of an impressive and interesting object1 and that1 further1 these reactions when recognised by others tend to become fixed as linguistic signs4#fd ----- ,footnote #fd3 ,see ,preyer1 op4 cit41 pp4 #cec1 #cij1 #cia4 ----- ,just as in the case of the gesture-movements1 sniffing1 kissing1 so in that of expressive vocal sounds we may see a tendency to take on the function of true signs of ideas4 ,one of the best illustrations of this is to be found in the invention of a word-sound for things to eat4 ,i have pointed out that the state of hunger with its characteristic misery becomes at an early stage marked off by a distinctive expressive sign4 ,at a later stage this or some other sound comes to be used intelligently as a means of asking for food4 ,darwin's boy employed the sound mum in this way2 another ,english child used #8numby1' and yet another #8nini'2 a ,french child observed by ,m4 ,taine made use of #8ham'4 ,the predominance of the labial m shows the early formation of these quasi-linguistic signs1 and suggests that they were developed out of the primary instinctive #8m' sound4#fe ,such sounds1 coming to be understood by the nurse1 tend to become fixed as modes of asking for food4 ----- ,footnote #fe3 ,see the quotation from ,lieber1 in ,taine's ,on ,intelligence1 part ii41 book iv41 chap4 i4 ,the sign for #8,i want to eat' is in some cases formed by a generalising process out of a sound supplied by another1 as the name of a particular edible4 ,see the example given by ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #cfb4 ----- ,it seems but a step from the demand #8,give me food' to the pointing out or naming of things as food4 ,and so good an observer as ,darwin says that his boy used the sound #8mum' not only for conveying the demand or command #8,give me food1' but also as a substantive #8food' of wide application4 ,he later went on to erect a rudimentary classification on the basis of this substantive1 calling sugar #8shu-mum' and even breaking up this subdivision by calling liquorice 8black shu-mum04#ff ,this however seems1 so far as ,i can ascertain1 to be exceptional4 ,in most vocabularies of children of two or three no generic term for food is found1 though names for particular kinds of food1 e4g41 milk1 bread1 are in use4 ,this agrees with the general order of development of thought-signs1 the names of easily distinguished species appearing in the case of the individual as in that of the race before those of comprehensive and #8abstract' genera such as #8food'4 ,it is probable1 therefore1 that these early signs for food are but imperfectly developed into true thought-symbols or names4 ,they retain much of their primordial character as expressions of desire and possibly of the volitional state answering to a command4 ,this is borne out by the fact that the child spoken of by ,taine used the sound #8tem' as a sort of general imperative for #8give6' #8take6' #8look6' etc4#fg ----- ,footnote #ff3 ,see ,mind1 vol4 ii41 p4 #bic4 ,footnote #fg3 ,see ,mind1 vol4 ii41 p4 #bee4 ----- ,another early example of an emotional expression passing into a germinal sign is that called forth at the sight of moving creatures4 ,this acts as a strong stimulus to the baby brain1 and vigorous muscular reactions1 vocal and other1 are wont to appear4 ,one little boy of twelve and three-quarter months usually expressed his excitement by the sound 8,d-boo-boo10 which was used regularly for about ten days on the appearance of a dog1 a horse1 a bird1 and so forth4 ,here we have a protoplasmic condition of the lingual organism which we call a name1 a condition destined never to pass into another and higher4 ,sometimes1 however1 these explosives at the sight of animal life grow into comparatively fixed signs of recognition4 ,in this spontaneous invention of quasi-linguistic sounds imitation plays a considerable part4 ,it is evident1 indeed1 that gestures are largely imitative4 ,thus the sniff and the mimic kiss referred to just now are plainly imitations of movements4 ,the pointing gesture1 too1 may be said to be a kind of imitation of the reaching and appropriating movement of the arm4 ,the sound #8d-boo-boo' used on seeing an animal was probably imitative4 ,according to ,preyer the sounds called forth by the sight of moving objects1 e4g41 rolling balls and wheels1 are imitative4#fh ,whether the signs of hunger1 #8mum1' #8numby1' are due to modifications of the movements carried out in sucking1 seems to be more problematic4#fi ----- ,footnote #fh3 ,op4 cit41 p4 #ceh4 ,footnote #fi3 ,a fact that appears to tell against imitation here is that one little boy of seventeen months used the sound #8did'n' for anything to eat4 ----- ,in certain cases imitation is the one sufficient source of the sound4 ,in what are called onomatopoetic sounds the child seeks to mimic some natural sound1 and such imitation is capable of becoming a fruitful source of original linguistic invention4 ,a boy between nine and ten months imitated the sound of young roosters by drawing in his breath1 and this noise became for a time a kind of name for any feathered creature1 including small birds4 ,more commonly such onomatopoetic sounds come to be distinctive recognition-signs of particular classes of animals1 such as #8oua-oua' or #8bow-wow' for the dog1 #8moo-moo' for the cow1 #8ouack-ouack' or #8kuack' for the duck1 and so forth4 ,it may1 of course1 be said that these mimic sounds are in part learnt from the traditional vocabulary of the nursery1 in which the nurse takes good care to instruct the child4 ,but it is to be remembered that the traditional nursery language itself is largely an adoption of children's own sounds4 ,there is1 moreover1 ample independent evidence to show that children are zealous and indefatigable imitators of the sounds they hear as of the movements they see4 ,towards the end of the first six months and during the second half-year a child is apt to imitate eagerly any sound you choose to produce before him4 ,in the case of ,preyer's boy this impulse to repeat the sounds he heard developed into a kind of echoing mania4 ,the acquisition of others' language plainly depends on the existence and the vigour of this mimetic impulse4 ,and this same impulse leads the child beyond the servile adoption of our conventional sounds to the invention of new or onomatopoetic sounds4 ,thus one little child discovered the pretty sound #8tin-tin' as a name for the bell4 ,another child1 a girl1 quite unprompted1 used a chirping sound for a bird1 and a curious clicking noise on seeing the picture of a horse 7no doubt in imitation of the sound of a horse's hoofs72 while a little boy used a faint whistle to indicate a bird1 and the sound #8click-click' to denote a horse4 ,in some cases a grown-up person's imitation of a sound is imitated4 ,thus a child of about two used the sound #8afta' as a name for drinking1 and also for drinking-vessel1 8in imitation of the sound of sucking in air which the nurse used to make when pretending to drink04#gj ----- ,footnote #gj3 ,quoted by ,romanes1 ,mental ,evolution in ,man1 p4 #adc4 ----- ,in these two sources of original child-language1 expression of states of feeling1 desire1 etc41 and imitation1 we have the two commonly assigned origins of human language4 ,into the difficult question how man first came to the use of language-sounds ,i do not propose to enter here4 ,whatever view may be taken with respect to the first beginnings of human speech1 there seems little doubt that both expressive cries and imitations of natural sounds have had their place4 ,to this extent1 then1 we may say that there is a parallelism between the early evolution of language in the case of the individual and in that of the race4 ,not only so1 it may be said that our study of these tentatives of the child in language-formation tends to confirm the conclusions of philology and anthropology that the current of human speech did probably originate1 in main part at least1 by way of these two tributaries4#ga ----- ,footnote #ga3 ,the concerted cries during co-operative work to which ,noire ascribes the origin of language-sounds would seem1 while having a special physiological cause as concomitant and probably auxiliary motor processes1 to be analogous at least to emotional cries1 in so far as they spring out of a peculiar condition of feeling1 that of effort4 ,on the other hand1 as concerted they came under the head of imitative movements4 ,so far as ,i can learn the nursery supplies no analogies to these utterances4 ----- ,while vocal sounds which are clearly traceable to emotional expressions or to imitations form the staple of the normal child's inventions they do not exhaust them4 ,some of these early self-prompted linguistic sounds cannot be readily explained4 ,i find1 for example1 that children are apt to invent names for their nurses and sometimes for themselves which1 so far as ,i can ascertain1 bear no discoverable resemblance to the sounds used by others4 ,thus the same little girl that invented #8numby' for food and #8afta' for drinking called her nurse #8,lee' though no one else called her by any other name than #8nurse'4 ,it is difficult to suppose that the child was transforming the sound #8nurse' in this case4 ,preyer's boy called his nurse1 whom others addressed as ,marie1 #8,wol1' which ,preyer explains rather forcedly as deriving by inversion from the frequently heard #8,ja wohl6' ,a lady friend informs me that her little boy when thirteen months old called himself #8,bla-a1' though he was always addressed by others as ,jeffrey1 and that he stuck to #8,bla-a' for six months4#gb ,a germ of imitation is doubtless recognisable here in the preservation of the syllabic form or structure 7that of monosyllable or dissyllable74 ,yet the amount of transformation is1 to say the least1 surprising in children1 who show themselves capable of fairly close imitation4 ,possibly a child's ear notes analogies of sound which escape our more sophisticated organ4 ,however this be1 the fact of such origination of names 7other than those clearly onomatopoetic7 is noteworthy4 ----- ,footnote #gb3 ,his brother when one year old called his nurse1 whose real name was ,maud1 ,bur1 which was probably a rough rendering of #8nurse'4 ----- ,lastly a reference may be made to the fact that children have shown themselves capable of inventing the rudiments of a simple kind of language4 ,professor ,horatio ,hale of ,america has made a special study of these spontaneous child-languages4 ,one case is that of twin ,american boys who when the talking age came employed not the ,english sounds that they heard others speak but a language of their own4 ,another1 and in some ways more remarkable case1 is that of a little girl who at the age of two was backward in speaking1 only using the names #8papa' and #8mamma1' and who1 nevertheless1 at that age1 and in the first instance without any stimulus or aid from a companion1 proceeded to invent a vocabulary and even simple sentence-forms of her own1 which she subsequently prevailed on an elder brother to use with her4 ,the vocables struck out1 though suggesting some slight aural acquaintance with ,french--which1 however1 was never spoken in her home--are apparently quite arbitrary and not susceptible of explanation by imitation4#gc ----- ,footnote #gc3 ,for a summary of ,professor ,hale's researches see ,romanes1 ,mental ,evolution in ,man1 p4 #ach ff4 ----- ,i think the facts here brought together testify to the originality of the child in the field of linguistics4 ,it may be said that in none of these cases is the effect of education wholly absent4 ,a child1 as we all know1 is taught the names of objects and actions long before he can articulate4 ,thus ,darwin's boy knew the name of his nurse five months before he invented the vocable #8mum'4 ,it is obvious indeed that wherever children are subjected to normal training their sign-making impulse is stimulated by the example of others4 ,at the same time the facts here given show that the working of this impulse may1 in a certain number of children at least1 strike out original lines of its own independently of the direct action of example and education4 ,what is wanted now is to experiment carefully with an intelligent child1 encouraging him to make signs by patient attention and ready understanding1 but at the same time carefully abstaining from giving the lead or even taking up and adopting the first utterances so as to bring in the influence of imitation4 ,i think there is little doubt that a child so situated might develop the rudiments of a vocal language4 ,the experiment would be difficult to carry out1 as it would mean the depriving of the child for a time of the advantages of education4#gd ----- ,footnote #gd3 ,of course1 as ,max ,mller says 7,the ,science of ,language1 i41 p4 #dha f471 the facts ascertained do not prove that #8infants left to themselves would invent a language'4 ,the influence of example1 the appeal to the imitative impulse1 has been at work before the inventions appear4 ,yet they do1 ,i think1 show that they have the sign-making instinct1 and might develop this to some extent even were the educative influence of others' language removed4 ----- ,beginnings of ,linguistic ,imitation4 ,the learning of the mother-tongue is one of the most instructive and1 one may add1 the most entertaining chapters in the history of the child's education4 ,the brave efforts to understand and follow1 the characteristic and quaint errors that often result1 the frequent outbursts of originality in bold attempts to enrich our vocabulary and our linguistic forms--all this will repay the most serious study1 while it will provide ample amusement4 ,as pointed out above the learning of the mother-tongue is essentially a kind of imitation4 ,the process is roughly as follows4 ,the child hears a particular sound used by another1 and gradually associates it with the object1 the occurrence1 the situation1 along with which it again and again presents itself4 ,when this stage is reached he can understand the word-sound as used by another though he cannot as yet use it4 ,later1 by a considerable interval1 he learns to connect the particular sound with the appropriate vocal action required for its production4 ,as soon as this connexion is formed his sign-making impulse imitatively appropriates it by repeating it in circumstances similar to those in which he has heard others employ it4 ,the imitation of others' articulate sounds begins1 as already remarked1 very early and long before the sign-making impulse appropriates them as true words4 ,the impulse to imitate others' movements seems first to come into play about the end of the fourth month2 and traces of imitative movements of the mouth in articulation are said to have been observed in certain cases about this time4 ,but it is only in the second half-year that the imitation of sounds becomes clearly marked4 ,at first this imitation is rather of tone1 rise and fall of voice1 and apportioning of stress or accent than of articulate quality2 but gradually the imitation takes on a more definite and complete character4#ge ----- ,footnote #ge3 ,preyer's boy gave the first distinct imitative response to articulate sound in the eleventh month4 ,this is1 so far as ,i can ascertain1 behind the average attainment4 ----- ,towards the end of the year1 in favourable cases1 true linguistic imitation commences4 ,that is to say1 word-sounds gathered from others are used as such4 ,thus1 a boy of ten months would correctly name his mother1 #8,mamma1' his aunt1 #8,addy' 7,aunty71 and a person called ,maggie1 #8,azzie'4#gf ,as already suggested1 this imitative reproduction of others' words synchronises1 roughly at least1 with the first onomatopoetic imitation of natural sounds4 ----- ,footnote #gf3 ,tracy1 ,the ,psychology of ,childhood1 p4 #ga4 ----- ,transformations of our ,words4 ,as is well known the first tentatives in the use of the common speech-forms are very rough4 ,the child in reproducing transforms1 and these transformations are often curious and sufficiently puzzling4 ,the most obvious thing about these first infantile renderings of the adult's language is that they are a simplification4 ,this applies to all words alike4 ,monosyllables if involving a complex mass of sound are usually reduced1 as when #8dance' is shortened to #8da'4 ,this clearly illustrates the difficulty of certain sound-combinations1 a point to be touched on presently4 ,more striking is the habitual reduction of dissyllables and polysyllables4 ,here we note that the child concentrates his effort on the reproduction of a part only of the syllabic series1 which part he may of course give but very imperfectly4 ,the shortening tends to go to the length of reducing to a monosyllable4 ,thus #8biscuit' becomes #8bik1' #8,constance' #8tun1' #8candle' #8ka1' #8bread and butter' #8bup' or #8b'4 ,polysyllables1 though occasionally cut down to monosyllables1 as when #8hippopotamus' became #8pots1' are more frequently reduced to dissyllables1 as when #8periwinkle' was shortened to #8pinkle'4 ,handkerchief is a trying word for the ,english child1 and for obvious reasons has to be learnt4 ,it was reduced by the eldest child of a family to #8hankish1' by the two next to #8hamfisch' and by the last two to #8hanky'4 ,the little girl ,m4 also reduced the last two syllables to #8fish1' making the sound #8hanfish'4 ,there seems to be no simple law governing these reductions of verbal masses4 ,the accentuated syllable1 by exciting most attention1 is commonly the one reproduced1 as when #8nasturtium' became #8turtium'4#gg ,in the case of long words the position of a syllable at the beginning or at the end of the word seems to give an advantage in this competition of sounds1 the former by impressing the sound as the first heard 7compare the way in which we note and remember the initial sound of a name71#gh the latter by impressing it as the last heard1 and therefore best retained4 ,the unequal articulatory facility of the several sound-combinations making up the word may also have an influence on this unconscious selection4 ,i think it not unlikely1 too1 that germs of a kind of sthetic preference for certain sounds as new1 striking or fine1 may co-operate here4#gi ----- ,footnote #gg3 ,in the reduction of #8,constance' to #8tun' the same thing is seen1 for this child uniformly turned k's into t's4 ,cf4 ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #cig4 ,footnote #gh3 ,it has been pointed out to me by ,dr4 ,postgate that the secondary stress on the first syllable of ,english words over four syllables 7and some four-syllabled words7 may assist in impressing the first syllable4 ,footnote #gi3 ,recent psychological experiments show that similar influences are at work when a person attempts to repeat a long series of verbal sounds1 say ten or twelve nonsense syllables4 ,initial or final position or accent may favour the reproduction of a member of such a series4 ----- ,such simplification of words is from the first opposed1 and tends in time to be counteracted1 by the growth of a feeling for their general form as determined by the number of syllables1 as well as the distribution of stress and any accompanying alterations of tone or pitch4 ,the infant's first imitations of the sounds #8good-bye1' #8all gone1' and so forth1 by couples which preserve hardly anything of the articulatory character1 though they indicate the syllabic form1 position of stress1 and rising and falling inflection1 illustrate the early development of this feeling4 ,hence we find in general an attempt to reproduce the number of syllables1 and also to give the proper distribution of stress4 ,thus #8biscuit' becomes #8btchic1' #8cellar' #8stoo1' #8umbrella' #8noblla1' #8elephant' #8tteno1' or 7by a ,german child7 #8ewebn1' #8kangaroo' #8kgglegoo1' #8hippopotamus' #8ippenptany1' and so forth4#hj ----- ,footnote #hj3 ,here again we see a similarity between a child's repetition of a name heard1 and an adult's attempt to repeat a long series of syllabic sounds4 ,in the latter case also there is a general tendency to preserve the length and rhythmic form of the whole series4 ----- ,as suggested above there goes from the first with the cutting down of the syllabic series a considerable alteration of the single constituent sounds4 ,the vowel sounds are rarely omitted2 yet they may be greatly modified1 and these modifications occur regularly enough to suggest that the child finds certain nuances of vowel sounds comparatively hard to reproduce4 ,thus the short in hat1 and the long 7ai71 seem to be acquired only after considerable practice4#ha ,but it is among the consonants that most trouble arises4 ,many of these1 as the sibilants or #8hisses1' s1 sh1 the various l and r sounds1 the dentals1 the 8point-teeth-open0 th and dh 7in #8thin1' #8this'71 the back or guttural #8stops1' i4e41 k and hard g1 and others as j or soft g 7as in #8,james1' #8gem'71 appear1 often at least1 to cause difficulty at the beginning of the speech period4 ,with these must be reckoned such combinations as st1 str4 ----- ,footnote #ha3 ,with the diphthong or glide may be taken oi1 which was first mastered by the child ,m4 at the age of two years three months4 ----- ,in many cases the difficult sounds are merely dropped4 ,thus #8poor' may become #8poo1' #8look' #8ook1' #8,schulter' 7,german7 #8,ulter'4 ,in the case of awkward combinations this dropping is apt to be confined to the difficult sound1 provided1 that is to say1 the other is manageable alone4 ,thus #8dance' becomes #8dan1' #8trocken' 7,german7 becomes #8tokko'4 ,more particularly s and sh are apt to be omitted before other consonants4 ,thus #8stair' becomes #8tair1' #8sneeze' #8neeze1' #8schneiden' 7,german7 #8neida1' and so forth4 ,along with such lame omissions we have the more vigorous procedure of substitutions4 ,in certain cases there seems little if any kinship between the sounds or the articulatory actions by which they are produced4 ,at the early stage more particularly almost any manageable sound seems to do duty as substitute4 ,the early-acquired labials1 including the labio-dental f come in as serviceable #8hacks' at this stage4 ,what we call lisping is indeed exemplified in this class of infantile substitutions4 ,children have been observed to say #8fank' for #8thank' and #8mouf' for #8mouth1' #8feepy' for #8sleepy1' #8poofie' for #8pussy1' #8wiver' for #8river1' #8,bampe' for #8,lampe' 7,german74 ,the dentals1 too1 d and t1 are turned to all kinds of vicarious service4 ,thus we find #8ribbon' rendered by #8dib1' #8gum' by #8dam1' #8,greete' 7,german7 by #8,deete1' #8,gummi' 7,german7 by #8,dummi1' #8cut' by #8tut1' and #8klopfen' 7,german7 by #8topfen'4 ,similarly #8gee-gee' 7horse71 which oddly enough was first rendered by the child ,m4 as #8dee-gee1' is altered to #8dee-dee'4 ,i find too that new sounds are apt to be put to this miscellaneous use4 ,thus one child after learning the aspirate 7h7 at two years not only brought it out with great emphasis in its proper place but began to use it as a substitute for other and unmanageable sounds4 ,thus he would say1 #8hie down on hofa' for #8lie down on sofa'4 ,the aspirate is further used in place of sh1 as when #8shake' was rendered by #8hate1' and of st1 as when ,preyer's boy called #8,stern' #8,hern'4 ,in other cases we see that the little linguist is trying to get as near as possible to the sound1 and such approximations are an interesting sign of progress4 ,thus in one case #8chatterbox' was rendered by #8jabberwock1' in another case #8dress' by #8desh1' in another 7,preyer's boy71 #8,tisch' 7,german7 by #8,tiss'4#hb ----- ,footnote #hb3 ,i find according to the notes sent me that the sounds s and sh develop unequally in the cases of different children4 ,some acquire s1 others sh before the other4 ----- ,besides omissions and substitution of sounds1 occasional insertions are said to occur4 ,according to one set of observations r may be inserted after the broad a1 as when #8pocket' was rendered by #8barket'4 ,a cockney is apt to do the same1 as when he talks of having a #8barth' 7bath74 ,yet this observation requires to be verified4 ,these alterations of articulate sound by the child remind one of the changes which the languages of communities undergo4 ,we know1 indeed1 that these changes are due to imperfect imitation by succeeding generations of learners4#hc ,hence we need not be surprised to find now and again analogies between these nursery transformations and those of words in the development of languages4 ,in reproducing the sounds which he hears a child often illustrates a law of adult phonetic change4 ,thus changes within the same class of sounds1 as the frequent alteration of #8this' into #8dis1' clearly correspond with those modifications recognised in ,grimm's ,law4 ,so1 too1 the common substitution of a dental for a guttural has its parallel in the changes of racial language4#hd ,nobody again can note the transformation of n into m before f in the form #8hamfish' for #8handkerchief' without thinking of the ,greek change of into before 1 and like changes4 ,philologists may probably find many other parallels4 ,one of them tells me that his little girl1 on rendering sh by the guttural h1 reproduced a change in ,spanish pronunciation4 ,m4 ,egger compares a child's rendering of #8trop' 7,french7 by #8crop' with the transformation of the ,latin #8tremere' into #8craindre'4 ----- ,footnote #hc3 ,see ,sweet1 ,history of ,english ,sounds1 p4 #ae4 ,footnote #hd3 ,see ,sievers1 ,phonetik1 p4 #bcj4 ----- ,i have assumed here that children's defective reproduction of our verbal sounds is the result of inability to produce certain sounds and not due to the want of a discrimination of the sounds by the ear4 ,this may seem strange in the light of ,preyer's statement that the earlier impulsive babbling includes most1 if not all1 of the sounds required later on for articulation4 ,this may turn out to be an exaggeration1 yet there is no doubt1 ,i think1 that certain sounds1 including some as the initial l which are common in the earlier babbling stage1 are not produced at the beginning of the articulatory period4 ,as the avoidance of these occurs in all children alike it seems reasonable to infer that they involve difficult muscular combinations in the articulatory organ4 ,at the same time it seems going too far to say1 as ,schultze does1 that the order of acquisition of sounds corresponds with the degree of difficulty4 ,the very variability of this order in the case of different children shows that there is no such simple correspondence as this4#he ----- ,footnote #he3 ,cf4 ,pollock1 ,mind1 vi41 p4 #dcf1 and ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #dcd4 ----- ,the explanation of those early omissions and alterations is probably a rather complex matter4 ,to begin with1 the speech-organs of a child may lose special aptitudes by the development of other and opposed aptitudes4 ,a friend of mine1 a physiologist1 tells me that his little boy who said #8ma-ma' 7but not #8da-da'7 at ten months lost at the age of nineteen months the use of m1 for which he regularly substituted b4 ,he suggests that the nasal sound m1 though easy for a child in the sucking stage and accustomed to close the lips1 may become difficult later on through the acquisition of open sounds4 ,it is worth considering whether this principle does not apply to other inabilities4 ,this1 however1 is a question for the science of phonetics4 ,we must remember1 further1 that it is one thing to carry out an articulatory movement as a child of nine months carries it out1 #8impulsively1' through some congenitally arranged mode of exciting the proper motor centre1 another thing to carry it out volitionally1 i4e41 in order to produce a desired result4 ,this last means that the sound-effect of the movement has been learned1 that the image or representation of it has been brought into definite connexion with a particular impulse1 viz41 that of carrying out the required movement3 and this is now known to depend on the formation of some definite neural connexion between the auditory and the motor regions of the speech-centre4 ,this process is clearly more complex than the first instinctive utterance1 and may be furthered or hindered by various conditions4 ,thus a child's own spontaneous babblings may not have sufficed to impress a particular sound on the memory2 in which case his acquisition of it will be favoured or otherwise by the frequency with which it is produced by others in his hearing4 ,it is probable that differences in the range and accuracy of production of sounds by nurse and mother tell from the first4 ,the differences observable in the order of acquisition of sounds among children may be in part due to this1 and not merely to differences in the speech-organ4 ,it is probable1 too1 that children's attention may be especially called to certain sounds or sound-groups1 either because of a preferential liking for the sounds themselves1 or because of a special need of them as useful names4 ,m4's mother assures me that the child seemed to dislike particular sounds as j1 which she could and did occasionally pronounce1 though she was given to altering them4#hf ,another lady writes that her boy at the age of twenty-two months surprised her by suddenly bringing out the combination #8scissors'4 ,he had just begun to use scissors in cutting up paper1 and so had acquired a practical interest in this sound-mass4 ----- ,footnote #hf3 ,the same child1 capriciously as it might look1 would sometimes avoid y1 as in saying #8esh' for #8yes1' though she regularly used this sound as a substitute for l1 saying #8yook' for #8look1' and so on4 ----- ,we may now pass to another of the commonly recognised defects of early articulation1 viz41 the transposition of sounds or metathesis4 ,sometimes it is two contiguous sounds which are transposed1 as when #8star' is rendered by #8tsar' and #8spoon' by #8psoon'4 ,here the motive of the change is evidently to facilitate the combination4 ,we have a parallel to this in the use of #8aks' 7ax7 for #8ask1' a transposition which was not long since common enough in the ,west of ,england4#hg ,in other transpositions sounds are shifted further from their place4 ,preyer quotes a case in which there was a dislocation of vowel sounds1 viz41 in the transformation of #8bite' 7,german7 into #8beti'4#hh ,here there seems to be no question of avoiding a difficult combination4 ,other examples are the following3 #8hoogshur' for #8sugar' 7one of the first noticed at the age of two72 #8mungar' for #8grandmamma1' #8punga' for #8grandpapa1' and #8natis' for #8nasty' 7boy between eighteen and twenty-four months72 and #8boofitul' for #8beautiful'4 ,here again we have an analogy to defective speech in adults4 ,when a man is very tired he is liable to precisely similar inversions of order4 ,the explanation seems to be that the right group of sounds may present itself to the speaker's consciousness without any clear apprehension of their temporal order4 ,perhaps quasi-sthetic preferences play a part here too4 ,the child ,m4 seems to have preferred the sequence m-n to n-m1 saying #8jaymen' for #8geranium'1 #8burman' for #8laburnum'4 ----- ,footnote #hg3 ,see ,sweet1 ,history of ,english ,sounds1 p4 #cc2 cf4 also the change of #8frith' to #8firth'4 ,footnote #hh3 ,op4 cit41 p4 #cig4 ----- ,another interesting feature in this early articulation is the impulse to double sounds1 to get a kind of effect of assonance or of rhyme by a repetition of sound or sound-group4 ,the first and simplest form of this is where a whole sound-mass or syllable is iterated1 as in the familiar #8ba-ba1' #8gee-gee' #8ni-ni' 7for nice74 ,some children frequently turn monosyllables into reduplications1 making book #8boom-boom' and so forth4 ,it is1 however1 in attempting dissyllables that the reduplication is most common4 ,thus #8naughty' becomes #8na-na1' #8faster' #8fa-fa1' #8,julia' #8dum-dum1' and so forth1 where the repeated syllable displaces the second original syllable and so serves to retain something of the original word-form4 ,in some cases the second and unaccented syllable is selected for reduplication1 as in the instance quoted by ,perez1 #8peau-peau' for #8chapeau'4 ,such reduplications are sometimes aided by kinship of sound1 as when the little girl ,m4 changed #8purple' into its primitive form #8purpur'4 ,these early reduplications are clearly a continuation of the repetitions observable in the earlier babbling1 and grow out of the same motive1 the impulse to go on doing a thing1 and the pleasure of repetition and self-imitation4 ,as is well known1 these reduplications have their parallel in many of the names used by savage tribes4#hi ----- ,footnote #hi3 ,see ,tylor1 ,primitive ,culture1 i41 #aih4 ,on the taking up of baby reduplications into language see the same work1 i41 #bjd4 ,cf4 the same writer's ,anthropology1 p4 #abi4 ----- ,in addition to these palpable reduplications of sound-masses we have repetitions of single sounds1 the repeated sound being substituted for another and foreign one4 ,this answers to what is called in phonetics #8assimilations'4#ij ,in the majority of cases the assimilation is #8progressive1' the change being carried out by a preceding on a succeeding sound4 ,examples are #8,kikie' for #8,kitty1' and #8purpur' for #8purple'4 ,this last transformation1 though it was made by the little daughter of a distinguished philologist1 was quite innocent of classical influence1 and was clearly motived by the childish love of reduplication of sound4 ,in many cases the substitution of an easy for a difficult sound seems to be determined in part by assimilation1 as when #8another' was rendered by #8annunner1' #8gateau' 7,french7 by #8ca-co'4 ,the assimilation seems1 too1 sometimes to work 8regressively10 as when #8thick' becomes #8kick1' #8,bonnie ,dundee' #8,bun-dun1' and #8tortue' 7,french7 #8tu-tu1' in which two last reduplication is secured approximately or completely by change of vowel4#ia ,there seem also to be cases of what may be called partial assimilation1 that is1 a tendency to transform a sound into one of the same class as the first4 8,if 7writes a mother of her boy7 a word began with a labial he generally concluded it with a labial1 making #8bird1' for example1 #8bom'40 ,but these cases are not1 perhaps1 perfectly clear examples of assimilation4 ----- ,footnote #ij3 ,see above1 p4 #acg2 cf4 ,sievers1 ,phonetik1 p4 #bcf4 ,footnote #ia3 ,dr4 ,postgate suggests that the current terms #8progressive' and #8regressive' would be better rendered by #8retrospective' and #8prospective'4 ----- ,along with the tendency to reduplicate syllabic masses1 we see a disposition to use habitually certain favourite syllables as terminations1 more particularly the pet ending #8ie'4 ,thus #8sugar' becomes #8sugie1' #8picture' #8pickie1' and so forth4 ,one child was so much in love with this syllable as to prefer it even to the common repetition of sound in onomatopoetic imitation1 naming the hen not #8tuck-tuck' as one might expect1 but #8tuckie'4 ,what strikes one in these early modifications of our verbal sounds by the child is the care for metrical qualities and the comparative disregard for articulatory characteristics4 ,the number of syllabic sounds1 the distribution of stress1 as well as the rise and fall of vocal pitch1 are the first things to be attended to1 and these are1 on the whole1 carefully rendered when the constituent sounds are changed into other and often very unlike ones1 and the order of the sounds is reversed4 ,again1 the comparative fidelity in rendering the vowel sounds illustrates the prominence of the metrical or musical quality in childish speech4 ,the love of reduplication1 of the effect of assonance and rhyme1 illustrates the same point4 ,this may be seen in some of the more playful sayings of the child ,m41 as #8,babba hiding1 ,ice 7,alice7 spiding 7spying7'4 ,as ,i have dwelt at some length on the defective articulation of children1 ,i should like to say that their early performances1 so far from being a discredit to them1 are very much to their credit4 ,i1 at least1 have often been struck with the sudden bringing forth without any preparatory audible trial of difficult combinations1 and with a wonderful degree of accuracy4 ,a child can often articulate better than he is wont to do4 ,the little girl ,m41 when one year six months1 being asked teasingly to say #8mudder1' said with a laugh #8mother1' quite correctly--but only on this one occasion4 ,the precision which a child1 even in the second year1 will often give to our vocables is quite surprising1 and reminds me of the admirable exactness which1 as ,i have observed1 other strangers to our language1 and more especially perhaps ,russians1 introduce into their articulation1 putting our own loose treatment of our language to the blush4 ,this precision1 acquired as it would seem without any tentative practice1 points1 ,i suspect1 to a good deal of silent rehearsal1 nascent groupings of muscular actions which are not carried far enough to produce sound4 ,the gradual development of the child's articulatory powers1 as indicated partly by the precision of the sounds formed1 partly by their differentiation and multiplication1 is a matter of great interest4 ,at the beginning1 when he is able to reproduce only a small portion of a vocable1 there is of course but little differentiation4 ,thus it has been remarked by more than one observer1 that one and the same sound 7so far at least as our ears can judge7 will represent different lingual signs1 #8ba' standing in the case of one child for both #8basket' and #8sheep' 7#8ba lamb'71 and #8bo' for #8box' and #8bottle'4 ,little by little the sound grows differentiated into a more definite and perfect form1 and it is curious to note the process of gradual evolution by which the first rude attempt at articulate form gets improved and refined4 ,thus1 writes a mother1 8at eighteen to twenty months #8milk' was #8gink1' at twenty-one months it was #8ming1' and soon after two years it was a sound between #8mik' and #8milk'40 ,the same child in learning to say #8lion' went through the stages #8n' 7one year eight months71 #8ion' 7two years71 and #8lion' 7two years and eight months74 ,the little girl ,m41 in learning the word #8breakfast1' advanced by the stages #8bepper1' #8beffert1' #8beffust'4 ,in an example given by ,preyer1 #8grosspapa' 7grandpapa7 began as #8opapa1' this passed into #8gropapa1' and this again into #8grosspapa'4 ,in another case given by ,schultze the word #8wasser' 7pronounced #8vasser'7 went through the following stages3 7#a7 #8vavaff1' 7#b7 #8fafaff1' 7#c7 #8vaffaff1' 7#d7 #8vasse1' and 7#e7 #8vasser'4 ,in this last we have an interesting illustration of a struggle between the imitative impulse to reproduce the exact sound and the impulse to reduplicate or repeat the sound1 this last being very apparent in the introduction of the second v and the ff in the first stage1 and in the substitution of the f's for v's under the influence of the dominant final sound in the second stage4 ,the student of the early stages of language growth might1 one imagines1 find many suggestive parallels in these developmental changes in children's articulation4 ,the rapidity of articulatory progress might be measured by a careful noting of the increase in the number of vocables mastered from month to month4 ,although ,preyer and others have given lists of vocables used at particular ages1 and parents have sent me lists1 ,i have met with no methodical record of the gradual extension of the articulate field4 ,it is obvious that any observations under this head1 save in the very early stages1 can only be very rough4 ,no observer of a talkative child1 however attentive1 can make sure of all the word-sounds used4 ,it is to be noted1 too1 as we have seen above1 that a child will sometimes show that he can master a sound and will even make a temporary use of it1 without retaining it as a part of the permanent linguistic stock4#ib ----- ,footnote #ib3 ,as samples of the observations the following may be taken4 ,a friend tells me his boy when one year old used just #ej vocables4 ,the performances vary greatly4 ,one ,american girl of twenty-two months had #fi1 whereas another about the same age had #acf1 just twice the number4 ,a ,german girl eighteen months old is said by ,preyer to have used #aai words1 and to have raised this to #dce in the next six months4 ,the composition of these early vocabularies will occupy us presently4 ----- ,logical ,side of ,children's ,language4 ,it is now time to pass from the mechanical to the logical side of this early child-language1 to the meanings which the small linguist gives to his articulate sounds and the ways in which he modifies these meanings4 ,the growth of a child's speech means a concurrent progress in the mastery of word-forms and in the acquisition of ideas4 ,in this each of the two factors aids the other1 the advance of ideas pushing the child to new uses of sounds1 and the growing facility in word-formation reacting powerfully on the ideas1 giving them definiteness of outline and fixity of structure4 ,i shall not attempt here to give a complete account of the process1 but content myself with touching on one or two of its more interesting aspects4 ,a child acquires the proper use or application of a word by associating the sound heard with the object1 situation or action in connexion with which others are observed to use it4 ,but the first imitation of words does not show that the little mind has seized their full and precise meaning4 ,a clear and exact apprehension of meaning comes but slowly1 and only as the result of many hard thought-processes1 comparisons and discriminations4 ,in these first attempts to use our speech1 the child's mind is innocent of grammatical distinctions4 ,these arise out of the particular uses of words in sentence-structure1 and of this structure the child has as yet no inkling4 ,if1 then1 following a common practice1 ,i speak of a child of twelve or fifteen months as naming an object1 the reader must not suppose that ,i am ascribing to the baby-mind a clear grasp of the function of what grammarians call nouns 7substantives74 ,all that is implied in this way of speaking1 is that the infant's first words are used mainly as recognition-signs4 ,there is from the first1 ,i conceive1 even in the gesture of pointing and saying #8da6' a germ of this naming process4 ,the progress of this rude naming or articulate recognition is very interesting4 ,the names first learnt are either those of individuals1 what we call proper names1 as #8mamma1' #8nurse1' or those which1 like #8bath1' #8bow-wow1' are at first applied to one particular object4 ,it is often supposed that a child uses these as true singular names1 recognising individual objects as such4 ,but this is pretty certainly an error4 ,he cannot note differences well enough or grasp a sufficient number of differential marks to know an individual as such1 and he will1 as occasion arises1 quite spontaneously extend his names to other things which happen to have some interesting and notable points in common with the first4 ,thus #8bow-wow1' though first applied to one particular dog1 is1 as we know1 at once extended to other dogs1 pictures of dogs1 and not infrequently other things as well4 ,if then we speak of the child as generalising or widening the application of his terms1 we must not be taken to mean that he goes through a process of comparing things which he perceives to be distinct1 and discovering a likeness in these1 but that he merely assimilates or recognises something like that which he has seen before without troubling to note the differences4 ,this extension of names or generalising process proceeds primarily and mainly by the feeling for the likenesses or the common aspects of things1 though as we shall see presently their connexions of time and place afford a second and subordinate means of extension4 ,the transference of a name from object to object through this apprehension of a likeness or assimilation has already been touched upon4 ,it moves along thoroughly childish lines1 and constitutes one of the most striking and interesting of the manifestations of precocious originality4 ,yet if unconventional in its mode of operation it is essentially thought-activity1 a connecting of like with like1 and a rudimentary grouping of things in classes4 ,this tendency to comprehend like things or situations under a single articulate sign is seen already in the use of the early indicative sign #8atta' 7all gone74 ,it was used by ,preyer's child to mark not only the departure of a thing but the putting out of a flame1 later on1 an empty glass or other vessel4 ,by another child it was extended to the ending of music1 the closing of a drawer and so on4 ,here1 however1 the various applications probably answer more to a common feeling of ending or missing than to an apprehension of a common objective situation4 ,coming to words which we call names we find that the child will often extend a recognition-sign from one object to a second1 and to our thinking widely dissimilar object through the discovery of some analogy4 ,such extension1 moving rather along poetic lines than those of our logical classifications1 is apt1 as we have seen1 to wear a quaint metaphorical aspect4 ,a star1 for example1 looked at1 ,i suppose1 as a small bright spot1 was called by one child an eye4 ,the child ,m4 called the opal globe of a lighted lamp a #8moon'4 #8,pin' was extended by another child to a crumb just picked up1 a fly1 and a caterpillar1 and seemed to mean something little to be taken between the fingers4 ,the same child used the sound #8'at' 7hat7 for anything put on the head1 including a hair-brush4 ,another child used the word #8key' for other bright metal things1 as money4 ,romanes' child extended the word #8star1' the first vocable learned after #8,mamma' and #8,papa1' to bright objects generally1 candles1 gas-flames1 etc4 ,taine speaks of a child of one year who after first applying the word 8fafer0 7from 8chemin de fer07 to railway engines went on to transfer it to a steaming coffee-pot and everything that hissed or smoked or made a noise4 ,in these last illustrations we have plainly a rudimentary process of classification4 ,any point of likeness1 provided it is of sufficient interest to strike the attention1 may thus serve as a basis of childish classification4 ,as with names of things so with those of actions4 ,the crackling noise of the fire was called by one child #8barking1' and the barking of a dog was named by another #8coughing'4 ,we see from this that the particular line of analogical extension followed by a child will depend on the nature of the first impressions or experiences which serve as his starting point4 ,a like originality is apt to show itself in the first crude attempt to seize and name the relations of things4 ,the child ,c4 called dipping bread in gravy #8ba' 7bath74 ,another child extended the word #8door' to 8everything that stopped up an opening or prevented an exit1 including the cork of a bottle1 and the little table that fastened him in his high chair04 ,in these extensions we see the tendency of child-thought towards #8concretism1' or the use of a simple concrete idea in order to express a more abstract idea4 ,children frequently express the contrast big1 little1 by the pretty figurative language #8,mamma' and #8baby'4 ,thus a small coin was called by an ,american child a #8baby dollar'4 ,romanes' daughter1 named ,ilda1 pointed out the sheep in a picture as #8,mamma-ba' and the lambs as #8,ilda-ba'4 ,it is somewhat the same process when the child extends an idea obtained from the most impressive experience of childish difficulty1 viz41 #8too big1' so as to make it do duty for the abstract notion #8too difficult' in general4 ,in this extension of language by the child we may discern1 along with this play of the feeling for similarity1 the working of association4 ,this is illustrated by the case of ,darwin's grandchild1 who when just beginning to speak used the common sign #8quack' for duck1 then extended this to water1 then1 following up this associative transference by a double process of generalisation1 made the sound serve as the name of all birds and insects on the one hand1 and all fluid substances on the other4#ic ----- ,footnote #ic3 ,quoted by ,romanes1 ,mental ,evolution in ,man1 p4 #bhc4 ----- ,the transference of the name #8quack' from the animal to the water is a striking example of the tendency of the young mind to view things which are presented together as belonging one to another and in a manner identical4 ,another curious instance is given by ,professor ,minto1 in which a child1 who applied the word #8mambro' to her nurse1 went on to extend it by associative transference to the nurse's sewing machine1 then by analogy applied it to a hand-organ in the street1 later on1 through an association of hand-organ with monkey1 to his india-rubber monkey4 ,here we have a whole history of change of word-meaning illustrating in curiously equal measure the play of assimilation and of association1 and falling within a period of two years4#id ----- ,footnote #id3 ,logic 7,university ,extension ,manuals71 pp4 #hc-hd4 ----- ,there is another way in which children are said to #8extend' names somewhat analogous to the processes of assimilation and associate transference4 ,they are very fond of using the same word for opposed or other correlative ideas4 ,in some cases we can see that this is due merely to confusion or want of discrimination4 ,when1 for example1 ,preyer's boy confused #8too little' with #8too much1' and #8yesterday' with #8to-morrow1' going so far as to make a compound #8heitgestern' 7i4e41 heutegestern7 to include both1#ie it is easy to see that the child's mind had reached merely the vague idea unsuitable in quantity in the one case1 and time not present in the other2 and that he failed to differentiate these ideas4 ,in other cases where correlatives are confused1 as when a child extended the sign of asking for an eatable 7#8bit-ye'7 to the act of offering anything to another1 or when as in ,c4's case #8spend' was made to do duty for #8cost1' #8borrow' for #8lend1' and #8learn' for #8teach1' the explanation is slightly different4 ,a child can only acquire an idea of abstract relations slowly and by stages4 ,such words as lend1 teach1 call up first a pictorial idea of an action in which two persons are seen to be concerned4 ,but the exact nature of the relation1 and the difference in its aspect as we start from the one or the other term1 are not perceived4 ,thus in thinking of a purchase over the counter1 a child may be supposed to image the action but not clearly to distinguish the part taken by the person who buys and gives out money 7#8spends'7 and the part taken by the person who demands a price or fixes the cost4 ,perhaps we get near this vague awareness of a relation when we are aiding a violinist to tune his instrument4 ,we may know that his note and our piano note do not accord1 and yet be quite unable to determine their exact relation1 and to fix the one as higher1 the other as lower4 ----- ,footnote #ie3 ,see op4 cit41 p4 #dbj1 also pp4 #dad and #dah4 ----- ,an interesting variety of this extension of names to correlatives is the transference of the attributes of causal agent to passive object1 and vice vers4 ,thus a little girl of four called her parasol when blown by the wind #8a windy parasol1' and a stone that made her hand sore #8a very sore stone'4 ,a little ,italian girl that had taken some nasty medicines expressed the fact by calling herself nasty 7#8bimba cattiva'74#if ----- ,footnote #if3 ,paola ,lombroso1 ,saggi di ,psicologia del ,bambino1 p4 #af4 ----- ,there is much in the whole of these changes introduced by the child into the uses or meanings of words which may remind one of the changes which go on in the growth of languages in communities4 ,thus the child's metaphorical use of words1 his setting forth of an abstract idea by some analogous concrete image1 has its counterpart1 as we know1 in the early stages of human language4 ,tribes which have no abstract signs employ a metaphor exactly as the child does4 ,our own language preserves the traces of this early figurative use of words2 as in #8imbecile1' weak1 which originally meant leaning on a staff1 and so forth4#ig ----- ,footnote #ig3 ,see ,trench's account of poetry in words1 ,on the ,study of ,words1 lect4 vi4 ----- ,again1 we may trace in the development of languages the counterpart of those processes by which children spontaneously expand what logicians call the denotation of their names4 ,the word #8sun' has only quite recently undergone this kind of extension by being applied to other centres of systems besides our familiar sun4 ,the multiplicity of meanings of certain words1 as #8post1' #8stock' and so forth1 points to the double process of assimilative and associative extension which we saw illustrated in the use of the child's word #8mambro'4 ,once more1 the child's extension of a word from an idea to its correlative has its parallel in the adult's use of language4 ,as the vulgar expression #8,i'll larn you' shows 7cf4 the ,anglo-,saxon leornian71 a word may come to mean both to teach and to become taught4 ,a like embracing of agent and object acted upon by the same word is seen in the #8active' and #8passive' meanings of words like the ,latin penetrabilis 7#8piercing' and #8pierceable'71 and in the #8objective' and #8subjective' meanings of #8pleasant' and similar words4 ,we are beginning1 like the little girl quoted above1 to speak of a #8sore' topic4 ,lastly1 the movement of thought underlying the saying of the little ,italian girl1 #8nasty baby1' seems to be akin to that of the savage when he supposes that he appropriates the qualities of that which he eats4 ,the changes here touched upon have to do with what philologists call generalisation4 ,as supplementary to these there is in the case of the growth of a community-language a process of specialisation1 as when #8physician' from meaning a student of nature has come to mean one who has acquired and can practically apply one branch of nature-knowledge4 ,in the case of the child we have an analogue of this in the gradual limitation of names to narrower classes or to individuals as the result of carrying out certain processes of comparison and discrimination4 ,thus #8ba-ba1' which is used at first for a miscellaneous crowd of woolly or hairy quadrupeds1 gets specialised as a name for a sheep1 and the much-abused #8papa' becomes restricted to its rightful owner4 ,this process of differentiation and specialisation assumes an interesting form in a characteristic feature of the language-invention of both children and savages1 viz41 the formation of compound words4 ,these compounds are often true metaphors4 ,thus in the case already quoted where an eye-lid was called an eye-curtain the child may be said to have resorted to a metaphorical way of describing the lid4 ,it is much the same when ,m4 at the age of one year nine months invented the expression #8bwite 7bright7 penny' for silver pieces4 ,a slightly different example is the compound #8foot-wing' invented by the child ,c4 to describe the limb of a seal4 ,as a further variety of this metaphoric formation ,i may quote the pretty name #8tell-wind' which a boy of four years and eight months hit upon as a name for the weather-vane4 ,in these and similar cases1 there is at once an analogical transference of meaning 7e4g41 from curtain to lid7 or process of generalisation1 and a limitation of meaning by the appended or qualifying word #8eye' and so a process of specialisation4 ,in certain cases the analogical extension gives place to what we should call a classification4 ,one child for example1 knowing the word steam-ship and wanting the name sailing-ship1 invented the form #8wind-ship'4 ,the little girl ,m41 when one year and nine months old1 showed quite a passion for classing by help of compounds1 arranging the rooms into #8morner-room1' #8dinner-room' 7she was fond of adding #8er' at this time7 and #8nursery-room'4 ,it might be supposed from a logical point of view that in these inventions the qualifying or determining word would come more naturally after the generic name1 as in the ,french moulin vent1 cygne noir4 ,i have heard of one ,english child who used the form #8mill-wind' in preference to #8wind-mill1' and the order #8dog black' in preference to #8black dog'4 ,it would be worth while to note any similar instances4 ,in these inventions1 again1 we may detect a close resemblance between children's language and that of savages4 ,in presence of a new object a savage behaves very much as a child1 he shapes a new name out of familiar ones1 a name that commonly has much of the metaphorical character4 ,thus the ,aztecs called a boat a #8water-house'2 and the ,vancouver islanders when they saw a screw-steamer called it the #8kick-kicket'4#ih ----- ,footnote #ih3 ,tylor1 ,anthropology1 chap4 v4 ----- ,a somewhat different class of word-inventions is that in which a child frames a new word on the analogy of known words4 ,a common case is the invention of new substantives from verbs after the pattern of other substantives4 ,the results are often quaint enough4 ,sometimes it is the agent who is named by the new word1 as when the boy ,c4 talked of the #8,rainer1' the fairy who makes rain1 or when another little boy dubbed a teacher the #8lessoner'4 ,sometimes it is the product of the action that is named1 as when the same child ,c4 and the deaf-mute ,laura ,bridgman both invented the form #8thinks' for #8thoughts'4 ,in much the same way a boy of three called the holes which he dug in his garden his #8digs'4 ,the reverse process1 the formation of a verb from a substantive1 also occurs4 ,thus one child invented the form #8dag' for striking with a dagger2 and ,preyer's boy when two years and two months old formed the verb #8messen' to express cut from the substantive #8messer' 7a knife74 ,it was probably a similar process when the child ,m4 at one year ten months1 after seeing a motionless worm and being told that it was dead1 asked to see another worm #8deading'4 ,the same child coined the neat verb-form #8unparcel'4 ,this readiness to form verbs from substantives and vice vers1 which is abundantly illustrated in the development of language1 is without doubt connected with the primitive and natural mode of thinking4 ,the object is of greatest interest both to the child and to primitive man as an agent1 or as the last stage or result of an action4 ,in certain of these original formations we may detect a fine feeling for verbal analogy4 ,thus a ,french boy1 after killing the #8limaces' 7snails7 which were eating the plants in the garden1 dignified his office by styling himself a #8limarcier'2 where the inventive faculty was no doubt led by the analogy of #8voiturier' formed from #8voiture'4#ii ----- ,footnote #ii3 ,compayr1 op4 cit41 p4 #bdi1 where other examples are given4 ----- ,in other verbal formations it is difficult to determine the model which is followed4 ,signorina ,lombroso gives a good example4 ,a little girl of two and a half years had observed that when her mother allowed her to take1 eat1 or drink something1 she would say #8prendilo' 7take it71 #8bevilo' 7drink it71 or #8mangialo' 7eat it74 ,she proceeded to make a kind of adjective or substantive out of each of these1 asking #8 prendilo8' #8 bevilo8' #8 mangialo8' i4e41 #8,is it takable or a case of taking8' etc41 when she wanted to take1 drink1 or eat something4#ajj ,by such skilful artifices does the little word-builder find his way to the names which he has need of4 ----- ,footnote #ajj3 ,op4 cit41 p4 #ab4 ----- ,in certain cases these original constructions are of a more clumsy order and due to a partial forgetfulness of a word and an effort to complete it4 ,thus a boy of four spoke of being #8sorrified1' where he was evidently led out of the right track by the analogy of #8horrified'4 ,the same little boy who talked of his #8digs' used the word #8magnicious' for #8magnificent'4 ,this is a choice example of word-transformation4 ,no doubt the child was led by the feeling for the sound of this termination in other grand words1 as #8ambitious'4 ,possible1 too1 he might have heard the form #8magnesia' and been influenced by a reminiscence of this sound-complex4 ,the talk of #8,jeames' with which ,mr4 ,punch makes us acquainted is full of just such delightful missings of the mark in trying to reproduce big words4 ,sentence-building4 ,we may now follow the child in his later and more ambitious linguistic efforts4 ,the transition to this higher plane is marked by the use of the completed form of thought1 the sentence4 ,at first1 as already pointed out1 there is no sentence-structure4 ,the child begins to talk by using single words4 ,these words consist of what we call substantives1 as #8,mamma1' #8nurse1' #8milk1' a few adjectives1 as #8hot1' #8nice1' #8good1' a still smaller number of adverbial signs1 as #8ta-ta1' or #8away1' #8over1' #8down1' #8up1' and one or two verb-forms1 apparently imperatives1 as #8go'4 ,the exact order in which these appear1 and the proportion between the different classes of constituents at a particular age1 say two and a half or three1 appear to vary greatly4 ,words descriptive of actions1 though very few at first1 appear to grow numerous in a later stage4#aja ----- ,footnote #aja3 ,for lists of vocabularies and an analysis of their composition see ,preyer1 op4 cit4 7#dth ed471 p4 #cgb ff42 ,tracy1 ,psychology of ,childhood1 p4 #gf ff4 ----- ,in speaking of these words as substantives1 adjectives1 and so forth1 ,i am merely adopting a convenient mode of description4 ,we must not suppose that the words as used in this simple disjointed talk have their full grammatical value4 ,it is not generally recognised that the single-worded utterance of the child is an abbreviated sentence or #8sentence-word' analogous to the sentence-words found in the simplest known stage of adult language4 ,as with the race so with the child1 the sentence precedes the word4 ,moreover1 each of the child's so-called words in his single-worded talk stands for a considerable variety of sentence-forms4 ,thus the words in the child's vocabulary which we call substantives do duty for verbs and so forth4 ,as ,preyer remarks1 #8chair' 7stuhl7 means #8,there is no chair1' #8,i want to be put in the chair1' #8,the chair is broken1' and so forth4 ,in like manner #8dow' 7down7 may mean #8,the spoon has fallen down1' #8,i am down1' #8,i want to go down1' etc4#ajb ,the particular shade of meaning intended is indicated by intonation and gesture4 ----- ,footnote #ajb3 ,see ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #cfa2 ,romanes1 op4 cit41 p4 #bif ff4 ----- ,this sentence-construction begins with a certain timidity4 ,the age at which it is first observed varies greatly4 ,it seems in most cases to be somewhere about the twenty-first month1 yet ,i find good observers among my correspondents giving as dates eighteen and a half and nineteen months2 and a friend of mine1 a ,professor of ,literature1 tells me that his boy formed simple sentences as early as fifteen months4 ,we commonly have at first quite short sentences formed by two words in apposition4 ,these may consist of what we should call an adjective added to and qualifying a substantive1 as in the simple utterance of the child ,c41 #8,big bir' 7bird71 or the exclamation1 #8,papa no' 7,papa's nose72 or they may arise by a combination of substantives1 as in the sentence given by ,tracy1 #8,papa cacker1' i4e41 #8,papa has crackers1' and one quoted by ,preyer1 #8,auntie cake' 7,german1 #8,danna ,kuha1' i4e41 #8,tante ,kuche'7 for #8,auntie has given me cake'2 and in a somewhat different example of a compound sentence also given by ,preyer1 #8,home milk' 7,german1 #8,haim ,mimi'71 interpreted as #8,i want to go home and have milk'4 ,in the case of one child about the age of twenty-three months most of the sentences were composed of two words1 one of which was a verb in the imperative4 ,the love of commanding1 so strong in the child1 makes the use of the imperative1 as is seen in this case1 very common4 ,m4's first performance in sentence-building 7at eighteen and a half months7 was1 #8,mamma1 tie1' i4e41 #8tie gloves'4 ,little by little the learner manages longer sentences1 economising his resources to the utmost1 troubling nothing about inflections or the insertion of prepositions so as to indicate precise relations1 but leaving his hearer to discover his meaning as best he may2 and it is truly wonderful how much the child manages to express in this rude fashion4 ,a boy nineteen and a half months old gave this elaborate order to his father3 #8,dada toe toe ba1' that is1 #8,dada is to go and put his toes in the bath'4 ,pollock's little girl in the first essay at sentence-building1 recorded at the age of twenty-one and a half months1 actually managed a neat antithesis3 #8,cabs dati1 clam clin1' that is to say1 #8,cabs are dirty1 and the perambulator is clean'4 ,preyer's boy in the beginning of the third year brought out the following1 #8,mimi atta teppa papa oi1' that is to say1 #8,milch atta ,teppich ,papa fui1' which appears to have signified1 8,the milk is gone1 it is on the carpet1 and papa said #8,fie'04 ,it may be added that the difficulties of deciphering these early sentences is aggravated by the frequent resort to slurs1 as when a child says1 #8m' out' for #8take me out1' #8't on' for #8put it on'4 ,the order of words in these first tentative sentences is noticeable4 ,sometimes the subject is placed after the predicate1 as in an example given by ,pollock1 #8,run away man1' i4e41 #8,the man runs 7or has run7 away1' and in the still quainter example given by the same writer1 #8,out-pull-baby 'pecs 7spectacles71' i4e41 #8,baby pulls or will pull out the spectacles'4 ,in like manner the adjective used as predicate may precede the subject1 as in the examples given by ,maillet1 #8,jolie la fleur1' etc4#ajc ,sometimes1 again1 the object comes before the verb1 as apparently in the following example given by ,miss ,shinn3 a little girl delighted at the prospect of going out to see the moon exclaimed1 8,moo-ky 7sky71 baby shee 7see704#ajd ,here is a delightful example of a transposition of subject and object4 ,a boy two years and three months asked1 #8,did ,ack 7,alec7 chocke an apple8' i4e41 #8,did an apple choke ,alec8' though in this case we very probably have to do with a misunderstanding of the action choke4 ,other kinds of inversion occur when more complex experiments are attempted1 as in connecting #8my' with an adjective4 ,thus one child said prettily1 #8,poor my friends'2#aje which archaic form may be compared with the following ,gallic-looking idiom used by ,m4 at the age of one year ten months3 #8,how ,babba 7baby1 i4e41 herself7 does feed nicely6' ,the same little girl put the auxiliary out of its place1 saying1 #8,tan 7can7 ,babba wite' for #8,baby can write1' though this was probably a reminiscence of the question-form4 ----- ,footnote #ajc3 ,see ,compayr1 op4 cit41 p4 #bjf4 ,footnote #ajd3 ,notes on the ,development of a ,child1 p4 #hd4 ,footnote #aje3 ,canton1 ,the ,invisible ,playmate1 p4 #cb1 who adds that this exactly answers to the form1 8,good my lord60 ----- ,these inversions of our familiar order are suggestive4 ,they have some resemblance to the curious order which appears in the spontaneous sign-making of deaf-mutes4 ,thus a deaf-mute answered the question1 #8,who made ,god8' by saying1 8,god made nothing10 i4e41 8nothing made ,god04 ,similarly the deaf-mute ,laura ,bridgman expressed the petition1 #8,give ,laura bread1' by the form1 #8,laura bread give4'#ajf ,such inversions1 as we know1 are allowable and common in certain languages1 e4g41 ,latin4 ,the study of the syntax of child-language and of the sign-making of deaf-mutes might suggest that our ,english order is not in certain cases the most natural one4 ----- ,footnote #ajf3 ,see ,romanes1 op4 cit41 p4 #aaf f41 where other examples may be found4 ----- ,a somewhat similar inversion of what seems to us the proper order appears in the child's first attempts at negation4 ,the child ,c4 early in his third year expressed the idea that he was not going into the sea thus3 #8,n4 7his own name7 go in water1 no'4 ,similarly ,pollock's child expressed acquiescence in a prohibition in this manner1 #8,baby have papa 7pepper7 no1' where the #8no' followed without a pause4 ,the same order appears in the case of ,french children1 e4g41 #8,papa non1' i4e41 #8,it is not ,papa1' and seems to be a common1 if not a universal form of the first half-spontaneous sentence-building4 ,here again we see an analogy to the syntax of deaf-mutes1 who appear to append the sign of negation in a similar way1 e4g41 #8,teacher ,i beat1 deceive1 scold no1' i4e41 #8,i must not beat1 deceive1 scold my teacher'4 ,we see something like it1 too1 in the formations of savage-languages1 as when #8fool no' comes to be the sign of #8not fool1' that is of wise4#ajg ,when #8not' comes into use it is apt to be put in a wrong place1 as when the little girl ,m4 said1 #8,no ,babba look' 7i4e41 #8,babba will not look'71 and #8,mr4 ,dill not did tum' for #8,mr4 ,gill did not come'4#ajh ----- ,footnote #ajg3 ,annual ,report of the ,bureau of ,ethnology1 #ahgi-hj1 p4 #cia ff4 ,footnote #ajh3 ,it may be added that this child regularly used #8not' or #8n't' as a negating or cancelling sign for the whole sentence1 saying1 for example1 #8,babba mus'n't go in1' for #8,babba may stay out'4 ----- ,another closely related characteristic of this early childish sentence-building is the love of antithesis under the form of two balancing statements4 ,thus a child will often oppose an affirmative to a negative statement as a means of bringing out the full meaning of the former4 ,the boy ,c41 for example1 would say1 #8,this a nice bow-wow1 not nasty bow-wow'4 ,the little girl ,m4 said1 #8,boo 7the name of her cat7 dot 7got7 tail2 poor ,babba dot no tail1' proceeding to search for a tail under her skirts4 ,this use of a negative statement by way of contrast or opposition to an affirmative grew in the case of one child aged two years and two months into a habit of description by negations4 ,thus an orange was described by the saying1 #8,no1 'tisn't apple1' porridge by #8,no1 'tisn't bread and milk'4 ,it is interesting to note that deaf-mutes proceed in a similar fashion by way of antithetic negative statement4 ,thus one of these expressed the thought1 #8,i must love and honour my teacher1' by the order1 #8,teacher ,i beat1 deceive1 scold no6--,i love honour yes6'#aji ----- ,footnote #aji3 ,a curious example of negative antithesis is given by ,perez1 op4 cit41 p4 #aif4 ,on other analogies between the syntax of children and of deaf-mutes1 see ,compayr1 op4 cit41 p4 #bea f4 ----- ,these first essays in the construction of sentences illustrate the skill of the child in eking out his scanty vocabulary by help of a metaphorical transference of meaning4 ,taine gives a charming example of this device4 ,a little girl of eighteen months had acquired the word #8,coucou' as used by her mother or nurse when playfully hiding behind a door or chair1 and the expression #8a brle' as employed to warn her that her dinner was too hot1 or that she must put on her hat in the garden to keep off the hot sun4 ,one day on seeing the sun disappear behind a hill she exclaimed1 #8,a ble coucou'4#aaj ----- ,footnote #aaj3 ,on ,intelligence1 pt4 i41 bk4 i41 chap4 ii41 sect4 vi4 ----- ,it is a fearful moment when the child first tries his hand at inflections1 and1 more especially in our language1 those of verbs4 ,pollock's child made the attempt1 and successfully1 at the age of twenty-two months4 ,such first essays are probably examples of pure imitation1 the precise forms used having been previously heard from others4 ,hence while they show a growing power of thought1 of a differencing of the relations of number and time1 they do not involve verbal construction properly so called4 ,this last appears as soon as the child carries over his knowledge of particular cases of verbal inflection and applies it to new words4 ,this involves a nascent appreciation of the reason or rule according to which words are modified4 ,the development of this feeling for the general mode of verbal change underlies all the later advance in correct speaking4 ,while the little explorer in the terra incognita of language can proceed safely in this direction up to a certain point he is apt1 as we all know1 to stumble now and again2 nor is this to be wondered at when we remember the intricacies1 the irregularities1 which characterise a language like ours4 ,in trying1 for example1 to manage the preterite of an ,english verb he is certain1 as1 indeed1 is the foreigner1 to go wrong4 ,the direction of the error is often in the transformation of the weak to the strong form2 as when #8screamed' becomes #8scram1' #8split' 7preterite7 #8splat' or #8splut1' and so forth4 ,in other cases the child wall convert a strong into a weak form1 as when ,laura ,bridgman1 like many another child1 would say1 #8,i eated1' #8,i seed1' and so forth4#aaa ,sometimes1 again1 delightful doublings of the past tense occur1 as #8sawed' for #8saw1' #8eatened' for #8eaten1' #8didn't saw' for #8didn't see1' #8did you gave me8' for #8did you give me8' ,active and passive forms are sometimes confused1 as when ,m4 said #8not yike being picking up' for #8not like being picked up1' etc4 ,it is curious to note the different lines of imitative construction followed out in these cases4 ----- ,footnote #aaa3 ,the same double tendency from weak to strong forms and vice vers is seen in the list of transformed past participles given by ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #cfj4 ----- ,one thing seems clear here3 the child's instinct is to simplify our forms1 to get rid of irregularities4 ,this is strikingly illustrated in the use of the heterogeneous assemblage of forms known as the verb #8to be'4 ,it is really hard on a child to expect him to answer the question1 #8,are you good now8' by saying1 #8,yes1 ,i am'4 ,he says1 of course1 #8,yes1 ,i are'4 ,perhaps the poor verb #8to be' has suffered every kind of violence at the hands of children4#aab ,thus the child ,m4 used the form #8bd' for #8was'4 ,professor ,max ,mller somewhere says that children are the purifiers of language4 ,would it not be well if they could become its simplifiers also1 and give us in place of this congeries of unrelated sounds one good decent verb-form8 ----- ,footnote #aab3 ,cf4 ,preyer's account of a ,german child's liberties with the same verb1 where we find #8gebisst1' #8binnst1' and other odd forms1 op4 cit41 p4 #dch4 ----- ,other quaint transformations occur when the child begins to combine words1 as when ,m4 joining adverb to verb invented the form of past tense #8fall downed' for #8fell down'4 ,another queer form is #8,am't ,i8' used for #8am ,i not8' after the pattern of #8aren't we8' ,an even finer linguistic stroke than this1 is #8,bettern't you8' for #8,had you not better8' where the child was evidently trying to get in the form #8hadn't you1' along with the awkward #8better1' which seemed to belong to the #8had1' and solved the problem by treating #8better' as the verb1 and dropping #8had' altogether4 ,a study of these solecisms1 which are nearly always amusing1 and sometimes daintily pretty1 is useful to mothers and young teachers by way of showing how much hard work1 how much of real conjectural inference1 enters into children's essays in talking4 ,we ought not to wonder that they now and again slip2 rather ought we to wonder that1 with all the intricacies and pitfalls of our language--this applies of course with especial force to the motley irregular ,english tongue--they slip so rarely4 ,as a matter of fact1 the latter and more #8correct' talk--which is correct just because the child has stored up a good stock of particular word-forms1 and consequently has a much wider range of pure uninventive imitation--is less admirable than the early inventive imitation2 for this last not only has the quality of originality1 but shows the germ of a truly grammatical feeling for the general types or norms of the language4 ,the ,english child is not much troubled by inflections of substantives4 ,the pronouns1 however1 as intelligent mothers know1 are apt to cause much heart-burning to the little linguist4 ,the mastery of #8,i' and #8you1' #8me1' #8mine1' etc41 forms an epoch in the development of the linguistic faculty and of the power of thought which is so closely correlated with this4 ,hence it will repay a brief inspection4 ,as is well known1 children begin by speaking of themselves and of those whom they address by names1 as when they say1 #8,baby good1' #8,mamma come'4 ,this is sometimes described as speaking 8in the third person10 yet this is not quite accurate1 seeing that there is as yet no distinction of person at all in the child's language4 ,the first use of #8,i' and #8you' between two and three years is apt to be erroneous4 ,the child proceeds imitatively to use #8,i1' #8me1' #8my' for #8you' and #8your'4 ,thus one child said1 #8,what ,i'm going to do1' for1 #8,what are you going to do8' ,in this case1 it is plain1 there is no clear grasp of what we mean by subject1 or of the exact relation of this subject to the person he is addressing4 ,yet along with this mechanical repetition of the pronominal forms we see the beginnings of an intelligent use of them4 ,so far as ,i can ascertain most children begin to say #8me' or #8my' before they say #8you'4 ,yet ,i have met with one or two apparent exceptions to this rule4 ,thus the boy ,c4 certainly seemed to get hold of the form of the second person before that of the first1 and the priority of #8you' is attested in another case sent to me4 ,it is desirable to get more observations on this point4 ,to determine the exact date at which an intelligent use of the first person appears1 is much less easy than it looks4 ,the #8,i' is apt to appear momentarily and then disappear1 as when ,m4 at the age of nineteen months three weeks was observed to say #8,i did' once1 though she did not use #8,i' again until some time afterwards4 ,allowing for these difficulties it may be said with some degree of confidence that the great transition from #8baby' to #8,i' is wont to take place in favourable cases early in the first half of the third year4 ,thus among the dates assigned by different observers ,i find1 twenty-four months1 twenty-five months 7cases given by ,preyer71 between twenty-five and twenty-six 7,pollock71 twenty-seven months 7the boy ,c474 ,a lady friend tells me that her boy began to use #8,i' at twenty-four months4 ,in the case of a certain number of precocious children this point is attained at an earlier date4 ,thus ,preyer quotes a case of a child speaking in the first person at twenty months4 ,schultze gives a case at nineteen months4 ,a friend of mine1 a ,professor of ,english ,literature1 whose boy showed great precocity in sentence-building1 reports that he used the forms #8me' and #8,i' within the sixteenth month4 ,preyer's boy1 on the other hand1 who was evidently somewhat slow in lingual development1 first used the form of the first person #8to me' 7mir7 at the age of twenty-nine months4 ,the precise way in which these pronominal forms first appear is very curious4 ,many children use #8me' before #8,i'4 ,preyer's boy appears to have first used the form #8to me' 7mir74 #8,my' too is apt to appear among the earliest forms4 ,in such different ways does the child pass to the new and difficult region of pronominal speech4 ,the meaning of this transition has given rise to much discussion4 ,it is plain1 to begin with1 that a child cannot acquire these forms as he acquires the name #8papa1' #8nurse1' by a direct and comparatively mechanical mode of imitation4 ,when he does imitate in this fashion he produces1 as we have seen1 the absurdity of speaking of himself as #8you'4 ,hence during the first year or so of speech he makes no use of these forms4 ,he speaks of himself as #8baby' or some equivalent name1 others coming down to his level and setting him the example4 ,the transition seems to be due in part1 as ,i have elsewhere pointed out1 to a growing self-consciousness1 to a clearer singling out of the ego or self as the centre of thought and activity1 and the understanding of the other #8persons' in relation to this centre4 ,not that self-consciousness begins with the use of #8,i'4 ,the child has no doubt a rudimentary self-consciousness when he talks about himself as about another object3 yet the use of the forms #8,i1' #8me1' may be taken to mark the greater precision of the idea of #8self' as not merely a bodily object and nameable just like other sensible things1 but as something distinct from and opposed to all objects of sense1 as what we call the #8subject' or ego4 ,while1 however1 we may set down this exchange of the proper name for the forms #8,i' and #8me' as due to the spontaneous growth of the child's intelligence1 it is possible that education exerts its influence too4 ,it is conjecturable that as a child's intelligence grows1 others in speaking to him tend unknowingly to introduce the forms #8,i' and #8you' more frequently4 ,yet ,i am disposed to think that the child commonly takes the lead here4 ,however this be1 it is clear that growing intelligence1 involving greater interest in others' words1 will lead to a closer attention to these pronominal forms as employed by others4 ,in this way the environment works on the growing mind of the child1 stimulating it to direct its thoughts to these subtle relations of the #8me and not me1' #8mine and thine'4 ,the more intelligent the environment the greater will be the stimulating influence3 hence1 in part at least1 the difference of age when the new style of speech is attained4#aac ----- ,footnote #aac3 ,preyer 7op4 cit41 ,cap4 #bb7 seems to argue that children have a clear self-consciousness before they attempt to use the forms #8,i1' etc42 and that the acquisition of the latter is due to imitation4 ,but he does not show why this imitation should begin to work so powerfully at a particular period of linguistic development4 ----- ,the acquirement of these pronominal forms is a slow and irksome business4 ,at first they are introduced hesitatingly1 and alongside of the proper name2 the child1 for example1 saying sometimes1 #8,baby' or #8,ilda1' sometimes #8,i' or #8me'4 ,in some cases1 again1 the two forms are used at the same time in apposition1 as in the delightful form not unknown in older folk's language1 #8,hilda1 my book'4 ,the forms #8,i' and #8me' are1 moreover1 confined at first to a few expressions1 as #8,i am1' #8,i went1' and so forth4 ,the dropping of the old forms1 as may be seen by a glance at the notes on the child ,c41 and at ,preyer's methodical diary1 is a gradual process4 ,quaint solecisms mark the first stages of the use of these pronouns4 ,as in the case of the earlier use of substantives1 one and the same form will be used economically for a variety of meanings1 as when #8me' was by the boy ,c4 used to do duty for #8mine' also1 and #8us' for #8ours'4 ,here it is probable there is a lack of perfect discrimination4 ,the connexion between the self and its belongings is for all of us of the closest4 ,when a child of two1 who was about to be deprived of her doll1 shouted1 #8,me1 me6' may we not suppose that the doll was taken up into the inner circle of the self8#aad ,sometimes in this enrichment of the vocabulary by pronouns new and delightful forms are struck off1 as when the little experimenter invents the possessive form #8she's'4 ----- ,footnote #aad3 ,compare above1 p4 #dc4 ----- ,the perfect unfettered use of these puzzling forms comes much later4 ,preyer quotes a case in which a child ,olga1 aged four years1 would say1 #8,she has made me wet1' meaning that she herself had done it4 ,but this perhaps points to that tendency to split up the self into a number of personalities1 to which reference was made in an earlier essay4 ,the third year1 which witnesses the important addition of the pronouns1 sees other refinements introduced4 ,thus the definite article was introduced in the case of ,preyer's boy in the twenty-eighth month1 in that of an ,english boy at the age of two years eight months4 ,prepositions are introduced about the same time4 ,in this way childish talk begins to lose its primitive disjointed character1 and to grow into an articulated structure4#aae ,yet the perfect mastery of these takes time4 ,a feeling for analogy easily leads the little explorer astray at first1 as when the child ,m4 said #8far to' after the model #8near to'4 ----- ,footnote #aae3 ,for a fuller account of this progress1 the reader cannot do better than consult ,preyer1 op4 cit41 ,cap4 #bj and #ba4 ----- ,through this whole period of language-learning the child continues to show his originality1 his inventiveness4 ,he is rarely at a loss1 and though the gaps in his verbal acquisitions are great he is very skilful in filling them up4 ,if1 for example1 our bright little linguist ,m41 at the age of one year eight and a half months1 after being jumped by her father1 wants him to jump her mother also1 she says1 in default of the word #8jump1' 8,make mamma high04 ,a boy of twenty-seven months ingeniously said1 #8,it rains off1' for #8,the rain has left off'4 ,forms are sometimes combined1 as when a boy of three years three months used #8my lone1' #8your lone1' for #8me alone' or #8by myself1' #8you alone' or #8by yourself'4 ,another girl1 two years ten months1 said1 #8,no two 'tatoes left1' meaning #8only one potato is left'4 ,pleonasms occur in abundance1 as when a boy of two would say1 #8,another one bicca 7biscuit71' and1 better still1 #8another more'4 ,getting at our ,meanings4 ,there is one part of this child's work of learning our language of which ,i have said hardly anything1 viz41 the divining of the verbal content1 of the meaning we put or try to put into our words4 ,a brief reference to this may well bring this study of childish linguistics to a close4 ,the least attention to a child in the act of language-learning will show how much of downright hard work goes to the understanding of language4 ,if we are to judge by the effort required we might say that the child does as much in deciphering his mother-tongue as an ,oriental scholar in deciphering a system of hieroglyphics4 ,just think1 for example1 how many careful comparisons the small child-brain has to carry out1 comparisons of the several uses of the word by others in varying circumstances1 before he can get anything approaching to a clear idea1 answering even to such seemingly simple words as #8clean1' #8old' or #8clever'4 ,the way in which inquiring children plague us with questions of the form1 #8,what does such and such a word mean8' sufficiently shows how much thought-activity goes in the trying to get at meanings4 ,this difficulty1 moreover1 persists1 reappearing in new forms as the child pushes his way onwards into the more tangled tracts of the lingual terrain4 ,it is felt1 and felt keenly1 too1 when most of the torments of articulation are over and forgotten4 ,many of us can remember how certain words haunted us as uncanny forms into the nature of which we tried hard1 but in vain1 to penetrate4 ,owing to these difficulties the little learner is always drifting into misunderstanding of words4 ,such misapprehensions will arise in a passive way by the mere play of association in attaching the word especially to some striking feature or circumstance which is apt to present itself when the word is used in the child's hearing4 ,in this way1 for example1 general terms may become terribly restricted in range by the incorporation of accidentals into their meaning1 as when a ,sunday school scholar rendered the story of the good ,samaritan by saying that a gentleman came by and poured some paraffin 7i4e41 oil7 over the poor man4 ,a word may have its meaning funnily transformed by such associative suggestions1 as when a little girl1 being told that a thing was a secret1 remarked1 #8,well1 mamma1 'ou 7you7 can whisper it in my ear'4 ,as this example shows1 a child in his #8concreting' fashion tries to get sensible realities out of our names4 ,a mask was called by a boy of six a #8grimace1' this abstract name standing to his mind for the grinning face4 ,a like tendency shows itself in the following quaint story4 ,a boy and a girl1 twins1 had been dressed alike4 ,later on the boy was put into a #8suit'4 ,a lady asked the girl about this time whether they were not the twins1 when she replied3 #8,no1 we used to be'4 #8,twin' was inseparably associated in her mind with the similarity in dress4 ,a somewhat similar effect of association of ideas is seen in the quaint request of the little girl ,m4 that her mamma should #8smell' the pudding and make it cool4 ,the action of bringing the face near an object yet so as not to touch it was associated with smelling1 as in the little girl who1 according to ,mr4 ,punch1 had her sense of propriety shocked by some irreverent person who did not 8smell his hat0 when he took his seat in church4 ,moral expressions get misunderstood in much the same manner4 ,a little girl of three and a half years1 pretending that her mother was her little girl1 said3 #8,you mustn't do anything on purpose'4 ,the usual verbal context of this highly-respectable phrase 7e4g41 #8,you did it on purpose'7 had in the child's mind given it a naughty meaning4 ,with these losings of the verbal road through associative by-paths may be taken the host of misapprehensions into which children are apt to fall through the ambiguities of our words and expressions1 and our short and elliptical modes of speaking4 ,thus an ,american child1 noting that children were #8half price' at a certain show1 wanted his mother to get a baby now that they were cheap4#aaf ,with this may be compared the following3 ,jean ,ingelow tells us she can well remember how sad she was made by her father telling her one day after dancing her on his knee that he must put her down as he #8had a bone in his leg'4#aag ,much misapprehension arises1 too1 from our figurative use of language1 which the little listener is apt to interpret in a very literal way4 ,it would be worth knowing what odd renderings the child-brain has given to such expressions as #8an upright man1' #8a fish out of water1' and the like4 ----- ,footnote #aaf3 ,worcester ,collection1 p4 #ba4 ,footnote #aag3 ,cf4 the account ,goltz gives of the anxiety he felt as a child on hearing that his uvula 7zapfen7 had #8fallen down1' op4 cit41 p4 #bfa4 ----- ,in addition to these comparatively passive misapprehensions there are others which are the outcome of an intellectual effort1 the endeavour to penetrate into the mystery of some new and puzzling words or expression4 ,many of us have had our special horror1 our bte noire among words1 which tormented us for months and years4 ,i remember how ,i was plagued by the word #8wean1' the explanation of which was very properly1 no doubt1 denied me by the authorities1 and by what quaint fancies ,i tried to fill in a meaning4 ,as with words1 so with whole expressions and sayings4 ,it was a natural movement of childish thought when a little school-girl answered the question of the ,inspector1 #8,what is an average8' by saying #8,what the hen lays eggs on'4 ,she had heard her mother say1 8,the hen lays so many eggs #8on the average' every week10 and had no doubt imagined a little myth about this #8average'4 ,again1 most of us know what queer renderings the child-mind has given to ,scripture language4 ,mr4 ,james ,payn tells us that he knew a boy who for years substituted for the words1 #8,hallowed be thy name1' #8,harold be thy name'4#aah ,in this and similar cases it is not1 as might be supposed1 defective hearing--children hear words as a rule with great exactness--it is the impulse to give a familiar and significant rendering to what is strange and meaningless4#aai ,a friend of mine when a boy was accustomed on hearing the passage1 #8,if ,i say peradventure the darkness shall cover me1' etc41 to insert a pause after #8peradventure1' apprehending the passage in this wise3 ,if ,i say #8,peradventure6'--the darkness1 etc4 ,in this way he turned the mysterious #8peradventure' into a mystic #8open sesame1' and added a thrilling touch of magic to the passage4 ,my friend's daughter tells me that on hearing the passage1 8,i 444 visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation1 444 and show mercy unto thousands10 she construed the strange word #8generation' to mean an immense number like #8billion1' and was thus led to trouble herself about ,god's seeming to be more cruel than kind4#abj ----- ,footnote #aah3 ,in the ,illustrated ,london ,news1 #cjth ,june1 #ahid4 ,footnote #aai3 ,of course defective auditory apprehension may assist in these cases4 ,goltz gives an example from his own childhood4 ,he took the words 8,namen nennen ,dich nicht0 to be 8,namen nenne ,dich nicht10 and was sorely puzzled at the idea of bidding a name not to name itself4 ,footnote #abj3 ,psalm cxxxix4 and ,second ,commandment1 ,prayer-book version4 ----- ,in some cases1 too1 where the language is simple enough a child's brain will find our meaning unsuitable and follow a line of interpretation of its own4 ,mr4 ,canton relates that his little heroine1 who knew the lines in ,strumpelpeter-- ,the doctor came and shook his head1 ,and gave him nasty physic too-- was told that she would catch a cold1 and that she at once replied1 8,and will the doctor come and shook my head80#aba ,it was so much more natural to suppose that when the doctor came and did something this was carried out on the person of the patient4 ----- ,footnote #aba3 ,the ,invisible ,playmate1 p4 #ce4 ----- ,there is nothing more instructive in this connexion than the talk of children among themselves about words4 ,they build up quaint speculations about meanings1 and try their hand bravely at definitions4 ,here is an example3 ,a boy of five was instructing his comrade as to the puzzling word #8home-sick'4 ,he did it in quite a scientific fashion4 8,it's like sea-sick1 you know3 you are sea-sick when you are sick at sea1 and so you're home-sick when you're sick at home04 ,there is something of this same desire to get behind words in children's word-play1 as we call it1 their discovery of odd affinities in verbal sounds1 and their punning4 ,though no doubt this contains a genuine element of childish fun1 it betokens a more serious trait also1 an interest in word-sounds as such1 and a curiosity about their origin and purpose4 ,it is difficult for grown-up people to go back in thought to the attitude of the child-mind towards verbal sounds4 ,just as children show #8the innocence of the eye' in seeing the colours of objects as they are and not as our habits of interpretation tend to make them1 so they show an innocence of the ear1 catching the intrinsic sensuous qualities of a word or a group of words1 in a way which has become impossible for us4 ,this half-playful1 half-serious scrutiny of word-sounds leads to the attempt to find by analysis and analogy a familiar meaning in strange words4 ,for example1 a little boy about four years old heard his mother speak of nurse's neuralgia1 from which she had been suffering for some time4 ,he thereupon exclaimed1 #8,i don't think it's new ralgia1 ,i call it old ralgia'4 ,a child called his doll #8,shakespeare' because its spear-like legs could be shaken4 ,another boy of three explained #8gaiters' as things #8to go out of the gate with'4 ,another said that the #8,master' which he prefixed to his name meant that he was master of his dog4 ,a little girl in her third year called #8anchovies' #8ham-chovies' #8mermaid' #8worm-maid1' #8whirlwind' #8world-wind1' #8gnomes' #8no-mans' 7un-menschen71 taking pleasure apparently in bringing some familiar element--even when this seems to other ears at least not very explanatory--into the strange jumble of word-sound that surrounded her4 ,a child may know that he is #8fooling' in such cases1 yet the word-play brings a certain satisfaction1 which is at least akin to the pleasure of the older linguist4 ,this quasi-punning transformation of words is curiously like what may be called folk-etymology1 where a foreign word is altered by a people so as to be made to appear significant and suitable for its purpose1 as in the oft-quoted forms #8sparrow grass' 7asparagus7 and #8cray-fish' 7from the ,french crevisse1 cf4 the ,o4 ,h4 ,german ,krebiz71 where the attempt to suit the form to the thing is still more apparent4#abb ,when1 for example1 a boy calls a holiday a #8hollorday1' because it is a day #8to holloa in1' we may say that he is reflecting the process by which adults try to put meaning into strange words1 as when a cabman ,i overheard a few days ago spoke about putting down ashphalt 7for #8asphalt'74 ,some children carry out such transformation and invention of derivation on a large scale1 often resorting to pretty myths1 as when the butterflies are said to make butter1 or to eat butter1 grasshoppers to give grass1 honeysuckles to yield all the honey1 and so forth4#abc ----- ,footnote #abb3 ,the other form of the word1 #8craw-fish1' seems a still more ingenious example of folk-etymology4 ,footnote #abc3 ,these last are taken from a good list of children's punnings in ,dr4 ,stanley ,hall's article1 8,the ,contents of ,children's ,minds04 ----- ,a child will even go further1 and1 prying into the forms of gender1 invent explanatory myths in which words are personified and sexualised4 ,thus a little boy of five years and three months who had learned ,german and ,italian as well as ,english was much troubled about the gender of the sun and moon4 ,so he set about myth-making on this wise3 8,i suppose people#abd think the sun is the husband1 the moon is the wife1 and all the stars the little children1 and ,jupiter the maid04 ,a ,german girl of six was thus addressed by her teacher3 8#8,der' ist mnnlich2 ,was sind #8,die' und #8,das'80 ,to which she replied prettily3 ,die ist dmlich 7i4e41 #8ladyish'7 und das ist kindlich4 ,the tendency to attribute differences of sex and age to names observable in this last is seen in other ways4 ,an ,italian child asked why #8barba' 7beard7 was not called #8barbo'4 ,with this may be compared the pretty myth of another ,italian child that #8barca' 7boat7 was the little girl of #8barcainolo' 7boatman74#abe ----- ,footnote #abd3 ,that is1 ,i take it1 the majority1 viz41 ,italians and ,english4 ,footnote #abe3 ,both of these are given by ,paola ,lombroso in the work already quoted4 ----- ,one other characteristic feature in the child's attitude towards words must be touched on1 because it looks like the opposite of the impulse to tamper with words just dealt with4 ,a child is a great stickler for accuracy in the repetition of all familiar word-forms4 ,the zeal of a child in correcting others' language1 and the comical errors he will now and again fall into in exercising his pedagogic function1 are well known to parents4 ,sometimes he shows himself the most absurd of pedants4 #8,shall ,i read to you out of this book1 baby8' asked a mother of her boy1 about two and a half years old4 #8,no1' replied the infant1 #8not out of dot book1 but somepy inside of it4' ,the same little stickler for verbal accuracy1 when his nurse asked him1 #8,are you going to build your bricks1 baby8' replied solemnly1 #8,we don't build bricks1 we make them and then build with them'4 ,in the notes on the boy ,c4 we find an example of how jealously the child-mind insists on the ipsissima verba in the recounting of his familiar stories4 ,are these little sticklers for verbal correctness1 who object to everything figurative in our language1 who1 when they learn that a person or an animal has #8lost his head1' take the expression literally1 and who love nothing better than tying us down to literal exactness1 themselves given to #8word-play' and verbal myth-making1 or have we here to do with two varieties of childish mind8 ,my observations do not enable me to pronounce on this point4 ,i have in this essay confined myself to some of the more common and elementary features of the child's linguistic experience4 ,others present themselves when the reading stage is reached1 and the new strange stupid-looking word-symbol on the printed page has to do duty for the living sound1 which for the child1 as we have seen1 seems to belong to the object and to share in its life4 ,but this subject1 tempting as it is1 must be left4 ,and the same must be said of those special difficulties and problems which arise for the child-mind when two or more languages are spoken4 ,this is a branch of child-linguistics which1 so far as ,i know1 has never been explored4 ,,vi4 ,,subject ,,to ,,fear4 ,children's ,sensibility4 ,in passing from a study of children's ideas to an investigation of their feelings1 we seem to encounter quite another kind of problem4 ,a child has the germs of ideas long before he can give them clear articulate expression2 and1 as we have seen1 he has at first to tax his ingenuity in order to convey by intelligible signs the thoughts which arise in his mind4 ,for the manifestation of his feelings of pleasure and pain1 on the other hand1 nature has endowed him with adequate expression4 ,the states of infantile discontent and content1 misery and gladness1 pronounce themselves with a clearness and an emphasis which leave no room for misunderstanding4 ,this full frank manifestation of feeling holds good more especially of those states of bodily comfort and discomfort which make up the first rude experiences of life4 ,it is necessary for the child's preservation that he should be able to announce by clear signals the oncoming of his cravings and of his sufferings1 and we all know how well nature has provided for this necessity4 ,hence the fulness with which infant psychology has dealt with this first chapter of the life of feeling4 ,preyer1 for example1 gives a full and almost exhaustive epitome of the various shades of infantile pleasure and pain which grow out of this life of sense and appetite1 and has carefully described their physiological accompaniments and their signatures4#abf ----- ,footnote #abf3 ,op4 cit41 ,cap4 #f and #ac4 ----- ,when we pass from these elementary forms of pleasure and pain to the rudiments of emotion proper1 as the miseries of fear1 the sorrows and joys of the affections1 we have still1 no doubt1 to do with a mode of manifestation which1 on the whole1 is direct and unreserved to a gratifying extent4 ,a child of three is delightfully incapable of the skilful repressions1 and the yet more skilful simulations of emotion which are easy to the adult4#abg ,yet frank and transparent as is the first instinctive utterance of feeling1 it is apt to get checked at an early date1 giving place to a certain reserve4 ,so that1 as we know from published reminiscences of childhood1 a child of six will have learnt to hide some of his deepest feelings from unsympathetic eyes4 ----- ,footnote #abg3 ,this does not apply to older children4 ,as ,tolstoi's book1 ,childhood1 ,boyhood and ,youth1 tells us1 a boy of twelve may be much given to straining after feelings which he thinks he ought to experience4 ----- ,this shyness of the young heart1 face to face with old and strange ways of feeling1 exposed to ridicule if not to something worse1 makes the problem of registering the pulsations of its emotions more difficult than it at first seems4 ,as a matter of fact we are still far from knowing the precise range and depth of children's feelings4 ,this is seen plainly enough in the quite opposite views which are entertained of childish sensibility1 some describing it as restricted and obtuse1 others as morbidly excessive4 ,such diversity of view may no doubt arise from differences in the fields of observation1 since1 as we know1 children differ hardly less than adults perhaps in breadth and fineness of emotional susceptibility4 ,yet ,i think that this contrariety of view points further to the conclusion that we are still far from sounding with finely measuring scientific apparatus the currents of childish emotion4 ,it seems1 then1 to be worth while to look further into the matter in the hope of gaining a deeper and fuller insight1 and as a step in this direction ,i propose to inquire into the various forms and the causes of one of the best marked and most characteristic of children's feelings--namely1 fear4 ,that fear is one of the characteristic feelings of the child needs no proving4 ,it seems to belong to these wee1 weakly things1 brought face to face with a new strange world1 to tremble4 ,they are naturally timid1 as all that is weak and ignorant in nature is apt to be timid4 ,i have said that fear is well marked in the child4 ,yet1 though it is true that fully developed fear or terror shows itself by unmistakable signs1 there are many cases where it is difficult to say whether the child is the subject of this feeling4 ,thus it is doubtful whether the tremblings and disturbances of respiration which are said to betray fear in the new-born infant are a full expression of this state4#abh ,again1 the reflex movement of a start on hearing a sound hardly amounts to the full reaction of fear1 though it is akin to it4#abi ,a child may1 further1 show a sort of sthetic dislike for an ugly form or sound1 turning away in evident aversion1 and yet not be afraid in the full sense4 ,fear proper betrays itself in the stare1 the grave look1 and in such movements as turning away and hiding the face against the nurse's or mother's shoulder1 and sometimes in covering it with the hands4 ,in severer forms it leads to trembling and to wild shrieking4 ,changes of colour also occur4 ,it is commonly said that great fear produces paleness2 but according to one of my correspondents who has had considerable experience1 a child may show the feeling by his face turning scarlet4 ,fear1 if not very intense1 leads to voluntary movements1 as turning away1 putting the object aside1 or moving away4 ,in its more violent forms1 however1 it paralyses the child4 ,it is desirable that parents should carefully observe and describe the first signs of fear in their children4#acj ----- ,footnote #abh3 ,perez regards these as signs of fear1 and points out that tremulous movements may occur in the ftus 7,l',education ds le berceau1 p4 #id74 ,footnote #abi3 ,for an account of this reflex1 see ,preyer1 op4 cit41 ,cap4 #aj1 #agf4 ,footnote #acj3 ,i know of no good account of the manifestations of childish fear4 ,mosso's book1 ,la ,peur1 chap4 v4 and following1 will be found most useful here4 ----- ,startling ,effect of ,sounds4 ,it may be well to begin our study of fear by a reference to the effect of startling4 ,as is well known1 sudden and loud sounds1 as that of a door banging1 will give a shock to an infant in the first weeks of life1 which though not amounting to fear is its progenitor4 ,a clearer manifestation occurs when a new and unfamiliar sound calls forth the grave look1 the trembling lip1 and possibly the fit of crying4 ,darwin gives an excellent example of this4 ,he had1 he tells us1 been accustomed to make all sorts of sudden noises with his boy1 aged four and a half months1 which were well received2 but one day having introduced a new sound1 that of a loud snoring1 he found that the child was quite upset1 bursting out into a fit of crying4#aca ----- ,footnote #aca3 ,mind1 vol4 ii41 p4 #bhh4 ----- ,as this incident suggests1 it is not every new sound which is thus disconcerting to the little stranger4 ,sudden sharp sounds of any kind seem to be especially disliked1 as those of a dog's bark4 ,the child ,m4 burst out crying on first hearing the sound of a baby rattle2 and she did the same two months later on accidentally ringing a hand bell4 ,louder and more voluminous sounds1 too1 are apt to have an alarming effect4 ,the big noise of a factory1 of a steam-ship1 of a passing train1 are among the sounds assigned by my correspondents as causes of this early startling and upsetting effect4 ,a little girl when taken into the country at the age of nine months1 though she liked the animals she saw on the whole1 showed fear by seeking shelter against the nurse's shoulder1 on hearing the bleating of the sheep4 ,so strong is this effect of suddenness and volume of sound that even musical sounds often excite some alarm at first4 #8,he 7a boy of four months7 cried when he first heard the piano1' writes one lady1 and this is but a sample of many observations4 ,a child of five and a half months showed such a horror of a banjo that he would scream if it were played or only touched4 ,preyer's boy at sixteen months was apparently alarmed when his father1 in order to entertain him1 produced what seems to us a particularly pure musical tone by rubbing a drinking-glass4 ,he remarks that this same sound had been produced when the child was four months old without any ill effects4#acb ----- ,footnote #acb3 ,op4 cit41 p4 #aca4 ----- ,this last fact suggests that such shrinkings from sound may be developed at a comparatively late date4 ,this idea is supported by other observations4 8,from about two years four months 7writes a mother7 to the present time 7two years eleven months71 he has shown signs of fear of music4 ,at two years five months he liked some singing of rounds1 but when a fresh person with a stronger voice than the rest joined1 he begged the singer to stop4 ,presently he tolerated the singing as long as he might stand at the farthest corner of the room40 ,this child was also about the same time afraid of the piano1 and of the organ1 when played by his mother in a church4 ,it is worth noting that animals show a similar dread of musical sounds4 ,i took a young cat of about eight weeks in my lap and struck some chords not loudly on the piano4 ,it got up1 moved uneasily from side to side1 then bolted to the corner of the room and seemed to try to get up the walls4 ,dogs1 too1 certainly seem to be put out1 if not to experience fear1 at the music of a brass band4 ,it is sometimes supposed that this startling effect of loud sounds is wholly an affair of nervous disturbance3#acc but the late development of the repugnance in certain cases seems to show that this is not the only cause at work4 ,of course a child's nervous organisation may through ill health become more sensitive to this disturbing effect2 and1 as the life of ,chopin tells us1 the delicate organisation of a future musician may be specially subject to these shocks4 ,yet ,i suspect that vague alarm at the unexpected and unknown takes part here4 ,there is something uncanny to the child in the very production of sound from a silent thing4 ,a banjo lying now inert1 harmless1 and then suddenly firing off a whole gamut of sound may well shock a small child's preconceptions of things4 ,the second time that fear was observed in one child at the age of ten months1 it was excited by a new toy which squeaked on being pressed4#acd ,this seems to be another example of the disconcerting effect of the unexpected4 ,in other cases the alarming effect of the mystery is increased by the absence of all visible cause4 ,one little boy of two years used to get sadly frightened at the sound of the water rushing into the cistern which was near his nursery4 ,the child was afraid at the same time of thunder1 calling it #8water coming'4 ----- ,footnote #acc3 ,this seems to be the view of ,perez3 ,the ,first ,three ,years of ,childhood 7,english translation71 p4 #fd4 ,footnote #acd3 ,observation of ,f4 ,h4 ,champneys1 ,mind1 vol4 vi41 p4 #ajf4 ----- ,i am far from saying that all children manifest this fear of sounds4 ,miss ,shinn points out that her niece was from the first pleased with the piano1 and this is no doubt true of many children4 ,children behave very differently towards thunder1 some being greatly disturbed by it1 others being rather delighted4 ,thus ,preyer's boy1 who was so ignominiously upset by the tone of the drinking-glass1 laughed at the thunderstorm2 and we know that the little ,walter ,scott was once found during a thunderstorm lying on his back in the open air clapping his hands and shouting 8,bonnie1 bonnie60 at the flashes of lightning4 ,it is possible that in such cases the exhilarating effect of the brightness counteracts the uncanny effect of the thunder4 ,more observations are needed on this point4 ,a complete explanation of these early vague alarms of the ear may as yet not be possible4 ,children show in the matter of sound capricious repugnances which it is exceedingly difficult to account for4 ,they seem sometimes to have their pet aversions like older folk4 ,yet ,i think that a general explanation is possible4 ,to begin with1 then1 it is probable that in many of these cases1 especially those occurring in the first six months1 we have to do with an organic phenomenon1 with a sort of jar to the nervous system4 ,to understand this we have to remember that the ear1 in the case of man at least1 is the sense-organ through which the nervous system is most powerfully and profoundly acted on4 ,sounds seem to go through us1 to pierce us1 to shake us1 to pound and crush us4 ,a child of four or six months has a nervous organisation still weak and unstable1 and we should naturally expect loud sounds to produce a disturbing effect on it4 ,to this it is to be added that sounds have a way of taking us by surprise1 of seeming to start out of nothing2 and this aspect of them1 as ,i have pointed out above1 may well excite vague alarm in the small creatures to whom all that is new and unlooked for is apt to seem uncanny4 ,the fact that most children soon lose their fear by getting used to the sounds seems to show how much the new and the mysterious has to do with the effect4 ,whether heredity plays any part here1 e4g41 in the fear of the dog's barking and other sounds of animals1 seems to me exceedingly doubtful4 ,this point will1 however1 come up for closer consideration presently1 when we deal with children's fear of animals4 ,before considering the manifold outgoings of fear produced by impressions of the eye1 we may glance at another form of early disturbance which has some analogy to the shock-like effects of certain sounds4 ,i refer here to the feeling of bodily insecurity which appears very early when the child is awkwardly carried1 or let down back-foremost1 and later when he begins to walk4 ,one child in her fifth month was observed when carried to hold on to the nurse's dress as if for safety4 ,and it has been noticed by more than one observer that on dandling a baby up and down in one's arms1 it will on descending1 that is when the support of the arms is being withdrawn1 show signs of discontent in struggling movements4#ace ,bell1 ,preyer1 and others regard this as an instinctive form of fear4 ,such manifestations may1 however1 be merely the result of sudden and rude disturbances of the sense of bodily ease which attends the habitual condition of adequate support4 ,a child accustomed to lie in a cradle1 on the floor1 or on somebody's lap1 might be expected to be put out when the supporting mass is greatly reduced1 as in bad carrying1 or wholly removed1 as in quickly lowering him backwards4 ,the fear of falling1 which shows itself during the first attempts to stand1 comes1 it must be remembered1 as an accompaniment of a new and highly strange situation4 ,the first experience of using the legs for support must1 one supposes1 involve a profound change in the child's whole bodily consciousness1 a change which may well be accompanied with a sense of disturbance4 ,not only so1 it comes after a considerable experience of partial fallings1 as in trying to turn over when lying1 half climbing the sides of the cradle1 etc41 and still harder bumpings when the crawling stage is reached4 ,these would1 ,i suspect1 be quite sufficient to produce the timidity which is observable on making the bolder venture of standing4#acf ----- ,footnote #ace3 ,see the quotations from ,sir ,ch4 ,bell1 ,perez1 ,first ,three ,years of ,childhood1 p4 #fc4 ,footnote #acf3 ,preyer seems to regard this as instinctive4 ,op4 cit41 p4 #aca4 ----- ,fear of ,visible ,things4 ,fears excited by visual impressions come later than those excited by sounds4 ,the reason of this seems pretty obvious4 ,visual sensations do not produce the strong effect of nervous shock which auditory ones produce4 ,let a person compare the violent and profound jar which he experiences on suddenly hearing a loud sound1 with the slight surface-agitation produced by the sudden movement of an object across the field of vision4 ,the latter has less of the effect of nervous jar and more of the characteristics of fear proper1 that is1 apprehension of evil4 ,we should accordingly expect that eye-fears would only begin to show themselves in the child after experience had begun its educative work4#acg ----- ,footnote #acg3 ,m4 ,perez 7op4 cit41 p4 #fe7 calls in the evolution hypothesis here1 suggesting that the child1 unlike the young animal1 is so organised as to be more on the alert for dangers which are near at hand 7auditory impressions7 than for those at a distance 7visual impressions74 ,i confess1 however1 that ,i find this ingenious writer not quite convincing here4 ----- ,at the outset it is well1 as in the case of the ear-fears1 to keep before us the distinction between a mere dislike to a sensation and a true reaction of fear4 ,we shall find that children's quasi-sthetic dislikes to certain colours may readily simulate the appearance of fears4 ,among the earliest manifestations of fear excited by visual impressions we have those called forth by the presentation of something new and strange1 especially when it involves a rupture of customary arrangements4 ,although children love and delight in what is new1 their disposition to fear is apt to give to new and strange objects a disquieting1 if not distinctly alarming character4 ,this apprehension shows itself as soon as a child has begun to be used or accustomed to a particular state of things4 ,among the more disconcerting effects of a rude departure from the customary1 we have that of change of place4 ,at first the infant betrays no sign of disturbance on being carried into a new room4 ,but when once it has grown accustomed to a certain room it will feel a new one to be strange1 and eye its features with a perceptibly anxious look4 ,this sense of strangeness in place sometimes appears very early4 ,the little girl ,m41 on being taken at the age of four months into a new nursery1 8looked all round and then burst out crying04 ,this feeling of uneasiness may linger late4 ,a boy retained up to the age of three years eight months the fear of being left alone in strange hotels or lodgings4 ,yet entrance on a new abode does not by any means always excite this reaction4 ,a child may have his curiosity excited1 or may be amused by the odd look of things4 ,thus one boy on being taken at the age of fifteen months to a fresh house and given a small plain room looked round and laughed at the odd carpet4 ,children even of the same age appear in such circumstances to vary greatly with respect to the relative strength of the impulses of fear and curiosity4 ,how different children's mental attitude may be towards the new and unfamiliar is illustrated by some notes on a boy sent me by his mother4 ,this child1 8though hardly ever afraid of strange people or places1 was very much frightened as a baby of familiar things seen after an interval04 ,thus 8at ten months he was excessively frightened on returning to his nursery after a month's absence4 ,on this occasion he screamed violently if his nurse left his side for a moment for some hours after he got home1 whereas he had not in the least objected to being installed in a strange nursery40 ,the mother adds that 8at thirteen months1 his memory having grown stronger1 he was very much pleased at coming to his home after being away a fortnight04 ,this case looks puzzling enough at first1 and seems to contradict the laws of infant psychology4 ,perhaps the child's partial recognition was accompanied by a sense of the uncanny1 like that which we experience when a place seems familiar to us though we have no clear recollection of having seen it before4 ,what applies to places applies also to persons3 a sudden change of customary human surroundings by the arrival of a stranger on the scene is apt to trouble the child4 ,at first all faces seem alike for the child4 ,later on unfamiliar faces excite something like a grave inquisitorial scrutiny4 ,yet1 for the first three months1 there is no distinct manifestation of a fear of strangers4 ,it is only later1 when attachment to human belongings has been developed1 that the approach of a stranger1 especially if accompanied by a proposal to take the child1 calls forth clear signs of displeasure and the shrinking away of fear4 ,preyer gives the sixth and seventh months as the date at which his boy began to cry at the sight of a strange face4 ,in one set of notes sent me it was remarked that a child of four and a half months would cry on being nursed by a stranger4 ,to be nursed by a stranger1 however1 is to have the whole baby-world revolutionised2 little wonder then that it should bring the feeling of strangeness and homelessness4 ,here1 too1 curious differences soon begin to disclose themselves1 some children being decidedly more sociable towards strangers than others4 ,it would be curious to compare the age at which children begin to take kindly to them4 ,preyer gives nineteen months as the date at which his boy surmounted his timidity2 but it is probable that the transition occurs at very different dates in the case of different children4#ach ----- ,footnote #ach3 ,this true fear of strangers must be distinguished from the later shyness1 which1 though akin to it1 is a more complex feeling4 ----- ,it is worth noting that the little boy to whom ,i referred just now displayed the same signs of uneasiness at seeing old friends1 after an interval1 as at returning to old scenes4 ,when eight months old1 8he moaned in a curious way when his nurse 7of whom he was very fond7 came home after a fortnight's holiday04 ,here1 however1 the signs of fear seem to be less pronounced than in the case of returning to the old room4 ,it would be difficult to give the right name to this curious moan4 ,partial alteration of the surroundings frequently brings about a measure of this same mental uneasiness4 ,preyer's boy when one year and five months old was much disturbed at seeing his mother in a black dress4 ,children seem to have a special dislike to black apparel4 ,george ,sand describes her fear at having to put on black stockings when her father died4 ,yet any change of colour in dress will disturb a child4 ,c41 when an infant1 was distressed to tears at the spectacle of a new colour and pattern on his mother's dress4 ,this dislike to any change of dress as such is borne out by other observations4 ,a child manifested between the age of about seven months and of two and a half years the most marked repugnance to new clothes1 so that the authorities found it very difficult to get them on4 ,it is presumable that the donning of new apparel disturbed too rudely the child's sense of his proper self4 ,in certain cases the introduction of new natural objects of great extent and impressiveness will produce a similar effect of childish anxiety1 as though they made too violent a change in the surroundings4 ,one of the best illustrations of this obtainable from the life of an average well-to-do child is the impression produced by a first visit to the sea4 ,preyer's boy at the age of twenty-one months showed all the signs of fear when his nurse carried him on her arm close to the sea4#aci ,the boy ,c4 on being first taken near the sea at the age of two was disturbed by its noise4 ,while1 however1 ,i have a number of well-authenticated cases of such an instinctive repugnance to1 and something like dread of the sea1 ,i find that there is by no means uniformity in children's behaviour in this particular4 ,a little boy who first saw the sea at the age of thirteen months exhibited signs not of fear but of wondering delight1 prettily stretching out his tiny hands towards it as if wanting to go to it4 ,another child who also first saw the sea at the age of thirteen months began to crawl towards the waves4 ,and yet another boy at the age of twenty-one months on first seeing the sea spread his arms as if to embrace it4 ----- ,footnote #aci3 ,op4 cit41 p4 #aca4 ----- ,these observations show that the strange big thing affects children very differently4 ,c4 had a particular dislike to noises1 which was1 ,i think1 early strengthened by finding out that his father had the same prejudice4 ,hence perhaps his hostile attitude towards the sea4 ,probably1 too1 imaginative children1 whose minds take in something of the bigness of the sea1 will be more disposed to this variety of fear4 ,a mother writes me that her elder child1 an imaginative girl1 has not even now at the age of six got over her fear of going into the sea1 whereas her sister1 one and a quarter years younger1 and not of an imaginative temperament1 is perfectly fearless4 ,she adds that it is the bigness of the sea which evidently impresses the imagination of the elder4 ,imaginative children1 too1 are apt to give life and purpose to the big moving noisy thing4 ,this is illustrated in ,m4 ,pierre ,loti's graphic account of his first childish impressions of the sea1 seen one evening in the twilight4 8,it was of a dark1 almost black green3 it seemed restless1 treacherous1 ready to swallow3 it was stirring and swaying everywhere at the same time1 with the look of sinister wickedness40#adj ----- ,footnote #adj3 ,le ,roman d'un ,enfant4 ----- ,there seems enough in the vast waste of unresting waters to excite the imagination of a child to awe and terror4 ,hence it is needless to follow ,m4 ,loti in his speculations as to an inherited fear of the sea4 ,he seems to base this supposition on the fact that at this first view he distinctly recognised the sea4 ,but such recognition may have meant merely the objective realisation of what had no doubt been before pretty fully described by his mother and aunt1 and imaginatively pictured by himself4 ,the opposite attitude1 that of the thoroughly unimaginative child1 in presence of the sea is well illustrated by the story of a little girl aged two1 who1 on being first taken to see the watery wonder1 exclaimed1 8,oh1 mamma1 look at the soapy water04 ,the awful mystery of all the stretch of ever-moving water was invisible to this child1 being hidden behind the familiar detail of the #8soapy' edge4 ,there is probably nothing in the natural world which makes on the childish imagination quite so awful an impression as the watery ,leviathan4 ,perhaps the fear which one of my correspondents tells me was excited in her when a child by the sudden appearance of a mountain may be akin to this dread of the sea4 ,we may now pass to another group of fear-excitants1 the appearance of certain strange forms and movements of objects4 ,the close connexion between sthetic dislike and fear is seen in the well-marked recoilings of children from odd uncanny-looking dolls4 ,the girl ,m41 when just over six months old1 was frightened at a ,japanese doll so that it had to be put in another room4 ,another child when thirteen months old was terrified at the sight of an ugly doll4 ,the said doll is described as black with woolly head1 startled eyes1 and red lips4 ,such an ogre might well call up a tremor in the bravest of children4 ,in another case1 that of a little boy of two years and two months1 the broken face of a doll proved to be highly disconcerting4 ,the mother describes the effect as mixed of fear1 distress1 and intellectual wonder4 ,nor did his anxiety depart when some hours later the doll1 after sleeping in his mother's room1 reappeared with a new face4 ,in such cases1 it seems plain1 it is the ugly transformation of something specially familiar and agreeable which excites the feeling of nervous apprehension4 ,making grimaces1 that is the spoiling of the typical familiar face1 may1 it is said1 disturb a child even at the early age of two months4#ada ,it is much the same when the child ,m41 at the age of thirteen months three weeks1 was frightened and howled when a lady looked at her close with blue spectacles1 though she was quite used to ordinary glasses4 ,such transformations of the homely and assuring face are1 moreover1 not only ugly but bewildering to the child1 and where all is mysterious and uncanny the child is apt to fear4 ,whether 8inherited associations0 involving a dim recognition of the meaning of these distortions play any part here ,i do not feel at all certain4 ----- ,footnote #ada3 ,quoted by ,tracy1 op4 cit41 p4 #bi4 ,but this observation seems to me to need confirmation4 ----- ,children1 like animals1 will sometimes show fear at the sight of what seems to us a quite harmless object4 ,a shying horse is a puzzle to his rider3 his terrors are so unpredictable4 ,similarly in the case of a timid child almost anything unfamiliar and out of the way1 whether in the colour1 the form1 or the movement of an object1 may provoke a measure of anxiety4 ,thus a little girl1 aged one year and ten months1 showed signs of fear during a drive at a row of grey ash trees placed along the road4 ,this was just the kind of thing that a horse might shy at4 ,as with animals1 so with children1 any seemingly uncaused movement is apt to excite a feeling of alarm4 ,just as a dog will run away from a leaf whirled about by the wind1 so children are apt to be terrified by the strange and quite irregular behaviour of a feather as it glides along the floor or lifts itself into the air4 ,a little girl of three1 standing by the bedside of her mother 7who was ill at the time71 was so frightened at the sight of a feather1 which she accidentally pulled out of the eiderdown quilt1 floating in the air that she would not approach the bed for days afterwards4#adb ----- ,footnote #adb3 ,see ,the ,pedagogical ,seminary1 i41 ,no4 #b1 p4 #bbj4 ----- ,in these cases we may suppose that we have to do with a germ of superstitious fear1 which seems commonly to have its starting point in the appearance of something exceptional and uncanny1 that is to say1 unintelligible1 and so smacking of the supernatural4 ,the fear of feathers as uncanny objects plays1 ,i am told1 a considerable part in the superstitions of folk-lore4 ,such apparently self-caused movements1 so suggestive of life1 might easily give rise to a vague sense of a mysterious presence or power possessing the object1 and so lead to a crude form of a belief in supernatural agents4 ,in other cases of unexpected and mysterious movement the fear is slightly different4 ,a little boy when one year and eleven months old was frightened when in a lady's house by a toy elephant which shook its head4 ,the same child1 writes his mother1 8at one year seven months was very much scared by a toy cow which mooed realistically when its head was moved4 ,this cow was subsequently given to him1 at about two years and three months4 ,he was then still afraid of it1 but became reconciled soon after1 first allowing others to make it moo if he was at a safe distance1 and at last making it moo himself40 ,there may have been a germ of the fear of animals here3 but ,i suspect that it was mainly a feeling of uneasiness at the signs of life 7movement and sound7 appearing when they are not expected1 and have an uncanny aspect4 ,the close simulation of a living thing by what is known to be not alive is disturbing to the child as to the adult4 ,he will make his toys alive by his own fancy1 yet resent their taking on the full semblance of reality4 ,in this sense he is a born idealist and not a realist4 ,more careful observations on this curious group of child-fears are to be desired4 ,the fear of shadows is closely related to that of moving toys4 ,they are semblances1 though horribly distorted semblances1 and they are apt to move with an awful rapidity4 ,the unearthly mounting shadows which accompany the child as he climbs the staircase at night have been instanced by writers as one of childhood's freezing horrors4 ,mr4 ,stevenson writes3-- ,now my little heart goes beating like a drum1 ,with the breath of the ,bogie in my hair2 ,and all round the candle the crooked shadows come1 ,and go marching along up the stair2 ,the shadow of the balusters1 the shadow of the lamp1 ,the shadow of the child that goes to bed-- ,all the wicked shadows coming tramp1 tramp1 tramp1 ,with the black night overhead4 ,i have noticed a young cat--the same that showed such terror at the playing of the piano--watch its own shadow rising on the wall1 and1 as ,i thought1 with a look of apprehension4 ,the ,fear of ,animals4 ,i have purposely reserved for special discussion two varieties of children's fear1 namely1 dread of animals and of the dark4 ,as the former certainly manifests itself before the latter ,i will take it first4 ,it seems odd that the creatures which are to become the companions and playmates of children1 and one of the chief sources of their happiness1 should cause so much alarm when they first come on the scene4 ,yet so it is4 ,many children1 at least1 are at first put out by quite harmless members of the animal family4 ,we must1 however1 be careful here in distinguishing between mere nerve-shock and dislike on the one hand and genuine fear on the other4 ,thus a lady whom ,i know1 a good observer1 tells me that her boy1 though when he was fifteen months old his nerves were shaken by the loud barking of a dog1 had no real fear of dogs4 ,with this may be contrasted another case1 also sent by a good observer1 in which it is specially noted that the aversion to the sound of a dog's barking developed late and was a true fear4 sthetic dislikes1 again1 may easily give rise to quasi-fears1 though1 as we all know1 little children have not the horrors of their elders in this respect4 ,the boy ,c4 could not understand his mother's scare at the descending caterpillar4 ,a kind of sthetic dislike appears to show itself sometimes towards animals of peculiar shape and colour4 ,a black animal1 as a sheep or a cow1 seems more particularly to come in for these childish aversions4 ,at first it seems impossible to understand why a child in the fourteenth week should shrink from a cat4#adc ,this is not1 so far as ,i can gather1 a common occurrence at this age1 and one would like to cross-examine the mother on the precise way in which the child had its first introduction to the domestic pet4 ,so far as one can speculate on the matter1 one would say that such early shrinking from animals is probably due to their sudden unexpected movements1 which may well disconcert the inexperienced infant accustomed to comparatively restful surroundings4 ----- ,footnote #adc3 ,quoted by ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #abg4 ,the word he uses is 8scheuen04 ----- ,this seems borne out by another instance1 also quoted by ,preyer1 of a girl who in the fourth month1 as also in the eleventh1 was so afraid of pigeons that she could not bring herself to stroke them4 ,the prettiness of the pigeon1 if not of the cat1 ought1 one supposes1 to ensure the liking of children2 and one has to fall back on the supposition of the first disconcerting strangeness of the moving animal world for the child's mind4 ,later shrinkings from animals show more of the nature of fear4 ,it is sometimes said that children inherit from their ancestors the fear of certain animals4 ,thus ,darwin1 observing that his boy when taken to the ,zoological ,gardens at the age of two years and three months showed fear of the big caged animals whose form was unfamiliar to him 7lions1 tigers1 etc471 infers that this fear is transmitted from savage ancestors whose conditions of life compelled them to shun these deadly creatures4 ,but as ,m4 ,compayr has well shown#add we do not need this hypothesis here4 ,the unfamiliarity of the form of the animal1 its bigness1 together with the awful suggestions of the cage1 would be quite enough to beget a vague sense of danger4 ----- ,footnote #add3 ,evolution intellectuelle et morale de l',enfant1 p4 #ajb4 ----- ,so far as ,i can ascertain facts are strongly opposed to the theory of an inherited fear of animals4 ,just as in the first months a child will manifest something like recoil from a pretty and perfectly innocent pigeon1 so later on children manifest fear in the most unlikely directions4 ,in ,the ,invisible ,playmate1 we are told of a girl who got her first fright on seeing a sparrow drop on the grass near her1 though she was not the least afraid of big things1 and on first hearing the dog bark in his kennel said with a little laugh of surprise1 #8,oh6 coughing'4#ade ,a parallel case is sent me by a lady friend4 ,one day when her daughter was about four years old she found her standing1 the eyes wide open and filled with tears1 the arms outstretched for help1 evidently transfixed with terror1 while a small wood-louse made its slow way towards her4 ,the next day the child was taken for the first time to the 8,zoo10 and the mother anticipating trouble held the child's hand4 ,but there was no need4 ,a #8fearless spirit' in general1 she released her hand at the first sight of the elephant1 and galloped after the monster4 ,if inheritance played a principal part in the child's fear of animals one would have expected the facts to be reversed3 the elephant should have excited dread1 not the harmless insect4 ----- ,footnote #ade3 ,see pp4 #bf1 #bg4 ----- ,so far as my own observations have gone there seems to be but little uniformity among children's fears of the animal world4 ,what frightens one child may delight another at about the same age4 ,perhaps there is a tendency to a special dread of certain animals1 more particularly the wolf1 which as folk-lore tells us reflects the attitude of superstitious adults4 ,yet it is probable that1 as the case of the boy ,c4 suggests1 the dread of the wolf grows out of that of the dog1 the most alarming of the domestic animals1 while it is vigorously sustained by fairy-story4 ,for the rest children's shrinking from animals has much of the caprice of grown-up people's4 ,not that there is anything really inexplicable in these odd directions of childish fear1 any more than in the unpredictable shyings of the horse4 ,if we knew the whole of the horse's history1 and could keep a perfect register of the fluctuations of #8tone' in his nervous system1 we should understand all his shyings4 ,so with the child4 ,all the vagaries of his dislike to animals would be cleared up if we could look into the secret workings of his mind and measure the varying heights of his courage4 ,that some of this early disquietude at the sight of strange animals is due to the workings of the mind is seen in the behaviour of ,preyer's boy when at the age of twenty-seven months he was taken to see some little pigs4 ,the boy at the first sight looked earnest1 and as soon as the lively little creatures began to suckle the mother he broke out into a fit of crying and turned away from the sight with all the signs of fear4 ,it appeared afterwards that what terrified the child was the idea that the pigs were biting their mother2 and this gave rise in the fourth and fifth years to recurrent nocturnal fears of the biting piglets1 something like ,c4's nocturnal fear of the wolf4#adf ,to an imaginative child strongly predisposed to fear1 anything suggestive of harm will suffice to beget a measure of trepidation4 ,a child does not want direct experience of the power of a big animal in order to feel a vague uneasiness when near it4 ,his own early inductions respecting the correlation of bigness with strength1 aided as this commonly is by information picked up from others1 will amply suffice4 ,in the case of the dog1 the rough shaggy coat1 the teeth which he is told can bite1 the swift movements1 and worse than all the appalling bark1 are quite enough to disconcert a timid child4 ,even the sudden pouncing down of a sparrow may prove upsetting to a fearful mite as suggesting attack2 and a girl of four may be quite capable of imagining the unpleasantness of an invasion of her dainty person by a small creeping wood-louse--which though running slowly was running towards herself--and so of getting a fit of shudders4 ----- ,footnote #adf3 ,see ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #acj4 ----- ,it is1 ,i think1 undeniable that imaginative children1 especially when sickly and disposed to alarm1 are subject to a real terror at the thought of the animal world4 ,its very vastness1 the large variety of its uncanny and savage-looking forms--appearing oftentimes as ugly distortions of the human face and figure--this of itself1 as known from picture-books1 may well generate many a vague alarm4 ,we know from folk-lore how the dangers of the animal world have touched the imagination of simple peoples1 and we need not be surprised that it should make the heart of the wee weakly child to quake4 ,yet the child's shrinking from animals is less strong than the impulse of companionship which bears him towards them4 ,tiny children quite as often show the impulse to run after ducks and other animals as to be alarmed at them4 ,nothing perhaps is prettier in child-life than the pose and look of one of these defenceless youngsters as he is getting over his trepidation at the approach of a strange big dog and #8making friends' with the shaggy monster4 ,the perfect love which lies at the bottom of children's hearts towards their animal kinsfolk soon casts out fear4 ,and when once the reconciliation has been effected it will take a good deal of harsh experience to make the child ever again entertain the thought of danger4 ,fear of the ,dark4 ,fear of the dark1 that is1 fear excited by the actual experience or the idea of being in the dark1 and especially alone in the dark1 and the allied dread of dark places as closets and caves1 is no doubt very common among children1 and seems indeed to be one of their recognised characteristics4 ,yet it is by no means certain that it is #8natural' in the sense of developing itself in all children4 ,it is certain that children have no such fear at the beginning of life4 ,a baby of three or four months if accustomed to a light may very likely be disturbed at being deprived of it2 but this is some way from a dread of the dark4#adg ----- ,footnote #adg3 ,a mother sends me a curious observation bearing on this4 ,one of her children when four months old was carried by her up-stairs in the dark4 ,on reaching the light she found the child's face black1 her hands clenched1 and her eyes protruding4 ,as soon as she reached the light she heaved a sigh and resumed her usual appearance4 ,this child was in general hardy and bold and never gave a second display of terror4 ,this is certainly a curious observation1 and it would be well to know whether similar cases of apparent fright at being carried in the dark have been noticed4 ----- ,fear of the dark seems to arise when intelligence has reached a certain stage of development4 ,it apparently assumes a variety of forms4 ,in some children it is a vague uneasiness1 in others it takes the shape of a more definite dread4 ,a common variety of this dread is connected with the imaginative filling of the dark with the forms of alarming animals1 so that the fear of animals and of the dark are closely connected4 ,thus1 in one case reported to me1 a boy between the ages of two and six used at night to see #8the eyes of lions and tigers glaring as they walked round the room'4 ,the boy ,c4 saw his bte noire the wolf in dark places4 ,mr4 ,stevens in his note on his boy's idea of the supernatural remarks that at the age of one year and ten months1 when he began to be haunted by the spectre of #8,cocky1' he was temporarily seized with a fear of the dark4#adh ,it is important to add that even children who have been habituated to going to bed in the dark in the first months are liable to acquire the fear4 ----- ,footnote #adh3 ,mind1 xi41 p4 #adi4 ----- ,this mode of fear is1 however1 not universal among children4 ,one lady1 for whose accuracy ,i can vouch1 assures me that her boy1 who is now four years old1 has never manifested the feeling4 ,a similar statement is made by a careful observer1 ,dr4 ,sikorski1 with reference to his own children4#adi ,it seems possible to go through childhood without making acquaintance with this terror1 and to acquire it in later life4 ,i know a lady who only acquired the fear towards the age of thirty4 8,curiously enough 7she writes7 ,i was never afraid of the dark as a child2 but during the last two years ,i hate to be left alone in the dark1 and if ,i have to enter a dark room1 like my study1 beyond the reach of the maids from downstairs1 ,i notice a remarkable acceleration in my heart-beat and hurry to strike a light or rush downstairs as quickly as possible40 ----- ,footnote #adi3 ,quoted by ,compayr1 op4 cit41 p4 #ajj4 ,cf4 ,perez1 ,l',education ds le berceau1 p4 #ajc4 ----- ,we can faintly conjecture from what ,charles ,lamb and others have told us about the spectres that haunted their nights what a weighty crushing horror this fear of the dark may become4 ,hence we need not be surprised that the writer of fiction has sought to give it a vivid and adequate description4 ,victor ,hugo1 for example1 when in ,les ,misrables he is painting the feelings of little ,cosette1 who has been sent out alone at night to fetch water from a spring in a wood1 says she 8felt herself seized by the black enormity of ,nature4 ,it was not only terror which possessed her1 it was something more terrible even than terror40 ,different explanations have been offered of this fear4 ,locke1 who when writing on educational matters was rather hard on nurses and servants1 puts down the whole of these fears to those wicked persons1 8whose usual method is to awe children and keep them in subjection by telling them of ,raw ,head and ,bloody ,bones1 and such other names as carry with them the idea of something terrible and hurtful1 which they have reason to be afraid of when alone1 especially in the dark04#aej ,rousseau on the other hand urges that there is a natural cause4 8,accustomed as ,i am to perceive objects from a distance1 and to anticipate their impressions in advance1 how is it possible for me1 when ,i no longer see anything of the objects that surround me1 not to imagine a thousand creatures1 a thousand movements1 which may hurt me1 and against which ,i am unable to protect myself80#aea ----- ,footnote #aej3 ,thoughts on ,education1 sect4 #ach4 ,footnote #aea3 ,emile1 book ii4 ----- ,rousseau here supplements and corrects ,locke4 ,for one thing ,i have ascertained in the case of my own child1 and in that of others1 that a fear of the dark has grown up when the influence of the wicked nurse has been carefully eliminated4 ,locke forgets that children can get terrifying fancies from other children1 and from all sorts of suggestions1 unwittingly conveyed by the words of respectable grown people4 ,besides1 he leaves untouched the question1 why children when left alone in the dark should choose to dwell on these fearful images1 rather than on the bright pretty ones which they also acquire4 ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson has told us how happy a child can make himself at night with such pleasing fancies4 ,yet it must be owned that darkness seems rather to favour images of what is weird and terrible4 ,how is this8 ,rousseau gets some way towards answering the question by saying 7as ,i understand him to say7 that darkness breeds a sense of insecurity4 ,i do not1 however1 think that it is the inconvenience of being in the dark which generates the fear3 a child might1 ,i imagine1 acquire it without ever having had to explore a dark place4 ,i strongly suspect that the fear of darkness takes its rise in a sensuous phenomenon1 a kind of physical repugnance4 ,all sensations of very low intensity1 as very soft vocal sounds1 have about them a tinge of melancholy1 a tristesse1 and this is especially noticeable in the sensations which the eye experiences when confronted with a dark space1 or1 what is tantamount to this1 a black and dull surface4 ,the symbolism of darkness and blackness1 as when we talk of #8gloomy' thoughts or liken trouble to a #8black cloud1' seems to rest on this effect of melancholy4 ,along with this gloomy character of the sensation of dark1 and not always easy to distinguish from it1 there goes the craving of the eye for its customary light1 and the interest and the gladness which come with seeing4 ,when the eye and brain are not fatigued1 that is when we are wakeful1 this eye-ache may become an appreciable pain2 and it is probable that children feel the deprivation more acutely than grown persons1 owing to the abundance of their visual activity as well as to the comparatively scanty store of their thought-resources4 ,add to this that darkness1 by extinguishing the world of visible things1 would give to a timid child tenacious of the familiar home-surroundings a peculiarly keen sense of strangeness and of loneliness1 of banishment from all that he knows and loves4 ,the reminiscences of this feeling described in later life show that it is the sense of solitude which oppresses the child in his dark room4#aeb ----- ,footnote #aeb3 ,see especially ,james ,payn1 ,gleams of ,memory1 pp4 #c1 #d4 ----- ,this1 ,i take it1 would be quite enough to make the situation of confinement in a dark room disagreeable and depressing to a wakeful child even when he is in bed and there is no restriction of bodily activity4 ,but even this would not amount to a full passionate dread of darkness4 ,it seems to me to be highly probable that a baby of two or three months might feel this vague depression and even this craving for the wonted scene1 especially just after the removal of a light2 yet such a baby1 as we have seen1 gives no clear indications of fear4 ,fear of the dark arises from the development of the child's imagination1 and might1 ,i believe1 arise without any suggestion from nurse or other children of the notion that there are bogies in the room4 ,darkness is precisely the situation most favourable to vivid imagination3 the screening of the visible world makes the inner world of fancy vivid and distinct by contrast4 ,are we not all apt to shut our eyes when we try to #8visualise' or picture things very distinctly8 ,this fact of a preternatural activity of imagination1 taken with the circumstance emphasised by ,rousseau that in the darkness the child is no longer distinctly aware of the objects that are actually before him1 would help us to understand why children are so much given to projecting into the unseen black spaces the creatures of their imagination4 ,not only so--and this ,rousseau does not appear to have recognised--the dull feeling of depression which accompanies the sensation of darkness might suffice to give a gloomy and weird cast to the images so projected4 ,but ,i am disposed to think that there is yet another element in this childish fear4 ,i have said that darkness gives a positive sensation3 we see it1 and the sensation1 apart from any difference of signification which we afterwards learn to give to it1 is of the same kind that is obtained by looking at a dull black surface4 ,to the child the difference between a black object and a dark unillumined space is as yet not clear1 and ,i believe it will be found that children tend to materialise or to #8reify' darkness4 ,when1 for example1 a correspondent tells me that darkness was envisaged by her when a child as 8a crushing power10 ,i think ,i see traces of this childish feeling4 ,i seem able to recall my own childish sense of a big black something on suddenly waking and opening the eyes in a very dark room4 ,but there is still another thing to be noticed in this sensation of darkness4 ,the black field is not uniform2 some parts of it show less black than others1 and the indistinct and rude pattern of comparatively light and dark changes from moment to moment2 while now and again more definite spots of brightness may focus themselves4 ,the varying activity of the retina would seem to account for this apparent changing of the black scene4 ,what1 my reader may not unnaturally ask1 has this to do with a child's fear of the dark8 ,if he will recall what was said about the facility with which a child comes to see faces and animal forms in the lines of a cracked ceiling1 or the veining of a piece of marble1 he will1 ,i think1 recognise the drift of my remarks4 ,these slight and momentary differences in the blackness1 these fleeting rudiments of a pattern1 may serve as a sensuous base for the projected images2 the child with a strongly excited fancy sees in these dim traces of the black formless waste definite forms4 ,these will naturally be the forms with which he is most familiar1 and since his fancy is at the moment tinged with melancholy they will be gloomy and disturbing forms4 ,hence we may expect to hear of children seeing the forms of terrifying living things in the dark4 ,here is a particularly instructive case4 ,a boy of four years had for some time been afraid of the dark and indulged by having the candle left burning at night4 ,on hearing that the ,crystal ,palace had been burned down he asked for the first time to have the light taken away1 fear of the dark being now cast out by the bigger fear of fire4 ,some time after this he volunteered an account of his obsolete terrors to his father4 8,do you know10 he said1 8what ,i thought dark was8 ,a great large live thing the colour of black with a mouth and eyes40 ,here we have the #8reifying' of darkness1 and we probably see the influence of the comparatively bright spots in the attribution of eyes to the monster1 an influence still more apparent in the instance quoted above1 where a child saw the eyes of lions and tigers glaring as they walked round the room4 ,another suggestive instance here is that given by ,m4 ,compayr1 in which a child on being asked why he did not like to be in a dark place answered3 8,i don't like chimney-sweeps04#aec ,here the blackness with its dim suggestions of brighter spots determined the image of the black chimney-sweep with his white flashes of mouth and eyes4#aed ,i should like to observe here parenthetically that we still need to learn from children themselves1 by talking to them and inviting their confidence when the fear of the dark is first noticed1 how they are apt to envisage it4 ----- ,footnote #aec3 ,op4 cit41 pp4 #ajj1 #aja4 ,footnote #aed3 ,it is supposable too that disturbances of the retina giving rise to subjective luminous sensations1 as the well-known small bright moving discs1 might assist in the case of nervous children in suggesting glaring eyes4 ----- ,when imagination becomes abnormally active1 and the child is haunted by alarming images1 these by recurring with greatest force in the stillness and darkness of the night will add to the terrifying associations of darkness4 ,this is illustrated in the case of the boy ,stevens1 who was haunted by the spectre of #8,cocky' at night4 ,dreams1 especially of the horrible nightmare kind to which nervous children are subject1 may invest the dark with a new terror4 ,a child suddenly waking up and with open eyes seeing the phantom-object of his dream against the black background may be forgiven for acquiring a dread of dark rooms4 ,possibly this experience gives the clue to the observation already quoted of a boy who did not want to sleep in a particular room because there were so many dreams in it4 ,if the above explanation of the child's fear of the dark is a sound one ,rousseau's prescription for curing it is not enough4 ,children may be encouraged to explore dark rooms1 and by touching blind-like their various objects rendered familiar with the fact that things remain unchanged even when enveloped in darkness1 that the dark is nothing but our temporary inability to see things2 and this may no doubt be helpful in checking the fear when calm reflexion becomes possible4 ,but a radical cure must go farther1 must aim at checking the activity of morbid imagination--and here what ,locke says about the effects of the terrifying stories of nurses is very much to the point--and in extreme cases must set about strengthening shaky nerves4 ,mothers would do well to remember that even religious instruction when injudiciously presented may add to the terrors of the dark for these wee tremulous organisms4 ,one observation sent me strongly suggests that a child may take a strong dislike to being shut up in the dark with the terrible all-seeing ,god4 ,fears and their ,palliatives4 ,i have probably illustrated the first fears of children at sufficient length4 ,without trying to exhaust the subject ,i have1 ,i think1 shown that fear of a well-marked and intense kind is a common feature of the first years of life1 and that it assumes a ,protean variety of shapes4 ,much more will no doubt have to be done in the way of methodical observation1 and more particularly statistical inquiry into the comparative frequency of the several fears1 the age at which they commonly appear1 and so forth1 before we can build up a theory of the subject4 ,one or two general observations may1 however1 be hazarded even at this stage4 ,the thing which strikes one most perhaps in these early fears is how little they have to do with any remembered experience of evil4 ,the child is inexperienced1 and if humanely treated knows little of the acuter forms of human suffering4 ,it would seem at least as if he feared not because experience had made him apprehensive of evil1 but because he was constitutionally and instinctively nervous1 and possessed with a feeling of insecurity4 ,this feeling of weakness and insecurity comes to the surface in presence of what is unknown in so far as this can be brought by the child's mind into a relation to his welfare--as disturbing noises1 and the movements of things1 especially when they take on the form of approaches4 ,the same thing is1 as we have seen1 illustrated in the fear of the dark4 ,a like explanation seems to offer itself for other common forms of fear1 especially those excited by others' threats1 as the dread of the policeman1 and little ,george ,sand's horror at the idea of being shut up all night in the #8crystal prison' of a lamp4 ,the fact that children's fears are not the direct product of experience is expressed otherwise by saying that they are the offspring of the imagination4 ,a child is apt to be afraid because he fancies things1 and it will probably be demonstrated by statistical evidence that the most imaginative children 7other things being equal7 are the most subject to fear4 ,in certain of these characteristics1 at least1 children's fears resemble those of animals4 ,in both alike fear is much more an instinctive recoil from the unknown than an apprehension of known evil4 ,the shying of a horse1 the apparent fear of dogs at certain noises1 probably too the fear of animals at the sight and sound of fire--so graphically described by ,mr4 ,kipling in the case of the jungle beasts--illustrate this4 ,animals too seem to have a sense of the uncanny1 when something apparently uncaused happens1 as when ,romanes excited fear in a dog by attaching a fine thread to a bone1 and by surreptitiously drawing it from the animal1 giving to the bone the look of self-movement4 ,the same dog was frightened by soap-bubbles4 ,according to ,romanes1 dogs are frightened by portraits4 ,it is to be added1 however1 that in certain of animal fears the influence of heredity is clearly recognisable1 whereas in children's fears ,i have regarded it as doubtful4 ,the fact that a child is not frightened at fire1 which terrifies many animals1 seems to illustrate this difference4#aee ----- ,footnote #aee3 ,see ,perez1 ,l',education ds le berceau1 pp4 #if-ii4 ,on animal fears1 see further ,romanes1 ,animal ,intelligence1 p4 #dee f42 ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #abg ff4 and p4 #ace2 ,perez1 ,first ,three ,years of ,childhood1 p4 #fd ff4 ----- ,another instructive comparison is that of children's fears with those of savages4 ,both have a like feeling of insecurity1 and fall instinctively in presence of a big unknown into the attitude of dread4 ,in the region of superstitious fear more particularly1 we see how in both a gloomy fancy forestalls knowledge1 investing the new and unexplored with alarming traits4 ,lastly1 children's fears have some resemblance to certain abnormal mental conditions4 ,idiots1 who are so near normal childhood in their degree of intelligence1 show a marked fear of strangers4 ,more interesting1 however1 in the present connexion1 is the exaggeration of the childish fear of new objects which shows itself in certain mental aberrations4 ,there is a characteristic dread of newness1 neophobia1 just as there is a dread of water4#aef ----- ,footnote #aef3 ,see ,compayr1 op4 cit41 pp4 #ii1 #ajj4 ----- ,while1 however1 these are the dominant characteristics of children's fears they are not the only ones4 ,experience begins to direct the instinctive fear-impulse from the very beginning4 ,how much it does in the first months of life it is difficult to say4 ,in the aversion of a baby to its medicine glass1 or its cold bath1 one sees1 perhaps1 more of the rude germ of passion or anger than of fear4 ,careful observations seem to me to be required on the point1 at what definite date signs of fear arising from experience of pain begin to show themselves in the child4 ,some children1 at least1 have a surprising way of not minding even considerable amounts of physical pain3 the misery of a fall1 a blow1 a cut1 and so forth1 being speedily forgotten4 ,it seems doubtful1 indeed1 whether the venerable saw1 #8,the burnt child dreads the fire1' is invariably true4 ,it appears1 in many cases at least1 to take a good amount of real agony to produce a genuine fear in a young child4#aeg ,this tendency to belittle pain is not unknown1 ,i suspect1 to the tutor of small boys4 ,it may well be that a definite and precise recalling of the misery of a scratch1 or even of a moderate burn1 may not conduce to the development of a true fear1 and that here1 too1 fear when it arises in all its characteristic masterfulness is at bottom fear of the unknown4 ,this seems illustrated by the well-known fact that a child will be more terrified during a first experience of pain1 especially if there be a visible hurt and bleeding1 than by any subsequent prospect of a renewal of the catastrophe4 ,is not the same thing true1 indeed1 of older fears8 ,should we dread the wrench of a tooth-extraction if it were experienced very often1 and we had a sufficiently photographic imagination to be able to estimate precisely the intensity and duration of the pain8 ----- ,footnote #aeg3 ,on this point there are some excellent observations made by ,miss ,shinn1 who points out that physical pain when not too severe is apt to be lost sight of in the new feeling of personal consequence to which it gives rise 7,notes on the ,development of a ,child1 pt4 ii41 p4 #add ff47 ----- ,much the same thing shows itself in the cases where fear can be clearly traced to experience and association4 ,in some of these it is no doubt remembered experience of suffering which causes the fear4 ,a child that has been seriously burned will unquestionably be frightened at a too close approach of a red-hot poker4 ,but in many cases of this excitation of fear by association it is the primary experience of fear itself which seems to be the real object of the apprehension4 ,thus a child who has been frightened by a dog will betray signs of fear at the sight of a kennel1 of a picture of a dog1 and so forth4 ,the little boy referred to above who was afraid of the toy elephant that shook its head showed signs of fear a fortnight afterwards on coming across a picture of an elephant in a picture-book4 ,in such ways does fear propagate fear in the timid little breast4 ,one cannot part from the theme of children's fears without a reference to a closely connected subject1 the problem of their happiness4 ,to ask whether childhood is a happy time1 still more to ask whether it is the happiest1 is to raise perhaps a foolish and insoluble question4 ,later reminiscences would seem in this case to be particularly untrustworthy4 ,children themselves no doubt may have very definite views on the subject4 ,a child will tell you with the unmistakable marks of profound conviction that he is so unhappy4 ,but paradoxical as it may seem1 children really know very little about the matter4 ,at the best they can only tell you how they feel at particular moments4 ,to seek for a precise and satisfactory solution of the problem is thus futile4 ,only rough comparisons of childhood and later life are possible4 ,in any such comparison the fears of early years claim1 no doubt1 careful consideration4 ,there seem to be people who have no idea what the agony of these early terrors amounts to4 ,and since it is the unknown that excites this fear1 and the unknown in childhood is almost everything1 the possibilities of suffering from this source are great enough4 ,alike the ,good1 the ,ill offend thy ,sight1 ,and rouse the stormy sense of shrill affright4 ,george ,sand hardly exaggerates when she writes3 8,fear is1 ,i believe1 the greatest moral suffering of children04 ,in the case of weakly1 nervous and imaginative children1 more especially1 this susceptibility to terror may bring miserable days and yet more miserable nights4 ,nevertheless1 it is easy here to pass from one extreme of brutal indifference to another of sentimental exaggeration4 ,childish suffering is terrible while it lasts1 but happily it has a way of not lasting4 ,the cruel distorting fit of terror passes and leaves the little face with its old sunny out-look4 ,it is to be remembered1 too1 that while children are pitiably fearful in their own way1 they are1 as we have seen in the case of the little ,walter ,scott1 delightfully fearless also1 as judged by our standards4 ,how oddly fear and fearlessness go together is illustrated in a story sent me4 ,a little boy fell into a brook4 ,on his being fished out by his mother1 his sister1 aged four1 asked him3 #8,did you see any crocodiles8' #8,no1' answered the boy1 #8,i wasn't in long enough4' ,the absence of fear of the water itself was as characteristic as the presence of fear of the crocodile4 ,it is refreshing to find that in certain cases at least where older people have done their worst to excite terror1 a child has escaped its suffering4 ,professor ,barnes tells us that a ,californian child's belief in the supernatural takes on a happy tone1 directing itself to images of heaven with trees1 birds1 and other pretty things1 and giving but little heed to the horrors of hell4#aeh ,in less sunny climes than ,california children may not1 perhaps1 be such little optimists1 and it is probable that graphic descriptions of hell-fire have sent many a creepy thrill of horror along a child's tender nerves4 ,still it may be said that1 owing to the fortunate circumstance of children having much less fear of fire than many animals1 the misery in which eternal punishment is wont to be bodied forth does not work so powerfully as one might expect on a child's imagination4 ,the author of ,the ,uninitiated illustrates a real child-trait when she makes her small heroine conceive of hell as a place that smelt nastily 7from its brimstone74#aei ,then it is noticeable that children in general are but little affected by fear at the sight or the thought of death4 ,the child ,c4 had a passing dread of being buried1 but his young hopeful heart refused to credit the fact of that far-off calamity4 ,other children1 ,i find1 dislike the idea of death as threatening to deprive them of their mother4 ,perhaps they can more readily suppose that somebody else will die than that they themselves will do so4 ,this comparative immunity from the dread of death is no small deduction to be made from the burden of children's fear4 ----- ,footnote #aeh3 ,pedagogical ,review1 ii41 #c1 p4 #dde4 ,footnote #aei3 p4 #dc4 ----- ,not only so1 when fear is apt to be excited1 ,nature has provided the small timorous person with other instincts which tend to mitigate and even to neutralise it4 ,it is a happy circumstance that the most prolific excitant of fear1 the presentation of something new and uncanny1 is also provocative of another feeling1 that of curiosity1 with its impulse to look and examine4 ,even animals are sometimes divided in the presence of something strange between fear and curiosity1#afj and children's curiosity is much more lively than theirs4 ,a very tiny child1 on first making acquaintance with some form of physical pain1 as a bump on the head1 will deliberately repeat the experience by knocking his head against something as if experimenting and watching the effect4 ,a clearer case of curiosity overpowering fear is that of a child who1 after pulling the tail of a cat in a bush and getting scratched1 proceeded to dive into the bush again4#afa ,still more interesting here are the gradual transitions from actual fear before the new and strange to bold inspection4 ,the child who was frightened by her ,japanese doll insisted on seeing it every day4 ,the behaviour of one of these small persons on the arrival at the house of a strange dog1 of a dark foreigner1 or some other startling novelty1 is a pretty and amusing sight4 ,the first overpowering timidity1 the shrinking back to the mother's breast1 followed by curious peeps1 then by bolder outstretchings of head and arms1 mark the stages by which curiosity and interest gain on fear and finally leave it far behind4 ,very soon we know the small timorous creatures will grow into bold adventurers4 ,they will make playthings of the alarming animals1 and of the alarming shadows too4#afb ,later on still perhaps they will love nothing so much as to probe the awful mysteries of gunpowder4 ----- ,footnote #afj3 ,some examples are given by ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #ace4 ,footnote #afa3 ,miss ,shinn1 op4 cit41 p4 #aej4 ,footnote #afb3 ,stevenson1 the same who has described the terrors of moving shadows1 illustrates how a child may make a sort of playfellow of his shadow 7,a ,child's ,garden of ,verses1 xviii474 ----- ,one palliative of these early terrors remains to be touched on1 the instinct of sheltering or refuge-taking4 ,the first manifestations of what is called the social nature of children are little more than the reverse side of their timidity4 ,a baby will cease crying at night on hearing the familiar voice of mother or nurse because a vague sense of human companionship does away with the misery of the black solitude4 ,a frightened child probably knows an ecstasy of bliss when folded in the protective embrace of a mother's arms4 ,even the most timid children never have the full experience of terror so long as there is within reach the secure base of all their reconnoitring excursions1 the mother's skirts4 ,happy those little ones who have ever near them loving arms within whose magic circle the oncoming of the cruel fit of terror is instantly checked1 giving place to a delicious calm4 ,how unhappy those children must be who1 being fearsome by nature1 lack this refuge1 who are left much alone to wrestle with their horrors as best they may1 and are rudely repulsed when they bear their heart-quakings to others1 ,i would not venture to say4 ,still less should ,i care to suggest what is suffered by those unfortunates who find in those about them not comfort1 assurance1 support in their fearsome moments1 but the worst source of their terrors4 ,to be brutal to these small sensitive organisms1 to practise on their terrors1 to take delight in exciting the wild stare and wilder shriek of terror1 this is perhaps one of the strange things which make one believe in the old dogma that the devil can enter into men and women4 ,for here we seem to have to do with a form of cruelty so exquisite1 so contrary to the oldest of instincts1 that it is dishonouring to the savage and to the lower animals to attempt to refer it to heredity4 ,to dwell on such things1 however1 would be to go back to a pessimistic view of childhood4 ,it is undeniable that children are exposed to indescribable misery when they are delivered into the hands of a consummately cruel guardian4 ,yet one may hope that this sort of person is exceptional1 something of which we can give no account save by saying that now and again in sport nature produces a monster1 as if to show what she could do if she did not choose more wisely and benignly to work within the limitations of type4 ,,vii4 ,,raw ,,material ,,of ,,morality4 ,primitive ,egoism4 ,perhaps there has been more hasty theorising about the child's moral characteristics than about any other of his attributes4 ,the very fact that diametrically opposed views have been put forward is suggestive of this haste4 ,by certain theologians and others infancy has been painted in the blackest of moral colours4 ,according to ,m4 ,compayr it is a bachelor1 ,la ,bruyre1 and a bishop1 ,dupanloup1 who have said the worst things of children2 and the parent or teacher who wants to see how bad this worst is may consult ,m4 ,compayr's account4#afc ,on the other hand1 ,rousseau and those who think with him have invested the child with an untarnished purity4 ,according to ,rousseau the child comes from the ,creator's hand a perfect bit of workmanship1 which blundering man at once begins to mar4 ,children's freedom from human vices has been a common theme of the poet3 their innocence was likened by ,m4 ,about to the spotless snow of the ,jungfrau4 ,others1 as ,wordsworth1 have gone farther and attributed to the infant positive excellences1 glimpses of a higher morality than ours1 ,divine intuitions brought from a prenatal existence4 ----- ,footnote #afc3 ,l',evolution intell4 et mor4 de l',enfant1 chap4 xiv41 ii4 ----- ,such opposite views of the moral status and worth of a child must be the result of prepossession1 and the magnifying of the accidents of individual experience4 ,a theologian who is concerned to maintain the doctrine of natural depravity1 or a bachelor who happens to have known children chiefly in the character of little tormentors1 may be expected to paint childhood with black pigments4 ,on the other hand the poet1 attracted by the charm of infancy1 may1 as we have seen1 easily be led to idealise its moral aspects4 ,the first thing that strikes one in all such attempts to fix the moral worth of the child is that they are judging of things by wrong standards4 ,the infant1 though it has a nature capable of becoming moral or immoral1 is not as yet a moral being2 and there is a certain impertinence in trying to force it under our categories of good and bad1 pure and corrupt4 ,if then we would know what the child's #8moral' nature is like we must be careful to distinguish4 ,by #8moral' we must understand that part of his nature1 feelings and impulses1 which has for us a moral significance2 whether as furnishing raw material out of which education may develop virtuous dispositions1 or contrariwise1 as constituting forces adverse to this development4 ,it may be well to call the former tendencies favourable to virtue1 pro-moral1 those unfavourable1 contra-moral4 ,our inquiry1 then1 must be3 ,in what respects1 and to what extent1 does the child show himself by nature1 apart from all that is meant by education1 pro-moral or contra-moral1 that is1 well or ill fitted to become a member of a good or virtuous community and to exercise what we know as moral functions8 ,our especial object here will be if possible to get at natural dispositions1 to examine the child in his primitive nakedness1 looking out for those instinctive tendencies which according to modern science are only a little less clearly marked in the young of our own species than in a puppy or a chick4 ,now there is clearly a difficulty here4 ,how1 it may be asked1 can we expect to find in a child any traits having a moral significance which have not been developed by social influences and education8 ,in the case of pro-moral dispositions more particularly1 as kindness1 or truthfulness1 we cannot expect to get rid of the effect of the combined personal influence and instruction of the mother1 which is of the essence of all moral training4 ,even with regard to contra-moral traits1 as rudeness1 or lying1 it is evident that example is frequently a co-operating influence4 ,the difficulty is no doubt a real one1 and cannot be wholly got rid of4 ,we cannot completely eliminate the influence of the common life in which the good and bad disposition alike may be said to grow up4 ,yet we may distinguish4 ,thus we may look out for the earliest spontaneous and what we may call original manifestations of such dispositions as affection and truthfulness1 so as to eliminate the direct action of instruction and example1 and thus to reduce the influence of the social medium on the child to a minimum4 ,similarly in the case of brutal and other unlovely propensities1 we may by taking pains get rid of the influence of bad example4 ,let us see1 then1 how far the indictment of the child is a just one4 ,do children tend spontaneously to manifest the germs of vicious dispositions1 and if so1 to what extent8 ,here1 as ,i have suggested1 we must be particularly careful not to read wrong interpretations into what we see4 ,it will not do1 for example1 to say that children are born thieves because they show themselves at first serenely indifferent to the distinction of meum and tuum1 and are inclined to help themselves to other children's toys1 and so forth4 ,to repeat1 what we have to inquire is whether children by their instinctive inclinations are contra-moral1 that is1 predisposed to what1 if persevered in with reflexion1 we call immorality or vice4 ,here we cannot do better than touch on that group of feelings and dispositions which can be best marked off as anti-social since they tend to the injury of others1 such as anger1 envy1 and cruelty4 ,the most distant acquaintance with the first years of human life tells us that young children have much in common with the lower animals4 ,their characteristic passions and impulses are centred in self and the satisfaction of its wants4 ,what is better marked1 for example1 than the boundless greed of the child1 his keen desire to appropriate and enjoy whatever presents itself1 and to resent others' participation in such enjoyment8 ,for some time after birth the child is little more than an incarnation of appetite which knows on restraint1 and only yields to the undermining force of satiety4 ,the child's entrance into social life through a growing consciousness of the existence of others is marked by much fierce opposition to their wishes4 ,his greed1 which at the outset was but the expression of a vigorous nutritive impulse1 now takes on more of a contra-moral aspect4 ,the removal of the feeding-bottle before full satisfaction has been attained is1 as we know1 the occasion for one of the most impressive utterances of the baby's #8will to live1' and of its resentment of all human checks to its native impulses4 ,in this outburst we have the first rude germ of that defiance of control and of authority of which ,i shall have to say more by-and-by4 ,in another way1 too1 the expansion of the infant's consciousness through the recognition of others widens the terrain of greedy impulse4 ,for ugly envy commonly has its rise in the perception of another child's consumption of appetite's dainties4 ,here1 it is evident1 we are still at the level of the animal4 ,a dog is passionately greedy like the child1 will fiercely resent any interference with the satisfaction of its appetite1 and will be envious of another and more fortunately placed animal4 ,much the same concern for self and opposition to others' having what the child himself desires shows itself in the matter of toys and other possessions of interest4 ,a child is apt not only to make free with another child's toys1 but to show the strongest objection to any imitation of this freedom1 often displaying a dog-in-the-manger spirit by refusing to lend what he himself does not want4 ,not only so1 he will be apt to resent another child's having toys of his own4 ,this envy of other children's possessions is often wide and profound4 ,as the social interests come into play so far as to make caresses and other signs of affection sources of pleasure to the child1 the field for envy and its #8green-eyed' offspring1 jealousy1 is still more enlarged4 ,as is well known1 an infant will greatly resent the mother's taking another child into her arms4 ,here1 again1 we are at the level of the lower animals4 ,they1 too1 as our dogs and cats can show us1 can be envious not only in the matter of eatables1 but in that of human caressings1 and even of possessions--witness the behaviour of two dogs when a stick is thrown into the water4 ,full illustrations of these traits of the first years of childhood are not needed4 ,we all know them4 ,m4 ,perez and others have culled a sufficient collection of examples4#afd ----- ,footnote #afd3 ,see for example ,perez1 ,the ,first ,three ,years of ,childhood1 p4 #ff ff42 and ,l',education ds le berceau1 chap4 vi4 ----- ,out of all this unrestrained pushing of appetite and desire whereby the child comes into rude collision with others' wants1 wishes and purposes1 there issue the well-known passionateness1 the angry outbursts1 and the fierce quarrellings of the child4 ,these fits of angry passion or temper are among the most curious manifestations of childhood1 and deserve to be studied with much greater care than they have yet received4 ,the outburst of rage as the imperious little will feels itself suddenly pulled up has in spite of its comicality something impressive4 ,hitting out right and left1 throwing things down on the floor and breaking them1 howling1 wild agitated movements of the arms and whole body1 these are the outward vents which the gust of childish fury is apt to take4 ,preyer observed one of these violent explosions in the seventeenth month4 ,the outburst tends to concentrate itself in an attack on the offender1 be this even the beloved mamma herself4 ,darwin's boy at the age of two years three months became a great adept at throwing books1 sticks1 etc41 at any one who offended him4#afe ,but almost anything will do as an object of attack4 ,a child of four on being crossed would bang his chair1 and then proceed to vent his displeasure on his unoffending toy lion1 banging him1 jumping on him1 and1 as anti-climax1 threatening him with the loss of his dinner4 ,hitting is in some cases improved upon by biting4 ,the boy ,c4 was for some time vigorously mordant in his angry fits4 ,another little boy would1 under similar circumstances1 bite the carpet4 ----- ,footnote #afe3 ,darwin notes that all his boys did this kind of thing1 whereas his girls did not 7,mind1 ii41 p4 #bhh74 ,my own observations agree with this4 ,a small boy has more of savage attack than a small girl4 ----- ,here we have expressive movements which are plainly brutal1 which assimilate the aspect of an angry child to that of an infuriated animal4 ,the whole outward attitude is one of fierce reckless assault4 ,the insane1 we are told1 manifest a like wildness of attack in fits of anger1 smashing windows1 etc41 and striking anybody who happens to be at hand4 ,yet these are not all the manifestations4 ,childish anger has its wretched aspect4 ,there is keen suffering in these early experiences of thwarted will and purpose4 ,a little boy1 rather more than a year old1 used when crossed to throw himself on the floor and bang the back of his head2 and his brother1 when fourteen months old1 would similarly throw himself on the floor1 bang the back of his head1 biting the carpet as before mentioned4 ,this act of throwing oneself on the floor1 which is common about this age and is apparently quite instinctive1 is the expression of the utter dejection of misery4 ,c4's attitude when crossed1 gathered into a heap on the floor1 was eloquent of this infantile despair4 ,such suffering is the immediate outcome of thwarted purpose1 and must be distinguished from the moral feeling of shame which often accompanies it4 ,such stormy outbursts vary no doubt from child to child4 ,thus ,c4's sister in her angry moments did not bite or roll on the floor1 but would dance about and stamp4 ,some children show little if anything of this savage furiousness4 ,among those that do show it1 it is often a temporary phenomenon only4 ,this anger1 it is to be noted1 is due to check1 and would show itself to some extent even if there were no intervention of authority4 ,thus a child will become angry1 resentful1 and despairingly miserable if another child gets effective hold of something which he wants to have4 ,yet it is undoubtedly true1 as we shall see1 that these little storms are most frequently called up by the imposition of authority1 and are a manifestation of what we call a defiant attitude4 ,this slight examination may suffice to show that with the child self1 its appetites1 its satisfactions1 are the centre of its existence1 the pivot on which its action turns4 ,i do not forget the real and striking differences here1 the specially brutal form of boys' anger as compared with that of girls1 the partial atrophy of some of these impulses1 e4g41 jealousy1 in the more gentle and affectionate type of child4 ,yet there seems to be little doubt that these are among the commonest and most pronounced characteristics of the first years4 ,evolution will1 no doubt1 help us to understand much of this4 ,if the order of development of the individual follows and summarises that of the race1 we should expect the child to show a germ at least of the passionateness1 the quarrelsomeness of the brute and of the savage before he shows the moral qualities distinctive of civilised man4 ,that he often shows so close a resemblance to the savage and to the brute suggests how little ages of civilised life with its suppression of these furious impulses have done to tone down the ancient and carefully transmitted instincts4 ,the child at birth1 and for a long while after1 may then be said to be the representative of wild untamed nature1 which it is for education to subdue and fashion into something higher and better4 ,at the same time the child is more than this4 ,in this first clash of his will with another's he knows more than the brute's sensual fury4 ,he suffers consciously1 he realises himself in his antagonism to a world outside him4 ,it is probable1 as ,i have pointed out before1 that even a physical check bringing pain1 as when the child runs his head against a wall1 may develop this consciousness of self in its antagonism to a not-self4 ,this consciousness reaches a higher phase when the opposing force is distinctly apprehended as another will4 ,self-feeling1 a germ of the feeling of #8my worth1' enters into this early passionateness and differentiates it from a mere animal rage4 ,the absolute prostration of infantile anger seems to be the expression of this keen consciousness of rebuff1 of injury4 ,while1 then1 these outbursts of savage instinct in children are no doubt ugly1 and in their direction contra-moral1 they must not hastily be pronounced wholly bad and wicked4 ,to call them wicked in the full sense of that term is indeed to forget that they are the swift reactions of instinct which have in them nothing of reflexion or of deliberation4 ,the angry child venting his spite in some wild act of violence is a long way from a man who knowingly and with the consent of his will retaliates and hates4 ,the very fleeting character of the outbreak1 the rapid subsidence of passion and transition to another mood1 show that there is here no real malice prpense4 ,these instincts will1 no doubt1 if they are not tamed1 develop later on into truly wicked dispositions2 yet it is by no means a small matter to recognise that they do not amount to full moral depravity4 ,on the other hand1 we have seen that we do not render complete justice to these early manifestations of angry passion if we class them with those of the brute4 ,the child in these first years1 though not yet human in the sense of having rational insight into his wrong-doing1 is human in the sense of suffering through consciousness of an injured self4 ,this reflective element is not yet moral2 the sense of injury may turn by-and-by into lasting hatred4 ,yet it holds within itself possibilities of something higher4 ,but of this more when we come to envisage the child in his relation to authority4 ,the same predominance of self1 the same kinship with the unsocial brute which shows itself in these germinal animosities1 is said to reappear in the insensibility or unfeelingness of children4 ,the commonest charge against children from those who are not on intimate terms with them1 and sometimes1 alas1 from those who are1 is that they are heartless and cruel4 ,that children often appear to the adult as unfeeling as a stone1 is1 ,i suppose1 incontestable4 ,the troubles which harass and oppress the mother leave her small companion quite unconcerned4 ,he either goes on playing with undisturbed cheerfulness1 or he betrays a momentary curiosity about some circumstance connected with the affliction which is worse than the absorption in play through its tantalising want of any genuine feeling4 ,a brother or a sister may be ill1 but if the vigorous little player is affected at all1 it is only through the loss of his companion1 if this is not more than made up for by certain advantages of the solitary situation4 ,if the mother is ill1 the event is interesting merely as supplying him with new treats4 ,a little boy of four1 after spending half an hour in his mother's sick-room1 coolly informed his nurse3 #8,i have had a very nice time1 mamma's ill6' ,the order of the two statements is significant of the child's mental attitude towards others' sufferings4 ,if his faithful nurse has her face bandaged1 his interest in her torments does not go beyond a remark on the #8funniness' of her new appearance4 ,when it comes to the bigger human troubles this want of fellow-feeling is still more noticeable4 ,nothing is more shocking to the adult observer of children than their coldness and stolidity in presence of death4 ,while a whole house is stricken with grief at the loss of a beloved inmate the child is wont to preserve his serenity1 being affected at most by a feeling of awe before a great mystery4 ,even the sight of the dead body does not always excite grief4 ,mrs4 ,burnett in her interesting reminiscences of childhood has an excellent account of the feelings of a sensitive and refined child when first brought face to face with death4 ,in one case she was taken with fearsome longing to touch the dead body1 so as to know what #8as cold as death' meant1 in another1 that of a pretty girl of three with golden brown eyes and neat small brown curls1 she was impressed by the loveliness of the whole scene1 the nursery bedroom being hung with white and adorned with white flowers4 ,in neither case was she sorry1 and could not cry though she had imagined beforehand that she would4#aff ,even in this case1 then1 where so much feeling was called forth1 commiseration for the dead companion seems to have been almost wholly wanting4#afg ----- ,footnote #aff3 ,the ,one ,i ,knew ,best1 chap4 x4 ,footnote #afg3 ,cf4 ,paola ,lombroso1 op4 cit41 p4 #hd f4 ----- ,no one1 ,i think1 will doubt that judged by our standards children are often profoundly and shockingly callous4 ,but the question arises here1 too1 whether we are right in applying our grown-up standards4 ,it is one thing to be indifferent with full knowledge of suffering1 another to be indifferent in the sense in which a cat might be said to be so at the spectacle of your falling or burning your finger4 ,we are apt to assume that children know our sufferings instinctively1 or at least that they can always enter into them when they are openly expressed4 ,but this assumption is highly unreasonable4 ,a large part of the manifestation of human suffering is unintelligible to a little child4 ,he is oppressed neither by our anxieties nor by our griefs1 just because these are to a large extent beyond his sympathetic comprehension4 ,we must remember1 too1 that there are moods and attitudes of mind favourable and unfavourable to sympathy4 ,none of us are uniformly and consistently compassionate1 and children are frequently the subject of moods which exclude the feeling4 ,they are impelled by their superabundant nervous energy to wild romping activity1 they are passionately absorbed in their play1 they are intensely curious about the many new things they see and hear of4 ,these dominant impulses issue in mental attitudes which are indifferent to the spectacle of others' troubles4 ,again1 where an appeal to serious attention is given1 a child is apt to spy something besides the sadness4 ,the little girl already spoken of saw the prettiness of the death-room rather than its mournfulness4 ,a teacher once told her class of the death of a class-mate4 ,there was of course a strange stillness1 which one little girl presently broke with a loud laugh4 ,the child is said to have been by no means unemotional1 and the laugh not a #8nervous' one4 ,the odd situation--the sudden hush of a class--had affected childish sensibilities more than the distressing announcement4 ,one other remark by way of saving clause here4 ,it is by no means true that children are always unaffected by the sad and sorrowful things in life4 ,the first acquaintance with death1 as we know from a number of published reminiscences1 has sometimes shaken a child's whole being with an infinite1 nameless sense of woe4#afh ----- ,footnote #afh3 ,see1 for example1 the record of the impression produced by a parent's death left by ,steele in the ,tatler1 and ,george ,sand in her autobiography4 ,no doubt1 as ,tolstoi's reminiscences tell us1 a good deal of straining after emotion and vain affectation may mingle with such childish sorrow4 ----- ,children1 says the misopdist1 are not only unfeeling where we look for sympathy and kindness1 they are positively unkind1 their unkindness amounting to cruelty4 ,what we mean by the brute in the child is emphatically this cruelty4 ,by cruelty is here understood cold-blooded infliction of pain4 8,cet ge10 wrote ,la ,fontaine of childhood1 8est sans piti40 ,the idea that children1 especially boys1 are cruel in this sense is1 ,i think1 a common one4 ,this cruelty will now and again show itself in relation to other children4 ,one of the trying situations of early life is to find oneself supplanted by the arrival of a new baby4 ,children1 ,i have reason to think1 are1 in such circumstances1 capable of coming shockingly near to a feeling of hatred4 ,i have heard of one little girl who was taken with so violent an antipathy to a baby which she considered outrageously ugly as to make attempts to smash its head1 much as she would no doubt have tried to destroy a doll which had become unsightly to her4 ,the baby1 it is comforting to know1 was not really hurt by this precocious explosion of infanticidal impulse--perhaps the smashing was more than half a pretence--and the little girl has since grown up to be a kind-hearted woman4 ,such cruel-looking handling of smaller infants is probably rare4 ,more common is the exhibition of the signs of cruelty in the child's dealings with animals4 ,it is of this1 indeed1 that we mostly think when we speak of a child's cruelty4 ,at first nothing seems clearer than the evidence of malicious intention in a child's treatment of animals4 ,the little girl ,m4 when just a year old would lift two kittens by the neck and try to stamp on them4 ,the little girl described by ,miss ,shinn would when two years old run up to a dog and jerk his ear till he snapped at her1 and on one occasion resolutely thrust her hand into a bush to seize pussy1 minding not the scratches4#afi ,do we not see in this mauling of animals1 even when it brings the child himself pain1 evidences of a rooted determination to plague1 and of a fierce delight in plaguing8 ----- ,footnote #afi3 ,notes on the ,development of a ,child1 pt4 ii41 p4 #adi f4 ----- ,the question of the innermost nature of human cruelty is too difficult a one to be discussed here4 ,i will only say that whatever the cruelty of adults may be children's so-called cruelty towards animals is very far from being a pure delight in the sight of suffering4 ,the torments to which a child will subject a long-suffering cat are1 ,i suspect1 due not to a clear intention to inflict pain1 but to the childish impulse to hold1 possess1 and completely dominate the pet animal4 ,he feels he must have the pet1 no matter at what cost to himself3 of the cost to his victim he does not think4 ,the stamping on the kittens was perhaps merely a childish way of holding them fast4 ,such actions are a manifestation of that odd mixture of sociability and love of power which makes up a child's attachment to the lower animals4 ,the case of destructive cruelty1 as when a small boy crushes a fly1 is somewhat different4 ,let me give a well-observed instance4 ,a little boy of two years and two months1 after nearly killing a fly on the window-pane1 seemed surprised and disturbed1 looking round for an explanation1 then gave it himself3 #8,mr4 ,fy dom 7gone7 to by-by'4 ,but he would not touch it or another fly again--a doubt evidently remained and he continued uneasy about it4 ,here we have1 ,i think1 the instinctive attitude of a child towards the outcome of his destructive impulse4 ,this impulse1 which1 as we know1 becomes more clearly destructive when experience has taught what result will follow1 is not necessarily cruel in the sense of including an idea of the animal's suffering4 ,animal movement1 especially that of tiny things1 has something exciting and provoking about it4 ,the child's own activity and the love of power which is bound up with it impel him to arrest the movements of small manageable things4 ,this is the meaning1 ,i suspect1 of the fascination of the fly on the window-pane1 and of tiny creeping things1 and especially1 perhaps1 of the worm with its tangle of wriggling movement4 ,the cat's prolonged chase of the mouse1 into which1 as we have seen1 something of a dramatic make-believe enters1 probably owes its zest to a like delight in the realisation of power4 ,along with this love of power there goes often something of a child's fierce untamable curiosity4 ,a boy of four1 finding that his mother was shocked at hearing him express a wish to see a pigeon which a dog had just killed1 remarked3 #8,is it rude to look at a dead pigeon8 ,i want to see where its blood is4' ,i am disposed to think that the crushing of flies and moths and the pulling of worms to pieces and so forth are prompted by this curiosity4 ,the child wants to see where the blood is1 what the bones are like1 how the wings are fastened in1 and so forth4 ,perez tells of a little boy1 afterwards an artist1 who used to crush flies between the leaves of a book for the sake of the odd designs resulting4#agj ,by such various lines of concentrated activity does the child-mind overlook the suffering which it causes4 ----- ,footnote #agj3 ,l',art et la ,posie chez l',enfant1 p4 #fj4 ----- ,a like combination of love of power and of curiosity seems to underlie other directions of childish destructiveness1 as the breaking of toys and the pulling of flowers to pieces4 ,in certain cases1 as in ,c4's annihilation of a garden of peonies1 the love of power or effect may overtop and outlive the curiosity1 becoming a sort of iconoclastic fury4#aga ----- ,footnote #aga3 ,ruskin tells us that when a child he pulled flowers to pieces #8in no morbid curiosity1 but in admiring wonder' 7,prterita1 #hh74 ,goethe gives an amusing account of his wholesale throwing of crockery out of the window inspired by the delight of watching the droll way in which it was smashed on the pavement4 ----- ,i think1 then1 that we may give the little child the benefit of the doubt1 and not assign his rough handling of sentient things to a wish to inflict pain1 or even to an indifference to pain of which he is clearly aware4 ,wanton activity1 the curiosity of the experimenter1 and delight in showing one's power and producing an effect1 seem sufficient to explain most of the alleged brutality of the first years4 ,probably the same considerations apply to those milder forms of annoyance which children are apt to practise on other people and animals alike4 ,that a child early develops a decided taste for #8teasing' is1 ,i think1 certain4 ,but whether carried out by word or by action this early teasing seems to be in the main the outcome of the love of power1 the impulse to impose one's will on other creatures4 ,we must remember that these wee beings feel themselves so subject to others' power that they are very naturally driven to use all opportunities of shaking off the shackles1 and exercising for themselves a little domination4 ,cruelty1 that is the impulse to inflict pain1 where it appears1 grows up later1 and though it has its roots in this love of power ought to be distinguished from it4 ,we have now looked at one of the dark sides of the child and have found that though it is unpleasant it is not so hideous as it has been painted4 ,children are no doubt apt to be passionate1 ferocious in their anger1 and sadly wanting in consideration for others2 yet it is consolatory to reflect that their savageness is not quite that of brutes1 and that their selfishness and cruelty are a long way removed from a deliberate and calculating egoism4 ,germs of ,altruism4 ,it now remains to point out that there is another and counterbalancing side4 ,if a child has his outbursts of temper he has also his fits of tenderness4 ,if he is now dead to others' sufferings he is at another time taken with a most amiable childish concern for their happiness4 ,in order to be just to him we must recognise both sides4 ,it must not be forgotten here that children are instinctively attachable and sociable in so far as they show in the first weeks that they get used to and dependent on the human presence and are miserable when this is taken from them4 ,the stopping of an infant's crying at night on hearing the familiar voice of its mother or nurse shows this4 ,in this instinct of companionship there is involved a vague inarticulate sympathy4 ,just as the attached dog may be said to have in a dim fashion a feeling of oneness with its master1 so the child4 ,the intenser realisation of this oneness comes in the case of the dog and of the child alike after separation4 ,the wild caressing leaps of the quadruped are matched by the warm embracings of the little biped4 ,only that here1 too1 we see in the child traces of a deeper human consciousness4 ,a girl of thirteen months was separated from her mother during six weeks4 ,on the mother's return she was speechless1 and for some time could not bear to leave her restored companion for a minute4 ,the little girl ,m4 when nearly seventeen months old received her father after only five days' absence with special marks of tenderness1 rushing up to him1 smoothing and stroking his face and giving him all the toys in the room4 ,this sense of joining on one's existence to another's is not sympathy in its highest form1 that is1 a conscious realisation of another's feelings1 but it is a kind of sympathy after all1 and may grow into something better4 ,this we may see in the return of the childish heart to its resting place after the estrangement introduced by #8naughtiness'4 ,the relenting after passion1 the reconciliation after punishment1 are these not the experiences which help to raise the dumb animal sympathy of the first months into a true human sense of fellowship8 ,but this part of the development of sympathy belongs to another chapter4 ,sympathy1 it has been said1 is a kind of imitation1 and this is strikingly illustrated in its early forms4 ,a dog will howl piteously in response to another dog's howl3 similarly a child of nine and a half months has been known to cry violently when his mother or father pretended to cry4 ,one curious manifestation of this early imitative sympathy is the impulse to do what the mother does and to be what she is4 ,much of early imitative play shows this tendency4 ,it is more than a cold distant copying of another's doings3 it is full of the warmth of attachment1 and it is entered on as a way of getting nearer to the object of attachment4 ,out of this1 too1 there springs the germ of a higher sympathy4 ,it will be remembered that ,laura ,bridgman bound the eyes of her doll with a bandage similar to the one she herself wore4 ,through this sharing in her own experience the doll became more a part of herself4 ,conversely1 a child1 on finding that her mother's head ached1 began imitatively to make-believe that her own head was hurt4 ,sympathy rests on community of experience1 and it is a curious fact that a child1 before he can fully sympathise with another's trouble and make it his own by the sympathetic process itself1 should thus try by a kind of childish acting to realise this community of experience4 ,from this imitative acting of another's trouble1 so as to share in it1 there is but a step to a direct sympathetic apprehension of it4 ,how early a genuine manifestation of concern about another's suffering begins to show itself it is almost impossible to say4 ,children probably differ greatly in this respect4 ,i have1 however1 one case which is so curious that ,i cannot forbear to quote it4 ,it reaches me1 ,i may say1 by a thoroughly trustworthy channel4 ,a baby aged one year and two months was crawling on the floor4 ,an elder sister1 ,katherine1 aged six1 who was working at a wool mat could not get on very well and began to cry4 ,baby looked up and grunted1 #8on6 on6' and kept drawing its fingers down its own cheeks4 ,here the aunt called ,miss ,katherine's attention to baby1 a device which merely caused a fresh outburst of tears2 whereupon baby proceeded to hitch itself along to ,katherine with many repetitions of the grunts and the mimetic finger-movements4 ,katherine1 fairly overcome by this1 took baby to her and smiled2 at which baby began to clap its hands and to crow1 tracing this time the course of the tears down its sister's cheeks4 ,this pretty nursery-picture certainly seems to illustrate a rudiment of genuine fellow-feeling4 ,similarly it is hard not to recognise the signs of a sincere concern when a child of two runs spontaneously and kisses the place that is hurt1 even though it is not to be doubted that the graceful action has been learnt through imitation4 ,very sweet and sacred to the mother are the first clear indications of the child's concern for herself4 ,these are sporadic1 springing up rarely1 and sometimes1 as it looks to us1 capriciously4 ,illness1 and temporary removal are a common occasion for the appearance of a deeper tenderness in the young heart4 ,a little boy of three spontaneously brought his story-book to his mother when she lay in bed ill2 and the same child used to follow her about after her recovery with all the devotion of a little knight4 ,valuable and entertaining1 too1 are the first attempts of the child at consolation4 ,a little ,german girl aged two and a half who had just lost her brother seemed very indifferent for some days4 ,she then began to reflect and to ask about her playmate4 ,on seeing her mother's distress she proceeded in truly childish fashion to comfort her2 #8,never mind1 mamma1 you will get a better boy4 ,he was a ragamuffin' 7#8,er war ein ,lump'74 ,the co-existence of an almost barbarous indifference for the dead brother with practical sympathy for the living mother is characteristic here4#agb ----- ,footnote #agb3 ,a pretty example of such childish consolation is given by ,p4 ,lombroso1 op4 cit41 p4 #id4 ----- ,a deeper and more thoughtful sympathy comes with years and reflective power4 ,thought about the overhanging terror1 death1 is sometimes the awakener of this4 #8,are you old1 mother8' asked a boy of five4 #8,why8' she answered4 #8,because1' he continued1 #8the older you are the nearer you are to dying4' ,this child had once before said he hoped his mother would not die before him1 and this suggests that thought of his own forlorn condition was in his mind here3 yet we may hope that there was something of disinterested concern too4#agc ----- ,footnote #agc3 ,cf4 ,p4 ,lombroso1 op4 cit41 p4 #hg4 ----- ,this early consideration frequently takes the practical form of helpfulness4 ,a child loves nothing better than to assist you in little household occupations2 and though love of activity and the pleasure of imitating no doubt count for much in these cases1 we can1 ,i think1 safely set down something to the wish to be of use4 ,this inference seems justified by the fact that such practical helpfulness is not always imitative4 ,a little boy of two years and one month happened to overhear his nurse say to herself3 #8,i wish that ,anne would remember to fill the nursery boiler'4 8,he listened1 and presently trotted off2 found the said ,anne doing a distant grate1 pulled her by the apron1 saying3 #8,nanna1 ,nanna6' 7come to nurse74 ,she followed1 surprised and puzzled1 the child pulling all the way1 till1 having got her into the nursery1 he pointed to the boiler1 and added3 #8,go dare1 go dare1' so that the girl comprehended and did as he bade her40 ,with this practical #8utilitarian' sympathy there goes a quite charming wish to give pleasure in other ways4 ,a little girl when just a year old was given to offering her toys1 flowers1 and other pretty things to everybody4 ,generosity is as truly an impulse of childhood as greediness1 and it is odd to observe their alternate play4 ,at an early age1 too1 a child tries to make himself agreeable by pretty and dainty courtesies4 ,a little girl1 aged three and a quarter1 petitioned her mother this wise3 #8,please1 mamma1 will you pin this with the greatest pleasure8' ,regard for another's feelings was surely never more charmingly expressed than in the prayer that in rendering this little service the helper should not only be willing1 but glad4 ,just as there are these sporadic growths of affectionate concern and wish to please in relation to the mother and others1 so there is ample evidence of kindness to animals4 ,the charge of cruelty in the case of little children is1 indeed1 seen to be a gross libel as soon as we consider their whole behaviour towards the animal world4 ,i have touched above on the vague alarms which this animal world has for tiny children4 ,it is only fair to them to say that these alarms are for the most part transitory1 giving place to interest1 attachment and fellow-feeling4 ,in a sense a child may be said to belong to the animal community1 as ,mr4 ,rudyard ,kipling's charming account of the ,jungle prettily suggests4 ,has he not1 indeed1 at first more in common with the dog and cat1 the pet rabbit or dormouse1 than with that grown-up human community which is apt to be so preoccupied with things beyond his understanding1 and in many cases1 at least1 to wear so unfriendly a mien8 ,we must remember1 too1 that children as a rule know nothing of the prejudices1 of the disgusts1 which make grown people put animals so far from them4 ,the boy ,c4 was nonplussed by his mother's horror of the caterpillar4 ,a child has been known quite spontaneously to call a worm #8beautiful'4 ,as soon as the first fear of the strangeness is mastered a child will take to an animal4 ,a little boy of fifteen months quickly overcame his fright at the barking of his grandfather's dog1 and began to share his biscuits with him1 to give him flowers to smell1 and to throw stones for his amusement4 ,this mastery of fear by attachment takes a higher form when later on the child will stick to his dumb companion after suffering from his occasional fits of temper4 ,ruskin in his reminiscences gives a striking example of this triumph of attachment over fear4 ,when five years old1 he tells us1 he was taken by the serving-man to see a favourite ,newfoundland dog in the stable4 ,the man rather foolishly humoured the child's wish to kiss ,leo 7the dog7 and lowered him so that his face came near the animal's4 ,hereupon the dog1 who was dining1 resenting the interruption of his meal1 bit out a piece of the boy's lip4 ,his only fear after this was lest the dog should be sent away4#agd ----- ,footnote #agd3 ,prterita1 pp4 #aje-f4 ----- ,children will further at a quite early age betray the germ of a truly humane feeling towards animals4 ,the same little boy that bravely got over his fear of the dog's barking would1 when nineteen months old1 begin to cry on seeing a horse fall in the street4 ,more passionate outbursts of pity are seen at a later age4 ,a boy five years and nine months had a kitten of which he was very fond4 ,one day1 after two or three days' absence from the house1 it came back with one foot much mutilated and the leg swollen1 evidently not far from dying4 8,when 7writes the mother7 he saw it he burst into uncontrollable tears and was more affected than ,i have ever seen him4 ,the kitten was taken away and drowned1 and ever since 7a month7 he has shown great reluctance in speaking of it1 and never mentions it to any one but those who saw the cat at the time4 ,he says it is too sad to tell any one of it40 ,the boy ,c4 when only four was moved to passionate grief at the sight of a dead dog taken from a pond4 ,the indignation of children at the doings of the butcher1 the hunter and others1 shows how deeply pitiful consideration for animals is rooted in their hearts4 ,this is one of the most striking manifestations of the better side of child-nature and deserves a chapter to itself4 ,it is sometimes asked why children should take animals to their bosoms in this fashion and lavish so much fellow-feeling on them4 ,it seems easy to understand how they come to choose animals1 especially young ones1 as playmates1 and now and again to be ruthlessly inconsiderate of their comfort in their boisterous gambols2 but why should they be so affected by their sufferings and champion their rights so sturdily8 ,i think the answer is not hard to find4 ,the sympathy and love which the child gives to animals grow out of a sort of blind gregarious instinct1 and this again seems to be rooted in a similarity of position and needs4 ,as ,m4 ,compayr well says on this point3 8,he 7the child7 sympathises naturally with creatures which resemble him on so many sides1 in which he finds wants analogous to his own1 the same appetite1 the same impulses to movement1 the same desire for caresses4 ,to resemble is already to love40#age ,i think1 however1 that a deeper feeling comes in from the first and gathers strength as the child hears about men's treatment of animals1 ,i mean a sense of a common danger and helplessness face to face with the human #8giant'4 ,the more passionate attachment of the child to the animal is the outcome of the wide-spread instinct of helpless things to band together4 ,a mother once remarked to her boy1 between five and six years old3 #8,why1 ,r41 ,i believe you are kinder to the animals than to me'4 #8,perhaps ,i am1' he replied1 #8you see they are not so well off as you are4' ,may there not be something of this sense of banding and mutual defence on the animals' side too8 ,the idea does not look so absurd when we remember how responsive1 how forbearing1 how ready to defend1 a dog will often show itself towards a #8wee mite' of a child4 ,this same instinct to stand up for the helpless inferior shows itself in children's attitude towards servants when scolded and especially when dismissed4#agf ----- ,footnote #age3 ,op4 cit41 p4 #ajh4 ,footnote #agf3 ,illustrations are given by ,paola ,lombroso1 op4 cit41 p4 #if f4 ----- ,the same outpourings of affection are seen in the dealings of children with their toy babies and animals4 ,allowing for occasional outbreaks of temper and acts of violence1 the child's intercourse with his doll and his toy #8gee gee' is a wonderful display of loving solicitude2 a solicitude which is at once tender and corrective and has the enduring constancy of a maternal instinct4 ,no one can watch the care given to a doll1 the wide-ranging efforts to provide for its comfort1 to make it look pretty1 and to get it to behave nicely1 and note the misery when it is missing1 without acknowledging that in this plaything humanised by childish fancy1 and brought by daily habit into the warmest intimacy of daily companionship1 we have the focal meeting-point of the tender impulses of the child4 ,lastly1 the reader may be reminded that childish kindness and pitifulness extend to what look to us still less deserving objects in the inanimate world4 ,the manifestations of pity for the falling leaves and for the stones condemned to lie always in one place1 referred to above1 show how quick childish feeling is to detect what is sad in the look of things4 ,children have even been known to apply the commiserating vocable #8poor' to a torn paper figure1 and to a bent pin4 ,it seems fair to suppose that here1 too1 the more tender heart of the child saw occasion for pity4 ,it is worth noting that childish sorrow at the sufferings of things is sometimes so keen1 that even artistic descriptions which contain a #8cruel' element are shunned4 ,a little boy under four is indignant 7writes his mother7 at any picture where an animal suffers4 ,he has even turned against several of his favourite pictures--,german ,bilderbogen1 because they are #8cruel1' as the bear led home with a corkscrew in his nose4 ,the extreme manifestation of this shrinking from the representation of animal or human suffering is dislike for #8sad stories'4 ,the unsophisticated tender heart of the child can find no pleasure in horrors which appear to be the supreme delight of many an adult reader4 ,here1 however1 it is evident1 we verge on the confines of sentimental pity4 ,it is to be remarked that highly imaginative children shed most tears over these fictitious sufferings4 ,children with more matter-of-fact minds and a practical turn are not so affected4 ,thus a mother writes of her two girls3 #8,m4 being the most imaginative is and always has been much affected by sad stories1 especially if read to her with dramatic inflexions of voice4 ,from two years old upwards these have always affected her to tears1 whilst ,p4 who is really the most tender-hearted and helpful1 but has little imagination1 never cries at sad stories1 and when four years old explained to me that she did not mind them because she knew they didn't really happen4' ,it appears to me to be incontestable that in this spontaneous outgoing of fellow-feeling towards other creatures1 human and animal1 the child manifests something of a truly moral quality4 ,c4's stout and persistent championship of the ,london horses against the oppression of the bearing-rein had in it something of righteous indignation4 ,the way in which his mind was at this period pre-occupied with animal suffering suggests that his sympathies with animals were rousing the first fierce protest against the wicked injustice of the world4 ,the boy ,de ,quincey got this first sense of the existence of moral evil in another way through his sympathy with a sister who1 rumour said1 had been brutally treated by a servant4 ,he could not1 he tells us1 bear to look on the woman4 ,it was not anger4 #8,the feeling which fell upon me was a shuddering horror as upon a first glimpse of the truth that ,i was in a world of evil and strife4'#agg ----- ,footnote #agg3 ,autobiographical ,sketches1 chap4 i4 ----- ,children's ,lies4 ,we may now turn to the other main charge against children1 that of lying4 ,according to many1 children are in general accomplished little liars1 to the manner born and equally adept with the mendacious savage4 ,even writers on childhood1 by no means prejudiced against them1 lean to the view that untruth is universal among children1 and to some extent at least innate4#agh ----- ,footnote #agh3 ,see the quotations from ,montaigne and ,perez1 given by ,compayr1 op4 cit41 p4 #cji f4 ----- ,here1 surely1 there is need of discrimination4 ,a lie connotes1 or should connote1 an assertion made with full consciousness of its untruth1 and in order to mislead4 ,it may well be doubted whether little children have so clear an apprehension of what we understand by truth and falsity as to be liars in this full sense4 ,much of what seems shocking to the adult unable to place himself at the level of childish intelligence and feeling will probably prove to be something far less serious4 ,it is satisfactory to note a tendency to take a milder and more reasonable view of this infantile fibbing2 and in what follows ,i can but follow up the excellent recent studies of ,dr4 ,stanley ,hall1 and ,m4 ,compayr4#agi ----- ,footnote #agi3 ,stanley ,hall1 8,children's ,lies10 ,amer4 ,journal of ,psychology1 #ahij2 ,compayr1 op4 cit41 p4 #cji ff4 ----- ,it is desirable to inspect a little more closely the various forms of this early mendacity4 ,to begin with those little ruses and dissimulations which1 according to ,m4 ,perez1 are apt to appear almost from the cradle in the case of certain children1 it is plainly difficult to bring them into the category of full-fledged lies4 ,when1 for example1 a child wishing to keep a thing hides it1 and on your asking for it holds out empty hands1 it would be hard to name this action a lie1 even though there is in it a germ of deception4 ,we must remember that children have an early developed instinct to secrete things1 and the little dissimulation in these actions may be a mere outcome of this hiding propensity1 and the accompanying wish that you should not get the hidden thing4 ,refusals to tell secrets1 or as ,c4 called them #8private secrets' 7a fine distinction71 show the same thing4 ,a child when badgered is most jealous in guarding what he has been told1 or what his fancy has made a secret4 ,the little ruses or #8acted lies' to which ,i am now referring seem to me at the worst attempts to put you off the scent in what is regarded as a private matter1 and to have the minimum of intentional deception4 ,as ,mrs4 ,fry has well shown1 this childish passion for keeping things secret may account for later and more serioua-looking falsehoods4#ahj ----- ,footnote #ahj3 ,uninitiated 7#8,a ,discovery in ,morals'74 ----- ,more distinct marks of mendacity appear when the child comes to use language and proffers statements which if he reflected he might know to be false4 ,it may readily be thought that no child who has the intelligence to make statements at all could make false ones without some little consciousness of the falsity4 ,but here ,i suspect we judge harshly1 applying adult tests to cases where they are inappropriate4 ,anybody who has observed children's play and dramatic talk1 and knows how readily and completely they can imagine the non-existent so as to lose sight of the existent1 will be chary when talking of them of using the word lie4 ,there may be solemn sticklers for truth who would be shocked to hear the child when at play saying1 #8,i am a coachman1' #8,dolly is crying1' and so forth4 ,but the discerning see nothing to be alarmed at here4 ,similarly when a little girl of two and a half after running on with a pretty long rigmarole of sounds devoid of all meaning said3 8,it's because you don't understand me1 papa04 ,here the love of mystery and secrecy aided by the dramatic impulse made the nonsense talk real talk4 ,the wee thing doubtless had a feeling of superiority in talking in a language which was unintelligible to her all-wise papa4 ,on much the same level of moral obliquity are those cases where a child will say the opposite of what he is told1 turning authoritative utterances upside down4 ,a quaint instance is quoted by ,compayr from ,guyau4 ,guyau's little boy 7age not given7 was overheard saying to himself3 8,papa parle mal1 il a dit sevette1 bb parle bien1 il dit serviette04 ,such reversals are a kind of play too3 the child not unnaturally gets tired now and then of being told that he is wrong1 and for the moment imagines himself right and his elders wrong1 immensely enjoying the idea4 ,a graver-looking case presents itself when an #8untruth' is uttered in answer to a question4 ,c4 on being asked by his mother who told him something1 answered1 #8,dolly'4 #8,false1 and knowingly false1' somebody will say1 especially when he learns that the depraved youngster instantly proceeded to laugh4 ,but let us look a little closer4 ,the question had raised in ,c4's small mind the idea that somebody had told him4 ,this is a process of #8suggestion' which1 as we shall see presently1 sways a child's mind as it sways that of the hypnotised adult4 ,and there close by the child was dolly1 and the child's make-believe includes1 as we all know1 much important communication with dolly4 ,what more natural than that the idea should at once seize his imagination8 ,but the laugh8 ,well ,i am ready to admit that there was a touch of playful defiance here1 of young impishness4 ,the expression on the mother's face showed him that his bold absurd fancy had produced its half-startling1 half-amusing effect2 and there is nothing your little actor likes more than this after-effect of startling you4 ,but more1 it gave him at the same instant a glimpse of the outside look of his fancy1 of the unreality of the untruth2 and the laugh probably had in it the delight of the little rebel1 of the naughty rogue who loves now and then to set law at defiance4 ,a quick vivid fancy1 a childish passion for acting a part1 these backed by a strong impulse to astonish1 and a turn for playful rebellion1 seem to me to account for this and other similar varieties of early misstatement4 ,naughty they no doubt are in a measure2 but is it not just that playing at being naughty which has in it nothing really bad1 and is removed toto clo from downright honest lying8 ,i speak the more confidently as to ,c4's case as ,i happen to know that he was in his serious moods particularly1 one might almost say pedantically1 truthful4 ,a somewhat different case is that where the vivid fancy underlying the misstatement may be supposed to lead to a measure of self-deception4 ,when1 for example1 a child wants to be carried and says1 8,my leg hurts me and my foot too just here1 ,i can't walk1 ,i can't1 ,i can't10#aha it is possible at least that he soon realises the tiredness he begins by half feigning4 ,the ,worcester collection gives an example4 8,i was giving some cough syrup1 and ,e 7aged three years two months7 ran to me saying3 #8,i am sick too1 and ,i want some medicine'4 ,she then tried to cough4 ,every time she would see me taking the syrup bottle afterwards1 she would begin to cough4 ,the syrup was very sweet40 ,this looks simply awful4 ,but what if the child were of so imaginative a turn that the sight of the syrup given to the sick child produced a more or less complete illusion of being herself sick1 an illusion strong enough to cause the irritation and the cough8 ,the idea may seem far-fetched1 but deserves to be considered before we brand the child with the name liar4 ----- ,footnote #aha3 ,see ,p4 ,lombroso1 op4 cit41 p4 #gd4 ----- ,the vivid fanciful realisation which in this instance was sustained by the love of sweet things is in many cases inspired by other and later developed feelings4 ,how much false statement--and that not only among little children--is of the nature of exaggeration and directed to producing a strong effect4 ,when1 for example1 the little four-year-old draws himself up and shouts exultantly1 8,see1 mamma1 how tall ,i am1 ,i am growing so fast1 ,i shall soon be a giant10 or boasts of his strength and tells you the impossible things he is going to do1 the element of braggadocio is on the surface1 and imposes on nobody4 ,no doubt these propensities1 though not amounting in the stage of development now dealt with to full lying1 may if unrestrained develop into this4 ,an unbridled fancy and strong love of effect will lead an older child to say what he knows1 vaguely at least1 at the moment to be false in order to startle and mystify others4 ,such exaggeration of the impulses is distinctly abnormal1 as may be seen by its affinity to what we can observe in the case of the insane4 ,the same is true of the exaggeration of the vain-glorious or #8showing off' impulses1 as illustrated for example in the cases mentioned by ,dr4 ,stanley ,hall of children who on going to a new town or school would assume new characters which were kept up with difficulty by means of many false pretences4#ahb ----- ,footnote #ahb3 ,article 8,children's ,lies10 p4 #fg4 ----- ,a fertile source of childish untruth1 especially in the case of girls1 is the wish to please4 ,here we have to do with very dissimilar things4 ,an emotional child who in a sudden fit of tenderness for mother1 aunt or teacher gushes out1 #8,oh ,i do love you1' or #8,what sweet lovely eyes you have1' or other pretty flattery1 may be sincere for the moment1 the exaggeration being indeed the outcome of a sudden ebullition of emotion4 ,there is more of acting and artfulness in the flatteries which take their rise in a calculating wish to say the nice agreeable thing4 ,some children are1 ,i believe1 adepts at these amenities4 ,those in whom the impulse is strong and dominant are presumably those who in later years make the good society actors4 ,in all this childish simulation and exaggeration we have to do with the germs of what may become a great moral evil1 insincerity1 that is falsity in respect of what is best and ought to be sacred4 ,yet this childish flattery1 though undoubtedly a mild mendacity1 is a most amiable mendacity through its charming motive--always supposing that it is a pure wish to please1 and is not complicated with an arrire pense1 the hope of gaining some favour from the object of the devotion4 ,perhaps there is no variety of childish fault more difficult to deal with2 if only for the reason that in checking the impulse we are robbing ourselves of the sweetest offerings of childhood4 ,the other side of this wish to please is the fear to give offence1 and this1 ,i suspect1 is a fertile source of childish prevarication4 ,if1 for example1 a child is asked whether he does not like or admire something1 his feeling that the questioner expects him to say #8,yes' makes it very hard to say #8,no'4 ,mrs4 ,burnett gives us a reminiscence of this early experience4 ,when she was less than three1 she writes1 a lady visitor1 a friend of her mother1 having found out that the baby newly added to the family was called ,edith1 remarked to her3 #8,that's a pretty name4 ,my baby is ,eleanor4 ,isn't that a pretty name8' ,on being thus questioned she felt in a dreadful difficulty1 for she did not like the sound of #8,eleanor1' and yet feared to be rude and say so4 ,she got out of it by saying she did not like the name as well as #8,edith'4 ,these temptations and struggles1 which may impress themselves on memory for the whole of life1 illustrate the influence of older persons' wishes and expectations on the childish mind4 ,it is possible that we have here to do with something akin to 8suggestion10 that force which produces such amazing results on the hypnotised subject1 and is known to be a potent influence for good or for evil on the young mind4 ,a leading question of the form1 #8,isn't this pretty8' #8,aren't you fond of me8' may easily overpower for a moment the child's own conviction super-imposing that of the stronger mind4 ,such passive utterance coming from a mind over-ridden by another's authority is not to be confounded with conscious falsehood4 ,this suggestion often combines with other forces4 ,here is a good example4 ,a little ,american girl1 sent into the oak shrubbery to get a leaf1 saw a snake1 which so frightened her that she ran home without the leaf4 ,as cruel fate would have it she met her brothers and told them she had seen a #8'sauger'4 8,they knew 7writes the lady who recalls this reminiscence of her childhood7 the difference between snakes and their habits1 and1 boy-like1 wanted to tease me1 and said #8',twas no 'sauger--it didn't have a red ring round its neck1 now1 did it8' ,my heated imagination saw just such a serpent as soon as their words were spoken1 and ,i declared it had a ring about #8its neck'40 ,in this way she was led on to say that it had scars and a little bell on its neck1 and was soundly rated by her brothers as a #8liar'4#ahc ,here we have a case of 8illusion of memory0 induced by suggestion acting on a mind made preternaturally sensitive by the fear from which it had not yet recovered4 ,if there was a germ of mendacity in the case it had its source in the shrinking from the brothers' ridicule1 the wish not to seem utterly ignorant about these boyish matters1 the snakes4 ,yet who would say that such swift unseizable movements of feeling in the dim background of consciousness made the child's responses lies in the proper sense of the word8 ----- ,footnote #ahc3 ,sara ,e4 ,wiltshire1 ,the ,christian ,union1 vol4 xl41 ,no4 #bf4 ----- ,it seems paradoxical1 yet is1 ,i believe1 indisputable1 that a large part of childish untruth comes upon the scene in connexion with moral authority and discipline4 ,we shall see by-and-by that unregenerate child-nature is very apt to take up the attitude of self-defence towards those who administer law and inflict punishment4 ,very little children brought face to face with restraint and punishment will #8try on' these ruses4 ,here are one or two illustrations from the notes on the little girl ,m4 ,when seventeen and a half months old she threw down her gloves when wheeled in her mail-cart by her mother4 ,the latter picked them up and told her not to throw them away again4 ,she was at first good1 then seemed to deliberate and finally called out3 #8,mamma1 ,bubbo' 7dog74 ,the mother turned to look1 and the little imp threw her gloves away again1 laughing2 there was of course no dog4 ,the fib about the dog formed part of a piece of childish make-believe1 of an infantile comedy4 ,it was hardly more when about two months later1 after she had thrown down and broken her tea-things1 and her mother had come up to her1 she said3 #8,mamma broke tea-things--beat mamma1' and proceeded to beat her4 ,in connexion with such little child-comedies there can be no talk of deception4 ,they are the outcome of the childish instinct to upset the serious attitude of authority by a bit of fun4 ,the little stratagem begins to look more serious when the child gets artful enough to put the mother off the scent by a false statement4 ,for example1 a mite of three having in a moment of temper called her mother #8monkey1' and being questioned as to what she had said1 replied3 8,i said ,i was a monkey04 ,in some cases the child does not wait to be questioned4 ,a little girl mentioned by ,compayr1 being put out by something the mother had done or said1 cried3 #8,nasty6' 7,vilaine67 then after a significant silence1 corrected herself in this wise1 #8,dolly nasty' 7,poupe vilaine74 ,the skill with which this transference was effected without any violence to grammar argues a precocious art4#ahd ----- ,footnote #ahd3 ,perez gives a similar story1 only that the epithet #8vilaine' was here transferred to #8l'eau'4 ,l',education ds le berceau1 p4 #ec4 ----- ,our moral discipline may develop untruth in another way4 ,when the punishment has been inflicted and the governor1 relenting from the brutal harshness1 asks3 #8,are you sorry8' or #8,aren't you sorry8' the answer is exceedingly likely to be #8,no1' even though this is in a sense untrue4 ,more clearly is this lying of obstinacy seen where a child is shut up and kept without food4 ,asked3 #8,are you hungry8' the hardy little sinner stifles his sensations and pluckily answers #8,no1' even though the low and dismal character of the sound shows that the untruth is but a half-hearted affair4 ,i have tried to show how a child's untruths may be more than half 8playing10 how when they are serious assertions they may involve a measure of self-deception1 and how even when consciously false they may have their origin in excusable circumstances and feelings4 ,in urging all this ,i do not wish to deny the statement that children wall sometimes deliberately invent a lie from a base motive1 as when a girl of three seeing her little brother caressed by her mother for some minutes and feeling herself neglected fabricated the story that #8,henri' had been cruel to the parrot4#ahe ,yet ,i am disposed to look on such mean falsehoods as exceptional if not abnormal4 ----- ,footnote #ahe3 ,perez1 ,l',education ds le berceau1 p4 #ed4 ----- ,there is much even yet to be done in clearing up the modus operandi of children's lies4 ,how quick1 for example1 is a child to find out the simple good-natured people1 as the servant-maid1 or gardener1 who will listen to his romancing and flatter him by appearing to accept it all as gospel4 ,more significant is the fact that intentional deception is apt to show itself towards certain people only4 ,there is many a school-boy who would think it no dishonour to say what is untrue to those he dislikes1 especially by way of getting them into hot water1 though he would feel it mean and base to lie to his mother or his father1 and bad form to lie to the head-master4 ,similar distinctions show themselves in earlier stages1 and are another point of similarity between the child and the savage whose ideas of truthfulness seem to be truthfulness for my people only4 ,this is a side of the subject which would repay fuller inquiry4 ,another aspect of the subject which has been but little investigated is the influence of habit in the domain of lying1 and the formation of persistent permanent lies4 ,the impulse to stick to an untruth when once uttered is very human1 and in the case of the child is enforced by the fear of discovery4 ,this applies not only to falsehoods foisted on persons in authority1 but to those by which clever boys and girls take pleasure in befooling the inferior wits of others4 ,in this way there grow up in the nursery and in the playground traditional myths and legends which are solemnly believed by the simple-minded4 ,such invention is in part the outcome of the 8pleasures of the imagination04 ,yet it is probable that these are in all cases reinforced not only by the wish to produce an effect1 but by the love of power which in the child not endowed with physical prowess is apt to show itself in hood-winking and practical joking4 ,closely connected with the permanence of untruths is the contagiousness of lying4 ,the propagation of falsehood is apt to be promoted by a certain tremulous admiration for the hardihood of the lie and by the impulses of the rebel which never quite slumber even in the case of fairly obedient children4 ,i suspect1 however1 that it is in all cases largely due to the force of suggestion4 ,the falsehood boldly announced is apt to captivate the mind and hold it under a kind of spell4 ,this effect of suggestion in generating falsehood is very marked in those pathological or semi-pathological cases where children have been led to give false testimony4 ,it is now known that it is quite possible to provoke an illusion of memory in certain children between the ages of six and fifteen by simply affirming something in their hearing1 whether they are in the waking or in the sleeping state1 so that they are ready to state that they actually saw happen what was asserted4#ahf ----- ,footnote #ahf3 ,m4 ,motet was one of the first to call attention to the forces of childish imagination and the effects of suggestion in the false testimonies of children4 ,les ,faux ,temoignages des ,enfants devant la ,justice1 #ahhg4 ,the subject has been further elucidated by ,dr4 ,brillon4 ----- ,so much as to the several manners and circumstances of childish lying4 ,in order to understand still better what it amounts to1 how much of conscious falsehood enters into it1 we must glance at another and closely related phenomenon1 the pain which sometimes attends and follows it4 ,there is no doubt that a certain number of children experience a qualm of conscience when uttering a falsehood4 ,this is evidenced in the well-known devices by which the intelligence of the child thinks to mitigate the lie2 as when on saying what he knows to be false he adds mentally1 #8,i do not mean it1' #8in my mind1' or some similar palliative4#ahg ,such subterfuges show a measure of sensibility1 for a hardened liar would despise the shifts1 and are curious as illustrations of the childish conscience and its unlearnt casuistry4 ----- ,footnote #ahg3 ,see ,stanley ,hall1 loc4 cit41 p4 #fh f4 ----- ,the remorse that sometimes follows lying1 especially the first lie1 which catches the conscience at its tenderest1 has been remembered by many in later life4 ,here is a case4 ,a lady friend remembers that when a child of four she had to wear a shade over her eyes4 ,one day on walking out with her mother she was looking1 child-wise1 sidewards instead of in front1 and nearly struck a lamp-post4 ,her mother then scolded her1 but presently remembering the eyes1 said3 8,poor child1 you could not see well04 ,she knew that this was not the reason1 but she accepted it1 and for long afterwards was tormented with a sense of having told a lie4 ,miss ,wiltshire1 who tells the story of the mythical snake1 gives another recollection which illustrates the keen suffering of a child when he becomes fully conscious of falsehood4 ,she was as a small child very fond of babies1 and had been permitted by her mother to go when invited by her aunt to nurse her baby cousin4 ,one day wanting much to go when not invited1 she boldly invented1 saying that her aunt was busy and had asked her to spend an hour with the baby4 #8,i went 7she adds7 not to the baby1 but by a circuitous route to my father's barn1 crept behind one of the great doors1 which ,i drew as close to me as ,i could1 vainly wishing that the barn and the hay-stacks would cover me2 then ,i cried and moaned ,i do not know how many hours1 and when ,i went to bed ,i said my prayers between sobs1 refusing to tell my mother why ,i wept4'#ahh ----- ,footnote #ahh3 ,loc4 cit4 ----- ,such examples of remorse are evidence of a child's capability of knowingly stating what is false4 ,this is strikingly shown in ,miss ,wiltshire's two reminiscences2 for she distinctly tells us that in the case of her confident assertion about the imaginary snake with ring and bell1 she felt no remorse as she was not conscious of uttering a lie4#ahi ,but these sufferings of conscience point to something else1 a sense of awful wickedness1 of having done violence to all that is right and holy4 ,how1 it may be asked1 does it happen that children feel thus morally crushed after telling a lie8 ----- ,footnote #ahi3 ,cf4 what ,mrs4 ,fry says1 ,uninitiated 7#8,a ,discovery in ,morals'74 ----- ,here is a question that can only be answered when we have more material4 ,we know that among all childish offences lying is the one which is apt to be specially branded by theological sanctions4 ,the physical torments with which the #8lying tongue' is threatened1 may well beget terror in a timid child's heart4 ,i think it likely1 too1 that the awfulness of lying is thought of by children in its relation to the all-seeing ,god who1 though he cannot be lied to1 knows when we lie4 ,the inaudible palliative words added to the lie may be an awkward child-device for putting the speaker straight with the all-hearing ,god4 ,further inquiry is1 however1 needed here4 ,do children contract a horror of a lie when no religious terrors are introduced8 ,is there anything in the workings of a child's own mind which would lead him to feel after his first lie as if the stable world were tumbling about his ears8 ,let parents supply us with facts here4 ,meanwhile ,i will venture to put forth a conjecture1 and will gladly withdraw it as soon as it is disproved4 ,so far as my inquiries have gone ,i do not find that children brought up at home and kept from the contagion of bad example do uniformly develop a lying propensity4 ,several mothers assure me that their children have never seriously propounded an untruth4 ,i can say the same about two children who have been especially observed for the purpose4#aij ----- ,footnote #aij3 ,stanley ,hall1 when he speaks of certain forms of lying as prevalent among children1 is1 as he expressly explains1 speaking of children at school1 where the forces of contagion are in full swing4 ----- ,this being so1 ,i distinctly challenge the assertion that lying is instinctive in the sense that a child1 even when brought up among habitual truth tellers1 shows an unlearned aptitude to say what he knows to be false4 ,a child's quick imitativeness will1 of course1 lead him to copy grown-up people's untruths at a very early age4#aia ----- ,footnote #aia3 ,i seem to detect possible openings for the play of imitation in many of the indisputably conscious falsehoods reported by ,perez1 ,p4 ,lombroso1 and others4 ----- ,i will go further and suggest that where a child is brought up normally1 that is1 in a habitually truth-speaking community1 he tends1 quite apart from moral instruction1 to acquire a respect for truth as what is customary4 ,consider for a moment how busily a child's mind is occupied during the first years of linguistic performance in getting at the bottom of words1 of fitting ideas to words when trying to understand others1 and words to ideas when trying to express his own thoughts1 and you will see that all this must serve to make truth1 that is1 the correspondence of statement with fact1 to the child-mind something matter-of-course1 something not to be questioned1 a law wrought into the very usages of daily life which he never thinks of disobeying4 ,we can see that children accustomed to truth-speaking show all the signs of a moral shock when they are confronted with assertions which1 as they see1 do not answer to fact4 ,the child ,c4 was highly indignant on hearing from his mother that people said what he considered false things about horses and other matters of interest3 and he was even more indignant at meeting with any such falsity in one of his books for which he had all a child's reverence4 ,the idea of perpetrating a knowing untruth1 so far as ,i can judge1 is simply awful to a child who has been thoroughly habituated to the practice of truthful statement4 ,may it1 then1 not well be that when a preternatural pressure of circumstances pushes the child over the boundary line of truth1 he feels a shock1 a horror1 a giddy and aching sense of having violated law--law not wholly imposed by the mother's command1 but rooted in the very habits of social life8 ,i think the conjecture is well worth considering4 ,our inquiry has led us to recognise1 in the case of cruelty and of lying alike1 that children are by no means morally perfect1 but have tendencies which1 if not counteracted or held in check by others1 will develop into true cruelty and true lying4 ,on the other hand1 our study has shown us that these impulses are not the only ones4 ,a child has promptings of kindness1 which alternate1 often in a capricious-looking way1 with those of inconsiderate teasing and tormenting2 and he has1 ,i hold1 side by side with the imaginative and other tendencies which make for untruthful statement1 the instinctive roots of a respect for truth4 ,these tendencies have not the same relative strength and frequency of utterance in the case of all children1 some showing1 for example1 more of the impulse which makes for truth1 others more of the impulse which makes for untruth4 ,yet in all children probably both kinds of impulse are to be observed4 ,i have confined myself to two of the moral traits of childhood4 ,if there were time to go into an examination of others1 as childish vanity1 something similar would1 ,i think1 be found4 ,children's vanity1 like that of the savage1 has been the theme of more than one chapter1 and it is undoubtedly vast to the point of absurdity4 ,yet1 side by side with these impulses to deck oneself1 to talk boastfully1 there exists a delightful childish candour which1 if not exactly what we call modesty1 is possibly something better4 ,we may then1 perhaps1 draw the conclusion that child-nature is on its moral side wanting in consistency and unity4 ,it is a field of half-formed growths1 some of which tend to choke the others4 ,certain of these are favourable1 others unfavourable to morality4 ,it is for education to see to it that these isolated propensities be organised into a system in which those towards the good become supreme and regulative principles4 ,,viii4 ,,under ,,law4 ,the ,struggle with ,law4 ,in the last chapter we tried to get at those tendencies of child-nature which though they have a certain moral significance may in a manner be called spontaneous and independent of the institution of moral training4 ,we will now examine the child's attitude towards the moral government with which he finds himself confronted4 ,here again we meet with opposite views4 ,children1 say some1 are essentially disobedient and law-breaking4 ,a child as such is a rebel1 delighting in nothing so much as in evading the rule which he finds imposed on him by others4 ,the view that children are instinctively obedient and law-abiding1 has not1 ,i think1 been very boldly insisted on4 ,a follower of ,rousseau1 at least1 who sees only clumsy interference with natural development in our attempts to govern children1 would say that child-nature must resist the artificial and cramping system which the disciplinarian imposes4 ,it seems1 however1 to be allowed by some that a certain number of children are docile and disposed to accept authority with its commands4 ,according to these1 children are either obedient or disobedient4 ,this is perhaps the view of many mothers and pedagogues4 ,here1 too1 it is probable that we try to make nature too simple4 ,even the latter view1 in spite of its apparent wish to be discriminating1 does not allow for the many-sidedness of the child1 and for the many different ways in which the instincts of child-nature may vary4 ,now it is worth asking whether1 if the child were naturally disposed to look on authority as something wholly hostile1 he would get morally trained at all4 ,physically mastered and morally cowed he might of course become2 but this is not the same thing as being morally induced into a habit of accepting law and obeying it4 ,in inquiring into this matter we must begin by drawing a distinction4 ,there is first the attitude of a child towards the governor1 the parent or other guardian1 and there is his attitude towards law as such4 ,these are by no means the same thing1 and a child of three or four begins to illustrate the distinction4 ,he may seem to be lawless1 opposed to the very idea of government1 when in reality he is merely objecting to a particular ruler1 and the kind of rule 7or as the child would say1 misrule7 which he is carrying out4 ,let us look a little into the non-compliant1 disobedient attitude of children4 ,as we have seen1 their very liveliness1 the abundance of their vigorous impulses1 brings them into conflict with others' wills4 ,the ruler1 more particularly1 is a great and continual source of crossings and checkings4 ,the child has his natural wishes and propensities4 ,he is full of fun1 bent on his harmless tricks1 and the mother has to talk seriously to him about being naughty4 ,how can we wonder at his disliking the constraint8 ,he has a number of inconvenient1 active impulses1 such as putting things in disorder1 playing with water1 and so forth4 ,as we all know1 he has a duck-like fondness for dirty puddles4 ,civilisation1 which wills that a child should be nicely dressed and clean1 intervenes in the shape of the nurse and soon puts a stop to this mode of diversion4 ,the tyro in submission1 if sound in brain and limb1 kicks against the restraint1 yells1 slaps the nurse1 and so forth4 ,such collisions are perfectly normal in the first years of life4 ,we should not care to see a child give up his inclinations at another's bidding without some little show of resistance4 ,these conflicts are frequent and sharp in proportion to the sanity and vigour of the child4 ,the best children1 best from a biological point of view1 have1 ,i think1 most of the rebel in them4 ,not infrequently these resistances of young will to old will are accompanied by more emphatic protests in the shape of slapping1 pushing1 and even biting4 ,the ridiculous inequality in bodily powers1 however1 saves1 or ought to save1 the contest from becoming a serious physical struggle4 ,the resistance where superior force is used can only resolve itself into a helpless protest1 a vain shrieking or other utterance of checked and baffled impulse4 ,if instead of physical compulsion authority is asserted in the shape of a highly disagreeable command1 a child1 before obedience has grown into a habit1 will be likely to disobey4 ,if the nurse1 instead of pulling the mite away from the puddle1 bids him come away1 he may assert himself in an eloquent #8,i won't1' or less bluntly1 #8,i can't come yet'4 ,if he is very much in love with the puddle1 and has a stout heart1 he probably embarks on a tussle of words1 in which #8,i won't1' or as the child will significantly put it #8,i mustn't1' is bandied with #8you must6' the nurse having at length to abandon the #8moral' method and to resort after all to physical compulsion4 ,our sample-child has not1 we will assume1 yet got so far as to recognise and defer to a general rule about cleanliness4 ,hence it may be said that his opposition is directed against the nurse as propounding a particular command1 and one which at the moment is excessively unpleasant4 ,it is as yet not resistance to law as such1 but rather to one specific interference of another will4 ,at the same time we may detect in some of this early resistance to authority something of the true rebel-nature1 that is to say the love of lawlessness1 and what is worse1 perhaps1 the obstinate recklessness of the law-breaker4 ,the very behaviour of a child when another will crosses and blocks the line of his activity is suggestive of this4 ,the yelling and other disorderly proceedings1 do not they speak of the temper of the rioter1 of the rowdy8 ,and then1 the fierce persistence in disobedience under rebuke1 and the wild1 wicked determination to face everything rather than obey1 are not these marks of an almost ,satanic fierceness of revolt8 ,the thoroughly naughty child sticks at nothing4 ,thus a little offender of four when he was reminded by his sister--two years older--that he would be shut out from heaven retorted impiously1 #8,i don't care1' adding3 #8,uncle won't go--,i'll stay with him'4#aib ----- ,footnote #aib3 ,my correspondent1 discreetly perhaps1 does not explain why the uncle was selected as fellow-outcast4 ----- ,this fierce noisy utterance of the disobedient and law-resisting temper is eminently impressive4 ,yet it is not the only utterance4 ,if we observe children who may be said to show on the whole an outward submission to authority we shall discover signs of secret dissatisfaction and antagonism4 ,the conflict with rule has not wholly ceased3 it has simply changed its manner of proceeding1 physical assault and riotous shouts of defiance being now exchanged for dialectic attack4 ,a curious chapter in the psychology of the child which still has to be written is the account of the various devices by which the astute little novice called upon to wear the yoke of authority seeks to smooth its chafing asperities4 ,these devices may1 perhaps1 be summed up under the head of 8trying it on04 ,one of the simplest and most obvious of these contrivances is the extempore invention of an excuse for not instantly obeying a particular command4 ,a child soon finds out that to say #8,i won't' when he is bidden to do something is indiscreet as well as vulgar4 ,he wants to have his own way without resorting to a gross breach of good manners1 so he replies insinuatingly1 #8,i's very sorry1 but ,i's too busy1' or in some such conciliatory words4 ,this field of invention offers a fine opportunity for the imaginative child4 ,a small boy of three years and nine months on receiving from his nurse the familiar order1 8,come here60 at once replied1 8,i can't1 nurse1 ,i's looking for a flea10 and pretended to be much engrossed in the momentous business of hunting for this quarry in the blanket of his cot4#aic ,the little trickster is such a lover of fun that he is pretty certain to betray his ruse in a case like this1 and our small flea-catcher1 we are told1 laughed mischievously as he proffered his excuse4 ,such sly fabrications may be just as naughty as the uninspired excuses of a stupidly sulky child1 but it is hard to be quite as much put out by them4 ----- ,footnote #aic3 ,cf4 the excuse given by a little girl of three when her grandmother called her1 8,i can't come1 ,i am suckling baby0 7the doll74 ,p4 ,lombroso1 op4 cit41 p4 #abf4 ----- ,these excuses often show a fine range of inventive activity4 ,how manifold1 for example1 are the reasons1 more or less fictitious1 which a boy when told to make less noise is able to urge in favour of non-compliance4 ,here1 of course1 all the great matters of the play-world1 the need of getting his #8gee-gee' on1 of giving his orders to his soldiers1 and so forth1 come in between the prohibition and compliance1 and disobedience in such cases has its excuses4 ,for to the child his play-world1 even though in a manner modelled on the pattern of our common world1 is apart and sacred2 and the conventional restraints as to noise and such like borrowed from the every-day world seem to him to be quite out of place in this free and private domain of his own4 ,we all know the child's aptness in #8easing' the pressure of commands and prohibitions4 ,if1 for example1 he is told to keep perfectly quiet because mother or father wants to sleep1 he will prettily plead for the reservation of whispering ever so softly4 ,if he is bidden not to ask for things at the table he will resort to sly indirect reminders of what he wants1 as when a boy of five and a half years whispered audibly3 #8,i hope somebody will offer me some more soup1' or when a girl of three and a half years1 with still greater childish tact1 observed on seeing the elder folk eating cake3 #8,i not asking'4 ,this last may be compared with a story told by ,rousseau of a little girl of six years who1 having eaten of all the dishes but one1 artfully indicated the fact by pointing in turn to each of the dishes1 saying3 #8,i have eaten that1' but carefully passing by the untasted one4#aid ,when more difficult duties come to be enforced and the neophyte in the higher morality is bidden to be considerate for others1 and even to sacrifice his own comfort for theirs1 he is apt to manifest a good deal of skill in adjusting the counsel of perfection to young weakness4 ,here is an amusing example4 ,a little boy1 ,edgar by name1 aged five and three-quarter years1 was going out to take tea with some little girls4 ,his mother1 as is usual on such occasions1 primed him with special directions as to behaviour1 saying3 8,remember to give way to them like father does to me04 ,to which ,edgar1 after thinking a brief instant1 replied3 8,oh1 but not all at once4 ,you have to persuade him40 ----- ,footnote #aid3 ,emile1 livre v41 quoted by ,perez1 ,l',art et la ,posie chez l',enfant1 p4 #abg4 ,rousseau uses this story in order to show that girls are more artful than boys4 ----- ,a like astuteness will show itself in meeting accusation4 ,the various ways in which a child will seek to evade the point in such cases are truly marvellous and show the childish intelligence at its ablest4 ,sometimes the dreary talking to1 with its well-known deep accusatory tones1 its familiar pleadings1 #8,how can you be so naughty8' and the rest is daringly ignored4 ,after keeping up an excellent appearance of listening the little culprit will proceed in the most artless way to talk about something more agreeable4 ,this is trying1 but is not the worst4 ,the deepest depth of maternal humiliation is reached when a carefully prepared and solemnly delivered homily is rewarded by a tu quoque in the shape of a correction of something in the delivery which offends the child's sense of propriety4 ,this befel one mother who1 after talking seriously to her little boy about some fault1 was met with this remark3 8,mamma1 when you talk you don't move your upper jaw04 ,it is of course difficult to say how far a child's interruptions and what look like turnings of the conversation when receiving rebuke are the result of deliberate plotting4 ,we know it is hard to hold the young thoughts long on any subject1 and the homily makes a heavy demand in this respect1 and its theme is apt to seem dull to a child's lively brain4 ,the thoughts will be sure to wander then1 and the rude interruptions and digressions may after all be but the natural play of the young mind4 ,i fear1 however1 that design often has a hand here4 ,the first digression to which the weak disciplinarian succumbed may have been the result of a spontaneous flow of childish ideas3 but its success enables the observant child to try it on a second time with artful aim4 ,in cases in which no attempt is made to ignore the accusation1 the small wits are busy discovering palliatives and exculpations4 ,here we have the many ruses1 often crude enough1 by which the little culprit tries to shake off moral responsibility1 to deny the authorship of the action found fault with4 ,the blame is put on anybody or anything4 ,when he breaks something1 say a cup1 and is scolded1 he saves himself by saying it was because the cup was not made strong enough1 or because the maid put it too near the edge of the table4 ,there are clear indications of fatalistic thought in these childish disclaimers4 ,things were so conditioned that he could not help doing what he did4 ,this fatalism betrays itself in the childish subterfuges already referred to1 by which the ego tries to screen itself shabbily by throwing responsibility on to the bodily agents4 ,this device is sometimes hit upon very early4 ,a wee child of two when told not to cry gasped out3 ,elsie cry--not ,elsie cry--tears cry--naughty tears6 ,this1 it must be allowed1 is more plausible than ,c4's lame attempt to put off responsibility for some naughty action on his hands4 ,for our tears are in a sense apart from us1 and in the first years are wholly beyond control4 ,the fatalistic form of exculpation meets us later on under the familiar form1 #8,god made me like that'4 ,a boy of three was blamed for leaving his crusts1 and his conduct contrasted with that of his model papa4 ,whereupon he observed with a touch of metaphysical precocity3 8,yes1 but1 papa1 you see ,god had made you and me different04 ,these denials of authorship occur when a charge is brought home and no clear justification of the action is forthcoming4 ,in many cases the shrewd intelligence of the child--which is never so acute as in this art of moral self-defence--discovers justificatory reasons4 ,in such a case the attitude is a very different one4 ,it is no longer the helpless lifting of hands of the irresponsible one1 but the bold steady glance of one who is prepared to defend his action4 ,sometimes these justifications are pitiful examples of quibbling4 ,a boy had been rough with his baby brother4 ,his mother chid him1 telling him he might hurt baby4 ,he then asked his mother1 #8,isn't he my own brother8' and on his mother admitting so incontestable a proposition1 exclaimed triumphantly1 8,well1 you said ,i could do what ,i liked with my own things04 ,the idea of the precious baby being a boy's own to do what he likes with is so remote from older people's conceptions that it seems impossible to credit the boy with misunderstanding4 ,we ought1 perhaps1 to set him down as a depraved little sophist and destined--but predictions happily lie outside our mtier4 ,in some cases these justifications have a dreadful look of being after-thoughts invented for the express purpose of self-protection and knowingly put forward as fibs4 ,yet there is need of a wise discrimination here4 ,take1 for example1 the following from the ,worcester ,collection4 ,a boy of three was told by his mother to stay and mind his baby-sister while she went downstairs4 ,on going up again some time after she met him on the stairs4 8,being asked why he had left the baby he said there was a bumble-bee in the room and he was afraid he would get stung if he stayed there4 ,his mother asked him if he wasn't afraid his little sister would get stung4 ,he said1 #8,yes1' but added that if he stayed in the room the bee might sting them both1 and then she would have two to take care of40 ,now with every wish to be charitable ,i cannot bring myself to think that the small boy had really gone through that subtle process of disinterested calculation before vacating the room in favour of the bumble-bee1 if indeed there was a bumble-bee4 ,to be caught in the act and questioned is1 ,i suspect1 a situation particularly productive of such specious fibbing4 ,one other illustration of this keen childish dialectic when face to face with the accuser deserves to be touched on4 ,the sharp little wits have something of a lawyer's quickness in detecting a flaw in the indictment4 ,any exaggeration into which a feeling of indignation happens to betray the accuser is instantly pounced upon4 ,if1 for example1 a child is scolded for pulling kitty's ears and making her cry it is enough for the little stickler for accuracy to be able to say3 #8,i wasn't pulling kitty's ears1 ,i was only pulling one of her ears'4 ,this ability to deny the charge in its initial form gives the child a great advantage1 and robs the accusation in its amended form of much of its sting4 ,whence1 by the way1 one may infer that wisdom in managing children shows itself in nothing more than in a scrupulous exactness in the use of words4 ,while there are these isolated attacks on various points of the daily discipline1 we see now and again a bolder line of action in the shape of a general protest against its severity4 ,children have been known to urge that the punishments inflicted on them are ineffectual2 and1 although their opinion on such matters is hardly disinterested1 it is sometimes pertinent enough4 ,an ,american boy aged five years ten months began to cry because he was forbidden to go into the yard to play1 and was threatened by his mother with a whipping4 ,whereupon he observed3 8,well now1 mamma1 that will only make me cry more04 ,these childish protests are1 as we know1 wont to be met by the commonplaces about the affection which prompts the correction4 ,but the child finds it hard to swallow these subtleties4 ,for him love is love1 that is caressing1 and doing everything for his present enjoyment2 and here is the mother who says she loves him1 and often acts as if she did1 transforming herself into an ogre to torment him and make him miserable4 ,he may accept her assurance that she scolds and chastises him because she is a good mother2 only he is apt to wish that she were a shade less good4 ,a boy of four had one morning to remain in bed till ten o'clock as a punishment for misbehaviour4 ,he proceeded to address his mother in this wise3 ,if ,i had any little children ,i'd be a worse mother than you--,i'd be quite a bad mother2 ,i'd let the children get up directly ,i had done my breakfast at any rate4 ,if1 on the other hand1 the mother puts forward her own comfort as the ground of the restraint she may be met by this kind of thing3 8,i wish you'd be a little more self-sacrificing and let me make a noise04 ,enough has been said to illustrate the ways in which the natural child kicks against the imposition of restraints on his free activity4 ,he begins by showing himself an open foe to authority4 ,for a long time after1 while making a certain show of submission1 he harbours in his breast something of the rebel's spirit4 ,he does his best to evade the most galling parts of the daily discipline1 and displays an admirable ingenuity in devising excuses for apparent acts of insubordination4 ,where candour is permitted he is apt to prove himself an exceedingly acute critic of the system which is imposed on him4 ,all this1 moreover1 seems to show that a child objects not only to the particular administration under which he happens to live1 but to all law as implying restraints on free activity4 ,thus1 from the child's point of view1 so far as we have yet examined it1 punishment as such is a thing which ought not to be4 ,so strong and deep-reaching is this antagonism to law and its restraints apt to be that the childish longing to be #8big' is1 ,i believe1 grounded on the expectation of liberty4 ,to be big seems to the child more than anything else to be rid of all this imposition of commands1 to be able to do what one likes without interference from others4 ,this longing may grow intense in the breast of a quite small child4 8,do you know10 asked a little fellow of four years1 8what ,i shall do when ,i'm a big man8 ,i'll go to a shop and buy a bun and pick out all the currants40 ,this funny story is characteristic of the movements of young desire4 ,the small prohibition not to pick out the currants is one that may chafe to soreness a child's sensibility4 ,on the ,side of ,law4 ,if1 however1 we look closer we shall find that this hostility is not the whole1 perhaps not the most fundamental part of the child's attitude4 ,it is evident1 to begin with1 that a good deal of this early criticism of parental government1 so far from implying rejection of all rule1 plainly implies its acceptance4 ,some of the earliest and bitterest protests against interference are directed against what looks to the child irregular or opposed to law4 ,he is allowed1 for example1 for some time to use a pair of scissors as a plaything1 and is then suddenly deprived of it1 his mother having now first discovered the unsuitability of the plaything4 ,in such a case the passionate outburst and the long bitter protest attest the sense of injustice1 the violation of custom and unwritten law4 ,again1 the keen resentful opposition of the child to the look of anything like unfairness and partiality in parental government shows that he has a jealous feeling of regard for the universality and the inviolableness of law4 ,much1 too1 of the criticism dealt with above1 reveals a fundamental acknowledgment of law--at least for the purposes of the argument4 ,thus the very attempt to establish an excuse1 a justification1 may be said to be a tacit admission that if the action had been done as alleged it would have been naughty and deserving of punishment4 ,in truth the small person's challengings of the modus operandi of his mother's rule1 just because they are often in a true sense ethical1 clearly start from the assumption of rules1 and of the distinction of right and wrong4 ,this of itself shows that there are in the child compliant as well as non-compliant tendencies towards law and towards authority so far as this is lawful4 ,we may now pass to other parts of a child's behaviour which help to make more clear the existence of such law-abiding impulses4 ,here we may set out with those exhibitions of something like remorse which often follow disobedience and punishment in the first tender years4 ,these may1 at first1 be little more than physical reactions1 due to the exhaustion of the passionate outbursts4 ,but they soon begin to show traces of new feelings4 ,a child in disgrace1 before he has a clear moral sense of shame1 suffers through a feeling of estrangement1 of loneliness1 of self-restriction4 ,if the habitual relation between mother and child is a loving and happy one the situation becomes exceedingly painful4 ,the pride and obstinacy notwithstanding1 the culprit feels that he is cut off from more than one half of his life1 that his beautiful world is laid in ruins4 ,the same little boy who said3 #8,i'd be a worse mother1' remarked to his mother a few months later that if he could say what he liked to ,god it would be3 #8,love me when ,i'm naughty'4 ,i think one can hardly conceive of a more eloquent testimony to the suffering of the child in the lonesome1 loveless state of punishment4 ,is there any analogue of our sense of remorse in this early suffering8 ,the question of an instinctive moral sense in children is a perplexing one1 and ,i do not propose to discuss it now4 ,i would only venture to suggest that in these poignant griefs of child-life there seem to be signs of a consciousness of violated instincts4 ,this is1 no doubt1 in part the smarting of a loving heart on remembering its unloving action4 ,but there may be more than this4 ,a child of four or five is1 ,i conceive1 quite capable of reflecting at such a time that in his fits of naughtiness he has broken with his normal orderly self1 that he has set at defiance that which he customarily honours and obeys4 ,what1 it may be asked1 are these instincts8 ,in their earliest discernible form they seem to me to be respect for rule1 for a regular manner of proceeding as opposed to an irregular4 ,a child1 as ,i understand the little sphinx1 is at once the subject of ever-changing caprices--whence the delight in playful defiance of all rule and order--and the reverer of custom1 precedent1 rule4 ,and1 as ,i conceive1 this reverence for precedent and rule is the deeper and stronger1 holding full sway in his serious moments4 ,if this view is correct the suffering of naughty children is not1 as has been said by some1 wholly the result of the externals of discipline1 punishment1 and the loss of the agreeable things which follow good behaviour1 though this is commonly an element2 nor is it merely the sense of loneliness and lovelessness1 though that is probably a large slice of it2 but it contains the germ of something nearer a true remorse1 viz41 a sense of normal feelings and dispositions set at nought and contradicted4 ,and now we may ask what evidence there is for the existence of this respect for order and regularity other than that afforded by the childish protests against apparent inconsistencies in the administration of discipline4 ,mr4 ,walter ,bagehot tells us that the great initial difficulty in the formation of communities was the fixing of custom4 ,however this be in the case of primitive communities it seems to me indisputable that in the case of a child brought up in normal surroundings there is a clearly observable instinct to fall in with a common mode of behaviour4 ,this respect for custom is related to the imitative instincts of the child4 ,he does what he sees others do1 and so tends to fall in with their manner of life4 ,we all know that these small people take their cue from their elders as to what is allowable4 ,hence one difficulty of moral training4 ,a little boy when two years and one month old had happened to see his mother tear a piece of calico4 ,the next day he was discovered to have taken the sheet from the bed and made a rent in it4 ,when scolded1 he replied in his childish ,german1 #8,mamma mach put1' i4e41 #8macht caput' 7breaks calico74 ,it is well when the misleading effect of #8example' is so little serious as it was in this case4 ,in addition to this effect of others' doings in making things allowable in the child's eyes1 there is the binding influence of a repeated regular manner of proceeding4 ,this is the might of #8custom' in the full sense of the term1 the force which underlies all a child's conceptions of #8right'4 ,in spite of the difficulties of moral training1 of drilling children into orderly habits--and ,i do not lose sight of these--it may confidently be said that they have an inbred respect for what is customary1 and wears the appearance of a rule of life4 ,nor is this1 ,i believe1 altogether a reflexion1 by imitation1 of others' orderly ways1 and of the system of rules which is imposed on him by others4 ,i am quite ready to admit that the institution of social life1 the regular procession of the daily doings of the house1 aided by the system of parental discipline1 has much to do with fixing the idea of orderliness and regularity in the child's mind4 ,yet ,i believe the facts point to something more1 to an innate disposition to follow precedent and rule1 which precedes education1 and is one of the forces to which education can appeal4 ,this disposition has its roots in habit1 which is apparently a law of all life3 but it is more than the blind impulse of habit1 since it is reflective and rational1 and implies a recognition of the universal4 ,the first crude manifestation of this disposition to make rule1 to rationalise life by subjecting it to a general method1 is seen in those actions which seem little more than the working of habit1 the insistence on the customary lines of procedure at meals and such like4 ,a mother writes that her boy when five years old was quite a stickler for punctilious order in these matters4 ,his cup and spoon had to be put in precisely the right place1 the sequences of the day1 as the lesson before the walk1 the walk before bed1 had to be rigorously observed4 ,any breach of the customary was apt to be resented as a sort of impiety4 ,this may be an extreme instance1 but my observation leads me to say that such punctiliousness is not uncommon4 ,what is more1 ,i have seen it developing itself where the system of parental government was by no means characterised by severe insistence on such minuti of order4 ,and this would seem to show that it cannot wholly be set down to the influences of such government4 ,it seems rather to be a spontaneous extension of the realm of rule or law4 ,this impulse to extend rule appears more plainly in many of the little ceremonial observances of the child4 ,very charmingly is this respect for rule exhibited in relation to his animals1 dolls and other pets4 ,not only are they required to do things in a proper orderly manner1 but people have to treat them with due deference4 8,every night10 writes a mother of her boy aged two years seven months1 after ,i have kissed and shaken hands with him1 ,i have to kiss his #8boy1' that is his doll1 who sleeps with him1 and to shake its two hands--also to shake the four hoofs of a tiny horse which lies at the foot of his cot4 ,when all this has been gone through1 he stands up and entreats1 #8,more tata1 please1 more tata1' i4e41 #8kiss me again and say more good-nights'4 ,these customs of his with regard to kissing are peculiar to himself--he kisses his #8boy' 7doll71 also pictures of horses1 dogs1 cocks and hens1 and he puts his head against us to be kissed2 but he will only shake hands and will not kiss people himself3 he reserves his kisses for what he seems to feel inferior things4 ,we kiss our boy1 he kisses his2 but he insists upon being shaken hands with for his part4 ,if other children come to play he gives them toys1 watches them with delight1 tries to give them rides on his #8go-go's1' but does not kiss them2 though he will stroke their hair he does not return their kisses4 ,it seems to me that he regards it as an action to be reserved for an inferior thing4 ,i have quoted at length this careful bit of maternal observation because it seems to indicate so clearly a spontaneous extension of a custom4 ,the practice of the mother and father in kissing him was generalised into a rule of ceremony in the treatment of all inferiors4 ,this subject of childish ceremonial is a curious one1 and deserves a more careful study4 ,it is hardly less interesting than the origin and survival of adult ceremonial1 as elucidated by ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer4 ,the respect for orderly procedure on all serious occasions1 and especially at church1 is as exacting as that of any savage tribe4 ,punch illustrated this some years ago by a picture of a little girl asking her mamma if ,mr4 ,so and ,so was not a very wicked man1 because he didn't 8smell his hat0 when he came into his pew4 ,this jealous regard for ceremony and the proprieties of behaviour is seen in the enforcement of rules of politeness by children who will extend them far beyond the scope intended by the parent4 ,a delightful instance of this fell under my own observation1 as ,i was walking on ,hampstead ,heath4 ,it was a spring day1 and the fat buds of the chestnuts were bursting into magnificent green plumes4 ,two well-dressed #8misses1' aged1 ,i should say1 about nine and eleven1 were taking their correct morning walk4 ,the elder called the attention of the younger to one of the trees1 pointing to it4 ,the younger exclaimed in a highly shocked tone3 8,oh1 ,maud 7or was it #8,mabel'871 you know you shouldn't point60 ,the notion of perpetrating a rudeness on the chestnut tree was funny enough4 ,but the incident is instructive as illustrating the childish tendency to stretch and generalise rules to the utmost4 ,the domain of prayer well illustrates the same tendency4 ,the child envisages ,god as a very1 very grand person1 and naturally1 therefore1 extends to him all the courtesies he knows of4 ,thus he must be addressed politely with the due forms #8,please1' #8,if you please1' and so forth4 ,the ,german child shrinks from using the familiar form #8,du' in his prayers4 ,as one maiden of seven well put it in reply to a question why she used #8,sie' in her prayers3 8,ich werde doch den lieben ,gott nicht ,du nennen3 ich kenne ihn ja gar nicht04 ,again1 a child feels that he must not worry or bore ,god 7children generally find out that some people look on them as bores71 or treat him with any kind of disrespect4 ,c4 objected to his sister's remaining so long at her prayers1 apparently on the ground that1 as ,god knew what she had to say1 her much talking would be likely to bore him4 ,an ,american boy of four on one occasion refused to say his prayers1 explaining1 8,why1 they're old4 ,god has heard them so many times that they are old to him too4 ,why1 he knows them as well as ,i do myself40 ,on the other hand1 ,god must not be kept waiting4 8,oh1 mamma10 said a little boy of three years eight months 7the same that was so insistent about the kissing and hand-shaking71 8how long you have kept me awake for you2 ,god has been wondering so whenever ,i was going to say my prayers40 ,all the words must be nicely said to him4 ,a little boy1 aged four and three-quarter years1 once stopped in the middle of a prayer and asked his mother3 8,oh6 how do you spell that word80 ,the question is curious as suggesting that the child may have envisaged his silent communications to the far-off ,king as a letter4 ,in any case1 it showed painstaking and the wish not to offend by slovenliness of address4 ,not only do children thus of themselves extend the scope and empire of rule1 they show a disposition to make rules for themselves4 ,if a child that is told to do a thing on a single occasion only is found repeating the action on other occasions1 this seems to show the germ of a law-making impulse4 ,a little boy of two years one month was once told to give a lot of old toys to the children of the gardener4 ,some time after1 on receiving some new toys1 he put away his old ones as before for the less fortunate children4 ,every careful observer of children knows that they are apt to proceed this way1 to erect particular actions and suggestions into precedents4 ,this tendency gives something of the amusing priggishness to the ways of childhood4 ,there is little doubt1 ,i think1 that this respect for proper orderly behaviour1 for precedent and general rule1 forms a vital element in the child's submission to parental law4 ,in fixing our attention on occasional acts of disobedience and lawlessness we are apt to overlook the ease1 the absence of friction with which normal children1 if only decently trained1 fall in with the larger part of our observances and ordinances4 ,that the instinct for order does assist moral discipline may be seen in the fact that children are apt to pay enormous deference to our rules4 ,nothing is more suggestive here than the talk of children among themselves1 the emphasis they are wont to lay on the #8must' and #8must not'4 ,the truth is that children have a tremendous belief in law3 a rule is apt to present itself to their imagination as a thing supremely sacred and awful before which it prostrates itself4 ,this recognition of the absolute imperativeness of a rule properly laid down by the recognised authority is seen in children's jealous insistence on the observance of the rule in their own case and in that of others4 ,as has been observed by ,preyer a child of two years eight months will follow out the prohibitions of the mother when he falls into other hands1 sternly protesting1 for example1 against the nurse giving him the forbidden knife at table4 ,very proper children rather like to instruct their aunts and other ignorant persons as to the right way of dealing with them1 and will rejoice in the opportunity of setting them right even when it means a deprivation for themselves4 ,the self-denying ordinance3 #8,mamma doesn't let me have many sweets1' is by no means beyond the powers of such a child4 ,one can see here1 no doubt1 traces of a childish sense of self-importance1 a feeling of the much-waited-on little sovereign for what befits his supreme worth4 ,yet1 allowing for such elements1 there seems to me to be in this behaviour a residue of genuine respect for parental law4 ,these carryings out of the parental behest when entrusted to other hands are instructive as suggesting that the child feels the constraining force of the command when its author is no longer present to enforce it4 ,perhaps a clearer evidence of respect for the law as such1 apart from its particular enforcement by the parent1 is supplied by children's way of extending the rules laid down for their own behaviour to that of others4 ,this point has already been illustrated in the tendency to universalise the observances of courtesy and the like4 ,no trait is better marked in the normal child than the impulse to subject others to his own disciplinary system4 ,in truth1 children are for the most part particularly alert disciplinarians4 ,with what amusing severity are they wont to lay down the law to their dolls1 and their animal playmates1 subjecting them to precisely the same prohibitions and punishments as those to which they themselves are subject6 ,nor do they stop here4 ,they enforce the duties just as courageously on their human elders4 ,a mite of eighteen months went up to her elder sister1 who was crying1 and with perfect mimicry of the nurse's corrective manner1 said3 8,hush6 ,hush6 papa60 pointing at the same time to the door4 ,the little girl ,m4 when twenty-two months old was disappointed because a certain ,mr4 ,g4 did not call4 ,in the evening she said3 ,mr4 ,d4 not did tum--was very naughty1 ,mr4 ,d4 have to be whipped4 ,so natural and inevitable to the intelligence of a child does it seem that the system of restraints1 rebukes1 punishments under which he lives should have universal validity4 ,this judicial bent of the child is a curious one and often develops a priggish fondness for setting others morally straight4 ,small boys have to endure much in this way from the hands of slightly older sisters proficient in matters of law and delighting to enforce the moralities4 ,but sometimes the sisters lapse into naughtiness1 and then the small boys have their chance4 ,they too can on such occasions be priggish if not downright hypocritical4 ,a little boy had been quarrelling with his sister named ,muriel just before going to bed4 ,when he was undressed he knelt down to say his prayers1 ,muriel sitting near and listening4 ,he prayed 7audibly7 in this wise3 8,please1 ,god1 make ,muriel a good girl10 then looked up and said in an angry voice1 8,do you hear that1 ,muriel80 and after this digression resumed his petition4 ,i believe fathers when reading family prayers have been known to apply portions of ,scripture in this personal manner to particular members of the family2 and it is even possible that extempore prayers have been invented1 as by this little prig of a boy1 for the purpose of administering a sort of back-handed corrective blow to an erring neighbour4 ,this mania for correction shows itself too in relation to the authorities themselves4 ,a collection of rebukes and expositions of moral precept supplied by children to their erring parents would be amusing and suggestive4 ,as was illustrated above1 a child is especially keen to spy faults in his governors when they are themselves administering authority4 ,here is another example3 ,a boy of two--the moral instruction of parents by the child begins betimes--would not go to sleep when bidden to do so by his father and mother4 ,at length the father1 losing patience1 addressed him with a man's fierce emphasis4 ,this mode of admonition so far from cowering the child simply offended his sense of propriety1 for he rejoined3 8,you s'ouldn't s'ouldn't1 ,assum 7i4e41 #8,arthur1' the father's name71 you s'ould speak nicely04 ,the lengths to which a child with the impulse of moral correction strong in him will sometimes go1 are quite appalling4 ,one evening a little girl of six had been repeating the ,lord's prayer4 ,when she had finished1 she looked up and said3 #8,i don't like that prayer1 you ought not to ask for bread1 and all that greediness1 you ought only to ask for goodness6' ,there is probably in this an imitative reproduction of something which the child had been told by her mother1 or had overheard4 ,yet allowing for this1 one cannot but recognise a quite alarming degree of precocious moral priggishness4 ,we may now turn to what my readers will probably regard as still clearer evidence of a law-fearing instinct in children1 viz41 their voluntary submission to its commands4 ,we are apt to think of these little ones as doing right only under external compulsion4 ,but although a child of four may be far from attaining to the state of #8autonomy of will' or self-legislation spoken of by the philosopher1 he may show a germ of such free adoption of law4 ,it is possible that we see the first faint traces of this in a small child's way of giving orders to1 rebuking1 and praising himself4 ,the little girl ,m41 when only twenty months old1 would1 when left by her mother alone in a room1 say to herself3 #8,tay dar' 7stay there74 ,about the same time1 after being naughty and squealing #8like a railway-whistle1' she would after each squeal say in a deep voice1 #8,be dood1 ,babba' 7her name74 ,at the age of twenty-two months she had been in the garden and misbehaving by treading on the box border1 so that she had to be carried away by her mother4 ,after confessing her fault she wanted to go into the garden again1 and promised1 #8,babba will not be naughty adain'4 ,when she was out she looked at the box1 saying1 8,if oo 7you7 do dat ,i shall have to take oo in1 ,babba04 ,here1 no doubt1 we see quaint mimicries of the external control1 but they seem to me to indicate a movement in the direction of self-control4 ,very instructive here is the way in which children will voluntarily come and submit themselves to our discipline4 ,the little girl ,m4 when less than two years old1 would go to her mother and confess some piece of naughtiness and suggest the punishment4 ,a little boy aged two years and four months was deprived of a pencil from ,thursday to ,sunday for scribbling on the wall-paper4 ,his punishment was1 however1 tempered by permission to draw when taken downstairs4 ,on ,saturday he had finished a picture downstairs which pleased him4 ,when his nurse fetched him she wanted to look at the drawing1 but the boy strongly objected1 saying3 8,no ,nana 7name for nurse7 look at it till ,sunday04 ,and sure enough when ,sunday came1 and the pencil was restored to him1 he promptly showed nurse his picture4 ,this is an excellent observation full of suggestion as to the way in which a child's mind works4 ,among other things it seems to show pretty plainly that the little fellow looked on the nursery and all its belongings1 including the nurse1 during those three days as a place of disgrace into which the privileges of the artist were not to enter4 ,he was allowed the indulgence of drawing downstairs1 but he had no right to exhibit his workmanship to the nurse1 who was inseparably associated in his mind with the forbidden nursery drawing4 ,thus a process of genuine child-thought led to a self-instituted extension of the punishment4 ,a month later this child pulled down a picture in the nursery--the nursery walls seem to have had a fell attraction for him--8by standing on a sofa and tugging till the wire broke4 ,he was alone at the time and very much frightened though not hurt4 ,he was soothed and told to leave the picture alone in future1 but was not in any way rebuked4 ,he seemed1 however1 to think that some punishment was necessary1 for he presently asked whether he was going to have a certain favourite frock on that afternoon4 ,he was told #8,no' 7the reason being that the day was wet or something similar7 and he said immediately3 #8',cause ,neil pulled picture down8'0 ,here ,i think we have unmistakable evidence of an expectation of punishment as the fit and proper sequel in a case which1 though it did not exactly resemble those already branded by it1 was felt in a vague way to be disorderly and naughty4 ,such stories of expectation of punishment are capped by instances of correction actually inflicted by the child on himself4 ,i believe it is not uncommon for a child when possessed by a sense of having been naughty to object to having nice things at table on the ground that previously on a like occasion he was deprived of them4 ,but the most curious instance of this moral rigour towards self which ,i have met with is the following3 ,a girl of nine had been naughty1 and was very sorry for her misbehaviour4 ,shortly after she came to her lesson limping1 and remarked that she felt very uncomfortable4 ,being asked by her governess what was the matter with her she said3 8,it was very naughty of me to disobey you1 so ,i put my right shoe on to my left foot and my left shoe on to my right foot04 ,the facts here briefly illustrated seem to me to show that there is in the child from the first a rudiment of true law-abidingness4 ,and this is a force of the greatest consequence to the disciplinarian4 ,it is something which takes side in the child's breast with the reasonable governor and the laws which he or she administers4 ,it secures ready compliance with a large part of the discipline enforced4 ,when the impulse urging towards licence has been too strong1 and disobedience ensues1 this same instinct comes to the aid of order and good conduct by inflicting pains which are the beginning of what we call remorse4 ,by-and-by other forces will assist4 ,the affectionate child will reflect on the misery his disobedience causes his mother4 ,a boy of four and three-quarter years must1 one supposes1 have woke up to this fact when he remarked to his mother3 8,did you choose to be a mother8 ,i think it must be rather tiresome40 ,the day when the child first becomes capable of thus putting himself into his mother's place and realising1 if only for an instant1 the trouble he has brought on her1 is an all-important one in his moral development4 ,the ,wise ,law-giver4 ,as our illustrations have suggested1 and as every thoughtful parent knows well enough1 the problem of moral training in the first years is full of difficulty4 ,yet our study surely suggests that it is not so hopeless a problem as we are sometimes weakly disposed to think4 ,perhaps a word or two on this may not inappropriately close this essay4 ,i will readily concede that the difficulty of inculcating in children a sweet and cheerful obedience arises partly from their nature4 ,there are trying children1 just as there are trying dogs that howl and make themselves disagreeable for no discoverable reason but their inherent #8cussedness'4 ,there are1 ,i doubt not1 conscientious painstaking mothers who have been baffled by having to manage what appears to be the utterly unmanageable4 ,yet ,i think that we ought to be very slow to pronounce any child unmanageable4 ,i know full well that in the case of these small growing things there are all kinds of hidden physical commotions which breed caprices1 ruffle the temper1 and make them the opposite of docile4 ,the peevish child who will do nothing1 will listen to no suggestion1 is assuredly a difficult subject to deal with4 ,but such moodiness and cross-grainedness springing from bodily disturbances will be allowed for by the discerning mother1 who will be too wise to bring the severer measures of discipline to bear on a child when subject to their malign influence4 ,waiving these disturbing factors1 however1 ,i should say that a good part1 certainly more than one half1 of the difficulty of training children is due to our clumsy bungling modes of going to work4 ,sensible persons know that there is a good and a bad way of approaching a child4 ,the wrong ways of trying to constrain children are1 alas1 numerous4 ,i am not writing an #8advice to parents1' and am not called on therefore to deal with the much-disputed question of the rightness and wrongness of corporal punishment4 ,slaps may be needful in the early stages1 even though they do lead to little tussles4 ,a mother assures me that these battles with her several children have all fallen between the ages of sixteen months and two years4 ,it is1 however1 conceivable that such fights might be avoided altogether2 yet a man should be chary of dogmatising on this delicate matter4 ,what is beyond doubt is that the slovenly discipline--if indeed discipline it is to be called--which consists in alternations of gushing fondness with almost savage severity1 or fits of government and restraint interpolated between long periods of neglect and laisser faire1 is precisely what develops the rebellious and law-resisting propensities4 ,but discipline can be bad without being a stupid pretence4 ,everything in the shape of inconsistency1 saying one thing at one time1 another thing at another1 or treating one child in one fashion1 another in another1 tends to undermine the pillars of authority4 ,young eyes are quick to note these little contradictions1 and they sorely resent them4 ,it is astonishing how careless disciplinarians can show themselves before these astute little critics4 ,it is the commonest thing to tell a child to behave like his elders1 forgetting that this1 if indeed a rule at all1 can only be one of very limited application4 ,here is a suggestive example of the effect of this sort of teaching sent me by a mother4 8,at three and a half1 when some visitors were present1 she was told not to talk at dinner-time4 #8,why me no talk8 ,papa talks4' #8,yes1 but papa is grown up1 and you are only a little girl2 you can't do just like grown-up people4' ,she was silent for some time1 but when ,i told her ten minutes later to sit nicely with her hands in her lap like her cousins1 she replied1 with a very humorous smile1 #8,me tan't 7can't7 sit like grown-up people1 me is only a little girl'40 ,we can fail and make children disloyal instead of loyal subjects by unduly magnifying our office1 by insisting too much on our authority4 ,children who are over-ruled1 who have no taste of being left unmolested and free to do what they like1 can hardly be expected to submit graciously4 ,another way of carrying parental control to excess is by exacting displays of virtue which are beyond the moral capabilities of the child4 ,a lady sends me this reminiscence of her childhood4 ,she had been promised sixpence when she could play her scales without fault1 and succeeded in the exploit on her sixth birthday4 ,the sixpence was given to her1 but soon after her mother suggested that she should spend the money in fruit to give to her 7the mother's7 invalid friend4 ,this was offending the sense of justice1 for if the child is jealous of anything as his very own it is surely the reward he has earned2 and was1 moreover1 a foolish attempt to call forth generosity where generosity was wholly out of place4 ,an even worse example is that recorded by ,ruskin4 ,when a child he was expected to come down to dessert and crack nuts for the grand older folk while peremptorily forbidden to eat any4 ,such refined cruelties of government deserve to be defeated in their objects4 ,much of our ill success in governing children would probably turn out to be attributable to unwisdom in assigning tasks1 and more particularly in making exactions which wound that sensitive fibre of a child's heart1 the sense of justice4 ,parents are1 ,i fear1 apt to forget that generosity and the other liberal virtues owe their worth to their spontaneity4 ,they may be suggested and encouraged but cannot be exacted4 ,on the other hand1 a parent cannot be more foolish than to discourage a spontaneous outgoing of good impulse1 as if nothing were good but what emanated from a spirit of obedience4 ,in a pretty and touching little ,american work1 ,beckonings from ,little ,hands1 the writer describes the remorse of a father who1 after his child's death1 recalled the little fellow's first crude endeavour to help him by bringing fuel1 an endeavour which1 alas6 he had met with something like a rebuff4 ,the right method of training1 which develops and strengthens by bracing exercise the instinct of obedience1 cannot easily be summarised2 for it is the outcome of the highest wisdom4 ,i may1 however1 be permitted to indicate one or two of its main features4 ,informed at the outset by a fine moral feeling and a practical tact as to what ought to be expected1 the wise mother is concerned before everything to make her laws appear as much a matter of course as the daily sequences of the home life1 as unquestionable axioms of behaviour2 and this not by a foolish vehemence of inculcation but by a quiet skilful inweaving of them into the order of the child's world4 ,to expect the right thing1 as though the wrong thing were an impossibility1 rather than to be always pointing out the wrong thing and threatening consequences2 to make all her words and all her own actions support this view of the inevitableness of law2 to meet any indications of a disobedient spirit1 first with misunderstanding1 and later with amazement2 this is surely the first and fundamental matter4 ,the effectiveness of this discipline depends on the simple psychological principle that difficult actions tend to realise themselves in the measure in which the ideas of them become clear and persistent4 ,get a child steadily to follow out in thought an act to which he is disinclined and you have more than half mastered the disinclination4 ,the quiet daily insistence of the wise rule of the nursery proceeds by setting up and maintaining the ideas of dutiful actions1 and so excluding the thought of disobedient actions4 ,it has recently been pointed out that in this moral control of the child through suggestion of right actions we have something closely analogous to the action of suggestion upon the hypnotised subject4 ,the mother1 the right sort of mother1 has on the child's mind something of the subduing influence of the ,nancy doctor3 she induces ideas of particular actions1 gives them force and persistence so that the young mind is possessed by them and they work themselves out into fulfilment as occasion arises4 ,in order that this effect of #8obsession1' or a full occupation of consciousness with the right idea1 may result1 certain precautions are necessary4 ,as observant parents know1 a child may be led by a prohibition to do the very thing he is bidden not to do4 ,we have seen how readily a child's mind moves from an affirmation to a corresponding negation1 and conversely4 ,the #8contradictoriness' of a child1 his passion for saying the opposite of what you say1 shows the same odd manner of working of the young mind4 ,wanting to do what he is told not to do is another effect of this 8contrary suggestion10 as it has been called1 aided of course by the child's dislike of all constraint4#aie ,if we want to avoid this effect of suggestion and to secure the direct effect1 we must first of all acquire the difficult secret of personal influence1 of the masterfulness which does not repel but attracts2 and secondly try to reduce our forbiddings with their contrary suggestions to a minimum4 ----- ,footnote #aie3 ,on the nature of this contrary suggestion see ,mark ,baldwin1 ,mental ,development in the ,child and the ,race1 p4 #ade f4 ----- ,the action in moral training of this influence of a quasi-hypnotic suggestion becomes more clearly marked when difficulties occur2 when some outbreak of wilful resistance has to be recognised and met1 or some new and relatively arduous feat of obedience has to be initiated4 ,here ,i find that intelligent mothers have found their way to methods closely resembling those of the hypnotist4 8,when ,r4 is naughty and in a passion 7writes a lady friend of her child aged three and a half71 ,i need only suggest to him that he is some one else1 say a friend of his1 and he will take it up at once1 he will pretend to be the other child1 and at last go and call himself1 now a good boy1 back again40 ,this mode of suggestion1 by helping the #8higher self' to detach itself from and control the lower might1 one suspects1 be much more widely employed in the moral training of children4 ,suggestion may work through the emotions4 ,merely to say1 #8,mother would like you to do this1' is to set up an idea in the child's consciousness by help of the sustaining force of his affection4 8,if 7writes a lady7 there was anything ,lyle particularly wished not to do1 his mother had only to say1 #8,dobbin 7a sort of canonised toy-horse already referred to7 would like you to do this1' and it was done without a murmur40 ,we have another analogue to hypnotic suggestion where a mother prepares her child some time beforehand for a difficult duty1 telling him that she expects him to perform it4 ,a mother writes that her boy1 when about the age of two and a half years more particularly1 was inclined to burst into loud but short fits of crying4 8,i have found 7she says7 these often checked by telling him beforehand what would be expected of him1 and exacting a promise that he would do the thing cheerfully4 ,i have seen his face flush up ready to cry when he remembered his promise and controlled himself40 ,this reminds one forcibly of the commands suggested by the hypnotiser to be carried into effect when the subject wakes4 ,much more1 perhaps1 might be done in this direction by choosing the right moments for setting up the persistent ideas in the child's consciousness4 ,i know a lady who got into the way of giving moral exhortation to her somewhat headstrong girl at night before the child fell asleep1 and found this very effectual4 ,it is possible that we may be able to apply this idea of preparatory and premunitory suggestion in new and surprising ways to difficult and refractory children4#aif ----- ,footnote #aif3 ,the bearings of 7hypnotic7 suggestion on moral education have been discussed by ,guyau1 ,education and ,heredity 7,engl4 transl471 chap4 i4 ,compare also ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #bfg f41 and ,compayr1 op4 cit41 p4 #bfb4 ----- ,one other way in which the wise mother will win the child over to duty is by developing his consciousness of freedom and power4 ,a mother1 who was herself a well-known writer for children1 has recorded in some notes on her children that when one of her little girls had declined to accede to her wish she used to say to her3 #8,oh1 yes1 ,i think when you have remembered how pleasant it is to oblige others you will do it'4 #8,i will think about it1 mamma1' the child would reply1 laughing1 and then go and hide her head behind a sofa-pillow which she called her #8thinking corner'4 ,in half a minute she would come out and say3 8,oh1 yes1 mamma1 ,i have thought about it and ,i will do it04 ,this strikes me as an admirable combination of regulative suggestion with exercise of the young will in moral decision4 ,it gave the child the consciousness of using her own will1 and yet maintained the needed measure of guidance and control4 ,as the moral consciousness develops and new problems arise1 new openings for such suggestive guidance will offer themselves4 ,how valuable1 for example1 is the mother's encouragement of the weakly child1 shrinking from a difficult self-repressive action1 when she says with inspiring voice3 #8,you can do it if you try'4 ,thus pilot-like she conducts the little navigator out into the open main of duty where he will have to steer himself4 ,i have tried to show that the moral training of children is not beyond human powers4 ,it has its strong supports in child-nature1 and these1 when there are wisdom and method on the ruler's side1 will secure success4 ,i have not said that the trainer's task is easy4 ,so far from thinking this1 ,i hold that a mother who bravely faces the problem1 neither abandoning the wayward will to its own devices1 nor1 hardly less weakly1 handing over the task of disciplining it to a paid substitute1 and who by well-considered and steadfast effort succeeds in approaching the perfection ,i have hinted at1 combining the wise ruler with the tender and companionable parent1 is among the few members of our species who are entitled to its reverence4 ,,ix4 ,,the ,,child ,,as ,,artist4 ,one of the most interesting1 perhaps also one of the most instructive1 phases of child-life is the beginnings of art-activity4 ,this has been recognised by one of the best-known workers in the field of child-psychology1 ,m4 ,bernard ,perez1 who has treated the subject in an interesting monograph4#aig ,this department of our subject will1 like that of language1 be found to have interesting points of contact with the phenomena of primitive race-culture4 ----- ,footnote #aig3 ,l',art et la ,posie chez l',enfant1 #ahhh4 ----- ,the art-impulse of children lends itself particularly well to observation4 ,no doubt1 as we shall see1 there are difficulties for the observer here4 ,it may sometimes be a fine point to determine whether a childish action properly falls under the head of genuine art-production1 though ,i do not think that this is a serious difficulty4 ,on the other hand1 the art-impulse where it exists manifests itself directly1 and for the most part in so characteristic an objective form that we are able to study its features with special facility4 ,in its narrow sense as a specialised instinct prompting its possessor to follow a definite line of production1 as drawing of the artistic sort1 or simple musical composition1 the art-impulse is a particularly variable phenomenon of childhood4 ,some children1 who afterwards take seriously to a branch of art-culture1 manifest an innate bent by a precocious devotion to this line of activity4 ,many others1 ,i have reason to believe1 have a passing fondness for a particular form of art-activity4 ,on the other hand1 there are many children who display almost a complete lack1 not only of the productive impulse1 but of the sthetic sense of the artist4 ,so uncertain1 so sporadic are these appearances of a rudimentary art among children that one might be easily led to think that art-activity ought not to be reckoned among their common characteristics4 ,to judge so1 however1 would be to judge erroneously by applying grown-up standards4 ,it is commonly recognised that art and play are closely connected4 ,it is probable that the first crude art of the race1 or at least certain directions of it1 sprang out of play-like activities1 and however this be the likenesses of the two are indisputable4 ,i shall hope to bring these out in the present study4 ,this being so1 we are1 ,i conceive1 justified in speaking of art-impulses as a common characteristic of childhood4 ,although we shall find many interesting points of analogy between crude child-art and primitive race-art1 we must not1 as pointed out above1 expect a perfect parallelism4 ,in some directions1 as drawing1 concerted dancing1 the superior experience1 strength and skill of the adult will reveal themselves1 placing child-art at a considerable disadvantage in the comparison4 ,contrariwise1 the intervention of the educator's hand tends seriously to modify the course of development of the child's sthetic aptitudes4 ,his tastes get acted upon from the first and biassed in the direction of adult tastes4 ,this modifying influence of education shows itself more especially in one particular4 ,there is reason to think that in the development of the race the growth of a feeling for what is beautiful was a concomitant of the growth of the art-impulse1 the impulse to adorn the person1 to collect feathers and other pretty things4 ,not so in the case of the child4 ,here we note a certain growth of the liking for pretty things before the spontaneous art-impulse has had time to manifest itself4 ,most children who have a cultivated mother or other guardian acquire a rudimentary appreciation of what their elders think beautiful before they do much in the way of art-production4 ,we provide them with toys1 pictures1 we sing to them and perhaps we even take them to the theatre1 and so do our best to inoculate them with our ideas as to what is pretty4 ,hence the difficulty--probably the chief difficulty--of finding out what the child-mind1 left to itself1 does prefer4 ,at the same time the early date at which such sthetic preferences begin to manifest themselves makes it desirable to study them before we go on to consider the active side of child-art4 ,we will try as well as we can to extricate the first manifestations of genuine childish taste4 ,first ,responses to ,natural ,beauty4 ,at the very beginning1 before the educational influence has had time to work1 we can catch some of the characteristics of this childish quasi-sthetic feeling4 ,the directions of a child's observation1 and of the movements of his grasping arms1 tell us pretty clearly what sort of things attract and please him4 ,in the home scene it is bright objects1 such as the fire-flame1 the lamp1 the play of the sunlight on a bit of glass or a gilded frame2 out-of-doors1 glistening water1 a meadow whitened by daisies1 the fresh show mantle1 later the moon and the stars1 which seem to impart to the dawning consciousness the first hint of the world's beauty4 ,luminosity1 brightness in its higher intensities1 whether the bright rays reach the eye directly or are reflected from a lustrous surface1 this makes the first gladness of the eye as it remains a chief source of the gladness of life4 ,the feeling for colour as such comes distinctly later4 ,the first delight in coloured objects is hardly distinguishable from the primordial delight in brightness4 ,this applies pretty manifestly to the brightly illumined1 rose-red curtain which ,preyer's boy greeted with signs of satisfaction at the age of twenty-three days1 and it applies to later manifestations4 ,thus ,preyer found on experimenting with his boy towards the end of the second year as to his colour-discrimination that a decided preference was shown for the bright or luminous colours1 red and yellow4#aih ,much the same thing was observed by ,miss ,shinn in her interesting account of the early development of her niece's colour-sense4#aii ,thus in the twenty-eighth month she showed a special fondness for the daffodils1 the bright tints of which allured another and older maiden1 and1 alas6 to the place whence all brightness was banished4 ,about the same time the child conceived a fondness for a yellow gown of her aunt1 strongly objecting to the substitution for it of a brown dress4 ,among the other coloured objects which captivated the eye of this little girl were a patch of white cherry blossom1 and a red sun-set sky4 ,such observations might easily be multiplied4 ,whiteness1 it is to be noted1 comes1 as we might expect1 with bright partial colours1 among the first favourites4#bjj ----- ,footnote #aih3 ,op4 cit41 p4 #g and p4 #aa f4 ,footnote #aii3 ,notes on the ,development of a ,child1 p4 #ia ff4 ,footnote #bjj3 ,cf4 ,perez1 ,l',art et la ,posie chez l',enfant1 p4 #da ff4 ----- ,at what age a child begins to appreciate the value of colour as colour1 to like blue or red1 for its own sake and apart from its brightness1 it is hard to say4 ,the experiments of ,preyer1 ,binet1 ,baldwin1 and others1 as to the discrimination of colour1 are hardly conclusive as to special likings1 though ,baldwin's plan of getting the child to reach out for colours throws a certain light on this point4 ,according to ,baldwin blue is one of the first colours to be singled out2 but he does not tell us how the colours he used 7which did not1 unfortunately1 include yellow--the child's favourite according to other observers7 were related in point of luminosity4#bja ----- ,footnote #bja3 ,see ,baldwin's two articles on #8,a ,new ,method of ,child-study' in ,science1 ,april1 #ahic1 and his volume1 ,mental ,development in the ,child and the ,race4 ----- ,no doubt a child of three or four is apt to conceive a special liking for a particular colour which favourite he is wont to appropriate as #8my colour'4 ,a collection of such perfectly spontaneous preferences is a desideratum in the study of the first manifestations of a feeling for colour4 ,care must be taken in observing these selections to eliminate the effects of association1 and the unintentional influence of example and authority1 as when a child takes to a particular colour because it is #8mamma's colour1' that is1 the one she appears to affect in her dress and otherwise4 ,the values of the several colours probably disclose themselves in close connexion with that of colour-contrast4 ,many of the likings of a child of three in the matter of flowers1 birds1 dresses1 and so on1 are clearly traceable to a growing pleasure in colour-contrast4 ,here again we must distinguish between a true chromatic and a merely luminous effect4 ,the dark blue sky showing itself in a break in the white clouds1 one of the coloured spectacles which delighted ,miss ,shinn's niece1 may have owed much of its attractiveness to the contrast of light and dark4 ,it would be interesting to experiment with children of three with a view to determine whether and how far chromatic contrast pleases when it stands alone1 and is not supported by that of chiaroscuro4 ,i have reason to believe that children1 like the less cultivated adults1 prefer juxtapositions of colours which lie far from one another in the colour-circle1 as blue and red or blue and yellow4 ,it is sometimes said that the practice and the history of painting show blue and red to be a more pleasing combination than that of the complementary colours1 blue and yellow4 ,it would be well to test children's feeling on this matter4 ,it would be necessary in this inquiry to see that the child did not select for combination a particular colour as blue or yellow for its own sake1 and independently of its relation to its companion--a point not very easy to determine4 ,care would have to be taken to eliminate further the influence of authority as operating1 not only by instructing the child what combinations are best1 but by setting models of combination1 in the habitual arrangements of dress and so forth4 ,this too would probably prove to be a condition not easy to satisfy4#bjb ----- ,footnote #bjb3 ,the influence of such authority is especially evident in the selection of harmonious shades of colour for dress1 etc4 ,cf4 ,miss ,shinn1 op4 cit41 p4 #ie4 ----- ,i have dwelt at some length on the first germs of colour-appreciation1 because this is the one feature of the child's sthetic sense which has so far lent itself to definite experimental investigation4 ,it is very different when we turn to the first appreciation of form4 ,that little children have their likings in the matter of form1 is1 ,i think1 indisputable1 but they are not those of the cultivated adult4 ,a quite small child will admire the arch of a rainbow1 and the roundness of a kitten's form1 though in these instances the delight in form is far from pure4 ,more clearly marked is the appreciation of pretty graceful movements1 as a kitten's boundings4 ,perhaps the first waking up to the graces of form takes place in connexion with this delight in the forms of motion1 a delight which at first is a mixed feeling1 involving the interest in all motion as suggestive of life1 to which reference has already been made4 ,do not all of us1 indeed1 tend to translate our impressions of still forms back into these first impressions of the forms of motion8 ,one noticeable feature in the child's first response to the attractions of form is the preference given to #8tiny' things4 ,the liking for small natural forms1 birds1 insects1 shells1 and so forth1 and the prominence of such epithets as #8wee1' #8tiny' or #8teeny1' #8dear little1' in the child's vocabulary alike illustrate this early direction of taste4 ,this feeling again is a mixed one2 for the child's interest in very small fragile-looking things has in it an element of caressing tenderness which again contains a touch of fellow-feeling4 ,this is but one illustration of the general rule of sthetic development in the case of the individual and of the race alike that a pure contemplative delight in the aspect of things only gradually detaches itself from a mixed feeling4 ,if now we turn to the higher aspects of form1 regularity of outline1 symmetry1 proportion1 we encounter a difficulty4 ,many children acquire while quite young and before any formal education commences a certain feeling for regularity and symmetry4 ,but is this the result of a mere observation of natural or other forms8 ,here the circumstances of the child become important4 ,he lives among those who insist on these features in the daily activities of the home4 ,in laying the cloth of the dinner-table1 for example1 a child sees the regular division of space enforced as a law4 ,every time he is dressed1 or sees his mother dress1 he has an object-lesson in symmetrical arrangement4 ,and so these features take on a kind of ethical rightness before they are judged as elements of sthetic value4 ,as to a sense of proportion between the dimensions or parts of a form1 the reflexion that this involves a degree of intellectuality above the reach of many an adult might suggest that it is not to be expected from a small child2 and this conjecture will be borne out when we come to examine children's first essays in drawing4 ,these elementary pleasures of light1 colour1 and certain simple aspects of form1 may be said to be the basis of a crude perception of beauty in natural objects and in the products of human workmanship4 ,a quite small child is capable of acquiring a real admiration for a beautiful lady1 in the appreciation of which brightness1 colour1 grace of movement1 the splendour of dress1 all have their part1 while the charm for the eye is often reinforced by a sweet and winsome quality of voice4 ,such an admiration is not perfectly sthetic3 awe1 an inkling of the social dignity of dress1#bjc perhaps a longing to be embraced by the charmer1 may all enter into it2 yet a genuine admiration of look for its own sake is the core of the feeling4 ,in other childish admirations1 as the girl's enthusiastic worship of the newly arrived baby1 we see a true sthetic sentiment mingled with and struggling1 so to speak1 to extricate itself from such #8interested' feelings as sense of personal enrichment by the new possession and of family pride4 ,in the likings for animals1 again1 which often take what seem to us capricious and quaint directions1 we may see rudiments of sthetic perceptions half hidden under a lively sense of absolute lordship tempered with affection4 ----- ,footnote #bjc3 ,on the nature of the early feeling for dress see ,perez1 ,l',art et la ,posie chez l',enfant4 ----- ,perhaps the nearest approach to a pure sthetic enjoyment in these first experiences is the love of flowers4 ,the wee round wonders with their mystery of velvety colour are well fitted to take captive the young eye4 ,i believe most children who live among flowers and have access to them acquire something of this sentiment1 a sentiment of admiration for beautiful things with which a sort of dumb childish sympathy commonly blends4 ,no doubt there are marked differences among children here4 ,there are some who care only1 or mainly1 for their scent1 and the strong sensibilities of the olfactory organ appear to have a good deal to do with early preferences and prejudices in the matter of flowers4#bjd ,others again care for them mainly as a means of personal adornment1 though ,i am disposed to think that this partially interested fondness is less common with children than with many adults4 ,it is sometimes said that the love of flowers is1 in the main1 a characteristic of girls4 ,i think however that if one takes children early enough1 before a consciousness of sex and of its proprieties has been allowed to develop under education1 the difference will be but slight4 ,little boys of four or thereabouts often show a very lively sentiment of admiration for these gems of the plant world4 ----- ,footnote #bjd3 ,see ,perez1 ,l',art et la ,posie chez l',enfant1 p4 #ij f4 ----- ,in much of this first crude utterance of the sthetic sense of the child we have points of contact with the first manifestations of taste in the race4 ,delight in bright glistening things1 in gay tints1 in strong contrasts of colour1 as well as in certain forms of movement1 as that of feathers--the favourite personal adornment--this is known to be characteristic of the savage and gives to his taste in the eyes of civilised man the look of childishness4 ,on the other hand it is doubtful whether the savage attains to the sentiment of the child for the beauty of flowers4 ,our civilised surroundings1 meadows and gardens1 as well as the constant action of the educative forces of example1 soon carry the child beyond the savage in this particular4 ,how far can children be said to have the germ of a feeling for nature1 or1 to use the more comprehensive modern term1 cosmic emotion8 ,it is a matter of common observation that they have not the power to embrace a multitude of things in a single act of contemplation4 ,hence they have no feeling for landscape as a harmonious complex of picturesquely varied parts4 ,when they are taken to see a #8view' their eye instead of trying to embrace the whole1 as a fond parent desires1 provokingly pounces on some single feature of interest1 and often one of but little sthetic value4 ,people make a great mistake in taking children to #8points of view' under the supposition that they will share in grown people's impressions4 ,perez relates that some children taken to the ,pic du ,midi found their chief pleasure in scrambling up the peak and saying that they were on donkeys4#bje ,mere magnitude or vastness of spectacle does not appeal to the child1 for a sense of the sublime grows out of a complex imaginative process which is beyond his young powers4 ,so far as immensity affects him at all1 as in the case of the sea1 it seems to excite a measure of dread in face of the unknown2 and this feeling1 though having a certain kinship with the emotion of sublimity1 is distinct from this last4 ,it has nothing of the joyous consciousness of expansion which enters into the later feeling4 ,it is only to certain limited objects and features of nature that the child is sthetically responsive4 ,he knows the loveliness of the gilded spring meadow1 the fascination of the sunlit stream1 the awful mystery of the wood1 and something too perhaps of the calming beauty of the broad blue sky4 ,that is to say1 he has a number of small rootlets which when they grow together will develop into a feeling for nature4 ----- ,footnote #bje3 ,op4 cit41 p4 #ajc4 ----- ,here1 too1 the analogy between the child and the uncultured nature-man is evident4 ,the savage has no sthetic sentiment for nature as a whole1 though he may feel the charm of some of her single features1 a stream1 a mountain1 the star-spangled sky1 and may even be affected by some of the awful aspects of her changing physiognomy4 ,are we not told1 indeed1 that a true sthetic appreciation of the picturesque variety of nature's scenes of the weird charm of wild places1 and of the sublime fascinations of the awful and repellent mountain1 are quite late attainments in the history of our race8#bjf ----- ,footnote #bjf3 ,an excellent sketch of the growth of our feeling for the romantic and sublime beauty of mountains is given by ,mr4 ,leslie ,stephen in one of the most delightful of his works1 ,the ,playground of ,europe4 ----- ,early ,attitude towards ,art4 ,we may now look at the child's attitude towards those objects and processes of human art which from the first form part of his environment and make an educative appeal to his senses2 and here we may begin with those simple musical effects which follow up certain impressions derived from the natural world4 ,it has been pointed out that sounds form a chief source of the little child-heart's first trepidations4 ,yet this prolific cause of disquietude1 when once the first alarming effect of strangeness has passed1 becomes a main source of interest and delight4 ,some of nature's sounds1 as those of running water1 and of the wind1 early catch the ear1 and excite wonder and curiosity4 ,miss ,shinn illustrates fully in the case of her niece how the interest in sounds developed itself in the first years4#bjg ,this pleasure in listening to sounds and in tracing them to their origin forms a chief pastime of babyhood4 ----- ,footnote #bjg3 ,op cit41 p4 #aae ff4 ----- sthetic pleasure in sound begins to be differentiated out of this general interest as soon as there arises a comparison of qualities and a development of preferences4 ,thus the sound of metal 7when struck7 is preferred to that of wood or stone4 ,a nascent feeling for musical quality thus emerges which probably has its part in many of the first likings for persons2 certain pitches1 as those of the female voice1 and possibly timbres being preferred to others4 ,quite as soon1 at least1 as this feeling for quality of sound or tone1 there manifests itself a crude liking for rhythmic sequence4 ,it is commonly recognised that our pleasure in regularly recurring sounds is instinctive1 being the result of our whole nervous organisation4 ,we can better adapt successive acts of listening when sounds follow at regular intervals1 and the movements which sounds evoke can be much better carried out in a regular sequence4 ,the infant shows us this in his well-known liking for well-marked rhythms in tunes which he accompanies with suitable movements of the arms1 head1 etc4 ,the first likings for musical composition are based on this instinctive feeling for rhythm4 ,it is the simple tunes1 with well-marked easily recognisable time-divisions1 which first take the child's fancy1 and he knows the quieting and the exciting qualities of different rhythms and times4 ,where rhythm is less marked1 or grows highly complex1 the motor responses being confused1 the pleasurable interest declines4 ,it is the same with the rhythmic qualities of verses4 ,the jingling rhythms which their souls love are of simple structure1 with short feet well marked off1 as in the favourite1 #8,jack and ,gill'4 ,coming now to art as representative we find that a child's sthetic appreciation waits on the growth of intelligence1 on the understanding of artistic representation as contrasted with a direct presentation of reality4 ,the development of an understanding of visual representation or the imaging of things has already been touched upon4 ,as ,perez points out1 the first lesson in this branch of knowledge is supplied by the reflexions of the mirror1 which1 as we have seen1 the infant begins to take for realities1 though he soon comes to understand that they are not tangible realities4 ,the looking-glass is the best means of elucidating the representative function of the image or #8,bild' just because it presents this image in close proximity to the reality1 and so invites direct comparison with this4 ,in the case of pictures where this direct comparison is excluded we might expect a less rapid recognition of the representative function4 ,yet children show very early that picture-semblances are understood in the sense that they call forth reactions similar to those called forth by realities4 ,a little boy was observed to talk to pictures at the end of the eighth month4 ,this perhaps hardly amounted to recognition4 ,pollock says that the significance of pictures 8was in a general way understood0 by his little girl at the age of thirteen months4#bjh ,miss ,shinn tells us that her niece1 at the age of forty-two weeks1 showed the same excitement at the sight of a life-size painting of a cat as at that of real cats4#bji ,ten months is also given me by a lady as the date at which her little boy recognised pictures of animals by naming them #8bow-wow1' etc41 without being prompted4 ----- ,footnote #bjh3 ,mind1 iii41 p4 #cic4 ,footnote #bji3 ,notes on the ,development of a ,child1 i41 p4 #ga f4 ----- ,this early recognition of pictures is certainly remarkable even when we remember that animals have the germ of it4 ,the stories of recognition by birds of paintings of birds1 and by dogs of portraits of persons1 have to do with fairly large and finished paintings4#baj ,a child1 however1 will #8recognise' a small and roughly executed drawing4 ,he seems in this respect to surpass the powers of savages1 some of whom1 at least1 are said to be slow in recognising pictorial semblances4 ,this power1 which includes a delicate observation of form and an acute sense of likeness1 is seen most strikingly in the recognition of individual portraits4 ,miss ,shinn's niece in her fourteenth month picked out her father's face in a group of nine1 the face being scarcely more than a quarter of an inch in diameter4#baa ,i noticed the same fineness of recognition in my own children4 ----- ,footnote #baj3 ,see ,romanes1 ,animal ,intelligence1 pp4 #caa and #dec ff4 ,the only exception is a photograph which is said to have been #8large1' p4 #dec4 ,footnote #baa3 ,op4 cit41 i41 p4 #gd4 ----- ,one point in this early observation of pictures is curious enough to call for especial remark4 ,a friend of mine1 a psychologist1 writes to me that his little girl1 aged three and a half1 8does not mind whether she looks at a picture the right way up or the wrong2 she points out what you ask for1 eyes1 feet1 hands1 tail1 etc41 about equally well whichever way up the picture is1 and never asks to have it put right that she may see it better04 ,the same thing was noticed in the other children of the family1 and the mother tells me that her mother observed it in her children4 ,i have found a further illustration of this indifference to the position of a picture in the two children of another friend of mine4 ,professor ,petrie tells me that he once watched an ,arab boy looking at a picture-book4 ,one1 a drawing of horses and chariot1 happened to have a different position from the rest1 so that the book being held as before1 the horses seemed to be going upwards2 but the boy was not in the least incommoded1 and without attempting to turn the book round easily made it out4 ,these facts are curious as illustrating the skill of the young eye in deciphering4 ,they may possibly have a further significance as showing how what we call position--the arrangement of a form in relation to a vertical line--is a comparatively artificial view of which a child as yet takes little if any account4 ,he may be able to concentrate his attention so well on form proper that he is indifferent to the point how the form is placed4 ,yet this matter is one which well deserves further investigation4#bab ----- ,footnote #bab3 ,professor ,petrie reminds me that a like absence of the perception of position shows itself in the way in which letters are drawn in early ,greek and ,phnician writings4 ----- ,a further question arises as to whether this #8recognition' of pictures by children towards the end of the first year necessarily implies a grasp of the idea of a picture1 that is1 of a representation or copy of something4 ,the first reactions of a child1 smiling1 etc41 on seeing mirror-images and pictures1 do not seem to show this1 but merely that he is affected much as he would be by the presence of the real object1 or1 at most1 that he recognises the picture as a kind of thing4 ,the same is1 ,i think1 true of the so-called recognition of pictures by animals4 ,that children do not1 at first1 seize the pictorial or representative function is seen in the familiar fact that they will touch pictures as they touch shadows and otherwise treat them as if they were tangible realities4 ,thus ,pollock's little girl attempted to smell at the trees in a picture and #8pretended' to feed some pictorial dogs4 ,when the first clear apprehension of the pictorial function is reached1 it is difficult to say4 ,miss ,shinn thought that her niece 8understood the purport of a picture quite well0 at the age of forty-five weeks4 ,she draws this conclusion from the fact that at this date the child in answer to the question #8,where are the flowers8' leaned over and touched the painted flowers on her aunt's gown1 and then looked out to the garden with a cry of desire4#bac ,but this inference seems to me very risky4 ,all that the child's behaviour proves is that she #8classed' real and painted flowers together1 while she recognised the superiority of the former as the tangible and probably the odorous ones4 ,the strongest evidence of recognition of pictorial function by children is1 ,i think1 their ability to recognise the portrait of an individual4 ,but even this is not quite satisfactory4 ,it is conceivable1 at least1 that a child may look on a photograph of his father as a kind of #8double'4 ,the boy ,c4 took his projected photograph very seriously as a kind of doubling of himself4 ,the story of the dog1 a ,dandy ,dinmont terrier1 that trembled and barked at a portrait of his dead mistress#bad seems to me to bear this out4 ,it would surely be rather absurd to say that the demonstrations of this animal1 whatever they may have meant1 prove that he took the portrait to be a memento-likeness of his dead mistress4 ----- ,footnote #bac3 ,op4 cit41 i41 p4 #gb4 ,footnote #bad3 ,romanes1 op4 cit41 p4 #dec4 ----- ,we are apt to forget how difficult and abstract a conception is that of pictorial representation1 how hard it is to look at a thing as pure semblance having no value in itself1 but only as standing for something else4 ,a like slowness on the part of the child to grasp a sign1 as such1 shows itself here as in the case of verbal symbols4 ,children will1 quite late1 especially when feeling is aroused and imagination specially active1 show a disposition to transform the semblance into the thing4 ,miss ,shinn herself points out that her niece1 who seems to have been decidedly quick1 was as late as the twenty-fifth month touched with pity by a picture of a lamb caught in a thicket1 and tried to lift the painted branch that lay across the lamb4 ,in her thirty-fifth month1 again1 when looking at a picture of a chamois defending her little one from an eagle1 8she asked anxiously if the mamma would drive the eagle away1 and presently quite simply and unconsciously placed her little hand edgewise on the picture so as to make a fence between the eagle and the chamois04#bae ,such ready confusion of pictures with realities shows itself in the fourth year and later4 ,a boy nearly five was observed to strike at the figures in a picture and to exclaim3 8,i can't break them04 ,the ,worcester ,collection of observations illustrates the first confused idea of a picture4 8,one day ,f41 a boy of four1 called on a friend1 ,mrs4 ,c41 who had just received a picture1 representing a scene in winter1 in which people were going to church1 some on foot and others in sleighs4 ,f4 was told whither they were going4 ,the next day he came and noticed the picture1 and looking at ,mrs4 ,c4 and then at the picture said3 #8,why1 ,mrs4 ,c41 them people haven't got there yet1 have they8'0 ----- ,footnote #bae3 ,op4 cit41 ii41 p4 #ajd4 ----- ,all this points1 ,i think1 to a slow and gradual emergence of the idea of representation or likeness4 ,if a child is capable in moments of intense imagination of confusing his battered doll with a living reality1 he may be expected to act similarly with respect to the fuller likeness of a picture4 ,vividness of imagination tends in the child as in the savage1 and indeed in all of us1 to invest a semblance with something of reality4 ,we are able to control the illusory tendency and to keep it within the limits of an sthetic semi-illusion2 not so the child4 ,is it too fanciful to suppose that the belief of the savage in the occasional visits of the real spirit-god to his idol has for its psychological motive the impulse which prompts the child ever and again to identify his toys and even his pictures with the realities which they represent8 ,as might be expected this impulse to confuse representation and represented reality shows itself very distinctly in the first reception of dramatic spectacle4 ,if you dress up as ,father ,christmas1 your child1 even though he is told that you are his father1 will hardly be able to resist the illusion that your disguise so powerfully induces4 ,cuvier relates that a boy of ten on watching a stage scene in which troops were drawn up for action1 broke out in loud protestations to the actor who was taking the part of the general1 telling him that the artillery was wrongly placed1 and so forth4#baf ,this reminds one of the story of the sailors who on a visit to a theatre happened to see a representation of a mutiny on board ship1 and were so excited that they rushed on the stage and took sides with the authorities in quelling the movement4 ----- ,footnote #baf3 ,quoted by ,perez1 op4 cit41 p4 #baf4 ----- ,i believe that this same tendency to take art-representations for realities reappears in children's mental attitude towards stories4 ,a story by its narrative form seems to tell of real events1 and children1 as we all know1 are wont to believe tenaciously that their stories are true4 ,i think ,i have observed a disposition in imaginative children to go beyond this1 and to give present actuality to the scenes and events described4 ,and this is little to be wondered at when one remembers that even grown people1 familiar with the devices of art-imitation1 tend now and again to fall into this confusion4 ,only a few days ago1 as ,i was reading an account by a friend of mine of a perilous passage in an ,alpine ascent1 accomplished years ago1 ,i suddenly caught myself in the attitude of proposing to shout out to stop him from venturing farther4 ,a vivid imaginative realisation of the situation had made it for the moment a present actuality4 ,careful observations of the first attitudes of the child-mind towards representative art are greatly needed4 ,we should probably find considerable diversity of behaviour4 ,the presence of a true art-feeling would be indicated by a special quickness in the apprehension of art-semblance as such4 ,in these first reactions of the young mind to the stimulus of art-presentation we may study other aspects of the sthetic aptitude4 ,very quaint and interesting is the exacting realism of these first appreciations4 ,a child is apt to insist on a perfect detailed reproduction of the familiar reality4 ,and here one may often trace the fine observation of these early years4 ,listen1 for example1 to the talk of the little critic before a drawing of a horse or a railway train1 and you will be surprised to find how closely and minutely he has studied the forms of things4 ,it is the same with other modes of art-representation4 ,perez gives an amusing instance of a boy1 aged four1 who when taken to a play was shocked at the anomaly of a chamber-maid touching glasses with her master on a fte day4 8,in our home10 exclaimed the stickler for regularities1 to the great amusement of the neighbours1 8we don't let the nurse drink like that40#bag ,it is the same with story4 ,children are liable to be morally hurt if anything is described greatly at variance with the daily custom4 sthetic rightness is as yet confused with moral rightness or social propriety1 which1 as we have seen1 has its instinctive support in the child's mind in respect for custom4 ----- ,footnote #bag3 ,op4 cit41 pp4 #bae1 #baf4 ----- ,careful observation will disclose in these first frankly expressed impressions the special directions of childish taste4 ,the preferences of a boy of four in the matter of picture-books tell us where his special interests lie1 what things he finds pretty1 and how much of a genuine sthetic faculty he is likely to develop later on4 ,here1 again1 there is ample room for more careful studies directed to the detection of the first manifestations of a pure delight in things as beautiful1 as charming at once the senses and the imagination4 ,the first appearances of that complex interest in life and personality which fills so large a place in our sthetic pleasures can be best noted in the behaviour of the child's mind towards dramatic spectacle and story4 ,the awful ecstatic delight with which a child is apt to greet any moving semblance carrying with it the look of life and action is something which some of us1 like ,goethe1 can recall among our oldest memories4 ,the old-fashioned moving #8,schatten-bilder1' for which the gaudy but rigid pictures of the magic lantern are but a poor substitute1 the puppet-show1 with what a delicious wonder have these filled the childish heart4 ,and as to the entrancing1 enthralling delight of the story--well ,thackeray and others have tried to describe this for us4 ,of very special interest in these early manifestations of a feeling for art is the appearance of a crude form of the two emotions to which all representations of life and character make appeal--the feeling for the comic1 and for the tragic side of things4 ,what we may call the adults fallacy1 the tendency to judge children by grown-up standards1 frequently shows itself in an expectation that their laughter will follow the directions of our own4 ,i remember having made the mistake of putting those delightful books1 ,tom ,sawyer and ,huckleberry ,finn1 into the hands of a small boy with a considerable sense of fun1 and having been humiliated at discovering that there was no response4 ,children's fun is of a very elemental character4 ,they are mostly tickled1 ,i suspect1 by the spectacle of some upsetting of the proprieties1 some confusion of the established distinctions of rank4 ,dress1 as we have seen1 has an enormous symbolic value for the child's mind1 and any confusion here is apt to be specially laughter-provoking4 ,one child between three and four was convulsed at the sight of his baby bib fastened round the neck of his bearded sire4 ,there is1 too1 a considerable element of rowdiness in children's sense of the comical1 as may be seen by the enduring popularity of the spectacle of ,punch's successful misdemeanours and bravings of the legal authority4 ,since children are apt to take spectacles with an exacting seriousness1 it becomes interesting to note how the two moods1 realistic stickling for correctness1 and rollicking hilarity at the sight of the disorderly1 behave in relation one to another4 ,more facts are needed on this point4 ,it is probable that we have here to do in part with a permanent difference of temperament4 ,there are serious matter-of-fact little minds which are shocked by a kind of spectacle or narrative that would give boundless delight to a more elastic fun-loving spirit4 ,but discarding these permanent differences of disposition1 ,i think that in general the sense of fun1 the delight in the topsy-turviness of things1 is apt to develop later than the serious realistic attitude already referred to4 ,here1 too1 it is probable that the evolution of the individual follows that of the race3 the solemnities of custom and ritual weigh so heavily at first on the savage-mind that there is no chance for sprightly laughter to show himself4 ,however this be1 most young children appear to be unable to appreciate true comedy where the incongruous co-exists with and takes on one half of its charm from serious surroundings4 ,their laughter is best called forth by a broadly farcical show in which all serious rules are set at nought4 ,of no less interest in this attitude of the child-mind towards the representations by art of human character and action are the first rude manifestations of the feeling for the tragic side of life4 ,a child of four or six is far from realising the divine necessity which controls our mortal lives4 ,yet he will display a certain crude feeling for thrilling situation1 exciting adventure1 and something1 too1 of a sympathetic interest in the woes of mortals1 quadrupeds as well as bipeds4 ,the action1 the situation1 may easily grow too painful for an imaginative child disposed to take all representative spectacle as reality3 yet the absorbing interest of the action where the sadness is bearable attests the early development of that universal feeling for the sorrowful fatefulness of things which runs through all imaginative writings from the #8penny dreadful' upwards4 ,beginnings of ,art-production4 ,we have been trying to catch the first faint manifestations of sthetic feeling in children's contemplative attitude towards natural objects and the presentations of art4 ,we may now pass to what is a still more interesting department of childish sthetics1 their first rude attempts at art-production4 ,we are wont to say that children are artists in embryo1 that in their play and their whole activity they manifest the germs of the art-impulse4 ,in order to see whether this idea is correct we must start with a clear idea of what we mean by art-activity4 ,i would define art-activity as including all childish doings which are consciously directed to an external result recognised as beautiful1 as directly pleasing to sense and imagination4 ,thus a gesture1 or an intonation of voice1 which is motived by a feeling for what is #8pretty' or #8nice' is a mode of art-activity as much as the production of a more permanent sthetic object1 as a drawing4 ,now if we look at children's activity we shall find that though much of it implies a certain germ of sthetic feeling it is not pure art-activity4 ,in the love of personal adornment1 for example1 we see1 as in the case of savages1 the sthetic motive subordinated to another and personal or interested feeling1 vanity or love of admiration4 ,on the other hand1 in children's play1 which undoubtedly has a kinship with art1 we find the sthetic motive1 the desire to produce something beautiful1 very much in the background4 ,we have then to examine these primitive forms of activity so as to try to disengage the genuine art-element4 ,one of the most interesting of these early quasi-artistic lines of activity is that of personal adornment4 ,the impulse to maintain appearances appears to reach far down in animal life4 ,the animal's care of its person is supported by two instincts1 the impulse to frighten or overawe others1 and especially those who are1 or are likely to be1 enemies1 illustrated in the raising of feathers and hair so as to increase size2 and the impulse to attract1 which probably underlies the habit of trimming feathers and fur among birds and quadrupeds4 ,these same impulses are said to lie at the root of the elaborate art of personal adornment developed by savages4 ,the anthropologist divides such ornament into alluring and alarming1 #8,reizschmuck' and #8,schreckschmuck'4#bah ----- ,footnote #bah3 ,see ,grosse1 ,die ,anfnge der ,kunst1 pp4 #ajf1 #ajg4 ----- ,in the case of children's attention to personal appearance there is no question of tracing out the workings of a pure instinct4 ,the care of the person is before all other things inculcated and enforced by others1 and forms1 indeed1 a main branch of the nursery training4 ,to a mother1 as is perfectly natural1 a child is apt to present himself as the brightest of the household ornaments1 which has to be kept neat and spotless with even greater care than the polished table and other pretty things4 ,this early drilling is likely to be unpleasant4 ,many children resent at first not only soap and water and the merciless comb1 but even arrayings in new finery4 ,adornment is forced on the child before the instinct has had time to develop itself1 and the manner of the adornment does not always accommodate itself to the natural inclinations of the childish eye4 ,hence the familiar fact that with children the care of personal appearance when it is developed takes on the air of a respect for law4 ,it is more than half a moral feeling1 a readiness to be shocked at a breach of a custom enforced from the first by example and precept4 ,again1 the instinct of adornment in the child is often opposed by other impulses4 ,i have already touched on a small child's feeling of uneasiness at seeing his mother in new apparel4 ,a like apprehensiveness shows itself in relation to his own dress4 ,many little children show a marked dislike to new raiment4 ,as ,i have remarked above1 a change of dress probably disturbs and confuses their sense of personality4 ,in spite1 however1 of these and other complicating circumstances ,i believe that the instinct to adorn the person is observable in children4 ,they like a bit of finery in the shape of a string of beads or of daisies for the neck1 a feather for the hat1 a scrap of brilliantly coloured ribbon or cloth as a bow for the dress1 and so forth4 ,imitation1 doubtless1 plays a part here1 but it is1 ,i think1 possible to allow for this1 and still to detect points of contact with the savage's love of finery4 ,perhaps1 indeed1 we may discern the play of both the impulses underlying personal ornament which were referred to above1 viz41 the alluring and alarming4 ,allowing for the differences of intelligence1 of sexual development and so forth1 we may say that children betray a rudiment of the instinct to win admiration by decorating the person1 and also of the instinct to overawe4 ,a small boy's delight in adding to his height and formidable appearance by donning his father's tall hat is pretty certainly an illustration of this last4 ,this is not the place to inquire whether the love of finery in children--a very variable trait1 as ,m4 ,perez and others have shown--is wholly the outcome of vanity4 ,i would1 however1 just remark that a child lost in the vision of himself reflected in a mirror decked out in new apparel may be very far from feeling vanity as we understand the word4 ,the pure child-wonder at what is new and mysterious may at such a moment overpower other feelings1 and make the whole mental condition one of dream-like trance4 ,since children are left so little free to deck themselves1 it is of course hard to study the development of sthetic taste in this domain of art-like activity4 ,yet the quaint attempts of the child to improve his appearance throw an interesting light on his sthetic preferences4 ,he is at heart as much a lover of glitter1 of gaudy colour1 as his savage prototype4 ,with this general crudity of taste1 individual differences soon begin to show themselves1 a child developing a marked bent1 now to modest neatness and refinement1 now to gaudy display1 and this1 it may be1 in direct opposition to the whole trend of home influence4#bai ----- ,footnote #bai3 ,the whole subject of the attitude of the child-mind towards dress and ornament is well dealt with by ,perez1 op4 cit41 chap4 i4 ----- ,another and closely connected domain of activity which is akin to art is the manifestation of grace and charm in action4 ,much of the beauty of movement1 of gesture1 of intonation1 in a young child may be unconscious1 and as much a result of happy physical conditions as the pretty gambols of a kitten4 ,yet one may commonly detect in graceful children the rudiment of an sthetic feeling for what is nice1 and also of the instinct to please4 ,there is1 indeed1 in these first actions and manners1 into which stupid conventionality has not yet imported all kinds of awkward restraints1 as when the little girl ,m4 would kiss her hand spontaneously to other babies as she passed them in the street1 something of the simple grace and dignity of the more amiable savages4 ,now a feeling for what is graceful in movement1 carriage1 speech and so forth is no clear proof of a specialised artistic impulse3 yet it attests the existence of a rudimentary appreciation of what is beautiful1 as also of an impulse to produce this4 ,in the forms of childish activity just referred to we have to do with mixed impulses in which the true art-element is very imperfectly represented4 ,there is a liking for pretty effect1 and an effort to realise it1 only the effect is not prized wholly for its own sake1 but partly as a means of winning the smile of approval4 ,the true art-impulse is characterised by the love of shaping beautiful things for their own sake1 by an absorbing devotion to the process of creation1 into which there enters no thought of any advantage to self1 and almost as little of benefiting others4 ,now there is one field of children's activity which is marked by just this absorption of thought and aim1 and that is play4 ,to say that play is art-like has almost become a commonplace4 ,any one can see that when children are at play they are carried away by pleasurable activity1 are thinking of no useful result but only of the pleasure of the action itself4 ,they build their sand castles1 they pretend to keep shop1 to entertain visitors1 and so forth1 for the sake of the enjoyment which they find in these actions4 ,this clearly involves one point of kinship with the artist1 for the poet sings and the painter paints because they love to do so4 ,it is evident1 moreover1 from what was said above on the imaginative side of play that it has this further circumstance in common with art-production1 that it is the bodying forth of a mental image into the semblance of outward life4 ,not only so1 play exhibits the distinction between imitation and invention--the realistic and the idealistic tendency in art--and in its forms comes surprisingly near representing the chief branches of art-activity4 ,it thus fully deserves to be studied as a domain in which we may look for early traces of children's artistic tendencies4 ,if by play we understand all that spontaneous activity which is wholly sustained by its own pleasurableness1 we shall find the germ of it in those aimless movements and sounds which are the natural expression of a child's joyous life4 ,such outpourings of happiness have a quasi-sthetic character in so far as they follow the rhythmic law of all action4 ,where the play becomes social activity1 that is1 the concerted action of a number1 we get something closely analogous to those primitive harmonious co-ordinations of movements and sounds in which the first crude music1 poetry and dramatic action of the race are supposed to have had their common origin4 ,such nave play-activity acquires a greater sthetic importance when it becomes significant or representative of something3 and this direction appears very early in child-history4 ,the impulse to imitate the action of another seems to be developed before the completion of the first half-year4#bbj ,in its first crude form1 as reproducing a gesture or sound uttered at the moment by another1 it enters into the whole of social or concerted play4 ,a number of children find the harmonious performance of a series of dance or other movements1 such as those of the kindergarten games1 natural and easy1 because the impulse to imitate1 to follow another's lead1 at once prompts them and keeps them from going far astray4 ----- ,footnote #bbj3 ,preyer places the first imitative movement in the fourth month 7op4 cit41 cap4 #ab74 ,baldwin1 however1 dates the first unmistakable appearance in the case of his little girl in the ninth month 7,mental ,development1 p4 #aca74 ----- ,it is a higher and more intellectual kind of imitation when a child recalls the idea of something he has seen done and reproduces the action4 ,this is often carried out under the suggestive force of objects which happen to present themselves at the time1 as when a child sees an empty cup and pretends to drink1 or a book and simulates the action of reading out of it1 or a pair of scissors and proceeds to execute snipping movements4 ,in other cases the imitation is more spontaneous1 as when a child recalls and repeats some funny saying that he has heard4 ,this imitative action grows little by little more complex1 and in this way a prolonged make-believe action may be carried out4 ,here1 it is evident1 we get something closely analogous to histrionic performance4 ,a child pantomimically representing some funny action comes1 indeed1 very near to the mimetic art of the comedian4 ,meanwhile1 another form of imitation is developing1 viz41 the production of semblances in things4 ,early illustrations of this impulse are the making of a river out of the gravy in the plate1 the pinching of pellets of bread till they take on something of resemblance to known forms4 ,one child1 three years old1 once occupied himself at table by turning his plate into a clock1 in which his knife 7or spoon7 and fork were made to act as hands1 and cherry stones put round the plate to represent the hours4 ,such table-pastimes are known to all observers of children1 and have been prettily touched on by ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson4#bba ----- ,footnote #bba3 ,virginibus ,puerisque1 #8,child's ,play'4 ----- ,such formative touches are1 at first1 rough enough1 the transformation being effected1 as we have seen1 much more by the alchemy of the child's imagination than by the cunning of his hands4 ,yet1 crude as it is1 and showing at first almost as much of chance as of design1 it is a manifestation of the same plastic impulse1 the same striving to produce images or semblances of things1 which possesses the sculptor and the painter4 ,in each case we see a mind dominated by an idea and labouring to give it outward embodiment4 ,the more elaborate constructive play which follows1 the building with sand and with bricks1 with which we may take the first spontaneous drawings1 are the direct descendant of this rude formative activity4 ,the kindergarten occupations1 most of all the clay-modelling1 make direct appeal to this half-artistic plastic impulse in the child4 ,in this imitative play we see from the first the tendency to set forth what is characteristic in the things represented4 ,thus in the acting of the nursery the nurse1 the coachman and so forth are given by one or two broad touches1 such as the presence of the medicine-bottle or its semblance1 or of the whip1 together1 perhaps1 with some characteristic manner of speaking4 ,in this way child-play1 like primitive art1 shows a certain unconscious selectiveness4 ,it presents what is constant and typical1 imperfectly enough no doubt4 ,the same selection of broadly distinctive traits is seen where some individual seems to be represented4 ,there is a precisely similar tendency to a somewhat bald typicalness of outline in the first rude attempts of children to form semblances4 ,this will be fully illustrated presently when we examine their manner of drawing4 ,as observation widens and grows finer1 the first bald abstract representation becomes fuller and more life-like4 ,a larger number of distinctive traits is taken up into the representation4 ,thus the coachman's talk becomes richer1 fuller of reminiscences of the stable1 etc41 and so colour is given to the dramatic picture4 ,a precisely similar process of development is noticeable in the plastic activities4 ,the first raw attempt to represent house or castle is improved upon1 and the image grows fuller of characteristic detail and more life-like4 ,here1 again1 we may note the parallelism between the evolution of play-activity and of primitive art4 ,this movement away from bare symbolic indication to concrete pictorial representation involves a tendency to individualise1 to make the play or the shapen semblance life-like in the sense of representing an individual reality4 ,such individual concreteness may be obtained by a mechanical reproduction of some particular action and scene of real life1 and children in their play not infrequently attempt a faithful recital or portraiture of this kind4 ,such close unyielding imitation shows itself1 too1 now and again in the attempt to act out a story4 ,yet with bright fanciful children the impulse to give full life and colour to the performance rarely stops here4 ,fresh individual life is best obtained by the aid of invention1 by the intervention of which some new scene or situation1 some new grouping of personalities is realised4 ,nothing is sthetically of more interest in children's play than the first cautious intrusion into the domain of imitative representation of this impulse of invention1 this desire for the new and fresh as distinct from the old and customary4 ,perhaps1 too1 there is no side of children's play in which individual differences are more clearly marked or more significant than this4 ,the child of bold inventive fancy is shocking to his companion whose whole idea of proper play is a servile imitation of the scenes and actions of real life4 ,yet the former will probably be found to have more of the stuff of which the artist is compacted4 ,all such invention1 moreover1 since it aims at securing some more vivacious and stirring play-experience1 naturally comes under the influence of the childish instinct of exaggeration4 ,i mean by this the untaught art of vivifying and strengthening a description or representation by adding touch to touch4 ,in the representations of play1 this love of colour1 of strong effect1 shows itself now in a piling up of the beautiful1 gorgeous1 or wonderful1 as when trying to act some favourite scene from fairy-story1 or some grand social function1 now in a bringing together of droll or pathetic incidents so as to strengthen the comic or the tragic feeling of the play-action4 ,in all this--which has its counterpart in the first crude attempts of the art of the race to break the tight bonds of a servile imitation--we have1 ,i believe1 the germ of what in our more highly developed art we call the idealising impulse4 ,i have1 perhaps1 said enough to show that children's play is in many respects analogous to art of the simpler kind1 also that it includes within itself lines of activity which represent the chief directions of art-development4#bbb ----- ,footnote #bbb3 ,the telling of stories to other children does not1 ,i conceive1 fall under my definition of play4 ,it is child-art properly so called4 ----- ,yet though art-like this play is not fully art4 ,in play a child is too self-centred1 if ,i may so say4 ,the scenes he acts out1 the semblances he shapes with his hands1 are not produced as having objective value1 but rather as providing himself with a new environment4 ,the peculiarity of all imaginative play1 its puzzle for older people1 is its contented privacy4 ,the idea of a child playing as an actor is said to #8play' in order to delight others is a contradiction in terms4 ,as ,i have remarked above1 the pleasure of a child in what we call #8dramatic' make-believe is wholly independent of any appreciating eye4 8,i remember10 writes ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson1 8as though it were yesterday1 the expansion of spirit1 the dignity and self-reliance1 that came with a pair of mustachios in burnt cork even when there was none to see40#bbc ,the same thing is true of concerted play4 ,a number of children playing at being ,indians1 or what not1 do not #8perform' for one another4 ,the words #8perform1' #8act' and so forth all seem to be out of place here4 ,what really occurs in this case is a conjoint vision of a new world1 a conjoint imaginative realisation of a new life4 ----- ,footnote #bbc3 ,virginibus ,puerisque1 #8,child's ,play'4 ----- ,this difference between play and art is sometimes pushed to the point of saying that art has its root in the social impulse1 the wish to please4#bbd ,this ,i think is simplifying too much4 ,art is no doubt a social phenomenon1 as ,guyau and others have shown4 ,it has been well said that an individual art--in the strictest sense--even if it were conceivable is nowhere discoverable4#bbe ,that is to say the artist is constituted as such by a participation in the common consciousness1 the life of his community1 and his creative impulse is controlled and directed by a sense of common or objective values4 ,yet to say that art is born of the instinct to please or attract is to miss much of its significance4 ,the ever-renewed contention of artists1 #8art for art's sake1' points to the fact that they1 at least1 recognise in their art-activity something spontaneous1 something of the nature of self-expression1 self-realisation1 and akin to the child's play4 ----- ,footnote #bbd3 ,according to ,mr ,h4 ,rutgers ,marshall art-activity takes its rise in the instinct to attract others 7,pain1 ,pleasure1 and sthetics74 ,footnote #bbe3 ,grosse1 ,anfnge der ,kunst1 p4 #dh4 ----- ,may we not say1 then1 that the impulse of the artist has its roots in the happy semi-conscious activity of the child at play1 the all-engrossing effort to #8utter1' that is1 give outer form and life to an inner idea1 and that the play-impulse becomes the art-impulse 7supposing it is strong enough to survive the play-years7 when it is illumined by a growing participation in the social consciousness1 and a sense of the common worth of things1 when1 in other words1 it becomes conscious of itself as a power of shaping semblances which shall have value for other eyes or ears1 and shall bring recognition and renown8 ,or1 to put it somewhat differently1 may we not say that art has its twin-rootlets in the two directions of childish activity which we have considered1 viz41 the desire to please so far as this expresses itself in dress1 graceful action1 and so forth1 and the entrancing isolating impulse of play8 ,however we express the relation1 ,i feel sure that we must account for the origin of art by some reference to play4 ,a study of the art of savages1 more especially perhaps of the representations of fighting and hunting in their pantomime-dances1 seems to show that art is continuous with play-activity4 ,to insist on this organic connexion between play and art is not to say that every lively player is fitted to become an art-aspirant4 ,the artistic ambition implies too rare a complex of conditions for us to be able to predict its appearance in this way4 ,it may1 however1 be thrown out as a suggestion to the investigator of the first manifestations of artistic genius that he might do well to cast his eye on the field of imaginative play4 ,it will possibly be found that although not a romping riotous player1 nor indeed much disposed to join other children in their pastimes1 the original child has his own distinctive style of play1 which marks him out as having more than other children of that impulse to dream of far-off things1 and to bring them near in the illusion of outer semblance1 which enters more or less distinctly into all art4 ,i have left myself no space to speak of the child's first attempts at art as we understand it4 ,some of this art-activity1 more particularly the earliest weaving of stories1 is characteristic enough to deserve a special study4 ,i have made a small collection of early stories1 and some of them are interesting enough to quote4 ,here is a quaint example of the first halting manner of a child of two and a half years as invention tries to get away from the sway of models3 8,three little bears went out a walk and they found a stick1 and they poked the fire with it1 and they poked the fire and then went a walk04 ,soon1 however1 the young fancy is apt to wax bolder1 and then we get some fine invention4 ,a boy of five years and a quarter living at the sea-side improvised as follows4 ,he related 8that one day he went out on the sea in a lifeboat when suddenly he saw a big whale1 and so he jumped down to catch it1 but it was so big that he climbed on it and rode on it in the water1 and all the little fishes laughed so04 ,with this comic story may be compared a more serious not to say tragic one from the lips of a girl one month younger1 and characterised by an almost equal fondness for the wonderful4 8,a man wanted to go to heaven before he died4 ,he said1 #8,i don't want to die1 and ,i must see heaven6' ,jesus ,christ said he must be patient like other people4 ,he then got so angry1 and screamed out as loud as he could1 and kicked up his heels as high as he could1 and they 7the heels7 went into the sky1 and the sky fell down and broke earth all to pieces4 ,he wanted ,jesus ,christ to mend the earth again1 but he wouldn't1 so this was a good punishment for him40 ,this last1 which is the work of one now grown into womanhood and no longer a story-teller1 is interesting in many ways4 ,the wish to go to heaven without dying is1 as ,i know1 a motive derived from child-life4 ,the manifestations of displeasure could1 one supposes1 only have been written by one who was herself experienced in the ways of childish #8tantrums'4 ,the nave conception of sky and earth1 and lastly the moral issue of the story1 are no less instructive4 ,these samples may serve to show that in the stories of by no means highly-gifted children we come face to face with interesting traits of the young mind1 and can study some of the characteristic tendencies of early and primitive art4#bbf ,of the later efforts to imitate older art1 as verse writing1 the same cannot1 ,i think1 be said4 ,children's verses so far as ,i have come across them are poor and stilted1 showing all the signs of the cramping effect of models and rules to which the child-mind cannot easily accommodate itself1 and wanting all true childish inspiration4 ,no doubt1 even in these choking circumstances1 childish feeling may now and again peep out4 ,the first prose compositions1 letters before all if they may be counted art1 give more scope for the expression of a child's feeling and the characteristic movements of his thought1 and might well repay study4#bbg ----- ,footnote #bbf3 ,the child's feeling for climax shown in these is further illustrated in a charming story taken down by ,miss ,shinn1 but unfortunately too long to quote here4 ,see ,overland ,monthly1 vol4 xxiii41 p4 #ai4 ,footnote #bbg3 ,perez deals with children's literary compositions in the work already quoted 7chap4 ix474 ,cf4 ,paola ,lombroso1 op4 cit41 cap4 viii4 and ix4 ----- ,there is one other department of this child-art which clearly does deserve to be studied with some care--drawing4 ,and this for the very good reason that it is not wholly a product of our influence and education1 but shows itself in its essential characteristics as a spontaneous self-taught activity of childhood which takes its rise1 indeed1 in the play-impulse4 ,this will be the subject of the next essay4 ,x4 ,,the ,,young ,,draughtsman4 ,first ,attempts to ,draw4 ,a child's first attempts at drawing are pre-artistic and a kind of play1 an outcome of the instinctive love of finding and producing semblances of things illustrated in the last essay4 ,sitting at the table and covering a sheet of paper with line-scribble he is wholly self-centred1 #8amusing himself1' as we say1 and caring nothing about the production of 8objective values04 ,yet even in the early stages of infantile drawing the social element of art is suggested in the impulse of the small draughtsman to make his lines indicative of something to others' eyes1 as when he bids his mother look at the #8man1' #8gee-gee1' or what else he fancies that he has delineated4#bbh ,and this1 though crude enough and apt to shock the sthetic sense of the matured artist by its unsightliness1 is closely related to art1 forming1 indeed1 in a manner a preliminary stage of pictorial design4 ----- ,footnote #bbh3 ,this indicative or communicative function of drawing has1 we know1 played a great part in the early stages of human history4 ,modern savages employ drawings in sand as a means of imparting information to others1 e4g41 of the presence of fish in a lake1 see ,von den ,steinen1 ,unter den ,naturvlkern ,braziliens1 kap4 x41 s4 #bdc f4 ----- ,we shall therefore study children's drawings as a kind of rude embryonic art4 ,in doing this our special aim will be to describe and explain childish characteristics4 ,this1 again1 will compel us to go to some extent into the early forms of observation and imagination4 ,it will be found1 ,i think1 that the first crude drawings are valuable as throwing light on the workings of children's minds4 ,perhaps1 indeed1 it may turn out that these spontaneous efforts of the childish hand to figure objects are for the psychologist a medium of expression of the whole of child-nature1 hardly less instructive than that of early speech4 ,in carrying out our investigation of children's drawings we shall need to make a somewhat full reference to the related phenomena1 the drawings of modern savages and those of early art4 ,while important points of difference will disclose themselves the resemblances are important enough to make a comparison not only profitable but almost indispensable4 ,i have thought it best to narrow the range of the inquiry by keeping to delineations of the human figure and of animals1 especially the horse4 ,these are the favourite topics of the child's pencil1 and examples of them are easily obtainable4 ,as far as possible ,i have sought spontaneous drawings of quite young children1 viz41 from between two and three to about six4#bbi ,in a strict sense of course no child's drawing is absolutely spontaneous and independent of external stimulus and guidance4 ,the first attempts to manage the pencil are commonly aided by the mother1 who1 moreover1 is wont to present a model drawing1 and1 what is even more important at this early stage1 to supply model-movements of the arm and hand4 ,in most cases1 too1 there is some slight amount of critical inspection1 as when she asks1 #8,where is papa's nose8' #8,where is doggie's tail8' ,yet perfect spontaneity1 even if obtainable1 is not necessary here4 ,the drawings of men and quadrupeds of a child of five and later disclose plainly enough the childish fashion1 even though there has been some slight amount of elementary instruction4 ,hence ,i have not hesitated to make use of drawings sent me by kindergarten teachers4 ,i may add that ,i have used by preference the drawings executed by children in elementary schools1 as these appear to illustrate the childish manner with less of parental interference than is wont to be present in a cultured home4 ----- ,footnote #bbi3 ,only a few drawings of older children above seven have been included4 ----- ,a child's drawing begins with a free aimless swinging of the pencil to and fro1 which movements produce a chaos of slightly curved lines4 ,these movements are purely spontaneous1 or1 if imitative1 are so only in the sense that they follow at a considerable distance the movements of the mother's pencil4#bcj ,they may be made expressive or significant in two ways4 ,in the first place1 a child may by varying the swinging movements accidentally produce an effect which suggests an idea through a remote resemblance4 ,a little boy when two years and two months1 was one day playing in this wise with the pencil1 and happening to make a sort of curling line1 shouted with excited glee1 #8,puff1 puff6' i4e41 smoke4 ,he then drew more curls with a rudimentary intention to show what he meant4 ,in like manner when a child happens to bend his line into something like a closed circle or ellipse he will catch the faint resemblance to the rounded human head and exclaim1 #8,mama6' or #8,dada6' ----- ,footnote #bcj3 ,e4 ,cooke gives illustrations of these in his thoughtful and interesting articles on 8,art-teaching and ,child-nature10 published in the ,journal of ,education1 ,dec41 #ahhe1 and ,jan41 #ahhf4 ----- ,but intentional drawing or designing does not always arise in this way4 ,a child may set himself to draw1 and make believe that he is drawing something when he is scribbling4 ,this is largely an imitative play-action following the direction of the movements of another's hand4 ,preyer speaks of a little boy who in his second year was asked when scribbling with a pencil what he was doing and answered #8writing houses'4 ,he was apparently making believe that his jumble of lines represented houses4#bca ,almost any scribble may in this earliest stage take on a meaning through the play of a vigorous childish imagination4 ----- ,footnote #bca3 ,preyer1 op4 cit41 p4 #dg4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #a 7a7 and 7b74 ,the same play of imagination is noticeable in the child's first endeavours to draw an object from memory when he is asked to do so4 ,thus a little girl in her fourth year referred to by ,mr4 ,e4 ,cooke when asked to draw a cat produced a longish irregularly curved line crossed by a number of shorter lines1 which strange production she proceeded quite complacently to dignify by the name #8cat1' naming the whiskers1 legs1 and tail 7,fig4 #a 7a72 compare the slightly fuller design in ,fig4 #a 7b774#bcb ----- ,footnote #bcb3 ,taken from ,e4 ,cooke's articles already quoted1 drawings #ai and #bj4 ----- ,here it is evident we have a phase of childish drawing which is closely analogous to the symbolism of language4 ,the representation is arbitrarily chosen as a symbol and not as a likeness4 ,this element of a non-imitative or symbolic mode of representation will be found to run through the whole of childish drawing4 ,even this chaotic scribble shows almost from the beginning germs of formative elements1 not merely in the fundamental line-elements1 but also in the loops1 and in the more abrupt changes of direction or angles4 ,a tendency to draw a loop-like rudimentary contour soon emerges1 and thus we get the transition to a possible outlining of objects4 ,miss ,shinn gives a good example of an ovoid loop drawn by her niece in her hundred and ninth week4#bcc ,with practice the child acquires by the second or third year the usual stock in trade of the juvenile draughtsman1 and can draw a sort of straight line1 curved lines1 a roughish kind of circle or oval1 as well as dots1 and even fit lines together at angles4#bcd ,when this stage is reached we begin to see attempts at real though rude likenesses of men1 horses and so forth4 ,these early essays are among the most curious products of the child-mind4 ,they follow standards and methods of their own2 they are apt to get hardened into a fixed conventional manner which may reappear even in mature years4 ,they exhibit with a certain range of individual difference a curious uniformity1 and they have their parallels in what we know of the first crude designs of the untutored savage4 ----- ,footnote #bcc3 ,op4 cit41 pt4 ii41 p4 #ig2 8fifty-sixth week0 is1 she informs me1 an error for hundred and ninth week4 ,footnote #bcd3 ,i am much indebted to ,mr4 ,cooke for the sight of a series of early scribbles of his little girl4 ,cf4 ,baldwin1 ,mental ,development1 chap4 v41 where some good examples of early line-tracing are given4 ,according to ,baldwin angles or zig-zag come early1 and are probably due to the cramped1 jerky mode of movement at this early stage4 ,preyer seems to me wrong in saying that children cannot manage a circular line before the end of the third year 7op4 cit41 p4 #dg74 ,most children who draw at all manage a loop or closed curved line before this date4 ----- ,first ,drawings of the ,human ,figure4 ,it has been wittily observed by an ,italian writer on children's art that they reverse the order of natural creation in beginning instead of ending with man4#bce ,it may be added that they start with the most dignified part of this crown of creation1 viz41 the human head4 ,a child's first attempt to represent a man proceeds1 so far as ,i have observed1 by drawing the front view of his head4 ,this he effects by means of a clumsy sort of circle with a dot or two thrown in by way of indicating features in general4 ,a couple of lines may be inserted as a kind of support1 which do duty for both trunk and legs4 ,the circular or ovoid form is1 ,i think1 by far the most common4 ,the square head in my collection appears only very occasionally and in children at school1 who presumably have had some training in drawing horizontal and vertical lines4 ,the accompanying example 7,fig4 #b7 is the work of a ,jamaica girl of five1 kindly sent me by her teacher4 ----- ,footnote #bce3 ,corrado ,ricci1 ,l',arte dei ,bambini 7#ahhg71 p4 #f4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #b4 ,this first attempt to outline the human form is1 no doubt1 characterised by a high degree of arbitrary symbolism4 ,the use of a rude form of circle to set forth the human head reminds one of the employment by living savage tribes of the same form as the symbol of a house 7hut871 a wreath1 and so forth4#bcf ,yet there is a measure of resemblance even in this abstract symbolism3 the circle does roughly resemble the contour of the head3 as1 indeed1 the square or rectangle may be said less obviously to do when hair and whiskers and the horizontal line of the hat break the curved line4 ----- ,footnote #bcf3 ,see ,von den ,steinen1 op4 cit41 p4 #bdg4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #c4 ,but it is not the mere contour which represents the face3 it is a circle picked out with features4 ,these1 however vaguely indicated1 are an integral part of the facial scheme4 ,this is illustrated in the fact that among the drawings by savages and others collected by ,general ,pitt-,rivers1 one1 executed by an adult negro of ,uganda1 actually omits the contour1 the human head being represented merely by an arrangement of dark patches and circles for eyes1 ears1 etc4 7,fig4 #c74bcg ----- ,footnote #bcg3 ,these drawings1 of the highest interest to the student of child-art as well as to the anthropologist1 are to be seen in the ,general's ,museum at ,farnham 7,dorset7 7#gth room74 ----- ,coming now to the mode of representing the features1 we find at an early stage of this schematic delineation an attempt to differentiate and individualise features1 not only by giving definite position but by a rough imitation of form4 ,thus we get the vertical line as indicating the direction of the nose1 the horizontal line that of the mouth1 and either a rounded dot or a circular line as representative of the curved outline of the eye--whether that of the iris1 of the visible part of the eyeball1 or of the orbital cavity4 ,a precisely similar scheme appears in the drawings of savages4#bch ----- ,footnote #bch3 ,schoolcraft has a good example of this facial scheme in the drawing of a man shooting 7,the ,indian ,tribes of the ,united ,states1 i41 pl4 #dh74 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #d 7a74 ,fig4 #d 7b74 ,at first the child is grandly indifferent to completeness in the enumeration of features4 ,even #8the two eyes1 a nose and a mouth' are often imperfectly represented4 ,thus when dots are used we may have one or more specks ranging1 according to ,m4 ,perez1 up to five4#bci ,the use of a single dot for facial feature in general has its parallel in the art of savage tribes4#bdj ,it is1 however1 ,i think1 most common to introduce three dots in a triangular arrangement1 presumably for eyes and mouth1--a device again which reappears in the art of uncivilised races4#bda ,even when the young draughtsman has reached the stage of distinguishing the features he may be quite careless about number and completeness4 ,thus a feature may be omitted altogether4 ,this funnily enough happens most frequently in the case of that one which seems to us #8grown-ups' most self-assertive and most resentful of indignity1 viz41 the nose4 ,these moon-faces with two eyes and a mouth are very common among the first drawings of children4 ,the mouth1 on the other hand1 is much less frequently omitted4 ,the same thing seems to hold good of the drawings of savages4#bdb ,the eyes are rarely omitted4 ,the single dot may perhaps be said to stand for #8eye'4 ,some drawings of savages have the two eyes and no other feature1 as in the accompanying example from ,andree1 plate #c 7,fig4 #d 7a774 ,on the other hand1 a child will1 as we have seen1 sometimes content himself with one eye4 ,this holds good not only where the dot is used but after something like an eye-circle is introduced1 as in the accompanying drawing by a ,jamaica girl of seven 7,fig4 #d 7b774 ----- ,footnote #bci3 ,l',art et la ,posie chez l',enfant1 p4 #ahf4 ,footnote #bdj3 ,for an illustration see ,andree1 ,eth4 ,parallelen und ,vergleiche1 pl4 #c1 fig4 #ai4 ,footnote #bda3 ,see for an example1 ,schoolcraft1 iv41 pl4 #ah4 ,footnote #bdb3 ,according to ,stanley ,hall the nose comes after the mouth4 ,this may be an approximate generalisation1 but there are evidently exceptions to it4 ,on the practice of savage draughtsmen see the illustrations of ,australian cave drawings in ,andree1 op4 cit41 p4 #aei4 ,cf4 the drawings of ,brazilian tribes1 plate iii41 #ae4 ,in some cases there seems a preference for the nose1 certain of the ,brazilian drawings representing facial features merely by a vertical stroke4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #d 7c74--,moustache horizontal line above curve of cap4 ,in these first attempts to sketch out a face we miss a sense of relative position and of proportion4 ,it is astonishing what a child on first attempting to draw a human or animal form can do in the way of dislocation or putting things into the wrong place4 ,the little girl mentioned by ,e4 ,cooke on trying1 about the same age1 to draw a cat from a model actually put the circle representing the eye outside that of the head4 ,with this may be compared the drawings of ,von den ,steinen and other ,europeans made by his ,brazil ,indian companions1 in which what was distinctly said by the draughtsman to be the moustache was in more than one instance set above the eyes 7,fig4 #d 7c774 ,when dots are inserted in the linear scheme they are apt at first to be thrown in anyhow4 ,the two eyes1 ,i find1 when these only are given1 may be put one above the other as well as one by the side of the other1 and both arrangements occur in the drawings of the same child4 ,and much later when greater attention to position is observable there is a general tendency to put the group of features too high up1 i4e41 to make the forehead or brain region too small in proportion to the chin region 7cf4 above1 ,fig4 #b1 p4 #ccf74bdc ----- ,footnote #bdc3 ,m4 ,passy calls attention to this in his interesting note on children's drawings1 ,revue ,philosophique1 #ahia1 p4 #fad ff4 ,i find however that though the error is a common one it is not constant4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #e 7a74 ,the want of proportion is still more plainly seen in the treatment of the several features4 ,the eye1 as already remarked1 is apt to be absurdly large4 ,in the drawing of ,mr4 ,cooke's little girl mentioned above it is actually larger than the head outside which it lies4 ,this enlargement continues to appear frequently in later drawings1 more particularly when one eye only is introduced1 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy in his seventh year 7,fig4 #e 7a72 cf4 above1 ,fig4 #d 7b774 ,the mouth is apt to be even more disproportionate1 the child appearing to delight in making this appalling feature supreme1 as in the following examples1 both by boys of five 7,fig4 #e 7b7 and 7c774 ,the ear1 when it is added1 is apt to be enormous1 and generally the introduction of new details as ears1 hair1 hands1 is wont to be emphasised by an exaggeration of their magnitude4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #e 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #e 7c74 ,very interesting is the gradual artistic evolution of the features4 ,here1 as in organic evolution1 there is a process of specialisation1 the primordial indefinite form taking on more of characteristic complexity4 ,in the case of the eye1 for example1 we may often trace a gradual development1 the dot being displaced by a small circle or ovoid1 this last supplemented by a second circle outside the first1#bdd or by one or by two arches1 the former placed above1 the latter above and below the circle4 ,the form remains throughout an abstract outline or scheme1 there being no attempt to draw even the lines--e4g41 those of the lid-margins--correctly1 or to indicate differences of light and dark1 save in the case where a central black dot is used4 ,in this schematic treatment so striking and interesting a feature as the eye-lash only very rarely finds a place4 ,a similar schematic treatment of the eye in the use of a dot1 a dot in a circle1 and two circles1 is observable in the drawings of savages and of ,egyptian and other archaic art4#bde ----- ,footnote #bdd3 ,in one case ,i find the curious device of two dots or small circles1 one above the other within a larger circle1 and this form repeated in the eye of animals4 ,footnote #bde3 ,an example of circle within circle occurs in a drawing by a male ,zulu in ,general ,pitt-,rivers' collection4 ----- ,the evolution of the mouth is particularly interesting4 ,it is wont to begin with a horizontal line 7or what seems intended for such7 which is frequently drawn right across the facial circle4 ,but a transition soon takes place to a more distinctive representation4 ,this is naturally enough carried out by the introduction of the characteristic and interesting detail1 the teeth4 ,this may be done1 according to ,m4 ,perez1 by keeping to the linear representation1 the teeth being indicated by dots placed upon the horizontal line4 ,in all the cases observed by me the teeth are introduced in a more realistic fashion in connexion with a contour to suggest the parted lips4 ,the contour--especially the circular or ovoid--occasionally appears by itself without teeth1 but the teeth seem to be soon added4 ,the commonest forms of tooth-cavity ,i have met with are a narrow rectangular and a curved spindle-shaped slit with teeth appearing as vertical lines 7see the two drawings by boys of six and five1 ,fig4 #f 7a7 and 7b774 ,these two forms are improved upon and more likeness is introduced by making the dental lines shorter1 as in ,fig4 #e 7c7 7p4 #cdj74 ,with this may be compared a drawing by a boy of five 7,fig4 #f 7c771 where however we see a movement from realism in the direction of a freer decorative treatment4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #f 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #f 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #f 7c74 ,a somewhat similar process of evolution is noticeable in the case of the nose1 though here the movement is soon brought to a standstill4 ,thus the vertical line gives place to an angle1 which may point to the side1 as in the drawing of a country-boy between three and four 7,fig4 #g 7a771 but more frequently1 ,i think1 points upwards1 as in the drawing of a boy of six 7,fig4 #g 7b774 ,this in its turn leads to an isosceles triangle with an acute angle at the apex1 as in the drawing of a boy of six 7,fig4 #g 7c774 ,in a few cases a long spindle-shaped or rectangular form similar to that of the mouth is employed1 as in a drawing of a nervous child of six 7,fig4 #g 7d774 ,refinements are introduced now and again by an attempt at the nostrils1 as in the accompanying curious drawing by a seven-years-old ,jamaica girl 7,fig4 #g 7e774#bdf ----- ,footnote #bdf3 ,it is possible that in this drawing the two short lines added to the mouth are an original attempt to give the teeth4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #g 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #g 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #g 7c74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #g 7d74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #g 7e74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #h 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #h 7b74 ,the introduction of other features1 more especially ears and hair1 must1 according to my observations1 be looked on as occasional only1 and as a mark of an advance to a more naturalistic treatment4 ,differences of treatment occur here too4 ,thus the ears1 which are apt to be absurdly large1 are now inserted inside the head circle1 now outside it4 ,the hair appears now as a dark cap of horizontal strokes1 now as a kind of stunted fringe1 now as a bundle or wisp on one side1 which may either fall or stand on end 7see above1 ,fig4 #g 7d71 and the accompanying drawing by a girl of nearly four1 ,fig4 #h 7a774 ,these methods of representation are occasionally varied by a more elaborate line-device1 as a curly looped line similar to that employed for smoke1 as in the annexed drawing by a girl of seven 7,fig4 #h 7b774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #i4 ,as implied in this account of the facial features1 a good deal of convention-like agreement of method is enlivened by a measure of diversity of treatment4 ,perhaps one of the most striking instances of daring originality is seen in the attempt by a girl of four--who was subjected to a great deal of instruction--to give separate form to the chin 7,fig4 #i74 ,this may be compared with the attempt of the ,uganda negro to indicate symbolically the cheeks 7see above1 p4 #ccf1 ,fig4 #c74 ,as ,i have remarked1 to the child bent on representing #8man' the head or face is at first the principal thing1 some early drawings contenting themselves with this4 ,but in general the head receives some support4 ,the simplest device here is the abstract mode of representation by two supporting lines1 which do duty for legs and body4 ,these are for the most part parallel 7see above1 p4 #ccf1 ,fig4 #b71 though occasionally they are united at the top1 making a kind of target figure4 ,this same arrangement1 fixing the head on two upright lines1 meets us also in the rude designs of savages1 as may be seen in the accompanying rock inscription from ,schoolcraft 7,fig4 #aj74bdg ----- ,footnote #bdg3 ,op4 cit41 pt4 iv41 plate #ah4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #aj4 ,the comparative indifference of the child to the body or trunk is seen in the obstinate persistence of this simple scheme of head and legs1 to which two arms attached to the sides of the head are often added4 ,a child will complete the drawing of the head by inserting hair or a cap1 and will even add feet and hands1 before he troubles to bring in the trunk 7see above1 p4 #ccf1 ,fig4 #b1 and p4 #cdb1 ,fig4 #g 7d71 also the accompanying drawing by a boy of six1 ,fig4 #aa 7a774 ,with this neglect of the trunk by children may be compared the omission of it--as if it were a forbidden thing--in one of ,general ,pitt-,rivers' drawings1 executed by a ,zulu woman 7,fig4 #aa7;b774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #aa 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #aa 7b74 ,from this common way of spiking the head on two forked or upright legs there is one important deviation4 ,the contour of the head may be left incomplete1 and the upper occipital part of the curve be run on into the leg-lines1 as in the accompanying example by a ,jamaica girl of seven 7,fig4 #ab74 ,i have met with no example of this among ,english children4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ab4 ,the drawing of the trunk may commence in one of two ways4 ,with ,english children it appears often to emerge as an expansion or prolongation of the head-contour1 as in the accompanying drawings of the front and side view 7,fig4 #ac 7a7 and 7b774#bdh ,or1 in the second place1 the leg-scheme may be modified1 either by drawing a horizontal line across them and so making a rectangle1 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of six1 or by shading in the upper part of the space1 as in the other figure by a girl of five 7,fig4 #ac 7c7 and 7d774 ,a curious and interesting variant of this second mode of introducing the trunk is to be found in the drawings of ,von den ,steinen's ,brazilians1 where the leg-lines are either kept parallel for a while and then made to diverge1 or are pinched in below what may be called the pelvis1 though not completely joined 7,fig4 #ac 7e7 and 7f774 ----- ,footnote #bdh3 ,a drawing given by ,andree1 op4 cit41 plate ii41 ,,ii1 seems to me to illustrate a somewhat similar attempt to develop the trunk out of the head4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ac 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ac 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ac 7c74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ac 7d74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ac 7e7 and 7f74 ,when the trunk is distinctly marked off1 it is apt to remain small in proportion to the head1 as in the following two drawings by boys of about five 7,fig4 #ad 7a7 and 7b774 ,as to its shape1 it is most commonly circular or ovoid like the head4 ,but the square or rectangular form is also found1 and in the case of certain children it is expressly stated that this came later4 ,a triangular cape-like form also appears now and again1 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of six 7,fig4 #ad 7c774#bdi ,the treatment of the form of trunk often varies in the drawings of the same child4 ----- ,footnote #bdi3 ,the opposite arrangement of a triangle on its apex occurs among savage drawings4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ad 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ad 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ad 7c74 ,at this stage there is no attempt to show the joining on of the head to the trunk by means of the neck4 ,the oval of the head is either laid on the top of that of the trunk1 or more commonly cuts off the upper end of the latter4 ,the neck1 when first added1 is apt to take the exaggerated look of caricature4 ,it may be represented by a single line1 by a couple of parallel lines1 or by a small oval or circle1 as in the accompanying drawings by a girl of six and a boy of five respectively 7,fig4 #ae 7a7 and 7b72 cf4 above1 p4 #cdb1 ,fig4 #g 7b774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ae 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ae 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #af 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #af 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #af 7c74 ,it is noticeable that there is sometimes a double body1 two oval contours being laid one upon the other4 ,in certain cases this looks very like an expansion of the neck1 as in the accompanying drawing by the same boy that drew the round neck above 7,fig4 #af 7a774 ,in other cases the arrangement plainly does not aim at differentiating the neck1 since this part is separately dealt with 7,fig4 #af 7b774 ,here it may possibly mean a crude attempt to indicate the division of the trunk at the waist1 as brought out especially by female attire1 as may be seen in the accompanying drawing where the dots for buttons on each oval seem to show that the body is signified 7,fig4 #af 7c72 cf4 above1 p4 #cdb1 ,fig4 #g 7c774#bej ,this1 along with the triangular cape-shape of the trunk1 is one of the few illustrations of the effect of dress on the first childish treatment of the figure4 ,as a rule1 this primitive art is a study of nature in so far as the artificial adjuncts of dress are ignored1 and the rounded forms of the body are1 though crudely enough no doubt1 hinted at4 ----- ,footnote #bej3 ,on the other hand ,i find the button dots sometimes omitted in the lower oval4 ----- ,coming now to the arms we find that their introduction is very uncertain4 ,to the child1 as also to the savage1 the arms are what the ,germans call a ,nebensache--side-matter 7i4e41 figuratively as well as literally71 and are omitted in rather more than one case out of two4 ,after all1 the divine portion1 the head1 can be supported very well without their help4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ag4 ,the arms1 as well as the legs1 being the thin lanky members1 are commonly represented by lines4 ,the same thing is noticeable in the drawings of savages4#bea ,the arms appear in the front view of the figure as stretched out horizontally1 or1 at least1 reaching out from the sides2 and their appearance always gives a certain liveliness to the figure1 an air of joyous self-proclamation1 as if they said in their gesture-language1 #8,here ,i am' 7see above1 p4 #cci1 ,fig4 #e 7a71 and the accompanying drawing of a boy of six1 ,fig4 #ag74 ----- ,footnote #bea3 ,for examples1 see ,andree1 op4 cit41 plate #c4 ,cf4 the drawings of ,von den ,steinen's ,brazilians4 ----- ,in respect of shape and structure a process of evolution may be observed4 ,in certain cases the abstract linear representation gives place to contour1 the arm being drawn of a certain thickness4 ,but ,i find that the linear representation of the arm often persists after the legs have received contour1 this being probably another illustration of the comparative neglect of the arm2 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of five 7,fig4 #ah 7a774 ,the primal rigid straightness yields later on to the freedom of an organ4 ,thus an attempt is made to represent by means of a curve the look of the bent arm1 as in the accompanying drawings by boys of five 7,fig4 #ah 7b7 and 7c774 ,in other cases the angle of the elbow is indicated4 ,this last comes comparatively late in children's drawings1 which here1 too1 lag behind the crudest outline sketches of savages4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ah 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ah 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ah 7c74--,a miner4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ai4 ,the mode of insertion or attachment of the arms is noteworthy4 ,where they are added to the trunkless figure they appear as emerging either from the sides of the head1 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of two and a half years1 or from the point of junction of the head and legs 7,fig4 #ai2 cf4 above1 p4 #cdb1 ,fig4#g 7d7 and 7e774 ,in the case of savage drawings wanting the trunk the arm is also inserted at this point of junction 7see above1 pp4 #cdd1 #cdf1 ,figs4 #aj and #ac 7f774#beb ----- ,footnote #beb3 ,on the treatment of the arm in the drawings of savages1 see in addition to the authorities already mentioned ,the ,annual ,report of the ,bureau of ,ethnology1 #ahhc-d1 p4 #db ff4 ----- ,after the trunk has been added1 the mode of insertion varies still more4 ,in a not inconsiderable number of cases the arms spring from the bottom of the head-circle1 and sometimes even from the median region1 as before the trunk appeared 7cf4 above1 p4 #cdf1 ,fig4 #ad 7b774 ,in the last case the most grotesque arrangements occur1 as if the arms might sprout at any point of the surface4#bec ,in the majority of cases1 however1 and certainly among the better drawings1 the arms spring from the side of the trunk towards the median level 7cf4 above1 p4 #cda1 ,fig4 #f 7a774 ----- ,footnote #bec3 ,the tendency which appears in more than one child's drawings to put the right arm below the left is worth noting1 though ,i am not prepared to offer an explanation of the phenomenon4 ----- ,the length of the arm is frequently exaggerated4 ,this adds to the self-expansive and self-proclamatory look of the mannikin1 as may be seen in the accompanying drawings by boys of five and of six respectively 7,fig4 #bj 7a7 and 7b774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bj 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bj 7b74 ,this arrangement of the arms stretched straight out1 or less commonly pointing obliquely upwards or downwards1 continues until the child grows bold enough to represent actions4 ,when this stage is reached their form and length may be materially modified1 as also their position4#bed ----- ,footnote #bed3 ,on the treatment of the arm1 see ,perez1 op4 cit41 p4 #aij3 cf4 ,ricci1 op4 cit41 pp4 #f-h4 ,i have met with no case of the arms being attached to the legs such as ,stanley ,hall speaks of1 ,contents of ,children's ,minds1 p4 #bfg4 ----- ,the arm in these childish drawings early develops the interesting adjunct of a hand4 ,like other features this is apt at first to be amusingly forced into prominence by its size1 and not infrequently by heaviness of stroke as well4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ba 7a74--,humpty ,dumpty on the wall4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ba 7b74 ,the treatment of the hand illustrates the process of artistic evolution1 the movement from a bold symbolism in the direction of a more life-like mode of representation4 ,thus one of the earliest and rudest devices ,i have met with1 though in a few cases only1 is that of drawing strokes across the line of the arm by way of digital symbols4 ,here we have merely a clumsy attempt to convey the abstract idea of branching or bifurcation4 ,these cross-strokes are commonly continued upwards so that the whole visible part of the arm becomes tree-like4 ,it is an important step from this to the drawing of twig-like lines which bifurcate with the line of the arm 7,fig4 #ba 7a7 and 7b774 ,it is a still more significant advance in the process of evolution when the digital bifurcations are placed rightly1 being concentrated in a bunch-like arrangement at the extremity of the arm-line4 ,here1 again1 various modes of treatment disclose themselves1 marking stages in the development of the artist4 ,the simplest device would seem to be to draw one short line on either side of the termination of the arm-line so as to produce a rude kind of bird's foot form4 ,this may be done clumsily by drawing a stroke across at right angles to the line of the arm1 or better by two independent strokes making acute angles with this line4 ,these two modes of delineation manifestly represent a restriction of the two varieties of diffuse or dispersed treatment of the fingers already illustrated4 ,both forms occur among children's drawings4 ,they may be found among the drawings of savages as well4#bee ----- ,footnote #bee3 ,see ,andree's collection1 op4 cit41 ii41 ,,ii4 ----- ,in this terminal finger-arrangement the number of finger-lines varies greatly1 being1 in the cases observed by me1 frequently four and five1 and sometimes even as great as ten4 ,it varies1 too1 greatly in the drawings of the same child1 and in some cases even in the two hands of the same figure1 showing that number is not attended to1 as may be seen in the two annexed drawings1 both by boys of five 7,fig4 #bb 7a7 and 7b774 ,the idea seems to be to set forth a multiplicity of branching fingers1 and multiplicity here seems to mean three or more4 ,the same way of representing the hand by a claw-form1 in which the number of fingers is three or more1 reappears in the drawings of savages 7cf4 above1 p4 #cci1 ,fig4 #d 7c774#bef ----- ,footnote #bef3 ,examples may be found in ,catlin1 ,schoolcraft1 ,andree1 ,von den ,steinen1 and others1 also in the drawings in the ,pitt-,rivers ,museum1 ,farnham4 ,von den ,steinen gives a case of seven finger-strokes4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bb 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bb 7b74 ,an important advance on these crude devices is seen where an attempt is made to indicate the hand and the relation of the fingers to this4 ,one of the earliest of these attempts takes the form of the well-known toasting-fork or rake hand4 ,here a line at right angles to that of the arm symbolically represents the hand1 and the fingers are set forth by the prongs or teeth 7see above1 p4 #cda1 ,fig4 #f 7a71 and p4 #cdi1 ,fig4 #ah 7a774 ,number is here as little attended to as in the radial arrangements4 ,it is worth noting that this schema seems to be widely diffused among children of different nationalities1 and occurs in the drawings of untaught adults4 ,i have not1 however1 noticed any example of it among savage drawings4 ,another way of bringing in the hand along with the fingers is by drawing a dark central patch or knob4 ,this not infrequently occurs without the fingers as the symbol for hand4 ,it becomes a complete symbol by arranging finger-lines after the pattern of a burr about this 7see above1 p4 #cdg1 ,fig4 #ae 7a774 ,a further process of artistic evolution occurs when the fingers take on contour4 ,this gives a look of branching leaves to the hand4 ,the leaf-like pattern may be varied in different ways1 among others by taking on a floral aspect of petal-like fingers about a centre1 as in the two annexed drawings by boys of six 7,fig4 #bc 7a7 and 7b72 cf4 above1 p4 #cej1 ,fig4 #bj 7a774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bc 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bc 7b74 ,one curious arrangement by which a thickened arm is made to expand into something like a fan-shaped hand appears with considerable frequency4 ,it is zoologically interesting as being a kind of rough representation of the fundamental typical form from which hand1 fin1 and wing may be supposed to have been evolved4 ,here the arm sinks into insignificance1 the whole limb taking on the aspect of a prolonged hand1 save where the artist resorts to the device of making the double organ go across the body 7,fig4 #bd 7a7 and 7b774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bd 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bd 7b74 ,the legs come in for very much the same variety of treatment as the arms4 ,the abstract straight line here1 as already pointed out1 soon gives place to the pair of lines representing thickness4 ,they are for the most part parallel and drawn at some distance one from the other1 though in certain cases there is a slight tendency to give to the figure the look of the #8forked biped' 7cf4 above1 p4 #cdb1 ,fig4 #g 7c774 ,in a large proportion of cases there is a marked inclination of the legs1 as indeed of the whole figure1 which seems to be falling backwards 7see above1 pp4 #cdj1 #ceb1 ,figs4 #e 7c7 and #bb 7b774 ,in many instances1 in front and profile view alike1 one of the legs is drawn under the body1 leaving no room for the second1 which is consequently pushed behind1 and takes on the look of a tail 7see above1 p4 #ceb1 ,fig4 #bb 7b7s74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #be4 ,both legs are regularly shown alike in front and in profile view4 ,yet even in this simple case attention to number may sometimes lapse4 ,among the drawings collected by me is one by a boy of five representing the monster1 a three-legged #8biped' 7,fig4 #be74beg ----- ,footnote #beg3 ,unless this is a jocose suggestion of a tail4 ----- ,the shape of the leg varies greatly4 ,with some children it is made short and fat4 ,it develops a certain amount of curvature long before it develops a knee-bend4 ,this is just what we should expect4 ,the standing figure needs straight or approximately straight legs as its support4 ,when the knee-bend is introduced it is very apt to be exaggerated 7cf4 above1 ,fig4 #bd 7b774 ,this becomes still more noticeable at a later stage1 where actions1 as running1 are attempted4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bf 7a74 ,the treatment of the foot shows a process of evolution similar to that seen in the treatment of the hand4 ,at first a bald abstract indication or suggestion is noticeable1 as where a short line is drawn across the extremity of the leg4 ,in place of this a contour-form1 more especially a circle or knob1 may be used as a designation4 ,very interesting here is the differentiation of treatment according as the booted or naked foot is represented4 ,children brought up in a civilised community like ,england1 though they sometimes give the naked foot 7see p4 #cdb1 ,fig4 #g 7d71 where the claw pattern is adopted71 are naturally more disposed to envisage the foot under its boot-form4 ,among the drawings of the ,jamaica children1 presumably more familiar with the form of the naked foot1 ,i find both the toasting-fork and the burr arrangement1 as also a rude claw1 or birch-like device used for the foot 7see above1 pp4 #ccf1 #cch1 #cde1 ,figs4 #b1 #d 7b71 and #ab74 ,the toasting-fork arrangement appears in ,general ,pitt-,rivers' collection of savage drawings4 ,also a bird's foot treatment often accompanies a similar treatment of the hand in the pictographs of savage tribes1 and in the drawings of ,von den ,steinen's ,brazilians 7see above1 pp4 #cch1 #cci1 ,fig4 #d 7a7 and 7c774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bf 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bf 7c74 ,an attempt to represent the booted foot seems to be recognisable in the early use of a triangular form1 as in the accompanying drawing by a small artist of five 7,fig4 #bf 7a774#beh ,very curious is the way in which the child seeks to indicate the capital feature of the boot1 the division of toe and heel4 ,this is very frequently done by continuing the line of the leg so as to make a single or a double loop-pattern1 as in the following 7,fig4 #bf 7b71 7c72 cf4 above1 p4 #cdb1 ,fig4 #g 7b774 ,a tendency to a more restrained and naturalistic treatment is sometimes seen 7see above1 p4 #ced1 ,fig4 #bd 7a7 and 7b774 ,it may be added that the notch between toe and heel is almost always exaggerated4 ,this may be seen by a glance at ,figs4 #ag and #bb 7a71 pp4 #cdh1 #ceb4 ,the same thing is noticeable in a drawing by a young ,zulu in ,general ,pitt-,rivers' collection4 ----- ,footnote #beh3 ,this is hardly conclusive1 as ,i find the triangular form used for the foot of a quadruped1 presumably a horse4 ----- ,front and ,side ,view of ,human ,figure4 ,so far1 ,i have dealt only with the treatment of the front view of the human face and figure4 ,new and highly curious characteristics come into view when the child attempts to give the profile aspect4 ,this comes considerably later than the early lunar representation of the full face4 ,children still more than adults are interested in the full face with its two flashing and fascinating eyes4 #8,if1' writes a lady teacher of considerable experience in the ,kindergarten1 #8one makes drawings in profile for quite little children1 they will not be satisfied unless they see two eyes2 and sometimes they turn a picture round to see the other side4' ,this reminds one of a story told by ,catlin of the ,indian chief1 who was so angry at a representation of himself in profile that the unfortunate artist was in fear of his life4 ,at the same time children do not rest content with this front view4 ,there is1 ,i believe1 ample reason to say that1 quite apart from teaching1 they find their own way to a new mode of representing the face and figure which1 though it would be an error to call it a profile drawing1 has some of the characteristics of what we understand by this expression4 ,the first clear indication of an attempt to give the profile aspect of the face is the introduction of the angular line of the side view of the nose into the contour4 ,the little observer is soon impressed by the characteristic1 well-marked outline of the nose in profile2 and as he cannot make much of the front view of the organ1 he naturally begins at an early stage1 certainly by the fifth year1 to vary the scheme of the lunar circle1 broken at most by the ears1 by a projection answering to a profile nose4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bg4 ,this change is sometimes made without any other1 so that we get what has been called the mixed scheme1 in which the eyes and mouth retain their front-view aspect4 ,this ,i find very common among children of five4 ,it may be found--even in the trunkless figure--along with a linear mouth 7see above1 pp4 #cdj-cdd1 ,figs4 #e 7c7 and following1 also #aa 7a774 ,the nasal line is1 needless to say1 treated with great freedom4 ,there is commonly a good deal of exaggeration of size4 ,in certain cases the nose is added in the form of a spindle to the completed circle 7,fig4 #bg2 cf4 above1 p4 #cdj1 ,fig4 #e 7c774 ,it may well seem a puzzle to us how a normal child of five or six can complacently set down this irrational and inconsistent scheme of a human head4 ,we must see what can be said by way of explanation later on4 ,it is to be noticed1 further1 that in certain cases the self-contradiction goes to the point of doubling the nose4 ,that is to say1 although the interesting new feature1 the profile nose1 is introduced1 earlier habit asserts itself so that the vertical nasal line appears between the two eyes 7see above1 p4 #cdi1 ,fig4 #ah 7c774 ,the further process of differentiation of the profile from the primitive full-face scheme is effected in part by adding other features than the nose to the contour4 ,thus a notch for the mouth appears in some cases below the nasal projection 7,fig4 #bh 7a771 though the grinning front view is apt to hold its own pertinaciously4 ,a beard1 especially the short #8imperial1' as it used to be called1 shooting out like the nose from the side1 also helps to mark profile4#bei ,less frequently an ear1 and in a very few cases1 hair1 are added on the hinder side of the head1 and assist the impression of profile4 ,adjuncts1 especially the pipe1 and sometimes the peak of the cap1 contribute to the effect1 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of six 7,fig4 #bh 7b72 cf4 above1 ,figs4 #f 7a71 #ah 7c71 and #bd 7b71 pp4 #cda1 #cdi1 #ced74bfj ----- ,footnote #bei3 ,i take the long line in ,fig4 #bg to represent the manly beard4 ,footnote #bfj3 ,in rare cases the pipe sticks out from the side of what is clearly the primitive full face4 ,schoolcraft gives an example of this1 too1 in ,indian drawing1 op4 cit41 pt4 ii41 pl4 #da4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bh 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bh 7b74 ,at the same time the front features themselves undergo modification4 ,the big grinning mouth is dropped and one of the eyes omitted4 ,the exact way in which this occurs appears to vary with different children4 ,in certain cases it is clear that the front view of the mouth cavity disappears1 giving place to a rough attempt to render a side view1 before the second eye is expunged2 and in one case ,i have detected a survival of the two eyes in what otherwise would be a consistent profile drawing of head and figure 7,fig4 #bi 7a72 cf4 above1 p4 #cdi1 ,fig4 #ah 7b774 ,this late survival of the two eyes agrees with the results of observation on the drawings of the uncultured adult4 ,one of ,general ,pitt-,rivers' ,african boys inserted the two eyes in a profile drawing4 ,von den ,steinen's ,brazilians drew by preference the full face1 so that we cannot well judge as to how they would have treated the profile4 ,yet it is curious to note that in what is clearly a drawing of a side view of a fish one of these ,brazilians introduces both eyes 7,fig4 #bi 7b774 ,the insertion of two eyes is said by some never to occur in the drawings of savages on stone1 hide1 etc4#bfa ,but ,i have come across what seems to me a clear example of it1 and this in a fairly good sketch of a profile view of the human figure on an ,indian vase 7,fig4 #bi 7c774#bfb ,yet this late retention of the two eyes in profile1 though the general rule in children's drawings1 is liable to exceptions4 ,thus ,i have found a child retaining the big front view of the mouth along with a single eye4 ----- ,footnote #bfa3 ,ricci's remarks seem to me to come to this1 op4 cit41 p4 #be4 ,footnote #bfb3 ,from ,the ,annual ,report of the ,bureau of ,ethnology1 #ahhj-a1 p4 #djf4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bi 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bi 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bi 7c74 ,it may be added that children at a particular stage show a preference for some one arrangement2 for example1 the profile nose and mouth1 and the two front-view eyes1 which tends to become the habitual form used1 though a certain amount of variation is observable4 ,the differences noticeable among different children's drawings suggest that all of them do not go through the same stages4 ,thus some may pass by the two-eyed profile stage altogether1 or very soon rise above it1 whereas others may linger in it4#bfc ----- ,footnote #bfc3 ,ricci says that seventy per cent4 insert two eyes in their first profile drawings 7op4 cit41 p4 #ag74 ,but this seems a rather loose statement4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #cj4 ,one notices1 too1 curious divergences with respect to the mixture of incompatible features4 ,differences in the degree of intelligence show themselves here also4 ,thus in one case a child1 throughout whose drawings a certain feeble-mindedness seems to betray itself1 actually went so far as to introduce the double nose without having the excuse of the two eyes 7,fig4 #cj74 ,in such odd ways do the tricks of habit assert themselves4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ca 7a74 ,the difficulty which the child feels in these profile representations is seen in the odd positions given to the eyes4 ,these are apt to be pushed very high up1 to be placed one above the other1 and1 what is more significant1 to be put far apart and close to the line of contour 7see above1 ,fig4 #bi 7a774 ,in the following drawing by a boy of five one of the eyes may be said to be on this line 7,fig #ca 7a774 ,in ,general ,pitt-,rivers' collection we find a still more striking instance of this in a drawing by a boy of eleven1 the second eye appearing to be intentionally put outside the contour1 as if to suggest that we must look round to the other side of the facial disc in order to see it 7,fig4 #ca 7b774 ,curious variations of treatment appear1 as in inserting two eyes between the same pair of curves as in ,fig4 #bj 7b71 p4 #cej1 and in enclosing two pairs of dots or small circles in two larger circles as in ,figs4 #ad 7b71 and #bb 7a71 pp4 #cdf1 #ceb 7both by the same boy74#bfd ----- ,footnote #bfd3 ,i assume that these are intended for two eyes2 but the scheme is not easy to interpret4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ca 7b74 ,it may be added that even when only one eye is drawn1 a reminiscence of the anterior view is seen in its form4 ,it is the round or spindle-shaped contour of the eye as seen in front4 ,that is to say the eye of the profile like that of the full face looks directly at the spectator1 so that in a manner the one-eyed profile is a front view 7see for an example1 ,fig4 #e 7a71 p4 #cci74 ,the designs of savages1 and the archaic art of civilised races1 including a people so high up as the ,egyptians1 share this tendency of children's drawings of the profile1 though we find scarcely a trace of the tendency to insert both eyes4 ,a like confusion or want of differentiation shows itself in the management of other features in the profile view4 ,as observed1 a good large ear at the back sometimes helps to indicate the side view 7see above1 p4 #cda1 ,fig4 #f 7a774 ,but the wish to bring in all the features1 seen in the obstinate retention of the two eyes1 shows itself also in respect of the ears4 ,thus one occasionally finds the two ears as in the front view 7see above1 p4 #cdf1 ,fig4 #ad 7a71 where the aspect is clearly more front view than profile71 and sometimes1 according to ,m4 ,passy--as if the profile nose interfered with this arrangement--both placed together on one side4 ,the treatment of the moustache when this is introduced follows that of the mouth4 ,so imposing a feature must be given in all the glory of the front view 7see above1 p4 #cej1 ,fig4 #bj 7b774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #cb4 ,other curious features of this early crude attempt to deal with the profile show themselves in the handling of the trunk and the limbs4 ,i have met with only one or two instances of a profile head appearing before the addition of the trunk as in ,fig4 #bh 7a7 7p4 #ceh74 ,in the large majority of cases the trunk appears and retains the circular or oval form of the primitive front view4 ,when1 as very frequently happens1 the interesting vertical row of buttons is added it is apt to be inserted in the middle1 giving a still more definitely frontal aspect4 ,the juxtaposition of this with the head turned to the left need cause no difficulty to the little draughtsman1 after what he has comfortably swallowed in the shape of incompatibilities in the face itself 7see above1 p4 #cdg1 ,fig4 #ae 7b774 ,in rare cases1 however1 one may light on a distinctly lateral treatment of the buttons4 ,in one instance ,i have found it in a drawing which would be a consistent profile but for the insertion of the second eye1 and the frontal treatment of the legs and feet 7,fig4 #cb74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #cc4 ,in the arrangement of the arms there is more room for confusion4 ,the management of these in the profile view naturally gives difficulty to the little artist1 and in some cases we find him shirking the point by retaining the front view or spread-eagle arrangement4 ,this occurs as a rule where the profile modification is limited to the introduction of a lateral nose or nose and pipe 7see1 e4g41 ,figs4 #bd 7a7 and #bh 7b71 pp4 #ced1 #ceh74 ,what is more surprising is that it appears in rare cases in drawings which otherwise would be fairly consistent profile sketches4 ,fig4 #cc2 all this child's completed drawings1 four in number1 adopt the same front-view scheme of arms4 ,the view of the profile with both arms stretched out in front seems1 however1 early to impress itself on the child's imagination1 and an attempt is made to introduce this striking arrangement4 ,the addition of the forward-reaching arms helps greatly to give a profile aspect to the figure 7see above1 p4 #cdi1 ,fig4 #ah 7b774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #cd4 ,the addition of the forward-reaching arms is carried out more especially when it is desired to represent an action1 as in the drawing given above1 p4 #cdb1 ,fig4 #g 7c71 by a boy of six1 which represents a nurse apparently walking behind a child1 and in the accompanying figure1 by a boy of eight and a half1 of an ,irishman knocking a man's head inside a tent 7,fig4 #cd74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ce;a4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ce;b4 ,the crudest mode of representing the side view of the forward-reaching arms is by drawing the lines from the contour1 as in ,fig4 #ce 7a74 ,difficulties arise when the lines are carried across the trunk4 ,very often both arms are drawn in this way1 as in ,fig4 #ce 7b74 ,there is a certain analogy here to the insertion of the two eyes in the profile representation1 a second feature being in each case added which in the original object is hidden4#bfe ----- ,footnote #bfe3 ,according to ,ricci the second arm is supposed to be seen through the body4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #cf4 ,when the two arms are thus introduced their position varies greatly1 whether they start from the contour or are drawn across the body4 ,that is to say1 they may be far one from the other 7as in ,fig4 #ce 7b771 or may be drawn close together4 ,and again the point of common origin may be high up at the meeting point of trunk and chin1 as in a drawing by a boy of five 7,fig4 #cf71 or at almost any point below this4 ,in the cases ,i have examined the insertion of both arms in profile representations is exceptional4 ,more frequently1 even when action is described1 one arm only is introduced1 which may set out from the anterior surface of the trunk1 or1 as we have seen1 start from the posterior surface and cross the trunk 7see above1 pp4 #cec1 #cef1 ,figs4 #bc 7a7 and #bf 7c774 ,in most cases where no action such as walking and holding a cane is signified both arms are omitted4 ,the uncertainty of the arms is hardly less here than in the front view4 ,with respect to the legs1 we find1 as in the primitive frontal view1 an insertion of both4 ,an ordinary child can still less represent a human figure in profile with only one leg showing than he can represent it with only one eye4 ,as a rule1 so long as he is guided by his own inner light only he does not attempt to draw one leg over and partially covering the other1 but sets them both out distinctly at a respectful distance one from the other4 ,the refinement of making the second foot or calf and foot peep out from behind the first1 as in ,fig4 #bi 7a7 7p4 #cei71 and possibly also ,fig4 #ah 7c7 7p4 #cdi71 shows either an exceptional artistic eye1 or the interference of the preceptor4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #cg4 ,the treatment of the feet by the childish pencil is interesting4 ,it is presumable that at first no difference of profile and front view attaches to the position of the foot4 ,it has to be shown1 and as the young artist knows nothing of perspective and foreshortening1 and1 moreover1 would not be satisfied with that mode of delineation if he could accomplish it1 he proceeds naturally enough to draw the member as a line at right angles to that of the leg4 ,this is done in one of two ways1 in opposed directions outwards1 or in the same direction1 answering to what we should call the front or the side view4 ,at first1 ,i believe1 no significance of front and side view is attached to these arrangements4 ,thus in some sketches by a little girl of four and a half ,i find the primitive front view of the head combined with each of these arrangements of the foot4 ,in drawings1 too1 of older children of six and upwards ,i have met with cases both of a profile representation of head and trunk with spread-eagle feet1 as also of a side view of the feet with a front face 7see ,figs4 #e 7a7 and #ac 7c71 pp4 #cci1 #cde74 ,this last arrangement1 ,i find1 appears in a profile treatment of the whole leg and foot among the drawings of ,north ,american ,indians 7,fig4 #cg72 and this suggests that the side view in which the two feet point one way is more easily reached and fixed by the untutored draughtsman4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ch4 ,a regular and apparently intelligent addition of the side view of the feet to the child's crude profile drawing of the human figure produces a noticeable increase of definiteness4 ,one common arrangement1 ,i find1 in the handling of the profile is the combination of the side view of the feet with a more or less consistent profile view of the head1 while the bust is drawn in front view 7see above1 ,figs4 #ce 7a71 #cf74 ,the effect is of course greater where the side view of the bent leg is added 7see ,fig4 #ch and compare with this ,fig4 #cg74 ,i find a liking for this same arrangement in the drawings of the unskilled adult4 ,an example may be seen in a drawing by an ,english carpenter in ,general ,pitt-,rivers' ,museum at ,farnham4 ,in the pictographs of the ,north ,american ,indians we meet with cases of a similar treatment4#bff ,in the drawings on the ,egyptian ,mummy cases in the ,british ,museum instances of a precisely similar treatment are to be found4 ,we seem to have here a sort of transition from the first crude impossible conception to a more naturalistic and truthful conception4 ,this twist of the trunk does not shock the eye with an absolutely impossible posture1 as the early artistic solecisms shock it1 and it is an arrangement which displays much that is characteristic and valuable in the human form4#bfg ----- ,footnote #bff3 ,annual ,report of ,bureau of ,ethnology1 #ahhb-c1 p4 #afj4 ,footnote #bfg3 ,professor ,petrie has pointed out to me that the ,egyptian of to-day with his more supple body easily throws himself into this position4 ----- ,one point to be noticed among these drawings of the profile by children is that in a large majority of cases the figure looks to the left of the spectator4 ,in the drawings which ,i have examined this appears like a rule to which there is scarcely any exception1 save where the child wants to make two figures face one another in order to represent a fight or the less sensational incident of a salute4 ,the way in which the new direction of the figure is given in these cases shows that children are not absolutely shut up to the one mode of representation by any insuperable difficulty4 ,there is a like tendency observable in the treatment of the quadruped1 which nearly always looks to the left4 ,it may be added that a similar habit prevails in the drawings of untutored adults1 as the pictographs of the ,north ,american ,indians4 ,the explanation of this1 as well as of other generalisations here reached1 will be touched on later4 ,i conceive1 then1 that there reveals itself in children's drawings of the human figure between the ages of three or four and eight a process of development involving differentiation and specialisation4 ,this process1 instead of leading to a fuller and more detailed treatment of the front view1 moves in the direction of a new and quasi-profile representation1 although few children arrive at a clear and consistent profile scheme4 ,different children appear to find their way to different modifications of a mixed front and side view1 some amazingly raw1 others less so according to the degree of natural intelligence1 and probably also the amount of good example put in their way by drawings in books1 and still more by model-drawings of mother or other instructor4 ,i have met with only a few examples of a contemporaneous and discriminative use of front view and profile4 ,here and there1 it is true1 one may light on a case of the old lunar scheme surviving side by side with the commoner mixed scheme2 but this sporadic survival of an earlier form does not prove clear discrimination4 ,in the case of one boy of five the two forms were clearly distinguished1 but this child was from a cultured family1 and had presumably enjoyed some amount of home guidance4 ,in the case of the rougher and less sophisticated class of children it appears to be a general rule that the draughtsman settles down to some one habitual way of drawing the human face and figure1 which can be seen to run through all his drawings1 with only this difference1 that some are made more complete than others by the addition of mouth1 arms1 etc4 ,even the fact of the use of one or two eyes by the same child at the same date does not appear to me to point to a clear distinction in his mind between a front and side view4 ,the omissions in these cases may more readily be explained as the result of occasional fatigue and carelessness1 or1 in some cases1 of want of room1 or as indicating the point of transition from an older and cruder to a later and more complete scheme of profile4 ,this conclusion is supported by the fact that a child of six or seven1 when asked to draw from the life1 will give the same scheme1 whether the model presents a front or a side view4 ,this has been observed by ,m4 ,passy in the drawings of himself which he obtained from his own children1 by ,general ,pitt-,rivers in the drawings of uneducated adults1 and by others4 ,we may say1 then1 that children left to themselves are disposed each to adopt some single stereotyped mode of representing the human figure which happens to please his fancy4#bfh ----- ,footnote #bfh3 ,these results do not seem to agree with those of ,m4 ,passy or of ,professor ,barnes4 ,m4 ,passy distinguishes in children's drawings a front and a side view1 both of which may be used by the same child at the same time4 ,the former consists of nose and mouth of profile and eyes and ears of full face1 the latter1 of nose and mouth of profile with one eye and one ear2 that is to say the two differ only in the number of eyes and ears 7,revue ,philosophique1 #ahia1 p4 #fad ff474 ,it would be interesting to know on how large an examination this generalisation is based4 ,as suggested above1 the occasional omission of the second eye and ear where both are commonly used can be explained without supposing the child to distinguish between profile and full face4 ,professor ,barnes goes so far as to state with numerical exactness the relative frequency of profile and full face by children at different stages4 ,he makes1 however1 no serious attempt to explain the criterion by which he would distinguish the two modes of representation 7see his article1 ,pedagogical ,seminary1 ii41 p4 #dee ff474 ----- ,in this nave childish art of profile drawing we have something which at first seems far removed from the art of uncivilised races4 ,no doubt1 as ,grosse urges1 the drawings of savages discovered in ,north ,america1 ,africa1 ,australia1 are technically greatly superior to children's clumsy impossible performances4 ,yet points of contact disclose themselves4 ,if a ,north ,american ,indian is incapable of producing the stupid scheme of a front view of the mouth and side view of the nose1 he may1 as we have seen1 occasionally succumb to the temptation to bring both eyes into a profile drawing4 ,we may see1 too1 how in trying to represent action1 and to exhibit the active limb as he must do laterally1 the untutored nature-man is apt to get odd results1 as may be observed in the accompanying drawing by a ,north ,american ,indian of a man shooting 7,fig4 #ci 7a774#bfi ,this may be compared with the accompanying ,egyptian drawing 7,fig4 #ci 7b774#bgj ----- ,footnote #bfi3 ,taken from ,schoolcraft1 vol4 i41 pl4 #dh4 ,footnote #bgj3 ,from ,maspero's ,dawn of ,civilisation1 p4 #dfi4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ci 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ci 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dj 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dj 7b74 ,i have already touched on the modifications which appear in a child's drawing of the human figure when the sculpturesque attitude of repose gives place to the dramatic attitude of action4 ,this transition to the representation of action marks the substitution of a more realistic concrete treatment for the early abstract symbolic treatment4 ,very amusing are some of the devices by which a child tries to indicate this4 ,as ,ricci has pointed out1 the arm will sometimes be curved in order to make it reach1 say1 the face of an adversary 7,fig4 #dj 7a774 ,a similar introduction of curvature appears in the accompanying drawing from a scalp inscription 7,fig4 #dj 7b774 ,sometimes a curious symbolism appears1 as if to eke out the deficiencies of the artist's technical resources1 as when a boy of five represents the junction of two persons' hands by connecting them with a line 7,fig4 #dj 7c774#bga ,with this may be compared the well-known device of indicating the direction of sight by drawing a line from the eye to the object4#bgb ,the most impossible attitudes occur when new positions of the legs are attempted1 as in the accompanying endeavours to draw the act of running1 kneeling to play marbles1 and kicking a football 7,fig4 #dj 7d71 7e71 and 7f774 ----- ,footnote #bga3 ,this ,i take to be the meaning of this odd arrangement4 ,footnote #bgb3 ,cf4 ,barnes1 loc4 cit4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dj 7c74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dj 7e74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dj 7d74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dj 7f74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #da4 ,one other point needs to be referred to before we leave the human figure1 viz41 the treatment of accessories4 ,as pointed out1 the child when left to himself is for the most part oblivious of dress1 though the triangular cape-like form of the body may be a rude attempt to delineate a clothed figure4 ,in general he cares merely to crown his figure with the hat of dignity1 and1 at most1 to ornament the body with a row of buttons4 ,even when he grows sophisticated and attempts clothes he still shows his primitive respect for the natural frame4 ,a well-known anthropologist tells me that his little boy on watching his mother draw a lady insisted on her putting in the legs before shading in the petticoats4 ,in ,general ,pitt-,rivers' collection there is a drawing by a boy of ten which in clothing the figure navely indicates the limbs through their covering 7,fig4 #da74 ,this agrees with what ,von den ,steinen tells us of the way the ,brazilian ,indians drew him and his companions4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #db 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #db 7b74 ,yet the artificial culture which children in the better classes of a civilised community are wont to receive is apt to develop a precocious respect for raiment1 and this respect is reflected in their drawings4 ,the early introduction of buttons has been illustrated above4 ,one boy of six was so much in love with these that he covered the bust with them 7,fig4 #db 7a774 ,girls are wont to lay great emphasis on the lady's feathered hat and parasol1 as in the accompanying drawing by a maiden of six 7,fig4 #db 7b774 ,throughout this use of apparel in the crude stage of child-art we see the desire to characterise sex1 rank1 and office1 as when the man is given his hat1 the soldier his military cap1 and so forth4 ,this applies1 too1 of course1 to such frequent accessories as the walking-stick 7or less frequently the whip1 as in ,fig4 #ce 7b71 p4 #cfc7 and the pipe1 each of which is made the most of in giving manliness of look4 ,the pipe1 it may be added1 figures bravely in a drawing of a ,european by one of ,von den ,steinen's ,brazilians4 ,first ,drawings of ,animals4 ,many of the characteristics observable in the child's treatment of the human figure reappear in his mode of representing animal forms4 ,this domain of child-art follows quickly on the first4 ,children's interest in animals1 especially quadrupeds1 leads them to draw them at an early stage4 ,in prescribed exercises1 moreover1 the cat and the duck appear to figure amongst the earliest models4 ,an example of this early attempt to draw animals has been given above 7p4 #ccd1 ,fig4 #a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dc 7a74--,a duck4 ,the first crude attempts about the age of three or four to draw animal forms exhibit great incompleteness of conception and want of a sense of position and proportion4 ,in one case the head seems to be drawn1 but no body--if1 indeed1 head and body are not confused2 and in others where a differentiation of head and trunk is attempted there is no clear local separation1 or if this is attempted there is no clear indication of the mode of connexion 7see1 for example1 ,fig4 #dc 7a774 ,in the case of animals the side view is for obvious reasons hit on from the first4 ,but1 needless to say1 there is no clear representation of the profile head4 ,as a rule we have the front view1 or at least the insertion of the two eyes4 ,both eyes appear in ,mr4 ,cooke's illustrations of drawings of the cat by children between three and four 7,fig4 #dc 7b771 as also commonly in drawings of horses4 ,the position of the eyes is often odd enough1 these organs being in one drawing by a boy of five pushed up into the ears 7,fig4 #dc 7c774#bgc ,the front view of the animal head along with profile body appears occasionally in savage drawings also4#bgd ,in some of children's drawings we see traces of a mixed scheme4 ,thus ,i have a drawing by a boy of five in which a front view is reached by a kind of doubling of the profile 7,fig4 #dc 7d774 ----- ,footnote #bgc3 ,mr4 ,cooke kindly informs me that in an early ,greek drawing in the ,first ,vase ,room in the ,british ,museum1 the eye of a fish is placed in the back part of the mouth4 ,footnote #bgd3 ,an example is given by ,schoolcraft1 op4 cit41 pt4 iv41 pl4 #ah4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dc 7b74--,two cats4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dc 7d74--,a horse4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dc 7c74--,a horse4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dd 7a74--,a horse4 ,more remarkable than all1 perhaps1 we have in one case a clear instance of the scheme of the human face1 the features1 eyes1 nose1 and mouth being arranged horizontally to suit the new circumstances 7,fig4 #dd 7a774 ,with this may be compared the accompanying transference of the animal ear to the human figure1 though this suggests--especially in view of the pipe--a bit of jocosity on the part of the young draughtsman 7,fig4 #dd 7b774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dd 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dd 7c74--,a dog4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dd 7d74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dd 7e74--,a horse4 ,the forms of both head and trunk vary greatly4 ,in a few drawings ,i have found the extreme of abstract treatment in the drawing of the trunk1 viz41 by means of a single line1 a device which1 so far as ,i have observed1 is only resorted to in the case of the human figure for the neck and the limbs4 ,an example of this was given above in ,fig4 #a 7p4 #ccd74 ,the following drawing of a dog by a little girl between five and six years old illustrates the same thing 7,fig4 #dd 7c774#bge ,on the other hand we see sometimes a tendency to give the trunk abnormal thickness1 as if the model used had been the wooden toy-horse1 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of five 7,fig4 #dd 7d774 ,rectilinear instead of rounded forms occur1 and the head is often triangular1 these rectilinear contours being probably suggested by the teacher in his model schemes 7see ,fig4 #dd 7e774 ----- ,footnote #bge3 ,line drawings of animals as well as of men are found in savage art3 see1 for example1 ,schoolcraft1 op4 cit41 pt4 iv41 pl4 #ah4 ,mr4 ,cooke gives examples from drawings of the ,trojans4 ,hence line drawing may1 as he infers1 be the primitive mode4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7a74--,a cat4 #a ,whiskers2 #b ,tail4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7d74--,some quadruped4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7b74--,a bird4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7c74--,a quadruped4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7e74--,a mouse4 ,the legs are of course all visible4 ,the strangest inattention to number betrays itself here4 ,as we saw1 a child in beginning his scribble-drawing piles on lines for the legs 7see above1 p4 #ccd1 ,fig4 #a74 ,a girl between three and four years of age endowed a cat with two legs and a bird with three 7see ,fig4 #de 7a7 and 7b774#bgf ,a boy in his sixth year drew a quadruped with ten legs 7,fig4 #de 7c774 ,they are often drawn absurdly out of position4 ,in more than one case ,i find them crowded behind1 as in the accompanying drawing of some quadruped by the same little girl that drew the cat and the bird1 and in a drawing of a mouse by another child about the same age1 viz41 three and a half years 7,fig4 #de 7d7 and 7e774 ,they commonly remain apart from one another throughout their course1 following roughly a parallel direction4 ,but this simple scheme is soon modified1 first of all by enlarging the space between the fore and the hind legs1 and then by introducing some change of direction answering to the look of the animal in motion4 ,this is most easily effected by making the fore and the hind pair diverge downwards1 as in ,fig4 #dc 7b7 and 7c7 7p4 #cgc74 ,in rarer cases the divergence appears between the two legs of the fore and of the hind pair 7,fig4 #de 7f774 ,the knee-bend is early introduced as a means of suggesting motion4 ,either the legs are all bent backwards1 as in ,fig4 #de 7g7 7cf4 above1 ,fig4 #dd 7e772 or1 with what looks like a perverted feeling for symmetry1 each pair is bent inwardly1 as in ,fig4 #de 7h74 ,the forms are often extraordinary enough1 a preternatural thickness of leg being not infrequently given1 and the knee-joint occasionally taking on grotesque shapes as if the little draughtsman had just been attending a class on the anatomy of the skeleton4 ,the hoof is drawn in a still freer manner1 various designs1 as the bird-foot1 the circle1 and the looped pattern1 appearing here as in the case of the human foot 7,fig4 #de 7i7 and 7j72 cf4 ,figs4 #dc 7c7 and #dd 7a7 7p4 #cgc774 ----- ,footnote #bgf3 ,this is the way in which ,mr4 ,cooke1 who sends me these two drawings1 explains them to me4 ,the beak 787 in ,fig4 #de 7b7 is added to the contour1 as is the human nose in a few cases4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7f74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7g74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7h74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7i74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #de 7j74 ,in this unlearned attempt to draw animal forms the child falls far below the level of the untutored savage4 ,the drawings of animals by the ,north ,american ,indians1 by ,africans1 and others1 have been justly praised for their artistic excellence4 ,a fine perception of form is1 in many cases1 at least1 clearly recognisable1 the due covering of one part by another is represented1 and movement is vigorously suggested4 ,lover though he is of animals1 the child1 when compared with the uncivilised adult1 shows himself to be woefully ignorant of his pets4 ,men on ,horseback1 etc4 ,childish drawing moves as the dialectic progress of the ,hegelian thought from distinction and antithesis to a synthesis or unity which embraces the distinction4 ,after illustrating the human biped in his contradistinction to the quadruped he proceeds to combine them in a higher artistic unity1 the man on horseback4 ,the special interest of this department of childish drawing lies in the fresh and genial manner of the combining4 ,to draw a man and a horse apart is one thing1 to fit the two figures one to the other1 quite another4 ,at first the degree of connexion is slight4 ,there is no suggestion of a composite or mixed animal1 such as may have suggested to the lively ,greek imagination the myth of the centaur4 ,the human figure is pitched on to the quadruped in the most unceremonious fashion4 ,thus in many cases there is no attempt even to combine the profile aspects1 the man appearing impudently in frontal aspect1 or what would be so but for the lateral nasal excrescence1 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of five 7,fig4 #df74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #df4 ,with this indifference to a consistent profile there goes amazing slovenliness in attaching the man to the animal1 and this whether the front or side view of the human figure is introduced4 ,no attempt is made in many cases to show attachment3 the man is drawn just above the quadruped1 that is all4 ,it seems to be a chance whether the two figures meet1 whether the feet of the man rest circus-fashion on the animal's back1 or1 lastly1 whether the human form is drawn in part over the animal1 and1 if so1 at what height it is to emerge from the animal's back4 ,various arrangements occur in the same sheet of drawings 7see ,fig4 #dg 7a71 7b7 and 7c774 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dg 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dg 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dg 7c74 ,when this overlapping takes place the presence of the animal's trunk makes no difference in the treatment of the man4 ,he is drawn with his two legs just as if he were in relief against the horse2 and this arrangement is apt to persist even when a child can draw a rude semblance of a horse and knows at what level to place the rider4 ,so difficult to the little artist is this idea of one thing covering another that even when he comes to know that both the legs of the rider are not seen1 he may get confused and erase both 7see above 7p4 #cgf71 ,fig4 #de 7f774#bgg ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dh 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #dh 7b74 ,the savage is in general as much above the child in the representation of the rider as he is in that of the animal apart4 ,yet traces of similar confusion do undoubtedly appear4 ,von den ,steinen says that his ,brazilians drew the rider with both legs showing4 ,andree gives an illustration1 among the stone-carvings 7petroglyphs7 of savages1 of the employment of a front view of the human figure rising above the horse with no legs showing below 7,fig4 #dh 7a774#bgh ,even among the drawings of the ,north ,american ,indians1 in which the horse is in general so well outlined1 we occasionally find what appear to be the germs of confusions similar to those of the child4 ,thus ,schoolcraft gives among drawings from an inscription on a buffalo skin one in which we have above the profile view of a horse the front view of a man1 with arms stretched out laterally while the legs are wanting4#bgi ,a clearer case of confusion is supplied by the following drawing1 also by a ,north ,american ,indian1 in which the lines of the horse's body cut those of the rider's legs 7,fig4 #dh 7b774#bhj ----- ,footnote #bgg3 ,cf4 ,ricci1 op4 cit41 ,fig4 #ba 7p4 #bg74 ----- ,footnote #bgh3 ,op4 cit41 pl4 #b2 cf4 pl4 #f1 where a drawing from ,siberia with the same mode of treatment is given4 ,footnote #bgi3 ,op4 cit41 pt4 iv1 pl4 #ca 7p4 #bea74 ,footnote #bhj3 ,from the ,annual ,report of the ,bureau of ,ethnology1 #ahhb-hc1 p4 #bjf4 ,the common appearance of both legs in these ,indian drawings means1 ,i take it1 that the rider is on the side of the horse4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #di 7a74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #di 7d74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #di 7b74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #di 7c74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #di 7e74 ,the same tendency to show the whole man where the circumstances hide a part appears in children's drawings of a man in a boat1 a railway carriage and so forth4 ,ricci has shown that the different ways in which the child-artist puts a human figure in a boat are as numerous as those in which he sets it on a horse4 ,the figure may stand out above the boat or overlap1 in which last case it may be cut across by the deck-line and its lower part shown1 or be clapped wholly below the deck1 or again be half immersed in the water below the boat1 or1 lastly1 where an attempt to respect fact is made1 be truncated1 the trunk appearing through the side of the boat1 though the legs are wanting4#bha ,a man set in a house1 train1 or tram car1 is seen in his totality 7,fig4 #di 7a7 and 7b774 ,it is much the same thing when a child flattens out a house or other object so as to show us its three sides1 that is to say one which in reality is hidden 7,fig4 #di 7c7 and 7d774 ,with these habits of the child may be compared those of the savage4 ,the impulse to show everything1 even what is covered1 is illustrated in a drawing of a singer in his wigwam by an ,indian 7,fig4 #di 7e774#bhb ,even where colour comes in and one thing has to be hidden by a part of another thing the savage artist1 like the child insists on drawing the whole4 ,this is illustrated in a curious custom1 the drawing of two serpents 7in dry1 coloured powder7 by ,north ,american fire-dancers4 ,they are drawn across one another1 and the artist has first to draw completely the one partly covered1 and then the second over the first4#bhc ----- ,footnote #bha3 ,see ,ricci1 op4 cit41 pp4 #ag-bc4 ,footnote #bhb3 ,andree observes that in ,australian drawings objects behind one another are put above one another as in a certain stage of ,egyptian art 7op4 cit41 p4 #agb74 ,footnote #bhc3 ,annual ,report of ,bureau of ,ethnology1 #ahhc-hd1 p4 #ddd ff4 ----- ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ej4 ,the child's drawing of the house1 though less remarkable than that of the man and the quadruped1 has a certain interest4 ,it illustrates1 as we have just seen1 not merely his determination to render visible what is hidden1 but also his curious feeling for position and proportion4 ,in one case ,i found that in the desire to display the contents of a house a girl of six had actually set a table between the chimneys4 ,the accompanying drawing done by the boy ,c4 at the age of five years five months illustrates the fine childish contempt for proportion 7,fig4 #ej74 ,a curious feature in these drawings of the house is the care bestowed on certain details1 pre-eminently the window4 ,this is even a more important characteristic feature than the chimney with its loops of smoke4 ,some children give a quite loving care to the window1 drawing the lace curtains1 the flowers1 and so forth4 ,rsum of ,facts4 ,we may now sum up the main results of our study4 ,we find in the drawings of untrained children from about the age of three to that of eight or ten a curious mode of dealing with the most familiar forms4 ,at no stage of this child-art can we find what we should regard as elements of artistic value3 yet it has its quaint and its suggestive side4 ,the first thing that strikes us here is that this child-delineation1 crude and bizarre as it is1 illustrates a process of development4 ,thus we have 7a7 the stage of vague formless scribble1 7b7 that of primitive design1 typified by what ,i have called the lunar scheme of the human face1 and 7c7 that of a more sophisticated treatment of the human figure1 as well as of animal forms4 ,this process of art-evolution has striking analogies with that of organic evolution4 ,it is clearly a movement from the vague or indefinite to the definite1 a process of gradual specialisation4 ,not only so1 we may note that it begins with the representation of those rounded or ovoid contours which seem to constitute the basal forms of animal organisms1 and proceeds like organic evolution by a gradual differentiation of the #8homogeneous' structure through the addition of detailed parts or organs4 ,these organs in their turn gradually assume their characteristic forms4 ,it is1 perhaps1 worth observing here that some of the early drawings of animals are strongly suggestive of embryo forms 7compare1 e4g41 ,fig4 #de 7b7 and 7d71 p4 #cge74 ,if now we examine this early drawing on its representative side we find that it is crude and defective enough4 ,it proceeds by giving a bare outline of the object1 with at most one or two details thrown in4 ,the form neither of the whole nor of the parts is correctly rendered4 ,thus in drawing the foot it is enough for the child to indicate the angle3 the direction of the foot-line is comparatively immaterial4 ,in this respect a child's drawing differs from a truly artistic sketch or suggestive indication by a few characteristic lines1 which is absolutely correct so far as it goes4 ,the child is content with a schematic treatment1 which involves an appreciable and even considerable departure from truthful representation4 ,thus the primitive lunar drawing of the human face is manifestly rather a diagrammatic scheme than an imitative representation of a concrete form4 ,in this non-imitative and merely indicative treatment there is room for all sorts of technical inaccuracies4 ,form is woefully misapprehended1 as in the circular trunk1 the oblong mouth1 the claw foot1 and so forth4 ,proportion--even in its simple aspect of equality--is treated with contempt in many instances 7cf4 the legs of the quadruped and the bird in ,fig4 #de 7a71 7b71 and 7c7 7p4 #cge774 ,what is no less important1 division of space and relative position of parts1 which seem vital even to a diagrammatic treatment1 are apt to be overlooked1 as in drawing the facial features high up1 in attaching the arms to the head1 and so forth4 ,even the element of number is made light of1 and this1 too1 in such simple circumstances as when drawing the legs of an animal4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ea 7a74 ,one of the most curious of these misrepresentations comes into view in the third or sophisticated stage1 viz41 the introduction of more than is visible4 ,this error1 again1 assumes a milder and a graver form1 viz41 7a7 the giving of the features more distinctly and completely than they appear in the object represented1 and 7b7 the introducing of features which have no place in the object represented4 ,examples of the first are the introduction of the nasal angle into the front view of the human face2 the separation throughout their length of the four legs of the horse2 and such odd tricks as detaching the reins of the horse from the animal1 as in ,fig4 #ea 7a74 ,illustrations of the second are numerous and varied4 ,they include first of all the nave introduction of features of an object which are not on the spectator's side and so in view1 as the second eye and the second arm in what are predominantly profile representations4 ,with these may be classed the attempt to exhibit three sides of a house4 ,closely related to these errors of perspective is the exposure of objects or parts of objects which are covered by others4 ,it is possible that the spread-eagle arrangement of the two joined arms is an attempt to represent a feature of childish anatomy1 viz41 the idea that the arms run through and join in the middle of the trunk4 ,a clearer example of this attempt to expose to view what is covered is the exhibition of the whole human figure in a boat1 house or carriage4 ,with this may be compared the disclosure of the whole head of a horse when drinking1 as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of five 7,fig4 #ea 7b771 of the whole head of the man through his hat 7see above1 p4 #cej1 ,fig4 #bj 7b771 and of the human limbs through the clothes 7,fig4 #da1 p4 #cga74 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ea 7b74 ,a class of confusions1 having a certain similarity to some of these1 consists in the transference of the features of one object to a second1 as when a man or quadruped is given a bird-like foot 7,figs4 #g 7d7 and #dc 7c71 pp4 #cdb1 #cgc71 and still more manifestly when the facial scheme of the man is transferred to the quadruped or vice vers 7,fig4 #dd 7a7 and 7b71 pp4 #cgc1 #cgd74 ,these last errors clearly illustrate the tendency to a conventional treatment1 a tendency which1 as ,i have observed already1 runs through children's spontaneous drawings4 ,this free conventional handling of natural forms has been illustrated in the habitual drawing of the mouth and eyes1 and still more strikingly in that of the hands and feet4 ,paradoxical though it may seem1 these drawings1 while in general bare and negligent of details1 show in certain directions a quite amusing attention to them4 ,thus1 we find at a very early stage certain details1 as the pipe of the man1 insisted on with extravagant emphasis2 and may observe at a somewhat later stage in the elaborate drawing of hair1 buttons1 parasol1 and so forth1 a tendency to give some feature to which the child attaches value a special prominence and degree of completeness4 ,the art of children is a thing by itself1 and must not straight away be classed with the rude art of the untrained adult4 ,as adult1 the latter has knowledge and technical resources above those of the little child2 and these points of superiority show themselves1 for example1 in the fine delineation of animal forms by ,africans and others4#bhd ,at the same time1 after allowing for these differences1 it is1 ,i think1 incontestable that a number of characteristic traits in children's drawings are reflected in those of untutored savages4 ----- ,footnote #bhd3 ,the tendency to identify the drawings of the child and the savage led to an amusing error on the part of a certain ,abb ,domenech1 who in #ahfj published his so-called ,livre des ,sauvages1 which purported to contain the graphic characters and drawings of ,north ,american ,aztecs1 but proved in reality to be nothing but the scribbling book of a boy of ,german parentage4 ,the drawings are of the crudest1 and show the artist to be much more nasty-minded than the savage draughtsmen4 ----- ,explanation of ,facts4 ,let us now see how we are to explain these characteristics4 ,in order to do so we must try to understand what process a child's mind goes through when he draws something1 and to compare this with what passes in the mind of an adult artist4 ,the problem has1 it is evident1 to do with drawing from memory or out of one's head1 for though the child may begin to draw by help of models1 he develops his characteristic art in complete independence of these4 ,in order to draw an object from memory two things are obviously necessary4 ,we must have at the outset an idea of the form we wish to represent1 and this visual image of the form must somehow translate itself into a series of manual movements corresponding to its several parts4 ,in other words1 it presupposes both an initial conception and a correlated process of execution4 ,in psychological language this correlation or co-ordination between the idea of a form and the carrying out of the necessary movements of the hand is expressed by saying that the visual image1 say1 of the curve of the full face1 calls up the associated image of the manual movement4 ,this last1 again1 may mean either the visual image of the hand executing the required movement1 or the image of the muscular sensations experienced when the arm is moved in the required way1 or possibly both of these4 ,the process of drawing a whole form is of course more complex than this1 each step in the operation being adjusted to preceding steps4 ,how far the movements of the draughtsman's hands are guided here by a visual image of the form1 which remains present throughout1 how far by attention to what has already been set down1 may not be quite certain4 ,judging from my own case1 ,i should describe the process somewhat after this fashion4 ,in drawing a human face we set out with a visual image of the whole1 which is incomplete in respect of details1 but represents roughly size and general form or outline4 ,this image is projected indistinctly and unsteadily1 of course1 on the sheet of paper before us1 and this projected image controls the whole operation4 ,but as we advance we pay more and more attention to the visual presentation supplied by the portion of the drawing already produced1 and only realise with any distinctness that part of the projected visual image which is just in advance of the pencil4 ,it is evident that the carrying out of such a prolonged operation involves a perfected mechanism of eye1 brain and hand connexions2 for much of the manual adjustment is instantaneous and sub-conscious4 ,at the same time the process illustrates a very high measure of volitional control or concentration4 ,unless we keep the original design fixed before us1 and attend at each stage to the relations of the executed to the unexecuted part1 we are certain to go wrong4 ,practice tends1 of course1 to reduce the conscious element in the process4 ,in the case of a person accustomed to draw the outline of a human head1 a cat or what not1 the operation is very much one of hand-memory into which visual representations enter only faintly4 ,the movements follow one another of themselves without the intervention of distinct visual images 7whether that of the linear form or of the moving hand74 ,there is an approach here to what happens when we put last year's date to a letter1 the hand following out an old habit4 ,now the child has to acquire the co-ordinations here briefly described4 ,he may have the visual image of the human face or the horse which he wishes to depict4 ,this power of visualising shows itself in other ways and can be independently tested1 as by asking a child to describe the object verbally4 ,but he has as yet no inkling of how to reproduce his image4 ,that his inability at the outset is due to a want of co-ordination is seen in the fact that at this stage he cannot draw even when a model is before his eyes4 ,the process of learning here is very like what takes place when a child learns to speak4 ,the required movements have somehow to be performed and attached to the effects they are then found to produce4 ,just as a child first produces sounds1 partly instinctively or spontaneously1 partly by imitating the seen movements of another's lips1 etc41 so he produces lines by play-like scribble and by imitating the visible movements of another person's hand4 ,the tendency to imitate is observable in the first loop-formations1 and possibly also in the abrupt angular changes which give a zig-zag look to some of these early tracings4 ,in this early stage we see a marked want of control4 ,the effort is spasmodic and short-lived3 the little draughtsman presently runs off into nonsense scribble4 ,the want of control is seen1 too1 in the tendency to prolong lines unduly1 and to repeat or multiply them1 the primitive play-movements being very much under the empire of inertia or habit1 i4e41 the tendency to repeat or go on with an action4 ,the effect of limitating natural conditions in the motor apparatus is illustrated1 not only in the slightly curved form of these first scribble lines1 but in the general obliquity or inclination of the line2 it being manifestly easier for the hand when brought in front of the body to describe a line running slightly upwards from left to right 7or in the reverse direction7 than one running horizontally4 ,the want of control by means of a steady visual image is further seen in the absence of any attempt at a plan1 at a mapping out of the available space1 and at an observation of proportion4 ,it might be thought that1 though a child at this inexperienced stage were unable to produce the correct form of a familiar object1 he would at once detect the incorrectness of the one he sets down4 ,no doubt1 if he were in the attitude of cold critical observation1 he would do so3 in fact1 as ,mr4 ,cooke and others have shown1 he sees the absurdities of his workmanship as soon as they are pointed out to him4 ,but when drawing he is in another sort of mood1 akin to that imaginative mood in which he traces forms in the plaster of the ceiling1 or in the letters of his spelling-book4 ,he means to draw a man or a horse1 and consequently the formless jumble of lines becomes1 to his fancy1 a man or a horse4 ,his first drawings are thus1 in a sense1 playthings1 which1 like the battered stump of a doll1 his imaginative intention corrects1 supplements1 and perfects4 ,with repetition1 and that amount of supervision and guidance which most children who take a pencil in hand manage to get from somebody1 he begins to note the actual character of his line-effects1 and to associate these with the movements which produce them4 ,a straight horizontal line1 a curved line returning upon itself1 and so forth1 come to be differentiated1 and to be co-ordinated with their respective manual movements4 ,we may now pass to the second stage1 the beginning of true linear representation1 as illustrated in the first abstract schematic treatment of the human face and figure4 ,a question arises at the very outset here as to whether1 and if so to what extent1 children re-discover this method of representation for themselves4 ,here1 as in the case of child-language1 such as #8bow-wow1' #8gee-gee1' tradition and example undoubtedly play their part4 ,a parent1 or an older brother and sister1 in setting the first models1 is pretty certain to adopt a simple scheme1 as that of the lunar face2 and even where there is no instruction a child is quick at imitating other children's manner of drawing4 ,yet this does not affect the contention that such manner of drawing is eminently childish1 that is1 the one a child finds his way to most readily1 any more than the fact of the nurse's calling the horse #8gee-gee' in talking to baby affects the contention that #8gee-gee' is eminently a baby-name4 ,the scanty abstract treatment1 the circle enclosing two dots and the vertical and horizontal lines1 points to the absence of any serious attempt to imitate a form closely and fully4 ,it seems absurd to suppose that a child of three or four does not image a human face better than he delineates it2 and even if this were doubtful it is certain that when he sets down a man without hair1 ears1 trunk1 or arm1 his execution is falling far short of his knowledge4 ,how is this to be accounted for8 ,my explanation is that the little artist is still much more of a symbolist than a naturalist1 that he does not in the least care about a full and close likeness1 but wants only a barely sufficient indication4 ,this scantiness of treatment issuing from want of the more serious artistic intention is of course supported by technical limitations4 ,the lunar face with the two propping lines answers to what the child can do easily and comfortably4 ,much more than his elder brethren our small limner is bound by the law of artistic economy1 the need of producing his effects with the smallest expenditure of labour1 and of making every touch tell4 ,defects of executive resource and of manual skill appear plainly in other characteristics4 ,the common inclination of the lines of the legs points to the unconscious selection of easiest directions of manual movement4#bhe ,the unduly lengthened arm and leg1 the multiplication of legs--as seen most strikingly in the case of the quadruped--illustrate the influence of motor or muscular inertia4 ,there is1 too1 a noticeable want of measurement and management of the space to be covered1 as when one eye is put in so large as to leave no room for a second1 or when filling in details from above downwards the eyes are put in too near the occipital curve1 and so all the features set too high up4 ,the same want of measurement of space may contribute to the child's habit of drawing the trunk so absurdly small in proportion to the head2 for he begins with the head1 and by making this large finds he has not left1 within the limits of what he considers the right size of figure1 space enough for the trunk4 ----- ,footnote #bhe3 ,this is supported1 in the case of children who have begun to wield the pen1 by the exercises of the copy-book4 ----- ,very noticeable is the influence of habit in this abstract treatment4 ,by habit ,i here mean hand-memory1 or the tendency to combine movements in the old ways1 though this is commonly aided1 as we shall see1 by 8association of ideas04 ,thus a child falls into a stereotyped way of drawing the human face and figure2 line follows line in the accustomed sequence2 the only variation showing itself is in the insertion or omission of nose1 ears1 or arms2 these uncertainties being due to fluctuations of energy and concentration4 ,a child's art is1 in respect of its unyielding sameness1 a striking example of a conservative conventionality4 ,he gets used to his pencil-forms1 and pronounces them right1 to the greater and greater neglect of their relation to natural forms4 ,habit shows itself in other ways too4 ,notice1 for example1 how a child1 after adding the trunk1 will go on inserting the arms into the head as he used to do4 ,such a habit is an affair not only of the hand but of the eye4 ,the arms have by repeated delineation come in the art-sphere to belong to the head4 ,coming now to the more elaborate and sophisticated stage of five or thereabouts1 in which the shape of eyes1 mouth1 and nose is shadowed forth1 the difficult appendages as hands and feet attempted1 and the profile aspect introduced1 we notice first of all a step in the direction of naturalism4 ,the child like the race gets tired of his bald primitive symbolism1 and essays to bring more of concrete fulness and life into his forms4 ,only this first attempt does not lead to a continued progress1 but stops short at what is rude and arbitrary enough1 substituting merely a second rigid conventionalism for the first4 ,this transition indicates an advance in technical skill2 hence we find a measure of free and bold invention1 as in the management of the facial features1 e4g41 the scissors-shaped nose1 and still more in the treatment of hands and feet1 which is at once exaggerative1 as in the big burr forms1 and freely conventional1 as in the leaf-pattern for the hand1 and the wondrous loop-designs for the foot4 ,yet though this freer treatment shows a certain technical advance it illustrates the effect of the limitations of the child's executive power4 ,thus the new partially profile figures are very apt to lean1 looking as if they were falling backwards4 ,it is probable that the wide-spread tendency to make the profile face look towards the spectator's left rather than his right is due to the circumstance that the eye can much better follow and control the pencil in this case than in the opposite one4 ,in the latter the hand is apt to interfere with seeing the line of the face1 especially if the pencil is held near its point4 ,habit1 too1 continues to assert its dominion4 ,the tendency noticeable now and again1 even among ,english children1 to treat the feet after the manner of the hands illustrates this4 ,habit is further illustrated in the tendency to a transference of forms appropriate to the man to the animal2 or1 when 7owing to the interposition of the instructor7 the drawing of animals is in advance of the other1 in the reverse process2 as when a cat is drawn with two legs1 or a horse is given a man's face1 or the human form develops a horse's ears1 or a bird's feet4 ,with these may be compared the transference of a bird-like body and tail to a quadruped in ,fig4 #de 7i71 p4 #cgg4 ,the accompanying two drawings by a child of six show how similar forms are apt to be used for the man and for the animal 7,fig4 #eb74 ,illustration3 ,man4 ,bird4 ,fig4 #eb4 ,but the really noticeable thing in this later sophisticated treatment is the bringing into view of what in the original is invisible1 as the front view of the eye as well as both eyes into what otherwise looks a side view of the face1 the two legs of the rider and so forth4 ,here1 no doubt1 we may still trace the influence of technical limitations and of habit4 ,the influence of the former is seen in the completing of the contour of the head before or after drawing the hat3 for the child would not know how to start with the lines which form the commencement of the visible part of the head4 ,the influence of habit is also recognisable here4 ,a child having learned first of all to draw the front view of the eye1 the two eyes and the two legs side by side1 tends partly as the result of organised hand-trick1 partly in consequence of #8association of ideas1' to go on drawing in the same fashion in the new circumstances4 ,a specially clear illustration of this effect of habit already alluded to is the introduction of the front view of the nose in the mixed scheme4 ,these cases are exactly paralleled by the ,egyptian drawing in which while one shoulder is pulled round the other is left in square front view 7see above1 p4 #cfi1 ,fig4 #ci 7b774 ,still1 habit does not account for everything here4 ,it does not1 for example1 explain why the child brings into view three sides of a house4 ,the technical deficiencies of the small draughtsman1 his want of serious artistic purpose1 seem an insufficient explanation of these later sophistries4 ,they appear to point plainly to certain peculiarities of the process of childish conception4 ,we are compelled then to inquire a little more closely into the characteristics of children's observation and of their mental representation of objects4 ,we are apt to think that children when they look at things at all scrutinise them closely1 and afterwards imagine clearly what they have observed4 ,but this assumption is hardly justified4 ,no doubt they often surprise us by their attention to small unimportant details of objects1 especially when these are new and odd-looking4 ,but it is a long way from this to a careful methodic investigation of objects4 ,children's observation is for the most part capriciously selective and one-sided4 ,they apprehend one or two striking or especially interesting features and are blind to the rest4 ,this is fully established in the case of ordinary children by the wondrous ignorance they display when questioned about common objects4 ,it is hardly necessary to add that their spontaneous untrained observation is quite unequal to that careful analytical attention to form-elements in their relations which underlies all clear grasp of the direction of linear elements1 the relative position of the several parts of a figure1 and proportion4 ,this being so it maybe said that defects of observation are reflected in children's drawing through all its phases4 ,thus the primitive bare schematism of the human face answers to an incomplete observation and consequently incomplete mode of imagination1 just as it answers to a want of artistic purpose and to technical incapacity4 ,how far defective observation assists at this first stage ,i do not feel sure4 ,further experimental inquiries are needed on this point4 ,i lean to the view already expressed1 that at this stage manual reproduction is far behind visual imagination4 ,when1 however1 we come on to the delineation of an object under its different aspects the defects of mental representation assume a much graver character4 ,we must bear in mind that a child soon gets beyond the stage of recalling and imagining the particular look of an object1 say the front view of his mother's face1 or of his house4 ,he begins as soon as he understands and imitates others' language to synthesise such pictorial images of particular visual presentations or appearances into the wholes which we call ideas of things4 ,a child of four or five thinking of his father or his house probably recalls in a confused way disparate and incompatible visual aspects1 the front view as on the whole the most impressive being predominant1 though striking elements of the side view may rise into consciousness also4 ,with this process of synthesising aspects into the concrete whole we call a thing there goes the further process of binding together representations of this and that thing into generic or typical ideas answering to man1 horse1 house1 in general4 ,a child of five or six1 so far from being immersed in individual presentations and concrete objects1 as is often supposed1 has carried out a respectable measure of generalisation1 and this largely by the help of language4 ,thus a #8man' reduced to visual terms has come to mean for him 7according to his well-known verbal formula7 something with a head1 two eyes1 etc41 etc41 which he does not need to represent in a mental picture because the verbal formula serves to connect the features in his memory4 ,hence when he comes to draw he has not the artist's clear mental vision of the actual look of things to guide him4 ,he is led not by a lively and clear sensuous imagination1 but by a mass of generalised knowledge embodied in words1 viz41 the logical form of a definition or description4 ,this1 ,i take it1 is the main reason why with such supreme insouciance he throws into one design features of the full face and of the profile2 for in setting down his linear scheme he is aiming not at drawing a picture1 an imitative representation of something we could see1 but rather at enumerating1 in the new expressive medium which his pencil supplies1 what he knows about the particular thing4 ,since he is thus bent on a linear description of what he knows he is not in the least troubled about the laws of visual appearance1 but setting perspective at naught compels the spectator to see the other side1 to look through one object at another1 and so forth4 ,since the process at this sophisticated stage is controlled by knowledge of things as wholes and not by representations of concrete appearances or views1 we can understand why the visible result does not shock the draughtsman4 ,the little descriptor does not need to compare the look of his drawing with that of the real object3 it is right as a description anyhow4 ,how strongly this idea of description controls his views of pictures has already been pointed out4 ,just as he objects to a correct profile drawing as an inadequate description1 so he objects to a drawing of the hind part of a horse entering the stable1 and asks1 #8,where is his head8' ,we may say then that what a lively fancy did in the earlier play-stages childish logic does now1 it blinds the artist to the actual look of what his pencil has created4 ,use soon adds its magic force1 and the impossible combination1 the two eyes stuck on at the side of the profile nose1 the two legs of the rider untroubled by the capacious trunk of the animal which he strides1 the man wholly exposed to view inside the boat or carriage1 gets stereotyped into the right mode of linear description4 ,all this shows that the child's eye at a surprisingly early period loses its primal #8innocence1' grows #8sophisticated' in the sense that instead of seeing what is really presented it sees1 or pretends to see1 what knowledge and logic tell it is there4 ,in other words his sense-perceptions have for artistic purposes become corrupted by a too large admixture of intelligence4 ,this corruption is closely analogous to what we all experience when we lose the primal simplicity of the eye for colour1 and impart into our #8visual impressions1' as we call them1 elements of memory and inference1 saying1 for example1 that a distant mountain side is #8green' just because we can make out that it is grass-covered and know that grass when looked at nearer is of a green colour4 ,i have dwelt on what from our grown-up standpoint we must call the defects of children's drawing4 ,yet in bringing this study to a close it is only just to remark that there are other and better qualities well deserving of recognition4 ,crude1 defective1 self-contradictory even1 as these early designs undoubtedly are1 they are not wholly destitute of artistic qualities4 ,the abstract treatment itself1 in spite of its inadequacy1 is after all in the direction of a true art1 which in its essential nature is selective and suggestive rather than literally reproductive4 ,we may discern1 too1 even in these rude schemes a nascent sense of values1 of a selection of what is characteristic4 ,even the primitive trunkless form seems to illustrate this1 for though1 as we have seen in a previous essay1 the trunk plays an important part in the development of the idea of self1 it is for pictorial purposes less interesting and valuable than the head4 ,however this be1 it is clear that we see this impulse of selection at work later on in the addition of the buttons1 the pipe1 the stick1 the parasol and so forth4 ,it is to be noted1 too1 that even in these untutored performances1 where convention and tradition exercise so great a sway1 there are faint indications of a freer individual initiative4 ,witness1 for example1 the varying modes of representing hair1 hands1 and feet4 ,we may say then that even rough children in elementary schools who are never likely to develop artistic talent display a rudiment of art-feeling4 ,it is only fair to them to testify that in spite of the limitations of their stiff wooden treatment they express a certain individuality of feeling and aim1 that like true artists they convey a personal impression4 ,these traits appear most plainly in the later representations of action1 but they are not altogether absent from the earlier statuesque figures4 ,compare1 for example1 the look of alert vigour in ,fig4 #e 7a7 7p4 #cci71 of grinning impudence in ,fig4 #f 7a7 7p4 #cda71 of provoking #8cheekiness' in ,fig4 #bj 7b7 7p4 #cej71 of a seedy #8swagger' in ,fig4 #cb 7p4 #cfb71 of inebriate gaiety in ,fig4 #ag 7p4 #cdh71 of absurd skittishness in ,fig4 #bd 7b7 7p4 #ced71 of insane flurry in ,fig4 #bf 7a7 7p4 #cee71 of ,irish easy-goingness even when somebody has to be killed in ,fig4 #cd 7p4 #cfc71 of wiry resoluteness in ,fig4 #bi 7a7 7p4 #cei71 of sly villainy in ,fig4 #ch 7p4 #cfe71 and of demure simplicity in ,fig4 #bf 7c7 7p4 #cef72 and note the delicious variety of equine character in ,fig4 #de 7f7 7p4 #cgf7 and following4 ,if a finer sthetic feeling is developed the first rude descriptive drawing loses its attractions4 ,a friend1 a well-known psychologist1 has observed in the case of his children that when they try to draw something pretty1 e4g41 a beautiful lady1 they abandon their customary mode of description and become aware of the look of their designs and criticise them as bad4 ,this seems to me a most significant observation4 ,it is the feeling for what is beautiful which makes a child attend closely to the bare look of things1 and the beginning of a finer observation of forms commonly takes its rise in this nascent sense of beauty4 ,indeed1 may one not say that only when a germ of the sthetic feeling for beauty arises1 and a child falls in love with the mere look of certain things1 can there appear the beginnings of genuinely artistic work1 of a conscientious endeavour to render on paper the aspect which pleases the eye8 ,,xi4 ,,extracts ,,from ,a ,,father',s ,,diary4 ,there has just come into my hands a curious document4 ,it is a sort of diary kept by a father in which he chronicles certain of the early doings and sayings of his boy4 ,it makes no pretence to being a regular and methodical register of progress1 such as ,mr4 ,f4 ,galton has shown us how to carry out4 ,it may be said by way of extenuation that the diary sets out in the year #ahhj1 that is to say1 two years before ,professor ,preyer published his model record of an infant's progress4 ,en revanche1 it is manifestly the work of a psychologist given to speculation1 and this of a somewhat bold type4 ,in the present paper ,i propose to cull from this diary what seem to me some of the choicer observations and comments on these4 ,if these do not always come up to the requirements of a rigidly scientific standard in respect of completeness1 precision1 and grave impartiality1 they may none the less prove suggestive of serious scientific thought1 while any extravagances of fancy and any levity of manner may well be set down to the play of a humorous sentiment1 which betrays the father beneath the observer4 ,i may begin my sketch of the early history of this boy by remarking that he appears to have been a normal and satisfactory specimen of his class1--healthy1 good-natured1 and given to that infantile way of relieving the pressure of his animal spirits which is1 ,i believe1 known as crowing4 ,not believing in the classifications of temperament adopted by the physiologists of a past age1 the father forbears from describing his child's4 ,for my lady readers ,i may add that he seems1 at least by his father's account1 to have been a good-sized1 chubby little fellow1 fair and rosy in tint1 with bright blue eyes1 and a limited crop of golden hair of an exceptionally rich1 ,i don't know how many carat gold1 hue4 ,i shall speak of him under his initial1 ,c4 ,first ,year4 ,the early pages of the record do not1 one must confess1 yield any very striking observations4 ,this is1 no doubt1 due to the circumstance that the observer1 not being a naturalist1 was not specially interested in the dim mindless life of the first weeks4 ,for the first few days ,master ,c4 appears to have been content to vegetate like other babies of a similar age4 ,although a bonny boy1 he began life in the usual way--with a good cry2 though we now know1 on scientific authority1 that this1 being a purely reflex act1 has not the deep significance which certain pessimistic philosophers have attributed to it4 ,science would probably explain in a similar way a number of odd facial movements which this baby went through on the second day of his earthly career1 and which1 the father characteristically remarks1 were highly suggestive of a cynical contempt for his new surroundings4 ,yet1 though content in this early stage to do little but perform the vegetal functions of life1 the infant comes endowed with a nervous system and organs of sense1 and these are very soon brought into active play4 ,according to this record1 the sense of touch is the first to manifest itself4#bhf ,even when only two hours old1 at a period of life when there is certainly no sound for the ear and possibly no light for the eye1 ,c4 immediately clasped the parental finger which was brought into the hollow of its tiny hand4 ,the functional activity of touch was observed still more plainly on the second day1 when the child was seen to carry out awkwardly enough what looked like exploring movements of the hands over his mouth and face4 ,this early development in the child of the tactual sense agrees1 says the biographer1 with what ,aristotle long since taught respecting the fundamental character of this sense1 an idea to which the modern doctrine of evolution has given a new significance4 ----- ,footnote #bhf3 ,taste1 as involved in the necessary act of taking nourishment1 is probably at first hardly differentiated from touch4 ----- ,a distinct step is taken during the first four days towards acquiring knowledge of things through a progressive use of the eyes and hands4 ,c4's father noticed on the second day that a good deal of ocular movement was forthcoming4 ,much of this was quite irregular1 each eye following its own path4 ,sometimes1 however1 the eyes moved harmoniously or symmetrically now to this side1 now to that1 and now and again seemed to converge and fix themselves on some near object in front of them4 ,sufficiently loud sounds increased these ocular movements4 ,on the third day the father1 when chuckling and calling to the child at a short distance1 fondly supposed that his offspring showed appreciation of these attentions by regarding him with a sweet expression and something like the play of a smile about the lips and eyelids4 ,but it is possible that this apparent amiability was nothing but a purely animal satisfaction after a good meal4 ,as to seeing his father's face at that early age1 there is room for serious doubt4 ,preyer found that long before the close of the first day his child wore a different expression when his face1 turned towards the window1 was suddenly deprived of light by the intervention of the professor's hand4 ,if the child is thus sensible to the pleasure of light it is1 of course1 conceivable that ,c4's eyes1 happening in their aimless wanderings to be brought together opposite the bright patch of the father's face1 might maintain that attitude under the stimulus of the pleasure4 ,the father argues in favour of this view by quoting the fact that ,c4's sister was observed on the fourth day to have her eyes arrested by a light or the father's face if brought pretty near the child2 yet such blank staring at mere brightness is1 of course1 a long way off from distinct vision of an object4 ,on the fourth day1 continues the sanguine father1 the child showed a distinct advance in the use of the hands4 ,having clasped his sire's finger he now moved it in what looked like an abortive attempt to carry it to his mouth4 ,there follow some remarks on the impulse of infants to carry objects to their mouths1 in which again there seems an approach to frivolity in the conjecture that the human animal previous to education is all-devouring4 ,it is to be noted1 however1 that these early movements are probably quite accidental4 ,as we shall see1 it is some weeks before the child learns to carry objects to his mouth4 ,as to the connexion between this movement and infantile greed our observer is not so poor a psychologist as not to see that it may be due to the circumstance that the lips and the tip of the tongue form one of the most delicate parts of the tactual organ4 ,it is not improbable that in the evolution of man before the tactual sensibility of the hand was developed these parts were chiefly employed as a tactual apparatus in distinguishing and rejecting what is hard1 gritty and so forth in food4 ,however this be1 it is probable that1 as ,stanley ,hall has suggested1 an infant may get a kind of 8sthetic0 pleasure by bringing objects into contact with the lips and the gums4 ,at this period1 the diary remarks1 the child was very cross for some weeks and not a good subject for observation4 ,this new difficulty1 added to that of overcoming natural scruples in his guardians1 appears to have baffled the observer for a time1 for the next observations recorded take up the thread of the child's history at the sixth week4 ,about this date1 the father notes1 the power of directing the eyes had greatly improved4 ,the child could now converge his eyes comfortably and without going through a number of unpleasant squinting-like failures on a near object4 ,the range of sight had greatly increased1 so that the boy's universe1 instead of consisting merely of a tiny circle of near objects1 as his mother's face held close to him1 began to embrace distant objects1 as the clock1 the window1 and so forth4 ,he was observed1 too1 to carry out more precise movements of the head and eyes in correspondence with the direction of sounds4 ,this ability to look towards the direction of a sound is an important attainment as implying that the infant mind has now come to learn that things may exist when not actually seen4 ,this new command of the visual apparatus led to a marked increase in observation4 ,the boy may indeed be said to have begun about this date something like a serious scrutiny of objects4 ,like other children he was greatly attracted by brightly coloured objects4 ,when just seven weeks old he acquired a fondness for a cheap showy card with crudely brilliant colouring and gilded border4 ,when carried to the place where it hung1 above the glass over the fire-place1 he would look up to it and greet his first-love in the world of art with a pretty smile4 ,by the ninth or tenth week1 the father adds1 he began to notice the pattern of the wall-paper and the like4 ,in these growing intervals of observation between the discharge of the vegetal functions of feeding and sleeping1 ,c4 was observed to examine not only any foreign object1 such as his mamma's dress1 which happened to be within sight1 but also the visible parts of his own organism4 ,in the ninth week of his existence he was first surprised in the act of surveying his own hands4 ,why he should at this particular moment have woke up to the existence of objects which had all along lain within easy reach of the eye1 is a question which has evidently greatly exercised the father's ingenuity4 ,he hints1 but plainly in a half-hearted1 sceptical way1 at a possible dim recognition by the little contemplator of the fact that these objects belong to himself1 forming1 indeed1 the outlying portion of the ,ego4 ,he also asks 7and here he seems to grow positively frivolous7 whether the child is taking after the somewhat extravagant ways of his mother and beginning to dote on the exquisite modelling of his tiny members4 ,psychologists are now agreed that our knowledge of the properties of material objects is largely obtained by what they call active touch1 that is1 by moving the hands over objects and exploring the space around them4 ,this is borne out by the observations made on ,c4 at this period of his existence4 ,while viewing things about him he actively manipulated them4 ,the organs of sight and touch worked indeed in the closest connexion4 ,thus our little visitor was no mere passive spectator of his new habitat2 he actively took possession of his surroundings3 like the ,roman general1 he at once saw and conquered4 ,from the eighth to the tenth week his manual performances greatly improved in quality4 ,he was rapidly learning to carry the organ of touch to the point of which his eye told him4 ,an account of his progress in reaching objects may however be postponed till we come to speak of the development of his active powers4 ,the growing habit of looking at1 reaching out to1 and manually investigating objects1 soon leads to the accumulation of a store of materials for the construction of those complex mental products which we call perceptions4 ,and often-repeated perceptions1 when they become more clearly distinguished1 supply the basis of definite acts of recognition4 ,the first object that is clearly recognised through a special act of attention is1 of course1 the face of the mother4 ,in the case of ,c41 the father's face was apparently recognised about the eighth week--at least1 the youngster first greeted his parent with a smile about this time--an event1 ,i need hardly say1 which is recorded in very large and easily legible handwriting4 ,the occurrence gives rise to a number of odd reflexions in the parental mind4 ,the observer's belief in the necessary co-operation of sight and touch in the early knowledge of material objects leads him to remark that ,c4's manual experience of his face1 and more particularly of the bearded chin1 has been extensive--an experience which1 he adds1 has left its recollection in his own mind1 too1 in the shape of a certain soreness4 ,he then goes on to consider the meaning of the smile4 8,i cannot10 he writes1 8be of any interest to him as a psychological student of his ways4 ,no1 it must be in the light of a bearded plaything that he regards my face40 ,further observation bears out this argument by going to show that the recognition was not individual but specific3 that it was simply a recognition of one of a class of bearded people2 for when a perfect stranger also endowed with the entertaining appendage presented himself1 ,c4 wounded his father's heart by smiling at him in exactly the same way4 ,here the diary goes off into some abstruse speculations about the first mental images being what ,mr4 ,galton calls generic images--speculations into which we need not follow the writer4 ,as we shall see1 the father takes up the subject of childish generalisation more fully later on4 ,the power of recognising objects appeared to undergo rapid development towards the end of the fourth month4 ,the father remarks that the child would about this time recognise him in a somewhat dark room at a distance of three or four yards4#bhg ----- ,footnote #bhg3 ,the clear recognition of individual objects is said to show itself in average cases from about the sixth month 7,tracy1 op4 cit41 pp4 #ae-af74 ----- ,the germ of true imagination1 of the formation of what ,hffding calls a free or detached image of something not seen at the moment1 appeared about the same time4 ,the moment when the baby's mind first passes on from the sight of his bottle to a foregrasping or imagination of the blisses of prehension and deglutition--a moment which appears to have been reached by ,c4 in his tenth week--marks an epoch in his existence4 ,he not only perceives what is actually present to his senses1 he pictures or represents what is absent4 ,this is the moment at which1 to quote from the parent's somewhat high-flown observations on this event1 8mind rises above the limitations of the actual1 and begins to shape for itself an ideal world of possibilities04 ,this rise of the ideal to take the place of the real appeared in other ways too4 ,thus when just eighteen weeks old the child had been lying on his nurse's lap and gazing on some pictures on the wall of which he was getting fond4 ,the nurse happening to turn round suddenly put an end to his happiness4 ,still the child was not to be done1 but immediately began twisting his head back in order to bring the pictures once more into his field of view4 ,here we have an illustration of a mental image appearing immediately after a perception1 a rude form of what psychologists are now getting to call a primary memory-image4 ,the expression of the gourmet's delight at the sight of the bottle 7tenth week7 involves a simple process of association4 ,between the ages of five and six months the child's progress in building up associations was very marked4 ,thus he would turn from a reflexion of the fire on the glass of a picture to the fire itself1 and a little later would look towards a particular picture1 ,cherry ,ripe1 when the name was uttered4 ,further1 not only had he now learnt to connect the sight of the bottle with the joys of a repast1 but on seeing the basin in which his food is prepared he would glance towards the cupboard where the bottle is kept4 ,the diary contains but few observations on the growth of the power of understanding things and reasoning about them during the first year4 ,one of the most interesting of these relates to the understanding of reflexions1 shadows1 etc4 ,we know that these things played a considerable part in the development of the first racial ideas of the supernatural1 and we might expect to see them producing an impression on the child's mind4 ,c4 when he first began to notice reflexions of the fire and other objects in a mirror showed considerable marks of surprise4 ,what quaint fancies he may have had respecting this odd doubling of things we cannot of course say4 ,what is certain is that he distinctly connected the reflexion with the original1 as is shown by the fact already mentioned1 his turning from the first to the second4 ,by the end of the sixth month the marks of surprise had visibly lessened1 so that the child was apparently getting used to the miracle1 even though he could not as yet be said to understand it4 ,it is worth notice that though the experiment of showing him his own reflexion was repeated again and again he remained apparently quite indifferent to the image4 ,perhaps1 suggests the father1 he did not as yet know himself as visible object sufficiently to recognise nature's portrait of him in the glass4 ,the above may perhaps serve as a sample of the observations made on the intellectual development of this privileged child during the first year of his earthly existence4 ,i will now pass on to quote a remark or two on his emotional development4 ,i may add that the record of this phase of the boy's early mental life is certainly the most curious part of the document1 containing many odd speculations on the course of primitive human history4 ,the earliest manifestations of the life of feeling are the elemental forms of pain and pleasure1 crying and incipient laughing in the form of the smile4#bhh ,in ,c4's case1 as in others1 crying of the genuine miserable kind preceded smiling by a considerable interval4 ,the child1 remarks our observer1 seems to need to learn to smile1 whereas his crying apparatus is in good working order from the first4 ----- ,footnote #bhh3 ,with the smile there ought perhaps to be taken the infantile crow4 ----- ,the growth of the smile is a curious chapter in child-psychology1 and has been carefully worked out by ,preyer4 ,the observations on ,c4 under this head are incomplete4 ,the father thought he detected an attempt at a smile on the third day1 when the child was lying replete with food1 in answer to certain chuckling sounds with which he sought to amuse him4 ,the movements constituting this quasi-smile are said to have been the following3 a drawing in of the under lip2 a drawing inwards and backwards of the corners of the mouth3 increase of oblique line from the corner of the mouth upwards2 and a furrowing or ridging of the eyelids4 ,it is probable1 however1 that this was not a true smile1 i4e41 an expression of pleasure4 ,he remarks1 moreover1 that in the case of the child's sister the first approach to a smile was not observed before the tenth day1 this1 too1 by-the-bye1 in that state of blissful complaisance which follows a good meal4 ,it may be added that in the case of the brother1 too1 the smile seems to have grown noticeably bright and significant about the same time 7eighth to tenth week74 ,at this stage the boy expressed his pleasure at seeing his father's face not only by a 8bright0 smile1 but by certain cooing sounds4 ,at the same date a playful touch on the child's cheek was sufficient to provoke a smile4#bhi ----- ,footnote #bhi3 ,darwin puts the first true smile on the forty-fifth day4 ,the first quasi-smiles are probably quite mechanical and destitute of meaning4 ----- ,very early in the infant's course the germs of some of our most characteristic human feelings begin to appear4 ,one of the earliest is anger1 which though common to man and many of the higher animals1 takes on a peculiar form in his case4 ,angry revolt against the order of things showed itself early in ,c4's case as in that of his sister1 the occasion being in each instance a momentary difficulty in seizing the means of appeasing appetite4 ,it is of course difficult to say at what moment the mere vexation of disappointment passes into true wrath1 but in this boy's case the father is compelled to admit that the ugly emotion displayed itself distinctly by the third week4 ,to detect the first clear signs of a humane feeling1 of kindliness and sympathy1 is still more difficult4 ,reference has already been made to the signs of pleasure1 the smile and the cooing sounds1 which ,c4 manifested at the sight of his father's face4 ,about the same time1 viz41 the ninth and tenth weeks1 he began to show himself particularly responsive to soothing sounds4 ,the impulse to imitate soft low sounds was of great service in checking his misery4 ,when utterly broken by grief he would often pull himself together if appealed to by the right soothing sound and join in a short plaintive duet4 ,such responses like the early imitative smile may1 it is true1 be nothing but a mechanical imitation1 destitute of any emotive significance4 ,it is probable1 however1 that the first crude form of fellow-feeling1 of the impulse to accept and to give sympathy in joy and grief1 takes its rise in such simple imitative movements4 ,the first advance to signs of a truer fellow-feeling was made when the child was six and a half months old4 ,his father pretended to cry4 ,thereupon ,c4 bent his head down so that his chin touched his breast and began to paw his father's face1 very much after the manner of a dog in a fit of tenderness4 ,oddly enough1 adds the chronicler1 there was no trace of sadness in the child's face4 ,the experiment was repeated and always with a like result4 ,a smile on the termination of the crying completed the curious little play4 ,who would venture to interpret that falling of the head and that caressing movement of the hand8 ,the father saw here something of a divine tenderness2 and ,i am not disposed to question his interpretation4 ,emotion soon begins to manifest itself1 too1 in connexion with the child's peerings into his new world4 ,as the little brain grows stronger and the organs of sense come under better management1 the child spends more time in examining things1 and this examination is accompanied by a profound wonder4 ,c4 would completely lose himself in marvelling at some new mystery1 as the face of a clock1 to which he appeared to talk as to something alive1 or the play of the sunlight on the wall of his room2 and the closeness of his attention was indicated by the occurrence of a huge sigh when the strain was over4 ,the directions of this early childish attention are1 as in the example of the clock and the sunlight1 towards what has some attraction of brightness1 or other stimulating quality4 ,the fascination of bright colour for ,c4 has already been referred to4 ,sounds1 too1 very soon began to capture his attention and hold it spellbound4 ,thus it is recorded that in the tenth week the sound produced by striking a wine-glass excited an agreeable wonder4 ,the sound of the piano1 by-the-bye1 made him cry the first time he heard it1 presumably because it was strange and disconcertingly voluminous4 ,but he soon got to like it1 and his mother remarked that when his father played the child seemed to grow heavier in her lap1 as if all his muscles were relaxed in a delicious self-abandonment4#bij ----- ,footnote #bij3 ,see above1 p4 #aie and p4 #cjh4 ----- ,certain things became favourite objects of this quasi-sthetic contemplation4 ,when six weeks old the child got into the way of taking special note of one or two rather showy coloured pictures on the wall4 ,in these it seemed to be partly the brightness of colouring in the picture or the frame1 partly the reflexions of objects in the glass covering1 which attracted him4 ,other things which appeared to give him repeated and endless enjoyment of a quiet sort were the play of sunlight and of shadow on the walls of his room1 the reflexion of the shooting fire-flame sent back by the window-pane or the glass covering of a picture1 the swaying of trees1 and the like4 ,he soon got to know the locality of some of his favourite works of art1 and to look out expectantly1 when taken into the right room1 for his daily show4 ,yet the new does not always awaken this pleasurable admiration4 ,the child's organism soon begins to adapt itself to what is customary1 and sudden departures from the usual order of things come as a shock1 jar the nerves1 and produce the first crude form of fear4 ,c4's sensitiveness to the disturbing effect of new and loud sounds has been referred to in speaking of the first impression of the piano4 ,a strong wind making uproar in the trees quite upset him when he was about five months old1 though he soon got over his dislike and would laugh at the wind even when it blew cold4 ,in like manner he appeared to be much put out by the voices of strangers1 especially when these were loud4 ,a similar effect of shock showed itself when something in the familiar scene was suddenly transmuted4 ,for example1 when just twelve weeks old1 he was quite upset by his mother donning a red jacket in place of the usual flower-spotted dress4 ,he was just proceeding to take his breakfast when he noticed the change1 at the discovery of which all thoughts of feasting deserted him1 his lips quivered1 and he only became reassured of his whereabouts after taking a good look at his mother's face4 ,this clinging to the familiar and alarm at a sudden intrusion of the new into his little world showed themselves in a curious way in his attitude towards strangers4 ,when ten weeks old he would still greet new faces with a gracious smile4 ,but this amiable disposition soon underwent a change4 ,when he began to discriminate people one from another and to single out particular faces1 those of the mother1 father1 sister1 etc41 as familiar1 he took up what looked like a less hospitable attitude towards strangers4 ,by the fifteenth week he no longer greeted their advent with his welcoming smile4 ,a month later the diary chronicles a new development of timidity4 ,he now turned away from a stranger with all the signs of shrinking4#bia ----- ,footnote #bia3 ,compare what was said above1 p4 #bja4 ----- ,that this repugnance to the new depends on a kind of shock-like effect on the nervous system seems to be borne out by the fact that the same object would produce now joyous admiration1 now something indistinguishable from fear1 according to the boy's varying condition of health and spirits4 ,changes of sentiment analogous to those which marked his behaviour towards strangers occurred in his treatment of inanimate objects4 ,for instance1 a not very alarming-looking doll belonging to his sister1 after having been a pleasant object of regard1 suddenly acquired for him1 when he was nearly five months old1 a repulsive aspect4 ,instead of talking to it and making a sort of amiable deity of it as heretofore1 he now shrieked when it was brought near4 ,there seems to have been nothing in his individual experience which could account for this sudden accession of fear4 ,these observations led ,c4's father to some characteristic speculations as to the inheritance of certain feelings4 ,thus he hints that the eerie sort of interest taken by his child in the reflexions of things in the glass may be a survival of the primitive feeling of awe for the ghosts of things which certain anthropologists tell us was first developed in connexion with the phenomena of reflected images and shadows4 ,he goes on to ask whether the fear called forth by the doll and the face of strangers at a certain stage of the child's development is not clearly due to an instinct now fixed in the race by the countless experiences of peril in its early1 pre-social1 and ,ishmaelitic condition4 ,but here1 too1 perhaps1 his speculations appear1 in the light of what has been said above1 a little wild4 ,among other feelings displayed by the child was that of amusement at what is grotesque and comical4 ,when between four and five months old he was accustomed to watch the antics of his sister1 an elfish being given to flying about the room1 screaming1 and other disorderly proceedings1 with all the signs of a sense of the comicality of the spectacle4 ,so far as the father could judge1 this sister served as a kind of jester to the baby monarch4 ,he would take just that distant1 good-natured interest in her foolings that ,shakespeare's sovereigns took in the eccentric unpredictable ways of their jesters4 ,the sense of the droll became still more distinctly marked at six months4 ,about this date the child delighted in pulling his sister's hair1 and her shrieks would send him into a fit of laughter4 ,among other provocatives of laughter at this time were sudden movements of one's head1 a rapid succession of sharp staccato sounds from one's vocal organ 7when these were not disconcerting by their violence71 and of course sudden reappearances of one's head after hiding in the game of bo-peep4#bib ----- ,footnote #bib3 ,darwin tells us that his boy uttered a rude kind of laugh when only one hundred and ten days old1 after a pinafore had been thrown over his head and suddenly withdrawn4 ,c4's sense of humour was hardly as precocious as this4 ----- ,it is hardly necessary to follow the diary into its record of the first stirrings of what psychologists used to call the ,will 7with capital ,w of course74 ,if a baby in the first months can be said to have a will in any sense it must be that unconscious metaphysical 8will to live0 about which we have recently heard so much4 ,on the other hand it is certainly true that the child manifests in the first weeks certain active impulses1 the working out of which leads in about four months to the acquisition of the power of carrying out movements for a purpose4 ,reference has already been made to this progress in motor activity when speaking of the senses4 ,it may suffice to add one or two further observations4 ,the father remarks that about the end of the ninth week there was a vigorous use of the muscles of the arms and hands in aimless movement4 ,this superabundance of muscular activity is important1 as giving children the chance of finding out the results of their movements4 ,c4 was just ten and a half weeks old when he first showed himself capable lying on his back of turning his head to the side1 and even of half turning his body also1 in order to have a good view of his father moving away to a distant part of the room4 ,about the same date1 too1 purposive movements began to be clearly differentiated from expressive movements2 such1 for example1 as the quick energetic movement of the limbs when excited by pleasure4 ,for instance1 on the seventy-second day the father was surprised and delighted to see the boy add to the usual signs of joy at his approach the movement of leaning forward and holding out the arms as if to try to get near4 ,was this1 he asks1 the sudden emergence of an unlearnt instinct1 or was it an imitation in baby fashion of his elders' behaviour when they took possession of him8 ,the gradual growth of a voluntary movement into a perfect artistic action nicely adjusted to some desired end was strikingly illustrated in the boy's mastery of the grasping movement1 the movement of stretching out the hand to seize an object seen4 ,on the seventy-sixth day1 the father writes1 he had carefully watched to see whether the child could voluntarily direct his hand to an object4 ,he had tried him by holding before him attractive objects1 as a bit of coloured rag or his hand1 which he would regard very attentively4 ,for the last week or ten days he had been very observant of objects1 including his own hands4 ,among the objects that attracted him was his mamma's dress1 which had a dark ground with a small white flower pattern4 ,on this memorable day his hand accidentally came in contact with one of the folds of her dress lying over the breast4 ,immediately1 it seemed to strike him for the first time that he could reach an object1 and for a dozen times or more he repeated the movement of stretching out his hand1 clutching the fold and giving it a good pull1 very much to his own satisfaction4 ,a hasty reasoner might easily suppose that the child had now learnt to reach out to an object when only seen4 ,but the sequel showed that this was not the case4 ,four weeks later the diary observes that the child as yet made no attempt to grasp an object offered to him 7although there were manifest attempts to uncover the mother's breast74 ,the clutching at the dress was thus a blind movement due to the stimulus of pleasurable elation4 ,yet it was doubtless a step in the process of learning to grasp4 ,the next advance registered occurred when the boy was a little over four months old4 ,he would now bring his two hands together just above the level of his eyes and then gaze on them attentively1 striking out one arm straight in front of him1 and upwards almost vertically1 as if he were trying some new gymnastic exercises1 while he accompanied each movement with his eye1 and showed the deepest interest in what he was doing4 ,by such exercises1 we may suppose1 he was exploring space with hand and eye conjointly and noting the correspondences between looking in a given direction and bringing his hand into the line of sight4 ,the next noticeable advance occurred at the end of the nineteenth week4 ,the boy's father held a biscuit 7the value of which was already known7 just below his face and well within his reach4 ,there was a very earnest look and then a series of rapid jerky movements of the hands4 ,these were uncertain at first1 but on repetition of the experiment soon grew more precise4 ,at first the biscuit was dropped 7the child had not yet learnt to handle things74 ,but after repeated trials he managed to hold on to the treasure and bear it triumphantly to his mouth4 ,the discovery of the new delight of thus feeding himself led to more violent efforts to seize the biscuit when presented again4 ,indeed1 the youngster's impatience led him to reach forward with the upper part of his body so as to seize the biscuit with his mouth4 ,it may be added here as throwing light on the carrying of the biscuit to the mouth that the child had before this acquired considerable facility in raising his hand to his mouth and to the region of his head generally4 ,thus he had been noticed to scratch his head with a comical look of sage reflexion when he was fifteen weeks old4 ,the consummation of the act of seizing an object involving a perception of distance was observed when he was just six months old4 ,the father writes3 8,i held an object in front of him two or three inches beyond his reach4 ,the astute little fellow made no movement4 ,i then gradually brought it closer1 and when it came within his reach he held out his hand and grasped it4 ,i repeated the experiment with slight variations1 and satisfied myself that he could now distinguish with some degree of precision the near and the far1 the attainable and the unattainable1 that his eyes could now inform him by what ,bishop ,berkeley called visual language of the exact limit1 the #8,ultima ,thule' of his tangible world40 ,it is natural1 no doubt1 that the father should go off into another high flight here4 ,but being a psychologist he might have moderated his parental elation by reflecting that his wonderful boy had after all taken six months to learn what a chick seems to know as soon as it leaves the shell4 ,it is doubtful1 indeed1 whether ,master ,c4's hand could as yet aim with the precision of the beak of the newly hatched chick4 ,if he had only chanced on a later decade he might have known that five months is the time given by a recent authority 7,raehlmann7 as the period commonly taken in learning the grasping movements1 and so had his pride in his boy's achievement wholesomely tempered4#bic ----- ,footnote #bic3 ,preyer's boy perfected the action in the fifth month4 ,for differences in precocity here1 see ,f4 ,tracy1 ,the ,psychology of ,childhood1 pp4 #ab1 #ac4 ----- ,these early movements are acquired under the stimulus of certain impulses which constitute the instinctive basis of volition4 ,thus it is obvious that the movement of carrying to the mouth as also that of reaching and grasping was inspired by the nutritive or feeding instinct1 that deep-seated impulse which is common to man and the whole animal kingdom1 and is the secret spring of so much of his proud achievement4 ,the impulse to seize and appropriate may perhaps be regarded as an instinct which has become detached from its parental stock1 the nutritive impulse4 ,our observer remarks1 with a touch of cynicism1 that the predominance of the grasping propensities of the race was illustrated by the fact that his boy only manifested the impulse to relinquish his hold on an object some time after he had displayed in its perfection the impulse to seize or grasp an object4 ,thus it was some months later that he was first observed deliberately to cast aside1 as if tired of it1 a thing with which he had been playing4 ,one of the deepest and most far-reaching instincts is to get rid of pain and to prolong pleasure4 ,in ,c4's case the working of the first was illustrated in a large number of movements1 such as twisting the body round1 scratching the head1 and so forth4 ,an illustration of the impulse to renew an agreeable effect occurred in the early part of the eighth month4 ,the child was sitting on his mother's lap close to the table playing with a spoon4 ,he accidentally dropped it and was impressed with the effect of sound4 ,he immediately repeated the action1 now1 no doubt1 with the purpose of gaining the agreeable shock for his ear4 ,after this when the spoon was put into his hand he deliberately dropped it4 ,not only so1 like a true artist1 he went on improving on the first effect1 raising the spoon higher and higher so as to get more sound1 and at length using force in dashing or banging it down4 ,children1 as everybody knows1 are wont to render their elders that highest form of flattery1 imitation4 ,our chronicle is unfortunately rather meagre in observations on the first imitative movements4 ,there is no evidence that the writer went to work in ,preyer's careful way to test this capability4 ,he thinks he saw distinct traces of imitation 7of the pointing movement7 at the end of the fifteenth week1 though he admits that a deliberate attempt to copy a movement was only placed beyond doubt some time later4 ,there is1 ,i regret to say1 a terrible gap in the chronicle between the ninth and the sixteenth month4 ,this is particularly unfortunate because this is just the period when the child is making a beginning at some of the most difficult of accomplishments1 e4g41 mastering the speech of his ancestors4 ,to make up for this loss1 the record becomes fuller and decidedly more interesting as we enter upon the second year4 ,to this next stage of the history we may now pass4 ,second ,year4 ,the observations from the date of the resumption of the diary1 at the age of sixteen months1 begin to have more of human interest about them4 ,it is not till this year has advanced that the child makes headway in handling the knotty intricacies of an elaborate language like ours1 and it is through the medium of this mastered speech that he is best able to disclose himself to the observer4 ,the observations on ,c4's progress during the second year relate largely to language and intelligence as expressing itself in language4 ,we may1 accordingly1 begin this section by giving a brief sketch of the child's linguistic progress4#bid ----- ,footnote #bid3 ,this should be read in connexion with ,study ,v4 ----- ,during the first six months nothing was observable in the way of vocal sounds but the ordinary baby-singing utterances of the #8la-la' category4 ,in this tentative vocalisation vowel sounds1 of course1 preponderated4 ,there was quite a gamut of quaint vowel sounds1 ranging from the broad a to the cockney ow1 that is1 a-oo4 ,these sounds were purely emotional signs4 ,thus a prolonged sound indicated surprise with a dash of displeasure when the child suddenly encountered an obstacle to his movements1 as on catching his dress or striking his head gently4 ,again1 a kind of or oo sound1 formed by sucking in the breath1 appeared to indicate that the small person was pleased with some new object of contemplation1 as a freshly discovered picture4 ,a sudden enlargement of the range of articulatory excursion was noticeable on the completion of the twenty-seventh week1 when ,c4 astonished his parents by breaking out into a series of #8da-da's' and #8ba-ba's' or #8pa-pa's'4 ,these reduplications were quite in keeping with his earlier sounds1 e4g41 a-oo1 a-oo4 ,he soon followed up this brilliant success by other experiments1 as in the production of the sounds ou-a and ditta1 also ung and ang4#bie ----- ,footnote #bie3 ,this rather bald account of early vocal sounds should be contrasted with those of ,preyer and others referred to in ,study ,v4 ----- ,coming now to the commencement of the true linguistic period1 that is to say1 when ,c4 had attained the age of sixteen months1 we find him by no means precocious in the matter of speech4 ,he reproduced very few of the many names the meaning of which he perfectly understood4 ,as to other verbal signs he seems to have acted on the principle of biological economy1 saving himself the articulatory effort4 ,thus although he used sounds for expressing assent1 viz41 8ey10 with falling inflection1 he contented himself in the case of negation with the old declining or refusing gesture1 viz41 shaking the head4 ,the movement of nodding seems to have been first used as an affirmative sign at the age of seventeen months when he was asked whether his food was hot4#bif ----- ,footnote #bif3 ,perez speaks of both the affirmative and negative movement of the head appearing about the fifteenth month 7,first ,three ,years of ,childhood1 ,engl4 transl41 p4 #ba74 ,darwin finds that the sign of affirmation 7nodding7 is less uniform among the different races of men than that of negation4 ,according to ,preyer1 while the gesture of negation appears under the form of a turning away or declining movement as an instinct in the first days of life1 the accepting gesture of nodding 7which afterwards becomes the sign of affirmation7 is acquired and appears much later 7see his full account of the growth of these movements1 ,die ,seele des ,kindes1 p4 #bdb74 ----- ,c4 illustrated the common childish impulse to mimic natural sounds4 ,thus when sixteen months old he spontaneously imitated in a rough fashion the puffing sound produced by his father when indulging in the solace of tobacco2 and he uttered a similar explosive sound when hearing the wind4 ,yet this child does not seem to have been a particularly good illustration of the onomatopoetic impulse4 ,while the imitative impulse thus aids in the growth of an independent baby vocabulary1 it contributes1 as we have seen1 to the adoption of the language of the community4 ,at first1 however1 the little learner will not repeat a sound merely in response to another's lead4 ,many a mother is doubtless able to recall the chagrin which she experienced when on trying to trot out her baby's linguistic powers by giving the lead1 e4g41 8,say ta-ta to the lady60 the little autocrat obdurately refused to comply with the parental injunction4 ,it is only when what the child himself considers to be the appropriate circumstances recur1 and1 what is more1 when the corresponding feeling is excited in his breast1 that he utters the sound4 ,thus ,c4's father observes that though the child will not say 8ta-ta0 when told to do so1 he will say it readily enough when he sees him1 hat in hand1 moving towards the door4 ,in like manner the father remarks3 8,he will say1 #8,ta' 7#8thank you'71 on receiving something1 yet not do so in mere response to me when ,i say it04 ,herein1 it would seem1 the vocal imitation of children is less mechanical and more intelligent than that of animals1 as the parrot4 ,it was not until he was well on in his second year that ,c4 condescended to let his young speech-organ be played on by another's will4 ,by this time1 it may be conjectured1 associations between sounds and vocal actions had become firm enough to allow of such imitation without a consciousness of exertion or strain4 ,having no special reason to refuse he very sensibly fell in with others' suggestions4 ,it is not at all improbable1 too1 that at this stage of development the little vocalist found a pleasure in trying his instrument and producing new effects4 ,of course these first tentatives in verbal imitation were far from perfect4 ,at first there was hardly more than a reproduction of the rhythm and the rise and fall of voice1 as in rendering #8,all gone1' the sign of disappearance1 by a1 a1 with rise and fall of voice4 ,like other little people1 ,c4 displayed a lordly disposition to save himself trouble and to expect infinite pains from others in the way of comprehension4 ,he was in the habit of reducing difficult words to fragments1 the comprehension of which by the most loyal of attendants was a matter of considerable difficulty4 ,in thus chopping off splinters of words he showed the greatest caprice4 ,in many cases he selected the initial sounds1 e4g41 8b0 for ball1 8n0 for nose1 8p0 for please4 ,in other cases he preferred the ending1 e4g41 8k0 for cake1 8b0 for ,elizabeth4 ,it looked as if certain sounds and combinations1 e4g41 l1 s1 fl1 sh1 etc41 lay altogether beyond his gamut4 ,and others seemed to be specially difficult1 and so were avoided as much as possible4#big ----- ,footnote #big3 ,cf4 above1 p4 #adh ff4 ----- ,while ,c4's parents could not help resenting at times an economising of speech-power which imposed so heavy a burden on themselves1 they were often amused at the way in which the astute little fellow managed after softening down all the asperities of a name to retain a certain rough semblance of the original4 ,thus1 for instance1 sugar became 8ooga10 biscuit 8bk10 bread and butter 8bup10 fish 8gish0 7with soft g71 and bacon-fat1 that is bread dipped in the same1 8ak04 ,in some cases it might have puzzled his father to say whether the sound was a reproduction or an independent creation4 ,this remark applies with particular force to the name he gave himself4 ,his real name as commonly used was1 ,i may say1 ,clifford4 ,instead of this he employed as the name for himself 8,ingi0 or 8,ningi0 7with hard g74 ,he stuck to his own invention in spite of many efforts to lead him to adopt the name chosen for him by his parents4 ,and perhaps the sovereignty of the baby was never more clearly illustrated than in the fact that in time he constrained his parents and his sister to adopt his self-chosen prnomen4 ,possibly his real name was to his ear a hopelessly difficult mass of sound1 and 8,ningi0 seemed to him a fair equivalent within the limits of practicable linguistics for so uncouth a combination4#bih ,these changes are interesting as illustrating how the child attends to the general form of the word-sound rather than to its constituent elements4#bii ,the same thing is seen in the modified form of 8,ningi10 which he adopted at the beginning of the third year1 viz41 8,kikkie10 where1 too1 the special impressiveness of the initial sound is illustrated4 ----- ,footnote #bih3 ,the supposition that #8,ningi' was easy seems reasonable4 ,first of all it is in part a reduplication like his later name #8,kikkie'4 ,again1 we know that children often add the final y or ie sound1 as in saying #8dinnie' for dinner1 #8beddie' for bread4 ,once more1 from the early appearances of #8ng' sound in #8ang1' #8ung1' etc41 we may infer it to be easy4 ,indeed1 one observer 7,dr4 ,champneys7 tells us that an infant's cry is exactly represented by the sound #8ng' as pronounced in ,germany 7,mind1 vi41 p4 #aje74 ,footnote #bii3 ,see above1 p4 #aeg f4 ----- ,it is now time to pass to the most important phase of baby-speech from a scientific point of view1 namely1 the first use of sounds as general signs1 or as registering the results of a generalising process1 as when the child begins to speak of man or boy4 ,it must be confessed that our diary does not give us much that is startling in the way of original generalisation4 ,so far as we can judge1 ,c4 was a steady-going baby1 not given to wanton caprices4 ,yet though not a genius he had his moments of invention4 ,one of the earliest illustrations of a free working of the generalising impulse was the extension of the sound 8t0 7hot74 ,at first he employed this sign in the conventional manner to indicate that his milk or other viand was disagreeably warm4 ,when1 however1 he was seventeen and a half months old he struck out an original extension of meaning4 ,he happened to have placed before him cold milk4 ,on tasting this he at once exclaimed1 8,ot60 ,it looks as though the sound now meant something unpleasant to taste1 though1 as we shall see presently1 the boy had another sound 78kaka07 for expressing this idea4#cjj ,but 8ot0 was being extended in another way by a process of association4 ,this was illustrated a month later1 when the boy pointed to an engraving of ,guido's ,aurora1 and exclaimed1 8,ot60 ,his dull parents could not at first comprehend this bold metaphoric use of language1 until they bethought them that the clouds on which the aeronauts are sailing are a good deal like a volume of ascending steam4 ----- ,footnote #cjj3 ,it has been found that the sensations of hot and cold are readily confused even by adults4 ----- ,the sounds 8k10 8k10 and 8kk0 were employed by ,c4 from about the same age 7seventeen and a half months7 to express what is actually known or simply suspected to be disagreeable to taste or smell1 such as a pipe held near him1 a glass of beer1 a vinegar bottle1 and so forth4 ,he had smelt the beer1 and learnt its disagreeable odour1 and in pronouncing the untried vinegar 8kk0 he was really carrying out a form of reasoning of a simple kind4 ,this sound came to represent a much higher effort of abstraction some weeks later1 when it was applied to things so unlike in themselves as milk spilt on the cloth1 crumbs on the floor1 soiled hands1 etc4 ,the idea here seized was plainly that of something soiled or dirty4 ,but this half-sthetic1 half-ethical idea was reached largely by the help of others1 more particularly perhaps his sister1 who1 as elder sisters are wont to do1 supplemented the parental discipline by a vigorous inculcation of the well-recognised proprieties4 ,another extension of the range of application of names used by others occurred about the same time 7end of twentieth month74 ,he employed the sound #8ga' 7glass7 so as to include a plated drinking cup1 which of course others always called #8cup'4 ,this was curious as showing at this stage the superior interest of use 7that of drinking utensil7 to that of form and colour4 ,the generalisations just touched on have to do with those qualities and relations of things which strongly impress the baby mind1 because they bear on the satisfaction of his wants and his feelings of pleasure and pain4 ,in order to watch the calm movements of the intellect1 when no longer urged by appetite and sense1 we must turn to the child's first detection of similarities in the objective attributes of things1 as their shape1 size1 colour1 and so forth4 ,here the first generalisations respecting the forms of bodies are a matter of peculiar interest to the scientific observer4 ,the young thinker1 with whom we are now specially concerned1 achieved his first success in geometric abstraction1 or the consideration of pure form1 when just seventeen months old4 ,he had learnt the name of his india-rubber ball4 ,having securely grasped this1 he went on calling oranges 8b04 ,this left the father in some doubt whether the child was attending exclusively to form1 as a geometrician should1 for he was wont to make a toy of an orange1 as when rolling it on the floor4 ,this uncertainty was1 however1 soon removed4 ,one day ,c4 was sitting at table beside his sire1 while the latter was pouring out a glass of beer4 ,instantly the ready namer of things pointed to the bubbles on the surface1 and exclaimed1 8,b60 ,this was repeated on many subsequent occasions4 ,as the child made no attempt to handle the bubbles1 it was evident that he did not view them as possible playthings4 ,as he got lost in contemplation1 muttering1 8,b6 b60 his father tells us that he had the satisfaction of feeling sure that the young mind was already learning to turn away from the coarseness of matter1 and fix itself on the refined attribute of form4 ,although this was the most striking instance of pure or abstract consideration of form1 attention to the shape of things was proved by many of the simple ideas reached at this stage4 ,it is obvious1 indeed1 that a ready recognition of any member of a species of animals1 as dog1 in spite of considerable variations in size and colour1 implies a power of singling out for special attention what we call relations of form4 ,and this conclusion is borne out by the fact that by the end of the eighteenth month ,c4 was quite an adept in recognising uncoloured drawings of animal and other familiar forms4 ,colour is of course in itself of much more interest to a child than form1 since it gives a keen sensuous enjoyment4 ,our diary furnishes a curious illustration of a propensity to classify things according to their colour4 ,in his nineteenth month ,c4 was observed to designate by the sound 8appoo0 7apple7 a patch of reddish colour on the mantelpiece1 which bore in its form no discoverable resemblance to an apple4 ,at the same time1 the effect of growing experience and of a deeper scrutiny of things in bringing out the superior significance of form is seen in the fact that this same word 8appoo0 came subsequently to be habitually applied to things of unlike colours1 namely1 apples1 oranges1 lemons1 etc4 ,it may be added that the history of this word 8appoo0 illustrates a process analogous to what ,archbishop ,trench 7if ,i remember rightly7 has called the degradation of words4 ,when ,c4 first used this name it designated objects simply as visible and tangible ones2 he knew nothing of their taste4 ,after he was permitted to try their flavours1 the less worthy sensations now added naturally contributed a prominent ingredient to the meaning of the word4 ,thus1 he began to use 8appoo0 for all edible fruits1 including such shapeless masses as stewed apples4 ,it is not to be expected that children in their first attempts at scrutinising objects should be able to take in completely a complex form1 as that of an animal1 with all its parts and their relations one to another4 ,c4 gave ample proof of the fact that the first generalisations respecting form are apt to be rough and ready1 grounded simply on a perception of one or two salient points4 ,thus1 his first use of 8bow-wow0 showed that the name meant for him simply a four-legged creature4 ,about the fifteenth month this word was thrown about in the most reckless way4 ,later on1 when the canine form began to be disengaged in his mind from those of other quadrupeds1 the pointed nose of the animal seems to have become a prominent feature in the meaning of the word4 ,thus1 in his eighteenth month1 ,c4 took to applying the name #8bow-wow' to objects1 such as fragments of bread or biscuit1 as well as drawings1 having something of a triangular form with a sharp angle at the apex4 ,it is probable that if our little thinker had been able at this stage to define his terms1 he would have said that a 8bow-wow0 was a four-legged thing with a pointed nose4 ,here1 however1 it is only fair to ,c4 to mention that his mind had at this time become prepossessed with the image of 8bow-wow04 ,not long before the date referred to he had been frightened by a small dog1 which had crept unobserved into the room behind a lady visitor1 lain quiet for some time under the table1 and then1 forgetting good manners1 suddenly darted out and barked4 ,there were many facts which supported the belief that the child's mind was at this period haunted by images of dogs which approximated in their vividness to hallucinations2 and this persistence of the canine image in the child's brain naturally disposed him to see the 8bow-bow0 form in the most unpromising objects4 ,the use of the word 8gee-gee10 which towards the end of the second year competed with 8bow-wow0 for the first place in ,c4's vocabulary1 illustrates the same fact4 ,a horse was first of all distinguished from other quadrupeds by the length of his neck4 ,thus1 when twenty months old1 ,c4 in a slovenly way1 no doubt1 applied the name 8gee-gee0 to the drawing of an ostrich1 and also to a bronze figure representing a stork-like bird4 ,this is particularly curious1 as showing how a comparatively unimportant detail of form1 as length of neck1 overshadowed in his mind at this time what we should consider the much more important feature1 the possession of four legs4 ,the following are selected from among many other illustrations of the imperfect observation of complex forms4 ,when twenty-one and a half months old he took to calling all triangular objects1 including drawings1 8ship04 ,the feature of the ship--as seen in real life and in his picture-books--which had fixed itself in his mind was the triangular sail4#cja ,a similar propensity to select one characteristic feature was illustrated in another quaint observation of the diary4 ,when twenty-three months old ,c4's mother showed him a number of drawings of patterns of dresses1 some surmounted by faces1 some not4 ,he pointed to one of the latter and said3 8,no nose60 ,from this1 writes the father1 lapsing again into his frivolous vein1 it would seem that at this early age he had acquired a dim presentiment of the supreme dignity of the nasal organ among the features of the human countenance4 ----- ,footnote #cja3 ,i think this supposition more probable than that the child saw the whole form--hull1 masts and sails--as a triangle4 ----- ,progress in the accurate use of words was curiously illustrated in ,c4's way of looking at and talking about his fellow-creatures4 ,oddly enough he began apparently by confusing his two parents1 extending the name 8ma0 to his father till such time as he learnt 8papa04 ,then he proceeded after the manner of other children to embrace within the term 8papa0 all male adults1 whether known to him or not4 ,thus he applied the name to photographs of distinguished savants1 artists1 and poets1 which he found in his father's album4 ,when just eighteen months old he was observed to introduce the word #8man'4 ,for instance1 he took to calling an etching of a recent ,british philosopher1 and a terra-cotta cast of an ancient ,roman one1 8man10 as well as 8papa04 ,oddly enough1 however1 members of the other sex were still called exclusively by the name 8mamma10 though the words 8woman0 and 8lady0 were certainly used at least as frequently as 8man0 in his hearing4 ,this earlier discrimination of individual men than of individual women leads the father into some jocose observations about the more strongly marked individuality of men than of women1 observations which would do very well in the mouth of a misogynist of the old school1 but are altogether out of date in this advanced age4 ,by the twentieth month the extension of the name 8papa0 to other men was discontinued4 ,his father tried him at this date with a photographic album4 8,man0 was now instantly applied to all male adults1 except old ones with a grey beard4 ,to these he invariably applied the name of an old gentleman1 a friend of his4 ,a woman was still called 8mamma10 though the term 8lady0 78'ady07 was clearly beginning to displace it2 and no distinction was drawn between women of different ages4 ,finally1 children were distinguished as boys or girls1 apparently according as they were or were not dressed in petticoats4 ,the reservation of the names 8papa0 and 8mamma0 for his parents naturally gave pleasure to these worthy persons4 ,it was something1 they said1 to feel sure at length that they were individualised in the consciousness of their much-cared-for offspring4 ,this restricted use of the terms may be supposed to have involved a dim apprehension of a special relation of things to the child4 8,papa0 now carried with it the idea of the man who stands in a particular connexion with ,c4 or 8,ningi02 or1 to express it otherwise1 8man0 began to signify those papas who have nothing specially to do with this important personage4 ,this antecedent conjecture is borne out by the fact that the act of distinguishing between his father and other men followed rapidly1 certainly within two or three weeks1 the first use of his own name 8,ningi04 ,in other words1 as soon as his attention began to direct itself to himself1 as the centre of his little world-circle1 he naturally went on to distinguish between those persons and things that had some special connexion with this centre and those that had not4 ,the consciousness of self was noticed to grow much more distinct in the second half of this year4 ,as might be expected the first idea of #8self' was largely a mental picture of the body4 ,thus the father tells us that when eighteen months old the child would instantly point to himself when he heard his name4 ,if his father touched his face asking who that was1 he replied1 #8,ningi'4 ,here the corporeal reference is manifest4 ,when just over nineteen months1 however1 he showed that the idea was becoming fuller and richer with the germ of what we mean by the word personality4 ,thus when asked to give up something he liked1 as the remnant of a biscuit1 he would say emphatically1 #8,no1 no6 ,ningi6' ,similarly1 when he saw his sister wipe her hands1 he would say #8,ningi6' and proceed to imitate the action4 ,by the end of the twenty-first month the child began to substitute #8me' for #8,ningi'4 ,as we saw above1 the child and the poet have this in common1 that they view things directly as they are1 free from the superficial and arbitrary associations1 the conventional trappings1 by the additions of which we prosaic people are wont to separate them into compartments with absolutely impenetrable walls4 ,hence the freshness1 the charming originality of their utterances4 ,for example1 ,c41 when eighteen months old1 was watching his sister as she dipped her crust into her tea4 ,he was evidently surprised by the rare sight1 and after looking a moment or two1 exclaimed1 8,ba60 7bath71 laughing with delight1 and trying1 as was his wont when deeply interested in a spectacle1 to push his mother's face round so that she too might admire it4 ,the boy delighted in such a figurative use of words1 now employing them as genuine similes1 as when he said of a dog panting after a run1 8,dat bow-wow like puff-puff10 and of the first real ship which he saw sailing with a rocking movement1 8,dat ship go marjory-daw0 7i4e41 like marjory-daw in the nursery rhyme74 ,like many a poet he had his recurring or standing metaphors4 ,thus1 as we have seen1 8ship0 was the figurative expression for all objects having a pyramidal form4 ,a pretty example of his love of metaphor was his habit of calling the needle in a small compass of his father's 8bir0 7bird74 ,it needs a baby mind to detect here the faint resemblance to the slight fragile form and the fluttering movement of a bird poised on its wings4 ,c4 illustrates the anthropocentric impulse to look at natural objects as though they specially aimed at furthering or hindering our well-being4 ,thus he would show all the signs of kingly displeasure when his serenity of mind was disturbed by noises4 ,when he was taken to the sea-side 7about twenty-four months old7 he greatly disappointed his parent1 expectant of childish wonder in his eyes1 by merely muttering1 8,water make noise04#cjb ,again1 he happened one day in the last week of this year to be in the garden with his father while it was thundering4 ,on hearing the sound he said with an evident tone of annoyance1 8,tonna m ,ningi noi10 i4e41 thunder makes noise for ,c41 and he instantly added 8,notty tonna60 7naughty thunder74 ,here1 remarks the father1 he was evidently falling into that habit of mind against which philosophers have often warned us1 making man the measure of the universe4 ----- ,footnote #cjb3 ,he had been at the sea-side a year before this1 but there was no evidence of his having remembered it4 ----- ,the last quarter of this year was marked in ,c4's case by a great enlargement of linguistic power4 ,a marked advance was noticeable in the mastering of the mechanical difficulties of articulation4 ,thus he would surprise his father by suddenly bringing out new and difficult combinations of sound1 as #8flower1' #8water' and #8fetch'4 ,up to about the twenty-first month ,c4's vocabulary had consisted almost entirely of what we should call substantives1 such as1 #8papa1' #8man1' which were used to express the arrival on the scene and the recognition of familiar objects4 ,a few adjectives1 as 8t0 7hot71 8co0 7cold71 8ni-ni0 7nice71 and 8goo0 7good71 were frequently used1 and were apparently beginning to have a proper attributive function assigned them4 ,but these referred rather to the effect of things on the child's feeling than to their inherent qualities4 ,his father failed before this date to convey to him the meaning of 8black0 as applied to a dog4 ,it is noteworthy that the child made considerable advance in the use of 8me0 and 8my0 before he was capable of qualifying objects by appending adjectives to them4 ,the first use of an adjective for indicating some objective quality in a thing occurred at the end of the twenty-first month1 when he exclaimed on seeing a rook fly over his head1 8,big bir60 ,at about the same date other classes of words came to be recognised and used as such1 giving to the child's language something of texture4 ,thus relations of place began to be set forth1 as in using simple words like #8up1' #8down1' #8on'4 ,in some cases the designation of these relations was effected by original artifices which often puzzled the father4 ,for instance the sound #8da' 7or #8dow'7 was used from about the seventeenth month for the departure of a person1 the falling of a toy on the ground1 the completion of a meal4 ,it seemed to be a general sign for #8over' or #8gone'4#cjc ,it is doubtful whether this implied a clear consciousness of a relation of place4 ,sometimes the attempt to express such a relation in the absence of the needed words would lead to a picturesque kind of circumlocution4 ,thus when about twenty-one months old ,c4 saw his father walking in the garden when he and his sister were seated at the luncheon table4 ,he shouted out1 #8,papa 'at off6' thus expressing the desirability of his father's entering and taking part in the family meal4 ----- ,footnote #cjc3 ,compare above1 p4 #afb4 ----- ,similar make-shifts would be resorted to in designating other and more subtle relations4 ,sometimes1 indeed1 the child would expect his hearers to supply the sign of relation1 as when after having smelt the pepper box he put it away with an emphatic #8,papa6' which seemed to the somewhat biassed observer an admirably concise way of expressing the judgment that the pepper might suit his father1 but it certainly did not suit him4 ,a month later 7t4 twenty-two months7 he condescended to be more explicit4 ,having been told by his father that the cheese was bad for ,ningi1 he indulged a growing taste for antithesis by adding1 #8,good1 papa6' ,his ideas of time-relations were at this date of the haziest4 ,he seems to have got a dim inkling of the meaning of #8by-and-by'4 ,his father had managed to stop his crying for a thing by promising it #8by-and-by'4 ,after this when crying he would suddenly pull up1 and with a heroic effort to catch his breath would exclaim1 #8,by-'n'-by6' 8,what 7asks the father7 was the equivalent of this new symbol in the child's consciousness8 ,was he already beginning to seize the big boundless future set over against the fleeting point of the present moment and holding in its ample bosom consolatory promises for myriads of these unhappy presents80 and so forth2 but here he seems to grow even less severely scientific than usual4 ,it may be added that about the same time 7twenty-one months7 the child began to use the word #8now'4 ,thus after drinking his milk he would point to a little remainder at the bottom of his cup and say1 #8,milk dare now1' that is presumably #8there is still milk there'4 ,his ideas of number at this time were equally rudimentary4 ,oddly enough it was just as he was attaining to plurality of years that he began to distinguish with the old ,greeks the one from the many4 ,one was correctly called #8one'4 ,any number larger than one1 on the other hand1 was sometimes styled #8two1'#cjd sometimes #8three1' and sometimes #8two1 three1 four'4 ,he had been taught to say #8one1 two1 three1 four1' by his mother1 but the first lesson in counting had clearly failed to convey more than the difference between unity and multitude4 ,the series of verbal sounds1 #8two1 three1 four1' probably helped him to realise the idea of number1 and in any case it was a forcible way of expressing it4 ----- ,footnote #cjd3 ,i find that another little boy when two years old used #8two' in this way for more than one4 ----- ,as suggested above1 primitive substantive-forms probably do duty as verbs in the language of the child as in that of primitive man4 ,true verbs as differentiated signs of action came into use at the date we are speaking of1 and these began to give to the boy's embryonic speech something of the structure1 the sentence4 ,as one might naturally conjecture from the disproportionate amount of attention manifestly bestowed on this child1 he had all the masterfulness of his kind1 and the first form of the verb to be used was the imperative4 ,thus by the end of the twentieth month he had quite a little vocabulary for giving effect to his sovereign volitions1 such as1 #8,on6' 7get on71 #8,ook6' 7look74 ,it was in the use of commands that he showed some of his finest inventiveness4 ,thus when just seventeen months old he wanted his mother to get up4 ,he began by lifting his hands and saying1 #8,ta1 ta6' 7sign of going out74 ,finding this to be ineffective1 he tried1 with a comical simulation of muscular strength1 to pull or push her up1 at the same time exclaiming1 8,up60 ,the lifting of the hands looked like a bit of picturesque gesture-language4 ,in his twenty-first month he acquired a new and telling word of command1 viz41 #8,way' 7i4e41 out of my way71 as well as the invaluable sign of prohibition1 #8,d' 7i4e41 don't71 both of which1 it need hardly be said1 he began to bandy about pretty freely1 especially in his dealings with his sister4 ,a landmark in ,c4's intellectual development is set by the father at the age of nineteen and a half months4 ,before this date he had only made rather a lame attempt at sentence-building by setting his primitive names in juxtaposition1 e4g41 #8,tit1 mamma1 poo1' which being interpreted means1 #8,sister and mamma1 have pudding'4 ,but now he took a very decided step in advance1 and by a proper use of a verb as such constructed what a logician calls a proposition with its subject and predicate4 ,he happened to observe his sister venting some trouble in the usual girlish fashion1 and exclaimed1 #8,tit ki' 7sister is crying71 following up the assertion by going towards her and trying to stop her4 ,another example of a sentence rather more complex in structure which occurred a fortnight later had also to do with his sister4 ,he saw her lying on her back on the grass1 and exclaimed with all the signs of joyous wonder1 #8,tit dow ga6' 7i4e41 sister is down on the grass74 ,evidently the unpredictable behaviour of this member of his family deeply impressed the young observer4 ,it is noticeable that these first exceptional efforts in assertion were prompted by feeling4#cje ----- ,footnote #cje3 ,compare above1 p4 #aga f4 ----- ,these first tentatives in verbal assertion1 we are told1 sounded very odd owing to the slowness of the delivery and the stress impartially laid on each word4 ,c4 had as yet no inkling of the subtleties of rhetoric1 and was too much taken up with the weighty business of expressing thought somehow to trouble about such niceties as relative emphasis1 and variation of pitch and pace4 ,as a rule1 remarks the father1 it was surprising how suddenly1 as it seemed1 the boy hit on the right succession of verbal sounds4 ,only very rarely would he stumble1 as when after having seen a fly taken out of his milk1 and on being subsequently asked whether he would not be glad to see his sister on her return from a visit1 he said1 #87,y7es1 tell ,ningi 'bout fy' 7,yes1 ,ningi will tell her about the fly74#cjf ----- ,footnote #cjf3 ,see above1 p4 #agc4 ----- ,the impulse to express himself1 to communicate his experiences and observations to others1 seemed to be all-possessing just now1 and odd enough it was to note the make-shifts to which he was now and again driven4 ,one day1 when just twenty and a half months old1 he sat in a chair with a heavyish book which he found it hard to hold up4 ,he turned to his mother and said solemnly1 8,boo go dow0 7the book is going down or falling74 ,then1 as if remarking a look of unintelligence in his audience1 he threw it down and exclaimed1 8,dat60 by which vigorous proceeding he gave a vivid illustration of his meaning4 ,it was noticeable that he would at this time play at sentence-making in a varied imitation of others' assertions1 thereby hitting out some quaint fancy which appeared to amuse him4 ,thus when told that there is a man on the horse he would say1 #8,ningi on horse1' #8,tit on horse1' and so forth4 ,such playful practice in utterance probably furthers the growth of readiness and precision in the use of sentences4 ,the point in the intellectual growth of a child at which he acquires such a mastery of language as to carry on a sustained conversation is a proud and happy one for the fond parent4 ,in the case of ,c4 this date1 twenty-three months and ten days1 is1 of course1 marked with red letters4 ,he made a great noise running about and shouting in his bedroom4 ,his mother came in and rebuked him in the usual form 7#8,naughty6 naughty6'74 ,he thereupon replied1 8,tit mak noi0 7,sister makes the noise74 ,mother 7seriously73 8,sister is at school04 ,c41 with a still bolder look3 8,mamma make noi04 ,mother 7with convulsive effort to suppress laughing1 still more emphatically73 8,no1 mamma was in the other room04 ,c4 7looking archly at his doll1 known as ,may73 8,may make noi04 ,this sally was followed by a good peal of boyish laughter4 ,the father evidently feels that this incident is highly suggestive of a lack of moral sense4 ,so he thinks it well to add to the observation that the child had all the normal moral sensibility4 ,but of this more presently4 ,we may now pass to the comparatively few observations 7other than those already dealt with under verbal utterance7 which refer to the child's feelings4 ,as already remarked1 he was1 like most other children1 peevish and cross in the first year1 and ,i regret to say that the diary refers more than once to violent outbursts of infantile rage in the second year also4 ,here is one sample entry 7t4 nineteen months73 ,feelings of greediness1 covetousness and spite begin to manifest themselves with alarming distinctness4 ,when asked to give up a bit of pudding he says1 8,no10 in a coy1 shy sort of manner1 turning away4 ,when further pressed he grows angry4 ,on the other hand1 he clamours for his sister's dolls1 and bears refusal with very ill grace4 ,when1 given up as hopelessly naughty1 he is handed over to the nurse1 and carried out of the room by this long-suffering person1 he ferociously slaps her on the face4 ,this slap appears not to be a pure invention1 his sister having been driven more than once to visit him with this chastisement4 ,he will also go up and slap his sister when she cries4 ,he probably puts the nurse who carries him out and the sister who cries in the same category of naughty people4 ,sometimes he seems quite overpowered by vexation of spirit1 and will lie down on the floor on his face and have a good1 long1 satisfying cry4 ,the child's timidity has already been touched on4 ,at the age of sixteen months1 we are told1 the sight of the drawing of a lion accompanied by roaring noises imitated by the father would greatly terrify him1 driving him to his mother1 in whose bosom he would hide his face1 drawing down his under lip in an ominous way4 ,two months later the diary tells us that the child has had a fright4 ,one day a lady called with a dog1 which secreted itself under the table1 and later on suddenly rushed out and made for ,master ,c4 ,the shock was such that since that time whenever he hears a strange noise he runs to his mother1 exclaiming1 #8,bow-wow6' in a terrified manner4 ,before the close of the year1 however1 he began to show a manlier temper4 ,the sight of a dog still made him run towards his mother and cling to her1 but as soon as the animal moved off he would look up into her face laughingly and repeat the consolatory saying which she herself had taught him3 8,ni 7nice7 bow-wow6 bow-wow like ,ningi04 ,in this humble fashion did he make beginning at the big task of manning himself to face the terrors of things4 ,as pointed out above1 he extended his dislike to sudden and loud noises to inanimate objects4 ,thus in the last week of the year he was evidently put out1 if not actually frightened1 by hearing distant thunder2 and about the same date1 as we have seen1 he showed a similar dislike to the sea when first taken near it4 ,he would not approach it for some days1 and he cried when he saw his father swimming in it4 ,it is sad in going through the pages of the diary to note that there is scarcely any observation during this second year on the development of kindly feelings4 ,one would have supposed that with all the affection and care lavished on him ,c4 might have manifested a little tenderness in response4 ,the only incident put down under the head of social feeling in this year is the following 7t4 twenty months73 8,when he eats porridge in the morning at the family breakfast he takes a look round and says3 #8,mamma1 ,tit1 papa1 ,ningi1' appearing to be pleased at finding himself sharing in a common enjoyment4 ,this 7continues the narrator7 is a step onward from the anti-social attitude which he took up not long since when some of his mother's egg was given to his sister and he shouted prohibitively3 #8,no6 no6'0 ,the worthy parent appears to be making the most of very small mercies here4 ,yet in justice to this child it must be said that he seems to have shown even at this tender age the rudiment of a conscience4 ,the father is satisfied1 indeed1 that he displayed an instinctive respect for command or law4 8,thus10 he says1 8when sixteen months old the child hung down his head or hid it in his mother's breast when for the first time ,i scolded him40 ,he goes on to say that after having been forbidden to do a thing1 as to touch the coal scuttle or to take up his food with his fingers1 he will stop just as he is going to do it1 and take on a curious look of timidity or shamefacedness4 ,he seemed1 too1 before the end of the second year1 to be getting to understand something of the meaning of that recurrent nursery-word #8naughty1' and the less frequent #8good'4 ,when seventeen months old his father tried him1 on what looked like the approach of an outburst of temper1 with a #8,cliffy1 be good6' uttered in a firm peremptory manner4 ,the child's noise was at once arrested1 and on the father's asking3 #8,is ,cliffy good8' he answered1 #8,ea1' his sign for #8yes'4 ,a little later he showed that he strongly disliked being called naughty1--vigorously remonstrating when so described with an emphatic1 #8,no1 no6 good6' ,he seems to have followed the usual childish order in beginning to apply 8naughty0 to others1 his sister more particularly1 much sooner than 8good04 ,it was not till the middle of the twenty-first month that he recognised moral desert in this long-suffering sister4 ,after a little upset of temper on her part1 when the crying was over1 he remarked in a quiet approving tone1 #8,goo6' and on being asked by his mother who was good he answered1 #8,tit'4 ,as our example of his dawning powers of conversation may suggest1 ,c4 early developed the childish sense of fun4 ,most if not all children love pretence or make-believe4 ,here is an example of this childish tendency4 ,when about eighteen months old during a short visit to his father's room ,c4 happened to be walking in the direction of the door4 ,his father at once said1 #8,ta ta1' just as if the child were really going away4 ,c4 instantly entered into the joke1 repeating the #8ta ta1' moving towards the door1 then returning1 and so renewing the pretty little fraud4 ,sometimes1 as parents know1 this impish love of make-believe comes very inconveniently into conflict with discipline and authority4 ,one day1 about the same date1 he got hold of a photograph portrait of an uncle of his4 ,his mother bade him give it up to her4 ,he walked towards her looking serious enough1 nearly put it into her hand1 and then suddenly drew his hands back laughing4 ,in other examples of laughter given in this chapter we see something very like contempt4 ,when two years and eight months old he was observed to laugh out loudly on surveying his small india-rubber horse1 the head of which had somehow got twisted back and caught between the hind legs and the tail4 ,he then waxed tender and said pityingly1 8,poor gee-gee60 8,here10 writes the father in his most ponderous manner1 8we see an excellent example of the capricious and variable attitude of the childish mind towards its toys1 an attitude closely paralleled by that of the savage towards his fetich40 ,the two or three notes on the development of the active powers have to do with the application of intelligence to manual and other performances4 ,here is one4 ,at the age of seventeen months he was sitting at table with the family when he found himself in want of some bread and butter4 ,he tried his customary petition1 #8,bup1' but to no purpose4 ,he then stretched out his hand towards the bread knife1 repeating the request4 ,a day or two after this the father put his inventive powers to a severer proof4 ,he placed the knife out of his reach4 ,when the desire for more recurred he grew very impatient1 looking towards his father and saying #8,bup' with much vehemence of manner4 ,at length1 getting more excited1 he bethought him of a new expedient and pointed authoritatively to his empty plate4 ,some of these practical tentatives were rather amusing4 ,one day1 just a month after the date of the last incident1 he had two keys1 one in each hand4 ,with one of these he proceeded to try the keyhole of the door1 oddly enough1 however1 holding it by the wrong end and inserting the handle4 ,now came the difficulty of turning it4 ,two hands at the very least were needed1 but unhappily the other hand was engaged with the second key1 which was not to be relinquished for an instant4 ,so the little fellow1 with the inventive resource of a monkey 7the father naturally says of an #8engineer'71 proceeded to use his teeth as pincers1 clutching the obstinate key between these and trying to turn it with the head4 ,at this date he had acquired considerable skill in the manipulation of door handles and keys4 ,a certain cupboard was a peculiarly fascinating mystery1 appealing at once to the desires of the flesh and to a disinterested curiosity1 and he was soon master of the #8open sesame' to its spacious and obscure recesses4 ,by far the most respectable exhibition of will about this time was in the way of self-restraint4 ,i have already remarked how he would try to pull himself together when prostrated by fear of the dog4 ,a similarly quaint attempt at self-mastery would occur during his outbreaks of temper4 ,the father says he had got into the way1 when the child was inclined to be impatient and teasing1 of putting up his finger1 lowering his brow1 and saying with emphasis3 #8,cliffy1 be good6' ,after this when inclined to be naughty he would suddenly and quite spontaneously pull himself up1 hold up his finger and lower his brow as if reprimanding himself4 8,the observation is curious10 writes the father1 in his graver manner1 8as suggesting that self-restraint may begin by an imitation of the action of extraneous authority40#cjg ----- ,footnote #cjg3 ,compare the similar instances given above1 p4 #bhg4 ----- ,third ,year4 ,one cannot help regretting on entering upon the third chapter of ,c4's biography that the father gives us no account of his physical development4 ,this is a desideratum not only from a scientific but from a literary point of view4 ,biographers rightly describe the look of their hero1 and1 if possible1 they aid the imagination of their reader by a portrait4 ,the reader of this child's history has nothing1 not even a bare reference to height1 by which he can form an image of the concrete personality whose sayings and doings are here recorded2 and these sayings and doings begin now to grow really interesting4 ,there is very little in the notes of this year respecting the growth of observation4 ,when the child was two years five months old the father appears to have made a rather lame attempt to determine the order in which he learnt the colours4 ,he says that he placed the several colours before him and taught him the names1 and found as a result that the order of acquisition was the following3 red1 blue1 yellow1 and green4 ,it is added that blue was distinguished some time before green4 ,his observations1 taken along with those of ,preyer and others1 are interesting as seeming to suggest that the order in which the colours are learnt differs considerably in the case of individual children4#cjh ,in the eighth month of this year we find a note to the effect that the boy discriminates and recognises colour well4 ,this is illustrated by the fact that he at once calls grey with a slightly greenish tinge #8green'4 ,the connexion between the possession of suitable vocables and explicit discrimination is seen in the fact that whereas he applies the name blue not only to the several varieties of that colour but also to violet1 he uses 8red0 as the name for certain reds only1 excepting pink1 which is called 8pink10 and deep purple red1 which is called 8brown04 ----- ,footnote #cjh3 ,see above1 p4 #ai f4 ----- ,the third year is epoch-making in the history of memory4 ,it is now that impressions begin to work themselves into the young consciousness so deeply and firmly that they become a part of the permanent stock-in-trade of the mind4 ,the earliest recollections of most of us do not reach back beyond this date1 if indeed so far4 ,in ,c4's case the father was able to observe this fixing and consolidating of impressions4 ,for instance1 when two years and two months old he had been staying for a month or so at a farmhouse in a little sea-side village1 ,d----1 where there was a sheep dog yclept ,bob4 ,some three and a half months later he happened1 during one of his walks in his ,london suburb1 to see a sheep dog1 whereupon he remarked1 #8,dat old ,bob1 ,i dink'4 ,a week or two after this1 on seeing the picture of a wind-mill1 he remarked1 ,dat like down at ,d----4 ,later on1 six months after this visit1 on being asked what honey was1 he remarked that he had had some at ,d----4 ,nine months after this visit his father was talking to him about the game of cricket4 ,he then said1 ,oh1 yes 7his favourite expression just now when he understands71 ,i 'member1 ,jingo ran after ball down at ,d----4 ,as a matter of fact his father and friends used to play tennis at ,d----1 and ,jingo1 the sheep dog1 did pretend to #8field' the balls1 often in a highly inconvenient fashion4 ,it is evident from these quotations that the experiences at ,d----1 just at the beginning of the third year1 had woven themselves into the tissue of his permanent memory4 ,the father remarks in a footnote that ,c4 retains a certain recollection of ,d---- at present1 that is to say1 in his fourteenth year4 ,these lively recallings show a growth of imaginative power1 and this was seen in other ways too4 ,thus it is remarked by the father in the fourth month of the year that he was getting much comfort from anticipation4 ,if there are apples or other things on the table which he likes but must not have1 he will philosophically remark1 8,ningi have apples by-and-by when he big boy04 ,he says this with much emphasis1 rising at the end to a shouting tone1 and half breaking out into jubilant laughter4 ,the childish power of vivid imaginative realisation was abundantly illustrated in his play4 ,here is a sample 7end of fourth month74 ,his sister went to the end of the room and said 7with a reference to their recent visit to the sea-side73 #8,i'm going far away on the beach'4 ,he then began to whisper something1 and went under the table and said distinctly3 #8,ningi go away from ,tit1 far away on beach'4 ,he repeated this with tremulous voice1 and at length burst out crying4 ,he wept also when his sister pretended to do the same1 so that these little tragic representations had to be stopped as dangerously exciting4 ,it has often been said that #8fibbing' in young children is the outcome of a vivid imagination4 ,c4 illustrated this4 ,as the example given under the second year shows1 his daring in inventing untruth and passing it off as truth was pure play1 and frankly shown to be so by the accompaniment of a hearty laugh4 ,this tendency to invent continued to assert itself4 ,thus when 7in the eighth month7 he is asked a question1 as1 8,who told you so80 and has no suitable answer ready he will say1 #8,dolly1' showing his sense of the fun of the thing by a merry laugh4 ,the father remarks that it is a little difficult to bring heavy moral artillery to bear on this playful fibbing which is evidently intended much more to astonish than to deceive4#cji ----- ,footnote #cji3 ,compare above1 p4 #bed4 ----- ,we may now see what progress ,c4 was making in thinking power during this year4 ,it is during the third year that children may be expected to get a much better hold on the slippery forms of language1 and at the same time to show in connexion with a freer and more extensive use of language a finer and deeper insight into the manifold relations of things4 ,in ,c4's case1 to judge by the journal1 the progress of speech advanced at a normal pace1 neither hurrying nor yet greatly loitering4 ,articulation1 the father remarks early in the year1 has got much more precise1 only a few sounds seeming to occasion difficulty1 as for example the initial s1 which he transforms into an aspirate1 saying1 for example1 #8huga' for sugar4 ,a noticeable linguistic advance is registered in the fourth month of the year1 viz41 a kind of sudden and energetic raid on the names of objects and persons4 8,he is always asking the names of things now 7writes our chronicler74 ,thus1 after calling a common object1 as a brush1 by its name he will ask me1 #8,what is the name of this8' ,perhaps he thinks that everything has its own exclusive or #8proper' name as he has4 ,he is beginning to note1 too1 that some things have more than one proper name1 that his mother1 for example1 though called #8ma' by himself1 is addressed by her ,christian name by me1 and so forth4 ,when asked1 #8,what is ,ningi's name8' he now answers1 #8,kifford'40 ,what is far more significant1 he now 7t4 two years three months7 began to use #8you' in addressing his father or mother1 also #8me' and #8,i'4 ,but these changes are so momentous and epoch-making in the history of the young intelligence that they will have to be specially considered later on4 ,like other children he showed a fine contempt for the grammatical distinctions of pronominal forms4 ,thus #8me' was used for #8mine1' #8her' for #8she1' #8she's' for #8hers1' #8him' for #8he' and for #8his1' #8us' for #8our1' and so forth4#caj ,it is pretty clear that none of these solecisms was due to an imitation of others' incorrect speech1 and they appear to show the action of the principle of biological economy1 a few word-sounds being made to do duty for a number of relations 7e4g41 in the use of #8me' for #8my'71 and familiar word-sounds being modified according to analogy of other modifications where older people use a quite new form 7#8she's' for #8hers'74 ,a similar disposition to simplify and rationalise the tongue of his ancestors showed itself in the use of verbs4 ,thus1 if his mother said1 #8,cliffy1 you are not good1' he would reply in a perfectly rational manner1 8,yes1 ,i are04 8,it was odd10 writes the father1 8to hear him bring out in solemn judge-like tones such terrible solecisms as #8,him haven't1' yet there was a certain logical method in his lawlessness40 ,another simplification on which he hit in common with other children was the use of #8did' as a sign of past tense1 thus saving himself all the trouble of understanding the irregular behaviour of our verbs4#caa ----- ,footnote #caj3 ,later on towards the end of the year he oddly enough seemed disposed to reverse his early practice1 using for example #8she' for #8her1' and even going to the length of correcting his sister for saying #8,somebody gave her1' by remarking with all the dogmatism of the most pedantic of grammarians1 8,no1 ,e41 you must say #8,gave she'04 ,footnote #caa3 ,compare above1 p4 #agf f4 ,c4's father probably makes too much of the principle of economy here4 ,thus1 like other children1 the boy was wont to use double negatives1 e4g41 8,dare isn't no water in dat cup10 where there is clearly a redundance4 ----- ,one or two quaint applications of words are noted4 ,thus towards the end of the third month of this year he took to using #8cover' in a somewhat puzzling fashion4 ,thus he once pointed to the back of his hand and remarked1 #8,no milk on this cover'4 ,the father suspects that the term connoted for his consciousness an outside part or the outer surface of an object4 ,a very noticeable improvement took place in the forming of sentences4 ,all sorts of questions 7writes the chronicler7 are now put correctly and neatly1 as1 #8,where are you going to8' #8,where did that come from8' ,he is now striking out most ambitiously in new and difficult directions1 not fighting shy even of such school-horrors as conditional clauses 7as they used to be called1 at least74 ,very funny it must have been to watch these efforts1 and the ingenuities of construction to which the little learner found himself driven4 ,for example1 he happened one morning 7end of fourth month7 when in his father's bedroom to hear a knocking in the adjoining room4 ,he walked about the room remarking to himself1 #8,i can't make out somebody1' which seemed his own original fashion of avoiding the awkwardness of our elaborate form1 8,i can't make out who the person is 7that is knocking704 ,a still quainter illustration of the skill with which he found his way out of linguistic difficulties is the following4 ,his sister once said to him 7first week of fifth month71 #8,you had better not do that1' whereupon he replied1 8,i think me better will04 ,here is a sample of his mode of dealing with conditionals 7end of sixteenth month71 8,if him 7a tree7 would be small1 ,i would climb up04 ,his highly individualised language1 remarks the father1 was rendered more picturesque by the recurrence of certain odd expressions which he picked up and applied in his own royal fashion4 ,one of these was1 8,well1 it might be different10 which he often used when corrected for a fault1 and on other occasions as a sort of formula of protestation against what he thought to be an exaggerated statement4 ,we may now notice some new manifestations of thinking power4 ,all thought1 we are told1 proceeds by the finding out of similarities and dissimilarities4 ,c4 continued to note the resemblances of things4 ,thus one day 7end of second month7 he noticed the dog ,jingo breathing quickly after a smart run and observed1 #8,like puff-puff'4 ,but what was much more noticeable this year was the boy's impulse to draw distinctions and contrasts4 ,it may certainly be said in his case that likeness was distinctly apprehended before difference1 that in the development of his rhetoric the antithesis followed the simile4 ,one of the first contrasts to impress the tender consciousness of children is that of size4 ,this comes out among other ways in their habit of setting their own puny persons in antithesis to big grown-up folk1 a habit sufficiently attested by the recurring expressions1 8,when ,i am big10 8,when ,i am a man04 ,c41 like other children1 took to denoting a contrast of size by a figurative extension of the relation1 mamma--baby4 ,thus it was noted 7end of seventh month7 that he would call a big tree 8mamma tree10 and a shrub 8baby tree04 ,one day he pointed to the clock on the mantel-piece and talked of the #8big mamma clock'4 ,he had1 it seems1 just before been playing with his father's watch1 which he also called clock4#cab ----- ,footnote #cab3 ,compare above1 p4 #afc f4 ----- ,this love of contrasting appeared in a striking manner in connexion with the use of propositions4 ,if1 for example 7third month71 his father says1 8,that's a little watch10 he at once brings out the point of the statement by adding1 #8,that not a big watch'4 ,the same perception of contrast would sometimes help him to take the edge off a disagreeable prohibition when unguardedly worded4 ,thus when told one day not to make much noise1 he considered and rejoined1 8,make little noise04 ,a more subtle perception of contrast betrayed itself towards the end of the ninth month4 ,his father had been speaking to him of the little calf which made a big noise4 ,he mentally turned over this astonishing bit of contrariness in the order of things1 and then observed with a sage gravity1 8,big calf not make little noise10 which so far as the limited faculties of the observer could say appeared to mean that the contrast between size and sound did not hold all round1 that the big sound emerging from the little thing was an exception to the order of nature4 ,in connexion with this habit of opposing qualities and statements reference may be made to the curious manner in which the boy expressed negation4 ,it was evidently a difficulty for him to get hold of the negative particle1 and to deny straight away1 so to speak4 ,at first 7beginning of the year7 he seemed to indicate negation or rejection merely by tone of voice4 ,thus he would say about something which he evidently did not like1 #8,ningi like that1' with a peculiar querulous tone which was apparently equivalent to the appendage #8,n4,b4 ironical'4 ,about a fortnight later he expressed negation by first making the correlative affirmation and adding #8,no1' thus3 ,ningi like go in water--no6 ,a week later1 it is noted1 #8no' was prefixed to the statement1 as when he shouted1 #8,no1 no1 naughty ,jingo1' in contradiction of somebody who had called the dog naughty4 ,towards the end of the third month #8not' came to be used as an alternative for #8no' which little by little it displaced4 ,the father remarks that ,c4's sister had had a similar trick of opposing statements1 e4g41 8,dat ,e4's cup1 not mamma's cup04 ,he then proceeds to observe in his somewhat heavy didactic manner that these facts are of curious psychological and logical interest1 showing us that negation follows affirmation1 and can at first only be carried out by a direct mental confronting of an affirmation1 and so forth4#cac ----- ,footnote #cac3 ,on the use of antithesis in children's language and on the early forms of negation1 see above1 p4 #agd f4 ----- ,as already shown by the reference to the use of #8somebody' ,c4's thought was growing slightly more abstract4 ,yet how slow this advance was is illustrated in his way of dealing with time-relations1 some of the most difficult1 as it would seem1 for the young mind to grapple with4 ,at the end of the second month the ideas of time1 we are told1 were growing more exact1 so far at least that he was able to distinguish a present time from both a past and a future4 ,he called the present variously #8now1' #8a day' 7to-day7 or #8dis morning'4#cad ,the present seemed1 so far as the father could judge1 to be conceived of as a good slice of time4 #8,to-morrow' and #8by-and-by' now served to express the idea of futurity1 the former referring to a nearer and more definitely conceived tract of time than the latter4 ,that the child had no clear apprehension of our time-divisions is seen not only in his loose employment of #8dis morning1' but in his habitual confusion of the names of meals1 as in calling dinner #8tea1' tea #8dinner' or #8breakfast1' and so forth4 ----- ,footnote #cad3 ,a note in the diary says that ,c4's sister had also used #8this morning' in a similar way for any present4 ,can this curious habit arise1 he asks1 from the circumstance that children hear #8this morning' more frequently than #8this afternoon' and #8this evening1' or that they are more wakeful and observant in the early part of the day8 ----- ,another abstruse idea for the child's mind is that of absence4 ,it would seem as if this were thought of at first as a disappearance4 ,as all mothers know1 when a child is asked where somebody is he answers1 #8,all gone'4 ,c41 on his return from ,d---- 7end of second month71 when asked where the people and the highly interesting ,jingo were1 would say1 #8,all gone1' and sometimes add picturesquely1 #8in the puff-puff'4#cae ----- ,footnote #cae3 7,note of the father47 ,c41 on leaving ,d----1 had travelled by the train4 ,he may1 therefore1 have intended merely to say 8removed from sight through the agency of the locomotive04 ,from other examples1 however1 it would look as if the boy meant to explain all disappearance as a removal from his own local sphere4 ----- ,the acquisition of clearer ideas about self and others has been touched on in connexion with the growth of the boy's language4 ,the first use of #8,i' and the contemporaneous first use of #8you' 7end of third month7 seem to point to a new awakening of the intelligence to the mystery of self1 and of its unique position in relation to other things4 ,there is to the father evidently something pathetic in the gradual abandonment of the self-chosen name1 #8,ningi1' of the early days1 and the adoption of the common-place #8,i' of other people4 ,but we need not attend to his sentimental musings on this point4 ,the exchange1 we are told1 was effected gradually1 as if to make it easier to his hearers4 ,at first 7beginning of year7 we have #8me' brought on the scene1 which1 be it observed1 did duty both for #8me' and for #8my'4#caf ,later on followed #8,i1' as an occasional substitute for #8me1' as if he were beginning to see a difference between the two1 though unable to say wherein precisely it lay4 ,within less than a month1 we are told1 the child was beginning to use 8,kikkie0 as his name in place of 8,ningi10 which 8,kikkie0 was afterwards improved into 8,kifford04 8,it was evident 7writes the narrator7 that in venturing on the slippery ground of #8,i' and #8you' he experienced a sudden accession of manly spirit1 as a result of which he began to despise the #8,ningi' of yore40 ,but dear old #8,ningi' did not go out all at once1 and we read so late as the end of the third month of his amusing his mother when standing on the window-sill of the nursery by remarking thoughtfully1 8,how am ,i1 ,ningi1 come down80 ,here1 it would seem evident1 the addition of #8,ningi' was intended to help the faculties of his mother in case this still puzzling 8,i0 should prove too much for them4 ,by the end of the fourth month we read that #8,i' was growing less shy1 not merely coming on the scene in familiar and safe verbal companionship1 as in expressions like #8,i can1' but boldly pushing its way alone or in new combinations4#cag ,by the sixth month 7t4 two and a half7 the name ,ningi may be said to have disappeared from his vocabulary4 ,his rejection of it was formally announced at the age of two years seven and a half months4 ,on being asked at this date whether he was ,ningi he answered1 8,no1 my name ,kiffie04 ,he then added1 8,ningi name of another little boy10 very much as in a remarkable case of double personality described by ,m4 ,pierre ,janet1 the transformed personality looking back on the original observed1 8,that good woman is not myself04 ,he looked roguish in saying this1 as if there were something funny in the idea of altered personality4 ,the determination to be conventional was shown at the same date in the fact that when1 for example1 the mother or father1 following the old habit1 would bid him go and ask the nurse to wash 8,cliffie's hands10 he would1 in delivering the message1 substitute 8my hands04 ,by the end of the year #8,i' came to be habitually used for self1 as in answering a question1 e4g41 8,who did this or that80 ,tyrannous custom had now completely prevailed over infantile preferences4 ----- ,footnote #caf3 ,the chronicler observes here that ,c4's sister had also used the same expression for #8,i' and #8mine1' viz41 8my04 ,it looks as if the me and its belongings were not at first differentiated4 ,even of the later and maturer ideas of self a well-known ,american psychologist writes3 8,between what a man calls me and what he simply calls mine the line is difficult to draw04 ,compare above1 p4 #aha4 ,footnote #cag3 ,the same holds true of #8me1' which was first used only in particular connexions1 as #8,give me'4 ----- ,during the third year ,c4 seemed determined to prove to his parents and sister that he had attained the age of reason4 ,he began to ply these well-disposed persons with all manner of questionings4 ,sometimes1 indeed1 as when in the case already referred to he would ask for the names of things just after calling them by their names1 the long-suffering mother was half inclined to regret the acquisition of speech1 so much did it present itself at this stage in the light of an instrument of torture4 ,but the child's questionings were rarely attributable to a spirit of persecution or to sheer 8cussedness04 ,he began in the usual manner of children to ask3 #8,who made this and that8' 7early in the fourth month74 ,that there is a simple process of reasoning behind this question is seen in his sometimes suggesting an answer thus3 8,who made papa poorly8 ,blackberries20 where there was obviously a reference to an unpleasant personal experience4 ,his mind about this time seemed greatly exercised in the matter of sickness and health4 ,one day 7middle of sixth month7 walking out with his mother he met a man1 whereupon ensued this dialogue3 ,c4 #8,is that a poorly gentleman8' ,m4 #8,no4' ,c4 #8,is that a well gentleman8' ,m4 #8,yes4' ,c4 #8,then who made him well8' ,from which 7writes the father7 it would look as if1 just as ,plato could only conceive of pleasure as a transition from pain1 ,master ,c4 could only conceive of health as a process of convalescence4#cah ----- ,footnote #cah3 ,this reminds one of the childish use of #8broken' and #8mended1' illustrated above1 p4 #ih4 ----- ,another way of prying into the origin of things seems worth mentioning4 ,having found out that certain pretty things in the house had been 8bought10 he proceeded with the characteristic recklessness of the childish mind to assume that all nice things come to us this way4 ,one day 7middle of third month7 he asked his father1 8,who bought lady80 lady being an alabaster figure of ,sappho4 ,the father then asked him1 and he answered3 8,mamma04 ,asked further where1 he replied3 8,in town04 ,this looked like romancing1 but it is hard to draw the line between childish romancing and serious thought4 ,he may have really inferred that the alabaster lady had come to the house that way4 ,a still funnier example of the application of his purchasing idea occurred at the date1 three months and one week4 ,stroking his mother's face he said3 8,nice dear mother1 who bought you80 ,what1 asks the father1 did he understand by bought8 ,perhaps only some mysterious way of obtaining possession of nice pretty things4 ,the other form of reason-hunting question1 #8,what for8' or #8,why8' came to be used about the same time as 8,who made80 etc4 ,in putting these questions he would sometimes suggest answers of a deliciously childish sort 7as the writer has it74 ,thus one day 7beginning of fourth month7 he saw his father putting small numbered labels on a set of drawers1 and after his customary 8,what dat for80 added half inquiringly1 8,to deep drawers nice and warm80 ,c4 would pester his parents by asking not only why things were as they were1 but why they were not different from what they were4 ,thus 7end of third month7 on seeing in a nursery book a picture of ,reynard the fox waving his hat he asked in his slow emphatic way3 #8,why not dat fox put on his hat8' ,in a similar way he would ask his mother why she did not go to school1 and so forth4#cai ----- ,footnote #cai3 ,compare above1 p4 #hf ff4 ----- ,with this questioning there went a certain amount of confident assertion respecting the reasons of things4 ,at first ,c4 proceeded modestly1 reproducing reasons given by an adequate authority4 ,thus when told during his stay at ,d---- that he would not go into the sea to-day1 he would supplement the announcement by adding the reason as given before by his mother1 e4g41 8',cause it's too cold10 or1 8',cause big waves to-day04 ,very soon1 however1 he took a step forward and discovered reasons for himself4 ,one day 7end of fifth month7 his father was seating him at table1 and was about to add a second cushion to the chair when he remarked in his gravest of manners1 8,i can't put my leg in1 you know 7i4e41 under the table71 if me be higher04 ,here is another of these specimens of reasoning1 dating two weeks later1 and based like the first on direct observation4 ,his father was walking out with him on the famous ,heath of their suburb4 ,the former1 probably more than half lost in one of his trains of philosophic speculation1 observed absent-mindedly1 8,why are these babas 7sheep7 running away80 ,c4 promptly took up the question and answered with vigour1 8',cause the bow-wow dare with man04 ,as a matter of fact a man was approaching with a small dog1 which the father in his reverie had failed to see4 ,of course1 the reasoning was not always so consonant with our standard as in these two examples4 ,c4 appears to have had his own ideas about the way in which things come about4 ,for example1 he seems to have argued1 like certain scholastic logicians1 that the effect must resemble the cause4 ,at least1 after finding out that his milk came from the cow1 he referred the coldness of his milk one morning 7towards end of fourth month7 to the coldness of the cow1--which property of that serviceable quadruped was1 of course1 a pure invention of his own4 ,just three months later he came out one morning with the momentous announcement1 ,milk comes from the white cow down at ,d----2 and on being asked by his ever-attentive father what sort of milk the brown cow gave1 instantly replied1 #8,brown milk'2 where1 again1 it must be admitted1 he came suspiciously near romancing4 ,he seems1 further1 to have shown slight respect for the logical maxim that the same effect may be brought about in more than one way4 ,for ,c4 nature was delightfully simple1 and everything happened in one way1 and in one way only4 ,so that1 for example1 when during a walk 7end of sixth month7 his glove happened to slip off1 he proceeded in a most hasty and unfair manner to set down the catastrophe to the malignity of the wind1 exclaiming1 8,naughty wind to blow off glove04 ,a like want of maturity of judgment in dealing with the subtle connexions of nature's processes showed itself in other ways4 ,thus he argued as if the same agency would always bring about like results1 whatever the material dealt with4 ,an amusing illustration of this occurred in the latter half of the tenth month4 ,he was observed towards the end of a meal pouring water on sundry bits of bread on his plate1 and on being asked why he was doing this1 said3 #8,to melt them1 of course'4 ,one of his thoroughly original ideas was that other things besides living ones grow bigger with time4 ,one day 7middle of sixth month7 he began to use a short stick as a walking-stick4 ,his mother objected that it was not big enough1 on which he observed3 8,me use it for walking-stick when stick be bigger04 ,in like manner just a month later he remarked1 apropos of a watch-key which was too small for the father's watch1 that it would be able to wind up the watch #8when it grow bigger'4 ,so far as the father could observe it was only little things which he thought would increase in size4 ,it thus looked1 adds the father1 like a kind of extension of the supreme law of his own small person to the whole realm of wee and despised objects4#cbj ----- ,footnote #cbj3 ,compare above1 p4 #ig f4 ----- ,c4 followed other children and the race which he so well represented in supposing that sensation is not confined to the animal world4 ,thus towards the end of the eleventh month when warned in the garden not to touch a bee as it might sting1 he at once observed3 8,it might sting the flower04 8,it is odd10 interpolates the father here1 8that ,c4's sister1 when1 towards the end of her fourth year1 she was bidden not to touch a wasp on the window-pane1 had gone further than ,c4 by suggesting that it might sting the glass4 ,everything seems to live and to feel in the child's first fancy-created world40#cba ----- ,footnote #cba3 ,compare above1 p4 #if ff4 ----- ,towards the end of the year1 it appears1 ,c4 developed considerable smartness in logical fencings with his mother and others1 warding off unpleasant prohibitions by a specious display of argument4 ,for example1 when told that something he wanted would make him poorly1 he rejoined3 #8,i am poorly1' evidently thinking that he had convicted his estimable parent of what logicians call irrelevant conclusion4 ,one cannot say that these first incursions into the domain of logic do ,master ,c4 particular credit4 ,perhaps we may see later on that he came to use his rational faculty with more skill and precision1 and to turn it to nobler uses than the invention of subterfuges whereby he might get his wilful way4 ,the notes on the development of the feelings continue to be rather scanty4 ,i will reproduce one or two of the more note-worthy4 ,the visit to ,d---- was attended with a great change in his feeling for animals4 ,he no longer feared them4 ,jingo1 spite of his warlike name1 was an amiable creature1 and seems to have reconciled him to the canine species4 ,cats1 too1 now came in for special affection4 ,he would watch the animals in ,d----1 horses1 cows1 and especially ducks1 with quiet delight for many minutes1 imitating their sounds4 ,strange to say1 now that fear had gone he showed himself disposed to take liberties with animals4 ,thus he would slap ,jingo and even his favourite cat in moments of displeasure1 just as he and his sister before him used to slap their dolls4 ,a new emotion showed itself towards the end of the fourth month1 viz41 shyness4 ,if his parents unguardedly spoke about him at table he would hang down his head and put his hands over his face4 ,so far as the father could observe this expression of shyness was unlearned4 ,his sister1 it appears1 had not been remarkable for the feeling4 ,the father observes that the fact of this new feeling synchronising with the acquisition of the use of #8,i1' #8my1' etc41 seems to show that it was connected with the growth of self-consciousness4 ,his sense of fun continued to develop1 though it still had a decidedly rude and primitive character4 ,when just four months on in the year his father amused him by battering in an old hat of his own4 ,he broke into loud laughter at this performance4 ,we know1 writes the observer1 how the sight of a hat in trouble convulses the grown mind4 ,can it be that ,c4 was already forming associations of dignity with this completion and crown of human apparel8 ,tender emotion1 as became a boy1 perhaps1 was in abeyance4 ,he rarely indulged in manifestations of love1 or if he did1 it must have been towards his mother secretly in a confidence that was never violated4 ,here is one of the few instances recorded 7beginning of eighth month74 ,he happened to see his own picture in his mother's eye and said in a highly sentimental tone3 8,dear pitty little picture1 ,i do love 'oo10 and then proceeded to kiss his mother's eyelid4 ,it was little things1 as kittens1 flowers1 and so forth1 which seemed to move him to this occasional melting mood4 ,the sympathetic feelings though still weak may be said to be slowly developing4 ,thus in the first month of the year it is remarked that he now thinks of his sister when absent1 so that if he has the highly-prized enjoyment of a biscuit he will suggest that #8,tit have bisc too'4 ,this year witnessed the formation of more definite sthetic likings in the matter of colours and forms4 ,his dislike for a black cat and black things generally1 may perhaps be called in a way a preference of taste4 ,in his animal picture-books1 of which he was now growing very fond1 he showed a marked dislike for a monkey with an open mouth1 also for the rhinoceros1 and strong likings1 on the other hand1 for birds in general1 also for horses and zebras4 ,he began to learn nursery rhymes1 and showed a good ear for rhyme4 ,thus in saying3-- ,goosey goosey gander1 ,where shall ,i wander8 he was observed 7end of tenth month7 to correct the rhyme by first pronouncing the a in 8wander0 less broadly than is our wont1 just as in 8gander10 and then substituting the conventional pronunciation4 ,the moral side of the child's nature appears during this year to have undergone noticeable changes4 ,the most striking fact which comes out in the picture of the boy as painted in the present chapter is the sudden emergence of self-will4 ,he began now to show himself a veritable rebel against parental authority4 ,thus we read 7about the end of the sixth week7 that when corrected for slapping ,jingo1 or other fault1 he would remain silent and half laugh in a cold contemptuous way1 which must have been shocking to his worthy parents4 ,a month later we hear of an alarming increase of self-will4 ,he would now strike each of these august persons1 and follow up the sacrilege with a profane laugh4 ,as might be expected from his general use of subterfuge about this time1 he showed a lamentable want of moral sensibility in trying to shirk responsibility4 ,thus 7middle of seventh month7 he was noticed by his mother putting a spill of paper over the fire-guard into the fire so as to light it4 ,his mother at once said3 8,ningi mustn't do that04 ,whereupon he impudently retorted3 8,ningi not doing that1 paper doing it04#cbb ----- ,footnote #cbb3 ,compare above1 p4 #bgc f4 ----- ,all this is dreadful enough1 yet it is probable that many children go through a longer or shorter stage of rebellion1 who afterwards turn out to be well-behaved1 respectable persons4 ,and1 as his father is not slow to point out1 ,c41 even in these rebellious outbursts1 showed the rudiments of moral feeling in the shape of a deep sensitiveness to injury and more definitely to unjust treatment4 ,thus we are told 7middle of seventh month7 that when his sister eats the leavings of his pudding or other dainty he shows a well-marked moral indignation4 ,he gets very excited at such moments1 his eyes dilating1 his voice rising in pitch1 and his arms executing a good deal of violent gesticulation4 ,when scolded by his mother for doing a thing which he has only appeared to do1 he will turn and exclaim1 with all the signs of righteous wrath1 8,mamma naughty say dat60 ,one day 7end of seventh month7 when1 after being very naughty1 his mother had to carry him upstairs1 he broke out into a more than usually violent fit of crying4 ,his mother asked him what he meant by making such a noise when being carried upstairs2 whereupon he replied1 8',cause you carry me up like a pig0 7as represented in one of his picture-books74 ,there is nothing particularly meritorious in all this1 yet it is significant as showing how1 in this third year1 the consciousness of self was developing not only on its intellectual but on its moral side1 as a sense of personal dignity and rightful claim1 which1 after all1 is a very essential element in a normal and robust moral sentiment4 ,fourth ,year4 ,the reports of progress during the fourth year are still scantier than their predecessors3 perhaps the observer was getting tired of his half-playful work4 ,nevertheless1 there are some interesting observations in this chapter also4 ,c4's observation seems to have been decidedly good1 to judge by an incident that occurred at the end of the third week of the year4 ,he had been to the ,zoological ,gardens4 ,his father asked him about the seals1 and more particularly as to whether they had legs4 ,he answered at once1 8,no1 papa1 they had foot-wings04 ,the chronicler is evidently proud of this feat1 and thinks it would have satisfied ,professor ,huxley himself4 ,but allowance must here as elsewhere be made for parental pride4 ,the child's colour-sense1 we are told about the same time1 was developing quite satisfactorily4 ,he could now 7end of fifth week7 discriminate and name intermediate shades of colour4 ,thus he called a colour between yellow and green quite correctly #8yellowish green1' and this way of naming colours was1 so far as the father could ascertain1 quite spontaneous4 ,later 7three and a half months71 on being questioned as to violet1 which he first said was blue1 he replied correcting his first answer1 8and purple04 ,later on 7beginning of last quarter71 he could distinguish a #8purplish blue' from a 8purplish pink04 ,along with a finer observation we find a more active and inventive imagination4 ,it was during this year that he began to create fictitious persons and animals1 and to surround himself with a world1 unseen by others1 but terribly real to himself4 ,about the middle of the third month he made his first essay in story-fabrication4 ,considering that he had a lively and imaginative elder sister1 who was constantly regaling him with fairy and other stories1 this argues no particular precocity4 ,his first style in fiction was crude enough4 ,he would pile up epithets in a way that makes the most florid of journalistic diction seem tame by comparison4 ,thus he would begin the description of a dog by laying on a miscellaneous pile of colour-adjectives1 blue1 red1 green1 black1 white1 and so forth4 ,with a similar disregard for verisimilitude and concentration of aim on strong effect1 he would pile up the agony in a story1 relating1 for example1 how the dog that had killed a rabbit 78bunny07 had his head beaten off1 was then drowned1 and so on1 through a whole ,iliad of canine calamity4 ,here is another example of his literary sensationalism 7middle of ninth month74 ,while he and his father were taking a walk in the country1 where the family was staying1 they found the feathers and bones of a bird in a tiny cleft in the tree4 ,the father thereupon began to weave for him a little story about the unfortunate bird1 how it had taken shelter there one cold winter's day weary and hungry1 and had grown too weak to get away4 ,this did not satisfy the strong palate of our young poet1 who proceeded to improve on the tragedy4 8,p'haps a snake there1 p'haps dicky bird flew there one cold winter day and snake ate it up1 and then spit it out again10 and so forth4 8,p'haps 7he ended up7 he 7the bird7 thought there was nothing but wind 7air7 there40 ,he had1 of course1 his super-sensible world1 made up of mysterious beings of fairy-like nature1 who1 like the spirits of primitive folk-lore1 were turned to account in various ways4 ,the following incident 7seven months one week7 may illustrate the modus operandi of the child's myth-making impulse4 ,he was eagerly looking forward to going to a circus4 ,his father told him that if it rained he would not be able to go1 for nobody could drive away the rain4 ,whereupon he instantly remarked3 8,the ,rainer can04 ,his father asked him who this wonderful person was1 and he replied3 ,a man who lives in the forest--my forest--and has to drive rain away4 ,the expression 8drive away0 used by the father had been enough to give this curious turn to his fancy4 ,his fairy-world was concocted from a medley of materials drawn from his observations of animals1 his experiences at the circus1 including the ladies in beautifully tinted short dresses1 whom1 with childish awe1 he named #8fairies1' and the book-lore that his sister was imparting to him from ,stories of ,uncle ,remus1 and other favourites4 ,in the ninth month he got into the way of talking of his fairy-world1 of the invisible fairies1 horses1 rabbits1 and so forth1 to which he gave a local habitation in the wall of his bedroom4 ,when in a difficulty he thinks his fairies can help him out4 ,nothing is too wonderful for their powers3 they can even solace his pitiful heart by making a dead dog alive again4 ,for the rest1 like other imaginative children1 he peoples the places he knows1 especially dark and mysterious ones1 with imaginary beings4 ,thus one day1 on walking in a wood with his mother1 he was overheard by her talking to himself dreamily in this wise3 8,here there used to be wolves1 but long1 long time ago04 ,it is noticeable that at this same period of his myth-making activity he began to speak of his dreams4 ,he evidently takes these dream-pictures for sensible realities1 and when relating a dream insists that he has actually seen the circus-horses and fairies which appear to him when asleep4 ,possibly1 writes the father1 this dreaming1 as in the case of the primitive race1 had much to do in developing his intense belief in a supernatural world4 ,it may be added that during this same period he was in the habit of seeing the forms of his animals1 as lions1 8gee-gees10 in such irregular and apparently unsuggestive groupings of line as those made by the cracks in the ceiling of his nursery4#cbc ----- ,footnote #cbc3 ,compare above1 p4 #bh ff4 ----- ,there is little to note in the way of verbal invention4 ,here is one amusing specimen 7third week of third month74 ,his father asked him whether his toy-horse was tired1 whereupon he answered3 #8,no1 ,i make him untired'4 ,this leads off the writer to an abstruse logical discussion of 8negative terms10 and how it comes about that we do not all of us talk in ,c4's fashion and say #8untired1' #8unfatigued'4 ,another quaint invention was the use of #8think' as a noun4 ,it was funny1 writes the father1 to hear him rejecting his sister's statements by the contemptuous formula3 8,that's only your thinks04 ,his understanding was slowly ripening in spite of his free indulgence in the intoxicating pleasures of the imagination4 ,he could understand much that was said to him by the aid of a liberal application of metaphor4 ,thus one day 7end of the year7 his father when walking with him late in the evening in a park where sheep were grazing told him that animals did not want bed-clothes1 but could lie on the grass wet with dew and afterwards be dried with the sun4 ,he said3 8,yes1 the sun is their towel to make them dry04 ,the subtleties of time were still too much for him4 ,in the fourth month of the year when his sister was narrating an incident of the evening before and used the term #8yesterday1' he corrected her saying3 8,no1 ,e41 last night04 ,yet he was now beginning to penetrate into the mysteries of the subject4 ,his father happened one day 7end of seventh month7 to speak of to-morrow4 ,c4 then asked3 8,when is to-morrow8 ,to-morrow morning80 ,he then noticed that his hearers were remarking on his question1 and proceeded to expound his own view of these wonderful things4 8,there are two kinds of to-morrow1 to-morrow morning and this morning20 and then added with the sagest of looks3 8,to-morrow morning is to-morrow now04 ,at this the father tells us both he and the mother were sorely puzzled1 and if one may be allowed to read between the lines1 it is not improbable that the latter must have indulged in some such exclamation as this3 8,there6 this comes of your stimulating the child's brains too much04 ,however this be1 it is certain that the observer's mind was greatly exercised about this dark and oracular deliverance of the child4 ,what could he have meant8 ,at length he bethought him that the child was unable as yet to think of pure abstract time4 ,to-morrow had to be filled in with some concrete experience1 wherefore his wishing to define it as 8to-morrow morning0 with the interesting experiences of the early hours of the day4 ,and if 8to-morrow0 means for his mind to-morrow's experience1 he is quite logical in saying that it becomes to-day's experience4 ,whether the father has here caught the subtle thread of childish thought may be doubted4#cbd ,who among the wisest of men could be sure of seizing the precise point which the child makes such praiseworthy effort to render intelligible to us8 ----- ,footnote #cbd3 ,compare what was said above1 p4 #aai4 ----- ,it would appear as if ,c4 were still rather muddled about numbers4 ,one day 7end of third month7 he was looking at some big coloured beads on a necklace1 and touching the biggest he said to his mother3 8,these are six10 then some smaller ones3 8these five10 then some still smaller ones3 8these four10 and so on4 ,he was apparently failing as yet to distinguish number from that other mode of quantity which we call magnitude4 ,the use of the word 8self0 at this time showed that it had reference mainly to the body1 and apparently to the central trunk4 ,thus one evening towards the end of the eleventh month1 after being put to bed1 he was heard by his mother crying out peevishly4 ,asked by her what was the matter he answered1 8,i can't get my hands out of the way of myself02 which1 being interpreted by his mother1 was his way of saying that he could not wriggle about and get into cool places 7the evening was a warm one7 as he would like to do4 ,as might be inferred from his essays in fictitious narrative1 he was getting quite an expert in the matter of assertion4 ,it was odd sometimes1 observes the journal1 to hear the guarded manner in which he would proffer a statement4 ,thus1 on one occasion 7beginning of twelfth month71 he reported to his father1 who had been from home for some days1 that he had been behaving quite satisfactorily during his absence1 and then added cautiously1 8,i did not see mamma punish me1 anyhow04 ,during this year he followed up his questioning relentlessly1 often demanding the reasons of things1 as children are wont to do1 in a sorely perplexing fashion4 ,his interrogatory embraced all manner of objects1 both of sense-perception and of thought4 ,thus he once asked his mother 7seventh month7 how it was that he could put his hand through water and not through the soap4 ,a matter that came to puzzle him especially just now was growth4 ,thus1 when told by his father 7tenth month7 that a little tree would grow big by-and-by1 he asked1 ,how is it that everything grows--flowers1 trees1 horses1 and people8 or1 as he worded it a few days later1 8,how can trees and sheep grow without anybody making them80 ,he seems now 7notes the father7 to have given up his belief in the growth of lifeless things4 ,the inequalities of size among fully grown things were also a puzzle to him4 ,thus1 when just four years old1 he was much concerned to know why ponies did not grow big like other horses4#cbe ----- ,footnote #cbe3 ,compare what was said above1 pp4 #hh1 #ajd4 ----- ,the father must doubtless at this time have had his hands full in satisfying the intellectual cravings of the child4 ,but1 happily1 the small inquirer would sometimes come forward to help out the explanation4 ,one day 7end of the year7 his father1 when walking out with him1 pointed to a big dray-horse and said3 8,that is a strong horse04 ,on which the child observed3 8,ah6 that horse can gallop fast04 ,he was then told that heavy horses did not go fast4 ,he looked puzzled for a moment and then asked3 8,do you mean can't lift themselves up80 8,had he10 asks the father1 8noticed that when weighted with thick clothes or other impedimenta he was less springy1 and so found his way1 as is the manner of children1 from his own experience to explaining the apparent contradiction of the strong and slow horse80 ,other questionings were less amenable to purposes of instruction4 ,he would often get particularly thoughtful immediately after going to bed1 and put posers to his mother4 ,for example1 one evening 7tenth month7 he asked in his slow1 earnest way1 8,where was ,i a hundred years ago80 and then more precisely1 8,where was ,i before ,i was born80 ,these are1 as everybody knows1 stock questions of childhood1 and1 perhaps1 are hardly worth recording4 ,it is otherwise with a curious poser which he set his father about the middle of the last month3 8,when are all the days going to end1 papa80 ,it is a pity that the diary does not record the answer given to the question4 ,in lieu of this we have the customary pedantic style of speculation about the 8concept0 of infinity with references to ,sir ,w4 ,hamilton and ,i don't know what other profound metaphysicians4 ,the answer1 if any was attempted1 does not appear to have been very satisfactory to ,master ,c41 for we read further on that more than three months after this date he put the same question about all the days ending to his mother4 ,with this questioning about the causes of things there went much assigning of reasons4 ,by the end of the fourth month1 it is remarked1 he was getting more accurate in his thinking1 substituting limited generalisations such as1 8,some people do this10 for the first hasty and sweeping ones4 ,he appears1 further1 to have grown much more ready in finding reasons1 bringing out 8'cause0 7because7 on all manner of occasions1 much to his own satisfaction and hardly less to that of his observant father4 ,he continued1 it is added1 to display the greatest ingenuity in finding reasons for his own often capricious-looking behaviour1 and especially in discovering excuses whereby a veil of propriety might be thrown over actions which he knew full well would1 if left naked1 have a naughty look4 ,the tendency to give life to things observable in the last year was less marked1 but broke out now and again1 as when sitting one day 7beginning of tenth month7 on his chair on a loose cushion and wriggling about as his manner was1 he felt the cushion slipping from under him and exclaimed3 8,hullo6 ,i do b'lieve this cushion is alive4 ,it moves itself40 ,about a month after this the father set about testing the state of his mind by asking him whether trees did not feel pain when they were cut4 ,this 8leading question0 was not to entrap ,master ,c41 who answered with something of contempt in his tone3 8,no1 they only made of wood04 ,he was not so sure about dead rabbits1 however1 saying first 8yes0 and then 8no04 ,the intricate relations of things continued to trouble his mind4 ,his father chanced one day 7end of eleventh month7 to remark at table that ,c4 did not take his milk so nicely as he used to do4 ,c4 pondered this awhile and then said3 8,it's funny that little babies behave better than big boys4 ,they don't know so much as boys40 ,from which the father appears to have inferred that children1 like certain ,greek philosophers1 are wont to identify virtue with cognition4 ,there are not many brilliant strokes of childish rationality to record during this year4 ,it is worth noting1 perhaps1 that when just seven months and one week of the year had passed1 he showed that he had found his own way to an axiomatic truth familiar to students of geometry4 ,he had been to the circus the day before1 where a gorgeous pantomimic spectacle had greatly delighted him4 ,he talked to his father of the beautiful things1 and among others1 of 8the fairies going up in the air04 ,his father asked him how they were able to fly4 ,whereupon with that good-natured readiness to enlighten the darkness of grown-up people which makes the child the most charming of instructors1 he proceeded to explain in this wise3 8,they had wings1 you know4 ,angels have wings like birds1 and fairies are like angels1 and so you see fairies are like birds40 ,the first development of reason in the child is apt to be trying to parents and others1 on account not only of the thick hail-like pelting of questions to which it gives rise1 but still more1 perhaps1 of the circumstance that the young reasoner will so readily turn his new instrument to a confusing criticism of his elders4 ,the daring interference of childish dialectic with moral discipline in ,c4's case has already been touched on4 ,sometimes he would follow up a series of questions so as to put his logical antagonist into a corner1 very much after the manner of the astute ,socrates4 ,here is an example of this highly inconvenient mode of dialectical attack 7middle of seventh month74 ,he was at this time like other children1 much troubled about the killing of animals for food4 ,again and again he would ask with something of fierce impatience in his voice3 8,why do people kill them80 ,on one occasion he had plied his mother with these questionings4 ,he then contended that people who eat meat must like animals to be killed4 ,finally1 to clench the matter1 he turned on his mother and asked3 8,do you like them to be killed80 ,here is another example of his persistent dialectical attack 7end of eleventh month74 ,a small caterpillar happening to drop on the shoulder of the father1 the mother expressed the common dislike for these creatures4 ,c4 was just now championing the whole dumb creation against hard-hearted man1 and he at once saw his opportunity4 #8,why1' he demanded in his peremptory catechising tone1 #8don't you like caterpillars8' ,to which the mother1 amused perhaps with his grave argumentative manner1 thought to escape the attack by answering playfully3 8,because they make the butterflies04 ,but there was no room for jocosity in ,c4's mind when it was a matter of liking or disliking a living creature4 ,so he followed up his questioning with the true ,socratic irony1 asking3 8,why don't you like butterflies80 ,on this both the parents appear to have laughed2 but he was not to be upset1 and ignoring the patent subterfuge of the butterfly returned to the caterpillar4 8,caterpillars10 he observed thoughtfully1 8don't make a noise40 ,he had doubtless generalised that the pet aversions of his parents1 more especially his father1 were dogs1 cocks and other noise-producing animals4 ,whether he returned to the subject of the caterpillar is not stated4 ,perhaps his mother's dislike for the wee soft noiseless thing was to be added to the stock of unexplained childish mysteries4 ,passing to manifestations of feeling1 we have a curious note on a new emotional expression4 ,it seems that when a suckling the child had got into the way of accompanying the bliss of an ambrosial meal by soft caressing movements of the fore-finger along the mother's eyebrows4 ,when three years and ten months old he was sitting on his father's lap in one of his softer moods when he touched this parent's eyebrows in the same dainty caressing manner4 ,the observer suspects that we have here an example of a movement becoming an emotional sign by association and analogy4 ,at first associated with the ne plus ultra of infantile happiness it came to indicate the oncoming of any analogous state of feeling1 and especially of the luxurious mood of tenderness4 ,two or three curious examples of fear are recorded in this chapter4 ,in the second week of the fourth month he went with his mother to the photographer's to have his likeness taken4 ,when he reached the house he strongly objected1 clung to his mother and showed all the signs of a true fear4 ,on entering the room he told the photographer in his quiet authoritative manner that he was not going to have his likeness taken4 ,the process1 an instantaneous one1 was accomplished1 however1 without his knowing it4 ,next morning when asked by his sister how he liked having his likeness taken1 he answered snappishly3 8,haven't had my likeness taken4 ,don't you see ,i can talk80 ,the father suspects that the child feared he would be transformed by the black art of the camera into a speechless photograph4 ,it is curious that savages appear to show a similar dread of the photographic camera4 ,thus1 in a recent number of the ,graphic 7,november1 #ahic7 there was a drawing of ,europeans and natives having their likeness taken in a camp in ,south ,africa4 ,one native1 terror-struck1 is hiding behind a tree so as not to be taken4 ,the text explains that the drawing represents a real incident1 and that the fear of the native came from his belief that there is an evil spirit in the camera1 and adds that1 on finding out that after all he was in the group1 the poor fellow instantly disappeared from the camp4 ,is there not for all of us something uncanny in that black box turned towards us bent on snatching from us the film or image of our very self8 ,the other instances of ,c4's fear point to a like superstitious frame of mind at this time4 ,thus in the last month he happened one day to see some white linen swaying in the breeze on a hill not far off4 ,he took it for a light and was afraid1 saying it was a wolf4 ,this was1 we are told1 his first experience of ghosts4 ,at the same date he showed fear when passing through a wood with his father about nine o'clock on a summer evening4 ,though his father was carrying him he said he could not help being afraid of the dark4 ,he fancied there must be wolves in the dark4 ,he afterwards informed his father that his sister had told him so4 ,the wolf appears at this time 7by a quaint confusion of zoology7 to have been the descendant of his old bte noire1 the 8bow-wow04 8,have we10 writes the father1 8a sort of parallel here to the superstition of the were-wolf so familiar in folk-lore80 ,a new development of angry outburst is recorded4 ,in the third month1 to the horror of his parents and the disgust of his sister1 he positively took to biting others1 an action1 it is needless to say1 which he could not have picked up from his highly respectable human environment4 ,was this1 asks the father1 with praiseworthy detachment of mind1 an instinct1 a survival of primitive brute-like habit1 and happily destined in the case of a child born into a civilised society1 like other instincts1 as pilfering1 to be rudimentary and transient8 ,as implied in the account of his much questioning1 the feeling which was most strongly marked and dominant during this year was wonder4 ,his father would surprise him sometimes standing on the sofa and looking at an engraving of ,guido's 8,aurora0 hanging on the wall above4 ,the woman's figure in front1 perfectly buoyant on the air1 the horses and chariot firmly planted on the cloud1 all this fascinated his attention and filled him with delightful astonishment4 ,with wonder there often went in these days sore perplexity of spirit4 ,the order of things was not only intricate and difficult to take apart1 it seemed positively wrong4 ,that animals should be beaten1 slaughtered1 eaten by his own kith and kin1 this1 as already hinted1 filled him with dismay4 ,in odd contrast to this1 he would protest with equal warmth against any ordinance which affected his own comfort4 ,thus1 having on one occasion 7middle of seventh month7 taken a lively interest in the manufacture of jellies1 custards1 and other dainties1 and having learned the next day that they had been disposed of by a company of guests1 he asked his mother querulously why she had 8wisitors10 and then added in a comical tone of self-compassion1 8,didn't the #8wisitors' know you had a little boy80 8,it is odd to note10 writes the father1 8how a humane concern for the lower creation coexisted with utter indifference to the duties of hospitality4 ,perhaps1 however10 he adds1 succumbing to paternal weakness1 and saying the best he can for his boy1 8there was no real contradiction here4 ,the compassionateness of childhood goes forth to weak1 defenceless things1 and to ,c4's mind the #8wisitors' may very likely have appeared as over-fed1 greedy monsters who robbed poor children of their small perquisites40 ,the wondering impulse of the child assumed now and again a quasi-religious form in speculations about death and heaven4 ,early in the year he had lost his grandpapa by sudden death1 and the event set his thoughts in this direction4 ,in the ninth month his mother read him ,wordsworth's well-known story1 8,lucy ,gray04 ,he was much saddened by the account of ,lucy's death4 ,on hearing the line 8,in heaven we all shall meet10 he began questioning his mother about heaven4 ,she gave him the popular description of heaven1 but apparently in a way that left him uncertain as to whether she believed what she said4 ,whereupon he exclaimed3 #8,we shall meet1' and then after a moment's pause1 as though not quite certain1 added1 #8shan't we8' ,five weeks later1 when driving in the country with his mother on a lovely ,may day1 he was in his happiest mood1 looking at the flowers in the fields and hedgerows1 and suddenly exclaimed3 8,i shall never die60 ,the question of immortality 7observes the father7 had thus early begun to wring the child's soul4 ,there are1 ,i regret to say1 in this chapter1 hardly any remarks about the development of the child's will and moral character4 ,the father appears to have been disproportionately interested in the boy's intellectual advancement4 ,the reader is left to hope that ,master ,c4 was growing a more orderly and law-abiding child than the incident of the biting would suggest4 ,the one remark which can be brought under this head refers to the growth of practical intelligence in applying rules to action4 ,c4 had been told it was well to keep nice things to the end1 and he proceeded to work out the consequences of the rule in an amusing fashion4 ,thus we read 7end of eleventh month7 that he would take all the currants out of his cake and stick them round the corner of his plate so as to eat them last4 ,a still more amusing instance of the same thing occurred about the same date4 ,on putting him to bed one evening his mother noticed that he carefully sought out the middle of the bed1 saying to himself1 8,i'll keep these last04 ,questioned by her as to what he meant by #8these1' he explained1 8,these nice cool places at the edge of the bed04 8,children10 remarks the chronicler1 8do not drop their originality even when they make a show of following our lead4 ,obedience would be far more tedious than it is but for the occasional opportunities of a play of inventive fancy in the application of a rule to new and out-of-the-way cases40 ,fifth ,year4 ,with the fifth year we enter upon a new phase of the diary4 ,the father appears now to have finally abandoned the transparent pretence of a methodical record of progress1 and he limits himself to a fuller account of a few selected incidents4 ,very noticeable is the introduction of something like prolonged dialogue between the child and one of his parents4 ,the boy continued to take a lively interest in objects and to note them with care4 ,here is an illustration of his attention to natural phenomena4 ,he was walking out 7end of fifth month7 with his father on their favourite ,heath towards sunset1 when he asked3 8,what are these pretty things ,i see after looking at the sun8 ,when ,i move my eyes they begin to move about40 ,the father said he might call them fairy suns4 ,he then wanted to know whether they were real4 ,he said3 8,when they seem to be on the path they disappear when ,i go up to them04 ,later on he began to romance about the spectral discs that he saw after looking at a red sun1 calling them fire balloons and saying that there was a fairy in each one of them4#cbf ----- ,footnote #cbf3 ,compare above1 p4 #ajb f4 ----- ,a quaint example of his attention to the form of objects1 as well as of his odd childish mode of thought1 comes out in a talk with his mother 7end of seventh month74 ,she had been reading to him from ,alice in ,wonderland1 where the caterpillar tells ,alice that one side of a mushroom would make her grow taller1 and one side shorter1 which set ,alice wondering what the side of a mushroom could be4 ,c4 could not sympathise with ,alice's perplexity1 and said to his mother3 8,why1 a mushroom is all ends and sides4 ,wherever you stand it's an end or a side40 ,the father thinks he sees here a dim apprehension of the idea that a circle is formed by an infinite number of straight lines1 but he is possibly reading too much into the boy's thought4 ,his observation of colour continued4 ,one day 7end of seventh month7 he was overheard by his father saying to himself 7without any suggestion from another7 that a particular colour 8came next0 to another4 ,his father thereupon questioned him and elicited that orange came next to red4 ,asked #8,what else8' he answered yellow4 ,dark brown came next to black1 a lighter brown to red1 purple next to blue1 pink to red1 and so forth4 ,asked what green came next to1 he answered3 8,i don't know02 from which it would appear that he had pretty clearly observed the affinities of colours4 ,he showed himself observant of people's ways too4 ,here is a funny example of his attention to his sister's habits of speech4 ,one evening 7end of sixth month7 when his sister was out at a party he had a cracker which he wished to give her 8as a surprise04 ,so he told his mother to put it under the table1 and added3 8,when ,e4 comes in1 and after she says1 #8,well6 how've you been getting on8' then you must say3 #8,look under the table'04 ,his memory1 as the foregoing incident may show1 was growing tenacious and exact4 ,this exactitude showed itself in almost a pedantic fashion with respect to words4 ,here is a funny example 7end of sixth month74 ,he had a new story-book1 ,the ,princess ,nobody1 illustrated by ,r4 ,doyle4 ,his mother had read it to him about four or five times during the three weeks he had possessed it4 ,one ,sunday evening his father read it to him as a treat4 ,in one place the story runs3 8,one day when the king had been counting out his money all day10 which the father carelessly read as 8counting out all his money04 ,the child at once pulled up and corrected his sire1 saying1 8,no1 papa1 'tis #8counting out all the day his money'04 ,he had remembered the ideas and the words though not the precise order4 ,the jealous regard of the child for the text of his sacred books in the face of would-be mutilators is one of those traits which1 while perfectly childish1 have a quaint old-fashioned look4 ,the dreamy worship of fairies passed into a new and even more blissful phase this year4 ,before the close of the third month ,c4 was actually brought into contact with one of these dainty white-clad beings4 ,the memorable occasion was a girl's costume ball1 to which he was taken as a spectator4 ,among the younger girls present was one dressed as a fairy1 in short white gauze1 golden crown1 and the rest4 ,c4 was at first dazed by the magnificence of the assembly and shrank back shyly to his mother's side2 but after this white sylph had been pointed out to him as a fairy1 and when she came up to him and spoke to him1 he was transported with delight4 ,hitherto the fairy had never been nearer to him than on a circus stage3 now he had one close to him and actually talked with her6 ,he firmly believed in the supernatural character of this small person1 and on his return home proceeded to tell cook with radiant face how he had seen a live fairy and spoken to her4 ,he added that his sister had never spoken to one4 ,this last might easily look like a touch of malicious #8crowing'3 yet the father appears to think that the boy meant only to deepen the mystery of the revelation by pointing out that it was without precedent4 ,the weaving of fairy legend now went on vigorously4 ,sometimes when out on a walk and observing a scene he would suddenly drop into his dream-mood and spin a pretty romance4 ,this happened one ,sunday in winter 7beginning of seventh month71 as he stood and watched the skaters on a pond4 ,he said his fairies could skate1 and he talked more particularly of his favourite ,pinkbill1 whom1 he said1 he now saw skating1 though nobody else was privileged to see her1 and who loved to skate at night on tiny pools which were quite big for her4 8,delightful days 7writes the father1 who is rather apt to gush in these later chapters71 when one holds a wondrous world of beauty in one's own breast1 safe from all prying eyes1 to be whispered of perhaps to one's dearest1 but never to be shown40 ,the full enjoyment of this supernal world was during sleep4 ,c4 often spoke of his lovely dreams4 ,one morning 7middle of fourth month7 when still in bed1 he engaged his mother in the following talk3 ,c4 8,do you have beautiful dreams1 mamma80 ,mother4 8,no1 dear1 ,i don't dream much40 ,c4 8,oh1 if you want to dream you must hide your head in the pillow and shut your eyes tight40 ,mother4 8,is dreaming as good as hearing stories80 ,c4 8,oh1 yes1 ,i should think so4 ,one gets to know about all sorts of things one didn't know anything about before40 ,dreams 7writes the father7 came to him like his fire-balloons by shutting his eyes tight1 and perhaps his story-books were the real suns of which his dreams were the #8after-images'4 ,as the use of the grown-up and high-bred vocable one--the first instance observed1 by-the-bye1--suggests1 ,c4 was making rapid strides in the use of language4 ,by the middle of the year1 we are told1 he could articulate all sounds including the initial y and th when he tried to do so4 ,he gave to the a sound an unusual degree of broadness1 a fact which lent to his speech a comical air of learned superiority4 ,this was of course especially the case when1 as still happened1 he would slip into such solecisms as #8,i were' and #8,weren't ,i8' ,he would still use some quaint original expressions4 ,it may interest the philologist to know that he quite spontaneously got into the way of using #8spend' for #8cost1' as in asking one day 7beginning of third month71 on seeing a frill in a shop window3 #8,how much does this frill spend8' and also of making #8learn' do duty for #8teach1' as when 7end of tenth month7 he asked his mother1 pointing to a globe3 8,when are you going to learn me that ball80 ,he continued quite seriously and with no thought of producing an effect to frame new words more or less after the analogy of those in use4 ,thus one day 7middle of third month7 he surprised his parents by bringing out the verb #8fireworking' in reference to the coming festivities of the fifth of ,november4 ,sometimes1 too1 he would amuse them by trotting out some #8grown-up' phrase which he generally used with clear insight1 though now and again he would miss the precise shade of meaning4 ,thus it happened 7about middle of fifth month7 that he had been taking tea at the house of some girl friends1 and on his return his mother questioned him about his doings1 and in particular what his host had said to him4 ,c4 pondered for a moment and then said3 8,oh6 nothing surprising04 ,this progress in the use of language indicated a higher power of mental abstraction4 ,this was seen among other ways in the attainment of much clearer ideas about number4 ,in the second month of the year he was able1 we are told1 to define the relations of the simpler numbers1 saying that four was one less than five1 and so on4 ,that he had his own way of counting is evident from the following story1 which dates from the middle of the same month4 ,when walking with his mother on the ,heath he found four crab apples4 ,he observed to her3 8,how nice it would be1 mamma1 if ,i could find two more60 ,his mother replied3 8,yes4 ,how many would you have then1 ,c480 ,to this ,c4 responded in his grave business-like tone3 8,wait a minute10 then got down on his knees1 put the four apples in a row1 and then proceeded to the mysterious ceremony of counting4 ,he began by saying #8one1 two' to himself1 then on reaching the 8three0 he pointed to the first of the row1 using the apples to help him in adding the four last digits4 ,he appears1 says the father1 to have imagined or #8visualised' the first two units1 and then used the visible objects for the rest of the operation--not a bad way1 one would say1 of turning the apples to this simple arithmetical use4 ,that he visualised distinctly when counting is illustrated by another incident dating three weeks later4 ,his mother1 as was her wont1 was seeing him into bed4 ,before climbing on to the bed he put on the coverlid a number of small toy treasures4 ,when tucked up he opened up the following dialogue4 ,c4 8,put my toys in the drawer1 mamma40 ,m4 8,i have done it1 dear40 ,c4 8,how many were there80 ,m4 #8,three4' ,c4 8,oh no1 there were four40 ,m4 8,are you sure1 dear8 ,what were they80 ,c41 after sitting up and pointing successively to imaginary objects on the coverlid3 ,one1 two1 three1 four1--two dollies1 a tin soldier1 and a shell4 ,his interest in physical phenomena continued to manifest itself in questionings4 ,he would spring his problems in physics on his patient parents at the most unexpected moments4 ,for instance1 when sitting at table one day 7end of first month7 he observed quite suddenly1 and in no discoverable connexion with what had been happening before3 8,there's one thing ,i can't imagine4 ,how is it1 papa1 that when we put our hand into the water we don't make a hole in it80 ,it would be curious to know how the father dealt with this hydrostatic problem4 ,the other inquiries recorded about this time have1 oddly enough1 to do with water4 ,it looks as if water were dividing with number just now the activity of his brain4 ,thus he asked one day when staying at the sea-side 7middle of second month73 8,how does all the water come into the world80 ,his mind was also greatly exercised about the hydrostatic puzzle of things sinking and swimming 7floating74 ,there are hardly any examples of a reasoning process this year4 ,one of these1 however1 is perhaps characteristic enough to deserve reproduction4 ,one day 7middle of fourth month7 when his mind was running on the great problems of counting1 his sister happened to speak about a large number of chestnuts 7over #bjj74 ,this excited ,c4's imagination1 and he exclaimed3 8,why1 even ,goliath couldn't count them04 ,the idea that mere bulk should measure intellectual capacity was delicious1 and ,c4's remark was no doubt received with a peal of laughter to which the bewildered little inquirer into the mysteries of things must by this time have been getting hardened4 ,and yet1 writes the apologetic father1 ,c4's reasoning was not so utterly silly as it looks1 for in his daily measurement of his own faculties with those of others what had impressed him most deeply was that knowledge is the prerogative of big folk4 ,with respect to ,c4's emotional development during this year1 ,i am pleased to be able to record a diminution in the outbursts of angry passion4 ,there seems to have been no more biting1 and altogether he was growing less homicidal and more human4 ,it is only to be expected that the father should set down these paroxysms of rage to temporary physical conditions4 ,among feelings which were still strong and frequently manifested was fear4 ,he had no fear of the dark1 and did not in the least mind being left alone when put to bed4 ,but he was weakly timid in relation to other things1 e4g41 the tepid morning bath1 from which he shrank as from a horror4 ,his bravery was as yet an infinitesimal quantity1 as we may see from the following anecdote4 ,his mother was one day 7end of fourth month7 talking to him about the self-denying bravery of captains of ships when shipwrecked4 ,she asked him whether he would not like to be brave too1 adding for his encouragement that many timid little boys like him had grown up to be brave men4 ,upon this ,i regret to say that ,c4 asked sceptically1 8,do they80 and then added1 with a little impatient wriggle of his body1 8,i am going to be a painter1 and painters don't need to be brave04 ,the mother pursued the subject saying3 8,but if when you are big we all go to sea and get shipwrecked1 wouldn't you wish mamma and ,e4 to get into the boat before you80 ,c4 managed to parry even this home-drive1 answering3 8,oh1 yes1 but ,i should get in the very minute after you04 ,a noticeable change occurred during this period in what the ,germans call 8self-feeling04 ,a consciousness of growing power gave a certain feeling of dignity and even of superiority which often betrayed itself in his words and actions4 ,although1 so far as ,i can gather1 a pretty boy1 and a good deal admired for his golden hair1 he does not seem to have set much store by his good looks4 ,one day 7towards end of sixth month7 a grown-up cousin remarked at table that he had had his hair cut3 whereupon ensued this talk4 ,mother 7to cousin74 8,it looks better now that it is cut40 ,c4 8,oh1 no1 it was prettier before40 ,cousin4 8,oh1 you think you've got pretty hair40 ,c4 7unhesitatingly74 8,oh1 yes40 ,cousin4 8,who told you your hair was pretty80 ,c4 8,mamma40 8,all this10 writes the father1 8was said very quietly1 and without the least appearance of vanity4 ,he might have been talking about the hair of another person1 or of a head in one of his pictures4 ,his interest here seemed to be much more in correcting his mother and bringing her into consistency with former statements than in laying claim to prettiness40 ,on the other hand1 the child does certainly appear to have plumed himself a good deal on his intellectual possessions4 ,it is to be noted that about this time he grew unpleasantly assertive and controversial4 ,he would even sometimes stick to his own view of things when contradicted by his parents4 ,he prided himself more particularly on being 8sensible10 as he called it4 ,his eagerness to be thought so may be illustrated by the following incident4 ,he and his mother had been reading a story in which a little girl speaks of her mother as the best mother in the world4 ,whereupon in a weak moment his mother asked him1 8,do you think your mother the best in the world1 dear80 ,to this ,c4 replied1 8,well1 ,i think you are good1 but not the best in the world4 ,that would not be sensible1 would it1 mamma80 ,we are not told how this ,cordelia-like moderation was received4 ,to many people1 mothers especially1 there might well seem to be a touch of the prig in this exact weighing of words when it was a question only of the exaggeration of love4 ,i regret to say that about this same time a tendency to priggishness did certainly show itself in a critical air of superiority towards girls of his own age4 ,when about four years eight months he was sent to stay for a few days at the house of a lady friend where there was a girl about his own age1 who seems to have been a lively mischievous young person1 delighting in #8drawing' her grave boy comrade4 ,on his return home he entertained his mother by expressing his feeling respecting his new companion4 ,he said3 8,i don't like ,e4's looks4 ,she looks naughty4 ,her cheeks look naughty0 7and he puffed out his own cheeks by way of illustration74 ,he added3 8,she looks naughty about here10 pointing to his forehead just above the eyes4 ,he then proceeded to describe the measures he had taken for correcting her naughtiness4 8,one day10 he said1 8when she was naughty1 ,i told her about dynamite men1 and she was naughty after that4 ,and then ,i told her about the dynamite men being put in prison1 and she was naughty even then40 ,on this his mother interposed3 8,why ever did you talk about dynamite men1 dear80 ,c4 8,because ,i thought it would make her better4 ,perhaps if ,i could have told her what sort of a place a prison was that would have made her better4 ,but ,i didn't know40 ,then after a pause3 8,what do they put people in prison for1 mamma80 ,m4 8,for stealing1 hurting other people1 and telling stories40 ,c4 7abruptly74 8,oh1 ,e4 tells a lot of stories40 ,m4 8,oh no1 ,e4 doesn't tell stories40 ,c4 8,yes1 she does4 ,when ,i say yes she says no1 and ,i know that ,i am right40 ,he talked of this same experience of feminine frailty to others1 remarking to one of his lady friends that ,e4 had not said a sensible thing all the week he was staying with her4 ,he also attacked his father on the subject1 and after illustrating her odd way of contradicting others1 he observed3 8,she's are never as sensible as he's1 ,i suppose1 are they1 papa8 especially if a boy is older04 ,the father asked him if he had shown his displeasure to his girl playmate1 to which he replied3 8,i didn't show my angriness20 and after a pause3 8,i'd better not show how angry ,i can be1 ,i'm too strong and too big1 ain't ,i80 ,as a matter of fact he had once1 at least1 been so ungallant as to strike his companion on her nose with one of his toys1 selecting this objective for his attack apparently for no other reason than that it was already disfigured by a scratch4 ,he wound up this disquisition on ,e4's shortcomings by an attempt at a magnanimous allowance for her weakness3 8,i b'lieve she tries not to say these things because she knows they will tease me1 but ,i think she can't help it20 and he repeated this as if to emphasise the point4 ,even our much-biassed chronicler is obliged to own that all this is a lamentable exhibition of boyish swagger1 and particularly out of place in one born in these enlightened days1 when1 as we all know1 #8she's' are as good as #8he's1' if not a great deal better4 ,the only palliation of the unpleasant picture of coxcombry which he offers is the information that a year or too later ,c4's views about girls were profoundly modified when he found himself in a school where a girl of his own age could beat him at certain things of the mind4 ,the growing vigour of his self-consciousness was shown in other ways too4 ,he was much hurt by anything which seemed to him an invasion of his liberty4 ,about the end of the sixth month1 we read1 he had got into #8finicking' ways of taking his food4 ,thus he conceived a strong dislike for the #8cream' on his boiled milk4 ,if anybody attempted to cross him in these faddish ways he would be greatly offended4 ,it looks as if he were at this time getting a keen sense of private rights1 any interference with which he regarded as an offence4 ,the story about what he would do if his family were ship-wrecked suggests that self-sacrifice was as yet not a strong element in the boy's moral constitution4 ,egoism1 it might well seem1 was still the foundation of his character4 ,this egoism would peep out now and again in his talk4 ,one day 7middle of eighth month7 when the family was lodging in a cottage his mother had reason to scold him for walking on the flower-beds in the cottage garden4 ,whereupon he answered3 8,it isn't your garden1 it's ,mr4 ,g4's04 ,to this the mother observed3 8,i know1 dear1 but ,i have to be all the more particular because it is not mine02 which observation drew forth the following3 8,i should think ,mr4 ,g4 would be all the more particular because it is his04 ,it was evident1 writes the father1 from this somewhat cynical observation that caring for things and resenting any injury to them seemed to ,c4 to devolve on the owner and on nobody else4 ,he himself certainly did repel any encroachment on his rights4 ,here is an amusing illustration4 ,one day 7the end of seventh month7 he was playing on the ,heath under the eye of his mother4 ,he had put on one of the seats a lot of grass and sand as fodder for his wooden horse4 ,while he went away for a minute a strange nurse and children arrived1 making a perfectly legitimate use of the bench by seating themselves on it1 and in order to get room brushing away the precious result of his foraging expedition4 ,on coming back and seeing what had happened he turned to his mother and swelling with indignation exclaimed loudly3 8,what do you mean by it1 letting these children move away my things80 ,of course this was intended to intimidate the real culprits1 the children4 ,finding that they were not abashed at this1 but on the contrary were looking at one another with a look of high-bred astonishment1 he turned to them and shouted3 8,what do you mean by it80 ,this outburst1 observes the father1 showed a preternatural heat of indignation1 for in general he was very distant and reserved towards strange children4 ,yet ,c4 was very far from being wholly absorbed in himself and his own interests4 ,it cannot be said indeed that self monopolised the intensest of his feelings1 for he felt just as strongly for others too4 ,there was1 we are told1 a marked development of sympathy during this year4 ,his sister was now away from home at school1 and the absence seems to have drawn out kindly feeling4 ,so that when1 on one occasion 7middle of seventh month71 his father and aunt were going to visit her1 and to take her to the ,crystal ,palace1 though he wanted dreadfully to go himself1 he made a great effort1 and in answer to his father's question1 what message he had for his sister1 answered a little tremulously1 8,give her my love10 and then1 waxing more valiant1 added1 8,i hope she will enjoy herself at ,crystal ,palace04 ,some months later 7end of ninth month71 he proved himself considerate for his father1 whose repugnance to noises has already been alluded to4 ,a man had come to repair a window and his father had been forced to stop his work and to go out4 ,on his return ,c4 met him in the garden and asked him loudly1 evidently so that the man might hear1 8,does that man disturb you1 papa80 ,he had previously talked to his mother in an indignant way about the noises which disturbed his father4 ,about a fortnight after this1 on hearing some children make an uproar in the passage1 he asked indignantly1 8,what are those children about1 making papa not do his work80 8,he was at this time10 writes the father1 8transferring some of that chivalrous protection which he first bestowed on animals to his own kith and kin4 ,he became to me just at this time something of a guardian angel40 ,his compassion for the lower creation had meanwhile by no means lessened4 ,here is a story which shows how the killing of animals by human hands still tortured his young heart4 ,one day 7towards end of fourth month7 he was looking at his beloved picture-book of animals4 ,apropos of a picture of some seals he began a talk with his mother in the usual way by asking her a question4 ,c4 8,what are seals killed for1 mamma80 ,m4 8,for the sake of their skins and oil40 ,c4 7turning to a picture of a stag74 8,why do they kill the stags8 ,they don't want their skins1 do they80 ,m4 8,no1 they kill them because they like to chase them40 ,c4 8,why don't policemen stop them80 ,m4 8,they can't do that1 because people are allowed to kill them40 ,c4 7loudly and passionately74 8,allowed1 allowed8 ,people are not allowed to take other people and kill them40 ,m4 8,people think there is a difference between killing men and killing animals40 ,c4 was not to be pacified this way4 ,he looked woe-begone and said to his mother piteously1 8,you don't understand me04 ,he added that he would tell his friend the ,heath-keeper about these things4 ,the father observes on this3 8,there was something almost heart-breaking in that cry #8,you don't understand me'4 ,how can we1 with minds blinded by our conventional habits and prejudices1 hope to catch the subtle and divine light which is reflected from the untarnished mirror of a child's mind80 ,somehow1 the father's sentimental comments seem less out of place here4 ,but already the boy's wrestlings of spirit with the dreadful #8must1' which turns men into killers1 were proving too much for his young strength4 ,he was learning1 sullenly enough1 to adjust his eye to the inevitable realities4 ,this accommodation of thought to stern necessity was illustrated by an incident which occurred at the end of the fourth month4 ,he had had some leaden soldiers given him at ,christmas4 ,some time after this he had been observed to break off their guns4 ,his mother now asked him why he had broken them off4 ,he replied3 8,oh6 that was when ,i didn't know what soldiers were for1 when ,i thought they were just naughty men who liked to kill people04 ,on his mother then asking him what he now thought soldiers were for1 he explained3 8,oh6 when some people want to do harm to some other people1 then those other people must send their soldiers to fight them1 to stop them from doing harm04 ,one moral quality had1 it seems1 always been distinctly marked in ,c41 viz41 a scrupulous regard for truth4 ,his father believes the child had never knowingly made a false statement1 save playfully1 when throwing for a moment the reins on the neck of fancy and allowing it to come dangerously near the confines of truth4 ,this scrupulosity the father connects1 reasonably enough1 with certain intellectual qualities1 as close observation and accurate description of what was observed4 ,sometimes this scrupulous veracity would display itself in a quaint form4 ,one morning 7end of tenth month7 ,c4 was obstinate and would not say his lesson to his mother1 so that she had to threaten him with forfeiture of his toys till the lesson was got through4 ,on this ,c4 said rebelliously3 8,very well1 ,i won't say them04 ,his mother then talked to him about his naughtiness4 ,he grew very unhappy1 and said sobbing and looking the very picture of misery3 8,it's a good deal worse to break my promise than not to say my lesson04 ,another incident of about the same date throws a curious light on the quality of his moral feeling at this period4 ,he had been out one afternoon in the garden with a girl companion of about his own age1 and the two little imps between them had managed to strip that unpretending garden of its spring glory1 to wit1 about twenty buds of peonies4 ,the sacrilege betrayed itself in ,c4's red-dyed fingers4 ,a condign chastisement was administered by the mother1 and the culprit was sent to bed immediately after tea in the hope that solitude might bring reflexion and remorse4 ,in order to ensure so desirable a result the mother before leaving him in bed enlarged on the heinousness of the offence4 ,at last he began to get downright miserable1 and the mother1 expectant of a confession of guilt1 overheard him say to himself3 8,i'm so sorry ,i picked the flowers4 ,i didn't have half enough tea40 ,the next day1 referring to his mischievous act1 his mother happened to say3 8,you were not sorry for it at the time04 ,whereupon he burst out in a contemptuous tone3 8,eh6 you didn't suppose ,i was sorry at the time8 ,i liked doing it40 8,shocking enough1 no doubt10 writes the father on this in his characteristic manner1 8yet may we not see in this defiant avowal of enjoyment in wrong-doing the germ of a true remorse1 which in its essence is the resolute confronting of the lower by the higher self80 ,his mind was still occupied about the mysteries of ,god1 death1 and heaven4 ,following the example of his sister he would occasionally on going to bed quite spontaneously say his prayers4 ,one evening at the end of the eleventh month1 having knelt down and muttered over some words1 he asked his mother whether she had heard him4 ,she said no1 and he remarked that he had not wished her to hear4 ,on her asking why not1 he rejoined3 8,if anybody hears what ,i say perhaps ,god won't listen to me10 which seems to suggest that talking to ,god was to him something particularly confidential1 what he himself once described as telling another a 8private secret04#cbg ----- ,footnote #cbg3 ,compare above1 p4 #bhc f4 ----- ,when his mother asked him what he had been praying for he said it was for a fine day on his birthday4 ,he thought much of ,god as the maker of things1 and wondered4 ,one day 7middle of tenth month7 he asked how ,god made us and 8put flesh on us10 and made 8what is inside us04 ,he then proceeded to invent a little theory of creation4 8,i s'pose he made stone men and iron men first1 and then made real men40 8,this myth10 writes the father1 8might readily suggest that the child had been hearing about the stone and the iron age1 and about sculptors first modelling their statues in another material4 ,it seems probable1 however1 that it was invented by a purely childish thought as a way of clearing up the mystery of the living thinking man40 ,there is subsequent evidence that his theory did not fully satisfy him4 ,in the eleventh month he continued to ask how ,god made things1 and wanted to know whether #8preachers' could resolve his difficulty4 7,his sister appears about this time to have had the common childish awe for the clergy47 ,on learning from his mother that even these well-informed persons might not be able to satisfy all his questions1 he observed3 8,well1 anyhow1 if we go to heaven when we die we shall know10 and added after a pause1 8and if we don't it doesn't much matter04 8,from this10 writes the father1 8it seems fully clear that the child was beginning to adjust his mind to the fact of mystery1 to the existence of an impenetrable region of the unknown40 ,c4's deepest interest just now in religious matters grew out of the feelings awakened by the thought of death4 ,in the early part of the year he plied his mother with questions about death and burial4 ,he was manifestly troubled about the prospect of being put under ground4 ,one night 7end of third month7 when his mother was seeing him to bed1 he said3 8,don't put earth on my face when ,i am buried04 ,the touch of the bed-clothes on his face had no doubt suggested the stifling effect of the earth4 ,about the same date he remarked in his characteristic abrupt manner1 after musing for some time3 8,mamma1 perhaps the weather will be very1 very fine1 much finer than we have ever seen1 when we are not there04 ,the mother was not unnaturally puzzled by this dark utterance and asked him what he meant4 ,he replied3 8,i mean when we are buried1 and then we shall be very sorry04 8,who can tell10 writes the father1 8what this fancy of lying under the ground1 yet catching the whispering of the most delicious of summer breezes1 and the far-off touch of the gladdest of sunbeams1 and the faint scent of the sweetest of flowers1 may have meant for the wee dreamy sensitive creature80 ,the following dialogue between ,c4 and his mother at the beginning of the fourth month may further illustrate his feeling about this subject4 ,c4 8,why must people die1 mamma80 ,m4 8,they get worn out1 and so can't live always1 just as the flowers and leaves fade and die40 ,c4 8,well1 but why can't they come to life again just like the flowers80 ,m4 8,the same flowers don't come to life again1 dear40 ,c4 8,well1 the little seed out of the flower drops into the earth and springs up again into a flower4 ,why can't people do like that80 ,m4 8,most people get very tired and want to sleep for ever40 ,c4 8,oh6 ,i shan't want to sleep for ever1 and when ,i am buried ,i shall try to wake up again2 and there won't be any earth on my eyes1 will there1 mamma80 ,the difficulty of coupling the fact of burial with after-existence in heaven then began to trouble him4 ,one day 7middle of eighth month7 he and his mother were passing a churchyard4 ,he looked intently at the gravestones and asked3 8,mamma1 it's only the naughty people who are buried1 isn't it80 ,being asked why he thought so he continued3 8,because auntie said all the good people went to heaven04 ,on his mother telling him that all people are buried he said3 8,oh1 then heaven must be under the ground1 or they couldn't get there04 ,another way by which he tried to surmount the difficulty was by supposing that ,god would have to come up through the ground to take us to heaven4 ,he clung tenaciously to the idea of heaven as an escape from the horror of death4 ,that the hope of heaven was the core of his religious belief is seen in the following little talk between him and his mother and sister one evening at the end of the first month4 ,c4 8,does ,god ever die80 ,e4 7the sister74 8,no1 dear1 and when we die ,god will take us to live with him in heaven40 ,c4 7to mother74 8,will he1 mamma80 ,m4 8,i hope so1 dear40 ,c4 8,well1 what is ,god good for if he won't take us to heaven when we die80#cbh ----- ,footnote #cbh3 ,on children's attempts to understand about being buried and going to heaven1 see above1 p4 #abj ff4 ----- ,sixth ,year4 ,the sixth year1 the last with which the diary attempts to deal1 is very meagrely represented4 ,the observation was plainly becoming intermittent and lax4 ,i have1 however1 thought it worth while to complete this sketch of a child's mental development by a reference to this fragmentary chapter4 ,the child continued to be observant of the forms of things4 ,he began to attend the ,kindergarten at the beginning of this year1 and this probably served to develop his visual observation4 ,we have1 however1 no very striking illustrations of his perceptual powers4 ,it might interest the naturalist to know that he compared the head of ,mr4 ,darwin1 which he saw in a photograph1 to that of an elephant1 and being asked why he thought them like one another1 answered3 8,because it is so far from the top of the head to the ear04 ,perhaps admirers of our great naturalist may be ready to pardon the likening of their hero's head to that of one of the most intelligent of the large animal family which he showed to be our kinsfolk4 ,another remark of his at about the same date seems to show that he still entertained a particularly gross form of the animistic conception that things are double1 and that there is a second filmy body within the solid tangible one4 ,he was looking at the pictures in ,darwin's ,descent of ,man1 and came on some drawings of the human embryo4 ,his mother asked him what they looked like1 and he replied3 8,why1 like the inside of persons of course04 ,asked to explain this he pointed to the head1 the eye1 the stomach1 and so forth4 ,he spontaneously began to talk 7middle of eighth month7 about opposition of colours4 ,he was looking at his coloured soldiers and talking to himself in this wise3 8,which colour is most opposite colour to blue80 ,he said that red was its opposite1 not yellow as suggested by his father1 in which opinion he probably has a good many older people on his side4 ,he also observed to his father at the same date3 8,i tell you1 papa1 what two colours are very like one another1 blue and green04 ,the father remarks1 however1 that he was now mixing pigments and using them1 and that the knowledge so gained probably made him bring blue and green nearer to one another than he used to do4 ,an opportunity of testing his memory occurred at the beginning of the sixth month4 ,he met a gentleman who had been kind to him during that memorable visit to the sea-side village ,d---- just three and a half years before1 and whom he had not seen since4 ,his father asked the child whether he knew ,mr4 ,s4 ,he looked at him steadily1 and answered yes4 ,asked where he had seen him1 he answered3 ,down at ----4 ,he had forgotten the name of the place4 ,on his father further asking him what he remembered about him he said3 8,he made me boats and sailed them in a pool04 ,this was quite correct4 ,so far as the father can say the fact had not been spoken of to him since the time4 ,if this is so1 it seems worth recording that a child of five and a half should recall such distinct impressions of what had occurred when he was only just two4 ,fancy1 the old frisky1 wonder-working fancy1 was now getting less active4 ,at least1 we meet this year with none of the pretty fairy-myths of earlier years4 ,so far as the journal tells us1 it was only in sleep that ,c4 entered the delightful region of wonderland4 ,here is a quaint dream of his 7end of fifth month74 ,it was ,christmas time1 and he had been seeing a huge prize-ox1 a shaggy ,highland fellow with big head and curled horns4 ,he had taken a violent fancy to it and wanted his father to draw it for him4 ,a morning or two afterwards he told his father that he had had a funny dream4 ,both his father and his mother were turned into oxen1 and it was a 8very nice dream04 ,for the rest1 the brain of our little ,kindergrtner was being engrossed with the business of getting knowledge1 and1 as a result of this fancy1 was being taken in hand by sober understanding and drilled to the useful and necessary task of discovering truth4 ,we get one or two pretty glimpses of the boy trundling his hoop beside his father in a late evening walk and now and again stopping to ask questions4 ,here is one 7end of third month73 ,they were walking home together across the sands at ,hunstanton at the rosy sun-set hour4 ,c4 was much impressed and began asking his father how far off the sun was4 ,on finding out that the clouds were not a hard substance but could be passed through1 he wanted to know what was on the other side4 8,is it another world1 papa1 like this80 ,shortly after this date he was talking about the size of the sun1 when he remarked3 8,i s'pose the sun's big enough to put on the world and make see-saw04 ,he seemed to think of the sun as a disc1 and imagined that it might be balanced on the earth-globe4 ,what with home instruction and the #8lessons' at the ,kindergarten his little brain was being confronted with quite a multitude of new problems4 ,it was interesting1 remarks the father1 to note how he would try to piece together the various scraps of knowledge he thus gathered4 ,for instance1 we find him in the ninth month trying hard to make something out of the motley presentations of the #8world' which he had got from classical myths as known through the ,tanglewood ,tales and from his elementary geography lessons4 ,he asked whether ,atlas could stand in the middle of the sea and not be drowned4 ,on his father's trying to evade this awkward question1 the boy inquired whether the sea came half way up the world4 ,asked to explain what he meant1 he continued3 8,you know the shore gets lower and lower or else the sea would not go out2 and out in the middle it goes down very deep4 ,now1 where the sea comes in1 is that half way up the world80 ,one would like to know how the father met this dark inquiry4 ,he would sometimes apply his newly-gained knowledge in an odd fashion4 ,one day 7middle of ninth month71 he observed that his porridge was hottest in the middle1 and remarked3 8,that's just like the earth4 ,it's hottest in the middle4 ,there's real fire there40 ,this smacks just a little perhaps of pedantry1 and the child1 on entering the new world of school-lore1 is1 we know1 apt to display the pride of learning4 ,yet we must beware1 writes the ever-apologetic father1 of judging the child's ways too rigorously by our grown-up standards4 ,the progress in the more abstract kind of thinking and in the correlative use of abstract language was very noticeable at this stage4 ,an odd example of an original way of expressing a newly attained relation of thought occurred towards the end of the third month4 ,c4 was at this time much occupied with the subject of the bearing-rein1 the cruelty of which he had learnt from a favourite story1 the autobiography of a horse1 called ,black ,beauty4 ,one day when walking out1 and1 as was his wont1 vigilantly observant of all passing horses1 he said3 8,that horse has bearing-rein at all10 by which he seems to have meant that the horse had it somewhere or wore it sometimes4 ,the use of expressions like these1 which at once made his statements more cautious and showed a better grasp of the full sweep of a proposition1 was very characteristic at this period4 ,even now1 however1 he found himself sometimes compelled to eke out his slender vocabulary by concrete and pictorial descriptions of the abstract4 ,thus one day 7end of eighth month7 he happened to overhear his father say that he should oppose a proposal of a member of the ,library ,committee to which he belonged4 ,c41 boy-like1 interested in the prospect of a tussle1 asked3 ,who is the greatest man1 you or ,mr4 ----8 ,asked by his father1 who imagined that the child was thinking of a physical contest with the honourable gentleman1 8,do you mean taller80 he answered3 8,no4 ,who is most like a king80 ,in this wise1 observes the chronicler1 did he try to express his new idea of authority or influence over others4 ,while he thus pushed his way into the tangle of abstract ideas1 he found himself now and again pulled up by a thorny obstacle4 ,some of us can remember how when young we had much trouble in learning to recognise the difference between the right and the left hand4 ,c4 experienced the same difficulty4 ,one evening 7towards the end of the eleventh month7 after being put to bed he complained of a sore spot on his foot4 ,being asked on which foot1 the right or the left1 he said3 8,i can't tell when in bed4 ,i can't say when my clothes are off4 ,i know my right side by my pockets40 ,it would seem as if the differences in the muscular and other sensations by help of which we come to distinguish the one side of the body from the other are too slight to be readily recognised1 and that a clear intuition of this simple and fundamental relation of position is the work of a prolonged experience4#cbi ----- ,footnote #cbi3 ,according to ,professor ,baldwin's observations the infant shows a decided right-handedness1 that is1 a disposition to reach out with the right hand rather than with the left1 by the seventh or eighth month 7quoted by ,tracy1 ,the ,psychology of ,childhood1 p4 #ee74 ,but of course this is a long way from a definite intuition and idea of the right and the left hand4 ,mr4 ,e4 ,kratz finds that more than one-fourth of children of five coming to a primary school cannot distinguish the right hand from the left4 ----- ,by the end of the fourth month--a month after joining the ,kindergarten--he was able to count up to a century4 ,his interest in counting1 which was particularly lively just now1 is illustrated in the fact that in the fifth month1 after showing himself very curious about the word #8fortnight1' saying again and again that it was a funny word1 and asking what it meant1 he put the question3 8,does it mean fourteen nights80 ,about the same date he proffered a definition of one of the most difficult of subjects4 ,his mother had been trying to explain the difference between poetry and prose by saying that the former describes beautiful things1 when he suddenly interrupted her1 exclaiming3 8,oh yes1 ,i know1 it's language with ornaments04 ,but here the diary has1 it must be confessed1 the look of wishing to display the boy's accomplishments1 a fault from which1 on the whole1 it is creditably free4 ,as might be expected1 the boy's reasoning was now much sounder1 that is to say1 more like our own4 ,yet now and again the old easy fashion of induction would crop up4 ,thus one day 7towards end of ninth month7 he was puzzled by the fact that boys of the same age might be of unequal size4 ,this brought him to the old subject of growth1 and he suggested quite seriously that the taller boys had had more sun4 ,on his father saying3 #8,the sun makes plants grow1' he added3 8,and people too04 ,his questionings took about this time the direction of origins or beginnings4 ,as with other children1 ,god did not appear to be the starting-point in the evolution of things1 and he once asked quite seriously 7end of sixth month73 8,what was ,god like in his younger days80 ,with a like impulse to go back to absolute beginnings he inquired about the same date1 after learning that chicken-pox was only caught from other animals3 8,what was the person or thing that first had chicken-pox80 ,a little later 7beginning of ninth month7 he and a boy companion of nearly the same age were talking about the beginnings of human life4 ,c4 said 8,i can't make out how the first man in the world was able to speak4 ,a word1 you know1 has a sound1 and how did he find out what sound to make80 ,his friend then said that his puzzle was how the first babies were nursed4 ,this child seems to have set out with the supposition that the history of our race began with the arrival of babies4 ,very little is told us in this unfinished chapter of the child's emotional and moral development4 ,as might be expected from the increase of intellectual activity the movements expressive of the feelings of strain and perplexity which accompany thought grew more distinct4 ,in particular it was noticeable at this time that during the fits of thought the child's face would take on a quaint old-fashioned look1 the eye-brows being puckered up and the eye-lids twitching4 ,he continued very sensitive about the cruelties of the world1 more especially towards animals4 ,one day 7at the end of the fifth month7 his mother had been reading to him his favourite1 ,black ,beauty1 in which a war-horse describes to the equine author the horrors of war4 ,c4 was deeply affected by the picture1 and at length exclaimed with much emphasis1 8,oh1 ma6 why do they do such things8 ,it's a beastly1 beastly world10 at the same time bursting into tears and hiding his face in his mother's lap4 8,so hard10 writes the father1 8did the boy still find it1 notwithstanding his increased knowledge1 to accept this human world as a right and just one40 ,the religious thought and sentiment remained thoroughly childish4 ,he was still puzzled about the relations of heaven and the grave4 ,one day 7end of sixth month7 his father observed1 looking at the ,christmas pudding on the table wreathed with violet flame3 8,oh1 how ,i should like to be burned after death instead of being buried04 ,on this ,c4 looking alarmed said3 8,i won't be burned4 ,i shouldn't go to heaven then40 ,on his father remarking3 8',tisn't your body that goes to heaven10 he continued3 8,but my head does04 ,here1 writes the father1 we seem to perceive a transition from the old gross materialism of last year to a more refined form4 ,c4 was now1 it may be presumed1 localising the soul in the head1 and clinging to the idea that at least that limited portion of our frame might manage to get away from the dark grave to the bright celestial regions4 ,it may be too1 he adds1 that this fancy was aided by seeing pictures of detached cherub heads4#ccj ----- ,footnote #ccj3 ,compare above1 p4 #abc4 ----- ,a month or two later 7beginning of ninth month7 he began to attack the difficult problem of ,divine fore-knowledge and free-will4 ,his mother had been remonstrating with him about his naughty ways4 ,he grew very miserable and said3 8,i can't make out how it is ,god doesn't make us good4 ,i pray to him to make me good40 ,to this his mother replied that he must help himself to be good4 ,this only drew from ,c4 the following protest3 8,then what's the use of having ,god if we have to help ourselves04 8,even now10 writes the father1 it looks as if ,god and heaven were for him institutions1 the raison d'tre of which was their serviceableness to man4 ,he brought to the consideration of prayer a childish sense of propriety which sometimes wore a quaint aspect4 ,one day 7end of third month7 on his return from the ,kindergarten he asked his mother3 8,does ,god teach us80 and when bidden explain his question continued3 8,because they said that at school0 78,teach us to be good074 ,he then added3 8,but anyhow that isn't a proper way to speak to ,god04 ,his notion of what was the proper way was illustrated in his own practice4 ,one evening 7end of sixth month7 after his bath he was kneeling with his head on his mother's lap so that she might dry his hair4 ,he began to pray half audibly in this wise3 8,please1 ,god1 let me find out before my birthday1 but at least on my birthday4444 ,so now good-bye60 ,this ending1 obviously borrowed from his sister's letters1 was varied on another occasion in this way3 8,with my love1 good-bye04#cca ----- ,footnote #cca3 ,compare above1 p4 #bhc4 ----- ,it seems strange that the diary should break off at a time when there was so much of the quaint and pretty child-traits left to be observed4 ,no explanation of the abrupt termination is offered1 and ,i am only able to conjecture that the father was at this time pressed with other work1 and that when he again found the needed leisure he discovered to his chagrin that time1 aided by the school-drill1 was already doing its work4 ,we know that it is about this time that the artist1 ,nature1 is wont to rub out the characteristic infantile lines in her first crude sketch of a human mind1 and to elaborate a fuller and maturer picture4 ,and while the onlooking parent may rejoice in the unfolding of the higher human lineaments1 he cannot altogether suppress a pang at the disappearance of what was so delightfully fresh and lovely4 ,i will close these extracts1 following the father's own fashion1 with a word of apology4 ,c4's doings and sayings have seemed to me worth recording1 not because their author was in any sense a remarkable child1 but solely because he was a true child4 ,in spite of his habitual association with grown-up people he retained with childish independence his own ways of looking at things4 ,no doubt something of the intellectual fop1 of the assertive prig1 peeps out now and again4 ,yet if we consider how much attention was given to his utterances1 this is not surprising4 ,for the greater part the sayings appear to me the direct nave utterance of genuine childish conviction4 ,and it is possible that the inevitable impulse of the parent to show off his child has done ,c4 injustice by making too much1 especially in the last chapter of the diary1 of what looks smart4 ,heaven grant that our observations of the little ones may never destroy the delightful simplicity and unconsciousness of their ways1 and turn them into disagreeable little performers1 all conscious of their rle1 and greedy of admiration4 ,,xii4 ,,george ,,sand',s ,,childhood4 ,the ,first ,years4 ,much has been written about ,george ,sand1 but singularly little about her childhood4 ,yet she herself1 when she set to work1 between forty and fifty1 to write the ,histoire de ma ,vie1 thought it worth while to fill the best part of two volumes of that work with early reminiscences2 and herein surely she judged wisely4 ,good descriptions of childish experience are rare enough4 ,george ,sand gives us a singularly full story of childhood2 and1 allowing for the fact of its author being a novelist1 one may say that this story reads on the whole like a record of memory4 ,that a narrative at once so charming and so pathetic should have been neglected1 by ,english writers at least1 can only be set down to the circumstance that it is not clearly marked off from the tediously full account of ancestors which precedes it4#ccb ----- ,footnote #ccb3 ,a selection of scenes from the story1 with notes1 has been prepared for young ,english students by ,m4 ,eugne ,jol1 under the title1 ,l',enfance de ,george ,sand 7,rivingtons74 ----- ,the early reminiscences of a great man or woman have a special interest4 ,schopenhauer has ingeniously traced out the essential similarity of the man of genius and the child4 ,whatever the value of this analogy1 it is certain that the gifted child seems not less but more of a child because of his gifts4 ,this is emphatically true of the little lady with whom we are now concerned1 and of whom1 since we are interested in her on her own account and not merely as the precursor of the great novelist1 we shall speak by her rightful name1 ,aurore ,dupin4 ,the reader need not be told that the child who was to become the representative among modern women of the daring irregularities of genius was an uncommon child4 ,she would certainly have been set down as strange and as deficient in childish traits by a commonplace observer4 ,yet close inspection shows that the untamed and untamable #8oddities' were1 after all1 only certain common childish impulses and tendencies exalted1 or1 if the reader prefers1 exaggerated4 ,herein lies the chief value of the story4 ,to this it may be added that this exaggeration of childish sensibility was set in a milieu admirably fitted to stir and strain it to the utmost4 ,it was a motley turbulent world into which little ,aurore was unceremoniously pitched1 and makes the chronicle of her experience a thrilling romance4 ,and all this experience1 it may be said finally1 is set down with the untroubled regard and the patient hand of one of the old chroniclers4 ,the forty years had left the memory tenacious and clear to a remarkable degree--in this respect the story will bear comparison with the childish recallings of ,goethe and the other famous self-historians2 at the same time these years had brought the woman's power of quiet retrospect and the artist's habit of calm complacent envisagement4 ,herein lies a further element of value4 ,the writer feels her identity with the subject of her memoir3 she lives over again the passion-storms and ennuis1 the reveries and hoydenish freaks of little ,aurore2 yet she can detach herself from her heroine too1 and discuss her and her surroundings with perfect artistic aloofness4 ,aurore--or1 to give her her full appellation1 ,amandine ,lucile ,aurore ,dupin--was born in #ahjd4 ,her father1 a distinguished officer of the ,empire1 was grandson of ,maurice de ,saxe1 natural son of ,augustus ,,ii41 ,king of ,poland4 ,her mother was a daughter of a ,parisian bird-seller1 and a true child of the people4 ,the student of heredity may1 perhaps1 find in this commingling of noble and humble blood a key to much of the wild and bizarre in the child as well as in the later woman4 ,however this may be1 it is certain that the disparate alliance gave the sombre and almost tragic hue to the child's destiny4 ,through the precious years that should be given over to happy play and dreams1 she was to hear the harsh and dismal contention of classes1 and hear it1 too1 in the shape of a bawling strife for the possession of herself4 ,the first home was a humble lodging in ,paris4 ,the father was away4 ,the mother1 disdained by the father's family1 had to be hard at work1 and the baby had its irregular career foreshadowed by being often handed over to a male nurse1 one ,pierret1 an ugly and quarrelsome though really good-natured creature1 whom an accident suddenly made a devoted friend of the small family1 faithfully dividing his time between the estaminet and the ,dupin mnage4 ,beyond a recollection of an accident1 a fall against the corner of the chimney-piece1 which shock1 she tells us1 #8opened my mind to the sense of life1' the first three years yield no reminiscences4 ,from that date onwards1 however1 her memory moves without a hitch1 and gives us a series of delightful vignette-like pictures of child-life4 ,her mother had a fresh1 sweet voice1 and the first song she sang to ,aurore was the nursery rhyme3-- ,allons dans la grange ,voir la poule blanche ,qui pond un bel ut d'argent ,pour ce cher petit enfant4 ,i was vividly impressed she writes with that white hen and that silver egg which was promised me every evening1 and for which ,i never thought of asking the next morning4 ,the promise returned always1 and the nave hope returned with it4 ,the legend of little ,father ,christmas1 a good old man with a white beard1 who came down the chimney exactly at midnight and placed a simple present1 a red apple or an orange1 in her little shoe1 excited the infantile imagination to unusual activity4 ,midnight1 that fantastic hour which children know not1 and which we point out to them as the unattainable limit of their wakefulness6 ,what incredible efforts ,i made not to fall asleep before the appearance of the little old man4 #a had at once a great desire and a great fear to see him2 but ,i could never keep awake4 ,the love of sound1 so strong in children1 found an outlet in playing with some brass wirework on the doors of an alcove near her bed4 ,my special amusement before going to sleep was to run my fingers over the brass network4 ,the little sounds that ,i drew thence seemed to me a heavenly music1 and ,i used to hear my mother say1 8,there's ,aurore playing the wirework40 ,her vivid recollection enables her to describe with a sure touch the oddly mixed and capriciously changeful feeling of children towards their dolls and other simulacra of living creatures4 ,she somehow had presented to her a superb ,punch1 brilliant with gold and scarlet1 of whom she was greatly afraid at first1 on account of her doll4 ,before going to bed she securely shut up this last in a cupboard1 and laid the brilliant monster on his back on the stove2 but her anxieties were not yet over4 ,i fell asleep very much preoccupied with the manner of existence of this wicked being who was always laughing1 and could pursue me with his eyes into all the corners of the room4 ,in the night ,i had a frightful dream3 ,punch had got up1 his hump had caught on fire on the stove1 and he ran about in all directions1 chasing now me1 now my doll1 which fled distractedly4 ,just as he was overtaking us with long jets of flame1 ,i awoke my mother with my cries4 ,her childish way of looking at dolls is thus described in another place3-- ,i do not remember to have ever believed that my doll was an animated being2 nevertheless1 ,i have felt for some of my dolls a real maternal affection4444 ,children are between the real and the impossible4 ,they need to care for1 to scold1 to caress1 and to break this fetish of a child or animal that is given them for a plaything1 and with which they are wrongly accused of growing disgusted too quickly4 ,it is quite natural1 on the contrary1 that they should grow disgusted with them4 ,in breaking them they protest against the lie4 ,she only broke those1 she adds1 that could not stand the test of being undressed1 or that proclaimed their unfleshly substance by falling and breaking their noses4 ,the fluctuations of childish feeling in this matter1 and the triumph of faith over doubt in the case of a real favourite1 are prettily illustrated in a later story of how she parted from her doll when she was going from home on a long journey4 ,at the moment of setting out ,i ran to give it a last look1 and when ,pierret promised to come and make it take soup every morning1 ,i began to fall into a state of doubt1 which children are wont to feel respecting the reality of these creatures1 a state truly singular1 in which nascent reason on one side and the need of illusion on the other combat in their heart greedy of maternal love4 ,i took the two hands of my doll and joined them over its breast4 ,pierret remarked that this was the attitude of a dead person4 ,thereupon ,i raised the hands1 still joined1 above the head1 in the attitude of despair or of invocation4 ,with this ,i associated a superstitious idea1 thinking that it was an appeal to the good fairy1 and that the doll would be protected1 remaining in this position all the time of my absence4#ccc ----- ,footnote #ccc3 ,what ,george ,sand here writes about the intrusion of doubt and disgust into the child's feeling for the doll does not1 ,i think1 contradict what was said above in chapter ii4 on the intensity and persistence of his faith4 ,in truth these are illustrated in the very resistance to the occasional attack of the child's nascent reason1 just as they are illustrated in the resistance to others' sceptical assaults4 ----- ,the gift of vivid imagination is probably quite as much a torment as a joy to a child1 as the story of ,punch suggests4 ,aurore's finely strung nervous organisation exposed her to a preternatural intensity of fear1 and made any clumsy attempt to #8frighten' by suggestion of #8black hole1' or other childish horror1 more than ordinarily cruel4 ,one day she had been with her mother and ,pierret on a visit to her aunt4 ,on returning towards the evening she was lazy and wanted the amiable ,pierret to carry her4 ,so to spur her on her mother threatened in fun to leave her alone if she did not come on4 ,the child knew it was not meant1 and daringly stopped while the others made a feint of moving on4 ,it happened that a little old woman was just then lighting a lamp hard by1 and1 having overheard the talk1 turned to the child and said in a broken voice1 #8,beware of me2 it is ,i who take up the wicked little girls1 and ,i shut them in my lamp all the night'4 ,it seemed as if the devil had whispered to this good woman the idea that would most terrify me4 ,i do not remember ever experiencing such a terror as she caused me4 ,the lamp1 with its glittering reflector1 instantly took on fantastic proportions1 and ,i saw myself already shut in this crystal prison consumed by the flame which the ,punch in petticoats made to burst forth at her pleasure4 ,i ran towards my mother uttering piercing cries4 ,i heard the old woman laugh1 and the grating sound of the lamp as she remounted gave me a nervous shiver4 ,at bottom ,aurore's nature was a happy one1 and if it encountered in the real world the terrors of childhood1 it found in the ideal world of fiction its supreme delights4 ,before she learned to read 7about four7 she had managed to stock her small brain with an odd jumble of supernatural imagery1 the outcome of fairy stories recited to her1 and of picture-books setting forth incidents from classical mythology and the lives of the saints2 and she soon began to make artistic use of this motley material4 ,her mother1 she tells us1 used to shut her within four straw chairs in order to keep her from playing with the fire4 ,she would then amuse herself by pulling out the straws with her hands 7she always felt the need of occupying her hands7 and composing in a loud voice interminable stories4 ,they were of course modelled on the familiar fairy-tale pattern4 ,the principal characters were a good fairy1 a good prince1 and a beautiful princess4 ,there were but few wicked beings1 and never great misfortunes4 #8,all arranged itself under the influence of a thought1 smiling and optimistic as childhood4' ,these stories1 carried on day after day1 were the subject of amusing comment4 #8,well1 ,aurore1' the aunt used to ask1 #8hasn't your prince got out of the forest yet8' ,to ,aurore's ardent imagination1 play1 as the story of the doll suggests1 was more than the half-hearted make-believe it often is with duller children4 ,she was able to immerse her whole consciousness in the scene1 the occupation imagined1 so as to lose all account of her actual surroundings4 ,one evening1 at dusk1 she and her cousin were playing at chasing one another from tree to tree1 for which the bed-curtains did duty4 ,the room had disappeared for these little day-dreamers2 they were really in a gloomy country at the oncoming of night and when they were called to dinner they heard nothing4 ,aurore's mother had finally to carry her to the table1 and she could ever after recall the astonishment she felt on seeing the light1 the table1 and other real objects about her4 ,even at this tender age the child came into contact with the large mysterious outer world4 ,at her aunt's home at ,chaillot there was a garden1 the one garden she knew1 a small square plot1 seeming a vast region to ,aurore1 shut in by walls4 ,at the bottom of this garden1 on a green terrace1 she and her cousin used to play at fighting battles4 ,one day we were interrupted in our games by a great commotion outside4 ,there were cries of #8,vive l',empereur6' marchings with quick step1 and then retirings1 the cries continuing all the while4 ,the emperor was1 in fact1 passing at some distance1 and we heard the tread of the horses and the emotion of the crowd4 ,we could not look over the walls1 but the whole thing seemed very beautiful to my fancy1 and we cried with all our strength1 #8,vive l',empereur6' transported by a sympathetic enthusiasm4 ,she first saw the ,emperor in #ahjg1 from the good ,pierret's shoulders1 where1 being a conspicuous object1 she attracted ,napoleon's quick eye4 #8,i was1 as it were1 magnetised for a moment by that clear look1 so hard for an instant1 and suddenly so benevolent and so sweet4' ,the political storm that was then raging on the sea of ,europe made itself felt even in the far-off and seemingly sheltered creek of ,aurore's small life4 ,her father was aide-de-camp to ,murat at ,madrid1 and in #ahjh the mother resolved to betake herself to him with her child4 ,it was a singular experience for a girl just completing her fourth year1 and the narrative of it is romantic enough4 ,her imagination was strangely affected by the sight of the great mountains1 which seemed to shut them in and to forbid their moving forwards or backwards4 ,yet she felt no fear at the postillion's malicious fictions about brigands which quite horrified her mother4 ,in ,madrid they found themselves quartered in a large and magnificent palace4 ,the unaccustomed space and splendour at first troubled the child4 ,she was tormented by the huge pictures from which big heads seemed to come out and follow her1 and she was further alarmed by a low mirror which gave her the first sight of her whole figure and made her feel how big she was4 ,murat was not over well pleased at the arrival of his aide-de-camp's wife and child1 so an attempt was made to propitiate him by decking the little maid in a gay and coquettish uniform4 ,the child1 who was no coquette1 seems to have cared but little for this performance1 though she soon began to find amusement in her new sumptuous dwelling4 ,as soon as ,i found myself alone in this large room ,i placed myself before the low glass1 and ,i tried some theatrical poses4 ,then ,i took my white rabbit1 and tried to force it to do likewise2 or rather ,i pretended to offer it as a sacrifice to the gods1 using a footstool as altar4444 ,i had not the least feeling of coquetry2 my pleasure came from the make-believe that ,i was playing in a quartette scene in which were two little girls and two rabbits4 ,the rabbit and ,i addressed1 in pantomime1 salutations1 threats1 and prayers to the personages of the mirror1 and we danced the bolero with them4 ,it was at ,madrid that she first made acquaintance with one of ,nature's most fascinating mysteries1 the echo4 ,i studied this phenomenon with an extreme pleasure4 ,what struck me as most strange was to hear my own name repeated by my own voice4 ,then there occurred to me an odd explanation4 ,i thought that ,i was double1 and that there was round about me another 8,i0 whom ,i could not see1 but who always saw me1 since he always answered me4 ,she then combined with this strange phenomenon another1 viz41 the red and blue balls 7ocular spectra7 that she got into her eyes after looking at the golden globe of a church glittering against the sky1 and so found her way to a theory that everything had its double--a theory which1 ,mr4 ,tylor and others tell us1 was excogitated in very much the same way by uncivilised man4 ,she spent days in trying to get sight of her double4 ,her mother1 who one day surprised her in this search1 told her it was echo1 #8the voice in the air6' ,this voice in the air no longer astonished me1 but it still charmed me4 ,i was satisfied at being able to name it1 and to call to it1 #8,echo1 are you there8 ,don't you hear me8 ,good-day1 ,echo6'#ccd ----- ,footnote #ccd3 ,compare above1 p4 #aac4 ----- ,the next event of deep import for ,aurore was the sudden death of her father by a fall from his horse1 which occurred in the autumn of the same year4 ,the first visit of the ,king of ,terrors to a home has been a black landmark in many a child's life4 ,aurore was at first #8annihilated' by excess of grief and fear1 for1 as she says1 #8childhood has not the strength to suffer'4 ,the days that immediately followed the bringing in of the lifeless body were passed in a sort of stupor4 ,clear recollection dates only from the moment when she was to be clad in the conventional black4 ,the black made a strong impression on me4 ,i cried in submitting to it2 for though ,i had worn the black dress and veil of the ,spaniards1 ,i had certainly never put on black stockings1 and the stockings frightened me terribly4 ,i would have it that they were putting on me the legs of death1 and my mother had to show me that she wore them also4#cce ----- ,footnote #cce3 ,compare this with other accounts of the first impression of death given above1 p4 #bcg f4 ----- ,the father's death brought a profound change into the child's life4 ,the despised mother had already been recognised by the paternal grandmother1 and a certain advance made towards a show of amity4 ,visits were paid to the grandmother's chteau at ,nohant1 and it was1 in fact1 when they were staying there that the fatal accident occurred4 ,the common loss drew the two women together for a time1 but the contrasts of temperament and of education were too powerful1 and the jealousy which had first directed itself to the father now found a new object in his talented child4 ,she has given us more than one excellent description of mother and grandmother4 ,the latter1 a blonde with white and red complexion1 imposing air1 always dressed in a brown silk robe and a white wig frizzled in front1 was grave and quiet1 #8a veritable ,saxon1' a friend of the ancien rgime1 a disciple of ,voltaire and ,rousseau1 albeit a stickler for the conventionalities of high life4 ,the mother was a brunette1 of an ardent temperament1 endowed with considerable talent1 yet timid and awkward before grand folk1 a ,spanish nature1 jealous and passionate1 a true democrat withal1 and a worshipper of the ,emperor4 ,the problem of dividing poor little ,aurore between two such women1 habiting two distinct worlds1 would have baffled ,solomon himself4 ,the grandmother insisted on the advantages of bringing up the child as a lady1 and the mother1 after a hard struggle1 relinquished her claims1 the girl being handed over to the grandmother and transported into the new world of ,nohant4 ,the story of this struggle1 which tore the heart of ,aurore as much as that of her mother1 is a tragedy of child-life4 ,aurore's instincts bound her to her mother4 ,she implored her not to give her up for money--she understood she was to be the richer for the change4 ,she was beside herself with joy when her grandmother allowed her to visit the maternal home1 and she has given us a charming account of these visits4 ,the rooms were poor and ugly enough by the side of her grandmother's salons2 yet-- ,how good my mother seemed1 how amiable my sister1 how droll and agreeable my friend ,pierret6 ,i could not stop repeating1 #8,i am here at home3 down there ,i am at the house of my grandmother'4 #8,zounds6' said ,pierret2 #8don't let her go and say chez nous before ,madame ,dupin4 ,she would reproach us with teaching her to talk as they do aux-z-halles6' ,and then ,pierret would burst out into a fit of laughter1 for he was ready to laugh at anything1 and my mother made fun of him1 and ,i cried out1 #8,how we are enjoying ourselves at home6' ,when she found that she was to live at ,nohant she was beside herself with grief1 and implored her mother to take her away1 and to let her join her in some business enterprise4 ,the mother seemed at first to yield to these entreaties2 but the barriers of rank proved to be inexorable1 and would not let the little orphan pass4 ,the narrative of the final departure of the mother from ,nohant is deeply pathetic4 ,it was the eve of the parting3 and the child resolved to write a letter to her mother in which for the last time she poured out her passionate love and her implorings to be taken with her4 ,but the house was sentinelled with hostile maids1 and how to get the letter to its destination8 ,at last1 lover-like1 she bethought her of putting it behind a portrait of her grandfather in her mother's room4 ,to make sure of her finding it1 she hung her nightcap on the picture1 writing on it in pencil #8,shake the portrait6' ,the mother came1 but a provoking maid stayed a long half-hour with her4 ,aurore dared not move4 ,then1 having waited another half-hour for the maid to fall asleep1 she crept to her mother1 whom she found reading the letter and weeping4 ,she pressed her child to her heart1 but would listen to no more proposals of flight from ,nohant4 ,i cried no more--,i had no more tears2 and ,i began to suffer from a trouble more profound and lacerating than absence4 ,i said to myself1 #8,my mother does not love me as much as ,i love her'4 ,in the distraction of her grief she resolved that if it was unbearable she would walk to ,paris and rejoin her mother2 and1 with characteristic inventiveness1 thought out1 by help of her fairy stories1 how she would avoid the anguish of begging by disposing of some precious trinkets4 ,but the grief1 like many another that looks crushing at first1 proved not unbearable4 ,in time the child learnt to take kindly to her new home1 and even to love the stately and severe-looking grandmamma4 ,the ,grandmother's ,regime4 ,it was verily a new home1 this country house at ,nohant4 ,besides the grave grandmamma bent on drilling ,aurore into the proprieties1 there was another solemn figure in ,deschartres1 her friend and counsellor1 who combined the functions of steward of the estate and tutor of the young people4 ,his pupils were ,aurore herself1 a half-brother ,hippolyte1 whose birth added one more irregularity to the family history1 and of whom the ,histoire has much to say4 ,hippolyte was a wild-tempered youth1 more given to mischievous adventure and practical joking than to serious study1 and proved a considerable set-off to the formal gravity of the elders of the household4 ,a second youthful companion was supplied in ,clotilde1 a girl of humble parentage1 who was probably introduced by the authorities as a concession to ,rousseau's teaching1 and supplied a link between the young lady and the peasant world she was to love and to portray4 ,beyond the house was the unpretending country of ,le ,bas ,berry1 with its #8landes' or wastes1 the #8,vale ,noire' of ,aurore's early descriptions1 which more than one of our writers have found half ,english in character1 and which was to become to ,aurore what the ,midlands were to ,george ,eliot4 ,the first effect of this forced separation from the mother seems to have been to throw ,aurore in upon herself1 and to confirm her natural tendency to reverie4 ,she says much at this stage of her day-dreaming1 which overtook her both when alone and when joining her companions in play4 ,it visited her regularly as she sat at her mother's feet in the evening listening to her reading1 with an old screen covered with green taffeta between her and the fire4 ,i saw a little of the fire through this worn taffeta1 and it formed on it little stars1 whose radiation ,i increased by blinking my eyes4 ,then little by little ,i lost the meaning of the phrases which my mother read4 ,her voice threw me into a kind of moral stupor1 in which it was impossible for me to follow an idea4 ,images began to shape themselves before me1 and came and settled on the green screen4 ,they were woods1 meadows1 rivers1 towns of a grotesque and gigantic architecture1 as ,i have often seen them in dreams2 enchanted palaces with gardens like nothing that exists1 with thousands of birds of azure1 gold1 and purple1 which sprang on the flowers and let themselves be caught4444 ,there were roses--green1 black1 violet1 and especially blue4#ccf444 ,i closed my eyes and still saw them1 but when ,i reopened them ,i could only find them again upon the screen4 ----- ,footnote #ccf3 ,a blue rose was for a long time the favourite dream of ,balzac4 ----- ,as at ,madrid1 so at ,nohant3 the splendour of her new home caused her alarm at first4 ,on the wall-paper of her bedroom above each door was a large medallion with a figure3 the one a joyous dancing ,flora2 the other a grave1 severe ,bacchante1 standing with arm stretched out leaning on her thyrsus4 ,the first was beloved1 the second dreaded4 ,the child's bed was so placed that she had to turn her back on her favourite4 ,she hid her head under the bed-clothes and tried not to see that terribly stern ,bacchante1 but in vain4 ,in the middle of the night ,i saw it leave its medallion1 glide along the door1 grow as big as a real person 7as children say71 and1 walking to the opposite door1 try to snatch the pretty nymph from her niche4 ,she uttered piercing cries1 but the ,bacchante paid no heed to them4 ,she pulled and tore the paper till the nymph detached herself and fled into the middle of the chamber4 ,the other pursued her thither1 and as the poor fugitive threw herself on my bed in order to hide herself under my curtain1 the furious ,bacchante came towards me and pierced us both with her thyrsus1 which had become a steeled lance1 whose every stroke was to me a wound of which ,i felt the pain4 ,in her play with ,ursule and ,hippolyte she continued to indulge in her passion for vivid imaginative realisation4 ,when playing at crossing the windings of a river1 rudely marked with chalk on the floor1 five minutes would suffice to generate this kind of hallucination4 ,i lost all notion of reality1 and believed ,i could see the trees1 the water1 the rocks--a vast country--and the sky1 now bright1 now laden with clouds which were about to burst and increase the danger of crossing the river4 ,in what a vast space children think they are acting when they thus walk from table to bed1 from the fireplace to the door6 ,on one of these occasions1 ,hippolyte1 with the boy's bent to realism1 took the water jug1 and pouring its contents on the floor1 produced a closer semblance of the river4 ,the natural consequence followed3 the children1 wholly absorbed in their little drama1 were caught by ,aurore's mother in the very act of paddling with naked feet and legs in a dirty puddle formed by the water and the staining of the floor1 and were visited with summary chastisement4 ,more daring pranks would sometimes be ventured on with ,hippolyte4 ,one day1 as ,deschartres was away shooting1 the boy got one of his works on ,incantation1 and tried1 much in the fashion of ,tom ,sawyer and ,huckleberry ,finn1 to get a peep at the supernatural4 ,mysterious lines1 digits1 etc41 were duly traced on the floor with chalk1 and other preparations carried out4 ,then they awaited with deepening agitation the first indication of success1 the darting out of a blue flame on certain digits or figures4 ,long minutes passed1 yet no blue flame1 no devil's horns1 appeared to thrill the eager watchers4 ,at length ,hippolyte1 in order to keep up the girl's excitement1 put his ear to the floor and declared that he could hear the crackling sound of a flame4 ,but it was all in vain4 ,after all it was but a game1 #8though a game that made our hearts beat'4 ,hippolyte was given to dangerous experiments1 which he dignified by high-sounding names4 ,thus he one day put gunpowder into a big log and threw this into the fire1 with the view of blowing the saucepan into the kitchen1 an occupation which he cheerfully described as studying the theory of volcanoes4 ,he succeeded in leading on ,aurore into pranks of a decidedly hoydenish character1 such as must have sadly grieved the decorous grandmamma had she known of them4 ,they one day went so far as to dig a trough across the garden-path1 fill this with light wet earth1 duly cover it with sticks and leaves1 and then watch ,deschartres1 who was particularly vain of his white stockings1 as with the stiff1 pompous gait of the pedagogue he marched straight into the trap4 ,such a child as ,aurore1 with her fits of reverie alternating with somewhat rude outbursts of animal spirits1 was not easily drilled into those proprieties on which ,madame ,dupin set so high a value4 ,this good lady took great pains to make ,aurore walk properly1 wear her gloves1 give up the familiar #8thou1' and adopt the stilted mode of address of the fashionable world4 ,but she did not appreciate these educational experiments4 #8,it seemed to me that she shut me in with herself in a big box when she said to me1 8,amusez-vous tranquillement04' ,while1 for the sake of pleasing her guardian1 she outwardly conformed to the rules of society1 in her heart she remained a rebel1 and was dreadfully bored1 when she ceased to be amused1 by her grandmother's #8old ,countesses'4 ,one exception to her general dislike of the grand personages she had now to meet was made in the case of her great-uncle1 the ,abb of ,beaumont4 ,he seems to have been a man of ability and culture1 as well as of amiable heart1 and he proved a good friend of the family after the death of ,colonel ,dupin by improvising the distraction of a comedy at ,nohant1 in which ,deschartres' flute did duty as orchestra1 and the little ,aurore was called on to dance a ballet all by herself4 ,the ,abb's house1 which was decorated throughout in the style of ,louis ,,xiv41 filled her with admiration1 and she loved to wander1 candle in hand1 alone through its vast salons while the older people were absorbed in their cards4 ,this grand-uncle1 by-the-bye1 served in part as the prototype of the ,canon in ,consuelo4 ,the formal teaching was mostly handed over to ,deschartres1 though the grandmother gave instruction in music4 ,aurore can hardly be said to have been a backward child4 ,she read well at four4 ,towards five she learnt to write1 but not having patience to copy out the alphabet1 struck out an original orthography of her own1 and indited letters in this to ,ursule and ,hippolyte4 ,it was1 she tells us1 very simple and full of hieroglyphics4 ,she devoured a certain class of books1 and found delight for five or six months in the stories of ,madame d',aulnoy and of ,perrault1 which she came across at ,nohant4 ,she adds that though she has never re-read them since1 she could repeat them all from beginning to end4 ,she tried1 out of regard for her grandmamma1 to take kindly to arithmetic1 ,latin1 and ,french versification1 which ,deschartres taught her1 but she could not master her dislike4 ,after a little scene1 in which the passionate ,deschartres threw a big dictionary at the girl's head1 the ,latin had to be given up altogether4 ,the study she liked best was history1 since it gave her the chance of indulging in the pleasures of imagination4 ,she had to prepare extracts from a book for her grandmother1 and as she soon found that these were not compared with the original1 she began to introduce additions of her own4 ,without altering essential facts1 she tells us1 she would place the historical personage in new imaginary situations1 so as to develop the character more completely4 ,in truth1 she seems to have used history very much after the fashion which ,aristotle1 and after him ,lessing1 recommend to the poets1 varying the situation1 but leaving the character intact4 ,in addition to these more solid studies1 the young lady had special lessons in dancing and in calligraphy4 ,both the dancing-master and the writing-master came in for her ridicule4 ,the latter1 she tells us1 was a professor of large pretensions1 capable of spoiling the best hand with his systems4444 ,he had invented various instruments by which he compelled his pupils to hold up the head1 to keep the elbow free1 three fingers extended on the pen1 and the little finger stretched on the paper in such a way as to support the weight of the hand4 ,it must have been a joyous moment for ,aurore when she was set free from the restraints and impositions of the chteau for a couple of hours' visit to some adjoining farm1 where she could shout1 laugh1 and romp with the peasant girls4 ,here she would climb the trees1 rush wildly down from the top to the bottom of a mountain of sheaves in the barn1 and do other outrageous things2 or when the dream-mood was on her she would quietly contemplate her rustic friends as they tended the lambs1 hunted for eggs1 or gathered fruit from the orchard1 weaving their figures into one of her interminable romances4 ,among the charming rural pictures that her pen has drawn for us in these recollections there is one of a swineherd1 called ,plaisir1 for whom she conceived a strange friendship4 ,she loved to watch his odd figure1 always clothed in a blouse and hemp trousers1 #8which with his hands and naked feet had taken the colour and the hardness of the earth1' armed with a triangular iron instrument1 #8the sceptre of swineherds1' and looking like #8a gnome of the glebe1 a kind of devil between man and werwolf'4 ,as the swine turned up the soil with their snouts1 the birds would come to forage4 ,sometimes these birds perched on the hog merely to get warm1 or in order the better to observe the labour from which they were to profit4 ,i have often seen an old ashy rook balancing himself there on one leg with a pensive and melancholy air1 while the hog bored deeply in the soil1 and by these labours caused it oscillations which disturbed it1 rendered it impatient1 and finally drove it to correct this clumsiness by strokes of its beak4 ,nor was it merely as playmates that the young lady from the chteau deigned to associate with the peasantry4 ,she threw herself with ardent sympathy into the hard toilsome life of the people4 ,one day1 as she chanced to see an old woman stooping1 as well as her stiff limbs allowed her1 to gather sticks in her grandmother's garden1 she set vigorously to work with bill-hook cutting dry wood1 working late into the evening1 and forgetting all about her meal1 for she was #8strong as a peasant girl'4 ,she then set out with blood-stained face and hands1 and with a weight greater than that of her own body1 for the poor woman's hut1 where she enjoyed a well-earned slice from her black loaf4 ,this contact with the rustic mind1 so oddly introduced into the fashionable scheme of education1 exerted a profound effect on the child's imagination4 ,she listened eagerly to the superstitious stories which the hemp-dressers related when they came to crush the hemp1 sitting in the moonlight within view of the crosses of a cemetery4 ,among these were a sacristan's gruesome stories of interments and of the rats that lived in the belfry4 ,the doings of those rats1 she tells us1 would of themselves fill a volume4 ,he knew them all1 and had given them the names of the more important among the deceased villagers4 ,they were very clever1 and could1 among other exploits1 arrange grains or beans given them in the form of a circle enclosing a cross4 ,it is hardly surprising to learn that these stories robbed ,aurore of her sleep4 ,the rustic legend of the grande bte much exercised the girl's brain4 ,she tried to reconcile the superstition with what she had learnt about the animal kingdom4 ,and in this way she concluded that the creature must be a member of a species almost entirely extinct4 ,she imagined that it was leading a solitary existence1 being able to survive the rest of its species by hiding during the day and wandering at night4 ,this weird conception soon began to expand into a zoological romance4 ,if the girl's imaginative impulse had been excited by her historical studies1 it could not but be roused to preternatural activity by the stirring political events of the time4 ,in #ahab1 when she was just eight years old1 occurred ,napoleon's disastrous invasion of ,russia4 ,the absence of all news of the army for fifteen days gave a new direction to her reverie4 ,i imagined that ,i possessed wings1 that ,i darted through space1 and that peering into the abysses of the horizon ,i discovered the vast snows and the endless steppes of ,white ,russia4 ,i hovered1 took my bearings in the air1 and at last spied the wandering columns of our unhappy legions4 ,i guided them towards ,france--for that which tormented me the most was that they did not know where they were1 and that they were moving towards ,asia1 plunging more and more into deserts as they turned their backs on the ,west4 ,a quaint illustration of the conflict the child's mind was passing through under the contradictory impressions of ,napoleon's character received from her mother and from her new instructors at ,nohant1 is given us in the following3-- ,once ,i dreamt ,i carried him 7the ,emperor7 through space and set him on the cupola of the ,tuileries4 ,there ,i had a long talk with him1 put him a thousand questions1 and said to him1 #8,if thou prove thyself by thy answers1 as people say1 a monster1 an ambitious man1 a drinker of blood1 ,i will cast thee down and dash thee to pieces on the threshold of thy palace2 but if thou justify thyself1 if thou be what ,i have believed1 the good1 the great1 the just ,emperor1 the father of the ,french1 ,i will replace thee on thy throne1 and with my sword of fire defend thee from thy enemies'4 ,he thereupon opened his heart and confessed that he had committed many faults from too great a love of glory1 but he swore that he loved ,france1 and that henceforth he would only think of the happiness of the people4 ,on this ,i touched him with my sword of fire1 which rendered him invulnerable4 ,a ,self-evolved ,religion4 ,perhaps there is no domain of children's thought and feeling that is more remote from our older experience1 and consequently less easily understood by us1 than that of religion4 ,their first ideas about the supernatural are indeed1 as we have seen above1 though supplied by us1 not controlled by us4 ,to most children1 presumably1 religious instruction comes--at first at least--with a commanding1 authoritative force4 ,the story of the supernatural1 of the ,divine ,father1 of ,heaven1 and the rest1 cannot be scrutinised by the child--save1 indeed1 in respect of its inner consistency--for it tells of things unobservable by sense1 and so having no direct contact with childish experience4 ,their natural tendency is to believe1 in a submissive1 childish way1 not troubling about the proof of the mystery4 ,but even in this submissive acceptance there lies the germ of a subsequent transformation4 ,if the child is to believe1 he must believe in his own fashion2 he must give body and reality to the ideas of ,divine majesty and goodness1 and of spiritual approach and worship4 ,hence the way in which children are apt to startle the reverent and amuse the profane by divulging their crude material fancies about things spiritual4 ,such materialisation of spiritual conceptions is apt to bring trouble to the young mind4 ,it is all so confusing--this exalted ,personage1 who nevertheless is quite unlike earthly dignitaries1 this all-encompassing and never-failing ,presence1 which all the time refuses to reveal itself to eye or ear4 ,how much real suffering this may entail in the case of children at once serious and imaginative we shall never know4 ,the description of the boy ,waldo1 in that strangely fascinating book1 ,the ,story of an ,african ,farm1 kneeling bare-headed in the blazing sun and offering his dinner on an altar to ,god1 may look exaggerated to some2 but it is essentially true to some of the deepest instincts of childhood4 ,the child that believes at all1 believes intensely1 and his belief grows all-commanding and prolific of action4 ,while1 however1 it is the common tendency of children passively to adopt their elders' religious beliefs1 merely inventing their own modes of giving effect to them1 there is a certain amount of originality exercised in the formation of the beliefs themselves4 ,stories of independent creations of a religious cult by children are no doubt rare2 and this for the very good reason that it needs the greatest force of self-assertion to resist the pressure of the traditional faith on the childish mind4 ,the early recollections of ,george ,sand furnish what is probably the most remarkable instance of childish daring in fashioning a new religion1 with its creed and ritual all complete4 ,poor little ,aurore's religious difficulties and experiments at solution can only be understood in the light of her confusing surroundings4 ,from her mother--ardent1 imaginative1 and of a #8simple and confiding faith'--she had caught some of the glow of a fervent piety4 ,then she suddenly passed into the chilling air of ,nohant1 where the grandmother equalled her master ,voltaire in cynical contempt of the revered mysteries4 ,the effect of this sudden change of temperature on the warm young heart was1 as might have been anticipated1 extremely painful4 ,madame ,dupin at once recognised the girl's temperament1 and saw with dismay the leaning to #8superstition1' a trait which she disliked none the less for recognising in it a bequest from the despised grisette mother4 ,so she applied herself with all the energy of her strong character to counteract the child's religious tendencies4 ,now this might have proved neither a difficult nor lengthy process if she had consistently set her face against all religious observances4 ,but though a disciple of ,voltaire1 she was also a lady with a conspicuous social position1 and had to make her account with the polite world and the #8biensances'4 ,so ,aurore was not only allowed but encouraged to attend ,mass and to prepare for the #8,first ,communion' like other young ladies of her station4 ,madame ,dupin well knew the risk she was running with so inflammable a material1 but she counted on her own sufficiency as a prompt extinguisher of any inconveniently attaching spark of devotion4 ,in this way the young girl underwent the uncommon if not unique experience of a regular religious instruction1 and1 concurrently with this and from the very hand that had imposed it1 a severe training in rational scepticism and contempt for the faith of the vulgar4 ,even if ,aurore had not been in her inmost heart something of a dvote1 this parallel discipline in outward conformity and inward ridicule would have been hurtful enough4 ,as it was1 it brought into her young life all the pain of contradiction1 all the bitterness of enforced rebellion4 ,the attendance on ,mass could hardly have seemed dangerous to ,madame ,dupin4 ,the old cur of ,nohant was not troubled with an excess of reverence4 ,when ordering a procession1 in deference to the mandate of his archbishop1 he would seize the occasion for expressing his contempt for such mummeries4 ,in his congregation there was a queer old lady1 who used to utter her disapproval of the ceremony with a frankness that would have seemed brutal even in a theatre1 by exclaiming1 #8,quelle diable de ,messe6' ,and the object of this criticism1 on turning to the congregation to wind up with the familiar ,dominus vobiscum1 would reply in an under-tone1 yet loudly enough for ,aurore's ear1 #8,allez au diable6' ,that the child attached little solemnity to the ritual is evident from her account to the grandmother of her first visit to the ,mass3 #8,i saw the cur who took his breakfast standing up before a big table1 and turned round on us now and then to call us names'4 ,the preparation for the #8,first ,communion' was a more serious matter4 ,the girl had now to study the life of ,christ1 and her heart was touched by the story4 #8,the ,gospel 7she writes7 and the divine drama of the life and death of ,jesus drew from me in secret torrents of tears4' ,her grandmother1 by making now and again #8a short1 dry appeal to her reason1' succeeded in getting her to reject the notion of miracles and of the divinity of ,jesus4 ,but though she was thus unable to reach #8full faith1' she resolved en revanche to deny nothing internally4 ,accordingly she learnt her catechism #8like a parrot1 without seeking to understand it1 and without thinking of making fun of its mysteries'4 ,for the rest1 she felt a special repugnance towards the confessional4 ,she was able to recall a few small childish faults1 such as telling a lie to her mother in order to screen the maid ,rose1 but feared the list would not satisfy the confessor4 ,happily1 however1 he proved to be more lenient than she had anticipated1 and dismissed his young penitent with a nominal penance4 ,the day that makes an epoch in the ,catholic girl's life at length arrived1 and ,aurore was decked out like the rest of the candidates4 ,the grandmother1 having given a finishing touch to her instructions by bidding ,aurore1 while going through the act of decorum with the utmost decency1 #8not to outrage ,divine wisdom and human reason to such an extent as to believe that she was going to eat her ,creator1' accompanied her to the church4 ,it was a hard ordeal4 ,the incongruous appearance of the deistic grandmamma in the place sufficed in itself to throw the girl's thoughts into disorder4 ,she felt the hollowness of the whole thing1 and asked herself whether she and her grandmother were not committing an act of hypocrisy4 ,more than once her repugnance reached such a pitch that she thought of getting up and saying to her grandmother1 #8,enough of this3 let us go away'4 ,but relief came in another shape4 ,going over the scene of the #8,last ,supper' in her thoughts1 she all at once recognised that the words of ,jesus1 #8,this is my body and my blood1' were nothing but a metaphor4 ,he was too holy and too great to have wished to deceive his disciples4 ,this discovery of the symbolism of the rite calmed her by removing all feeling of its grotesqueness4 ,she left the ,communion table quite at peace4 ,her contentment gave a new expression to her face1 which did not escape the anxious eyes of ,madame ,dupin3 #8,softened and terrified1 divided between the fear of having made me devout and that of having caused me to lie to myself1 she pressed me gently to her heart and dropped some tears on my veil'4 ,it was out of this conflicting and agitating experience1 the full sense of the beauty of the ,christian faith and the equally full comprehension of the sceptic's destructive logic1 that there was born in ,aurore's imagination the idea of a new private religion with which nobody else should meddle4 ,she gives us the origin of this strange conception clearly enough3-- ,since all religion is a fiction 7,i thought71 let us make a story which may be a religion1 or a religion which may be a story4 ,i don't believe in my stories1 but they give me just as much happiness as though ,i did4#ccg ,besides1 should ,i chance to believe in them from time to time1 nobody will know it1 nobody will dispel my illusion by proving to me that ,i am dreaming4 ----- ,footnote #ccg3 ,she here refers to the stories she had long been accustomed to compose for her own private delectation4 ----- ,the form and the name of her new divinity came to her in a dream4 ,he was to be called #8,coramb'4 ,his attributes must be given in her own words3-- ,he was pure and charitable as ,jesus1 radiant and beautiful as ,gabriel2 but it was needful to add a little of the grace of the nymphs and of the poetry of ,orpheus4 ,accordingly he had a less austere form than the ,god of the ,christian1 and a more spiritual feeling than those of ,homer4 ,and then ,i was obliged to complete him by investing him on occasion with the guise of a woman1 for that which ,i had up to this time loved the best1 and understood the best1 was a woman--my mother4 ,and so it was often under the semblance of a woman that he appeared to me4 ,in short1 he had no sex1 and assumed all sorts of aspects4444 ,coramb should have all the attributes of physical and moral beauty1 the gift of eloquence1 the omnipotent charm of the arts--above all1 the magic of musical improvisation4 ,i wished to love him as a friend1 as a sister1 while revering him as a ,god4 ,i would not be afraid of him1 and to this end ,i desired that he should have some of our errors and weaknesses4 ,i sought that one which could be reconciled with his perfection1 and ,i found it in an excess of indulgence and kindness4 ,the religious idea took an historical form1 and ,aurore proceeded to develop the several phases of ,coramb's mundane existence in a series of sacred books or songs4 ,she supposed that she must have composed not less than a thousand of such songs without ever being tempted to write down a line of them4 ,in each of these the deity ,coramb1 who had become human on touching the earth1 was brought into a fresh group of persons4 ,these were all good people2 for although there existed wicked ones1 one did not see them1 but only knew of them by the effects of their malice and madness4 ,coramb always appears1 like ,jesus--and one may add1 like ,buddha--as the beneficent one1 spending himself1 and suffering persecutions and martyrdom1 in the cause of humanity4 ,this occupation of the imagination developed #8a kind of gentle hallucination'4 ,aurore soon learned to betake herself to her hero-divinity for comfort and delight4 ,even when her peasant companions chattered around her she was able to lose herself in her world of religious romance4 ,the idea of sacred books was followed by that of a temple and a ritual4 ,for this purpose she chose a little wood in her grandmother's garden1 a perfect thicket of young trees and undergrowth1 into which nobody ever penetrated1 and which1 during the season of leaves1 was proof against any spying eye4 ,here1 in a tiny1 natural chamber of green1 carpeted with a magnificent moss1 she proceeded to erect an altar against a tree stem1 decking it with shells and other ornaments and crowning it with a wreath of flowers suspended from a branch above4 ,the little priestess1 having made her temple1 sat down on the moss to consider the question of sacrifices4 ,to kill animals1 or even insects1 in order to please him1 appeared to me barbarous and unworthy of his ideal kindliness4 ,i persuaded myself to do just the opposite--that is1 to restore life and liberty on his altar to all the creatures that ,i could procure4 ,her offering included butterflies1 lizards1 little green frogs1 and birds4 ,these she would put into a box1 lay it on the altar1 and then open it1 #8after having invoked the good genius of liberty and protection'4 ,in these mimic rites1 hardly removed from genuine childish play1 the doubt-agitated girl found repose3 #8,i had then delicious reveries1 and while seeking the marvellous1 which had for me so great an attraction1 ,i began to find the vague idea and the pure feeling of a religion according to my heart'4 ,but the sweet sanctuary did not long remain inviolate4 ,one day her boy playmate came to look for her1 and tracked her to her secret grove4 ,he was awe-struck at the sight1 and exclaimed3 #8,ah1 miss1 the pretty little altar of the ,fte-,dieu6' ,he was for embellishing it still further1 but she felt the charm was destroyed4 ,from the instant that other feet than mine had trodden his sanctuary1 ,coramb ceased to dwell in it4 ,the dryads and the cherubim deserted it1 and it seemed to me as if my ceremonies and my sacrifices were from this time only childishness1 that ,i had not in truth been in earnest4 ,i destroyed the temple with as much care as ,i had built it2 ,i dug a hole at the foot of the tree1 where ,i buried the garlands1 the shells1 and all the rustic ornaments1 under the ruins of the altar4 ,this story of ,aurore's religious experiment cannot fail to remind the reader of biography of the child ,goethe's well-known essays in the same direction4 ,the boy's mind1 it will be remembered1 had been greatly exercised with the religious problem1 first of all under the impression of horror caused by the earthquake at ,lisbon1 and later from having to listen to accounts of the new sects--,separatists1 ,moravians1 and the rest--who sought a closer communion with the deity than was possible through the somewhat cold ritual of the established religion4 ,stirred by their example1 he tried also to realise a closer approach to the ,divine ,being4 ,he conceived him1 he tells us1 as standing in immediate connexion with ,nature4 ,so he invented a form of worship in which natural products were to represent the world1 and a flame burning over these to symbolise the aspirations of man's heart4 ,a handsome pyramid-shaped music-stand was chosen for altar1 and on the shelves of this the successive stages in the evolution of ,nature were to be indicated4 ,the rite was to be carried out at sunrise1 the altar-flame to be secured by means of fumigating pastils and a burning-glass4 ,the first performance was a success1 but in trying to repeat it the boy-priest omitted to put the pastils into a cup1 so the lacquered stand1 with its beautiful gold flowers1 was disastrously burnt--a contretemps which took away all spirit for new offerings4 ,in comparing these two instances of childish worship1 one is struck perhaps more by their contrast than by their similarity4 ,each of the two incidents illustrates1 no doubt1 a true childish aspiration towards the great ,unseen1 and also an impulse to invent a form of worship which should harmonise with and express the little worshipper's individual thoughts4 ,but here the resemblance ceases4 ,the boy-priest felt1 apparently1 nothing of the human side of religion3 he was the true precursor of ,goethe1 the large-eyed man of science and the poet of pantheism1 and found his delight in symbolising the orderliness of ,nature's work as a whole1 and its ,divine purpose and control4 ,aurore ,dupin1 on the other hand1 approached religion on the human and emotional side1 the side which seems more appropriate to her sex4 ,she thought of her deity as intently occupied with humanity and its humble kinsfolk in the sentient world2 and she endowed him above all other qualities with generosity and pitifulness1 even to excess4 ,goethe seems to represent the speculative1 ,aurore the humanitarian1 element in the religious impulse of the child4 ,to follow ,aurore into her later religious experiences in the #8,couvent des ,anglaises' would be clearly to go beyond the limits of these studies of childhood4 ,i hope ,i may have quoted enough from the first chapters of the autobiography to illustrate not only their deep human and literary interest1 but their special value to the psychological student4 ,,bibliography4 7,a7 ,,general ,,works ,,on ,,child ,,psychology4 ,d4 ,tiedemann1 ,memoiren 7memoirs of a two-year-old son1 the biologist ,f4 ,tiedemann1 b4 #agha74 ,english ,translation3 ,record of ,infant ,life1 ,syracuse1 ,u4,s4,a4 ,french ,translation by ,b4 ,perez3 ,th4 ,tiedemann et la science de l'enfant1 #ahha4 ,j4 ,e4 ,lbisch1 ,entwicklungsgeschichte der ,seele des ,kindes1 #ahea4 ,b4 ,sigismund1 ,kind und ,welt1 #ahef4 ,c4 ,darwin1 8,biographical ,sketch of an ,infant10 in ,mind1 vol4 ii41 #ahgg1 pp4 #bhe-bid4 ,b4 ,perez1 ,les trois premires annes de l'enfant1 #ahgh4 ,english ,translation by ,miss ,a4 ,m4 ,christie 7,sonnenschein ,co41 ,london74 ,with this should be read the following by the same author1 ,l',education ds le ,bereau1 #ahhj2 ,l',enfant de trois sept ans1 #ahhf4 ,w4 ,preyer1 ,die ,seele des ,kindes1 #ahhb2 fourth edition1 #ahie4 ,english ,translation1 by ,h4 ,w4 ,brown1 in two parts 7published by ,appleton ,co41 of ,new ,york72 also selections from the same under the title ,die geistige ,entwicklung in der ersten ,kindheit4 ,english ,translation by ,h4 ,w4 ,brown 7,appleton ,co474 ,f4 ,tracy1 ,the ,psychology of ,childhood 7,boston1 ,u4,s41 #ahic2 second edition1 #ahid74 ,g4 ,compayr1 ,l',evolution intellectuelle et morale de l',enfant1 #ahic4 ,m4 ,w4 ,shinn1 ,notes on the ,development of a ,child 7,berkeley1 ,u4,s4,a41 #ahic-id74 ,paola ,lombroso1 ,saggi di ,psicologia del ,bambino 7,roma1 #ahid74 ,j4 ,m4 ,baldwin1 ,mental ,development in the ,child and the ,race1 #ahie4 7,b7 ,,special ,,works4 7#a7 ,,imagination ,,and ,,play4 ,j4 ,klaiber1 ,das ,mrchen und die kindliche ,phantasie1 #ahff4 ,f4 ,queyrat1 ,l'imagination et ses varits chez l',enfant1 #ahic4 ,reference may also be made to the works of ,perez and ,compayr already named1 to ,madame ,necker's ,l',education progressive1 to ,george ,sand's ,histoire de ma vie1 and to the writings of ,froebel and his followers on the nature of ,play4 7#b7 ,,thoughts ,,and ,,reasonings4 ,e4 ,egger1 ,observations et reflexions sur le developpement de l'intelligence et du langage chez les enfants1 #ahha4 ,thoughts and ,reasonings of ,children4 ,classified by ,h4 ,w4 ,brown4 ,reprinted from the ,pedagogical ,seminary1 vol4 ii41 ,no4 #c 7,worcester1 ,u4,s4,a474 ,see also the works of ,preyer1 ,perez1 and ,compayr mentioned above4 ,reference may further be made to the inquiries into the contents of children's minds carried out in ,germany and elsewhere3 see ,bartholmai1 8,psychologische ,statistik10 in ,stoy's ,allgem4 ,schulzeitung1 #ahga2 ,lange1 8,der ,vorstellungskreis unserer sechsjhrigen ,kleinen10 in ,stoy's ,allgem4 ,schulzeitung1 #ahgi2 ,hartmann1 ,analyse des kindischen ,gedankenkreises1 #b;e auflage1 #ahij2 ,dr4 ,stanley ,hall1 #8,contents of ,children's ,minds1' ,princeton ,review1 ,new ,series1 vol4 ,,ii1 #ahhc4 p4 #bdi1 and ,pedagogical ,seminary1 vol4 i41 ,no4 #b1 and ,the ,contents of ,children's ,minds on entering ,school1 #ahid4 7#c7 ,,language4 ,a4 ,keber1 ,zur ,philosophie der ,kindersprache1 #ahfh2 #b;e ,aufgabe1 #ahij4 ,h4 ,taine1 8,on the ,acquisition of ,language by ,children10 ,mind1 ii41 #ahgg1 pp4 #beb-bei4 ,sir ,f4 ,pollock1 8,an ,infant's ,progress in ,language10 ,mind1 iii41 #ahgh1 pp4 #cib-dja4 ,f4 ,schultze1 ,die ,sprache des ,kindes1 #ahhj4 ,e4 ,egger1 ,observations et reflexions sur le developpement de l'intelligence et du langage chez les enfants1 #ahha4 ,l4 ,treitel1 ,ueber ,sprachstrung und ,sprachentwicklung1 ,berlin1 #ahib4 ,h4 ,gutzmann1 ,des ,kindes ,sprache und ,sprachfehler1 #ahid4 ,j4 ,dewey1 8,the ,psychology of ,infant ,language10 ,psychological ,review1 #ahid4 ,other authorities on children's language are quoted by ,preyer in connexion with his own full account of the subject1 ,die ,seele des ,kindes1 #d;e ,auflage1 ,dritter ,theil1 vi4 7#d7 ,,fear4 ,reference can be made here to ,locke's ,thoughts on ,education1 ,rousseau's ,emile1 and to the works of ,madame ,necker1 ,george ,sand1 ,preyer1 ,perez1 and ,compayr1 already named4 7#e7 ,,moral ,,characteristics4 ,these are dealt with by ,locke1 ,rousseau1 ,madame ,necker1 by ,perez and ,compayr in the works already named1 also by ,perez in his volume ,le ,caractre de l'enfant l'homme1 and by most writers on ,education4 ,the subject of ,children's ,lies is more fully dealt with by ,g4 ,stanley ,hall1 in ,the ,american ,journal of ,psychology1 vol4 iii41 #a1 and ,the ,pedagogical ,seminary1 vol4 i41 #b1 and by ,g4 ,compayr1 ,l',evolution intell4 et morale de l'enfant1 chap4 xiv4 7#f7 ,,art4 ,b4 ,perez1 ,l'art et la posie chez l'enfant1 #ahhh4 7#g7 ,,drawing4 ,corrado ,ricci1 ,l'arte dei ,bambini 7,bologna1 #ahhg74 ,j4 ,passy1 8,note sur les dessins d'enfants10 ,revue ,philosophique1 #ahia4 ,earl ,barnes1 8,a ,study of ,children's ,drawings10 ,pedagogical ,seminary1 vol4 ii41 ,no4 #c1 p4 #dee ff4 ,the names of other books on child-psychology may be found in ,tracy's volume1 ,the ,psychology of ,childhood1 p4 #afb ff42 in the ,handbook of the ,illinois ,society for ,child ,study1 #ahie2 in ,b4 ,hartmann's article1 8,alterstypen10 in ,rein's ,encyclop4 ,handbuch der ,pdagogik1 ,band i41 p4 #di2 and in ,c4 ,shubert's ,essay1 8,elternfragen10 in ,rein's ,aus dem pdagog4 ,universittsseminar zu ,jena1 #ahid4 ,,index4 ,a4 ,abstraction1 abstract ideas1 beginnings of1 #ddc2 growth of1 #dhc4 ,acting1 relation of1 to play1 #cf1 #cbf2 as early form of art1 #cbc2 first attempts at1 #dcd1 #dif4 ,see ,dramatic representation4 ,activity1 action4 ,see ,movement4 ,adjectives1 first use of1 #aga1 #dbg4 ,adornment1 child's instinct of1 #cah4 ,see ,dress4 sthetic aspect of child1 #b2 feelings of child1 #cjj1 #cig1 #dji1 #dea4 ,see ,art4 ,affirmation1 sign of1 #dag4 ,after-images1 child's ideas of1 #ajb1 #dfe4 ,altruism1 germs of1 in child1 #bdb4 ,see ,sympathy4 ,amiel1 ,h4 ,f41 #c4 ,andree1 ,r41 #ccg note1 #cch1 #cde note1 #cdh note1 #ceb note1 #cgi1 #cha note4 ,anger1 early manifestations of1 #bcb1 #djg1 #dcb4 ,animal1 child compared with1 #e2 ideas of child respecting1 #abc2 dread of musical sounds by1 #aie2 fear of uncaused movements by1 #bje1 #bbj2 child's fear of1 #bjg1 #dcc2 child's ill-treatment of1 #bci2 his sympathy with1 #bdg1 #dfj1 #dge1 #dhe2 recognition of portraits by1 #cji2 care of body by1 #cah2 child's mode of drawing1 #cgb2 his liking for1 #dej4 ,animism1 of nature-man1 #ajd2 traces of1 in child-thought1 #dhj4 ,anthropocentric ideas of child1 #hb1 #ih1 #ajb1 #dbg4 ,anthropomorphic ideas of children1 #gi4 ,anti-social tendencies of child1 #bcj4 ,antithesis1 child's use of1 #agd1 #dbi1 #ddb4 ,argument4 ,see ,dialectic4 ,arms1 child's manner of drawing1 #cdh2 treatment of1 in profile representation1 #cfb4 ,art2 art-impulse of child1 #bih2 first responses to natural beauty1 #cjj2 pleasure of light and colour1 #cjj2 germ of sthetic feeling for form1 #cjc2 feeling for flowers1 #cje2 feeling for scenery1 #cjf2 rudimentary appreciation of art1 #cjg2 effects of music1 #cjh2 interpretation of pictures1 #cji2 understanding of stories1 #cad2 realism of child1 #cad2 attitude towards dramatic spectacle1 #cae2 feeling for comedy and tragedy1 #caf2 beginnings of art-production1 #cah2 love of adornment1 #cah2 grace in action1 #cba2 relation of art to play1 #cba1 #cbf2 germ of imitative art1 #cbc2 invention1 #cbe2 roots of artistic impulse1 #cbg4 ,artfulness of children1 #bgb4 ,articulation1 first rudimentary1 #ace2 transition to true1 #ach2 defects of early1 #adh1 #dah2 process of1 #aed2 growth of1 #aeh1 #daf1 #dbg1 #dci1 #dfg4 ,see ,language4 ,assertion1 child's manner of making1 #deg1 #dga4 ,see ,sentence4 ,assimilation4 ,see ,similarity4 ---- phonetic1 #aef4 ,association of ideas1 in imaginative transformation of objects1 #cb2 seen in extension of names1 #afd2 first manifestations of1 #dje4 ,assonance1 in early vocalisation1 #acg4 ,b4 ,baby1 new-born1 helpless condition of1 #e1 #djj4 ,baby-worship1 #ag4 ,bagehot1 ,walter1 #bhj4 ,baldwin1 ,j4 ,mark1 #aa note1 #bj1 #dj note1 #cce note1 #dhd note4 ,barnes1 ,earl1 #abe note1 #bbd1 #cfh note4 ,beard1 drawing of1 #ceh4 ,beauty4 ,see sthetic ,feeling and ,art4 ,binet1 ,a41 #ai1 #hb4 ,birth1 child's ideas of1 #a1 #ajg1 #aag4 ,see ,origins4 ,black1 instinctive dislike of1 #bjb1 #bjd1 #bae1 #dea1 #dig4 ,body1 relation of1 to self1 #aaj1 #aac1 #aae1 #deg2 treatment of1 in early drawings1 #cdd2 representation of1 in profile1 #cfb2 drawing of animal1 #cgd2 first examination of1 #djc4 ,bridgman1 ,laura1 #afi1 #bdd4 ,bright objects1 attraction of1 #cjj1 #djc1 #dji4 ,brown1 ,h4 ,w41 #bb note1 #gd1 #ie1 #ig1 #aje1 #aab1 #aba1 #bee1 #bge1 #cac4 ,burial1 child's ideas of1 #aba2 his shrinking from1 #dgh1 #dhf4 ,burnett1 ,f4 ,h41 #dc1 #dd1 #bcg1 #beg4 ,burnham1 ,w4 ,h41 #bg note1 #cj note4 ,c4 ,canton1 ,w41 #ci1 #if1 #ajb1 #agc note1 #ahf1 #bji4 ,catlin1 ,g41 #cef4 ,causation1 cause1 first inquiries into1 #gh1 #ddf1 #deg2 child's ideas of1 #gi1 #hj1 #ddh2 effect and1 confused1 #hj1 #ii1 #afe4 ,ceremonial observances of child1 #bha4 ,champneys1 ,f4 ,h41 #aif note1 #dbj note4 ,child1 modern interest in1 #a2 scientific inquiry into1 #c2 psychological investigation of1 #g2 relation of1 to race1 #h2 concern of education with1 #aj2 observation of1 #aj2 qualifications for observing1 #ad2 individuality of1 #bc4 ,coleridge1 ,hartley1 #aac4 ,colour1 order of discrimination of1 #ai1 #dcg2 child's delight in1 #cjj2 preferences for certain1 #cja2 liking for contrast of1 #cjb2 first observation of1 #dbb2 recognition of affinities of1 #dfe2 recognition of opposition of1 #dha4 ,coloured hearing1 #cc4 ,comic1 sense of the4 ,see ,fun4 ,commands1 child's first use of1 #agb1 #dcj4 ,see ,law4 ,comparison1 beginnings of1 #ga4 ,compayr1 ,g41 #cg note1 #gf1 #afi note1 #agc note1 #bjh1 #bag1 #bdi4 ,concretism1 #afc4 ,contrast1 early use of4 ,see ,antithesis4 ,contrast of colours1 early perception of1 #dha4 ,conversation1 child's first attempt at1 #dca4 ,cooke1 ,e41 #ccc note1 #ccd1 #cch1 #cci1 #cgc1 #cgd note1 #cge note1 #chh4 ,courage1 attempt to inculcate1 #dgj4 ,creation4 ,see ,origin of things4 ,cruelty1 towards children1 #bbf1 #bib2 nature of children's1 #bci4 ,crying1 of child at birth1 #djj2 precedes smiling1 #djf4 ,curiosity1 as characteristic of child1 #hc2 as counteractive of fear1 #bbe2 as motive to maltreatment of animals1 #bda4 ,see ,questioning4 ,custom1 child's respect for1 #bhj4 ,d4 ,dark1 child's fear of1 #baa1 #dfb4 ,destructiveness1 as characteristic of child1 #bdj4 ,darwin1 ,c41 #aci1 #ada1 #adf1 #bcc note1 #djg note1 #daa note1 #dag note4 ,deaf-mutes1 gesture language of1 #agc1 #age4 ,death1 child's ideas respecting1 #abj1 #dfc2 his feeling on witnessing1 #bcg1 #bch1 #dif2 dread of losing mother by1 #bde2 his shrinking from1 #dgh4 ,defiance4 ,see ,law4 ,de ,quincey1 ,t41 #bea4 ,dialectic1 child's skill in1 #bge1 #ddi1 #dfj4 ,dickens1 ,charles1 #ec4 ,difference1 dissimilarity1 perception of1 #fg1 #dda4 ,disappearance1 puzzle of1 for the child1 #hd2 child's first ideas of1 #ddd4 ,discipline1 moral1 lying as related to1 #beh2 resistance to1 #bfh2 criticism of1 #bge1 #bhf2 child's imitation of1 #bhe2 problem of1 #bij4 ,discrimination4 ,see ,difference4 ,disobedience1 child's attitude of4 ,see ,law4 ,distance1 child's inadequate ideas of1 #ii2 first perception of1 #dad4 ,doll1 place of1 in child's play1 #db2 treatment of1 by child1 #dc2 illusion of1 #dd1 #dib2 fear of1 #bjd1 #daj4 ,domenech1 ,abb1 #che note4 ,dramatic representation1 effects of1 on child1 #cae4 ,drawings of children2 general characteristics of1 #cca2 crude beginnings of1 #ccc2 first attempts at human figure1 #cce2 treatment of head1 #cce2 facial features1 #ccg2 evolution of features1 #cdj2 treatment of the trunk1 #cdd2 of the arms1 #cdh2 of the hand1 #cea2 of the legs1 #ced2 of the foot1 #cee2 introduction of profile elements1 #cef2 mixed schemes of human figure1 #cfg2 representation of action1 #cfi2 treatment of accessories1 #cgj2 of animals1 #cgb2 of man on horseback1 #cgg2 of man in boat1 house1 etc41 #chj2 of house1 #cha2 rsum of facts1 #chb2 defects of1 #chb2 showing what is invisible1 #chc1 #cib2 explanation of facts1 #che2 mental process involved in1 #che2 child's observation as reflected in1 #cic2 his ideas of objects as illustrated in1 #cid2 rudiments of artistic value in1 #cif4 ,dreams1 child's first ideas of1 #ajc2 as excitants of fear1 #bah2 early examples of1 #dee1 #dha1 #ejj1 #eje1 #ejf4 ,dress1 child's dislike of new1 #bjb1 #cai1 #daj2 his treatment of1 in drawings1 #cga4 ,droz1 ,g41 #ba4 ,e4 ,ears1 drawing of1 #cdc1 #cfa4 ,earth1 the1 child's ideas of1 #ajj1 #dhb4 ,echo1 childish interpretation of1 #dif4 ,education1 importance of child-study for1 #aj4 ,egger1 ,e41 #dj note1 #dg1 #ajg note1 #aec4 ,egoism of child4 ,see ,morality4 ,egyptians1 drawings of1 #cfa1 #cff1 #cfi4 ,emotion4 ,see ,feelings4 ,envy1 as childish characteristic1 #bca4 ,erasmus1 ,d41 #hg4 ,evolution1 doctrine of1 bearing of1 on child-study1 #e1 #h2 on children's fear1 #bjh2 on their angry outbursts1 #bcd2 illustrated in child's drawings1 #chb4 ,exaggeration1 child's tendency to1 #bee4 ,excuses1 child's invention of1 #bga4 ,experiment1 carrying out of1 on child1 #ag4 ,expression of feeling1 through sounds1 #acf2 original form of1 #dfa4 ,eyes1 drawings of1 #cdj2 treatment of1 in profile1 #cei1 #cfj2 treatment of animal1 #cgc2 learning to control movements of1 #dja1 #djb4 ,f4 ,fairies1 child's belief in1 #ei1 #abd1 #ded1 #dff4 ,fancy4 ,see ,imagination4 ,fatalism1 traces of1 in child-thought1 #bgc4 ,fear1 in children1 the observation of1 #aic2 startling effects of sounds1 #aid2 feeling of bodily insecurity1 #aig2 of visible objects1 #aih2 of strange things1 #aii2 of strange persons1 #bja1 #daj2 of new clothes1 #bjb1 #daj2 of the sea1 #bjb2 of ugly dolls1 #bjd1 #daj2 of moving things1 #bje2 of shadows1 #bjf2 of animals1 #bjg1 #dcc2 of the dark1 #baa1 #dfb2 explanation of1 #bai2 comparison of child's with animal's1 #bbj2 with savage's1 #bbj2 with abnormal terror1 #bba2 action of experience upon1 #bba2 palliatives of1 #bbc2 of bath1 #dgj2 of lamp1 #dic4 ,feelings of child1 problem of studying1 #aia2 expression of1 #aib4 ,flowers1 child's love of1 #cje4 ,folk-etymology1 #ahh4 ,foot1 child's mode of drawing1 #cee2 representation of1 in profile1 #cfd4 ,form1 child's observation of1 #fj1 #cic1 #dba1 #dfe4 ,fry1 ,i41 #bbd1 #bec4 ,fun1 child's sense of1 #caf1 #daa1 #dcd1 #dej4 ,g4 ,galton1 ,f41 #de1 #djd4 ,games4 ,see ,play4 ,general ideas1 generalisation1 first rudiments of1 #ada1 #afa2 early examples of1 #afb1 #djd1 #dbj4 ,gesture1 early use of1 as signs1 #ach2 of deaf-mutes1 #agc1 #age4 ,ghosts1 germ of fear of1 in child1 #dfb4 ,god2 child's ideas of his form1 #abf2 of his dwelling-place1 #abf2 of his creative activity1 #abg1 #dgh2 of his omniscience1 #abh2 of his omnipresence1 #abi2 of his goodness1 #acj2 of his eternity1 #aca2 of his triune being1 #cca4 ,goethe1 ,j4 ,w4 von1 #bda note1 #cae1 #eab4 ,goltz1 ,b41 #db1 #ec1 #ahe note1 #ahf note4 ,government4 ,see ,discipline4 ,grace of child1 #cba4 ,grammatical forms1 child's indifference to1 #afa1 #ddj4 ,grasping1 movement of1 #dab4 ,grave4 ,see ,burial4 ,greed of child1 #bca1 #dcb4 ,grosse1 ,e41 #cai1 #cbg1 #cfh4 ,growth1 ascribed by child to lifeless things1 #ig1 #ddi2 child's inquiries into1 #hj1 #deg2 his ideas of1 #ajd1 #dhe2 and subsequent shrinkage1 #aje4 ,guyau1 ,j4 ,m41 #bec4 ,h4 ,habit1 influence of1 seen in children's drawings1 #cij1 #cib4 ,hair1 drawing of1 #cdc4 ,hale1 ,horatio1 #ade4 ,hall1 ,g4 ,stanley1 #cd1 #aja1 #abb1 #abe1 #ace note1 #adj1 #ahh1 #bef1 #bfb1 #bfd note1 #cch note1 #cej note4 ,hallucination1 traces of1 in child1 #dbc1 #ejj1 #eja1 #eaa4 ,hands1 child's manner of drawing1 #cea2 first use of1 #djj1 #dja2 discrimination of right and left1 #dhd4 ,happiness of child1 problem of1 #bbb4 ,harte1 ,bret1 #fe4 ,heaven1 children's ideas of1 #abb1 #abf1 #dgi4 ,heavenly bodies1 children's ideas of1 #ii1 #ajj1 #dhb4 ,heine1 ,h41 #c4 ,hell1 child's fear of1 #bbd4 ,helpfulness of child1 #bdf4 ,history1 child's treatment of1 #ejc4 ,holmes1 ,oliver ,wendell1 #fa4 ,hugo1 ,victor1 #c1 #bac4 ,humane feelings1 compassion for animals1 etc4 ,see ,sympathy4 ,humorous aspect of child1 #c4 ,hypnotic suggestion1 hypnotism1 #ac1 #bed1 #beg1 #bfa1 #bid4 ,i4 #8,i1' #8me1' first use of1 #agh1 #dbh1 #dci1 #ddd4 ,idealism1 traces of1 in child1 #aag4 ,ideas of children4 ,see ,imagination and ,thought4 ,illusion1 in transformation of objects by imagination1 #ca1 #ejj2 in play1 #dg2 tendency to morbid1 #fb4 ,image4 ,see ,semblance4 ,imagination1 age of1 #be2 differences in power of1 among children1 #bf2 transformation of objects of sense by1 #bi1 #ejj2 relation of1 to play1 #ce2 free projection of images of1 #ea2 and ,storyland1 #ed2 connexion between1 and thought1 #gj2 as element in fear1 #bah2 relation of1 to lying1 #bed1 #dch2 early development of1 #dje1 #dch4 ,imitation1 imitative movement2 in early language-signs1 #adb1 #adg1 #dag2 in early forms of sympathy1 #bdc1 #djh2 beginnings of1 #cbb1 #dae4 ,incantation1 playing at1 #eja4 ,indignation1 moral1 manifestations of1 in child1 #bdh1 #deb1 #dgd4 ,individuality of child1 #bc4 ,ingelow1 ,jean1 #ca1 #aah4 ,inheritance of fear1 #bjh1 #daa4 ,inquisitiveness4 ,see ,curiosity4 ,insensibility of child1 #bcf4 ,instinct1 in articulation1 #acd2 in fear1 #aih2 in angry passion1 #bce2 in truth-telling1 #bfd2 in respect for law1 #bgi4 ,invention1 artistic1 #cbe2 practical1 #dce2 of language forms1 see ,language4 ,j4 ,janet1 ,pierre1 #dde4 ,k4 ,kipling1 ,rudyard1 #ab4 ,kratz1 ,h4 ,e41 #hb1 #abf4 ,l4 ,la ,fontaine1 ,j4 de1 #bci4 ,lamb1 ,charles1 #bac4 ,language1 linguistics of child2 early instinctive sounds1 #acd1 #daf2 transition to true speech1 #ach2 imitation of sounds1 #adb1 #adg1 #dag2 original inventions of language signs1 #ade2 transformation of our sounds1 #adh1 #dai2 process of learning to speak1 #aed1 #afj2 transposition of sounds of words1 #aee2 reduplication of sounds1 #aef2 assimilation of sounds1 #aef2 logical side of language1 #afj2 first use of general signs1 #afa2 spontaneous extension of verbal signs1 #afb1 #dbj1 #ddj2 designation of correlative ideas1 #afd1 #dfh2 formation of compound names1 #afg2 other inventions1 #afh1 #ahb1 #dee1 #dfh2 first sentences1 #agj1 #dbj2 inversion of order of words1 #agc2 mode of expressing negation1 #agd1 #ddb2 early solecisms1 #agf1 #ddj2 use of pronouns1 #8,i1' #8you1' #agh1 #ddd2 trying to get at our meanings1 #ahc2 word-play1 #ahg2 stickling for accuracy of words1 #ahi1 #dff4 ,laughter4 ,see ,fun4 ,law1 early struggles with1 #bfg1 #dea2 devices for evading1 #bgj2 instinctive respect for1 #bgg1 #dcd2 relation of custom to1 #bhj2 child's spontaneous extension of1 #bha2 his jealous insistence on1 #bhe2 his voluntary submission to1 #bhg4 ,law-giver1 the wise1 #bij4 ,leg1 child's mode of drawing1 #ced2 representation of1 in profile1 #cfd2 treatment of animal's1 #cge4 ,liberty1 respect for1 in moral training1 #bif2 child's love of1 #dgc4 ,lies1 lying1 viewed as characteristic of child1 #bea2 early forms of1 #beb1 #dcb1 #dch2 permanent1 #bfj2 contagiousness of1 #bfa2 shrinking from1 #bfa4 ,likeness4 ,see ,portrait and ,similarity4 ,locke1 ,john1 #i1 #cd1 #bac1 #bah4 ,lombroso1 ,p41 #aai note1 #aff note1 #afi1 #bee note1 #bga note4 ,loti1 ,pierre1 #bjc4 ,lubbock1 ,sir ,john1 #de4 ,m4 ,maillet1 ,e41 #agc4 ,make-believe1 as characteristic of child1 #ch1 #dcd4 ,see ,play and ,acting4 ,man1 first drawings of1 #cce2 first use of name1 #dbe2 theory of creation of1 #dgh4 ,marshall1 ,h4 ,rutgers1 #cbg note4 ,maspero1 ,g41 #cfi note4 ,materialism of child1 #abe1 #ejg4 ,memory1 of our early experiences1 #ae2 of words of story1 #eg1 #dff2 tenacity of children's1 #fi2 illusion of1 #beh2 beginnings of permanent1 #dcg1 #dha4 ,metaphor1 in children's use of language1 #afc1 #age1 #dbf1 #ddb1 #dee1 #dhc4 ,metathesis1 #aee4 ,minto1 ,w41 #afd4 ,mirror-reflexions1 as aiding in growth of self-knowledge1 #aab2 understanding of1 #cji4 ,moral depravity1 doctrine of1 #a1 #bbi4 ,morality of child1 question of1 #bbh2 anti-social tendencies1 #bcj1 #dgc2 altruistic tendencies1 #bdb2 lying1 #bea2 summary of moral traits1 #bfe4 ,motet1 ,a4 ,a41 #bfa note4 ,mother1 child's love of1 #bdc1 #bde1 #dih2 first recognition of1 #djd4 ,mouth1 modes of 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---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,transcriber's ,note ,several footnotes appeared without identifying numbers1 though the anchors in the text are present1 and have been included in the sequence4 ,those errors deemed most likely to be the printer's have been corrected1 and are noted here4 ,minor lapses in the punctuation in the ,index have been corrected4 ,the references below are to the page and line in the original4 ,the following issues should be noted1 along with the resolutions4 #g4f 8state of conscion_/usness10 ,inverted4 #bc4ae the movements of children's minds4 ,inserted4 #fh4cf retaining it even at meals4 ,added4 #acg4bh to repeat the performance ,inserted4 #aef4b #8jaymen' for #8geranium' ,added4 #agh4aa #8you1' #8me1' #8mine1' ,added4 #ahg4bf called his doll #8,shakespeare' ,added4 #ahg4ca #8ham-chovies'1 ,added4 #baj4e shyings of the horse4 ,added4 #bae4cb gives no clear indications of fear4 ,added4 #bbd4bj nastily 7from its brimstone74 ,added4 #bdc4bf introduced by #8naughtiness'4 ,added4 #beg4bf with other forces4 ,added4 #bea4bd in a world of evil and strife40_/' ,replaced4 #ddj4ci there is clearly a redundance4 ,added4 #dda4ch first contrasts to impress ,inserted4 #dib4f 8,there's ,aurore playing the wirework40 ,added4