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} - .c025 { text-indent: 13.89%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.0em; } - .c026 { vertical-align: top; text-align: left; } - a:link { text-decoration: none; } - div.tnotes { padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;background-color:#E3E4FA; - border:1px solid silver; margin:1em 5% 0 5%; text-align: justify; } - .blackletter { font-family: "Old English Text MT", Gothic, serif; } - .epubonly {visibility: hidden; display: none; } - @media handheld { .epubonly { visibility: visible; display: inline; } } - .htmlonly {visibility: visible; display: inline; } - @media handheld { .htmlonly { visibility: hidden; display: none; } } - .column-container { font-size:smaller; margin: auto; clear: both; max-width: 500px; - background-color: #FFFFFF; } - .col20 { display: inline-block; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; - width:19%; } - .col25 { display: inline-block; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; - width:24%; } - .col30 { display: inline-block; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; 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} - .fltright { clear: right; float:right; display: inline; margin: 1em 2em 0em 1em; - text-align: center; } - .fltleft { clear: left; float:left; display: inline; margin: 1em 2em 0em 0em; - text-align: center; } - .width40 { width: 40%; } - .width50 { width: 50%; } - .width60 { width: 60%; } - .width65 { width: 65%; } - .width75 { width: 75%; } - .width80 { width: 80%; } - .width90 { width: 90%; } - @media handheld { .fltright{ clear: right; float:right; } } - @media handheld { .fltleft { clear: left; float:left; } } - .kd200 { width:200px; } - @media handheld { .kd200 { width: 40%; } } - .kd150 { width:150px; } - @media handheld { .kd150 { width:29%; } } - .scale12 { height: 1em; width: 2em; } - .scale11 { height: 1em; width: 1em; } - ins.correction { text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray; } - .quote { font-size: 95%; margin-top: 1.0em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; } - .linegroup .group { margin: 0em auto; } - td.bb { border-bottom: 1px solid black; } - </style> - </head> - <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Studies of childhood, by James Sully - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Studies of childhood - -Author: James Sully - -Release Date: May 18, 2020 [EBook #62175] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD *** - - - - -Produced by KD Weeks, Turgut Dincer and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Transcriber’s Note:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Footnotes have been collected at the end of each chapter, and are -linked for ease of reference.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s <a href='#endnote'>note</a> at the end of this text -for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered -during its preparation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The cover image has been created from title page information, and is -placed in the publi domain.</p> - -<div class='htmlonly'> - -<p class='c001'>Any corrections are indicated using an <ins class='correction' title='original'>underline</ins> -highlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce the -original text in a small popup.</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='epubonly'> - -<p class='c001'>Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate the -reader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in the -note at the end of the text.</p> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='xxlarge'>STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div> - <h1 class='c003'><span class='xxlarge'>STUDIES</span> <br /> <span class='xxlarge'>OF CHILDHOOD</span></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div>BY</div> - <div class='c000'><span class='large'>JAMES SULLY, M. A., LL. D.</span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='small'>GROTE PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC,</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>AUTHOR OF OUTLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY, ETC.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>NEW YORK</div> - <div>D. APPLETON AND COMPANY</div> - <div>1896</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_I'>I</span><span class='small'><span class='sc'>Copyright, 1895,</span></span></div> - <div><span class='sc'>By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> - <h2 class='c004'>PREFACE.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>The following Studies are not a complete treatise -on child-psychology, but merely deal with certain -aspects of children’s minds which happen to have -come under my notice, and to have had a special -interest for me. 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 psychology, more particularly -parents and young teachers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A part of these Studies has already appeared -elsewhere. The Introductory Chapter was published -in the <cite>Fortnightly Review</cite> for November, 1895. -The substance of those from II. to VIII. has been -printed in the <cite>Popular Science Monthly</cite> of New -York. Portions of the “Extracts from a Father’s -Diary” appeared in the form of two essays, one on -“Babies and Science” in the <cite>Cornhill Magazine</cite> in -1881, and the other on “Baby Linguistics” in the -<cite>English Illustrated Magazine</cite> in 1884. The original -form of these, involving a certain disguise—though -hardly one of impenetrable thickness—has been retained. -The greater part of the study on “George -Sand’s Childhood” was published as two articles in -<cite>Longmans’ Magazine</cite> in 1889 and 1890.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Like all others who have recently worked at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>child-psychology I am much indebted to the pioneers -in the field, more particularly to Professor W. -Preyer. In addition to these I wish to express my -obligations to my colleague, Dr. Postgate, of Trinity -College, Cambridge, for kindly reading through my -essay on children’s language, and giving me many -valuable suggestions; to Lieutenant-General Pitt -Rivers, F.R.S., and Mr. H. Balfour, of the Museum, -Oxford, for the friendly help they rendered me in -studying the drawings of savages, and to Mr. E. -Cooke for many valuable facts and suggestions -bearing on children’s modes of drawing. Lastly, I -would tender my warm acknowledgments to the -parents who have sent me notes on their children’s -mental development. To some few of these sets of -observations, drawn up with admirable care, I feel -peculiarly indebted, for without them I should probably -not have written my book.</p> - -<div class='c006'>J. S.</div> - -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'><span class='sc'>Hampstead</span>,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>November, 1895</span>.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span> - <h2 class='c004'>CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='8%' /> -<col width='5%' /> -<col width='77%' /> -<col width='8%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c009'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>I.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>Introductory</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>II.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>The Age of Imagination</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Why we call Children Imaginative,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Imaginative Transformation of Objects,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_28'>28</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Imagination and Play,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Free Projection of Fancies,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Imagination and Storyland,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>III.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>The Dawn of Reason</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>The Process of Thought,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>The Questioning Age,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>IV.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>Products of Child-Thought</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>The Child’s Thoughts about Nature,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Psychological Ideas,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Theological Ideas,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_120'>120</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>V.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>The Little Linguist</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Prelinguistic Babblings,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Transition to Articulate Speech,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_138'>138</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Beginnings of Linguistic Imitation,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_147'>147</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Transformation of our Words,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_148'>148</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Logical Side of Children’s Language,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Sentence-building,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_170'>170</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Getting at our Meanings,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_183'>183</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>VI.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>Subject to Fear</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_191'>191</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Children’s Sensibility,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_191'>191</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Startling Effect of Sounds,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_194'>194</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Fear of Visible Things,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_198'>198</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>The Fear of Animals,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_207'>207</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Fear of the Dark,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_211'>211</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Fears and their Palliatives,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_219'>219</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>VII.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>Raw Material of Morality</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Primitive Egoism,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Germs of Altruism,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_242'>242</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Children’s Lies,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_251'>251</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>VIII.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>Under Law</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_267'>267</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>The Struggle with Law,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_267'>267</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>On the Side of Law,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_277'>277</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>The Wise Law-giver,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_290'>290</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>IX.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>The Child as Artist</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_298'>298</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>First Responses to Natural Beauty,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_300'>300</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Early Attitude Towards Art,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_307'>307</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Beginnings of Art-production,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_317'>317</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>X.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>The Young Draughtsman</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_331'>331</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>First Attempts to Draw,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_331'>331</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>First Drawings of the Human Figure,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_335'>335</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Front and Side View of Human Figure,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_356'>356</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>First Drawings of Animals,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_372'>372</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Men on Horseback, etc.,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_377'>377</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Résumé of Facts,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_382'>382</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Explanation of Facts,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_385'>385</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XI.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>Extracts From a Father’s Diary</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_399'>399</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>First Year,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_400'>400</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Second Year,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_416'>416</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Third Year,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_436'>436</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Fourth Year,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_452'>452</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Fifth Year,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_464'>464</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Sixth Year,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_480'>480</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'>XII.</td> - <td class='c008' colspan='2'><span class='sc'>George Sand’s Childhood</span>,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_489'>489</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>The First Years,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_489'>489</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'> </td> - <td class='c008'>A Self-evolved Religion,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_506'>506</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='3'>Bibliography,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_515'>515</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008' colspan='3'>Index,</td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_519'>519</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c010'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span>STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>I. <br /> INTRODUCTORY.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Man has always had the child with him, 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 baby. 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 times. There is a pretty -story taken down by Mr. Leland from the lips of an old -Indian woman, which relates how Glooskap the hero-god, -after conquering all his enemies, rashly tried his -hand at managing a certain mighty baby, Wasis by -name, and how he got punished for his rashness.<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c011'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 -discerned. We have come to appreciate babyhood as -we have come to appreciate the finer lineaments of nature -as a whole. This applies, of course, more especially -to the ruder sex. The man has in him much of the boy’s -contempt for small things, and he needed ages of education -at the hands of the better-informed woman before -he could perceive the charm of infantile ways.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the first males to do justice to this attractive -subject was Rousseau. He made short work with the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>theological dogma that the child is born morally depraved, -and can only be made good by miraculous appliances. -His watchword, return to nature, included a -reversion to the infant as coming virginal and unspoilt -by man’s tinkering from the hands of its Maker. To -gain a glimpse of this primordial beauty before it was -marred by man’s awkward touch was something, and so -Rousseau set men in the way of sitting reverently at the -feet of infancy, watching and learning.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For us of to-day, who have learned to go to the pure -springs of nature for much of our spiritual refreshment, the -child has acquired a high place among the things of beauty. -Indeed, the grace of childhood may almost be said to have -been discovered by the modern poet. Wordsworth has -stooped over his cradle intent on catching, ere they passed, -the ‘visionary gleams’ of ‘the glories he hath known’. -Blake, R. L. Stevenson, and others, have tried to put -into language his day-dreamings, his quaint fancyings. -Dickens and Victor Hugo have shown us something of his -delicate quivering heart-strings; Swinburne has summed -up the divine charm of “children’s ways and wiles”. -The page of modern literature is, indeed, a monument -of our child-love and our child-admiration.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is it merely as to a pure untarnished nature that -we go back admiringly to childhood. The æsthetic charm -of the infant which draws us so potently to its side and -compels us to watch its words and actions is, like everything -else which moves the modern mind, highly complex. -Among other sources of this charm we may discern the -perfect serenity, the happy ‘insouciance’ of the childish -mind. The note of world-complaint in modern life has -penetrated into most domains, yet it has not, one would -hope, penetrated into the charmed circle of childish experience. -Childhood has, no doubt, its sad aspect:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Poor stumbler on the rocky coast of woe,</div> - <div class='line'>Tutored by pain each source of pain to know:</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c013'><span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>neglect and cruelty may bring much misery into the first -bright years. Yet the very instinct of childhood to be glad -in its self-created world, an instinct which with consummate -art Victor Hugo keeps warm and quick in the breast -of the half-starved ill-used child Cosette, secures for it a -peculiar blessedness. The true nature-child, who has not -become <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>blasé</i></span>, is happy, untroubled with the future, knowing -nothing of the misery of disillusion. As, with hearts -chastened by many experiences, we take a peep over the -wall of his fancy-built pleasance, we seem to be taken back -to a real golden age. With Amiel, we say: <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Le peu de -paradis que nous aperçevons encore sur la terre est du à -sa présence”.</span> Yet the thought, which the same moment -brings, of the flitting of the nursery visions, of the coming -storm and stress, adds a pathos to the spectacle, and we -feel as Heine felt when he wrote:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Ich schau’ dich an, und Wehmuth</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>Other and strangely unlike feelings mingle with this -caressing, half-pitiful admiration. We moderns are given -to relieving the strained attitude of reverence and pity by -momentary outbursts of humorous merriment. The child, -while appealing to our admiration and our pity, makes a -large and many-voiced appeal also to our sense of the -laughter in things. It is indeed hard to say whether he is -most amusing when setting at naught in his quiet, lordly -way, our most extolled views, our ideas of what is true -and false, of the proper uses of things, and so forth, or -when labouring in his perfectly self-conceived fashion to -overtake us and be as experienced and as conventional -as ourselves. 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 childhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With the growth of a poetic or sentimental interest in -childhood there has come a new and different kind of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>interest. Ours is a scientific age, and science has cast its -inquisitive eye on the infant. We want to know what -happens in these first all-decisive two or three years of -human life, by what steps exactly the wee amorphous -thing takes shape and bulk, both physically and mentally. -And we can now speak of the beginning of a careful and -methodical investigation of child-nature, by men trained -in scientific observation. This line of inquiry, started by -physicians, as the German Sigismund, in connection with -their special professional aims, has been carried on by a -number of fathers and others having access to the infant, -among whom it may be enough to name Darwin and -Preyer. A fuller list of writings on the subject will be -given at the end of the volume.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This eagerness to know what the child is like, an eagerness -illustrated further by the number of reminiscences of -early years recently published, is the outcome of a many-sided -interest which it may be worth while to analyse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The most obvious source of interest in the doings of -infancy lies in its primitiveness. At the cradle we are -watching the beginnings of things, the first tentative -thrustings forward into life. Our modern science is before -all things historical and genetic, going back to beginnings -so as to understand the later and more complex -phases of things as the outcome of these beginnings. The -same kind of curiosity which prompts the geologist to -get back to the first stages in the building up of the -planet, or the biologist to search out the pristine forms -of life, 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 forms.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 history. However -man in his proud maturity may be related to Nature, -it is certain that in his humble inception he is immersed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>in Nature and saturated with her. As we all know, the -lowest races of mankind stand in close proximity to the -animal world. The same is true of the infants of civilised -races. Their life is outward and visible, forming a -part of nature’s spectacle; reason and will, the noble -prerogatives of humanity, are scarce discernible; sense, -appetite, instinct, these animal functions seem to sum up -the first year of human life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To the evolutionist, moreover, the infant exhibits a still -closer kinship to the natural world. In the successive -stages of fœtal development he sees the gradual unfolding -of human lineaments out of a widely typical animal form. -And even after birth he can discern new evidences of this -genealogical relation of the “lord” of creation to his -inferiors. How significant, for example, is the fact recently -established by a medical man, Dr. Louis Robinson, -that the new-born infant is able just like the ape to suspend -his whole weight by grasping a small horizontal rod.<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c011'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet even as nature-object for the biologist the child -presents distinctive attributes. Though sharing in animal -instinct, he shares in it only to a very small extent. The -most striking characteristic of the new-born offspring of -man is its unpreparedness for life. Compare with the -young of other animals the infant so feeble and incapable. -He can neither use his limbs nor see the distance of -objects as a new-born chick or calf is able to do. His -brain-centres are, we are told, in a pitiable state of undevelopment—and -are not even securely encased within -their bony covering. Indeed, he resembles for all the -world a public building which has to be opened by a -given date, and is found when the day arrives to be in a -humiliating state of incompleteness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This fact of the special helplessness of the human offspring -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>at birth, of its long period of dependence on parental -or other aids—a period which, probably, tends to -grow longer as civilisation advances—is rich in biological -and sociological significance. For one thing, it presupposes -a specially high development of the protective and -fostering instincts in the human parents, and particularly -the mother—for if the helpless wee thing were not met by -these instincts, what would become of our race? It is probable, -too, as Mr. Spencer and others have argued, that the -institution by nature of this condition of infantile weakness -has reacted on the social affections of the race, helping to -develop our pitifulness for all frail and helpless things.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is this all. The existence of the infant, with its -large and imperative claims, has been a fact of capital -importance in the development of social customs. Ethnological -researches show that communities have been much -exercised with the problem of infancy, have paid it the -homage due to its supreme sacredness, girding it about -with a whole group of protective and beneficent customs.<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c011'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Enough has been said, perhaps, to show the far-reaching -significance of babyhood to the modern savant. It is -hardly too much to say that it has become one of the most -eloquent of nature’s phenomena, telling us at once of our -affinity to the animal world, and of the forces by which -our race has, little by little, lifted itself to so exalted a -position above this world; and so it has happened that -not merely to the perennial baby-worshipper, the mother, -and not merely to the poet touched with the mystery of -far-off things, but to the grave man of science the infant -has become a centre of lively interest.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevertheless, it is not to the mere naturalist that the -babe reveals all its significance. Physical organism as it -seems to be more than anything else, hardly more than a -vegetative thing indeed, it carries with it the germ of a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>human consciousness, and this consciousness begins to -expand and to form itself into a truly human shape from -the very beginning. And here a new source of interest -presents itself. It is the human psychologist, the student -of those impalpable, unseizable, evanescent phenomena -which we call “state of <a id='corr7.6'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='conscionsness'>consciousness</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_7.6'><ins class='correction' title='conscionsness'>consciousness</ins></a></span>,” who has a supreme -interest, and a scientific property in these first -years of a human existence. What is of most account -in these crude tentatives at living after the human fashion -is the play of mind, the first spontaneous manifestations -of recognition, of reasoning expectation, of feelings -of sympathy and antipathy, of definite persistent purpose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Rude, inchoate, vague enough, no doubt, are these first -groping movements of a human mind: yet of supreme -value to the psychologist just because they are the first. -If, reflects the psychologist, he can only get at this baby’s -consciousness so as to understand what is passing there, -he will be in an infinitely better position to find his way -through the intricacies of the adult consciousness. It may -be, as we shall see by-and-by, that the baby’s mind is not -so perfectly simple, so absolutely primitive as it at first -looks. Yet it is the simplest type of human consciousness -to which we can have access. 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 this, that while possessing many of the elements of the -human mind, it presents these in so unlike, so peculiar a -pattern.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this genetic tracing back of the complexities of -man’s mental life to their primitive elements in the child’s -consciousness, questions of peculiar interest will arise. -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-experience. Are -we to regard all our ideas, even those of God, as woven by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>the mind out of its experiences, as Locke thought, or have -we certain ‘innate ideas’ from the first? Locke thought -he could settle this point by observing children. To-day, -when the philosophic emphasis is laid not on the date of -appearance of the ‘innate’ intuition, but on its originality -and spontaneity, this method of interrogating the child’s -mind may seem less promising. Yet if of less philosophical -importance than was once supposed, it is of great -psychological importance. There are certain questions, -such as that of how we come to see things at a distance -from us, which can be approached most advantageously -by a study of infant movements. In like manner I believe -the growth of a moral sentiment, of that feeling of reverence -for duty to which Kant gave so eloquent an expression, -can only be understood by the most painstaking -observation of the mental activities of the first years.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is, however, another, and in a sense a larger, -source of psychological interest in studying the processes -and development of the infant mind. It was pointed out -above that to the evolutional biologist the child exhibits -man in his kinship to the lower sentient world. This -same evolutional point of view enables the psychologist -to connect the unfolding of an infant’s mind with something -which has gone before, with the mental history of -the race. According to this way of looking at infancy -the successive phases of its mental life are a brief <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>resumé</i></span> -of the more important features in the slow upward progress -of the species. The periods dominated successively -by sense and appetite, by blind wondering and superstitious -fancy, and by a calmer observation and a juster -reasoning about things, these steps mark the pathway -both of the child-mind and of the race-mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This being so, the first years of a child, with their imperfect -verbal expression, their crude fanciful ideas, their -seizures by rage and terror, their absorption in the present -moment, acquire a new and antiquarian interest. They -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>mirror for us, in a diminished distorted reflection no -doubt, the probable condition of primitive man. As Sir -John Lubbock and other anthropologists have told us, -the intellectual and moral resemblances between the lowest -existing races of mankind and children are numerous -and close. They will be illustrated again and again in -the following studies.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet this way of viewing childhood is not merely of -antiquarian interest. While a monument of his race, and -in a manner a key to its history, the child is also its product. -In spite of the fashionable Weismannism of the -hour, there are evolutionists who hold that in the early -manifested tendencies of the child, we can discern signs -of a hereditary transmission of the effects of ancestral experiences -and activities. His first manifestations of rage, -for example, are a survival of actions of remote ancestors -in their life and death struggles. The impulse of obedience, -which is as much a characteristic of the child as that -of disobedience, may in like manner be regarded as a -transmitted rudiment of a long practised action of socialised -ancestors. This idea of an increment of intelligence -and moral disposition, earned for the individual not by -himself but by his ancestors, has its peculiar interest. It -gives a new meaning to human progress to suppose that -the dawn of infant intelligence, instead of being a return -to a primitive darkness, 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 -point, the lowest form of the school of experience, it is a -start in a higher form, the promotion being a reward conferred -on the child for the exertions of his ancestors. -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 dowering.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So much with respect to the rich and varied scientific -interest attaching to the movements of the child’s mind. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>It only remains to touch on a third main interest in childhood, -the practical or educational interest. The modern -world, while erecting the child into an object of æsthetic -contemplation, while bringing to bear on him the bull’s -eye lamp of scientific observation, has become sorely -troubled by the momentous problem of rearing him. -What was once a matter of instinct and unthinking rule-of-thumb -has become the subject of profound and perplexing -discussion. Mothers—the right sort of mothers that -is—feel that they must know <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>au fond</i></span> this wee speechless -creature which they are called upon to direct into the safe -road to manhood. And professional teachers, more particularly -the beginners in the work of training, whose -work is in some respects the most difficult and the most -honourable, have come to see that a clear insight into -child-nature and its spontaneous movements, must precede -any intelligent attempt to work beneficially upon -this nature. In this way the teacher has lent his support -to the savant and the psychologist in their investigation -of infancy. 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 form. In addition -to this, the growing educational interest in the spontaneous -behaviour of the child’s mind may be expected -to issue in a demand for a <em>statistic</em> of childhood, that is to -say, carefully arranged collections of observations bearing -on such points as children’s questions, their first thoughts -about nature, their manifestations of sensibility and insensibility.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The awakening in the modern mind of this keen and -varied interest in childhood has led, and is destined to -lead still more, to the observation of infantile ways. This -observation will, of course, be of very different value according -as it subserves the contemplation of the humorous -or other æsthetically valuable aspect of child-nature, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>or as it is directed towards a scientific understanding of -this. Pretty anecdotes of children which tickle the emotions -may or may not add to our insight into the peculiar -mechanism of children’s minds. There is no necessary -connection between smiling at infantile drolleries and -understanding the laws of infantile intelligence. Indeed, -the mood of merriment, if too exuberant, will pretty -certainly swamp for the moment any desire to understand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The observation which is to further understanding, -which is to be acceptable to science, must itself be scientific. -That is to say, it must be at once guided by -foreknowledge, specially directed to what is essential in -a phenomenon and its surroundings or conditions, and -perfectly exact. If anybody supposes this to be easy, -he should first try his hand at the work, and then compare -what he has seen with what Darwin or Preyer has -been able to discover.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How difficult this is may be seen even with reference -to the outward physical part of the phenomena to be -observed. Ask any mother untrained in observation to -note the first appearance of that complex facial movement -which we call a smile, and you know what kind of result -you are likely to get. The phenomena of a child’s mental -life, even on its physical and visible side, are of so -subtle and fugitive a character that only a fine and quick -observation is able to cope with them. But observation -of children is never merely seeing. Even the smile has -to be interpreted as a smile by a process of imaginative -inference. Many careless onlookers would say that a -baby smiles in the first days from very happiness, when -another and simpler explanation of the movement is forthcoming. -Similarly, it wants much fine judgment to say -whether an infant is merely stumbling accidentally on an -articulate sound, or is imitating your sound. A glance at -some of the best memoirs will show how enormously -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>difficult it is to be sure of a right interpretation of these -early and comparatively simple manifestations of mind.<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c011'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Things grow a great deal worse when we try to throw -our scientific lassoo about the elusive spirit of a child of -four or six, and to catch the exact meaning of its swiftly -changing movements. Children are, no doubt, at this age -frank before the eye of love, and their minds are vastly -more accessible than that of the dumb dog that can only -look his ardent thoughts. Yet they are by no means -so open to view as is often supposed. All kinds of shy -reticences hamper them: they feel unskilled in using -our cumbrous language; they soon find out that their -thoughts are not as ours, but often make us laugh. And -how carefully are they wont to hide from our sight their -nameless terrors, physical and moral. Much of the -deeper childish experience can only reach us, if at all, -years after it is over, through the faulty medium of adult -memory—faulty even when it is the memory of a Goethe, -a George Sand, a Robert Louis Stevenson.<a id='r5' /><a href='#f5' class='c011'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Even when there is perfect candour, and the little one -does his best to instruct us as to what is passing in his -mind by his ‘whys’ and his ‘I ’sposes,’ accompanied by -the most eloquent of looks, we find ourselves ever and -again unequal to comprehending. Child-thought follows -its own paths—roads, as Mr. Rudyard Kipling has well -said, “unknown to those who have left childhood behind”. -The dark sayings of childhood, as when a child -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>asks, ‘Why am I not somebody else?’ will be fully illustrated -below.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This being so, it might well seem arrogant to speak of -any ‘scientific’ investigation of the child’s mind; and, to -be candid, I may as well confess that, in spite of some -recently published highly hopeful forecasts of what child-psychology -is going to do for us, I think we are a long -way off from a perfectly scientific account of it. Our so-called -theories of children’s mental activity has so often -been hasty generalisations from imperfect observation. -Children are probably much more diverse in their ways -of thinking and feeling than our theories suppose. But -of this more presently. Even where we meet with a common -and comparatively prominent trait, we are far as yet -from having a perfect comprehension of it. I at least -believe that children’s play, about which so much has -confidently been written, is but imperfectly understood. -Is it serious business, half-conscious make-believe, more -than half-conscious acting, or, no one of these, or all of -them by turns? I think he would be a bold man who -ventured to answer this question straight away.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this state of things it might seem well to wait. -Possibly by-and-by we shall light on new methods of -tapping the childish consciousness. Patients in a certain -stage of the hypnotic trance have returned, it is said, to -their childish experience and feelings. Some people do -this, or appear to do this, in their dreams. I know a -young man who revives vivid recollections of the experiences -of the third year of life when he is sleepy, and -more especially if he is suffering from a cold. 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 sentiments.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet our case is not so hopeless that we need defer inquiry -into the child’s mind until human science has fathomed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>all the mysteries of the brain. We can know many -things of this mind, and these of great importance, even -now. The naturalist discusses the actions of the lower -animals, confidently attributing intelligent planning here, -and a germ of vanity or even of moral sense there; and -it would be hard were we forbidden to study the little -people that are of our own race, and are a thousand -times more open to inspection. Really good work has -already been done here, and one should be grateful. At -the same time, it seems to me of the greatest importance -to recognise that it is but a beginning: that the child -which the modern world has in the main discovered is -after all only half discovered: that if we are to get at his -inner life, his playful conceits, his solemn broodings over -the mysteries of things, his way of responding to the -motley show of life, we must carry this work of noting -and interpreting to a much higher point.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now, if progress is to be made in this work, we must -have specially qualified workers. All who know anything -of the gross misunderstandings of children of which many -so-called intelligent adults are capable, will bear me out -when I say that a certain gift of penetration is absolutely -indispensable here. If any one asks me what the qualifications -of a good child-observer amount to, I may perhaps -answer, for the sake of brevity, ‘a divining faculty, -the offspring of child-love, perfected by scientific training’. -Let us see what this includes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That the observer of children must be a diviner, a sort -of clairvoyant reader of their secret thoughts, seems to me -perfectly obvious. Watch half a dozen men who find -themselves unexpectedly ushered into a room tenanted -by a small child, and you will soon be able to distinguish -the diviners, who, just because they have in themselves -something akin to the child, seem able at once to get -into touch with children. It is probable that women’s -acknowledged superiority in knowledge of child-nature is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>owing to their higher gift of sympathetic insight. This -faculty, so far from being purely intellectual, is very -largely the outgrowth of a peculiar moral nature to -which the life of all small things, and of children more -than all, is always sweet and congenial. It is very much -of a secondary, or acquired instinct; that is, an unreflecting -intuition which is the outgrowth of a large experience. -For the child-lover seeks the object of his love, and -is never so happy as when associating with children and -sharing in their thoughts and their pleasures. 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 discerned.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is in this tact or fineness of spiritual touch one -constituent so important as to deserve special mention. I -mean a lively memory of one’s own childhood. As I have -observed above, I do not believe in an exact and trustworthy -reproduction in later life of particular incidents of -childhood. All recalling of past experiences illustrates the -modifying influence of the later self in its attempt to assimilate -and understand the past self; and this transforming -effect is at its maximum when we try to get back to -childhood. But though our memory of childhood is not -in itself exact enough to furnish facts, it may be sufficiently -strong for the purposes of interpreting our observations -of the children we see about us. It is said, and said rightly, -that in order to read a child’s mind we need imagination, -and since all imagination is merely readjustment of individual -experience, it follows that the skilled decipherer -of infantile characters needs before all things to be in touch -with his own early feelings and thoughts. And this is -just what we find. The vivacious, 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 mind, much of the gaiety and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>expansiveness of early life. 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 children. 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 heart; and that George Sand when grown old -was never so happy as when gathering the youngsters -about her.<a id='r6' /><a href='#f6' class='c011'><sup>[6]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet valuable as is this gift of sympathetic insight, it -will not, of course, conduce to that methodical, exact -kind of observation which is required by science. Hence -the need of the second qualification: psychological training. -By this is meant that special knowledge which -comes from studying the principles of the science, its -peculiar problems, and the methods appropriate to these, -together with the special skill which is attained by a -methodical, practical application of this knowledge in the -actual observation and interpretation of manifestations of -mind. 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 expect, and in what way the phenomena -observed have to be interpreted. Really fine and fruitful -observation is the outcome of a large knowledge, 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 whole, so far as psychology -can as yet describe its characteristics, and determine the -conditions of its activity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And here the question naturally arises: “Who is to -carry out this new line of scientific observation?” To -begin with the first stage of it, who is to carry out the exact -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>methodical record of the movements of the infant? -It is evident that qualification or capacity is not all that is -necessary here; capacity must be favoured with opportunity -before the work can be actually begun.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It has been pointed out that the pioneers who struck -out this new line of experimental research were medical -men. The meaning of this fact is pretty apparent. The -doctor has not only a turn for scientific observation: he -is a privileged person in the nursery. The natural -guardians of infancy, the mother and the nurse, exempt -him from their general ban on the male. He excepted, -no man, not even the child’s own father, is allowed to -meddle too much with that divine mystery, that meeting -point of all the graces and all the beatitudes, the infant.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Consider for a moment the natural prejudice which -the inquirer into the characteristics of the infant has to -face. Such inquiry is not merely passively watching what -spontaneously presents itself; it is emphatically experimenting, -that is, the calling out of reactions by applying -appropriate stimuli. 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 nurse. To propose to -test the wee creature’s sense of taste by applying drops -of various solutions, as acid, bitters, etc., to the tongue, -or to provoke ocular movements to the right or the left, -would pretty certainly seem a profanation of the temple -of infancy, if not fraught with danger to its tiny deity. -And as to trying Dr. Robinson’s experiment of getting -the newly arrived visitor to suspend his whole precious -weight by clasping a bar, it is pretty certain that, women -being constituted as at present, only a medical man could -have dreamt of so daring a feat.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is no doubt that baby-worship, the sentimental -adoration of infant ways, is highly inimical to the carrying -out of a perfectly cool and impartial process of scientific -<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>observation. 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 nursery. -Even in these days of rapid modification of what -used to be thought unalterable sexual characters, one -may be bold enough to hazard the prophecy that women -who have had scientific training will, if they happen to -become mothers, hardly be disposed to give their minds -at the very outset to the rather complex and difficult -work, say, of making an accurate scientific inventory of -the several modes of infantile sensibility, visual, auditory, -and so forth, and of the alterations in these from day to day.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is for the coarser fibred man, then, to undertake -much of the earlier experimental work in the investigation -of child-nature. And if fathers will duly qualify -themselves they will probably find that permission will -little by little be given them to carry out investigations, -short, of course, of anything that looks distinctly dangerous -to the little being’s comfort.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time it is evident that a complete series -of observations of the infant can hardly be carried out by -a man alone. It is for the mother, or some other woman -with a pass-key to the nursery, with her frequent and -prolonged opportunities of observation to attempt a careful -and methodical register of mental progress. Hence -the importance of enlisting the mother or her female representative -as collaborateur or at least as assistant. Thus -supposing the father is bent on ascertaining the exact dates -and the order of appearance of the different articulate -sounds, which is rather a subject of passive observation -than of active experiment; 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 child.<a id='r7' /><a href='#f7' class='c011'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>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 attempted. In this higher -stage the work of observation will be less simple and involve -more of special psychological knowledge. 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 blinking: it is a much more -difficult thing to say what are the preferences of a child -of twelve months in the matter of simple forms, or even -colours.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The problem of the order of development of the colour-sense -in children looks at first easy enough. Any -mother, it may be thought, can say which colours the -child first recognises by naming them when seen, or picking -them out when another names them. Yet simple as -it looks, the problem is in reality anything but simple. -A German investigator, Professor Preyer of Berlin, went -to work methodically with his little boy of two years in -order to see in what order he would discriminate colours. -Two colours, red and green, were first shown, the name -added to each, and the child then asked: “Which is -red?” “Which is green?” Then other colours were -added and the experiments repeated. According to these -researches this particular child first acquired a clear discriminative -awareness of yellow. Preyer’s results have -not, however, been confirmed by other investigators, as -M. Binet of Paris, who followed a similar method of inquiry. -Thus according to Binet it is not yellow but -blue which carries the day in the competition for the -child’s preferential recognition.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What, it may be asked, is the explanation of this? Is -it that children differ in the mode of development of their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>colour-sensibility to this extent, or can it be that there is -some fault in the method of investigation? 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 ‘red’ more -easily than another as ‘green’ and that this would facilitate -the recognition of the former. If in this way the -recognition of a colour is aided by the retention of its -name, we must get rid of this disturbing element of -sound. Accordingly new methods of experiment have -been attempted in France and America. 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 arm, which is ignored. He has -tabulated the results of a short series of these simple experiments -for testing childish preference, and supports -the conclusions of Binet, as against those of Preyer, that -blue comes in for the first place in the child’s discriminative -recognition.<a id='r8' /><a href='#f8' class='c011'><sup>[8]</sup></a> It is however easy to see that this -method has its own characteristic defects. Thus, to begin -with, it evidently does not directly test colour discrimination -at all, but the liking for or interest in colours, -which though it undoubtedly implies a measure of discrimination -must not be confused with this. And even -as a test of preference it is very likely to be misapplied. -Thus supposing that the two colours are not equally -bright, then the child will grasp at one rather than at the -other, because it is a brighter object and not because it -is this particular colour. Again if one colour fall more -into the first and fresh period of the exercise when the -child is fresh and active, whereas another falls more into -the second period when he is tired and inactive, the results -would, it is evident, give too much value to the -former. Similarly, if one colour were brought in after -longer intervals of time than another it would have more -attractive force through its greater novelty.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>Enough has been said to show how very delicate a -problem we have here to deal with. And if scientific -men are still busy settling the point how the problem -can be best dealt with, it seems hopeless for the amateur -to dabble in the matter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 conditions. Yet there are many -parts of this work of observing the child’s mind which -do not make so heavy a demand on technical ability, but -can be done by any intelligent observer prepared for -the task by a reasonable amount of psychological study. -I refer more particularly to that rich and highly interesting -field of exploration which opens up when the child -begins to talk. It is in the spontaneous utterances of -children, his first quaint uses of words, that we can best -watch the play of the instinctive tendencies of thought. -Children’s talk is always valuable to a psychologist; and -for my part I would be glad of as many anecdotal records -of their sayings as I could collect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, then, there seems to be room for a relatively -simple and unskilled kind of observing work. Yet it -would be a mistake to suppose that even this branch of -child-observation requires nothing but ordinary intelligence. -To begin with, we are all prone, till by special -training we have learned to check the inclination, to read -far too much of our older thought and sentiment into -children. As M. Drox observes, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>nous sommes dupes de -nous-mêmes lorsque nous observous ces chers bambins</i></span>.<a id='r9' /><a href='#f9' class='c011'><sup>[9]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, 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 -avoid. A child is very quick in spying whether he is -being observed, and as soon as he suspects that you are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>specially interested in his talk he is apt to try to produce -an effect. This wish to say something startling, -wonderful, or what not, will, it is obvious, detract from -the value of the utterance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But once more the saying which it is so easy to report -has had its history, and the observer who knows something -of psychology will look out for facts, that is to say, -experiences of the child, suggestions made by others’ -words which throw light on the saying. No fact is really -quite simple, 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 inspecting. The -unskilled observer of children is apt to send scraps, fragments -of facts, which have not their natural setting. The -value of psychological training is that it makes one as jealously -mindful of wholeness in facts as a housewife of wholeness -in her porcelain. It is, indeed, only when the whole -fact is before us, in well-defined contour, that we can begin -to deal with its meaning. Thus although those ignorant -of psychology may assist us in this region of fact-finding, -they can never accomplish that completer and exacter -kind of observation which we dignify by the name of -Science.<a id='r10' /><a href='#f10' class='c011'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>One may conclude then that women may be fitted to become -valuable labourers in this new field of investigation, -if only they will acquire a genuine scientific interest in -babyhood, and a fair amount of scientific training. That a -large number of women will get so far is I think doubtful: -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>the sentimental or æsthetic attraction of the baby is apt to -be a serious obstacle to a cold matter-of-fact examination -of it as a scientific specimen. 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 view. Yet as I have hinted, this very -fondness for infantile ways, may, if only the scientific -caution is added, prove a valuable excitant to study. -In England, and in America, there is already a considerable -number of women who have undergone some -serious training in psychology, 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 <a id='corr23.15'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='movementsof'>movements of</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_23.15'><ins class='correction' title='movementsof'>movements of</ins></a></span> children’s minds.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have assumed here that what is wanted is careful -studies of individual children as they may be approached -in the nursery. And these records of individual children, -after the pattern of Preyer’s monograph, are I think our -greatest need. We are wont to talk rather too glibly -about that abstraction, ‘the child,’ as if all children rigorously -corresponded to one pattern, of which pattern we -have a perfect knowledge. Mothers at least know that -this is not so. Children of the same family will be found -to differ very widely (within the comparatively narrow -field of childish traits), as, for example, in respect of matter-of-factness, -of fancifulness, of inquisitiveness. Thus, -while it is probably true that most children at a certain -age are greedy of the pleasures of the imagination, Nature -in her well-known dislike of monotony has taken care -to make a few decidedly unimaginative. We need to -know much more about these variations: and what will -best help us here is a number of careful records of infant -progress, embracing examples not only of different sexes -and temperaments, but also of different social conditions -and nationalities. When we have such a collection of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>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 lineaments.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time I gladly allow that other modes of -observation are possible and in their way useful. This -applies to older children who pass into the collective -existence of the school-class. Here something like collective -or statistical inquiry may be begun, as that into -the contents of children’s minds, their ignorances and -misapprehensions about common objects. Some part of -this inquiry into the minds of school-children may very -well be undertaken by an intelligent teacher. Thus it -would be valuable to have careful records of children’s -progress carried out by pre-arranged tests, so as to get -collections of examples of mental activity at different -ages. More special lines of inquiry having a truly experimental -character might be carried out by experts, as -those already begun with reference to children’s “span of -apprehension,” <i>i.e.</i>, the number of digits or nonsense syllables -that can be reproduced after a single hearing, investigations -into the effects of fatigue on mental processes, -into the effect of number of repetitions on the certainty -of reproduction, into musical sensitiveness and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Valuable as such statistical investigation undoubtedly -is, it is no substitute for the careful methodical study of -the individual child. This seems to me the greatest desideratum -just now. Since the teacher needs for practical -reasons to make a careful study of individuals he might -well assist here. 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 mother. -Such a record if well done would be of the greatest value. -The co-operation of the mother seems to me quite indispensable, -since even where there is out-of-class intercourse -between teacher and pupil the knowledge acquired -by the former never equals that of the mother.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. Quoted by Miss Shinn. <cite>Overland Monthly.</cite> January, 1894.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f2'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. The <cite>Nineteenth Century</cite> (1891). <i>Cf.</i> the somewhat fantastic and -not too serious paper by S. S. Buckman on “Babies and Monkeys” -in the same journal (1894).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f3'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. See, for example, the works of H. Ploss, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Das Kind in Brauch -und Sitte</cite></span>, and <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Das kleine Kind</cite></span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f4'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. These difficulties seem to me to be curiously overlooked in Prof. -Mark Baldwin’s recent utterance on child psychology. (<cite>Mental Development -in the Child and the Race</cite>, chap. ii.) In this optimistic -presentment of the subject there is not the slightest reference to the -difficult work of interpretation. Child-study is talked of as a perfectly -simple mode of observation, requiring at most to be supplemented by a -little experiment, and, it may be added, backed by a firm theory.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f5'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. In these days of published reminiscences of childhood it is quite -refreshing to meet with a book like Mr. James Payn’s <cite>Gleams of Memory</cite>, -which honestly confesses that its early recollections are almost <em>nil</em>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f6'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. Since this was written the authoress of <cite>Little Lord Fauntleroy</cite> -has shown us how clear and far-reaching a memory she has of her -childish experiences.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f7'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. 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 women. I would especially call attention -to a study by Miss M. W. Shinn of the University of California -(<cite>Development of a child. Notes on the writer’s niece</cite>), where the -minute and painstaking record (<i>e.g.</i>, of the child’s colour discrimination -and visual space exploration) points to the ample opportunity of observation -which comes more readily to women.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f8'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. <cite>Mental Development in the Child and the Race</cite>, chap. iii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f9'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Enfant</cite></span>, p. 142.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f10'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. 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 (<cite>Thoughts and Reasonings of -Children</cite>, classified by H. W. Brown, Teacher of Psychology in State -Normal School, Worcester, Mass., with introduction by E. H. Russell, -Principal: reprinted from the <cite>Pedagogical Seminary</cite>). Many of the -quaint sayings noted down lose much of their psychological point from -our complete ignorance of the child’s home-experience, companionships, -school and training.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span> - <h2 class='c016'>II. <br /> THE AGE OF IMAGINATION.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Why we call Children Imaginative.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>One of the few things we seemed to be certain of with -respect to child-nature was that it is fancy-full. Childhood, -we all know, is the age for dreaming, for decking out the -world as yet unknown with the gay colours of imagination; -for living a life of play or happy make-believe. So that -nothing seems more to characterise the ‘Childhood of the -World’ than the myth-making impulse which by an overflow -of fancy seeks to hide the meagreness of knowledge.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet even here, perhaps, we have been content with loose -generalisation in place of careful observation and analysis -of facts. For one thing, the play of infantile imagination -is probably much less uniform than is often supposed. -There seem to be matter-of-fact children who cannot rise -buoyantly to a bright fancy. Mr. Ruskin, of all men, has -recently told us that when a child he was incapable of -acting a part or telling a tale, that he never knew a child -“whose thirst for visible fact was at once so eager and so -methodic”.<a id='r11' /><a href='#f11' class='c011'><sup>[11]</sup></a> We may accept the report of Mr. Ruskin’s -memory as proving that he did not idle away his time in -day-dreams, but, by long and close observation of running -water, and the like, laid the foundations of that fine knowledge -of the appearances of nature which everywhere shines -through his writings. Yet one may be permitted to doubt -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>whether a writer who shows not only so rich and graceful a -style but so truly poetic an invention could have been <em>in -every respect</em> an unimaginative child.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the truth will turn out to be the paradox that -most children are at once matter-of-fact observers <em>and</em> -dreamers, passing from the one to the other as the mood -takes them, and with a facility which grown people may -well envy. My own observations go to show that the -prodigal out-put of fancy, the revelling in myth and story, -is often characteristic of one period of childhood only. -We are apt to lump together such different levels of experience -and capacity under that abstraction ‘the child’. The -wee mite of three and a half, spending more than half his -days in trying to realise all manner of pretty, odd, startling -fancies about animals, fairies, and the rest, is something -vastly unlike the boy of six or seven, whose mind is now -bent on understanding the make and go of machines, and -of that big machine, the world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So far as I can gather from inquiries sent to parents and -other observers of children, a large majority of boys and -girls alike are for a time fancy-bound. 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 be. Yet, supposing that this is the -right view, there still remains the question whether imagination -always works in the same way in the childish -brain. Science is beginning to aid us in understanding the -differences of childish fancy. 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 images, that one child may live imaginatively in -a coloured world, another in a world of sounds, another -rather in a world of movements. It is easy to note in the -case of certain children of the more lively and active turn, -how the supreme interest of story as of play lies in the -ample range of movement and bodily activity. Robinson -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>Crusoe is probably for the boyish imagination, more than -anything else, the goer and the doer.<a id='r12' /><a href='#f12' class='c011'><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>With this difference in the elementary constituents of -imagination, there are others which turn on temperament, -tone of feeling, and preponderant directions of emotion. -Imagination is intimately bound up with the life of feeling, -and will assume as many directions as this life assumes. -Hence, the familiar fact that in some children imagination -broods by preference on gloomy and terrifying objects, -religious and other, whereas in others it selects what is -bright and gladsome; that while in some cases it has more -of the poetic quality, in others it leans rather to the scientific -or to the practical type.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 alike. It is eminently a variable -faculty requiring a special study in the case of each new -child.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But even waiving this fact of variability it may, I think, -be said that we are far from understanding the precise -workings of imagination in children. We talk, for example, -glibly about their play, their make-believe, their -illusions; but how much do we really know of their state -of mind when they act out a little scene of domestic life, -or of the battle-field? We have, I know, many fine observations -on this head. Careful observers of children and -conservers of their own childish experiences, such as -Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Jean Paul, Madame Necker, George -Sand, R. L. Stevenson, tell us much that is valuable: yet I -suspect that there must be a much wider and finer investigation -of children’s action and talk before we can feel -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>quite sure that we have got at their mental whereabouts, -and know how they feel when they pretend to enter the -dark wood, the home of the wolf, or to talk with their -deities, the fairies.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps I have said enough to justify my plea for new -observations and for a reconsideration of hasty theories in -the light of these. Nor need we object to a fresh survey of -what is perhaps the most delightful side of child-life. I -often wonder indeed when I come across some precious bit -of droll infantile acting, or of sweet child-soliloquy, 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 phantasy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is it merely for the sake of its inherent charm that -children’s imagination deserves further study. 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 things. Child-thought, -like primitive folk-thought, is saturated with myth, -vigorous phantasy holding the hand of reason—as yet -sadly rickety in his legs—and showing him which way he -should take. In the moral life again, we shall see how -easily the realising force of young imagination may expose -it to deception by others, and to self-deception too, with -results that closely simulate the guise of a knowing falsehood. -On the other hand a careful following out of the -various lines of imaginative activity may show how -moral education, by vividly suggesting to the child’s -imagination a worthy part, a praiseworthy action, may work -powerfully on the unformed and flexible structure of his -young will, moving it dutywards.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Imaginative Transformation of Objects.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>The play of young imagination meets us in the -domain of sense-observation: a child is fancying when he -looks at things and touches them and moves among them. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>This may seem a paradox at first, but in truth there is -nothing paradoxical here. It is an exploded psychological -fallacy that sense and imagination are wholly apart. No -doubt, as the ancients told us, phantasy follows and is the -offspring of sense: we live over again in waking and sleeping -imagination the sights and sounds of the real world. -Yet it is no less true that imagination in an active constructive -form takes part in the very making of what we -call sense-experience. We <em>read</em> the visual symbol, say, -a splash of light or colour, now as a stone, now as a pool -of water, just because imagination drawing from past experience -supplies the interpretation, the group of qualities -which composes a hard solid mass, or a soft yielding -liquid.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A child’s fanciful reading of things, as when he calls -the twinkling star a (blinking) eye, or the dew-drops on -the grass tears, is but an exaggeration of what we all do. -His imagination carries him very much farther. Thus he -may attribute to the stone he sees a sort of stone-soul, and -speak of it as feeling tired of a place.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This lively way of envisaging objects is, as we know, -similar to that of primitive folk, and has something of -crude nature-poetry in it. This tendency is abundantly -illustrated in the metaphors which play so large a part -in children’s talk. As all observers of them know they -are wont to describe what they see or hear by analogy -to something they know already. This is called by -some, rather clumsily I think, apperceiving. For example, -a little boy of two years and five months, on -looking at the hammers of a piano which his mother -was playing, called out: ‘There is owlegie’ (diminutive -of owl). His eye had instantly caught the similarity -between the round felt disc of the hammer divided -by a piece of wood, and the owl’s face divided by -its beak. In like manner the boy C. called a small -oscillating compass-needle a ‘bird’ on the ground of its -<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>slightly bird-like form, and of its fluttering movement.<a id='r13' /><a href='#f13' class='c011'><sup>[13]</sup></a> -Pretty conceits are often resorted to in this assimilation -of the new and strange to the familiar, as when a child -seeing dew on the grass said, ‘The grass is crying,’ or when -stars were described as “cinders from God’s star,” and -butterflies as “pansies flying”.<a id='r14' /><a href='#f14' class='c011'><sup>[14]</sup></a> Other examples of this -picturesque mode of childish apperception will meet us -below.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This play of imagination in connexion with apprehending -objects of sense has a strong vitalising or personifying -element. That is to say, the child sees what we regard -as lifeless and soulless as alive and conscious. Thus he -gives not only body but soul to the wind when it whistles -or howls at night. The most unpromising things come in -for this warming vitalising touch of the child’s fancy. He -will make something like a personality out of a letter. -Thus one little fellow aged one year eight months conceived a -special fondness for the letter W, addressing it thus: ‘Dear -old boy W’. Another little boy well on in his fourth year, -when tracing a letter L happened to slip so that the -horizontal limb formed an angle thus, <img class='scale11' src='images/l.jpg' height='100%' alt='L-like character' />. He instantly -saw the resemblance to the sedentary human form -and said: “Oh, he’s sitting down”. Similarly when he -made an F turn the wrong way and then put the -correct form to the left thus, <img class='scale12' src='images/ff.jpg' height='100%' alt='F reversed F' />, he exclaimed: “They’re -talking together”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sometimes this endowment of things with feeling leads -to a quaint manifestation of sympathy. Miss Ingelow -writes of herself: When a little over two years old, and -for about a year after “I had the habit of attributing -intelligence not only to all living creatures, the same -amount and kind of intelligence that I had myself, but -even to stones and manufactured articles. I used to feel -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>how dull it must be for the pebbles in the causeway to be -obliged to lie still and only see what was round about. -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 change: then at the farthest point of -the walk turn them out, not doubting that they would be -pleased to have a new view.”<a id='r15' /><a href='#f15' class='c011'><sup>[15]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>This is by no means a unique example of a quaint -childish expression of pity for what we think the insentient -world. Plant-life seems often to excite the feeling. -Here is a quotation from a parent’s chronicle: “A girl aged -eight, brings a quantity of fallen autumn leaves in to her -mother, who says, ‘Oh! how pretty, F.!’ to which the girl -answers: ‘Yes, I knew you’d love the poor things, mother, -I couldn’t bear to see them dying on the ground’. 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 numbers.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>I need not linger on the products of this vitalising and -personifying instinct, as we shall deal with them again when -inquiring into children’s ideas about nature. Suffice it to -say that it is wondrously active and far-reaching, constituting -one chief manifestation of childish fancy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 transformed. -Is the eyelid realised and even <em>seen</em> for the moment -as a sort of curtain, the curtain-image blending with and -transforming what is present to the eye? Are the pebbles -actually viewed as living things condemned to lie stiffly -in one place? It is of course hard to say, yet I think a -conjectural answer can be given. In this imaginative contemplation -of things the child but half observes what is -present to his eyes, one or two points only of supreme -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>interest in the visible thing, whether those of form, as in -assimilating the piano-hammer to the owl, or of action, -as the <em>falling</em> of the leaf, being selectively alluded to: -while assimilative imagination overlaying the visual impression -with the image of a similar object does the -rest. In this way the actual field of objects is apt to -get veiled, transformed by the wizard touch of a lively -fancy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt there are various degrees of illusion here. In -his matter-of-fact and really scrutinising mood a child will -not confound what is seen with what is imagined: in this -case the analogy recalled is distinguished and used as an -explanation of what is seen—as when C. observed of the -panting dog: ‘Dat bow-wow like puff-puff’. On the other -hand when another little boy aged three years and nine -months seeing the leaves falling exclaimed, “See, mamma, -the leaves is flying like dickey-birds and little butterflies,” -it is hard not to think that the child’s fancy for the moment -transformed what he saw into these pretty semblances. -And one may risk the opinion that, with the little -thinking power and controlling force of will which a -child possesses, such assimilative activity of imagination -always tends to develop a degree of momentary illusion. -There is, too, as we shall see later on, abundant -evidence to show that children at first quite seriously -believe that most things, at least, are alive and have their -feelings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is another way in which imagination may combine -with and transform sensible objects, <i>viz.</i>, by what is -commonly called association. Mr. Ruskin tells us that -when young he associated the name ‘crocodile’ with the -creature so closely that the long series of letters took on -something of the look of its lanky body. The same -writer speaks of a Dr. Grant, into whose therapeutic -hands he fell when a child. "The name (he adds) -is always associated in my mind with a brown powder—rhubarb -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>or the like—of a gritty or acrid nature.... -The name always sounded to me gr-r-ish and granular."</p> - -<p class='c001'>We can most of us perhaps, recall similar experiences, -where colours and sounds, in themselves indifferent, took -on either through analogy or association a decidedly repulsive -character. How far, one wonders, does this process -of transformation of things go in the case of imaginative -children? There is some reason to say that it may go -very far, and that, too, when there is no strong feeling at -work cementing the combined elements. A child’s feeling -for likeness is commonly keen and subtle, and knowledge -of the real relations of things has not yet come to check -the impulse to this free far-ranging kind of assimilation. -Before the qualities and the connexions of objects are -sufficiently known for them to be interesting in themselves, -they can only acquire interest through the combining art -of childish fancy. And the same is true of associated -qualities. A child’s ear may not dislike a grating sound, -a harsh noise, as our ear dislikes it, merely because of its -effect on the sensitive organ. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>En revanche</i></span> it will like -and dislike sounds for a hundred reasons unknown to us, -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 effect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 sense. It is well -known that a certain number of people habitually ‘colour’ -the sounds they hear, imagining, for example, the sound of -a vowel, or of a musical tone, to have its characteristic -tint which they are able to describe accurately. This -‘coloured hearing,’ as it is called, is always traced back to -the dimly recalled age of childhood. Children are now -beginning to be tested and it is found that a good proportion -possess the faculty. Thus, in some researches on the -minds of Boston school-children, it was found that twenty-one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>out of fifty-three, or nearly 40 per cent., described -the tones of certain instruments as coloured.<a id='r16' /><a href='#f16' class='c011'><sup>[16]</sup></a> The -particular colour ascribed to an instrument, as also the -degree of its brightness, though remaining constant in -the case of the same child, varied greatly among different -children, so that, for example, one child ‘visualised’ the tone -of a fife as pale or bright, while another imaged it as dark.<a id='r17' /><a href='#f17' class='c011'><sup>[17]</sup></a> -It is highly probable that both analogy and association -play a part here.<a id='r18' /><a href='#f18' class='c011'><sup>[18]</sup></a> 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 uniform.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I may add that I once happened to overhear a little -girl of six talking to herself about numbers in this wise: -“Two is a dark number,” “forty is a white number”. I -questioned her and found that the digits had each its distinctive -colour; thus one was white; two, dark; three, white; -four, dark; five, pink; and so on. Nine was pointed and -dark, eleven dark green, showing that some of the digits -were much more distinctly visualised than others. Just -three years later I tested her again and found she still -visualised the digits, but not quite in the same way. Thus -although one and two were white and black and five pink as -before, three was now grey, four was red, nine had lost its -colour, and eleven oddly enough had turned from dark green -to bright yellow. This case suggests that in early life new -experiences and associations may modify the tint and shade -of sounds. However this be, children’s coloured hearing is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>worth noting as the most striking example of the general tendency -to overlay impressions of the senses with vivid images. -It seems reasonable to suppose that coloured hearing and -other allied phenomena, as the picturing of numbers, days -of the week, etc., in a certain scheme or diagrammatic arrangement, -when they show themselves after childhood are -to be viewed as survivals of early fanciful brain-work. This -fact taken along with the known vividness of the images in -coloured hearing, which in certain cases approximate to -sense-perceptions, 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 follow.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have confined myself here to what I have called the -<em>play</em> of imagination, the magic transmuting of things -through the sheer liveliness and wanton activity of -childish fancy. How strong, how vivid, how dominating -such imaginative transformation may become will of course -be seen in cases where violent feeling, especially fear, -gives preternatural intensity to the mind’s realising power. -But this will be better considered later on.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This transformation of the actual surroundings is -of course restrained in serious moments, and in intercourse -with older and graver folk. There is, however, a -region of child-life where it knows no check, where the -impulse to deck out the shabby reality with what is bright -and gay has all its own way. This region is Play.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Imagination and Play.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>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 fancy. The actual presentation may be the starting-point -of this process of imaginative projection: the child, -for example, sees the sand, the shingle and shells, and says, -‘Let us play keeping a shop’. Yet this is accidental. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>source of play is the impulse to realise a bright idea: whence, -as we shall see by-and-by, its close kinship to art as a -whole. This image is the dominating force, it is for the -time a veritable <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>idée fixe</i></span>, and everything has to accommodate -itself to this. Since the image has to be acted out, it comes -into collision with the actual surroundings. Here is the -child’s opportunity. The floor is instantly mapped out -into two hostile territories, the sofa-end becomes a horse, -a coach, a ship, or what not, to suit the exigencies of the -play.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This stronger movement and wider range of imagination -in children’s pastime is explained by the characteristic -and fundamental impulse of play, the desire to be something, -to act a part. 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 world. In realising his -part he virtually transforms his surroundings, since they -take on the look and meaning which the part assigns to -them. This is prettily illustrated in one of Mr. Stevenson’s -child-songs, “The Land of Counterpane,” in which -a sick child describes the various transformations of the -bed-scene:—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>And sometimes for an hour or so -I watched my leaden soldiers go, -With different uniforms and drills, -Among the bed-clothes through the hills;</p> - -<p class='c001'>And sometimes sent my ships in fleets, -All up and down among the sheets; -Or brought my trees and houses out, -And planted cities all about.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 brain?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The impulse to act a part meets us very early and -grows out of the assimilative instinct. The very infant -<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>will, if there is a cup to hand, pretend to drink out of it.<a id='r19' /><a href='#f19' class='c011'><sup>[19]</sup></a> -Similarly a boy of two will put the stem of his father’s -pipe into, or, if cautious, near his mouth, and make believe -that he is smoking. A little boy not yet two years old -would spend a whole wet afternoon “painting” the furniture -with the dry end of a bit of rope. In such cases, it is -evident, the playing may start from a suggestion supplied -by the sight of an object. There is no need to suppose -that in this simple kind of imitative play children knowingly -act a part. It is surely to misunderstand the -essence of play to speak of it as a fully conscious process -of imitative acting.<a id='r20' /><a href='#f20' class='c011'><sup>[20]</sup></a> A child is one creature when he is -truly at play, another when he is bent on astonishing or -amusing you. It seems sufficient to say that when at play -he is possessed by an idea, and is working this out into -visible action. Your notice, your laughter, may bring in -a new element of enjoyment; for as we all know, children -are apt to be little actors in the full sense, and to aim at -producing an impression. Yet the child as little <em>needs</em> -your flattering observation as the cat needs it, when he -plays in the full sense imaginatively, and in make-believe, -with his captured mouse, placing it, for example, deliberately -under a copper in the scullery, and amusing himself -by the half-illusion of losing it. Indeed your intrusion -will be just as likely to destroy or at least to diminish the -charm of a child’s play, if only through your inability to -seize his idea, and, what is equally important, to rise to his -own point of enthusiasm and illusive realisation. Perhaps, -indeed, one may say that the play-instinct is most vigorous -and dominant when a child is alone, or at least self-absorbed; -for even social play, delightful as it is when all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>the players are attuned, is subject to disturbance through -a want of mutual comprehension and a need of half-disillusive -explanations.<a id='r21' /><a href='#f21' class='c011'><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The essence of children’s play is the acting of a part -and the realising of a new situation. It is thus, as we shall -see more fully by-and-by, akin to dramatic action, only -that the child’s ‘acting’ is like M. Jourdain’s prose, an -unconscious art. The impulse to be something, a sailor, a -soldier, a path-finder, or what not, absorbs the child and -makes him forget his real surroundings and his actual self. -His day-dreams, his solitary and apparently listless wanderings -while he mutters mystic words to himself, all illustrate -this desire to realise a part. In this playful self-projection -a child will become even something non-human, as when -he nips the ‘bread-and-cheese’ shoots off the bushes -and fancies himself a horse.<a id='r22' /><a href='#f22' class='c011'><sup>[22]</sup></a> It is to be noted that such -passing out of one’s ordinary self and assuming a foreign -existence is confined to the child-player; the cat or the -dog, though able, as Mr. Darwin and others have shown, -to go through a kind of make-believe game, remaining -always within the limits of his ordinary self.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such play-like transmutation of the self extends beyond -what we are accustomed to call play. 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 day, and on the particular day -devoted to this calling would not only refuse to be addressed -by any less worthy name, but ask in his prayer to -be made a good coal-heaver (instead of the usual ‘good -boy’). On other days this child lived the life of a robin -redbreast, a soldier, and so forth, and bitterly resented his -mother’s occasional confusion of his personalities. A little -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>girl aged only one year and ten months insisted upon -being addressed by a fancy name, Isabel, when she was -put to bed, but would not be called by this name at any -other time. She probably passed into what seemed to her -another person when she went to bed and gave herself up -to sweet ‘hypnagogic’ reverie.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the working out of this impulse to realise a -part the actual external surroundings may take a surprisingly -small part. Sometimes there is scarcely any adjustment -of scene: the child plays out his action with purely -imaginary surroundings. Such simple play-actions as -going to market to buy imaginary apples occur very early, -one mother assuring me that all her children carried them -out in the second year before they could talk. Another -mother writes of her boy, aged two and a half years: “He -amuses himself by pretending things. He will fetch an -imaginary cake from a corner, rake together imaginary -grass, or fight a battle with imaginary soldiers.” This -reminds one of Mr. Stevenson’s lines:—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>It is he, when you play with your soldiers of tin, -Who sides with the French and who never can win.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This impulse to invent imaginary surroundings, and -more especially to create mythical companions, is very -common among lonely and imaginative children. A lady -friend, a German, tells me that when she was a -little girl, a lonely one of course, she invented a kind of -<em>alter ego</em>, another girl rather older than herself, whom she -named ‘Krofa’—why she has forgotten. She made a -constant playmate of her, and got all her new ideas from -her. Mr. Canton’s little heroine took to nursing an invisible -‘iccle gaal’ (little girl), the image of which she -seemed able to project into space.<a id='r23' /><a href='#f23' class='c011'><sup>[23]</sup></a> The invention of -fictitious persons fills a large space in child-life. Perhaps -<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>if only the young imagination is strong enough there is, as -already hinted, more of sweet illusion, of a warm grasp of -living reality in this solitary play, where fictitious companions -perfectly obedient to the little player’s will take -the place of less controllable tangible ones. But such -purely imaginative make-believe, which derives no help -from actual things, is perhaps hardly ‘play’ in the full -sense, but rather an active form of day-dreaming or -romancing.<a id='r24' /><a href='#f24' class='c011'><sup>[24]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In much of this playful performance all the interference -with actual surroundings that the child requires is change -of place or scene. Here is a pretty example of this -simple type of imaginative play. A child of twenty months, -who is accustomed to meet a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>bonne</i></span> and child in the Jardin -du Luxembourg, suddenly leaves the family living-room, -pronouncing indifferently well the names Luxembourg, -nurse, and child. He goes into the next room, pretends -to say “good-day” to his two out-door acquaintances, and -then returns and simply narrates what he has been doing.<a id='r25' /><a href='#f25' class='c011'><sup>[25]</sup></a> -Here the simple act of passing into an adjoining room was -enough to secure the needed realisation of the encounter in -the garden. The movement into the next room is suggestive. -Primarily it meant no doubt the child’s manner of -realising the out-of-door walk; yet I suspect there was -another motive at work. Children love to enact their little -play-scenes in some remote spot, withdrawn from notice, -where imagination suffers no let from the interference of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>mother, nurse, or other member of the real environment. -How many a thrilling exciting play has been carried out in -a corner, especially if it be dark, or better still, screened off. -The fascination of curtained spaces, as those behind the -window curtains, or under the table with the table-cloth -hanging low, will be fresh in the memory of all who can -recall their childhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A step towards a more realistic kind of play-action, in -which, as in the modern theatre, imagination is propped up -by strong stage effects, is taken when a scene is constructed, -the chairs and sofa turned into ships, carriages, a railway -train, and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet, after all, the scene is but a very subordinate part -of the play. Next to himself in his new part, proudly -enjoying the consciousness of being a general, or a school-mistress, -a child who is not content with the pure creations -of his phantasy requires the semblance of living companions. -In all play he desires somebody, if only as -listener to his talk in his new character; and when he does -not rise to an invisible auditor, he will talk to such unpromising -things as a sponge in the bath, a fire-shovel, a -clothes’ prop in the garden, and so forth. In more active play, -where something has to be done, he generally desires a full -companion and assistant, human or animal. And here we -meet with what is perhaps the most interesting feature of -childish play, the transmutation of the most meagre and -least promising of things into complete living forms. I have -already alluded to the sofa-head. How many forms of -animal life, vigorous and untiring, from the patient donkey -up to the untamed horse of the prairies, has this most inert-looking -ridge served to image forth to quick boyish -perception.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The introduction of these living things seems to illustrate -the large compass of the child’s realising power. Mr. -Ruskin speaks somewhere of “the perfection of child-like -imagination, the power of making everything out of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>nothing”. “The child,” he adds, "does not make a pet -of a mechanical mouse that runs about the floor.... The -child falls in love with a quiet thing—with an ugly one—nay, -it may be with one to us totally devoid of meaning. -The <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>besoin de croire</i></span> precedes the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>besoin d’aimer</i></span>."</p> - -<p class='c001'>The quotation brings us to the focus where the rays of -childish imagination seem to converge, the transformation -of toys.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fact that children make living things out of their -toy horses, dogs and the rest, is known to every observer -of their ways. To the natural unsceptical eye the boy on -his rudely carved “gee-gee” slashing the dull flank with -all a boy’s glee, looks as if he were realising the joy -of actual riding, as if he were possessed with the fancy -that the stiff least organic-looking of structures which he -strides is a very horse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The liveliness of this realising imagination is seen in -the extraordinary poverty and meagreness of the toys -which to their happy possessors are wholly satisfying. -Here is a pretty picture of child’s play from a German -writer:—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>There sits a little charming master of three years before his -small table busied for a whole hour in a fanciful game with shells. -He has three so-called snake-heads in his domain; a large one and -two smaller ones: this means two calves and a cow. In a tiny -tin dish the little farmer has put all kinds of petals, that is the -fodder for his numerous and fine cattle.... When the play has -lasted a time the fodder-dish transforms itself into a heavy waggon -with hay: the little shells now become little horses, and are put to -the shafts to pull the terrible load.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The doll takes a supreme place in this fancy realm of -play. It is human and satisfies higher instincts and emotions. -As the French poet says, the little girl—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Rêve el nom de mère en berçant sa poupée.</span><a id='r26' /><a href='#f26' class='c011'><sup>[26]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>I read somewhere recently that the doll is a plaything -for girls only: but boys, though they often prefer india-rubber -horses and other animals, not infrequently go -through a stage of doll-love also, and are hardly less -devoted than girls. Endless is the variety of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span> assigned -to the doll as to the tiny shell in our last picture of play. -The doll is the all-important comrade in that <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>solitude à -deux</i></span> of which the child, like the adult, is so fond. Mrs. -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 adventures. -At another time when she wanted to act an Indian chief -the doll just as obediently took up the part of squaw.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Very humanely, on the whole, is the little doll-lover -wont to use her pet, even though, as George Sand reminds -us, there come moments of rage and battering.<a id='r27' /><a href='#f27' class='c011'><sup>[27]</sup></a> A little -boy of two and a half years asked his mother one day: -“Will you give me all my picture-books to show dolly? -I don’t know which he will like best.” He then pointed -to each and looked at the doll’s face for the answer. He -made believe that it selected one, and then gravely showed -it all the pictures, saying: “Look here, dolly!” and carefully -explaining them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The doll illustrates the childish attitude towards all -toys, the impulse to take them into the innermost and -warmest circle of personal intimacy, to make them a living -part of himself. A child’s language, as we shall see later, -points to an early identification of self with belongings. -The ‘me’ and the ‘my’ are the same, or nearly the same, -to a mite of three. This impulse to attach the doll to self, -or to embrace it within the self-consciousness or self-feeling, -shows itself in odd ways. In the grown-up child, -Laura Bridgman, it took the form of putting a bandage -like her own over her doll’s eyes. This resembles a case of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>a girl of six, who when recovering from measles was observed -to be busily occupied with her dolls, each of which she -painted over with bright red spots. The dolly must do all, -and be all that I am: so the child in his warm attachment -seems to argue. This feeling of oneness is strengthened by -that of exclusive possession, the sense that the child himself -is the only one who really knows dolly, can hear her cry -when she cries and so forth.<a id='r28' /><a href='#f28' class='c011'><sup>[28]</sup></a> 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 himself. 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 -themselves.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, nobody can surely doubt, we have clearest evidence -of play-illusion. The lively imagination endows the -inert wooden thing with the warmth of life and love. -How large a part is played here by the alchemist, fancy, -is known to all observers of children’s playthings. The -faith and the devotion often seem to increase as the first -meretricious charms, the warm tints of the cheek and the -lips, the well-shaped nose, the dainty clothes, prematurely -fade, and the lovely toy which once kept groups of hungry-looking -children gazing long at the shop-window, is reduced -to the naked essence of a doll. 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-life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And then what rude unpromising things are adopted -as doll-pets. Mrs. Burnett tells us she once saw a dirty -mite sitting on a step in a squalid London street, cuddling -warmly a little bundle of hay tied round the middle by a -string. Here, surely, the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>besoin d’aimer</i></span> was little if anything -behind the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>besoin de croire</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>Do any of us really understand this doll-superstition? -Writers of a clear long-reaching memory have tried to take -us back to childhood, and restore to us for a moment the -whole undisturbed trust, the perfect satisfaction of love, -which the child brings to its doll. Yet even the imaginative -genius of a George Sand is hardly equal, perhaps, to -the feat of resuscitating the buried companion of our early -days and making it live once more before our eyes.<a id='r29' /><a href='#f29' class='c011'><sup>[29]</sup></a> The -truth is the doll-illusion is one of the first to pass. There -are, I believe, a few sentimental girls who, when they -attain the years of enlightenment, make a point of saving -their dolls from the general wreckage of toys. Yet I suspect -the pets when thus retained are valued more for the outside -charm of pretty face and hair, and still more for the -lovely clothes, than for the inherent worth of the doll itself, -of what we may call the doll-soul which informs it and -gives it, for the child, its true beauty and its worth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet if we cannot get inside the old doll-superstition we -may study it from the outside, and draw a helpful comparison -between it and other known forms of naïve -credulity. And here we have the curious fact that the -doll exists not only for the child but for the “nature man”. -Savages, Sir John Lubbock tells us,<a id='r30' /><a href='#f30' class='c011'><sup>[30]</sup></a> like toys, such as -dolls, Noah’s Arks, etc. The same writer remarks that the -doll is “a hybrid between the baby and the fetish, and that -it exhibits the contradictory characters of its parents”. -Perhaps the changes of mood towards the doll, of which -George Sand writes, illustrate the alternating preponderance -of the baby and the fetish half. But as Sir John also -remarks, this hybrid is singularly unintelligible to grown-up -people, and it seems the part of modesty here to bow to -one of nature’s mysteries.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It has been suggested to me by Mr. F. Galton that a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>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 shown, -<i>e.g.</i>, in craving for story, and in romancing. So far as I have -inquired I am disposed to think that such a relation exists. -A lady who has had a large experience as a Kindergarten -teacher tells me that children who play with rough shapeless -things, and readily endow with life the ball, and so forth, in -Kindergarten games are imaginative in other ways. Here -is an example:—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>P. Mc. L., a girl, observed from three and a half to five years of -age, was a highly imaginative child as shown by the power of make-believe -in play. The ball of soft india-rubber was to her on the teacher’s -suggestion, say, a baby, and on it she would lavish all her tenderness, -kissing it, feeding it, washing its face, dressing it in her pinafore, etc. -So thorough was her delight in the play that the less imaginative -children around her would suspend their play at ‘babies’ and watch -her with interest. Whilst a most indifferent restless child at lessons, -whenever a story was told she sat motionless and wide-eyed till -the close.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Children sometimes make babies of their younger -brothers and sisters, going through all the sweet solicitous -offices which others are wont to carry out on their dolls.<a id='r31' /><a href='#f31' class='c011'><sup>[31]</sup></a> -This suggests another and closely related question: Do -the more imaginative children prefer the inert, ugly doll -to the living child in these nursing pastimes? What is the -real relation in the child’s play between the toy-companion, -the doll or india-rubber dog, and the living companion? -Again, a child will occasionally play with an imaginary -doll.<a id='r32' /><a href='#f32' class='c011'><sup>[32]</sup></a> How is this impulse related to the other two forms -of doll-passion? These points would well repay a careful -investigation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The vivification of the doll or toy animal is the outcome -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>of the play-impulse, and this, as we have seen, is an -impulse to act out, to realise an idea in outward show. -The absorption in the idea and its outward expression -serves, as in the case of the hypnotised subject, to blot out -the incongruities of scene and action which you or I, a -cold observer, would note. The play-idea works transformingly -by a process analogous to what is called auto-suggestion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How complete this play-illusion may become here can -be seen in more ways than one. 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 one. “About the age of four,” writes M. Egger -of his boys, “Felix is playing at being coachman, Emile -happens to return home at the moment. In announcing -his brother, Felix does not say, ‘Emile is come,’ he says -‘The brother of the coachman is come’.”<a id='r33' /><a href='#f33' class='c011'><sup>[33]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>As we saw above, the child’s absorption in his new -play-world is shown by his imperious demand that others, -as his mother, shall recognise his new character. Pestalozzi’s -little boy, aged three years and a half, was one day playing -at being butcher, when his mother called him by his usual -diminutive, ‘Jacobli’. He at once replied: “No, no; you -should call me butcher now”.<a id='r34' /><a href='#f34' class='c011'><sup>[34]</sup></a> Here is a story to the same -effect, sent me by a mother. A little girl of four was playing -‘shops’ with her younger sister. “The elder one was -shopman at the time I came into her room and kissed her. -She broke out into piteous sobs, I could not understand -why. At last she sobbed out: ‘Mother, you never kiss the -man in the shop’. I had with my kiss quite spoilt her illusion.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The intensity of the realising power of imagination in play -is seen too in the stickling for fidelity to the original in all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>playful reproduction, whether of scenes observed in everyday -life or of what has been narrated. The same little -boy who showed his picture-books to dolly was, we are told, -when two years and eight months old, fond of imagining -that he was Priest, his grandmamma’s coachman. “He -drives his toy horse from the arm-chair as a carriage, -getting down every minute to ‘let the ladies out,’ or to ‘go -shopping’. The make-believe extends to his insisting on -the reins being held while he gets down and so forth.” -The same thing shows itself in acting out stories. The -full enjoyment of the realisation depends on the faithful -reproduction, on the suitable outward embodiment of the -distinct idea in the child’s mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following anecdote bears another kind of testimony, -a most winsome kind, to the realising power of play. One -day two sisters said to one another: “Let us play being -sisters”. This might well sound insane enough to hasty ears; -but is it not really eloquent? To me it suggests that the -girls felt they were not realising their sisterhood, enjoying -all the possible sweets of it, as they wanted to do—perhaps -there had been a quarrel and a supervening childish coldness. -And they felt too that the way to get this more vivid -sense of what they were, or ought to be, one to the other, was -by playing the part, by acting a scene in which they would -come close to one another in warm sympathetic fellowship.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But there is still another, and some will think a more -conclusive way of satisfying ourselves of the reality of the -play-illusion. The child finds himself confronted by the -unbelieving adult who questions what he says about the -doll’s crying and so forth. One little girl, aged one year and -nine months, when asked by her mother how her doll, who -had lost his arms, ate his dinner without hands, quickly -changed the subject. She did not apparently like having -difficulties brought into her happy play-world. But the true -tenacious faith shows itself later when the child understands -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>these sceptical questionings of others, and sees that they are -poking fun at his play and his day-dreamings. Such cruel -quizzings of his make-believe are apt to cut him to the -quick. I have heard of children who will cry if a stranger -suddenly enters the nursery when they are hard at play, -and shows himself unsympathetic and critical.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Play may produce not only this vivid imaginative -realisation at the time, but a sort of mild permanent -illusion. Sometimes it is a toy-horse, in one case communicated -to me it was a funny-looking toy-lion, more frequently -it is the human effigy, the doll, which as the result of -successive acts of imaginative vivification gets taken up -into the relation of permanent companion and pet. -Clusters of happy associations gather about it, investing it -with a lasting vitality and character. A mother once asked -her boy of two and a half years if his doll was a boy or a -girl. He said at first, “A boy,” but presently correcting -himself added, “I think it is a baby”. Here we have a -challenging of the inner conviction by a question, a moment -of reflexion, and as a result of this, an unambiguous -confession of faith that the doll had its place in the living -human family.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here is a more stubborn exhibition on the part of another -boy of this lasting faith in the plaything called out -by others’ sceptical attitude. "When (writes a lady correspondent) -he was just over two years old L. began to speak -of a favourite wooden horse (Dobbin) as if it were a real -living creature. ‘No tarpenter (carpenter) made Dobbin,’ -he would say, ‘he is not wooden but kin (skin) and bones -and Dod (God) made him.’ If any one said ‘it’ in speaking -of the horse his wrath was instantly aroused, and he would -shout indignantly: ‘It! You mutt’ent tay “it,” you mut tay -<em>he</em>’. 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 him. If there was -anything L. particularly wished not to do his mother had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>only to say: ‘Dobbin would like you to do this,’ and it was -done without a murmur."</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 us. I refer to pictures -and artistic representations generally. If in the case of adults -there is a half illusion, a kind of oneirotic or trance condition -induced by a picture or dramatic spectacle, in the case of -the less-instructed child the illusion is apt to become more -complete. A picture seems very much of a toy to a child. -A baby of eight or nine months will talk to a picture as to -a living thing; and something of this tendency to make a -fetish of a drawing survives much later. But it will be -more convenient to deal with the attitude of the child-mind -towards pictorial representations in connexion with his art-tendencies.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The imaginative transformation of things, more -particularly the endowing of lifeless things with life, enters, -I believe, into all children’s pastimes. Whence comes the -perennial charm, the undying popularity, of the hoop? 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 own? As I -understand it, trundling the hoop is imaginative play hardly -less than riding the horse-stick and slashing its flanks. -Who again that can recall early experiences will doubt that -the delight of flying the kite, of watching it as it sways to -the right or to the left, threatening to fall head-foremost -to earth, and most of all perhaps of sending a paper -‘messenger’ along the string to the wee thing poised like -a bird so terribly far away in the blue sky, is the delight of -imaginative play? The same is true of sailing boats, and -other pastimes of early childhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have here touched merely on the imaginative and -half-illusory side of children’s play. It is to be remembered, -however, that play is much more than this, and reflects -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>much more of the childish mind. Play proper as distinguished -from mere day-dreaming is activity and imitative -activity; and children show marked differences in the -energy of this activity, and in the quickness and closeness -of their responses to the model actions of the real -nurse, real coachman, and so forth. That is to say, observation -of others will count here. Again, while social -surroundings, opportunities for imitation, are important, -they are by no means all-decisive. Children show a -curious selectiveness in their imitative games, germs of -differential interest, sexual and individual, revealing themselves -quite early. It may be added that a child with few -opportunities of observation may get quite enough play-material -from storyland. But play is never merely -imitative, save indeed in the case of unintelligent and -‘stoggy’ children. It is a bright invention into which -all the gifts of childish intelligence may pour themselves. -The relation of play to art will engage us later on.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Free Projection of Fancies.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>In play and the kindred forms of imaginative activity -just dealt with, we have been concerned with imaginative -realisation in its connexion with sense-perception. -And here, it is to be noticed, there is a kind of reciprocal -action between sense and imagination. On the one hand, -as we have seen, imagination interposes a coloured medium, -so to speak, between the eye and the object, so that it -becomes transformed and beautified. On the other hand, -in what is commonly called playing, imaginative activity -receives valuable aid from the senses. The stump of a -doll, woefully unlike as it is to what the child’s fancy -makes it, is yet a sensible fact, and as such gives support -and substance to the realising impulse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now this fact that imagination derives support from -sense leads to a habit of projecting fancies, and giving them -an external and local habitation. In this way the idea -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>receives a certain solidity and fixity through its embodiment -in the real physical world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This incorporation of images in the system of the real -world may, like play, start at one of two ends. On the -one hand, the external world, so far as it is only dimly -perceived, excites wonder, curiosity, and the desire to fill -in the blank spaces with at least the semblance of knowledge. -Here distance exercises a strange fascination. The -remote chain of hills faintly visible from the child’s home, -has been again and again endowed by his enriching fancy -with all manner of wondrous scenery and peopled by all -manner of strange creatures. The unapproachable sky—which -to the little one, so often on his back, is much more -of a visible object than to us—with its wonders of blue expanse -and cloudland, of stars and changeful moon, is wont -to occupy his mind, his bright fancy quite spontaneously -filling out this big upper world with appropriate forms.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This stimulating effect of the half-perceivable is seen -in still greater intensity in the case of what is hidden from -sight. The spell cast on the young mind by the mystery -of holes, and especially of dark woods, and the like, is -known to all. C.’s peopling of a dark wood with his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>bêtes -noires</i></span> the wolves illustrates this tendency.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“What (writes a German author already quoted) all -childish fancy has almost without exception in common, is -the idea of a wholly new and unheard-of world behind the -remote horizon, behind woods, lakes and hills, and all -objects reached by the eye. When I was a child and we -played hide and seek in the barn, I always felt that there -must or might be behind every bundle of straw, and -especially in the corners, something unheard of lying -hidden. And yet I had no profane curiosity, no desire to -experiment by turning over the bundle of straw. It was -just a fancy, and though I half recognised it as such it was -lively enough to engage me as a reality.” The same -writer goes on to describe how his imagination ever -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>occupied itself with what lay behind the long stretch of wood -which closed in a large part of his child’s horizon.<a id='r35' /><a href='#f35' class='c011'><sup>[35]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 feeling. We know that all -vivid imagination is charged with emotion, and this is emphatically -true of children’s phantasies. The unseen, the -hidden, contains unknown possibilities, something awful, -terrible, it may be, to make the timid wee thing shudder -in anticipatory vision, or wondrously and surprisingly -beautiful. How far the childish attitude is from intellectual -curiosity is seen in the remark of Goltz, that no impious -attempt is made to probe the mystery.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 images. All play, as we have seen, -is an illustration of the impulse, and certain kinds of play -show the working of the impulse in its purity. It -extends, however, beyond the limits of what is commonly -known as play. The instance quoted above, the peopling -of a certain wood with wolves by the child C., 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 wolf. -Dickens and others have told us how when children they -were wont to project into the real world the lively images -acquired from storyland. When suitable objects present -themselves the images are naturally enough linked on to -these. Thus Dickens writes: “Every burn in the neighbourhood, -every stone of the church, every foot of the -churchyard had some association of its own in my mind -connected with these books (<cite>Roderic Random</cite>, <cite>Tom Jones</cite>, -<cite>Gil Blas</cite>, etc.), and stood for some locality made famous in -them. I have seen Tom Piper go climbing up the church -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>steeple; I have watched Strap with the knapsack on his -back stopping to rest himself on the wicket-gate.”<a id='r36' /><a href='#f36' class='c011'><sup>[36]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Along with this attachment of images to definite objects -there goes a good deal of vague localisation in dim half-realised -quarters of space. The supernatural beings, the -fairies, the bogies, and the rest, are, as might be expected, -relegated to these obscure and impenetrable regions. It -would be worth while perhaps to collect a children’s comparative -mythology, if only to see what different localities, -geographic and cosmic, the childish mind is apt to assign -to his fabulous beings. The poor fairies seem to have been -forced to find an abode in most dissimilar regions. The -boy C. selected the wall of his bedroom—hardly a dignified -abode, though it had the merit of being within reach of his -prayers. A child less bent on turning the superior personages -to practical account will set them in some remoter -quarter, in a vast forest, or deep cavern, on a distant hill, -or higher up in the blue above the birds. But systems of -child-mythology will occupy us again.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Imagination and Storyland.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>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 -world, even to the extent of talking to invisible playmates. -The world of story, as distinct from that of play, is the -great illustration of this detached activity of fancy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The entrance into storyland can only take place when -the key of language is put into the child’s hand. A story -is a verbal representation of a scene or action, and the -process of imaginative realisation depends in this case on -the stimulating effect of words in their association with -ideas. Now a word has not for a child the peculiar force of -an imitative sensuous impression, say that of a picture. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>The toy, the picture, being, however roughly, a likeness or -show, brings the idea before the child’s eyes in a way in -which the word-symbol cannot do. Yet we may easily underestimate -the stimulating effect of words on children’s minds, -which are much more tender and susceptible than we are -wont to suppose. To call out to a child, ‘Bow, wow!’ -or ‘Policeman!’ may be to excite in his mind a vivid -image which is in itself an approach to a complete sensuous -realisation of the thing. We cannot understand the fascination -of a story for children save by remembering that for -their young minds, quick to imagine and unversed in -abstract reflexion, words are not dead thought-symbols, -but truly alive and perhaps “winged” as the old Greeks -called them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It may not be easy to explain fully this stimulating -power of words on the childish mind. 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-impressions, so that -to name a thing is in a sense to make it present. -However this be, words as sense-presentations have -a powerful suggestive effect on children’s imagination, -calling up particularly vivid images of the objects -named. The effect is probably aided by the child’s -nascent feeling of reverence for another’s words as authoritative -utterances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This impulse to realise words makes the child a listener -much more frequently than we suppose. How often is the -mother surprised and amused at a question put by her -child about something said in his presence to a servant, a -visitor, or a workman; something which in her grown-up -way she assumed would not be of the slightest interest to -him. In this manner, words soon become a great power in -the new wondering life of a child. They lodge like flying -seedlings in the fertile brain, and shoot up into strange -imaginative growths. But of this more by-and-by.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>This profound and lasting effect of words is nowhere -more clearly seen than in the spell of the story. We -grown-up people are wont to flatter ourselves that we read -stories: the child, if he could know what we call reading, -would laugh at it. With what deftness does the little -brain disentangle the language, often strange and puzzling -enough, reducing it by a secret child-art to simplicity and -to reality. A mother when reading a poem to her boy of -six, ventured to remark, “I’m afraid you can’t understand -it, dear,” for which she got duly snubbed by her little -master in this fashion: “Oh, yes, I can very well, -if only you would not explain”. The explaining is resented -because it interrupts the child’s own spontaneous -image-building, wherein lies the charm, because it rudely -breaks the spell of the illusion, calling off the attention -from the vision he sees in the word-crystal, which is all he -cares about, to the cold lifeless crystal itself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And what a bright vision it is that is there gained. -How clearly scene after scene of the dissolving view unfolds -itself. How thrilling the anticipation of the next -unknown, undiscernible stage in the history. Perhaps no -one has given us a better account of the state of absorption -in storyland, the oneirotic or dream-like condition of -complete withdrawal from the world of sense into an inner -world of fancy, than Thackeray. In one of his delightful -“Roundabout Papers,” he thus writes of the experiences of -early boyhood. "Hush! I never read quite to the end -of my first <cite>Scottish Chiefs</cite>. I couldn’t. I peeped in an -alarmed furtive manner at some of the closing pages.... -Oh, novels, sweet and delicious as the raspberry open tarts -of budding boyhood! Do I forget one night after prayers -(when we under-boys were sent to bed) 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 head!"</p> - -<p class='c001'>As one thinks of the deep delights of these first -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>excursions into storyland one almost envies the lucky boys -whom the young Charles Dickens held spellbound with -his tales.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The intensity of the delight is seen in the greed it -generates. Who can resist the child’s hungry demand for -a story? Edgar Quinet in his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Histoire de mes Idées</cite></span> tells -how when a child an old corporal came to drill him. -He had been taken prisoner by the Spaniards and placed on -an inaccessible island. Edgar loved to hear the thrilling -story of the old soldier’s adventures, and scarcely was the -narrative finished when the greedy boy would exclaim, -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Encore une fois!”</span> Heine’s delight when a boy at Düsseldorf -in drinking in the stories of Napoleon’s exploits -from his drummer is another well-known illustration.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Through the perfect gift of visual realisation which a -child brings to it the verbal narrative becomes a record of -fact, a true history. The intense enjoyment which is -bound up with this process of imaginative realisation -makes children jealously exact as to accuracy in repetition. -The boy C. when a story was repeated to him used to -resent even a small alteration of the text. Woe to the -unfortunate mother who in telling one of the good stock -nursery tales varies a detail. One such, a friend of mine, -repeating ‘Puss in Boots’ inadvertently made the hero -sit on a chair instead of on a box to pull on his boots. -She was greeted by a sharp volley of ‘No’s!’ The same -lady tells me that when narrating the story of ‘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 -‘till the glasses on the table shake’ ‘and the candles are -nearly blown out’; whereupon the severe little listener -at once stopped the narrator and supplied the interesting -detail. The exacting memory of childhood in the matter -of stories is the product of a full detailed realisation. In -the case just quoted the reality of the story was contradicted -by substituting a stupid conventional chair for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>the box, and by omitting the striking incident of the -candles.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Happy age of childhood, when a new and wondrous -world, created wholly by the magic of a lively phantasy, rivals -in brightness, in distinctness of detail, aye, and in steadfastness -too, the nearest spaces of the world on which the -bodily eye looks out, before reflexion has begun to draw -a hard dividing line between the domains of historical truth -and fiction.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As the demand for faithful repetition of story shows, -the imaginative realisation continues when the story is no -longer heard or read. It has added something to the -child’s inner supplementary world, given him one more -lovely region in which he may live blissful moments. The -return of the young mind to the persons and scenes of -story is forcibly illustrated in the impulse, already touched -on, to act out in play the parts of this and that heroic figure. -With many children any narrative which holds the imagination -delightfully enthralled is likely to become more fully -realised in a visible embodiment. For instance, a child of -five years, when told a story of four men going along a -railway to stop a train before it neared a bridge which was -on fire, at once proceeded to play the incident with his toy -train. 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 play. In like -manner the images born of story may, as in the case of -Dickens, attach themselves permanently to particular -localities and objects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To this lively imaginative reception of what is told him -the child is apt very soon to join his own free inventions -of figures, human, superhuman, or subhuman. The higher -qualities of this invention properly come under the head of -child-art, and will have to be considered in another chapter. -Here we may glance at these inventions as illustrating the -realising power of the child’s imagination.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>This invention appears in a sporadic manner in occasional -‘romancings’ which may set out from some -observation of the senses. A little boy aged three and a -half years seeing a tramp limping along with a bad leg -exclaimed: “Look at that poor ole man, mamma, he has dot -(got) a bad leg”. Then romancing, as he was now wont to -do: “He dot on a very big ’orse, and he fell off on some -great big stone, and he hurt his poor leg and he had to get -a big stick. We must make it well.” Then after a -thoughtful pause: “Mamma, go and kiss the place and put -some powdey (powder) on it and make it well like you do -to I”. The unmistakable childish seriousness here, the -outflow of young compassion, and the charming enforcement -of the nursery prescription, all point to a vivid realisation -of this extemporised little romance. This child was -moreover more than commonly tender-hearted, and perhaps -the more exposed on that account to such amiable self-deception. -Another small boy when a little over two years, -happening to hear a buzzing on the window, said: -“Mamma, bumble-bee in a window says it wants a yump -(lump) of sugar”: then shaking his head sternly, added: -“Soon make you heat-spots, bumble-bee”. Other examples -of this romancing will be met with in the notes on the -child C.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In such simple fashion does the child build up a tiny -myth on the basis of some passing impression, supplying -out of his quaintly stored fancy unlooked-for adornments -to the homely occurrences of every-day life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Partly by taking in and fully realising the wonders of -story, partly by the independent play of an inventive -imagination, children’s minds pass under the dominion of -more or less enduring myths. The princes and princesses and -dwarfs and gnomes of fairy-tale, the workers of Christmas -miracles, Santa Claus and Father Christmas, as well as the -beings fashioned by the child’s imagination on the model of -those he knows from story, these live on like the people of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>the every-day world, are apt to appear in dreams, in the -dark, at odd dreamy moments when the things of sense -lose their hold, bringing into the child’s life golden sunlight -or black awful shadows, the most real of all realities.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This childish belief in myth is often curiously tenacious. -A father was once surprised to find that his boy aged five -years and ten months continued naïvely to believe in the -real personality of Santa Claus. It was Christmastide and -the father, in order to test the child’s credulity, put his own -pocket-knife into the stocking which Santa Claus was -supposed to fill. The child, though he knew his father’s -knife very well, did not in the least suspect that the knife -he found in the stocking had been placed there by human -hands, but expressed himself as pleased that Santa Claus -had sent him one like his father’s. When his father followed -this up by telling him that he had lost his knife, and by -searching for it in the boy’s presence, the latter asked -whether Santa Claus had stolen the knife—thus showing -how its close similarity to the knife he had received had -impressed him, though he would not for a moment doubt -the fact of its coming from the mysterious personage. It -might be thought that this child was particularly stupid. -On the contrary he was well above the average in intelligence. -In proof of this I may relate that the Christmas -before this, that is to say when he was under five years, he -was the only one among thirty children who recognised -his uncle when extremely well disguised as Father Christmas. -When asked by his father why he thought it was his -uncle, he said at first he didn’t know, but thinking a -moment he added, “I don’t see who else there is,” showing -that he had reasoned out his belief by a method of exclusion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of course it will be said that I am here selecting exceptional -cases of childish imagination. I am quite ready to -admit the probability of this. The best examples of any -trait of the young mind will obviously be supplied by those -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>who have most of this trait. Yet I very much suspect that -ordinary and even dull children are wont to hide away a -good deal of such superstitious belief. “One of the greatest -pleasures of childhood,” says Oliver Wendell Holmes in -<cite>The Poet of the Breakfast Table</cite>, “is found in the mysteries -which it hides from the scepticism of the elders and works -up into small mythologies of its own.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have treated the myths of children as a product of -pure imagination, of the impulse to realise in vivid images -what lies away from and above the world of sense. Yet, -as we shall see later, they are really more than this. -They contain, like the myths of primitive man, a true -germ of thought.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 world. This infusion of childish reason into wonderland, -the first crude attempt to adjust belief to belief, and -to find points of attachment for the much-loved myth in -the matter-of-fact world, is apt to lead, as we shall see, to -a good deal that is very quaint and characteristic in the -child’s mythology.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The conclusion which observation of children leads us -to is that, as compared with adults, they are endowed with -strong imaginative power, the activity of which leads to a -surprisingly intense inner realisation of what lies above -sense. For the child, as for primitive man, reality is a projection -of fancy as well as an assurance of sense.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now this conclusion is, I think, greatly strengthened by -all that we know of the conditions of the brain-life in -children, and of the many perturbations to which it is -liable. 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 developed. Hence -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>the centres concerned in imagination—which, if not identical -with what used to be called the sensorium or seat of -sensation, are in closest connexion with it—are not -checked and inhibited by the action of the higher centres -as is the case with us. By exercising a volitional control -over the flow of our ideas, we are able to reason away a -fancy, and generally to guard ourselves against error. 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 vivid. As has been suggested by more than -one recent writer on childhood and education, the brain -of a child has a slight measure of that susceptibility to -powerful illusory suggestion which characterises the brain -of a hypnotised subject. Savages, who show so striking a -resemblance to children in the vivacity and the dominance -of their fancy, are probably much nearer to the child than -to the civilised adult in the condition of their brain.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This preternatural liveliness of the images of the -imperfectly developed brain exposes children, as we know, -to disturbing illusion. The effect of bad dreams, of intense -feeling, particularly of fear, in developing illusory belief -in sensitive and delicate children is familiar enough, and -will be dealt with again later on. 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 -altogether. But this is surely an error. For one thing -children who are strongly imaginative will be certain to -indulge their fancies, as the Brontë girls did, even when -no fiction is supplied and their eager little minds are -thrown on the matter-of-fact newspaper. A child needs -not to be deprived of story altogether, but to be supplied -with bright and happy stories, in which the gruesome element -is subordinate. Specially sensitive children should, -I think, be guarded against much that from an older point -of view is classic, as some of the ‘creepy’ stories in Grimm, -though there are no doubt hardy young nerves which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>can thrill enjoyably under these horrors. As to confusing -a child’s sense of truth by indulging him in story, the evil -seems to me problematic, and, if it exists at all, only slight -and temporary. But I hope to touch on this aspect of the -subject in the next chapter.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f11'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. <cite>Præterita</cite>, p. 76.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f12'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. The different tendencies of children towards visual, auditory, -motor images, etc., are dealt with by F. Queyrat, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Imagination et -ses variétés chez l’enfant</cite></span>. <i>Cf.</i> an article by W. H. Burnham, “Individual -Differences in the Imagination of Children,” <cite>Pedagogical -Seminary</cite>, ii., 2.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f13'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. The references to the child C. are to the subject of the memoir -given below, chap. xi.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f14'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r14'>14</a>. W. H. Burnham, <i>loc. cit.</i>, p. 212 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f15'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r15'>15</a>. See her article, “The History of an Infancy,” <cite>Longman’s -Magazine</cite>, Feb., 1890.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f16'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r16'>16</a>. See the article by G. Stanley Hall, “The Contents of Children’s -Minds,” <cite>Princeton Review</cite>. New Series, 1883. <i>Cf.</i> the same writer’s -volume, <cite>The Contents of Children’s Minds on entering School</cite>, 1894.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f17'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r17'>17</a>. <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 265.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f18'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r18'>18</a>. This has been well brought out by Professor Flournoy of -Geneva in his volume <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Des Phénomènes de Synopsie</cite></span> (audition colorée), -chap. ii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f19'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r19'>19</a>. Of course, as Preyer suggests, this drinking from an empty -cup may at first be due to a want of discriminative perception.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f20'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r20'>20</a>. M. Compayré 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 (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Evolution intell. et morale de l’Enfant</cite></span>, p. 274).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f21'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r21'>21</a>. For a good illustration of the disillusive effect of want of enthusiasm -in one’s playmates, see Tolstoi, <cite>Childhood, Boyhood, Youth</cite>, -part i., chap. viii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f22'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r22'>22</a>. <cite>Uninitiated</cite>, p. 10.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f23'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r23'>23</a>. <cite>The Invisible Playmate</cite>, p. 33 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f24'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r24'>24</a>. I fail to understand what Professor Mark Baldwin means by -saying that an only child is wanting in imagination (<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 358). 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 world, and that lonely children are, -as more than one autobiography, as well as mother’s record, show, -particularly imaginative just because of the absence of engaging -activities in the real world.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f25'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r25'>25</a>. Egger quoted by Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 149, 150.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f26'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r26'>26</a>. Goltz, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Buch der Kindheit</cite></span>, pp. 4, 5.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f27'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r27'>27</a>. See the study of George Sand’s childhood below, chap. xii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f28'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r28'>28</a>. <i>Cf.</i> Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Art et la Poésie chez l’enfant</cite></span>, p. 28.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f29'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r29'>29</a>. For her remarkable analysis of the child’s feeling for his doll, -see below, chap. xii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f30'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r30'>30</a>. <cite>Origin of Civilisation</cite>, appendix, p. 521.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f31'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r31'>31</a>. Baldwin gives a pretty example of this, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 362.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f32'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r32'>32</a>. An example is given by Paola Lombroso, <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>Psicologia del Bambino</cite></span>, -p. 126.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f33'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r33'>33</a>. Quoted by Compayré, <i>op. cit</i>., p. 150.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f34'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r34'>34</a>. De Guimp’s <cite>Life of Pestalozzi</cite> (Engl. trans.), p. 41.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f35'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r35'>35</a>. Goltz, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Das Buch der Kindheit</cite></span>, p. 276.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f36'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r36'>36</a>. Quoted by Forster, <cite>Life of Charles Dickens</cite>, chap. i.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span> - <h2 class='c004'>III. <br /> THE DAWN OF REASON.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>The Process of Thought.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>To treat the child’s mind as merely a harbourer of fancies, -as completely subject to the illusive spell of its bright -imagery, would be the grossest injustice. 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 -world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And here I should like to correct the common supposition -that children are imaginative <em>or</em> observant of their -surroundings, but not both. I have no doubt that there are -many children who show a marked preponderance of the -one or of the other tendency: there is the fanciful and -dreamy child, and the matter-of-fact child with a tenacious -grasp on the realities of things. I have but little doubt, -too, that in the case of children who show the two tendencies, -the one or the other is apt to preponderate at a certain -stage of development: many boys, for example, have their -dreamy period, and then become almost stolidly practical. -All that I am concerned to make out here is that the two -tendencies do co-exist, and as a number of parents have -assured me may co-exist each in a high degree of intensity -in the same child; the really intelligent children, boys as -well as girls, being dispassionate and shrewd inquirers into -the make of the actual world while ardently engaged in -fashioning a brighter one.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>The two tendencies belong to two moods, one of which -may be regent for days together, though they often alternate -with astonishing rapidity. More particularly the -serious matter-of-fact mood readily passes, as if in relief -from mental tension, into the playful fanciful one, as when -the tiny student, deep in the stupendous lore of the -spelling-book, suddenly dashes off to some fanciful conceit -suggested by the ‘funny’ look of a particular word or -letter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The child not only observes but begins to reflect on -what he observes, and does his best to understand the -puzzling scene which meets his eye. And all this gives -seriousness, a deep and admirable seriousness, to his -attitude. 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 -boy, as with widely open eye he gazes at some new wonder, -or listens to some new report of his surroundings from a -mother’s lips. Hence, one may forgive the touch of -exaggeration when Mr. Bret Harte writes: “All those -who have made a loving study of the young human animal -will, I think, admit that its dominant expression is <em>gravity</em> -and not playfulness”.<a id='r37' /><a href='#f37' class='c011'><sup>[37]</sup></a> We may now turn to this graver -side of the young intelligence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, again, I may as well say that I prefer to observe -the phenomenon in its clearer and fuller manifestations, -that is to say, to study the serious intelligence of the child -in the most intelligent children, or at least in children -whose minds are most active. This does not mean that -we shall be on the look-out for precocious wisdom or -priggish smartness. On the contrary, since it is childish -intelligence as such that we are in search of, we shall take -pains to avoid as far as possible any encounter with prodigies. -By these I mean the unfortunate little people whose -<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>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 showman. We shall seek more particularly for spontaneous -openings of the mental flower under the warming -rays of a true mother’s love, for confidential whisperings of -child-thought to her ever-attentive and ever-tolerant ear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In order fully to understand the serious work of childish -intelligence, we ought to begin with a study of early observation. -But I must pass by this interesting subject with -only a remark or two.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Much has been written on the deeply concentrated all-absorbing -scrutiny of things by the young eye. But to -say how much an infant of nine months really sees when -he fixes his wide eyes on some new object, is a matter of -great uncertainty. What seems certain, is that the infant -has to learn to see things, and very probably takes what -seems to us an unnecessarily long time to see them at all -completely.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We find when the child grows and can give an -account of what he notes that his observation, while -often surprisingly minute in particular directions, is highly -restricted as to its directions, being narrowly confined -within the limits of a few dominant attractions. Thus a -child will sometimes be so impressed with the colour of an -object as almost to ignore its form. A little girl of -eighteen months, who knew lambs and called them -‘lammies,’ on seeing two black ones in a field among -some white ones called out, “Eh! doggie, doggie!” The -likeness of colour to the black dog overpowered the likeness -in form to the other lambs close by. Within -the limits of form-perception again, we may remark -the tendency to a one-sided mode of observing things -which has in it something of an abstract quality. For -the child C. the pointed head was the main essential -feature of the dog, and he recognised this in a bit of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>biscuit. We shall find further examples of this abstract -observation when we come to consider children’s drawings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This same partiality of observation comes out very -clearly in a good deal of the early assimilation or apperception -already referred to. The reason why it is so easy -for a child to superimpose a fanciful analogy on an object -of sense, is that his mind is untroubled by all the complexity -of this object. It fastens on some salient feature -of supreme attractiveness or interest, and flies away on the -wings of this, to what seems to us a far-off resemblance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This detaching or selective activity in children’s observation, -which in a manner is a defect, is also a point of -superiority. It has this in common with the observation -of the poet, that it is wholly engrossed with what is valuable. -Thus one main feature of the eye-lid is certainly -that it opens and closes like a curtain; and it is its resemblance -to the mysterious curtain shutting out the -daylight, which makes it a matter of absorbing interest. -Here, then, we have, as we shall see more fully presently, -a true germ of thought-activity embedded in the very process -of childish observation and recognition. For thought is -precisely a more methodical process of bringing the concrete -object into its relations to other things.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet children’s observation does not remain at this -height of grand selectiveness. The pressure of practical -needs tends to bring it down to our familiar level. A child -finds himself compelled to distinguish things and name -them as others do. The lamb and the dog, for example, -have to be distinguished by a <em>complex</em> of marks in which -the supremely interesting detail of colour holds a quite -subordinate place. Individual things, too, have to be distinguished, -if only for the purpose of drawing the line -between what is ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’. The boy’s mother, -his cup, his hat, must be readily recognised, and this necessity -forces the attention to grasp a plurality of marks. -Thus the mother cannot always be recognised by her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>height alone, as when she happens to be sitting, nor by her -hair alone, as when she happens to have her hat on, so that -the weighty problem of recognising her always compels the -child to note a number of distinctive marks, some of which -will in every case be available.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When once the eye has begun to note differences it -makes rapid progress. This is particularly true where the -development of a special interest in a group of things leads -to a habit of concentration. Thus little boys when the -‘railway interest’ seizes them are apt to be finely observant -of the differences between this and that engine and so forth. -A boy aged two years and eleven months, after travelling -from Dublin to Cork, and thence by another railway, asked -his mother if she had noticed the difference in the make of -the rails on the two lines. Of course she had not, though -she afterwards ascertained that there was a slight difference -which the boy’s keener eye had detected.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fineness of a child’s distinguishing observation is -well illustrated in his recognition of small drawings and -photographs, as when a child of two will pick out the likeness -of his father from a small <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>carte de visite</i></span> group. But -this side of children’s recognition will occupy us later on.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such fine and ready recognition as that just illustrated -shows not merely a penetrating observation of what is -distinctive and characteristic, but also a measure of a higher -power, that of seizing in one act of attention a complex or -group of such marks. In truth, children’s observation, when -close and methodical, as it is apt to be under the stimulus -of a powerful interest, is often surprisingly full as well as -exact. The boy, John Ruskin, was not the only one who -could look for hours together at such an object as flowing -water, noting all its changing features. A mother writes -to me that her boy, when three and a half years old, received -a picture-book, ‘The Railway Train,’ and looked -at it almost uninterruptedly for a week, retaining it even at -<a id='corr68.36'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='meals'>meals.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_68.36'><ins class='correction' title='meals'>meals.</ins></a></span> “At the end of this time he had grasped the smallest -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>detail in every picture.” By such occasional fits of fine -exhaustive inspection, a child of the more intelligent sort -will now and again come surprisingly near that higher type -of observation, at once minute and comprehensive, which -subserves, in somewhat different ways, scientific discovery -and artistic representation. Many parents when watching -these exceptional heights of childish scrutiny have indulged -in fond dreams of future greatness. Yet these achievements -are, alas, often limited to a certain stage of intellectual progress, -and are apt to disappear when the bookish days come -on, and the child loses himself hours together over his favourite -stories. 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 faculty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 observed. Everybody who has talked -much with little children must have been struck by the -tenacity of their memories, their power of recalling after -considerable intervals small features of an object or small -incidents which others hardly noted, or, if they noted them at -the time, have since forgotten. Stories of this surprising recollection -may be obtained in abundance. A little girl when -only nine months old was on a walk shown some lambs at -the gate of a field. On being taken the same road three -weeks later she surprised her mother by calling out just -before arriving at the gate ‘Baa, baa!’ Later on children -will remember through much longer intervals. A little boy -aged two years and ten months when taken to Italy a -second time after four or five months’ absence, remembered -the smallest details, <i>e.g.</i>, how the grapes were cut, how the -wine was made and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The gradual gathering of a store of such clear memory-images -is a necessary preliminary to reflexion and thought. -It is because the child remembers as well as sees, remembering -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>even while he sees, that he grows thoughtful, inquiring -about the meaning and reason of this and that, or boldly -venturing on some explanation of his own. And just as -the child’s mind must take on many pictures of things before -it reflects upon and tries to understand the world, so it -must collect and arrange pictures of the successive scenes -and events of its life, before it will grow self conscious and -reflect upon its own strange existence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The only other pre-condition of this primitive thoughtfulness -is that imaginative activity which we have already -considered on its playful and pleasurable side. We are -learning at last that the inventive phantasy of a child, -prodigal as it is of delightful illusions, is also a valuable -contributor to this sober work of thought. It is just -because the young mind is so mobile and agile, passing far -beyond the narrow confines of the actual in imaginative -conjecture of what lies hidden in the remote, that it begins -to <em>think</em>, that is, to reason about the causes of things. In -the history of the individual as of the race, thought, even -the abstract thought of science, grows out of the free play -of imagination. The myth is at once a picturesque fancy, -and a crude attempt at an explanation. This primitive -thought is indeed so compact of bright picturesque imagery -that we with our scientifically trained minds might easily -overlook its inherent thoughtfulness. Yet a close inspection -shows us that it contains the essential characteristics of -thought, an impulse to comprehend things, to reduce the -confusing multiplicity to order and system.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We must not hope to trace clearly the lines of this first -child-thought. The earliest attitude of the wakening intelligence -towards the confusion of novelties, which for us -has become a world, is presumably indescribable, and -further, by the time that a child comes to the use of words -and can communicate his thoughts, in a broken way at least, -the scene is already losing something of its first strangeness, -the organising work of experience has begun. Yet though -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>we cannot expect to get back to the primal wonderment we -can catch glimpses of that later wonderment which arises -when instruction supplements the senses, and ideas begin -to form themselves of a vast unknown in space and time, -of the changefulness of things, and of that mystery of -mysteries the beginning of things. The study of this -child-thought as it tries to utter itself in our clumsy speech -will well repay us. Only we must be ever on the alert lest -we read too much into these early utterances, forgetting -that the child’s first tentative use of words is very apt to -mislead.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The child first dimly reveals himself as thinker in the -practical domain. In the evolution of the race the reasoning -faculty has been first quickened into action by -the ferment of instinctive craving and striving. Man -began to reflect on the connexions of things in order to -supply himself with food, to ward off cold and other evils. -So with the child. Before the age of speech we may observe -him thinking out rapidly as occasion arises some -new practical expedient, as, for example, seizing a clothes-pin -or other available aid in order to reach a toy that has -slipped out of his reach; or clutching at our dress -and pulling the chair by way of signifying to us that we -are to remain and continue to amuse him. The observations -of the first months of child-life abound with such -illustrations of an initiating practical intelligence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet these exploits, impressive as they often are, hardly -disclose the distinctive attributes of the human thinker. -The cat, without any example to imitate, will find its way -to a quite charming begging gesture by reaching up and -tapping your arm.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Probably the earliest unambiguous indication of a -human faculty of thought is to be found in infantile comparison. -When a baby turns its head deliberately and -sagely from a mirror-reflexion or portrait of its mother to -the original, we appear to see the first crude beginnings of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>a process which, when more elaborated, becomes human -understanding.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A good deal of comparison of this kind seems to enter -into the mental activity of young children. Thus the deep -absorbing attention to pictures spoken of above commonly -means a careful comparison of this and that form one with -another, and in certain cases, at least, a comparison of what -is now seen with the mental image of the original. In -some children, moreover, comparison under the form of -measurement grows into a sort of craze. They want to -measure the height of things one with another and so forth. -An intelligent child will even find his way to a <em>mediate</em> -form of comparison, that is, to measuring things through the -medium of a third thing. Thus a boy of five, who had -conceived a strong liking for dogs, was in the habit when -walking out of measuring on his body how high a dog -reached. On returning home he would compare this height -with that of the seat or back of a chair, and would finally -ask for a yard measure and find out the number of inches.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This comparison of things is of the very essence of -understanding, of comprehending things as distinguished -from merely apprehending them as concrete isolated objects. -The child in his desire to assimilate, to find something -in the region of the known with which the new and -strange thing may be brought into kinship, is ever on the -look-out for likeness. Hence the analogical and half-poetical -apperception of things, the metaphorical reduction of a -thing to a prototype, as in calling a star an eye, or an eyelid -a curtain, may be said to contain the germ at once of -poetry and of science.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This comparison for purposes of understanding leads -on to what psychologists call classification, or generalisation; -the bringing together and keeping before the mind of -a number of like things by help of a general name. The -child may be said to become a true thinker as soon as -he uses names intelligently, calling each thing by an -appropriate name, and so classing it with its kind.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>This power of infantile generalisation is one full of -interest and has been carefully observed. It will, however, -be more conveniently dealt with in another chapter where -we shall be specially concerned with the child’s use of -language.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While thus beginning to arrange things according to -such points of likeness as he can discover, the child is -noting the connexions of things. He finds out what -belongs to a horse, to a locomotive engine, he notes when -father leaves home and returns, when the sun declines, -what accompanies and follows rain, and so forth. That -is to say, he is feeling his way to the idea of connectedness, -of regularity, of what we call uniformity or law. We now -say that the child reasons, no longer blindly or automatically -like the dog, but with a consciousness of what he is -doing. We little think how much hard work has to be got -through by the little brain before even this dim perception -of regularity is attained. In some things, no doubt, the -regularity is patent enough, and can hardly be overlooked -by the dullest of children. 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 grasp. But when it comes to -finding out the law according to which, say, his face gets -dirty, his head aches, or people send out their invitations -to children’s parties, the matter is not so simple.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 reason, were he not endowed with -a lively and inextinguishable impulse to connect and -simplify. Herein lies a part of the pathos of childhood. It -brings its naïve prepossession of a regular well-ordered -world, and alas, finds itself confronted with an impenetrable -tangle of disorder. How quaint it is to listen to the little -thinker, as, with untroubled brow, he begins to propound his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>beautifully simple theory of the cosmic order. An American -boy of ten who had had one cross small teacher, and -whose best teacher had been tall, accosted a new teacher -thus: “I’m afraid you’ll make a cross teacher”. His -teacher replied: “Why, am I cross?” To which he rejoined: -“No; but you are so small”. We call this hasty -generalisation. We might with equal propriety term it the -child’s innate <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>a priori</i></span> view of things.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 rule. Here, too, the -small thinker may only too easily slip by failing to see the -exact import and scope of the rule. We see this in the -extension of laws of human experience to the animal world. -Rules supplied by others and only vaguely understood, -more particularly moral and religious truths, lend themselves -to this kind of misapplication. The Worcester -collection of <cite>Thoughts and Reasonings of Children</cite> gives -some odd examples of such application. American children, -to judge from these examples, appear to be particularly -smart at quoting Scripture; not altogether, one suspects, -without a desire to show off, and possibly to raise a laugh. -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’ words, and so of giving them a -turn which is apt to stagger their less-gifted authors. Here -is a case. R.’s aunt said: “You are so restless, R., I can’t -hold you any longer”. R.: “Cast your burden on the Lord, -Aunty K., and He will sustain you”. The child, we are -told, was only four. He probably understood the Scripture -injunction as a useful prescription for getting rid of a -nuisance, and with the admirable impartiality of childish -logic at once applied it to himself. Other illustrations of -such misapplication will meet us when we take up the -relation of the child’s thought to language.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span> - <h3 class='c017'><i>The Questioning Age.</i></h3> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>The child’s first vigorous effort to understand the -things about him may be roughly dated at the end of the -third year, and it is noteworthy that this synchronises with -the advent of the questioning age. The first putting of a -question occurred in the case of Preyer’s boy in the twenty-eighth -month, in that of Pollock’s girl in the twenty-third -month. 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 year.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A common theory peculiarly favoured by ignorant -nurses and mothers is that children’s questioning is a -studied annoyance. The child has come to the use of -words, and with all a child’s ‘cussedness’ proceeds to torment -the ears of those about him. There are signs, however, -of a change of view on this point. 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 world. The question is the outcome -of ignorance coupled with a belief in the boundless knowledge -of grown-up people. It is an attempt to add to the -scrappy, unsatisfying information about things which the -little questioner’s own observation has managed to gather, -or others’ half-understood words have succeeded in communicating. -It is the outcome of intellectual craving, of a -demand for mental food. But it is much more than an expression -of need. Just as the child’s articulate demand for -food implies that he knows what food is, and that it is -obtainable, so the question implies that the little questioner -knows what he needs, and in what direction to look for it. -The simplest form of question, <i>e.g.</i>, “What is this flower?” “this -insect?” shows that the child by a half-conscious process of -reflexion and reasoning has found his way to the truth that -things have their qualities, their belongings, their names. -Many questions, indeed, <i>e.g.</i>, ‘Has the moon wings?’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>‘Where do all the days go to?’ reveal a true process of -childish thought and have a high value as expressions of -this thought.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Questioning may take various directions. A good deal -of the child’s catechising of his long-suffering mother is -prompted by thirst for fact.<a id='r38' /><a href='#f38' class='c011'><sup>[38]</sup></a> The typical form of this line -of questioning is ‘What?’ The motive here is to gain -possession of some fact which will connect itself with and -supplement a fact already known. ‘How old is Rover?’ -‘Where was Rover born?’ ‘Who was his father?’ ‘What -is that dog’s name?’ ‘What sort of hair had you when -you were a little girl?’ These are samples of the questioning -activity by help of which the little inquirer tries to -make up his connected wholes, to see things with his -imagination in their proper attachment and order. And -how greedily and pertinaciously the small folk will follow -up their questioning, flying as it often looks wildly enough -from point to point, yet gathering from every answer some -new contribution to their ideas of things. A boy of three -years and nine months would thus attack his mother: -‘What does frogs eat, and mice and birds and butterflies? -and what does they do? and what is their names? What -is all their houses’ names? What does they call their -streets and places?’ etc., etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such questions easily appear foolish because, as in the -case just quoted, they are directed by quaint childish -fancies. The child’s anthropomorphic way of looking out -on the world leads him to assimilate animal to human -ways.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One feature in this fact-gleaning kind of question is -the great store which the child sets by the name of a -thing. M. Compayré has pointed out that the form of -question: ‘What is this?’ often means, “What is it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>called?” The child’s unformulated theory seems to be -that everything has its own individual name. The little -boy just spoken of explained to his mother that he thought -all the frogs, the mice, the birds, and the butterflies had -names given to them by their mothers as he himself had. -Perhaps this was only a way of expressing the childish -idea that everything has its name, primordial and unchangeable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A second direction of this early questioning is towards -the reason and the cause of things. The typical form is -here ‘why?’ This form of inquiry occurred in the case of -Preyer’s boy at the age of two years forty-three weeks. -But it becomes the all-predominant form of question -somewhat later. Who that has tried to instruct the small -child of three or four does not know the long shrill whinelike -sound of this question? This form of question -develops naturally out of the earlier, for to give the -‘what?’ of a thing, that is its connexions, is to give its -‘why?’ that is its mode of production, its use and purpose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing perhaps in child utterance is better worth -interpreting, hardly anything more difficult to interpret, -than this simple-looking little ‘why?’</p> - -<p class='c001'>We ourselves perhaps do not use the word ‘why’ and -its correlative ‘because’ with one clear meaning; and the -child’s first use of the words is largely imitative. What -may be pretty safely asserted is that even in the most -parrot-like and wearisome iteration of ‘why?’ and its -equivalents ‘what for?’ etc., the child shows a dim recognition -of the truth that a thing is understandable, that -it has its reasons if only they can be found.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let us in judging of this pitiless ‘why?’ try to understand -the situation of the young mind confronted by so -much that is strange and unassimilated, meeting by observation -and hearsay with new and odd occurrences every -day. The strange things standing apart from his tiny -familiar world, the wide region of the quaint and puzzling -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>in animal ways, for example, stimulate the instinct to -appropriate, to master. The little thinker must try at -least to bring the new odd thing into some recognisable -relation to his familiar world. And what is more natural -than to go to the wise lips of the grown-up person for a -solution of the difficulty? The fundamental significance -of the ‘why?’ in the child’s vocabulary, then, is the necessity -of connecting new with old, of illuminating what is -strange and dark by light reflected from what is already -matter of knowledge. And a child’s ‘why?’ is often -temporarily satisfied by supplying from the region of the -familiar an analogue to the new and unclassed fact. Thus -his impulse to understand why pussy has fur, is met by -telling him that it is pussy’s hair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is only a step further in the same direction when the -‘why?’ has to be met by supplying a general statement; -for to refer the particular to a general rule is a more -perfect and systematic kind of assimilation. Now we -know that children are very susceptible to the authority -of precedent, custom, general rule. Just as in children’s -ethics customary permission makes a thing right, so in -their logic the truth that a thing generally happens may be -said to supply a reason for its happening in a particular -case. Hence, when the much-abused nurse answers the -child’s question, ‘Why is the pavement hard?’ by saying, -‘Because pavement is always hard,’ she is perhaps less -open to the charge of giving a woman’s reason than is -sometimes said.<a id='r39' /><a href='#f39' class='c011'><sup>[39]</sup></a> In sooth the child’s queries, his searchings -for explanation, are, as already suggested, prompted -by the desire for order and connectedness. And this -means that he wants the general rule to which he can -assimilate the particular and as yet isolated fact.</p> - -<p class='c001'>From the first, however, the ‘why?’ and its congeners -have reference to the causal idea, to something which has -brought the new and strange thing into existence and made -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>it what it is. In truth this reference to origin, to bringing -about or making, is exceedingly prominent in children’s -questionings. Nothing is more interesting to a child than -the production of things. What hours and hours does he -not spend in wondering how the pebbles, the stars, the -birds, the babies are made. This vivid interest in production -is to a considerable extent practical. It is one of the -great joys of children to be able themselves to make things, -and this desire to fashion, which is probably at first -quite immense, and befitting rather a god than a feeble -mannikin of three years, naturally leads on to inquiry -into the mode of producing. Yet from the earliest a -true speculative interest blends with this practical instinct. -Children are in the complete sense little philosophers, if -philosophy, as the ancients said, consists in knowing the -causes of things. This discovery of the cause is the -completed process of assimilation, of the reference of the -particular to a general rule or law.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 possessions. -The world is a sort of big house where everything -has been made by somebody, or at least fetched from somewhere. -This application of the anthropomorphic idea of -fashioning follows the law of all childish thought, that the -unknown is assimilated to the known. The one mode of -origin which the embryo thinker is really and directly -familiar with is the making of things. He himself makes -a respectable number of things, including these rents in his -clothes, messes on the tablecloth, and the like, which he -gets firmly imprinted on his memory by the authorities. -And, then, he takes a keen interest in watching the making -of things by others, such as puddings, clothes, houses, hayricks. -To ask, then, who made the animals, the babies, the -wind, the clouds, and so forth, is for him merely to apply -the more familiar type of causation as norm or rule. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>Similarly in all questions as to the ‘whence?’ of things, as in -asking whether babies were bought in a shop.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The ‘why?’ takes on a more special meaning when the -idea of purpose becomes clear. The search now is for the -end, what philosophers call the teleological cause or reason. -When, for example, a child asks ‘Why does the wind blow?’ -he means, ‘What is its object in blowing?’ or ‘Of what use -is the blowing of the wind?’</p> - -<p class='c001'>The idea underlying the common form of the ‘why?’ -interrogative deserves a moment’s inspection. A child’s -view of causation starts like other ideas from his most -familiar experiences. He soon finds out that his own -actions are controlled by the desire to get or to avoid -something, that, to speak in rather technical language, the -idea of the result of the action precedes and determines -this action.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have lately come across a very early, and as I think, -remarkable illustration of this form of childish thought. -A little girl already quoted, whom we will call M., -when one year eleven months old, happened to be walking -with her mother on a windy day. At first she was delighted -at the strong boisterous wind, but then got tired -and said: ‘Wind make mamma’s hair untidy, Babba (her -own name) make mamma’s hair tidy, <em>so wind not blow -adain</em> (again)’. About three weeks later this child was -out in the rain, when she said to her mother: ‘Mamma, dy -(dry) Babba’s hands, <em>so not rain any more</em>’. What does -this curious inversion of the order of cause and effect mean? -I am disposed to think that this little girl, who was unusually -bright and intelligent, was transferring to nature’s -phenomena the forms of her own experience. When she -is disorderly, and her mother or nurse arranges her hair -or washes her hands, it is in order that she may not -continue to be disorderly. 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 -<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>naughtiness. 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 prohibition. -Here, it seems unmistakable, we have a projection -into nature of human purpose, of the idea of determination -of action by end: we have a form of anthropomorphism -which runs through the whole of primitive thought.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It seems to follow from this that there is a stage in the -development of a child’s intelligence when questions such -as, ‘Why do the leaves fall?’ ‘Why does the thunder -make such a noise?’ are answered most satisfactorily by -a poetic fiction, by saying, for example, that the leaves are -old and tired of hanging on to the trees, and that the thunder -giant is in a particularly bad temper and making a noise. -It is perhaps permissible to make use of this fiction at -times, more especially when trying to answer the untiring -questioning about animals and their doings, a region of -existence, by the way, of which even the wisest of us knows -exceedingly little. Yet the device has its risks; and an -ill-considered piece of myth-making passed off as an -answer may find itself awkwardly confronted by that -most merciless of things, a child’s logic.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may notice something more in this early mode of -interrogation. Children are apt to think not only that -things behave in general after our manner, that their -activity is determined by some end or purpose, or that they -have their useful function, their <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>raison d’être</i></span> as we say, -but that this purpose concerns us human creatures. The -wind and the rain came and went in our little girl’s nature-theory -just to vex or out of consideration for ‘mamma’ -and ‘Babba’. 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 captiously, ‘Sun not look at Hennie,’ -and then more pleadingly, ‘Please, sun, not look at poor -Hennie’.<a id='r40' /><a href='#f40' class='c011'><sup>[40]</sup></a> The sea, when the child C. first saw it, was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>supposed to make its disturbing noise with special reference -to his small ears. We may call this the anthropocentric -idea, the essence of which is that man is the centre of -reference, the aim or target, in all nature’s processes. This -anthropocentric tendency again is shared by the child -with the uncultured adult. Primitive man looks on wind, -rain, thunder as sent by some angry spirit, and even a -respectable English farmer tends to view these operations -of nature in much the same way. In children this anthropocentric -impulse is apt to get toned down by their -temperament, which is on the whole optimistic and decidedly -practical, into a looking out for the <em>uses</em> of things. -A boy, already quoted, once (towards the end of the fourth -year) asked his mother what the bees do. This question -he explained by adding: “What is the good of them?” -When told that they made honey he observed pertinently -enough from his teleological standpoint: “Then do they -bring it for us to eat?” 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 -‘demonstrate’ the Creator’s admirable adaptation of nature -to man’s wants.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The frequency of this kind of ‘why?’ suggests that -children’s thoughts about things are penetrated with the -idea of purpose and use. This is shown too in other -ways. M. A. Binet found by questioning children that -their ideas of things are largely made up of uses. Thus, -asked what a hat is, a child answered: <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Pour mettre sur -la tête”.</span> Mr. H. E. Kratz of Sioux City sends me some -answers to questions by children of five on entering a -primary school, which illustrate the same point. Thus -the question, ‘What is a tree?’ brings out the answers, -‘To make the wind blow,’ ‘To sit under,’ and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 things. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>wants to know who made the trees, the birds, the stars and -so forth. Here, though what we call efficient, as distinguished -from final, cause is recognised, anthropomorphism -survives in the idea of a maker analogous to the carpenter. -We shall see later that children habitually envisage the -deity as a fabricator.</p> - -<p class='c001'>All this rage of questioning about the uses and the -origin of things is the outcome, not merely of ignorance and -curiosity, but of a deeper motive, a sense of perplexity, of -mystery or contradiction. It is not always easy to distinguish -the two types of question, 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 brain. As -long as the questioning goes on briskly we may infer that -a child believes in the possibility of knowledge, and has -not sounded the deepest depths of intellectual despair. More -pathetic than the saddest of questions is the silencing of -questions by the loss of faith.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is easy to see that children must find themselves -puzzled with much which they see and hear of. The -apparent exceptions to rules don’t trouble the grown-up -persons just because as <em>recurrent</em> exceptions they seem to -take on a rule of their own. Thus adults though quite -unversed in hydrostatics would be incapable of being -puzzled by C.’s problem: why my putting my hand in -water does not make a hole in it. Similarly, though they -know nothing of animal physiology they are never troubled -by the mystery of fish breathing under water, which when -first noted by a child may come as a sort of shock. The -little boy just referred to, in his far-reaching zoological -interrogatory asked his mother: “Can they (the fish) breathe -with their moufs under water?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In his own investigations, and in getting instruction -from others, the child is frequently coming upon puzzles of -this sort. The same boy was much exercised about the -sea and where it went to. He expressed a wish to take off -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>his shoes and to walk out into the sea so as to see where -the ships go to, and was much troubled on learning that -the sea got deeper and deeper, and that if he walked out -into it he would be drowned. At first he denied the -paradox (which he at once saw) of the incoming sea going -uphill: “But, mamma, it doesn’t run up, it doesn’t run up, -so it couldn’t come up over our heads?” He was told -that this was so, and he wisely began to try to accommodate -his mind to this startling revelation. C., it will -be seen, was much exercised by this problem of the -moving mass of waters, wanting to know whether it came -half way up the world. Probably in both these cases the -idea of water rising had its uncanny alarming aspect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is probable that the disappearance of a thing is at a -very early stage a puzzle to the infant. Later on, too, the -young mind continues to be exercised about this mystery. -Our little friend’s inquiry about the whither of the big -receding sea, “Where does the sea sim (swim) to?” -illustrates this perplexity. A child seems able to understand -the shifting of an object of moderate size from one -part of space to another, 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 -unseen. The child’s question, “Where does all the wind -go to?” seems to have sprung from a like inability to -picture a vast unseen realm of space.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In addition to this difficulty of the disappearance of big -things, there seems to be something in the vastness, and -the infinite number of existent things perceived and -heard about, which puzzles and oppresses the young mind. -The inability to take in all the new facts leads to a kind of -resentment of their multitude. “Mother,” asked a boy of -four years, “why <em>is</em> there such a lot of things in the world -if no one knows all these things?” One cannot be quite -sure of the underlying thought here. The child may have -meant merely to protest against the production of so confusing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>a number of objects in the world. This certainly -seems to be the motive in some children’s inquiries, as when -a little girl, aged three years seven months, said: ‘Mamma, -why do there be any more days, why do there? and why -don’t we leave off eating and drinking?’ Here the burdensomeness -of mere multiplicity, of the unending procession -of days and meals, seems to be the motive. Yet it is -possible that the question about a lot of things not known -to anybody was prompted by a deeper difficulty, a dim -presentiment of Berkeley’s idealism, that things can exist -only as objects of knowledge. This surmise may seem far-fetched -to some, yet I have found what seem to me other -traces of this tendency in children. A girl of six and a -half years was talking to her father about the making of the -world. He pointed out to her the difficulty of creating -things out of nothing, showing her that when we made -things we simply fashioned materials anew. She pondered -and then said: “Perhaps the world’s a fancy”. Here -again one cannot be quite sure of the child-thought behind -the words. Yet it certainly looks like a falling back for a -moment into the dreamy mood of the idealist, that mood -in which we seem to see the solid fabric of things dissolve -into a shadowy phantasmagoria.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The subject of origins is, as we know, beset with puzzles -for the childish mind. The beginnings of living things are, -of course, the great mystery. “There’s such a lot of things,” -remarked the little zoologist I have recently been quoting, -“I want to know, that you say nobody knows, mamma. I -want to know who made God, and I want to know if Pussy -has eggs to help her make ickle (little) kitties.” Finding -that this was not so, he observed: “Oh, then, I s’pose she -has to have God to help her if she doesn’t have kitties in -eggs given her to sit on”. Another little boy, five years -old, found his way to the puzzle of the reciprocal genetic -relation of the hen and the egg, and asked his mother: -“When there <em>is</em> no egg where does the hen come from? -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>When there <em>was</em> no egg, I mean, where <em>did</em> the hen come -from?” In a similar way, as we shall see in C.’s journal, a -child will puzzle his brains by asking how the first child was -suckled, or, as a little girl of four and a half years put it, -"When everybody was a baby—then who could be their -nurse—if they were all babies?" The beginnings of human -life are, as we know, a standing puzzle for the young investigator.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Much of this questioning is metaphysical in that it -transcends the problems of every-day life and of science. -The child is metaphysician in the sense in which the earliest -human thinkers were metaphysicians, pushing his questioning -into the inmost nature of things, and back to their -absolute beginnings, as when he asks ‘Who made God?’ or -‘What was there before God?’<a id='r41' /><a href='#f41' class='c011'><sup>[41]</sup></a> He has no idea yet of the -confines of human knowledge. If his mother tells him she -does not know he tenaciously clings to the idea that somebody -knows, the doctor it may be, or the clergyman—or -possibly the policeman, of whose superior knowledge one -little girl was forcibly convinced by noting that her father -once asked information of one of these stately officials.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Strange, bizarre, altogether puzzling to the listener, are -some of these childish questions. A little American girl -of nine years after a pause in talk re-commenced the conversation -by asking: “Why don’t I think of something to -say?” 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 characters. Another little American girl aged -three one day left her play and her baby sister named -Edna Belle to find her mother and ask: “Mamma, why -isn’t Edna Belle me, and why ain’t I Edna Belle?”<a id='r42' /><a href='#f42' class='c011'><sup>[42]</sup></a> The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>narrator of this story adds that the child was not a daughter -of a professor of metaphysics but of practical farmer folk. -One cannot be quite sure of the precise drift of this question. -It may well have been the outcome of a new development -of self-consciousness, of a clearer awareness of the self in -its distinctness from others. A question with a much clearer -metaphysical ring about it, showing thought about the -subtlest problems, was that put by a boy of the same age: -“If I’d gone upstairs, could God make it that I hadn’t?” -This is a good example of the type of question: ‘Can he -make a thing done not to have been done?’ which according -to Erasmus was much debated by theologians.<a id='r43' /><a href='#f43' class='c011'><sup>[43]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>With many children confronted with the mysteries of -God and the devil this questioning often reproduces the -directions of theological speculation. 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 home: “Father, why don’t God kill -the devil and then there would be no more wickedness in -the world?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>All children’s questioning does not of course take this -sublime direction. 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 nature. Some -questions which a busy listener would pooh-pooh as dreamy -have a genuinely scientific value, showing that the little -inquirer is trying to work out some problem of fact. This -is illustrated by a question put by a little boy aged three -years nine months: “Why don’t we see two things with -our two eyes?” a problem which, as we know, has exercised -older psychologists.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When this more definitely scientific direction is taken -by a child’s questioning we may observe that the ambitious -‘why?’ begins to play a second <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span>, the first being now -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>taken by the more modest ‘how?’ The germ of this kind -of inquiry may be present in some of the early questioning -about growth. “How,” asked our little zoologist, -“does plants grow when we plant them, and how does -boys grow from babies to big boys like me? Has I grown -now whilst I was eating my supper? See!” and he stood -up to make the most of his stature. Clearer evidence of a -directing of inquiry into the processes of things appears in -the fifth and sixth years. A little girl of four years seven -months among other questionings wanted to know what -makes the trains move, and how we move our eyes. The -incessant inquiries of the boy Clark Maxwell into the ‘go’ -of this thing or the ‘particular go’ of that illustrate in a -clearer manner the early tendency to direct questioning to -the more manageable problems to which science confines -itself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These different lines of questioning are apt to run on -concurrently from the end of the third year, a fit of eager -curiosity about animals or other natural objects giving place -to a fit of theological inquiry, this again being dropped -for an equally eager inquiry into the making of clocks, railway -engines, and so on. Yet through these alternating -bouts of questioning we can distinguish something like a -law of intellectual progress. 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 -these. 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 (in -a very crude form of course) precedes the mechanical. The -scope of this early questioning will, moreover, expand with -intellectual capacity, and more particularly the capability -of forming the more abstruse kind of childish idea. Thus -inquiries into absolute beginnings, into the origin of the -world and of God himself, indicate the presence of a larger -intellectual grasp of time-relations and of the processes of -becoming.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>Our survey of the field of childish questioning suggests -that it is by no means an easy matter to deal with. It -must be admitted, I think, by the most enthusiastic partisan -of children that their questioning is of very unequal value. -It may often be noticed that a child’s ‘why?’ is used in a -sleepy mechanical way with no real desire for knowledge, -any semblance of answer being accepted without an attempt -to put a meaning into it. A good deal of the more -importunate kind of children’s questioning, when they -follow up question by question recklessly, as it seems, and -without definite aim, appears to be of this formal and lifeless -character, an expression not of a healthy intellectual -activity, but merely of a mood of general mental discontent -and peevishness. In a certain amount of childish questioning, -indeed, we have, I suspect, to do with a distinctly -abnormal mental state, with an analogue of that mania -of questions, or passion for mental rummaging or prying -into everything, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Grubelsucht”</span> as the Germans call it, which -is a well-known phase of mental disease, and prompts -the patient to put such questions as this: “Why -do I stand here where I stand?” “Why is a glass a glass, -a chair a chair?” Such questioning ought, it is evident, -not to be treated too seriously. We may attach too much -significance to a child’s question, labouring hard to grasp -its meaning, with a view to answering it, when we should -be wiser if we viewed it as a symptom of mental irritability -and peevishness, to be got rid of as quickly as possible by -a good romp or other healthy distraction.<a id='r44' /><a href='#f44' class='c011'><sup>[44]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>To admit, however, 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 contempt. The little questioners flatter us by -attributing superior knowledge to us, and good manners -should compel us to treat their questions with some attention. -And if now and then they torment us with a string of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>random reckless questioning, in how many cases, one -wonders, are they not made to suffer, and that wrongfully, -by having perfectly serious questions rudely cast back on -their hands? The truth is that to understand and to -answer children’s questions is a considerable art, including -both a large and deep knowledge of things, and a quick sympathetic -insight into the little questioners’ minds, and few of -us have at once the intellectual and the moral excellences -needed for an adequate treatment of them. 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 days. We can never know -how much valuable mental activity has been checked, how -much hope and courage cast down by this kind of treatment. -Yet happily the questioning impulse is not easily -eradicated, and a child who has suffered at the outset from -this wholesale contempt may be fortunate enough to meet, -while the spirit of investigation is still upon him, one who -knows and who has the good nature and the patience to -impart what he knows in response to a child’s appeal.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f37'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r37'>37</a>. Works, vol. iii., p. 396.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f38'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r38'>38</a>. The first question put by Preyer’s boy was, ‘Where is mamma?’ -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die Seele des Kindes</cite></span>, p. 412. (The references are to the third edition, -1890.)</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f39'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r39'>39</a>. <i>Cf.</i> some shrewd remarks by Dr. Venn, <cite>Empirical Logic</cite>, p. 494.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f40'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r40'>40</a>. See note by E. M. Stevens, <cite>Mind</cite>, xi., p. 150.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f41'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r41'>41</a>. Illustrations are given by Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, and by P. Lombroso, -<span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>Psicologia del Bambino</cite></span>, p. 47 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f42'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r42'>42</a>. Quoted from an article, “Some Comments on Babies,” by Miss -Shinn in the <cite>Overland Monthly</cite>, Jan., 1894.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f43'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r43'>43</a>. Froude, <cite>Letters of Erasmus</cite>, Lect. vii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f44'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r44'>44</a>. <i>Cf.</i> Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education dès le berceau</cite></span>, p. 45 ff.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span> - <h2 class='c004'>IV. <br /> PRODUCTS OF CHILD-THOUGHT.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>The Child’s Thoughts about Nature.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>We have seen in the previous article how a child’s mind -behaves when brought face to face with the unknown. We -will now examine some of the more interesting results of -this early thought-activity, what are known as the characteristic -ideas of children. There is no doubt, I think, -that children, by reflecting on what they see or otherwise -experience and what they are told by others, fashion -their own ideas about nature, death and the rest. This -tendency, as pointed out above, discloses itself to some -extent in their questions about things. It has now to be -more fully studied in their sayings as a whole. The ideas -thus formed will probably prove to vary considerably -in the case of different children, yet to preserve throughout -these variations a certain general character.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These ideas, moreover, like those of primitive races, will -be found to be a crude attempt at a connected system. We -must not, of course, expect too much here. The earliest -thought of mankind about nature and the supernatural was -very far from being elaborated into a consistent logical -whole; yet we can see general forms of conception or -tendencies of thought running through the whole. So in -the case of this largely spontaneous child-thought. It will -disclose to an unsparing critical inspection vast gaps, and -many unsurmounted contradictions. Thus in the case of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>children, as in that of uncultured races, the supernatural -realm is at first brought at most into only a very loose connexion -with the visible world. All the same there is seen, -in the measure of the individual child’s intelligence, the -endeavour to co-ordinate, 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 introduced, -partly by the motley character of his own experiences, -as the alternations of waking and sleeping, partly -by the haphazard miscellaneous instruction, mythological, -historical, theological, and the rest, with which we inconsiderately -burden his mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As was observed in dealing with children’s imaginative -activity, this primitive child-lore, like its prototype in folk-lore, -is largely a product of a naïve vivid fancy. In assigning -the relations of things and their reasons, a child’s mind -does not make use of abstract conceptions. It does not -talk about “relation,” but pictures out the particular relation -it wants to express by a figurative expression, as -in apperceiving the juxtaposition of moon and star as -mamma and baby. So it does not talk of abstract force, -but figures some concrete form of agency, as in explaining -the wind by the idea of somebody’s waving a big fan -somewhere. This first crude attempt of the child to -envisage the world is, indeed, largely mythological, proceeding -by the invention of concrete and highly pictorial -ideas of fairies, giants and their doings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The element of thought comes in with the recognition -of the real as such, and with the application of the products -of young phantasy to comprehending and explaining this -reality. And here we see how this primitive child-thought, -though it remains instinct with glowing imagery, differentiates -itself from pure fancy. This last knows no -restraint, and aims only at the delight of its spontaneous -play-like movements, whereas thought is essentially the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>serious work of realising and understanding what exists. -The contrast is seen plainly enough if we compare the -mental attitude of the child when he is frankly romancing, -giving out now and again a laugh, which shows that he -himself fully recognises the absurdity of his talk, with his -attitude when in gravest of moods he is calling upon his -fancy to aid reason in explaining some puzzling fact.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How early this splitting of the child’s imaginative -activity into these two forms, the playful and the thoughtful, -takes place is not, I think, very easy to determine. -Many children at least are apt at first to take all that is -told them as gospel. To most of them about the age of -three and four, I suspect, fairyland, if imagined at all, is -as much a reality as the visible world. The disparity of -its contents, the fairies, dragons and the rest, with those -of the world of sense does not trouble their mind, the two -worlds not being as yet mentally juxtaposed and dove-tailed -one into the other. It is only later when the desire -to understand overtakes and even passes the impulse to -frame bright and striking images, and, as a result of this, -critical reflexion applies itself to the nursery legends and -detects their incongruity with the world of every-day perception, -that a clear distinction comes to be drawn between -reality and fiction, what exists and can (or might) be -verified by sense, and what is only pictured by the mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With this preliminary peep into the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>modus operandi</i></span> of -children’s thought, let us see what sort of ideas of things -they fashion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Beginning with their ideas of natural objects we find, as -has been hinted, the influence of certain predominant tendencies. -Of these the most important is the impulse to think -of what is far off, whether in space or time, and so unobservable, -as like what is near and observed. Along with this -tendency, or rather as one particular development of it, -there goes the disposition already illustrated, to vivify -nature, to personify things and so to assimilate their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>behaviour to the child’s own, and to explain the origin of -things by ideas of making and aiming at some purpose. -Since, at the same time that these tendencies are still -dominant, the child by his own observation and by such -instruction as he gets, is gaining insight into the ‘how,’ the -mechanism of things, we find that his cosmology is apt to -be a quaint jumble of the scientific and the mythological. -Thus the boy C. tried to conceive of the divine creation of -men as a mechanical process with well-marked stages—the -fashioning of stone men, iron men, and then real men. -In many cases we can see that a nature-myth comes in to eke -out the deficiencies of mechanical insight. Thus, the production -of thunder and other strange and inexplicable -phenomena is referred, as by the savage, and even by many -so-called civilised men and women, to the direct interposition -of a supernatural agency. The theological idea with -which children are supplied is apt to shape itself into that -of a capricious and awfully clever demiurgos, who not only -made the world-machine but alters its working as often -as he is disposed. With this idea of a supernatural -agent there is commonly combined that of a natural process -as means employed, as when thunder is supposed to be -caused by God’s treading heavily on the floor of the sky. -Contradictions are not infrequent, the mythological impulse -sometimes alternating with a more distinctly scientific impulse -to grasp the mechanical process, as when wind is sometimes -thought of, as caused by a big fan, and sometimes, <i>e.g.</i>, -when heard moaning in the night, endowed with life and -feeling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I shall make no attempt to give a methodical account -of children’s thoughts about nature. I suspect that a good -deal more material will have to be collected before a complete -description of these thoughts is possible. I shall -content myself with giving a few samples of their ideas so -far as my own studies have thrown light on them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With respect to the make or substance of things children -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>are, I believe, disposed to regard all that they see as having -the resistant quality of solid material substance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At first, 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 together, he believes that -all which he sees is tangible or substantial. Thus he will -try to touch shadows, sunlight dancing on the wall, and -picture forms. This tendency to “reify,” or make things of, -his visual impressions shows itself in pretty forms, as when -the little girl M., one year eleven months old, “gathered sunlight -in her hands and put it on her face”. The same child -about a month earlier expressed a wish to wash some black -smoke. This was the same child that tried to make the -wind behave by making her mother’s hair tidy; 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 wind. This last, it is to be noted, was an inference from -touching and resisting to seeing.<a id='r45' /><a href='#f45' class='c011'><sup>[45]</sup></a> Wind, it has been well -remarked, keeps something of its substantiality for all of -us long after shadows have become the type of unreality, -proving that the experience of resisting something lies at -the root of our sense of material substance. 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 it. That wind even in less fanciful moments is -reified is suggested by the following story from the Worcester -collection. A girl aged nine was looking out and seeing -the wind driving the snow in the direction of a particular -town, Milbury: whereupon she remarked, “I’d like to live -down in Milbury”. Asked why, she replied, “There must -be a lot of wind down there, it’s all blowing that way”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Children, as may be seen in this story, are particularly -interested in the movements of things. Movement is the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>clearest and most impressive manifestation of life. All -apparently spontaneous or self-caused movements are accordingly -taken by children, as by primitive man, to be the -sign of life, the outcome of something analogous to their -own impulses. Hence the movements of falling leaves, of -running water, of feathers and the like are specially suggestive -of life. Wind owes much of its vitality, as seen in -the facile personification of it by the poet, to its apparently -uncaused movements. Some children in the Infant Department -of a London Board School were asked what things -in the room were alive, and they promptly replied the -smoke and the fire. Big things moving by an internal -mechanism of which the child knows nothing, more especially -engines, are of course endowed with life. A little girl -of thirteen months offered a biscuit to a steam-tram, and -the author of <cite>The Invisible Playmate</cite> tells us that his little -girl wanted to stroke the “dear head” of a locomotive. A -child has been known to ask whether a steam-engine was -alive. In like manner, savages on first seeing the self-moving -steamer take it for a big animal. The fear of a dog -at the sight of an unfamiliar object appearing to move of -itself, as a parasol blown along the ground by the wind, -seems to imply a rudiment of the same impulse to interpret -self-movement as a sign of life.<a id='r46' /><a href='#f46' class='c011'><sup>[46]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 force, and this even when the force is -exerted by himself. The boy C. on finding the cushion -he was sitting upon slipping from under him in consequence -of his own wriggling movements pronounced it alive. In -like manner children, as suggested above, ascribe life to -their moving playthings. Thus, C.’s sister when five years -old stopped one day trundling her hoop, and turning to -her mother, exclaimed: “Ma, I do think this hoop must -be alive, it is so sensible: it goes where I want it to”. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>Another little girl two and a quarter years old on having -a string attached to a ball put into her hand, and after -swinging it round mechanically, began to notice the movement -of the ball, and said to herself, “Funny ball!” In both -these cases, although the movement was directly caused by -the child, it was certainly in the first case, and apparently -in the second, attributed to the object.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Next to movement apparently spontaneous sound -appears to be a common reason for attributing life to -inanimate objects. Are not movement and vocal sound the -two great channels of utterance of the child’s own impulses? -The little girl M., when just two years old, being asked -by her mother for a kiss, answered prettily, ‘Tiss -(kiss) gone away’. This may, of course, have been -merely a child’s way of using language, but the fact that -the same little girl asked to see a ‘knock’ suggests that -she was disposed to give reality and life to sounds. Its sound -greatly helps the persuasion that the wind is alive. A -little boy assured his teacher that the wind was alive, for -he heard it whistling in the night. The ascription of life -to fire is probably aided by its sputtering crackling noises. -The impulse, too, 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 whistling. -Pierre Loti, when as a child he first saw the sea, regarded -it as a living monster, no doubt on the ground of -its movement and its noise. The personification of the -echo by the child, of which George Sand’s reminiscences -give an excellent example, as also by uncultured man, is -a signal illustration of the suggestive force of a voice-like -sound.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Closely connected with this impulse to ascribe life to -what older folk regard as inanimate objects is the tendency -to conceive them as growing. This is illustrated in the -remark of the boy C., that his stick would in time grow -bigger. On the other hand, there is in the Worcester Collection -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>a curious story of a little American boy of three who, -having climbed up into a large waggon, and being asked, -“How are you going to get out?” replied, “I can stay -here till it gets little and then I can get out my own self”. -We shall see presently that shrinkage or diminution of size -is sometimes attributed by the child-mind to people when -getting old. 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 life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Children’s ideas of natural objects are anthropomorphic, -not merely as reflecting their own life, but as modelled -after the analogy of the effects of their action. Quite -young children are apt to extend the ideas broken and -mended to objects generally. Anything which seems to -have become reduced by losing a portion of itself is said to -be ‘broken’. A little boy of three, on seeing the moon -partly covered by a cloud, remarked, “The moon is broken”. -On the other hand, in the case of one little boy, everything -intact was said to be mended. It may be said, however, -that we cannot safely infer from such analogical use of -common language that children distinctly think of all -objects as undergoing breakage and repair: for these expressions -in the child’s vocabulary may refer rather to the -resulting appearances, than to the processes by which they -are brought about.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Clearer evidences of this reflexion on to nature of the -characteristics of his own life appear when a child begins -to speculate about mechanical processes, which he invariably -conceives of after the analogy of his own actions. -This was illustrated in dealing with children’s questions. -We see it still more clearly manifested in some of their -ideas. One of the most curious instances of this that I -have met with is seen in early theorisings about the cause -of wind. One of the children examined by Mr. Kratz -said the tree was to make the wind blow. A pupil of mine -distinctly recalls that when a child he accounted for the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>wind at night by the swaying of two large elms in front of -the house and not far from the windows of his bedroom. -This reversing of the real order of cause and effect looks -silly, until we remember that the child necessarily looks at -movement in the light of his own actions. He moves -things, <i>e.g.</i>, the water, by his moving limbs; we set the -air in motion by a moving fan; it seems, therefore, natural -to him that the wind-movements should be caused by the -pressure of some moving thing; and there is the tree actually -seen to be moving.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So far I have spoken for the most part of children’s -ideas about near and accessible objects. Their notions of -what is distant and inaccessible are, as remarked, wont to -be formed on the model of the first. Here, however, their -knowledge of things will be largely dependent on others’ -information, so that the naïve impulse of childish intelligence -has, as best it may, to work under the limitations of an imperfectly -understood language.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is perhaps hardly necessary to remind the reader -that children’s ideas of distance before they begin to travel -far are necessarily very inadequate. They are disposed to -localise the distant objects they see, as the sun, moon and -stars, and the places they hear about on the earth’s surface -as near as possible. 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 -seen, as when a child thought they were just above the -church spire, another that they could be reached by tying -a number of ladders together, another that the setting sun -went close behind the ridge of hills, and so forth. The -stars, being so much smaller looking, seem to be located -farther off than the sun and moon. Similarly when they -hear of a distant place, as India, they tend to project it just -beyond the farthest point known to them, say Hampstead, -to which they were once taken on a long, long journey from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>their East End home. A child’s standard of size and -distance is, as all know who have revisited the home of -their childhood after many years, very different from the -adult’s. To the little legs unused as yet to more than short -spells of locomotion a mile seems stupendous: and then -the half-formed brain cannot yet pile up the units of -measurement well enough to conceive of hundreds and -thousands of miles.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The child appears to think of the world as a circular -plain, and of the sky as a sort of inverted bowl upon it. -C.’s sister used on looking at the sky to fancy she was inside -a blue balloon. That is to say he takes them to be what they -look. In a similar manner C. took the sun to be a great disc -which could be put on the round globe to make a ‘see-saw’. -When this ‘natural realism’ gets corrected, children go to -work to convert what is told them into an intelligible form. -Thus they begin to speculate about the other side of the -globe, and, as Mr. Barrie reminds us, are apt to fancy they -can know about it by peeping down a well. When religious -instruction introduces the new region of heaven -they are apt to localise it just above the sky, which to their -thought forms its floor. 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 whole. Thus the sky is apt to be -thought of as <em>thin</em>, this idea being probably formed for the -purpose of explaining the shining through of moon and stars. -Stars are, as we know, commonly thought of by the child -as holes in the sky letting through the light beyond. 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 illumined, supposing -it to be half-way through the partially diaphanous floor. -Others again prettily accounted for the waning of the -moon to a crescent by saying it was half stuck or half -buttoned into the sky.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>The movements of the sun and other heavenly bodies -are similarly apperceived by help of ideas of movements of -familiar terrestrial objects. Thus the sun was thought by -the Boston children half-mythologically, half-mechanically, -to roll, to fly, to be blown (like a soap bubble or balloon?) -and so forth. The anthropocentric form of teleological explanation -is apt to creep in, as when a Boston child said -charmingly that the moon comes round when people forget -to light some lamps. Theological ideas, too, are pressed -into this sphere of explanation, as in the attribution of the -disappearance of the sun to God’s pulling it up higher out -of sight, to his taking it into heaven and putting it to bed, -and so forth. These ideas are pretty obviously not those -of a country child with a horizon. 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 it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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-making. The American children, as already -observed, have different mechanical illustrations for -setting forth the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>modus</i></span> of the supernatural operation here, -thunder being thought of now as God groaning, now as his -walking heavily on the floor of heaven (<i>cf.</i> the old Norse idea -that thunder is caused by the rolling of Thor’s chariot), -now as his hammering, now as his having coals run in—ideas -which show how naïvely the child-mind humanises -the Deity, making him a respectable citizen with a house -and a coal-cellar. In like manner the lightning is attributed -to God’s burning the gas quick, striking many -matches at once, or other familiar human device for getting -a brilliant light suddenly. So God turns on rain by a -tap, or lets it down from a cistern by a hose, or, better, -passes it through a sieve or a dipper with holes.<a id='r47' /><a href='#f47' class='c011'><sup>[47]</sup></a> In like -manner a high wind was explained by a girl of five and a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>half by saying that it was God’s birthday, and he had received -a trumpet as a present.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 -mortals. The little girl of whom Mr. Canton writes thought -“the wind, and the rain and the moon ‘walking’ came out -to see <em>her</em>, and the flowers woke up with the same laudable -object”.<a id='r48' /><a href='#f48' class='c011'><sup>[48]</sup></a> When frightened by the crash of the thunder a -child instinctively thinks that it is all done to vex his little -soul. One of the funniest examples of the application of -this idea I have met with is in the Worcester Collection. -Two children, D. and K., aged ten and five respectively, -live in a small American town. D., who is reading about -an earthquake, addresses his mother thus: “Oh, isn’t it -dreadful, mamma? Do you suppose we will ever have one -here?” K., intervening with the characteristic impulse -of the young child to correct his elders: “Why, no, D., they -don’t have earthquakes in little towns like this”. There is -much to unravel in this delightful childish observation. It -looks to my mind as if the earthquake were envisaged by -the little five-year-old as a show, God being presumably the -travelling showman, who takes care to display his fearful -wonders only where there is an adequate body of spectators.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Finally, the same impulse to understand the new and -strange by assimilating it to the familiar is, so far as I can -gather, seen in children’s first ideas about those puzzling -semblances of visible objects which are due to subjective -sensations. As we shall see in C.’s case the bright spectra -or after-images caused by looking at the sun are instinctively -objectived by the child, that is regarded as things -external to his body. Here is a pretty full account of a -child’s thought about these subjective optical phenomena. -A little boy of five, our little zoologist, in poor health at the -time, “constantly imagined he saw angels, and said they were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>not white, that was a mistake, they were little coloured -things, light and beautiful, and they went into the toy-basket -and played with his toys”. Here we have not only -objectifying but myth-building. A year later he returned -to the subject. “He stood at the window at B. looking -out at a sea-mist thoughtfully and said suddenly, ‘Mamma, -do you remember I told you that I had seen angels? -Well, I want now to say they were not angels, though I -thought they were. I have seen it often lately, I see it -now: it is bright stars, small bright stars moving by. I -see it in the mist before that tree. I see it oftenest in the -misty days.... Perhaps by-and-by I shall think it is -something in my own eyes.’” Here we see a long and -painstaking attempt of a child’s brain to read a meaning -into the ‘flying spots,’ which many of us know though we -hardly give them a moment’s attention.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What are children’s first thoughts about their dreams -like? I have not been able to collect much evidence on -this head. What seems certain is that to the simple intelligence -of the child these counterfeits of ordinary sense-presentations -are real external things. The crudest manifestation -of this thought-tendency is seen in taking the -dream-apparition to be actually present in the bedroom. -A boy in an elementary school in London, aged five years, -said one day: “Teacher, I saw an old woman one night -against my bed”. Another child, a little girl, in the same -school told her mother that she had seen a funeral last -night, and on being asked, “Where?” answered quaintly, -“I saw it in my pillow”. A little boy whom I know once -asked his mother not to put him to bed in a certain room, -“because there were so many dreams in the room”. In -thus materialising the dream and localising it in the actual -surroundings, 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 sleeper.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>The Nature-man, as we know from Professor Tylor’s -researches, goes on to explain dreams by his theory of souls -or ‘doubles’ (animism). Children do not often find their -way to so subtle a line of thought. 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 fairyland. There is -little doubt that the imaginative child firmly believes in -the existence of this invisible world, keeps it apart from -the visible one, even though at times he may give it a -definite locality in this (<i>e.g.</i>, in C.’s case, the wall of the -bedroom). He gets access to it by shutting out the real -world, as when he closes his eyes tightly and ‘thinks’. -With such a child, dreams get taken up into the invisible -world. Going to sleep is now recognised as the surest way -of passing into this region. The varying colour of his -dreams, now bright and dazzling in their beauty, now black -and terrifying, may be explained by a reference to the division -of that fairy world into princes, good fairies, on the one -hand, and cruel giants, witches, and the like, on the other.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may now pass to some of children’s characteristic -ideas about living things, more particularly human beings, -and the familiar domestic animals. The most interesting -of these I think are those respecting growth and birth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As already mentioned, growth is one of the most -stimulating of childish puzzles. A child, led no doubt by -what others tell him, finds that things are in general made -bigger by additions from without, and his earliest conception -of growth is, I think, that of such addition. Thus, plants are -made to grow, that is, swell out, by the rain. The idea that -the growth or expansion of animals comes from eating is -easily reached by the childish intelligence, and, as we know, -nurses and parents have a way of recommending the less -attractive sorts of diet by telling children that they will -make them grow. The idea that the sun makes us grow, -often suggested by parents (who may be ignorant of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>fact that growth is more rapid in the summer than in the -winter), is probably interpreted by the analogy of an infusion -of something into the body.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In carrying out my inquiries into this region of childish -ideas, I lighted quite unexpectedly on the queer notion that -towards the end of life there is a reverse process of shrinkage. -Old people are supposed to become little again. -The first instance of this was supplied me by the Worcester -Collection of Thoughts. A little girl of three once said to -her mother: “When I am a big girl and you are a little girl -I shall whip you just as you whipped me now”. At first -one is almost disposed to think that this child must have -heard of Mr. Anstey’s amusing story <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Vice Versâ</cite></span>. Yet this -idea seems too improbable: and I have since found that she -is not by any means the only one who has entertained this -idea. A little boy that I know, when about three and a -half years old, used often to say to his mother with perfect -seriousness of manner: “When I am big then you will be -little, then I will carry you about and dress you and put -you to sleep”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I happened to mention this fact at a meeting of mothers -and teachers, when I received further evidence of this -tendency of child-thought. One lady whom I know could -recollect quite clearly that when a little girl she was -promised by her aunt some treasures, trinkets I fancy, when -she grew up; and that she at once turned to her aunt and -promised her that she would then give her in exchange -all her dolls, as by that time she (the aunt) would be a -little girl. Another case narrated was that of a little girl of -three and a half years, who when her elder brother and -sister spoke to her about her getting big rejoined: “What -will you do when you are little?” A third case mentioned -was that of a child asking about some old person of her -acquaintance: “When will she begin to get small?” I -have since obtained corroboratory instances from parents -and teachers of infant classes. Thus a lady writes that a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>little girl, a cousin of hers aged four, to whom she was reading -something about an old woman, asked: “Do people turn -back into babies when they get quite old?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What, it may be asked, does this queer idea of shrinkage -in old age mean? By what quaint zig-zag movement -of childish thought was the notion reached? I cannot -learn that there is any such idea in primitive folk-lore, and -this suggests that children find their way to it, in part at -least, by the suggestions of older people’s words. A child -may, no doubt, notice that old people stoop, and look -small, and the fairy book with little old women may -strengthen the tendency to think of shrinkage. But I -cannot bring myself to believe that this would suffice to -produce the idea in so many cases.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 certain. Many children must, at some time -or another, have overheard their elders speaking of old -feeble people getting childish; and we must remember that -even the attributive ‘silly’ applied to old people might lead -a child to infer a return to childhood; 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 themselves. C.’s belief in -the preternatural calculating powers of Goliath is an -example of this correlation in the child’s consciousness -between size and intelligence.<a id='r49' /><a href='#f49' class='c011'><sup>[49]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>But I suspect that there is a further source of this -characteristic product of early thought, involving still more -of the child’s philosophizing. As we have seen, a child -cannot accept an absolute beginning of things, and we -shall presently find that he is equally incapable of believing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>in an absolute ending. He knows that we begin our earthly -life as babies. Well, the babies must come from something, -and when we die we must pass into something. What -more natural, then, than the idea of a rhythmical alternation -of cycles of existence, babies passing into grown-ups, and -these again into babies, and so the race kept going? Does -this seem too far-fetched an explanation? I think it will -be found less so if it is remembered that according to our way -of instructing these active little brains, people are brought -to earth as babies in angels’ arms, and that when they die -they are taken back also in angels’ arms. Now as the -angel remains of constant size,—for this their pictures vouch—it -follows that old people, when they are dead at least, -must have shrivelled up to nursable dimensions; and as -the child, when he philosophizes, knows nothing of miraculous -or cataclasmic changes, he naturally supposes that -this shrivelling up is gradual like that of flowers and other -things when they fade.<a id='r50' /><a href='#f50' class='c011'><sup>[50]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>I am disposed to think, then, that in this idea of senile -shrinkage we have one of the most interesting and convincing -examples of a child’s philosophizing, of his impulse -to reflect on what he sees and hears about with a view to -systematise. Yet the matter requires further observation. -Is it thoughtful, intelligent children, who excogitate this -idea? Would it be possible to get the child’s own explanation -of it before he has completely outgrown it?<a id='r51' /><a href='#f51' class='c011'><sup>[51]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The origin of babies and young animals furnishes the -small brain, as we have seen, with much food for speculation. -Here the little thinker is not often left to excogitate a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>theory for himself. His inconvenient questionings in this -direction have to be firmly checked, and various and truly -wonderful are the ways in which the nurse and the mother -are wont to do this. Any fiction is supposed to be good -enough for the purpose. Divine action, as remarked above, -is commonly called in, the questioner being told that -the baby has been sent down from heaven in the arms of -an angel and so forth. Fairy stories with their pretty -conceits, as that of the child Thumbkin growing out of a -flower in Hans Andersen’s book, contribute their suggestions, -and so there arises a mass of child-lore about babies -in which we can see that the main ideas are supplied by -others, though now and again we catch a glimpse of the -child’s own contributions. Thus according to Stanley -Hall’s report the Boston children said, among other things, -that God makes babies in heaven, lets them down or drops -them for the women and doctors to catch them, or that he -brings them down a wooden ladder backwards and pulls it -up again, or that mamma, nurse or doctor goes up and -fetches them in a balloon. They are said by some to grow -in cabbages or to be placed by God in water, perhaps in -the sewer, where they are found by the doctor, who takes -them to sick folks that want them. Here we have delicious -touches of childish fancy, quaint adaptations of fairy and -Bible lore, as in the use of Jacob’s ladder and of the legend -of Moses placed among the bulrushes, this last being enriched -by the thorough master-stroke of child-genius, the -idea of the dark, mysterious, wonder-producing sewer. In -spite too of all that others do to impress the traditional -notions of the nursery here, we find that a child will now -and again think out the whole subject for himself. The -little boy C. is not the only one I find who is of the opinion -that babies are got at a shop. Another little boy, I am -informed, once asked his mamma in the abrupt childish -manner, “Mamma, vere did Tommy (his own name) tum -(come) from?” and then with the equally childish way of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>sparing you the trouble of answering his question, himself -observed, quite to his own satisfaction, “Mamma did tie -(buy) Tommy in a s’op (shop)”. Another child, seeing the -announcement “Families Supplied” in a grocer’s shop, -begged his mother to get him a baby. This looks like a real -childish idea. To the young imagination the shop is a -veritable wonderland, an Eldorado of valuables, and it -appears quite reasonable to the childish intelligence that -babies like dolls and other treasures should be procurable -there.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The ideas partly communicated by others, partly thought -out for themselves are carried over into the beginnings of -animal life. Thus, as we have seen, one little boy supposed -that God helps pussy to have “’ickle kitties,” seeing that she -hasn’t any kitties in eggs given her to sit upon.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Psychological Ideas.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>We may now pass to some of the characteristic modes -of child-thought about that standing mystery, the self. As -our discussion of the child’s ideas of origin, growth and -final shrinkage suggests, a good deal of his most earnest -thinking is devoted to problems relating to himself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The date of the first thought about self, of the first dim -stage of self-awareness, probably varies considerably in the -case of different children according to rapidity of mental -development and circumstances. The little girl, who was -afterwards to be known as George Sand, may be supposed -to have had an exceptional development; and the accident -of infancy to which she refers as having aroused the earliest -form of self-consciousness was, of course, exceptional too. -There are probably many robust and dull children, knowing -little of life’s misery, and allowed in general to have -their own way, who have but little more of self-consciousness -than that, say, of a young, well-favoured porker.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The earliest idea of self seems to be obtained by the -child through an examination by the senses of touch and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>sight of his own body. A child has been observed to study -his fingers attentively in the fourth and fifth month, and -this scrutiny goes on all through the second year and even -into the third.<a id='r52' /><a href='#f52' class='c011'><sup>[52]</sup></a> 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 object. -Through these self-graspings, self-strikings, self-bitings, -aided by the very varied, and often extremely disagreeable -operations of the nurse and others on the surface of their -bodies, they probably reach during the first year the -idea that their body is different from all other things, is -‘me’ in the sense that it is the living seat of pain and -pleasure. The growing power of movement of limb, -especially when the crawling stage is reached, gives a -special significance to the body as that which can be -moved, and by the movements of which interesting and -highly impressive changes in the environment, <i>e.g.</i>, bangs -and other noises, can be produced.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is probable that the first ideas of the bodily self are -ill-defined. It is evident that the head and face are not -known at first as a <em>visible</em> object. The upper limbs -by their movement across the field of vision would come -in for the special notice of the eye. We know that the -baby is at an early date wont to watch its hands. The -lower limbs, moreover, seem to receive special attention -from the exploring and examining hand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is some reason to think, however, that in spite of -these advantages, the limbs form a less integral and essential -part of the bodily self than the trunk. A child in his second -year was observed to bite his own finger till he cried with -pain. He could hardly have known it as a part of his -sensitive body. Preyer tells us of a boy of nineteen months -who when asked to give his foot seized it with both hands -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>and tried to hand it over. 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 -observed: “Oh, mamma! these ain’t my feet, these ain’t -the feet I had this morning”. This readiness to detach -the limbs shows itself still more plainly in the boy C.’s -complaining when in bed and trying to wriggle into a snug -position that his legs came in the way of himself. Here the -legs seem to be half transformed into foreign persons; 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 other.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Why, it may be asked, should a child attach this supreme -importance to the trunk, when his limbs are always forcing -themselves on his notice by their movements, and when he -is so deeply interested in them as the parts of the body -which do things? 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 -discomfort, such as hunger, thirst, stomachic pains and the -corresponding reliefs. We know that the “vital sense” -forms the sensuous basis of self-consciousness in the adult, -and it is only reasonable to suppose that in the first years -of life, when it fills so large a place in the consciousness, it -has most to do with determining the idea of the sentient -or feeling body. Afterwards the observation of maimed -men and animals would confirm the idea that the trunk -is the seat and essential portion of the living body. The -language of others too by identifying ‘body’ and ‘trunk’ -would strengthen the tendency.</p> - -<p class='c001'>About this interesting trunk-body, what is inside it, and -how it works, the child speculates vastly. References to -the making of bone, the work of the stomach, and so forth -have to be understood somehow. It would be interesting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>to get at a child’s unadulterated view of his anatomy and -physiology. The Worcester Collection illustrates what -funny ideas a child can entertain of the mechanism of his -body. A little girl between five and six thought it was the -little hairs coming against the lids which made her sleepy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At a later stage of the child’s development, no doubt, -when he comes to form the idea of a conscious thinking -‘I,’ the head will become a principal portion of the bodily -self. In the evolution of the self-idea in the race, too, we -find that the soul was lodged in the trunk long before it -was assigned a seat in the head. As may be seen in C.’s -case children are quite capable of finding their way, partly -at least, to the idea that the soul has its lodgment in the -head. But it is long before this thought grows clear. This -may be seen in children’s talk, as when a girl of four -spoke of her dolly as having no sense in her <em>eyes</em>. 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 speak.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Very interesting in connexion with the first stages of -development of the idea of self is the experience of the -mirror. It would be absurd to expect a child when first -placed before a mirror to recognise his own face. He will -smile at the reflexion as early as the tenth week, though -this is probably merely an expression of pleasure at the -sight of a bright object. 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 face, whereas he -does not recognise his own. He appears at first and for -some months to take it for a real object, sometimes smiling -to it as to a stranger and even kissing it, or, as in the case of a -little girl (fifteen months old), offering it things and saying -‘Ta’ (sign of acceptance). In many cases curiosity -prompts to an attempt to grasp the mirror-figure with the -hand, to turn up the glass, or to put the hand behind it in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>order to see what is really there. This is very much like -the behaviour of monkeys before a mirror, as described by -Darwin and others. Little by little the child gets used to -the reflexion, and then by noting certain agreements -between his bodily self and the image, as the movement of -his hands when he points, and partly, too, by a kind of inference -of analogy from the doubling of other things by the -mirror, he reaches the idea that the reflexion belongs to -himself. By the sixtieth week Preyer’s boy had associated -the name of his mother with her image, pointing to it when -asked where she was. By the twenty-first month he did -the same thing in the case of his own image.<a id='r53' /><a href='#f53' class='c011'><sup>[53]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>An infant will, we know, take a shadow to be a real -object and try to touch it. Some children on noticing their -own and other people’s shadows on the wall are afraid as -at something uncanny. Here, too, in time the strange -phenomenon is taken as a matter of course and referred to -the sun.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We are told that the phenomena of reflexions and -shadows, along with those of dreams, had much to do with -the development, in the early thought of the race, of the -animistic conception that everything has a double nature -and existence. Do children form similar ideas? We can -see from the autobiography of George Sand how a clever -girl, reflecting on the impressive experience of the echo, excogitates -such a theory of her double existence; and we -know, too, that the boy Hartley Coleridge distinguished -among the ‘Hartleys’ a picture Hartley and a shadow -Hartley. C.’s biography suggests that being photographed -may appear to a child as a transmutation, if not a doubling, -of the self. But much more needs to be known about these -matters.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The prominence of the bodily pictorial element in the -child’s first idea of self is seen in the tendency to restrict -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>personal identity within the limits of an unchanged bodily -appearance. The child of six, with his shock of curls, -refuses to believe that he is the same as the hairless baby -whose photograph the mother shows him. How different, -how new, a being a child feels on a Sunday morning after -the extra weekly cleansing and brushing and draping. The -bodily appearance is a very big slice of the content of most -people’s self-consciousness, and to the child it is almost -everything.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But in time the conscious self, which thinks and suffers -and wills, comes to be dimly discerned. I believe that a -real advance towards this true self-consciousness is marked -by the appropriation and use of the difficult forms of -language, ‘I,’ ‘me,’ ‘mine’. This will be dealt with in -another essay.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sometimes the apprehension of the existence of a hidden -self distinct from the body comes as a sudden revelation, as -to little George Sand. Such a swift awakening of self-consciousness -is apt to be an epoch-making and memorable -moment in the history of the child.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A father sends me the following notes on the development -of self-consciousness: “My girl, three years old, -makes an extraordinary distinction between her body and -herself. Lying in bed she shut her eyes and said: ‘Mother, -you can’t see me now’. The mother replied: ‘Oh, you -little goose, I can see you but you can’t see me’. To -which she rejoined: ‘Oh, yes, I know you can see <em>my body</em>, -mother, but you can’t see <em>me</em>’.” The same child about the -same time was concerned about the reality of her own -existence. One day playing with her dolls she asked her -mother: “Mother, am <em>I</em> real, or only a pretend like my -dolls?” Here again, it is plain, the emphasis was laid on -something non-corporeal, something that animated the -body, and not a mere bit of mechanism put inside it. Two -years later she showed a still finer intellectual differentiation -of the visible and the invisible self. Her brother -<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>happened to ask her what they fed the bears on at the -Zoo. She answered impulsively: “Dead babies and that -sort of thing”. On this the mother interposed: “Why, F., -you don’t think mothers would give their dead babies to the -animals?” To this she replied: “Why not, mother? It’s -only their bodies. I shouldn’t mind your giving mine.” -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 extreme. This little girl by-the-bye was -she who, about the same age, took compassion on the -poor autumn leaves dying on the ground, so that we may -suppose her mind to have been brooding at this time on -the conscious side of existence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The mystery of self-existence has probably been a -puzzle to many a thoughtful child. A lady, a well-known -writer of fiction, sends me the following recollection of her -early thought on this subject: “The existence of other -people seemed natural: it was the ‘I’ that seemed so -strange to me. That I should be able to perceive, to -think, to cause other people to act, seemed to me quite to -be expected, but the power of feeling and acting and -moving about myself, under the guidance of some internal -self, amazed me continually.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is of course hard to say how exactly the child thinks -about this inner self. It seems to me probable that, allowing -for the great differences in reflective power, children in -general, like uncivilised races, tend to materialise it, thinking -of it dimly as a film-like shadow-like likeness of the -visible self. The problem is complicated for the child’s -consciousness by religious instruction with its idea of an -undying soul.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As may be seen in the recollections just quoted, this -early thought about self is greatly occupied with its action -on the body. Among the many things that puzzled the -much-questioning little lad already frequently quoted was -this: “How do my thoughts come down from my brain to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>my mouth: and how does my spirit make my legs walk?” -C.’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 to, while the curtain can’t move except somebody -moves it. The first attempts to solve the puzzle are of -course materialistic, as may be seen in our little questioner’s -delightful notion of thoughts travelling through the body. -This form of materialism, however, I find surviving in -grown-ups and even in students of psychology, who are -rather fond of talking about sensations travelling up the -nerves to the brain.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Very curious are the directions of the first thought -about the past self. The idea of personal identity, so dear -to philosophers, does not appear to be fully reached at first. -On the contrary, as we shall see in the case of C., the past -self is divorced from the present under the image of the -opposite sex in the odd expression: “when I was a little -girl”. This probably illustrates the importance of the -bodily appearance as a factor in the self, for C. had, I believe, -been photographed when in the petticoat stage, and no -doubt looked back on this person in skirts as a girl. This is -borne out by the fact that another little boy when about -three and a half years old asked his mother: “Was I a girl -when I was small?” and that the little questioner whom I -have called our zoologist was also accustomed to say: “When -I was a ’ickle dirl (girl)”. But discarded petticoats do not -explain all the child’s ideas about his past self. This same -little zoologist would also say, “When I was a big man,” to -describe the state of things long, long ago. What does -this mean? 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 bigness, and the reverse, and here we have lighted -on another apparent evidence of it. For though we are -apt to call children ‘old men’ we do not suggest to them -that they are or have been big men.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>The difficulty to the child of conceiving of his remote -past, is surpassed by that of trying to understand the state -of things before he was born. The true mystery of birth -for the child, the mystery which fascinates and holds his -mind, is that of his beginning to be. This is illustrated -in C.’s question: “Where was I a hundred years ago? -Where was I before I was born?” It remains a mystery -for all of us, only that after a time we are wont to put it -aside. The child, on the other hand, is stung, so to say, -by the puzzle, his whole mind being roused to passionate -questioning.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is curious to note the differences in the attitude of -children’s minds towards the mystery. The small person -accustomed to petting, to be made the centre of others’ -thought and action, may be struck with the blank in the -common home life before his arrival. A lady was talking -to her little girl H., aged three years, about something she -had done when she was a child. H. then wanted to know -what she was doing then, and was told by her mother: -“Oh, you were not here at all”. She seemed quite -amazed at this, and said: “And what did you do without -H.? Did you cry all day for her?” On being informed -that this was not the case, she seemed quite unable to -realise how her mother could have existed without her. -There is something of the charming egoism of the -child here, but there is more: there is the vague expression -of the unifying integrating work of love. Lovers, one is -told, are wont to think in the same way about the past -before they met, and became all in all to one another. -For this little girl with her strong sense of human attachment, -the idea of a real life without that which gave it -warmth and gladness was a contradiction.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sometimes again, in the more metaphysical sort of -child, the puzzle relates to the past existence of the outer -world. We have all been perplexed by the thought of -the earth and sky, and other folk existing before we were, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>and going on to exist after we cease to be; though here -again, save in the case of the philosopher perhaps, we get -used to the puzzle. Children may be deeply impressed -with this apparent contradiction. Jean Ingelow in her -interesting reminiscences thus writes of her puzzlings on -this head: "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 it.... 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 believe." A little boy of -five who was rather given to saying ‘clever’ things, was -one day asked by a visitor, who thought to rebuke what -she took to be his conceit: “Why, M., however did the -world go round before you came into it?” M. at once -replied: “Why, it <em>didn’t</em> go round. It only began five years -ago.” Was this, as perhaps nine persons out of ten would -say, merely a bit of dialectic smartness, the evasion of an -awkward question by denying the assumed fact? I am -disposed to think that there was more, that the virtuous -intention of the visitor had chanced to discover a hidden -child-thought; for the child is naturally a Berkeleyan, in -so far at least that for him the reality of things is reality -for his own sense-perceptions. A world existent before he -was on the spot to see it, seems to the child’s intelligence -a contradiction.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A child will sometimes use theological ideas as an -escape from this puzzle. The myth of babies being -brought down from heaven is particularly helpful. The -quick young intelligence sees in this pretty idea a way of -prolonging existence backwards. The same little boy -that was so concerned to know what his mother had -done without him, happened one day to be passing a -street pump with his mother, when he stopped and -observed with perfect gravity: “There are no pumps -in heaven where I came from”. He had evidently thought -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>out the legend of the God-sent baby to its logical consequences.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Children appear to have very vague ideas about time. -Their minds cannot at first of course rise to the abstraction, -time, or duration, or to its measured portions, as a day. -They talk about the days as if they were things. Thus -to-day, yesterday, and to-morrow, which, as we may see -in C.’s way of talking about time, are used very vaguely -for present, past and future, are spoken of as things which -move. A girl of four asked: ‘Where is yesterday gone to?’ -and ‘Where will to-morrow come from?’ The boy C. -as well as other children, as we saw, asked where all the -days go to. Such expressions may of course be figurative, -a child having no other way of describing the sequence -yesterday and to-day, to-day and to-morrow; yet I am -disposed to think that these are examples of the child’s -‘concretism,’ his reduction of our abstractions to living -realities.<a id='r54' /><a href='#f54' class='c011'><sup>[54]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>It is equally noticeable that children have no adequate -mental representations of our time-measurements. As in -the case of space, so in that of time their standard is not -ours: an hour, say the first morning at school, may seem -an eternity to a child’s consciousness. The days, the -months, the years seem to fly faster and faster as we get -older. On the other hand, as in the case of space-judgments, -too, the child through his inability to represent -time on a large scale is apt to bring the past too near the -present. Mothers and young teachers would be surprised -if they knew how children interpreted their first historical -instruction introduced by the common phrase, ‘Many years -ago,’ or similar expression. A child of six years when -crossing the Red Sea asked to be shown Pharaoh and his -hosts. This looks like the effect of a vivid imagination of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>the scene, which even in grown people may beget an -expectation of seeing it here and now. 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 -past. “H. was beginning to have English history read to -him and had got past the ‘Romans’ as he said. One day -he noticed a locket on my watch-chain, and desired that it -should be opened. It contained the hair of two babies -both dead long before. He asked about them. I told -him they died before I was born. ‘Did father know -them?’ he asked. ‘No, they died before <em>he</em> was born.’ -‘Then who knew them and when did they live?’ he asked, -and as I hesitated for a moment, seeking how to make the -matter plain, ‘Was it in the time of the Romans?’ he -gravely asked.” The odd-looking historical perspective -here was quite natural. He had to localise the babies’ -existence somewhere, and he could only do it conjecturally -by reference to the one far-off time of which he had heard, -and which presumably covered all that was before the -life-time of himself and of those about him.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Theological Ideas.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>We may now pass to another group of children’s ideas, -a group already alluded to, those which have to do with -the invisible world, with death and what follows this—God -and heaven. Here we find an odd patchwork of thought, -the patchwork-look being due to the heterogeneous sources -of the child’s information, his own observations of the -visible world on the one hand, and the ideas supplied him -by what is called religious instruction on the other. The -characteristic activity of the child-mind, so far as we can -disengage it, is seen in the attempt to co-ordinate the disparate -and seemingly contradictory ideas into something -like a coherent system.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Like the beginning of life, its termination, death, is one -of the recurring puzzles of childhood. This might be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>illustrated from almost any autobiographical reminiscences -of childhood. Here indeed the mystery, as may be seen -in C.’s case, is made the more impressive and recurrent to -consciousness by the element of dread. A little girl of -three and a half years asked her mother to put a great -stone on her head, because she did not want to die. She -was asked how a stone would prevent it, and answered with -perfect childish logic: “Because I shall not grow tall if you -put a great stone on my head; and people who grow tall -get old and then die”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Death seems to be thought of by the unsophisticated -child as the body reduced to a motionless state, devoid of -breath and unable any longer to feel or think. This is -the idea suggested by the sight of dead animals, which but -few children, however closely shielded, can escape.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first way of envisaging death seems to be as a -temporary state like sleep, which it so closely resembles. -A little boy of two and a half years, on hearing from his -mother of the death of a lady friend, at once asked: “Will -Mrs. P. still be dead when we go back to London?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The knowledge of burial gives a new and terrible turn -to his idea of death. He now begins to speculate much -about the grave. The instinctive tendency to carry over -the idea of life and sentience to the buried body is -illustrated in C.’s fear lest the earth should be put over his -eyes. The following observation from the Worcester Collection -illustrates the same tendency. “A few days ago -H. (aged four years four months) came to me and said: -‘Did you know they’d taken Deacon W. to Grafton?’ I. -‘Yes.’ H. ‘Well, I s’pose it’s the best thing. His folks -(meaning his children) are buried there, and they wouldn’t -know he was dead if he was buried here.’” This reversion -to savage notions of the dead in speaking of a Christian -deacon has a certain grim humour. All thoughts of -heaven were here forgotten in the absorbing interest in -the fate of the body.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>Do children when left to themselves work out a theory -of another life, that of the soul away from the dead deserted -body? It is of course difficult to say, all children -receiving some instruction at least of a religious character -respecting the future. One of the clearest approaches to -spontaneous child-thought that I have met with here is -supplied by the account of the Boston children. "Many -children (writes Professor Stanley Hall) locate all that is -good and imperfectly known in the country, and nearly a -dozen volunteered the statement that good people when -they die go to the country—even here from Boston." The -reference to good people shows that the children are here -trying to give concrete definiteness to something that has -been said by another. These children had not, one suspects, -received much systematic religious instruction. They -had perhaps gathered in a casual way the information -that good people when they die are to go to a nice place. -Children pick up much from the talk of their better-instructed -companions which they only half understand. In -any case it is interesting to note that they placed their -heaven in the country, the unknown beautiful region, where -all sorts of luxuries grow. One is reminded of the idea of -the happy hunting grounds to which the American Indian -consigns his dead chief. 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 city.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 -burial. How the child-mind behaves here it is hard to -say. It is probable that there are many comfortable and -stupid children who are not troubled by any appearance of -contradiction. As we saw in the remark of the American -child about the deacon, the child-mind may oscillate between -the native idea that the man lives on in a sense -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>underground, and the alien idea that he has passed into -heaven. Yet undoubtedly the more thoughtful kind of -child does try to bring the two ideas into agreement. The -boy C. attempted to do this first of all by supposing that -the people who went to heaven (the good) were not buried -at all; and later by postponing the going to heaven, the -true entrance being that of the body by way of the tomb. -Other ways of getting a consistent view of things are -also hit upon. Thus a little girl of five years thought -that the <em>head</em> only passed to heaven. This was no doubt a -way of understanding the communication from others that -the ‘body’ is buried. 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 -buried. The legs were not the ‘body’. But the idea of the -head passing to heaven meant more than this. It pretty -certainly involved a localisation of the soul in the crown of -the body, and it may possibly have been helped by pictures -of cherub heads. Sometimes this process of child-thought -reflects that of early human thought, as when a little boy -of six said that God took the breath to heaven (<i>cf.</i> the -ideas underlying <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>spiritus</i></span> and πνεῦμα).</p> - -<p class='c001'>In what precise manner children imagine the entrance -into heaven to take place I do not feel certain. The legend -of being borne by angels through the air probably assists -here. As we have seen, children tend to think of people -when they die as shrinking back to baby-dimensions so as -to be carried in the angels’ arms.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The idea of people going to heaven is, as we know, -pushed by the little brain to its logical consequences. -Animals when they die pass to another place also. A boy -three years and nine months asked whether birds, insects, -and so forth go to heaven where people go when they die. -Yet a materialistic tendency shows itself here, especially in -connexion with the observation that animals are eaten. -A little American boy in his fifth year was playing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>with a tadpole till it died. Immediately the other tadpoles -ate it up, and the child burst out crying. His elder -sister with the best of intentions tried to comfort him by -saying: ‘Don’t cry, William, he’s gone to a better place’. -To which rather ill-timed assurance he retorted sceptically: -‘Are his brothers and sisters’ stomachs a better place?’</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coming now to ideas of supernatural beings, it is to be -noted that children do not wholly depend for their conceptions -of these on religious or other instruction. The -liveliness of their imagination and their impulses of dread -and trust push them on to a spontaneous creation of invisible -beings. In C.’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 demons. -Another little boy of rather more than two years who had -received no religious instruction acquired a similar haunting -dread of ‘cocky,’ the name he had given to the cocks -and hens when in the country. He localised this evil -thing in the bathroom of the house, and he attributed -pains in the stomach to the malign influence of ‘cocky’.<a id='r55' /><a href='#f55' class='c011'><sup>[55]</sup></a> -Fear created the gods according to Lucretius, 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 agents.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand we find that the childish impulse to -seek aid leads to a belief in a more benign sort of being. -C.’s staunch belief in his fairies who could do the most -wonderful things for him, and more especially his invention -of the rain-god (the “Rainer”), are a clear illustration of -the working of this impulse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even here, of course, while we can detect the play of a -spontaneous impulse, we have to recognise the influence -of instruction. C.’s tutelary deities, the fairies, were no doubt -<em>suggested</em> by his fairy stories; even though, as in the myth -<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>of the Rainer, we see how his active little mind proceeded -to work out the hints given him into quite original shapes. -This original adaptation shows itself on a large scale where -something like systematic religious instruction is supplied. -An intelligent child of four or five will in the laboratory of -his mind turn the ideas of God and the devil to strange -account. It would be interesting, if we could only get it, to -have a collection of all the hideous eerie forms by which the -young imagination has endeavoured to interpret the notion -of the devil. His renderings of the idea of God appear -to show hardly less of picturesque diversity.<a id='r56' /><a href='#f56' class='c011'><sup>[56]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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-lore. Mr. Spencer -has somewhere ridiculed our university type of education -with its juxtaposition of classical polytheism and Hebrew -monotheism. One might, perhaps, with still greater reason, -satirise the mixing up of fairy-story and Bible-story in the -instruction of a child of five. Who can wonder that the little -brain should throw together all these wondrous invisible -forms, and picture God as an angry or amiable old giant, -the angels as fairies and so forth? In George Sand’s child-romance -of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Corambé</cite></span> we see how far this blending of the -ideas of the two domains of the invisible world can be -carried.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For the rest, 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 experience. He has -to understand and he can only understand by assimilating to -homely terrestrial facts. Hence the undisguised materialism -of the child’s theology. According to Stanley Hall’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>collection of observations, God was imaged by one child as a -man preternaturally big—a big blue man; by another as a -huge being with limbs spread all over the sky; by another -as so immensely tall that he could stand with one foot on -the ground, and touch the clouds,—strong like the giant, his -prototype. He is commonly, in conformity with what is told, -supposed to dwell in heaven, that is just the other side of -the blue and white floor, the sky. He is so near the clouds -that according to one small boy (our little friend the -zoologist) these are a sort of pleasaunce, composed of hills -and trees, which he has made to saunter in. But some -children are inventive even in respect of God’s whereabouts. -He has been regarded as inhabiting one of the stars. One -of Mr. Kratz’s children localised him ‘up in the moon,’ an -idea which probably owes something to observation of the -man in the moon. We note, too, a tendency to approximate -heaven and earth, possibly in order to account for -God’s frequent presence and activity here. Thus one of -Mr. Kratz’s children said that God was “up on the hill,” -and one little girl of five was in the habit of climbing -an old apple tree to visit him and tell him what she wanted.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Differences of feeling, as well as differences in the -mode of instruction and in intelligence, seem to reflect themselves -in these ideas of the divine dwelling-place. As we -have seen, the childish intelligence is apt to envisage God -as a sort of grand lord with a house or mansion. Two -different tendencies show themselves in the thought about -this dwelling-place. On the one hand the feeling of childish -respect, which led a German girl of seven to address him -in the polite form, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Ich bitte Sie,’</span> leads to a beautifying of -his house. According to some of the Bostonian children -he has birds, children, and Santa Claus living with him. -Others think of him as having a big park or pleasaunce -with trees, flowers, as well as birds. The children are -perhaps our dead people who in time will be sent back to -earth. Whether the birds, that I find come in again and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>again in the ideas of heaven, are dead birds, I am not sure. -While however there is this half-poetical adorning of God’s -palace, we see also a tendency to humanise it, to make it -like our familiar houses. This is quaintly illustrated in the -following prayer of a girl of seven whose grandfather had -just died: “Please, God, grandpapa has gone to you. -Please take great care of him. Please always mind and -shut the door, because he can’t stand the draughts.” We see -the same leaning to homely conceptions in the question of -a little girl of four: ‘Isn’t there a Mrs. God?’</p> - -<p class='c001'>While thus relegated to the sublime regions of the sky -God is supposed to be doing things, and of course doing -them for us, sending down rain and so forth. What seems -to impress children most, especially boys, in the traditional -account of God is his power of making things. He is -emphatically the artificer, the demiurgos, who not only has -made the world, the stars, etc., but is still kept actively -employed by human needs. According to the Boston -children he fabricates all sorts of things from babies to -money, and the angels work for him. The boy has a great -admiration for the maker, and our small zoologist when -three years and ten months old, on seeing a group of working -men returning from their work, asked his astonished -mother: “Mamma, is these gods?” “God!” retorted his -mother, “why?” “Because,” he went on, “they makes -houses, and churches, mamma, same as God makes moons, -and people, and ’ickle dogs.” Another child watching a -man repairing the telegraph wires that rested on a high -pole at the top of a lofty house, asked if he was God. In -this way the child is apt to think of God descending to -earth in order to make things. Indeed, in their prayers, -children are wont to summon God as a sort of good genius -to do something difficult for them. A boy of four and a -half years was one day in the kitchen with his mother, and -would keep taking up the knives and using them. At last -his mother said: “L., you will cut your fingers, and if you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>do they won’t grow again”. He thought for a minute and -then said with a tone of deep conviction: “But God would -make them grow. He made <em>me</em>, so he could mend my -fingers, and if I were to cut the ends off I should say, ‘God, -God, come to your work,’ and he would say, ‘All right’.”<a id='r57' /><a href='#f57' class='c011'><sup>[57]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>While this way of recognising God as the busy artificer -is common, it is not universal. The child’s deity, like the -man’s (as Feuerbach showed), is a projection of himself, -and as there are lazy children, so there is a child’s God -who is a luxurious person sitting in a lovely arm-chair all -day, and at most putting out from heaven the moon and -stars at night.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This admiration of God’s creative power is naturally -accompanied by that of his skill. A little boy once -said to his mother he would like to go to heaven to see -Jesus. Asked why, he replied: “Oh! he’s a great conjurer”. -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-worker.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The idea of God’s omniscience seems to come naturally -to children. They are in the way of looking up to older -folks as possessing boundless information. C.’s belief in -the all-knowingness of the preacher, and his sister’s belief -in the all-knowingness of the policeman, show how readily -the child-mind falls in with the notion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand I have heard of the dogma of God’s -infinite knowledge provoking a sceptical attitude in the -child-mind. This seems to be suggested in a rather rude -remark of a boy of four, bored by the long Sunday discourse -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>of his mother: “Mother, does God know when you -are going to stop?” Our astute little zoologist, when five -years and seven months old, in a talk with his mother, impiously -sought to tone down the doctrine of omniscience in -this way: “I know a ’ickle more than Kitty, and you know -a ’ickle more than me; and God knows a ’ickle more than -you, I s’pose; then he can’t know so very much after all”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another of the divine attributes does undoubtedly shock -the childish intelligence: I mean God’s omnipresence. It -seems, indeed, amazing that the so-called instructor of -the child should talk to him almost in the same breath -about God’s inhabiting heaven, and about his being everywhere -present. Here, I think, we see most plainly the -superiority of the child’s mind to the adult’s, in that it does -not let contradictory ideas lie peacefully side by side, but -makes them face one another. To the child, as we have -seen, God lives in the sky, though he is quite capable of -coming down to earth when he wishes or when he is politely -asked to do so. Hence he rejects the idea of a diffused -ubiquitous existence. The idea which is apt to be introduced -early as a moral instrument, that God can always see -the child, is especially resented by that small, sensitive, -proud creature, to whom the ever-following eyes of the -portrait on the wall seem a persecution. Miss Shinn, a -careful American observer of children, has written strongly, -yet not too strongly, on the repugnance of the child-mind -to this idea of an ever-spying eye.<a id='r58' /><a href='#f58' class='c011'><sup>[58]</sup></a> My observations fully -confirm her conclusions here. Miss Shinn speaks of a little -girl, who, on learning that she was under this constant -surveillance, declared that she “would <em>not</em> be so tagged”. -A little English boy of three, on being informed by his -older sister that God can see and watch us while we cannot -see him, thought awhile, and then in an apologetic tone -said: “I’m very sorry, dear, I can’t (b)elieve you”. What -the sister, aged fifteen, thought of this is not recorded. An -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>American boy of five, learning that God was in the room -and could see even if the shutters were closed, said: “I know, -it’s jugglery”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When the idea is accepted odd devices are excogitated -for the purpose of making it intelligible. Thus one child -thought of God as a very small person who could easily -pass through the keyhole. The idea of God’s huge framework -illustrated above is probably the result of an attempt -to figure the conception of omnipresence. Curious conclusions -too are sometimes drawn from the supposition. Thus a little -girl of three years and nine months one day said to her -mother in the abrupt childish manner: “Mr. C. (a gentleman -she had known who had just died) is in this room”. -Her mother, naturally a good deal startled, answered: “Oh, -no!” Whereupon the child resumed: “Yes, he is. You -told me he is with God, and you told me God was everywhere, -so as Mr. C. is with God he must be in this room.” -With such trenchant logic does the child’s intelligence cut -through the tangle of incongruous ideas which we try to pass -off as methodical instruction.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It might easily be supposed that the child’s readiness to -pray to God is inconsistent with what has just been said. -Yet I think there is no real inconsistency. Children’s idea -of prayer is, probably, that of sending a message to some -one at a distance. The epistolary manner noticeable in -many prayers seems to illustrate this.<a id='r59' /><a href='#f59' class='c011'><sup>[59]</sup></a> The mysterious -whispering is, I suspect, supposed in some inscrutable -fashion known only to the child to transmit itself to the -divine ear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of the child’s belief in God’s goodness it is needless to -say much. For these little worshippers he is emphatically -the friend in need who can help them out of their difficulties -in a hundred ways. Our small zoologist thanked God for -making “the sea, the holes with crabs in them, and the -trees, the fields, and the flowers,” and regretted that he did -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>not follow up the making of the animals we eat by doing -the cooking also. As their prayers show he is ever ready -to make nice presents, from a fine day to a toy-gun, and -will do them any kindness if only they ask prettily. Happy -the reign of this untroubled optimism. For many children, -alas, it is all too short, the colour of their life making them -lose faith in all kindness, and think of God as cross and -even as cruel.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the real difficulties of theology for the child’s -intelligence is the doctrine of God’s eternity. Puzzled at -first with the fact of his own beginning, he comes soon to -be troubled with the idea of God’s having had no beginning. -C. showed a common trend of childish thought in -asking what God was like in his younger days. The -question, “Who made God?” seems to be one to which -all inquiring young minds are led at a certain stage of -child-thought. The metaphysical impulse of the child to -follow back the chain of events <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ad infinitum</i></span> finds the ever-existent -unchanging God very much in the way. He -wants to get behind this “always was” of God’s existence, -just as at an earlier stage of his development he wanted -to get behind the barrier of the blue hills. This is quaintly -illustrated in the reasoning of a child observed by M. -Egger. Having learnt from his mother that before the -world there was only God the Creator, he asked: “And -before God?” The mother having replied, “Nothing,” -he at once interpreted her answer by saying: “No; there -must have been the place (<i>i.e.</i>, the empty space) where -God is”. So determined is the little mind to get back to -the ‘before,’ and to find something, if only a prepared -place.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Other mysteries of which the child comes to hear find -their characteristic solution in the busy little brain. A -friend tells me that when a child he was much puzzled by -the doctrine of the Trinity. He happened to be an only -child, and so he was led to put a meaning into it by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>assimilating it to the family group, in which the Holy Ghost -became the mother.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have tried to show that children seek to bring -meaning, and a consistent meaning, into the jumble of -communications about the unseen world to which they -are apt to be treated. I agree with Miss Shinn that -children about three and four are not disposed to theologise, -and are for the most part simply confused by the -accounts of God which they receive. Many of the less -bright of these small minds may remain untroubled by the -incongruities lurking in the mixture of ideas, half mythological -or poetical, half theological, which is thus introduced. -Such children are no worse than many adults, who -have a wonderful power of entertaining contradictory ideas -by keeping them safely apart in separate chambers of their -brain. The intelligent thoughtful child on the other hand -tries at least to reconcile and to combine in an intelligible -whole. His mind has not, like that of so many adults, -become habituated to the water-tight compartment arrangement, -in which there is no possibility of a leakage of ideas -from one group into another. Hence his puzzlings, his -questionings, his brave attempts to reduce the chaos to -order. I think it is about time to ask whether parents are -doing wisely in thus adding to the perplexing problems -of early days.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f45'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r45'>45</a>. Compare R. L. Stevenson’s lines to the wind:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I felt you push, I heard you call,</div> - <div class='line'>I could not see yourself at all”.</div> - <div class='line in11'><cite>A Child’s Garden of Verse</cite>, xxv.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f46'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r46'>46</a>. See P. Lombroso, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 26 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f47'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r47'>47</a>. See the article on “The Contents of Children’s Minds” already -referred to.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f48'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r48'>48</a>. <cite>The Invisible Playmate</cite>, pp. 27, 28.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f49'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r49'>49</a>. That this is not the complete explanation is suggested by a story -told by Perez. His nephew, over four years, on meeting a little old -man said to his uncle: “When I shall be a little old man, will you -be young?” (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Enfant de trois à sept ans</cite></span>, p. 219).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f50'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r50'>50</a>. Perhaps, too, our way of playfully calling children little old men -and women favours the supposition that they are old people turned -young again.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f51'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r51'>51</a>. Egger quotes a remark of a little girl: “I shall carry Emile -(her older brother) when he gets little”. This may, as Egger suggests, -have been merely a confusion of the conditional and the future. -But the idea about old people’s shrinking cannot be dismissed in -this summary way (see Perez, <cite>First Three Years of Childhood</cite>, p. 224).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f52'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r52'>52</a>. For the facts see Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, cap. xxii.; Tracy, <cite>The -Psychology of Childhood</cite>, p. 47.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f53'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r53'>53</a>. See the very full account of the mirror experiment in Preyer’s -book, p. 459 <i>seq.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f54'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r54'>54</a>. A child quoted by P. Lombroso thought of a year as a round -thing having the different festivals on it, and bringing these round in -due order by its rotation (<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 49).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f55'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r55'>55</a>. See <cite>Mind</cite>, vol. xi., p. 149.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f56'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r56'>56</a>. According to Professor Earl Barnes, the Californian children seem -to occupy themselves but little with the devil and hell. See his interesting -paper, “Theological Life of a Californian Child,” <cite>Pedagogical -Seminary</cite>, ii., 3, p. 442 <i>seq.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f57'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r57'>57</a>. To judge from a story for the truth of which I will not vouch -children will turn the devil to the same useful account. A little girl -was observed to write a letter and to bury it in the ground. The contents -ran something like this: "Dear Devil, please come and take -aunt—soon, I cannot stand her much longer". The burying is significant -of the devil’s dwelling-place.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f58'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r58'>58</a>. <cite>Overland Monthly</cite>, Jan., 1894, p. 12.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f59'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r59'>59</a>. <i>Cf.</i> the story of writing a letter to the devil given above.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span> - <h2 class='c004'>V. <br /> THE LITTLE LINGUIST.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Prelinguistic Babblings.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>No part of the life of a child appeals to us more powerfully -perhaps than the first use of our language. The small -person’s first efforts in linguistics win us by a certain -graciousness, by the friendly impulse they disclose to get -mentally near us, to enter into the full fruition of human -intercourse. The difficulties, too, which we manage to lay -upon the young learner of our tongue, and the way in -which he grapples with these, lend a peculiar interest, half -pathetic, half humorous, to this field of infantile activity. -To the scientific observer of infancy, moreover, the noting -of the stages in the acquisition of speech is of the first -importance. Language is sound moulded into definite -forms and so made vehicular of ideas; 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 shapes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A special biological and anthropological interest attaches -to the child’s first essays in the use of words. Language -is that which most obviously marks off human from animal -intelligence. 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-signs. If we -proceed on the biological principle that the development -of the individual represents in its main stages that of the -race, we may expect to find through the study of children’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>use of language hints as to how our race came by the invaluable -endowment. How far it is reasonable to expect -from a study of nursery linguistics a complete explanation -of the process by which man became speechful, <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>homo -articulans</i></span>, will appear later on. But an examination of -these linguistics ought surely to be of some suggestive -value here.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While there is this peculiar scientific interest in the first -manifestations of the speech-faculty in the child, they -are of a kind to lend themselves particularly well to a -methodic and exact observation. 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 present. The difficulties -are no doubt great here: but they are precisely the -difficulties to sharpen the appetite of the true naturalist. -Hence we need not wonder that early articulation fills a -large place in the naturalist’s observation of infant life. -Preyer, for example, devotes one of the three sections of -his well-known monograph to this subject, 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 (first -three years).</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 length. At the same time, since language is -a realm of activity in which the child betrays valuable -characteristics long after the third year, it deserves a special -study in this volume.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As everybody knows, long before the child begins to -speak in the conventional sense he produces sounds. These -are at first cries and wanting in the definiteness of true -articulate sounds. Such cries are expressive, that is, utterances -of changing conditions of feeling, pain and pleasure, -and are also instinctive, springing out of certain congenital -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>nervous arrangements by which feeling acts upon the -muscular organs. This crying gradually differentiates itself -into a rich variety of expressions for hunger, cold, pain, -joy and so forth, of which it is safe to say that the majority -of nurses and mothers have at best but a very imperfect -knowledge.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These cries disclose from the first a germ of articulate -sound, <i>viz.</i>, according to Preyer an approach to the vowel -sounds <em>u</em> (oo) and <em>ä</em> (Engl. <em>a</em> in ‘made’). This articulate -element becomes better defined and more varied in the -later cries, and serves in part to differentiate them one -from the other. Thus a difference of shade in the <em>a</em> (in -‘ah’), difficult to describe, has been observed to mark off -the cry of pleasure and of pain. Along with this articulate -sounds begin to appear in periods of happy contentment -under the form of infantile babbling or ‘la-la-ing’. Thus -the child will bring out a string of <em>a</em> and other vowel sounds. -In this baby-twittering the several vowel sounds of our -tongue become better distinguishable, and are strung together -in queer ways, as <em>ai-ā-au-â</em>. An attempt is made by Preyer -and others to give the precise order of the appearance of -the several vowel sounds. It is hardly to be expected that -observers would agree upon a matter so difficult to seize -and to describe; and this is what we find.<a id='r60' /><a href='#f60' class='c011'><sup>[60]</sup></a> After allowing, -however, for differences in the reading off, it seems -probable that there is a considerable diversity in the order -of development in the case of different children. 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 sounds, as -<em>pa</em>, <em>ma</em>, <em>mam</em>, and so forth. Thus, though the labials <em>b</em>, <em>p</em>, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span><em>m</em>, seem to come first in most cases, they may be accompanied, -if not preceded, by others, as the back open -sound <em>ch</em> (in Scotch ‘loch’), or (according to Preyer -and others) by the corresponding voiced sound, the hard -<em>g</em>. Similarly, sounds as <em>l</em> and <em>r</em>, which commonly -appear late, are said in some instances to occur quite -early.<a id='r61' /><a href='#f61' class='c011'><sup>[61]</sup></a> Attempts have been made to show that the -order of sounds here corresponds with that of advancing -physiological difficulty or amount of muscular effort involved. -Yet apart from the fact just touched on, that the order is not -uniform, it is very questionable whether the more common -order obeys any such simple physiological law.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This primordial babbling is wonderfully rich and varied. -According to Preyer it contains most, if not all the sounds -which are afterwards used in speaking, and among these -some which cause much difficulty later on. It is thus a -wondrous contrivance of nature by which the child is made -to rehearse months beforehand for the difficult performances -of articulate speech. It is a preliminary trying of the -vocal instrument throughout the whole of its register.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 speech. -To speak is to use a sound intentionally as the sign of an -idea. The babbling baby of five months cannot be supposed -to be connecting all these stray sounds with ideas, if -indeed it can be said to have as yet any definite ideas. -The only signification which this primitive articulation can -have is emotional. Undoubtedly, as we have seen, it grows -out of expressive cries. Even the happy bubblings over of -vowel sounds as the child lies on his back and ‘crows,’ may -be said to be expressive of his happiness like the movements -of arms and legs which accompany it. Yet it would be an -exaggeration to suppose that the elaborate phonation is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>merely expressive, that all the manifold and subtle changes -of sound are due to obscure variations of feeling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The true explanation seems to be that the appearance -of this infantile babbling, just like that of the movements of -the limbs which accompany it, is the result of changes in -the nervous system. As the centres of vocalisation get -developed, motor impulses begin to play on the muscles of -throat, larynx, and, later on, lips, tongue, etc., and in this -way a larger and larger variety of sound and sound-combination -is produced. Such phonation is commonly -described as impulsive. It is instinctive, that is to say, -unlearnt, and due to congenital nervous connexions; and -at best it can only be said to express in its totality a mood -or relatively permanent state of feeling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As this impulsive articulation develops it becomes complicated -by a distinctly intentional element. The child -hears the sounds he produces and falls in love with them. -From this moment he begins to go on babbling for the -pleasure it brings. We see the germ of such a pleasure-seeking -babbling in the protracted iterations of the same -sound. The first reduplications and serial iterations, <em>a-a</em>, -<em>ma-ma</em>, etc., may be due to physiological inertia, the mere -tendency to move along any track that happens to be struck, -the very same tendency which makes a prosy speaker go -on repeating himself. At the same time there is without -doubt in these infantile iterations a rudiment of self-imitation. -That is to say, the child having produced a -sound, as <em>na</em> or <em>am</em>, impulsively proceeds to repeat the <a id='corr137.28'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='perormance'>performance</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_137.28'><ins class='correction' title='perormance'>performance</ins></a></span> -in order to obtain a renewal of the sound-effect. -This renewed impulse may be supposed further to bring -with it a germ of the pleasure of iteration of sound, or -assonance. The addition of a simple rhythmic character -to the series of sounds is a further indication of its pleasure-seeking -character. Indeed we have in this infantile ‘la-la-ing’ -more a rudiment of song and music than of articulate -speech. The rude vocal music of savages consists of a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>similar rhythmic threading of meaningless sounds in which -as in this infantile song changes of feeling reflect themselves. -We may best describe this infantile babbling then as voice-play -and as rude spontaneous singing, the utterance of a -mood, indulged in for the sake of its own delight, and -serving by a happy arrangement of nature as a preliminary -practice in the production of articulate or linguistic sounds.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Transition to Articulate Speech.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Let us now seek to understand how this undesigned -trying of the articulate instrument passes into true significant -articulation, how this speech-protoplasm develops into -the organism that we call language. And here the question -at once arises: Does the child tend to utilise the sounds -thus acquired as signs apart from the influence of education, -that is to say, of the articulate sounds produced by others -and impressed as signs upon his attention? 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 nursery. Yet I will offer -a tentative answer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 expect. -Any one who has noticed how a young cat, completely -isolated from the influence of example, will spontaneously -hit on the gesture of touching the arm of a person sitting -at a meal by way of asking to be fed, cannot be surprised -that children should prove themselves capable of inventing -signs. We know, too, that deaf-mutes will, self-prompted, -develop among themselves an elaborate system of gesture-signs, -and further express their feelings and desires by -sounds, which though not heard by themselves may be -understood by others and so serve as effective signs of -their needs and wishes. The normal child, too, in spite of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>the powerful influences which go to make him adopt as -signs the articulate sounds employed by others, shows a -germ of unprompted and original sign-making. The -earliest of such unlearnt signs are simple gesture-movements, -such as stretching out the arms when the child -desires to be taken by the nurse.<a id='r62' /><a href='#f62' class='c011'><sup>[62]</sup></a> Nobody has suggested -that these are learnt by imitation. The same is true of -other familiar gesture-movements, which appear towards the -end of the first year or later, as pulling your dress just as a -dog does, when the child wants you to go with him, touching -the chair when he wants you to sit down, or (as Darwin’s -child did when just over a year) taking a bit of paper and -pointing to the fire by way of signifying his wish to see the -paper burnt. The gesture of pointing, though no doubt -commonly aided by example, is probably capable of being -reached instinctively as an outgrowth from the grasping -movement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These gesture-signs, I find, play a larger part in the -case of children who are backward in talking, and so are -nearer the condition of the deaf-mute. 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-signs. When sixteen months old he -had certain <em>general</em> signs of this sort, using a sniff as a sign -of flower, and a mimic kiss as a sign of living things, <i>i.e.</i>, -all sorts of animals.<a id='r63' /><a href='#f63' class='c011'><sup>[63]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Just as movements may thus be used instinctively, that -is, without aid from others’ example, both as expressing -simple feelings and desires, and also, as in the case just -mentioned, as indicating ideas, so spontaneously formed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>sounds may be used as signs. As pointed out above the -first self-prompted articulation is closely connected with -feeling, and we find that in the second half-year when the -preliminary practice has been gone through certain sounds -take on a distinctly expressive function. Thus one little -boy when eight months old habitually used the sound ‘ma-ma’ -when miserable, and ‘da-da’ when pleased. Among -these instinctive expressive sounds one of the most important -is that indicative of hunger. I find again and again -that a special sound is marked off as a mode of expression -or sign of this craving. This fact will be referred to again -presently.</p> - -<p class='c001'>True language-sounds significant of things grow out of -this spontaneous expressive articulation. Thus the demonstrative -sign <em>da</em> which accompanies the pointing, and which -seems to be frequently used with slight modifications by -German as well as by English children, 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 object. But used as a concomitant of the -pointing gesture it takes on a demonstrative or indicative -function, announcing the presence or arrival of an object in -a particular locality or direction. A somewhat similar case -is that of ‘ata’ or ‘tata,’ a sign used to denote the departure -or disappearance of an object. These signs are, as -Preyer shows, spontaneous and not imitative (<i>e.g.</i>, of -‘there’ (da), ‘all gone’). This is confirmed by the fact -that they vary greatly. Thus Preyer’s boy used for -“there” ‘da,’ ‘nda,’ ‘nta,’ etc., and for “all gone” ‘atta,’ -‘f-tu,’ ‘tuff,’ etc. Again, Tiedemann’s boy used the -sound ‘ah-ah,’ and one of Stanley Hall’s children -the sound ‘eh,’ when pointing to an object. 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 object, and that, further, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>these reactions when recognised by others tend to become -fixed as linguistic signs.<a id='r64' /><a href='#f64' class='c011'><sup>[64]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Just as in the case of the gesture-movements, sniffing, -kissing, so in that of expressive vocal sounds we may see -a tendency to take on the function of true signs of ideas. -One of the best illustrations of this is to be found in the -invention of a word-sound for things to eat. I have pointed -out that the state of hunger with its characteristic misery -becomes at an early stage marked off by a distinctive expressive -sign. At a later stage this or some other sound -comes to be used intelligently as a means of <em>asking</em> for food. -Darwin’s boy employed the sound <em>mum</em> in this way; another -English child used ‘numby,’ and yet another ‘nini’; a French -child observed by M. Taine made use of ‘ham’. The predominance -of the labial <em>m</em> shows the early formation of -these quasi-linguistic signs, and suggests that they were -developed out of the primary instinctive ‘<em>m</em>’ sound.<a id='r65' /><a href='#f65' class='c011'><sup>[65]</sup></a> Such -sounds, coming to be understood by the nurse, tend to -become fixed as modes of asking for food.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It seems but a step from the demand ‘Give me food’ to -the pointing out or naming of things as food. And so good -an observer as Darwin says that his boy used the sound -‘mum’ not only for conveying the demand or command -‘Give me food,’ but also as a substantive ‘food’ of wide -application. He later went on to erect a rudimentary -classification on the basis of this substantive, calling sugar -‘shu-mum’ and even breaking up this subdivision by calling -liquorice “black shu-mum”.<a id='r66' /><a href='#f66' class='c011'><sup>[66]</sup></a> This however seems, so far as -I can ascertain, to be exceptional. In most vocabularies of -children of two or three no generic term for food is found, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>though names for particular kinds of food, <i>e.g.</i>, milk, bread, -are in use. This agrees with the general order of development -of thought-signs, the names of easily distinguished -species appearing in the case of the individual as in that -of the race before those of comprehensive and ‘abstract’ -genera such as ‘food’. It is probable, therefore, that these -early signs for food are but imperfectly developed into true -thought-symbols or names. They retain much of their -primordial character as expressions of desire and possibly -of the volitional state answering to a command. This is -borne out by the fact that the child spoken of by Taine -used the sound ‘tem’ as a sort of general imperative for -‘give!’ ‘take!’ ‘look!’ etc.<a id='r67' /><a href='#f67' class='c011'><sup>[67]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Another early example of an emotional expression -passing into a germinal sign is that called forth at the sight -of moving creatures. This acts as a strong stimulus to the -baby brain, and vigorous muscular reactions, vocal and -other, are wont to appear. One little boy of twelve and -three-quarter months usually expressed his excitement by the -sound “Dō-boo-boo,” which was used regularly for about -ten days on the appearance of a dog, a horse, a bird, and -so forth. Here we have a protoplasmic condition of the -lingual organism which we call a name, a condition destined -never to pass into another and higher. Sometimes, however, -these explosives at the sight of animal life grow into -comparatively fixed signs of recognition.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this spontaneous invention of quasi-linguistic sounds -imitation plays a considerable part. It is evident, indeed, -that gestures are largely imitative. Thus the sniff and the -mimic kiss referred to just now are plainly imitations of -movements. The pointing gesture, too, may be said to be -a kind of imitation of the reaching and appropriating movement -of the arm. The sound ‘dō-boo-boo’ used on seeing -an animal was probably imitative. According to Preyer -the sounds called forth by the sight of moving objects, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span><i>e.g.</i>, rolling balls and wheels, are imitative.<a id='r68' /><a href='#f68' class='c011'><sup>[68]</sup></a> Whether the -signs of hunger, ‘mum,’ ‘numby,’ are due to modifications of -the movements carried out in sucking, seems to be more -problematic.<a id='r69' /><a href='#f69' class='c011'><sup>[69]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In certain cases imitation is the one sufficient source of -the sound. In what are called onomatopoetic sounds the -child seeks to mimic some natural sound, and such imitation -is capable of becoming a fruitful source of original linguistic -invention. A boy between nine and ten months imitated -the sound of young roosters by drawing in his breath, and -this noise became for a time a kind of name for any -feathered creature, including small birds. More commonly -such onomatopoetic sounds come to be distinctive recognition-signs -of particular classes of animals, such as ‘oua-oua’ -or ‘bow-wow’ for the dog, ‘moo-moo’ for the cow, ‘ouack-ouack’ -or ‘kuack’ for the duck, and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It may, of course, be said that these mimic sounds are -in part learnt from the traditional vocabulary of the nursery, -in which the nurse takes good care to instruct the child. -But it is to be remembered that the traditional nursery -language itself is largely an adoption of children’s own -sounds. There is, moreover, ample independent evidence -to show that children are zealous and indefatigable imitators -of the sounds they hear as of the movements they see. -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 him. In the case of Preyer’s -boy this impulse to repeat the sounds he heard developed -into a kind of echoing mania. The acquisition of others’ -language plainly depends on the existence and the vigour -of this mimetic impulse. And this same impulse leads the -child beyond the servile adoption of our conventional -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>sounds to the invention of new or onomatopoetic sounds. -Thus one little child discovered the pretty sound ‘tin-tin’ -as a name for the bell. Another child, a girl, quite unprompted, -used a chirping sound for a bird, and a curious -clicking noise on seeing the picture of a horse (no doubt in -imitation of the sound of a horse’s hoofs); while a little boy -used a faint whistle to indicate a bird, and the sound ‘click-click’ -to denote a horse. In some cases a grown-up person’s -imitation of a sound is imitated. Thus a child of about -two used the sound ‘afta’ as a name for drinking, and also -for drinking-vessel, “in imitation of the sound of sucking in -air which the nurse used to make when <em>pretending to drink</em>”.<a id='r70' /><a href='#f70' class='c011'><sup>[70]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In these two sources of original child-language, expression -of states of feeling, desire, etc., and imitation, we -have the two commonly assigned origins of human -language. Into the difficult question how man first came -to the use of language-sounds I do not propose to enter -here. Whatever view may be taken with respect to the -first beginnings of human speech, there seems little doubt -that both expressive cries and imitations of natural sounds -have had their place. To this extent, then, 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 -race. Not only so, 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 originate, in -main part at least, by way of these two tributaries.<a id='r71' /><a href='#f71' class='c011'><sup>[71]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>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 them. -Some of these early self-prompted linguistic sounds cannot -be readily explained. I find, for example, that children -are apt to invent names for their nurses and sometimes for -themselves which, so far as I can ascertain, bear no discoverable -resemblance to the sounds used by others. Thus -the same little girl that invented ‘numby’ for food and -‘afta’ for drinking called her nurse ‘Lee’ though no one -else called her by any other name than ‘nurse’. It is -difficult to suppose that the child was transforming the sound -‘nurse’ in this case. Preyer’s boy called his nurse, whom -others addressed as Marie, ‘Wolá,’ which Preyer explains -rather forcedly as deriving by inversion from the frequently -heard <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Ja wohl!’</span> A lady friend informs me that -her little boy when thirteen months old called himself -‘Bla-a,’ though he was always addressed by others as -Jeffrey, and that he stuck to ‘Bla-a’ for six months.<a id='r72' /><a href='#f72' class='c011'><sup>[72]</sup></a> A -germ of imitation is doubtless recognisable here in the -preservation of the syllabic form or structure (that of monosyllable -or dissyllable). Yet the amount of transformation -is, to say the least, surprising in children, who show themselves -capable of fairly close imitation. Possibly a child’s -ear notes analogies of sound which escape our more sophisticated -organ. However this be, the fact of such origination -of names (other than those clearly onomatopoetic) is -noteworthy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Lastly a reference may be made to the fact that children -have shown themselves capable of inventing the rudiments -of a simple kind of language. Professor Horatio Hale of -America has made a special study of these spontaneous -child-languages. One case is that of twin American boys -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>who when the talking age came employed not the English -sounds that they heard others speak but a language of their -own. Another, and in some ways more remarkable case, -is that of a little girl who at the age of two was backward -in speaking, only using the names ‘papa’ and ‘mamma,’ -and who, nevertheless, at that age, and in the first instance -without any stimulus or aid from a companion, proceeded -to invent a vocabulary and even simple sentence-forms of -her own, which she subsequently prevailed on an elder -brother to use with her. The vocables struck out, though -suggesting some slight aural acquaintance with French—which, -however, was never spoken in her home—are apparently -quite arbitrary and not susceptible of explanation by -imitation.<a id='r73' /><a href='#f73' class='c011'><sup>[73]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>I think the facts here brought together testify to the -originality of the child in the field of linguistics. It may -be said that in none of these cases is the effect of education -wholly absent. A child, as we all know, is taught the -names of objects and actions long before he can articulate. -Thus Darwin’s boy knew the name of his nurse five months -before he invented the vocable ‘mum’. It is obvious -indeed that wherever children are subjected to normal -training their sign-making impulse is stimulated by the -example of others. At the same time the facts here given -show that the working of this impulse may, in a certain -number of children at least, strike out original lines of its -own independently of the direct action of example and -education. What is wanted now is to experiment carefully -with an intelligent child, encouraging him to make -signs by patient attention and ready understanding, 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 imitation. I think there is little -doubt that a child so situated might develop the rudiments -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>of a vocal language. The experiment would be difficult to -carry out, as it would mean the depriving of the child for a -time of the advantages of education.<a id='r74' /><a href='#f74' class='c011'><sup>[74]</sup></a></p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Beginnings of Linguistic Imitation.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>The learning of the mother-tongue is one of the most -instructive and, one may add, the most entertaining chapters -in the history of the child’s education. The brave efforts -to understand and follow, the characteristic and quaint -errors that often result, the frequent outbursts of originality -in bold attempts to enrich our vocabulary and our linguistic -forms—all this will repay the most serious study, while it -will provide ample amusement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As pointed out above the learning of the mother-tongue -is essentially a kind of imitation. The process -is roughly as follows. The child hears a particular sound -used by another, and gradually associates it with the -object, the occurrence, the situation, along with which it -again and again presents itself. When this stage is reached -he can understand the word-sound as used by another -though he cannot as yet use it. Later, by a considerable -interval, he learns to connect the particular sound with the -appropriate vocal action required for its production. 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 it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The imitation of others’ articulate sounds begins, as -already remarked, very early and long before the sign-making -impulse appropriates them as true words. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>impulse to imitate others’ movements seems first to come -into play about the end of the fourth month; and traces -of imitative movements of the mouth in articulation are -said to have been observed in certain cases about this time. -But it is only in the second half-year that the imitation of -sounds becomes clearly marked. At first this imitation is -rather of tone, rise and fall of voice, and apportioning of -stress or accent than of articulate quality; but gradually -the imitation takes on a more definite and complete -character.<a id='r75' /><a href='#f75' class='c011'><sup>[75]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Towards the end of the year, in favourable cases, true -linguistic imitation commences. That is to say, word-sounds -gathered from others are used as such. Thus, a -boy of ten months would correctly name his mother, -‘Mamma,’ his aunt, ‘Addy’ (Aunty), and a person called -Maggie, ‘Azzie’.<a id='r76' /><a href='#f76' class='c011'><sup>[76]</sup></a> As already suggested, this imitative -reproduction of others’ words synchronises, roughly at least, -with the first onomatopoetic imitation of natural sounds.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Transformations of our Words.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>As is well known the first tentatives in the use of the -common speech-forms are very rough. The child in reproducing -transforms, and these transformations are often -curious and sufficiently puzzling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The most obvious thing about these first infantile -renderings of the adult’s language is that they are a -simplification. This applies to all words alike. Monosyllables -if involving a complex mass of sound are usually -reduced, as when ‘dance’ is shortened to ‘da’. This -clearly illustrates the difficulty of certain sound-combinations, -a point to be touched on presently. More striking is -the habitual reduction of dissyllables and polysyllables. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>Here we note that the child concentrates his effort on the -reproduction of a part only of the syllabic series, which -part he may of course give but very imperfectly. The -shortening tends to go to the length of reducing to a -monosyllable. Thus ‘biscuit’ becomes ‘bik,’ ‘Constance’ -‘tun,’ ‘candle’ ‘ka,’ ‘bread and butter’ ‘bup’ or ‘bŭ’. -Polysyllables, though occasionally cut down to monosyllables, -as when ‘hippopotamus’ became ‘pots,’ are more -frequently reduced to dissyllables, as when ‘periwinkle’ -was shortened to ‘pinkle’. Handkerchief is a trying word -for the English child, and for obvious reasons has to be -learnt. It was reduced by the eldest child of a family to -‘hankish,’ by the two next to ‘hamfisch’ and by the last -two to ‘hanky’. The little girl M. also reduced the last -two syllables to ‘fish,’ making the sound ‘hanfish’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There seems to be no simple law governing these reductions -of verbal masses. The accentuated syllable, by -exciting most attention, is commonly the one reproduced, -as when ‘nasturtium’ became ‘turtium’.<a id='r77' /><a href='#f77' class='c011'><sup>[77]</sup></a> 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 sounds, the former by impressing -the sound as the first heard (compare the way in which -we note and remember the initial sound of a name),<a id='r78' /><a href='#f78' class='c011'><sup>[78]</sup></a> the -latter by impressing it as the last heard, and therefore best -retained. The unequal articulatory facility of the several -sound-combinations making up the word may also have an -influence on this unconscious selection. I think it not -unlikely, too, that germs of a kind of æsthetic preference -<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>for certain sounds as new, striking or fine, may co-operate -here.<a id='r79' /><a href='#f79' class='c011'><sup>[79]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Such simplification of words is from the first opposed, -and tends in time to be counteracted, by the growth of a -feeling for their general form as determined by the number -of syllables, as well as the distribution of stress and any -accompanying alterations of tone or pitch. The infant’s -first imitations of the sounds ‘good-bye,’ ‘all gone,’ and -so forth, by couples which preserve hardly anything of -the articulatory character, though they indicate the -syllabic form, position of stress, and rising and falling -inflection, illustrate the early development of this feeling. -Hence we find in general an attempt to reproduce the -number of syllables, and also to give the proper distribution -of stress. Thus ‘biscuit’ becomes ‘bítchic,’ ‘cellar’ ‘sítoo,’ -‘umbrella’ ‘nobélla,’ ‘elephant’ ‘étteno,’ or (by a German -child) ‘ewebón,’ ‘kangaroo’ ‘kógglegoo,’ ‘hippopotamus’ -‘ippenpótany,’ and so forth.<a id='r80' /><a href='#f80' class='c011'><sup>[80]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>As suggested above there goes from the first with the -cutting down of the syllabic series a considerable alteration -of the single constituent sounds. The vowel sounds are -rarely omitted; yet they may be greatly modified, and -these modifications occur regularly enough to suggest that -the child finds certain nuances of vowel sounds comparatively -hard to reproduce. Thus the short <em>ă</em> in hat, and the -long <em>ī</em> (ai), seem to be acquired only after considerable -practice.<a id='r81' /><a href='#f81' class='c011'><sup>[81]</sup></a> But it is among the consonants that most -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>trouble arises. Many of these, as the sibilants or ‘hisses,’ -<em>s</em>, <em>sh</em>, the various <em>l</em> and <em>r</em> sounds, the dentals, the “point-teeth-open” -<em>th</em> and <em>dh</em> (in ‘thin,’ ‘this’), the back or -guttural ‘stops,’ <i>i.e.</i>, <em>k</em> and hard <em>g</em>, and others as <em>j</em> or soft <em>g</em> -(as in ‘James,’ ‘gem’), appear, often at least, to cause -difficulty at the beginning of the speech period. With -these must be reckoned such combinations as <em>st</em>, <em>str</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In many cases the difficult sounds are merely dropped. -Thus ‘poor’ may become ‘poo,’ ‘look’ ‘ook,’ ‘Schulter’ -(German) <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Ulter’</span>. In the case of awkward combinations -this dropping is apt to be confined to the difficult sound, -provided, that is to say, the other is manageable alone. -Thus ‘dance’ becomes ‘dan,’ <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘trocken’</span> (German) becomes -‘tokko’. More particularly <em>s</em> and <em>sh</em> are apt to be omitted -before other consonants. Thus ‘stair’ becomes ‘tair,’ -‘sneeze’ ‘neeze,’ <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘schneiden’</span> (German) ‘neida,’ and so -forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Along with such lame omissions we have the more -vigorous procedure of substitutions. In certain cases there -seems little if any kinship between the sounds or the -articulatory actions by which they are produced. At the -early stage more particularly almost any manageable sound -seems to do duty as substitute. The early-acquired -labials, including the labio-dental <em>f</em> come in as serviceable -‘hacks’ at this stage. What we call lisping is indeed -exemplified in this class of infantile substitutions. Children -have been observed to say ‘fank’ for ‘thank’ and -‘mouf’ for ‘mouth,’ ‘feepy’ for ‘sleepy,’ ‘poofie’ for ‘pussy,’ -‘wiver’ for ‘river,’ ‘Bampe’ for <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Lampe’</span> (German). The -dentals, too, <em>d</em> and <em>t</em>, are turned to all kinds of vicarious -service. Thus we find ‘ribbon’ rendered by ‘dib,’ ‘gum’ -by ‘dam,’ <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Greete’</span> (German) by ‘Deete,’ <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Gummi’</span> (German) -by ‘Dummi,’ ‘cut’ by ‘tut,’ and <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘klopfen’</span> (German) by ‘topfen’. -Similarly ‘gee-gee’ (horse), which oddly enough was -first rendered by the child M. as ‘dee-gee,’ is altered to ‘dee-dee’. -I find too that new sounds are apt to be put to this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>miscellaneous use. Thus one child after learning the aspirate -(<em>h</em>) 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 sounds. Thus he -would say, ‘hie down on hofa’ for ‘lie down on sofa’. -The aspirate is further used in place of <em>sh</em>, as when ‘shake’ -was rendered by ‘hate,’ and of <em>st</em>, as when Preyer’s boy -called ‘Stern’ ‘Hern’. In other cases we see that the little -linguist is trying to get as near as possible to the sound, -and such approximations are an interesting sign of progress. -Thus in one case ‘chatterbox’ was rendered by -‘jabberwock,’ in another case ‘dress’ by ‘desh,’ in another -(Preyer’s boy), <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Tisch’</span> (German) by ‘Tiss’.<a id='r82' /><a href='#f82' class='c011'><sup>[82]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Besides omissions and substitution of sounds, occasional -insertions are said to occur. According to one set of observations -<em>r</em> may be inserted after the broad <em>a</em>, as when -‘pocket’ was rendered by ‘barket’. A cockney is apt to -do the same, as when he talks of having a ‘barth’ (bath). -Yet this observation requires to be verified.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These alterations of articulate sound by the child remind -one of the changes which the languages of communities -undergo. We know, indeed, that these changes are due to -imperfect imitation by succeeding generations of learners.<a id='r83' /><a href='#f83' class='c011'><sup>[83]</sup></a> -Hence we need not be surprised to find now and again -analogies between these nursery transformations and those -of words in the development of languages. In reproducing -the sounds which he hears a child often illustrates a law of -adult phonetic change. Thus changes within the same -class of sounds, as the frequent alteration of ‘this’ into -‘dis,’ clearly correspond with those modifications recognised -in Grimm’s Law. So, too, the common substitution of a -dental for a guttural has its parallel in the changes of racial -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>language.<a id='r84' /><a href='#f84' class='c011'><sup>[84]</sup></a> Nobody again can note the transformation of -<em>n</em> into <em>m</em> before <em>f</em> in the form ‘hamfish’ for ‘handkerchief’ -without thinking of the Greek change of συν into συμ before -β, and like changes. Philologists may probably find many -other parallels. One of them tells me that his little girl, on -rendering <em>sh</em> by the guttural <em>h</em>, reproduced a change in -Spanish pronunciation. M. Egger compares a child’s -rendering of ‘<em>tr</em>op’ (French) by ‘<em>cr</em>op’ with the transformation -of the Latin ‘<em>tr</em>emere’ into ‘<em>cr</em>aindre’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 ear. This may seem strange in the light -of Preyer’s statement that the earlier impulsive babbling includes -most, if not all, of the sounds required later on for -articulation. This may turn out to be an exaggeration, yet -there is no doubt, I think, that certain sounds, including -some as the initial <em>l</em> which are common in the earlier -babbling stage, are not produced at the beginning of the -articulatory period. As the avoidance of these occurs in all -children alike it seems reasonable to infer that they involve -difficult muscular combinations in the articulatory organ. -At the same time it seems going too far to say, as Schultze -does, that the order of acquisition of sounds corresponds -with the degree of difficulty. The very variability of this -order in the case of different children shows that there is -no such simple correspondence as this.<a id='r85' /><a href='#f85' class='c011'><sup>[85]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The explanation of those early omissions and alterations -is probably a rather complex matter. To begin with, the -speech-organs of a child may lose special aptitudes by the -development of other and opposed aptitudes. A friend of -mine, a physiologist, tells me that his little boy who said -‘ma-ma’ (but not ‘da-da’) at ten months lost at the age of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>nineteen months the use of <em>m</em>, for which he regularly substituted -<em>b</em>. He suggests that the nasal sound <em>m</em>, though easy -for a child in the sucking stage and accustomed to close the -lips, may become difficult later on through the acquisition of -open sounds. It is worth considering whether this principle -does not apply to other inabilities. This, however, is a -question for the science of phonetics.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We must remember, further, that it is one thing to -carry out an articulatory movement as a child of nine -months carries it out, ‘impulsively,’ through some congenitally -arranged mode of exciting the proper motor centre, -another thing to carry it out volitionally, <i>i.e.</i>, in order to -produce a desired result. This last means that the sound-effect -of the movement has been learned, that the image or -representation of it has been brought into definite connexion -with a particular impulse, <i>viz.</i>, that of carrying out the -required movement: 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-centre. -This process is clearly more complex than the first instinctive -utterance, and may be furthered or hindered by various -conditions. Thus a child’s own spontaneous babblings -may not have sufficed to impress a particular sound on the -memory; in which case his acquisition of it will be favoured -or otherwise by the frequency with which it is produced by -others in his hearing. It is probable that differences in the -range and accuracy of production of sounds by nurse and -mother tell from the first. The differences observable in -the order of acquisition of sounds among children may be -in part due to this, and not merely to differences in the -speech-organ. It is probable, too, that children’s attention -may be especially called to certain sounds or sound-groups, -either because of a preferential liking for the sounds themselves, -or because of a special need of them as useful names. -M.’s mother assures me that the child seemed to dislike -particular sounds as <em>j</em>, which she could and did occasionally -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>pronounce, though she was given to altering them.<a id='r86' /><a href='#f86' class='c011'><sup>[86]</sup></a> -Another lady writes that her boy at the age of twenty-two -months surprised her by suddenly bringing out the combination -‘scissors’. He had just begun to use scissors in -cutting up paper, and so had acquired a practical interest -in this sound-mass.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may now pass to another of the commonly recognised -defects of early articulation, <i>viz.</i>, the transposition of sounds -or metathesis. Sometimes it is two contiguous sounds -which are transposed, as when ‘star’ is rendered by ‘tsar’ -and ‘spoon’ by ‘psoon’. Here the motive of the change is -evidently to facilitate the combination. We have a parallel -to this in the use of ‘aks’ (ax) for ‘ask,’ a transposition -which was not long since common enough in the West of -England.<a id='r87' /><a href='#f87' class='c011'><sup>[87]</sup></a> In other transpositions sounds are shifted -further from their place. Preyer quotes a case in which -there was a dislocation of vowel sounds, <i>viz.</i>, in the transformation -of <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘bite’</span> (German) into ‘beti’.<a id='r88' /><a href='#f88' class='c011'><sup>[88]</sup></a> Here there -seems to be no question of avoiding a difficult combination. -Other examples are the following: ‘hoogshur’ for ‘sugar’ -(one of the first noticed at the age of two); ‘mungar’ for -‘grandmamma,’ ‘punga’ for ‘grandpapa,’ and ‘natis’ for -‘nasty’ (boy between eighteen and twenty-four months); and -‘boofitul’ for ‘beautiful’. Here again we have an analogy -to defective speech in adults. When a man is very tired -he is liable to precisely similar inversions of order. 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 order. Perhaps quasi-æsthetic -preferences play a part here too. The child M. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>seems to have preferred the sequence <cite>m-n</cite> to <cite>n-m</cite>, saying -‘jaymen’ for <a id='corr156.2'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='‘geranium'>‘geranium’</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_156.2'><ins class='correction' title='‘geranium'>‘geranium’</ins></a></span>, ‘burman’ for ‘laburnum’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another interesting feature in this early articulation is -the impulse to double sounds, to get a kind of effect of -assonance or of rhyme by a repetition of sound or sound-group. -The first and simplest form of this is where a whole -sound-mass or syllable is iterated, as in the familiar ‘ba-ba,’ -‘gee-gee’ ‘ni-ni’ (for nice). Some children frequently turn -monosyllables into reduplications, making book ‘boom-boom’ -and so forth. It is, however, in attempting dissyllables -that the reduplication is most common. Thus -‘naughty’ becomes ‘na-na,’ ‘faster’ ‘fa-fa,’ ‘Julia’ ‘dum-dum,’ -and so forth, where the repeated syllable displaces the -second original syllable and so serves to retain something -of the original word-form. In some cases the second and -unaccented syllable is selected for reduplication, as in the -instance quoted by Perez, ‘peau-peau’ for ‘chapeau’. -Such reduplications are sometimes aided by kinship of -sound, as when the little girl M. changed ‘purple’ into its -primitive form ‘purpur’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These early reduplications are clearly a continuation of -the repetitions observable in the earlier babbling, and grow -out of the same motive, the impulse to go on doing a thing, -and the pleasure of repetition and self-imitation. As is -well known, these reduplications have their parallel in many -of the names used by savage tribes.<a id='r89' /><a href='#f89' class='c011'><sup>[89]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In addition to these palpable reduplications of sound-masses -we have repetitions of single sounds, the repeated -sound being substituted for another and foreign one. This -answers to what is called in phonetics ‘assimilations’.<a id='r90' /><a href='#f90' class='c011'><sup>[90]</sup></a> -In the majority of cases the assimilation is ‘progressive,’ -the change being carried out by a preceding on a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>succeeding sound. Examples are ‘Kikie’ for ‘Kitty,’ -and ‘purpur’ for ‘purple’. This last transformation, -though it was made by the little daughter of a distinguished -philologist, was quite innocent of classical influence, and -was clearly motived by the childish love of reduplication -of sound. In many cases the substitution of an easy for a -difficult sound seems to be determined in part by assimilation, -as when ‘another’ was rendered by ‘annunner,’ -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘gateau’</span> (French) by ‘ca-co’. The assimilation seems, too, -sometimes to work “regressively,” as when ‘thick’ becomes -‘kick,’ ‘Bonnie Dundee’ ‘Bun-dun,’ and <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘tortue’</span> -(French) ‘tu-tu,’ in which two last reduplication is -secured approximately or completely by change of vowel.<a id='r91' /><a href='#f91' class='c011'><sup>[91]</sup></a> -There seem also to be cases of what may be called -partial assimilation, that is, a tendency to transform a -sound into one of the same class as the first. “If (writes -a mother of her boy) a word began with a labial he -generally concluded it with a labial, making ‘bird,’ for -example, ‘bom’.” But these cases are not, perhaps, perfectly -clear examples of assimilation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Along with the tendency to reduplicate syllabic masses, -we see a disposition to use habitually certain favourite -syllables as terminations, more particularly the pet ending -‘<em>ie</em>’. Thus ‘sugar’ becomes ‘sugie,’ ‘picture’ ‘pickie,’ and -so forth. One child was so much in love with this syllable -as to prefer it even to the common repetition of sound in -onomatopoetic imitation, naming the hen not ‘tuck-tuck’ -as one might expect, but ‘tuckie’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 characteristics. -The number of syllabic sounds, the distribution of stress, -as well as the rise and fall of vocal pitch, are the first things -<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>to be attended to, and these are, on the whole, carefully -rendered when the constituent sounds are changed into -other and often very unlike ones, and the order of the -sounds is reversed. Again, the comparative fidelity in -rendering the vowel sounds illustrates the prominence of the -metrical or musical quality in childish speech. The love of -reduplication, of the effect of assonance and rhyme, illustrates -the same point. This may be seen in some of the more -playful sayings of the child M., as ‘Babba hiding, Ice -(Alice) spiding (spying)’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As I have dwelt at some length on the defective articulation -of children, I should like to say that their early performances, -so far from being a discredit to them, are very -much to their credit. I, at least, have often been struck -with the sudden bringing forth without any preparatory -audible trial of difficult combinations, and with a wonderful -degree of accuracy. A child can often articulate better -than he is wont to do. The little girl M., when one year -six months, being asked teasingly to say ‘mudder,’ said -with a laugh ‘mother,’ quite correctly—but only on -this one occasion. The precision which a child, even in -the second year, will often give to our vocables is quite -surprising, and reminds me of the admirable exactness -which, as I have observed, other strangers to our language, -and more especially perhaps Russians, introduce into their -articulation, putting our own loose treatment of our -language to the blush. This precision, acquired as it would -seem without any tentative practice, points, I suspect, to a -good deal of silent rehearsal, nascent groupings of muscular -actions which are not carried far enough to produce sound.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The gradual development of the child’s articulatory -powers, as indicated partly by the precision of the sounds -formed, partly by their differentiation and multiplication, -is a matter of great interest. At the beginning, when he -is able to reproduce only a small portion of a vocable, -there is of course but little differentiation. Thus it has -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>been remarked by more than one observer, that one and -the same sound (so far at least as our ears can judge) will -represent different lingual signs, ‘ba’ standing in the case -of one child for both ‘basket’ and ‘sheep’ (‘ba lamb’), and -‘bo’ for ‘box’ and ‘bottle’. Little by little the sound grows -differentiated into a more definite and perfect form, and -it is curious to note the process of gradual evolution by -which the first rude attempt at articulate form gets improved -and refined. Thus, writes a mother, “at eighteen -to twenty months ‘milk’ was ‘gink,’ at twenty-one months -it was ‘ming,’ and soon after two years it was a sound -between ‘mik’ and ‘milk’.” The same child in learning -to say ‘lion’ went through the stages ‘ŭn’ (one year eight -months), ‘ion’ (two years), and ‘lion’ (two years and eight -months). The little girl M., in learning the word ‘breakfast,’ -advanced by the stages ‘bepper,’ ‘beffert,’ ‘beffust’. -In an example given by Preyer, ‘grosspapa’ (grandpapa) -began as ‘opapa,’ this passed into ‘gropapa,’ and this -again into ‘grosspapa’. In another case given by Schultze -the word <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘wasser’</span> (pronounced ‘vasser’) went through the -following stages: (1) ‘vavaff,’ (2) ‘fafaff,’ (3) ‘vaffaff,’ (4) -‘vasse,’ and (5) ‘vasser’. 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 sound, this last being very -apparent in the introduction of the second <em>v</em> and the <em>ff</em> in -the first stage, and in the substitution of the <em>f</em>’s for <em>v</em>’s -under the influence of the dominant final sound in the -second stage. The student of the early stages of language -growth might, one imagines, find many suggestive -parallels in these developmental changes in children’s -articulation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The rapidity of articulatory progress might be measured -by a careful noting of the increase in the number of vocables -mastered from month to month. Although Preyer and -others have given lists of vocables used at particular ages, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>and parents have sent me lists, I have met with no methodical -record of the gradual extension of the articulate field. -It is obvious that any observations under this head, save in -the very early stages, can only be very rough. No observer -of a talkative child, however attentive, can make sure of all -the word-sounds used. It is to be noted, too, as we have -seen above, that a child will sometimes show that he can -master a sound and will even make a temporary use of it, -without retaining it as a part of the permanent linguistic -stock.<a id='r92' /><a href='#f92' class='c011'><sup>[92]</sup></a></p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Logical Side of Children’s Language.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>It is now time to pass from the mechanical to the logical -side of this early child-language, to the meanings which the -small linguist gives to his articulate sounds and the ways in -which he modifies these meanings. The growth of a child’s -speech means a concurrent progress in the mastery of word-forms -and in the acquisition of ideas. In this each of the -two factors aids the other, the advance of ideas pushing the -child to new uses of sounds, and the growing facility in -word-formation reacting powerfully on the ideas, giving -them definiteness of outline and fixity of structure. I shall -not attempt here to give a complete account of the process, -but content myself with touching on one or two of its more -interesting aspects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A child acquires the proper use or application of a word -by associating the sound heard with the object, situation or -action in connexion with which others are observed to use -<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>it. But the first imitation of words does not show that the -little mind has seized their full and precise meaning. A -clear and exact apprehension of meaning comes but slowly, -and only as the result of many hard thought-processes, -comparisons and discriminations.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In these first attempts to use our speech, the child’s -mind is innocent of grammatical distinctions. These arise -out of the particular uses of words in sentence-structure, -and of this structure the child has as yet no inkling. If, -then, following a common practice, I speak of a child of -twelve or fifteen months as <em>naming</em> an object, the reader -must not suppose that I am ascribing to the baby-mind -a clear grasp of the function of what grammarians call -nouns (substantives). All that is implied in this way of -speaking, is that the infant’s first words are used mainly as -recognition-signs. There is from the first, I conceive, even -in the gesture of pointing and saying ‘da!’ a germ of this -naming process.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The progress of this rude naming or articulate recognition -is very interesting. The names first learnt are either -those of individuals, what we call proper names, as -‘mamma,’ ‘nurse,’ or those which, like ‘bath,’ ‘bow-wow,’ -are at first applied to one particular object. It is often -supposed that a child uses these as true singular names, -recognising individual objects as such. But this is pretty -certainly an error. He cannot note differences well enough -or grasp a sufficient number of differential marks to know -an individual as such, and he will, as occasion arises, quite -spontaneously extend his names to other things which -happen to have some interesting and notable points in -common with the first. Thus ‘bow-wow,’ though first -applied to one particular dog, is, as we know, at once extended -to other dogs, pictures of dogs, and not infrequently -other things as well. If then we speak of the child as -generalising or widening the application of his terms, we -must not be taken to mean that he goes through a process -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>of comparing things which he perceives to be distinct, and -discovering a likeness in these, but that he merely assimilates -or recognises something like that which he has seen -before without troubling to note the differences.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This extension of names or generalising process proceeds -primarily and mainly by the feeling for the likenesses or the -common aspects of things, though as we shall see presently -their connexions of time and place afford a second and -subordinate means of extension. The transference of a -name from object to object through this apprehension of a -likeness or assimilation has already been touched upon. It -moves along thoroughly childish lines, and constitutes one -of the most striking and interesting of the manifestations -of precocious originality. Yet if unconventional in its mode -of operation it is essentially thought-activity, a connecting -of like with like, and a rudimentary grouping of things in -classes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This tendency to comprehend like things or situations -under a single articulate sign is seen already in the use of -the early indicative sign ‘atta’ (all gone). It was used by -Preyer’s child to mark not only the departure of a thing -but the putting out of a flame, later on, an empty glass -or other vessel. By another child it was extended to the -ending of music, the closing of a drawer and so on. Here, -however, the various applications probably answer more to -a common feeling of ending or missing than to an apprehension -of a common objective situation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coming to words which we call names we find that the -child will often extend a recognition-sign from one object -to a second, and to our thinking widely dissimilar object -through the discovery of some analogy. Such extension, -moving rather along poetic lines than those of our logical -classifications, is apt, as we have seen, to wear a quaint -metaphorical aspect. A star, for example, looked at, I -suppose, as a small bright spot, was called by one child an -eye. The child M. called the opal globe of a lighted lamp -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>a ‘moon’. ‘Pin’ was extended by another child to a crumb -just picked up, a fly, and a caterpillar, and seemed to mean -something little to be taken between the fingers. The same -child used the sound ‘’at’ (hat) for anything put on the -head, including a hair-brush. Another child used the word -‘key’ for other bright metal things, as money. Romanes’ -child extended the word ‘star,’ the first vocable learned -after ‘Mamma’ and ‘Papa,’ to bright objects generally, -candles, gas-flames, etc. Taine speaks of a child of one -year who after first applying the word “fafer” (from -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“chemin de fer”</span>) to railway engines went on to transfer -it to a steaming coffee-pot and everything that hissed or -smoked or made a noise. In these last illustrations we -have plainly a rudimentary process of classification. Any -point of likeness, provided it is of sufficient interest to -strike the attention, may thus serve as a basis of childish -classification.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As with names of things so with those of actions. The -crackling noise of the fire was called by one child ‘barking,’ -and the barking of a dog was named by another ‘coughing’. -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 point.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A like originality is apt to show itself in the first crude -attempt to seize and name the relations of things. The -child C. called dipping bread in gravy ‘ba’ (bath). Another -child extended the word ‘door’ to “everything that stopped -up an opening or prevented an exit, including the -cork of a bottle, and the little table that fastened him in -his high chair”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In these extensions we see the tendency of child-thought -towards ‘concretism,’ or the use of a simple concrete idea in -order to express a more abstract idea. Children frequently -express the contrast big, little, by the pretty figurative -language ‘Mamma’ and ‘baby’. Thus a small coin was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>called by an American child a ‘baby dollar’. Romanes’ -daughter, named Ilda, pointed out the sheep in a picture -as ‘Mamma-ba’ and the lambs as ‘Ilda-ba’. It is somewhat -the same process when the child extends an idea -obtained from the most impressive experience of childish -difficulty, <i>viz.</i>, ‘too big,’ so as to make it do duty for the -abstract notion ‘too difficult’ in general.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this extension of language by the child we may -discern, along with this play of the feeling for similarity, -the working of association. This is illustrated by the case -of Darwin’s grandchild, who when just beginning to speak -used the common sign ‘quack’ for duck, then extended this -to water, then, following up this associative transference by -a double process of generalisation, made the sound serve -as the name of all birds and insects on the one hand, and -all fluid substances on the other.<a id='r93' /><a href='#f93' class='c011'><sup>[93]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The transference of the name ‘quack’ 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 identical. -Another curious instance is given by Professor Minto, in -which a child, who applied the word ‘mambro’ to her -nurse, went on to extend it by associative transference to the -nurse’s sewing machine, then by analogy applied it to a -hand-organ in the street, later on, through an association -of hand-organ with monkey, to his india-rubber monkey. -Here we have a whole history of change of word-meaning -illustrating in curiously equal measure the play of -assimilation and of association, and falling within a period -of two years.<a id='r94' /><a href='#f94' class='c011'><sup>[94]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>There is another way in which children are said to -‘extend’ names somewhat analogous to the processes of -assimilation and associate transference. They are very -fond of using the same word for opposed or other -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>correlative ideas. In some cases we can see that this is -due merely to confusion or want of discrimination. When, -for example, Preyer’s boy confused ‘too little’ with ‘too -much,’ and ‘yesterday’ with ‘to-morrow,’ going so far as -to make a compound <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘heitgestern’</span> (<i>i.e.</i>, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">heutegestern</span>) to -include both,<a id='r95' /><a href='#f95' class='c011'><sup>[95]</sup></a> it is easy to see that the child’s mind had -reached merely the vague idea unsuitable in quantity in -the one case, and time not present in the other; and that -he failed to differentiate these ideas. In other cases where -correlatives are confused, as when a child extended the -sign of asking for an eatable (‘bit-ye’) to the act of offering -anything to another, or when as in C.’s case ‘spend’ -was made to do duty for ‘cost,’ ‘borrow’ for ‘lend,’ and -‘learn’ for ‘teach,’ the explanation is slightly different. -A child can only acquire an idea of abstract relations -slowly and by stages. Such words as <em>lend</em>, <em>teach</em>, call -up first a pictorial idea of an action in which two persons -are seen to be concerned. But the exact nature of the -relation, and the difference in its aspect as we start from -the one or the other term, are not perceived. Thus in -thinking of a purchase over the counter, 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 -(‘spends’) and the part taken by the person who demands -a price or fixes the cost. Perhaps we get near this vague -awareness of a relation when we are aiding a violinist to -tune his instrument. We may know that his note and our -piano note do not accord, and yet be quite unable to determine -their exact relation, and to fix the one as higher, the -other as lower.</p> - -<p class='c001'>An interesting variety of this extension of names to -correlatives is the transference of the attributes of causal -agent to passive object, and <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>vice versâ</i></span>. Thus a little girl -of four called her parasol when blown by the wind ‘a windy -parasol,’ and a stone that made her hand sore ‘a very sore -<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>stone’. A little Italian girl that had taken some nasty -medicines expressed the fact by calling herself nasty -(<span lang="it" xml:lang="it">‘bimba cattiva’</span>).<a id='r96' /><a href='#f96' class='c011'><sup>[96]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 communities. Thus the child’s metaphorical -use of words, his setting forth of an abstract idea by some -analogous concrete image, has its counterpart, as we know, -in the early stages of human language. Tribes which have -no abstract signs employ a metaphor exactly as the child -does. Our own language preserves the traces of this early -figurative use of words; as in ‘imbecile,’ weak, which -originally meant leaning on a staff, and so forth.<a id='r97' /><a href='#f97' class='c011'><sup>[97]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, 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 names. The word ‘sun’ has only quite recently -undergone this kind of extension by being applied to other -centres of systems besides our familiar sun. The multiplicity -of meanings of certain words, as ‘post,’ ‘stock’ and -so forth, points to the double process of assimilative and -associative extension which we saw illustrated in the use -of the child’s word ‘mambro’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Once more, the child’s extension of a word from an -idea to its correlative has its parallel in the adult’s use of -language. As the vulgar expression ‘I’ll larn you’ shows -(<i>cf.</i> the Anglo-Saxon <em>leornian</em>), a word may come to mean -both to teach and to become taught. A like embracing -of agent and object acted upon by the same word is seen -in the ‘active’ and ‘passive’ meanings of words like the -Latin <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>penetrabilis</i></span> (‘piercing’ and ‘pierceable’), and in the -‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ meanings of ‘pleasant’ and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>similar words. We are beginning, like the little girl -quoted above, to speak of a ‘sore’ topic. Lastly, the -movement of thought underlying the saying of the little -Italian girl, ‘nasty baby,’ seems to be akin to that of the -savage when he supposes that he appropriates the qualities -of that which he eats.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The changes here touched upon have to do with what -philologists call generalisation. As supplementary to these -there is in the case of the growth of a community-language -a process of specialisation, as when ‘physician’ from -meaning a student of nature has come to mean one who -has acquired and can practically apply one branch of nature-knowledge. -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 discrimination. Thus ‘ba-ba,’ -which is used at first for a miscellaneous crowd of woolly -or hairy quadrupeds, gets specialised as a name for a sheep, -and the much-abused ‘papa’ becomes restricted to its -rightful owner.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This process of differentiation and specialisation assumes -an interesting form in a characteristic feature of the language-invention -of both children and savages, <i>viz.</i>, the formation of -compound words. These compounds are often true metaphors. -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 lid. It is much the -same when M. at the age of one year nine months invented -the expression ‘bwite (bright) penny’ for silver pieces. A -slightly different example is the compound ‘foot-wing’ -invented by the child C. to describe the limb of a seal. As -a further variety of this metaphoric formation I may quote -the pretty name ‘tell-wind’ which a boy of four years and -eight months hit upon as a name for the weather-vane.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In these and similar cases, there is at once an analogical -transference of meaning (<i>e.g.</i>, from curtain to lid) or process -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>of generalisation, and a limitation of meaning by the -appended or qualifying word ‘eye’ and so a process of -specialisation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In certain cases the analogical extension gives place -to what we should call a classification. One child for -example, knowing the word steam-ship and wanting the -name sailing-ship, invented the form ‘wind-ship’. The little -girl M., when one year and nine months old, showed quite -a passion for classing by help of compounds, arranging the -rooms into ‘morner-room,’ ‘dinner-room’ (she was fond of -adding ‘er’ at this time) and ‘nursery-room’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 name, as in the French -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>moulin à vent, cygne noir</i></span>. I have heard of one English -child who used the form ‘mill-wind’ in preference to ‘wind-mill,’ -and the order ‘dog black’ in preference to ‘black dog’. -It would be worth while to note any similar instances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In these inventions, again, we may detect a close resemblance -between children’s language and that of savages. In -presence of a new object a savage behaves very much as a -child, he shapes a new name out of familiar ones, a name -that commonly has much of the metaphorical character. -Thus the Aztecs called a boat a ‘water-house’; and the -Vancouver islanders when they saw a screw-steamer called -it the ‘kick-kicket’.<a id='r98' /><a href='#f98' class='c011'><sup>[98]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>A somewhat different class of word-inventions is that -in which a child frames a new word on the analogy -of known words. A common case is the invention -of new substantives from verbs after the pattern of other -substantives. The results are often quaint enough. Sometimes -it is the agent who is named by the new word, as -when the boy C. talked of the ‘Rainer,’ the fairy who -makes rain, or when another little boy dubbed a teacher -the ‘lessoner’. Sometimes it is the product of the action -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>that is named, as when the same child C. and the deaf-mute -Laura Bridgman both invented the form ‘thinks’ for -‘thoughts’. In much the same way a boy of three called -the holes which he dug in his garden his ‘digs’. The reverse -process, the formation of a verb from a substantive, -also occurs. Thus one child invented the form ‘dag’ for -striking with a dagger; and Preyer’s boy when two years -and two months old formed the verb <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘messen’</span> to express -cut from the substantive <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘messer’</span> (a knife). It was -probably a similar process when the child M. at one year -ten months, after seeing a motionless worm and being told -that it was dead, asked to see another worm ‘deading’. -The same child coined the neat verb-form ‘unparcel’. -This readiness to form verbs from substantives and <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>vice -versâ</i></span>, which is abundantly illustrated in the development -of language, is without doubt connected with the primitive -and natural mode of thinking. The object is of greatest -interest both to the child and to primitive man as an agent, -or as the last stage or result of an action.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In certain of these original formations we may detect -a fine feeling for verbal analogy. Thus a French boy, -after killing the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘limaces’</span> (snails) which were eating -the plants in the garden, dignified his office by styling -himself a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘limarcier’</span>; where the inventive faculty was no -doubt led by the analogy of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘voiturier’</span> formed from -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘voiture’</span>.<a id='r99' /><a href='#f99' class='c011'><sup>[99]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In other verbal formations it is difficult to determine -the model which is followed. Signorina Lombroso -gives a good example. A little girl of two and a half -years had observed that when her mother allowed her -to take, eat, or drink something, she would say ‘prendilo’ -(take it), ‘bevilo’ (drink it), or ‘mangialo’ (eat it). She proceeded -to make a kind of adjective or substantive out of -each of these, asking <span lang="it" xml:lang="it">‘é prendilo?’ ‘é bevilo?’ ‘é mangialo?’</span> -<i>i.e.</i>, ‘Is it takable or a case of taking?’ etc., when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>she wanted to take, drink, or eat something.<a id='r100' /><a href='#f100' class='c011'><sup>[100]</sup></a> By such -skilful artifices does the little word-builder find his way to -the names which he has need of.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 it. Thus a boy of four -spoke of being ‘sorrified,’ where he was evidently led out of -the right track by the analogy of ‘horrified’. The same little -boy who talked of his ‘digs’ used the word ‘magnicious’ -for ‘magnificent’. This is a choice example of word-transformation. -No doubt the child was led by the feeling -for the sound of this termination in other grand words, as -‘ambitious’. Possible, too, he might have heard the form -‘magnesia’ and been influenced by a reminiscence of this -sound-complex. The talk of ‘Jeames’ with which Mr. -Punch makes us acquainted is full of just such delightful -missings of the mark in trying to reproduce big words.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Sentence-building.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>We may now follow the child in his later and more -ambitious linguistic efforts. The transition to this higher -plane is marked by the use of the completed form of -thought, the sentence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At first, as already pointed out, there is no sentence-structure. -The child begins to talk by using single words. -These words consist of what we call substantives, as -‘Mamma,’ ‘nurse,’ ‘milk,’ a few adjectives, as ‘hot,’ ‘nice,’ -‘good,’ a still smaller number of adverbial signs, as ‘ta-ta,’ -or ‘away,’ ‘over,’ ‘down,’ ‘up,’ and one or two verb-forms, -apparently imperatives, as ‘go’. The exact order in -which these appear, and the proportion between the -different classes of constituents at a particular age, say -two and a half or three, appear to vary greatly. Words -<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>descriptive of actions, though very few at first, appear to -grow numerous in a later stage.<a id='r101' /><a href='#f101' class='c011'><sup>[101]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In speaking of these words as substantives, adjectives, -and so forth, I am merely adopting a convenient mode of -description. We must not suppose that the words as used -in this simple disjointed talk have their full grammatical -value. It is not generally recognised that the single-worded -utterance of the child is an abbreviated sentence or -‘sentence-word’ analogous to the sentence-words found in -the simplest known stage of adult language. As with the race -so with the child, the sentence precedes the word. Moreover, -each of the child’s so-called words in his single-worded -talk stands for a considerable variety of sentence-forms. -Thus the words in the child’s vocabulary which we call -substantives do duty for verbs and so forth. As Preyer -remarks, ‘chair’ (<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">stuhl</span>) means ‘There is no chair,’ ‘I -want to be put in the chair,’ ‘The chair is broken,’ and -so forth. In like manner ‘dow’ (down) may mean ‘The -spoon has fallen down,’ ‘I am down,’ ‘I want to go down,’ -etc.<a id='r102' /><a href='#f102' class='c011'><sup>[102]</sup></a> The particular shade of meaning intended is indicated -by intonation and gesture.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This sentence-construction begins with a certain -timidity. The age at which it is first observed varies -greatly. It seems in most cases to be somewhere about -the twenty-first month, yet I find good observers among -my correspondents giving as dates eighteen and a half -and nineteen months; and a friend of mine, a Professor -of Literature, tells me that his boy formed simple -sentences as early as fifteen months. We commonly have -at first quite short sentences formed by two words in -apposition. These may consist of what we should call -an adjective added to and qualifying a substantive, as -in the simple utterance of the child C., ‘Big bir’ (bird), -or the exclamation, ‘Papa no’ (Papa’s nose); or they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>may arise by a combination of substantives, as in the -sentence given by Tracy, ‘Papa cacker,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘Papa has -crackers,’ and one quoted by Preyer, ‘Auntie cake’ -(German, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Danna Kuha,’</span> <i>i.e.</i>, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Tante Kuche’</span>) for ‘Auntie -has given me cake’; and in a somewhat different example -of a compound sentence also given by Preyer, ‘Home -milk’ (German, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Haim Mimi’</span>), interpreted as ‘I want to -go home and have milk’. In the case of one child about -the age of twenty-three months most of the sentences were -composed of two words, one of which was a verb in the -imperative. The love of commanding, so strong in the -child, makes the use of the imperative, as is seen in this -case, very common. M.’s first performance in sentence-building -(at eighteen and a half months) was, ‘Mamma, -tie,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘tie gloves’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Little by little the learner manages longer sentences, -economising his resources to the utmost, troubling nothing -about inflections or the insertion of prepositions so as to -indicate precise relations, but leaving his hearer to discover -his meaning as best he may; and it is truly wonderful -how much the child manages to express in this rude -fashion. A boy nineteen and a half months old gave this -elaborate order to his father: ‘Dada toe toe ba,’ that is, -‘Dada is to go and put his toes in the bath’. Pollock’s -little girl in the first essay at sentence-building, recorded -at the age of twenty-one and a half months, actually -managed a neat antithesis: ‘Cabs dati, clam clin,’ that is -to say, ‘Cabs are dirty, and the perambulator is clean’. -Preyer’s boy in the beginning of the third year brought -out the following, ‘Mimi atta teppa papa oi,’ that is to say, -‘Milch atta Teppich Papa fui,’ which appears to have -signified, “The milk is gone, it is on the carpet, and papa -said ‘Fie’”. It may be added that the difficulties of -deciphering these early sentences is aggravated by the -frequent resort to slurs, as when a child says, ‘m’ out’ for -‘take me out,’ ‘’t on’ for ‘put it on’.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>The order of words in these first tentative sentences -is noticeable. Sometimes the subject is placed after -the predicate, as in an example given by Pollock, -‘Run away man,’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘The man runs (or has run) away,’ -and in the still quainter example given by the same writer, -‘Out-pull-baby ’pecs (spectacles),’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘Baby pulls or will -pull out the spectacles’. In like manner the adjective -used as predicate may precede the subject, as in the -examples given by Maillet, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Jolie la fleur,’</span> etc.<a id='r103' /><a href='#f103' class='c011'><sup>[103]</sup></a> Sometimes, -again, the object comes before the verb, as apparently -in the following example given by Miss Shinn: -a little girl delighted at the prospect of going out to see -the moon exclaimed, “Moo-ky (sky), baby shee (see)”.<a id='r104' /><a href='#f104' class='c011'><sup>[104]</sup></a> -Here is a delightful example of a transposition of subject -and object. A boy two years and three months asked, -‘Did Ack (Alec) chocke an apple?’ <i>i.e.</i>, ‘Did an apple -choke Alec?’ though in this case we very probably have to -do with a misunderstanding of the action choke. Other -kinds of inversion occur when more complex experiments -are attempted, as in connecting ‘my’ with an adjective. -Thus one child said prettily, ‘Poor my friends’;<a id='r105' /><a href='#f105' class='c011'><sup>[105]</sup></a> which -archaic form may be compared with the following Gallic-looking -idiom used by M. at the age of one year ten -months: ‘How Babba (baby, <i>i.e.</i>, herself) does feed nicely!’ -The same little girl put the auxiliary out of its place, -saying, ‘Tan (can) Babba wite’ for ‘Baby can write,’ -though this was probably a reminiscence of the question-form.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These inversions of our familiar order are suggestive. -They have some resemblance to the curious order which -appears in the spontaneous sign-making of deaf-mutes. -Thus a deaf-mute answered the question, ‘Who made God?’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>by saying, “God made nothing,” <i>i.e.</i>, “nothing made God”. -Similarly the deaf-mute Laura Bridgman expressed the -petition, ‘Give Laura bread,’ by the form, ‘Laura bread -give.’<a id='r106' /><a href='#f106' class='c011'><sup>[106]</sup></a> Such inversions, as we know, are allowable and -common in certain languages, <i>e.g.</i>, Latin. 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 one.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A somewhat similar inversion of what seems to us the -proper order appears in the child’s first attempts at negation. -The child C. early in his third year expressed the idea that -he was not going into the sea thus: ‘N. (his own name) go -in water, no’. Similarly Pollock’s child expressed acquiescence -in a prohibition in this manner, ‘Baby have -papa (pepper) no,’ where the ‘no’ followed without a pause. -The same order appears in the case of French children, <i>e.g.</i>, -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Papa non,’</span> <i>i.e.</i>, ‘It is not Papa,’ and seems to be a common, -if not a universal form of the first half-spontaneous sentence-building. -Here again we see an analogy to the syntax of -deaf-mutes, who appear to append the sign of negation in -a similar way, <i>e.g.</i>, ‘Teacher I beat, deceive, scold no,’ <i>i.e.</i>, -‘I must not beat, deceive, scold my teacher’. We see -something like it, too, in the formations of savage-languages, -as when ‘fool no’ comes to be the sign of ‘not fool,’ that is -of wise.<a id='r107' /><a href='#f107' class='c011'><sup>[107]</sup></a> When ‘not’ comes into use it is apt to be put in -a wrong place, as when the little girl M. said, ‘No Babba -look’ (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘Babba will not look’), and ‘Mr. Dill not did tum’ -for ‘Mr. Gill did not come’.<a id='r108' /><a href='#f108' class='c011'><sup>[108]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Another closely related characteristic of this early -childish sentence-building is the love of antithesis under the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>form of two balancing statements. Thus a child will often -oppose an affirmative to a negative statement as a means of -bringing out the full meaning of the former. The boy C., -for example, would say, ‘This a nice bow-wow, not nasty -bow-wow’. The little girl M. said, ‘Boo (the name of her -cat) dot (got) tail; poor Babba dot no tail,’ proceeding to -search for a tail under her skirts. 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 negations. Thus an -orange was described by the saying, ‘No, ’tisn’t apple,’ -porridge by ‘No, ’tisn’t bread and milk’. It is interesting -to note that deaf-mutes proceed in a similar fashion by way -of antithetic negative statement. Thus one of these expressed -the thought, ‘I must love and honour my teacher,’ -by the order, ‘Teacher I beat, deceive, scold no!—I love -honour yes!’<a id='r109' /><a href='#f109' class='c011'><sup>[109]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 meaning. Taine -gives a charming example of this device. A little girl -of eighteen months had acquired the word ‘Coucou’ as -used by her mother or nurse when playfully hiding behind -a door or chair, and the expression <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘ça brûle’</span> as employed -to warn her that her dinner was too hot, or that she must -put on her hat in the garden to keep off the hot sun. One -day on seeing the sun disappear behind a hill she exclaimed, -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘A bûle coucou’</span>.<a id='r110' /><a href='#f110' class='c011'><sup>[110]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>It is a fearful moment when the child first tries his hand -at inflections, and, more especially in our language, those -of verbs. Pollock’s child made the attempt, and successfully, -at the age of twenty-two months. Such first essays -<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>are probably examples of pure imitation, the precise forms -used having been previously heard from others. Hence -while they show a growing power of thought, of a differencing -of the relations of number and time, they do not involve -verbal construction properly so called. This last appears -as soon as the child carries over his knowledge of particular -cases of verbal inflection and applies it to new words. -This involves a nascent appreciation of the reason or rule -according to which words are modified. The development -of this feeling for the general mode of verbal change underlies -all the later advance in correct speaking.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While the little explorer in the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>terra incognita</i></span> of language -can proceed safely in this direction up to a certain -point he is apt, as we all know, to stumble now and again; -nor is this to be wondered at when we remember the intricacies, -the irregularities, which characterise a language -like ours. In trying, for example, to manage the preterite -of an English verb he is certain, as, indeed, is the foreigner, -to go wrong. The direction of the error is often in the -transformation of the weak to the strong form; as when -‘screamed’ becomes ‘scram,’ ‘split’ (preterite) ‘splat’ or -‘splut,’ and so forth. In other cases the child wall convert -a strong into a weak form, as when Laura Bridgman, like -many another child, would say, ‘I eated,’ ‘I seed,’ and so -forth.<a id='r111' /><a href='#f111' class='c011'><sup>[111]</sup></a> Sometimes, again, delightful doublings of the past -tense occur, as ‘sawed’ for ‘saw,’ ‘eatened’ for ‘eaten,’ -‘didn’t saw’ for ‘didn’t see,’ ‘did you gave me?’ for ‘did -you give me?’ Active and passive forms are sometimes -confused, as when M. said ‘not yike being picking up’ for -‘not like being picked up,’ etc. It is curious to note the -different lines of imitative construction followed out in these -cases.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One thing seems clear here: the child’s instinct is to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>simplify our forms, to get rid of irregularities. This is -strikingly illustrated in the use of the heterogeneous -assemblage of forms known as the verb ‘to be’. It is -really hard on a child to expect him to answer the question, -‘Are you good now?’ by saying, ‘Yes, I am’. He says, of -course, ‘Yes, I are’. Perhaps the poor verb ‘to be’ has -suffered every kind of violence at the hands of children.<a id='r112' /><a href='#f112' class='c011'><sup>[112]</sup></a> -Thus the child M. used the form ‘bēd’ for ‘was’. Professor -Max Müller somewhere says that children are the -purifiers of language. Would it not be well if they could -become its simplifiers also, and give us in place of this congeries -of unrelated sounds one good decent verb-form?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Other quaint transformations occur when the child -begins to combine words, as when M. joining adverb to -verb invented the form of past tense ‘fall downed’ for -‘fell down’. Another queer form is ‘Am’t I?’ used for -‘am I not?’ after the pattern of ‘aren’t we?’ An even -finer linguistic stroke than this, is ‘Bettern’t you?’ for -‘Had you not better?’ where the child was evidently -trying to get in the form ‘hadn’t you,’ along with the -awkward ‘better,’ which seemed to belong to the ‘had,’ -and solved the problem by treating ‘better’ as the verb, -and dropping ‘had’ altogether.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A study of these solecisms, which are nearly always -amusing, and sometimes daintily pretty, is useful to mothers -and young teachers by way of showing how much hard -work, how much of real conjectural inference, enters into -children’s essays in talking. We ought not to wonder -that they now and again slip; rather ought we to wonder -that, 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 rarely. As a matter -of fact, the latter and more ‘correct’ talk—which is correct -<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>just because the child has stored up a good stock of particular -word-forms, and consequently has a much wider -range of pure uninventive imitation—is less admirable than -the early inventive imitation; for this last not only has the -quality of originality, but shows the germ of a truly grammatical -feeling for the general types or norms of the -language.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The English child is not much troubled by inflections -of substantives. The pronouns, however, as intelligent -mothers know, are apt to cause much heart-burning to the -little linguist. The mastery of ‘I’ and ‘you,’ ‘me,’ <a id='corr178.11'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='mine,’'>‘mine,’</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_178.11'><ins class='correction' title='mine,’'>‘mine,’</ins></a></span> -etc., forms an epoch in the development of the linguistic -faculty and of the power of thought which is so closely -correlated with this. Hence it will repay a brief inspection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As is well known, children begin by speaking of themselves -and of those whom they address by names, as when -they say, ‘Baby good,’ ‘Mamma come’. This is sometimes -described as speaking “in the third person,” yet this is not -quite accurate, seeing that there is as yet no distinction of -person at all in the child’s language.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first use of ‘I’ and ‘you’ between two and -three years is apt to be erroneous. The child proceeds -imitatively to use ‘I,’ ‘me,’ ‘my’ for ‘you’ and ‘your’. -Thus one child said, ‘What I’m going to do,’ for, -‘What are you going to do?’ In this case, it is plain, -there is no clear grasp of what we mean by subject, or -of the exact relation of this subject to the person he is -addressing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet along with this mechanical repetition of the -pronominal forms we see the beginnings of an intelligent -use of them. So far as I can ascertain most -children begin to say ‘me’ or ‘my’ before they say -‘you’. Yet I have met with one or two apparent exceptions -to this rule. Thus the boy C. certainly seemed -to get hold of the form of the second person before that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>of the first, and the priority of ‘you’ is attested in another -case sent to me. It is desirable to get more observations -on this point.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To determine the exact date at which an intelligent use -of the first person appears, is much less easy than it looks. -The ‘I’ is apt to appear momentarily and then disappear, -as when M. at the age of nineteen months three -weeks was observed to say ‘I did’ once, though she did -not use ‘I’ again until some time afterwards. Allowing -for these difficulties it may be said with some degree of -confidence that the great transition from ‘baby’ to ‘I’ is -wont to take place in favourable cases early in the first half -of the third year. Thus among the dates assigned by different -observers I find, twenty-four months, twenty-five months -(cases given by Preyer), between twenty-five and twenty-six -(Pollock), twenty-seven months (the boy C.). A lady -friend tells me that her boy began to use ‘I’ at twenty-four -months. In the case of a certain number of precocious -children this point is attained at an earlier date. Thus -Preyer quotes a case of a child speaking in the first person -at twenty months. Schultze gives a case at nineteen -months. A friend of mine, a Professor of English Literature, -whose boy showed great precocity in sentence-building, -reports that he used the forms ‘me’ and ‘I’ within the -sixteenth month. Preyer’s boy, on the other hand, who -was evidently somewhat slow in lingual development, first -used the form of the first person ‘to me’ (mir) at the age -of twenty-nine months.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The precise way in which these pronominal forms first -appear is very curious. Many children use ‘me’ before ‘I’. -Preyer’s boy appears to have first used the form ‘to me’ -(mir). ‘My’ too is apt to appear among the earliest forms. -In such different ways does the child pass to the new and -difficult region of pronominal speech.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The meaning of this transition has given rise to much -discussion. It is plain, to begin with, that a child cannot -<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>acquire these forms as he acquires the name ‘papa,’ -‘nurse,’ by a direct and comparatively mechanical mode -of imitation. When he does imitate in this fashion he -produces, as we have seen, the absurdity of speaking of -himself as ‘you’. Hence during the first year or so of -speech he makes no use of these forms. He speaks of -himself as ‘baby’ or some equivalent name, others coming -down to his level and setting him the example.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The transition seems to be due in part, as I have -elsewhere pointed out, to a growing self-consciousness, to a -clearer singling out of the <em>ego</em> or self as the centre of -thought and activity, and the understanding of the other -‘persons’ in relation to this centre. Not that self-consciousness -<em>begins</em> with the use of ‘I’. The child has no -doubt a rudimentary self-consciousness when he talks -about himself as about another object: yet the use of the -forms ‘I,’ ‘me,’ may be taken to mark the greater precision -of the idea of ‘self’ as not merely a bodily object and -nameable just like other sensible things, but as something -distinct from and opposed to all objects of sense, as what -we call the ‘subject’ or <em>ego</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While, however, we may set down this exchange of the -proper name for the forms ‘I’ and ‘me’ as due to the -spontaneous growth of the child’s intelligence, it is possible -that education exerts its influence too. It is conjecturable -that as a child’s intelligence grows, others in speaking -to him tend unknowingly to introduce the forms ‘I’ and -‘you’ more frequently. Yet I am disposed to think that -the child commonly takes the lead here. However this -be, it is clear that growing intelligence, involving greater -interest in others’ words, will lead to a closer attention to -these pronominal forms as employed by others. In this -way the environment works on the growing mind of the -child, stimulating it to direct its thoughts to these subtle -relations of the ‘me and not me,’ ‘mine and thine’. The -more intelligent the environment the greater will be the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>stimulating influence: hence, in part at least, the difference -of age when the new style of speech is attained.<a id='r113' /><a href='#f113' class='c011'><sup>[113]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The acquirement of these pronominal forms is a slow -and irksome business. At first they are introduced hesitatingly, -and alongside of the proper name; the child, -for example, saying sometimes, ‘Baby’ or ‘Ilda,’ sometimes -‘I’ or ‘me’. In some cases, again, the two forms are -used at the same time in apposition, as in the delightful -form not unknown in older folk’s language, ‘Hilda, my -book’. The forms ‘I’ and ‘me’ are, moreover, confined -at first to a few expressions, as ‘I am,’ ‘I went,’ and so -forth. The dropping of the old forms, as may be seen by -a glance at the notes on the child C., and at Preyer’s -methodical diary, is a gradual process.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Quaint solecisms mark the first stages of the use of -these pronouns. As in the case of the earlier use of -substantives, one and the same form will be used economically -for a variety of meanings, as when ‘me’ was by -the boy C. used to do duty for ‘mine’ also, and ‘us’ for -‘ours’. Here it is probable there is a lack of perfect discrimination. -The connexion between the self and its belongings -is for all of us of the closest. When a child of two, -who was about to be deprived of her doll, shouted, ‘Me, -me!’ may we not suppose that the doll was taken up into -the inner circle of the self?<a id='r114' /><a href='#f114' class='c011'><sup>[114]</sup></a> Sometimes in this enrichment -of the vocabulary by pronouns new and delightful forms -are struck off, as when the little experimenter invents the -possessive form ‘she’s’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The perfect unfettered use of these puzzling forms -comes much later. Preyer quotes a case in which a child -<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>Olga, aged four years, would say, ‘She has made me wet,’ -meaning that she herself had done it. But this perhaps -points to that tendency to split up the self into a number -of personalities, to which reference was made in an earlier -essay.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The third year, which witnesses the important addition -of the pronouns, sees other refinements introduced. Thus -the definite article was introduced in the case of Preyer’s -boy in the twenty-eighth month, in that of an English boy -at the age of two years eight months. Prepositions are -introduced about the same time. In this way childish -talk begins to lose its primitive disjointed character, and -to grow into an articulated structure.<a id='r115' /><a href='#f115' class='c011'><sup>[115]</sup></a> Yet the perfect -mastery of these takes time. A feeling for analogy easily -leads the little explorer astray at first, as when the child -M. said ‘far to’ after the model ‘near to’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Through this whole period of language-learning the -child continues to show his originality, his inventiveness. -He is rarely at a loss, and though the gaps in his verbal -acquisitions are great he is very skilful in filling them up. -If, for example, our bright little linguist M., at the age of -one year eight and a half months, after being jumped by -her father, wants him to jump her mother also, she says, in -default of the word ‘jump,’ “Make mamma high”. A boy -of twenty-seven months ingeniously said, ‘It rains off,’ for -‘The rain has left off’. Forms are sometimes combined, -as when a boy of three years three months used ‘my lone,’ -‘your lone,’ for ‘me alone’ or ‘by myself,’ ‘you alone’ or -‘by yourself’. Another girl, two years ten months, said, -‘No two ’tatoes left,’ meaning ‘only one potato is left’. -Pleonasms occur in abundance, as when a boy of two -would say, ‘Another one bicca (biscuit),’ and, better still, -‘another more’.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span> - <h3 class='c017'><i>Getting at our Meanings.</i></h3> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>There is one part of this child’s work of learning our -language of which I have said hardly anything, <i>viz.</i>, the -divining of the verbal content, of the meaning we put or try -to put into our words. A brief reference to this may well -bring this study of childish linguistics to a close.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 language. 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 hieroglyphics. Just think, -for example, how many careful comparisons the small child-brain -has to carry out, comparisons of the several uses of -the word by others in varying circumstances, before he can -get anything approaching to a clear idea, answering even -to such seemingly simple words as ‘clean,’ ‘old’ or ‘clever’. -The way in which inquiring children plague us with questions -of the form, ‘What does such and such a word mean?’ -sufficiently shows how much thought-activity goes in the -trying to get at meanings. This difficulty, moreover, -persists, reappearing in new forms as the child pushes his -way onwards into the more tangled tracts of the lingual -terrain. It is felt, and felt keenly, too, when most of the -torments of articulation are over and forgotten. Many of -us can remember how certain words haunted us as uncanny -forms into the nature of which we tried hard, but in vain, to -penetrate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Owing to these difficulties the little learner is always -drifting into misunderstanding of words. 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 hearing. In this way, for example, -general terms may become terribly restricted in range -by the incorporation of accidentals into their meaning, as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>when a Sunday school scholar rendered the story of the -good Samaritan by saying that a gentleman came by and -poured some paraffin (<i>i.e.</i>, oil) over the poor man. A word -may have its meaning funnily transformed by such associative -suggestions, as when a little girl, being told that a -thing was a secret, remarked, ‘Well, mamma, ’ou (you) -can whisper it in my ear’. As this example shows, a -child in his ‘concreting’ fashion tries to get sensible -realities out of our names. A mask was called by a boy of -six a ‘grimace,’ this abstract name standing to his mind for -the grinning face. A like tendency shows itself in the -following quaint story. A boy and a girl, twins, had been -dressed alike. Later on the boy was put into a ‘suit’. A -lady asked the girl about this time whether they were not -the twins, when she replied: ‘No, we <em>used</em> to be’. ‘Twin’ -was inseparably associated in her mind with the similarity -in dress. A somewhat similar effect of association of ideas -is seen in the quaint request of the little girl M. that her -mamma should ‘smell’ the pudding and make it cool. -The action of bringing the face near an object yet so as -not to touch it was associated with smelling, as in the -little girl who, according to Mr. Punch, had her sense of -propriety shocked by some irreverent person who did not -“smell his hat” when he took his seat in church. Moral -expressions get misunderstood in much the same manner. -A little girl of three and a half years, pretending that her -mother was her little girl, said: ‘You mustn’t do anything -<em>on purpose</em>’. The usual verbal context of this highly-respectable -phrase (<i>e.g.</i>, ‘You did it on purpose’) had in -the child’s mind given it a naughty meaning.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 expressions, and our short and elliptical -modes of speaking. Thus an American child, noting that -children were ‘half price’ at a certain show, wanted his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>mother to get a baby now that they were cheap.<a id='r116' /><a href='#f116' class='c011'><sup>[116]</sup></a> With -this may be compared the following: 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 ‘had a bone in his leg’.<a id='r117' /><a href='#f117' class='c011'><sup>[117]</sup></a> -Much misapprehension arises, too, from our figurative use -of language, which the little listener is apt to interpret in a -very literal way. It would be worth knowing what odd -renderings the child-brain has given to such expressions as -‘an upright man,’ ‘a fish out of water,’ and the like.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In addition to these comparatively passive misapprehensions -there are others which are the outcome of an intellectual -effort, the endeavour to penetrate into the mystery of some -new and puzzling words or expression. Many of us have -had our special horror, our <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>bête noire</i></span> among words, which -tormented us for months and years. I remember how -I was plagued by the word ‘wean,’ the explanation of which -was very properly, no doubt, denied me by the authorities, -and by what quaint fancies I tried to fill in a meaning.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As with words, so with whole expressions and sayings. -It was a natural movement of childish thought when a little -school-girl answered the question of the Inspector, ‘What -is an average?’ by saying ‘What the hen lays eggs on’. -She had heard her mother say, “The hen lays so many eggs -‘on the average’ every week,” and had no doubt imagined -a little myth about this ‘average’. Again, most of us know -what queer renderings the child-mind has given to Scripture -language. Mr. James Payn tells us that he knew a boy -who for years substituted for the words, ‘Hallowed be thy -name,’ ‘Harold be thy name’.<a id='r118' /><a href='#f118' class='c011'><sup>[118]</sup></a> In this and similar cases it -is not, as might be supposed, defective hearing—children -hear words as a rule with great exactness—it is the impulse -<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>to give a familiar and significant rendering to what is strange -and meaningless.<a id='r119' /><a href='#f119' class='c011'><sup>[119]</sup></a> A friend of mine when a boy was accustomed -on hearing the passage, ‘If I say peradventure the -darkness shall cover me,’ etc., to insert a pause after ‘peradventure,’ -apprehending the passage in this wise: "If I say -‘Peradventure!’—the darkness," etc. In this way he turned -the mysterious ‘peradventure’ into a mystic ‘open sesame,’ -and added a thrilling touch of magic to the passage. My -friend’s daughter tells me that on hearing the passage, “I ... -visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third -and fourth generation, ... and show mercy unto thousands,” -she construed the strange word ‘generation’ to mean an immense -number like ‘billion,’ and was thus led to trouble -herself about God’s seeming to be more cruel than kind.<a id='r120' /><a href='#f120' class='c011'><sup>[120]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In some cases, too, where the language is simple enough -a child’s brain will find our meaning unsuitable and follow -a line of interpretation of its own. Mr. Canton relates that -his little heroine, who knew the lines in <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Strumpelpeter</cite></span>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The doctor came and shook his head,</div> - <div class='line'>And gave him nasty physic too—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>was told that she would catch a cold, and that she at once -replied, “And will the doctor come and shook my head?”<a id='r121' /><a href='#f121' class='c011'><sup>[121]</sup></a> -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 patient.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is nothing more instructive in this connexion -than the talk of children among themselves about words. -They build up quaint speculations about meanings, and -try their hand bravely at definitions. Here is an example: -<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>A boy of five was instructing his comrade as to the puzzling -word ‘home-sick’. He did it in quite a scientific fashion. -“It’s like sea-sick, you know: you are sea-sick when you -are sick at sea, and so you’re home-sick when you’re sick -at home”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is something of this same desire to get behind -words in children’s word-play, as we call it, their discovery -of odd affinities in verbal sounds, and their punning. Though -no doubt this contains a genuine element of childish -fun, it betokens a more serious trait also, an interest in -word-sounds as such, and a curiosity about their origin -and purpose. It is difficult for grown-up people to go -back in thought to the attitude of the child-mind towards -verbal sounds. Just as children show ‘the innocence of -the eye’ in seeing the colours of objects as they are and -not as our habits of interpretation tend to make them, so -they show an innocence of the ear, catching the intrinsic -sensuous qualities of a word or a group of words, in a way -which has become impossible for us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This half-playful, half-serious scrutiny of word-sounds -leads to the attempt to find by analysis and analogy a -familiar meaning in strange words. For example, a little -boy about four years old heard his mother speak of nurse’s -neuralgia, from which she had been suffering for some time. -He thereupon exclaimed, ‘I don’t think it’s <em>new</em> ralgia, I -call it <em>old</em> ralgia’. A child called his doll <a id='corr187.26'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Shakespeare’'>‘Shakespeare’</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_187.26'><ins class='correction' title='Shakespeare’'>‘Shakespeare’</ins></a></span> -because its spear-like legs could be shaken. Another boy -of three explained ‘gaiters’ as things ‘to go out of the gate -with’. Another said that the ‘Master’ which he prefixed -to his name meant that he was master of his dog. A little -girl in her third year called ‘anchovies’ <a id='corr187.31'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='‘ham-chovies,'>‘ham-chovies’</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_187.31'><ins class='correction' title='‘ham-chovies,'>‘ham-chovies’</ins></a></span> -‘mermaid’ ‘worm-maid,’ ‘whirlwind’ ‘world-wind,’ ‘gnomes’ -‘no-mans’ (un-menschen), 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 her. A child -<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>may know that he is ‘fooling’ in such cases, yet the word-play -brings a certain satisfaction, which is at least akin to -the pleasure of the older linguist.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This quasi-punning transformation of words is curiously -like what may be called folk-etymology, where a foreign -word is altered by a people so as to be made to appear -significant and suitable for its purpose, as in the oft-quoted -forms ‘sparrow grass’ (asparagus) and ‘cray-fish’ (from the -French <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">écrevisse</span>, <i>cf.</i> the O. H. German Krebiz), where the -attempt to suit the form to the thing is still more apparent.<a id='r122' /><a href='#f122' class='c011'><sup>[122]</sup></a> -When, for example, a boy calls a holiday a ‘hollorday,’ -because it is a day ‘to holloa in,’ we may say that he is -reflecting the process by which adults try to put meaning -into strange words, as when a cabman I overheard a few -days ago spoke about putting down <em>ash</em>phalt (for ‘asphalt’). -Some children carry out such transformation and invention -of derivation on a large scale, often resorting to pretty myths, -as when the butterflies are said to make butter, or to eat -butter, grasshoppers to give grass, honeysuckles to yield -all the honey, and so forth.<a id='r123' /><a href='#f123' class='c011'><sup>[123]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>A child will even go further, and, prying into the forms -of gender, invent explanatory myths in which words are -personified and sexualised. 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 moon. So he set about myth-making on this -wise: “I suppose people<a id='r124' /><a href='#f124' class='c011'><sup>[124]</sup></a> think the sun is the husband, the -moon is the wife, and all the stars the little children, and -Jupiter the maid”. A German girl of six was thus addressed -by her teacher: <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“‘Der’ ist männlich; Was sind -‘Die’ und ‘Das’?”</span> To which she replied prettily: <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">"Die ist -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>dämlich</span> (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘ladyish’) <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">und das ist kindlich".</span> The tendency -to attribute differences of sex and age to names observable -in this last is seen in other ways. An Italian child asked -why <span lang="it" xml:lang="it">‘barba’</span> (beard) was not called ‘barbo’. With this may -be compared the pretty myth of another Italian child that -<span lang="it" xml:lang="it">‘barca’</span> (boat) was the little girl of <span lang="it" xml:lang="it">‘barcainolo’</span> (boatman).<a id='r125' /><a href='#f125' class='c011'><sup>[125]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>One other characteristic feature in the child’s attitude -towards words must be touched on, because it looks like the -opposite of the impulse to tamper with words just dealt -with. A child is a great stickler for accuracy in the -repetition of all familiar word-forms. The zeal of a child -in correcting others’ language, and the comical errors he -will now and again fall into in exercising his pedagogic -function, are well known to parents. Sometimes he shows -himself the most absurd of pedants. ‘Shall I read to you -out of this book, baby?’ asked a mother of her boy, about -two and a half years old. ‘No,’ replied the infant, ‘not -<em>out</em> of dot book, but somepy inside of it.’ The same little -stickler for verbal accuracy, when his nurse asked him, ‘Are -you going to build your bricks, baby?’ replied solemnly, -‘We don’t build bricks, we make them and then build <em>with</em> -them’. In the notes on the boy C. we find an example of -how jealously the child-mind insists on the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ipsissima verba</i></span> -in the recounting of his familiar stories.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Are these little sticklers for verbal correctness, who object -to everything figurative in our language, who, when they -learn that a person or an animal has ‘lost his head,’ take -the expression literally, and who love nothing better than -tying us down to literal exactness, themselves given to -‘word-play’ and verbal myth-making, or have we here to -do with two varieties of childish mind? My observations -do not enable me to pronounce on this point.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have in this essay confined myself to some of the -more common and elementary features of the child’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>linguistic experience. Others present themselves when the -reading stage is reached, and the new strange stupid-looking -word-symbol on the printed page has to do duty for the -living sound, which for the child, as we have seen, seems to -belong to the object and to share in its life. But this subject, -tempting as it is, must be left. And the same must be -said of those special difficulties and problems which arise -for the child-mind when two or more languages are spoken. -This is a branch of child-linguistics which, so far as I know, -has never been explored.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f60'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r60'>60</a>. See Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, Cap. 20; <i>cf.</i> the account given by De la Calle, -Perez, <cite>First Three Years</cite>, p. 248. 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 (<cite>Pedagogical -Seminary</cite>, i., p. 132).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f61'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r61'>61</a>. Preyer’s boy first used consonants in the combinations <em>tahu</em>, <em>gö</em>, -(<em>rööö</em> = the French <em>eu</em>), <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 366; <i>cf.</i> Cap. 21.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f62'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r62'>62</a>. The nature of gesture, its relation to language proper, and its -prevalence in infancy, among imbecile children, deaf-mutes, etc., are -discussed by Romanes, <cite>Mental Evolution in Man</cite>, chap. vi.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f63'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r63'>63</a>. 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 Romanes, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 220.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f64'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r64'>64</a>. See Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 353, 390, 391.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f65'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r65'>65</a>. See the quotation from Lieber, in Taine’s <cite>On Intelligence</cite>, part ii., -book iv., chap. i. The sign for ‘I want to eat’ is in some cases -formed by a generalising process out of a sound supplied by -another, as the name of a particular edible. See the example given -by Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 362.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f66'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r66'>66</a>. See <cite>Mind</cite>, vol. ii., p. 293.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f67'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r67'>67</a>. See <cite>Mind</cite>, vol. ii., p. 255.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f68'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r68'>68</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 358.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f69'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r69'>69</a>. A fact that appears to tell against imitation here is that one -little boy of seventeen months used the sound ‘did’n’ for anything -to eat.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f70'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r70'>70</a>. Quoted by Romanes, <cite>Mental Evolution in Man</cite>, p. 143.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f71'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r71'>71</a>. The concerted cries during co-operative work to which Noirée -ascribes the origin of language-sounds would seem, while having a -special physiological cause as concomitant and probably auxiliary -motor processes, to be analogous at least to emotional cries, in so far -as they spring out of a peculiar condition of feeling, that of effort. -On the other hand, as <em>concerted</em> they came under the head of imitative -movements. So far as I can learn the nursery supplies no analogies -to these utterances.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f72'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r72'>72</a>. His brother when one year old called his nurse, whose real -name was Maud, Bur, which was probably a rough rendering of -‘nurse’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f73'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r73'>73</a>. For a summary of Professor Hale’s researches see Romanes, -<cite>Mental Evolution in Man</cite>, p. 138 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f74'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r74'>74</a>. Of course, as Max Müller says (<cite>The Science of Language</cite>, i., p. -481 f.), the facts ascertained do not prove that ‘infants <em>left to themselves</em> -would invent a language’. The influence of example, the -appeal to the imitative impulse, has been at work before the inventions -appear. Yet they do, I think, show that they have the sign-making -instinct, and might develop this to some extent even were -the educative influence of others’ language removed.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f75'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r75'>75</a>. Preyer’s boy gave the first distinct imitative response to -articulate sound in the eleventh month. This is, so far as I can -ascertain, behind the average attainment.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f76'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r76'>76</a>. Tracy, <cite>The Psychology of Childhood</cite>, p. 71.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f77'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r77'>77</a>. In the reduction of ‘Constance’ to ‘tun’ the same thing is -seen, for this child uniformly turned <em>k</em>’s into <em>t</em>’s. <i>Cf.</i> Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, -p. 397.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f78'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r78'>78</a>. It has been pointed out to me by Dr. Postgate that the secondary -stress on the first syllable of English words over four syllables -(and some four-syllabled words) may assist in impressing the first -syllable.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f79'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r79'>79</a>. Recent psychological experiments show that similar influences -are at work when a person attempts to repeat a long series of verbal -sounds, say ten or twelve nonsense syllables. Initial or final position -or accent may favour the reproduction of a member of such a series.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f80'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r80'>80</a>. Here again we see a similarity between a child’s repetition of a -name heard, and an adult’s attempt to repeat a long series of syllabic -sounds. In the latter case also there is a general tendency to preserve -the length and rhythmic form of the whole series.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f81'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r81'>81</a>. With the diphthong or glide <em>ī</em> may be taken <em>oi</em>, which was first -mastered by the child M. at the age of two years three months.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f82'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r82'>82</a>. I find according to the notes sent me that the sounds <em>s</em> and <em>sh</em> -develop unequally in the cases of different children. Some acquire -<em>s</em>, others <em>sh</em> before the other.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f83'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r83'>83</a>. See Sweet, <cite>History of English Sounds</cite>, p. 15.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f84'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r84'>84</a>. See Sievers, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Phonetik</cite></span>, p. 230.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f85'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r85'>85</a>. <i>Cf.</i> Pollock, <cite>Mind</cite>, vi., p. 436, and Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 434.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f86'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r86'>86</a>. The same child, capriciously as it might look, would sometimes -avoid <em>y</em>, as in saying ‘esh’ for ‘yes,’ though she regularly used this -sound as a substitute for <em>l</em>, saying ‘yook’ for ‘look,’ and so on.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f87'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r87'>87</a>. See Sweet, <cite>History of English Sounds</cite>, p. 33; <i>cf.</i> also the change -of ‘frith’ to ‘firth’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f88'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r88'>88</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 397.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f89'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r89'>89</a>. See Tylor, <cite>Primitive Culture</cite>, i., 198. On the taking up of baby -reduplications into language see the same work, i., 204. <i>Cf.</i> the same -writer’s <cite>Anthropology</cite>, p. 129.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f90'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r90'>90</a>. See above, p. 137; <i>cf.</i> Sievers, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Phonetik</cite></span>, p. 236.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f91'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r91'>91</a>. Dr. Postgate suggests that the current terms ‘progressive’ and -‘regressive’ would be better rendered by ‘retrospective’ and ‘prospective’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f92'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r92'>92</a>. As samples of the observations the following may be taken. A -friend tells me his boy when one year old used just 50 vocables. The -performances vary greatly. One American girl of twenty-two months -had 69, whereas another about the same age had 136, just twice the -number. A German girl eighteen months old is said by Preyer to -have used 119 words, and to have raised this to 435 in the next six -months. The composition of these early vocabularies will occupy us -presently.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f93'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r93'>93</a>. Quoted by Romanes, <cite>Mental Evolution in Man</cite>, p. 283.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f94'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r94'>94</a>. <cite>Logic</cite> (University Extension Manuals), pp. 83-84.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f95'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r95'>95</a>. See <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 420, also pp. 414 and 418.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f96'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r96'>96</a>. Paola Lombroso, <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>Saggi di Psicologia del Bambino</cite></span>, p. 16.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f97'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r97'>97</a>. See Trench’s account of poetry in words, <cite>On the Study of Words</cite>, -lect. vi.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f98'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r98'>98</a>. Tylor, <cite>Anthropology</cite>, chap. v.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f99'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r99'>99</a>. Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 249, where other examples are given.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f100'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r100'>100</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 12.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f101'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r101'>101</a>. For lists of vocabularies and an analysis of their composition see -Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i> (4th ed.), p. 372 ff.; Tracy, <cite>Psychology of Childhood</cite>, p. 76 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f102'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r102'>102</a>. See Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 361; Romanes, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 296 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f103'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r103'>103</a>. See Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 206.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f104'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r104'>104</a>. <cite>Notes on the Development of a Child</cite>, p. 84.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f105'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r105'>105</a>. Canton, <cite>The Invisible Playmate</cite>, p. 32, who adds that this exactly -answers to the form, “Good my lord!”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f106'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r106'>106</a>. See Romanes, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 116 f., where other examples may be -found.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f107'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r107'>107</a>. <cite>Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology</cite>, 1879-80, p. 391 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f108'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r108'>108</a>. It may be added that this child regularly used ‘not’ or ‘n’t’ as -a negating or cancelling sign for the whole sentence, saying, for example, -‘Babba mus’n’t go in,’ for ‘Babba may stay out’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f109'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r109'>109</a>. A curious example of negative antithesis is given by Perez, -<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 196. On other analogies between the syntax of children and -of deaf-mutes, see Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 251 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f110'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r110'>110</a>. <cite>On Intelligence</cite>, pt. i., bk. i., chap. ii., sect. vi.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f111'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r111'>111</a>. The same double tendency from weak to strong forms and <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>vice -versâ</i></span> is seen in the list of transformed past participles given by Preyer, -<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 360.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f112'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r112'>112</a>. <i>Cf.</i> Preyer’s account of a German child’s liberties with the -same verb, where we find <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘gebisst,’ ‘binnst,’</span> and other odd forms, -<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 438.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f113'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r113'>113</a>. Preyer (<i>op. cit.</i>, Cap. 22) seems to argue that children have a -clear self-consciousness before they attempt to use the forms ‘I,’ -etc.; and that the acquisition of the latter is due to imitation. But -he does not show why this imitation should begin to work so -powerfully at a particular period of linguistic development.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f114'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r114'>114</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f115'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r115'>115</a>. For a fuller account of this progress, the reader cannot do -better than consult Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, Cap. 20 and 21.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f116'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r116'>116</a>. Worcester Collection, p. 21.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f117'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r117'>117</a>. <i>Cf.</i> the account Goltz gives of the anxiety he felt as a child on -hearing that his uvula (zapfen) had ‘fallen down,’ <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 261.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f118'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r118'>118</a>. In the <cite>Illustrated London News</cite>, 30th June, 1894.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f119'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r119'>119</a>. Of course defective auditory apprehension may assist in these -cases. Goltz gives an example from his own childhood. He took -the words <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Namen nennen Dich nicht”</span> to be <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Namen nenne Dich -nicht,”</span> and was sorely puzzled at the idea of bidding a name not to -name itself.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f120'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r120'>120</a>. Psalm cxxxix. and Second Commandment, Prayer-book version.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f121'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r121'>121</a>. <cite>The Invisible Playmate</cite>, p. 35.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f122'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r122'>122</a>. The other form of the word, ‘craw-fish,’ seems a still more ingenious -example of folk-etymology.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f123'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r123'>123</a>. These last are taken from a good list of children’s punnings in -Dr. Stanley Hall’s article, “The Contents of Children’s Minds”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f124'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r124'>124</a>. That is, I take it, the majority, <i>viz.</i>, Italians and English.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f125'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r125'>125</a>. Both of these are given by Paola Lombroso in the work already -quoted.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span> - <h2 class='c004'>VI. <br /> SUBJECT TO FEAR.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Children’s Sensibility.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>In passing from a study of children’s ideas to an investigation -of their feelings, we seem to encounter quite another -kind of problem. A child has the germs of ideas long -before he can give them clear articulate expression; and, -as we have seen, he has at first to tax his ingenuity in -order to convey by intelligible signs the thoughts which -arise in his mind. For the manifestation of his feelings of -pleasure and pain, on the other hand, nature has endowed -him with adequate expression. The states of infantile -discontent and content, misery and gladness, pronounce -themselves with a clearness and an emphasis which leave -no room for misunderstanding.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 life. -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 sufferings, and we all know how well -nature has provided for this necessity. Hence the fulness -with which infant psychology has dealt with this first -chapter of the life of feeling. Preyer, for example, 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 appetite, and has carefully described their -physiological accompaniments and their signatures.<a id='r126' /><a href='#f126' class='c011'><sup>[126]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>When we pass from these elementary forms of pleasure -and pain to the rudiments of emotion proper, as the -miseries of fear, the sorrows and joys of the affections, -we have still, no doubt, to do with a mode of manifestation -which, on the whole, is direct and unreserved to a gratifying -extent. A child of three is delightfully incapable of the -skilful repressions, and the yet more skilful simulations -of emotion which are easy to the adult.<a id='r127' /><a href='#f127' class='c011'><sup>[127]</sup></a> Yet frank and -transparent as is the first instinctive utterance of feeling, -it is apt to get checked at an early date, giving place -to a certain reserve. So that, as we know from published -reminiscences of childhood, a child of six will have learnt -to hide some of his deepest feelings from unsympathetic -eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This shyness of the young heart, face to face with old -and strange ways of feeling, exposed to ridicule if not to -something worse, makes the problem of registering the -pulsations of its emotions more difficult than it at first seems. -As a matter of fact we are still far from knowing the precise -range and depth of children’s feelings. This is seen plainly -enough in the quite opposite views which are entertained of -childish sensibility, some describing it as restricted and -obtuse, others as morbidly excessive. Such diversity of -view may no doubt arise from differences in the fields of -observation, since, as we know, children differ hardly less -than adults perhaps in breadth and fineness of emotional -susceptibility. 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 emotion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It seems, then, to be worth while to look further into -the matter in the hope of gaining a deeper and fuller insight, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>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—namely, -fear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That fear is one of the characteristic feelings of the -child needs no proving. It seems to belong to these wee, -weakly things, brought face to face with a new strange -world, to tremble. They are naturally timid, as all that is -weak and ignorant in nature is apt to be timid.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have said that fear is well marked in the child. Yet, -though it is true that fully developed fear or terror shows -itself by unmistakable signs, there are many cases where -it is difficult to say whether the child is the subject of this -feeling. 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 state.<a id='r128' /><a href='#f128' class='c011'><sup>[128]</sup></a> -Again, the reflex movement of a start on hearing a sound -hardly amounts to the full reaction of fear, though it is akin -to it.<a id='r129' /><a href='#f129' class='c011'><sup>[129]</sup></a> A child may, further, show a sort of æsthetic dislike -for an ugly form or sound, turning away in evident aversion, -and yet not be afraid in the full sense. Fear proper betrays -itself in the stare, the grave look, and in such movements -as turning away and hiding the face against the nurse’s or -mother’s shoulder, and sometimes in covering it with the -hands. In severer forms it leads to trembling and to wild -shrieking. Changes of colour also occur. It is commonly -said that great fear produces paleness; but according to one -of my correspondents who has had considerable experience, -a child may show the feeling by his face turning scarlet. -Fear, if not very intense, leads to voluntary movements, as -turning away, putting the object aside, or moving away. In -its more violent forms, however, it paralyses the child. It -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>is desirable that parents should carefully observe and -describe the first signs of fear in their children.<a id='r130' /><a href='#f130' class='c011'><sup>[130]</sup></a></p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Startling Effect of Sounds.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>It may be well to begin our study of fear by a reference -to the effect of startling. As is well known, sudden and -loud sounds, as that of a door banging, will give a shock -to an infant in the first weeks of life, which though not -amounting to fear is its progenitor. A clearer manifestation -occurs when a new and unfamiliar sound calls forth -the grave look, the trembling lip, and possibly the fit of -crying. Darwin gives an excellent example of this. He -had, he tells us, been accustomed to make all sorts of -sudden noises with his boy, aged four and a half months, -which were well received; but one day having introduced a -new sound, that of a loud snoring, he found that the child -was quite upset, bursting out into a fit of crying.<a id='r131' /><a href='#f131' class='c011'><sup>[131]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>As this incident suggests, it is not every new sound -which is thus disconcerting to the little stranger. Sudden -sharp sounds of any kind seem to be especially disliked, as -those of a dog’s bark. The child M. burst out crying on -first hearing the sound of a baby rattle; and she did the -same two months later on accidentally ringing a hand bell. -Louder and more voluminous sounds, too, are apt to have -an alarming effect. The big noise of a factory, of a steam-ship, -of a passing train, are among the sounds assigned by -my correspondents as causes of this early startling and -upsetting effect. A little girl when taken into the country -at the age of nine months, though she liked the animals -she saw on the whole, showed fear by seeking shelter against -the nurse’s shoulder, on hearing the bleating of the sheep. -So strong is this effect of suddenness and volume of sound -<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>that even musical sounds often excite some alarm at first. -‘He (a boy of four months) cried when he first heard the -piano,’ writes one lady, and this is but a sample of many -observations. 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 touched. Preyer’s boy at sixteen -months was apparently alarmed when his father, in order to -entertain him, produced what seems to us a particularly -pure musical tone by rubbing a drinking-glass. He remarks -that this same sound had been produced when the child -was four months old without any ill effects.<a id='r132' /><a href='#f132' class='c011'><sup>[132]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>This last fact suggests that such shrinkings from sound -may be developed at a comparatively late date. This idea -is supported by other observations. “From about two -years four months (writes a mother) to the present time -(two years eleven months), he has shown signs of fear of -music. At two years five months he liked some singing of -rounds, but when a fresh person with a stronger voice than -the rest joined, he begged the singer to stop. Presently he -tolerated the singing as long as he might stand at the -farthest corner of the room.” This child was also about -the same time afraid of the piano, and of the organ, when -played by his mother in a church.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is worth noting that animals show a similar dread of -musical sounds. I took a young cat of about eight weeks -in my lap and struck some chords not loudly on the piano. -It got up, moved uneasily from side to side, then bolted -to the corner of the room and seemed to try to get up the -walls. Dogs, too, certainly seem to be put out, if not to -experience fear, at the music of a brass band.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is sometimes supposed that this startling effect of -loud sounds is wholly an affair of nervous disturbance:<a id='r133' /><a href='#f133' class='c011'><sup>[133]</sup></a> -but the late development of the repugnance in certain -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>cases seems to show that this is not the only cause at work. -Of course a child’s nervous organisation may through ill -health become more sensitive to this disturbing effect; and, -as the life of Chopin tells us, the delicate organisation of -a future musician may be specially subject to these shocks. -Yet I suspect that vague alarm at the unexpected and unknown -takes part here. There is something uncanny to -the child in the very production of sound from a silent -thing. A banjo lying now inert, harmless, and then -suddenly firing off a whole gamut of sound may well -shock a small child’s preconceptions of things. The second -time that fear was observed in one child at the age of ten -months, it was excited by a new toy which squeaked on -being pressed.<a id='r134' /><a href='#f134' class='c011'><sup>[134]</sup></a> This seems to be another example of the -disconcerting effect of the unexpected. In other cases the -alarming effect of the mystery is increased by the absence -of all visible cause. 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 nursery. The child was -afraid at the same time of thunder, calling it ‘water -coming’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I am far from saying that all children manifest this -fear of sounds. Miss Shinn points out that her niece was -from the first pleased with the piano, and this is no doubt true -of many children. Children behave very differently towards -thunder, some being greatly disturbed by it, others being -rather delighted. Thus Preyer’s boy, who was so ignominiously -upset by the tone of the drinking-glass, laughed -at the thunderstorm; 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 -“Bonnie, bonnie!” at the flashes of lightning. It is possible -that in such cases the exhilarating effect of the brightness -counteracts the uncanny effect of the thunder. More -observations are needed on this point.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>A complete explanation of these early vague alarms of -the ear may as yet not be possible. Children show in the -matter of sound capricious repugnances which it is exceedingly -difficult to account for. They seem sometimes -to have their pet aversions like older folk. Yet I think -that a general explanation is possible.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To begin with, then, it is probable that in many of -these cases, especially those occurring in the first six -months, we have to do with an organic phenomenon, with -a sort of jar to the nervous system. To understand this -we have to remember that the ear, in the case of man at -least, is the sense-organ through which the nervous system is -most powerfully and profoundly acted on. Sounds seem -to go through us, to pierce us, to shake us, to pound and -crush us. A child of four or six months has a nervous -organisation still weak and unstable, and we should -naturally expect loud sounds to produce a disturbing -effect on it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To this it is to be added that sounds have a way of -taking us by surprise, of seeming to start out of nothing; -and this aspect of them, as I have pointed out above, may -well excite vague alarm in the small creatures to whom all -that is new and unlooked for is apt to seem uncanny. -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 effect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Whether heredity plays any part here, <i>e.g.</i>, in the fear of -the dog’s barking and other sounds of animals, seems to -me exceedingly doubtful. This point will, however, come -up for closer consideration presently, when we deal with -children’s fear of animals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Before considering the manifold outgoings of fear produced -by impressions of the eye, we may glance at another -form of early disturbance which has some analogy to the -shock-like effects of certain sounds. I refer here to the -feeling of bodily insecurity which appears very early when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>the child is awkwardly carried, or let down back-foremost, -and later when he begins to walk. One child in her fifth -month was observed when carried to hold on to the nurse’s -dress as if for safety. And it has been noticed by more -than one observer that on dandling a baby up and down -in one’s arms, it will on descending, that is when the support -of the arms is being withdrawn, show signs of discontent -in struggling movements.<a id='r135' /><a href='#f135' class='c011'><sup>[135]</sup></a> Bell, Preyer, and others -regard this as an instinctive form of fear. Such manifestations -may, however, be merely the result of sudden and -rude disturbances of the sense of bodily ease which attends -the habitual condition of adequate support. A child accustomed -to lie in a cradle, on the floor, or on somebody’s -lap, might be expected to be put out when the supporting -mass is greatly reduced, as in bad carrying, or wholly -removed, as in quickly lowering him backwards. The -fear of falling, which shows itself during the first attempts -to stand, comes, it must be remembered, as an accompaniment -of a new and highly strange situation. The first -experience of using the legs for support must, one supposes, -involve a profound change in the child’s whole bodily -consciousness, a change which may well be accompanied -with a sense of disturbance. Not only so, it comes after -a considerable experience of partial fallings, as in trying -to turn over when lying, half climbing the sides of the -cradle, etc., and still harder bumpings when the crawling -stage is reached. These would, I suspect, be quite sufficient -to produce the timidity which is observable on -making the bolder venture of standing.<a id='r136' /><a href='#f136' class='c011'><sup>[136]</sup></a></p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Fear of Visible Things.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Fears excited by visual impressions come later than -those excited by sounds. The reason of this seems pretty -<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>obvious. Visual sensations do not produce the strong -effect of nervous shock which auditory ones produce. Let -a person compare the violent and profound jar which he -experiences on suddenly hearing a loud sound, with the -slight surface-agitation produced by the sudden movement -of an object across the field of vision. The latter has less -of the effect of nervous jar and more of the characteristics -of fear proper, that is, apprehension of evil. We should -accordingly expect that eye-fears would only begin to -show themselves in the child after experience had begun -its educative work.<a id='r137' /><a href='#f137' class='c011'><sup>[137]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>At the outset it is well, as in the case of the ear-fears, -to keep before us the distinction between a mere dislike to -a sensation and a true reaction of fear. We shall find that -children’s quasi-æsthetic dislikes to certain colours may -readily simulate the appearance of fears.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the earliest manifestations of fear excited by -visual impressions we have those called forth by the presentation -of something new and strange, especially when -it involves a rupture of customary arrangements. Although -children love and delight in what is new, their disposition -to fear is apt to give to new and strange objects a disquieting, -if not distinctly alarming character. This apprehension -shows itself as soon as a child has begun to be used or -accustomed to a particular state of things.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the more disconcerting effects of a rude -departure from the customary, we have that of change of -place. At first the infant betrays no sign of disturbance -on being carried into a new room. But when once it has -grown accustomed to a certain room it will feel a new one to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>be strange, and eye its features with a perceptibly anxious -look. This sense of strangeness in place sometimes -appears very early. The little girl M., on being taken at -the age of four months into a new nursery, “looked all round -and then burst out crying”. This feeling of uneasiness -may linger late. A boy retained up to the age of three -years eight months the fear of being left alone in strange -hotels or lodgings. Yet entrance on a new abode does -not by any means always excite this reaction. A child -may have his curiosity excited, or may be amused by the -odd look of things. 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 carpet. -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 curiosity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 mother. This child, “though hardly -ever afraid of strange people or places, was very much -frightened as a baby <em>of familiar things seen after an interval</em>”. -Thus “at ten months he was excessively frightened -on returning to his nursery after a month’s absence. On -this occasion he screamed violently if his nurse left his side -for a moment for some hours after he got home, whereas -he had not in the least objected to being installed in a -strange nursery.” The mother adds that “at thirteen -months, his memory having grown stronger, he was very -much pleased at coming to his home after being away a -fortnight”. This case looks puzzling enough at first, and -seems to contradict the laws of infant psychology. Perhaps -the child’s partial recognition was accompanied by a -sense of the uncanny, like that which we experience when -a place seems familiar to us though we have no clear -recollection of having seen it before.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What applies to places applies also to persons: a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>sudden change of customary human surroundings by the -arrival of a stranger on the scene is apt to trouble the -child.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At first all faces seem alike for the child. Later on -unfamiliar faces excite something like a grave inquisitorial -scrutiny. Yet, for the first three months, there is no -distinct manifestation of a fear of strangers. It is only later, -when attachment to human belongings has been developed, -that the approach of a stranger, especially if accompanied -by a proposal to take the child, calls forth clear signs of -displeasure and the shrinking away of fear. Preyer gives -the sixth and seventh months as the date at which his boy -began to cry at the sight of a strange face. 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 stranger. -To be nursed by a stranger, however, is to have the -whole baby-world revolutionised; little wonder then -that it should bring the feeling of strangeness and homelessness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, too, curious differences soon begin to disclose -themselves, some children being decidedly more sociable -towards strangers than others. It would be curious to -compare the age at which children begin to take kindly -to them. Preyer gives nineteen months as the date at -which his boy surmounted his timidity; but it is probable -that the transition occurs at very different dates in the -case of different children.<a id='r138' /><a href='#f138' class='c011'><sup>[138]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>It is worth noting that the little boy to whom I referred -just now displayed the same signs of uneasiness at -seeing old friends, after an interval, as at returning to old -scenes. When eight months old, “he moaned in a curious -way when his nurse (of whom he was very fond) came -home after a fortnight’s holiday”. Here, however, the -signs of fear seem to be less pronounced than in the case -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>of returning to the old room. It would be difficult to give -the right name to this curious moan.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Partial alteration of the surroundings frequently brings -about a measure of this same mental uneasiness. Preyer’s -boy when one year and five months old was much disturbed -at seeing his mother in a black dress. Children seem -to have a special dislike to black apparel. George Sand -describes her fear at having to put on black stockings when -her father died. Yet any change of colour in dress will -disturb a child. C., when an infant, was distressed to tears -at the spectacle of a new colour and pattern on his mother’s -dress. This dislike to any change of dress as such is borne -out by other observations. A child manifested between the -age of about seven months and of two and a half years -the most marked repugnance to new clothes, so that the -authorities found it very difficult to get them on. It is -presumable that the donning of new apparel disturbed too -rudely the child’s sense of his proper self.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In certain cases the introduction of new natural objects -of great extent and impressiveness will produce a similar -effect of childish anxiety, as though they made too violent -a change in the surroundings. 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 sea. -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 sea.<a id='r139' /><a href='#f139' class='c011'><sup>[139]</sup></a> The boy C. on being first taken near the -sea at the age of two was disturbed by its noise. While, -however, I have a number of well-authenticated cases of -such an instinctive repugnance to, and something like dread -of the sea, I find that there is by no means uniformity in -children’s behaviour in this particular. A little boy who -first saw the sea at the age of thirteen months exhibited -signs not of fear but of wondering delight, prettily stretching -out his tiny hands towards it as if wanting to go to it. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>Another child who also first saw the sea at the age of -thirteen months began to crawl towards the waves. And -yet another boy at the age of twenty-one months on first -seeing the sea spread his arms as if to embrace it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These observations show that the strange big thing -affects children very differently. C. had a particular dislike -to noises, which was, I think, early strengthened by finding -out that his father had the same prejudice. Hence perhaps -his hostile attitude towards the sea.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Probably, too, imaginative children, whose minds take -in something of the bigness of the sea, will be more disposed -to this variety of fear. A mother writes me that her elder -child, an imaginative girl, has not even now at the age of -six got over her fear of going into the sea, whereas her -sister, one and a quarter years younger, and not of an -imaginative temperament, is perfectly fearless. She adds -that it is the bigness of the sea which evidently impresses -the imagination of the elder.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Imaginative children, too, are apt to give life and purpose -to the big moving noisy thing. This is illustrated in -M. Pierre Loti’s graphic account of his first childish impressions -of the sea, seen one evening in the twilight. “It -was of a dark, almost black green: it seemed restless, -treacherous, ready to swallow: it was stirring and swaying -everywhere at the same time, with the look of sinister -wickedness.”<a id='r140' /><a href='#f140' class='c011'><sup>[140]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>There seems enough in the vast waste of unresting -waters to excite the imagination of a child to awe and -terror. Hence it is needless to follow M. Loti in his -speculations as to an inherited fear of the sea. He seems -to base this supposition on the fact that at this first view he -distinctly <em>recognised</em> the sea. But such recognition may -have meant merely the objective realisation of what had no -doubt been before pretty fully described by his mother and -aunt, and imaginatively pictured by himself.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>The opposite attitude, that of the thoroughly unimaginative -child, in presence of the sea is well illustrated by the -story of a little girl aged two, who, on being first taken to -see the watery wonder, exclaimed, “Oh, mamma, look at the -soapy water”. The awful mystery of all the stretch of -ever-moving water was invisible to this child, being hidden -behind the familiar detail of the ‘soapy’ edge.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is probably nothing in the natural world which -makes on the childish imagination quite so awful an impression -as the watery Leviathan. 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 sea.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may now pass to another group of fear-excitants, -the appearance of certain strange forms and movements of -objects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The close connexion between æsthetic dislike and fear -is seen in the well-marked recoilings of children from odd -uncanny-looking dolls. The girl M., when just over six -months old, was frightened at a Japanese doll so that it -had to be put in another room. Another child when -thirteen months old was terrified at the sight of an -ugly doll. The said doll is described as black with -woolly head, startled eyes, and red lips. Such an ogre -might well call up a tremor in the bravest of children. -In another case, that of a little boy of two years and two -months, the broken face of a doll proved to be highly disconcerting. -The mother describes the effect as mixed of -fear, distress, and intellectual wonder. Nor did his anxiety -depart when some hours later the doll, after sleeping in -his mother’s room, reappeared with a new face.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In such cases, it seems plain, it is the ugly transformation -of something specially familiar and agreeable which -excites the feeling of nervous apprehension. Making -grimaces, that is the spoiling of the typical familiar face, -may, it is said, disturb a child even at the early age of two -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>months.<a id='r141' /><a href='#f141' class='c011'><sup>[141]</sup></a> It is much the same when the child M., at the -age of thirteen months three weeks, was frightened and -howled when a lady looked at her close with blue spectacles, -though she was quite used to ordinary glasses. Such transformations -of the homely and assuring face are, moreover, -not only ugly but bewildering to the child, and where all is -mysterious and uncanny the child is apt to fear. Whether -“inherited associations” involving a dim recognition of the -<em>meaning</em> of these distortions play any part here I do not -feel at all certain.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Children, like animals, will sometimes show fear at the -sight of what seems to us a quite harmless object. A shying -horse is a puzzle to his rider: his terrors are so unpredictable. -Similarly in the case of a timid child almost anything -unfamiliar and out of the way, whether in the colour, -the form, or the movement of an object, may provoke a -measure of anxiety. Thus a little girl, aged one year and -ten months, showed signs of fear during a drive at a row of -grey ash trees placed along the road. This was just the -kind of thing that a horse might shy at.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As with animals, so with children, any seemingly -uncaused movement is apt to excite a feeling of alarm. -Just as a dog will run away from a leaf whirled about by the -wind, 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 air. A little girl of three, standing -by the bedside of her mother (who was ill at the time), -was so frightened at the sight of a feather, which she accidentally -pulled out of the eiderdown quilt, floating in the air -that she would not approach the bed for days afterwards.<a id='r142' /><a href='#f142' class='c011'><sup>[142]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In these cases we may suppose that we have to do with -a germ of superstitious fear, which seems commonly to have -its starting point in the appearance of something exceptional -<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>and uncanny, that is to say, unintelligible, and so -smacking of the supernatural. The fear of feathers as -uncanny objects plays, I am told, a considerable part in -the superstitions of folk-lore. Such apparently self-caused -movements, so suggestive of life, might easily give rise to -a vague sense of a mysterious presence or power possessing -the object, and so lead to a crude form of a belief in -supernatural agents.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In other cases of unexpected and mysterious movement -the fear is slightly different. 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 head. The same child, writes -his mother, “at one year seven months was very much -scared by a toy cow which mooed realistically when its -head was moved. This cow was subsequently given to -him, at about two years and three months. He was then -still afraid of it, but became reconciled soon after, first -allowing others to make it moo if he was at a safe distance, -and at last making it moo himself.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>There may have been a germ of the fear of animals here: -but I suspect that it was mainly a feeling of uneasiness at -the signs of life (movement and sound) appearing when they -are not expected, and have an uncanny aspect. The close -simulation of a living thing by what is known to be not -alive is disturbing to the child as to the adult. He will -make his toys alive by his own fancy, yet resent their taking -on the full semblance of reality. In this sense he is a born -idealist and not a realist. More careful observations on -this curious group of child-fears are to be desired.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fear of shadows is closely related to that of moving -toys. They are semblances, though horribly distorted -semblances, and they are apt to move with an awful rapidity. -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 horrors. -Mr. Stevenson writes:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>Now my little heart goes beating like a drum,</div> - <div class='line'>With the breath of the Bogie in my hair;</div> - <div class='line'>And all round the candle the crooked shadows come,</div> - <div class='line'>And go marching along up the stair;</div> - <div class='line'>The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp,</div> - <div class='line'>The shadow of the child that goes to bed—</div> - <div class='line'>All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp,</div> - <div class='line'>With the black night overhead.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>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 wall, and, as I thought, with a look of apprehension.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><cite>The Fear of Animals.</cite></h3> - -<p class='c014'>I have purposely reserved for special discussion two -varieties of children’s fear, namely, dread of animals and -of the dark. As the former certainly manifests itself before -the latter I will take it first.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It seems odd that the creatures which are to become -the companions and playmates of children, and one of the -chief sources of their happiness, should cause so much alarm -when they first come on the scene. Yet so it is. Many -children, at least, are at first put out by quite harmless -members of the animal family. We must, however, be -careful here in distinguishing between mere nerve-shock -and dislike on the one hand and genuine fear on the other. -Thus a lady whom I know, a good observer, tells me -that her boy, though when he was fifteen months old his -nerves were shaken by the loud barking of a dog, had no -real fear of dogs. With this may be contrasted another case, -also sent by a good observer, in which it is specially noted -that the aversion to the sound of a dog’s barking developed -late and was a true fear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Æsthetic dislikes, again, may easily give rise to quasi-fears, -though, as we all know, little children have not the -horrors of their elders in this respect. The boy C. could -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>not understand his mother’s scare at the descending caterpillar. -A kind of æsthetic dislike appears to show itself -sometimes towards animals of peculiar shape and colour. -A black animal, as a sheep or a cow, seems more particularly -to come in for these childish aversions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At first it seems impossible to understand why a -child in the fourteenth week should shrink from a cat.<a id='r143' /><a href='#f143' class='c011'><sup>[143]</sup></a> -This is not, so far as I can gather, a common occurrence at -this age, and one would like to cross-examine the mother -on the precise way in which the child had its first introduction -to the domestic pet. So far as one can speculate -on the matter, one would say that such early shrinking -from animals is probably due to their sudden unexpected -movements, which may well disconcert the inexperienced -infant accustomed to comparatively restful surroundings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This seems borne out by another instance, also quoted -by Preyer, of a girl who in the fourth month, as also in -the eleventh, was so afraid of pigeons that she could not -bring herself to stroke them. The prettiness of the pigeon, -if not of the cat, ought, one supposes, to ensure the liking of -children; and one has to fall back on the supposition of -the first disconcerting strangeness of the moving animal -world for the child’s mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Later shrinkings from animals show more of the nature -of fear. It is sometimes said that children inherit from -their ancestors the fear of certain animals. Thus Darwin, -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 (lions, tigers, etc.), infers that this fear is transmitted -from savage ancestors whose conditions of life compelled -them to shun these deadly creatures. But as M. Compayré -has well shown<a id='r144' /><a href='#f144' class='c011'><sup>[144]</sup></a> we do not need this hypothesis here. The -unfamiliarity of the form of the animal, its bigness, together -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>with the awful suggestions of the cage, would be quite -enough to beget a vague sense of danger.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So far as I can ascertain facts are strongly opposed to -the theory of an inherited fear of animals. Just as in the first -months a child will manifest something like recoil from a -pretty and perfectly innocent pigeon, so later on children -manifest fear in the most unlikely directions. In <cite>The -Invisible Playmate</cite>, we are told of a girl who got her first -fright on seeing a sparrow drop on the grass near her, -though she was not the least afraid of big things, and on -first hearing the dog bark in his kennel said with a little -laugh of surprise, ‘Oh! coughing’.<a id='r145' /><a href='#f145' class='c011'><sup>[145]</sup></a> A parallel case is -sent me by a lady friend. One day when her daughter -was about four years old she found her standing, the eyes -wide open and filled with tears, the arms outstretched for -help, evidently transfixed with terror, while a small wood-louse -made its slow way towards her. The next day the -child was taken for the first time to the “Zoo,” and the -mother anticipating trouble held the child’s hand. But -there was no need. A ‘fearless spirit’ in general, she -released her hand at the first sight of the elephant, and -galloped after the monster. If inheritance played a principal -part in the child’s fear of animals one would have -expected the facts to be reversed: the elephant should -have excited dread, not the harmless insect.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So far as my own observations have gone there seems -to be but little uniformity among children’s fears of the -animal world. What frightens one child may delight -another at about the same age. Perhaps there is a tendency -to a special dread of certain animals, more particularly the -wolf, which as folk-lore tells us reflects the attitude of -superstitious adults. Yet it is probable that, as the case of -the boy C. suggests, the dread of the wolf grows out of -that of the dog, the most alarming of the domestic animals, -while it is vigorously sustained by fairy-story.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>For the rest children’s shrinking from animals has -much of the caprice of grown-up people’s. Not that there -is anything really inexplicable in these odd directions of -childish fear, any more than in the unpredictable shyings of -the <a id='corr210.5'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='horse'>horse.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_210.5'><ins class='correction' title='horse'>horse.</ins></a></span> If we knew the whole of the horse’s history, -and could keep a perfect register of the fluctuations of ‘tone’ -in his nervous system, we should understand all his shyings. -So with the child. 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 -courage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 pigs. The -boy at the first sight looked earnest, 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 fear. It appeared afterwards that what -terrified the child was the idea that the pigs were biting -their mother; and this gave rise in the fourth and fifth years -to recurrent nocturnal fears of the biting piglets, something -like C.’s nocturnal fear of the wolf.<a id='r146' /><a href='#f146' class='c011'><sup>[146]</sup></a> To an imaginative -child strongly predisposed to fear, anything suggestive of -harm will suffice to beget a measure of trepidation. A -child does not want direct experience of the power of a big -animal in order to feel a vague uneasiness when near it. -His own early inductions respecting the correlation of -bigness with strength, aided as this commonly is by information -picked up from others, will amply suffice. In the -case of the dog, the rough shaggy coat, the teeth which he -is told can bite, the swift movements, and worse than all -the appalling bark, are quite enough to disconcert a timid -child. Even the sudden pouncing down of a sparrow may -prove upsetting to a fearful mite as suggesting attack; and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>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 -shudders.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is, I think, undeniable that imaginative children, -especially when sickly and disposed to alarm, are subject -to a real terror at the thought of the animal world. Its -very vastness, the large variety of its uncanny and savage-looking -forms—appearing oftentimes as ugly distortions of -the human face and figure—this of itself, as known from -picture-books, may well generate many a vague alarm. -We know from folk-lore how the dangers of the animal -world have touched the imagination of simple peoples, -and we need not be surprised that it should make the heart -of the wee weakly child to quake. Yet the child’s -shrinking from animals is less strong than the impulse of -companionship which bears him towards them. Tiny children -quite as often show the impulse to run after ducks -and other animals as to be alarmed at them. 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 -‘making friends’ with the shaggy monster. The perfect -love which lies at the bottom of children’s hearts towards -their animal kinsfolk soon casts out fear. 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 danger.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Fear of the Dark.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Fear of the dark, that is, fear excited by the actual -experience or the idea of being in the dark, and especially -<em>alone</em> in the dark, and the allied dread of dark places as -closets and caves, is no doubt very common among children, -and seems indeed to be one of their recognised -<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>characteristics. Yet it is by no means certain that it is -‘natural’ in the sense of developing itself in all children.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is certain that children have no such fear at the -beginning of life. A baby of three or four months if accustomed -to a light may very likely be disturbed at being -deprived of it; but this is some way from a dread of the -dark.<a id='r147' /><a href='#f147' class='c011'><sup>[147]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Fear of the dark seems to arise when intelligence -has reached a certain stage of development. It apparently -assumes a variety of forms. In some children it is a vague -uneasiness, in others it takes the shape of a more definite -dread. A common variety of this dread is connected with -the imaginative filling of the dark with the forms of -alarming animals, so that the fear of animals and of the -dark are closely connected. Thus, in one case reported to -me, a boy between the ages of two and six used at night to -see ‘the eyes of lions and tigers glaring as they walked -round the room’. The boy C. saw his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>bête noire</i></span> the wolf -in dark places. Mr. Stevens in his note on his boy’s idea -of the supernatural remarks that at the age of one year and -ten months, when he began to be haunted by the spectre -of ‘Cocky,’ he was temporarily seized with a fear of the -dark.<a id='r148' /><a href='#f148' class='c011'><sup>[148]</sup></a> 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 fear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This mode of fear is, however, not universal among -children. One lady, for whose accuracy I can vouch, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>assures me that her boy, who is now four years old, -has never manifested the feeling. A similar statement -is made by a careful observer, Dr. Sikorski, with reference -to his own children.<a id='r149' /><a href='#f149' class='c011'><sup>[149]</sup></a> It seems possible to go through -childhood without making acquaintance with this terror, -and to acquire it in later life. I know a lady who only -acquired the fear towards the age of thirty. “Curiously -enough (she writes) I was never afraid of the dark as a -child; but during the last two years I hate to be left alone -in the dark, and if I have to enter a dark room, like my -study, beyond the reach of the maids from downstairs, I -notice a remarkable acceleration in my heart-beat and -hurry to strike a light or rush downstairs as quickly as -possible.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 become. Hence we need not be surprised that the -writer of fiction has sought to give it a vivid and adequate -description. Victor Hugo, for example, when in <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Les -Misérables</cite></span> he is painting the feelings of little Cosette, who -has been sent out alone at night to fetch water from a -spring in a wood, says she “felt herself seized by the -black enormity of Nature. It was not only terror which -possessed her, it was something more terrible even than -terror.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Different explanations have been offered of this fear. -Locke, who when writing on educational matters was rather -hard on nurses and servants, puts down the whole of -these fears to those wicked persons, “whose usual method -is to awe children and keep them in subjection by telling -them of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, and such other -names as carry with them the idea of something terrible -and hurtful, which they have reason to be afraid of when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>alone, especially in the dark”.<a id='r150' /><a href='#f150' class='c011'><sup>[150]</sup></a> Rousseau on the other -hand urges that there is a natural cause. “Accustomed as -I am to perceive objects from a distance, and to anticipate -their impressions in advance, how is it possible for me, -when I no longer see anything of the objects that surround -me, not to imagine a thousand creatures, a thousand -movements, which may hurt me, and against which I am -unable to protect myself?”<a id='r151' /><a href='#f151' class='c011'><sup>[151]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Rousseau here supplements and corrects Locke. For -one thing I have ascertained in the case of my own child, -and in that of others, that a fear of the dark has grown up -when the influence of the wicked nurse has been carefully -eliminated. Locke forgets that children can get terrifying -fancies from other children, and from all sorts of suggestions, -unwittingly conveyed by the words of respectable -grown people. Besides, he leaves untouched the question, -why children when left alone in the dark should choose -to dwell on these fearful images, rather than on the bright -pretty ones which they also acquire. R. L. Stevenson -has told us how happy a child can make himself at night -with such pleasing fancies. Yet it must be owned that -darkness seems rather to favour images of what is weird -and terrible. How is this? Rousseau gets some way towards -answering the question by saying (as I understand -him to say) that darkness breeds a sense of insecurity. -I do not, however, think that it is the inconvenience of -being in the dark which generates the fear: a child might, -I imagine, acquire it without ever having had to explore a -dark place.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I strongly suspect that the fear of darkness takes its -rise in a sensuous phenomenon, a kind of physical repugnance. -All sensations of very low intensity, as very soft -vocal sounds, have about them a tinge of melancholy, -a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>tristesse</i></span>, and this is especially noticeable in the sensations -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>which the eye experiences when confronted with a dark -space, or, what is tantamount to this, a black and dull -surface. The symbolism of darkness and blackness, as -when we talk of ‘gloomy’ thoughts or liken trouble to a -‘black cloud,’ seems to rest on this effect of melancholy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Along with this gloomy character of the sensation of -dark, and not always easy to distinguish from it, there goes -the craving of the eye for its customary light, and the -interest and the gladness which come with seeing. When -the eye and brain are not fatigued, that is when we are -wakeful, this eye-ache may become an appreciable pain; -and it is probable that children feel the deprivation more -acutely than grown persons, owing to the abundance of -their visual activity as well as to the comparatively scanty -store of their thought-resources. Add to this that darkness, -by extinguishing the world of visible things, would give to -a timid child tenacious of the familiar home-surroundings -a peculiarly keen sense of strangeness and of loneliness, of -banishment from all that he knows and loves. The reminiscences -of this feeling described in later life show that -it is the sense of solitude which oppresses the child in his -dark room.<a id='r152' /><a href='#f152' class='c011'><sup>[152]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>This, I take it, 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 activity. But even this would -not amount to a full passionate dread of darkness. 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 scene, especially just after the -removal of a light; yet such a baby, as we have seen, gives -no clear indications of <a id='corr215.32'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='fear'>fear.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_215.32'><ins class='correction' title='fear'>fear.</ins></a></span></p> - -<p class='c001'>Fear of the dark arises from the development of the -child’s imagination, and might, I believe, arise without any -suggestion from nurse or other children of the notion that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>there are bogies in the room. Darkness is precisely the -situation most favourable to vivid imagination: the screening -of the visible world makes the inner world of fancy vivid -and distinct by contrast. Are we not all apt to shut our -eyes when we try to ‘visualise’ or picture things very -distinctly? This fact of a preternatural activity of imagination, -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 him, would -help us to understand why children are so much given to -projecting into the unseen black spaces the creatures of their -imagination. 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 projected.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But I am disposed to think that there is yet another -element in this childish fear. I have said that darkness -gives a positive sensation: we <em>see</em> it, and the sensation, apart -from any difference of signification which we afterwards -learn to give to it, is of the same kind that is obtained by -looking at a dull black surface. To the child the difference -between a black object and a dark unillumined space is as -yet not clear, and I believe it will be found that children -tend to materialise or to ‘reify’ darkness. When, for example, -a correspondent tells me that darkness was envisaged -by her when a child as “a crushing power,” I think I see -traces of this childish feeling. 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 room.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But there is still another thing to be noticed in this sensation -of darkness. The black field is not uniform; some -parts of it show less black than others, and the indistinct -and rude pattern of comparatively light and dark changes -from moment to moment; while now and again more definite -spots of brightness may focus themselves. The varying -activity of the retina would seem to account for this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>apparent changing of the black scene. What, my reader -may not unnaturally ask, has this to do with a child’s fear -of the dark? 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 ceiling, or the veining of a -piece of marble, he will, I think, recognise the drift of my -remarks. These slight and momentary differences in the -blackness, these fleeting rudiments of a pattern, may serve -as a sensuous base for the projected images; the child with -a strongly excited fancy sees in these dim traces of the -black formless waste definite forms. These will naturally -be the forms with which he is most familiar, and since his -fancy is at the moment tinged with melancholy they will be -gloomy and disturbing forms. Hence we may expect to -hear of children seeing the forms of terrifying living things -in the dark.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here is a particularly instructive case. A boy of four -years had for some time been afraid of the dark and indulged -by having the candle left burning at night. On -hearing that the Crystal Palace had been burned down he -asked for the first time to have the light taken away, fear -of the dark being now cast out by the bigger fear of fire. -Some time after this he volunteered an account of his obsolete -terrors to his father. “Do you know,” he said, “what -I thought dark was? A great large live thing the colour -of black with a mouth and eyes.” Here we have the ‘reifying’ -of darkness, and we probably see the influence of the -comparatively bright spots in the attribution of eyes to the -monster, an influence still more apparent in the instance -quoted above, where a child saw the eyes of lions and tigers -glaring as they walked round the room. Another suggestive -instance here is that given by M. Compayré, in which a child -on being asked why he did not like to be in a dark place -answered: “I don’t like chimney-sweeps”.<a id='r153' /><a href='#f153' class='c011'><sup>[153]</sup></a> Here the blackness -with its dim suggestions of brighter spots determined -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>the image of the black chimney-sweep with his white flashes -of mouth and eyes.<a id='r154' /><a href='#f154' class='c011'><sup>[154]</sup></a> I should like to observe here parenthetically -that we still need to learn from children themselves, -by talking to them and inviting their confidence -when the fear of the dark is first noticed, how they are apt -to envisage it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When imagination becomes abnormally active, and the -child is haunted by alarming images, these by recurring -with greatest force in the stillness and darkness of the night -will add to the terrifying associations of darkness. This is -illustrated in the case of the boy Stevens, who was haunted -by the spectre of ‘Cocky’ at night. Dreams, especially of the -horrible nightmare kind to which nervous children are subject, -may invest the dark with a new terror. 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 rooms. 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 it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If the above explanation of the child’s fear of the dark -is a sound one Rousseau’s prescription for curing it is not -enough. Children may be encouraged to explore dark -rooms, and by touching blind-like their various objects rendered -familiar with the fact that things remain unchanged -even when enveloped in darkness, that the dark is nothing -but our temporary inability to see things; and this may no -doubt be helpful in checking the fear when calm reflexion -becomes possible. But a radical cure must go farther, 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 -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>must set about strengthening shaky nerves. 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 organisms. 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 God.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Fears and their Palliatives.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>I have probably illustrated the first fears of children at -sufficient length. Without trying to exhaust the subject -I have, I think, shown that fear of a well-marked and intense -kind is a common feature of the first years of life, -and that it assumes a Protean variety of shapes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Much more will no doubt have to be done in the way -of methodical observation, and more particularly statistical -inquiry into the comparative frequency of the several fears, -the age at which they commonly appear, and so forth, -before we can build up a theory of the subject. One or -two general observations may, however, be hazarded even -at this stage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The thing which strikes one most perhaps in these -early fears is how little they have to do with any remembered -experience of evil. The child is inexperienced, and -if humanely treated knows little of the acuter forms of -human suffering. It would seem at least as if he feared -not because experience had made him apprehensive of -evil, but because he was constitutionally and instinctively -nervous, and possessed with a feeling of insecurity. 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 noises, and the movements of things, especially -when they take on the form of approaches. The -same thing is, as we have seen, illustrated in the fear of the -dark. A like explanation seems to offer itself for other -common forms of fear, especially those excited by others’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>threats, as the dread of the policeman, and little George -Sand’s horror at the idea of being shut up all night in the -‘crystal prison’ of a lamp. 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 imagination. -A child is apt to be afraid because he fancies things, -and it will probably be demonstrated by statistical evidence -that the most imaginative children (other things -being equal) are the most subject to fear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In certain of these characteristics, at least, children’s -fears resemble those of animals. In both alike fear is -much more an instinctive recoil from the unknown than an -apprehension of known evil. The shying of a horse, the -apparent fear of dogs at certain noises, probably too the -fear of animals at the sight and sound of fire—so graphically -described by Mr. Kipling in the case of the jungle beasts—illustrate -this. Animals too seem to have a sense of the -uncanny, when something apparently uncaused happens, -as when Romanes excited fear in a dog by attaching a fine -thread to a bone, and by surreptitiously drawing it from -the animal, giving to the bone the look of self-movement. -The same dog was frightened by soap-bubbles. According -to Romanes, dogs are frightened by portraits. It is to be -added, however, that in certain of animal fears the influence -of heredity is clearly recognisable, whereas in children’s -fears I have regarded it as doubtful. The fact that a child -is not frightened at fire, which terrifies many animals, seems -to illustrate this difference.<a id='r155' /><a href='#f155' class='c011'><sup>[155]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Another instructive comparison is that of children’s fears -with those of savages. Both have a like feeling of insecurity, -and fall instinctively in presence of a big unknown -into the attitude of dread. In the region of superstitious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>fear more particularly, we see how in both a gloomy fancy -forestalls knowledge, investing the new and unexplored with -alarming traits.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Lastly, children’s fears have some resemblance to -certain abnormal mental conditions. Idiots, who are so -near normal childhood in their degree of intelligence, show -a marked fear of strangers. More interesting, however, -in the present connexion, is the exaggeration of the -childish fear of new objects which shows itself in certain -mental aberrations. There is a characteristic dread of -newness, neophobia, just as there is a dread of water.<a id='r156' /><a href='#f156' class='c011'><sup>[156]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>While, however, these are the dominant characteristics -of children’s fears they are not the only ones. Experience -begins to direct the instinctive fear-impulse from the very -beginning. How much it does in the first months of life -it is difficult to say. In the aversion of a baby to its -medicine glass, or its cold bath, one sees, perhaps, more of -the rude germ of passion or anger than of fear. Careful -observations seem to me to be required on the point, at -what definite date signs of fear arising from experience of -pain begin to show themselves in the child. Some children, -at least, have a surprising way of not minding even considerable -amounts of physical pain: the misery of a fall, a -blow, a cut, and so forth, being speedily forgotten. It -seems doubtful, indeed, whether the venerable saw, ‘The -burnt child dreads the fire,’ is invariably true. It appears, -in many cases at least, to take a good amount of real -agony to produce a genuine fear in a young child.<a id='r157' /><a href='#f157' class='c011'><sup>[157]</sup></a> This -tendency to belittle pain is not unknown, I suspect, to the -tutor of small boys. It may well be that a definite and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>precise recalling of the misery of a scratch, or even of a -moderate burn, may not conduce to the development of a -true fear, and that here, too, fear when it arises in all its -characteristic masterfulness is at bottom fear of the unknown. -This seems illustrated by the well-known fact that a child -will be more terrified during a first experience of pain, -especially if there be a visible hurt and bleeding, than by -any subsequent prospect of a renewal of the catastrophe. -Is not the same thing true, indeed, of older fears? Should -we dread the wrench of a tooth-extraction if it were experienced -very often, and we had a sufficiently photographic -imagination to be able to estimate precisely the intensity -and duration of the pain?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Much the same thing shows itself in the cases where -fear can be clearly traced to experience and association. -In some of these it is no doubt remembered experience -of suffering which causes the fear. A child that has been -seriously burned will unquestionably be frightened at a too -close approach of a red-hot poker. 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 apprehension. Thus a child who has been frightened -by a dog will betray signs of fear at the sight of a kennel, -of a picture of a dog, and so forth. 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-book. In such -ways does fear propagate fear in the timid little breast.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One cannot part from the theme of children’s fears -without a reference to a closely connected subject, the -problem of their happiness. To ask whether childhood is -a happy time, still more to ask whether it is the happiest, is -to raise perhaps a foolish and insoluble question. Later -reminiscences would seem in this case to be particularly -untrustworthy. Children themselves no doubt may have -very definite views on the subject. A child will tell you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>with the unmistakable marks of profound conviction that -he is <em>so</em> unhappy. But paradoxical as it may seem, children -really know very little about the matter. At the best -they can only tell you how they feel at particular moments. -To seek for a precise and satisfactory solution of the problem -is thus futile. Only rough comparisons of childhood -and later life are possible.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In any such comparison the fears of early years claim, -no doubt, careful consideration. There seem to be people -who have no idea what the agony of these early terrors -amounts to. And since it is the unknown that excites -this fear, and the unknown in childhood is almost everything, -the possibilities of suffering from this source are -great enough.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Alike the Good, the Ill offend thy Sight,</div> - <div class='line'>And rouse the stormy sense of shrill affright.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>George Sand hardly exaggerates when she writes: “Fear -is, I believe, the greatest moral suffering of children”. In -the case of weakly, nervous and imaginative children, more -especially, this susceptibility to terror may bring miserable -days and yet more miserable nights.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevertheless, it is easy here to pass from one extreme of -brutal indifference to another of sentimental exaggeration. -Childish suffering is terrible while it lasts, but happily it -has a way of not lasting. The cruel distorting fit of terror -passes and leaves the little face with its old sunny out-look. -It is to be remembered, too, that while children are pitiably -fearful in their own way, they are, as we have seen in the -case of the little Walter Scott, delightfully fearless also, as -judged by our standards. How oddly fear and fearlessness -go together is illustrated in a story sent me. A little boy -fell into a brook. On his being fished out by his mother, -his sister, aged four, asked him: ‘Did you see any crocodiles?’ -‘No,’ answered the boy, ‘I wasn’t in long enough.’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>The absence of fear of the water itself was as characteristic -as the presence of fear of the crocodile.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is refreshing to find that in certain cases at least -where older people have done their worst to excite terror, -a child has escaped its suffering. Professor Barnes tells us -that a Californian child’s belief in the supernatural takes -on a happy tone, directing itself to images of heaven with -trees, birds, and other pretty things, and giving but little -heed to the horrors of hell.<a id='r158' /><a href='#f158' class='c011'><sup>[158]</sup></a> In less sunny climes than -California children may not, perhaps, be such little optimists, -and it is probable that graphic descriptions of hell-fire -have sent many a creepy thrill of horror along a child’s -tender nerves. Still it may be said that, owing to the -fortunate circumstance of children having much less fear of -fire than many animals, 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 imagination. The -author of <cite>The Uninitiated</cite> illustrates a real child-trait when -she makes her small heroine conceive of hell as a place that -<em>smelt</em> nastily (from its <a id='corr224.20'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='brimstone)'>brimstone).</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_224.20'><ins class='correction' title='brimstone)'>brimstone).</ins></a></span><a id='r159' /><a href='#f159' class='c011'><sup>[159]</sup></a> Then it is noticeable -that children in general are but little affected by fear at -the sight or the thought of death. The child C. had a -passing dread of being buried, but his young hopeful heart -refused to credit the fact of that far-off calamity. Other -children, I find, dislike the idea of death as threatening to -deprive them of their mother. Perhaps they can more -readily suppose that somebody else will die than that they -themselves will do so. This comparative immunity from the -dread of death is no small deduction to be made from the -burden of children’s fear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Not only so, when fear is apt to be excited, Nature has -provided the small timorous person with other instincts -which tend to mitigate and even to neutralise it. It is a -happy circumstance that the most prolific excitant of fear, -the presentation of something new and uncanny, is also -<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>provocative of another feeling, that of curiosity, with its -impulse to look and examine. Even animals are sometimes -divided in the presence of something strange between -fear and curiosity,<a id='r160' /><a href='#f160' class='c011'><sup>[160]</sup></a> and children’s curiosity is much -more lively than theirs. A very tiny child, on first making -acquaintance with some form of physical pain, as a -bump on the head, will deliberately repeat the experience -by knocking his head against something as if experimenting -and watching the effect. A clearer case of curiosity -overpowering fear is that of a child who, after pulling the -tail of a cat in a bush and getting scratched, proceeded -to dive into the bush again.<a id='r161' /><a href='#f161' class='c011'><sup>[161]</sup></a> Still more interesting here -are the gradual transitions from actual fear before the -new and strange to bold inspection. The child who was -frightened by her Japanese doll insisted on seeing it every -day. The behaviour of one of these small persons on the -arrival at the house of a strange dog, of a dark foreigner, -or some other startling novelty, is a pretty and amusing -sight. The first overpowering timidity, the shrinking back -to the mother’s breast, followed by curious peeps, then by -bolder outstretchings of head and arms, mark the stages by -which curiosity and interest gain on fear and finally leave -it far behind. Very soon we know the small timorous -creatures will grow into bold adventurers. They will -make playthings of the alarming animals, and of the -alarming shadows too.<a id='r162' /><a href='#f162' class='c011'><sup>[162]</sup></a> Later on still perhaps they will -love nothing so much as to probe the awful mysteries of -gunpowder.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One palliative of these early terrors remains to be -touched on, the instinct of sheltering or refuge-taking. -The first manifestations of what is called the social nature -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>of children are little more than the reverse side of their -timidity. 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 solitude. A frightened child probably knows an -ecstasy of bliss when folded in the protective embrace of -a mother’s arms. 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 excursions, -the mother’s skirts. 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 checked, giving -place to a delicious calm.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How unhappy those children must be who, being -fearsome by nature, lack this refuge, who are left much -alone to wrestle with their horrors as best they may, and -are rudely repulsed when they bear their heart-quakings to -others, I would not venture to say. Still less should I -care to suggest what is suffered by those unfortunates who -find in those about them not comfort, assurance, support in -their fearsome moments, but the worst source of their -terrors. To be brutal to these small sensitive organisms, to -practise on their terrors, to take delight in exciting the -wild stare and wilder shriek of terror, this is perhaps one of -the strange things which make one believe in the old dogma -that the devil can enter into men and women. For here -we seem to have to do with a form of cruelty so exquisite, -so contrary to the oldest of instincts, that it is dishonouring -to the savage and to the lower animals to attempt to refer -it to heredity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To dwell on such things, however, would be to go back -to a pessimistic view of childhood. It is undeniable that -children are exposed to indescribable misery when they -are delivered into the hands of a consummately cruel -guardian. Yet one may hope that this sort of person -is exceptional, something of which we can give no account -<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>save by saying that now and again in sport nature -produces a monster, as if to show what she could do if she -did not choose more wisely and benignly to work within -the limitations of type.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f126'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r126'>126</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, Cap. 6 and 13.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f127'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r127'>127</a>. This does not apply to older children. As Tolstoi’s book, -<cite>Childhood, Boyhood and Youth</cite>, tells us, a boy of twelve may be much -given to straining after feelings which he thinks he ought to experience.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f128'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r128'>128</a>. Perez regards these as signs of fear, and points out that tremulous -movements may occur in the fœtus (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education dès le berceau</cite></span>, -p. 94).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f129'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r129'>129</a>. For an account of this reflex, see Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, Cap. 10, 176.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f130'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r130'>130</a>. I know of no good account of the manifestations of childish -fear. Mosso’s book, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>La Peur</cite></span>, chap. v. and following, will be found -most useful here.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f131'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r131'>131</a>. <cite>Mind</cite>, vol. ii., p. 288.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f132'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r132'>132</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 131.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f133'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r133'>133</a>. This seems to be the view of Perez: <cite>The First Three Years of -Childhood</cite> (English translation), p. 64.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f134'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r134'>134</a>. Observation of F. H. Champneys, <cite>Mind</cite>, vol. vi., p. 106.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f135'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r135'>135</a>. See the quotations from Sir Ch. Bell, Perez, <cite>First Three Years -of Childhood</cite>, p. 63.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f136'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r136'>136</a>. Preyer seems to regard this as instinctive. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 131.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f137'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r137'>137</a>. M. Perez (<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 65) calls in the evolution hypothesis here, -suggesting that the child, unlike the young animal, is so organised -as to be more on the alert for dangers which are near at hand -(auditory impressions) than for those at a distance (visual impressions). -I confess, however, that I find this ingenious writer not -quite convincing here.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f138'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r138'>138</a>. This true fear of strangers must be distinguished from the later -shyness, which, though akin to it, is a more complex feeling.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f139'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r139'>139</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 131.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f140'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r140'>140</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Le Roman d’un Enfant.</cite></span></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f141'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r141'>141</a>. Quoted by Tracy, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 29. But this observation seems to -me to need confirmation.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f142'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r142'>142</a>. See <cite>The Pedagogical Seminary</cite>, i., No. 2, p. 220.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f143'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r143'>143</a>. Quoted by Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 127. The word he uses is <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“scheuen”</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f144'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r144'>144</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Evolution intellectuelle et morale de l’Enfant</cite></span>, p. 102.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f145'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r145'>145</a>. See pp. 26, 27.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f146'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r146'>146</a>. See Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 130.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f147'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r147'>147</a>. A mother sends me a curious observation bearing on this. -One of her children when four months old was carried by her up-stairs -in the dark. On reaching the light she found the child’s face -black, her hands clenched, and her eyes protruding. As soon as -she reached the light she heaved a sigh and resumed her usual -appearance. This child was in general hardy and bold and never -gave a second display of terror. This is certainly a curious observation, -and it would be well to know whether similar cases of apparent -fright at being carried in the dark have been noticed.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f148'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r148'>148</a>. <cite>Mind</cite>, xi., p. 149.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f149'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r149'>149</a>. Quoted by Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 100. Cf. Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education dès -le berceau</cite></span>, p. 103.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f150'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r150'>150</a>. <cite>Thoughts on Education</cite>, sect. 138.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f151'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r151'>151</a>. <cite>Emile</cite>, book ii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f152'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r152'>152</a>. See especially James Payn, <cite>Gleams of Memory</cite>, pp. 3, 4.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f153'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r153'>153</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, pp. 100, 101.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f154'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r154'>154</a>. It is supposable too that disturbances of the retina giving rise -to subjective luminous sensations, as the well-known small bright -moving discs, might assist in the case of nervous children in suggesting -glaring eyes.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f155'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r155'>155</a>. See Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education dès le berceau</cite></span>, pp. 96-99. On animal -fears, see further Romanes, <cite>Animal Intelligence</cite>, p. 455 f.; Preyer, -<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 127 ff. and p. 135; Perez, <cite>First Three Years of Childhood</cite>, p. -64 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f156'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r156'>156</a>. See Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 99, 100.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f157'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r157'>157</a>. On this point there are some excellent observations made by -Miss Shinn, 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 (<cite>Notes on the Development of a Child</cite>, pt. ii., p. -144 ff.)</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f158'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r158'>158</a>. <cite>Pedagogical Review</cite>, ii., 3, p. 445.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f159'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r159'>159</a>. p. 43.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f160'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r160'>160</a>. Some examples are given by Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 135.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f161'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r161'>161</a>. Miss Shinn, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 150.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f162'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r162'>162</a>. Stevenson, the same who has described the terrors of moving -shadows, illustrates how a child may make a sort of playfellow of -his shadow (<cite>A Child’s Garden of Verses</cite>, xviii.).</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span> - <h2 class='c004'>VII. <br /> RAW MATERIAL OF MORALITY.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Primitive Egoism.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Perhaps there has been more hasty theorising about the -child’s moral characteristics than about any other of his -attributes. The very fact that diametrically opposed views -have been put forward is suggestive of this haste. By -certain theologians and others infancy has been painted in -the blackest of moral colours. According to M. Compayré -it is a bachelor, La Bruyère, and a bishop, Dupanloup, who -have said the worst things of children; and the parent or -teacher who wants to see how bad this worst is may consult -M. Compayré’s account.<a id='r163' /><a href='#f163' class='c011'><sup>[163]</sup></a> On the other hand, Rousseau and -those who think with him have invested the child with an -untarnished purity. According to Rousseau the child comes -from the Creator’s hand a perfect bit of workmanship, -which blundering man at once begins to mar. Children’s -freedom from human vices has been a common theme of -the poet: their innocence was likened by M. About to the -spotless snow of the Jungfrau. Others, as Wordsworth, -have gone farther and attributed to the infant positive -excellences, glimpses of a higher morality than ours, -Divine intuitions brought from a prenatal existence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such opposite views of the moral status and worth of a -child must be the result of prepossession, and the magnifying -of the accidents of individual experience. A theologian who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>is concerned to maintain the doctrine of natural depravity, -or a bachelor who happens to have known children chiefly -in the character of little tormentors, may be expected to -paint childhood with black pigments. On the other hand -the poet, attracted by the charm of infancy, may, as we have -seen, easily be led to idealise its moral aspects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 standards. The infant, though it has a -nature capable of becoming moral or immoral, is not as yet -a moral being; and there is a certain impertinence in trying -to force it under our categories of good and bad, pure and -corrupt.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If then we would know what the child’s ‘moral’ nature -is like we must be careful to distinguish. By ‘moral’ we -must understand that part of his nature, feelings and -impulses, which has for us a moral significance; whether -as furnishing raw material out of which education may -develop virtuous dispositions, or contrariwise, as constituting -forces adverse to this development. It may be well to -call the former tendencies favourable to virtue, pro-moral, -those unfavourable, contra-moral. Our inquiry, then, must -be: In what respects, and to what extent, does the child -show himself by nature, apart from all that is meant by education, -pro-moral or contra-moral, that is, well or ill fitted to -become a member of a good or virtuous community and to -exercise what we know as moral functions?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Our especial object here will be if possible to get at -natural dispositions, to examine the child in his primitive -nakedness, 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 chick.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now there is clearly a difficulty here. How, it may -be asked, can we expect to find in a child any traits having -a moral significance which have not been developed by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>social influences and education? In the case of pro-moral -dispositions more particularly, as kindness, or truthfulness, -we cannot expect to get rid of the effect of the combined -personal influence and instruction of the mother, which is -of the essence of all moral training. Even with regard -to contra-moral traits, as rudeness, or lying, it is evident -that example is frequently a co-operating influence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The difficulty is no doubt a real one, and cannot be -wholly got rid of. We cannot completely eliminate the -influence of the common life in which the good and bad -disposition alike may be said to grow up. Yet we may -distinguish. Thus we may look out for the earliest spontaneous -and what we may call original manifestations of -such dispositions as affection and truthfulness, so as to -eliminate the <em>direct</em> action of instruction and example, and -thus to reduce the influence of the social medium on the child -to a minimum. Similarly in the case of brutal and other -unlovely propensities, we may by taking pains get rid of -the influence of bad example.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let us see, then, how far the indictment of the child is -a just one. Do children tend spontaneously to manifest -the germs of vicious dispositions, and if so, to what extent? -Here, as I have suggested, we must be particularly careful -not to read wrong interpretations into what we see. It will -not do, for example, to say that children are born thieves -because they show themselves at first serenely indifferent -to the distinction of <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>meum</i></span> and <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>tuum</i></span>, and are inclined to -help themselves to other children’s toys, and so forth. To -repeat, what we have to inquire is whether children by -their instinctive inclinations are contra-moral, that is, predisposed -to what, if persevered in with reflexion, we call -immorality or vice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 others, such as -anger, envy, and cruelty.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>The most distant acquaintance with the first years of -human life tells us that young children have much in common -with the lower animals. Their characteristic passions and impulses -are centred in self and the satisfaction of its wants. -What is better marked, for example, than the boundless -greed of the child, his keen desire to appropriate and enjoy -whatever presents itself, and to resent others’ participation -in such enjoyment? For some time after birth the child -is little more than an incarnation of appetite which knows -on restraint, and only yields to the undermining force of -satiety.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The child’s entrance into social life through a growing -consciousness of the existence of others is marked by much -fierce opposition to their wishes. His greed, which at the -outset was but the expression of a vigorous nutritive -impulse, now takes on more of a contra-moral aspect. The -removal of the feeding-bottle before full satisfaction has -been attained is, as we know, the occasion for one of the -most impressive utterances of the baby’s ‘will to live,’ and -of its resentment of all human checks to its native impulses. -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-by.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In another way, too, the expansion of the infant’s consciousness -through the recognition of others widens the -terrain of greedy impulse. For ugly envy commonly has -its rise in the perception of another child’s consumption of -appetite’s dainties.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, it is evident, we are still at the level of the animal. -A dog is passionately greedy like the child, will fiercely -resent any interference with the satisfaction of its appetite, -and will be envious of another and more fortunately placed -animal.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 interest. A child -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>is apt not only to make free with another child’s toys, but -to show the strongest objection to any imitation of this -freedom, often displaying a dog-in-the-manger spirit by -refusing to lend what he himself does not want. Not only -so, he will be apt to resent another child’s having toys of -his own. This envy of other children’s possessions is often -wide and profound.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As the social interests come into play so far as to make -caresses and other signs of affection sources of pleasure to -the child, the field for envy and its ‘green-eyed’ offspring, -jealousy, is still more enlarged. As is well known, an infant -will greatly resent the mother’s taking another child -into her arms.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, again, we are at the level of the lower animals. -They, too, as our dogs and cats can show us, can be envious -not only in the matter of eatables, but in that of human -caressings, and even of possessions—witness the behaviour -of two dogs when a stick is thrown into the water.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Full illustrations of these traits of the first years of childhood -are not needed. We all know them. M. Perez and -others have culled a sufficient collection of examples.<a id='r164' /><a href='#f164' class='c011'><sup>[164]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Out of all this unrestrained pushing of appetite and -desire whereby the child comes into rude collision with -others’ wants, wishes and purposes, there issue the well-known -passionateness, the angry outbursts, and the fierce -quarrellings of the child. These fits of angry passion or -temper are among the most curious manifestations of childhood, -and deserve to be studied with much greater care -than they have yet received.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The outburst of rage as the imperious little will feels -itself suddenly pulled up has in spite of its comicality -something impressive. Hitting out right and left, throwing -things down on the floor and breaking them, howling, wild -agitated movements of the arms and whole body, these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>are the outward vents which the gust of childish fury is -apt to take. Preyer observed one of these violent explosions -in the seventeenth month. The outburst tends to concentrate -itself in an attack on the offender, be this even the beloved -mamma herself. Darwin’s boy at the age of two years -three months became a great adept at throwing books, sticks, -etc., at any one who offended him.<a id='r165' /><a href='#f165' class='c011'><sup>[165]</sup></a> But almost anything will -do as an object of attack. A child of four on being crossed -would bang his chair, and then proceed to vent his displeasure -on his unoffending toy lion, banging him, jumping -on him, and, as anti-climax, threatening him with the loss -of his dinner. Hitting is in some cases improved upon by -biting. The boy C. was for some time vigorously mordant -in his angry fits. Another little boy would, under similar -circumstances, bite the carpet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here we have expressive movements which are plainly -brutal, which assimilate the aspect of an angry child to -that of an infuriated animal. The whole outward attitude -is one of fierce reckless assault. The insane, we are told, -manifest a like wildness of attack in fits of anger, smashing -windows, etc., and striking anybody who happens to be at -hand.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet these are not all the manifestations. Childish anger -has its wretched aspect. There is keen suffering in these -early experiences of thwarted will and purpose. A little -boy, rather more than a year old, used when crossed to -throw himself on the floor and bang the back of his head; -and his brother, when fourteen months old, would similarly -throw himself on the floor, bang the back of his head, biting -the carpet as before mentioned. This act of throwing oneself -on the floor, which is common about this age and -is apparently quite instinctive, is the expression of the utter -<em>dejection</em> of misery. C.’s attitude when crossed, gathered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>into a heap on the floor, was eloquent of this infantile -despair. Such suffering is the immediate outcome of -thwarted purpose, and must be distinguished from the -moral feeling of shame which often accompanies it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such stormy outbursts vary no doubt from child to -child. Thus C.’s sister in her angry moments did not bite -or roll on the floor, but would dance about and stamp. -Some children show little if anything of this savage furiousness. -Among those that do show it, it is often a temporary -phenomenon only.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This anger, it is to be noted, is due to check, and would -show itself to some extent even if there were no intervention -of authority. Thus a child will become angry, -resentful, and despairingly miserable if another child gets -effective hold of something which he wants to have. Yet it -is undoubtedly true, as we shall see, that these little storms -are most frequently called up by the imposition of authority, -and are a manifestation of what we call a defiant attitude.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This slight examination may suffice to show that with -the child self, its appetites, its satisfactions, are the centre of -its existence, the pivot on which its action turns. I do not -forget the real and striking differences here, the specially -brutal form of boys’ anger as compared with that of girls, -the partial atrophy of some of these impulses, <i>e.g.</i>, jealousy, -in the more gentle and affectionate type of child. Yet -there seems to be little doubt that these are among the -commonest and most pronounced characteristics of the first -years.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Evolution will, no doubt, help us to understand much of -this. If the order of development of the individual follows -and summarises that of the race, we should expect the -child to show a germ at least of the passionateness, the -quarrelsomeness of the brute and of the savage before he -shows the moral qualities distinctive of civilised man. That -he often shows so close a resemblance to the savage and to -the brute suggests how little ages of civilised life with its -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>suppression of these furious impulses have done to tone -down the ancient and carefully transmitted instincts. The -child at birth, and for a long while after, may then be said -to be the representative of wild untamed nature, which it is -for education to subdue and fashion into something higher -and better.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time the child is more than this. In this -first clash of his will with another’s he knows more than -the brute’s sensual fury. He suffers consciously, he realises -himself in his antagonism to a world outside him. It is -probable, as I have pointed out before, that even a physical -check bringing pain, as when the child runs his head -against a wall, may develop this consciousness of self in -its antagonism to a not-self. This consciousness reaches -a higher phase when the opposing force is distinctly apprehended -as another will. Self-feeling, a germ of the feeling -of ‘my worth,’ enters into this early passionateness and -differentiates it from a mere animal rage. The absolute -prostration of infantile anger seems to be the expression -of this keen consciousness of rebuff, of injury.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While, then, these outbursts of savage instinct in -children are no doubt ugly, and in their direction contra-moral, -they must not hastily be pronounced wholly bad -and wicked. 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 -deliberation. 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 hates. -The very fleeting character of the outbreak, the rapid subsidence -of passion and transition to another mood, show -that there is here no real <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>malice prépense</i></span>. These instincts -will, no doubt, if they are not tamed, develop later on into -truly wicked dispositions; yet it is by no means a small -matter to recognise that they do not amount to full moral -depravity.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>On the other hand, 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 brute. The child -in these first years, though not yet human in the sense of -having rational insight into his wrong-doing, is human in -the sense of suffering through consciousness of an injured -self. This reflective element is not yet moral; the sense -of injury may turn by-and-by into lasting hatred. Yet it -holds within itself possibilities of something higher. But -of this more when we come to envisage the child in his -relation to authority.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The same predominance of self, the same kinship with -the unsocial brute which shows itself in these germinal -animosities, is said to reappear in the insensibility or unfeelingness -of children. The commonest charge against -children from those who are not on intimate terms with -them, and sometimes, alas, from those who are, is that they -are heartless and cruel.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That children often appear to the adult as unfeeling -as a stone, is, I suppose, incontestable. The troubles -which harass and oppress the mother leave her small -companion quite unconcerned. He either goes on playing -with undisturbed cheerfulness, 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 feeling. -A brother or a sister may be ill, but if the vigorous little -player is affected at all, it is only through the loss of his -companion, if this is not more than made up for by certain -advantages of the solitary situation. If the mother is ill, -the event is interesting merely as supplying him with -new treats. A little boy of four, after spending half an -hour in his mother’s sick-room, coolly informed his nurse: -‘I have had a very nice time, mamma’s ill!’ The order of -the two statements is significant of the child’s mental -attitude towards others’ sufferings. If his faithful nurse -<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>has her face bandaged, his interest in her torments does not go -beyond a remark on the ‘funniness’ of her new appearance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When it comes to the bigger human troubles this want -of fellow-feeling is still more noticeable. Nothing is more -shocking to the adult observer of children than their -coldness and stolidity in presence of death. While a -whole house is stricken with grief at the loss of a beloved -inmate the child is wont to preserve his serenity, being -affected at most by a feeling of awe before a great mystery. -Even the sight of the dead body does not always excite -grief. Mrs. 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 death. In one case she was taken with fearsome -longing to touch the dead body, so as to know what -‘as cold as death’ meant, in another, that of a pretty girl of -three with golden brown eyes and neat small brown curls, -she was impressed by the loveliness of the whole scene, -the nursery bedroom being hung with white and adorned -with white flowers. In neither case was she sorry, and could -not cry though she had imagined beforehand that she would.<a id='r166' /><a href='#f166' class='c011'><sup>[166]</sup></a> -Even in this case, then, where so much feeling was called -forth, commiseration for the dead companion seems to -have been almost wholly wanting.<a id='r167' /><a href='#f167' class='c011'><sup>[167]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>No one, I think, will doubt that judged by our standards -children are often profoundly and shockingly callous. But -the question arises here, too, whether we are right in -applying our grown-up standards. It is one thing to be -indifferent with full knowledge of suffering, 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 -finger. We are apt to assume that children know our -sufferings instinctively, or at least that they can always -enter into them when they are openly expressed. But this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>assumption is highly unreasonable. A large part of the -manifestation of human suffering is unintelligible to a -little child. He is oppressed neither by our anxieties nor -by our griefs, just because these are to a large extent -beyond his sympathetic comprehension.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We must remember, too, that there are moods and -attitudes of mind favourable and unfavourable to sympathy. -None of us are uniformly and consistently compassionate, -and children are frequently the subject of -moods which exclude the feeling. They are impelled by -their superabundant nervous energy to wild romping -activity, they are passionately absorbed in their play, -they are intensely curious about the many new things -they see and hear of. These dominant impulses issue in -mental attitudes which are indifferent to the spectacle of -others’ troubles.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, where an appeal to serious attention is given, a -child is apt to spy something besides the sadness. The -little girl already spoken of saw the prettiness of the death-room -rather than its mournfulness. A teacher once told -her class of the death of a class-mate. There was of course -a strange stillness, which one little girl presently broke -with a loud laugh. The child is said to have been by no -means unemotional, and the laugh not a ‘nervous’ one. -The odd situation—the sudden hush of a class—had affected -childish sensibilities more than the distressing announcement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One other remark by way of saving clause here. It is -by no means true that children are always unaffected by -the sad and sorrowful things in life. The first acquaintance -with death, as we know from a number of published reminiscences, -has sometimes shaken a child’s whole being with -an infinite, nameless sense of woe.<a id='r168' /><a href='#f168' class='c011'><sup>[168]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>Children, says the misopædist, are not only unfeeling -where we look for sympathy and kindness, they are positively -unkind, their unkindness amounting to cruelty. What -we mean by the brute in the child is emphatically this -cruelty. By cruelty is here understood cold-blooded infliction -of pain. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Cet âge,”</span> wrote La Fontaine of childhood, -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“est sans pitié.”</span> The idea that children, especially -boys, are cruel in this sense is, I think, a common one.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This cruelty will now and again show itself in relation -to other children. One of the trying situations of early -life is to find oneself supplanted by the arrival of a new -baby. Children, I have reason to think, are, in such circumstances, -capable of coming shockingly near to a feeling -of hatred. 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 head, -much as she would no doubt have tried to destroy a doll -which had become unsightly to her. The baby, it is comforting -to know, 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 woman.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such cruel-looking handling of smaller infants is probably -rare. More common is the exhibition of the signs -of cruelty in the child’s dealings with animals. It is of -this, indeed, that we mostly think when we speak of a -child’s cruelty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At first nothing seems clearer than the evidence of -malicious intention in a child’s treatment of animals. The -little girl M. when just a year old would lift two kittens by -the neck and try to stamp on them. 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 her, and on one occasion -resolutely thrust her hand into a bush to seize pussy, minding -not the scratches.<a id='r169' /><a href='#f169' class='c011'><sup>[169]</sup></a> Do we not see in this mauling of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>animals, even when it brings the child himself pain, evidences -of a rooted determination to plague, and of a fierce -delight in plaguing?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The question of the innermost nature of human cruelty -is too difficult a one to be discussed here. 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 suffering. The torments to -which a child will subject a long-suffering cat are, I suspect, -due not to a clear intention to inflict pain, but to the -childish impulse to hold, possess, and completely dominate -the pet animal. He feels he must have the pet, no matter -at what cost to himself: of the cost to his victim he does -not think. The stamping on the kittens was perhaps -merely a childish way of holding them fast. 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 animals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The case of destructive cruelty, as when a small boy -crushes a fly, is somewhat different. Let me give a well-observed -instance. A little boy of two years and two -months, "after nearly killing a fly on the window-pane, -seemed surprised and disturbed, looking round for an explanation, -then gave it himself: ‘Mr. Fy dom (gone) to -by-by’. But he would not touch it or another fly again—a -doubt evidently remained and he continued uneasy about -it." Here we have, I think, the instinctive attitude of a -child towards the outcome of his destructive impulse. -This impulse, which, as we know, becomes more clearly -destructive when experience has taught what result will -follow, is not necessarily cruel in the sense of including an -idea of the animal’s suffering. Animal movement, especially -that of tiny things, has something exciting and provoking -about it. 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 things. This is the meaning, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>I suspect, of the fascination of the fly on the window-pane, -and of tiny creeping things, and especially, perhaps, of the -worm with its tangle of wriggling movement. The cat’s -prolonged chase of the mouse, into which, as we have seen, -something of a dramatic make-believe enters, probably -owes its zest to a like delight in the realisation of power.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Along with this love of power there goes often something -of a child’s fierce untamable curiosity. A boy of -four, finding that his mother was shocked at hearing him -express a wish to see a pigeon which a dog had just killed, -remarked: ‘Is it rude to look at a dead pigeon? I want -to see where its blood is.’ 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 curiosity. The -child wants to see where the blood is, what the bones are -like, how the wings are fastened in, and so forth. Perez -tells of a little boy, afterwards an artist, who used to -crush flies between the leaves of a book for the sake of the -odd designs resulting.<a id='r170' /><a href='#f170' class='c011'><sup>[170]</sup></a> By such various lines of concentrated -activity does the child-mind overlook the suffering -which it causes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A like combination of love of power and of curiosity -seems to underlie other directions of childish destructiveness, -as the breaking of toys and the pulling of flowers to -pieces. In certain cases, as in C.’s annihilation of a garden -of peonies, the love of power or effect may overtop and -outlive the curiosity, becoming a sort of iconoclastic fury.<a id='r171' /><a href='#f171' class='c011'><sup>[171]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>I think, then, that we may give the little child the benefit -of the doubt, and not assign his rough handling of sentient -things to a wish to inflict pain, or even to an indifference -<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>to pain of which he is clearly aware. Wanton activity, the -curiosity of the experimenter, and delight in showing one’s -power and producing an effect, seem sufficient to explain -most of the alleged brutality of the first years.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Probably the same considerations apply to those milder -forms of annoyance which children are apt to practise on -other people and animals alike. That a child early develops -a decided taste for ‘teasing’ is, I think, certain. But -whether carried out by word or by action this early teasing -seems to be in the main the outcome of the love of power, -the impulse to impose one’s will on other creatures. 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 shackles, and -exercising for themselves a little domination. Cruelty, that -is the impulse to inflict pain, where it appears, grows up -later, and though it has its roots in this love of power ought -to be distinguished from it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 painted. Children are no doubt -apt to be passionate, ferocious in their anger, and sadly -wanting in consideration for others; yet it is consolatory -to reflect that their savageness is not quite that of brutes, -and that their selfishness and cruelty are a long way removed -from a deliberate and calculating egoism.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Germs of Altruism.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>It now remains to point out that there is another and -counterbalancing side. If a child has his outbursts of -temper he has also his fits of tenderness. If he is now dead -to others’ sufferings he is at another time taken with a most -amiable childish concern for their happiness. In order to -be just to him we must recognise both sides.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It must not be forgotten here that children are instinctively -attachable and sociable in so far as they show in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>first weeks that they get used to and dependent on the -human presence and are miserable when this is taken from -them. The stopping of an infant’s crying at night on hearing -the familiar voice of its mother or nurse shows this.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this instinct of companionship there is involved a -vague inarticulate sympathy. Just as the attached dog -may be said to have in a dim fashion a feeling of oneness -with its master, so the child. The intenser realisation of -this oneness comes in the case of the dog and of the child -alike after separation. The wild caressing leaps of the -quadruped are matched by the warm embracings of the -little biped. Only that here, too, we see in the child traces -of a deeper human consciousness. A girl of thirteen -months was separated from her mother during six weeks. -On the mother’s return she was speechless, and for some -time could not bear to leave her restored companion for a -minute. The little girl M. when nearly seventeen months old -received her father after only five days’ absence with special -marks of tenderness, rushing up to him, smoothing and -stroking his face and giving him all the toys in the room.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This sense of joining on one’s existence to another’s -is not sympathy in its highest form, that is, a conscious -realisation of another’s feelings, but it is a kind of sympathy -after all, and may grow into something better. This we -may see in the return of the childish heart to its resting -place after the estrangement introduced by <a id='corr243.26'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='‘naughtiness’'>‘naughtiness’.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_243.26'><ins class='correction' title='‘naughtiness’'>‘naughtiness’.</ins></a></span> -The relenting after passion, the reconciliation after punishment, -are these not the experiences which help to raise the -dumb animal sympathy of the first months into a true -human sense of fellowship? But this part of the development -of sympathy belongs to another chapter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sympathy, it has been said, is a kind of imitation, and -this is strikingly illustrated in its early forms. A dog will -howl piteously in response to another dog’s howl: similarly -a child of nine and a half months has been known to cry -violently when his mother or father pretended to cry.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>One curious manifestation of this early imitative sympathy -is the impulse to do what the mother does and to be -what she is. Much of early imitative play shows this -tendency. It is more than a cold distant copying of -another’s doings: it is full of the warmth of attachment, -and it is entered on as a way of getting nearer to the object -of attachment. Out of this, too, there springs the germ of -a higher sympathy. It will be remembered that Laura -Bridgman bound the eyes of her doll with a bandage -similar to the one she herself wore. Through this sharing -in her own experience the doll became more a part of -herself. Conversely, a child, on finding that her mother’s -head ached, began imitatively to make-believe that her own -head was hurt. Sympathy rests on community of experience, -and it is a curious fact that a child, before he can fully -sympathise with another’s trouble and make it his own by -the sympathetic process itself, should thus try by a kind of -childish acting to realise this community of experience.</p> - -<p class='c001'>From this imitative acting of another’s trouble, so as to -share in it, there is but a step to a direct sympathetic -apprehension of it. How early a genuine manifestation of -concern about another’s suffering begins to show itself it is -almost impossible to say. Children probably differ greatly -in this respect. I have, however, one case which is so -curious that I cannot forbear to quote it. It reaches me, I -may say, by a thoroughly trustworthy channel.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A baby aged one year and two months was crawling -on the floor. An elder sister, Katherine, aged six, who -was working at a wool mat could not get on very well -and began to cry. Baby looked up and grunted, ‘on! on!’ -and kept drawing its fingers down its own cheeks. Here -the aunt called Miss Katherine’s attention to baby, a -device which merely caused a fresh outburst of tears; -whereupon baby proceeded to hitch itself along to -Katherine with many repetitions of the grunts and the -mimetic finger-movements. Katherine, fairly overcome -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>by this, took baby to her and smiled; at which baby -began to clap its hands and to crow, tracing this time -the course of the tears down its sister’s cheeks.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This pretty nursery-picture certainly seems to illustrate -a rudiment of genuine fellow-feeling. 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 hurt, -even though it is not to be doubted that the graceful action -has been learnt through imitation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Very sweet and sacred to the mother are the first clear -indications of the child’s concern for herself. These are -sporadic, springing up rarely, and sometimes, as it looks -to us, capriciously. Illness, and temporary removal are a -common occasion for the appearance of a deeper tenderness -in the young heart. A little boy of three spontaneously -brought his story-book to his mother when she -lay in bed ill; and the same child used to follow her about -after her recovery with all the devotion of a little knight.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Valuable and entertaining, too, are the first attempts of -the child at consolation. A little German girl aged two -and a half who had just lost her brother seemed very -indifferent for some days. She then began to reflect and to -ask about her playmate. On seeing her mother’s distress -she proceeded in truly childish fashion to comfort her; -‘Never mind, mamma, you will get a better boy. He -<em>was</em> a ragamuffin’ (<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Er <em>war</em> ein Lump’</span>). The co-existence -of an almost barbarous indifference for the dead brother -with practical sympathy for the living mother is characteristic -here.<a id='r172' /><a href='#f172' class='c011'><sup>[172]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>A deeper and more thoughtful sympathy comes with -years and reflective power. Thought about the overhanging -terror, death, is sometimes the awakener of this. ‘Are you -old, mother?’ asked a boy of five. ‘Why?’ she answered. -‘Because,’ he continued, ‘the older you are the nearer you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>are to dying.’ This child had once before said he hoped -his mother would not die before him, and this suggests that -thought of his own forlorn condition was in his mind here: -yet we may hope that there was something of disinterested -concern too.<a id='r173' /><a href='#f173' class='c011'><sup>[173]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>This early consideration frequently takes the practical -form of helpfulness. A child loves nothing better than to -assist you in little household occupations; and though love -of activity and the pleasure of imitating no doubt count for -much in these cases, we can, I think, safely set down something -to the wish to be of use. This inference seems -justified by the fact that such practical helpfulness is not -always imitative. A little boy of two years and one month -happened to overhear his nurse say to herself: ‘I wish that -Anne would remember to fill the nursery boiler’. “He -listened, and presently trotted off; found the said Anne -doing a distant grate, pulled her by the apron, saying: -‘Nanna, Nanna!’ (come to nurse). She followed, surprised -and puzzled, the child pulling all the way, till, having -got her into the nursery, he pointed to the boiler, and -added: ‘Go dare, go dare,’ so that the girl comprehended -and did as he bade her.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>With this practical ‘utilitarian’ sympathy there goes -a quite charming wish to give pleasure in other ways. A -little girl when just a year old was given to offering her -toys, flowers, and other pretty things to everybody. Generosity -is as truly an impulse of childhood as greediness, and -it is odd to observe their alternate play. At an early age, -too, a child tries to make himself agreeable by pretty and -dainty courtesies. A little girl, aged three and a quarter, -petitioned her mother this wise: ‘Please, mamma, will you -pin this with the greatest pleasure?’ 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 willing, but glad.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>Just as there are these sporadic growths of affectionate -concern and wish to please in relation to the mother and -others, so there is ample evidence of kindness to animals. -The charge of cruelty in the case of little children is, indeed, -seen to be a gross libel as soon as we consider their whole -behaviour towards the animal world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have touched above on the vague alarms which this -animal world has for tiny children. It is only fair to -them to say that these alarms are for the most part -transitory, giving place to interest, attachment and fellow-feeling. -In a sense a child may be said to belong to the -animal community, as Mr. Rudyard Kipling’s charming -account of the Jungle prettily suggests. Has he not, -indeed, at first more in common with the dog and cat, the -pet rabbit or dormouse, than with that grown-up human -community which is apt to be so preoccupied with things -beyond his understanding, and in many cases, at least, to -wear so unfriendly a mien? We must remember, too, that -children as a rule know nothing of the prejudices, of the -disgusts, which make grown people put animals so far -from them. The boy C. was nonplussed by his mother’s -horror of the caterpillar. A child has been known quite -spontaneously to call a worm ‘beautiful’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As soon as the first fear of the strangeness is mastered -a child will take to an animal. A little boy of fifteen -months quickly overcame his fright at the barking of his -grandfather’s dog, and began to share his biscuits with him, -to give him flowers to smell, and to throw stones for his -amusement. 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 temper. -Ruskin in his reminiscences gives a striking example of this -triumph of attachment over fear. When five years old, he -tells us, he was taken by the serving-man to see a favourite -Newfoundland dog in the stable. The man rather foolishly -humoured the child’s wish to kiss Leo (the dog) and lowered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>him so that his face came near the animal’s. Hereupon the -dog, who was dining, resenting the interruption of his meal, -bit out a piece of the boy’s lip. His only fear after this was -lest the dog should be sent away.<a id='r174' /><a href='#f174' class='c011'><sup>[174]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Children will further at a quite early age betray the -germ of a truly humane feeling towards animals. The same -little boy that bravely got over his fear of the dog’s barking -would, when nineteen months old, begin to cry on seeing a -horse fall in the street. More passionate outbursts of pity -are seen at a later age. A boy five years and nine months -had a kitten of which he was very fond. One day, after -two or three days’ absence from the house, it came back with -one foot much mutilated and the leg swollen, evidently not -far from dying. “When (writes the mother) he saw it he -burst into uncontrollable tears and was more affected than -I have ever seen him. The kitten was taken away and -drowned, and ever since (a month) he has shown great -reluctance in speaking of it, and never mentions it to any -one but those who saw the cat at the time. He says it is -too sad to tell any one of it.” The boy C. when only four -was moved to passionate grief at the sight of a dead dog -taken from a pond.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The indignation of children at the doings of the butcher, -the hunter and others, shows how deeply pitiful consideration -for animals is rooted in their hearts. This is one of -the most striking manifestations of the better side of child-nature -and deserves a chapter to itself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is sometimes asked why children should take animals -to their bosoms in this fashion and lavish so much fellow-feeling -on them. It seems easy to understand how they -come to choose animals, especially young ones, as playmates, -and now and again to be ruthlessly inconsiderate of -their comfort in their boisterous gambols; but why should -they be so affected by their sufferings and champion their -rights so sturdily? I think the answer is not hard to find. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>The sympathy and love which the child gives to animals -grow out of a sort of blind gregarious instinct, and this -again seems to be rooted in a similarity of position and -needs. As M. Compayré well says on this point: “He (the -child) sympathises naturally with creatures which resemble -him on so many sides, in which he finds wants analogous -to his own, the same appetite, the same impulses to movement, -the same desire for caresses. To resemble is already -to love.”<a id='r175' /><a href='#f175' class='c011'><sup>[175]</sup></a> I think, however, that a deeper feeling comes in -from the first and gathers strength as the child hears about -men’s treatment of animals, I mean a sense of a common -danger and helplessness face to face with the human ‘giant’. -The more passionate attachment of the child to the animal -is the outcome of the wide-spread instinct of helpless things -to band together. A mother once remarked to her boy, -between five and six years old: ‘Why, R., I believe you are -kinder to the animals than to me’. ‘Perhaps I am,’ he -replied, ‘you see they are not so well off as you are.’ May -there not be something of this sense of banding and mutual -defence on the animals’ side too? The idea does not look so -absurd when we remember how responsive, how forbearing, -how ready to defend, a dog will often show itself towards -a ‘wee mite’ of a child. This same instinct to stand up -for the helpless inferior shows itself in children’s attitude -towards servants when scolded and especially when dismissed.<a id='r176' /><a href='#f176' class='c011'><sup>[176]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The same outpourings of affection are seen in the -dealings of children with their toy babies and animals. -Allowing for occasional outbreaks of temper and acts of -violence, the child’s intercourse with his doll and his toy -‘gee gee’ is a wonderful display of loving solicitude; a -solicitude which is at once tender and corrective and has -the enduring constancy of a maternal instinct. No one -can watch the care given to a doll, the wide-ranging efforts -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>to provide for its comfort, to make it look pretty, and -to get it to behave nicely, and note the misery when it -is missing, without acknowledging that in this plaything -humanised by childish fancy, and brought by daily habit -into the warmest intimacy of daily companionship, we have -the focal meeting-point of the tender impulses of the child.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Lastly, the reader may be reminded that childish kindness -and pitifulness extend to what look to us still less -deserving objects in the inanimate world. The manifestations -of pity for the falling leaves and for the stones condemned -to lie always in one place, referred to above, show -how quick childish feeling is to detect what is sad in the -look of things. Children have even been known to apply -the commiserating vocable ‘poor’ to a torn paper figure, -and to a bent pin. It seems fair to suppose that here, -too, the more tender heart of the child saw occasion for -pity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is worth noting that childish sorrow at the sufferings -of things is sometimes so keen, that even artistic descriptions -which contain a ‘cruel’ element are shunned. A -little boy under four "is indignant (writes his mother) at -any picture where an animal suffers. He has even turned -against several of his favourite pictures—German Bilderbogen, -because they are ‘cruel,’ as the bear led home with -a corkscrew in his nose." The extreme manifestation of -this shrinking from the representation of animal or human -suffering is dislike for ‘sad stories’. The unsophisticated -tender heart of the child can find no pleasure in horrors -which appear to be the supreme delight of many an adult -reader.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, however, it is evident, we verge on the confines -of sentimental pity. It is to be remarked that highly -imaginative children shed most tears over these fictitious -sufferings. Children with more matter-of-fact minds and -a practical turn are not so affected. Thus a mother writes -of her two girls: ‘M. being the most imaginative is and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>always has been much affected by sad stories, especially -if read to her with dramatic inflexions of voice. From two -years old upwards these have always affected her to tears, -whilst P. who is really the most tender-hearted and helpful, -but has little imagination, never cries at sad stories, and -when four years old explained to me that she did not -mind them because she knew they didn’t really happen.’</p> - -<p class='c001'>It appears to me to be incontestable that in this spontaneous -outgoing of fellow-feeling towards other creatures, -human and animal, the child manifests something of a -truly moral quality. C.’s stout and persistent championship -of the London horses against the oppression of the -bearing-rein had in it something of righteous indignation. -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 world. The boy De Quincey got -this first sense of the existence of moral evil in another -way through his sympathy with a sister who, rumour said, -had been brutally treated by a servant. He could not, he -tells us, bear to look on the woman. It was not anger. -‘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 <a id='corr251.24'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='strife.”'>strife.’</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_251.24'><ins class='correction' title='strife.”'>strife.’</ins></a></span><a id='r177' /><a href='#f177' class='c011'><sup>[177]</sup></a></p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Children’s Lies.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>We may now turn to the other main charge against -children, that of lying. According to many, children are -in general accomplished little liars, to the manner born -and equally adept with the mendacious savage. Even -writers on childhood, by no means prejudiced against them, -lean to the view that untruth is universal among children, -and to some extent at least innate.<a id='r178' /><a href='#f178' class='c011'><sup>[178]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>Here, surely, there is need of discrimination. A lie -connotes, or should connote, an assertion made with full -consciousness of its untruth, and in order to mislead. 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 sense. 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 serious. It is satisfactory -to note a tendency to take a milder and more reasonable -view of this infantile fibbing; and in what follows I can -but follow up the excellent recent studies of Dr. Stanley -Hall, and M. Compayré.<a id='r179' /><a href='#f179' class='c011'><sup>[179]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>It is desirable to inspect a little more closely the -various forms of this early mendacity. To begin with -those little ruses and dissimulations which, according to -M. Perez, are apt to appear almost from the cradle in the -case of certain children, it is plainly difficult to bring them -into the category of full-fledged lies. When, for example, -a child wishing to keep a thing hides it, and on your -asking for it holds out empty hands, it would be hard to -name this action a lie, even though there is in it a germ -of deception. We must remember that children have an -early developed instinct to secrete things, and the little -dissimulation in these actions may be a mere outcome -of this hiding propensity, and the accompanying wish that -you should not get the hidden thing. Refusals to tell -secrets, or as C. called them ‘private secrets’ (a fine distinction), -show the same thing. A child when badgered -is most jealous in guarding what he has been told, or what -his fancy has made a secret. The little ruses or ‘acted 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 matter, and to have the minimum of intentional -<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>deception. As Mrs. Fry has well shown, this childish -passion for keeping things secret may account for later -and more serioua-looking falsehoods.<a id='r180' /><a href='#f180' class='c011'><sup>[180]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 false. 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 falsity. But here I suspect we judge -harshly, applying adult tests to cases where they are inappropriate. -Anybody who has observed children’s play and -dramatic talk, and knows how readily and completely they -can imagine the non-existent so as to lose sight of the -existent, will be chary when talking of them of using the -word lie. There may be solemn sticklers for truth who -would be shocked to hear the child when at play saying, -‘I am a coachman,’ ‘Dolly is crying,’ and so forth. But -the discerning see nothing to be alarmed at here. Similarly -when a little girl of two and a half after running on -with a pretty long rigmarole of sounds devoid of all meaning -said: “It’s because you don’t understand me, papa”. -Here the love of mystery and secrecy aided by the dramatic -impulse <em>made</em> the nonsense talk real talk. The wee -thing doubtless had a feeling of superiority in talking in a -language which was unintelligible to her all-wise papa.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On much the same level of moral obliquity are those -cases where a child will say the opposite of what he is told, -turning authoritative utterances upside down. A quaint -instance is quoted by Compayré from Guyau. Guyau’s -little boy (age not given) was overheard saying to himself: -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Papa parle mal, il a dit <em>sevette</em>, bébé parle bien, il dit -<em>serviette</em>”</span>. Such reversals are a kind of play too: the child -not unnaturally gets tired now and then of being told that -he is wrong, and for the moment imagines himself right -and his elders wrong, immensely enjoying the idea.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>A graver-looking case presents itself when an ‘untruth’ -is uttered in answer to a question. C. on being asked by -his mother who told him something, answered, ‘Dolly’. -‘False, and knowingly false,’ somebody will say, especially -when he learns that the depraved youngster instantly proceeded -to laugh. But let us look a little closer. The -question had raised in C.’s small mind the idea that somebody -had told him. This is a process of ‘suggestion’ -which, as we shall see presently, sways a child’s mind as it -sways that of the hypnotised adult. And there close by -the child was dolly, and the child’s make-believe includes, -as we all know, much important communication with dolly. -What more natural than that the idea should at once seize -his imagination? But the laugh? Well I am ready to -admit that there was a touch of playful defiance here, of -young impishness. The expression on the mother’s face -showed him that his bold absurd fancy had produced its -half-startling, half-amusing effect; and there is nothing -your little actor likes more than this after-effect of startling -you. But more, it gave him at the same instant a glimpse -of the outside look of his fancy, of the unreality of the -untruth; and the laugh probably had in it the delight of -the little rebel, of the naughty rogue who loves now and -then to set law at defiance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A quick vivid fancy, a childish passion for acting a part, -these backed by a strong impulse to astonish, and a -turn for playful rebellion, seem to me to account for this -and other similar varieties of early misstatement. Naughty -they no doubt are in a measure; but is it not just that playing -at being naughty which has in it nothing really bad, -and is removed <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>toto cœlo</i></span> from downright honest lying? I -speak the more confidently as to C.’s case as I happen to -know that he was in his serious moods particularly, one -might almost say pedantically, truthful.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A somewhat different case is that where the vivid fancy -underlying the misstatement may be supposed to lead to a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>measure of self-deception. When, for example, a child -wants to be carried and says, “My leg hurts me and my -foot too just here, I can’t walk, I can’t, I can’t,”<a id='r181' /><a href='#f181' class='c011'><sup>[181]</sup></a> it is -possible at least that he soon realises the tiredness he -begins by half feigning. The Worcester collection gives an -example. “I was giving some cough syrup, and E (aged -three years two months) ran to me saying: ‘I am sick too, -and I want some medicine’. She then tried to cough. -Every time she would see me taking the syrup bottle -afterwards, she would begin to cough. The syrup was very -sweet.” This looks simply awful. 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 sick, an illusion strong enough to -cause the irritation and the cough? The idea may seem -far-fetched, but deserves to be considered before we brand -the child with the name liar.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 feelings. How much -false statement—and that not only among little children—is -of the nature of exaggeration and directed to producing -a strong effect. When, for example, the little four-year-old -draws himself up and shouts exultantly, “See, mamma, how -tall I am, I am growing so fast, I shall soon be a giant,” or -boasts of his strength and tells you the impossible things he -is going to do, the element of braggadocio is on the surface, -and imposes on nobody.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt these propensities, though not amounting in -the stage of development now dealt with to full lying, may -if unrestrained develop into this. An unbridled fancy -and strong love of effect will lead an older child to say -what he knows, vaguely at least, at the moment to be -false in order to startle and mystify others. Such exaggeration -of the impulses is distinctly abnormal, as may be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>seen by its affinity to what we can observe in the case of -the insane. The same is true of the exaggeration of the -vain-glorious or ‘showing off’ impulses, as illustrated for -example in the cases mentioned by Dr. 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 pretences.<a id='r182' /><a href='#f182' class='c011'><sup>[182]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>A fertile source of childish untruth, especially in the -case of girls, is the wish to please. Here we have to do -with very dissimilar things. An emotional child who in a -sudden fit of tenderness for mother, aunt or teacher gushes -out, ‘Oh I <em>do</em> love you,’ or ‘What sweet lovely eyes you -have,’ or other pretty flattery, may be sincere for the moment, -the exaggeration being indeed the outcome of a sudden -ebullition of emotion. There is more of acting and artfulness -in the flatteries which take their rise in a calculating -wish to say the nice agreeable thing. Some children are, -I believe, adepts at these amenities. Those in whom the -impulse is strong and dominant are presumably those who -in later years make the good society actors. In all this -childish simulation and exaggeration we have to do with -the germs of what may become a great moral evil, insincerity, -that is falsity in respect of what is best and ought to be -sacred. Yet this childish flattery, though undoubtedly a -mild mendacity, is a most amiable mendacity through its -charming motive—always supposing that it is a pure wish -to please, and is not complicated with an <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>arrière pensée</i></span>, the -hope of gaining some favour from the object of the devotion. -Perhaps there is no variety of childish fault more difficult -to deal with; if only for the reason that in checking the -impulse we are robbing ourselves of the sweetest offerings -of childhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The other side of this wish to please is the fear -to give offence, and this, I suspect, is a fertile source of -childish prevarication. If, for example, a child is asked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>whether he does not like or admire something, his feeling -that the questioner expects him to say ‘Yes’ makes it very -hard to say ‘No’. Mrs. Burnett gives us a reminiscence of -this early experience. When she was less than three, she -writes, a lady visitor, a friend of her mother, having found -out that the baby newly added to the family was called -Edith, remarked to her: ‘That’s a pretty name. My baby -is Eleanor. Isn’t that a pretty name?’ On being thus -questioned she felt in a dreadful difficulty, for she did not -like the sound of ‘Eleanor,’ and yet feared to be rude and -say so. She got out of it by saying she did not like the -name as well as ‘Edith’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These temptations and struggles, which may impress -themselves on memory for the whole of life, illustrate the -influence of older persons’ wishes and expectations on the -childish mind. It is possible that we have here to do with -something akin to “suggestion,” that force which produces -such amazing results on the hypnotised subject, and is -known to be a potent influence for good or for evil on the -young mind. A leading question of the form, ‘Isn’t this -pretty?’ ‘Aren’t you fond of me?’ may easily overpower -for a moment the child’s own conviction super-imposing -that of the stronger mind. Such passive utterance coming -from a mind over-ridden by another’s authority is not to be -confounded with conscious falsehood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This suggestion often combines with other <a id='corr257.26'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='forces'>forces.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_257.26'><ins class='correction' title='forces'>forces.</ins></a></span> -Here is a good example. A little American girl, sent into -the oak shrubbery to get a leaf, saw a snake, which so -frightened her that she ran home without the leaf. As -cruel fate would have it she met her brothers and told -them she had seen a ‘’sauger’. “They knew (writes the -lady who recalls this reminiscence of her childhood) the -difference between snakes and their habits, and, boy-like, -wanted to tease me, and said ‘’Twas no ’sauger—it didn’t -have a red ring round its neck, now, did it?’ My heated -imagination saw just such a serpent as soon as their words -<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>were spoken, and I declared it had a ring about ‘its neck’.” -In this way she was led on to say that it had scars and -a little bell on its neck, and was soundly rated by her -brothers as a ‘liar’.<a id='r183' /><a href='#f183' class='c011'><sup>[183]</sup></a> Here we have a case of “illusion of -memory” induced by suggestion acting on a mind made -preternaturally sensitive by the fear from which it had not -yet recovered. If there was a germ of mendacity in the -case it had its source in the shrinking from the brothers’ -ridicule, the wish not to seem utterly ignorant about these -boyish matters, the snakes. 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 word?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It seems paradoxical, yet is, I believe, indisputable, -that a large part of childish untruth comes upon the scene -in connexion with moral authority and discipline. 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 punishment. Very little -children brought face to face with restraint and punishment -will ‘try on’ these ruses. Here are one or two -illustrations from the notes on the little girl M. When -seventeen and a half months old she threw down her gloves -when wheeled in her mail-cart by her mother. The latter -picked them up and told her not to throw them away again. -She was at first good, then seemed to deliberate and finally -called out: ‘Mamma, Bubbo’ (dog). The mother turned -to look, and the little imp threw her gloves away again, -laughing; there was of course no dog. The fib about -the dog formed part of a piece of childish make-believe, of -an infantile comedy. It was hardly more when about two -months later, after she had thrown down and broken her -tea-things, and her mother had come up to her, she said: -‘Mamma broke tea-things—beat mamma,’ and proceeded -to beat her. In connexion with such little child-comedies -<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>there can be no talk of deception. They are the outcome -of the childish instinct to upset the serious attitude of -authority by a bit of fun.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The little stratagem begins to look more serious when -the child gets artful enough to put the mother off the scent -by a false statement. For example, a mite of three having -in a moment of temper called her mother ‘monkey,’ and -being questioned as to what she had said, replied: “I said -I was a monkey”. In some cases the child does not wait -to be questioned. A little girl mentioned by Compayré, -being put out by something the mother had done or said, -cried: ‘Nasty!’ (Vilaine!) then after a significant silence, -corrected herself in this wise, ‘Dolly nasty’ (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Poupée -vilaine</span>). The skill with which this transference was -effected without any violence to grammar argues a precocious -art.<a id='r184' /><a href='#f184' class='c011'><sup>[184]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Our moral discipline may develop untruth in another -way. When the punishment has been inflicted and the -governor, relenting from the brutal harshness, asks: ‘Are -you sorry?’ or ‘Aren’t you sorry?’ the answer is exceedingly -likely to be ‘No,’ even though this is in a sense untrue. -More clearly is this lying of obstinacy seen where a child -is shut up and kept without food. Asked: ‘Are you -hungry?’ the hardy little sinner stifles his sensations and -pluckily answers ‘No,’ even though the low and dismal -character of the sound shows that the untruth is but a half-hearted -affair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have tried to show how a child’s untruths may be -more than half “playing,” how when they are serious -assertions they may involve a measure of self-deception, -and how even when consciously false they may have -their origin in excusable circumstances and feelings. In -urging all this I do not wish to deny the statement that -children wall sometimes deliberately invent a lie from a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>base motive, 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 ‘Henri’ had been cruel -to the parrot.<a id='r185' /><a href='#f185' class='c011'><sup>[185]</sup></a> Yet I am disposed to look on such mean -falsehoods as exceptional if not abnormal.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is much even yet to be done in clearing up the -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>modus operandi</i></span> of children’s lies. How quick, for example, -is a child to find out the simple good-natured people, as -the servant-maid, or gardener, who will listen to his -romancing and flatter him by appearing to accept it all as -gospel. More significant is the fact that intentional deception -is apt to show itself towards certain people only. -There is many a school-boy who would think it no dishonour -to say what is untrue to those he dislikes, especially -by way of getting them into hot water, though he would -feel it mean and base to lie to his mother or his father, and -bad form to lie to the head-master. Similar distinctions -show themselves in earlier stages, and are another point of -similarity between the child and the savage whose ideas of -truthfulness seem to be truthfulness for <em>my</em> people only. -This is a side of the subject which would repay fuller -inquiry.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another aspect of the subject which has been but little -investigated is the influence of habit in the domain of lying, -and the formation of persistent permanent lies. The impulse -to stick to an untruth when once uttered is very -human, and in the case of the child is enforced by the fear -of discovery. This applies not only to falsehoods foisted -on persons in authority, but to those by which clever boys -and girls take pleasure in befooling the inferior wits of -others. In this way there grow up in the nursery and in -the playground traditional myths and legends which are -solemnly believed by the simple-minded. Such invention -is in part the outcome of the “pleasures of the imagination”. -Yet it is probable that these are in all cases reinforced not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>only by the wish to produce an effect, 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 joking.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Closely connected with the permanence of untruths is -the contagiousness of lying. 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 -children. I suspect, however, that it is in all cases -largely due to the force of suggestion. The falsehood -boldly announced is apt to captivate the mind and hold it -under a kind of spell.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 testimony. 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 hearing, -whether they are in the waking or in the sleeping state, -so that they are ready to state that they actually saw -happen what was asserted.<a id='r186' /><a href='#f186' class='c011'><sup>[186]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>So much as to the several manners and circumstances -of childish lying. In order to understand still better -what it amounts to, how much of conscious falsehood -enters into it, we must glance at another and closely related -phenomenon, the pain which sometimes attends -and follows it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is no doubt that a certain number of children -experience a qualm of conscience when uttering a falsehood. -This is evidenced in the well-known devices by which the -intelligence of the child thinks to mitigate the lie; as when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>on saying what he knows to be false he adds mentally, -‘I do not mean it,’ ‘in my mind,’ or some similar palliative.<a id='r187' /><a href='#f187' class='c011'><sup>[187]</sup></a> -Such subterfuges show a measure of sensibility, -for a hardened liar would despise the shifts, and are -curious as illustrations of the childish conscience and its -unlearnt casuistry.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The remorse that sometimes follows lying, especially -the first lie, which catches the conscience at its tenderest, -has been remembered by many in later life. Here is a -case. A lady friend remembers that when a child of -four she had to wear a shade over her eyes. One day on -walking out with her mother she was looking, child-wise, -sidewards instead of in front, and nearly struck a lamp-post. -Her mother then scolded her, but presently remembering -the eyes, said: “Poor child, you could not see -well”. She knew that this was not the reason, but she -accepted it, and for long afterwards was tormented with a -sense of having told a lie. Miss Wiltshire, who tells the -story of the mythical snake, gives another recollection -which illustrates the keen suffering of a child when he -becomes fully conscious of falsehood. She was as a small -child very fond of babies, and had been permitted by her -mother to go when invited by her aunt to nurse her baby -cousin. One day wanting much to go when not invited, -she boldly invented, saying that her aunt was busy and -had asked her to spend an hour with the baby. ‘I went -(she adds) not to the baby, but by a circuitous route to -my father’s barn, crept behind one of the great doors, -which I drew as close to me as I could, vainly wishing -that the barn and the hay-stacks would cover me; then -I cried and moaned I do not know how many hours, and -when I went to bed I said my prayers between sobs, -refusing to tell my mother why I wept.’<a id='r188' /><a href='#f188' class='c011'><sup>[188]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Such examples of remorse are evidence of a child’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>capability of knowingly stating what is false. This is -strikingly shown in Miss Wiltshire’s two reminiscences; -for she distinctly tells us that in the case of her confident -assertion about the imaginary snake with ring and bell, -she felt no remorse as she was not conscious of uttering a -lie.<a id='r189' /><a href='#f189' class='c011'><sup>[189]</sup></a> But these sufferings of conscience point to something -else, a sense of awful wickedness, of having done violence -to all that is right and holy. How, it may be asked, does -it happen that children feel thus morally crushed after -telling a lie?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here is a question that can only be answered when -we have more material. We know that among all childish -offences lying is the one which is apt to be specially -branded by theological sanctions. The physical torments -with which the ‘lying tongue’ is threatened, may well -beget terror in a timid child’s heart. I think it likely, too, -that the awfulness of lying is thought of by children in its -relation to the all-seeing God who, though he cannot be -lied to, knows when we lie. The inaudible palliative -words added to the lie may be an awkward child-device -for putting the speaker straight with the all-hearing -God.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Further inquiry is, however, needed here. Do children -contract a horror of a lie when no religious terrors are -introduced? 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 ears? Let -parents supply us with facts here.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Meanwhile I will venture to put forth a conjecture, and -will gladly withdraw it as soon as it is disproved.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 propensity. -Several mothers assure me that their children have never -seriously propounded an untruth. I can say the same -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>about two children who have been especially observed for -the purpose.<a id='r190' /><a href='#f190' class='c011'><sup>[190]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>This being so, I distinctly challenge the assertion that -lying is instinctive in the sense that a child, even when -brought up among habitual truth tellers, shows an unlearned -aptitude to say what he knows to be false. A child’s quick -imitativeness will, of course, lead him to copy grown-up -people’s untruths at a very early age.<a id='r191' /><a href='#f191' class='c011'><sup>[191]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>I will go further and suggest that where a child is -brought up normally, that is, in a habitually truth-speaking -community, he tends, quite apart from moral instruction, to -acquire a respect for truth as what is customary. 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 words, of fitting ideas to words when trying to -understand others, and words to ideas when trying to -express his own thoughts, and you will see that all this -must serve to make truth, that is, the correspondence of -statement with fact, to the child-mind something matter-of-course, -something not to be questioned, a law wrought -into the very usages of daily life which he never thinks of -disobeying. We can see that children accustomed to truth-speaking -show all the signs of a moral shock when they -are confronted with assertions which, as they see, do not -answer to fact. The child C. was highly indignant on -hearing from his mother that people said what he considered -false things about horses and other matters of interest: 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 -reverence. The idea of perpetrating a knowing untruth, so -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>far as I can judge, is simply awful to a child who has been -thoroughly habituated to the practice of truthful statement. -May it, then, not well be that when a preternatural pressure -of circumstances pushes the child over the boundary line -of truth, he feels a shock, a horror, a giddy and aching -sense of having violated law—law not wholly imposed -by the mother’s command, but rooted in the very habits -of social life? I think the conjecture is well worth considering.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Our inquiry has led us to recognise, in the case of -cruelty and of lying alike, that children are by no means -morally perfect, but have tendencies which, if not counteracted -or held in check by others, will develop into true -cruelty and true lying. On the other hand, our study has -shown us that these impulses are not the only ones. A -child has promptings of kindness, which alternate, often in -a capricious-looking way, with those of inconsiderate teasing -and tormenting; and he has, I hold, side by side with the -imaginative and other tendencies which make for untruthful -statement, the instinctive roots of a respect for -truth. These tendencies have not the same relative strength -and frequency of utterance in the case of all children, some -showing, for example, more of the impulse which makes for -truth, others more of the impulse which makes for untruth. -Yet in all children probably both kinds of impulse are -to be observed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have confined myself to two of the moral traits of -childhood. If there were time to go into an examination -of others, as childish vanity, something similar would, I -think, be found. Children’s vanity, like that of the savage, -has been the theme of more than one chapter, and it is undoubtedly -vast to the point of absurdity. Yet, side by -side with these impulses to deck oneself, to talk boastfully, -there exists a delightful childish candour which, if -not exactly what we call modesty, is possibly something -better.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>We may then, perhaps, draw the conclusion that child-nature -is on its moral side wanting in consistency and -unity. It is a field of half-formed growths, some of which -tend to choke the others. Certain of these are favourable, -others unfavourable to morality. 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 principles.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f163'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r163'>163</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Evolution intell. et mor. de l’Enfant</cite></span>, chap. xiv., ii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f164'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r164'>164</a>. See for example Perez, <cite>The First Three Years of Childhood</cite>, p. 66 -ff.; and <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education dès le berceau</cite></span>, chap. vi.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f165'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r165'>165</a>. Darwin notes that all his boys did this kind of thing, whereas -his girls did not (<cite>Mind</cite>, ii., p. 288). My own observations agree with -this. A small boy has more of savage attack than a small girl.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f166'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r166'>166</a>. <cite>The One I Knew Best</cite>, chap. x.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f167'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r167'>167</a>. <i>Cf.</i> Paola Lombroso, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 84 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f168'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r168'>168</a>. See, for example, the record of the impression produced by a -parent’s death left by Steele in the <cite>Tatler</cite>, and George Sand in -her autobiography. No doubt, as Tolstoi’s reminiscences tell us, -a good deal of straining after emotion and vain affectation may -mingle with such childish sorrow.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f169'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r169'>169</a>. <cite>Notes on the Development of a Child</cite>, pt. ii., p. 149 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f170'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r170'>170</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Art et la Poésie chez l’Enfant</cite></span>, p. 60.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f171'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r171'>171</a>. Ruskin tells us that when a child he pulled flowers to pieces ‘in -no morbid curiosity, but in admiring wonder’ (<span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Præterita</cite></span>, 88). 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 pavement.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f172'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r172'>172</a>. A pretty example of such childish consolation is given by P. -Lombroso, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 94.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f173'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r173'>173</a>. <i>Cf.</i> P. Lombroso, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 87.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f174'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r174'>174</a>. <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Præterita</cite></span>, pp. 105-6.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f175'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r175'>175</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 108.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f176'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r176'>176</a>. Illustrations are given by Paola Lombroso, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 96 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f177'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r177'>177</a>. <cite>Autobiographical Sketches</cite>, chap. i.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f178'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r178'>178</a>. See the quotations from Montaigne and Perez, given by Compayré, -<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 309 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f179'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r179'>179</a>. Stanley Hall, “Children’s Lies,” <cite>Amer. Journal of Psychology</cite>, -1890; Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 309 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f180'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r180'>180</a>. <cite>Uninitiated</cite> (‘A Discovery in Morals’).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f181'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r181'>181</a>. See P. Lombroso, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 74.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f182'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r182'>182</a>. Article “Children’s Lies,” p. 67.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f183'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r183'>183</a>. Sara E. Wiltshire, <cite>The Christian Union</cite>, vol. xl., No. 26.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f184'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r184'>184</a>. Perez gives a similar story, only that the epithet <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘vilaine’</span> was -here transferred to <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘l’eau’</span>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education dès le berceau</cite></span>, p. 53.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f185'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r185'>185</a>. Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education dès le berceau</cite></span>, p. 54.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f186'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r186'>186</a>. M. 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 children. <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Les Faux Temoignages des Enfants devant la -Justice</cite></span>, 1887. The subject has been further elucidated by Dr. -Bérillon.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f187'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r187'>187</a>. See Stanley Hall, <i>loc. cit.</i>, p. 68 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f188'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r188'>188</a>. <i>Loc. cit.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f189'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r189'>189</a>. <i>Cf.</i> what Mrs. Fry says, <cite>Uninitiated</cite> (‘A Discovery in Morals’).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f190'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r190'>190</a>. Stanley Hall, when he speaks of certain forms of lying as -prevalent among children, is, as he expressly explains, speaking of -children <em>at school</em>, where the forces of contagion are in full swing.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f191'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r191'>191</a>. I seem to detect possible openings for the play of imitation in -many of the indisputably conscious falsehoods reported by Perez, P. -Lombroso, and others.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span> - <h2 class='c004'>VIII. <br /> UNDER LAW.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>The Struggle with Law.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>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 training. We will -now examine the child’s attitude towards the moral government -with which he finds himself confronted.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here again we meet with opposite views. Children, -say some, are essentially disobedient and law-breaking. -A child as such is a rebel, delighting in nothing so much -as in evading the rule which he finds imposed on him by -others.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The view that children are instinctively obedient and -law-abiding, has not, I think, been very boldly insisted on. -A follower of Rousseau, at least, who sees only clumsy -interference with natural development in our attempts to -govern children, would say that child-nature must resist -the artificial and cramping system which the disciplinarian -imposes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It seems, however, to be allowed by some that a -certain number of children are docile and disposed to -accept authority with its commands. According to these, -children are either obedient or disobedient. This is perhaps -the view of many mothers and pedagogues.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, too, it is probable that we try to make nature -<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>too simple. Even the latter view, in spite of its apparent -wish to be discriminating, does not allow for the many-sidedness -of the child, and for the many different ways in -which the instincts of child-nature may vary.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now it is worth asking whether, if the child were -naturally disposed to look on authority as something -wholly hostile, he would get morally trained at all. -Physically mastered and morally cowed he might of course -become; but this is not the same thing as being morally -induced into a habit of accepting law and obeying it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In inquiring into this matter we must begin by drawing -a distinction. There is first the attitude of a child towards -the governor, the parent or other guardian, and there is his -attitude towards law as such. These are by no means the -same thing, and a child of three or four begins to illustrate -the distinction. He may seem to be lawless, opposed to -the very idea of government, when in reality he is merely -objecting to a particular ruler, and the kind of rule (or as -the child would say, misrule) which he is carrying out.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let us look a little into the non-compliant, disobedient -attitude of children. As we have seen, their very liveliness, -the abundance of their vigorous impulses, brings -them into conflict with others’ wills. The ruler, more particularly, -is a great and continual source of crossings and -checkings. The child has his natural wishes and propensities. -He is full of fun, bent on his harmless tricks, and -the mother has to talk seriously to him about being naughty. -How can we wonder at his disliking the constraint? He has -a number of inconvenient, active impulses, such as putting -things in disorder, playing with water, and so forth. As we -all know, he has a duck-like fondness for dirty puddles. -Civilisation, which wills that a child should be nicely dressed -and clean, intervenes in the shape of the nurse and soon -puts a stop to this mode of diversion. The tyro in submission, -if sound in brain and limb, kicks against the restraint, -yells, slaps the nurse, and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>Such collisions are perfectly normal in the first years of -life. We should not care to see a child give up his inclinations -at another’s bidding without some little show of resistance. -These conflicts are frequent and sharp in proportion -to the sanity and vigour of the child. The best children, -best from a biological point of view, have, I think, most of -the rebel in them. Not infrequently these resistances of -young will to old will are accompanied by more emphatic -protests in the shape of slapping, pushing, and even biting. -The ridiculous inequality in bodily powers, however, saves, or -ought to save, the contest from becoming a serious physical -struggle. The resistance where superior force is used can -only resolve itself into a helpless protest, a vain shrieking or -other utterance of checked and baffled impulse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If instead of physical compulsion authority is asserted -in the shape of a highly disagreeable command, a child, -before obedience has grown into a habit, will be likely to -disobey. If the nurse, instead of pulling the mite away -from the puddle, bids him come away, he may assert himself -in an eloquent ‘I won’t,’ or less bluntly, ‘I can’t come -yet’. If he is very much in love with the puddle, and has -a stout heart, he probably embarks on a tussle of words, in -which ‘I won’t,’ or as the child will significantly put it ‘I -mustn’t,’ is bandied with ‘you must!’ the nurse having at -length to abandon the ‘moral’ method and to resort after -all to physical compulsion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Our sample-child has not, we will assume, yet got so -far as to recognise and defer to a general rule about cleanliness. -Hence it may be said that his opposition is directed -against the nurse as propounding a particular command, -and one which at the moment is excessively unpleasant. -It is as yet not resistance to law as such, but rather to one -specific interference of another will.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time we may detect in some of this early -resistance to authority something of the true rebel-nature, -that is to say the love of lawlessness, and what is worse, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>perhaps, the obstinate recklessness of the law-breaker. -The very behaviour of a child when another will crosses -and blocks the line of his activity is suggestive of this. -The yelling and other disorderly proceedings, do not they -speak of the temper of the rioter, of the rowdy? And then, -the fierce persistence in disobedience under rebuke, and the -wild, wicked determination to face everything rather than -obey, are not these marks of an almost Satanic fierceness of -revolt? The thoroughly naughty child sticks at nothing. -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 impiously, ‘I don’t care,’ adding: ‘Uncle -won’t go—I’ll stay with him’.<a id='r192' /><a href='#f192' class='c011'><sup>[192]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>This fierce noisy utterance of the disobedient and law-resisting -temper is eminently impressive. Yet it is not the -only utterance. 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 antagonism. -The conflict with rule has not wholly ceased: it has -simply changed its manner of proceeding, physical assault -and riotous shouts of defiance being now exchanged for -dialectic attack.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 asperities. -These devices may, perhaps, be summed up under the head -of “trying it on”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the simplest and most obvious of these contrivances -is the extempore invention of an excuse for not -instantly obeying a particular command. A child soon -finds out that to say ‘I won’t’ when he is bidden to do -something is indiscreet as well as vulgar. He wants to -have his own way without resorting to a gross breach of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>good manners, so he replies insinuatingly, ‘I’s very sorry, -but I’s too busy,’ or in some such conciliatory words. This -field of invention offers a fine opportunity for the imaginative -child. A small boy of three years and nine months on -receiving from his nurse the familiar order, “Come here!” -at once replied, “I can’t, nurse, I’s looking for a flea,” -and pretended to be much engrossed in the momentous -business of hunting for this quarry in the blanket of his cot.<a id='r193' /><a href='#f193' class='c011'><sup>[193]</sup></a> -The little trickster is such a lover of fun that he is pretty -certain to betray his ruse in a case like this, and our small -flea-catcher, we are told, laughed mischievously as he -proffered his excuse. Such sly fabrications may be just as -naughty as the uninspired excuses of a stupidly sulky child, -but it is hard to be quite as much put out by them.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These excuses often show a fine range of inventive -activity. How manifold, for example, are the reasons, -more or less fictitious, which a boy when told to make less -noise is able to urge in favour of non-compliance. Here, -of course, all the great matters of the play-world, the need -of getting his ‘gee-gee’ on, of giving his orders to his soldiers, -and so forth, come in between the prohibition and compliance, -and disobedience in such cases has its excuses. -For to the child his play-world, even though in a manner -modelled on the pattern of our common world, is apart and -sacred; 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 -own.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We all know the child’s aptness in ‘easing’ the pressure -of commands and prohibitions. If, for example, he is told -to keep perfectly quiet because mother or father wants to -sleep, he will prettily plead for the reservation of whispering -ever so softly. If he is bidden not to ask for things at the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>table he will resort to sly indirect reminders of what he -wants, as when a boy of five and a half years whispered -audibly: ‘I hope somebody will offer me some more soup,’ -or when a girl of three and a half years, with still greater -childish tact, observed on seeing the elder folk eating cake: -‘I not asking’. This last may be compared with a story -told by Rousseau of a little girl of six years who, having -eaten of all the dishes but one, artfully indicated the fact by -pointing in turn to each of the dishes, saying: ‘I have eaten -that,’ but carefully passing by the untasted one.<a id='r194' /><a href='#f194' class='c011'><sup>[194]</sup></a> When -more difficult duties come to be enforced and the neophyte -in the higher morality is bidden to be considerate for others, -and even to sacrifice his own comfort for theirs, he is apt -to manifest a good deal of skill in adjusting the counsel -of perfection to young weakness. Here is an amusing -example. A little boy, Edgar by name, aged five and -three-quarter years, was going out to take tea with some -little girls. His mother, as is usual on such occasions, -primed him with special directions as to behaviour, saying: -“Remember to give way to them like father does to me”. -To which Edgar, after thinking a brief instant, replied: -“Oh, but <em>not</em> all at <em>once</em>. <em>You</em> have to <em>persuade</em> him.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A like astuteness will show itself in meeting accusation. -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 ablest.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sometimes the dreary talking to, with its well-known -deep accusatory tones, its familiar pleadings, ‘How can you -be so naughty?’ and the rest is daringly ignored. After -keeping up an excellent appearance of listening the little -culprit will proceed in the most artless way to talk about something -more agreeable. This is trying, but is not the worst. -The deepest depth of maternal humiliation is reached when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>a carefully prepared and solemnly delivered homily is rewarded -by a <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>tu quoque</i></span> in the shape of a correction of something -in the delivery which offends the child’s sense of propriety. -This befel one mother who, after talking seriously -to her little boy about some fault, was met with this remark: -“Mamma, when you talk you don’t move your upper jaw”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 plotting. We -know it is hard to hold the young thoughts long on any -subject, and the homily makes a heavy demand in this -respect, and its theme is apt to seem dull to a child’s lively -brain. The thoughts will be sure to wander then, and the -rude interruptions and digressions may after all be but the -natural play of the young mind. I fear, however, that design -often has a hand here. The first digression to which -the weak disciplinarian succumbed may have been the result -of a spontaneous flow of childish ideas: but its success enables -the observant child to try it on a second time with -artful aim.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In cases in which no attempt is made to ignore the -accusation, the small wits are busy discovering palliatives -and exculpations. Here we have the many ruses, often -crude enough, by which the little culprit tries to shake off -moral responsibility, to deny the authorship of the action -found fault with. The blame is put on anybody or anything. -When he breaks something, say a cup, and is -scolded, he saves himself by saying it was because the cup -was not made strong enough, or because the maid put it -too near the edge of the table. There are clear indications -of fatalistic thought in these childish disclaimers. Things -were so conditioned that he could not help doing what he -did. This fatalism betrays itself in the childish subterfuges -already referred to, by which the ego tries to screen itself -shabbily by throwing responsibility on to the bodily -agents. This device is sometimes hit upon very early. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>A wee child of two when told not to cry gasped out: -"Elsie cry—<em>not</em> Elsie cry—tears cry—naughty tears!" -This, it must be allowed, is more plausible than C.’s lame -attempt to put off responsibility for some naughty action -on his hands. For our tears are in a sense apart from us, -and in the first years are wholly beyond control.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fatalistic form of exculpation meets us later on -under the familiar form, ‘God made me like that’. A -boy of three was blamed for leaving his crusts, and his -conduct contrasted with that of his model papa. Whereupon -he observed with a touch of metaphysical precocity: -“Yes, but, papa, you see God had made you and me -different”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These denials of authorship occur when a charge is -brought home and no clear justification of the action is -forthcoming. In many cases the shrewd intelligence of the -child—which is never so acute as in this art of moral self-defence—discovers -justificatory reasons. In such a case -the attitude is a very different one. It is no longer the -helpless lifting of hands of the irresponsible one, but -the bold steady glance of one who is prepared to defend -his action.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sometimes these justifications are pitiful examples of -quibbling. A boy had been rough with his baby brother. -His mother chid him, telling him he might hurt baby. -He then asked his mother, ‘Isn’t he my own brother?’ and -on his mother admitting so incontestable a proposition, -exclaimed triumphantly, “Well, you said I could do what I -liked with <em>my own</em> things”. 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 misunderstanding. We ought, perhaps, -to set him down as a depraved little sophist and destined—but -predictions happily lie outside our <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>métier</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In some cases these justifications have a dreadful look -of being after-thoughts invented for the express purpose of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>self-protection and knowingly put forward as fibs. Yet -there is need of a wise discrimination here. Take, for -example, the following from the Worcester Collection. A -boy of three was told by his mother to stay and mind his -baby-sister while she went downstairs. On going up again -some time after she met him on the stairs. “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 there. His mother asked him if he wasn’t afraid -his little sister would get stung. He said, ‘Yes,’ but added -that if he stayed in the room the bee might sting them -both, and then she would have two to take care of.” 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-bee, if indeed there was -a bumble-bee. To be caught in the act and questioned is, -I suspect, a situation particularly productive of such specious -fibbing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One other illustration of this keen childish dialectic when -face to face with the accuser deserves to be touched on. -The sharp little wits have something of a lawyer’s quickness -in detecting a flaw in the indictment. Any exaggeration -into which a feeling of indignation happens to betray -the accuser is instantly pounced upon. If, for example, 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 -say: ‘I wasn’t pulling kitty’s <em>ears</em>, I was only pulling <em>one</em> -of her ears’. This ability to deny the charge in its initial -form gives the child a great advantage, and robs the accusation -in its amended form of much of its sting. Whence, -by the way, one may infer that wisdom in managing -children shows itself in nothing more than in a scrupulous -exactness in the use of words.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While there are these isolated attacks on various points -of the daily discipline, we see now and again a bolder line -<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>of action in the shape of a general protest against its -severity. Children have been known to urge that the -punishments inflicted on them are ineffectual; and, although -their opinion on such matters is hardly disinterested, -it is sometimes pertinent enough. An American boy aged -five years ten months began to cry because he was forbidden -to go into the yard to play, and was threatened by -his mother with a whipping. Whereupon he observed: -“Well now, mamma, that will only make me cry more”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These childish protests are, as we know, wont to be met -by the commonplaces about the affection which prompts -the correction. But the child finds it hard to swallow -these subtleties. For him love is love, that is caressing, -and doing everything for his present enjoyment; and here -is the mother who says she loves him, and often acts as -if she did, transforming herself into an ogre to torment -him and make him miserable. He may accept her assurance -that she scolds and chastises him because she is a -good mother; only he is apt to wish that she were a shade -less good. A boy of four had one morning to remain in -bed till ten o’clock as a punishment for misbehaviour. -He proceeded to address his mother in this wise: "If I had -any little children I’d be a worse mother than you—I’d -be quite a bad mother; I’d let the children get up directly -I had done my breakfast at any rate". If, on the other -hand, the mother puts forward her own comfort as the -ground of the restraint she may be met by this kind of -thing: “I wish you’d be a little more self-sacrificing and -let me make a noise”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Enough has been said to illustrate the ways in which -the natural child kicks against the imposition of restraints -on his free activity. He begins by showing himself an open -foe to authority. For a long time after, while making a -certain show of submission, he harbours in his breast something -of the rebel’s spirit. He does his best to evade the -most galling parts of the daily discipline, and displays an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>admirable ingenuity in devising excuses for apparent acts -of insubordination. Where candour is permitted he is apt -to prove himself an exceedingly acute critic of the system -which is imposed on him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>All this, moreover, seems to show that a child objects -not only to the particular administration under which he -happens to live, but to all law as implying restraints on free -activity. Thus, from the child’s point of view, so far as we -have yet examined it, punishment as such is a thing which -ought not to be.</p> - -<p class='c001'>So strong and deep-reaching is this antagonism to law -and its restraints apt to be that the childish longing to be -‘big’ is, I believe, grounded on the expectation of liberty. -To be big seems to the child more than anything else to -be rid of all this imposition of commands, to be able to do -what one likes without interference from others. This -longing may grow intense in the breast of a quite small -child. “Do you know,” asked a little fellow of four years, -“what I shall do when I’m a big man? I’ll go to a shop -and buy a bun and pick out all the currants.” This funny -story is characteristic of the movements of young desire. -The small prohibition not to pick out the currants is one -that may chafe to soreness a child’s sensibility.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>On the Side of Law.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>If, however, we look closer we shall find that this hostility -is not the whole, perhaps not the most fundamental part of -the child’s attitude. It is evident, to begin with, that a -good deal of this early criticism of parental government, so -far from implying rejection of all rule, plainly implies its -acceptance. Some of the earliest and bitterest protests -against interference are directed against what looks to the -child irregular or opposed to law. He is allowed, for example, -for some time to use a pair of scissors as a plaything, -and is then suddenly deprived of it, his mother having now -first discovered the unsuitability of the plaything. In such a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>case the passionate outburst and the long bitter protest attest -the sense of injustice, the violation of custom and unwritten -law. Again, 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 law. Much, too, -of the criticism dealt with above, reveals a fundamental -acknowledgment of law—at least for the purposes of the -argument. Thus the very attempt to establish an excuse, a -justification, may be said to be a tacit admission that if the -action <em>had been</em> done as alleged it would have been naughty -and deserving of punishment. In truth the small person’s -challengings of the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>modus operandi</i></span> of his mother’s rule, just -because they are often in a true sense <em>ethical</em>, clearly start -from the assumption of rules, and of the distinction of right -and wrong.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 lawful. We may now -pass to other parts of a child’s behaviour which help to -make more clear the existence of such law-abiding impulses.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here we may set out with those exhibitions of something -like remorse which often follow disobedience and -punishment in the first tender years. These may, at first, -be little more than physical reactions, due to the exhaustion -of the passionate outbursts. But they soon begin to show -traces of new feelings. A child in disgrace, before he has -a clear moral sense of shame, suffers through a feeling of -estrangement, of loneliness, of self-restriction. If the -habitual relation between mother and child is a loving and -happy one the situation becomes exceedingly painful. The -pride and obstinacy notwithstanding, the culprit feels that -he is cut off from more than one half of his life, that his -beautiful world is laid in ruins. The same little boy who -said: ‘I’d be a worse mother,’ remarked to his mother a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>few months later that if he could say what he liked to God -it would be: ‘Love me when I’m naughty’. I think one -can hardly conceive of a more eloquent testimony to the -suffering of the child in the lonesome, loveless state of -punishment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is there any analogue of our sense of remorse in this -early suffering? The question of an instinctive moral sense -in children is a perplexing one, and I do not propose to -discuss it now. I would only venture to suggest that in -these poignant griefs of child-life there seem to be signs of -a consciousness of violated instincts. This is, no doubt, in -part the smarting of a loving heart on remembering its unloving -action. But there may be more than this. A child -of four or five is, I conceive, quite capable of reflecting at -such a time that in his fits of naughtiness he has broken -with his normal orderly self, that he has set at defiance that -which he customarily honours and obeys.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What, it may be asked, are these instincts? In their -earliest discernible form they seem to me to be respect for -rule, for a regular manner of proceeding as opposed to an -irregular. A child, as I understand the little sphinx, is at -once the subject of ever-changing caprices—whence the -delight in playful defiance of all rule and order—and the -reverer of custom, precedent, rule. And, as I conceive, this -reverence for precedent and rule is the deeper and stronger, -holding full sway in his serious moments.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If this view is correct the suffering of naughty children -is not, as has been said by some, wholly the result of the -externals of discipline, punishment, and the loss of the agreeable -things which follow good behaviour, though this is -commonly an element; nor is it merely the sense of loneliness -and lovelessness, though that is probably a large slice -of it; but it contains the germ of something nearer a true -remorse, <i>viz.</i>, a sense of normal feelings and dispositions -set at nought and contradicted.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And now we may ask what evidence there is for the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>existence of this respect for order and regularity other than -that afforded by the childish protests against apparent inconsistencies -in the administration of discipline.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Mr. Walter Bagehot tells us that the great initial -difficulty in the formation of communities was the fixing of -custom. 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 -behaviour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This respect for custom is related to the imitative -instincts of the child. He does what he sees others do, and -so tends to fall in with their manner of life. We all know -that these small people take their cue from their elders as -to what is allowable. Hence one difficulty of moral training. -A little boy when two years and one month old had happened -to see his mother tear a piece of calico. The next day he -was discovered to have taken the sheet from the bed and -made a rent in it. When scolded, he replied in his childish -German, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Mamma mach put,’</span> <i>i.e.</i>, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘macht caput’</span> (breaks -calico). It is well when the misleading effect of ‘example’ -is so little serious as it was in this case.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In addition to this effect of others’ doings in making -things allowable in the child’s eyes, there is the binding -influence of a repeated regular manner of proceeding. -This is the might of ‘custom’ in the full sense of the -term, the force which underlies all a child’s conceptions of -‘right’. In spite of the difficulties of moral training, 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 customary, and wears the appearance -of a rule of life. Nor is this, I believe, altogether -a reflexion, by imitation, of others’ orderly ways, and of -the system of rules which is imposed on him by others. -I am quite ready to admit that the institution of social life, -the regular procession of the daily doings of the house, aided -<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>by the system of parental discipline, has much to do with -fixing the idea of orderliness and regularity in the child’s -mind. Yet I believe the facts point to something more, to -an innate disposition to follow precedent and rule, which -precedes education, and is one of the forces to which -education can appeal. This disposition has its roots in -habit, which is apparently a law of all life: but it is more -than the blind impulse of habit, since it is reflective and -rational, and implies a recognition of the universal.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first crude manifestation of this disposition to make -rule, to rationalise life by subjecting it to a general method, -is seen in those actions which seem little more than the -working of habit, the insistence on the customary lines of -procedure at meals and such like. A mother writes that -her boy when five years old was quite a stickler for -punctilious order in these matters. His cup and spoon -had to be put in precisely the right place, the sequences of -the day, as the lesson before the walk, the walk before bed, -had to be rigorously observed. Any breach of the customary -was apt to be resented as a sort of impiety. This may -be an extreme instance, but my observation leads me to -say that such punctiliousness is not uncommon. What is -more, I have seen it developing itself where the system of -parental government was by no means characterised by -severe insistence on such minutiæ of order. And this would -seem to show that it cannot wholly be set down to the -influences of such government. It seems rather to be a -spontaneous extension of the realm of rule or law.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This impulse to extend rule appears more plainly in -many of the little ceremonial observances of the child. -Very charmingly is this respect for rule exhibited in relation -to his animals, dolls and other pets. Not only are -they required to do things in a proper orderly manner, -but people have to treat them with due deference.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>“Every night,” writes a mother of her boy aged two years -seven months, "after I have kissed and shaken hands with him, I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>have to kiss his ‘boy,’ that is his doll, who sleeps with him, and to -shake its two hands—also to shake the four hoofs of a tiny horse -which lies at the foot of his cot. When all this has been gone -through, he stands up and entreats, ‘More tata, please, more tata,’ -<i>i.e.</i>, ‘kiss me again and say more good-nights’. These customs of -his with regard to kissing are peculiar to himself—he kisses his ‘boy’ -(doll), also pictures of horses, dogs, cocks and hens, and he puts -his head against us <em>to be kissed</em>; but he will only shake hands and -will not kiss people himself: he reserves his kisses for what he -seems to feel inferior things. We kiss our boy, he kisses his; but -he insists upon being shaken hands with for his part. If other -children come to play he gives them toys, watches them with delight, -tries to give them rides on his ‘go-go’s,’ but does not kiss -them; though he will stroke their hair he does not return their -kisses. It seems to me that he regards it as an action to be -reserved for an inferior thing."</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have quoted at length this careful bit of maternal -observation because it seems to indicate so clearly a -spontaneous extension of a custom. The practice of the -mother and father in kissing him was generalised into a -rule of ceremony in the treatment of all inferiors.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This subject of childish ceremonial is a curious one, and -deserves a more careful study. It is hardly less interesting -than the origin and survival of adult ceremonial, as elucidated -by Mr. Herbert Spencer. The respect for orderly -procedure on all serious occasions, and especially at church, -is as exacting as that of any savage tribe. <cite>Punch</cite> illustrated -this some years ago by a picture of a little girl asking her -mamma if Mr. So and So was not a very wicked man, -because he didn’t “smell his hat” when he came into his -pew.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 parent. A delightful instance of this fell -under my own observation, as I was walking on Hampstead -Heath. It was a spring day, and the fat buds of -the chestnuts were bursting into magnificent green plumes. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>Two well-dressed ‘misses,’ aged, I should say, about nine -and eleven, were taking their correct morning walk. The -elder called the attention of the younger to one of the trees, -pointing to it. The younger exclaimed in a highly shocked -tone: “Oh, Maud (or was it ‘Mabel’?), you know you -<em>shouldn’t</em> point!” The notion of perpetrating a rudeness -on the chestnut tree was funny enough. But the incident -is instructive as illustrating the childish tendency to stretch -and generalise rules to the utmost.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The domain of prayer well illustrates the same tendency. -The child envisages God as a very, very grand person, and -naturally, therefore, extends to him all the courtesies he -knows of. Thus he must be addressed politely with the -due forms ‘Please,’ ‘If you please,’ and so forth. The -German child shrinks from using the familiar form ‘Du’ -in his prayers. As one maiden of seven well put it in reply -to a question why she used <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Sie’</span> in her prayers: <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Ich -werde doch den lieben Gott nicht Du nennen: ich kenne -ihn ja gar nicht”.</span> Again, a child feels that he must not -worry or bore God (children generally find out that some -people look on them as bores), or treat him with any kind -of disrespect. C. objected to his sister’s remaining so long -at her prayers, apparently on the ground that, as God knew -what she had to say, her much talking would be likely to -bore him. An American boy of four on one occasion -refused to say his prayers, explaining, “Why, they’re old. -God has heard them so many times that they are old to -him too. Why, he knows them as well as I do myself.” -On the other hand, God must not be kept waiting. “Oh, -mamma,” said a little boy of three years eight months (the -same that was so insistent about the kissing and hand-shaking), -“how long you have kept me awake for you; God -has been wondering so whenever I was going to say my -prayers.” All the words must be nicely said to him. A -little boy, aged four and three-quarter years, once stopped -in the middle of a prayer and asked his mother: “Oh! how -<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>do you spell that word?” The question is curious as -suggesting that the child may have envisaged his silent -communications to the far-off King as a letter. In any -case, it showed painstaking and the wish not to offend by -slovenliness of address.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Not only do children thus of themselves extend the -scope and empire of rule, they show a disposition to make -rules for themselves. If a child that is told to do a -thing on a single occasion only is found repeating the -action on other occasions, this seems to show the germ of a -law-making impulse. A little boy of two years one month -was once told to give a lot of old toys to the children of -the gardener. Some time after, on receiving some new -toys, he put away his old ones as before for the less -fortunate children. Every careful observer of children -knows that they are apt to proceed this way, to erect -particular actions and suggestions into precedents. This -tendency gives something of the amusing priggishness to -the ways of childhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is little doubt, I think, that this respect for -proper orderly behaviour, for precedent and general rule, -forms a vital element in the child’s submission to parental -law. In fixing our attention on occasional acts of disobedience -and lawlessness we are apt to overlook the ease, the -absence of friction with which normal children, if only -decently trained, fall in with the larger part of our observances -and ordinances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 rules. Nothing is more suggestive -here than the talk of children among themselves, the emphasis -they are wont to lay on the ‘must’ and ‘must not’. -The truth is that children have a tremendous belief in law: -a rule is apt to present itself to their imagination as a -thing supremely sacred and awful before which it prostrates -itself.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>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 others. 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 hands, sternly protesting, for example, against the -nurse giving him the forbidden knife at table. Very -proper children rather like to instruct their aunts and other -ignorant persons as to the right way of dealing with them, -and will rejoice in the opportunity of setting them right -even when it means a deprivation for themselves. The -self-denying ordinance: ‘Mamma doesn’t let me have many -sweets,’ is by no means beyond the powers of such a child. -One can see here, no doubt, traces of a childish sense of self-importance, -a feeling of the much-waited-on little sovereign -for what befits his supreme worth. Yet, allowing for such -elements, there seems to me to be in this behaviour a residue -of genuine respect for parental law.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 it. Perhaps a -clearer evidence of respect for the law as such, apart from -its particular enforcement by the parent, is supplied by -children’s way of extending the rules laid down for their -own behaviour to that of others. This point has already -been illustrated in the tendency to universalise the -observances of courtesy and the like. No trait is better -marked in the normal child than the impulse to subject -others to his own disciplinary system. In truth, children -are for the most part particularly alert disciplinarians. -With what amusing severity are they wont to lay down the -law to their dolls, and their animal playmates, subjecting -them to precisely the same prohibitions and punishments as -those to which they themselves are subject! Nor do they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>stop here. They enforce the duties just as courageously on -their human elders. A mite of eighteen months went up -to her elder sister, who was crying, and with perfect mimicry -of the nurse’s corrective manner, said: “Hush! Hush! -papa!” pointing at the same time to the door. The -little girl M. when twenty-two months old was disappointed -because a certain Mr. G. did not call. In the evening she -said: "Mr. D. not did tum—was very naughty, Mr. D. have -to be whipped". So natural and inevitable to the intelligence -of a child does it seem that the system of restraints, -rebukes, punishments under which he lives should have -universal validity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This judicial bent of the child is a curious one and often -develops a priggish fondness for setting others morally -straight. 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 moralities. But -sometimes the sisters lapse into naughtiness, and then the -small boys have their chance. They too can on such -occasions be priggish if not downright hypocritical. A little -boy had been quarrelling with his sister named Muriel just -before going to bed. When he was undressed he knelt -down to say his prayers, Muriel sitting near and listening. -He prayed (audibly) in this wise: “Please, God, make -Muriel a good girl,” then looked up and said in an angry -voice, “Do you hear that, Muriel?” and after this digression -resumed his petition. I believe fathers when reading family -prayers have been known to apply portions of Scripture in -this personal manner to particular members of the family; -and it is even possible that extempore prayers have been -invented, as by this little prig of a boy, for the purpose of -administering a sort of back-handed corrective blow to an -erring neighbour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This mania for correction shows itself too in relation -to the authorities themselves. A collection of rebukes and -expositions of moral precept supplied by children to their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>erring parents would be amusing and suggestive. As was -illustrated above, a child is especially keen to spy faults -in his governors when they are themselves administering -authority. Here is another example: 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 mother. At length the father, losing patience, addressed -him with a man’s fierce emphasis. This mode of -admonition so far from cowering the child simply offended -his sense of propriety, for he rejoined: “You s’ouldn’t -s’ouldn’t, Assum (<i>i.e.</i>, ‘Arthur,’ the father’s name), you -s’ould speak nicely”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The lengths to which a child with the impulse of moral -correction strong in him will sometimes go, are quite -appalling. One evening a little girl of six had been repeating -the Lord’s prayer. When she had finished, she -looked up and said: ‘I don’t like that prayer, you ought -not to ask for <em>bread</em>, and all that <em>greediness</em>, you ought -only to ask for goodness!’ There is probably in this an -imitative reproduction of something which the child had -been told by her mother, or had overheard. Yet allowing -for this, one cannot but recognise a quite alarming degree -of precocious moral priggishness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may now turn to what my readers will probably -regard as still clearer evidence of a law-fearing instinct in -children, <i>viz.</i>, their voluntary submission to its commands. -We are apt to think of these little ones as doing right only -under external compulsion. But although a child of four -may be far from attaining to the state of ‘autonomy of -will’ or self-legislation spoken of by the philosopher, he -may show a germ of such free adoption of law. It is possible -that we see the first faint traces of this in a small child’s -way of giving orders to, rebuking, and praising himself. -The little girl M., when only twenty months old, would, -when left by her mother alone in a room, say to herself: -‘Tay dar’ (stay there). About the same time, after being -<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>naughty and squealing ‘like a railway-whistle,’ she would -after each squeal say in a deep voice, ‘Be dood, Babba’ -(her name). At the age of twenty-two months she had -been in the garden and misbehaving by treading on the -box border, so that she had to be carried away by her -mother. After confessing her fault she wanted to go into -the garden again, and promised, ‘Babba will not be -naughty adain’. When she was out she looked at the -box, saying, “If oo (you) do dat I shall have to take oo -in, Babba”. Here, no doubt, we see quaint mimicries -of the external control, but they seem to me to indicate -a movement in the direction of self-control.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Very instructive here is the way in which children will -voluntarily come and submit themselves to our discipline. -The little girl M. when less than two years old, would go -to her mother and confess some piece of naughtiness and -suggest the punishment. A little boy aged two years and -four months was deprived of a pencil from Thursday to -Sunday for scribbling on the wall-paper. His punishment -was, however, tempered by permission to draw when taken -downstairs. On Saturday he had finished a picture downstairs -which pleased him. When his nurse fetched him -she wanted to look at the drawing, but the boy strongly -objected, saying: “No Nana (name for nurse) look at it -till Sunday”. And sure enough when Sunday came, and -the pencil was restored to him, he promptly showed nurse -his picture. This is an excellent observation full of suggestion -as to the way in which a child’s mind works. Among -other things it seems to show pretty plainly that the little -fellow looked on the nursery and all its belongings, including -the nurse, during those three days as a place of disgrace -into which the privileges of the artist were not to enter. -He was allowed the indulgence of drawing downstairs, -but he had no right to exhibit his workmanship to the -nurse, who was inseparably associated in his mind with -the forbidden nursery drawing. Thus a process of genuine -<span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>child-thought led to a self-instituted extension of the -punishment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A month later this child "pulled down a picture in the -nursery"—the nursery walls seem to have had a fell attraction -for him—“by standing on a sofa and tugging till the -wire broke. He was alone at the time and very much -frightened though not hurt. He was soothed and told to -leave the picture alone in future, but was not in any way -rebuked. He seemed, however, to think that some punishment -was necessary, for he presently asked whether he was -going to have a certain favourite frock on that afternoon. -He was told ‘No’ (the reason being that the day was wet -or something similar) and he said immediately: ‘’Cause -Neil pulled picture down?’” Here I think we have unmistakable -evidence of an expectation of punishment as -the fit and proper sequel in a case which, though it did -not exactly resemble those already branded by it, was felt -in a vague way to be disorderly and naughty.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such stories of expectation of punishment are capped -by instances of correction actually inflicted by the child -on himself. 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 them. But the -most curious instance of this moral rigour towards self -which I have met with is the following: A girl of nine had -been naughty, and was very sorry for her misbehaviour. -Shortly after she came to her lesson limping, and remarked -that she felt very uncomfortable. Being asked by her -governess what was the matter with her she said: “It was -very naughty of me to disobey you, so I put my right shoe -on to my left foot and my left shoe on to my right foot”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The facts here briefly illustrated seem to me to show -that there is in the child from the first a rudiment of true -law-abidingness. And this is a force of the greatest consequence -to the disciplinarian. It is something which takes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>side in the child’s breast with the reasonable governor and -the laws which he or she administers. It secures ready -compliance with a large part of the discipline enforced. -When the impulse urging towards licence has been too -strong, and disobedience ensues, this same instinct comes -to the aid of order and good conduct by inflicting pains -which are the beginning of what we call remorse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>By-and-by other forces will assist. The affectionate -child will reflect on the misery his disobedience causes his -mother. A boy of four and three-quarter years must, one -supposes, have woke up to this fact when he remarked to -his mother: “Did you choose to be a mother? I think it -must be rather tiresome.” The day when the child first -becomes capable of thus putting himself into his mother’s -place and realising, if only for an instant, the trouble he -has brought on her, is an all-important one in his moral -development.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>The Wise Law-giver.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>As our illustrations have suggested, and as every -thoughtful parent knows well enough, the problem of -moral training in the first years is full of difficulty. Yet -our study surely suggests that it is not so hopeless a -problem as we are sometimes weakly disposed to think. -Perhaps a word or two on this may not inappropriately -close this essay.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I will readily concede that the difficulty of inculcating -in children a sweet and cheerful obedience arises partly -from their nature. There are trying children, just as there -are trying dogs that howl and make themselves disagreeable -for no discoverable reason but their inherent ‘cussedness’. -There are, I doubt not, conscientious painstaking mothers -who have been baffled by having to manage what appears -to be the utterly unmanageable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet I think that we ought to be very slow to pronounce -any child unmanageable. I know full well that in the case -<span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>of these small growing things there are all kinds of hidden -physical commotions which breed caprices, ruffle the temper, -and make them the opposite of docile. The peevish child -who will do nothing, will listen to no suggestion, is assuredly -a difficult subject to deal with. But such moodiness and -cross-grainedness springing from bodily disturbances will -be allowed for by the discerning mother, who will be too -wise to bring the severer measures of discipline to bear on -a child when subject to their malign influence. Waiving -these disturbing factors, however, I should say that a good -part, certainly more than one half, of the difficulty of training -children is due to our clumsy bungling modes of going -to work.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sensible persons know that there is a good and a bad -way of approaching a child. The wrong ways of trying to -constrain children are, alas, numerous. I am not writing -an ‘advice to parents,’ and am not called on therefore to -deal with the much-disputed question of the rightness and -wrongness of corporal punishment. Slaps may be needful -in the early stages, even though they do lead to little tussles. -A mother assures me that these battles with her several -children have all fallen between the ages of sixteen months -and two years. It is, however, conceivable that such fights -might be avoided altogether; yet a man should be chary -of dogmatising on this delicate matter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 severity, -or fits of government and restraint interpolated between -long periods of neglect and <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>laisser faire</i></span>, is precisely what -develops the rebellious and law-resisting propensities. But -discipline can be bad without being a stupid pretence. -Everything in the shape of inconsistency, saying one thing -at one time, another thing at another, or treating one child -in one fashion, another in another, tends to undermine the -pillars of authority. Young eyes are quick to note these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>little contradictions, and they sorely resent them. It is -astonishing how careless disciplinarians can show themselves -before these astute little critics. It is the commonest -thing to tell a child to behave like his elders, forgetting that -this, if indeed a rule at all, can only be one of very limited -application. Here is a suggestive example of the effect of -this sort of teaching sent me by a mother. “At three and -a half, when some visitors were present, she was told not -to talk at dinner-time. ‘Why me no talk? Papa talks.’ -‘Yes, but papa is grown up, and you are only a little girl; -you can’t do just like grown-up people.’ She was silent for -some time, but when I told her ten minutes later to sit -nicely with her hands in her lap like her cousins, she -replied, with a very humorous smile, ‘Me tan’t (can’t) sit -like grown-up people, me is only a little girl’.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>We can fail and make children disloyal instead of loyal -subjects by unduly magnifying our office, by insisting too -much on our authority. Children who are over-ruled, who -have no taste of being left unmolested and free to do what -they like, can hardly be expected to submit graciously. -Another way of carrying parental control to excess is by -exacting displays of virtue which are beyond the moral -capabilities of the child. A lady sends me this reminiscence -of her childhood. She had been promised sixpence when -she could play her scales without fault, and succeeded in -the exploit on her sixth birthday. The sixpence was given -to her, but soon after her mother suggested that she should -spend the money in fruit to give to her (the mother’s) invalid -friend. This was offending the sense of justice, for if the -child is jealous of anything as his very own it is surely the -reward he has earned; and was, moreover, a foolish attempt -to call forth generosity where generosity was wholly out of -place. An even worse example is that recorded by Ruskin. -When a child he was expected to come down to dessert and -crack nuts for the grand older folk while peremptorily forbidden -to eat any. Such refined cruelties of government -<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>deserve to be defeated in their objects. Much of our ill -success in governing children would probably turn out to be -attributable to unwisdom in assigning tasks, and more particularly -in making exactions which wound that sensitive -fibre of a child’s heart, the sense of justice.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Parents are, I fear, apt to forget that generosity and the -other liberal virtues owe their worth to their spontaneity. -They may be suggested and encouraged but cannot be -exacted. On the other hand, a parent cannot be more -foolish than to discourage a spontaneous outgoing of good -impulse, as if nothing were good but what emanated from -a spirit of obedience. In a pretty and touching little American -work, <cite>Beckonings from Little Hands</cite>, the writer describes -the remorse of a father who, after his child’s death, recalled -the little fellow’s first crude endeavour to help him by -bringing fuel, an endeavour which, alas! he had met with -something like a rebuff.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The right method of training, which develops and -strengthens by bracing exercise the instinct of obedience, -cannot easily be summarised; for it is the outcome of the -highest wisdom. I may, however, be permitted to indicate -one or two of its main features.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Informed at the outset by a fine moral feeling and a -practical tact as to what ought to be expected, 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 life, as unquestionable axioms of behaviour; -and this not by a foolish vehemence of inculcation but by a -quiet skilful inweaving of them into the order of the child’s -world. To expect the right thing, as though the wrong -thing were an impossibility, rather than to be always pointing -out the wrong thing and threatening consequences; to -make all her words and all her own actions support this -view of the inevitableness of law; to meet any indications of a -disobedient spirit, first with misunderstanding, and later with -amazement; this is surely the first and fundamental matter.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>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 persistent. Get a child steadily to follow -out in thought an act to which he is disinclined and you -have more than half mastered the disinclination. The -quiet daily insistence of the wise rule of the nursery proceeds -by setting up and maintaining the ideas of dutiful -actions, and so excluding the thought of disobedient -actions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 subject. The mother, the right sort of -mother, has on the child’s mind something of the subduing -influence of the Nancy doctor: she induces ideas of -particular actions, gives them force and persistence so that -the young mind is possessed by them and they work themselves -out into fulfilment as occasion arises.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In order that this effect of ‘obsession,’ or a full occupation -of consciousness with the right idea, may result, certain -precautions are necessary. As observant parents know, a -child may be led by a prohibition to do the very thing he is -bidden not to do. We have seen how readily a child’s mind -moves from an affirmation to a corresponding negation, and -conversely. The ‘contradictoriness’ of a child, his passion -for saying the opposite of what you say, shows the same odd -manner of working of the young mind. Wanting to do -what he is told not to do is another effect of this “contrary -suggestion,” as it has been called, aided of course by the -child’s dislike of all constraint.<a id='r195' /><a href='#f195' class='c011'><sup>[195]</sup></a> If we want to avoid this -effect of suggestion and to secure the direct effect, we must -first of all acquire the difficult secret of personal influence, of -the masterfulness which does not repel but attracts; and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>secondly try to reduce our forbiddings with their contrary -suggestions to a minimum.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The action in moral training of this influence of a quasi-hypnotic -suggestion becomes more clearly marked when -difficulties occur; when some outbreak of wilful resistance -has to be recognised and met, or some new and relatively -arduous feat of obedience has to be initiated. -Here I find that intelligent mothers have found their way -to methods closely resembling those of the hypnotist. -“When R. is naughty and in a passion (writes a lady friend -of her child aged three and a half), I need only suggest -to him that he is some one else, say a friend of his, and he -will take it up at once, he will pretend to be the other -child, and at last go and call himself, now a good boy, -back again.” This mode of suggestion, by helping the -‘higher self’ to detach itself from and control the lower might, -one suspects, be much more widely employed in the moral -training of children. Suggestion may work through the -emotions. Merely to say, ‘Mother would like you to do -this,’ is to set up an idea in the child’s consciousness -by help of the sustaining force of his affection. “If (writes -a lady) there was anything Lyle particularly wished not to -do, his mother had only to say, ‘Dobbin (a sort of canonised -toy-horse already referred to) would like you to -do this,’ and it was done without a murmur.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>We have another analogue to hypnotic suggestion where -a mother prepares her child some time beforehand for a -difficult duty, telling him that she expects him to perform -it. A mother writes that her boy, when about the age of -two and a half years more particularly, was inclined to -burst into loud but short fits of crying. “I have found -(she says) these often checked by telling him beforehand -what would be expected of him, and exacting a promise -that he would do the thing cheerfully. I have seen his -face flush up ready to cry when he remembered his promise -and controlled himself.” This reminds one forcibly of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>the commands suggested by the hypnotiser to be carried -into effect when the subject wakes. Much more, perhaps, -might be done in this direction by choosing the right -moments for setting up the persistent ideas in the child’s -consciousness. I know a lady who got into the way of -giving moral exhortation to her somewhat headstrong girl -at night before the child fell asleep, and found this very -effectual. 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 children.<a id='r196' /><a href='#f196' class='c011'><sup>[196]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>One other way in which the wise mother will win the -child over to duty is by developing his consciousness of -freedom and power. A mother, who was herself a well-known -writer for children, 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 her: ‘Oh, yes, I think -when you have remembered how pleasant it is to oblige -others you will do it’. ‘I will think about it, mamma,’ -the child would reply, laughing, and then go and hide her -head behind a sofa-pillow which she called her ‘thinking -corner’. In half a minute she would come out and say: -“Oh, yes, mamma, I have thought about it and I will do it”. -This strikes me as an admirable combination of regulative -suggestion with exercise of the young will in moral decision. -It gave the child the consciousness of using her own will, -and yet maintained the needed measure of guidance and -control.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As the moral consciousness develops and new problems -arise, new openings for such suggestive guidance will offer -themselves. How valuable, for example, is the mother’s -encouragement of the weakly child, shrinking from a difficult -self-repressive action, when she says with inspiring voice: -<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>‘You <em>can</em> do it if you try’. Thus pilot-like she conducts -the little navigator out into the open main of duty where he -will have to steer himself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have tried to show that the moral training of children -is not beyond human powers. It has its strong supports -in child-nature, and these, when there are wisdom and -method on the ruler’s side, will secure success. I have not -said that the trainer’s task is easy. So far from thinking -this, I hold that a mother who bravely faces the problem, -neither abandoning the wayward will to its own devices, -nor, hardly less weakly, handing over the task of disciplining -it to a paid substitute, and who by well-considered -and steadfast effort succeeds in approaching the perfection -I have hinted at, combining the wise ruler with the tender -and companionable parent, is among the few members of -our species who are entitled to its reverence.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f192'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r192'>192</a>. My correspondent, discreetly perhaps, does not explain why -the uncle was selected as fellow-outcast.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f193'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r193'>193</a>. <i>Cf.</i> the excuse given by a little girl of three when her grandmother -called her, “I can’t come, I am suckling baby” (the doll). -P. Lombroso, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 126.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f194'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r194'>194</a>. <cite>Emile</cite>, livre v., quoted by Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Art et la Poésie chez l’Enfant</cite></span>, -p. 127. Rousseau uses this story in order to show that girls are -more artful than boys.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f195'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r195'>195</a>. On the nature of this contrary suggestion see Mark Baldwin, -<cite>Mental Development in the Child and the Race</cite>, p. 145 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f196'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r196'>196</a>. The bearings of (hypnotic) suggestion on moral education have -been discussed by Guyau, <cite>Education and Heredity</cite> (Engl. transl.), chap. -i. Compare also Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 267 f., and Compayré, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. -262.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span> - <h2 class='c004'>IX. <br /> THE CHILD AS ARTIST.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>One of the most interesting, perhaps also one of the most -instructive, phases of child-life is the beginnings of art-activity. -This has been recognised by one of the best-known -workers in the field of child-psychology, M. Bernard Perez, -who has treated the subject in an interesting monograph.<a id='r197' /><a href='#f197' class='c011'><sup>[197]</sup></a> -This department of our subject will, like that of language, -be found to have interesting points of contact with the -phenomena of primitive race-culture.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The art-impulse of children lends itself particularly well -to observation. No doubt, as we shall see, there are difficulties -for the observer here. It may sometimes be a fine -point to determine whether a childish action properly -falls under the head of genuine art-production, though -I do not think that this is a serious difficulty. On the -other hand, the art-impulse where it exists manifests itself -directly, and for the most part in so characteristic an -objective form that we are able to study its features with -special facility.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In its narrow sense as a specialised instinct prompting -its possessor to follow a definite line of production, as -drawing of the artistic sort, or simple musical composition, -the art-impulse is a particularly variable phenomenon of -childhood. Some children, who afterwards take seriously -to a branch of art-culture, manifest an innate bent by a -precocious devotion to this line of activity. Many others, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>I have reason to believe, have a passing fondness for a -particular form of art-activity. On the other hand, there -are many children who display almost a complete lack, not -only of the productive impulse, but of the æsthetic sense of -the artist. So uncertain, 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 characteristics.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To judge so, however, would be to judge erroneously by -applying grown-up standards. It is commonly recognised -that art and play are closely connected. It is probable -that the first crude art of the race, or at least certain directions -of it, sprang out of play-like activities, and however -this be the likenesses of the two are indisputable. I shall -hope to bring these out in the present study. This being -so, we are, I conceive, justified in speaking of art-impulses -as a common characteristic of childhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although we shall find many interesting points of analogy -between crude child-art and primitive race-art, we must not, -as pointed out above, expect a perfect parallelism. In some -directions, as drawing, concerted dancing, the superior experience, -strength and skill of the adult will reveal themselves, -placing child-art at a considerable disadvantage in the -comparison. Contrariwise, the intervention of the educator’s -hand tends seriously to modify the course of development -of the child’s æsthetic aptitudes. His tastes get acted upon -from the first and biassed in the direction of adult tastes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This modifying influence of education shows itself more -especially in one particular. 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-impulse, the impulse to adorn the person, to collect -feathers and other pretty things. Not so in the case of the -child. Here we note a certain growth of the liking for pretty -things before the spontaneous art-impulse has had time to -manifest itself. Most children who have a cultivated mother -<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>or other guardian acquire a rudimentary appreciation of what -their elders think beautiful before they do much in the way -of art-production. We provide them with toys, pictures, -we sing to them and perhaps we even take them to the -theatre, and so do our best to inoculate them with our ideas -as to what is pretty. Hence the difficulty—probably the -chief difficulty—of finding out what the child-mind, left to -itself, does prefer. At the same time the early date at which -such æsthetic preferences begin to manifest themselves makes -it desirable to study them before we go on to consider the -active side of child-art. We will try as well as we can to -extricate the first manifestations of genuine childish taste.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>First Responses to Natural Beauty.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>At the very beginning, before the educational influence -has had time to work, we can catch some of the characteristics -of this childish quasi-æsthetic feeling. The directions -of a child’s observation, and of the movements of his -grasping arms, tell us pretty clearly what sort of things -attract and please him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the home scene it is bright objects, such as the fire-flame, -the lamp, the play of the sunlight on a bit of glass -or a gilded frame; out-of-doors, glistening water, a meadow -whitened by daisies, the fresh show mantle, later the moon -and the stars, which seem to impart to the dawning consciousness -the first hint of the world’s beauty. Luminosity, -brightness in its higher intensities, whether the bright rays -reach the eye directly or are reflected from a lustrous surface, -this makes the first gladness of the eye as it remains -a chief source of the gladness of life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The feeling for colour as such comes distinctly later. -The first delight in coloured objects is hardly distinguishable -from the primordial delight in brightness. This applies pretty -manifestly to the brightly illumined, rose-red curtain which -Preyer’s boy greeted with signs of satisfaction at the age of -twenty-three days, and it applies to later manifestations. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>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 colours, red and yellow.<a id='r198' /><a href='#f198' class='c011'><sup>[198]</sup></a> Much the same thing -was observed by Miss Shinn in her interesting account of -the early development of her niece’s colour-sense.<a id='r199' /><a href='#f199' class='c011'><sup>[199]</sup></a> Thus in -the twenty-eighth month she showed a special fondness for -the daffodils, the bright tints of which allured another and -older maiden, and, alas! to the place whence all brightness -was banished. About the same time the child conceived a -fondness for a yellow gown of her aunt, strongly objecting -to the substitution for it of a brown dress. Among the -other coloured objects which captivated the eye of this little -girl were a patch of white cherry blossom, and a red sun-set -sky. Such observations might easily be multiplied. Whiteness, -it is to be noted, comes, as we might expect, with -bright partial colours, among the first favourites.<a id='r200' /><a href='#f200' class='c011'><sup>[200]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>At what age a child begins to appreciate the value of -colour as colour, to like blue or red, for its own sake and -apart from its brightness, it is hard to say. The experiments -of Preyer, Binet, Baldwin, and others, as to the discrimination -of colour, are hardly conclusive as to special likings, -though Baldwin’s plan of getting the child to reach out for -colours throws a certain light on this point. According to -Baldwin blue is one of the first colours to be singled out; -but he does not tell us how the colours he used (which did -not, unfortunately, include yellow—the child’s favourite -according to other observers) were related in point of -luminosity.<a id='r201' /><a href='#f201' class='c011'><sup>[201]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt a child of three or four is apt to conceive a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>special liking for a particular colour which favourite he -is wont to appropriate as ‘my colour’. A collection of -such perfectly spontaneous preferences is a desideratum in -the study of the first manifestations of a feeling for colour. -Care must be taken in observing these selections to eliminate -the effects of association, and the unintentional influence -of example and authority, as when a child takes to a -particular colour because it is ‘mamma’s colour,’ that is, -the one she appears to affect in her dress and otherwise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The values of the several colours probably disclose themselves -in close connexion with that of colour-contrast. Many -of the likings of a child of three in the matter of flowers, -birds, dresses, and so on, are clearly traceable to a growing -pleasure in colour-contrast. Here again we must distinguish -between a true chromatic and a merely luminous effect. -The dark blue sky showing itself in a break in the white -clouds, one of the coloured spectacles which delighted Miss -Shinn’s niece, may have owed much of its attractiveness to -the contrast of light and dark. 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 alone, and is not supported by that of chiaroscuro.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have reason to believe that children, like the less cultivated -adults, prefer juxtapositions of colours which lie far -from one another in the colour-circle, as blue and red or blue -and yellow. 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 colours, -blue and yellow. It would be well to test children’s feeling -on this matter. 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 sake, and independently -of its relation to its companion—a point not very easy to -determine. Care would have to be taken to eliminate -further the influence of authority as operating, not only by -instructing the child what combinations are best, but by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>setting models of combination, in the habitual arrangements -of dress and so forth. This too would probably prove to -be a condition not easy to satisfy.<a id='r202' /><a href='#f202' class='c011'><sup>[202]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>I have dwelt at some length on the first germs of colour-appreciation, -because this is the one feature of the child’s -æsthetic sense which has so far lent itself to definite experimental -investigation. It is very different when we turn -to the first appreciation of form. That little children have -their likings in the matter of form, is, I think, indisputable, -but they are not those of the cultivated adult. A quite -small child will admire the arch of a rainbow, and the roundness -of a kitten’s form, though in these instances the delight -in form is far from pure. More clearly marked is the -appreciation of pretty graceful movements, as a kitten’s -boundings. Perhaps the first waking up to the graces of -form takes place in connexion with this delight in the -forms of motion, a delight which at first is a mixed feeling, -involving the interest in all motion as suggestive of life, to -which reference has already been made. Do not all of us, -indeed, tend to translate our impressions of still forms back -into these first impressions of the forms of motion?</p> - -<p class='c001'>One noticeable feature in the child’s first response to the -attractions of form is the preference given to ‘tiny’ things. -The liking for small natural forms, birds, insects, shells, and -so forth, and the prominence of such epithets as ‘wee,’ -‘tiny’ or ‘teeny,’ ‘dear little,’ in the child’s vocabulary alike -illustrate this early direction of taste. This feeling again -is a mixed one; 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-feeling. This is -but one illustration of the general rule of æsthetic development -in the case of the individual and of the race alike -<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>that a pure contemplative delight in the aspect of things -only gradually detaches itself from a mixed feeling.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If now we turn to the higher aspects of form, regularity -of outline, symmetry, proportion, we encounter a difficulty. -Many children acquire while quite young and before any -formal education commences a certain feeling for regularity -and symmetry. But is this the result of a mere observation -of natural or other forms? Here the circumstances of the -child become important. He lives among those who insist -on these features in the daily activities of the home. In -laying the cloth of the dinner-table, for example, a child -sees the regular division of space enforced as a law. Every -time he is dressed, or sees his mother dress, he has an -object-lesson in symmetrical arrangement. And so these -features take on a kind of ethical rightness before they are -judged as elements of æsthetic value. As to a sense of -proportion between the dimensions or parts of a form, 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 child; and this conjecture -will be borne out when we come to examine children’s -first essays in drawing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These elementary pleasures of light, colour, and certain -simple aspects of form, may be said to be the basis of a -crude perception of beauty in natural objects and in the -products of human workmanship. A quite small child is -capable of acquiring a real admiration for a beautiful lady, -in the appreciation of which brightness, colour, grace of -movement, the splendour of dress, all have their part, -while the charm for the eye is often reinforced by a sweet -and winsome quality of voice. Such an admiration is not -perfectly æsthetic: awe, an inkling of the social dignity of -dress,<a id='r203' /><a href='#f203' class='c011'><sup>[203]</sup></a> perhaps a longing to be embraced by the charmer, -may all enter into it; yet a genuine admiration of look for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>its own sake is the core of the feeling. In other childish -admirations, as the girl’s enthusiastic worship of the newly -arrived baby, we see a true æsthetic sentiment mingled with -and struggling, so to speak, to extricate itself from such -‘interested’ feelings as sense of personal enrichment by the -new possession and of family pride. In the likings for -animals, again, which often take what seem to us capricious -and quaint directions, we may see rudiments of æsthetic -perceptions half hidden under a lively sense of absolute -lordship tempered with affection.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Perhaps the nearest approach to a pure æsthetic enjoyment -in these first experiences is the love of flowers. The -wee round wonders with their mystery of velvety colour -are well fitted to take captive the young eye. I believe -most children who live among flowers and have access to -them acquire something of this sentiment, a sentiment of -admiration for beautiful things with which a sort of dumb -childish sympathy commonly blends. No doubt there are -marked differences among children here. There are some -who care only, or mainly, for their scent, 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 flowers.<a id='r204' /><a href='#f204' class='c011'><sup>[204]</sup></a> Others again care for them mainly as a -means of personal adornment, though I am disposed to think -that this partially interested fondness is less common with -children than with many adults. It is sometimes said that -the love of flowers is, in the main, a characteristic of girls. -I think however that if one takes children early enough, -before a consciousness of sex and of its proprieties has been -allowed to develop under education, the difference will be -but slight. Little boys of four or thereabouts often show a -very lively sentiment of admiration for these gems of the -plant world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In much of this first crude utterance of the æsthetic -sense of the child we have points of contact with the first -<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>manifestations of taste in the race. Delight in bright -glistening things, in gay tints, in strong contrasts of colour, -as well as in certain forms of movement, 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 childishness. On the other -hand it is doubtful whether the savage attains to the sentiment -of the child for the beauty of flowers. Our civilised -surroundings, meadows and gardens, as well as the constant -action of the educative forces of example, soon carry the -child beyond the savage in this particular.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How far can children be said to have the germ of a -feeling for nature, or, to use the more comprehensive modern -term, cosmic emotion? It is a matter of common observation -that they have not the power to embrace a multitude of -things in a single act of contemplation. Hence they have -no feeling for landscape as a harmonious complex of -picturesquely varied parts. When they are taken to see a -‘view’ their eye instead of trying to embrace the whole, as -a fond parent desires, provokingly pounces on some single -feature of interest, and often one of but little æsthetic value. -People make a great mistake in taking children to ‘points -of view’ under the supposition that they will share in -grown people’s impressions. 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 -donkeys.<a id='r205' /><a href='#f205' class='c011'><sup>[205]</sup></a> Mere magnitude or vastness of spectacle does -not appeal to the child, for a sense of the sublime grows out -of a complex imaginative process which is beyond his -young powers. So far as immensity affects him at all, -as in the case of the sea, it seems to excite a measure of -dread in face of the unknown; and this feeling, though -having a certain kinship with the emotion of sublimity, is -distinct from this last. It has nothing of the joyous consciousness -of expansion which enters into the later feeling. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>It is only to certain limited objects and features of nature -that the child is æsthetically responsive. He knows the -loveliness of the gilded spring meadow, the fascination of -the sunlit stream, the awful mystery of the wood, and -something too perhaps of the calming beauty of the broad -blue sky. That is to say, he has a number of small rootlets -which when they grow together will develop into a feeling -for nature.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, too, the analogy between the child and the -uncultured nature-man is evident. The savage has no -æsthetic sentiment for nature as a whole, though he may -feel the charm of some of her single features, a stream, -a mountain, the star-spangled sky, and may even be -affected by some of the awful aspects of her changing -physiognomy. Are we not told, indeed, that a true -æsthetic appreciation of the picturesque variety of nature’s -scenes of the weird charm of wild places, and of the -sublime fascinations of the awful and repellent mountain, -are quite late attainments in the history of our race?<a id='r206' /><a href='#f206' class='c011'><sup>[206]</sup></a></p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Early Attitude towards Art.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>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 senses; and here we may begin with those simple musical -effects which follow up certain impressions derived from -the natural world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It has been pointed out that sounds form a chief source -of the little child-heart’s first trepidations. Yet this prolific -cause of disquietude, when once the first alarming effect -of strangeness has passed, becomes a main source of interest -and delight. Some of nature’s sounds, as those of running -water, and of the wind, early catch the ear, and excite -<span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>wonder and curiosity. Miss Shinn illustrates fully in the -case of her niece how the interest in sounds developed -itself in the first years.<a id='r207' /><a href='#f207' class='c011'><sup>[207]</sup></a> This pleasure in listening to -sounds and in tracing them to their origin forms a chief -pastime of babyhood.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Æsthetic 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 preferences. -Thus the sound of metal (when struck) is preferred to that -of wood or stone. A nascent feeling for musical quality -thus emerges which probably has its part in many of the -first likings for persons; certain pitches, as those of the -female voice, and possibly timbres being preferred to others.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Quite as soon, at least, as this feeling for quality of -sound or tone, there manifests itself a crude liking for -rhythmic sequence. It is commonly recognised that our -pleasure in regularly recurring sounds is instinctive, being -the result of our whole nervous organisation. We can -better adapt successive acts of listening when sounds -follow at regular intervals, and the movements which -sounds evoke can be much better carried out in a regular -sequence. The infant shows us this in his well-known -liking for well-marked rhythms in tunes which he accompanies -with suitable movements of the arms, head, etc.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first likings for musical composition are based on -this instinctive feeling for rhythm. It is the simple tunes, -with well-marked easily recognisable time-divisions, which -first take the child’s fancy, and he knows the quieting and -the exciting qualities of different rhythms and times. -Where rhythm is less marked, or grows highly complex, -the motor responses being confused, the pleasurable -interest declines. It is the same with the rhythmic -qualities of verses. The jingling rhythms which their souls -love are of simple structure, with short feet well marked -off, as in the favourite, ‘Jack and Gill’.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span>Coming now to art as representative we find that a -child’s æsthetic appreciation waits on the growth of intelligence, -on the understanding of artistic representation as contrasted -with a direct presentation of reality.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The development of an understanding of visual representation -or the imaging of things has already been touched -upon. As Perez points out, the first lesson in this branch -of knowledge is supplied by the reflexions of the mirror, -which, as we have seen, the infant begins to take for -realities, though he soon comes to understand that they are -not tangible realities. The looking-glass is the best means -of elucidating the representative function of the image -or ‘Bild’ just because it presents this image in close -proximity to the reality, and so invites direct comparison -with this.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the case of pictures where this direct comparison is -excluded we might expect a less rapid recognition of the -representative function. Yet children show very early that -picture-semblances are understood in the sense that they call -forth reactions similar to those called forth by realities. A -little boy was observed to talk to pictures at the end of the -eighth month. This perhaps hardly amounted to recognition. -Pollock says that the significance of pictures “was in -a general way understood” by his little girl at the age of -thirteen months.<a id='r208' /><a href='#f208' class='c011'><sup>[208]</sup></a> Miss Shinn tells us that her niece, at -the age of forty-two weeks, showed the same excitement at -the sight of a life-size painting of a cat as at that of real -cats.<a id='r209' /><a href='#f209' class='c011'><sup>[209]</sup></a> Ten months is also given me by a lady as the date -at which her little boy recognised pictures of animals by -naming them ‘bow-wow,’ etc., without being prompted.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This early recognition of pictures is certainly remarkable -even when we remember that animals have the germ of it. -The stories of recognition by birds of paintings of birds, -and by dogs of portraits of persons, have to do with fairly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>large and finished paintings.<a id='r210' /><a href='#f210' class='c011'><sup>[210]</sup></a> A child, however, will ‘recognise’ -a small and roughly executed drawing. He seems -in this respect to surpass the powers of savages, some of -whom, at least, are said to be slow in recognising pictorial -semblances. This power, which includes a delicate observation -of form and an acute sense of likeness, is seen most -strikingly in the recognition of individual portraits. Miss -Shinn’s niece in her fourteenth month picked out her father’s -face in a group of nine, the face being scarcely more than -a quarter of an inch in diameter.<a id='r211' /><a href='#f211' class='c011'><sup>[211]</sup></a> I noticed the same fineness -of recognition in my own children.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One point in this early observation of pictures is curious -enough to call for especial remark. A friend of mine, a -psychologist, writes to me that his little girl, aged three -and a half, “does not mind whether she looks at a picture -the right way up or the wrong; she points out what you -ask for, eyes, feet, hands, tail, etc., about equally well -whichever way up the picture is, and never asks to have -it put right that she may see it better”. The same thing -was noticed in the other children of the family, and the -mother tells me that her mother observed it in her children. -I have found a further illustration of this indifference to the -position of a picture in the two children of another friend -of mine. Professor Petrie tells me that he once watched -an Arab boy looking at a picture-book. One, a drawing of -horses and chariot, happened to have a different position -from the rest, so that the book being held as before, the -horses seemed to be going upwards; but the boy was not -in the least incommoded, and without attempting to turn -the book round easily made it out. These facts are curious -as illustrating the skill of the young eye in deciphering. -They may possibly have a further significance as showing -how what we call position—the arrangement of a form in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>relation to a vertical line—is a comparatively artificial view -of which a child as yet takes little if any account. He -may be able to concentrate his attention so well on form -proper that he is indifferent to the point how the form is -placed. Yet this matter is one which well deserves further -investigation.<a id='r212' /><a href='#f212' class='c011'><sup>[212]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>A further question arises as to whether this ‘recognition’ -of pictures by children towards the end of the first year -necessarily implies a grasp of the idea of a picture, that is, -of a representation or copy of something. The first reactions -of a child, smiling, etc., on seeing mirror-images -and pictures, do not seem to show this, but merely that -he is affected much as he would be by the presence of -the real object, or, at most, that he recognises the picture -as a kind of thing. The same is, I think, true of the so-called -recognition of pictures by animals.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That children do not, at first, 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 realities. Thus Pollock’s -little girl attempted to smell at the trees in a picture and -‘pretended’ to feed some pictorial dogs.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When the first clear apprehension of the pictorial function -is reached, it is difficult to say. Miss Shinn thought that -her niece “understood the purport of a picture quite well” at -the age of forty-five weeks. She draws this conclusion from -the fact that at this date the child in answer to the question -‘Where are the flowers?’ leaned over and touched the painted -flowers on her aunt’s gown, and then looked out to the garden -with a cry of desire.<a id='r213' /><a href='#f213' class='c011'><sup>[213]</sup></a> But this inference seems to me very -risky. All that the child’s behaviour proves is that she -‘classed’ real and painted flowers together, while she recognised -<span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>the superiority of the former as the tangible and -probably the odorous ones. The strongest evidence of -recognition of pictorial function by children is, I think, -their ability to recognise the portrait of an individual. But -even this is not quite satisfactory. It is conceivable, at least, -that a child may look on a photograph of his father as a -kind of ‘double’. The boy C. took his projected photograph -very seriously as a kind of doubling of himself. The story -of the dog, a Dandy Dinmont terrier, that trembled and -barked at a portrait of his dead mistress<a id='r214' /><a href='#f214' class='c011'><sup>[214]</sup></a> seems to me to -bear this out. It would surely be rather absurd to say that -the demonstrations of this animal, whatever they may have -meant, prove that he took the portrait to be a memento-likeness -of his dead mistress.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We are apt to forget how difficult and abstract a conception -is that of pictorial representation, how hard it is to -look at a thing as pure semblance having no value in itself, -but only as standing for something else. A like slowness -on the part of the child to grasp a sign, as such, shows itself -here as in the case of verbal symbols. Children will, quite -late, especially when feeling is aroused and imagination -specially active, show a disposition to transform the semblance -into the thing. Miss Shinn herself points out that -her niece, who seems to have been decidedly quick, was as -late as the twenty-fifth month touched with pity by a picture -of a lamb caught in a thicket, and tried to lift the painted -branch that lay across the lamb. In her thirty-fifth month, -again, when looking at a picture of a chamois defending her -little one from an eagle, “she asked anxiously if the mamma -would drive the eagle away, 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 -chamois”.<a id='r215' /><a href='#f215' class='c011'><sup>[215]</sup></a> Such ready confusion of pictures with realities -shows itself in the fourth year and later. A boy nearly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span>five was observed to strike at the figures in a picture -and to exclaim: “I can’t break them”. The Worcester -Collection of observations illustrates the first confused idea -of a picture. “One day F., a boy of four, called on a friend, -Mrs. C., who had just received a picture, representing a -scene in winter, in which people were going to church, some -on foot and others in sleighs. F. was told whither they -were going. The next day he came and noticed the picture, -and looking at Mrs. C. and then at the picture said: -‘Why, Mrs. C., them people haven’t got there yet, have -they?’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>All this points, I think, to a slow and gradual emergence -of the idea of representation or likeness. If a child is capable -in moments of intense imagination of confusing his battered -doll with a living reality, he may be expected to act similarly -with respect to the fuller likeness of a picture. Vividness of -imagination tends in the child as in the savage, and indeed -in all of us, to invest a semblance with something of -reality. We are able to control the illusory tendency and -to keep it within the limits of an æsthetic semi-illusion; not -so the child. 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 -represent?</p> - -<p class='c001'>As might be expected this impulse to confuse representation -and represented reality shows itself very distinctly -in the first reception of dramatic spectacle. If you dress -up as Father Christmas, your child, even though he is told -that you are his father, will hardly be able to resist the -illusion that your disguise so powerfully induces. Cuvier -relates that a boy of ten on watching a stage scene in -which troops were drawn up for action, broke out in loud -protestations to the actor who was taking the part of the -general, telling him that the artillery was wrongly placed, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span>and so forth.<a id='r216' /><a href='#f216' class='c011'><sup>[216]</sup></a> 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 ship, and were so excited that they -rushed on the stage and took sides with the authorities in -quelling the movement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I believe that this same tendency to take art-representations -for realities reappears in children’s mental attitude -towards stories. A story by its narrative form seems to -tell of real events, and children, as we all know, are wont -to believe tenaciously that their stories are true. I think I -have observed a disposition in imaginative children to go -beyond this, and to give present actuality to the scenes and -events described. And this is little to be wondered at -when one remembers that even grown people, familiar with -the devices of art-imitation, tend now and again to fall into -this confusion. Only a few days ago, as I was reading an -account by a friend of mine of a perilous passage in an -Alpine ascent, accomplished years ago, I suddenly caught -myself in the attitude of proposing to shout out to stop -him from venturing farther. A vivid imaginative realisation -of the situation had made it for the moment a present -actuality.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Careful observations of the first attitudes of the child-mind -towards representative art are greatly needed. We -should probably find considerable diversity of behaviour. -The presence of a true art-feeling would be indicated by -a special quickness in the apprehension of art-semblance as -such.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In these first reactions of the young mind to the stimulus -of art-presentation we may study other aspects of the -æsthetic aptitude. Very quaint and interesting is the -exacting realism of these first appreciations. A child is -apt to insist on a perfect detailed reproduction of the -familiar reality. And here one may often trace the fine -observation of these early years. Listen, for example, to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>the talk of the little critic before a drawing of a horse or a -railway train, and you will be surprised to find how closely -and minutely he has studied the forms of things. It is the -same with other modes of art-representation. Perez gives -an amusing instance of a boy, aged four, who when taken -to a play was shocked at the anomaly of a chamber-maid -touching glasses with her master on a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>fête</i></span> day. “In our -home,” exclaimed the stickler for regularities, to the great -amusement of the neighbours, “we don’t let the nurse drink -like that.”<a id='r217' /><a href='#f217' class='c011'><sup>[217]</sup></a> It is the same with story. Children are liable -to be morally hurt if anything is described greatly at -variance with the daily custom. Æsthetic rightness is as -yet confused with moral rightness or social propriety, -which, as we have seen, has its instinctive support in the -child’s mind in respect for custom.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Careful observation will disclose in these first frankly -expressed impressions the special directions of childish -taste. The preferences of a boy of four in the matter of -picture-books tell us where his special interests lie, what -things he finds pretty, and how much of a genuine æsthetic -faculty he is likely to develop later on. Here, again, there -is ample room for more careful studies directed to the -detection of the first manifestations of a pure delight in -things as beautiful, as charming at once the senses and -the imagination.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first appearances of that complex interest in life -and personality which fills so large a place in our æsthetic -pleasures can be best noted in the behaviour of the child’s -mind towards dramatic spectacle and story. 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 us, like Goethe, can -recall among our oldest memories. The old-fashioned -moving <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Schatten-bilder,’</span> for which the gaudy but rigid -pictures of the magic lantern are but a poor substitute, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span>puppet-show, with what a delicious wonder have these -filled the childish heart. And as to the entrancing, -enthralling delight of the story—well Thackeray and others -have tried to describe this for us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 comic, and for the tragic -side of things. What we may call the adults fallacy, the -tendency to judge children by grown-up standards, frequently -shows itself in an expectation that their laughter -will follow the directions of our own. I remember having -made the mistake of putting those delightful books, <cite>Tom -Sawyer</cite> and <cite>Huckleberry Finn</cite>, into the hands of a small -boy with a considerable sense of fun, and having been -humiliated at discovering that there was no response. -Children’s fun is of a very elemental character. They are -mostly tickled, I suspect, by the spectacle of some upsetting -of the proprieties, some confusion of the established -distinctions of rank. Dress, as we have seen, has an -enormous symbolic value for the child’s mind, and any -confusion here is apt to be specially laughter-provoking. -One child between three and four was convulsed at the -sight of his baby bib fastened round the neck of his bearded -sire. There is, too, a considerable element of rowdiness -in children’s sense of the comical, as may be seen by the -enduring popularity of the spectacle of Punch’s successful -misdemeanours and bravings of the legal authority.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since children are apt to take spectacles with an exacting -seriousness, it becomes interesting to note how the two -moods, realistic stickling for correctness, and rollicking -hilarity at the sight of the disorderly, behave in relation -one to another. More facts are needed on this point. It -is probable that we have here to do in part with a permanent -difference of temperament. There are serious matter-of-fact -little minds which are shocked by a kind of spectacle or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span>narrative that would give boundless delight to a more elastic -fun-loving spirit. But discarding these permanent differences -of disposition, I think that in general the sense of fun, the -delight in the topsy-turviness of things, is apt to develop -later than the serious realistic attitude already referred to. -Here, too, it is probable that the evolution of the individual -follows that of the race: 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 himself. -However this be, 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 -surroundings. Their laughter is best called forth by a -broadly farcical show in which all serious rules are set at -nought.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 life. A child of four or six is far from realising -the divine necessity which controls our mortal lives. Yet -he will display a certain crude feeling for thrilling situation, -exciting adventure, and something, too, of a sympathetic -interest in the woes of mortals, quadrupeds as well as bipeds. -The action, the situation, may easily grow too painful for -an imaginative child disposed to take all representative -spectacle as reality: 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 -‘penny dreadful’ upwards.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Beginnings of Art-production.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>We have been trying to catch the first faint manifestations -of æsthetic feeling in children’s contemplative attitude -towards natural objects and the presentations of art. We -may now pass to what is a still more interesting department of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span>childish æsthetics, their first rude attempts at art-production. -We are wont to say that children are artists in embryo, -that in their play and their whole activity they manifest the -germs of the art-impulse. In order to see whether this idea -is correct we must start with a clear idea of what we mean -by art-activity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I would define art-activity as including all childish -doings which are consciously directed to an external result -recognised as beautiful, as directly pleasing to sense and -imagination. Thus a gesture, or an intonation of voice, -which is motived by a feeling for what is ‘pretty’ or ‘nice’ -is a mode of art-activity as much as the production of a -more permanent æsthetic object, as a drawing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now if we look at children’s activity we shall find that -though much of it implies a certain germ of æsthetic feeling -it is not pure art-activity. In the love of personal adornment, -for example, we see, as in the case of savages, the -æsthetic motive subordinated to another and personal or -interested feeling, vanity or love of admiration. On the other -hand, in children’s play, which undoubtedly has a kinship -with art, we find the æsthetic motive, the desire to produce -something beautiful, very much in the background. We -have then to examine these primitive forms of activity so -as to try to disengage the genuine art-element.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the most interesting of these early quasi-artistic -lines of activity is that of personal adornment. The impulse -to maintain appearances appears to reach far down in animal -life. The animal’s care of its person is supported by two -instincts, the impulse to frighten or overawe others, and -especially those who are, or are likely to be, enemies, -illustrated in the raising of feathers and hair so as to increase -size; and the impulse to attract, which probably -underlies the habit of trimming feathers and fur among -birds and quadrupeds. These same impulses are said to -lie at the root of the elaborate art of personal adornment -developed by savages. The anthropologist divides such -<span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>ornament into alluring and alarming, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Reizschmuck’</span> and -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">‘Schreckschmuck’</span>.<a id='r218' /><a href='#f218' class='c011'><sup>[218]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In the case of children’s attention to personal appearance -there is no question of tracing out the workings of a -pure instinct. The care of the person is before all other -things inculcated and enforced by others, and forms, indeed, -a main branch of the nursery training. To a mother, as -is perfectly natural, a child is apt to present himself as the -brightest of the household ornaments, which has to be kept -neat and spotless with even greater care than the polished -table and other pretty things. This early drilling is likely -to be unpleasant. Many children resent at first not only -soap and water and the merciless comb, but even arrayings -in new finery. Adornment is forced on the child before -the instinct has had time to develop itself, and the manner -of the adornment does not always accommodate itself to the -natural inclinations of the childish eye. Hence the familiar -fact that with children the care of personal appearance when -it is developed takes on the air of a respect for law. It is -more than half a moral feeling, a readiness to be shocked at -a breach of a custom enforced from the first by example and -precept.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Again, the instinct of adornment in the child is often -opposed by other impulses. I have already touched on a -small child’s feeling of uneasiness at seeing his mother in -new apparel. A like apprehensiveness shows itself in -relation to his own dress. Many little children show a -marked dislike to new raiment. As I have remarked -above, a change of dress probably disturbs and confuses -their sense of personality.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In spite, however, of these and other complicating -circumstances I believe that the instinct to adorn the person -is observable in children. They like a bit of finery in the -shape of a string of beads or of daisies for the neck, a -feather for the hat, a scrap of brilliantly coloured ribbon or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>cloth as a bow for the dress, and so forth. Imitation, -doubtless, plays a part here, but it is, I think, possible to -allow for this, and still to detect points of contact with the -savage’s love of finery. Perhaps, indeed, we may discern -the play of both the impulses underlying personal ornament -which were referred to above, <i>viz.</i>, the alluring and -alarming. Allowing for the differences of intelligence, of -sexual development and so forth, we may say that children -betray a rudiment of the instinct to win admiration by -decorating the person, and also of the instinct to overawe. -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 last.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This is not the place to inquire whether the love of -finery in children—a very variable trait, as M. Perez and -others have shown—is wholly the outcome of vanity. I -would, however, 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 -word. The pure child-wonder at what is new and -mysterious may at such a moment overpower other -feelings, and make the whole mental condition one of -dream-like trance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since children are left so little free to deck themselves, -it is of course hard to study the development of æsthetic -taste in this domain of art-like activity. Yet the quaint -attempts of the child to improve his appearance throw an -interesting light on his æsthetic preferences. He is at -heart as much a lover of glitter, of gaudy colour, as his -savage prototype. With this general crudity of taste, -individual differences soon begin to show themselves, a -child developing a marked bent, now to modest neatness -and refinement, now to gaudy display, and this, it may be, -in direct opposition to the whole trend of home influence.<a id='r219' /><a href='#f219' class='c011'><sup>[219]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span>Another and closely connected domain of activity -which is akin to art is the manifestation of grace and -charm in action. Much of the beauty of movement, of -gesture, of intonation, in a young child may be unconscious, -and as much a result of happy physical conditions -as the pretty gambols of a kitten. Yet one may commonly -detect in graceful children the rudiment of an æsthetic -feeling for what is nice, and also of the instinct to please. -There is, indeed, in these first actions and manners, into -which stupid conventionality has not yet imported all kinds -of awkward restraints, as when the little girl M. would kiss -her hand spontaneously to other babies as she passed them -in the street, something of the simple grace and dignity of -the more amiable savages. Now a feeling for what is graceful -in movement, carriage, speech and so forth is no clear -proof of a specialised artistic impulse: yet it attests the -existence of a rudimentary appreciation of what is beautiful, -as also of an impulse to produce this.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 represented. There is a liking -for pretty effect, and an effort to realise it, only the effect -is not prized wholly for its own sake, but partly as a means -of winning the smile of approval. The true art-impulse -is characterised by the love of shaping beautiful things for -their own sake, by an absorbing devotion to the process -of creation, into which there enters no thought of any -advantage to self, and almost as little of benefiting others. -Now there is one field of children’s activity which is marked -by just this absorption of thought and aim, and that is play.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To say that play is art-like has almost become a commonplace. -Any one can see that when children are at play -they are carried away by pleasurable activity, are thinking -of no useful result but only of the pleasure of the action -itself. They build their sand castles, they pretend to keep -shop, to entertain visitors, and so forth, for the sake of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span>enjoyment which they find in these actions. This clearly -involves one point of kinship with the artist, for the poet -sings and the painter paints because they love to do so. -It is evident, moreover, from what was said above on the -imaginative side of play that it has this further circumstance -in common with art-production, that it is the bodying -forth of a mental image into the semblance of outward -life. Not only so, 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-activity. It thus fully -deserves to be studied as a domain in which we may look -for early traces of children’s artistic tendencies.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If by play we understand all that spontaneous activity -which is wholly sustained by its own pleasurableness, we -shall find the germ of it in those aimless movements and -sounds which are the natural expression of a child’s joyous -life. Such outpourings of happiness have a quasi-æsthetic -character in so far as they follow the rhythmic law of all -action. Where the play becomes social activity, that is, -the concerted action of a number, we get something closely -analogous to those primitive harmonious co-ordinations of -movements and sounds in which the first crude music, poetry -and dramatic action of the race are supposed to have had -their common origin.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such naïve play-activity acquires a greater æsthetic importance -when it becomes significant or representative of -something: and this direction appears very early in child-history. -The impulse to imitate the action of another seems -to be developed before the completion of the first half-year.<a id='r220' /><a href='#f220' class='c011'><sup>[220]</sup></a> -In its first crude form, as reproducing a gesture or sound -uttered at the moment by another, it enters into the whole -<span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span>of social or concerted play. A number of children find the -harmonious performance of a series of dance or other movements, -such as those of the kindergarten games, natural and -easy, because the impulse to imitate, to follow another’s lead, -at once prompts them and keeps them from going far astray.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 action. This is often carried out under the -suggestive force of objects which happen to present themselves -at the time, as when a child sees an empty cup and -pretends to drink, or a book and simulates the action of -reading out of it, or a pair of scissors and proceeds to -execute snipping movements. In other cases the imitation -is more spontaneous, as when a child recalls and repeats -some funny saying that he has heard.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This imitative action grows little by little more complex, -and in this way a prolonged make-believe action may be -carried out. Here, it is evident, we get something closely -analogous to histrionic performance. A child pantomimically -representing some funny action comes, indeed, very -near to the mimetic art of the comedian.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Meanwhile, another form of imitation is developing, <i>viz.</i>, -the production of semblances in things. Early illustrations -of this impulse are the making of a river out of the gravy in -the plate, the pinching of pellets of bread till they take on -something of resemblance to known forms. One child, three -years old, once occupied himself at table by turning his -plate into a clock, in which his knife (or spoon) and fork -were made to act as hands, and cherry stones put round -the plate to represent the hours. Such table-pastimes are -known to all observers of children, and have been prettily -touched on by R. L. Stevenson.<a id='r221' /><a href='#f221' class='c011'><sup>[221]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Such formative touches are, at first, rough enough, the -transformation being effected, as we have seen, much -more by the alchemy of the child’s imagination than by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_324'>324</span>the cunning of his hands. Yet, crude as it is, and showing -at first almost as much of chance as of design, it is a manifestation -of the same plastic impulse, the same striving to -produce images or semblances of things, which possesses -the sculptor and the painter. In each case we see a mind -dominated by an idea and labouring to give it outward -embodiment. The more elaborate constructive play which -follows, the building with sand and with bricks, with which -we may take the first spontaneous drawings, are the direct -descendant of this rude formative activity. The kindergarten -occupations, most of all the clay-modelling, make direct -appeal to this half-artistic plastic impulse in the child.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this imitative play we see from the first the tendency -to set forth what is characteristic in the things represented. -Thus in the acting of the nursery the nurse, the coachman -and so forth are given by one or two broad touches, such -as the presence of the medicine-bottle or its semblance, or -of the whip, together, perhaps, with some characteristic -manner of speaking. In this way child-play, like primitive -art, shows a certain unconscious selectiveness. It presents -what is constant and typical, imperfectly enough no doubt. -The same selection of broadly distinctive traits is seen where -some individual seems to be represented. There is a precisely -similar tendency to a somewhat bald typicalness of outline -in the first rude attempts of children to form semblances. -This will be fully illustrated presently when we examine -their manner of drawing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As observation widens and grows finer, the first bald -abstract representation becomes fuller and more life-like. -A larger number of distinctive traits is taken up into the -representation. Thus the coachman’s talk becomes richer, -fuller of reminiscences of the stable, etc., and so colour is -given to the dramatic picture. A precisely similar process -of development is noticeable in the plastic activities. The -first raw attempt to represent house or castle is improved -upon, and the image grows fuller of characteristic detail and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_325'>325</span>more life-like. Here, again, we may note the parallelism -between the evolution of play-activity and of primitive -art.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This movement away from bare symbolic indication to -concrete pictorial representation involves a tendency to -individualise, to make the play or the shapen semblance -life-like in the sense of representing an individual reality. -Such individual concreteness may be obtained by a -mechanical reproduction of some particular action and scene -of real life, and children in their play not infrequently -attempt a faithful recital or portraiture of this kind. Such -close unyielding imitation shows itself, too, now and again -in the attempt to act out a story. Yet with bright fanciful -children the impulse to give full life and colour to the -performance rarely stops here. Fresh individual life is best -obtained by the aid of invention, by the intervention of -which some new scene or situation, some new grouping of -personalities is realised. Nothing is æsthetically of more -interest in children’s play than the first cautious intrusion -into the domain of imitative representation of this impulse -of invention, this desire for the new and fresh as distinct -from the old and customary. Perhaps, too, there is no side -of children’s play in which individual differences are more -clearly marked or more significant than this. 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 life. Yet the former will probably be found -to have more of the stuff of which the artist is compacted.</p> - -<p class='c001'>All such invention, moreover, since it aims at securing -some more vivacious and stirring play-experience, naturally -comes under the influence of the childish instinct of exaggeration. -I mean by this the untaught art of vivifying and -strengthening a description or representation by adding -touch to touch. In the representations of play, this love of -colour, of strong effect, shows itself now in a piling up of -the beautiful, gorgeous, or wonderful, as when trying to act -<span class='pageno' id='Page_326'>326</span>some favourite scene from fairy-story, or some grand social -function, now in a bringing together of droll or pathetic -incidents so as to strengthen the comic or the tragic feeling -of the play-action. 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 have, I believe, -the germ of what in our more highly developed art we call -the idealising impulse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have, perhaps, said enough to show that children’s -play is in many respects analogous to art of the simpler -kind, also that it includes within itself lines of activity which -represent the chief directions of art-development.<a id='r222' /><a href='#f222' class='c011'><sup>[222]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet though art-like this play is not fully art. In play a -child is too self-centred, if I may so say. The scenes he -acts out, the semblances he shapes with his hands, are not -produced as having objective value, but rather as providing -himself with a new environment. The peculiarity of all -imaginative play, its puzzle for older people, is its contented -privacy. The idea of a child playing as an actor is said to -‘play’ in order to delight others is a contradiction in terms. -As I have remarked above, the pleasure of a child in what we -call ‘dramatic’ make-believe is wholly independent of any -appreciating eye. “I remember,” writes R. L. Stevenson, -“as though it were yesterday, the expansion of spirit, the -dignity and self-reliance, that came with a pair of mustachios -in burnt cork <em>even when there was none to see</em>.”<a id='r223' /><a href='#f223' class='c011'><sup>[223]</sup></a> The -same thing is true of concerted play. A number of children -playing at being Indians, or what not, do not ‘perform’ <em>for</em> -one another. The words ‘perform,’ ‘act’ and so forth all -seem to be out of place here. What really occurs in this -case is a conjoint vision of a new world, a conjoint imaginative -realisation of a new life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This difference between play and art is sometimes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_327'>327</span>pushed to the point of saying that art has its root in the -social impulse, the wish to please.<a id='r224' /><a href='#f224' class='c011'><sup>[224]</sup></a> This I think is simplifying -too much. Art is no doubt a social phenomenon, as -Guyau and others have shown. It has been well said that -"an individual art—in the strictest sense—even if it were -conceivable is nowhere discoverable".<a id='r225' /><a href='#f225' class='c011'><sup>[225]</sup></a> That is to say the -artist is constituted as such by a participation in the common -consciousness, the life of his community, and his creative -impulse is controlled and directed by a sense of common or -objective values. Yet to say that art is born of the instinct -to please or attract is to miss much of its significance. The -ever-renewed contention of artists, ‘art for art’s sake,’ points -to the fact that they, at least, recognise in their art-activity -something spontaneous, something of the nature of self-expression, -self-realisation, and akin to the child’s play.</p> - -<p class='c001'>May we not say, then, that the impulse of the artist has its -roots in the happy semi-conscious activity of the child at -play, the all-engrossing effort to ‘utter,’ that is, give outer -form and life to an inner idea, and that the play-impulse -becomes the art-impulse (supposing it is strong enough to -survive the play-years) when it is illumined by a growing -participation in the social consciousness, and a sense of the -common worth of things, when, in other words, it becomes -conscious of itself as a power of shaping semblances which -shall have value for other eyes or ears, and shall bring -recognition and renown? Or, to put it somewhat differently, -may we not say that art has its twin-rootlets in the two -directions of childish activity which we have considered, -<i>viz.</i>, the desire to please so far as this expresses itself in -dress, graceful action, and so forth, and the entrancing isolating -impulse of play? However we express the relation, -I feel sure that we must account for the origin of art by -some reference to play. A study of the art of savages, more -<span class='pageno' id='Page_328'>328</span>especially perhaps of the representations of fighting and -hunting in their pantomime-dances, seems to show that art -is continuous with play-activity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To insist on this organic connexion between play and -art is not to say that every lively player is fitted to become -an art-aspirant. The artistic ambition implies too rare a -complex of conditions for us to be able to predict its -appearance in this way. It may, however, 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 play. It will possibly be found that -although not a romping riotous player, nor indeed much -disposed to join other children in their pastimes, the original -child has his own distinctive style of play, which marks him -out as having more than other children of that impulse to -dream of far-off things, and to bring them near in the -illusion of outer semblance, which enters more or less -distinctly into all art.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have left myself no space to speak of the child’s first -attempts at art as we understand it. Some of this art-activity, -more particularly the earliest weaving of stories, -is characteristic enough to deserve a special study. I have -made a small collection of early stories, and some of them -are interesting enough to quote. 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 -models: “Three little bears went out a walk and they -found a stick, and they poked the fire with it, and they -poked the fire and then went a walk”. Soon, however, the -young fancy is apt to wax bolder, and then we get some -fine invention. A boy of five years and a quarter living at -the sea-side improvised as follows. He related “that one -day he went out on the sea in a lifeboat when suddenly he -saw a big whale, and so he jumped down to catch it, but -it was so big that he climbed on it and rode on it in the -water, and all the little fishes laughed so”.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_329'>329</span>With this comic story may be compared a more serious -not to say tragic one from the lips of a girl one month -younger, and characterised by an almost equal fondness -for the wonderful. “A man wanted to go to heaven before -he died. He said, ‘I don’t want to die, and I must see -heaven!’ Jesus Christ said he must be patient like other -people. He then got <em>so</em> angry, and screamed out as loud -as he could, and kicked up his heels as high as he could, -and they (the heels) went into the sky, and the sky fell -down and broke earth all to pieces. He wanted Jesus -Christ to mend the earth again, but he wouldn’t, so this was -a good punishment for him.” This last, which is the work -of one now grown into womanhood and no longer a story-teller, -is interesting in many ways. The wish to go to -heaven without dying is, as I know, a motive derived from -child-life. The manifestations of displeasure could, one -supposes, only have been written by one who was herself -experienced in the ways of childish ‘tantrums’. The -naïve conception of sky and earth, and lastly the moral -issue of the story, are no less instructive.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 mind, and can study some of -the characteristic tendencies of early and primitive art.<a id='r226' /><a href='#f226' class='c011'><sup>[226]</sup></a> Of -the later efforts to imitate older art, as verse writing, the -same cannot, I think, be said. Children’s verses so far as -I have come across them are poor and stilted, showing all -the signs of the cramping effect of models and rules to which -the child-mind cannot easily accommodate itself, and wanting -all true childish inspiration. No doubt, even in these -choking circumstances, childish feeling may now and again -peep out. The first prose compositions, letters before all if -they may be counted art, give more scope for the expression -<span class='pageno' id='Page_330'>330</span>of a child’s feeling and the characteristic movements of his -thought, and might well repay study.<a id='r227' /><a href='#f227' class='c011'><sup>[227]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>There is one other department of this child-art which -clearly does deserve to be studied with some care—drawing. -And this for the very good reason that it is not wholly a -product of our influence and education, but shows itself in -its essential characteristics as a spontaneous self-taught -activity of childhood which takes its rise, indeed, in the -play-impulse. This will be the subject of the next essay.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f197'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r197'>197</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><em>L’Art et la Poésie chez l’Enfant</em></span>, 1888.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f198'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r198'>198</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 7 and p. 11 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f199'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r199'>199</a>. <cite>Notes on the Development of a Child</cite>, p. 91 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f200'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r200'>200</a>. Cf. Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Art et la Poésie chez l’Enfant</cite></span>, p. 41 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f201'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r201'>201</a>. See Baldwin’s two articles on ‘A New Method of Child-study’ in -<cite>Science</cite>, April, 1893, and his volume, <cite>Mental Development in the Child -and the Race</cite>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f202'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r202'>202</a>. The influence of such authority is especially evident in the -selection of harmonious shades of colour for dress, etc. <i>Cf.</i> Miss -Shinn, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 95.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f203'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r203'>203</a>. On the nature of the early feeling for dress see Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Art et -la Poésie chez l’Enfant</cite></span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f204'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r204'>204</a>. See Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Art et la Poésie chez l’Enfant</cite></span>, p. 90 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f205'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r205'>205</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 103.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f206'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r206'>206</a>. An excellent sketch of the growth of our feeling for the romantic -and sublime beauty of mountains is given by Mr. Leslie Stephen in -one of the most delightful of his works, <cite>The Playground of Europe</cite>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f207'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r207'>207</a>. <i>Op cit.</i>, p. 115 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f208'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r208'>208</a>. <cite>Mind</cite>, iii., p. 393.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f209'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r209'>209</a>. <cite>Notes on the Development of a Child</cite>, i., p. 71 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f210'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r210'>210</a>. See Romanes, <cite>Animal Intelligence</cite>, pp. 311 and 453 ff. The only -exception is a photograph which is said to have been ‘large,’ p. 453.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f211'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r211'>211</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, i., p. 74.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f212'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r212'>212</a>. 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 Phœnician writings.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f213'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r213'>213</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, i., p. 72.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f214'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r214'>214</a>. Romanes, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 453.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f215'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r215'>215</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, ii., p. 104.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f216'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r216'>216</a>. Quoted by Perez, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 216.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f217'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r217'>217</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, pp. 215, 216.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f218'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r218'>218</a>. See Grosse, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die Anfänge der Kunst</cite></span>, pp. 106, 107.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f219'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r219'>219</a>. The whole subject of the attitude of the child-mind towards -dress and ornament is well dealt with by Perez, <i>op. cit.</i>, chap. i.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f220'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r220'>220</a>. Preyer places the first imitative movement in the fourth month -(<i>op. cit.</i>, cap. 12). Baldwin, however, dates the first unmistakable -appearance in the case of his little girl in the ninth month (<cite>Mental -Development</cite>, p. 131).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f221'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r221'>221</a>. <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Virginibus Puerisque</cite></span>, ‘Child’s Play’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f222'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r222'>222</a>. The telling of stories to other children does not, I conceive, fall -under my definition of play. It is child-art properly so called.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f223'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r223'>223</a>. <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Virginibus Puerisque</cite></span>, ‘Child’s Play’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f224'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r224'>224</a>. According to Mr H. Rutgers Marshall art-activity takes its -rise in the instinct to attract others (<cite>Pain, Pleasure, and Æsthetics</cite>).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f225'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r225'>225</a>. Grosse, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Anfänge der Kunst</cite></span>, p. 48.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f226'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r226'>226</a>. The child’s feeling for climax shown in these is further illustrated -in a charming story taken down by Miss Shinn, but unfortunately -too long to quote here. See <cite>Overland Monthly</cite>, vol. xxiii., p. 19.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f227'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r227'>227</a>. Perez deals with children’s literary compositions in the work -already quoted (chap. ix.). Cf. Paola Lombroso, <i>op. cit.</i>, cap. viii. -and ix.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_331'>331</span> - <h2 class='c004'>X. <br /> THE YOUNG DRAUGHTSMAN.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>First Attempts to Draw.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>A child’s first attempts at drawing are pre-artistic and a -kind of play, an outcome of the instinctive love of finding -and producing semblances of things illustrated in the last -essay. Sitting at the table and covering a sheet of paper -with line-scribble he is wholly self-centred, ‘amusing himself,’ -as we say, and caring nothing about the production of “objective -values”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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’ eyes, as when he bids his mother look at -the ‘man,’ ‘gee-gee,’ or what else he fancies that he has -delineated.<a id='r228' /><a href='#f228' class='c011'><sup>[228]</sup></a> And this, though crude enough and apt to -shock the æsthetic sense of the matured artist by its unsightliness, -is closely related to art, forming, indeed, in a -manner a preliminary stage of pictorial design.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We shall therefore study children’s drawings as a kind -of rude embryonic art. In doing this our special aim will -be to describe and explain childish characteristics. This, -again, will compel us to go to some extent into the early -forms of observation and imagination. It will be found, I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_332'>332</span>think, that the first crude drawings are valuable as throwing -light on the workings of children’s minds. Perhaps, -indeed, 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-nature, -hardly less instructive than that of early speech.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In carrying out our investigation of children’s drawings -we shall need to make a somewhat full reference to the -related phenomena, the drawings of modern savages and -those of early art. While important points of difference -will disclose themselves the resemblances are important -enough to make a comparison not only profitable but -almost indispensable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have thought it best to narrow the range of the inquiry -by keeping to delineations of the human figure and of -animals, especially the horse. These are the favourite -topics of the child’s pencil, and examples of them are easily -obtainable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As far as possible I have sought spontaneous drawings -of quite young children, <i>viz.</i>, from between two and three -to about six.<a id='r229' /><a href='#f229' class='c011'><sup>[229]</sup></a> In a strict sense of course no child’s drawing -is absolutely spontaneous and independent of external -stimulus and guidance. The first attempts to manage the -pencil are commonly aided by the mother, who, moreover, -is wont to present a model drawing, and, what is even more -important at this early stage, to supply model-movements -of the arm and hand. In most cases, too, there is some -slight amount of critical inspection, as when she asks, ‘Where -is papa’s nose?’ ‘Where is doggie’s tail?’ Yet perfect -spontaneity, even if obtainable, is not necessary here. The -drawings of men and quadrupeds of a child of five and -later disclose plainly enough the childish fashion, even -though there has been some slight amount of elementary -instruction. Hence I have not hesitated to make use of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_333'>333</span>drawings sent me by kindergarten teachers. I may add -that I have used by preference the drawings executed by -children in elementary schools, as these appear to illustrate -the childish manner with less of parental interference than -is wont to be present in a cultured home.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A child’s drawing begins with a free aimless swinging -of the pencil to and fro, which movements produce a chaos -of slightly curved lines. These movements are purely -spontaneous, or, if imitative, are so only in the sense that -they follow at a considerable distance the movements of -the mother’s pencil.<a id='r230' /><a href='#f230' class='c011'><sup>[230]</sup></a> They may be made expressive or -significant in two ways. In the first place, a child may by -varying the swinging movements accidentally produce -an effect which suggests an idea through a remote resemblance. -A little boy when two years and two months, -was one day playing in this wise with the pencil, and -happening to make a sort of curling line, shouted with -excited glee, ‘Puff, puff!’ <i>i.e.</i>, smoke. He then drew -more curls with a rudimentary intention to show what he -meant. 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 exclaim, ‘Mama!’ or ‘Dada!’</p> - -<p class='c001'>But intentional drawing or designing does not always -arise in this way. A child may set himself to draw, and -make believe that he is drawing something when he is -scribbling. This is largely an imitative play-action -following the direction of the movements of another’s hand. -Preyer speaks of a little boy who in his second year was -asked when scribbling with a pencil what he was doing -and answered ‘writing houses’. He was apparently -making believe that his jumble of lines represented houses.<a id='r231' /><a href='#f231' class='c011'><sup>[231]</sup></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_334'>334</span>Almost any scribble may in this earliest stage take on a -meaning through the play of a vigorous childish imagination.</p> - -<div id='fig1' class='figleft id002'> -<img src='images/i_p334_1.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 1 (<i>a</i>) and (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 so. Thus a little girl in her -fourth year referred to by Mr. E. -Cooke when asked to draw a cat -produced a longish irregularly -curved line crossed by a number -of shorter lines, which strange production -she proceeded quite complacently -to dignify by the name -‘cat,’ naming the whiskers, legs, and tail (Fig. 1 (<a href='#fig1'><i>a</i></a>); compare -the slightly fuller design in Fig. 1 (<a href='#fig1'><i>b</i></a>)).<a id='r232' /><a href='#f232' class='c011'><sup>[232]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Here it is evident we have a phase of childish drawing -which is closely analogous to the symbolism of language. -The representation is arbitrarily chosen as a symbol and not -as a likeness. This element of a non-imitative or symbolic -mode of representation will be found to run through the -whole of childish drawing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even this chaotic scribble shows almost from the -beginning germs of formative elements, not merely in the -fundamental line-elements, but also in the loops, and in the -more abrupt changes of direction or angles. A tendency -to draw a loop-like rudimentary contour soon emerges, and -thus we get the transition to a possible outlining of objects. -Miss Shinn gives a good example of an ovoid loop drawn -by her niece in her hundred and ninth week.<a id='r233' /><a href='#f233' class='c011'><sup>[233]</sup></a> With -practice the child acquires by the second or third year the -usual stock in trade of the juvenile draughtsman, and can -draw a sort of straight line, curved lines, a roughish kind -of circle or oval, as well as dots, and even fit lines together -<span class='pageno' id='Page_335'>335</span>at angles.<a id='r234' /><a href='#f234' class='c011'><sup>[234]</sup></a> When this stage is reached we begin to see -attempts at real though rude likenesses of men, horses and -so forth. These early essays are among the most curious -products of the child-mind. They follow standards and -methods of their own; they are apt to get hardened into a -fixed conventional manner which may reappear even in -mature years. They exhibit with a certain range of -individual difference a curious uniformity, and they have -their parallels in what we know of the first crude designs -of the untutored savage.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>First Drawings of the Human Figure.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>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 man.<a id='r235' /><a href='#f235' class='c011'><sup>[235]</sup></a> It may be -added that they start with the most dignified part of this -crown of creation, <i>viz.</i>, the human head. A child’s first -attempt to represent a man proceeds, so far as I have -observed, by drawing the front view of his head. This he -effects by means of a clumsy sort of circle with a dot or two -thrown in by way of indicating features in general. A couple -of lines may be inserted as a kind of support, which do duty -for both trunk and legs. The circular or ovoid form is, I -think, by far the most common. The square head in my -collection appears only very occasionally and in children -<em>at school</em>, who presumably have had some training in -drawing horizontal and vertical lines. The accompanying -<span class='pageno' id='Page_336'>336</span>example (Fig. <a href='#fig2'>2</a>) is the work of a Jamaica girl of five, -kindly sent me by her teacher.</p> - -<div id='fig2' class='figleft id002'> -<img src='images/i_p336_2.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 2.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This first attempt to outline the -human form is, no doubt, characterised -by a high degree of arbitrary -symbolism. 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 (hut?), a -wreath, and so forth.<a id='r236' /><a href='#f236' class='c011'><sup>[236]</sup></a> Yet there is -a measure of resemblance even in -this abstract symbolism: the circle -does roughly resemble the contour of the head: as, indeed, -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 line.</p> - -<div id='fig3' class='figleft id002'> -<img src='images/i_p336_3.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 3.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But it is not the mere contour which represents the face: -it is a circle picked out with features. These, -however vaguely indicated, are an integral -part of the facial scheme. This is illustrated -in the fact that among the drawings by -savages and others collected by General Pitt-Rivers, -one, executed by an adult negro of -Uganda, actually omits the contour, the -human head being represented merely by an -arrangement of dark patches and circles for -eyes, ears, etc. (Fig. <a href='#fig3'>3</a>).<a id='r237' /><a href='#f237' class='c011'><sup>[237]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Coming now to the mode of representing -the features, we find at an early stage of -this schematic delineation an attempt to -differentiate and individualise features, not only by giving -<span class='pageno' id='Page_337'>337</span>definite position but by a rough imitation of form. Thus -we get the vertical line as indicating the direction of the -nose, the horizontal line that of the mouth, and either -a rounded dot or a circular line as representative of the -curved outline of the eye—whether that of the iris, of the -visible part of the eyeball, or of the orbital cavity. A -precisely similar scheme appears in the drawings of -savages.<a id='r238' /><a href='#f238' class='c011'><sup>[238]</sup></a></p> - -<div id='fig4ab' class='figleft id003'> -<img src='images/i_p338_4ab.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 4 (<i>a</i>). Fig. 4 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At first the child is grandly indifferent to completeness -in the enumeration of features. Even ‘the two -eyes, a nose and a mouth’ are often imperfectly represented. -Thus when dots are used we may have one or more -specks ranging, according to M. Perez, up to five.<a id='r239' /><a href='#f239' class='c011'><sup>[239]</sup></a> -The use of a single dot for facial feature in general -has its parallel in the art of savage tribes.<a id='r240' /><a href='#f240' class='c011'><sup>[240]</sup></a> It is, -however, I think, most common to introduce three dots -in a triangular arrangement, presumably for eyes and -mouth,—a device again which reappears in the art of -uncivilised races.<a id='r241' /><a href='#f241' class='c011'><sup>[241]</sup></a> Even when the young draughtsman -has reached the stage of distinguishing the features he -may be quite careless about number and completeness. -Thus a feature may be omitted altogether. This funnily -enough happens most frequently in the case of that one -which seems to us ‘grown-ups’ most self-assertive and -most resentful of indignity, <i>viz.</i>, the nose. These moon-faces -with two eyes and a mouth are very common -among the first drawings of children. The mouth, on -the other hand, is much less frequently omitted. The -same thing seems to hold good of the drawings of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_338'>338</span>savages.<a id='r242' /><a href='#f242' class='c011'><sup>[242]</sup></a> The eyes are rarely omitted. The single dot -may perhaps be said to stand for ‘eye’. Some drawings -of savages have -the two eyes and no -other feature, as in -the accompanying example -from Andree, -plate 3 (Fig. 4 <a href='#fig4ab'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). -On the other hand, a -child will, as we have -seen, sometimes content -himself with one -eye. This holds good -not only where the -dot is used but after -something like an eye-circle is introduced, as in the -accompanying drawing by a Jamaica girl of seven (Fig. -4 <a href='#fig4ab'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div id='fig4c' class='figright id002'> -<img src='images/i_p339_4c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 4 (<i>c</i>).—Moustache = horizontal line above curve of cap.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In these first attempts to sketch out a face we miss a -sense of relative position and of proportion. 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 place. The little girl mentioned by E. -Cooke on trying, about the same age, to draw a cat from -a model actually put the circle representing the eye -outside that of the head. With this may be compared -the drawings of Von den Steinen and other Europeans -made by his Brazil Indian companions, in which what -was distinctly said by the draughtsman to be the moustache -<span class='pageno' id='Page_339'>339</span>was in more than one instance set above the eyes -(Fig. 4 <a href='#fig4c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>). When dots are inserted -in the linear scheme they -are apt at first to be thrown in -anyhow. The two eyes, I find, -when these only are given, may be -put one above the other as well as -one by the side of the other, and -both arrangements occur in the -drawings of the same child. And -much later when greater attention -to position is observable there is a -general tendency to put the group -of features too high up, <i>i.e.</i>, to make the forehead or brain -region too small in proportion to the chin region (<i>cf.</i> above, -Fig. <a href='#fig2'>2</a>, p. 336).<a id='r243' /><a href='#f243' class='c011'><sup>[243]</sup></a></p> - -<div id='fig5a' class='figright id004'> -<img src='images/i_p339_5a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 5 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The want of proportion is still more plainly seen in -the treatment of the several features. -The eye, as already remarked, is apt -to be absurdly large. In the drawing -of Mr. Cooke’s little girl mentioned -above it is actually larger than the -head outside which it lies. This -enlargement continues to appear -frequently in later drawings, more -particularly when one eye only is -introduced, as in the accompanying -drawing by a boy in his seventh year (Fig. 5 <a href='#fig5a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>; -<i>cf.</i> above, Fig. 4 <a href='#fig4ab'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). The mouth is apt to be -even more disproportionate, the child appearing to -delight in making this appalling feature supreme, -as in the following examples, both by boys of five -<span class='pageno' id='Page_340'>340</span>(Fig. 5 <a href='#fig5b'>(<i>b</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig5c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>). The ear, when it is added, is apt -to be enormous, and generally -the introduction of new -details as ears, hair, hands, is -wont to be emphasised by -an exaggeration of their -magnitude.</p> - -<div class='column-container fltleft width50'> - -<div class='col40'> - -<div id='fig5b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p340_5b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 5 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col60'> - -<div id='fig5c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p340_5c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 5 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Very interesting is the -gradual artistic evolution of -the features. Here, as in -organic evolution, there is a -process of specialisation, the -primordial indefinite form taking on more of characteristic -complexity. In the case of the eye, for example, we -may often trace a gradual development, the dot being -displaced by a small circle or ovoid, this last supplemented -by a second circle outside the first,<a id='r244' /><a href='#f244' class='c011'><sup>[244]</sup></a> or by one or by -two arches, the former placed above, the latter above -and below the circle. The form remains throughout -an abstract outline or scheme, there being no attempt to -draw even the lines—<i>e.g.</i>, those of the lid-margins—correctly, -or to indicate differences of light and dark, save -in the case where a central black dot is used. In this -schematic treatment so striking and interesting a feature as -the eye-lash only very rarely finds a place. A similar -schematic treatment of the eye in the use of a dot, a dot -in a circle, and two circles, is observable in the drawings of -savages and of Egyptian and other archaic art.<a id='r245' /><a href='#f245' class='c011'><sup>[245]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The evolution of the mouth is particularly interesting. -It is wont to begin with a horizontal line (or what seems -intended for such) which is frequently drawn right across -<span class='pageno' id='Page_341'>341</span>the facial circle. But a transition soon takes place to a -more distinctive representation. This is naturally enough -carried out by the introduction of the characteristic and -interesting detail, the teeth. This may be done, according -to M. Perez, by keeping to the linear representation, the -teeth being indicated by dots placed upon the horizontal -line. 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 lips. The contour—especially -the circular or ovoid—occasionally appears by itself without -teeth, but the teeth seem to be soon added. 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 (see the two drawings by -boys of six and five, Fig. 6 <a href='#fig6a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig6b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). These two forms -are improved upon and more likeness is introduced by -making the dental lines shorter, as in Fig. 5 <a href='#fig5c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> (p. 340). -With this may be compared a drawing by a boy of five -(Fig. 6 <a href='#fig6c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>), where however we see a movement from -realism in the direction of a freer decorative treatment.</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col45'> - -<div id='fig6a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p341_6a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 6 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col35'> - -<div id='fig6b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p341_6b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 6 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col20'> - -<div id='fig6c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p341_6c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 6 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A somewhat similar process of evolution is noticeable in -the case of the nose, though here the movement is soon -brought to a standstill. Thus the vertical line gives place -<span class='pageno' id='Page_342'>342</span>to an angle, which may point to the side, as in the drawing -of a country-boy between three and four (Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>), but -more frequently, I think, points upwards, as in the drawing -of a boy of six (Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). This in its turn leads to an -isosceles triangle with an acute angle at the apex, as in the -drawing of a boy of six (Fig. 7 (<i>c</i>)). In a few cases a long -spindle-shaped or rectangular form similar to that of the -mouth is employed, as in a drawing of a nervous child of six -(Fig. 7 (<i>d</i>)). Refinements are introduced now and again by -an attempt at the nostrils, as in the accompanying curious -drawing by a seven-years-old Jamaica girl (Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7e'>(<i>e</i>)</a>).<a id='r246' /><a href='#f246' class='c011'><sup>[246]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='column-container width80'> - -<div class='col25'> - -<div id='fig7a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p342_7a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 7 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col30'> - -<div id='fig7b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p342_7b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 7 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id='fig7c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p342_7c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 7 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col45'> - -<div id='fig7d' class='figright id006'> -<img src='images/i_p342_7d.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 7 (<i>d</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id='fig7e' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p342_7e.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 7 (<i>e</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_343'>343</span></div> -<div class='column-container fltright width50'> - -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig8a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p343_8a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 8 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig8b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p343_8b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 8 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The introduction of other features, more especially -ears and hair, must, according to my observations, be -looked on as occasional only, and as a mark of an -advance to a more naturalistic treatment. Differences -of treatment occur here too. Thus the ears, which -are apt to be absurdly large, are now inserted inside -the head circle, now outside it. The hair appears -now as a dark cap of horizontal strokes, now as a -kind of stunted fringe, now as a bundle or wisp -on one side, which may -either fall or stand on -end (see above, Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>, -and the accompanying -drawing by a girl of -nearly four, Fig. 8 <a href='#fig8a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). -These methods of representation -are occasionally -varied by a more -elaborate line-device, as -a curly looped line similar -to that employed for -smoke, as in the annexed -drawing by a girl of seven (Fig. 8 <a href='#fig8b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div id='fig9' class='figright id007'> -<img src='images/i_p343_9.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 9.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>As implied in this account of the facial features, a good -deal of convention-like agreement of method is enlivened -by a measure of diversity of treatment. 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 (Fig. <a href='#fig9'>9</a>). This -may be compared with the attempt of the -Uganda negro to indicate symbolically the -cheeks (see above, p. 336, Fig. <a href='#fig3'>3</a>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>As I have remarked, to the child bent on representing -‘man’ the head or face is at first the principal thing, some -early drawings contenting themselves with this. But in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_344'>344</span>general the head receives some support. The simplest -device here is the abstract mode of representation by two -supporting lines, which do duty for legs and body. These -are for the most part parallel (see above, p. 336, Fig. <a href='#fig2'>2</a>), -though occasionally they are united at the top, making a -kind of target figure. This same arrangement, -fixing the head on two upright lines, -meets us also in the rude designs of savages, -as may be seen in the accompanying rock -inscription from Schoolcraft (Fig. <a href='#fig10'>10</a>).<a id='r247' /><a href='#f247' class='c011'><sup>[247]</sup></a></p> - -<div id='fig10' class='figleft id008'> -<img src='images/i_p344_10.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 10.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The comparative indifference of the child to the body -or trunk is seen in the obstinate persistence of this simple -scheme of head and legs, to which two arms attached to -the sides of the head are often added. A child will -complete the drawing of the head by inserting hair or a -cap, and will even add feet -and hands, before he -troubles to bring in the -trunk (see above, p. 336, -Fig. <a href='#fig2'>2</a>, and p. 342, Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>, also the accompanying -drawing by a boy of six, -Fig. 11 <a href='#fig11a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). 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’ -drawings, executed by a Zulu woman (Fig. -<a href='#fig11b'>11(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container fltleft width50'> - -<div class='col55'> - -<div id='fig11a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p344_11a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 11 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col45'> - -<div id='fig11b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p344_11b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 11 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>From this common way of spiking the head on two -forked or upright legs there is one important deviation. -The contour of the head may be left incomplete, and the -upper occipital part of the curve be run on into the leg-lines, -as in the accompanying example by a Jamaica girl -<span class='pageno' id='Page_345'>345</span>of seven (Fig. <a href='#fig12'>12</a>). I have met with no example of this -among English children.</p> - -<div id='fig12' class='figright id009'> -<img src='images/i_p345_12.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 12.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The drawing of the trunk may -commence in one of two ways. -With English children it appears -often to emerge as an expansion -or prolongation of the head-contour, -as in the accompanying drawings -of the front and side view (Fig. -13 <a href='#fig13a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig13b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).<a id='r248' /><a href='#f248' class='c011'><sup>[248]</sup></a> Or, in the second -place, the leg-scheme may be modified, -either by drawing a horizontal -line across them and so making a -rectangle, as in the accompanying -drawing by a boy of six, or by shading in the -upper part of the space, as in the other figure by a girl -of five (Fig. 13 <a href='#fig13c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig13d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>). 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 Brazilians, where -<span class='pageno' id='Page_346'>346</span>the leg-lines are either kept parallel for a while and then -made to diverge, or are pinched -in below what may be called -the pelvis, though not completely -joined (Fig. 13 <a href='#fig13ef'>(<i>e</i>)</a> and -<a href='#fig13ef'>(<i>f</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col25'> - -<div id='fig13a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p345_13a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 13 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col25'> - -<div id='fig13b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p345_13b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 13 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col25'> - -<div id='fig13c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p345_13c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 13 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col25'> - -<div id='fig13d' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p345_13d.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 13 (<i>d</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div id='fig13ef' class='figleft id010'> -<img src='images/i_p346_13ef.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 13 (<i>e</i>) and (<i>f</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When the trunk is distinctly -marked off, it is apt to remain -small in proportion to the -head, as in the following two -drawings by boys of about five (Fig. 14 <a href='#fig14a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig14b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). -As to its shape, it is most commonly circular or ovoid -like the head. But the square or rectangular form is also -found, and in the case of certain children it is expressly -stated that this came later. A triangular cape-like form -also appears now and again, as in the accompanying drawing -by a boy of six (Fig. 14 <a href='#fig14c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).<a id='r249' /><a href='#f249' class='c011'><sup>[249]</sup></a> The treatment of the -form of trunk often varies in the drawings of the same child.</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col30'> - -<div id='fig14a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p346_14a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 14 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col30'> - -<div id='fig14b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p346_14b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 14 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col40'> - -<div id='fig14c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p346_14c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 14 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At this stage there is no attempt to show the joining on -of the head to the trunk by means of the neck. The oval -of the head is either laid on the top of that of the trunk, or -more commonly cuts off the upper end of the latter. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_347'>347</span>neck, when first added, is apt to take the exaggerated look -of caricature. It may be -represented by a single -line, by a couple of parallel -lines, or by a small -oval or circle, as in the -accompanying drawings -by a girl of six and a -boy of five respectively -(Fig. 15 <a href='#fig15a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig15b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>; -<i>cf.</i> above, p. 342, Fig. 7 -<a href='#fig7c'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container fltright width65'> - -<div class='column-container width75'> - -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig15a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p347_15a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 15 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig15b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p347_15b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 15 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col33'> - -<div id='fig16a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p347_16a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 16 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col33'> - -<div id='fig16b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p347_16b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 16 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col33'> - -<div id='fig16c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p347_16c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 16 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is noticeable that there is sometimes a double body, -two oval contours being laid one upon the other. In certain -cases this looks -very like an expansion -of the -neck, as in the -accompanying -drawing by the -same boy that drew -the round neck -above (Fig. 16 <a href='#fig16a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). -In other cases the -arrangement -plainly does not -aim at differentiating -the neck, since this part is separately dealt with (Fig. -16 <a href='#fig16b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). Here it may possibly mean a crude attempt to -indicate the division of the trunk at the waist, as brought -out especially by female attire, as may be seen in the -accompanying drawing where the dots for buttons on each -oval seem to show that the body is signified (Fig. 16 <a href='#fig16c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>; <i>cf.</i> -above, p. 342, Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).<a id='r250' /><a href='#f250' class='c011'><sup>[250]</sup></a> This, along with the triangular -<span class='pageno' id='Page_348'>348</span>cape-shape of the trunk, is one of the few illustrations of -the effect of dress on the first childish treatment of the -figure. As a rule, this primitive art is a study of nature -in so far as the artificial adjuncts of dress are ignored, -and the rounded forms of the body are, though crudely -enough no doubt, hinted at.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coming now to the arms we find that their introduction -is very uncertain. To the child, as also to the savage, -the arms are what the Germans call a Nebensache—side-matter -(<i>i.e.</i>, figuratively as well as literally), and are omitted -in rather more than one case out of two. After all, the -divine portion, the head, can be supported very well -without their help.</p> - -<div id='fig17' class='figleft id008'> -<img src='images/i_p348_17.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 17.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The arms, as well as the legs, being the thin lanky members, -are commonly represented by lines. -The same thing is noticeable in the drawings -of savages.<a id='r251' /><a href='#f251' class='c011'><sup>[251]</sup></a> The arms appear in the -front view of the figure as stretched out -horizontally, or, at least, reaching out -from the sides; and their appearance -always gives a certain liveliness to the -figure, an air of joyous self-proclamation, -as if they said in their gesture-language, -‘Here I am’ (see above, p. 339, Fig. 5 <a href='#fig5a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, -and the accompanying drawing of a -boy of six, Fig. <a href='#fig17'>17</a>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>In respect of shape and structure a process of evolution -may be observed. In certain cases the abstract linear -representation gives place to contour, the arm being drawn -of a certain thickness. But I find that the linear representation -of the arm often persists after the legs have -received contour, this being probably another illustration of -the comparative neglect of the arm; as in the accompanying -<span class='pageno' id='Page_349'>349</span>drawing by a boy of five (Fig. 18 (<a href='#fig18a'><i>a</i></a>)). The primal rigid -straightness yields later on to the freedom of an organ. Thus -an attempt is made to represent by means of a curve the look -of the bent arm, as in the accompanying drawings by boys -of five (Fig. 18 <a href='#fig18b'>(<i>b</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig18c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>). In other cases the angle of the -elbow is indicated. This last comes comparatively late in -children’s drawings, which here, too, lag behind the crudest -outline sketches of savages.</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col35'> - -<div id='fig18a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p349_18a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 18 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col35'> - -<div id='fig18b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p349_18b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 18 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col30'> - -<div id='fig18c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p349_18c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 18 (<i>c</i>).—A miner.</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div id='fig19' class='figright id010'> -<img src='images/i_p349_19.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 19.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The mode of insertion or attachment of the arms is -noteworthy. Where they are added to the trunkless figure -they appear as emerging either from the sides of the head, -as in the accompanying drawing -by a boy of two and a half years, -or from the point of junction of -the head and legs (Fig. <a href='#fig19'>19</a>; <i>cf.</i> -above, p. 342, Fig.7 <a href='#fig7d'>(<i>d</i>)</a> and -<a href='#fig7e'>(<i>e</i>)</a>). In the case of savage -drawings wanting the trunk -the arm is also inserted at this -point of junction (see above, pp. 344, 346, Figs. <a href='#fig10'>10</a> and -13 <a href='#fig13a'>(<i>f</i>)</a>).<a id='r252' /><a href='#f252' class='c011'><sup>[252]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_350'>350</span>After the trunk has been added, the mode of insertion -varies still more. In a not inconsiderable number of cases -the arms spring from the bottom of the head-circle, and -sometimes even from the median region, as before the -trunk appeared (<i>cf.</i> above, p. 346, Fig. 14 <a href='#fig14b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). In the last -case the most grotesque arrangements occur, as if the arms -might sprout at any point of the surface.<a id='r253' /><a href='#f253' class='c011'><sup>[253]</sup></a> In the majority -of cases, however, and certainly among the better drawings, -the arms spring from the side of the trunk towards the -median level (<i>cf.</i> above, p. 341, Fig. 6 <a href='#fig6a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>The length of the arm is frequently exaggerated. This -adds to the self-expansive and self-proclamatory look of -the mannikin, as may be seen in the accompanying -drawings by boys of five and of six respectively (Fig. -20 <a href='#fig20a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig20b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig20a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p350_20a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 20 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig20b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p350_20b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 20 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This arrangement of the arms stretched straight out, or -less commonly pointing obliquely upwards or downwards, -continues until the child grows bold enough to represent -actions. When this stage is reached their form and length -may be materially modified, as also their position.<a id='r254' /><a href='#f254' class='c011'><sup>[254]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_351'>351</span>The arm in these childish drawings early develops the -interesting adjunct of a hand. Like other features this is -apt at first to be amusingly forced into prominence by its -size, and not infrequently by heaviness of stroke as well.</p> - -<div class='column-container figright width60'> - -<div class='col625'> - -<div id='fig21a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p351_21a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 21 (<i>a</i>).—Humpty Dumpty on the wall.</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col375'> - -<div id='fig21b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p351_21b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 21 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The treatment of the hand illustrates the process of -artistic evolution, the movement from a bold symbolism in -the direction of a more life-like mode of representation. -Thus one of the earliest and rudest devices I have met with, -though in a few cases only, is that of drawing strokes -across the line of the arm by way of digital symbols. Here -we have merely a -clumsy attempt to -convey the abstract -idea of branching or -bifurcation. These -cross-strokes are -commonly continued -upwards so that the -whole visible part of -the arm becomes -tree-like. It is an -important step from this to the drawing of twig-like lines -which bifurcate with the line of the arm (Fig. 21 <a href='#fig21a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig21b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is a still more significant advance in the process of -evolution when the digital bifurcations are placed rightly, -being concentrated in a bunch-like arrangement at the -extremity of the arm-line. Here, again, various modes of -treatment disclose themselves, marking stages in the -development of the artist.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 form. This may -be done clumsily by drawing a stroke across at right angles -to the line of the arm, or better by two independent strokes -making acute angles with this line. These two modes of -delineation manifestly represent a restriction of the two -<span class='pageno' id='Page_352'>352</span>varieties of diffuse or dispersed treatment of the fingers -already illustrated. Both forms occur among children’s -drawings. They may be found among the drawings of -savages as well.<a id='r255' /><a href='#f255' class='c011'><sup>[255]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In this terminal finger-arrangement the number of -finger-lines varies greatly, being, in the cases observed by -me, frequently four and five, and sometimes even as great as -ten. It varies, too, greatly in the drawings of the same -child, and in some cases even in the two hands of the same -figure, showing that number is not attended to, as may be -seen in the two annexed drawings, both by boys of five -(Fig. 22 <a href='#fig22a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig22b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). The idea seems to be to set forth a -multiplicity of branching -fingers, and multiplicity -here seems to -mean three or more. -The same way of -representing the hand -by a claw-form, in -which the number of -fingers is three or more, reappears in the drawings of -savages (<i>cf.</i> above, p. 339, Fig. 4 <a href='#fig4c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).<a id='r256' /><a href='#f256' class='c011'><sup>[256]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='column-container figleft width60'> - -<div class='col40'> - -<div id='fig22a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p352_22a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 22 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col60'> - -<div id='fig22b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p352_22b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 22 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 this. One of the earliest of these -attempts takes the form of the well-known toasting-fork or -rake hand. Here a line at right angles to that of the -arm symbolically represents the hand, and the fingers -are set forth by the prongs or teeth (see above, p. 341, -Fig. 6 <a href='#fig6a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, and p. 349, Fig. 18 <a href='#fig18a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). Number is here -as little attended to as in the radial arrangements. It -<span class='pageno' id='Page_353'>353</span>is worth noting that this <em>schema</em> seems to be widely -diffused among children of different nationalities, and -occurs in the drawings of untaught adults. I have -not, however, noticed any example of it among savage -drawings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another way of bringing in the hand along with the -fingers is by drawing a dark central patch or knob. This -not infrequently occurs without the fingers as the symbol -for hand. It becomes a complete symbol by arranging -finger-lines after the pattern of a burr about this (see above, -p. 347, Fig. 15 <a href='#fig15a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>A further process of artistic evolution occurs when the -fingers take on -contour. This -gives a look of -branching leaves -to the hand. The -leaf-like pattern -may be varied in -different ways, -among others by -taking on a floral -aspect of petal-like -fingers about -a centre, as in the -two annexed drawings by boys of six (Fig. 23 <a href='#fig23a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and -<a href='#fig23b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>; <i>cf.</i> above, p. 350, Fig. 20 <a href='#fig20a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container fltright width60'> - -<div class='col40'> - -<div id='fig23a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p353_23a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 23 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col60'> - -<div id='fig23b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p353_23b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 23 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>One curious arrangement by which a thickened arm -is made to expand into something like a fan-shaped -hand appears with considerable frequency. It is -zoologically interesting as being a kind of rough representation -of the fundamental typical form from which -hand, fin, and wing may be supposed to have been -evolved. Here the arm sinks into insignificance, -the whole limb taking on the aspect of a prolonged -hand, save where the artist resorts to the device of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_354'>354</span>making the double organ go across the body (Fig. 24 (<i>a</i>) -and (<i>b</i>)).</p> - -<div class='column-container fltleft with60'> - -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig24a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p354_24a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 24 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig24b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p354_24b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 24 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The legs come -in for very much -the same variety -of treatment as -the arms. The -abstract straight -line here, as already -pointed -out, soon gives -place to the pair of lines representing thickness. They are -for the most part parallel and drawn at some distance one -from the other, though in certain cases there is a slight -tendency to give to the figure the look of the ‘forked biped’ -(<i>cf.</i> above, p. 342, Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>). In a large proportion of cases -there is a marked inclination of the legs, as indeed of the -whole figure, which seems to be falling backwards (see -above, pp. 340, 352, Figs. 5 <a href='#fig5c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> and 22 <a href='#fig22b'><i>(b</i>)</a>). In many -instances, in front and profile view alike, one of the legs -is drawn under the body, leaving no room for the second, -which is consequently pushed behind, and takes on the -look of a tail (see above, p. 352, Fig. 22 <a href='#fig22b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>s).</p> - -<div id='fig25' class='figleft id011'> -<img src='images/i_p354_25.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 25.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Both legs are regularly shown alike in front and in -profile view. Yet even in this simple case -attention to number may sometimes lapse. -Among the drawings collected by me is -one by a boy of five representing the -monster, a three-legged ‘biped’ (Fig. <a href='#fig25'>25</a>).<a id='r257' /><a href='#f257' class='c011'><sup>[257]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The shape of the leg varies greatly. -With some children it is made short and -fat. It develops a certain amount of -curvature long before it develops a knee-bend. -This is just what we should expect. -The standing figure needs straight or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_355'>355</span>approximately straight legs as its support. When the -knee-bend is introduced it is very apt to be exaggerated -(<i>cf.</i> above, Fig. 24 (<i>b</i>)). This becomes still more noticeable -at a later stage, where actions, as running, are attempted.</p> - -<div id='fig26a' class='figright id004'> -<img src='images/i_p355_26a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 26 (a).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The treatment of the foot shows a process of evolution -similar to that seen in the treatment of the hand. At first -a bald abstract indication or suggestion is noticeable, as -where a short line is drawn across the extremity of the leg. -In place of this a contour-form, more especially a circle -or knob, may be used as a designation. Very interesting -here is the differentiation of treatment according as the -booted or naked foot is represented. Children brought up -in a civilised community like England, though they sometimes -give the naked foot (see p. 342, Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>, where the -claw pattern is adopted), are naturally more disposed to -envisage the foot under its boot-form. Among the drawings -of the Jamaica children, presumably more familiar with the -form of the naked foot, I find both the toasting-fork and -the burr arrangement, as also a rude claw, or birch-like device -used for the foot (see above, pp. 336, 338, 345, Figs. -<a href='#fig2'>2</a>, 4 <a href='#fig4ab'>(<i>b</i>)</a>, and <a href='#fig12'>12</a>). The toasting-fork arrangement appears -in General Pitt-Rivers’ collection of savage drawings. Also -a bird’s foot treatment often accompanies -a similar treatment of the hand -in the pictographs of savage tribes, and -in the drawings of Von den Steinen’s -Brazilians (see above, pp. 338, 339, Fig. -4 <a href='#fig4ab'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig4c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container fltleft width40'> - -<div class='col625'> - -<div id='fig26b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p356_26b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 26 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col375'> - -<div id='fig26c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p356_26c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 26 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>An attempt to represent the booted -foot seems to be recognisable in the -early use of a triangular form, as in the -accompanying drawing by a small -artist of five (Fig. 26 (<i>a</i>)).<a id='r258' /><a href='#f258' class='c011'><sup>[258]</sup></a> Very curious -is the way in which the child seeks to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_356'>356</span>indicate the capital feature of the boot, the division of -toe and heel. This is very -frequently done by continuing -the line of the leg so as to -make a single or a double loop-pattern, -as in the following -(Fig. 26 <a href='#fig26b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>, <a href='#fig26c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>; <i>cf.</i> above, p. 342, -Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). A tendency to a -more restrained and naturalistic -treatment is sometimes seen -(see above, p. 354, Fig. 24 <a href='#fig24a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> -and <a href='#fig24b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). It may be added that -the notch between toe and heel -is almost always exaggerated. -This may be seen by a glance at Figs. <a href='#fig17'>17</a> and 22 <a href='#fig22a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, pp. -348, 352. The same thing is noticeable in a drawing by -a young Zulu in General Pitt-Rivers’ collection.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Front and Side View of Human Figure.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>So far, I have dealt only with the treatment of the front -view of the human face and figure. New and highly curious -characteristics come into view when the child attempts -to give the profile aspect. This comes considerably later -than the early lunar representation of the full face.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Children still more than adults are interested in the full -face with its two flashing and fascinating eyes. ‘If,’ writes -a lady teacher of considerable experience in the Kindergarten, -‘one makes drawings in profile for quite little children, -they will not be satisfied unless they see two eyes; and -sometimes they turn a picture round to see the other side.’ -This reminds one of a story told by Catlin of the Indian -chief, who was so angry at a representation of himself in -profile that the unfortunate artist was in fear of his life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time children do not rest content with this -front view. There is, I believe, ample reason to say that, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_357'>357</span>quite apart from teaching, they find their own way to a new -mode of representing the face and figure which, though it -would be an error to call it a profile drawing, has some of -the characteristics of what we understand by this expression.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 contour. The -little observer is soon impressed by the characteristic, -well-marked outline of the nose in profile; and as he -cannot make much of the front view of the organ, -he naturally begins at an early stage, certainly by the -fifth year, to vary the scheme of the lunar circle, broken -at most by the ears, by a projection answering to a profile -nose.</p> - -<div id='fig27' class='figright id008'> -<img src='images/i_p357_27.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 27.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This change is sometimes made without any other, so -that we get what has been called the mixed -scheme, in which the eyes and mouth retain -their front-view aspect. This I find very -common among children of five. It may be -found—even in the trunkless figure—along -with a linear mouth (see above, pp. 340-344, -Figs. 5 <a href='#fig5c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> and following, also 11 <a href='#fig11a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). The -nasal line is, needless to say, treated with -great freedom. There is commonly a good -deal of exaggeration of size. In certain -cases the nose is added in the form of a spindle to the -completed circle (Fig. <a href='#fig27'>27</a>; <i>cf.</i> above, p. 340, Fig. 5 <a href='#fig5c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 head. We must see what -can be said by way of explanation later on. It is to be -noticed, further, that in certain cases the self-contradiction -goes to the point of doubling the nose. That is to say, -although the interesting new feature, the profile nose, is -introduced, earlier habit asserts itself so that the vertical -<span class='pageno' id='Page_358'>358</span>nasal line appears between the two eyes (see above, p. 349, -Fig. 18 <a href='#fig18c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 contour. Thus a notch -for the mouth appears in some cases below the nasal projection -(Fig. 28 <a href='#fig28a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>), though the grinning front view is apt -to hold its own pertinaciously. -A beard, -especially the short -‘imperial,’ as it used -to be called, shooting -out like the nose -from the side, also -helps to mark profile.<a id='r259' /><a href='#f259' class='c011'><sup>[259]</sup></a> -Less frequently an -ear, and in a very -few cases, hair, are -added on the hinder -side of the head, and -assist the impression -of profile. Adjuncts, especially the pipe, and sometimes -the peak of the cap, contribute to the effect, as in the -accompanying drawing by a boy of six (Fig. 28 <a href='#fig28b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>; <i>cf.</i> -above, Figs. 6 <a href='#fig6a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, 18 (<a href='#fig18c'><i>c</i>)</a>, and 24 <a href='#fig24b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>, pp. 341, 349, 354).<a id='r260' /><a href='#f260' class='c011'><sup>[260]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='column-container fltleft width60'> - -<div class='col40'> - -<div id='fig28a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p358_28a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 28 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col60'> - -<div id='fig28b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p358_28b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 28 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At the same time the front features themselves undergo -modification. The big grinning mouth is dropped and one -of the eyes omitted. The exact way in which this occurs -appears to vary with different children. In certain cases -it is clear that the front view of the mouth cavity disappears, -giving place to a rough attempt to render a side view, -before the second eye is expunged; and in one case I have -<span class='pageno' id='Page_359'>359</span>detected a survival of the two eyes in what otherwise would be -a consistent profile drawing of head and figure (Fig. 29 <a href='#fig29a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>; -<i>cf.</i> above, p. 349, Fig. 18 <a href='#fig18b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). This late survival of the two -eyes agrees with the results of observation on the drawings of -the uncultured adult. One of General Pitt-Rivers’ African -boys inserted the two eyes in a profile drawing. Von den -Steinen’s Brazilians drew by preference the full face, so -that we cannot well judge as to how they would have -treated the profile. 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 (Fig. 29 <a href='#fig29b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). The -insertion of two eyes is said by some never to occur in the -drawings of savages on stone, hide, etc.<a id='r261' /><a href='#f261' class='c011'><sup>[261]</sup></a> But I have come -across what seems to me a clear example of it, and this in -a fairly good sketch of a profile view of the human figure -on an Indian vase (Fig. 29 <a href='#fig29c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).<a id='r262' /><a href='#f262' class='c011'><sup>[262]</sup></a> Yet this late retention of -the two eyes in profile, though the general rule in children’s -drawings, is liable to exceptions. Thus I have found a -child retaining the big front view of the mouth along with -a single eye.</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col35'> - -<div id='fig29a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p359_29a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 29 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col40'> - -<div id='fig29b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p359_29b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 29 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col25'> - -<div id='fig29c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p359_29c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 29 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It may be added that children at a particular stage -<span class='pageno' id='Page_360'>360</span>show a preference for some one arrangement; for example, -the profile nose and mouth, and the two front-view eyes, -which tends to become the habitual form used, though a -certain amount of variation is observable. The differences -noticeable among different children’s drawings suggest -that all of them do not go through the same stages. Thus -some may pass by the two-eyed profile stage altogether, or -very soon rise above it, whereas others may linger in it.<a id='r263' /><a href='#f263' class='c011'><sup>[263]</sup></a></p> - -<div id='fig30' class='figleft id008'> -<img src='images/i_p360_30.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 30.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>One notices, too, curious divergences with respect to -the mixture of incompatible features. -Differences in the degree of intelligence -show themselves here also. Thus in one -case a child, throughout whose drawings -a certain feeble-mindedness seems to betray -itself, actually went so far as to introduce -the double nose without having the excuse -of the two eyes (Fig. <a href='#fig30'>30</a>). In such odd -ways do the tricks of habit assert themselves.</p> - -<div id='fig31a' class='figright id008'> -<img src='images/i_p360_31a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 31 (a).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The difficulty which the child feels in -these profile representations is seen in the odd positions -given to the eyes. These are apt to be -pushed very high up, to be placed one -above the other, and, what is more significant, -to be put far apart and close to the -line of contour (see above, Fig. 29 <a href='#fig29a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). In -the following drawing by a boy of five one -of the eyes may be said to be on this line -(Fig 31 <a href='#fig31a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). In General Pitt-Rivers’ collection -we find a still more striking instance -of this in a drawing by a boy of eleven, -the second eye appearing to be intentionally -put outside the contour, as if to suggest that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span>we must look round to the other side of the facial disc in -order to see it (Fig. 31 <a href='#fig31b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). Curious variations -of treatment appear, as in inserting two eyes -between the same pair of curves as in Fig. -20 <a href='#fig20b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>, p. 350, and in enclosing two pairs of -dots or small circles in two larger circles -as in Figs. 14 <a href='#fig14b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>, and 22 <a href='#fig22a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, pp. 346, 352 -(both by the same boy).<a id='r264' /><a href='#f264' class='c011'><sup>[264]</sup></a></p> - -<div id='fig31b' class='figright id012'> -<img src='images/i_p361_31b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 31 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It may be added that even when only one -eye is drawn, a reminiscence of the anterior -view is seen in its form. It is the round or -spindle-shaped contour of the eye as seen in -front. That is to say the eye of the profile like that of the full -face looks directly at the spectator, so that in a manner the one-eyed -profile is a front view (see for an example, Fig. 5 <a href='#fig5a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, p. -339). The designs of savages, and the archaic art of civilised -races, including a people so high up as the Egyptians, share -this tendency of children’s drawings of the profile, though we -find scarcely a trace of the tendency to insert both eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A like confusion or want of differentiation shows itself -in the management of other features in the profile view. -As observed, a good large ear at the back sometimes helps -to indicate the side view (see above, p. 341, Fig. 6 <a href='#fig6a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). -But the wish to bring in all the features, seen in the obstinate -retention of the two eyes, shows itself also in respect of the -ears. Thus one occasionally finds the two ears as in the front -view (see above, p. 346, Fig. 14 <a href='#fig14a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, where the aspect is clearly -more front view than profile), and sometimes, according to -M. Passy—as if the profile nose interfered with this arrangement—both -placed together on one side. The treatment of -the moustache when this is introduced follows that of the -mouth. So imposing a feature must be given in all the -glory of the front view (see above, p. 350, Fig. 20 <a href='#fig20a'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div id='fig32' class='figleft id008'> -<img src='images/i_p362_32.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 32.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Other curious features of this early crude attempt to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span>deal with the profile show themselves in the handling of -the trunk and the limbs. I have met with -only one or two instances of a profile head -appearing before the addition of the trunk -as in Fig. 28 <a href='#fig28a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> (p. 358). In the large -majority of cases the trunk appears and -retains the circular or oval form of the -primitive front view. When, as very frequently -happens, the interesting vertical row -of buttons is added it is apt to be inserted -in the middle, giving a still more definitely -frontal aspect. The juxtaposition of this -with the head turned to the left need cause -no difficulty to the little draughtsman, after -what he has comfortably swallowed in the -shape of incompatibilities in the face itself -(see above, p. 347, Fig. 15 <a href='#fig15b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). In rare cases, however, one -may light on a distinctly lateral treatment of the buttons. -In one instance I have found it in a drawing which would be -a consistent profile but for the insertion of the second eye, -and the frontal treatment of the legs and feet (Fig. <a href='#fig32'>32</a>).</p> - -<div id='fig33' class='figleft id013'> -<img src='images/i_p362_33.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 33.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In the arrangement of the arms there is more room -for confusion. The management of these in the profile -view naturally gives difficulty to the little artist, and in -some cases we find him shirking the point by retaining the -front view or spread-eagle -arrangement. This occurs -as a rule where the profile -modification is limited to the -introduction of a lateral nose -or nose and pipe (see, <i>e.g.</i>, -Figs. 24 (<i>a</i>) and 28 (<i>b</i>), pp. -354, 358). What is more -surprising is that it appears in -rare cases in drawings which -otherwise would be fairly consistent profile sketches. [Fig. <a href='#fig33'>33</a>; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span>all this child’s completed drawings, four in number, adopt -the same front-view scheme of arms.]</p> - -<p class='c001'>The view of the profile with both arms stretched out in -front seems, however, early to impress itself on the child’s -imagination, and an attempt is made to introduce this -striking arrangement. The addition of the forward-reaching -arms helps greatly to give a profile aspect to the figure -(see above, p. 349, Fig. 18 <a href='#fig18b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div id='fig34' class='figright id013'> -<img src='images/i_p363_34.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 34.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The addition of the forward-reaching arms is carried -out more especially when it is -desired to represent an action, -as in the drawing given above, -p. 342, Fig. 7 <a href='#fig7c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>, by a boy of -six, which represents a nurse -apparently walking behind a -child, and in the accompanying -figure, by a boy of eight and -a half, of an Irishman knocking a man’s head inside a -tent (Fig. <a href='#fig34'>34</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container fltright width50'> - -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig35a' class='figright id014'> -<img src='images/i_p363_35a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 35a.</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig35b' class='figright id014'> -<img src='images/i_p363_35b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 35b.</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The crudest mode of representing the side view of the -forward-reaching -arms is by drawing -the lines from the -contour, as in Fig. -35 <a href='#fig35a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>. Difficulties -arise when the lines -are carried across -the trunk. Very -often both arms are -drawn in this way, -as in Fig. 35 <a href='#fig35b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>. -There is a certain -analogy here to the insertion of the two eyes in the profile -representation, a second feature being in each case added -which in the original object is hidden.<a id='r265' /><a href='#f265' class='c011'><sup>[265]</sup></a></p> - -<div id='fig36' class='figleft id009'> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span> -<img src='images/i_p364_36.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 36.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When the two arms are thus introduced their position -varies greatly, whether they start from the contour or are -drawn across the body. That is to say, they may be far -one from the other (as in Fig. 35 <a href='#fig35b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>), -or may be drawn close together. And -again the point of common origin may be -high up at the meeting point of trunk and -chin, as in a drawing by a boy of five (Fig. -<a href='#fig36'>36</a>), or at almost any point below this.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the cases I have examined the -insertion of both arms in profile representations -is exceptional. More frequently, -even when action is described, one -arm only is introduced, which may set -out from the anterior surface of the trunk, -or, as we have seen, start from the posterior surface and cross -the trunk (see above, pp. 353, 356, Figs. 23 <a href='#fig23a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and 26 <a href='#fig26c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>). -In most cases where no action such as walking and holding -a cane is signified both arms are omitted. The uncertainty -of the arms is hardly less here than in the front view.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With respect to the legs, we find, as in the primitive -frontal view, an insertion of both. 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 eye. -As a rule, 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 other, but sets them both out distinctly at a -respectful distance one from the other. The refinement of -making the second foot or calf and foot peep out from -behind the first, as in Fig. 29 <a href='#fig29a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> (p. 359), and possibly also -Fig. 18 <a href='#fig18c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> (p. 349), shows either an exceptional artistic eye, -or the interference of the preceptor.</p> - -<div id='fig37' class='figright id004'> -<img src='images/i_p365_37.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 37.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The treatment of the feet by the childish pencil is -interesting. It is presumable that at first no difference -of profile and front view attaches to the position of the -foot. It has to be shown, and as the young artist knows -<span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span>nothing of perspective and foreshortening, and, moreover, -would not be satisfied with that mode of delineation if -he could accomplish it, he proceeds naturally enough to -draw the member as a line at right angles to that of the leg. -This is done in one of two ways, in opposed directions -outwards, or in the same direction, answering to what we -should call the front or the side view. At first, I believe, -no significance of front and side view is attached to these -arrangements. 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 foot. -In drawings, too, of older children of six and upwards I -have met with cases both of a profile -representation of head and trunk with -spread-eagle feet, as also of a side view -of the feet with a front face (see Figs. -5 <a href='#fig5a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and 13 <a href='#fig13c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>, pp. 339, 345). This -last arrangement, I find, appears in a -profile treatment of the whole leg and -foot among the drawings of North -American Indians (Fig. <a href='#fig37'>37</a>); and this -suggests that the side view in which the -two feet point one way is more easily reached and fixed by -the untutored draughtsman.</p> - -<div id='fig38' class='figright id004'> -<img src='images/i_p365_38.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 38.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 -definiteness. One common arrangement, -I find, 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 head, while the bust is drawn in -front view (see above, Figs. 35 <a href='#fig35a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, <a href='#fig36'>36</a>). The -effect is of course greater where the side -view of the bent leg is added (see Fig. <a href='#fig38'>38</a> and compare with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span>this Fig. <a href='#fig37'>37</a>). I find a liking for this same arrangement in -the drawings of the unskilled adult. An example may be -seen in a drawing by an English carpenter in General Pitt-Rivers’ -Museum at Farnham. In the pictographs of the -North American Indians we meet with cases of a similar -treatment.<a id='r266' /><a href='#f266' class='c011'><sup>[266]</sup></a> In the drawings on the Egyptian Mummy -cases in the British Museum instances of a precisely similar -treatment are to be found. We seem to have here a sort -of transition from the first crude impossible conception to -a more naturalistic and truthful conception. This twist of -the trunk does not shock the eye with an absolutely impossible -posture, as the early artistic solecisms shock it, and -it is an arrangement which displays much that is characteristic -and valuable in the human form.<a id='r267' /><a href='#f267' class='c011'><sup>[267]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 spectator. In the drawings -which I have examined this appears like a rule to which -there is scarcely any exception, 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 salute. -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 -difficulty. There is a like tendency observable in the treatment -of the quadruped, which nearly always looks to the -left. It may be added that a similar habit prevails in the -drawings of untutored adults, as the pictographs of the -North American Indians. The explanation of this, as well as -of other generalisations here reached, will be touched on -later.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I conceive, then, that there reveals itself in children’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span>drawings of the human figure between the ages of three or -four and eight a process of development involving differentiation -and specialisation. This process, instead of leading -to a fuller and more detailed treatment of the front view, -moves in the direction of a new and quasi-profile representation, -although few children arrive at a clear and consistent -profile scheme. Different children appear to find their way -to different modifications of a mixed front and side view, -some amazingly raw, others less so according to the degree -of natural intelligence, and probably also the amount of -good example put in their way by drawings in books, and -still more by model-drawings of mother or other instructor.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have met with only a few examples of a contemporaneous -and discriminative use of front view and profile. -Here and there, it is true, one may light on a case of the -old lunar scheme surviving side by side with the commoner -mixed scheme; but this sporadic survival of an earlier form -does not prove clear discrimination. In the case of one boy -of five the two forms were clearly distinguished, but this child -was from a cultured family, and had presumably enjoyed -some amount of home guidance. 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 figure, -which can be seen to run through all his drawings, with -only this difference, that some are made more complete -than others by the addition of mouth, arms, etc. 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 view. The -omissions in these cases may more readily be explained as -the result of occasional fatigue and carelessness, or, in some -cases, of want of room, or as indicating the point of transition -from an older and cruder to a later and more complete -scheme of profile. This conclusion is supported by the -fact that a child of six or seven, when asked to draw from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span>the life, will give the same scheme, whether the model -presents a front or a side view. This has been observed -by M. Passy in the drawings of himself which he obtained -from his own children, by General Pitt-Rivers in the -drawings of uneducated adults, and by others. We may -say, then, that children left to themselves are disposed each -to adopt some single stereotyped mode of representing the -human figure which happens to please his fancy.<a id='r268' /><a href='#f268' class='c011'><sup>[268]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>In this naïve childish art of profile drawing we have -something which at first seems far removed from the art of -uncivilised races. No doubt, as Grosse urges, the drawings -of savages discovered in North America, Africa, Australia, are -technically greatly superior to children’s clumsy impossible -performances. Yet points of contact disclose themselves. -If a North American Indian is incapable of producing the -stupid scheme of a front view of the mouth and side view of -the nose, he may, as we have seen, occasionally succumb to -the temptation to bring both eyes into a profile drawing. -We may see, too, how in trying to represent action, and to -exhibit the active limb as he must do laterally, the untutored -nature-man is apt to get odd results, as may be observed in -the accompanying drawing by a North American Indian of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span>a man shooting (Fig. 39 <a href='#fig39a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>).<a id='r269' /><a href='#f269' class='c011'><sup>[269]</sup></a> This may be compared with -the accompanying Egyptian drawing (Fig. 39 <a href='#fig39b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).<a id='r270' /><a href='#f270' class='c011'><sup>[270]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='column-container width80'> - -<div class='col55'> - -<div id='fig39a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p369_39a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 39 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col45'> - -<div id='fig39b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p369_39b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 39 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='column-container fltright width65'> - -<div class='col625'> - -<div id='fig40a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p369_40a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 40 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col375'> - -<div id='fig40b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p369_40b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 40 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 -action. This -transition to the -representation -of action marks -the substitution -of a more realistic -concrete -treatment for -the early abstract -symbolic -treatment. Very -amusing are some of the devices by which a child tries to -indicate this. As Ricci has pointed out, the arm will sometimes -be curved in order to make it reach, say, the face -of an adversary (Fig. 40 <a href='#fig40a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). A similar introduction of -curvature appears in the accompanying drawing from a scalp -inscription (Fig. 40 <a href='#fig40b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). Sometimes a curious symbolism -appears, as if to eke out the deficiencies of the artist’s technical -<span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>resources, as when a boy of five represents the junction of -two persons’ hands by connecting them with a line (Fig. -40 <a href='#fig40c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).<a id='r271' /><a href='#f271' class='c011'><sup>[271]</sup></a> With this may be compared the well-known -device of indicating the direction of sight by drawing a line -from the eye to the object.<a id='r272' /><a href='#f272' class='c011'><sup>[272]</sup></a> The most impossible attitudes -occur when new positions of the legs are attempted, as in -the accompanying endeavours to draw the act of running, -kneeling to play marbles, and kicking a football (Fig. 40 -<a href='#fig40d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>, <a href='#fig40e'>(<i>e</i>)</a>, and <a href='#fig40f'>(<i>f</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig40c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p370_40c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 40 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig40e' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p370_40e.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 40 (<i>e</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='column-container width80'> - -<div class='col33'> - -<div id='fig40d' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p370_40d.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 40 (<i>d</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col66'> - -<div id='fig40f' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p370_40f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 40 (<i>f</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div id='fig41' class='figright id009'> -<img src='images/i_p371_41.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 41.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>One other point needs to be referred to before we leave -the human figure, <i>viz.</i>, the treatment of accessories. As -<span class='pageno' id='Page_371'>371</span>pointed out, the child when left to himself is for the most -part oblivious of dress, though the triangular cape-like form -of the body may be a rude attempt -to delineate a clothed figure. In -general he cares merely to crown -his figure with the hat of dignity, -and, at most, to ornament the body -with a row of buttons. Even when -he grows sophisticated and attempts -clothes he still shows his primitive -respect for the natural frame. 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 petticoats. In General Pitt-Rivers’ collection there -is a drawing by a boy of ten which in clothing the figure -naïvely indicates the limbs through their covering (Fig. <a href='#fig41'>41</a>). -This agrees with what Von den Steinen tells us of the way -the Brazilian Indians drew him and his companions.</p> - -<div class='column-container figright width50'> - -<div class='col40'> - -<div id='fig42a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p371_42a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 42 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col60'> - -<div id='fig42b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p371_42b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 42 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 raiment, and -this respect is reflected in -their drawings. The early -introduction of buttons has -been illustrated above. One -boy of six was so much in -love with these that he -covered the bust with them -(Fig. 42 <a href='#fig42a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). Girls are -wont to lay great emphasis -on the lady’s feathered hat -and parasol, as in the accompanying drawing by a maiden -of six (Fig. 42 <a href='#fig42b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). Throughout this use of apparel in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_372'>372</span>crude stage of child-art we see the desire to characterise -sex, rank, and office, as when the man is given his hat, the -soldier his military cap, and so forth. This applies, too, -of course, to such frequent accessories as the walking-stick -(or less frequently the whip, as in Fig. 35 <a href='#fig35b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>, p. 363) and -the pipe, each of which is made the most of in giving -manliness of look. The pipe, it may be added, figures -bravely in a drawing of a European by one of Von den -Steinen’s Brazilians.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>First Drawings of Animals.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Many of the characteristics observable in the child’s -treatment of the human figure reappear in his mode of -representing animal forms. This domain of child-art -follows quickly on the first. Children’s interest in animals, -especially quadrupeds, leads them to draw them at an -early stage. In prescribed exercises, moreover, the cat and -the duck appear to figure amongst the earliest models. An -example of this early attempt to draw animals has been -given above (p. 334, Fig. <a href='#fig1'>1</a>).</p> - -<div id='fig43a' class='figleft id008'> -<img src='images/i_p372_43a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 43 (<i>a</i>).—A duck.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 proportion. -In one case the head seems to be -drawn, but no body—if, indeed, head and -body are not confused; and in others where -a differentiation of head and trunk is -attempted there is no clear local separation, -or if this is attempted there is no clear -indication of the mode of connexion (see, -for example, Fig. 43 <a href='#fig43a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). In the case of -animals the side view is for obvious reasons -hit on from the first. But, needless to say, -there is no clear representation of the profile head. As -a rule we have the front view, or at least the insertion of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_373'>373</span>the two eyes. Both eyes appear in Mr. Cooke’s illustrations -of drawings of the cat by children between three and -four (Fig. 43 <a href='#fig43b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>), as also commonly in drawings of horses. -The position of the eyes is often odd enough, these organs -being in one drawing by a boy of five pushed up into the -ears (Fig. 43 <a href='#fig43c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).<a id='r273' /><a href='#f273' class='c011'><sup>[273]</sup></a> The front view of the animal head -along with profile body appears occasionally in savage -drawings also.<a id='r274' /><a href='#f274' class='c011'><sup>[274]</sup></a> In some of children’s drawings we see -traces of a mixed scheme. 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 (Fig. 43 <a href='#fig43d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig43b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p373_43b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 43 (<i>b</i>).—Two cats.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div id='fig43d' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p373_43d.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 43 (<i>d</i>).—A horse.</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig43c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p373_43c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 43 (<i>c</i>).—A horse.</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div id='fig44a' class='figright id002'> -<img src='images/i_p373_44a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 44 (<i>a</i>).—A horse.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>More remarkable than all, perhaps, -we have in one case a clear -instance of the scheme of the -human face, the features, eyes, nose, -and mouth being arranged horizontally -to suit the new circumstances (Fig. 44 <a href='#fig44a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>). With -this may be compared the accompanying transference of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_374'>374</span>the animal ear to the human figure, though this suggests—especially -in view of the pipe—a bit of jocosity on the part -of the young draughtsman (Fig. 44 <a href='#fig44b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container width90'> - -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig44b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p374_44b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 44 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col50'> - -<div id='fig44c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p374_44c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 44 (<i>c</i>).—A dog.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div id='fig44d' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p374_44d.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 44 (<i>d</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div id='fig44e' class='figright id002'> -<img src='images/i_p375_44e.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 44 (<i>e</i>).—A horse.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The forms of both head and trunk vary greatly. In a -few drawings I have found the extreme of abstract treatment -in the drawing of the trunk, <i>viz.</i>, by means of a -single line, a device which, so far as I have observed, is -only resorted to in the case of the human figure for the -neck and the limbs. An example of this was given above -in Fig. <a href='#fig1'>1</a> (p. 334). The following drawing of a dog by a -little girl between five and six years old illustrates the same -thing (Fig. 44 <a href='#fig44c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).<a id='r275' /><a href='#f275' class='c011'><sup>[275]</sup></a> On the other hand we see sometimes a -tendency to give the trunk abnormal thickness, as if the -model used had been the wooden toy-horse, as in the -accompanying drawing by a boy of five (Fig. 44 <a href='#fig44d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>). -Rectilinear instead of rounded forms occur, and the head -is often triangular, these rectilinear contours being probably -<span class='pageno' id='Page_375'>375</span>suggested by the teacher in his model schemes (see Fig. -44 <a href='#fig44e'>(<i>e</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col40'> - -<div id='fig45a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p375_45a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>a</i>).—A cat.<br />1 Whiskers; 2 Tail.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id='fig45d' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p375_45d.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>d</i>).—Some quadruped.</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col60'> - -<div id='fig45b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p375_45b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>b</i>).—A bird.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div id='fig45c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p375_45c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>c</i>).—A quadruped.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div id='fig45e' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p375_45e.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>e</i>).—A mouse.</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The legs are of course -all visible. The strangest -inattention to number betrays -itself here. As we -saw, a child in beginning -his scribble-drawing piles on lines for the legs (see above, -p. 334, Fig. <a href='#fig1'>1</a>). A girl between three and four years -of age endowed a cat with two legs and a bird with -three (see Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig45b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).<a id='r276' /><a href='#f276' class='c011'><sup>[276]</sup></a> A boy in his sixth -year drew a quadruped with ten legs (Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>). -They are often drawn absurdly out of position. In more -than one case I find them crowded behind, as in the -accompanying drawing of some quadruped by the same -little girl that drew the cat and the bird, and in a drawing -of a mouse by another child about the same age, viz., -three and a half years (Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45d'>(d)</a> and <a href='#fig45e'>(e)</a>). They commonly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_376'>376</span>remain apart from one another throughout their -course, following roughly a parallel direction. But this -simple scheme is soon modified, first of all by enlarging -the space between the fore and the hind legs, and then by -introducing some change of direction answering to the look -of the animal in motion. This is most easily effected by -making the fore and the hind pair diverge downwards, as in -Fig. 43 <a href='#fig43b'>(<i>b</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig43c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> (p. 373). In rarer cases the divergence -appears between the two legs of the fore and of the hind pair -(Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45f'>(<i>f</i>)</a>). The knee-bend is early introduced as a -means of suggesting motion. Either the legs are all bent -backwards, as in Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45g'>(<i>g</i>)</a> (<i>cf.</i> above, Fig. 44 <a href='#fig44e'>(<i>e</i>)</a>); -or, with what looks like a perverted feeling for symmetry, -each pair is bent inwardly, as in Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45h'>(<i>h</i>)</a>. The -forms are often extraordinary enough, a preternatural -thickness of leg being not infrequently given, 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 skeleton. The hoof is drawn in a still freer manner, -various designs, as the bird-foot, the circle, and the looped -<span class='pageno' id='Page_377'>377</span>pattern, appearing here as in the case of the human foot -(Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45i'>(<i>i</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig45j'>(<i>j</i>)</a>; <i>cf.</i> Figs. 43 <a href='#fig43c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> and 44 <a href='#fig44a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> (p. 373)).</p> - -<div class='column-container width90'> - -<div class='col45'> - -<div id='fig45f' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p376_45f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>f</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id='fig45g' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p376_45g.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>g</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col55'> - -<div id='fig45h' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p376_45h.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>h</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='column-container width80'> - -<div class='col45'> - -<div id='fig45i' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p377_45i.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>i</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col55'> - -<div id='fig45j' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p377_45j.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 45 (<i>j</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In this unlearned attempt to draw animal forms the -child falls far below the level of the untutored savage. The -drawings of animals by the North American Indians, by -Africans, and others, have been justly praised for their -artistic excellence. A fine perception of form is, in many -cases, at least, clearly recognisable, the due covering of one -part by another is represented, and movement is vigorously -suggested. Lover though he is of animals, the child, when -compared with the uncivilised adult, shows himself to be -woefully ignorant of his pets.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Men on Horseback, etc.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Childish drawing moves as the dialectic progress of -the Hegelian thought from distinction and antithesis to a -synthesis or unity which embraces the distinction. After -illustrating the human biped in his contradistinction to the -quadruped he proceeds to combine them in a higher -artistic unity, the man on horseback. The special interest -of this department of childish drawing lies in the fresh and -genial manner of the combining. To draw a man and a -horse apart is one thing, to fit the two figures one to the -other, quite another.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At first the degree of connexion is slight. There is no -suggestion of a composite or mixed animal, such as may -have suggested to the lively Greek imagination the myth -of the centaur. The human figure is pitched on to the -quadruped in the most unceremonious fashion. Thus in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_378'>378</span>many cases there is no attempt even to combine the profile -aspects, the man appearing impudently in frontal aspect, or -what would be so but for the -lateral nasal excrescence, as in -the accompanying drawing by a -boy of five (Fig. <a href='#fig46'>46</a>).</p> - -<div id='fig46' class='figleft id002'> -<img src='images/i_p378_46.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 46.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With this indifference to a -consistent profile there goes -amazing slovenliness in attaching -the man to the animal, and this -whether the front or side view of -the human figure is introduced. -No attempt is made in many -cases to show attachment: the -man is drawn just above the quadruped, that is all. It -seems to be a chance whether the two figures meet, -whether the feet of the man rest circus-fashion on the -animal’s back, or, lastly, whether the human form is drawn -in part over the animal, and, if so, at what height it is to -emerge from the animal’s back. Various arrangements occur -in the same sheet of drawings (see Fig. 47 <a href='#fig47a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, <a href='#fig47b'>(<i>b</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig47c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>).</p> - -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col45'> - -<div id='fig47a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p378_47a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 47 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col55'> - -<div id='fig47b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p378_47b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 47 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id='fig47c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p378_47c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 47 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When this overlapping takes place the presence of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_379'>379</span>animal’s trunk makes no difference in the treatment of the -man. He is drawn with his two legs just as if he were in -relief against the horse; 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 rider. 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 seen, he may get confused and erase both (see -above (p. 376), Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45f'>(<i>f</i>)</a>).<a id='r277' /><a href='#f277' class='c011'><sup>[277]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='column-container width75'> - -<div class='col33'> - -<div id='fig48a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p379_48a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 48 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col66'> - -<div id='fig48b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p379_48b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 48 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The savage is in general as much above the child in the -representation of the rider as he is in that of the animal -apart. Yet traces of similar confusion do undoubtedly -appear. Von den Steinen says that -his Brazilians drew the rider with both legs -showing. Andree gives an illustration, -among the stone-carvings (petroglyphs) of -savages, of the employment of a front view of the human -figure rising above the horse with no legs showing below (Fig. -48 <a href='#fig48a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>).<a id='r278' /><a href='#f278' class='c011'><sup>[278]</sup></a> Even among the drawings of the North American -Indians, in which the horse is in general so well outlined, we -occasionally find what appear to be the germs of confusions -similar to those of the child. 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 man, with arms stretched out laterally -while the legs are wanting.<a id='r279' /><a href='#f279' class='c011'><sup>[279]</sup></a> A -clearer case of confusion is supplied by -the following drawing, also by a North -American Indian, in which the lines of the horse’s body cut -those of the rider’s legs (Fig. 48 <a href='#fig48b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>).<a id='r280' /><a href='#f280' class='c011'><sup>[280]</sup></a></p> - -<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_380'>380</span></div> -<div class='column-container'> - -<div class='col55'> - -<div id='fig49a' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p380_49a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 49 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div id='fig49d' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p380_49d.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 49 (<i>d</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='col45'> - -<div id='fig49b' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p380_49b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 49 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div id='fig49c' class='figcenter id005'> -<img src='images/i_p380_49c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 49 (<i>c</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -</div> - -<div id='fig49e' class='figright id012'> -<img src='images/i_p381_49e.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 49 (<i>e</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The same tendency to show the whole man where the -circumstances hide a part appears in children’s drawings -of a man in a boat, a railway carriage and so forth. 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 horse. The figure may stand out -above the boat or overlap, in which last case it may be cut -across by the deck-line and its lower part shown, or be -clapped wholly below the deck, or again be half immersed -in the water below the boat, or, lastly, where an attempt -to respect fact is made, be truncated, the trunk appearing -through the side of the boat, though the legs are wanting.<a id='r281' /><a href='#f281' class='c011'><sup>[281]</sup></a> -A man set in a house, train, or tram car, is seen in his -totality (Fig. 49 <a href='#fig49a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig49b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). It is much the same thing -when a child flattens out a house or other object so as to -show us its three sides, that is to say one which in reality -is hidden (Fig. 49 <a href='#fig49c'>(<i>c</i></a>) and <a href='#fig49d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>). With these habits of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_381'>381</span>child may be compared those of the savage. The impulse -to show everything, even what is covered, is illustrated in -a drawing of a singer in his wigwam by an Indian (Fig. 49 -<a href='#fig49e'>(<i>e</i>)</a>).<a id='r282' /><a href='#f282' class='c011'><sup>[282]</sup></a> Even where colour comes in and one -thing has to be hidden by a part of another -thing the savage artist, like the child insists -on drawing the whole. This is illustrated in -a curious custom, the drawing of two serpents -(in dry, coloured powder) by North American -fire-dancers. They are drawn across one -another, and the artist has first to draw completely the -one partly covered, and then the second over the first.<a id='r283' /><a href='#f283' class='c011'><sup>[283]</sup></a></p> - -<div id='fig50' class='figright id013'> -<img src='images/i_p381_50.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 50.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The child’s drawing of the house, though less remarkable -than that of the man and the quadruped, has a certain -interest. It illustrates, as we have just seen, not merely -his determination to render visible what is hidden, but -also his curious feeling for -position and proportion. -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 -chimneys. The accompanying -drawing done by -the boy C. at the age of -five years five months -illustrates the fine childish contempt for proportion (Fig. -<a href='#fig50'>50</a>). A curious feature in these drawings of the house is -the care bestowed on certain details, pre-eminently the -window. This is even a more important characteristic -feature than the chimney with its loops of smoke. Some -<span class='pageno' id='Page_382'>382</span>children give a quite loving care to the window, drawing -the lace curtains, the flowers, and so forth.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Résumé of Facts.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>We may now sum up the main results of our study. -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 forms. At no stage of -this child-art can we find what we should regard as elements -of artistic value: yet it has its quaint and its suggestive -side.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first thing that strikes us here is that this child-delineation, -crude and bizarre as it is, illustrates a process -of development. Thus we have (<i>a</i>) the stage of vague -formless scribble, (<i>b</i>) that of primitive design, typified by -what I have called the lunar scheme of the human face, -and (<i>c</i>) that of a more sophisticated treatment of the human -figure, as well as of animal forms.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This process of art-evolution has striking analogies -with that of organic evolution. It is clearly a movement -from the vague or indefinite to the definite, a process of -gradual specialisation. Not only so, we may note that it -begins with the representation of those rounded or ovoid -contours which seem to constitute the basal forms of animal -organisms, and proceeds like organic evolution by a gradual -differentiation of the ‘homogeneous’ structure through the -addition of detailed parts or organs. These organs in their -turn gradually assume their characteristic forms. It is, -perhaps, worth observing here that some of the early drawings -of animals are strongly suggestive of embryo forms -(compare, <i>e.g.</i>, Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45b'>(<i>b</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig45d'>(<i>d</i>)</a>, p. 375).</p> - -<p class='c001'>If now we examine this early drawing on its representative -side we find that it is crude and defective enough. It -proceeds by giving a bare outline of the object, with at -most one or two details thrown in. The form neither of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_383'>383</span>the whole nor of the parts is correctly rendered. Thus in -drawing the foot it is enough for the child to indicate the -angle: the direction of the foot-line is comparatively immaterial. -In this respect a child’s drawing differs from -a truly artistic sketch or suggestive indication by a few -characteristic lines, which is absolutely correct so far as it -goes. The child is content with a schematic treatment, -which involves an appreciable and even considerable departure -from truthful representation. Thus the primitive -lunar drawing of the human face is manifestly rather a -diagrammatic scheme than an imitative representation of a -concrete form.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this non-imitative and merely indicative treatment -there is room for all sorts of technical inaccuracies. Form -is woefully misapprehended, as in the circular trunk, the -oblong mouth, the claw foot, and so forth. Proportion—even -in its simple aspect of equality—is treated with contempt -in many instances (<i>cf.</i> the legs of the quadruped -and the bird in Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>, <a href='#fig45b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>, and <a href='#fig45c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> (p. 375)). What -is no less important, division of space and relative -position of parts, which seem vital even to a diagrammatic -treatment, are apt to be overlooked, as in drawing -the facial features high up, in attaching the arms to the -head, and so forth. Even the element of number is made -light of, and this, too, in such simple circumstances as when -drawing the legs of an animal.</p> - -<div id='fig51a' class='figleft id015'> -<img src='images/i_p384_51a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 51 (<i>a</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>One of the most curious of these misrepresentations -comes into view in the third or sophisticated stage, <i>viz.</i>, the -introduction of more than is visible. This error, again, -assumes a milder and a graver form, <i>viz.</i>, (<i>a</i>) the giving of -the features more distinctly and completely than they appear -in the object represented, and (<i>b</i>) the introducing of features -which have no place in the object represented. Examples -of the first are the introduction of the nasal angle into the -front view of the human face; the separation throughout -their length of the four legs of the horse; and such odd -<span class='pageno' id='Page_384'>384</span>tricks as detaching the reins of the horse from the animal, -as in Fig. 51 <a href='#fig51a'>(<i>a</i>)</a>. Illustrations of the second are numerous -and varied. They include -first of all the -naïve introduction of -features of an object -which are not on the -spectator’s side and so -in view, as the second -eye and the second arm -in what are predominantly -profile representations. -With these may be classed the attempt to -exhibit three sides of a house. Closely related to these -errors of perspective is the exposure of objects or parts of -objects which are covered by others. It is possible that the -spread-eagle arrangement of the two joined arms is an -attempt to represent a feature of childish anatomy, <i>viz.</i>, the -idea that the arms run through and join in the middle of -the trunk. A clearer example of this attempt to expose to -view what is covered is the exhibition of the whole human -figure in a boat, house or -carriage. With this may -be compared the disclosure -of the whole head of a -horse when drinking, as in -the accompanying drawing -by a boy of five (Fig. 51 <a href='#fig51b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>), of the whole head of the -man through his hat (see above, p. 350, Fig. 20 <a href='#fig20b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>), and -of the human limbs through the clothes (Fig. <a href='#fig41'>41</a>, p. 371).</p> - -<div id='fig51b' class='figleft id015'> -<img src='images/i_p384_51b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p>Fig. 51 (<i>b</i>).</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A class of confusions, having a certain similarity to some -of these, consists in the transference of the features of one -object to a second, as when a man or quadruped is given a -bird-like foot (Figs. 7 <a href='#fig7d'>(<i>d</i>)</a> and 43 <a href='#fig43c'>(<i>c</i>)</a>, pp. 342, 373), and still -more manifestly when the facial scheme of the man is transferred -to the quadruped or <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>vice versâ</i></span> (Fig. 44 <a href='#fig44a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> and <a href='#fig44b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>, -pp. 373, 374).</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span>These last errors clearly illustrate the tendency to a conventional -treatment, a tendency which, as I have observed -already, runs through children’s spontaneous drawings. -This free conventional handling of natural forms has been -illustrated in the habitual drawing of the mouth and eyes, -and still more strikingly in that of the hands and feet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Paradoxical though it may seem, these drawings, while -in general bare and negligent of details, show in certain -directions a quite amusing attention to them. Thus, we -find at a very early stage certain details, as the pipe of -the man, insisted on with extravagant emphasis; and may -observe at a somewhat later stage in the elaborate drawing -of hair, buttons, parasol, and so forth, a tendency to give -some feature to which the child attaches value a special -prominence and degree of completeness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The art of children is a thing by itself, and must not -straight away be classed with the rude art of the untrained -adult. As adult, the latter has knowledge and technical -resources above those of the little child; and these points of -superiority show themselves, for example, in the fine delineation -of animal forms by Africans and others.<a id='r284' /><a href='#f284' class='c011'><sup>[284]</sup></a> At the same -time, after allowing for these differences, it is, I think, incontestable -that a number of characteristic traits in children’s -drawings are reflected in those of untutored savages.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Explanation of Facts.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Let us now see how we are to explain these characteristics. -In order to do so we must try to understand what -<span class='pageno' id='Page_386'>386</span>process a child’s mind goes through when he draws something, -and to compare this with what passes in the mind of -an adult artist. The problem has, it is evident, to do with -drawing from memory or out of one’s head, for though the -child may begin to draw by help of models, he develops his -characteristic art in complete independence of these.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In order to draw an object from memory two things -are obviously necessary. We must have at the outset an -idea of the form we wish to represent, and this visual image -of the form must somehow translate itself into a series of -manual movements corresponding to its several parts. In -other words, it presupposes both an initial conception and -a correlated process of execution.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 image, say, of the curve of the full face, calls -up the associated image of the manual movement. This -last, again, may mean either the visual image of the hand -executing the required movement, or the image of the muscular -sensations experienced when the arm is moved in the -required way, or possibly both of these.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The process of drawing a whole form is of course more -complex than this, each step in the operation being adjusted -to preceding steps. How far the movements of the draughtsman’s -hands are guided here by a visual image of the form, -which remains present throughout, how far by attention to -what has already been set down, may not be quite certain. -Judging from my own case, I should describe the process -somewhat after this fashion. In drawing a human face we -set out with a visual image of the whole, which is incomplete -in respect of details, but represents roughly size and -general form or outline. This image is projected indistinctly -and unsteadily, of course, on the sheet of paper before us, -and this projected image controls the whole operation. But -as we advance we pay more and more attention to the visual -<span class='pageno' id='Page_387'>387</span>presentation supplied by the portion of the drawing already -produced, and only realise with any distinctness that part -of the projected visual image which is just in advance of the -pencil.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is evident that the carrying out of such a prolonged -operation involves a perfected mechanism of eye, brain and -hand connexions; for much of the manual adjustment is -instantaneous and sub-conscious. At the same time the -process illustrates a very high measure of volitional control -or concentration. Unless we keep the original design fixed -before us, and attend at each stage to the relations of the -executed to the unexecuted part, we are certain to go wrong.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Practice tends, of course, to reduce the conscious element -in the process. In the case of a person accustomed to draw -the outline of a human head, a cat or what not, the operation -is very much one of hand-memory into which visual -representations enter only faintly. The movements follow -one another of themselves without the intervention of distinct -visual images (whether that of the linear form or of -the moving hand). There is an approach here to what -happens when we put last year’s date to a letter, the hand -following out an old habit.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now the child has to acquire the co-ordinations here -briefly described. He may have the visual image of the -human face or the horse which he wishes to depict. This -power of visualising shows itself in other ways and can be -independently tested, as by asking a child to describe the -object verbally. But he has as yet no inkling of how to -reproduce his image. 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 eyes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The process of learning here is very like what takes -place when a child learns to speak. The required movements -have somehow to be performed and attached to the -effects they are then found to produce. Just as a child -<span class='pageno' id='Page_388'>388</span>first produces sounds, partly instinctively or spontaneously, -partly by imitating the seen movements of another’s lips, -etc., so he produces lines by play-like scribble and by -imitating the visible movements of another person’s hand. -The tendency to imitate is observable in the first loop-formations, -and possibly also in the abrupt angular changes -which give a zig-zag look to some of these early tracings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In this early stage we see a marked want of control. -The effort is spasmodic and short-lived: the little draughtsman -presently runs off into nonsense scribble. The want -of control is seen, too, in the tendency to prolong lines -unduly, and to repeat or multiply them, the primitive play-movements -being very much under the empire of inertia or -habit, <i>i.e.</i>, the tendency to repeat or go on with an action. -The effect of limitating natural conditions in the motor -apparatus is illustrated, not only in the slightly curved form -of these first scribble lines, but in the general obliquity or -inclination of the line; 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 (or in the -reverse direction) than one running horizontally. The want -of control by means of a steady visual image is further seen -in the absence of any attempt at a plan, at a mapping out -of the available space, and at an observation of proportion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It might be thought that, though a child at this inexperienced -stage were unable to produce the correct form of -a familiar object, he would at once detect the incorrectness -of the one he sets down. No doubt, if he were in the attitude -of cold critical observation, he would do so: in fact, -as Mr. Cooke and others have shown, he sees the absurdities -of his workmanship as soon as they are pointed out to him. -But when drawing he is in another sort of mood, akin to -that imaginative mood in which he traces forms in the -plaster of the ceiling, or in the letters of his spelling-book. -He means to draw a man or a horse, and consequently the -formless jumble of lines becomes, to his fancy, a man or a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_389'>389</span>horse. His first drawings are thus, in a sense, playthings, -which, like the battered stump of a doll, his imaginative -intention corrects, supplements, and perfects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With repetition, and that amount of supervision and -guidance which most children who take a pencil in hand -manage to get from somebody, he begins to note the actual -character of his line-effects, and to associate these with the -movements which produce them. A straight horizontal -line, a curved line returning upon itself, and so forth, come -to be differentiated, and to be co-ordinated with their -respective manual movements.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may now pass to the second stage, the beginning of -true linear representation, as illustrated in the first abstract -schematic treatment of the human face and figure.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A question arises at the very outset here as to whether, -and if so to what extent, children re-discover this method -of representation for themselves. Here, as in the case of -child-language, such as ‘bow-wow,’ ‘gee-gee,’ tradition and -example undoubtedly play their part. A parent, or an -older brother and sister, in setting the first models, is pretty -certain to adopt a simple scheme, as that of the lunar face; -and even where there is no instruction a child is quick at -imitating other children’s manner of drawing. Yet this does -not affect the contention that such manner of drawing is -eminently childish, that is, the one a child finds his way to -most readily, any more than the fact of the nurse’s calling -the horse ‘gee-gee’ in talking to baby affects the contention -that ‘gee-gee’ is eminently a baby-name.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The scanty abstract treatment, the circle enclosing two -dots and the vertical and horizontal lines, points to the -absence of any serious attempt to imitate a form closely -and fully. It seems absurd to suppose that a child of three -or four does not image a human face better than he delineates -it; and even if this were doubtful it is certain that when -he sets down a man without hair, ears, trunk, or arm, his -execution is falling far short of his knowledge. How is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_390'>390</span>this to be accounted for? My explanation is that the little -artist is still much more of a symbolist than a naturalist, -that he does not in the least care about a full and close -likeness, but wants only a barely sufficient indication. This -scantiness of treatment issuing from want of the more serious -artistic intention is of course supported by technical limitations. -The lunar face with the two propping lines answers -to what the child can do easily and comfortably. Much -more than his elder brethren our small limner is bound by -the law of artistic economy, the need of producing his -effects with the smallest expenditure of labour, and of -making every touch tell.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Defects of executive resource and of manual skill -appear plainly in other characteristics. The common inclination -of the lines of the legs points to the unconscious selection -of easiest directions of manual movement.<a id='r285' /><a href='#f285' class='c011'><sup>[285]</sup></a> The unduly -lengthened arm and leg, the multiplication of legs—as seen -most strikingly in the case of the quadruped—illustrate the -influence of motor or muscular inertia. There is, too, -a noticeable want of measurement and management of the -space to be covered, as when one eye is put in so large -as to leave no room for a second, or when filling in details -from above downwards the eyes are put in too near the -occipital curve, and so all the features set too high up. -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 head; for he begins with the head, and -by making this large finds he has not left, within the limits -of what he considers the right size of figure, space enough -for the trunk.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Very noticeable is the influence of habit in this -abstract treatment. By habit I here mean hand-memory, -or the tendency to combine movements in the old ways, -though this is commonly aided, as we shall see, by “association -<span class='pageno' id='Page_391'>391</span>of ideas”. Thus a child falls into a stereotyped -way of drawing the human face and figure; line follows -line in the accustomed sequence; the only variation -showing itself is in the insertion or omission of nose, ears, -or arms; these uncertainties being due to fluctuations of -energy and concentration. A child’s art is, in respect of -its unyielding sameness, a striking example of a conservative -conventionality. He gets used to his pencil-forms, -and pronounces them right, to the greater and greater -neglect of their relation to natural forms. Habit shows -itself in other ways too. Notice, for example, how a child, -after adding the trunk, will go on inserting the arms into the -head as he used to do. Such a habit is an affair not only -of the hand but of the eye. The arms have by repeated -delineation come in the art-sphere to belong to the head.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Coming now to the more elaborate and sophisticated -stage of five or thereabouts, in which the shape of eyes, mouth, -and nose is shadowed forth, the difficult appendages as hands -and feet attempted, and the profile aspect introduced, we -notice first of all a step in the direction of naturalism. The -child like the race gets tired of his bald primitive symbolism, -and essays to bring more of concrete fulness and life into -his forms. Only this first attempt does not lead to a continued -progress, but stops short at what is rude and arbitrary -enough, substituting merely a second rigid conventionalism -for the first.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This transition indicates an advance in technical skill; -hence we find a measure of free and bold invention, as in -the management of the facial features, <i>e.g.</i>, the scissors-shaped -nose, and still more in the treatment of hands and -feet, which is at once exaggerative, as in the big burr -forms, and freely conventional, as in the leaf-pattern for -the hand, and the wondrous loop-designs for the foot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet though this freer treatment shows a certain technical -advance it illustrates the effect of the limitations of -the child’s executive power. Thus the new partially profile -<span class='pageno' id='Page_392'>392</span>figures are very apt to lean, looking as if they were -falling backwards. 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 one. In the latter the hand -is apt to interfere with seeing the line of the face, especially -if the pencil is held near its point.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Habit, too, continues to assert its dominion. The -tendency noticeable now and again, even among English -children, to treat the feet after the manner of the hands -illustrates this. Habit is further illustrated in the tendency -to a transference of forms appropriate to the man to the -animal; or, when (owing to the interposition of the instructor) -the drawing of animals -is in advance of the other, in -the reverse process; as when -a cat is drawn with two legs, -or a horse is given a man’s -face, or the human form develops -a horse’s ears, or a -bird’s feet. With these may -be compared the transference of a bird-like body and -tail to a quadruped in Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45i'>(<i>i</i>)</a>, p. 377. 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 (Fig. <a href='#fig52'>52</a>).</p> - -<div id='fig52' class='figleft id013'> -<img src='images/i_p392_52.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic002'> -<p><span class='small'>Man.</span> <span class='small'>Bird.</span><br />Fig. 52.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But the really noticeable thing in this later sophisticated -treatment is the bringing into view of what in the original -is invisible, as the front view of the eye as well as both eyes -into what otherwise looks a side view of the face, the two -legs of the rider and so forth. Here, no doubt, we may still -trace the influence of technical limitations and of habit. The -influence of the former is seen in the completing of the contour -of the head before or after drawing the hat: for the -child would not know how to start with the lines which form -the commencement of the visible part of the head. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_393'>393</span>influence of habit is also recognisable here. A child having -learned first of all to draw the front view of the eye, the -two eyes and the two legs side by side, tends partly as the -result of organised hand-trick, partly in consequence of -‘association of ideas,’ to go on drawing in the same fashion -in the new circumstances. 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 scheme. 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 (see above, p. 369, Fig. 39 <a href='#fig39b'>(<i>b</i>)</a>). Still, habit -does not account for everything here. It does not, for -example, explain why the child brings into view three sides -of a house. The technical deficiencies of the small draughtsman, -his want of serious artistic purpose, seem an insufficient -explanation of these later sophistries. They appear to point -plainly to certain peculiarities of the process of childish -conception. We are compelled then to inquire a little more -closely into the characteristics of children’s observation -and of their mental representation of objects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We are apt to think that children when they look at -things at all scrutinise them closely, and afterwards imagine -clearly what they have observed. But this assumption is -hardly justified. No doubt they often surprise us by their -attention to small unimportant details of objects, especially -when these are new and odd-looking. But it is a long way -from this to a careful methodic investigation of objects. Children’s -observation is for the most part capriciously selective -and one-sided. They apprehend one or two striking or -especially interesting features and are blind to the rest. -This is fully established in the case of ordinary children by -the wondrous ignorance they display when questioned about -common objects. 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 -<span class='pageno' id='Page_394'>394</span>linear elements, the relative position of the several parts of -a figure, and proportion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This being so it maybe said that defects of observation are -reflected in children’s drawing through all its phases. Thus -the primitive bare schematism of the human face answers -to an incomplete observation and consequently incomplete -mode of imagination, just as it answers to a want of artistic -purpose and to technical incapacity. How far defective -observation assists at this first stage I do not feel sure. -Further experimental inquiries are needed on this point. -I lean to the view already expressed, that at this stage -manual reproduction is far behind visual imagination.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When, however, we come on to the delineation of an -object under its different aspects the defects of mental -representation assume a much graver character. We must -bear in mind that a child soon gets beyond the stage of -recalling and imagining the particular look of an object, -say the front view of his mother’s face, or of his house. -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 things. A child of four or five thinking of -his father or his house probably recalls in a confused way -disparate and incompatible visual aspects, the front view -as on the whole the most impressive being predominant, -though striking elements of the side view may rise into -consciousness also. 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 man, horse, house, in general. A child of five or six, so -far from being immersed in individual presentations and -concrete objects, as is often supposed, has carried out a -respectable measure of generalisation, and this largely by -the help of language. Thus a ‘man’ reduced to visual -terms has come to mean for him (according to his well-known -<span class='pageno' id='Page_395'>395</span>verbal formula) something with a head, two eyes, etc., etc., -which he does not need to represent in a mental picture -because the verbal formula serves to connect the features -in his memory.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hence when he comes to draw he has not the artist’s -clear mental vision of the actual look of things to guide -him. He is led not by a lively and clear sensuous imagination, -but by a mass of generalised knowledge embodied in -words, <i>viz.</i>, the logical form of a definition or description. -This, I take it, is the main reason why with such supreme -insouciance he throws into one design features of the full -face and of the profile; for in setting down his linear -scheme he is aiming not at drawing a picture, an imitative -representation of something we could see, but rather at -enumerating, in the new expressive medium which his -pencil supplies, what he knows about the particular thing. -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 appearance, but setting perspective at naught compels -the spectator to see the other side, to look through one -object at another, and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since the process at this sophisticated stage is controlled -by knowledge of things as wholes and not by representations -of concrete appearances or views, we can understand -why the visible result does not shock the draughtsman. -The little descriptor does not need to compare the look of -his drawing with that of the real object: it is right as a -description anyhow. How strongly this idea of description -controls his views of pictures has already been pointed out. -Just as he objects to a correct profile drawing as an inadequate -description, so he objects to a drawing of the hind -part of a horse entering the stable, and asks, ‘Where is his -head?’ We may say then that what a lively fancy did in -the earlier play-stages childish logic does now, it blinds the -artist to the actual look of what his pencil has created.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Use soon adds its magic force, and the impossible -<span class='pageno' id='Page_396'>396</span>combination, the two eyes stuck on at the side of the -profile nose, the two legs of the rider untroubled by the -capacious trunk of the animal which he strides, the man -wholly exposed to view inside the boat or carriage, gets -stereotyped into the right mode of linear description.</p> - -<p class='c001'>All this shows that the child’s eye at a surprisingly -early period loses its primal ‘innocence,’ grows ‘sophisticated’ -in the sense that instead of seeing what is really -presented it sees, or pretends to see, what knowledge and -logic tell it is there. In other words his sense-perceptions -have for artistic purposes become corrupted by a too large -admixture of intelligence. This corruption is closely -analogous to what we all experience when we lose the -primal simplicity of the eye for colour, and impart into our -‘visual impressions,’ as we call them, elements of memory -and inference, saying, for example, that a distant mountain -side is ‘green’ just because we can make out that it is -grass-covered and know that grass when looked at nearer is -of a green colour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I have dwelt on what from our grown-up standpoint -we must call the defects of children’s drawing. Yet in -bringing this study to a close it is only just to remark that -there are other and better qualities well deserving of recognition. -Crude, defective, self-contradictory even, as -these early designs undoubtedly are, they are not wholly -destitute of artistic qualities. The abstract treatment itself, -in spite of its inadequacy, is after all in the direction -of a true art, which in its essential nature is selective and -suggestive rather than literally reproductive. We may discern, -too, even in these rude schemes a nascent sense of values, -of a selection of what is characteristic. Even the primitive -trunkless form seems to illustrate this, for though, as we -have seen in a previous essay, the trunk plays an important -part in the development of the idea of self, it is for -pictorial purposes less interesting and valuable than the -head. However this be, it is clear that we see this impulse -<span class='pageno' id='Page_397'>397</span>of selection at work later on in the addition of the buttons, -the pipe, the stick, the parasol and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is to be noted, too, that even in these untutored -performances, where convention and tradition exercise so -great a sway, there are faint indications of a freer individual -initiative. Witness, for example, the varying modes of -representing hair, hands, and feet. We may say then that -even rough children in elementary schools who are never -likely to develop artistic talent display a rudiment of art-feeling. -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 aim, that like true -artists they convey a personal impression. These traits -appear most plainly in the later representations of action, -but they are not altogether absent from the earlier statuesque -figures. Compare, for example, the look of alert vigour in -Fig. 5 <a href='#fig5a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> (p. 339), of grinning impudence in Fig. 6 <a href='#fig6a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> -(p. 341), of provoking ‘cheekiness’ in Fig. 20 <a href='#fig20b'>(<i>b</i>)</a> (p. 350), -of a seedy ‘swagger’ in Fig. <a href='#fig32'>32</a> (p. 362), of inebriate gaiety -in Fig. <a href='#fig17'>17</a> (p. 348), of absurd skittishness in Fig. 24 <a href='#fig24b'>(<i>b</i>)</a> (p. -354), of insane flurry in Fig. 26 <a href='#fig26a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> (p. 355), of Irish easy-goingness -even when somebody has to be killed in Fig. <a href='#Page_34'>34</a> -(p. 363), of wiry resoluteness in Fig. 29 <a href='#fig29a'>(<i>a</i>)</a> (p. 359), of sly -villainy in Fig. <a href='#Page_38'>38</a> (p. 365), and of demure simplicity in Fig. -26 <a href='#fig26c'>(<i>c</i>)</a> (p. 356); and note the delicious variety of equine -character in Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45f'>(<i>f</i>)</a> (p. 376) and following.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If a finer æsthetic feeling is developed the first rude -descriptive drawing loses its attractions. A friend, a well-known -psychologist, has observed in the case of his children -that when they try to draw something pretty, <i>e.g.</i>, a beautiful -lady, they abandon their customary mode of description -and become aware of the look of their designs and criticise -them as bad. This seems to me a most significant observation. -It is the feeling for what is beautiful which makes -a child attend closely to the bare look of things, and the -beginning of a finer observation of forms commonly takes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_398'>398</span>its rise in this nascent sense of beauty. Indeed, may one -not say that only when a germ of the æsthetic feeling for -beauty arises, and a child falls in love with the mere look of -certain things, can there appear the beginnings of genuinely -artistic work, of a conscientious endeavour to render on -paper the aspect which pleases the eye?</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f228'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r228'>228</a>. This indicative or communicative function of drawing has, we -know, played a great part in the early stages of human history. -Modern savages employ drawings in sand as a means of imparting -information to others, <i>e.g.</i>, of the presence of fish in a lake, see Von -den Steinen, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Unter den Naturvölkern Braziliens</cite></span>, kap. x., s. 243 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f229'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r229'>229</a>. Only a few drawings of older children above seven have been -included.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f230'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r230'>230</a>. E. Cooke gives illustrations of these in his thoughtful and interesting -articles on “Art-teaching and Child-nature,” published in the -<cite>Journal of Education</cite>, Dec., 1885, and Jan., 1886.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f231'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r231'>231</a>. Preyer, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 47.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f232'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r232'>232</a>. Taken from E. Cooke’s articles already quoted, drawings 19 and -20.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f233'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r233'>233</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, pt. ii., p. 97; “fifty-sixth week” is, she informs me, -an error for hundred and ninth week.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f234'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r234'>234</a>. I am much indebted to Mr. Cooke for the sight of a series of -early scribbles of his little girl. <i>Cf.</i> Baldwin, <cite>Mental Development</cite>, -chap. v., where some good examples of early line-tracing are given. -According to Baldwin angles or zig-zag come early, and are probably -due to the cramped, jerky mode of movement at this early stage. -Preyer seems to me wrong in saying that children cannot manage -a circular line before the end of the third year (<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 47). Most -children who draw at all manage a loop or closed curved line before -this date.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f235'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r235'>235</a>. Corrado Ricci, <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>L’Arte dei Bambini</cite></span> (1887), p. 6.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f236'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r236'>236</a>. See Von den Steinen, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 247.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f237'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r237'>237</a>. These drawings, of the highest interest to the student of child-art -as well as to the anthropologist, are to be seen in the General’s -Museum at Farnham (Dorset) (7th room).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f238'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r238'>238</a>. Schoolcraft has a good example of this facial scheme in the -drawing of a man shooting (<cite>The Indian Tribes of the United States</cite>, i., -pl. 48).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f239'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r239'>239</a>. <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Art et la Poésie chez l’Enfant</cite></span>, p. 186.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f240'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r240'>240</a>. For an illustration see Andree, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Eth. Parallelen und Vergleiche</cite></span>, -pl. 3, fig. 19.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f241'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r241'>241</a>. See for an example, Schoolcraft, iv., pl. 18.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f242'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r242'>242</a>. According to Stanley Hall the nose comes after the mouth. -This may be an approximate generalisation, but there are evidently -exceptions to it. On the practice of savage draughtsmen see the -illustrations of Australian cave drawings in Andree, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 159. -<i>Cf.</i> the drawings of Brazilian tribes, plate iii., 15. In some cases there -seems a preference for the nose, certain of the Brazilian drawings -representing facial features merely by a vertical stroke.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f243'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r243'>243</a>. M. Passy calls attention to this in his interesting note on -children’s drawings, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Revue Philosophique</cite></span>, 1891, p. 614 ff. I find -however that though the error is a common one it is not -constant.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f244'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r244'>244</a>. In one case I find the curious device of two dots or small circles, -one above the other within a larger circle, and this form repeated in -the eye of animals.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f245'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r245'>245</a>. An example of circle within circle occurs in a drawing by a male -Zulu in General Pitt-Rivers’ collection.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f246'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r246'>246</a>. It is possible that in this drawing the two short lines added to -the mouth are an original attempt to give the teeth.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f247'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r247'>247</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, pt. iv., plate 18.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f248'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r248'>248</a>. A drawing given by Andree, <i>op. cit.</i>, plate ii., II, seems to me -to illustrate a somewhat similar attempt to develop the trunk out of -the head.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f249'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r249'>249</a>. The opposite arrangement of a triangle on its apex occurs -among savage drawings.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f250'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r250'>250</a>. On the other hand I find the button dots sometimes omitted in -the lower oval.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f251'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r251'>251</a>. For examples, see Andree, <i>op. cit.</i>, plate 3. <i>Cf.</i> the drawings of -Von den Steinen’s Brazilians.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f252'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r252'>252</a>. On the treatment of the arm in the drawings of savages, see in -addition to the authorities already mentioned <cite>The Annual Report of -the Bureau of Ethnology</cite>, 1883-4, p. 42 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f253'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r253'>253</a>. The tendency which appears in more than one child’s drawings -to put the right arm below the left is worth noting, though I am not -prepared to offer an explanation of the phenomenon.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f254'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r254'>254</a>. On the treatment of the arm, see Perez, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 190: <i>cf.</i> -Ricci, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 6-8. I have met with no case of the arms being -attached to the legs such as Stanley Hall speaks of, <cite>Contents of -Children’s Minds</cite>, p. 267.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f255'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r255'>255</a>. See Andree’s collection, <i>op. cit.</i>, ii., II.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f256'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r256'>256</a>. Examples may be found in Catlin, Schoolcraft, Andree, -Von den Steinen, and others, also in the drawings in the Pitt-Rivers -Museum, Farnham. Von den Steinen gives a case of seven finger-strokes.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f257'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r257'>257</a>. Unless this is a jocose suggestion of a tail.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f258'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r258'>258</a>. This is hardly conclusive, as I find the triangular form used for -the foot of a quadruped, presumably a horse.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f259'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r259'>259</a>. I take the long line in Fig. 27 to represent the manly beard.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f260'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r260'>260</a>. In rare cases the pipe sticks out from the side of what is clearly -the primitive full face. Schoolcraft gives an example of this, too, in -Indian drawing, <i>op. cit.</i>, pt. ii., pl. 41.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f261'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r261'>261</a>. Ricci’s remarks seem to me to come to this, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 25.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f262'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r262'>262</a>. From <cite>The Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology</cite>, 1880-1, p. -406.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f263'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r263'>263</a>. Ricci says that seventy per cent. insert two eyes in their first -profile drawings (<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 17). But this seems a rather loose statement.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f264'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r264'>264</a>. I assume that these are intended for two eyes; but the scheme -is not easy to interpret.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f265'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r265'>265</a>. According to Ricci the second arm is supposed to be seen -through the body.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f266'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r266'>266</a>. <cite>Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology</cite>, 1882-3, p. 160.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f267'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r267'>267</a>. Professor Petrie has pointed out to me that the Egyptian of -to-day with his more supple body easily throws himself into this -position.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f268'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r268'>268</a>. These results do not seem to agree with those of M. Passy or of -Professor Barnes. M. Passy distinguishes in children’s drawings a -front and a side view, both of which may be used by the same child at -the same time. The former consists of nose and mouth of profile and -eyes and ears of full face, the latter, of nose and mouth of profile -with one eye and one ear; that is to say the two differ only in the -number of eyes and ears (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Revue Philosophique</cite></span>, 1891, p. 614 ff.). It -would be interesting to know on how large an examination this -generalisation is based. As suggested above, 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 face. Professor Barnes goes so far as to state with numerical -exactness the relative frequency of profile and full face by children -at different stages. He makes, however, no serious attempt to explain -the criterion by which he would distinguish the two modes of representation -(see his article, <cite>Pedagogical Seminary</cite>, ii., p. 455 ff.).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f269'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r269'>269</a>. Taken from Schoolcraft, vol. i., pl. 48.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f270'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r270'>270</a>. From Maspero’s <cite>Dawn of Civilisation</cite>, p. 469.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f271'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r271'>271</a>. This I take to be the meaning of this odd arrangement.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f272'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r272'>272</a>. <i>Cf.</i> Barnes, <i>loc. cit.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f273'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r273'>273</a>. Mr. Cooke kindly informs me that in an early Greek drawing -in the First Vase Room in the British Museum, the eye of a fish is -placed in the back part of the mouth.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f274'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r274'>274</a>. An example is given by Schoolcraft, <i>op. cit.</i>, pt. iv., pl. 18.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f275'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r275'>275</a>. Line drawings of animals as well as of men are found in savage -art: see, for example, Schoolcraft, <i>op. cit.</i>, pt. iv., pl. 18. Mr. Cooke -gives examples from drawings of the Trojans. Hence line drawing -may, as he infers, be the primitive mode.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f276'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r276'>276</a>. This is the way in which Mr. Cooke, who sends me these two -drawings, explains them to me. The beak (?) in Fig. 45 <a href='#fig45b'>(<i>b</i>)</a> is added -to the contour, as is the human nose in a few cases.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f277'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r277'>277</a>. <i>Cf.</i> Ricci, <i>op. cit.</i>, Fig. 21 (p. 27).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f278'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r278'>278</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, pl. 2; <i>cf.</i> pl. 6, where a drawing from Siberia with -the same mode of treatment is given.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f279'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r279'>279</a>. <i>Op. cit.</i>, pt. iv, pl. 31 (p. 251).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f280'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r280'>280</a>. From the <cite>Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology</cite>, 1882-83, p. -206. The common appearance of both legs in these Indian drawings -means, I take it, that the rider is on the side of the horse.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f281'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r281'>281</a>. See Ricci, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 17-23.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f282'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r282'>282</a>. Andree observes that in Australian drawings objects behind -one another are put above one another as in a certain stage of -Egyptian art (<i>op. cit.</i>, p. 172).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f283'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r283'>283</a>. <cite>Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology</cite>, 1883-84, p. 444 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f284'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r284'>284</a>. The tendency to identify the drawings of the child and the -savage led to an amusing error on the part of a certain Abbé -Domenech, who in 1860 published his so-called <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Livre des Sauvages</cite></span>, -which purported to contain the graphic characters and drawings of -North American Aztecs, but proved in reality to be nothing but the -scribbling book of a boy of German parentage. The drawings are of -the crudest, and show the artist to be much more nasty-minded than -the savage draughtsmen.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f285'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r285'>285</a>. This is supported, in the case of children who have begun to -wield the pen, by the exercises of the copy-book.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_399'>399</span> - <h2 class='c004'>XI. <br /> EXTRACTS FROM A FATHER’S DIARY.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>There has just come into my hands a curious document. It -is a sort of diary kept by a father in which he chronicles -certain of the early doings and sayings of his boy. It makes -no pretence to being a regular and methodical register of progress, -such as Mr. F. Galton has shown us how to carry out. -It may be said by way of extenuation that the diary sets out in -the year 1880, that is to say, two years before Professor Preyer -published his model record of an infant’s progress. <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>En revanche</i></span>, -it is manifestly the work of a psychologist given to speculation, -and this of a somewhat bold type. In the present paper I -propose to cull from this diary what seem to me some of the -choicer observations and comments on these. If these do not -always come up to the requirements of a rigidly scientific standard -in respect of completeness, precision, and grave impartiality, -they may none the less prove suggestive of serious scientific -thought, while any extravagances of fancy and any levity of -manner may well be set down to the play of a humorous -sentiment, which betrays the father beneath the observer.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 class,—healthy, good-natured, and -given to that infantile way of relieving the pressure of his -animal spirits which is, I believe, known as crowing. Not -believing in the classifications of temperament adopted by the -physiologists of a past age, the father forbears from describing -his child’s. For my lady readers I may add that he seems, at -least by his father’s account, to have been a good-sized, chubby -little fellow, fair and rosy in tint, with bright blue eyes, and a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_400'>400</span>limited crop of golden hair of an exceptionally rich, I don’t -know how many carat gold, hue. I shall speak of him under -his initial, C.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>First Year.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>The early pages of the record do not, one must confess, yield -any very striking observations. This is, no doubt, due to the -circumstance that the observer, not being a naturalist, was not -specially interested in the dim mindless life of the first weeks. -For the first few days Master C. appears to have been content -to vegetate like other babies of a similar age. Although a -bonny boy, he began life in the usual way—with a good cry; -though we now know, on scientific authority, that this, being a -purely reflex act, has not the deep significance which certain -pessimistic philosophers have attributed to it. 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 career, and which, the father characteristically remarks, -were highly suggestive of a cynical contempt for his new surroundings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet, though content in this early stage to do little but -perform the vegetal functions of life, the infant comes endowed -with a nervous system and organs of sense, and these are very -soon brought into active play. According to this record, the -sense of touch is the first to manifest itself.<a id='r286' /><a href='#f286' class='c011'><sup>[286]</sup></a> Even when only -two hours old, at a period of life when there is certainly no -sound for the ear and possibly no light for the eye, C. immediately -clasped the parental finger which was brought into the -hollow of its tiny hand. The functional activity of touch was -observed still more plainly on the second day, when the child -was seen to carry out awkwardly enough what looked like -exploring movements of the hands over his mouth and face. -This early development in the child of the tactual sense agrees, -says the biographer, with what Aristotle long since taught respecting -the fundamental character of this sense, an idea to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_401'>401</span>which the modern doctrine of evolution has given a new -significance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A distinct step is taken during the first four days towards -acquiring knowledge of things through a progressive use of the -eyes and hands. C.’s father noticed on the second day that a -good deal of ocular movement was forthcoming. Much of this -was quite irregular, each eye following its own path. Sometimes, -however, the eyes moved harmoniously or symmetrically now -to this side, now to that, and now and again seemed to converge -and fix themselves on some near object in front of them. -Sufficiently loud sounds increased these ocular movements.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the third day the father, when chuckling and calling to -the child at a short distance, 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 eyelids. But it is possible that this apparent -amiability was nothing but a purely animal satisfaction after a -good meal. As to <em>seeing</em> his father’s face at that early age, -there is room for serious doubt. Preyer found that long before -the close of the first day his child wore a different expression -when his face, turned towards the window, was suddenly deprived -of light by the intervention of the professor’s hand. If -the child is thus sensible to the pleasure of light it is, of course, -conceivable that C.’s eyes, happening in their aimless wanderings -to be brought together opposite the bright patch of the -father’s face, might maintain that attitude under the stimulus -of the pleasure. The father argues in favour of this view by -quoting the fact that C.’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 child; yet such blank staring at mere brightness -is, of course, a long way off from distinct vision of an object.</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the fourth day, continues the sanguine father, the child -showed a distinct advance in the use of the hands. Having -clasped his sire’s finger he now moved it in what looked like -an abortive attempt to carry it to his mouth. There follow -some remarks on the impulse of infants to carry objects to -their mouths, in which again there seems an approach to -frivolity in the conjecture that the human animal previous to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_402'>402</span>education is all-devouring. It is to be noted, however, that -these early movements are probably quite accidental. As we -shall see, it is some weeks before the child learns to carry -objects to his mouth. 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 <em>tactual</em> organ. 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 hard, gritty and so forth in food. However this be, it -is probable that, as Stanley Hall has suggested, an infant may -get a kind of “æsthetic” pleasure by bringing objects into -contact with the lips and the gums.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At this period, the diary remarks, the child was very cross -for some weeks and not a good subject for observation. This -new difficulty, added to that of overcoming natural scruples in -his guardians, appears to have baffled the observer for a time, -for the next observations recorded take up the thread of the -child’s history at the sixth week.</p> - -<p class='c001'>About this date, the father notes, the power of directing -the eyes had greatly improved. The child could now converge -his eyes comfortably and without going through a number of -unpleasant squinting-like failures on a near object. The range -of sight had greatly increased, so that the boy’s universe, instead -of consisting merely of a tiny circle of near objects, as his -mother’s face held close to him, began to embrace distant -objects, as the clock, the window, and so forth. He was observed, -too, to carry out more precise movements of the head and eyes -in correspondence with the direction of sounds. 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 seen.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This new command of the visual apparatus led to a marked -increase in observation. The boy may indeed be said to have -begun about this date something like a serious scrutiny of -objects. Like other children he was greatly attracted by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_403'>403</span>brightly coloured objects. When just seven weeks old he -acquired a fondness for a cheap showy card with crudely -brilliant colouring and gilded border. When carried to the -place where it hung, above the glass over the fire-place, -he would look up to it and greet his first-love in the world of -art with a pretty smile. By the ninth or tenth week, the father -adds, he began to notice the pattern of the wall-paper and the -like.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In these growing intervals of observation between the -discharge of the vegetal functions of feeding and sleeping, C. -was observed to examine not only any foreign object, such as -his mamma’s dress, which happened to be within sight, but -also the visible parts of his own organism. In the ninth week -of his existence he was first surprised in the act of surveying -his own hands. 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 eye, is a question which has -evidently greatly exercised the father’s ingenuity. He hints, -but plainly in a half-hearted, sceptical way, at a possible dim -recognition by the little contemplator of the fact that these -objects belong to himself, forming, indeed, the outlying portion -of the Ego. He also asks (and here he seems to grow positively -frivolous) whether the child is taking after the somewhat -extravagant ways of his mother and beginning to dote on the -exquisite modelling of his tiny members.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Psychologists are now agreed that our knowledge of the -properties of material objects is largely obtained by what they -call <em>active</em> touch, that is, by moving the hands over objects and -exploring the space around them. This is borne out by the -observations made on C. at this period of his existence. While -viewing things about him he actively manipulated them. The -organs of sight and touch worked indeed in the closest connexion. -Thus our little visitor was no mere passive spectator -of his new habitat; he actively took possession of his surroundings: -like the Roman general, he at once saw and conquered. -From the eighth to the tenth week his manual -performances greatly improved in quality. He was rapidly -learning to carry the organ of touch to the point of which his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_404'>404</span>eye told him. An account of his progress in reaching objects -may however be postponed till we come to speak of the development -of his active powers.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The growing habit of looking at, reaching out to, and -manually investigating objects, soon leads to the accumulation -of a store of materials for the construction of those complex -mental products which we call perceptions. And often-repeated -perceptions, when they become more clearly distinguished, -supply the basis of definite acts of recognition. The first -object that is clearly recognised through a special act of attention -is, of course, the face of the mother. In the case of C., -the father’s face was apparently recognised about the eighth -week—at least, the youngster first greeted his parent with a -smile about this time—an event, I need hardly say, which is -recorded in very large and easily legible handwriting. The occurrence -gives rise to a number of odd reflexions in the parental -mind. 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 C.’s manual experience of his face, and more -particularly of the bearded chin, has been extensive—an experience -which, he adds, has left its recollection in his own mind, too, -in the shape of a certain soreness. He then goes on to consider -the meaning of the smile. “I cannot,” he writes, “be of -any interest to him as a psychological student of his ways. -No, it must be in the light of a bearded plaything that he regards -my face.” Further observation bears out this argument by -going to show that the recognition was not individual but specific: -that it was simply a recognition of one of a class of bearded -people; for when a perfect stranger also endowed with the -entertaining appendage presented himself, C. wounded his -father’s heart by smiling at him in exactly the same way. Here -the diary goes off into some abstruse speculations about the first -mental images being what Mr. Galton calls generic images—speculations -into which we need not follow the writer. As we -shall see, the father takes up the subject of childish generalisation -more fully later on. The power of recognising objects -appeared to undergo rapid development towards the end of the -fourth month. The father remarks that the child would about -<span class='pageno' id='Page_405'>405</span>this time recognise him in a somewhat dark room at a distance -of three or four yards.<a id='r287' /><a href='#f287' class='c011'><sup>[287]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The germ of true imagination, of the formation of what -Höffding calls a free or detached image of something not seen -at the moment, appeared about the same time. 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 C. in his tenth week—marks an epoch in his existence. -He not only perceives what is actually present to his senses, -he pictures or represents what is absent. This is the moment -at which, to quote from the parent’s somewhat high-flown -observations on this event, “mind rises above the limitations -of the actual, and begins to shape for itself an ideal world of -possibilities”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This rise of the ideal to take the place of the real appeared -in other ways too. 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 fond. The nurse -happening to turn round suddenly put an end to his happiness. -Still the child was not to be done, but immediately began twisting -his head back in order to bring the pictures once more -into his field of view. Here we have an illustration of a -mental image appearing immediately after a perception, a rude -form of what psychologists are now getting to call a primary -memory-image.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The expression of the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>gourmet’s</i></span> delight at the sight of the -bottle (tenth week) involves a simple process of association. -Between the ages of five and six months the child’s progress -in building up associations was very marked. Thus he would -turn from a reflexion of the fire on the glass of a picture to the -fire itself, and a little later would look towards a particular -picture, Cherry Ripe, when the name was uttered. Further, -not only had he now learnt to connect the sight of the bottle -with the joys of a repast, but on seeing the basin in which his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_406'>406</span>food is prepared he would glance towards the cupboard where -the bottle is kept.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The diary contains but few observations on the growth of the -power of understanding things and reasoning about them during -the first year. One of the most interesting of these relates to the -understanding of reflexions, shadows, etc. We know that these -things played a considerable part in the development of the first -racial ideas of the supernatural, and we might expect to see them -producing an impression on the child’s mind. C. when he first -began to notice reflexions of the fire and other objects in a -mirror showed considerable marks of surprise. What quaint -fancies he may have had respecting this odd doubling of things -we cannot of course say. What is certain is that he distinctly -connected the reflexion with the original, as is shown by the -fact already mentioned, his turning from the first to the second. -By the end of the sixth month the marks of surprise had -visibly lessened, so that the child was apparently getting used -to the miracle, even though he could not as yet be said to -understand it. 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 image. Perhaps, -suggests the father, he did not as yet know himself as -visible object sufficiently to recognise nature’s portrait of him -in the glass.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 existence. I will now -pass on to quote a remark or two on his emotional development. -I may add that the record of this phase of the boy’s -early mental life is certainly the most curious part of the -document, containing many odd speculations on the course of -primitive human history.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The earliest manifestations of the life of feeling are the -elemental forms of pain and pleasure, crying and incipient -laughing in the form of the smile.<a id='r288' /><a href='#f288' class='c011'><sup>[288]</sup></a> In C.’s case, as in others, -crying of the genuine miserable kind preceded smiling by a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_407'>407</span>considerable interval. The child, remarks our observer, seems -to need to learn to smile, whereas his crying apparatus is in -good working order from the first.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The growth of the smile is a curious chapter in child-psychology, -and has been carefully worked out by Preyer. The -observations on C. under this head are incomplete. The -father thought he detected an attempt at a smile on the third -day, when the child was lying replete with food, in answer to -certain chuckling sounds with which he sought to amuse him. -The movements constituting this quasi-smile are said to have -been the following: a drawing in of the under lip; a drawing -inwards and backwards of the corners of the mouth: increase -of oblique line from the corner of the mouth upwards; and a -furrowing or ridging of the eyelids. It is probable, however, -that this was not a true smile, <i>i.e.</i>, an expression of pleasure. -He remarks, moreover, that in the case of the child’s sister the -first approach to a smile was not observed before the tenth day, -this, too, by-the-bye, in that state of blissful complaisance which -follows a good meal. It may be added that in the case of the -brother, too, the smile seems to have grown noticeably bright -and significant about the same time (eighth to tenth week). -At this stage the boy expressed his pleasure at seeing his -father’s face not only by a “bright” smile, but by certain -cooing sounds. At the same date a playful touch on the -child’s cheek was sufficient to provoke a smile.<a id='r289' /><a href='#f289' class='c011'><sup>[289]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Very early in the infant’s course the germs of some of our -most characteristic human feelings begin to appear. One of -the earliest is anger, which though common to man and -many of the higher animals, takes on a peculiar form in -his case. Angry revolt against the order of things showed -itself early in C.’s case as in that of his sister, the occasion -being in each instance a momentary difficulty in seizing the -means of appeasing appetite. It is of course difficult to say -at what moment the mere vexation of disappointment passes -into true wrath, but in this boy’s case the father is compelled -<span class='pageno' id='Page_408'>408</span>to admit that the ugly emotion displayed itself distinctly by the -third week.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To detect the first clear signs of a <em>humane</em> feeling, of kindliness -and sympathy, is still more difficult. Reference has -already been made to the signs of pleasure, the smile and the -cooing sounds, which C. manifested at the sight of his father’s -face. About the same time, <i>viz.</i>, the ninth and tenth weeks, -he began to show himself particularly responsive to soothing -sounds. The impulse to imitate soft low sounds was of great -service in checking his misery. 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 duet. Such -responses like the early imitative smile may, it is true, -be nothing but a mechanical imitation, destitute of any emotive -significance. It is probable, however, that the first crude form -of fellow-feeling, of the impulse to accept and to give sympathy -in joy and grief, takes its rise in such simple imitative movements. -The first advance to signs of a truer fellow-feeling -was made when the child was six and a half months old. His -father pretended to cry. Thereupon C. bent his head down so -that his chin touched his breast and began to paw his father’s -face, very much after the manner of a dog in a fit of tenderness. -Oddly enough, adds the chronicler, there was no trace of sadness -in the child’s face. The experiment was repeated and always -with a like result. A smile on the termination of the crying -completed the curious little play. Who would venture to -interpret that falling of the head and that caressing movement -of the hand? The father saw here something of a divine tenderness; -and I am not disposed to question his interpretation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Emotion soon begins to manifest itself, too, in connexion -with the child’s peerings into his new world. As the little brain -grows stronger and the organs of sense come under better -management, the child spends more time in examining things, -and this examination is accompanied by a profound wonder. -C. would completely lose himself in marvelling at some new -mystery, as the face of a clock, to which he appeared -to talk as to something alive, or the play of the sunlight on -the wall of his room; and the closeness of his attention was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_409'>409</span>indicated by the occurrence of a huge sigh when the strain was -over.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The directions of this early childish attention are, as in the -example of the clock and the sunlight, towards what has some -attraction of brightness, or other stimulating quality. The fascination -of bright colour for C. has already been referred to. -Sounds, too, very soon began to capture his attention and hold it -spellbound. Thus it is recorded that in the tenth week the -sound produced by striking a wine-glass excited an agreeable -wonder. The sound of the piano, by-the-bye, made him cry -the first time he heard it, presumably because it was strange -and disconcertingly voluminous. But he soon got to like it, -and his mother remarked that when his father played the child -seemed to grow heavier in her lap, as if all his muscles were -relaxed in a delicious self-abandonment.<a id='r290' /><a href='#f290' class='c011'><sup>[290]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Certain things became favourite objects of this quasi-æsthetic -contemplation. When six weeks old the child got into the -way of taking special note of one or two rather showy coloured -pictures on the wall. In these it seemed to be partly the brightness -of colouring in the picture or the frame, partly the reflexions -of objects in the glass covering, which attracted him. -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 room, the reflexion of the shooting -fire-flame sent back by the window-pane or the glass -covering of a picture, the swaying of trees, and the like. He -soon got to know the locality of some of his favourite works -of art, and to look out expectantly, when taken into the right -room, for his daily show.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet the new does not always awaken this pleasurable -admiration. The child’s organism soon begins to adapt -itself to what is customary, and sudden departures from the -usual order of things come as a shock, jar the nerves, and -produce the first crude form of fear. C.’s sensitiveness to the -disturbing effect of new and loud sounds has been referred to -in speaking of the first impression of the piano. A strong wind -making uproar in the trees quite upset him when he was about -<span class='pageno' id='Page_410'>410</span>five months old, though he soon got over his dislike and would -laugh at the wind even when it blew cold. In like manner he -appeared to be much put out by the voices of strangers, -especially when these were loud. A similar effect of shock -showed itself when something in the familiar scene was suddenly -transmuted. For example, when just twelve weeks old, he was -quite upset by his mother donning a red jacket in place of the -usual flower-spotted dress. He was just proceeding to take his -breakfast when he noticed the change, at the discovery of which -all thoughts of feasting deserted him, his lips quivered, and he -only became reassured of his whereabouts after taking a good -look at his mother’s face.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 strangers. When ten weeks old -he would still greet new faces with a gracious smile. But this -amiable disposition soon underwent a change. When he began -to discriminate people one from another and to single out -particular faces, those of the mother, father, sister, etc., as -familiar, he took up what looked like a less hospitable attitude -towards strangers. By the fifteenth week he no longer greeted -their advent with his welcoming smile. A month later the -diary chronicles a new development of timidity. He now turned -away from a stranger with all the signs of shrinking.<a id='r291' /><a href='#f291' class='c011'><sup>[291]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 -admiration, now something indistinguishable from fear, according -to the boy’s varying condition of health and spirits.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Changes of sentiment analogous to those which marked his -behaviour towards strangers occurred in his treatment of inanimate -objects. For instance, a not very alarming-looking -doll belonging to his sister, after having been a pleasant object -of regard, suddenly acquired for him, when he was nearly five -months old, a repulsive aspect. Instead of talking to it and -making a sort of amiable deity of it as heretofore, he now -shrieked when it was brought near. There seems to have been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_411'>411</span>nothing in his individual experience which could account for -this sudden accession of fear.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These observations led C.’s father to some characteristic -speculations as to the inheritance of certain feelings. 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 shadows. 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 early, pre-social, and -Ishmaelitic condition. But here, too, perhaps, his speculations -appear, in the light of what has been said above, a little wild.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among other feelings displayed by the child was that of -amusement at what is grotesque and comical. When between -four and five months old he was accustomed to watch the antics -of his sister, an elfish being given to flying about the room, -screaming, and other disorderly proceedings, with all the signs -of a sense of the comicality of the spectacle. So far as the -father could judge, this sister served as a kind of jester to the -baby monarch. He would take just that distant, good-natured -interest in her foolings that Shakespeare’s sovereigns took in -the eccentric unpredictable ways of their jesters. The sense -of the droll became still more distinctly marked at six months. -About this date the child delighted in pulling his sister’s -hair, and her shrieks would send him into a fit of laughter. -Among other provocatives of laughter at this time were sudden -movements of one’s head, a rapid succession of sharp staccato -sounds from one’s vocal organ (when these were not disconcerting -by their violence), and of course sudden reappearances of -one’s head after hiding in the game of bo-peep.<a id='r292' /><a href='#f292' class='c011'><sup>[292]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>It is hardly necessary to follow the diary into its record -<span class='pageno' id='Page_412'>412</span>of the first stirrings of what psychologists used to call the -Will (with capital <i>W</i> of course). If a baby in the first months -can be said to have a will in any sense it must be that unconscious -metaphysical “will to live” about which we have -recently heard so much. On the other hand it is certainly -true that the child manifests in the first weeks certain active -impulses, the working out of which leads in about four months -to the acquisition of the power of carrying out movements -for a purpose. Reference has already been made to this -progress in motor activity when speaking of the senses. It -may suffice to add one or two further observations.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 movement. This superabundance of muscular -activity is important, as giving children the chance of finding -out the results of their movements. C. was just ten and a -half weeks old when he first showed himself capable lying -on his back of turning his head to the side, and even of half -turning his body also, in order to have a good view of his -father moving away to a distant part of the room.</p> - -<p class='c001'>About the same date, too, purposive movements began to -be clearly differentiated from expressive movements; such, for -example, as the quick energetic movement of the limbs when -excited by pleasure. For instance, 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 near. -Was this, he asks, the sudden emergence of an unlearnt instinct, -or was it an imitation in baby fashion of his elders’ behaviour -when they took possession of him?</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 -movement, the movement of stretching out the hand to seize -an object seen. On the seventy-sixth day, the father writes, -he had carefully watched to see whether the child could -voluntarily direct his hand to an object. He had tried him by -holding before him attractive objects, as a bit of coloured rag -<span class='pageno' id='Page_413'>413</span>or his hand, which he would regard very attentively. For -the last week or ten days he had been very observant of -objects, including his own hands.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the objects that attracted him was his mamma’s -dress, which had a dark ground with a small white flower -pattern. On this memorable day his hand accidentally came -in contact with one of the folds of her dress lying over the -breast. Immediately, it seemed to strike him for the first time -that he could <em>reach</em> an object, and for a dozen times or more he -repeated the movement of stretching out his hand, clutching the -fold and giving it a good pull, very much to his own satisfaction.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A hasty reasoner might easily suppose that the child had -now learnt to reach out to an object when only seen. But the -sequel showed that this was not the case. Four weeks later -the diary observes that the child as yet made no attempt to -grasp an object offered to him (although there were manifest -attempts to uncover the mother’s breast). The clutching at the -dress was thus a blind movement due to the stimulus of -pleasurable elation. Yet it was doubtless a step in the process -of learning to grasp.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The next advance registered occurred when the boy was a -little over four months old. He would now bring his two -hands together just above the level of his eyes and then -gaze on them attentively, striking out one arm straight in front -of him, and upwards almost vertically, as if he were trying some -new gymnastic exercises, while he accompanied each movement -with his eye, and showed the deepest interest in what he -was doing. By such exercises, we may suppose, 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 sight.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The next noticeable advance occurred at the end of the -nineteenth week. The boy’s father held a biscuit (the value -of which was already known) just below his face and well -within his reach. There was a very earnest look and then a -series of rapid jerky movements of the hands. These were -uncertain at first, but on repetition of the experiment soon -grew more precise. At first the biscuit was dropped (the child -<span class='pageno' id='Page_414'>414</span>had not yet learnt to handle things). But after repeated trials -he managed to hold on to the treasure and bear it triumphantly -to his mouth. The discovery of the new delight of thus feeding -himself led to more violent efforts to seize the biscuit -when presented again. Indeed, the youngster’s impatience -led him to reach forward with the upper part of his body so -as to seize the biscuit with his mouth. 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 -generally. Thus he had been noticed to scratch his head with -a comical look of sage reflexion when he was fifteen weeks old.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The consummation of the act of seizing an object involving -a perception of distance was observed when he was just six -months old. The father writes: “I held an object in front -of him two or three inches beyond his reach. The astute -little fellow made no movement. I then gradually brought -it closer, and when it came within his reach he held out his -hand and grasped it. I repeated the experiment with slight -variations, and satisfied myself that he could now distinguish -with some degree of precision the near and the far, the attainable -and the unattainable, that his eyes could now inform him -by what Bishop Berkeley called visual language of the exact -limit, the ‘Ultima Thule’ of his tangible world.” It is natural, -no doubt, that the father should go off into another high flight -here. 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 shell. It is doubtful, indeed, whether -Master C.’s hand could as yet aim with the precision of the -beak of the newly hatched chick. If he had only chanced on -a later decade he might have known that five months is the -time given by a recent authority (Raehlmann) as the period -commonly taken in learning the grasping movements, and so -had his pride in his boy’s achievement wholesomely tempered.<a id='r293' /><a href='#f293' class='c011'><sup>[293]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_415'>415</span>These early movements are acquired under the stimulus of -certain impulses which constitute the instinctive basis of -volition. 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 instinct, that deep-seated impulse -which is common to man and the whole animal kingdom, and -is the secret spring of so much of his proud achievement. The -impulse to seize and appropriate may perhaps be regarded -as an instinct which has become detached from its parental -stock, the nutritive impulse. Our observer remarks, with a touch -of cynicism, 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 object. Thus it was some months later that he was first -observed deliberately to cast aside, as if tired of it, a thing -with which he had been playing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of the deepest and most far-reaching instincts is to get -rid of pain and to prolong pleasure. In C.’s case the working of -the first was illustrated in a large number of movements, such as -twisting the body round, scratching the head, and so forth. An -illustration of the impulse to renew an agreeable effect occurred -in the early part of the eighth month. The child was sitting -on his mother’s lap close to the table playing with a spoon. -He accidentally dropped it and was impressed with the effect -of sound. He immediately repeated the action, now, no doubt, -with the purpose of gaining the agreeable shock for his ear. -After this when the spoon was put into his hand he deliberately -dropped it. Not only so, like a true artist, he went on improving -on the first effect, raising the spoon higher and higher so -as to get more sound, and at length using force in dashing or -banging it down.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Children, as everybody knows, are wont to render their -elders that highest form of flattery, imitation. Our chronicle -is unfortunately rather meagre in observations on the first -imitative movements. There is no evidence that the writer -went to work in Preyer’s careful way to test this capability. -He thinks he saw distinct traces of imitation (of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_416'>416</span>the pointing movement) at the end of the fifteenth week, -though he admits that a deliberate attempt to copy a -movement was only placed beyond doubt some time later.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is, I regret to say, a terrible gap in the chronicle between -the ninth and the sixteenth month. This is particularly -unfortunate because this is just the period when the child is -making a beginning at some of the most difficult of accomplishments, -<i>e.g.</i>, mastering the speech of his ancestors. To make -up for this loss, the record becomes fuller and decidedly more -interesting as we enter upon the second year. To this next -stage of the history we may now pass.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Second Year.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>The observations from the date of the resumption of the -diary, at the age of sixteen months, begin to have more of -human interest about them. It is not till this year has advanced -that the child makes headway in handling the knotty -intricacies of an elaborate language like ours, and it is through -the medium of this mastered speech that he is best able to -disclose himself to the observer. The observations on C.’s -progress during the second year relate largely to language and -intelligence as expressing itself in language. We may, accordingly, -begin this section by giving a brief sketch of the child’s -linguistic progress.<a id='r294' /><a href='#f294' class='c011'><sup>[294]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>During the first six months nothing was observable in the -way of vocal sounds but the ordinary baby-singing utterances -of the ‘la-la’ category. In this tentative vocalisation vowel -sounds, of course, preponderated. There was quite a gamut of -quaint vowel sounds, ranging from the broad <em>a</em> to the cockney -<em>ow</em>, that is, <em>a-oo</em>. These sounds were purely emotional signs. -Thus a prolonged <em>ā</em> sound indicated surprise with a dash of displeasure -when the child suddenly encountered an obstacle to his -movements, as on catching his dress or striking his head gently. -Again, a kind of <em>ō</em> or <em>oo</em> sound, formed by sucking in the breath, -appeared to indicate that the small person was pleased with -some new object of contemplation, as a freshly discovered -picture.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_417'>417</span>A sudden enlargement of the range of articulatory excursion -was noticeable on the completion of the twenty-seventh week, -when C. astonished his parents by breaking out into a series -of ‘da-da’s’ and ‘ba-ba’s’ or ‘pa-pa’s’. These reduplications -were quite in keeping with his earlier sounds, <i>e.g.</i>, <em>a-oo</em>, <em>a-oo</em>. -He soon followed up this brilliant success by other experiments, -as in the production of the sounds <em>ou-a</em> and <em>ditta</em>, also <em>ung</em> -and <em>ang</em>.<a id='r295' /><a href='#f295' class='c011'><sup>[295]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Coming now to the commencement of the true linguistic -period, that is to say, when C. had attained the age of sixteen -months, we find him by no means precocious in the matter -of speech. He reproduced very few of the many names the -meaning of which he perfectly understood. As to other verbal -signs he seems to have acted on the principle of biological -economy, saving himself the articulatory effort. Thus although -he used sounds for expressing assent, <i>viz.</i>, “ey,” with -falling inflection, he contented himself in the case of negation -with the old declining or refusing gesture, <i>viz.</i>, shaking the -head. 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 hot.<a id='r296' /><a href='#f296' class='c011'><sup>[296]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>C. illustrated the common childish impulse to mimic natural -sounds. 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 tobacco; and he uttered -a similar explosive sound when hearing the wind. Yet this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_418'>418</span>child does not seem to have been a particularly good illustration -of the onomatopoetic impulse.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While the imitative impulse thus aids in the growth of an -independent baby vocabulary, it contributes, as we have seen, -to the adoption of the language of the community. At first, -however, the little learner will not repeat a sound merely in -response to another’s lead. 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 lead, <i>e.g.</i>, -“Say ta-ta to the lady!” the little autocrat obdurately refused -to comply with the parental injunction. It is only when what -the child himself considers to be the appropriate circumstances -recur, and, what is more, when the corresponding feeling is -excited in his breast, that he utters the sound. Thus C.’s -father observes that though the child will not say “ta-ta” -when told to do so, he will say it readily enough when he sees -him, hat in hand, moving towards the door. In like manner -the father remarks: “He will say, ‘Ta’ (‘thank you’), on -receiving something, yet not do so in mere response to me -when I say it”. Herein, it would seem, the vocal imitation of -children is less mechanical and more intelligent than that of -animals, as the parrot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was not until he was well on in his second year that C. -condescended to let his young speech-organ be played on by -another’s will. By this time, it may be conjectured, associations -between sounds and vocal actions had become firm enough -to allow of such imitation without a consciousness of exertion -or strain. Having no special reason to refuse he very sensibly -fell in with others’ suggestions. It is not at all improbable, too, -that at this stage of development the little vocalist found a -pleasure in trying his instrument and producing new effects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of course these first tentatives in verbal imitation were far -from perfect. At first there was hardly more than a reproduction -of the rhythm and the rise and fall of voice, as in -rendering ‘All gone,’ the sign of disappearance, by <i>a</i>, <i>a</i>, with -rise and fall of voice. Like other little people, C. displayed a -lordly disposition to save himself trouble and to expect infinite -pains from others in the way of comprehension. He was in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_419'>419</span>the habit of reducing difficult words to fragments, the comprehension -of which by the most loyal of attendants was a -matter of considerable difficulty. In thus chopping off splinters -of words he showed the greatest caprice. In many cases he -selected the initial sounds, <i>e.g.</i>, “bŏ” for ball, “nō” for nose, -“pē” for please. In other cases he preferred the ending, <i>e.g.</i>, -“ĕk” for cake, “bĕ” for Elizabeth. It looked as if certain -sounds and combinations, <i>e.g.</i>, <em>l</em>, <em>s</em>, <em>fl</em>, <em>sh</em>, etc., lay altogether -beyond his gamut. And others seemed to be specially difficult, -and so were avoided as much as possible.<a id='r297' /><a href='#f297' class='c011'><sup>[297]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>While C.’s parents could not help resenting at times an -economising of speech-power which imposed so heavy a -burden on themselves, 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 original. Thus, for instance, sugar became “ooga,” -biscuit “bĭk,” bread and butter “bup,” fish “gish” (with -soft <em>g</em>), and bacon-fat, that is bread dipped in the same, “ak”. -In some cases it might have puzzled his father to say whether -the sound was a reproduction or an independent creation. -This remark applies with particular force to the name he gave -himself. His real name as commonly used was, I may say, -Clifford. Instead of this he employed as the name for himself -“Ingi” or “Ningi” (with hard <em>g</em>). He stuck to his own -invention in spite of many efforts to lead him to adopt the -name chosen for him by his parents. 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 prænomen. Possibly his real name was -to his ear a hopelessly difficult mass of sound, and “Ningi” -seemed to him a fair equivalent within the limits of practicable -linguistics for so uncouth a combination.<a id='r298' /><a href='#f298' class='c011'><sup>[298]</sup></a> These changes are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_420'>420</span>interesting as illustrating how the child attends to the general -form of the word-sound rather than to its constituent elements.<a id='r299' /><a href='#f299' class='c011'><sup>[299]</sup></a> -The same thing is seen in the modified form of “Ningi,” which -he adopted at the beginning of the third year, <i>viz.</i>, “Kikkie,” -where, too, the special impressiveness of the initial sound is -illustrated.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is now time to pass to the most important phase of baby-speech -from a scientific point of view, namely, the first use of -sounds as general signs, or as registering the results of a -generalising process, as when the child begins to speak of man -or boy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It must be confessed that our diary does not give us much -that is startling in the way of original generalisation. So far -as we can judge, C. was a steady-going baby, not given to -wanton caprices. Yet though not a genius he had his moments -of invention. One of the earliest illustrations of a free working -of the generalising impulse was the extension of the -sound “ŏt” (hot). At first he employed this sign in the conventional -manner to indicate that his milk or other viand was -disagreeably warm. When, however, he was seventeen and a -half months old he struck out an original extension of meaning. -He happened to have placed before him cold milk. On tasting -this he at once exclaimed, “Ot!” It looks as though the -sound now meant something unpleasant to taste, though, as -we shall see presently, the boy had another sound (“kaka”) for -expressing this idea.<a id='r300' /><a href='#f300' class='c011'><sup>[300]</sup></a> But “ot” was being extended in another -way by a process of association. This was illustrated a -month later, when the boy pointed to an engraving of Guido’s -<cite>Aurora</cite>, and exclaimed, “Ot!” His dull parents could not at -first comprehend this bold metaphoric use of language, until they -bethought them that the clouds on which the aeronauts are -sailing are a good deal like a volume of ascending steam.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_421'>421</span>The sounds “kĕ,” “kă,” and “kăkă” were employed by C. -from about the same age (seventeen and a half months) to -express what is actually known or simply suspected to be disagreeable -to taste or smell, such as a pipe held near him, a -glass of beer, a vinegar bottle, and so forth. He had smelt the -beer, and learnt its disagreeable odour, and in pronouncing the -untried vinegar “kăkă” he was really carrying out a form of -reasoning of a simple kind. This sound came to represent a -much higher effort of abstraction some weeks later, when it -was applied to things so unlike in themselves as milk spilt on -the cloth, crumbs on the floor, soiled hands, etc. The idea here -seized was plainly that of something soiled or dirty. But this -half-æsthetic, half-ethical idea was reached largely by the -help of others, more particularly perhaps his sister, who, as -elder sisters are wont to do, supplemented the parental -discipline by a vigorous inculcation of the well-recognised -proprieties.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another extension of the range of application of names used -by others occurred about the same time (end of twentieth month). -He employed the sound ‘ga’ (glass) so as to include a plated -drinking cup, which of course others always called ‘cup’. -This was curious as showing at this stage the superior interest -of use (that of drinking utensil) to that of form and colour.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The generalisations just touched on have to do with those -qualities and relations of things which strongly impress the -baby mind, because they bear on the satisfaction of his wants -and his feelings of pleasure and pain. In order to watch the -calm movements of the intellect, when no longer urged by -appetite and sense, we must turn to the child’s first detection -of similarities in the objective attributes of things, as their -shape, size, colour, and so forth. Here the first generalisations -respecting the forms of bodies are a matter of peculiar interest -to the scientific observer. The young thinker, with whom we -are now specially concerned, achieved his first success in -geometric abstraction, or the consideration of pure form, when -just seventeen months old. He had learnt the name of his -india-rubber ball. Having securely grasped this, he went on -calling oranges “bŏ”. This left the father in some doubt whether -<span class='pageno' id='Page_422'>422</span>the child was attending exclusively to form, as a geometrician -should, for he was wont to make a toy of an orange, as when -rolling it on the floor. This uncertainty was, however, soon -removed. One day C. was sitting at table beside his sire, -while the latter was pouring out a glass of beer. Instantly the -ready namer of things pointed to the bubbles on the surface, -and exclaimed, “Bŏ!” This was repeated on many subsequent -occasions. As the child made no attempt to handle the -bubbles, it was evident that he did not view them as possible -playthings. As he got lost in contemplation, muttering, “Bŏ! -bŏ!” 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 matter, and fix itself on the refined -attribute of form.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Although this was the most striking instance of pure or -abstract consideration of form, attention to the shape of things -was proved by many of the simple ideas reached at this stage. -It is obvious, indeed, that a ready recognition of any member -of a species of animals, as dog, in spite of considerable -variations in size and colour, implies a power of singling out -for special attention what we call relations of form. And this -conclusion is borne out by the fact that by the end of the -eighteenth month C. was quite an adept in recognising -uncoloured drawings of animal and other familiar forms.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Colour is of course in itself of much more interest to a -child than form, since it gives a keen sensuous enjoyment. -Our diary furnishes a curious illustration of a propensity -to classify things according to their colour. In his nineteenth -month C. was observed to designate by the sound -“appoo” (apple) a patch of reddish colour on the mantelpiece, -which bore in its form no discoverable resemblance -to an apple. At the same time, 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 “appoo” came subsequently to be habitually -applied to things of unlike colours, namely, apples, oranges, -lemons, etc. It may be added that the history of this word -“appoo” illustrates a process analogous to what Archbishop -<span class='pageno' id='Page_423'>423</span>Trench (if I remember rightly) has called the degradation of -words. When C. first used this name it designated objects -simply as visible and tangible ones; he knew nothing of -their taste. After he was permitted to try their flavours, the -less worthy sensations now added naturally contributed a -prominent ingredient to the meaning of the word. Thus, -he began to use “appoo” for all edible fruits, including such -shapeless masses as stewed apples.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is not to be expected that children in their first attempts -at scrutinising objects should be able to take in completely -a complex form, as that of an animal, with all its parts -and their relations one to another. C. gave ample proof -of the fact that the first generalisations respecting form are apt -to be rough and ready, grounded simply on a perception of one -or two salient points. Thus, his first use of “bow-wow” -showed that the name meant for him simply a four-legged -creature. About the fifteenth month this word was thrown -about in the most reckless way. Later on, when the canine -form began to be disengaged in his mind from those of other -quadrupeds, the pointed nose of the animal seems to have become -a prominent feature in the meaning of the word. Thus, -in his eighteenth month, C. took to applying the name ‘bow-wow’ -to objects, such as fragments of bread or biscuit, as well -as drawings, having something of a triangular form with a sharp -angle at the apex. It is probable that if our little thinker had -been able at this stage to define his terms, he would have said -that a “bow-wow” was a four-legged thing with a pointed -nose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Here, however, it is only fair to C. to mention that his -mind had at this time become prepossessed with the image of -“bow-wow”. Not long before the date referred to he had been -frightened by a small dog, which had crept unobserved into the -room behind a lady visitor, lain quiet for some time under the -table, and then, forgetting good manners, suddenly darted out -and barked. 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 -hallucinations; and this persistence of the canine image in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_424'>424</span>the child’s brain naturally disposed him to see the “bow-bow” -form in the most unpromising objects.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The use of the word “gee-gee,” which towards the end of -the second year competed with “bow-wow” for the first place -in C.’s vocabulary, illustrates the same fact. A horse -was first of all distinguished from other quadrupeds by the -length of his neck. Thus, when twenty months old, C. in a -slovenly way, no doubt, applied the name “gee-gee” to the -drawing of an ostrich, and also to a bronze figure representing -a stork-like bird. This is particularly curious, as showing how -a comparatively unimportant detail of form, as length of neck, -overshadowed in his mind at this time what we should consider -the much more important feature, the possession of four legs. -The following are selected from among many other illustrations -of the imperfect observation of complex forms. When twenty-one -and a half months old he took to calling all triangular -objects, including drawings, “ship”. 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 sail.<a id='r301' /><a href='#f301' class='c011'><sup>[301]</sup></a> A similar -propensity to select one characteristic feature was illustrated in -another quaint observation of the diary. When twenty-three -months old C.’s mother showed him a number of drawings -of patterns of dresses, some surmounted by faces, some not. -He pointed to one of the latter and said: “No nose!” From -this, writes the father, lapsing again into his frivolous vein, 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 countenance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Progress in the accurate use of words was curiously -illustrated in C.’s way of looking at and talking about his -fellow-creatures. Oddly enough he began apparently by confusing -his two parents, extending the name “ma” to his -father till such time as he learnt “papa”. Then he proceeded -after the manner of other children to embrace within -the term “papa” all male adults, whether known to -him or not. Thus he applied the name to photographs of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_425'>425</span>distinguished savants, artists, and poets, which he found in -his father’s album. When just eighteen months old he was -observed to introduce the word ‘man’. For instance, he took -to calling an etching of a recent British philosopher, and a -terra-cotta cast of an ancient Roman one, “man,” as well as -“papa”. Oddly enough, however, members of the other sex -were still called exclusively by the name “mamma,” though -the words “woman” and “lady” were certainly used at least as -frequently as “man” in his hearing. 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 women, observations which -would do very well in the mouth of a misogynist of the old -school, but are altogether out of date in this advanced age.</p> - -<p class='c001'>By the twentieth month the extension of the name “papa” -to other men was discontinued. His father tried him at this -date with a photographic album. “Man” was now instantly -applied to all male adults, except old ones with a grey beard. -To these he invariably applied the name of an old gentleman, -a friend of his. A woman was still called “mamma,” though -the term “lady” (“’ady”) was clearly beginning to displace it; -and no distinction was drawn between women of different -ages. Finally, children were distinguished as boys or girls, -apparently according as they were or were not dressed in -petticoats.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The reservation of the names “papa” and “mamma” for -his parents naturally gave pleasure to these worthy persons. -It was something, they said, to feel sure at length that they -were individualised in the consciousness of their much-cared-for -offspring. This restricted use of the terms may be supposed -to have involved a dim apprehension of a special relation of -things to the child. “Papa” now carried with it the idea of the -man who stands in a particular connexion with C. or “Ningi”; -or, to express it otherwise, “man” began to signify those -papas who have nothing specially to do with this important -personage. This antecedent conjecture is borne out by the -fact that the act of distinguishing between his father and other -men followed rapidly, certainly within two or three weeks, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_426'>426</span>first use of his own name “Ningi”. In other words, as soon -as his attention began to direct itself to himself, as the centre -of his little world-circle, he naturally went on to distinguish -between those persons and things that had some special -connexion with this centre and those that had not.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The consciousness of self was noticed to grow much more -distinct in the second half of this year. As might be expected -the first idea of ‘self’ was largely a mental picture of the -body. Thus the father tells us that when eighteen months -old the child would instantly point to himself when he heard -his name. If his father touched his face asking who that was, -he replied, ‘Ningi’. Here the corporeal reference is manifest. -When just over nineteen months, however, he showed that the -idea was becoming fuller and richer with the germ of what we -mean by the word personality. Thus when asked to give up -something he liked, as the remnant of a biscuit, he would say -emphatically, ‘No, no! Ningi!’ Similarly, when he saw his -sister wipe her hands, he would say ‘Ningi!’ and proceed to -imitate the action. By the end of the twenty-first month the -child began to substitute ‘me’ for ‘Ningi’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As we saw above, the child and the poet have this in common, -that they view things directly as they are, free from the superficial -and arbitrary associations, the conventional trappings, by -the additions of which we prosaic people are wont to separate -them into compartments with absolutely impenetrable walls. -Hence the freshness, the charming originality of their utterances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For example, C., when eighteen months old, was watching -his sister as she dipped her crust into her tea. He was -evidently surprised by the rare sight, and after looking a -moment or two, exclaimed, “Ba!” (bath), laughing with -delight, and trying, as was his wont when deeply interested in -a spectacle, to push his mother’s face round so that she too -might admire it. The boy delighted in such a figurative use of -words, now employing them as genuine similes, as when he -said of a dog panting after a run, “Dat bow-wow like puff-puff,” -and of the first real ship which he saw sailing with a rocking -movement, “Dat ship go marjory-daw” (<i>i.e.</i>, like marjory-daw -<span class='pageno' id='Page_427'>427</span>in the nursery rhyme). Like many a poet he had his recurring -or standing metaphors. Thus, as we have seen, “ship” was -the figurative expression for all objects having a pyramidal -form. A pretty example of his love of metaphor was his habit -of calling the needle in a small compass of his father’s “bir” -(bird). 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 wings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. illustrates the anthropocentric impulse to look at natural -objects as though they specially aimed at furthering or hindering -our well-being. Thus he would show all the signs of kingly -displeasure when his serenity of mind was disturbed by noises. -When he was taken to the sea-side (about twenty-four months -old) he greatly disappointed his parent, expectant of childish -wonder in his eyes, by merely muttering, “Water make -noise”.<a id='r302' /><a href='#f302' class='c011'><sup>[302]</sup></a> Again, he happened one day in the last week of -this year to be in the garden with his father while it was -thundering. On hearing the sound he said with an evident -tone of annoyance, “Tonna mâ Ningi noi,” <i>i.e.</i>, thunder -makes noise for C., and he instantly added “Notty tonna!” -(naughty thunder). Here, remarks the father, he was evidently -falling into that habit of mind against which philosophers have -often warned us, making man the measure of the universe.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The last quarter of this year was marked in C.’s case by a -great enlargement of linguistic power. A marked advance was -noticeable in the mastering of the mechanical difficulties of -articulation. Thus he would surprise his father by suddenly -bringing out new and difficult combinations of sound, as -‘flower,’ ‘water’ and ‘fetch’. Up to about the twenty-first -month C.’s vocabulary had consisted almost entirely of what -we should call substantives, such as, ‘papa,’ ‘man,’ which were -used to express the arrival on the scene and the recognition of -familiar objects. A few adjectives, as “ŏt” (hot), “co” (cold), -“ni-ni” (nice), and “goo” (good), were frequently used, and -were apparently beginning to have a proper attributive function -assigned them. But these referred rather to the effect of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_428'>428</span>things on the child’s feeling than to their inherent qualities. -His father failed before this date to convey to him the meaning -of “black” as applied to a dog. It is noteworthy that the -child made considerable advance in the use of “me” and -“my” before he was capable of qualifying objects by appending -adjectives to them. The first use of an adjective for indicating -some objective quality in a thing occurred at the end -of the twenty-first month, when he exclaimed on seeing a -rook fly over his head, “Big bir!”</p> - -<p class='c001'>At about the same date other classes of words came to be -recognised and used as such, giving to the child’s language -something of texture. Thus relations of place began to be set -forth, as in using simple words like ‘up,’ ‘down,’ ‘on’. In -some cases the designation of these relations was effected by -original artifices which often puzzled the father. For instance -the sound ‘da’ (or ‘dow’) was used from about the seventeenth -month for the departure of a person, the falling of a toy on the -ground, the completion of a meal. It seemed to be a general -sign for ‘over’ or ‘gone’.<a id='r303' /><a href='#f303' class='c011'><sup>[303]</sup></a> It is doubtful whether this implied -a clear consciousness of a relation of place. Sometimes the -attempt to express such a relation in the absence of the needed -words would lead to a picturesque kind of circumlocution. Thus -when about twenty-one months old C. saw his father walking -in the garden when he and his sister were seated at the -luncheon table. He shouted out, ‘Papa ’at off!’ thus expressing -the desirability of his father’s entering and taking part -in the family meal.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Similar make-shifts would be resorted to in designating other -and more subtle relations. Sometimes, indeed, the child would -expect his hearers to supply the sign of relation, as when after -having smelt the pepper box he put it away with an emphatic -‘Papa!’ which seemed to the somewhat biassed observer an -admirably concise way of expressing the judgment that the -pepper might suit his father, but it certainly did not suit him. -A month later (<i>æt.</i> twenty-two months) he condescended to be -more explicit. Having been told by his father that the cheese -<span class='pageno' id='Page_429'>429</span>was bad for Ningi, he indulged a growing taste for antithesis -by adding, ‘Good, papa!’</p> - -<p class='c001'>His ideas of time-relations were at this date of the haziest. -He seems to have got a dim inkling of the meaning of ‘by-and-by’. -His father had managed to stop his crying for a thing -by promising it ‘by-and-by’. After this when crying he would -suddenly pull up, and with a heroic effort to catch his breath -would exclaim, ‘By-’n’-by!’ “What (asks the father) was the -equivalent of this new symbol in the child’s consciousness? -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 presents?” and so forth; but here he seems -to grow even less severely scientific than usual. It may be added -that about the same time (twenty-one months) the child began -to use the word ‘now’. Thus after drinking his milk he would -point to a little remainder at the bottom of his cup and say, -‘Milk dare now,’ that is presumably ‘there is still milk there’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His ideas of number at this time were equally rudimentary. -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 many. One was correctly called ‘one’. Any number -larger than one, on the other hand, was sometimes styled ‘two,’<a id='r304' /><a href='#f304' class='c011'><sup>[304]</sup></a> -sometimes ‘three,’ and sometimes ‘two, three, four’. He had -been taught to say ‘one, two, three, four,’ by his mother, but the -first lesson in counting had clearly failed to convey more than -the difference between unity and multitude. The series of verbal -sounds, ‘two, three, four,’ probably helped him to realise the idea -of number, and in any case it was a forcible way of expressing it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As suggested above, primitive substantive-forms probably do -duty as verbs in the language of the child as in that of primitive -man. True verbs as differentiated signs of action came into use -at the date we are speaking of, and these began to give to the -boy’s embryonic speech something of the structure, the sentence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As one might naturally conjecture from the disproportionate -amount of attention manifestly bestowed on this child, he had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_430'>430</span>all the masterfulness of his kind, and the first form of the verb -to be used was the imperative. Thus by the end of the -twentieth month he had quite a little vocabulary for giving -effect to his sovereign volitions, such as, ‘On!’ (get on), -‘Ook!’ (look). It was in the use of commands that he -showed some of his finest inventiveness. Thus when just -seventeen months old he wanted his mother to get up. He began -by lifting his hands and saying, ‘Ta, ta!’ (sign of going out). -Finding this to be ineffective, he tried, with a comical simulation -of muscular strength, to pull or push her up, at the same -time exclaiming, “Up!” The lifting of the hands looked like -a bit of picturesque gesture-language. In his twenty-first -month he acquired a new and telling word of command, <i>viz.</i>, -‘Way’ (<i>i.e.</i>, out of my way), as well as the invaluable sign of -prohibition, ‘Dō’ (<i>i.e.</i>, don’t), both of which, it need hardly be -said, he began to bandy about pretty freely, especially in his -dealings with his sister.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A landmark in C.’s intellectual development is set by the -father at the age of nineteen and a half months. Before this -date he had only made rather a lame attempt at sentence-building -by setting his primitive names in juxtaposition, <i>e.g.</i>, -‘Tit, mamma, poo,’ which being interpreted means, ‘Sister -and mamma, have pudding’. But now he took a very -decided step in advance, and by a proper use of a verb as such -constructed what a logician calls a proposition with its subject -and predicate. He happened to observe his sister venting -some trouble in the usual girlish fashion, and exclaimed, ‘Tit -ki’ (sister is crying), following up the assertion by going -towards her and trying to stop her. Another example of a -sentence rather more complex in structure which occurred a -fortnight later had also to do with his sister. He saw her -lying on her back on the grass, and exclaimed with all the -signs of joyous wonder, ‘Tit dow ga!’ (<i>i.e.</i>, sister is down on -the grass). Evidently the unpredictable behaviour of this member -of his family deeply impressed the young observer. It is -noticeable that these first exceptional efforts in assertion were -prompted by feeling.<a id='r305' /><a href='#f305' class='c011'><sup>[305]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_431'>431</span>These first tentatives in verbal assertion, we are told, -sounded very odd owing to the slowness of the delivery and -the stress impartially laid on each word. C. had as yet no -inkling of the subtleties of rhetoric, and was too much taken -up with the weighty business of expressing thought somehow -to trouble about such niceties as relative emphasis, and variation -of pitch and pace.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As a rule, remarks the father, it was surprising how -suddenly, as it seemed, the boy hit on the right succession of -verbal sounds. Only very rarely would he stumble, as when -after having seen a fly taken out of his milk, and on being -subsequently asked whether he would not be glad to see his -sister on her return from a visit, he said, ‘(Y)es, tell Ningi -’bout fy’ (Yes, Ningi will tell her about the fly).<a id='r306' /><a href='#f306' class='c011'><sup>[306]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The impulse to express himself, to communicate his -experiences and observations to others, seemed to be all-possessing -just now, and odd enough it was to note the make-shifts -to which he was now and again driven. One day, when -just twenty and a half months old, he sat in a chair with a -heavyish book which he found it hard to hold up. He turned -to his mother and said solemnly, “Boo go dow” (the book -is going down or falling). Then, as if remarking a look of -unintelligence in his audience, he threw it down and exclaimed, -“Dat!” by which vigorous proceeding he gave a vivid illustration -of his meaning.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was noticeable that he would at this time play at -sentence-making in a varied imitation of others’ assertions, -thereby hitting out some quaint fancy which appeared to -amuse him. Thus when told that there is a man on the horse -he would say, ‘Ningi on horse,’ ‘Tit on horse,’ and so forth. -Such playful practice in utterance probably furthers the growth -of readiness and precision in the use of sentences.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 parent. In -the case of C. this date, twenty-three months and ten days, is, -of course, marked with red letters. He made a great noise -<span class='pageno' id='Page_432'>432</span>running about and shouting in his bedroom. His mother -came in and rebuked him in the usual form (‘Naughty! -naughty!’). He thereupon replied, “Tit mak noi” (Sister -makes the noise). Mother (seriously): “Sister is at school”. -C., with a still bolder look: “Mamma make noi”. Mother -(with convulsive effort to suppress laughing, still more emphatically): -“No, mamma was in the other room”. C. (looking archly -at his doll, known as May): “May make noi”. This sally was -followed by a good peal of boyish laughter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The father evidently feels that this incident is highly -suggestive of a lack of moral sense. So he thinks it well -to add to the observation that the child had all the normal -moral sensibility. But of this more presently.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may now pass to the comparatively few observations -(other than those already dealt with under verbal utterance) -which refer to the child’s feelings. As already remarked, he -was, like most other children, peevish and cross in the first -year, and I regret to say that the diary refers more than once -to violent outbursts of infantile rage in the second year also. -Here is one sample entry (<i>æt.</i> nineteen months): Feelings of -greediness, covetousness and spite begin to manifest themselves -with alarming distinctness. When asked to give up a bit -of pudding he says, “No,” in a coy, shy sort of manner, turning -away. When further pressed he grows angry. On the other -hand, he clamours for his sister’s dolls, and bears refusal with -very ill grace. When, given up as hopelessly naughty, he -is handed over to the nurse, and carried out of the room by -this long-suffering person, he ferociously slaps her on the -face. This slap appears not to be a pure invention, his sister -having been driven more than once to visit him with this -chastisement. He will also go up and slap his sister when -she cries. He probably puts the nurse who carries him out -and the sister who cries in the same category of naughty -people. Sometimes he seems quite overpowered by vexation -of spirit, and will lie down on the floor on his face and have a -good, long, satisfying cry.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The child’s timidity has already been touched on. At the -age of sixteen months, we are told, the sight of the drawing of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_433'>433</span>a lion accompanied by roaring noises imitated by the father -would greatly terrify him, driving him to his mother, in whose -bosom he would hide his face, drawing down his under lip in -an ominous way. Two months later the diary tells us that the -child has had a fright. One day a lady called with a dog, -which secreted itself under the table, and later on suddenly -rushed out and made for Master C. The shock was such that -since that time whenever he hears a strange noise he runs to -his mother, exclaiming, ‘Bow-wow!’ in a terrified manner.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Before the close of the year, however, he began to show a -manlier temper. The sight of a dog still made him run -towards his mother and cling to her, 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 -him: “Ni (nice) bow-wow! bow-wow like Ningi”. In this -humble fashion did he make beginning at the big task of -manning himself to face the terrors of things.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As pointed out above, he extended his dislike to sudden -and loud noises to inanimate objects. Thus in the last week of -the year he was evidently put out, if not actually frightened, -by hearing distant thunder; and about the same date, as we -have seen, he showed a similar dislike to the sea when first -taken near it. He would not approach it for some days, and -he cried when he saw his father swimming in it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 feelings. One would have -supposed that with all the affection and care lavished on him -C. might have manifested a little tenderness in response. -The only incident put down under the head of social feeling in -this year is the following (<i>æt.</i> twenty months): “When he -eats porridge in the morning at the family breakfast he takes a -look round and says: ‘Mamma, Tit, papa, Ningi,’ appearing to -be pleased at finding himself sharing in a common enjoyment. -This (continues the narrator) 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 -prohibitively: ‘No! no!’”</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_434'>434</span>The worthy parent appears to be making the most of very -small mercies here. 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 conscience. The father is satisfied, indeed, -that he displayed an instinctive respect for command or -law. “Thus,” he says, “when sixteen months old the child -hung down his head or hid it in his mother’s breast when for -the first time I scolded him.” He goes on to say that after -having been forbidden to do a thing, as to touch the coal -scuttle or to take up his food with his fingers, he will stop just -as he is going to do it, and take on a curious look of timidity -or shamefacedness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He seemed, too, before the end of the second year, to be -getting to understand something of the meaning of that -recurrent nursery-word ‘naughty,’ and the less frequent ‘good’. -When seventeen months old his father tried him, on what -looked like the approach of an outburst of temper, with a -‘Cliffy, be good!’ uttered in a firm peremptory manner. The -child’s noise was at once arrested, and on the father’s asking: -‘Is Cliffy good?’ he answered, ‘Ea,’ his sign for ‘yes’. A -little later he showed that he strongly disliked being called -naughty,—vigorously remonstrating when so described with an -emphatic, ‘No, no! good!’ He seems to have followed the -usual childish order in beginning to apply “naughty” to -others, his sister more particularly, much sooner than “good”. -It was not till the middle of the twenty-first month that he -recognised moral desert in this long-suffering sister. After a -little upset of temper on her part, when the crying was over, -he remarked in a quiet approving tone, ‘Goo!’ and on being -asked by his mother who was good he answered, ‘Tit’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As our example of his dawning powers of conversation may -suggest, C. early developed the childish sense of fun. Most if -not all children love pretence or make-believe. Here is an -example of this childish tendency. When about eighteen -months old during a short visit to his father’s room C. -happened to be walking in the direction of the door. His -father at once said, ‘Ta ta,’ just as if the child were really -going away. C. instantly entered into the joke, repeating the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_435'>435</span>‘ta ta,’ moving towards the door, then returning, and so -renewing the pretty little fraud.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sometimes, as parents know, this impish love of make-believe -comes very inconveniently into conflict with discipline -and authority. One day, about the same date, he got hold of a -photograph portrait of an uncle of his. His mother bade him -give it up to her. He walked towards her looking serious -enough, nearly put it into her hand, and then suddenly drew -his hands back laughing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In other examples of laughter given in this chapter we see -something very like contempt. When two years and eight -months old he was observed to laugh out loudly on surveying -his small india-rubber horse, the head of which had somehow got -twisted back and caught between the hind legs and the tail. -He then waxed tender and said pityingly, “Poor gee-gee!” -“Here,” writes the father in his most ponderous manner, “we -see an excellent example of the capricious and variable attitude -of the childish mind towards its toys, an attitude closely -paralleled by that of the savage towards his fetich.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The two or three notes on the development of the active -powers have to do with the application of intelligence to manual -and other performances. Here is one. At the age of seventeen -months he was sitting at table with the family when he found -himself in want of some bread and butter. He tried his -customary petition, ‘Bup,’ but to no purpose. He then -stretched out his hand towards the bread knife, repeating the -request. A day or two after this the father put his inventive -powers to a severer proof. He placed the knife out of -his reach. When the desire for more recurred he grew very -impatient, looking towards his father and saying ‘Bup’ with -much vehemence of manner. At length, getting more excited, -he bethought him of a new expedient and pointed authoritatively -to his empty plate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Some of these practical tentatives were rather amusing. -One day, just a month after the date of the last incident, he -had two keys, one in each hand. With one of these he proceeded -to try the keyhole of the door, oddly enough, however, -holding it by the wrong end and inserting the handle. Now -<span class='pageno' id='Page_436'>436</span>came the difficulty of turning it. Two hands at the very least -were needed, but unhappily the other hand was engaged with -the second key, which was not to be relinquished for an instant. -So the little fellow, with the inventive resource of a monkey -(the father naturally says of an ‘engineer’), proceeded to use -his teeth as pincers, clutching the obstinate key between these -and trying to turn it with the head. At this date he had acquired -considerable skill in the manipulation of door handles and keys. -A certain cupboard was a peculiarly fascinating mystery, -appealing at once to the desires of the flesh and to a disinterested -curiosity, and he was soon master of the ‘open -sesame’ to its spacious and obscure recesses.</p> - -<p class='c001'>By far the most respectable exhibition of will about this -time was in the way of self-restraint. I have already remarked -how he would try to pull himself together when prostrated -by fear of the dog. A similarly quaint attempt at self-mastery -would occur during his outbreaks of temper. The -father says he had got into the way, when the child was inclined -to be impatient and teasing, of putting up his finger, lowering -his brow, and saying with emphasis: ‘Cliffy, be good!’ After -this when inclined to be naughty he would suddenly and quite -spontaneously pull himself up, hold up his finger and lower -his brow as if reprimanding himself. “The observation is -curious,” writes the father, in his graver manner, “as suggesting -that self-restraint may begin by an imitation of the action of -extraneous authority.”<a id='r307' /><a href='#f307' class='c011'><sup>[307]</sup></a></p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Third Year.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>One cannot help regretting on entering upon the third -chapter of C.’s biography that the father gives us no account of -his physical development. This is a desideratum not only -from a scientific but from a literary point of view. Biographers -rightly describe the look of their hero, and, if possible, they aid -the imagination of their reader by a portrait. The reader of -this child’s history has nothing, not even a bare reference to -height, by which he can form an image of the concrete personality -<span class='pageno' id='Page_437'>437</span>whose sayings and doings are here recorded; and these -sayings and doings begin now to grow really interesting.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is very little in the notes of this year respecting -the growth of observation. 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 -colours. He says that he placed the several colours before him -and taught him the names, and found as a result that the -order of acquisition was the following: red, blue, yellow, and -green. It is added that blue was distinguished some time -before green. His observations, taken along with those of -Preyer and others, are interesting as seeming to suggest that -the order in which the colours are learnt differs considerably in -the case of individual children.<a id='r308' /><a href='#f308' class='c011'><sup>[308]</sup></a> In the eighth month of this -year we find a note to the effect that the boy discriminates -and recognises colour well. This is illustrated by the fact -that he at once calls grey with a slightly greenish tinge -‘green’. 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 violet, he uses “red” as -the name for certain reds only, excepting pink, which is called -“pink,” and deep purple red, which is called “brown”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The third year is epoch-making in the history of memory. -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 mind. The earliest -recollections of most of us do not reach back beyond this date, -if indeed so far. In C.’s case the father was able to observe -this fixing and consolidating of impressions. For instance, -when two years and two months old he had been staying for a -month or so at a farmhouse in a little sea-side village, D——, -where there was a sheep dog yclept Bob. Some three and a half -months later he happened, during one of his walks in his -London suburb, to see a sheep dog, whereupon he remarked, -‘Dat old Bob, I dink’. A week or two after this, on seeing -the picture of a wind-mill, he remarked, "Dat like down at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_438'>438</span>D——". Later on, six months after this visit, on being asked -what honey was, he remarked that he had had some at D——. -Nine months after this visit his father was talking to him -about the game of cricket. He then said, "<em>Oh</em>, yes (his -favourite expression just now when he understands), I -’member, Jingo ran after ball down at D——". As a matter of -fact his father and friends used to play tennis at D——, and -Jingo, the sheep dog, did pretend to ‘field’ the balls, often in -a highly inconvenient fashion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is evident from these quotations that the experiences at -D——, just at the beginning of the third year, had woven -themselves into the tissue of his permanent memory. The -father remarks in a footnote that C. retains a certain recollection -of D—— at present, that is to say, in his fourteenth year.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These lively recallings show a growth of imaginative power, -and this was seen in other ways too. Thus it is remarked -by the father in the fourth month of the year that he was getting -much comfort from anticipation. If there are apples or other -things on the table which he likes but must not have, he will -philosophically remark, “Ningi have apples by-and-by when he -big boy”. He says this with much emphasis, rising at the end -to a shouting tone, and half breaking out into jubilant laughter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The childish power of vivid imaginative realisation was -abundantly illustrated in his play. Here is a sample (end of -fourth month). His sister went to the end of the room and -said (with a reference to their recent visit to the sea-side): ‘I’m -going far away on the beach’. He then began to whisper something, -and went under the table and said distinctly: ‘Ningi -go away from Tit, far away on beach’. He repeated this with -tremulous voice, and at length burst out crying. He wept -also when his sister pretended to do the same, so that these -little tragic representations had to be stopped as dangerously -exciting.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It has often been said that ‘fibbing’ in young children is the -outcome of a vivid imagination. C. illustrated this. As the -example given under the second year shows, his daring in inventing -untruth and passing it off as truth was pure play, and -frankly shown to be so by the accompaniment of a hearty -<span class='pageno' id='Page_439'>439</span>laugh. This tendency to invent continued to assert itself. -Thus when (in the eighth month) he is asked a question, as, -“Who told you so?” and has no suitable answer ready -he will say, ‘Dolly,’ showing his sense of the fun of the thing -by a merry laugh. 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 deceive.<a id='r309' /><a href='#f309' class='c011'><sup>[309]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>We may now see what progress C. was making in thinking -power during this year. It is during the third year that children -may be expected to get a much better hold on the slippery -forms of language, 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 things.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In C.’s case, to judge by the journal, the progress of -speech advanced at a normal pace, neither hurrying nor yet -greatly loitering. Articulation, the father remarks early in the -year, has got much more precise, only a few sounds seeming to -occasion difficulty, as for example the initial <em>s</em>, which he transforms -into an aspirate, saying, for example, ‘huga’ for sugar.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A noticeable linguistic advance is registered in the fourth -month of the year, <i>viz.</i>, a kind of sudden and energetic raid on -the names of objects and persons. “He is always asking the -names of things now (writes our chronicler). Thus, after -calling a common object, as a brush, by its name he will ask -me, ‘What is the <em>name</em> of this?’ Perhaps he thinks that -everything has its own exclusive or ‘proper’ name as he has. -He is beginning to note, too, that some things have more -than one proper name, that his mother, for example, though -called ‘ma’ by himself, is addressed by her Christian name -by me, and so forth. When asked, ‘What is Ningi’s name?’ -he now answers, ‘Kifford’.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>What is far more significant, he now (<i>æt.</i> two years three -months) began to use ‘you’ in addressing his father or mother, -also ‘me’ and ‘I’. 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 on.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_440'>440</span>Like other children he showed a fine contempt for the -grammatical distinctions of pronominal forms. Thus ‘me’ was -used for ‘mine,’ ‘her’ for ‘she,’ ‘she’s’ for ‘hers,’ ‘him’ -for ‘he’ and for ‘his,’ ‘us’ for ‘our,’ and so forth.<a id='r310' /><a href='#f310' class='c011'><sup>[310]</sup></a> It -is pretty clear that none of these solecisms was due to an -imitation of others’ incorrect speech, and they appear to show -the action of the principle of biological economy, a few word-sounds -being made to do duty for a number of relations (<i>e.g.</i>, -in the use of ‘me’ for ‘my’), and familiar word-sounds being -modified according to analogy of other modifications where older -people use a quite new form (‘she’s’ for ‘hers’). A similar disposition -to simplify and rationalise the tongue of his ancestors -showed itself in the use of verbs. Thus, if his mother said, -‘Cliffy, you are not good,’ he would reply in a perfectly rational -manner, “Yes, I are”. “It was odd,” writes the father, “to -hear him bring out in solemn judge-like tones such terrible -solecisms as ‘Him haven’t,’ yet there was a certain logical -method in his lawlessness.” Another simplification on which -he hit in common with other children was the use of ‘did’ as -a sign of past tense, thus saving himself all the trouble of -understanding the irregular behaviour of our verbs.<a id='r311' /><a href='#f311' class='c011'><sup>[311]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>One or two quaint applications of words are noted. Thus -towards the end of the third month of this year he took to -using ‘cover’ in a somewhat puzzling fashion. Thus he once -pointed to the back of his hand and remarked, ‘No milk on -this cover’. The father suspects that the term connoted for -his consciousness an outside part or the outer surface of an -object.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A very noticeable improvement took place in the forming -<span class='pageno' id='Page_441'>441</span>of sentences. All sorts of questions (writes the chronicler) are -now put correctly and neatly, as, ‘Where are you going to?’ -‘Where did that come from?’ He is now striking out most -ambitiously in new and difficult directions, not fighting shy -even of such school-horrors as conditional clauses (as they used -to be called, at least). Very funny it must have been to watch -these efforts, and the ingenuities of construction to which the -little learner found himself driven. For example, he happened -one morning (end of fourth month) when in his father’s bedroom -to hear a knocking in the adjoining room. He walked -about the room remarking to himself, ‘I can’t make out somebody,’ -which seemed his own original fashion of avoiding the -awkwardness of our elaborate form, “I can’t make out who the -person is (that is knocking)”. A still quainter illustration of -the skill with which he found his way out of linguistic difficulties -is the following. His sister once said to him (first week -of fifth month), ‘You had better not do that,’ whereupon he -replied, “I think me better will”. Here is a sample of his -mode of dealing with conditionals (end of sixteenth month), -“If him (a tree) would be small, I would climb up”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His highly individualised language, remarks the father, was -rendered more picturesque by the recurrence of certain odd -expressions which he picked up and applied in his own royal -fashion. One of these was, “Well, it might be different,” -which he often used when corrected for a fault, and on other -occasions as a sort of formula of protestation against what he -thought to be an exaggerated statement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>We may now notice some new manifestations of thinking -power. All thought, we are told, proceeds by the finding out -of similarities and dissimilarities. C. continued to note the resemblances -of things. Thus one day (end of second month) -he noticed the dog Jingo breathing quickly after a smart run -and observed, ‘Like puff-puff’. But what was much more -noticeable this year was the boy’s impulse to draw distinctions -and contrasts. It may certainly be said in his case that -likeness was distinctly apprehended before difference, that -in the development of his rhetoric the antithesis followed the -simile. One of the first contrasts to <a id='corr441.38'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='imprss'>impress</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_441.38'><ins class='correction' title='imprss'>impress</ins></a></span> the tender consciousness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_442'>442</span>of children is that of size. This comes out among -other ways in their habit of setting their own puny persons in -antithesis to big grown-up folk, a habit sufficiently attested -by the recurring expressions, “When I am big,” “When I -am a man”. C., like other children, took to denoting a -contrast of size by a figurative extension of the relation, -mamma—baby. Thus it was noted (end of seventh month) -that he would call a big tree “mamma tree,” and a shrub -“baby tree”. One day he pointed to the clock on the mantel-piece -and talked of the ‘big mamma clock’. He had, it seems, -just before been playing with his father’s watch, which he also -called clock.<a id='r312' /><a href='#f312' class='c011'><sup>[312]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>This love of contrasting appeared in a striking manner in -connexion with the use of propositions. If, for example (third -month), his father says, “That’s a little watch,” he at once -brings out the point of the statement by adding, ‘That not a -big watch’. The same perception of contrast would sometimes -help him to take the edge off a disagreeable prohibition -when unguardedly worded. Thus when told one day not to -make much noise, he considered and rejoined, “Make <em>little</em> -noise”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A more subtle perception of contrast betrayed itself towards -the end of the ninth month. His father had been speaking to -him of the little calf which made a big noise. He mentally -turned over this astonishing bit of contrariness in the order of -things, and then observed with a sage gravity, “Big calf not -make little noise,” 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 round, that the big sound -emerging from the little thing was an exception to the order of -nature.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In connexion with this habit of opposing qualities and -statements reference may be made to the curious manner in -which the boy expressed negation. It was evidently a difficulty -for him to get hold of the negative particle, and to deny -straight away, so to speak. At first (beginning of the year) -he seemed to indicate negation or rejection merely by tone of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_443'>443</span>voice. Thus he would say about something which he evidently -did not like, ‘Ningi like that,’ with a peculiar querulous -tone which was apparently equivalent to the appendage ‘N.B. -ironical’. About a fortnight later he expressed negation by -first making the correlative affirmation and adding ‘No,’ thus: -"Ningi like go in water—no!" A week later, it is noted, -‘no’ was prefixed to the statement, as when he shouted, ‘No, -no, naughty Jingo,’ in contradiction of somebody who had -called the dog naughty. Towards the end of the third month -‘not’ came to be used as an alternative for ‘no’ which little -by little it displaced.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The father remarks that C.’s sister had had a similar trick -of opposing statements, <i>e.g.</i>, “Dat E.’s cup, not mamma’s -cup”. He then proceeds to observe in his somewhat heavy -didactic manner that these facts are of curious psychological -and logical interest, showing us that negation follows affirmation, -and can at first only be carried out by a direct mental -confronting of an affirmation, and so forth.<a id='r313' /><a href='#f313' class='c011'><sup>[313]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>As already shown by the reference to the use of ‘somebody’ -C.’s thought was growing slightly more abstract. Yet how -slow this advance was is illustrated in his way of dealing with -time-relations, some of the most difficult, as it would seem, -for the young mind to grapple with. At the end of the second -month the ideas of time, we are told, were growing more exact, -so far at least that he was able to distinguish a present time -from both a past and a future. He called the present variously -‘now,’ ‘a day’ (to-day) or ‘dis morning’.<a id='r314' /><a href='#f314' class='c011'><sup>[314]</sup></a> The present -seemed, so far as the father could judge, to be conceived of as -a good slice of time. ‘To-morrow’ and ‘by-and-by’ now served -to express the idea of futurity, the former referring to a nearer -and more definitely conceived tract of time than the latter. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_444'>444</span>That the child had no clear apprehension of our time-divisions -is seen not only in his loose employment of ‘dis morning,’ but -in his habitual confusion of the names of meals, as in calling -dinner ‘tea,’ tea ‘dinner’ or ‘breakfast,’ and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another abstruse idea for the child’s mind is that of absence. -It would seem as if this were thought of at first as a disappearance. -As all mothers know, when a child is asked where somebody -is he answers, ‘All gone’. C., on his return from D—— -(end of second month), when asked where the people and the -highly interesting Jingo were, would say, ‘All gone,’ and sometimes -add picturesquely, ‘in the puff-puff’.<a id='r315' /><a href='#f315' class='c011'><sup>[315]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The acquisition of clearer ideas about self and others has -been touched on in connexion with the growth of the boy’s -language. The first use of ‘I’ and the contemporaneous first -use of ‘you’ (end of third month) seem to point to a new -awakening of the intelligence to the mystery of self, and of its -unique position in relation to other things. There is to the -father evidently something pathetic in the gradual abandonment -of the self-chosen name, ‘Ningi,’ of the early days, and -the adoption of the common-place ‘I’ of other people. But -we need not attend to his sentimental musings on this point. -The exchange, we are told, was effected gradually, as if to -make it easier to his hearers. At first (beginning of year) we -have ‘me’ brought on the scene, which, be it observed, did -duty both for ‘me’ and for ‘my’.<a id='r316' /><a href='#f316' class='c011'><sup>[316]</sup></a> Later on followed ‘I,’ as an -occasional substitute for ‘me,’ as if he were beginning to see a -difference between the two, though unable to say wherein -precisely it lay. Within less than a month, we are told, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_445'>445</span>child was beginning to use “Kikkie” as his name in place -of “Ningi,” which “Kikkie” was afterwards improved into -“Kifford”. “It was evident (writes the narrator) that in -venturing on the slippery ground of ‘I’ and ‘you’ he experienced -a sudden accession of manly spirit, as a result of which he began -to despise the ‘Ningi’ of yore.” But dear old ‘Ningi’ did not -go out all at once, 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 thoughtfully, -“How am I, Ningi, come down?” Here, it would seem -evident, the addition of ‘Ningi’ was intended to help the -faculties of his mother in case this still puzzling “I” should -prove too much for them. By the end of the fourth month we -read that ‘I’ was growing less shy, not merely coming on the -scene in familiar and safe verbal companionship, as in expressions -like ‘I can,’ but boldly pushing its way alone or in new -combinations.<a id='r317' /><a href='#f317' class='c011'><sup>[317]</sup></a> By the sixth month (<i>æt.</i> two and a half) the -name Ningi may be said to have disappeared from his -vocabulary. His rejection of it was formally announced at the -age of two years seven and a half months. On being asked at -this date whether he was Ningi he answered, “No, my name -Kiffie”. He then added, “Ningi name of another little boy,” -very much as in a remarkable case of double personality -described by M. Pierre Janet, the transformed personality looking -back on the original observed, “That good woman is not -myself”. He looked roguish in saying this, as if there were -something funny in the idea of altered personality. The -determination to be conventional was shown at the same date -in the fact that when, for example, the mother or father, following -the old habit, would bid him go and ask the nurse to -wash “Cliffie’s hands,” he would, in delivering the message, -substitute “my hands”. By the end of the year ‘I’ came to be -habitually used for self, as in answering a question, <i>e.g.</i>, “Who -did this or that?” Tyrannous custom had now completely -prevailed over infantile preferences.</p> - -<p class='c001'>During the third year C. seemed determined to prove to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_446'>446</span>his parents and sister that he had attained the age of reason. -He began to ply these well-disposed persons with all manner -of questionings. Sometimes, indeed, as when in the case already -referred to he would ask for the names of things just -after calling them by their names, the long-suffering mother -was half inclined to regret the acquisition of speech, so much -did it present itself at this stage in the light of an instrument of -torture. But the child’s questionings were rarely attributable -to a spirit of persecution or to sheer “cussedness”. He began -in the usual manner of children to ask: ‘Who made this and -that?’ (early in the fourth month). That there is a simple process -of reasoning behind this question is seen in his sometimes -suggesting an answer thus: “Who made papa poorly? -Blackberries;” where there was obviously a reference to an -unpleasant personal experience. His mind about this time -seemed greatly exercised in the matter of sickness and health. -One day (middle of sixth month) walking out with his mother -he met a man, whereupon ensued this dialogue: C. ‘Is that -a poorly gentleman?’ M. ‘No.’ C. ‘Is that a well gentleman?’ -M. ‘Yes.’ C. ‘Then who made him well?’ From -which (writes the father) it would look as if, just as Plato -could only conceive of pleasure as a transition from pain, -Master C. could only conceive of health as a process of convalescence.<a id='r318' /><a href='#f318' class='c011'><sup>[318]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Another way of prying into the origin of things seems -worth mentioning. Having found out that certain pretty -things in the house had been “bought,” he proceeded with -the characteristic recklessness of the childish mind to assume that -all nice things come to us this way. One day (middle of third -month) he asked his father, “Who bought lady?” lady being -an alabaster figure of Sappho. The father then asked him, and -he answered: “Mamma”. Asked further where, he replied: -“In town”. This looked like romancing, but it is hard to -draw the line between childish romancing and serious thought. -He may have really inferred that the alabaster lady had come -to the house that way. A still funnier example of the application -<span class='pageno' id='Page_447'>447</span>of his purchasing idea occurred at the date, three -months and one week. Stroking his mother’s face he said: -“Nice dear mother, who bought you?” What, asks the -father, did he understand by "bought"? Perhaps only some -mysterious way of obtaining possession of nice pretty things.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The other form of reason-hunting question, ‘What for?’ or -‘Why?’ came to be used about the same time as “Who -made?” etc. In putting these questions he would sometimes -suggest answers of a deliciously childish sort (as the writer has -it). Thus one day (beginning of fourth month) he saw his -father putting small numbered labels on a set of drawers, and -after his customary “What dat for?” added half inquiringly, -“To deep drawers nice and warm?” C. would pester his -parents by asking not only why things were as they were, but -why they were not different from what they were. Thus (end -of third month) on seeing in a nursery book a picture of -Reynard the fox waving his hat he asked in his slow emphatic -way: ‘Why not dat fox put on his hat?’ In a similar way -he would ask his mother why she did not go to school, and so -forth.<a id='r319' /><a href='#f319' class='c011'><sup>[319]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>With this questioning there went a certain amount of confident -assertion respecting the reasons of things. At first C. -proceeded modestly, reproducing reasons given by an adequate -authority. Thus when told during his stay at D—— that he -would not go into the sea to-day, he would supplement the -announcement by adding the reason as given before by his -mother, <i>e.g.</i>, “’Cause it’s too cold,” or, “’Cause big waves to-day”. -Very soon, however, he took a step forward and -discovered reasons for himself. One day (end of fifth month) -his father was seating him at table, and was about to add a -second cushion to the chair when he remarked in his gravest -of manners, “I can’t put my leg in, you know (<i>i.e.</i>, under the -table), if me be higher”. Here is another of these specimens of -reasoning, dating two weeks later, and based like the first on -direct observation. His father was walking out with him on -the famous Heath of their suburb. The former, probably more -than half lost in one of his trains of philosophic speculation, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_448'>448</span>observed absent-mindedly, “Why are these babas (sheep) running -away?” C. promptly took up the question and answered with -vigour, “’Cause the bow-wow dare with man”. As a matter -of fact a man was approaching with a small dog, which the -father in his reverie had failed to see.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Of course, the reasoning was not always so consonant with -our standard as in these two examples. C. appears to have -had his own ideas about the way in which things come about. -For example, he seems to have argued, like certain scholastic -logicians, that the effect must resemble the cause. At least, -after finding out that his milk came from the cow, he referred -the coldness of his milk one morning (towards end of fourth -month) to the coldness of the cow,—which property of that -serviceable quadruped was, of course, a pure invention of his -own. Just three months later he came out one morning -with the momentous announcement, "Milk comes from the -white cow down at D——"; and on being asked by his ever-attentive -father what sort of milk the brown cow gave, instantly -replied, ‘Brown milk’; where, again, it must be admitted, he -came suspiciously near romancing.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He seems, further, to have shown slight respect for the -logical maxim that the same effect may be brought about in -more than one way. For C. nature was delightfully simple, -and everything happened in one way, and in one way only. -So that, for example, when during a walk (end of sixth month) -his glove happened to slip off, he proceeded in a most hasty -and unfair manner to set down the catastrophe to the malignity -of the wind, exclaiming, “Naughty wind to blow off glove”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A like want of maturity of judgment in dealing with the -subtle connexions of nature’s processes showed itself in other -ways. Thus he argued as if the same agency would always -bring about like results, whatever the material dealt with. An -amusing illustration of this occurred in the latter half of the -tenth month. He was observed towards the end of a meal -pouring water on sundry bits of bread on his plate, and on -being asked why he was doing this, said: ‘To melt them, of -course’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One of his thoroughly original ideas was that other things -<span class='pageno' id='Page_449'>449</span>besides living ones grow bigger with time. One day (middle -of sixth month) he began to use a short stick as a walking-stick. -His mother objected that it was not big enough, on -which he observed: “Me use it for walking-stick when stick -be bigger”. In like manner just a month later he remarked, -<em>apropos</em> of a watch-key which was too small for the father’s -watch, that it would be able to wind up the watch ‘when it -grow bigger’. So far as the father could observe it was only -little things which he thought would increase in size. It thus -looked, adds the father, like a kind of extension of the supreme -law of his own small person to the whole realm of wee and -despised objects.<a id='r320' /><a href='#f320' class='c011'><sup>[320]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>C. followed other children and the race which he so well represented -in supposing that sensation is not confined to the -animal world. Thus towards the end of the eleventh month -when warned in the garden not to touch a bee as it might sting, -he at once observed: “It might sting the flower”. “It is odd,” -interpolates the father here, “that C.’s sister, when, towards the -end of her fourth year, she was bidden not to touch a wasp on the -window-pane, had gone further than C. by suggesting that it -might sting the glass. Everything seems to live and to feel in -the child’s first fancy-created world.”<a id='r321' /><a href='#f321' class='c011'><sup>[321]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>Towards the end of the year, it appears, C. developed considerable -smartness in logical fencings with his mother and -others, warding off unpleasant prohibitions by a specious display -of argument. For example, when told that something he -wanted would make him poorly, he rejoined: ‘I <em>am</em> poorly,’ -evidently thinking that he had convicted his estimable parent -of what logicians call irrelevant conclusion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One cannot say that these first incursions into the domain -of logic do Master C. particular credit. Perhaps we may see -later on that he came to use his rational faculty with more -skill and precision, and to turn it to nobler uses than the invention -of subterfuges whereby he might get his wilful way.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The notes on the development of the feelings continue to -be rather scanty. I will reproduce one or two of the more note-worthy.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_450'>450</span>The visit to D—— was attended with a great change in -his feeling for animals. He no longer feared them. Jingo, -spite of his warlike name, was an amiable creature, and seems -to have reconciled him to the canine species. Cats, too, now -came in for special affection. He would watch the animals in -D——, horses, cows, and especially ducks, with quiet delight -for many minutes, imitating their sounds. Strange to say, -now that fear had gone he showed himself disposed to take -liberties with animals. Thus he would slap Jingo and even his -favourite cat in moments of displeasure, just as he and his -sister before him used to slap their dolls.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A new emotion showed itself towards the end of the fourth -month, <i>viz.</i>, shyness. If his parents unguardedly spoke about -him at table he would hang down his head and put his hands -over his face. So far as the father could observe this expression -of shyness was unlearned. His sister, it appears, had -not been remarkable for the feeling. The father observes that -the fact of this new feeling synchronising with the acquisition -of the use of ‘I,’ ‘my,’ etc., seems to show that it was -connected with the growth of self-consciousness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His sense of fun continued to develop, though it still had -a decidedly rude and primitive character. When just four -months on in the year his father amused him by battering in -an old hat of his own. He broke into loud laughter at this -performance. We know, writes the observer, how the sight -of a hat in trouble convulses the grown mind. Can it be that -C. was already forming associations of dignity with this completion -and crown of human apparel?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tender emotion, as became a boy, perhaps, was in abeyance. -He rarely indulged in manifestations of love, or if he -did, it must have been towards his mother secretly in a confidence -that was never violated. Here is one of the few instances -recorded (beginning of eighth month). He happened -to see his own picture in his mother’s eye and said in a highly -sentimental tone: “Dear pitty little picture, I do love ’oo,” -and then proceeded to kiss his mother’s eyelid. It was little -things, as kittens, flowers, and so forth, which seemed to move -him to this occasional melting mood.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_451'>451</span>The sympathetic feelings though still weak may be said to -be slowly developing. Thus in the first month of the year it -is remarked that he now thinks of his sister when absent, so -that if he has the highly-prized enjoyment of a biscuit he will -suggest that ‘Tit have bisc too’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This year witnessed the formation of more definite æsthetic -likings in the matter of colours and forms. His dislike for a -black cat and black things generally, may perhaps be called in -a way a preference of taste. In his animal picture-books, of -which he was now growing very fond, he showed a marked dislike -for a monkey with an open mouth, also for the rhinoceros, and -strong likings, on the other hand, for birds in general, also for -horses and zebras.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He began to learn nursery rhymes, and showed a good ear -for rhyme. Thus in saying:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Goosey goosey gander,</div> - <div class='line'>Where shall I wander?</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>he was observed (end of tenth month) to correct the rhyme by -first pronouncing the <em>a</em> in “wander” less broadly than is our -wont, just as in “gander,” and then substituting the conventional -pronunciation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The moral side of the child’s nature appears during -this year to have undergone noticeable changes. 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-will. -He began now to show himself a veritable rebel against -parental authority. Thus we read (about the end of the sixth -week) that when corrected for slapping Jingo, or other fault, he -would remain silent and half laugh in a cold contemptuous way, -which must have been shocking to his worthy parents. A -month later we hear of an alarming increase of self-will. He -would now strike each of these august persons, and follow up the -sacrilege with a profane laugh. As might be expected from his -general use of subterfuge about this time, he showed a lamentable -want of moral sensibility in trying to shirk responsibility. -Thus (middle of seventh month) he was noticed by his mother -putting a spill of paper over the fire-guard into the fire so as to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_452'>452</span>light it. His mother at once said: “Ningi mustn’t do that”. -Whereupon he impudently retorted: “Ningi not doing that, -paper doing it”.<a id='r322' /><a href='#f322' class='c011'><sup>[322]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>All this is dreadful enough, yet it is probable that many -children go through a longer or shorter stage of rebellion, who -afterwards turn out to be well-behaved, respectable persons. -And, as his father is not slow to point out, C., even in these rebellious -outbursts, showed the rudiments of moral feeling in the -shape of a deep sensitiveness to injury and more definitely to -unjust treatment. Thus we are told (middle of seventh month) -that when his sister eats the leavings of his pudding or other -dainty he shows a well-marked moral indignation. He gets very -excited at such moments, his eyes dilating, his voice rising in -pitch, and his arms executing a good deal of violent gesticulation. -When scolded by his mother for doing a thing which he has only -appeared to do, he will turn and exclaim, with all the signs of -righteous wrath, “Mamma naughty say dat!” One day (end of -seventh month) when, after being very naughty, his mother had -to carry him upstairs, he broke out into a more than usually -violent fit of crying. His mother asked him what he meant -by making such a noise when being carried upstairs; whereupon -he replied, “’Cause you carry me up like a pig” (as represented -in one of his picture-books).</p> - -<p class='c001'>There is nothing particularly meritorious in all this, yet it -is significant as showing how, in this third year, the consciousness -of self was developing not only on its intellectual but on -its moral side, as a sense of personal dignity and rightful claim, -which, after all, is a very essential element in a normal and -robust moral sentiment.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Fourth Year.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>The reports of progress during the fourth year are still -scantier than their predecessors: perhaps the observer was -getting tired of his half-playful work. Nevertheless, there are -some interesting observations in this chapter also.</p> - -<p class='c001'>C.’s observation seems to have been decidedly good, to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_453'>453</span>judge by an incident that occurred at the end of the third week -of the year. He had been to the Zoological Gardens. His -father asked him about the seals, and more particularly as to -whether they had legs. He answered at once, “No, papa, -they had foot-wings”. The chronicler is evidently proud of -this feat, and thinks it would have satisfied Professor Huxley -himself. But allowance must here as elsewhere be made for -parental pride.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The child’s colour-sense, we are told about the same time, -was developing quite satisfactorily. He could now (end of fifth -week) discriminate and name intermediate shades of colour. -Thus he called a colour between yellow and green quite -correctly ‘yellowish green,’ and this way of naming colours -was, so far as the father could ascertain, quite spontaneous. -Later (three and a half months), on being questioned as to -violet, which he first said was blue, he replied correcting his -first answer, “and purple”. Later on (beginning of last -quarter), he could distinguish a ‘purplish blue’ from a “purplish -pink”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Along with a finer observation we find a more active and -inventive imagination. It was during this year that he began -to create fictitious persons and animals, and to surround himself -with a world, unseen by others, but terribly real to himself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>About the middle of the third month he made his first essay -in story-fabrication. Considering that he had a lively and -imaginative elder sister, who was constantly regaling him with -fairy and other stories, this argues no particular precocity. -His first style in fiction was crude enough. He would pile up -epithets in a way that makes the most florid of journalistic -diction seem tame by comparison. Thus he would begin the -description of a dog by laying on a miscellaneous pile of colour-adjectives, -blue, red, green, black, white, and so forth. With -a similar disregard for verisimilitude and concentration of aim -on strong effect, he would pile up the agony in a story, relating, -for example, how the dog that had killed a rabbit (“bunny”) -had his head beaten off, was then drowned, and so on, through -a whole Iliad of canine calamity. Here is another example of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_454'>454</span>his literary sensationalism (middle of ninth month). While he -and his father were taking a walk in the country, where the -family was staying, they found the feathers and bones of a bird -in a tiny cleft in the tree. The father thereupon began to -weave for him a little story about the unfortunate bird, how it -had taken shelter there one cold winter’s day weary and hungry, -and had grown too weak to get away. This did not satisfy -the strong palate of our young poet, who proceeded to improve -on the tragedy. “P’haps a snake there, p’haps dicky bird flew -there one cold winter day and snake ate it up, and then spit it -out again,” and so forth. “P’haps (he ended up) he (the bird) -thought there was nothing but wind (air) there.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>He had, of course, his super-sensible world, made up of -mysterious beings of fairy-like nature, who, like the spirits of -primitive folk-lore, were turned to account in various ways. -The following incident (seven months one week) may illustrate -the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>modus operandi</i></span> of the child’s myth-making impulse. He -was eagerly looking forward to going to a circus. His father -told him that if it rained he would not be able to go, for -nobody could drive away the rain. Whereupon he instantly -remarked: “The Rainer can”. His father asked him who -this wonderful person was, and he replied: "A man who lives -in the forest—<em>my</em> forest—and has to drive rain away". The -expression “drive away” used by the father had been enough -to give this curious turn to his fancy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His fairy-world was concocted from a medley of materials -drawn from his observations of animals, his experiences at the -circus, including the ladies in beautifully tinted short dresses, -whom, with childish awe, he named ‘fairies,’ and the book-lore -that his sister was imparting to him from <cite>Stories of Uncle -Remus</cite>, and other favourites. In the ninth month he got into -the way of talking of his fairy-world, of the invisible fairies, -horses, rabbits, and so forth, to which he gave a local habitation -in the wall of his bedroom. When in a difficulty he thinks his -fairies can help him out. Nothing is too wonderful for their -powers: they can even solace his pitiful heart by making a -dead dog alive again. For the rest, like other imaginative -children, he peoples the places he knows, especially dark and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_455'>455</span>mysterious ones, with imaginary beings. Thus one day, on -walking in a wood with his mother, he was overheard by her -talking to himself dreamily in this wise: “Here there used to -be wolves, but long, long time ago”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It is noticeable that at this same period of his myth-making -activity he began to speak of his dreams. He evidently takes -these dream-pictures for sensible realities, and when relating -a dream insists that he has actually seen the circus-horses and -fairies which appear to him when asleep. Possibly, writes -the father, this dreaming, as in the case of the primitive race, -had much to do in developing his intense belief in a supernatural -world. It may be added that during this same period -he was in the habit of seeing the forms of his animals, as lions, -“gee-gees,” in such irregular and apparently unsuggestive -groupings of line as those made by the cracks in the ceiling -of his nursery.<a id='r323' /><a href='#f323' class='c011'><sup>[323]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>There is little to note in the way of verbal invention. Here -is one amusing specimen (third week of third month). His -father asked him whether his toy-horse was tired, whereupon -he answered: ‘No, I make him untired’. This leads off the -writer to an abstruse logical discussion of “negative terms,” -and how it comes about that we do not all of us talk in C.’s -fashion and say ‘untired,’ ‘unfatigued’. Another quaint invention -was the use of ‘think’ as a noun. It was funny, writes -the father, to hear him rejecting his sister’s statements by the -contemptuous formula: “That’s only your thinks”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His understanding was slowly ripening in spite of his -free indulgence in the intoxicating pleasures of the imagination. -He could understand much that was said to him by the -aid of a liberal application of metaphor. Thus one day (end -of the year) 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-clothes, but could lie on the -grass wet with dew and afterwards be dried with the sun. -He said: “Yes, the sun is their towel to make them dry”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The subtleties of time were still too much for him. In the -fourth month of the year when his sister was narrating an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_456'>456</span>incident of the evening before and used the term ‘yesterday,’ -he corrected her saying: “No, E., last night”. Yet he was -now beginning to penetrate into the mysteries of the subject. -His father happened one day (end of seventh month) to speak -of to-morrow. C. then asked: “When is to-morrow? To-morrow -morning?” He then noticed that his hearers were -remarking on his question, and proceeded to expound his own -view of these wonderful things. “There are two kinds of -to-morrow, to-morrow morning and this morning;” and then -added with the sagest of looks: “To-morrow morning is to-morrow -<em>now</em>”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>At this the father tells us both he and the mother were -sorely puzzled, and if one may be allowed to read between the -lines, it is not improbable that the latter must have indulged -in some such exclamation as this: “There! this comes of -your stimulating the child’s brains too much”. However this -be, it is certain that the observer’s mind was greatly exercised -about this dark and oracular deliverance of the child. What -could he have meant? At length he bethought him that the -child was unable as yet to think of pure abstract time. To-morrow -had to be filled in with some concrete experience, -wherefore his wishing to define it as “to-morrow <em>morning</em>” -with the interesting experiences of the early hours of the day. -And if “to-morrow” means for his mind to-morrow’s experience, -he is quite logical in saying that it becomes to-day’s <em>experience</em>. -Whether the father has here caught the subtle thread -of childish thought may be doubted.<a id='r324' /><a href='#f324' class='c011'><sup>[324]</sup></a> 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 us?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It would appear as if C. were still rather muddled about -numbers. One day (end of third month) he was looking at -some big coloured beads on a necklace, and touching the -biggest he said to his mother: “These are six,” then some -smaller ones: “these five,” then some still smaller ones: -“these four,” and so on. He was apparently failing as yet to -distinguish number from that other mode of quantity which -we call magnitude.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_457'>457</span>The use of the word “self” at this time showed that it had -reference mainly to the body, and apparently to the central -trunk. Thus one evening towards the end of the eleventh -month, after being put to bed, he was heard by his mother -crying out peevishly. Asked by her what was the matter he -answered, “I can’t get my hands out of the way of myself”; -which, being interpreted by his mother, was his way of saying -that he could not wriggle about and get into cool places (the -evening was a warm one) as he would like to do.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As might be inferred from his essays in fictitious -narrative, he was getting quite an expert in the matter of -assertion. It was odd sometimes, observes the journal, to -hear the guarded manner in which he would proffer a statement. -Thus, on one occasion (beginning of twelfth month), he -reported to his father, who had been from home for some days, -that he had been behaving quite satisfactorily during his -absence, and then added cautiously, “I did not see mamma -punish me, anyhow”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>During this year he followed up his questioning relentlessly, -often demanding the reasons of things, as children are wont -to do, in a sorely perplexing fashion. His interrogatory -embraced all manner of objects, both of sense-perception and -of thought. Thus he once asked his mother (seventh month) -how it was that he could put his hand through water and not -through the soap. A matter that came to puzzle him especially -just now was growth. Thus, when told by his father (tenth -month) that a little tree would grow big by-and-by, he asked, -"How is it that everything grows—flowers, trees, horses, and -people?" or, as he worded it a few days later, “How can -trees and sheep grow without anybody making them?” He -seems now (notes the father) to have given up his belief in the -growth of lifeless things. The inequalities of size among fully -grown things were also a puzzle to him. Thus, when just -four years old, he was much concerned to know why ponies -did not grow big like other horses.<a id='r325' /><a href='#f325' class='c011'><sup>[325]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The father must doubtless at this time have had his hands -full in satisfying the intellectual cravings of the child. But, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_458'>458</span>happily, the small inquirer would sometimes come forward to -help out the explanation. One day (end of the year) his -father, when walking out with him, pointed to a big dray-horse -and said: “That is a strong horse”. On which the child -observed: “Ah! that horse can gallop fast”. He was then -told that heavy horses did not go fast. He looked puzzled for -a moment and then asked: “Do you mean can’t lift themselves -up?” “Had he,” asks the father, “noticed that when -weighted with thick clothes or other <em>impedimenta</em> he was less -springy, and so found his way, as is the manner of children, -from his own experience to explaining the apparent contradiction -of the strong and slow horse?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Other questionings were less amenable to purposes of -instruction. He would often get particularly thoughtful immediately -after going to bed, and put posers to his mother. -For example, one evening (tenth month) he asked in his slow, -earnest way, “Where was I a hundred years ago?” and then -more precisely, “Where was I before I was born?” These -are, as everybody knows, stock questions of childhood, and, -perhaps, are hardly worth recording. It is otherwise with a -curious poser which he set his father about the middle of the -last month: “When are all the days going to end, papa?” It -is a pity that the diary does not record the answer given to -the question. In lieu of this we have the customary pedantic -style of speculation about the “concept” of infinity with references -to Sir W. Hamilton and I don’t know what other -profound metaphysicians. The answer, if any was attempted, -does not appear to have been very satisfactory to Master C., -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 -mother.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With this questioning about the causes of things there went -much assigning of reasons. By the end of the fourth month, -it is remarked, he was getting more accurate in his thinking, -substituting limited generalisations such as, “Some people do -this,” for the first hasty and sweeping ones. He appears, -further, to have grown much more ready in finding reasons, -bringing out “’cause” (because) on all manner of occasions, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_459'>459</span>much to his own satisfaction and hardly less to that of his -observant father. He continued, it is added, to display the -greatest ingenuity in finding reasons for his own often capricious-looking -behaviour, and especially in discovering excuses -whereby a veil of propriety might be thrown over actions which -he knew full well would, if left naked, have a naughty look.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The tendency to give life to things observable in the last -year was less marked, but broke out now and again, as when -sitting one day (beginning of tenth month) on his chair on a -loose cushion and wriggling about as his manner was, he felt -the cushion slipping from under him and exclaimed: “Hullo! -I do b’lieve this cushion is alive. It moves itself.” 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 cut. This “leading question” was not to entrap Master -C., who answered with something of contempt in his tone: -“No, they only made of wood”. He was not so sure about -dead rabbits, however, saying first “yes” and then “no”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The intricate relations of things continued to trouble his -mind. His father chanced one day (end of eleventh month) to -remark at table that C. did not take his milk so nicely as he -used to do. C. pondered this awhile and then said: “It’s -funny that little babies behave better than big boys. They -don’t know so much as boys.” From which the father appears -to have inferred that children, like certain Greek philosophers, -are wont to identify virtue with cognition.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are not many brilliant strokes of childish rationality -to record during this year. It is worth noting, perhaps, that -when just seven months and one week of the year had passed, -he showed that he had found his own way to an axiomatic -truth familiar to students of geometry. He had been to the -circus the day before, where a gorgeous pantomimic spectacle -had greatly delighted him. He talked to his father of the -beautiful things, and among others, of “the fairies going up in -the air”. His father asked him how they were able to fly. -Whereupon with that good-natured readiness to enlighten the -darkness of grown-up people which makes the child the most -charming of instructors, he proceeded to explain in this wise: -<span class='pageno' id='Page_460'>460</span>“They had wings, you know. Angels have wings like birds, -and fairies are like angels, and so you see fairies are like -birds.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first development of reason in the child is apt to be -trying to parents and others, on account not only of the thick -hail-like pelting of questions to which it gives rise, but still -more, perhaps, of the circumstance that the young reasoner -will so readily turn his new instrument to a confusing criticism -of his elders. The daring interference of childish -dialectic with moral discipline in C.’s case has already been -touched on. Sometimes he would follow up a series of -questions so as to put his logical antagonist into a corner, -very much after the manner of the astute Socrates. Here is -an example of this highly inconvenient mode of dialectical -attack (middle of seventh month). He was at this time like -other children, much troubled about the killing of animals for -food. Again and again he would ask with something of -fierce impatience in his voice: “<em>Why</em> do people kill them?” -On one occasion he had plied his mother with these questionings. -He then contended that people who eat meat must like animals -to be killed. Finally, to clench the matter, he turned on his -mother and asked: “Do <em>you</em> like them to be killed?” Here -is another example of his persistent dialectical attack (end of -eleventh month). A small caterpillar happening to drop on -the shoulder of the father, the mother expressed the common dislike -for these creatures. C. was just now championing the whole -dumb creation against hard-hearted man, and he at once saw his -opportunity. ‘Why,’ he demanded in his peremptory catechising -tone, ‘don’t you like caterpillars?’ To which the mother, amused -perhaps with his grave argumentative manner, thought to -escape the attack by answering playfully: “Because they -make the butterflies”. But there was no room for jocosity in -C.’s mind when it was a matter of liking or disliking a living -creature. So he followed up his questioning with the true -Socratic irony, asking: “Why don’t you like butterflies?” -On this both the parents appear to have laughed; but he was -not to be upset, and ignoring the patent subterfuge of the -butterfly returned to the caterpillar. “Caterpillars,” he observed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_461'>461</span>thoughtfully, “don’t make a noise.” He had doubtless -generalised that the pet aversions of his parents, more especially -his father, were dogs, cocks and other noise-producing -animals. Whether he returned to the subject of the caterpillar -is not stated. Perhaps his mother’s dislike for the wee soft -noiseless thing was to be added to the stock of unexplained -childish mysteries.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Passing to manifestations of feeling, we have a curious -note on a new emotional expression. 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 eyebrows. 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 manner. The observer suspects that -we have here an example of a movement becoming an -emotional sign by association and analogy. At first associated -with the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ne plus ultra</i></span> of infantile happiness it came to -indicate the oncoming of any analogous state of feeling, and -especially of the luxurious mood of tenderness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Two or three curious examples of fear are recorded in this -chapter. In the second week of the fourth month he went with -his mother to the photographer’s to have his likeness taken. -When he reached the house he strongly objected, clung to his -mother and showed all the signs of a true fear. On entering -the room he told the photographer in his quiet authoritative -manner that he was not going to have his likeness taken. The -process, an instantaneous one, was accomplished, however, -without his knowing it. Next morning when asked by his -sister how he liked having his likeness taken, he answered -snappishly: “Haven’t had my likeness taken. Don’t you see I -can talk?” The father suspects that the child feared he would -be transformed by the black art of the camera into a speechless -photograph. It is curious that savages appear to show a similar -dread of the photographic camera. Thus, in a recent number -of the <cite>Graphic</cite> (November, 1893) there was a drawing of -Europeans and natives having their likeness taken in a camp -in South Africa. One native, terror-struck, is hiding behind a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_462'>462</span>tree so as not to be taken. The text explains that the drawing -represents a real incident, and that the fear of the native came -from his belief that there is an evil spirit in the camera, and -adds that, on finding out that after all he was in the group, -the poor fellow instantly disappeared from the camp. 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 self?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The other instances of C.’s fear point to a like superstitious -frame of mind at this time. Thus in the last month he -happened one day to see some white linen swaying in the -breeze on a hill not far off. He took it for a light and was -afraid, saying it was a wolf. This was, we are told, his first -experience of ghosts. At the same date he showed fear when -passing through a wood with his father about nine o’clock on a -summer evening. Though his father was carrying him he -said he could not help being afraid of the dark. He fancied -there must be wolves in the dark. He afterwards informed his -father that his sister had told him so. The wolf appears at -this time (by a quaint confusion of zoology) to have been the -descendant of his old <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>bête noire</i></span>, the “bow-wow”. “Have -we,” writes the father, “a sort of parallel here to the superstition -of the were-wolf so familiar in folk-lore?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A new development of angry outburst is recorded. In the -third month, to the horror of his parents and the disgust of his -sister, he positively took to biting others, an action, it is needless -to say, which he could not have picked up from his highly -respectable human environment. Was this, asks the father, -with praiseworthy detachment of mind, an instinct, a survival -of primitive brute-like habit, and happily destined in the case -of a child born into a civilised society, like other instincts, as -pilfering, to be rudimentary and transient?</p> - -<p class='c001'>As implied in the account of his much questioning, the -feeling which was most strongly marked and dominant during -this year was wonder. His father would surprise him sometimes -standing on the sofa and looking at an engraving of -Guido’s “Aurora” hanging on the wall above. The woman’s -figure in front, perfectly buoyant on the air, the horses and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_463'>463</span>chariot firmly planted on the cloud, all this fascinated his -attention and filled him with delightful astonishment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With wonder there often went in these days sore perplexity -of spirit. The order of things was not only intricate and -difficult to take apart, it seemed positively wrong. That -animals should be beaten, slaughtered, eaten by his own kith -and kin, this, as already hinted, filled him with dismay. In -odd contrast to this, he would protest with equal warmth -against any ordinance which affected his own comfort. Thus, -having on one occasion (middle of seventh month) taken a -lively interest in the manufacture of jellies, custards, and other -dainties, and having learned the next day that they had been -disposed of by a company of guests, he asked his mother querulously -why she had “wisitors,” and then added in a comical -tone of self-compassion, “Didn’t the ‘wisitors’ know you had -a little boy?” “It is odd to note,” writes the father, “how a -humane concern for the lower creation coexisted with utter -indifference to the duties of hospitality. Perhaps, however,” -he adds, succumbing to paternal weakness, and saying the -best he can for his boy, “there was no real contradiction here. -The compassionateness of childhood goes forth to weak, -defenceless things, and to C.’s mind the ‘wisitors’ may very -likely have appeared as over-fed, greedy monsters who robbed -poor children of their small perquisites.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The wondering impulse of the child assumed now and -again a quasi-religious form in speculations about death and -heaven. Early in the year he had lost his grandpapa by -sudden death, and the event set his thoughts in this direction. -In the ninth month his mother read him Wordsworth’s well-known -story, “Lucy Gray”. He was much saddened by -the account of Lucy’s death. On hearing the line “In heaven -we all shall meet,” he began questioning his mother about -heaven. She gave him the popular description of heaven, but -apparently in a way that left him uncertain as to whether she -believed what she said. Whereupon he exclaimed: ‘We <em>shall</em> -meet,’ and then after a moment’s pause, as though not quite -certain, added, ‘shan’t we?’ Five weeks later, when driving -in the country with his mother on a lovely May day, he was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_464'>464</span>in his happiest mood, looking at the flowers in the fields and -hedgerows, and suddenly exclaimed: “I shall never die!” -The question of immortality (observes the father) had thus -early begun to wring the child’s soul.</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are, I regret to say, in this chapter, hardly any remarks -about the development of the child’s will and moral -character. The father appears to have been disproportionately -interested in the boy’s intellectual advancement. The reader -is left to hope that Master C. was growing a more orderly and -law-abiding child than the incident of the biting would suggest. -The one remark which can be brought under this head refers -to the growth of practical intelligence in applying rules to -action. C. had been told it was well to keep nice things to the -end, and he proceeded to work out the consequences of the -rule in an amusing fashion. Thus we read (end of eleventh -month) 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 last. -A still more amusing instance of the same thing occurred about -the same date. On putting him to bed one evening his mother -noticed that he carefully sought out the middle of the bed, saying -to himself, “I’ll keep these last”. Questioned by her as -to what he meant by ‘these,’ he explained, “These nice cool -places at the edge of the bed”. “Children,” remarks the -chronicler, “do not drop their originality even when they -make a show of following our lead. 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 cases.”</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Fifth Year.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>With the fifth year we enter upon a new phase of the diary. -The father appears now to have finally abandoned the transparent -pretence of a methodical record of progress, and he -limits himself to a fuller account of a few selected incidents. -Very noticeable is the introduction of something like prolonged -dialogue between the child and one of his parents.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The boy continued to take a lively interest in objects and -to note them with care. Here is an illustration of his attention -<span class='pageno' id='Page_465'>465</span>to natural phenomena. He was walking out (end of fifth -month) with his father on their favourite Heath towards sunset, -when he asked: “What are these pretty things I see after -looking at the sun? When I move my eyes they begin to -move about.” The father said he might call them fairy suns. -He then wanted to know whether they were real. He said: -“When they seem to be on the path they disappear when I go -up to them”. Later on he began to romance about the -spectral discs that he saw after looking at a red sun, calling -them fire balloons and saying that there was a fairy in each -one of them.<a id='r326' /><a href='#f326' class='c011'><sup>[326]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>A quaint example of his attention to the form of objects, -as well as of his odd childish mode of thought, comes out in -a talk with his mother (end of seventh month). She had been -reading to him from <cite>Alice in Wonderland</cite>, where the caterpillar -tells Alice that one side of a mushroom would make her grow -taller, and one side shorter, which set Alice wondering what the -side of a mushroom could be. C. could not sympathise with -Alice’s perplexity, and said to his mother: “Why, a mushroom -is all ends and sides. Wherever you stand it’s an end or a -side.” The father thinks he sees here a dim apprehension of -the idea that a circle is formed by an infinite number of straight -lines, but he is possibly reading too much into the boy’s thought.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His observation of colour continued. One day (end of -seventh month) he was overheard by his father saying to himself -(without any suggestion from another) that a particular -colour “came next” to another. His father thereupon questioned -him and elicited that orange came next to red. Asked -‘What else?’ he answered yellow. Dark brown came next to -black, a lighter brown to red, purple next to blue, pink to red, -and so forth. Asked what green came next to, he answered: -“I don’t know”; from which it would appear that he had -pretty clearly observed the affinities of colours.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He showed himself observant of people’s ways too. Here -is a funny example of his attention to his sister’s habits of -speech. One evening (end of sixth month) when his sister was -out at a party he had a cracker which he wished to give her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_466'>466</span>“as a surprise”. So he told his mother to put it under the -table, and added: “When E. comes in, and after she says, -‘Well! how’ve you been getting on?’ then you must say: -‘Look under the table’”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His memory, as the foregoing incident may show, was -growing tenacious and exact. This exactitude showed itself in -almost a pedantic fashion with respect to words. Here is a -funny example (end of sixth month). He had a new story-book, -<cite>The Princess Nobody</cite>, illustrated by R. Doyle. His -mother had read it to him about four or five times during the -three weeks he had possessed it. One Sunday evening his -father read it to him as a treat. In one place the story runs: -“One day when the king had been counting out his money all -day,” which the father carelessly read as “counting out all -his money”. The child at once pulled up and corrected his -sire, saying, “No, papa, ’tis ‘counting out all the day his -money’”. He had remembered the ideas and the words though -not the precise order. 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 which, while perfectly childish, have a -quaint old-fashioned look.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The dreamy worship of fairies passed into a new and even -more blissful phase this year. Before the close of the third -month C. was actually brought into contact with one of these -dainty white-clad beings. The memorable occasion was a -girl’s costume ball, to which he was taken as a spectator. -Among the younger girls present was one dressed as a fairy, -in short white gauze, golden crown, and the rest. C. was at -first dazed by the magnificence of the assembly and shrank -back shyly to his mother’s side; but after this white sylph had -been pointed out to him as a fairy, and when she came up to -him and spoke to him, he was transported with delight. -Hitherto the fairy had never been nearer to him than on a -circus stage: now he had one close to him and actually talked -with her! He firmly believed in the supernatural character of -this small person, and on his return home proceeded to tell -cook with radiant face how he had seen a live fairy and spoken -to her. He added that his sister had never spoken to one. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_467'>467</span>This last might easily look like a touch of malicious ‘crowing’: -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 precedent.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The weaving of fairy legend now went on vigorously. -Sometimes when out on a walk and observing a scene he -would suddenly drop into his dream-mood and spin a pretty -romance. This happened one Sunday in winter (beginning of -seventh month), as he stood and watched the skaters on a -pond. He said his fairies could skate, and he talked more -particularly of his favourite Pinkbill, whom, he said, he -now saw skating, though nobody else was privileged to see -her, and who loved to skate at night on tiny pools which were -quite big for her. “Delightful days (writes the father, who -is rather apt to gush in these later chapters), when one holds -a wondrous world of beauty in one’s own breast, safe from all -prying eyes, to be whispered of perhaps to one’s dearest, but -never to be shown.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The full enjoyment of this supernal world was during sleep. -C. often spoke of his lovely dreams. One morning (middle of -fourth month) when still in bed, he engaged his mother in the -following talk: C. “Do you have beautiful dreams, mamma?” -Mother. “No, dear, I don’t dream much.” C. “Oh, if you -want to dream you must hide your head in the pillow and shut -your eyes tight.” Mother. “Is dreaming as good as hearing -stories?” C. “Oh, yes, I should think so. One gets to know -about all sorts of things one didn’t know anything about -before.” Dreams (writes the father) came to him like his fire-balloons -by shutting his eyes tight, and perhaps his story-books -were the real suns of which his dreams were the ‘after-images’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As the use of the grown-up and high-bred vocable "one"—the -first instance observed, by-the-bye,—suggests, C. was -making rapid strides in the use of language. By the middle -of the year, we are told, he could articulate all sounds including -the initial <em>y</em> and <em>th</em> when he tried to do so. He gave to the <em>a</em> -sound an unusual degree of broadness, a fact which lent to his -speech a comical air of learned superiority. This was of course -<span class='pageno' id='Page_468'>468</span>especially the case when, as still happened, he would slip into -such solecisms as ‘I were’ and ‘Weren’t I?’ He would still -use some quaint original expressions. It may interest the -philologist to know that he quite spontaneously got into the -way of using ‘spend’ for ‘cost,’ as in asking one day (beginning -of third month), on seeing a frill in a shop window: -‘How much does this frill spend?’ and also of making ‘learn’ -do duty for ‘teach,’ as when (end of tenth month) he asked -his mother, pointing to a globe: “When are you going to -learn me that ball?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 use. Thus one day (middle of third month) -he surprised his parents by bringing out the verb ‘fireworking’ -in reference to the coming festivities of the fifth of November. -Sometimes, too, he would amuse them by trotting out -some ‘grown-up’ phrase which he generally used with clear -insight, though now and again he would miss the precise shade -of meaning. Thus it happened (about middle of fifth month) -that he had been taking tea at the house of some girl friends, -and on his return his mother questioned him about his doings, -and in particular what his host had said to him. C. pondered -for a moment and then said: “Oh! nothing surprising”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This progress in the use of language indicated a higher -power of mental abstraction. This was seen among other -ways in the attainment of much clearer ideas about number. -In the second month of the year he was able, we are told, to -define the relations of the simpler numbers, saying that four -was one less than five, and so on. That he had his own way -of counting is evident from the following story, which dates -from the middle of the same month. When walking with his -mother on the Heath he found four crab apples. He observed to -her: “How nice it would be, mamma, if I could find two -more!” His mother replied: “Yes. How many would you -have then, C.?” To this C. responded in his grave business-like -tone: “Wait a minute,” then got down on his knees, put -the four apples in a row, and then proceeded to the mysterious -ceremony of counting. He began by saying ‘one, two’ to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_469'>469</span>himself, then on reaching the “three” he pointed to the first -of the row, using the apples to help him in adding the four -last digits. He appears, says the father, to have imagined or -‘visualised’ the first two units, and then used the visible -objects for the rest of the operation—not a bad way, one would -say, of turning the apples to this simple arithmetical use.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That he visualised distinctly when counting is illustrated -by another incident dating three weeks later. His mother, -as was her wont, was seeing him into bed. Before -climbing on to the bed he put on the coverlid a number of -small toy treasures. When tucked up he opened up the following -dialogue. C. “Put my toys in the drawer, mamma.” -M. “I have done it, dear.” C. “How many were there?” -M. ‘Three.’ C. “Oh no, there were four.” M. “Are you -sure, dear? What were they?” C., after sitting up and -pointing successively to imaginary objects on the coverlid: -"One, two, three, four,—two dollies, a tin soldier, and a -shell".</p> - -<p class='c001'>His interest in physical phenomena continued to manifest -itself in questionings. He would spring his problems in physics -on his patient parents at the most unexpected moments. -For instance, when sitting at table one day (end of first month) -he observed quite suddenly, and in no discoverable connexion -with what had been happening before: “There’s one thing -I <em>can’t</em> imagine. How is it, papa, that when we put our hand -into the water we don’t make a hole in it?” It would be -curious to know how the father dealt with this hydrostatic -problem.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The other inquiries recorded about this time have, oddly -enough, to do with water. It looks as if water were dividing -with number just now the activity of his brain. Thus he -asked one day when staying at the sea-side (middle of second -month): “How does all the water come into the world?” -His mind was also greatly exercised about the hydrostatic -puzzle of things sinking and swimming (floating).</p> - -<p class='c001'>There are hardly any examples of a reasoning process this -year. One of these, however, is perhaps characteristic enough to -deserve reproduction. One day (middle of fourth month) when -<span class='pageno' id='Page_470'>470</span>his mind was running on the great problems of counting, his -sister happened to speak about a large number of chestnuts -(over 200). This excited C.’s imagination, and he exclaimed: -“Why, even Goliath couldn’t count them”. The idea that -mere bulk should measure intellectual capacity was delicious, -and C.’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 hardened. And yet, writes -the apologetic father, C.’s reasoning was not so utterly silly as -it looks, 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 folk.</p> - -<p class='c001'>With respect to C.’s emotional development during this -year, I am pleased to be able to record a diminution in the -outbursts of angry passion. There seems to have been no -more biting, and altogether he was growing less homicidal and -more human. It is only to be expected that the father should set -down these paroxysms of rage to temporary physical conditions.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among feelings which were still strong and frequently -manifested was fear. He had no fear of the dark, and did -not in the least mind being left alone when put to bed. But -he was weakly timid in relation to other things, <i>e.g.</i>, the -tepid morning bath, from which he shrank as from a horror. -His bravery was as yet an infinitesimal quantity, as we may -see from the following anecdote. His mother was one day -(end of fourth month) talking to him about the self-denying -bravery of captains of ships when shipwrecked. She asked -him whether he would not like to be brave too, adding -for his encouragement that many timid little boys like him had -grown up to be brave men. Upon this I regret to say that -C. asked sceptically, “Do they?” and then added, with a little -impatient wriggle of his body, “I am going to be a painter, -and painters don’t need to be brave”. The mother pursued -the subject saying: “But if when you are big we all go to -sea and get shipwrecked, wouldn’t you wish mamma and E. -to get into the boat before you?” C. managed to parry even -this home-drive, answering: “Oh, yes, but I should get in the -very minute after you”.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_471'>471</span>A noticeable change occurred during this period in what -the Germans call “self-feeling”. A consciousness of growing -power gave a certain feeling of dignity and even of superiority -which often betrayed itself in his words and actions. Although, -so far as I can gather, a pretty boy, and a good deal admired -for his golden hair, he does not seem to have set much store -by his good looks. One day (towards end of sixth month) a -grown-up cousin remarked at table that he had had his hair -cut: whereupon ensued this talk. Mother (to cousin). “It -looks better now that it is cut.” C. “Oh, no, it was prettier -before.” Cousin. “Oh, you think you’ve got pretty hair.” -C. (unhesitatingly). “Oh, yes.” Cousin. “Who told you your -hair was pretty?” C. “Mamma.” “All this,” writes the -father, “was said very quietly, and without the least appearance -of vanity. He might have been talking about the hair of -another person, or of a head in one of his pictures. 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 prettiness.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>On the other hand, the child does certainly appear to have -plumed himself a good deal on his intellectual possessions. It -is to be noted that about this time he grew unpleasantly -assertive and controversial. He would even sometimes stick -to his own view of things when contradicted by his parents. -He prided himself more particularly on being “sensible,” -as he called it. His eagerness to be thought so may be -illustrated by the following incident. He and his mother had -been reading a story in which a little girl speaks of her mother -as the best mother in the world. Whereupon in a weak -moment his mother asked him, “Do you think your mother -the best in the world, dear?” To this C. replied, “Well, I -think you are good, but not <em>the best in the world</em>. That would -not be sensible, would it, mamma?” We are not told how -this Cordelia-like moderation was received.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To many people, mothers especially, 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 love. I regret -to say that about this same time a tendency to priggishness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_472'>472</span>did certainly show itself in a critical air of superiority towards -girls of his own age. 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 age, who -seems to have been a lively mischievous young person, -delighting in ‘drawing’ her grave boy comrade. On his return -home he entertained his mother by expressing his feeling -respecting his new companion. He said: “I don’t like E.’s -looks. She looks naughty. Her cheeks look naughty” (and -he puffed out his own cheeks by way of illustration). He -added: “She looks naughty about here,” pointing to his -forehead just above the eyes. He then proceeded to describe -the measures he had taken for correcting her naughtiness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>“One day,” he said, “when she was naughty, I told her -about dynamite men, and she was naughty after that. And -then I told her about the dynamite men being put in prison, -and she was naughty even then.” On this his mother interposed: -“Why ever did you talk about dynamite men, dear?” -C. “Because I thought it would make her better. Perhaps if I -could have told her what sort of a place a prison was that -would have made her better. But I didn’t know.” Then after -a pause: “What do they put people in prison for, mamma?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “For stealing, hurting other people, and telling -stories.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. (abruptly). “Oh, E. tells a lot of stories.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “Oh no, E. doesn’t tell stories.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “Yes, she does. When I say yes she says no, and I -know that I am right.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>He talked of this same experience of feminine frailty to -others, remarking to one of his lady friends that E. had not -said a sensible thing all the week he was staying with her. -He also attacked his father on the subject, and after illustrating -her odd way of contradicting others, he observed: “She’s are -never as sensible as he’s, I suppose, are they, papa? especially -if a boy is older”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The father asked him if he had shown his displeasure to -his girl playmate, to which he replied: “I didn’t show my -angriness;” and after a pause: “I’d better not show how -<span class='pageno' id='Page_473'>473</span>angry I can be, I’m too strong and too big, ain’t I?” As a -matter of fact he had once, at least, been so ungallant as to -strike his companion on her nose with one of his toys, selecting -this objective for his attack apparently for no other reason -than that it was already disfigured by a scratch. He wound -up this disquisition on E.’s shortcomings by an attempt at a -magnanimous allowance for her weakness: “I b’lieve she -tries not to say these things because she knows they will tease -me, but I think she can’t help it;” and he repeated this as if to -emphasise the point.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even our much-biassed chronicler is obliged to own that -all this is a lamentable exhibition of boyish swagger, and -particularly out of place in one born in these enlightened days, -when, as we all know, ‘she’s’ are as good as ‘he’s,’ if not a -great deal better. The only palliation of the unpleasant picture -of coxcombry which he offers is the information that a year -or too later C.’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 mind.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The growing vigour of his self-consciousness was shown -in other ways too. He was much hurt by anything which -seemed to him an invasion of his liberty. About the end -of the sixth month, we read, he had got into ‘finicking’ -ways of taking his food. Thus he conceived a strong dislike -for the ‘cream’ on his boiled milk. If anybody attempted to -cross him in these faddish ways he would be greatly offended. -It looks as if he were at this time getting a keen sense of -private rights, any interference with which he regarded as an -offence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 constitution. Egoism, it might -well seem, was still the foundation of his character. This -egoism would peep out now and again in his talk. One day -(middle of eighth month) when the family was lodging in a -cottage his mother had reason to scold him for walking on the -flower-beds in the cottage garden. Whereupon he answered: -“It isn’t your garden, it’s Mr. G.’s”. To this the mother -<span class='pageno' id='Page_474'>474</span>observed: “I know, dear, but I have to be all the more particular -because it is not mine”; which observation drew forth -the following: “I should think Mr. G. would be all the more -particular because it is his”. It was evident, writes the father, -from this somewhat cynical observation that caring for things -and resenting any injury to them seemed to C. to devolve on -the owner and on nobody else.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He himself certainly did repel any encroachment on his -rights. Here is an amusing illustration. One day (the end -of seventh month) he was playing on the Heath under -the eye of his mother. He had put on one of the seats a lot -of grass and sand as fodder for his wooden horse. While he -went away for a minute a strange nurse and children arrived, -making a perfectly legitimate use of the bench by seating -themselves on it, and in order to get room brushing away the -precious result of his foraging expedition. On coming back -and seeing what had happened he turned to his mother and -swelling with indignation exclaimed loudly: “What do you -mean by it, letting these children move away my things?” -Of course this was intended to intimidate the real culprits, the -children. Finding that they were not abashed at this, but on -the contrary were looking at one another with a look of high-bred -astonishment, he turned to them and shouted: “What do you -mean by it?” This outburst, observes the father, showed a -preternatural heat of indignation, for in general he was very -distant and reserved towards strange children.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet C. was very far from being wholly absorbed in himself -and his own interests. It cannot be said indeed that self -monopolised the intensest of his feelings, for he felt just as -strongly for others too. There was, we are told, a marked -development of sympathy during this year. His sister was -now away from home at school, and the absence seems to have -drawn out kindly feeling. So that when, on one occasion -(middle of seventh month), his father and aunt were going to -visit her, and to take her to the Crystal Palace, though he -wanted dreadfully to go himself, he made a great effort, and in -answer to his father’s question, what message he had for his -sister, answered a little tremulously, “Give her my love,” and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_475'>475</span>then, waxing more valiant, added, “I hope she will enjoy -herself at Crystal Palace”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Some months later (end of ninth month), he proved himself -considerate for his father, whose repugnance to noises -has already been alluded to. A man had come to repair a -window and his father had been forced to stop his work and to -go out. On his return C. met him in the garden and asked him -loudly, evidently so that the man might hear, “Does that man -disturb you, papa?” He had previously talked to his mother -in an indignant way about the noises which disturbed his -father. About a fortnight after this, on hearing some children -make an uproar in the passage, he asked indignantly, “What -are those children about, making papa not do his work?” “He -was at this time,” writes the father, “transferring some of that -chivalrous protection which he first bestowed on animals to -his own kith and kin. He became to me just at this time -something of a guardian angel.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>His compassion for the lower creation had meanwhile by -no means lessened. Here is a story which shows how the -killing of animals by human hands still tortured his young -heart. One day (towards end of fourth month) he was looking -at his beloved picture-book of animals. <em>Apropos</em> of a picture -of some seals he began a talk with his mother in the usual -way by asking her a question.</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “What are seals killed for, mamma?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “For the sake of their skins and oil.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. (turning to a picture of a stag). “Why do they kill the -stags? They don’t want <em>their</em> skins, do they?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “No, they kill them because they like to chase them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “Why don’t policemen stop them?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “They can’t do that, because people are allowed to kill -them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. (loudly and passionately). “Allowed, allowed? People -are not allowed to take other people and kill them.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “People think there is a difference between killing men -and killing animals.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. was not to be pacified this way. He looked woe-begone -and said to his mother piteously, “You don’t understand me”. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_476'>476</span>He added that he would tell his friend the Heath-keeper about -these things.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The father observes on this: “There was something almost -heart-breaking in that cry ‘You don’t understand me’. How -can we, with minds blinded by our conventional habits and -prejudices, hope to catch the subtle and divine light which is -reflected from the untarnished mirror of a child’s mind?” Somehow, -the father’s sentimental comments seem less out of place -here. But already the boy’s wrestlings of spirit with the -dreadful ‘must,’ which turns men into killers, were proving too -much for his young strength. He was learning, sullenly -enough, to adjust his eye to the inevitable realities. This -accommodation of thought to stern necessity was illustrated by -an incident which occurred at the end of the fourth month. -He had had some leaden soldiers given him at Christmas. -Some time after this he had been observed to break off their -guns. His mother now asked him why he had broken them -off. He replied: “Oh! that was when I didn’t know what -soldiers were for, when I thought they were just naughty men -who liked to kill people”. On his mother then asking him -what he now thought soldiers were for, he explained: “Oh! -when some people want to do harm to some <em>other</em> people, then -those other people must send their soldiers to fight them, to -stop them from doing harm”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One moral quality had, it seems, always been distinctly -marked in C., <i>viz.</i>, a scrupulous regard for truth. His father -believes the child had never knowingly made a false statement, -save playfully, when throwing for a moment the reins on the -neck of fancy and allowing it to come dangerously near the -confines of truth. This scrupulosity the father connects, -reasonably enough, with certain intellectual qualities, as close -observation and accurate description of what was observed. -Sometimes this scrupulous veracity would display itself in -a quaint form. One morning (end of tenth month) C. was -obstinate and would not say his lesson to his mother, so that -she had to threaten him with forfeiture of his toys till the -lesson was got through. On this C. said rebelliously: “Very -well, I won’t say them”. His mother then talked to him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_477'>477</span>about his naughtiness. He grew very unhappy, and said -sobbing and looking the very picture of misery: “It’s a good -deal worse to break my promise than not to say my lesson”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Another incident of about the same date throws a curious -light on the quality of his moral feeling at this period. He had -been out one afternoon in the garden with a girl companion of -about his own age, and the two little imps between them had -managed to strip that unpretending garden of its spring glory, -to wit, about twenty buds of peonies. The sacrilege betrayed -itself in C.’s red-dyed fingers. A condign chastisement was -administered by the mother, and the culprit was sent to bed -immediately after tea in the hope that solitude might bring -reflexion and remorse. In order to ensure so desirable a -result the mother before leaving him in bed enlarged on the -heinousness of the offence. At last he began to get downright -miserable, and the mother, expectant of a confession of guilt, -overheard him say to himself: “I’m <em>so</em> sorry I picked the -flowers. I didn’t have half enough tea.” The next day, -referring to his mischievous act, his mother happened to say: -“You were not sorry for it at the time”. Whereupon he -burst out in a contemptuous tone: “Eh! you didn’t suppose I -was sorry at the time? I liked doing it.” “Shocking enough, -no doubt,” writes the father on this in his characteristic manner, -“yet may we not see in this defiant avowal of enjoyment in -wrong-doing the germ of a true remorse, which in its essence -is the resolute confronting of the lower by the higher self?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>His mind was still occupied about the mysteries of God, -death, and heaven. Following the example of his sister he -would occasionally on going to bed quite spontaneously say -his prayers. One evening at the end of the eleventh month, -having knelt down and muttered over some words, he asked -his mother whether she had heard him. She said no, and he -remarked that he had not wished her to hear. On her asking -why not, he rejoined: “If anybody hears what I say perhaps -God won’t listen to me,” which seems to suggest that talking to -God was to him something particularly confidential, what he -himself once described as telling another a “private secret”.<a id='r327' /><a href='#f327' class='c011'><sup>[327]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_478'>478</span>When his mother asked him what he had been praying for he -said it was for a fine day on his birthday. He thought much -of God as the maker of things, and wondered. One day -(middle of tenth month) he asked how God made us and “put -flesh on us,” and made “what is inside us”. He then proceeded -to invent a little theory of creation. “I s’pose he made stone -men and iron men first, and then made real men.” “This -myth,” writes the father, “might readily suggest that the -child had been hearing about the stone and the iron age, and -about sculptors first modelling their statues in another material. -It seems probable, however, that it was invented by a purely -childish thought as a way of clearing up the mystery of the -living thinking man.” There is subsequent evidence that -his theory did not fully satisfy him. In the eleventh month he -continued to ask how God made things, and wanted to know -whether ‘preachers’ could resolve his difficulty. (His sister -appears about this time to have had the common childish -awe for the clergy.) On learning from his mother that -even these well-informed persons might not be able to satisfy -all his questions, he observed: “Well, anyhow, if we go to -heaven when we die we shall know,” and added after a pause, -“and if we don’t it doesn’t much matter”. “From this,” -writes the father, “it seems fully clear that the child was -beginning to adjust his mind to the fact of mystery, to the -existence of an impenetrable region of the unknown.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C.’s deepest interest just now in religious matters grew out -of the feelings awakened by the thought of death. In the early -part of the year he plied his mother with questions about death -and burial. He was manifestly troubled about the prospect of -being put under ground. One night (end of third month) when -his mother was seeing him to bed, he said: “Don’t put earth -on my face when I am buried”. The touch of the bed-clothes -on his face had no doubt suggested the stifling effect of the -earth. About the same date he remarked in his characteristic -abrupt manner, after musing for some time: “Mamma, perhaps -the weather will be <em>very</em>, <em>very</em> fine, much finer than we have -ever seen, when we are not there”. The mother was not unnaturally -puzzled by this dark utterance and asked him what -<span class='pageno' id='Page_479'>479</span>he meant. He replied: “I mean when we are buried, and then -we shall be very sorry”. “Who can tell,” writes the father, -“what this fancy of lying under the ground, yet catching the -whispering of the most delicious of summer breezes, and the far-off -touch of the gladdest of sunbeams, and the faint scent of -the sweetest of flowers, may have meant for the wee dreamy -sensitive creature?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The following dialogue between C. and his mother at the -beginning of the fourth month may further illustrate his feeling -about this subject.</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “Why must people die, mamma?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “They get worn out, and so can’t live always, just as -the flowers and leaves fade and die.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “Well, but why can’t they come to life again just like -the flowers?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “The same flowers don’t come to life again, dear.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “Well, the little seed out of the flower drops into the -earth and springs up again into a flower. Why can’t people -do like that?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “Most people get very tired and want to sleep for -ever.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “Oh! <em>I</em> shan’t want to sleep for ever, and when I am -buried I shall try to wake up again; and there won’t be any -earth on my eyes, will there, mamma?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The difficulty of coupling the fact of burial with after-existence -in heaven then began to trouble him. One day -(middle of eighth month) he and his mother were passing a -churchyard. He looked intently at the gravestones and asked: -“Mamma, it’s only the naughty people who are buried, isn’t -it?” Being asked why he thought so he continued: “Because -auntie said all the good people went to heaven”. On his -mother telling him that all people are buried he said: “Oh, -then heaven must be under the ground, or they couldn’t get -there”. 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 heaven. He clung tenaciously to the -idea of heaven as an escape from the horror of death. That -the hope of heaven was the core of his religious belief is seen -<span class='pageno' id='Page_480'>480</span>in the following little talk between him and his mother and -sister one evening at the end of the first month.</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “Does God ever die?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>E. (the sister). “No, dear, and when we die God will take -us to live with him in heaven.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. (to mother). “Will he, mamma?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>M. “I hope so, dear.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>C. “Well, what is God good for if he won’t take us to -heaven when we die?”<a id='r328' /><a href='#f328' class='c011'><sup>[328]</sup></a></p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>Sixth Year.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>The sixth year, the last with which the diary attempts -to deal, is very meagrely represented. The observation was -plainly becoming intermittent and lax. I have, however, -thought it worth while to complete this sketch of a child’s -mental development by a reference to this fragmentary -chapter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The child continued to be observant of the forms of things. -He began to attend the Kindergarten at the beginning of this -year, and this probably served to develop his visual observation. -We have, however, no very striking illustrations of his -perceptual powers. It might interest the naturalist to know -that he compared the head of Mr. Darwin, which he saw in a -photograph, to that of an elephant, and being asked why he -thought them like one another, answered: “Because it is so -far from the top of the head to the ear”. 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 kinsfolk.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 double, and that there is a -second filmy body within the solid tangible one. He was looking -at the pictures in Darwin’s <cite>Descent of Man</cite>, and came -on some drawings of the human embryo. His mother asked -him what they looked like, and he replied: “Why, like the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_481'>481</span>inside of persons of course”. Asked to explain this he pointed -to the head, the eye, the stomach, and so forth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He spontaneously began to talk (middle of eighth month) -about opposition of colours. He was looking at his coloured -soldiers and talking to himself in this wise: “Which colour -is most opposite colour to blue?” He said that red was its -opposite, not yellow as suggested by his father, in which -opinion he probably has a good many older people on his side. -He also observed to his father at the same date: “I tell you, -papa, what two colours are very like one another, blue and -green”. The father remarks, however, that he was now -mixing pigments and using them, and that the knowledge so -gained probably made him bring blue and green nearer to one -another than he used to do.</p> - -<p class='c001'>An opportunity of testing his memory occurred at the -beginning of the sixth month. 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 before, and whom he -had not seen since. His father asked the child whether he -knew Mr. S. He looked at him steadily, and answered yes. -Asked where he had seen him, he answered: "Down at -——". He had forgotten the name of the place. On his -father further asking him what he remembered about him he -said: “He made me boats and sailed them in a pool”. This -was quite correct. So far as the father can say the fact had -not been spoken of to him since the time. If this is so, 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 two.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Fancy, the old frisky, wonder-working fancy, was now -getting less active. At least, we meet this year with none of -the pretty fairy-myths of earlier years. So far as the journal -tells us, it was only in sleep that C. entered the delightful -region of wonderland. Here is a quaint dream of his (end of -fifth month). It was Christmas time, and he had been seeing -a huge prize-ox, a shaggy Highland fellow with big head and -curled horns. He had taken a violent fancy to it and wanted -his father to draw it for him. A morning or two afterwards he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_482'>482</span>told his father that he had had a funny dream. Both his father -and his mother were turned into oxen, and it was a “very nice -dream”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>For the rest, the brain of our little Kindergärtner was being -engrossed with the business of getting knowledge, and, as a -result of this fancy, was being taken in hand by sober understanding -and drilled to the useful and necessary task of -discovering truth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 questions. Here is one (end of third -month): They were walking home together across the sands -at Hunstanton at the rosy sun-set hour. C. was much impressed -and began asking his father how far off the sun was. -On finding out that the clouds were not a hard substance but -could be passed through, he wanted to know what was on the -other side. “Is it another world, papa, like this?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Shortly after this date he was talking about the size of the sun, -when he remarked: “I s’pose the sun’s big enough to put on the -world and make see-saw”. He seemed to think of the sun as a -disc, and imagined that it might be balanced on the earth-globe.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What with home instruction and the ‘lessons’ at the -Kindergarten his little brain was being confronted with quite a -multitude of new problems. It was interesting, remarks the -father, to note how he would try to piece together the various -scraps of knowledge he thus gathered. For instance, we find -him in the ninth month trying hard to make something out of -the motley presentations of the ‘world’ which he had got from -classical myths as known through the <cite>Tanglewood Tales</cite> and -from his elementary geography lessons. He asked whether -Atlas could stand in the middle of the sea and not be drowned. -On his father’s trying to evade this awkward question, the boy -inquired whether the sea came half way up the world. Asked -to explain what he meant, he continued: “You know the shore -gets lower and lower or else the sea would not go out; and -out in the middle it goes down very deep. Now, where the -sea comes in, is that half way up the world?” One would like -to know how the father met this dark inquiry.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_483'>483</span>He would sometimes apply his newly-gained knowledge in -an odd fashion. One day (middle of ninth month), he observed -that his porridge was hottest in the middle, and remarked: -“That’s just like the earth. It’s hottest in the middle. There’s -real fire there.” This smacks just a little perhaps of pedantry, -and the child, on entering the new world of school-lore, is, we -know, apt to display the pride of learning. Yet we must beware, -writes the ever-apologetic father, of judging the child’s -ways too rigorously by our grown-up standards.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The progress in the more abstract kind of thinking and in -the correlative use of abstract language was very noticeable at -this stage. An odd example of an original way of expressing -a newly attained relation of thought occurred towards the end -of the third month. C. was at this time much occupied with -the subject of the bearing-rein, the cruelty of which he had learnt -from a favourite story, the autobiography of a horse, called -<cite>Black Beauty</cite>. One day when walking out, and, as was his -wont, vigilantly observant of all passing horses, he said: -“That horse has bearing-rein at all,” by which he seems to -have meant that the horse had it somewhere or wore it sometimes. -The use of expressions like these, which at once made -his statements more cautious and showed a better grasp of the -full sweep of a proposition, was very characteristic at this -period.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even now, however, he found himself sometimes compelled to -eke out his slender vocabulary by concrete and pictorial descriptions -of the abstract. Thus one day (end of eighth month) he -happened to overhear his father say that he should oppose a proposal -of a member of the Library Committee to which he belonged. -C., boy-like, interested in the prospect of a tussle, asked: "Who -is the greatest man, you or Mr. ——?" Asked by his father, -who imagined that the child was thinking of a physical contest -with the honourable gentleman, “Do you mean taller?” -he answered: “No. Who is most like a king?” In this -wise, observes the chronicler, did he try to express his new -idea of authority or influence over others.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While he thus pushed his way into the tangle of abstract -ideas, he found himself now and again pulled up by a thorny -<span class='pageno' id='Page_484'>484</span>obstacle. Some of us can remember how when young we had -much trouble in learning to recognise the difference between the -right and the left hand. C. experienced the same difficulty. One -evening (towards the end of the eleventh month) after being put -to bed he complained of a sore spot on his foot. Being asked -on which foot, the right or the left, he said: “I can’t tell when -in bed. I can’t say when my clothes are off. I know my -right side by my pockets.” 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 recognised, and that a clear intuition of this -simple and fundamental relation of position is the work of a -prolonged experience.<a id='r329' /><a href='#f329' class='c011'><sup>[329]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>By the end of the fourth month—a month after joining the -Kindergarten—he was able to count up to a century. His -interest in counting, which was particularly lively just now, is -illustrated in the fact that in the fifth month, after showing -himself very curious about the word ‘fortnight,’ saying again -and again that it was a funny word, and asking what it meant, -he put the question: “Does it mean fourteen nights?”</p> - -<p class='c001'>About the same date he proffered a definition of one of the -most difficult of subjects. His mother had been trying to explain -the difference between poetry and prose by saying that -the former describes beautiful things, when he suddenly interrupted -her, exclaiming: “Oh yes, I know, it’s language -with ornaments”. But here the diary has, it must be confessed, -the look of wishing to display the boy’s accomplishments, a -fault from which, on the whole, it is creditably free.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As might be expected, the boy’s reasoning was now much -sounder, that is to say, more like our own. Yet now and again -<span class='pageno' id='Page_485'>485</span>the old easy fashion of induction would crop up. Thus one -day (towards end of ninth month) he was puzzled by the fact -that boys of the same age might be of unequal size. This -brought him to the old subject of growth, and he suggested -quite seriously that the taller boys had had more sun. On -his father saying: ‘The sun makes <em>plants</em> grow,’ he added: -“And people too”.</p> - -<p class='c001'>His questionings took about this time the direction of -origins or beginnings. As with other children, God did not -appear to be the starting-point in the evolution of things, -and he once asked quite seriously (end of sixth month): -“What was God like in his younger days?” With a like impulse -to go back to absolute beginnings he inquired about the -same date, after learning that chicken-pox was only caught -from other animals: “What was the person or thing that first -had chicken-pox?” A little later (beginning of ninth month) -he and a boy companion of nearly the same age were talking -about the beginnings of human life. C. said “I can’t make -out how the first man in the world was able to speak. A word, -you know, has a sound, and how did he find out what sound -to make?” His friend then said that his puzzle was how the -first babies were nursed. This child seems to have set out -with the supposition that the history of our race began with -the arrival of babies.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Very little is told us in this unfinished chapter of the child’s -emotional and moral development. 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 distinct. 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 look, the eye-brows being -puckered up and the eye-lids twitching.</p> - -<p class='c001'>He continued very sensitive about the cruelties of the world, -more especially towards animals. One day (at the end of the -fifth month) his mother had been reading to him his favourite, -<cite>Black Beauty</cite>, in which a war-horse describes to the equine -author the horrors of war. C. was deeply affected by the -picture, and at length exclaimed with much emphasis, “Oh, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_486'>486</span>ma! why do they do such things? It’s a <em>beastly</em>, <em>beastly</em> -world,” at the same time bursting into tears and hiding his face -in his mother’s lap. “So hard,” writes the father, “did the -boy still find it, notwithstanding his increased knowledge, to -accept this human world as a right and just one.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The religious thought and sentiment remained thoroughly -childish. He was still puzzled about the relations of heaven -and the grave. One day (end of sixth month) his father -observed, looking at the Christmas pudding on the table -wreathed with violet flame: “Oh, how I should like to be -burned after death instead of being buried”. On this C. -looking alarmed said: “<em>I</em> won’t be burned. I shouldn’t go to -heaven then.” On his father remarking: “’Tisn’t your body -that goes to heaven,” he continued: “But my <em>head</em> does”. -Here, writes the father, we seem to perceive a transition from -the old gross materialism of last year to a more refined form. -C. was now, it may be presumed, localising the soul in the -head, 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 regions. It may be too, he adds, that this -fancy was aided by seeing pictures of detached cherub heads.<a id='r330' /><a href='#f330' class='c011'><sup>[330]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>A month or two later (beginning of ninth month) he began -to attack the difficult problem of Divine fore-knowledge and -free-will. His mother had been remonstrating with him about -his naughty ways. He grew very miserable and said: “I -can’t make out how it is God doesn’t make us good. I pray to -him to make me good.” To this his mother replied that he -must help himself to be good. This only drew from C. the -following protest: “Then what’s the use of having God if -we have to help ourselves”. “Even now,” writes the father, -"it looks as if God and heaven were for him institutions, the -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>raison d’être</i></span> of which was their serviceableness to man."</p> - -<p class='c001'>He brought to the consideration of prayer a childish sense -of propriety which sometimes wore a quaint aspect. One day -(end of third month) on his return from the Kindergarten he -asked his mother: “Does God teach us?” and when bidden explain -his question continued: “Because they said that at school” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_487'>487</span>(“Teach us to be good”). He then added: “But anyhow -that isn’t a proper way to speak to God”. His notion of what -was the proper way was illustrated in his own practice. One -evening (end of sixth month) after his bath he was kneeling -with his head on his mother’s lap so that she might dry his -hair. He began to pray half audibly in this wise: “Please, -God, let me find out before my birthday, but at least on my -birthday.... So now good-bye!” This ending, obviously -borrowed from his sister’s letters, was varied on another -occasion in this way: “With my love, good-bye”.<a id='r331' /><a href='#f331' class='c011'><sup>[331]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>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 observed. No explanation of the abrupt termination is -offered, and I am only able to conjecture that the father was at this -time pressed with other work, and that when he again found the -needed leisure he discovered to his chagrin that time, aided by the -school-drill, was already doing its work. We know that it is -about this time that the artist, Nature, is wont to rub out the -characteristic infantile lines in her first crude sketch of a human -mind, and to elaborate a fuller and maturer picture. And -while the onlooking parent may rejoice in the unfolding of the -higher human lineaments, he cannot altogether suppress a -pang at the disappearance of what was so delightfully fresh -and lovely.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I will close these extracts, following the father’s own fashion, -with a word of apology. C.’s doings and sayings have seemed -to me worth recording, not because their author was in any -sense a remarkable child, but solely because he was a true -child. In spite of his habitual association with grown-up -people he retained with childish independence his own ways -of looking at things. No doubt something of the intellectual -fop, of the assertive prig, peeps out now and again. Yet -if we consider how much attention was given to his utterances, -this is not surprising. For the greater part the sayings -appear to me the direct naïve utterance of genuine childish -conviction. And it is possible that the inevitable impulse of -the parent to show off his child has done C. injustice by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_488'>488</span>making too much, especially in the last chapter of the diary, of -what looks smart. Heaven grant that our observations of the -little ones may never destroy the delightful simplicity and -unconsciousness of their ways, and turn them into disagreeable -little performers, all conscious of their <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>rôle</i></span>, and greedy of admiration.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f286'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r286'>286</a>. Taste, as involved in the necessary act of taking nourishment, -is probably at first hardly differentiated from touch.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f287'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r287'>287</a>. The clear recognition of individual objects is said to show -itself in average cases from about the sixth month (Tracy, <i>op. cit.</i>, -pp. 15-16).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f288'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r288'>288</a>. With the smile there ought perhaps to be taken the infantile -crow.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f289'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r289'>289</a>. Darwin puts the first true smile on the forty-fifth day. The -first <i>quasi</i>-smiles are probably quite mechanical and destitute of -meaning.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f290'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r290'>290</a>. See above, p. 195 and p. 308.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f291'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r291'>291</a>. Compare what was said above, p. <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f292'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r292'>292</a>. Darwin tells us that his boy uttered a rude kind of laugh -when only one hundred and ten days old, after a pinafore had -been thrown over his head and suddenly withdrawn. C.’s sense of -humour was hardly as precocious as this.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f293'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r293'>293</a>. Preyer’s boy perfected the action in the fifth month. For differences -in precocity here, see F. Tracy, <cite>The Psychology of Childhood</cite>, -pp. 12, 13.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f294'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r294'>294</a>. This should be read in connexion with Study V.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f295'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r295'>295</a>. This rather bald account of early vocal sounds should be -contrasted with those of Preyer and others referred to in -Study V.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f296'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r296'>296</a>. Perez speaks of both the affirmative and negative movement of -the head appearing about the fifteenth month (<cite>First Three Years of -Childhood</cite>, Engl. transl., p. 21). Darwin finds that the sign of affirmation -(nodding) is less uniform among the different races of men -than that of negation. According to Preyer, while the gesture of -negation appears under the form of a turning away or declining -movement as an instinct in the first days of life, the accepting gesture -of nodding (which afterwards becomes the sign of affirmation) is -acquired and appears much later (see his full account of the growth -of these movements, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die Seele des Kindes</cite></span>, p. 242).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f297'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r297'>297</a>. <i>Cf.</i> above, p. 148 ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f298'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r298'>298</a>. The supposition that ‘Ningi’ was easy seems reasonable. First -of all it is in part a reduplication like his later name ‘Kikkie’. Again, -we know that children often add the final <em>y</em> or <em>ie</em> sound, as in saying -‘dinnie’ for dinner, ‘beddie’ for bread. Once more, from the early -appearances of ‘ng’ sound in ‘ang,’ ‘ung,’ etc., we may infer it to -be easy. Indeed, one observer (Dr. Champneys) tells us that an -infant’s cry is exactly represented by the sound ‘ngä’ as pronounced -in Germany (<cite>Mind</cite>, vi., p. 105).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f299'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r299'>299</a>. See above, p. 157 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f300'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r300'>300</a>. It has been found that the sensations of hot and cold are readily -confused even by adults.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f301'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r301'>301</a>. I think this supposition more probable than that the child saw -the whole form—hull, masts and sails—as a triangle.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f302'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r302'>302</a>. He had been at the sea-side a year before this, but there was -no evidence of his having remembered it.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f303'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r303'>303</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f304'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r304'>304</a>. I find that another little boy when two years old used ‘two’ in -this way for more than one.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f305'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r305'>305</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_171'>171</a> f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f306'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r306'>306</a>. See above, p. 173.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f307'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r307'>307</a>. Compare the similar instances given above, p. <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f308'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r308'>308</a>. See above, p. 19 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f309'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r309'>309</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f310'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r310'>310</a>. Later on towards the end of the year he oddly enough seemed -disposed to reverse his early practice, using for example ‘she’ for -‘her,’ and even going to the length of correcting his sister for saying -‘Somebody gave her,’ by remarking with all the dogmatism of -the most pedantic of grammarians, “No, E., you must say ‘Gave -she’”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f311'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r311'>311</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_176'>176</a> f. C.’s father probably makes too much -of the principle of economy here. Thus, like other children, the boy -was wont to use double negatives, <i>e.g.</i>, “Dare isn’t no water in dat -cup,” where there is clearly a <a id='corr440.39'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='redundance'>redundance.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_440.39'><ins class='correction' title='redundance'>redundance.</ins></a></span></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f312'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r312'>312</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_163'>163</a> f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f313'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r313'>313</a>. On the use of antithesis in children’s language and on the early -forms of negation, see above, p. 174 f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f314'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r314'>314</a>. A note in the diary says that C.’s sister had also used ‘this -morning’ in a similar way for any present. Can this curious habit -arise, he asks, from the circumstance that children hear ‘this morning’ -more frequently than ‘this afternoon’ and ‘this evening,’ or -that they are more wakeful and observant in the early part of the -day?</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f315'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r315'>315</a>. (Note of the father.) C., on leaving D——, had travelled by -the train. He may, therefore, have intended merely to say “removed -from sight through the agency of the locomotive”. From other -examples, however, it would look as if the boy meant to explain all -disappearance as a removal from his own local sphere.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f316'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r316'>316</a>. The chronicler observes here that C.’s sister had also used the -same expression for ‘I’ and ‘mine,’ <i>viz.</i>, “my”. It looks as if the -me and its belongings were not at first differentiated. Even of the -later and maturer ideas of self a well-known American psychologist -writes: “Between what a man calls <em>me</em> and what he simply calls -<em>mine</em> the line is difficult to draw”. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f317'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r317'>317</a>. The same holds true of ‘me,’ which was first used only in -particular connexions, as ‘Give me’.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f318'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r318'>318</a>. This reminds one of the childish use of ‘broken’ and ‘mended,’ -illustrated above, p. <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f319'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r319'>319</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_86'>86</a> ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f320'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r320'>320</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_97'>97</a> f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f321'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r321'>321</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_96'>96</a> ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f322'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r322'>322</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_273'>273</a> f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f323'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r323'>323</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_28'>28</a> ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f324'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r324'>324</a>. Compare what was said above, p. <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f325'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r325'>325</a>. Compare what was said above, pp. <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f326'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r326'>326</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_102'>102</a> f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f327'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r327'>327</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_283'>283</a> f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f328'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r328'>328</a>. On children’s attempts to understand about being buried and -going to heaven, see above, p. <a href='#Page_120'>120</a> ff.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f329'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r329'>329</a>. According to Professor Baldwin’s observations the infant shows -a decided right-handedness, that is, a disposition to reach out with -the right hand rather than with the left, by the seventh or eighth -month (quoted by Tracy, <cite>The Psychology of Childhood</cite>, p. 55). But of -course this is a long way from a definite intuition and idea of the -right and the left hand. Mr. E. Kratz finds that more than one-fourth -of children of five coming to a primary school cannot distinguish -the right hand from the left.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f330'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r330'>330</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f331'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r331'>331</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_489'>489</span> - <h2 class='c004'>XII. <br /> GEORGE SAND’S CHILDHOOD.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>The First Years.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Much has been written about George Sand, but singularly -little about her childhood. Yet she herself, when she set to -work, between forty and fifty, to write the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Histoire de ma Vie</cite></span>, -thought it worth while to fill the best part of two volumes of -that work with early reminiscences; and herein surely she -judged wisely. Good descriptions of childish experience are rare -enough. George Sand gives us a singularly full story of childhood; -and, allowing for the fact of its author being a novelist, -one may say that this story reads on the whole like a record of -memory. That a narrative at once so charming and so pathetic -should have been neglected, by English writers at least, can -only be set down to the circumstance that it is not clearly -marked off from the tediously full account of ancestors which -precedes it.<a id='r332' /><a href='#f332' class='c011'><sup>[332]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>The early reminiscences of a great man or woman have a -special interest. Schopenhauer has ingeniously traced out the -essential similarity of the man of genius and the child. Whatever -the value of this analogy, it is certain that the gifted child -seems not less but more of a child because of his gifts. This -is emphatically true of the little lady with whom we are now -concerned, and of whom, since we are interested in her on her -own account and not merely as the precursor of the great -novelist, we shall speak by her rightful name, Aurore Dupin.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_490'>490</span>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 child. She would -certainly have been set down as strange and as deficient in -childish traits by a commonplace observer. Yet close inspection -shows that the untamed and untamable ‘oddities’ were, -after all, only certain common childish impulses and tendencies -exalted, or, if the reader prefers, exaggerated. Herein lies the -chief value of the story. To this it may be added that this -exaggeration of childish sensibility was set in a <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>milieu</i></span> admirably -fitted to stir and strain it to the utmost. It was a motley -turbulent world into which little Aurore was unceremoniously -pitched, and makes the chronicle of her experience a thrilling -romance. And all this experience, it may be said finally, is -set down with the untroubled regard and the patient hand of -one of the old chroniclers. 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-historians; at the same time -these years had brought the woman’s power of quiet retrospect -and the artist’s habit of calm complacent envisagement. -Herein lies a further element of value. The writer feels her -identity with the subject of her memoir: she lives over again -the passion-storms and ennuis, the reveries and hoydenish -freaks of little Aurore; yet she can detach herself from her -heroine too, and discuss her and her surroundings with perfect -artistic aloofness.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Aurore—or, to give her her full appellation, Amandine -Lucile Aurore Dupin—was born in 1804. Her father, a distinguished -officer of the Empire, was grandson of Maurice de -Saxe, natural son of Augustus II., King of Poland. Her -mother was a daughter of a Parisian bird-seller, and a true -child of the people. The student of heredity may, perhaps, -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 woman. However this may be, it is certain that the -disparate alliance gave the sombre and almost tragic hue to -the child’s destiny. Through the precious years that should -<span class='pageno' id='Page_491'>491</span>be given over to happy play and dreams, she was to hear the -harsh and dismal contention of classes, and hear it, too, in the -shape of a bawling strife for the possession of herself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The first home was a humble lodging in Paris. The father -was away. The mother, disdained by the father’s family, had -to be hard at work, and the baby had its irregular career foreshadowed -by being often handed over to a male nurse, one Pierret, -an ugly and quarrelsome though really good-natured creature, -whom an accident suddenly made a devoted friend of the small -family, faithfully dividing his time between the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>estaminet</i></span> and -the Dupin <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>ménage</i></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Beyond a recollection of an accident, a fall against the -corner of the chimney-piece, which shock, she tells us, ‘opened -my mind to the sense of life,’ the first three years yield no reminiscences. -From that date onwards, however, her memory -moves without a hitch, and gives us a series of delightful -vignette-like pictures of child-life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Her mother had a fresh, sweet voice, and the first song she -sang to Aurore was the nursery rhyme:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c012'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Allons dans la grange</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Voir la poule blanche</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Qui pond un bel œut d’argent</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Pour ce cher petit enfant.</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c014'>I was vividly impressed [she writes] with that white hen and that -silver egg which was promised me every evening, and for which I -never thought of asking the next morning. The promise returned -always, and the naïve hope returned with it.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The legend of little Father Christmas, a good old man with -a white beard, who came down the chimney exactly at midnight -and placed a simple present, a red apple or an orange, in her -little shoe, excited the infantile imagination to unusual activity.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>Midnight, that fantastic hour which children know not, and which -we point out to them as the unattainable limit of their wakefulness! -What incredible efforts I made not to fall asleep before the appearance -of the little old man. 1 had at once a great desire and a great fear -to see him; but I could never keep awake.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The love of sound, so strong in children, found an outlet in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_492'>492</span>playing with some brass wirework on the doors of an alcove -near her bed.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>My special amusement before going to sleep was to run my fingers -over the brass network. The little sounds that I drew thence seemed -to me a heavenly music, and I used to hear my mother say, “There’s -Aurore playing the <a id='corr492.6'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='wirework”'>wirework.”</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_492.6'><ins class='correction' title='wirework”'>wirework.”</ins></a></span></p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 creatures. -She somehow had presented to her a superb Punch, brilliant -with gold and scarlet, of whom she was greatly afraid at -first, on account of her doll. Before going to bed she securely -shut up this last in a cupboard, and laid the brilliant monster -on his back on the stove; but her anxieties were not yet over.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>I fell asleep very much preoccupied with the manner of existence -of this wicked being who was always laughing, and could pursue me -with his eyes into all the corners of the room. In the night I had -a frightful dream: Punch had got up, his hump had caught on fire -on the stove, and he ran about in all directions, chasing now me, -now my doll, which fled distractedly. Just as he was overtaking -us with long jets of flame, I awoke my mother with my cries.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Her childish way of looking at dolls is thus described in -another place:—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>I do not remember to have ever believed that my doll was an -animated being; nevertheless, I have felt for some of my dolls a real -maternal affection.... Children are between the real and the impossible. -They need to care for, to scold, to caress, and to break -this fetish of a child or animal that is given them for a plaything, -and with which they are wrongly accused of growing disgusted too -quickly. It is quite natural, on the contrary, that they should grow -disgusted with them. In breaking them they protest against the -lie.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She only broke those, she adds, that could not stand the -test of being undressed, or that proclaimed their unfleshly -substance by falling and breaking their noses. The fluctuations -of childish feeling in this matter, and the triumph of -faith over doubt in the case of a real favourite, are prettily -illustrated in a later story of how she parted from her doll -when she was going from home on a long journey.</p> - -<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_493'>493</span></div> -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>At the moment of setting out I ran to give it a last look, and -when Pierret promised to come and make it take soup every morning, -I began to fall into a state of doubt, which children are wont to feel -respecting the reality of these creatures, a state truly singular, in -which nascent reason on one side and the need of illusion on the -other combat in their heart greedy of maternal love. I took the two -hands of my doll and joined them over its breast. Pierret remarked -that this was the attitude of a dead person. Thereupon I raised -the hands, still joined, above the head, in the attitude of despair or -of invocation. With this I associated a superstitious idea, thinking -that it was an appeal to the good fairy, and that the doll would be -protected, remaining in this position all the time of my absence.<a id='r333' /><a href='#f333' class='c011'><sup>[333]</sup></a></p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The gift of vivid imagination is probably quite as much a -torment as a joy to a child, as the story of Punch suggests. -Aurore’s finely strung nervous organisation exposed her to a -preternatural intensity of fear, and made any clumsy attempt -to ‘frighten’ by suggestion of ‘black hole,’ or other childish -horror, more than ordinarily cruel. One day she had been -with her mother and Pierret on a visit to her aunt. On returning -towards the evening she was lazy and wanted the -amiable Pierret to carry her. So to spur her on her mother -threatened in fun to leave her alone if she did not come on. -The child knew it was not meant, and daringly stopped while -the others made a feint of moving on. It happened that a -little old woman was just then lighting a lamp hard by, and, -having overheard the talk, turned to the child and said in a -broken voice, ‘Beware of me; it is I who take up the wicked -little girls, and I shut them in my lamp all the night’.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>It seemed as if the devil had whispered to this good woman the -idea that would most terrify me. I do not remember ever experiencing -such a terror as she caused me. The lamp, with its glittering -reflector, instantly took on fantastic proportions, and I saw myself -already shut in this crystal prison consumed by the flame which the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_494'>494</span>Punch in petticoats made to burst forth at her pleasure. I ran -towards my mother uttering piercing cries. I heard the old woman -laugh, and the grating sound of the lamp as she remounted gave me -a nervous shiver.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At bottom Aurore’s nature was a happy one, and if it -encountered in the real world the terrors of childhood, it found -in the ideal world of fiction its supreme delights. Before she -learned to read (about four) she had managed to stock her -small brain with an odd jumble of supernatural imagery, the -outcome of fairy stories recited to her, and of picture-books -setting forth incidents from classical mythology and the lives -of the saints; and she soon began to make artistic use of this -motley material. Her mother, she tells us, used to shut her -within four straw chairs in order to keep her from playing with the -fire. She would then amuse herself by pulling out the straws -with her hands (she always felt the need of occupying her -hands) and composing in a loud voice interminable stories. -They were of course modelled on the familiar fairy-tale -pattern. The principal characters were a good fairy, a good -prince, and a beautiful princess. There were but few wicked -beings, and never great misfortunes. ‘All arranged itself -under the influence of a thought, smiling and optimistic as -childhood.’ These stories, carried on day after day, were the -subject of amusing comment. ‘Well, Aurore,’ the aunt used -to ask, ‘hasn’t your prince got out of the forest yet?’</p> - -<p class='c001'>To Aurore’s ardent imagination, play, as the story of the -doll suggests, was more than the half-hearted make-believe -it often is with duller children. She was able to immerse -her whole consciousness in the scene, the occupation imagined, -so as to lose all account of her actual surroundings. One -evening, at dusk, she and her cousin were playing at chasing -one another from tree to tree, for which the bed-curtains did -duty. The room had disappeared for these little day-dreamers; -they were really in a gloomy country at the oncoming of night -and when they were called to dinner they heard nothing. -Aurore’s mother had finally to carry her to the table, and she -could ever after recall the astonishment she felt on seeing the -light, the table, and other real objects about her.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_495'>495</span>Even at this tender age the child came into contact with -the large mysterious outer world. At her aunt’s home at -Chaillot there was a garden, the one garden she knew, a small -square plot, seeming a vast region to Aurore, shut in by walls. -At the bottom of this garden, on a green terrace, she and her -cousin used to play at fighting battles.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>One day we were interrupted in our games by a great commotion -outside. There were cries of <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Vive l’Empereur!’</span> marchings with -quick step, and then retirings, the cries continuing all the while. -The emperor was, in fact, passing at some distance, and we heard -the tread of the horses and the emotion of the crowd. We could not -look over the walls, but the whole thing seemed very beautiful to my -fancy, and we cried with all our strength, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Vive l’Empereur!’</span> -transported by a sympathetic enthusiasm.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She first saw the Emperor in 1807, from the good Pierret’s -shoulders, where, being a conspicuous object, she attracted -Napoleon’s quick eye. ‘I was, as it were, magnetised for a -moment by that clear look, so hard for an instant, and suddenly -so benevolent and so sweet.’</p> - -<p class='c001'>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 life. Her father was aide-de-camp -to Murat at Madrid, and in 1808 the mother resolved to -betake herself to him with her child. It was a singular experience -for a girl just completing her fourth year, and the narrative -of it is romantic enough. Her imagination was strangely -affected by the sight of the great mountains, which seemed to -shut them in and to forbid their moving forwards or backwards. -Yet she felt no fear at the postillion’s malicious fictions about -brigands which quite horrified her mother. In Madrid they -found themselves quartered in a large and magnificent palace. -The unaccustomed space and splendour at first troubled the -child. She was tormented by the huge pictures from which -big heads seemed to come out and follow her, 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 was.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Murat was not over well pleased at the arrival of his aide-de-camp’s -wife and child, so an attempt was made to propitiate -<span class='pageno' id='Page_496'>496</span>him by decking the little maid in a gay and coquettish -uniform. The child, who was no coquette, seems to have -cared but little for this performance, though she soon began to -find amusement in her new sumptuous dwelling.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>As soon as I found myself alone in this large room I placed -myself before the low glass, and I tried some theatrical poses. Then -I took my white rabbit, and tried to force it to do likewise; or rather -I pretended to offer it as a sacrifice to the gods, using a footstool as -altar.... I had not the least feeling of coquetry; my pleasure -came from the make-believe that I was playing in a quartette scene -in which were two little girls and two rabbits. The rabbit and I -addressed, in pantomime, salutations, threats, and prayers to the -personages of the mirror, and we danced the bolero with them.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It was at Madrid that she first made acquaintance with -one of Nature’s most fascinating mysteries, the echo.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>I studied this phenomenon with an extreme pleasure. What -struck me as most strange was to hear my own name repeated by -my own voice. Then there occurred to me an odd explanation. I -thought that I was double, and that there was round about me -another “I” whom I could not see, but who always saw me, since he -always answered me.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She then combined with this strange phenomenon another, -<i>viz.</i>, the red and blue balls (ocular spectra) that she got into -her eyes after looking at the golden globe of a church glittering -against the sky, and so found her way to a theory that -everything had its double—a theory which, Mr. Tylor and -others tell us, was excogitated in very much the same way by -uncivilised man. She spent days in trying to get sight of her -double. Her mother, who one day surprised her in this search, -told her it was echo, ‘the voice in the air!’</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>This voice in the air no longer astonished me, but it still charmed -me. I was satisfied at being able to name it, and to call to it, ‘Echo, -are you there? Don’t you hear me? Good-day, Echo!’<a id='r334' /><a href='#f334' class='c011'><sup>[334]</sup></a></p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The next event of deep import for Aurore was the sudden -death of her father by a fall from his horse, which occurred -in the autumn of the same year. The first visit of the King -of Terrors to a home has been a black landmark in many a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_497'>497</span>child’s life. Aurore was at first ‘annihilated’ by excess of -grief and fear, for, as she says, ‘childhood has not the strength -to suffer’. The days that immediately followed the bringing -in of the lifeless body were passed in a sort of stupor. Clear -recollection dates only from the moment when she was to be -clad in the conventional black.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>The black made a strong impression on me. I cried in submitting -to it; for though I had worn the black dress and veil of -the Spaniards, I had certainly never put on black stockings, and the -stockings frightened me terribly. I would have it that they were -putting on me the legs of death, and my mother had to show me -that she wore them also.<a id='r335' /><a href='#f335' class='c011'><sup>[335]</sup></a></p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The father’s death brought a profound change into the -child’s life. The despised mother had already been recognised -by the paternal grandmother, and a certain advance made -towards a show of amity. Visits were paid to the grandmother’s -château at Nohant, and it was, in fact, when they -were staying there that the fatal accident occurred.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The common loss drew the two women together for a time, -but the contrasts of temperament and of education were too -powerful, and the jealousy which had first directed itself to -the father now found a new object in his talented child. She -has given us more than one excellent description of mother -and grandmother. The latter, a blonde with white and red -complexion, imposing air, always dressed in a brown silk robe -and a white wig frizzled in front, was grave and quiet, ‘a veritable -Saxon,’ a friend of the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>ancien régime</i></span>, a disciple of Voltaire -and Rousseau, albeit a stickler for the conventionalities of -high life. The mother was a brunette, of an ardent temperament, -endowed with considerable talent, yet timid and awkward -before grand folk, a Spanish nature, jealous and passionate, a -true democrat withal, and a worshipper of the Emperor. The -problem of dividing poor little Aurore between two such -women, habiting two distinct worlds, would have baffled Solomon -himself. The grandmother insisted on the advantages of -bringing up the child as a lady, and the mother, after a hard -<span class='pageno' id='Page_498'>498</span>struggle, relinquished her claims, the girl being handed over to -the grandmother and transported into the new world of Nohant.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The story of this struggle, which tore the heart of Aurore -as much as that of her mother, is a tragedy of child-life. Aurore’s -instincts bound her to her mother. She implored her not to -give her up for money—she understood she was to be the -richer for the change. She was beside herself with joy when -her grandmother allowed her to visit the maternal home, and -she has given us a charming account of these visits. The -rooms were poor and ugly enough by the side of her grandmother’s -salons; yet—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>How good my mother seemed, how amiable my sister, how droll -and agreeable my friend Pierret! I could not stop repeating, ‘I am -here at home: down there I am at the house of my grandmother’. -‘Zounds!’ said Pierret; ‘don’t let her go and say <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>chez nous</i></span> before -Madame Dupin. She would reproach us with teaching her to talk -as they do <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>aux-z-halles</i></span>!’ And then Pierret would burst out into a -fit of laughter, for he was ready to laugh at anything, and my -mother made fun of him, and I cried out, ‘How we are enjoying -ourselves at home!’</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When she found that she was to live at Nohant she was -beside herself with grief, and implored her mother to take her -away, and to let her join her in some business enterprise. The -mother seemed at first to yield to these entreaties; but the -barriers of rank proved to be inexorable, and would not let the -little orphan pass. The narrative of the final departure of the -mother from Nohant is deeply pathetic. It was the eve of the -parting: 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 her. But the house was -sentinelled with hostile maids, and how to get the letter to its -destination? At last, lover-like, she bethought her of putting -it behind a portrait of her grandfather in her mother’s room. -To make sure of her finding it, she hung her nightcap on the -picture, writing on it in pencil ‘Shake the portrait!’ The -mother came, but a provoking maid stayed a long half-hour -with her. Aurore dared not move. Then, having waited another -half-hour for the maid to fall asleep, she crept to her -<span class='pageno' id='Page_499'>499</span>mother, whom she found reading the letter and weeping. She -pressed her child to her heart, but would listen to no more proposals -of flight from Nohant.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>I cried no more—I had no more tears; and I began to suffer -from a trouble more profound and lacerating than absence. I said -to myself, ‘My mother does not love me as much as I love her’.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In the distraction of her grief she resolved that if it was unbearable -she would walk to Paris and rejoin her mother; and, -with characteristic inventiveness, thought out, by help of her -fairy stories, how she would avoid the anguish of begging by -disposing of some precious trinkets.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the grief, like many another that looks crushing at first, -proved not unbearable. In time the child learnt to take kindly -to her new home, and even to love the stately and severe-looking -grandmamma.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>The Grandmother’s Regime.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>It was verily a new home, this country house at Nohant. -Besides the grave grandmamma bent on drilling Aurore into the -proprieties, there was another solemn figure in Deschartres, -her friend and counsellor, who combined the functions of -steward of the estate and tutor of the young people. His pupils -were Aurore herself, a half-brother Hippolyte, whose birth -added one more irregularity to the family history, and of whom -the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Histoire</cite></span> has much to say. Hippolyte was a wild-tempered -youth, more given to mischievous adventure and practical joking -than to serious study, and proved a considerable set-off to the -formal gravity of the elders of the household. A second youthful -companion was supplied in Clotilde, a girl of humble -parentage, who was probably introduced by the authorities as -a concession to Rousseau’s teaching, and supplied a link -between the young lady and the peasant world she was to love -and to portray. Beyond the house was the unpretending -country of Le Bas Berry, with its ‘landes’ or wastes, the -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Valée Noire’</span> of Aurore’s early descriptions, which more than -one of our writers have found half English in character, and -which was to become to Aurore what the Midlands were to -George Eliot.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_500'>500</span>The first effect of this forced separation from the mother -seems to have been to throw Aurore in upon herself, and to -confirm her natural tendency to reverie. She says much -at this stage of her day-dreaming, which overtook her both -when alone and when joining her companions in play. It -visited her regularly as she sat at her mother’s feet in the -evening listening to her reading, with an old screen covered -with green taffeta between her and the fire.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>I saw a little of the fire through this worn taffeta, and it formed -on it little stars, whose radiation I increased by blinking my eyes. -Then little by little I lost the meaning of the phrases which my -mother read. Her voice threw me into a kind of moral stupor, in -which it was impossible for me to follow an idea. Images began to -shape themselves before me, and came and settled on the green -screen. They were woods, meadows, rivers, towns of a grotesque -and gigantic architecture, as I have often seen them in dreams; -enchanted palaces with gardens like nothing that exists, with -thousands of birds of azure, gold, and purple, which sprang on the -flowers and let themselves be caught.... There were roses—green, -black, violet, and especially blue.<a id='r336' /><a href='#f336' class='c011'><sup>[336]</sup></a>... I closed my eyes and still -saw them, but when I reopened them I could only find them again -upon the screen.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>As at Madrid, so at Nohant: the splendour of her new -home caused her alarm at first. On the wall-paper of her bedroom -above each door was a large medallion with a figure: the -one a joyous dancing Flora; the other a grave, severe Bacchante, -standing with arm stretched out leaning on her thyrsus. -The first was beloved, the second dreaded. The child’s bed -was so placed that she had to turn her back on her favourite. -She hid her head under the bed-clothes and tried not to see that -terribly stern Bacchante, but in vain.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>In the middle of the night I saw it leave its medallion, glide along -the door, grow as big as a real person (as children say), and, walking -to the opposite door, try to snatch the pretty nymph from her niche. -She uttered piercing cries, but the Bacchante paid no heed to them. -She pulled and tore the paper till the nymph detached herself and -fled into the middle of the chamber. The other pursued her thither, -and as the poor fugitive threw herself on my bed in order to hide herself -<span class='pageno' id='Page_501'>501</span>under my curtain, the furious Bacchante came towards me and -pierced us both with her thyrsus, which had become a steeled lance, -whose every stroke was to me a wound of which I felt the pain.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In her play with Ursule and Hippolyte she continued to -indulge in her passion for vivid imaginative realisation. When -playing at crossing the windings of a river, rudely marked with -chalk on the floor, five minutes would suffice to generate this -kind of hallucination.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>I lost all notion of reality, and believed I could see the trees, -the water, the rocks—a vast country—and the sky, now bright, now -laden with clouds which were about to burst and increase the danger -of crossing the river. In what a vast space children think they are -acting when they thus walk from table to bed, from the fireplace to -the door!</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>On one of these occasions, Hippolyte, with the boy’s bent -to realism, took the water jug, and pouring its contents on the -floor, produced a closer semblance of the river. The natural -consequence followed: the children, wholly absorbed in their -little drama, 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 floor, and were visited with -summary chastisement.</p> - -<p class='c001'>More daring pranks would sometimes be ventured on with -Hippolyte. One day, as Deschartres was away shooting, the -boy got one of his works on Incantation, and tried, much in -the fashion of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, to get a -peep at the supernatural. Mysterious lines, digits, etc., were -duly traced on the floor with chalk, and other preparations -carried out. Then they awaited with deepening agitation the -first indication of success, the darting out of a blue flame on -certain digits or figures. Long minutes passed, yet no blue -flame, no devil’s horns, appeared to thrill the eager watchers. -At length Hippolyte, in order to keep up the girl’s excitement, -put his ear to the floor and declared that he could hear the -crackling sound of a flame. But it was all in vain. After all -it was but a game, ‘though a game that made our hearts -beat’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hippolyte was given to dangerous experiments, which he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_502'>502</span>dignified by high-sounding names. Thus he one day put -gunpowder into a big log and threw this into the fire, with -the view of blowing the saucepan into the kitchen, an occupation -which he cheerfully described as studying the theory of volcanoes. -He succeeded in leading on Aurore into pranks of a -decidedly hoydenish character, such as must have sadly -grieved the decorous grandmamma had she known of them. -They one day went so far as to dig a trough across the garden-path, -fill this with light wet earth, duly cover it with sticks -and leaves, and then watch Deschartres, who was particularly -vain of his white stockings, as with the stiff, pompous gait -of the pedagogue he marched straight into the trap.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such a child as Aurore, with her fits of reverie alternating -with somewhat rude outbursts of animal spirits, was not easily -drilled into those proprieties on which Madame Dupin set so -high a value. This good lady took great pains to make -Aurore walk properly, wear her gloves, give up the familiar -‘thou,’ and adopt the stilted mode of address of the fashionable -world. But she did not appreciate these educational experiments. -‘It seemed to me that she shut me in with herself in -a big box when she said to me, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Amusez-vous tranquillement”</span>.’ -While, for the sake of pleasing her guardian, she outwardly -conformed to the rules of society, in her heart she remained a -rebel, and was dreadfully bored, when she ceased to be amused, -by her grandmother’s ‘old Countesses’. One exception to her -general dislike of the grand personages she had now to meet -was made in the case of her great-uncle, the Abbé of Beaumont. -He seems to have been a man of ability and culture, as well -as of amiable heart, and he proved a good friend of the family -after the death of Colonel Dupin by improvising the distraction -of a comedy at Nohant, in which Deschartres’ flute did duty as -orchestra, and the little Aurore was called on to dance a ballet -all by herself. The Abbé’s house, which was decorated throughout -in the style of Louis XIV., filled her with admiration, and -she loved to wander, candle in hand, alone through its vast -salons while the older people were absorbed in their cards. -This grand-uncle, by-the-bye, served in part as the prototype -of the Canon in <span lang="es" xml:lang="es"><cite>Consuelo</cite></span>.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_503'>503</span>The formal teaching was mostly handed over to Deschartres, -though the grandmother gave instruction in music. Aurore -can hardly be said to have been a backward child. She read -well at four. Towards five she learnt to write, but not having -patience to copy out the alphabet, struck out an original orthography -of her own, and indited letters in this to Ursule and -Hippolyte. It was, she tells us, very simple and full of -hieroglyphics. She devoured a certain class of books, and -found delight for five or six months in the stories of Madame -d’Aulnoy and of Perrault, which she came across at Nohant. -She adds that though she has never re-read them since, she -could repeat them all from beginning to end. She tried, out of -regard for her grandmamma, to take kindly to arithmetic, Latin, -and French versification, which Deschartres taught her, but -she could not master her dislike. After a little scene, in which -the passionate Deschartres threw a big dictionary at the girl’s -head, the Latin had to be given up altogether. The study -she liked best was history, since it gave her the chance of -indulging in the pleasures of imagination. She had to prepare -extracts from a book for her grandmother, and as she soon -found that these were not compared with the original, she -began to introduce additions of her own. Without altering -essential facts, she tells us, she would place the historical -personage in new imaginary situations, so as to develop the -character more completely. In truth, she seems to have used -history very much after the fashion which Aristotle, and after -him Lessing, recommend to the poets, varying the situation, -but leaving the character intact.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In addition to these more solid studies, the young lady -had special lessons in dancing and in calligraphy. Both the -dancing-master and the writing-master came in for her ridicule. -The latter, she tells us, was</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>a professor of large pretensions, capable of spoiling the best hand -with his systems.... He had invented various instruments by -which he compelled his pupils to hold up the head, to keep the -elbow free, three fingers extended on the pen, and the little finger -stretched on the paper in such a way as to support the weight of the -hand.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_504'>504</span>It must have been a joyous moment for Aurore when she -was set free from the restraints and impositions of the château -for a couple of hours’ visit to some adjoining farm, where she -could shout, laugh, and romp with the peasant girls. Here -she would climb the trees, rush wildly down from the top to -the bottom of a mountain of sheaves in the barn, and do other -outrageous things; or when the dream-mood was on her she -would quietly contemplate her rustic friends as they tended -the lambs, hunted for eggs, or gathered fruit from the -orchard, weaving their figures into one of her interminable -romances.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Among the charming rural pictures that her pen has drawn -for us in these recollections there is one of a swineherd, called -Plaisir, for whom she conceived a strange friendship. She -loved to watch his odd figure, always clothed in a blouse and -hemp trousers, ‘which with his hands and naked feet had taken -the colour and the hardness of the earth,’ armed with a triangular -iron instrument, ‘the sceptre of swineherds,’ and looking -like ‘a gnome of the glebe, a kind of devil between man and -werwolf’. As the swine turned up the soil with their snouts, -the birds would come to forage.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>Sometimes these birds perched on the hog merely to get warm, -or in order the better to observe the labour from which they were -to profit. I have often seen an old ashy rook balancing himself -there on one leg with a pensive and melancholy air, while the hog -bored deeply in the soil, and by these labours caused it oscillations -which disturbed it, rendered it impatient, and finally drove it to -correct this clumsiness by strokes of its beak.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nor was it merely as playmates that the young lady from -the château deigned to associate with the peasantry. She -threw herself with ardent sympathy into the hard toilsome life -of the people. One day, as she chanced to see an old -woman stooping, as well as her stiff limbs allowed her, to -gather sticks in her grandmother’s garden, she set vigorously -to work with bill-hook cutting dry wood, working late into the -evening, and forgetting all about her meal, for she was ‘strong -as a peasant girl’. She then set out with blood-stained face -and hands, and with a weight greater than that of her own -<span class='pageno' id='Page_505'>505</span>body, for the poor woman’s hut, where she enjoyed a well-earned -slice from her black loaf.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This contact with the rustic mind, so oddly introduced into -the fashionable scheme of education, exerted a profound effect -on the child’s imagination. She listened eagerly to the superstitious -stories which the hemp-dressers related when they -came to crush the hemp, sitting in the moonlight within view -of the crosses of a cemetery. Among these were a sacristan’s -gruesome stories of interments and of the rats that lived in the -belfry. The doings of those rats, she tells us, would of themselves -fill a volume. He knew them all, and had given them -the names of the more important among the deceased villagers. -They were very clever, and could, among other exploits, arrange -grains or beans given them in the form of a circle enclosing a -cross. It is hardly surprising to learn that these stories robbed -Aurore of her sleep.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The rustic legend of the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>grande bête</i></span> much exercised the -girl’s brain. She tried to reconcile the superstition with what -she had learnt about the animal kingdom. And in this way -she concluded that the creature must be a member of a species -almost entirely extinct. She imagined that it was leading a -solitary existence, being able to survive the rest of its species -by hiding during the day and wandering at night. This weird -conception soon began to expand into a zoological romance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>If the girl’s imaginative impulse had been excited by her -historical studies, it could not but be roused to preternatural -activity by the stirring political events of the time. In 1812, -when she was just eight years old, occurred Napoleon’s disastrous -invasion of Russia. The absence of all news of the -army for fifteen days gave a new direction to her reverie.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>I imagined that I possessed wings, that I darted through space, -and that peering into the abysses of the horizon I discovered the -vast snows and the endless steppes of White Russia. I hovered, -took my bearings in the air, and at last spied the wandering columns -of our unhappy legions. I guided them towards France—for that -which tormented me the most was that they did not know where -they were, and that they were moving towards Asia, plunging more -and more into deserts as they turned their backs on the West.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_506'>506</span>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 Nohant, is given us in the following:—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>Once I dreamt I carried him (the Emperor) through space and -set him on the cupola of the Tuileries. There I had a long talk -with him, put him a thousand questions, and said to him, ‘If thou -prove thyself by thy answers, as people say, a monster, an ambitious -man, a drinker of blood, I will cast thee down and dash thee to pieces -on the threshold of thy palace; but if thou justify thyself, if thou -be what I have believed, the good, the great, the just Emperor, the -father of the French, I will replace thee on thy throne, and with my -sword of fire defend thee from thy enemies’. He thereupon opened -his heart and confessed that he had committed many faults from -too great a love of glory, but he swore that he loved France, and -that henceforth he would only think of the happiness of the people. -On this I touched him with my sword of fire, which rendered him -invulnerable.</p> - -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'><i>A Self-evolved Religion.</i></h3> - -<p class='c014'>Perhaps there is no domain of children’s thought and feeling -that is more remote from our older experience, and consequently -less easily understood by us, than that of religion. -Their first ideas about the supernatural are indeed, as we have -seen above, though supplied by us, not controlled by us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To most children, presumably, religious instruction comes—at -first at least—with a commanding, authoritative force. The -story of the supernatural, of the Divine Father, of Heaven, -and the rest, cannot be scrutinised by the child—save, indeed, -in respect of its inner consistency—for it tells of things unobservable -by sense, and so having no direct contact with -childish experience. Their natural tendency is to believe, in -a submissive, childish way, not troubling about the proof of -the mystery.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But even in this submissive acceptance there lies the germ -of a subsequent transformation. If the child is to believe, he -must believe in his own fashion; he must give body and reality -to the ideas of Divine majesty and goodness, and of spiritual -approach and worship. Hence the way in which children are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_507'>507</span>apt to startle the reverent and amuse the profane by divulging -their crude material fancies about things spiritual.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Such materialisation of spiritual conceptions is apt to -bring trouble to the young mind. It is all so confusing—this -exalted Personage, who nevertheless is quite unlike earthly -dignitaries, this all-encompassing and never-failing Presence, -which all the time refuses to reveal itself to eye or ear. How -much real suffering this may entail in the case of children at -once serious and imaginative we shall never know. The description -of the boy Waldo, in that strangely fascinating book, -<cite>The Story of an African Farm</cite>, kneeling bare-headed in the -blazing sun and offering his dinner on an altar to God, may -look exaggerated to some; but it is essentially true to some of -the deepest instincts of childhood. The child that believes at -all, believes intensely, and his belief grows all-commanding and -prolific of action.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While, however, it is the common tendency of children -passively to adopt their elders’ religious beliefs, merely inventing -their own modes of giving effect to them, there is a certain -amount of originality exercised in the formation of the beliefs -themselves. Stories of independent creations of a religious -cult by children are no doubt rare; 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 mind. The -early recollections of George Sand furnish what is probably -the most remarkable instance of childish daring in fashioning -a new religion, with its creed and ritual all complete.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Poor little Aurore’s religious difficulties and experiments at -solution can only be understood in the light of her confusing -surroundings. From her mother—ardent, imaginative, and of -a ‘simple and confiding faith’—she had caught some of the -glow of a fervent piety. Then she suddenly passed into the -chilling air of Nohant, where the grandmother equalled her -master Voltaire in cynical contempt of the revered mysteries. -The effect of this sudden change of temperature on the -warm young heart was, as might have been anticipated, extremely -painful. Madame Dupin at once recognised the girl’s -temperament, and saw with dismay the leaning to ‘superstition,’ -<span class='pageno' id='Page_508'>508</span>a trait which she disliked none the less for recognising -in it a bequest from the despised <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>grisette</i></span> mother. So -she applied herself with all the energy of her strong character -to counteract the child’s religious tendencies. Now -this might have proved neither a difficult nor lengthy process -if she had consistently set her face against all religious -observances. But though a disciple of Voltaire, she was also -a lady with a conspicuous social position, and had to make -her account with the polite world and the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>‘bienséances’</i></span>. So -Aurore was not only allowed but encouraged to attend Mass -and to prepare for the ‘First Communion’ like other young -ladies of her station. Madame Dupin well knew the risk she -was running with so inflammable a material, but she counted -on her own sufficiency as a prompt extinguisher of any inconveniently -attaching spark of devotion. In this way the young girl -underwent the uncommon if not unique experience of a regular -religious instruction, and, concurrently with this and from the -very hand that had imposed it, a severe training in rational -scepticism and contempt for the faith of the vulgar.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Even if Aurore had not been in her inmost heart something -of a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>dévote</i></span>, this parallel discipline in outward conformity and -inward ridicule would have been hurtful enough. As it was, it -brought into her young life all the pain of contradiction, all the -bitterness of enforced rebellion.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The attendance on Mass could hardly have seemed dangerous -to Madame Dupin. The old <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>curé</i></span> of Nohant was not troubled -with an excess of reverence. When ordering a procession, in -deference to the mandate of his archbishop, he would seize the -occasion for expressing his contempt for such mummeries. In -his congregation there was a queer old lady, who used to utter -her disapproval of the ceremony with a frankness that would -have seemed brutal even in a theatre, by exclaiming, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Quelle -diable de Messe!’</span> And the object of this criticism, on turning -to the congregation to wind up with the familiar <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>Dominus -vobiscum</i></span>, would reply in an under-tone, yet loudly enough for -Aurore’s ear, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Allez au diable!’</span> That the child attached little -solemnity to the ritual is evident from her account to the -grandmother of her first visit to the Mass: ‘I saw the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>curé</i></span> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_509'>509</span>who took his breakfast standing up before a big table, and -turned round on us now and then to call us names’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The preparation for the ‘First Communion’ was a more -serious matter. The girl had now to study the life of Christ, -and her heart was touched by the story. ‘The Gospel (she -writes) and the divine drama of the life and death of Jesus -drew from me in secret torrents of tears.’ Her grandmother, -by making now and again ‘a short, dry appeal to her reason,’ -succeeded in getting her to reject the notion of miracles and of -the divinity of Jesus. But though she was thus unable to -reach ‘full faith,’ she resolved <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>en revanche</i></span> to deny nothing -internally. Accordingly she learnt her catechism ‘like a parrot, -without seeking to understand it, and without thinking of -making fun of its mysteries’. For the rest, she felt a special -repugnance towards the confessional. She was able to recall -a few small childish faults, such as telling a lie to her mother -in order to screen the maid Rose, but feared the list would not -satisfy the confessor. Happily, however, he proved to be more -lenient than she had anticipated, and dismissed his young -penitent with a nominal penance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The day that makes an epoch in the Catholic girl’s life at -length arrived, and Aurore was decked out like the rest of the -candidates. The grandmother, having given a finishing touch -to her instructions by bidding Aurore, while going through the -act of decorum with the utmost decency, ‘not to outrage -Divine wisdom and human reason to such an extent as to -believe that she was going to eat her Creator,’ accompanied -her to the church. It was a hard ordeal. The incongruous -appearance of the deistic grandmamma in the place sufficed in -itself to throw the girl’s thoughts into disorder. She felt the -hollowness of the whole thing, and asked herself whether she -and her grandmother were not committing an act of hypocrisy. -More than once her repugnance reached such a pitch that she -thought of getting up and saying to her grandmother, ‘Enough -of this: let us go away’. But relief came in another shape. -Going over the scene of the ‘Last Supper’ in her thoughts, -she all at once recognised that the words of Jesus, ‘This is -my body and my blood,’ were nothing but a metaphor. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_510'>510</span>was too holy and too great to have wished to deceive his -disciples. This discovery of the symbolism of the rite calmed -her by removing all feeling of its grotesqueness. She left the -Communion table quite at peace. Her contentment gave a -new expression to her face, which did not escape the anxious -eyes of Madame Dupin: ‘Softened and terrified, divided -between the fear of having made me devout and that of having -caused me to lie to myself, she pressed me gently to her heart -and dropped some tears on my veil’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was out of this conflicting and agitating experience, the -full sense of the beauty of the Christian faith and the equally -full comprehension of the sceptic’s destructive logic, that there -was born in Aurore’s imagination the idea of a new private -religion with which nobody else should meddle. She gives us -the origin of this strange conception clearly enough:—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>Since all religion is a fiction (I thought), let us make a story -which may be a religion, or a religion which may be a story. I don’t -believe in my stories, but they give me just as much happiness as -though I did.<a id='r337' /><a href='#f337' class='c011'><sup>[337]</sup></a> Besides, should I chance to believe in them from -time to time, nobody will know it, nobody will dispel my illusion by -proving to me that I am dreaming.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The form and the name of her new divinity came to her in -a dream. He was to be called ‘Corambé’. His attributes -must be given in her own words:—</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>He was pure and charitable as Jesus, radiant and beautiful as -Gabriel; but it was needful to add a little of the grace of the -nymphs and of the poetry of Orpheus. Accordingly he had a less -austere form than the God of the Christian, and a more spiritual -feeling than those of Homer. And then I was obliged to complete -him by investing him on occasion with the guise of a woman, for -that which I had up to this time loved the best, and understood the -best, was a woman—my mother. And so it was often under the -semblance of a woman that he appeared to me. In short, he had -no sex, and assumed all sorts of aspects.... Corambé should have -all the attributes of physical and moral beauty, the gift of eloquence, -the omnipotent charm of the arts—above all, the magic of musical -<span class='pageno' id='Page_511'>511</span>improvisation. I wished to love him as a friend, as a sister, while -revering him as a God. I would not be afraid of him, and to this -end I desired that he should have some of our errors and weaknesses. -I sought that one which could be reconciled with his perfection, -and I found it in an excess of indulgence and kindness.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The religious idea took an historical form, and Aurore proceeded -to develop the several phases of Corambé’s mundane -existence in a series of sacred books or songs. 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 them. In each of these the deity Corambé, who had become -human on touching the earth, was brought into a fresh -group of persons. These were all good people; for although -there existed wicked ones, one did not see them, but only knew -of them by the effects of their malice and madness. Corambé -always appears, like Jesus—and one may add, like Buddha—as -the beneficent one, spending himself, and suffering persecutions -and martyrdom, in the cause of humanity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This occupation of the imagination developed ‘a kind of -gentle hallucination’. Aurore soon learned to betake herself -to her hero-divinity for comfort and delight. Even when her -peasant companions chattered around her she was able to lose -herself in her world of religious romance.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The idea of sacred books was followed by that of a temple -and a ritual. For this purpose she chose a little wood in her -grandmother’s garden, a perfect thicket of young trees and -undergrowth, into which nobody ever penetrated, and which, -during the season of leaves, was proof against any spying eye. -Here, in a tiny, natural chamber of green, carpeted with a magnificent -moss, she proceeded to erect an altar against a tree stem, -decking it with shells and other ornaments and crowning it -with a wreath of flowers suspended from a branch above. -The little priestess, having made her temple, sat down on the -moss to consider the question of sacrifices.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>To kill animals, or even insects, in order to please him, appeared -to me barbarous and unworthy of his ideal kindliness. I persuaded -myself to do just the opposite—that is, to restore life and liberty on -his altar to all the creatures that I could procure.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_512'>512</span>Her offering included butterflies, lizards, little green frogs, -and birds. These she would put into a box, lay it on the -altar, and then open it, ‘after having invoked the good genius -of liberty and protection’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In these mimic rites, hardly removed from genuine childish -play, the doubt-agitated girl found repose: ‘I had then delicious -reveries, and while seeking the marvellous, which had -for me so great an attraction, I began to find the vague idea -and the pure feeling of a religion according to my heart’.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the sweet sanctuary did not long remain inviolate. -One day her boy playmate came to look for her, and tracked -her to her secret grove. He was awe-struck at the sight, and -exclaimed: ‘Ah, miss, the pretty little altar of the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>Fête-Dieu</i></span>!’ -He was for embellishing it still further, but she felt the charm -was destroyed.</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>From the instant that other feet than mine had trodden his -sanctuary, Corambé ceased to dwell in it. The dryads and the -cherubim deserted it, and it seemed to me as if my ceremonies and -my sacrifices were from this time only childishness, that I had not -in truth been in earnest. I destroyed the temple with as much care -as I had built it; I dug a hole at the foot of the tree, where I buried -the garlands, the shells, and all the rustic ornaments, under the -ruins of the altar.</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>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 direction. The boy’s mind, it will -be remembered, had been greatly exercised with the religious -problem, first of all under the impression of horror caused by -the earthquake at Lisbon, and later from having to listen to -accounts of the new sects—Separatists, Moravians, and the -rest—who sought a closer communion with the deity than was -possible through the somewhat cold ritual of the established -religion. Stirred by their example, he tried also to realise a -closer approach to the Divine Being. He conceived him, he -tells us, as standing in immediate connexion with Nature. -So he invented a form of worship in which natural products -were to represent the world, and a flame burning over these -to symbolise the aspirations of man’s heart. A handsome -<span class='pageno' id='Page_513'>513</span>pyramid-shaped music-stand was chosen for altar, and on the -shelves of this the successive stages in the evolution of Nature -were to be indicated. The rite was to be carried out at sunrise, -the altar-flame to be secured by means of fumigating -pastils and a burning-glass. The first performance was a -success, but in trying to repeat it the boy-priest omitted to put -the pastils into a cup, so the lacquered stand, with its beautiful -gold flowers, was disastrously burnt—a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>contretemps</i></span> which -took away all spirit for new offerings.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In comparing these two instances of childish worship, one -is struck perhaps more by their contrast than by their similarity. -Each of the two incidents illustrates, no doubt, a true -childish aspiration towards the great Unseen, and also an -impulse to invent a form of worship which should harmonise -with and express the little worshipper’s individual -thoughts. But here the resemblance ceases. The boy-priest -felt, apparently, nothing of the human side of religion: he -was the true precursor of Goethe, the large-eyed man of science -and the poet of pantheism, and found his delight in symbolising -the orderliness of Nature’s work as a whole, and its Divine -purpose and control. Aurore Dupin, on the other hand, -approached religion on the human and emotional side, the -side which seems more appropriate to her sex. She thought of -her deity as intently occupied with humanity and its humble -kinsfolk in the sentient world; and she endowed him above all -other qualities with generosity and pitifulness, even to excess. -Goethe seems to represent the speculative, Aurore the humanitarian, -element in the religious impulse of the child.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To follow Aurore into her later religious experiences in the -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">‘Couvent des Anglaises’</span> would be clearly to go beyond the -limits of these studies of childhood. I hope I may have quoted -enough from the first chapters of the autobiography to illustrate -not only their deep human and literary interest, but their special -value to the psychological student.</p> - -<hr class='c015' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f332'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r332'>332</a>. A selection of scenes from the story, with notes, has been prepared -for young English students by M. Eugène Joël, under the title, -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Enfance de George Sand</cite></span> (Rivingtons).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f333'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r333'>333</a>. What George Sand here writes about the intrusion of doubt and -disgust into the child’s feeling for the doll does not, I think, contradict -what was said above in chapter ii. on the intensity and -persistence of his faith. In truth these are illustrated in the very -resistance to the occasional attack of the child’s nascent reason, just -as they are illustrated in the resistance to others’ sceptical assaults.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f334'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r334'>334</a>. Compare above, p. <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f335'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r335'>335</a>. Compare this with other accounts of the first impression of -death given above, p. <a href='#Page_237'>237</a> f.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f336'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r336'>336</a>. A blue rose was for a long time the favourite dream of Balzac.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f337'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r337'>337</a>. She here refers to the stories she had long been accustomed to -compose for her own private delectation.</p> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_515'>515</span> - <h2 class='c004'>BIBLIOGRAPHY.</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c017'>(A) GENERAL WORKS ON CHILD PSYCHOLOGY.</h3> - -<p class='c018'>D. Tiedemann, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Memoiren</cite></span> (memoirs of a two-year-old son, the biologist -F. Tiedemann, b. 1781). English Translation: <cite>Record of Infant -Life</cite>, Syracuse, U.S.A. French Translation by B. Perez: <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Th. -Tiedemann et la science de l’enfant</cite></span>, 1881.</p> - -<p class='c019'>J. E. Löbisch, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Entwicklungsgeschichte der Seele des Kindes</cite></span>, 1851.</p> - -<p class='c019'>B. Sigismund, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Kind und Welt</cite></span>, 1856.</p> - -<p class='c019'>C. Darwin, “Biographical Sketch of an Infant,” in <cite>Mind</cite>, vol. ii., 1877, -pp. 285-294.</p> - -<p class='c019'>B. Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Les trois premières années de l’enfant</cite></span>, 1878. English Translation -by Miss A. M. Christie (Sonnenschein & Co., London).</p> - -<p class='c020'>With this should be read the following by the same author, -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education dès le Berçeau</cite></span>, 1880; <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Enfant de trois à sept ans</cite></span>, 1886.</p> - -<p class='c019'>W. Preyer, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die Seele des Kindes</cite></span>, 1882; fourth edition, 1895. English -Translation, by H. W. Brown, in two parts (published by Appleton -& Co., of New York); also selections from the same under the -title <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die geistige Entwicklung in der ersten Kindheit</cite></span>. English -Translation by H. W. Brown (Appleton & Co.).</p> - -<p class='c019'>F. Tracy, <cite>The Psychology of Childhood</cite> (Boston, U.S., 1893; second -edition, 1894).</p> - -<p class='c019'>G. Compayré, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Evolution intellectuelle et morale de l’Enfant</cite></span>, 1893.</p> - -<p class='c019'>M. W. Shinn, <cite>Notes on the Development of a Child</cite> (Berkeley, U.S.A., -1893-94).</p> - -<p class='c019'>Paola Lombroso, <span lang="it" xml:lang="it"><cite>Saggi di Psicologia del Bambino</cite></span> (Roma, 1894).</p> - -<p class='c019'>J. M. Baldwin, <cite>Mental Development in the Child and the Race</cite>, 1895.</p> - -<h3 class='c017'>(B) SPECIAL WORKS.</h3> - -<h4 class='c021'>(1) <span class='sc'>Imagination and Play.</span></h4> - -<p class='c018'>J. Klaiber, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Das Märchen und die kindliche Phantasie</cite></span>, 1866.</p> - -<p class='c019'>F. Queyrat, <i>L’imagination et ses variétés chez l’Enfant</i>, 1893.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_516'>516</span>Reference may also be made to the works of Perez and Compayré -already named, to Madame Necker’s <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Education progressive</cite></span>, to -George Sand’s <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Histoire de ma vie</cite></span>, and to the writings of Froebel and -his followers on the nature of Play.</p> - -<h4 class='c021'>(2) <span class='sc'>Thoughts and Reasonings.</span></h4> - -<p class='c018'>E. Egger, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Observations et reflexions sur le developpement de l’intelligence -et du langage chez les enfants</cite></span>, 1881.</p> - -<p class='c019'><cite>Thoughts and Reasonings of Children.</cite> Classified by H. W. Brown. -Reprinted from the <cite>Pedagogical Seminary</cite>, vol. ii., No. 3 (Worcester, -U.S.A.).</p> - -<p class='c001'>See also the works of Preyer, Perez, and Compayré mentioned -above.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Reference may further be made to the inquiries into the contents -of children’s minds carried out in Germany and elsewhere: see -Bartholmai, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Psychologische Statistik,”</span> in Stoy’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Allgem. Schulzeitung</cite></span>, -1871; Lange, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Der Vorstellungskreis unserer sechsjährigen Kleinen,”</span> -in Stoy’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Allgem. Schulzeitung</cite></span>, 1879; Hartmann, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Analyse des kindischen -Gedankenkreises</cite></span>, 2<sup>e</sup> auflage, 1890; Dr. Stanley Hall, ‘Contents -of Children’s Minds,’ <cite>Princeton Review</cite>, New Series, vol. <span class='fss'>II</span>, 1883. p. -249, and <cite>Pedagogical Seminary</cite>, vol. i., No. 2, and <cite>The Contents of -Children’s Minds on entering School</cite>, 1894.</p> - -<h4 class='c021'>(3) <span class='sc'>Language.</span></h4> - -<p class='c018'>A. Keber, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Zur Philosophie der Kindersprache</cite></span>, 1868; 2<sup>e</sup> Aufgabe, 1890.</p> - -<p class='c019'>H. Taine, “On the Acquisition of Language by Children,” <cite>Mind</cite>, ii., -1877, pp. 252-259.</p> - -<p class='c019'>Sir F. Pollock, “An Infant’s Progress in Language,” <cite>Mind</cite>, iii., 1878, -pp. 392-401.</p> - -<p class='c019'>F. Schultze, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die Sprache des Kindes</cite></span>, 1880.</p> - -<p class='c019'>E. Egger, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Observations et reflexions sur le developpement de l’intelligence -et du langage chez les enfants</cite></span>, 1881.</p> - -<p class='c020'>L. Treitel, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Ueber Sprachstörung und Sprachentwicklung</cite></span>, Berlin, 1892.</p> - -<p class='c019'>H. Gutzmann, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Des Kindes Sprache und Sprachfehler</cite></span>, 1894.</p> - -<p class='c019'>J. Dewey, “The Psychology of Infant Language,” <cite>Psychological -Review</cite>, 1894.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Other authorities on children’s language are quoted by Preyer in -connexion with his own full account of the subject, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die Seele des -Kindes</cite></span>, 4<sup>e</sup> Auflage, Dritter Theil, vi.</p> - -<h4 class='c021'>(4) <span class='sc'>Fear.</span></h4> - -<p class='c014'>Reference can be made here to Locke’s <cite>Thoughts on Education</cite>, -Rousseau’s <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Emile</cite></span>, and to the works of Madame Necker, George Sand, -Preyer, Perez, and Compayré, already named.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_517'>517</span> - <h4 class='c021'>(5) <span class='sc'>Moral Characteristics.</span></h4> -</div> - -<p class='c014'>These are dealt with by Locke, Rousseau, Madame Necker, by -Perez and Compayré in the works already named, also by Perez -in his volume <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Le Caractère de l’enfant à l’homme</cite></span>, and by most -writers on Education. The subject of Children’s Lies is more -fully dealt with by G. Stanley Hall, in <cite>The American Journal of -Psychology</cite>, vol. iii., 1, and <cite>The Pedagogical Seminary</cite>, vol. i., 2, and -by G. Compayré, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’Evolution intell. et morale de l’enfant</cite></span>, chap. xiv.</p> - -<h4 class='c021'>(6) <span class='sc'>Art.</span></h4> - -<p class='c018'>B. Perez, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’art et la poésie chez l’enfant</cite></span>, 1888.</p> - -<h4 class='c021'>(7) <span class='sc'>Drawing.</span></h4> - -<p class='c018'>Corrado Ricci, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>L’arte dei Bambini</cite></span> (Bologna, 1887).</p> - -<p class='c019'>J. Passy, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Note sur les dessins d’enfants,”</span> <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Revue Philosophique</cite></span>, 1891.</p> - -<p class='c019'>Earl Barnes, “A Study of Children’s Drawings,” <cite>Pedagogical Seminary</cite>, -vol. ii., No. 3, p. 455 ff.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The names of other books on child-psychology may be found in -Tracy’s volume, <cite>The Psychology of Childhood</cite>, p. 162 ff.; in the <cite>Handbook -of the Illinois Society for Child Study</cite>, 1895; in B. Hartmann’s -article, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Alterstypen,”</span> in Rein’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Encyclop. Handbuch der Pädagogik</cite></span>, -Band i., p. 49; and in C. Shubert’s Essay, <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Elternfragen,”</span> in Rein’s -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Aus dem pädagog. Universitätsseminar zu Jena</cite></span>, 1894.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_519'>519</span> - <h2 class='c022'>INDEX.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c023'>A.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Abstraction, abstract ideas, beginnings of, <a href='#Page_443'>443</a>; - <ul> - <li>growth of, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='ACTING'></a>Acting, relation of, to play, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>; - <ul> - <li>as early form of art, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</li> - <li>first attempts at, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a>, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#DRAMATIC'>Dramatic representation</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Activity, action. <i>See</i> <a href='#MOVEMENT'>Movement</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Adjectives, first use of, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='ADORNMENT'></a>Adornment, child’s instinct of, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#DRESS'>Dress</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='AESTHETIC'></a>Æsthetic aspect of child, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>; - <ul> - <li>feelings of child, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#ART'>Art</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Affirmation, sign of, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>After-images, child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_465'>465</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Altruism, germs of, in child, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#SYMPATHY'>Sympathy</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Amiel, H. F., <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Andree, R., <a href='#f240'>337 note</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#f248'>345 note</a>, <a href='#f248'>348 note</a>, <a href='#f255'>352 note</a>, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>, 381 note.</li> - <li class='c024'>Anger, early manifestations of, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Animal, child compared with, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>; - <ul> - <li>ideas of child respecting, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>;</li> - <li>dread of musical sounds by, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>;</li> - <li>fear of uncaused movements by, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>;</li> - <li>child’s fear of, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li> - <li>child’s ill-treatment of, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>;</li> - <li>his sympathy with, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a>, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>;</li> - <li>recognition of portraits by, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>;</li> - <li>care of body by, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>;</li> - <li>child’s mode of drawing, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>;</li> - <li>his liking for, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='ANIMISM'></a>Animism, of nature-man, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>; - <ul> - <li>traces of, in child-thought, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Anthropocentric ideas of child, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_520'>520</span>Anthropomorphic ideas of children, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Anti-social tendencies of child, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='ANTITHESIS'></a>Antithesis, child’s use of, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Argument. <i>See</i> <a href='#DIALECTIC'>Dialectic</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Arms, child’s manner of drawing, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>; - <ul> - <li>treatment of, in profile representation, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='ART'></a>Art; - <ul> - <li>art-impulse of child, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>;</li> - <li>first responses to natural beauty, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>;</li> - <li>pleasure of light and colour, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>;</li> - <li>germ of æsthetic feeling for form, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>;</li> - <li>feeling for flowers, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;</li> - <li>feeling for scenery, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>;</li> - <li>rudimentary appreciation of art, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>;</li> - <li>effects of music, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>;</li> - <li>interpretation of pictures, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>;</li> - <li>understanding of stories, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>;</li> - <li>realism of child, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>;</li> - <li>attitude towards dramatic spectacle, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>;</li> - <li>feeling for comedy and tragedy, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>;</li> - <li>beginnings of art-production, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>;</li> - <li>love of adornment, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>;</li> - <li>grace in action, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>;</li> - <li>relation of art to play, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>;</li> - <li>germ of imitative art, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</li> - <li>invention, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>;</li> - <li>roots of artistic impulse, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Artfulness of children, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='ARTICULATION'></a>Articulation, first rudimentary, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>; - <ul> - <li>transition to true, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>;</li> - <li>defects of early, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>;</li> - <li>process of, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>;</li> - <li>growth of, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>, <a href='#Page_427'>427</a>, <a href='#Page_439'>439</a>, <a href='#Page_467'>467</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LANGUAGE'>Language</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Assertion, child’s manner of making, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>, <a href='#Page_471'>471</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#SENTENCE'>Sentence</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Assimilation. <i>See</i> <a href='#SIMILARITY'>Similarity</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>—— phonetic, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Association of ideas, in imaginative transformation of objects, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>; - <ul> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_521'>521</span>seen in extension of names, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</li> - <li>first manifestations of, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Assonance, in early vocalisation, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>B.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Baby, new-born, helpless condition of, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Baby-worship, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Bagehot, Walter, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Baldwin, J. Mark, <a href='#r4'>11 note</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#r24'>40 note</a>, <a href='#r232'>335 note</a>, <a href='#r327'>484 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Barnes, Earl, <a href='#f56'>125 note</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#f268'>368 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Beard, drawing of, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Beauty. <i>See</i> <a href='#AESTHETIC'>Æsthetic</a> <a href='#FEELINGS'>Feeling</a> and <a href='#ART'>Art</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Binet, A., <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Birth, child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#ORIGINS'>Origins</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Black, instinctive dislike of, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>, <a href='#Page_497'>497</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='BODY'></a>Body, relation of, to self, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>; - <ul> - <li>treatment of, in early drawings, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>;</li> - <li>representation of, in profile, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>;</li> - <li>drawing of animal, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>;</li> - <li>first examination of, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Bridgman, Laura, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Bright objects, attraction of, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='BROWN'></a>Brown, H. W., <a href='#f10'>22 note</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='BURIAL'></a>Burial, child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>; - <ul> - <li>his shrinking from, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a>, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Burnett, F. H., <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Burnham, W. H., <a href='#f14'>27 note</a>, <a href='#f14'>30 note</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>C.</p> - -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Canton, W., <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#f105'>173 note</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Catlin, G., <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='CAUSE'></a>Causation, cause, first inquiries into, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>; - <ul> - <li>child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>;</li> - <li>effect and, confused, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Ceremonial observances of child, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Champneys, F. H., <a href='#f134'>196 note</a>, <a href='#f298'>420 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_522'>522</span>Child, modern interest in, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>; - <ul> - <li>scientific inquiry into, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>;</li> - <li>psychological investigation of, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>;</li> - <li>relation of, to race, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>;</li> - <li>concern of education with, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>;</li> - <li>observation of, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>;</li> - <li>qualifications for observing, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>;</li> - <li>individuality of, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Coleridge, Hartley, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Colour, order of discrimination of, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>; - <ul> - <li>child’s delight in, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>;</li> - <li>preferences for certain, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>;</li> - <li>liking for contrast of, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>;</li> - <li>first observation of, <a href='#Page_422'>422</a>;</li> - <li>recognition of affinities of, <a href='#Page_465'>465</a>;</li> - <li>recognition of opposition of, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Coloured hearing, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Comic, sense of the. <i>See</i> <a href='#FUN'>Fun</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Commands, child’s first use of, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LAW'>Law</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Comparison, beginnings of, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Compayré, G., <a href='#f20'>37 note</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#f99'>169 note</a>, <a href='#f103'>173 note</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Concretism, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Contrast, early use of. <i>See</i> <a href='#ANTITHESIS'>Antithesis</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Contrast of colours, early perception of, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Conversation, child’s first attempt at, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Cooke, E., <a href='#f230'>333 note</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#f275'>374 note</a>, <a href='#f276'>375 note</a>, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Courage, attempt to inculcate, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Creation. <i>See</i> <a href='#ORIGINS'>Origin of things</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Cruelty, towards children, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>; - <ul> - <li>nature of children’s, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Crying, of child at birth, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>; - <ul> - <li>precedes smiling, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='CURIOSITY'></a>Curiosity, as characteristic of child, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>; - <ul> - <li>as counteractive of fear, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</li> - <li>as motive to maltreatment of animals, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#QUESTIONING'>Questioning</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Custom, child’s respect for, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>D.</p> - -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Dark, child’s fear of, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Destructiveness, as characteristic of child, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Darwin, C., <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#f165'>233 note</a>, <a href='#f289'>407 note</a>, <a href='#f292'>411 note</a>, <a href='#f296'>417 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Deaf-mutes, gesture language of, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_523'>523</span>Death, child’s ideas respecting, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_463'>463</a>; - <ul> - <li>his feeling on witnessing, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>;</li> - <li>dread of losing mother by, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>;</li> - <li>his shrinking from, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Defiance. <i>See</i> <a href='#LAW'>Law</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>De Quincey, T., <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='DIALECTIC'></a>Dialectic, child’s skill in, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>, <a href='#Page_460'>460</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Dickens, Charles, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='DIFFERENCE'></a>Difference, dissimilarity, perception of, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Disappearance, puzzle of, for the child, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>; - <ul> - <li>child’s first ideas of, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='DISCIPLINE'></a>Discipline, moral, lying as related to, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>; - <ul> - <li>resistance to, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>;</li> - <li>criticism of, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>;</li> - <li>child’s imitation of, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>;</li> - <li>problem of, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Discrimination. <i>See</i> <a href='#DIFFERENCE'>Difference</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Disobedience, child’s attitude of. <i>See</i> <a href='#LAW'>Law</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Distance, child’s inadequate ideas of, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>; - <ul> - <li>first perception of, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='DOLL'></a>Doll, place of, in child’s play, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>; - <ul> - <li>treatment of, by child, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>;</li> - <li>illusion of, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>;</li> - <li>fear of, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Domenech, Abbé, 385 note.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='DRAMATIC'></a>Dramatic representation, effects of, on child, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Drawings of children; - <ul> - <li>general characteristics of, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>;</li> - <li>crude beginnings of, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>;</li> - <li>first attempts at human figure, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>;</li> - <li>treatment of head, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>;</li> - <li>facial features, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>;</li> - <li>evolution of features, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>;</li> - <li>treatment of the trunk, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>;</li> - <li>of the arms, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>;</li> - <li>of the hand, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>;</li> - <li>of the legs, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>;</li> - <li>of the foot, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>;</li> - <li>introduction of profile elements, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>;</li> - <li>mixed schemes of human figure, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>;</li> - <li>representation of action, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>;</li> - <li>treatment of accessories, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>;</li> - <li>of animals, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>;</li> - <li>of man on horseback, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>;</li> - <li>of man in boat, house, etc., <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>;</li> - <li>of house, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>;</li> - <li><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><i>résumé</i></span> of facts, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>;</li> - <li>defects of, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>;</li> - <li>showing what is invisible, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>;</li> - <li>explanation of facts, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</li> - <li>mental process involved in, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</li> - <li>child’s observation as reflected in, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_524'>524</span>his ideas of objects as illustrated in, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>;</li> - <li>rudiments of artistic value in, <a href='#Page_396'>396</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Dreams, child’s first ideas of, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>; - <ul> - <li>as excitants of fear, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>;</li> - <li>early examples of, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a>, <a href='#Page_506'>506</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='DRESS'></a>Dress, child’s dislike of new, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>; - <ul> - <li>his treatment of, in drawings, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Droz, G., <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>E.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Ears, drawing of, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Earth, the, child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Echo, childish interpretation of, <a href='#Page_496'>496</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Education, importance of child-study for, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Egger, E., <a href='#f25'>40 note</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#f51'>107 note</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Egoism of child. <i>See</i> <a href='#MORALITY'>Morality</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Egyptians, drawings of, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Emotion. <i>See</i> <a href='#FEELINGS'>Feelings</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Envy, as childish characteristic, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Erasmus, D., <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Evolution, doctrine of, bearing of, on child-study, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>; - <ul> - <li>on children’s fear, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>;</li> - <li>on their angry outbursts, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>;</li> - <li>illustrated in child’s drawings, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Exaggeration, child’s tendency to, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Excuses, child’s invention of, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Experiment, carrying out of, on child, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Expression of feeling, through sounds, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>; - <ul> - <li>original form of, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Eyes, drawings of, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>; - <ul> - <li>treatment of, in profile, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>;</li> - <li>treatment of animal, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>;</li> - <li>learning to control movements of, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>F.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'><a id='FAIRIES'></a>Fairies, child’s belief in, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_454'>454</a>, <a href='#Page_466'>466</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_525'>525</span>Fancy. <i>See</i> <a href='#IMAGINATION'>Imagination</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Fatalism, traces of, in child-thought, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Fear, in children, the observation of, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>; - <ul> - <li>startling effects of sounds, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>;</li> - <li>feeling of bodily insecurity, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>;</li> - <li>of visible objects, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li> - <li>of strange things, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>;</li> - <li>of strange persons, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>;</li> - <li>of new clothes, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>;</li> - <li>of the sea, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;</li> - <li>of ugly dolls, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>;</li> - <li>of moving things, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>;</li> - <li>of shadows, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</li> - <li>of animals, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li> - <li>of the dark, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>;</li> - <li>explanation of, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>;</li> - <li>comparison of child’s with animal’s, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>;</li> - <li>with savage’s, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>;</li> - <li>with abnormal terror, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</li> - <li>action of experience upon, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</li> - <li>palliatives of, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>;</li> - <li>of bath, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a>;</li> - <li>of lamp, <a href='#Page_493'>493</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='FEELINGS'></a>Feelings of child, problem of studying, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>; - <ul> - <li>expression of, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Flowers, child’s love of, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Folk-etymology, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Foot, child’s mode of drawing, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>; - <ul> - <li>representation of, in profile, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Form, child’s observation of, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_421'>421</a>, <a href='#Page_465'>465</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Fry, I., <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='FUN'></a>Fun, child’s sense of, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a>, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c013'>G.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Galton, F., <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Games. <i>See</i> <a href='#PLAY'>Play</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>General ideas, generalisation, first rudiments of, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>; - <ul> - <li>early examples of, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='GESTURE'></a>Gesture, early use of, as signs, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>; - <ul> - <li>of deaf-mutes, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Ghosts, germ of fear of, in child, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='GOD'></a>God; - <ul> - <li>child’s ideas of his form, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>;</li> - <li>of his dwelling-place, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>;</li> - <li>of his creative activity, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a>;</li> - <li>of his omniscience, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>;</li> - <li>of his omnipresence, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>;</li> - <li>of his goodness, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>;</li> - <li>of his eternity, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>;</li> - <li>of his triune being, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_526'>526</span>Goethe, J. W. von, <a href='#f171'>241 note</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_512'>512</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Goltz, B., <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#f117'>185 note</a>, <a href='#f119'>186 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Government. <i>See</i> <a href='#DISCIPLINE'>Discipline</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Grace of child, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Grammatical forms, child’s indifference to, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='GRASPING'></a>Grasping, movement of, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Grave. <i>See</i> <a href='#BURIAL'>Burial</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Greed of child, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Grosse, E., <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Growth, ascribed by child to lifeless things, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>; - <ul> - <li>child’s inquiries into, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>;</li> - <li>his ideas of, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>;</li> - <li>and subsequent shrinkage, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Guyau, J. M., <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>H.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Habit, influence of, seen in children’s drawings, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Hair, drawing of, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Hale, Horatio, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Hall, G. Stanley, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#f60'>135 note</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#f190'>264 note</a>, <a href='#f242'>338 note</a>, <a href='#f254'>350 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Hallucination, traces of, in child, <a href='#Page_423'>423</a>, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>, <a href='#Page_511'>511</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Hands, child’s manner of drawing, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>; - <ul> - <li>first use of, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>;</li> - <li>discrimination of right and left, <a href='#Page_484'>484</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Happiness of child, problem of, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Harte, Bret, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Heaven, children’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_479'>479</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Heavenly bodies, children’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Heine, H., <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Hell, child’s fear of, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Helpfulness of child, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>History, child’s treatment of, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Holmes, Oliver Wendell, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Hugo, Victor, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Humane feelings, compassion for animals, etc. <i>See</i> <a href='#SYMPATHY'>Sympathy</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Humorous aspect of child, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Hypnotic suggestion, hypnotism, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'><span class='pageno' id='Page_527'>527</span>I.</p> - -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>‘I,’ ‘me,’ first use of, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_428'>428</a>, <a href='#Page_439'>439</a>, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Idealism, traces of, in child, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Ideas of children. <i>See</i> <a href='#IMAGINATION'>Imagination</a> and <a href='#THOUGHT'>Thought</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Illusion, in transformation of objects by imagination, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>; - <ul> - <li>in play, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>;</li> - <li>tendency to morbid, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Image. <i>See</i> <a href='#SEMBLANCE'>Semblance</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='IMAGINATION'></a>Imagination, age of, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>; - <ul> - <li>differences in power of, among children, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>;</li> - <li>transformation of objects of sense by, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_500'>500</a>;</li> - <li>relation of, to play, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>;</li> - <li>free projection of images of, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</li> - <li>and Storyland, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>;</li> - <li>connexion between, and thought, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>;</li> - <li>as element in fear, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>;</li> - <li>relation of, to lying, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>;</li> - <li>early development of, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Imitation, imitative movement; - <ul> - <li>in early language-signs, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>;</li> - <li>in early forms of sympathy, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>;</li> - <li>beginnings of, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Incantation, playing at, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Indignation, moral, manifestations of, in child, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Individuality of child, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Ingelow, Jean, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Inheritance of fear, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Inquisitiveness. <i>See</i> <a href='#CURIOSITY'>Curiosity</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Insensibility of child, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Instinct, in articulation, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>; - <ul> - <li>in fear, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</li> - <li>in angry passion, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;</li> - <li>in truth-telling, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>;</li> - <li>in respect for law, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Invention, artistic, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>; - <ul> - <li>practical, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a>;</li> - <li>of language forms, <i>see</i> <a href='#LANGUAGE'>Language</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>J.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Janet, Pierre, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a>.</p> -<p class='c025'>K.</p> - -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Kipling, Rudyard, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Kratz, H. E., <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'><span class='pageno' id='Page_528'>528</span>L.</p> - -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>La Fontaine, J. de, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Lamb, Charles, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='LANGUAGE'></a>Language, linguistics of child; - <ul> - <li>early instinctive sounds, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>;</li> - <li>transition to true speech, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>;</li> - <li>imitation of sounds, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>;</li> - <li>original inventions of language signs, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>;</li> - <li>transformation of our sounds, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_419'>419</a>;</li> - <li>process of learning to speak, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li> - <li>transposition of sounds of words, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>;</li> - <li>reduplication of sounds, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>;</li> - <li>assimilation of sounds, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>;</li> - <li>logical side of language, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</li> - <li>first use of general signs, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</li> - <li>spontaneous extension of verbal signs, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>;</li> - <li>designation of correlative ideas, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_468'>468</a>;</li> - <li>formation of compound names, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>;</li> - <li>other inventions, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>, <a href='#Page_468'>468</a>;</li> - <li>first sentences, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>;</li> - <li>inversion of order of words, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>;</li> - <li>mode of expressing negation, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>;</li> - <li>early solecisms, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>;</li> - <li>use of pronouns, ‘I,’ ‘you,’ 178, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a>;</li> - <li>trying to get at our meanings, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>;</li> - <li>word-play, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</li> - <li>stickling for accuracy of words, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_466'>466</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Laughter. <i>See</i> <a href='#FUN'>Fun</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='LAW'></a>Law, early struggles with, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>; - <ul> - <li>devices for evading, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>;</li> - <li>instinctive respect for, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a>;</li> - <li>relation of custom to, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>;</li> - <li>child’s spontaneous extension of, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>;</li> - <li>his jealous insistence on, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>;</li> - <li>his voluntary submission to, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Law-giver, the wise, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Leg, child’s mode of drawing, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>; - <ul> - <li>representation of, in profile, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>;</li> - <li>treatment of animal’s, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Liberty, respect for, in moral training, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>; - <ul> - <li>child’s love of, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='LIES'></a>Lies, lying, viewed as characteristic of child, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>; - <ul> - <li>early forms of, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_432'>432</a>, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>;</li> - <li>permanent, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</li> - <li>contagiousness of, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</li> - <li>shrinking from, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_529'>529</span>Likeness. <i>See</i> <a href='#PORTRAIT'>Portrait</a> and <a href='#SIMILARITY'>Similarity</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Locke, John, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Lombroso, P., <a href='#f54'>119 note</a>, <a href='#f96'>166 note</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#f181'>255 note</a>, <a href='#f193'>271 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Loti, Pierre, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Lubbock, Sir John, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>M.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Maillet, E., <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Make-believe, as characteristic of child, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_434'>434</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#PLAY'>Play</a> and <a href='#ACTING'>Acting</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Man, first drawings of, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>; - <ul> - <li>first use of name, <a href='#Page_425'>425</a>;</li> - <li>theory of creation of, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Marshall, H. Rutgers, 327 note.</li> - <li class='c024'>Maspero, G., 369 note.</li> - <li class='c024'>Materialism of child, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_507'>507</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Memory, of our early experiences, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>; - <ul> - <li>of words of story, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_466'>466</a>;</li> - <li>tenacity of children’s, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</li> - <li>illusion of, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>;</li> - <li>beginnings of permanent, <a href='#Page_437'>437</a>, <a href='#Page_481'>481</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Metaphor, in children’s use of language, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Metathesis, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Minto, W., <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='MIRROR'></a>Mirror-reflexions, as aiding in growth of self-knowledge, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>; - <ul> - <li>understanding of, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Moral depravity, doctrine of, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='MORALITY'></a>Morality of child, question of, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>; - <ul> - <li>anti-social tendencies, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_473'>473</a>;</li> - <li>altruistic tendencies, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>;</li> - <li>lying, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>;</li> - <li>summary of moral traits, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Motet, A. A., 261 note.</li> - <li class='c024'>Mother, child’s love of, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>, <a href='#Page_498'>498</a>; - <ul> - <li>first recognition of, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Mouth, modes of drawing, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>; - <ul> - <li>carrying objects to, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;</li> - <li>use of, in turning key, <a href='#Page_435'>435</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='MOVEMENT'></a>Movement, as sign of life, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Movements, muscular, in early attempts to draw, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>; - <ul> - <li>first aimless, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>;</li> - <li>early purposive, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Müller, F. Max, <a href='#f74'>147 note</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_530'>530</span>Multitude of things, child’s perplexity at, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Music, musical sounds, disconcerting effect of, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>; - <ul> - <li>enjoyment of, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_492'>492</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Myth, child’s belief in, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#STORY'>Story</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>N.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Names, asking for, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LANGUAGE'>Language</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Natural phenomena, nature; - <ul> - <li>child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_469'>469</a>, <a href='#Page_482'>482</a>;</li> - <li>early æsthetic feeling for, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Neck, drawing of, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Negation, early verbal forms of, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_442'>442</a>; - <ul> - <li>early gesture for, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Neophobia, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Nervous system of child, imperfect development of, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>; - <ul> - <li>sounds as disturbing shock to, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Noirée, L., 144 note.</li> - <li class='c024'>Nose, modes of drawing, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Novelty, effect of, on children’s feeling, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Number, disregard of, in drawing, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>; - <ul> - <li>first ideas of, <a href='#Page_456'>456</a>;</li> - <li>growth of clearer ideas of, <a href='#Page_468'>468</a>, <a href='#Page_484'>484</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>O.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Obedience and disobedience of children, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LAW'>Law</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Observation, of children’s minds, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>; - <ul> - <li>characteristics of children’s, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;</li> - <li>selectiveness of, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</li> - <li>defects of, in children, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>;</li> - <li>early examples of, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>, <a href='#Page_464'>464</a>, <a href='#Page_465'>465</a>, <a href='#Page_480'>480</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Onomatopoetic sounds, in children’s language, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='ORIGINS'></a>Origin of things, child’s inquiries into, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>, <a href='#Page_483'>483</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>; - <ul> - <li>his theories respecting, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_478'>478</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Ornament. <i>See</i> <a href='#ADORNMENT'>Adornment</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>P.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Passy, J., <a href='#f243'>339 note</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Payn, James, <a href='#f5'>12 note</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#f152'>215 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Peasants, association with, <a href='#Page_504'>504</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Perez, Bernard, <a href='#f49'>106 note</a>, <a href='#f128'>193 note</a>, <a href='#f133'>195 note</a>, <a href='#f137'>199 note</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#f185'>260 note</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>, <a href='#f204'>305 note</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#f296'>417 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_531'>531</span>Perplexity, child’s feeling of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_463'>463</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Personal identity, altered personality; - <ul> - <li>child’s notions respecting, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_445'>445</a>, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Personification. <i>See</i> <a href='#VIVIFICATION'>Vivification</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Pestalozzi, J. H., <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Petrie, W. M. F., <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>, <a href='#f212'>311 note</a>, <a href='#f267'>366 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='PHOTOGRAPHS'></a>Photographs, child’s feeling about, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Pictures, treatment of, by child, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>; - <ul> - <li>dislike of cruel, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>;</li> - <li>interpretation of, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Pitt-Rivers, A., General, 336, <a href='#f240'>340 note</a>, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Pity, for animals. <i>See</i> <a href='#SYMPATHY'>Sympathy</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='PLAY'></a>Play, and imaginative realisation, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_438'>438</a>, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a>, <a href='#Page_501'>501</a>; - <ul> - <li>imitative, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>;</li> - <li>as acting a part, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>;</li> - <li>part of surroundings in, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</li> - <li>solitary, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>;</li> - <li>with toys, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>;</li> - <li>illusion of, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>;</li> - <li>relation of, to art, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Please, wish to, as social tendency in child, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>; - <ul> - <li>as leading to exaggerated statement, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Pleasure and pain, instinctive expression of, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>; - <ul> - <li>action of, as motives, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Pollock, Sir F., <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='PORTRAIT'></a>Portrait, dog’s fear of, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>; - <ul> - <li>recognition of, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#PHOTOGRAPHS'>Photographs</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Position, of pictures, child’s indifference to, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>; - <ul> - <li>his neglect of relative, in drawing, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Postgate, J. P., <a href='#f78'>149 note</a>, <a href='#f91'>157 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Power, love of, as element in childish cruelty, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Prayer, child’s manner of, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>, <a href='#Page_477'>477</a>, <a href='#Page_486'>486</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Prevarication. <i>See</i> <a href='#LIES'>Lies</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Preyer, W., <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#f65'>141 note</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#f75'>148 note</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#f92'>160 note</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#f102'>171 note</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#f112'>177 note</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#f115'>182 note</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#f136'>198 note</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>, <a href='#f234'>335 note</a>, <a href='#f293'>414 note</a>, <a href='#f295'>417 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_532'>532</span>Priggishness of child, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>, <a href='#Page_471'>471</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Profile, child’s manner of drawing, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Pronouns, first use of, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Proportion, defective perception of, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>; - <ul> - <li>want of, in early drawings, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Psychology, importance of child for, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Punishment, child’s protests against, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>; - <ul> - <li>his insistence on undergoing, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>;</li> - <li>self-infliction of, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Punning, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Purpose, child’s projection of idea of, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#CAUSE'>Cause</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>Q.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Queyrat, F., <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='QUESTIONING'></a>Questioning, children’s, date of first, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>; - <ul> - <li>significance of, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</li> - <li>various directions of, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>;</li> - <li>as to reasons and causes, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>;</li> - <li>rage of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_446'>446</a>;</li> - <li>about origins, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>;</li> - <li>metaphysical direction of, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>;</li> - <li>about nature’s processes, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>;</li> - <li>how to deal with, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Quinet, Edgar, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>R.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Reaching out to objects. <i>See</i> <a href='#GRASPING'>Grasping</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Realism, æsthetic, of child, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Reason, reasoning, the dawn of, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>; - <ul> - <li>early practical form of, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>;</li> - <li>seen in comparison, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>;</li> - <li>in discovering connexions of things, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>;</li> - <li>child’s manner of, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_448'>448</a>, <a href='#Page_458'>458</a>, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>, <a href='#Page_469'>469</a>, <a href='#Page_470'>470</a>;</li> - <li>growth of power of, <a href='#Page_447'>447</a>, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Rebelliousness of child, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_452'>452</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LAW'>Law</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Recognition of objects, beginnings of, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>; - <ul> - <li>of pictures, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Reduplication of sounds, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Reflexions, early attention to, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#MIRROR'>Mirror</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_533'>533</span>Religion, child’s experience of, <a href='#Page_506'>506</a>; - <ul> - <li>invention of, <a href='#Page_510'>510</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Remorse after lying, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>; - <ul> - <li>after disobedience, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>;</li> - <li>nature of child’s, <a href='#Page_477'>477</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Rhyme, child’s feeling for, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Rhythm, child’s feeling for, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Ricci, Corrado, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#f263'>360 note</a>, <a href='#f263'>363 note</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#f277'>379 note</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Robinson, Dr. Louis, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Romancings. <i>See</i> <a href='#STORY'>Story</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Romanes, G. J., <a href='#f62'>139 note</a>, <a href='#f93'>164 note</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Rousseau, J. J., <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Rules. <i>See</i> <a href='#LAW'>Law</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Ruskin, J., <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#f171'>241 note</a>, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>S.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Sand, George, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>; - <ul> - <li>childhood of, <a href='#Page_489'>489</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Savage, his fondness for toys, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>; - <ul> - <li>names of, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</li> - <li>æsthetic taste of, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>;</li> - <li>adornment of, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>;</li> - <li>drawings of, <a href='#f228'>331 note</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#f248'>345 note</a>, <a href='#f249'>346 note</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#f260'>358 note</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#f275'>374 note</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Schoolcraft, H. R., <a href='#f238'>337 note</a>, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#f256'>352 note</a>, <a href='#f269'>369 note</a>, <a href='#f274'>373 note</a>, <a href='#f275'>374 note</a>, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Schultze, F., <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Science and childhood, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Scott, Sir Walter, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Sea, curiosity respecting, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>; - <ul> - <li>child’s first impression of, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Secrets, secreting objects, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Self, child’s first ideas about, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_457'>457</a>; - <ul> - <li>consciousness of, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li> - <li>way of speaking of, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_444'>444</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Self-feeling, as element in child’s anger, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_471'>471</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Self-restraint, germ of, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_436'>436</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Self-will in child, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LAW'>Law</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='SEMBLANCE'></a>Semblance, child’s production of, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>; - <ul> - <li>his understanding of, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_534'>534</span>Sensation, attribution of, to objects, <a href='#Page_449'>449</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#VIVIFICATION'>Vivification</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Sensibility, sensitiveness, of child, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='SENTENCE'></a>Sentence, first formation of, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_420'>420</a>; - <ul> - <li>growth of, <a href='#Page_430'>430</a>, <a href='#Page_440'>440</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Sentence-words, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Shadows, child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>; - <ul> - <li>his fear of, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Shinn, M. W., <a href='#f7'>18 note</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#f157'>221 note</a>, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Shrinkage, ascribed by child to inanimate objects, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>; - <ul> - <li>child’s ideas of, in old age, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Shyness, child’s feeling of, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Sigismund, B., <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Sight, sense of, first exercises of, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Sign-making, as spontaneous impulses in child, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_431'>431</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#GESTURE'>Gesture</a> and <a href='#LANGUAGE'>Language</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Sikorski, Dr., <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='SIMILARITY'></a>Similarity, child’s feeling for, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>; - <ul> - <li>play of, seen in extension of names, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_426'>426</a>;</li> - <li>early perception of, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_441'>441</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Sky, children’s ideas of distance of, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>; - <ul> - <li>their conception of form of, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Smile, first appearance of, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>; - <ul> - <li>growth of, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Sociability, social feelings, germs of, in child, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#SYMPATHY'>Sympathy</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Soul, child’s idea of. <i>See</i> <a href='#ANIMISM'>Animism</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Sounds, as sign of life, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>; - <ul> - <li>early spontaneous, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>;</li> - <li>fear of, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#ARTICULATION'>Articulation</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Space, first perceptions of, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Speech. <i>See</i> <a href='#LANGUAGE'>Language</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Spencer, Herbert, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Steinen, Karl von den, <a href='#f228'>331 note</a>, <a href='#f236'>336 note</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>, <a href='#f251'>348 note</a>, <a href='#f256'>352 note</a>, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Stephen, Leslie, <a href='#f207'>307 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Stevens, E. M., <a href='#f40'>81 note</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Stevenson, R. L., <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#f45'>95 note</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, <a href='#f162'>225 note</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='STORY'></a>Story, as stimulus to imagination, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>; - <ul> - <li>child’s respect for exact words of, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;</li> - <li>acting out of, in play, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;</li> - <li>early attempts at invention of, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_453'>453</a>, <a href='#Page_467'>467</a>, <a href='#Page_494'>494</a>;</li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_535'>535</span>understanding of, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Strangers, child’s fear of, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Substantive, first use of, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LANGUAGE'>Language</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Subterfuges of children, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Supernatural, the, child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>; - <ul> - <li>fear of, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_491'>491</a>, <a href='#Page_505'>505</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#FAIRIES'>Fairies</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Symbolism, in art representation, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='SYMPATHY'></a>Sympathy, as qualification of the child-observer, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>; - <ul> - <li>with inanimate objects, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>;</li> - <li>lack of, in children, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>;</li> - <li>early forms of, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>;</li> - <li>beginnings of genuine, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_451'>451</a>, <a href='#Page_474'>474</a>;</li> - <li>with animals, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>, <a href='#Page_467'>467</a>, <a href='#Page_475'>475</a>, <a href='#Page_485'>485</a>;</li> - <li>with toys, etc., <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Sweet, H., 155 <a href='#f87'>note</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>T.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Taine, H., <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Teasing, as characteristic of child, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Tender emotion, <a href='#Page_450'>450</a>, <a href='#Page_461'>461</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Terrifying children, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Thackeray, W. M., <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Theological ideas, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#GOD'>God</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='THOUGHT'></a>Thought of children, the process of, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>; - <ul> - <li>products of, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>;</li> - <li>tendency to system in, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>;</li> - <li>compared with thought of primitive man, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;</li> - <li><span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><i>modus operandi</i></span> of, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Thunder, child’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>; - <ul> - <li>his fear of, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_433'>433</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Tiedemann, D., <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Time, first notions of, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>, <a href='#Page_443'>443</a>, <a href='#Page_455'>455</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Tolstoi, Count L., 192 <a href='#f127'>note</a>, 238 <a href='#f168'>note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Touch, first sensations of, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>; - <ul> - <li>examination of things by, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><span class='pageno' id='Page_536'>536</span>Toys, imaginative transformation of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>; - <ul> - <li>affection lavished on, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#DOLL'>Doll</a> and <a href='#PLAY'>Play</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Tracy, F., <a href='#f76'>148 note</a>, <a href='#f141'>205 note</a>, <a href='#f287'>405 note</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Training, moral, wrong and right methods of, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#DISCIPLINE'>Discipline</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Trunk. <i>See</i> <a href='#BODY'>Body</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'><a id='TRUTH'></a>Truth, child’s instinctive respect for, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>, <a href='#Page_476'>476</a>. - <ul> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LIES'>Lies</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Tylor, E. B., <a href='#f98'>168 note</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>U.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Unseen, as field for imagination, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Untruth. <i>See</i> <a href='#LIES'>Lies</a>.</li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>V.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Vanity of child, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>, <a href='#Page_471'>471</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Veracity. <i>See</i> <a href='#TRUTH'>Truth</a> and <a href='#LIES'>Lies</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Verb, first use of, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_429'>429</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Verse, child’s feeling for, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_491'>491</a>; - <ul> - <li>his early attempts at, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'><a id='VIVIFICATION'></a>Vivification, of lifeless objects, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_459'>459</a>; - <ul> - <li>of toys, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> -<p class='c025'>W.</p> -<ul class='index'> - <li class='c024'>Will, first manifestation of, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Wiltshire, S. E., <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Wind, children’s ideas of, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>; - <ul> - <li>dislike of, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Women as observers of children’s minds, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>.</li> - <li class='c024'>Wonder, child’s tendency to, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>; - <ul> - <li>early manifestations of, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>, <a href='#Page_462'>462</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Worcester Collection of Thoughts and Reasonings of Children. <i>See</i> <a href='#BROWN'>Brown</a>, H. W.</li> - <li class='c024'>Words, power of, on child’s imagination, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>; - <ul> - <li>scrupulous regard for, in stories, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</li> - <li><i>See</i> <a href='#LANGUAGE'>Language</a>.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c024'>Writing, invention of, <a href='#Page_503'>503</a>.</li> -</ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>THE END.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<p class='c001'><a id='endnote'></a></p> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>Transcriber’s Note</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Several footnotes appeared without identifying numbers, though the anchors -in the text are present, and have been included in the sequence.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Those errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and -are noted here. Minor lapses in the punctuation in the Index have been -corrected. The references below are to the page and line in the original. -The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.</p> - -<table class='table1' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='12%' /> -<col width='69%' /> -<col width='18%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_7.6'></a><a href='#corr7.6'>7.6</a></td> - <td class='c008'>“state of conscio[n/u]sness,”</td> - <td class='c026'>Inverted.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_23.15'></a><a href='#corr23.15'>23.15</a></td> - <td class='c008'>the movements[ ]of children’s minds.</td> - <td class='c026'>Inserted.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_68.36'></a><a href='#corr68.36'>68.36</a></td> - <td class='c008'>retaining it even at meals[.]</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_137.28'></a><a href='#corr137.28'>137.28</a></td> - <td class='c008'>to repeat the per[f]ormance</td> - <td class='c026'>Inserted.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_156.2'></a><a href='#corr156.2'>156.2</a></td> - <td class='c008'>‘jaymen’ for ‘geranium[’]</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_178.11'></a><a href='#corr178.11'>178.11</a></td> - <td class='c008'>‘you,’ ‘me,’ [‘]mine,’</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_187.26'></a><a href='#corr187.26'>187.26</a></td> - <td class='c008'>called his doll [‘]Shakespeare’</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_187.31'></a><a href='#corr187.31'>187.31</a></td> - <td class='c008'>‘ham-chovies[’],</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_210.5'></a><a href='#corr210.5'>210.5</a></td> - <td class='c008'>shyings of the horse[.]</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_215.32'></a><a href='#corr215.32'>215.32</a></td> - <td class='c008'>gives no clear indications of fear[.]</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_224.20'></a><a href='#corr224.20'>224.20</a></td> - <td class='c008'>nastily (from its brimstone)[.]</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_243.26'></a><a href='#corr243.26'>243.26</a></td> - <td class='c008'>introduced by ‘naughtiness’[.]</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_257.26'></a><a href='#corr257.26'>257.26</a></td> - <td class='c008'>with other forces[.]</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_251.24'></a><a href='#corr251.24'>251.24</a></td> - <td class='c008'>in a world of evil and strife.[”/’]</td> - <td class='c026'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_440.39'></a><a href='#corr440.39'>440.39</a></td> - <td class='c008'>there is clearly a redundance[.]</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_441.38'></a><a href='#corr441.38'>441.38</a></td> - <td class='c008'>first contrasts to impr[e]ss</td> - <td class='c026'>Inserted.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c008'><a id='c_492.6'></a><a href='#corr492.6'>492.6</a></td> - <td class='c008'>“There’s Aurore playing the wirework[.]”</td> - <td class='c026'>Added.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Studies of childhood, by James Sully - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD *** - -***** This file should be named 62175-h.htm or 62175-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/1/7/62175/ - -Produced by KD Weeks, Turgut Dincer and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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