By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
PREFACE.
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.
A part of these Studies has already appeared elsewhere. The Introductory Chapter was published in the Fortnightly Review for November, 1895. The substance of those from II. to VIII. has been printed in the Popular Science Monthly 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 Cornhill Magazine in 1881, and the other on “Baby Linguistics” in the English Illustrated Magazine 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 Longmans’ Magazine in 1889 and 1890.
Like all others who have recently worked at 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.
J. S.
Hampstead,
November, 1895.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |||
| I. | Introductory, | [1] | |
| II. | The Age of Imagination, | [25] | |
| Why we call Children Imaginative, | [25] | ||
| Imaginative Transformation of Objects, | [28] | ||
| Imagination and Play, | [35] | ||
| Free Projection of Fancies, | [51] | ||
| Imagination and Storyland, | [54] | ||
| III. | The Dawn of Reason, | [64] | |
| The Process of Thought, | [64] | ||
| The Questioning Age, | [75] | ||
| IV. | Products of Child-Thought, | [91] | |
| The Child’s Thoughts about Nature, | [91] | ||
| Psychological Ideas, | [109] | ||
| Theological Ideas, | [120] | ||
| V. | The Little Linguist, | [133] | |
| Prelinguistic Babblings, | [133] | ||
| Transition to Articulate Speech, | [138] | ||
| Beginnings of Linguistic Imitation, | [147] | ||
| Transformation of our Words, | [148] | ||
| Logical Side of Children’s Language, | [160] | ||
| Sentence-building, | [170] | ||
| Getting at our Meanings, | [183] | ||
| VI. | Subject to Fear, | [191] | |
| Children’s Sensibility, | [191] | ||
| Startling Effect of Sounds, | [194] | ||
| Fear of Visible Things, | [198] | ||
| The Fear of Animals, | [207] | ||
| Fear of the Dark, | [211] | ||
| Fears and their Palliatives, | [219] | ||
| VII. | Raw Material of Morality, | [228] | |
| Primitive Egoism, | [228] | ||
| Germs of Altruism, | [242] | ||
| Children’s Lies, | [251] | ||
| VIII. | Under Law, | [267] | |
| The Struggle with Law, | [267] | ||
| On the Side of Law, | [277] | ||
| The Wise Law-giver, | [290] | ||
| IX. | The Child as Artist, | [298] | |
| First Responses to Natural Beauty, | [300] | ||
| Early Attitude Towards Art, | [307] | ||
| Beginnings of Art-production, | [317] | ||
| X. | The Young Draughtsman, | [331] | |
| First Attempts to Draw, | [331] | ||
| First Drawings of the Human Figure, | [335] | ||
| Front and Side View of Human Figure, | [356] | ||
| First Drawings of Animals, | [372] | ||
| Men on Horseback, etc., | [377] | ||
| Résumé of Facts, | [382] | ||
| Explanation of Facts, | [385] | ||
| XI. | Extracts From a Father’s Diary, | [399] | |
| First Year, | [400] | ||
| Second Year, | [416] | ||
| Third Year, | [436] | ||
| Fourth Year, | [452] | ||
| Fifth Year, | [464] | ||
| Sixth Year, | [480] | ||
| XII. | George Sand’s Childhood, | [489] | |
| The First Years, | [489] | ||
| A Self-evolved Religion, | [506] | ||
| Bibliography, | [515] | ||
| Index, | [519] | ||