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 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.
[126]. Op. cit., Cap. 6 and 13.
[127]. This does not apply to older children. As Tolstoi’s book, Childhood, Boyhood and Youth, tells us, a boy of twelve may be much given to straining after feelings which he thinks he ought to experience.
[128]. Perez regards these as signs of fear, and points out that tremulous movements may occur in the fœtus (L’Education dès le berceau, p. 94).
[129]. For an account of this reflex, see Preyer, op. cit., Cap. 10, 176.
[130]. I know of no good account of the manifestations of childish fear. Mosso’s book, La Peur, chap. v. and following, will be found most useful here.
[131]. Mind, vol. ii., p. 288.
[132]. Op. cit., p. 131.
[133]. This seems to be the view of Perez: The First Three Years of Childhood (English translation), p. 64.