He now asks, Where is the dear Jesus? "In heaven." Can he fly then; has he wings?
Religious conceptions are difficult to impart to him, even at a much later period: e. g., heaven is too cold for him, his nose would freeze up there, etc.
He now asks questions a good deal in general, especially What is that called? e. g., What are chestnuts called? "Horse-chestnuts." What are these pears called? "Bergamots." He jests: Nein, Bergapots, or, What kind of mots are those? He will not eat an apple until he has learned what the name of it is.
He would often keep asking, in wanton sport, What are books called? or ducks? or soup?
He uses the words "to-day, to-morrow," and the names of the days of the week, but without understanding their meaning.
Instead of saying "zu Mittag gehen" (go to noon-meal), he says, logically, "zu Nachmittag gehen" (go to afternoon-meal).
The child does not know what is true, what is actual. I never can depend on his statements, except, as it appears, when he tells what he has had to eat. If riding is spoken of, e. g., he has a vivid picture of riding in his mind. To-day, when I asked him "Did you see papa ride?" he answered, Yes, indeed, papa rode away off into the woods. Yet his father had not gone to ride at all.
In the same way he often denies what he has seen and done. He comes out of his father's room and I ask, "Well, have you said good-night to papa?" No. His father told me afterward that the child had done it.
In the park we see some crested titmice, and I tell the nurse that, in the previous autumn, I saw for the first time Finnish parrots or cross-bills here, but that I have not seen any since. When the child's father asked later, "Well, Adolph, what did you see in the park?" Crested titmice, with golden crests (he adds out of his own invention) and Finnish parrots. He mixes up what he has heard and seen with what he imagines.
Truth has to be taught to a child. The less this is done, the easier it is to inoculate him with religious notions, i. e., of miraculous revelation; otherwise one must be prepared for many questions that are hard to answer.