242 AGE, GROWTH, AND DEATH 



to start upon life is pretty well established. It has 

 discovered the material universe in which it lives, the 

 succession of time, the nature of space, cause and 

 effect, its own existence, its ego and its relationship 

 with other individuals of its own species. Do we get 

 at any time in our life much beyond this ? Not very 

 much ; we always use these things, which we learn in 

 the first six months, as the foundation of all our 

 thought. By eight months, baby is upon the full 

 career of experiment and observation. Everything 

 with which the baby comes in contact interests him. 

 He looks at it, he seizes hold of it, tries to pull it to 

 pieces, studies its texture, its tensile strength, and 

 every other quality it possesses. Not satisfied with 

 that, he will turn and apply his tongue to it, putting 

 it in his mouth for the purpose of finding out if it has 

 any taste. In doing this, hour after hour, with un- 

 ceasing zeal, never interrupted diligence, he rapidly 

 gets acquainted with the world in which he is placed. 

 At the same time he is making further experiments 

 with his own body. He begins to tumble about; 

 perhaps learns that it is possible to get from one place 

 to another by rolling or creeping, and slowly he dis- 

 covers the possibility of locomotion, which you know 

 by the end of the year will have so far perfected itself 

 that usually at twelve months the baby can walk. 

 During this period of from five months to twelve the 

 baby is engaged upon a career of original research, 

 unaided much by anybody else, getting doubtless a 

 little help and, of course, a great deal of protection, 



