THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



MAY, 1895. 



STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 



VIIL FEAR. 



Br JAMES SULLY, M. A., LL. D., 



GROTE PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 



LONDON. 



IN passing from a study of children's ideas to an investigation 

 of their feelings we seem to encounter quite a new 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 them- 

 selves with a clearness, with an emphasis, which leave no room 

 for misunderstanding. 



This full, frank manifestation of feeling holds good more espe- 

 cially 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 facility 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 in- 

 fantile pleasure and pain growing out of this life of sense and 

 appetite, and has carefully described their physiological accompa- 

 niments and their signatures.* 



l & j 



* Op. cit., cap. 6 and 13, 

 vol. zlyii. 1 



