STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 659 



ously in response to another dog's howl ; similarly a child of nine 

 and a half months has been known to cry violently when its 

 mother or father pretends to cry. 



One curious manifestation of this early imitative sympathy is 

 the impulse to do what the mother does and to be what she is. 

 Much of early imitative play shows this tendency. It is more 

 than a cold, distant copying of another's doings; it is full of the 

 warmth of attachment, and it is entered on as a way of getting 

 nearer the object of attachment. Out of this, too, there springs 

 the germ of a higher sympathy. It will be remembered that 

 Laura Bridgman bound the eyes of her doll with a bandage simi- 

 lar to the one she herself wore. Through this sharing in her own 

 experience the doll became more a part of herself. Conversely, a 

 child, on finding that her mother's head ached, began imitatively 

 to make believe that her own head was hurt. Imaginative sym- 

 pathy rests on community of experience, and it is curious that a 

 child, before he can fully sympathize with another's trouble and 

 make it his own by the sympathetic process itself, should thus 

 show the impulse to procure by a kind of childish acting this 

 community of experience. 



From this imitative acting of another's trouble so as to share 

 in it, there is but a step to a direct sympathetic apprehension of 

 it. How early a genuine manifestation of concern at another's 

 misery begins to show itself , it is almost impossible to say. Chil- 

 dren probably differ greatly in this respect. I have, however, one 

 case which is so curious that I can not forbear to quote it. It 

 reaches me, I may say, by a thoroughly trustworthy channel. 



A baby, aged one year and two months, was crawling on the 

 floor. An elder sister, Katherine, aged six, who was working at a 

 wool mat, could not get on very well, and began to cry. Baby 

 looked up and grunted, tl On ! on ! " and kept drawing its fingers 

 down its own cheeks. Here the aunt called Miss Katherine's 

 attention to baby, a device which merely caused a fresh outburst 

 of tears. "Whereupon baby proceeded to hitch itself along to 

 Katherine with many repetitions of the grunts and the finger 

 gestures. Katherine, fairly overcome by this, took baby to her 

 and smiled. At which baby began to clap its hands and to crow, 

 tracing this time the course of the tears down its sister's cheeks. 



This pretty nursery picture certainly seems to illustrate a 

 rudiment of genuine fellow-feeling. Similarly, it is hard not to 

 recognize the signs of a sincere concern when a child of two will 

 run spontaneously and kiss the place that is hurt, even though it 

 is not to be doubted that the graceful action was learned through 

 imitation. 



Very sweet and sacred to the mother are the child's first clear 

 indications of concern for herself. These are sporadic, springing 



