STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 343 



when sickly and disposed to alarm, are subject to great terror at 

 the thoughts of the animal world. Its very vastness, the large 

 variety of its uncanny and savage-looking forms, appearing often- 

 times as ugly distortions of the human face and figure this of 

 itself, as known from a picture book, may well generate many a 

 vague terror. We know from folklore how the dangers of the 

 animal world have touched the imagination of primitive races, 

 and we need not be surprised that it should make the heart of the 

 wee weakly child to quake. Yet the child's shrinking from ani- 

 mals is less strong than the impulse of companionship which bears 

 it toward them. Nothing is prettier perhaps in child-life than the 

 pose and look of a small boy as he is getting over his trepidation 

 at the approach of a strange big dog and " making friends " with 

 the shaggy monster. The perfect love which lies at the bottom 

 of children's hearts toward their animal kinsfolk soon casts out 

 fear ; and when once the reconciliation has been effected it will 

 take a good deal of harsh experience to make the child ever again 

 entertain fear. 



Fear of the dark that is, fear excited by the actual experience 

 or the idea of being in the dark, and especially alone and the 

 actual dread of dark places, as closets and caves, is, no doubt, very 

 common among children, and seems indeed to be one of their 

 commonly recognized characteristics. Yet it is by no means cer- 

 tain that it is " natural " in the sense of developing itself instinct- 

 ively in all children. 



It is generally agreed that children have no such fear at the 

 beginning of life. A baby of three or four months, if accustomed 

 to a light, may very likely be disturbed at being deprived of it ; 

 but this is some way from a dread of the dark.* 



Fear of the dark seems to come on when intelligence has 

 reached a certain stage of development. It apparently assumes a 

 variety of forms. In some children it is a vague uneasiness, in 

 others it takes the shape of a more definite dread. A common 

 variety of this dread is connected with the imaginative filling of 

 the dark with the forms of alarming animals, so that the fear of 

 animals and of the dark are closely connected. Thus in one case 

 reported to me a boy between the ages of two and six used at 

 night to see " the eyes of lions and tigers glaring as they walked 

 round the room." The boy C saw his bete noire the wolf in 



* A mother sends me a curious observation bearing on this. One of her children when 

 four months old was carried by her upstairs in the dark. On reaching the light she found 

 the child's face black, her hands clinched, and her eyes protruding. As soon as the child 

 got back to the light she heaved a sigh and resumed her usual appearance. This child was 

 in general hardy and bold and never gave a second display of terror. This is certainly a 

 curious observation, and it would be well to know whether similar cases of apparent fright 

 at being carried in the dark have been noticed. 



