PSYCHOGENESIS IN THE HUMAN INFANT. 625 



accompaned by a loud clashing of musical instruments : thus, it is 

 mentioned in the " Life of St. Patrick," that he was unable with the 

 most formidable interdicts to drive away a cloud of bats that had been 

 taken for demons ; but what his formulas could not effect was done by 

 a deafening sound of cymbals, which drove them away, as may well be 

 imagined, in great affright. The greatest of the numerous miracles 

 ascribed to St. Patrick was that of driving the venomous reptiles out 

 of Ireland. Colgan seriously relates that the saint accomplished this 

 feat by beating a drum, which he struck with such fervor that he 

 knocked a bole in it, thereby endangering the success of the miracle, 

 but an angel appearing, mended the drum, and the patched instrument 

 was long exhibited as a holy relic. The Rev. Alban Butler, however, 

 in his " Life of St. Patrick," states as a popular tradition of the Irish, 

 that the miracle was given by his staff, called the " Staff of Jesus," 

 which was kept in great veneration at Dublin. 



Ribadeneira, the Jesuit author of " Lives of the Saints," states that 

 no venomous beasts after the miracle could live or breathe in Ireland, 

 " and that even the very wood (of the country) has virtue against 

 poison, so that it is reported of King's College, Cambridge, that being 

 built of Irish wood no spider doth ever come near it." Abridged from 

 Land and Water. 



-*- 



PSYCHOGENESIS IN THE HUMAN INFANT* 



Br Professor W. PKEYER, of Jena. 



WHOEVER would watch the growth of the human mind must 

 first make the soul of the child the object of a methodical 

 investigation. The new-born child in its pitiful helplessness is already 

 an object of extraordinary interest for the psychologist ; yet it seems 

 incomprehensible that the progressive unfolding of the senses of the 

 infant of his will, his reason, his passions, his virtues has not engaged 

 the attention of any but his relatives. For thousands of years chil- 

 dren have been born and lovingly taken care of by their mothers, and 

 for as long a time the learned have contended respecting the growth 

 of their minds without studying the children themselves. The vol- 

 umes that have been written on the subject without this study are of 

 small use, because they lack the basis of fact. Schoolmasters and tu- 

 tors can give but little help in the investigation, for the development 

 of the faculties begins long before they are called in to assist it. 



The study of the earliest mental growth is useful in its bearing 

 upon the future training of the child. Only certain faculties are innate 

 in every man. A true method of instruction should proceed from the 



* Translated from the German by W. II. Larrabee. 

 VOL. xvii. 40 



