io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reality, lie is merely objecting to a particular ruler and the kind 

 of rule (or, as the child would say, misrule) which he is carrying 

 out. 



Let us look a little into the noncompliant, disobedient attitude 

 of children. As we have seen, the very liveliness of a child, the 

 abundance of his vigorous impulses, brings him into conflict with 

 others' wills. The ruler, more particularly, is a great and con- 

 tinual source of crossings and checkings. The child has his natu- 

 ral wishes and propensities. He is full of fun, bent on his harm- 

 less tricks, and the mother has to talk seriously to him about being 

 naughty. How can we wonder at his disliking the constraint ? 

 He has a number of inconvenient active impulses, such as putting 

 things in disorder, playing with water, and so forth. As we all 

 know, he has a ducklike fondness for dirty puddles. Civilization, 

 which wills that a child should be nicely dressed and clean, inter- 

 venes in the shape of the nurse and soon puts a stop to this mode 

 of diversion. The tyro in submission, if sound and robust, kicks 

 against the restraint, yells, slaps the nurse, and so forth. 



Such collisions are perfectly normal in the first years of life. 

 We should not care to see a child give up his inclinations at an- 

 other's bidding without some little show of resistance. These con- 

 flicts are frequent and sharp in proportion to the sanity and vigor 

 of the child. The best children, best from a biological point of 

 view, have, I think, most of the rebel in them. Not infrequently 

 these resistances of young will to old will are accompanied by 

 more emphatic protests in the shape of slapping, pushing, and 

 even biting. The ridiculous inequality in bodily power, however, 

 saves, or ought to save, the contest from becoming a serious phys- 

 ical struggle. The resistance where superior force is used can 

 only resolve itself into a helpless protest, a vain yelling, or other 

 utterance of baffled impulse. 



If, instead of physical compulsion, authority is asserted in the 

 shape of a highly disagreeable command, a child, before obedience 

 has grown into a habit, will be likely to disobey. If the nurse, in- 

 stead of pulling the mite away from the puddle, bids him come 

 away, he may assert his self in an eloquent "I won't," or, less 

 bluntly, " I can't come yet." If he is very much in love with the 

 puddle and has a stout heart, he probably embarks in a tussle of 

 words ; " I won't," or, as the child will significantly put it, " I 

 mus'n't," being bandied with " You must," until the nurse has to 

 abandon the " moral " method and to resort, after all, to physical 

 compulsion. 



Our sample child has not, we will assume, yet got so far as to 

 recognize and defer to a general rule about cleanliness. Hence it 

 may be said that his opposition is directed against the nurse, as 

 propounding a particular command, and one which at the moment 



