170 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



day and the fat buds of the (Chestnut were bursting into magnifi- 

 cent green plumes. Two well-dressed " misses," aged, I should 

 say, about nine and eleven, were taking their correct morning 

 walk. The elder called the attention of the younger to one of the 

 trees, pointing to it. The younger exclaimed in a highly shocked 

 tone, " O Maud (or was it * Mabel ' ?), you know you shouldn't 

 point ! " The notion of perpetrating a rudeness on the chestnut 

 tree was funny enough. But the incident is instructive as illus- 

 trating the childish tendency to stretch and generalize rules to 

 the utmost. 



The domain of prayer well illustrates the same tendency. The 

 child envisages God as a very, very grand person, and naturally 

 therefore extends to him all the courtesies he knows of. Thus he 

 must be addressed politely with the due forms, " Please," " If you 

 please," and so forth. The German child shrinks from using the 

 familiar form " Du" in his prayers. As one maiden of seven 

 well put it in reply to a question why she used " Sie" in her 

 prayers: " Ich werde doch den liehen Gott nicht Du nennen: ich 

 kenne ihn ja gar nicht." Again, a child feels that he must not 

 worry or bore God (children generally find out that some people 

 look on them as bores), or treat him with any kind of disrespect. 



C objected to his sister's remaining so long at her prayers, 



apparently on the ground that, as God knew what she had to say, 

 her much talking would be likely to bore him. An American 

 boy of four on one occasion refused to say his prayers, explain- 

 ing : " Why, they're old. God has heard them so many times that 

 they are old to him too. Why, he knows them as well as I do 

 myself." On the other hand, God must not be kept waiting. 

 " O mamma," said a little boy of three years and eight months 

 (the same that was so insistent about the kissing and hand-shak- 

 ing), " how long you have kept me awake for you ! God has been 

 wondering so whenever I was going to say my prayers." All the 

 words must be nicely said to him. A little boy aged four years 

 and nine months once stopped in the middle of a prayer and 

 asked his mother, "Oh, how do you spell that word?" The 

 question is curious as suggesting that the child may have envis- 

 aged his silent communications to the far-off King as a letter. In 

 any case it showed painstaking and the wish not to offend by 

 slovenliness of address. 



Not only do children of themselves extend the scope and em- 

 pire of rule ; they show a disposition to make rules for themselves. 

 If a child that is told to do a thing on a single occasion only is 

 found repeating the action on other occasions, this seems to show 

 the germ of a law-making impulse. A little boy of two years and 

 one month was once told to give a lot of old toys to the children 

 of the gardener. Some time after, on receiving some new toys. 



