STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 3^5 



of still forms back into these first impressions of the forms of 

 motion ? 



One noticeable feature in the child's first response to the at- 

 tractions of form is the preference given to " tiny " things. The 

 liking for small natural forms, birds, insects, shells, and so forth, 

 and the prominence of such epithets as " wee," " tiny " or " teeny," 

 " dear little," in the child's vocabulary alike illustrate this early 

 direction of taste. This feeling again is a mixed one; for the 

 child's interest in very small fragile-looking things has in it an 

 element of caressing tenderness which again contains a touch of 

 fellow-feeling. This is but one illustration of the general rule of 

 SBsthetic development in the case of the individual and of the race 

 alike that a pure contemplative delight in the aspect of things 

 only gradually detaches itself from a mixed feeling. 



If now we turn to the higher aspects of form, regularity of 

 outline, symmetry, proportion, we encounter a difficulty. Many 

 children acquire while quite young and before any formal educa- 

 tion commences a certain feeling for regularity and symmetry. 

 But is this the result of a mere observation of natural or other 

 forms ? Here the circumstances of the child become important. 

 He lives among those who insist on these features in the daily 

 activities of the home. In laying the cloth of the dinner table, 

 for example, a child sees the regular division of space enforced as 

 a law. Every time he is dressed, or sees his mother dress, he has 

 an object lesson in symmetrical arrangement. And so these fea- 

 tures take on a kind of ethical rightness before they are judged 

 as elements of aesthetic value. As to a sense of proportion be- 

 tween the dimensions or parts of a form, the reflection that this 

 involves a degree of intellectuality above the reach of many an 

 adult might suggest that it is not to be expected from a small 

 child ; and this conjecture will be borne out when we come to 

 examine children's first essays in drawing. 



These elementary pleasures of light, color, and certain simple 

 aspects of form may be said to be the basis of a crude perception 

 of beauty in natural objects and in the products of human work- 

 m^anship. A quite small child is capable of acquiring a real ad- 

 miration for a beautiful lady, in the appreciation of which bright- 

 ness, color, grace of movement, the splendor of dress, all have 

 their part, while the charm for the eye is often re-enforced by a 

 sweet and winsome quality of voice. Such an admiration is not 

 perfectly aesthetic : awe, an inkling of the social dignity of dress,* 

 perhaps a longing to be embraced by the charmer, may all enter 

 into it ; yet a genuine admiration of look for its own sake is the 

 core of the feeling. In other childish admirations, as the girl's 



* On the nature of the early feeling for dress, see Perez, L'Art et la Poesie chez I'Enfant 



