A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. 



ance at church on Sundays. When a Ritualist 

 breaks his fast before celebrating the Holy Com- 

 munion, his deity can forgive him, if he likes, for 

 the matter concerns nobody else; but no deity 

 can forgive him for preventing his parishioners 

 from setting up a public library and reading-room 

 for fear they should read Mr. Darwin's works in 

 it. That sin is committed agaiust the people, 

 and a god cannot take it away. 



I call those religions which undermine the 

 supreme allegiance of the conscience to man 

 ultramontane religions, because they seek their 

 springs of action ultra monies, outside of the 

 common experience and daily life of man. And 

 I remark about them that they are especially apt 

 to teach wrong precepts, and that even when they 

 command men to do the right things they put 

 the command upon wrong motives, and do not 

 get the things done. 



But there are forms of religious emotion 

 which do not thus undermine the conscience. Far 

 be it from me to undervalue the help and strength 

 which many of the bravest of our brethren have 

 drawn from the thought of an unseen helper of 

 men. He who, wearied or stricken in the fight 

 with the powers of darkness, asks himself in a 

 solitary place, " Is it all for nothing ? Shall we, 

 indeed, be overthrown ? " — he does find some- 

 thing which may justify that thought. In such a 

 moment of utter sincerity, when a man has bared 

 his own soul before the immensities and the eter- 



nities, a presence, in which his own poor per. 

 ality is shriveled into nothingness, arises with 

 him, and says, as plainly as words can say, " I 

 am with thee, and I am greater than thou." 

 Many names of gods, of many shapes, have men 

 given to this presence ; seeking by names and 

 pictures to know more clearly and to remember 

 more continually the guide and the helper of men. 

 No such comradeship with the Great Companion 

 shall have anything but reverence from me, who 

 have known the divine gentleness of Denison 

 Maurice, the strong and healthy practical instinct 

 of Charles Kingsley, and who now revere with all 

 my heart the teaching of James Martincau. They 

 seem to me, one and all, to be reaching forward 

 with loving anticipation to a clearer vision which 

 is yet to come — tendentesque manus rijxe ulterio- 

 ris a/more. For, after all, such a helper of men, 

 outside of humanity, the truth will not allow us 

 to see. The dim and shadowy outlines of the su- 

 perhuman deity fade slowly away fiom before 

 us ; and, as the mist of his presence floats aside, 

 we perceive with greater and greater clearness 

 the shape of a yet grander and nobler figure — of 

 Him who made all gods and shall unmake them. 

 From the dim dawn of history, and from the in- 

 most depth of every scul, the face of our father 

 Man looks out upon us with the fire of eternal 

 youth in his eyes, and says, " Before Jehovah 

 was, I am!" 



— Fortn'ujhthj Review. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. 



Bv CHARLES DARWIN. 



MTAINE'S very interesting account of the 

 • mental development of an infant, trans- 

 lated in the last number of Mind (page 252), 

 has led me to look over a diary which I kept 

 thirty-seven years ago with respect to one of my 

 own infants. I had excellent opportunities for 

 close observation, and wrote down at once what- 

 ever was observed. My chief object was expres- 

 sion, and my notes were used in my book on this 

 subject ; but, as I attended to some other points, 

 my observations may possibly possess some little 

 interest in comparison with those by M. Taine, 

 and with others which hereafter no doubt will be 

 made. I feel sure, from what I have seen with 

 my own infants, that the period of development 



of the several faculties will be found to differ 

 considerably in different infants. 



During the first seven days various reflex ac- 

 tions — namely, sneezing, hiccoughing, yawning, 

 stretching, and, of course, sucking and scream- 

 ing, were well performed by my infant. On the 

 seventh day I touched the naked sole of his foot 

 with a bit of paper, and he jerked it away, curl- 

 ing at the same time his toes, like a much older 

 child when tickled. The perfection of these re- 

 flex movements shows that the extreme imperfec- 

 tion of the voluntary ones is not due to the state 

 of the muscles or of the coordinating centres, 

 but to that of the seat of the will. At this time, 

 though so early, it seemed clear to me that a 



