1022 CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT AGES. 



portant step in the development of the ideational consciousness ; and it is 

 easy to recognize in the psychical manifestations of Children, the further 

 progress of that development. The formation of Associations between ideas 

 takes place with extraordinary readiness and tenacity during the earliest 

 period of childhood ; and these exercise so much influence over the succes- 

 sion of the thoughts during the whole remainder of life, that " the force of 

 early associations " has become proverbial. Out of these associations arise, 

 on the one hand, Memory and Imagination ; on the other hand, those simple 

 processes of Reasoning which are necessary to the development of a higher 

 class of ideas. Thus the mind passes from those primary notions of indi- 

 vidual objects which are directly suggested by sense-perceptions, to those 

 abstract ideas of their qualities, which enable them to recognize those quali- 

 ties elsewhere, notwithstanding the existence of differences in other respects ; 

 and thence to those general ideas, in which the abstractions are embodied. 

 In all these processes, the child-mind seems to be so entirely concentrated 

 upon the particular subject of its thoughts, as to be " possessed " by it for the 

 time, almost as completely as a " biologized " subject is by his dominant 

 idea ; and no prolonged study of it is required to justify the statement, that 

 its operations are for some time entirely automatic, and that the acquirement 

 of Volitional control over them, on the part of the individual, is a very 

 gradual process. As a general rule it may be laid down that the activity 

 Avith which the formation of new ideas takes place in the child, and the 

 rapidity with which the attention transfers itself from one object to another, 

 prevents any single state from fixing itself durably in the consciousness, so 

 that the Memory preserves but faint traces of the greater part of what passes 

 through the mind ; and it is (for the most part) only when the same thoughts 

 are frequently recurred to, that they take root (so to speak) in the psychical 

 nature. Still we occasionally find that particular impressions exert a very 

 powerful influence on the subsequent course of thought and feeling ; and 

 there is good reason to believe that even where the consciousness loses its 

 hold over them, impressions of a transient nature may leave such traces in 

 the Brain, that they may be reproduced at any future time when the ap- 

 propriate suggestion may happen to be supplied. Whilst the ideatioual 

 consciousness is thus being expanded and elevated, the Emotional part of 

 the Psychical nature is rapidly acquiring a greater range and intensity of 

 action. The infant and young child give ample evidence in their actions, of 

 the several forms of Emotional Sensibility which connect themselves with 

 Sensational and Perceptive states ; but no sooner does the development of 

 Ideas commence, than the various modifications of " feeling " attach them- 

 selves to these; and thus almost every thought that is not a purely intel- 

 lectual abstraction, comes to possess more or less of an Emotional character. 

 Here, again, we trace the powerful influence of early impressions ; for not- 

 withstanding that the state of feeling which is habitual to each individual 

 may depend in great degree upon his original constitution, yet it is un- 

 que'stionable that it is largely influenced (especially in its association with 

 particular classes of ideas) by sympathy with the like states in those among 

 whom the child receives its early education. It is of peculiar importance, 

 therefore, that this example should be such as it is wholesome for the child 

 to imitate ; since it is upon the habits of feeling thus early formed, that the 

 happiness and right conduct of after life mainly depend. This statement 

 (which applies with yet greater force to the Moral Sense) may at first seem 

 inconsistent with the well-known fact that the Emotions of children are pe- 

 culiarly transient in their character, even when they are violently excited ; 

 one state of feeling giving place to another, even of the most opposite kind, 



