STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 187 



moon and star as mamma and baby. So it does not talk of ab- 

 stract force, but figures some concrete form of agency, as in ex- 

 plaining the wind by the idea of somebody's waving a big fan 

 somewhere. This first crude attempt of the child to envisage the 

 world is indeed largely mythological, proceeding by the invention 

 of concrete and highly pictorial ideas of fairies, giants, and their 

 doings. 



The element of thought comes in with the recognition of the 

 real as such and with the application of the products of young 

 fantasy to comprehending and explaining this reality. And 

 here we see how this primitive child-thought, though it remains 

 instinct with glowing imagery, diflierentiates itself from pure 

 fancy. This last knows no restraint, and aims only at the delight 

 of its spontaneous playlike movements, whereas thought is essen- 

 tially the serious work of realizing and understanding what 

 exists. The contrast is seen plainly enough if we consider first 

 the mental attitude of the child when he is frankly romancing, 

 giving out now and again a laugh which shows that he himself 

 fully recognizes the absurdity of his talk ; and, secondly, his atti- . 

 tude when in gravest of moods he is calling upon his fancy to aid 

 reason in explaining some puzzling fact. How early this split- 

 ting of the child's imaginative activity into these two forms, the 

 playful and the thoughtful, takes place, is not, I think, very easy 

 to determine. Many children at least are apt at first to take all 

 that is told them as gospel. To most children of three and four, 

 I suspect, fairyland, if imagined at all, is as much a reality as the 

 visible world. The disparity of its contents, the fairies, dragons, 

 and the rest, with those of the world of sense does not trouble 

 their mind, the two worlds not being as yet mentally juxtaposed 

 and dovetailed one into the other. It is only later, when the 

 desire to understand overtakes and even passes the impulse to 

 frame bright and striking images, and, as a result of this, critical 

 reflection applies itself to the nursery legends and detects their 

 incongruity with the world of e very-day perception, that a clear 

 distinction comes to be drawn between reality and fiction, what 

 exists and can (or might) be verified by sense, and what is only 

 pictured by the mind. When this date is reached, the child's 

 imaginative activity, losing its first naivete and unconsciousness 

 of its own worth, becomes conscious of itself ; that is to say, the 

 child, when framing his mental pictures, is aware that he is play- 

 ing, pretending, or fooling; or, on the other hand, trying to 

 understand things. 



With this preliminary peep into the modus operandi of chil- 

 dren's thought, let us see what sort of ideas of things they fashion. 



Beginning with their ideas of natural objects we find, as has 

 been hinted, the influence of certain predominant tendencies. Of 



