136 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as seen from a bridge. The flashing, running water was plainly for 

 her an object of extraordinary beauty, and she would keep exclaim- 

 ing, " Water, water " (age, twenty months). A little later (thirty 

 months) she was profoundly impressed on seeing the moon. She 

 wanted to look at it every night. When she walked abroad it seemed 

 to her that the moon also was moving, and this discovery gave her de- 

 light ; as the moon made her appearance in different localities, accord- 

 ing to the hour, being seen at one time in front of the house, and again 

 in the rear, she would exclaim, " Another moon ! another moon ! " 

 One night (age, three years) she wanted to know where the moon 

 was, and, on being told that it had gone to bed, she asked, " Where, 

 then, is the moon's nurse ? " All this very closely resembles the emo- 

 tions and conjectures of childlike races ; their profound wonderment 

 in presence of the great phenomena of Nature ; the influence exerted 

 upon them by analogy, language, and metaphor, leading them to form 

 myths of the sun, the moon, etc. Suppose such a state of mind to be 

 universal at any period, and we can readily foresee what religious 

 ideas and legends would be the result ; in fact, we have instances of 

 this process of development in the Vedas, the Edda, and even in 

 Homer. 



If we speak to the child of an object at some little distance, but 

 which she can represent to herself definitely enough, having seen the 

 object itself or something like it, her first question always is : " What 

 does it say ? What does the rabbit say ? What does the bird say ? 

 What does the horse say ? What does the big tree say ? " Whether 

 it be an animal or a tree, she always treats the object as a person ; 

 wants to know what it thinks, what it says. By a spontaneous in- 

 duction, she pictures it as like herself or like us humanizes it. This 

 same tendency is found among primitive races, and it is all the strong- 

 er the more primitive they are. 



It requires long time and many an effort for the infant to attain to 

 ideas which to us appear simple. When this child's doll had its head 

 broken she was told that now the doll was dead. One day her grand- 

 mother said to her : " I am old, and shall not remain long with you ; 

 I shall die." " Your head will be broken, then." This she repeated 

 several times. Even yet (age, three years and one month), to be dead 

 means, for her, t6 have a broken head. Day before yesterday a mag- 

 pie that had been killed by the gardener was tied to the top of a pole 

 for a scarecrow ; on being told that the pie was dead the child wished 

 to see it. " What does the pie do ? " she asked. " She does noth- 

 ing ; she will never stir again, she is dead." " Oh ! " For the first 

 time the idea of final immobility has entered her mind. Now let us 

 suppose a people to stop at this idea, and to have no other definition 

 of death than this. For them the Beyond will be the Sheol of the 

 Hebrews the place where the motionless dead live a vague sort of 

 life. For her yesterday means in the past, and to-morrow means in 



