THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF CHILDHOOD. 595 



demanded his bottle, with loud cries, the first thing in the morning, 

 even if it had been given him but the moment before. Thus children 

 associate their sensations ; and ahnost all kinds of associations, fortui- 

 tous or logical, may be observed among them. 



IX. Abstraction. — We may study in little children the analysis 

 which ends in the idea of the individual, and that which ends in the 

 ideas of form and quantity. At the age of one month several children 

 would follow with their eyes an object in motion near their faces. Chil- 

 dren learn only little by little to distinguish different colors. External 

 impressions take hold of them by degrees. "Distinctly to perceive 

 sensations, and to preserve the distinct recollection of them, apart from 

 the vague complexity of concomitant impressions, which have only 

 slightly affected the senses, is a work of repair that may be considered 

 as a sort of rudimentary abstraction." Notions of form ought to arise 

 in consequence of the necessity there is that the child should see things 

 separately in order to see them well, and from especially lively impres- 

 sions made by certain objects. According to Perez, abstraction is not 

 a result of language. Purely abstract ideas do not exist, and relatively 

 abstract ideas have their origin independently of language. 



X. CoMPAEisoN. — Comparison, properly speaking, is not possible to 

 the new-born child for several weeks. A little girl of three months, 

 before whom were put an empty sucking-bottle and one full of milk, 

 seized both, and carried the empty one to her lips. A cake and a 

 morsel of bread were placed before a child of ten months. He seized 

 the cake. It was taken away from him, and he began to cry and kick. 

 Presently a morsel of bread was given him, which he took, but did not 

 see his mistake till he had bitten it, when he thrcAv it away. The same 

 child could easily distinguish its own playthings from those of its 

 comrades, and, while glad to get hold of theirs, would not permit them 

 to amuse themselves with his. After fifteen months, and especially be- 

 tween twenty months and two years, children compare a great deal. 

 When about two years and a half they use such phrases as baby tree 

 (little tree), papa tree (great tree). One child three years old knows the 

 names of more than twenty trees, and can give their more apparent 

 specific characters. 



XI. Imagination. — Representative imagination is exercised at the 

 beginning of life. Several facts already given prove this. The vague 

 and profound terror manifested by children is a product of imagination, 

 and so are dreams. The passage from reproductive imagination to 

 creative imagination is effected by a change in the order in which the 

 ideas are represented, a change which frequently occurs during sleep. 

 Creative imagination is shown in a waking state by many acts. The 

 child appreciates fun, and sometimes tries to amuse those who surround 

 it. At four months lacking three days, young Tiedemann tried, for 

 amusement, to make all sorts of movements, and to take different pos- 

 tures. The same faculty manifests itself under the form of destructive 



