THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF CHILDHOOD. 597 



movements of mastication, and the resulting sensations. When he sees 

 his nurse eat, he thinks that what she eats is good for her, and that 

 what is good for her will be good for him. And, as he knows by expe- 

 rience that the nurse can divide with him if she pleases, he begins to 

 cry, in order to make her do it. It is very difficult to distinguish that 

 which is conscious from that which is unconscious in the total manifes- 

 tations of apparently rationally ordered feelings, ideas, and organic 

 impulses. A child whose father often went fishing was accustomed to 

 eat fried fish. One day his father, coming home after the hour of sup- 

 per, ate alone. " Me M-ant fry, papa ; me want fry," said he, seeking to 

 get the attention of his father ; he finished by getting under the table, 

 and pulling his father's leg. " Me want fry, not kitty ; me fry ; me 

 want fry." His idea was to imitate the cat in getting vmder the table, 

 so as to get some fish. Conscious acts are mingled with reflex acts. 

 Children often show a great aptitude in appropriating the experiences 

 arising in new circumstances. A little child, in the neighborhood of 

 two years old, would sometimes, at the table, steal something from his 

 neio-hbor's plate. He would at once compare the stolen morsel with 

 his own piece, then he would hurry and compress it, so that his larceny 

 would be less apparent. 



XV. Of the Expeessiox of Language. — Language is only a su- 

 perior application of the faculty of expression possessed by all ani- 

 mals. It is based on the correspondence between certain external 

 movements with experienced sensations. Children from the first month 

 cry, prattle, sob, but without attaching any signification to these acts. 

 Association and a sort of selection render these movements and these 

 feelings conscious and voluntary. Hereditary influence ought to inter- 

 pose in the early progress of language ; for little children quickly learn 

 to distinguish tones of pleasure from tones of anger, etc. At three 

 months the child makes intentional gestures in asking for or refusing a 

 thing. " A child of seven months, who had never seen me," says M. 

 Perez, " smiled as to an old acquaintance on hearing me pronounce his 

 name." At nine months he would give little cries of pleasure and of 

 appeal, some of which were evident attempts to imitate a dog, a cat, a 

 bird. At eleven months he understood some little phrases. A child 

 twelve months old, precocious in language, used a certain number of 

 words in their ordinary sense. A little girl of nineteen months pro- 

 nounced intelligibly many words, and passed easily from inarticulate to 

 articulate sounds that she sought by instinct, but Avas aided by imita- 

 tion. She ended by reproducing the last tonic syllable, of which she 

 could modify the articvilation in conformity to the law of least effort. 

 For a long time she said only hou for tamhour (drum), ye for cafe (cof- 

 fee), ye for Pierre (Peter). Since then she says a-hou for tamhour, 

 a-teau for gateau (cake). The learning of language seems in general 

 to obey the law of least effort ; it is influenced by temperament and 

 by surroundings. The words most easily learned by children are those 



