702 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for discussion in these columns; but 

 we desire here to record our conviction 

 that when "power and discretion in 

 the matter of the education of children 

 are taken away from the family and 

 lodged with the Government," the rights 

 and duties of the family are seriously in- 

 vaded, and that no good can come of it 

 in the Ions run. 



Mr. Grant Allen visited America 

 last year for his health, and not on an 

 errand of scientific observation. Yet, 

 that his well-known habit of looking 

 closely at what he saw, and question- 

 ing it for the instruction it might yield, 

 was not relaxed, is shown by the very 

 interesting and suggestive article which 

 he has contributed to our pages this 

 month on " A Mount Washington Sand- 

 wort." The history of the plant, as he 

 elucidates it, is most interesting, and can 

 not fail to give us broader views of the 

 effect of glacial action upon the distri- 

 bution of life over the earth. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The First Three Years of Childhood. By 

 Bernard Perez. Edited and translated 

 by Alice M. Christie. With an Introduc- 

 tion by James Sully, M. A., author of 

 " Outlines of Psychology," etc. Chica- 

 go: A. N. Marquis & Co., 1885. Price, 

 $1.25. 



The aim of the author in the prepara- 

 tion of this work is to follow out, in little 

 children, the gradual awakening of the men- 

 tal faculties during the first three years of 

 life. He is a painstaking, exact observer, 

 and seems in some way to have had excep- 

 tional opportunities for the prolonged ac- 

 quaintance of a good many different babies 

 from the first days of their mundane ex- 

 perience. FTe has, besides, made excellent 

 use of the labors of others in the same field, 

 when their facts were well observed and well 

 described, and their ideas grew out of real 

 experience. His abundant material is care- 

 fully sorted and arranged for illustrating 

 and enforcing his view of infant psychology. 

 His facts are simply described, and arc most 

 frequently given in the form of anecdotes, 



and his interpretations of them are both 

 sympathetic and scientific. Lie has a rare 

 faculty of interpreting the external signs of 

 infantile feeling. M. Perez is deeply in- 

 terested in all practical questions concerning 

 education, and is the author of a work en- 

 titled " Education from the Cradle." Lie is 

 a good physiologist and psychologist, and 

 notwithstanding his native fondness for chil- 

 dren, he subjects them to rigorous scientific 

 scrutiny. M. Perez is an intelligent evolu- 

 tionist, and is also deeply interested in com- 

 parative psychology, and in his interpreta- 

 tions of the facts of child-life he makes ex- 

 cellent use of all the latest developments of 

 science. An idea of the scope of the work 

 will be best gained by a glance at the table 

 of contents. Chapter I treats of the facul- 

 ties and first impressions of the new-born 

 child. Chapter II describes the motor ac- 

 tivities — at the beginning of life, at six 

 months, and at fifteen months. Chapter III 

 considers the emotional sensations and the 

 first perceptions. Chapter IV deals with 

 the instincts, general and special, and Chap- 

 ter Y with the sentiments. Chapter VI 

 discusses intellectual tendencies under the 

 heads of Veracity, Imitation, and Credulity. 

 Chapter VII is devoted to the will ; and Chap- 

 ter VIII to attention and memory. In Chap- 

 ter IX association and imagination are con- 

 sidered ; and Chapter X, on the elaboration 

 of ideas, treats of judgment, abstraction, 

 comparison, generalization, reasoning, and 

 errors and illusions. The remaining three 

 chapters are given severally to expression 

 and language, the aesthetic sense, and the 

 moral sense. 



The introduction by James Sully, author 

 of "Outlines of Psychology," is a valuable 

 addition to the work. Wc quote his closing 

 remarks : " A last feature of this volume 

 which is deserving of mention is its thor- 

 oughly French form and style. The reader 

 feels at every page that he is listening to a 

 Frenchman who knows how to shape his ma- 

 terials, give order and arrangement to his 

 exposition, light it up with pertinent illus- 

 tration, and adorn it with the graces of style. 

 While in places the author ventures a few 

 steps into the darker recesses of metaphysi- 

 cal psychology, he never forgets that he is 

 writing a popular work. And he has suc- 

 ceeded in producing a volume which, while 



