BRAIN-FORCING IN CHILDHOOD. 723 



more excitable and more impressionable in the child than in the adult. 

 At the same time the structure is immature. What it possesses in size 

 it lacks in organization ; consequently it is not at its maximum for 

 severe and long-continued exertion, and when subjected to a strain of 

 this kind it is certain to suffer. We have, all of us, seen children be- 

 come mentally fatigued from very slight causes, even when they have 

 been at the same time greatly interested. How much more, therefore, 

 must their brains be tired when they have been forced to concentrate 

 their attention upon subjects, the importance of which they do not 

 appreciate ! 



The disadvantages to the child of overtasking its muscular system 

 arc well understood, and wise laws have been enacted by most civilized 

 people protecting children from the greed of those who would, if left 

 to their own devices, work them to excess. But there are no laws for 

 the protection of their brains from the attacks of ignorant parents and 

 guardians, the insidious warfare of the compilers of school-books who 

 write treatises on physiology in rhyme for infants, and the ever-ready 

 schoolmaster, who, with the child, a victim of a pernicious system, must 

 carry out the behests of those set over him. 



Every person who has tried both knows that an hour of intense 

 mental exertion fatigues the whole system more than does a corre- 

 sponding amount of the most severe physical work. The reason for 

 this is very evident. The brain not only furnishes the force for 

 thought and the other elements of the mind, but it keeps in action 

 all the other organs of the body. If, therefore, the mind takes more 

 than its share of this force, the heart, the stomach, the lungs, the mus- 

 cles, suffer, and the feeling of weariness is experienced. 



It must be borne in mind, also, that the brains of children are con- 

 tinually engaged in acquiring a knowledge of the objects and circum- 

 stances by which they are surrounded. An adult, for instance, goes 

 into a room, and the things it contains scarcely attract his attention. 

 He has already learned them. But with the child it is very different. 

 He looks at every object with inquiring eyes ; if possible he takes them 

 into his hands so that he can get fuller ideas of them, and asks a hun- 

 dred questions in regard to their qualities, uses, etc. From the very 

 earliest period after birth the infant is in pursuit of knowledge. His 

 open eyes stare with astonishment at the things within their range, 

 and in a little while his other senses are brought into requisition to 

 assist in adding to his acquirements. An infant two months old will 

 stretch out his hands toward objects held near him, and will incline 

 his whole body with arms extended toward those that he has already 

 learned are too far off for him to grasp. Perhaps, as Plato says, all 

 these manifestations are due to the wonder with which the child's mind 

 is full, but they lead to knowledge whatever may be the exciting cause, 

 and they result directly from the action of the brain. 



Undoubtedly the first faculties of the child's mind to be brought 



