A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. 203 



old. At the age of eleven and a half months, he could readily imitate 

 all sorts of actions, such as shaking his head and saying "Ah" to any 

 dirty object, or by carefully and slowly putting his forefinger in the 

 middle of he palm of. his other hand, to the childish rhyme of "Pat 

 it and pat it and mark it with T." It was amusing to behold his 

 pleased expression after successfully performing any such accomplish- 

 ment. 



I do not know whether it is worth mentioning, as showing some- 

 thing about the strength of memory in a youug child, that this one, 

 when three years and twenty-three days old, on being shown an en- 

 graving of bis grandfather, whom he had not seen for exactly six 

 months, instantly recognized him and mentioned a whole string of 

 events which had occurred whilst visiting him, and which certainly 

 had never been mentioned in the interval. 



Moral Sense. — The first sign of moral sense was noticed at the age 

 of nearly thirteen months; I said, "Doddy (his nickname) won't give 

 poor papa a kiss, — naughty Doddy." These words, without doubt, made 

 him feel slightly uncomfortable; and at last, when I had returned to 

 my chair, he protruded his lips as a sign that he was ready to kiss me; 

 and he then shook his hand in an angry manner until I came and re- 

 ceived his kiss. Nearly the same little scene recurred in a few days, 

 and the reconciliation seemed to give him so much satisfaction that 

 several times afterwards he pretended to be angry and slapped me, and 

 then insisted on giving me a kiss. So that here we have a touch of the 

 dramatic art, which is so strongly pronounced in most young children. 

 About this time it became easy to work on his feelings and make him 

 do whatever was wanted. When two years and three months old, he 

 gave his last bit of gingerbread to his little sister, and then cried out 

 with high self-approbation, "Oh, kind Doddy, kind Doddy." Two 

 months later he became extremely sensitive to ridicule, and was so 

 suspicious that he often thought people who were laughing and talking 

 together were laughing at him. A little later (two years and seven and a 

 half months old) I met him coming out of the dining-room with his 

 eyes unnaturally bright, and an odd, unnatural or affected manner, so 

 that I went into the room to see who was there, and found that he had 

 been taking pounded sugar, which he had been told not to do. As he 

 had never been in any way punished, his odd manner certainly was not 

 due to fear, and I suppose it was pleasurable excitement struggling 

 with conscience. A fortnight afterwards I met him coming out of the 

 same room, and he was eyeing his pinafore, which he had carefully 

 rolled up; and again his manner was so odd that I determined to 

 see what was within his pinafore, notwithstanding that he said there 

 was nothing, and repeatedly commanded me to "go away," and I found 

 it stained with pickle- juice; so that here was carefully planned deceit. 



