THE STUDY OF CHILD-NATURE. 789 
explain such things? . . . Iam persuaded, after a care 
ful study of this, that here we have some of the oldest things 
in the human soul, that take us away back, so that we call 
those fears rudimentary organs. These fears are traces of a 
long struggle which we know the human race went through 
with animals with big teeth, big eyes, and fur, that were 
sometimes threatening to exterminate the human race.”’ 
In course of time these investigations will cover a wider 
and wider field, and will become consequently of more value 
to the educationalist. The statistics which Mr. Petersen 
has so carefuliy collected are not only interesting in them- 
selves, but also valuable in this particular direction; and 
when the scope of such an inquiry as he has conducted shall 
be widened, and shall include a record of experimental tests 
of the hearing-power, of the sensitiveness of the eye to 
objects and to colour, of the rapidity of brain perceptions, 
and of other questions involving taste, temperature, &c., 
the results will be of far-reaching importance on the educa- 
tional methods of the future. The Journal of Marie Bash- 
kirtseff affords a striking picture of the working and 
gradual unfolding of a child’s mind. The importance of 
such investigations to parents and teachers cannot be over. 
estimated. In the case of the teacher, he will acquire an 
insight imto the individuality of his pupils, and an interest 
_in the general working of the class, such as he never had 
before ; and this insight will re-act favourably on his methods 
of teaching and their application. By such observation he 
may also become aware of faults in his methods of teaching. 
For example, in an American school it was found on inquiry 
that 76 per cent. of the boys disliked geometry. Whereupon 
the teacher, concluding that the reason for this was that 
he was undertaking to do more than the class could stand, 
reversed his methods, and determined that he would cover 
the ground only so fast as his pupils could do it thoroughly. 
Three months later he polled the same class again, and 75 
per cent. declared that they specially liked geometry. 
The earliest expressions of a child’s individuality is by the 
emotions, and it is to the parents that we must look for that 
right control upon which so much of the child’s future hap- 
piness depends. An inquiry into the origin, mode of expres-_ 
gion, and meaning of the various emotions of human nature 
affords a wide field for speculation and investigation. In 
young children the emotions are almost entirely instinctive ; 
that is, the inherited results of the experience of the race. 
For instance, fear and anger are respectively the passive and 
