XII 



THE MEANING OF INFANCY 1 



WHAT is the Meaning of Infancy? 

 What is the meaning of the fact that 

 man is born into the world more 

 helpless than any other creature, and needs for 

 a much longer season than any other living thing 

 the tender care and wise counsel of his elders ? 

 It is one of the most familiar of facts that man, 

 alone among animals, exhibits a capacity for pro- 

 gress. That man is widely different from other 

 animals in the length of his adolescence and the 

 utter helplessness of his babyhood is an equally 

 familiar fact. Now between these two common- 

 place facts is there any connection ? Is it a mere 

 accident that the creature which is distinguished 

 as progressive should also be distinguished as 

 coming slowly to maturity, or is there a reason 

 lying deep down in the nature of things why 



1 A very brief restatement, in simple language, of the main 

 points of the theory of man's origin first suggested in my lec- 

 tures at Harvard University in 1871, and worked out in 

 Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, part ii., chapters xvi., xxi., 

 and xxii. [See also The Destiny of Man for an amplifica- 

 tion.] 



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