STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 169 



of order. And this would seem to show that it can not wholly 

 be set down to the influence of such government. It seems rather 

 to be a spontaneous extension of the realm of rule or law. 



This impulse to extend rule appears more plainly in many of 

 the little ceremonial observances of the child. Very charmingly 

 is this respect for rule exhibited in relation to his animals, dolls, 

 and other pets. Not only are they required to do things in a 

 proper orderly manner, but people have to treat them with due 

 deference. 



" Every night/' writes a mother of her boy, aged two years 

 and seven months, " after I have kissed and shaken hands with 

 him, I have to kiss his ' boy/ that is his doll, who sleeps with him, 

 and to shake its two hands ; also to shake the four hoofs of a tiny 

 horse which lies at the foot of his cot. When all this has been 

 gone through he stands up and entreats 'more tata please, more 

 tata ' i. e., ' kiss me again and say more good nights/ These cus- 

 toms of his with regard to kissing are peculiar to himself : he kisses 

 his 'boy' (doll), also pictures of horses, dogs, cocks, and hens, and 

 he puts his head against us to be kissed; but he will only shake 

 hands and will not kiss people himself; he reserves his kisses 

 for what he seems to feel inferior things. We kiss our boy, he 

 kisses his ; but he insists upon being shaken hands with for his 

 part. If other children come to play, he gives them toys, watches 

 them with delight, tries to give them rides on his ' go-go's/ but 

 does not kiss them ; though he will stroke their hair, he does not 

 return their kisses. It seems to me that he regards it as an action 

 to be reserved for an inferior thing." 



I have quoted at length this careful bit of maternal observa- 

 tion because it seems to indicate so clearly a spontaneous exten- 

 sion of a custom. The practice of the mother and father in kiss- 

 ing him was generalized into a rule of ceremony in the treatment 

 of all inferiors. 



This subject of childish ceremonial is a curious one and de- 

 serves a more careful study. It is hardly less interesting than 

 the origin and survival of ceremonial as elucidated by Mr. Her- 

 bert Spencer and others. The respect for orderly procedure on 

 all serious occasions, and especially at church, is as exacting as 

 that of any savage tribe. Punch illustrated this some years ago 

 by a picture of a little girl asking her mamma if Mr. So-and-so 

 was not a very wicked man because he didn't " smell his hat " 

 when he came into his pew. 



This jealous regard for ceremony and the proprieties of be- 

 havior is seen in the enforcement of rules of politeness by chil- 

 dren, who will extend them far beyong the scope intended by the 

 parent. A delightful instance of this fell under my own obser- 

 vation as I was walking on Hampstead Heath. It was a spring 



YOL XLVIII. 12 



