3 86 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



enthusiastic worship of the newly arrived baby, we see a true 

 aesthetic sentiment mingled with and struggling, so to speak, to 

 extricate itself from such " interested " feelings as sense of per- 

 sonal enrichment by the new possession and of family pride. In 

 the likings for animals, again, which often take what seem to us 

 capricious and quaint directions, we may see rudiments of aesthetic 

 perceptions half hidden under a lively sense of absolute lordship 

 tempered with affection. 



Perhaps the nearest approach to a pure aesthetic enjoyment in 

 these first experiences is the love of flowers. The wee round won- 

 ders with their mystery of velvety color are well fitted to take 

 captive the young eye. I believe most children who live among 

 flowers and have access to them acquire something of this senti- 

 ment, a sentiment of admiration for beautiful things with which 

 a sort of dumb childish sympathy commonly blends. No doubt 

 there are marked differences among children here. There are 

 some who care only, or mainly, for their scent, and the strong 

 sensibilities of the olfactory organ appear to have a good deal to 

 do with early preferences and prejudices in the matter of flowers.* 

 Others again care for them mainly as a means of personal adorn- 

 ment, though I am disposed to think that this partially interested 

 fondness is less common with children than with many adults. 

 It is sometimes said that the love of flowers is, in the main, a 

 characteristic of girls. I think, however, that if one takes chil- 

 dren early enough, before a consciousness of sex and of its pro- 

 prieties has been allowed to develop under education, the difference 

 will be but slight. Little boys of four or thereabouts very often 

 show a very lively sentiment of admiration for these gems of the 

 plant world. 



In much of this first crude utterance of the aesthetic sense of 

 the child we have points of contact with the first manifestations 

 of taste in the race. Delight in bright, glistening things, in gay 

 tints, in strong contrasts of color, as well as in certain forms of 

 movement, as that of feathers the favorite personal adornment 

 this is known to be characteristic of the savage and gives to his 

 taste in the eyes of civilized man the look of childishness. On 

 the other hand, it is doubtful whether the savage attains to the 

 sentiment of the child for the beauty of flowers. Our civilized 

 surroundings, meadows, and gardens, as well as the constant 

 action of the educative forces of example, soon carry the child 

 beyond the savage in this particular. 



How far can children be said to have the germ of a feeling for 

 Nature, or, to use the more comprehensive modern term, cosmic 

 emotion ? It is a matter of common observation that they have 



* See Perez, L'Art et la Po6sie chez 1'Enfant, p. 90 f. 



