192 Traces of Unity in the Phenomena of 



who directed my attention to the curious fact in question 

 and gave me more than one opportunity of verifying it. 

 Again and again I heard the child addressed in each of 

 the three languages named, and pressed to reply in one 

 or other of the remaining two, and invariably without 

 success. If pressed beyond a certain point she would 

 cry, and that was all. On the part of the child there 

 was no unwillingness to obey, and no inability to obey 

 in any other case. Indeed, what puzzled the nursery 

 governess and caused her to speak to me on the sub- 

 ject was that the child should be, as it seemed to her, 

 perfectly good and obedient except in this one matter. 

 Nor was the result different when the conversation was 

 carried on by others. More than once I myself tried to 

 prevail, and all I could do by coaxing, and by bribing 

 as well, I did, but I failed as completely as the nurse. 

 Whether the result would have been different if the 

 child had been spoken to by another child I do not 

 know. There were no other children in the house, and 

 no polyglot children within reach ; and, honestly, it did 

 not occur to me to try this experiment while there was 

 the chance. Nor do I know whether the peculiarity in 

 question passed off as age advanced. Indeed, all 

 that I know more is that this child was never strong, 

 and that she died about eleven from some head-affection, 

 which was supposed to have been brought on by 

 pressing her education injudiciously ; and this, also, is 

 all that I would say upon the subject now, except this, 

 that I have heard of more than one case in which, as 

 in it, the words of a child would seem to have been 

 prompted by another person in a way which is scarcely 

 intelligible except upon the supposition that there is an 

 actual commingling of being in the two. 



And thus it is possible to discover traces of unity in 



