THE CHILD AS GIVEN BY NATURE 49 



WHAT, THEN, Is THIS NEW-BOBN BABY? 



He is not a moral being. He is not even an 

 intellectual being. If we say he is an animal, 

 what is implied in that statement? It would be 

 quite beside our present purpose to describe his 

 muscular and anatomical construction. But it is 

 not so far from our purpose to sa,y that he is a 

 nervous organization. All his present reactions 

 from the outside world are nervous. The first 

 nervous response from his new habitat is a gasp 

 and a cry that establishes his new respiratory 

 method of life. Now and increasingly in the days 

 just ahead of him there are various actions of 

 which he is capable, but they are all nervous re- 

 sponses to outward stimuli, plus certain inherited 

 reflexes, which are generally known as instinctive 

 tendencies. He does nothing as the result of 

 thought. He does nothing as the result of willing, 

 and consequently he does nothing as the product 

 of a malicious will or an evil disposition. Never- 

 theless we will hear longheaded observers point- 

 ing out soon the evidences of his fallen nature. 

 They will observe that he is mad. They will soon 

 see that he is stubborn, etc. And they can point 

 out numerous indications very soon that he is 

 acting in the way he does in consequence of the 

 sin of Adam. 



Before we leave the child under this Adamic 

 condemnation, let us observe a kitten. How many 

 days after its birth will it be before it spits at 



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