THE BIETH OF THE SPIRIT 67 



if this be true, is not synonymous with education : 

 for the process is not a mere revelation of the out- 

 side world; because there are required certain 

 subjective changes which condition the incoming 

 revelation. At the first the child can take in a 

 certain class of impressions only. Before others 

 are perceived the very cells of the brain must 

 undergo transformation, and the brain come to 

 what may be called its human size. The new-born 

 child probably does not use the front or intellec- 

 tual part of the brain only the medulla, and per- 

 haps only the nervous ganglia at the base of the 

 skull ("The Child," 81.) If spirit-birth were 

 education merely, then the time of its arrival 

 might be noted when the child had attained some 

 standard arbitrarily fixed. But there are certain 

 periods in child development, fixed by nature, and 

 they are by no means arbitrarily designated rela- 

 tively to an advancing standard. These periods 

 are attained and passed whether we note them 

 or not, and condition entrance upon the succeeding 

 stage. If we know what a human spirit is ? and 

 how it acts, we can easily determine when it has 

 arrived, though we may not have perceived the 

 moment of its coming. We can easily distinguish 

 between the infantile and dependent being and the 

 adult and completely responsible spirit. Nothing 

 is more important in the administration of the 

 home and the school and the Church than knowl- 

 edge of these periods and their appropriate activi- 

 ties. Parental responsibility increases as childish 



