PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 115 



will be guided by the purpose only of showing the 

 fruitage of childhood training and guidance. 



SECTION I. THE FIKST CHILDHOOD. 



The new-born babe is a very interesting being, 

 but very helpless and very insignificant in his at- 

 tainments. He can see nothing, can hear nothing, 

 and can feel no sorrow. It is probable that in all 

 the actions of which he is capable he could get 

 along quite as well with a spinal cord and could 

 dispense for the time being with his brain. Na- 

 ture has done very much and very little for him : 

 very little in present realization, very much in giv- 

 ing him a capacity for becoming. A fly, a bee, or 

 a mosquito is born comparatively complete, ready 

 for business at its first salutation. Any one of 

 these can take up its life-tasks and make its way 

 immediately. It knows everything it ever can 

 know; it can do everything now it ever can do. 

 The penalty, however, of this full equipment is 

 that it can never become ; it can never learn any- 

 thing; it can never change into any other condi- 

 tion. All the resources of its whole lifetime are 

 immediately available ; nothing will ever be added 

 to them. Not so the child. He has no complete 

 instincts, so that he can do scarcely anything with 

 their help; and he has no reason or thought by 

 which he may make his way. But his capacity to 

 become is boundless. He knows nothing, but can 

 learn everything. He is next to nothing; his ca- 



