PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 129 



construct a world for himself, and others can 

 greatly aid him. The elements of this imagina- 

 tive world are supplied by ears and eyes. The 

 mind never imagines anything the elements of 

 which it has not experienced. But the use he 

 makes of these elements is not the same that a 

 mirror makes of the objects supplied it. With an 

 old hat on his head, a glove on one hand, and a 

 basket loaded with a few toys, he will make a 

 journey to the farthest limits of his habitable orb 

 without ever going out the door. What an op- 

 portunity does this activity afford the guardian 

 spirit of his life to direct in his world-building by 

 supplying ideal and beautiful material out of 

 which a soul-enlarging world may be constructed ! 

 What an opportunity it affords to careless or mis- 

 chievous minds to furnish material for a world 

 of terror and vice ! Charles Lamb recalls the time 

 "when through the ignorant officiousness of his 

 old nurse, whose disciplinary methods were worse 

 than the faults she sought to correct, as well as 

 the terror-starting illustrations of his father's 

 Stackhouse Bible, night time, solitude, and the 

 dark were his hell; for from his fourth to his 

 eighth year he never laid his head upon his pillow 

 without an assurance, which realized its own 

 prophecy, of seeing some frightful specter." 

 Goblins and ghosts are more accessible instru- 

 ments of torture, and by no means less effective, 

 than the rod with irresponsible, conscienceless, 

 and thoughtless parents and others. The applica- 

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