14 

 INFANCY AND EDUCATION. 



Thus, infancy means the capacity for education and instruction. No 

 animal that does not pass through even the shortest i>eriod of infancy can 

 he educated or trained. The longer the period of infancy, the greater the 

 capacity for progress. 



By education we mean the process of drawing out all the hidden powers 

 of brain and body. Instruction is the art of teaching others to use the 

 experience man has gained in the past, and of providing for them oppor- 

 tunities to acquire the knowledge possessed at the present time, in order 

 that both experience and knowledge may be employed for the benefit of 

 the future. 



Primitive Trnt of Skins. 



All mammals have at least a very short period of infancy; even guinea- 

 pigs, for instance, are no exception to the rule, though their period of heliv- 

 lessness is so brief that they have remained at the same level of life ever 

 since they have been known to mankind. But then they attain maturity 

 seven months after birth : whereas with mankind a quarter of a century lias 

 to pass iH'fore his body is full grown. 



Compare the intelligence of a guinea-pig with that of a horse, who is 

 mature in live years, and the advantages of a prolonged period of immaturity 

 are obvious. The horse can be trained in a variety of ways, and counts as one* 

 of man's most valued servants. But the cleverest horse is far behind normal 

 human beings in his capacity for education and moral training. Always 

 supposing a child is born of a healthy stock and reared under favourable 

 conditions, there is no known limit to his intellectual development, no fixed 

 age at which brain-growth must cease. 



