202 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. 



cludinc^ that between the I and the You, is continually being 

 pressed on the child's attention by the language of others." * 

 But, taking this great change during the time of life when it 

 is actually observed to be in progress, let us endeavour to 

 trace the phases of its development. 



It will no doubt be on all hands freely conceded, that at 

 least up to the time when a child begins to speak it has no 

 beginning of any true or introspective consciousness of self ; 

 and it will further be conceded that when this consciousness 

 begins to dawn, the use of language by a child may be taken 

 as a fair exponent of all its subsequent progress. Now we 

 have already seen that, long before any words are used indica- 

 tive of even a dawning consciousness of .self as self, the child 

 has already advanced so far in its use of language as to frame 

 implicit propositions. But le.st it should be thought that my 

 judgment in this matter is biased by the exigencies of my 

 argument, I may again quote Mr. Sully as at once an impartial 

 witness and a highly competent authority on matters of purely 

 psychological doctrine. 



" When a child of eighteen months on seeing a dog ex- 

 claims' Bow-wow,' or on taking his food exclaims 'Ot ' (Hot), 

 or on letting fall his toy says ' Dow ' (Down), he may be said 

 to be implicitly framing a judgment : ' That is a dog,' ' This 

 milk is hot,' ' My plaything is down.' The first explicit judg- 

 ments are concerned with individual objects. The child notes 

 something unexpected or surprising in an object, and ex- 

 presses the result of his observation in a judgment. Thus, for 

 example, the boy more than once referred to, whom we will 

 call C, was first observed to form a distinct judgment when 

 nineteen months old, by saying ' Dit ki ' (Sister is crying). 

 These first judgments have to do mainly with the child's food, 

 or other things of prime importance to him. Thus, among 

 the earliest attempts at combining words in propositions made 

 by C. already referred to, were the following : ' Ka in milk,' 

 (Something nasty in milk); 'Milk dare now ' (There is still 

 some more milk in the cup). Towards the end of the second 

 • Loc. cit., p. 377. 



