220 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



out a problem. His mother was using a sewing machine in the dining 

 room, and he got into a chair beside her and hindered her by persisting in 

 turning the handle. I came in, took him on my knee, and kept him still. 

 He got tired of this, clambered down, took my hand and pulled me, saying, 

 " Teeune on ze moosical box." I took him to the library to start the 

 gramophone. As I opened the door he disengaged himself, and saying 

 " By yourself, daddy," bolted back to his mother and the machine. He 

 had evidently worked out a way of getting rid of me.' 



This boy of two years and twenty-three days clearly decided that he 

 must get rid of his father, who stood between him and the sewing machine, 

 in which he was so much interested. He laid a trap for his father, into 

 which he fell, and gained his point. 



The period of about three to six years of age is characterised by 

 abnormal imaginative power. This is at the stage at which the invisible 

 friend or other childish fantasy makes its appearance. At three years of 

 age the child fully recognises himself as a separate entity in the environ- 

 ment. It took him a long time to recognise that the teddy-bear and the 

 golliwog, in whom he confided, had no power of understanding or of 

 effective response, and then the visible inanimate was replaced by the 

 invisible animate of childish fantasy. 



Prof. Sully, in his ' Essay on Laughter,' gives an interesting account of 

 early playing with words. His little daughter, on her third birthday, 

 heard her mother say, ' Mr. Fawkes is coming to lunch,' and the child 

 said, ' I hope Mrs. Knives will come too.' The statement was criticised, 

 as it was thought that at such an early age a child would not consciously 

 play with words and make a definite pun, but investigations of sayings of 

 young children prove that a love of playing with words frequently enters 

 into the child's life with the introduction of new words into his vocabulary. 

 He plays with a new word as he would with a toy in the nursery, and this 

 serves the very useful purpose of leading him eventually to the true content 

 of the word. In the process, however, the misplacing of it in many 

 connections gives rise to the quaint sayings which cause so much amuse- 

 ment in childish naivete. 



During the imaginative period the child delights in making up stories. 

 Many of those which have been recorded exhibit a very remarkable ability 

 in this direction. A good example of this is given in a singularly charming 

 little book ' Behind the Night-light,' by Nancy Price, whose little girl at 

 the age of three years would look into the fire and tell her mother what 

 she saw there. The stories were so interesting that they were translated 

 into ordinary language — with no additions or changes in content of any 

 kind — and published. This faithful record shows not only that the child 

 had the power of constructing very interesting narratives of delightful 

 originality, but that she also had a dawning sense of humour. 



A careful study of childish naivete affords ample evidence of the very 

 considerable ability of the pre-school child. It reveals interesting glimpses 

 of the mental make-up, the quaint judgments, the curious application of 

 words the true meanings of which are imperfectly understood, and the 

 child's sense of justice. In many ways such a study is far more interesting 

 than that of the school child whose submission to authority has somewhat 

 diminished his originality and standardised his outlook on life. 



