October 21, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



553 



ished in its infancy in this apparently unscien- 

 tific manner. When there is vast enthusiasm 

 in new phenomena on the part of the populace 

 large amounts of data regarding them may be 

 obtained where otherwise it would be extremely 

 difficult to secure them ; and while there is 

 danger of error creeping into the conclusions as 

 a result of materials being amassed whose an- 

 tecedents and accompaniments have not been 

 properly ascertained in the recording, still this 

 error cannot long abide the scrutiny of scien- 

 tific and practical people, and it must conse- 

 quently be at best short-lived. 



One of the peculiarities and at the same time 

 one of the chief difficulties characteristic of this 

 subject of Child-Study is the diversified methods 

 which are being pursued in obtaining data. 

 Mr. Sully, in his Children's Ways,* has made 

 use of a mode of studying children which will 

 doubtless become increasingly popular. He 

 evidently carries about him a note-book into 

 which go many things that he hears and sees 

 when he is in the company of childhood. Then 

 at his leisure he classifies what he has noted, 

 and gives the result to the reader without mak- 

 ing any serious effiart at explanation or interpre- 

 tation. His purpose in this book seems to be 

 simply to draw the attention of people to phe- 

 nomena in child life which, while oppressively 

 common one might almost say, are yet very 

 little heeded by the average parent or teacher; 

 for the reason, doubtless, that the things with 

 which we are constantly in contact are apt to 

 acquire an indiflferent interest for us. We ac- 

 cept them as matters of course, and are then 

 rendered incapable of seeing the great truths 

 embodied in them. This in itself justifies such 

 a book as Mr. Sully's — that it incites thought 

 regarding some of the most frequent exhibitions 

 of child-life. 



The ' Ways of Children ' is adapted princi- 

 pally for popular reading, and Mr. Sully prob- 

 ably had no intention of contributing very ex- 

 tensively to the science of human development 

 by the things which he has written therein. 

 And yet the scientist will find here data well 

 classified which will be of value in elabo- 



*Sully : Children's Ways, Being Selections from 

 the Author's ' Studies of Childhood,' with some Ad- 

 ditional Matter. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 



rating certain principles of ontogenesis. The 

 materials have the exceptional quality of being 

 for the most part rudely concrete ; they are the 

 verbatim utterances of real children and vivid 

 descriptions of their doings. One may get 

 some idea of the range of the author's observa- 

 tions by glancing over the titles of his chapters : 

 The Realm of Fancy ; The Enchantment of 

 Play ; Attacking our Language ; The Serious 

 Searcher ; First Thoughts : (a) The Natural 

 World, (6) Self and other Mysteries; The 

 Battle with Fears : Good and Bad in the Mak- 

 ing ; Rebel and Subject ; At the Gate of the 

 Temple ; First Pencillings. 



Some may, upon reading this book, feel that 

 it deals, after all, with quite trivial affairs. 

 For one thing, Mr. Sully does not produce 

 tables and curves, the summaries of studies 

 upon multitudes of children ; and many in these 

 days seem to think that the study of two or 

 three individuals is of no great account for 

 either practice or theory. We must have ex- 

 periments by the thousands and laws in per- 

 centages. But it is interesting to speculate 

 upon the value to science of discovering that 

 nine hundred and seventy-five children per- 

 form in a certain way, while nine hundred and 

 fifty of the same age and under the same con- 

 ditions act differently. In the face of results 

 like these the experimenter concludes that 

 rather more act in a given way than otherwise ; 

 but when this conclusion is to be made the 

 basis for a principle or system of training its 

 work is exceedingly doubtful, to say the least. 

 Is it not of greater value to have the product of 

 careful daily observations upon a few children 

 than to be continually working with such large 

 figures ? Have we not in child-study fallen 

 victims to the general tendency to overestimate 

 the importance of magnitude — of great numbers 

 and large sizes ? 



When Mr. Sully attempts to assign motives 

 for the activities he sees in children he is apt to 

 raise doubts in one's mind, as perhaps might 

 be expected. For instance, witness what he 

 gives as his opinion respecting the reason why 

 children love to play at rolling hoop*: "Is 

 not the interest here due to the circumstance 

 that the child controls a thing which in the 



* Page 24. 



