September 24, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



289 



rate, than that from the third to the sixth or the 

 eighth year, — and is ready to employ the same 

 psychological method of observation in this study 

 as in the former one. The task is more difficult 

 as the subject is more complex. Apart from the 

 author's rather characteristic French dififuseness, 

 the work bears the evidence of its being the first 

 attempt to write the psychology of this period of 

 childhood. As the book is addressed to a rather 

 popular audience, the difi"useness is not so serious 

 a fault as it would be if the subject were capable 

 of that scientific treatment which is as yet only an 

 ideal. •One who appreciates the difficulty of the 

 task will be lenient towards the defects due to the 

 newness of the subject. It is perhaps rather an 

 unfortunate period for writing the book : the evi- 

 dences are abundant that in ten or fifteen years it 

 will be possible to write a better and more scien- 

 tific work. Great credit is due M. Perez for ven- 

 turing into this new field. 



At the very outset an important point is touched 

 upon. As we pass from infancy to childhood, it 

 becomes less possible to make precise statements. 

 Children under three years will differ considerably 

 in the development of their powers ; but these 

 differences are insignificant, compared to those 

 between various children of six or of seven years 

 of age. Here, again, that suggestive analogy be- 

 tween the infancy of the individual and the race 

 seems to hold : savages, Hke young children, have 

 no real geniuees. 



This important fact at once changes the method 

 of study. For some problems, statistics should be 

 called upon, for which kindergartens and schools 

 should be ready to furnish the material.^ This 

 part of the subject, M. Perez has almost entu'ely 

 neglected. Where this method is inapplicable, one 

 is thrown upon the insight and psychological tact 

 of the observer, — a faculty closely allied to the 

 insight into human nature attributed to novehsts 

 and dramatists. It is a quality of mind more 

 feminine than masculine (witness George Eliot) ; 

 and thus, while the father is better suited to study 

 the psychic activity of the first three years, — 

 requiring, as it does, an unprejudiced, matter-of- 

 fact observer, — the mother's tact wiU do better 

 with the next four years. 



M. Perez has little to say of the physical devel- 

 opment of this period, but confines his attention 

 to the higher psychical processes, such as memory, 

 association, imagination, abstraction, inference, 

 emotions, will. He prefaces the discussion of each 

 with the current psychological views upon the 

 topic, and then treats of its place in the child's 



1 For an example of such a study, see ' The contents of 

 childxen's minds,' by G. Stanley Hall, in Princeton review, 

 May, 1883. 



mind. Many interesting points are touched upon, 

 a few of which may be here noticed. 



At the end of the third year, no remembrance 

 of the first two years remains : the child can 

 with difficulty recognize objects after an eight 

 or ten months' absence. In some cases the 

 environment of the second year, though forgot- 

 ten at the age of four, is recalled at the age 

 of six. Apparently, the growth in the brain 

 has made the impression more easily reviv- 

 able. But the mere retentive power is strongly 

 active, and, according to Bain, is at its maximum 

 between the sixth and the twelfth years. This is 

 the period the educator uses to store the mind with 

 raw materials, the multiplication-tables, and so on. 

 M. Perez found, that of a class of children six to 

 seven years of age, asked to repeat a short passage 

 after three hours' interval, only a very few could 

 do so correctly, while two-thirds made from three 

 to six mistakes. At the age of ten, the mere 

 tenacity of memory has reached its height, the 

 best memories have come to the front, and special 

 aptitudes of memory begin to show themselves. 



M. Perez is quite warm in his advocacy of the 

 naturally optimistic bent of childhood. He regards 

 physiological temperament as an important factor 

 in one's philosophic views ; holds that children 

 fed on milk and fruit have a calm and sweet im- 

 agination, while those who over-indulge in meats, 

 spices, and sugar are ardent and capricious ; and 

 thinks that the pipe, beer, and meat diet have 

 much to do with the German form of that * aristo- 

 cratic neurosis,' pessimism. A well-fed, healthy 

 child, whose temperament is naturally sanguine 

 and nervous, with a touch of the lymphatic, whose 

 circulation is quick, whose functions are con- 

 stantly growing and adapting themselves to their 

 environment (which, according to recent theories, 

 is the definition of pleasure), is on a good path to 

 optimism. The role of pain as an educator leaves 

 the stage early : life doubtless begins with much 

 pain ; but, as soon as the habit of growth has well 

 set in, the whole life of children is pleasure-giv- 

 ing, with a savage-like indifference to pain. Child- 

 ish improvidence, and shortness of memory, re- 

 duce moral pains to a minimum. His imaginary 

 troubles (so essential a part of our own troubles) are 

 few and distant. Childhood is selfish and happy. 



A German writer has written a pamphlet on the 

 ' Lies of children.' The word must be understood 

 in a wider than the usual sense. The distinction 

 between the actual and the imaginary, the objec- 

 tive and the subjective, is not as sharp and clear 

 to children as to us. Their world is more akin to 

 that of the poets, where it is allowable to idealize 

 common facts, and spice the truth with a pinch of 

 fiction. A child of six will often tell an un- 



