THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 218.] SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1860. [Price Id. 
CHILDISHNESS. 
“ No one,” wrote the late Dr. Arnold, 
“ ever stepped directly from childhood 
into manhood ; there must be a time in 
our lives when our words and thoughts 
are neither all childish nor all manly — 
there must be a period, extending over 
several years, in which they are gradually 
becoming the one less and less, and the 
other more and more.” 
He then proceeds to discuss the 
peculiar characteristics of childhood ; 
the first he names is teachableness. 
“It is impossible that a child can 
have that confidence in himself which 
disposes him to be his own guide. He 
must of necessity lean on others, he 
must follow others, and therefore he 
must believe others. There is in his 
mind, properly speaking, nothing which 
can be called prejudice; he will not as 
yet refuse to listen, as thinking that he 
knows better than his adviser. A child 
cannot help believing that there are 
some who are greater, wiser, better than 
himself, and he is disposed to follow 
their guidance.” 
The next characteristic is ignorance 
— and joined to it selfishness. 
“ A child scarcely knows what is good 
and what is evil; his moral sense is 
exceedingly weak, and, because those 
higher feelings which are the great 
check to selfishness have not yet arisen 
within him, the selfish instinct, con- 
nected apparently with all animal life, is 
exceedingly predominant in him. If a 
child, then, on the one hand be teach- 
able, yet he is at the same time morally 
weak and ignorant, and therefore ex- 
tremely selfish.” 
We wish our readers to hear in mind 
that this is Dr. Arnold’s description of 
a child, and not our own definition of 
a shark-like collector. But we con- 
tinue our quotation. 
“ It is also a part of the nature of 
childhood to be the slave of present 
impulses. A child is not apt to look 
backwards or forwards, to reflect or to 
calculate.” 
“ Not to embarrass ourselves with too 
many points, we may be content with 
these four characteristics of childhood — 
teachableness, ignorance, selfishness and 
living only for the present. In the last 
three of these the man should put away 
childish things ; in the first point, or 
teachableness, while he retained it in 
principle, he should modify it in appli- 
cation." 
“ It is an obvious truth, that the 
change from childhood to manhood is 
gradual; there is a period in our lives, 
of several years, in which we are, 
or should be, slowly exchanging the 
qualities of one state for those of the 
other. During this intermediate state, 
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