THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 GOOD AND EVIL IN THEIR RELATION TO THE 
 DISPENSATIONS OF PROVIDENCE. 
 
 LONDON: F. NORGATE. 1886. 
 
 "This is a most valuable and interesting little work It is a work 
 
 to be read, re-read, and pondered over by all our religious instructors. 
 The author possesses the indispensable qualification for guiding us to a 
 right decision on this most important subject ; for he seems to be as well 
 versed in God's book of Nature as in that of Revelation. His general 
 views of the Universe in relation to Good and Evil are admirable, and 
 will well repay the most careful study." The Church of England 
 Pulpit and Ecclesiastical Review. 
 
 " The author shows that evil, as the correlative of good, fulfils a 
 necessary function in the economy of God's government, and is an 
 essential factor in the Universe. The argument is marked by thought- 
 fulness and wisdom." The Christian World. 
 
 " A small book on a great subject, and yet it contains more vigorous 
 helpful thinking than can be found in many a large and pretentious 
 volume ; and the clearness and beauty of the style add greatly to the 
 
 charm and value of the thought It is a long time since we have 
 
 met with a book of such fresh, enlarged and helpful thought ; it is a 
 noble contribution to Christian faith." The Christian Age. 
 
 " This is a most able work. The author has a firm grasp of his subject, 
 and he knows how to expound, defend and illustrate it. The volume is 
 really an invaluable contribution towards the solution of the greatest 
 moral problems of all times." Oldhatn Chronicle.
 
 THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT 
 
 IN ITS PRACTICAL ASPECT 
 
 FROM ITS ORIGIN IN INFANCY 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE WALL, F.L.S., F.R.A.S. 
 
 AUTHOR Ofl 
 1 GOOD AND EVIL IN THEIE EELATIOJf TO THE DISPENSATIONS OF PBOVIDBNCB 
 
 " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." 
 
 Prov. iv. 23 
 
 LONDON 
 TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL 
 
 1887 
 
 [Att rights reserved]
 
 Saflantgne >W 
 
 BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THOUGHT may be regarded in three aspects : as a 
 mysterious element of Nature, as a marvellous in- 
 terpretation of Nature, or as a treasury of experience 
 of Nature. 
 
 In the first-mentioned of these aspects Thought 
 shares in the insoluble mystery of other vital 
 phenomena and eludes research. The second or 
 philosophic aspect has engaged the powers of the 
 deepest thinkers for ages, and has given rise to 
 various theories of most seductive interest, which 
 however have little bearing upon the cultivation of 
 the intellect. The third, or practical aspect, concerns 
 the use and culture of the thinking faculty for the 
 purposes of life. 
 
 The philosophic inquiry is suggested by the fact 
 that sensations are not copies but interpretations of 
 Nature ; that, in fact, there exists between the inner 
 self and the outer objects of Nature an interpreting 
 faculty which presents those objects to the percipient 
 in a garb not proper to themselves, but to its office 
 as interpreter. Light, for example, which consists 
 of mere vibrations, is interpreted by the eye and 
 
 1127685
 
 vi PBEFACE. 
 
 presented to the mind in the familiar sensation of 
 luminosity. All the glories of the landscape as they 
 reach the eye are mere vibrations and are not in- 
 herent in the objects themselves, but owe their 
 existence to the office of the eye as interpreter of 
 those vibrations. In like manner the other senses 
 in the fulfilment of their several offices effect similar 
 interpretations of external phenomena. Between 
 the clicks of a telegraph and the meaning of a 
 message there is an interpreting telegraphist, but 
 there is no actual resemblance between the clicks 
 and the message. So in like manner the presenta- 
 tions of Nature to the mind through the senses are 
 quite different from the objects of Nature, and hence 
 the question arises as to the actual relation that 
 exists between the percipient and the outer world, and 
 as to the substantial nature of those objects them- 
 selves as distinguished from their interpretations. 
 The inquiry of the philosopher is of the highest 
 conceivable interest, but has little, if any, practical 
 bearing upon the culture of the intellect. Hence 
 the philosopher pursues it with intense ardour ; but 
 the parent, intent upon the education of his child, 
 finds in it no help for the object he has in view. To 
 him the practical aspect of Thought and its applica- 
 tion to the business of life are of far greater moment 
 than its scientific subtleties, and it is to him that 
 the following pages are addressed. 
 
 In the practical treatment of this most important 
 and interesting subject in this work, it has seemed 
 necessary sometimes to employ the terminology and
 
 PREFACE, Vll 
 
 rfco refer to the processes of mental science ; but this 
 -is done only in so far as they serve the practical 
 purpose in view and without any pretensions to 
 scientific exactness or intention of assuming the func- 
 tions of the philosopher. 
 
 In every other branch of knowledge it is deemed 
 necessary to begin at the beginning, but in regard 
 to the cultivation of the mental faculties this rule is 
 not observed. Nearly all that is done or attempted 
 in the way of training the intellect is applicable only 
 to the mind in the advanced stages of its history. The 
 rules prescribed and the means used in the education 
 of youth are designed to furnish information to minds 
 already more or less developed, and are inapplicable 
 to the incipient faculty. They therefore afford no help 
 towards moulding the mind and directing its first 
 efforts during the plastic period of its formation. If 
 the mind had no incipient stage, but sprang into being 
 at once with a mature power of understanding, there 
 would be reason in regarding it in that aspect, and 
 in providing only for its requirements in that condi- 
 tion. Seeing, however, that it resembles all other of 
 God's works in attaining its powers by a gradual 
 process of development from zero, it seems proper 
 that it should ' be studied and cultivated from its 
 origin in babyhood. The birth, progress and early 
 development of the faculty being generally dis- 
 regarded, the infant mind is left to form or deform 
 itself under such influences as may happen to environ 
 the first stages of childhood and supply the first 
 material for the exercise of the incipient intellect.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In the absence of regular training, however, the mind 
 does not wait, but exerts its powers, acquires its force, 
 and receives its bent from such conditions and in- 
 fluences, bad or good, as the surroundings may happen 
 to supply. On these, generally casual, often adverse, 
 and rarely ever designed with any reference to what 
 is or may be going on in the incipient mind, depends 
 the actual and practical education imparted. These 
 conditions and influences determine the nature of 
 the characters first inscribed on the susceptible 
 tablet of the infant mind, and lay the foundation cf 
 the superstructure to be built thereupon. 
 
 Few persons would be inconsiderate enough to 
 declare in so many words that it matters not what a 
 child of a year old thinks, yet people generally act 
 as if such were their belief. Scarcely any one thinks- 
 it worth while to ascertain or even to consider what 
 goes on in the mind of an infant, though many are 
 ready to admit that, in some sense, " the child is 
 father to the man." We are careful, therefore, in 
 this essay to demonstrate how much is really and 
 indisputably accomplished in the way of mental work 
 by every sane child during his first years of life, and 
 by this means to prove the need for assiduous care 
 and attention during that critical and trying period 
 of individual history. 
 
 Our object is to trace the birth and progress of 
 the thinking faculty, and to learn the manner of its- 
 growth from its earliest dawn to the maturity of its 
 powers, in order to ascertain the proper means by 
 which it may be moulded and directed during its
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 plastic stage. The physical powers require and 
 receive for their development food arid exercise so- 
 adjusted as to ensure all attainable vigour, and in 
 like manner the mental powers require similar treat- 
 ment, and should not be allowed to run wild under 
 casual influences, but be subjected to regular culture 
 based upon the principles which determine their 
 development. 
 
 Temper, disposition, respect for authority, a power 
 of giving fixed attention, and other essential qualifi- 
 cations for effective learning may be acquired, but 
 they do not come of themselves. If left to chance, 
 as they usually are, these qualities and habits of 
 mind will be as variable as the chances which decide 
 them. Such qualities need to be cultivated in early 
 childhood, from the beginning in fact, by appropriate 
 means suggested by and suitable to the natural con- 
 ditions of growth. When the systematic education 
 of school life commences, certain conditions of mind 
 and habits of Thought will, in all cases, have been 
 already fixed in one way or another, for good or for evil. 
 If these be adverse, which according to the doctrine 
 of chances they often are, they constitute serious 
 disqualifications for the all-important work of that 
 period. In such case a youth may seem, even when 
 doing his best, to be stupid or perverse. A rap on 
 the knuckles is then expected to subject his Thoughts 
 to instant discipline, to enlighten his understanding, 
 and to do duty for previously neglected training. 
 The work assigned to a pupil cannot be adapted ta 
 the instrument by which it is to be performed if the
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 mind has not received suitable preparatory training, 
 but has acquired its form and force under casual 
 influences in infancy and childhood. If the natural 
 laws which determine the nature of the product be 
 ignored and neglected the result will be as uncertain 
 as the causes which produced it. Hence the strange 
 diversity of result which so often confounds the 
 hopes and expectations of anxious parents. 
 
 The writing of this work has occupied an interval 
 of forced leisure due to partial and sometimes total 
 blindness. Hence a considerable part of it was 
 written in the dark with mechanical aid, and the 
 whole has been composed without the advantage of 
 reading or even of referring to authorities. We are 
 therefore conscious of much imperfection in the per- 
 formance, but we have made the best we could of our 
 opportunity, which is now at an end. We must 
 therefore appear under existing disadvantages or not 
 at all. The alternative has been decided by friends? 
 who think the book may serve the useful purpose 
 contemplated by the writer.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Mysterious nature of Thought, i Its practical use independent of metaphysical 
 views, 2 Embodies experience of life and its opportunities, 3 Is the most 
 enduring wealth, 4 Determines what a man is ; Thought a constant com- 
 panion, 5 An index of character, 7 All that remains after death, 8 
 Makes or mars the happiness of life, 9 Importance of its history, 10 
 Why is mental training deferred, 1 1 Kindergarten system ; Temper an 
 early acquirement, 12 The work of life to choose between good and evil, 
 14 Current nursery practice, 15 General plan of the sequel, 16 Thought 
 the result of a process; factors considered separately, 17 Definition of the 
 term "Tutor," 18. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 OX THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Thought consists of ideas of what is noticed ; Attention necessary to formulation 
 of ideas, 19 Factors involved in the production of an idea, 21 Sources of 
 the subject-matter, sensation and reflection, 22 First sensuous and involun- 
 tary, 22 Sensations not all formulated, 24 Ideas classified, 25 Simple 
 ideas, 26 Complex ideas, 27 Indeterminate ideas, 28 Illustrated, 29 
 Influential in babyhood ; No innate ideas, 30 Thinking faculty in the 
 lower animals, 31 Affords instructive lessons, 32 Two domains of 
 Thought, 33 Mental and moral, 34 Spiritual life ; Buddhistic doctrine, 
 35 Qualifications for spiritual life, 36 Order of animated beings, 37 
 Diagram of the order, 38 Conclusion, 39. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Primary functions for the business of life ultimate function for reproduction of 
 Thought, 40 Functions in relation to individuals and to sentient beings 
 generally, 41 Order of their operation, the same in both, 42 In the lower 
 animals, 43 Infant begins life in the lower stage, 44 Conditions of baby- 
 hood, 45 And first ideas of good and evil, 46 Stages of child-life ; 
 their characteristics, 48 And progress of Thought then, 49 And after-
 
 Xli CONTENTS. 
 
 wards, 50 The lower domain existed for ages before the higher ; pur- 
 poses of each, 51 Man by his higher nature renders to God voluntary 
 homage and love, 52 And subdues the lower nature, 53 A future state 
 implied in the conditions of the present life, 55 All experience perpetuated 
 in Thought of the race as of the individual, 56 Ultimate functions of 
 Thought, 57. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 Lower animals have rudiments only, 59 Very slowly developed into language 
 by man, 60 Learnt by imitation and inference, 60 Factors involved in 
 understanding speech, 62 And difficulties, 63 Apprehension of the 
 uttered sound, 64 Subject-matter ; Association of word and idea ; Recol- 
 lection of both, 65 All .these factors necessary, 66 Process becomes 
 mechanical in adults ; Further requisites for expressing, 68 Articulation,. 
 &c., 68 Written language, 69 Spelling, 70 Alphabet, 71 Uses of 
 language, 72 Men do not always think in words, 73 Use of language in 
 mental work, 74 Its imperfections Our history divided into periods by 
 progress of language, 75. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON TEMPER. 
 
 Effect of temper on character, 77 And on habit of thinking, 78 Temper 
 originates in feelings, 79 And corresponds thereto, 80 Controlled by 
 adults and partly by children ; naturally exhibited by lower animals, Si 
 Illustrative cases, 83, 84, 85 Suasive and coercive treatment compared, 
 85 Brutes kind to their young, 86 Natural effects of treatment of infants, 
 87 Opportunity afforded by conditions of baby life, 88 When feelings 
 predominate, 89 Trials t>f the toilet, 90 All infant experience influential ; 
 and serves important purpose, 91 Crosses abound through life, and most 
 trying in childhood, 92 Temper in its bearing on school work, 93. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. FIRST PERIOD : 
 BABYHOOD. 
 
 Feelings the dominant influence of the period, 95 Corporeal faculties, 96 
 Brought under control ; the Will, 97 In the brute races, and in the babe, 
 98 Mental faculties ; Personal feelings, how affected, 99 External objects, 
 loo Evidence of the eye and ear; Music, 101 Ideas formulated in baby- 
 hood ; Memory, 102 Reflection, 103 Recognition and association, 104 
 Inference weak ; Temper initiated, 105 Faith in tutors the basis of faith in 
 God, 106 Nature of true obedience ; Moral obligation, 107 Suggested by 
 example, 108 Habit of Thought ; Summary of progress, 109.
 
 CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. 
 
 Activity the dominant influence, 112 Corporeal faculties, 113 Should be em- 
 ployed, 114 Imitation, articulation, 115 Nervous system, 116 The 
 Will to be moulded; effects of neglect, 117 Mental faculties; Personal 
 sensibilities tried, 118 Effects of treatment, 119 External objects in- 
 creasingly diverting, 120 Acute discernment, 121 Ideas of injustice, 122 
 Memory; Comparison and association, 123 In ' acquiring language, 124 
 Inference, &c., 125 Locke on infants, 126 Temper needs care, 127 
 Faith, the basis of true obedience, 128 Fifth commandment, 129 Adam's 
 first lesson ; Moral principles, 130 First ideas lasting ; truth, 131 
 Nursery fictions ; Kecitations, 132 Habit of Thought, especially attention, 
 133 Summary of progress, 134. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THIRD PERIOD: CHILDHOOD. 
 
 Inquisitiveness the dominant influence, 137 Corporeal faculties to be employed, 
 139 The Will now formed, 140 Mental faculties; Learning by language, 
 141 Reading, 142 Personal feelings, 143 Respect for authority, 144 
 External objects better understood ; criticisms, 145 Memory required 
 for learning language, 146 Number of words understood and used, 147 
 Conditions favourable for learning, 149 Comparison and association ; 
 written language, 150 Thought requires time ; personal equation, 151 
 Inference and judgment the highest faculties, 152 Temper now decided, 
 153 Effect of teasing ; Faith now confirmed or impaired, 154 Importance 
 of consistency ; Obedience now necessary; often coerced, 155 Lessons 
 trying, 156 Moral principles by direct tuition, 157 Worship, sermons, 
 158 Habit, how formed, 159 Effect on mental work, 160 Summary of 
 progress, 161. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 FOURTH PERIOD : YOUTH. 
 
 Aspirations for independence the dominant influence, 163 Corporeal faculties ; 
 athletics, 164 Nervous system, 165 The Will, effect of discipline, 166 
 Training of lower animals ; natural conditions of each period suited to its 
 work, 167 Willingness necessary to learning, 168 Mental faculties em- 
 ployed on two kinds of subject-matter, personal and external ; learning in- 
 volves both, 169 Educational appliances, 170 Personal feelings change from 
 stage to stage, 171 Sympathy inspires confidence, 172 External objects 
 more attentively regarded, 173 Concentration; interest necessary for 
 school work, 174 Choice of a calling, 175 Memory ; nature of the stock 
 of ideas, 176 In relation to language, 177 Course of mental progress, 178 
 Learning and discipline, 179 Judgment freely and confidently used, 
 180 Temper now a great help or hindrance, 181 Faith ; its forms and 
 effects, 182 Obedience, real or artificial ; moral principles practically 
 tested, 184 Habit an exponent of character, 185 Summary of progress, 
 1 86.
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 REVIEW Of THE POUR PERIODS. 
 
 Relation of mental to material history, 190 Of mind to organism, 191 Moral 
 element, 192 Order of progress in man and in nature, 193 Man dis- 
 tinguished from brute by knowledge of good and evil, 194 The higher and 
 lower natures in man, 195 Stages of mental progress ; Language, 196 
 Special conditions affecting mental work Sex, 198 Temperament, 200 
 Social grade, 201 Environment and example, 203 Natural affection ; 
 family institution, 206 Ignorant nurses, 207 Facial expression, 208 
 Perfection in tutor's example impossible, 209 And unnecessary ; Sickness, 
 infirmity, &c., 210 Teething. Effect of encouragement, 211 And of 
 ridicule, 212. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Habit insensibly contracted and formed early, 214 Especially of temper, 215 
 Imitation Obscure origin of habit, 217 Insensible progress and great 
 influence, 218 Order of formation, 218 Effect of temperament, 219 
 Habits of listlessness and earnestness, 220 Their effects, 221 In reference 
 to temptation, 222 And to mental power, 223 Victims of listless habit 
 often regard it as inherited, 224 This theory demoralizing, 225 Control 
 to be cultivated, 226 Attention as a habit, 227 Encouraged in infancy, 
 228 Kindergarten methods effective, 229 Habits suitable for school-work, 
 230 Of observation, 231 Supplementation of indistinct ideas, 233 Habit 
 in relation to judgment, 234 To teacher and pupil, 235 Absence of mind, 
 236 Bearing of habit on moral principles, 237 Its relation to different 
 occupations, 238. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF TUB THINKING FACULTY. 
 
 Control subject to the AVill, modified by habit, 240 Difficult to attain, 241 
 Freedom of the Will, 242 A faculty distinct from the organism, 243 
 First stimulated by natural impulse to use the faculties, 244 Originally 
 under control of tutors, 246 Hence their responsibility, 247 Influences 
 controlling the Will, parental, 248 Neglect of, 249 Coercion, its effect on 
 lower animals, 250 In family discipline, 251 Indian Mutiny. Consideration 
 of consequences ; of human laws ; of moral principles, 252 Wisdom of 
 moral law as shown in its operation, 253 Education of the Will, 254 In 
 babyhood, 255 And afterwards, 257 Inimical influences ; listlessness ; 
 indulgence, 258 When unrestrained, 259 Harbouring thoughts of indul- 
 gence, 260 Indolence, 261 Dependence on others, 262 As shown in 
 hypnotism, &c., 263 Control in relation to character, 264 Power of 
 choosing currents of Thought, 265 Attainable by every one, 266 Painful 
 reflections often salutary, 267 When not remorseful, 268 Mental pleasure 
 grounds for leisure thought, 269 Control of Thought easy when it is 
 habitual, 270 Practical conclusion, 271.
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTEE XIIL 
 
 ON MEMORY. 
 
 Neither past nor future without memory, 272 Memory depends on the kind of 
 ideas in the mind, 273 And their formulation, 274 Illustrated, 276 
 Conditions favourable to recollection, 277 Experiences of babyhood, 278 
 And their effects, 279 Of childhood, 280 Memory recalls ideas as they 
 were formulated, including errors and defects, 281 The index of the mind, 
 282 Illustrations, 283 Affected by habit of Thought and observation, 
 284 Conditions which determine the strength of ideas, 285 Attention, 
 286 Nature and duration of opportunity, 289 Nature of subject-matter, 
 291 Mental condition at the time of formulating, 292 Pre-occupation ; 
 attendant circumstances, 293 Coincidences ; an ancient practice, 294 
 Eepetition, 295 Of different kinds, 296 Most effective aid, 297 Mnemo- 
 nic systems, 298 Their rules, 299 Not always applicable, 300 Ideas to 
 be remembered must be kept in use, 301 Obtrusive ideas Early 
 training, 302. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 
 
 Factors involved in process of judging, 304 (i) Power of the faculty, 305 
 Accords with strength and sufficiency of evidence, 306 And with habit of 
 thinking, 307 (2) Stock of evidential knowledge Its extent, value and 
 nature, 308 Extent varies according to age, opportunity, environment and 
 habit of each person and the power of the senses, 308 Effect of age, 309 
 Opportunity, 310 Environment, 312 Habits of Thought, 313 Efficiency 
 of senses, 314 Value of the stock of evidential knowledge depends on 
 its readiness of recall and its truth, 315 Its readiness, 316 Its truth, 
 317 Effects of error, bigotry, 318 Superstition, 319 Baconian research, 
 320 Nature of the fund of evidential knowledge, 321 Particular ideas 
 and general principles and standards, 321 Particular ideas, 322 General 
 principles, 323 Their importance, 324 Standards, their influence, 325 
 Vary from time to time, 326 (3) Application of evidence to purpose of 
 judging, 327 Principles involved, 328 Need to be taught in youth, 329 
 Nature and effect of prejudice, 330 The mind should bo both disciplined 
 and informed, 331 Euclid, 332 Babbage's illustration, 333 Instance of 
 prejudice, 335 Imperfections of language as a source of error, 336. 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 
 
 Diversity of powers, 339 Ideas not heritable being produced by sensations, 339 
 No feeling possible anterior to life itself, 340 Reasons for the theory of 
 inherited ideas, 341 Evidence of phrenology, 342 Our five propositions, 
 343 (i) Life itself not inherited, 343 Essentially an active force, 344 
 Seeds germinating after four thousand years, 345 Eeceptivity not less 
 wonderful than life itself, 345 Life in plants, 345 In animals, 346 
 "What is the actuating principle in man, 347 The use, not the possession,
 
 XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 of powers determines action, 348 Brain instrumental only, not actuating, 
 349 Effect of trivial events, 349 In deflecting actuating forces, 349 
 Illustration, 350 (2) Men do not always use the poM-ers they possess, 352 
 Sometimes unconscious of their powers, 353 Talent often comes by appli- 
 cation, 354 (3) Extraordinary mental attainments, 355 Mozart, 356 
 Shakespeare, 357 No special powers implied in their attainments, 358 
 The will actuates, 359 Instances of great attainments by men of ordi- 
 nary power, 360 Ideas of inherited habits, 360 (4) Inherited qualities 
 as actuating principles opposed to experience, 363 Eesemblances in 
 families, 364 And far greater dissimilarities, 364 (5) Natural faculties 
 neither superseded nor anticipated, 365 All begin at zero, 365 Baby 
 conditions suited to initiation of mental work, 366 Functions of the 
 brain, 367 Divine command implies man's power to obey, 368 Evidence 
 of phrenology, 369 Practical effect of the theory of inherited gifts, 370 
 Illustrative cases, 371. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 ON THE EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 
 
 In babyhood ; our method exacts no effort of the babe, 373 Our aim a right 
 beginning ; Principles of our method, 374 Conditions recapitulated, 375 
 Rules, 376 Inconsistency of nursery practice illustrated, 377 Beseut- 
 ment Useful purpose of the exigencies of babyhood, 378 Thought accords 
 with feelings, 379 The will ; Baby always imbibing ideas from example 
 Effects of shocks and terror, 380 Training in infancy Joy natural to 
 young creatures, 381 Coercion deprecated, 382 Correction as a principle ; 
 Rewards and punishments, 383 God's dealing with Adam ; Good and evil 
 produce their natural results, 384 Punishment only deterrent, not 
 corrective, 385 Rule 6, its universal applicability, 386 Imitative 
 propensity illustrated, 387 Infant ideas of justice ; Occupation, 388 
 Training in childhood ; one lesson at a time, 389 Lessons and teaching, 
 390 Most learning is by observation, 391 Attention difficult to keep, 
 392 Attention cannot be taught, 393 Eule 7, taking advantage of 
 opportunities, 394 Conclusion ; Effects of a right beginning, 396 And 
 pursued onwards, 397 Our rules simple and scriptural, 398 Perfection 
 the aim, though not attainable until God's will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven, 400.
 
 THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT 
 
 IN ITS PRACTICAL ASPECT. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 OF all mysteries none, except the supreme mystery, 
 God himself, is greater, more inscrutable, or at the 
 same time more real and influential than the faculty 
 of thinking. Like the sister mysteries of life and 
 Will, its essential nature and mode of operation sur- 
 pass the utmost powers of human comprehension. 
 All the resources of science and known means of 
 research fail to resolve the impenetrable secret of the 
 intrinsic nature of Thought, or of its mode of action. 
 Nevertheless, like those other mysterious agencies, 
 it may be used and enjoyed in the fullest measure, 
 and be made to realize all the blessings and advan- 
 tages resulting from its exercise, without any better 
 knowledge, on the part of its possessor, as to its 
 essential nature, than that which every one may 
 learn from his daily experience. The enjoyment of 
 life suffers no abatement whatever from ignorance of 
 the inscrutable nature of its phenomena, and is 
 probably most fully appreciated by those who think
 
 2 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 least of the mystery that surrounds it. The same 
 may be said of Thought. 
 
 We do not propose, therefore, to discuss the meta- 
 physical aspects of Thought, or of the process by 
 which the thinking faculty produces and elaborates 
 it. Deeply interesting as such a discussion might 
 be, it would have no bearing on the purpose we have 
 in view. Even if any elucidation of the mystery 
 were within reach, it would not further the object we 
 contemplate. If it were conclusively demonstrated 
 that certain molecular changes in the tissues of the 
 brain were the effective causes of the phenomena of 
 Thought, neither the resulting product, nor the 
 essential nature of the process of thinking, would be 
 one whit the less inscrutable. If, for example, it 
 were proved that, by some process analogous to 
 photography, certain definite characters were in- 
 scribed on the brain by sensations or reflections, 
 these inscriptions would still need to be read and 
 interpreted. Whatever their nature might be, the 
 characters inscribed could not interpret themselves, 
 but would need to be apprehended by some faculty 
 gifted with the power of reading them. The inscrut- 
 able goal of the research would still be as far as ever 
 from the grasp of the inquirer. We make no attempt 
 therefore to lift the veil which conceals from human 
 ken the mysteries involved in the production of 
 Thought, or in the operation of the Will in actuat- 
 ing and directing the process of thinking. We con- 
 fine our discussion to the practical and vitally impor- 
 tant sense in which these faculties are universally 
 employed and understood, and in which sense alone 
 they concern the conduct of life. 
 
 The faculty of thinking is the highest with which
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 man is endowed. By its agency lie is enabled to 
 formulate into concrete ideas, and fix in the mind, all 
 such of the otherwise transient and fugitive sensa- 
 tions, reflections and experiences of life, as he chooses 
 to gather into the stock of his knowledge. So much, 
 and only so much, as is thus formulated and fixed, 
 of all that passes within the sphere of observation, is 
 rescued from oblivion, added to the mental treasury, 
 and incorporated into the mind, as a part of the 
 individual self. 
 
 Thought, therefore, is the formulated embodiment 
 or record of all those sensations, reflections, and events 
 of life which are appropriated, and added, more or less 
 permanently, to the stock of experience. It is what 
 remains in possession of all that conies within the 
 range of perception after the observed facts or sensa- 
 tions have themselves passed away. It represents the 
 use that is made of all the opportunities life affords 
 for the accumulation of man's richest treasure. It 
 measures the extent to which the highest talent 
 entrusted to his stewardship is improved ; embodies 
 the opinions, principles and judgments that have been 
 elaborated out of all that has come within the range 
 of his consciousness in the past for his use and guid- 
 ance in the future, and forms the capital by means 
 of which the whole economy of life is conducted. It 
 is the source whence outward actions flow, the spring 
 of the noblest aspirations and also of the basest con- 
 ceptions, of the most generous impulses as well as of 
 the most sordid designs, of all the good men do or 
 desire to do, and of all the evil they accomplish, as 
 well as of that which fear of consequences or lack of 
 opportunity prevents. 
 
 The thinking faculty is naturally subject to the 
 
 B 2
 
 4 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 control of the Will, and always acts under its impulses,, 
 except in so far as these may have become crystallized 
 into the form of habit. If, however, Thought be not 
 kept regularly under control, the power of the Will 
 is weakened by disuse, and the mind becomes sub- 
 ject to wandering, desultory Thought from which it 
 can be diverted only by vigorous effort. As it is 
 never absolutely dormant during the waking hours, 
 it is always then either engaged more or less atten- 
 tively, or allowed to follow such vague, desultory 
 reflections as may be suggested from within, or such 
 external impressions as may chance to captivate it. 
 Whensoever this state of listlessness becomes habi- 
 tual, the mind becomes dissipated, Thoughts are not 
 easily collected, nor is attention readily commanded. 
 Hence the importance of cultivating a habit of 
 attending to whatsoever ought to be engaging the 
 Thought, especially as the manner of using the 
 faculty determines the measure of all attainments,, 
 material, intellectual and moral. 
 
 Thoughts are the most enduring wealth men can 
 acquire. Neither moth nor rust can corrupt them r 
 nor can they be taken away by force or fraud. They 
 constitute an essential qualification for the discharge 
 of the duties of life, and determine the happiness or 
 misery of their possessor in a far higher degree than 
 the external circumstances of life. They may be 
 made the means of minimizing the ills and multi- 
 plying the blessings of life according as they are 
 employed wisely, or are allowed to brood miserably. 
 Of all the wealth men can accumulate, during their 
 sojourn in the world, they are the only part that can 
 be retained for use in a future state; the only 
 treasure of which men will stand possessed when
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 they render their account of the stewardship of the 
 talents committed to them by the Almighty Father. 
 When the earthly house shall be dissolved, and the 
 things of time and sense shall have passed away, 
 all that will withstand that terrible dissolution will 
 be the work of the thinking faculty, embodying life's 
 experience in imperishable Thought. 
 
 Their thoughts determine what men really are, 
 whilst their outward acts are only what they seem to 
 be. Thoughts are the evidences by which God 
 judges, and are often very far different from the 
 external covering exhibited to the world. The vin- 
 dictive project that failed of its fulfilment ; the 
 covetous desire that could not compass its gratifica- 
 tion ; the lustful Thought that lacked its oppor- 
 tunity ; and all the evil designs from which men 
 refrain from cowardice, regard for appearances, or 
 fear of consequences, are concealed from the view of 
 their fellow-men but stand exposed to the searcher 
 of hearts. 
 
 Thoughts are a man's constant companions. They 
 are ever present in this life, and will continue in the 
 world to come. As an essential part of his being, 
 and incorporated by his own act into his very self, 
 they are always, and sometimes very obtrusively, 
 occupying attention. A man's character is generally 
 estimated by the company he keeps, but a safer 
 criterion, if it could be ascertained, would be the 
 Thoughts he cherishes, the currents he allows to 
 
 O ' 
 
 engross his secret reflections. These, therefore, are 
 the chief factors in making or marring the happiness, 
 .and in determining the issues of life. They must be 
 either guests entertained by choice, and under the 
 control of the Will ; intruders who have been
 
 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 unwisely allowed to force an entrance into the sanc- 
 tuary of the heart, or they must be casuals who r 
 finding the admittance free, and all within the mind 
 careless and passive, come and go in a desultory and 
 disorderly way. In the first-mentioned case, to use 
 a figure of speech, the owner of the mental castle 
 guards it vigilantly, and governs it with vigour and 
 wisdom. He opens his gates to such candidates- 
 only as will increase his strength, and add to his- 
 resources. He sedulously excludes all such as would 
 weaken his power. He knows that if he he not the 
 master, he must become more or less the slave of 
 those whom he allows to settle there. Order pre- 
 vails in his ranks, and he can muster them at will. 
 He organizes his forces as one who feels that they 
 are available only in so far as they are obedient to 
 his command, and own his authority. His castle 
 represents a well-regulated mind, whence evil 
 thoughts are excluded, because of the infection they 
 infuse. The source from which proceed the issues of 
 life is kept pure and unpolluted. 
 
 The owner of the castle, in the second case, care- 
 lessly admits invaders, who undermine his authority, 
 and divide or distract his forces. Disorder is intro- 
 duced into the ranks, and ruin impends. Unless the 
 master see his danger in time, and make a vigorous 
 effort to eject the disaffected, and restore order* 
 the fortress must fall into the hands of the enemy. 
 This case typifies a mind in which Thought is un- 
 guarded, control impaired, and external appearances- 
 are more studied than internal purity. Unless con- 
 science be awakened, and roused to effort, and 
 unless the aid of the heart's great ally be sought, a 
 mind so divided is likely to fall into that lower
 
 INTRODUCTORY. / 
 
 domain which is of the earth, and lacks the quali- 
 fication for spiritual life. 
 
 The third case is the commonest and the worst. 
 Here the internal arrangements of the castle are 
 disregarded, as of no concern. The gates are open 
 to all comers, without regard to character or conse- 
 quences. All are alike welcome who please the 
 owner's fancy, offer a present gratification, or promise 
 a future indulgence. The outside of the castle may 
 be decorous and well-seeming, but the forces inside 
 are motley, irregular and unruly, unequal to any 
 great effort or serious purpose. The mind thus 
 illustrated is one in which the important functions of 
 Thought are not recognized, nor the condition of 
 the inner self regarded as the real exponent of the 
 man. The thoughts are allowed to wander and are 
 attracted by any passing sensations or reflections 
 that amuse for the moment, or promise some future 
 enjoyment. Vindictive feelings, hard thoughts, 
 envy or discontent, are allowed free scope within, 
 though they may be concealed from outward mani- 
 festations. Under the restraints imposed by social 
 obligations, and regard for public opinion, the 
 outward conduct may be respectable, or even esti- 
 mable, but within is disorder and corruption. 
 
 In these and all the other innumerable types of 
 human character the key of the actual position is in 
 the domain of Thought, and not in. the external 
 aspects of life ; in the inner and not in the outer self. 
 Yet the mass of mankind proceed practically on the 
 opposite principle, that, it matters little or nothing 
 what they think, and that all depends on what 
 they do. Ail men consider, at some time of their 
 lives, that a time will surely come when their bodies,
 
 8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 their material nature, must dissolve in death. Few 
 can altogether evade the Thought, in that connec- 
 tion, of a future state ; when the body, with all 
 its appetites, sensations, pains and pleasures, shall 
 have been resolved into its elements, and returned 
 to fulfil some other part in the eternal cycle of 
 cosmic evolution, yet, even amongst those who 
 indulge definite hopes of a future state of spiritual 
 life, few reflect on the conditions involved in such a 
 state. How few there are, that is to say, who con- 
 sider what would actually remain in their possession, 
 when they shall have been divested of their material 
 bodies ; when the flesh, with those appetites and 
 lusts which were, in this life, the law of their 
 members shall have passed away, and the only part 
 of their nature left to them will consist of the 
 spiritual element. Whatever form may be imparted 
 to the spiritual body, Thought must necessarily be 
 the actuating principle, the link that connects it 
 with the earthly life, if it be not the substance and 
 essence of the spiritual body itself. It will be the 
 only part of man's present self which will survive 
 the corruption of the fleshly tenement, and the only 
 equipment he will possess for a purely spiritual life. 
 " When the kind hand of death shall draw aside the 
 curtain of the flesh," what will then remain of the 
 former self, but his Thoughts ? He will then possess 
 a spiritual body, composed of, or comprising, the 
 spiritual elements formed and developed by the 
 Thoughts of his heart. Then it will appear how in- 
 comparably greater is the part which Thought fulfils 
 in the theatre of life, than even the outward actions 
 that have represented the individual to the eyes of 
 his fellow men ; how much more important, that is,
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 that evidence will then be by which God judges him, 
 than that by which he had been judged by his 
 generation. 
 
 The habit of Thought is even more subtle and 
 powerful in its influence than other habits. To it is 
 due, in a greater degree than to external circum- 
 stances, the tendency of Thought to gravitate in 
 particular directions, and to determine the idio- 
 syncrasy of individuals. It affects deeply, if it does 
 not decide, the use or neglect of the highest faculty. 
 On it depends the kind of control exerted by the 
 Will, and it gives colour and tone to the opinions 
 formed and the judgments passed, softening or 
 darkening the natural hues of things, and imparting 
 to them a personal or special character, not proper 
 to themselves, but to the light in which they are 
 viewed. The difference between the grave and the 
 gay, the cheerful and the gloomy, the hopeful and 
 the desponding, between the thankful and the dis- 
 contented, the observant and the unheeding, is due 
 in a far greater degree to the acquired habit of 
 Thought than to the force of external circumstances. 
 This is plainly proved by the different effects, 
 observable in daily experience, of the same conditions 
 on different individuals. One is cheerful and con- 
 tented under circumstances which depress and dis- 
 courage his neighbour. One sees only blemishes 
 and defects in the things about him, whilst another 
 sees in those same things the beauties they possess, 
 and the purposes they serve. One regards every- 
 thing in its relation to himself alone, whilst another 
 unselfishly considers its bearing on the general weal. 
 One, in short, having acquired by indulgence a habit 
 of thinking which casts a shade of gloom over every-
 
 10 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 thing he sees ; another, of a happier mode of thought, 
 sees the sunshine behind the clouds, even when these 
 for the moment conceal it. Such is the practical 
 effect of habit of Thought. 
 
 Seeing then how much depends on the use that is 
 made of the thinking faculty, in relation to both the 
 inner self and the outer conduct ; to the happiness 
 and usefulness of this present life, and to the prospect 
 of the life eternal ; the natural history of the faculty, 
 from its birth in babyhood to its maturity in manhood, 
 becomes invested with the deepest interest. Every 
 phase of its progress, from the earliest dawn of intel- 
 ligence, and first efforts of the Will, up to the full 
 development of both ; is full of interest, not in itself 
 only, but more especially in its influence on the suc- 
 ceeding -stages. Each stage of the progress is the 
 basis on which each successive one is formed, thus 
 showing the vast influence of those which first occupy 
 the virgin soil in imparting the tone to all that 
 follow. 
 
 In succeeding chapters we endeavour to demon- 
 strate, by an appeal to the fact of the work actually 
 done during the very first period of babyhood, what 
 must necessarily have been going on in the infant 
 mind, unobserved perhaps, but as certainly as the 
 more obvious development of the corporeal faculties 
 effected during the same period. The keen suscep- 
 tibilities and sensitive feelings of babyhood give rise 
 to strong and enduring impressions. These and the 
 ideas suggested by the treatment infants receive, and 
 by the environment on which their new powers of 
 sensation and observation are exercised, during that 
 trying and helpless stage of their experience, consti- 
 tute the aspect in which this life is first presented to
 
 INTRODUCTORY. I I 
 
 them. Considering the influence of treatment and 
 environment on the adult mind, as shown in the 
 experience of life, it is certain that their effect must 
 be still more influential upon the fine sensibilities of 
 infant nature, more especially as the babe has no 
 previous experience or knowledge wherewith to 
 reconcile himself to present suffering. It is certain, 
 in fact, that every part of sentient life contributes its 
 appropriate quota of the total sum of Thought and 
 experience. Each separate act of Thought or deed, 
 every single experience helps to build up the edifice 
 of the individual self, and fulfils its part, for good or 
 for evil, in the formation of the character, and the 
 conduct of the life. Hence the paramount import- 
 ance of a right beginning, as the only safe prelude to 
 a happy end. 
 
 The fact that little if anything has been done 
 towards systematic training of the thinking faculty 
 in infancy, is indisputable ; but the reason is not so 
 obvious. It seems unaccountable that the principle 
 of beginning at the beginning, which prevails in every 
 other part of education, should be neglected in regard 
 to the highest of the faculties ! There appear to be 
 but two reasons to which to attribute the exception. 
 First, that the infant faculty is supposed to be not 
 susceptible of training ; and secondly, that the process 
 of thinking is altogether of too abstruse a nature to 
 admit of treatment, until it is able to assert itself, and 
 prove its competency to understand matters so recon- 
 dite. Neither of these reasons has any real force, 
 both being opposed to the facts of experience. For 
 the progress actually made in the use of the faculty 
 by every sane child in the first of our periods, as 
 shown by our summary at the end of chapter vi., proves
 
 12 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 that, during that neglected period, a very considerable 
 amount of mental work has been accomplished. 
 Sensuous, mental, and even some moral ideas have 
 been formulated, reflected upon, and elaborated ; by 
 comparison, association and inference. The faculty 
 has indeed been actively exerted. In default of 
 systematic and careful direction, it has taken such 
 haphazard course as the casual environment may 
 have imparted. It has been exerted upon whatsoever 
 material the treatment of the child's tender feelings 
 may have excited, and the attractions his surround- 
 ings may have offered for his observation. The 
 second reason advanced amounts, in fact, to postpon- 
 ing the work of educating the mind until it has 
 already been educated. Hence the laws of logic and 
 mental philosophy attract little attention, because 
 they are addressed to adults who have attained the 
 maturity of their powers without their aid. They 
 rather encumber with help those who have already 
 helped themselves, than offer it to those in need. 
 
 We do not overlook, nor do we undervalue, the 
 work of Kindergarten training, of which due notice is 
 taken in the sequel, but in the meantime, whilst 
 admitting its uses and advantages, we do not find in 
 it all the conditions we deem requisite for infant 
 training. 
 
 The mental condition, temper and other character- 
 istics, acquired by unobserved mental exercise during 
 the first periods of infancy, and which become 
 undeniably manifest in the conduct of children a 
 little later, are generally attributed to inherited 
 tendencies, and to unavoidable natural depravity. 
 Hence, though they are deplored and punished, 
 they are regarded as inevitable consequences of a
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 corrupt nature, and no means, or at least no ade- 
 quate means, are employed to avert them. This 
 we believe to be a cardinal defect of current practice. 
 Our aim in the succeeding chapters is, to show that, 
 after making all due allowance for what is really 
 natural, the gravest faults developed in the conduct 
 of children might be prevented ; that precautions, 
 both reasonable and practicable in themselves, would, 
 by watchful judicious observance, avert a wrong and 
 substitute a right direction of the thinking faculty ; 
 and that thereby a foundation would be laid by 
 which the future character would be saved from 
 much deformity. We shall further show that much 
 positive evil is actually, though inadvertently, taught 
 to infants who are thus instructed in vice, which they 
 imbibe, imitate, and form into habit. 
 
 Referring, as is done throughout these pages, to 
 the use of the thinking faculty as the only means 
 by which ideas are formed and fixed in the mind ; and 
 relying, as we do, on the direction and cultivation 
 of that faculty for all the power attainable, and for 
 all the knowledge men have any hope of possessing, 
 we must not be supposed to overlook, or to under- 
 rate the office and work of the Holy Spirit, nor yet 
 of prayer, as the most natural, and at the same time 
 most exalted, use of the faculty itself. But, in 
 recognizing the inestimable resource which a true 
 Christian possesses, in his appeals to Supreme Power, 
 in his weakness and extremity, we do not impair 
 but strengthen the position we assume. For Divine 
 aid is given only to the willing and the weak, and 
 must itself be sought. Spiritual aid supplements 
 but does not supersede or overrule the individual 
 faculties and Will. Neither Thoughts themselves
 
 14 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 nor the Will by which they are prompted, are forced 
 upon men, who know too well, indeed, that they 
 may and do resist the most powerful appeals from 
 within or without, however impressively they may 
 be urged on unwilling minds. The fact that men 
 may invoke a higher power to aid their real infirmi- 
 ties, affords no excuse whatever for neglecting the 
 use of the powers they possess ; on the contrary, 
 such help being supplementary, it can only be 
 claimed after means have been fully exhausted and 
 the use of the faculties have been energetically 
 applied. 
 
 Introduced to a life in which good and evil are 
 inextricably intermingled, a life which is, in fact, 
 given expressly to enable men to discriminate and 
 choose between these conflicting principles, the 
 training of the novice, who is entering on the con- 
 flict thus imposed upon him, should be conducted 
 primarily with a view to the formation of correct 
 ideas of moral principles, as the groundwork on 
 which the edifice of Thought, that is, of the indi- 
 vidual self, is to be built. By this we do not mean 
 forms of belief, or strictly religious instruction and 
 doctrine which are particular applications for after 
 consideration but, as fundamental elements of 
 character and conduct, equally important in regard 
 to secular knowledge and affairs, as in the more 
 particular sense of religious doctrine. Good and 
 evil are so intimately and universally implicated in 
 all Thoughts, opinions, judgments and general con- 
 duct, and do so closely concern the inner, as well as 
 the outer, man, that their influence cannot be 
 excluded from consideration in any part of either 
 knowledge or conduct. The sincerity and the force
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 1 5 
 
 with which the conflict between the higher and the 
 lower law is waged, throughout the course of life, 
 depend so much upon faith in the authority which 
 so continually imposes restraints upon the natural 
 appetites and passions, that the ideas of faith in 
 tutors, and voluntary obedience to their authority, 
 as first inspired by their example in the earliest 
 stages of infant life, are the most influential elements 
 ever acquired for the after- development of character. 
 As means of initiating and promoting discipline, 
 these elements are of the utmost value, but their 
 chief function is in preparing the way for, and 
 establishing a right understanding of, the higher 
 principles of faith in, and obedience to, Divine 
 authority. Here, as throughout the history of life, 
 that which is natural precedes and prepares the 
 way for that which is spiritual. 
 
 If we could believe that the defects of current 
 practice in the training, or rather in the neglect, of 
 the education of the faculty of thinking in early life 
 were simply one of the many ways in which men 
 fail to exemplify in practice what they nevertheless 
 know and believe theoretically, we should relegate 
 the task of the practical enforcement of known duty 
 to the pulpit, whence such admonition would more 
 appropriately proceed. Long and varied experience, 
 arid close attention to this particular subject, how- 
 ever, satisfy us that the worst results of current 
 practice are referable to causes, the force of which 
 is not generally recognized. For the purpose of 
 establishing this position we have endeavoured in 
 the sequel to trace the successive stages of the pro- 
 gress and development of the faculty in a natural 
 history, beginning at the beginning and proceeding
 
 1 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 to that stage of the understanding where it emerges 
 from the discipline of tutors and sets out on the 
 independent career which is to complete the struc- 
 ture of the self. 
 
 For convenience of treatment, we have divided 
 the history into periods. These are necessarily of 
 an arbitrary nature, and are not defined by any clear 
 lines of demarcation. The process of development 
 being quite continuous, and very gradual, does not 
 exhibit any such sharp lines as would serve to 
 distinguish them very clearly from each other. 
 Language, however, is so influential an agency in the 
 development of the thinking faculties, and in the 
 intercourse of men, that it serves better than any 
 other means at command for regarding separately 
 periods or stages of early life which could not be 
 conveniently discussed collectively. 
 
 Such being the general scope and aim of our 
 undertaking, the following chapters are devoted to 
 a systematic discussion of the rise and progress of 
 the faculty of thinking, and of its practical use, 
 divested as much as possible of its mysterious and 
 metaphysical characteristics. These, though alluring* 
 and seductive in their scientific interest, have no 
 actual bearing on the use of the understanding. 
 Nor do we profess to treat the subject technically 
 or with rigorous scientific exactness. We do not 
 question the interest attaching to pure mental philo- 
 sophy and the science of logic, but they do not affect 
 our purpose. The noblest characters that have 
 figured in history were formed without any reference 
 to these abstract considerations, which in fact do 
 not present themselves to notice in the affairs of life. 
 The greatest achievements of the intellect, in art,
 
 INTRODUCTORY. I / 
 
 science, religion, and in the most advanced forms 
 of knowledge have been accomplished without their 
 aid by men who had no better knowledge of the 
 mystery of Thought than the humblest of their 
 contemporaries. 
 
 Thought, as the product of the thinking faculty, 
 the result of a process, will be considered as distinct 
 from the faculty by means of which it is originally 
 formulated and afterwards elaborated by reflection, 
 comparison, association, and inference. The Will, 
 as the actuating and controlling power, will also 
 be separately discussed. These factors must be con- 
 sidered separately, if either their individual or joint 
 action is to be rightly understood. 
 
 Whether perception and reflection are separate 
 powers, or are different functions of the same faculty, 
 is immaterial to any part of our discussion, as is also 
 the question whether or not the Will is a distinct 
 power, or only a different function of the principal 
 faculty. The fact that involuntary action exists in 
 the highest types of animated beings associated with 
 voluntary power, suggests the probability that the 
 Will is a special faculty. And this idea seems to 
 receive further sanction from the fact that, in 
 descending the scale of being from the higher to the 
 lowest types, there is a point where voluntary action 
 ceases, and its function is fulfilled by some affinity or 
 mutual attraction existing between the animal arid 
 its proper food : such as exists in plants. 
 
 Whatever may be the essential relation of the 
 Will to the other functions or faculties, we discuss 
 it separately, because of the influence it exerts in the 
 conduct of life, and because of its early assertion in 
 the period of babyhood. The treatment of the Will
 
 18 
 
 in the very earliest indications is, in our belief, the 
 most effective means of establishing in the young 
 mind that voluntary subordination to moral suasion 
 which constitutes genuine obedience. The same 
 considerate treatment will go as far as human means 
 can go towards the formation of a docile and amiable 
 temper. One of the principal uses of the Will in 
 mental operations is to secure that control and con- 
 centration of the powers which is understood by the 
 term attention. This quality, so valuable to both 
 scholar and teacher, yet so difficult for children to 
 practise, cannot be forced. It must be won; and 
 the most efficacious means to that end is by the 
 early education of the Will, the dominant power of 
 the mental estate. This subject is discussed in the 
 chapter on Control of the Faculty of Thinking. 
 
 Throughout this work the term " tutor " is used to 
 denote parents, nurses and elders generally, who 
 exercise authority, and it comprises them all, so as 
 to save needless verbiage. Where a teacher, or 
 instructor, is meant, one of these words is employed, 
 in order that the term tutor may be reserved for the 
 more general purpose. The male sex is, in accord- 
 ance with precedent, used to comprise both sexes.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 
 
 OF all the subjects that could engage the atten- 
 tion of man, there is not one more worthy of it, nor 
 any that would better repay it, than that of Thought, 
 the product of his highest faculty. There is no 
 other so important to him in the conduct of his life, 
 whether regarded in its relation to this world or the 
 world to come. Thought embodies all that is en- 
 during of his experience of life and the lessons it 
 teaches, all the knowledge he has acquired, and the 
 only hope of acquiring more. There is therefore no 
 other subject that concerns him so deeply, nor any of 
 which a close study would reward him so richly. 
 The substance of life's circumstance is summed up in 
 Thought, and in that form alone can it survive the 
 dissolution of the material world. 
 
 Thought, in its collective sense, the accumulated 
 body of Thought, which comprises the result of all 
 observation, and the work of reflection and imagina- 
 tion, is composed of ideas, or individual Thoughts, 
 each of which is the product of the formulative func- 
 tion of the thinking faculty. This function is 
 exercised, generally, by an effort of the Will, on such 
 of the perceptions as engage attention. A large 
 proportion of all that passes within the range of 
 perception, however, escapes the notice of even the 
 
 c 2
 
 20 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 most observant, or is intentionally disregarded. Such 
 sensations as are altogether neglected, and receive no- 
 attention at all, are wholly lost, as they are not for- 
 mulated into ideas, and therefore are not gathered 
 into the storehouse of the mental possessions. But, 
 between the two extremes of total disregard, on the 
 one hand, and the strongest eifort of attention on the 
 other, there may exist every possible degree of notice. 
 Hence, the ideas which compose the stock of Thought 
 vary in strength of impression and clearness of defini- 
 tion in every conceivable degree. Attention, there- 
 fore, whether it be prompted by a resolute purpose, or 
 be captivated by the irresistible force of the sensation 
 or reflection, is the chief factor in determining the 
 fixity and value of the work of the thinking faculty. 
 This important factor will be more fully considered in 
 the sequel, in the chapters on Control and Memory, in 
 the discussion of which subjects its bearing is most 
 conspicuously manifest. At present it is noticed only 
 in its bearing on the natural history of Thought, as 
 that on which depends the depth and clearness of the 
 ideas resulting from the formulative process. These 
 qualities determine the nature and value of the 
 collective body of Thought and the extent to which 
 its elements are amenable to recall by the memory, 
 for the purposes of reflection, and for use in the 
 conduct of life. 
 
 Hence it follows, that the sum of Thought, the 
 stock of ideas acquired during life, does not represent 
 the opportunities life has afforded, but only the use 
 that has been made of them. It consists, not of the 
 things submitted to observation, but of those only 
 which, by vigilant and well-directed use of our 
 highest talent, have been rescued from amongst the
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 21 
 
 fugitive scenes of life's panorama. The records 
 inscribed on the mental tablet, even of those few 
 which have been so turned to account and appro- 
 priated, are characterized, unfortunately, by such 
 rror, defect and distortion as are incident to the 
 infirmity of the instruments employed in noting and 
 collecting them. 
 
 Every idea, or individual Thought which enters 
 into the collective stock, is the result of a process, in 
 which several factors are involved, viz. : 
 
 1. The subject-matter. 
 
 2. The perception thereof, whether by sensation 
 
 or reflection. 
 
 3. The Will, whether to notice or to neglect the 
 
 perception. 
 
 4. The formulation of the subject-matter into an 
 
 idea and its incorporation into the mind. 
 Each of these factors is subject to influences 
 \vhich vary in every particular case. The subject- 
 matter may be important or trivial, simple or com- 
 plex, and its presentment may be clear or obscure, 
 faint or forcible. The perception may be vivid or 
 dull, complete or imperfect, transient or enduring. 
 The effort of the Witt may vary in every degree, 
 between intentional disregard and a vigorous effort 
 of attention, or it may be forcibly attracted by the 
 pressing nature of the subject-matter. Tn these and 
 many other ways may the essential elements of the 
 process affect the final result. The bearings of these 
 influences on the quality of the ideas produced are 
 more fully discussed in the sequel, in the chapter on 
 Memory, as the amenableness of an idea to be 
 recalled is the crucial test by which its practical 
 value is estimated. It stands to reason that an
 
 22 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 idea which cannot be recalled, which is not subject 
 to the action of the memory, can neither be reflected 
 upon nor used. If the record be illegible, it is of 
 no practical avail. Whatsoever qualities, therefore, 
 are necessary to insure a prompt response to the 
 summons of the memory, they constitute the real 
 value of every idea that enters into the treasury of 
 Thought. A thorough knowledge of these qualities, 
 and of the best means of acquiring them, is of para- 
 mount importance in enabling us to turn to account 
 the priceless opportunities which this fast fleeting- 
 life affords. 
 
 The sources whence the subject-matter of thought 
 is derived are sensation and reflection. 
 
 Sensations proceed from (i) internal feelings and 
 appetites, which are mainly involuntary; and (2) 
 external objects and circumstances of observation. 
 
 Reflections are, in their nature, exercised upon 
 ideas previously existing in the mind, and comprise 
 the several processes of reasoning, inference and 
 imagination, whereby new ideas of the relations and 
 properties of things are acquired. Ideas are thus 
 multiplied, and knowledge is extended beyond the 
 range of mere observation. 
 
 The subject-matter of Thought is primarily sup- 
 plied through the medium of the senses, and is at 
 first suggested entirely by corporeal feelings and 
 appetites. Hence the first ideas are of a sensuous 
 or animal nature. As the organs of sense come into- 
 more extended use, ideas of external objects begin to 
 be acquired, and afford subject for the exercise of the 
 reflective faculty. As environment enlarges, and the 
 mental faculties, as well as the organs of sense, 
 become more amenable to the Will, the power and
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 23 
 
 range of perception increase, and the subject-matter 
 on which the thinking faculty is exercised embraces 
 a larger and ever-extending sphere of observation 
 and reflection. External circumstances, as well as 
 external objects, shortly come within the sphere of 
 the perceptions, and foremost of these is the conduct 
 of tutors, especially as it is exhibited in their treat- 
 ment of the infant himself. This forms an influen- 
 tial subject of his early reflections, comprising the 
 first suggestions of the moral element of Thought, 
 the first ideas of good and evil. 
 
 The Will has no part or influence in regard to 
 the subject-matter on which the faculties are 
 exercised in the earliest stages of infancy, as cor- 
 poreal feelings which form a necessary part of the 
 conditions of the life of the young creature are 
 involuntary. His attention is not long entirely so 
 monopolized, however, but is attracted by external 
 objects and circumstances, and his mental faculties 
 begin to be exercised in reflections thereupon. Thus 
 begin his relations with the outer world, which is 
 for the present comprised within the narrow bounds 
 of nursery environment. From this sphere he will 
 eventually emerge, with such relations as may there 
 have been established in his mind. All his future 
 relations to the outer world will be founded on those 
 first formed, and will thence derive their tone and 
 character. The subject-matter of future Thought 
 will be increasingly, though slowly, brought within 
 his own choice and control, until he shall have 
 attained to such a degree of independence as will 
 constitute him a responsible free agent. What will 
 be the nature of the choice he may then make, and 
 what the extent of the control of his thinking
 
 24 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 faculties he may have acquired during his period of 
 tutelage, will depend on the training his thinking 
 faculties may then have received whether this 
 training have been effected by the chance influences 
 of his surroundings, or by the systematic efforts of 
 tutors. The direction or bent the Will may have 
 taken during the earliest stages of youth will 
 determine to a very great extent whether his aspira- 
 tions and pursuits partake of the lower or higher 
 class of Thought whether the sensuous, mental, or 
 moral elements will prevail in the formation of his 
 character. 
 
 Formulation is that factor of the process by which 
 an idea is inscribed, as it were, on the mental tablet, 
 and which gives it the form in which it is incor- 
 porated into the mind. It is effected under very- 
 various conditions of the faculty itself, of the pre- 
 sentment and perception of the subject-matter, and 
 of the attention given to it. A great many of the 
 impressions on the sensorium are lost for want of 
 the effective fulfilment of this essential part of the 
 process. Even of those objects which are actually 
 perceived, comparatively few are so formulated as to 
 enter into the available stock of ideas. The fact 
 of their having been perceived is not unfrequently 
 attested by responsive acts done in a mechanical 
 way, unconsciously. A good illustration of this kind 
 of perception and response, and of the utter absence, 
 nevertheless, of any formulated idea of the circum- 
 stance, is given in Note 7 of the Appendix. Such 
 experiences are of daily occurrence, and this one 
 offers no very remarkable features, except in its 
 being so plain, and the demonstration so complete, 
 ad to the failure of the formulative action. In A
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 25 
 
 very preoccupied state of mind, sensations even of a 
 striking character may fail to arouse the faculty 
 whose proper function it is to formulate and appro- 
 priate them. The familiar voice of a friend, or even 
 peals of thunder, may be lost to the mind, although 
 they must have reached the sensorium. The same 
 lapse may occur from habitual indifference, or what 
 is termed an absent state of mind. Of all the 
 objects seen in a single hour's walk, a very large 
 proportion are altogether unnoticed, including some 
 which would have well repaid attention. Persons 
 of observant habit thus reap a rich harvest of 
 Thought which is lost to those of an opposite 
 character. 
 
 Nor is it only in regard to objects submitted to 
 the senses that the formulative function is necessary. 
 Reflections suggested from within may be perceived 
 with so little regard that no proper apprehension of 
 them ensues, but only a superficial sort of impression 
 is produced, not such as to evoke a clear effective 
 formulation. The perception in such cases is weak, 
 not for want of natural power, but from inattention. 
 Minds of this habit wander ineffectually and may 
 altogether lose the power of concentration, for want 
 of the habitual exercise of attention. Persons so 
 affected complain of their defective memories, and 
 their inability to collect their thoughts. Being 
 generally unconscious of the cause of these defects, 
 and that the fault rests with themselves, they would 
 feel deeply hurt at any imputation of defective effort. 
 They regard the superior powers of their neighbours 
 in the same way that indolent persons regard the 
 fruits of industry, and attribute them to the favour 
 of Providence.
 
 26 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 From the foregoing remarks on the part which 
 each of the factors has in the resulting idea, it 
 follows that the ideas which compose the collective 
 stock are of widely different force and value, accord- 
 ing to the conditions under which they were 
 elaborated. Besides the difference of depth, fixity, 
 and clearness, so produced, however, ideas are of 
 different kinds, and may, for our purpose, be classified 
 under three heads, viz. : (i) simple, (2) complex, and 
 (3) indeterminate. 
 
 Simple ideas are those in which a single object, 
 quality or relation is represented, and may consist 
 of an image, as a star, a circle, a colour, &c. &c., or 
 may be a perception of a sound, a pain, or a taste. 
 Simple ideas are elementary, both in their nature 
 and use. They fulfil the same office for Thought 
 that letters of the alphabet do for language. Like 
 them, they are not so much employed singly as they 
 are in groups. Their chief use is as component 
 parts of more complex and comprehensive thoughts. 
 The simplest objects presented to the mind or sense 
 are rarely regarded by the adult in their simple 
 form, but generally in connection with some shape, 
 quality or relation proper thereto. In regarding a 
 cloud, for example, the idea of its simple nature as 
 a cloud is associated with its form, colour, distance, 
 portent, &c., and is apprehended and formulated 
 along with its qualities, relations and significance in 
 one complex idea. 
 
 The process of thinking is in this respect analo- 
 gous^to that of reading, the facility of apprehension 
 acquired by practice makes the percipient impatient 
 of the slow and tedious process of spelling out as it 
 were, separately, the simple component elements,
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 2/ 
 
 and he grasps therefore as many of them in one 
 single effort of apprehension as may be obvious, just 
 in the same manner as an expert reader regards not 
 the letters singly but the words or phrases entire. 
 An expert chess-player sees the board, the pieces 
 and their relations to each other collectively, in one 
 comprehensive grasp, whilst the novice has to regard 
 the pieces and their mutual bearings separately. So 
 also in the formulation of ideas by the infant faculty ; 
 the complex is first acquired by means of the simple 
 ideas spelt, as it were, singly. 
 
 Complex ideas are those which comprise in one 
 concrete form several simple component ideas. They 
 bear the same relation to these that words or phrases 
 do to the letters which compose them. 
 
 Language is a very convenient vehicle for ex- 
 pressing complex ideas, because a very extensive 
 and complex group of ideas may often be thus 
 conveyed in a single word. It must not, however, 
 be supposed that the complex idea was originally so 
 formulated in the mind. The general functions of 
 language are discussed elsewhere in chapter iv., 
 but we must in this place point out that, to a great 
 extent, at least, the apprehension and formulation 
 of ideas is quite independent of the use of this 
 powerful agent of expressing ideas so formed. This 
 fact is clearly proved by experience. The recogni- 
 tion of expression in the features of tutors in early 
 babyhood shows that ideas of emotion exist in the 
 baby mind, associated with the images of the features 
 themselves. The ideas and inferences involved in 
 such recognition, made before language has been 
 either comprehended or used, conclusively proves 
 that ideas are independent of that element in the
 
 28 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 original formulation. A further proof, deduced from 
 the action of the adult mind, exists in the difficulty 
 frequently experienced by highly intelligent persons 
 to express, that is, to clothe in language, ideas which 
 exist in their minds in a definite form. It is not the 
 function of words to formulate ideas in the mind, but 
 on the other hand the mind devises words to convey 
 the ideas already existing there. Words in fact are 
 (5f no use except in so far as their meanings, that is, 
 the ideas they express, already exist in the mind. 
 The meanings of words are derived by inference 
 from the circumstances of their use. Hence, if the 
 inference have been erroneous or imperfect, the word 
 will be wrongly used. The word represents the idea, 
 and becomes associated with it. 
 
 Both simple and complex ideas are determinate. 
 The former are so in their nature, and the latter as 
 being resolvable into their simple elements. This, 
 however, is not the case with a very large and im- 
 portant class of ideas which are indeterminate and not 
 so resolvable, or, if at all, only by much circumlocu- 
 tion, and often even then with very doubtful result. 
 
 Indeterminate ideas differ from complex ideas in 
 not being resolvable into simple elements. They are 
 generalizations, of which the particulars are too 
 numerous, indefinite, or obscure, to have been formu- 
 lated in detail. They are of the nature of general 
 inference or insight, and may take the form of preju- 
 dice, attraction, repulsion, surmise, and other such 
 impressions. They are verdicts conceived by the 
 imagination, in which they differ from judgments 
 formed on recognized data of evidence. 
 
 Notwithstanding their indeterminate nature, they 
 constitute a very considerable and highly influential
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 29 
 
 part in determining character and conduct, especially 
 in regard to the relations of the individual with the 
 outer world. Though they are generally the result 
 of more or less extended intercourse or observation, 
 they are sometimes wrought by a sudden and inex- 
 plicable impulse. Of this latter class, a familiar 
 example is given in the saying : " I do not like thee, 
 Dr. Fell, The reason why I cannot tell, .... I do not 
 like thee, Dr. Fell." Of the former, the word truth, so 
 commonly used , and so well understood, may serve as 
 an illustration. The idea represented by the term is so 
 familiar as to become almost determinate. Any analysis 
 would seem superfluous, yet the idea is derived from 
 many experiences, and in most adults undergoes some 
 considerable change of significance from th at it possessed 
 when it first was formulated, and used as an idea in 
 childhood. The term " gentleman " is almost as com- 
 monly used, and as little likely to be misunderstood. 
 Yet two persons who would apply it with equal pro- 
 priety, would probably describe the conditions implied 
 by it in very different ways, and not without con- 
 siderable embarrassment. Still, the word represents 
 a distinct idea, and as an element of knowledge, it 
 is one, not several ; an idea in the proper sense of the 
 term. Indeterminate ideas, such as these just men- 
 tioned, which are in current use, necessary elements 
 of common conversation, are reduced almost to the 
 practical simplicity of determinate ideas by the aid 
 of language. Some others, which are equally com- 
 mon, are not understood so well, and are em- 
 ployed in senses differing according to the various 
 ways in which they exist in different minds. Hence 
 arises not a little misunderstanding, especially in 
 argumentative discourse, wherein each person uses
 
 30 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 the term in the sense in which it exists in his own 
 mind. 
 
 Those indeterminate ideas which most concern 
 individual conduct, are of a more special and limited 
 nature. Not being in common use, nor of more than 
 individual interest, they are not expressible in single 
 words or phrases by a common understanding. Hence 
 they are altogether independent of language, were not 
 formulated in such terms, nor so exist in the mind. 
 Nevertheless they are strong, enduring, and obey the 
 summons of memory in their integrity. Treatment 
 that has been received, a sermon heard, or a book 
 read the details of which, in each case, offered no 
 salient points to invoke the formulative function, may 
 nevertheless make an impression, long and definitely 
 remembered, and such as to affect materially the 
 conduct. 
 
 We lay stress on this kind of idea, because of its 
 bearing on the natural history of infant Thought, of 
 which a great portion is gleaned from the general 
 experiences of that trying period, and is thus indeter- 
 minately summarized in the form of disposition, 
 temper, and a general relation or attitude to external 
 persons and things. 
 
 In this work, which does not profess to deal with 
 mental philosophy technically, but only in its practical 
 bearing, we might well omit any notice of the doctrine 
 of innate ideas, which was long since discarded, were 
 it not that, under the guise of special gifts, it practi- 
 cally survives. These are discussed in our chapter 
 on Inheritance, but we deem it proper in this place, 
 as a preliminary to the discussion of the first begin- 
 nings of Thought, and its future development, to 
 maintain that all the knowledge man possesses, or
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 31 
 
 possibly can acquire, is obtained by the use of his 
 thinking faculty, and by no other means. We do 
 not thereby exclude the work of the Holy Spirit, 
 as that also comes in response to the efforts of the 
 faculties ; nor do we question the existence of great 
 diversity of natural power of the faculties, as that is 
 taught in the parable of the stewardship of the talents 
 five, two and one, respectively. We fully admit great 
 difference of power in the thinking faculties of different 
 individuals, but we deny their endowment with ready- 
 made Thought. The instruments are a natural en- 
 dowment, but the work is done by the possessor of 
 them. Were it possible, however, that ideas could 
 be conferred, and that in addition to the faculty for 
 acquiring knowledge, we should have also a treasury 
 ready furnished, ideas so gratuitously provided would 
 be of no use. They would be like words in an un- 
 known tongue, without use or meaning. The signi- 
 ficance of an idea, even its bare intelligibility, depends 
 on the circumstances of the presentment of its subject- 
 matter. It is from these it derives its meaning and 
 value. The doctrine is untenable, and is as unreason- 
 able as that of the worthy bishop, mentioned in 
 chapter xiv., who held that fossils were created 
 ready-made, and therefore afforded no proof of the 
 pre- Adamite existence of the world. 
 
 The theory is unsupported by positive evidence, 
 and its assumption is superfluous, as all the practical 
 phenomena of Thought are accounted for by the use 
 of the ordinary means men possess for acquiring 
 knowledge. 
 
 The thinking faculty, though it is the highest 
 man possesses, is not monopolized by the human 
 family, but is shared also by the lower animals, in
 
 32 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 such measure and manner as is necessary for obtain- 
 ing their food, eluding their enemies, and for other 
 purposes proper to their mode of life and ultimate 
 destiny. It is not the possession but the use of the 
 faculty which distinguishes the human from the 
 brute races. Hence, it is to be considered in its 
 relation generally to all beings possessed of any 
 measure of intelligence. A natural history of 
 Thought which should exclude its relation to the 
 lower animals would be incomplete, if not mis- 
 leading. 
 
 Whereinsoever the use of a thinking faculty is 
 common to both the lower and the higher races, 
 much instruction is to be gathered from a study of 
 its operation in the lower, as regards its use and 
 functions in the higher, domain of Thought. In the 
 lower types it is divested of some conditions which 
 complicate and embarrass the consideration of its 
 use in the higher. The bearing of Thought in its 
 higher development receives effective elucidation 
 from its operation in the lower, especially as the 
 personal history of the human subject commences 
 with the lower and passes through all the inter- 
 mediate phases of condition up to the higher. 
 Beginning life with animal faculties only, the pro- 
 gress of the individual proceeds through the succes- 
 sive stages of sensuous, mental and moral nature, 
 each in turn exercising paramount influence, fulfilling 
 its special part, and impressing its proper stamp 
 upon the constituent Thought. 
 
 In succeeding chapters we avail ourselves of illus- 
 trations and examples, adduced from the operation 
 of the thinking powers of the lower animals, which 
 afford convincing and instructive evidence in regard
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 33 
 
 to the progress and development of the faculties of 
 the human subject. 
 
 If the reference to brute nature needed, under 
 these circumstances, any apology in a work on the 
 practical use and bearing of Thought on human 
 conduct, it would surely be found in the fact that 
 the whole creation, animate and inanimate, owes its 
 being and the order of its existence to one Almighty 
 Father, whose creative power, supreme government, 
 and paternal care, are alike manifest in all the mul- 
 tifarious elements that constitute the cosmos. No 
 one of these can say to another, " I have no need of 
 you," each is essential to all the rest, and takes its 
 appropriate part in the drama of Nature. We do 
 not understand or sympathize with the feeling 
 which has been suggested to us for the omission of 
 all reference to the lower types of intelligence, as 
 though such allusion tended to lower the dignity of 
 man's place in the Universe. We consider, in fact, 
 that the superiority of man's position in the scale of 
 being was established by the Almighty fiat which 
 conferred upon him the dominion over the whole of 
 the brute creation, and thus defined the mental 
 relations of the two orders of sentient beings. It 
 is not a dignified position for man, the lord of 
 creation, wilfully to reject some of the most sig- 
 nificant pages from that book of Nature in which it 
 has pleased the Almighty to reveal His eternal 
 power and godhead, lest they should wound his 
 pride. Nothing is to be gained, but much loss 
 suffered, by self-imposed blindness. 
 
 Considered in the phases in which it is exhibited 
 in the whole range of intelligent being, Thought is 
 naturally divided into two distinct departments,
 
 34 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 which are sharply defined. The lower comprises all 
 that is possessed by the brute races. The laws 
 thereby imposed define their powers of Thought, the 
 purposes to which they may be applied, and the 
 obligations proper to the part they fulfil in the 
 economy of Nature. The higher is the special 
 endowment of man, whose powers range throughout 
 the whole domain of Thought, including the lower, 
 to whose laws he is also amenable, as well as to a 
 higher and rival law, imposed on him by his higher 
 nature. This higher power, by means of which he is 
 authorized and commissioned to exercise dominion 
 over the lower order of beings, imposes on hirn the 
 obligation to bring into subjection also the lower 
 part of his own individual nature. Hence arises a 
 conflict between the law of the lower and that of 
 the higher domain of his complex nature. The issue 
 of this conflict determines his place and rank in the 
 scale of being. It either subjects him to his lower 
 nature, or initiates a spiritual life. 
 
 The researches of science prove that beings of the 
 human form and corporeal structure existed before 
 the epoch of the Mosaic narrative, and consequently 
 anterior to the creation of the image of God in man. 
 That likeness could not have existed in the outward 
 and corporeal frame, for God has not limbs, or 
 organic structure. It was, in fact, in his knowledge 
 of good and evil, as is implied in the passage : 
 " Behold the man has become as one of us to know 
 good and evil." The moral function of Thought, as 
 distinguished from the lower domain of sensuous and 
 mental Thought, begins with the knowledge of good 
 and evil, the basis of moral principles. These con- 
 stitute the higher law of spiritual authority, by
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 35 
 
 -which the lower is to be subjected ; and there is a 
 stage in the conflict between these two laws, which 
 is a condition of the second birth, the introduction to 
 spiritual life. 
 
 The second birth of which our Saviour spoke to 
 Nicodemus, as being the introduction to the spiritual 
 life, was not then originated as a new doctrine, but 
 was an old truth clothed in a particular formula of 
 words. He could not have intended to imply that 
 the patriarchs, and other exemplary characters of 
 Scripture, had all been wanting in that, or any 
 necessary qualifications for the enjoyment of spiritual 
 life. Some of them had such communion with the 
 Almighty as proved their having attained a high 
 position in that life. By the second birth, there- 
 fore, or entrance into spiritual life, we are to under- 
 stand not only a knowledge of good and evil, but 
 an effective choice, a firm and faithful embracing of 
 the good ; a stage of that conflict between the lower 
 and the higher laws of our nature, which indicates 
 the triumph of the latter, when evil has been effec- 
 tually overcome by its natural counter-agent, good. 
 Nor is this doctrine peculiar to the Christian religion. 
 The conquest of appetite and passion, that is, of 
 the brute nature, is professedly the one great end 
 and aim of Buddha's discipline. According to 
 his doctrine, the complete subjugation of the lower 
 nature of the individual entitles him, thus freed from 
 .appetite and passion, to be absorbed into Buddha. 
 This state is often misunderstood to mean annihila- 
 tion. Such a climax, however, would offer but an 
 ineffective stimulus to any reasonable aspirant to 
 undergo the mortifications and trials imposed by the 
 stern regime of Buddhism. But the state, as 
 
 D 2
 
 36 NATCJJXAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 described by Buddha, in several parts of the Bud- 
 dhistic writings, is one of peaceful bliss,* and there- 
 fore far removed from annihilation, and much more 
 resembling a spiritual ascendancy of the higher over 
 the lower nature. 
 
 The spiritual touches the material world in that 
 
 higher domain of Thought of which the knowledge of 
 
 good and evil forms the basis, and the triumph of 
 
 the former a primary qualification. Man, therefore, 
 
 possessing such knowledge, has the key to the 
 
 attainment of spiritual life, and he who, in the 
 
 exercise of his free will, elects to embrace it, will 
 
 not want either the gift itself or the power to enjoy 
 
 it. Animated by such aspiration, evil would in its 
 
 nature be repugnant to the candidate. Repentance 
 
 for his past lapses would be natural, deep and 
 
 genuine, just in proportion as his choice was sincere 
 
 and earnest. Repentance, therefore, and faith are 
 
 natural conditions of the act of choice, for he who so- 
 
 acts must necessarily believe firmly in the doctrine 
 
 and in the authority on which it rests, that of our 
 
 Blessed Redeemer who sealed it with his life's blood. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that faith and repentance, the 
 
 conditions prescribed by the gospel, are not mere 
 
 dogmas, but natural operations of the higher law. 
 
 The conditions necessary for a spiritual life being 
 
 present, that gift will represent the second birth, and 
 
 thenceforth the natural man is endowed with a 
 
 spiritual nature, and will enjoy communion with the 
 
 supreme spirit, more or less closely, according to the 
 
 strength of his faith, the earnestness of his purpose, 
 
 and the effort made for its fulfilment. 
 
 * Rhys Davids in his work on Buddhism gives a list of these 
 passages.
 
 OX THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 37 
 
 In contemplating the visible universe, generally, 
 the evidences of a power superior to the forces 
 therein operating, and to the laws by which they act, 
 must be recognized. The changes that are con- 
 tinually in progress by means of those forces, and the 
 resultant developments therein manifest, attest the 
 existence of order and purpose, and consequently of 
 a power exercising supreme control. The Being who 
 wields such supreme power must necessarily be of a 
 different nature from the material subjects of His 
 rule, animate and inanimate. In Him, therefore, is 
 revealed another order of being, which typifies the 
 spiritual element. The material and spiritual natures 
 both stand revealed in the order of the universe, and 
 both are apprehended by the agency of the thinking 
 faculty in the exercise of its highest functions. 
 
 In the lowest orders of the scale of living beings 
 the vital principle only is evident. Even sensation 
 seems wanting. Vitality in them seems to be main- 
 tained by some kind of mutual affinity, which sub- 
 sists between them and the fuel they consume. 
 Sensation is not necessary in their condition. This 
 faculty appears very low in the scale, however, and 
 volition soon follows. These graduate through a 
 long series of successive orders, in which the rudi- 
 ments of mental processes become manifest, and 
 these eventually become developed into the familiar 
 forms in which they are exhibited by the more use- 
 ful and companionable of our domestic favourites. 
 Thus, from the simply vital to the advanced mental 
 conditions the lower order of beings progress, and at 
 this point their further progress stops. A similar 
 order prevails in the incipient stages of the human 
 infant, and hence the interest the natural history of
 
 38 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 the lower animals possesses in contemplating the de- 
 velopment of the lower element of the human mind. 
 Here, however, the further progress is not arrested 
 as in the brute, but proceeds upwards from the 
 lower into the higher domain, which may culminate 
 in a spiritual life. 
 
 In the following diagram the course of the develop- 
 ment of the thinking faculty in the economy of the 
 animal kingdom is briefly sketched in a summarized 
 form, as a preliminary to the discussion of the rise 
 and progress of Thought in the human subject. 
 
 Man 
 
 in his 
 
 state 
 
 of 
 
 probation. 
 
 DIAGRAM. 
 
 'Vitality ist stage from zero 
 
 Sensation 2nd with feeling 
 
 Volition 3rd 
 
 Reflection 4th 
 
 free will 
 mental 
 faculties, graduating 
 from formulation and 
 
 Range 
 
 ) of the 
 
 lower ' 
 
 domain. 
 
 Penultimate 
 state of 
 spiritual 
 
 man 
 
 whilst still 
 in this life. 
 
 memory, upwards. 
 \Moral principle. Knowledge of 
 good and evil as 
 motive of conduct. 
 
 Ultimate Spiritual principle. Subjection of 
 state of .the lower and triumph 
 
 spiritual of the higher, 
 
 being. 
 
 The purpose of the foregoing reflections on the 
 two departments of Thought, which, though so dis- 
 tinct in their nature and objects, are so inextricably 
 mixed together in this life, is to show their practical 
 bearings on the cultivation of the intellect, and to 
 prove the necessity of commencing the training of 
 the faculty from the very earliest period, when the 
 lower nature predominates; and thence, from the 
 basis so laid, to follow its development upwards, 
 always in the right direction, that is, towards the 
 higher domain of Thought.
 
 ON THE NATURE OF THOUGHT. 39 
 
 Considering how great is the function of Thought 
 in all the affairs of human life, as the spring of con- 
 duct, the embodiment of all knowledge and the basis 
 of principles and opinions, and seeing that the nature 
 as well as the extent of Thought is so influential in 
 its practical use, there needs no further argument to 
 prove the responsibility involved in the training and 
 exercise of the faculty in such manner as to give a 
 right direction from the very first dawn of in- 
 telligence onwards. So commenced, each successive 
 stage would rest upon a sure foundation, and life 
 would begin under the auspices most favourable to 
 a high intellectual and moral qualification for what- 
 ever sphere the individual might occupy. A happy 
 relation with the world in general, loyal submission 
 to authority, a power of attention and concentration, 
 effective memory and all the requisites of sound 
 judgment are qualities attainable, in a greater or 
 less degree, by every one possessed of a sane mind, 
 provided the faculty be trained accordingly, and 
 their opposites are unhappily the alternatives to 
 which the neglect of such training will probably lead. 
 The real character of the individual will be moulded 
 to the pattern of its fundamental element, Thought.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 
 
 THE primary functions of Thought are to sustain the 
 life and regulate the conduct of its possessor, 
 whether he belong to the lower order of sentient 
 beings or to any of those intermediate stages of 
 intelligence upwards to man himself. In all stages 
 of the corporeal development the thinking faculty 
 is the agency by means of which all the purposes 
 of life are directed and fulfilled. Each successive 
 stage in the development of the organism enlarges 
 the range and increases the functions of Thought, 
 wherefore in man they attain their highest form and 
 largest sphere of operation. 
 
 The higher function is the reproduction of 
 Thought. Knowledge is not bounded by the ideas 
 formulated by the direct operation of the faculty, 
 but is extended by means of the reflex processes of 
 reasoning and inference. By these reflective pro- 
 cesses knowledge is extended far beyond the limits 
 of those elementary ideas, in an ever-expanding ratio. 
 The sphere of Thought thus embraces all creation. 
 Overleaping the boundaries of the material 
 universe, and all limitations of time and space, it 
 stretches into and penetrates the spiritual world. 
 All Nature is subjected to the powers of its research. 
 The earth yields up the secrets of its history, growth
 
 OX THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 41 
 
 and destiny, reveals the laws which have regulated 
 its formation out of chaos, unfolds its complicated 
 evolutions, and makes manifest to the keen scrutiny 
 of the thinking faculty the eternal power and god- 
 head of a Supreme Author. 
 
 The functions of Thought may be considered in 
 their relations to the animated part of creation 
 generally, or, in a more restricted sense, to a par- 
 ticular era in the history of the world, a nation, or 
 an individual. In each of these spheres they operate 
 similarly according to laws which determine the 
 position of the age, people or individual in the scale 
 of progress. Successive developments of material 
 organism are accompanied by corresponding increase 
 of the sphere of Thought, which progresses, there- 
 fore, in the collective body of sentient beings, as 
 well as in the individual, according to the develop- 
 ment of the organism. In other words, Thought 
 advances in proportion to the progressive develop- 
 ment of the organs through which its correspondence 
 with the material world is carried on. 
 
 Considered with reference to the human indivi- 
 dual, the functions of Thought are exercised vari- 
 ously, according to the different conditions incident to 
 each successive stage of his life. These stages main- 
 tain the same order in each individual as that in which 
 they stand in the collective body of animated beings, 
 as sketched in the diagram in chapter ii. 
 
 Such being the natural order of Thought, accord- 
 ing to the appointment of the Almighty Father, 
 such is the order in which it should be studied by 
 man, His creature. The relation in which man 
 stands to the lower orders of sentient beings, by 
 the operation of His beneficent laws, could not
 
 42 .NATUK AL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 possibly imply any degradation, as all the others 
 have been subjected to him, nor, in such relation, 
 could it be hurtful to the dignity of man to study 
 Thought in its whole history, from its inception in 
 the lowest, upwards to its maturity in the highest, 
 of its developments. Viewed from man's exalted 
 standpoint, every successive step in the upward 
 progress of Thought, from its earliest dawn to the 
 highest point attained in his own order, is invested 
 with special interest, as the heir of the one preceding, 
 and the parent of all that follow. 
 
 Seeing also that in the history of each individual 
 the same order prevails, and that ever} 7 man must 
 necessarily pass through every stage of being from 
 birth to manhood, the study of the functions of 
 Thought from its beginnings affords an insight into 
 their purpose and progress which cannot in any 
 other way be acquired. The interest and impor- 
 tance of such a complete historic consideration of 
 the subject is intensified by the fact that, in passing 
 through each stage, he retains in his nature its 
 characteristics as well as its fruits. Each of the 
 fields he has successively occupied, and sown with 
 good and evil seed, remains as a permanent and 
 essential part of the territory of his individual 
 estate, and the accumulated harvests thence reaped 
 will remain, whatever their nature and extent may 
 be, to constitute the treasure of Thought for his 
 future capital in the conduct of life. 
 
 The animal or sensuous, the mental and the moral 
 elements of his complex nature, which, in turn, 
 engrossed his faculties, remain fast bound together, 
 along with their products, for the natural term of 
 his earthly life. He cannot divest himself of any
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 43 
 
 part of them. Each fulfils an appropriate and 
 necessary role in the formation of the self, and each 
 entails its own special responsibilities, inseparably 
 attached to its contributions. There exists amongst 
 them a mutual interdependence and co-operation of 
 Divine appointment which can neither be dispensed 
 with nor destroyed. It behoves man, therefore, to 
 consider closely the bearings of each upon the other, 
 separately, and on the whole, collectively. The 
 functions of Thought are paramount in each, and 
 confer upon it all the value it can possess as part of 
 the whole being. It is therefore necessary to con- 
 sider the part those functions perform in the lower, 
 in order to obtain a right and complete understand- 
 ing of the phenomena and purposes of their operation 
 in the higher domain. 
 
 In man, with his highly developed organism and 
 complex nature, the functions of Thought are ful- 
 filled under conditions which make it difficult, often 
 impossible, to trace their bearings on any particular 
 part of his nature. The fact that all the elements 
 subsist and operate together, obscures the separate 
 influence of each. In babyhood, for instance, the 
 vicarious offices of tutors, who are possessed of a 
 higher order of thought, suggest ideas which are not 
 proper to the babe's own stage of being, and thus 
 complicate matters. In the lower animals the func- 
 tions of Thought may be seen in a simpler form, 
 being there divested of the complications introduced 
 into the higher nature by moral considerations. 
 These are most influential in human Thought in its 
 advanced stages, and are thus introduced vicariously 
 into the lower stages of baby life. Hence the 
 natural workings of Thought in its lower domain are
 
 44 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 best understood by the study of them as they are 
 exhibited in creatures who are born, nurtured, and 
 matured in simpler conditions of life, free from the 
 influence of the moral element. The illustrations 
 adduced in the following chapters from the lower 
 orders of animal nature will bear out this conclusion. 
 
 There is a unity of plan, a continuity of process, 
 and a completeness in the works of Nature that cannot 
 be fully apprehended without a thorough investiga- 
 tion of their rudiments. Science testifies to the 
 fact that the clearest light thrown upon the higher 
 branches of science has, in every case, been obtained 
 by means of the lower. There is, therefore, no rule 
 of science so universal as that of beginning at the 
 bottom. The fact that such study as has been 
 devoted to the training of Thought has been an 
 exception to this rule is noticed in a former chapter, 
 and referred to its probable causes ; but the conse- 
 quences are pertinent to our present argument. 
 They are manifest in the popular idea that the 
 tempers, dispositions and decided bent, so often 
 exhibited in childhood, are inherited properties arid 
 therefore inevitable and independent of the child's 
 own personal experience, whereas they may be 
 proved to be the natural results of the treatment 
 and circumstances of early infancy, when the opera- 
 tions of the mind are obscure and unobserved. They 
 are, however, neither less natural nor less influential 
 on that account, and are therefore deserving of the 
 utmost attention. 
 
 When the human subject first enters upon life he 
 begins it under the same conditions as the lowest in 
 the scale of animated being. Such in the order of 
 Providence is the first stage through which he has
 
 OX THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 45 
 
 to pass preparatory to his realization, of the high 
 position he is ultimately to occupy in the scale of 
 being. His sensations are those of feeling and appe- 
 tite. These form for a time the sole subject-matter 
 in which his incipient faculties are exercised. And 
 they are so exercised, with results which form the 
 basis of their future and wider operations. The first 
 fruits of the thinking faculty are suggested by sensa- 
 tions of his animal nature ; those very same feelings 
 with which he will, in one form or another, have to 
 contend through the future stages of his life. The 
 
 o o 
 
 faculty which for the present is exercised upon and 
 dominated by them is that by which he is here- 
 after to bring them into subjection or to forfeit his 
 hopes of a spiritual life. In those members which 
 now absorb his attention is written the law which 
 will through life oppose the higher law of the nature 
 he is soon to enjoy. The first impulses which quicken 
 into effort his incipient Will are those of this lower 
 law. In his present state, however, he is not left to 
 his own resources. The inexperience and helpless- 
 ness which place him in the power of tutors, impose 
 upon them the duty of acting for him, and also the 
 responsibility of the issue. It is for them to satisfy 
 his appetites and supply his wants in such manner 
 as to modify their power, and vicariously to do for 
 him what he may thus gradually learn to do for him- 
 self. This lesson may come slowly, but he will have 
 ample time to learn it, and will not fail if it be judi- 
 ciously taught by consistent and thoughtful treat- 
 ment. The same considerate regard for his tender 
 feelings will win his confidence and love, and enable 
 tutors to subdue his incipient Will by unfelt re- 
 straints, and inspire his spontaneous obedience.
 
 46 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Thus is commenced by proxy the suggestion of 
 that discrimination between good and evil which 
 engages the highest function of the faculty in after- 
 life, and thus also is inspired the choice of the 
 former. Hence, though the Will is in both orders 
 first prompted, and brought into exercise, by appetite 
 and feeling, the ultimate subjection of the lower 
 nature in the one case, and its lasting predominance 
 in the other, are plainly contemplated by the order 
 of Providence in the respective conditions of life in 
 each. In the lower order, the Will is subject only 
 to a rough discipline of force, but is otherwise unre- 
 strained, and left to develop the natural propensities 
 proper to the class of animal in each case. The brute 
 cultivates his lower nature, which is necessary to the 
 mode of life he has to follow. The human subject 
 has these same propensities to subdue. In the 
 former, ferocity and self-assertion are virtues. In 
 the latter, they are the forces which the higher law 
 has to contend against and overcome. In each order 
 the education of the faculty is suited to the mode 
 and conditions of the future life. In the infant, the 
 lower nature should be so treated as not to be^et in 
 
 o 
 
 him the faults which are virtues in the lower order 
 of being. The agency by which this treatment is 
 administered is that of tutors. Their conduct and 
 example are the appointed means by which the ideas 
 of moral principle are first infused into the receptive 
 mind of the infant. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that every human being 
 derives his first ideas of moral principles, and his 
 preparation for the future prevalence of his higher 
 nature, from the feelings enkindled, and the thoughts 
 suggested, by the treatment he receives and the con-
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 47 
 
 duct he witnesses on the part of his tutors. These 
 are the means of diverting his Thoughts from the 
 otherwise predominant feelings and appetites of his 
 lower nature. On his tutors, therefore, and not on 
 any inherited ideas, rests the heavy responsibility of 
 the issues of their relations with him. If they would 
 learn the result of neglecting these duties, that is, 
 of leaving the infant to the unrestrained impulses of 
 his lower nature, they may behold it in the lower 
 animals, where it is exhibited in its own proper 
 colours, without any of those cloaks which human 
 law, social obligations, and fear of consequences, 
 throw over its manifestation in the human life. 
 There, in the brute creation, and also, alas ! in the 
 dens of iniquity and haunts of crime, of our own 
 Christian country, are exhibited the natural work- 
 ings of the lower nature where it predominates. In 
 these latter scenes may be witnessed the neglected 
 or ill-performed work of tutors in its open manifesta- 
 tion ; but there are also hidden results which, if less 
 flagrant, are not less terrible, known only to Him who 
 sees the inner pollution of suppressed Thought. 
 
 In the judicious training of the infant Will, in its 
 earliest manifestations, lies the germ of that true, 
 spontaneous obedience, elsewhere discussed, which 
 forms so important a feature, first in the relations 
 between teacher and pupil in the later stages of 
 tutelage, and afterwards in the conduct of life. 
 Faith in tutors, the first step towards faith in God, 
 is also first inspired in the very earliest stages of 
 baby helplessness, by such treatment and considera- 
 tion of the susceptibilities of infant nature as would 
 attract and win it. If these important modifications 
 of the lower nature be not effected during the plastic
 
 48 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 and dependent period of babyhood, every step in the 
 progress towards independent action will increase 
 the difficulty of planting them deep and fixing them 
 potentially into the after-life. Hence the conditions 
 of babyhood are providentially ordained and are the 
 best that could be conceived for that end. 
 
 The practical effect of the treatment of children in 
 their earliest infancy is discussed in a succeeding 
 chapter. At present we have only to note, in a 
 preliminary way, the fact, that the functions of the 
 thinking faculty are called into exercise by the 
 conditions proper to each of the periods of life, as 
 they succeed each other ; and that the nature of the 
 product, Thought, will necessarily be determined by 
 that of the subject-matter on which they are em- 
 ployed. It follows, therefore, that, whilst corporeal 
 feelings and susceptibilities are predominant, the 
 higher order of Thought can only be suggested by 
 the treatment of tutors, and, if not so suggested, it 
 will be wanting. 
 
 With the close of the period of babyhood the 
 despotic reign of sensibilities and appetites ter- 
 minates. A fresh dynasty assumes superior rule 
 over the realm previously established. The subjects, 
 Thoughts, remain unaltered in their character, but 
 they own a new master. The state may be lower or 
 higher in its nature, good or bad, loyal or rebellious, 
 but whatever it be, it comes under a new power. 
 The faculties of body and mind, and the organs of 
 sense, have been growing stronger gradually, and 
 now demand employment. Their new ruler is 
 activity constant, untiring, restless activity. Limbs 
 and senses are exerted in every possible kind of 
 tentative effort. During this stage, which we dis-
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 49 
 
 tiogoish from babyhood, the one preceding, by the 
 term infancy ; the faculties, both corporeal and men- 
 tal, make great progress. Tentative efforts are 
 rewarded, sooner or later, with surprising successes, 
 and still more instructive failures. From all alike 
 new experiences are acquired, and new ideas formed. 
 Every new accomplishment affords a fund of joy to 
 its possessor, though not always so to tutors. The 
 functions of the thinking faculty are now so much 
 engaged in directing activities of all kinds, and with 
 the novel sensations and ideas those efforts produce, 
 that the deposed despot has a diminishing influence 
 in the state, notwithstanding vigorous assaults on 
 his successor, and some temporary defeats. It is 
 during this period that oral language is acquired, 
 but the progress made is mainly effected by means of 
 imitative impulse, and increased power and range of 
 observation and discernment. Language is as yet 
 but little used except in the way of imitation, and 
 is but very partially understood till near the end of 
 this term. 
 
 With the free use of elementary language a new 
 rule is established ; not that the old state, formed 
 under previous powers, loses any of its subjects, but 
 only that they all fall under a new sway, that of 
 inquisitiveness. During this period knowledge, ex- 
 perience and the resources they develop, all multiply 
 and suggest aspirations for independence, which is 
 the predominant force that exercises sway during 
 school days, the term which actually precedes the 
 state of independence assumed when the youth 
 launches out on life's career, freed from the direct 
 control of tutors and governors. 
 
 The course of the development of the faculties, as 
 
 E
 
 50 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 shown in the succeeding chapters on their natural 
 history, exhibits the way in which the functions of 
 Thought are brought into use in the early stages of 
 life. Such are the conditions under which the 
 thinking faculty is trained and matured. The form 
 and inclination received during the plastic period of 
 youth, from babyhood upwards, will depend on the 
 subject-matter on which the functions of Thought 
 have been exercised, whether this have been sug- 
 gested by the lower nature and the haphazard 
 influences of environment, or have been of the higher 
 class, judiciously infused by the treatment and ex- 
 ample of tutors. On. this will depend whether the 
 sensuous, mental or moral element prevail, and this 
 will decide the relation of the youth towards external 
 persons and things, as embodied in temper and dis- 
 position. With such a capital of formulated Thought, 
 and with such principles as he may have imbibed 
 during the term of his tutelage, he will embark upon 
 his career of independent action. Whatever may be 
 the grade, occupation and mode of life to which he 
 may have to devote his faculties, this will be his 
 equipment for the great and decisive conflict 
 between his lower nature, now sharpened by new 
 desires, and the higher law of spiritual authority, 
 which will decide his ultimate destiny. 
 
 Having sketched in the foregoing part of this 
 chapter the functions of Thought, in the order in 
 which they are called into operation, and exercised 
 during the period of tutelage, whilst the faculty was 
 in process of being formed and matured, its powers 
 developed, and its direction determined, we must 
 now consider the purposes for which this long course 
 of preparation was destined, with reference to the
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 51 
 
 future exercise of those functions in the independent 
 and active career of the future business and duties 
 of life. These purposes relate primarily to the 
 maintenance of the social position, the supplying 
 of the material wants, and generally to the exi- 
 gencies of the lower nature of the individual man, 
 conformably with the obligations imposed upon him 
 by the moral principles of his higher nature, in 
 relation both to himself and his neighbour. 
 
 Beside these purposes, there is also a higher and 
 less obvious one disclosed in man's position in, and 
 relation to, the order of external Nature. 
 
 All these purposes are inseparably connected and 
 associated together in man's career in the present 
 life, but will be more conveniently considered 
 severally in relation to the functions of Thought, 
 for they belong respectively to the higher and lower 
 domains of his complex nature. The world of 
 animated Nature subsisted for long ages under 
 the domination of the lower law, anterior to the 
 introduction of the higher, and it might have con- 
 tinued in that state for all time. Mental opera- 
 tions progressed during that period of the world's 
 history to a considerable development, before the 
 moral element was introduced, and the higher 
 functions of Thought were called into exercise. 
 Thought was long confined to purely material 
 purposes in the brute races, and still continues to 
 exercise its necessary offices in the lower nature, 
 both in the lower animals themselves and in man. 
 The operations of Thought in the higher domain do 
 not diminish its functions in the lower conditions of 
 material being, but they involve a new application 
 of mental activities, and of the functions to which 
 
 E 2
 
 52 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 they are directed. This new purpose was to enable- 
 man to discover and comprehend something beyond 
 the material aspects of Nature, and to penetrate the 
 mystery therein revealed of the origin and author- 
 ship of the creation. As the material universe 
 exhibits the works of the Creator, the higher nature 
 was created in man that he might thereby compre- 
 hend the evidence those works contain, and discern 
 in them the revelation of Himself. 
 
 The Lord God beheld the work of His hands, the 
 heavens, the earth and all that therein is ; and ifc 
 was very good. All nature glorified Him ; and He 
 had pleasure in contemplating the beauteous crea- 
 tion, but it comprehended Him not nor loved. So- 
 He created in man a likeness to Himself, and con- 
 summated the material creation by establishing* 
 therein a connecting link with the spiritual world. 
 By giving man a command, He placed him in direct 
 relation with Himself, invested him with a higher 
 nature than that of the material world, and endowed 
 him with the capability of receiving a spiritual life. 
 Hence man, bearing the likeness of the divine 
 impressed on his human nature, was enabled to com- 
 prehend and appreciate the wisdom, power, and 
 beneficence of the Creator, as these are manifested 
 in the work of creation. Thus endowed, he alone 
 of all creatures can offer to his Maker the spon- 
 taneous tribute of voluntary obedience, service, and 
 love. 
 
 Hence man, by virtue of his higher nature, is 
 raised to a position superior to all the conditions 
 of the previously existing order of creation, and is 
 capable of attaining to the honour and dignity of 
 companionship with the Most High. This ultimate
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 55 
 
 destiny, however, is to be reached through pro- 
 gressive stages of the development of his higher 
 nature, from its infancy to its maturity in each 
 individual, and also in the collective human race. 
 
 To man, endowed with the higher nature, is given 
 the commission to subdue and exercise dominion 
 over the earth and all the lower order of Nature 
 therein. To him is confided the work of establishing 
 the supremacy of the higher over the lower order 
 prevailing in the world. In this earthly domain are 
 the higher functions of Thought to be first exercised 
 and developed. In this natural and material world 
 he is to seek and to discover a Spiritual Head therein 
 revealed. In the works of His hands and in the 
 ways of His providence, in the harmonious laws, the 
 beneficent purposes, and the wonderful adaptations of 
 the material universe, man is to discern the Divine 
 Author. Herein is the highest function of the 
 thinking faculty. 
 
 Man's dominion over the external world is but a 
 part of his commission, the rest, which is typified 
 in the subjection of the outer material world is 
 in the subordination of the lower nature in himself. 
 This is the great purpose of the vicissitudes of life, 
 its duties, labours, and issues. The lower nature, 
 as it is exhibited in his environment, is the battle- 
 ground on which the higher is to achieve its 
 triumph over the lower nature in himself. 
 
 The bodily and mental activities, occupations, and 
 duties of life are the opportunities, and the functions 
 of Thought are the means, by which the great purpose 
 of life, the subjection of the appetites and passions, 
 is to be effected. Whatever may be the social 
 position of the individual, whatever the nature of
 
 54 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 his occupations, or the circumstances and conditions 
 of his life, the theatre of the world and the part he 
 plays in it constitute the sphere in which his higher 
 nature is to exercise its function, develop its character, 
 and either win its victory or suffer its defeat. Every 
 situation in life has its own special temptations, 
 immunities, trials and opportunities ; but in all 
 alike the same appetites, passions and animal nature 
 present the same field for the operations of the 
 higher law. Diverse as are the circumstances in which 
 the various classes of men acquire their experience, 
 they stand on equal terms for the exercise of virtue ; 
 and those high principles which attest the worth of 
 character are often most strongly developed in the 
 ranks of the poor. Lazarus, with all the disad- 
 vantages of poverty, trial and affliction, and not- 
 withstanding the mean circumstances of his sorrowful 
 life and preoccupations, attained a far nobler position 
 than his rich benefactor. In like manner all that 
 contributes to true happiness is as much within the 
 reach of the poor as of the rich. There is, in fact, 
 as much real contentment, peace and thankfulness 
 in the cottage as in the palace. Thought may be 
 exercised upon circumstances of a widely different 
 nature, but the practical issue does not correspond 
 with external conditions. The enjoyment and the 
 utilization of life are equally available for all, and 
 depend far less on opportunity than on the use that 
 is made of it. Character, which represents the work 
 of the thinking faculty and the inner life, often 
 attains its highest developments in the poorer classes. 
 Our blessed Redeemer chose to assume a very humble 
 position in this life. His companions were fishermen, 
 His friends peasants, and His circumstances sorrowful.
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 55 
 
 Yet these were the conditions in which His exalted 
 virtues and sublime character were exhibited to 
 mankind. 
 
 The functions of Thought are exercised in all the 
 positions, duties and occupations of life, whether 
 concerning material interests or mental attainments, 
 the trials or enjoyments, the inner self or the outward 
 conduct, on what we are, or on what we seem to be. 
 They determine the relation which, in the end, will 
 subsist between the higher and the lower nature. 
 Successively, through every phase and period of life, 
 this is the ultimate purpose for which they were 
 intended. They are the means whereby the indi- 
 vidual self is formed and developed from the whole 
 life, from infancy to the final dissolution of the 
 material nature. 
 
 It would be inconsistent with all that is known of 
 the works of Nature to suppose that a condition 
 attained by gradual development through a life-long 
 labour should suddenly terminate when it had 
 reached its highest point. That would imply that 
 the process of education, carried on through the 
 varying vicissitudes and phases of life, was, so far as 
 regards the individual himself, a purposeless waste 
 of energy. Hence natural religion, even without the 
 aid of revelation, would suggest, from the evidences 
 of external nature, that a future state of being must 
 have been contemplated for man by his Maker when 
 He consummated the material creation by endowing 
 him with a moral nature, and thus establishing in 
 him a spiritual relation with Himself. 
 
 Seeing that, whilst the higher element of man's 
 complex nature is united with, and partly depen- 
 dent upon the lower, it is engaged, throughout the
 
 56 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 whole term of their union, in the work of subjecting 
 that perishable element and obtaining its own 
 supremacy and independence, it is both reasonable 
 and natural that the higher nature, so freed and 
 disencumbered, should rise to the enjoyment of the 
 fruits of its lifelong struggle, to a new state of 
 existence in a spiritual world, and to a further pro- 
 gress in a purely spiritual life. 
 
 The history of the natural life, from its dawn in 
 infancy through all the phases of its transient and 
 temporary experiences, up to the maturity of its 
 mental and moral attainments, including the conflict 
 between the higher and lower elements, is all in- 
 delibly photographed and immortalized in the col- 
 lective body of individual Thought. Hence, when 
 the material body is resolved into its component 
 elements and dissipated, the body of Thought will 
 rise a spiritual body, in which the natural life will 
 be inscribed in imperishable form. 
 
 In like manner, whilst the material universe 
 passes through the temporary phases of its develop- 
 ment, from chaos up to its final and inevitable dissolu- 
 tion, when it shall have fulfilled its appointed cycle 
 of change, its climax will be attained in the collec- 
 tive Thought of the human family, and it will sur- 
 vive in that spiritual form when the material body 
 shall have been resolved into its component elements. 
 
 As in the individual man the corruptible nature 
 dissolves, and rises again incorruptible in a spiritual 
 body of Thought, so also the world of material nature, 
 when its material body shall have fulfilled its destiny 
 
 1 T 1 
 
 and reached its dissolution, shall also rise again 
 spiritually embodied in the collective Thought of 
 man, in which all its phases, forces, and evolutions,
 
 ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT. 57 
 
 the sum total of its natural history, will be em- 
 balmed, and its development shall attain its climax, 
 imperishable and eternal. 
 
 The function of Thought in the mental work of 
 the human race, and the part it has fulfilled in the 
 progress of the world's development, may be well 
 observed by comparing ancient with modern phases 
 of knowledge, or, in other words, the fanciful con- 
 ceptions of loose conjecture with the facts of Nature 
 and the inferences and demonstrations thence 
 derived. Unfortunately for the bearing of mental 
 work on religion, the Churches of all ages have too 
 generally and too long overlooked the fact, that 
 particular truth can never be divorced from the 
 general body of truth. They have resented the 
 intrusion of truth from without the pale of church 
 doctrine, to their own loss and disadvantage. In 
 proscribing Galileo and compelling him to recant, 
 the Church of old did not prevail over the forces of 
 Nature but only deferred for a time the irresistible 
 admission of demonstrated truth. Science, so re- 
 pelled, has pursued its researches independently, 
 and has gathered in a rich harvest of truth, of which 
 the religious world has taken note reluctantly, only 
 when it could no longer be resisted. Nevertheless, 
 the best service that the researches of science have 
 rendered has redounded to the advantage of religion. 
 Supplementing the imperfections inherent in human 
 language, and correcting such error as the infirmities 
 incident to human agency entailed, science has 
 interpreted and explained scripture by its own 
 natural interpreter, namely, the work's of Him whose 
 word it reveals in the imperfect vehicle of human 
 language. The icorks are the direct product of His
 
 58 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 own Almighty power; the words are the indirect 
 utterance of Divine truth through the human tongue. 
 This utterance therefore is amplified and explained 
 by the higher manifestation of the same Divine 
 authority. God is manifest in His works, revealed, 
 not obscured, and it is the function of Thought to 
 apprehend His nature therein. Man's duty is rather 
 to interpret the word by the work, than to exalt 
 the imperfect vehicle above the direct revelation of 
 the Almighty hand. 
 
 The foregoing considerations show that the func- 
 tions of Thought build up the individual self in man, 
 the embodiment of his natural life, and that they 
 fulfil the same office for the material world for each 
 successive age, and will continue so to do until the 
 material world and life therein shall have served 
 their purpose and passed away. Hence it appears 
 that the spiritual element in the world is built upon 
 the natural fabric, just as the same element in man's 
 nature is engrafted upon his natural life. In both 
 the individual and the race the spiritual rises out of 
 the natural, is born there, and grows through succes- 
 sive stages until the material nature is dissolved, 
 and the spiritual returns to God who gave it.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 
 
 LANGUAGE consists of associated sounds or signs 
 with ideas of objects and their relations and qualities 
 and of actions done or suffered, &c. When these or 
 any of them are represented by sounds they consti- 
 tute oral or spoken language ; and when by signs, 
 such as letters, hieroglyphs, or other graphic symbols, 
 written language is formed. 
 
 Oral language is composed of words, which consist 
 of complex sounds produced by articulation. These 
 articulate sounds are for convenience analysed into 
 their component simple sounds, which are represen- 
 ted by letters of the alphabet, the chief use of which 
 is in the delineation of the words in graphic form for 
 the purposes of written language. 
 
 Language attains its full development into the 
 forms so recognized in the human race ; but the 
 rudiments of language exist and serve important 
 ends in the lower animals. In the form of cries of 
 alarm, indications of the emotions of fear, affection, 
 anger and the like, and calls, in the form of amatory 
 invitations or as warnings of approaching danger, 
 this rudimentary form of language is in more or less 
 general use throughout the economy of animal life. 
 Important as such use is to the lower animals, it is 
 very restricted. Happily so for man, who would
 
 60 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT* 
 
 have had an insuperable difficulty in dispossessing 
 the brute creation of their tenure of the earth, if 
 they had had so powerful a faculty, and such inter- 
 course as it would have afforded them. 
 
 The origin of language proper may probably be 
 traced to the rudimentary forms in which it exists 
 in the lower animals. Many words are, in fact, 
 derived therefrom, as for instance, coo, from the cooing 
 of doves, grunt, bark, purr, whine, and the like. 
 Moreover, the sounds uttered by animals derive 
 much of their significance from the tones and in- 
 flexions by which the simple sounds are made more 
 expressive. Such suggestive utterances afford a 
 sufficient basis on which the ingenuity of man, 
 even in his sa,vage state, might construct, by slow 
 degrees, a language worthy of the name. And such 
 an origin is a pleasing reflection to a worshipper 
 of God, and a believer in His providential govern- 
 ment of the world, because it adds to the ever- 
 increasing number of evidences of continuity and 
 unity of design in creation. 
 
 Whatever the origin may have been, however, it 
 is certain that language was formed slowly and very 
 gradually from very small beginnings, the zero 
 being undoubtedly, as already suggested, very low 
 in the scale of animated beings, and the progress 
 never such as to entitle any of its rudimentary forms 
 to the designation now attached to the term, until it 
 received that development in man. 
 
 Language is acquired by the human infant by 
 observation, inference, and imitation. His first 
 utterances are of the rudimentary form already 
 mentioned as appropriate to the lower order of 
 beings ; but his acquisition of language proper comes
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 6 1 
 
 slowly. The process is not very difficult to perceive 
 and to follow, but it is nevertheless of great interest 
 as an important element in infant history, and one 
 that deserves particular attention in these pages. 
 Several important inferences may be drawn, and 
 some facts are disclosed, by an attentive study of the 
 process which are not otherwise obvious. The most 
 important of these refers to the fact that children of 
 all capacities contrive to acquire the use of spoken 
 language at a very early age, notwithstanding the 
 many difficulties involved in the work. These will 
 be specified hereafter, but in the meantime it may 
 be mentioned that the work is done by observation 
 and inference, without any teaching, and also with- 
 out any very perceptible effort. It may be thence 
 inferred that learning is not naturally distasteful, 
 seeing that it is in this matter voluntarily under- 
 taken and always pursued successfully with no other 
 stimulus than that of ordinary desire. Moreover, 
 seeing how vital a factor in the process memory is, it 
 may be inferred that this important mental qualifica- 
 tion is never wanting in infancy. If, therefore, it 
 should seem to fail afterwards, the fault cannot be 
 laid on natural incapacity. Nor if the natural appe- 
 tite for knowledge should cease, and if learning 
 should become irksome, must the cause of the change 
 be sought in the original condition of the mind, but 
 in subsequent mismanagement. 
 
 Recollection does not go back far enough to admit 
 of any reference to personal experience in regard to 
 the difficulties encountered in the first acquisition of 
 language. Hence, the perplexities and pains in- 
 volved in the first efforts in acquiring the elementary 
 knowledge attained in infancy are too little con-
 
 62 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 sidered in the treatment of young children. Failing 
 appeal to personal experience, the only resource is by 
 means of a careful analysis of the necessary factors 
 involved in the processes of apprehending, associat- 
 ing, remembering, and articulating. These prove 
 that the work to be done is complex as well as 
 strange. By-the-bye, novelty is itself an embar- 
 rassing element, which is too generally overlooked in 
 considering and allowing for the efforts of young 
 children. And this remissness is the less excusable, 
 because adults themselves are continually reminded 
 by their own experience how difficult it is to catch 
 and clearly apprehend a quite strange word. Yet 
 this obstacle is one which stands in the path of 
 almost all the early undertakings of the infant 
 progress, though it is as unperceived by tutors 
 generally, as was the apparition that barred the Avay 
 and excited the impatience of Balaam of old. 
 
 In the acquisition of language, the two processes 
 of understanding and expressing an idea must be 
 considered separately, for the former precedes the 
 latter by a period of time, always considerable, and 
 sometimes very prolonged. It must also be borne in 
 mind, throughout the discussion of these processes, 
 that imitative attempts to articulate words merely 
 as sounds, without any idea at all of their significa- 
 tion, like the talking of parrots, is going on quite 
 independently of language, in the proper sense, 
 during a great part of infancy. In order to under- 
 stand the meaning of any utterance, however simple, 
 there must be on the part of the infant : (i) a clear 
 apprehension of the sound or utterance ; (2) a definite 
 recognition of intention or purpose of the speaker ; 
 (3) a perception of the idea or subject-matter ex-
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 63 
 
 pressed by the utterance ; (4) association of the utter- 
 ance with that idea ; ( 5 ) recollection of each of the 
 elements so associated and of the association itself. 
 If any one of these essential parts of the process fail 
 wholly or in part it must be made good before the 
 result, a proper understanding of the utterance and 
 its intention, can be effectively attained. 
 
 Now, we must ask some indulgent consideration, 
 and exercise of patience, in regard to this process, 
 not for its own sake only, important as it would then 
 be, but chiefly with reference to the workings of the 
 infant mind generally, of which this process is a fair 
 exponent. In all the intercourse between tutors and 
 infants it is of paramount importance that the former 
 should fully apprehend the standpoint of the latter, 
 and consider what is actually going on in his unfur- 
 nished mind. The supreme difficulty in the art of 
 teaching, is in perceiving, entering into, and appre- 
 ciating, the real condition of the pupil's mind, and 
 the limited and imperfect stock of furniture it con- 
 tains. Tutors can hardly help assuming that matters 
 which have become perfectly, habitually and mecha- 
 nically familiar to themselves can be so absolutely 
 unknown and utterly absent from their pupils. They 
 have no recollection of having themselves had to 
 acquire them, or of the difficulties of that distant 
 and obscure part of their own personal history, and 
 are, therefore, apt to regard such elementary acquisi- 
 tions as a natural and necessary possession. Hence 
 their impatience of the seeming stupidity, inatten- 
 tion, or perverseness which a perturbed, vacuous 
 mind is apt to simulate. And, of all the scatterbrain 
 influences that can close up the narrow avenues to a 
 child's intellect, the most effectual is the exhibition
 
 64 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 of the teacher's impatience ! The recollections of a 
 highly sensitive person who in early childhood was 
 too sickly and weak to receive the instruction usually 
 acquired in that period, and who had, therefore, re- 
 ceived it at a later period of life, of which he retained 
 ineffaceable impressions, depict in pitiable terms the 
 tortures he endured from the impatience too practi- 
 cally manifested by his teachers, whilst he was all 
 the time vainly struggling with all his might to 
 squeeze out of his poor store things which were not 
 there, nor ever had been ! A struggle with the im- 
 possible, a dead pull, breaks the heart of even a colt, 
 and it goes harder still with the more impressionable 
 sensibilities of a human subject. 
 
 ( r ) Resuming the consideration of the process in- 
 volved in the understanding of an utterance, tliejirst- 
 mentioned factor, though a simple sensation in itself, 
 needs some notice, for the senses in infancy are not 
 very proficient, and need to be frequently appealed 
 to before a fresh sensation is fully apprehended. So 
 simple a word as shoe might, and probably would, 
 require to be very often repeated before it would be 
 definitely formulated in such manner as to be readily 
 recognized and obedient to the recall of memory. 
 How much more would complex words tax the 
 power of apprehension ! Hence there exists a long 
 series of similar efforts before a sentence of several 
 words would be grasped, as sounds only, without 
 reference to their separate or joint meanings ! The 
 difficulty of grasping strange words is shown by the 
 many repetitions of a foreign word which are required 
 before it is apprehended even by an adult. 
 
 (2) Of the numerous sounds that are ever im- 
 pinging on the ear from all sides, any one that
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 6$ 
 
 represented an idea to be communicated would 
 require to be addressed to the infant, and to be con- 
 sciously received as an appeal to his understanding. 
 It must be received and regarded as having a special 
 intent and relation to himself, in order to enlist his 
 attention otherwise than as the ticking of the clock, 
 the chirp of the cricket, or any other like sound of 
 a casual nature. 
 
 (3) The subject-matter must exist in the infant 
 mind as a formulated idea representing the same. 
 The utterance and the subject-matter, being the 
 principal elements to be connected, must be perfectly 
 present in the mind before any connection could be 
 effectively established. 
 
 (4) There being no necessary connection between 
 the two, the act of associating them together is 
 distinct from each, and yet is the essential element of 
 the process. It must be complete and intimate, for, 
 if broken, there is an end of any useful result. Any 
 sound or word may stand for any idea ; the connection 
 exists only in the mind. All the significance of the 
 word consists in its fixed connection or association with 
 a definite idea. How often does even the adult mind 
 fail to recall the name of a person or thing, though both 
 are tolerably well known ! How much more effort 
 must be required in the infant mind, where so few 
 ideas or their connections can have become familiar ! 
 
 (5) Having the ideas of the subject-matter and of 
 the sound or word representing it both firmly 
 established in the mind, and their association to- 
 gether in the relation of principal and representative, 
 these elements must be remembered, each and all ; 
 word or utterance, subject-matter, and the mutual 
 relation of the two, must be obedient to the summons 
 
 P
 
 66 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 of memory, or they are not available for the purpose 
 of being understood. 
 
 The foregoing refer to the utterance of single 
 words ; but when several are used together in a 
 sentence, however short, the process as described 
 above is necessary to the understanding of each word 
 severally, and their relation to each other has to be 
 gleaned by the experience derivable from the circum- 
 stances of their use. The meanings of words, and 
 their relations as parts of speech, cannot possibly be 
 acquired in any other way. A very comprehensive 
 knowledge of language and its use is necessary before 
 a dictionary is of any service. Hence very frequent 
 repetitions of words, separately and in their com- 
 monest relations, need to be heard, understood, 
 and reflected upon before the simplest formulae of 
 language can be comprehended. 
 
 Now, the work involved in the processes as 
 described in the foregoing paragraphs has to be done, 
 and is done, by every child who has learned to 
 understand the simplest sentence expressed in words. 
 The only help the learner has is in his acute discern- 
 ment of gesture, facial expression, and the circum- 
 stances of the utterance. No wonder, then, that a 
 knowledge of language comes so slowly. The fact that 
 all children except deaf-mutes make the necessary 
 effort to acquire language seems to be due to natural 
 desire to know what is going on about them. Even 
 the domestic animals thus come to learn the mean- 
 ings of some words and simple phrases. 
 
 All these factors are necessary to the understanding 
 of any idea, equally in the adult as in the infant 
 mind ; but, in the former, both the elements and the 
 process have become so familiar by constant practice
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 67 
 
 that the whole act of comprehension is effected 
 mechanically, without any conscious effort, excepting 
 only in cases where one or other of the elements is 
 strange, or by lapse of memory incomplete. The 
 frequent occurrence of difficulty to the adult mind 
 in such cases should suggest consideration and allow- 
 ance on the part of tutors for the infirmities of the 
 infant faculties. In the relations between teacher 
 and pupil, even in the more advanced periods of 
 youth, a reference to the nature of the process 
 involved would often assist the former in discovering 
 the missing link that obscures the understanding of 
 his pupil, and save futile, misdirected effort to both. 
 
 It is needless to say that the process required 
 for the understanding of any utterance is equally 
 necessary for the expressing of it. In addition, 
 several other factors are necessary. 
 
 Gesture, which is the first kind of expression to 
 be understood before any knowledge of language has 
 been acquired, is also the first to be used. All the 
 earliest efforts of speech are plentifully supplemented 
 by the aid of this powerful resource. Two or three 
 words will often do duty for all purposes, without, 
 of course, any proper significance beyond what they 
 derive from accompanying tone and gesture. 
 
 In one instance of our experience one word only 
 was made to stand for everything the child wanted. 
 It formed the total stock of her vocabulary for a year 
 or more. No one knew how or where she acquired 
 it, but she spoke it glibly, for it was constantly in 
 use. " Cowdadda," with certain grunts and gesti- 
 culations, was her only articulated utterance, and 
 was her universal noun. Yet, notwithstanding her 
 extremely limited power of expressing herself in 
 
 F 2
 
 68 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 language, she proved by her responsive actions that 
 she understood a very considerable number and variety 
 of words and their relations. She was a very intelli- 
 gent child. Such evidence shows plainly that the 
 power of understanding speech is not to be measured 
 by the power of speaking intelligibly. 
 
 The additional requisites for expressing ideas in 
 speech, after understanding of it has been acquired,, 
 are (i) The wish or impulse to express some idea; 
 
 (2) The power of articulating the representative 
 words, already supposed to be well known ; and 
 
 (3) The marshalling of the requisite words, that is r 
 the method of constructing sentences. 
 
 Respecting the first of these, the only interest 
 attaching to it as a factor is suggested by the 
 difference there exists amongst children, some being 
 habitually reticent and others loquacious. As there 
 is a natural impulse to employ a newly acquired 
 power, a reticent disposition should be traced to its 
 cause, and if it should appear to arise from listless- 
 ness (that fatal tendency, to which special reference 
 is made in chapter xi.) it should be counteracted 
 by suitable stimulus. 
 
 (2) Articulation often requires long and severe 
 effort. Some persons articulate imperfectly all 
 through life, and some children make prodigious 
 efforts with very slow progress. In many cases 
 the diffidence due to conscious imperfection in this 
 respect retards the free use of speech by a con- 
 siderable period. It is remarkable that with the 
 strong impulses and powers of imitation in the lower 
 animals so very few seem capable of imitating arti- 
 culate speech, though so many of them are capable 
 of understanding words and short phrases.
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 69 
 
 (3) The principle of constructing sentences that 
 as, of arranging the order of the words therein differs 
 so much in different languages that it is evidently 
 an arbitrary matter, not depending on any necessary 
 sequence, but 011 habit. It is therefore acquired by 
 imitation and experience, and consequently by a slow 
 process of observation and reflection. Practice makes 
 it easy to most people, quite mechanical to some. 
 Still, adult teachers, to whom it has become so 
 natural by long and constant practice, should not 
 fail to make allowance for their unpractised pupils. 
 We plead the cause of children, and do not disguise 
 our intense sympathy for the struggles of the juvenile 
 mind in its efforts to obviate the want of proper 
 systematic training, based upon. a due appreciation 
 of their difficulties and the magnitude of their task. 
 
 Hitherto we have considered language only in its 
 oral or spoken form, which was in use in. a highly 
 developed shape for many ages before any graphic 
 form of expressing ideas assumed the character of 
 a written language. Originally suggested by personal 
 and domestic wants and purposes in primitive times, 
 oral language was gradually extended to tribal and 
 more general use. In this form priests and minstrels 
 handed down from generation to generation the 
 traditions of each. Such was the original and very 
 unreliable means of disseminating the ever accumu- 
 lating store of history, fabulous legends, and super- 
 stitions which then constituted the only knowledge 
 extant other than that of the immediate time and 
 present experience. 
 
 The origin of the graphic forms of language is 
 obscure. It was probably suggested first by foot- 
 prints and such-like indications, and afterwards
 
 70 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 developed through successive rude forms into the 
 more regular shape of hieroglyphs, first pictorial 
 and afterwards symbolical. The analysis of articu- 
 late words into their component elements, and the 
 representing of these by symbols or letters in the 
 regular form of written language, are comparatively 
 modern, and mark a great epoch in the progress of 
 the human race. 
 
 The development of language in the individual 
 follows an analogous course to that of its general 
 history. Beginning in the infant with the simplest 
 sounds and gestures indicative of the most elemen- 
 tary ideas, it is slowly acquired through successive 
 stages of use and development from the spoken to 
 the written form, and thus becomes the most in- 
 fluential agency for the further progress of the 
 individual, as it is also of the race. 
 
 As the understanding of speech precedes speaking,. 
 so reading precedes writing. The learning of the 
 letters of the alphabet is often a slow proceeding, 
 notwithstanding many means are employed to 
 familiarize them individually to the infant eye. 
 Still, to children generally they are strange, crooked, 
 unmeaning things. Learning them is a dry task, 
 and during the whole of the tedious process very 
 few children have the least idea what it all means. 
 When taking the first lesson in reading, and the 
 child repeats the letters d o g, he is told to say dog,. 
 but he sees no reason why they should spell dog y 
 nor why they might not just as well stand for cat. 
 In fact, it is quite common for the teacher who asks, 
 " Now what do d o g spell ? " to be answered, " Cat," 
 and this perhaps after having been told what they 
 spelt. He does not see the connection between the-
 
 OX LANGUAGE. 71 
 
 letters and the word. It is of course only too 
 obvious to the teacher, wherefore it seems to him 
 that the child is heedless, stupid, or perverse. Pity 
 it is that he cannot remember his own experience. 
 It would be far easier and pleasanter for him to 
 explain, even if it took him some time, what is the 
 use and value of letters as component parts of words, 
 instead of hammering ineffectually to drive the nail 
 in head first. If a child be made to understand the 
 use of letters and the sounds they actually stand for, 
 as well as the names they are known by, spelling 
 would become a sensible, if not an agreeable pursuit, 
 instead of being a sheer and seemingly senseless 
 drudgery. The lesson would enter his understand- 
 ing naturally, instead of being thrust in by main 
 force. Lessons are not tasks in their own nature, 
 but may be made odious by injudicious teaching. 
 Under ordinary circumstances, children never under- 
 stand the rationale of letters and spelling until the 
 knowledge has become superfluous. 
 
 The alphabet is not well contrived, and is need- 
 lessly difficult. The names of the letters do not 
 accord with their literal values, and are not even 
 regular. It was evidently not contrived for children 
 of the age of learners of this day. It might well be 
 reformed upon some more intelligible principle. Not 
 one child in a hundred comprehends the use of it 
 till years after its use has been established by prac- 
 tice. Why should the vowels be scattered here and 
 there, all through it, in situations without signifi 
 cance ? Seeing that the consonants have each a 
 vowel attached, why should not the same vowel be 
 used for all ? And why should the vowel be placed 
 sometimes before and sometimes after the consonant ?
 
 72 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 As e is the prevailing vowel sound, it might be 
 applied to all excepting s, thus : be, ce, de, fe, ge 
 (hard), he, je, ke, le, me, ne, pe, que, re, es, te, ve, we, 
 ,xe, ye, ze. Q should not be separated from the u, 
 without which it is never used in English. As the 
 alphabet now stands, it serves its purpose, truly, but 
 it involves trouble and time far more than would be 
 necessary if it were systematically arranged with 
 reference to the capacities of those who have to 
 learn it. In the meantime, teachers would do well 
 to consider the task it imposes, not in learning so 
 much as in spelling. 
 
 Much of the difference in the rate of progress in 
 children, which is usually referred to mental capacity, 
 is due to habit and other causes. For instance, one 
 who has been accustomed to note visible objects will 
 learn a lesson from a book, table, or diagram with 
 greater facility than one addressed to the ear. One 
 organ, be it the eye or the ear, is in some children 
 much more easily and effectually attracted than the 
 other. Such peculiarities, of which the subjects are 
 not themselves conscious, may cause grief and retard 
 progress if not perceived by tutors. 
 
 The use of language is the most influential agency 
 in the progress and dissemination of knowledge ; and 
 in the advancement, moral and material, of the human 
 race. It is impossible to conceive what would have 
 been the condition of mankind without the power of 
 speech ; for even the lowest tribes of aborigines have 
 had the advantage in attaining their present barbar- 
 ous position. It is the currency in which the com- 
 merce of Thought is carried on and the products of 
 the thinking faculty are interchanged, multiplied, and 
 accumulated. It is the means by which fleeting
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 73 
 
 thoughts are embodied in permanent symbols, and 
 disseminated from their sources to the ends of the 
 earth. It is thus connected with the spiritual ele- 
 ment in man as being the vehicle by which spiritual 
 influence is exerted on material nature. 
 
 The several methods by which language serves the 
 use of mankind are 
 
 1 . As a medium of intercourse by speech ; 
 
 2. Mentally, in thought and memory; and 
 
 3. For written record and intercourse that is, for 
 
 presenting to the eye in a permanent graphic 
 form the fugitive sounds of oral language. 
 
 Of these we advert only to the second, as the 
 others would lead us too far from our purpose. 
 
 It is doubtful to what extent ideas are formulated 
 and exist in the mind in the shape of words to what 
 extent, that is, men think in words. Some persons 
 even go so far as to opine that all Thought originally 
 reaches the mind in that form. This, however, 
 appears to us to be a quite untenable theory, for 
 there can be no doubt of the existence of Thought in 
 the lower animals,* and it is equally certain that all 
 sane children have a copious supply of Thought before 
 they have any knowledge of language at all adequate 
 for thinking in words. The difficulty many people 
 have in expressing their thoughts, and which even 
 the most fluent speakers sometimes feel in putting 
 into words their fixed ideas, is a further proof of at 
 least a very considerable independence between ideas 
 and their verbal formulae. We do not here allude to 
 lapses of memory. These will be discussed in the 
 chapter devoted to that branch of our subject. We 
 
 * See Notes 8, &c., in the Appendix.
 
 74 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 now refer to thoughts present to the niind, but which 
 the possessor finds it very hard, and sometimes im- 
 possible, without much circumlocution, to put into 
 words. This is a fact of daily occurrence. No man 
 needs to tax his memory in order to define what he 
 means by a gentleman, for instance ; but few men 
 would put their idea into words without considerable 
 Thought and some time. The same might be said 
 of many complex ideas, and of all that large and influ- 
 ential class of ideas mentioned in chapter ii. pp. 28, 
 29, as indeterminate ideas. 
 
 It follows, we think, that there exists in all men's 
 minds a considerable proportion of ideas that do not 
 lodge there in any form of words or images. The 
 fact is so universally recognized, that a man in the 
 witness-box, or in any other situation in life, is freely 
 allowed time to formulate his ideas into words. But 
 the same indulgence is not always shown to children I 
 They are expected to put their thoughts into words 
 on the shortest notice, and their embarrassed expres- 
 sion of countenance is regarded as evidence against 
 them, A further proof of the fact that thoughts do 
 not all exist in verbal form is afforded by the common 
 case of a quotation in which the idea is correctly ex- 
 pressed, but not in the same words as those in which 
 it was acquired. 
 
 Nevertheless mental labour is in many ways 
 abridged and facilitated by means of verbal expres- 
 sion ; for instance, in such words as dwelling, which 
 comprehends a great range of very different struc- 
 tures having a common purpose, or falsehood, which 
 embraces so wide an area of signification in a 
 single word. A volume might be written on the 
 uses and advantages of language in mental opera
 
 ON LANGUAGE. 75 
 
 tions, so great, so numerous, and so universal are 
 they. 
 
 There are, however, inherent and inevitable imper- 
 fections in language, as a vehicle of Thought, arising 
 from the manner in which it is acquired. As words 
 derive their signification from use and experience, 
 they do not convey to all minds quite the same 
 meaning. This, having in each case been derived 
 from personal experience, differs accordingly in all 
 those cases wherein the object assumes different 
 aspects. A very large proportion of differences of 
 opinion and disputes of fact are due to the different 
 meanings suggested by the different aspects in which 
 the fact was seen. It follows that a considerable 
 class of words exists of which the meanings are not 
 apprehended alike by all who use them. 
 
 Again, as language originates with the wants and 
 ideas of a particular time, it needs to be enlarged 
 and modified to suit the different uses which spring- 
 up anew as knowledge increases and wants multiply. 
 The coining of new words to meet new requirements 
 is an every-day process. Hence, in reading books of 
 a bygone time, the terms used therein need to be 
 considered by the light of the period in which they 
 were written. 
 
 In endeavouring to exhibit the successive phases 
 of the rise and progress of Thought in the human 
 mind, we have found it necessary to divide the term 
 of youth from babyhood to maturity into four periods 
 for convenience of description. These divisions are 
 quite arbitrary, as there is no natural division avail- 
 able for the purpose. Age is inapplicable, because it 
 does not mark the same progress in all cases. We 
 have therefore adopted Language as the basis of our
 
 ?6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 division, as being the best exponent of both the 
 progress made and the power by which the further 
 advance is to be effected. The first period, which 
 we distinguish as that of babyhood, extends from 
 birth to the first efforts to utter words as such. 
 The second, infancy, comprises the very active 
 period during which oral language is acquired and 
 brought into use along with that of the limbs and 
 organs of sense. The third, childhood, includes that 
 inquisitive stage during which speech is freely and 
 intelligently applied to its proper use, and whilst, in 
 the meantime, the elements of written language are 
 being acquired. The fourth, the school-days, is that 
 period during which the youth, duly qualified for 
 book-learning, is ready to receive systematic educa- 
 tion. Already aspiring to a state of independence of 
 Thought and action, he is being prepared for the 
 pursuit of the avocations, duties, and career of his 
 term of probation in the world.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 ON TEMPER. 
 
 THE old saying, that a man's character is never fully 
 displayed until he is crossed, contains an important 
 truth, as showing how influential a factor temper is 
 even when, in after-life, the obligations of social 
 intercourse keep it under the control of the mature 
 understanding and Will. Temper, in so far as it is 
 not restrained by moral and social obligations, re- 
 presents the general attitude or relation of a man 
 towards his fellows. It is the exponent of the rela- 
 tion of his mind to theirs. Being the product or 
 effect of what he has himself experienced from others, 
 it shows the habitual state of his feelings towards 
 the world generally. 
 
 In adults outward manifestations of bad temper 
 are generally restrained by the necessity for self- 
 control. The actual mental condition of the indi- 
 vidual is therefore to a great extent concealed from 
 his fellows in the secrecy of his own breast. To the 
 world at large a man's temper is of little moment, 
 except in so far as it is displayed in his outer con- 
 duct ; but to himself its vital importance consists in 
 the struggle within which it continually imposes. 
 This is far more influential on his mental condition 
 and character than any occasional lapses into 
 which he may be betrayed. It is therefore in this
 
 78 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 individual and personal aspect of the question, rather 
 than as a social element, that we are chiefly con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Hence, temper influences the habit of thinking, 
 and affects the whole tenor of a man's mental 
 condition, as well as his relations with the world at 
 large. It imparts a direction to the current of his 
 ideas and reflections, gives a colouring to the cir- 
 cumstances of life, a bias to his judgments, and, 
 generally, a tone, for good or for evil, to his whole 
 character. Being, as it is, so important an element 
 of right thinking, feeling, and acting, a necessary 
 ingredient in all conduct, it is highly desirable that 
 the history of its origin and progress should be care- 
 fully studied as a preliminary to the history and 
 training of the human mind. 
 
 The practical effect of temper in daily intercourse 
 is manifest in the manner assumed towards those 
 persons whose temper is known. To one of calm and 
 amiable disposition, a frank confidence is almost in- 
 voluntarily conceded ; but, on the other hand, one 
 approaches a person of uncertain or irascible temper 
 with precaution partaking somewhat of distrust. 
 No one would knowingly prefer a request or submit 
 a proposition to a man of ill-temper when he was in 
 an irritated condition, because it would not be ex- 
 pected that either would be treated quite reasonably 
 or upon its merits. The effect of temper is therefore 
 a regular subject of consideration in intercourse 
 between fellow-men. Though a state of rage is, in the 
 very worst cases, only occasional, and not perpetual, 
 yet the habitual state of mind and mode of Thought 
 in a man of infirm temper is unfavourable to sound 
 judgment and unbiassed opinion, because it imparts
 
 ON TEMPER. 79 
 
 a colouring, a personal character, to his ideas. In 
 the later periods of life, when moral principles have 
 become predominant, or when the amenities of social 
 intercourse prevail, the manifestations of temper are 
 controlled, and may be partly suppressed ; but in 
 childhood, before such restraints operate so effectually, 
 outbursts are more frequent and more troublesome. 
 Temper is therefore more observable, and also, in a 
 social point of view, more inconvenient, in this than 
 in later periods of life. 
 
 Being in its nature a state of the mind, and pro- 
 duced through the feelings, temper affects, directly 
 or indirectly, every idea that enters into or proceeds 
 from it, and is manifested in forms which correspond 
 to the nature of the feelings in which it originates. 
 The particular bias may be, and actually is, very- 
 different in different cases, giving rise to every variety 
 of result. Moreover, the same causes would not pro- 
 duce the same results in a phlegmatic as in a sanguine 
 or bilious temperament or corporeal constitution. Ke- 
 sentment, for instance, may beget in one a morose, 
 and in another a violent temper. Variety of cor- 
 poreal susceptibility will give rise to variety in the 
 result. Be the temperament or constitution what it 
 may, however, sanguine, phlegmatic, or what not, it 
 cannot operate upon itself; it is but the recipient 
 of external influences. These will determine the 
 nature, those the degree, of the influence of the 
 particular feeling in each case. There is therefore 
 amongst men every variety of temper, bad and good, 
 sullen and lively, amiable and vindictive, docile and 
 perverse, ad injinitum. Be the temper what it may, 
 however, it is the natural result of natural feelings. 
 There is no magic about it. It originates in, and
 
 8O NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 is developed by, causes regarding which there is 
 neither mystery nor doubt. This conclusion, based 
 on evidence of observation and long experience, will 
 be questioned by those who have accepted on trust 
 the too popular idea that temper is inherited. In a 
 later chapter the subject of inherited tendencies is 
 discussed at length. In this place we allude only 
 to its bearing on temper. 
 
 The susceptibilities of human nature are affected 
 according to certain fixed principles, which operate 
 invariably as regards the direction and character of 
 the result, but with certain limitations as to its force. 
 In other words, every man will be pleased or vexed, 
 soothed or irritated, according to the treatment he 
 receives, though one man may be more readily and 
 deeply affected than another by the same treatment. 
 The result will be the same in kind, though different 
 in degree. There is no special qualification necessary, 
 for instance, for the feeling of resentment. Any 
 human being may be exasperated, though one may 
 be more sensitive and another more imperturbable, 
 one may possess more self-control or have more 
 regard for consequences than another ; but no man 
 is beyond the reach of persistent and determined 
 irritants. Ill-usage will assuredly provoke dislike, 
 and, if it be continually repeated, it will as certainly 
 produce settled aversion. Treatment necessarily pro- 
 duces a corresponding state of mind, whether of 
 attraction or repulsion, affection or dislike, temporary 
 or permanent. Every day's experience gives prac- 
 tical proof of this characteristic of human nature, and 
 shows, further, that z'//-treatment is more keenly felt, 
 and more lasting in its effects, than indifference or 
 kindness. Such is the universal effect of the conduct
 
 ON TEMPER. 8 I 
 
 of men upon their fellows. Hence it follows that 
 the state of mind of every individual towards his 
 neighbours corresponds with their conduct towards 
 him individually or collectively, or, rather, with his 
 view of their conduct, modified by reason and ex- 
 perience. 
 
 In adults, regard for appearances and other con^ 
 siderations restrain or modify the outward mani- 
 festation of their feelings, and conceal them, to a 
 greater or less degree, from observation. The actual 
 and natural effects are, therefore, not so manifest in 
 them nor so easily recognized. Even in children, feel- 
 ings are not always outwardly manifested, for in the 
 very early stages of life they have no means of 
 expressing them. Their limited resources of expres- 
 sion, crying and struggling, have to answer all 
 purposes, and do not serve to distinguish between 
 their corporeal and their mental sufferings. In later 
 periods of childhood, the repressive measures vigor- 
 ously exercised by tutors tend to keep the inner 
 emotions from outward manifestation. In the human 
 subject, therefore, of all ages, the feelings naturally 
 evoked, secretly entertained, and influentially present 
 to the mind are not fully exposed to view in their 
 appropriate form. 
 
 In the lower animals the outward manifestation of 
 feeling suffers none of the restraints imposed, 
 directly or indirectly, by man's higher nature. In 
 them, therefore, are exhibited the natural operation 
 and effects of treatment, divested of all those com- 
 plications which obscure them in the human subject. 
 
 Much may be learned by observation of the lower 
 animals, in consequence of their unrestrained mani- 
 festation of feeling in its proper colours. In them
 
 82 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 are plainly and undisguisedly exhibited the natural 
 working and effects of treatment, not only as regards 
 the origin of those feelings which constitute temper, 
 but also in the various devices and expedients which 
 go to make up the inestimable art of attracting and 
 establishing confidence. The lower animals attain the 
 use of their powers of action and expression much 
 more quickly than the human subject. The influences 
 of their early training are simpler, and therefore the 
 effects on the young scion of the treatment of his 
 parents are more readily and certainly traceable to 
 their respective real causes. Hence the high value of 
 the evidence they afford to the student of nature gene- 
 rally, and of human nature especially, in which the 
 animal, sensuous nature is inseparably bound up with 
 the higher, moral nature throughout this present life. 
 
 In the Appendix a number of illustrations are given 
 of cases, adduced from our own actual observation and 
 experience, in which, by means of treatment alone, 
 where no other influence could have interfered to 
 affect the result, animals in whose nature there 
 existed no tendency to vice or ill -temper were made 
 vicious and intractable, or sulky and stubborn. Other 
 cases show that the effects produced were such as 
 to transform both the natural and the habitual 
 tempers of the animals in question. 
 
 Each case possesses some point of special character, 
 and the whole collectively afford conclusive evidence 
 of the efficacy of treatment alone to produce in the 
 subjects all those conditions which are commonly 
 understood by the term Temper. 
 
 The case quoted in Note i is that of a remarkably 
 fine old charger, " Blackthorn," which, after a long 
 term of useful service and excellent behaviour, became
 
 OX TEMPER. 83 
 
 in a very short time transformed into the most vicious 
 and unnaturally fierce beast we have ever heard of in 
 horseflesh. A gentleman, hearing this animal de- 
 scribed, declared that he could not believe such fero- 
 city possible in any horse, and he paid very dearly 
 for his incredulity. Now, the remarkable points in 
 this case were, first, the very extraordinary change 
 of the animal's character, and, secondly, that it was 
 discriminating, for the change was only in regard to 
 Europeans. To natives the horse behaved with his 
 former docility. He was to the last period of our 
 acquaintance with him a fine serviceable beast when 
 on the road, but the rider, if a European, required to 
 mount and dismount with a native groom at the 
 horse's head. The whole demeanour of the animal 
 testified to the fact that the change of his disposition, 
 terrible as it was, arose and terminated with the 
 -abuse and torment inflicted upon him. He was to 
 the last free and willing at his work, and docile with 
 natives, but irreconcilable to persons associated by 
 their complexion with the persecutions he had 
 suffered. 
 
 A case in some respects analogous to the one just 
 mentioned is that of a little girl, a lovely child, of a 
 sweet temper, intelligent, and animated. Her tor- 
 mentor was an inconsiderate youth, who carried on a 
 game of play to a very unreasonable length, and did 
 not perceive the effect his prolonged teasing was pro- 
 ducing. The strain at last exceeding the power of 
 endurance of the gentle child, she suddenly sprang 
 upon her tormentor, seized him by his whiskers, and, 
 uttering a shriek, sank into friendly arms in an out- 
 burst of tears. This incident was temporary in its 
 first effect, but the child did not fully recover front 
 
 G 2
 
 $4 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 its sequela? for some years. Eventually her former 
 temper prevailed; but, had such treatment been- 
 repeated from day to day persistently, there can be 
 no reasonable doubt that her temper would have been 
 as effectually and permanently ruined as was that of 
 "Blackthorn." 
 
 Another instance in which a settled habit of good 
 temper was changed by treatment is mentioned in 
 Note 2 of the Appendix. " Juniper " was a really 
 noble animal. His owner made long journeys with 
 him, rode him hard, but treated him with uniform- 
 kindness. His beautiful temper may be judged by 
 the fact that, on dismounting on one occasion, and 
 throwing the rein upon the horse's neck, the rider 
 left him at the door, and was no little surprised to- 
 find the animal was following him up the steps into- 
 the veranda. He would come into the dining-room' 
 by himself, walk round the table, taking bread from- 
 any one who tendered it, and then leave the room in 
 an orderly way, and have a fling outside by way of 
 frolic. His gentle nature, high spirit, and fine paces- 
 made him a very valuable and serviceable beast. A 
 change coming over him, however, with unmistak- 
 able indications of petulance and ill-temper, his owner 
 discovered, after much inquiry, that a new groom 
 had been using the curry-comb, which so irritated 
 " Juniper's " fine sensitive skin as to eventually excite 
 his temper. The abolition of the offending treatment 
 restored the former habit. 
 
 One other instance in which an affectionate 
 nature and habit were entirely changed by ill-usage 
 is that of a pet monkey, which acquired a most 
 ferocious temper, contrary to its own nature, and 
 entirely opposed to a long habit of behaviour.
 
 ON TEMPER. 85 
 
 Accustomed for years to the utmost familiarity 
 with his owner and the family, he became by a 
 short term of teasing so very savage that he had to 
 be killed. 
 
 In the foregoing cases good-nature and amiable 
 habit were changed by various kinds of abuse to un- 
 natural ferocity and vice. Cases of an opposite nature, 
 in which natural ferocity is subdued and a peaceful 
 and affectionate nature is acquired, may be seen in 
 the domestication of cats and other members of the 
 feline tribe. Cats are amongst the commonest of 
 pets, and it sometimes happens that their own proper 
 nature is so completely changed that they lose their 
 predatory habit entirely and will scarcely notice a 
 mouse or rat. 
 
 In this connection a marked difference which 
 deserves notice exists between those animals whose 
 proper nature is subdued by force, and those in 
 which that nature has been overcome by kind 
 methods of treatment. Those in which the natural 
 propensities are only repressed are always liable to 
 seize an opportunity, when the vigilance of the 
 keeper is relaxed, and to resume their real un- 
 changed character ; whereas those which have been 
 attracted by kindness will only resume their natural 
 ferocity on being severely provoked or abused. A 
 curious instance of the necessity for continued repres- 
 sion to enforce discipline may be here mentioned. 
 A horse whose utter obstinacy had been always 
 overcome by severe chastisement was running in a 
 coach. All the time he was going, the driver con- 
 tinued whipping him with a heavy thong. A clergy- 
 man passenger remonstrated against this seeming 
 cruelty. The driver replied that if he discontinued
 
 86 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 the whipping the horse would stop. The clergyman 
 insisted, the whip was put up, and the horse stopped 
 dead. For an hour and a half we had to stay in a 
 burning sun, trying by every means we could devise 
 to get the beast persuaded, but in vain. Another 
 horse had to be procured. Lion and tiger tamers are 
 weh 1 aware of the necessity for unrelaxed vigilance in 
 regard to animals that have been subdued by force, 
 and in which, therefore, the real nature is only re- 
 pressed, and is ready to re-assert itself whenever 
 opportunity may serve. 
 
 The foregoing illustrations are supplied by our own 
 personal observation and experience. The history of 
 each is known in all essential details, in such manner 
 that the very striking results produced could be 
 clearly traced to their several causes without the 
 possibility of any others interfering to complicate 
 them or affect their character. The natural history 
 of the lower animals would supply innumerable illus- 
 trations in confirmation of the facts exemplified ; but 
 these, of which all the particulars are fully known, 
 will, we hope, be deemed sufficient to prove satis- 
 factorily that treatment is capable of creating arid 
 establishing a temper corresponding thereto, even 
 in cases where natural organization and propensities. 
 and settled habits of long standing have to be over- 
 come and completely transformed. 
 
 In the treatment of their young, the lower animals,, 
 even those of ferocious nature, exercise great for- 
 bearance, and rarely exhibit anger. On occasions- 
 of such unwearied provocations as a kitten or puppy 
 may persist in practising on his parent, he may 
 elicit a snarl or a snap ; but in the worst cases it 
 goes no farther. We have often seen the patience of
 
 OX TEMPER. 87 
 
 a brute parent \vdthstand a persistence of playful 
 abuse that would have exhausted that of any human 
 parent. Hence bad temper is rarely developed in 
 the lower animals by the treatment of parents. 
 In all the instances above quoted in which ill-temper 
 was induced, it was caused by the abuse and ill- 
 treatment inflicted by man ! 
 
 In these illustrations the natural effects of treat- 
 ment ,are exhibited in their bearing on the lower 
 animals, whose sensibilities are of a low order. 
 Seeing, however, that the effects are in all cases 
 produced through the medium of the feelings, and 
 that they are, in fact, the influential factors in the 
 result, it follows that the intensity of the temper 
 produced will be more or less directly proportionate 
 to the sensitiveness of the feelings operated upon. 
 
 Applying the experience afforded by our illustra- 
 tions to the case of infant life, they show that natural 
 propensities, deeply fixed in the constitution, may be 
 effectually overcome by treatment, even where this 
 necessarily operates through the medium of a low 
 order of sensibility. How much more effectually, 
 then, would treatment prevail in the more suscep- 
 tible nature of the human infant ! 
 
 The highly sensitive condition of the corporeal 
 feelings of the new-born babe, his pressing wants and 
 utter helplessness, must necessarily supply the first 
 subject-matter of his earliest mental effort the first 
 material on which his incipient faculties are exercised. 
 His first ideas and experiences are those of ease or 
 discomfort, satisfaction or disappointment, pleasure or 
 pain. Without any means of voluntary expression, 
 his whole consciousness is first absorbed by his in- 
 ternal feelings, and his first mental impressions must
 
 88 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 be of a nature corresponding to his corporeal sugges- 
 tions. Feelings are at first the only influence, and 
 for some time continue to be the dominant power of 
 his nature. Therefore the first influence, and for a 
 time almost the only influence, to which he is 
 subject is that wherein temper originates and by 
 means of which it is formed. It follows that temper 
 is the first element of character impressed on the in- 
 cipient mind of the human subject; and confidence 
 in tutors is all but collateral therewith. The fine 
 susceptibilities and utter helplessness and dependence 
 of the babe, the two most influential characteristics of 
 his nature, are, by providential arrangement, the 
 means specially adapted to afford to tutors the 
 fitting opportunity for the exercise of kindness and 
 sympathy, which are the proper agencies for pro- 
 ducing affection and trust, and for avoiding irritation 
 and resentment. The wisdom of this providential 
 arrangement for the initiation of love and faith, the 
 soul of Christian principles, is also conspicuously 
 manifest in the fact that in the human infant the 
 powers which would make him independent are so 
 slowly developed. Tutors have therefore the best 
 possible means afforded to them by the mutual rela- 
 tionship between the babe and themselves, and by 
 the protracted duration of that relation. The most 
 adverse element that could be devised for coun- 
 teracting this wise and beneficent arrangement is 
 the theory that the babe derives his temper by 
 inheritance, arid that it is therefore a constitutional 
 malady. By this fatal theory the babe is deprived, 
 to a greater or less degree, of the advantage, and the 
 tutors of the opportunity, designed by Almighty 
 Wisdom for the happiness of both.
 
 ON TEMPER. 89 
 
 During the early stages of babyhood, the waking 
 hours are occupied chiefly with the cares and atten- 
 tions his appetites and his helplessness combine to 
 exact from tutors. During this time feelings are not 
 merely predominant, but constitute nearly the sum 
 total of the babe's experience. They are always being 
 considered or neglected, soothed or irritated, satisfied 
 or disappointed ; and the state of mind thereby pro- 
 duced must necessarily correspond to whichsoever of 
 those feelings is most frequently and strongly evoked. 
 In the midst of the ferment, the infant Will comes in 
 to take a part in the incipient process of laying the 
 foundation for the future edifice of the individual 
 character. This new factor also operates on the 
 same material which engages the exclusive attention 
 of the faculties, and its force will be enlisted this 
 way or that according to the prevailing current. 
 Albeit, the operation of feelings and Will are carried 
 on in the infant breast unseen, and too often totally 
 unobserved and un watched for. Hence it often 
 happens that by the time baby has acquired the 
 power of expressing his feelings by some of the 
 commoner forms of gesture, he has also acquired 
 some temper and some power of Will to show it. 
 If these be, as they often and very naturally are, 
 rather resentful and unamiable, he is supposed to 
 have inherited a larger than usual share of the 
 legacy of our great primogenitor. It is convenient 
 then to forget the severe and daily recurring trials 
 to which he may have been subjected during the pro- 
 cesses of washing, dressing, and other like forms of 
 (to him) unaccountable assaults upon his tenderest 
 sensibilities. 
 
 In this connection we advert to the case of the
 
 90 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 amiable animal "Jumper," whose beautiful temper 
 broke down completely under the influence of the 
 curry-comb on his thin fine coat. Here is a conclu- 
 sive proof of the effect of exactly such a process as 
 that to which many sensitive children are daily 
 subjected. The fact that " Juniper's " very marked 
 change of temper was caused by the daily repeated 
 irritation of his skin was proved by the gradual 
 cessation of his ill-tempers after the abolition of the 
 offending instrument of torture. There is probably 
 no single cause so effectual as that of the toilet in 
 producing ill-temper in children, and, as it is a 
 necessary as well as a continually recurring trial, 
 it deserves the very careful management of nurses. 
 It is not necessarily disagreeable, even to very young 
 babes, if done gently and with tact. We have seen 
 it done habitually in a manner to be rather a source 
 of amusement than of irritation. Indeed, to children 
 of a few months old it was a time of enjoyment, a 
 game of play. A business-like nurse who professes 
 not to understand " that sort of nonsense " will carry 
 the whole process through, it is true, with a sort of 
 air that seems very masterly. Poor baby is in her 
 hands like clay in the hand of the potter, utterly 
 suppressed and overwhelmed; but his is not the 
 quiescence of ease and satisfaction, nor is the sup- 
 pressed inner feeling at all like the outward 
 demeanour. He may be conveniently cowed, or 
 helplessly suppressed, but these are not the feelings 
 which constitute or initiate a fine temper, nor is a 
 Will that is forcibly overpowered effectually sub- 
 dued. It is but pent up, to be hereafter manifested 
 in such form as circumstances may determine. 
 
 Common-sense and common experience, if duly
 
 ON TEMPER. 91 
 
 consulted, would prove that every experience of life 
 is influential as an item of the total sum which makes 
 up the individual self. No part of the personal 
 experience, from first to last, is lost. Through every 
 stage of life, from birth onwards, all that is done or 
 suffered is influential in producing the final result. 
 And those experiences which first occupy the virgin 
 soil of the mind are the most effective, because they 
 are those on which all future ones are formed, and 
 from which all others derive their colour and character. 
 We have already shown that the first impressions are 
 necessarily produced by feelings, and that these are 
 the chief factors in forming temper. 
 
 If the keen susceptibilities of children expose them 
 to some special forms of suffering, they are also emi- 
 nently useful in securing to the sufferers a degree of 
 tender care and sympathy they would not otherwise 
 enjoy. These suggest and inculcate such lessons of 
 love and moral principle as could not in any other 
 way be made so practically intelligible or be so 
 deeply impressed. If impatient and inconsiderate 
 treatment excite the feelings to produce ill-temper 
 on the one hand, love, sympathy, and consideration 
 will, on the other hand, beget an affectionate, amiable 
 disposition. The babe in his second stage will yield 
 the natural fruit of the treatment he received in the 
 first. According as he has been treated considerately 
 and consistently, or has been thoughtlessly, impa- 
 tiently, and fitfully regarded, so will necessarily his 
 feelings have been affected and his temper formed. 
 If petted at one time and snubbed at another, 
 now treated as having both feelings and intelligence 
 and anon as though he had neither the one nor 
 the other, his temper will partake of the same
 
 92 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 fitful nature. As is the sowing such will be the 
 harvest. 
 
 It will be freely admitted that crosses abound in 
 every one's experience through life; and it is probable, 
 though it may not be so generally allowed, that they 
 are, in one way or another, very evenly distributed 
 amongst all sorts and conditions of men. In indi- 
 vidual experience, however, they are much more 
 frequent and vexatious in early life, whilst children 
 are subject to tutors, than they are afterwards, when 
 actions are more independent, interference less ob- 
 noxious, and experience more influential. The crosses 
 borne in childhood, especially when the powers of 
 mind and body are beginning to be freely exercised, 
 are of constant recurrence, and, though seemingly 
 trivial in themselves, are peculiarly trying to temper. 
 Operating as they do on sensitive natures, their 
 weight is not to be estimated by their apparent in- 
 significance, but by the feelings they arouse in those 
 who have to bear them. Moreover, the conscious 
 inability of the victim to escape, or to resist, aggra- 
 vates the sense of irritation. Baffled resistance is 
 very vexatious. 
 
 Hence it follows that the periods of infancy and 
 childhood, when natural impulses are subject to the 
 frequent, almost continual, action of the curb, are 
 necessarily most trying to the temper. For then the 
 feelings are most susceptible and least under control 
 just when they are subject to their severest crossing. 
 If, then, the Will and. temper be not watchfully and 
 considerately treated in those stages of the mental 
 history, and if they be then allowed to acquire force, 
 future crossing will necessarily need to be more fre- 
 quently inflicted, and more severely felt. The sooner
 
 ON TEMPER. 93 
 
 and the more effectually obedience is taught, the less 
 will crossing and its attendant evils bear upon the 
 young mind. This fact is, however, but too little 
 recognized by tutors, who, regarding temper as an 
 inherited characteristic, do not see the need for the 
 exercise of those precautions by which it might be 
 regulated. 
 
 When children have acquired the use of speech 
 and some independence of Thought and action, the 
 administration of repressive and corrective measures 
 becomes more irksome to tutors, on whom that duty 
 properly devolves. It often happens, therefore, that 
 ill-tempers and bad habits are passed over at home, 
 and the difficult and delicate task of correcting them 
 is relegated to the schoolmaster, whose proper duty 
 is thus made more distasteful to his pupil and more 
 irksome to himself. School-life, where so much im- 
 portant work ought to be done, and where so much 
 depends on the mutual relations of pupil and master, 
 should be made as happy and smooth as possible, and 
 be divested by all practicable means of everything 
 that could interfere with the progress of the work. 
 But, when home influences have been neglected, the 
 pupil and master are at once placed in the position 
 mutually most adverse to the fulfilment of their re- 
 spective duties. 
 
 Unhappily, it is no uncommon thing for parents to 
 threaten school to their children in such manner as 
 to give it the character of a place of correction, thus 
 unwisely inspiring in their minds a dread of school, 
 and a feeling of hostility to the authorities there. 
 The schoolmaster has then a double duty to perform, 
 and has to sow his good seed amongst weeds and dis- 
 order. This transfer of parental duty cannot fail to
 
 94 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 impair in children that confidence in their parents 
 which is the true foundation of filial respect. 
 
 The natural history of the moral principles of 
 pupils so relegated to school for correction would 
 generally disclose an unsatisfactory state of home 
 affairs, where careless, inconsistent want of discipline 
 prevailed and neglect of those principles on which 
 good habits and right ideas of duty are formed.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OX THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 FIRST PERIOD : BABYHOOD. 
 
 THIS period, commencing at birth, extends to that 
 stage of the mental progress when the babe first 
 attempts to utter words imitatively, with some idea 
 that they have a meaning. It therefore embraces 
 that part of the mental history before the powerful 
 influence of language comes into operation. 
 
 At birth the babe possesses a corporeal frame 
 endowed with keen sensibilities, and mental faculties, 
 but has no power over either until it has been acquired 
 by much tentative effort. Hence, though he can do 
 nothing, he can suffer much. Life and action com- 
 mence with the involuntary functions of the lungs, 
 heart, &c. The use of the limbs and organs of sense 
 is slowly acquired under the stimulus of sensations 
 which are addressed to the sensorium, and are also 
 involuntary. 
 
 The Will is stimulated into action under the same 
 involuntary influences. The first efforts are very 
 feeble and tentative, but by slow degrees the cor- 
 poreal and mental faculties become amenable to 
 control. 
 
 The mental faculties are first excited by sensa- 
 tions of appetite, satisfaction, pain, disappointment,,
 
 96 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 and like personal feelings, and are soon afterwards 
 attracted by perceptions of external objects and influ- 
 ences, also of an involuntary nature. 
 
 Hence it appears that the mental powers are first 
 exercised upon involuntary sensations : either from 
 within, as appetite or want ; or from without, in the 
 form of impressions of external objects, and especially 
 of the treatment experienced from tutors. Voluntary 
 action begins with the limbs and organs of sense, and 
 proceeds gradually to extend to the mental faculties 
 in formulating ideas and in reflecting thereupon. 
 
 In the early stages of babyhood the dominant in- 
 fluence of personal sensibilities is far more productive 
 of ideas than are the results of voluntary effort. 
 For, whereas the feelings are all the while in full 
 force, the limbs and organs of sense are unpractised 
 and but partially under control. Hence ideas of per- 
 sonal feeling are very influential before other kinds 
 of idea are acquired. 
 
 OF THE CORPOREAL FACULTIES. The limbs in 
 early babyhood are hardly ever quite at rest except 
 during sleep. In their involuntary restlessness the 
 action of the Will is evoked ; and the movements, 
 which are at first spasmodic, become tentative, and 
 gradually acquire direction and force. Incessant trials 
 resulting in occasional successes are thereby stimulated, 
 and by means of much repetition establish eventual 
 control. By the end of this period the babe will have 
 learned to walk, and acquired free use of his limbs 
 and organs of sense. The eye and ear, which are the 
 organs chiefly instrumental in attracting the percep- 
 tive faculty, soon begin to divert attention from the 
 more persistent and pressing obtrusiveness of the 
 appetites and feelings, and before the end of the period
 
 FIRST PERIOD : BABYHOOD. 97 
 
 will have become effective agencies. In early baby- 
 hood impressions on the sensorium require some time 
 before their significance is fully apprehended, and con- 
 siderable eifort is necessary to grasp and formulate 
 them. Indications of eifort may be observed in a fixed, 
 wondering gaze, followed by joyous emotion when 
 success is achieved. This effort is exacted by the 
 inexperienced use of the organs of sense, and also by 
 the novelty of the objects themselves, both taxing 
 the unpractised faculties. It may be here mentioned 
 that strange sights and sounds, even when presented 
 to the adult mind, require special effort of apprehen- 
 sion and formulation. In such cases the difficulty is 
 observed by the expression of the hearer's counte- 
 nance, and he receives prompt aid from the speaker. 
 In infants the effort to grasp a sound or sight often 
 causes a baffled expression, which, however, rarely 
 elicits help, and is set down to incapacity. 
 
 As the environment in babyhood is very restricted, 
 and the same objects are constantly submitted to 
 tentative scrutiny, very definite ideas are eventually 
 formed of such familiar objects as the features of 
 tutors. These are recognized after a few weeks, and 
 are greeted with responsive smiles and gestures, 
 especially when they are associated with sounds of 
 the voice which confirm the evidence of the eye. 
 
 OF THE WILL. Everything absolutely necessary to 
 the life of the new-born babe is either conferred by in- 
 voluntary vital action or is supplied by tutors. The 
 Will is probably first prompted by desire to modify 
 and control the involuntary movements of the limbs. 
 Effort, which is a manifestation of Will, is indicated 
 by movements and gestures caused by pain or other 
 emotion, and in attempts to control and to use the 
 
 H
 
 98 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 limbs and organs of sense. Like all the other 
 faculties, the Will acquires its force by exercise, and, 
 being first exerted during the predominance of feel- 
 ings, the ideas these originate are the first to engage 
 its active power, and they continue throughout baby- 
 hood to supply its chief stimulus. 
 
 In the brute races, where might is supreme, and 
 where no moral restraints interfere with the perma- 
 nent ascendancy of the lower nature, the Will is 
 encouraged and cultivated by parents in their young. 
 In the brute, strength of limb would be of little avail 
 without corresponding force of Will ; wherefore a 
 strong uncurbed Will becomes a creature which pre- 
 vails by might. Manifestly, however, if the Will in 
 the human infant be allowed to acquire its force 
 under the stimulus of the animal feelings, the lower 
 nature in him, instead of being subdued, will become 
 dominant. 
 
 The fine susceptibilities and helpless dependence 
 of the human infant place him so completely in the 
 power of his tutors, and afford them such ample 
 means and opportunities of acquiring his love and 
 trust, that they may thereby easily mould his Will 
 into spontaneous submission if they take due advan- 
 tage of these conditions whilst they are in force. 
 The importance of this part of infant training cannot 
 be in any other way so strongly appreciated or so 
 effectively enforced upon the attention of tutors as it 
 is by the prayer, divinely taught and daily uttered, 
 for that grand consummation when God's Will shall 
 be done upon earth as it is in heaven. The subordi- 
 nation of the Will by culture, not by suppression, is 
 thus shown to be a,t the root of all virtue ; whosoever, 
 therefore, sincerely indulges that high aspiration will
 
 FIRST PERIOD : BABYHOOD. 99 
 
 recognize the necessity for a right direction of the 
 infant Will from its first indication, and whilst as 
 yet it is susceptible of being moulded. 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. Perceptions of per- 
 sonal sensations are almost coeval with life itself, 
 and for a time engross the mind almost exclusively. 
 Throughout the term of babyhood personal feelings 
 predominate, and therefore give the first direction to 
 the exercise of the mental faculties and supply the 
 chief subject-matter for Thought. 
 
 Personal feelings originate from within, suggested 
 by appetite, pain, satisfaction, and the like ; and from 
 without, produced by the treatment of tutors and 
 others. The emotions and ideas resulting from the 
 conduct of tutors will naturally correspond therewith. 
 If this be kind, considerate, and consistent, it will 
 inspire love and confidence ; but if otherwise, it will 
 excite distrust, irritation, or other natural responsive 
 feeling. In all cases, suffering is more influential 
 than its opposite, and probably to a greater degree 
 in children than in adults. 
 
 In this period wants are many and pressing, and 
 are all the more deeply felt owing to conscious help- 
 lessness. The manner of ministering to them by 
 tutors is generally considerate, judicious, and tender, 
 but is often nevertheless inconsistent, irritating, and 
 painful. The continually recurring washings and 
 dressings are a fruitful source of trial and discomfort. 
 Maternal solicitude has suggested many mitigations 
 of suffering by means of safety-pins and other contri- 
 vances ; but, after all that ingenuity has accomplished 
 in this way, there still remains in these necessary 
 processes a great deal to irritate the sensitive skin 
 and tissues of young infants, and to try their tempers. 
 
 H 2
 
 IOO NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Seeing how the long-established amiable temper of 
 an old horse was changed by such means (see Appen- 
 dix, Note 2), it must be evident that the keen sen- 
 sibilities of babes cannot be proof against similar 
 influences. Hence it is undoubtedly the fact that 
 most bad tempers owe their origin to inconsiderate 
 treatment in infancy. Though the individual acts 
 and the particular forms of mistreatment are not 
 remembered, their results endure in the form of inde- 
 terminate ideas, and may affect the character more or 
 less influentially through life. 
 
 Happily, the sensibilities proper to this period are 
 quite as amenable to good as to evil influences. As- 
 soon as the babe is able to recognize the tones and 
 inflexions of voice, and to distinguish their signi- 
 ficance when he acquires ideas of the love that- 
 underlies the attentions he receives, and compre- 
 hends the meaning of the caresses and endearments 
 lavished on him these influences begin to operate. 
 His susceptibilities suggest other feelings than those 
 of mere satisfaction and ease, and he becomes ani- 
 mated with love and trust, which supply a* salutary 
 kind of subject-matter for the exercise of his mental 
 powers, and for his natural propensity of imitation. 
 
 The ideas of a personal nature formulated during 
 babyhood are necessarily such as the circumstances 
 and experiences of that period suggest. Such being 
 the subject-matter on which the mental faculties are 
 exercised, such will be the product in formulated 
 Thought. 
 
 External objects, being perceived by means of im- 
 pressions on the sensorium, depend upon the pro- 
 ficiency acquired in the use of the organs of sense, 
 and in the power of the perceptive faculty itself.
 
 FIRST PERIOD : BABYHOOD. I O I 
 
 Hence the first ideas of external objects must be of 
 uncertain character, and very weak. For this reason 
 many repetitions and much tentative effort must be 
 required before any clear and definite ideas are 
 formulated. It is doubtful whether objects are 
 recognized as external until memory and reflection 
 aid the perception. As the infant's environment is 
 very restricted, and the objects first submitted to 
 his senses are constantly repeated, the infirmity of 
 his faculties, and his inexperienced use of them, are 
 thus compensated. 
 
 The eye and the ear are the principal avenues by 
 which sensations of external objects reach the mind. 
 These organs operate very differently. Objects seen 
 generally dwell before the eye, so that they may be 
 contemplated and considered attentively for a certain 
 time. Sounds, on the other hand, generally pass 
 quickly, and afford but brief opportunity for obser- 
 vation. Moreover, objects seen are usually of definite 
 form, colour, and aspect, whereas sounds have less 
 distinctness, differing only in tone and loudness. 
 Again, objects are generally seen in fixed relation of 
 place, whereas sounds may emanate from uncertain 
 sources, and are not always associable with the 
 things they stand for or proceed from. The image 
 of an object is directly connected with the object 
 itself, but a sound does not so clearly appertain to 
 its source. The sensations received through these 
 different avenues are therefore very differently for- 
 mulated, and the difference of the evidence they 
 .afford has a material influence on mental work and 
 history, especially in infancy. 
 
 Music is the simplest form of sound, as it needs 
 only to be heard, whereas sounds which have signi-
 
 102 NATURAL HISTORY OJf THOUGHT. 
 
 ficance, like words, need to be also interpreted. An 
 image explains itself, but a sound has no meaning, 
 except what it derives either from its association in 
 a sequence of sounds, or with some associated signi- 
 ficance arbitrarily attached to it. Hence the image 
 of an external object is more easily formulated, and 
 more definitely inscribed on the mental tablet, than a 
 sound, which is fugitive and, except by association, 
 unmeaning. Hence music owes much of its soothing 
 power to the simplicity of its nature, and the slight 
 effort it exacts for its full apprehension. It needs no- 
 interpretation. 
 
 The product of the formulative faculty, the work 
 actually accomplished during the stage of babyhood 
 by means of this faculty in regard to external persons 
 and things, in the restricted environment in which the 
 ideas were formed, proves that good use has been 
 made of the faculties ; but it is still more marked in 
 the increased facility of using them than in the 
 products yet acquired by their use. The babe has 
 already collected a good many ideas, and has still 
 more notably enlarged his powers of making further 
 acquisitions. 
 
 Memory. As only those ideas which are subject 
 to recall can be reflected upon, memory is the basis 
 of all reflective action. An object present to the 
 sense may be contemplated, but past sensations must 
 first be recalled before they can be subject to reflection. 
 
 As memory is so important a factor in the develop- 
 ment of the mental faculties, it forms the subject of 
 chapter xiii., where it is discussed at length. In this- 
 and the succeeding chapters of the natural history 
 it is treated only in so far as it marks the progress, 
 of the infant mind.
 
 FIRST PERIOD : BABYHOOD. 103 
 
 Evidence adduced in the sequel will show that in 
 babyhood considerable power of memory is exhibited 
 by various acts of recognition and reflection. 
 
 Reflective action is manifest in all those complex 
 perceptions into which the recollections of past 
 sensations enter and mingle with others afterwards 
 presented to the mind. This is effected by compari- 
 son, association, and inference. Hence it follows 
 that simple ideas are few and elementary, and are 
 soon succeeded by others of a complex nature. But 
 whereas simple ideas are definite, complex ones are, 
 in babyhood, chiefly of the indeterminate kind 
 described in chapter ii. p. 28. 
 
 Images of external objects, with some associated 
 qualities, may be more or less distinctly and defi- 
 nitely formed in the mind ; but complex ideas, 
 involving reflection, must in this stage of mental 
 progress, before experience and the aid of language 
 have begun to simplify the processes of Thought, be 
 chiefly of an indeterminate character. The prick of 
 a pin, for example, will give a very clear idea of the 
 pain inflicted, but the idea suggested by the cir- 
 cumstances of its occurrence will be indeterminate, 
 because associated with others imperfectly under- 
 stood. Still, the sense of pain will be definite, and 
 the connected idea not the less influential though 
 indeterminate. 
 
 Excepting such ideas as colour, form, inarticulate 
 sound, and such-like elementary perceptions of a 
 simple nature, all others are more or less complicated 
 by reflective action ; for even those simple ideas soon, 
 become associated with ideas of distance, dimension, 
 and other relations suggested by inference or com- 
 parison with past experiences.
 
 104 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 The recognition of a difference of voice and feature 
 between the parent and the nurse, of gesture indi- 
 cative of caress or rebuke, and of the feelings so 
 indicated, all of which are expressed by children's 
 gestures in babyhood, prove (i) that the features of 
 those persons had been clearly formulated ; (2) that 
 the changes of feature had been perceived ; (3) that 
 both features and their changes were remembered 
 definitely ; (4) that the emotions indicated were 
 understood; and (5) that they were associated 
 together. All these mental processes must have 
 been performed, as every one is involved in the 
 resultant responsive actions of the infant. 
 
 The feelings of want and appetite are early asso- 
 ciated in the baby-mind with the corresponding 
 sense of satisfaction or disappointment, ease or dis- 
 comfort, &c. Hence, pains and pleasures of all 
 kinds are formulated in association with the circum- 
 stances of relief or suffering, satisfaction or denial, 
 consideration or neglect. The fact of such associa- 
 tion is proved by expressive gesture. A smile 
 might possibly be a mere act of imitation, but the 
 apprehension of its significance is attested by un- 
 mistakable evidence of the manner of its occurrence. 
 
 Sounds and inflexions of voice, themselves requir- 
 ing considerable discernment and proficiency in the 
 use of the ear, are unerringly interpreted at the age 
 of a few months, and must therefore have been 
 associated with their proper meanings. In this act 
 of associating ideas with signs is originated the first 
 step towards language. For, although the first in- 
 telligible signs in which meanings are suggested 
 are mere inflexions of voice, accompanied by gesture, 
 in which the eye and ear co-operate, and are not of
 
 FIRST PERIOD: BABYHOOD. 105 
 
 the nature of verbal or regular language, the act of 
 association is complete in the recognition of their 
 significance, and this is the basis of language. 
 
 Inference and judgment, being based on evidence, 
 are little exercised by infants. Concerned almost 
 exclusively with Thought originating in or bearing 
 on their feelings, their inferences are mainly respect- 
 ing the causes of the feelings they experience, and 
 these inferences are often erroneous. Nevertheless, 
 there is evidence in the demeanour of very young- 
 infants to show that they possess the faculty of 
 judgment in some measure, and that they use it. 
 The unaccountable preferences and aversions shown 
 in this period involve some form of inference respect- 
 ing the subjects of their preference or dislike. 
 
 Comparison is in itself an elementary form of 
 inference, and is probably the first step towards a 
 regular appreciation of evidence. Association, also, 
 when it takes the form of attaching meanings to 
 signs and gestures, implies an elementary act of 
 inference. 
 
 TEMPER is the exponent of the relation of an indi- 
 vidual towards persons generally the state of mind 
 inspired by the experience of the treatment he has 
 received. It will therefore correspond with that 
 treatment. 
 
 In the helplessness of babyhood, when wants are 
 keenly felt but cannot be expressed, and when they 
 are, in fact, often misunderstood, the relations 
 between the babe and his tutors are very strained. 
 In other words, much feeling is evoked, and a corre- 
 sponding temper or relation of the infant towards 
 tutors (who represent in babyhood external influences 
 generally) is thereby established. This feeling is
 
 106 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 manifested by struggles and other forms of resent- 
 ment on the one hand, and by demonstrations of joy, 
 contentment, and satisfaction on the other, according 
 to the kind of treatment or mistreatment, care or 
 neglect, respect for or disregard of feelings, accorded 
 to the child. The whole experience, of whatever 
 kind, is productive of corresponding feeling, and this 
 is embodied in the relation or attitude of the passive 
 subject to active influences. Hence temper and 
 disposition originate, and are often very firmly 
 established, during this trying period of mental 
 development. 
 
 FAITH is the fundamental principle of true obedi- 
 ence, and is the chief factor in giving force and value 
 to example. 
 
 It is first inspired by the office of tutors during 
 the helplessness and consequent dependence of the 
 babe. In this lower aspect it depends upon the 
 care, forethought, and love of tutors in the discharge 
 of their duties, and it corresponds in degree with the 
 treatment they accord. It is the parent of that 
 higher faith which is the basis of all true religion 
 and moral obligation, and owes its origin to the 
 same feeling, for the paternal care and love of the 
 Almighty Father supply the first impulse and the 
 dependent sustaining power of the faith His crea- 
 tures repose in Him. First, that which is natural, 
 and then that which is spiritual, is the rule in faith 
 as in the universe. 
 
 Implicit, in the first instance, owing to the depen- 
 dent condition of the human infant, it will be con- 
 firmed, strengthened, and established as a rule of 
 conduct on the one hand, or shaken and destroyed 
 on the other, by the experience of tutelage.
 
 FIKST PERIOD: BABYHOOD. 107 
 
 OBEDIENCE. True obedience is spontaneous a 
 desire inspired by confidence and trust to please those 
 who exercise authority. In this stage of infant life, 
 when need is pressing and power wanting, obedience 
 may easily be forced. The babe may readily be over- 
 whelmed ; but forced obedience is but the illusive 
 semblance of the genuine principle. True obedience 
 is not the suppression of the Will, but its own spon- 
 taneous submission. It must be attracted, it cannot 
 be forced. Hence the efficacy of trust or faith in the 
 authority to which it has to yield its voluntary 
 adhesion. 
 
 The importance of obedience in the later periods 
 of childhood can scarcely be overrated. Hence the 
 value and efficacy of faith in tutors in this period ; 
 for if obedience be not inspired in this stage, before 
 the Will has acquired strength by habit and unre- 
 strained exercise, there is little hope of any such 
 result afterwards. The only hope then is that 
 reason and moral principles may be influential. 
 But if this fundamental principle be wanting, there 
 is little reason to expect other moral principles to 
 predominate over the lower nature so fortified. 
 
 Hence, babyhood is the golden opportunity for 
 laying the foundation of this and other influential 
 factors in the formation of the future character, and 
 for furnishing the armoury by which the higher 
 nature is to subdue the lower in the lifelong conflict 
 between good and evil. 
 
 MORAL OBLIGATION is the relation of the indi- 
 vidual to authority, and involves duty to superiors, 
 in whom authority is naturally vested. 
 
 The first ideas of this relation are inspired by 
 example, and by the natural exercise of authority
 
 IOS NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 on the one part, and natural submission on the other. 
 The conduct of tutors as guardians, being based upon, 
 and regulated by, a knowledge of good and evil, is, or 
 ought to be, a constant exemplification of the prevail- 
 ing power of the former. The moral influence and 
 self-abnegation of the human parent forms a strong 
 contrast to the example and tuition of brute parents, 
 to whom moral principle is unknown and inapplicable. 
 In them the lower nature is ever predominant. But 
 in man that nature exists only as a necessary subor- 
 dinate to a higher. Hence, whilst the lower nature 
 is predominant in the human offspring, the prevalence 
 of the higher is initiated and maintained by parents, 
 as proxies. This is the nurture and admonition 
 which naturally devolves on them, and is the means 
 of establishing in the infant those principles by which 
 he is hereafter to act for himself. 
 
 The idea of moral principle, the distinction between 
 good and evil, originates as the infant observes and 
 imitates, and thus imbibes the ideas inspired by the 
 conduct of his tutors. This is not necessarily by 
 special acts or intention of theirs, but goes on naturally 
 and continuously in their habitual exemplification of 
 the virtues suggested by their moral nature. Thus 
 is the moral element gradually infused into the infant 
 mind, to be thereafter nurtured in close connection 
 with, and relation to, the lower domain, so long as 
 the corporeal frame to which that domain belongs 
 shall survive. 
 
 In no part of the providential dispensations of this 
 life are the wisdom and beneficence of Divine ordi- 
 nances more conspicuous than in the mutual relations 
 and conditions in which parents and children stand 
 to each other with reference to moral principles
 
 FIRST PERIOD: BABYHOOD. 109 
 
 during the long term of the dependence of the latter 
 on the offices and guardianship of the former. 
 
 HABIT or THOUGHT. The force and effect of habit 
 in the domain of Thought is separately discussed in 
 chapter xi., but the subject is mentioned in these 
 chapters only so far as it bears on the particular 
 periods in question. 
 
 Naturally, during the dominating influence of feel- 
 ings, all those ideas and currents of Thought which 
 originate therein become more or less habitual. 
 
 Temper is a habit. It is the relation of the in- 
 dividual to others, not at a particular time or on par- 
 ticular occasions, but his habitual attitude towards 
 them. As a habit, it acquires its special force, and 
 becomes a very influential characteristic of the in- 
 dividual in his general conduct, and in colouring all 
 his own proper ideas, opinions, and judgments. 
 Temper and its ally, disposition, have already been 
 shown to be early initiated, and often strongly 
 developed habits during babyhood. They are, in 
 fact, the most important of those initiated in this 
 stage of the mental history. In after-periods reason 
 begins to operate in modifying the effects of treat- 
 ment, but in babyhood feelings have undisputed 
 sway. 
 
 SUMMARY. From the foregoing sketch it will be 
 seen that during this period, under the dominating 
 influence of corporeal sensibilities, the babe will have 
 acquired a free use of his limbs and senses by dint 
 of constant exercise of both, and that he will also 
 have made considerable progress in the use of his 
 mental faculties, as is indicated by the following 
 acquirements, viz. : 
 
 i. A fund of experience supplied by his strong
 
 I I O NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 perceptions of personal feeling, excited by sensa- 
 tions from within and from without. 
 
 2. His Will, excited by impulses of want, appetite, 
 and sensations generally, will have received its bias, 
 in one way or another, to a very influential degree, 
 according to the way it has been treated. 
 
 3. An intimate knowledge of the few external 
 objects and persons continually under his notice in 
 his very restricted environment. 
 
 4. His stock of formulated ideas, necessarily de- 
 rived from the subject-matter on which his faculties 
 have been exercised, will correspond therewith ; and 
 will consist mainly of those originated by the domi- 
 nant influence of feelings, along with definite ideas of 
 certain familiar persons and external objects. 
 
 5. His reflective powers will be represented by 
 acts involving memory, association, comparison, in- 
 ference, and some elementary forms of judgment. 
 He will by inference have obtained some ideas of 
 distance, dimension, and other primary qualities of 
 things. 
 
 6. Ideas formed under the influence of feelings 
 often and strongly excited by emotions of joy and 
 grief, satisfaction and disappointment, will be mainly 
 indeterminate, resulting in a certain relation or 
 attitude towards persons generally. This relation is 
 exhibited in temper and disposition, and towards par- 
 ticular persons in the form of faith and obedience. 
 
 His ideas of moral principle, that is, of relation to 
 authority, are as yet very elementary, derived by 
 inference (the weakest of his immature faculties) 
 from the conduct of his tutors. But, though rudi- 
 mentary and but very imperfect, these ideas, being 
 the first to direct his thoughts towards his higher
 
 FIRST PERIOD I BABYHOOD. I I I 
 
 nature, will be very influential in the ultimate forma- 
 tion of his character. 
 
 The effective or actuating result of the experiences 
 of babyhood may be almost summed up in the con- 
 dition which the Will and the temper have acquired. 
 This catalogue of attainments affords conclusive 
 proof that, during the short term of fifteen or eigh- 
 teen months of babyhood, a very considerable amount 
 of mental progress has been made, and a great deal of 
 effective mental work must have been done in one 
 way or another. 
 
 However unoccupied and unconscious he may have 
 seemed to be during those long hours when his 
 incipient faculties were silently at work ; though he 
 may then have been regarded as having no more 
 Thought than an animated doll ; though he may, in 
 fact, have been treated as such caressed when con- 
 venient, and anon put aside as if he were insensible 
 of neglect ; now fondled, as if susceptible of love and 
 appreciative of attention, and then treated as a play- 
 thing insensible of treatment yet, at the end of this 
 short term of incongruous experiences, the long list 
 of baby's accomplishments proves how effectively his 
 efforts have prevailed over the difficulties of the 
 situation.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE NATUEAL HISTOEY OF THOUGHT. 
 SECOND PEEIOD : INFANCY. 
 
 THIS period, following babyhood, is that in which 
 spoken language is acquired. By the end of this stage 
 of the infant-history speech will have become familiar 
 and some preliminary ideas of the graphic form of 
 language acquired. Free use of the limbs having 
 been obtained during babyhood, the natural and 
 prevailing impulse now is to employ them. Feelings, 
 being still sensitive and in strong force, supply the 
 chief stimulus to the use of the corporeal powers. The 
 dominant characteristic of this period is activity. 
 
 The further construction of the individual self 
 during this succeeding term of infancy will proceed 
 upon the lines laid down in babyhood. What was 
 then done will constitute the basis upon which the 
 future work will progress. What was then written 
 on the sensitive tablet of the incipient mind there 
 remains inscribed. It may be modified, but cannot 
 be effaced. 
 
 The infant, by virtue of his experience in baby- 
 hood, will have acquired certain relations with the 
 external world. To him the world was represented 
 by his tutors and the few circumstances of his nur- 
 sery life. These relations with the world outside of
 
 SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. I I 3 
 
 himself, and a very limited stock of ideas of definite 
 objects, form his equipment for the little independent 
 action he now commences. He is no longer absolutely 
 helpless. The power he feels of acting for himself 
 is the new stimulus of his nature, and prompts 
 unceasing action. His nature is less plastic than 
 before, and has already assumed the rudiments of a 
 shape which will endure to some extent through 
 life whether of beauty or deformity, for good or for 
 evil, will presently be seen. Hitherto concealed in 
 his own breast for want of the means of manifesting 
 it, it will soon become evident in the direction of his 
 various activities. In these will be seen the disposi- 
 tion and temper impressed upon his nature by the 
 treatment he has received during the most plastic 
 period of his life. His behaviour to his doll will 
 probably bear a strong likeness to that he has 
 himself experienced at the hands of his nurses, 
 partly, perhaps, unknown to his parents. All he 
 has hitherto known and felt is the result of his own 
 individual observation and experience ; and he will 
 now show what sort of lessons he has been learning 
 while he was supposed to be doing nothing. The 
 lines that now occupy the once blank page were 
 chiefly inscribed there during those seemingly un- 
 occupied hours of babyhood when he was deemed 
 unthinking and inert. The virgin soil of his mind 
 will be found to have been sown with seeds which 
 may spring up in perhaps unexpected forms. The 
 future cultivation or neglect of that soil will proceed 
 along with those growths, whether for good or for 
 evil. 
 
 OF THE CORPOREAL FACULTIES. By dint of con- 
 stant effort and tentative exercise, the limbs have 
 
 i
 
 114 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 now become amenable to the Will, and have acquired 
 some strength. 
 
 The organs of sense fulfil their respective offices 
 without effort, and are capable of a considerable 
 amount of discrimination. 
 
 The corporeal faculties are now exerted over an 
 ever-enlarging sphere, for every new acquisition of 
 force and control increases the range of their 
 operation, and affords fresh ideas and material for 
 reflection. Activity entails a great variety of new 
 experiences. Hence this may probably be regarded 
 as the troublesome stage of infant life ; for activity, 
 without experience to guide it, is apt to become 
 meddlesome and mischievous, even when quite inno- 
 cent of intentional harm. Before baby could move 
 about independently he was easily kept out of 
 scrapes, but now he must be constantly watched, 
 and his active tendencies must be either repressed 
 or directed. Seeing that the use of the corporeal 
 faculties is the appropriate way of strengthening 
 them and of bringing them into effective use, activity 
 should be rather encouraged and directed than re- 
 pressed and thwarted. This is all the more necessary 
 as the experience thereby acquired respecting the 
 relations, qualities, and uses of things is most ser- 
 viceable, and contributes a considerable addition to 
 the mental stock. 
 
 Busy limbs are better engaged in some salutary 
 employment than left to desultory and mischievous 
 devices, especially as the thoughts will likewise be 
 enlisted and kept from wandering and moodiness. 
 A habit of attention may thus be initiated. To this 
 end, attractive objects are wanted to captivate 
 attention. The methods and appliances of the
 
 SECOND PERIOD I INFANCY. 1 1 5 
 
 Kindergarten system are very successful where a 
 number of children of about the same age are 
 brought together ; but they do not answer well in 
 the nursery, nor are they so applicable there. Of all 
 the means ever devised to attract and maintain a 
 continuous, untiring interest, a soft doll is, beyond 
 all comparison, the best. It is not only the most 
 effective means of captivating and keeping the 
 attention, but it nourishes the best feelings and 
 sympathies of the infant mind. It also affords the 
 most useful and reliable indications of what is going 
 on there. The Kindergarten " gifts " have not this 
 tendency ; they are too mechanical, and would have 
 little enduring interest of themselves, apart from 
 the suggestions of tutors. The old-fashioned, time- 
 honoured toy of toys, the doll, is incomparably more 
 attractive and useful, and inspires more permanent 
 interest, than any other. 
 
 Imitation is a natural propensity, equally manifest 
 in the infant as in the offspring of the lower animals. 
 It is the natural means by which a large portion of 
 the experience of infancy is acquired, especially 
 before language is understood. It is generally most 
 noticeable in peculiarities of gesture and manner and 
 in mechanical habits ; but it extends to conduct also, 
 where the resemblance of the copy to the original is 
 not so obvious. The lesson to be learnt by tutors 
 from the close imitations frequently exhibited by 
 children is to be on their guard, for it is not at all 
 likely that pupils will always select for imitation that 
 which tutors would most like to see reproduced. 
 
 Articulation is a special subject for imitative effort 
 in infancy, and one which often taxes the powers 
 strongly. A distinct utterance is an accomplishment 
 
 I 2
 
 I 1 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 seldom perfectly mastered before the very end of this- 
 period, and is generally far in arrear of the power of 
 understanding spoken language. 
 
 The nervous system is not the least important part 
 of the corporeal faculties at this period of life, when 
 mental sensibilities are often so strongly excited, and 
 when fear is so easily aroused. The utter inexperience 
 of infants makes them easy victims of imposture, and 
 their credulity is often practised upon to constrain 
 obedience, to quell ill-humour, to divert attention, or 
 to compass any trivial end. The most cruel and mis- 
 chievous are those fictions which act on the nerves by 
 creating fear. Ghosts, bogeys, and such-like nursery 
 fictions are often fixed deeply into the infant mind. 
 The terror thus wickedly aroused by ignorant nurses 
 without the knowledge of parents, and even by some 
 foolish parents themselves, is often productive of 
 nervous disorders which last through life. Such are 
 stammering, biting the nails, epilepsy, or even in- 
 sanity. Long after all serious belief in such fictions 
 has been discarded by reason, and when their origin 
 has been forgotten, the terrors so inspired in infancy 
 recur involuntarily in after-life in various forms of 
 nervous affection. 
 
 Considerable difference of natural acuteness^and 
 power often exists between the eye and the ear in 
 the same individual, and certain idiosyncrasies are 
 due to that cause. Ideas formed more freely or 
 more effectively through one or the other will differ 
 accordingly. The habit originated by the preference 
 of the more sensitive organ has an important bearing 
 on the development of the mind, and should be 
 studied, in order that treatment may be adapted 
 accordingly. So little attention is generally given
 
 SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. 1 1 / 
 
 to this feature of infant sensibility that several years 
 often elapse before defective or peculiar vision is 
 detected. Defective hearing is more easily dis- 
 covered, and therefore is not so often neglected. 
 
 Or THE WILL. With the consciousness of power 
 is ever associated the desire to exert it. Hence the 
 period of infancy is a critical stage of mental his- 
 tory, when the faculties of body and mind begin to 
 .exercise a measure of independent action, and the 
 Will becomes influential. Every increase of the 
 faculties enlarges the means for the Will to assert 
 itself, and adds at the same time both stimulus and 
 opportunity for its assertion. Before language is 
 understood, reason enthroned, or moral principle es- 
 tablished, this powerful factor of the future character 
 -comes into force. And the manner of its exercise 
 will naturally depend on the form it has received 
 during the previous plastic stage of babyhood. 
 
 Power is a great demoralizer. This is not the 
 place in which to discuss the passions its unre- 
 strained sway may develop even in the noblest cha- 
 racters. These results are elsewhere mentioned, but 
 the consequences of uncontrolled sway even in the 
 periods of childhood suffice to show the paramount 
 importance of giving a right bent to the action 
 of the Will from the very earliest of its manifesta- 
 tions. It may then be moulded in such manner as 
 to make it give strength and vigour to the higher 
 nature on the one hand, or, on the other, to favour the 
 predominance of the lower in the future character. 
 
 If the Will be neglected, and permitted to assert 
 itself without due control, in the period of babyhood, 
 the result will be shown in the too familiar spectacle 
 .of a spoiled child one of the greatest of domestic
 
 1 1 8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 nuisances. On the other hand, if the Will be sup- 
 pressed by strong and decisive treatment coerced, 
 in fact outward conformity and seeming obedience 
 may be exacted. This, however, is not the exponent 
 of the Will of the child, but of the force of the 
 tutor. The child's own Will may be thus concealed 
 for a time, but will probably betray its true character 
 when restraint is relaxed or removed. 
 
 There is a time, a Divinely appointed time, when 
 the Will is amenable to gentle suasion, when, in 
 fact, it is virtually in the control of tutors ; but if 
 that opportunity be lost, it can never afterwards be 
 fully retrieved. The work is then easy, and the 
 response is natural and entirely free from the sting 
 inseparable from sensible opposition. 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. The dominant influ- 
 ence of activity applies equally to the mental as ta 
 the bodily powers. The perceptive faculty, sharpened 
 by use, has now a readier power of apprehension 
 than before, and the means of observation increase 
 as the sphere in which it is exercised enlarges. Ex- 
 ternal objects are more attractive now, and divide 
 the attention which in the previous period wa& 
 chiefly engrossed by internal sensations. The subject- 
 matter of Thought embraces a larger proportion day 
 by day of what is external to the infant himself. He 
 is no longer a passive recipient of what presented 
 itself unbidden to his senses. He now seeks for 
 himself, and sometimes makes discoveries which, 
 however useful as experiences, are not all agreeable 
 either to himself or his tutors. 
 
 Personal sensibilities continue to operate power- 
 fully as a stimulus of thought and action throughout 
 .this second stage, though they are less predominant
 
 / SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. I 1 9 
 
 than formerly. Neither the wants nor the physical 
 sensibilities are so exigent, but mental susceptibilities 
 become sensitive. 
 
 Children at this age are not treated with so much 
 tenderness as in their babyhood ; and they are 
 conscious of the difference, especially when subjected 
 to inconsiderate kinds of restraint and correction. 
 Their feelings are not so much respected as before, 
 and their activities involve them in frequent collisions 
 with tutors. Thus their sensibilities are hurt in a new 
 form ; and a novel source of irritation is set up. 
 
 The treatment infants receive still supplies a con- 
 siderable proportion of the subject-matter on which 
 their mental faculties are exercised. The ideas so 
 formulated are more definite than those of babyhood, 
 though probably not so absorbing. Hence it behoves 
 parents to know the kind of treatment to which their 
 children are subjected in their absence. The scenes 
 daily exhibited, in the streets and parks, of the pro- 
 ceedings of nurses, and of the conditions to which 
 their charges are exposed, are very suggestive. 
 Viewed by the light of natural law, which inevitably 
 works out the natural result in every case, these 
 scenes account for many strange tempers and other 
 unaccountable developments in the infant mind. 
 
 The imitative propensity of infants may be seen 
 in their conduct to dolly, which exhibits the workings 
 of their minds and the ideas imbibed in their own 
 experience. Dolly is a companion, and, above all, a 
 pupil on whom are lavished all the attentions baby has 
 himself received, and especially the persecutions and 
 punishments he has suffered. Thus may tutors see 
 how their own conduct has been observed, criticized, 
 and understood (or mistaken) by their infant pupils.
 
 120 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Baby turns himself inside out in his confidences to 
 dolly, and exhibits, by his imitation of the examples 
 he has seen and suffered, the ideas he has formed. 
 If the object of training were merely to impart know- 
 ledge of material Nature, the Kindergarten " gifts," 
 coloured balls, bricks, &c., would be well adapted, 
 with the mechanical ideas they suggest, to effect 
 that object, but they do not encourage sympathetic 
 emotions and moral principles. As we hold these to 
 be of paramount importance, we regard the doll as a 
 preferable plaything, because of the emotions it in- 
 spires and cherishes. The "gifts" may employ the 
 hands and eyes, but dolly engages the whole nature, 
 and especially the heart, the seat of love and sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 Should a younger member have entered the nursery 
 in the meantime, the comparison of present with past 
 treatment is emphasized by the tenderness shown 
 to the usurper. Happily for the one deposed, his 
 activities are a constant resource, and if they get him 
 into many scrapes, they also afford him effective 
 diversion from many painful reflections. 
 
 External objects now occupy a good deal of attention. 
 The organs of sense being by this time well practised 
 and in full use, and the perceptive faculty quickened 
 by exercise, the infant's powers of observation are 
 much increased, and are actively employed in the 
 enlarged sphere to which his newly acquired bodily 
 powers introduce him. 
 
 This period is characterized by remarkable acute - 
 ness of observation, and affords opportunity for accu- 
 mulating a stock of ideas for after-reflection. Nor 
 is this latter mental process inactive, as will be 
 seen hereafter; for, though subordinate, for the
 
 SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. I 2 I 
 
 present, to external perceptions, it fulfils important 
 functions in this period of general activity. 
 
 Through life, observation of the conduct and 
 example of other persons is always more attractive 
 and engaging than the aspects of inanimate things. 
 Action and its results are more interesting than inert 
 things and their qualities. And this rule obtains 
 with special force in the particular period of life's 
 history now under consideration. Infants, in com- 
 mon with the young of the lower animals, manifest 
 remarkable acuteness of discernment. And this 
 characteristic is most frequently and inconveniently 
 displayed in the discoveries infants are continually 
 making of things they were not intended to see or 
 supposed to notice. These give rise to frequent 
 collisions between them and their tutors. Whatever 
 baby was not to see or to know, he seems to have a 
 sort of intuition to find out and betray. His power 
 of discernment is, in fact, far greater than that with 
 which he is generally credited. The too common 
 consequence is, that he is unjustly and unreasonably 
 punished for the natural exercise of his natural 
 powers. The imprudence and short-sightedness of 
 tutors are visited upon him. The petty devices and 
 frauds practised to screen things from him are trans- 
 parent as glass to his keen perception ; and he is 
 accused for seeing through them. His sharp vision 
 and acute hearing discern the intentions, ideas, 
 and inner workings of the adult mind, as if by in- 
 tuition, almost simultaneously with the ideas them- 
 selves. A sharp little fellow of our acquaintance, of 
 four years old or less, used habitually and involun- 
 tarily to anticipate and tell what one was going 
 to say before a word of it was uttered ! And this
 
 122 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 habit, though sometimes very provoking, was so sur- 
 prising that it was rather encouraged and shown off. 
 We may here digress to remark that, in after-years, 
 up to the age of thirty, when we lost sight of him, 
 he showed no unusual power of perception or other 
 mental attainment, but the extraordinary discern- 
 ment he showed in childhood amounted to a sort of 
 clairvoyance. The form of discernment in question 
 is a characteristic of the period, and not of special 
 individual power of mind. We lay some stress upon 
 it because of its consequences in after-life. These 
 arise from the immediate effects produced by this 
 abnormal power of perception on the conduct of in- 
 considerate tutors who administer correction when 
 it is undeserved ; who visit the punishment due to 
 their own fault, on the natural and blameless exercise 
 of a natural faculty. And what makes such conduct 
 more injurious in its effect is, that when this special 
 acuteness happens to lead to amusing results, it is 
 applauded, and perhaps rewarded. What can a child 
 possibly think, feel, or infer from such unaccountable 
 inconsistency in his exemplars ? He does think of it, 
 and is sensible of the injustice it involves. 
 
 The fact of this remarkable acuteness of perception 
 as a characteristic of the period, though differing con- 
 siderably in the degree in which it exists in different 
 children, should suggest, as a rule of nursery conduct, 
 that nothing should be done or said in baby's pre- 
 sence which he ought not to see or hear ; nor should 
 any of those petty deceits and frauds be permitted 
 to be practised upon children which they would be 
 punished for repeating by imitation. 
 
 It may be here incidentally remarked that children, 
 even at this age, have generally very definite notions
 
 SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. I 2 3 
 
 of injustice, and will not unfrequently remonstrate by 
 gesture against unfair treatment, even before they 
 can express it in words. 
 
 Memory. Seeing that those ideas only which are 
 remembered are reflected upon, and also that those 
 will be most reflected upon which are uppermost in 
 the mind, it follows that, for some time after the term 
 of babyhood has expired, the ideas then formed will 
 constitute the principal subject-matter for reflection 
 whenever the mind is not engrossed by the activities 
 of the period. The experiences of babyhood will there- 
 fore continue to be influential in this period, but 
 attention will be gradually diverted from reflections 
 on past experiences, and memory will be exercised in 
 the great mental work of the period the acquisition 
 of language. The idea of significance which was 
 already in babyhood beginning to be attached to 
 certain sounds gains force continually, and soon 
 becomes the chief occupation of the infant's mental 
 activities. 
 
 Complex ideas involving reflective processes of 
 comparison, association, and inference are now freely 
 formulated, and show considerable power of discri- 
 mination. Reflective action, however, is chiefly such 
 as is suggested by, and included in, observation, and 
 is not in this period so much occupied with the past 
 indeterminate experiences as with present mental 
 activities. Things are now regarded with reference 
 to their qualities and relations by comparison with 
 former remembered presentations of the same. In 
 this way knowledge of external objects is enlarged. 
 Still, a considerable part of the subject-matter which 
 the activities of the period suggest arises out of the 
 consequences to which the corporeal activities neces-
 
 124 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 sarily lead. The independence of action yet permitted 
 to the infant is very partial, and, unless his environ- 
 ment be carefully and judiciously adjusted, he will 
 be continually checked and thwarted by tutors with 
 scanty regard to the feelings of the little meddler. 
 To be thwarted is not an agreeable feeling at any 
 period of life, but is never so provoking as it is in 
 infancy before the reasons which prompt it can be 
 understood. Moreover, it contrasts strongly with the 
 indulgence previously enjoyed, and excites strong 
 feeling particularly trying to temper. Comparisons 
 with the recent past are disturbing. 
 
 Happily, the infant's mind is diverted from the 
 troubles into which his bodily activities betray him 
 by the new impulse to understand the speech con- 
 tinually being addressed to him, and which involves 
 the particular form of association which chiefly dis- 
 tinguishes and characterizes this period that by 
 which language is acquired ; or, in other words, that by 
 which ideas become associated with articulate sounds. 
 This form of association, commencing in babyhood 
 chiefly between gestures and their significance, is now 
 exercised mainly between articulate sounds and their 
 meanings. The impulse of imitation, one of the very 
 earliest forms of activity, leads to early attempts to 
 utter articulate words in the way of speech ; but 
 expression is necessarily acquired slowly, as it involves 
 several factors which are not implicated in the mere 
 understanding of the meanings and associations. The 
 different processes are defined in a previous chapter, 
 " On Language/'whence it will be seen that the mental 
 processes are by no means simple. Language is an 
 achievement requiring a degree of effort not generally 
 recognized. Children are supposed to acquire it
 
 SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. I 2 5 
 
 naturally, or by a sort of intuition ; but this mistake 
 arises, like many others connected with the working 
 of the infant mind, from want of observation of what 
 is always going on there. The acquisition of language 
 is effected by a constant habit of associating uttered 
 words with connected actions, until the articulate 
 words become representative of the inferred meanings. 
 It is a laborious process, but is carried on under a 
 natural impulse by continual unnoticed effort, and 
 therefore seems to come without effort. 
 
 Inference is an essential factor in the acquiring of 
 language. The names of things may be suggested 
 by mere association, but the meanings of other words 
 must be inferred from the manner and circumstances 
 of their use. In such inferences the factors are few, 
 and are presented to the mind simultaneously, where- 
 fore they are of the simplest kind, and are not like 
 judgments, the data or evidence for which are often 
 numerous and wholly or in part supplied by the 
 memory. Moreover, as the value of a judgment 
 depends upon the sufficiency of the data or evidence 
 on which it is formed, it is the process in which all 
 the reflective faculties culminate. Hence it is the 
 weak element of the juvenile mind, especially in its 
 earliest stages. Even in the elementary form of 
 inferences necessary for the acquisition of language, 
 they are the weak factor of the process. Children 
 rarely misapply names, but they often misuse other 
 words. 
 
 Seeing that the infirmity of infant judgment is 
 universal and its cause obvious, it should in every 
 case receive careful cultivation by means of the method 
 of correction explained in connection with Rule 6, 
 chapter xvi. Such care is all the more necessary,
 
 126 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 seeing that children exert their feeble powers on 
 whatsoever suggestion of personal feeling or ex- 
 ternal circumstance may happen to be at the time 
 most strongly impressed or most obtrusively present- 
 in their minds. Of whatever nature may be the 
 subject-matter uppermost, whether it be suggested 
 by the conduct of tutors or by any other kind of 
 circumstance, whether of the lower or the higher 
 nature, sensuous, mental, or moral, such also will be 
 the character of the reflections and the ideas into 
 which they enter. This is at once indisputable and 
 obvious, yet the fact is practically disregarded in 
 reference to the subject-matter of infant Thought as 
 provided for them or subjected to their contempla- 
 tion. Seeing that infants have little or no choice in 
 the matter, and must think of what is actually pre- 
 sented to their minds by the environment, it foUows 
 that, until they acquire independence, their minds 
 must be nourished by whatsoever aliment is so sup- 
 plied to them. No wonder that they sometimes deve- 
 lop unexpected tendencies, when the first processes 
 of formation of character were determined by chance, 
 and whilst they were supposed to be impervious to 
 Thought and innocent of any idea of inference ! 
 
 Locke is hard upon infants. He devotes but a 
 few lines to infant Thought in his great work on the 
 Understanding ; but he opines that children are 
 generally spoiled by overmuch "cockering," and 
 should be taught self-denial. We freely grant that 
 fondling should be consistent, not fitful ; and that it 
 should be given for encouragement and for inspiring 
 love, not to smother ill-humours or to pamper a 
 crooked Will. We would have none of such cocker- 
 ing. Respect for their personal sensibilities, how-
 
 SECOND PERIOD: INFANCY. 127 
 
 ever, we hold to be in no proper sense deserving 
 that name, and, on the other hand, we plead Locke 
 himself in favour of such tender regard, for he main- 
 tains that judgment necessarily proceeds upon the 
 data present to the mind ; and he alleges that, if all 
 men saw the same things in the same light, all would 
 arrive at the same judgment respecting them. In 
 other words, every mind, whether young or old, 
 educated or uneducated, human or brute, will judge 
 according to the ideas present to his understanding. 
 Certain it is, that the subject-matter supplied to the 
 infant by his tutors and surroundings will naturally 
 determine what he thinks about and how he judges. 
 
 In this period the acute discernment of infants 
 is often employed in very smart criticisms and 
 judgments on the conduct of tutors, who need to 
 remember this natural tendency, and will not do well 
 to despise it. 
 
 TEMPER, originated during the helplessness of the 
 previous period, becomes more demonstrative and 
 decided as the powers of exhibiting it increase and 
 opportunities multiply. Treatment at this stage is 
 better understood than it was before, and is there- 
 fore more influential, for it suggests other ideas 
 beside mere feelings : such as reason and justice. If 
 the bent given previously be good, the trials of this 
 period may be withstood, and good temper confirmed ; 
 but if it be otherwise, the crosses and thwartings of 
 infancy will almost certainly make it worse. In the 
 natural indulgence of his natural activities, the infant 
 is sure to get into mischief; which means that he 
 will find, and perhaps destroy, things which ought 
 not to have been in his reach. Then he will probably 
 be punished unjustly and irritated sorely.
 
 128 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Sympathy, aid, and interest in his proceedings, 
 on the part of tutors, will be well appreciated, and 
 produce their proper fruits love and trust. The 
 want of such consideration will as naturally inspire 
 repugnance or indifference, as the case may be. 
 
 FAITH. Faith is, in the first period, almost im- 
 plicit, and so continues during the time of entire 
 dependence. Afterwards, it can be an actuating 
 principle only in so far as it is inspired or attracted. 
 Hence, in this second period it may either be estab- 
 lished or dissipated. In regard to this vital element 
 of character, this is a critical stage of the personal 
 history. The conduct of tutors should therefore 
 be specially directed to this point. Consistency is 
 essential to success. Considerate regard and sym- 
 pathy, a manifest interest in, and entering into, their 
 proceedings, will attract the confidence of infants if 
 the trustfulness natural to babes have not been 
 already shaken. The absence of these qualities will 
 as certainly produce an opposite effect. 
 
 The natural effect of confidence is a desire to 
 please a voluntary yielding to those in whom it 
 is reposed. St. Paul applied a natural law to a 
 spiritual doctrine when he declared that it was im- 
 possible, without faith, to please God. Faith is not 
 a religious dogma ; it is a universal law in mental as 
 well as in moral teaching. 
 
 As the actuating principle of true obedience, it 
 is of paramount importance to the future success of 
 tutors and to the progress of pupils. Without it, 
 the relations of tutor and pupil are out of joint ; the 
 tutor must then rule by force, and the pupil be in 
 subjection. The one must drive, the other be driven. 
 Their natural relation is quite the reverse of this :
 
 SECOND PERIOD: INFANCY. 129 
 
 the one then leads, and the other follows by his 
 own act of choice, attracted by the natural impulse 
 of faith. 
 
 Faith opens the door of the heart, and lays bare 
 its inner workings ; but distrust closes up all the 
 avenues to the heart, and begets concealment, which 
 is equally inimical to personal peace and to friendly 
 relations with neighbours. Moreover, distrust reacts, 
 for it excites distrust in others, and the secretive 
 habit it engenders dissipates their confidence. 
 
 OBEDIENCE. Unless established on its own natural 
 basis during this period, there is much doubt whether 
 it will afterwards be acquired. It is generally so much 
 easier to gain obedience by means of force arid fear, 
 that tutors too often have recourse thereto, rather 
 than pursue the wiser but more difficult course of 
 winning the confidence of their pupils. 
 
 Parental authority is the basis of faith and filial 
 obedience in the natural family, as that of the 
 Almighty Father is in the spiritual world. Hence, 
 duty in either case is a joy and satisfaction on the 
 one hand, or a task and a trouble on the other, 
 according as obedience is the spontaneous offspring of 
 faith or the enforced compliance of superior power. 
 
 The prominence given to the commandment to 
 children to honour their parents proves how im- 
 portant a principle is involved in the recognition 
 of authority through the medium and under the 
 influence of natural affection, as opposed to its en- 
 forcement by constraint. 
 
 Obedience, if duly observed, reduces to a minimum 
 most of the conflicts with authority which the acti- 
 vities and inexperience of infancy entail. It should 
 therefore be with the infant, as it was with Adam 
 
 K
 
 130 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 when he became invested with a moral nature, the 
 first lesson. As faith in God is the basis of true 
 virtue, and as obedience is its first-fruits and ex- 
 ponent, faith in the authority of tutors is the parent 
 of obedience in children, arid is the first principle to 
 be established thereby. When Adam had to learn 
 obedience, the Almighty Father took His own wise 
 way of teaching it. Had the consequence of dis- 
 obedience been at once realized, there would have 
 been an end of the lesson and its purpose. The 
 forbidden fruit was good for food, and to make one 
 wise. The impulse to eat it was natural, and not in 
 itself wrong. The fault was in the want of faith, 
 and of the consequent want of obedience to the com- 
 mandment. These were the lessons Adam had to 
 learn, and which all his posterity have also to be 
 taught. In Eden, Adam needed no other kind of 
 knowledge than what the lower animals possess. He 
 was thence driven out to a sphere where good and 
 evil were manifested, and where obedience, founded 
 on faith, might be acquired. When man has fully 
 learned that lesson, he is fitted for a far higher 
 destiny than Eden.* Life is the time and opportunity 
 for learning these lessons of truest wisdom ; and in- 
 fancy is the time when it is first brought into re- 
 quisition. Obedience is a necessary qualification for 
 the conduct of life ; and is most easily made in- 
 telligible to infants, and reduced to practice in all 
 periods of life, by the influence of faith in authority. 
 MORAL PRINCIPLES. These will still be inferred 
 from, and suggested by, the example of tutors rather 
 than by direct tuition. The principles involved are 
 
 * See " Good and Evil," by the same author.
 
 SECOND PERIOD I INFANCY. 
 
 practical, and cannot, in fact, be so well expressed in 
 language, even where a full knowledge of language 
 exists, as they may be exemplified in practice. Dolly 
 is a most influential medium for moral principles at 
 this period, and here attains its highest value as a 
 means of instruction to both tutor and pupil. The 
 latter learns the nature of moral obligations, and the 
 former learns the state of his pupil's mind in reference 
 thereto. 
 
 The ideas of moral obligation imbibed in infancy 
 are amongst the most effective and enduring of all 
 the acquirements of the period. Consistency 011 the 
 part of tutors is, however, of paramount importance, 
 for the acute discernment of infants, acquired by 
 observation before the powers of perception are di- 
 verted to speech and other mental effort, will surely 
 be exerted in criticizing their conduct, and will not 
 fail to detect inconsistency. The common habit in 
 the nursery of having one rule for the children and 
 another for tutors is destructive of true moral prin- 
 ciple. It reduces moral obligation to a very low order 
 of expediency, to be assumed or doffed as convenience 
 may dictate. 
 
 Of all moral principles, truth is that which is most 
 important to be observed, and, unhappily, the one 
 most frequently infringed by tutors in their conduct 
 towards infants. The little duplicities and deceits 
 practised upon them, the persuasive glosses by which 
 they are beguiled, and the cunning artifices by which 
 truth is so often veiled or distorted all the multi- 
 form compromises by which the sterling principle is 
 evaded go to form the ideas which are always in 
 process of formation in the infant mind. Artifice, 
 however skilfully devised and ingeniously executed, 
 
 K 2
 
 132 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 is almost always discovered sooner or later by the 
 acute discernment of young children, and is a 
 fatally effective means of instilling guile. If those 
 susceptible tablets could be exposed to view, and 
 exhibit the deeply graven lessons in guile that were 
 inscribed there even before the child had yet ac- 
 quired the power of expressing his ideas, how few 
 tutors would read those characters without surprise 
 and sorrow ! Thus it too often happens that, by the 
 time he has learnt to speak, the infant is already an 
 adept in the art of lying, especially in that most 
 deceitful form of falsehood, white lies lies that 
 simulate the truth. 
 
 In common nursery practice there is probably no- 
 other influence so injurious, nor any so general, as- 
 untruthfulness in all its appalling varieties. No- 
 idea is more readily apprehended by the infant inind 
 than deceit. We do not allude to downright false- 
 hood, which is abhorrent to all but the most depraved 
 minds, but to prevarication, excuses, misleading re- 
 marks, and such-like infractions of the true principle. 
 It is unfortunately no uncommon thing, therefore, to 
 see an infant of three or four years old put into 
 requisition all the arts of evasion and duplicity to 
 conceal a fault. Such depravity has not so remote 
 an origin as that to which it is commonly attributed. 
 
 During this period children are very commonly 
 taught hymns and pieces of poetry, which they 
 learn to recite with such accurately imitated in- 
 tonation and accent as to inspire the belief that 
 they understand the sentiments expressed. The 
 cases in which some general idea of the meaning of 
 these recitations is comprehended are, however, ex- 
 ceptional. As a rule, they are mere imitative efforts,
 
 SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. I 3 3 
 
 like the utterances of parrots. They are certainly 
 not to be relied upon as evidence of knowledge. The 
 religious doctrines intended to be thereby taught are 
 quite beyond the capacities of infants, both in regard 
 to the ideas themselves and the terms in which they 
 are embodied. As exercises of memory they are of 
 doubtful value ; and as a means of instruction useless 
 until language is fully understood. Considering the 
 pains required both in teaching and learning them, 
 we think such exercises were better deferred to a 
 later period, when language is better understood and 
 the understanding is more mature. 
 
 HABIT OF THOUGHT. The habitual state of mind 
 towards persons generally is more or less definitely 
 formed during babyhood, and is one of the most im- 
 portant fruits of that period. Other habits there- 
 after acquired will be influenced thereby. Habits of 
 Thought may be induced unobserved, by relative 
 qualities of the eye and ear by physical circum- 
 stances, and by conduct of tutors ; but, howsoever 
 induced, they will be determined mainly by the 
 subject-matter on which the thinking faculty is 
 exercised at the time the bias is given and the par- 
 ticular habit is initiated. 
 
 During this period of activity, certain gestures, 
 <uses of the limbs and faculties, will naturally become 
 habitual. All indications should be watched. Good 
 tendencies may thus be encouraged and confirmed, 
 and others diverted or corrected, in order that this 
 powerful factor of future mental progress may be 
 enlisted in right directions before it becomes too 
 strongly implicated in wrong ones. 
 
 Attention (the most useful form of control) and 
 obedience should be cultivated carefully at this time ;
 
 134 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 for if they be not established during infancy, it is 
 probable that their opposites will have become so in 
 greater or less degree. The balance will not stand at 
 zero ; it will turn one way or the other. The Kinder- 
 garten exercises are eminently useful in attracting 
 attention, and in initiating a habit of directing* 
 Thought to a given subject. To us this appears to 
 be their most useful and practical result. Interest is 
 the only effective means of attracting and sustaining- 
 attention. It follows that attempts to enforce atten- 
 tion to matters possessing no interest for the child 
 will inspire dislike of the lesson so imposed, and thus 
 defeat its purpose. Without interest there can be no 
 effective attention. 
 
 SUMMARY. The progress made during infancy, 
 the evidence of the work done by means of the first 
 individual activities of body and mind, is represented 
 as follows : 
 
 1 . By certain physical development, including effec- 
 tive use and control of the corporeal faculties, some 
 dexterity of limb, and fair power of articulation, and 
 probably some influence, for good or evil, on the. 
 nervous system. 
 
 2. Increased power and facility of perception, 
 which has been exerted over a larger environment, 
 and has resulted in a stock of definite ideas of ex- 
 ternal things, their relations, qualities, and uses. 
 
 3. Decreased sensitiveness of physical feelings, and 
 a corresponding increase of mental sensibility. 
 
 4. Both the power of understanding speech and of 
 expression in words have been acquired, and also a 
 certain knowledge of the construction of sentences. 
 These acquisitions imply a continuous mental effort. 
 They mean that a great number and variety of com-
 
 SECOND PERIOD : INFANCY. 135 
 
 mon objects, their qualities and relations, and also a 
 great variety of actions, have been definitely associated 
 with representative articulate sounds, in such man- 
 ner that they are appropriately and freely employed 
 in speech. This accomplishment involves strong 
 effort of memory, association, and other reflective 
 faculties. 
 
 5. The formulative faculty has been diverted in 
 part from personal feelings by the superior attraction 
 of external objects, and has found ample employment 
 in the acquisition of language, and in connection with 
 the novelties of independent activity. The elements 
 of graphic language may also have employed the 
 mind. The subject-matter of Thought suggested by 
 the new activities has been divided between ideas of 
 personal and external interest, with mental results 
 corresponding thereto. 
 
 6. Consciousness of powers, bodily and mental, 
 which gave the impulse to their active use, has 
 strengthened the Will in whatsoever direction the 
 first bent and subsequent management may have 
 imparted to it. The child is more or less either 
 spoiled or tractable, headstrong or amenable, stubborn 
 or docile, at the end of this term of his natural 
 history. 
 
 7. The attitude or relation of the child to other 
 persons generally, and to tutors in particular, will 
 accord with the feelings and experiences in which 
 that relation originates. For instance, continual 
 thwarting and irritating correction and interference 
 could not make its subject amiable. Attraction and 
 repulsion follow the same natural law in intelligent 
 beings of all ages and of whatever type. Children 
 so treated may sometimes be made to seem otherwise
 
 136 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 than as they feel, but such semblance is far different 
 from the true principle. 
 
 Love, confidence, and obedience, or their opposites, 
 will have been established inside, whatever the out- 
 side covering may be, before the end of this event- 
 ful period of the mental history. 
 
 Moral principles, too, will have taken root accord- 
 ing to the sowing. The harvest will not be referable 
 to Adam, but to some of his very latest posterity, 
 especially in relation to that most fundamental 
 principle, truth. 
 
 The rudiments of the future character are definitely 
 formed, not of course unalterably, but firmly, in 
 infancy.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. 
 
 THIS period commences when the free use of speech 
 has been acquired, and it terminates with the acqui- 
 sition of written language. Ifc is the preliminary to 
 school-work, and supplies the necessary equipment 
 for education in the technical acceptation of that 
 most important work. 
 
 The first of our periods commenced with nothing 
 but sensibilities to direct the incipient faculties, 
 which therefore dominated till active powers were 
 attained. These were the ruling influence of the 
 second of our periods, in the course of which speech 
 was acquired. This, therefore, is the new element of 
 the equipment to direct the proceedings of the third of 
 our periods. On the natural principle that conscious 
 possession of a power prompts its use, speech is the 
 dominating influence of childhood, and inquisitiveness 
 is its natural characteristic. If the child be not a 
 chatterbox when he is in full possession of speech, he 
 is not quite in a natural condition. 
 
 Speech gives a new direction to the mental 
 impulses. Up to this time the infant has been 
 industriously observant. He has thus acquired a 
 very extensive knowledge of the aspects of things.
 
 138 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 By reflection and active experience he lias also 
 obtained some knowledge of their qualities, relations, 
 and uses. Now, however, he is not satisfied with 
 this superficial view, and he is inquisitive as to the 
 reasons why and how all these things are so. Speech 
 has imparted a new interest to all his activities and 
 observations, which begin now to be subordinated to 
 the higher purpose of reason. 
 
 If tutors recognize this natural turn of affairs in 
 its true significance, they will see how well it befits 
 the situation, how wisely it has been ordained. It 
 will be apparent that, in the existing condition of 
 the child's mental furniture, aspects of things are no 
 longer sufficient for his future purposes in life. 
 Reasons must be added, in order that reason may 
 assume its proper place and functions in the future 
 character and conduct. If tutors fail to see in the 
 child's inquisitiveness a natural and appropriate con- 
 dition of the period, they will lose their opportunity 
 and the child his advantage. If they snub and re- 
 press inquiries prompted by appetite for knowledge, 
 and try to give other knowledge for which there is 
 no appetite, they will utterly fail of their object and 
 defeat his, thus creating mutual irritation and evil. 
 If they commit the common mistake of wanting him 
 to put away childish questionings whilst he is still a 
 child, they will but contravene Nature and kick 
 against the pricks. If they refuse to satisfy his 
 natural appetite, and try to create instead some 
 other more to their mind, they will encounter the 
 greatest difficulty teachers have to meet, and they 
 will fail. They will need the child's attention, and 
 that cannot be forced. Instead of availing them- 
 selves of the attention he volunteers, and using the
 
 > THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. I 39 
 
 opportunity thus afforded, they generally try to 
 divert it, in doing which it is dissipated. Instead of 
 giving the food he craves and could digest, they 
 endeavour to substitute something else, which he 
 does not want and will not have. Teaching is thus 
 made repulsive, and lessons are converted into tasks 
 before the proper time for either, arid when both 
 might be made a pleasure. 
 
 OF THE CORPOREAL FACULTIES. Increased know- 
 ledge of the outward aspects of things leads to 
 inquiry as to their qualities, uses, and particular 
 relations. The corporeal faculties are therefore em- 
 ployed in investigation of things. The environ- 
 ment is subjected to prying research. Limbs lend 
 ready obedience in the work of the period, and 
 possess aptitude and power by virtue of previous 
 practice. 
 
 Senses are acute, practised, and discriminating. 
 The activity of the former period is turned to the 
 scrutinizing purposes of the present, and large 
 accessions of knowledge of persons, character, and 
 things result. 
 
 Occupation for both body and mind, primarily for 
 the bodily powers, has a salutary effect on both, and 
 should be devised to engage the interest and suit 
 the taste of children. It will then be equally 
 advantageous for the relief of tutors and for the 
 welfare of their pupils. It should be useful, in order 
 that it may not teach the waste of time the stuff 
 life is made of. On the other hand, it must by all 
 means be made agreeable. Whatever tends to make 
 work a task is most injurious both in present 
 influence and future tendency. Seeing that this is 
 the term for the preparation for school-life and for
 
 140 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 the work of regular education, it would be a fatal 
 error to inspire a distaste for work. This is a ques- 
 tion of care and tact in the management of children 
 during this period of their natural history, and is 
 worthy of the best attention of tutors. Their choice 
 is between the two natural forces attraction and re- 
 pulsion. There is no other alternative. 
 
 The exercise necessary to health and to the 
 development of the bodily powers will lead to an 
 enlarged environment, companionships, and influences 
 which will materially affect the present condition 
 and future character. These, if not the objects of 
 tutors' solicitude, may entail serious results on the 
 future mental condition. 
 
 A useful expedient, commonly employed in the 
 lower grades of society, is to invest elder children 
 with a sort of protective charge of the younger. 
 Where this can be done, it is in many ways useful. 
 It affords much the same indications of character 
 and opportunities for training the elder that his 
 treatment of his doll afforded in an earlier stage 
 of his infancy. A further advantage is, that it 
 suggests a sense of responsibility, inspires an idea of 
 duty, and prepares the way for higher charges in 
 after-life. It brings out some at least of the effects 
 of previous training ; and, as a rule, tends to 
 develop the higher rather than the lower nature. 
 
 OF THE WILL. The management or neglect of 
 the Will in the previous periods will have determined 
 its force and character in this. This stage of the 
 history will have commenced with a Will already 
 formed. Its present bias may be controlled by the 
 restraints of domestic discipline, but its further 
 modification as a principle will depend upon example,
 
 THIRD PERIOD: CHILDHOOD. 141 
 
 affectionate remonstrance, appeals to reason, and such- 
 like means. Still, the force of habit acquired before 
 these considerations could be urged with effect, or be 
 even understood, will be most influential. 
 
 The condition of the Will at the beginning of 
 childhood will have a marked influence on the 
 nature and extent of the mental progress of the 
 period, for work done willingly is more effective 
 than that which is done reluctantly or under 
 pressure. The tendency of force is to excite resist- 
 ance ; and hence work done under compulsion is 
 done under a tacit sense of resistance, and is cor- 
 respondingly ineffective. Like food taken without 
 appetite forced lessons lack the condition necessary 
 to effective digestion. 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. Perception is now 
 almost mechanical, except in regard to things new 
 or strange. Effort, therefore, is chiefly devoted to 
 formulative and reflective work. Corporeal sensi- 
 bilities decrease, but mental sensibilities occupy a 
 large share of attention and form the subject-matter 
 of much reflection. The conduct and example of 
 tutors and others are critically considered during this 
 period, and exercise much of the inquisitive power. 
 Judgments thereupon will naturally be according to 
 such standards as may have been established by the 
 relations previously formed. 
 
 The mental work proper to this period is the 
 natural result of the dominating influence, inquiry, and 
 will consist of learning as distinguished from obser- 
 vation of knowledge received from others, rather 
 than of what is derived from his own perceptions. 
 It is the special function of language thus to extend 
 knowledge, and concentrate general experience to the
 
 142 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 use of the individual. In former stages the child had 
 to get what he could for himself. Now he receives 
 the fruits of others' labours and experiences, con- 
 densed into verbal formulae. By means of language 
 he sees not only with his own eyes, but with the 
 eyes of many generations. 
 
 Reading is at first practised without the sense 
 being understood. The process of spelling the words, 
 letter by letter, is early dispensed with, but, long- 
 after that has become unnecessary, the effort of grasp- 
 ing the words individually continues for some time to 
 absorb so much attention that even their relative 
 places in the sentences are not apprehended. And 
 when a facility of grasp sufficient for the mastery of 
 these two elements has been acquired, the sense or 
 meaning of the whole in its connection has still to be 
 perceived. Hence the early efforts of reading involve 
 a mastery of the literal and verbal combinations 
 rather than a gathering of knowledge therefrom. 
 Attention is necessary both for deciphering and com- 
 prehending written language. Hence, until great 
 facility has been acquired by practice for the former, 
 there is none to spare for the latter. Tutors have 
 need to make allowance for this. A child of five, who 
 was fond of reading, always chose from his father's 
 library " Satan's Devices," which, of course, he could 
 not understand. Other books more suitable were 
 often substituted by his tutors, but his preference 
 remained unchanged. The truth was that all were 
 equally unintelligible, and his choice was probably 
 due to the clear type and handy size of his favourite. 
 In this connection, and as elucidating the double 
 action involved in reading, it may be here remarked 
 that print is much more readily understood than
 
 THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. 143 
 
 manuscript, even by professed readers, because it is 
 more easily read. 
 
 Personal feelings, though different in kind from 
 what they were in babyhood, are not less influ- 
 ential. Corporeal sensibilities decrease year by year 
 as physical nature becomes stronger and more de- 
 veloped, and also because superior forces attract the 
 thoughts to other channels. But whilst the physical 
 susceptibilities decrease, mental sensitiveness still 
 more effectively increases. Hence the storing of 
 ideas proceeds continuously from first to last; but 
 as the nature of the subject-matter on which the 
 faculties are exercised changes from time to time, the 
 nature of the thoughts produced differs accordingly. 
 
 It would be quite impossible to understand child- 
 nature without a thorough appreciation of the personal 
 feelings proper to that period. As a rule, they are 
 but little regarded, and are therefore often deeply 
 wounded for want of a due recognition of their 
 sensitiveness and a proper respect for their claims to 
 consideration. We allude to the unceremonious way 
 in which children are put aside, repressed, thwarted, 
 and in innumerable ways habitually humiliated. 
 The ideas naturally produced by this sort of treat- 
 ment are of a very definite nature, and form a very 
 considerable portion of the currency of mental reflec- 
 tion during childhood. Their influence is necessarily 
 very potent, being proportionate to the sensibilities 
 so excited ; and it is also, by natural law, of the same 
 kind as its parent cause. As is the sowing so also 
 will be the reaping. 
 
 The idea of showing politeness and respect to a 
 child seems to most people as too ridiculous. A 
 strong-handed disciplinarian would protest against
 
 144 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 having children " stuck up " and made to think too 
 much of themselves ; but, though assuming, without 
 evidence, that such effect would be produced, the 
 natural effect of the other course is not duly considered. 
 The natural and inevitable consequence of an example 
 of conduct the very opposite of what is required of 
 the child himself sets up one rule for the tutor and 
 another, its opposite, for the child, and makes pre- 
 cept an empty name. The precept enforced on the 
 child is in such case continually violated by the pre- 
 ceptor's own example. We deny the assumed con- 
 sequence of considerate treatment, and confidently 
 affirm, on the highest authority, that the golden rule 
 is of universal application. The result of discipline 
 will accord, not with theoretic intentions, but with 
 the means used to enforce it. 
 
 At this period of life, when respect for authority 
 in general, and faith in tutors in particular, is so im- 
 portant to the mental comfort and harmony of tutor 
 and pupil, consistency between conduct and precept 
 is a primary consideration. Respect for personal 
 feelings contributes through life to the maintenance 
 of mutual good relations, and never more so than 
 between tutors and children at the age now in 
 question. 
 
 Seeing that the prevailing force of moral principle 
 as the rule of conduct is first inspired by, and is 
 dependent upon its exemplification by, tutors, the 
 consistency of their example with the precepts they 
 inculcate will go far to determine the ideas of moral 
 principle which children imbibe. Personal sensibilities 
 are with them a practical test. 
 
 External objects are regarded with ever-increasing 
 attention and effect as the mental powers acquire
 
 THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. 1 4 5 
 
 vigour by exercise. Niceties of distinction and 
 minute particulars, either not perceived before or 
 not appreciated, now engage attention and invest 
 external objects with new interest. The uses, pro- 
 perties, and structure of things occupy much Thought, 
 and supply material for reflection, calculation, and 
 inference, at this inquisitive period. 
 
 The acutenesss of discernment by mere observation 
 which characterizes the earlier period gives place 
 slowly to the more regular exercise of reason, and 
 almost disappears when the reasoning powers acquire 
 vigour. The rationale of this appears to be that the 
 higher supersede the lower forms of perception. 
 
 The character, motives, and conduct of others are 
 especially subjected to scrutiny, and are discussed 
 amongst children with much freedom and some 
 acumen. Their criticisms prove that they are very 
 observant, and that the treatment they receive is 
 very influential in giving tone and colouring to the 
 current of their thoughts. 
 
 The ideas now formulated are more definite and 
 more deeply fixed in mind than those of former 
 periods. Events especially of the latter part of child- 
 hood are therefore remembered through life ; not as 
 mere impressions, indeterminately, but circumstan- 
 tially, with the particulars of places, persons, and other 
 associations, thus proving strong original formulation. 
 
 Great progress is made in the use of language 
 during childhood. Meanings are more definite, and 
 words are daily invested with more distinctness of 
 signification. The various processes involved in the 
 analysis of articulate sounds and their representative 
 graphic symbols are pursued with more or less 
 interest and success according as they are understood 
 
 L
 
 146 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 or merely learned by rote. Reading and writing are 
 sometimes made interesting pursuits, but are more 
 generally converted into wearisome tasks by the 
 manner of teaching. When this occurs, it is usually 
 because the first lessons were given by unqualified 
 teachers. Any one is supposed to be able to teach 
 a child, but this is a great mistake. First lessons 
 should be made as plain and as agreeable as possible, 
 which requires tact and skill. There is in child-life 
 a very great deal of learning quite independent of any 
 teaching, and, on the other hand, there is a vast deal 
 of futile teaching with no real learning. This subject 
 is treated more fully in the sequel, and is illustrated 
 in the case cited in Note 4 of the Appendix. 
 
 The relations of number and magnitude form the 
 subject of attention, which results in some element- 
 ary ideas of arithmetic. These ideas are often con- 
 fused and imperfect for want of a thorough ground- 
 ing in the principle of notation. The relation of the 
 values of figures with the places they occupy is 
 seldom made clear to beginners, who therefore follow 
 rules, or misapply them, without proper ideas of their 
 significance. 
 
 The characteristic inquisitiveness of children affords 
 tutors ample opportunity for teaching them a great 
 deal, on the natural principle of letting them learn 
 what they want to know, and in their own way. 
 Their knowledge of qualities, relations, and principles 
 not in themselves apparent may thus be increased 
 indefinitely, and to their lasting advantage. 
 
 Memory. Seeing that every idea which requires 
 any reflective action, such as comparison, association, 
 or inference, in its formulation depends upon the 
 memory for the recall of the ideas involved, the stock
 
 THIRD PERIOD : CBILDHOOD. 147 
 
 of ideas necessary to meet this demand must be very 
 considerable even to serve for the reflections common 
 to all intelligent children of this period. The accu- 
 mulation of such a stock must also have necessi- 
 tated considerable mental work. It would be ha.rd 
 to estimate the stock, with any pretence to accuracy, 
 at any given time, but some approximate idea may 
 be formed from the number of ideas and operations in- 
 volved in language alone. 
 
 As the meaning of every single word that is used 
 must have been derived by inference from the con- 
 nection in which it was heard, and that several, and 
 in some cases many, repetitions of the word and 
 the act of inference must have been required to fix 
 it correctly, the number of recollections, associations, 
 and inferences required for each word must have 
 been considerable. Now, children at the age of five 
 years ordinarily use about 540 out of about 1080 
 words which they understand (see Appendix), but we 
 can only take account of those they use, the others 
 being uncertain. It follows that 540 words and an 
 equal number of meanings in all, 1080 ideas have 
 been definitely formulated and firmly, almost insepar- 
 ably associated together. The number of separate 
 inferences required for each, corrections, question- 
 ings, and doubts included, would swell the number of 
 mental acts to a very formidable amount. But large 
 as the number is, it understates the actual mental 
 performance, for it refers to language only, and to the 
 words expressed, without accounting for those which 
 are understood, but not as yet pressed into active 
 service. Moreover, many of the meanings are them- 
 selves complex, such, for instance, as the common 
 verbs to think, to move, to do, each of which comprises 
 
 L 2
 
 148 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 a considerable area of meaning. Yet, as these words 
 are used appropriately, the meaning of each in its 
 breadth must have been correctly formulated. 
 
 Some idea may thus be formed of the total number 
 of mental acts involved in the mastery actually- 
 acquired by average children at the age of five years 
 in this one department of their mental work. The 
 proof that it has actually been done is attested by 
 the fact that children use these words freely, apply 
 them properly, and therefore understand them 
 thoroughly. In the interest of children, whose 
 cause we plead, we submit that this is a great work ; 
 and it proves more than is at first apparent. For be 
 it observed, they do this entirely by themselves 
 without being taught. 
 
 Now, considering the magnitude of the work, and 
 the effective manner in which it has been accom- 
 plished, it is well worth considering hew it has been 
 done. That is a secret which the child cannot tell, 
 and one for which our own personal experience does 
 not fully avail us. Still, a good deal may be safely 
 inferred. For instance, the work must always have 
 been voluntary. The child drank in the ideas of his 
 own accord. He was not crammed with them. The 
 work was done quietly and unobserved. While the 
 ideas were gently flowing and filtering in his mind, 
 there was not a pair of expectant, impatient eyes 
 fixed upon him. He was not disturbed by a running 
 commentary on his incapacity, inattention, and other 
 such scatterbrain influences. The full measure of his 
 limited powers was employed without distraction. 
 When he missed his mark, he was not accused, and 
 had no fear of consequences. The mental operation 
 was, like growth, slow, gentle, silent, continuous,
 
 THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. 149 
 
 and the effect sure, cumulative, and permanent. He 
 learnt, as the lower animals learn, by example, imita- 
 tion, and inference, without fear of punishment or 
 reproach. Both the process and the manner of its 
 performance were natural, not artificial. It was not 
 done against time. It was not task- work. Further- 
 more, the child will go on, so far as his own proper 
 language is concerned, adding to his stock of words 
 in the same quiet way, and will perfect the work so 
 pleasantly and effectively begun. He will gather the 
 inferred meanings of new words with greater ease 
 and with fewer repetitions. 
 
 Nor is the facility with which children acquire 
 language peculiar to their own language. They will 
 learn a foreign language and many other things as 
 easily, provided it be done in the same manner. We 
 have known a child of five years old speak in his 
 imperfect way three languages. His father was a 
 French-speaking Swiss. His mother was English. 
 He had been brought up in Switzerland the first 
 three or four years of his life, and was afterwards in 
 Italy, under an Italian nurse. If addressed in English, 
 he would reply, and proceed to talk in that language. 
 In the midst of a game of play, we have adopted 
 .another language without warning, and he seemed to 
 be unconscious of the change, following with the new 
 tongue, and continuing it so long as it continued to 
 be spoken to him. 
 
 The lesson to be learned from the foregoing re- 
 marks is that the conditions favourable for mental 
 work are : a desire to know, freedom from pressure 
 .of every kind, and from care, pre-occupation, and dis- 
 traction. The most unfavourable conditions on the 
 .other hand are those which are generally adopted
 
 ISO NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 by inexpert teachers who are not qualified for the 
 delicate task of giving the first lessons. The common 
 practice of delegating early tuition to unsuitable 
 persons is responsible for much of the distaste for 
 learning which is so often acquired by children, and 
 which is so formidable an impediment to school-work, 
 
 Comparison and association, and other reflective 
 processes, are effected, even at this early age, with 
 so much facility and quickness as to appear to be 
 simultaneous with observation, and not to involve 
 consciously separate acts. The several simple rela- 
 tions are apprehended at once, in the same way that 
 words are grasped in their entirety without the need 
 of spelling, or separate consideration of the compo- 
 nent elements. As an expert sees at once how all the 
 pieces on a chessboard are related to each other, with- 
 out requiring to note the position of each separately, 
 so, in like manner, the mind becomes so practised in 
 observation that the reflective acts by which the rela- 
 tions and qualities of things are discerned become 
 mechanical, and are performed without conscious effort. 
 Ideas are no longer apprehended singly, but in groups. 
 Things are perceived along with their qualities m 
 their own complexity, and are so formulated by a 
 single act. Hence, ideas now formulated embody more 
 complete and accurate knowledge than those of a 
 former period, and are therefore more definitely stored 
 and remembered. 
 
 The degree of facility with which association of 
 ideas is mentally effected is a principal factor in the 
 acquisition of written language, which is the chief and 
 most important mental work of this period. In the 
 act of reading, the ideas familiar to the ear have to 
 be apprehended by the eye. At first, and for a con-
 
 THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. I 5 I 
 
 siderable time, these operations are not simultaneous. 
 A distinct act of translation has to be performed 
 mentally. In speech, the meanings of the words are 
 associated with the articulate sounds, but in reading 
 these meanings must be associated with the written 
 words. By speech, an effective partnership was 
 established between the sound and the meaning ; 
 but now another partner has to be admitted, and he 
 is a stranger belonging to another family. Still, 
 until the new partner is fully indoctrinated into the 
 whole business of the firm, each has to act separately. 
 Time is required, as well as practice, for the new 
 work of translating and associating ideas, and this 
 is not abridged by the impatience generally mani- 
 fested by teachers when they do not consider what 
 the beginner has to do. Charges of inattention 
 when the effort is going on do not assist him, 
 but, in fact, interpose the greatest obstacle. Embar- 
 rassment is the most adverse condition for mental 
 work. 
 
 Notwithstanding the proverbial quickness of prac- 
 tised Thought, time is always an important factor in 
 mental processes. Thought is much more quickly 
 effected by some persons than by others. Some are 
 slow in perception, reflection, and communication ; 
 others are so in one or another of these factors. 
 This fact is regularly recognized in astronomical 
 observations, and is subject to special estimation. 
 Every observer has his own personal equation, which 
 enters into all calculations in which accuracy is 
 required in connecting a given phenomenon with the 
 time of its occurrence. This being so in adults, so 
 thoroughly practised, how much more must it affect 
 our little clients !
 
 152 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Language, when fully acquired, is a great help in 
 mental processes, as many complex ideas are con- 
 densed into a single word, or into a brief formula of 
 words. Still, language must have become very 
 familiar before it is available as a vehicle of Thought. 
 As power of expression increases with the means 
 language affords, the knowledge of language itself 
 becomes extended, and the connection between ideas 
 and language expressive of them is so intimate that 
 the two become inseparably associated. Then it is 
 that language fulfils its chief use in mental pro- 
 cesses, as well as its other purposes of oral intercourse 
 and written records. 
 
 Inference and judgment are now in constant and 
 practical exercise, and are influential in their effect 
 on conduct, as well as in mental work. In pro- 
 portion as conduct is independent, it indicates the 
 nature of judgments formed, and, as these are deter- 
 mined by the prevailing currents of Thought and 
 power of the faculties, conduct is a criterion of the 
 state of mind and effect of discipline. In so far as 
 conduct is the natural and spontaneous result of 
 training, and is not dictated by artificial restraint, it 
 shows the practical value of the knowledge acquired 
 and the force of the principles imbibed. As each 
 successive stage makes the child more independent, 
 each in turn prepares the way for that entire self- 
 dependence he will have to exercise when he embarks 
 in life. Hence the curb should be used as sparingly 
 as possible, lest it lead to concealment of the real 
 tendencies, which, in such case, will assert themselves 
 in after-periods, when correction may be difficult, or 
 too late, to be applied. 
 
 Judgment, being the highest function, is that to
 
 THIRD PERIOD I CHILDHOOD. I 5 3 
 
 winch all training of the intellect should be ulti- 
 mately directed. If tutors have used wisely the 
 opportunities afforded during the earlier periods, the 
 judgments of the later will be less superficial and 
 more reasonable. But if those opportunities have 
 been neglected, judgments Mall afterwards be random, 
 immature, and erroneous. It is for the purpose of 
 forming correct conclusions and opinions that the 
 other mental faculties are most needed. Accurate 
 and complete ideas are the fundamental factors or 
 evidence on which judgments and opinions are 
 based. Memory serves to recall them as required, 
 and concentration fixes the mental powers on the 
 work of estimating the data. All combine in the 
 
 O 
 
 resultant act of judgment. 
 
 The inquisitive tendencies which characterize this 
 period of child-life, prompted at first by the 
 impulse to employ the newly acquired power of 
 speech, are well adapted to promote mental progress 
 by directing the attention to ascertaining those 
 qualities and relations of things which are not 
 apparent. It is the appropriate supplement to 
 observation. It is the best use to which language 
 could first be applied, for the knowledge so acquired 
 is precisely that which is required for sound judg- 
 ments. Without such knowledge, these would be 
 superficial, based on the outward aspects of things, 
 which are so often deceptive. The subject-matter of 
 thought, of whatever kind it may be, and whether 
 relating to persons or things, is thus scrutinized 
 and fitted for the purposes of just inference and 
 sound judgment, 
 
 TEMPER, as a habit of mind, has been decided in 
 previous periods ; not that it is incapable of modi-
 
 154 NATUEAL HISTOEY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 fication, but that it is definitely formed. It is 
 always more or less amenable to the same influences 
 in which it originated. It may be improved or 
 otherwise modified, like other habits ; but it is now 
 become habitual and decided. Most other habits have 
 a restricted operation, but temper either sweetens or 
 embitters the whole nature. 
 
 At this period, example, being better understood, 
 and being judged by its actuating principles, is more 
 influential than before. Reason, too, is available as 
 a resource and argument, and may be used with 
 good effect. Still, as the ideas in which temper 
 originated were indeterminate and general, they 
 cannot be met by definite means. A definite argu- 
 ment may be met by a definite answer ; but an 
 indeterminate one can only be counteracted by 
 experience. 
 
 The common practice of teazing children, espe- 
 cially those of an excitable temperament, is highly 
 injurious and reprehensible. The natural effects of 
 such treatment are illustrated in Note i of the 
 Appendix. Such extreme results may not often 
 occur, but they prove the nature of the effect pro- 
 duced, whatever the degree may be. 
 
 FAITH also is, in its inception, based on indeter- 
 minate ideas, but, being a particular relation and 
 not general, towards certain persons and not to the 
 world at large, it may be shaken, or even destroyed, 
 by an act of injustice, treachery, or falsehood on the 
 part of those in whom it was reposed. If firmly 
 established in former periods, it will be a powerful 
 resource to tutors in the present. Not only is it 
 much easier and pleasanter to lead than to drive, 
 but it is far more effectual. Driving is practicable
 
 THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. I 5 5 
 
 only within narrow limits, but leading may be carried 
 on to the full extent of the mental powers. 
 
 Hence, to maintain the confidence of pupils is 
 always important, but is especially so when they 
 begin to exercise their powers independently. 
 
 Besides, faith, as a general principle, as a recog- 
 nition of authority generally, and not in its par- 
 ticular and personal aspect, is so dependent on the 
 cultivation it receives in the lower domain that, if 
 this be uprooted, the other is likely to be seriously 
 shaken. If, therefore, faith in tutors be impaired 
 and shaken, faith in God is thereby endangered. 
 
 During the trials incident to this inquisitive stage 
 of child-life in the maintenance of discipline, the 
 relation between the pupil and his tutors is neces- 
 sarily strained, even under the most judicious 
 management. Thus the faith of the former is 
 severely tried. In this trial, consistency of example 
 and conduct is far more influential than a high 
 model. Nothing is more destructive of the confi- 
 dence of children than that elasticity of principle 
 by which tutors change it to suit particular persons 
 and occasions. The relation between authority and 
 its subject at this age affords good opportunity for 
 the exemplification of moral principle in the one and 
 its appreciation by the other. The result in most 
 cases will be either a firm establishment or a decided 
 loosening of confidence in tutors, and, through them, 
 in authority generally. 
 
 OBEDIENCE. The practical observance of obedi- 
 ence and submission to authority by children at this 
 age is necessary in the family and elsewhere. It is 
 therefore generally enforced where it is not volun- 
 tarily yielded. The moral influence of this period
 
 156 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 is largely dependent on the kind of submission 
 which prevails. If it be the fruit of trust and con- 
 fidence, inspired by a sense of duty, well ; but if the 
 submission be rendered under fear of consequences 
 and restraint of force, when in fact it is only an 
 outward appearance concealing a spirit of rebellion, 
 friction is inevitable, and the moral consequences 
 are adverse. This state of affairs may always be 
 referred, and may sometimes be distinctly traced, to 
 treatment in previous periods, such as unjust pun- 
 ishments, unreasonable conduct, provocations, and 
 petty oppressions. These may be, and often are, 
 unknown to parents, who then refer the obliquity 
 of their children's tempers to hereditary or constitu- 
 tional defect. 
 
 Lessons in some form are an almost necessary part 
 of the discipline of this period. The conditions 
 favourable to successful learning have already been 
 specified, as well as those which are adverse and tend 
 to inspire a distaste for tuition. The difficulty of 
 inspiring interest in lessons and in attracting atten- 
 tion to them is often very considerable, and seems to 
 imply disobedience ; still, these conditions being in- 
 dispensable, any attempt to teach in their absence 
 will be even more troublesome, and at best but very 
 partially effectual. In our experience, actual dislike 
 has never been encountered except where it had been 
 created by injudicious attempts to enforce lessons or 
 where the mental powers were conspicuously deficient. 
 Stupids in general are not so from natural incapacity, 
 but from mismanagement in some form. For instance, 
 we were assured, with regard to a child of twelve, 
 that it was quite impossible to make him comprehend 
 the simplest rule of arithmetic. He was alleged to
 
 THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. I 5 / 
 
 be incorrigibly stupid at figures. At first he seemed 
 to verify that character, but after some patience we 
 found that he had no proper idea of the principles of 
 notation. His familiarity with the set formula of 
 tens, hundreds, arid thousands gave the idea that he 
 knew their significance, but, in fact, he knew the 
 words without any proper idea of their meanings. 
 In some unaccountable way he had acquired confused 
 ideas of them. Half an hour of patient teaching put 
 him in possession of right apprehension of the relation 
 of the figures to their places and meanings, after 
 which his arithmetic went on without further trouble. 
 An erroneous or imperfect idea of the meaning of a 
 word or formula is often the unsuspected cause of 
 apparently insuperable difficulty and seeming dis- 
 obedience. 
 
 The future training will depend largely on the 
 question whether the mental condition be natural or 
 artificial, real or assumed, especially in regard to the 
 important factor, obedience. 
 
 MORAL PRINCIPLES. Originally acquired, like lan- 
 guage, by the natural means of observation and infer- 
 ence, moral principle now becomes more definitely 
 formulated through the medium of language, not 
 merely, nor perhaps chiefly, by direct verbal tuition, 
 but by inference from what is heard and read. Ideas 
 previously acquired by means of observation and 
 example are now either confirmed or modified, 
 especially in regard to the supreme authority and the 
 unseen Almighty Father from whom it emanates. 
 The force and efficacy of the new ideas, however, are 
 mainly dependent on the extent to which example 
 accords or conflicts with ideas imbibed previously. 
 The knowledge of language having originally been
 
 158 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 derived by inference from experience, this continues 
 to be its interpreter. The meanings of words having 
 been learned by inference from the connections in 
 which they were used, so, in like manner, principles 
 embodied in words receive their practical interpreta- 
 tion from conduct. Hence, a child's ideas of moral 
 principles will be found to accord more nearly with 
 their practical exemplifications than with the verbal 
 formulae. This remark, especially applicable to chil- 
 dren at the age we are now considering, is not con- 
 fined to them, but applies in a greater or less degree to 
 people of all ages and religions. For instance, Chris- 
 tians of high intelligence, and well informed, form their 
 ideas of the Mohammedan or Buddhist religions by 
 their practical exemplification in the manners and 
 habits of those who profess these religions. And these 
 think of Christianity as they see it practised by Chris- 
 tians. Hence each thinks very ill of the other. The 
 Christian missionary thinks the Buddhist an idolater, 
 because of the image in the temple and the offerings 
 laid on the shrine. The Buddhist retorts that the 
 genuflexions and worshipful signs the Christian makes 
 to the figures and emblems in the east window of his 
 church and on the altar are idolatrous. Neither 
 appeals to the written doctrine. Children follow the 
 same rule, and form their ideas of moral principles as 
 they are exhibited, rather than as they are taught. 
 
 At this age children are taken to a place of wor- 
 ship, and they form their ideas of worship by what 
 they see far more than by what they hear. As 
 sentence after sentence of a sermon follows in quick 
 succession, the attention required to apprehend them 
 is far beyond the capacity of a child. Indeed, very 
 few adults really apprehend the half, and of that only
 
 THIRD PERIOD : CHILDHOOD. I 5 9 
 
 a fraction is definitely formulated and fixed in the 
 mind. The attempt to follow the sermon soon be- 
 comes wearisome to a great majority of hearers, who 
 let their thoughts wander. Children do the same, 
 and are often very much scolded therefor. Where 
 the greater part of the service is formulated, as in 
 the English Church, that part may be followed with- 
 out effort, as the ideas are already fixed in the mind 
 and apprehended, needing only to be recalled. The 
 advantage of this formulation is particularly evident 
 in certain situations. For instance, on a sick-bed, or 
 abroad, a man who perhaps has thought but little of 
 religion when in health and activity now finds the 
 stereotyped liturgy still in memory, embodying in 
 clear and beautiful form the vital truths of his 
 neglected religion. And in the same manner many 
 a youth remembers, when far from home and friends, 
 the example of a mother in whose habitual conduct 
 was stereotyped the vital principle of Christian faith. 
 By that conduct her words of love and her verbal 
 teachings are practically interpreted, and the inter- 
 pretation continues to be a permanent and effective 
 possession long after the verbal formulae have ceased 
 to be remembered. 
 
 HABIT OF THOUGHT. In the gradual process of 
 the development of the mental powers and in the 
 accumulating of ideas, the progress is not exactly 
 the same in all directions, but follows certain lines. 
 These are determined partly by the nature of the 
 environment and partly by inequalities in the 
 faculties themselves. Internal and external causes 
 both operate in imparting direction to these lines or 
 inclinations. Both the nature of the subject-matter 
 on which the faculties are exercised and the manner
 
 160 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 of dealing with it vary in every individual. Hence, 
 certain kinds of material and certain methods of 
 thinking prevail, and form the personal idiosyncrasy 
 or character in each case. These lines begin to be 
 formed with the earliest mental efforts, and by the 
 time of which we are now treating they have neces- 
 sarily become more or less fixed and decided. The 
 growth of the powers has, in fact, been proceeding 
 upon, and so deepening and establishing, these lines. 
 The edifice of the Ego has been constructed upon 
 them, and they have determined its shape. The 
 further development will necessarily proceed on the 
 habits already established. The form it may ulti- 
 mately assume may be infinitely varied, but the type 
 is already determined, and will not be materially 
 altered unless by some exceptional and powerful 
 influence, such as severe illness, accident, or nervous 
 shock. 
 
 The physical development is also subject to similar 
 variation during growth. Certain disproportions or 
 tendencies to malformation, threatening weakness 
 or disfigurement, are apt to appear in children, in 
 which case the utmost anxiety is felt by tutors to 
 remedy the defect, or to correct the wrong direction 
 of the growth. The corporeal frame is always vigi- 
 lantly watched and jealously cared for ; but, all the 
 time, growing defects and deformities of mind are, 
 generally at least, neglected, and left to take care of 
 themselves. The symmetry of the physical structure 
 is deemed worthy of all care and vigilance. Hence, 
 children grow up with straight bodies and crooked 
 minds; with vigorous, well-balanced physical faculties, 
 and with mental powers misshapen, disproportioned, 
 and irregular. If obliquities of moral or mental
 
 THIRD PERIOD: CHILDHOOD. 161 
 
 habit be observed at all, they are too often regarded 
 as accidental or inherited from some conveniently 
 remote ancestor, and are left to be eradicated at 
 school, where the crookednesses of the original hap- 
 hazard process of mental growth are expected to be 
 hammered out. If the pupil does not come back 
 from school straightened and squared, the fault will 
 probably be laid upon the imperfection of school 
 discipline. 
 
 This being the first period in which a full and 
 intelligent use of language has been enjoyed, and its 
 natural consequence, inquisitiveness, prevalent, the 
 habits formed, as well as the progress made, will 
 have been determined by this agency. The child at 
 the end of it will be open, candid, and communica- 
 tive, or else secretive, and reticent, according to the 
 treatment he has received and the example he has 
 imitated. 
 
 SUMMARY. The progress usually made during 
 the term of about four years of childhood is both 
 physically and mentally very strongly marked. 
 
 1. The corporeal powers have been carefully 
 watched, exercised, and trained, and, unless impaired 
 by sickness or accident, are agile and vigorous. 
 
 2. The ideas previously formed by observation and 
 inference from individual experience, and confined to 
 what could be so learned, have been expanded, by 
 means of language, so as to comprise a great amount 
 of knowledge from the experience of others. The 
 infant's ideas were chiefly his own; the child's, em- 
 brace and enter into the labours of mankind. 
 
 3. Personal experience has been more influential 
 than ever, but physical sensibilities have almost 
 ceased to operate, and mental susceptibilities have 
 
 M
 
 1 62 NATURAL HISTORY OP THOUGHT. 
 
 been modified by reason, and have resulted in en- 
 larged ideas of the conduct and principles of others, 
 especially of tutors. 
 
 4. Written language has been acquired. Beading 
 can now be done with sufficient facility to be under- 
 stood as well as perceived. Writing and the language 
 of numerals, forming elementary calculations, have 
 been added to the list of effective agencies for future 
 progress. 
 
 5. The forrnulative faculty has acquired a high 
 development by constant use, and by means of the 
 aid and facility afforded by speech. Ideas are there- 
 fore more complete, as well as more definite and 
 more deeply impressed. Memory has a firmer and 
 more lasting grasp of the mental stock. 
 
 6. The Will is now definitely fixed, but whether 
 outward conduct be regulated by it, or by the 
 superior force of discipline, remains to be seen when 
 the rule of tutors and governors shall have ceased to 
 predominate. 
 
 7. The restraints of discipline, reason, and regard 
 for consequences throw an external covering over the 
 internal feelings and the relations of the youth with 
 the external world, and this covering conceals the 
 inner workings of these influential feelings. Hence- 
 forth the inner mental condition is more or less secret 
 between their possessor and his Maker.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON THE NATUEAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 FOUKTH PERIOD : YOUTH. 
 
 THIS period comprises school-days the work of edu- 
 cation in the common acceptation of the term. The 
 youth goes to school to prepare for a future inde- 
 pendent career of business and the duties of life. This 
 is the first step towards that independence to which 
 he already ardently aspires, and the hope of which 
 constitutes the dominating influence of this period. 
 
 From the time the youth enters upon school-life he 
 looks forward to the time when he will emerge from 
 the restraints and discipline of tutelage and begin 
 his own independent career. He regards the end of 
 his school-days as the beginning of his own life. 
 Whether he address himself to his work with a 
 resolution to qualify himself for the business of life, 
 or undertake it perfunctorily, to get through and to 
 be rid of it ; whether he try to do as much or scrape 
 through with as little learning as possible, the end he 
 has in view is his independence. 
 
 Ambition and aspirations for freedom are natural 
 to the period and position of the youth, and are 
 therefore to be respected. It is reasonable and 
 desirable that he should look forward to the life for 
 which he is now preparing. His ideas of that life 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 which he anticipates so constantly may be vague r 
 and are probably very different from what he will 
 realize ; nevertheless, they have a powerful influence 
 on the direction of his thoughts and on the spirit in 
 which he does his work. They are the result of the 
 collective experiences of the three periods through 
 which he has already passed. Each of these in turn 
 since the first was based on the groundwork laid in 
 the one preceding, and this last comprises the sum 
 of the whole. During those years he has collected a 
 large and varied stock of ideas of men and things, 
 has acquired a knowledge of language in both its 
 spoken and written forms, and is therefore furnished 
 with the means of learning all that history, science, 
 philosophy, and, in short, all that the accumulated 
 experience of mankind can teach. But, along with 
 these qualifications for the work of this critical 
 period of his mental history, he has also imbibed 
 other ideas of a personal nature, which will be far 
 more influential than his stock of knowledge in 
 giving direction to his aspirations and tone to his 
 work. These will determine the use he will make of 
 the means he has acquired, and the purposes to which 
 they will be applied. They are the elements of his 
 past experience which will now become the actuating- 
 factors of his present conduct. 
 
 OF THE CORPOREAL FACULTIES. Learning and 
 mental discipline being the special business of school - 
 life, the physical conditions most favourable to such 
 work deserve primary attention, both in regard to 
 the bodily vigour of the pupil and the conditions of 
 his environment. The vital importance of this factor 
 of the educational process is now very generally 
 recognized. In all good schools the corporeal faculties
 
 FOURTH PERIOD : YOUTH. 165 
 
 are exercised and invigorated by regular athletic 
 sports and competitive games, which afford also good 
 opportunities for the observation of character as well 
 as for physical training. The practice, now general 
 in schools, of the masters entering into, and interest- 
 ing themselves in, these exercises is most salutary in 
 its influence on both. Discipline is thus aided and 
 tempered by sympathy. In the work proper to this 
 period, and in the discipline necessary thereto, the 
 relations of teacher and pupil a,re sometimes strained ; 
 and, seeing that the success of both depends so much 
 on the feelings mutually entertained, it behoves 
 masters to avail themselves of every means of attract- 
 ing and maintaining the confidence and affection of 
 their pupils. The opportunities afforded out of school 
 are therefore of great value. Youths are particularly 
 .appreciative of interest shown in their work and pro- 
 ceedings, and especially of consideration for them- 
 selves personally. This, in fact, is the form in which 
 their susceptibilities are now most manifest. Hence, 
 confidence may thus be either won or lost by sympathy 
 or indifference in regard to personal treatment. 
 
 The nervous system is always a highly influential 
 factor in mental work, and one which requires con- 
 sideration, as its condition varies much in different 
 individuals even where no positive malady exists. 
 Almost every youth has some idiosyncrasies more or 
 less affecting the nervous system. These are often 
 induced by shocks, frights or other undue strain 
 -of the nerves in childhood. But, howsoever arising, 
 such nervous affections require consideration, the 
 want of which may not only hinder work, but aggra- 
 vate the malady itself. 
 
 Youths vary considerably in the relative aptitudes
 
 166 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 of their faculties and in the avenues by which their 
 understandings are most accessible. One, for instance, 
 who has been accustomed to learn through the medium 
 of the eye may seem dull in apprehending by the 
 ear, or vice versa. One assumes a particular attitude 
 or gesture when thinking, and is put out if that be 
 prevented. Another must have something in his 
 fingers. Such habits may be, in certain cases, objec- 
 tionable ; but seeing that they are for the time in- 
 fluential, and the work to be done important, correc- 
 tion should be gradual and considerate. Mental 
 work being paramount, it should be encouraged, and 
 the utmost care should be observed to lighten and 
 sweeten it. For this purpose the physical conditions, 
 not omitting that of the ruling organ, the stomach, 
 are worthy of special and constant attention. 
 
 OF THE WILL. By this time discipline, social 
 obligations, and fear of consequences have become 
 influential in modifying the assertion of the Will, 
 whether the true spirit of obedience be present or 
 wanting. Nor can the actual motive for seeming^ 
 obedience be now easily recognized, for that is often 
 the readiest and most compliant which is dictated by 
 policy. On the other hand, that may be tardiest in 
 which moral principle has to overrule temptation. 
 Of the two sons mentioned in Scripture, the one who- 
 acquiesced at once failed in the performance, whilst 
 he who flatly refused at first was the one who after- 
 wards obeyed and went to the vineyard. But, what- 
 ever may be the actuating principle concealed in the 
 breast of the youth, the only treatment tutors can 
 safely adopt for securing obedience is that of patient 
 remonstrance and calm reason. Force, bad at all 
 times, is worst of all when it can be resolutely re-
 
 FOURTH PERIOD : YOUTH. 1 67 
 
 sisted, and when it can prevail only by recourse to 
 superior might. 
 
 The means adopted in the training of the lower 
 animals are well worthy of attentive consideration by 
 teachers of youth. The feats performed by elephants, 
 lions, dogs, monkeys, and other animals are striking 
 proofs of the influence men may acquire by suasive 
 and gentle measures over creatures whose power of 
 limb or physical resources would enable them to offer 
 effective resistance. In all these cases the Will is 
 subdued by suasive measures, commenced betimes 
 and pursued with judicious tact. It is true that 
 force is sometimes employed, as it was in the case of 
 "Blackthorn" (Note i, Appendix), but it is perilous 
 and only partially efficacious, as was proved by the 
 narrow escapes his owner had. 
 
 Considering what are the proper functions of the 
 schoolmaster in imparting knowledge to qualify youth 
 for the work of life, it is manifestly most important 
 to both master and pupil that the path to the attain- 
 ment of the requisite knowledge should be free from 
 every unnecessary obstacle. The training of the 
 faculties during the three preceding periods should 
 be specially such as to prepare the way for this final 
 work of education. Nature has adapted the physical 
 conditions to the purpose in a manner at once obvious 
 and admirable. The temper, disposition, and Will 
 were first initiated whilst the conditions were suit- 
 able that is, before the corporeal faculties were 
 available for use. Thus a favourable state of mind 
 was established whereby it was fitted to receive 
 its proper furniture. Then, when the use of the 
 faculties had been acquired, they began the work of 
 acquiring knowledge first by observation and in-
 
 1 68 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 ference and by such means as the child's own experi- 
 ence afforded. During this period speech is acquired, 
 which initiates a new form of learning, and enlarges 
 the sphere of knowledge beyond the range of personal 
 observation. Now, if these several opportunities have 
 been improved in preparation for the work of educa- 
 tion, the master and pupil will meet on fair grounds. 
 The one will be ready to give and the other waiting 
 to receive the coveted treasure. If, on the other 
 hand, the temper and disposition have been marred, 
 and the Will neglected and allowed to predominate, 
 then master and pupil are at once placed in false 
 positions. The proper duty of the master has then 
 to be deferred to other preliminary duties, for which 
 the proper time and opportunity have passed. For 
 one pupil who is reasonably prepared for the work of 
 the period, two at least come without due prepara- 
 tion, or even with strong disqualifications. One 
 is sent from home because he can no longer be en- 
 dured there. School has been threatened so often 
 that it has come to mean to him a place, not of learn- 
 ing, but of punishment, and the youth arrives there 
 fully imbued with that idea. Another has been 
 drenched with ineffectual lessons until the very men- 
 tion of a lesson is loathsome. In one form or another 
 unwillingness, the very worst obstacle to the work 
 of the period, is set up with more or less force in 
 many of the pupils who are sent to school to be 
 instructed. It is not ignorance which the school- 
 master has to overcome, but unwillingness, in nearly 
 all cases where difficulty is experienced. Nor is it a 
 taste for learning that has to be inspired, but a rooted 
 distaste that has to be eradicated. The chief work 
 of the master is not in what he has to do, but in
 
 FOURTH PERIOD: YOUTH. 169 
 
 what must, if possible, be undone. The schoolmaster 
 does not now receive the raw material on which he 
 has to work either in its primitive, plastic state, or 
 even with the rudiments of a correct form, but after 
 the first processes of its formation or malformation, 
 have already given it a rigid shape, which must em- 
 barrass and may quite frustrate his best efforts. 
 
 OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. The mental powers 
 are now well developed, and the regular process of 
 cultivating them is the special work of this period. 
 
 From the first dawn of intelligence these faculties 
 have been exercised on two kinds of subject-matter, 
 one personal, the other external. The former pro- 
 duces certain relations of the child to persons generally 
 and individually, the latter results in the acquisition 
 of ideas of men and things. In the former, personal 
 feelings are the sole agents ; in the latter, they are 
 much less influential. Indeed, it may be here again 
 remarked that the mental effort by which knowledge 
 is first acquired is entirely free from strain, ruffled 
 feelings, or trial of temper. So long as mental work 
 was effected by the spontaneous act of the child 
 himself according as it was attracted by the present- 
 ment of objects or ideas to his mind, it was free from 
 difficulty and strain, and was at once agreeable and 
 effective. The grief 'of learning begins with teaching. 
 Till then, the process of learning was an agreeable 
 mental exercise, practised by choice, and a source of 
 almost invariable pleasure and satisfaction. Nor is 
 it otherwise until it becomes associated with the 
 element of personal feeling evoked in the processes 
 of teaching. Then it too generally happens that a 
 positive distaste for knowledge commences. Hence 
 it follows, certainly, that during the period of school-
 
 I/O NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 life, when learning is the special business, success 
 must necessarily depend to a great extent upon the 
 state of mind induced by the kind of teaching pre- 
 viously practised in other words, upon the attitude 
 of the learner towards his instructors. 
 
 Educational processes, so far as they relate to the 
 furnishing of the mind with information, have re- 
 ceived so much attention under the stimulus of 
 private enterprise and of public influence that human 
 ingenuity can do little more to facilitate the acquisi- 
 tion of knowledge in the way of further appliances. 
 Much yet remains to be done, however, in the train- 
 ing of the mind itself, especially in the preparatory 
 processes of the first three of our periods. Natural 
 appetite may thus be stimulated and fostered, and 
 the power of mental digestion improved. Experience 
 proves that through life from infancy the mind is 
 naturally prone to learn in its own way, and that 
 there is a natural desire for certain kinds of know- 
 ledge. A great proportion of all human knowledge is 
 in fact so acquired. If men would appeal to their 
 own personal experience, and consider the effect upon 
 their own minds of being urged or compelled to learn, 
 what they do not want to know, they would perceive 
 that the surest way to quench appetite and create 
 disgust is by drenching the unwilling mind. They 
 would then be more considerate for youth, and would 
 apply their efforts rather to creating appetite by 
 appropriate means at the proper time than to forcing, 
 lessons upon unwilling minds. 
 
 Susceptibilities, first physical, and then mental, but 
 always personal, have been operating powerfully all 
 through the previous periods in moulding and giving 
 a definite shape to the character of the child. From
 
 FOURTH PERIOD: YOUTH. 171 
 
 his very birth, his mental nature has heen uninter- 
 ruptedly affected by his personal feelings, and the 
 result, as now developed, is the most influential factor 
 of his present mental condition. 
 
 Personal sensibilities change in their character from 
 stage to stage of the mental progress, but are always, 
 in whatever form, the most potent elements in the for- 
 mation of the individual edifice. They are, as a rule, 
 from first to last, but more especially in the later 
 periods of childhood immediately preceding school- 
 days, under-estimated where they are at all regarded. 
 Many persons habitually slight children on principle, 
 for fear, they say, of making them conceited. Thus, 
 to avert an imaginary consequence, they impose a real 
 evil. Conceit comes not from without ; it is inspired 
 from within, and has its history ; but, if there were 
 any real force in the excuse alleged, we think it better 
 a youth should be a little conceited than be cowed 
 and humiliated ; better think rather too highly of 
 himself than lack the natural principle of self-respect ; 
 better he should be on rather too good terms with 
 himself than be on bad terms with the world gene- 
 rally. 
 
 Pride, self-respect, and kindred feelings, suggested 
 by consciousness of pow r er and by natural aspira- 
 tions for independence, are very sensitive in youth, 
 and exert a strong and generally a beneficial influ- 
 ence on the tone of character. These feelings are 
 not always manifested as strongly as they are felt, 
 because they are generally restrained by the want 
 of sympathy on the part of tutors. The common 
 practice of regarding children's speeches as of no 
 account, and of silencing them with scant courtesy, 
 puts a check on childish communicativeness. Hence
 
 172 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 vouths have not uncommonly acquired a habit of 
 reticence and learned to keep the workings of their 
 inner thoughts to themselves. Wherever this habit 
 prevails, however, feelings exert a more powerful 
 influence on character. A secretive habit, the 
 natural consequence of previous injudicious repres- 
 sion, is regrettable, as being opposed to that frank- 
 ness and candour which are so great an ornament 
 and attraction in personal intercourse. 
 
 The consideration for personal feelings which has 
 been urged so strongly in preceding chapters had 
 in view their bearing on this critical time, and still 
 more critical process of education. The state of 
 feeling, or rather the state of mind produced by 
 feelings, with which youths embark on school-life 
 goes very far towards determining the success of 
 the work. Hence the importance of special atten- 
 tion throughout the preliminary stages to produce 
 conditions favourable to the effective performance 
 of this crowning work, and to avoid whatsoever 
 would tend to create distaste, or oppose any other 
 form of obstacle to learning. 
 
 There is a considerable analogy in the growth 
 and nourishment between the body and the mind. 
 Appetite gives relish to food, and, if this be suitable, 
 it wiU be digested and assimilated naturally. If, 
 on the other hand, there be no appetite, or if the 
 food be distasteful, relish is impossible and disgust 
 inevitable. Neither digestion nor assimilation is 
 natural under such conditions. Even the best of 
 food may be made loathsome by the manner of 
 administering it ; as when a strong-handed discip- 
 linarian ordains that a certain portion shall be 
 eaten nolens rolens. If not eaten at breakfast, it
 
 FOURTH PERIOD: YOUTH. 173 
 
 shall be served at dinner, and no other given till 
 it is consumed. It is just so with mental food. 
 Naturally attractive, it may be so administered as 
 to inspire disgust. The inexorable discipline which 
 despises appetite and enforces rule against Nature 
 will convert what might be agreeable lessons into 
 intolerable tasks. 
 
 External objects become invested with increasing 
 interest from year to year in proportion as know- 
 ledge and the uses to which it may be applied 
 increase. In the first two periods, observation of 
 whatsoever presented itself and captivated the 
 attention was busily employed, and new ideas were 
 accumulated rapidly ; but, in the inexperienced con- 
 dition of the faculties at that time, ideas were crude 
 and imperfect, being formed on external aspects 
 only. In the third period, they were corrected and 
 qualified by means of enlarged experience, the use 
 of language, and the exercise of reflection. Still, 
 mental effort hitherto was almost entirely spon- 
 taneous, being attracted by objects or ideas in- 
 cidentally presented to the mind. The first 
 attempts to exact attention to particular subjects 
 introduce a new form of mental exercise. Till then, 
 learning had come as it were spontaneously ; but 
 with the first lessons learning wears a new aspect, 
 as requiring attention. 
 
 The effective formulation of ideas exacts either 
 fixed attention or frequent repetition of the present- 
 ment. The ideas of the early periods are weak for 
 that reason, and would be of little avail without 
 repetition. Those of a very striking or attractive char- 
 acter are exceptional, and are deeply fixed because 
 of the attention they excited. Hence, for school-
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 work attention is very necessary, and a good deal of 
 repetition too. The work of this period is to classify, 
 correct, and complete the ideas previously and im- 
 perfectly formulated, and to define and fix them in 
 the mind in such manner that they may be available 
 for use in after-life, and also to acquire such other 
 knowledge as may be necessary in each particular 
 case. For this purpose it is not sufficient to follow 
 the former easy method of procedure. Attention is 
 no longer free to take what is most attractive of 
 things incidentally presented to the mind, but must 
 now be under control. The power is now required 
 of diverting the attention from all other matters, 
 however inviting, and of directing it to a given pur- 
 pose. The mental effort involved in this act is very 
 considerable. It is a rare accomplishment, even in 
 adults, to concentrate their attention on any given 
 current of Thought for a length of time. To youths, 
 especially to those who have not been accustomed 
 to such effort and to those who have a nervous 
 temperament, it is a severe strain, for which due 
 allowance should be made and every help and 
 encouragement given. The difficulty of giving sus- 
 tained attention is generally under-estimated, and 
 teachers are apt to regard failure as indicative of 
 carelessness, incapacity, or perverseness, when the 
 defect is not in the Will, but in the power of control. 
 Another very essential condition of success in the 
 work of education is, that youths should be im- 
 pressed with the nature and purpose of the work 
 they are required to do. The same intelligence 
 which qualifies a youth to receive instruction would 
 enable him to understand and appreciate the use of 
 what he is set to learn if it were properly explained
 
 FOURTH PERIOD: YOUTH. 175 
 
 to him. In our experience we have found few cases 
 in which any but advanced pupils had a proper idea 
 of the practical use of the things they were required 
 to learn. Hence, to many pupils the dry rules of 
 grammar and their lessons in the dead languages 
 are regarded much in the same way as shot drill 
 is regarded by convicts as useless and humiliating 
 drudgery. To a reasonable being a reason should 
 surely be apparent for any effort exacted of him, 
 and, in the absence of such reason, he could scarcely 
 be blamed for the most perfunctory performance. 
 Earnestness of purpose cannot be expected where 
 the purpose itself is vague, shadowy, and doubtful. 
 Yet in all the affairs of life there is not one for 
 which earnestness of purpose is more essential to 
 success than for the effective formulation of ideas. 
 Of all the expedients by which a youth may be best 
 induced to give his heart to his work, none is more 
 effective than to convince him of its practical value. 
 The work of committing to memory the dry rules of 
 grammar, especially those of a dead language, and 
 the various methods of manipulating figures, are not 
 attractive work, nor such as could easily be made 
 palatable, but it may be relieved of positive irk- 
 someness by having a definite purpose in the mind 
 of the learner. This is exemplified in the case cited 
 in chapter xv. 
 
 It is desirable that the pursuit or profession of the 
 pupil should be fixed as soon as may be, in order 
 that education may be adapted accordingly. The 
 choice, too, where practicable, should be decided by 
 the pupil, who, in that case, should be made 
 acquainted as thoroughly as possible with the cir- 
 cumstances affecting it, in order that the choice may
 
 1/6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 be determined on reasonable, not on fanciful or mis- 
 taken grounds. 
 
 MEMORY. The stock of ideas acquired during 
 previous periods, and now available for the work of 
 education, consists almost entirely of such as are 
 under the ready control of memory. Those which are 
 not so at command are of little, if any, practical value. 
 The nature and extent of the ideas so in possession 
 determine the qualification of the youth for the 
 work now before him. On this depend the recep- 
 tivity, intelligence, and fitness of his mind to 
 profit by the instruction he is now intended to re- 
 ceive. If it were possible to take the stock of his 
 available ideas, and to arrange them in the order of 
 the prominence of the place they take in his mind 
 in such manner that the nature and relative force of 
 each could be seen, the result would show exactly 
 how far previous training had served its purpose. 
 It would then be apparent whether the equipment 
 of the youth for the purpose of this culminating 
 work was well or ill adapted to its end. As no such 
 analysis is possible, however, either for a particular 
 case or for a general average, we must be content 
 with such an approximation as inference from expe- 
 rience may furnish. 
 
 The stock, we know, will in every case consist of 
 ideas of two kinds that is, of personal feelings and 
 of external persons and things. Further, we know 
 that the former will be represented by temper, 
 disposition, faith in, and obedience to, authority; and 
 the latter by items of general knowledge, of which 
 language will be the chief. All the stock of avail- 
 able Thought will be comprised under these heads 
 in every case, but the relative force of each will, of
 
 FOURTH PERIOD: YOUTH. 177 
 
 course, differ widely, according to the circumstances 
 in which the ideas themselves were formulated. 
 
 Of the two principal classes of Thought there can 
 be no doubt as to which will be most influential 
 both in deciding the character and suggesting the 
 proceedings of the youth. Hence, now that he is 
 brought face to face with the first real work of his 
 life, it is manifest to which of two classes of Thought 
 the previous training should most properly have 
 been directed. 
 
 As regards general knowledge, the present state 
 of the youth's stock in command will, on analysis, 
 show that those ideas which are recalled most easily, 
 and which in fact are always ready, are such as are 
 in constant use, and therefore could not be forgotten. 
 Of these, language is the chief, and the familiar 
 objects, persons, and ideas of e very-day life are 
 nearly as ready for recall. These, therefore, afford 
 no test of particular power of memory, for they are 
 the common property of every one, including persons 
 of weak intellect. A special value of language in re- 
 lation to power of memory consists in the evidence it 
 affords of the power possessed in infancy. For, as the 
 acquisition of language exacts a very great exertion 
 memory in the first instance, and could not possibly of 
 be acquired otherwise, it is thus proved that, during 
 that time at least, this faculty of the mind was 
 vigorous. Any subsequent failure, if such should 
 occur, must therefore be referable to special causes. 
 These are discussed in a succeeding chapter. The 
 point pertinent to our present purpose is, that under 
 certain conditions a great work of memory has 
 actually been performed in every case where lan- 
 guage has been acquired, and that, therefore, the 
 
 N
 
 1 78 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 power of the faculty has been clearly proved. 
 Whatever those conditions were, they have been 
 proved effective, and should as far as possible be re- 
 produced for the purpose of fixing permanently in 
 the pupil's mind all such further knowledge as is to 
 be imparted. General rules only are discussed in 
 mnemonic systems and in our chapter on Memory ; 
 but particular points are of importance to indi- 
 viduals, as being the result of personal idiosyncrasy. 
 The special circumstances of each case are therefore 
 to be considered in applying general rules to such 
 case. 
 
 Reflective faculties being exerted on the stock of 
 ideas in possession, the range of their operation ex- 
 tends in proportion as this becomes enlarged, and its 
 nature depends on the kind of ideas that are most 
 deeply impressed and most readily remembered. 
 The currents of Thought which predominate in the 
 mind, and the habit of thinking, will determine the 
 general tendency of reflective action, and will go far 
 to decide its force and effect. Hence it follows that 
 the ideas in present possession at any time influence 
 by reflective action all those subsequently acquired. 
 The ideas formed during each stage, from babyhood 
 onwards, affect those of succeeding periods. Hence 
 the reflections of youth derive their character from 
 the ideas acquired previously, and more particularly 
 from those most recent and strongest ones of the 
 period immediately antecedent. Throughout the 
 mental history, each stage depends very much on 
 those preceding both for the progress made and for 
 the direction that progress takes. In short, charac- 
 ter is built up on the lines first laid down, with 
 such modifications only as may be produced by
 
 FOURTH PERIOD: YOUTH. 179 
 
 forces of such exceptional strength as to overcome 
 the naturally acquired bent. 
 
 Whatever may have been his antecedents, the 
 youth's most influential idea,s will almost always be 
 those of personal feeling. The state of his mind as 
 regards external persons and things will be mainly 
 due to the personal feelings induced by his previous 
 experience, even in those cases where a strong and 
 decided taste for any particular pursuit may have 
 been established. 
 
 Now, the tendency of personal feeling, as a motive 
 or prevailing influence in reflection, is to induce an 
 unwholesome and unprofitable kind of Thought 
 which substitutes, for healthy, active, reasoning exer- 
 cise, a ruminating form of reflection a brooding 
 over, and indulgence of, whatsoever feeling may be 
 most excited. Seeing that reflective processes are the 
 means by which observation is most effectively aided, 
 supplemented, and turned to account, and whereby 
 ideas are corrected, expanded, and completed, it is 
 most desirable that they should have a wholesome 
 direction, and should not be diverted into a channel 
 from which nothing useful or beneficial can be hoped. 
 The best means of inducing a salutary action of the 
 reflective faculties is to keep them actively employed 
 in whatever form of useful exercise is most attractive 
 in each particular case. Education has for its 
 objects (i) the acquisition of such knowledge as is 
 necessary for the conduct of life ; (2) to establish 
 such discipline of the faculties as will strengthen 
 them and direct their application according to 
 sound principles, both mental and moral. Hence, a 
 good deal of the tuition imparted for this latter 
 purpose has little value apart from the discipline it 
 
 N 2
 
 I SO NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 promotes. Such being the case, the nature of the 
 particular study or pursuit is of less consequence 
 than its efficacy as a means of mental culture. A 
 youth had better, in fact, be engaged in almost any 
 healthy pursuit than be suffered to lapse into un- 
 wholesome breedings. The reflective faculties are 
 those, therefore, which need, in this stage of mental 
 progress, the most assiduous attention and culture. 
 
 In the exercise of their highest functions, their 
 proper purpose, the reflective faculties afford the 
 means of discerning truth and detecting falsehood, 
 of discriminating between good and evil, and of 
 extending knowledge, by processes of reasoning,, 
 beyond the superficial qualities of things to the 
 hidden forces and laws which regulate their mutual 
 relations. Art, science, philosophy, and religion owe 
 their progress and development to the power of re- 
 flective processes. As the laws of gravitation were 
 discovered by the series of reflections suggested to 
 Newton by the fall of an apple, so the higher 
 nature in man owes its conquests to the use of these 
 noble faculties, and the lower nature achieves its 
 predominance by means of their abuse. 
 
 Judgment is the weak element of juvenile character, 
 the faculty which most needs the ripening effect of 
 wide experience. Nevertheless, opinions, inferences, 
 and judgments are very freely formed, and confi- 
 dently indulged, at the age we are now considering. 
 Their influence on conduct is also very considerable, 
 as it is proportionate to the independent feeling that 
 is now predominant. 
 
 Judgments and opinions formed in youth are 
 generally more decided and confident than those of 
 later life, because they are formed on fewer and
 
 FOURTH PERIOD : YOUTH. 1 8 r 
 
 simpler data. It is far easier, in fact, to weigh a few 
 items of evidence than to deal with a large number. 
 Hence, inference is easy and correspondingly clear 
 and certain to the mind of the judge who has but 
 few data to consider. The difficulty arises when, in 
 after-life, accumulated experiences furnish a large 
 amount of evidence of a conflicting nature. The less 
 he is embarrassed by evidence, the more confident is 
 the judge, and the more obstinately does he adhere 
 to his verdict. Opinions and judgments are, there- 
 fore, very influential factors in the proceedings and 
 progress of youth during school-days, and need to be 
 treated judiciously. They should be rather corrected 
 by convincing evidence than contemned and contra- 
 dicted. As character is now in advanced embryo, 
 its further and final development will be determined 
 mainly by the power of this faculty, which, therefore, 
 is of paramount importance. In the exercise of this 
 faculty tutors may see the most influential results of 
 previous training or want of training, and may thus 
 see the particular defects which require to be 
 supplied, the forms of error to be corrected, and the 
 -direction in which cultivation was most needed. 
 
 TEMPER is a very formidable factor in the work of 
 .school-days, and is, in various ways, a great help 
 or a serious hindrance to success. It is subject to 
 restraint and modification by the joint influences of 
 example, precept, and the obligations of social dis- 
 cipline ; but, though these influences may serve to 
 prevent outward manifestations, the inner feelings 
 will still be those originally impressed and since 
 established. However it may be controlled or sup- 
 pressed by modifying circumstances, its original 
 -character will be maintained. Still, it is even yet
 
 I 82 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 more amenable to correction than it will ever be at 
 any future time, and the most powerful influence 
 that can be employed in its subordination is example. 
 The exhibition of undisturbed patience by tutors 
 under severe trials, such as are not infrequent in 
 school-work, is often very impressive, especially upon 
 on-lookers. As an example of forbearance and con- 
 sideration exhibited to a member of a class, its influ- 
 ence on the witnesses is most beneficial, and, though 
 it would not eradicate bad temper in any of them, it 
 would suggest effective control. 
 
 FAITH. The individual influence of tutors is still 
 mainly dependent upon and proportionate to the 
 confidence they inspire ; but, as the power of reason 
 increases, and experience becomes enlarged, faith 
 begins to be divided between persons and principles. 
 In proportion as sense of duty, the obligations of 
 moral principle, and the weight of friendly counsel 
 prevail over personal feelings and influences, the 
 mind naturally seeks some standards less fluctuating, 
 more definite, and more authoritative than the im- 
 perfect models that have served as the ideals hitherto 
 followed. Faith loses none of its influence ; on the 
 contrary, it has ever-increasing force, but is fixed on 
 different standards. The influence of tutors is no 
 longer dependent solely on the faith reposed in them 
 personally, but on the principles they represent and 
 the conformity of their conduct to those principles. 
 The growth of belief is a slow and probably, in some 
 cases, an unconscious process, the product of expe- 
 rience, and is not demonstrative. The actual con- 
 dition may be indeed, generally is unobserved, for 
 the opinions and ideas of youths are generally held 
 of little account. The time we are now considering
 
 FOURTH PEEIOD : YOUTH. 183 
 
 is very often a turning-point or crisis in regard to 
 the vital matter of religious belief. If faith in God 
 be not now recognized as the foundation of all 
 authority, faith itself is not therefore extinct, but 
 will be fixed on some other ideal. It may be trans- 
 ferred from one ideal to another, and be more or less 
 unsettled, but it is not obliterated. It is a natural 
 principle, which, if not fixed effectively on the 
 Supreme Being, tends to idolatry in some one or 
 another of its many forms. If faith in God be 
 shaken by partial views of His providential dispensa- 
 tions, or by doubts of His justice and love as therein 
 manifest, it may, and often does, rest in the outward 
 formularies and observances of religion a veritable 
 development of the old idolatrous tendency or it 
 may take refuge in the laws and forces of Nature, 
 which seduce many adult waverers. Once unfixed, 
 it may seek refuge in one figment or another, and 
 find a final rest in self the last resort of the desti- 
 tute in faith. We have in our minds a youth of 
 high aspirations, who has exhausted all other modern 
 resources as an anxious inquirer, and is now reduced 
 to this poor extremity. He believes in nothing out- 
 side of his own being. The condition of a youth 
 who begins his independent career of the business of 
 life with faith in nothing better than himself shows 
 the importance of early cultivation of the vital prin- 
 ciple of faith in God. Whether his mind have been 
 unsettled by observing the. hollowness or inconsist- 
 ency of profession or by an example of indifference 
 and practical unbelief in God, by reflections of his 
 own or suggestions from without, his state is one to 
 excite the deepest sympathy ; and it is unhappily not 
 now a case of uncommon occurrence.
 
 184 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 OBEDIENCE. A genuine respect for authority and 
 a spontaneous desire to please, which constitute the 
 spirit of true obedience, are high qualifications for 
 school-work. In the absence of the real principle, an 
 outward conformity to rule is generally substituted. 
 Openly rebellious and refractory spirits are too in- 
 tolerable to be permitted, and are therefore reduced 
 to seeming submission by coercive measures. In 
 general, however, outward conformity to discipline is 
 assumed, and often simulates the genuine principle 
 so well as to deceive tutors and others. Apparently 
 sincere, because of its having become habitual, the 
 real character of such conformity is revealed only 
 when relaxation of restraint or strength of tempta- 
 tion exceeds the force of habit. There is generally 
 a ready obedience available for school-work, but the 
 manner in which this work is done depends in a very 
 great degree on the animating spirit, whether it be on 
 principle or by the acquiescence of expediency. The 
 mental progress will be satisfactory or otherwise 
 according as the work is done with a will or merely 
 to save appearances and escape disgrace. 
 
 Hence, also, external regard for the observance of 
 religious exercises is sometimes so well and con- 
 sistently maintained as to establish a character for 
 sincerity which, after all, proves under trial to have 
 been superficial and wanting in the true principle of 
 obedience to Divine authority. 
 
 MORAL PRINCIPLES. Originally derived from ob- 
 servation, the ideas of moral principle have been, 
 during the previous mental history, gleaned from a 
 mass of experience. The greater part of this obser- 
 vation was made before language was sufficiently 
 understood to be of any avail for preceptive teaching.
 
 FOURTH PERIOD : YOUTH. I 8 5 
 
 Thus moral principles, like words, have derived their 
 significance, and their terminology has received its 
 interpretation, from the experience which, during 
 these long years, has been always exhibiting them in 
 their most practical form. Now, however, that 
 precept is understood and judgment is freely exer- 
 cised, the youth forms conclusions of his own, and 
 reduces to general principles the exemplifications of 
 his past observation. In the exercise of his inde- 
 pendence these conclusions will go far to determine 
 his conduct, but whilst he is under discipline this 
 may still be conformed thereto. The inner workings 
 of Thought, the secrets of the heart, will be in or out 
 of harmony with the outer conduct according as the 
 observance of rule has been dictated by principle or 
 expediency. 
 
 The quality and force of moral principles imbibed 
 during previous years are first tested practically 
 when the direct influence of tutors and the restraints 
 of discipline are removed. In the meantime, there- 
 fore, their supremacy will be determined or their 
 subordination to expediency will be established almost 
 entirely by the experience and intercourse of the 
 first periods. 
 
 HABIT OF THOUGHT is an exponent of character. 
 Nearly every faculty, mental and physical, is by this 
 time moulded more or less definitely into the form 
 of habit. The manner in which almost every act is 
 done, the mode of proceeding by thought, word, or 
 deed, is dependent to a greater or less degree on 
 habitual practice. Life has already begun to run its 
 course in lines that were first imperceptibly traced, 
 and have since been deepened into grooves. In so far 
 as these may give a salutary direction to Thought,
 
 I 86 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 word, and deed, mental training will have been useful 
 and successful, and vice versa. The training, whether 
 it have been by judicious care or by culpable neglect, 
 is now crystallized into definite shape and exhibited 
 in character. Even the Will, the master-power of the 
 mental estate, runs with smooth, almost mechanical 
 motion under the influence of habit if faith in, and 
 obedience to, authority have been happily established 
 during that appointed time when, in the order of 
 Providence, the natural conditions were so favourable 
 for the purpose. 
 
 SUMMARY. It was comparatively easy to summarize 
 the mental progress of the first periods of our history, 
 but the difficulty increases with each successive stage, 
 and it has now become impossible to state with even 
 approximate correctness what the mental condition 
 may have become at the close of the educational course. 
 The different kinds and degrees of mental attainment 
 acquired during this period depend upon so many 
 diverse factors that mental condition could not be re- 
 duced to any general formula. The kind of knowledge 
 acquired will have been decided by the social grade in 
 each case and by the future avocation each is destined 
 to follow. But whatever the social grade of the 
 youth, his natural capacity and the kind of pursuit 
 for which his education is intended to qualify him, 
 the success of his instructors and the eventual mental 
 attainments of the pupil, will be determined in a far 
 greater degree by the disposition and qualifications 
 with which he entered upon his school-life than by 
 any efforts his instructors could possibly exert. 
 
 Whatever may have been his natural mental calibre, 
 a good temper, docile disposition, and attentive habit 
 would facilitate the directing of the youth's faculties,
 
 FOURTH PERIOD: YOUTH. 187 
 
 further the aims pursued, and turn to account his 
 powers of mind ; whilst, on the other hand, the alter- 
 native disqualifications would embarrass the work of 
 the period and effectually hinder the progress of 
 mental attainment. 
 
 At the close of the educational course the mental 
 condition will be indicated in three principal ways 
 (i) by the kind and extent of the knowledge ac- 
 quired ; (2) by the discipline of the mental faculties, 
 and consequent power of employing such knowledge ; 
 and (3) by the nature and force of the moral principles 
 imbibed. Of these, the last-mentioned is that which 
 will be most influential in deciding the future 
 character and conduct, and in giving direction and 
 purpose to future effort. However important the 
 first-mentioned may be as a qualification for future 
 avocations, its influence on mental progress will 
 depend mainly upon the discipline of the mind and 
 the acquired habits as regards control and attention. 
 Hence, the future development of the inner self, after 
 the youth shall have attained the independence of 
 action for which he has sighed so long, will depend 
 less on the store of information he may have acquired 
 than on the discipline of his mind and the moral 
 principles by which his efforts will be directed. 
 
 Such being the relative importance of these three 
 factors of the individual estate, such has been the order 
 in which they have been regarded in the suggestions 
 we have made in these pages for the preparatory 
 processes of mental culture. Such, however, is not 
 the order of the estimation in which they are generally 
 held. Practically, this order is inverted. The first 
 place is usually accorded to the attainment of general 
 information. Parents generally so measure the value
 
 1 88 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 of the work done at school. In like manner the 
 qualification of candidates for the public services is 
 similarly tested. To us it seems strange and incon- 
 sistent that so much reliance should be placed upon 
 a, qualification which is itself generally of so fugitive 
 a nature. Still more so is it that the more per- 
 manent and more important qualification of mental 
 discipline should be so lightly esteemed as to be 
 virtually ignored. 
 
 The estimation in which youths themselves hold 
 the qualification to which such paramount importance 
 is attached by their parents and public employers may 
 be fairly measured by the way in which it is generally 
 regarded after it has served its purpose of delivering 
 them from tutelage or securing their admission to 
 some public appointment. There are probably few 
 who go so far as the youth mentioned in chapter xiii., 
 who buried his books irrecoverably in a deep hole ; 
 but a very great many who do not perform that 
 ceremony treat the lessons they have learned so 
 laboriously at school or college with equal neglect. 
 The proportion of those who afterwards pursue the 
 studies they began at school to those who forget 
 totally all but what their daily duties keep bright 
 by use is extremely, significantly small. 
 
 With regard to the third-mentioned of the fore- 
 going factors, the one which involves the actuating 
 principle of the individual estate, and which for that 
 reason we hold to be of paramount importance, little 
 can be positively known in this stage of the mental 
 history. Except in regard to appearances, it has by 
 this time generally become a close secret between the 
 youth and his Maker. The anxiety of parents in 
 this respect, however, is not as a rule so much
 
 FOUHTH PERIOD: \OUTH. 189 
 
 exercised in regard to the general principles of good 
 and evil, as these are set forth in the Christian faith, 
 as it is for the maintenance of the particular sectarian 
 distinctions to which they give their own adhesion. 
 The natural effect upon the mind of youth of thus 
 setting a practically higher value on the mint and 
 anise than upon the vital principles of judgment and 
 faith is a terrible disparagement of these weightier 
 matters, and tends to lower incalculably the true 
 estimate of religious truth.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 
 
 A REVIEW of the brief sketch contained in the four 
 preceding chapters shows that the human mind is 
 developed according to the same order which prevails 
 in the world of Nature generally. Beginning its 
 existence from zero, at the birth of the babe, it 
 attains its maturity by a slow and regular process. 
 It further appears that mental power has a certain 
 natural relation to other forces, by which relation its 
 place and functions in the order of Nature are 
 determined. In the human subject the immediate 
 relation of the mental power is with a highly 
 developed organism, endowed with most susceptible 
 corporeal sensibilities. These are in a high state of 
 development when the mental force originates in 
 their midst. The process of its growth has a 
 certain natural relation to those corporeal sensi- 
 bilities and powers. Its development is not casual, 
 but follows a regular, natural order determined by 
 that relation, and proceeds in accordance with laws 
 analogous to those which regulate other natural 
 developments in general. 
 
 In order to understand the actual place of the 
 mental force in the order of Nature, and to see its par- 
 ticular relation to the human individual, it is neces- 
 sary to trace it to its origin in the lower animals,
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 
 
 where, in the order of Nature, it first makes its appear- 
 ance. There its origin is very obscure, being first 
 manifest in creatures of a very low order of organism, 
 endowed with sensibilities of a very elementary kind 
 and with volition of a very circumscribed extent. 
 
 In them it exercises very limited functions, being 
 restricted to an environment proportioned to the 
 powers and sensibilities of the organisms, and there- 
 fore attaining a low degree of development correspond- 
 ing to the sphere of its operations. Thence, proceeding 
 through many successive orders of animals of gradually 
 increasing organism and of higher corporeal sensibili- 
 ties, the mental force and functions progress in pro- 
 portion to, and in dependence upon, the development 
 of the organisms and their enlarged environment. 
 They attain their highest power and widest sphere 
 of operation where this is most advanced and is pos- 
 sessed of the greatest sensibilities. Hence it appears 
 that the mental powers depend for their development 
 upon the means and appliances supplied by the 
 organism for their connection and communication with 
 the outer world. 
 
 Man, possessing the highest development of cor- 
 poreal organism and power of sensibility, is thereby 
 endowed with the conditions by means of which 
 mental force and functions may be exerted upon the 
 world of Nature in its widest sense, and may therefore 
 achieve their utmost attainments. Still, it is not by 
 his mental powers that man is distinguished from the 
 lower orders of intelligent beings. In these powers 
 he excels the brutes only in degree, and but for the 
 means conferred upon him by language the com- 
 parison even in this respect would be very different 
 from what it now appears. The characteristic which
 
 1 92 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 distinguishes man from the lower animals is not one 
 of degree, but of kind. It is not in what may be 
 attained by the mental powers, but by the discern- 
 ment of good and evil, the basis of moral force. It 
 is not in a further development of the lower nature, 
 but in the introduction of a higher, which is destined 
 to subject and supersede that lower nature. It con- 
 sists in a new element moral force, which was 
 introduced into the world when man first attained 
 his likeness to the Divine nature by his knowledge 
 of good and evil, and thus became endowed with a 
 conscience. 
 
 This new factor came into operation in its appointed 
 time and place in the order of Nature, as those other 
 forces which preceded and prepared the way for it 
 had also come that is, when the conditions necessary 
 for the exercise of its functions had been established. 
 It appeared according to a prescribed order of the 
 universe, as this has been displayed in the develop- 
 ments of material Nature by the forces successively 
 brought into operation therein. Material order first 
 rose out of chaos by means of the gradual operation 
 of forces proper to that purpose. Thus through 
 successive stages of progress inorganic Nature re- 
 ceived such development as adapted it to vital action. 
 Vital force then supervened, and organisms appeared 
 upon the scene responsive to the new impulse, and 
 vital action began its course. Thence, through pro- 
 gressive steps, organisms attained a condition of 
 advancement such as to qualify them for the further 
 forces of sensation and volition. Thus, animals 
 endowed with voluntary activities and certain sensi- 
 bilities took their appointed place, fulfilled their part, 
 and accomplished the ends of Providence in preparing
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 193 
 
 the way for the mental force. With each new factor 
 comes a new development in which all others com- 
 bine, and by their united offices and operations a new 
 and higher order is attained. Hence the mental 
 force prepares the way for the introduction of the 
 moral, and this in turn opens the gate to that 
 spiritual state in which God, the supreme Centre 
 and Author of all the forces of the universe, sits 
 enthroned. 
 
 Each successive step in the mighty progress 
 depends, both for the forces which operate and for 
 the sphere of their operation, on that preceding, and 
 the whole form one connected, continuous chain from 
 the zero of a material chaos to the highest forms of 
 being known or conceivable. And as in the whole 
 jointly, so also in each severally, the progress from 
 its zero up to its appointed destiny is effected by 
 means of forces operating according to regular laws, 
 through successive stages, which are mutually inter- 
 dependent. It follows that the functions of the mind 
 are determined by the place the mental force occupies 
 amongst the other forces of Nature, and by its rela- 
 tion to those forces. 
 
 Further, the growth of mental power from zero to 
 maturity proceeds in the same manner and according 
 to similar laws in the individual as in the natural 
 world in general. In its earliest stages the mental 
 power in the human subject resembles that of the 
 more intelligent races of the brute creation. It 
 receives the first material on which it is exercised 
 through similar organs of sense. The first impres- 
 sions made on those organs are received, noted, and 
 formulated into ideas in the same way and by 
 similar means. In their first mental efforts, and in 
 
 o
 
 194 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 the first use of their faculties, the two races run 
 closely parallel, notwithstanding their wide departure 
 thereafter and the immeasurable difference of their 
 ultimate conditions the one being in permanent 
 bondage to its lower nature, and subject to the disso- 
 lution which awaits the material world ; the other, in- 
 vested with powers superior to its corporeal frame and 
 to its mental nature, and susceptible of a higher and 
 eternal life. The incipient mental faculty is stimu- 
 lated to its first perceptions and is entirely dominated 
 by bodily feelings and appetites, which supply the first 
 ideas and experiences to both the lower and higher 
 types of intelligent beings. First in point of order, 
 the animal or sensuous element furnishes to both the 
 knowledge necessary for their respective careers the 
 one to pursue and cultivate his own proper lower 
 nature, the other to subdue and subordinate that 
 nature by virtue of his own proper and higher nature. 
 The Archbishop of York, in his " Laws of Thought," 
 makes reason the distinguishing characteristic between 
 the human and the brute natures. This seems irre- 
 concilable, however, with the evidences of reasoning: 
 
 * * Q 
 
 power which abound in the lower. animals. Such in- 
 stances as those given in the Appendix to this work, 
 Notes 8 to 1 6, appear to afford irresistible proofs of 
 reasoning, and that of no mean order. These cases, 
 it will be observed, are independent of tuition of any 
 kind the spontaneous exercise of reason without 
 the aid of example or any form of suggestion. We 
 do not cite in this connection any cases where tuition 
 or training has been employed, as these, wonderful as 
 they are, might be said to involve a transfer of the 
 trainer's reason in some degree to the animal, and not 
 to be of his own natural power. These latter cases are
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 195 
 
 chiefly useful as proofs of the efficacy of the methods 
 employed in teaching. The others seem to show that 
 the mental element in the two races differs only in 
 degree, and that the true distinction lies, as before 
 stated, in the knowledge of good and evil, the basis 
 of the moral force in Nature. 
 
 The knowledge of good and evil is essential to the 
 effective choice of the former as the natural counter- 
 agent of evil, and is the means of subordinating the 
 lower nature to the purposes of the higher. The 
 appetites and passions of the lower nature in man 
 are necessary to the development of the higher, for 
 they constitute the kingdom to be subdued and 
 governed the sphere in which the higher power is 
 to be exerted. A right understanding of the Divine 
 purpose in ordaining the higher nature and its func- 
 tions requires a due recognition of the relation it 
 bears to the lower in the order of Nature. Hence 
 the natural history of the thinking faculty in man 
 needs to be studied from its first dawn, under the 
 dominating influence of the lower nature, up to its 
 maturity, where it is invested with its higher powers. 
 Until the birth and growth of the faculty and its 
 gradual development are fully traced it is not pos- 
 sible to establish mental science on the sure basis, 
 beginning at the beginning, and following up the 
 process of cultivation by means adapted to the end. 
 
 Such was the purpose in view in the preceding- 
 chapters, and, whilst sensible of much imperfection in 
 the brief sketch therein contained, it nevertheless 
 . discloses, in part at least, the secret workings of the 
 mind which lie hidden in the obscurity of infant life. 
 It may therefore afford some help towards a more 
 perfect solution of the problem on which depends the 
 
 O 2
 
 196 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 only prospect of success in giving a right direction, in 
 fostering a vigorous growth, and forming a healthy 
 constitution to the thinking faculty from the begin- 
 ning of its operation. 
 
 The successive stages of the mental progress, 
 viewed with reference to the relation of the mental 
 to the other natural forces in operation and to the 
 end to be attained, will appear, by a review of the 
 preceding chapters, to afford the most suitable 
 means, opportunities, and conditions for the work to 
 be done. The long period of helpless dependence 
 and pressing needs of the babe make his condition 
 the most favourable possible for enkindling those 
 feelings of love, faith, and spontaneous submission to 
 authority on which future training of the mental 
 faculty so much depends. Again, the tentative 
 efforts of all kinds which excite the first activities 
 of the growing faculties are precisely such as are 
 best adapted to cultivate and strengthen those 
 powers and at the same time to gain knowledge of 
 the kind most appropriate to the situation. The 
 ideas gleaned, during the unobserved action of the 
 mental powers, from the conduct of persons, and 
 from the aspects of external objects of the environ- 
 ment, are formed under conditions so completely 
 under the control of tutors as to afford them the 
 means of acquiring unbounded influence over the 
 infant. 
 
 The acquisition of oral language, the most neces- 
 sary kind of knowledge for the introduction to 
 learning and to life, is accomplished effectively by 
 the infant mind in a manner which proves that 
 learning is not of itself a great effort or a painful 
 task, but a natural operation, a matter of choice,
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 197 
 
 iind that, when pursued under suitable and natural 
 conditions, it is a source of personal gratification. 
 Such, in fact, is its character in the lower animals, 
 whose scions pick up all their knowledge (a con- 
 siderable sum) without the pains and penalties so 
 often accompanying the efforts of human tutors. 
 Men who undertake the teaching of the lower 
 animals recognize this as a fundamental principle 
 of their art. The secret of their success is in the 
 exercise of consummate patience and attractive de- 
 vices. They know that their pupils may nearly 
 always be allured to learn ; but few, even of those 
 it would be safe to chastise, could be driven to 
 learn and practise the tricks and performances that 
 .amuse the public. 
 
 Learning and imitation are, in fact, natural pro- 
 pensities in both the lower and higher races of 
 intelligent beings. This is shown as plainly by the 
 way in which language is acquired by children as 
 it is by the way a kitten learns to catch mice. 
 The exercise of observation and inference by which 
 infants acquire language is conclusively attested by 
 their use of speech, and it is equally certain that in 
 the same unobserved way they have also obtained 
 other kinds of knowledge of a less demonstrative 
 nature. It is not possible that they should have 
 .selected one particular subject of observation to the 
 exclusion of all others equally accessible to their 
 faculties. On the contrary, it is certain that, in the 
 same unobserved manner, they also acquire a con- 
 siderable stock of ideas of other kinds. Hence 
 (many of their precocities and peculiarities are attri- 
 buted to inheritance, as being otherwise unaccount- 
 able.
 
 198 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 The fact proved by the history of the early periods- 
 of mental progress namely, that there are appro- 
 priate times for the several acquirements comprised 
 in effective training of the intellect is not suffi- 
 ciently, if at all, recognized in the current practice, 
 and the consequence is that the work of training 
 the mind is generally neither well timed nor rightly 
 directed. 
 
 In tracing the current of Thought in. the progress 
 of mental action through the successive periods of 
 our history, only those conditions are discussed 
 which are common to children in general. There 
 are other conditions, however, of a more particular 
 kind affecting certain classes of children which 
 require notice. We do not refer to personal idio- 
 syncrasies, which are innumerable, but to such con- 
 ditions as affect considerable numbers. Of these, 
 sex, temperament, social position, environment, and 
 physical infirmity may be specified. The great 
 difference of natural capacity in individuals is dis- 
 cussed in a separate chapter on Inheritance in the 
 sequel. The others will be now briefly noticed. 
 
 SEX. The physical conditions and functions of 
 the sexes respectively affect the mental faculties 
 as regards both their force and operation. In the 
 lower animals, where no artificial conditions exist to- 
 interfere with the natural order, there is great diver- 
 sity of physical condition and relation between the 
 sexes. Beauty of form, colour, and adornment are as 
 often bestowed on the male as on the female. Song 
 in birds is most commonly characteristic of the male- 
 sex. The male spider of some species is insignificant 
 in all respects as compared with his Amazonian 
 spouse, who disposes of him summarily when his
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 199 
 
 services are no longer required. The queen bee is 
 altogether phenomenal, as is also the female termes, 
 in her physical proportions and functions. It does not 
 appear that any law can be deduced from the lower 
 grades of animal nature to determine the mental 
 relation of the sexes in general. The mental con- 
 dition seems to depend upon, and be determined by, 
 the physical functions. In the order of evolution 
 the mental has been adapted to the physical con- 
 ditions in each particular order. In the human 
 races the relative position of the female is generally 
 inferior both in physical force and mental status. 
 In aboriginal tribes her position varies considerably. 
 In some, she is little better than a slave and drudge ; 
 in others, she approaches equality with the male sex. 
 In the civilized races the mental distinction is rather 
 in the power than the quality of mental operation. 
 Women generally excel in that kind of discernment 
 which is independent of the reasoning powers, and 
 is strongly marked in young children and in the 
 lower animals. A woman sees the form and force of 
 a reason ; a man sees its anatomy. This latter is a 
 necessary qualification for scientific research and 
 exact reasoning, but in the ordinary affairs of 
 every-day life it is not required. The acute discern- 
 ment of women in such matters, and their indepen- 
 dence of the anatomy of the reasons, are an advan- 
 tage rather than a defect. 
 
 The training of the mental powers, with which we 
 are chiefly concerned, is not materially affected by 
 either the physical or functional differences of the 
 sexes. Their education differs chiefly in the par- 
 ticular kind of attainment most useful in their re- 
 spective spheres, and is not dictated by any such
 
 2OO NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 infirmity of the one or superiority of the other as 
 would necessitate a difference. 
 
 Modern ideas tend to disturb the old order of 
 things by conferring on women the qualifications for 
 other pursuits than those of domestic duty, and 
 giving them an independent mental and political 
 status. Women are proved to be quite equal to 
 such a position, but whether it is appropriate to the 
 sex is another matter, and one which does not con- 
 cern our present discussion. The training of female 
 children is effected with less friction than that of 
 the other sex, owing to their gentler disposition 
 and more acute discernment. This characteristic is 
 evident in their quicker acquirement of language, 
 the great agent of mental progress. Their milder 
 temper and disposition are due to the gentler and 
 more considerate treatment accorded to the sex in 
 the earliest stages of infancy. In the lowest orders, 
 where such consideration is less observed, they do 
 not exhibit the characteristic gentleness of the sex 
 in the same degree. 
 
 TEMPERAMENT. This element of individuality is 
 very influential in mental operations. As an impor- 
 tant physical condition it affects the nature and de- 
 gree of mental susceptibility. The results of treat- 
 ment depend very much on the temperament. Irri- 
 tation, for example, excites a nervous temperament 
 more acutely than a phlegmatic one. In the former, 
 it operates quickly and demonstratively ; in the latter, 
 it produces sullenness. In one, the effect is impetu- 
 ous ; in the other, deep and lasting. 
 
 The adaptation of mental training to individuals 
 of different temperament is more in the manner than 
 in the matter of the work. The moral element is the
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 201 
 
 same in all, though differing in the mode of its mani- 
 festation. Good and evil retain the same relation in 
 all. The quick impetuosity of the one is more 
 demonstrative, but not morally different from the 
 more hidden and deeply seated feeling of another. 
 In all alike, ideas of moral principles are originally 
 derived from example, and will accord therewith, 
 though the forms in which they are exhibited in con- 
 duct may differ. 
 
 SOCIAL GRADE. The general influence of social 
 position on the currents of Thought has been touched 
 upon in a former chapter, where it is shown that 
 though grade determines the external subject-matter 
 to a considerable extent, yet the circumstances that 
 influence character and conduct do not vary materially 
 in different grades. 
 
 The tendency of modern legislation for the educa- 
 tion of the lower classes is to assimilate the instruc- 
 tion given in Board schools to that imparted in 
 private institutions to youths of the higher classes. 
 But, whatever kind of education may be deemed 
 necessary for youths generally, the qualification re- 
 quired to enable them to avail themselves of it effec- 
 tively must be acquired in former stages. Under 
 the prevailing practice, the proper conditions of re- 
 ceptivity are hardly ever present in children of any 
 grade, and other conditions adverse to the processes 
 of education are frequently established instead. The 
 preparatory qualifications seem to be as compatible 
 with the circumstances of the lower as with those 
 of the higher classes, excepting only those of the 
 very lowest and utterly degraded class. 
 
 The recognition of the appropriate times and oppor- 
 tunities which in the order of Providence have been
 
 202 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 adapted for the different branches of mental culture 
 is the first step towards a reform of existing practice, 
 and this is equally practicable and important to all 
 classes. 
 
 Children of the lower orders have an advantage in 
 receiving their first training from their own parents, 
 whereas the children of the upper classes are generally 
 consigned for their early training to the care of de- 
 pendents, who neither feel nor could be inspired with 
 the same sense of responsibility as parents. In all 
 grades the ideas on which actuating principles depend 
 are suggested by example, and are inferred in the 
 same manner as the meanings of words from observa- 
 tion. They are, in the main, of the same character, 
 so far as regards their intrinsic moral value, in all 
 classes. 
 
 Immoral habits are more flagrant in the lower than 
 in the higher classes, but this is a difference of 
 appearance only, and not of moral turpitude. The 
 vices of the rich are not less offensive to virtue, nor 
 in their naked reality are they less revolting, than 
 those .of the poor. The drunkard reeling out of the 
 ginshop and uttering his coarse language is not more 
 repulsive than the wealthy sot whose vice is con- 
 cealed from open scandal. Literary or scientific 
 attainments and refined language do not in any way 
 mitigate culpability nor qualify the comparison of the 
 offence of the rich with that of his neighbour in the 
 street. In all grades the appetites, passions, and 
 forces of the lower nature suggest the same tempta- 
 tions under different forms, and, in all, the conflict 
 with the higher proceeds from the same sources and 
 is waged with like severity. Scripture teaches that 
 triumph is more frequent amongst the poor than
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 203 
 
 amongst the rich. The noblest Exemplar of virtue 
 and Teacher of truth who ever trod this earth chose, 
 in His Divine wisdom, for the accomplishment of His 
 great work, the rank of the poorer class of mankind. 
 
 The opportunities for mental culture differ in kind 
 in the different grades of society, but, in all, the higher 
 nature has the same opportunity and the same diffi- 
 culty in asserting its supremacy over the lower. It 
 is worthy of note that one of the most striking and 
 exemplary instances of true generosity recorded in 
 Scripture was exhibited by one of the poorest 
 and humblest grade the widow who gave her two 
 mites. 
 
 ENVIRONMENT, EXAMPLE, &c. The several in- 
 fluences affecting mental progress respectively pro- 
 duced by environment, example, and the elements of 
 evil and error, which are universally and inseparably 
 mixed up with these factors, are not distinguishable 
 one from another. The influences which determine 
 the nature and degree of mental progress, character, 
 and moral principle in each individual vary according 
 to the share contributed by these factors jointly and 
 severally. 
 
 Seeing that the ideas first formed in the infant 
 mind are acquired by observation of what is within 
 the range of its perceptions, and that the mental 
 powers must necessarily unless actually dormant 
 be exercised thereupon, the importance of the 
 subject-matter so submitted for his contemplation, 
 whether in the form of word, conduct, treatment, or 
 external environment, cannot be overrated. Seeing 
 also that a knowledge of language is acquired during 
 the very earliest stages of infancy, the powers 
 of observation and inference necessary for that
 
 204 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 purpose are clearly proved. It stands to reason, 
 therefore, that those same powers were not exclu- 
 sively confined to that one kind of exercise. Words 
 were not the only subject-matter of all that came 
 within the range of perception to attract notice or 
 to be selected for special contemplation. On the 
 contrary, it is equally certain that conduct and all 
 other subject-matter of the child's environment were 
 regarded with some degree of attention and were 
 productive of effective results. Although other forms 
 of knowledge may not be so easily applied nor so 
 demonstratively exhibited, the possession of them in 
 some degree is equally certain. In fact, the little 
 precocities and surprises of continual occurrence, and 
 which often seem so unaccountable, are thus easily 
 accounted for, as are also the developments of temper 
 and other forms of character the origin of which 
 seems so obscure that they are almost always attri- 
 buted to inheritance that most convenient of all 
 excuses for the results of mismanagement of children. 
 Hence, the influences of example, conduct, and of 
 all the elements of environment operate concurrently 
 and with the same force along with those from which 
 the knowledge of language was derived. The fact 
 that, during the waking hours of babyhood and in- 
 fancy, the mental powers are thus proved to be 
 always occupied in observation of what is within 
 range of perception that the elements of environ- 
 ment determine the subject-matter of contemplation 
 that, in short, before precept could reach his in- 
 tellect, example and conduct have been always 
 instructing, and the young mind has always been 
 imbibing the practical lessons so imparted is the 
 most impressive of all the facts of infant training
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 2O5 
 
 and of tutors' responsibility. Add to this the 
 further fact of the universal and inevitable admix- 
 ture of evil and error, of what is wrong in principle 
 and delusive in appearance, in all the elements of 
 environment relating to both persons and things, 
 and it will suggest most serious considerations 
 respecting the conditions imposed, the functions ful- 
 filled, and the influence exerted by environment, in 
 the comprehensive signification of the term, on the 
 nature and degree of mental progress in infancy. 
 The responsibility of tutors during the infant's help- 
 lessness and dependence manifestly includes the 
 important duty of adapting the environment to the 
 end in view viz., the eifective training of his mental 
 powers and moral principles. 
 
 The foregoing considerations fully confirm the 
 general principle, already enunciated in a former 
 chapter, that in infancy the knowledge of external 
 things depends upon the material objects, and the 
 ideas of actuating principles are imbibed from the 
 personal example and conduct exhibited in the en- 
 vironment. 
 
 Considering, then, the early and effective opera- 
 tions of the infant mind, and the influential ideas 
 that are then imbibed, it follows that the mental 
 and moral atmosphere of the environment should be 
 purged with not less care and solicitude than are 
 observed in regard to physical and sanitary con- 
 ditions. The culpable indifference and improvidence 
 which have often proved so fatal to human life in 
 regard to these conditions have elicited legislative 
 interference for their enforcement in all large com- 
 munities. The same culpable disregard of the 
 mental and moral influences to which the human
 
 206 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 mind is generally subjected in its infant and helpless 
 stages is productive of even worse results upon the 
 progress of the human mind ; but there is, un- 
 fortunately, no legal remedy for the abuses and 
 demoralization so produced. Government interferes 
 in the way of education at a later stage, after the 
 preparatory processes have been already too effec- 
 tively completed, and the germs of mental and 
 moral corruption have been sown. The only avail- 
 able remedy is by means of the dissemination of 
 correct principles, founded upon a knowledge of the 
 working of the infant mind. 
 
 Natural affection, and the emotions thereby en- 
 kindled, afford strong motives for parental care and 
 solicitude ; but these are of themselves the offspring 
 of the mental nature, and do not supply that pure 
 moral atmosphere so necessary to the cultivation of 
 the infant mind and to the infusion therein of true 
 moral principles. Natural affections differ very little 
 in people of all grades and varieties of character. 
 Even the lower .animals show great tenderness, 
 patience, and indulgence to their young. It is 
 remarkable that they rarely ever manifest anger 
 towards them or use violence. They endure the 
 most persistent provocation from their too playful or 
 too exacting progeny with forbearance such as is not 
 common amongst human parents. The ill-tempers 
 exhibited by the lower animals, of which some 
 instances are cited in the Appendix, are the result 
 of ill-treatment received, not from their own parents, 
 but from the hand of man. 
 
 The family institution is a form of environment 
 eminently promotive of good influences on the young, 
 by means of the exhibition of domestic virtues,
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 20? 
 
 stimulated by natural affection, on the part of the 
 elder members. Experience of life, knowledge of 
 men and things, and example of conduct are there 
 practically manifested in the little epitome of the 
 outer world to the younger members, who, in their 
 earliest stages, imbibe the ideas so suggested, in the 
 same unobserved but effective manner in which they 
 also acquire language at the same period. 
 
 The imitative power and propensity are also there 
 stimulated, and hence particular gestures, habits, 
 and manners, mental and moral, are repeated in 
 children, and are commonly attributed to inheritance, 
 because no other origin was observable. So far, 
 however, as these imitations tend to evil, the results 
 are shown in chapter xv. to be the natural effects of 
 more immediate causes, and the responsibility for 
 their appearance is fixed accordingly. 
 
 The employment of ignorant persons in the nursery, 
 and the delegation to them of duties properly be- 
 longing to parents, are common errors of domestic 
 practice, and are responsible for some of the worst 
 results of the prevailing custom of the middle and 
 upper classes. To such example may often be attri- 
 buted the tendency to falsehood so common amongst 
 children, and many other ideas, superstitions, preju- 
 dices, and mischievous fictions that infest childhood, 
 and often persist through life. 
 
 Another source of mischief, and even demoralization, 
 in family practice is the habit of speaking and acting in 
 the presence of very young children as if they were 
 unobservant and had no understanding. Far from 
 escaping their notice or being unintelligible, they are 
 often attentively noted, for children are sometimes 
 most intent when they seem most unconscious. Hence
 
 208 NATURAL HISTOKY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 it happens very frequently that children are punished 
 for knowing what was plainly said or done in their 
 presence, and for imitating naturally and innocently 
 what they have seen their tutors do. Disclosures 
 of an unexpected and unwelcome kind are often thus 
 made, with painful results to others beside the child. 
 Seeing that infants are so observant, as has already 
 been proved, and that example is often so ill-adapted 
 for their imitation, and that, in fact, they see and 
 hear so much that was not intended to reach and 
 pollute their minds, it is easy to account for all the 
 strange tempers and ill-manners which are developed 
 in later childhood, without need to have recourse to 
 remote ancestry or other imaginary causes of their 
 origin. 
 
 As we have had frequent occasion to refer to the 
 general practice of regarding very young children as 
 unconscious and unobservant of what is going on 
 around them, we may here digress to consider the 
 reason of so general and influential a mistake. It 
 seems to be attributable to the fact that facial expres- 
 sion is not a natural, but an acquired habit, derived 
 from observation, and practised by imitation. Before 
 it is acquired, therefore, observers assume, from the 
 absence of the customary marks of apprehension, that 
 the mind is unconscious. Until the usual response 
 of facial expression is acquired and practised, the 
 actual expression may be, and often is, one of 
 vacancy. The habit of regarding the countenance of 
 persons to whom speech is addressed, in order to 
 engage attention and note the expression of feature, 
 is quite universal amongst adults, and the result of 
 his words is clearly manifest to the speaker, who is 
 guided accordingly. This manner of accounting for
 
 HE VIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 209 
 
 a vacant expression in young children is strongly 
 confirmed by the incident related in Note 6 of the 
 Appendix, where the absence of facial response was 
 sadly misinterpreted, and led to painful result. 
 
 Conscientious reflection on the influence of example, 
 and especially of its potency in early infancy, when 
 no palliating explanations are possible nor any atone- 
 ment practicable, and considering also the responsi- 
 bility thereby imposed on tutors, it might well be 
 asked, who is sufficient for these things ? If, indeed, 
 evil in example and error in fact were required to 
 be excluded, the answer would be simple. The task 
 would be superhuman. But no such obligation is 
 laid upon tutors ; nor would it be appropriate in a 
 world in which evil exists for a purpose, and is to 
 be overcome, not escaped. The element of evil is 
 necessary to the training of the human mind and to 
 the testing of the moral nature. Its exhibition in 
 the world is the practical proof of its real character, 
 which is manifest in its results, and could be neither 
 taught nor understood, nor conceived otherwise. Its 
 most revolting developments have therefore a pur- 
 pose which could in no other way be fulfilled. 
 Fallibility, imperfection, error, and evil are parts of 
 the insignia of the probationary state of this life 
 elements of the work for which the present life is 
 ordained. 
 
 It is not necessary that tutors should be faultless 
 in conduct. The essential qualification for the due 
 discharge of the onerous duty they owe to the infant 
 training is that evil shall wear its own colours, and 
 never be made to stand for its opposite. The rule of 
 right and wrong should be inflexible, and apply alike 
 to tutor and pupil. Whatever is wrong should so 
 
 p
 
 210 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 appear, and be neither excused, nor palliated, nor 
 otherwise made to seem different from what it is. As 
 it forms the special business of life to choose between 
 good and evil, loth are set before the free agent. It 
 may be humiliating to personal pride to admit being 
 in the wrong, but it is far worse to be convicted of 
 it. The next best thing to avoiding evil is to admit 
 it frankly, and make such amends as may be possible. 
 
 Errors in regard to ideas of external objects are 
 comparatively unimportant, and may be corrected. 
 Even whilst they prevail they do not affect character, 
 nor stand in the way of vital truth. On the other 
 hand, errors affecting the principles of conduct or 
 Divine truth bar the attainment of spiritual excel- 
 lence and oppose the supremacy of the higher 
 nature. 
 
 Of all the influences directly and indirectly depen- 
 dent upon environment, example is by far the most 
 important to the cultivation of the infant mind. On 
 it depends the only possible ideas an infant can 
 acquire of moral principle. Even when he is able 
 to understand precept, it derives its meaning and 
 receives its interpretation from the exemplification 
 of moral principles in his experience. 
 
 And of all that example comprises or implies, 
 consistency is the characteristic which most certainly 
 inspires and sustains that confidence which gives 
 force and effect to personal influence. 
 
 SICKNESS, INFIRMITY, &c. The various effects 
 produced by the numerous causes that would come 
 under this denomination differ so widely that it 
 would not be practicable to discuss them separately, 
 or even to classify them in such manner as to con- 
 sider them severally. Almost all forms of physical
 
 REVIEW OF THE FOUR PERIODS. 211 
 
 ailment affect the mental powers, but the tendency 
 in general is rather to divert than to diminish the 
 capacities. Those which restrict the environment 
 tend to encourage the reflective faculties in propor- 
 tion as the range of perception is narrowed. They 
 also tend to exalt the perceptive faculty in its 
 exercise on the fewer objects which come under 
 observation. If the authorship of all the eulogies 
 that have been pronounced on the beauties of Nature 
 were statistically classified, it is probable that the 
 most affecting, if not the most numerous, would be 
 those of valetudinarians. The sensitiveness peculiar 
 to bodily weakness may contribute to the high 
 appreciation such persons usually have for natural 
 beauty. 
 
 Children suffer, on the whole, more than adults, 
 and that form of suffering which is most general, and 
 which excites the most sympathy, is teething. As it 
 occurs at a time when they are so helpless and de- 
 pendent, and is in itself scarcely susceptible of any 
 form of alleviation other than that which sympathy 
 affords, it would seem to be ordained for that object. 
 On no other occasion does an infant seek so anxiously 
 for the solace of the maternal bosom. In the midst 
 of his suffering he will there sink into a peaceful 
 sleep. He is at such times most sensible of his own 
 dependence and of her sympathy and love. His firm 
 trust and her warm sympathy are typical of the 
 .sinner's faith in the Saviour's love and in the efficacy 
 of His office. 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENT. It is probable that mental pro- 
 gress in the juvenile mind in regard to all kinds of 
 knowledge, but more especially to the development 
 of correct ideas and habitual practice of principles, 
 
 1' 2
 
 212 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 mental and moral, is in no other way so strongly 
 influenced as by the stimulus of encouragement and 
 success. Children universally manifest the warmest 
 appreciation of such attention and aid, on the part of 
 tutors, as evince an interest in their efforts, whether 
 to understand a new idea or to effect a desired pur- 
 pose. Sympathetic aid or encouragement never fails 
 to elicit a marked response, and is never thrown away. 
 
 RIDICULE. We deprecate on principle recourse 
 to this very common form of appeal to feeling, be- 
 cause it is an irritant. It may not be safely prac- 
 tised amongst adults on that account ; and it is at 
 best a cowardly proceeding to practise upon a child a 
 remedy too pungent for an equal. The natural effect 
 thereby produced, and the feeling so aroused, are too 
 familiar to need any illustration ; but we were struck 
 on reading a recent narrative with the effect of 
 ridicule upon a company of aborigines, the Veddahs 
 of Ceylon. Mr. Stephens, who recently spent some 
 months amongst them, was moved to mirth by the 
 performance of a Veddah who was acting. Inad- 
 vertently, and forgetting for the moment the sensi- 
 tiveness of these natives to ridicule, he laughed. On 
 the instant an arrow whizzed past him, and he nar- 
 rowly escaped a terrible penalty for his forgetfulness. 
 
 In whatever terms ridicule may be characterized, 
 it certainly does not come under the category of what 
 is good. It is evil in whatever guise it may assume, 
 and is therefore not a weapon to be employed for 
 overcoming or counteracting any other form of evil. 
 Its effect on children is mischievous, and sets them 
 an example they are but too ready to follow, and 
 which, though it may make them many enemies, will 
 never in a lifetime make them one single friend.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 
 
 THE force of habit is so generally acknowledged, and 
 indeed is so sensibly felt in individual experience, that 
 no argument could make it more convincing than the 
 testimony it affords of itself. Naturally it is most 
 influential in the domain of Thought, inasmuch as it 
 there becomes the parent of most other habits. By 
 general consent it is called second nature, and it may 
 be second in point of order, but it generally attains 
 .supremacy in importance by the direction it gives to 
 the operation of the natural powers. 
 
 The influence of habit is universal, determining the 
 direction of the currents of Thought and prescribing 
 the form of the activities of both body and mind. 
 These activities take their course from the very first 
 along the lines of least resistance, or of superior force. 
 However faint they may be at first, these lines 
 deepen by degrees, and eventually acquire directing 
 force. Thenceforth the future course of Thought or 
 mode of action follows the prescribed lines. Thus 
 what was at first but a slight inclination, the fine 
 dust of the balance, becomes a dominating power. In 
 the end it operates almost involuntarily and me- 
 chanically, superseding the action of the Will, which 
 gives its tacit assent to the familiar force. Hence 
 character becomes resolved into a congeries of acquired
 
 214 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 habits of Thought, and life represents the sum total 
 of their products. Insensibly, but certainly, the 
 modes of action become moulded into habitual shape ; 
 the very forms of expression, inflexions of voice, and 
 smallest gestures become characteristic, and would 
 even identify the individual when his features could 
 not be seen. 
 
 Habit being thus universal in its sphere of in- 
 fluence, and so predominant, it deserves a first place 
 in the training of the intellect both in order of time 
 and importance. The fact that the formation of habit 
 commences with the very first exercise of the bodily 
 and mental powers, obedient to whatever forces may 
 incline them in a given direction, suggests vigilant 
 attention of tutors to the first indications of inclina- 
 tion in infant mental activities. Current practice 
 does not recognize this duty, but assumes that, until 
 habits have become fixed and predominant, they need 
 no particular care. 
 
 There is nothing in the dominating influence of 
 habit that affects the principle of free agency, for it 
 is in its formation subject to the consent, if it be not 
 by the inclination, of the Will. And even after it 
 has become established, the supremacy of the Will 
 may by a vigorous effort be restored, and the habit 
 thereby checked, or even in most cases eradicated. 
 Still, such effort is not often aroused in adults, and 
 could not be expected of children, even if they had 
 intelligence sufficient to understand the need for it. 
 In the infant stage, the duty of initiating good and 
 restraining evil habits devolves upon their tutors, 
 who are generally but little impressed with the need 
 that exists for their studious and vigilant attention 
 to this particular. Hence, many habits formed in
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 2 I 5 
 
 early infancy require to be overcome in after-life by 
 means of efforts which otherwise might have been 
 much better expended. In the meantime, character 
 may have suffered, the lower nature may have been 
 fortified, and much ineradicable evil done. Of such 
 are the common habits of untruthfulness and ill- 
 tempers, the results of which are often lifelong. 
 
 Habits are, in their inception, weak and easily 
 amenable to correction, but those which are con- 
 tracted in infancy, and with which, therefore, we are 
 most concerned, originate with the ignorance, neglect, 
 or example of tutors, from whom nearly all the first 
 ideas are derived, directly or indirectly. They should 
 therefore be prevented by salutary conditions of 
 nursery environment and precautions of conduct, 
 and should not need correction. Still, when that is 
 necessary, the suasive influence of affectionate re- 
 straint will prevail, especially if exerted judiciously 
 during the period of conscious dependence of the 
 infant. In regard to those habits which are not 
 directly inspired by example, and which originate in 
 the infant mind, the sphere of infant Thought is so 
 restricted, and the lines of possible inclination, the 
 motive influences, are so few, that such habits are 
 easily under the observation, and control of watchful 
 tutors, who, therefore, are also morally responsible for 
 them. 
 
 Temper, which is the habit of feeling towards other 
 persons induced by the treatment experienced, is 
 the particular habit which is the most important of 
 those contracted in infancy, and is so influenced by 
 feelings, and dependent thereupon, that it practically 
 rests far more with tutors than with the infant him- 
 self.
 
 2l6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Imitation, the natural impulse of the infant 
 faculties in response to the actions and manners of 
 tutors, is a powerful agent in the initiation of some 
 habits acquired in infancy. Hence the frequent and 
 remarkable resemblances of gesture and other 
 observable habits to those of tutors. From these 
 resemblances, the origin of which is so obvious, it 
 may be confidently inferred that other less noticeable 
 acts are similarly imitated, and with equal effect, not- 
 withstanding their less obvious manifestation. 
 
 Though originating in single acts, habits do not 
 assume their proper character as such, or become 
 apparent to observation, until they are indicated by 
 repetition. Hence, their origin is imperceptible, and 
 the progress of their gradual formation is often un- 
 noticed until they have attained at least such partial 
 development as to be recognizable as habits. In 
 adults, who seldom enjoy the advantage of being 
 corrected or warned in such matters, habits often 
 grow up insensibly, without the knowledge of their 
 victims, who, not " seeing themselves as others see 
 them," persevere in them, to their personal disfigure- 
 ment. Such habits of gesture are, however, un- 
 important as compared with those less noticeable ones 
 which affect character and impair the beauty and 
 symmetry of a life. Yet these commence as obscurely, 
 grow as imperceptibly, and become as fully developed 
 in the domain of Thought as those in gesture or 
 manner of action. Habits of gesture are easily seen, 
 and may be readily corrected, especially in child- 
 hood, but those which affect the currents of Thought 
 are often quite imperceptible, concealed in the secret 
 of the heart, unknown, it may be, even to their 
 possessors. One of Goldsmith's intimate friends once
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 2I/ 
 
 offered to tell him what he was thinking. Gold- 
 smith accepted the challenge, and then discovered, by 
 his friend's reply, that his habit of thought was 
 better known to others than to himself! 
 
 Although habits of Thought may not be noticeable 
 to observers, and may be even unknown to their 
 subjects, the existence of such mental habits is 
 nevertheless certain, as is proved by the evidence 
 afforded by those more obvious ones which betray 
 themselves to the eye. For it is not reasonable to 
 suppose that the imitative propensity on the one 
 hand, or the natural tendency of Thought to 
 gravitate, so to speak, in the direction of greatest 
 attraction on the other hand, would be partial in 
 their operation and confined to selected spheres. As 
 natural forces operating generally, these causes 
 assuredly produce their appropriate habits, whether 
 visibly, in gesture and manner, or imperceptibly, in 
 mental peculiarities. In short, it is certain that 
 whenever any effort, whether corporeal, mental, or 
 moral, is made, that form or direction of the effort 
 which involves the least exertion, most facility, or 
 strongest stimulus will gain an almost involuntary 
 preference. Hence, lines of direction are traced 
 lightly at first, and are gradually deepened into 
 grooves that determine the course of mental action. 
 Such is the natural history of the inception, growth, 
 and development of that most potent element of 
 mental and moral culture, habit. 
 
 The fact of the insensible origin and unobserved 
 growth of habits obscures their real causes ; where- 
 fore, as these are not recognized, others are conjured 
 up to account for them. Hence, when they become 
 evident by their manifestation, they are generally
 
 218 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 attributed to natural depravity or to natural en- 
 dowment, according as the particular habit may 
 exhibit some infirmity of temper or some form of 
 mental power. 
 
 Insensible as are the beginnings of the early history 
 of habits of thinking, their influence is far-reaching* 
 and of the gravest import, as will be shown in the 
 sequel. Hence, the conditions of environment, which 
 determine the subject-matter for the earliest exercise 
 of the infant mind, and which, therefore, influence 
 the form and direction of mental effort, merit the 
 most earnest solicitude of tutors, who in that help- 
 less period of their pupils' history are responsible for 
 those conditions. Equally necessary is it in after- 
 life to beware of such slight preferences as might 
 grow insensibly into the form and force of bad habits,, 
 and, on the other hand, to cultivate such as have a 
 useful and beneficial tendency. These may become, 
 under the fostering influence of encouragement, noble 
 traits of character, and may prove powerful aids to 
 virtue. Such, for example, are small acts of charity 
 and self-denial, the fruits of which may develop into 
 glorious deeds. Of such are many splendid en- 
 dowments which abound throughout this country. 
 On the other hand, the beginnings of self-indulgence, 
 whether in the use of stimulants or other form of 
 selfish taste, are maleficent, destructive of moral 
 character, and make the thinking faculty the slave 
 of the lower nature. 
 
 The order in which those habits are formed in 
 infancy which are most influential in after-life is 
 regulated naturally by the corporeal and mental 
 conditions of that period. Each of them has, in fact, 
 a natural and appropriate time when its inception
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 2 19 
 
 and early growth may be easily insured. The re- 
 cognition of these golden opportunities is an element 
 of primary importance in mental culture, and one, 
 therefore, to which the force of example and adapta- 
 tion of environment should be specially directed. 
 On the use of those opportunities it mainly depends 
 whether successive stages afterwards be charac- 
 terized by peace or conflict, and whether the higher 
 or lower nature shall prevail. Their neglect or 
 abuse in the first two periods determines whether 
 the period of childhood be one of perpetual trouble 
 and collision or be marked by peaceful progress 
 whether the youth proceeds to school with a dis- 
 position to learn, and with those qualifications most 
 conducive to a prosperous career, or whether such 
 adverse conditions as idleness, distaste for learning, 
 and an intractable temper oppose the efforts of the 
 master and the progress of the pupil. 
 
 The multiform developments these and other 
 allied characteristics assume in adults need not here 
 be discussed. They are present to the view of every 
 individual, as seen in others and felt by himself. 
 Reflecting on them and their early origin calls to 
 mind the speech of a celebrated French criminal, 
 who, from the scaffold, anathematized his parents 
 for their neglect of parental duty in his childhood, 
 whereby they had become the authors of his ruin. 
 
 In so far as action is influenced by temperament, 
 habit will of course be modified by this important 
 factor, which therefore is in all cases to be taken 
 into account. Although it does not affect the moral 
 influence of treatment or example, temperament 
 modifies their force and effect very materially. A 
 natural tendency to activity in one and to compara-
 
 220 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 tive indolence in another, the sensitiveness of one 
 and the callousness of another, and other such-like 
 differences arising from temperament, will be in- 
 fluential accordingly. Such differences will suggest 
 to tutors the manner of their proceeding, and could 
 not be here discussed with advantage. The rule of 
 conduct applicable alike to all cases is prescribed by 
 the fact that the natural forces in operation produce 
 their appropriate natural effects, whether in mental 
 and moral or in physical nature. 
 
 There is one principal habit which materially 
 affects the general operation of the mental faculties, 
 and which therefore has a decisive influence on all 
 other habits of Thought. Indeed, it is a chief 
 exponent of character. Whether the mental facul- 
 ties are habitually under the control and direction 
 of the Will, or are generally allowed to follow in a 
 desultory way whatsoever course outward objects or 
 internal suggestions may prove most captivating, 
 indicates that particular habit or condition of the 
 mind which determines the general force and effect 
 of its powers. Reverting, for the sake of illustration, 
 to a simile employed in a former chapter the castle 
 may either be kept vigilantly and under control, or 
 be unguarded and open. Its inmates may either be 
 under discipline or left free to take their ease and 
 follow their own devices. Admission may be either 
 by licence, or indiscriminate. The gate may either 
 be closed to all but those visitors who have a useful 
 mission, or it may be left ajar for any loiterer, 
 casual, or enemy to enter at his own list. 
 
 Such being the distinction between the two lead- 
 ing principles on which the mental powers are 
 exercised, one or other will, in every case, be pre-
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 221 
 
 dominant in a greater or less degree, and will 
 constitute the mental characteristic of the indivi- 
 dual. One or the other will determine the general or 
 habitual mode of mental action. Neither will, even 
 in the most extreme case, prevail entirely, for no 
 one is either so utterly and helplessly subject to 
 casual influence as to be unable by strong effort to 
 exert some measure of control ; nor, on the other 
 hand, could any one obtain and exert at all times 
 such supreme command of his thoughts as to resist 
 all external forces and the occasional pressure of 
 overpowering circumstance. In either case the Will 
 may be exerted : in the one, naturally, and with the 
 prevailing force of habit, and in the other by a pain- 
 ful, unaccustomed strain, of doubtful issue. 
 
 Of these two states or habits of mind, one gives 
 force and efficacy to the mental powers and strength 
 to character ; the other weakens the intellect, and 
 tends to other habits which subordinate the higher 
 to the lower nature. The dissipating effect of a 
 listless habit extends to every department of mental 
 action. The habit of controlling and directing 
 Thought to whatsoever may be most worthy of 
 attention, or may most need it, engages the whole 
 force of the intellect in what is most useful or most 
 necessary, to the exclusion of all other claims or 
 attractions ; whereas the opposite habit reverses 
 this order, and tends to divert attention from duty, 
 culture, and salutary Thought to the more seductive 
 subject-matter which is ever suggested by passion, 
 appetite, and selfish inclinations. Hence the former 
 habit is to be sedulously cultivated and the latter 
 as jealously avoided. 
 
 These two habits have a certain relation to those
 
 222 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 popularly described as thoughtful and thoughtless ; 
 but these terms do not fully convey our meaning. 
 The habit of listlessness or laxity which we depre- 
 cate is not necessarily one of thoughtlessness. It 
 may be characterized by much desultory, unprofit- ' 
 able, or demoralizing Thought. It does not imply 
 a want of Thought, but of its useful and effective 
 application. Uncontrolled and wandering Thought 
 is generally led into unwholesome currents, and 
 exposes its victim to the worst forms of temptation, 
 whilst at the same time it effectually weakens the 
 power of resistance. It may be, and too often is, 
 engrossed by captivating ideas, of which the lower 
 nature has always an inexhaustible supply at hand. 
 The term listlessness is the mildest name by which 
 we can distinguish the habit in question. 
 
 By inviting and encouraging the assaults of 
 temptation and weakening the power of resistance, 
 listlessness is especially adverse to the development 
 of moral principles, and straitens yet more narrowly 
 the too narrow path of virtue. But, though its 
 worst and most powerful influences take that direc- 
 tion under the dictation of the lower nature, its 
 operation is universally adverse to mental action. 
 It affects the memory, judgment, and all the reflec- 
 tive and reasoning powers. Its victims complain of 
 their inability to collect their thoughts or to con- 
 centrate them on any given object. Habituated to 
 wandering, their thoughts are not readily restrained, 
 but pursue their natural bent in spite often of the 
 strongest efforts of which the crippled powers of 
 resistance are capable. 
 
 On the other hand, the habit of controlling the 
 action of the thinking faculty, and directing the
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 223 
 
 currents of Thought to present purpose, confers 
 great mental power. The individual self is truly its 
 own master in all those respects wherein the opposite 
 habit enslaves and makes him a creature of circum- 
 stance, a prey to his lower nature. The ruling 
 motive of the strong-minded man who maintains a 
 mastery over the direction of his mental faculties is 
 determined by the principles he has imbibed, and not 
 by the feeling of the moment. He is a reasonable 
 being, not only as possessing the full measure of 
 reasoning powers, but because they furnish the actu- 
 ating motives which determine his judgments and 
 regulate his conduct, freed from the enslaving in- 
 fluence of adventitious circumstances. 
 
 When Thought is left to the influence of natural 
 gravitation, and its possessor virtually abandons the 
 government of his mental estate, those ideas and ex- 
 ternal influences, and those internal suggestions of 
 appetite and passion, which are most powerful and 
 obtrusive, will captivate and engross it. Listlessness 
 is therefore a condition the most unfavourable to 
 mental attainments. Concentration, accuracy of ob- 
 servation, clear ideas, memory, and the reasoning 
 powers, the necessary qualifications for mental work, 
 are all impaired by the superficial and desultory 
 habits to which listlessness tends. 
 
 Attention and concentration are difficult to com- 
 mand, even by those who have most complete mastery 
 over their faculties, and are therefore, above all, those 
 elements for which listlessness most disqualifies the 
 mind. The superficial and casual habit of observa- 
 tion to which this state of mind naturally leads does 
 not afford the materials necessary for the formation 
 of clear and definite ideas. Those they supply are
 
 224 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 naturally imperfect and unreliable. Hence the data 
 on which memory and the reasoning powers are 
 exercised are unfit for the purposes of high mental 
 attainment. The critical accuracy and precision 
 which are so important to effective mental work are 
 incompatible with a desultory habit of Thought, 
 because they depend on the exercise of exactly 
 opposite qualities. It follows that persons who have 
 acquired this loose habit are deficient of mental 
 attainments in proportion to the degree to which it 
 prevails. 
 
 A sense of deficiency is generally felt by those 
 persons in whom the habit of laxity and listlessness 
 has been most prevalent, but is rarely, if ever, traced 
 to its proper cause. As the habit most probably 
 originated in early childhood, the victims may be 
 themselves ignorant of the time and manner of its 
 beginning, and it is therefore usually, almost uni- 
 versally, attributed to natural infirmity or inherited 
 defect. Hence, they regard as special gifts the 
 powers and facilities possessed by their more accom- 
 plished neighbours. They fail to perceive that the 
 mastery these have acquired, and the control they 
 possess, are the result of a careful and diligent use of 
 their faculties exercised under conditions which were 
 neither inherited from parents nor conferred] by 
 natural endowment. 
 
 The habit of regarding acquired faults as special 
 and personal inflictions, and acquired attainments 
 as special gifts and favours, is indulged by many 
 persons, as the theory supplies a convenient excuse 
 for many grave imperfections of character and con- 
 duct, and for transferring from themselves the respon- 
 sibility they would otherwise imply. It covers a
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 22$ 
 
 multitude of sins, and is therefore a favourite 
 doctrine. It is not, however, to be confounded with 
 the fact of diversity of natural power. Minds un- 
 doubtedly differ in power and activity, as sheets of 
 paper differ in size, texture, and sensitiveness. The 
 doctrine we deprecate implies that, besides the differ- 
 ences of capacity, there are also ready-made inscrip- 
 tions on the blank sheets ! This subject is discussed 
 in a succeeding chapter on Inheritance, but is here 
 alluded to as being one of the numerous progeny of 
 the habit of mind now in question. 
 
 The theory of inherited Thought paralyses effort 
 by making it appear ineffectual, and encourages a 
 laissez-faire habit by which it is so often suggested. 
 It gives rise to feelings of jealousy of attainments 
 which would otherwise inspire emulation. It is 
 opposed to philosophy, morality, and Scripture. The 
 same Authority who declares the different number 
 of talents committed to men's stewardship em- 
 phatically denounces the neglect of the one, and 
 requires that it should be employed in the same 
 manner as the five or the two. If the theory affected 
 the acquisition of mental attainments only, it would 
 still be worthy of much consideration, but its worst 
 results are manifest in the conduct of life. There it 
 is urged to excuse the neglect of unpleasant duties, 
 especially those involving the control of the lower 
 nature, and it thus conflicts with the best interests of 
 mankind and the ordinances of Providence. It raises 
 a defence against the dictates of conscience and the 
 Divine command. It fosters the idea that the evils 
 born of lust within are imposed from without by 
 foreign influences. It makes men consider themselves 
 the victims of evils of which they are themselves the 
 
 Q
 
 226 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 real authors. We have met with persons who pleaded 
 their inability to resist the temptation to drunkenness 
 and even to lying on the ground that the weakness 
 was inherited ! The proper remedy for all the evils 
 consequent on a lax and listless state of mind and 
 habit of thought is the counter-agency of self-control 
 and effort. In so far as man is not his own master 
 by the effective control of his thinking faculty, he is 
 a slave of many masters, comprising in their number 
 the greatest tyrants of the lower nature. 
 
 The foregoing remarks on the nature and general 
 tendency of the habit of controlling and directing 
 mental action, and of thus preventing a desultory 
 and passive habit of allowing Thought to wander in 
 whatsoever direction it may be most attracted, will 
 establish our proposition as to the importance of cul- 
 tivating such control, and of sedulously guarding 
 against the opposite habit in the early training of 
 the mental powers. 
 
 The fundamental principle which determines 
 whether the mental powers shall be directed to 
 definite purpose or be left free to pursue a desultory 
 and disorderly course, is discussed in the next 
 chapter, on " Control of the Thinking Faculty." This 
 is an exercise of the Will in the first instance, and 
 continues so to be until the functions of the Will 
 become superseded by the force of habit, or are crys- 
 tallized into that form. The general management of 
 the infant Will should be effected when, in its very 
 earliest exercise, it has no force of its own, and when, 
 therefore, it may be moulded into shape. This subject 
 is elsewhere discussed, and we are now concerned 
 particularly with its bearing on the formation of the 
 first and fundamental habits of Thought.
 
 OX THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 22/ 
 
 The particular exercise of the Will in mental 
 fiction takes the form of attention, which is, in fact, a 
 directing of the faculty in response to some kind of 
 sensation. Thought is thus first diverted from the 
 .absorbing influence of personal feelings by external 
 objects which excite interest and invite attention. 
 This responsive action is evidently a natural exercise, 
 .as is proved by the voluntary attention which must 
 be given for the acquisition of language, the common 
 possession of all infants with normal capacities. It 
 does not appear to be necessary, therefore, to sow the 
 seed of the habit of attention, but only to encourage 
 its cultivation, and give to the natural tendency 
 the form and force of a confirmed habit. Aid and 
 encouragement, the chief inducements to infant 
 efforts of all kinds, will tend to confirm and strengthen 
 the natural impulse, whilst neglect, discouragement, 
 and repression will have the opposite effect. Thus, 
 when the infant mind is intent in observation, the 
 effort so manifested will either excite the sympathy 
 of tutors, and be aided and encouraged, or it will be 
 neglected or interrupted, as though the workings of 
 the infant mind were of no moment and unworthy 
 of notice. In such ways is the growth of the 
 natural tendency stimulated on the one hand, 
 and confirmed into the form of habit ; or, on the 
 other hand, new seed is sown of a nature to impair, 
 or probably supersede, the salutary and natural 
 -exercise, and to substitute one which will subject 
 mental effort to the influence of desultory forces. 
 
 The influence of the material as well as of the 
 moral environment in the first determination of the 
 prevalence or subordination of mental control and of 
 the mode of treating infant effort must be evident 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 from the nature of things. The vigilance and atten- 
 tion on the part of tutors which would be exacted 
 for the due discharge of duty in this respect are no 
 doubt a serious consideration, but they are, in 
 practice, much less onerous than they at first appear, 
 and they save an immeasurably greater trouble and 
 difficulty in the later periods of childhood, and more 
 particularly in that stage of school- work for which 
 all the previous ones should be regarded as pre- 
 paratory. 
 
 The initiation of a habit of attention in the 
 period of babyhood may be fostered by encourage- 
 ment given whenever baby is noticing any attractive 
 object, for which, whilst he is in arms, tutors have 
 excellent opportunity. In their dependent state, 
 babes unavoidably absorb a great amount of tutors 7 
 personal attention. Happily and providentially so, 
 for the purposes appropriate to that stage of their 
 physical and mental progress require such attention, 
 and there is no occupation so fascinating to a 
 thoughtful tutor, nor any other so useful and bene- 
 ficial to the babe, as that of watching, entering into, 
 sympathizing with, and encouraging the first intelli- 
 gent efforts, the first buds of future thought. By 
 universal consent, the baby-form and expression of 
 feature are accepted as the material emblems of the 
 spiritual, angelic ideal, and there is certainly no 
 object in the whole round of Nature that can be 
 compared with those characteristics for innocent 
 loveliness. No other conditions could so effectually 
 invite and win the attentions of tutors, nor could 
 these attentions be in any other way so beneficially 
 exerted as in the work of developing those buds of 
 mental habit, which, when fully expanded, will either
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 229 
 
 impart to the future life a higher form of beauty or 
 disfigure it with mental deformity. 
 
 In the later stage of infant life a habit of atten- 
 tion in mental exercise may be even more effectually 
 aided and encouraged by vigilant improvement of 
 the opportunities afforded by the active tendencies 
 of mind and body characteristic of that period. The 
 methods adopted in the Kindergarten system are 
 remarkably effective in engaging attention and ex- 
 citing interest in the infant mind. There the " gifts " 
 are made as attractive as such lifeless, mechanical, 
 and unsuggestive things can be made, and what 
 is deficient in the " gifts " themselves is compen- 
 sated by the suggestions and attentions of the 
 teachers. These are, in fact, the effective part of 
 the system, arid would serve their purpose with 
 almost any form of material appliance. In so far as 
 the system succeeds in engaging attention, and in 
 making the exercise of the natural mental powers 
 habitual and easy, it has our strong approval, though 
 we do not equally sympathize with the direction 
 given to the currents of Thought so created. The 
 fanciful and unreal nature of the ideas suggested by 
 the teachers from remote resemblances arising out 
 of the permutations and combinations of the " gifts," 
 as well as the mechanical character of the ideas 
 themselves, seem to us to beget a habit of substi- 
 tuting imaginary characteristics for the substantial 
 realities of things. 
 
 The inquisitive habit of childhood suggested by 
 the stimulus of speech is peculiarly favourable for 
 encouraging and confirming a habit of attention. In 
 this stage of the mental progress tutors have no 
 difficulty in perceiving the drift of their pupils'
 
 230 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 desires, in which their opportunity consists, or in 
 .availing themselves of the occasions so arising. 
 They may then most effectively enter into, and 
 sympathize with, their pupils' proceedings, and give 
 the lead to effort or confirm and aid its success. 
 In proportion as they thus give a lead or encour- 
 agement will the interest and attention of the pupil; 
 be attracted and won. And, along with it, the- 
 trust and confidence of the pupil will be equally 
 developed. 
 
 By such natural and rational means the mind may 
 be gradually provided, during the early stages of 
 infancy and childhood, with habits suited for the 
 work of the succeeding stage of school-life. By the 
 time a youth enters upon his educational career, his- 
 mental habit has generally become formed, and has 
 assumed a shape which is not easily altered. The- 
 most influential of all mental habits that of con- 
 trolling, or neglecting to control, his thinking faculty 
 will certainly have been initiated in one way or 
 another, and all other mental habits will take their 
 character from that one in a greater or less degree. 
 The work of education tests the habits that have 
 been previously formed, and its issues depend far 
 more upon them than upon any subsequent ones- 
 that may be created by school discipline, however 
 wisely and judiciously these may have been incul- 
 cated. It would often be an unspeakable blessing 
 to both master and pupil if the formation of habit 
 had then to commence ; but that is not possible. 
 The mind, if not trained in a right direction, will 
 obey other impulses and receive from them such 
 shape as they may impart. 
 
 The facility with which some scholars seem to
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 231 
 
 learn without any very apparent effort is not always 
 due to superior power, but sometimes to habit of 
 controlling and concentrating their thinking facul- 
 ties. He who possesses this inestimable power, which 
 can only be acquired by cultivated habit, has a great 
 advantage over a fellow-scholar who, though perhaps 
 of greater ability, has to contend against the multi- 
 form innovations of casual thoughts. These must 
 either be ejected or their confusing influence must 
 be endured as a fatal hindrance to the study pro- 
 perly in hand. To one, the appearance of a butter- 
 fly or a bird would be so captivating as to completely 
 distract his attention and cause an interruption, with 
 dissipating effect. Such a one has no chance in a 
 competition with a neighbour whose attention is 
 fixed on the work in hand to the exclusion of all 
 such interlopers. The place in class in such cases is 
 not determined by the relative abilities, but by the 
 force of habit, of the pupils. 
 
 The too general practice which defers the sowing 
 until harvest-time is the reason why a crop of 
 weeds so often encumbers the ground which the 
 schoolmaster is employed to clear and to cultivate- 
 The mental habits contracted and the body of ideas 
 collected by youths in general during their early 
 childhood, before any training was considered neces- 
 sary, show how large a proportion of what was then 
 done has to be corrected, counteracted, or extir- 
 pated ; or, failing the success of these reforms, how 
 their lives will be disfigured and their mental pro- 
 gress impaired. 
 
 Habits of observation are generally formed very 
 early in life, not only as regards the habit of noticing 
 things, but the manner in which observations are
 
 232 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 made. Whether a child acquire a habit of noticing 
 things generally, or of neglecting to notice any but 
 those which are forced upon his attention, is usually 
 determined at a very early stage, and depends 
 mainly on the extent to which tutors encourage obser- 
 vation by attractive devices and interesting explana- 
 tions. There are many who altogether neglect all 
 attempt to excite the interest of children in any of 
 the things about them, and many others who dis- 
 courage the natural disposition children evince in 
 the objects of their environment. The number who 
 improve the numerous opportunities of encouraging 
 an observant habit is comparatively small in propor- 
 tion. Hence it is not common to meet with a really 
 and intelligently observant child. It is to be hoped 
 that a time may come when the early mental train- 
 ing of children may be regarded as an art for which 
 some qualification shall be deemed necessary. The 
 practice of relegating the care of children to persons 
 chosen without any regard to their ignorance of 
 everything they ought to know is productive of 
 much mental degradation, and is an effective hin- 
 drance to the progress of mental culture. The fact 
 that the infant mind is subject to the operation of 
 natural laws, and that it is moulded in accordance 
 therewith, is both as true and as deserving of the 
 attention of scientists as are the economic laws which 
 regulate the price of bread and cotton. 
 
 The manner in which things are observed becomes 
 also more or less habitual in childhood, whether 
 casually or carefully, generally or in detail, and also 
 whether the evidence of the ear or that of the eye 
 prevails. The habitual mode of observation in- 
 fluences materially the character and value of the
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 233 
 
 ideas formed and the use that may be made 
 of them. Inferences and judgments depend neces- 
 sarily upon the accuracy and sufficiency of the ideas 
 or data from which they are derived. Moreover, 
 things are necessarily remembered, not accord- 
 ing to what they really are, but as they were 
 regarded. It is pitiable to witness the embarrass- 
 ment of some persons in their futile endeavours to 
 describe what they have seen or heard, owing to the 
 partial or cursory way in which they had noticed 
 the sensations and formulated their ideas of them. 
 Attentive observation is essential to a definite idea, 
 and, if the idea be indefinite, memory cannot supply 
 the original defect. 
 
 In this connection we may remark upon what seems 
 to be a natural impulse of the imagination in regard 
 to misty, indistinct, or imperfect images of objects 
 seen or sensations of sounds. There is a tendency 
 to supplement and complete by the imagination what 
 was wanting in the evidence of the sense. When, 
 for instance, an indistinct object, like a nebula, is 
 perceived, its want of definite form is generally sup- 
 plied by the imagination, and a general outline is 
 manufactured. Hence, when a powerful instrument 
 is employed, the real figure as thus disclosed may be 
 very different from the one imagined or fancied. A 
 person who during some months suffered from very dim 
 vision made several acquaintances during that period, 
 and saw their features very indistinctly. Still, the 
 images in his mind were definite. On the restoration 
 of good vision, however, the images so distinct in his 
 mind suffered astonishing change such, in fact, as 
 seemed almost impossible. In like manner uncer- 
 tain sounds receive imaginary interpretations, " and
 
 234 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 as the bell clinks, so the maid thinks." The unreli- 
 able nature of supplemental imaginings has probably 
 a good deal to do with some of the strange a,nd unac- 
 countable misconceptions into which adults of strong 
 understanding frequently fall. And they have an 
 important bearing on the habit of formulating ideas, 
 either casually or upon insufficient data, for such 
 ideas, being imperfect, if not positively incorrect, 
 must be more or less misleading. 
 
 As all reasoning is based upon reflection, and 
 therefore involves the evidence of ideas previously 
 formed, it follows that all reasoning processes must 
 be vitiated, to a greater or less extent, by any im- 
 perfection or error in the ideas on which they are 
 exercised. Habits of observation, therefore, are of 
 the utmost importance to sound reasoning and correct 
 opinions. 
 
 Though the influence of habit is not very apparent 
 generally in. matters of opinion and judgment, it is 
 nevertheless often powerfully exercised therein with- 
 out being perceived. The mode of observation, the 
 estimation of evidence, the very attitude of the mind 
 towards the subject-matter submitted to its judg- 
 ment, are all subject to the influence of habit, and all 
 contribute to the result. A casual observer sees 
 things differently from one of more discriminating 
 habit, and his reasonings and inferences will neces- 
 sarily differ accordingly. In all matters which 
 require close and accurate discernment, a thoughtful 
 man's opinion will differ materially from that of a 
 man of thoughtless habit. One who gives his atten- 
 tion habitually to the observation of details thinks 
 on different lines from one whose habit is to take 
 comprehensive views. The former will note the
 
 OX THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 235 
 
 colour of the hair and eyes, the particular form of 
 nose, and other such details of feature. The latter 
 will consider and recollect the general expression, 
 behaviour, and other characteristics of the " tout 
 ensemble," with little regard to those particulars 
 to which the former gave his almost exclusive atten- 
 tion. 
 
 The mutual relations of master and pupil depend 
 to a great degree upon the habits with which the 
 latter enters upon his school-life. His temper, dis- 
 position to learn, power of controlling his thoughts in 
 the way of attention, and habit and mode of obser- 
 vation are all influential factors, which will have 
 become, in one way or another, habitual, and will 
 determine the attitude of the pupil towards his 
 teachers and the issues of his school- work. It is 
 therefore essential to a right adjustment of effort on 
 the part of each that these habits should be known 
 and taken into account. In. the case cited in 
 chapter xv., in which a pupil, after two years' trial, 
 was deemed by his teacher to have 110 ability for 
 learning music, the event proved that there was no 
 deficiency of power on the part of the pupil ; on the 
 contrary, unusual power was afterwards displayed, 
 nor was there any indocility. The teacher had 
 failed to ascertain the child's mental habit, and 
 therefore failed to bring his powers into effective 
 operation. Similar results sometimes occur where 
 habitual reliance on one of the senses has given rise 
 to habitual inaptitude or slowness of apprehension 
 by the other on the part of the pupil. In such 
 cases the inaptitude suggests to an observer the 
 want of natural capacity where habit only may be 
 the cause.
 
 236 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Seeing that almost every act of life, whether 
 physical, mental, or moral, is the exponent of some 
 habit by which it is moulded, character is a summary 
 of the collective habits. Thus a man is characterized 
 as thoughtful, kind, patient, virtuous, or careless, 
 harsh, petulant, immoral, according to his habitual 
 conduct. In each case reference is made to general 
 habit, and not to particular acts which may have 
 been dictated by special occasion and be of excep- 
 tional nature. Considering also how insensibly 
 Thought may be diverted and imperceptibly acquire 
 the force of habit, jealousy of the indulgence of 
 inclination is appropriate to every period of life. 
 Though the foundation is laid in childhood, and the 
 principal lines are then determined, the edifice of 
 collective habit, which constitutes the character, is 
 always being modified through the whole term of 
 life. 
 
 Absence is a state of mind in which, for want of 
 control, Thought is so absorbed in reflection that 
 external sensations appeal in vain to attract the 
 perceptive faculties. To one who has fallen into this 
 unhappy habit, purity of mind and Thought may 
 make it comparatively harmless to moral nature ; 
 but that is rarely to be expected where such want of 
 control exists. In any case, it is inimical to mental 
 progress, and inconvenient both to its subject and to 
 those with whom he is associated. As a distracting 
 influence it is even worse than that of external 
 objects, as its inciting causes are always present. It 
 is a snare that besets every situation, and is a serious 
 hindrance to mental progress, especially in youth. 
 
 In its bearing on moral principle and the relation 
 of the lower to the higher domain of Thought,
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 237 
 
 liabit assumes its most important aspect and exerts 
 its greatest force. The suggestions of the lower 
 nature are ever present and always powerful. They 
 constitute the great proportion of those unbidden 
 and casual intruders that are so ready to enter into 
 and possess the unoccupied mind. And when they 
 obtain the supremacy in the castle, their force in- 
 creases with indulgence inversely as that of the 
 resisting power. Hence it follows that lustful ideas, 
 brooding over real or imaginary injuries, revengeful 
 thoughts, vain lamentations over irretrievable losses, 
 and other such currents of reflection by which evils 
 are multiplied and magnified are sure to follow in 
 the wake of the invading enemy. Incapable of con- 
 ferring any good or answering any useful purpose, 
 they are nevertheless most influential in embittering 
 the cup of life and imparting strength to temptation. 
 They are the active forces in the warfare of the lower 
 against the aspirations of the higher nature. 
 
 The nature of a man's occupation exerts a material 
 influence on the currents of his thoughts ; there is 
 therefore a certain intimate relation between the 
 daily employment and the habit of thinking. Hence, 
 certain habits tend to qualify and others to unfit a 
 man for certain avocations. We knew a doctor, an 
 excellent man, who had been most unhappy in his 
 choice of a profession. His rash, impulsive habit of 
 thinking was eminently unsuitable for such a pursuit. 
 A stranger, suffering from a violent attack of colic, 
 on his arrival at the town where the doctor prac- 
 tised, not knowing of an apothecary to supply the 
 simple remedies he required, sent for the doctor, 
 who, in spite of all the patient's protestations, in- 
 sisted that the case was one of acute inflammation,
 
 238 NATURAL HISTORY OP THOUGHT. 
 
 and prescribed accordingly. The only part of his 
 prescription which was of any use was the apothe- 
 cary's address. The next day he would not believe 
 the waiter of the hotel, who told him his patient was 
 at table eating a hearty lunch, and could hardly be 
 persuaded of the fact, as he insisted that his patient 
 was seriously ill. Such cases of incompatibility of 
 habit with occupation, though certainly not common, 
 are sufficiently so to suggest the consideration of 
 habit in the selection of a career for a youth whose 
 habits have become pronounced. 
 
 It stands to reason that all those pursuits which 
 bring men face to face with Nature in her beauty 
 andpurity must have a better influence on habits 
 of Thought than those which expose to view the 
 degrading indulgence of passion and appetite those 
 which subdue the energies of nature to the praise of 
 their Maker, rather than those which reduce the 
 master-spirit of the higher nature into unholy sub- 
 jection to the law of the lower. These spoil Nature 
 of her bounties to devote them to unlawful abuse, 
 whilst those obey the Divine injunction, and place 
 man in his own appropriate relation to the beneficent 
 designs of the Almighty. 
 
 The engineer, who applies the forces of Nature to 
 relieve mankind of drudgery, and to free their facul- 
 ties for higher uses ; the manufacturer, who utilizes 
 and turns to economic account the products of the 
 earth ; the merchant, who interchanges the commo- 
 dities of different countries and distributes the boun- 
 ties of Providence ; the poet and painter, who, in 
 studying Nature, create art ; the schoolmaster, who 
 stores the young mind with useful knowledge and 
 wholesome principles ; the divine, who points out
 
 ON THE HABIT OF THOUGHT. 239 
 
 God in all His works of nature and of grace, who 
 holds up to the gaze of the pilgrim the Cross, with its 
 Crown high up above all that is earthly or sensual 
 these have all salutary subject-matter supplied for 
 the exercise of their thinking faculties such as could 
 scarcely fail to beget habits of Thought in keeping 
 with the nature of their avocations, excepting to 
 those who cling to the lower and baser elements 
 instead of ascending to the sublime and spiritual 
 aspects in which God is revealed. 
 
 The force of habit, and the sway it exercises over 
 the mind, are sometimes such that habits in them- 
 selves good may become snares by unduly absorbing 
 time and attention. Devotion to a particular pursuit, 
 and making it a speciality, may thus beget an ex- 
 clusive habit, more particularly where enthusiasm 
 prevails. In such cases duties may be neglected 
 because of the engrossing nature of the special 
 pursuit. A man may thus, in becoming a profound 
 philosopher or in accumulating wealth, neglect his 
 duties as a husband or a father to a greater or less 
 extent. His habit in this case, though lawful in 
 itself when duly regulated, may become a snare. In 
 other cases, enthusiasm in a particular pursuit may 
 so exaggerate its relative importance in the estima- 
 tion of its subject as to make him disparage the 
 value and importance of other pursuits.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON THE CONTEOL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 
 
 THE power of controlling and concentrating the 
 thinking faculty is the most important attainable 
 accomplishment of the mind. On it depend the use 
 that may be made of knowledge and the reasoning 
 powers, the extent to which they are available, the 
 measure of their efficiency, and the facility of their 
 application to any given purpose. 
 
 The control of the thinking faculty is entirely 
 subject to the Will, except when sensations are forced 
 upon the attention by irresistible circumstance, or 
 when the active exercise of the Will is superseded 
 by habit. In. other words, mental action requires 
 the consent of the Will, either by direct effort or by 
 passive assent, excepting only when the nature of a 
 sensation or of its presentment is such as to force it 
 on the attention. In the latter case, though the 
 impression on the mind may not be resisted, yet the 
 Will alone can determine any action to be taken 
 thereupon. Its practical freedom and supremacy are 
 not thereby impaired. Such impressions are of an 
 exceptional nature, and need not be here considered. 
 The functions of the Will in regard to the control of 
 the thinking faculty will therefore be discussed with 
 reference to their direct action, and to the passive 
 assent involved in the crystallized form of habit.
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 241 
 
 This latter mode of operation prevails to a greater or 
 less extent in every individual, the Will not being 
 exerted by direct effort in regard to Thought or act 
 separately, but being merged into a general and 
 habitual groove. Hence the habit of controlling the 
 thinking powers is the most important of all habits, 
 inasmuch as it supersedes to some extent and sub- 
 ordinates the supreme power of the mental estate. 
 
 Seeing that, as has already been shown in a former 
 chapter, habits may be so insidiously and unsus- 
 pectedly begun, and that they may insensibly acquire 
 prevailing force, the most jealous watch should be 
 maintained against the forming of any habit, or the 
 submitting to any such influence, as would tend to 
 weaken the supremacy or suspend the action of the 
 Will in the domain of Thought. A loose and care- 
 less habit, so easily acquired by mere neglect, and so 
 often lapsing into that state of listlessness described 
 in the last chapter, tends to establish a habit of 
 neglect, and thus to weaken the power and suspend 
 to a greater or less degree the operation of the Will 
 generally. 
 
 As the mastery of the mental powers is the 
 greatest achievement attainable, it is also by far the 
 most difficult to acquire and maintain. The difficulty 
 of exercising full command of the thinking faculty is 
 often felt severely by, and causes a great strain to, 
 even those who have practised long and striven hard 
 to establish and keep habitual mastery of their mental 
 powers. If, notwithstanding the vigorous exertion 
 they apply to the task, such persons find the force of 
 passion, strength of appetite, or pressure of circum- 
 stance nevertheless so prevalent, how must they be 
 captivated and overpowered who, unaccustomed to 
 
 B
 
 242 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 such effort, and habitually passive, are comparatively 
 unresisting ? 
 
 Hence it follows that in mental training a first 
 place in order of importance must be conceded to the 
 attainment of a mastery as complete as can be 
 acquired over the exercise of the faculties in order 
 that effective control may become firmly established 
 as a settled habit and the keys of the mental castle 
 may be in possession of the rightful owner. So forti- 
 fied, the full force of the mind may be concentrated 
 upon, and the entire stock of knowledge summoned 
 to, any given subject in preference to, and to the 
 exclusion of, every other. The gates of the castle 
 locked against intruders, and the forces within its 
 walls under command, the full strength of the 
 fortress may be directed upon any undertaking. 
 Neither embarrassments within nor enemies without 
 may then interfere with the mental operation. On 
 the other hand, if the mental forces be divided 
 between disorder within and enemies without, weak- 
 ness, vacillation, and defeat are as certain in this 
 event as decision, firmness, and triumph are in the 
 other. 
 
 The Will, being the power by means of which the 
 operations of the mind may be controlled, demands 
 special notice in this chapter. 
 
 Every sane person is conscious of the freedom of his 
 Will of the power, that is, of acting or of declining 
 to act in any matter within the limits of his physical 
 or mental powers. As regards the mysterious nature 
 of this wonderful agency, and the mode of its opera- 
 tion, nothing certain is known ; but of the fact itself 
 all is known that is necessary to a right exercise of 
 the vast trust it imposes, and to turn it to such
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 243 
 
 account as may best serve the purposes of life and 
 the cultivation of the mental and moral nature. 
 
 The Will, being a natural force exerted upon the 
 material organism, is necessarily distinct therefrom. 
 It stands to reason that a force cannot act upon itself. 
 Whatsoever forces actuate a material body must be 
 distinct from that body, even though they may be 
 inseparably joined thereto. The electric current 
 which makes a magnet of a piece of iron, for example, 
 is not inherent in the iron, but is nevertheless an 
 inseparable component of the magnet, which is such 
 only so long as that connection is maintained. The 
 fact that certain animated organisms of a low order 
 fulfil the functions of life entirely by involuntary 
 action, without any power of volition, and also that 
 some of the vital functions in man are involuntary, 
 affords strong presumptive evidence that the Will is 
 separate from, and not inherent in, the organism. 
 The dual nature of man, consisting of a material 
 organism and of forces natural thereto and acting 
 thereupon, seems to be thus established. This is 
 -clearly taught in Scripture. St. Paul describes a 
 law of his corporeal members " warring against the 
 law of his mind." Whatever may be the essential 
 nature of the connection, however, the relation of 
 the body and the mind to each other is clear. They 
 cannot be confounded together any more than the 
 material elements in Nature may be confounded with 
 the forces that operate upon them, or with the laws 
 which regulate those forces. Practically, there is, as 
 St. Paul expresses it, a law of the members and 
 another law of the mind, and these laws or motions 
 of desire conflict whenever the suggestions of bodily 
 appetite and desire oppose the moral law, the basis 
 
 R 2
 
 244 NATUBAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 of which is the knowledge or discernment of good 
 and evil. In this conflict between the moral law 
 and the desires of the lower nature the highest 
 functions of the Will are exerted, and a great part 
 of its natural history is revealed. 
 
 The Will conies into operation in the very earliest 
 stages of life, and is then stimulated by appetites, 
 feelings, and bodily impulses, and it continues to be 
 so actuated both in the human and in the brute 
 offspring, except when it is attracted by the sensa- 
 tions of external objects and modified by the suasive 
 force and vicarious action of parents. In the lower 
 animals the Will is actuated through life by the 
 suggestions and impulses of the corporeal feelings- 
 and appetites only, but the human infant is subject 
 to a higher law, to which his lower nature, with its 
 appetites and feelings, is to be subservient. The 
 first ideas of the moral law are suggested by the 
 example and conduct of tutors, and are imbibed by 
 means of the imitative propensity and by inference. 
 These ideas thus slowly acquire motive-force, and are 
 afterwards developed by exercise in their proper 
 domain of regulating conduct through all the later 
 periods of independent action. The power the 
 human subject thus acquires in subjecting the lower 
 nature to moral principle determines the measure of 
 his departure from, and superiority to, the type of the 
 brute nature. 
 
 There is in all living creatures a natural impulse 
 to exert the powers they possess. In the lower 
 animals, which have no moral principles to imbibe, 
 the bodily faculties are developed quickly. Their 
 scions speedily attain a condition of comparative 
 independence. In the human infant it is otherwise.
 
 OX THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 24 $ 
 
 In him the period of helplessness and entire depen- 
 dence is long protracted, and thus affords to tutors 
 the opportunity and conditions necessary for the 
 training of the higher nature, and especially of the 
 Will, its executive power. 
 
 The movements of the limbs seem to be at first 
 involuntary, unmeaning, and uncertain, but they 
 soon become more decided and expressive as the 
 Will becomes stronger by exercise and the limbs 
 themselves gain power by use. Appetite and feeling, 
 of whatever kind, stimulate the Will of the young 
 creature to the exertion of such powers as he may 
 possess ; but so long as the period of helpless de- 
 pendence lasts, the Will, the key of the higher 
 impulses, is subject to the moulding influence, 
 suasive force, and vicarious action of tutors. 
 
 The birth of the Will occurs in these earliest 
 motions, which are involuntary in the beginning, 
 .and become gradually amenable to the growing force 
 of the Will, which is developed by exercise. Its 
 growth proceeds slowly, but certainly, in whatever 
 direction the suggestions of feelings and appetites, 
 modified by the influence of tutors, may determine. 
 The direction as thus initiated, whether by the 
 unrestrained operation and stimulus of the lower 
 nature or as these impulses may be modified and 
 directed by the superior influence of moral suasion, 
 is that in which development proceeds and power of 
 Will is acquired. 
 
 With the beginning of the life of each individual 
 begins the education and development of all his 
 powers. The limbs and organs of sense then com- 
 mence their functions and uses, and the mental 
 powers begin their eventful progress, taking from
 
 246 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 the very first such direction as the environment,, 
 including personal influences and the attractions 
 of external circumstance, may determine. As each 
 meal of food nourishes the body and does its part 
 towards the growth of the physical system, so, in 
 like manner, each mental feeling and experience, 
 from within and from without, contributes its share 
 and exerts its appropriate influence in the structure 
 of the individual self, the Will, and all the mental 
 and moral powers. Hence, the treatment and con- 
 ditions which educate the brute would produce the- 
 same brutish nature in the human offspring, so far, at 
 least, as the natural faculties admit of such develop- 
 ment. That is to say, that such as are the forces in 
 operation, such also will be the result. The Will, 
 temper, and disposition are moulded by the influ- 
 ences under which the individual lives. It is not 
 possible to escape the conclusion that nothing is lost r 
 either in fact or force, that ever reaches the mind. 
 It is not reasonable to suppose that the infant mind 
 or sense could or would exercise selective choice as- 
 to the admission of one or the rejection of another 
 sensation or kind of sensations. Each and every ex- 
 perience of pain, perplexity, or grief, and of example 
 and treatment, does its part in educating the Will 
 and in producing or modifying temper and disposi- 
 tion. The sum or balance of the whole is manifest in 
 the resultant state of the mind. 
 
 It follows, from the foregoing remarks, that the- 
 Will of a babe is, for a time, in the power of tutors, 
 and may then be actuated vicariously, not by any 
 form of force, but by moral influence. The tutors' 
 ministrations to the wants and indulgences of the 
 desires of the babe, equally with the denials and
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 247 
 
 restraints that may be necessary, should be effective 
 but tender, firm but affectionate, and reasonable as if 
 he were capable of understanding ; for these are the 
 lessons by which his moral understanding is first 
 enlightened, and they are for a long time afterwards 
 the only means by which it is educated and deve- 
 loped. These are the influences which originate 
 those faint traces which deepen into lines, and at 
 length form the grooves in which the Will is habi- 
 tually directed. 
 
 The directing and correcting function of tutors in 
 regard to the infant Will is a first and most im- 
 portant duty, and should commence with the very 
 first indications of Will manifested. It is an im- 
 portant step in the "nurture and admonition" on 
 which the ultimate character so much depends. 
 By the term correcting, we do not imply any form 
 or degree of punishment, than which nothing could 
 be more inappropriate to the age and condition of 
 the babe. Unfortunately, the term, when used .in 
 relation to children, is generally understood to imply 
 punishment. The subject of governing by a system 
 of rewards and punishments is discussed in chapter 
 xvi., but need not be further noticed in this 
 place. The duty of directing and correcting the 
 early indications of the infant Will cannot be begun 
 too soon nor be exercised with too much tact and 
 judgment, as it is the foundation of all subsequent 
 training. The feeling that treatment excites, whe- 
 ther on a given occasion, towards the actor, or 
 habitual, the result of experience towards persons in 
 general, regulates the attitude of the subject-person. 
 And whatever the feeling, whether temporary or 
 habitual, the Will is the executive power that gives
 
 248 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 it effect, so far at least as it is not influenced by 
 other considerations or forces. Hence the Will and 
 the temper, both resulting from treatment, are inti- 
 mately related both in their origin and operation, 
 and are the two factors first developed in the infant 
 mind. Of the two, the Will, as being the executive 
 power, is the more important as regards the control 
 of the mental faculties and the conduct of life. 
 
 The education of the Will depends upon the 
 discharge or the neglect of the duty just described. 
 The effect of neglect is to leave the direction of the 
 Will to chance influences and natural appetites. 
 The result is represented by the strange variety and 
 unaccountable developments that exist even amongst 
 members of the same family. The results accord 
 with the casual forces by which they were wrought. 
 They are natural, not as being in any respect inhe- 
 rent in the individual constitutionally, but as being 
 the natural consequences of the forces that produced 
 them. The harvest is in kind like the seed which 
 was sown in the spring-time of life. 
 
 The influences that affect the exercise of the Will 
 in general are ( i ) Parental suasion and example ; 
 (2) Physical force ; (3) Hope or fear of consequences ; 
 (4) Human law ; (5) Social amenities and obligations ; 
 (6) Moral principles ; and, (7) Divine command. 
 
 Of these, the first three are common to both the 
 brute and the human races, and the last two are 
 the exponents of that conflict between the sensual 
 and the mental impulses which St. Paul describes, 
 and with which every Christian is but too familiar. 
 
 i. Parental influence, as it is exerted by the lower 
 animals, is never angry, seldom violent, and generally 
 suasive and considerate. As exercised by the human
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 249 
 
 parent, it is generally more tender, but less consistent, 
 and is, or ought to be, always tempered in such 
 manner as to exemplify and suggest moral ideas and 
 principles, for which it affords the best opportunities 
 and means. When so tempered, parental influence 
 suggests and inspires voluntary submission and 
 obedience. Exercised with love, regard for the 
 tender susceptibilities of babyhood, and sympathy, 
 even denials and restraints lose the sting which im- 
 patience and punishment impart to them. The 
 lessons taught by the salutary example and in- 
 fluence of parents who feel the responsibility of the 
 trust involved in the training of children are of the 
 utmost moral value ; whereas, when these duties 
 are exercised impatiently, inconsistently, and with 
 petulance, resistance and ill-tempers are provoked. 
 These may be impotent and unobserved in the 
 infant, but will eventually produce the appropriate 
 consequences in the shape of a harvest of baneful 
 fruits of which the sowing-time may have been for- 
 gotten. The fault will probably then be referred to 
 those convenient excuses natural depravity and in- 
 herited tendencies. 
 
 The neglect of parental duty in the early training 
 of the Will leads to serious consequences. The loss 
 of the providentially appointed time is irretrievable, 
 for when the Will has acquired its strength under 
 the influence of indulgence it is not amenable to 
 gentle suasion, and is exhibited in headstrong wilful- 
 ness and resistance to the unaccustomed restraints of 
 authority. Then, as discipline must be observed, it 
 may have to be coerced. Resistance will thus be 
 fortified, temper aroused, and a train of evils and dis- 
 orders may be evoked, such as is too often exhibited
 
 250 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 in the spectacle of a spoiled child. Thus, when the 
 Will is developed by indulgence and is unused to 
 discipline, it becomes a dominant power in the 
 mental estate, and contends but too successfully 
 against the authority to which it would, at an earlier 
 stage and by the appointed means, have yielded 
 submissively, and most probably with a loving, 
 spontaneous obedience. 
 
 2. The exercise of physical force, or of any other 
 form of coercion, in the treatment of the infant Will 
 provokes resistance in the strong and resentment 
 and vindictive feelings in the weak. It thus begets 
 evil in some of its most malignant and demoralizing 
 forms. It is easy to overcome the feeble powers of 
 an infant, and hence coercion is the usual resource 
 when difficulty or opposition arises. The natural con- 
 sequences are not considered, as . they may not be 
 manifest at the time, and baby is not supposed to- 
 notice or remember such things. It prevails at the 
 time in forcing a seeming obedience or preventing 
 the committal of a prohibited act, but it leaves the 
 Will unsubdued, the feelings hurt, and the natural 
 impulse thwarted. These, however, are not feelings 
 or results compatible with the " nurture and admo- 
 nition " implied by the moral law. Whenever the 
 coercive and repressive force is withdrawn, and the 
 infant powers acquire strength as well as opportu- 
 nity, the natural consequences will be most probably 
 developed after the causes have been forgotten. 
 
 The lower animals show a good example in this 
 respect. Though their rule of life, the law of their 
 lower nature, is force, the brute parent never 
 employs cruel coercion (unless in most rare and ex- 
 ceptional cases) in the treatment of the progeny-
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 2 5 I 
 
 Even amongst those of fierce and predatory races 
 their habit to their young is mild and gentle. Hence 
 the remarkable uniformity of temper amongst the 
 lower animals in their natural state, when they are 
 not subject to the ill-treatment they too often 
 receive from man. Fierce conflicts ensue in after- 
 life, but these are generally between adults under 
 the influence of jealousy or in contentions over prey. 
 The unresisting helplessness of the babe may conceal 
 the feelings he suffers, and the wounds so produced 
 may fester unseen and unsuspected, but they are not 
 therefore harmless. They go towards determining 
 his relation with the world in general, or the temper 
 and disposition of his mind, and they leave the Will 
 unsubdued, though, it may be, for the time over- 
 come. 
 
 When the discipline of home-life is affectionately 
 and judiciously exercised, the Divine institution of 
 family confers its greatest blessings and advantages, 
 and fulfils its proper purpose, the young scion 
 proceeding thence into the busy world with the 
 seeds of good habit, with established faith in autho- 
 rity, and a Will under the salutary control of moral 
 principle. But when home discipline has been 
 coercive, productive of mere outward conformity > 
 without the true principle of spontaneous submis- 
 sion, the hopeful-seeming youth, freed from the 
 restraints of his home-life, breaks out abroad into 
 courses which bring shame upon himself and upon 
 the mistaken system which repressed and coerced 
 the Will when it should have been moulded by 
 the unfelt influence of parental love at the proper 
 time. 
 
 The effect of forced restraint where the true
 
 252 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 spirit of voluntary submission did not exist was 
 terribly exemplified in the cruel and ultra-brutish 
 ferocity of the Indian Mutiny. Nor was there ever 
 recorded in history an instance in which the real 
 character of the Will and disposition were so effec- 
 tually concealed. No doubt the opportunity and 
 the occasion were exceptional, as was also the scale 
 of their magnitude. Hence the phenomenal charac- 
 ter of the proceeding, as it appears on the page of 
 history. Nevertheless, it shows a natural develop- 
 ment of feelings, of which minor manifestations 
 occur in individual experience sometimes even in 
 children. We remember a little spoiled boy who 
 vented his helpless rage to an elder brother by 
 promising to " kill him to bits " as soon as he was 
 big enough. 
 
 3. Consideration of consequences, as a motive 
 whether of the hopes or the fears thereby inspired, 
 is merely a prudential, not a moral impulse, except- 
 ing when it relates to religious ideas. In this latter 
 view it is discussed under the heads 6 and 7 moral 
 principles and Divine ordinance. As a prudential 
 motive, it has little, if any, bearing on our subject. 
 It is a result of experience, and is manifest in the 
 burnt child, who dreads the fire, and both avoids it 
 himself and interposes to rescue a fellow from the 
 suffering of his former experience. 
 
 4 arid 5. The restraints of human laws and of social 
 obligations supply effective motives of conduct, but 
 are outside of the scope of our argument, as they 
 have no bearing on the education of the Will or its 
 controlling action on the mind. 
 
 6 and 7. These considerations are based upon the 
 discrimination between good and evil, and they
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 253 
 
 determine the relation of the higher and the lower 
 nature in man. They impose on him the conflict by 
 which is established the prevalence of one or the 
 other of those fundamental principles as the actuating 
 motive of conduct. They decide the character and 
 the rule of the individual life. Good is that which 
 conforms with the Divine command and exacts the 
 subordination of the Will thereto. Evil is what 
 conflicts with the Divinely appointed rule and opposes 
 the Will of God. 
 
 The appetites and impulses of the lower nature are 
 in themselves good. They are appointed by the 
 Almighty Creator, and constitute the law of the 
 lower animals. They therefore form a characteristic 
 of a large portion of animated creatures and a neces- 
 sary part of the works of God. They are the means 
 of procuring for man his greatest temporal blessings 
 and his highest sensual enjoyments. They are 
 essential to his welfare in the present life, and are 
 altogether good in so far as they are lawfully used. 
 
 The wisdom and beneficence of the moral law are 
 manifest in the effects produced by its observance on 
 the one hand and its violation on the other. In the 
 former case, all the blessings derivable from the 
 lower nature are realized without the penalties 
 imposed by the abuse of its impulses, and, at the 
 same time, these blessings strengthen the power of 
 the higher nature. The subordination of the lower 
 nature to its proper function, as the fulcrum of the 
 higher in the attainment of the conditions necessary 
 for a spiritual life, is the end and aim of the conflict 
 St. Paul describes. On the other hand, the natural 
 operation of lust is manifest in the scenes of degra- 
 dation and misery which are unhappily too common
 
 254 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 in large communities. It would be impossible to 
 understand or to conceive of such consequences if 
 they were not thus plainly and practically exhibited. 
 Even with these evidences before men's eyes, the 
 force of uncontrolled passions and appetites often 
 overrules the force of the Divine command, and even 
 the best of men need an Advocate with the Father to 
 plead their cause and aid their efforts. The control 
 of the lower nature affords the special sphere for the 
 exercise of the supreme function of the Will directed 
 by the moral law. The issues of the conflict are 
 spiritual life through Jesus Christ or a second death. 
 The nature and progress of this conflict, which should 
 engage the lifelong energies of the Will, are ex- 
 haustively discussed in the pulpits and religious 
 literature of this age, and would not be appropriate 
 to this work, which deals only with the training 
 proper as a preparation for the enterprise. 
 
 From the foregoing remarks on the rise, progress, 
 and functions of the Will, it appears ( i ) That unless 
 it be governed by moral principles, both in Thought 
 and conduct, it will be under the dominating influence 
 of the lower nature. (2) That its subordination to 
 moral principles cannot be effected by coercive 
 measures. These may seem to prevail, but then the 
 outward conduct proceeds from lower motives, and is 
 not the exponent of the heart. The individual is 
 not what he seems to be. (3) That there is an appro- 
 priate time for beginning the training of the Will 
 before it has acquired either force or direction of its 
 own, and is virtually in the power of tutors. (4) That 
 the treatment and management of the Will may then 
 be made the means of inspiring ideas of moral obli- 
 gation, as well as of moulding the Will thereto.
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 255 
 
 (5) That when the thoughts of the heart, whence 
 proceed the issues of life, are under the control of 
 moral principles, the conditions are those most 
 favourable to the development of the mental faculties, 
 the enjoyment of the life that now is, and for the 
 reception and enjoyment of that spiritual life which 
 inspires the highest hopes of man. 
 
 The rise and first direction of the infant's Will 
 having been initiated under the influence of tutors, 
 the further development of its powers will depend, in 
 a gradually increasing ratio, on the suggestions of his 
 own mind, until it eventually devolves on his own 
 impulses entirely. After the child begins to act for 
 himself with a measure of independence, the influence 
 of tutors will be proportionate to the confidence they 
 have inspired. Example will always be in a greater 
 or less degree suggestive, and the environment will 
 necessarily be a chief condition of the mental and 
 moral progress. These influences and the suggestions 
 of his own mind will determine the further growth 
 and direction of the Will. We have therefore to 
 consider what means are best adapted to the training 
 of the Will in order to secure the effective control of 
 the thinking faculty by which moral principles are 
 to be apprehended and applied to the regulation of 
 conduct. 
 
 The first step in the process of training the Will 
 is the critical task of giving the first direction to the 
 earliest indications of effort. This involves the 
 highest responsibility, and will require all the tact 
 and patience the maternal mind can exert. At the 
 same time it will afford the amplest scope for the 
 exercise of a mother's love and tenderness. The 
 object is to win a cairn acquiescence and voluntary
 
 256 NATUilAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 co-operation of the babe, in such manner that he 
 should be insensible of the influence by which he is 
 being led. The manner in which this may be done 
 is not easily reducible to rule, and will be better 
 understood than described. Practically, such power 
 may be exerted even upon adults, whose Wills are, 
 unconsciously to themselves, led by others to an 
 extent which would be incredible indeed, unintelli- 
 gible if it were not actually exhibited in the modern 
 revival of an ancient practice of " icilling" The 
 exercise and abuse of such practices were evidently 
 known in Buddha's time, for he denounces them em- 
 phatically in his comprehensive code of precepts. 
 Seeing, then, that such power may be, and actually 
 is, vicariously exercised even on the adult mind, we 
 need not contend for the practicability of the natural, 
 legitimate, and effective influence a mother or tutor 
 may thus piously exert in giving direction to the 
 babe's first efforts of volition. 
 
 In practice we have often watched with intense 
 interest the delicate measure of loving suasion, so 
 nicely adjusted, so tenderly enforced, and so wisely 
 ordered that the babe under such influence was 
 insensible of any other power than that of a mother's 
 love. Time, patience, tact, and vigilance were not 
 spared in the work of adapting the tension to the 
 tender susceptibilities and feeble powers of the babe, 
 and to soften the strain by all the most familiar and 
 captivating arts of endearment chiding so sweet as 
 to conceal rebuke in love, firmness so gently swayed 
 as to mould the supple Will by the overwhelming 
 power of good. Thus, by the natural exercise of 
 what seems to be a natural impulse of the maternal 
 mind, may the Will of her babe be directed aright,
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 257 
 
 without exciting a sense of denial or provoking 
 resistance or resentment. Nor could any mother 
 fail, if her efforts were stimulated by a due sense of 
 the vital importance of the trust involved in the 
 training of the infant Will. The strongest natural 
 tendencies could not resist such judicious, patient, 
 and persevering effort as we have endeavoured to 
 depict. 
 
 Even the headstrong resistance of a spoiled child, 
 whose uncurbed Will had been exerted habitually 
 and had acquired power (that terrible demoralizer), 
 has ceded to the same gentle domination of a wise 
 and loving tutor, whose resources of patience and 
 perseverance were equal to the treatment of the 
 stubbornness of an unrestrained Will. In such a 
 case, resort to force in any form is most destructive 
 of the chances of success, the means most certain to 
 fail, and, in failing, to do the worst mischief. This is 
 not overcoming evil by its proper counter-agent, good, 
 but to provoke resistance and to create the worst 
 disorders of the heart. If the Will be well directed 
 at the first, and so commence its own independent 
 tendencies, the work of tutors in the later periods 
 will be simplified and facilitated, and those adverse 
 influences which must inevitably be encountered in 
 even the purest of this world's homes will be most 
 advantageously met and resisted. 
 
 After a right direction has thus been given to the 
 exercise of the Will in infancy, the further training 
 should be pursued in such manner as to suppress and 
 supersede all those tendencies which would weaken 
 control of the thinking faculty or divert the mind 
 from wholesome currents or habits of thought, and, 
 on the other hand, to cultivate such as strengthen 
 
 s
 
 258 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 the control of the faculties and direct them in 
 accordance with moral principles. 
 
 Of the former class we notice (i) that kind of in- 
 difference which enervates the mind and tends to a 
 habit of listlessness, (2) the undue indulgence of 
 appetite, (3) harbouring and brooding over desires 
 suggested by appetite, (4) indolent habits, and (5) 
 habitual dependence. 
 
 1. The habit of listlessness described in the last 
 chapter is so influential in impairing the power of 
 control and in fostering injurious habits that it 
 should by all means be discouraged in its first indi- 
 cations. This may best be done by encouraging the 
 active employment of the mind. The habit of sup- 
 pressing the natural activities and inquisitiveness of 
 children whenever they happen to be inconvenient or 
 to appear frivolous tends to beget a reticent, close 
 habit, and to encourage the indulgence of morbid 
 reflections. On the other hand, sympathy and reason- 
 able encouragement are effective incentives to mental 
 effort, and beget activity and openness. The confi- 
 dence inspired by the sympathy and encouragement 
 of tutors gives them great influence in directing the 
 natural propensities of pupils. 
 
 2. Indulgence strengthens appetite, and simulta- 
 neously weakens the power of resistance. It gives 
 both direction and strength to Thought, and the 
 feelings or appetites so indulged become obtrusive, 
 and occupy the mind with unwholesome effect. The 
 influence of indulgence extends over the whole 
 domain of Thought and feeling, and is not confined 
 to any particular exercise of the Will. 
 
 Indulgence in the use of stimulants so excites 
 appetite and weakens self-control as to enslave its
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 259 
 
 victims. The same demoralizing effect is produced 
 by the indulgence of other feelings and appetites. 
 
 Indulgence of doubt, discontent, or other feelings 
 operates similarly. Unrestrained doubts tend to 
 make the judgment impervious to evidence, in the 
 same way that indulged appetite overrules moral 
 restraint. Discontent likewise deprives even the 
 luxuries of life of their satisfying power, and makes 
 its votaries in the palace more dissatisfied with their 
 wealth than the poor man is with his pittance. 
 
 History shows how indulged ambition, unrestrained 
 by superior authority, makes men insensible of the 
 sanctity of human life, and has ruthlessly sacrificed 
 its victims in the secrecy of the dungeon and on the 
 battle-field. 
 
 Of all indulgences, that of conscious power unre- 
 strained is the most demoralizing. The good King 
 David, with all his godly exercise and strength of 
 moral principle, fell a victim to the unrestrained 
 power of his regal position, and compassed the death 
 of Uriah to gain possession of his ewe-lamb. 
 
 Even priesthoods, in the exercise of their holy 
 functions, when they have forgotten their ministerial 
 office and position, and have usurped the powers that 
 belong only to their Supreme Head, have exhibited 
 to the world abuses of power unsurpassed for cruelty 
 and oppression as witness the Inquisition and many 
 other of the darkest pages of history. 
 
 The only safeguard against the manifold abuses of 
 indulged appetite and passion is to be found in the 
 counteracting influence of good impulses and habits, 
 under the control of a Will conformed to the Divinely 
 inspired prayer, " Thy Will be done." 
 
 The Christian doctrine of self-denial is the appro- 
 
 S 2
 
 260 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 priate antidote and counteracting influence for over- 
 coming the natural tendency to indulgence. Thereby 
 the power of resistance to temptation is fortified. It 
 is therefore one of the cardinal virtues of the Chris- 
 tian system, and one to be sedulously cultivated for 
 the sake of the double influence it exerts in aiding 
 the power of the higher nature and in subduing the 
 forces of the lower. 
 
 3. Closely allied to indulgence, in its effect on the 
 control of Thought, is the harbouring of thoughts of 
 indulgence and a habit of brooding over unwhole- 
 some currents of Thought. Whether the harboured 
 Thought take the positive form of desire or the more 
 reductive form of controversy with temptation 
 whether in meditating indulgence or merely of 
 weighing the pros and cons the end and tendency 
 are the same, and alike inimical to self-control. 
 
 The indulgence of thoughts suggested by ill- 
 feelings of all kinds is doubly injurious, for it tends 
 to absorb attention from worthier use, and to occupy 
 it with schemes and projects for attaining the 
 suggested ends. A sense of injury, magnified by 
 frequent reflection and indulgence, will generally 
 lead to ideas of revenge, and thus evil begets evil, 
 and is multiplied. Many a suicide owes the loss of 
 his life and its priceless, irretrievable opportunities 
 to the indulged contemplation of the idea, and the 
 consequent increase of its force and weakening of 
 that control which would have saved him from so 
 miserable a fate. 
 
 Reflective tendencies may, however, be turned to 
 good account when directed by habit of control to 
 useful and beneficial currents of Thought. So em- 
 ployed, they may be made the means of cultivating
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 261 
 
 the mental powers, including the all-important one 
 of effective control, which cannot be more effectually 
 strengthened by any other means than by salutary 
 exercise. The facts and laws of science, the beauties 
 of Nature, the blessings of life and even its trials 
 and afflictions, and the dispensations of Providence 
 supply an inexhaustible fund of subject-matter for 
 the useful occupation of the mind and for the deve- 
 lopment of the reasoning powers. Such use of the 
 faculties is the most effectual preventive of the 
 pernicious habit of brooding over injuries, real or 
 imaginary, or of harbouring sensual and unprofitable 
 thought. 
 
 4. An indolent habit is injurious to both physical 
 and mental powers, and gives a general invitation to 
 those ever-present feelings of appetite and passion 
 which are apt to make themselves so obtrusive. Evil 
 companions, whether those of Thought or of other 
 idlers, are dangerous tempters. The Will that con- 
 sents to the waste or loss of time (the stuff that life 
 is made of) must have attained a serious demoraliza- 
 tion. Idle minds, like idle hands, are generally 
 turned to ill use. 
 
 Industry of body and mind strengthens the facul- 
 ties, and is in itself a form of habitual control. A 
 life of earnest occupation in useful pursuits runs its 
 .course more smoothly than one of profitless indolence, 
 lias fewer vexations, more satisfaction, and greater 
 reward than one of luxurious ease, so called. It 
 earns the commendation of a good stewardship, and 
 .escapes, besides the terrible condemnation of the 
 buried talent, the unspeakable humiliation of self- 
 reproach. In that dread hour when death is at 
 hand, and the last sands of life are fast running
 
 262 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 out when reflections on the past life force them- 
 selves on the mind and suggest the verdict of the 
 great Judge a sense of its uselessness must be most 
 humiliating, even if the vices which idleness almost 
 always induces had not also to be deplored. 
 
 5. A habit of following a lead, and depending on 
 the opinions and suggestions of others, in so far as it 
 is a voluntary renunciation of the active control of 
 Thought and conduct, is one of danger. The weak- 
 ness of principle and infirmity of judgment implied 
 by such a habit are inimical to effective control. He 
 who, for want of self-reliance, seeks for a guide will 
 most probably fare like the unclean spirit, and find 
 others weaker than himself to occupy his empty mind. 
 The control and the responsibility of conduct cannot 
 be safely disconnected, nor may they be deputed to- 
 another. 
 
 That form of distrust of self which is a character- 
 istic of the conflict between the suggestions of the 
 lower and the principles of the higher nature, which 
 drives its subject to the Source of unerring Wisdom* 
 and Power, is far different from the desultory 
 dependence of an infirm mind. Then, as St. Paul 
 says, when most sensible of his own weakness, he 
 finds the strength he requires, not in a wandering, 
 uncertain search, but by direct application to the 
 proper Source, the Fountain of all strength and 
 virtue. 
 
 Such scenes as those exhibited by mesmerists T 
 of which the scientific explanation was given by a 
 Dr. Baird, of Manchester, over forty years ago, show 
 the effect of certain forms of renunciation of the 
 individual Will. Dr. Baird published the result of 
 his researches on these phenomena under the name
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 263 
 
 of Hypnotism. He frequently lectured on the 
 subject, and exhibited on his platform the effects 
 induced by his methods on numerous persons, com- 
 prising volunteers from his audience and subjects 
 introduced by himself. Complicity and fraud were 
 altogether out of the question, several of the subjects 
 being well-known residents, some of whom submitted 
 to his treatment incredulously, but all who followed 
 his directions fell under his influence, and showed 
 the most abject obedience to, and dependence upon, 
 his Will. In all such exhibitions, as also in the 
 more modern forms of submission to the Will of 
 others in " willing," the danger of trifling with 
 and abusing this governing power of the mental 
 estate is plainly manifested. The practical lesson so 
 taught is to show that that power should never be 
 deputed. Man may not, in fact, with impunity 
 trifle with that power which he is bound by Divine 
 command to mould to conformity with the Will of 
 God. 
 
 The cases of possession mentioned in Scripture 
 may probably have had some affinity to these 
 strange phenomena. In some forms of nervous dis- 
 order the power of the Will seems to be impaired 
 by want of salutary exertion and use. A bedridden 
 invalid who could not be aroused to the use and 
 control of his faculties, though his doctor was con- 
 vinced of his physical ability to do so, sprang out of 
 bed on a sudden alarm of fire being raised. ' His 
 Will, under this strong stimulus, was effectually 
 exerted. 
 
 The practices denounced by Buddha were evidently 
 of the nature of those above mentioned, wherein the 
 individual Will is dethroned and superseded, and his
 
 264 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 denunciation of them proves the demoralizing effect 
 so produced. All these allied phenomena have an 
 important bearing on the subject of this chapter, as 
 they all depend upon unhealthy action, temporary 
 suspension, or permanent disorder of the motive- 
 power of the mental estate. All alike demonstrate 
 the danger of neglecting the natural and salutary 
 exercise of this principal faculty, and attest the 
 terrible results which attend its dethronement, how- 
 ever temporary that may be. 
 
 No other subject can exceed in interest or im- 
 portance the control of that faculty which determines 
 the character in the sight of God, which furnishes 
 the equipment and measures the fitness of man for 
 his functions in this world and for his enjoyment of 
 that which is to come which affects his faith even 
 more than his feelings, and establishes his relations 
 with his Maker even more than his connection with 
 his fellow-men. Thought is always present, even 
 when external circumstances are absent or powerless, 
 as in the hours of sleeplessness or other abstraction ; 
 and they determine the brightness or the gloom of 
 the present, animate the hopes or inspire despair of 
 the future, suggest and stimulate good works or 
 project evil, enkindle love or nourish hatred, use 
 the faculty wisely or waste it wantonly, according as 
 the currents of Thought are directed this way or 
 that, to entertain and cherish the good or to permit 
 and follow the evil. 
 
 Hence, the choice of the thoughts determines to a 
 very great degree the sweetness or bitterness of their 
 companionship, the happiness or misery of life, and 
 the contentment or anxiety of mind. The power of 
 controlling Thought confers the ability to pursue
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 265 
 
 with effect any particular currents or course of 
 reasoning and to discard in their favour every disturb- 
 ing influence from within or from without. On this 
 power, too, depend uninterrupted worship of, and 
 communion with, God, free from the distractions of 
 external circumstance or internal suggestion. There 
 is no other position in life in which the want of the 
 controlling power of the mind is so distressing as in 
 intercourse with God in prayer. Interruptions are 
 then destructive of peace and profit. The incon- 
 gruity of suggested Thought at such times is often 
 simply appalling. 
 
 The power of choosing the currents of Thought 
 and directing the powers of the thinking faculty is 
 vested in every individual for himself. This pro- 
 position, so vitally affecting the issues of life, may 
 seem doubtful to persons who, for want of training, 
 or owing to the effect of loose habits of thinking, 
 have lost, or have failed to acquire, command over 
 their faculties. It is nevertheless assuredly true 
 that every sane man is endowed with a power of 
 Will which, rightly exercised, gives him the mastery 
 of his mental faculties as complete and general as of 
 his physical powers. He may even learn to over- 
 come the pressure of external circumstance, and, 
 discarding all else, keep his mental powers un- 
 interruptedly concentrated upon the object of his 
 choice. Lord Macaulay relates that he could keep 
 his attention fast rivetted upon his book as he 
 walked along the thoroughfares of London. His 
 may have been a singular supremacy of control, but 
 the accomplishment of withdrawing the attention 
 completely from surrounding objects is one which is 
 required in many of the pursuits of life, and though
 
 266 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 it may sometimes cause difficulty, and be imperfectly 
 acquired in some cases, these must be exceptional. 
 In schools, offices, and many other places in which 
 daily avocations are pursued, the individual efforts 
 have to be independent of the concerns of absorbing- 
 interest going on around. 
 
 It may therefore be confidently affirmed that 
 every man either possesses, or may acquire, the 
 control of his thinking faculty in such manner that 
 he may choose out of his fund of collective ideas 
 those he will entertain, commune with, and cherish, 
 and may effectually discard others which would 
 interrupt or divert his attention. Hence it follows- 
 that the functions and influence of Thought on life 
 and character being such as we have described, arid 
 every man possessing the means of exerting effective 
 control of his thoughts, the tenor of life in every 
 individual depends mainly upon his own action in 
 over- ruling the force of external circumstances. It 
 rests practically with himself whether he persistently 
 direct his thoughts to the dark or the bright side of 
 things ; whether he brood over his disappointments, 
 and thus multiply them, or dwell upon the blessings 
 of his lot, and draw from them the full measure of 
 solid satisfaction they would never fail to afford ; 
 whether he nourish resentments and cultivate the 
 company of the injuries he thinks he has suffered, 
 or whether he obliterate all such miserable memories 
 by the cloak of charity. He who chooses to compare 
 his lot with that of others whom he deems more 
 fortunate than himself makes .himself a discontented 
 man, whilst he who, on the other hand, chooses to- 
 contemplate the blessings he enjoys creates a con- 
 tented mind, and enjoys them all over and over
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 267 
 
 again. He makes himself happy with a fraction of 
 what the other permits to make him miserable. 
 Jack's horse is a familiar case in point. He never 
 regarded his own pasture, but spent his time in 
 looking over the fence into the next field. Thus it 
 is manifest how greatly the happiness or misery of 
 life depends upon the control of the thinking faculty, 
 and therefore rests with the individual himself. 
 
 It is true that painful subject-matter may some- 
 times obtrude itself upon the mind with irresistible 
 force such as the failure of some cherished project 
 or the miscarriage of some earnest effort. Or the 
 loss of some dear relative or friend may inflict a 
 wound from which the heart must suffer and the 
 current of Thought draw copious grief; or affliction 
 may assail, and impose its inevitable pains and 
 penalties. Still, these have a mysterious and salu- 
 tary influence, unless they be permitted to do more 
 than their appointed part in the economy of life by 
 uncontrolled licence of Thought. Many others since 
 the days of the Psalmist have found it good to have 
 been afflicted. All such occasions supply the sphere 
 proper to the enlistment of sympathy, the great 
 alleviator. St. Paul speaks of such affliction as light 
 in view of the eternal weight of glory which they 
 are in some measure the means of procuring. These 
 are all opportunities for the higher nature to assert 
 its supremacy over the affairs of the lower. As such 
 they are essential parts of the dispensations of Pro- 
 vidence for the exercise of faith and for the education 
 this life affords. 
 
 Nor should recollections of sins be resisted. The 
 grief they inspire is an essential condition of for- 
 giveness and of that genuine, heartfelt repentance
 
 268 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 which drives the culprit to the Cross. Moreover, 
 the remembrance of sin is a most effective stimulus 
 to the love of Him who expiated the sins of man- 
 kind by His exemplary life and sacrificial death. 
 The love of the Magdalene, which so excited the 
 self-sufficient Pharisee, was proportioned to, and in- 
 spired by, the recollection of the debt her Saviour 
 had discharged for her. 
 
 In all those cases the direction of the thoughts to 
 subjects in themselves painful does not produce re- 
 morse that hell-fire of the heart which is the sting 
 of the second death. Unless unduly indulged, the 
 effect of such contemplation is that of a cleansing fire, 
 a purifying, chastening influence ; it is therefore not 
 the least profitable company a man may sometimes 
 select from the treasury of things new and old. 
 
 He who, possessing a palace, should take up his 
 abode on a dunghill would be accounted mad. Yet 
 he who, having a treasury of life's experiences, should 
 choose for his meditations all the bitter elements 
 thereof, and should neglect to consider the sweets, 
 which in every life, even in the most afflicted, far 
 outweigh the real bitters, acts likewise, and with no 
 less unwisdom and bad taste. However widely the 
 <social position and circumstances differ, there is in 
 every life ample material, in the experiences of good 
 and evil, from which to make choice of companionship 
 in Thought. No sphere can claim any monopoly of 
 choice. All depends on character, which is the 
 exponent of the thinking faculty, and its product. 
 Thought on what has been extracted from the 
 opportunities cf life, either under the salutary 
 control of moral principles or under the captivating 
 influence of the lower nature. This it is which
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 269 
 
 furnishes the mental treasury, and therefore, in what- 
 soever sphere of life or grade of society his ex- 
 periences may have been acquired, every man has a 
 variety of resource from which he may choose either 
 the good or the evil, according as his wisdom or his 
 ill-humour may dictate. 
 
 Considering how large a proportion of life is em- 
 ployed in reflection when no other resource is avail- 
 able, it behoves every one who values happiness and 
 peace to make provision for the employment of his 
 leisure thought such as most men make for their 
 hours of physical recreation. Most men have places 
 of resort where they enjoy their pastime in company 
 with the beauties of Nature or the recreations of art. 
 They avoid the places where vice and folly disclose 
 their revolting characteristics. They prefer the frag- 
 rance and loveliness of the flowers in their gardens to 
 the drains and dunghills appertaining. So, likewise, 
 mental pastime may either have its pleasurable and 
 useful resorts amongst the attractions of scientific, 
 literary, or religious Thought, or in unwholesome 
 broodings over those things which have embittered 
 their past lives and may prove the hell-fire of their 
 future state. Every man. should possess, as an 
 essential part of his mental equipment, a repository 
 of reserve Thought from which to draw in time of 
 need such matter for reflection as may best suit the par- 
 ticular occasion a mental pleasure-ground in which 
 to take his mental pastime. Thence, if sleep delay 
 its sweet solace, as he lies in the stillness of night, or 
 
 o ' 
 
 if in a vacant moment dark Thought assail, or in any 
 of the innumerable occasions of mental leisure, he 
 may always derive an unfailing supply of salutary or 
 useful and agreeable Thought to occupy the spare
 
 270 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 moment or to repel an obtrusive suggestion. No 
 man's experience of life is so barren of happy 
 reminiscences that he needs brood over the incompar- 
 ably fewer incidents of sad memory. The kindness 
 of friends and the pleasant intercourse by which they 
 have so often sweetened life, the love that has so 
 often been returned from sympathetic hearts, the 
 joyous recollection of good deeds done and the still 
 more delightful projects of others in contemplation, 
 the beauties of Nature, the triumphs of art, the gifts 
 of Providence, the goodness of God, and other 
 cognate reflections are ample defence against the 
 assaults of the lower nature with such poor baits as 
 thoughts of injuries suffered or other sad reproduc- 
 tions and multiplications of misery. 
 
 In conclusion, the control necessary to firmly 
 establish the habit of choosing wisely the subject- 
 matter of Thought is an attainable accomplishment 
 within the reach of every one. And its attainment 
 is an end worthy of the most sedulous and persistent 
 effort from the first exercise of the mind in infancy 
 to the very end of life. And it would still be so even 
 if it were not the duty of man to eschew evil and 
 choose the good equally in the domain of Thought as 
 in the conduct of life if, that is to say, it were not 
 as imperative to cleanse the fountain as to purify the 
 stream. 
 
 In this chapter we have endeavoured to show that 
 all mental operations are naturally subject to the 
 Will, the governing power of the mental estate ; 
 that the effective maintenance of the supremacy of 
 this control depends upon its being regularly ex- 
 ercised, whereby it becomes habitual, easy, and 
 almost mechanical ; that, on the other hand, if not so
 
 ON THE CONTROL OF THE THINKING FACULTY. 2 7 I 
 
 controlled, the mental faculties will fall under such 
 other influence of internal suggestion or external cir- 
 cumstance as may happen to present itself, and 
 that the more this laissez-faire habit is indulged 
 the stronger it will become. In the end, control will 
 become impossible except by the exertion of ex- 
 traordinary effort. The habit of listlessness, there- 
 fore, is the natural counter-agent of control and of 
 attention, its exponent. To " collect " Thought 
 which is habitually dissipated is but barely possible, 
 and is always a painful and humiliating task, like 
 tearing off the shackles of a mental bondage. 
 
 The practical conclusion is that, from the first, 
 mental effort should be fixed upon whatever matter 
 is actually in hand. That is its natural function. It 
 should be engaged in whatsoever occupation is present. 
 Leisure is always a snare, especially to children, who 
 have but little mental resource to engage their re- 
 flections. It follows that employment, of whatever 
 kind, not positively harmful, that possesses interest 
 and attracts attention, is doing good by keeping 
 Thought enlisted to a purpose, fixed on a pursuit, and 
 not left to drift into such currents as are ever ready 
 to engross idle minds. When the Will renounces its 
 prerogative, its power wanes, and leaves the mind a 
 prey to desultory Thought and a habit of listlessness. 
 The most effective way to cultivate a habit of 
 attention in children is to encourage it by enter- 
 ing into their pursuits and by sympathizing with 
 their own natural efforts, and thus helping them to 
 keep their thoughts engaged in what they are about. 
 But little ingenuity is needful to devise attractive em- 
 ployments for young children, because almost any may 
 be so made by sympathetic attention of their tutors.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ON MEMORY. 
 
 WITHOUT memory there could be neither past nor 
 future. As there could be no recollection of the past, 
 there could be no conception of a future, for this is 
 the result of reflection, and without memory there 
 could be no reflection nor any ideas to reflect upon. 
 The mind could not possess any stock of Thought, 
 and could not have any knowledge except of the 
 sensation present, which, when past, would vanish 
 out of knowledge and leave no trace behind. Each 
 sensation would be a separate and detached bit 
 of life, unconnected with all others. There could 
 therefore be no individuality, for life itself would 
 consist of disjointed links without any connection 
 to give them either unity or continuity. Thought 
 would be but the shadow of the passing sensation, 
 and would disappear along with it. The mental 
 tablet w T ould be as blank at the close of life as it was 
 at its commencement. 
 
 It is not altogether unprofitable to consider what 
 life would be without memory, because it helps to 
 show the inestimable value of that faculty as being 
 the one on which all other mental powers depend. 
 This could in no other way be so forcibly exhibited as 
 by the endeavour to conceive what life and mind 
 would be reduced to if deprived of memory. Even the
 
 ON MEMORY. 2/3 
 
 lower animals supply no clue to aid the conception, 
 for wheresoever mental power exists, even in their 
 lowest ranks, it is shown in memory. 
 
 Practically, the nature of memory is so well known 
 by universal experience that no words could make it 
 better understood than it already must be to every 
 one capable of understanding the words employed in 
 describing it. Nevertheless, the essential nature 
 of the faculty and its mode of operation are in- 
 scrutable. All that is, or seems likely to be, known 
 respecting these points is the practical operation of 
 the faculty. Respecting this there is no mystery ; 
 nothing, in fact, but what may be well understood by 
 experience and research. And there is no other 
 faculty which merits such attentive study, for its 
 power is the measure of all other mental powers. 
 Even the perceptions derived directly through the 
 senses owe their chief value to the relations subsist- 
 ing between them and existing experiences of the 
 mind. For all the qualities of things such as their 
 size, distance, and the like and their uses and pro- 
 perties are learned by means of comparison and 
 inference, for which memory is essential. 
 
 The records of formulated Thought, the ideas in- 
 scribed on the mental tablet, are of three kinds 
 simple, complex, arid indeterminate. Simple ideas, 
 like single letters of the alphabet, are rarely appre- 
 hended or employed singly, but as component parts 
 of complex ideas, of which class are the great pro- 
 portion of the mental stock. Both the first-named 
 classes of ideas are definite, and are therefore re- 
 callable in definite form by the memory. Those of 
 the third class are not so, but, though indeterminate, 
 they are nevertheless often deep and enduring.
 
 274 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 They may generally be expressed or described by 
 means of other experiences, but they are not always 
 translatable into customary forms of expression. 
 Of this class are those impressions or ideas formed of 
 sermons, narratives, and books, of which no par- 
 ticulars were separately noted, and of which only a 
 general idea is remembered, albeit this may be 
 strong and permanent. These several kinds of ideas 
 are fully described in. chapter ii., and we have now 
 to discuss other characteristics of Thought not there 
 specified. 
 
 Ideas are not only of different classes, but those of 
 the same class may differ widely in strength, clear- 
 ness, and other characteristics, according to personal 
 idiosyncrasies, such as the habit of mind, manner of 
 observation, and effort of formulation. 
 
 Habit of mind may, for example, be energetic and 
 earnest or supine and indifferent, or it may be care- 
 ful and attentive or casual and desultory. These 
 and other personal characteristics affect the nature of 
 the ideas formed under their influence. Other 
 differences arise from the various habits of observa- 
 tion which are peculiar to different individuals. One 
 regards details, another takes more general and com- 
 prehensive views. One attends to the sense of a 
 phrase more than to the form in which it is ex- 
 pressed, which will engage the notice of another 
 preferentially to the sense. One is impressed with 
 the separate features of a face, and notes the colour 
 of the eyes, the form of the nose, &c. Another, 
 neglecting these details, notes the general expression. 
 His idea is of the tout ensemble. One studies the 
 facts of a science individually, and forms imperfect 
 ideas of its general principles. Another regards the
 
 ON MEMORY. 275 
 
 facts chiefly in their relation to principles, of which, 
 therefore, he has clear ideas. Other differences in the 
 nature of ideas arise from the act of formulation. 
 One person is more affected by what he sees, another 
 by what he hears. The ideas formulated by each will 
 differ accordingly. In one the evidence addressed to 
 the eye will be relatively stronger and more com- 
 plete than that apprehended by the weaker or less 
 used sense, and vice versd. 
 
 Hence the collective stock of ideas in each indi- 
 vidual depends upon the various conditions and 
 experiences proper to each, and the ideas differ 
 accordingly. In one the stock will consist of a pre- 
 ponderance of details and particulars ; in another, 
 mainly of general characters and principles and of 
 more comprehensive views. One person has clear, 
 definite, and complete ideas, which in another are 
 loose, cursory, and partial, and so on ad infinitum. 
 It follows that there exists great diversity of memory, 
 corresponding to the kind of knowledge in possession, 
 and to the nature of the ideas of which the stock is 
 composed. For it is manifest that no other ideas 
 could be recalled by the memory than those existing 
 in the mind, and, seeing that all the ideas there 
 present were formed and collected by the individual 
 himself, it follows that the diversity of memory in 
 different individuals is owing to the different kinds 
 and qualities of the ideas which compose the stock in 
 each case. 
 
 Almost every individual memory is characterized 
 by special power or weakness in certain directions 
 other than those peculiarities which arise from the 
 greater or less prevalence of particular kinds of know- 
 ledge. The origin of these specialities is sometimes 
 
 T 2
 
 2/6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 obscure, but " it may generally be traced to natural 
 causes by careful reference to past experience. For 
 instance, unmeaning gibberish picked up at school 
 may often be remembered through life, or it may be 
 incidentally revived, after a lapse of forty or fifty years y 
 in all its absurdity, as fresh as if it had been repeated 
 daily. Yet, on the other hand, useful and intelligible 
 formulae, replete with meaning and acquired at the 
 same time by much labour, may have passed com- 
 pletely and irrecoverably out of the mind. The 
 memory which recalls the one fails with regard to- 
 the other, though both were originally contempora- 
 neous, and one was picked up casually and the 
 other by laborious effort. The one, therefore, which 
 should have been enduring is lost, whilst the other, 
 of a fugitive nature, is retained. Still, it would be 
 unreasonable and unphilosophical to attribute the 
 difference to chance. It must be due to the operation 
 of natural causes, which, therefore, should be sought 
 for the purpose of turning them to account. 
 
 In the particular, instance just cited, the idea so 
 faithfully recollected was acquired voluntarily, under 
 the influence of imitation and emulation, much in 
 the same manner as that by which language comes 
 with so little apparent effort and with such lasting 
 effect. Regarded as one of those accomplishments 
 which children are often so ambitious to acquire and 
 so proud to display, it was probably the result of 
 oft repeated trials, and practised continually for a 
 considerable time afterwards. Hence it came by 
 voluntary and earnest effort and was confirmed by 
 after-use, and these are the conditions most favour- 
 able to effective formulation. On the other hand, 
 the useful and important lessons which have since
 
 ON MEMORY. 277 
 
 been so completely lost to memory, were originally 
 tasks, not willingly taken up, but imposed by school 
 discipline. They were not coveted accomplishments, 
 but dry and unattractive impositions. They excited 
 no interest, nor seemed of any use. -In short, the 
 ideas of them were formulated under conditions the 
 most adverse to the production of deep and lasting 
 impressions, and were therefore, from their very 
 inception, doomed to be forgotten unless soon 
 revived by the future requirements of some definite 
 pursuit. Thus considered, the fact in the case cited 
 proves the fidelity of the memory to the influence of 
 natural causes. 
 
 A careful consideration of past experience will, we 
 think, convince any person that the great proportion 
 .of what he remembers the best, and of his most 
 useful and available knowledge, was gathered by 
 voluntary impulse from passing events and obser- 
 vation, because it presented some form of attraction 
 to excite desire. It may have promised some present 
 gratification or some future use, or it may have 
 excited emulation or have been prompted by the 
 imitative propensity so strong in children. But 
 whatever the motive, the act of acquiring the 
 particular information or possession was voluntary, 
 self-chosen, and performed with intent, and, therefore, 
 with earnestness and effect. These are conditions 
 favourable to the formulation of deep and lasting 
 ideas. Another condition which is very influential in 
 .childhood is the absence of pre-occupation. 
 
 Another kind of seeming discrepancy in the function 
 of memory is the subject of a very common form of 
 complaint. A busy merchant, it may be, inveighs 
 against his weak and treacherous memory because
 
 2/8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 he forgets sometimes things which he wished to 
 remember. He assumes that, because he wishes to- 
 remember, his memory ought to obey his wishes and 
 never fail in such matters. The fact in his case is 
 probably that his power of memory is taxed or per- 
 haps strained to the utmost to remember the vast 
 mass of detail necessary for the exercise of his calling, 
 He fails to consider that every vessel, even the 
 human mind, has a certain capacity, and that when 
 it is full it will hold no more. The last occasion on. 
 which this complaint was expressed to us it was in 
 vehement invective by a professional man, of whom 
 we knew that his splendid power of memory was ans 
 unfailing resource in all those uses connected with 
 his calling for which it was most needed. A mind 
 so engrossed with matters of paramount importance 
 has not much power to spare for superfluous use y 
 even if its pre-occupation were not itself an effectual 
 impediment to such exercise. 
 
 Memory, being the power of recalling ideas pre- 
 viously formulated, will necessarily reproduce every 
 idea in the particular form in which it exists in the 
 mind. This, as we have shown, will depend on the 
 condition of the mind at the time of the presentment r 
 on the manner of observation or contemplation, the 
 habit of formulation, and other circumstances to be 
 hereafter specified. Such as is the nature of the 
 general stock of ideas collectively, and of each 
 particular idea individually, such will be the kind of 
 memory in its general character and in its particular 
 application. Hence, in infancy, for example, when 
 strong impressions are made before any knowledge of 
 language has been acquired, it is manifestly im- 
 possible that such impressions should be formulated
 
 ON MEMOKY. 279 
 
 in words. Nor in that inexperienced condition of 
 the mind could ideas be formed in any other com- 
 municable terms. But they are not therefore lost. 
 The forces which acted so powerfully were not 
 annihilated. Though the ideas do not exist in any 
 of those impossible forms in which the infant mind 
 did not yet possess the means of embodying them, 
 they nevertheless exist in the full force and form in 
 which they were experienced. These ideas therefore 
 are not recallable in any of those other forms, seeing 
 that they never so existed in the mind. They are 
 crystallized into the form of temper, &c., and they 
 determine the feeling or relation of the infant towards 
 external persons, generally or individually, as the 
 case may be. 
 
 The sensation of a burn, for instance, could not be 
 formulated by a young infant either into words or 
 any other terms by which it could be expressed. 
 Nevertheless, the sensation will be remembered, and 
 will result in a manifest attitude of repugnance 
 towards the producing cause of the sensation. In 
 like manner, unkind treatment will produce lasting 
 impressions corresponding thereto, which will be 
 manifest in the form of temper, disposition, and feel- 
 ings of fear, resentment, or dislike on the one hand, 
 and their opposites, love, trust, and allied feelings, on 
 the other hand. The stock of ideas acquired in 
 early infancy consists, to a great extent, of such in- 
 determinate impressions, which even in after-life 
 are not always easily expressible. Nevertheless, 
 the experience of that period is influential in the 
 formation of the future character, inasmuch as it 
 determines the relation of the infant to the outer 
 world.
 
 280 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 In later periods of childhood, when knowledge is 
 still crude and language is imperfectly understood, 
 ideas formulated in terms of such defective means 
 partake of the imperfection of the means employed. 
 The idea of the house in which a person passed his 
 childhood is clearly and distinctly embalmed in 
 memory, but on revisiting it twenty years later he 
 will probably be astonished to see how unaccountably 
 it has shrunk in its dimensions, how changed are its 
 aspect and surroundings ! The dame-school of which 
 he has such vivid recollection will be found to be in- 
 credibly transformed, and the great ogress who used 
 to slap his little hands seems to his mature senses 
 a nice little old woman, all smiles and curtsies. She 
 and her house of correction, depicted in the colours 
 and dimensions of his childish standards, now appear 
 in another light, and are judged by other standards, 
 corrected and established by long experience. We 
 could hardly believe our senses on being introduced, 
 after a lapse of twenty years, to the real presence of 
 our first schoolmaster. Till that disillusion occurred 
 he had lived in our memory in figure clear as day 
 and dark as night. A shudder involuntarily shook 
 our frame when the image of his spectacled face and 
 portentous figure crossed our mental path. We saw 
 him examining our blotted copy and chastising our 
 inky fingers. The awe inspired by his comments on 
 the crookedness of our attempts at straight strokes 
 still haunted us when in memory he re-appeared to 
 us. Yet now, how different does he seem ! It seems 
 impossible that this courteous, kind, polite old gentle- 
 man can be the very original of pictures so unlike. 
 But so it is, and the change is not in the original. 
 It is the copy that was imperfectly drawn, on a scale
 
 ON MEMORY. 28 I 
 
 which experience has changed, and in aspects referred 
 to standards long since superseded by others, truer 
 and better, from which a part at least of the original 
 imperfections have been supplied or corrected. 
 
 From such considerations it appears that ideas are 
 formulated and chronicled in the terms, and by means 
 of the standards, proper to the period when they 
 were produced. The size, colours, and aspects of 
 objects without, and of subject-matter of Thought 
 within, are all gauged according to the standards by 
 which they were judged at the time when the ideas 
 of them were formulated and inscribed on the mental 
 tablet. Ideas of external objects, as well as those of 
 personal treatment, were true to the mental standards 
 of the time when they were formed, but, whereas those 
 have not affected conduct, these, magnified by the 
 sensitiveness of infant feelings, have deeply affected 
 the child's subsequent relations with the world. 
 
 All the imperfections and deviations from truth 
 that exist in the standards by which sensations and 
 reflections are judged at the time they are formu- 
 lated are reproduced in the images and ideas result- 
 ing therefrom. The effects in regard to such matters 
 as are described in the foregoing paragraph are 
 evident. But though the effects are not so obvious, 
 they are equally certain and infinitely more impor- 
 tant in their bearing on the processes of Thought in 
 the later periods of life. These are in fact distorted, 
 deformed, and imperfect in like manner and degree 
 owing; to the like infirmities. The formulative 
 
 o 
 
 faculty which inscribes ideas in the mind, the terms 
 in which the inscriptions are recorded, and the nature 
 of the records themselves are all imperfect, and more 
 or less erroneous in sympathy with the various forms
 
 282 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 and degrees of infirmity proper to each individual 
 thinker. Hence the records habitually summoned 
 by memory for use in after-life, and all the opinions 
 and judgments founded thereon and the conduct 
 suggested thereby, are all tainted with the ineradi- 
 cable elements of error which exist in all human 
 standards. 
 
 Considering that the ideas which compose the 
 collective stock in every case are the data, and the 
 only data on which all judgments and opinions are 
 formed, and that opinions so formed on previous 
 data become in turn the factors of further inferences 
 and judgments ad infinitum, it is evident that error 
 and imperfection in various degrees are inextricably 
 mixed up with all, even the wisest and best of human 
 reasonings. This fact is humiliating truly, but it is 
 irresistible, and should teach men to be tolerant 
 towards those of their fellow-men who, having formed 
 their opinions under different conditions, think and 
 act differently from themselves. And further, it 
 suggests the utmost care in admitting into the mind 
 ideas from which error has not been, as far as possible, 
 excluded, and also in forming opinions on any but 
 the most reliable premisses. 
 
 The memory is the index of the mind, and faith- 
 fully indicates the thoughts and experiences that are 
 recorded there. These are reproduced by memory in 
 the form in which they stand there recorded, whether 
 in their original garb, as they were first formulated, 
 or as they may have since been revised and corrected 
 by subsequent repetitions. As they stand on the 
 record at the time of memory's summons, so will 
 they re-appear. They are available for use in that 
 form, and in that form only. He who has collected
 
 ON MEMORY. 283 
 
 details only may in vain expect to recall ideas of 
 general principles. The listener whose attention 
 during a discourse was fixed on the line of the argu- 
 ment need not hope to exhume from his mind the 
 beautiful phrases and periods of its diction. Nor 
 will he be much profited by a sermon who is chiefly 
 occupied with other thoughts. He may tax his 
 memory, but he will not find there anything but 
 what was attentively received or very strikingly 
 enforced. 
 
 Listening once to a celebrated orator, we heard his 
 opening remarks with such attention that we could 
 afterwards repeat them word for word. But, as the 
 discourse proceeded, the subject-matter became more 
 attractive than the diction, and absorbed our atten- 
 tion. The consequence was that from the time when 
 the argument occupied our mind the diction was 
 lost. Not a phrase of it could be recalled. But this 
 was no fault of the memory. The reason we could 
 not recall the words was because we had not formu- 
 lated them. They were not on the record. 
 
 A witness in the box is required to give his evi- 
 dence, and we will suppose that he has a strong- 
 sense of the obligations imposed by his oath and of 
 the importance of his testimony. He remembers the 
 incidents he is required to attest quite distinctly, but 
 the events were observed and formulated by him at 
 the time of their occurrence in a certain way. In. 
 the box he is required to answer certain questions in 
 a certain form. But probably his record does not 
 supply a ready answer, if any, in that particular 
 form. He hesitates possibly, if he be not altogether 
 outfaced by the gazing multitude and the court ; he 
 proffers an explanation, but is promptly stopped and
 
 284 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 probably bullied, as though he were trying to conceal 
 something or to prevaricate. He is bound by the 
 terms of his record. His memory will not accommo- 
 date itself to the form in which the counsel is dealing 
 with the facts, and he therefore appears to be at 
 fault. If allowed to tell his story as it stands in his 
 mind, he would probably give it clearly. 
 
 Simple and undeniable as the fact is, it is not 
 always recognized in practice, that memory cannot 
 reproduce the ideas of the mind otherwise than as 
 they stand recorded. Memory cannot alter the 
 record ; that is the work of fiction. 
 
 Hence, the fact that each individual has a particu- 
 lar habit of mind, a certain manner of observation, 
 and formulates his ideas in his own way, determines 
 the character of his memory, which is only the index 
 of what the mind contains. So that whatever may 
 be the nature of the ideas in possession, and in what- 
 ever form they exist, such both in form and substance 
 will be their reproduction by the memory general 
 or particular, clear or obscure, true or false, complete 
 or imperfect ; as they exist in the mind, so they will 
 answer to memory's summons. Yet the chief com- 
 plaints that men make of their memories are because 
 of their fidelity to the record. For example, a person 
 of careless habit is annoyed to find that his recollec- 
 tions of certain things have proved to be very faulty, 
 and he blames his bad memory because it lias recalled 
 but too truly the ideas he formulated so carelessly 
 and hastily. Another complains how little he re- 
 members of the last book he read, and deplores his 
 wretched memory. He forgets how hastily he 
 skimmed it through, how greedily he bolted page 
 after page, without afforded himself time to fully
 
 ON MEMORY. 285 
 
 grasp any but the most salient parts, and even these 
 were passed over so hurriedly and so piled one upon 
 another that the idea formulated of the whole was a 
 disorderly hotch-potch. The memory answers to the 
 performance, which was cursory, superficial, imperfect, 
 and jumbled. 
 
 In the reading of a book, or in any other effort of 
 the mind, it is necessary for every one to gauge his 
 own proper powers by experience, and to impose 
 upon himself only so much at a time as he knows he 
 can digest. It is quite as essential to mental health 
 and strength to ascertain the capacity of the mind, 
 and to adjust mental food accordingly, as it is 
 to control the measure of the meals, and adapt 
 them to the capacity and digestive powers of the 
 stomach. 
 
 The circumstances and conditions which determine 
 the form of the ideas which compose the mental 
 store have been already sufficiently discussed. But, 
 although the form they possess in the mind is that 
 in which memory will reproduce them, the facility 
 with which they may be recalled depends on other 
 characters equally important. The readiness of re- 
 call is often even more important than the form of 
 an idea. The conditions necessary to insure a ready 
 response to the summons of memory, therefore, 
 require special consideration. In other words, the 
 force or strength of an idea is as important as its 
 form in relation to the action of memory. 
 
 The conditions which chiefly determine the force 
 of ideas, and their consequent readiness of recall, are : 
 ( i ) the attention or effort of concentration exerted in 
 their formulation, (2) the nature and duration of the 
 opportunity afforded for the act of formulation,
 
 286 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 (3) the subject-matter or sensation itself, (4) the 
 condition of the mind at that time, (5) associated 
 circumstances, and (6) repetitions. 
 
 Though we do not profess that there is any real 
 relation between the results of photographic and 
 mental processes, there are points of analogy which 
 serve for illustration. Hence, as the actinic strength 
 of the light, the sensitiveness of the plate, and the 
 duration of exposure are all essential factors in deter- 
 mining the result, so, in the action of the formulating 
 faculty of the mind, there are the corresponding ele- 
 ments of force and concentration of attention, the sen- 
 sitiveness of the perceptive power, and the duration of 
 the process, all effective factors in determining the 
 result. 
 
 i. Without a strong effort of attention, either 
 voluntarily inspired by earnest desire or constrained 
 by pressure of circumstance, no effective result is 
 possible. Otherwise, the impression will be more or 
 less light and fugitive. It has already been shown 
 that the act of formulating an idea is distinct from 
 the mere perception of a sensation. It follows that 
 the strength of the idea in the mind will depend on 
 the effort employed in that act. Of all the things 
 seen and heard, a part only enter into the stock of 
 formulated Thought. Of the rest, some things are 
 altogether unnoticed and lost ; others are very feebly 
 formulated, and produce weak and fugitive results. 
 The choice of those that are noticed depends in part 
 upon their attractiveness or the obtrusive nature of 
 their presentment, and in part on the condition of 
 the mind and other circumstances hereafter to be 
 mentioned. It follows that ideas of every degree of 
 force exist in the mind according to the degree of
 
 ON MEMORY. 287 
 
 attention devoted to the act of formulation or to its 
 frequent repetition. 
 
 An instance of the total loss of a perception the 
 existence of which was proved by responsive but 
 unconscious action is given in the Appendix, Note 7. 
 In this case a person is addressed formally, and a 
 letter is presented to him, which he takes and dis- 
 poses of unconsciously in so far as the act of formula- 
 tion or record is concerned. He is asked for the 
 letter, and denies any knowledge of it or of any 
 presentation of it to him. The case represents a 
 common form of occurrence. The letter was delivered 
 to one who was wholly absorbed in an important 
 calculation, and was received at a time when the 
 mind could not, and did not, attend to it. The act 
 elicited a mechanical response, and must, therefore, 
 have been perceived, but was not formulated, and 
 hence not subject to recall, as no record existed in 
 the mind. 
 
 It is not uncommon in the act of reading, even 
 when reading aloud, for whole sentences or even 
 pages to be well read with seeming intelligence, and 
 yet to be utterly lost, without so much as a glimmer 
 of either words or sense. Sometimes the last sounds 
 may still linger on the sensorium and be recovered 
 by immediate effort, owing to the fact that sensations 
 linger for a sensible space of time on the sensorium. 
 It is by means of this phenomenon that the curious 
 effect of the zoetrope and some analogous illusions are 
 produced. We remember a nervous youth whose duty 
 it was to attend upon a pompous, irascible principal 
 of a large house of business, and who had a habit of 
 pausing and pondering for a few moments whenever 
 he left the " sweating-room," as the chiefs office was
 
 288 NATUEAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 commonly called. Partly owing to his pomposity, 
 and partly owing to a bad utterance, the chief blurted 
 out his orders in a most confused manner, and few 
 people ventured to ask a repetition. Least of all the 
 nervous little attendant, whose habit therefore was 
 to ponder over the sounds whilst they yet lingered on 
 his ear, and try to spell out their sense. Manifestly, 
 however, this can only apply to the few last utter- 
 ances. Hence the effort to follow a discourse so 
 uttered would be unavailing, and, inasmuch as one 
 sentence would follow before the previous one had 
 been apprehended, the whole would defy subsequent 
 recall by memory, for the all-sufficient reason that 
 the resultant impression was a conglomeration, of 
 which possibly, here and there, a strongly accentuated 
 phrase might have been fixed on the photographic 
 plate in recognizable shape. 
 
 The force of ideas and their amenableness to 
 memory depend therefore very much upon the 
 degree of attention exerted on the act of formulation. 
 Ideas will be light, shadowy, and imperfect, or 
 strong, clear, and complete, responsive to recall or 
 hard to remember, according as this process has been 
 efficiently or imperfectly performed. It is chiefly to 
 this factor that mnemomic systems direct their rules. 
 The directions they prescribe aim to give special force 
 to the ideas by particular attention to the manner of 
 their formulation. The necessity for such effort of 
 attention is practically recognized. An architect 
 who inspects a site for a contemplated building is not 
 satisfied with a cursory look, or even with bare 
 measurement. He notes its exact figure, the contour 
 of its surface, the nature of its soil, aspect, situation, 
 the views it commands and the view it will present.
 
 ON MEMORY. 289 
 
 He considers it with reference to drainage, elevation, 
 and other points. And he does not expect, even 
 after all, that his memory will supply any particulars 
 he has neglected to note or to correct any mistakes 
 of his measures or memoranda. Yet this, in effect, 
 is what very many people expect their memories to 
 do, and, because they do not answer this expectation, 
 their memories are denounced as treacherous and 
 weak, and such persons often regard themselves as 
 victims of a providential arrangement by which they 
 have failed to receive their due proportion of this 
 most useful faculty. 
 
 2. The nature and duration of the opportunity 
 afforded for the contemplation of a sensation, and for 
 the act of formulating it, are cogent factors in 
 determining the result. It stands to reason that, if 
 the sensation be brief and transient, the conditions 
 will be adverse to effective formulation. Or, if the 
 sensation be striking, attractive, and sufficiently pro- 
 longed to afford good opportunity for contemplation, 
 the result will be proportionate to the attention 
 given. The nature of the presentment and the 
 opportunity may, however, be either improved or 
 lost according as they are used, neglected, or abused. 
 A very common form of abuse is hasty reading, to 
 gratify present craving or curiosity, or under the in- 
 fluence of an erroneous estimate of the reader's 
 power of mental digestion. A man who reads a 
 three-volume novel as fast as he can scan it through 
 may probably not care to remember much about it, 
 and he would perhaps suffer no loss if he forgot it all. 
 Still, such readers generally attribute their want of 
 recollection to infirmity of memory, and their de- 
 ficiency of memory to want of some natural power. 
 
 u
 
 2 pO NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 The fact is, however, that there are limits of capacity 
 to even the most powerful minds beyond which 
 further effort is unavailing for its purpose, and causes 
 injurious strain. Beyond these limits effective for- 
 mulation is impossible. Whatever the natural capacity 
 may be, the mind cannot receive more than a certain 
 quantity at once under the most favourable circum- 
 stances. This limit of capacity should be ascertained 
 by each individual for himself by means of experience, 
 and it should afterwards be observed by rule. For 
 it is certain that effort exerted beyond that limit will 
 cause strain and injury. There is also a limit of 
 time, or rate of apprehension, which cannot be ex- 
 ceeded with benefit nor attempted without mischief. 
 
 The habits of reading more at one time than can 
 be digested, and of reading at a rate exceeding the 
 power of apprehending the sense effectively, have a 
 dissipating and weakening effect on the memory, 
 because they set up a bad habit of reading and 
 thinking which operates generally. The habitual 
 novel -reader, in acquiring a habit of rapid, cursory 
 reading for his present gratification, disqualifies 
 himself thereby to some extent for the effective 
 reading of solid matter for after-retention. Such 
 habits of reading and thinking and of neglecting to 
 formulate and fix ideas in the mind operate adversely 
 whenever formulative effort becomes necessary for 
 acquiring useful knowledge, and they form serious 
 impediments to real learning. 
 
 The foregoing remarks apply also to attempts to 
 listen to a greater quantity of matter at one time, or 
 to follow a discourse uttered at a greater rate than 
 the power of apprehension and capacity are equal to. 
 A powerful preacher will often pour forth a voluble
 
 ON MEMORY. 291 
 
 discourse of an hour's duration without reflecting that 
 it contains a mass of matter which exceeds the capa- 
 bilities of nine out of ten of his hearers to digest at 
 one meal. And he utters it at a speed which still 
 fewer can effectively follow. Whilst the most attentive 
 of his hearers are trying to fix his last sentence he 
 has already finished another. Even those who may 
 have had their minds gratified for the moment carry 
 away at best a confused and very indeterminate idea 
 of the sermon as a whole. As to the rest of the 
 hearers, they go away with a sense of pious satis- 
 faction that they have done a duty. Both preachers 
 and teachers would do well to consider the digestive 
 powers of those whom they instruct, and to measure 
 the mental meals they administer to suit those 
 powers. The effect would be to save themselves a 
 vast amount of superfluous labour, and a great deal 
 of futile effort to the recipients of their bounty. 
 
 The mental gluttony to be witnessed in exhibitions 
 of art of pictures, for example would be amusing if 
 they were not so sad. A man will vouchsafe a look 
 of ten or twenty seconds to each of a score or more 
 of the works of Raffaele, Angel o, Correggio, Guido, 
 .and such masters, in quick succession, and, having 
 done the gallery, will leave it with the idea that he 
 has fully appreciated and understood those great 
 works, and will offer his criticisms and argue his 
 points with the first artist he meets without per- 
 ceiving how much he has over-estimated the powers 
 of his mental digestion. 
 
 3. The nature of the subject-matter or sensation in 
 question is necessarily a very important factor in deter- 
 mining the force and prominence of the idea as com- 
 pared with other ideas in the mind. The degree of in- 
 
 u 2
 
 292 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 terest a subject possesses will vary very much in differ- 
 ent individuals, but, whatever the subject may be, the 
 interest it excites will go far to determine the force of 
 the idea it will suggest. Hence the great importance 
 of inspiring youths with interest in their studies, as 
 the result of their labour will be proportioned to the 
 earnestness which is inspired by their desire to learn. 
 Of all experiences, those which concern the feelings, 
 mental or corporeal, are generally those which most 
 deeply affect the individual, and are therefore those 
 that are most forcibly and lastingly impressed on the 
 mind. Circumstances that induce personal emotions 
 of love, hatred, pleasure, pain, benefit, or injury are 
 rarely forgotten, and they usually respond with re- 
 markable alacrity to the action of memory. Though 
 particular acts may not be specifically remembered, 
 the general idea is in such matters very influential. 
 And this is more particularly the case with infants 
 before they acquire the reason and experience by 
 which feelings are modified in the adult mind. 
 
 Persons who have weak memories, and seem able 
 to forget everything else, have generally very vivid 
 recollection of injuries and of other matters of a 
 personal nature ; indeed, the habit of dwelling upon 
 injuries, real or supposed, is a general characteristic of 
 a weak mind. A man who has a very poor stock of 
 ideas may nevertheless feel very deeply, and, having 
 so little else to burden his memory, he seems to cling 
 very tenaciously to these particular possessions. 
 
 4. The mental condition at the time of the present- 
 ment of a sensation or reflection, of whatever kind, 
 naturally has a great influence on the formulation of 
 the idea of it. A state of excitement might either 
 exalt the powers of the mind and serve as a stimulant
 
 ON MEMORY. 293 
 
 to effort, or, on the other hand, it might prostrate or 
 paralyze them. A state of weariness produced by 
 protracted exertion is of course a very adverse con- 
 dition, as its opposite, freshness, is eminently favour- 
 able to strong perception and effective formulation. 
 Anxiety and all allied conditions of mind have a 
 weakening influence in general, but particularly so in 
 relation to matters foreign to the subject of anxiety. 
 Distress, perplexity, and doubt have a very weaken- 
 ing effect on mental processes generally. Hence ideas 
 formulated under those conditions, unless connected 
 with them, are not likely to be well remembered. 
 
 Pre-occupation is a very effective hindrance to the 
 formulation of ideas foreign to the matter which 
 engages the mind. It will even go so far as to shut 
 out other sensations entirely, as in the case already 
 alluded to, and which is given in Note 7 of the 
 Appendix. In less degree it is a very common con- 
 dition of the mind. Circumstances occurring at such 
 times, and requiring attention, are generally formu- 
 lated weakly or imperfectly, and, if remembered, will 
 probably be as associations of the particular study or 
 contemplation which was interrupted. 
 
 Absence of mind is a form of pre- occupation, and 
 usually denotes the temporary dominion of some 
 habitual and obtrusive thought which, owing to 
 listlessness or indulgence, has acquired dominant in- 
 fluence. This state of mind is often so absorbing as 
 to make its subject almost insensible to external in- 
 fluences whilst the possession lasts. 
 
 5. The attendant circumstances under which ideas 
 are formulated, as well as the condition of the mind, are 
 often very influential in the way of association. The 
 fact that, when certain ideas have become associated
 
 294 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 together in the mind, one will generally suggest the 
 other, is attested by daily experience. The principle 
 has therefore been adopted in one form or another in 
 nearly all mnemonic systems as a means of aiding" 
 memory. Practically, therefore, the subject has 
 reference to two kinds of association, accidental and 
 intentional, the latter having been suggested by 
 the success often attending the former. 
 
 Accidental coincidences are generally much more 
 effective than any that can be designed, because they 
 must be striking, or they would not be noticed ; and 
 the act of association in such cases is forced on the 
 attention and has not to be artificially created. As 
 aids to the recall of such ideas as happened to coin- 
 cide with them, they are, therefore, very effective. 
 But they cannot be commanded when their aid is 
 most wanted, and the ideas which happen to coincide 
 with them are often not worth remembering. The 
 moving panorama of life does not so distribute its 
 memorable events and striking phenomena as to suit 
 the mental requirements of individuals, but proceeds- 
 on its inevitable course regardless of such considera- 
 tions, nor can individuals adjust their most important 
 ideas to such occasions. 
 
 A very ancient application of the principle of asso- 
 ciation for aiding memory is the very primitive and,, 
 we should think, very effective one which is still 
 practised in some villages in this country, where 
 the youths of the parish are periodically collected 
 and taught the boundaries by being "bumped" 
 against all the boundary posts. As this ceremony is- 
 performed publicly, and on some special date or 
 occasion, it is in every way impressive. 
 
 Many rules are prescribed in mnemonic treatises.
 
 ON MEMORY. 295 
 
 for the application of this principle to general use, 
 and they may be occasionally used with advantage. 
 They are not always easy to follow, nor invariably 
 effective when followed. The artificial nature of the 
 connection impairs its effect. Of the ideas that are 
 to be connected, the one which is to serve as a crutch 
 is not always easy to select, and the choice, as well 
 as the process of associating together the two ideas, 
 requires effort and time. Sometimes the connection, 
 when made, is of less help than hindrance. 
 
 6. Repetition is a powerful means of strengthening 
 the force and fixity of an idea. This is of course 
 most efficacious when the sensation or matter is itself 
 repeatedly presented to the mind, but is so in a less 
 degree when the original idea is recalled by memory. 
 Its presentment by the memory, especially whilst the 
 original impression is fresh, affords strong confirma- 
 tion. Thus, great additional force and depth may 
 be given to the first formulation. Hence an idea 
 becomes very firmly and durably fixed by repeated 
 acts of memory, and may thus be made familiar-. 
 Indeed, ideas often acquire by this means an obtru- 
 siveness which is inconvenient or even annoying. 
 Ideas in themselves good may thus become a hin- 
 drance to mental effort and be a perpetual source of 
 interruption. 
 
 It must be observed, however, with regard to the 
 recall by memory of ideas for the purpose of use or 
 confirmation, that any inherent defects or errors of 
 the original will be confirmed along with the parts 
 which were originally true and complete. Ideas that 
 have thus become deeply fixed and familiarized by 
 repeated acts of memory are apt to be regarded with 
 great confidence. Any defects therein will be main-
 
 296 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 tained with as much tenacity as the rest, without 
 distinction or doubt. With regard, therefore, to 
 ideas which have been strengthened by recall, they 
 must be considered as mere reproductions of the first 
 formulation, and not as though they resulted from 
 re-presentments of the subject or sensation itself. 
 They must be distinguished from repetitions such as 
 would confirm only what is true, and correct what is 
 false or defective in the original idea. "We remember 
 how sturdily a young friend once maintained the 
 accuracy of her rendering of a phrase of music. It 
 had become so familiar to her ear by repetition, and 
 was in that form so definitely fixed in her mind, that, 
 on appeal to the text, she seemed more disposed to 
 believe it a misprint than to doubt the truth of the 
 oft-repeated rendering. Memory recalls the ideas as 
 they exist in the mind, inclusive of all errors apper- 
 taining thereto. 
 
 Repetition is the most effective means of giving 
 force and fixity to ideas, and of making them amen- 
 able to the action of the memory. Practical use and 
 application are the most effective kinds of repetition. 
 Language is acquired by children, in the first instance, 
 by means of much repetition, and is afterwards con- 
 firmed by constant use. Hence the force and readi- 
 ness with which it is so soon learned. The desire 
 infants naturally feel to understand what is said to 
 them, the aid afforded to them by the gestures and 
 actions which accompany the words first addressed 
 to them, and the continual repetitions of the words 
 and gestures are the simple factors by which the 
 inestimable accomplishment of speech is so early 
 acquired. 
 
 Almost all the ideas which readily respond to the
 
 ON MEMORY. 297 
 
 summons of the memory are those which have been 
 fixed in the mind by frequent use and repetition. 
 Even those ideas which have been first formulated 
 by strong effort of attention seem gradually to become 
 less and less amenable to recall unless revived by 
 use or repetition. They may probably continue in 
 possession and be capable of being revived by force 
 of circumstance or by a very strong effort, but, with- 
 out repetition, the power of recall diminishes grad- 
 ually until they elude it, and only re-appear (if they 
 ever do so at all) by means of some incidental asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 A useful form of repetition, which is very gene- 
 rally recommended for its simplicity, convenience, 
 and efficacy, is that of conversing with a sympathetic 
 friend on the subjects it is desired to fix in the mind 
 and to facilitate the recall by memory. When two 
 or more persons read the same book, for instance, 
 either together aloud or separately about the same 
 time, subsequent conversation on its contents and 
 ideas is excellent practice, and answers a double pur- 
 pose. First, it is a form of repetition of the subject 
 whilst it is still fresh in the mind, and thereby 
 strengthens, fixes, and probably corrects original 
 impressions. Secondly, it serves as an exercise of 
 memory a faculty which resembles all other of the 
 mental faculties in acquiring strength by use. It 
 has also the further advantage of associating the 
 ideas with the persons and circumstances connected 
 with the discussion. 
 
 The familiarity of all those ideas which are in daily 
 use, whether connected with domestic life or with 
 the calling of each person, is such that many common 
 applications of them become mechanical and are
 
 298 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 actuated unconsciously. They do not, therefore, 
 burden the memory. But those professions and 
 employments which exact an extensive knowledge 
 of details, of which some are seldom used, but must 
 be always at command, tax the power of memory to 
 an extent which causes other acquisitions, new and 
 foreign to the profession, difficult to recall. Men so 
 engaged require to resort to artificial aids, such as 
 written memoranda, and they often complain of their 
 memories without due thought of the way they are 
 taxed and the actual service they render. 
 
 The mind may be regarded as a bank on which 
 memory draws, and the foregoing remarks explain 
 the nature of the deposits and show what may or 
 may not be drawn. The function of memory is to 
 recall the ideas that exist in the mind in the form 
 they possess at the time. It cannot make deposits 
 there nor alter any of the items, but it can, with 
 more or less effort, command all the deposits therein. 
 This must be kept in view as essential to a right 
 estimate of the power and a wise direction of the 
 effort of this important faculty. 
 
 The science of mnemonics prescribes various 
 methods and contrivances for preparing the subject- 
 matter of Thought in such manner that it may be 
 made as amenable as possible to the summons of the 
 memory. It does not, so far as we are aware, profess 
 to improve the memory itself that is, the power of 
 recalling all the ideas in the mind but concerns 
 such ideas only as have been subjected to its treat- 
 ment. If memory proper could be improved, it 
 would affect the recall of all the ideas existing in 
 the mind, and they would thenceforth be all made 
 more available. The rules and prescriptions have
 
 ON MEMORY. 299 
 
 not this effect, however, but apply to the formula- 
 tion of ideas in certain ways and under certain 
 conditions, whereby those particular ideas so 
 treated, and no others, may be made more amenable 
 to recall. In substance, they consist of contrivances 
 for fixing the attention and concentrating effort 
 upon such matters as are to be remembered, in order 
 that those matters may be fixed deeply and durably 
 in the mind. Different systems vary in the form of 
 their rules, but they all tend (i) to concentrate 
 attention upon the formulation of the ideas to be 
 remembered, (2) to improve as much as possible the 
 opportunity and to extend the time for the process 
 of formulating those ideas, (3) to secure favourable 
 conditions of the mind, (4) to connect with the ideas 
 to be remembered some other salient and appropriate 
 ideas to associate with them, and (5) to repeat the 
 efforts made under ah 1 these favourable conditions as 
 frequently as possible. 
 
 All these excellent rules, it will be observed, refer 
 to future matter, and not to that previously acquired. 
 They have no relation whatever to the power of 
 recall, but only adapt the subject-matter so treated 
 to be more easily recalled. Naturally these rules 
 will succeed eminently wheresoever they are applied 
 faithfully. Mental treasures stored up by such careful 
 processes will be readily seized upon by the memory, 
 because of the prominent character they acquire by 
 such elaboration. But all the rest of the mental 
 treasures will remain as before. The memory will 
 possess no new power over them. Only those 
 ideas which were formed under the treatment, so 
 favourable and energetic, will be affected thereby. 
 Any ideas that had been previously formed under
 
 300 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 analogous conditions, if any, will of course con- 
 tinue to possess the force corresponding to these con- 
 ditions. 
 
 Mnemonic rules, such as we have described, are 
 excellent and useful in so far as they are practicable, 
 but they are inapplicable to a great proportion of the 
 matter for which memory is most urgently needed. 
 Hence they cause unreasonable disappointment to 
 persons who have erroneous ideas and expectations 
 regarding their use and purpose. Many persons 
 take up mnemonic systems with the belief that 
 they will thereby obtain new and additional com- 
 mand over all the ideas previously acquired, and 
 they are consequently grievously disappointed to 
 find that no such improvement of the general power 
 is gained. The care and contrivance by which the 
 attention was directed to, and concentrated upon, 
 certain matters tell usefully upon those matters, but 
 have no effect whatever upon others that were not 
 so treated. 
 
 Moreover, when rules are reduced to specific form, 
 they do not apply equally to persons of different 
 habits of thought and action of mind. Some rules 
 and devices which would possibly assist certain 
 persons might prove a positive hindrance to others. 
 The safest guide for each individual is to acquire a 
 thorough knowledge of the principles on which the 
 action of memory depends, and then to adapt his 
 practice to those principles by methods suitable to 
 his own idiosyncrasy. A useful exercise is to con- 
 sider carefully the natural history of the ideas that 
 are most easily and effectually recallable, and then, 
 having ascertained the reasons why they are so 
 obedient to memory's summons, let each one apply
 
 ON MEMORY. 301 
 
 the like means to other ideas which he desires to 
 have at command. 
 
 We would not be understood to affirm or to imply 
 that memory itself, the actual power of recall, may 
 not be improved, but we do not know of any other 
 means than that which applies equally to all the 
 mental faculties viz., use and exercise. The exer- 
 cise of the memory is necessary for every mental 
 process, and in one sense is therefore constant, but 
 the exercise to which we refer, as specially useful, is 
 a systematic exercise. All those ideas that are 
 useful and salutary should be kept bright, and not 
 be allowed to get rusty by neglect. Some of them 
 probably cost a great effort, and may be effectually 
 retained by very little comparative trouble if they 
 are brought out and revived regularly. On the 
 other hand, by neglect they may cease to be 
 amenable, and therefore to be of any practical use. 
 It is pitiable to find how little of all that was so 
 laboriously acquired for certain examinations re- 
 mains available after a youth has been two or three 
 years in the world. Sometimes this is for want of 
 thought ; more frequently it is for want of desire. 
 We know a youth who, on the day he finally left 
 school, dug a deep hole in the garden, and buried all 
 his school-books in the bottom of it ! Ideas can 
 only be retained in memory for ready use by being 
 systematically kept in mind by review, repetition, or 
 use. These, therefore, are the means to be employed 
 for preserving all present possessions in a state of 
 readiness for use, or rather such of them as are 
 worthy of being retained. Those which special 
 pursuits or necessities of daily use keep constantly 
 before the mind will be kept by that means; all
 
 302 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 others of sufficient value must be kept in frequent 
 systematic review, or they will fade from ready 
 recall, and be wholly lost for all practical purposes. 
 
 With regard to obtrusive thoughts which may 
 have been allowed to occupy a front place in the 
 mind, they should be promptly and resolutely dis- 
 missed, along with all such thoughts as are harmful 
 or useless. Thus may the sanctuary of the heart be 
 kept clean and pure, devoted to salutary and ser- 
 viceable Thought fit company for Him who has 
 graciously promised to dwell there, if earnestly 
 invited. Out of the heart proceed the issues of 
 life, wherefore it is to be kept diligently ; otherwise, 
 it may be occupied by unwholesome Thought, to the 
 exclusion of other and better guests, or become the 
 playground of wandering, purposeless Thought, 
 suggested by whatsoever passing circumstance or 
 unbidden recollections may take possession of its un- 
 guarded gates. Appetite and passion are generally 
 the deputy-keepers of the castle when the true 
 master is off duty. 
 
 Considering that Thought is a constant and in- 
 separable companion to make or to mar the 
 happiness and usefulness of life, to improve or to 
 debase the mind, to cherish the good or to cultivate 
 the evil of the heart and to suggest the conduct 
 memory, the agency by which Thought is supplied 
 for these purposes, merits the utmost attention that 
 can be devoted to its efficiencv. 
 
 / 
 
 The foregoing principles are laid down for the 
 guidance of tutors in the training of the infant 
 mind ; not that such principles could be either made 
 intelligible to young children or help them to culti- 
 vate their own memories, but that they suggest to
 
 ON MEMORY. 303 
 
 tutors the essential rules on which that faculty 
 depends, and thus serve to guide them in the work 
 of education. The initiation of right principles of 
 all kinds is a necessary preliminary to their regular 
 cultivation. There must first be a sowing in mental 
 as in agricultural work, and the sowing-time is in 
 infancy. If good habits and right principles be 
 not then initiated by careful training, others will 
 assuredly initiate themselves. The choice is not 
 between doing or not doing. Something will cer- 
 tainly be done ; and the choice rests between begin- 
 ning the work aright or in leaving it, as it is now 
 nearly always left, to chance. The Divine faculty 
 must, we repeat, be either directed and cultivated 
 from the first, or it will follow the lead of chance, 
 which practically means the suggestions of the lower 
 nature. Hence, high intellectual powers, instead of 
 being of common occurrence, are possessed by a few 
 only, to whom the haphazard of the lottery awards 
 a prize. Shining lights such as Newton, Mozart, 
 Shakespeare appear like meteors on the mental 
 firmament, whereas they should be as the fixed 
 stars for multitude.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 
 
 UNDER this general denomination we include opinions, 
 decisions, and all those operations of the thinking 
 faculty which are required in daily life for the regu- 
 lation of conduct and for the settlement of principles. 
 The minor matters of constant recurrence, as well as 
 those more important affairs which require deep con- 
 sideration and concentrated effort, involve the same 
 general principles, and differ mainly in degree and 
 complexity. The nature and value of all these 
 operations depend upon the resources of evidence 
 brought to bear upon them, and upon the manner of 
 the application of such evidence. 
 
 The factors involved in all such processes are 
 (i) the power of the faculty of judging, (2) the 
 stock of evidential knowledge, and (3) the application 
 of the evidence at command to the required pur- 
 pose, including the selection of such experience, and 
 reference to such standards as the mental resources 
 supply. 
 
 Without the power of inference and judgment the 
 senses would be of comparatively little use, for they 
 would then be available only for the perception of 
 objects immediately present and of their present 
 aspects. Memory itself would be of little avail, for 
 its function is to supply the material for the reflective
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 305 
 
 powers. Hence, even the lower animals possess a 
 certain measure of these powers, such as is necessary 
 for their use and guidance, and they exhibit them in 
 nearly all their actions. When, for example, a cat looks 
 behind a looking-glass for one which is supposed to 
 be there, the inference is that the glass is transparent 
 and that there is another cat behind it. When a dog 
 sees his master take his hat, he promptly infers that 
 he is going out. In these simple actions several 
 factors are involved, as previous experience, memory, 
 and inference, the measure of this last being in all 
 cases, both in man and in the lower animals, deter- 
 mined by the limits of the other two. Hence, in 
 young children the power of judgment is developed 
 in proportion to the stock of knowledge acquired 
 and to the strength of the memory. The evidence 
 afforded by watching the exercise of judgment in the 
 lower animals is both interesting and instructive, 
 because it is exhibited by them in a simpler form 
 than by the human subject. The knowledge pos- 
 sessed by the lower animals is confined to their in- 
 dividual experience, whereas men acquire, by means 
 of language and intercourse with each other, Jar 
 larger resources of knowledge, and their mental 
 exercises are therefore much more complex. 
 
 i. The faculty of judgment is necessary in regard 
 to everything that is not self-evident. For example, 
 the existence of a pain is, so far as the mere fact is 
 concerned, self-evident, but judgment is necessary to 
 determine its cause. Of the fact, the sensation is 
 clear and complete, and admits of no doubt, but in 
 order to ascertain the cause, or in some cases even 
 its exact locality, some knowledge is necessary. The 
 power of inference will depend upon the sufficiency 
 
 x
 
 306 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 and availableness of that knowledge. The judg- 
 ment will depend on past experience and knowledge 
 of physiology, both of which may be imperfect or 
 incorrect, in which case the judgment will be corre- 
 spondingly erroneous. Such, however, as may be the 
 degree of knowledge and the power of memory in 
 bringing it to bear, such will be the resources at 
 command for forming a judgment, and such will be 
 the conclusion. In other words, the faculty of judging 
 depends upon the resources of knowledge and memory 
 in possession. If these be inadequate to resolve the 
 matter in question, the conclusion will be accordingly 
 defective or erroneous. The faculty of judging can 
 do no more than to collate and weigh the evidence 
 afforded by previous experience in its relation to 
 present sensation or reflection. 
 
 Some writers believe that the faculty of judging is 
 such that all men would form the same conclusions 
 from exactly similar data. This doctrine may be 
 true, but it is not susceptible of proof, seeing that no 
 two men could possibly possess the same data, nor 
 view them in exactly the same aspect. It is certain, 
 however, that, so far as may be known, the existing 
 differences of judgment and opinion amongst men 
 may almost always be traced to the nature of the 
 data on which they are formed, and to the various 
 relations of individuals to the data. The faculty 
 seems, in fact, to be analogous to a process of weigh- 
 ing, wherein the balance is determined by the 
 weights in either scale according as these are justly 
 estimated and are in their proper places. Mani- 
 festly, if the weights, or any of them, be false, or be 
 erroneously estimated, the result will be falsified 
 proportionably. In this connection the humiliating
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 307 
 
 fact must be acknowledged that in every human 
 judgment and opinion not absolutely demonstrable, 
 and in all the principles and actions dependent 
 thereon, there exist inevitable mixtures of error and 
 defect. 
 
 It follows that, whatever may be the natural power 
 of the individual mind, the practical value and truth 
 of the judgments formed thereby will depend on the 
 data and their application. The former are supplied 
 and limited by the resources of knowledge, and the 
 latter depend upon habit of Thought, the develop- 
 ment of the power of judging, and the personal bias 
 by which the application of the data to the purpose 
 may be influenced. 
 
 Habit of Thought affects the manner of exercising 
 the faculty of judging. There is, for instance, a 
 general dissimilarity in the way the faculty is used 
 by men as compared with women, owing to the uses 
 respectively made by them of reasoning and discern- 
 ment. In regard to ordinary matters, wherein the 
 .acute discernment of women is specially applicable, 
 it cannot be said that the habitual reasoning of men 
 .gives them any material superiority. The result is 
 .generally as reliable and accurate in the one sex as in 
 the other. The difference of habit is rather in favour 
 of the quicker and more ready action of the female 
 mind. In abstract Thought, and in processes of 
 reasoning such as are required in the exact sciences, 
 the masculine habit has a very decided advantage, and 
 judgments thereupon are more sound and exact. 
 
 Other circumstances affecting the truth and sound- 
 ness of judgments are discussed in the sequel. Here 
 we consider the faculty itself. 
 
 2. The fund of knowledge which supplies each 
 
 X 2
 
 308 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 individual with the evidence he can command for the 
 purposes of inference and reasoning is composed of 
 ideas of very diverse nature and value. It contains 
 ideas that are absolutely and demonstrably true, 
 along with others in which error exists in every con- 
 ceivable proportion from the slightly erroneous to the 
 utterly false. A large proportion of the ideas com- 
 posing the individual treasury of Thought are home- 
 made, the result of reflective and reasoning processes- 
 based upon past sensations and experiences. These, 
 of course, all share in whatsoever defects and errors- 
 existed in the original formulation of those previous 
 ideas. It is the function of the reflective faculties to- 
 extend the range of knowledge by means of reasoning 
 beyond the limits of actual sensation. This is done 
 by inference from data existing in the mind, whereby 
 other ideas are constructed and theories are formed, 
 which vary in every degree from, demonstrated truth 
 to the doubtful balancing of speculative probabilities. 
 In other words, the fund of evidence by which each 
 individual is necessarily bound to form all those 
 inferences that depend on memory and reflection is 
 composed of ideas in which the errors and imperfec- 
 tions of original sensations are mingled with those 
 reflections which were based thereon. Such is the 
 edifice his thinking faculty has built up of accumu- 
 lated sensations from without and suggestions from 
 within. 
 
 Hence the power each individual possesses of form- 
 ing opinions and judgments depends primarily upon 
 (i) the extent, (2) the value, and (3) the nature or 
 character of his stock of evidential knowledge. 
 
 ( i ) The extent of the mental stock varies between 
 very widely divergent extremes according to (a) the
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 309 
 
 age of the individual, (l>) his opportunities, (c) his 
 environment, (d) his habit of observing, and (e) the 
 power or efficiency of his senses. 
 
 (a) An infant, commencing life without any ideas 
 whatever, and with faculties as yet undeveloped by 
 use, requires some time for the collecting of even 
 the smallest stock of ideas. Those which are first 
 established concern his appetites and feelings almost 
 exclusively, and these are not fertile in evidential 
 material outside of their own special range. More- 
 over, as some standard is necessary whereby to 
 judge, this factor is for some time wanting in the 
 infant mind. Hence it follows that the factors or 
 elements necessary for inference and judgment re- 
 quire time for their elaboration. Children therefore 
 judge very imperfectly and often very erroneously 
 at first, owing to the paucity of their evidential 
 material and experience. They are easily misled by 
 appearances, and are too ignorant of their own powers, 
 and of the real nature and relations of things, to form 
 true estimates and conclusions. Their mistakes and 
 misjudgments afford excellent opportunities to their 
 tutors for informing their minds wherein defect 
 appears, for correcting their errors, and for thus 
 training the incipient faculty on which their future 
 welfare so largely depends. Tutors are too apt, 
 however, to neglect such opportunities as not being 
 worth notice, and they not unfrequently make fun 
 of the mistakes children make. 
 
 As life advances and the powers of observation and 
 the senses become developed, as the environment 
 enlarges and ideas accumulate, as experience grows 
 and affords better standards, the power of judging 
 becomes more just and accurate, and has a wider
 
 3IO NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 range. It follows that, other things being equal, the 
 conclusions and judgments formed in the later periods 
 of life are more mature and more sound than those 
 of youth in proportion to the experienced use of the 
 faculty itself, to the larger fund of evidential know- 
 ledge acquired, and to the more appropriate standard 
 by which judgments are formed. It is to be re- 
 marked, however, in this connection, that young 
 persons are generally unconscious of their deficiency 
 in the requisite elements for sound judgment, and 
 are consequently even more confident therein than 
 their elders. Indeed, this is to some extent natural, 
 for it is much easier to form a conclusion on a few 
 than on a great many data, and conclusions so drawn 
 seem proportionally clear as compared with others 
 into which many and conflicting elements enter. 
 Much allowance is therefore to be made for the very 
 positive conclusions so common to young persons. 
 
 (b) Opportunity is a very potent element in the 
 acquisition of evidential knowledge, and is enjoyed 
 very differently by persons in the several grades of 
 civilized society. The general fund differs in such 
 cases rather in kind than in degree. Individuals 
 mix more with others of their own social positions 
 than with persons of different grade. Their ideas, 
 and information, therefore, have special characteristics 
 accordingly. 
 
 All men, being animated by the same appetites- 
 and feelings, are amenable to the same natural im- 
 pulses ; their mutual relations and intercourse are, 
 however, much the same practically in all grades. 
 For those natural feelings and impulses suggest the 
 most influential of the ideas of external experience., 
 and are nearly alike in all men. Love and hatred,.
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 311 
 
 friendship and enmity, sympathy and jealousy all 
 good and evil passions operate in the same manner 
 in all grades, though they may take different forms 
 in each. The difference of opportunity afforded in 
 the several grades of society is chiefly in regard to 
 such kinds of knowledge as are not acquired by 
 personal intercourse, but depend upon other sources 
 peculiar to each grade. 
 
 The sphere of judgment, and its value in any 
 particular matter, differ according to the kind of 
 knowledge possessed by the person who exercises it. 
 Hence differences arising from social position do not 
 affect the power of the faculty, but only the sphere 
 of its operation. They will not affect moral principles, 
 which have the same basis in all men, but only those 
 matters which are peculiar to the social position. 
 Such differences are most evident in early life. In 
 the higher grades, children enjoy great advantages 
 in regard to the acquirement of what is commonly 
 called " learning." In the lower grades, children are 
 necessarily introduced earlier into general intercourse 
 with men and things, and thereby acquire a different 
 kind of experience from that of their more favoured 
 contemporaries of higher grade. As a rule, therefore, 
 the power of judgment is more robust in the self- 
 reliant youth of the lower than in those of higher 
 position, who, mixing less with the world at large, 
 and acting less independently, lack the self-reliance 
 of the former. The training these receive is of a 
 ruder and more practical kind than that of the 
 youth of higher grade, and is better adapted than 
 theirs for judging of the matters of daily life. In 
 these respects the ordinary routine of school training 
 of the youth of the upper classes might with great
 
 312 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 advantage receive more attention. What is acquired 
 in schools generally is chiefly in the playground, 
 which is in its way deserving of as much attention 
 by masters as the hours of study. 
 
 The playground is a little world in itself, and 
 affords fine opportunities for observing character and 
 the working of the mind, especially in regard to 
 judgment. There may be often seen nice calcula- 
 tions of chances and other inferences of a practical 
 nature. The importance of playground proceedings 
 as exhibitions of character is now being increasingly 
 acknowledged, and the active participation of masters 
 in these pastimes gives them influence as well as 
 opportunity, and differs widely from the effect of 
 their presence for mere surveillance. The play- 
 ground affords quite as good a field for educating 
 the judgment, if used for that purpose, as either the 
 workshop or the office. 
 
 Opportunity differs in every individual, and has 
 its influence accordingly of a kind special to each, 
 but our remarks apply to general and broad differ- 
 ences only. Others may be inferred from the known 
 conditions in each case. 
 
 (c) Environment has a great influence in determin- 
 ing the nature of the fund of ideas accumulated by 
 each individual, and varies in its effects much in the 
 same manner as opportunity. When it is restricted 
 and partial, it tends to produce narrow-mindedness ; 
 and, on the other hand, when it is of wide range and 
 varied character, it has the opposite effect, and con- 
 tributes to expand the mind and to afford a broad 
 basis of observation and experience. Contracted 
 views are generally traceable to restricted intercourse 
 with men and a limited sphere of observation. They
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 313 
 
 are inimical to sound judgment, which requires an 
 ample fund of evidence and experience and effective 
 standards of reference. It follows, therefore, that the 
 most extensive and varied environment which can be 
 commanded is a very important element in education, 
 especially as there is in youths so strong a tendency 
 to over-confidence in their judgments. The reading 
 of pupils should be regulated with this view, and their 
 tastes and pursuits so directed as to keep them from 
 too exclusive adherence to particular grooves, and 
 from the forming of opinions and conclusions on in- 
 sufficient data. The effect of travelling, as dis- 
 tinguished from a close confinement to a particular 
 locality, tends to enlarge the views by means of ex- 
 tended environment and the acquisition of fresh 
 ideas. These, under the influence of new scenes 
 and circumstances^ are particularly impressed on 
 the mind, and are, therefore, generally deep and 
 enduring. 
 
 (d) Habit does much towards determining the 
 extent of knowledge. Some persons seem to be all 
 eyes and ears. Nothing escapes their attention 
 except what they intentionally dismiss from their 
 notice. Others make so little use of those organs 
 that they seem to depend mostly on other people's. 
 Again, some persons habitually look closely into 
 things, and are not satisfied with a casual or partial 
 view if a better can be obtained. Their observations 
 are careful and deliberate. Other persons are content 
 with the obvious aspects, and do not look beneath 
 the surface. Their ideas are in consequence super- 
 ficial and uncertain. Hence the habit of the mind, 
 whether in regard to the manner of observing 
 external objects or in considering internal sugges-
 
 3H NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 tions, goes far to determine the measure of the 
 knowledge derived from the opportunities and envi- 
 ronment. Habit also determines to a great degree 
 the strength or weakness of the ideas in possession ;. 
 and, as their amenableness to memory depends upon 
 these conditions, their use for the purposes of judg- 
 ment is likewise affected correspondingly. 
 
 Hence the same kind of cultivation which pro- 
 motes power of memory is equally effective in 
 enlarging the power of judging, as it affords a 
 broader and more certain basis for the exercise of 
 that faculty. The free and forward manner of ex- 
 pressing their opinions which generally characterizes 
 children who have not been repressed affords to 
 tutors excellent opportunities of training their minds 
 to correct methods of judging and of showing them 
 the value of evidence. 
 
 (e) Amongst the early experiences of infant 
 history many practical lessons are learned, and some 
 of them are very rudely taught on the illusory and 
 unreliable nature of appearances or other evidences 
 of the senses. Who, for instance, has not been 
 allured in his childhood by the glitter of a bit of 
 metal to mistake it for gold ? Yet the evidence of the 
 senses, in spite of such warnings, continues through 
 life to inspire unshaken confidence such as they do- 
 not always justify. The fact that they may be 
 cultivated, and that they may thus be raised to 
 extraordinary powers of discrimination, is therefore 
 important in its bearing on the power of judging. 
 This is manifest in the practice of such arts as the 
 tasting of tea, wines, and drugs. It is also exhibited 
 in the discriminating power acquired by critics in 
 deciding as to the merits, authorship, and even of the
 
 OX JUDGMENT. 315 
 
 date of works of art. The Hottentot will follow at a 
 fairly rapid pace the spoor or footprints of a man 
 or animal which are utterly undiscernible by the un- 
 practised eye. Many other proofs might, if necessary, 
 be adduced to demonstrate the degrees to which the 
 power of the senses may be exalted by cultivation. 
 But, though the instances quoted have special and 
 limited application, the lesson they teach is worthy 
 of attentive consideration in the training of youth, as 
 it teaches that the use of the senses may be improved 
 by exercise directed to that end. And seeing that 
 so much of the stock of ideas is derived originally 
 from the evidence of the senses, and becomes there- 
 after an important part of the data on which reflec- 
 tions and inferences have been formed in the mind, 
 it follows that the use of the senses should be culti- 
 vated. 
 
 (2) Having briefly considered the evidence on which 
 the judgment is exercised in regard to the extent of 
 the stock, we proceed to notice the conditions which 
 determine its value for the purposes of inference and 
 judgment. 
 
 As the knowledge iri possession is available only 
 in so far as it is under the control of the memory, it 
 follows that the value of the fund of ideas in mind 
 depends (a) on the extent to which it can be recalled 
 for use by the memory, and (V) on the extent to 
 which it is true. 
 
 (a) Whatever the actual fund of evidential know- 
 ledge may be, so much of it only is of any value for a 
 given purpose as can be commanded for that occa- 
 sion. Its value as evidence in the particular case 
 depends upon its being in court. Absent witnesses 
 cannot be heard, and do not, therefore, contribute
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 to the decision of the verdict. All, therefore, that is 
 contained in the previous chapters on the subject of 
 memory and control is applicable in this place. As 
 memory supplies the evidence, the power of selecting 
 from the fund the particular ideas appropriate to the 
 case in point is the function of control. As this 
 power, when exerted in directing the currents of 
 Thought, determines the personal character in the 
 sight of God, so, when it is exercised in selecting the 
 appropriate evidence by which the practical decisions 
 are formed which regulate the conduct of daily life 
 and intercourse, it determines those issues which 
 concern our fellow-men. These are its highest func- 
 tions the most important offices it fulfils in the 
 mental estate. 
 
 For the purposes of forming opinions and judg- 
 ments, the selective power is as important as the 
 power of recalling the ideas required. The selection 
 must be made of just that part of the mental stock 
 that applies to the case, and it must be made 
 promptly. It is too late to bring in witnesses when 
 the case is closed and the verdict given. " Ah ! I 
 did not think of that," is but too common an ex- 
 clamation when the discovery comes too late of items 
 of evidence which would have altered the whole state 
 of the case. 
 
 It is therefore in its relation to the decisions of the 
 guiding principles of daily life that control exerts its 
 greatest influence. These important issues depend 
 on the efficiency of this faculty, on the completeness 
 of the evidence adduced, its readiness, clearness, and 
 sufficiency. Such power of control is within the 
 reach of all persons who have not weakened their 
 faculties by adverse habits or neglect and indiffer-
 
 OX JUDGMENT. 3 I / 
 
 ence. Even such persons may, by resolute effort, do 
 much towards its attainment, but the proper time 
 to begin the exercise and training of the judgment 
 and the faculties on which it depends is in early 
 childhood, when the faculties receive their first bent, 
 and before other habits have obtained influence and 
 created difficulty. The work and the means of carry- 
 ing it on are then simple. During the period of 
 childhood little more need be done than the cor- 
 recting habitually and watchfully of mistaken or 
 misdirected efforts which children are continually 
 exhibiting in all their speeches and actions. As the 
 process of learning is necessarily always going on in 
 one way or another, it must either be directed by 
 suitable attention or it will fall under the direction 
 of whatsoever influence may happen to prevail. Thus 
 adverse habits are formed, and the work of the 
 teacher, in endeavouring to undo what has been 
 done, is far greater than would be the simple task of 
 completing a work already well begun. 
 
 (b) Above all things, it is necessary that evidence 
 should be true. False witness in the mental court 
 within is just as mischievous in its way, and perverts 
 judgment as effectually, as in the public tribunals of 
 justice. Hence the value of evidence is mainly 
 dependent on its being correct in fact and true in 
 principle. Seeing, then, that even the senses do not 
 always afford true and complete evidence, and that 
 in all human conclusions there is so great liability to 
 error, care in observing and attention in formulating 
 the ideas which constitute the stock of evidence for 
 all the purposes of life become incalculably impor- 
 tant. The facts observed, and the reflections founded 
 on the ideas formed of them, are like entries in a
 
 318 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 ledger. If true and correct, they yield only true 
 results ; but one false entry may vitiate many 
 accounts and affect many calculations. In like 
 manner, erroneous ideas in the mind vitiate the 
 conclusions into which they enter, and may therefore 
 lead to serious consequences. 
 
 Indeed, the history of nations and the experience 
 of individuals furnish abundant examples of such 
 consequences arising out of erroneous ideas where 
 no ill intention existed and where no error was 
 suspected. The most terrible calamities that have 
 befallen civilized nations have originated in errone- 
 ous doctrines and theories. Bigotry and intoler- 
 ance, for example, which have consigned to cruel 
 death and martyrdom hundreds of innocent persons 
 for slight differences of opinion, result from mis- 
 taken ideas of authority, whereby a fallible dogma 
 or erroneous interpretation is assumed to possess 
 Divine authority. Error is thus propagated and 
 truth violently suppressed. Such forms of error 
 are not confined to any particular branch of know- 
 ledge, though religious differences are probably the 
 most virulent. Error finds many ways of affecting 
 the conduct of individuals in unsuspected directions, 
 and spreads its baneful influence through all social 
 institutions. Men, overlooking their individual lia- 
 bility to error, seek to impose their opinions and con- 
 clusions upon their fellows, and thus, unintentionally 
 perhaps, to overrule truth, in their zeal to maintain 
 the false views of which they fail to perceive the 
 fallacy in themselves. 
 
 In considering the multiform operations of judg- 
 ment, and the amount of error and imperfection that 
 are inextricably mingled with conclusions based upon
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 319 
 
 opinion, it is curious to remark how much of what 
 is so dogmatically insisted upon is based on fallible 
 dicta which have happened to acquire the form of 
 authority without any real claims thereto. Such 
 dicta, when crystallized into creeds of religious belief 
 or theories of science or philosophy, exercise bound- 
 less influence on mankind. 
 
 Hence various forms of gross superstition have 
 prevailed for ages and swayed the conduct of many 
 generations of people, who were thereby enslaved 
 pitiably and demoralized cruelly by systematized 
 falsehood. Built on conjecture, in ignorance of 
 the true aspects and nature of things, these formu- 
 lated beliefs and theories have grown gradually 
 into stupendous edifices of error, and have de- 
 graded the better parts of the race of mankind. 
 How much of such mental slavery is still in 
 force in this nineteenth century may not be fully 
 known for a century to come, but, when it becomes 
 exposed, it may not look much less degrading than 
 do the historic fictions and fables of the Middle Ages 
 to the present generation. 
 
 The most hopeful feature of modern Thought is 
 that all theories and principles are being submitted 
 to rigorous scrutiny, and that they are being main- 
 tained only in so far as they are supported on a 
 stable foundation of truth. Every historic fact, 
 scientific principle, and religious doctrine is now 
 referred to its rightful claims, and to them alone. 
 Flagrant errors having, as history attests, so long 
 maintained their ground and enthralled mankind for 
 ages, ancient usage has ceased to make doctrine 
 venerable, for those which have done their work 
 most cruelly have often persisted most tenaciously.
 
 320 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Baconian methods have superseded dogmatic and 
 chimerical theories in every department of know- 
 ledge. 
 
 Religion, which by reason of its high pretensions has 
 suffered the most, has also nevertheless been the 
 greatest gainer by the application to its doctrines of 
 the searching method of modern analysis. Hence 
 the mental atmosphere has been cleared of much 
 prevailing error of former times, and judgment is 
 exercised upon more truthful data. The claim of 
 infallibility set up by religious systems which 
 refuse to admit the possibility of error, has proved 
 the most destructive instead of being the most 
 powerful support of authority. Such claim neces- 
 sarily exposes the whole fabric to ruin by the con- 
 futation of any, even the smallest, part. Hence the 
 mass of priceless truth contained in Scripture has 
 been held to rest for its authority on the maintenance 
 of trivial errors of translation or copy, such as were 
 inevitable in all human work. The sacred truth is 
 now no longer subject only to the inimical scrutiny 
 of unbelievers, but research is conducted in con- 
 formity with Divine command, by those who are most 
 deeply concerned in ascertaining their truth with- 
 out regard to preconceived or borrowed beliefs, and 
 with a single eye to the maintenance of that only 
 principle which can ever be durably sustained the 
 truth. 
 
 The foregoing remarks bear directly upon the 
 history and training of the mind in relation to in- 
 dividual experience, for there is no other way in 
 which the far-reaching and powerful influence of 
 error in the data upon which human opinions and 
 judgments are based may be so fully recognized
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 
 
 321 
 
 as when they are exemplified in such matters as we 
 have quoted. In such widely extended operations 
 and stupendous results, the vast influence of false 
 principles are most plainly and indisputably manifest. 
 But error is of even greater moment to men in- 
 dividually in its results on their own lives and 
 conduct than it is in those more general forms in 
 which it affects the masses. These concern the 
 character and progress of an age, but those affect the 
 personal experience, the status of the individual and 
 his relation to his Maker. These determine popular 
 beliefs and historic prejudices, but those decide his 
 life and conduct, the sacred trust for which he is 
 personally and individually responsible. Hence, per- 
 sonal opinions and judgments, the determinants of a 
 man's conduct in life, are of far greater import to him 
 than are the current opinions and popular theories of 
 his day, whether they relate to religious doctrine or 
 the theories of science. It is therefore the personal 
 view of the question for which the foregoing illus- 
 trations are adduced, in proof of the vast influence of 
 error as an element of Thought. With such evidence 
 in view, the value of Truth in all the elements of 
 Thought needs no other enforcement. 
 
 (3) The nature of the knowledge in possession re- 
 garded as the evidence on which all opinions and 
 judgments must necessarily be founded, is of two 
 principal kinds : (a) particular ideas ; (b) general 
 principles in their specific character ; or (c) in their 
 relative functions as standards, to which all sub- 
 ordinate ideas are referred. The office these last 
 fulfil is to give the specific value to judgments and 
 opinions. For example, the idea of wealth will 
 depend in each individual on the standard of his 
 
 Y
 
 322 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 own personal experience. An income of one hundred 
 pounds a year would be wealth to a beggar ; but to 
 a millionaire it would seem abject poverty. Hence, 
 in all matters of comparison between different things 
 or different aspects of the same thing, ideas are re- 
 referred to some personal standard resulting from 
 experience. 
 
 (a) Particular ideas of things, or of their relations 
 and qualities, differ in the degrees of their importance 
 as elements of evidence according to the extent to 
 which they enter as factors into the opinions and 
 judgments of their possessor. Like items in a ledger, 
 they may affect only one or two accounts, or they 
 may be of a more general application, and affect a 
 great many. An imperfect idea of distance, for 
 example, owing to defective vision, inflicts many in- 
 conveniences, whereas a still more imperfect idea of a 
 particular plant or place may cause little if any 
 mistake of a practical nature. 
 
 As it is not possible to foresee to what uses any 
 idea may hereafter be applied, a habit of care in 
 observation, even in things seemingly unimportant, 
 such as to ensure a reasonable degree of correctness, 
 cannot be too highly commended. For example, a 
 traveller notices a particular practice which obtains in 
 a place he visits. It attracts his attention for the 
 moment, because perhaps of its novelty or of its 
 utility. Years pass on, during which the idea of this 
 practice does not recur, until at length its appli- 
 cability to some present purpose revives the recollec- 
 tion, and he desires to take advantage of his former 
 experience. Supposing his habit to have been one of 
 care and attention, the idea as revived will enable 
 him at once to adopt and apply the practice. But, if
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 323 
 
 otherwise, he may in vain tax his memory, for it can 
 only recall the casual and incomplete idea he for- 
 mulated, and he will either have to forego the ad- 
 vantage or to puzzle out the deficiencies by laborious 
 trials. Hence, the far-reaching influence of habit, 
 even in matters to which no particular importance 
 seemed to be attached. A careful habit of Thought 
 makes all the difference, in many cases, between a 
 person whose opinions deserve credit, and another on 
 whose carelessly formed ideas no reliance can be 
 placed. With reference to the vital functions of 
 opinion and judgment, all we have so strongly ex- 
 pressed in previous chapters respecting careful habit 
 applies with its utmost force in this connexion. 
 
 (b) The most influential data on which judgment is 
 exercised are those of general principles. These have 
 wide application and corresponding influence. Such 
 Are the ideas of duty, moral obligations, and religious 
 opinions, which regulate general conduct as well as 
 particular judgments, and give the tone to the life 
 and character of the individual. The basis on which 
 such general principles rest, and from which they 
 derive their authority and influence, cannot be too 
 jealously scrutinized in all their bearings. Every 
 man should have a reason of his own fox the hopes he 
 indulges, the love he bestows, and the general prin- 
 ciples on which he acts. And the reason should be 
 adequate to the occasion, for whatever his ideas may 
 be, he will never act courageously and consistently in 
 cases of difficulty if he doubt the truth and authority 
 of the principles which demand his obedience ; nor 
 can he be said to hold them safely, whose tenure is 
 that of borrowed creed or theory. 
 
 The prolific nature of doubt and error in repro- 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 ducing their like is in no other way so manifest as in 
 those principles and obligations imposed by formu- 
 lated doctrines, whether they be political, social, or 
 religious. As a rule these are borrowed, or adopted 
 on trust, without due regard to the foundation on 
 which they rest, and to the momentous fact that the 
 borrower is personally responsible for the influence 
 they practically exert upon his own conduct. It is 
 an easy method of evading the trouble of research to 
 borrow opinions and principles from others, and thus 
 to have one's political, social, and religious principles 
 ready made. But though present labour may be 
 thus saved, future responsibility is not thereby 
 escaped. Ready-made religion has been very effect- 
 ively denounced by Professor Drummond in his bold 
 essay on " Natural Law in the Spiritual World," and 
 merits all the denunciation with which his book 
 abounds. The moral cowardice and mental weakness 
 implied in entrusting such vital interests as those of 
 moral duty and religious exercise to the keeping and 
 direction of erring mortals, are a sad characteristic of 
 a kind of bondage which is too prevalent. 
 
 The useful rules and principles of grammar, arith- 
 metic, history, geography, &c., legitimately claim the 
 attention they usually receive in the process of edu- 
 cation, but considering the importance of those moral 
 principles which regulate character and conduct, these 
 are surely entitled to a degree of attention com- 
 mensurate with these vital interests involved. In 
 the education of youths, however, parents generally 
 regard the religious instruction to be given with 
 reference rather to sectarian distinctions than to the 
 broad general principles of Christianity. We lately 
 heard a, youth severely scolded for having bought an
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 325 
 
 article at the shop of a Churchman, he being a Noncon- 
 formist ! Though such petty bigotry as this is pro- 
 bably a rare extreme, it is the exponent of a feeling 
 of narrowness which is by no means uncommon. 
 Amongst the equipments necessary for a youth who 
 is about to enter upon an independent career, the 
 elements of judgment, mercy, and faith, should not 
 be sacrificed to the tithes of mint, anise, and 
 cummin. 
 
 The importance of general principles in reference 
 to the exercise of the faculty of judgment entitles 
 them to primary consideration in education. We do 
 not undervalue the use and convenience of special 
 rules, but these should be referred as corollaries to the 
 broad principles on which they are founded. As 
 ready means of applying those principles, rules have 
 a high value, but the grand comprehensiveness of 
 general principles should not be frittered away into 
 little bundles for special use. 
 
 (<) High and just standards are essential to ade- 
 quate ideas of excellence in regard to all judgments. 
 
 In regard to moral excellence which determines 
 the most vital interests of mankind namely, the 
 conduct of this life and the aspirations for a higher 
 and spiritual state of being, the Christian possesses a 
 perfect ideal in the simple and beautiful life of the 
 blessed Redeemer. He who imitates that sacred 
 example, as the rule of his life and the basis of his 
 faith, cannot fail to excel in all that pertains to 
 virtue in its largest sense. 
 
 Standards of knowledge generally are shifted from 
 generation to generation, according to the progress 
 that is made by each. A simple illustration of the 
 practical effect of standard in regard to judgment
 
 326 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 is seen in the admiration a child will waste on very 
 poor performances, for want of better knowledge and 
 larger experience of attainable merit. This leads us 
 to remark upon the very great improvement that 
 has taken place during the last half-century in the 
 style of childrens' books and toys. The barbarous- 
 drawings, daubed with flaring colours, which formerly 
 adorned the books which were to educate the taste- 
 of the rising generation, and the hideous toys, models 
 of ugliness and misshape, which parodied the works 
 of Nature, have been superseded by works of art. 
 Hence, children of this period have far higher and 
 more just standards of taste in all such matters- 
 established in their minds from their infancy, than 
 those which were enjoyed formerly by any but 
 the upper classes of society. And the general 
 public enjoy a corresponding advantage by means of 
 museums and public exhibitions which have been 
 made accessible to all classes. Hence, those who- 
 half a century ago had no knowledge of any but 
 barbaric caricatures of art, rnay now procure cheap 
 copies of the best works of the greatest masters. 
 Thus have the standards of art been raised in the 
 mass of the people, and public taste has been thus 
 elevated far above the former level, of which the 
 recollection survives only in specimens of a past 
 generation. 
 
 The same cannot be said of the cheap literature 
 of the day, in regard to which the standards of 
 taste and moral tendency have not been cultivated. 
 The rage for sensational works of fiction, which has 
 grown with indulgence, seems, however to be working 
 itself out. As it becomes higher in flavour it gets 
 nearer to that stage of corruption when it will become
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 327 
 
 intolerable. Surfeited appetite will avenge itself, 
 and will crave more wholesome food in disgust of 
 the trash formerly evoked. On the other hand, 
 the standard of sterling literature has not been so 
 debased nor its supply reduced, though it makes less 
 figure amongst the preponderant bulk of trash that 
 issues from the press. 
 
 Fashious and particular characteristics of each 
 age are due chiefly to the varying standards which 
 from time to time gain influence with the public 
 mind. Scientific, intellectual, and social standards 
 would each and all supply examples to attest the 
 influence these factors exert on the opinions both 
 of individuals and people of different periods, but 
 for our purpose it is not necessary to refer to 
 them. The foregoing examples suffice to show how 
 influential are the standards employed hi deter- 
 mining the character and value of the judgments 
 formed thereupon. Hence, in the training of the 
 thinking faculty in youth the subject deserves 
 particular attention, with a view to their being 
 instructed in the true principles and practice of 
 estimating data and of forming correct opinions and 
 judgments generally. 
 
 3. Having now considered some of the points 
 which refer to the extent and value of the stock of 
 ideas which constitute the evidence on which judg- 
 ments and opinions are formed, we proceed to con- 
 sider the application of such evidence to its appro- 
 priate use. 
 
 A mass of evidence, however pertinent and true, 
 and however obedient to the summons of memory, 
 does not of itself compose a judgment. That is a 
 separate act. Evidence needs to be analysed, classi-
 
 328 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 fied, and applied to its purpose. The items require 
 to be arranged and estimated. And this must be, 
 and actually is, done either by haphazard or on 
 principle whenever a verdict is obtained. The 
 nature and value of the conclusion will in every case 
 correspond with the manner in which this work has 
 been done. Every opinion and judgment is formed 
 upon data existing in the mind. It neither comes 
 of itself nor by any foreign agency, but is the result 
 of a process performed in some way by the mind, 
 and most people hardly know how. They have been 
 used to " making up their minds " all their lives, 
 without reference to any known principle or method, 
 and are consequently sensible of much perplexity 
 whenever an unfamiliar matter of importance has 
 to be decided. They do not address themselves 
 to the work on any orderly plan, but trust that the 
 right evidence will come to their help, and they 
 thus arrive at a decision in which they have little 
 confidence. Probably after-thoughts soon come to 
 disturb the first decision and produce vacillation 
 and embarrassment. In the end, after much desul- 
 tory mental debate, the result is full of doubt and 
 uncertainty. The process, when so conducted, re- 
 sembles what happens when men attempt to do 
 other things without knowing how to do them pro- 
 perly. They have the materials, but do not know 
 how to use them. 
 
 Give a man who does not understand shoemaking 
 the materials of which to make himself a pair of 
 shoes, and he will not know how to begin. After 
 one or two false starts, spoiling a great deal of 
 material and wasting much time, he will end with a 
 wretched bungle. Compare this proceeding and its
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 329 
 
 result with the work of an adept, who, in half the 
 time, will have completed one or more pairs easily 
 and creditably. These processes represent the differ- 
 ence between mental operations done ignorantly 
 and unsystematically as compared with others done 
 deftly and on system. But men do not try to make 
 shoes, to build houses, or to plough fields, without 
 previous training. Their bungling work would be 
 seen, and would expose them to ridicule. Their 
 bungled opinions and vacillating judgments, on the 
 other hand, are not seen. They are concocted in the 
 secrecy of their own breasts, where there is no one to 
 ridicule the process or to criticize the result. Hence 
 it seems to be considered quite immaterial how such 
 mental processes are effected. 
 
 Seeing that no one would think of attempting any 
 of the ordinary avocations of life without some form of 
 training to qualify him to do the work correctly, it 
 seems strangely inconsistent that mental work should 
 receive no such training. The inference is that it 
 is either unimportant or impracticable. The former 
 alternative needs no argument, seeing that decisions 
 and opinions of all kinds are of daily, almost hourly, 
 recurrence through life, and that many of them 
 affect rules of conduct as well as material interests. 
 Adequate training is at least as necessary for actions 
 involving such issues as for the ordinary avocations of 
 life. The equipment of a youth for his independent 
 career should not be less complete for the processes 
 of Thought, opinion, and judgment, than for boot- 
 making, carpentry, and the like. Yet, practically, no 
 systematic preparation is made for this work, which 
 is therefore bungled over by clumsy processes, such 
 that if they were not concealed from view they would
 
 330 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 excite contempt and ridicule. Being kept secret in 
 the privacy of the individual breast, however, no 
 instruction is deemed necessary, and the fact remains 
 true as it was stated by Locke, " that the last resort 
 a man has recourse to in the conduct of himself is 
 his understanding." 
 
 The training of the thinking faculty if it were 
 recognized as an essential part of education would be 
 found to present no difficulties more insuperable than 
 other kinds of training, to which the youth of both 
 sexes already submit for other objects of far less 
 importance than that of right thinking. Great 
 attainments reward efforts systematically directed in 
 other matters, and great benefits accrue both to 
 individuals and to the community therefrom. Most 
 of these are begun in early life, but the comparatively 
 few attempts that have as yet been made to educate 
 the thinking powers have been addressed to and 
 intended for the adult mind. Hence, they bring 
 their very hard lessons to bear upon minds which 
 have already been moulded into settled habits by the 
 chance processes of untrained effort. Their minds, 
 already so educated, are not generally amenable to 
 a new process of education. 
 
 Prejudice is the natural fruit of the untrained 
 intellect, which judges imperfectly and erroneously 
 for want of correct views of the value of evidence 
 and of its application. The stupendous edifices of 
 superstition, error, and prejudice, such as the astro- 
 logy, alchemy, and witchcraft of former ages, which 
 all crumbled into the dust when Bacon convinced 
 men of the only true and stable data on which judg- 
 ments could be safely formed and truth established, 
 prove conclusively how efficacious are right methods.
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 331 
 
 and principles in regard to mental action. Yet the 
 essence of Bacon's method can be made easily intelli- 
 gible to the minds of very young persons, and may 
 be applied as general principles in the education of 
 the thinking faculty. 
 
 The considerations adduced in the foregoing part 
 of this chapter show that in the education of children 
 there are two principal objects to be accomplished, 
 one being to inform, the other to discipline, the 
 juvenile mind ; one serves to supply a suitable and 
 sufficient stock of knowledge, the other to train the 
 mental powers in the right methods of using or 
 applying such knowledge. The necessity of the 
 former is universally admitted, and is probably as 
 well and successfully done in the usual routine of 
 education as is compatible with the almost total 
 neglect of the latter. Yet the process of informing 
 the mind and storing it with the knowledge necessary 
 to be used in the purposes of life, affords the very 
 best means and opportunities for teaching such use, 
 and the processes appropriate thereto. The best 
 stimulus to learning is a desire to know. This is a 
 chief reason for the facility with which language is 
 learned. The natural desire to know what it all 
 means is the impulse which so effectively promotes 
 the acquisition of language. If learning be a mani- 
 fest means to a desired end, there is a strong induce- 
 ment to learn ; and in so learning, with a definite end 
 in view, there are implied both learning and dis- 
 cipline. The relation that subsists between an idea 
 and the uses to be made of it is the most practical 
 and elementary form of introducing and understand- 
 ing the processes of applying it to useful purpose. 
 On the other hand, the study of subjects that have
 
 332 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 neither present interest nor future promise cannot 
 be made palatable nor inspire desire. They are at 
 the best dry, and their pursuit drudgery. Hence it 
 is that so large a proportion of what is best known 
 and most available for use is that which was acquired 
 under the simple stimulus of a desire to know it. 
 
 Before the age when reason can be invoked, that 
 is, before a fair use of language has been acquired, 
 children learn by means of imitation, and can then 
 be taught only through the medium of example and 
 correction. Other forms of teaching are never re- 
 sorted to by wise tutors before speech is fairly 
 acquired. All that is learnt previously is simply 
 imbibed of their own choice. Unfortunately, as they 
 exert no selective power they imitate as readily 
 things not intended to be imitated as others that 
 were proper. Afterwards, when teaching is com- 
 menced, desire to learn is so essential to success that 
 it is quite as important to excite that feeling as to 
 adjust the form of the lesson. 
 
 Euclid is generally regarded as a very useful means 
 of instructing the reasoning faculty. It no doubt 
 sets forth in practical form some of the principles and 
 processes of forming correct conclusions, but apart 
 from this particular use it does not inspire interest 
 in the minds of most youths, who consequently drag 
 through its seemingly purposeless propositions 
 wearily and unprofitably. But to a youth of fairly 
 advanced acquirements, who has a definite idea of 
 the purpose for which the study is commended to his 
 consideration, it becomes invested with a special 
 interest, and he will in nine cases out of ten get 
 over the asses' bridge without ever knowing of its 
 existence. Still, though eminently useful, Euclid is
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 333 
 
 not a sufficient nor altogether a good means of culti- 
 vating the judgment. Referring as it does to positive 
 demonstration only, it is not applicable to the great 
 mass of human affairs, which do not admit of absolute 
 proof. These require rather a power of estimating 
 degrees of probability and the value of evidence 
 than the close reasoning through a chain of certainties. 
 It is rather liable, therefore, to create a doubting 
 tendency in regard to such matters as do not seem 
 to have such rigid certainty. Moreover, Euclid 
 comes too late to initiate the training of the judgment, 
 which should be begun by the corrective process. It 
 serves better to confirm and elucidate previous ideas 
 of the process than as a first step to their acquire- 
 ment. There is besides a specialty about Euclid 
 which prevents a ready apprehension on the part of 
 the student of the general principles of reasoning to 
 which it owes its chief educational value. There is 
 a tendency rather to exalt the science of mensuration 
 than to teach the art of just inference. 
 
 A curious and instructive illustration of the esti- 
 mation of evidence is given by Babbage in his ninth 
 Bridgwater Treatise. A problem submitted for 
 solution was to determine, by means of the indications 
 of a certain machine, what was the general law of 
 its movements. The machine being set into motion, 
 the several observers who were to solve the problem 
 noted the records of the index. After one hundred 
 repetitions of a progression by a unit, one observer 
 was satified that it would so continue, and he retired. 
 Others not so easily convinced proceeded to note the 
 further indications. At the completion of the one 
 thousandth term, still in the same order, all but 
 one regarded the law as established. He only
 
 334 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 persevered, and discovered that at 100,010,002 anew 
 order of indications occurred. Yet, from the first, 
 the change which then took place was a necessary 
 consequence, or a law, of the mechanism. This 
 illustration serves to show the different estimates 
 men form of the value of evidence bearing on a 
 point to be ascertained. One jumps to conclusions 
 prematurely and impetuously, others with more 
 patience, but few with sufficient care to arrive at 
 any but the most obvious decisions. The care and 
 patience exercised by the last-mentioned is not to be 
 confounded, however, with that unhappy condition 
 of mind, in which doubt and indecision dethrone 
 judgment in all matters that do not admit of absolute 
 demonstration. As such matters form a very small 
 and comparatively unimportant part of those which 
 constitute the experiences of mankind, persons so 
 afflicted have but a small basis on which to exercise 
 the power of judgment. 
 
 Judgments and opinions are subject to considerable 
 influence from other considerations besides those of 
 evidence. Such, for example, are the influences of 
 self-interest, temper, prejudice, state of health, &c. 
 These all tend to disturb the equilibrium on which 
 the truth of the result depends. The seductive force 
 or repellent influence of such influences is seldom 
 appreciated or even known to those in whom they 
 operate. They are false weights unconsciously put 
 into the scale, and vitiate the balance. Self-interest 
 perverts the mental vision which reads the weights 
 untruly or adjusts them falsely. The wish is often 
 father to the Thought. Temper is also a powerful 
 agency in falsifying the weights and corrupting 
 evidence. A calm and undisturbed state of mind is
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 335 
 
 a necessary qualification for sound judgment on what- 
 soever subject it may be exercised. The state of 
 health also reacts on the mind and gives a false 
 colouring to the elements or a partial view of the 
 evidence. The exaltation due to stimulants is said 
 to sharpen the powers of mind, as in Pitt, Sheridan, 
 and others, who exhibited their highest powers under 
 that influence. Still, we think that he who appealed 
 from -Philip drunk to Philip sober showed a sound 
 knowledge of the working of the human mind. 
 
 Prejudice is probably the most general and in- 
 fluential of all the forces that tend to pervert judg- 
 ment. The existence in the mind of previous 
 conclusions, based on borrowed ideas or on insuf- 
 ficient evidence, or perverted views of evidence, 
 interfere to an incalculable extent with the due 
 exercise of judgment. The influence of prejudice is 
 most widely exerted in matters of general principles, 
 such as have already been alluded to as affecting the 
 ideas of people generally. Astrology, some forms 
 of superstition, and witchcraft have for ages inflicted 
 error, and prompted to crime millions of men, and 
 still linger in remote parts of the earth to exercise 
 their maleficent powers. Still, it is rather with 
 individual prejudices than with those of an age or 
 nation that we are here concerned, and the subject 
 is too wide for discussion in these pages. We con- 
 clude our remarks with one illustration derived from 
 our own experience. Conversing with a most worthy 
 and highly gifted prelate, he maintained that the fossil 
 remains of animals embedded in the rocks must have 
 been created there. This excellent man preferred to 
 adhere to the uncertain interpretations of bible chron- 
 ology rather than to disturb his preconceived ideas
 
 336 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 by accepting the plain certainties of science. Here 
 is a fair example of thorough-going prejudice, opera- 
 ting powerfully in a highly cultivated mind. Such 
 prejudices must continue to operate more or less 
 generally until the practice is fully established in re- 
 ligious and secular matters, as it already is in science, 
 of giving all verdicts according to reliable evidence. 
 
 A prolific source of error in judgments of all kinds 
 is the imperfection inherent in language, the medium 
 of interchange of ideas. The careless use of terms, 
 to which a good deal of ambiguity has been attached, 
 by either their abuse or by the deficiency of language 
 to supply other terms more precise and definite, gives 
 rise to dispute and difficulty in almost every argu- 
 ment which requires precise formulation. This subject 
 is so fully treated in many works of authority and 
 excellence that it needs no more than mere mention 
 in these pages. Of course whensoever the necessary 
 imperfections of language are further aggravated by 
 the inevitable difficulties of translation, as in the 
 Holy Scriptures, the liability to erroneous inference 
 is much increased, especially as there do not exist in 
 all languages exact equivalents of the terms of each. 
 Hence the introduction of terms from one to another 
 is of constant occurrence. Numbers of words in our 
 own language have been incorporated therein from 
 others, because no equivalents were in existence. 
 
 It would be manifestly vain and foolish to attempt 
 to teach the principles embodied in this chapter to a 
 child in the form of verbal instruction. Nevertheless, 
 as they are the essentials of sound inference they must 
 be acquired at some time, and in some manner, if 
 the all-important function is ever to be rightly and 
 effectively exercised. And it stands to reason that
 
 ON JUDGMENT. 337 
 
 the sooner they are learned the better will it be for 
 the learner, for it has already been shown in our 
 chapters on the natural history that, rightly or 
 wrongly, children do exercise their faculties in infer- 
 ences, opinions, and judgments, and it is equally 
 certain that their decisions, whether right or wrong, 
 actuate their conduct in many ways. Hence in their 
 first conclusions they afford to tutors the best oppor- 
 tunities for judicious correction, which, given in 
 accordance with the foregoing principles, will prac- 
 tically teach them by their application which 
 is the best possible way in which any principles 
 can be taught. In our chapter on training the 
 infant intellect, simple but effective rules are laid 
 down by which the principles of right-thinking 
 may be inculcated and right habits of Thought 
 initiated. In the more advanced stages of youth the 
 faculty of inference and judgment might be culti- 
 vated by means of exercises involving simple, prac- 
 tical propositions, the written answers to which 
 would test the student's powers of reasoning, and 
 would afford his teachers the means of instructing 
 him in the application of true principles.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES IN THEIR RELATION TO 
 THE ACTUATING PRINCIPLES OF CONDUCT. 
 
 THE question as to what mental characteristics, if 
 any, men may inherit from their parents, is one of 
 paramount interest in the study of mental opera- 
 tions, for it determines whether and to what ex- 
 tent, character and attainments are attributable to 
 individual experience and effort, and also whether, 
 and to what extent, men may derive their knowledge 
 and other mental characteristics by descent from 
 parents or ancestors. 
 
 Indirectly the question has important bearing on 
 the degree of moral responsibility properly apper- 
 taining to individuals themselves, and also to that 
 which devolves upon tutors. It has moreover a 
 special interest in its relation to the exercise of 
 individual free-agency. 
 
 There is no dispute respecting the fact that the 
 physical organism of a babe is dependent on inhe- 
 rited properties and characteristics for the condi- 
 tion in which it is born into the world and becomes 
 an independent living being. Nor is there any 
 doubt that the brain, which forms a part of that 
 organism, is similarly dependent, and that it is the 
 part by which mental action is connected with that 
 of the other organs. In other words, the brain is the
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 339 
 
 .acknowledged seat and centre of the mental func- 
 tions of the physical system, and as a part of the 
 organism it is derived from parents. 
 
 It is further admitted, that the physical and 
 mental powers in men differ in degree between very 
 wide extremes, both as regards power and sensitive- 
 ness, in different individuals. Whatever differences 
 there may be in other respects, they are in all cases 
 .alike in this one respect that they are dormant 
 until their rightful possessor is in a condition to 
 exercise them. There is a manifest absurdity in the 
 idea that any of the organs had been used or had 
 fulfilled any of their appropriate functions before 
 birth. No one ostensibly supposes that any of the 
 organs are used until the babe himself acquires the 
 power which life imparts to use them for himself. 
 Yet the doctrine of innate ideas, on which inherited 
 temper, for instance, inevitably depends, does 
 actually involve the conclusion that the brain had 
 i\lready begun to fulfil its functions before it could 
 possibly have possessed any power of either sensa- 
 tion or action! The doctrine of innate ideas has 
 long been discredited in theory, but nevertheless, 
 in practice, it survives in the popular belief that 
 temper and other mental feelings are inherited, and 
 such belief implies that pre-existence of the feelings 
 which constitute temper. 
 
 The nature of ideas, and the manner in which 
 they are acquired, preclude the possibility of their 
 being inherited, because they are the records and 
 representatives, in each individual's mind, of his 
 own past sensations and experience, and are pro- 
 duced thereby. The manner of the formation of 
 ideas is the same in individuals of every capacity. 
 
 Z 2
 
 340 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGBT. 
 
 Whatever may be the degree of his natural power, 
 every one knows by his own experience that he 
 acquires his ideas by the use of his senses and by 
 reflecting on past sensations and ideas. He knows 
 therefore that ideas are so produced, and that they 
 remain as records or images after the objects or 
 reflections have passed out of notice. Such being 
 the nature and origin of ideas, it is manifest that 
 they could not have been formed in the mind 
 previous to the epoch when life first conferred the 
 power of feeling, thinking, and acting. It is also 
 evident, from their nature and use, that if it were 
 possible to infuse an idea into the mind otherwise 
 than by the natural and only known method of 
 personal experience, such an idea would have no 
 significance. Not being a record or representative 
 of a personal sensation or reflection, it would be 
 unmeaning and unintelligible, because it would have 
 no connection with any known thing. It would be 
 like a word of an unknown tongue, without meaning 
 or utility. The existence previous to birth of any 
 such feeling as temper, which is in its nature a 
 relative feeling, is therefore manifestly impossible. 
 The doctrine of innate ideas is a futile device, 
 intended to meet difficulties which it fails to ex- 
 plain, and which may be sufficiently accounted for 
 by other causes of familiar nature. 
 
 Hence experience proves that the human organism, 
 as inherited at birth, possesses certain capabilities, 
 which vary considerably in different individuals; and 
 that the power of using the limbs and organs, in- 
 cluding the brain, cannot be exercised until the babe 
 receives the breath of life which confers that power. 
 The organism, with its measure of capabilities, is
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 341 
 
 inherited, but the idea that it has either acted or 
 experienced in any way anterior to its own indepen- 
 dent life, is opposed to both reason and experience. 
 The babe has keen susceptibilities at his birth, but 
 -could not have any ready-made feelings or ex- 
 periences to begin life with, because he had till then 
 no power of sensation. He also possesses mental 
 faculties, but, as these can only be exercised by 
 himself, they are unavailing until life confer the 
 power of using them. He cannot therefore possess 
 ideas ready formed. Action and sensation are 
 functions of life, and cannot therefore exist ante- 
 cedently to life. 
 
 Our contention is, that body and mind are equally 
 naked when life animates and sets them into 
 motion, and that till then the only equipment for 
 independent life consists of the organs and their 
 respective capabilities. 
 
 Seeing that the usual method by which ideas 
 are acquired provides so well for all the mental 
 requirements, that it is so well known, and that it 
 is the only means of which men have any actual 
 experience, we have to consider why any other 
 means should be sought. The reasons appear 
 to be : 
 
 (1) That certain manifestations of temper, and 
 other relative feelings, often occur in very early life, 
 for which no adequate cause is apparent. 
 
 (2) That certain persons distinguish themselves 
 by extraordinary attainments, which are remarkable, 
 either by their development at a very early age, or 
 in a very high degree, such as to suggest the 
 possession of more than the regularly acquired 
 powers,
 
 342 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 As no adequate causes for such characteristics are- 
 apparent, resort is had to the alternative that they 
 were due to inherited gifts. This theory owes much 
 of its vitality to the very convenient excuses it 
 affords to tutors for what would otherwise be- 
 referred to their neglect or example. To the victims 
 of ill-humour it serves to exculpate themselves and 
 to lay the blame on their ancestors. To persons of 
 indolent and wayward habits, it gives a plea of 
 deficient talents to excuse want of application or of 
 right direction to their efforts. A theory which 
 serves such purposes to such persons will not be 
 relinquished readily, and we hardly hope to prevail 
 with them. 
 
 The only positive evidence adduced in support of 
 the doctrine in question, is that of phrenology r 
 which, however, in the present state of the science,. 
 is not very reliable, and were its data more accu- 
 rate, the evidence would not be conclusive. If the 
 particular function of each part of the brain were 
 clearly ascertained, and if men neccessarily exerted 
 their powers in proportion to the avoirdupois weight, 
 cubical contents, or special sensitiveness of those- 
 parts of the brain, the evidence of phrenology 
 would have much value. But such is not the case, 
 Men do not generally so employ the powers they 
 obviously possess. As to the special capabilities we- 
 are now discussing men are often mistaken respect- 
 ing those they imagine they possess. It is indeed 
 common for them to be unconscious of the powers 
 they actually exhibit, and to plume themselves upon 
 others of which their neighbours perceive they are 
 deficient. 
 
 We now proceed to consider generally the theory
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 343 
 
 of inherited mental characteristics, such as temper 
 and other states of mind, extraordinary special capa- 
 bilities, &c., and will endeavour to demonstrate : 
 
 1. That life itself is not inherited, but only an 
 organism capable of receiving life, and therefore as 
 life is not derived from parents, but follows birth, 
 neither the mind itself nor any temper, state or 
 characteristics of mind could exist before birth. 
 
 2. That men do not necessarily employ the powers 
 they actually possess, nor is the use of their powers 
 generally regulated by the relative proportions of 
 their capabilities. That they are often unconscious 
 of the possession of particular capabilities, which are 
 nevertheless evident to their fellows, and are other- 
 wise mistaken in their own estimates of them. 
 
 3. That extraordinary mental attainments do not 
 appear to be generally referable to special capabilities 
 as distinguished from general power. 
 
 4. That the theory of inherited special capabilities, 
 as an actuating principle of conduct, is not borne 
 out by the facts of daily experience. 
 
 5. That as man is endowed with natural faculties 
 wherewith to acquire knowledge and to act for him- 
 self, it is not reasonable nor consonant with analogy 
 that his natural powers should be superseded or 
 their functions anticipated by other means. 
 
 i. Our first proposition depends mainly upon the 
 way in which life originates and the organism be- 
 comes animated. This therefore requires first notice, 
 as life is the first essential for either feeling, thinking 
 or acting. 
 
 As an electro-magnet has no magnetic property 
 inherent in itself, but only a susceptibility to receive 
 it under certain conditions, so in like manner the
 
 344 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 germ of a plant or animal does not itself possess 
 inherent life, but only the property or susceptibility 
 of receiving it by means of suitable conditions exter- 
 nal to itself, such as in the order of Nature have been 
 ordained. St. Paul says that the seed is not 
 quickened except it die, whereby he expresses no 
 metaphor, but states a scientific fact viz., that until 
 animated by the quickening process the seed is dead. 
 
 Life is essentially an active, energetic, natural 
 force, which, in the sphere of its operation, acts 
 powerfully and overcomes other forces, which in its 
 absence exert their powers in very different direc- 
 tions. When the vital force ceases to operate in any 
 living organism, the component elements of such 
 body speedily fall under the influence of those other 
 forces, arid decomposition ensues more or less quickly. 
 So long as the vital force operates, the living organ- 
 ism is maintained by means of a cycle of processes 
 which renew its tissues and sustain its powers. 
 But when these active processes cease, the component 
 elements of the organism become subject to other 
 forces, and the organism is decomposed. Thus living 
 is a state of activity, and life in its nature an opera- 
 tive force. Wherefore latent or inert life involves a 
 contradiction. 
 
 Is it well known that seeds that had been buried 
 in tombs in Egypt have retained their susceptibility 
 to the quickening influence of the conditions on which 
 vitality depends, after thousands of years of complete 
 inactivity. In regard to these seeds, many of which 
 have actually germinated, it is certain that their 
 germs could not have been kept in a truly living 
 state without consuming the substance of the seeds 
 in which they were contained in order to sustain a
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 345 
 
 vital condition. On the other hand, the supposition 
 that they maintained vitality in a latent form would 
 be a contradiction of terms. The seeds and the 
 germs they contained were, as St. Paul says, dead, 
 but capable of being quickened. 
 
 The capability of receiving life is not one whit less 
 marvellous or inscrutable than life itself, nor is 
 Almighty power less manifest in ordaining the pro- 
 cess of quickening than it would be in imparting life 
 by a direct interposition. So far as is yet known, 
 the only organisms that possess the capability of 
 being quickened derive that property by the agency 
 of parentage. Still, the property or susceptibility of 
 receiving life is not inherent life, nor does the 
 parentage confer life, but only a fitness to receive it. 
 There is a clear distinction between the vital force 
 which animates and the organism which is thereby 
 animated. There is in fact a duality involved in 
 living organisms of which the two elements are 
 different both in their nature and origin. The germ 
 is the offspring of parentage, but the quickening 
 power or vital force has another origin, being induced 
 by appropriate conditions, ordained by the same 
 Almighty power that ordered the production of the 
 germ and its envelop by the action of parentage. 
 
 In plants the germ is encased in a seed which, 
 when completely developed, is separated from the 
 living organism in which it was formed, and remains 
 inert until the conditions necessary for quickening 
 the germ supervene and endow it with the life for 
 which it is specially adapted. Those same conditions 
 do not avail for any other organisms than those so 
 naturally qualified. What the conditions are is not 
 certainly known, but those which are apparent are
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 air, moisture, heat, and light. All these, in some 
 proportions, are necessary, but whether there may 
 not be others remains to be ascertained. Until those 
 conditions supervene, be they what they may, the 
 seed remains, like the magnet without its electric 
 current, inert. 
 
 In the animal economy the processes are analogous 
 to those of the vegetable kingdom, but differ in regard 
 to the exercise of the maternal function according to 
 the manner of birth proper to each class of animaL 
 The foetus before birth shares the vitality of the 
 mother, and forms part of her substance, as does also 
 the seed of the plant until the flower or the plant 
 itself dies. The child has no life of his own until 
 after birth. There is not unfrequently some difficulty 
 and delay in the inception of life after birth, in the 
 case of the babe. The involuntary functions of the 
 heart and lungs are in some cases dilatory, and 
 require assistance. The quickening agency in the 
 case of the animal offspring seems to be air, but 
 though this alone may be apparent, there are so many 
 subtle agencies in the world that it would be bold to 
 assert that no other is concerned. 
 
 Seeing then that life is not inherited, it follows that 
 thought and feeling, which are functions of life, could 
 not be inherited, nor could any state of mind exist 
 until the mind itself is developed by vital action. 
 Even those persons who hold the possibility of life 
 being latent, will perceive that if latent it could not 
 have operated in the production of Thought or 
 feeling. 
 
 The question as to the nature of what is actually 
 inherited is thus narrowed into a comparatively small 
 compass, for it is evident that at the time of birth
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 347 
 
 the babe possesses an organism, with an organ or ap- 
 pliance for thinking, but that he could not possibly 
 have any ready-made Thought. That would be as 
 absurd as to suppose a violin with ready-made tunes 
 in it. Hence it is shown that the only properties 
 men can possibly inherit are the means or apparatus 
 necessary for living, thinking, and acting. No such 
 thing as temper, or other state of mind, is possible 
 prior to life. They inherit an instrument for thinking, 
 but no Thought already done by it, nor any ready- 
 made Thought existing in it. 
 
 It follows from the foregoing arguments that all 
 the ideas, feelings, and states of mind of which an 
 individual is conscious, must necessarily have been 
 acquired by himself, seeing that they could not 
 possibly have existed before birth. And it has also 
 been shown that if such ideas were possible they 
 would be unintelligible, unmeaning, and inoperative, 
 because they would not represent any known ex- 
 perience. Having thus considered the theory of in- 
 herited mental characteristics with reference to the 
 organism previous to birth and life, we have now to 
 consider the influence that any peculiarities of the 
 organism, especially of the brain, may have in in- 
 ducing its possessor to choose a particular line of 
 observation or reflection, or to cultivate a special 
 pursuit. In other words, we have to consider what 
 part the organism itself has in determining the Will, 
 and the direction of the faculties. 
 
 Having already admitted that the human organism r 
 including its constitutional temperament, with which 
 the nervous system sympathizes, is inherited, and 
 that it owes whatever specialties it may possess at 
 the time of its birth to parentage, it follows that we
 
 348 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 commence this part of our argument with the un- 
 qualified acknowledgment that individual men are 
 subject to great differences of sensitiveness of feeling, 
 and of calibre of mental power. 
 
 It must be obvious that whatever may be the 
 character of the organism, and whatever its capa- 
 bilities, whether special or general, the work done by 
 its possessor in the way of thought or act in the for- 
 mation of character or regulation of conduct will 
 depend upon the use he makes of his powers. In 
 short, the manner of their employment, and not the 
 mere fact of their possession, is the determinant 
 factor in the result. We have therefore to consider 
 what are the nature and extent of the influence 
 which the possession of certain capabilities exerts in 
 inspiring or determining the use and direction of the 
 powers of their possessor. This is the point on which 
 this part of our discussion turns. 
 
 At this stage we are met by the claims of phre- 
 nology, which asserts that the volume of the brain, 
 .and the relative proportions of its different parts, de- 
 termine to a greater or less extent both the character 
 and the conduct of every individual. If it were 
 necessary to our argument either to substantiate or 
 to refute the validity of these claims, the task would 
 exceed the compass of these pages. To demonstrate 
 either position would require a very great mass of 
 evidence which, if even we had it at hand, would 
 necessarily be so complex, so conflicting, and so 
 inextricably involved with factors outside of the 
 phrenological data, that the issue would be as doubt- 
 ful in its nature as it would be difficult to estimate. 
 We were much impressed in our youth with the 
 promise which phrenology seemed to hold out of
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 349 
 
 becoming a powerful aid to mental science, and we 
 have never since ceased to feel deeply interested in 
 its progress. This, however, has not hitherto realized 
 our early expectations. 
 
 What we now propose, therefore, is to advance 
 from the range of our own personal knowledge such 
 facts and arguments as tend to show the influences 
 that practically decide men in the employment and 
 direction of their individual powers. We cite them 
 as facts quite irrespective of the bearings they may 
 have upon any particular theories, and we leave the 
 application of them to whatsoever use they may serve 
 for others, their use to us being as evidence of the 
 principles which actuate human effort. 
 
 Before commencing this part of our task it will be 
 convenient to allude to the remarkable effects often 
 produced on individual conduct by the most trivial 
 circumstances. The fact is of great interest in itself, 
 in its bearing upon personal and mental history, as 
 showing in what slight circumstances the greatest 
 events often originate. As the little switch diverts 
 a mighty engine and its dependent train from one 
 line to another, in widely different direction, so, in 
 like manner, all the forces of the individual nature 
 are often diverted from a course they were pur- 
 suing energetically into another entirely divergent 
 therefrom. A little insignificant-seeming switch of 
 Thought, word, or act, is thus proved by daily ex- 
 perience to be able to entirely divert the whole 
 powers of the individual nature, and to give them a 
 new and widely different direction. However 
 powerful in themselves the faculties may be, and 
 however energetically they may be acting, they all 
 obey the little switch, and leaving the line they were
 
 350 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 intently pursuing, instantly proceed in the new 
 direction, with as much energy as was manifest in 
 the previous course. And if in cases which become 
 conspicuous by means of the important results so 
 arising, the force of trivial diverting causes is re- 
 cognized, how much more general must such influences 
 be that escape observation on account either of the 
 unimportance of the results or the obscurity of the 
 diverting cause. Indeed, a little reflection would 
 satisfy most men that the operation of the switch 
 is very general in great and small matters, concern- 
 ing both individuals and communities. It will also 
 appear certain that if the actuating principle of con- 
 duct consisted of a fixed part of the internal organism, 
 it could not be suddenly, permanently, and diame- 
 trically changed by a trivial external circumstance 
 having no relation thereto. 
 
 It seems a hopeless task to reduce to rule forces 
 the operation of which is proved by daily experience 
 to be subject to such change of direction, so sudden 
 and complete, by causes sometimes so trivial. The 
 future direction of such forces could not possibly be 
 predicted by means of any observation of their present 
 action, nor by any estimate of probabilities. They 
 seem to be altogether beyond the reach of ordinary 
 rules or calculations, more especially as the diverting 
 circumstances are generally external to the individual 
 actuated, and of an accidental or casual nature. 
 Nor is the sphere of the operation of the switch 
 restricted to any particular department of Thought 
 or conduct. A sinister look may arouse a suspicion 
 the effect of which may never be eradicated and may 
 operate in many and powerful ways. A profession 
 or pursuit originally adopted by choice, and followed
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 351 
 
 for many years with success, or even with distinction, 
 has within the range of our knowledge been suddenly 
 changed for the rest of a life by an incidental re- 
 mark of the most trivial nature, without any par- 
 ticular present significance or future bearing. In 
 this case the new direction of Thought and effort 
 involved an entire change of occupation, and the 
 exercise of abilities of a different order from those of 
 the previous pursuit. The operation of such divert- 
 ing circumstances must be familiar to almost every 
 individual. In love, in war, in youth, and old age, 
 amongst rich and poor, such causes are in continual 
 operation. In so far at least as is indicated by such 
 changes, it does not appear that either the tenor 
 of life, or the direction of the faculties, is dictated, or 
 materially influenced, by the special mental capa- 
 bilities of the individual. Nor does it appear that 
 these offer any kind of opposition to the Will when 
 so actuated. 
 
 It follows that if, for example, in the case last 
 mentioned, the first pursuit had been dictated by the 
 force of preponderant special capabilities, that same 
 force must afterwards have actuated the individual 
 in an entirely different direction, involving quite 
 different specialties, and must have undone its own 
 previous work ! If, on the other hand, the first 
 pursuit was not so determined, then special capa- 
 bilities had nothing to do in the matter at all. Both 
 alternatives oppose the doctrine (so far at least as all 
 such cases are concerned) that individual action is 
 decided, or materially influenced, by a preponderant 
 capability of a special character. We therefore 
 conclude that there was a power of the mental con- 
 stitution superior to that of special cerebral capability,
 
 352 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 and that this power decided the conduct in the cases 
 above described. 
 
 (2) Men do not necessarily employ all the powers 
 they actually possess, nor is the employment of the 
 powers generally regulated by their relative capa- 
 bilities. This is a fair inference from the foregoing 
 argument, but is otherwise proved by experience. 
 The possession of great physical strength does not 
 impel its possessor to use it, otherwise than to serve 
 his f general purposes, for which its remarkable 
 capabilities may not be at all required or used. A 
 person so endowed could bring it to bear on any 
 occasion, if he were otherwise so impelled, but the 
 power itself exerts no impulse. The man of pro- 
 digious strength is not obliged by reason of its 
 possession to exert it, nor even to choose a pursuit 
 which would call its special power into use. The 
 possession of very remarkable powers of vision 
 might induce a man to choose a particular profession 
 or pursuit in which it would give him advantage, 
 but in that event the choice would be an act of 
 the judgment and Will, not an impulse of the eye 
 itself! 
 
 No one would conclude on seeing a man of great 
 physical proportions that therefore his physique 
 must necessarily have impelled him to devote him- 
 self to athletic exercies. On the contrary, it would 
 not be at all surprising to learn that he was a 
 professor of music or mathematics. The influence of 
 special capabilities is not claimed by any one on 
 behalf of other limbs than those of the brain itself. 
 Why then should they be regarded as having any 
 special power of influencing the Will other than that 
 of the rest of the organism to which volition ex-
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 353 
 
 tends ? It might indeed be pleaded by a thief at the 
 bar that he was impelled by a strong bump of 
 acquisitiveness to commit the theft charged against 
 him, but the court, acting on the principles of 
 common sense, based on the experience of mankind, 
 would repudiate the plea, and make the thief re- 
 sponsible for the power of volition which every man 
 possesses, and which is superior to all such pre- 
 tended impulses of the organism. Such impulses 
 are not regarded by mankind in general to have pre- 
 vailing force as actuating principles. 
 
 Men generally are not, in fact, conscious of the 
 relative power of their mental capabilities, and could 
 not therefore be reasonably expected to be actuated 
 thereby. And where such consciousness of special 
 capabilities is supposed to exist it frequently happens 
 that they are not really present in any special force. 
 We have in mind the case of a youth who was sup- 
 posed, both by himself and his parents, to possess 
 such remarkable aptitude for engineering that we 
 were consulted as to the best course for him to cul- 
 tivate his special talent. A careful discussion with 
 the youth himself of some inventions he had in mind 
 proved conclusively that he was sadly deficient 
 in the qualities of which he and his parents seemed 
 so proud. It is only just to mention that he kept 
 the secrets of his inventions from his parents, and 
 indeed seemed nervous to disclose them to us, though 
 we were pledged not to divulge them. In this case the 
 prompting, actuating influence in the youth's choice 
 of profession, based upon his own supposed powers, 
 could not have been due to preponderant special 
 capability. 
 
 Another case of a different type occurs to us. 
 
 A A
 
 354 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 The teachers of a child of twelve, who were persons 
 of great experience, reported to his parents that he 
 had no talent for music, that he was making no pro- 
 gress, and had better give it up in favour of drawing, 
 for which he had great ability. This advice was 
 given after two years of trial. The parents declined 
 to follow the advice proffered, believing that ap- 
 plication only was necessary on the part of the 
 youth. A special inducement was held out to him 
 as a stimulus to exertion, and within two years 
 afterwards very remarkable ability was proved by 
 his performing high-class music with more than 
 usual skill. The special gift in this case came with 
 application. It follows that the real ability existed, 
 but so far from influencing its owner he was un- 
 conscious of it, to such an extent as not to believe he 
 had it. It escaped the notice of both teachers and 
 pupil. Our experience would supply numerous in- 
 stances, of which the two cited are typical. We 
 may mention that, in the case last mentioned, 
 further experience proved that the supposed superior 
 ability for drawing was also mistaken, for the pupil's 
 ambition that way led to long and laborious efforts, 
 which were not rewarded with nearly so great 
 success as that achieved by the power so much dis- 
 paraged. 
 
 One other case, also typical of a common class? 
 may be cited. A man of our acquaintance possessed 
 extraordinary powers of performing on the violin. 
 He could have earned a better living by that accom- 
 plishment than by the pursuit in which he was 
 engaged ; but he thought little of his real powers, 
 and disparaged them in comparison of others in 
 which every one, except himself, could perceive his
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 355 
 
 positive weakness. Still he plumed himself on this 
 and set no store by the other. 
 
 The illustrations we have cited are typical and 
 represent a very considerable mass of evidence 
 afforded by universal experience, to show that in so 
 far as such cases are concerned the ascertained 
 capabilities have not been the actuating principle in 
 determining conduct. They all indicate the exist- 
 ence of a power or motive force superior to the 
 special mental capabilities. We feel at a loss to 
 estimate, or even to understand, the actuating force 
 of a power of which the possessor himself is uncon- 
 scious, and about which he may be, and sometimes 
 is, entirely mistaken. On the other hand, every 
 man is conscious of a power which he can and does 
 continually exert ; one which may be stimulated even 
 by slight causes to determine conduct, and to divert 
 action from any given direction to almost any other. 
 
 3. The evidence afforded by extraordinary mental 
 attainments does not appear to be referable to 
 special talents as distinguished from general capa- 
 bilities. Indeed, the occasional occurrence of such 
 exceptional cases appears to be a natural conse- 
 quence of the want of systematic culture generally 
 in early life. 
 
 The doctrine of special or inherited gifts, as a 
 means of accounting for exceptional attainments, for 
 which no apparent adequate means seem to exist, 
 proceeds we think upon mistaken premisses. Such 
 attainments being in all cases the result of several 
 factors, and not of some one in particular, the con- 
 currence of the several factors, all necessary to the 
 particular attainment, indicate general rather than 
 special capabilities. 
 
 A A 2
 
 354 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 The teachers of a child of twelve, who were persons 
 of great experience, reported to his parents that he 
 had no talent for music, that he was making no pro- 
 gress, and had better give it up in favour of drawing, 
 for which he had great ability. This advice was 
 given after two years of trial. The parents declined 
 to follow the advice proffered, believing that ap- 
 plication only was necessary on the part of the 
 youth. A special inducement was held out to him 
 as a stimulus to exertion, and within two years 
 afterwards very remarkable ability was proved by 
 his performing high-class music with more than 
 usual skill. The special gift in this case came with 
 application. It follows that the real ability existed, 
 but so far from influencing its owner he was un- 
 conscious of it, to such an extent as not to believe he 
 had it. It escaped the notice of both teachers and 
 pupil. Our experience would supply numerous in- 
 stances, of which the two cited are typical. We 
 may mention that, in the case last mentioned, 
 further experience proved that the supposed superior 
 ability for drawing was also mistaken, for the pupil's 
 ambition that way led to long and laborious efforts, 
 which were not rewarded with nearly so great 
 success as that achieved by the power so much dis- 
 paraged. 
 
 One other case, also typical of a common class? 
 may be cited. A man of our acquaintance possessed 
 extraordinary powers of performing on the violin. 
 He could have earned a better living by that accom- 
 plishment than by the pursuit in which he was 
 engaged ; but he thought little of his real powers, 
 and disparaged them in comparison of others in 
 which every one, except himself, could perceive his
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 355 
 
 positive weakness. Still he plumed himself on this 
 and set no store by the other. 
 
 The illustrations we have cited are typical and 
 represent a very considerable mass of evidence 
 afforded by universal experience, to show that in so 
 far as such cases are concerned the ascertained 
 capabilities have not been the actuating principle in 
 determining conduct. They all indicate the exist- 
 ence of a power or motive force superior to the 
 special mental capabilities. We feel at a loss to 
 estimate, or even to understand, the actuating force 
 of a power of which the possessor himself is uncon- 
 scious, and about which he may be, and sometimes 
 is, entirely mistaken. On the other hand, every 
 man is conscious of a power which he can and does 
 continually exert ; one which may be stimulated even 
 by slight causes to determine conduct, and to divert 
 action from any given direction to almost any other. 
 
 3. The evidence afforded by extraordinary mental 
 attainments does not appear to be referable to 
 special talents as distinguished from general capa- 
 bilities. Indeed, the occasional occurrence of such 
 exceptional cases appears to be a natural conse- 
 quence of the want of systematic culture generally 
 in early life. 
 
 The doctrine of special or inherited gifts, as a 
 means of accounting for exceptional attainments, for 
 which no apparent adequate means seem to exist, 
 proceeds we think upon mistaken premisses. Such 
 attainments being in all cases the result of several 
 factors, and not of some one in particular, the con- 
 currence of the several factors, all necessary to the 
 particular attainment, indicate general rather than 
 special capabilities. 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Mozart, for example, is a conspicuous instance of 
 what is commonly called a " born " musician. Let 
 us then consider what is thereby implied. He was 
 undeniably a wonderful master of music, and became 
 so at a remarkably early age. He was even then a 
 fine performer on one or more musical instruments, 
 and composed original and artistic works. For these 
 accomplishments several different kinds of ability 
 were absolutely necessary. For the execution of his 
 music he must have required great dexterity of 
 hand, which could not have been attained without 
 considerable effort and practice. A fine appreciation 
 of time and rhythm were equally essential to his 
 musical execution. For the composition of his 
 original work, he must have possessed a thorough 
 knowledge of harmony, as well as fine conceptions 
 of melody. For the notation or transcription of his 
 compositions, he must have understood the grammar 
 of music, counterpoint, and the art of writing. 
 In addition to these essential elements or factors of 
 the ultimate result, he must also have had, as indeed 
 he actually had, opportunities of considerable extent, 
 and of a very available kind. Of all these factors, 
 equally essential, though in various degree perhaps 
 to the general result, to which is to be ascribed the 
 honour or accident of being the special gift which 
 marked him from his birth as a great, a born musi- 
 cian ? If any one of them be singled out from the 
 rest to claim the merit, still the development, the 
 manifestation, the very use of that one would 
 depend upon all the rest, and would therefore be 
 incomplete and inoperative, as a special gift in the 
 popular (and disputed) sense of the term. If, on 
 the other hand, all or several of these necessary
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 357 
 
 factors be regarded as special gifts, the specialty 
 disappears, and their possessor by their means might 
 have been as accomplished in several other ways had 
 those gifts been turned in other directions than that 
 one to which Mozart devoted his varied powers. 
 
 Assuming, merely for the sake of argument, that 
 all the qualities above enumerated were conferred 
 in special degree by the inherited structure of the 
 brain, it would still be doubtful which of these 
 diverse qualities determined Mozart's choice in 
 favour of music for employing them, for all, except 
 harmony, would have been equally available for 
 several other attainments. That one only has special 
 reference to music. To us it seems that the con- 
 vergence of those powers upon the particular pursuit 
 was not due to any one of them individually, nor to 
 the whole collectively, but to the action of the Will. 
 We deem it certain that the Will dominated the 
 mental faculties, and not they the Will. 
 
 Shakespeare was another of what are commonly 
 called " born " geniuses. He became a giant in 
 attainments, and has immortalized himself by his 
 works. Still, intimately as these are known, it 
 would be impossible to determine which of the 
 numerous powers they display could have been the 
 special gift that made him great. It would not be 
 quite easy to even enumerate the special powers and 
 elements of knowledge which his works display. 
 His insight into the human rnind and character, his 
 intimate acquaintance with external Nature, his 
 wonderful power of diction (with all that is involved 
 therein), his power of discrimination, taste, imagina- 
 tion, and his consummate skill in the execution of 
 his work, all essential to the general result, vie with
 
 358 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 each other for pre-eminence. Such a catalogue of 
 attainments seems to preclude the possibility of any 
 form of specialty, and to be referable only to general 
 power applied with marvellous industry and per- 
 severance. 
 
 It is not possible to know how many other men 
 may have lived and died in possession of similar 
 natural powers, but we apprehend that few indeed of 
 those who had the powers had also the energy, 
 industry, and perseverance to make so effective use 
 of them. In this use of his faculties, and not the 
 mere possession of them, was the real greatness. 
 Many men possess the necessary faculties, but he had 
 something more than capabilities, he had the Will 
 and the wisdom to use them industriously, qualities 
 far more rare than mere capabilities. In the busy 
 panorama of life he had his senses keenly alert to 
 what was passing around him, noted it well, judged 
 it accurately, and used the knowledge he so acquired 
 wisely and well. He exerted his faculties on the 
 material his environment afforded him for observation, 
 contemplation, a.nd use. He employed his powers 
 with the concentration which effective control alone 
 can give. Industry, when well directed, would make 
 many men great, but gifts so called, rarely, we 
 apprehend, have conferred greatness upon any. 
 
 What a flood of light would be thrown upon this 
 subject of actuating principle of mental effort if we 
 knew what Newton was thinking about when the 
 current of his Thoughts was diverted by the fall of 
 the apple, and if we knew also what his subsequent 
 career would have been if that trivial event had not 
 enlisted all the powers of his nature in the solution of 
 the one problem suggested by it. The forces elicited
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 359 
 
 by that simple incident, of a single second of time, in 
 order to solve the problem it suggested, were such as 
 no gift could have supplied, for they created new 
 sources of knowledge and power. The range of 
 mathematical science had to be extended to meet the 
 exigencies of the case. Existing optical means of 
 observation had to be enlarged, new instruments 
 had to be constructed for the gigantic task, and for 
 all these varied requirements a degree of industry, 
 patience, and perseverance were necessary such as 
 would have overcome any but a most determined 
 character possessed of indomitable Will. 
 
 Such cases as those we have cited show that the 
 .actuating principle, which is throughout this chapter 
 the subject of our contention, is not in capabilities 
 but in the Will. These cases go far to prove that 
 greatness is within the reach of many men if they 
 would devote the powers they possess with industry 
 .and perseverance ; that it is vain, foolish, and un- 
 profitable to blame inheritance. A supposed deficiency 
 of capability is often a serious source of discourage- 
 ment, and a feigned deficiency is a still more frequent 
 excuse for supineness. We have in mind a youth 
 who was sent to be instructed in coffee planting. 
 After a few days he complained that he could not 
 climb the hills, being unequal to such exertion. He 
 declared it was quite impossible. He was there- 
 fore let off duty, and his friends were applied to for 
 instructions as to his future career. In the interval, 
 he betook himself to his gun. In the eagerness of his 
 sport he went to the low country, i ooo feet below the 
 estate, and repeated journeys thither on foot nearly 
 every day, until it was discovered that he was so 
 employing his powers. He was then made to under-
 
 36d NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 stand that if he could make such journeys for his 
 sport, he could more easily go the easier distances to 
 his work. 
 
 Many instances might be adduced from the sphere- 
 of our observation of great attainments being made 
 by persons of ordinary ability by resolute effort. 
 Quite lately a youth, who had no knowledge of Greek, 
 desired to matriculate at the London University. He- 
 was fairly advanced in other respects, but of Greek 
 he did not even know the alphabet. However, he 
 had just three months for the task of qualifying, and 
 he did it successfully and passed. A missionary of 
 our acquaintance acquired a sufficient knowledge of 
 the Portuguese language in six weeks to be able- 
 to compose and preach to a congregation of that 
 nationality. And we have reason to know that 
 he did it very creditably. The eight known books of 
 Euclid were mastered thoroughly, and all the ex- 
 ercises at the end of each were answered, by a youth 
 of our acquaintance in two months. This work was- 
 not done under pressure as to time. The only 
 stimulus was an earnest desire on his part, to 
 master the subject ; moreover, on completing his task 
 he was not conscious of having accomplished a feat. 
 The case previously mentioned, in which musical 
 talent was supposed to be wanting, was another 
 instance of the power of Will, for the progress was 
 very rapid after the effort to learn became earnest. 
 
 From such cases, which are by no means uncommon, 
 it seems that the doctrine of inherited specialties, as 
 a means of accounting for exceptional attainments, is 
 unnecessary, and that to all the cases typified by our 
 illustrations it is inapplicable. 
 
 The foregoing remarks on special capabilities, as
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 361 
 
 distinguished from general power in the physical 
 organ, are equally applicable to other mental charac- 
 teristics. The argument and its grounds are the 
 same in all. In some cases, such for instance 
 as a habit of lying, example generally affords a 
 sufficient means of accounting for the characteristic. 
 We know of parents who see this terrible propensity 
 in their children, and are filled with shame and 
 distress at what they are obliged to acknowledge. 
 Still, they are sure the habit cannot have been con- 
 tracted from themselves, and they therefore refer it 
 to some distant deceased ancestor. But this resort 
 is unreasonable and unnecessary. There are much 
 more cogent causes always at hand. The habit of 
 falsehood in children is almost always contracted by 
 example in the shape of what are called harmless 
 deceits. These are practised by many parents 
 and tutors, in one form or another, and children do 
 not and cannot discriminate between the so-called 
 harmless and the more mischievous forms of false- 
 hood. The example is the same in both, and in fact 
 there is no real distinction ; moreover, parents are not 
 a child's only exemplars, and the propensity to 
 imitate, as well as the power of discernment, in young 
 children is very remarkable. Hence few children 
 escape learning falsehood, and fewer still avoid the 
 practice altogether. The only case in the range of 
 our knowledge was that of a child who was sedu- 
 lously taught by the example of parents who 
 thoroughly believed in the real nature of the in- 
 fection. Being an only child, and seldom entrusted 
 to a nurse, the influence of example was vigilantly 
 kept pure. In that family corporeal punishment 
 was practised, though with much moderation. Still,
 
 362 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 corporeal punishment in any degree is a source of 
 severe temptation to children, and is, even on that 
 account alone, deserving of serious consideration. 
 The child, though subject to this test, was never 
 known during our acquaintance with her, to depart 
 from strict truth even with the fear of punishment 
 in view. Example in her case was effectual, and if 
 she ever learnt to lie, she acquired the accomplish- 
 ment in later years since we lost sight of her. 
 
 Until tutors recognize the actual effect of example, 
 and the actual power of observation and discernment 
 in the youngest and most unconscious-looking chil- 
 dren, and until it be practically regarded that the 
 youngest children are always learning, example will 
 continue to instil the prolific germs of falsehood and 
 other forms of vice supposed to be harmless. 
 Attempts, sometimes very clumsily executed, to 
 conceal something stealthily from a child's view, will 
 suggest secretiveness, which may become habitual or 
 not, according to circumstances ; but when the idea 
 is given, the use that may be made of it is no longer 
 a matter of example of others, but of practice at 
 home. The idea is a property which may either be 
 forgotten and fall out of use or be used habitually. 
 
 The fact that in their earliest stages infants are 
 practically regarded and treated as if they were 
 taking no notice, seems to us to account naturally 
 for the development in them of tempers, ideas, and 
 seemingly unaccountable specialties. During that 
 period they are allowed to see and hear many things 
 which they are not then supposed to notice, and they 
 thus gather into their mental stock many other 
 things in the same unobserved manner in which they 
 actually prove that they acquire language. Such
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 363 
 
 being undoubtedly the fact, it must naturally happen 
 sometimes, according to the doctrine of probabilities, 
 that there occur remarkable concurrences of favour- 
 able or adverse conditions, such as to account for the 
 appearance and development in them of extraordinary 
 and seemingly unaccountable phenomena of special 
 power, of unexpected bent or direction, of strange 
 temper, and, in short, of any and every form of 
 idiosyncrasy. 
 
 Considering, moreover, how powerfully and com- 
 pletely the faculties may be directed into particular 
 channels by trivial circumstances, the work of an 
 instant, and considering also the powerful influence 
 of the natural propensity to imitation, there seems 
 to be no need whatever for recourse to any such 
 doubtful theories as inherited specialties, to account 
 for occurrences natural to the chance conditions of 
 the mental history in early infancy. 
 
 4. Irrespective of the foregoing considerations, the 
 doctrine of inherited temper, disposition and special 
 gifts is not consistent with the facts of daily expe- 
 rience. 
 
 Instances are of common occurrence which show 
 that some men actuaUy do a great deal more effective 
 work with small and imperfect means and appliances 
 than others who have larger means and more ample 
 opportunities and instrumentalities. And this fact 
 is as manifest in regard to brains as it is to other 
 parts of the physical organism. It follows that what 
 is inherited, the organ or instrument, does not in fact 
 determine the use that will be made of it nor yet 
 the power of using it. A powerful brain, therefore, 
 phrenologically powerful, that is, is available only in 
 so far as it is employed, and even then it needs also
 
 364 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 to be well directed. Who does not know in the 
 circle of his own acquaintance of men possessed of 
 great natural capabilities who can scarcely be induced 
 to employ them ? and of others who use such powers 
 for purposes utterly unworthy of themselves, or their 
 great capabilities ? Evidence of this nature abounds 
 in every individual experience, and need not there- 
 fore be further enforced. It proves that the material- 
 istic theory which makes the organ rule the man is 
 not borne out by, nor at all consistent with, the facts 
 of experience. 
 
 The fact that there are often in children great re- 
 semblances to their parents is, of course, undeniable ; 
 and considering the close relations which subsist be- 
 tween children after birth and their parents, such 
 resemblances are less surprising than the remarkable 
 dissimilarity that generally prevails in families. Con- 
 sidering the powerful influence of the natural and 
 universal propensity of imitation, the wonder is not 
 that there should be strong resemblances, but that 
 they are not more numerous and more striking. Such 
 resemblances appear to us to be even fewer and less 
 obvious than this propensity alone should ensure, 
 quite irrespective of inheritance. The great dis- 
 similarities would offer more difficulty to the student 
 of actuating principles if it were not so well known 
 and so abundantly proved that very slight incidents 
 are capable of setting up very marked lines of diver- 
 gence from any given course. We fail therefore to 
 see in family resemblances, as regards mental action, 
 any evidence in favour of the doctrine of inherited 
 tempers, states of mind, or special capabilities, though 
 we think the prevalence of dissimilarity is very 
 strong evidence against inherited tendencies.
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 365 
 
 According to the evidence derivable from inherited 
 qualities in the lower animals, and the uniformity 
 that generally prevails in the relations of parent and 
 offspring, it would be reasonable to expect a consider- 
 able degree of regularity in mental qualities if these 
 were really inherited. The fact is, however, that in 
 these respects the utter irregularity that subsists 
 amongst children of the same family, not occasionally 
 but almost universally, seems to be conclusive evi- 
 dence that the idiosyncrasies of individual members 
 must be derived from different sources and not from 
 one common inheritance. The diversity is easily 
 explicable and natural when it is considered apart 
 from inherited qualities, and is referred to the suffi- 
 cient natural causes to which allusion has already 
 been made in the foregoing part of this chapter. If 
 other circumstances which are known to influence 
 the development of character suffice to explain both 
 the resemblances and the diversities that exist in 
 the mental characteristics between parents and chil- 
 dren, we see no reason to resort for explanation of 
 them to a theory which is of doubtful authority, and 
 opposed to general experience. 
 
 5. As man is endowed with natural faculties, 
 wherewith to acquire knowledge and to act for him- 
 self, it is not reasonable nor consonant with analogy 
 that his natural powers should be superseded or their 
 functions anticipated by other means. 
 
 In all the works of Nature, so far as these are 
 known, there is one universal rule which prevails 
 throughout namely, that all existences commence 
 their natural history from zero, and thence proceed 
 through successive stages of progress to the maturity 
 of their development. The human mind does not
 
 366 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 appear to be an exception. The mental history, 
 beginning with life itself, seems, in all its attendant 
 circumstances and conditions, so far as these may be 
 observed, to support the view that mental operations 
 begin in the infant mind like all other known things 
 from zero. 
 
 The long term of physical helplessness through 
 which the human babe has to pass in order to acquire 
 the power of using his corporeal faculties indepen- 
 dently, in which he differs so much from the off- 
 spring of the lower animals, which acquire the use of 
 their faculties so soon, seems to have been designed 
 for the purpose which it subserves so well of giving 
 time and opportunity for those mental acquirements 
 so necessary to the life he is destined to enjoy. The 
 sphere of mental operation for which the babe is to be 
 prepared differs from that of the brute in the asser- 
 tion of a higher nature over that of the lower, to 
 which the brute is permanently subject. The mental 
 learning of the lower animal is confined within the 
 narrow limits of the teaching of a parent whose entire 
 stock of knowledge is bounded by his own individual 
 experience. Such knowledge, so limited in its sphere, 
 and affecting the lower nature only, is easily im- 
 parted, simply imbibed, and as readily applied to its 
 narrow uses. The mental instruction the babe has 
 to acquire, on the other hand, embraces a far wider 
 range, extending beyond the narrow limits of 
 the lower nature into another and higher natural 
 domain. The kind of knowledge the babe has to 
 imbibe is neither restricted in its sphere by the indi- 
 vidual experiences of the parent, nor by the limits 
 of the lower nature. The human parent draws his 
 knowledge from the accumulated experience of the
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 367 
 
 race by means of language, and the babe imbibes 
 from his parents and tutors his first ideas from the 
 example which embodies, in certain measure, those 
 large experiences and the principles they involve. 
 Moreover, the human parent derives his inspirations 
 from another and higher domain than that of the 
 lower or animal nature. Moral principles, which 
 distinguish him from the brute, are also embodied in 
 the example of the human parent, and are thus ex- 
 hibited for the imitation and instruction of his 
 offspring. Hence comes it that the sins of the 
 fathers are visited upon the children from generation 
 to generation, not by any special indignation of 
 an offended Almighty, but by the operation of 
 natural law. And, thank God ! mercy and love are 
 also by the same means imparted to thousands, and 
 will prevail in proportion as men recognize the 
 natural means involved in the Divine ordinances, of 
 which the one now under contemplation that of 
 the infant's opportunity for mental and moral 
 acquirements is not the least beneficent. 
 
 Such, then, being the nature of the mental work to be 
 begun, such the opportunity providentially afforded 
 for the work, and such the agencies and appliances 
 by which it is to be accomplished, is it reasonable to 
 suppose that infants would be launched into life with 
 such mental and moral furniture as would render 
 those conditions superfluous and embarrassing ? 
 
 Regarding the brain as a part of the material 
 organism, having certain functions, as other parts of 
 the organism have, each for its particular use, and 
 dependent like them upon vital force and Will 
 to employ them, we do not understand, nor can 
 conceive of its acting of itself and upon itself, any
 
 368 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 more than that a hand or other limb should act 
 irrespective of those forces. It does not appear to 
 be more reasonable that the brain or any of its parts 
 should operate of itself, than that a violin in the 
 hand of its owner should assert itself and play of 
 itself. We have no experience of any such ten- 
 dency, and we think we could scarcely have been so 
 actuated by mechanical or any form of impulse of 
 the brain, without being conscious of something 
 opposing our free-will from that quarter ! Nor does 
 the law of the country, or the common experience of 
 mankind, sanction the idea practically of any such 
 force superior to the Will. God did not mock His 
 creature, man, by imposing upon him obligations 
 which he was not able to fulfil. He who gave the 
 command gave also the power to obey it ; and every 
 man, however strongly he may be tempted, is con- 
 scious of such power, unless he have lost it by 
 abuse. 
 
 The materialistic doctrine, that matter can act 
 upon itself, may not be held theoretically by all who 
 believe in the self-assertion of the organism of the 
 brain, but it does not seem to be really separable 
 from that idea. The several forms of the principle, 
 whether that a piano should play upon itself, with- 
 out any force external to its mechanism, or that it 
 should compel its owner to play upon it, or that the 
 tunes should exist therein ready made, are all 
 equally inconsistent with experience, inexplicable, 
 and contrary to known natural laws. We conceive 
 that, without some form of force external to itself, 
 the material organ would be inert, as it really 
 becomes when life ceases and was before life super- 
 vened. We apprehend that the infant, at the time
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 369 
 
 of birth, has an organ of which the appropriate use is 
 for mental work, and that he has also a motive-force 
 which sets it in motion. The instrument may be 
 of a more or less sensitive nature, of greater or less 
 volume, according to hereditary constitution, but its 
 action will depend on the force of the Will. 
 
 Supposing that exact functions could with cer- 
 tainty be ascribed to certain parts of the brain, and 
 supposing it were proved that the proportional 
 development of these several parts to each other and 
 to the whole mass of the brain determined the 
 power and influence of each, still the use of these 
 parts respectively, as of the whole collectively, would 
 depend on a force external to the instrument itself. 
 A part possessing great relative development would 
 enable its possessor to exert more power by its 
 means than by a weaker part. Still, as has already 
 been shown, the efficacy of such part would depend 
 upon its being used appropriately ; and we know 
 that men do not necessarily, or even generally, use 
 all the powers they possess, nor do they always use 
 them well or wisely. Men inherit brains, no doubt, 
 and so also eyes and ears connected therewith, but 
 they do not inherit Thought or temper, any more 
 than scenes in the eye or music in the ear. 
 
 The evidences afforded by phrenology, in the 
 present state of the science, are in several ways 
 doubtful. It is not at all certain to what extent 
 the development of the whole cerebral mass or of its 
 parts depends upon the use that is made of them. 
 The fact that an unused limb is generally very feeble 
 until habituated to use, and that its further develop- 
 ment beyond its normal condition also depends upon 
 its being exercised, suggests the idea that the mass 
 
 B B
 
 370 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 of the brain, and the relative proportions of its parts 
 are in some degree (perhaps very considerably) 
 influenced in both those respects by the measure in 
 which they are employed. 
 
 Moreover, the brain itself does not conform in all 
 cases internally to the external appearance and 
 development of the cranium. Hence, these are apt 
 to be misleading. The mode of growth and form of 
 nourishment of the cerebral substance itself are also, 
 though perhaps less important, factors of the general 
 development and power of the brain. 
 
 We lay much stress on this part of our subject, 
 because of the important bearing it has upon the 
 training of the mental faculties, and because it shows 
 what may be done by the means which all men, 
 in greater or less degree, possess in common. The 
 danger to be apprehended from the doctrine of 
 inherited gifts, and the dependence upon special 
 capabilities, is in many ways serious. It is a great 
 discouragement to effort to think that it may be 
 unavailing. A prospect of success, and the hopes it 
 inspires, are great incentives to effort ; and, on the 
 other hand, the feeling of despair created by a 
 doubt of requisite qualification is correspondingly 
 disheartening. 
 
 The belief closes up certain paths which would 
 otherwise be open to a pupil's ambition, or to the 
 choice of a calling. Worse still, it disparages the 
 most powerful agencies, industry and perseverance, 
 as means for attaining excellence, and makes this 
 dependent upon the accident of some special in- 
 heritance. It serves as an excuse for idleness, 
 disinclination, and inattention, both to learning and 
 to moral principle and duty. It puts into a false
 
 ON INHERITED CAPABILITIES. 371 
 
 position fellow-workers who have excelled by reason 
 of their industry, and makes them the objects of 
 jealousy for their higher supposed endowments, instead 
 of being admired for their real merits. To set against 
 these evils the theory has not one redeeming feature. 
 The steward of one talent was not therefore excused 
 for the neglect of his restricted trust ; and the 
 commendation for the improvement of two talents 
 was the same as that awarded to him who had im- 
 proved the trust of Jive. 
 
 As we write, there comes to our recollection a man 
 who, with a paralytic arm and a la'me leg, abandoned 
 a sedentary profession, in which he had good prospects, 
 in order to follow by preference another pursuit, for 
 which of all others his physical infirmities seemed to 
 be the most effectual disqualification. His indomitable 
 spirit recognized in them no impediment. We can 
 feel in imagination the hearty grip of his only capable 
 hand, and see his bright cheery countenance, ani- 
 mated with its habitual sunshine. We recall the 
 view of his crooked figure, and eccentric gait, climb- 
 ing an Indian Ghaut, at a gradient of one in two, up 
 a rocky path, such as only the khuds of Indian 
 mountains boast. There he pursued his new calling 
 in cultivating coffee, which loves such precipitous 
 ground. Few of his abler-bodied neighbours could 
 outstrip him in a difficult ascent, or in his daily 
 work. His coolies borrowed the light of his counte- 
 nance, and reflected it in theirs. On the high road 
 he was the life of the company, and when he quitted 
 the rest bungalow, and jerked him self into his saddle, 
 he would start the laugh which his grotesque move- 
 ment was sure to provoke, in order that his fellows 
 might indulge it without fear of offence. With his 
 
 B B 2
 
 3/4 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 principle that though the babe can do very little he is 
 capable of suffering a great deal in that trying stage 
 of his history ; and further, that what he suffers is 
 far more influential on his mind than anything he 
 himself has power to do. It is proved beyond doubt 
 that during all that trying experience he assuredly 
 does think, and as he has then little else to think 
 about but his personal feelings and his small en- 
 vironment, he will certainly exercise his thinking- 
 faculty on the wants and pains, the satisfactions and 
 disappointments, the joys and griefs, the attentions 
 and neglects of which nearly all his experience then 
 consists. 
 
 The aim we have in view is to establish a right 
 beginning and direction of the use of the thinking 
 faculty, in order to save the consequences of neglect, 
 which involve serious trouble to tutors, and grief to 
 their pupils. We desire by our methods to prevent 
 harm from accruing, in order to save the necessity 
 for a great deal of painful undoing afterwards. 
 
 Our methods are in principle contained in the 
 wholesome old rules laid down in Scripture, and ap- 
 plicable to all periods of life, and to all sorts and con- 
 ditions of men viz., to do as we would be done ly ; to 
 sow as we would reap ; and to overcome evil with good. 
 
 To put these universal principles into appropriate 
 form for our particular purpose we have to consider 
 the conditions, bodily and mental, of those to whom 
 they have to be adapted. As regards the babe, these 
 conditions, as laid down in the preceding chapters, are 
 as follows : 
 
 That from his birth the babe has very tender 
 susceptibilities and pressing wants, which at first 
 absorb his attention.
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 3/5 
 
 That his dawning intelligence has then no other 
 sphere for its operation than is afforded by his wants 
 and feelings. In them it takes its rise. 
 
 That he is not unconscious or indifferent to what 
 goes on within and about him, but, on the contrary, 
 his Thoughts are occupied therewith continually, and 
 his emotions will necessarily be such as his expe- 
 rience of them induces. 
 
 That his first relations with the world outside of 
 himself are thus commenced. 
 
 That his utter helplessness makes him entirely de- 
 pendent upon his tutors for the supply of his wants, 
 and for the regard due to his tender susceptibilities. 
 
 That occasional neglects of his wants and dis- 
 regard of his feelings will be far more influential 
 on his mind than frequent caresses and fitful in- 
 dulgences. 
 
 These conditions afford the best possible oppor- 
 tunity and means of enabling tutors to acquire and 
 maintain complete influence over him, to attract his 
 love and confidence, and to thus win his willing and 
 natural obedience. The measure of the babe's neces- 
 sities, on the one hand, and of his sensitiveness and 
 helplessness on the other hand, define the measure 
 of the power and influence placed in the hands of his 
 tutors for that very purpose. Their use or neglect 
 of the influence thus afforded determines the nature 
 of the issue or state of mind produced. 
 
 The foregoing conditions determine the nature of 
 the first inscriptions made on the blank tablet of the 
 infant mind, and those conditions, as well as the other 
 considerations respecting baby life contained in our 
 preceding chapters, suggest the following adaptations 
 of the three main guiding principles already men-
 
 3?6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 tioned as rules for the training of the incipient 
 faculty. 
 
 1. That the babe should be regarded and treated 
 with due consideration of the facts that he is ever 
 conscious and observant, and that his first ideas and 
 emotions, being the natural product of his expe- 
 riences, will necessarily accord therewith. 
 
 2. That tutors should regulate their conduct to- 
 wards him and their example generally with special 
 reference to making the best use of the divinely ap- 
 pointed means and opportunities which the conditions 
 of baby life afford, for initiating in his mind ideas 
 and emotions of love and trust, the cardinal principles 
 of right-thinking and of Christian virtue. 
 
 3. That the earliest indications of Will should be 
 carefully watched and delicately treated in such 
 manner as to mould it to voluntary obedience. 
 
 4. That moral principles should be exemplified 
 practically in all nursery proceedings, especially in 
 regard to exhibitions of temper, and in strict 
 avoidance of every form of guile, deceit or secretive- 
 ness, however harmless they may seem. 
 
 5. That shocks, and all means of creating terror 
 or exciting sudden emotion, should be sedulously 
 avoided. 
 
 We now proceed to make a few remarks on the 
 application of the foregoing rules. 
 
 i. If the responsibility which the conditions of 
 baby life actually involve were fully recognized, and 
 if the fact of the observant power and habits of 
 infants were duly felt, there would be little if any 
 need for any other rules than would naturally be 
 thereby suggested. Hence, at the outset, we would 
 crave the careful attention of the reader to the sum-
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 377 
 
 mary of the mental work which actually must have 
 been done during babyhood, as it is described at 
 pp. 109, no. 
 
 We fully admit that great care and tenderness pre- 
 vail in current nursery practice, yet, with all the 
 regard so manifested for the sensitiveness and help- 
 lessness of the babe, there is, nevertheless, mingled 
 with it a great deal of inconsistent disregard of both 
 his feelings and his wants. Such lapses, however, 
 are far more influential than the attentions he re- 
 ceives, and indeed these make him all the more sensible 
 of them. Baby is not peculiar in being much more 
 sensible of neglect than of attention, of inconvenience 
 and disappointment than of ease and satisfaction. 
 This is a characteristic of the race, irrespective of 
 age. Men think comparatively little of their com- 
 forts and blessings until they lose them, and, even 
 then, they think rather of the suffering which want 
 entails than of the enjoyment which satisfaction 
 procured. Hence, it should be borne in mind, that 
 the little provocations, neglects and discomforts the 
 babe suffers, are much more effective items of the 
 general account than the fitful caresses, or even than 
 the habitual consideration of which they are frequent 
 accompaniments. 
 
 Here is a scrap of every-day experience. As we 
 were lately occupying a bedroom adjoining a nursery, 
 we heard, as we lay awake one morning, that baby 
 had awoke and was cooing and crowing. This went 
 on for some time, and the tone became gradually 
 complaining, and at last loud enough to awaken 
 nurse, who muttered a few words, and all was silent 
 for awhile. Again baby resumed his complaint, which 
 became stronger and louder by degrees, until at last,
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 having quite exhausted his patience, he burst into an 
 angry cry. This was promptly hushed by some form 
 of repressive measure to stifle the resentment neglect 
 had kindled. This is a trivial incident, too trivial 
 some persons may think to be worth mention. But 
 we adduce it as an item in the natural history of 
 temper. It is by such means that the worst of 
 tempers are wrought up in the infant mind to blight 
 the happiness of several lives, not of his only whose 
 the temper is, but of those who have to endure it. 
 
 As a single occurrence, we do not pretend that 
 the incident just mentioned would permanently 
 influence the feelings and temper of the child, but, 
 as an exponent of what he may experience daily or 
 perhaps hourly, it is the key to the habitual state of 
 his feeling. 
 
 Resentment is itself a bad feeling. Begotten of 
 evil by neglect of duty, or by provocation, disregard 
 of feeling, or by any other means, it begets evil. Its 
 operation in adults is qualified by experience and 
 self-control, and by such allowances as circumstances 
 may suggest ; but the babe has none of these 
 resources to modify his anger. Is he less sensitive 
 on that account ? or will the effect of irritants be 
 less in him than it was in those lower animals to 
 which allusion has been made ? or is it of less moment 
 to create an ill-temper in a human infant than in a 
 horse or a monkey ? 
 
 2. Wants and appetites are the springs of a large 
 proportion of the feelings and thoughts of baby life. 
 Hence they supply abundant opportunities and 
 means, by judicious ministrations and satisfactions, 
 of inspiring his confidence and love. The sweet 
 tones of a mother soothing her babe at the breast
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 379 
 
 and caressing him whilst she is satisfying his natural 
 craving, add joy to his contentment. The occasion 
 affords priceless opportunity for inspiring love and 
 trust as well as satisfaction. And it is also a most 
 effective means of acquiring that subtle power over 
 the babe which prevails without effort on the one 
 part or sensible constraint on the other. 
 
 Seeing that baby-Thought must sympathize with 
 the experiences that suggest it, how much his state 
 of mind must depend on whether, for example, he be 
 reclining at ease in the arms of his nurse, or be 
 huddled up comfortlessly in an awkward heap ; 
 whether lying peacefully, listening to a sweet lullaby, 
 or be scared by howls to drown his senses and force 
 him to sleep ; whether he be gently soothed, or 
 shaken and tossed into a state of stupor and bewil- 
 derment. In all these, and a hundred other such 
 alternative situations, his feelings and thoughts will 
 necessarily be induced by, and will correspond with, 
 the originating cause. It could not be otherwise, for 
 effects depend upon their causes as much in mind as 
 in matter, in babyhood as in later life. Whether, 
 therefore, the end sought be to establish a happy 
 relation with the outer world generally, or to inspire 
 confidence and love towards tutors in particular, the 
 recourse is ever the same. 
 
 3. The Will must be moulded by insensible in- 
 fluence, never forcibly repressed, nor impatiently 
 coerced. However kindly it may be employed, 
 coercion excites resistance and produces resentment 
 in some form. This feeling may or may not be at 
 once manifest, but its results on the mind are 
 essentially evil. It may not lead to any active 
 demonstration, but thought and feeling are always
 
 380 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 active within, whether visible externally or kept 
 secret in the bosom. The idea that because babies 
 do not always manifest resistance they do not 
 therefore know or feel it, is a fruitful source of the 
 ill-tempers and headstrong stubbornness of spoiled 
 children. Unless therefore they could be made 
 insensible of being hurt, provoked, and deceived, 
 and capable only of feeling kindness, satisfaction, 
 and happy influences, unless, in fact, they could 
 be made to remember and to be influenced by no 
 other feelings than those of contentment and joy, 
 the treatment they receive must necessarily pro- 
 duce its natural results in their minds. They will 
 be wilful or obedient, resentful or amiable, according 
 to the prevailing feelings induced by their experience. 
 Of course, natural temperament will make them more 
 or less sensitive, and affect the degree, but the kind 
 of feeling will be the same in all. 
 
 4. Precept being of no avail until language has 
 been acquired, the only means of inspiring ideas of 
 moral principle, and of educating the conscience pre- 
 viously to their acquisition is example, for which 
 nursery life and the conditions of babyhood afford 
 ample scope. Seeing that children are always ob- 
 servant, with more or less attention, of all that goes 
 on in their restricted environment, the influence of 
 example is always operating and suggesting ideas of 
 one kind or another. Moreover, we have already 
 pointed out the fact that the ideas and knowledge in 
 general, which children derive from observation and 
 inference, constitute the great proportion of all they 
 learn, and they are therefore always learning. 
 
 5. This refers to a class of nursery practices of a 
 highly reprehensible and cruel nature, which are
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 381 
 
 often productive of life-long results, such as anti- 
 pathies, extreme nervousness, stammering, epilepsy, 
 and even idiotcy. No sensible nurse or parent would 
 justify recourse to such means theoretically, but 
 almost all practise them in one form or another, 
 especially in the period of infancy, without thinking 
 of consequences. Practically, consequences are too 
 little considered in regard to baby Thought. It is 
 more convenient to assume that babes do not think 
 or will not remember. 
 
 IN INFANCY. When baby can walk and begins to 
 try to talk his attention is not so much engrossed 
 with his feelings as it was at first. He is no longer 
 a passive observer, but is anxious to use his acquired 
 powers. His dominant impulse, activity, is a cha- 
 racteristic of youth generally in the brute as in the 
 human race. The lamb, the calf, and the kitten are 
 all exuberant in their particular ways, and frolic with 
 an overflow of joy with which the manifestations of 
 infant mirth are not to be compared. It may be 
 that they have no proprieties to observe or to learn, 
 no fashions or formalities to regard, and but few 
 restraints to suffer. Their toilet is of the simplest, 
 rather a pastime than a penance. The young brute 
 has no soap in his eyes. His limbs are not thrust 
 into garments for appearance' sake, nor does he suffer 
 the constraints and chidings which form so irritating 
 a part of infant experience. 
 
 Whatsoever tends to deprive children of the inno- 
 cent joys proper to juvenile life defrauds them of a 
 part of their natural birthright, and contravenes the 
 order of Providence. A sad, dejected-looking child is 
 an anomaly, an object of our deep sympathy, not for 
 its present indications only, but especially for its
 
 382 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 future effect in beclouding the aspects of the future 
 life. The relation of an individual towards his 
 fellow-men is a principal factor in the sum of life's 
 experiences, and is the product in general of the 
 treatment he has received, or of the manner in which 
 he has learned to regard it. The effect is seen in 
 those who brood over their disappointments and 
 vexations, instead of letting their first experience of 
 them suffice. Gloomy thought may not be so mani- 
 fest in its effects on the juvenile mind but its natural 
 results are the same. The moral influence of a 
 joyous youth may be best inferred from the effect 
 produced on the character by an opposite state of 
 mind, as may be seen manifested in the moroseness 
 and habitual discontent of disappointed and thwarted 
 men. It is rare indeed for such characters to exem- 
 plify any of the nobler qualities of virtue. 
 
 The rules already prescribed are applicable to these 
 and to all future stages of life. Corporeal feelings 
 and mental susceptibilities are not always so sensitive 
 in after-life, nor do they exercise the dominant in- 
 fluence they possess in babyhood, but they are always 
 entitled to consideration and respect. They cannot 
 be disregarded at any time, without adding to the 
 painful side of experience. The treatment men re- 
 ceive never loses its efficacy as a means of inspiring 
 confidence and love, or of exciting distrust and in- 
 difference. Nor does example ever cease to be 
 influential, though it is not so effective in after-life as 
 in its earliest stages. 
 
 Coercion in every form is to be avoided, as it 
 is destructive of the best chances of success and 
 is otherwise evil. In whatsoever degree coercive 
 measures may seem to be successful, they produce
 
 EAELY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 383 
 
 only the semblance of obedience far different from 
 and inimical to the true principle. 
 
 The general method we recommend for all the 
 proceedings of these periods for the instruction of 
 the juvenile mind is one of correction. This term, as 
 commonly used, unfortunately carries with it the 
 idea of punishment, which is the opposite of what we 
 propose. Punishment in every form which involves 
 personal humiliation or corporeal inflictions is wholly 
 inapplicable to the period of infancy, and is of very 
 questionable expediency in any stage of youth. It 
 seems to us to be opposed in principle to the scripture 
 injunction to overcome evil with good. As a correc- 
 tive, punishment is of very doubtful efficacy. It is 
 at the best a deterrent, and even in this respect it is 
 rather suggestive of avoiding discovery than of re- 
 pressing evil at the core. In our experience the 
 effect of corporeal punishment is to harden and in- 
 flame the feelings, and therefore to multiple evil 
 instead of discouraging and extirpating it. It does 
 not affect the motive but represses action without 
 correcting, in the sense of reforming, the character 
 or affecting the heart. Nevertheless it is often pro- 
 fessedly based upon the example of God's government 
 of the world. 
 
 With all the respect due to so great and learned a 
 divine as Bishop Butler, we cannot agree with the 
 view propounded in his immortal " Analogy," that 
 God's government of the world is one of rewards 
 and punishments in the proper sense of the terms. 
 It is undoubtedly true that the choice of the good 
 and the eschewing of the evil yield the reward of 
 virtue, and that an opposite course leads to the 
 wages of sin. But the benefit in the one case, and
 
 384 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 the suffering in the other, are not visitations of the 
 Almighty, but the natural results of the operations of 
 good and evil. When Adam disobeyed the command 
 the penalty was not inflicted upon him, but was 
 worked out by him. Death was not visited on him, 
 but followed after a lapse of time by the operation 
 of natural law. Death was not a punishment, in 
 the proper sense of the term, but the natural con- 
 sequence of sin, as is shown by the fact that it was 
 so long deferred. Moreover, the death of Abel was 
 no punishment, for it fell upon the innocent by the 
 sin of the guilty brother. The natural effects of sin 
 have been manifest in the experience of mankind, 
 and are to be seen in all their appalling aspects, 
 wherever men congregate. The agency by which 
 evil is overcome is equally manifest in the life and 
 death of our blessed Redeemer, in which the glorious 
 triumph of the power of good over evil attained its 
 highest manifestation. It is also exemplified in the 
 lives of those who eschew evil. 
 
 In the dispensations of Providence, evil is left to 
 work out its own results in its own way, and if 
 these had not been manifested in the unspeakable 
 horrors so often witnessed in the world, they could 
 not have been conceived. Man in this life learns by 
 awful experience the law of evil and death on the 
 one hand, and of good and its resultant happiness 
 on the other hand, by similar means to those which 
 teach him the law of light and other of the forces 
 of Nature. All laws are learned by their operations 
 and results, and the laws of good and evil are no 
 exception to the general rule, but are also taught by 
 the experience of mankind. Hence, the respective 
 results of good and evil are not interventions of
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 385 
 
 Almighty power, but the natural operation of law. 
 It follows that punishment, as such, is not sanc- 
 tioned by the example of God's government. Nor is 
 it proved by experience to be effective, otherwise than 
 as a deterrent. Of hell we know nothing positive, as 
 the language of Scripture respecting it is figurative, 
 fire being impossible in a spiritual state. What 
 reason and analogy confidently teach is that it must 
 be a state in which individuality will be perpetuated. 
 Any such change as would destroy that would create 
 another being. Man will therefore necessarily there 
 continue to be what he was in this life, except that 
 having made his final election between the rival 
 principles of good and evil which were set before 
 him in this world, he will abide eternally in the 
 condition he has chosen. 
 
 For its deterrent influence punishment is inflicted 
 by human laws, and penalties are thus imposed for 
 wrongs committed against society, but these mea- 
 sures have long been found wanting in corrective 
 force. Hence, when a reform of character is con- 
 templated, other means are employed in which evil 
 is met by its natural counter-agent good. This, 
 therefore, is the agency we would invoke in the 
 training of children. 
 
 Correction, in our sense of the term, or the recti- 
 fying of what is not right, is the most effective 
 means of educating and training the mind to right 
 thinking, and the conduct in right acting. Our 
 sixth rule therefore is : "To instruct children in right 
 thinking and in good conduct l>y correcting errors and 
 defects whenever they arise." 
 
 The form of correction we recommend consists in 
 aiding, supplementing, and setting right whatever is 
 
 c c
 
 386 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 said or done, in which help in any of these forms 
 may be required, and is not to be done in a fault- 
 finding or interfering way, but with tact and good 
 humour. Such correction has a good influence in 
 other ways beside the immediate occasion, for it 
 tends to confirm the child's attention when it is 
 already engaged, and also manifests interest in 
 his ideas and efforts. Every form of correction has 
 ultimate as well as immediate use. Every mistake, 
 misjudgment, and error of whatever kind affords an 
 opportunity for a lesson of lasting use, adminis- 
 tered just when it is likely to be impressive. The 
 principles on which opinions and inferences are 
 formed can never be so effectively explained as 
 by practical application, and so with other mental 
 operations, the principles of which are simple when 
 exemplified, but are extremely hard to formulate 
 into verbal rules. Even when so formulated 
 the difficulty of applying them still remains. It 
 is manifestly, therefore, much easier to learn the 
 principle by practical example than to reverse the 
 process and to reduce a verbal formula to its prac- 
 tical application. Our system of training is based 
 upon experience of the fact that practical lessons are 
 more intelligible and more applicable than theo- 
 retical ones, and that principles are better deduced 
 from practical application and use than from direct 
 verbal formulae, even when these can be clearly 
 grasped. Moreover, the principle of correction 
 applies universally to every form of mental effort 
 and to every kind of knowledge as well as to 
 conduct. 
 
 Tact and judgment would rarely ever be at fault 
 if tutors rightly understood the nature and purpose
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 387 
 
 of the work to be done, either in this or any other 
 department of infant training. Hence, our object 
 is rather to explain principles of action than to lay 
 down specific rules. Indeed, these could not be so 
 framed as to meet circumstances so variable and 
 diverse as those of infant life a,nd environment. 
 
 The activities of all kinds which characterize this 
 period when infants begin to employ their powers 
 with some independence, are generally imitative, but in 
 the absence of experience they are naturally applied 
 without discrimination, and therefore often mischiev- 
 ously, in such manner as to bring children into 
 collision with tutors. This is therefore specially a 
 time for the application of our rule a time for con- 
 stant and judicious correction. Thus turned to 
 account it affords opportunity to impart to the 
 infant much useful and elementary experience, or, 
 on the other hand, if he be either permitted to do 
 what he pleases or constantly thwarted, bad habits 
 or bad tempers must naturally and surely result. 
 If left to himself his inexperience and ignorance will 
 surely lead him into mischief, for which he may be 
 unjustly punished, or which he may repeat. If 
 continually thwarted his temper will be tried severely, 
 for it is provoking at any and every period of life to 
 be interfered with, and especially without apparent 
 reason. Correction is the only safe method of treat- 
 ment at this age. Remonstrance and explanation 
 are of little avail until reasons can be readily under- 
 stood. Till then reasons have to be inferred from 
 the tone and accompanying action of tutors. 
 
 In the Appendix (Note 3) we give a typical instance 
 of a bit of unintentional mischief done by a simple act 
 of imitation. The actor in this case was a Newfound- 
 
 c c 2
 
 388 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 land dog. He was unintentionally instructed in theft.. 
 and proceeded by imitation to get his master into 
 trouble. We have witnessed many cases in which 
 children, who acting under similar imitative impulse 
 and with the same innocent intention were unjustly 
 punished as for a fault. 
 
 There is probably no moral principle more generally 
 or earlier imbibed by children than the idea of justice. 
 There is certainly none which needs to be more 
 vigilantly practised in the nursery. For instance, a 
 little fellow who was just beginning to talk was 
 applauded for a successful imitation of his father's 
 customary exclamation, " Hallo ! " Soon afterwards 
 he made an equally successful imitation of another 
 emphatic interjection, for which he was promptly 
 punished. The inconsistency and injustice of such 
 treatment must be an embarrassing experience to a 
 young child, who is imbibing his first lessons of moral 
 principle, by the only means he has of learning. 
 
 It is manifest that children should not be left to 
 persist in erroneous or awkward ways until some 
 serious consequences ensue to compel a correction. 
 Inexperience and inexpertness will certainly lead to 
 accidents ; indeed, some of the most useful of early 
 experiences are so learned. In all such accidents 
 careful discrimination is necessary between the 
 results of ignorance and those of disobedience, or 
 which involve infractions of moral principle. The 
 treatment of misfortunes as though they were 
 faults is a frequent source of trouble to children, who 
 are very sensible of the practical injustice involved 
 therein. 
 
 We have already shown in previous chapters that 
 occupation is eminently useful for giving an innocent
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIXD. 389 
 
 direction to activities, but it has besides a beneficial 
 tendency in fixing attention, and thus forming 
 a habit which will be of great value to both 
 pupil and teacher in the next stage of the mental 
 progress when tuition comes into use. Occupation, 
 whether of body or mind, is esteemed a pleasure or 
 a task, quite irrespective of the amount of effort in- 
 volved, solely according as it is done by choice or 
 imposition. Activity and effort are natural and, in 
 themselves, agreeable, but they become irksome 
 when required to be done reluctantly. Adults are 
 conscious of duty and necessity as motives for over- 
 coming their dislikes and directing their activities, 
 but infants have no such ideas to reconcile them to 
 master unwillingness, wherefore occupation should be 
 made attractive to them. 
 
 IN CHILDHOOD. In order to apply our rules to the 
 third period of our natural history, it is only neces- 
 sary to consider the further progress made by the 
 child in mental development, and the altered con- 
 ditions consequent thereon. The principles hold 
 good for all periods of life. The inquisitiveness 
 which characterizes this period affords excellent 
 opportunities for imparting knowledge, just when 
 there is an appetite to receive and inclination to 
 digest it. Still, the mental powers are weak, and 
 must not be strained. Opportunities must not be 
 lost, but neither may they be used with good effect 
 beyond the small natural capacities of the pupil. 
 One thing at a time, and that one thing simple 
 and clear, should be the rule in regard to all ideas 
 or explanations involving novelty. No one thinks of 
 beginning to teach reading with whole words ; letters 
 come first, and words by degrees, afterwards. A long
 
 39O NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 course of spelling words, letter by letter, precedes 
 the power of grasping them entire. In like manner 
 should all new ideas be imparted gradually by means 
 of their elementary components. But this is not 
 sufficiently considered. Explanations are often made, 
 or ideas imparted, which involve matters either new 
 or imperfectly understood without sufficient care as 
 to whether the words employed or the connected 
 ideas are apprehended. Children are expected to 
 grasp them at once, and to follow the glib tongue 
 of a teacher, who, knowing them all intimately him- 
 self, is apt to assume that they must be clear to the 
 pupil. Any difficulty the child may manifest is 
 attributed to his want of attention or to natural 
 stupidity. The lady who tried to teach her child to 
 tell the time by the clock (Note 4, Appendix), did 
 not perceive that her explanations were like reading 
 words of two or three syllables to a child who was 
 yet obliged to spell words of only one syllable. 
 
 At this age children are usually very communica- 
 tive. They turn themselves inside out with a candour 
 and freedom which show the working of their minds 
 and the nature of their thoughts. They thus afford 
 innumerable opportunities for correction of many 
 kinds, such as the use of words in their proper sense, 
 the inferences they have drawn, the ideas they have 
 formed, and the principles they have imbibed. The 
 lessons given in this manner suggested by such 
 opportunities, and judiciously restricted to the par- 
 ticular point in question are effective, and divested 
 of those elements which so often make lessons dis- 
 agreeable. A lesson when not suggested by such 
 opportunity alwajs exacts attention, but when it 
 springs out of, and responds to the child's own
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 391 
 
 impulse, it finds the mind already attent. Other 
 lessons require suitable opportunity, but these find 
 it ready made. Other lessons may, and generally do, 
 relate to matters of no present interest to the learner, 
 but these concern the thing uppermost in his mind. 
 
 Still lessons cannot always be so happily timed. 
 During the period now under discussion lessons of a 
 systematic nature must be begun. Hence, they 
 should be gradually introduced when attention can 
 be commanded without strain, and when a sufficient 
 knowledge of language has been acquired to enable 
 the learner to follow readily the explanations given. 
 Let teachers bear in mind the difficulty they them- 
 selves experience to catch a strange word of their 
 own, or of a foreign language, and they will then 
 understand, that until words are familiar to children, 
 they are not instantly grasped. Seeing how im- 
 portant an element of education lessons will become 
 in the next stage of the mental progress, school days, 
 great care should be observed during childhood to 
 avoid their becoming distasteful tasks. 
 
 We have already alluded to the fact that children 
 learn a very large proportion of all they know, in- 
 cluding the great work of acquiring language, with- 
 out any teaching. Learning and teaching are not 
 natural counterparts one of the other, for a great deal 
 of the effort usually expended in teaching is barren 
 of beneficial effect, and is sometimes productive of 
 irritation and positive harm. It is important to our 
 present purpose to make our meaning well under- 
 stood. In all that kind of learning which is acquired 
 by observation and inference, without teaching, the 
 attention requisite for effective formulation, has not 
 to be exacted, but is captivated or attracted. On the
 
 39 2 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 other hand, a teacher needs to exact attention, failing 
 which, his efforts must necessarily be fruitless. 
 Attention is a fundamental condition of learning. 
 Hence, there is a cardinal difference between the 
 efforts required respectively for observing things that 
 attract notice and for attending to things imposed 
 upon the mind. In the former case, the attention, 
 the first essential, is engaged in advance without 
 effort. In the latter, it has to be obtained. In the 
 former case, success is assured. In the latter, it is very 
 doubtful. In the former case, the mind is free from 
 all external embarrassments. In the latter, the eyes 
 of an expectant teacher are upon the learner, whose 
 mind, therefore, is distracted by influences external 
 to itself, and at best these are more or less disturb- 
 ing to the natural flow of Thought. The former is a 
 natural proceeding, the latter is altogether artificial. 
 It is not difficult to attract the attention of a 
 child to certain kinds of things, but it is quite 
 impossible to retain it for any length of time. 
 Even when by honest effort, in the way of willing 
 obedience, a child tries his best to attend, and 
 seems to be attending, his teacher may often 
 find that his m;nd has wandered, and that it 
 has entirely, or at least partially, lost the lesson. 
 Sustained attention is a form of control which even 
 adults have more or less difficulty in mastering. The 
 power of fixing the attention for any length of time 
 effectively on any but the most attractive subjects, is 
 one which few persons possess, and which can only 
 be acquired by practice and considerable self-control. 
 It is, therefore, unreasonable to expect such an 
 accomplishment in children, especially at the age we 
 are now considering. Yet, it is probably one of the
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 393 
 
 commonest mistakes of teachers generally to expect 
 such attention to be promptly given and fixedly 
 maintained by young children. 
 
 We may here repeat that attention cannot be 
 taught. It is a habit, and must be acquired by ex- 
 perience. Control and concentration are easy if they 
 are habitual, impossible otherwise. Control can 
 only be maintained by constant exercise. Persons 
 who let their Thoughts wander, and who do not 
 habitually fix them on the work of the moment, 
 need not hope to control them when they happen 
 to have that humour. The mind can always be 
 acted upon, whether or not it be under control, 
 and, therefore, the laissez-faire habit is destructive 
 of control. Attention cannot be commanded, as it 
 may be in such case distracted either by objects with- 
 out or suggestions from within. The only possible 
 way of acquiring effective control is by the habitual 
 exercise of the natural power, which is best done 
 by entering into, encouraging, and sympathizing 
 with the early efforts of children, whereby the 
 attention they volunteer is confirmed, and they are 
 thus encouraged to think of and attend to whatso- 
 ever they may have in hand. Occupation is of 
 special use in this respect, and helps to keep Thought 
 engaged, instead of allowing it to be captivated or 
 to brood over the suggestions of the lower nature, 
 which are always ready to obtrude themselves on an 
 idle mind. 
 
 The art of teaching is in entering into the condition 
 of the pupil's mind, in appreciating his standpoint, and 
 in thoroughly comprehending his ignorance. The 
 success of teachers of dumb animals is largely due 
 to the fact that they expect nothing of their pupils.
 
 394 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 It is not easy for a teacher to perceive that things 
 which have always been perfectly familiar to himself, 
 ever since he can remember, can be utterly strange 
 to his pupil. He can hardly help accusing the pupil 
 of either inattention or stupidity. When, however, 
 in addition to the effort necessary to understand his 
 teacher's meaning, the unhappy pupil has, beside the 
 concentration of his mind, to bear the impatience of 
 a teacher who does not see his difficulty, the case be- 
 comes distressing, and lessons odious. The ordeal of 
 learning, under such conditions, becomes such as a 
 sensitive child may naturally regard with dread and 
 loathing. 
 
 Considering how much of what men learn, not in 
 childhood only but all through life, is acquired by 
 means of the natural method of observation and in- 
 ference, without any teaching, and when it is further 
 considered how soon that which is acquired by tuition 
 is lost, excepting so much as is kept up by constant 
 use, the rule naturally suggested by these con- 
 siderations for the first efforts to teach young 
 children is : 
 
 7. To improve opportunities whensoever they naturally 
 arise, and to invite them by attractive means, whereby the 
 mind may be at once informed and trained to attention. 
 
 This being the means by which the greatest pro- 
 portion of the knowledge men possess is obtained, 
 the most successful for acquiring it and the most 
 effective for enduring effect, it is the means to be 
 most sedulously employed. Lessons are, in fact, 
 attractive or repulsive according as they are well or 
 ill-timed, given when they are wanted, or when they 
 have to be imposed, respecting matters of present in- 
 terest, or of indifference. The choice of opportunity
 
 EARLY TRAINING OP THE MIND. 395 
 
 and the manner in which it is treated, whether 
 judiciously and skilfully, or across the grain, deter- 
 mine the practical use of the lesson, of whatever 
 nature it may be. Supposing that the subject be of 
 present interest, and that attention is thus enlisted, 
 the lesson should nevertheless be short. This is very 
 important, because a long one would almost certainly 
 be partly lost, or wholly confused, and also because 
 the principal strain in learning is in the sustained 
 attention it requires. Like food, lessons should be 
 measured to suit the digestive powers. A weak 
 stomach and a young mind have many points of re- 
 semblance. As surfeit afflicts the former, so also an 
 overdose of even the most salutary lesson defeats its 
 purpose, and does positive harm, to the latter. Surely 
 it is better to have one clear idea, thoroughly and 
 durably impressed on the mind, that is, effectively 
 learnt, than to have two or three confusedly mixed 
 together, like a ravelled thread. 
 
 The child in exercising his increasing powers, and 
 especially the free and constant use of his tongue, 
 will afford quite as many opportunities as a tutor 
 could desire. They will be of constant recur- 
 rence. Whensoever attention and present interest 
 are manifest they offer an opportunity, whether for 
 correction, suggestion, explanation, or for whatever 
 other form of lesson may be appropriate, to be 
 improved, abused, or lost. To neglect is to lose it. 
 To try to do too much is to abuse it. The way to 
 improve and turn it to the best account is to make 
 it serve for some one brief, opportune, and effective 
 lesson. 
 
 In the improvement of opportunities, encourage- 
 ment is a most effective stimulant. Children love to
 
 396 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 be noticed and, above all, to be encouraged and 
 applauded. Success is a powerful aid to renewed 
 effort, and should always be noticed. It affords an 
 occasion for creating a joyous emotion, and adding 
 a little sweetness to the cup of life. Moreover, it is 
 the best of all means for making corrections accep- 
 table, and for divesting them of any other than their 
 own proper character. Correction, or aid, should be 
 so adjusted as not to wound reasonable sensibilities, 
 or to seem like needless interference, of which children 
 are generally very sensitive. The golden rule is 
 never more appropriate than in the treatment of 
 children. 
 
 CONCLUSION. The principles we have endea- 
 voured to establish in this work themselves suggest 
 the methods to be adopted for their effective applica- 
 tion to the training and management of the infant 
 mind. We have formulated the leading ones into 
 rules, however, in order to show that the system we 
 propose is as simple and reasonable in practice as it 
 is natural in theory. The treatment we recommend 
 is derived from Scripture authority, is in harmony 
 with natural laws, and is confirmed by the results of 
 practical experience. 
 
 Beginning at the beginning, we employ the oppor- 
 tunities afforded by the natural conditions proper 
 to each stage of the individual progress, for the 
 purposes for which those conditions are specially 
 suitable, and for which they were evidently designed 
 by Providence. Availing ourselves of them to the 
 fullest extent in each period, we make the best 
 possible preparation for the one next succeeding. 
 Hence, the results of the whole course culminate in 
 the period of Youth, and produce a condition of
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 397 
 
 preparedness the most favourable for the special 
 work of systematic education proper thereto. There 
 our functions terminate. Our business is with the 
 incipient stages of the mental progress. When the 
 mind has attained its maturity it is independent of 
 any such service as we could render. Adults who 
 feel disposed to commence a new discipline after 
 their habits of thought have become fixed, and their 
 mental condition established, would find far better 
 aid than any we could render in existing works on 
 mental philosophy. 
 
 If honestly and perseveringly pursued, our 
 methods must necessarily produce in the juvenile 
 mind a harvest corresponding to the seed sown. In 
 the sensitive and susceptible state of personal feel- 
 ing which dominates in babyhood, we find the 
 special soil in which to sow the seed of good temper, 
 by means of consistent and constant regard to the 
 conditions which are then so exigent. In the 
 pressing wants and appetites of that stage of 
 the infant history, we see a certain means of inspir- 
 ing his love and trust ; and in the state of the 
 babe's helpless dependence his tutors have, for a 
 time, the keeping and control of his Will, and may 
 then mould it by unfelt constraint to voluntary 
 submission. We thus introduce the babe to his 
 novel conditions of life under the most favourable 
 auspices, and establish in his mind a happy state of 
 feeling towards the world generally. 
 
 During his babyhood, he is thus prepared and 
 equipped for the beginning of a period of more 
 independent activity, during which the seed pre- 
 viously sown will be sedulously cultivated. His 
 agreeable relations with the world may be confirmed
 
 398 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 by the same means which first produced them, and 
 a docile, amiable temper be developed ; or, at least, 
 all that is possible will have been done towards that 
 end. 
 
 The third period, or childhood, finds our little 
 subject furnished with a stock of experience of the 
 outward aspects of things acquired by his activities 
 and observation, a free use of spoken language, and 
 also, we hope, with a confirmed good temper and 
 docile disposition, cultivated affections, confidence in 
 tutors, and ideas of moral principles which are good 
 as far as they go. These qualifications prepare the 
 way for the proper use of the newly acquired attain- 
 ment of speech, and for the new kind of knowledge 
 to be thereby acquired. The natural impulse to 
 learn is now manifested by inquisitive tendencies, 
 which are exactly the means adapted to extend his 
 knowledge beyond the sphere of his own observa- 
 tion. Language enables him to profit by the accumu- 
 lated experiences of mankind. 
 
 With such preparation the youth, when he 
 enters on our fourth period, will possess the qualifi- 
 cations and conditions of mind most favourable for 
 school-work that is, for receiving, digesting, and 
 assimilating the mental nourishment and discipline 
 of systematic education. If then he have a distinct 
 and desired end in view, a definite object before him 
 to inspire interest and supply adequate inducement 
 for exertion, he will work intelligently, and most 
 probably with willingness arid purpose, if not with 
 positive alacrity and cheerfulness. 
 
 Our rules will be regarded by some readers as 
 Elisha's too simple prescription was treated by 
 Naaman. They may have expected us to disclose
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF THE MIND. 399 
 
 some new discovery in the art of mental discipline, 
 and will therefore be disappointed to find only the 
 old and simple methods rehabilitated. To such 
 persons our answer would be the same which the 
 Syrian's servants addressed to their master. To 
 others our rules may seem to set up a standard ot 
 conduct and example which can neither be attained 
 nor hoped for. To this objection we urge that the 
 standard is not ours, but is that of Christian duty, 
 which, whilst admitting that it may not yet be 
 attained, requires that nevertheless it should be the 
 ideal and aim. Our rules do not set up any new 
 standard either of principle or of conduct, nor do 
 they introduce any new difficulties in practice. 
 They do but plead on behalf of infants the same 
 consideration which is already vouchsafed as a 
 matter of course to adults. 
 
 We do not suppose that those who are habitually 
 careless of the example they exhibit to adults and 
 elder children would be influenced by our rules to 
 exercise special care regarding their conduct to 
 infants. But there are many tutors who, whilst 
 observing great care in their conduct and example 
 generally, are inconsiderate with regard to infants, 
 in whose presence they act and speak without any 
 such precaution as our rules suggest. To such our 
 arguments may afford convincing proof of their 
 mistake and of its consequences, and thus induce a 
 degree of precaution not hitherto observed. 
 
 Others, who have not recognized in the special 
 conditions of the successive stages of the mental and 
 physical progress of infant life the special opportu- 
 nities afforded for the purposes they serve so well, 
 may be induced to consider those conditions and
 
 400 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 utilize them in the manner suggested. If those 
 appointed times were more generally understood they 
 would be more effectively observed. 
 
 Throughout the foregoing pages the universal and 
 necessary presence of evil in the world is fully 
 admitted and duly taken into account. Where it is 
 not actually expressed it is clearly implied that im- 
 perfection, both in character and conduct of tutors, 
 is an inevitable condition of the present order of 
 things. The injunctions contained in our rules 
 cannot be perfectly observed, nor is the command 
 which is addressed to every Christian to "be perfect " 
 practicable by man in his present condition. But 
 though perfection is unattainable it is nevertheless 
 the proper standard towards which human conduct 
 should be ever aimed until that great consummation 
 shall have been attained when God's will shall be 
 done on earth as it is in heaven. This prayer 
 divinely taught, and which every Christian daily 
 utters, imposes on every one the sacred obligation to 
 contribute his part in the great work by which the 
 triumph of good over evil shall be so completed that 
 evil shall be known only to be eternally eschewed by 
 the redeemed race of mankind. Of all the human 
 instrumentalities that can be brought to bear on the 
 furtherance of that great work, none seems to us 
 more promising, more reasonable, or more accordant 
 with Divine injunction, than that of beginning with 
 each individual to direct his Will and faculties 
 aright from the beginning.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE i. "Blackthorn" was a fine, high-spirited charger, the 
 property of a field-officer in India. He was a good-tempered, 
 valuable horse, and a capital roadster. "We knew him both before 
 and after he had been spoiled by bad treatment. When his 
 owner left the country the horse was sold to an old English 
 gentleman, who had a son, a mischievous boy of about fourteen 
 years old. The horse was kept in a loose box, and the boy used 
 to go there and tease him. Keeping himself safe behind the side 
 of the stall, he tormented the animal in this situation, and amused 
 himself by exciting him. After a time the horse became quite 
 furious at the sight of a white face, but continued to be quite 
 tractable with natives. When this intolerance of white people 
 was found to be a settled habit, he was again sold, and the 
 purchaser, a European, trusted to being able to reform him. In 
 this, however, he did not succeed, and in spite of habitual pre- 
 caution, he had several narrow escapes from the implacable fury 
 of the beast. 
 
 On one occasion the animal was sent for the use of the writer of 
 this narrative for a stage of fifteen miles over extremely rough 
 and dangerous paths. His groom, a native, presented a note 
 describing the antipathy the animal had to white people, and 
 further stating that he would do the journey well provided the 
 rider did not dismount and show his face. Of course the pre- 
 caution was duly observed, the animal did his work splendidly, 
 carrying his rider over rocky streams and the most precipitous 
 paths, where it was most perilous to ride and impossible to 
 dismount. A finer hack could not well be found, and to see him 
 led like a lamb by his native groom, or by any native, he seemed 
 as tractable and good-tempered as ever. 
 
 On one occasion when the owner had put him up at an hotel, 
 he became the subject of conversation at table. A gentleman 
 
 D D
 
 402 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 present protested that such ferocity as was attributed to him was 
 impossible. Withdrawing shortly afterwards he went to the stall 
 where the horse was stabled. The horse rushed at him open- 
 mouthed and seized him by the middle. Fortunately the horse 
 got hold of him by his cumberband or waist-sash, and was about 
 to paw him with his forefoot when the owner came up and 
 rescued the sufferer. 
 
 This case is cited to show the effect of persistent provocation 
 in producing temper, and is valuable as evidence of the fact 
 where no other cause existed, and where the effect was restricted 
 to a certain class of persons identified by the one characteristic 
 they had in common with his tormentor. The case proves in- 
 contestably that treatment alone can transform a naturally and 
 habitually good temper into one of the extremest opposite 
 character. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the last owner of " Black- 
 thorn " hoped to conquer him by force and that he was unsuccess- 
 ful. It remains to be mentioned that, though the cudgel he 
 always carried had the effect of restraining the fury of the beast 
 towards him, it had no influence on the temper of the animal 
 unless to exasperate it, for when his owner was off his guard the 
 horse on several occasions seized the opportunity to attack him. 
 Once, when being led down a precipitous path where both the 
 horse and his owner needed the utmost care to keep their footing, 
 Blackthorn struck out at his master with his forefoot, and the 
 two had a narrow escape of their lives. 
 
 This case affords one of many proofs in our experience that 
 coercive measures are both unsafe and ineffectual in the treatment 
 of temper. 
 
 NOTE 2. "Juniper " was one of the finest tempered horses we 
 have ever known, with great power and courage, and no fault we 
 could discover during several years of very close acquaintance. 
 He would go anywhere or do anything within practicable bounds, 
 and was very often severely tried in the long journeys and 
 terrible jungle paths over which he travelled. In proof of his 
 gentle temper it may be mentioned that on one occasion, on his 
 return home after a journey, his rider threw the rein on his neck 
 and left him standing at the foot of the verandah steps whilst he 
 went to greet his wife. Turning short round, however, he found 
 4 'Juniper" had followed him up the steps and was close behind.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 403 
 
 He was sometimes led by his topknot into the dining-room round 
 a table full of guests from whom he would take bread or plantains. 
 
 Observing that a very unusual irritability and peevishness 
 began to show itself in him, so different from his well-known 
 habit, we made inquiry for a cause, but at first without success. 
 At length he was developing a really bad temper and showed 
 frequent signs of resentment. He became troublesome to mount, 
 and fidgetty when mounted. At last, observing him one day 
 being groomed, we at once guessed the cause of the change of 
 temper. His groom was using the currycomb, which the horse 
 could not endure. He had a very sensitive skin, peculiarly liable 
 to gall, and he was now being regularly irritated in his most 
 susceptible point. The discontinuance of the offending instrument 
 soon restored his old state of feeling, and we learned a lesson from 
 him, teaching that the best and most settled temper of long 
 standing could be easily destroyed by persistently irritating 
 susceptible feelings. 
 
 Judged by this unmistakable sequence of cause and effect, 
 what might be expected of daily scrubbings and dressing tortures, 
 repeated for two or three years on the sensitive natures of young 
 infants, without mention of soap in the eyes and nose, and dirty 
 water in the mouth inadvertently opened in vain remonstrance ? 
 
 NOTE 3. " Neptune " was a very large sagacious Newfoundland 
 clog. His master's premises were bounded at one end by a canal, 
 at a considerable distance from the house. Strolling one day on 
 the canal side, Neptune's master fished out some chips which were 
 floating on the water from a neighbouring timber-yard. He 
 amused himself thus for a short time and left the spoil on the 
 bank. A few days later, he received a very unpleasant form of 
 accusation of being privy to a systematic theft. On inquiry he 
 found that " Neptune " had gone into the chips business on his 
 own account. Not content with all he could find floating in the 
 canal he began work at the yard, and when the discovery was 
 made he had made an immense heap of chips, laths, &c., on 
 his master's premises. He had in fact not only imitated, but 
 considerably improved upon, his master's example, and had got his 
 master into trouble. 
 
 NOTE 4. We recently witnessed a very patient attempt to 
 teach a child to tell the time by the clock. Mamma began her 
 
 D D 2
 
 404 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 explanation in detail of the figures, the hands, the hours and the 
 minutes. She used the simplest terms and gave a complete 
 account of the whole proceeding. The child appeared to be 
 attending, and indeed her face wore an expression of some earnest- 
 ness during the explanation. The result, however, was a total 
 failure. Mamma had in fact made no visible progress in imparting 
 the knowledge intended, for the child made the wildest answers 
 on being questioned, and showed that she had really no notion 
 whatever of telling the time, but had very confused ideas of all 
 the elements in the process. Mamma appealed to us as witness of 
 the utter stupidity of the child. In reply we gave full credit to 
 the lady for the clear explanations she had given, but we ventured 
 to plead on behalf of the child, that each of her very explicit 
 sentences involved important factors which needed to be under- 
 stood clearly and remembered, both absolutely and in their 
 relation to the process, before they could be applied. The clock 
 face itself is not quite simple vintil it is familiar, as its figures, 
 divisions and their significance all involve points of novelty to a 
 child. The hands, too, have not quite simple movements. Finally 
 the explanations were given when the child had no particular 
 interest in them, nor appetite for them. The process is enough 
 for several lessons, and unless some at least of the factors were 
 known before, no child of six could be reasonably expected to learn 
 it all by one effort. 
 
 The incident is given as typical of several very common kinds 
 of mistake in teaching (i) That of giving lessons containing 
 much more than could be learnt at once, whereby confusion of the 
 elements is produced : (2) That of giving lessons when there is 
 no appetite or proper occasion to make them acceptable : (3) That 
 of neglecting to make each point good before proceeding to 
 another. 
 
 NOTE 5. A tutor takes on his knee a little fellow of four or 
 five years old to show him a picture-book. Whilst this is proceed- 
 ing happily a sweet little cherub of two or three is brought into 
 the room. Seeing his elder brother on the tutor's knee, the little 
 cherub, excited by jealousy, is suddenly transformed into a much 
 lower type of being. Screaming and pulling, he angrily demands 
 his elder brother's dethronement. To prevent a scene the well- 
 behaved brother is deposed and the young despot is taken on the 
 coveted lap. Naturally, after that is done, baby's demands
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 405 
 
 increase, the elder brother must not be allowed even to look on. 
 Baby will have the book as well as the lap ! 
 
 Of course a single instance of this kind will not complete the 
 education of a spoiled child, but it is thus that those domestic 
 nuisances are produced, and such cases are therefore entirely 
 unjustifiable. 
 
 It is needless to say that baby should have been removed and 
 readmitted only on condition of good behaviour. There was a 
 good opportunity lost to him, and a piece of injustice done to the 
 elder brother. 
 
 NOTE 6. In personal intercourse the habit of observing the 
 facial expression of the person addressed is universal, and becomes 
 almost involuntarily the guiding influence of the speaker. An 
 indication of attention and interest on the part of the listener 
 stimulates the speaker, and an opposite expression of indifference 
 or impatience discourages further remark. Thus a vacant look 
 .suggests that the mind of the listener is either otherwise absorbed, 
 or is unconscious of what is addressed to him. 
 
 In our younger days we paid a visit to an aged friend who was 
 suffering from partial paralysis, and was in an almost dying 
 state. He was a man of very remarkable mental power, of very 
 -extensive reading and of the highest order of intelligence. We 
 had enjoyed intimate relations with him before his illness, and 
 now saw him for the first time since. Seeing his countenance, 
 with a strange expression of vacancy, so different from its 
 habitual intelligence and animation, we had no doubt that his 
 reason had fled. Influenced by the expression of his counten- 
 ance, we spoke to him but little, and that little was dictated 
 by a feeling of polite pity for his mental condition, rather than 
 Avith any idea that our words were understood. A feeble and 
 unintelligible response indicated a fruitless effort on the part of 
 the invalid, and confirmed our impression of his entire loss of 
 reason. 
 
 A few days later, on inquiring of his nurse as to his condition, 
 we were astonished and distressed to learn that he had not only 
 understood our remark, but had also perceived our mistake, and 
 was quite conscious of our having regarded him as being incapable 
 of understanding. 
 
 This incident throws some light on the habit of regarding 
 young children as unconscious because of their not having
 
 406 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 acquired the power and habit of facial expression, and in the 
 absence of which they appear vacant and unconscious. 
 
 NOTE 7. The following incident is given to show that sensa- 
 tions may be perceived and even elicit responsive action without 
 being formulated in the mind, or leaving any durable impression 
 there. It is typical of a great many common experiences which 
 prove that the formulative faculty which fixes perceptions in the 
 mind as durable ideas is a separate act, independent of mere 
 perception. 
 
 A merchant whose habit was to keep his private papers in an 
 office box which he took with him in his carriage to and from his 
 office, was asked one evening by his wife, on his return from 
 business, if he had brought a letter for her, as she had requested 
 a friend to send one to the office. " No," was the reply. The 
 wife, surprised and disappointed, repeated her inquiry thinking 
 her husband must be mistaken. " No letter for you has been 
 delivered at my office," was the confident reply. On the follow- 
 ing evening the same inquiry was repeated and with the same 
 result. The wife informed her husband that the letter she 
 expected contained money, and that her friend had faithfully 
 promised it should be sent to his office in time for a special 
 purpose. Still he assured her that no such letter had reached 
 him. On the third day the wife sent a special messenger to her 
 friend who lived some miles away to inquire about the missing 
 letter, and was informed that it had been sent according to promise- 
 on the day first mentioned, and had been given to her husband 
 himself at his office. In the evening therefore she repeated her 
 inquiry with the same result as before. On the day following,, 
 the sender's husband called at the merchant's office and brought 
 the servant who had been entrusted with the letter. Looking 
 intently at the man (a native), the merchant declared he had 
 never seen that man before. " No sir," said the messenger, " you 
 did not look off your book, but you took the letter out of my hand 
 and threw it into your office-box. " Then," said the merchant, 
 " if that be so the letter must be there still." Forthwith he began 
 to turn out the contents of the box, confidently expecting to 
 convict the messenger, but, behold there was the letter ! It had 
 slipped down the side and was there a witness against himself. 
 Even as the man narrated the circumstance no trace of recollec- 
 tion came, nor could the merchant recall a single scrap of the
 
 APPENDIX. 407 
 
 incident. But he well remembered the absorbing computa- 
 tions in which he had been engaged that day, and there re- 
 mained no doubt whatever of the truth of the messenger's state- 
 ment. 
 
 There is nothing very remarkable about the incident, but it is 
 a useful illustration, because the merchant was a methodical man, 
 of excellent memory, and was not at all likely to be mistaken, 
 under ordinary circumstances. Moreover, the whole mystery was, 
 in this case, so completely cleared up, that there is no room to 
 doubt any part of the story, or its moral. 
 
 The following illustrate reasoning power in the lower animals, 
 originated by themselves without any teaching : 
 
 NOTE 8. The sagacity of elephants is well known, and is proved 
 by numerous exhibitions in this country, as well as by the regular 
 services in which they are employed in India and elsewhere. In 
 all these instances, however, the animals have been subject to 
 training and discipline, and therefore they do not show the un- 
 aided or natural power of reason. The following illustrate this 
 natural power. At a large kraal, about 1862, in the Kurunegala 
 district of Ceylon, forty-four elephants were captured. Of these 
 a certain number were selected for Government use, and they 
 were accordingly noosed and tied to trees in different parts of the 
 enclosure. Others, to the number of about thirty, were left loose, 
 and were mostly huddled together in a dejected condition. One 
 of the captives was tied to a tree about thirty yards from the 
 group, and as he was a formidable beast, he was tied very firmly 
 and allowed very little tether. Whilst standing near we noticed 
 one of the loose ones out of the herd come stealthily up to the 
 captive to try to unloose him. For this purpose he first tried the 
 strength of the rope, but this was proof. He then felt the knot, 
 and began very vigorously to pick and pull at it. A mahout 
 perceiving this came up and drove him off by spearing him in the 
 heel. Shortly afterwards, the same elephant returned to his 
 friend, and this time made straight for the knot, which he would 
 certainly have unloosed, if he had not been again driven off. As 
 soon as another opportunity offered he again returned, but though 
 he repeated his visits half a dozen times he was never allowed 
 time to complete his work. This elephant and all those taken 
 in the kraal were in their wild state, and had probably never seen 
 a human being before, unless to shun him.
 
 40.8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 NOTE 9. Sir J. Emerson Tennent in his work on Ceylon states 
 as a proof of singular want of sagacity in the wild elephant 
 that he never attacks the rider when he is encountered by the 
 decoys. In this, however, he is mistaken, for we witnessed an 
 instance of such attack when the decoy elephants ranged up one 
 on either side of the captive mentioned in the last note. In this 
 case the captive watched the approach of the decoys intently, and 
 when they were quite close he cleared the three mahouts off the 
 one on his right with his trunk, and would have served those on 
 the other elephant in the same manner had they not slipped off 
 in time and kept behind the decoy. 
 
 NOTE 10. At the same kraal our attention was much attracted 
 by a magnificent animal, whose sleek fine skin and general appear- 
 ance gave him the air of a gentleman of his kind. He was tied, 
 but had only one tether, and of a good length, probably six yards 
 or more. When the people threw him a cocoanut he did not 
 fling it away or trample it under foot, as the other captives did, 
 nor did he struggle and make a fool of himself like them, but he 
 behaved sensibly, ate his nuts, and kept quiet. Interested in the 
 brute, we inquired of the Adigar when he would be led away, 
 and were surprised to find that he was to be let loose, as he could 
 not be tamed ! When the time came to loose him we were at 
 hand to watch the operation. It was evident from the prepara- 
 tions that the mahouts anticipated difficulty. At length two 
 decoys were drawn up in front of him, at a distance of about 
 thirtyyards, and they marched in close order, side by side. One was a 
 tusker and both were large elephants. The captive stood motion- 
 less but intent and close to his tree, until the enemy came within 
 the length of his tether. He then drew himself up majestically 
 and made a rush at the tusker, forcing him back on his haunches 
 and completely overwhelmed. His comrade joined in the retreat, 
 having no fancy for such treatment. In vain the mahouts goaded 
 them to renew the attack, and in vain the old Adigar inveighed. 
 The gentleman had effectually demoralized them, and stood 
 again close to his tree ready, if necessary, to make the most 
 of his tether. To renew the attack a third decoy was sent 
 for, and then the three were ranged in close order and marched 
 up. The disdain we fancied we saw depicted in the captive's 
 expression may have been ours, not his; but it seemed to us 
 as though contempt was stamped on every feature as he stood
 
 APPENDIX. 409 
 
 perfectly unresisting and motionless to let them do what they 
 pleased. 
 
 Here the whole proceeding was replete with reason. The selec- 
 tion of the tusker was well judged, for his tusks would have other- 
 wise been free for offensive use. The retreat, to give the full 
 length of his tether, and the accurate calculations of time and 
 distance in making his onset, were all proofs of strong power of 
 reason. His tremendous resistance, made when resistance was 
 practicable, and his passive contemptuous submission when re- 
 sistance was unavailing indeed, his behaviour from first to last, 
 his resignation to the inevitable, and his sensible view of the whole 
 situation were simply admirable. 
 
 NOTE ii. The crows in Ceylon are very bold. The Dutch 
 Government, in former times, prohibited their destruction, be- 
 cause of their use as scavengers. Of course they are all wild and 
 quite untaught, but their reasoning powers are very remarkable, 
 and are manifested in many ways. 
 
 For instance a puppy dog is gobbling up his meal of rice. Im- 
 mediately two or three crows come up. One dances up very near 
 to the puppy and threatens an attack on the rice. The puppy 
 then snaps at him, and at that moment a confederate swoops upon 
 the dish and secures a beakful before puppy resumes his meal. 
 Then the game is renewed, each crow in turn getting a part of 
 puppy's food. 
 
 NOTE 12. In a large office in Colombo the partners take their 
 lunch in a private room, the window of which opens on the street. 
 "When the partners enter, the window is at once thrown open, and 
 at this signal a number of habitue's (crows) range on the sill and 
 shutters. Of the regular attendants of this party one was lame, 
 having lost the foot and lower joint of his leg. He uses his stump 
 freely and does not seem to suffer much by the defect. He, how- 
 ever, receives a decided preference in the distribution of the 
 morsels of meat thrown out. These are mostly so aimed that the 
 others have no chance. One day, however, there were two lame 
 crows, and the gait of one of them was peculiar. However, he 
 came in also for special attention, until it was discovered that he 
 was not lame at all, but had two complete legs, one of which he 
 ingeniously kept half hidden below the sill, and showed the upper 
 half only ! The cheat was soon discovered, but not till it had
 
 410 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 succeeded a good round number of times in deceiving the lunch 
 folk. 
 
 NOTE 13. One evening returning home throxtgh the Pettah, 
 or native town, we observed a crow with his head on one side 
 looking very knowing. He was perched on the eaves of a veranda 
 just above the street. Presently he made a swoop across the 
 street and picked a small rice cake, a kind of confection, off a 
 basket in a shop opposite. He returned to his place, pushed the 
 cake under a tile to hide it, and resumed his former place and 
 calculating look. By-and-by he made another swoop, got another 
 cake, and disposed of it likewise. The shop opposite was attended 
 by an old woman, who squatted on one side near a fire which was 
 behind her. She was busy making up cakes, and whenever she 
 finished making one she turned round to put it on the fire to 
 bake. The crow, when she turned round to the fire, made his 
 swoop upon her basket or tray, and had evidently been amus- 
 ing himself in that fashion for a good while, as he was not 
 able to eat any more and was storing the booty for future pro- 
 vender. 
 
 NOTE 14. In a poultry yard of our acquaintance there were 
 two cock chickens of a very large breed that had been sent by a 
 friend, and not bred in the yard. These birds kept apart from 
 the rest and never mixed with them, but strayed away by them- 
 selves,, and were almost always fighting. They were, in fact, 
 called the Cheeryble Brothers, by ironical allusion, for that reason. 
 There were also in the yard some ducks, one of which was called 
 Pacifex, because she always rushed in between the Cheeryble 
 brothers whenever she saw them fighting, and she drove them 
 apart, generally ejecting one of them out of the gate. Hers was 
 a troubled life, because of the frequent need for her interference, 
 and also because the pugnacious cocks always kept at a distance. 
 One day she was observed waddling with a more than usual 
 rapidity evidently on urgent duty, and she was not this time 
 making for the Cheerybles, but was bent on arresting Sambo, a 
 tame crow, which was making free with the food of an old white 
 hen that was always fed separately, because she was scared by 
 the other fowls and could not contend with them for her position. 
 Beside she was an old favourite and was specially favoured. 
 Now, on the occasion in question, Sambo taking advantage of
 
 APPENDIX. 411 
 
 Sylvia's timidity, was gobbling up her food, when Pacifex caine 
 from the further end of the yard to Sylvia's rescue. Sambo pru- 
 dently retired as soon as he saw Pacifex approach, and Sylvia 
 took the rest of her food under the protection of the police. 
 
 We have since heard that ducks frequently behave in the 
 manner of our friend Pacifex, but she was the only specimen of 
 the kind in our acquaintance. 
 
 NOTE 15. Whilst a lady of our acquaintance was walking in 
 her garden, a large dog entered by the door, which had been left 
 open. Having a great fear of dogs she was not a little alarmed 
 by the apparition of so formidable a stranger, especially as he 
 came directly towards her. He was so extremely lame, however, 
 and seemed to be suffering so severely, that she made no attempt 
 to escape from him. He therefore came up to her, and held up 
 his lame paw with such piteous and beseeching gestures that her 
 sympathy overcame her fears. So she went into the house, and 
 the animal followed her. The wound was deep and angry, and, 
 being also full of dirt, it needed a painful dressing, which the poor 
 dog endured patiently and without resistance. With looks of 
 gratitude he took his leave and went away. 
 
 A few days afterwards, the old patient, finding the garden door 
 open, returned, bringing with him a lame companion, which he 
 introduced with unmistakable solicitation for the kind attention 
 he had himself formerly received. He was now quite well and 
 walked with his natural gait. Our lady friend attended to 
 the new patient, and in dismissing him and his cicerone gave 
 explicit orders that the garden door should in future be kept 
 shut, lest her house should become a regular hospital for canine 
 invalids. 
 
 NOTE 1 6. Passing along my veranda one morning whilst 
 living in Ceylon, I observed a train of large black ants marching 
 at a business-like pace into a hole in the floor. A train of ants 
 is such a very common occurrence that the one in question ex- 
 cited but little notice. Having occasion to pass the same place 
 four hours later I found the train was still on the march, and my 
 servant informed me that it had been going on uninterruptedly 
 since morning. The train was about two inches wide and the ants 
 may have been six or eight abreast in close order. There was 
 not a gap in the ranks. The train extended across my premises
 
 412 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 into a jungle, whither I could not further proceed. The train all 
 this length was unbroken, the order perfect, and the march was 
 continuous for six hours at the least. 
 
 The hole into which the whole army entered led into an air 
 passage, and thence under my drawing-room floor, where there was 
 a space of about two feet deep. As the air passage was but a few 
 inches wide, it was not possible to discover what was going on 
 under the floor or what attracted this tremendous host, so the 
 incident passed out of mind, and would not have been again 
 thought of if it had not been for what followed. 
 
 In the evening after dinner, whilst we were playing a concerted 
 piece, my wife started with a shudder and pointed to a large 
 cockroach on the wall. His staggering gait and struggling move- 
 ments revealed the fact that he was beset by ten or a dozen ants. 
 Stopping our music we discovered that there were hundreds of 
 cockroaches on the walls of the room all similarly beset with ants 
 Some took to the wing, but their flight was quite as spasmodic 
 as their other movements. It was then evident that a colony of 
 cockroaches must have taken up their quarters under the floor, 
 and that the ants had discovered their fortress, and besieged 
 and taken the whole garrison prisoners. 
 
 The whole of this proceeding appears to us replete with evidence 
 of reason. It seems to be as much a matter of reason as Lord 
 Wolseley's march to Tel-el-Kebir and his notable victory there. 
 The train of ants maintained its order and its motion unbroken, 
 although it crossed a road and must have suffered considerable 
 loss by the passage of my carriage and horses several times during 
 the march. There must have been a general and a plan. The 
 skill of the conception must have been admirable to enable wing- 
 less ants to besiege and capture such a host of powerful insects 
 with strong power of flight. As the siege was conducted in the 
 dark no idea of the plan could have been ascertained, but it was 
 necessarily concerted, required every member of the invading host 
 to take an appointed part, and was perfectly successful, for we 
 have reason to believe that the capture was complete. Even 
 those who believe in instinct must see that this proceeding ex- 
 ceeds the widest bounds that could be assigned to such a faculty. 
 There were plan, combination, and communication all plainly and 
 undeniably involved in the work and its execution, and the whole 
 campaign was conceived and carried out by creatures that had no 
 help from human teacher or example.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 413 
 
 NOTE 17. List of words alluded to in page 147. 
 
 A 
 
 Bird 
 
 Cart . 
 
 Cream 
 
 Early 
 
 About 
 
 Bite 
 
 Carry 
 
 Crooked 
 
 Ear 
 
 Above 
 
 Black 
 
 Cat 
 
 Cross 
 
 Easter 
 
 Ache 
 
 Bless 
 
 Caught 
 
 Crow 
 
 Easy 
 
 Afraid 
 
 Blind 
 
 Cellar 
 
 Cruel 
 
 Eat 
 
 After 
 
 Blood 
 
 Chair 
 
 Crumb 
 
 Edge 
 
 Afternoon 
 
 Blot 
 
 Change 
 
 Crust 
 
 Egg 
 
 Again 
 
 Blue 
 
 Charge 
 
 Cry 
 
 Eight 
 
 Against 
 
 Board 
 
 Chatter 
 
 Cuckoo 
 
 Either 
 
 Ago 
 
 Boat 
 
 Cheat 
 
 Cup 
 
 Elbow 
 
 Ah 
 
 Body 
 
 Child 
 
 Cushion 
 
 Elephant 
 
 Alike 
 
 Bell 
 
 Chill 
 
 Cut 
 
 Else 
 
 Alive 
 
 Bone 
 
 Chimney 
 
 
 Empty 
 
 All 
 
 Book 
 
 Chin 
 
 Daddy 
 
 End 
 
 Alone 
 
 Boot 
 
 Choice 
 
 Dance 
 
 Enough 
 
 Alphabet 
 
 Born 
 
 Choke 
 
 Dark 
 
 Equal 
 
 Already 
 
 Both 
 
 Choose 
 
 Darling 
 
 Evening 
 
 Always 
 
 Bottle 
 
 Christmas 
 
 Day 
 
 Ever 
 
 Amen 
 
 Bottom 
 
 Church 
 
 Dead 
 
 Every 
 
 Almost 
 
 Bow 
 
 Claw 
 
 Deaf 
 
 Except 
 
 And 
 
 Branch 
 
 Clean 
 
 Deal 
 
 Excuse 
 
 Angry 
 
 Bread 
 
 Climb 
 
 Dear 
 
 Expect 
 
 Answer 
 
 Break 
 
 Cling 
 
 Declare 
 
 Eye 
 
 Apple 
 
 Breast 
 
 Cloak 
 
 Deep 
 
 
 As 
 
 Breath 
 
 Clock 
 
 Delight 
 
 Face 
 
 Ask 
 
 Bridge 
 
 Close 
 
 Diddle 
 
 Fair 
 
 Asleep 
 
 Bright 
 
 Closet 
 
 Did 
 
 Fairy 
 
 Ass 
 
 Bring 
 
 Clothes 
 
 Die 
 
 Fall 
 
 At 
 
 Broke 
 
 Clumsy 
 
 Dig 
 
 Falsehood 
 
 Aunt 
 
 Brow 
 
 Coal 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Family 
 
 Awake 
 
 Brown 
 
 Coat 
 
 Ding-dong 
 
 Fan 
 
 Away 
 
 Brush 
 
 Coax 
 
 Directly 
 
 Far 
 
 
 Bud 
 
 Cock 
 
 Dirt 
 
 Farther 
 
 Baby 
 
 Bull 
 
 Cofifee 
 
 Dish 
 
 Father 
 
 Back 
 
 Bump 
 
 Cold 
 
 Dizzy 
 
 Fast 
 
 Bad 
 
 Bun 
 
 Collar 
 
 Do 
 
 Fasten 
 
 Bag 
 
 Boy 
 
 Colour 
 
 Doctor 
 
 Fat 
 
 Ball 
 
 Burn 
 
 Comb 
 
 Dog 
 
 Fault 
 
 Bang 
 
 Busy 
 
 Come 
 
 Doll 
 
 Fear 
 
 Bare 
 
 But 
 
 Comfortable 
 
 Done 
 
 Feather 
 
 Bark 
 
 Butcher 
 
 Common 
 
 Donkey 
 
 Feed 
 
 Basin 
 
 Butter 
 
 Confess 
 
 Door 
 
 Feel 
 
 Basket 
 
 Button 
 
 Contrary 
 
 Dot 
 
 Feet 
 
 Bath 
 
 Buy 
 
 Coo 
 
 Dove 
 
 Fell 
 
 Bead 
 
 
 Cook 
 
 Down 
 
 Fender 
 
 Bear 
 
 Cake 
 
 Copy 
 
 Draw 
 
 Few 
 
 Best 
 
 Calf 
 
 Copybook 
 
 Dreadful 
 
 Fiddle 
 
 Beauty 
 
 Call 
 
 Cord 
 
 Dress 
 
 Fidget 
 
 Because 
 
 Came 
 
 Corner 
 
 Drink 
 
 Fir 
 
 Begin 
 
 Can 
 
 Cot 
 
 Drop 
 
 Field 
 
 Beside 
 
 Canary 
 
 Cotton 
 
 Drum 
 
 Fifteen 
 
 Best 
 
 Candle 
 
 Cough 
 
 Dry 
 
 Fig 
 
 Better 
 
 Cap 
 
 Count 
 
 Duck 
 
 Fight 
 
 Between 
 
 Card 
 
 Cousin 
 
 Dunce 
 
 Fill 
 
 Bit 
 
 Care 
 
 Cover 
 
 Dust 
 
 Find 
 
 Bible 
 
 Carpet 
 
 Cow 
 
 
 Fine 
 
 Big 
 
 Carriage 
 
 Crack 
 
 Each 
 
 Finger
 
 414 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Fire 
 
 Go 
 
 Hiss 
 
 Kind 
 
 Lump 
 
 First 
 
 Goat 
 
 Hit 
 
 King 
 
 
 Fish 
 
 Gobble 
 
 Hold 
 
 Kiss 
 
 Made 
 
 Fist 
 
 God 
 
 Hole 
 
 Kite 
 
 Make 
 
 Fit 
 
 Gone 
 
 Home 
 
 Knee 
 
 Man 
 
 Five 
 
 Good 
 
 Hook 
 
 Kneel 
 
 Mamma 
 
 Fix 
 
 Goose 
 
 Hoop 
 
 Knit 
 
 Manner 
 
 Flannel 
 
 Got 
 
 Hop 
 
 Knob 
 
 Many 
 
 Flat 
 
 Grace 
 
 Hope 
 
 Knock 
 
 Mark 
 
 Flesh 
 
 Grass 
 
 Horrid 
 
 Knot 
 
 Mat 
 
 Floor 
 
 Grate 
 
 Horse 
 
 Know 
 
 Match 
 
 Flour 
 
 Gravy 
 
 Hot 
 
 
 Matter 
 
 Flower 
 
 Grease 
 
 Hour 
 
 Lady 
 
 May 
 
 Fly 
 
 Great 
 
 House 
 
 Laid 
 
 Mean 
 
 Fold 
 
 Greedy 
 
 How 
 
 Lame 
 
 Measure 
 
 Follow 
 
 Green 
 
 Hump 
 
 Lamp 
 
 Meddle 
 
 Food 
 
 Grope 
 
 Hungry 
 
 Landing 
 
 Medicine 
 
 Foolish 
 
 Ground 
 
 Hurrah 
 
 Large 
 
 Meat 
 
 Foot 
 
 Grow 
 
 Hurry 
 
 Lark 
 
 Meet 
 
 For 
 
 Growl 
 
 Hurt 
 
 Last 
 
 Memory 
 
 Forget 
 
 Grunt 
 
 Hush 
 
 Lake 
 
 Mend 
 
 Forgive 
 
 Guess 
 
 
 Laugh 
 
 Mess 
 
 Fork 
 
 Gun 
 
 I 
 
 Lay 
 
 Mew 
 
 Form 
 
 
 Ice 
 
 Lead 
 
 Middle 
 
 Forward 
 
 Hail 
 
 Idle 
 
 Leaf 
 
 Middling 
 
 Foul 
 
 Hair 
 
 If 
 
 Learn 
 
 Might 
 
 Found 
 
 Hairy 
 
 111 
 
 Least 
 
 Milk 
 
 Four 
 
 Half 
 
 Impossible 
 
 Leave 
 
 Mince 
 
 Fox 
 
 Hammer 
 
 Impudent 
 
 Left 
 
 Mind 
 
 Free 
 
 Hand 
 
 In 
 
 Leg 
 
 Mine 
 
 Freeze 
 
 Handkerchief 
 
 Indeed 
 
 Length 
 
 Minute 
 
 Fresh 
 
 Handle 
 
 Ink 
 
 Less 
 
 Mischief 
 
 Fretful 
 
 Hang 
 
 Insect 
 
 Let 
 
 Miss 
 
 Friday 
 
 Happen 
 
 Inside 
 
 Letter 
 
 Mistake 
 
 Friend 
 
 Happy 
 
 Instead 
 
 Lid 
 
 Mite 
 
 Fright 
 
 Hard 
 
 Into 
 
 Lie 
 
 Mix 
 
 Frill 
 
 Hardly 
 
 Iron 
 
 Life 
 
 Monday 
 
 Frock 
 
 Hark 
 
 Is 
 
 Lift 
 
 Money 
 
 Frog 
 
 Harm 
 
 It 
 
 Like 
 
 Moon 
 
 From 
 
 Hat 
 
 Itch 
 
 Likely 
 
 More 
 
 Front 
 
 Have 
 
 Itself 
 
 Lion 
 
 Morning 
 
 Frost 
 
 He 
 
 
 Lip 
 
 Most 
 
 Fruit 
 
 Head 
 
 Jack 
 
 Lisp 
 
 Mother 
 
 Full 
 
 Heap 
 
 Jam 
 
 Listen 
 
 Mouse 
 
 Fun 
 
 Hear 
 
 Jar 
 
 Litter 
 
 Mouth 
 
 Fye 
 
 Heat 
 
 Jelly 
 
 Little 
 
 Move 
 
 
 Heaven 
 
 Job 
 
 Live 
 
 Much 
 
 Game 
 
 Heavy 
 
 Joint 
 
 Loaf 
 
 Mud 
 
 Garden 
 
 Height 
 
 Jolly 
 
 Lock 
 
 Music 
 
 Gas 
 
 Held 
 
 Joy 
 
 Loll 
 
 Must 
 
 Gate 
 
 Help 
 
 Jug 
 
 Long_ 
 
 Mutton 
 
 Gather 
 
 Hem 
 
 Jump 
 
 Longing 
 
 My 
 
 Gentleman 
 
 Hen 
 
 Just 
 
 Look 
 
 
 Giant 
 
 Her 
 
 
 Loose 
 
 Naked 
 
 Giddy 
 
 Here 
 
 Keep 
 
 Lost 
 
 Name 
 
 Gift 
 
 Herself 
 
 Kettle 
 
 Lot 
 
 Narrow 
 
 Give 
 
 Hide 
 
 Key 
 
 Loud 
 
 Nasty 
 
 Glad 
 
 Him 
 
 Kick 
 
 Love 
 
 Naughty 
 
 Glass 
 
 His 
 
 Kill 
 
 Low 
 
 Nay
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 415 
 
 Near 
 
 Past 
 
 Pussy 
 
 Same 
 
 Silk 
 
 Neat 
 
 Pat 
 
 Put 
 
 Sand 
 
 Silly 
 
 Neck 
 
 Paw 
 
 Puzzle 
 
 Sash 
 
 Silver 
 
 Needle 
 
 Pay 
 
 
 Saturday 
 
 Since 
 
 Neither 
 
 Pea 
 
 Quack 
 
 Save 
 
 Single 
 
 Nest 
 
 Peace 
 
 Quarrel 
 
 Saw 
 
 Sing 
 
 Never 
 
 Pear 
 
 Quarter 
 
 Say 
 
 Sir 
 
 New 
 
 Peel 
 
 Queen 
 
 Scald 
 
 Sister 
 
 Next 
 
 Peep 
 
 Question 
 
 Scatter 
 
 Sit 
 
 Nice 
 
 Peg 
 
 Quick 
 
 School 
 
 Six 
 
 Night 
 
 Pen 
 
 Quiet 
 
 Scissors 
 
 Size 
 
 Nine 
 
 Pencil 
 
 Quite 
 
 Scold 
 
 Skin 
 
 No 
 
 Penny 
 
 
 Scrap 
 
 Skip 
 
 Nobody 
 Noise 
 
 People 
 Perhaps 
 
 Rabbit 
 Race 
 
 Scrape 
 Scratch 
 
 Skirt 
 Sky 
 
 None 
 
 Pet 
 
 Rag 
 
 Scream 
 
 Slap 
 
 Nonsense 
 
 Petticoat 
 
 Rail 
 
 Scrub 
 
 Sleeve 
 
 Noon 
 
 Pick 
 
 Rain 
 
 Second 
 
 Sleep 
 
 Nor 
 
 Pie 
 
 Rap 
 
 Secret 
 
 Slice 
 
 Nose 
 
 Piece 
 
 Rat 
 
 See 
 
 Slide 
 
 Not 
 
 Pig 
 
 Raw 
 
 Seed 
 
 Slip 
 
 Nothing 
 
 Pigeon 
 
 Reach 
 
 Seek 
 
 Slipper 
 
 Now 
 
 Pillow 
 
 Read 
 
 Seem 
 
 Sly 
 
 Number 
 
 Pin 
 
 Ready 
 
 Seen 
 
 Smack 
 
 Nurse 
 
 Pinch 
 
 Red 
 
 Self 
 
 Small 
 
 Nursery 
 
 Pity 
 
 Remember 
 
 Selfish 
 
 Smell 
 
 Nut 
 
 Place 
 
 Repeat 
 
 Send 
 
 Smile 
 
 
 Plain 
 
 Rest 
 
 Sense 
 
 Smoke 
 
 Of 
 
 Plant 
 
 Rib 
 
 Servant 
 
 Smooth 
 
 Off 
 
 Plate 
 
 Ribbon 
 
 Set 
 
 Snail 
 
 Often 
 
 Play 
 
 Rice 
 
 Seven 
 
 Snake 
 
 Oil 
 
 Pleasant 
 
 Riddle 
 
 Sew 
 
 Snatch 
 
 Old 
 
 Please 
 
 Ride 
 
 Shake 
 
 Sneeze 
 
 On 
 
 Plenty 
 
 Right 
 
 Shall 
 
 Snow 
 
 Once 
 
 Plum 
 
 Ring 
 
 Shame 
 
 So 
 
 One 
 
 Pocket 
 
 Ripe 
 
 Shape 
 
 Soap 
 
 Only 
 
 Point 
 
 Rise 
 
 Sharp 
 
 Soft 
 
 Open 
 
 Porridge 
 
 Road 
 
 Shawl 
 
 Sock 
 
 Opposite 
 
 Positive 
 
 Rob 
 
 She 
 
 Sod 
 
 Or 
 
 Postman 
 
 Rod 
 
 Sheep 
 
 Soil 
 
 Orange 
 
 Posy 
 
 Roll 
 
 Sheet 
 
 Soldier 
 
 Order 
 
 Pot 
 
 Romp 
 
 Shelf 
 
 Some 
 
 Other 
 
 Pour 
 
 Roof 
 
 Shell 
 
 Son 
 
 Our 
 
 Powder 
 
 Room 
 
 Shin 
 
 Song 
 
 Out 
 
 Prayer 
 
 Rose 
 
 Shine 
 
 Soon 
 
 Over 
 
 Present 
 
 Rot 
 
 Shirt 
 
 Soot 
 
 Own 
 
 Press 
 
 Rough 
 
 Shiver 
 
 Sop 
 
 
 Pretend 
 
 Round 
 
 Shock 
 
 Sound 
 
 Pain 
 
 Pretty 
 
 Row 
 
 Shoe 
 
 Soup 
 
 Paii- 
 
 Prick 
 
 Rub 
 
 Shoot 
 
 Sour 
 
 Pan 
 
 Prize 
 
 Rude 
 
 Shop 
 
 Sow 
 
 Parcel 
 
 Proud 
 
 Run 
 
 Shoulder 
 
 Spade 
 
 Pardon- 
 
 Provoke 
 
 
 Show 
 
 Spare 
 
 Parrot 
 
 Pudding 
 
 Sabbath 
 
 Shut 
 
 Speak 
 
 Part_ 
 
 Puddle 
 
 Sad 
 
 Shutter 
 
 Spill 
 
 Particular 
 
 Pull 
 
 Safe 
 
 Shy 
 
 Spin 
 
 Pass 
 
 Puppy 
 
 Said 
 
 Sick 
 
 Spoil 
 
 Passage 
 
 Purpose 
 
 Sake 
 
 Side 
 
 Spoke 
 
 Passion 
 
 Push 
 
 Salt 
 
 Sight 
 
 Spoon
 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Spot 
 Spread 
 
 Sweet 
 Swing 
 
 Thump 
 Thursday 
 
 Twinkle 
 Twist 
 
 Weigh 
 Well 
 
 Spring 
 
 Switch 
 
 Tickle 
 
 Two 
 
 Went 
 
 Square 
 
 
 Tidy 
 
 
 Were 
 
 Squeak 
 
 Table 
 
 Tie 
 
 Ugly 
 
 Wet 
 
 Squeeze 
 
 Tail 
 
 Tight 
 
 Uncle 
 
 What 
 
 Squint 
 
 Tailor 
 
 Till 
 
 Under 
 
 Wheel 
 
 Stairs 
 
 Take 
 
 Time 
 
 Understand 
 
 When 
 
 Stammer 
 
 Tale 
 
 Tin 
 
 Undo 
 
 Where 
 
 Stamp 
 
 Talk 
 
 Tiny 
 
 Undress 
 
 Which 
 
 Stand 
 
 Tall 
 
 Tired 
 
 Unfair 
 
 While 
 
 Star 
 
 Tape 
 
 To 
 
 Unfasten 
 
 Whip 
 
 Steal 
 
 Tart 
 
 Toast 
 
 Unkind 
 
 Whisper 
 
 Step 
 
 Tea 
 
 To-day 
 
 Until 
 
 Whistle- 
 
 Stick 
 
 Teach 
 
 Toe 
 
 Unto 
 
 White 
 
 Stiff 
 
 Tear 
 
 Told 
 
 Untruth 
 
 Whose 
 
 Still 
 
 Teeth 
 
 Tongs 
 
 Unwell 
 
 Why 
 
 Sting 
 
 Tell 
 
 Tongue 
 
 Up 
 
 Will 
 
 Stir 
 
 Temper 
 
 Too 
 
 Upset 
 
 Wind 
 
 Stitch 
 
 Ten 
 
 Took 
 
 Us 
 
 Window 
 
 Stomach 
 
 Than 
 
 Top 
 
 Use 
 
 Wing 
 
 Stone 
 
 Thank 
 
 Topsy-turvy 
 
 Useful 
 
 Winter 
 
 Stool 
 
 That 
 
 Toss 
 
 
 Wipe 
 
 Stop 
 
 The 
 
 Touch 
 
 Veil 
 
 Wish 
 
 Story 
 
 Their 
 
 Towards 
 
 Verse 
 
 With 
 
 Straight 
 
 Them 
 
 Towel 
 
 Very 
 
 Without 
 
 Stretch 
 
 Then 
 
 Town 
 
 Vex 
 
 Wonder 
 
 Strike 
 
 There 
 
 Toy 
 
 Visit 
 
 Wool 
 
 String 
 
 These 
 
 Train 
 
 Voice 
 
 Word 
 
 Stripe 
 
 They 
 
 Tray 
 
 
 Worm 
 
 Stroke 
 
 Thick 
 
 Tread 
 
 Waist 
 
 Worse 
 
 Strong 
 
 Thief 
 
 Treat 
 
 Wake 
 
 Worsted 
 
 Stuff 
 
 Thimble 
 
 Tree 
 
 Walk 
 
 Worth 
 
 Such 
 
 Thin 
 
 Tremble 
 
 Wall 
 
 Would 
 
 Suck 
 
 Think 
 
 Trick 
 
 Want 
 
 Wrap 
 
 Sugar 
 
 Third 
 
 Trot 
 
 Warm 
 
 Wring 
 
 Suit 
 
 Thirst 
 
 Trouble 
 
 Was 
 
 Write 
 
 Sulk 
 
 This 
 
 True 
 
 Wash 
 
 Wroaor 
 
 Summer 
 
 Those 
 
 Try 
 
 Waste 
 
 
 Sun 
 
 Though 
 
 Tub 
 
 Watch 
 
 Yard 
 
 Sunday 
 
 Thought 
 
 Tuck 
 
 Water 
 
 Yellow 
 
 Supper 
 
 Thread 
 
 Tumble 
 
 Wax 
 
 Yesterday 
 
 Suppose 
 
 Three 
 
 Tune 
 
 Way 
 
 Yes 
 
 Sure 
 
 Through 
 
 Turn 
 
 Wear 
 
 You 
 
 Swallow 
 
 Throw 
 
 Twelve 
 
 Weather 
 
 Yours 
 
 Sweep 
 
 Thumb 
 
 Twice 
 
 Wee 
 
 
 TRINTED DY BAI.LANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH
 
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