Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/196

 doll in its brother's or sister's hand, and then, running to find brother's or sister's horse or doll, eagerly discusses the question of meum and tuum, and, notwithstanding the close resemblance of the two subjects of debate, fixes its grasp upon the real and genuine meum. That is to say, this same lisping assertor of its rights, has in its brain a picture of its plaything so exact and particular, that it serves at any time as a tally, by means of which it may recover the archetype. Yet this same mental miniature of the hobby, or the rose-lipped darling, does not merely come back, when recalled by the presence of the original, but it floats before the internal eye, called for, and uncalled, waking and sleeping; of which further fact, with all its endless consequences, we have evidence enough; as for instance, when to the little girl, lost in reverie, we suddenly put the questionWhat are you thinking about? About dolly.About dollywhich dolly? Oh my best dolly that moves her eyes! Sometimes indeed dollyâ€™s own dear name is heard muttered in sleep, when, as we need not doubt, the fair image is vividly present to the fancy.

Nor is this all, for while the doating little mamma, just referred to, has her "own dolly" on her lap, or is dressing and undressing it, or is taking it abroad, or preparing its breakfast, and despatching it to school, the conceptive faculty is working in another and a copious manner, and so as to involve all sorts of consequences to the future character. For the object in the hand becomes the nucleus of a hundred captivating conceptions of things not present, but which, by the aid of the mind's creative powers, stand forth out of vacancy, almost as distinctly as if actually before the eye. Dolly is the heroine of a drama, vividly acted in the soul's little theatre. Hence, that is to say from the richness and vivacity of the conceptive faculty, comes all, or nearly all the never-failing delight of which toys are the occasion.