Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/614

596 and constructive mania. The imitation of gestures, of expressions, of the cries of animals, indicate the first awakening of the æsthetic sentiment, to which, perhaps, we should also attribute the attraction that certain pictures have for the child. A little boy three and a half years old, being admitted for some weeks to play with a dozen little girls four or five years old, chose his favorites the second day. He had a strong affection for two or three children more playful than the others; he would take them in his arms and caress them, while turning away from the others, scolding them and striking them. The same child early showed a sort of æsthetic musical sentiment. When listening to the piano, he would execute rhythmic jerks or starts. At twenty months children are passionate for the recital of impressions suited to them. Even at three years they take in earnest the stories told them, and often, when these stories are repeated, they will not permit any changes of statement.

—M. Perez does not believe that language is necessary to the making of a generalization. He points out to the observer a rudiment of generalization in children that can not talk. A child eight months old had, among his favorite playthings, a tin box, into which he put everything that would go into it. Having found out the property of the box to contain other things, he reasoned from this to unknown objects, and began to experiment. He tried to put the legs of a little dancing jack into the stopper of a decanter, then a little doll's cradle, and finally the end of his forefinger. A child of eight months, at the sight of any young or playful person, would make starts toward her. Besides, even at the time when children express some general ideas by words, they have others which they do not so express. A child of thirteen months, who was refused the hand when he wished to be led, left the person who held him, got down upon the floor, and began to creep. Creeping was for him a means of going along—a means of which he had a very distinct idea.

—If to judge is to believe something of something else, we can not doubt that judgment is manifested by children. The young Tiedemann made a judgment when, seeing his nurse take her mantle, he understood that she was going out. The notion of quantity is early formed by little children, who know very well a large piece of cake from a small one. The idea of number is confounded with that of quantity; a little child of three months seized at the same time two sucking-bottles that were offered him. A child two years and a half old knows how to count twelve, but has not a clear idea of the time represented by three days. In a general way the child often judges very well of concrete matters. Abstract judgments are more difficult for it.

—The little child reasons, if reason is only a series of consecutive judgments arranged according to the law of habitual association. A child seven months old associates the idea of the