psychologist knows, is one of the most contagious of the emotions.
Socially, as well as individually, it has a useful function to
perform. The presence in all civilised communities of police and fire
departments, boards of health, and the like, testifies impressively to
the influence of social fear working normally as a conserving agent.
But there may be, and frequently is, social as well as individual
abnormality of fear; as in panics, massacres, lynchings. In order to
deal with this effectually, in order to keep social fear within the
bounds of reason, it will always be necessary to recognise that, after
all, society is made up of a mass of individuals, and can only think
and feel and act as individuals think and feel and act. Train the
individual properly, and society will be sane and healthy and efficient
enough.
IX
A FEW CLOSING WORDS
We have now reviewed in some detail the principal results of recent
psychological research and observation, so far as these bear directly
on man’s mental and moral growth. Varied as is the mass of information
thus brought together, we have found it pointing uniformly to one
conclusion—the transcendent significance of the environmental
influences of early life.
Again and again we have found confirmation of the view that what a man
is and does depends, as a rule, not so much on the gifts or defects of
his heredity as on the excellences or shortcomings of his childhood’s
training and surroundings. If these are favourable, even the dead hand
of a bad inheritance may be arrested, and he may develop surprising
strength of intellect and character; if unfavourable, mental and moral
inferiority may be looked for, no matter how good the heredity.
This, of course, emphasises the responsibilities of parenthood, chief
among which, as would appear from the facts surveyed, are the beginning
of formal education in the home, the providing of a carefully planned
material environment, and the setting of a really good example.
There can be no doubt, to return for a moment to the superlatively
instructive case of Karl Witte, that by all odds the greatest force
in the moral development of that splendid scholar and gentleman, was
the unceasing inspiration he unconsciously drew from the lives of
his father and mother—from their integrity, unselfishness, patience,
sincerity, and courage. Parents cannot too soon learn that, to quote a
cardinal clause in the elder Witte’s educational creed:
“Our children are what we are. They are good when we are good, and bad
when we are bad. I would extend this assertion. With full conviction I
would say, they become clever, magnanimous, modest, witty, agreeable,
amiable, if these are our qualities. They become the opposite if we
precede them with the opposite.”
Or, as Doctor Dubois has so admirably put it in one of his University
of Berne addresses on moral education:
“You, madam, who complain of the irritability of your little girl,
could you not suppress your own, which I have seen break out, in a
few words exchanged with your dear husband, immediately afterward?
You, sir, who bitterly reproach your son for his impulsiveness and
instability of temper, have you not these faults yourself?... Remember
the proverb, ‘The fruit does not fall far from the tree.’” (“Reason and
Sentiment,” pp. 53-54.)
Personally, also, I am of Witte’s belief that intellectual training
along the lines followed by him in his son’s upbringing is of itself an
important adjunct to moral growth. Certainly, by developing the powers
of observation, analysis, and inference, it makes it easier for the
child to appreciate the force of any arguments advanced by the parent
in the way of direct moral instruction. Besides this, by keeping the
child’s mind occupied with wholesome and profitable matters, it saves
him from the idleness and waste of energy which, in childhood as much
as in adult life, favour the formation of bad habits. And assuredly the
methods by which his mental education may best be carried on in the
first years of existence are such that they may be readily applied by
all parents.
It is by no means a difficult thing to begin, as Witte did, by naming
to the little one various small objects in and about the home. These
should be named over and over to him, slowly, clearly, impressively;
and the attempt should next be made to convey to him a notion of their
properties, by teaching him, for example, to detect differences in
colour and in such qualities as hot and cold, round and square, hard
and soft, rough and smooth. This can be done in any one of several
ways, but the best method, it seems to me, is that developed within
recent years by the noted Italian educator of little children, Maria
Montessori.
Her plan with every child whose education is intrusted to her is to
start by teaching it to distinguish between various touch sensations;
and she does this so successfully that her pupils, aged from three to
seven, are able, blindfolded, to state the differences in extremely
fine gradations of cloths, papers, coins, and seeds. Any parent can
do the same thing, beginning by drilling the child in distinguishing
between massive sensations, and gradually developing delicacy of touch.
Two cards, one rough, one smooth, afford an excellent starting-point.
The child touches the smooth card. “Smooth,” says the parent, and
“Smooth” responds the child. The little fingers are then placed on the
card with the rough surface. “Rough,” the child is told, and “Rough”
he repeats. Only a few lessons of this sort will be found necessary
to enable him to select at request the smooth or the rough card and
hand it to the parent. Ideas of shape, size, etc., may be similarly
imparted, with the triple advantage that the child will daily, and
without mental stress, acquire a more and more retentive muscular
memory, a more intimate acquaintance with the facts of the world in
which he lives, and greater observational and reasoning ability.
Meanwhile, of course, the fertilisation of the child’s mind should
also be continued by other educative measures—as the maintenance of an
inspiring environment, ready and intelligent response to the child’s
innumerable questions, and skilful guidance of his thoughts to subjects
which it is especially desirable for him to study. The system of walks
and talks, utilised alike by James Thomson, James Mill, and Pastor
Witte, is particularly to be recommended in this connection, as also
Witte’s practice of propounding to his son interesting problems, and
then taking him to places—factories, mills, etc.—where he could observe
for himself different stages in their solution.
Something of the same sort is possible to every parent, who can
include in such voyages of discovery, if he be a city dweller, visits
to botanical and zoölogical gardens, art and industrial museums, and
similar institutions where his child can obtain entertainment, some
insight into the workings of natural laws, and elementary instruction
in subjects which will inevitably form part of his school curriculum at
a later day.
But, it may be objected, does not all this mean that in order to make
sure of results the father and mother will have to give the greater
part of their time to the child’s education? Not at all. One hour or
so a day will be quite enough in the way of direct, personal tuition.
And even if the task of instruction were really burdensome, surely,
in view of the findings of modern science, parents will do well to
keep in mind, and recognize the profound truth of, Rousseau’s stern
pronouncement:
“He who cannot fulfil the duties of a father has no right to be a
father. Not poverty, nor severe labour, nor human respect can release
him from the duty of supporting his children and of educating them
himself. Readers, you may believe my words. I prophesy to any one who
has natural feeling and neglects these sacred duties—that he will long
shed bitter tears over this fault, and that for these tears he will
find no consolation.”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The passages quoted by me from Witte’s book have been made partly
from Professor Wiener’s translation, and partly from the original.
[2] It is to the development of some vital interest—whether by parental
training or the accident of a favourable environment—that is due the
often observed absence of laziness in children that are handicapped by
adenoids, eye trouble, etc. This does not mean that the parent should
neglect to have such handicaps removed as soon as possible; no matter
how “interested” a child may be, the correction of remediable physical
defects is of importance to his welfare and progress.
[3] Since these lines were written Doctor Boris Sidis, in his
“Psychology of Laughter,” has criticised the Bergson theory in more
detail but on somewhat different grounds. Doctor Sidis’s own theory,
briefly, is that the laughable is not the “mechanical” but the
“stupid.” Or, as he himself expresses it, “Allusion to human stupidity
is at the root of all comic.”
[4] The psychology of dreams and their practical significance will
be dealt with in some detail in my forthcoming book on “Sleep and
Sleeplessness.”
INDEX
Adenoids, and delinquency, 27;
and laziness, 173-174.
Ampère, A., 84.
Baby talk, dangers of, 49-51, 136.
Bain, A., 199.
Balzac, H. de, 99, 166-167.
Berle, A. A., 49-50, 136.
Bidder, G., 84.
Binet, A., 62.
Boccacio, 99.
Brady, J. G., 16-18.
Bruns, Doctor, 241-242.
Burke, A. H., 15-16.
Buxton, J., 84, 85.
Chabaneix, P., 89.
Childhood, impressionability of, 30-35, 41-45, 60-63;
mental activity in, 163-164;
hysteria in, 221-245;
results of fear in, 258-274.
Children’s Aid Society, 13-18.
Cicero, 106.
Colburn, Z., 82-84.
Coleridge, S. T., 78.
Colours, psychology of, 57-59.
Condillac, 79.
Coriat, I. H., 255-256, 266-268.
Coulter, E. K., 11.
Dante, 88, 99.
Darwin, C., 91, 165, 168, 180-183, 186, 201, 203, 250.
Dase, Z., 84.
Davy, H., 166.
Delinquency, chief factors in, 5-19;
physical defects and, 19-27, 162.
Dental defects, and delinquency, 22-27;
and laziness, 174-176.
Diderot, D., 89.
Dreams, and genius, 75-81;
and disease, 260, 265, 267-268, 270-272.
Dubois, P., 28, 285.
Dugdale, R. L., 7, 10.
Education, suggestion in, 39-68;
importance of early, 67-68, 114-117;
instances of early, 119-157;
helps in early, 286-289.
Eliot, C. W., 64-65.
Ellis, H., 57, 106.
Environment, and crime, 5-19;
and ill-health, 52-55;
and mental development, 60, 109, 136-137;
and hysteria, 232-234;
and general welfare, 283-284.
Eugenics, 5-6.
Eye trouble, and delinquency, 21-23;
and laziness, 177-178.
Fear, function of, 250;
abnormal, 251-256;
as cause of nervous diseases, 257-274.
Fénelon, 106.
Fleury., M. de, 179, 183-185.
Franklin, B., 79.
Galileo, 91, 106.
Gauss, K., 84.
Genius, contrasting theories of, 71-75;
and dreams, 75-81;
the subconscious in, 86-94;
and hard work, 95-101;
interest and, 102;
precocity of, 105-107;
longevity of, 107-108.
Goethe, 87-88.
Gourmont, R. de, 89.
Habits, formation of, 42-43.
Hall, G. S., 196, 213.
Hallam, H., 106.
Hecht, D’O., 227-229.
Heine, H., 165.
Henry, P., 166.
Heredity, and delinquency, 5-19;
and genius, 71;
and hysteria, 264.
Heyne, C. G., 142.
Hobbes, T., 105-106, 198-199.
Holmes, A., 24.
Hysteria, in childhood, 221-247;
characteristics of, 231-234;
treatment, 237-243, 261, 269;
prevention, 243-246, 274-278;
as result of fear, 251-274.
Inaudi, J., 84.
Indy, V. d’, 89.
Interest, and intellectual development, 102-105;
and longevity, 108;
as antidote to laziness, 183-189.
Janet, P., 235, 273.
Johnson, S., 166.
Juke family, 6-11.
Keller, H., 32-34.
Kelvin, Lord, education of, 119-126.
King, E., 121.
Kirk, E. C., 23.
Lamartine, A., 88.
Lange, C. G., 197.
Languages, teaching foreign, 138-140.
Laughter, abnormal, 196-197;
Hobbes’s theory, 198-199;
Bain’s theory, 199;
Spencer’s theory, 201;
Mélinaud’s theory, 202;
Bergson’s theory, 203-208;
problem re-stated, 209-210;
in childhood, 210-215;
function of, 212-216;
importance to parents, 217-218.
Laziness, contrasting theories of, 162-168;
a pathological condition, 168-169;
physical defects and, 172-178;
treatment, 179-186;
prevention, 187-189.
Left-handedness, 43-45.
Lightning calculators, 82-86.
Lombroso, C., 8, 71.
Lowell, J. R., 166.
Lyell, C., 165, 168.
Mangiamele, V., 84.
Mélinaud, C., 201-202.
Mill, J. S., education of, 126-132.
Minto, W., 131-132.
Mitchell, J. J., 276-277.
Mondeux, H., 84.
Montessori, M., 287.
Moral training, Witte’s method of, 145-152.
Mosso, A., 278.
Mozart, 89, 100-101.
Myers, F. W. H., 72, 74.
Napoleon, 90, 100, 105.
Newton, I., 90-91, 101.
Parsons, F. A., 53-54.
Perez, B., 43.
Phobias, 251-256, 261-263, 278.
Poltergeist, 223-227, 233-234.
Preyer, W., 214, 230.
Prince, M., 258-261.
Public school system, criticisms of, 64-66.
Ribot, T., 172.
Rousseau, J. J., 289-290.
Safford, T., 84.
Schiller, 88, 101.
Schoff, H. K., 12.
Sidis, B., 115, 208 _n_, 260-261, 269-272.
Shinn, M., 210, 214.
Stevenson, R. L., 79-81, 96-98.
Subconscious, nature of the, 73;
memory, 31-35;
perception, 40-41;
in sleep, 75-81;
in lightning calculation, 84-85;
in genius, 86-94;
in hysteria, 233.
Suggestion, characteristics of, 39, 41;
in child training, 45-51;
experiments in, 40-41, 61-63;
in treatment of laziness, 185;
as cause of hysteria, 231-234;
in treatment of hysteria, 237-242, 261.
Sully, J., 214.
Swift, E. J., 165, 174.
Tartini, G., 78-79.
Thorndike, E. L., 102-104.
Upson, H. S., 26.
Voltaire, 89.
Waldstein, L., 32, 34, 43-44.
Wallace, A. R., 91-94.
Wallin, J. E. W., 175.
Westlake, E., 224-226.
Wickstead, P. H., 154-155.
Wiener, L., 137 and _n_.
Witmer, L., 19-22, 65.
Witte, K., education of, 133-153;
career of, 154-157.
Wordsworth, W., 165.
End of Project Gutenberg's Psychology and parenthood, by H. Addington Bruce