New-York tribune., 1895-08-11
STRANGE CONCEITS OF CHILDREN

THE sUFFERINGs OF THOSE WHO ARE IMAG-
NATIVE.
Professor James Scully has published in THE
Popular Science Monthly some interesting studies
OF childhood. His article the psychological and
theological ideas of children brings to mind some
quaint conceptions OF other children.
"Aunte." cried golden-hared toddler, as MS
aunt appeared on the lawn. "aunte. you can't find
your dwight little key. Its losted way up In the
sky / frew 1t far. far. to try to open the
gates of heaven" He had heard his aunt reading
Tennyson's "St. Agnes's Eve" and had been i'm
pressed by the lines:
And deepens on and up. the gates
Roll back. and far within
For me the heavenly bridegroom waits
To make me pure from sin.
Il never never want to go to heaven said
little girl to her teacher. because they're all the
time singing there. and mamma says / have no
for music"
Some children believe that the body has certain
consciousness. and feels pain when it Is In the
grave Deaf mutes have stated that they also had
this belief before they educated 10 communi-
cate with others by signs. DR.. Harvey p Peet
some years ago published paper containing ac-
counts OF the quaint notions OF the dear ana duinp
before instruction The majority Of those who were
questioned on the subject testified that they had
thought of death with great terror, though they
had not understood that every one must die. one
thought that death caused by medicine ad-
mnistered by the Doctor and a number Of unedu-
Gated deaf mutes have exhibited much alarm In
presence Of doctors. Those who had observed that
people usually took to their beds before death were
afraid to go to bed when i'll. Few who had oeeh
taken to church by their parents had had any idea
of the purpose of this assembly One stated: Il
thought the people in church TO worship the
clergyman OF the highest dignity and splendor
With regard to the creation OF the world, ana OF
a Supreme Being. they had had very aim nouons.
one had thought that the sun made the woru anu
all things in 1t. Another believed that some one
was in the sky who turned large grindstone and
made thunder and lightning. One who had seen
-four mill thought that was ground from a
mill in the sky.
Among the hearing and speaking we find some
poetic conceptions of physical phenomena nttie
She thought the fairies had made them and she she
also believed that fairies lived in the roseouds ana
thought OF the flowers having conscious life. and
refused to pick them because 1t must give them
Lack OF comprehension of duration OF time causes
much perplexity to children: pupil at a mission
of Jacob and Esau Another child said that Gene
sis was the first man. A lady relates that IN ne, ner
pesu Specially for butter. Her msapprehension was
founded on the daily repetition OF the verse ."Ihy
mercies fail not. but are tbutteD renewed every
morning"
A child learning the catechism of the Church Of
England. was much puzzled By the peculiar wording
What did your godfathers and sodmothers .ie then
verb. and inquired the meaning or the word
"to then"
Sensitive imaginative children often suffer keenly
through terror OF future punishment ana the judg-
ment One woke many times from troubled dreams
In which she had seer the signs or the DAY OF Judg
ment in the heavens. Their ideas Of personal
devil often curious. ,
A mother had taught her child OF the love OF God
in simple terms ar she could find, but had tried
to avoid perpiexing the mind OF the three-year-old
by allusion 10 the EVIL One one day she found the
little girl peering eagerly into the ground. and MT
ing her feet very high as she stepped along why
"Oh. mother" the reply, I'm very. very much
afraid that III step the debil. Bridget said yes
erday that he lives beneath the EARTH and he tries
TO make little girls naughty. And perhaps. mother.
II stepped on him. he'd jump right up, and try TO
make me and contradlckshus.
Another child was told by her father that she she
she had to. something made her. and she couldn I
help It. Her father told her II the devil tempt