The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-28

is for our purpose wholly immaterial;
quite as i'm material in fact, as Pro-
fessor Sully, learned man though he
be, is to childhood. 1t is significant
however, of the present trend of
thought in the scientific world that
mot merely to the perennial baby
worshiper, the mother, and not mere
ly to the poet touched with the mys-
terry of far-off things, but to the grave
man of science the infant has become
a center of lively interest"
If we were to be perfectly frank,
we have found ourselves, in reading
the book, far from agreeing with the
suggestions, in many cases, of the
author, and certainly regard some of
"the dark sayings of childhood" to
which Professor Sully refers, as for
instance, when a child asks, "Why
am l not somebody else?" as much
fuller of light than the wonderful
fact of which DR.. Louis Robinson and
Professor Sully are inclined to make
so much, namely that "the new born
infant is able, just like the ape, to
suspend his whole weight by grasp
ing small rod" We are not in love
with evolution, and, like Lord Sails
bury and his memorable address a
year or two ago as President of the
British Association, we bring in the
Scotch verdict mot proven" and go
cheerfully on our way, allowing the
evolutionists also, to go just as cheer
fully on theirs. Passing by, there
fore, this part of Professor Sully's
work, we Gull few of the sayings and
observations of childhood as collected
through this interesting book. 1t is
curious to learn, for instance, that
Mr.. Ruskin, if we may believe his own
memory of his childhood was incapa-
BILE of acting part or telling tale,
and that he never knew a child
whose thirst for visible fact was at
once so eager and methodic."
In the imaginative transformation
of objects in childhood, as instanced
by Professor Sully, we find such
child fancies as that of calling a
twinkling star blinking eye, on the
still more poetical conception of the
child who, seeing the dew on the grass
said, "The grass is crying" or those
who described stars as "cindeus from
Gods star" Such fancies as that OF
addressing the letters of the alphabet
as persons,attributing life to all inap-
innate objects, are valuable as showing
the fashioning instinct of love atworb
in the heart of the child, making a
world of its own as Stevenson has sc
beautifully described in his child.
song: "The Land of Counterpart"
One little fellow of whom we are
told was SO much in earnest in his
playing at the business of coal HEAVIER
that on the day when he imagined
himself to be this useful and pictur-
esque person, he refused to be ad-
dressed by any other name, and asked
in his prayer to be made good coal
HEAVIER, instead of the usual "good
boy" The two sisters who one day
agreed to "play being sisters" may
be, as Professor Sully suggests, really
deeply significant, as indicating that
even then they began to feel the,cold-
ness of conventionalities encroaching
! upon them, and in the play world
could show the genuine warmth and
attachment they were conscious of not
exhibiting ordinarily. Many Sun
day school teacher as we'll as mother,
might learn lesson in the reply of a
little boy to his mother when reading
poem to him, "I'm afraid you can't
understand it, DEAR" to which the
little fellow replied, "Oh, yes, l can
very we'll, if only you would not ex-
plain"
Every one knows meof the beau
| tiful myths of childhood, Santa Claus,
the nursery rhymes, ETC., their eager
ness for stories, and their aptness at
making up stories of their own in
which there is always an element of
wonderful mystery. Hawthorne's
wonderland stories in themselves are
not more wonderful, though more
reasonable, than the stories with
which childhood delights itself.
These stories are not always, perhaps
not generally, intended by their mar
rators to be funny, and Bret Harte is
perhaps right when he asserts that
"the dormant expression of childhood
is gravity and not playfulness." Per-
haps this stage belongs more to the
days of thought and the questioning
age or stage of childhood, but it is