The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-02
CHILD STUDY.
The Soul and Body Are of
Equal Age.

At the suggestion and invitation of
President G. Stanley Hall of Clark uni
versity, the meeting of the various child
study circles OF the city was held with
the Hall Mothers circle at DR.. Halls
residence on Woodland street, yester-
day afternoon, and was largely attend
ed by the members of the circles and
friends. The meeting was held in Dr..
Halls library, and he had arranged
numerous volumes on the subject of
child study for inspection. The univer-
sity apparatus used in various meas
urementS. were exhibited and it's use
and advantages in the work explained.
/ The subject of DR.. Halls lecture was
/ the evolution of the soul which the
q study of the emotions Of the child is
bringing to a focus. He said in part:
| Darwin and Hegel have taught the
evolution of the physical body of man.
7 In more recent times the belief is be-
coming more real that the soul is as
old as the body. 1t has gone through an
evolution and today retains the marks
| of that period when it belonged to a
creature much inferior to man as he is
today in intelligence.
| However different soul and body
may be they have, nevertheless, been
The soul is subjected to the same in
/ cessant change as the body. There are
| traces still left in the soul of the child
which remind one of the time when our
ancestors lived in trees, fought fiercely
/ for their existence and were afraid of
all the wonders of nature. Thunder
would naturally be of most terrifying
import to a race whose homes were in
the trees. considering the fact that trees
are so likely to be struck by lightning.
a thunder shower would then be life
and death struggle much more than
now. and one could not blame the tree
T dWellers for their overpowering fear.
| A fear of large spaces and of the wind
also suggests tree-dwelling period Of
our race"
/ Pursuing his subject yet further. DR..
Han said that the clinging power Of
babies which just after birth is re-
markably strong, as experiments show,
hlnts OF ancestors who were accustom-
! ed to hang from branches Babies make
a great many swimming motions with
their hands and feet They seem to be
trying to swim in an invisible sea. If,
as some scholars claim. the oldest of all
/ NE was found in the sea, perhaps the
soul, too, has passed through a nautical
period
i There are running away instincts
winch compel truant schools with Off
I
fact that truancy is a remains of pre-
natal instincts. Children love to run
away and explore for themselves and
are righteously indignant when their
instincts are rudely shattered by a pur-
suing parent who brings them prompt
~ nome and ties them to a bed post,
Many an older person, especially in the
| spring, has feeling of wanting to get
, out into the woods alone by himself
for day and tramp it. Tramping and
camping out expeditions show this old
instinct, which has survived long after
the soul has passed into much higher
stages.
The fear of animals is another one of
these remains Of an ancient psychic
life. Almost all domestic animals. wild
animals which have never been seen
by child, and purely imaginary or
'make-believe" animals terrifv one
, child or another. Children go into
spasms over animals they have never
seen or anyone else. All this means
t that once, away back our predecessors
could not meet animals and fight them
as successfully as they do now. and so
We're more afraid of them.
The fear of fire also has it's place
mere. Then the brutality one sometimes
sees IN children. All of us know of in
stances which show the utter lack of
any sympat thy on the part of some chill
dren with animals. These things one
cannot understand unless he takes for
, ground Of explanation some such
point rs this that the soul has not al
WAYS been the same as we know II To-
av but has grown up from a very low,
beginning with the rudeet of instirot,
and the lowest possible forms of a nsv-
chic life. '''