Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1902-06-17
Such is the Child According to
Prof O'Shea.
FINE LECTURE LAST NIGHT,
The Man Of ths Ra,src VIII be ,he
Man Of small Muscles and Large
Brain-Another Lecture Tonight

evening lecture. The professors tar
was both scholarly and practical. He
lectures again tonight on how to make
children do what they do not like to
do; that Is, on punishment. A COM
plete synopsis Of last evenings lecture
Is as follows:
Prof. O'Shea said that by many per-
sons the child Is conceived as small
man, and they regard his development
merely as an expansion OF something
already there, With this view, they
come to suppose that the child Is 20 be
dealt with az any other adult, only that
some allowance is to be made for the
childs immaturity But this view II
incomplete and harmful. The child and
the race are more alike than the child
and the man. The individual must pass
over the stages through which the race
has passed. Each child Ii an epltome
OF the life history OF the human race.
and he passes through the various ages
OF the history OF man.
The human body passes through al
the stages OF the life forms which have
preceded Il, and which are inferior TO
Il. and the growth Of the human body
ftnn' 'fn WV tVuiH NHitH AIf human
mind pursues in It's development from
earliest infancy 10 the maturity OF
manhood.
Long ago, when the earth was young,
the life forms Of the earth were very
simple. without completely, and With
out differentiation. The afnoeba was
the type OF the lowest and earliest
forms OF life on earth. II still survives,
but az the world grew older, the ami
nal life became more complex, and be-
came aggregated into colonies. This
successive differentiation and increas-
Ing completely has finally resulted in
the production Of the highest product
or life upon earth. man, who Is the
most complex OF all possible creatures.
The successive appearance of molluscs,
fishes, reptiles, mammals. and man,
shows the Increasing completely OF the
life forms upon the earth. And Il now
appears that the purpose Of the orea-
ton Of these forms OF life has been
realized In the creation Of man, There
Will be no higher form. we suppose, for
as the human eye IL perhaps the high
est example OF perfection OF mechan-
Ism, 40 man is the highest conceivable
type OF physical organism. And even
as the perfection of the eye seems to
be receding. so, we may believe, ply
steal man viii retrograde. The human
eye Is not so keen now as II was In
ages past TO some extent the keen
eye OF our savage ancestors II no long
or ours, and. we see the eye today in a
state Of dccadence. This is illustrated
IN the growing weakness OF the eyes Of
children--a phase of inevitable eyOlu-
tion, because strong, keen eyes are not
now so essential as formerly. But In
harmony and color the eye seems more
perfect than ever before; while In mere
strength, optical devices are relieving
Il Of much of It's labor So. the human
hand Is not so good. nor can mans
power Of bodily locomoiion today be
compared with that OF his ancestors,
Today mans Intelligence has devised
Substitutes FOR his legs Inventions are
going on which annlhilate space and
render the ordinary powers OF locomo
tion unnecessary. Mans body Is be-
coming less, his mind more necessary
20 his life No doubt in all this there
Is some far on divine event, toward
which the whole creation moves" We
observe that mans energy now Is d.
rected not so much against nature as
againat the mental and moral obstacles
he has to overcome. The man Of the
future Will be less muscular and
more mental or moral In
his power. There Is going on
a refining OF the structure Of
human beings--a process which Is sub
stitutlng mind for body. The trend OF
events plainly teaches that the time Is
coming. as indicated by these facts,
when the greatest man VIII be the man
with the least physical development We
look at II somewhat differently In the
colleges. We are accustomed 70 hear
that a certain relation exists between
mental and physical power; that the
strong body gives the strong mind etc.
Yet we see plenty OF instances OF men
now who have an organism that IN
rather handicap than an advantage,
and much of their energy must be de-
voted pretty largely TO keeping their
bodies in repair. Their bodies by their
very powers, are q hindrance, for they
require so much care and attention,
The hardest thing many men have to
do Is the work that accomplishes moth
ing--the mere exercise 10 keep the
body in health and good repair.
The man OF the future who can sit
over his desk all day without having 10
exercise his muscles win probably be
1he most successful man. lie Is the
type Of man 20 which evolution Is
pointing.
Some people interpret man In terms
Of the forms from which he Is sup
posed TO have descended. But there
are those who look at man as the cul-
mlnation Of the upward growth OF ages
of life. The conception today Is that
every distinct form OF life represents
q distinct creation. one form has not
been moulder from another. The varla.
ton which springs up in one species
"a always from within and man does
not pretend that he can fathom this
mystery OF sudden change, or new crea.
lion, In the species.
Every individual must make his start
where the race began. The chicken
passes through the embryonic stages
OF the animals that preceded him. SO
the human child passes through the
various stages OF race history. Traces
OF organs for which the human being
has no use are we'll known today: such
as the muscles that move the ears, the
vermlform appendix, and others. An
human monsters are so simply because
their development was been ar
rested at one Of the lower
stages. At certain stage. all
persons have the hare ZIP and the club
foot SO II is. too, with the develop
ment OF the human mind Goethe's
poetry Is full OF the conception that
all the culture epochs Of the race are
represented In the life OF the child. His
tory and literature are everywhere full
OF this conception. The child at the
outsc, is a spinal cord creature He re-
sponds 10 sensations; then come per-
cepuon, Imagination. and last OF all
reason. SO. too. the emotional life
comes before the intellectual and the
life; Just as we find Il In race
history. In the development Of the eye.
according 10 life history on the earth.
there was originally only sensitlveness
20 light So with the child. His eye
at FIRST Is merely sensitive TO light
Then he learns 10 see objects then TO
see three colors, and finally 20 see the
things that are seen only In adult Me.
The same evolution 10 manifest in Lam
guage. FRS; sounds, then words, then