Part 23 (1/2)
It is probable that this will be brought about by that science which studies the health and the maladies of the soul If this should discover that the soul, too, is corruptible, subject to disease and death, that it has its laws of health and its _visto respect and aid this precious force of life should multiply immeasurably; and at the saushes should impose itself on modern medicine, as the question of iion will be indissolubly united
Let us now turn to children of two and a half and three years old, who touch everything, but especially those objects which they evidently prefer, the most simple objects, as, for example, a square block of paper, a square inkstand, or a round, shi+ny bell All things which ”are not meant for them”
Then the , and at the sa the little hands, she calls out, ”Don't touch!
naughty!” I once was present at one of these many family scenes, which pass unnoticed The father, as a doctor, was sitting at the writing-table; thein her ar out its little hands to the various objects upon the table The doctor said, ”That child is incorrigibly naughty, although it is so young Howeverhty!” repeated the htly, while the child threw itself back, howling, and throwing its feet about as if it wished to kick
When children are three or four years older, the struggle becos Those who observe them carefully discover that they have some ”tendency” They wish to imitate what their ly follow her into the kitchen, they wish to share her work, to touch her things, and they try furtively to knead and cook and wash clothes, and sweep the floor The , ”Be quiet; leave it alone Don't tease reat noise, throws hiain to do asseen, as quickly as possible; and by trying to wash things in a hurry, gives hiout, he er, cries, and reproofs increase; and the child reacts with naughtiness and tears; but begins again almost at once
Where the ent, is stillwhich he cannot find, and cries for no reason, he flies into a passion for which no one can account; some fathers laent, but so naughty! nothing will satisfy him
It is no use to buy toys for hi is of any use”
The mother asks anxiously, ”What do you advise ets into passions? He is so naughty, he never keeps still; I cannot contend with him any ood--it is always asleep” Who has not heard so babe in her arms, ”Be quiet, be quiet, I tell you!” and then, naturally the child is frightened, and redoubles its cries
This is the first contest of the le with his parents, with those who have given him life And this occurs because his infant life is ”different” from that of his parents; the child has to form himself, whereas his parents are already forreat deal, to coordinate his movements, which are not yet under control; the parents, on the other hand, have their voluntary anized, and can control their movements; perhaps also they are often tired after their work
The child's senses are not yet fully developed; his powers of acco and feeling, in order to take account of objects as well as of spaces; and his eyes are rectified by the experience of his hands The parents, on the contrary, have developed senses, and have already corrected the primitive illusions of these; their powers of accommodation are perfect, if they have not spoilt them by abuse; in every way cerebral activity leads the senses to receive an exact impression; they have no need to touch Children are anxious to get knowledge of the external world; their parents know it too well already
Therefore they do not understand each other
Parents want their children to do as they do, and any diversity is called ”naughtiness” Think of thewith her; he has to run while she walks; his legs are short, while hers are long; weak, while hers are strong, he has to bear the weight of his body and his disproportionately large head, while the hter and smaller The child is tired and stands and cries, and the ! I won't have any nonsense Do you want ive in to you”
Or again, we see round--or lay themselves flat on their stomachs with their feet in the air, and support themselves on their elbohile they look round the yourself dirty, naughty child”
All this may be translated in this way: ”The child is different from the adult The formation of his body is such that his head and his body are enors, because they are the part which will grow , and prefers to lie at full length, which is the most healthy position for hiets his first ideas of external life and assists his senses of sight and hearing by touching, in order to realize the forms of objects and distance He moves continually, because he reat deal, walks very little, throws hins that he is alive, and that he is growing” No--all this is looked upon as naughtiness
This is evidently not a moral question We do not seek for means to correct these depraved tendencies of the man who is but just born No, it is not a moral question It is, however, a question of life
The child seeks to live and ant to hinder hiards ourselves, since we have begun to exae the rights of others Moreover, our own egotism is concealed beneath our errors of treatives us trouble; we struggle against him in order to protect our own comfort, our own liberty How often at the bottom of our hearts we have felt that we have been unjust, but have stifled this impression
The little rebel does not accuse us or bear us htinesses” which are for us everything, in forgetting our offenses, in longing to be with us, to embrace us, to sit upon our knees, to fall asleep on our bosom This, too, is a form of life And we, if we are tired or satiated, repulse hi this excess of selfishness under a hypocritical pretense of concern for the child himself: ”Don't be so silly!” Insult and caluhty, naughty” And yet the figure of the child oodness, which ”thinketh no evil, delighteth not in iniquity, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things” As to us--no, we cannot always say as le between the adult and the child could be brought to an end in ”peace,” and the adult, accepting the conditions of infant life, would seek to help the child, the former would be able to advance towards one of the most subli the natural develop rosebud has becoreater is the poetry of the infant soul in its ift which was placed beside us, in order that the ht accompany us and co as if demented
When the child desires to touch and to act, in spite of ”punishments of every kind,” he persists in exercises necessary ”to his developainst which we are often powerless; he shows the sary, and in raising himself when he wants to walk Thus the child turns to external objects which respond to his needs: if he finds them, he displays his powers in muscular or sensory exercises, and then he is joyous; and if he does not find them, he is restless as when his desires are unsatisfied Toys are too light to satisfy ar andobjects; they are too cole sensation They are vanity, and in themselves they represent simulacra and parodies of actual life And yet they form the world of our children, in which they are constrained to ”consume” their potential powers in a continuous exasperation, which incites thes
Happily, children do not hear the pronouncement of the common formula, that children have an ”instinct” for destruction Nor are they familiar with the other axiom which contradicts this: That the instinct of ”property,” in other words, selfishness, is strongly developed in the instinct to ”grow,” and therefore to raise and to perfect himself; in every period of life he seeks instinctively to prepare himself for the next period This fact is very e instincts we calumniously attribute to hi children to act for themselves; they are at once ”transfora Children's House, it sufficed to provide a cohtiest, most rebellious of the children, the one who,” into a lively and attractive little girl, who combed the hair of her coht We had only to say to an aard, lethargic child, who ca out her arms to have her sleeves pulled down for her: ”Do it yourself,” and there was a flash of intelligence in her eyes, her weary face was lighted up by an expression of satisfied pride and aan to pull down her sleeves with positive delight When these children were given a little basin and a piece of soap, how carefully they e to break it, and how caressingly they handled the soap, laying it down very gently! It see figures, with an accoures were the children, the music was their own joy
These children, occupied in dressing, cleaning, washi+ng, co their environment, work _themselves_ As a result, they love useful objects so much that they will preserve a piece of paper for years, and instead of knocking against furniture, and breaking objects, they perfect their movements
But we place ourselves beside these lives which are hastening triumphantly to their salvation, and seek to bind theun and the fear we have already provoked We approach theently and seductively; and because when a child breaks things he is obviously grieved, and therefore would endeavor to correct and perfect his rief, which would be in the nature of ”an act of repentance on the part of the ive hi vessels made of metal, toys made of stuff, woolly bears, india-rubber dolls Henceforth his ”errors”
will be concealed Every error of the er feel the pain of evil-doing, repentance, an effort to perfect himself He will be able to sink into error; behold him, clumsy, heavy, without expression in his face, a stuffed bear in his arms! He is now bound fast to vanity and error, and has lost all consciousness thereof
The adult he for the child, dresses him, even feeds him But the child's desire is not to be dressed and materially nourished: his deep desire is to ”do,” to exercise his oers intelligently, and thus to rise to his higher level With what subtle insinuations does the adult seek to confound hi yourself and why? That you may be washed? That you may put on your pinafore? You can have all this done for you without any effort You will find it all done with greater perfection and ease Without er you shall have a hundred times more done for you than you could accomplish for yourself, even with all the exertion of which you are capable You need not even put the bread into your mouth, you shall be spared even this trouble, and you will take in nourishment all the more copiously