work was done that he drew them out to enjoy their companionship." "1 Every human being must have something in the world upon which to lavish affection and solicitude, something to which he can turn for companionship in his hour of leisure, some end in which his labor finds reward. And if through some mishap in the economy of nature, some abortion of his own instincts, he be deprived of such of these as his own human kind afford, he must turn elsewhere, and that iron-handed master, habit, may well determine that his fate be turned into a rut of money hoarding. It was the entrance of a little child into the life of Silas Marner that transformed the old crabbed miser into the tenderest of fathers. If the child had entered his life first and passed again from it, he might in turn have become the miser. Such is the "expulsive power of a new affection," but affection there must be in every breast, — an end in every life. We do not attempt to choose among these several theories on account of the small number of facts in hand. To study the miser with any degree of satisfaction, both his life history and that of his ancestors should be well in hand. BIBLIOGRAPHY LINUS W. KLINE Allen, Grant. Flash Lights on Nature. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1898. Bolton, Frederic E. "Hydropsychoses," American Journal of Psychology, Vol. X, pp. 169–227, January, 1899. Dawson, George E. "Psychic Rudiments of Morality," American Journal of Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 181-224, January, 1900. Groos, Karl. The Play of Animals (translated by E. L. Baldwin). D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1898. 341 pages. Hall, G. Stanley. "Moral and Religious Training of Adolescents," Princeton Review, Vol. X, pp. 26–48, January, 1882; also Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. I. pp. 196-210, June, 1891. 1 Silas Marner, by George Eliot, p. 19. Hall, G. Stanley. "Some Aspects of the Early Sense of Self,” American Journal of Psychology, Vol. IX, pp. 351-395, April, 1898. James, William. Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, p. 292, New York, 1890. 2 vols. La Fargue, Paul. Evolution of Property. Scribner, London and New York, 1890. 174 pages. Lancaster, Ellsworth G. "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence," Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. V, pp. 61-128, July, 1897. Letourneau, Charles. Property, its Origin and Development (Contemporary Science Series). Scribner, London, 1892. 401 pages. Mason, Otis T. Women's Share in Primitive Culture. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1899. 295 pages. Monroe, Will S. "The Money Sense of Children," Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. VI, pp. 152-158, March, 1899. Moore, Mrs. Kathleen C. Mental Development of a Child. Macmillan, New York, 1896 (150 pages); also Psychological Review, Monograph Supplements, Vol. I, No. 3, 1896 (150 pages). Morgan, C. Lloyd. Habits and Instinct. E. Árnold, London and New York, 1896. 351 pages. Newcomb, Professor G. B. "Theories of Property," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. I, p. 595, 1886. Oberholtzer, S. L. School Savings Banks. Published by American Academy of Social and Political Science, Philadelphia, 1893. Starr, Frederick. "Dress and Adornment," Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 488-502; Vol. XL, pp. 44–57, 194–206, August, November, and December, 1891. Sully, James. Human Mind, Vol. I, p. 476; Vol. II, p. 106. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1892. Tassin, Wirt. "Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Gems in the United States National Museum," Report of the United States National Museum for 1900, pp. 473-670, Washington, 1902. (Special reference is called to the mystical properties of gems, pp. 558–587; also to the exhaustive bibliography.) Tylor, Edward B. Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization. H. Holt & Co., New York, 1878. 388 pages. Weir, James, Jr. "The Herds of the Yellow Ant," Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LIV, pp. 75-81, November, 1898. FETICHISM IN CHILDREN 1 USE OF THE TERMS "FETICH" AND "FETICHISM" The words fetich and fetichism are commonly used as blanket terms for all forms of savage religion, whether worship of sticks, stones, trees, rivers, mountains, fire, animals, or the heavenly bodies, but following Major A. B. Ellis, who has spent many years as an officer in West Africa, I here restrict the terms to their original significance. When the Portuguese began explorations in West Africa some four hundred years ago, Christian Europe was full of relics and images of saints, charmed rosaries, crosses, etc., which were supposed to give protection and success, and when worn gave still greater protection. Such charms were called feitiços, and when the Portuguese saw the negroes paying the same reverence to charmed stones they applied the same word to the savage charms. As to this significance of fetiches there is much diversity of opinion. To Brinton the fetich is something more than the mere object. That the savage beats his fetich when it does not bring him success proves the contrary, nor have we evidence that primitive man was ever able to distinguish between the body and spirit. Fetichism at first confounded the spirit and the object; later, when man became more cultured, he thought of the fetich as the place where the spirit chose to manifest itself, and finally came to consider the fetich as a symbol, an aid to devotion, or even came to rise above its use. With growing 1 Reprinted in abridged form from Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IX, pp. 205220, June, 1902. culture came a growth in æsthetic sense, and the fetich is improved by a gradual conformity to the human figure or some animal form. There is no line of demarcation between the rough unhewn stone fetich and the Aphrodite of Melos. Primitive man worshiped where it paid him to do so, and naturally enough, under the influence of his needs and the environment, certain things that ministered to those needs were worshiped and all others fell into disfavor. Fetichistic practices also form part of the outer worship of Lamaite Buddhism and Taoism, and they are not only tolerated but prescribed by other universal religions. I need but mention the amulets, talismans, scapularies, miracle working relics, etc., among Mohammedans and Christians. Stone worship exists to-day in England, Scotland, Wales, and France as widely as ever. "Modern folklore is full of fetichism, and it is a development of the religious sentiment which flourishes in all times and climes. Amulets, charms, lucky stones, everything that we call by the familiar term of mascot, partakes of the nature of a fetich. Through some fancied potency not to be found among its physical qualities it is believed to bring us good fortune." RECAPITULATION OF THE RACE IN THE CHILD The old saying that parents live again in their children is no less true than that the child lives again the history of the race. Biologically the child passes through a series of types ranging from protozoan to man. At conception the organism is a minute unicellular structure, by the second week it suggests an invertebrate type, at three weeks it has fishlike gill pouches, by the fifth week it has developed amphibian traces and the limbs have become differentiated from the body; thence on to the middle of the third month reptilian characters are found. Gradually the fœtus assumes an anthropoidal character, and from about the fifth to the seventh month the body is covered with short downy hair, without pigment. Any interference with the course of nature may cause arrest at any of these stages and result in monsters at birth. The atavisms of young children are suggestive. The infant sits with the soles of the feet together, as do the apes. Some newborn children can sustain themselves for one minute by clinging to a stick. This is not so strange when we remember that the young of apes have to cling to their mother. There are a large number of rudimentary organs in the body, which, like the vermiform appendix, were useful at some stage of the organic evolution. Psychologically there are many things explained only by the recapitulation theory. In dreams, the old racial fears often make nights miserable. Kissing has developed as evidence of faith that the person would not be eaten, a fear which, so common in our animal ancestors, must be taken to account for the strange fear many have for teeth, fur, etc. Blushing is perhaps a survival of the sex fear. Distrust of strangers and neighbors, so common in sparsely settled communities, is a survival of the fear that primitive man, always at war for existence, had for his fellow-men. The suddenness with which the fear of disease and death may spring up to overmastering power "shows a deep hereditary root copiously watered by superstition." The tendency of children to run away is an echo of the migratory impulse of our ancestors, which has become abnormally developed in the tramp and "globe trotter." The fascination which water has for children and even adults has been taken by Bolton as "abundant proof of man's pelagic ancestry." |