unknown terms, or joint is where the bone is broken, and there are stones in the knees. Within the skin is blood and something hard, perhaps wood. Physical self-consciousness, which is in little danger of becoming morbid at this age, begins with recognition of the hand, then of the foot, because these are the most mobile parts, but has not often reached the face at this age, and blushing is rare; while psychic self-consciousness is commonly only of pain, either internal, as of stomach ache, or peripheral, as of cuts, bruises, etc. The world is square, straight, or flat, and if the other side has been thought of it is all woods or water or ice, or where saved people or Protestants, or anything much heard of but little seen, are; if we go to the edge of the world we come to water or may fall off, or it may be like a house and we live on top. The first notion of a hill may be of some particular pile of sand, perhaps on the molding board, three inches high, or a rubbish heap in the back yard, or a slant where a sled will run alone; but a comprehensive idea of hill with opposite sides, though simpler and easier than most geographical categories, is by no means to be assumed.

If children are pressed to answer questions somewhat beyond their ken, they often reply confusedly and at random, while if others beside them are questioned they can answer well; some are bolder and invent things on the spot if they seem to interest the questioner, while others catch quick subtle suggestions from the form of the question, accent, gesture, feature, etc., so that what seems originality is really mind reading, giving back our very thought, and is sometimes only a direct reproduction, with but little distortion because little apprehension, of what parents or teachers have lately told them. But there are certain elements which every tactful and experienced friend of children learns to distinguish from each of these with considerable accuracy — elements which, from whatever source, spring from deep roots

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in the childish heart, as distinct from all these as are Grimm's tales from those of some of our weakly juvenile weeklies. These are generally not easily accessible. I could not persuade an old nurse to repeat to me a nonsensical song I half overheard that delighted a two-year-old child, and the brothers Grimm experienced a similar difficulty in making their collections. As many workingmen nail a horseshoe over their door for luck, and many people really prefer to begin nothing important on Friday, who will not confess to a trace of superstition in either case, so children cling to their "old credulities to nature dear," refusing every attempt to gain their full confidence or explore secret tracts in their minds, as a well-developed system of insane illusions may escape the scrutiny of the most skillful alienist. As a reasoning electric light might honestly doubt the existence of such things as shadows because, however near or numerous, they are always hidden from it, so the most intelligent adults quite commonly fail to recognize sides of their own children's souls which can be seen only by strategy. A boy and girl often play under my window as I write, and unconscious words often reveal what is passing in their minds when either is quite alone, and it is often very absurd or else meaningless, but they run away with shame and even blushes if they chance to look up suddenly and catch me listening. Yet who of us has not secret regions of soul to which no friend is ever admitted, and which we ourselves shrink from full consciousness of? Many children half believe the doll feels cold or blows, that it pains flowers to tear or burn them, or that in summer when the tree is alive it makes it ache to pound or chop it. Of 48 children questioned 20 believed sun, moon, or stars to live; 15 thought that a doll, and 16, that flowers, would suffer pain if burned. Children who are accounted dull in school work are more apt to be imaginative and animistic.

The chief field for such fond and often secret childish fancies is the sky. About three fourths of all questioned thought the world a plain, and many described it as round like a dollar, while the sky is like a flattened bowl turned over it. The sky is often thin, one might easily break through; half the moon may be seen through it, while the other half is this side; it may be made of snow, but is so large that there is much floor sweeping to be done in heaven. Some thought the sun went down at night into the ground or just behind certain houses, and went across, on, or under the ground to go up, out of, or off the water in the morning ; but 48 per cent. of all thought that at night it goes or rolls or flies, is blown or walks, or God pulls it up higher out of sight. He takes it into heaven, and perhaps puts it to bed, and even takes off its clothes and puts them on in the morning, or again it lies under the trees where the angels mind it, or goes through and shines on the upper side of the sky, or goes into or behind the moon, as the moon is behind it in the day. It may stay where it is, only we cannot see it, for it is dark, or the dark rains down so, and it comes out when it gets light so it can see. More than half the children questioned conceived the sun as never more than 40 degrees from the zenith, and, naturally enough, city children knew little of the horizon. So the moon (still italicizing where the exact words of the children are given) comes around when it is a bright night and people want to walk, or forget to light some lamps; it follows us about and has nose and eyes, while it calls the stars into, under, or behind it at night, and they may be made of bits of it. Sometimes the moon is round a month or two, then it is a rim, or a piece is cut off, or it is half stuck or half buttoned into the sky. The stars may be sparks from fire engines or houses, or with higher intelligence they are silver, or God lights them with matches and blows them out or opens the door and calls them in in the morning. Only

in a single case were any of the heavenly bodies conceived as openings in the sky to let light or glory through, or as eyes of supernatural beings, a fancy so often ascribed to children and so often found in juvenile literature. Thunder, which, anthropologists tell us, is or represents the highest God to most savage races, was apperceived as God groaning or kicking, or rolling barrels about, or turning a big handle, or grinding snow, walking loud, breaking something, throwing logs, having coal run in, pounding about with a big hammer, rattling houses, hitting the clouds, or clouds bumping or clapping together or bursting, or else it was merely ice sliding off lots of houses, or cannon in the city or sky, hard rain down the chimney, or big rocks pounding, or piles of boards falling down, or very hard rain, hail, or wind. Lightning is God putting out his finger or opening a door, or turning a gas quick, or (very common) striking many matches at once, throwing stones and iron for sparks, setting paper afire, or it is light going outside and inside the sky, or stars falling. God keeps rain in heaven in a big sink, rows of buckets, a big tub or barrels, and they run over or he lets it down with a water hose through a sieve, a dipper with holes, or sprinkles or tips it down or turns a faucet. God makes it in heaven out of nothing or out of water, or it gets up by splashing up, or he dips it up off the roof, or it rains up off the ground when we don't see it. The clouds are close to the sky; they move because the earth moves and makes them. They are dirty, muddy things, or blankets, or doors of heaven, and are made of fog, of steam that makes the sun go, of smoke, of white wool or feathers and birds, or lace or cloth. In their changing forms very many children, whose very life is fancy, think they see veritable men, or more commonly, because they have so many more forms, animals' faces; and very often God, Santa Claus, angels, etc., are also seen. Closely connected with the above are the religious concepts so common

with children. God is a big, perhaps blue man, very often seen in the sky on or in the clouds, in the church, or even street. He came in our gate, comes to see us sometimes. He lives in a big palace or a big brick or stone house on the sky. He makes lamps, babies, dogs, trees, money, etc., and the angels work for him. He looks like the priest, Fröbel, papa, etc., and they like to look at him, and a few would like to be God. He lights the stars so he can see to go on the sidewalk or into the church. Birds, children, Santa Claus, live with him, and most but not all like him better than they do the latter. When people die they just go, or are put in a hole, or a box or a black wagon that goes to heaven, or they fly up or are drawn or slung up into the sky where God catches them. They never can get out of the hole, and yet all good people somehow get where God is. He lifts them up, they go up on a ladder or rope, or they carry them up, but keep their eyes shut so they do not know the way, or they are shoved up through a hole. When children get there they have candy, rocking-horses, guns, and everything in the toyshop or picture book, play marbles, top, ball, cards, hockey, hear brass bands, have nice clothes, gold watches, and pets, ice cream and soda water, and no school. There are men who died in the war made into angels, and dolls with broken heads go there. Some think they must go through the church to get there, a few thought the horse cars run there, and one said that the birds that grow on apple trees are drawn up there by the moon. The bad place is like an oven or a police station, where it burns, yet is all dark, and folks want to get back, and God kills people or beats them with a cane. God makes babies in heaven, though the Holy Mother and even Santa Claus make some. He lets them down or drops them, and the women or doctors catch them, or he leaves them on the sidewalk, or brings them down a wooden ladder backwards and pulls it up again, or mamma or the doctor or the