I have from the
beginning given to my boy, to the best of my knowledge invariably, an
answer to his questions intelligible to him and not contrary to truth,
and have noticed that in consequence at a later period, in the fifth and
the sixth and especially in the seventh year, the questions prove to be
more and more intelligent, because the previous answers are retained.
If, on the contrary, we do not answer at all, or if we answer with jests
and false tales, it is not to be wondered at that a child even of
superior endowments puts foolish and absurd questions and thinks
illogically--a thing that rarely occurs where questions are rightly
answered and fitting instruction is given, to say nothing of rearing the
child to superstition. The only legend in which I allow my boy to have
firm faith is that of the stork that brings new babes, and what goes
along with that.
With regard to the development of the "I"--feeling the following holds
good:
This feeling does not awake on the day when the child uses for the
first time the word "I" instead of his own name--the date of such
use varies according as those about it name themselves and the child
by the proper name and not by the pronoun for a longer or a shorter
period; but the "I" is separated from the "not-I" after a long
series of experiences, chiefly of a painful sort, as these
observations have made clear, through the _becoming accustomed to
the parts of one's own body_.
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