the attempts at persuasion, by making much of it, have concentrated
the attention of the child upon the difficulty, and have taught him
his own power to dominate the situation.

It is right that parents should realise that the disturbing and
irritating element in the child's environment is nearly always
provided by the intrusion of the adult mind and its contact with the
child's. Some supervision and some intrusion, therefore, is of course
absolutely necessary, but the best-regulated nursery is that in which
it is least evident. Something is definitely wrong if a child of two
years will not play for half an hour at a time happily and busily in a
room by himself. It is an even better test if the child will play
amicably by himself with nurse or mother in the room, without the two
parties crossing swords on a single occasion, without reproof or
repression on the one side or undue attempts to attract attention on
the other. If the child is entirely dependent upon the participation
of grown-up persons in his pursuits, then not only do those pursuits
lose much of their educative force, but they become a positive source
of danger because of the constant interplay of personality with
personality. The child who, seated on the ground, will play with his
toys by himself, rises with a brain that is stimulated but not
exhausted. Only very rarely do we find that solitary play, or play
between children, is too exciting. In older children of very quick
intelligence and nervous temperament we occasionally find that the
pace which they themselves set is too exciting or exhausting. I recall
a little boy of seven, an only child of particularly wise and
thoughtful parents, who was brought to me with the complaint that he
exhausted himself utterly both in body and mind by the intense nervous
energy which he threw into his pursuits. For instance, he had been
interested in the maps illustrating the various fronts in the European