threatens or ill-uses them. They are not terrified by drunken brawls
or scenes of passion. They are not made fearful by the superstitions
of ignorant people. Nevertheless, by the summation of stimuli little
emotions constantly repeated can have effects no less grave upon
their nervous system. From this constantly acting irritation the child
needs security. In the second place, he requires liberty to develop
his own initiative, which should be stimulated and sustained and
directed. Without liberty and without security conduct cannot fail to
become abnormal.


(_d_) THE REASONING POWER OF THE CHILD

Before we proceed to a closer examination of the various symptoms of
nervous unrest in detail, we may very briefly consider the scope and
power of the child's understanding. As a rule I am sure that it is
grossly underestimated. The mental processes of the child are far
ahead of his power of speech. The capacity for understanding speech is
well advanced, and an appeal to reason is often successful while the
child is still powerless to express his own thoughts in words. Because
he cannot so express himself there is a tendency to underestimate the
acuteness of his reasoning, to talk down to him, and to imagine that
he can be imposed upon by any fiction which seems likely to suit the
purpose of the moment. A child of eighteen months is not too young to
be talked to in a quiet, straightforward, sensible way. Only if he is
treated as a reasonable being can we expect his reasoning faculties to
develop. Children dislike intensely the unexplained intervention of
force. If a pair of scissors, left by an oversight lying about, has
been grasped, the first impulse of the mother is to snatch the danger
hurriedly from the child's hands, and her action will generally be