lier glimpse of innocent physical repose
than the little respites from the fatigue of feeding which a baby often
takes. His face moist, with open pores, serene and satisfied, he views
the hurry about him as an interesting phase of harmless madness. He is
entirely outside of it until self-consciousness is quite developed.

The sleep of a little child is another opportunity for us to learn what
we need. Every muscle free, every burden dropped, each breath carries
away the waste, and fills its place with the needed substance of
increasing growth and power.

In play, we find the same freedom. When one idea is being executed,
every other is excluded. They do not think _dolls_ while they roll
_hoop!_

They do not think of work while they play. Examine and see how we do
both. The baby of one year, sitting on the shore burying his fat hand
in the soft warm sand, is for the time being alive _only_ to its warmth
and softness, with a dim consciousness of the air and color about him.
If we could engross ourselves as fully and with as simple a pleasure,
we should know far more of the possible power of our minds for both
work and rest.

It is interesting to watch normal children in these concentrations,
because from their habits we may learn so much which may improve our
own sadly different manner of living. It is also interesting but
pathetic to see the child gradually leaving them as he approaches
boyhood, and to trace our part in leading him away from the true path.

The baby's perfect placidity, caused by mental and bodily freedom, is
disturbed at a very early age by those who should be his true guides.
It would be impossible to say when the first wrong impression is made,
but it is so early that a true statement of the time could only be
accepted from scientific men. For mothers and fathers have often so
dulled their own sensitiveness, that they are powerless to recognize
the needs of their children, and their impressions are, in consequence,
untrustworthy.

At the time the pangs of teething begin, it is the same. The healthy
child left to itself would wince occasionally at the slight pricking
pain, and then turn its entire attention elsewhere, and thus become
refreshed for the next trial. But under the adult influence the agony
of the first little prick is often magnified until the result is a
cross, tired baby, already removed several degrees from the beautiful
state of peace and freedom in which Nature placed him under