appearance of the Genies at the rubbing
of the wonderful lamp. And her world grows every day fuller and wider
and more enchanting, just as the hazy cloud of the milky way unfolds and
reveals itself to us under more and more powerful telescopes into
star-dust, into myriads of distinct shining points, into stars and suns;
and, under the telescopes of reasoning science, into worlds separated by
distances so great, that "the imagination sinks exhausted," and very
properly. Now, if any one will recall the sensation with which she first
looked through a powerful telescope at this sight, she will then
understand the state in which the brain of the little girl lives, as a
continual atmosphere, and she will have no need to ask herself whether
it is needful or allowable to add much cause for activity to that brain,
for, at least, the first seven years of its life.

If mothers could only go to walk themselves with their little girls more
often, instead of sending their ignorant nurses, they would comprehend
this more fully. The fact that they do not "want to be bothered" with
the child, only shows that they are dimly conscious of the truth, though
their action testifies that they do not appreciate its significance. It
is not necessary to speak only of city life here, for a walk along a
country road keeps the little three year old girl in a state of
continual high excitement. Is there not the wonderful thistle-down to be
blown away, and the flight of each silken-winged seed to be watched
with anxious eyes? Are there not clusters of purple and white asters in
unexpected places? Are not the steep and dangerous rocky precipices by
the side of the way to be daringly scaled and slid down? Do not the
geese live in this pasture, and the sheep and the one solitary pig in
that? The raspberry vines droop their rosy fruit into her hand, the
tall, big, golden-rods snap their stalks so unexpectedly when she bends
them, while she finds herself unable to gather the slender grasses. Then
there are such charming nooks for hiding, among the ferns and
hazel-bushes, and the bits of mica glistening all along the road are
each of a different size and shape, and must be carefully collected. The
toad startles her as it leaps out of the road, the grasshoppers strike
her face, and wonderful people drive by in wonderful machines, drawn by
vast and wonderful animals. The amount of knowledge which an intelligent
child will accumulate during seven weeks' stay i