a providential cooperation.

The secret of the free development of the child consists, therefore,
in organizing for him the means necessary for his internal
nourishment, means corresponding to a primitive impulse of the child,
comparable to that which makes the new-born infant capable of sucking
milk from the breast, which by its external form and elaborated
sustenance, corresponds perfectly to the requirements of the infant.

It is in the satisfaction of this primitive impulse, this internal
hunger, that the child's personality begins to organize itself and
reveal its characteristics; just as the new-born infant, in nourishing
itself, organizes its body and its natural movements.

We must not therefore set ourselves the educational problem of seeking
means whereby to organize the internal personality of the child and
develop his characteristics; the sole problem is that of offering the
child the necessary nourishment.

It is by this means that the child develops an organized and complex
activity which, while it responds to a primitive impulse, exercises
the intelligence and develops qualities we consider lofty, and which
we supposed were foreign to the nature of the young child, such as
patience and perseverance in work, and in the moral order, obedience,
gentleness, affection, politeness, serenity; qualities we are
accustomed to divide into different categories, and as to which,
hitherto, we have cherished the illusion that it was our task to
develop them gradually by our direct interposition, although in
practise we have never known by what means to do so successfully.

In order that the phenomenon should come to pass it is _necessary_
that the spontaneous development of the child should be accorded
_perfect liberty_; that is to say, that its calm and peaceful
expansion should not be disturbed by the intervention of an untimely
and disturbing influence; just as the body of the new-born infant
should be left in peace to assimilate its nourishment and grow
properly.

In such an attitude ought we to await the _miracles_ of the inner
life, its expansions and also its unforeseen and surprising
explosions; just as the intelligent mother, only giving her baby
nourishment and rest, contemplates it, seeing it _grow_, and awaits
the manifestations of nature: the first tooth, the first word, and
finally the action by which the baby will one day rise to his feet and
walk.

But to ensure the psychical phenomena of growth