ltitudinous
sensations are all contained in the richness of the environment, the
two react harmoniously one upon the other, intensifying the activities
that have been awakened: this is exemplified in the case of the child
absorbed in coloring his designs, who will choose the most beautiful
tints while music is being played, or in that of another who,
contemplating the gay and gracious environment of the school and the
flowering plants, will sing his song to perfection.

The first characteristic which manifests itself in our children, after
their process of auto-education has been initiated, is that their
reactions become ever more ready and more rapid: a sensory stimulus
which might before have passed unobserved or might have roused a
languid interest, is vividly perceived. The relation between things is
easily recognized, and thus errors in their use are quickly detected,
judged, and corrected. By means of the sensory gymnastics the child
carries out just this primordial and fundamental exercise of the
intelligence, which _awakens and sets in motion_ the central nervous
mechanisms.

When we see these external manifestations of our quick and active
children--sensitive to the slightest call, ready to run swiftly
towards us without relaxing the attention they give to their own
movements and to all the external objects they encounter--and compare
them with the torpid children in the ordinary schools--clumsy in their
movements, indifferent to stimuli, incapable of spontaneous
association of ideas--we are led to think of the civilization of our
own days as compared with that of olden times. The civil environment
of bygone years, as compared with our own, was more leisurely: we have
learnt how to save time. The stage-coach was once the means of
transport, whereas now we travel in motor-cars and even in aeroplanes;
the voice was the medium of speech from a distance, whereas now we
speak through the telephone; men killed each other one by one, whereas
now they kill each other _en masse_. All this makes us realize that
our civilization is not based upon "respect for life" and "respect for
the soul," but rather is it based upon "respect for time." It is
solely in an external sense that civilization has pursued its course.
It has become more rapid, it has set in motion _machinery_.

But man has not had the same preparation to keep up with it:
individuals have not _accelerated_ themselves methodically; the
children of this bewi