she went behind the glass and around
it when it was conveniently placed.

Many animals, on the contrary, are afraid of their reflected image, and
run away from it.

In like manner little children are sometimes frightened by the discovery
of their own shadows. My child exhibited signs of fear at his shadow the
first time he saw it; but in his fourth year he was pleased with it, and
to the question, "Where does the shadow come from?" he answered, to our
surprise, "From the sun" (fortieth month).

More important for the development of the child's _ego_ than are the
observation of the shadow and of the image in the glass is the learning
of speech, for it is not until words are used that the higher concepts
are first marked off from one another, and this is the case with the
concept of the _ego_. Yet the wide-spread view, that the "I"-_feeling_
first appears with the beginning of the use of the word "I," is wholly
incorrect. Many headstrong children have a strongly marked "I"-feeling
without calling themselves by anything but their names, because their
relatives in speaking with them do not call themselves "I," but "papa,
mamma, uncle, O mamma," etc., so that the opportunity early to hear and
to appropriate the words "I" and "mine" is rare. Others hear these words
often, to be sure, especially from children somewhat older, and use
them, yet do not understand them, but add to them their own names. Thus,
a girl of two and a half years, named Ilse, used to say, _Ilse mein
Tuhl_ (Ilse, my chair), instead of "mein Stuhl" (Bardeleben). My boy of
two and three fourths years repeated the "I" he heard, meaning by it
"you." In the twenty-ninth month _mir_ (me) was indeed said by him, but
not "ich" (I), (p. 171). Soon, however, he named himself no more, as he
had done in the twenty-third and even in the twenty-eighth month (pp.
147-167), by his first name. In the thirty-third month especially came
_das will ich! das moecht ich!_ (I wish that, I should like that) (p.
183). The fourfold designation of his own person in the thirty-second
month (p. 180)--by his name, by "I," by "he," and by the omission of all
pronouns--was only a brief transition-stage, as was also the
misunderstanding of the "dein" (your) which for a time (p. 156) meant
"gross" (large).

These observations plainly show that the "I"-feeling is not first
awakened by the learning of words, for this feeling, according to the
facts given above, is present much earlier; b