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THE SPEECH OF           CHILD         '           325

Is the need for an order according to which external Impressions
may be classified.

This experiment has gone far beyond our estimations, and
today children learn, having language as a guide, a great deal of
precise knowledge about biology, geography and astronomy—
knowledge which becomes elements sown in a fertile field like the
mind of the child which develops of its own accord, through the
promptings of nature and which urges the children onwards
towards knowledge of the world.

Anyone who regards only from the psychological point of
view these pure manifestations of natural development, as is usually
done by those men of science who are called psychologists, will
possibly discover that children five years old have a wide acquaint-
ance with the outside world and recognize the new objects of
civilization and their names, In a way which might almost seem
mysterious. For example, they recognize the different makes of
automobiles and know their names; their mothers cannot do that.

Astounded by similar facts, Stern concludes: "For thousands
of years the child has been passing like an unknown being In the
midst of humanity; and yet he possesses mental instincts which
make us recognize him as a bond between successive generations
in the development of civilization."