The Absorbent Mind

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DRENCHED

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OU 164288

OSMANIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Call No. 1J6.72A76A Accession No. 28877

AuthorMontensori , f'aria
Title Absorbent min<i

This book shoulc be returned on or ocfore the date last marked below.

THE ABSORBENT MIND

THE \

\ ABSORBENT |

MIND

by

Maria Montcssori

M.D., D.Litt., F.E.I.S

1949

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE
ADYAfi MADRAS INDIA

INTRODUCTION

THE present volume is based upon the lectures given by
Dr. Maria Montessori at Ahmedabad, during the first
Training Course after her internment in India which
lasted up to the end of World War II. In it she exposes
the unique mental powers of the young child which
enable him to construct and firmly establish within a few
years only, without teachers, without any of the usual
aids of education, nay, almost abandoned and often
obstructed, all the characteristics of the human per^bnal-
ity. This achievement by a being, weak in its physical
powers, who is born with great potentialities, but prac-
tically without any of the actual factors of mental life, a
being who may be called a zero, but who after only
six years already surpasses all other living beings, is
indeed one of the greatest mysteries of life. In the present
volume Dr. Montessori not only sheds the light of her
penetrating insight, based on close observation and just
appreciation, on the phenomena of this earliest and yet
most decisive period of human life, but also indicates the
responsibility of adult humanity towards it. She, indeed,
gives a practical meaning to the now universally accepted
necessity of " education from birth ". This can be given,
only, when education becomes a " help to life " and

VI

transcends the narrow limits of teaching and direct
transmission of knowledge or ideals from one mind to
another. One of the best known principles of the
Montessori Method is " the preparation of the environ-
ment " ; at this stage of life, long before the child enters
a school, this principle provides the key to the realization
of an education from birth, to a real cultivation of a
human individual from its very beginning. This is a plea
made on scientific foundations, but it is the plea also of
one who has witnessed and helped the manifestations of
child-nature all over the world, manifestations of mental
and spiritual grandeur, which form a startling contrast to
the picture shown by mankind which, abandoned during
its formative period, grows up as the greatest menace to
its own survival.

MARIO M. MONTESSORI
Karachi, May 1949.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction . . . v

~ I. The Child and World Reconstruction . . 1

II. Education for Life . . . .10

III. The Periods of Growth . . .24

IV. A New Orientation . . .41
V. The Miracle of Creation . . .57

One Plan, One Method . . .74

VI. Man's Universality . . . .91

VII. The Psycho-embryonic Life . . .107

VIII. The Conquest of Independence . .122

IX. Care to be taken at Life's Beginning . 1 38

X. On Language . . . .157

XI. The Call of Language . . .169

XII. Obstacles and their Consequences . .184

XIII. Movement and Total Development . .198

XIV. Intelligence and the Hand . . .212
XV. Development and Imitation . . . 224

XVI. From Unconscious Creator to Conscious Worker . 235
XVII. The New Teacher . . .247
XVIII. Further Elaboration through Culture and Imagi-
nation . . . .261
XIX. Character and its Defects in Young Children . 276
XX. A Social Contribution of the Child : Normal-
ization. .... 288
XXI. Character- building a Conquest, not a Defence . 302
XXII. The Sublimation of Possessiveness . .315

Vlll

CHAPTER

XXIII.
XXIV.

XXV.

XXVI.

XXVII.

XXVIII.

Social Development

Society by Cohesion

Error and its Control

The Three Degrees of Obedience

The Montessori Teacher

The Fountain Source of Love : the Child

PAGE

325
342
363
375
393
409

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Dr. Maria Montessori

The Multiplication of the Germinal Cell

A Chain of 100 Genes

Primitive Ball and Walls of Cells .

Points of Sensitivity

Types of Cells

Embryonic Forms

New Born Child and Adult brought to the same

The Cerebellum at the base of the brain

Diagram. Tendencies towards Independence

Development of Language

Grammar Symbols

Schematic diagram of the Development of
Language ....

Development of Movement

Normal and deviated features of the child's
Character ....

Circles of attraction towards superior and
inferior types ....

seal

PAGE

Frontispiece
. 49
. 60
. 65
. 66
. 68
. 75
114
. 128
facing 1 36
facing 1 84
facing ] 86

facing 196
facing 2 1 2

facing 291
facing 360

CHAPTER I
THE CHILD AND WORLD RECONSTRUCTION

THIS book is a link in our campaign to defend the great
powers of the Child. To-day while our world is being
torn apart, here and there one hears of plans being
formulated for future reconstruction. One of the means
which is envisaged for the purpose is education. Indeed
the intensifying of education, the return to religion is
recommended generally. I too feel that humanity is not
yet ready to take part in the evolution that it desires so
ardently, the construction of peaceful and harmonious
society, the elimination of wars. Men are not sufficienty
educated to control the events, rather they become the
victims of them. Although education is recognised as
one of the means for the uplift of humanity, it is con-
ceived as an education of the mind only ; some superior
sort of ordinary education is still envisaged.

Philosophies and religions are said to give a contri-
bution, it may be true, but how many philosophers are
there in the ultra -civilised world of today and how many
have there been before and how many more will there be

I

THE ABSORBENT MIND

in future ? Noble ideas, great sentiments have always
existed and have always been transmitted, but wars have
never ceased. And if education were to be conceived
along the old lines of transmitting knowledge, the problem
would remain without solution for ever. Indeed, there
would be no hope for the world. It is not transmission
of knowledge that is required, the consideration of the
human personality alone can lead us to salvation. And
we hold in front of our eyes a psychic entity, a social
personality, immense in multitude of individuals, a world
power that must be taken into consideration. If salvation
and help are to come, it is through the child ; for the
child is the constructor of man.

The child is endowed with an unknown power and
this unknown power guides us towards a more luminous
future. Education can no longer be the giving of know-
ledge only ; it must take a different path. The con-
sideration of personality, the development of human
potentialities must become the centre of education. When
to begin such education ?

The greatness of the human personality begins from
the birth of man. This is an affirmation full of reality
and strikingly mystic at the same time. But, practically
speaking, how can one give lessons to a child that is just
born, or even to children in the first or second year of
life ? How can we imagine giving lessons to a babe ?
He does not understand when we speak, he does not
even know how to move ; so how can he learn ? Is it

THE ABSORBENT MIND

perhaps hygiene merely that is intended when we speak
of education of small children > Certainly not ! In
modern times the psychic life in the new-born child has
called forth great interest. Many scientists and psycho-
logists have made observations of children from 3 hours
to the 5th day from birth. Others, after having studied
children carefully, have come to the conclusion that
the first two years are the most important of life. Edu-
cation during this period must be intended as a help to
the development of the psychic powers inherent in the
human individual. This cannot be attained by teaching
because the child could not understand what a teacher
would say.

Unexploited Riches

Observation, very general and wide-spread, has
shown that small children are endowed with a special
psychic nature. This shows us a new way of imparting
education ! A different form which concerns humanity
itself and which has never been taken into consideration.
The real constructive energy, alive and dynamic, of
children, remained unknown for thousands of years. Just
as men trod upon the earth first and cultivated its surface
in later times, without knowing of or caring for the
immense riches that lay hidden in the depth, so is man
now-a-days progressing in civilisation without knowing
of the riches that lie buried inside the psychic world of
the child and indeed, for thousands of years, from the

3

THE ABSORBENT MIND

very beginning of humanity itself, man has continued
repressing these energies and grinding them into the dust.
It is only today that a few have begun to suspect their
existence. Humanity has begun to realise the impor-
tance of these riches which have never been exploited
something more precious than gold ; the very soul
of man.

These first two years of life furnish a new light that
shows the laws of psychic construction. These laws
were hitherto unknown. It is the outer expression of the
child that has revealed their existence. It shows a type
of psychology completely different from that of the adult.
So here begins the new path. It is not the professor who
applies psychology to children, it is the children them-
selves who teach psychology to the professor. This may
seem obscure but it will become immediately clear if we
go somewhat more into detail : the child has a type of
mind that absorbs knowledge and instructs himself. A
superficial observation will be sufficient to show this.
The child of two speaks the language of his parents. The
learning of a language is a great intellectual acquisition.
Now who has taught the child of two this language ? Is it
the teacher ? Everyone knows that that is not so, and
yet the child knows to perfection the names of things, he
knows the verbs, the adjectives etc. If anyone studies
the phenomenon he will find it marvellous to follow the
development of language. All who have done so agree
that the child begins to use words and names at a certain

THE ABSORBENT MIND

period of life. It is as if he had a particular time-table*
Indeed, he follows faithfully a severe syllabus which has
been imposed by nature and with such exactitude that
even the most pains-taking school would suffer in com-
parison. And following this time-table the child learns
all the irregularities and different syntactical constructions
of the language with exacting diligence.

The Vital Years

Within a child there is a very scrupulous teacher. It
is he who achieves these results in every child, no matter
in what region he is found. The only language that man
learns perfectly is acquired at this period of childhood
when no one can teach him. Not only that, but no
matter what help and assistance he will get later in
life if he tries to learn a new language, he will not
be able to speak it with the same exactitude as he does
the one acquired in childhood. There is a psychic power
in the child that helps him. It is not merely a question
of language. At two years he is able to recognise all
the things and persons in his environment. The more
one thinks about it the more it becomes evident that the
construction the child achieves is immense : for all that
we possess has been constructed by the child we once
were, and the most important faculties are built in the
first two years of life. It is not merely a question of
recognising what it is around us or understanding and
dealing with our environment. It is the whole of our

THE ABSORBENT MIND

intelligence, our religious sentiment, our special feelings of
patriotism and caste that are built during this period of
life when no one can teach the child. It is as though
nature had safeguarded each child from the influence of
human intelligence in order to give the inner teacher that
dictates within, the possibility of making a complete
psychic construction before the human intelligence can
come in contact with the spirit and influence it.

At three years of age the child has already laid the
foundations of the human personality and needs the
special help of education in the school. The acquisitions
he has made are such that we can say the child who
enters school at three is an old man. Psychologists say
that if we compare our ability as adults to that of the
child it would require us 60 years of hard work to achieve
what a child has achieved in these first three years. And
they express themselves by the strange words that I have
mentioned above : at three a child is already an old man.
Even then this strange ability of the child to absorb from
the environment is not finished. In our first schools the
children came at three years of age ; no one could teach
them because they were not receptive. But they gave
striking revelations of the greatness of the human mind.
Our school is not a real school ; it is a house of children,
i.e., an environment specially prepared for the children
where the children absorb whatever culture is spread in
the environment without any one teaching them. In our
first school the children who attended came from the

THE ABSORBENT MIND

lowest class of people ; the parents were quite illiterate.
Yet these children at 4 years knew how to read and
write. Nobody had taught them. Visitors were surprised
to see children of so tender an age writing and reading.
" Who has taught you how to write ? ", they asked and
the children would look up in wonder and answer,
" Taught ? no one has taught me ". This seemed at
the time a miracle. That children so small could write
was in itself wonderful, but that they should do so with-
out having received any teaching seemed impossible.
The press began to speak about * spontaneous acquisition
of culture '. Psychologists thought that these children were
special children and we shared this opinion for a long
time. It was only after some years that we perceived
that all children have this power of absorbing culture. If
this is so, we reasoned, if culture can be taken in without
fatigue then let us put different items of culture for them
to absorb. So the children absorbed much more than
reading and writing, subjects like botany, zoology, mathe-
matics, geography and so on were taken with the same
ease, spontaneously, without any fatigue.

So we found that education is not what the teacher
gives : education is a natural process spontaneously
carried out by the human individual. It is acquired not
by listening to words, but by experiences upon the environ-
ment. The task of the teacher then becomes not one of
talking, but one of preparing a series of motives of cultural
activity spread in a specially prepared environment.

THE ABSORBENT MIND

My experiences have lasted for 40 years now and as
the children developed, here and there, in different nations,
parents asked me to continue the education for older
children and so we found that individual activity is the
only means of development : that this is true for the pre-
school child as well as for the young people in primary
and other schools.

The New Man Arises

In front of our eyes arose a new figure. It was not
a school or education. It was Man that rose ; Man
who revealed his true character as he developed freely ;
who showed his greatness when no mental oppression
was there to restrict his soul. And so 1 say that any
reform of education must be based upon the develop-
ment of the human personality. Man himself should
become the centre of education. And it must be remem-
bered that man does not develop only at the univer-
sity : man starts his development from birth and before
birth. The greatest development is achieved during the
first years of life, and therefore it is then that the
greatest care should be taken. If this is done, then the
child does not become a burden ; he will reveal himself
as the greatest marvel of nature. We shall be confronted
by a child not as he was considered before a powerless
being an empty vessel that must be filled with our
wisdom. His dignity will arise in its fullness in front of
our eyes as he reveals himself as the constructor of our

8

THE ABSORBENT MIND

intelligence, as the being who, guided by the inner
teacher, in joy and happiness works indefatigably, follow-
ing a strict time-table, to the construction of that marvel
of nature : MAN. We, the human teachers, can only
help the great work that is being done, as servants help
the master. If we do so, we shall be witnesses to the
unfolding of the human soul, to the rising of a New Man
who will not be the victim of events, but who will have
the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of
human society.

CHAPTER II
EDUCATION FOR LIFE

The School and Social Life

IT is necessary from the very beginning to have an
idea of what we intend by an education for life that
starts from birth and even before birth. It is necessary
to go into detail about this question, because recently,
for the first time, a leader of the people has formulated
the necessity not only of extending education to the whole
course of life, but also of making ' defence of life * the
centre of education. I say for the first time when I refer
to a political and spiritual leader, because science has not
only expressed the necessity of it, but from the beginning
of this century it has given positive contributions which
show that the conception of extending education to
the whole life can be done with certainty of success*
Education, as a help and protection to life, is an idea
which certainly has not entered the field of action
of any ministry of education, neither in America
North or South nor in Europe. Education as conceived
up to today is rich in methods, in social aims and final-
ities, but it takes hardly into any consideration whatever

10

THE ABSORBENT MIND

life itself. There are many official methods of education
adopted by different countries, but no official system of
education considers life itself or sets out to protect de-
velopment and help the individual from birth. If educa-
tion is protection to life, you will realize that it is necessary
that education accompany life during its whole course.
Education as conceived today prescinds from both bio-
logical and social life. If we stop to think about the
question we soon realise that all those who are under-
going education are isolated from society. Students must
follow the rules established by each institution and adapt
themselves to the syllabus recommended by the ministry
of education. If we think about it we find also that in
these schools no consideration is given to life itself. If
the high school student for instance has not enough food,
that is no concern of the school. In the recent past if
there were children who were partly deaf, they were
marked out by their receiving lower marks because they
were unable to hear what the teacher said, but the
defects of the child were not taken into consideration.
If a child was defective in sight he also received bad
marks because he could not write as beautifully as other
children. Physical defects have not been taken into
consideration until very lately and when this was done,
it was from the point of view of hygiene. Even now,
however, no one worries about the danger there is for
the mind of the student, danger due to defects in the
methods of education adopted. What school worries

tl

THE ABSORBENT MIND

about the kind of civilisation the children are forced to
live in ? The only thing officialdom is bothered about is
whether or not the syllabus has been followed. There
are social deficiencies apt to strike the spirit of young
men attending the university and which do strike them,
but what is the official admonition ? " You students
should not concern yourselves with politics. You must
attend to your studies and after you have formed your-
selves, then go into the world ". Yes. That is quite so,
but education today does not form an intelligence capable
of visualising the epoch and the problems of the times
in which they live. Scholastic mechanisms are foreign
to the social life of the times : its study does not enter
the realm of education. Who has ever heard of any
ministry of education that is called upon to solve any
social problem acutely felt in the country ? Never has
such a case occurred because the world of education is
a sort of retreat where the individuals, for the whole of
their scholastic life, remain isolated from the problems of
the world. They prepare themselves for life by remain-
ing outside of life.

There may be, for instance, a university student who
dies of tuberculosis. That is very sad indeed. But as
a university, what can be done > At the most it can
provide to be represented at the funeral. There are
many individuals who are extremely nervous ; when they
go into the world, they will be useless not only to
themselves, but will be a cause of trouble to their family

12

THE ABSORBENT MIND

and to their friends. That may be so, but I, as authority,
am not concerned with peculiarities of psychology. 1
am only concerned with studies and examinations. Who
passes them will receive a diploma or a degree. That
is as far as the schools of our times go. Those who study
sociology or problems of society have said that the people
who come from school or university are not prepared for
life, not only that, but most are diminished in their possi-
bilities. Sociologists have compiled statistics and have
found that there are many criminals, many mad and
many more who are considered * strange * : they con-
clude by saying that the schools must do something to
remedy this.

This is a fact. The school is a world apart and if
there are social problems the school is expected to ignore
them. It is the sociologists who say that schools must
do something, but the school itself has not the possibility
of doing so, because the school is a social institution of
long standing and its rules cannot be modified unless
there is some outside power which enforces this modifi-
cation. These are some of the deficiencies that accom-
pany education and therefore the life of all who
go to school.

The Pre-School Age

What about the child from birth to the seventh year,
or of the child before its birth ? It is taken into no con-
sideration whatever by the school. This age is called

13

THE ABSORBENT MIND

pre-scholastic and this means it falls outside the concern
of the school. And as to people who are just born what
could the school do about them > Wherever institutions
have been created for children of pre-school age, these
are hardly ever governed by the ministry of education.
They are controlled by municipalities or private institu-
tions who dictate their own rules and regulations. Who
is concerned as a social problem with the protection of
the life of the small child ? No one ! Society says that
small children belong to the family and not to the state.
Today great importance is given to the first years
of life. But what is it that is being recommended > A
modification of the family, a modification in the sense
that mothers must be educated. Now, the family does
not form a part of school, but of society. So we see
how the human personality or the care of the human per-
sonality is broken into pieces. On one side there is a
family which is one part of society, but is generally
isolated from society, from social care. On the other the
school, also kept apart from society, and then the univer-
sity. There is no Unitarian conception of the social care
of life. There is one piece here, one piece there and
each one ignores the other. Even those new sciences
that reveal the harm of this isolation such as social psy-
chology and sociology are themselves isolated from the
school. So nowhere is there a reliable system of help for
the development of life. When a statesman says that
education must be a help to life, we realise the importance

14

THE ABSORBENT MIND

of it. It is, as I mentioned before, nothing new to abstract
science, but socially it is something that does not yet
exist. It is the next step to be taken by civilisation.
Everything is prepared however : criticism has revealed
the errors of the existing conditions, others have shown
the remedy to be applied at different stages of life.
Everything is ready for the construction. The contribu-
tions of science may be compared to the stones cut and
ready for the building, but what is necessary is some one
who takes the stones and puts them together to make the
new building necessary for civilisation. That is why the
resolution of this Indian leader is of such great import-
ance. It is a step that will permit civilisation to rise
higher and it is to the building of this step, that in the
field of applied science, we strive and work.

The Task of Education and Society

What is the conception of education that takes life
as the centre of its own function ? It is a conception
that alters all previous ideas about education. Education
must no longer be based upon a syllabus but upon
the knowledge of human life. Now, if this is so and
it has to be so the education of the new-born acquires
a sudden great importance. It is true that the new-born
cannot do anything, cannot be taught in the ordinary
sense, it can only be observed, it can be studied so as
to find out what are the needs of the new-born life.
Observation has been carried out by us with a view of

15

THE ABSORBENT MIND

discovering what are the laws of life, because if we wish
to help life the first thing we must do is to know the
laws governing life. Not- only this, because if it were
merely knowledge that we sought then we would remain
in the field of psychology ; but if we are concerned
with education our action cannot be limited merely to
knowledge. This knowledge must be spread, for all
must know what is the psychic development of the child.
Education then acquires a new dignity, a new authority,
because education will then tell society : " These are
the laws of life. You cannot disregard them and you
must act in this way."

Indeed if society wishes to give compulsory educa-
tion it means that education must be given, practically,
otherwise one cannot call it compulsory ; and if educa-
tion is to be given from birth, then it is necessary for
society to know what are the laws of the development
of the child. Education can no longer remain isolated
from society but must acquire authority over society.
Social machinery must arrange itself around what is to be
done so that life be protected. All must be called upon
to collaborate : mothers and fathers must, of course, do
their part well, but if the family has not sufficient means,
then society must give not only knowledge, but enough
means to educate the children. If education means care
of the individual and if society recognises that such and
such a thing is necessary for the child for its development
and the family is not capable of providing for it, then

16

THE ABSORBENT MIND

it must be society which provides for the child. The
child must not be abandoned by the state. Thus educa-
tion, instead of remaining apart from society, is bound
to acquire authority over society. It is evident that
society must have control over the human individual,
but if education is considered as a help to life, this con-
trol will not be one of restraint and oppression, but a
control of physical help and psychic aid. It will be re-
alised by these few words that the next step for society is
that of allotting a great deal of money to education.

Step by step the needs of the child during the years
of growth have been studied scientifically and the results
of this study are being given out to society. The educa-
tion conceived as a help to life takes in every one not
only the child. That means that social conscience must
take over responsibility for education and that education
will spread its knowledge to the whole of society in every
step it takes, instead of remaining isolated from society
as it does today. Education as protection to life affects
not only the child, but the mothers and fathers as well
as the state and international finance. It is something
which moves every part of society, indeed it is the great-
est of social movements. Education as it is today !
Can we imagine anything more immobile, stagnant and
indifferent ? Today if economy is to be made in a state,
education is the first victim. If we ask any great states-
man about education he will tell us : " I do not know
anything about education. Education is a specialisation.

17

THE ABSORBENT MIND

I have even entrusted the education of my children to
my wife and she has given them to the school." In future
it will be absolutely impossible for any head of the state to
answer in this fashion when one speaks about education.

The Child Builder of Man

Now, let us take another point. Let us take the
statements made by different psychologists who have
studied small children from their first year of life. What
conception does one derive from them ? Generally that
from now on instead of growing haphazardly, the indivi-
dual will grow scientifically, with better care. He will
achieve better development and growth. This is the
common idea : " The individual will grow stronger,
the individual will grow more balanced in mind and
have a stronger character ". In other words the extreme
conception is that besides being provided with physical
hygiene, the growing child will be provided with mental
hygiene. But this cannot be all. Let us suppose that
science has made some discoveries about this first period
of life, and this is not merely a supposition. .Indeed there
are powers in the small child that are far greater than
is generally realised, because it is in this period that the
construction, the building-up of man takes place, for
at birth, psychically speaking, there is nothing at all
zero ! Indeed not only psychically, for at birth the child
is almost paralytic, he cannot do anything, he cannot
speak, even though he sees all that happens around him.

18

THE ABSORBENT MIND

And behold him after a while ; the child, talking, walking
and passing on from conquest to conquest until he has
built up man in all his greatness, in all his intelligence.
If we consider this we begin to have a glimpse of reality.
The child is not an empty being who owes whatever he
knows to us who have filled him up with it. No, the
child is the builder of man. There is no man existing
who has not been formed by the child he once was.
In order to form a man great powers are necessary and
these powers are possessed only by the child. These
great powers of the child which we have described for
long, and which at last have attracted the attention of
other scientists, were hitherto hidden under the cloak of
motherhood, in the sense that people said that it is the
mother who forms the child, the mother who teaches him
to talk, walk etc., etc. But I say that it is not the
mother at all. It is the child himself who does all these
things. What the mother produces is the new-born babe,
but it is this babe who produces the man. Suppose the
mother dies, the child grows just the same. Even if the
mother is not there, and even if the mother has not the
milk necessary to feed him, we give other milk to the
child and that is how he continues to grow. It is the
child who carries out the construction and not the mother.
Suppose we take an Indian child to America and entrust
him to some Americans. This child will learn the English
language and not an Indian language. By English, we
mean American English. So it is not the mother

19

THE ABSORBENT MIND

that gives the knowledge. He takes it himself and if
these Americans really treated the child as one of their
own, this Indian child would acquire the habits and customs
of the American people and not those of the Indian
people. So none of these things is hereditary. The father
and mother cannot claim the credit : it is the child who,
making use of all that he finds around him, shapes himself
for the future.

The child needs special aid in order to build man
properly and society must give this its attention. Re-
cognising the merits of the child does not diminish the
authority of the father and the mother for when they
come to realise that they are not the constructors, but
merely the helpers of this construction, then they will be
able to do their duty better ; they will help the child with
a greater vision. Only if this help is well given will the
child achieve a good construction, not otherwise. So
the authority of parenthood is not based upon an inde-
pendent loftiness but upon the help that is given to the
child. Parents have no authority other than that. Let
us consider another aspect. Everyone will have heard of
Karl Marx who was the originator of a social reform
when he made the workers realise that whatever society
enjoys was due to their work and that everything we
have in our environment has been made by some man
or woman. Our daily life is based upon these workers
and if they ceased to produce, our social and political
life would cease. This is part of the theory of Karl Marx.

20

THE ABSORBENT MIND

The workers are those who really give us the possibility
of carrying on our lives ; they produce the environment
and provide everything, food, clothing, every means of
life. When people realised this, the working man no
longer appeared as the poor labourer who depended for
his bread on his employer ; he assumed his real import-
ance. Previous to that all importance was given only to
princes, kings and capitalists, but later the merits of the
workers came to light. And the real contribution of the
capitalist was realised as the supplier of the means that
the workers needed to carry out their work ; also that the
better were the conditions afforded to the worker, the
better and more accurate was his product.

Let us carry this idea into our field. Let us realize
that the child is the worker who produces man. The
parents furnish the means of construction to the worker.
The social problem confronting us then is of much
greater importance, because from the children's work,
humanity itself is produced, not an object. Childhood
does not produce one race, one caste, one social group,
but it produces the whole of humanity. This is the
reality that humanity must envisage : it is the child that
society must take into consideration, this worker who
produces humanity itself. The two social questions
really present a striking resemblance, e.g. before
Karl Marx expounded this idea, the working men were
not considered. They had to do whatever they were
told just as the child has to ; the workers' needs and his

21

THE ABSORBENT MIND

dignity as a man were not considered. In the work of
the child, the needs of life physical and psychic are
not considered, and his dignity of man is non-existent.
What have socialists and communists done ? They have
started a movement in order to obtain better conditions
of life for the working man. Also to the child, this con-
structor, we must give better means of life. Workers ask
for more money ; more money must also be given to
those who produce humanity. The workers wish to free
themselves from restraints and repressions. We must
free childhood from repression that weighs upon it. The
conditions of this constructor of man are more dramatic
than those of the constructor of the environment. Better-
ing the conditions of life for the constructor of man will
bring about a betterment in humanity. We must follow
this great worker from the moment he starts, at birth,
follow him until he reaches adulthood ; and provide him
with means necessary for a good construction. We must
remember that he is going to form that humanity which
with its intelligence is building civilisation. The child is
the builder of our intelligence, and it is our human in-
telligence which guides our hands and produces what we
call civilisation.

If life itself is taken into consideration and studied,
we shall know the secret of humanity. We shall have in
our hands the power of governing and helping humanity.
The social vision of Karl Marx brought about a revolution.
It is a revolution that we are preaching when we speak

22

THE ABSORBENT MIND

about education. It is a revolution inasmuch as every-
thing that we know today will be changed. Indeed I
consider it the last revolution. It will be a non-violent
revolution because if the slightest violence is offered to
the child, then his psychic construction will be faulty.
This delicate construction of human normality, as it
should be, needs protection ; it must be carried out with-
out the slightest violence being offered to it. Indeed all
our effort has been to remove obstacles from the path of
the growth of the child. We have taken away from him
the dangers and misunderstandings that surrounded him.

This is what is intended by education as a help to
life ; an education from birth that brings about a revolu-
tion : a revolution that eliminates every violence, a re-
volution in which everyone will be attracted towards a
common centre. Mothers, fathers, statesmen all will be
centred upon respecting and aiding this delicate con-
struction which is carried on in psychic mystery following
the guide of an inner teacher.

This is the new shining hope for humanity. It is
not so much a reconstruction, as an aid to the construc-
tion carried out by the human soul as it is meant to be,
developed in all the immense potentialities with which
the new-born child is endowed.

23

CHAPTER III
THE PERIODS OF GROWTH

ACCORDING to the modern psychologists who have
followed children from birth to university age, there are
in the course of development different and distinct
periods. This conception is different from the one
which was held previously and which considered that
the human individual when young holds very little and
then becomes more capable as it grows, the concep-
tion of something small that developed, i.e., something
small which grows, but which holds always the same form.
That was the old conception about the human mind.
Today psychology recognises that there are different
types of psyche and different types of mind at different
periods of life. These periods are clearly distinct from
one another. It is curious to say that these periods
correspond to different phases in the development of the
physical body. The changes are so great, psychically
speaking, that certain psychologists, trying to render them
clear, have exaggerated and they have expressed them-
selves in this fashion : " Growth is a succession of births."

24

THE ABSORBENT MIND

At a certain period of life, a psychic individuality ceases
and another is born. These successive births take place
during the period of growth. The first of these periods
goes from birth to six years. This period shows notable
differences, but during its whole length the type of mind
is the same. From zero to 6 the period shows two
distinct sub-phases. The first from to 3 years shows
a type of mentality which is unapproachable by the adult,
i.e., upon which the adult cannot exert any direct in-
fluence and, indeed, there is no school for such children.
Then there is another sub-phase from 3 to 6 in which the
type of mind is the same, but the child begins to become
approachable in a special manner. This period is
characterised by the great transformations that take place
in the individual. In order to realise this, it is sufficient to
think about the difference there is between a new-born
babe and a child of 6. How this transformation takes
place does not concern us for the moment, but the fact
is that at 6 years the individual becomes, according to
the usual expression, intelligent enough to be admitted
to school.

The next period is from 6 to 1 2 years. This period
is one of growth, but without transformations. It is a
period of calm and serenity. It is also psychically speaking
a period of health and strength and security. Now if we
look at the physical body, we see signs that seem to mark
the limit between these two psychic periods. The trans-
formation that takes place in the body is very visible. I

25

THE ABSORBENT MIND

will cite only one item : the child loses his first set of teeth
and starts growing the second.

Then there is the third period which goes from 1 2
to 18 years, which is also a period of such transformation
that it reminds us of the first period. This last period
can also be sub-divided into two sub-phases, one that
extends from 12 to 15 and one from 15 to 18. This
period is also distinguished physically by transformations
in the body which achieves maturity. After 18 man is
considered completely developed and there is no longer
any considerable transformation. Man merely becomes
older.

The curious thing is that official education has
recognised these different psychic types. It seems to
have had a subconscious intuition of them. The first
period from to 6 years of age has been clearly recog-
nised because it has been excluded from compulsory
education and it has been noticed that at 6, there is a
transformation. People seem to have reasoned that the
child of 6 years is sufficiently intelligent to be admitted
to school. In doing so they have unconsciously admitted
that the child knows a great many things ; for if he were
completely ignorant, he would not be able to attend
school. If, for instance, children do not know how to
orientate themselves, how to walk, how to understand
when somebody talks and so forth, even at 6, they would
be unable to attend school. So we might say that this
has been a practical recognition. But they never thought,

26

THE ABSORBENT MIND

these educators, that if the child can come to school, find
his way about and understand the ideas transmitted to
him, he must have learned to do so, because at birth he
was unable to do any of these things. Who has taught
him then ? Not the teachers, because, as we saw, during
this period the child is excluded from school. It has
never even entered their minds that there must be a very
elaborate procedure to enable the new-born individual
who had no intelligence, no co-ordinated movement, no
will, and no memory, to understand what we say.

An unconscious recognition was also given to the
second period, because in many countries at 1 2 years of
age children generally leave the elementary school and
enter high school. Why have they chosen the period
from 6 to 1 2 and why do they consider it the proper
period in which to give the basic and elementary items
of culture ? As this happens in every country of the world,
it means that it was not done by chance. It means that
there must be a psychic basis common to all children that
made this possible. It had been recognised by reasoning
based upon experience. It has been found that during
this period, the child can submit to the mental work
necessary in schools. He understands what a teacher
says and he has enough patience to listen and to learn.
During this whole period, he is constant in his work, as
well as strong in health. It is because of these charac-
teristics that this period is considered as the most pro-
fitable for imparting culture.

27

THE ABSORBENT MIND

After the 12th year of age, usually there is the begin-
ning of a higher sort of school. By this official education
has recognised that at that year a new type of psychology
begins in the human individual. That this type has two
divisions has also been felt. It is shown by the fact that
they have divided high schools into two parts.

We have in our country an inferior and a superior
high school. The inferior high school lasts three years
and the superior sometimes two and sometimes three.
Here we have a period which is not as smooth and
calm as the preceding one. Psychologists say that
it is a period of such psychic transformation that it
may be compared to the first period from to 6. Usually
during this period the character is not steady, there is
indiscipline and some sort of rebellion. Physical health
also is not as strong and secure as during the second
period. But the school pays no heed to this. A certain
syllabus has been elaborated and children are forced to
follow it, whether they like it or not. In this period also
the children have to sit and listen to the teachers, have
to obey implicitly and spend their time memorising
things.

Then comes the university. The university also does
not differ essentially from the types of school that precede
it, except perhaps by the intensity of study. Here also
the professors come, they talk and students listen.
When I was young, men did not shave, they had
beards. And it was curious to see in the lecture halls

28

THE ABSORBENT MIND

all these men fully bearded, some of them with pointed
beards, some with square ones ; some had long beards
and some had them short, while the most different varieties
of moustaches were displayed. Yet all these men mature
and more than mature were as little children. They
had to sit and listen ; they had to submit to the jibes of the
professors ; they had to depend for their cigarettes, for their
street-car fares on the liberality of their fathers who scolded
them if they failed in the examinations. They were
adult men ! These men, whose intelligence, whose
experience was going to direct the world, whose instru-
ment of work was to be the intelligence and to whom
were alloted the highest professions, were the future
doctors, engineers, lawyers. And what good is a
degree today ? Is one's life assured on receiving one's
degree ? Who goes to a doctor who has only just received
it ? And if somebody wants to build a beautiful house,
does he go and ask the services of a newly fledged
engineer. Or if I have a law suit on my hands, am I
going to employ a newly accredited lawyer ? No. And
why ? For the simple reason that all these years of study,
all these years of listening, do not form ' man ' ; only practi-
cal work and practice do that. Thus we find that young
doctors have to serve in hospitals, and lawyers have to
practise in the office of an established lawyer. The same
plan has to be followed for the engineer. This ap-
prenticeship lasts for years and years, before they can
have a practice of their own. And in order to be able

29

THE ABSORBENT MIND

to find a place to practise, they must have an opportunity
and protection. There have been very strange cases
resulting from this in many countries. A typical one took
place in New York. There was a procession exclusively
of intellectuals ; hundreds of them who had been unable
to find any sort of employment. They bore a banner
with this information : " We are without work ; we are
starving. What are we to do ?" Such is the situation,
even today. There is no planning. Education is with-
out control, but some sort of acknowledgement is given
to the fact that during growth there are different types at
different periods of life. There are different mental types
and to each mental type has been allotted a different
phase of education, elementary, high school and university.

The Period of Creation

When I was young, the children from 2 to 6 years
were not taken into consideration at all. Now there are
pre-school institutions of different kinds. There is the
creche for small children and the so-called Montessori
school, nursery and kindergarten schools for children from
3 to 6. But today, as then, the most important part of
education is considered to be university education,
because from the university come the people who have
best cultivated that part of man's mind which we call
intelligence. Now that the psychologists have come to
study life, there is a tendency to go to the other extreme,
and there are other people besides me who say that the

30

THE ABSORBENT MIND

most important part of life is not the university, but the
first period the period that extends from to 6 years,
because it is during this first period that intelligence, the
great instrument of man, is formed ; and not only intelli-
gence, but the whole of the psychic faculties are con-
structed during this period. This has made a great
impression upon all who have had any sensibility towards
psychic life. Today many meditate upon the small
child ; upon the new-born, and the one year old, who
create the personality of man ; and they feel the same
emotion, the same deep impression as those who in olden
times used to meditate upon death. What is it that takes
place when death comes ? This is what attracted medita-
tion and sentimentality in the past. Today a similar
meditation is being carried out upon man who has just
entered the world. This is a Man, this is the being who
has been created with the highest and loftiest intelligence.
Why is he to have such a long and painful infancy ? No
animal has a period of infancy so painful and so
long. This is what attracts the attention of the thinkers.
"What is it that takes place during this period ?" they
ask themselves.

Certainly it is a period of creation because before
nothing existed, and then, a year or so after birth, the
child knows everything. It is not as if a child were born
with a little bit of intelligence, with a little bit of memory,
with a little bit of will which after a while grows. There
is nothing ! Individuality starts from zero ! It is not as

31

THE ABSORBENT MIND

though there were a little voice that later developed, as is
the case, for instance, for the kitten, who at birth is able to
mew even if imperfectly, or for the bird or the calf. Man
is absolutely mute. The only means of expression he
has is that of crying. In the case of the human being, it
is not a question of development. It is a question of
creation that starts from zero. If you do not exist, you
cannot hope to grow. That is the tremendous step the
child takes, the step that goes from nothing to something.
We are not capable of it. Our mind is not capable of it.

A type of mind different from ours, endowed with
different powers is necessary to accomplish this. And it
is not a small creation that the child achieves. It is the
creation of all. He creates not only the language, but the
organs that make it possible for us to speak. Every
physical movement he creates, every side of our intelli-
gence. He creates all that the human mind, the human
individual is endowed with. It is a tremendous achieve-
ment !

This is not done with a conscious mind. We are
conscious ; we have a will and if we want to learn some-
thing, we go about it. There is no consciousness in the small
child, no will. For both consciousness and will have to
be created. The child's mind is not the type of mind we
adults possess. If we call our type of mind the conscious
type, that of the child is an unconscious mind. Now an
unconscious mind does not mean an inferior mind. An
unconscious mind can be full of intelligence. One will

32

THE ABSORBENT MIND

find this type of intelligence in every being and every
insect has it. It is not a conscious intelligence even though
sometimes it looks as if it were endowed with reason. It
is of an unconscious type and while he is endowed with
it the child performs his wonderful achievements. The
child of one year has already seen all things that are in
his environment and is capable of recognising them.

How has he been able to take in this environment >
This is due to one of the special characteristics that
we have discovered in the child : a power of such
intense sensitivity that the things which surround him in
the environment awaken in him an intense interest and
such a great enthusiasm that they seem to penetrate into
his very life. The child takes all these impressions not
with his mind, but with his life. The acquisition of lan-
guage is the most evident example of this. How is it
that the child acquires language ? It is said that the child
is endowed with the sense of hearing, that he hears the
voice of the human being and thus he learns to speak.
Let us admit this. It is a fact. Why, however, amongst all
the millions of different sounds and noises that surround him,
does he hear just the voice of man ? If it is true that the
child hears, and if it is true that he takes only the language
of human beings, it means that the human language must
have made a great impression on the child. These
impressions must be so strong, they must cause such an
intensity of feeling and such a great enthusiasm as to
set in motion invisible fibres within the body that begin

33

THE ABSORBENT MIND

to vibrate in order to reproduce those sounds. We
can compare it to something similar in ourselves. Some-
times one goes to a concert. After a while one begins
to see rapt expressions on the faces of the public ; heads
and hands begin to move. What has brought them into
movement if not the impressions caused by the music >
Something similar must happen in the unconscious mind
of the child. The voice causes such impressions that
the impressions aroused in us by music seem almost
non-existent in comparison. One can almost see these
movements of the tongue that thrills, of the minute chords
that tremble and of the cheeks, everything vibrating and
becoming tense, preparing in silence to reproduce those
sounds that have caused so much emotion in the un-
conscious mind. And how is it that the child acquires
language in its exactness > It is so exactly and firmly
acquired that this language forms part of his psychic per-
sonality, it is called his mother-tongue, and it is as clearly
distinguished from all other languages that he may
learn, as a set of false teeth may be distinguished from
the natural set. How is it that these sounds which
in the beginning have no meaning suddenly bring to his
mind understanding, ideas > He has not merely taken
in the words. He has taken 4 the sentence, the con-
struction of the sentence.' If we do not understand the
construction of the sentence, we cannot understand
language. If we say, for instance, " the glass is on the
table " it is the order of the words that gives the sense.

34

THE ABSORBENT MIND

If one said to them, " glass the on is table " it would be
difficult to get the idea. It is the sequence of words that
we understand. The child has absorbed the construc-
tions of the language.

The Absorbent Mind

How does it take place ? It is said " he remembers
these things ", but in order to remember, he has to have
memory and he had no memory ; he has still to con-
struct it. He would have to have the power of reasoning
in order to realise that the construction of a sentence is
necessary in order to understand it. But he has no
reasoning power. He has to construct it.

Our mind, such as it is, could not do it ; to accom-
plish it a different type of mind is needed, and that is
what the child possesses, a type of intelligence different
from ours. We might say that we acquire with our
intelligence, the child absorbs with his psychic life. The
child merely by going on with his life, learns to speak the
language belonging to his race. It is like a mental
chemistry that takes place in the child. We are vessels ;
impressions pour in, and we remember and hold them in
our mind, but we remain distinct from our impressions,
as water remains distinct from the glass. The child
undergoes a transformation. The impressions not only
penetrate the mind of the child, but form it. They become
incarnate. The child makes its own * mental flesh ' by
using the things that are in his environment. We have

35

THE ABSORBENT MIND

called his type of mind * Absorbent Mind\ It is difficult
for us to conceive the powers of the absorbent mind of
the small child, but certainly it is a privileged form of
mind. If only it could continue, if only it persisted ! Just
think. The child is born and for some months he lies in
his house. After a while he walks, goes around, does
things and he enjoys himself, he is happy ; he lives from
day to day and by doing this he learns movements ;
language comes into his mind with all its constructions ;
the possibility of directing his movements to suit his
life and many other things. Whatever is in his en-
vironment comes to be part of his mind : habits, customs,
religion. Think how wonderful it would be if, while merely
enjoying ourselves, merely by existing, just because we
had such a type of mind, we could become doctors or
lawyers or engineers. Think of it. Children learn the
language with all the perfection or imperfection they find
in their environment without going to school. How
wonderful would it be if one could learn German merely
by walking with a German. Instead how hard have we
to work. Arid how much have we to study when we
have to learn the different subjects.

Little by little the child becomes conscious of all
the things, these form his consciousness. And so we
see the path followed by the child. He acquires
all unconsciously, gradually passing from uncon-
scious to conscious, following a path of pleasure
and love,

THE ABSORBENT MIND

This consciousness seems to us a great acquisi-
tion. To become conscious ; to acquire a human
mind ! But we pay for it. Because as soon as we
become conscious, every new acquisition causes hard
work and fatigue.

Movement is another of these wonderful acquisi-
tions. At birth the child moves very little, then gradually
his body becomes animated. He starts to move. The
movements that the child acquires, just as is the case
with language, are not formed by chance. They are
determined in the sense that they are acquired during
a special period. When the child begins to move, his
absorbent mind has already taken in the environment.
Before he starts to move, an unconscious psychic develop-
ment has already taken place. As he starts to move,
he begins to become conscious. If you watch a small
child of three, he is always playing with something.
That means he is elaborating with his hands, putting
into his consciousness, what his unconscious mind had
taken in before. It is by this experience in the environ-
ment in the guise of playing that he goes over the
things and the impressions that he has taken into his
unconscious mind. It is by means of work that he
becomes conscious and constructs Man. He is directed
by a marvellously grand mysterious power which little
by little he incarnates and thus he becomes a Man. He
becomes a man by means of his hands, by means of his
experience, first through play, then through work. The

37

THE ABSORBENT MIND

hands are the instrument of the human intelligence. And
by means of this experience he becomes a man, he takes
a definite form and becomes limited because conscious-
ness is always more limited than unconsciousness and
sub-consciousness.

He comes to life and begins his mysterious work
and little by little he becomes the wonderful personality
adapted to his time and to his environment. He builds
his mind, until little by little he has constructed memory ;
until little by little he has constructed understanding,
reasoning power ; until little by little, he has arrived at
his 6th year. Then suddenly we educators discover that
this individual understands, that he has the patience to
listen to what we say, whereas before we had no power
to reach him. He lived on another plane, different from
ours. In this book we are concerned with this first period.
And a study of the psychology of the child in the first
years of his life is so marvellous, so full of miracles, that
all who understand it cannot help but feel a great emo-
tion. Our work is not to teach, but to help the absorbent
mind in its work of development. How marvellous it
would be if by our help, if by an intelligent treatment
of the child, if by understanding the needs of his physical
life and by feeding his intellect, we could prolong the
period of functioning of the absorbent mind ! What a
service we should render if we could help the human
individual to absorb knowledge without fatigue, if man
could find himself full of knowledge without knowing how

38

THE ABSORBENT MIND

he had acquired it, doing it almost by magic. And why
should it not be possible ? Is not nature full of magic, full
of miracles ?

The discovery of the fact that the child is endowed
with an absorbent mind has brought about a revolution
in education. Now it is easy to understand why the
first is the most important amongst the periods of develop-
ment. The creation of human character takes place
within its span ; and once we have understood this, it
also becomes clear that we must help the child in his
creative work. For there is no age in which the child is
more in need of intelligent help than in this period. It is
evident that if the child meets with obstacles, his creative
work becomes less perfect. We do not any longer help
the child because he is a small and weak being. No ! We
have realised that the child is endowed with great creative
powers, that these great powers are delicate in their
nature and can be thwarted if obstacles are placed in
their path. It is these powers we wish to help, not the
small child, not his weakness. When we understand that
these powers belong to an unconscious mind which must
become conscious by work and experience carried out
in the environment, when we realise that the child's
mind is different from ours, that we cannot reach it and
teach him things, that we cannot directly intervene in
this process of passing from the unconscious to the
conscious and of constructing the human faculties ; then
the whole conception of education will change and will

39

THE ABSORBENT MIND

become that of a help to the child's life. Education will
take the guise of an aid to the psychic development of
man and not of making him memorise ideas and facts.

This is the new path of education and how to help
this mind in its different processes, how to second the
different powers and how to give strength to the different
qualities of this mind will be the object of our study in
this book.

40

CHAPTER IV
A NEW ORIENTATION

IN our days there is a definitely new orientation in
biological studies. Previously all study was carried out
on the adult being. For instance, when animals or
plants were studied by scientists it was the adult
specimen which came under consideration. This applied
also to the studies upon humanity. It was always the
adult that was taken into consideration, e.g. in the
study of morality, in the study of sociology, it was
always the adult. Another field which attracted the
attention and meditation of the thinkers was death
and this was logical because the adult being as he
proceeds in life is headed towards death. The study
of morality was, we might say, the study of the conditions
and rules of social contact amongst adults. It is true that
there are moral ideas such as love for one another, the
sacrifice of one's self for the welfare of other beings and
so forth, but all these are difficult virtues. They require
a preparation and an effort of the will. Today scientists
seem to have taken the opposite direction. It seems as

41

THE ABSORBENT MIND

though they were proceeding backwards. Both in the
study of human beings and of other types of life, they
consider not only the very young beings, but their very
origin. So biology directs its attention to embryology,
to the life of the cell and so forth. From this orientation
towards the origin a new philosophy has sprung up
but this philosophy is not of an idealistic nature.
Rather, we might say, it is scientific because it springs
from observation and not from abstract deductions of
thinkers. The progress of this philosophy proceeds side
by side with the progress in the discoveries made in
the laboratories.

When one enters the field of origins, the field of
embryology, one sees things which do not exist in the
fields that concern adults, or if they do exist, they are of
a very different nature. Scientific observations reveal a
type of life which is quite different from the one that
humanity was accustomed to consider previously. It is
by this new field of research that the personality of the
child has been thrown into the limelight. A very banal
consideration will show that the child does not progress
towards death like the adult, the child progresses to-
wards life because the purpose of the child is the con-
struction of man in the fullness of his strength and in
the fullness of his life. When the adult arrives, the
child is no longer. So the whole life of the child is a
progress towards perfection, a progress of ever greater
achievement. Even from this banal observation, one can

42

THE ABSORBENT MIND

deduct that the child can find joy in the fulfilment of a
task of growth and perfection. The child's is a type of
life in which work, the fulfilment of one's task, brings
joy and happiness, whereas in the field of adult, work
is something which is usually a rather painful process.
This process of growth, this proceeding in life is for
the child something that expands and enlarges, inasmuch
as the older the child becomes, the more intelligent and
stronger he becomes. His work, his activity help the
child to acquire intelligence and strength, whereas in the
case of adults, it is rather the contrary. Also in this field
of the child, there is no competition, because no one
can do the work that the child does in order to construct
the man that he has to construct. In other words,
nobody can grow for him.

The adults who are near the child usually are
protectors of the child. So one can see that, in the
case of human beings, it is in the field of the child
that examples and inspiration for a better society can be
found. It is not a question of an ideal. It is a reality.
As this field is different and also as it represents a
better kind of life, it deserves to be studied.

Now let us go still further back in the life of the
child, i.e. to the period before birth. Already before
birth the child has contact with the adult because as an
embryo life is spent in the body of the mother. Before
the embryo, there is the germinal cell which is the result
of two cells which come from adults. So from either

43

THE ABSORBENT MIND

side when one goes towards the origin of the life of
human beings, and when one goes on following the child
towards the completion of his task of growth, one finds
the adult. The child's life is the line that joins the two
generations of adult life. The child's life which originates
and is originated, starts from the adult and finishes
in the adult. This is the way, the path of life, and it is
from this life that touches the adult so intimately that a
great light can be derived. That is why its study is so
fascinating.

The Two Lives

Nature furnishes special protection to the young.
They are born amidst love, the very origin of the child is
love. Once he is born, he is surrounded by the love of
his father and mother. So it is not in strife that he is
generated and that is his protection. Nature gives to
the parents love for their young and this love is not
something artificial, or enforced by reason, such as the
idea of brotherhood that all people aspiring to unity are
trying to arouse. It is in the field of the child's life that
can be found the type of love which shows what ought
to be the ideal moral attitude of the adult community,
because only here can be found love that naturally
inspires self-sacrifice. It inspires the dedication of an
ego to somebody else, the dedication of one's self to the
service of other beings. In the depth of their sentiment
all parents give up their own life in order to dedicate it to

44

THE ABSORBENT MIND

their children. This sacrifice that the father and mother
make is something natural that gives joy. It does not
appear as sacrifice. Nobody for instance says : " Oh,
this poor man has two children etc." But one says : 4t How
lucky this man is to have a wife and children. What a
joy it must be for her to have such lovely children ! "
And yet there is a real self-sacrifice on the part of the
parents for their children, but it is a sacrifice which gives
joy. It is life itself, so that the child inspires that which
in the adult world represents an ideal : renunciation, self-
sacrifice which are almost impossible to attain. What
businessman, if, on the market, there is something rare he
needs, tells another rival firm : " Here you take it,
I do not want it ? " But if they are both hungry and
if there is only a small piece of bread, what father
or mother would not say to the child : " You eat
it. I am not hungry ? " This is a very lofty sort of love
that can be found only in the world of children. It is
nature that gives it. So there are two different lives.
The adult has the privilege of taking part in both. In
one life because of the child and in the other because he
is a member of society. The better of the two is the
part which concerns the child because in this life his
loftiest sentiments are developed.

Now it is curious that, if the study is carried out
among animals instead of among men, these two types
of life are also to be found. There are, for instance, the
wild and ferocious animals which seem to change their

45

THE ABSORBENT MIND

instincts when they have a family. Everybody knows how
tender are tigers and lions for their young and how brave
becomes the timid deer. It seems as if there were a
reversal of instinct in all animals when they have young
ones to protect. It is a sort of imposition of special
instincts over the ordinary ones. Timid animals, even
to a greater degree than we, possess an instinct of self-
preservation, but when they have young ones, this instinct
of self-preservation changes into an instinct of protection
for the young. So with many birds. Their instinct for
the protection of life is to fly away as soon as any danger
approaches, but when they have young ones, they do
not fly away, but some remain frozen upon the nest in
order to cover the betraying whiteness of the eggs.
Others feign being wounded, keep themselves just out of
reach of the dog's jaws and attract them away from their
young who remain in hiding. Ordinarily instead of
taking the chance of being caught, they fly away. There
are many instances of this kind and in every form of
animal life there will be found two sets of instincts : one
set for self-protection and another set of instincts for the
protection of the lives of their young. One of the books
which most beautifully describes this is a book of the French
biologist J. H. Fabre in which he concludes by saying
that it is to this great mother-instinct that the species
owes its survival. This is true because if the survival of
the species were due only to the so-called weapons for
the struggle for existence, how could the young ones

46

THE ABSORBENT MIND

defend themselves > They have not as yet developed
these weapons. Are not the small tigers toothless and
the young birds without feathers ?

Therefore, if life is to be saved and if the species is
to survive, it is necessary first of all to provide protection
for the young who though unarmed are building up their
weapons.

If life owed its survival only to the struggle of the
strong, the species would perish. So the real reason, the
main factor of the survival of the species, is the love that
the adults feel for their young. If we study nature, the
fascinating part is to see the revelation of intelligence
that there is even in the lowest of the low, as we consider
them. Each one is endowed with different kinds of pro-
tective instincts ; each one is endowed with a different
kind of intelligence and all this intelligence is expended
for the protection of the young, whereas if one studies
their instincts for self-protection, these do not show so
much intelligence and there is not the same variety of
instinct in this field. There is not the finesse of detail
that made Fabre fill 1 6 volumes, treating mainly of the
protective instincts among insects. So studying among
all different kinds of life, one sees that two sets of
instincts are necessary and two types of life. When we
carry this to the field of human life, were it for nothing
but for social reasons, the study of the life of the
child is necessary for the consequences it has in the
adult. And this study of life must go to the very origin.

47

THE ABSORBENT MIND

Embryology

There are today different sciences which take into
consideration the life of the child and the life of the living
being from its very beginning. One of the most interest-
ing is the study of embryology which is also carried out
in a new fashion. Thinkers and philosophers in all
times have wondered about the marvel of a being
who did not exist before and becomes a man or a
woman who will have intelligence, thoughts, and who
will be able to show the greatness of his soul. How
does this come about ? How are the organs made
which are so complicated and so marvellous P How
are the eyes formed and the tongue, that allows us to
speak, and the brain and all the other infinite details
of the human organism ? How are they formed ? In the
beginning of the XVI 1 1th century scientists thought
that there must be in the egg-cell a minute ready-made
man or woman. It was so small that one could not see
it but it was there and afterwards it merely grew. This
was thought to be so also for the mammals. Two schools
disputed as to whether it was the man who had
this in his generating cell or the woman. And they
fought carrying on learned discussions in the Universities.
At that time there was a young man who made use of
the microscope, which had just been invented, saying to
himself : " I am going to see what really happens/' He
started to study the germinal cell. He came by obser-
vations to the conclusion that there is nothing pre-existing.

48

THE ABSORBENT MIND

He said that the being builds itself and described how
it is formed. The germinal cell divides itself into two,
the two divide into four and by multiplication of cells,
the being is formed. (See fig. 1.) The learned university
men who were fighting
with each other became
angry. Who is this ig-
norant person who says
that nothing exists ? Why,
this is against religion !
And the situation be-
came so bad for this
poor man that he was
chased out of his country.
He remained an exile
and died in a foreign
country. For 50 years
though the microscopes
were multiplied, nobody dared to look into the secret
again. But meanwhile what this first man had said had
begun to penetrate and people thought that it might be
true. Another scientist after 50 years made the same
study and found that what the first man had said was
true. He said it to every one arid this time every one
believed it, and a new branch of science arose which
today is very advanced : Embryology.

Today embryology has developed to the point
that it begins to reason and says that it is true

49

Fie. 1
The multiplication of the germinal cell.

THE ABSORBENT MIND

that there is nothing pre-existing, that there is no ready-
made man or ready-made woman who grows and
grows until he becomes a full-grown man or woman ;
but there is a pre-established plan of construction which
is surprising, because it seems so well made, so well
reasoned out, that it appears as if somebody had thought
it out and fixed it. It is as though some one wanted to
build a house and started by collecting bricks before
beginning to build the walls of the house. And the
same happens with this primitive cell : first it accumulates
a number of cells, by sub-division and multiplication, and
then builds three walls. When the three walls have
been built, the second phase begins the phase of the
construction of the organs.

Now the construction of the organs takes place in an
extraordinary way. It begins by one cell at one point.
I do not know what happens there. I do not know if it is
something of a chemical nature or if it is a sort of sensitive-
ness. I believe no one does. The fact is that around that
point an extraordinary activity begins. There the rate of
multiplication of cells becomes feverish whereas else-
where it continues in the same calm fashion. When this
feverish activity ceases, an organ has been built. There
are several of these points and each one of them builds
up a definite organ. The discoverer has interpreted the
phenomenon in this fashion : there are points of
sensitivity around which a construction takes place. These
organs develop independently one from the other. It is

50

THE ABSORBENT MIND

as though the purpose of each of these cellular points
were to build something for themselves only, and the in-
tensity, the activity, is such that in each of these organs
the cells become so united, so imbued with what we
might call their ideal that they actually transform them-
selves and they become different from the other cells.
So the cells assume a special form according to the
organs that they are constructing. Then when the dif-
ferent organs are formed independently one of the other,
something else comes, which puts them into relation and
communication. When they are all united, so united and
so interconnected that one cannot live without the other,
the child is born. It is the circulatory system that joins
them together. And after the circulatory system, the
nervous system is finished, to make more intimate the
union. And then one sees the plan of construction.
This plan of construction is based upon a point of enthu-
siasm from which a creation is achieved. And once the
creation of the organs is a fact, they are destined to unite,
to join together. This plan is the same for all superior
animals and for man. It is followed by them all for the
development of each.

The modern idea is therefore that there is but one
plan of construction common to all lives. Embryos are
in fact so similar that in the recent past there was a theory
that evolution had proceeded along a path of different
degrees of animality ; so that man for instance came
from the monkey, that mammals and birds came from

51

THE ABSORBENT MIND

reptiles, these from amphibians, the latter from fishes etc.
The embryos of each were thought to pass through the
stages of all the preceding ones before achieving birth ;
so that in the embryos there was a synthesis of the
evolution of the species, Today this is an abandoned
theory. Today science looks merely at the facts and
says that nature has but one method of constru-
ction, that there is only one plan of construction in
nature.

Now if we have this in mind, then many obscure
facts are better understood, e.g. the psychic develop-
ment of the child, because not only the human body, but
also the human psyche is constructed following the same
plan. It starts from nothing, or at least from what
appears to be nothing, in the same way as the body
starts from that primitive cell which appears in no way
different from other cells. In the new-born child, also
psychically speaking, there seems to be nothing which is
already built up, just as there was not a ready-made man
in the primitive cell. And in the psychic field also,
organs are built around a point of sensitivity. There is
at first the work of accumulation of material, just as we
said there was an accumulation of cells by a multiplica-
tion in the case of the body. This is done by what I
have called the * absorbent mind/ After that come points
of sensitivity. These are so intense that we adults cannot
even imagine anything approaching it. We gave an
example of this when we illustrated the acquisition of

52

THE ABSORBENT MIND

language. From these points of sensitivity, it is not the
psyche that is developed, but the organs of this psyche.
Here also each organ develops independently of the
other, e.g., language, being able to judge distances, or
being able to orient oneself in the environment, or being
able to stand on two legs and other co-ordinations. Each
of these items develops around an interest, but in-
dependently one of the other. Now this point of
sensitivity is so acute that it attracts the individual
towards a certain set of actions. None of these sen-
sitivities occupies the whole period of development. Each
occupies only part of the time ; long enough to ensure
the construction of a psychic organ. After the organ has
been formed, the sensitivity disappears, but during this
period there are powers so great that we cannot imagine
them, because we have lost them and therefore cannot
even have an idea of what they are. When all the
organs are ready, they unite, in order to form what we
call the psychic unity.

Biological studies carried out upon different animals
have revealed that all of them build their adult
species by means of these sensitive periods. One
cannot understand the construction of the psyche of the
child, unless one has an idea of these sensitive periods.
When one knows of them, then the whole attitude to-
wards childhood is bound to change. As a consequence
we are better able to help the psychic development of
the child if we know when these sensitive periods occur.

53

THE ABSORBENT MIND

People say : " What about the previous generations ?
How did they develop into healthy and strong beings if
they did not know about them ? " It is true that humanity
did not scientifically know the sensitive periods, but in
previous civilizations mothers applied an instinctive treat-
ment of their children which enabled them if not to
second the needs of a sensitive period at least not to
disturb it too much. Nature which in its plan has devised
the sensitive periods so as to achieve the construction of
the psychic organs has also put an instinct in mothers
that guides them to give protection. And when one
studies the simply living mothers in the treatment of their
children, then one understands how well mothers of
past generations must have aided the development of
their children and how well they seconded the special
sensitivities. It is in the sentiments that nature
has put in the hearts of parents that the reason is
to be found for the spiritual strength of previous
generations.

Today, on account of civilization, mothers have lost
this instinct. Humanity is headed towards degeneration.
That is why it is as important to study the maternal
instinct as it is to study the phases of the natural develop-
ment of children. In the past the mother not only gave
physical life, not only the first nourishment, but she also
gave protection to growth as other mothers belonging
to animal species give it even today. And if today in
humanity the maternal instincts tend to disappear as they

54

THE ABSORBENT MIND

do, then a very real danger looms ahead of humanity.
Today, we are face to face with the great practical
problem that mothers must co-operate and science must
find some way of aiding and protecting the psychic
development of the child as it has found a way of
protecting the physical development. The artificial
life of the West has deprived most children of their
mother's milk and the children would have starved if
science had not intervened and supplied the child with
some other sort of physical nourishment. In the psychic
field, maternal love is a force, it is one of the forces of
nature. This must receive today the attention of science,
science must enlighten the mothers by means of the dis-
coveries made in the field of the psyche of the children
so that henceforth mothers can help consciously instead
of unconsciously. Now that circumstances no longer
give free play to instincts in the mother, a consciousness
of the child's needs must be given to her. Education
must come to the rescue and give mothers this knowledge.
Education that starts from birth means to give a conscious
protection to the psychic needs of the children. It is
certain that in this effort to give protection to the psychic
needs of the children, the mothers must be the first to be
invited and interested. And if the life of today has
become so artificial that the child cannot achieve its
development, then society must create institutions which
will fulfil the needs of the children. When should schools
begin ? We started from 3i, then we went to 3, then 2$,

55

THE ABSORBENT MIND

then 2. Now the children of one year are brought to
school. But education meant to give protection to life,
must reach further down until it includes the new-born
child.

56

CHAPTER V
THE MIRACLE OF CREATION

THIS passing from a cell to a complete organ is some-
thing which is incomprehensible, but it is a fact. It does
exist, but it is so marvellous that no one can understand
it and if one reads the modern scientific books upon
this subject, one finds a word used which before was
anathema to scientists. It is the word * miracle '. Be-
cause though it is something that happens continuously,
nevertheless it is miraculous and wonder at this miracle
is felt just the same. No matter what animals are ob-
served, a bird or a rabbit or any sort of vertebrate, one
sees that it is composed of organs which in themselves
are extremely complicated and what causes great wonder
and surprise is to see how these very complicated organs
are closely connected one with the other. If one con-
siders the circulatory system, one sees in it a drainage
system so fine, so complicated and so complete that no
system of drainage invented by the most advanced type
of civilization can be compared to it. Also the in-
telligence service of collecting impressions from the
environment, which is carried out with sense organs, is so

57

THE ABSORBENT MIND

marvellous that no modern instrument can approach it.
What can for instance approach the marvel of the eye f
or of the ear ? And if one studies the chemical reactions
that take place in the body, one sees that there are
special chemical laboratories in which substances are
evolved, placing and holding together other substances
that we in our most modern and most powerful labora-
tories are unable to unite. If we consider communications
in the human system, the most evolved and perfect com-
munication systems which include telephone and wire-
less, telegraphy and telephones and all that we may
imagine which have been evolved and put together they,
when compared to the communications that there are in
the body by means of the nervous system, are as nothing.
And if one studies the best organised army, one will never
find the obedience that the muscles have, which carry out
the commands of one strategic director whom everyone
obeys immediately. These obedient servants exercise
themselves in a special work, in a special fashion, so as
to be ready to obey whatever commands come to
them. If we consider that all these complicated organs,
organs of communication, muscles obedient as soldiers,
nerves that penetrate each little cell in the body, come
from one cell, the primitive cell which is spherical in its
form, we realise the wonder of nature. Each living
animal, each living mammal, and man, this marvellous
being, all of them come from one primitive cell which,
when examined, differs in no way from other cells and

58

THE ABSORBENT MIND

looks very very simple. If we, who are accustomed to
big things, consider the size of these primitive cells, we
shall probably receive a shock. It is the l/30th part of an
inch, or 1/1 Oth of a millimetre. To realise what this
means, consider the size of a point made by a sharp
pencil and try to put 10 such dots one against the other,
no matter how tiny they are a millimetre will not hold ten
of them. So imagine how microscopic is the cell, this
cell from which man comes. And when this cell de-
velops, it develops isolated from the parent because it is
protected, it is enclosed in a sort of envelope that keeps
it separate from the adult that contains it. This is true
for all animals. The cell is isolated from the parent so
that the adult resulting from it is actually the product of
the work of this cell originated by the adult. This has
been the cause of meditation for a long time because the
greatest men in different spheres, such as Napoleon or
Alexander or Gandhi, Shakespeare or Dante, etc., as well
as the humblest of the humble among the human beings,
every one has been constructed by one of these tiny
cells. This mystery not only provoked meditation but
has also roused the attention of many scientists who have
made these cells the object of their studies. By observa-
tion with a powerful microscope, it has been found that
each cell contains a certain number of points which as
they can be very easily coloured by chemical means have
been called * Chromosomes/ Their number differs in the
different species. In the human species for instance,

59

THE ABSORBENT MIND

there are 48. In others there are 15, in some 13 so that
the number of chromosomes distinguishes the species to
which they belong. Scientists thought that these chro-
mosomes had something to do with the formation of the
organs. Recently much more powerful microscopes have
been invented. These allow one to see things which it
was absolutely impossible to see previously. They have
been called ultra -microscopes, and by their means people
have been able to see that each of the chromosomes
was a sort of a little box which contained a sort of chain,
composed of about 1 00 little grains. The chromosomes
break up, the grains free themselves and the cell becomes
the depositary of some four thousand little grains that
have been termed 4 genes ' (fig. 2.) The word genes

PlC. 2

A chain of 100 genes shown linearly and each contained in one of the
48 chromosomes disposed geometrically on the left.

60

THE ABSORBENT MIND

implies the idea of generation. They have been so called
because the characteristics of the body are formed by
their combinations.

This is really science. Yet if one stops to think
what this implies, one realises how mystic this dry scienti-
fic statement sounds, for this cell is so tiny as to be
almost invisible, yet it contains within itself the heredity
of all times. In this little speck, there is the whole ex-
perience, the whole history of the human kind. Before
any apparent change is visible in the primitive cell, already
a combination among these genes has taken place. They
have already arranged themselves to determine exactly
the form of the nose f the colour of the eyes etc. of the
being that will result from this primitive cell. Not all the
genes are employed in the formation of a body. A sort
of struggle takes place between these genes ; only a few
combine and these give the outer characters of the indi-
vidual while others remain hidden and obscure. For
instance, there is the famous example of Mendel who
made an experiment. He crossed a plant with red
flowers and one of the same kind with white flowers and
then the seeds of the new plant were sown. These pro-
duce either three plants with white and one with red
flowers or the contrary. So out of 40 seeds, 30 will come
with red flowers and 1 with white flowers or 1 with red
and 30 with white. If the circumstances are good, it is
the superior qualities that prevail ; but if the circum-
stances are not favourable, then it is the worse qualities

61

THE ABSORBENT MIND

that come forth. So according to the circumstances in
which the cell finds itself, you can have a more beautiful
individual or a less beautiful individual, a stronger indi-
vidual or a weaker individual. And this is due to the
combinations between the genes. The combinations are
so many that every human being is different from every
other and even if one observes families that have many
children, though all the children are generated by the
same parents, yet some are beautiful, others ugly ; some
are tall, others short and so forth.

Today much time is spent in studying what are the
circumstances which will make the better characters come
forth ; a new science has arisen, Eugenics, which shows
how man has by his intelligence succeeded in acquiring
influence even over heredity. Human intelligence has
understood that heredity can be influenced only at the
stage when the primitive cell is formed and changes can
be made. Thus man becomes a sort of god who takes in
hand the powers of life and orients the path it will take.
Nothing much has been done in this direction in the field
of humanity, but in that of plants and animals, man has
been able to influence heredity to a great extent. What
does it mean when one has the power of life in one's
hand ? It means that we can dispose of heredity so as to
transform the species. This is the fascinating part that
in our days focusses on this science the interest of
hundreds upon hundreds of people. Today this interest is
not academic or philosophical. Today it has invaded

62

THE ABSORBENT MIND

the practical field. Great numbers of plants and ani-
mals have been transformed. Some years ago, for
instance, two young men carried out certain biologi-
cal experiments and a race of stingless bees was
produced which made a great deal more honey. So
man has been able to influence the life of these insects
and to create a species that has become harmless and
produces more of a nourishing substance that humanity
appreciates. In the same way certain plants have been
transformed so as to produce much more food than they
did previously. Men have also transformed simple roses
into the many beautiful varieties that today gladden
our eyes and delight our sense of smell. In the case
of flowers great achievements have been made. Man
has captured a secret of life. He has become a sort of
magician who has embellished life with the magic wand
of his intelligence ; because of it, the world is much
richer and more pleasant. We begin to see one of the
aims of the life of man, one of the reasons which makes
him one of the great cosmic forces. He has not been
placed in the world in order to enjoy beautiful things.
He has been placed here to make the world better. Man
has intelligence because he has to make a better world
than that which he has found. It is as though man were
the continuator of the creation, as though he had been
sent to employ his intelligence in order to help and make
creation more perfect. Intelligence is the great gift that
has been given to him. Man has been able to enter a

63

THE ABSORBENT MIND

field that permits him to have control over life. Hitherto
man had to follow life as it was, but now he can control
it. So the study of embryology is no longer an abstract
and fruitless study. It is a study which has allowed
man to penetrate certain secrets of life and to be able
to control by means of these secrets the beings that are
to come. Now, if by a stretch of imagination we think
that psychic development follows a similar procedure,
then we can imagine that man, who has penetrated the
secrets of physical development, can also control and
help psychic development.

This chapter about genes and heredity is separate
from pure embryology. Embryology considers only the
way in which the primitive cell produces the individual.
To do this, the ultra -microscope or special reasoning are
not required. It is merely a question of observation.
From one cell, two are generated and these remain
joined. Then the two become four, the four eight, eight
become sixteen and so on. This continues until hundreds
of cells are produced which are similar to the bricks that
are used for the construction of a house. Eventually a
sort of hollow sphere is produced. Curiously enough,
in the oceans, there are certain animals which are just
like that, a hollow ball, and they are called ' volvo f
because they are always going round. Then these balls
become inflected and form two walls and later a third
wall is formed between the two. So the first construction
consists of these three walls. Up to now all cells are

64

THE ABSORBENT MIND

alike amongst themselves. Only they are smaller than
the primitive cell. (Fig. 3.)

O
O

o
o
o

o

o

Q

I

5

o o

u

o

0oo

SS 8

X

q

v 00 (
S Q olbo

C od

o oo
080

8 g

Po

Fie. 3

Upper left the primitive ball of cell* (morula) consisting of a single

wall (right). Below left the introflected double-walled gasttula

and to the right the third inner wall is formed.

Recently studies have permitted the discovery of
the way in which these organs are formed. I mentioned
this fact in the previous chapter. This discovery Was

65

THE ABSORBENT MIND

made very recently, between 1929 and 1930 i.e., after
the first world war. Now this is 1 4 years ago. Before
a discovery is made and this discovery is made public
and every one knows about it, 1 4 years are, we might
say, as yesterday. Now the figure reproduced here does
not correspond to a reality. (Fig. 4.)

SENSlTfS/TiONt INCREASED ACTMTV. CRAOIENTSi

PHYSIOLOGICAL QftADlEHT$,
Fie. 4

It is something imaginary made in order to show points
of sensitivity. There are these spots in which cells begin
to multiply very fast and it is in these special points that
organs are formed. While one person discovered this in
America, in England independently somebody else was
also doing research work and he made the same dis-
covery. The American called these points ' gradients f ,
the Englishman, as he made his discovery upon the
nervous system, called them ' points of sensitisation *
and ' sanglion '.

Each of the three walls of the gastrula produces a
set of organs. The external one produces the skin, the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

sensory organs and nervous system. And this illustrates
that the external layer is in relation with the environment,
because the skin gives us protection and the nervous
system places us in relation to the environment. The
innermost one develops organs used for nourishment such
as the intestines, stomach, the glands of digestion, liver,
pancreas, and the lungs. The organs of the nervous
systems are called organs of relation because they allow
us to put ourselves in relation with the environment.
The organs of the digestive and respiratory systems are
called vegetative organs because they make vegetative
life possible. The third or middle wall produces all the
rest, the skeleton that sustains the whole body and the
muscles. Now it is curious to see how each one of
these walls has a special purpose and this purpose
remains the same for each kind of animal. As long
as they are in the stage of walls, the cells are more
or less alike, simple. Is this not intelligent > First
three walls are made, then the organs. And is it
not curious that the plan of the whole is made while
each of the three layers is still independent of the other ?
After this, each of the cells that are going to form
organs begins to transform itself. They assume the
form best suited to perform a function which, however,
they do not carry out in the embryo. So that this
fine specialization of the cells which transform themselves
for a certain function takes place before the function
begins.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

Here I have reproduced some of these cells (Fig. 5.).

MUSCLE CELL.

LIVER CELLS MUCUS CELLS

FIG. 5
Types of cells

There are the liver cells which are pentagonal in form ;
there are the cells of the muscles which are very long,
and the triangular ones are those that make the bones.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

While these bone-cells are very soft, they take carbonate
of calcium from the blood and form bones. There are
others which are very interesting because they are a
sort of little cup and these little cups exude a sort of
sticky substance. They also have a sort of fringe of
fibres called cilia which vibrate so as to catch any dust
that may enter the throat with their gluey mucus and
move it up to the mouth. And then there are the heroes,
who sacrifice their life for the welfare of others. These
are the cells of the skin. The skin which sacrifices
itself for the protection of the other organs, covers the
whole body. The outer layer of the skin dies ; its cells
sacrifice themselves and underneath there is another layer
which is getting ready to sacrifice its life for the safety
of all. Those with the long filaments are the cells of the
nervous system. Then there are the red cells of the blood
which go on continuously taking oxygen to the other
cells. They take back and throw away the poisonous
gases that have formed. The marvellous thing is that
though the red corpuscles of the blood are in enormous
numbers, yet their number is determined.

Before the work starts, these are some of the types
of cells. Each of these cells prepares itself for the work
it has to do. When they have formed themselves
for this special work, they can no longer transform
themselves. A nervous cell can never be transformed
into a liver cell. And so when they have transformed
themselves as if imbued with a great ideal and dedicated

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

themselves to the work that fulfils it, their task is fixed,
because they have specialized themselves for it. Is it
not the same in our human society ? There are, we might
say, special groups of men who form the organs of human-
ity. In the beginning each individual performs many
tasks. In the primitive society, when people are few,
one has to know a little of everything. One is a mason,
a doctor, a carpenter and everything. But when society
is evolved, then there is specialization of work. Each
man chooses a type of work and his psyche becomes
so involved in this work that he can do only that work
and nothing else. For example, a doctor cannot be a
shoemaker. The training for a profession is not only
learning a technique, the individual undergoes a psychic
transformation for the task that he is to perform so that
one prepares himself not only technically, but, what is
more important, one acquires a special psychic personal-
ity, which is suited for that special work. One finds
one's ideal realized in it. One's life is that.

The same seems to happen in the case of the body.
When each cell has specialized to form the different
organs, something else comes that achieves a union
among them all. It is composed of two complex organs
which do not function for themselves but function in
order to achieve the unity among all others. They are
the circulatory and nervous systems. The first system
is a sort of a river in which there are substances and these
are carried to all. But it is not only a distributor, it is

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

also a collector. The organs produce certain things
which are needed by other organs that are far away from
them. See what perfection has been achieved by this
river ! Each organ takes from it what it needs for its life
and throws into the river whatever it has produced so
that other organs can take of it according to their need.

Do we not find the same in our society to day ? Has
it not developed a circulatory system. All the substances
that are produced are thrown into circulation and each
one takes from it what is useful for his life and what is
produced is thrown into the stream of commerce so
that it becomes available to others. The merchants, the
travelling salesmen who go about everywhere, are they
not like red corpuscles ? If we look at human society,
we can better understand the functioning of the embryo
because in society also the functioning is such that things
produced in Germany are consumed in S. America,
things which are produced in England are consumed in
India and so forth. We can deduce from this that society
has reached an embryonic stage in which the circulatory
system begins to function, but with many defects still.
The defects of circulation reveal that our society has not
finished its development.

The one thing we do not find in human society is
something corresponding to the specialized cell of the
nervous system. We might almost conclude that this organ
of direction has not yet been envolved by society as the
the chaotic state of our world very clearly indicates. In

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

the absence of this specialization, there is nothing that
gives sensibility to all and can harmoniously direct the
whole of society. What happens in democracy, for
instance, which is the most evolved sort of social
organization that civilization has produced ? It permits
all to choose their own leader by elections. If we trans-
port this to the field of embryology, one could say : " I
think the liver cell is most suited to govern " ; and ano-
ther : " " I think that those cells which are inside the
bones are more suited, because they have a strong
structure." And another might say : " I want some
one heroic who will defend us. The skin cell must be
at the work of direction ". If such a situation arose in
the field of embryology, it would appear absurd, in-
conceivable, because if there must be specialized cells
at all it is surely the cell which directs the functions of the
whole. The work of direction is the most difficult task
and requires greater specialization than any other. So
it is not a question of election. It is a question of
being fit and prepared for the work. He who has to
direct others, must have transformed himself. Thus
there can be no leader unless he has first trans-
formed himself. But this principle that goes from
specialization to function is fascinating. It becomes
even much more fascinating when we discover that this
is the plan adopted by nature for all branches of life,
that it is the plan that nature follows when it creates.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

If we show an interest in embryology, it is not only
because of this plan, and because of the fact that one
can acquire control over development, but because it
runs parallel step by step to what we have discovered
in the psychic field.

73

CHAPTER V
ONE PLAN, ONE METHOD

NEITHER the discoveries nor the theories that arise
from modern discoveries explain fully the mystery of life
and of its development. But certainly they do show and
illustrate facts. These furnish us with sufficient data to
enable us to see how growth takes place. Every new
detail discovered shows an added realization, but does
not explain it. These phenomena can be fully observed
and they give an explanation of events of ordinary life.
One of the things which is observed for instance is that
the plan of construction is only one and all types of
animal life follow it. Now when I say that it is a plan,
I do not mean that we actually see a plan drawn up like
a draftsman's. But what we see occurring in front of
our eyes, shows us that all the details follow a certain
invisible plan. The plan can be seen materially in the
embryo, it can be followed in the psychology of child-
ren and it can also be recognized in society. If one
observes the embryos of different animals, one easily
sees that the plan of development followed is the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

same. This is no new discovery. Fig. 6. shows the
embryos of three different animals at two different

FORMS.

UATC* 6T A6E. ,

RABBIT

LIZARD

FlC, 6

stages. The earlier stage is on the left and the more
advanced on the right. The animals are : Man
on top, rabbit below it, and lizard below that. And
this is one of the revelations I mentioned. As the
picture shows, in order to realize themselves, the
vertebrates have to pass through the same stages of deve-
lopment and the same forms. For instance you can see

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

a striking resemblance between man and lizard at this
stage of embryonic development. Yet when the embryo
has finished developing, the difference is immense. So
there is a period when all beings are alike.

We can also say with the same certainty that,
psychically speaking, there is a period in which all the
human beings are alike. And when we say that the
new born is a psychic embryo, we must understand that
all new-born children are alike. There can therefore be
but one means of treating or educating children of this
age, r'.e., if education is to start from birth, there can be
but one method. There can be no question of special
methods for Indian children or Chinese or Japanese or
European children. Here there is an absolute method
which is the same for all. There is a period of incar-
nation in which every human being acts in the same
fashion, i.e., every human being incarnates itself in the same
way ; all have the same psychic needs and follow the
same procedure in order to achieve the construction of
man. No matter what type of man results from the
work of the child, no matter if it is a genius, or a labourer,
a saint or a murderer, each in order to become what he
is in the end, must pass through these stages of growth,
these phases of incarnation. What we must take into
consideration is this process of incarnation, we must not
pre-occupy ourselves with what the individual will become
later on. We cannot interfere with that. First of all we
do not know it, and then we should not have the power

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

to achieve it if we knew. What must preoccupy us, what
must take our energies is the assistance to those laws of
growth that are common to all.

This brings us to the question of the methods of edu-
cation. There must be there can be only one method
of education. The method which helps the natural laws
of growth and of development, alike for all. This is not
an idea ; it is a fact, an evident fact and it shows that it
cannot be a philosopher or a thinker to dictate this or
that method of education. The only one who can dictate
the method is nature itself which has established certain
laws, which has infused certain needs into the growing
being. It is the aim of satisfying these needs, seconding
these laws, which must dictate the method of education ;
not the more or less brilliant ideas of a philosopher.

This is specially so in the first years of life. It is
true that afterwards differences arise in the individuals
but it is not we who cause these differences ; we cannot
even provoke them. There is an inner individuality, an
ego which develops spontaneously, independently of us
and we cannot do anything about it. We cannot make,
for instance, a genius, or a general or an artist. We can
only help that individual who is to be a general or a leader
to realize his potentialities. No matter what they are, if
they are leaders or poets or artists or geniuses, or merely
common men, they must pass through these stages :
embryonic stages before birth, psycho-embryonic stages
after birth, in order to realize their mysterious future self.

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What we can do is merely to remove the obstacles so
that the mysterious being that each individual is to realize
can be achieved, because by removing those obstacles,
the work can be done better.

We call this fundamental effort of self-realization
4 incarnation * . This is the first practical point : there is a
process of incarnation, this process of incarnation is the
same for all, and our aim in education must be to help
this process of incarnation.

Further Outcome of Embryology

The three embryos of fig. 6 are very similar, one to
the other. However, when they have finished their
development, these beings are very different from one
another. Now let us continue to illustrate this question of
the development of embryos by following the reasoning
of the most modern thinkers. What we have already
seen is very striking : the existence of genes, the existence
of points of sensitivity around which organs are formed
and then the formation of two systems the circulatory
system and the nervous system which connect and unite
intimately all that has been created. After these organs
have come into relation, there is something that is even
more mysterious. This is the fact that it is not merely
organs that are created and that come to be intimately
connected one with the other, but that there come living
beings free and independent. It is not merely the con-
struction of those organs and putting them in connection

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

with one another, the whole of these organs, the same
in every being, form in each case a being different
from the other : each has its own character. This is what
is extraordinary. This problem has not yet been solved
by science. There is the theory of evolution, but it is a
theory and not a fact. Observation unfolds all the facts
without explaining them. Whenever there is no expla-
nation a void remains and this is important. The impor-
tant fact is to recognise that there is a void. If we
accept a theory, e.g., that of evolution which covers all
the facts, then our intelligence is set at rest. But once
the void has been noticed, the intelligence becomes
restless and sets out to find an explanation. These voids
lead people to think, to study facts until a new discovery
is made and with each discovery, one more void is filled
and one step forward in knowledge is made.

There was a discovery first made public in 1930
(this seems to be an important year for embryology).
It was made in the laboratories of a biologist of Phila-
delphia. These modern laboratories of America are
very well staffed and endowed so that each scientist
can dedicate himself to the study of one special detail.
One of these studied for seven or eight years but one
type of animal, a very inferior sort of amphibian and he
studied it for such a long time because the facts did not
correspond to the scientific theories which were expounded
at the time. Now to give a full explanation of what
this man has discovered would be boring and not easy

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to understand. I just mention it in passing. This scientist
discovered that the parts which were first formed were
those parts which directed the functioning of the individual
and that the formation of the executive organs comes
afterwards. Every body knows that we have a nervous
system and among other things we have a brain and in
our brain are located certain parts each of which deals
with an organ. There is a part of the brain which deals
with sight and it is called the visual centre. Now what
this scientist discovered was that the part of the nervous
system which was meant to direct sight was formed
first, much before the nerve of sight and much before
the eye. This was absolutely contrary to the scientific
theory of the time. The conclusion* he came to was
this : that in animals the psychic part is formed
before the being itself is formed i.e., the instincts of the
animals are there before the animal has finished building
itself physically. This means that generation concerns
not only the body, and the different inner organs but
also the psyche, also the instincts of each animal, and
that the habits of these animals are fixed before the
organ is formed.

Behaviourism

This is the new idea. The habits that the animal
is going to have are fixed in the nerve centres much
before the organ is built. Now if this psychic part is pre-
existing, what does it mean ? It means that the organ

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

finishes its own construction, moulding itself to the
requirements of the psyche, of the instincts. This method
of reasoning brings us to the conclusion that animals have
their habits pre-established before birth and the organs
are built in such a fashion as best to fulfil these habits
and these instincts. So according to this new theory,
what is important in nature is the habits, the customs
of animals. It is interesting to see that the organs, of
whatever the animal, are the best suited to carry out the
command of its instincts. The new theory has arisen
from years and years of study and from observation of
facts, not from pre-established ideas. This brings us to
the conclusion that the habits of animals are now-a-days
more important than the form of the body which was
the centre of interest in previous times. The term used
in this generalization of facts is what is designated as
4 behaviour '. It includes in its meaning the habits and
customs of the animals described. The new theory is
known in modern books, especially in America, as
' behaviourism/ It is a new light that has come into the
field of science. The old ideas which held that animals
assume their habits because they had to adapt themselves
to their environment have gone. The old theory held that
it was the will of the adult which provoked the transfor-
mations necessary so that the body became adapted to the
environment, that the efforts which animals made to keep
alive, this 4 instinct of self-preservation ', caused a trans-
formation in the successive generations and gradually the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

species became adapted. The species which could not
do this perished. This was called the 4 survival of the
fittest '. This theory averred that by means of continuous
efforts carried out during generations, a sort of perfection
came about and this was then transmitted to the next
generation.

The new theory does not do away with all this, but
places the behaviour of the animal at the centre of all
its habits. The facts observed are that the animal
which strives for adaptation is successful only if its efforts
are expended within its behaviour-pattern. So the animal
which successfully carries out its experiences of life upon
the environment does so along the lines of its behaviour.
Let us illustrate this by an example. Let us take the
cows. They are powerful animals, strong and well armed.
In the geological history of the earth, the course of their
evolution can be traced. They make their appearance when
the earth is already well covered with vegetation. One
might ask oneself why this animal has limited itself to
feed only on grass which is the most indigestible food
that can be found, so much so that in order to digest it
the poor animal has had to develop four stomachs. If, as
the old theory said, it was a question of self-preservation
of survival, how much easier it would have been to eat
something else of which there was an abundance in the
surroundings. It would have been very simple and very
easy. But today after millions and millions of years, we
still see cows, when in natural surroundings, eating

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only grass. They stand with lowered heads, chewing
and chewing. It is very seldom that you can make them
raise their heads so that one can look into their beautiful
eyes. Immediately after they have given you a look, down
goes their head. If you observe the animal, you will see
that it crops the grass near the roots, but it never uproots
the plant. It seems to know that in order to keep the
grass alive, it must be cut near the roots because if the latter
are cut, the plant dies, whereas if they are cut like this,
they develop under ground. The roots expand and occupy
more ground and so the grass travels and spreads instead
of dying. Now if one studies the history of evolution,
one finds that only very late in the history of the
earth grass appears and one also finds the tremendous
importance that grass has for other vegetation ; because
grass ties together the loose grains of sand which other-
wise would be carried away by the wind. Not only does it
render the ground firm, but it fertilizes it also. No other
vegetation could have grown if the grass had not prepared
the way first. That is the importance of grass. Two
things are necessary for its upkeep, besides cutting : one
is manure, the other is rolling i.e., putting a heavy weight
upon it. Now, tell me what artificial agricultural machine
can be more marvellously fit for these three tasks than
the cow herself. So efficient is this machine that be-
sides helping the growth of grass it also produces milk.
What a wonderful agriculturist of nature is the cow. Her
behaviour gives us one more reason to be grateful to her.

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We thought that she gave us milk and manure and
nothing else. At the most we may have thought that
the cow is an example of patience. But much more
does humanity owe to the cow. It is something which
has been ignored by humanity at large, but which has
been felt by the subconscious mind in India, where the
cow is worshipped. It is the upkeep of the earth, the
life of other plants that we owe to the cow. The
patience she has is more than the superficial patience
that we admire. It is the patience of generations and
generations.

A Task in Life

Now f if the cow were conscious, she would be consci-
ous merely of the fact that she is hungry, that she likes
grass, just as in India the people like chapatis, rice and
curry and other people like something else. But certainly
the cow will never realize, will never think, will never be
conscious of the fact that she is an agriculturist. Yet the
behaviour of the cow is just such as to help nature in its
work of agriculture.

Now, let us take the example of crows and vultures
who eat the refuse of nature. Why, with the abundance
of food there is in the world, should the vultures eat rotten
carcases and the crows excrements and whatever dirt they
find in the environment > They have wings. They can
and do fly long distances in search of their food. So
it would not be difficuft for them to find something

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

more appetizing, such as other animals less endowed
with strength and the possibility of movement do find.
But can you imagine the amount of mortality there would
be if this refuse were not removed from the earth ?
What an amount of illness, of plague and other diseases of
all kinds would there be, if there were not some instrument
whose only task in life is to keep the environment clean ?
They have by nature been allotted the task of cleaning
the environment. Tell me what is the difference between
the mass of workers that in Ahmedabad go back after
their work, streaming from the mills towards their homes,
and the hundreds of crows we see flying back at dusk
towards their roost, after having done their work of
cleaning and sweeping ? This is their behaviour.

These two examples have been given taking them
from the choice of food. We might take hundreds and
we should find that each species has chosen a particular
kind of food. We might conclude that animals have no
free choice of food. They do not eat merely to satisfy
themselves. They eat to fulfil a mission upon the earth,
the mission which is prescribed for them by their behavi-
our. Certain it is that all these animals are benefactors
of nature and the benefactors of all other living beings.
They work to preserve the harmony of creation. They
work out creation, because creation is achieved by the
collaboration of all the living and non-living beings. And
these two do their part in it by their behaviour. Other
animals there are which eat in such tremendous quantity

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

that it cannot be explained merely on the ground of the
upkeep of life. They do not eat in order to keep them-
selves alive. They keep alive in order to eat, for instance,
the earth-worms. They eat only earth, although there is so
much choice of foods. These earthworms eat daily a
quantity of food which is 200 times the volume of their
body. This is measured by their droppings. This is a
species of being that does not eat in order to keep alive,
especially when one considers the amount of other better
food there is at its disposal. The worm is a worker of
the earth. It was Darwin himself who first said that
without the worms the earth would be less productive.
The worms render the earth fertile. So there are forms
of body or details of the body which go beyond the
direct advantage of the individual.

Take the bees. They come out in hot weather.
They are covered with a sort of fur or a sort of yellow
and black velvet. This fur is not necessary in a hot
country, but it collects the pollen from flowers which the
bee itself does not use. This pollen, however, is useful
to other flowers to which it is brought by them and which
are thus fertilized. So the work of the bee is not useful
to itself alone, it is useful for the propagation of plants so
that one might say that this fur has been developed by the
bees for the propagation of plants, not for themselves. Don't
you begin to see in this behaviour that animals sacrifice
themselves for the welfare of other types of life, instead
of trying to eat as much as possible merely for their own

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

existence or upkeep ? The more one studies the behaviour
of animals and of plants, the more clearly one sees that
they have a task to perform for the welfare of the whole.

There are certain unicellular animals which live in
the ocean and drink such an enormous quantity of water
that if they were calculated to the proportion of man, they
would need to drink a gallon of water per second during
their whole life. Certainly one could call this intemper-
ance, for these animals cannot do it to satisfy their thirst.
It is not a vice, however, it is rather like a virtue. They
must work at high speed because their task is to filter all
the water of the ocean, to eliminate from it certain salts
which would be a terrible poison for all the other in-
habitants of the ocean.

The same is true of corals. Corals are inferior
animals and if the theory of evolution were true, it would
be incomprehensible that having been among the first
animals to appear, they have remained for millions of
years always the same. Why have they not changed ?
Because they have a function to fulfil and they fulfil it in
a perfect manner. This is the same function as that of
the animals mentioned above : to eliminate from the
ocean the poisonous matter which is brought into it by
the flow of rivers. Their work is that of coating them-
selves with those salts. This has been going on for
millions and millions of years and so we can imagine the
enormous quantity of rock they have accumulated. They
accumulate enormous quantities and these animals have

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been entrusted with the formation of new continents.
Look at the innumerable little islands of the Pacific
Ocean that today have come into the lime-light on
account of the war which has been fought between the
Japanese on one side and the Allies on the other. Those
islands are constructions made by these animals, the
corals. They are the tops of mountains that today are
rising out of the water, forming islands. If we study the
rocks on dry land, we find that many of them are formed
by animals. Even in the Himalayas much of the massif
is of coralline origin. We may well say that these corals
are the constructors of our continents.

So the more one studies the functions of these
animals, the more one finds, that these functions are
not for the upkeep of the animal's body only, but
that all give their contribution to the harmony of the
whole. Let us say then that these animals are not
merely inhabitants of the earth : they are the con-
structors and workers of this earth, they keep it going.
This is the vision given by these new discoveries. Once
given this light, by studying the geological epochs of
the past, we find testimony of similar work carried out by
animals which are now extinct. There has always been
this relation between the animals and the earth, of the
animals between themselves and between the animals
and the vegetation. A new science has arisen from this
which is called Ecology, a science which is widely
applied today and forms an important part of the study

THE ABSORBENT MIND

in universities. Ecology is a study of the different
behaviours of animals, and it reveals that they are not
here to compete with each other, but to carry out an
enormous work serving the harmonious upkeep of the
earth. When we say they are workers, we mean that
each one of them has a purpose, a special aim to fulfil
and the result of these tasks is our beautiful world.

A fundamental study today is to consider the task
of each upon this earth. Behaviour does not merely
fulfil the desire to continue to live. It serves a task which
evidently remains unknown and unconscious to the
being, because it does not form part of what one might
wish. If animals were to become self-conscious, they
would be conscious of their habits, of the beauty of the
places in which they live, but certainly the corals would
never realize or understand that they are the builders
of the world, nor would the worms which fertilize the
earth consider themselves agriculturists, nor would others
consider themselves the purifiers of the environment and
so forth. The purpose which places the animals in
relation to the earth and its upkeep would never enter
their consciousness. Yet life and its relation with the
surface of the earth, the purity of the air, the purity of
water are dependent upon these tasks. So there is
another force which is not the force of the desire for
survival, but a force which harmonizes all the tasks. Let
us say that each one is important, not because it is
beautiful, or because it has succeeded in the struggle for

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

existence, but because it carries out tasks which are useful
to the whole and the effort of each is to try and reach
the place allotted to it and the task which it is to fulfil.
That is why we said that there was a pre-established
plan, and that the organs were formed to fulfil this plan.
This pre-established plan puts the animals in relation
with the task that they have to accomplish upon the
earth. Nor is the purpose of life to perfect oneself, nor
only to evolve. The purpose of life is to obey the
hidden command which ensures harmony among all and
creates an ever better world. We are not created only
to enjoy the world, we are created in order to evolve the
cosmos. Today the influence of the existence of a cosmic
plan is gradually changing the theory of the linear evo-
lution of past times.

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CHAPTER VI
MAN'S UNIVERSALITY

THE vision given by the theory of behaviourism shows
how each animal species has a task to perform upon the
environment and the individuals belonging to that species
faithfully carry out the task which has been allotted to
them, although they live and function independently from
those who have generated them. We may have the
impression that animals are free, that they have a free
choice and that they struggle with others to have the
upper hand. If we look more closely, we see that their
freedom is merely to carry out what is in the behaviour
of each and each one moves according to the dictates of
this behaviour. We see certain animals that proceed by
running, other animals by skipping, others by walking
slowly and sedately, others by crawling and so forth. If
we observe more closely still we find that each species
has a task assigned at a different level in the environment,
so that certain animals live upon the plains, others live
upon the hills, others live upon the mountains, some live
in frozen lands and others in torrid zones.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

Now, when we study the human kind and compare
it with the animal kind, we find some differences and an
important one is that the human kind has not had allotted
to it a special kind of movement or a special kind of re-
sidence. Certainly, it is a facilitation of life to have one's
task assigned by nature. The study of nature shows, how-
ever, that there is no animal which is as capable as man
to adapt itself to any climate or to any place upon this
earth. We find man in frozen lands where certain animals
such as tigers or elephants cannot live. Yet if you look in
the jungle where elephants and tigers are to be found there
man can also be found. Man can be found even in
deserts. So we can see that man has been allotted no fixed
place. He can adapt himself and can live in any part of
the world, for he is destined to invade every part of the
world. Let us say then that because of this adaptability,
man is the only being who is free to go wherever he likes
upon this earth.

If we look at the behaviour of animals, we find that
this behaviour is expressed in their movements, which
stand in relation to the work that they carry out, whereas
man has no special movements. Man is capable of the
most varied movements which he can acquire very
rapidly and very perfectly. Also man can do certain
things which no animal has ever been able to do or will
ever be able to do. Man has done them from his first
appearance upon the earth : he works with his hands.
T[here is no limit to man's behaviour. Each animal, for

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

instance, has one language. If we take for example an
English dog, it will bark in the same fashion as a dog in
America. But if we take a Tamilian and bring him to
Italy, he will not understand the language there and the
Italians will not understand him. Mankind has the most
varied languages. The same can be said for movements :
man can walk, run, jump and crawl also. Like the fish
man can swim. Birds can fly. Man can fly better than
birds. Not only this, man is capable of artificial move-
ments such as dancing.

Each animal has but one sort of movement. Man
has a great variety of movements. So his behaviour is not
fixed like that of the animals. Another thing is also
certain. In the child none of these abilities we have
mentioned are present. So we can conclude that though
it is true that the abilities of man are infinite, each has to
be acquired by the human individual during childhood.
It is by an active conquest, by work, that he acquires
language. He who is born without movement, who is
born almost paralysed, by means of exercise can learn to
walk, to run and to climb like any animal. But all these
capabilities he must acquire by his own effort. Every-
thing must be conquered by him. Whatever abilities man
possesses, there must have been a child who conquered
them. So we might say that the values of man have their
beginning in the work of the child.

We saw that men are to be found everywhere on
the earth, in every possible condition and, strange to say,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

each one is contented and glad to live where he lives. If
we consider the Eskimoes, we find that to them happiness
of life consists in the great wide plains covered with
snow, in those lights that break the long darkness with
vivid colours, in the noise of the winds that howl and
penetrate not only the body, but are music to the soul.
The cold climate and everything that goes with those
conditions of life give them happiness. Nowhere else can
they be happy except there. The same can be said
for others. The men who live in the tropics find
that climate, that special food and those customs essen-
tial for their life and happiness. No matter where
we look, we will always find the same. Man is in
love with his own country. There are certain people
who live in places which seem to be absolutely unsuited
even to the possibility of life. In Finland, the country
is rocky, cold and for long months covered with snow
and ice. Yet the recent war between Finland and
Russia shows what attachment, what fascination this
barren land seems to exercise upon the Finns. If we
take Holland, we find that its inhabitants are extremely
proud of and attached to their land though we can hardly
call it land because it is only by a tremendous amount
of work that they wrest the land from the water of the
sea and once they have wrested it away, they have to
surround it with dykes and they have to pump out the
water continuously. And if they have to build a house,
they build first the ground upon which the house is to

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

stand, because otherwise the house would sink. They
have to sink trees vertically side by side and create an
artificial wooden platform upon which can be put the
foundations of the house. A country with most undesir-
able conditions, yet see with what ferocity they fought for
that piece of land ! And how beautiful it seems to them !
It has produced some of the greatest painters. It is this
attachment, this affection to the place, to the country,
which makes it possible that the whole earth is peopled
by men. Because if each people sought for the best
conditions of life, for the most fertile of the lands, much
of the world would be uninhabited. It is this attachment,
this love for whatever country one lives in, that makes
the whole world inhabited by human beings.

Now, the curious part is that when we consider man
in his adult stage, we see that he is one of the least
adaptable beings. An Indian certainly does not like to
live anywhere except in India. If the Indian adult goes
outside for study or for work, he is always hankering
to come back. And we who are accustomed to the
Mediterranean environment and a temperate climate,
we cannot adapt ourselves to the icy North. Yes, it is
very nice to go to the desert to see strings of camels
travelling along. It is fascinating and romantic, but not
pleasant to live there.

We are attached to our environment, but also to the
times we live in. If we consider Europe of some years
ago, it had a much simpler life than it has now-a-days.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

There were no railways or other fast means of com-
munication. Travelling was done by horse carriages,
horses had to be changed, people spent days and days
to go from one country to another. In order to get news
of their family, they would have to wait for months.
Suppose a modern man from America came into such
conditions. He would find it impossible to live. Or let us
take somebody who lived a few centuries back. Everything
was calm and peaceful. No trains, no electric light, no
trams, no underground rumblings of sub-ways, no noise.
If a person of those days were taken to New York today
with its tremendous traffic, all the bustle and noise that
goes on there day and night, where people always hurry,
where darkness becomes a fantastic display of electric
light advertisements, where no peace, no silence is to be
found, he would say : " I cannot live in this place ".

So here we see a contrast. Previously we have
described man who is capable of loving and adapting
himself to the worst conditions that the earth can present
and who can live happily no matter in what country.
Now we find that men of different centuries could not
live and adapt themselves to the more evolved stage of
civilization of more modern times just like we could not
adapt ourselves to the slow fashion of living of the previ-
ous age. We are happy to live in our age as our fore-
fathers were happy to live in their ages.

We see that as society and civilization evolve,
conditions change and if men were fixed in their behaviour

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

like animals, they would not be able to adapt themselves
to the new conditions. Let us consider language.
No language is born as it is now. Language evolves
like everything else. First it is simple. Then it becomes
more complicated. How is it that those who live in a
time when language is so complicated, take it without
pain and without paying any attention to it learn it
so easily ?

Where does the explanation lie ? We face a con-
tradiction. There is a sort of mystery. Man must adapt
himself to the changing conditions of civilization. The
older humanity becomes, culture progresses the more. So
there must be a continuous adaptation on the part of
man, not only to geographical changes as we saw, but
also to the continuous changes of civilization. And yet
as we saw, adult man is not very adaptable. Here is a
real enigma !

The Child Instrument of Adaptation

The solution is found in the child, whom we can call
the instrument of the adaptability of humanity. The child
whom we saw born without any special movement, not
only acquires all the human faculties, but also adapts the
being that it constructs to the conditions in his environ-
ment. And this takes place because of the special
psychic form of the child, for the child's psychic form is
different from that of the adult. Psychologists today
show great interest in the study of this different form of

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7

THE ABSORBENT MIND

psychology. The child stands in a different relationship
to the environment. We may admire an environment.
We may remember an environment, but the child absorbs
it into himself. He does not remember the things that he
sees, but he forms with these things part of his psyche.
He incarnates in himself the things which he sees and
hears i.e., in us there is no change, in the child transfor-
mations take place. We merely remember an environment
while the child adapts himself to it. This special kind of
vital memory, that does not remember consciously, but
absorbs images into the very life of the individual has
received from the psychologists a special name : they
have called it Mneme.

We have an example of this in language. The child
does not remember the sounds of language. The child
incarnates these sounds and he can pronounce them
better than anybody else. He speaks the language
according to all its complicated rules and all its exceptions,
not because he studies and remembers it by means
of ordinary memory, perhaps his memory never takes
it consciously. Yet this language forms a part of his
psyche, forms a part of him. This is a phenomenon
different from mere mnemonic activity. It is a psychic
feature that characterizes an aspect of the child's psychic
personality.

There is in the child an absorbent sensitivity towards
whatever is in his surroundings. And it is by beholding
and absorbing the environment that one becomes adapted

THE ABSORBENT MIND

to it. This faculty reveals a subconscious power that is
only found in the child.

The first period of life is the period of adapta-
bility. We must be very clear as to what we mean
by adaptability in this case. We must distinguish
it from the adaptability in the adult. The biological
adaptability of the child is that which makes the only
place one really loves to stay in, the place where one is
born. Just as the only language that one speaks well is
one's mother tongue. Now an adult person who goes
to a country other than his own, never adapts himself
to it in the same fashion or to the same degree.

Let us take the example of those men who go
voluntarily to another country in order to spend their
life there, e.g. the missionaries. Missionaries are people
who by their own will choose to go and live in another
country. And yet if you speak to them, they usually say :
" We sacrifice our lives by living in this country ". This
denotes the limitations of the adaptability of the adult.

Let us now take the child. The child is an in-
dividual who loves whatever locality he is born in to
the point that he could not be happy anywhere else, no
matter how hard is the life there. So the man who loves
the frozen plains of Finland and another who loves the
dunes of Holland has each received his adaptation, his
love for his country, from the child he once was.

It is the child who practically and actually realizes
this adaptation. The adult finds himself prepared,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

adapted, suited to his country, so that he feels the love
and special fascination for the place where he lives, so
that happiness and peace for him are only found there.

In former times, in Italy, the people who were born
in a village lived and died there and never moved away
from it. Later people who got married sometimes
moved elsewhere and gradually the original population
were scattered from their native places. By and by a
strange malady came about. People became pale, sad,
weak, anaemic looking. Many cures were tried but in
vain. So at last when it could not be cured in any
other way, the doctor said to the relatives : " I think
you had better send this person to get a breath of his
native air ". And the person was sent to his home
town, or the farm, or wherever he was born and after a
little while he came back fully cured. People said that
a breath of the native air, was better than any amount
of medicine, but the air itself was often much worse than
that of the place where one was suffering. What this
person really needed was the quiet given to his sub-
conscious by the conditions of the place where he had
lived as a child.

Now there is nothing more important than this
absorbent sort of psyche which forms man and adapts
him to no matter what social conditions, to no matter
what climate, to no matter what country. It is upon
this that we must concentrate and work. When one says :
11 J love my country ", one does not say something

100

THE ABSORBENT MIND

superficial, something artificial. It is something which
forms a part of one's own self, of one's own life.

From what we have said above we can also under-
stand how the child absorbs by this type of psyche, the
customs that he finds in the land, the habits, etc., and
thus forms the individual who is typical of his race.
This * local ' behaviour of man, i.e., of man suited to the
special country in which he lives, is a mysterious con-
struction which takes place during childhood. It is evi-
dent that men acquire customs, habits, mentality, etc.
peculiar to their own surroundings because none of them
is natural to humanity. So we have now a fuller picture
of the work of the child. He constructs a behaviour suited
not only to the time and to the place, but also to
the mentality of the place. Here in India there is
a great respect for life, a respect which leads to venera-
tion also of animals. This cannot be acquired by
an adult person. It is not by saying : " Oh, life must be
respected " that this feeling is acquired. I may reason
that those people are right and feel that I also must
respect animal life, but with me it is not a sentiment, it
is reasoning. What I cannot feel is the sort of venera-
tion that some Indians feel for the cow, for instance,
whereas people who possess it can never get rid of it.
Other people have their religion and even if their mind
eventually rejects it, still at heart they feel uneasy, rest-
less. These things form part of us as we say in Europe :
44 they are in our blood ". The things that together

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

form the personality, sentiments of caste and all sorts
of other feelings that make a typical Italian, a typical
Englishman, a typical Indian, are constructed during
childhood by this mysterious sort of psychic power that
psychologists call Mneme. This is true for everything,
even for certain types of characteristic movement that
distinguish different races. There are certain people in
Africa who develop and fix qualities which are provoked
by the need of defence against wild animals. They do
certain exercises in order to render their hearing sharper.
Sharpness of hearing is one of the special characteristics
of the individual of that special tribe. In the same way
all characteristics are absorbed by the child and fixed in
the individual. There are certain religious sentiments
which remain in spite of the fact that the mind may later
on reason otherwise and reject the teachings of this
religion. Something continues in the sub-conscious,
because what has been formed by the child can never
be totally destroyed. This Mneme, which may be con-
sidered as a superior natural memory, not only creates
characteristics, but holds them alive in the individual.
The individual changes, it is true, but those things which
are formed by the child remain in the personality just
as the legs remain, so that each man has this special
character.

One would like to change individual adults. Often
we say : " This person does not know how to behave ".
Often we call such and such a person bad-mannered.

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THE .ABSORBENT MIND

He or she knows it, they feel humiliated, because they
recognize that they have * a bad character ', but the fact
is that it cannot be changed. In the same way in which
this type of psychology leads the child to the wonderful
acquisitions of civilization, to the complications and
elaborations of modern language, it also leads him to fix
in his psyche certain things which reason would like to
eliminate from the personality, but which cannot be
changed. The same phenomenon explains the adapta-
tion to, we might say, different phases of history, because,
while an adult of olden times could not adapt him*
self to modern times, the child adapts himself to the
level of civilization which he finds, no matter what
the level of that civilization may be and succeeds
in constructing a man suited to those times and those
customs.

So today the child begins to be visualized as it should
be, as the connection, the joining link between different
phases of history and different levels of civilization.
Childhood is now considered by psychologists as a very
important period because they realize that if we wish to
give new ideas to the people, if we wish to alter the habits
and customs of the country, or if we wish to accentuate
more vigorously the characteristics belonging to a people,
we must take as our instrument the child, as very little
can be done by acting upon adults. If one has really
a vision of better conditions, of greater enlightenment
for people, it is only the child that one can look upon

103

THE ABSORBENT MIND

in order to bring about the desired results* If there
are people who think that their customs are degenerate,
or others who want to revive old ones, the only individual
with whom they can work is the child. They will never
have success with the adults. If anybody wants to
have an influence upon society, he must orientate himself
towards chilhood. In past times people tried to influence
adults. Now they have understood better and they start
schools for children because in the children the construc-
tion of humanity takes place. They construct with what
we give them. Let us suppose that a statesman wanted
to try and change the customs of his people. Strange
as it may sound, this person must take into great con-
sideration the children of his country. This has actually
happened recently among different nations. A person
set out to make warrior-like people out of those who were
very peaceful, of a loving nature. He tried with the
grown-ups, but in the end he had to take the young
children. Mussolini did so in Italy, Hitler followed suit in
Germany. The Fascist hymn begins with the words
' Youth, Youth '. This was the main trend of their policy,
to make use of the creative spirit of youth, but soon they
had to go towards even younger people and soon the
hymn should have sounded * Infancy, Infancy '. By
taking children of three years and younger and by
creating around them an atmosphere of enthusiasm, of
dignity, of activity, in one generation the character of the
whole people was changed.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

The mentality we fight today was neither the original
character of the Italian people nor perhaps that of the
Germans, but by creating an atmosphere, an enthusiasm
based upon 4 our glory * around the children, these rooted
so firmly this warrior-spirit in their psyche that no matter
what disaster may fall upon the nation, this spirit will
not die. With older people one can reason, but not
with the young ones. They will fight till they are dead.
If they are defeated they will continue to fight under-
ground. And you see the different methods and how
even ordinary democracy is not the answer to our needs,
for children cannot choose a leader because they do not
understand. We cannot hold a meeting of children of
three years in order to make them understand political
idealism or to make them warriors. In order to influence
them, you must do so by means of the environment, be-
cause the child absorbs the environment, he takes every-
thing from the environment and incarnates it in himself.
He can do everything. He is really omnipotent, where-
as the adult who is already formed cannot change. So
we have in front of us a clear vision. If we wish to
change a generation, if we wish to influence it either
towards good, or evil, if we want to reawaken religion or
add culture, whatever it is that we may wish to do, we
must take the child.

The power of the psyche is something parallel to what
has been discovered in the embryo. By action upon the
embryo, you can either make a monster or a more

105

THE ABSORBENT MIND

perfect being. Indeed, experiments have been made by
transfering the sanglion and arms have been made to
develop on the back. But in an adult, one could not do
it. It is the same here for the psyche. You cannot create
man, but you can make him more perfect by acting upon
the psychic embryo. This gives great power to the
adults and to education because it confers control over
psychic growth and psychic development. This power is
immense if we compare it to the power society has had
when it acted merely upon the adult. The child gives us
a new hope and a new vision. Perhaps a great many
modifications which would bring more understanding,
greater welfare, greater spirituality can be brought about
in the future humanity.

106

CHAPTER VII
THE PSYCHO-EMBRYONIC LIFE

LET us repeat again that the child at birth is endowed
with psychic life. If this be so, this psychic life may not
have begun then. If it exist, it may already have been
built, otherwise how could it be there ? Also in the
embryo there may be psychic life. When one conceives
this idea, one wonders at what period of embryonic life
the psychic life begins. Let us consider certain cases.
We know there are occasions when a child is born at 7
instead of at 9 months and at 7 months the child is
already so complete that it can live. Therefore its
psychic life is capable of functioning like that of the child
who is born at 9 months. I do not want to insist upon
this question, but this example will suffice to illustrate
what I mean when I postulate that all life is psychic life,
and that even as an embryo the child is endowed with a
psyche. As a matter of fact, each type of life has a
specific quantity of psychic energy, a specific kind of
individual psyche, no matter how primitive the form of
life is. Even if we consider unicellular beings, we find
that there is a kind of psyche, they move away from

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

danger, towards food, etc. To give an example, there is
a unicellular being which is called the little vampire of
the spirogyra. This little being, out of all the plants in
the water, feeds upon a special weed. In order to do this
it must have a specific psychic individuality which makes
it choose this plant. It must, in other words, be endowed
with a specific behaviour.

Each type and especially every animal form of life
has a special irresistible way of conducting its life which
shows that their actions are directed by a special form
of psyche. If we were to leave the strictly scientific field
we might say that there is a psychic director who dis-
tributes all the activities upon the earth using different
types of life to do so. In other words today life is con-
sidered as a great energy, one of the energies of cosmic
creation. Therefore, why should it surprise us when
people state that the new-born child is endowed with
psychic life ? Indeed if it were not so, how could it
be alive ?

This conclusion made a great impression because
previously the child had been considered void of psychic
life. Many began to study and meditate upon the fact
that the child is endowed with a psychic life even be-
fore birth.

If one is endowed with psychic life, one receives
impressions and at birth a great shock must be felt by
the child. This is a new point which makes thinkers
dwell upon the drama of birth, the fact of a psychic life,

108

THE ABSORBENT MIND

of a living being thrown all of a sudden from one environ-
ment into another vastly different. This sudden change
of environment is even more impressive when one
considers the condition of the child at birth. The new-
born child is not fully developed and indeed the more
people study it, the more they realize how incomplete it is
even physically. Everything is unfinished. The legs
with which he will walk upon the earth and invade the
whole world are still cartilaginous. The same is true
of the cranium that encloses the brain which is in need
of a strong defence, but in the new-born child the head
is not yet ossified. Only a few of its bones are deve-
loped. More important still is the fact that the nerves
themselves are not completed so that there is a lack of
central direction and therefore a lack of unification
between the organs, so that this being, whose bones are
not yet developed, is at the same time unable to obey
the urge to move because every urge is transmitted by
nerves and they are not yet fully developed. So in
the human new-born, there is no movement whilst
among animals the new-born walk almost at once.
The conclusion is this : the child at birth is still in
an embryonic stage. Thus we must consider" the child
as possessing an embryonic life that extends before
and after birth. This life is interrupted, we might say,
by a great event, the great adventure of birth, by which
he plunges into a new environment. The change
in itself is terrific ; it is as though one went from the earth

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

to the moon. But this is not all ; in order to make this
great step the child must make a tremendous physical
effort. Generally the fact that the child goes through
so difficult an experience is not considered. When a
child is born, people think only about the mother, and how
difficult it has been for her. The child, however, passes
through a greater trial than the mother, especially if one
considers that the child is not even complete, but is never-
theless endowed with a psychic life. Let us therefore
remember that the new-born child does not possess
developed psychic faculties because he has yet to create
them, this psychic embryo, which even physically is not
complete, must create its own faculties.

Let us then continue to reason along this line. This
being which is born, powerless, motionless, must be
endowed with a behaviour that leads it towards move-
ment. The formation of those human faculties which
do not exist and which must be created, represents a
further period of embryonic life : the psycho -embryonic
life.

This physically incomplete new-born child must
complete the complicated being who is man : he must
create man's psychic faculties.

After birth psychic development takes place following
the line dictated by behaviour. In other words, it is the
psychic development which creates movement. The
instincts which in other animals seem to awaken at birth,
as soon as the animal comes into contact with the outer

no

THE ABSORBENT MIND

environment, must in man be built by the psyche. It is
the psyche which must construct the human faculties and
along with that the movements to correspond to those
faculties. And while this goes on the physical part of
the embryo finishes its development. The nerves become
mielinized and the cranium ossified. It seems as though
the human embryo were born incomplete because its final
form and its functions must wait until the psyche has
built itself.

Little chickens, when they come out of the egg but
wait for the hen to show them how to pick up food and
immediately start to behave like all other chickens. This
is so now, this was so in previous generations and it is to
be expected that it will always be so. For man this is
not the case, because man, before he starts to move,
must develop his psyche. Therefore he is born incapable
of movement. The psyche must be constructed accord-
ing to the evolution of man, according to the environment
in which man finds himself, according to the conditions
he finds around him, because he must build man suited
to his time and conditions.

The movements are built up together with the
psyche i.e., the psyche while it develops its faculties, also
develops the movements that express them and thus such
behaviour is built that man is adapted to his time and to
his conditions. The first active experiences upon the
environment must wait until the formations of the psychic
faculties have been laid,

HI

THE ABSORBENT MIND

Several consequences follow this fact. One is
that from birth itself the most important side of life in
man is the psychic life, not movement, because move-
ments must be created following the guide and dictates
of the psychic life. Intelligence is what distinguishes
man from all animals. The first act of man in this life must
therefore be the construction of intelligence. While both
the skeleton and the nervous system await the construc-
tion of this intelligence, the body remains inert. It has to
wait, because this is not the body of a being whose
behaviour is prefixed. Nature has taken its precautions,
it has deprived man of the power of movement and made
his body soft-boned, because before starting on his
experience upon the environment, he must wait until he
has made a great psychic acquisition. It is logical that if
psychic life is to construct itself by incarnating the
environment, the intelligence must observe and study
first, it must gather a great quantity of impressions from
it, just like the physical embryo begins with a great accu-
mulation of cells before starting to build its special organs.

The first period of life has been reserved in order
that impressions may be collected from the environment.
This is logical because how could man orient himself in
the environment if he started to walk immediately after
birth, unless he were endowed with fixed instincts like
those of the animals ?

This is the marvellous part. In the life of man the
first period is one of the greatest psychic activity. It is

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

then that the accumulation of impressions is made upon
which intelligence builds itself afterwards.

Also, as it is towards his environment that the
movements of man are directed and as man is born
in different environments and in different historical
epochs, as he must adapt himself to them, it is imperative
that at first the psyche receive and accumulate a
great deal of nourishing matter which lays the founda-
tion of this special adaptation to the specific environ-
ment and historical epoch in which the individual is
born. The first year of life then appears to us as a
period of the greatest activity leading to the absorption of
everything that there is in the environment. In the
second year the physical being nears completion, its
movement begins to become determined. This shows
how clearly nature has planned that the movements of
man be determined by psychic life.

This is all the more impressive because people in
olden times said that children who cannot move and
cannot speak were psychically speaking non-existent*
What a change ! Then people thought that the small
child had no psychic life whereas now it is known that
the main activity during this first year is of the brain.

Now if with this vision, we consider again the new-
born child, we seem better to understand why the size
of the head of the one year old child is double the size of
that of the new-born child. And at the third year its size
is already half of that of an adult. And when the child is

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

four years of age, the size of its head is 8/10 of that of
the adult. (Fig. 7.)

FIG. 7

A new-born child and an adult brought to the same scale
show the difference in the proportions of their bodies.

How clearly one sees then that the human being
grows especially in intelligence, in psychic life, and that
all the rest of growth is but that of an instrument of this
psychic life as it develops its faculties.

This, if it shows anything, shows the importance
of the first year for the rest of life and that the child
of man is characterized by his intelligence. This also
shows the greatest difference there is between man and
the animals. Animals merely have to obey the instincts of

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their behaviour. Their psychic life is limited to that. In
man there is another fact : the creation of human intelli-
gence. What man will do in the future we do not know
and we cannot know from the new-born child. The
intelligence of the child will have to take in the present of
a life which is in evolution, which goes back hundreds of
thousands of years in its civilization and which has
stretching in front of it a future of hundreds, of thousands,
of millions of years perhaps : a present that has no limit
either in the past or in the future, and that is never for a
moment the same : its aspects are infinite whereas for
the others there is but one aspect which is always fixed.

For man there is no limit. Human intelligence is
the centre which must be taken into consideration when
man is studied. Certainly this psychic life which has the
possibility of going towards the infinite, which is destined
to go towards the infinite, must begin in some mysterious
fashion. It begins before birth because in the mind of
the new-born we find powers so strong that they have
the possibility of creating any faculties, of adapting man
to any condition.

The various impulses of man have as their basis this
psychic life. This point must be clearly visualized
before we go on and before we can understand the
psychic development of the child. There is something
else which must be considered and that is the essence
of the mind of the child and its way of functioning,
because this mind is so very hungry in the first year of

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life that it wants to gather impressions of everything that
exists in its environment. It does not absorb anything
consciously. It is life with its powers that guides the
development of the child. What is the nature of this
psychic life > We must understand this if we are to
understand some of the future actions of the child. How
does the child re -act to external things ?

Birth Terror and its Reactions

Psychologists are today struck by what they call the
4 difficult adventure of birth ', and conclude that the child
at birth must undergo a great shock of fright. Today
one of the scientific terms of psychology is ' birth terror \
Certainly, it is not a conscious terror, but if his conscious
psychic faculties were developed, he would express him-
self by bitter words : " Why have you thrown me into
this terrible world > What can I do ? How shall I be able
to adapt myself to a life which is so different from my
own ? How am I going to adapt myself to the terrific
amount of sounds, I who had never heard even the
slightest whisper before ? How shall I take upon myself
these very difficult functions which you, my mother, took
upon yourself for me ? How can I digest and breathe >
How shall I be able to withstand these terrific changes of
climate in the world, I who have been in a temperature that
was always of the same agreeable warmth of your body ? f *

Now, the child is not conscious of all this. He could
not say that he is suffering from birth terror. There must

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be a psychic feeling different from the conscious, because
if he were conscious the child would say " Why have you
abandoned me ? You have left me who am wounded.
You have abandoned me, who have no strength. How
had you the courage to do so > "

This would be his reasoning if he were conscious,
but he is not conscious. Yet in his sub-conscious he is
very sensitive, and he must feel very nearly something
corresponding to what we have expressed above.

This must be taken into consideration by those who
study life. The child must be helped in his first adapta-
tion to our environment as his psyche must, through
birth, receive a terrific shock. There is no doubt that
the child can feel fright.

Very often we have seen children who, if quickly
lowered into the bath in the first hours of life, made a
grasping movement, as one does when one is falling.
That shows that they felt frightened.

What help is there in nature ? Nature does give help
to the young in this difficult adaptation. Nature gives
mothers the instinct of keeping their child close to their
own body and to protect him from light. And the mother
herself has been made powerless by nature during this
period. Not too much energy is left to her. By keeping
quiet for her own sake she gives the needed quiet to the
child. It is as though sub-consciously the mother were
reasoning : " This child has received a terrific shock.
I must keep it close to me ".

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She warms it with her warmth and she protects it
from too many impressions.

Human mothers do not do this with the enthusiasm
we see in mothers of other types of life. We see the
mother-cats who hide their young in some dark hole and
they are very jealous if somebody comes near them,
whereas human mothers seem to have lost this animal
instinct. As soon as the child is born somebody comes,
washes it, dresses it, puts it into the light to see the colour
of the eyes, etc. That is why the human kind is in
danger. It is no longer nature that guides, but human
reasoning and the reasoning is faulty because it is not
enlightened by understanding. It is a reasoning which
considers that the child is not a being endowed with a
psyche. This birth-terror, it has been observed today,
leads to something much more terrible than vocal protests,
it leads to wrong characters assumed by the child
as it develops. The consequence is a psychic transfor-
mation, or rather, instead of taking the path which we
might say is normal, the child takes a wrong path. The
faulty characters are to be found not only in the child,
but remain in the adult. They have been included in
the general term of * psychic regressions*. Instead of
progressing, instead of going forward along the path of
life, individuals suffering from a negative reaction to birth-
terror seem to remain attached to something which existed
before birth. These characters of regression are several,
but they all give the same impression. It is as though

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the child were reasoning in this fashion : " My goodness,
how terrible is this world, I am going back to where I
came from**. The long hours of sleep in the new-born are
considered normal, but too long sleep is not normal even
in the new-born and it is considered as a sort of refuge
due to a psychic repulsion from the world and a means
to seek oblivion from the earth.

And is it not so ? Is not sleep the kingdom of the
sub-conscious ? If something unpleasant troubles our
mind, let us sleep. For in sleep there are dreams, not
realities, in sleep there is a life in which there is no
necessity for struggle. Sleep is a refuge, a getting-away
from the world. Another fact is the position of the body
in sleep. In the new-born child the natural position is to
double up with the hands near the face, and the legs next
to the body. This however continues also in some older
people, and is, we might say, a refuge into the pre-natal
position. Then there is another fact. This is clearly a
character of regression. When children wake up, they
start crying as if they were frightened, as if they were
living again through that terrible moment of birth which
brings one into a difficult world. Often they suffer from
nightmares. These form a part of the terror of life.

Another expression of this tendency is to attach
oneself to somebody as though one was afraid of being
left alone. This attachment is not affection. It is
something which has fear in it. The child is timid and
always wants to remain near someone, the mother

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preferably. He is not happy to go out, but would always
like to remain at home isolated from the world. Every-
thing in the world that should make him happy frightens
him, he feels repugnance from new experiences. The
environment instead of proving attractive, as it should to
a being in course of development, is repellent. And if a
child, from the very first infancy feels repulsion towards
this environment, which ought to be its means of deve-
lopment, certainly this child will not develop normally.
He will not be the child who conquers, who is destined
to take the whole of his environment and incarnate it in
himself. He will do so, but with difficulty and incom-
pletely. He is the very picture of the saying 4 To live is to
suffer '. To do something is, to him, to go against his own
nature. Even respiration seems to be hard. People of this
sort require much more sleep and rest ; even digestion
seems to be difficult. So you see what sort of life this
type of child prepares for himself in the future, for these
characters are things not only of the present, but also of
the future. He is of the type who cries easily. He will
always require somebody to help him. He will be
indolent, sad and depressed. And these are not passing
features. They remain as characteristics for life. Even
when an adult, he will feel repulsion for the world, will
fear to meet people and be always timid. It is evident
that such beings are inferior to others in the struggle for
existence in social life. It will not be the lot of these
people to have joy, courage and happiness.

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This is the terrible answer of the subconscious
psyche. We forget with our conscious memory, but
though the subconscious appears not to feel and though
it does not seem to remember, it does something
worse. The impressions made there, are made upon the
Mneme ; they remain engraved as characteristics of the
individual. Therein lies the great danger to humanity.
The child, not properly cared for, will take revenge on
society through the individual that it forms. The treatment
does not foment rebels as it would amongst adults, it
forms individuals who are weaker, inferior to what they
ought to be ; it forms characters that will be an obstacle
to the life of the individual, and individuals who will be
an obstacle to the progress of civilization.

121

CHAPTER VIII
THE CONQUEST OF INDEPENDENCE

THE characteristics of regression are developed when the
child has been unable to achieve the first adaptation i.e.,
soon after birth. Certain tendencies which can be traced
back to this remain also in the adult.

Modern psychologists describing these characters of
regression say that when they are not there, then the
child presents tendencies which are very clearly and very
strongly set towards independence. Then development
is a conquest of ever greater independence. It is as
though an arrow had been sent flying from the bow and
it goes straight, sure and strong. So does the child
proceed along the path of independence. This is normal
development : an ever growing and more powerful
activity shown along the path that leads to independence.
The conquest of independence begins from the first
commencement of life. As the being develops, it per-
fects itself and overcomes every obstacle that it finds on
its way. A vital force is active in the individual and
leads it towards its own evolution. This force has been
called Horme.

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If one had to find something to compare to this
Horme in the conscious psychic field, one would have to
compare it to the force of will, although there is very
little analogy between the two. The force of will is
something too small and too much attached to the con-
sciousness of the individual, whereas the Horme is some-
thing which belongs to life in general, to what we might
call a divine force which is the promotor of all evolution.
This vital force of evolution is expressed in the child
by a will to perform certain actions. This will cannot be
broken by anything short of death. I call it ' will/ because
we possess no better word to describe it. It is not will,
however, because will implies consciousness and reason-
ing. It is a subconscious vital force which urges the
child to do certain things and in the normally growing
child its unhindered activity is manifested in what we
call * joy of life '. The child is enthusiastic, always
happy.

These conquests of independence are in the
beginning the different steps of what is generally
known as natural development. In other words, if we
examine natural development closely, we can describe it
as the conquest of successive degrees of independence.
This is true not only of the psychic, but also of the physi-
cal field. The body also has a tendency to grow, a
tendency so strong that nothing can stop it short of death.

Let us then examine this development. The child
at birth frees himself from a prison, the prison of the body

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of the mother. At birth he becomes independent of the
functions of the mother. The new-born child is endowed
with an urge, an impulse to face the environment and to
absorb it. We might say that he is born with the ' psy-
chology of conquest of the world/ He absorbs it in
himself and in absorbing it, he forms his psychic body.

This is the characteristic of the first period of life. It
is evident that if the child feels this urge, if the first
impulse he feels is the desire to conquer the environment,
this environment must exert an attraction on the child.
Therefore we say, using words which are really not
appropriate to describe the fact, that the child feels
4 love ' for the environment.

The first organs which begin to function in the child
are the sensory organs. Now what are sensory organs
but organs of prehension, instruments by means of which
we grasp the impressions which, in the case of the child,
must be incarnated ?

When we gaze, what do we see ? We see everything
there is in the environment. As soon as we start hearing,
we also hear every sound there is in the environment.
We might say that the field of prehension is very wide,
that it is almost universal. This is the way of nature.
One does not take in sound by sound, noise by noise,
object by object, we begin by taking in everything, a
totality. The distinctions of object from object, sound
from noise, sounds from sounds, come later as an evolu-
tion of this first global gathering in.

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This is the picture of the normal child's psyche. At
first it takes in the world and then it analyses it.

Now let us suppose another type who does not feel
this irresistible attraction for the environment, a type in
whom this great fondness has suffered damage by fright,
by terror. It is evident that the development of the
first type must be different from that of the second.

Let us continue to examine the development of the
child by considering the child at six months of age.
Certain phenomena present themselves which are
looked upon as sign-posts of normal growth. At
the age of 6 months the child undergoes certain
physical transformations. Some of these are invisible
and have been discovered only through experiments, e.g.,
the stomach begins to secrete chloric acid which is
necessary for digestion. It is also at six months that the
first tooth makes its appearance. This is a further
perfection of the body which at birth is not finished and
develops along a certain path of growth. It also means
that at six months the child is capable of living without
the milk of his mother, or at least of supplementing milk
with other substances. This is a further conquest of
independence. If we consider that the child up to that
age had been absolutely dependent upon his mother's
milk because if he were to take anything else he would
not be able to digest it, we realize what a great degree
of independence he acquires at this period. The 6
months* child seems to reason : " I do not want to live

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upon my mother. I am a human being and I can eat
everything now." An analogous phenomenon takes
place in adolescents who begin to feel the humiliation
of being dependent on their family. They do not want
to live on them. They would like to live by their
own resources.

It is also at about this epoch (which seems to be a
critical moment in the life of the child) that he begins
to utter the first syllables. This is the first stone in the
great building which will develop later into language
which is another great step, another great conquest of
independence. When the child acquires language, he
can express himself and does not have to depend upon
other people to guess his needs. Instead of somebody
having to guess what he, the child, wants, he can express
himself. He can tell everybody : " Do this. Do that/*
Thus he comes into communication with humanity,
because without language how can one communicate ?
This conquest of language and this possibility of intelli-
gent communication with others is a tremendous step
towards independence. Before acquiring it the child
may be compared to a deaf and dumb person, because
he cannot express himself and he cannot understand
what other people say. After the conquest of language
it is as if he suddenly acquired ears and the possibility
of uttering the speech of the people around him.

A long time after that, at one year of age, the child
starts to walk. This is to become free of a second

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

prison, because now he can run on his own two legs
and if you come near him, he can get away. He can
say : " I can run on my two legs, I can express with
language my thoughts to men like you/'

Thus man develops gradually and by means of these
successive steps of independence, he becomes free. It
is not a question of will, it is, a phenomenon of inde-
pendence. Really, it is nature that is giving to the child
the opportunity of growing, gives him independence and
at the same time leads him to freedom.

The ' conquest of walking ' is very important,
especially if one considers that, in spite of being very
complex, it is achieved in the first year of life and is
made together with all the other conquests of langu-
age, of orientation, etc. To walk is for the child a
physiological conquest of great importance. Animals
do not need to make it. It is only man who has this
prolonged and refined type of development. In his
growth he has to make three different achievements,
three conquests, before being physically able to walk, or
even to stand erect on his two legs. Look at those
majestically looking animals, the oxen. Imagine if atone
year of age calves just began to stand on their legs.
Indeed they do not. They begin to walk as soon as
they are born. Yet these animals are inferior to us, even if
they are gigantic in construction. We are so apparently
powerless because the construction of man is much more
refined and takes therefore much more time.

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The power of walking and being able to stand on
one's two legs entails a thorough development composed
of different items. One of them concerns the brain.
There is a part of the brain called the * cerebellum *
which is situated under its larger portion. (See fig. 8).

It is just at six months
that the cerebellum de-
velops rapidly and this
rapid development of the
cerebellum continues until
the child is 14 or 15
months. Then the growth
of the cerebellum isslower r
but continues nevertheless
until the child is 4j years,
Fie. 8 The possibility of stand-

The cerebellum at the base of the brain j ng Qn twQ J eg8 am j Q f

being able to walk erect depends on the development of
the cerebellum. In the child this development can easily
be followed. We see the two developments following
each other step by step : the child begins to its up at six
months of age, starts to crawl at 9 months, stands at 1
and walks between 12 and 13 months, while at 15
months the child walks with security.

The second item of this complex development is
the completion of certain nerves. If the spinal nerve,
through which the direct command to the muscles must
pass, were not completed, it could not pass and it is only

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

during this period that the nerves become completed*
How complex is development and how many things have
to come into harmony before the conquest of walking
can be made. This however is not all. There is a third
achievement to be made : the development of the skele-
ton. The legs of the child are not completely ossified, as
we have seen. They are cartilaginous and that is why
they are so soft. If this is the case, how can they support
the weight of the body ? Therefore the skeleton has to
be complete before the child can start to walk. Still
another thing is that the bones of the cranium were not
united at birth and only now they become complete, so
that, if the child falls down, he is not in danger of in-
juring his head.

If by means of education we wished to teach the
child how to walk before this time, we could not do it,
because the fact of being able to walk is dependent on a
series of physical developments, which take place simulta-
neously. If one tried one could not achieve any-
thing without seriously damaging the child. Here it is
nature which directs. Everything depends on her and has
to obey her exact commands. At the same time, if you
tried to keep the child who has started to walk and run
from doing so, you would not be able to do it, because
in nature whenever an organ is developed, this must be
put in use. Creation in nature is not to make something,
but also to allow it to function. As soon as the organ is
complete, it must immediately be used in the environment*

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

In modern language these functions have been called
4 experiences upon the environment/ If these experiences
do not take place, then the organ does not develop nor-
mally because the organ, incomplete at first, must be
used in order to accomplish its completion.

The child can only develop by means of experiences
upon the environment, we call them ' work.' As soon as
language appears the child begins to chatter and no one
can silence him. Indeed one of the most difficult things is
to make a child stop talking. Now if the child were not
to talk or to walk, then he would not be able to develop
normally. There would be an arrest in his development.
Whereas the child walks, runs, jumps and by doing this
he develops his legs. Nature first makes the instruments,
and then develops them by means of functions, through
experiences upon the environment. When, therefore, the
child has increased his independence by the acquisition
of new powers, he can only develop normally if left
free to function. When the child has acquired independ-
ence, it is by exercising this independence that he will
develop. Development does not come of itself, but, as
modern psychologists express it, 4 the behaviour is affirmed
in each individual by the experiences this individual
carries out upon the environment '. If therefore we think
of education as a help to the development of the child's
life, we cannot but rejoice when a child shows signs of
having attained a certain degree of development. We
cannot help saying : " My child has today said his first

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

word " and rejoice about it. Especially inasmuch as we
know we cannot do anything to bring about this event.
If, however, we realize that, although the development
of the child cannot be destroyed (because nature is too
strong for us, thanks be to God), it can however be kept
incomplete or retarded if the child is not given an oppor-
tunity of carrying out experiences upon the environment,
then a problem does arise : The problem of education.

The first problem of education is to furnish the child
with an environment which will permit him to develop
the functions that nature has given to him. This is not
an indifferent question. It is not a question of merely
pleasing the child, of allowing him to do as he likes. It
is a question of co-operation with a command of nature,
with one of her laws which decrees that development
should take place by means of experiences upon the
environment. With his first step the child enters a higher
level of experiences.

If we observe the child who has reached this level, we
see that he has a tendency to acquire still further indepen-
dence. He wants to act in his own way, i.e., he wants to
carry things, to dress and to undress alone, to feed
himself, etc. And it is not by following our suggestions
that the child begins to do things. On the contrary he
has such a strong urge, such a vital impulse that our
efforts are usually spent in restraining him from doing
things. It is not the child that we fight when we do
this, it is nature. It is not the child's will that we fight,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

he merely collaborates with nature and obeys her laws
and step by step, first in one thing, then in others, he
acquires ever increasing independence from those who
surround him, until a moment comes when he will want
to acquire mental independence too. Then he will
show the tendency to develop his mind through his own
experiences and not through the experiences of other
people. He begins to seek out the reason of things.
And thus it is that the human individuality is constructed
during this period of childhood. This is not a theory.
This is not an opinion. These are clear natural facts,
they are observed facts. When we say that we must
render the freedom of the child complete, when we say
that his independence and his normal functioning must be
assured by society, we do not speak about a vague ideaL
We speak because we have observed life, we have
observed nature and nature has reveafed this fact. It is
only through freedom and by experiences upon the
environment that man can develop.

Now, when we speak of independence and freedom
for the child, do not transfer to this field the ideas of
independence and freedom that we hold as ideal in the
world of adults. If the adults were to examine them-
selves and give a definition of independence and free-
dom, they could not do so with exactness. In reality
they have a very miserable idea of what freedom is.
They have not the largeness that nature has. The
child offers the majestic vision of nature that gives life by

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

giving freedom and independence. She gives it with
determined laws regarding the time, and the needs : she
makes freedom a law of life : either be free or die. 1
believe that nature offers us help and aid for the
interpretation of our social life. It is as though the child
offered us the picture of the whole and we in our social
life took only small details. The child is right in this
sense that what he shows leads to reality, to truth. When
there is a natural truth, there can be no doubt about it*
It is interesting therefore to consider the freedom of the
child which is achieved through growth.

What is the aim of this ever increasing conquest of
independence ? From where does it arise ? It arises in
the individuality that forms itself, that is able to function
by itself. But in nature all living beings have the
tendency towards this. Every living being functions by
itself. So in this also the child obeys the plan of
nature. He achieves that freedom which is the first rule
of life in every being.

How does the child acquire this independence ? He
acquires it by means of continuous activity. How does
the child realize his freedom ? By means of continuous
effort ; what life cannot do is to arrest itself, to stop.
Independence is not static. It is a continuous conquest.
And by means of continuous work, one acquires not only
freedom but strength and self-perfection.

Let us consider the first instinct of the child : he
seeks to act alone, i.e., without help from others. His

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

first conscious act of independence t is to defend himself
from those who try to help him. And in order to act by
himself, he tries to make an ever greater effort. If, as
many of us think, the best idea of well-being is to sit
down, do nothing and let other people work for us r
then the ideal state would be that of the child before
birth. The child might as well go back to the body of
the mother, because the mother would do everything for
the child. If we think so, why should one learn a
language in order to communicate with others ? No,
nature has other intentions. She forces the child to make
this difficult conquest of language so that he can enter
into communication with other beings. Or again, if we
adopted rest as the ideal of life, then the child might say :
" I have nice sweet milk from my mother. It is easily
digestible. Why should I want any other food ? I shall
stick to it. Why should I have to take the trouble of
chewing coarser food that I have to secure for myself >
No ! No ! I am going to stick to mother's milk." Or
again : " Why walk ? Somebody carries me in her arms.
I have something like an automobile of my own. See the
tremendous effort I must make in order to walk, I have
to develop my bones, my brain and even finish the
insulation of the nerves in the spinal chord. Why should
1 go to all this trouble ? Why should I be so uncouth and
bad-mannered as to insist upon knowing things for
myself ? Why, when there are so many wise people
around me, people who have instruction and culture and

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

who can tell me things > " But the reality shown by the
child is not so. The child reveals that nature's teachings
are quite different from the ideals that society has forged
for itself. The child seeks independence through work :
independence of body and of mind. The child seems to
say : "I do not mind how much you know, 1 want to
know things for myself. I want to have experience in the
world and to perceive it with my own effort ; you keep
your own knowledge and let me acquire mine/' We
must understand clearly that when we give freedom and
independence to the child, we give freedom to a worker
who is impelled to act and who cannot live except by
his work and his activity. This is the form of existence
for living beings, and as the human being is also living,
he also has this tendency. And if we try to stop it then,
we produce a degeneration in the individual.

Everything in creation is activity and in life this is
all the more so. Life is activity and it is only through
activity that perfection of life can be sought and found.
The social aspirations that have come to us through the
experience of past generations : an ideal life of less hours
of work, of people working for us, of idling as long as we
can, is what nature shows as the characteristic of a
degenerate child. These aspirations are the characteristics
of regression of the child who was not helped in the first
days of its life to adapt itself and who has acquired
a disgust for the environment and for activity. He it is
who wants to be helped by other people, who wants to

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have servants, wants to be carried or driven in a peram-
bulator, who sleeps too long, who shuns the company of
other people. These are the characteristics that nature
has shown as belonging to degeneration. These are the
characteristics which have been recognized, analysed and
described as the tendency to go back to embryonic life.
He who is born and grows normally goes towards inde-
pendence. The one who shuns it is degenerate.

Quite another problem of education faces us in these
degenerate children. How to cure regression ? Regres-
sions retard or deviate normal development. The devi-
ated child has no love for the environment, because the
environment presents too many difficulties, too much
resistance. Today the deviated child holds the centre in
the scientific field of psychology which we could better
call ' psycho-pathology/ Pedagogy teaches that the
environment must offer the least resistance. It is sought,
therefore, to diminish the avoidable obstacles and
resistance that the environment presents to the child,
and, if possible, to eliminate them altogether. Now-
adays we try to give attraction to the environment.
The environment must be rendered pleasing, beautiful,
because it is necessary, especially in the case of one who
feels repulsion for the environment to arouse sympathy
and benevolence towards it. The environment must be
made as attractive as possible so as to overcome
diffidence and disgust. We must give pleasant activity
to the child, because we know that it is through activity

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that development takes place. The environment must
contain plenty of motives for interesting activity which
are an invitation for the child to carry out his experiences
upon the environment. These are clear principles for the
deviated child, principles which are dictated by life, by
nature, and which bring those who have acquired
regressive characteristics from the tendency to idle to the
desire of working, from lethargy and sluggishness to
activity, from that state of fright which sometimes trans-
lates itself into attachment to somebody whom they never
want to leave, into a freedom of joy, freedom to go
towards the conquest of life.

From inertia to work ! That is the path of the cure
just as from inertia to work is the path of development
for the normal child. If a new education is to be envi-
saged, this must be its basis, for it has been formulated by
nature herself.

137

CHAPTER IX
CARE TO BE TAKEN AT LIFE'S BEGINNING

THE absorbent mind of the child orients itself in the
environment ; so it is necessary to prepare the environ-
ment with much care.

We must remember that there are different periods
of development in the life of the child. One period is
soon after birth, and this is so important a period that it
is impossible to deal with it in a book as short as this. I
feel that in the future there will be people who will
specialize in this type of study, at present there are only
very few.

If we study the animals we shall see that nature has
provided special protection to the mammals, giving
special care at this period. Nature has arranged that
mothers isolate themselves from the rest of their species
just before the time when they give birth to their little
ones and they remain isolated for some time before
coming back. This is very evident in animals who live
in herds or packs. Horses do this, cows do, elephants,
wolves, deer, dogs, all do this. During this time the

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little new-born animal has time to adapt itself to the
new environment, alone, except for its mother's love f
watchful guidance and care. In this period the baby-
animal gradually expresses the behaviour of its kind.
During this short period of isolation there is a continued
psychological reaction on the part of the little one to all
the stimuli of the environment, and that reaction is
according to the special features of the behaviour of its
kind. So that, when the mother returns to the herd with
her baby, the little one enters the community with
its own special preparation for living there already
established. It is either a little horse, psychically
speaking, or a little wolf, or a little cow, psychically not
merely physically.

The child has no fixed behaviour, but he has to take
in the environment, therefore it is necessary to take special
care of the environment which surrounds this new-
born child. This care is of utmost importance in order to
aid the absorption of the environment, so that the child
may feel attracted towards it instead of repelled, and
does not develop phenomena of regression. The progress,
growth and development of the child depend on his love
for the environment ; we must therefore take care that he
can absorb it with interest. Science nowadays takes this
into great consideration. Without entering into too many
details we can enunciate certain principles. The child
should remain as much as possible in contact with his
mother and the environment must not present obstacles,

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such as great differences of temperature from that to
which the child has been accustomed before birth. Not
too much light, not too much noise, for the child has come
from a place of perfect silence and darkness. Today, in
the modern Nursing Homes, the mother and child are
placed in a glass-walled room where the temperature is
easily controllable, so that it may be gradually assimilated
to that of the normal temperature outside. The glass is
blue so that the light entering the room is very subdued,
and the air also is regulated. Care should also be taken
in the way how the child is handled and moved. It has
been customary to handle the child as if it were an object
without feelings, and it was plunged into a low bath and
rapidly and roughly dressed (roughly in the sense that
any handling of a new-born child is rough, because it is
so delicate a thing, psychically as well as physically ),
Today science has come to the conclusion that the new-
born child should be touched as little as possible, and
should not be dressed, but rather kept in a room the
temperature of which is sufficient to keep the baby warm
and free from draughts of cold air. The way of trans-
porting the baby is also changed : he is carried by means
of a soft mattress, something like a hammock, so that he
remains in a level and horizontal position, similar to his
pre-natal position. He is not lifted up or down but
treated as we treat wounded people who need great care.
Sick people today are not lifted up and then taken to a
cart and drawn along ; there is a stretcher which is at the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

same level as the bed, and the invalid is carried very,
very carefully, so that there are no bumps and jumps.
This is done for adult people. The tendency today is
to give the baby the same care and consideration, only
even more refined and perfect. This is more than merely
hygienic care, because hygiene is something else again.
Today the nurses of the child have a cloth in front of
their mouth and nose, so that microbes from them may
not enter the environment of the new-born child. He is
protected from them. Nowadays mother and child are con-
sidered as two organs of one body which are in communi-
cation. The adaptation to the environment then takes
place successfully and naturally for the child, since
mother and child have a special connection with each
other. It is considered as a kind of magnetism. There
are certain forces within the mother to which the child is
accustomed and these forces are a necessary aid for the
child during the first difficult days of adaptation. We
can say that the child has changed his position in relation
to the mother. He is now outside the mother's body
whereas before he was inside, but the rest is the same.
They are still in close communication and this magnetism
that goes from the mother to the child remains intact.
This is how these things are considered in our modern
times, but only a few years ago the first thing that was done
at birth, even in the best Nursing Homes, was to separate
the mother from the child. The child was taken away
and bathed and then brought back to his mother. The

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

treatment I have described above is the * last word ' in
the scientific treatment of the child. Nature shows us that
this special care is not necessary to the child during the
whole period of childhood. Just as, after a time, the
mother cat brings her kittens out and does not hide them
any more, so after a little time the human baby and
mother can come out of their isolation into to the social
world.

Usually, as soon as a baby is born, all the relatives
go and see this baby. They pat him and say : " How
beautiful he is, he looks just like the father (or mother, or
both !) ". They kiss it and caress it. This should be
stopped. The richer the children the more unhappy
they often are, the unhappiest of all are perhaps the
king's children. In olden times, when the queen gave
birth to an heir to the throne, the king himself took the
baby out on to a balcony. The little one was wrapped
in a bundle of clothes, and shown to the people who
were assembled in the square outside the palace.
Imagine this and how it would give rise to regressions !

It is interesting to note that the social questions of
the child are not the same as those of the adult. We might
say also that the economic position has a bearing upon the
child which is the reverse of that which it has upon the
adult, for we find that while among the adults it is the poor
who suffer, amongst the children it is often the rich who
suffer most. It is among the rich that the mother gives
the child to a nurse for care, while the poor mother follows

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

the proper method of keeping her child with her. The
children of working mothers also usually receive more
substantial food from their mothers, because the mothers
are healthy and produce more milk which is of a more
substantial quality than that of rich mothers, who do not
need to work and are often inert and so their milk is scarce
and poor in quality. This is one of the main reasons
why a child is given to a nurse. The mother does not feed
the child owing to unsuitable milk, and in olden times the
baby was given to a * wet nurse,' who was a healthy
peasant woman with plenty of good milk. There is
therefore not a general question of rich and poor ;
in the world of children things and values change
altogether.

Once this first period is passed the child adapts
himself happily to the environment without feeling any
repugnance. Then he begins travelling on the path of
independence that we have described, on which the child,
we might say, opens its arms to the environment, receives
the environment and absorbs it to the extent of making
his own, the customs of the environment in which he
lives.

The first activity in this development, which we
might call a conquest, is the activity of the senses.
Owing to the lack of completeness in its bony tissues, the
child is inert, without movement of limbs, so his activity
cannot be that of movement. His activity is purely that
of the psyche taking in the impressions of the senses.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

The child's eyes are very active, but we must have very
clear in our minds that (as science has described in
modern times) the child is not merely struck by the light
on its eyes. The child is not passive. He certainly
receives impressions, but he is also an active research-
worker in the environment. This is the new idea ; it is
he, the child, who seeks these impressions ; he is not
a victim of impressions that are all around him and that
strike him, but he seeks them.

Now, if we look at the animal species, we see that
they have a type of apparatus in the eyes similar to that
which we have, a sort of photographic machine. But
these animals are specialized in their use of it : they are
attracted towards certain things more than others so that
they are not struck by the whole of the environment.
They have a guide in them that makes them follow
certain lines and through their eyes they follow that guide
of their behaviour. So they direct themselves towards
those things for which their behaviour is made. From
the very beginning there is a guide ; the senses perfect
themselves and are then used always following this guide.
The eye of the cat will perfect itself in the dim light of the
night (as does that of other nocturnal prowlers), but the cat,
although interested in the darkness, is attracted by moving
things and not by still things. As soon as something
moves in the darkness, the cat pounces upon it ; to the
rest of the environment it pays no attention. There is
not a general awareness of the environment, therefore,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

but an instinctive move towards specialized things. In the
same way, there are insects which are attracted by flowers
of special colours, because in the flowers of those colours
they find their food. Now, an insect just emerged from
a chrysalis could not have any experience along that
line ; it has a guide which directs it and the eye serves to
follow that guide. Through this guide the behaviour of
the species is realized. The individual, therefore, is not the
victim of his senses, neither is it dragged by them ;
the senses are there and work in the service of their
owner, following a guide.

The child has a special faculty. His senses are not
limited like those of animals, but his senses also are in
the service of a guide. The cat is limited to things that
move in the environment, it is attracted only by them.
The child has no such limitation. The child observes his
surroundings and experience has shown us that his
tendency is to take in everything. He does not merely
take them in by means of his camera-like eye, but a kind
of psycho-chemical reaction takes place so that these
impressions form an integral part of his psyche. We might
make this observation which is an impression and not
a scientific statement that the person who is merely
dragged by his senses, who is the victim of his senses,
has something wrong within him. His guide may be
there, but instead of acting it has become enfeebled in
some way and so the person becomes the victim of his
senses. Therefore it is of the utmost importance that the

145

10

THE ABSORBENT MIND

guide which is within each child should be taken care of
and kept alive.

To make clearer what happens in this absorption
of the environment, I would like to make a comparison.
There are certain insects who resemble leaves and others
resembling sticks. These insects can be quoted as analo-
gies to what takes place in the psyche of the child. They
live on sticks and leaves and resemble them so closely
that they have become as one with their environment.
Something like that happens in the child. He takes the en-
vironment in and transforms himself accordingly like leaf-
insects or stick-insects. This is very interesting indeed !
The impressions that the environment gives to them are
so great that some biological or psycho -chemical trans-
formation makes them resemble their environment. They
become like the thing they love. This power of taking
in the environment and transforming accordingly, is now
discovered to exist in all types of life, in some physically
as in the insects mentioned and in some other animals,
but psychically in the child. It is to be considered as one
of the greatest activities of life. The child does not look
at things as we do. We may look at a house and say :
44 How beautiful ! " and then we see something else and
we have but a vague memory of those things afterwards.
But the child constructs himself by means of the profound
way in which he gathers them especially in the first period
of life. It is in infancy, by virtue of the unique powers of
infancy, that the child acquires the human characteristics

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

that distinguish him, such as language, religion, racial
character, etc. Thus he constructs the adaptation
to the environment. In that environment he is happy
and develops taking in its customs, language, etc. He
does not refuse food if the word for food differs from that
in his own country. He constructs an adaptation to each
new environment. What does it mean to build up
adaptation ? It means to transform oneself so that one
becomes suited to one's environment, so that this environ-
ment forms a part of oneself. We must therefore observe
these facts as the child absorbs his environment.

The child is in need of an environment in order to
develop himself. Having accepted that, the next point
is, what are we to do ? What sort of environment must
be prepared for the child so that it may be of assistance
to him ? It is a very embarrassing question. If we were
dealing with a child of three years, he might be able to
tell us. We should have to put flowers and beauty in
the environment ; we should have to provide those
motives of activity which belong to his path of develop-
ment. We could easily find out that certain motives of
activity would have to be in the environment in order to
offer an opportunity for functional exercise to this child.
But when the baby has to take in the environment in
order to build up adaptation, what sort of environment
can we prepare for him ? There can be but one answer
to this : the environment for the baby-child must be the
world, the world that is around him, all of it ! It is

147

THE ABSORBENT MIND

evident that if the child is to acquire language, he must
be among people who speak, otherwise he will not
be able to do so ; if he is to acquire any powers or
faculties he must be among people who habitually use
those powers and faculties. If the child is to take in
customs and habits he must be constantly among people
who themselves follow them. That is why we find that
the child who is among cultured people who use many
words and many small refinements of behaviour, acquires
many more words and many more little refinements than
the less fortunate child.

This really is a strikingly revolutionary statement.
It is a contradiction of what has happened in the last few
years, since, as a consequence of hygienic reasoning,
people have come to the conclusion or misconclusion
that the child should be isolated ! What has happened
is that the child has been placed in a nursery. When it was
discovered that the nursery, hygienically speaking, was
not good enough, the hospital was taken as a model and
the child was left undisturbed and made to sleep as much
as possible like a sick person. Let us realize that if this is
progress this exclusively hygienic care it is a social
danger. If the child is kept in nurseries, in a sort of prison,,
with as his sole companion a nurse who obstructs more or
less the development of the child, because no expressions
of truly maternal sentiment or feeling are shown to the
child, there are serious obstacles to normal growth and
development ; serious retardation and dissatisfaction, one

14ft

THE ABSORBENT MIND

might say psychic hunger on the part of the child, is bound
to result with harmful effect. Instead of staying with his
mother, who loves him and with whom there is a special
current of communication, the child has a nurse who does
not speak much to the child because of the hygienic
habit of covering her mouth. How then can he learn the
language ? He must be protected from the sun or cold so
a hood is put up over his perambulator and he sees only
the face of the nurse or the hood and is shut away from
all other parts of the environment. The richer the
children the worse their lot, because this is life in a prison
for them. Instead of nice beautiful mothers they have
nurses, sometimes very experienced, but then old and
ugly and the more aristocratic the family, the more formal
it is and the parents see still less of the child. Many
families see their child for a moment once a week be-
cause ' the nurse knows how to deal with the child/
Mother says : "I do not deal with him ". After that
period, they put the child in a boarding school !

The treatment of the child is really a social question
and today more and more we begin to realize that it must
be changed. Once this has been understood people
begin to worry very much as in America which is awake
now to the need for this new sort of aid to the child.
They study how the child should be treated, and there is
a growing conviction that as soon as the child can come
out of doors, one should bring him along in the midst
of one's work and allow him to see as much as possible.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

Then the perambulator is built very high, because the
higher the child the better he can see. The nursery also
has undergone a transformation. It conforms as rigo-
rously to the requirements of hygiene as a hospital room,
but the walls are full of pictures and the child lies on a
stand which is slightly sloping and fitted high up, so that
he can command a view of the whole of the environ-
ment and not of the ceiling only. This is the first throne
for the child. The idea has been understood that the
child must be placed in a position to see everything.

The absorption of language presents a more difficult
problem especially to nurses who themselves belong to a
social environment different from that of the child. Here
also there is another side to the question. The child must
be brought with us when we converse with our friends.
Usually when we go to call on a friend or when a friend
comes to see us, the child is taken away and put back in
the nursery. If we want to aid the child we must put
him in our midst so that he can see how we do things
and can hear the conversation. He does not register it
consciously, but if he sees the people round him talking,
eating, etc., he receives a sub-conscious impression that he
takes in and this will help his growth. Also when we
take him for an outing what will he like ? We cannot
say so definitely, but we can observe him. Here again
mothers and rightly prepared nurses, when they see the
child interested in something, will stop and let the child
examine and inspect it as long as he likes. The nurse,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

instead of dragging along a cart with something in it as
she used to do in the old days, considers the child and
the little face lights up with interest as he is allowed to
examine what attracts him. How, indeed, can we know
what is going to be of interest to the child on any parti-
cular day ? We must be at his service. Our whole con-
ception is therefore revolutionized, and this revolution
must be brought about among adults. The adult world
must realize that the child constructs a vital adaptation to
the environment and must therefore have full, complete
contact with the environment, for if the child is unable .to
construct this adaptation, we face a social problem of the
first order. All the social problems we have today are
due to a lack of adaptation on the part of somebody,
either in the moral field or in others. This is a fundamental
problem, a question of fundamental importance. This
conclusion, of course, points to the fact that the education
of the small child will in the future become the most
basic and important consideration of society.

Then how is it possible that we knew nothing of it
before ? Our grandparents and great-grandparents knew
nothing of these things and yet children grew up and
humanity existed. This is the sort of statement that
usually comes into the mind of a person who hears some-
thing new ! They say : " Humanity is very old and
people must have lived. I have grown up myself ; my
children have grown up and yet we had no such theory
before. In spite of the lack of such preparation, people

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

have acquired their language and in many countries
certain customs have become so strong that they have
become prejudices. How has that taken place ? How
is it that without any such preparation I have become
one of my race ? "

Let us consider this question for a little while. One
of the most interesting studies is the study of the
behaviour of human groups at different levels of civiliza-
tion. Every one seems more intelligent than we in the
West with our ultra-modern ideas ! In most other coun-
tries we see that children are not treated as disastrously
as by the rich ultra-modern Westerner. We see that in
most countries the child accompanies his mother every-
where. The mother and child are as one body. Wher-
ever the mother goes the child goes with her. In the
street she talks and the child listens. The mother has an
altercation with some tradesman about prices, the child
is present. Whatever the mother does the child sees and
hears, and for how long does that last ? During the
whole period of breast-feeding. The mother has to feed
her child and so sis she goes to work or goes out she
cannot leave the child. To her it is not merely a question
of feeding the child, it is really a question of attraction
between the mother and child. " I do not like to leave
the child, because I love him/' she would say. Nature
has arranged that milk and love solve the problem of
adaptation to the environment on the part of the child.
So here is the picture : the mother and child are but one

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

person divided into two. Where civilization has not
destroyed the possibility, the mother loves the child and
takes him about with her, everywhere. She says, and
rightly : " I do not trust anyone with my child." Is this
mother a gaoler then ? No ! She goes everywhere and
so does the child. The child hears the mother speaking
in a normal way to many people. She speaks whatever
she has to say and the child takes part. People say that
mothers are loquacious ; yes, because they have to aid
the development of the child and his adaptation to his
environment. If the child were to hear only the words
that the mother addresses to himself, he would not learn
much. Instead, the child learns language in its construc-
tion. It is not language consisting only of disconnected
words, it is language taken from the people who speak.
It is really marvellous that the child is able to absorb the
language of the environment in which he lives, but this
can only happen if he lives among people. Therefore I
stress the necessity of the child being brought out into
the world.

Again, if we study the different human groups,
races or nations, there are other characteristics to observe :
the fashion of transporting the child is one of these
characteristics. Ethnological studies are made and people
go about observing these and other customs and there
are many interesting things to be seen. One of the
greatest interest is to see how women carry their children.
They usually lay the child on a bed or in a bag and do

153

THE ABSORBENT MIND

not carry him in their arms. In some countries the child is
fastened to a piece of wood and put on the shoulders of
the mother, when the mother goes to work. Certain
people tie the child on the neck, others on the back,
others use a basket. But each race has found some
means of carrying the child along. There is always the
question of breathing to consider. The child is usually
carried with his face against the back of the mother, there
is the danger of suffocation to be considered, and so
precautions are taken. The Japanese put their children
in such a way that the neck of the child comes above
the shoulder of the person who is carrying it, and the
first traveller who went to Japan, called the Japanese
two-headed people, on account of this habit. In India the
child is carried on the hip, and the Red Indian straps it on
the back ; the child is in a sort of cradle and is fastened
to the mother back to back, so that the child sees
whatever is behind her. Each country has different
habits and customs, but the child never leaves the mother.
It never enters the head of the mother to leave the child
behind any more than she would leave her hair behind.
In Africa among a certain tribe there was to be a coro-
nation ceremony for a queen. To the surprise of the
missionaries who witnessed the ceremony, the queen
had her child along with her. It never entered her head
to leave the child at home. Another curious fact with
these people is that the period of breast-feeding lasts for
a long period. In some countries it lasts one year, in

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

others one and a half or up to two years. It is not neces-
sary, because the child has the necessary means now to
eat anything. In fact he does eat a great many things
besides drinking his mother's milk, but since the mother
continues to feed him, it means that she takes the child
along with her and so involuntarily ensures the proper
aid of a full social environment during this important
period. The mother says nothing to the child but he has
his eyes and he goes about. The mother carries him
and the child comes to know people in the street and the
market, carts and buses. He sees all these things with-
out anybody telling him anything. And when mothers
go to market and fix the price for fruits, if you look at the
face of the child she carries, it is curious to see the inten-
sity of interest there is in his eyes. The mother is un~
expressive in her face but the child is intensely expressive.
Another interesting factor is that the small child who is
being carried about never cries, unless he is ill or wounded.
Sometimes the child falls asleep, but he never cries.
Among the enormous quantity of photographs taken in
these countries, you never see a child crying. The photo-
graphs have been taken of the mother, of course, to show
her customs, but incidentally we notice that one feature
of them is that the child does not cry, whereas what
people complain about in Western countries is : " My
child is always crying," and " what do you do when a
child cries ? " What can one do ? Crying is the problem
in Western countries. Today the answer of psychologists

155

THE ABSORBENT MIND

is this : the child cries and is agitated, he has fits of cry-
ing and ' tempers ' , because he suffers from mental star-
vation. He is mentally undernourished. He is kept in
prison with a restricting guardian over him. The only
remedy is this : to take the child out of prison and allow
him to go into society. What nature shows us is this
treatment of the child which is unconsciously followed in
many races. This treatment has to be understood and
applied consciously by us as we use our observation and
intelligence.

156

CHAPTER X
ON LANGUAGE

LET us consider the development of language in the
child. In order to understand language, we must reflect
on what language is. It is so fundamental that we might
well call it the basis of normal human life, because
through it men join together to form a group. It brings
about the transformation of the environment that we
call civilization.

There is a central point that distinguishes humanity :
it is not guided to do this or that fixed task as animals
are. We never know what man will do, hence men must
come into harmony with each other or they will never
do anything. In order to come into accord and to take
intelligent decisions together, it is not sufficient to think,
not even if all of us were geniuses. What is necessary
is that we must understand one another. This under-
standing one another is possible only by means of langu-
age. Language is the instrument of thinking together.
Language did not not exist on the earth until man made
his appearance. Yet after all, what is it ? A mere breath,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

a series of sounds put together not even logically, just put
together.

Sounds have no logic, the collection of sounds that
occur when we say * plate ' have in themselves no logic.
What gives sense to these sounds is the fact that men
have agreed that those special sounds shall represent
this special idea. Language is the expression of agree-
ment among a group of men, and it is only the group who
has agreed on those sounds who can understand them.
Other groups have other sounds to represent the same
idea. Language is a sort of wall that encloses a group
of men and separates it from other groups. That is why
language has become almost mystical, it is something
that unites groups of men even more than the ideas of
nationality. Men are united by language, and language
has become more complicated as man's thought has
become more complicated ; it has grown with man's
thought.

The curious thing is that the sounds used to com-
pose words are few, yet they can unite in so many ways
to make so many words. How complicated are the
combinations of these sounds ! Sometimes one is placed
before another, sometimes after another, sometimes softly,
sometimes with force, with closed lips, with open lips,
etc., etc. It needs a great memory to remember them
all and the ideas represented by these words. Then
there is the thought itself, as a whole, which must be
expressed and this is done by a group of words which we

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call a sentence. The words must be placed in a special
order in that sentence so as to conform to the thought of
man and not just to string together a number of things in
the environment. There is therefore a set of rules in
order to guide the hearer as to the intentional thought of
the speaker. If man wishes to express a thought, he
must put the name of the object here and an adjective
near it and another noun there. The number of words
used is not sufficient, their position must be considered.
If we want to test this, let us take a sentence with a clear
meaning, write it out, cut the written sentence into its
separate words and mix them ; the sentence will not
make sense, yet there are exactly the same words. So
here also there must be agreement among men. Lan-
guage therefore might be called the expression of a supra-
intelligence. On first consideration we feel that language
is a faculty with which we are endowed by nature, but
after further thought we realize that it is above nature.
It is a supra-natural creation produced by conscious
collective intelligence. Around it there grows a sort of
network that extends and increases and there is no limit
to the extension and increase, so that there have been
languages so complicated, so difficult to remember for
ever, that they have died. They extended so far and
gradually became so complicated that it was impossible
to retain them, and they disintegrated. And if one
wished to study Sanskrit or Latin one would study for
eight years, ten years, and even then one would not

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succeed in speaking this language completely and in its
perfection.

There is nothing more mysterious than the under-
lying reality that to do anything, men must come together
in agreement and to that they must use language, this
most abstract instrument.

This problem is always worrying humanity, but it
mast be solved, because language has to be given to the
new-born child. Attention to this problem has led
people to consider and realize that it is the child who takes
in language. The reality of this absorption is something
very great and mysterious which men have not sufficiently
considered. It is said : " Children are among people who
speak, so they speak". This is a very profound state-
ment indeed ! especially when one considers the com-
plications. Yet people have gone on for thousands of
years to think of it so superficially.

Another thought has entered men's minds through
their study of this problem of language ; a language might
be difficult and complicated for us to learn and yet it has
been spoken once by the uncultured people of the country
to which it belonged. Latin is a difficult language, even
for those who speak the modern languages that have
developed from Latin, but the language that the slaves of
imperial Rome spoke was this same complicated and
difficult Latin ! And what did the uncultured peasants
speak as they laboured in the fields ? This complicated
Latin ! And what did the children of three years speak

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in imperial Rome ? They expressed themselves in this
complicated Latin and understood it as it was spoken to
them. It is probably the same in India. Long ago, the
people who worked in the fields and roamed in the jungle
spoke Sanskrit. To-day this mystery has aroused
curiosity and the result is that the development of
language in children is receiving attention and, let us
remember, it is development, not teaching. The mother
does not teach language to her little one. Language
develops naturally as a spontaneous creation. And
what strikes one is that language develops following
certain laws and in certain epochs that development
reaches a certain height. This is true for all children
whether the language of their race be simple or com-
plicated. Even today there are some very simple
languages spoken among certain primitive people ; the
children who live among them attain the same develop-
ment in their language as the children with a more
difficult language do. There is a period for all children
when only syllables are spoken ; then words are spoken
and finally the whole syntax and grammar is used in its
perfection. The differences of masculine and feminine,
of singular and plural, of tenses, of prefixes and suffixes,
all are used by children. The language may be com*
plicated and with many exceptions to the rules, yet the
child who absorbs it learns it all and can use it in the
same time as the African child learns the few words of
his primitive language.

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If we look at the production of the different sounds
we also find it follows laws. All the sounds which com-
pose words are made by putting into use certain mechan-
isms. Sometimes the nose is employed together with
the throat, and sometimes it is necessary to control the
muscles of the tongue and cheek, etc. Different parts
of the body come together to construct this mechanism.
Its construction is perfect in the mother tongue, the
language taken by the child. Of a foreign tongue, we
adults cannot even hear all the sounds, let alone re-
produce them. We can only use the mechanism of our
own language. Only the child can construct the mechan-
ism of language, and he can speak any number of
languages perfectly if they are in his environment.

This construction is not the result of conscious work,
but takes place in the deepest layer of the sub-conscious
of the child. He begins this work in the darkness of
the sub-conscious and it is there that it develops and
fixes itself as a permanent acquisition. It is this that
lends interest to the study of language. We, adults, can
conceive only a conscious wish to learn a language and
set about to learn it consciously. We must however have
another conception of a natural, or rather supra-natural
mechanism that takes place outside of consciousness, and
this mechanism, or series of mechanisms, is fascinating.
They take place in a depth not directly accessible to
adult observers. Only the external manifestations can
be seen, but these are very clear in themselves if we

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

observe them properly, since they take place in all
humanity. Especially striking is the fact that the sounds
of any language keep their purity age after age ; another
curiosity is that complications are taken in as easily as
simplicities. No child becomes * tired' of learning his
mother tongue, his mechanism elaborates his language
in its totality.

There comes to my mind a sort of comparison to
this absorption of language by the child. My idea has
nothing to do with the various factors of the phenomenon,
nor with reality, but it gives a picture of something similar
that we can experience. If, for instance, we wish to
draw something, we take a pencil or colours and draw it,
but we can also take a photographic picture of the
thing and then the mechanism is different. The photo-
graph of a person is taken on a film. This film does not
have to do much work, and if there were instead of one
a group of ten people to be photographed, the film would
have no more work than before ; the mechanism works
instantaneously. It would be just as easy to take a
thousand people if the camera were large enough. If we
photograph the title of a book, or if we photograph a page
of that book filled with minute or foreign characters, the
effort is the same for the film. So the mechanism of
the film can take in anything, simple or complicated, in
the fraction of a second. Whereas, if we have to draw a
man it will take some time, and if we have to draw ten
men it will take more time. If we copy the title of a book

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

it will also take some time, if we have to copy a page
of minute and foreign characters it will take much
more time.

Then, too, the photograph is taken in darkness and
still in darkness it undergoes the process of development,
then it is fixed, still in darkness, and finally it can
come to the light and is unalterable. So it is with the
psychic mechanism for language in the child. It begins
deep down in the darkness of the sub-conscious, is devel-
oped and fixed there, and then it is seen openly. Certain
it is that some mechanism does exist, (whether I have
made a good comparison or not) so that this under-
standing of language may be realized. Once one has
envisaged this mysterious activity, one wants to find out
how it happens ; so there is today a deep interest in the
investigation of this mysterious feature of the deep sub-
conscious.

This however is only part of the activity of observa-
tion that adults can perform ; the other part is to watch
the external manifestations, because it is only of these
external manifestations that we can have proof ; but this
observation must be exact. Nowadays several people
are engaged in this. Observations have been carried out
day by day from the date of birth to two years of age
and beyond : what happened on each day, how long the
development remained at the same level, etc. From these
observations certain things stand out like milestones.
They have revealed the fact that there is a mysterious

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

inner development that is very great, while the corres-
ponding external manifestation is very small, so there is
evidently a great disproportion between the activity of
the inner life and the external expression. Another thing
that stands out in all these observations of outer mani-
festations is that there is not a regular linear develop-
ment, but development manifests itself in jerks. There
is the conquest of syllables, for instance, at a certain
time and then for months the child emits nothing but
syllables there is no progress externally. Then suddenly
he says a word ; then he remains with one or two words
for a long time. Again there seems no progress and one
feels almost disheartened to see this slow external
progress. It seems so sluggish, but the acts reveal to us
that in the inner life there is a continuous and great
progress.

After all is this not illustrated also in the actions of
society ? If we look at history, we see that man for cen-
turies lived at the same level, primitive, stupid, conserva-
tive, incapable of progress ; but this is only the outer
manifestation seen in history. There is an inner growth
going on and on, until an explosion suddenly comes !
And then another period of placidity and little progress
externally and then another revelation !

So it is with the child and this language of man.
There is not merely small steady progress of word by word,
but there are also explosive phenomena, as psychologists
call them, happening without reason or teaching. At the

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same period of life in each child comes suddenly this
cataract of words, and all pronounced perfectly. In
three months the children use with ease all the com-
plications of nouns, suffixes and prefixes, and verbs. All
this happens at the end of the second year for every
child. So we must be heartened by this action of the
child and wait. (And at the sluggish epochs in history
we may hope for the same ; perhaps humanity is not so
stupid as it appears, perhaps wonderful things will
happen which will be explosions of internal life.) These
explosive phenomena and eruptions of expression con-
tinue after the age of two years ; the use of simple
and compound sentences, the use of the verb in all its
tenses and modes, even in the subjunctive, the use of
subordinate and co-ordinate clauses appear in the same
sudden explosive way. So is completed the expression
of the language of the group (race, social level, etc.,) to
which the child belongs. This treasure which has been
prepared by the sub-conscious is handed over to the
consciousness, and the child, in full possession of this new
power, talks, and talks, and talks, till the adults say :
" For goodness* sake can't you stop talking ! "

After this great landmark at two and a half years,
which seems to indicate a border-line of intelligence when
man is formed, language still continues to develop, with-
out explosions, yet with great vivacity and spontaneity.
This second period lasts from two and a half to four and
a half or five years. This is the period when the child

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

takes in a great number of words, and perfects the
rendering of sentences. Certainly if the child is in an
environment of a few words or of * slang ', he will use
those words only, but if he lives in an environment of
cultured speech and rich vocabulary, the child will fix
it all. The environment is very important, yet in any
case an enrichment of vocabulary will come about*
Great interest is being taken in this fact. In Belgium
scientific observers discovered that the child of only two
and a half years knew two hundred words, but by the
time of five years he knew and used thousands of words,
and all this happens without a teacher ; it is a spontaneous
acquisition. After he has learnt all this, we allow the
child to come to school and say : " I will teach you the
alphabet ! "

We must keep clearly in mind this double path that
has been followed : that of the sub-conscious activity which
prepares the language, and then that of the consciousness
gradually coming to life and taking from the sub-conscious
what it has to give. And what have we at the end ?
MAN the child of five who can speak his language
well, knows and uses all the rules. He does not realize
all the sub-conscious work, but in reality he is MAN who
has created language. The child has created it for him-
self. If the child did not have these powers and did not
spontaneously acquire language, there would have been
no work possible in the world of men and no civilization.
We see, therefore, how important is MAN in this period of

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

his life : he constructs all. If it were not for him, civiliza-
tion would not exist, for he alone constructs its foundation.
So we should give him the help he needs and not leave
him to wander alone.

168

CHAPTER XI
THE CALL OF LANGUAGE

WHAT I want to illustrate is a fact that will arouse
little sympathy, I am afraid, because we human
adults think we are above mechanisms and live in
the abstract. How interesting however are these wonder-
ful mechanisms. Mechanisms are basical things, they
are material facts. Material things are not only flesh
and blood, but also mechanisms. All know that in the
mechanism of the nervous system there are the sense-
organs, the nerves and nerve-centres, and the motor organs.
The fact that there is a mechanism concerning language
goes somewhat beyond such material facts. It was towards
the end of the last century that the brain-centres which deal
with language were discovered. There are in the cortex
of the brain two special centres dealing with language :
one is the centre for heard language, auditory receptive
speech, and one the centre for the production of language,
that is of spoken, motor speech. If we consider the
question from the physiological point of view, there are
also two organic centres : one for hearing the language

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

(the ear) and one for speaking the language (the mouth,
throat and nose, etc.), and these two centres develop
separately, both psychically and physiologically. The
receptive or hearing centre is in relation with that mysteri-
ous side of the psyche in which language is developed in
the deepest part of the sub-conscious, and the activity of
the motor centre is manifested when we speak.

It is evident that this second part, which deals with
the movements necessary for the emission of language, is
slower to develop, and is manifested after the other.
Why ? Because it is the sounds heard by the child that
prot)oe those delicate movements which produce sound.
This is very logical, because if humanity does not have
a pre-established language (which it does not, considering
that it creates its own), then it is necessary that the child
first hears the sounds of his group's created language
before he can reproduce them. Therefore the movement
for reproducing sounds must be based on a sub-stratum
of impressions on the psyche, on those sounds, because it
is on the sounds which have been felt (impressed on the
psyche) that movement depends.

This is easy and logical to understand, but it has not
come because of logic, but because of a mechanism in
nature. And what logic is there in nature ? In nature
one first notices facts and after seeing them, one says :
" How logical they are !" and then, " There must be a
directing intelligence behind the facts ". The mysterious
intelligence which acts in the creation of things is much

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

more visible here in the psychic phenomena than it is in
flowers even t with all their beautiful colours and shapes.

It is clear that at birth, these two activities of the
heard and the spoken language do not exist. What does
exist then ? Nothing exists, yet at the same time every-
thing is there. What exists are these two centres, centres
free of all sound and of all heredity yet capable of taking
in language, and of elaborating the movements necessary
for its emission. These two points are part of the mechan-
ism for developing language in its totality. Going more
deeply into the matter we see that both a sensibility and
an ability exist which are centralized. It is easy to see
also that the elaboration of language begins after birth,
since it depends on the hearing of language and before
birth the child cannot hear anything. Activity must come
afterwards. It is marvellous that all is prepared so that,
when the child is born, it can start on its work.

Now let us study the organs as well as the mechan-
ism. Certainly the creation of this mechanism is mar-
vellous, but all creation is marvellous. Is it not marvellous
to think of the creation of the ear (the organ of heard
language) before the child is born > There, in that
mysterious environment, this very delicate and compli-
cated instrument has developed spontaneously. How
marvellously is it constructed, as if some musical genius had
built it up. A musician, yes, because the central part of
the ear is a sort of harp, with the possibility of vibrating
with different sounds according to the length of the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

4 strings '. The harp in our ear has sixty-four ' strings f f all
placed in gradation and as the size of the ear is so small
they have been arranged in the form of a snail's shell.
What intelligence ! Respecting the limits of space, yet
building up all that is necessary for musical sounds. And
who is going to play on these strings ? For if no one plays
on it, the harp may remain silent against the wall for years.
We see a drum in front of the harp, and when something
touches that drum, one or more of the harp strings
vibrate ; so the drum plays the harp and we hear the
music of speech. Not all the sounds of the universe are
taken in by the ear, because there are only sixty-four
strings, but quite a complex music can be played on it.
By means of it a language, with all its delicate and fine
complications, can be transmitted. And if this compli-
cated instrument has created itself in the mysterious
pre-natal life, why should it be that after birth something
else is created, i.e., the language that the child finds in
his environment and must create for himself ? We
shall see.

For the moment let us look at nature ; how marvel-
lous she is, and how quick ! Even if the child is born at
seven months, all is complete and ready. Nature is
never late ! How does this instrument transmit the sounds it
receives through the nervous fibres to the brain, where the
special centres are located to collect these special sounds ?
That is also mysterious, but these are facts of nature.
The curious thing is that psychologists, who have studied

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

new-born children, say that the sense most sluggish to
develop is that of hearing. They say it even seems that
the child is deaf. All sorts of noises are made round the
child and there is no reaction. This is because these
centres are centres for language, for words, and it seems
as though this powerful mechanism responds and acts
only in relation to these special sounds the spoken word
so that thus, in time, will be produced the mechanism
of movement, which will reproduce those same sounds.

If this special isolation of the centres were not pro-
vided for, imagine what would happen to man ? If the
centres were free to take anything, then the child who
was born on a farm would be impressed only by the
sounds of the farm, and would say : " Moo, Moo " and
grunt and cackle. The child born near a station would
only make the sounds of the whistling and puffing trains.
It is because nature has built and has isolated these centres
specially for language that man can speak. There have
been cases of wolf -children, children who, for one reason
or another, have been abandoned in the jungle, and by
some wonderful means have managed to live. These
children, although they have lived in the midst of all
kinds of bird- and animal-sounds, those of water and of
falling leaves, have nevertheless remained entirely dumb.
They produced no sound whatever, because they did not
hear the sounds of human speech, which alone provoke
the mechanism of spoken language. All this I relate to
show that there is a special mechanism for language. This

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

distinguishes humanity, it possesses this mechanism ; not
to possess language, but to possess this mechanism for
creating its own language characterizes humanity. Words
are the result of a sort of elaboration performed by the
child, but the child himself is not a mechanism, far from it.

Let us imagine the ego in this mysterious period, just
after birth, as a sleeping self. This sleeping ego suddenly
wakes up and hears a delightful music. If this mysterious
ego could talk, it would say : " I have entered the world,
and they have welcomed me with music, a music, so
divine, so soul-penetrating, that my whole being, my very
fibres have begun to vibrate to it. No other sound reached
me, because this reached my soul and I heard no other
sound but this divine call ! " And if we remember the great
propulsive powers which create and conserve life, we can
see how this music produces a thing that remains ever-
lasting. What takes place in the mneme of the new-
born child now, remains for ever. Every group of
humanity loves music, creates its own music and its own
language. Each group responds to its music with move-
ments of the body and this music attaches itself to words,
but those words have no sense in themselves, it is we
who give the sense. In India there are many languages,
but music unites all. The impressions on the new-born
child have remained. There are no animals that make
music and dance, but all humanity does it wherever it is.

These sounds of language then are fixed in the
sub-conscious. What goes on inside we cannot see, but

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

the outer manifestations give us a guide. Sounds are
fixed and this is an integral part of the mother tongue.
We might call it an alphabet. Then syllables come,
then words, just spoken as a child will read sometimes
from a primer, without knowing what it all means. But
how intelligently the child works ! Inside the child him-
self is a little teacher, like one of the old-fashioned
teachers who make the child recite the alphabet, then
syllables and finally words. Only the human teacher
does it at the wrong time when the child already
possesses his language. The teacher inside the child
does things at the right time, so the baby fixes sounds,
then syllables. It is a gradual construction as logical as
the language. Afterwards words come and then we
enter the field of grammar. Names of things (nouns)
come first. That is why it is so illuminating to follow the
teachings of nature, because nature is a teacher, and it
teaches the child the most arid part of language. It is a
real school with methods. It teaches nouns and adjec-
tives, conjunctions and adverbs, verbs in the infinitive,
then the conjugation of verbs, the declensions of nouns,
then prefixes and suffixes and all the exceptions. Then
there is the examination ; he shows he can use them. We
then see what a good teacher there has been and what a
diligent pupil, because he uses them all quite correctly in
the examination. Isn't he clever ? One should applaud
him, but no one takes any notice of him. Much later
when he is at the school we adults have chosen for him,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

he is given a medal and we say " What a clever teacher
he has ".

But it is the small child who is really a living
miracle ! This is what the teacher should see in the
child : a pupil who has learnt in such a fashion that the
teacher herself could not learn better. In two years he
has learnt everything ! This is a deep mysterious fact.
Let us then follow the manifestations the child gives in
these two years, because thus it will be easier to follow
what the child has done. On examining these manifesta-
tions, we see a gradual and ever-awakening conscious-
ness and then, suddenly, this consciousness becomes
predominant and wishes to master all. At four months
(some say earlier, and 1 am inclined to agree with them)
the child perceives that this mysterious music that sur-
rounds him and touches him so deeply, comes from the
human mouth. It is the mouth (the lips that move) which
produces it. This is seldom noticed, but if we watch
a baby we see with what intensity he watches the
lips. Consciousness is already seen taking a hand in the
matter, for consciousness takes a propulsive part in the
work. Certainly, movement has been unconsciously pre-
pared, all the exact co-ordinations of minute fibres have
not been achieved consciously, but consciousness gives
interest, enlivens and makes a series of keen, alert
researches.

After two months of this observation of the mouth,
the child produces his own sounds (at six months of age).

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

All of a sudden, this baby, who has been unable to say
anything except an occasional interjectional noise, one
morning wakes up (before you) and you hear him saying :
*' Ba-ba-ba ", " Ma-ma-ma ", etc. It is he who invented
* Papa* and * Mama '. He now goes on for so long a time
with these syllables only that we say he cannot do any
more. After a great effort he has reached this. Let us re-
member, it is the effort of the ego who has made a
discovery and is conscious of his powers ; a little man
who is no longer a mechanism, but an individual using
mechanisms. We arrive at the end of the first year of
life, but before that, at ten months, the child has made
another discovery : that this language from the mouth of
people has a purpose. It is not merely music. When we
say : " Dear little Baby, how sweet you are !", he
realizes : " this is meant for me" and so he begins to realize
there is some purpose in these sounds addressed to him.
Two things therefore have happened by the end of the
first year : in the depths of the unconscious he has under-
stood : on the heights of consciousness he has created
language, though at the moment it is only babbling, just
repeating sounds and combinations of sounds.

At one year of age the child says his first intentional
words. He babbles just the same, but it is intentional,
and intention means conscious intelligence. What has
happened within ? Having studied him we know that he
has much more within him than is shown by these un-
obtrusive manifestations. More and more the child has

177

12

THE ABSORBENT MIND

realized that language refers to the environment round
him and he goes on to the conscious mastery of it. Here
a great struggle arises within the child, a struggle of con-
sciousness against mechanism. It is the first struggle of
man, it is the first war between the parts ! To illustrate
this I can use my own experience. I know many things,
I want to express them to an English-speaking
audience, but I do not have the language. I only know
a little English and my words would be a useless bab-
bling. I know that my audience is intelligent and we
could exchange ideas, but, alas, I only babble. This
epoch when the intelligence has many ideas and knows
people could understand them, but cannot express these
ideas through lack of language is a dramatic epoch in
the life of the child. It gives the first disappointments
of life. If I had no translator, what could I do ?
What can the child do ? He goes to school in his sub-
conscious, and his desire spurs him to learn. It is the
conscious impulse to be able to express himself that
makes this hurried acquisition of language possible.
Imagine his attention to language at this time !

A being who is so desirous of expressing himself,
needs to go to a teacher to give him the words clearly.
Are we any use as such teachers ? No ; we don't help
him at all ; we merely repeat to him his own babbling. If
he did not have this inner teacher, he would learn nothing
at all. It is this inner teacher who makes him go to
adult people who are talking to each other, not to him.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

The impulse forces him to take the language with exact-
ness, but we do not give it. Yet after one year of age
he could indeed go to school ; to one of our schools
where intelligent people talk to him intelligently. Some
people have understood this difficulty of the child between
one and two years, and the importance of giving to the
child the opportunity of learning exactly. Just a few
days before I wrote this, I received a communication
from Ceylon in which someone wrote : " How glad we
are that there are now schools in our country for our
small child !" They have understood the need there. So
besides those who say : " What a pity we have no
University ! " there are also those who say : " How glad
we are to have these schools for small children ! " We
must realize that since the child has grammatical know-
ledge we can talk to him grammatically and help him
with the analysis of sentences. The new teachers of
children between the ages of one and two years should
know the development of language. Mothers must know
it, as it is important, and teachers should know it in a
scientific fashion. Then the child need not go about
to find people talking to others, not to himself, in order
to receive the aid he needs. We become the servants of
nature that creates, and of nature that teaches, and a
whole syllabus and method is ready for us.

What can I do with my babbling if 1 want to tell
something that is very important ? I may not have much
self-control, I may become agitated, enraged, and begin

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

to cry. That is what happens to the child of one or two
years. He wants to show by one word what he wants ua
to know, but he cannot and hence tantrums. Then people
say : " See man's innate perversity coming out ! "
(What ! in a man of one year !) The origin of war is
there in this child of one year, who gets angry and violent
for no reason at all, as we think. We say : " We care
for him, we dress him, we do things for him, yet he
makes all these naughty scenes ". Poor little man who
is working towards independence ! To be so misunder-
stood ! And yet this poor being who has no language
and whose only expression is one of rage, has yet the
power of making his own language. The rage is merely
an expression that comes after the obstructed effort to try
to make words, and he Joes make some sort of words.

There is another period at about one and a half
years when the child has recognized another fact ; namely,
that each object has a name. This is marvellous because
it means that among all the words he has heard, he has
been able to pick out nouns, especially concrete ones.
There was a world of objects, now there are words for
these objects. Unfortunately, with nouns alone one
cannot express everything, so he has to use one word
to express a whole idea. Psychologists therefore give
special attention to these words that are meant to express
sentences, and they call them fusive words or * one-word-
sentences.' Let us suppose porridge is eaten with milk, the
child then may call out : " Ma pa " meaning : " Mother

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

I am hungry, I want some porridge ". He is expressing
one whole sentence in a word. Another feature of this
fusive speech, this forced language of the child, is that
there are alterations in the words themselves ; there are
often abbreviations. A Spanish baby will use * to f
instead of 4 paletot * which means ' overcoat * ; and
4 palda * for * espalda ' which means * shoulder \ This is
a modification, an abbreviation of the words We use, and
sometimes they are so different that we might say that
the child uses a foreign language. There is a * child-
language ', but very few take the trouble to study it.
Teachers of children of this age, should study this in
order to help the child and bring calm to his torment-
ed soul.

These two child-words ' to ' and ' palda ' were the
manifestation of a mental conflict in a child, and the
child was so enraged and agitated that many people did
not know what to do with it. The mother of the child
was carrying her coat over her arm and the child was
screaming, screaming. At last, at my suggestion, the
mother put on her coat and immediately the screaming
ceased, the child was calm and crowed happily : " To
palda ", meaning to say : " That is right ; a coat is meant
to be worn over the shoulders/* So you see another fact,
that this mysterious language of the child can reveal
the psychology of the child at this age, his urge and need
for order and his distress at disorder. A coat was not
meant to be carried carelessly over the arm ; it was the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

wrong place for it, and the disorder was more than the
child could bear.

I have another instance, an incident that reveals that
a child of one and a half years can understand a whole
conversation and the sense of it. Some five people were
discussing the merits and demerits of a child's story-book.
They had been discussing for some time, and the con-
versation ended with the remark : " It all ends happily."
Immediately the little one, who was in the room, began
to shout : " Lola, lola ! " The people thought it wanted
its nurse and was calling her by her name. But no ! It
became more agitated and cried in distress and rage, not
yet self-controlled, and then at last it managed to get
hold of the book and turning to the back cover pointed
to the picture of the child about whom the story was
written, and said again : " Lola, lola ! " The adults had
taken the end of the printed story as the end of the book,
but for the child the last picture, which was on the back
cover, was the end, and in that picture the child was cry-
ing : " how could they say it ended happily ? " It had
followed the whole conversation, knew it was about that
book, and had understood what was said and that a
mistake had been made by these adults. Its understand-
ing was complete and detailed, but its speech was not
sufficient. It could not even pronounce the correct word
for * cries * which is * llora ' in Spanish, so it said ' lola *.
The one word * lola ', was used to tell these adults :
44 You are wrong ; it does not end happily : he cries."

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

This illustrates why I say that it is necessary to have
a special ' school ' for children of the age of one and one
and a half years. Mothers, and society in general,
must take special care that the children have frequent
experiences of the best language. Let the child come
with us when we visit our friends and also when we
go to meetings, especially where people speak with
emphasis and clear enunciation.

183

CHAPTER XII
OBSTACLES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES

I NOW wish to deal with certain inner sensitivities, so
that we may understand the hidden tendencies of the
child. We might compare this to a sort of psycho-
analysis of the invisible mind of the child. In Fig. 9.
I represent by symbols the language of the child, and
that may clarify the idea.

For the symbolic representation of the nouns (names
of things) that children use, I have used a black triangle ;
for the verbs, a red circle ; and different symbols for other
parts of speech. These symbols are shown in Fig. 10.
So if we say that the child uses two to three hundred
words at a certain age, I represent this by symbols
in order to give a visual impression of it. It is then
sufficient to have eyes to see the development of langu-
age and it does not matter whether we speak English,
Gujarati, Tamil, Italian or Spanish, because the symbols
for the parts of speech are the same.

All the nebulous patches at the left hand side of the
diagram represent the efforts of the child to speak, his
first exclamations, interjections, etc. Then we see two

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

sounds come together and syllables are formed, and then
three sounds together and the first words are spoken. A
little further to the right of the diagram, we see a group-
ing of words, some nouns that children use, then two-
word phrases (a sentence with diffused meaning), just a
few words to mean quite a lot. Then there is a great
explosion into words. This is an exact representation of
the actual number of words that psychologists have found
children to use. At one side of this picture of the
explosion we see a patch of words which are nearly all
nouns, then next to that, different parts of speech in a
confused combination, but soon after two years the next
stage is represented, i.e., words in order. There is an
explosion of sentences. So the first explosion is of words
and the second explosion is of thoughts.

There must be a preparation for this. It is hidden,
a secret, but though it is secret it is not a hypothesis,
because the results indicate efforts. One can realize the
great efforts the child has had to make in order to express
his thoughts. As adults do not always understand what
the child means, at this stage there is the rage and
agitation I mentioned before. This agitation forms an
integral part of the life of children. All the efforts which
the child will carry out, if not crowned with success, will
produce agitation. It is a known fact that the deaf and
dumb are often quarrelsome. The explanation lies in
their inability to express their thoughts. There is an
inner wealth and richness which tries to find expression ;

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

it does so in the ordinary child, but amidst great diffi-
culties.

There is a period of difficulties which we must take
into consideration ; difficulties caused by the environment
and by the child's own limitations. This is the second diffi-
cult period of adaptation, the first was that of birth when
the child was suddenly called upon to function for himself,
whilst his mother had hitherto done it for him. We saw
then, that unless great care and understanding were shown,
birth terror affected the child and caused regressions.
Certain children are stronger than others, certain others
have a more favourable environment, and these go straight
to independence, the path of normal development, with-
out regressions. A parallel situation is seen at this period.
The conquest of language is a laborious conquest towards
a greater independence, and it ends in the freedom of
language, but there are parallel dangers of regression too.

We must also remember another characteristic of
this creative period, viz., every impression and the result of
it has a tendency to remain permanently registered. This
is true for the sounds and for grammar. Children taking
in knowledge now retain it for the rest of their life ; so
also if there are obstacles at this period their effect
will remain permanently. This is the characteristic of
every epoch of creation. A struggle, fright or other
obstacles, may produce effects that remain for the rest of
life, since the reactions to those obstacles are absorbed like
everything else in development. (In the same way if there

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

is a spot of light on the photographic film we mentioned
above, all the prints of that film will show that spot.)
In this epoch therefore we have not only a development
of the character, but also a development of certain
deviated psychic characteristics which children will mani-
fest as they grow older. Knowledge of the mother-
tongue and the faculty of walking are acquired at this
epoch of the child's life, during the creative period which
goes beyond the age of two and a half years, but
is then less strong. The acquisition of these two faculties
takes place now, but their growth and development
continue afterwards. So also it is with any defects and
obstacles acquired now ; they remain, and grow ; and
so many defects that adult people present are attributed
to this distant epoch of their life.

The difficulties that mar normal development are
included in the term repression, (this term is particularly
used in psycho-analysis, but also in psychology generally).
These repressions, now known to the general public,
refer to this age in childhood. Examples of these repres-
sions may be given in connection with language itself,
though there are many more having a relationship with
other human activities. The mass of words that explodes
must have/reecfom of emission. Also when the explosion
of sentences occurs and a child gives regular form to his
thoughts there must be freedom of expression. Great
emphasis is laid on freedom of expression, because it is
not only connected with the immediate present of the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

developing mechanism, but also with the future life of the
individual. There have been certain cases where, at the
age when the explosion should take place, nothing
occurred ; at more than three or three and a half years
the child still used only the few words of a much earlier
age and appeared as a dumb child, although his organs
of speech were perfectly normal. This is called * psychic
mutism * and it has a purely psychological cause, it is a
psychic illness. This is the epoch of the origin of psychic
illnesses and psycho-analysis (which is really a branch of
medicine) studies them. Sometimes psychic mutism dis-
appears suddenly like a miracle ; a child speaks suddenly,
well and completely, with a full grasp of grammar, as he
is already prepared inwardly, only the expression had
been hindered by some obstacle. We have had children
in our schools of three and four years of age who had
never spoken and then suddenly spoke. They had never
even spoken the words of the two-year old, they were
absolutely dumb and then suddenly they spoke. By
allowing them free activity and a stimulating environ-
ment, they suddenly manifested this power. Why does
this happen ? Because either a great shock or persistent
opposition has impeded the child hitherto from giving
forth the wealth of his language.

There are adult people also who find difficulty in
speaking ; they have to make a great effort and they
look as if they were not sure what to say, there is a
hesitation. There are different reasons for this hesitation :

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

(a) they do not have the courage to speak,

(b) they do not have the courage to pronounce

the words,

(c) they have a difficulty in using sentences,

(c/) they speak more slowly than a normal person

and say " er, um, ah " etc.

They find a difficulty in themselves which is fatal
and remains throughout life ; it represents a state of
permanent inferiority in the person.

There are also psychic impediments which prevent
an adult speaker from articulating words clearly ; cases
of stuttering and stammering. This is a defect that has
had birth during the period when the mechanisms them-
selves were being organized. So there are different
epochs of acquisition and corresponding regressions may
occur at those epochs :

First period : Mechanism of words is acquired,

Corresponding regression stammer-
ing
Second period : Mechanism of sentence (expression

of thought) is acquired,
Corresponding regression hesitation

in the formulation of thoughts.

These regressions are related to the sensitivity of the
child ; as he is sensitive to receive, in order to produce,
so also he is sensitive to obstacles that are too strong
for him. The results of this thwarted sensitivity then
remain as a defect for the rest of life. It is because this

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

sensitivity of the child is greater than anything we can
imagine that these things take place.

Let us then study these obstacles. It is an adult
who is responsible for these anomalies, an adult who
acts too violently in his dealings with the child. Non-
violence must be exaggerated, because what may not
be violence for the adult is often violence for the child.
We do not realize when we are violent to children, so we
must study ourselves. The preparation for education is
a study of oneself ; and the preparation of a teacher
who is to help life is more than a mere intellectual
preparation, it is a preparation of character, a spiritual
preparation.

The sensitivity of the child presents various aspects,
but some things are common to all. One is a sensitivity
to shocks at this period. Another common feature is
sensitivity to the calm but cold, determined effort of the
adult to prevent outer manifestations of children : " You
mustn't do this ! " " It is not done ". Those who have
the good fortune (!) to have what is called a well-trained
nurse for their children should especially beware of this
tendency in her ; she very often has it. That is why
this type of impediment is so frequent among aristocrats,
they do not lack physical courage, but when they speak
they stutter and stammer. I wish to stress this question
of violence. It must be understood from the child's
point of view, and we must be very delicate in our
behaviour. It has happened to me to be violent to children

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

and I have given an example in one of my books. 1 A
child put his pair of outdoor shoes on the nice silk cover-
let of his bed. I removed them very determinedly, put them
on the floor and brushed the coverlet vigorously with my
hand, to demonstrate that it was not the place for shoes.
For two or three months after that, whenever the child
saw a pair of shoes, he changed their position and then
looked round for some silk coverlet or cushion to clean.
The answer of the child to my too vigorous (violent)
lesson, was not a crude, rebellious spirit. He did not
say : " Do not talk, I will put my shoes where I like ! ",
but an abnormal development. The child is so often
non-violent in his reactions. 1 wish he were not, rebellion
would be better than taking the faulty path to anomalies.
The child with tantrums has found out how to defend
himself and may arrive at normal development, but when
a child responds by changing his character, this affects his
whole life. Yet people take no notice of this, they only
worry about tantrums !

There is another fact : certain senseless fears and
4 nervous ' habits which we find in adults can be traced
to violence to the child's sensitivity. Some of ; the sense-
less fears concern animals, cats and hens ; some concern
remaining in a room with the doors closed, etc. No
reasoning, no persuasion can help the victims of these
fears. I once had a colleague, a Professor of Pedagogy
in a University of Italy. She was forty-five years old and

1 CL The Secret of Childhood.

191

THE ABSORBENT MIND

she came to me one day and said : " You are a doctor
and will understand. Every time I see a hen I am
terribly frightened, I have to make an effort not to shriek.
I tell nobody ; they would laugh at me/' Perhaps, as a
tiny girl of two and a half years, she went to fondle a
fluffy baby-chick and met the sudden agitated frenzy of
the watchful mother-hen. The feathered fury of that hen
gave her a shock which remained. These kinds of un-
reasonable fears are included under the name phobias ;
some are so common that they have special names such
as claustrophobia (the fear of closed doors, of a confined
space). Many more examples could be given if we
entered the field of medicine. 1 mention them to illustrate
the mental form of children of this age.

Our action is not reflected merely in a sweet or
naughty child, but in the adult who will result from this
child. Therefore, I repeat, this epoch of the child's life is
very important for the rest of his life and for humanity ;
it must be studied. This study is very important, but it
hardly exists as yet. It is necessary to embark on this
path, which is a path of discovery. It is necessary to try
and penetrate into the mind of the child, as the psycho-
analyst penetrates into the sub-conscious of the adult.
It is difficult because we often do not understand their
language, or if we do, we don't understand the meaning
they give to the words they use. Sometimes it is
necessary also to know the rest of the life of the child ; it
is a sort of research work or detective work, but a

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

research work of great utility because through it we
bring peace to this difficult period. We need a translator,
an interpreter of the child and his language, and this
interpretation will allow us to understand the child's
state of mind. I myself have worked in this sense and
tried to become the interpreter of the child and it has
been curious to see how the children run to this inter-
preter, because they realize there is someone who can
help them. This eagerness of the child is something
entirely different from the affection of the child who is
petted or caressed. The interpreter is to the child a great
hope, someone who will open to him the path of dis-
covery when the world had already closed its doors.
This helper is taken into the closest relationship, a rela-
tionship that is more than affection because help is given,
not merely consolation.

In a house where I was living and working I used
to rise early in the morning, before the rest of the
family, and work. One day a little child of the family,
not more than one and a half years old, came in at
this early hour. I thought he had got up because
he was hungry and wanted food, so I said : " What
would you like ? " He said : " I want worms ". I was
startled and said : " Worms ? Worms ? " The child
realized I did not understand, but was trying to do so, so
he gave me some more help and added : " Egg." I
thought : " This can't be a breakfast that he wants ;
what does he want ? " Then he added another word :

193

13

THE ABSORBENT MIND

" Nena, egg, worms ". Light came to my mind. I remem-
bered a fact (and that is why I say you must know
something of the circumstances of the child's life). The
previous day his little sister, Nena, was filling up the oval
inset, drawing with coloured pencils. This little one had
wanted the pencils and the sister had defended herself
and told him to go away. Now, (see the mind of the
child), he did not oppose his sister, but waited for his
chance, and with what patience and determination. I
gave him the pencil and the inset. There was a great
light on the face of the child, but he could not make the
4 egg \ so I had to make it for him. Then after I had
made the oval, he filled it up with wavy lines. His
sister had used the usual straight lines, but he thought he
knew something better, so he made wavy lines, ' worms '.
He had waited till he knew everyone was asleep but his
interpreter, then he came to her for he felt she would
help him. It is not tantrums, violent reactions, but pati-
ence that is the real characteristic of this age in all
children ; patience to wait for their opportunity. Violent
reactions or tantrums express a state of exasperation,
when he cannot attain his expression.

This interpreter of words can give light in order to
penetrate into the mind of the child. From the example
given one can see that the little child tries to carry out
the activities followed by older children. If one intro-
duces the child of three years to an activity, the child of
one and a half also wants to do it. Probably he will be

194

THE ABSORBENT MIND

impeded and stopped from doing it, but he will try, A
small child in our house wanted to copy his sister of
three, who was learning her first steps in dancing. The
teacher had wanted to know how to teach so young a
child to dance ballet, etc. We said : " Never mind, you
try it ; what does it matter whether she learns or not ;
you will receive your salary." Knowing that we were
working to help the child, she agreed to try. Immedi-
ately the one and a half year old, said : " Me, too ! "
The teacher said : " Absolutely impossible ", and when
we said : " Try it ", she said it was derogatory to her
dignity as a teacher of ballet to teach a baby of one and
a half years. We suggested she put her dignity in her
pocket, so at last she came to the house, somewhat
disgruntled, threw her hat on the sofa and began to play
a march. The little one was immediately furious, and
shrieked and would not move. The teacher said : " You
see, you can't teach one so small ". But the child was
not distressed about the dancing ; he was having a dis-
cussion with the hat, addressing it with fury. He did
not use the name of the hat itself, nor that of the teacher ;
he just used two words which he repeated with concen-
trated fury : " Hat-rack ! Hall ! " meaning : " This hat
must not be here on the sofa, but on the hat-rack in the
hall ! " He had forgotten the dance and the pleasures of
life, he had his duty to perform of changing disorder into
order before anything else. When the hat was on the
hat-rack, his fury went and he was ready to dance. Till

195

THE ABSORBENT MIND

then the fundamental need for order erased everything
else. So this study allows us to penetrate into the mind
of the child to a depth where psychologists generally do
not go. The patience of the child in my first example
and the passion for order in the second make a picture
which it is difficult for us to realize and understand. If
we take these pictures, together with that which I men-
tioned above of the child who understood a whole con-
versation and disagreed with the final opinion of the
happy ending to the story, we see that there are not
only the facts represented on figure 9, but a whole men-
tal life, a whole psychic picture usually hidden from us
by our own blindness.

Every discovery of the mind of the child at this age
must be made known, and not as knowledge to be gained
for ourselves, as the knowledge of Sanskrit for instance,
but in order to help the child to adapt himself to the
environment around him. We must be a help to life all
the time, even if it means we have to spend great energy
as an interpreter. The task of the teacher of small
children is very noble. It belongs to a science that will
develop in the future, and will help mental development
and the growth of character. Above all we must carry
it out so that children may avoid those defects that make
certain individuals inferior to others. We must remember,
if nothing else, that we must realize :

1 . That education in the first two years of life is
important to the whole life.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

2, That the child is endowed with great intelligence

which we cannot see.

3. That he has an extreme sensitivity which may

(under any violence) bring forth, not re-action
only, but defects incorporated in his per-
sonality.

197

CHAPTER XIII
MOVEMENT AND TOTAL DEVELOPMENT

IT is necessary to consider movement from a new point
of view. Because of some misunderstanding, movement
is considered less noble than it is, especially the move-
ment of the child. In education as a whole movement
is sadly neglected and all importance is given to the
brain. Only physical education which up till recently
held a very inferior place considers movement, although
disconnected from the intelligence.

Let us consider the organization of the nervous
system in all its complexity. First of all we have the
brain itself ; then the senses which take the images
which are to be passed to the brain and thirdly we have
the nerves. But what is the aim of the nerves and
where do they go ? Their purpose is to give energy,
movement to the muscles (the flesh). This complex
organism, therefore, consists of three parts : (1) the brain
(the centre) ; (2) the senses and (3) the muscles. Move-
ment is the conclusion and the purpose of the nervous
system. Without movement we cannot speak of an
individual at all. If we think of a great philosopher he
speaks of his meditations or writes of them, and so must

19S

THE ABSORBENT MIND

use his muscles. If he does nothing with his meditations,
of what use are they ? Without the muscles, the ex-
pression of his thoughts would not exist.

If we turn to animals, their behaviour is only ex-
pressed through movement. Therefore, also if we wish
to consider the behaviour of man, we must take man's
movements into consideration. The muscles are part
of the nervous system.

The nervous system in all its parts puts man into
relationship with his environment ; that is why it is also
called the System of Relation. It puts man into relation-
ship with the inanimate and animate world and therefore
with other individuals ; without it there would be no
relationship between an individual and his environment.

The other organized systems of the body are com-
paratively selfish in their aims, because they are ex-
clusively at the service of the body of the individual and
of nothing else. They merely allow one to live, or to
vegetate as we say ; hence they are called the systems
and organs of the vegetative life. So there is this
difference :

The vegetative systems serve only to help the indi-
vidual in growing and vegetating,

The nervous system serves to put the individual in
relation with other individuals, it is a sort of
Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The vegetative systems help man to enjoy the
maximum comfort and purity of body and health ; hence

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

we go to places with cool air, good hotels, etc. If we
consider the nervous system from a similar point of
view, we shall make a mistake ; even if we think it is
only to give us the most beautiful impressions and
purity of thought and continuous uplift to loftier levels.
It is nice to be pure in this field also, but it is a mistake
to lower the nervous system to the level of merely
vegetative life. If this criterion of mere purity and uplift
of the individual is upheld, the individual is led to spiritual
selfishness. It is the greatest mistake one can make.
The behaviour of animals does not tend merely to be
beautiful and graceful in movement ; it has a purpose
deeper than that. So has man a purpose which is not
just to be purer and finer than others. Of course, man
can and should be beautiful and take only the finest
things on the loftiest levels, but if that is his only aim,
his life would be useless. What would be the use of
this mass of brain then, or of these muscles ?

There is nothing in this world which does not form
part of a universal economy ; and if we have spiritual
richness, aesthetic greatness, it is not for ourselves, it
is part of the spiritual, universal economy and must be
used for the universe. The spiritual powers are wealth,
but not personal wealth ; they must be put into circula-
tion for the rest to enjoy ; they must be expressed, made
use of, and in this way complete the cycle of relationship.
If I content myself to become pure so that I may go to
heaven, I might as well die. I should have left aside the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

greatest part of my life and the greatest part of the aim of
my life. If one should believe in reincarnation and say :
44 I shall have a better life next time if I live well now ",
this is selfish. We have reduced the spiritual to the
vegetative level. We are always thinking of ourselves, of
ourselves in eternity. We are egotists for eternity. The
other point of view must be taken into consideration, not
only in the practice of life, but also in education. There
must be completeness of function. Nature has endowed
us with functions ; therefore it is necessary that they be
exercised.

Let us make a comparison. If we have lungs, a
stomach, a heart, it is necessary that these function in
order to have health. Why not apply the same rule to
the nervous system ? If we have a brain, senses and
organs of movement, they must function, and if we do
not exercise every part we cannot even understand them
with certainty. Even if we wish to uplift ourselves, make
our brains finer for instance, we cannot do so unless we
use all the parts. Perhaps movement is the last part that
will complete the cycle. In other words, we can obtain
spiritual uplift through action. This is the point of view
from which to consider movement ; it is part of the
nervous system and cannot be discarded. The nervous
system is one, a unity, though it has three parts. Being a
unity, it must be exercised in its totality to become better.

One of the mistakes of modern times is to consider
movement separately from the higher functions. People

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

think that the muscles are merely there and have to be
used in order to keep better bodily health. In order to
keep fit or as recreation we play tennis. If we do that
we can breathe more deeply. What an idea ! Or we go
for a walk to ensure better digestion and sleep, forsooth !
This mistake is penetrating education. This is, physio-
logically speaking, as though a great prince had been
made use of to serve a shepherd. This great prince
the muscular system has become a handle to turn in
order to stimulate the vegetative system. This is the great
mistake. It leads to separation : physical life is put on
one side and mental life on the other. The result is that,
since the child must develop physically as well as mental-
ly, we must include physical exercise, games, etc. What
has mental life to do with physical pastimes ? Nothing.
Yet we cannot separate two things that nature has put
together. If we consider physical life on one side and
mental life on the other, we break the cycle of relation,
and the actions of man remain separated from the brain.
The motor actions of man are used to aid better eating
and breathing, whereas the real purpose is that move-
ment be the servant of the whole life and of the spiritual,
universal economy of the world.

The motor actions of man must be co-ordinated to
the centre the brain and put in their right place ; this is
fundamental. Mind and activity are two parts of the
same cycle and, moreover, movement is the expression
of the superior part. Otherwise we make man a mass of

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

muscles, but without a brain. Something is out of place as
with a broken bone and the limb does not serve any
more. Man then develops his vegetative life and the
relation between the motor part and the brain is left out.
There is a self-determination of the brain apart from
movement and muscles. This is not independence ; it is
to break something that nature in her wisdom has put
together. If mental development is spoken of, people say :
" Movement > There is no need for movement ; we are
talking about mental growth ! " When they think of
mental improvement they imagine all are sitting down,
moving nothing. But mental development must be con-
nected with movement and is dependent on it. This is the
new idea that must enter educational theory and practice.

Up to the present most educationists have considered
movement and muscles as a help to breathing, improving
the circulation, etc., or, if movement is indulged in, it is to
acquire greater muscular strength. It remains a part of
physical education only. What is the individual supposed
to do with it ?

Our new conception stresses the importance of
movement as a help to the development of the brain,
once it is placed in relation to the centre. Mental
development and even spiritual development can and
must be helped by movement. Without movement there
is no progress and no health (mentally speaking). This
is a fundamental fact which must be taken into con-
sideration.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

I might be asked to demonstrate these facts, but they
are not ideas, nor even personal experiences. They are
demonstrated whenever we observe nature, her facts,
and the precision given to this observation conies from
watching the development of the child. Watching him,
one sees that he develops his mind by using his move-
ments. The development of language, for instance,
shows an improvement of understanding accompanied
by an ever extending use of the muscles of production.
Besides this and other examples the child, scientifically
observed, shows that he develops his intelligence general-
ly through movement. Observations made all over the
world have shown that the child demonstrates that
movement helps psychic development, that development
expresses itself in its turn by further movement and
action. So it is a cycle, because both psyche and move-
ment belong to the same unity. The senses also help.
Without opportunity for sensorial activity the child is less
intelligent. That is why the examination of the develop-
ment of the small child is of such great aid to the whole of
education.

Now muscles (flesh), the activity of which is directed
by the brain, are called voluntary muscles ; that means
that they are moved by the will of the individual. The will
is one of the greatest expressions of the psyche. Without
that energy psychic life does not exist. Therefore, since
the voluntary muscles are the muscles depending on the
will, they are a psychic organ.

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The muscles are the main part of the body. Take
a mammal and take off its flesh, what is left ? Skeleton,
bones. What is their purpose ? To support the muscles,
so they also belong to this section. Take them away
then. What is left ? Very little. The main part which
has been developed by nature has been taken away.
And if we look at someone and say how beautiful he
is, or the opposite, the form which we contemplate is given
by muscles attached to the bones. All animals endowed
with an inner skeleton owe their form to voluntary
muscles and when we see a camel in proud disdain or a
lady walking gracefully or a child playing, we see merely
form given to each by its own flesh (muscles). These
muscles are interesting to study in form and number.
They are in great quantity. People who study medicine
say that students must forget them seven times before
they remember them and even then they forget ! Some
are delicate, some bulky, some short, some long, they
have different functions. A curious fact is that if one
muscle functions in one direction, there is always another
functioning in the opposite direction, and the more vigor-
ous and refined this play of opposite forces, the more
refined the movement resulting therefrom. The exercise
one takes to attain more harmonious movement is an
exercise to put more harmony in the opposition. So what
is important is not agreement, but opposition in agreement.

The child or person is not conscious of this oppo-
sition, but nevertheless it is the way movement takes

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place. In animals the perfection of movement is given
by nature. The gracefulness of the tiger's pounce or the
running up and down of the squirrel is due to a wealth
of opposition put into play to attain that harmony, like a
complicated piece of machinery working well, like a
watch with wheels going in opposite directions ; when
the whole mechanism runs smoothly, we have the correct
time. So the mechanism of movement is very compli-
cated and more refined then one could imagine. In man
this mechanism is not pre-established before birth and so
it must be created, achieved through practical experiences
on the environment. The number of muscles in man is
so great that he can achieve any movement, so we do
not speak of exercise of movement, but of co-ordination
of movement. This co-ordination is not given, it has to
be created and achieved by the psyche. In other words
the child creates his own movements and, having done so,
perfects them. The child has a creative part in this
work and then achieves a development of what he has
created through a series of exercises.

It is really marvellous that man's movements
are not limited and fixed, but that he can control
them. Some animals have a characteristic ability to climb
or to run ; these are not man's characteristic movements,
but he can do both very well. Certain animals have a
characteristic ability to burrow in the earth ; it is not a
characteristic of man, yet he can go deeper than any of
them. So his characteristic is that he can do all movements

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and extend them further than any animal ; he can make
some of them his own. So we might say that his
characteristic is universal versatility, but there is one con-
dition : he must construct them himself. He must work
and create by will, and repeat the exercises for co-
ordination sub-consciously as to their purpose, but volun-
tarily as to his initiative. So he can conquer all. As
a matter of fact, however, no individual conquers all his
muscles, but all are there. Man is like very wealthy
people, he is so wealthy that he can only use part of his
wealth ; he chooses which part. If a man is a professional
gymnast, it is not that special muscular ability was given
to him ; nor is a dancer born with certain refined muscles
for dancing ; he or she develops them by will. Anyone,
no matter what he wants to do, is endowed by nature
with such a wealth of muscles that he can find among
them what he needs, and his psyche can direct and
create any development. Nothing is established, but
everything is possible, provided proper direction is given
by the individual psyche.

It is not in man to do the same standardized thing
as in animals of the same species. Even if the same
thing is done by some, it is done in a different manner.
We all write, but each has his own handwriting. Each
has his own path always.

We see in movement as it is developed the work of
the individual, and the work of the individual is express-
ing his psychic life ; it is the psychic life itself. It has

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

at its disposal a great treasure of movements, so move-
ment is developed in service of the central part, i.e. of the
psychic life. If man does not develop all his muscles,
even of those he does develop some are only for
rough work. So man's psychic life is limited in as much
as his muscles only develop for rough action, not for
refined action. It is limited also by the type of work
that is accessible or chosen. The psychic life of those
who do no work is in great danger. We might say that
though all muscles cannot be put in motion, it is danger-
ous for the psychic life to go below a certain number. If
the number of muscles in use is not sufficient, then there
is a weakness of the whole life. That is why gymnastics,
games, etc., were introduced in education ; too many
muscles were being left aside.

The psychic life must use more muscles or else we
also shall have to follow the double path of ordinary
education alternating physical and mental activities. The
purpose in using these muscles is not to learn certain
things. Some forms of * modern * education develop
movement just because there is a desire to serve a cer-
tain direct purpose in social life ; e.g. one child must
write well because he is going to be a teacher and
another is going to be coalheaver so he must shovel well.
This narrow and direct training does not serve the
purpose or aim of movement. Our purpose must be that
man develop the co-ordination of movements necessary
for his psychic life ; to enrich the practical and executive

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

side of psychic life. Otherwise the brain develops apart
from realization through movement and cannot fulfil its
directive function regarding movement and that brings only
revolution and disaster in the world. Movement then
works by itself, undirected by the psyche, and so brings
destruction. As movement is so necessary to the human
life of relations with the environment and other men, it
is on this level that movement must be developed, in
service of the whole. It is not work to be first in
one's art or profession.

The principle and idea today are too much directed
towards self- perfection, se//-realization. If we understand
the real aim of movement this self-centralization cannot
exist ; it must expand into the immensity of space. We
must, in short, keep in mind what might be called the
4 philosophy of movement '. Movement is what distinguish-
es life from inanimate things. Life, however, does not
move in a haphazard fashion, it moves with a purpose
and according to laws. In order to realize this fact let
us just imagine what the world would be like if it were
quiet, without movement. Imagine what it would be like
if all the plants stopped living, if the movement within
the plant ceased. There would be no more fruits, nor
flowers. The percentage of poisonous gas in the air
would increase and cause disaster. If all movement
stopped, if the birds remained motionless on the trees, or
if insects fluttered to the ground and remained still, if the
wild beasts of prey did no longer move through the

209

14

THE ABSORBENT MIND

jungles, or the fish stopped swimming in the oceans,
what a terrible world it would be !

Immobilization is impossible, the world would become
a chaos if movement ceased or if living beings moved
without purpose. Nature gives a useful purpose to each
living being. Each individual has its own characteristic
movements with its own fixed purpose. The creation of
the world is a harmonious co-ordination of all these
activities with a set purpose.

And imagine what a society of men would be like
if it were without movement ! The movement of humanity
shows the intelligence of a personality. Think what
would happen if all men stopped moving for even one
week only. Everyone would die. Work and movement
are one, the question of movement is a social question.
It is not a question concerning individual gymnastics. If
the whole society of men all over the world did nothing
but performing some physical jerks, humanity would die
in a short time. All its energies would be consumed for
nothing.

Society is formed by a complexity of individuals,
each of whom moves differently from the other, following
his own individual purpose. The individual moves in
order to carry out this purpose. The basis of society is
formed by movement with a useful aim. When we
speak about * behaviour ', the behaviour of men and
animals, we refer to their purposeful movements. This
behaviour is the centre of their practical life. It is not

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

confined to the practical life in a house, cleaning the
rooms, washing clothes, etc. This is important of course,
but everyone in the world must move with a larger pur-
pose, everyone must work not for himself alone, but also
for others. It is strange that man's work must also be
work in the service of others. If this were not so, his
work would have no more meaning than gymnastic exer-
cise. All work is done for others as well. Dancing is
perhaps one of the most individual movements, but even
dancing would be pointless without an audience, without
a social or transcendental aim. The dancers who perfect
their movements with so much trouble and fatigue, dance
for others. Tailors who spend their lives sewing, could
not possibly wear all the clothes they make. Yet tailor-
ing, like gymnastics, requires many trained movements.

If we have a vision of the cosmic plan in which
every form of life in the world is based on purposeful
movements, having their purpose not in themselves alone,
we shall be able to understand and to direct the children's
work better.

211

CHAPTER XIV
INTELLIGENCE AND THE HAND

THE study of the mechanical development of movement
is considered to be very important, because it is a com-
plicated machine, each part of which is of great value.
That is why the movement of small children has been
studied with great attention and as nothing is hidden,
but all is manifested outwardly, it can be very clearly
followed.

In figure 12, the development of movement is shown
by the two lines with various triangles standing on it.
These lines are guides to different forms of movement, the
blue triangles mark every six months and the red-topped
ones every twelve-months. The lower line represents the
development of the hand and the upper line represents
the development of equilibrium and of walking, therefore
the diagram represents the development of the four limbs,
two by two.

In all animals the four limbs develop in movement
together, but in man the one pair of limbs develops differ-
ently from the other pair. This clearly shows that their
function is different. The function of the legs is quite
different from the function of the arms. Another thing

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which stands out is that the development of walking and
equilibrium is so fixed in all men that one might call it a
biological fact. We might say that after birth man will
walk and all men will do exactly the same thing with
their feet, but we do not know what the individual man
will do with his hands. We do not know what parti-
cular activity of the hands is possible or has been
possible in the past ; their function is not fixed. So the
types of movement have a different meaning when con-
sidering hands or feet.

It is certain that the function of the feet is biological,
yet it is connected with an inner development in the
brain. At the same time only man walks on two limbs, all
mammals walk on four. Once a man achieves the art of
walking on two legs he continues to walk on two legs
only and to keep the difficult state of erect equilibrium
constantly. This equilibrium is difficult to attain, it is a
real conquest. It demands that man put his whole foot
on the ground, whereas most animals walk on tiptoe, as
a small resting place is sufficient when using four legs.
The foot used for walking can be studied from a phy-
siological, biological and anatomical point of view ; it has
connections with all of them.

If the hand does not have this biological guide, because
actions are not fixed, then with what is it connected ? If
not connected with biology and physiology, it must have
a psychological connection. The hand then depends on the
psyche for development, and not only on the psyche of

213

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an individual ego, but also on the psychic life of different
epochs. We see that the development of the hand is con-
nected with the development of the intelligence in man and r
if we look at history, it is connected with the development
of civilization. We might say that, when man thinks, he
thinks and acts with his hands and almost as soon as
man appeared on the earth, he left traces of work done
by his hands. In great civilizations of past ages there
are always samples of his handiwork. In India we can
find work so fine that it is almost impossible to imitate
it ; and in Ancient Egypt there are also traces of very
fine delicate work. If the civilization was of a less
refined type, then the handiwork remaining is also of a
rougher type.

The development of the hand therefore goes side
by side with the development of the intelligence. Cer-
tainly the refined type of handiwork needed the attention
and guidance of the intelligence to carry it out. In the
Middle Ages in Europe there was an epoch of great
intellectual awakening and at the same time they covered
with beautiful illuminations the writing that conveyed the
new thoughts. Even the life of the spirit, which seems
so far from the earth and the things of the earth, was
nevertheless affected, for we see the result in the temples
where the people worshipped, and this is to be found
wherever there is spiritual life.

St. Francis of Assisi whose spirit was perhaps
the simplest and purest once said : " You see these

214

THE ABSORBENT MIND

mountains ; these are our temples and from these we
must seek inspiration." Yet when once asked to build a
church he and his spiritual brethren being poor used
the rough stones that were available. They all carried
the stones to build the chapel and why > Because if
there is a free spirit it needs to be materialized in some
kind of work and the hands must come into use. Every-
where are the traces of the hand of man, and in these
traces we can read the spirit of man and the thought
of his time.

If we talk of Christianity, it may be difficult to make
its influence demonstrable, but when we see countries
covered with churches, with works of art and beautiful
cloth of all kinds, with hospitals and educational insti-
tutions, we can realize its spiritual and cultural effect.

And if we look into the dim past, of which not even
bones are left, what gives us knowledge of the peoples
and their times ? Their works of art. When we look
into these prehistoric times, we see there the rougher
sort of civilization based on strength : the statues and
works of art are formed from huge masses of stones and
we wonder how they got there. Elsewhere we see finer
works of art and we say : " Here was a more refined
race ". How do we know ? No man of them is left,
but the works of man tell us. So that we can see that
the hand has followed the intelligence, spirit and emotions,
and touching all these, has left us the traces of man.
Even if we do not take the psychological point of view,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

we still see that all changes in man's environment have
been made by the hand of man. Really, it would se$m
that the purpose of having intelligence was almost to have
hands, because if the intelligence of man had merely built
up his spoken language in order to communicate with
others, nothing would have been left behind when that
race of men died out. They would have stated their
wisdom by mere breath. It is because the hands have
accompanied the intelligence that civilization has been
built up, therefore we can well say that the h and is the
organ of that immense treasure given to man.

The hands therefore are connected with psychic life.
In fact those who study the hand show that there is an
intuition that the history of man is printed in the hand,
that it is a psychic organ. Therefore the study of the
psychic development of the child must be closely linked
up with the study of the development of the hand. The
child has clearly shown that his development is connected
with the hand which reveals this psychic urge. We can
express it this way : the intelligence of the child will
reach a certain level without the use of the hand ; with
the hands it reaches a still higher level, and the child who
has used his hands has a stronger character. So we see
that even the development of character, which seems so
completely within the psychic field, remains rudimentary,
if it has no opportunity of practising on the environment
(which means through the hand). The child has shown
us most clearly that if (through circumstances in the

216

THE ABSORBENT MIND

environment) he cannot use his hands, his character
remains on a very low level, incapable of obedience, of
initiative, lazy and sad, whereas the child who has been
able to work with his hands shows also a development
and firmness of character. This reminds us of an inter-
esting point in the Egyptian civilization when work with
the hand was present everywhere, in the fields of art, of
construction, of religion ; if we read the inscriptions on the
burial places of that time the highest praise accorded to
any man was that he was a person of character. The
development of character was important to them and
they were people of great works carried out by the hand.
This is one more instance of the fact that the movement
of the hand follows through history the development of
character and civilization. It shows how the hand is
connected with the individuality. And if we examine
how all these people walked, we always find of course
that they walked on two legs, erect and with equilibrium.
Probably they danced and ran a little differently, but
they always used two legs for ordinary locomotion.

It is therefore clear that the development of move-
ment is twofold ; one part is biological and the other,
though using the muscles, is nevertheless connected with
the inner life. If we study the child we consequently study
two developments : the development of the hand apart
from that of equilibrium and walking. In figure 12 we
see that only at one and a half years any connection
between the two takes place. It is when the child wants

217

THE ABSORBENT MIND

to transport heavy things that his legs must help him,
otherwise there is no connection. These feet that are
able to walk and transport him to various parts of the
earth, take him there so that he can work with his hands,
A man walks and walks and gradually covers the face
of the earth 9 and through this invasion by walking he lives
and dies, but he leaves behind him the trace of his
passage in the work of his hands.

When we studied language we saw that speech
is connected especially with hearing, whereas in the
development of movement we see this is connected with
sight ; first of all because we must have eyes to see
where to put our feet, and when we work with our hands
we must see what we do. These are the two senses
specially connected with development : hearing and
sight. In the development of children first of all there is
observation of the environment, because he must know
the environment in which he has to move. This obser-
vation is carried out before he can move and then he
orients himself in it ; so the orientation in the environment
and movement are both connected with psychic develop-
ment. That is why the new-born babe is immobile at
first, when he moves he follows the guide of his psyche*

The first development in movement is that of grasp-
ing or prehension ; as soon as the hand grasps something
the consciousness is called to this hand which has been
able to do so. Prehension is unconscious at first and
then conscious. The hand calls for the attention of

218

THE ABSORBENT MIND

consciousness whereas the feet do nothing of the sort.
When the consciousness is called to this fact, prehension
is developed, so that what was instinctive prehension be-
comes intentional prehension, and it is at six months that
the child shows this development. At ten months
observation of the environment has awakened the
interest of the child and he wants to catch hold of it ;
intentional prehension is accompanied by desire and
mere prehension ceases. After this begins the exercise
of the hand, it begins to change the places of objects*
There is a vision of the environment, there is a desire
and the hand begins to do something in the environment.
Before one year of age the child carries out many actions
with his hand that are ever so many types of work. He
opens and closes doors, drawers, puts stoppers in bottles,
puts objects on one side and then puts them back,
etc* It is through these exercises that the child acquires
ability.

What has happened to the other pair of limbs >
Neither intelligence nor consciousness has been called
forth. There is something anatomical happening how-
ever : the rapid development of the cerebellum, the
director of equilibrium. It is as though a bell rang and
called an inert body to get up and attain equilibrium.
The environment has nothing to do with it ; the cere-
bellum orders it and the child, with effort and help, sits
up and then gets up by itself. Psychologists say, man
gets up in four periods. Then the baby turns on his

219

THE ABSORBENT MIND

tummy and walks on four limbs, and if, during this time
when he begins crawling, you give him two fingers, he
will make the feet go one in front of the other, but on
his toes. Before this, even with the help of two fingers,
he would not walk, the cerebellum and not the environ-
ment is responsible.

When at last he stands by himself, he rests his whole
foot on the ground ; he has attained the normal erect
position of man and can walk if he holds on to something
(mother's skirt). After a little while he can walk alone.
The tendency now is to say : " Goodbye ; I have my
two legs, and off I go " ! Another stage of independence
is attained, for the acquisition of independence is the
beginning of doing things by oneself. The philosophy of
these steps of development tells us that independence
and development of man is attained by effort. To be
able to do without other people's help is independence,
it is not comfort. If independence is there the child
progresses very rapidly ; if it is not there the progress is
very slow. So if we keep this picture in mind we know
the way of dealing with the child, and it is a useful
guide. We are taught not to help him, whereas we
always fall on him to help him. The child who
is capable of walking alone must walk by himself,
because all development is strengthened by exercise and
all acquisition confirmed by exercise. When a child of
even three years is carried, as I have often seen, his
development is not helped, but hindered. Immediately

220

THE ABSORBENT MIND

the child has acquired independence the adult who should
continue to help him becomes an obstacle to the child.
It is therefore clear that we must not carry the child, but
permit him to walk, and if his hand wants to work,
we must give him motives of intelligent activity. The
child by his actions goes to greater conquests of inde-
pendence.

It has been noticed that there is a very important
and visible factor at one and a half years of age in both
the development of the hands and of the feet, this fact is
strength. This child who has acquired agility and ability
is now a strong man. His first urge in doing anything is
to use the maximum effort ; not merely to exercise, but
to make the maximum effort (so different from the
adult). This is brought about by nature which seems to
admonish : " You have the possibility and agility to go
about, now become strong or it is of no use." It is now
that the contact of hands and equilibrium takes place.
Then what do we see ? The child instead of merely
walking, likes to walk far and carry heavy loads. Man
is destined not only to walk, but to shoulder his load.
The hand that has learnt to grasp must exercise itself
also by sustaining and carrying weight. So we see the
one and a half year old with a large jug of water, adjust-
ing his equilibrium and walking slowly. There is the
tendency also to break the laws of gravity and overcome
them. Having learnt to walk, why not be satisfied to
walk ? No ! He must climb and to do so must grasp

221

THE ABSORBENT MIND

something with his hand and pull himself up. This is
no longer a grasping to possess, but grasping with a
desire to go up. It is an exercise of strength, and there
is a whole period of this exercise of strength. Again
there is the logic of nature here, since man must exercise
his strength. Then what follows next ? The child,
capable of walking, sure of his strength, seeing the actions
of men around him, has a tendency to imitate them.
Nature's first task for him is to take in, to absorb the
actions of the humanity of his period. So there is an
imitative period in which the child imitates the actions of
his surroundings not because someone tells him to imitate
them, but because of an inner urge. This imitation is
only seen if the child is free to act. We then see the
logic of nature :

1 . To make man stand erect.

2. To make him go around and acquire strength.

3. To make him take in the actions of the people
around him.

There is a preparation in time that precedes the
action. First he must prepare himself and his instru-
ments, then he must get strong, then look at others and
start doing something. While he does that, nature also
tells him to prepare by gymnastics, to climb chairs and
steps. Then only comes the stage when he wants to do
things by himself. " I have prepared myself and now I
want to be free, thank you ! " No psychologist has taken
into sufficient account that the child becomes a great

222

THE ABSORBENT MIND

walker who is in need of long walks. Usually we carry
him or put him in a perambulator and so the poor child
can only walk in imagination.

He can't walk, we carry him ; he can't work ; we do
it for him : on the threshold of life we give him an
inferiority complex.

223

CHAPTER XV
DEVELOPMENT AND IMITATION

IN the last chapter we left the child at the age of one
and a half years ; this age has become a centre of in-
terest and is considered of the greatest importance in
education. It may seem strange that this period should
seem so important, but we must remember that it is the
point where the preparation of the upper and the lower
limbs coincides. Also it will appear natural if we
consider that the child at that epoch is on the eve of the
disclosure of his fullness of manhood for at two years
he reaches a point of completion with the explosion of
language. On the eve of that event, at I i years, he is
already making efforts to express what is within him. It
is an epoch of effort and an epoch of construction.

Once the importance of something has been dis-
covered, everybody at once sets to work. Humanity is
generous, but ignorant, so when they learn of some-
thing they precipitate themselves, usually with too
much enthusiasm, and so also in this instance. Philoso-
phers, psychologists, sociologists and others have centred
their interest on the child of 1 J to 2 years of age. This

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

is an epoch of development in which special care must be
taken not to destroy the tendencies of life. If nature has
given us such clear indications that this is the period of
maximum effort we must support this effort. This is a
general statement, but those who observe become more
exact in the details they give. They state that at this epoch
the child begins to show an instinct of imitation. This,
in itself, is not a new discovery, because at all times
people have said that children imitate, but hitherto this
was a superficial statement. Now it is realized that the
human child must understand before it imitates ; this is
logical, but it had not occurred to anyone before. The
old idea was that we only had to act and the children
would follow, there was hardly any further responsibility
for the adult. Of course it was also said that we had to
set a good example. This sets forth the importance of
all adults, especially teachers. They must set a good
example if there is to be a good humanity. Mothers also
were specially included. The feeling was that children
who have bad examples will grow up badly. The adult
therefore stressed that he had set a good example for his
children to imitate and the real responsibility was thrown
on the heads of the children surrounding him, it was their
fault if they did not profit by the good example the adults
so generously gave to them. The result was unhappiness
everywhere, for although children ought to become
models of perfection, they were far from it. We wanted a
perfect humanity and thought humanity was to be perfect

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

by imitating us, but we were imperfect ; what a con-
fusion ! Nature has not reasoned like we, she has reasoned
another way ; she does not bother about perfection
in adults. What is important is that in order to
imitate, the child has to be prepared to do so. It is
this preparation that matters and it depends on the efforts
of the individual child. The example offers a motive to
imitation, it is not the aim. It is the effort of imitation
which develops, not the attainment of the examples given.
In fact the child once launched on the part of this effort
often surpasses in perfection and exactitude the example,
which served as an incentive.

Some people think : "If I want my child to be a
pianist, let me (or a teacher) be a pianist and the child
will imitate ". But it is not as simple as that and many
of us know that a child has to prepare his hands in order
to gain the necessary agility enabling him to do anything
on the pianoforte. Yet we follow this simple reasoning
in matters which are on lofty levels. We read or tell the
child stories of heroes and saints and think the child will
imitate. It is not so easy. His spirit must be prepared.
One does not become great by imitation. An example
may furnish inspiration and interest, the instinct of
imitation spur the effort, but even then one must have
a preparation to carry this out and, in education, nature
has shown that without preparation no imitation is
possible. The effort does not aim at imitation, it
aims at creating in oneself the possibility of imitation, of

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transforming oneself into the thing desired. Hence the
value of indirect preparation in all things. Nature does
not merely give the power of imitation, but that of trans-
forming oneself to become what the example demon-
strates. And if we, as educationists, believe in helping
life, we must see which are the things we must help.

If one observes a child of this age, one sees that
there are certain activities that the child sets out to do.
To us they may seem absurd, but that does not matter.
He must carry them out completely. There is a vital
urge to carry out certain things, and if the cycle of this
urge is broken, the result is deviation and lack of purpose.
The possibility of carrying out this cycle of activity is
considered important now, just as the indirect preparation
is considered important ; it is an indirect preparation.
Even all through life we prepare for the future indirectly.
In the lives of those who have done something in the
world, there has always been a previous period of some-
thing worked for ; it may not have been on the same
lines as the final work, but there is intense effort on some
line which gives a preparation of the spirit, and this effort
must be fully expanded, the cycle must be completed.
So if we see any intelligent activity in the child, even if it
seems to us absurd or not according to our wishes (as
long as it is not dangerous to life and limb of course !),
we must not interfere, because the child must complete
his cycle of activity. Children of this age show many
interesting forms of carrying out this cycle of activity ;

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

one sees children below two years of age carrying big
heavy weights far beyond their strength, and for no ap-
parent reason. In a house of a friend of mine were very
heavy footstools, and a child of one and a half years
carried all of them with much effort from one end of the
room to the other. Children will help to lay the table
and carry large loaves of bread in front of them so that
they cannot even see their own feet. They will continue
doing these activities, carrying things back and forth,
until they are tired. The adult's usual reaction is to have
sympathy for the child's effort, they go to help him and
take the weight from him, but psychologists have re-
cognized that such * help f , which is an interruption of the
child's own chosen cycle of activity, is one of the greatest
repressions of this age. The deviations of many * diffi-
cult ' children are traced back to this interrupted cycle
of activity. Another effort is to climb staircases ; for us
to climb up a difficult staircase is an aim, but not for the
child. Having accomplished the climbing he is not
satisfied, he must come back to the starting point to
complete the cycle and this too they repeat many times.
The wooden or concrete slides we see in children's
playgrounds offer opportunities for these activities ; it
is not the coming down that is important, it is the joy
of going up, the joy of effort.

It is so difficult to find people who do not interrupt
that all the psychologists ask for places where children
can work uninterruptedly, and hence the schools for

22ft

THE ABSORBENT MIND

very little children are very important and the most
important of all are those for little ones from 1 J years. All
sorts of things are created in those schools : small houses
in trees with ladders to climb up and go down. The
house is not to live in or rest in, but a point to reach so
that you can go up there and come down again : effort
is the purpose, but the house gives a centre of interest.
We notice it with our own material : if the child wants to
carry something, it always chooses either the brown stairs
or the cylinder blocks because they are so heavy. So too
the climbing instinct which is so apparent in children is
merely an effort to pull himself up, he looks for difficult
things in the environment to climb on, like a chair. But
a staircase is a very great joy, for there is a tendency in
the child to go up. I have seen a child who was climbing
a very steep staircase from one floor of a house to the
other ; the steps were so steep that they reached to
the child's middle and he had to use both hands to pull
himself up and then put his legs round in a most difficult
position, but he had the constancy to reach the top,
45 steps. Then he looked back to see what he had
achieved, overbalanced and went head over heels back-
wards down the stairs. They were thickly carpeted
and when he had reached the last bump and was at the
bottom again, he was facing right round into the room.
We thought he would cry, but he laughed as if to say :
44 How hard to go up and how easy to come down ;
just what I wanted ! "

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

Sometimes these efforts are efforts of attention and
fine co-ordination of movement, not merely efforts of
strength. One child of 1 1 years I knew, who was free
to go round the house, came to a store-room where there
were twelve large napkins, starched and ironed, ready
to be put away. The baby took the top one with both
hands, happy to see that it came away from the pile, went
along the corridor and laid it on the floor in the farthest
corner. Having done that he came back for another
and put that in the same place ; he did this for all the
twelve napkins and each time he took one, he said ;
"One". Having put them all in the corner, from our
standpoint the work was finished, but no ! As soon as the
last one was in the corner, he started from there and
brought them all back in exactly the same way, saying :
" one ", each time, and left them where he found them.
The attention and the tension of the child during the
whole time was marvellous to see and his face had a
delighted expression as he went away at last on further
business of his own.

These examples of cycles of activity have no outer
purpose in themselves, but the child is carrying out
exercises giving fine co-ordination of his own movements^
And what has he done thereby ? He has prepared
himself to imitate certain things. There must be an
object in these exercises, but the object is not the real aim ;
they obey an inner urge. When he has prepared himself,
he can imitate, and the environment affords inspiration,

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The dusting of the floor or the making of bread he sees
being done, serve him as an inspiration to do likewise.

Walking and Exploring

Let us consider the child of two years and this need
for walking which most psychologists do not con-
sider. It is natural that the child should show the
tendency to walk, he is preparing man and all essential
human faculties are being built. A child of two years
can walk for a mile or two miles and, if he likes to
climb, so much the better. The difficult points in a walk
are the interesting ones. We must realize what walking
means to the child ; it is different from our idea. The
idea that he could not walk for any distance came be-
cause we expect him to walk at our rate. That is as
sensible as if we were to tie ourselves to a horse and if,
when we became tired trying to keep up with him, he
would say : " Never mind, you get on my back and we
will both get there ". The child does not want to ' get
there ', he wants to walk, but his legs are disproportionate
in size to ours and disproportionate to the size of his own
body (cf. Fig. 7), so we must not make the child follow
us, we must follow the child. The need to ' follow
the child * is clearly demonstrated here, but we must
remember that it is the rule for all education of children
in all fields. The child has his own laws of growth and,
if we want to help him grow, we must follow him, not
impose ourselves on him. The child walks with his eyes

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

as well as his legs, and it is the interesting things in the
environment that carry him along. He walks and sees a
lamb eating, he is interested and sits down by it, watch-
ing ; then he gets up and goes further, he sees a flower
sits down by it and sniffs at it ; then he sees a tree,
walks up to it and round and round it four or five times
and then sits down and looks at it. In this way he
covers miles ; they are walks full of resting periods and
at the same time full of interesting information, and if
there is something difficult like a boulder in the way, that
is the height of his happiness. Water is another great
attraction. Sometimes he will sit down and say :
" Water ", happily and all you can see is a tiny stream
falling drop by drop. So he has an idea of walking
different from that of his nurse, who wants to arrive at a
spot in the quickest possible time. She takes him to a
park for a walk or a so-called ' airing ' in a peram-
bulator, the hood up, so that he cannot see too many
things.

The habits of the child are like those of the primitive
tribes of the earth. They did not say : " Let us go to
Paris ", Paris was not there. Nor did they say : " Let
us catch a train to go to . . .", there were no trains. So
their habit was to walk till they found something interest-
ing that attracted them, a forest that might supply wood,
a place to sow crops, and so on. So does the child pro-
ceed, it is a natural fashion. This instinct of moving
about in the environment, passing from attraction to

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attraction forms part of nature itself, and of education.
Education must consider the walking man who walks as
an explorer. This is the principle of scouting which is
now a relaxation from education, but should form part of
education and come earlier in life also. All children
should walk in this fashion, guided by attraction ; and
it is here that education can give help to the child
by giving him a preparation in school, e.g. by intro-
ducing him to the colours, the shapes and forms of leaves,
the habits of insects and other animals, etc. All these
give points of interest to him when he goes out. The
more he learns, the more he walks. He should explore
and that means to be guided by an intellectual interest
which we must give. Intelligent interest leads man to
walk and to move about.

Walking is a complete exercise ; there is no need of
other gymnastic efforts. He breathes and digests better
and has all the advantages we ask of sports. Beauty of
body is formed by walking, and if you find something
interesting to pick up and classify, or a trench to dig, or
wood to fetch for a fire, then with these actions accom-
panying walking, the stretching of arms and bending of
the body, the exercise is complete. As man studies more
he has many interests calling him, and his intellectual
interest augments his activity of body. If the child is
capable of following these interests, he finds other things
he did not know, and so his intellectual interest grows .
The path of education has to follow the path of evolution ;

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walking about made man see more things, so should the
life of the child expand and expand.

This must form part of education, especially today r
when people do not walk, but go in vehicles, and there
is a tendency towards paralysis and sloth. It is no good
to cut life in two and to move limbs by sport and then
move the head by reading a book. Life must be one
whole, especially at an early age when the child must
construct himself according to the plan and laws of
development.

234

CHAPTER XVI

FROM UNCONSCIOUS CREATOR TO
CONSCIOUS WORKER

WE have been dealing with a part of the development
of the child which we have compared to that of the
embryo. This type of development continues till 3 years
of age. It is full of events because it is a creative period.
Yet although it is a period in which the greatest number
of events take place, it may nevertheless be called the
forgotten period of life. It is as if nature had traced a
dividing line ; on one side there are events which it is
impossible to remember ; on the other side remembrance
begins. The forgotten period is the psycho-embryonic
period of life, and may be compared to the physio-
embryonic period before birth which nobody can re-
member.

In this psycho-embryonic period, there are deve-
lopments which come separately and independently,
such as language, the movement of the arms, the move-
ment of the legs, etc., and there are certain sensorial
developments like that of the eye in which the muscles
are not needed. Like the physical embryo in the pre-
natal period, which had organs unfolding one by one,

235

THE ABSORBENT MIND

each separate from the other, so in this period the psychic
embryo develops faculties separately and we remember
nothing of either. This is because there is no unity of
the personality. Everything is developing, one after the
other, so there cannot be unity as yet ; that can come
only with completed parts.

When the age of three years has been reached,
it is as though life began again, for then the life of con-
sciousness begins fully and clearly. These two periods
the unconscious psycho-embryonic period and the later
period of conscious development seem to be separated
by a very definitely marked line. The faculty of con-
scious memory was not developed in the first period ;
only when consciousness comes is there unity of the per-
sonality and therefore memory.

Psychically speaking, before three years there is
construction and creation (as in the physical embryo in
the pre-natal period), and after three years there is
development of the faculties created. The border line is
compared with the river Lethe of Greek mythology, the
river of Forgetfulness, Certainly it is very difficult to
remember what happened before three years of age, still
more before two years. Psycho-analysis has tried by all
sorts of means to bring the consciousness of the individual
back to its own history, to the beginning, but no
individual could ordinarily and reliably remember further
back than three years of age. This is a very dramatic
situation, because it is during this first period that

236

THE ABSORBENT MIND

everything is created, starting from nothing and yet the
memory of the individual who accomplished all this can-
not recall anything, not even the memory of the adult
man who is the result of this creation.

This sub-conscious and unconscious creation this
forgotten child seems to be erased from the memory of
man and the child coming to us at three years of age
seems to be an incomprehensible being. The communi-
cation between him and us has been taken away by
nature, so either we have to know the period or to know
nature herself.

If we do not take into consideration the natural
laws of development and if children take a form of life
that departs from its earlier part, the adult must know this
former life or there is a danger that the adult destroys
what nature would have made. If therefore, because of
social development or the way of civilization, man
abandons the natural path of life, there is a great danger
since the natural provisions are taken away. As humanity
in the development of civilization has given protection
only to the physical and not to the psychic part of man,
the child finds himself in a prison. If civilization is not
given the necessary light regarding the natural laws of
psychic development the child very likely lives in an
environment full of obstacles to normal expression. It
must be remembered that during this period the child is
entirely in the care of the adult, because it cannot yet
provide for himself, and we adults, if not enlightened by

237

THE ABSORBENT MIND

the wisdom of nature or science, will present the greatest
obstacles to the life of the child.

After this period the child has acquired certain
special faculties which allow him to defend himself,
because he can speak for himself. If he feels the oppres-
sion of the adult, he can run away or have tantrums.
Nevertheless, the aim of the child is not to defend himself,
but to conquer the environment and in it the means for
his development. In this later period he must develop
by means of exercises in the environment, but what
exactly must he develop ? That which he has created in
the previous period. So the period from three to six
years of age is a period of conscious construction when a
child takes consciously from the environment. He has
forgotten the things and events of the epoch before three
years of age, but, using the faculties he created
then, he can now remember. The powers he created
are brought to the surface by the experiences consciously
carried out in the environment by the child. These
experiences are not mere play nor are they haphazard,
they are consciously brought about by work. The hand,
guided by the intelligence, does a sort of work. If then
in the first period, the child was a sort of contemplative
psychic being, observing the environment in apparent
passivity and then taking from it what he needed for his
construction, i.e., constructing the elements of his being,
in the second period he is following the will. At first it
was as if a force outside his will led him ; now it is the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

child's own ego which guides him, and now he shows
the activity of his hands. It is as though this child who
before received the world through his unconscious in-
telligence, now takes it by his hands, using his hands.
There is therefore another sort of development : that of
perfecting former acquisitions. The development of
language for example continues spontaneously to four
and a half years, but we have seen that at two and a
half years it is already complete in all its details. Now
he acquires enrichment and perfection.

Yet though this is a period of perfectionment, the
child still retains the embryonic power of absorbing without
fatigue. The absorbent mind continues, but now his
hand and its experiences help him to develop and enrich
further his acquisitions. The hand becomes the direct
organ of prehension to the intelligence ; so while the child
previously absorbed the world and developed his intelli-
gence merely by walking about, now he must develop
by working with his hands ; further psychic development
takes place this way. He lives not merely because he
has life ; he must have an environment in which to ex-
press his work. If we watch the child of this age we
see that he is continuously at work, happy, lighthearted,
but always busy with his hands. It is called the * blessed
age of play ' ! Adults have always noticed this, though
only lately has it been scientifically studied. In Europe
and America, where the trend of civilization has taken
humanity farther from nature, society offers any number

239

THE ABSORBENT MIND

of toys to correspond to the activity of the child. In-
stead of the means to create the intelligence, he is given
only mostly useless toys. At this age he has the ten-
dency to touch everything, the adults let him touch some
things and forbid others. The only real thing they let
him touch at will is sand, play with sand is stimulated
all over the world. Where there is no sand, compas-
sionate men bring it to rich children. If there is no sand
or only a little, water may be allowed, but not too much
of it, because the child gets wet, and water and sand
make dirt which adults have to wash.

Toys and Reality

When the child tires of sand, he* is given small copies
of things used by adults : toy-kitchens and houses, toy-
pianos, etc., but these in a form which render them useless
to the child. The adults say : " Children want them ;
they see us working so they want to do the same ", But
the things they give them to work with are useless ; the
copies of fruits are stone fruits, they cannot prepare them
nor eat them. It is a mockery. The child is lonely, so
he is given a mockery of the human figure, the dolL
These dollies are more real than father and mother,
all sorts of presents are given to it in clothes, jewels,
etc. We know that up to four and a half yeara
the child perfects his language, yet the only being
he can freely talk to is his dolly, and dolly cannot
answer him.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

The toy has become so important in the West, that
people think it is a help to the intelligence. It is certainly
better than nothing, but if we watch the child, we see he
always wants new ones, he breaks them, he develops
nervous and moral complaints. People who study the
child superficially say that as he breaks the toy, he seems
to find delight in taking everything apart and in destroy-
ing everything. This is an artificially developed charac-
teristic due to the circumstances which deprive the
child of the right things. He is not even quiet with his
toys or not for more than a few minutes. It is Nurse who
loads the perambulator with toys, and takes them out
for the child. When they arrive at the park, the child is
often not interested. Very often the child deliberately takes
a look at it and then smashes it on the ground. Those
psychologists who study phenomena and not their cause,
say that the child has an instinct of destruction and another
observation that has been made by these superficial
observers is that the child does not fix his attention on
any of these toys. Both these criticisms of the child
are true, but superficial, the cause of this behaviour is not
investigated. The real trouble is that children have no
real interest in these things, because there is no reality in
them. It is the misunderstanding by the adult that has
led to this life of lack of attention on the part of the
children ; this useless life, a mockery of life instead of
real life. The child cannot exercise the energies that
nature has given him to perfect his individuality, they

241

16

THE ABSORBENT MIND

are wasted and worse than wasted. So the result is that
the child cannot develop normally and the longer he
lives in this environment full of toys, the less capable he
becomes of adapting himself to the real environment, and
gradually his personality is completely deformed. It is
here and now that he seriously and consciously tries to
perfect himself through imitation of his elders. His con-
sciousness develops through the experiences of life and
these are denied to him, so of course he is deformed.

In countries which have not developed such a toy-
civilization for children, you find children greatly different
from those of the West. They are much more calm,
healthy and cheerful They take their inspiration from the
activities they see around them. They are normal human
beings. They take the objects of the adults and use
them. When mother washes, or makes bread or chap-
paties the child does it too, if he has suitable things. It
is like imitation, but it is intelligent, selective imitation, it
finds real inspiration in those around him ; he is preparing
for the environment in which he lives.

There are clearly two periods in this early phase of
development :

The first period : to 3 years ; the child absorbs the
environment.

The second period : 3 to 6 years ; the child realizes
the environment by the work of his hands.

This fact cannot be doubted ; the child must handle
things for purposes of his own. When, as lately in the

242

THE ABSORBENT MIND

West, toys are made which are in proportion to the child
so that he can be active with them as the adults are
active, then the child changes his character and becomes
calm, serene and attentive. This shows that child-
ren do not merely play, but are intelligently active.
These activities, however, are performed in order to fill a
psychic need of the child, not for the need of the environ-
ment. This activity has superficially been attributed to an
Instinct of Imitativeness ; but it is more than this. One
sees that the child does not use objects that are not in his
usual environment. Why not ? Because the child's work
is to produce an individual who is suited to his en-
vironment.

Once this has been understood, one can no longer
speak of play with sand and imitation as the essential
characteristics of the child, as if the child were a monkey.
This imitation is but a means of learning what js in the
environment, and nature wishes to give joy in the fulfil-
ment of special things. The new trend nowadays is not
to give children toys, but to furnish them with an environ-
ment full of things with which they can perform the same
actions as the adults of their race and community. We
provide motives of activity with objects built in proportion
to their strength and body ; and as we usually work at
home or on the land, it is necessary that the children
have their own home and their own land. Not only
toys for children, but houses for them ; not toys for child-
ren, but land for them with tools to carry out work on

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

the land ; not dolls for children, but other children and a
social life in which the child is not just seated on a chair
and has to be still while the teacher acts, but where he
acts himself ; an environment where he can act, talk and
find all the instruments necessary for intelligent, con-
structive activities. All these today substitute the toys of
the past.

When this idea, which is just now taking hold of the
public imagination, was first expressed, it caused surprise.
Prof. Dewey of America, a famous educationist, was
persuaded of this idea and set out to hunt for objects
proportionate to children. He himself, though a Univer-
sity professor, went to all the New-York stores to look
for small brooms, chairs, tables, plates, etc. He found
NOTHING not even the idea of manufacturing them
existed. There were innumerable toys of all kinds ;
whole furnished houses of minute size, little horses and
carriages, nothing for the child. However, the multipli-
cation of toys did one thing. Dolls which started very
small increased until they were almost the size of a child ;
and as the dolls grew, the objects for the dolls grew ;
they became larger and larger, but never large enough for
a child to use really. The child was now almost on the
threshold of fulfilment, but the door was yet closed. The
adults had spent millions and millions in order to make
him happy, and had succeeded in giving him an ex-
pensive mockery. We said : " Make all these things a
little bigger and the child can use them as he needs to

244

THE ABSORBENT MIND

use them." So the step was taken and the dawn of a
new world was realized ; there were real houses and real
objects for children to use in order to perfect the prepara-
tion that had been made in the previous period from
to 3 years. Once the result was seen, these objects
were made everywhere, and a new industry and a new
source of wealth came into being.

Prof. Dewey was so certain that in New- York he
would find the things he was searching for that when he
failed to find them anywhere, he said : " The child has
been forgotten", and I say, "What a discovery!"
But, alas, he is forgotten in other ways too, he is the
forgotten citizen, living in a world where there is every-
thing for all, except for him ; for him only mockery, a
desert. He wanders ambling aimlessly, crying in tantrums,
destroying the mockeries provided, only seeking for the
satisfaction of his soul. And standing in front of him
the adult could not see the real being of the child.

Once this barrier was broken and the veil of unreality
torn asunder, once the child was given real things, we
expected happiness, readiness to act with the objects, but
this was not the only thing which took place. The child
showed a completely different personality. The first result
was an act of independence, as if he said : " I want
to be self-sufficient ; keep your aid/' This has been one of
the revelations that the freed child has given. The child
has not become a wealthier being with bigger objects
than when he played with toys ; he has become a man

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

seeking independence. He was a surprise to all around
him, nurses, mothers, teachers. He refused help, he
wanted to be alone. No one had ever imagined that
his first act would have been that of refusing assistance,
and that, as he worked, nurses and mothers would have
to be observers only.

This environment was not merely proportionately
constructed, it was one of which he became master.
Social life and development of character came spon-
taneously. It is not the happiness of the child that is the
aim, but that he become the constructor of man, inde-
pendent in function, the worker and master of his
environment. This is the light that the beginning of the
conscious life of the individual reveals.

246

CHAPTER XVII
THE NEW TEACHER

THE problems facing village education, especially in

countries like India, the primitive circumstances under

which such work is started, might be something similar to

what happened in the beginning of my work which was

very surprising to all. I believe that the facts which we

were fortunate enough to witness would not have

happened but for certain circumstances. No one else in

the world has recognized them, because if Prof. Dewey,

for instance, had found the objects he was seeking in the

stores of New-York and had been able to organize a

house for children with all these activities, nothing would

have happened, as nothing happens in so many schools

which are richly endowed. Nothing would have

happened as objects are not enough. It is not lack of

objects alone that matters, but certain other things as well

that obscure the real characteristics of children. What will

happen cannot be foreseen, because what is needed is

freedom for the child and not wealth, and that freedom

we cannot understand unless we experience it. No one

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

could have seen it in my experiment but for a chance
which gave the necessary conditions. They were :

1. Extreme poverty and a social condition of ex-
treme hardship. It was not a class of working
people among whom we worked, those were
rich compared with the parents of the children
I had. This extreme poverty was a favourable
condition. The child who is extremely poor
may suffer from lack of food, but he finds himself
in natural conditions. Now that we see that
the development of the child is directed by
natural laws, we see that the child who has a
greater number of natural conditions has much
greater opportunities to reveal his inner wealth
than one living in rich, artificial conditions.

2. The parents of the children Were illiterate, there-
fore unable to give help to their children in
learning.

3. The teachers were not teachers. If they had
been real teachers, I do not think these results
would have been achieved. In America they
never succeeded so well, because they looked
for the best teachers. Who is believed to be a
good teacher > It means usually one who has
studied all the things which do not help the
child ; such teachers are full of prejudices and
ideas about the child which are not conducive
to giving freedom to the child. As is the case

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

with a * good ' nurse who thinks she must help
the child to do everything, so these teachers
think they must help the child's mind. It is this
teaching, this imposition of the teacher on the
child, which hinders him.

Who would have thought of imposing the three
conditions mentioned above in order to have a successful
experiment ? One would naturally have thought to give
just the contrary.

The great success which we obtained augurs well
for similar attempts and experiments in India, because
one of the complaints is the lack of good teachers. One
must take simple persons and make use of them. In
Indian villages also the parents are probably illiterate, so
much the better for the children. And as to poverty, it
is universally recognized as the first condition for the
development of spiritual qualities. It is difficult to tell all
to give up their riches, and it might not work, but religious
leaders in all countries have renounced the world and
sought poverty. We need not impose poverty, but it
must not frighten us, as it is the most favourable condition
for spiritual development we can find, if accepted with
assent. If we want to experiment in giving freedom to
the child, the field of poverty is the best. If one wants
an easy experiment and sure success, go and work among
the poor children. We offer them objects and an
environment they do not possess. An object scientifi-
cally constructed, offered to a child who has nothing, is

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

taken with passionate interest and awakens mental
concentration and meditation. Forty-two years ago
this fact caused great surprise. Concentration had never
been recognized in children of three years, yet it is a
basic factor because it means to take intense hold
of the environment, item by item, exploring each one
of them and dwelling on each of them. Under the
usual unsatisfactory conditions, the child flits from one
thing to another and concentrates on nothing, but that
is not his characteristic, it is forced on him by an un-
satisfactory environment.

Also, in a small child of three years that mysterious
teacher which urges the child to work is still active
within him ; and when we speak of a free child (i.e., with
inner freedom) we speak of a child free to follow the
powerful guides of nature within him. These guides are
extremely wise, and lead the child to seek exactness,
precision and the full achievement of what he under-
takes. The child is led by nature to go into all the
details (e.g. to dust the top, sides, bottom and all the
groves of a table). This is what we want for success in
education. What any teacher requires of his pupils is
attention and concentration on what the teacher does,
so that they can carry out exactly any instruction and all
is done completely. This is the maximum any teacher
can expect in order to have success. The surprising
revelation that the children have given us is that this is the
natural behaviour when a child is free. Given freedom

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

and no interruptions by the teacher, he performs full,
complete, concentrated work. At this age of three years,
he does not receive with facility from others, because he
is constructing himself. Too many teachers are inclined
to put so many things before the child, to interrupt him
continuously and teach continuously, instead of letting the
children have their own experience. The child of this
age, therefore, who develops by spontaneous work,
following the guides of nature, cannot develop in this
fashion with a teacher who teaches. Also the teacher
aiming at success (i.e., that the child do what the teacher
thinks important, such as obeying her or him) and
convinced that she must go from the easy to the difficult,
from the simple to the complex, by gradual steps, when
instead a child goes from the difficult to the easy and
with great strides ; such a teacher is not a help in our work,
and most teachers are like that, because they have been
trained so. Inevitable conflict would arise between the
child and such a teacher. Another prejudice such teachers
have is that of fatigue. If a child is interested in what he
is doing, he goes on and on. The child is not fatigued.
When however the teacher makes him change every few
minutes and ' rest ', he gets fatigued. As the completed
cycle of physical activity gives added strength to the very
little ones, so do mental activities with the older ones.

These prejudices are so impregnated in teachers edu-
cated in the usual type of Training Colleges, that to get
rid of them, you would have to kill the teacher. No new

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

vision of the mind would get rid of them. It is the same
with some of the prejudices of society, nothing short of a
bloody revolution can help. Some of the most modern
Colleges have this prejudice of the need for rest so badly
that they have interruptions and rest every three quarters
of an hour or half an hour on a carefully graduated plan.
The result is extreme indifference in the minds of the
people educated. Interest and enthusiasm only can pro-
duce anything of value and these are automatically killed.
Modern pedagogy sees things from a superficial and
erroneous point of view, because it takes no notice of the
inner life. The guide of the psychic activities is com-
pletely ignored. Also the pedagogical world (or it leaders)
is ruled by human logic, but human logic is one thing and
the logic of nature another. Human logic says we must
distinguish between mental and physical activities, for
mental work we must be immobile in a class room and
for physical work the mental faculties are not required.
It cuts the child in two. When he thinks he may not use
his hands, and when he uses his hands his head is not
considered. Thus we get men with a head and no body
at one time and with a body and no head at another.
Consequently there are problems and trouble of all
sorts for the teacher. Yet nature shows that the child
cannot think without his hands and that the hands are
the instruments of intelligence. Objects must occupy the
hands and interest the mind. Our experience has shown
us that, when the child thinks, he is continually moving.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

So indeed great men often give us the thoughts they
gained as they walked about, meditating (cf. the peri-
pathetic school of philosophy). What do people who
philosophize do ? They go into convents and walk hours
alone under trees, meditating. In this period between
three and six years, it has been clearly revealed that
movement and mind go together ; yet many think it is
impossible to have schools where children study and con-
tinuously walk about.

From this we can realize that a well-prepared teacher
(in the usual sense) is the worst teacher for the child.
The greatest effort in our method is that of trying to free
the teacher from the prejudices he or she may possess
and the greatest success is the teacher who can best free
herself or himself from them. The measure of how well
they succeed is seen in how far they are still cloaked by
prejudice. So if education of a great number is envisaged
and there is a scarcity of teachers, what can we say but :
" Thank God ! " It is one of the best conditions.

The new teachers found among simple folk must
understand certain fundamental things which, however,
are not difficult. In my first experiment 1 instructed the
4 teacher ' (who was the daughter of the door-keeper of
the tenements) to take certain objects and to present
them in a certain fashion to the child and then to leave the
child alone with them and not to interfere. Uneducated
as she was, she was able to do this exactly. A full-
fledged teacher would probably have been unable to do

253

THE ABSORBENT MIND

that. In the first place he might have thought it below
his intelligence and, even if he had done it, he would not
have done it so simply. He would have launched a
verbose attack of explanations on the class, whereas
anything beyond the necessary and sufficient causes
distraction and confusion. My uneducated 4 teacher *
did exactly what she was told and, to her surprise and
mine, the children worked and worked with these objects
with wonderful results. She was so surprised that she
thought there were angels or some spiritual agencies at
work. Then the children exploded into writing when
she had taught them nothing of writing and when visitors
came and asked the children : " Who taught you to
write ? ", they would say : " No one taught us to write ".
She would add in an awed manner : " No, I haven't
taught him to write ". She would come to me, half-
frightened, to say : " Madame, at 2 o'clock yesterday
the child started to write ! " She could not understand
how he could write at 2 o'clock, and perfect sentences
in beautiful handwriting too, when he had not written
anything in his life before, even up to 1 o'clock. We
had given them the cursive letters, then we thought
they might find reading easier if we gave them letters
of the print-type, but before we had them prepared,
the children were already reading books and did not
need them. Now, after forty-two years, we know
that these explosions occur and can understand why
they occur. These incidents, however, happend before

254

THE ABSORBENT MIND

we knew the reason of them. Now we know that
the child is endowed with an absorbent mind which
takes from the environment without fatigue, so that
culture, if properly prepared and presented, can be taken
as the mother tongue is taken, with the greatest ease.
The only thing necessary is to construct a material,
scientifically exact, which can be handled by the children.
Then a great many items of culture can be brought
down to the period of three to six years of age.

Experience has shown that the teacher must with-
draw more and more, therefore the task of those who
have to train these teachers is easy. Tell them : " Do
not do anything, but prepare for the children ; they will
work." It brings into actual fact a great truth : "Self-
renunciation can bring great truths." Our task is to teach
the teacher where he or she intervened needlessly. We call
this part of our work ' the method of non-intervention*.
The teacher must measure what is needed and limit her
work to that, like a good servant carefully prepares a
drink for his master and then leaves it for his master to
complete the work, i.e., drinking it. He does not force
his master to drink, that is not his business. His business
is only to prepare. So must the teacher act towards the
children. It might be good to send teachers to study
with a good servant so that they might learn to be
humble ; not to impose themselves on the child, but to be
vigilant and prepare all for the child and then put it at
his disposal and leave him.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

People who are in charge of children of this age
have to serve the psychic needs of the children. It is
not indispensable to know them scientifically. If we say
to a mother : " Carry the child of one year always with
you, so that he may see the world, and take him where
people talk so that he may hear his mother tongue *\
the mother can understand and the teacher can explain
it very easily. Also the teacher can tell the mother not
to carry a child when he is old enough to walk, not to be
afraid of letting him carry heavy things if he wants to do
so. All these things are easy to understand if the mind
is not encumbered with prejudices.

It is difficult perhaps to understand the psychological
reasons for all this, but the practical things themselves are
not difficult to tell or to understand, just as putting a
seed in the ground or looking after a plant does not
require the effort of studying vegetable biology in the
University. We must distinguish between the practice
of nature, and the science that man has built round that
practice. Practice is easy. All the marvellous results
always come from the expenditure of the spontaneous
energy of the child which is usually impeded in ordinary
schools.

Let us consider the illiteracy of the parents.
Illiteracy brings about other conditions of ignorance,
so that when the child comes home and shows how
he can wash his hands, the mother thinks : " How
clever he is ! " and the child is uplifted. Also when the

256

THE ABSORBENT MIND

child whose mother and father cannot write, writes his
first word, their adoring admiration again brings uplift to
the child, whereas the richer parents will probably say :
44 Oh ! ah ! yes !, but do they teach you art at school ? "
and the child is chilled and loses interest. Or if a child
dusts something the better-class mother kills the joy of the
little one, because she says it is sweeper's work and she
did not send her child to school to learn that. Or if it is
mathematics he learns, she is afraid he will get brain-
fever and wants to stop the work. So either the child
gets an inferiority-complex or a superiority-complex
and thinks it is not necessary for him to do certain things.
The real problems are with the literate, cultured parents
and if they are pedagogues themselves, so much the
worse, because then they think they know all about
education.

A Social Problem Solved

The conditions, therefore, which we think bad for an
experiment, are really good. Success will not limit itself
to the children, it will influence the parents. In my first
experimental 4 House of Children f when they had started
doing exercises of practical life and were interested in
the details of them, they would tell their mothers that
they must not have spots on their dress and must not
spill water. 4< You do it like this", so the mothers began
to care for their dress and appearance. This shows the
power the child has of transforming the environment. It

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

is the child probably who is the only force who will
lead illiterate persons to educate themselves. The
parents in my first ' House of Children * came to me to
learn how to read and write, because their children could
do it. In dealing with children of this age one handles
almost a magic wand in social life. First there is the
marvel of the transformation of the child himself, secondly
there is the touching marvel (it causes emotion) that the
child is able to do much more than one had expected,
and this rouses in the spirit of the adult a sort of
reverence for the spirit of childhood, hence it achieves a
transformation and an education of the adults.

If one envisages a social reform on a large scale and
plans according to the old method, one has to make a
plan covering many years (the Sargent Scheme covers 40
years). If one has to prepare teachers with all the pre-
judices of psychology all over the world, we can calculate
how long it will take to train them. These teachers begin
with children of seven who have passed the sensitive
stage and being faced with this dead-weight (the children
do not possess the enthusiasm natural to the little ones
for the same things) they force and force and the children
become more and more bored. The child who, before,
had at least a relative freedom, now finds himself under a
teacher who fusses and tells him to do this, that and the
other. It will take forty, eighty, a hundred years, two
centuries perhaps before the work is completed. If, on
the contrary, we consider these psychological facts which

258

THE ABSORBENT MIND

are easy to practise, then things are not so difficult,
because we tap and make use of natural energies which
always exist. It is necessary to understand the child at
different ages, certainly, but then practically all is done.
Such facts as the smaller child's better memory than the
older one's, for instance, when remembered, make
things quite simple.

We see that the child learns better than with the
old methods and that the whole of education is shifted
downwards, towards birth, from eight to four years.
Thus so many years are saved and as the absorbent
mind and the sensitive periods are functioning at this age,
which means that all things are taken with interest and
enthusiasm, the wish to continue is present and education
does not have to be imposed.

What about the teacher ? She will work long hours
with the children since the children do so, but in a very
different way. Once a teacher has become a good teacher
in this sense, she is happy. A newspaper-man in America
once visited his cousin, a Montessori teacher, and found
her lying on a deck-chair and thought she had vacation.
She told him to be quiet and not to disturb the children.
He could not see. or hear any children, but looking
through a window he found them all working quite
happily without any noise on the lawn. Children educated
in this way will always work, also without the teacher if
she is late or away. The possibility of a reform on a large
scale is much more rapid and easy to attain in this way.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

In my first experiment I used to give instructions ta
the teachers once a week and after ten months there was
the explosion into writing. Today our observations have
made it plain to us how these miracles happened, but
when they happened we did not know the reasons, so it is
not indispensable to know them. If we put a plant in the
earth, we must know how much soil and water it wants,
and then water it regularly. Then, one day, we shall
see the flower coming. We do not need to know the
anatomy of the flower or the acidity of the soil, etc.
We only have to wait in patience and look for the
flowers. So with the education of children, all that ia
necessary are adults, simple and of good will.

In all countries where children live in a simple r
natural way, in so-called backward countries, where
education seems to present the greatest problems, the
great miracles of our early experiments will easily be
lepeated and a great and urgent problem solved. Simple
teachers are perhaps better than others and all these
little children will lead the rest of the world. Those who
feel the appeal of this work must not be afraid of the
task : what must be kept in mind are not the difficulties
of the theories we have given, but the vision of the first
experiment before any of these theories were developed.

260

CHAPTER XVIII

FURTHER ELABORATION THROUGH
CULTURE AND IMAGINATION

THE period between three and six years is most interest-*
ing ; it follows the period of the spiritual embryo (0 to
3 years). The passage between these two periods is not
very marked. Usually only one period is considered, the
period from 6, but it is really divided into two parts.
The first part concerns the creation of the psychic life, and
the second part is a sort of period of perfectionment or
fixation. Certain faculties developed in the first period
are rendered secure. Also in the first period there is a
prevalence of the unconscious part, whereas in the second
period consciousness guides development. It is, therefore,
not only a period of fixation, but of greater perfection.
We no longer have the embryo, but man who is com-
pleting himself. The second period shows a special form
of activity, because consciousness falling upon the world
grasps the world and handles it, and in this handling the
conquests that were not clear before, become clear and
perfect. The child not only takes in the environment,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

but realizes himself. This is the period in which the
conscious individuality is established and this is done
spontaneously. It is still a period forming part of creation
and is still closed to outside influences such as an adult
mentality trying to impose or transmit something directly.
The child, therefore, cannot be educated in the ordinary
sense of the word by a teacher, but education must come
through the natural bases. The natural laws of develop-
ment compel the child of this age to experiment on the
environment by the use of his hands, both in cultural
and other matters. It is the passage from nothing to
life. Only recently this has become known, before then
the whole psychic life of the child was buried under the
indifference of humanity to him. Now it has made
itself suddenly known to those who did not know of it.

It was the explosion into writing that first caught
the attention of the public to the child's psychic life. It
is not an explosion of writing only, the writing was like
the smoke out of a pipe, the real explosion was of the
human self in the child. He might be compared to a
mountain which seems to be solid and eternally the same r
but contains a hidden fire. One day there is an explosion
and out comes the fire through the outer heaviness. It
is an explosion of fire, smoke and unknown substances,
from which those who can see, will be able to tell ua
what the earth contained. Our explosion was similar
and it happened because of circumstances which, as I ex-
plained in the previous chapter, were the least favourable

262

THE ABSORBENT MIND

(apparently) for such a revelation. These revelations
came also on bases which 'were * non-existent/ The
poverty and ignorance, the lack of proper teachers,
syllabus and rules were basic 4 nothings '. We found
nothingness, and because there was nothingness, the
soul was able to expand itself. The obstacles had been
removed, but no one knew (at that time) what the
obstacles were. It is well to understand this, because
in the child lies a great energy a latent cosmic energy.
It is important for us to know this, because if we know it
is there and wait for its flashing revelations, we are on the
road to success. It was not a method of education
which caused these explosions, because the method did
not exist when the explosions occurred. The following
up of psychology and the building up of the method
came as a result of these volcanic revelations of the
children. The explosion came as the result of a discovery
not of a method. The Press spoke of it from the first
as of a * discovery of the human soul.' From it sprang
the new science which followed step by step the revelation
of the children.

I will explain these phenomena a little. They are
facts, they should not be attributed to intuition, but to
perception. I have described what I saw. The facts
seen are the foundation of the new science ; these facts
can be found in my previous books.

Two groups of facts are important in these
revelations, one is that the mind of the child is

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

capable of acquiring culture at a period of life when
nobody would have thought it possible, but can only
take it by his own activity. Culture cannot be received
from another, but only through the work and increased
realization of oneself. Nowadays, when we are aware
of the powers of the absorbent mind during the period
from three to six years, we know this possibility to take in
culture at a very early age. The other important group
of facts deals with the development of the character.
Development of the character has pre-occupied education
at all times, but all educators have agreed that the age
from three to six years is not the age to influence
character in a systematic fashion. No one thinks of
real discipline for children so young ; only later can
discipline be imposed. Also it was thought that it was
the adult who had to influence the character of young
people and the problem of changing evil into good is
an eternal problem. We were wrong : this is the time
for developing character, but the child must develop his
own character according to the laws of growth. We
have already seen a great deal of how the mind is
formed, but it is interesting to dwell in some detail on
the contents and working of the mind at this period
and we shall deal with the formation of character in
another chapter.

The child is especially interested in and concentrates
on those things he has already in his mind, those that
were absorbed during the previous period, for whatever

264

THE ABSORBENT MIND

has been conquered has a tendency to remain and the
mind dwells on it. So, for instance, the explosion into
writing was due to the special sensitivity for, and
conquest of language. As the sensitivity ceases at
five and a half to six years, it was clear that writing
could be achieved with such joy and enthusiasm only
before this age, while older children of six or seven were
not capable of doing this and did not feel the same
enthusiasm. So our method came from the observa-
tion of the children, from the observation of facts.
It was seen that children had prepared the organs
necessary for writing previously, so indirect preparation
was adopted as an integral part of the method. Thus
certain bases of the method could be fixed. We had seen
that nature prepares indirectly in the embryo ; she does
not give orders until she knows that the individual has the
organs which enable him to obey. That is why the child
cannot do anything by mere imitation and obedience ;
it must be provided with the means to be obedient.
Both mind and character were helped by the observation
of these facts. Earlier it was thought that all that was
needed was good example by the adult and good will
from the child, but the adults lacked a wisdom that
nature possesses, i.e., that the means must be prepared
for the command to be obeyed, and this is not done
directly. To receive frequent and successive commands
does not create obedience ; obedience is attained in-
directly by inner preparation. Obedience to arbitrary

265

THE ABSORBENT MIND

commands of the adult cannot achieve development.
The child has in himself such a fountain of wisdom to
guide him, that it is evident that frequent and ill-founded
interference by the adult is not a help, but an obstacle to
his development. The necessity of a prepared and well
organized environment for the child and freedom for the
child to expand its soul within it stands out very
clearly now.

If, as we found, the child again takes up the con-
quests of the first period in order to elaborate them in the
second period, the first period can furnish us with a
guide for the second period which follows the same
method of development. Let us take language : in the
first period we have seen that the child follows a method
which is almost grammatical : he successively absorbs
and uses sounds, syllables, nouns, adjectives, adverbs,
conjunctions, verbs, prepositions, etc. We then know
that we should help the child in the second period by
following the same grammatical method. The first
teaching is that of grammar. It seems absurd to our
usual way of thinking, that teaching should begin with
grammar at three years of age, and that before he
knows how to read or write, he should learn grammar.
If we stop to think of it, however, what is the basis of
construction of a language if not grammar ? When we
(and the child) speak, we speak grammatically. If,
therefore, we give him grammatical help at four years of
age when he perfects his language in construction and

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

enlarges his vocabulary, we give a real help. By giving
him grammar, we allow him to absorb more perfectly the
language spoken around him. Experience has shown
us that these children were keenly interested in grammar
and that this was the right time to give it. In the first
period (0 to 3 years) the acquisition was almost un-
conscious ; now it has to be perfected consciously by
conscious exercise. Another thing we noticed was that
the child of this age acquires a large number of words ;
there was a special sensitivity and interest in words and
he spontaneously took in any number of new words.
Many experiments were carried out and it was seen that
all children considerably enriched their vocabulary at this
age. The words acquired were those used in the
environment of course, so a cultured environment gave
a child the opportunity to learn many words ; but in
any environment the instinct was to absorb the greatest
possible number of words ; the child had a hunger for
words. In a cultured environment he can take thousands
and thousands of words. To give many to him is a help
at this age. If unaided he takes them with effort and
without order ; the help will consist in reducing the effort
and giving order.

Another detail in the method was established as a
result of this observation, to give many words. The
uncultured * teachers * we had in our first experiment
noted this fact and they wrote words for the children^
They wrote as many as they knew, but presently they

267

THE ABSORBENT MIND

came to a halt and they came to me and said that they

had given all the words relating to dress, house, street,

names of trees, etc., but the children wanted more words !

So we thought, why not give to the children at this age

the words necessary for culture, e.g. all the names of the

geometrical figures they had been handling in the

sensorial apparatus, polygons, trapezium, trapezoid, etc.

The children took them all in one day ! So we went to

scientific instruments, thermometer, barometer, etc. Then

we gave them botanical names, sepals, petals, stamens,

pistil, etc. They were all taken in with enthusiasm.

41 Do you not have any more ? " they asked, and the

teachers complained that when they took them for a

walk, they knew the names of all the motor cars which

we, of course, do not know. The thirst for words is

insatiable and the power for taking them inexhaustible,

while in the period that follows this is not the case.

Other things develop then, but there is difficulty in later

periods to remember strange words. We found that

our children who had the opportunity of learning these

words early, recalled and remembered them easily when

they found them later in the ordinary schools, at 8 or 9

or even 12 or 14 years, while those children who then

met them for the first time found it difficult to remember

them. So the logical conclusion is to give scientific

names at this age, of 3 to 6 years. They are not given

mechanically of course, but in connection with specially

prepared apparatus, so that they are based on real

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

understanding and experience. To us foreign names
are long, complicated and difficult to remember, yet the
foreign child says his name with the utmost ease. In
Italian there are many strange names for foreigners, but
there is no difference for the Italian child between these
and other words like triangle. To help this remark-
able thirst for words in the children we give them the
words of the various classifications in all subjects,
botany, zoology, geography, etc., like the different parts
of a leaf, of a flower, of geographical features, etc. They
are all easily represented and apparent in the environ-
ment and therefore most suitable. They offer no difficulty.
The difficulty was with the teachers who did not know
these words and found it difficult to remember which
was which.

In Kodaikanal I once saw older children of 14 years
of age, who were studying in the ordinary school, puzzled
over the name of a part of the flower, a tiny child of
three years said : " pistil ", and ran off to play. The
child of this early age does not take words indifferently as
any ordinary easy thing ; it is as if a light is lit in the child
and he is profoundly interested. We showed to older
children of 7 or 8 years the classification of roots accord-
ing to the botany books and a small child came in and
asked of an older child what were the new charts on the
wall. He was told and later we found plants pulled out
of the garden, because the tiny ones were so interested
that they wanted to see which roots those plants had.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

When we saw their interest, we gave this knowledge to
them and then the parents complained that the children
pulled up the plants in their gardens, washed them and
said they wanted to see roots.

What is the limit of the words the children will learn ?
I do not know ! Does the mind of the child limit itself in
taking in objects and the facts about the things they can
see ? No ; the child has a type of mind that goes beyond
concrete limits. It has the power of imagining things.
This power of visualizing things that are not present to
the eye, reveals a higher type of mind. An object I can
see is an easy thing to know, but when I have to make
an image for myself (to imagine) it is more difficult. If
the mind of man were restricted only to the things he
could see, it would be very limited indeed. Man sees
without seeing ; culture is not made up of the knowledge
of things seen. Geography gives an example. If we
have never seen a lake or snow, we have to imagine
them, imagination has to be put into activity. Up to
what point can children imagine things ? We did not
know, so we began with some experiments starting with
children of 6 years. We saw that they did the opposite
of what we imagined. We had thought they would be
interested in big things, but they were interested in the
details. We took the globe ; they knew the world, they
had heard of it so much. * The world * is a phrase to
which no sensorial image corresponds, yet the child
forms an idea of what it is, which shows that he has a

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power of imaginative understanding, of abstraction. We
prepared special small globes. We covered the earth
with " star dust " and the oceans with deep and bright
blue. The children began to say : " This is land ",
" This is water ", " This is America ", " This is India ".
They loved the globe so much that it became a favourite
object in our classes. The mind of the child between
3 and 6 years fixes not only the functions of the intelli-
gence in relation with objects, but also those of imagi-
nation and intuition. This means that the intelligence
must have a great and vivid power at this age beyond
that of merely absorbing through the senses. It has a
higher power, that of imagination, which enables the
individual to ' see * things he cannot see. This may seem
an exaggeration in relation to children of this age, but if
we think about it, we realize it is not such an exaggera-
tion, since psychology has always said that this is a
period of imagination. Even the most ignorant people
tell their children fairy tales, and they love them im-
mensely, as if they were anxious to use this great power
of imagination. They call a table a house, a chair a
horse, etc. Everyone realizes that the child likes to
imagine, but he is given tales and toys as the only help.
If the child can realize a fairy and visualize fairyland, it
is not difficult for him to visualize America, etc. Instead
of only hearing vaguely about America, a globe with the
general shape of America is a concrete help to his imagi-
nation. Imagination is endeavouring to find the truth of

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things, a fact which is often forgotten. If in the child's
environment the word * America * or 4 World f had never
been mentioned by anyone, then it might be difficult for
him to show interest in it, but since he hears the word
so often, it enters his mind and he clothes it with imagi-
nation. The mind is not the passive entity one imagines,
the mind of man is a flame, an all-devouring flame, it is
never still, but always active.

When those children of six years had the globe and
were talking about it, a child of three and a half came in
and said : " Let me see ! Is this the world ? " " Yes '\
said the older ones, a little surprised, and the child of
three and a half said : " Now I understand, because I
have an uncle who has gone three times round the world.
How was it round ? How did he go > Now I under-
stand/* At the same time he realized this was only a
model for he knew the world was immense ; he had
taken it from the conversation round him.

We had a child of four and a half, who also asked
to see the older ones* globes and he looked steadily at
one. The bigger children were talking of America, taking
no notice of him. Presently the tiny one interrupted them :
41 Where is New-York ? " The older ones, surprised,
showed it to him. Then he said " Where is Holland ? **
Still more surprised, they showed it to him. Then,
touching the blue part, he said : " Then this is the sea/*
The older ones were interested, so the little one said r
44 My father goes to America twice a year ; he stays in

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

New-York. After he has started, Mother says, " Papa
is on the sea ". For many days she says it ; then she
says : " Papa is in New- York ". Then after a while she
says : " He is on the sea again " and then one day she
says : "He is in Holland, and we go to meet him at
Amsterdam ". He had heard so much about America,
that when the older children were talking about it, he
was very eager to know about it and felt : "I have
discovered America ". And what a rest it must have
been for him, for he had been trying to find an orientation
in the mental environment as he used to do in the
physical environment. In order to take the mental world
of his time, he has to take words from the adults and
cloak them with images. This is the fact.

Playing with toys and imagination through fairy
tales represent two needs of that special period of life :
the first, to place oneself in direct relation with the
environment, to master the environment, and by this a
great mental development is acquired by the child. The
other reveals the strength of the imagination, so much so
that he turns it on his toys. If we then give him real
things to imagine about, this is a help to him and places
him in more accurate relation with his environment too.

At this age children often want information. They
ask questions to know more of the truth of things. It is
well known that the child is curious, always asking
questions. If all these questions come together, it means
that the child is in need of knowledge. The questions of

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children are also interesting if one consider them not as
a nuisance, but as the expression of a mind seeking
information. Children of this age are not able to follow
long explanations, so we do not give him a long explana-
tion of the world, but a globe. Usually people give too
exhaustive explanations. A child asked his father once
why the leaves were green. The father thought how
intelligent his child was, so he gave a long explanation
of chloroplasm and chlorophyll and of the blue rays of
the sun, etc. Presently he heard the child mumbling and
listened ; the child said : " Oh, why did I ask Papa ? I
want to know why the leaves are green, not all this
about chlorophyll and the sun ! "

Play, imagination and questions are the three
characteristics of this age ; this is known by all and mis-
understood by all. Sometimes questions are difficult
like : " Mamma, where did I come from ? " but the child
has reasoned to come to this question. An intellectual
lady who guessed beforehand that her child would ask
this question one day, determined to tell him the truth
and when the child asked her the question at four years
of age, she said: " My child, I made you'*. The
answer was quick and short and the child was immedi-
ately quiet. After a year or so she told him : " I am
making another child now ", and when she went into
the Nursing Home, she said she would come back with
the child she had made. When she arrived back, she
said : " Here is your little brother ; I made him as I

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made you ". By this time the child was six years old,
so he said : " Why don't you tell me really how we
come into the world ? I'm big now ; why don't you
tell me truth ? When you told me last time you were
making a child, I watched you, and you did nothing/*
Even telling the truth is not as easy as it seems, so it
needs a special wisdom on the part of teachers and
parents to know how to help this imagination.

The teacher requires a special preparation, because
it is not our logic that solves problems. In no point on
which we have touched, does our logic help, we have to
know the child's development and to shed our pre-
conceived ideas. Great tact and delicacy is necessary
for the care of the mind of a child from three to six years,
and an adult can have very little of it. Fortunately the
child takes more from the environment than from the
teacher. We must know the psychology of the child
and serve him where we can.

275

CHAPTER XIX

CHARACTER AND ITS DEFECTS IN
YOUNG CHILDREN

THE education of character was one of the most important
items in old pedagogy ; it was one of its main aims.
At the same time no clear definition of what is character
was given, nor of the way to educate it. Old pedagogy
only said that mental education is not sufficient, prac-
tical education is not sufficient ; character is needed, but
it is an unknown quantity X . These old educationists
have some intuition of it, for what they really mean is
the realization of the value of man, but when you go to
these values, there also they are not clear. Like many
other things in education, it is vague. Value is given to
certain things, such as the virtues : courage, constancy,
certainty of what one ought to do, moral relations with
one's neighbours. In the question of character moral
education plays a part.

All over the world we find the same vague ideas.
It seems to me that this question must be looked at from
a different point of view, and instead of speaking about

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the education of the character we ought to speak of the
construction of the character, the development of the
character in and through the effort of the individual. A
demonstration of this active creation of the character, not
its education from outside, was shown by the children in
my first school. Let me illustrate some points of this
construction, which give a new idea to education.

From the point of view of life, we could consider
everything about character as behaviour in man. As I
have mentioned before, the life of the individual from
18 years can be divided into three periods : 6 years
(with which we deal in this book), 6 12 years and the
last period form 12 18 years ; each again divided into
two sub-phases. In considering each of these groups,
the type of mentality which each represents is so different
that they might appear to belong to different people.

As we have seen, the first period is a period of
creation ; it is here that the roots of character are to
be found, although when the child is born he has no
character. The period from 6 years is therefore the
most important part of life regarding character too, since
here it is formed. Everyone has recognized that at this
age the child cannot be influenced by outside example
and pressure, so it must be nature herself that lays the
foundation of the character. The child at this age has
no understanding of or interest in what is good or bad ; he
lives outside our moral vision of life. This is recognized,
because we do not call the child of this age evil or bad*

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but naughty, indicating that this behaviour is infantile.
We shall, therefore, not speak of evil and good or of
morality in this book because those terms have a different
meaning at this age. I mention this, because people ask
all kinds of questions as to the use of the good example
of forefathers, of patriotism, etc. They are important, but
they do not concern this age ; in the second period
(6 1 2 years) lies the beginning in the child's consciousness
of the problem of good and evil, not only in his own
actions, but in, and among, other people too. The question
of good and evil comes into the light of consciousness as
a special characteristic of this age : the moral conscience
begins to form itself ; later it leads to social conscience.
In the third period (12 18 years) comes the feeling of
patriotism, of belonging to a group and of the honour of
the group. I mention this now to make clear that it does
not belong to the age of 6 years.

I mentioned above that, although the character of
each period is so different that it seems to belong to
different people, yet each period lays the foundation for
the next period. In order to develop normally in the
second period, one must have lived well in the first
period. It is like the caterpillar and the butterfly which
are so different to look at and so different in their habits ;
yet the fineness of the butterfly is attained by the true life
of the caterpillar it was before, and not by imitating the
example of another butterfly. In order to construct the
future one must attend to the present. The more fully one

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period is lived as regards its needs, the more successful
the next period will be.

Life begins at the conception of the individual If
conception is brought about by two pure beings, not by
alcoholics or drug-addicts, etc., then the resulting indi-
vidual will be free from certain hereditary taxations on
life. The right development of the embryo depends on
the conception. For the rest the child can be influenced,
but only by the environment, i.e. during gestation, by the
mother. If the environment is favourable, the result is a
strong healthy being. A fact worth considering is that
this conception and gestation have an influence on the
nervous system of the child (that is the reason why, if
a shock or accident happens, he may become an idiot),
so what happens after birth is due largely to the period
of gestation. The first important thing in life is therefore
conception, then gestation, then birth. We have
mentioned the shock at birth and that this might give
rise to regressions ; these characteristics of regression are
serious, but not so serious as alcoholism or hereditary
illness (as epilepsy, etc.). This shows us that, as we go
on, the danger of the obstacles grows less and less, but
the characteristics are always of a psychic kind. They
influence the individual either in the direction of regres-
sion or in that of independence.

After birth come the three important years which we
have already studied. During these two or three years,
there are influences that can alter the child and alter

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his character in after-life, e.g. if the child has had
some shock or met too great obstacles during this time,
phobias may develop or we may have a timid or melan-
cholic child. The character, therefore, develops in relation
to obstacles or freedom from obstacles during this period.
If during conception, gestation, birth and this period
the child has been treated scientifically, then at the age
of three years the child should be a model individual.
This ideal of perfection is never fully attained as, amongst
other reasons, during these developments the child has met
with many accidents. At three years we meet with one
or fifty or a million children with different characteristics.
We have so many different results of different experiences
and these different characteristics are of different import-
ance according to the seriousness of the experience. If
the characteristics are due to difficulties after birth, they
are less serious than those of the period of gestation, and
these in their turn are less serious than those of concep-
tion. If they are due to the post-natal age, they can be
cured between 3 and 6 years, because then perfection-
ment is attained and defects are adjusted. If, however, the
defects are due to shock at birth or earlier, then they are
very difficult to correct. So there are certain imperfec-
tions that may appear, but there is an active period of
perfectionment and the erasure of certain defects
of post-natal life is possible, but idiocy, epilepsy,
paralysis, etc., which may even be hereditary cannot be
cured by any help we can give. It is interesting to know

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

that all but these organic difficulties can be cured, but
if these defects, developed from 3 years, are not
corrected now by treatment at the age of 3 6 years,
they will not only remain, but will be increased by the
wrong treatment during the period from 3 6 years.
Then, by the age of 6 years, there may be a child with
the defects of the period from 3 years strengthened,
and with the newly acquired difficulties of the sub-phase
from 3 6 as well. These in their turn will have an
influence over the second period and the development
of the conscience of good and evil.

All these defects have a reflection on the mental
life and on intelligence. Children are less able to learn
if they have not met with good conditions of develop-
ment in the previous period. A child of six years of
age, therefore, is an accumulation of characteristics that
may not be really his, but are acquired under the influence
of circumstances. If a child has been neglected from
3 to 6 years, he may not have the moral conscience that
develops from 7 to 1 2 years or he may not have the
normal intelligence. We then have a child with no
moral character and no ability to learn, more troubles
are added, and he is a man with scars due to the
difficulties he has gone through.

In our schools (and in many other modern schools)
we keep a record of the biological details of each child
in order to see how to treat the child. If we know the
troubles of the different periods, we can orient ourselves

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

as to how serious they are and how to treat them. We
therefore ask the parents if there is hereditary illness,
we enquire after the age of the parents at the birth of the
child, make tactful enquiries as to the mother's life during
the period of gestation, whether she had falls, etc. Then,
if the birth has been a normal one, whether the baby was
well or suffered from asphyxia. There are the questions
regarding the home life of the child, if parents have been
severe or if the child has had shocks. If we have
problem-children or naughtly children, we try to find a
reason for it in the life the child has led previously to that
time. When they come to us at three years, almost all
of them show strange characteristics, but they are
curable. We can briefly consider the familiar types
of these deviations.

All these manifestations which are faulty and not
normal, enter the field of what is usually called character.
All children are different and the general idea is that
each child must have a different treatment to cure his
defects, but we distinguish two main groups of faulty
characteristics, one belongs to the strong children who
fight and overcome obstacles and the other group to the
weaker ones who succumb to adverse conditions.

Defects of the Strong Children

Violent tantrums, anger, acts of rebellion and aggres-
sion. One of the most common features is disobedience
and another is destructiveness. Then there is the desire

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

for possessions ; so we have selfishness and envy (the
latter not manifesting itself passively, but by trying to
have what other children have). Inconstancy (very
common in children) ; incapability of attention ; inability
to co-ordinate the movements of the hands so that they
drop and break things ; a disorderly mind and strong
imagination. Also they frequently shout, shriek and make
loud noises ; they interrupt and they tease and torment
and often are cruel to the weak and to animals. Fre-
quently too they are gluttons. These are a few of their
troubles.

Defects of the Weak Children

These are of a passive type and have negative
defects such as sloth, inertia, crying for things and wanting
people to do things for them ; they want to be amused,
are easily bored. They have a fear of everything and
cling to adults. Then too they have the fault of lying (a
passive form of defence) and of stealing (a passive form
of grabbing other's possessions,) and many more.

There are certain physical characteristics which are
concomitant with these difficulties ; i.e., these physical
defects have a psychic origin, but are confused with real
physical illnesses. One of these is the refusal of food
and loss of appetite ; the contrary defect is indigestion
due to gluttony ; both are of a psychic origin. Then
there are nightmares, fear of the dark, agitated sleep
which in their turn affect the physical health and then

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

anaemia results. Certain forms of anaemia and liver
trouble are due to psychic facts. There are neuroses too.
All these have a psychic origin, as is shown because no
medicine can cure them.

All these characteristics enter into what is called
moral problems and behaviour. Many of these children
(especially the strong type) are not felt as a blessing in
the family, the parents try to get rid of them and hand
them over to nurses or schools and they become orphans
with their parents living. They are ill with a healthy
body. This leads to the depression of life called naughti-
ness. They are problems and their parents want to know
what to do with them. Some ask questions, some try to
solve their own problems. Some adopt severity con-
vinced that if you stop them at once, they will be cured,
these defects checked as soon as they appear will not
develop, they think. All means are used : slapping,
scolding, sending them to bed without food, but it is
found that they become more ferocious and bad, or
develop the passive equivalent of the same defect. Then
the persuasive line is tried, we will reason with them
and their affection is exploited : " Why do you hurt
Mummie," or one washes one's hands of the whole thing,
and leaves them alone. Discussions start : " My sister's
children do what they like and see what they are ! "
" What about your children > " " Oh, I tell their father,
who beats them ". " And are they good ? " " Oh, no,
they are just like their father ! "

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

Then there are the people who leave their children
alone. These children usually belong to the passive
type, they do nothing, and the mother thinks her boy
good and obedient, and when he clings to her, she says
how much he loves her ; he loves her so much that he
will not go to sleep without her. But somehow she finds
he is slow and retarded in speech and he is too weak to
walk. " He is healthy, but he is so sensitive, he is afraid
of everything ! He doesn't want to eat either ; he is a
spiritual child because I have to tell him stories to make
him eat, he must be a saint or a poet ! " Finally she
thinks he is ill and the doctor is called to give medi-
cine. These psychic illnesses make a fortune for the
child's doctor.

All these problems can be understood and solved
if we know of the cycles of activity necessary for
the construction of the personality ; if we realize
the children's need to hear men and see the actions of
men and carry out their own experiences. We know
that all these troubles are due to faulty treatment in the
earlier period ; they have been startled mentally, their
mind is empty because they had no means of constructing
it. This starved mind (of which psychology takes much
notice now) is the main cause of these defects and
another cause is the lack of spontaneous activity guided
by the constructive impulses of the child which we have
studied. Hardly any children have been able to find
the conditions necessary for full development. They

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

have been isolated from people, made to sleep all the
time ; the adults have done everything for them ; they
have not been able to complete cycles of activity without
interruption. They have not been able to observe
objects, because when they handled them, they were
taken away ; seeing them only and unable to handle
them, made them want to possess them, so when they
did get hold of a flower or an insect they pulled them
apart, not knowing what to do with them. And the
passive child has developed inertia instead.

Fear also is traceable to the early period. If, when
the little child fell down all the stairs, the adults had all
rushed to help him and made a fuss (as they usually do)
he would have felt fear instead of laughing. Our actions
are often the cause of fear in children.

One of the facts that made our schools remarkable
was the disappearance of these defects. It was due to
one thing : the children could carry out their experiences
on the environment, and these exercises were nourish-
ment to the mind ; that is why all these common defects
disappeared. Round the interest in their activity they
repeated exercises and passed from one period of con-
centration to another. When the child has reached this
stage and is able to concentrate and work round an
interest, defects disappear ; the disorderly become
orderly, the passive active and the disturber becomes
a helper. This is a marvellous fact and the disappear-
ance of these defects made us understand that they were

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acquired, not real characteristics. Children were not
different in that one told lies and another was disobedient.
All the troubles came from the same cause : the children
had lacked the necessary means for psychic life.

So what advice can one give to mothers ? To tell
them to give their children work and interesting occupa-
tions ; not to help them unnecessarily, and not to
interrupt them if they have started any intelligent action.
Sweetness, severity, medicine do not help at all.
Children are suffering from mental starvation. If anyone
is suffering from physical starvation, we do not call him
stupid or hit him or sentimentalize over him ; that
would do no good ; what he needs is to eat. So it is
with this question too ; neither harshness nor sweetness
will solve the problem. Man is by nature an intellectual
creature and he needs mental food almost more than
physical food. Unlike animals, he must construct his
own behaviour and life is life for this need. So if he is
on the road where he can construct the behaviour for
which life has been given to him, all will be well.
Physical illness disappears, nightmares disappear, digestion
is normal without gluttony. He becomes normal, because
the psyche is normal.

This is not a question of moral education, but
regards the development of character. Lack of character,
faulty character disappear without the need of preaching
or of an example by the adult. Neither threats nor
promises are necessary, but just conditions of life.

287

CHAPTER XX

A SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE CHILD :
NORMALIZATION

ALL the characteristics we described in the last chapter
when tracing the behaviour of the strong and weak
children, are not considered evil by general opinion ;
some are considered good traits. Those children who
showed a passive character and were attached to their
mother are considered good. Other traits still are con-
sidered as signs of superiority ; children who are always
bustling about, are extremely healthy and have vivid
imaginations are all considered superior. They usually
pass from one thing to another, but the parents think
they are bright children.

So we might say the world considers three types of
children :

1 . Those whose traits need to be corrected ;

2. Those who are good (passive) and serve as
models ;

3. Those who are considered superior.

The two latter types are considered desirable and
the parents are proud of such children ; even when (as

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

with the last type) they feel a certain discomfort when
they are near, they still speak proudly of them.

I have insisted on this point and drawn attention to
this classification, as these features have been noticed
during the centuries, and no other characteristics have
been noticed but these. Yet what I have seen in my
first school, and in others, is that all these characteristics
disappeared at once, as soon as a child became interested
in work that attracted his attention. So-called bad traits,
the so-called good and the so-called superior, all disap-
peared and only one type of child appeared with none
of the traits I have described. This means that the world
hitherto has not been able to measure good or bad or
superior ; what we considered so, was not really so. It
reminds me of a mystical saying : " Nothing is right
except you, O Lord ; all the rest is erroneous." The
children of our schools revealed that the real aim of all
children was constancy at work, and this had never been
seen before. Neither had spontaneity in the choice of
work, without the guide of a teacher, ever been seen
before. The children, following some inner guide, occu-
pied themselves in work (different for each) that gave
them calm serenity and joy, and then something else
appeared that had never yet appeared in a group of
children : a spontaneous discipline. This struck people
even more than the explosion into writing. This disci-
pline in freedom seemed to solve a problem which had
been insoluble. The solution was : to obtain discipline,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

give freedom. These children going about seeking for
work in freedom, each concentrated in a different type
of work, yet as a whole group presented the appearance
of perfect discipline. We shall return to this question of
the real nature of the children that finally obtained, but
meanwhile we will describe the change which took place
in the children.

All children, if placed in an environment allowing
ordered activity, show this new appearance, so there
is one psychic type common to all humanity, which
hitherto had remained hidden under the cloak of other
apparent characteristics. This change that came over
our children and made them appear as of one uniform
type, did not come gradually, but suddenly. It always
came when the child was concentrated in one activity ;
so that if there was a lazy child, we did not urge him to
work. We merely facilitated contact with the means of
development in the prepared environment. As soon as
he found work all his trouble disappeared at once. It is
not reasoning with the children that will do good ; it is
something within themselves that sets to work.

The human individual (especially in the period of
construction) is a unity and constructs a unity, when the
hand is working and the mind is guiding it. I recognized
that when the mind and hand are not united, there is no
unity in the individuality and it is then that these super-
ficial traits of ' badness *, 4 goodness ' and 4 superiority f
appear. This conclusion is the result of my observations

290

FIG. 13

Normal and deviated features of the child's character

THE ABSORBENT MIND

of children, it certainly is no a priori idea of mine. This
is the new point which came to light and which is per-
haps most difficult to understand, probably because we
live in a world of virtues and defects (which are rewarded
or punished) and among children who have always shown
the traits outlined above, because they had no opportunity
to express anything else. It is not necessary to have an
adult as a guide and mentor to conduct, but it is essential
to give the child opportunities of work which have been
denied to him heretofore.

The passage from the superficial to the normal traits
is always through a function, through intelligent activity of
hand and mind together. In figure 1 3 on one side we
see all the different characteristics of children as we
usually know them, represented by lines raying out.
They are innumerable. The middle thick perpendicular
line symbolizes concentration on one point ; it is the line
of normality. When the children are able to concentrate,
then all the lines on the right of this middle line disappear
and only one type is seen revealing characteristics re-
presented by the lines on the left. The loss of all the
superficial characteristics is not achieved by an adult,
but by the child passing along the main line of function-
ing with his whole personality ; then normality is achieved.

I shall now give some examples of what appeared
in some schools after the first school which had such
unusual conditions. People came from all parts of the
world to take my Courses and then went back to their

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

own countries and started schools there. Most of these
schools were for rich children, who have more defects,,
because they have much less chance of normal function-
ing, having so many servants. The first letters I
received from these students were letters of dismay ;
records of tremendous disorder, and they described in
detail all the usual defects, e.g.

1 . One child used material as if it were a train or an

aeroplane, etc. he joked and talked loudly and
molested other children (the old superior type).

2. Another child was snobbish and superior to-

wards the apparatus and was lazy.

3. A little one was attached to his brother, took

exactly what his brother took, and when his
brother got up, he got up too, etc.

4. Other children were almost pathological cases,

e.g. afraid to touch water, etc., and one about
3^ did not speak at all.

A collection of children like these, all together, made
a confusion for the teacher too. One said that they
threw the material on the ground and danced on it. The
teachers who expected little angels to drop down from
heaven were therefore bitterly disappointed.

After some months the tone of the letters began to
change. The transformation which we call 'normali-
zation ' had occurred. Teachers who had no connection
with each other (some were in New Zealand, others in
Rome, in France, in America, or in England) all wrote

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

the same thing : " such and such a child has found some
work and he has changed himself/' The child who
followed his brother everywhere, one day took the pink
tower by himself and his attention became fixed on it.
When his elder brother went into another room, the little
one did not follow him, so that the big brother had such a
shock that he said in an almost offended tone : " What is
this ? You are doing the pink tower when I am drawing
in the other room ? " The little one had found his own
value and no longer needed the moral support of his
brother. Another child would not come to school or
stay in school without his mother ; she would put herself
in a corner and say she would stay and if she tried to
slip away, the child would immediately cry. One day
the child became interested in washing a table ; the
mother thought this was a good opportunity to slip away,
but she hesitated to do so without some intimation to
the child lest he should scream later when he found her
not there. She, therefore, said to him, " I am going ". The
little one said, " All right, goodbye Mummie ", and never
needed her any more either to stay in school or to accom-
pany him to school The children who had been attached
to their mother and brother, had not had freedom for
independence, so they were unable to do anything alone.
Someone always had to function for them. As soon as
both became interested in work and the mind guided the
hand, they found their own independence and functioned
for themselves.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

The romping child who used the material as trains
and aeroplanes became interested in the geometrical
insets ; he went round the shapes and the frames and
fitted them in with his eyes shut. At once his wild fancies
disappeared. Instead of saying : "This is an engine " f
44 This is an aeroplane/' etc., he said: "This is a
trapezium ", " This is an octagon," etc. He was attached
to reality now, not to fantasy ; and his hands which had
previously dropped everything, now became very de-
finite, precise and careful in their work. He became
calm and serious with all the material. If one examines
these things, one might say that this little fellow, living
in a world of fantasy, had had nothing of real value to
occupy his attention, so he occupied himself with what
he found around him ; neither had his hands had any
opportunity to hold anything for any real purpose. When
the mind, which had been running about in fantasy apart
from the hands which had nothing to do, became a guide
for the hands which were doing something real, there
suddenly came a united individuality and the real work
in its turn was now nourishing the mind.

The child who had a fear of water, especially of
pouring water (and had probably been scolded with some
violence for playing with water) became interested in
the baric sense tablets at last. She was very happy ; and
when she had finished that, she did some other work-
Then she suddenly realized that she was no longer afraid
of pouring water ; and she was so happy that seeing

294

THE ABSORBENT MIND

some children using water colours, she immediately went
to fill all their little jars with fresh water and took that
task as a special one for herself.

One child had a trait of not sitting down, even
though tired. We tried to find out what had happened
earlier in her life to account for this peculiarity. The
mother said she had never scolded her for sitting down
at any time, and then the father remembered an incident
which happened when the child was about one and a
half years of age. She had a new dress and she went
to sit on a newly painted stool, and the mother said
suddenly : "Be careful ! don't sit on that ! there now
you have made a mess ! " This was the cause of the
fear of sitting, and the question was how to cure her.
I said : " Take no notice of her ; let her find her own
interest ". After a time she became interested in some
work and repeated the activity full of interest. Wanting
to continue she " unconsciously " drew a chair to herself
and sat down. From that moment she lost her fear of
sitting down. The child of 3 years who did not talk, was
examined by a doctor ; there was nothing organically
wrong which would prevent her from talking. She was
given electric treatment, but that did not help. She spent
some time in school wandering about, doing nothing and
saying nothing of course. At last she became interested
in some work and we could see her face light up. When
she had finished, she ran to the teacher and said : " Come
and see what I have done ! ", her first words.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

Also digestive trouble, nightmares and other things
disappeared and at home too the children became calmer.
One child always afraid of the dark, became interested
in work at school, and one evening at home, when her
mother needed something from a dark outhouse, she
said : "Til go and fetch it Mummie ". She was no
longer afraid of the dark.

So too the over-obedient, passive children changed,
the passivity and the over-obedience disappeared through
concentrated spontaneous activity.

We must repeat that this was not a sporadic pheno-
menon. It happened in our schools all over the world,
so we realized that this type of calm, serene, unafraid
child was the real, normal child and showed the real
behaviour and character of childhood. It was only after-
wards that I fully understood what this actually meant,
viz., that the child must construct himself, as we have
been expounding in this and our other books. If
the conditions do not allow this, normality disap-
pears, but once the conditions for building the psyche
are there, the normal type appears. We therefore
called the type that developed in our schools 4 normal-
ized' children and the others deviated children. One oi
the greatest and most interesting factors was the extra-
ordinary discipline of normalized children, each occupiec
in the work of his choice. The newspapers said : " II
is marvellous if it is true, but it is incredible ". Everyone
who visited these schools tried to find out what tricl

29(

THE ABSORBENT MIND

I used, they were sure it must be a trick. Some said it
was my personal hypnotism that produced the result, but
I said : " This happened in New York ; and I was in
Rome ff . Others thought that the children had been pre-
pared before by the teacher or that she used her eyes in
some way to express approval or disapproval, but who
would have gone through all this trouble to prove some-
thing that had not been seen before ?

A public occasion which also demonstrated the
genuineness of these phenomena was at the World Fair
in San Francisco, at the time of the opening of the
Panama Canal. Among the educational exhibits had
been built a small Montessori classroom with glass walls
so that the public could watch from outside without
disturbing the children at work. Helen Parkhurst, the
later orginator of the * Dalton Plan ', was then the
teacher. The door was locked at night and the key
left with a caretaker. One day the caretaker had an
accident and did not turn up, so the people were outside
waiting and also the children with their teacher. The
teacher said : " We can't get in today to work ", but one
child saw an open window and said : 4< Lift us up and
we can get through the window and work ". The window
was of a size proportionate to the children, so the
teacher said : " That is all right for you, but I cannot get
in ". The children answered, " Never mind ; you don't
work anyhow ; you can sit outside and watch us with
the other people ". It is not a theoretical principle that

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

1 am advocating, they are facts which were witnessed by
the whole world.

At one time there was an earthquake in Italy which
destroyed the city of Messina ; after the earthquake
many children were found who had lost their parents,
and were suffering from terrible shock and obviously had
to be helped by the State. They were collected to-
gether in an orphanage and sixty of them, who were the
most depressed and of a suitable age, were chosen to try
and give them some special consolation by using this
new method. They were of course most difficult to treat
and so a special environment was made for them to help
their independence. It was very beautiful and bright
with many exercises of practical life. In a few months
they were so happy that they skipped about as they laid
tables in the garden for lunch. People outside wondered
what had happened. What had really happened was this :
into the exercises of practical life many complications
had been incorporated which were given with great
exactness of detail. Among the people helping them were
aristocrats who taught them many refined details of social
manners that were not known outside aristocratic circles,
and these details and the precision they demanded caught
the children's interest and they began to have a new
life. People outside said that these children were both
perfect gentlemen and ladies, and perfect servants. It
is the number and exactness of details that call forth
the attention ; on a gross action the mind does not dwell,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

on exactness of detail the mind must dwell. One
American authoress, Dorothy Canfield- Fisher, came to see
these children and as a result she wrote The Montessori
Mother, a book which is still in print. In the case of
these children it was a depression of life that was cured ;
life had gone to its lowest extremity through the shock the
children had received, and now it came bubbling up again.

From all this we must conclude that the first psychic
need of the child is to live according to his own psychic
laws. Activity brings him to the normal behaviour of
man, because it is not merely ordinary activity as with
an adult, it is a need of life. The child must develop,
functioning individually, going towards independence,
the mind linked with the hand. If the natural laws are
not obeyed, innumerable difficulties arise ; if natural laws
are obeyed the difficulties disappear. If therefore work-
ing with the hands according to free choice in a prepared
environment expands the activities of the first period
and perfects them, it is possible between the ages of
three and six years to overcome all difficulties. The
facts are simple, but they are the facts of life, witnessed
all over the world in the last forty years. On the basis
of these facts new characteristics have been revealed,
and a new organization of schools has commenced ;
schools where the children are active and the teacher is
mostly passive, acting indirectly through the environment.

This transformation of character does not take place
in all children. Certain organic forms of defects and

299

THE ABSORBENT MIND

illnesses which originated in the pre-natal state, we
cannot help or cure. The small angle represented at
the left of our diagram represents these. They are the
congenital, mental and moral defectives who will grow
up to be the idiots and criminals of our society. They
are relatively a very small proportion of humanity, but
this proportion of the criminals, the idiots and the mad
is increased by the numbers of those who could have
been helped before they were six years old, but were
not helped. So we begin to understand a little of the
problems of society. In the United States of America,
for instance, statistics give us the figure of 1 00,000 as the
number of new admissions to the mental asylums every
year ; and since every one of these has been crazy for
ten years at least, one can realize how many crazy and
mad people there must be in the United States, and
how many are still at large. This is not natural, most
of these could have been helped, but only before the age
of six years. Jails also are full and special jails are built
for youths, another tragedy.

The small angle to the right of the diagram also
represents those whom we do not help ; they are the
saints and geniuses of society who do not need us.
Normalization is for the great mass of men, not for the
very few exceptions on either side, those who do not
need it because they are great personalities as saints and
geniuses, and those who cannot be helped because their
defects are pre-natal in origin, the criminals and the mad.

300

THE ABSORBENT MIND

We have hopes that through understanding many can
be helped and that the number of the insane and criminal
can be much reduced, but the schools and social life
must alter for they are responsible for much of the trouble.
Hence, this first institution of mine is important, and we
owe a great debt of gratitude to these first children for,
without their example, we could not have known all this.
The child is the great citizen who has shown the
way of bettering society, the simplicity and uniqueness
of the way are all the contributions of the child. It is
only through work that re-organization can be achieved,
but work that gives joy, not work imposed against the
laws of life.

301

CHAPTER XXI

CHARACTER-BUILDING A CONQUEST,
NOT A DEFENCE

IN the previous chapter we mentioned that the defects
that arose after birth were lost by children if they
had the proper environment before the age of 6
years. The disappearance of these defects was not
due to the general practice of attacking them one
by one ; they all disappeared suddenly in the same
fashion when the children's interest was centred on one
activity. Then began a series of phenomena which was
constant. All normalized children acted in a uniform
manner, i.e. they continued to work concentrated on some-
thing, serene and tranquil. This, at the time, was
surprising, because it had never before been seen in small
children. They also showed a special characteristic not
seen in adults and not before seen in children : they
worked with the maximum effort, and continued their
activity till the task tOas completely finished and with exacti-
tude. This accomplishment of a task with exactitude is
uncommon even in adults ; the children do this to the
extreme limit, for, having perfectly completed their work

302

THE ABSORBENT MIND

once, they repeat it many times often carrying these
repetitions to what seems to us absurdity. They will
polish a brass vessel ten times over or repeat forty times
and even two hundred times the exercise with the cylind-
ers. Obviously children do not work with an outer
aim ; it is evident that they have another aim which is
not external, but dictated by nature. These repeated and
concentrated activities always share one feature ; the
mind and the hand are engaged in it together. We must
envisage this and try to understand it. These children are
building the character of man, they are elaborating the
inner qualities which we admire in a man of character :
the ability to decide rapidly, constancy in work. These
qualities have not been developed in response to preach-
ing or to our examples. We must study character
from a positive point of view : character is only acquired
through long and gradual exercise which lasts for years.
This is achieved in the period from 3 to 6 years and this
creation and elaboration of qualities of character are
carried out along the lines that nature established for the
formation of the human personality. As between and
3 years of age certain acquisitions are elaborated (e.g.
language) so here the creation and elaboration of charac-
ter is achieved following natural guides. All the acquisi-
tions from to 3 years were made through the absorbent
mind so that the child, merely by living among others,
absorbed the language, etc., but from three to six years,
he must construct and he constructs his character in an

303

THE ABSORBENT MIND

active fashion. The construction of character is accom-
panied by work so that at six years of age the construction
of mental qualities and character has been fundamentally
accomplished. If we take this into consideration it be-
comes clear, not only that we cannot teach the virtues of
character, but that we must not disturb the normalized
child of three to six years when he is building his
character. If we intervene unnecessarily we interrupt
this construction. The work of education for children of
this age is therefore not to preach to them ; there is only
one way of helping this spontaneous development of
character and that is to prepare the environment for their
development and then to respect their intelligent activities
and leave them alone. It is useless to put examples in
front of these children. For one thing, they may do better
than the example already ; and in any case it is useless
to preach to them, it is like talking to the wind. Even
ordinary parents understand something of this, that is why
they smack them because they know that it is useless to
talk to them.

The revelations of our children pointed the way to
us to place this part of education on a scientific basis.
At a later age it is possible to approach the mind of the
child directly and we can intervene with preaching and
exhortations. After six years only one can become a
missionary of morality to the child ; between the ages of
six and twelve years the conscience is awakened and the
child sees the problems of what is right and what is

304

THE ABSORBENT MIND

wrong. Still more success is attainable between twelve
and eighteen years when the child begins to feel ideals
like patriotism and the social aspect of religion, etc. Then
we can become missionaries to them and also to adults.
The moralizing activity of preaching is always carried out
among adults, so there is plenty of time for our mis-
sionary efforts. The only trouble then is that after six
years of age they cannot spontaneously develop qualities
of character, and the missionaries, imperfect themselves,
have difficulties, because they are trying to act on
smoke not on fire. Educationists lament that they can
teach science, literature, etc., but that these young people
have no character, and when character is lacking, the
propelling force of life is lacking. It is only in those who,
through storms and mistakes of the environment, have
nevertheless been able to rescue some or all of these
characteristics, that there is character. The fault lies
in the fact that we did not give them the opportunity of
constructing their own character through the normal
activities natural to them and undisturbed by us, before
they were six years old. Now we cannot make these
young people concentrated if they lack the power of
concentration. If we tell them to be constant in their
work and attend to it exactly, how can they do it if they
lack the power ? It is as though someone said " Walk
straight " and we had no legs to do it. TTiese abilities can
only he acquired by exercise and not by command. I
cannot play on the piano or the veena even if commanded

305

20

THE ABSORBENT MIND

and willing to do so, because I do not have the ability ;
the chance has been lost. Many things lost to the child
during the creative period cannot be created again.
What can we do then ? Society generally says : " Be
patient with youth ; we can only persist in our good
intentions and examples " ; and we think with patience
and time we shall achieve something. We achieve
nothing ; with the passage of time we become older, but
we create nothing. Nothing can be achieved only with
time and patience ; if you do not use the opportunities
of the creative period when they are there, you can wait
for eternity with the patience of Job.

Another point becomes clear if we look at human-
ity, which is really an undeveloped mass of confused
minds. Everybody repeats : " All are different from
each other ", but these different individuals can be
grouped in different categories. If we could become
mental eagles and look at them from above we should
see these categories. It seems that, as with children,
these adults differ in defects, but have something deep
and profound, common to all of them, but remaining
hidden. In all men there is a tendency, though some-
times vague and subconscious, to better themselves, a
trend towards spirituality. Indeed these actions on the
defects of character, have later on the quality of stimu-
lating improvement. Both individuals and society have
this in common : continued progress. This is a fact both
externally and internally speaking and means that there

306

THE ABSORBENT MIND

is a little lamp in the subconscious of humanity which
leads it to betterment. In other words the behaviour of
man is not fixed as in other animals, but can progress,
so it is natural that man has this urge to progress.

In figure 14 we see in the centre a red circle, the
centre of perfection, around it is an aura of blue which
represents the category of humanity of the stronger
normal type. The white space round that represents the
great mass of people not-well-developed in various
degrees. On the periphery is a small brown circle
between two black lines which represents those outside
the circle of normal humanity, the very few extra-social
or anti-social people (the extra-social being the imbecile
and insane and the anti-social, the criminals). The
criminals and the insane have not been able to adapt
themselves to society ; all the others have been able to
adapt themselves to a greater or smaller degree. The
problems of education, therefore, are all with people who
have been able to adapt themselves to some extent.

That adaptation to the environment is the work of
the child under six years, so here is the origin of human
character. What a tremendous problem it is, finding or
not finding easy adaptation ! There are the people who
have more or less perfectly adapted themselves, they
more or less answer the needs of society, they are those
represented in the white circle. Those in the blue circle are
nearer to perfection, stronger because they have a greater
amount of vital energy or found a better environment,

307

THE ABSORBENT MIND

while the others have less vital force or met with
many obstacles. In society, those in the blue circle are
recognized as having the stronger character and the
others are said to have a weaker character. People in
the blue circle have a natural attraction to the perfection
represented by the centre, whereas the people in the
white circle feel an attraction to the extremity, the outer
circumference. So there is a category of people who feel
an attraction to, and are sliding down towards, the anti-
and extra-social belt, as if they were climbing with diffi-
culty and slipped down. They meet many temptations
and if they do not continually make an effort, they
slide down ; they feel themselves becoming inferior. We
have to sustain these morally so that they do not slip in
temptation. It is not an attraction of pleasure, because no
one enjoys slipping towards criminality or insanity ; it is
like an irresistible attraction of gravity and involves con-
tinuous fighting against it. It is this effort to resist the
tendency to slip downwards that is considered a virtue.
Virtue, in fact, prevents us from falling down into a
moral chasm. Such people are told to take care not to
Jail and they will do penance ; they will put a rule
on their life to keep them from falling ; they will attach
themselves to someone better than they are ; they will
pray to the Omnipotent to help them against temptation.
More and more they clothe themselves in virtues, but it
is a very difficult life. Penance is not a joy of life ; it is
an effort of one climbing a cliff and clinging to some

30ft

THE ABSORBENT MIND

projection so as not to be dashed on the rocks. Youth
ieels this pull of gravity and it is the educationists who
try to help them by examples and exhortation. They
serve as a model, though they feel the pull sometimes as
much as the youths do. How many times they say : "I
must be a model, or what will my pupils do ? " And they
feel the restraint of model-hood. Both pupil and edu-
cationists are in the category of the virtuous people the
white circle ; this is the environment of the education of
character and morals today and so it has been accepted
as the only education. Hence the majority of people
are always in the white circle and humanity generally
considers that this is the true man, who is continually on
the defence.

In the blue circle are the stronger people with an
attraction to perfection. There is no pull of gravity, but
a real attraction to get nearer to perfection. This may
often be an aspiration without the possibility of actual
perfection, but in any case they go towards it naturally
and almost without effort. They are not people that are
not thieves because of fear of the police or that make an
effort against the sense of possession ; they are not people
led towards violence, but refraining from it by virtue ;
they are not attracted by the possessions of those around
them nor are they violent. They feel only one attraction,
that of the centre of perfection and they feel that because
it has become a quality of their life. They do not need
virtue in the same way, because they are less subject to

309

THE ABSORBENT MIND

the pull of gravity towards imperfection. They hate imper-
fection. When they go towards the centre of perfection
they do not feel it as a sacrifice, but as their dearest wish ;
they want to go.

Let us make a physical comparison, and consider
the question of vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Many
who eat meat, abstain from eating meat on certain days
of the week, and in Lent they fast for forty days, which
means they go without meat and some other things. It
often is one long, dreary period of penance to them and
they feel very virtuous. After this period there comes a
reaction and they gorge on all sorts of meat perhaps.
During Lent they are tempted and say : " O, Lord, help
me ! " These are virtuous people who observe the rules
of other people and religious leaders. They are pure,
but in the blue field are the celestial ones, the vegetarians,
who have no temptation to eat meat ; they avoid it. It
is of no use sending a missionary against meat-eating to
the vegetarians ; they observe non -meat-eating better
than he does.

Let us take another example : the physically strong:
and the weak (e.g. a sufferer from chronic bronchitis).
The latter needs protection for his lungs with many warm
wraps and woollen garments ; perhaps too he needs baths
and massage for bad circulation. These seem quite
normal people, they are not in hospital, but take care
of themselves. Or perhaps their digestion is not good
and they have to eat special food in special ways at

310

THE ABSORBENT MIND

special times in order to keep well. All these people
keep afloat among the normal people, but with a lot of
care and attention to details, and with the fear of the
hospital and death always in the environment. They
are always attached to doctors and nurses and people of
the family and they have a constant cry of " Help me *\
But look at those who enjoy good health, they eat what
they like and do not care about rules. They go out in
the cold because they enjoy it, and they jump into an
icy stream for a swim when others hardly dare to put
their nose out of doors. Polar explorers feel the adven-
ture as a joy ; they don't worry about the physical dis-
comforts. In the whitish field of virtues, too, Sadhus and
Babus are needed and spiritual mentors of all kinds or
there is a fall into the abyss or chasm of temptation. But
the people in the blue field do not need these in the
same way and they have joys the others could not
dream about.

Let us then go to the circle of perfection in our effort
to put character on a basis of facts. What is perfection >
Is it perhaps to possess all the virtues to the highest
degree, and to attain what ? Here also we must put
something possible and factual. By character we mean
the behaviour of humanity, which is urged (even if sub-
consciously in many) towards progress. This is the
general trend : humanity and society must progress in
evolution. Some people feel the attraction towards God,
but let us consider for the present a merely human centre of

311

THE ABSORBENT MIND

perfection, which is the progress of humanity. Some
individual makes a discovery and society progresses on
that line. It is the same in the spiritual field, an indivi-
dual reaches a level and gives a push forward to society-
All that we know, spiritually speaking, and all that we
see, physically speaking, has been the result of some
man's attainment. If we study geography or history we
see continuous progress, because from time to time some
man puts a point in the red circle, of perfection and this
is an attraction, but only to the people in the blue field,
who are sure of themselves and who do not need rules
or penance. They do not have to spend energy fighting
temptation, thus they can use the same energy to achieve
things impossible to those who have to struggle in order to
keep safe from temptation. So Admiral Byrd submitted
himself to the humiliation of one who seeks to collect
money in order to do what ? to explore the South Pole
and expose himself to all the sufferings of a polar ex-
pedition. He felt nothing of the suffering, he felt the
attraction of the red circle of perfection, of reaching some-
thing not yet reached.

To conclude we might say that humanity is too
wealthy in those who are in the white circle and too poor
in those who are in the blue circle from the point of view
of character. There are too many people in need of
crutches to enable them to avoid temptation ; and if the
world continues to centre education on this level, it is
keeping the people down on this level.

312

THE ABSORBENT MIND

Imagine a missionary from the white field coming
to children in the blue field and telling them to renounce
meat or they will fall ; such children would say : " I
cannot fall, I feel no attraction for meat ". Or another
missionary says : " You must cover yourself or you will
catch a cold ", the child would say : " I do not need to
cover myself, I have no fear of cold ". Let us realize that
this tendency in education to provide mentors from the
whitish field, tends to push all the children down to this
level (even if it is only to resist) and not up and to-
wards the centre of perfection. If we look at all the
syllabuses of education, we see the scarcity of infor-
mation they give and the aridity of them. It is humiliating
this education of today and brings about an inferiority-
complex and an artificial reduction of human strength. It
does this by its very organization. It puts limits to know-
ledge, and limits below the level of man. It gives men
crutches, when they could have strong legs to run with-
it is a wrong education based on the inferior qualities of
man not on the superior qualities. It is by the effort of
man himself, that men are today a mass of inferior beings.
They have not built their character before six years of
age. We must try and reconstruct the real level, try to
allow the child to use his creative powers ; and probably
the blue space which is not one of perfection, but of
attraction towards perfection, not of defence, but of
conquest, will invade the whole of the whitish space . If
there is only one epoch in man's life when he can construct

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

himself psychically, and the construction is not then
made or is badly made on account of a wrong environ-
ment, then we naturally obtain a mass of undeveloped
individuals. Supposing, however, that we allow the
character to develop according to nature and give an
opportunity for constructive activity, not exhortations
only, then the world will need another type of
education.

Take away artificial limitations and set in front of
humanity great things to be accomplished. I can read
all the histories and philosophies and remain a dunce,
but give the means which lead to great efforts and the
result will be different. We must cling to something
which finds a response in man in order to do this. The
qualities which we can encourage are the creative quali-
ties which are built up in the creative period, and if we
do not allow them to establish themselves then they are
not there later, and it is useless to preach and give
examples.

This is the difference between the old and the new
education : we wish to help the construction of man by
himself at the right period ; to help all possibilities to
ascend to something great in order that something may
really be done now. Society has built walls and barriers,
we must destroy them and show the horizon. The new
education is a revolution, but non- violent, the non-violent
revolution. After that, and if it succeeds, it will be im-
possible to have a violent revolution.

314

CHAPTER XXII
THE SUBLIMATION OF POSSESSIVENESS

HAVING given a glimpse of the general phenomena,
let us observe in detail the facts which took place and
the interpretation we gave to them. These facts that
presented themselves, both because of the age of the
children and of the intensity the children showed, were
very surprising and arresting, but even more so because
of the relation between the character shown by the
children and the loftier characteristics of humanity.

If one studies all the phenomena which took place,
one can see in them all a process of construction. This
process of construction may be compared to the action
of caterpillars at a certain stage. Instead of moving
about on many twigs as they had been doing, they
stay in one spot and become very active there, and
after a little time one sees a cloud of threads hardly
visible, so diaphanous they are, but this is the beginning
of a strong cocoon. As with the caterpillar, the first
phenomenon we notice is a phenomenon of concentration
on one thing. In a child of three and a half, who was
in our first school, this concentration was striking for its

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intensity ; there were many other stimuli in the environ-
ment, but it was impossible to break her concentration.
A similar degree of concentration can be observed in
some adults, but only in exceptional characters as for
instance in Archimedes, who was so intensely concen-
trated in his geometrical problems, that although enemy
soldiers had entered the city and were penetrating his
house, he said merely : " Don't disturb my circles ! " He
had not realized that the city had fallen to the enemy.
Poets also have been known to continue their work
without noticing a noisy carnival procession outside. But
it is only with geniuses that such concentration is noticed
in adults. The phenomenon in the three and a half year
old child was not of the same type of concentration. In
the child such concentration is given by nature, and
when we see it repeated by different children in different
countries, we decide that it must be a part of the pattern
of construction. As with the compass the fixing of one
point is necessary before anything can be done, but once
it is fixed any design can be drawn, so with the construc-
tion in the child the fixing of the attention is the first
stage. It need not always be fixed on the same thing,
but unless it is fixed, construction cannot begin. It is
as if the individuality found a centre and once that has
been done, it can possess what it achieves. So with
us, if we want to organize, we must have a concentration
diffused over everything connected with the work in
hand. Without this concentration the object with which

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

the child is concerned possesses the child, he is led by
all the stimuli, but once this fixity of concentration
obtains, then the child possesses and controls the
environment.

When in the adult world, we find a person changing
his interest frequently, we speak of him as inconsistent
in character and we know that such people are unable
to undertake anything responsible in life, whereas when
we see a person with a deep aim, who can distribute his
attention and organization on things given to him, we
feel that such a person will do something in the world.
We tend to ponder on these things and say we should
like to have our young students concentrated on their
work, but we cannot manage to bring it about. This
means then that it is not among the items that one can
give by ordinary educational means. As it is difficult
to get from older children (college and high school
students) who would have thought of getting it from
three and a half year old children ? It would be impos-
sible to think that any teacher could provoke such
concentration when the rest of the class were dancing
and jumping about ; all the more impossible to obtain
it in a whole class, yet, it happened in that class of
the Messina orphans whom I mentioned in a previous
chapter. There were sixty of them working in one large
room or hall, and a hundred students came in and ranged
themselves round the walls, and the children did not
notice their entrance or look up.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

This phenomenon shows that nature is constructing
some great item of the human psyche, and from this
already one can understand that the elements of the
human will are being built. It is not by an already exist-
ent strength of will that the children achieve this con-
centration, it is by nature ; nature builds the will in this
way. After this all the gyrations and deviations dis-
appear and character is formed. What takes place after
this fact > We see constancy (repetition of exercise) with
no outer aim and therefore with an inner aim ; and this
constancy is characteristic of children, we adults do not
possess it. We may have constancy in pursuing a long
work, but not in repeating the same work. This re-
petition of the children is a sort of training for character
which the adult will be able to use, but which the child
constructs. There are certain adult people who do not
have the patience to see the child repeating all these
exercises of exactness ; it is done so often. The child
does not yet have the will for this constancy, he does it
by nature, but through it he builds the will of the adult
which will later persist in carrying out any task that must
be carried out. And if we see how nature practises each
single exercise separately and so often, we see how im-
possible it is to obtain any constancy or will from youth
who have not had these possibilities of practice and of
developing the elements of the will. People who do not
have these are not to be blamed, they had no opportunity
to construct them.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

There is another thing that takes place after this
first fixation of concentration and that is the determination
by the child of the action he will carry out. Children
in our classes, who are choosing their work freely, are
exercising this determination of action. This also is
constructed by repetition, every day, for years. We
often find ourselves with adults who can never decide
what they want, we say they have no will. Quite a
majority of people are like this and when we find a
person who can express clearly what he wants and what
we want, we say he has a strong will and can determine
his actions. Children determine their action by nature's
law, the adult by mental reflection. It is evident that in
order to exercise this power of determination of actions,
it is necessary to have independence from an adult who
tells the child what to do every moment of his life, because
it is evident that this determination comes from inner
development and inner forces. If someone, stronger for
the time being, usurps the office of the inner guide, then
the child cannot develop either determination or con-
centration. So if we wish these qualities to develop,
then the first thing is that the child must become indepen-
dent of the adult. If we look at child life anywhere, we
find that the strongest instinct is to be free from the
adult and this is true for all species. And how logical it
is when one looks at the conclusion ! But the child does
not do it by logic, he does it by nature ; so nature gives
a special design that the child must follow. This

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

indicates a parallel in the development of the character in
man and the behaviour of animals, because the animal
has to follow a certain pattern and does so by freeing
itself from the adult of its species. There are natural
laws that guide growth and construction and the indivi-
dual must follow these laws if he has to construct
his character his psyche.

We can witness the construction of the psyche in
every item and element. The character of man is not
the result of education, it is a cosmic fact ; it is willed by
nature. It is not the result of our imposition, it is a fact
of creation not of education.

Let us consider some of the defects that disappear.
One of the most common defects of children who have
not been able to develop properly is an urge for posses-
sion. It is expressed by the saying " wishing for the
moon ". What is this if not an instinctive impulse ? Now
in normalized children the active possibility of interesting
themselves in any object, leads them to the stage where
it is no longer the object, but the knowledge of it which
fixes the attention, and then a change takes place in this
possessiveness. It is a curious fact that children who
want objects for physical possession, after a little time
lose or break those objects. The defect of possession
is accompanied by the defect of destructiveness, but if
it is an object that has no lasting interest for us, this is
understandable. It has only caught the interest for a
moment and then is thrown on one side. Take a watch

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

for instance ; it is meant to tell the time and that is its
real value. A tiny child cannot tell the time so the real
interest in the watch is not there and quickly he breaks it.
An older child may want to know how it is built and
opens up the case and sees all the wheels which in their
working give the time. This complicated machinery
then interests the child for its function not for any outer
aim. It has happened that people have felt this feeling
for its function so strongly that it gives a passionate
interest. History gives us examples, Louis XVI of
France had this passion for the functioning of watches
and he spent much ot his time in a laboratory of watches.
The Emperor Charles V, who ruled a large part of Europe,
also had this interest ; he had twelve watches, which he
tried to keep constantly at the exact time, but he couldn't
succeed in keeping them together, so he said : " If I can't
keep twelve watches together, how can I hope to keep
all Europe together > I had better retire ", and he became
a monk. This is a second type of possession interest
in how it works. We can notice this in other fields.
Children pluck flowers merely to possess and the result
is that they destroy them. Always material possession
and destruction go hand in hand. Do we not see it in
the world at the present time ? If instead the child knows
the parts of the flower, the kinds of leaves, the direction
the stem takes, etc., thenjhere is no possessiveness and
destruction. He is interested, an intellectual interest
centred on the plant or an intellectual possession.

321

21

THE ABSORBENT MIND

The child will destroy also butterflies, if he merely seeks
to possess the insect, but if his interest is aroused in its
life and function, it is still centred on the butterfly, but to
observe not to possess and destroy. And this intellectual
possession showed itself in such a great attraction that
we might call it a love, and it brought the child to care
for these things in a delicate and refined manner.

So we can say that this possessiveness because
of an intellectual interest is raised to a superior level
and that intellectual interest urges the child to progress
through this life they study. Instead of the instinct of
possession, on this higher level we see three things :
to know, to love and to serve. Possession transformed
into love and when it has arisen, there is not only conser-
vation of the object, but service of it. Then it is said
that an instinctive impulse is sublimated. In the same
way curiosity becomes sublimated into scientific research.
Curiosity becomes an impulse to learn and from this the
strength and attraction for study comes. It is interesting
to observe that when the child has become the lover and
admirer of one object, he becomes zealous in the upkeep
of all the objects. It was the transformation of children
in our first class which showed how children go from
possession to a higher level of love and service. Their
copy books when completely filled showed no * dog's ears \
nor smudges nor blots, but were neat and even decorated.

If we look at humanity, at the greatness of humanity,
as revealed by history and evolution, we see that it is an

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

instinct of man to attain this sublimation. He tries
to enter every field and protect and better it, so he helps
life by intellectual penetration into the laws of life. The
farmer serves his plants and animals all his life ; the
scientist loves his microscope and lenses and shows his
love in the extreme care and delicacy of his handling
them. Humanity starts by grabbing with its hands and
by destroying, and ends by loving things intellectually
and serving them. Once in a while we have reversals as
in the recent war when loads of lead fell on cities and
destroyed them, but these are incidents only. Generally
the rule is to serve and to love. It is in man to be
brought out because it is in nature. The children who
tore plants out of the garden, now watch for the plant's
growth, count its leaves, measure its sides. It is no
longer my plant, but the plant. This sublimation and love
is given by knowledge, by penetration of the mind.
Destructiveness cannot be overcome by preaching ; the
child still wants the thing for himself so that no other
shall have it. If we try to correct him by smacking, or
moralizing or exploiting his emotions sentimentally, he
may alter for five minutes, but he comes back to the same
starting point. Only work and concentration which give
knowledge first and then love will achieve the transfor-
mation. It is a revelation of the spiritual man to know,
to love and to serve. It comes only by one's own
experience and development, not through preaching. As
soon as the attention of the intellect on details is there,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

love comes, the desire to know all details, so that \ve
may not unwittingly hurt.

To know, to love and to serve is preached in all
religions, but it is the child who is the constructor of our
spirituality ; he has revealed that nature has a plan for
our behaviour or character, a careful plan determined in
age and functioning and needing freedom and intense
activity following life's own laws. Repetition of the
exercise is followed in intellectual as well as physical
exercises ; and it is not physics or botany or cleaning
one's shoes that is achieved merely, but the will and the
elements of the spirit are built. The adult can make use
of that will which the child builds up, so the child is the
spiritual builder of us all. Discoveries we make, when
adults, often fall on our own heads (as actually in the
recent war) because we have forgotten the soul the child
has built or, more often, prevented him from building it
normally.

324

CHAPTER XXIII
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

THE first work the child has to do is to find the way and
the means to concentration which lays the foundations
of the character and prepares social behaviour. This im-
mediately shows the importance of the environment,
because no one will be able to give concentration or to
organize the child from without. He has to organize him-
self. The importance of our schools is that there the child
has a chance of finding the kind of work that will give
him concentration. A closed environment (our school or
class-room) favours concentration ; we know this because
when people want to find concentration they build a
temple or a shrine. Through an activity that promotes
concentration in a closed environment character is formed
and the creation of the individual achieved. In ordinary
schools children are mostly admitted after the age of five
years only when they have already finished the first and
most important period of formation, or, if they have not
had the opportunity to do so, at least the age for it is passed,
whereas our school is a protective environment where the

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first elements of character may be formed and acquire their
particular importance. That is why the question of the
prepared environment in education, when first proclaimed
to the world, gave rise to such a great interest. Artists,
architects and psychologists got together to prepare care-
fully the size and the height of the rooms and the artistic
elements of the school. This interest arose, because for
the first time we had the conception of a school which
was not merely a shelter, but aimed at helping the con-
centration of little children. It was more than a protective
environment, it was a psychic environment. In this
environment it is not so much the form, size, etc., but the
objects it contains that matter, because concentration can
only take place if a child has an object. These objects
are not casually chosen, they are special objects deter-
mined by our experience with the children themselves.

The first idea was to enrich the environment with
many objects and the children were given freedom to
choose what they desired among these objects. We
found that the children chose only certain objects, others
remained unused, so we eliminated them from the
environment. The objects we now have decided on,
were chosen by the children themselves, and we did not
work on these experimental lines in one country only, we
tried it out all over the world. There were certain objects
that all children chose, those we put in as essential ;
there were certain objects that children in all countries
rarely used, (even though adults thought they would use

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

them), those we eliminated. Wherever there were our
normalized children and freedom of choice this happened,
and it reminded me of insects that go only and always to
certain flowers which they need. Here with the children
there is the need of certain stimuli. The children chose
those objects which aided their construction of themselves.
In the beginning there were many toys, but the children
did not use them. There were many types of objects
for teaching colour, the children chose only one type :
the colour tablets which we now use. This happened
in all countries alike. Also with the size of the objects
and the intensity of colour the choice of the children was
taken as the determining factor. This brought about the
system of determination and limitation of objects in our
method. This principle has a bearing on social life as
well. If there are too many objects or more than
one set of material for a group of about 30 to 40
children, there is confusion. The objects therefore are
few though the children are many.

In a class of many children there will only be one
copy of each object. If a child wants to use an object
which is already being used, he cannot do it and when
the children are normalized they will wait till the other
has finished using that material. Thus certain social
qualities develop which are of great importance, e.g.,
the child knows that he must respect objects being used
by another, not because someone has told him, he simply
must, it is a fact he has found by social experience.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

There are so many of them, there is only one object,
the only thing to do is to wait. As this happens every
hour of the day for years, this experience of respecting
and waiting enters into the life of each individual as
an experience which matures with the passing of time.

Thus a transformation and adaptation take place
and what is this but building social life > Basically society
is not founded upon liking, but on a combination of
activities which must harmonize together. By these
children's experience another social virtue is developed :
patience. This patience is a sort of abnegation of
impulses. Thus the features of the character we call
virtues come by themselves. One cannot teach this type
of morality to children of three years, but experience can.
As normalization was not achieved by the children
in other environments, this was thrown into greater
relief. In the outside world children were snatching at
this age, but our children waited. People said : " How
could you obtain this sort of discipline in such small
children ? " It was a question of a prepared environment
and freedom within it, and thus certain qualities came
out which usually do not appear in children from three
to six years, neither much between adults of 25 to
30 years !

The interference of the adult in this adjustment of
social behaviour is almost always wrong. E.g., two
children may walk on the line, one mistakes the
direction and it looks like an unavoidable head-on

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

collision. The adult would have the impulse to turn
one of the children round, but the children solve their
own problem and they solve it every time, not always in
the same way, but always satisfactorily. There are many
problems of a similar kind in other fields of activity. They
arise continuously and the children find great pleasure in
solving these problems. If the adults step in to adjust,
the children get nervous, but if they are left alone they
solve them peacefully. This is also an exercise of social
experience and if these problems are solved peacefully,
there is continuous experience of social situations which
could not be given by the teacher. Generally if a teacher
interferes, she has an idea quite different from that of
the children and disturbs the social harmony of the
class. If there is such a problem, we should, but for
exceptional cases, leave the children alone and mind
our own business, because in so doing we are able
to see how the children solve these problems and
observe a manifestation of the behaviour of childhood,
of the real behaviour which the adult does not know
at all. Through all these daily experiences a social
construction takes place. Generally the teacher has no
patience and interferes. In fact, this is so instinctive that
in the first days of my work, as the teachers could not
resist this impulse, I said : "Tie yourself to a post'* and
several people did it materially. Other teachers instead
of doing that had a rosary, and every time they had an
impulse to interfere and someone (or they themselves)

329

THE ABSORBENT MIND

checked it, they moved a bead. They always found it
wiser not to .interfere and they could count how many
times they refrained from doing so.

Ordinary educators do not understand our work for
social life ; they think that Montessori schools cater
for subjects of the curriculum, but not for social life.
They say : " If the children work by themselves where
is social life ? " But what is social life but to solve prob-
lems, behave and make plans to suit all ? They think
of social life as sitting together and listening to a teacher
or someone else but this is not social life at all. In fact
in ordinary life social experiences are limited to the
* interval * or to the occasional excursions, whilst our
children live and work in a community all the time.

Differences of character are revealed and different
experiences are possible when there is a great number
of children in a class. They do not take place when
the children are few. Indeed the greatest perfectionment
of children takes place through these social experiences.

Let us now give some consideration to the constitu-
tion of this society of children. It was brought about by
chance, but by a wise chance. Those children who
found themselves together in a closed environment were
of different ages (from 3 to 6 years). Usually this is not
found in schools, unless the older children are mentally
dull. Children are usually classified by age, only in
a few schools we find this vertical grouping in one class.
The children themselves, however, made us see the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

difficulty of trying to give culture to children of the same
age and capacity. A mother may have six children, but
her household runs smoothly. If some of those children
are twins, triplets or quadruplets, then difficulties begin,
because it is fatiguing for the mother to deal with four
children all needing the same thing. The mother with
six children of different ages is better off too than the
mother with only one child. One child is always
difficult. The real difficulty is not that he is petted, but
that he has no society and he suffers more than other
children. Families often find difficulty with the first
child, but not with later children ; they think it is due to
their greater experience, but it is really because the child
has society.

Society is interesting because of the different types
that compose it. An Old Men's or Old Women's Home
is the most deadly thing. It is a most unnatural and
cruel thing to put people of the same age together. It is
one of the most cruel things we do to children ; it breaks
the thread of social life, there is no nourishment for social
life. In most schools there is first the separation of the
sexes and then that of the ages, separated into classes.
This is a fundamental error leading to all sorts of mis-
takes ; it is an artificial isolation which cannot develop
the social sense. We generally have co-education
for small children. Really co-education is not so im-
portant, boys and girls could have different schools, but
there should be children of different ages in the classes.

331

THE ABSORBENT MIND

Our schools have shown that children of different ages
help each other, the small one sees what the elder one
does and asks about it, and the older one gives an ex-
planation. This is really teaching, but the explanation and
teaching of a child of five years is so near to the under-
standing of the child of three years that the little one
understands easily, whereas we should not reach his
intelligence. There is a sort of harmony and interchange
of ideas between them which is not possible between an
adult and a child so small. We can see this if we com-
pare it with adult society. A university professor gives
a talk to illiterates and the latter cannot understand
anything, so it is not wise to ask them to help in the
work with illiterates. They do not easily find the means,
the level should not be so far distant. That is why adult
education is so difficult. When the first Popular Univer-
sity in Rome was founded, all the big University pro-
fessors wanted to help. One of them tried to teach
hygiene to these poor ill-educated people. The subject
was plague and he showed pictures of the bacilli. The
audience asked : " What are bacilli ? " He answered :
44 You see them on this slide." Then he was asked :
41 What is a slide ? " and he answered : " It is a slip of
glass which you put under a microscope ". The next
question was : " What is a microscope ? " etc., etc. So
the professor gave up the chair in the Popular University.
In the problem of educating the masses one should not
go to the great professors, but to people of goodwill

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

and basic knowledge who can transmit it in simple
language.

We teachers are incapable of making a child of three
years understand many things, but a child of five years can
make him understand ; there is a natural mental osmosis
between them. Also the child of 3 years can become
interested in what the child of 5 years does because it is
not so very different from the possibilities of the child of
3 years. All the older children become heroes and
teachers and all the smaller ones are great admirers.
The small ones go to the older ones for inspiration and
then work by themselves. In ordinary schools where
there are children of the same age it is true that those
with more ability could teach the others, but the teacher
does not usually allow it. They merely ask to give the
correct answers when others cannot and so envy arises.
With younger children there is no envy, they are not
humiliated by being taught by an older one, because they
know they are smaller and feel that when they are big
they can do the same. There is love and admiration,
real brotherhood. In the old schools the only way to
reach a higher level is by competition, which means envy,
hate, humiliation and all things depressive to life and
anti-social. The intelligent child becomes vain and
gathers power over others, whereas the child of five with
the child of three feels himself a protector. It is difficult to
imagine how much this atmosphere of protection and
admiration increases and deepens in its action : the class

333

THE ABSORBENT MIND

becomes a group cemented by affection. The children
come to know each others character and appreciate each
other. In ordinary schools they merely know : "That
fellow got the first prize, that other fellow got zero/'
Brotherhood cannot develop in these conditions and yet
this is the age of construction for social and anti-social
qualities, according to the environment ; it starts at this age.

People become worried whether the five years old
will acquire sufficient knowledge if he is always teaching
younger ones. In the first place, he is not always
teaching, he has his freedom and it is respected. Apart
from that, in teaching he fixes his own knowledge,
because he has to analyse and re-handle it in order to
to teach, so he sees it with greater clarity. The older
child also is benefited by this exchange.

The class of children from three to six years of age
is not rigidly separated from that of the seven to nine
year old ones either, so the six year old gets his inspira-
tion from the next class. All our walls are only half
walls and there is always easy access from one class to
another as all the children are free to move from class to
class. If the three years old goes to the class of the
seven to nine years old ones he does not stay long,
because he sees he cannot get anything that is useful to
him. There are limitations therefore, but no separation
and all the groups are in communication. The groups
have their own environment, but they are not isolated.
There is the possibility of an intellectual walk, A three

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

years old can see a nine years old extracting the square
root, he asks him what he is doing. If the answer gives
him no inspiration he goes back to his own class where
there are objects of inspiration, but the six year old would
be interested and would find inspiration there. With
this freedom one can see the limits of the intelligence of
each age. That is how we found that the children of
eight and nine years understood the extraction of the
square root being done (at that time) by children of
twelve and fourteen years. Thus he also understood that
the child was interested in and capable of algebra at
eight years. It is therefore not only the age which leads
to progress, but also the freedom to move about.

It is intellectual height which is important. In
society you find people of all ages, in all history we do
not find any instance of a society divided into age
groups. In the ordinary schools divided in age groups
there is nothing which is social despite all its claims.
This intercourse between children of different ages brings
harmony and happiness, because the older children find
they are real teachers even though they have not been
to Teachers' Training Colleges and are not B.T.s.
These children Jo teach, whereas, judging by examination
results, apparently qualified teachers do not teach !

There is animation everywhere and there is no in-
feriority-complex. The smaller child is animated, be-
cause he Joes understand what the older one does, and
the older one is animated, because he can teach what he

335

THE ABSORBENT MIND

knows ; so there is an enhancement of forces, of psychic
forces.

These and other facts show that all these pheno-
mena which seemed so extraordinary were not really so
extraordinary. They were merely the result of natural
laws being obeyed.

All these energies are thrown away in ordinary edu-
cation. If henceforth they are no longer wasted, there
will be new psychic wealth for the new generations. It
comes without much expenditure : few teachers and by
tying those few to poles !

It is by studying the behaviour of these children
and their re-actions to each other in this atmosphere of
freedom that the real secret of society is revealed. They
are fine and delicate facts that have to be examined
with a spiritual microscope, but they are of the utmost
interest since they reveal facts inherent in the very
nature of man. These schools, therefore, are thought
of as laboratories for psychological research, although
it is not really research, but observation that is carried
out. It is this observation which is important.

There are facts the importance of which is very
great, e.g., that the children solve their own problems.
If we observe the children without intervening, we notice
one great fact, w'z., that children do not help each
other in the same way as we do. We see children carry-
ing heavy objects and no other child goes to help them,
or they put all the apparatus away after a complicated

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exercise and nobody helps. They respect each other
and only help when help is a real necessity. This
enlightens us greatly, because they evidently have an
intuition of, and show respect for, the essential need
of the child not to be helped uselessly. There was
once a child who had spread all the geometrical cards
on the floor with all the geometrical insets. Suddenly
there was music, a procession passing, all the children
ran to look except the little fellow with all the material.
He did not go, because he would not dream of leaving
all the material about like that. It should be put away
and normally nobody would help him, but there were
tears in his eyes, because he too wanted to see the
procession. The others realized the emergency and all
came back and helped him. Adults do not possess this fine
discrimination in determining when to help. They help each
other frequently when it is not necessary. A gentleman
will often (as a matter of good manners) adjust a chair
at a table to help a young lady to sit down when she is
quite capable of sitting down unaided, or take her arm
in going downstairs although she is quite capable of
walking without his support, but when someone loses
his fortune then nobody helps. When help is needed,
nobody helps, when help is not needed all help ! So
here is a point where the adult cannot teach the children,
because he himself does not know the right way as well
as the children do. I think that probably the sub-
conscious of the child still retains the memory of his

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desire and need to make the maximum effort and
that is why instinctively he does not help others where
help would be a hindrance.

Another interesting feature is the way children deal

with a disturber, perhaps a child newly admitted to the

school and not accustomed to the behaviour there. He

disturbs and is a real problem for the teacher and the

children. The teacher generally says : " That is very

naughty. This is not nice ", sometimes : " You are a

bad boy ", but the reaction of the children is interesting.

One child approached such a newcomer and said :

" You are naughty, but don't worry about it, when we

came we were as naughty as you ". The naughtiness

was recognized as a misfortune and the child was trying

to console the naughty one and bring out the real boy.

He had compassion for him. What a change there

would be in society if the evil doer evoked compassion

and we made an effort to console him. It would

mean compassion for him as we have when he has

a physical illness. Wrong doing is often a psychic

illness due to an unfavourable environment or the

condition of birth or some such misfortune. It ought to

evoke compassion and help, not merely punishment.

This would change our social structure for the better.

With our children if an accident happens, e.g., a vase

that falls down, the child who has dropped it is often

desperate, because they do not like destruction and also

it suggests inferiority, they are incapable of carrying it

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

The instinctive reaction of the adult is to say : " See it is
broken ; why do you touch these things when I have told
you not to do so ? " Or at least they would tell him to
pick up the pieces, because they think the child will take
the lesson more seriously if he has to clear up the results
of the accident. But what do the children do ? They all
run around to help ; with the the sound of help in their
little voices, they say : " Never mind ! We can get
another glass." And some of them will pick up the
pieces and another will wipe up the water that has run
over the floor. So there is an instinct that attracts them
to help one who is weak with encouragement and
consolation and this is an instinct of social evolution.
Indeed a great part of our social evolution has come
about when society went out to help the weak. All our
medical sciences developed on this principle, so that from
this instinct has come help not only for those who were
the object of compassion, but for the whole of humanity.
It is not an error to encourage those who are weak and
those who are inferior, it is the correct thing and it carries
forward the whole of society. Children show these
sentiments as soon as they become normalized, not only
for each other, but for animals too.

Everyone thinks that respect to animals has to be
taught, as they think that children tend to cruelty towards
them. This is not so, they have an instinct to protect them.
We had in our school at Kodaikanal a baby-goat. I used
to feed it daily and held the food high so that the little one

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used to rise up to it on its hind legs. I was interested
in watching the baby-animal do this and it seemed to
enjoy it. But one day a little child with a look of anxiety
on his face came and held the goat with his two hands
under its body, because he thought the baby-animal
should not have to depend on only his two hind legs.
This was a very delicate sentiment.

Another manifestation in our schools is the admira-
tion for those who do better than oneself. The children
are not only not envious at all, but the achievements of
other children evoke an enthusiastic admiration and joy.
This was what happened in the famous incident of the
explosion into writing. It was the first written word and
it caused a great joy and laughter and they looked at the
writer with admiration and then it suddenly inspired them
to write : " I can do this too ! " The good work of one
brought the uplift of the whole group. It was the same
with the enthusiasm for the alphabet, so that it happened
once that the whole class formed a procession with the
letters as flags, and there was so much joy and shouting
in glee that people came up from downstairs (we were
on the roof) to see what all the joy was about. " They
are enthusiastic over the alphabet " said the teacher.

There is an evident communication among the
children based on a high sentiment and so there is unity
in the group. From these instances one realizes that
there is a sort of attraction in an atmosphere of high
sentiment when the children are normalized. As the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

older ones are attracted to the little ones and the little
ones attracted to the older ones, so the normalized are
attracted to the non-normalized (new) children and vice
versa.

34!

CHAPTER XXIV
SOCIETY BY COHESION

I WOULD like to relate another episode out of my
memorable experience. One day I thought I would
give a lesson on a subject which in itself was hardly
attractive. I taught the children how to blow their noses
and they evidently were greatly interested in my lively
demonstrations. I showed them how different people
blow their noses, some ostentatiously unfolding their
handkerchief and making a lot of noise, and on the other
hand the well-educated person who does so almost
hiding the necessary movements and even with the least
perceptible noise. What struck me was the serious way
in which the children followed me. Not one began to
laugh. When I had finished, to my immense surprise,
the audience of infants burst out into loud applause.
Never had I witnessed such manifestation. Never, as
far as I know, in world history had a gathering of small
children applauded a speech.

Yet, not two or three children only, but all of them
at the same time clapped with great enthusiasm their

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

small hands which until then had only " worked ". I
went out as usual and after having walked along the
footpath for a little while I turned round and saw to my
amazement that all the children had been following me.
They really looked like a swarm of bees, only they
moved so silently that I had not been aware of them.
What a curious situation ! What would the passers-by
have said if they had seen a lady walking in the street,
followed at some distance by this solid group of forty-
five tiny children > I turned to them and said calmly :
11 Now run back to school, all of you, but on tiptoe and
take care not to knock against the door-post ". I gave
this instruction, because I knew that exactitude in actions
has great interest for such young children. As by magic
they all turned their back on me and ran off on tiptoe.
When they reached the door they made a wide curve
and avoided the corner, Centering through the centre of
the door-opening. Thus they disappeared.

" Why such enthusiasm ? " I thought. Perhaps I
had happened to touch a social question to which they
were very sensitive. In fact all children are generally
humiliated on account of their dirty noses. In Italy
vulgar people call the child " a snotty one " instead of
calling him a child. Small children have always dirty
noses and the mothers of the people sometimes attach a
handkerchief to the child's dress with a safety-pin, right
in front of their body. This evidently they feel as a
humiliating sign of inferiority. Perhaps that was the

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reason of the success of my lesson. I had given them a
lesson instead of showing contempt. Now they had
acquired knowledge which redeemed them and raised
their personal dignity. My action had somehow been
similar to that of a popular leader, of a revolutionary who
tries to raise the masses and defends their human dignity.

This miniature episode was really surprising, but the
main fact was that these children felt and acted as a
group. They really formed a society of children, united
by a mysterious bond, and acted as one body. This
bond was formed by a common sentiment felt by each
individual. Although they were " independent indivi-
duals ", although they did not depend on one another,
they were all moved by the same impulse.

Such a society seems to be more closely connected
to the absorbent mind than to consciousness.

The lines of construction which we have observed
seem to be analogous to those which we can follow
through the microscope when we observe the work of the
cells building up an organism. Evidently also society
has an embryological phase which can be observed
in its initial formation among children in course of
development.

It is very interesting to see how, slowly, they seem
to become conscious of forming a community which acts
as such. They seem to become aware of belonging to a
group and of contributing to the activity of that group.
They not only begin to be interested in it, but I would

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almost say that they delve into it with their spirit. When
they reach this stage they do not act mechanically any
longer, they aim at success, they give special considera-
tion to the honour of the group. This first step towards
full social consciousness I call " clan spirit " comparing
it to those primitive human societies wherein the in-
dividuals already love, defend and appreciate the value
of their group as an aim of each individual's activity.

The first manifestations of this phenomenon amazed
us also, because they appeared independently of any
influence of ours. They came forth as facts successively
expressing development, just as at a certain age the teeth
are seen to pierce the gums. This association brought
about by natural urges, directed by a power within
itself, animated by a social spirit, I call * Cohesive
Society '.

I came to this conception by some spontaneous
manifestations of children which amazed us very much.
Let me give an example of them : I knew that some
important visitors from the United States were to come
and see the school the next day. I, however, could not
possibly be there to receive them. Before going away I
told the children as a matter of confidence : " To-morrow
some people are coming to see the school. How happy
I would be if they said : " This is the school with the
nicest children in the world/' I uttered this sentence
without any afterthought, almost involuntarily, and did
not think it would have the slightest consequence.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

When I came back to the school another day I found
the teacher quite excited, she was in tears when she spoke
to me. " You should have seen these children ! Every
one of them worked and they were full of enthusiasm.
They greeted the visitors very politely. I was really
moved to see how each of them did his best. Whoever
directed them ? It must have been the holy Angels
themselves ! " They evidently felt the honour of their
clan and acted in a way even more impressive than
when they only obeyed their vital urges. They had
been capable of feeling something beyond their indi-
vidual needs.

Similar experiences were often repeated. When the
Ambassador of the Argentine wished to see this famous
school where children of only four and five years old
worked on their own, read and wrote spontaneously and
behaved with discipline not imposed by the authority of
the teacher, he was really very incredulous. Instead of
announcing his visit he wished to pay a surprise-call.
Unfortunately he came just on a holiday and the school
was closed. This school was the * Casa dei Bambini *
established in the block of flats where the children lived
with their families. A small child happened to be in the
court-yard when the Ambassador came along and heard
his expressions of disappointment. The child understood
that he was a visitor and told him : " It does not matter
that the school is closed, the janitor has the keys and we
are all at home/* The door was opened and all the

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

children came to their class and began to work. They
felt a kind of responsibility to do well for the honour of
their clan. Nobody received any personal benefit from
it, nobody wished to distinguish himself, all co-operated
for their community. The teacher heard about it only the
day after.

This social feeling that had not been instilled by any
teaching and was completely different from a competitive
sentiment or a personal interest, was like a gift of nature.
Yet, it was definitely an achievement which these
children had reached through their own efforts. As
Coghill says : " Nature determines behaviour, but it is
developed only by means of experiences in the environ-
ment." Nature evidently gives a design for the con-
struction of the personality and of society, but this design
is realized only through the obedient activity of the
child when he is in a position of bringing it to actuality.
In doing so he illustrates the successive phases of
development. This clan -spirit which pervades the
cohesive society corresponds closely to what the modern
American psychologist and educationist, Washburne, calls
' social integration '. He maintains that this is the key
to social reform and should constitute the basis of the
whole of education. Social integration is realized when
the individual identifies himself with a group to which he
belongs. A person possessing it thinks of the success of
the group rather than of personal credit. Washburne
tries to explain his conception by means of a comparison

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

to the Oxford and Cambridge boat-races. " Each in-
dividual there makes the greatest possible effort for the
honour of his team, fully aware of the fact that he
personally will not derive any benefit nor any credit from
it. If this were the case in every social enterprise, from
nation-wide enterprises to those in industry, etc., and if
all let themselves be spurred by the desire of success for
the whole of which each forms part, the entire human
society would be regenerated. In the schools the deve-
lopment of this feeling of integration of the individual
with society should be fostered, because," he adds, " this
is what is lacking everywhere and leads society to failure
and ruin."

The example of a society where social integration
exists can be given : it is the cohesive society of young
children, achieved by the magic powers of nature.

We must consider it and treasure it where it is actually
being created, because neither character nor sentiments can
be given through teaching : they are the product of life.

Cohesive society, however, is not the same as the
organized society that rules the destiny of man. It is
merely the last phase in the evolution of the child, it is
the almost divine and mysterious creation of a kind of
social embryo.

Organized Society

At once after six years of age when the child enters
another phase of development which marks the transition

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

of the social embryo to the social new -born, another
spontaneous form of social life appears very clearly. It
shows an organized association, fully conscious of itself.
The children then look for principles and laws established
by man himself. They seek a leader who directs the
community. Evidently obedience to the rules and the
leader forms the connective tissue of this society. This
obedience has, as we know, been prepared in the
embryonic stage which precedes this period of develop-
ment. MacDougall describes this type of society which
children of six and seven years of age already begin to
form. They submit to other, older children as if urged by
an instinct which he calls the gregarious instinct '.
Often neglected and abandoned children now organize
gangs groups associated especially in revolt against the
principles and the authority of adults. These natural
urges, however, which often lead to a rebellious attitude
have been sublimated in the Boy Scouts movement.
The latter answers a real social need of development,
instilled in the very nature of children and youths.

This ' gregarious instinct * is different from the force
of cohesion which was the basis of the society of infants.
These successive societies which continue to develop
until they reach the society of adults are all consciously
organized societies, they all require man-made rules and
a leader to direct them.

Life in society therefore is an innate fact, belonging
to human nature as such. It develops as an organism,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

having different characteristics during its natural evolution.
We would compare it to the manufacture of cloth, to
weaving and spinning in the manufacture of home-spun
cloth which is such an important part of Indian cottage
industry. Without doubt we then have to begin at the
beginning and consider first that small white fluffy tuft
which the cotton plant produces around its seed. So
when we wish to consider the construction of human
society we must begin with the child and look at him in
the surroundings of the family which has given birth to
him. The first thing that is done with cotton, which is
also the first work in Gandhi's village schools, is to purify
the cotton harvested from the plants. The black bits
left behind in the cotton by the shell of the cotton seeds
have to be cut out. The first activity corresponds to
what we do when we gather the children from amongst
their homes and purify them of their deviations and help
them to concentrate and normalize themselves. Then
comes the spinning. Gandhi who has indicated spinning
as a means to achieve the liberation and re-birth of India
has placed a great symbol in front of the Indian people.
Spinning corresponds, in our simile, to the formation of
the child's personality accomplished through work and
social experiences. This is the basis of all : the develop-
ment of the personality. If the thread is well spun and
strong, the cloth woven from it will equally be so. The
quality of the cloth depends upon it. In this symbolic
sense the Mahatma's emphatic assertion : "I have

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

consideration only for those who spin ", is very right. It is
indeed the principal thing to be considered, because
cloth woven from threads without resistance has no value.

Then comes the stage when the threads are put on
a loom, on a limited frame. The threads are taken up
and all stretched in the same direction and then fixed to
the staffs at both ends of the loom. The threads are all
parallel, of equal length, separate and they do not touch
each other. They form the woof of a piece of cloth, but
are not cloth. However, without this woof cloth could
not be woven. If the threads break or go astray with-
out being fixed in the same direction, the spool cannot
shoot through them. This woof corresponds to the
cohesive society. In the embryonic preparation of human
society it depends on the activity of the children who
act upon the urges of nature in a limited environment,
corresponding to the loom. In the end they associate
themselves, everyone tending to the same aim.

The actual weaving then takes place by passing the
spool through these threads and thus uniting them all,
keeping each one firmly in place by means of the trans-
versal threads closely pressed together on the woof.
This stage corresponds to the real organized society of
men which is fixed by rules under the direction of an
acknowledged leader whom all obey. Then only we
have a real piece of cloth which remains intact even
when taken off the loom. It has an existence independent
of the loom and once taken off it can be utilized. An

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

unlimited amount can be produced. Men do not form
a society because each individual has turned towards
some aim in the environment and has concentrated him-
self upon it on his own account, as happens in the
cohesive society of small children, but the final form of
human society rests on organization.

The two things, however, are interlinked. Society
does not depend only on organization, but also on
cohesion. The latter in fact is the more fundamental of
the two and serves as a basis for the construction of the
former. Good laws and a good leader cannot keep the
masses together and make them act, unless the indivi-
duals themselves be already oriented towards something
that fixes them, and makes a group out of them. The
masses in their turn are more or less strong and active
according to the degree of development of the personality
of the individuals who make them up. The organization
of society depends therefore not only on circumstances
and events, but first of all on the formation of the indi-
viduals and their inner orientation.

The Greeks, e.g., had as the basis of their social
constitution the formation of the personality. Their
leader, in later times, Alexander the Great, conquered
with but few men the whole of present day Persia. Let
us also look at the Muslims : they represent a formidable
union, not so much on account of their laws and leaders,
but because they are united in cohesion by a common
ideal. Periodically they take to the road in masses and

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

go as pilgrims to Mecca. These pilgrims do not know
each other, they have no private interests nor ambition :
they are all individually directed towards the same goal.
Nobody pushes them on, nobody commands them, and
yet they are capable of immense sacrifices to achieve
their aims. These pilgrimages are accomplished only
by cohesion.

In the history of Europe during the Middle Ages
we see something that the leaders of our war-torn times
try in vain to achieve : then there were really the United
Nations of Europe. And how did it happen ? The
secret of this success lay in the fact that all the indi-
viduals of the nations and European empires had been
conquered by one and the same religious faith which
formed a formidable force of cohesion. Then we really
saw kings and emperors each ruling his own people
according to his own laws, but all subject to and depen-
dent on the force of Christianity. Cohesion, however,
does not suffice to construct a society which acts
practically upon the world creating civilizations by means
of intelligence and labour. In our own times, we
observe the Jews who are united by a millenarian force of
cohesion : but they are not organized and do not exist
as a national power. They are only the woof of
a people.

It is noteworthy that in the most recent times we
had a new example of this in history. Mussolini and
Hitler were the first to realize that in order to achieve

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

success in conquest the individuals should be prepared
from their very infancy. The " Figli della Lupa" (sons
of the wolf the name of the organization of Fascist
children) and the " Balilla italiani" (name of the organi-
zation of older children) just as the " Hitler Jugend "
(Hitler Youth, as the Nazi youth organization was called)
were set up years before these two leaders began to step
up the armament of their countries in view of war.
They prepared the children and the youths during the
years of schooling and imposed upon them from the
outside an ideal that would unite them. This was a new,
logical and scientific procedure whatever its moral value
may have been. These leaders understood the need to
have a " cohesive society " as the basis of their plans
and prepared it from infancy.

The cohesive society, however, is a natural fact and
must be constructed spontaneously on the creative urges
of nature. Nobody can substitute himself for God and
whoever tries to do so in society becomes a devil like
the adult who in his pride crushes by repression the
creative energies of the child-personality. Also the
force of cohesion in adults is something which is attached
to cosmic directives, to ideals superior to the mechanism
of organization. There ought to be two societies,
interwoven among themselves, one of them, we might
say, has its roots in the subconscious and creative
unconscious mind, the other depends upon men who
act consciously. We could also express it as follows :

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

one begins in childhood and the other is superimposed
upon it by the adult, because, as we have seen in
the beginning of this volume, it is the absorbent mind
of the child which incarnates the characteristics of
the race. Which are the characteristics it incarnates
almost as if it realized another form of heredity found
only in man ; a heredity which does not depend upon
the hidden genes of the germinative cell, but comes from
the other creative centre, the child ? The characteristics
which the child incarnates when he lives as a spiritual
embryo are not the discoveries of the intellect, nor of
human labour, but those characters which are found in
the cohesive part of society. He, the child, gathers
them and incarnates them. By means of these charac-
teristics he builds his personality : thus he becomes a
man with a particular language, a particular religion,
a particular set of customs. What is fixed, and funda-
mental, what is ' basic ', to use a fashionable term, in
an everchanging society is its cohesive part.

When we leave the child to develop, when we
leave him to build up the adult man from the invisible
roots of creation, then we can learn the secrets upon
which depends our individual and social strength.

Instead of this and we have only to look about to
see it 'nowadays men only judge and act and regulate
themselves by the conscious and organizatory part of
society. They wish to strengthen and assure the organi-
zation as if they alone were its creators. They have no

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

consideration for the bases indispensable to that
organization. They only allow for human direction
and their aspiration goes towards the discovery of a
leader.

How many hope for a new Messiah, for a genius
of conquering and organizing power ! After the first
world-war it was proposed to found schools for the pre-
paration of leaders, because it was seen that those there
were had insufficient training and were unfit to direct
world events. There were really attempts to try and
find out by means of mental tests which were the super-
normal persons, youths who in their school years were
the most intelligent, in order to train them for leadership.
But who could train them if precisely there are no good
leaders, teacher-leaders ?

It is not the leaders who are lacking, or rather the
question is not limited to this detail. The question is
much vaster and it is the masses themselves who are
completely unprepared for the social life of our actual
civilization. The problem, therefore, is to train the
masses, to re-constitute the character of all the individuals,
to harvest the treasures hidden in everyone of them and
to develop their values. No leader can achieve this,
however great his genius may be.

Just as a great literary genius would not be sufficient
to make literates out of millions of illiterates, even if he
had unlimited powers, because it would be necessary
for those millions to learn how to read and to write r

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

each one individually, (and this can be done by children
only), so also in this far greater question.

This is the most practical and urgent task of our
critical times. The fact is that the human masses are
inferior to what they could be. We saw it in the diagram
of the two forces of * attraction, one coming from the
centre and the other from the periphery. The great task
of education must consist directly in trying to save
normality which on its own strength tends towards a
centre of perfection. Now, instead, all that is done is to
prepare artificially weak and abnormal men, predisposed
to mental diseases, in need of unceasing care and small
exercises in virtue so that they may not fall towards the
periphery where, once fallen, they become extra-social
beings. This which actually happens now is really a
crime of lese-humanity which has a repercussion on
everyone of us and which may yet destroy us. The
mass of illiterates which covers half of the surface of the
earth does not really weigh upon society ; what does
weigh upon it is the fact that we are ignorant regarding
the creation of man, that we trample upon the treasures
deposited by God himself in every child without even
being aware of it, because here is the source of the
intellectual and moral values which can raise the whole
world upon a higher plane. We weep in front of the
dead and we aspire towards saving humanity from
destruction, but it is not the salvation from dangers, it is
the elevation that is the destiny of everyone of us which

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should stand before our mind's eye. It is not death, but
the lost paradise that should afflict us.

The greatest danger lies in our ignorance, in the
ignorance of us who look for pearls in oyster shells, for
gold in rocks, for coal in the very entrails of the earth,
but ignore the spiritual germs, the nebulae of creation,
which the child hides within himself when he comes into
our world to renew mankind.

If this spontaneous organization and the possibility
to move easily and at will from one class to another were
allowed for in ordinary schools, it would bring a great
betterment, because in the ordinary schools people start
from the opposite point of view. They believe children
are not active in learning and so they urge or encourage,
punish or give prizes to foster activity. Competition
also they use as an encouragement to give animation
to effort. People generally seem to be animated by
a search for the evil in whatever there is in order to fight
against it. The attitude of the adult is to seek evil to
suppress it, then to criticize and judge malevolently is a
necessity. But the correction of an error is a humiliation
and discouragement and as this is the basis of education
generally, the whole of it is based on a lowering of the
level of life. No copying allowed, so no union, it is a
sin in the school to help an inferior pupil ; the pupil
who helps one who does not know his work is con-
sidered as guilty as the one who accepts the help, so a
morality is imposed which lowers the level. Again we

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

hear all the time " Don't fidget ! ", " Don't prompt ! ",
44 Don't help ! " " Don't answer when not asked ! " All
DON'Ts, all negations. What must we do with this
situation > Even if the average teacher did try to uplift
his class, he would do it in a way opposite to that of the
children. The maximum he would say is probably :
44 Don't be envious if one is better than you " or " Don't
seek revenge if someone has upset you ". Ordinary
education apparently cannot be understood without
negation. The general idea is that everyone is wrong
and we must help them to become less wrong than they
are. But children do things that do not occur to the
teacher ; they would admire the one who was better
than they, not merely be just * not envious'. One
cannot however command admiration of a rival, so the
teacher is limited. What can she do ? Certain attitudes
of the spirit cannot be commanded if they do not exist.
If the existence however is there and is instinctive
(as it is) then how important it is to hold and encourage
it. It is the same with the law : " Don't seek revenge.'*
The child frequently makes one who hurts him or takes
his place in the lime-light his friend, but one cannot
command that. One must have sympathy and love for
those who do evil, but it is not possible to command that.
One must give help to the incapable, but one cannot
command that. So there are sentiments in the soul of
the child which cannot be commanded, but are there
naturally and should be upheld. Unfortunately they are

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

generally stifled and all the work in schools is in the inferior
white zone of figure 14, with its pull towards the
periphery of the anti-social and the extra-social. The
teacher first thinks that the child is incapable and must
be made capable, then he proceeds to do so by saying :
" Don't do this or that " ; " Don't slide to the periphery "
in other words. An effort is made to keep the sliders
from sliding and that is all. But all the time normalized
children are showing us an exaggeration of good instead
of this emphasis on avoiding evil. The interruption of
work by the hours fixed by a time-table and the periods
of rest is also negative. " Don't work too hard at one
thing or you will be tired ", whereas the child shows
clearly the desire for the maximum effort. The ordinary
schools could never help the creative instincts of children,
because there is an exaggeration of activity on the part
of the child. The exaggerated activity, to work a great
deal, to find all work beautiful, to console the afflicted
and help the weak are all instincts of these young
children. A comparison between the ordinary school
and normalized children reminds me of the Old Testa-
ment of the Bible and the New Testament. The Ten
Commandments of the Old Testament the book of the
old religion are mostly negative : " Don't kill", " Don't
steal ", all don'ts ; these are for inferior people and are
necessary for those who are confused, but the New
Testament shows Christ as similar to the children ; it
says positive things an exaggeration of what one would

360

\tf. f Circles of attraction towards superior and inferior
types

THE ABSORBENT MIND

usually do ; e.g., : " Love your enemy " an exaggera-
tion of positiveness. So also when there came people
who seemed superior to many, who followed the laws
and wanted approbation for that, Christ said : " I have
come for the sinners " (the inferior). To this the children's
nature corresponds. It is an exposition of the exaggera-
tion of good. What, however, are the consequences ?
It is not sufficient to teach these principles to man f nor
is it sufficient for man to have them ; it is useless to
repeat : " Love your enemy ; " even if it is said, it is said
in church, but not on the battlefield, there just the
opposite is done. The people who say : " Don't kill "
are merely drawing attention to the evil in order to protect
themselves, because the good to them is unpractical.
Loving your enemy seems unpractical so it mostly re-
mains an empty ideal.

Why does this happen ? Because the root of good
does not exist in the heart of man ; it may have been
there once, but it is dead, it has disappeared. If during
the whole period of eduation hate, rivalry, competition
have been encouraged, how can we expect people grown
in this atmosphere to be good at twenty or thirty, because
somebody preaches goodness ? I say, it is impossible. No
sensorial organ in the spirit has been prepared to collect
this preaching or if it began to be prepared, it was destroy-
ed, so the preaching flies away on the wings of the wind.

Creative instincts, not preaching are the important
things, because they reveal a reality, young children act

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

as nature urges them to act and not because the teacher
tells them to do so. Good should come about by reci-
procal aid, by union brought about by spiritual cohesion.
This society by cohesion which has been revealed by the
children is the basis of all organization ; that is why I
maintain that it is not we who can teach children between
the ages of three and six years. We can observe in a re-
fined manner and see how development is achieved by
every daily and hourly exercise. That which nature gives
is developed by constant exercise. Nature provides a guide
but it is also revealed that to develop anything in any field,
continuous experience and effort is necessary. If I have
not had the opportunity for this, preaching is useless.
Growth comes from activity, not from intellectual under-
standing, hence the education of small children is im-
portant, and especially between the ages of three and
six years, because this is the embryonic period for the
formation of character and for the formation of society
(just as the period from birth to three years is the
embryonic period for the formation of the psyche ; and
the prenatal period, the embryonic period for the forma-
tion of physical life.) The things that the children carry
out between the ages of three and six do not depend on
doctrine, but on a divine directive given by God to the
spirit undergoing construction. They are germs of
behaviour and can develop only with the right environ-
ment of freedom and order.

362

CHAPTER XXV
ERROR AND ITS CONTROL

WHEN we say that the children are free in our schools,
organization is necessary, an organization more detailed
than in other schools, so that the children may be free to
Work. The child, by carrying out experiments in a
prepared environment, perfects himself, but a certain
amount of apparatus is then necessary and space is
necessary. Once the child has achieved concentration,
he continues to be concentrated through many activities,
and as he becomes more and more active, the teacher
becomes less and less so, till she is almost put aside.

We have mentioned that through exercises repeated
in freedom the children join together in a special society
and this society is so much more refined than ours that
it inspires the wish and conviction that the children
should be left free and not interfered with. It is a pheno-
menon of life, a phenomenon as delicate as the pheno-
mena of embryonic life and it should not be touched. If
these conditions are present it can happen with any of
our materials.

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

In this environment there is a definite relation
between the teacher and the child. The teacher's task,
which is determined in detail, shall be outlined in another
chapter, but one of the things she must not do is to
interfere, to praise, to punish or to correct errors. This
seems a wrong principle to most educationists and when
we find them opposed to our method, it is always on this
point. They say : " How can we improve the children's
work if we do not correct the errors ? " In ordinary
education the fundamental task is to correct both in the
moral and intellectual field, else the teacher does not feel
she has done her job. Education walks on the two feet
of the giving of prizes and of giving punishments ; but
if a child is given prizes and punishments it means that
he does not have the energy to guide himself and that the
teacher is hovering over the child and directing him. In
our schools they automatically disappeared because there
was no need for them. Prizes and punishments come
from outside, so when they are given the spontaneity
of spirit disappears ; and as this is a method of sponta-
neity, it makes no sense to give prizes or punishments.
This is so difficult to understand that even in so-called
Montessori schools they are given ; how often have I
been invited to a prize-giving in such * Montessori '
schools ! Whereas if the children are given freedom,
they are absolutely indifferent to prizes.

In my first experiment, the teacher who was, as I
have mentioned, the caretaker's daughter, also had this

364

THE ABSORBENT MIND

idea of prizes and punishments. After all it is so
common in the home as well as in the school, that it is
almost incarnated in the soul of man. I was against it
then, but had no method as yet, and I tolerated it because
the poor teacher had to have something to do. She
made big * military ' crosses in gold or silver paper as
rewards and pinned them to the breasts of the children
rewarded, with a silk ribbon. 1 did not think much of
the idea, but I left it alone. One day I went to the
school and found a child seated all by himself on a
chair in the middle of the room and wearing a large
cross. I asked : " Have you given a prize to this one ? "
The teacher said : " No, he was being punished ; that is
why he is sitting alone/* The cross had actually been
given to another child, but it was in his way as he
worked, so he gave it to the child in the middle who had
nothing to do and with whom it would not interfere !
And the child in the middle was indifferent both to the
cross and to the punishment ! We found also that sweets
and such rewards were not appreciated.

The abolition of prizes might not have aroused much
trouble, because after all it would mean an economy.
Only a few get them in any case, and those at the end of
the year. But punishments ! That was a different
matter, they happen every day throughout the year and
' corrections * are still more frequent. What does this
correction, in copy-books for example, mean ? It means
putting a mark A, B, or C or 10 or 0. How can the

365

THE ABSORBENT MIND

marking of a zero be a correction ? Then the teacher
says : " You always make the same errors ; you don't
listen when I speak ; you will fail in the examination ".
All these corrections in books and these accusations of
the teacher result in a lowering of energy and interest.
To say : " You are bad " or " You are a dunce " is
humiliating ; it is an insult, an offence, but it is not a
correction, because in order to correct oneself one must
become better, and how can a child become better if he
is below level already and then we humiliate him further ?
In olden times teachers used to put donkey's ears to
children when they were stupid, and beat the tips of the
fingers of those who could not write. If they had used
all the paper in the world making donkey's ears and
beaten the fingers to pulp, they would have corrected
nothing. Experience and exercise alone correct errors,
and the acquisition of faculties demands long exercise. If
a child lacks discipline he becomes disciplined through
work and association with others in a society of cohesion,
not by telling him that he is undisciplined. If you tell a
child he cannot do something, he could quite easily tell
you : " You are telling me that ? I know I can't."
That is not correction, but a presentation of facts.
Correction and perfection come only when the child
can exercise himself in freedom for a sufficiently
long time.

Errors can be made and the children may not always
see them, but teachers also can make errors and not know

366

THE ABSORBENT MIND

they are errors. Unfortunately the teacher usually starts
as if she were a perfect being and an example, so if she
makes a mistake she certainly does not tell the child
about it. Her dignity is based on always being right.
In the ordinary school she must be infallible, so the whole
of education there is on a false basis.

Let us consider error itself. It is necessary to admit
that we all make errors ; it is a reality of life so that
admission in itself is a great step in our progress. If we
are to walk on the path of truth and reality we must
admit that we all make mistakes or else we should be
perfect. So the best thing is to become friendly with the
error and then it will not frighten us any more, but will
be a friendly person living among us and will perform its
task, because it has one. Many errors are corrected
spontaneously through life. A child of one year walking
on the line, walks unsteadily, rolls, falls, but finally it
walks correctly. He corrects his errors through growth
and experiences. We have an illusion that we are walking
along the path of life towards perfection, we are all the
time making errors and do not correct them. We do
not recognize them, so we are out of reality altogether
and in illusion. The teacher who poses as perfect and
does not recognize that she makes errors, is not a good
teacher. No matter where we look, we always find
Gentleman Error ! If we set out on the path towards
perfection, we must look carefully at error, because
perfection will come by correcting it. We should use a

367

THE ABSORBENT MIND

light to show the error. We must know there is error as
there is life ; it is as real as that.

The exact sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry,
etc.) have called attention to errors, because these
sciences purposely make them stand out. The scientific
study of error has begun with the positive sciences, those
which are considered to be without error, because they
measure exactly and can appreciate error. There are
therefore two things in life : (i) to reach a certain exact-
ness : (ii) to appreciate error in exactness. Whatever
science gives, she gives as an approximation, not as an
absolute, and this approximation is considered with the
result. For example, an anti-microbe injection is certain in
95% of the cases, but it is important to know that there is
5% uncertainty. Also in taking a measurement it is stated
correct to so many thousandths of an inch. In science
no data are given or accepted unless with the indication
of probable error and what gives importance to the data
is the calculation of the error. No data are considered
seriously, unless the amount of probable error is given
and attached to the result, it is as important as the result
itself. So if it is so important for the exact sciences, how
much more important it is for our work. Then error
becomes something interesting and important, and the
knowledge of it is necessary for correcting or controlling.

We then reach a scientific principle, which is also a
principle of truth, i.e., the ' control of error/ In whatever
is done in school by teacher or children or by others,

368

THE ABSORBENT MIND

there must be error and this must so enter into the school-
life that there is no outside correction, but an individual,
independent control of error, that tells us whether we are
right or not. I must know whether I have worked rightly
or not, therefore error becomes interesting to me whereas
before it was superficial. In the usual school one makes
errors without knowing it, unconscious and indifferent
to it, for it is not I, but the teacher who makes me
conscious of errors. How far off from the field of free-
dom ! If 1 do not have the ability of controlling my error,
I have to go to someone else who may know no better
than I. Instead, how important one becomes, when one
knows one is making mistakes and can control them !
One of the greatest realizations of psychic freedom is
to realize that we may make a mistake and can control
it ; to recognize and control error without help. One
thing that makes for indecision of character is that we
are unable to control anything without the help of someone
else. There is a sense of inferiority, of discouragement
and a lack of confidence, when one has to rely on others
to tell one where one is wrong. So the control of error
becomes the guide which tells us whether we are proceed-
ing on the right path or not. We have an instinct to go
towards perfection ; we want to be able to know for
ourselves whether we are on the right path.

Supposing I want to go somewhere and I can drive
a car, but I do not know the road ; this often happens
in life. In order to be sure that I go right, I take a map ;

369

24

THE ABSORBENT MIND

also I see several signs which tell me where I am.
I may have been seeing signs which said " 2 miles to
Ahmedabad," but if then I suddenly see a sign that
says " 50 miles to Bombay ", I know I have gone wrong
somewhere. The map and the signs have helped me ;
if I had had no map I should have had to ask and be
told many things probably contradictory in their advice.
If there is no guide or control it is impossible to go on.

What is necessary therefore in positive science and
in practical life must also be included in education from
the very beginning : the possibility of a control of error.
So with the teaching and the material must go the
control of error. The way to go forward is to have
freedom and a sure way, with the means of telling
ourselves when we make a mistake. When this principle
is realized in the school and in practical life, it does not
matter whether the teacher or the mother is perfect or
not. Errors in older people become interesting and the
children have sympathy with them. It becomes some-
thing interesting, but completely detached. It becomes
an inherent fact in nature, and how much affection it
provokes in the hearts of children that we can all make
mistakes. Another factor enters the relationship between
mother and child. The fact that we can all make mis-
takes makes us more friendly. Brotherhood comes along
the path of errors, not along the path of perfection.
If one is perfect one cannot change any more, two
* perfect * people together usually fight, because there is

370

THE ABSORBENT MIND

no possibility of change and of understanding each other.
If one has grown up without error, there is no progress
and no help possible, because one cannot help the
perfect. If, therefore, we think we are perfect, we are not
in the field of truth ; one is misled by the illusion of
perfection one puts before one's eyes, but never achieves.
Let us make a geometrical comparison : we can
superimpose squares one on the other, as is done in one
of our children's exercises with inscribed squares. As
we continue inscribing squares to a further and further
degree, we gradually reduce the difference between the
last one and that immediately before it. If we think of
this as gradually reducing the * error * between the
squares, we find that, however small it eventually becomes,
yet we never reach the complete elimination of error.
Let us look at one of the earliest practical exercises
the children do. We have cylinders all of the same
height, but differing in diameter which fit into corres-
ponding sockets. Recognizing that they differ is first
perfectionment, holding them with three fingers is another
perfectionment. The child begins to place them in their
sockets, but when he has finished he sees that he has
made a mistake for a thick one is left whilst there is only
a thin hole for it to fill, and some of the others are loose
and rattle, so he looks at them again and observes them
more carefully than before. The child knows he can
make a mistake and that if he does so, one cylinder
cannot be fitted. If there were not this possibility of

371

THE ABSORBENT MIND

mistake there would not be the same interest. It is this
that makes him repeat the exercise again and again. So
the material has two requirements to meet : (i) to refine
the senses of the child, (ii) to provide a possibility of
control of error.

The above mentioned material has a control of
error which is very material and visible, so a little child
of two years can use it and with it acquire the knowledge
of control of error on the path to perfection. With daily
practice in such exercises the child gains power to control
error and becomes sure of himself. To be sure of oneself
does not mean perfection, but it means to know one's
possibilities and, therefore, to be able to do something.
He may say : " I am not perfect ; I am not omnipotent
but I know this thing and my strength and I also know
that I can make mistakes and control them, so I am sure
of my path." There is prudence, certainty and experience.
These lead towards perfection, not that some one says,
one is this, that or the other. In other words to arrive at
this sureness is not so simple as one supposes ; to be on
the path towards perfection is not so simple either. To
tell anyone he is silly, stupid, brave, good or bad is a
betrayal of humanity ; one must be sure for oneself and it
is necessary to give the means of development and the
control of error for this.

Let us look a little later at a child thus trained.
There are mathematical exercises, e.g., multiplication
sums. With the sum there is a table of multiplication^

372

THE ABSORBENT MIND

which serves as a control of error. Without it there is no
possibility of being sure whether one is right ; so instead
of the teacher correcting, we let the child get into the
habit of controlling his own errors. This control of error
is more attractive than the exercise itself. So with
reading. The child has an exercise of written cards to
put with the specimens of those names, and then there
are cards with the names written underneath to control
his work. The attraction is in finding out whether he
was right or not.

If in the practice of school-life there comes this
opportunity for constant control of error, this leads to
perfection. The interest in the progress to perfection and
the control of error is so important to the child that
progress is ensured. By nature the child leans to exact-
ness and so this control interests him very much. In
one of our schools a child had a reading command
which said : " Go out, close the door and come back ".
The child studied it and started to carry it out ; then she
came to the teacher and said : " Why did you write it
like this ? It cannot be done. How can I come back if
the door is closed > " So the teacher said : " Yes, my
mistake/* and rewrote it, and the child said with a
smile, " Yes, now I can do it."

Fraternity arises from this interest in the control of
error. Error divides men, but control of error is a means
of fraternity. It becomes a universal interest to overcome
error no matter where it is found. The error itself

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

becomes interesting. It becomes a link and certainly it
becomes a means of cohesion among all beings, but
especially between the child and the adult. Finding a
small error in the adult does not lead to lack of respect
or a lowering of dignity. Error is detached from the
person and made a thing apart which can be controlled.
Thus simple steps lead to great things.

374

CHAPTER XXVI
THE THREE DEGREES OF OBEDIENCE

THE main preoccupations in ordinary character education
concern the will and obedience, and generally the two
ideas are opposed in the minds of those preoccupied with
them. One of the main aims is to curb the will of the
child, to substitute for it the will of the adult and to
demand obedience from him.

I would like to clarify these ideas, basing myself not
on any opinion of my own, but on my experience. First
of all we must admit that there is a great confusion in
these topics. Some biological studies tell us that the will
of man is part of a universal power (horme), and that
this universal force is not physical, but a force of life
along the path of evolution. All life is urged irresistibly
towards evolution, and this urge is called horme*
Evolution is governed by laws and is not haphazard or
casual. These laws of life show us that the will of man
is an expression of that force and shapes his behaviour.
In childhood this force becomes partly conscious as soon
as the child carries out a certain self-determined action and

375

THE ABSORBENT MIND

then this force is developed in children, but only through
experience. So let us begin by saying that the will is
something which must develop and, being natural, it
obeys natural laws.

Confusion in this subject is also shown by the
thought that the voluntary actions of children are
naturally disorderly and sometimes violent. This is so
generally admitted because people see these sorts of
actions in the child and think they express his will. It is
not so, these actions do not belong to the field of the
universal force or horme. Let us consider the behaviour
of adults ; suppose we mistook convulsions in a man for
voluntary manifestations, or actions performed in a
frenzy of anger to be directed by his will, that would
clearly be absurd. We do not think so ; we think of a
person of will primarily as someone who carries out
something purposive and difficult. If we consider
voluntary actions to be mainly disorderly movement in
adult or child, then of course we feel we must curb the
will, or ' break it ' as the older generation used to say ;
and if we find it necessary to break this ' will ', then, of
course, we must substitute our will for the child's by
means of his * obedience ' to us.

The real fact is that the will of man (child) does not
lead to disorder or violence ; these are a mark of devia-
tion and suffering. The will in its natural field is a force
which compels us to carry out actions considered to
benefit our life. The task given by nature to the child is

376

THE ABSORBENT MIND

growth, so the child's will is a force urging to growth and
development.

A will that wills what the individual does enters
upon a road of conscious development. Our children
choose their own work spontaneously and, repeating this
exercise of choice, develop a consciousness of their
actions. What at first was a hormic impulse urging the
child to act now becomes an effort of the will. At first
he acted instinctively, now he acts consciously and
voluntarily : this is an awakening of the spirit.

The child himself has understood this difference and
expressed it in a way that will ever be a precious remem-
brance of our experience. A society lady once visited
the school and, having the old frame of mind, said to a
child : " So, this is a place where you do what you like,
is it not ? " The child answered : " No, Madam, we do
not do what we want, we want what we do." The child
felt the difference between doing what one likes and
liking what one does.

One thing ought to be clear : the conscious will is a
power which is developed by means of exercise, of work.
Our aim is definitely to cultivate the will, not to break it.
The will can be broken almost instantaneously, the deve-
lopment of the will is a slow process unfolding itself by
means of continuous activity carried out in relation to
the environment. It is easy enough to destroy ; the
devastation of a building can be accomplished in a few
seconds by a bomb or an earthquake. How difficult

377

THE ABSORBENT MIND

instead is the construction of a building ! It requires
accurate knowledge of the laws of equilibrium, of tension,,
even art is necessary in order to achieve a harmonious
construction.

If all this is needed to achieve a lifeless construction,
how much more for the construction of the human soul I
It takes place from within. The constructor, therefore^
can be neither the mother nor the teacher. They are not
the architects, they are not almighty to say, like God in
the Bible : " Let there be light, and the light was made/*
They can only help the creative work that comes from
the child himself. That should be their function and
their aim, but it is equally in their power to destroy it, to
break it by repression. This point, darkened by so many
prejudices, deserves to be made clear.

The prejudice prevailing in ordinary education
suggests that everything can be achieved by mere teach-
ing (that is by directly addressing the child's hearing) or
by upholding oneself as an example to be imitated (whick
is a kind of visual education). The personality instead
can only develop by means of individual exercise,
through activity. The child is commonly considered as
a receptive being instead of as an active individual. This
happens in every field. Even the development of the
imagination is considered in this fashion. Children are
told fairy tales, enchanting scenes of princes and lovely
fairies and thus one tries to develop the imagination.
The child, however, then only receives impressions and

37S

THE ABSORBENT MIND

does not really develop his imaginative powers which are
the highest of human intelligence. In the case of the
will this error is still more serious, because ordinary
education does not only deny the will a chance to
develop, it actually obstructs this development and
directly inhibits the expression of the will. Every attempt
at resistance on the part of the child is repressed as a
form of rebellion against this pretension. The educator
really tries to destroy the child's will. The educative
principle of teaching by example does not lead the
teacher to picture a phantastic world of princes and
fairies, here the teacher goes as far as to uphold himself
as a model. And so both imagination and will remain
inert, their activity is confined to follow the teacher who
tells stories and who acts.

We must deliver ourselves of these illusions and
courageously face reality.

In traditional education the teacher reasons in a way
which in itself may seem logical enough. It runs like
this : "In order to educate I must be good and perfect
(this means that I must disguise myself as a kind of
Father Christmas who offers gifts to the children). I
know what should be done and what should not be done.
It is, therefore, sufficient that the children imitate me and
obey me." Obedience is the secret basis of teaching.

I do not remember which renowned educationist
pronounced the maxim : " All the virtues of the child
can be resumed in one : obedience/' but there it is.

379

THE ABSORBENT MIND

The task of the teacher then becomes easy and
exalting ! He says : " In front of me there is an empty
being or a being full of naughtiness 1 shall now trans-
form him creating him almost to my image and likeness/*
He repeats to himself the words of the Bible : " and
God created man to His own image and likeness."

The adult, of course, is unconscious of thus putting
himself in God's place. He forgets above all the other
part of the biblical story where it is told how the devil
became such precisely on account of his pride urging him
to take the place of God.

The poor child ! this being who bears within him-
self the work of a Creator much greater than the teacher,
the father or the mother whose likeness he is forced to
acquire. In other times teachers used the stick to achieve
this aim and even recently in an otherwise highly
civilized nation teachers declared : "If we must renounce
the stick, we must also renounce education." Besides,
in the Bible we find among the proverbs of Solomon the
famous one declaring that if we do not use the stick we
are bad parents because we condemn our children to
hell. Discipline is enforced by threats and fear. This
leads to the conclusion that the child who does not obey
is bad, the child who obeys is good.

In this era of the theories of democracy and liberty,
when we ponder over this attitude, we are inclined to
judge the old type of teacher as that of a tyrant. This,
however, would not be true, that kind of teacher is not a

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

tyrant. A tyrant is much more intelligent. Tyrants
have a certain will-power, some originality and a certain
dose of imagination. Teachers of the old type instead
have only illusions and prejudices and uphold unreason-
able rules. The difference between a tyrant and an old
fashioned teacher lies in this : the tyrant uses violent
means to achieve the success of his aims, the teacher
uses violent means to reach the failure of his aims. It
is a fundamental error to think that the will of the in-
dividual must be destroyed in order that he may obey,
i.e., that he may accept and execute the decision of
somebody else's will. If we applied this reasoning to
intellectual education we ought to say that it is necessary
to destroy the child's intelligence in order that he may
receive our culture in his own mind.

To obtain the obedience of individuals who have
well developed their own will, but decide to follow ours
by their own free choice, is very different indeed.
This latter type of obedience is an act of homage,
an acknowledgment of a superiority in the teacher,
which could make him feel proud and satisfied of
himself.

Will and obedience are connected in as much as the
will is the foundation and obedience marks a second phase
in a process of development. Obedience has thus a higher
meaning than is generally realized in education. It
may be considered as a sublimation of the indivi-
dual will.

38!

THE ABSORBENT MIND

Also obedience must be interpreted in a way which
places it among the phenomena of life and can then be
considered as one of the characteristics of nature.

In our children, in fact, we witness the develop-
ment of obedience as a kind of evolution. It appears
spontaneously, as a surprise. It represents the destina-
tion of a long process of perfectionment.

If there were not this quality in the human soul, if
men could not reach the point of being able to obey
by an evolutional process, society could not exist. If
we throw but a superficial glance at the affairs of the
world we easily discover up to what extent people obey.
This kind of obedience is exactly the reason that causes
whole groups of humanity to fall into a chasm of des-
truction. An obedience without control, an obedience
leading whole nations to disaster. There is no lack of
obedience in the world, far from it ! Obedience as a
natural consequence of the development of the human
soul is very evident indeed, but the control of obedience
is sadly lacking.

Our observation of children in a environment pre-
pared to help their natural development has clearly
shown us the growth of obedience as one of its most
characteristic coefficients and this observation throws a
great deal of light upon the subject.

We have clearly seen in the course of our experience
that obedience in children is developed in the same way
as the other qualities of the character ; it follows hormic

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

urges at first, then passes on to a conscious level where
it is further developed along several degrees.

Let us first specify what we really and practically
mean by obedience. It is after all what has always
been meant by it : a teacher commanding the children
what to do and the children obeying the command by
realizing it.

The natural development of obedience in the child
can be divided according to three degrees.

In the first degree the child obeys only occasionally,
not always. This fact which could be attributed to
whimsical behaviour, should be analysed.

Obedience is not connected only with what is usually
called " willingness ", it depends on facts of formation.
A certain ability and a certain measure of maturity are
necessary in order to be able to perform the commanded
action. Obedience, therefore, should be judged in relation
to development and vital conditions. It is impossible
to command " walk on your nose ", because this is
physiologically impossible. Neither is it possible to
command " write a letter" to a person who cannot
write. It is necessary, therefore, to establish first the
material possibility to obey in relation to the development
reached. That is why a child of to 3 years of age is
not an obedient child, he has not yet constructed himself.
He is taken up by the unconscious elaboration of the
mechanisms of his personality and has yet to reach
the point where he can establish them so that they

383

THE ABSORBENT MIND

may serve his own purpose in order to then domi-
nate them consciously. This represents a progress in
development. In fact, the customs and the ways in
which adult and child live together have led the adult not
to expect obedience from a child of 2 years of age. At
this stage the adult can only inhibit more or less violently
the actions of such an undeveloped child, should he
reprove them.

Obedience, however, does not consist of inhibition
only. It consists of the performance of actions corres-
ponding to the will of another person, not to that of the
child himself. Although the life of an older child is not
taken up by the same primitive preparation which we
mentioned for the child between and 3 years of age,
where it takes place in the secrecy of his life, even at
this later stage we find analogous facts. Also the older
child must have developed certain abilities in order that
he may obey, i.e., that he may act according to the will
of another, and abilities are not developed over night.
They are the result of an interior formation passing
through several stages. As long as this period of forma-
tion lasts it may happen that now and then the child
succeeds in performing an action which corresponds to an
acquisition just made, but only when the acquisition has
become a permanent asset can the will dispose of it.
This is also seen when the child labours to make those
primitive mechanical acquisitions of the motor functions,
when he acts under the compulsion of the hormic urges

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

of life. A child of about 1 year of age can make his
first steps, but then he falls down and perhaps he will
not be able to repeat them for a long time. It is only
when the mechanism of walking is completely established
that the child can walk whenever he likes. This is a
very important point. The obedience of the child at this
later stage depends above all on the stage of develop-
ment of his capacities. It may therefore happen that he
can obey the teacher once, but not after that. This
inability to repeat the act of obedience is then attributed
to " unwillingness ". If so, the teacher with her insistence
and criticism may become an obstacle to the inner deve-
lopment that is taking place. In the history of Pestalozzi,
the famous Swiss educationist, who had such a great
influence on education in schools all over the world, we
find a very noteworthy point. Pestalozzi was the first to
introduce a so-called paternal gentleness in the treatment
of pupils. He was always ready to show sympathy and
to forgive. One thing, however, was not included in his
forgiveness ; whimsical behaviour, a child now obeying
then disobeying. Who had once executed a com-
mand was capable of it and if at another time he
did not obey the same command, Pestalozzi would
not admit any excuse. That was the only time
when he showed himself severe instead of indulgent.
If this happened in the case of Pestalozzi, how
often will not ordinary teachers commit the same
mistake !

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25

THE ABSORBENT MIND

On the other hand nothing is more harmful than
discouragement at the very time when a facet of develop-
ment is being constructed. When the child is not yet
really master of his own actions, when they do not yet
obey his own will, he is even less able to correspond to
the will of another person. That is why it may happen
that he obeys once, being unable to repeat this act of
obedience. This does not even happen in childhood
alone. How often will a beginner who plays a musi-
cal instrument play a piece quite nicely whilst he is
unable to do it a second time ? The day after he will be
asked to do it again, but he cannot do it as well as he
did the day before. The willingness to do so is not at
fault, but we face an imperfectly established ability.

What we call the first degree of obedience, therefore,
is the period when a child can obey, but is not always
able to do so. It is a period when obedience and disobe-
dience exist together.

The second degree is reached when the child can
always obey, i.e. there are no obstacles concerning
development. His abilities firmly acquired can be called
upon and directed not only by his own will, but also
by the will of another person. This possibility is a
great gift. We could compare it to the ability to translate
from one language into another. The child can absorb
the will of another person and act accordingly. This
is the highest level which generally education tries to
reach. The ordinary teacher does not aspire after a

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

stage beyond that when the child obeys all the time. The
young child, however, goes far beyond our expectations,
as always when he is given the opportunity to follow the
laws of nature. The child does not stop here, but goes
on towards the : third degree of obedience. Here obedience
surpasses the relation to an acquired ability which brings
it within reach of the child. Here obedience is directed
towards a superior personality, towards the teacher who
has served and helped the child. It is as if the child
became conscious of the fact that the teacher is capable
of things higher than those which he could do by himself.
It is as if he said to himself : " This person who is greater
than I am can penetrate into my intelligence by her
power, she can make me as great as she is herself. She
acts in me ! " This thought seems to give the^child a
great and deep joy. To be able to receive directions
from this superior life causes a new form of enthusiasm
and joy. It is quite a sudden discovery. The child then
becomes anxious and impatient to obey. To what could
we compare this marvellous natural phenomenon ? Per-
haps to the spirit of the Saint who said : " I am leaping to
obey." Or we might compare it, on quite another plane,
to the instinct of the dog who loves his master and
through his obedience executes the will of a man. When
his master shows him a ball, the dog looks at it intensely
and when the master throws it away, he jumps and
triumphantly returns it waiting for the next command.
The dog is craving for commands, he is excited and

387

THE ABSORBENT MIND

waves his tail full of joy. He runs to obey. The third
degree of obedience of the young child is somewhat
similar, but the child shows his desire to obey in a
different manner. In any case, he obeys with a surpris-
ing promptitude, and seems impatient to do so.

The findings of a teacher with ten years* teaching
experience gives an interesting illustration. She had a
class of children which she directed very well, but she
could not abstain from advising them. One day she
said : " Put everything away, before going home to-
night/' The children did not wait for her to end her
sentence, but as soon as they had heard " Put everything
away , . ." they started immediately to put everything care-
fully, but quickly in its place. Then they heard, to their
surprise, " when you go home to-night/' Their obedience
had become so instantaneous that the teacher felt that
she had to be very careful in the wording of her requests.
This time she ought to have expressed herself like this :
" Before you go home to-night, put everything in its
place/' She said similar things happened whenever she
expressed herself without due care and she felt very
responsible whenever she spoke on account of the
children's immediate reaction. It was a strange experi-
ence for her, because orders seem the natural attribute
of authority. Instead of feeling the weight she carried,
she keenly felt the tremendous responsibility of her
position of authority. She could obtain silence so easily
that it was only necessary to write the word silence

388

THE ABSORBENT MIND

on the blackboard, and even then, the moment she
started to form the letter ' s f and long before she had
finished the word, all the children were silent.

The Silence Lesson

My own experience, too, which led me to introduce
the ' silence -lesson ', proves this attitude of obedience
which in this case was a phenomenon of collective
obedience. It proved a marvellous and unexpected
correspondence by a whole group of children who almost
identified themselves with me.

Once I came into a class that was already seriously
at work ; the children had already developed their will
I entered this class of forty-five children with a baby of
four months in my arms. It was an old Italian custom
to place a baby's legs together and wrap them tightly
round and round with cloth so that the legs and feet
were perforce quite still and fixed. Showing the baby to
the children I said : " I have brought you a visitor ; see
how still he is ; I am sure you could not keep so still ".
I meant it as a joke and thought they would laugh, but
all became serious and put their legs and feet together
and were still without movement. I thought they had
not understood my joke so I said : " If only you could
feel how gently he breathes ; you could not breathe as
gently as that because your chests are bigger ff . Now, I
thought, they will laugh, but no, they remained with their
feet together and also controlling their breath so that it

389

THE ABSORBENT MIND

should make no noise and they looked seriously at me,

I then said : " I will walk out very quietly, but the baby

will be quieter than I ; he will not move or make any

noise ". I took the child back to its mother and came

back ; they were still there motionless and with a look on

their faces as if to say : " See you made a little noise

but we are as quiet as that baby ". So all the children

had the same will, all were urged to do the same thing,

and the result was a class of forty-five children perfectly

immobile and silent. People would have thought,

" what a wonderful discipline/* and would have wondered

how it was obtained. How ? by an attempt to make

the children laugh ! The result was a silence which was

very striking, so much so that I said " What a silence ! "

and the children seemed to understand and feel the

silence and remained quite still, controlling their breath,

and I began to hear sounds that I had not heard before,

the ticking of the clock, the drip from a leaking tap outside,

the buzzing of flies. Adults generally do not know this

silence ; even in church they get up and kneel down and

move about, put coins in the collection-box, etc. etc. ; so

their idea of silence is very superficial. This silence was

a cause of great joy to the children, and the silence

lesson which is a feature of our schools now, developed

from this experience.

From this exercise of silence could be measured the
strength of will of these children, and with the exercise
the strength of this will became greater and greater and

390

THE ABSORBENT MIND

the period of silence lengthened. So we added to this
the whispering of the name of each child, and as each
heard his name he came quietly while the others re-
mained immobile, and, since each child came carefully
and slowly so as not to make a noise, how long the last
child to be called had to wait ! They therefore had
developed to a great degree their strength of will. When
we say we must teach children to inhibit this or that, we
must remember that children are capable of much greater
inhibition than we are capable of, and after all will and
inhibition give obedience. Inhibition of impulses is one
of the great results of this exercise as well as the control
of one's actions. Hence it came to be a part of our
method : on one side, the will to choose and be freely
active, and on the other side inhibition. The children
thus developed into people of great will ; in that environ-
ment they could do what they willed~act or refrain from
action, and they formed a group wonderful to see.

To have absolute silence we must all agree ; if one
person does not agree, the silence is broken ; therefore a
consciousness comes that we must act together and
produce a result. Thus a conscious social relationship
comes about.

I had unintentionally stimulated this first silence by
bringing the baby into the room, but I could not always
depend on that, so how was I to arouse this interest
again ? I found the best way was by saying simply :
" Would you like to make silence ? " Immediately there

391

THE ABSORBENT MIND

was great enthusiasm and 1 found to my surprise that
I could command silence and the children obeyed me.
The adult gave a command which all obeyed. Obedi-
ence had developed in the children, because all the
elements were there. I merely said something and they
obeyed ; so in developing the will, unseen and un-
expected obedience had come.

Obedience is the last phase of the development of
the will, so the development of the will makes obedience
possible. With our children it leads to a phase when the
teacher, whatever he commands, is promptly obeyed.
What he then feels is that he should be careful not to
take advantage of this type of obedience of the children.
He becomes aware of the real nature of the character
which a leader should have. A leader should feel a
great responsibility for the orders he issues. A leader,
therefore, is not somebody with a sense of great authority,
but somebody with a sense of great responsibility.

392

CHAPTER XXVII
THE MONTESSORI TEACHER

FROM all that we have mentioned it may be understood
that a Montessori teacher has to be quite different from
a teacher in an ordinary school, and one must be careful
not to consider this too superficially, because there are
certain Montessori teachers who take things too literally.
They say : " The children must be active and the
teacher must not interfere ", so they abandon the children
and they do nothing.

In the presentation of the means of development
the teacher has a very active task ; also the fashion in
which they must be presented and their details indicate
a very active teacher ; therefore, the part the teacher
plays is a complex one. It is not that the Montessori
teacher is inactive and the teacher of the ordinary school
active, but all the activities our teacher has to perform
are a preparation, a guidance, and the subsequent
41 inactivity " of the teacher is a sign of success. Complete
outer inactivity of the teacher represents a task
successfully accomplished, we might say it is an ideal

393

THE ABSORBENT MIND

aim, and blessed are the teachers who have brought
their class to the stage where they can say : " Whether
I am present or not, the class functions/* Each child
through his activity has achieved independence and now
the group has achieved independence. That is the mark
of success, but to arrive at this there is a path to follow ;
the teacher too must develop.

One thing we must have clearly before our eyes,
i.e., that the Montessori teacher and the ordinary teacher
are on different levels. One cannot transform an ordinary
teacher into a Montessori teacher ; one must create anew.
To begin with, we might say that thte first step for the
teacher is self -preparation. She has to prepare her
imagination, because in the ordinary school the teacher
knows what her children are like as far as their immediate
behaviour shows and she knows she has to care for them
and bring them up, whereas the Montessori teacher sees
a child who is not there yet, materially speaking. This is
the main difference. Our teachers are on a superior level,
not on the material level. Teachers who come to our
schools must have a sort of faith in the child who will
reveal himself through work. The teacher becomes
detached from any idea regarding the level on which
the children may be. The different types of children r
who are all deviated, do not affect her, she sees a
different type of child who lives in a spiritual field. The
teacher has faith that the children she has actually before
her will show their real self when they find any work

394

THE ABSORBENT MIND

which attracts them. What does she look for ? What
is her expectation ? To wait till one or two of the children
become concentrated.

On the path of the teacher's own spiritual evolution
in this work there are three stages :

First Stage. The teacher becomes the guardian and
custodian of the environment ; she therefore concentrates
on the environment instead of being caught up by all
these deviated children. She concentrates on the environ-
ment because from there the cure will come. The en-
vironment holds the attraction that will polarize the will
of the children. As in our countries where each bride
has her own home and makes it as attractive as possible
for herself and her husband, instead of paying over-much
attention to her husband she pays attention first to the
house in order to make it into an environment in which
a normal and constructive relationship can be formed.
She tries to make it a peaceful, comfortable house, full of
interesting stimuli. In such a house, the essential part
is cleanliness and order : everything in its place, clean,
shining and bright. This is the first care of the wife. In
the school also the first care of the teacher should be
this : order and care of the material so that it be always
beautiful, shining and in repair and nothing missing, so
that everything looks new to the children and is complete
and ready for use at any time. This also means that
the person of the teacher must be attractive. She should
be young, beautiful, with flowers in her hair, scented

395

THE ABSORBENT MIND

with cleanliness, happy and full of dignity. This is the
ideal. Everyone can translate it as they like, but we
must remember that when we present ourselves in front
of children, we must realize they are great people.
The appearance of the teacher is the first step to
real understanding and real respect for the children.
She should study her movements and make them as
gentle and graceful as possible. The child of this age
has a great ideal of his mother ; we don't know of what
type the mother is, but very often we hear a child say
when he sees a beautiful lady : " How beautiful she is,
just like my mother ! " Actually the mother may not be
so beautiful at all, but to the child she is and everyone
whom he admires is " as beautiful as my mother ". So
this care for one's appearance ought also to form part of
the order in the environment of the child ; the most living
part of the environment is the teacher.

This care of the environment then, is the first work
of the teacher and must precede everything else ; it is an
indirect work. Unless it is completely attended to, there
will never be any worthwhile and continuous results in
any other field physical, mental or spiritual.

Second Stage. Now we come to the children,
having first ordered the environment. What to do with
these children still disorderly with these aimlessly wander-
ing minds which we wish to attract in order to fix them
on work > I sometimes use a term which is not always
appreciated : the teacher must be seductive, she must

396

THE ABSORBENT MIND

seduce the children at this stage. Imagine a child enter-
ing a black dirty environment with a dirty teacher and
being given an object to which he is supposed to be
attracted ! Surely the teacher must be attractive first, in
appearance and in manner. In this respect our teachers
and the teachers in ordinary schools may be alike, but
this is all before the period of concentration.

Before concentration sets in the teacher can do
what she likes more or less, because she upsets nothing
important. She can intervene in the children's activities
if necessary. I have read of a Saint who tried to
attract the abandoned boys of the streets of a town
who were learning bad habits. What did he do ? He
tried every means to amuse them. That is what the
teacher must do at this stage. The use of poetry, rhymes,
singing, stories, drama, clowning ; anything is good
enough except the stick. The teacher who fascinates
the children attracts them and this leads to some exercise,
which is not very important but it Joes attract them. A
vivacious teacher can attract more easily, then why not
make use of it ? To say brightly : " Now what about
changing the furniture today " and then work with them,
the teacher herself carrying things carefully and suggest-
ing how to carry, doing all this brightly. Or : " How
about polishing this beautiful brass bowl ? " or : " Shall
we go into the garden and collect some flowers > " If
the teacher is attractive the action will be attractive.

397

THE ABSORBENT MIND

This is the second period in the development of the
teacher. If there is some child who persists in molesting
others at this stage, the practical thing is to interrupt his
actions. Whilst we have said so often that when a child
is concentrated in work one must not, under any circum-
stances, intervene and interrupt his cycle of activity, and
so prevent his full expression, obviously here the contrary
is the right technique : to interrupt and so to break his
thread of disturbing activities. The interruption can be
an exclamation merely, or it can be getting interested in
him ; multiplying your attention to him is like a lot of
electric shocks to him and will bring a reaction in time.
If a child is bothering others, one might say : " How are
you, Johnnie ? Come here, I want to give you some-
thing to do ! " Probably he will not want to do that, so
you say : " So you don't want to do that ) All right,
let's go into the garden then," and go with him or let
your helper take him and then his naughtiness comes
under your care and the children are not troubled.

Third Stage. Now comes the third stage when the
children are interested in something, usually some exer-
cise of practical life, because one cannot give any other
material until one has been able to present it properly
and that we cannot do while they are not concentrated
on anything. When the child becomes interested in an
object, the teacher must not interrupt, because this acti-
vity obeys natural laws and has a cycle ; and if it is
touched, it disappears like a soap-bubble and all its

398

THE ABSORBENT MIND

beauty with it. The teacher must be very careful now,
non-interference means non-interference, in any form.
Often mistakes are made by teachers here. A child who
has been a nuisance, at last does a piece of concentrated
work ; the teacher passes and sees him and says :
44 Good ! " that is enough, the damage is done. The
child will probably not look at work for another two or
three weeks. Also if a child has a difficulty and the
teacher interferes to show how to deal with it, the child
will leave the teacher with the work and go away. The
interest of the child was not in the mere task, but in
conquering that difficulty. " If the teacher is going to
conquer it instead, well let her, my interest is gone.
Also if the child is lifting heavy things, the teacher will
go to help and frequently the child will then just dump
the things and walk off. Praise, help or even noticing a
child are often sufficient interruption to destroy activity.
Indeed, even the child's seeing one looking at him will do
it. After all if we are concentrated in something and
someone comes and looks over our shoulder or looks at us
from somewhere nearby, our concentration disappears. The
great principle which leads to the success of the teacher
is this : as soon as concentration appears, pay no atten-
tion, as if the child did not exist. We can note what he
does in a single glance, without paying any attention that
makes him aware of us. Now the child will begin to
choose his own actions. This may cause problems in a
class where more than one may want the same material.

399

THE ABSORBENT MIND

In the solution of these problems also, we must not
interfere unless we are asked ; the children will solve
them. Our duty is only to present new objects when the
child exhausts the activities possible with the old ones.

This ability of the teacher to refrain from interfering
comes with practice, just as all the other abilities. She
must act as if she were there to serve the children ; if she
wants a good example, she can study a good servant.
He prepares everything that pleases his master, but he
does not tell him what to do. He keeps the master's
hair -brushes in order, but he does not tell him when he
must tidy his hair ; he prepares his food carefully, but he
does not order him to eat. He presents it well and with
exactness and unobtrusiveness and then disappears. So
must we act to this master of ours the growing spirit of
the child. This is the master we serve, the child-spirit.
When he shows a wish, we are ready to satisfy it. The
servant does not intrude on the master if he is alone, but
when the master calls, the servant is immediately there
to do what he wants and he answers : " Yes, sir ". He
admires if asked to do so and says : " How beautiful '*
if that is expected of him, even if he does not see any
beauty himself. So with the child who has done some
concentrated work. We must not intrude, but if he
shows us what he has accomplished and wants our
approbation, we give it generously.

This is the plan and the technique : to serve, and
serve well ; to serve the spirit. This is something new,

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THE ABSORBENT MIND

especially in the realm of education. It is true we would
all like to serve children, but does the ordinary teacher
know how to serve or what to do ? She will see he is
dirty and she will wash him ; that his clothes are in dis-
order and she will dress him. This is the idea of the
ordinary teacher, viz., that if one is to serve children, one
must do everything for them, wash, dress and feed them.
But we are not this type of teacher ; we are not servants
of the body. We know that if a child is to develop, he
must do these things himself. The basis of our teaching
is that the child shall not be served in this sense. The
child must acquire physical independence by being
sufficient unto himself. Independence of will by choosing
alone and freely, independence of thought by working
alone and uninterrupted. The consciousness we have
that development is a straight path to independence must
give us the clue. We must help the child to act by
himself, will for himself, think for himself. This is the art
of the servant of the spirit, an art which can be expressed
perfectly in the field of childhood. It is only then that
we can see the development of those marvellous charac-
teristics in children, that we have talked about.

These qualities of a social being are wonderful to
behold, and the joy of the teacher is to be able to see
the manifestations of the spirit of the child. It is a great
privilege since usually they are hidden, and as they
appear, the teacher who knew of them by the inspiration
of her faith, welcomes them. Here is the child as he

401

26

THE ABSORBENT MIND

should be : the worker who never tires, the calm child,
the child who seeks the maximum effort and who tries to
help the weak, who knows how to respect others and
shows us characteristics which make us know him as the
true child.

So the teacher gradually begins to say : "I know
my children " and by saying that she says : " I have seen
the reality of these facts. I have seen the child as he
should be, a child even superior to what I had supposed/*
This is to have knowledge of childhood. The ordinary
teacher may say : " I know my children ; this is Johnnie,
his father is a carpenter, his mother is a very clever
manager in the home/' " I have been to this little girl's
home ; 1 have eaten with her family ", etc. " I have
given much time and thought to them ; I know them/'
But with our teachers it is not these superficial facts that
they know, but the secret of childhood. They have pene-
trated into this secret and have a knowledge far superior
to ordinary knowledge, just as their love and care was
far superior to that of the ordinary teacher. The Monies-
sori teacher has a deep love because she loves the deep
knowledge of the secret of the children. Perhaps for
the first time one understands what love really is on
these occasions when the child manifests his spirit. " They
are very touching, they touch me so deeply that they
change me as does any love worthy of the name. I
have been so touched that I cannot help talking about it
And what have 1 loved ? These manifestations of the human

402

THE ABSORBENT MIND

spirit. It is these revelations, this spirit which has trans-
formed me. It is possibly the highest form of love, for I
may not remember the child's name, but the manifestation
of the human spirit has deeply moved me, I am in love
with it."

Ordinary teachers say that they love their pupils :
4i When they pass me, I rub their hair or I kiss them.
I enquire after them when they are ill ". But this is
personal love, only. So there are two different levels.
One is material, and on this the whole conception of the
old education is founded. Children are material beings ;
if you think of spiritual things in connection with children,
you think of the prayers or rituals you can teach them.
But our level is spiritual, our love not material. The
children have brought us to it ; so when the teacher says
she knows her children she refers to something superior
which the children have revealed. And when she says :
44 I serve my children ", she means : " I serve the spirit of
man which must liberate itself. I know them, i.e. I
know the spirit of man/'

This difference of level has really been brought about
not by the teacher, but by the children. It is the teacher
who finds herself brought up to this level which she did
not know existed. The child has made the teacher grow
up to his level ; now she is there and she is happy. Her
happiness before was perhaps to have as little to do as
possible and to draw as high a salary as possible and
what other satisfaction ? Perhaps her authority over the

403

THE ABSORBENT MIND

children and her feeling that she is the ideal which the
children follow and whom they obey. She may be satis-
fied by a sense of power and vanity. Perhaps also she
thinks of going a step higher in her material career, to
become a headmistress or inspector. But there is no real
happiness in this. The spiritual happiness that one may
derive from the spiritual manifestations of the children,
these teachers have never felt ; yet to have this one
would be ready to leave the lesser happiness. How
many headmasters and teachers in high schools have
resigned their posts and salaries and gone to little children^
to find this joy > I do know of two doctors of medicine
in Paris who left their profession to do this work in order
to see for themselves these phenomena, and they found
that what they actually did was to pass from a lower
level to a higher one.

What is the greatest height of a Montessori teacher's
success ? To be able to say : " Now the children work as
if I did not exist ". She has become nothing and the
children have become all. The ordinary teacher may
say : " I have brought my children up to this level ;
I have taught this ; I have developed their intellectual
powers ; I have .... I have . . . ." But what have they
done > Nothing. They have not developed ; they have
imposed themselves and crushed and impeded. This is
the crime of the schools, especially at the period of
development before six years. All we should be able to
say is : " I have helped this life to achieve its creation "

404

THE ABSORBENT MIND

and that is real satisfaction. The Montessori teacher of
children up to six years knows she has helped humanity
in an essential period of development. She may not know
anything of the material facts of the children, though actual-
ly some she will be bound to know because the children
will talk to her freely. She need not mind what happens
afterwards to these children, whether they go to secon-
dary schools and colleges or cease their schooling earlier ;
she is satisfied to know that in this formative period they
have achieved what they had to achieve. She says : " I
have served the spirit of these children so that they have
achieved development and I have accompanied them in
all their experiences ". She does not care what the
ordinary inspector says, it is of no importance, it is a
ridiculous remnant of old times. The teacher who has to
wait on inspectors* reports is a person in a miserable
position and out of the reality of spiritual life, even if she
prays five times a day. Spiritual life is perpetual life
from one morning to the next morning. It is to live orx a
spiritual level, not merely to say prayers.

The ordinary teacher says : " How humble these
teachers seem, they are not interested even in their own
authority " and some say : " How can your method
succeed, when you pretend that these teachers renounce
all the usual things ? " But they have not renounced ; they
have simply entered another life where the values are
different ; where there are the real values of life unknown
to the former life. All the principles are different, take the

405

THE ABSORBENT MIND

principle of justice. In the old schools justice was impor-
tant. " The teacher has power, dignity and justice/* it
used to be said. What was this justice > Treating all alike :
" I don f t mind if the children are rich or poor ; if punish-
ment is necessary, all are punished ". If any child made
mistakes he got a zero for his work, in some cases even
if he was deaf ; all had to be treated alike. Human
society is based on this * justice *. Even in democratic
countries justice frequently only means that there is
one law for all the rich and powerful and the starving
man. Justice is usually connected with trials, prisons,
sentences. The Law Courts are called the Palace of
Justice, and to say : " I am an honest man " means I have
had nothing to do with justice (i.e., the police and the
law courts.) In schools also the teacher is careful not to
caress a child because if so she must caress all she must
be just. This is a justice which levels all down to the
lowest level ; as if, spiritually, we cut off the heads of the
taller ones to bring them to the same level as the others.
On the higher level of educational work, justice is
really spiritual, it seeks that every child achieve the
maximum of its individual abilities. Justice is to give to
any human being all help that will enable him to reach
his full spiritual stature, and those who serve the spirit in
all ages, must give help to these energies. This will
perhaps be the organization of the future society. So-
called justice at present is ridiculous, it is the freedom
where one man has no chance and others have all the

406

THE ABSORBENT MIND

chances and take no advantage of them. Nothing need
be lost of these spiritual treasures and compared to them
economic treasures lose their value. Whether I am rich
or poor does not matter if I can reach full expression, the
economic problem will then adjust itself. When
humanity can achieve its spiritual self to the full, it will be
more productive ; and economic things will lose their
exclusive value. Men do not produce with their feet or
their bodies, but with their spirit and intelligence. All
insoluble problems will be solved.

The children develop an ordered society unaided.
We adults need police, lathis, soldiers, machine-guns.
The children solve their own problems in peace. They
have shown us that freedom and discipline are the two
sides of the same coin, because scientific freedom leads
to discipline. Usually coins have two sides, one beauti-
fully engraved with a face or figure, the other flatter and
with lettering. The flat side is freedom and the beauti-
fully engraved side discipline. This is so true that when
we find a class of undisciplined children this serves as a
control of error for the teacher, for she says on seeing it :
44 I have made a mistake against this class somewhere "
and so she corrects it. The ordinary teacher thinks this
is a humiliation ; it is not* It is a technique of the new
education. In serving the children, we serve life. By
helping nature we go to the next level of super-nature,
since a law of nature is to go higher continuously. And it
is the children who have built this beautiful structure to

407

THE ABSORBENT MIND

another level. The laws of nature are order, so when
order comes spontaneously we know we have reached
the cosmic order. One of the missions of children is to
draw adult humanity to a higher level. I cannot develop
this point here, important as it is, but it is a fact. The
children draw us to a spiritual level and solve the problems
of the material level. Let me quote some phrases which
have helped us to keep in mind all these things we have
mentioned. It is not a prayer, but a memorandum and
so for Montessori teachers an invocation, a kind of
syllabus, our only syllabus :

" HELP US, O LORD, TO PENETRATE INTO THE SECRET
OF THE CHILD SO THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM, LOVE
HIM AND SERVE HIM, ACCORDING TO YOUR LAWS OF
JUSTICE AND FOLLOWING YOUR DIVINE WILL."

408

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE FOUNTAIN SOURCE OF LOVE
THE CHILD

IN our Courses we always see a gathering of workers that
are typically Montessorian. There are babies, young
people, older people, professional people, non-pro-
fessional people, cultured and illiterate people and there
is no leader among us. Our Courses are apparently hetero-
geneous unlike most other courses of culture. Students
following our courses have to have some degree of culture,
but that is the only limit, within it we can have matri-
culates and professors side by side, lawyers and doctors,
and those who would be their patients. In Europe we
used to have people from all countries and in America
we once had an anarchist among us ! With all these
differences of people there have never been any conflicts
between the students. How is this ? It is because we
have all been linked by a common ideal. In Belgium,
such a small country that it might be fitted in one of the
tips of India, there are nevertheless two languages:
French and Flemish. The people are divided politically

409

THE ABSORBENT MIND

as a result. Seldom has it been possible to draw all these
people together in a conference, but in a Montessori Course
it happened. It was so unusual, that in newspapers it
was commented : " For many years we have been
trying unsuccessfully to get these parties together, now we
have it in this course to study the child/' This is the
power of the child : all are familiar with children,
whatever their religious or political feeling, and all love
children, hence the uniting influence of the child. Adults
have formed some strong and ferocious convictions and
these convictions divide them into groups. When they
begin to speak of these convictions, their religious and
political ideals, they begin to fight.

But on one point the child they all feel alike ;
that is why socially the child is so important. It is
evident that this is a point from which one can start in
order to put the world into harmony. It is one point on
which all have a delicate sensitivity. When we speak
of the child, all are touched, all feel love, all are
sensitive. The whole of humanity is held by this deepest
emotion which kindles friendly sentiments. It is a form
of love. When one touches the child, one touches
love. One does not know how to define this love ; all
feel it, but cannot describe it. We may say : " I feel this
love ; it exists, but its root and its vastness I do not
know ". Just as we are aware of things through our
senses, so we have this feeling of love ; we are impressed
by it. We feel it is there, even though, when we consider

410

THE ABSORBENT MIND

much in the life of the adult, it is as if we had forgotten
it. When an adult thinks of another adult, usually forces
of defence arise, but when we think of the child the
strong and hard accretions soften and disappear, we
become sweet and gentle because now we are dealing
with the basis of life. This is so not only for humans,
but for all living beings. It comes when the young
appear. There are then these two aspects of adult life :
that of defence and that of love, but the fundamental one
is that of love as one feels it for the child, because with-
out the child the adult would not exist.

Let us try to understand this love more consciously.
Let us consider what prophets and poets have said about
it, for they have been able to give form and expression to
this great energy which we call love. Certainly there is
nothing more beautiful or uplifting than the words of
poets who have given this form to love so that man can
visualize it to some extent ; this love which is the energy
at the base of all existence. Even the most ferocious of
men when they read these statements of poets and reli-
gious men may say : " How beautiful ! " That means
that this love has remained in them and keeps vibrating
in them, despite the manner of their life. Were it not
so, they would call such things, nonsense, stupidity,
vapidity and so on. Although it does not seem to have
entered their lives, yet they are influenced by it. It
means that they are thirsty for love even without their
knowing it.

411

THE ABSORBENT MIND

It is curious that even in times such as these when
war is most destructive and has reached all the corners
of the world, when one would think that to talk of love
would be most ironic, people Jo talk of it. They are
planning for unity, which is love. This means that it is
a basic force. So now, at this time, when it would seem
that everything might lead men to say : " Away with
this thing called love ; let us have reality which has been
proved to be destruction, for are not cities, forests, women,
children, animals all destroyed ? ", still there is talk of
reconstruction and love ; even while they destroy,
people talk of it. If we look and listen to all around us,
the wireless, newspapers, common talk, we hear the Pope,
Truman, Churchill, the directors of the churches, those
against the churches, the cultured and the illiterate, the
rich and the poor and all the followers of all the " isms "

and theologies, all saying " love ". And if this is so, (and

there could be no stronger proof than there is to day of
the force and impressiveness of this love) then why should
not humanity study this great fact of love > Why should
it be only spoken of when hate is raging ? Why should
it not be studied and analysed always, so that its energy
can be made use of ? And why not see why this energy
has not been studied before so that it could be used to
combine the other forces of which we know ? Man has
put so much of his mental energies into the study of
other natural facts. In those fields he has worked labori-
ously and long and discovered many things. Why not

412

THE ABSORBENT MIND

put a little of this energy into the study of this force
which should unite humanity > I feel that all contributions
that give an illustration of love should be taken in with
energy and avidity and great prominence should be given
to them. 1 mentioned that poets and prophets have
spoken of it, often as if it were an ideal ; but it is real,
it has always been there and is eternal.

We must realize too that if we feel this reality of
love at the present time, it is not because we were taught
it in school. Even if we were taught the beautiful des-
criptions of love, the words were few and they would
have disappeared, the memory of them would have
vanished in the multitudinous events that have followed
since then. When people appeal with so much energy
for love, it is not because they heard of it in their youth
or read of it in poetry or in religion ; it is the expression
of something not learnt by heart, but of something given
to us as part of the great heritage of our life. It is Life
which speaks, not poets and prophets. Love can be
considered from another side, besides that of religion
and poetry. It is from the point of view of Life itself
that we must consider it ; then love is not merely the
fruit of imagination or aspiration, but a reality which is an
eternal energy and cannot be extinguished.

I would like to say a few words about this reality
and about those things which the poets and prophets
have said also. This energy we call love is the greatest
cosmic energy. Even when we use such terms we still

413

THE ABSORBENT MIND

speak of it disparagingly, because it is more than an
energy it is creation itself and is better expressed in the
phrase " God is Love/'

Now to come to more concrete things. I would
like to be able to quote from all poets and prophets,
but I do not know them nor do 1 know their language.
But I know all have wonderful verses. Let me quote from
one I know who showed great vehemence in his expres-
sion when speaking of love. It is the best-known of all
religious or poetic descriptions in Christendom, and says :

" If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels,
and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass
or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy,
and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and
if I should have all faith, so that I could remove moun-
tains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I
should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if
1 should deliver my body to be burned, and have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing." (St. Paul in I. Cor. XIII)

We could say to such a person : " You must know
what love is since you feel it so strongly, it must be some-
thing formidable, tell us about it in detail/' But when the
description of this mighty sentiment is given, it is so
simple. The illustrations he has used might be found in
our present civilization which can move mountains and
work even greater miracles than that, for we can speak
in a whisper from one corner of a continent to a corner
in another continent where we are heard. But all this is

414

THE ABSORBENT MIND

nothing, if there is not love. We also have organized
great institutions to feed the poor and clothe them, but
if we have not love it is like playing a drum which gives
sound because it is empty. What then is this love ?
St. Paul who gave us a description of its lofty grandeur,
as quoted above, continues, but he does not furnish a
philosophical theory, he writes :

" Charity is patient, is kind : charity envieth not,
dealeth not perversely : is not puffed up. Is not ambi-
tious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger,
thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth
with the truth : beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things/'

It is a long enumeration of facts, a long description
of features, but all these features remind us strangely of
the qualities of children. They seem to describe the
powers of the absorbent mind. The absorbent mind
receives all, it does not judge, it never repels, it does not
react. It absorbs all and incarnates it in man. The
child achieves incarnation in order to adapt himself to
life with other men and become equal to them. The
child suffers all : if he comes into the world in a cold and
frozen environment there he forms himself to live in it and
the adult he will be one day will only be happy in that
environment. If he enters the world in a torrid region,
there he will construct himself so that he could not live
and be happy in another climate. Be it the desert which
receives him, be it the plains fringing the ocean, be it the

415

THE ABSORBENT MIND

slopes in the high mountain ranges, he enjoys it all and
there alone he reaches the highest well-being.

The absorbent mind believes all, hopes all. It
receives poverty as it receives wealth, it receives all faiths
as it receives the prejudices and customs of his environ-
ment : it incarnates it all within itself.

This is the child !

And if it were not like this, mankind would not reach
stability in any of the most different parts of the world,
it would not achieve its continuous progress in civilization
without ever having to start afresh.

The absorbent mind forms the basis of the miraculous
society created by man and appears to us in the guise
of the small and delicate child who solves the mysterious
difficulties of human destiny by the virtues of love.

If therefore we study the child a little better than
we have done hitherto, we find love in all its aspects and
analysed. It is not analysed by the poet or the prophet
but by what the child shows by reality. If we consider
the description given by St. Paul and then look at the
child, we say, " Here it is that all these are found ; so
here is the great treasure itself/'

The treasure then is to be found not merely near
those who study poetry and religion, but within every
human being. This miracle is sent to all ; the represen-
tative of this tremendous force is to be found everywhere.
Man makes a desert of strife and God continues to send
this rain. So it is easy to understand that all the

416

THE ABSORBENT MIND

creations of adults, great achievements as they are,
without love lead nowhere, to nothing. But if this love
present in the child is taken among us, if its values and
potentialities are realized and developed, our achieve-
ments, already great, will be tremendous. The adult
and the child must come together ; the adult must be
humble and learn from the child to be great. It is curious
that among all the miracles which humanity has per-
formed, there is only one miracle that he has not taken
into consideration : the miracle that God has sent from
the beginning : the Child.

Supposing we put a little levity into this weighty
subject and tell a little story. A certain young man
wished to marry and recounted all the praises of the
lady of his choice. An elder guide responded in writing
and this is what happened : The young man praises her
beauty ; the guide writes a zero. The young man
finding beauty is not enough, states that she is rich ;
the guide writes zero.

The young man says, she is learned, but the guide
again writes zero. The young man says : " All this
means nothing, well, she is athletic, she rides, swimg,
plays tennis." Again the guide writes zero. The young
man goes on describing all sorts of qualities which his
lady-love possesses and the guide continues to write zero
against them. Then the young man says : " She is of
good character ", and the guide says : " That is some-
thing ", and writes a figure one in front of all the zeros.

417

27

THE ABSORBENT MIND

All the other merits acquire their value from this one
quality and with that one in front of all the zeros her
total value increases a thousandfold. So it is with civili-
zation, all the achievements are naught and lead to des-
truction, but if love is there they all acquire a great value.
This teaching of the child as a power of love is not
as the teaching of St. Paul, it is not an understanding of
love with the mind. It is not that man has taught this
love to children. Since he is not even capable of des-
cribing it, how can he teach it ? It is a force of nature
and is in the child. It means that there is this force that
nature has placed in the very constitution of man, it is
therefore more important than anything else and must be
put before all the creations of man. This brings us to
another field, to that of love not as a phantasy of man,
but as a force in Natura Creatrix. Let us analyse the
forms and aspects that this love can assume.

That which we call love we have in our conscious-
ness. It is the part of the universal energy that we feel
consciously. But one may say that universal energy has
nothing to do with humanity. Let us analyse it : it is
an attraction, and what is attraction but a universal force.
Let us consider the universe. What keeps the stars
where they are and makes them move along the fixed
path they follow ? Attraction. Why do bodies fall to
the ground ? By attraction. What is it that works among
the atoms of matter* so that they construct wholes ?
Attraction. If this attraction did not exist there would

418

THE ABSORBENT MIND

be chaos, nothing would be in existence. There would
be no heaven and no stars without attraction. And if
there were no attraction to the earth, when we jump
we would remain up in the air and so would everything
else ! Chemical affinity which brings certain elements
together could not manifest itself without attraction. And
attraction is love. So we could say with St. Paul, " If
I made the stars and everything on earth, but I had no
love or attraction, nothing would exist." Love is not
merely sympathy, but the very essence of existence.

If we consider conscious love, we can analyse further.
All animals have at certain moments the instinct of
reproduction, which is a form of love. This form of
love is a command of nature because without this attrac-
tion nothing would continue. So a little atom of this
universal energy is lent to them for a little moment in
order that the species may be continued. They feel it
for a moment and then it disappears. This shows how
measured and economical nature is in lending love ;
just sufficiently and no more, given in small doses
and based on command. When the young come, the
parents feel a special love for them which leads them
to protect the species, and all the young ones are kept
near the mother. But as soon as the young are suffi-
ciently grown, love disappears suddenly from one mo-
ment to another. It is not a sentiment as we think,
but an energy given very carefully and economically, just
a small ray to penetrate the darkness of consciousness,

419

THE ABSORBENT MIND

but as soon as the work is done, it disappears. So,
love can take this aspect and then what does it convey
to us ? That this supposed sentiment is not merely a
sentiment. It is true that it lasts longer in man than in
animals, but it is not a sentiment really (apart from its
encouragement or discouragement). Cosmically it is an
energy lent to every living being and withdrawn as soon
as the immediate purpose is fulfilled.

So this force is given within measured limits to
man also, but even so it is greater than any other force,
because it carries him to social organization. It must be
treasured and developed and expanded to the maximum.
Man can sublimate this force lent to him and make it
vaster and vaster to reach abstraction. To bring it into
the field of abstraction and to treasure it, this is the work
of man. Let us take it and bring it into the field of
imagination and make it general. Let us treasure it
because this is the force that holds the universe together.
This part, that we possess consciously, is given to us,
and if this force is renewed in man every time a child is
born, it must be treasured. By this force man can hold
together all things that he can do with his hand and his
intelligence.

Love is a gift of the Universal Consciousness
for a special aim and purpose, as is everything lent
to man by the Cosmic Consciousness. If the aim is
not fulfilled, then nothing can sustain itself and all
crumbles away. We can understand the words of

420

THE ABSORBENT MIND

the saint that all is nothing unless love is there. More
than electricity which gives light in the darkness, more
than the etheric waves which allow our voices to travel
over wide distances, more than any energy that man has
discovered and exploited is this love ; above all things
it is the most important. All that man can do with the
forces of electricity or of etheric waves depends on the
consciousness of him who uses them. This energy of love
is given to us so that each one of us contains it when a
child comes and it opens out as a fan. Even if later
circumstances destroy it, we feel a yearning for it. So
we must study it and use it more than any other force in
the environment, because it is not lent to the environment
as other forces are, but it is lent to us. The study of
love and its utilization will lead us to the fountain whence
it springs and that is the Child. This is the new path
that man must follow.

421

Printed by C. Subbarayudu, at the Vasanta Press,
The Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras

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Of Tflt BRQIll. ; Tt1E EQUILIBRIUM JS PCQUIRED in FOUR . STIKES.

*

E

Conliol i n it

/III *

is nflximum EFFORT

ct

D

J tho heoc( He can Me con walk

\./l i i n -, ,, ho| d if helped.
When plared He can Sif He can sit himself -

t . .. Runs and \\anq^
110 WQ|KS He walks cnrr/inq on lo obiccl-
w.lhouf help hoavy Objecf6- ' W ',ih cerfqin ly

1

On hit, face if helped. bu himself. ^'ect
r]ownwn/ds but walks

HP cafches hold

1

lie Can |,fi- his ?. n , four

M object-, (or foker,

i

v, J J limbs,
head and

Cl .mbmgup. ton 9 walks.

B

The movements Ho places the*
f Balking foot

H stu!'cLT tll<; ovmnflSTics. -

V/hcn h ^'d up [(of on the ground
^ro mode on fm . r

1

too ^

1)

N

6 0) ,

6 R 6

^^ - T n \ ^wit f , ^ ^JF

1 L' /> 4 ^ Q / 8 ^o n \K 1

?. 34 l> O B 9 10 11 ^(w' 1 234 5 Q

^> o o o o 7V o o o o o 7V n

o o (5 o ) v oonooyvoooo o /^

j --- -- - -- -- - -- --- -.-- - .... ---

HKMTObE ALIVt r.VOLUTlOn EVOLIJFK .1 OF pBtMEllMnn DIPTCTED TOUHPDS

VTPrnGNIH co-oRDinnion HV mtrtn^ OF FxPEPinicfi.

1 nysinlotjK'al pD^h^^|SI^^ fi" Hlffl (Work ond ^x<e.ic:ibe)

fxtyrhFs WUH ...

ml"?;!,*"" 1 '" ^' l( "i^ftK T0 " Hap nit TO DO IT w nwtif "

A d, i ptnlinn5 iDiScrirniDaliun ih wish !

li

lllc^h i fUDmo T.-)
L TMLV nai> IUITH mnEpFnpfnci io IUOSH DISHES

inSTincrivi siUDif

r i IMT nnivnu opinFii'ir-n <.

^rv

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Pi?cnni5ion iH^rtmin ll)TLI1TI nnL Ppnifnsicn

Y naruibUMi rHDlur/-,DnvT^ ^UPni55 in CflKHIflO

orTHt H 1111 ^ lH lvHll ,Tocii m B S^,^ 1 !,^, HOLD or SUPPORT*

PRf hFIISI(])n OF OHlDFf) BV rilt

To (UP CDS Wofeh PD^PO^F ^^D

T)fi Jf C TS WKH

Fy n o p c < 1 1 )|)S /^\r

D

(OfOItt)

or TO CLLOn qilO TO (.LlfriBWG.

fflnxioium Efroors WHOWW ~

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