Like all others who have recently worked at child-psychology I am much indebted to the pioneers in the field, more particularly to Professor W. Preyer. In addition to these I wish to express my obligations to my colleague, Dr. Postgate, of Trinity College, Cambridge, for kindly reading through my essay on children’s language, and giving me many valuable suggestions; to Lieutenant-General Pitt Rivers, F.R.S., and Mr. H. Balfour, of the Museum, Oxford, for the friendly help they rendered me in studying the drawings of savages, and to Mr. E. Cooke for many valuable facts and suggestions bearing on children’s modes of drawing. Lastly, I would tender my warm acknowledgments to the parents who have sent me notes on their children’s mental development. To some few of these sets of observations, drawn up with admirable care, I feel peculiarly indebted, for without them I should probably not have written my book. J. S. HAMPSTEAD, November, 1895. CONTENTS. PAGE I. INTRODUCTORY, 1 II. THE AGE OF IMAGINATION, 25 Why we call Children Imaginative, 25 Imaginative Transformation of Objects, 28 Imagination and Play, 35 Free Projection of Fancies, 51 Imagination and Storyland, 54 III. THE DAWN OF REASON, 64 The Process of Thought, 64 The Questioning Age, 75 IV. PRODUCTS OF CHILD-THOUGHT, 91 The Child’s Thoughts about Nature, 91 Psychological Ideas, 109 Theological Ideas, 120 V. THE LITTLE LINGUIST, 133 Prelinguistic Babblings, 133 Transition to Articulate Speech, 138 Beginnings of Linguistic Imitation, 147 Transformation of our Words, 148 Logical Side of Children’s Language, 160 Sentence-building, 170 Getting at our Meanings, 183