Riverside Educational Monographs EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SEATTLE, WASHINGTON THE MEANING OF INFANCY BY JOHN FISKE 1883 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. THE MEANING OF INFANCY From "Excursions of an Evolutionist" II. THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN From "A Century of Science" OUTLINE INTRODUCTION The new significance of education The last century has witnessed an unprecedented development in the significance of education. One direct consequence has been an increased reverence for childhood. In this movement which has increased the dignity of children and schools, two large forces have been at work,--one social and the other scientific. The growth of the democratic spirit among men and institutions has made the education of children a public necessity, and lifted the school to a position of high social importance. The application of the theory of evolution to man and his life has revealed human infancy as one of the largest factors making for the superiority of man in the struggle for existence, and given to childhood a vast biological importance. The necessities of democracy and the truths of science, acting more or less independently of each other, have given to education a breadth of meaning which it did not possess before. They have shown that infancy is the largest opportunity and education the most powerful instrument for the conscious adjustment of man to the physical and social world in which he lives. _Democracy changes the function of schools_