The kindly welcome accorded by the press to my volume Studies of Childhood has suggested to me that there was much in it which might be made attractive to a wider class of readers than that addressed in a psychological work. I have, accordingly, prepared the following selections, cutting out abstruse discussions, dropping as far as possible technical language, and adapting the style to the requirements of the general reader. In order to shorten the work the last two chapters—"Extracts from a Father's Diary" and "George Sand's Childhood"—have been omitted. The order of treatment has been altered somewhat, and a number of stories has been added. I hope that the result may succeed in recommending what has long been to myself one of the most delightful of subjects to many who would not be disposed to read a larger and more difficult work, and to draw on a few of these, at least, to a closer and more serious inspection of it.

PART I.—AT PLAY.

CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Realm of Fancy 1
The Transforming Wand      2
Fancy's Resting-places      6
In Storyland      8

II. The Enchantment of Play 13
The Young Pretender      13
Mysteries of Dolldom      18
Serious Side of Play      25

PART II.—AT WORK.

III. Attacking our Language 29
The Namer of Things      30
The Sentence-builder      33
The Interpreter of Words      36

IV. The Serious Searcher 40
The Thoughtful Observer      40
The Pertinacious Questioner      44

V. First Thoughts: (a) The Natural World 54
The Fashion of Things      54
The Bigger World      58
Dreams      61
Birth and Growth      64

VI. First Thoughts: (b) Self and other Mysteries 68
The Visible Self      public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@37020@[email protected]#Page_68" class="pginternal"