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The Child and the Future. By the Rev. Watcyn M. Price. WhosO, loves a child, loves not himself but God; whoso delights a child, labours with God in His workshop of the world of hearts; whoso helps a child, brings the kingdom of God; whoso saves a child from the fingers of evil, sits in the seat with the builders of the cities and procurers of peace." DR. Russel Wallace said, The two most remarkable discoveries of the last century were electricity and the child." The child, previous go that, was not always considered in a general sense as much as it should have been by the churches or other leading bodies. Yet it is only fair to say that all the finest organizations that catered for child welfare in certain aspects, particularly the Sunday School, and even general education, were pioneered by the Christian Church. But in the eighties the child was a perplexing presence, and many were the suggestions offered for diminish- ing their menacing increase. So it may be rightly said that the study of childhood is quite a modern science. We, who nowadays are so drawn by the charm of infancy, can hardly understand the important part played by children in the domestic life of the past. Rousseau in France, and Dickens in England, were the first to bring home to their readers the importance of childhood. Jesus alone of our ancient teachers showed that He felt the winsome beauty of children, and He impressed upon the adults gathered around Him that they must enter the Kingdom of God in the spirit of a little child or not at all. How are we to watch the infant mind? The idea that the child, either in mind or body, is anything more than a pocket-edition of a grown- up is of the last hundred years. Now thanks to the labours of Pertelozzi and Sequin, the theories of education have changed, and we no longer treat children as small vessels to be crammed with knowledge. We have "child study" societies and the like, and child psychology is a study of all competent school teachers. In watching the child we need to remember the following facts (1) The child recapitulates the history of the race. As in body, so in mind, we can trace the development of primitive man. (2) The child arrives with an inheritance from its ancestors. Recognition of this fact will help a parent in deciding what to try and develop and what to leave dormant. (3) Though all children differ, they have all much in common-e.g., vivid imagination, trust in parents, egoism, imitativeness, love of colour and brightness, and of movement. (4) Children develop at different rates, though the order in which the emotions wake is the same in all normal children. Here it may be rightly said that the problems of child life are fundamental. They raise all other problems. They lie at the root of all social well-being and social progress. If we can secure for all children a pure healthy life, a happy home, a wholesome environment, a sound edu- cation, a sufficient means of recreation, and reasonable opportunity of forming good habits, then the future welfare of the State itself will be secured. Neglect of the child is not only crim- inal, but suicidal. The schoolboy and all his promise for the future, the schoolgirl with all her grace and affection, the delightful little baby on the threshold of the world; how are we to get the best from them? How make the most of them? It is an entrancing subject, and one which should arrest the attention of all people everywhere. The child is said to be the father of the man, but this is one of those "foolish old tags" and will not stand examination. "The child is father of nobody." It is a child, and quite different from man or woman. That is the first thing one has to remember. Always and forever the child and the adult differ. The child's knowledge, its desires, its ideas, even its morality is childish, and not to be judged by adult standards. The child has always to be treated as a child, its ser- vice and help to be always regarded as apart from the adult. It is growing, it is learning. it is developing at a rate, and in a way, that we adults can never do. And all its treatment and care has to be specially directed from this point of view. In this country all individuals may be regarded as children until they are 16 years of age. After that they can be considered as adults. There are then thirty-five out of every hundred English people still children. The wants of the young child, inherited in a great measure through almost countless ages, remain pretty much what they were before an ordered civilisation pre- vailed in our land. One is glad to think that the Child Welfare Movement is increasing in force and area of action. Even the most obtuse minds realise that the future of the Churches and the world depends upon the children of to-day. There is a wave of sentimental enthusiasm for child welfare passing through the land. Many enterprises and numer- ous experiments are now being carried on in various centres entailing considerable financial outlay, and the expenditure of the talents and time of a large number of workers. And in the main, this is all to the good. But we are not a scientific people, and in our welfare work-as Britishers-we continue content to muddle along. Child Welfare work is without any adequate scientific direction. We lack organisation, and such powers of administration as exist are very uncertain, and irregular in their application. It