The Historical Child Paidology; The Science of the Child

Transcriber's Note:

Text which was marked as italic in the original text is surrounded by _
in this edition, bold text by =, superscripted text is preceded by ^.
A note on the other changes to the book can be found at the end of this
document.




                              _Paidology_
                       _The Science of the Child_




                                  THE

                            HISTORICAL CHILD


                                   BY
                      OSCAR CHRISMAN, A.M., Ph.D.
     _Professor of Paidology and Psychology in the Ohio University_



                                 BOSTON

                           RICHARD G. BADGER

                            THE GORHAM PRESS


                 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY RICHARD G. BADGER

                         _All Rights Reserved_

                  Made in the United States of America

                   The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.




                               TO MY WIFE




PREFACE


In the _Pedagogical Seminary_ for December, 1893, in an article on "The
Hearing of Children," the last paragraph, page 438, occurred for the
first time in print the word _paidology_.[1] In _The Forum_ for
February, 1894, page 728, the first article explanatory of paidology
appeared. A more complete outlining of the subject was as a doctor's
dissertation at the University of Jena, Germany, 1896. In the first
edition of the Standard Dictionary was included the word paidology,
wherein it was defined as "The scientific study of the child." Paidology
originated in my mind at a very unexpected moment one day in April,
1893.

This book is the first of a series that it is my purpose to write upon
child life. The others will follow from time to time upon the different
phases of child being. This book and the others it is hoped may appear
are the outcome of several years of study and of teaching the subject to
young men and women, which has proved to me that people are eager to
know about children in the past as well as in the present. He who wishes
to acquaint himself with children and child nature must have a knowledge
of child life as it existed among the various nations of the world. The
child as found in Ancient Mexico and Ancient Peru is given place here
because the life and doings of these peoples have always been attractive
reading to me, and also it is well to consider child life in these
nations who reached such a high stage of existence among the lower forms
of human society and so far removed from the civilizations of Asia and
Europe. It is hoped there is value in this work to the student of child
nature and that young people may find it interesting and profitable.

It will be noted that there are topics of a general nature given in this
work, which purports to be a study of child life. When it is considered
that the affairs of a nation affect every class and age of the persons
constituting it and especially react upon women, the mothers, then it
may be understood how vital these matters become in a study of child
life among a people and how necessary they are for a better
comprehension of what is directly connected with children. Too the term
"child" is used here in a general sense, to include all ages up to full
manhood.

It seems to me that everything done and studied in my whole life touches
this science of the child and that every one with whom I have come in
contact has aided me. It is wished here to express in a general way my
thanks to these friends for their help. I must, though, mention by name
a few who have more directly made this book possible. First of all is
President G. Stanley Hall of Clark University, the great leader and
pioneer in the study of children, with whom I spent two years and from
whom I first obtained the right ideas of studying child life. Another is
Professor Wilhelm Rein of the University of Jena, who kindly permitted
me to use paidology as the subject for my doctor's thesis and extended
the time for working on it, thus giving me opportunity for use of
material at Berlin and when completed he endorsed the thesis,
"Paidologie, Entwurf zu einer Wissenschaft des Kindes," to the Senate of
his University. A third one to whom I am greatly indebted is Professor
Rudolph Eucken of the University of Jena, whose lectures listened to for
a year gave me a broader view of life and the sympathy he expressed for
myself and work were of the utmost encouragement and too at a time when
well needed. I owe much to Prof. Dr. W. Preyer of the University of
Berlin, now deceased, who wrote me encouragingly of my work before my
going to Germany and while there he talked over matters with me and went
over the thesis when completed and had faith in the idea I was
promulgating, new at that time, that the study of the child is a science
in and of itself and for which I had originated the term paidology, and
he advised and encouraged me to make it my life study.

I must take this opportunity to express gratitude to my wife who so
willingly gave up the many things which are so dear to a woman and a
mother that there might be acquired by myself the very best education
the world could give and so make possible the coming forth of paidology
and all it may contain.

                    O.