ctuating in the consciousness of the child seemed to be
organizing itself into a spiritual creation, the surprising
characteristics of which are reproduced in every individual.

It made one think of the _life of man_ which may remain diffused among
a multiplicity of things, in an inferior state of chaos, until some
special thing attracts it intensely and fixes it; and then man is
revealed unto himself, he feels that he has begun to live.

This spiritual phenomenon which may co-involve the entire
consciousness of the adult, is therefore only one of the constant
elements of the phenomena of "internal formation." It occurs as the
normal beginning of the inner life of children, and accompanies its
development in such a manner as to become accessible to research, as
an experimental fact.

It was thus that the soul of the child gave its revelations, and under
their guidance a method exemplifying spiritual liberty was evolved.

The story of this initiatory episode soon spread throughout the world,
and at first it seemed like the story of a miracle. Then by degrees,
as experiments were made among the most diverse races, the simple and
evident principles of this spiritual "treatment" were manifested.

* * * * *

=Psychical development is organized by the aid of external stimuli,
which may be determined experimentally=.--The contribution I have made
to the education of young children tends, in fact, to _specify_ by
means of the revelations due to experiment, the form of liberty in
internal development.

It would not be possible to conceive liberty of development, if by its
very nature the child were not capable of a spontaneous organic
development, if the tendency to develop his energies (expansion of
latent powers), the conquest of the means necessary to a harmonious
innate development, did not already exist. In order to expand, the
child, left at liberty to exercise his activities, ought to find in
his surroundings something _organized_ in direct relation to his
internal organization which is developing itself by natural laws, just
as the free insect finds in the form and qualities of flowers a direct
correspondence between form and sustenance. The insect is undoubtedly
free when, seeking the nectar which nourishes it, it is in reality
helping the reproduction of the plant. There is nothing more marvelous
in nature than the correspondence between the organs of these two
orders of beings destined to such