n of this type go forward to premature death like angels gazing
heavenwards.

These two accounts, due to Signorina Maccheroni's observation, correct
a superficial judgment which, in an ordinary school, would have become
a permanent record of character: the one child would have been branded
as _violent_, the other as a _spy_.

If we call that science which led to the translation of these words
into _hero_ and _angel_, and touched so many hearts in the vicinity of
these two children, when they had been interpreted by their wonderful
instructress, we shall be able to assert that "the judgment of love is
the judgment of knowledge." The mercy of Christ in judging is here
illustrated.

* * * * *

"Psychical action," then, starts from a principle which may be
translated thus: "that the child lives." All the rest comes as a
consequence.

This action of fundamental life manifests itself as a _polarization_
of the internal personality: almost at a point of crystallization,
around which, provided there be homogeneous material and an
undisturbed environment, _the definitive form composes itself_.

This initial action is a task _repeated_ with a special intensity of
attention.

In my "biographical chart," therefore, I do not give a long formula of
analytical studies, but I give a "guide to psychological
observations," founded upon the synthetical conception which I have
sought to illustrate. Those who have not been _initiated_ into this
method of observation will gain no light from such a guide, which lies
entirely outside the conceptions of psychological study now obtaining
in connection with the observation of pupils. But those who have been
initiated will understand it without the aid of illustration.

Our teachers have also a terminology by means of which they understand
each other, without having recourse to the ordinary expressions, which
do not convey an exact idea of the action they see in process of
development. Thus they never say: The child is developing, or
progressing, the child is good or naughty, etc. The only phraseology
they use is: The child _is becoming disciplined_ or _is not becoming
disciplined_. It is internal order that they await; and on this
principle of being or not being, all or nothing depends.

This evokes a much deeper conception than that of "growth." To say
that a living creature _grows_ is to make a very superficial
statement, seeing that he grows indeed, _but in virtue o