_Love between children and those of opposite sex who are much
older._ Give complete details on such points as indicated in I, with
whatever differences the disparity in age would naturally make.

III. Give fully, frankly, and as accurately as you can the details of
your own childish love affairs.

IV. Give your name (this may be left blank), age, and sex.

360 people reported more than 1,700 cases. With few exceptions those
who reported had had experience in teaching. 355 gave accounts of
their own childish love affairs. The other five stated that they did
not recall any such experience in their own lives. The 1,700 cases
include the confessions. Added to the 800 cases of my own collection
there are in all more than 2,500 cases that form the basis of this
study.

It will be seen that the syllabus calls for data of three kinds,
viz., concerning (1) observed love between children of opposite sex
about the same in age, (2) observed love between persons of opposite
sex with disparity in ages, (3) personal confessions. The first two
kinds of data were obtained by the objective method, while the last
is obtained through retrospection. Having both observations and
confessions many errors that could not otherwise be detected are
eliminated since the two classes of material act, to a degree, as
mutual controls. Each kind of data according to the first named
classification has its particular virtue. The confessions (1) exhibit
the continuity in the development of the emotion during the life-span
of the individual as he sees it himself (enough cases (355) were
given to make a reasonable allowance for individual variations); (2)
they indicate the general prevalence of the emotion during childhood;
(3) they reinforce observation in the same way that introspection
always reinforces the objective method of study. In estimating the
value of these confessions one must be mindful of the common defect
of most auto-biographical statements, viz., that they are influenced
by the almost irresistible tendency to write about one's self in a
literary way and so touch plain facts as to make them less prosaic.
The observations help us in eliminating this element of error. The
data concerning the love that children have for adults of the
opposite sex throw valuable light upon the nature of jealousy in
children as it is much accentuated in these cases. They also show the
effect of forcing the development of an emotion by a stimulus that is
chr