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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 924031 2741 31 
 
THE 
 
 FOUR TEMPERAMENTS 
 
 IN 
 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 THEIR APPEARANCE AND TREATMENT IN 
 REARING AND IN THE SCHOOL. 
 
 AS APPENDIX: 
 
 THE TEMPERAMENT OP PARENTS AND TEACHERS. 
 
 BY 
 BERNHARD HELLWIG. 
 
 . — <~-^-e — . 
 
 Padekborn. 
 
 J. E S S E R. 
 
 -3i 
 
I. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It is a fact, that the principles of christian peda- 
 gogical science remain the same, always and everywhere; 
 and as long as Christendom does not permit of any 
 change taking place in its nature, so long will the 
 goal, to which christian teachers have to guide the 
 children entrusted to their care, remain unaltered, and 
 exactly so long will the means leading to this end 
 remain unchangeable in their essential features. It is im- 
 possible to shake these foundation- principles without 
 overthrowing the whole structure of the art of Chri-. 
 stian training. All children must be brought up accor- 
 ding to these principles. Like education is necessary 
 in order to achieve a like result, for treading the same 
 path, the same guidance is an unquestionable condition. 
 
 It is nevertheless just as true that these same prin- 
 ciples must be differently applied in different cases, 
 without however in any way damaging their essential 
 features, and that they must be modified to suit the 
 different temperaments of various children. The edu- 
 cation of a boy must naturally be very different to that 
 of a girl, that of a lighthearted merry child different 
 to that of a child of earnest, thoughtful disposition. 
 The situation in hfe, the age, the physical and intel- 
 lectual capabilities and sex demand a different treat- 
 ment of the child. At the same time there are other 
 points, which play an important part in deciding the 
 
— 4 - 
 
 manner in which a child is to be brought up, the 
 principal amongst which, is the temperament of 
 the child. 
 
 Without entering into a scientific discussion as 
 to the exact meaning of the word »temperament«, we 
 will simply remark, that in this work the word is 
 used to signify the manner in which a person may 
 regard the impressions of the outside world respecting 
 himself, and in what manner he may suffer or behave 
 under the influence of the same. The disposition 
 shows itself for the most part in the varied intercourse 
 of life, and varies according to the proportions of the 
 combination of excitability and reacting powers of the 
 soul. This combination of excitability and reaction is 
 ever varying throughout the myriad members of the 
 human race. Two men observe the same object, the 
 one laughs over it, the other weeps, — different dis- 
 positions! Two persons receive for a like service 
 the same reward, the one is unboundedly delighted 
 whilst the other remains unmoved, — again different 
 dispositions! Two persons in similar situations may 
 be abused by a third in the same words, the one 
 feels himself deeply insulted by the remark, the other 
 laughs at it; it is just as impossible for the one to 
 forget it as for the other to remember it: — ■ again 
 different dispositions. The disposition of a man is 
 very closely connected with, and dependent on his 
 physical attributes. The climate, food, various ages, 
 disease, sex and the like factors play a most important 
 part in shaping the human temperament. Where can 
 one find a greater contrast than that offered by the 
 fiery reckless disposition of the southerner in comparison 
 to the cold calculating cautiousness of the inhabitant 
 of the north, where a more striking distinction than 
 that between the dispositions of grandfather and 
 grandchild? or boy and girl? If we were not aware 
 of the great influence which the disposition of the 
 different nations and individuals exercises in life, 
 we should often be inchned to wonder why the hot- 
 
— 5 — 
 
 blooded Spaniard is not so calm and imperturbable as 
 the coldblooded inhabitants of the Island Empire or 
 why the hasty Frenchman is not just as persistant 
 as the more careful steady going German. The dis- 
 position of every single human being is different to 
 that of all others, so we may conclude that there are 
 exactly as many different kinds of dispositions on the 
 earth as there are inhabitants. In fact the disposition 
 of a person does not remain constant at any time. 
 Education, experience, increase of years, bodily health 
 or sickness and the will itself tend to keep the temper 
 in a continual state of mutability. At the same time 
 the dispositions of different human beings resemble 
 each other in so many points and these changes men- 
 tioned are, in the case of a great many men, almost 
 — in fact sometimes quite — imperceptible in their 
 outward behaviour, so that it is well possible to ar- 
 range the dispositions of humanity under four prin- 
 cipal headings, to which antiquity has already given 
 lasting names: 
 
 1. the sanguine, 
 
 2. the choleric, 
 
 3. the melancholic, 
 
 4. the phlegmatic disposition. 
 
 Every human being may be classed under one 
 of these headings. Every man is either sanguine, or 
 choleric, or melancholic or phlegmatic; it is of course 
 here to be understood that the possibility of one man 
 being more sanguine, or choleric, or melancholic, or 
 phlegmatic, than another is in no way excluded. 
 
 Our task here is to observe and distinguish 
 each of these four dispositions in children, and to point 
 out to parents and teachers the manner in which each 
 of these little pieces of sanguinity, choler, melancholy 
 or phlegma is to be treated. 
 
 Without anticipating our subject, it is however 
 necessary to remark here, that if a teacher wishes to 
 see his labours crowned with success, it is absolutely 
 necessary that he should understand the disposition of 
 
a child and the manner in which it must be treated. 
 The same treatment is not suited for every child. A 
 guidance which may be most advantageous for a san- 
 guine child may under certain circumstances be just as 
 dangerous for a child of melancholy disposition. One 
 wrongs the children, and damages the interests of 
 education, if one attempts to measure all children ac- 
 cording to the same standard, and to judge the results 
 of their endeavours or non-endeavours from the same 
 standpoint. If a teacher or parent is pretty well ac- 
 quainted with the nature of the child in question, he 
 will often find himself obliged to excuse much in its 
 behaviour which, without this knowledge of its dispo- 
 sition, he would probably have punished as originating 
 from malice. 
 
 It would be very wrong to construe every thought- 
 less word or deed of a sanguin child as originating 
 from a malicious character, whilst the same is often 
 nothing more than a natural and innocent expression 
 of its disposition. 
 
 If we do not know the disposition of a child, 
 it is impossible that we can understand how to ma- 
 nage and guide it aright. A teacher must know at 
 which point he can best impress a child, in order to 
 give it an interest for the one object, or an abhorrence 
 for the other. He must thoroughly understand that, 
 whilst one child may be treated in one manner, another 
 must often be managed in exactly the opposite way. 
 Every man has of course a certain amount of instinct 
 by which he is pretty well enabled to judge in what 
 manner he can best bring up a child scientifically and 
 educationally, but this is only an unconscious instinct 
 and needs theoretic cultivation in order to make it 
 profitable in every direction for the interests of youth. 
 
n. 
 
 a) THE SANGUINE CHILD. 
 
 I. Characteristics of the sanguine child. 
 
 This is the cheerful, merry, nervous child; »happy« 
 is perhaps the most appropriate term. The little san- 
 guinist is extraordinarily excitable, always figeting 
 with eyes, mouth, hands and feet. It is just as difficult 
 for him to sit still a moment as to stand still, and to 
 hold his tongue for half an hour is a sheer impossi- 
 bility. Walking is not one of his weaknesses, his 
 usual gait is something between jumping and hopping 
 and tumbhng, and where other children walk, he in- 
 variably races. When this httle sanguine scrap of 
 humanity laughs — and he is very fond of laughing 
 
 — he does it most heartily, he laughs over his whole 
 face and over his whole body too, from the crown 
 of his head to the tip of his toes. When he cries, 
 
 — and he cries just as easily as he laughs — he does 
 it tremendously, but he can stop crying just as 
 easily as he began, and if anything strikes him 
 as absurd he can burst into a hearty laugh in the 
 middle of the most bitter tears, and while the latter 
 are still running down his cheeks, his mouth and 
 eyes seem to have begun laughing of their own accord, 
 in the most inconsistent manner. I once saw a san- 
 guine little fellow punished very severely by his 
 teacher and he was crying bitterly, but the fact of the 
 teacher missing his hand at one stroke and striking 
 
the desk with the cane appeared to him so ridiculoas 
 that he burst out laughing in the middle of his tears. 
 — A genuine sanguinist of the purest blood. 
 
 The senses of a sanguine child are extremely 
 acute, and especially in girls. It has its little eyes 
 everywhere; it sees and hears everything. It is posses- 
 sed of an unspeakable desire to »skip-tumble« in every 
 direction where there is anything to be seen or heard. 
 During lesson-time its eyes are all over the room; a 
 fly on the wall is sufficient to disturb its attention. 
 It restrains with difficulty a tendency to jump up at 
 the windows at the slightest noise outside, and to see 
 what is going on. Nothing escapes its attention, but 
 because it is constantly mentally springing from one 
 object to the other in the most flighty manner, it is 
 very difficult to make a lasting impression on the mind 
 of such a child. Anything which may appear comical 
 or ridiculous to it, will be observed and studied more 
 carefully than everything else, and it generally possesses 
 a good and exact memory for such things, reproducing 
 them in their order with greater facility and exactness 
 than is ofi:en wished for by the parents and teachers. 
 
 Its imagination is vivid and restless and extra- 
 vagant to a degree. In its conversation it jumps from 
 one topic to another in a manner indescribably irre- 
 gular, so that it is often impossible for the sharpest 
 observer to discover the least connection in its trains 
 of thought. 
 
 If ever anybody ridiculed the law of the association 
 of ideas, 't is the sanguine child. In the middle of a 
 conversation or of a lesson, it will suddenly inquire 
 about places and things only less remarkable than they 
 are distant from the topic of the moment. It often 
 happens that the child makes preparations for saying 
 something apparently interesting, but before the lips 
 have formed the words it has forgotten what it was 
 going to say; thoughts chase each other so quickly 
 through its mind. Outspoken and pert to an astonishing 
 degree, it has the greatest difficulty, even in the society 
 
— 9 — 
 
 of adults, — to compell its unruly tongue to observe 
 the necessary decorum. 
 
 The thinking powers of the little sanguinis! are 
 characterised by an uncommon amount of curiosity. 
 Incapable of persevering investigation, more witty than 
 perspicacious or profound, the sanguine child is 
 possessed of an insatiable desire to learn everything 
 which it does not yet need to know, whilst those 
 things, which it ought to learn have no interest 
 whatever for it and especially when it has been 
 occupied with one subject for a considerable length of 
 time. The little sanguine girl trembles for pleasurable 
 emotion as the teacher begins instructing on an entirely 
 new subject. Her pleasure knows no bounds as the 
 map is opened for the first geography-lesson, and the 
 lesson is only too soon at an end, but in one week's 
 time? — »If 't is nothing more than that! ?« — She 
 learns more in the first two lessons than in the next 
 four. 
 
 This sanguine child would be placed in the most 
 happy frame of mind possible, if it had not got to 
 learn anything at all; since however it is impossible 
 for it to avoid learning entirely, it would prefer studying 
 fairy tales, as the next best employment to doing 
 nothing; it prefers such employment as occupies the 
 imagination more than the intellectual powers; such 
 discourses as are delivered by the teacher more in a 
 playful or amusing manner, than the dry book-learning. 
 In singing, drawing, writing, scripture and profane 
 history, in short in all those branches of learning where 
 the memory and imaginative powers come more into 
 play, the sanguine child shows up in a very advantageous 
 light, in comparison with his school-comrades, but 
 we may not in the rule expect to find it among the 
 ranks of the good mental and table-arithmeticians. 
 
 The mind of the young sanguinist is easily 
 impressed by all things good, true and beautiful, and 
 particularly by things sensually beautiful, but the 
 impressions are light and easily removed. He enjoys 
 
10 — 
 
 himself always and everywhere and, where he is, there 
 is generally plenty of fun. He is the »wag« of the 
 school and a master at entertaining his school-mates 
 with all manner of comical tricks and jokes during 
 the intervals just before the teacher enters the class-room. 
 His greatest pleasure is when he has succeeded in 
 making the other boys laugh. The rope-dancers, 
 menagerie-keepers, strolling players, and such like 
 people, whom he may have seen at the fair, will be 
 all most narrowly described to his school-fellows the 
 next morning before the entrance of the teacher in 
 the class-room. In such cases, his imitative powers, — 
 which are good — do him capital service. When he 
 has once seen anything he is generally able to imitate 
 it capitally. This fact, in combination with his easily 
 excitable nature, make him the centre of attraction 
 among his school-fellows on such occasions. The simple 
 fact that those around him are enjoying themselves, is 
 sufficient to set this little sanguinist in the best of 
 good humours. Selfishness and self-interest do not 
 belong to his nature. He shares every apple with his 
 little friends, gives away everything that he can possibly 
 do without himself, and divides everything where the 
 possibility of division exists, among his school-fellows. 
 He has sympathy with the poor and unfortunate, and 
 in the impulse of the moment would like to tumble 
 the whole contents of his not too overburdened purse, 
 into the hands of the infortunate one, — at the same 
 time he is sure to remark something comical or absurd 
 either in the appearance or behaviour of the same, 
 whereat he amuses himself mightily. He is raised to 
 the seventh heaven by a beautiful picture and can well 
 appreciate a charming or picturesque landscape. He 
 stands on the most cordial footing with all domestic 
 animals, but none of his impressions or passions are 
 lasting or sincere. What he admires to-day, he will 
 tread under foot to-morrow, and then worship it again 
 the day after. In praising as in blaming, he is equally 
 incapable of moderation. What he considers beautiful. 
 
— II — 
 
 is indescribably beautiful; what he considers bad, is 
 beyond expression base: he always speaks in the 
 superlative. 
 
 He strives principally after sensitive pleasures. He 
 must always be in dulci jubilo. He must always have 
 amusement, and the louder the fun, the better he enjoys 
 himself. He has a wonderful talent for discover}^, and 
 is continually inventing ways and means for producing 
 some new merriment and in this insatiable desire he 
 forgets everything, aUke duty and command. 
 
 Passions, — in the fullest sense of the word as 
 far as it represents a particularly strong inclination or 
 disposition to a certain sort of sensitive action — can 
 hardly be said to exist in any children, and least of all 
 in a sanguine child. The merry little chap has no time 
 to let any certain bad inclination within himself gain 
 the upper-hand, and to support this said inclination 
 with his whole intellectual power, (which constitutes 
 the real definition of the word »passion») he is of a 
 much too flighty nature. If however we can consider 
 him as possessing a passion at all, that passion would 
 incline towards a flighty vanity, accompanied by a 
 frivolous love of enjoyment. In conclusion, to sketch 
 the character of a sanguine child in a couple of 
 strokes, we should say that frivolity, vanity, flightiness, 
 distractedness, love of seeking pleasure and dissipation, 
 wantonness and roguishness, on the one side and 
 amicableness, generosity, sociability, sympathy, tracta- 
 bility, and happiness on the other side, go to make 
 up the light and shade of the character of the bulk of 
 children of the sanguine type. 
 
 As far as the physical nature of a sanguine child 
 is concerned, it may generally be characterized by a 
 delicate and slender figure, light and springy gait, 
 rosy complexion, lively restless eyes, and particularly by 
 nervous excitabihty. 
 
— 12 — 
 
 2. Treatment of the sangdine child. 
 
 Morose earnestness would be repulsive for a 
 sanguine child. It would be reversing the science of 
 pedagogy to attempt to train this hair- brained little 
 sanguinist by attempting to impress him with chosen 
 gravity and solemnity. For goodness sake, let it be 
 given to understand that we are fond of lively, merry 
 children. Play with it within certain bounds, only 
 always let the little hothead feel that it is being done for 
 his amusement, otherwise it will become presumptuous 
 and treat its teacher with a boldness which may soon 
 become impudence and endanger the continuation of 
 the proper respect always due to the teacher. If the 
 teacher is able to maintain the happy medium in this 
 respect, he will soon gain the love and esteem of the 
 child, if on the other hand he is unable to do this 
 and goes over the boundary, he risks his authority. 
 The respect which the child should observe with 
 regard to its teacher fails, and the latter discovers 
 with deep regret, that he has thrown away his dignity 
 and placed himself on the same level as the child. 
 
 As for the rest, it is not advisable to judge too 
 sharply of many of the faults of which the little 
 urchin may be guilty, as his sins are all committed 
 more in thoughtlessness than malice, and one should 
 not feel oneself offended too easily at many of the 
 thoughtless expressions, which may slip from its careless 
 lips with reference to its teacher or governess. Pleasant 
 and loveable as the child is, it can at times become 
 just as objectionable, but it is not malicious, and regrets 
 its faults as soon as they are committed, readily 
 begging pardon for the same. 
 
 The power which governs the actions of the 
 sanguine child does not lie within the child itself 
 but outside of it, it is interested in everything; the 
 great inattention generally shown by this class of 
 child, especially at lessons, is the result of this fact. 
 The art of education finds here a most expansive 
 
— 13 — 
 
 sphere. Everything which could attract the attention 
 of the eye or ear of the child, must be removed from 
 the school-room and the immediate neighbourhood of 
 the same. The mere fact of the canary-bird hanging 
 in the window, is sufficient to attract and disturb the 
 nervous disposition, often for hours. If the child has 
 its place in the school-room so situated that it has a 
 convenient view out of the window, we may be certain 
 that no sparrow will fly past that window without 
 having been noticed by the same. The situation of the 
 school-house and school-room, its interior and especially 
 the position and structure of the windows, are objects, 
 the importance of which should in no way be under- 
 rated. The more retired and quiet the position of the 
 school, the better it will serve its purpose. Schools 
 situated in noisy frequented streets are tiring for the 
 teachers and damagingf or the interests of the children, 
 and the sanguine child suffers more disadvantage under 
 this condition than any other. Everything therefore 
 which has a tendency to draw oft" attention from the 
 lessons must, as far as possible, be removed from the 
 school; on the other hand the teacher must endeavour 
 to occupy the imaginative powers of the mind of the 
 sanguine child, by an interesting, exciting and lively 
 method of discourse. The sanguine disposition must 
 have its amusement, and if it cannot find the same in 
 the lesson itself, it seeks it elsewhere during the same 
 and thus becomes a burden to the teacher, learns little 
 and that little with difficulty. A dry purely intellectual 
 method of discourse may be well suited to the professors 
 chair, but it is quite out of place in the school. The 
 great effort of the teacher must be to make the lesson 
 pleasant for such children. His descriptions should 
 portray as far as possible, he should accompany his words 
 by the display of means of intuition, which may easily 
 be found in nearly every object of study, and used 
 advantageously. Various points may for instance be 
 illustrated by sketches on the black board, or in history, 
 by the display of pictures and explanation of the same. 
 
— 14 — 
 
 In short, in the case of sanguine^ children much 
 importance should be attached to the method of 
 teaching by means of outward display. 
 
 The sanguine child has a very quick memory, it 
 easily recollects for the moment and forgets just as 
 easily for any length of time. Repetition is therefore 
 a most important point, in fact the principal point to 
 be observed in teaching a nervous child and the saturday- 
 lessons will be most valuable if they consist of an 
 outline review of the whole week's lessons. The 
 maintainance of outward order should be most parti- 
 cularly observed in the pedagogical direction of a 
 sanguine child. Such child has not the necessary 
 calmness to carry on anything it may have begun, to 
 its completion. Whilst it has one task on hand, it 
 is always ready and willing to begin something new, 
 because it imagines that the same could be of a more 
 interesting nature, and it has no objection or scruple 
 in leaving the first work in a state of incompletion. 
 That perseverance and persistance which the child does 
 not possess of itself, must be substituted in this case 
 by firm unrelenting behaviour on the part of the 
 teacher. The child must never be allowed to get a 
 new book into its fingers, before it has read through 
 or studied the previous one, it should never be per- 
 mitted to leave off a game which it may have wished 
 for, in order to begin some other. Indulgence in this 
 branch of the rearing of a sanguine child — and 
 we would wish to lay particular emphasis on this 
 remark — is a most decided weakness, and in the 
 long or the short run, the evil effects of the same on 
 the child would most certainly make themselves 
 apparent. One of these, and the most dangerous, is 
 the production of a certain form of disinterestedness 
 peculiar to those persons who show a talent for 
 beginning everything and bringing nothing to per- 
 fection. Not to entirely pass over the moral side of 
 the education of a little sanguinist, it is necessary to 
 remark, that the object of the most particular attention 
 
— 15 — 
 
 on the part of the teacher should be a strict cultivation 
 of the love of truth in the child. The nervous disposition 
 always praises and finds fault immoderately. In both 
 cases it is false and always becomes more disposed to 
 falsehood. The sanguine child in particular inclines 
 most of all to this fault. By placing questions, calculated 
 to cool down the liveliness of the imagination of our 
 fligthy young friend in all cases of exaggeration, and by 
 patience and tact, the teacher will find that he has worked 
 wonders in this respect for the moral weel of the child. 
 
 He who is fond of lying is fond of stealing too, 
 generally — and just as the sanguine child is somewhat 
 disposed to falsehood, and as the groundwork of this 
 bad characteristic may be found in the nature of its 
 disposition, it is just as easily disposed to theft. In 
 children we term this thievery and as it is generally 
 confined to the family-property, and in particular 
 practiced to satisfy a weakness for sweetmeats common 
 in all children, we should perhaps more correctly term 
 it a pilfering of niceties. Every sanguine child is 
 more or less thievish and pilfering. The reason for 
 this somewhat unpleasant characteristic lies generally 
 more in personal weakness for satisfying the appetite, 
 than in a malicious tendency to theft. Restless and 
 curious as a sanguine child always is, it searches in 
 every nook and cranny of the house. It discovers, 
 in the course of such researches, all sorts of things, 
 and its lively imagination readily supplies it with ways 
 and means for turning the articles thus found to 
 account for its own pleasure and amusement. To 
 prove this, it is only necessary just once to turn out 
 the pockets of a sanguine child! the result will be 
 what Artemus Ward would probably term a »young 
 museum«. The child has no idea of enriching itself 
 through its thieveries, it simply uses the objects — 
 temporarily annexed — for its amusement. 
 
 Parents and teachers have certainly every reason 
 for checking this dangerous tendency in children. It 
 is however difficult in pursuing this object to avoid 
 
— i6 — 
 
 unnecessary hardness, and the sanguine child should 
 be allowed a certain amount of liberty in its tendency 
 to turn out every nook and corner of the house and 
 collect the results of such voyages of discovery. It 
 would be inconsiderate and wrong to term the child 
 a thief on this account and to punish it under such 
 dishonourable title. The sanguine child likes to realize 
 its ideas, and it is advisable that it should not be 
 hindered in this respect. For this reason it should be 
 allowed the necessary material for its purpose, and 
 we can hardly blame it for searching the same together- 
 in every old box and chest that it can find. The thirst 
 for pleasure is too great in him, and the nature of 
 things which cause it amusement, is so very modest 
 that it is difficult to absolutely forbid anything in this 
 direction. If one attempts to suppress this tendency 
 entirely, the children will become sly and masters in 
 the art of deceit. Whole famihes sometimes exist 
 where the children, on account of a too strict training 
 have become so cunning that they may be vulgarly 
 termed sharpers and are generally spoken of as »having 
 one up their sleeve «. 
 
 Should the teacher have recognized in his scholar 
 a sanguinist, according to our sketch of the same, and 
 should he treat such child according to the hints which 
 we have here set forth, he will succeed in making the 
 same one of the most pleasant of children, as well in 
 the school-room as the play-ground or at home. Its 
 memory is comprehensive and quick and on account 
 of its natural curiosity it lends a willing ear to every 
 sort of instruction. Its conversational powers enable 
 it to learn foreign languages easily. Its humanity and 
 amicability make it the darling of everybody with 
 whom it may be brought into connection, whilst its 
 loveable nature allows of its acknowledging everything 
 good and beautiful. Its sociability often brings it into 
 a relation with its teacher which one might almost be 
 inclined to term brotherly or sisterly. It does not 
 daudle over its work; the liveliness of its mental powers 
 
— 17 - 
 
 is never wearied and nothing is able to suppress its 
 naturally cheerful nature for any length of time. Its 
 virtue possesses a particular charm in the eyes of the 
 world, because the earnest steadfastness of the same is 
 paired with a merry humour. It is a child of which 
 the teacher is ever fond, and which wiU ever after 
 remember the kindnesses of its teacher with feelings 
 of the deepest gratitude, in its course through the 
 Brush and the hush of life«. 
 
 Hellwig , B., the four temperaments in Children. 
 
m. 
 
 b) THE CHOLERIC CHILD. 
 
 I. Characteristics of the choleric child. 
 
 This is the hot-blooded, fiery, bold, adventurous 
 child. »Ambitious« were possibly the most suit able 
 word, if we may be able to represent it in one word. 
 The choleric child is always in advance of its age; 
 the choleric little chap is always imagining himself a 
 man, the choleric little maid always wishes the world 
 to understand that she is already a lady. Both feel 
 themselves injured if they are reckoned with the 
 children. Their step, their conversation and their 
 general behaviour, are all intended to represent that 
 they are far, far superior to their age and position, and 
 it is music to their ears to tell them that they are 
 big or strong for their age. The choleric boy always 
 feels himself constrained to stoop, on going through 
 a six foot doorway. He would feel himself only too 
 happy, if he could possibly speak in a man's voice, 
 and gives himself the greatest amount of trouble to 
 effect a deep bass. When the choleric little maid has 
 attained the mature age of eleven or twelve years, she 
 will have nothing more to do with dolls or such like 
 nonsense, they may be all very well for children but 
 not for her. 
 
 The best opportunity of observing the choleric 
 child, is perhaps whilst it is playing with other children. 
 
— 19 — 
 
 There is a great deal of truth in the statement, that 
 the best way of judging of the intellectual worth or 
 worthlessness of children, is by observing them at 
 their play. Inventive power, perseverance, love of 
 order, honour, sociability and their opposites are most 
 openly expressed in the play-ground. The observation 
 of the choleric child among its play-mates has a particular 
 amount of interest for lovers of children, for in the 
 play-ground it shows itself in its true colours. It is 
 passionately fond of play, but it must lead the fashion 
 in the juvenile society. He must domineer, proposes 
 always the games, pronounces the rules of the same, 
 gives his decisions with weight and dignity in every 
 case of dispute, just in the same manner as Xenophon 
 relates in his Cyropedia of the little Cyrus, the destined 
 mighty king of the Persians. The choleric child must 
 be king of the httle company, and the choleric little 
 woman, in proud consciousness of her superiority, 
 always attempts to play the part of queen; if they 
 cannot succeed in doing this, they rather retire altogether 
 from the game and then attempt to spoil the others' 
 pleasure by annoying them, or by treating them con- 
 temptuously. 
 
 The choleric child is bold to rashness. No hindrance 
 can restrain it, and its courage increases with difficulties. 
 No tree is too high for him, and no ditch too broad. 
 He is afraid of nothing or at least, if he does entertain 
 any fears he never shows them. The choleric maid 
 will learn riding and gymnastics and always finds more 
 amusement in such games as are played by boys, than 
 those generally practised by girls. She appears as a 
 little amazonian and when grown up is sure to support 
 the opinions held by the friends of woman's rights. 
 One thing at least is certain viz, that all the societies 
 formed in latter days by the fairer sex, for the propa- 
 gation of woman's rights, may be said to consist of 
 persons of a choleric nature. The choleric boy delights 
 in everything which demands boldness, resolution, 
 rashness and strength; he loves horses and glittering 
 
— 20 — 
 
 arms more than anything and generally wishes to 
 become either a soldier or a hunter. Rashness, boldness 
 and resolution, which generally so adorn youth and 
 manhood and even in children are worthy of a certain 
 amount of respect, are only too often placed in the 
 shade in choleric children by a want of mildness. The 
 choleric child is fond of being cruel to children as 
 well as to animals. In this respect it compares very 
 disadvantageously with the sanguine child. The choleric 
 child always has a stone in his hand; he cannot let 
 any bird, cat or dog go its way unmolested, and if he 
 cannot get near enough to his object he invariably 
 throws ston€s at it. 
 
 Proud of his physical powers and dexterity, he 
 always attempts to make his strength felt by his 
 play-mates. In his sphere he is always the admired 
 and dreaded bully, who finds a certain amount of 
 honour and greatness and seeks to prove his authority, 
 by roughly mistreating the weaker children. Those 
 who desire a peaceful life in school avoid him. The 
 choleric child generally finds a great deal of honour 
 in standing as much knocking about as possible 
 without crying. He is invariably the one who urges 
 the other children on to aggravate and rebell against 
 the teachers, and is generally at the bottom of all plots 
 of a revolutionary nature. He generally entertains a 
 malicious wish to become as strong as the teacher in 
 order to defend himself against any corporal punish- 
 ment which he may have deserved, and if possible to 
 inspire the teacher with a certain amount of fear of 
 him. A choleric child can make the life of a teacher 
 a misery. He hardly ever cries, indeed by the sharpest 
 punishments. He is much too proud to show such a 
 weakness as shedding tears, and when he cries it arises 
 more from rage than pain. He has a great tendency to 
 passion, and his self-will and obstinacy are unendurable^ 
 In order to get its own way it is not unfrequent that 
 such a child will scream and: roll about on the ground 
 in passion and indeed threaten to commit suicide. 
 
21 
 
 Any one who has ever had an opportunity of observing 
 children, will not accuse us of having said too much, 
 or of having in any way exaggerated in this respect. 
 This haughty temperament acknowledges all its deeds 
 freely and openly even when bad, but will never admit 
 the same to be bad, on the contrary always endeavours 
 to pass its faults off for virtues. When it has committed 
 a fault it will never ask pardon for the same, it is 
 much too proud to, should it however be obliged to 
 do so-, it does it in the most objectionable manner 
 possible, generally advancing with a firm loud step, 
 throwing its haughty little head back, and offering its 
 teacher the hand — or rather the tips of its fingers 
 — in the most condescending and petulant manner 
 imaginable. It is easy to guess its private opinion of 
 such an humiliation, by the way in which it slams 
 the door as it goes out of the room. It always wishes 
 to be independent, never have anyone placed in a 
 superior position to it, or even in an equal with it; 
 but always endeavours to effect something great and 
 extraordinary. The choleric temperament generally 
 produces great men and women, who often influence 
 state and family-life to a surprising degree. Is however 
 such a disposition badly or falsely educated, the result 
 will be reckless revolutionists and daring criminals, or in 
 the other sex women in their worst and most revolting 
 form tyrannous, and fiiries without morals or shame. 
 The Apostle Paul, Cyrus king of the Persians, Charles 
 the great, and the heroic Judith of old testament renown 
 on the one side, Julius Caesar and Napoleon the 
 great on the other side, may have been all children 
 of a choleric temperament which have risen to true 
 or untrue greatness through grace and their own force 
 of will. 
 
 The powers of mind of a choleric child are not 
 so comprehensive as those of the sanguine child. The 
 choleric child neither sees nor hears so much as the 
 sanguine child; but what its powers of mind lack in 
 comprehensiveness is made up for by intensity and 
 
— 22 — 
 
 concentration. What it does see and hear, makes a 
 much deeper impression on the choleric than on the 
 sanguine child, in consequence of which the teacher 
 will invariably find the former a much more attentive 
 scholar than the latter. 
 
 Its imagination is less fantastic, its emotions are 
 not so numerous, as also its endeavours, but they 
 appear more suddenly, are stronger and. more lasting 
 than in the case of the sanguine child. 
 
 The power of thought of the choleric child shows 
 early signs of depth and penetration. It learns in order 
 to educate itself, and not content with a superficial 
 knowledge of things, its enterprising little mind pries 
 into the existence of the same. It is often not satisfied 
 by the description of its teacher, begins to doubt the 
 correctness of the same, crossquestions and triumphs 
 if it can succeed in proving the teacher to have 
 made a scientific mistake, or if it can manage to 
 embarrass him with its crossquestioning. There are 
 children, who enjoy nothing better than bringing their 
 teacher »into a corners and the object of whose 
 indefatigable labours and unwearying attention, is simply 
 to interrupt the teacher in his discourse and to oppose 
 his assertions. If the choleric child is not fond of 
 books, it hates them, but if on the other hand it is 
 fond of them, it shows an aptitude and perseverance 
 in learning anything thoroughly and when once learnt 
 it does not easily forget. 
 
 Its passions — particularly its pride and veneration 
 — are strong and its inclination to fits of anger and love 
 of revenge, intense. Its resolutions are quickly formed 
 and carried out. It is particularly remarkable for force 
 of will; everything that lies in its path must bend 
 or break. 
 
 The summing up of the character -sketch of a 
 choleric child, would be self-will, pride, presumption, 
 obstinacy, fault-finding, ambition, disobedience, love of 
 revenge, hardheartedness and wantonness on the one 
 side, openness, magnanimity, generosity, perspicacity 
 
— 23 - 
 
 and force of will on the other side; these are the 
 light and shade sides of child of choleric disposition. 
 The physical attributes of a choleric child generally 
 consist in a thick set muscular frame, sharply marked, 
 expressive features, fiery eyes, firm carriage and a 
 resolute gait. 
 
 2. Treatment of the choleric child. 
 
 It is impossible for parents and teachers to remould 
 this disposition. They must take the child as it is. 
 Their duty is, as much as possible to weaken and 
 tone down the bad side of this temperament, and to 
 develope the better tendencies of such a nature, in 
 the interests of virtue. In training the choleric child 
 the teacher has m.ore need of earnestness and authority 
 than in the case of the sanguine child. A tendency 
 to descend to the nature of the child in this case may 
 have serious consequences. The teacher must stand 
 so far above this haughty disposition intellectually, that 
 he is able to impose the child. The sanguine child 
 should love its teacher, but the choleric one must 
 venerate him. It must be under the impression that 
 there is nothing in the world which its teacher does 
 not know and understand better than itself On this 
 account, persons, not attaching sufficient weight and 
 importance to themselves or their knowledge, will never 
 be able to conduct the pedagogical training of children 
 of a choleric nature with any great success, and should 
 they undertake such task will find themselve continually 
 subjected to the insolence and self-will of the child. 
 The will of the teacher must be strong, his orders 
 well considered and his word — law. It is particularly 
 advantageous in dealing with a choleric child, never 
 to make many words over a matter, and particularly 
 to avoid getting angry in the presence of the class. 
 The little hothead has too much presence of mind 
 and malice, not to remark how a teacher lays himself 
 open before him and the school in such excited 
 
— 24 — 
 
 moments. Not very long ago a certain teacher was 
 scolding a child of choleric temperament in a long 
 harangue and in his anger closed with the question, 
 whether the child would prefer an exemplary punishment 
 or his (the teacher's) silent contempt. »Then I would 
 venture to express a preference for your silent contempts 
 was the ready answer accompanied by roars of laughter 
 from the whole school. The teacher had probably 
 expected to receive no answer at all to his question 
 but certainly no such answer. The boy's answer was 
 hardly punishable but it shook the teachers authority 
 before the whole school. 
 
 The teacher must occupy the same position with 
 regard to the child, as good and clever parents generally 
 take up, so that the child may be impressed with the fact 
 that his teacher does not exercise his calling simply 
 in order to earn his living. This is a point, which 
 is of no particular importance in public schools, but of 
 great weight in the case of private tuition. Every 
 child having a private tutor and possibly thinking over 
 the matter should be made to know — and the 
 choleric child should be particularly impressed with 
 the fact, — that there are other and nobler motives 
 which decide the teacher to choose such calling, besides 
 the mere fact of gaining an existence. Children will 
 be children and they all have a tendency or perhaps 
 more desire to shake the dignity of the teacher if 
 possible, but no child is more inclined to consider its 
 teacher as simply the first servant of the house, than 
 the haughty temperament of the choleric child. This 
 fact of itself would not be of much importance if the 
 child itself did not suffer under such circumstances. 
 A reasonable tutor does not trouble himself much 
 about it. It is very true that a tutor is the chief 
 servant of the house, for the parents have laid the 
 care and direction of a treasure in his hands which is 
 more sacred and dear to them than anything else in 
 the world. Thinking parents know perfectly in which 
 light to judge of the position of the tutor with regard 
 
— 25 — 
 
 to the family, but children do not understand this and 
 it is not to be expected of them. Should however 
 an incautious remark have slipped from the parents 
 or from the tutor himself, in the presence of the 
 child — and especially choleric children — whereby 
 the child has become aware that the tutor only occupies 
 the same position as any other servant of the house 
 — should this be the case, the authority of the 
 teacher is lost for ever, to the unspeakable delight of 
 the child. 
 
 In doing favours, one must be more reserved, 
 with regard to the choleric disposition than any other. 
 At lessons the child may from time to time be praised 
 for its industry and attention, and occasionally undergo 
 short examinations in the presence of the parents and 
 others in order to give it an opportunity of showing 
 that it has learnt something. The child of choleric 
 temperament can do everything, nothing is too difficult 
 no examination too sharp if the reward be honour or 
 praise. It must of course be left to the tact of the 
 teacher, to hold the ambition of the child within the 
 proper boundaries and to use the same in the interest 
 of knowledge and virtue without carrying it too far in 
 which case it may become dangerous. 
 
 The choleric child must be particularly carefully 
 watched with regard to the manner in which it 
 conducts itself to the servants of the house. It must 
 be made to beg services, — not too commonplace 
 ones — of the servants, and to use the word please 
 in requesting such, and to express thanks for the same 
 when completed. If it is allowed to command it 
 will become imperious to a degree and will keep 
 half the household continually running about for it, 
 in a very short time. It shows early signs of becoming 
 a tyrant and worry for those connected with it. 
 Parents and tutor must unite to suppress the arrogance, 
 pride and self-will of the choleric child. Religion is 
 able to effect more in this case than anything else. 
 Careful tender reference to Jesus Christ has a wonderful 
 
— 26 — 
 
 power over the passionate heart. Christ, — who knew 
 all, — could have everything and do everything and 
 yet was such a mild, modest, obedient and poor child. 
 Is its pride once broken, the scene changes and 
 the choleric child become a hero of virtue. It will do 
 good because it knows that to do so is honourable. 
 It will love learning because it understands the value 
 of knowledge. He has given his word and will not 
 take it back. He will follow his good principles and 
 when the whole world laughs and scorns. His courage 
 grows with the danger. He is not inclined to weeping 
 and opposition only fires him on. He becomes a hero 
 in virtue, in good as well as in unhappy times. It 
 ripens into manhood or womanhood and becomes the 
 object of the surprising gaze of the world and often 
 has the power of directing and influencing for good 
 whole parts of human society. 
 
IV. 
 c) THE MELANCHOLY CHILD. 
 
 I. Characteristics of the melancholy child. 
 
 It is the depressed, pessimistic, sullen, peevishly 
 earnest, nervous child, — in a word - — the dejected 
 child. The little melancholist has always poor prospects. 
 He has few pleasures and in consequence, an aversion 
 to the world. It can scarcely be said to be a child 
 at all. It shakes its knowing Uttle head the whole 
 day, shrugs its little shoulders at everything it sees 
 and hears in the most serious and dubious manner, 
 accompanying these, its favorite expressions of feeling 
 at most with a sort of sighing ejaculation such as 
 ))Ah me!« It is exactly the opposite of the sanguine 
 child. The latter is always full of fun, the former 
 always sad and dejected. Whilst to the little sanguinist 
 the world appears illuminated by the rosy light of 
 golden hope, the little melanchofist regards the same 
 in the mourning of despair. The former considers 
 the whole world as a big joke, the latter regards it 
 as being terribly earnest, and this little pessimist is 
 ever engaged in a defensive warfare with the same. 
 He sees danger in everything around him; everything 
 is bent on his destruction, threatening his safety, his 
 honour, his possessions and his little self. He is ever 
 speculating and spying out what reasons the world 
 may have for disliking him. The little grumbler cannot 
 imagine it possible that anybody should really love 
 him. He has an aversion to everybody, is ever 
 
- 28 — 
 
 suspicious, blames and abuses everybody and every- 
 thing. He has few friends among his play- and 
 school-mates but a great many scoffers. He never 
 plays with other children, never seeks their society; 
 always follows his own lonely way. He has little 
 sympathy for anybody or anything and never feels 
 himself attracted to anyone by feelings of friendship. 
 He is a cold and retired egotist and regards every- 
 one even his own brothers and sisters with feelings 
 of envy and ill-will. When the presents are laid out 
 on the table at the merry Christmas-season, his envious 
 eyes always examine what his brothers and sisters 
 have received at first, and then finds time to look at 
 his own, which he does not regard with any feehngs 
 of pleasure but simply to compare the same in number 
 and worth with those of his sisters and brothers. Of 
 course he always finds himself the most misfavored 
 and indifferently treated child in the whole family. 
 To give another child any little present in order to 
 make it happy is a sheer impossibility for the melan- 
 choly child. If it is obliged to share an apple with 
 another child, it sets the knife with scrupulous honour 
 exactly across the middle of the apple generally 
 emerging in a very onesided manner at the stem. 
 The reason of this is apparent — we can possibly 
 guess who will get the biggest half If a play-mate 
 accompanies the melancholy child into its play-room, 
 the latter immediately becomes unreasonably suspicious 
 and should the said play-mate take up any object to have 
 a look at it, he will immediately be suspected of a 
 desire to steal it. As soon as he takes hold of one 
 end of such object the suspicious one seizes the other 
 end in order to prevent a possible — and to him 
 probable — annexation, to which end he further 
 endeavours to direct the attention of the little visitor 
 to any other objects in the room. He invariably 
 shoves his little visitor by degrees towards the door 
 and thanks the Lord when he has at last managed to 
 get the same over the threshold with empty pockets. 
 
— 29 — 
 
 He places everything, which he may possess, under 
 lock and key and always carries the keys in his pocket. 
 How easy were it for the curious servant-maid to pry 
 into his drawers and boxes ! and how easily could the 
 suspiciously regarded people in the house steal his 
 possession! He is never able to rest properly for 
 suspicion and mistrust. If anyone laughs, he always 
 thinks himself the object of ridicule; if anyone praises 
 him, he always thinks he is being made fun of and 
 if anybody jokes with him, he invariably construes 
 it as an attempt to aggravate him, in short, every 
 friendly action appears to him as irony. If he himself 
 ever laughs at anybody it is always that sort of laugh 
 which, among grown up persons is generally indelicately 
 characterized as a »grin«; a gloomy sarcasm plays about 
 the little hps. On being punished, the melancholy 
 child generally remains perfectly still and apparently 
 unaffected, however much it may boil inwardly. It 
 hardly ever shows loud angry passion, but when it 
 does so, it is terrible. In such cases it abuses parents 
 and teachers and probably runs out of the room 
 foaming with passion; it knows not where it runs, it 
 possibly has the idea of never coming back again, but 
 more often has the malicious idea of hiding, and then 
 allowing its anxious parents to search for it till night 
 comes on. It finds a grim satisfaction in causing its 
 parents or teacher anxiety on its account. All children 
 who show a tendency to sulk, have more or less of 
 the characteristics of a melancholy temperament. It 
 often happens that such child in its fits of passion, 
 seeks means of giving the same a tangible form, but 
 it is not permitted to the child to find such means. 
 In consequence it generally takes such means as 
 unquestionably testify to its impotency. It takes to 
 flight, but attempts during such flight to play the hero. 
 It slams the door, foams and stamps, but only then, 
 when it has placed a sufiicient distance between itself 
 and its enemies. We might almost compare such 
 passion with that of deformed people and cripples; for 
 
_ 30 — 
 
 in such persons the tendency to give vent to passions 
 is very great; they storm with the greatest violence 
 and verbosity, but their rage has no effect on others ; 
 it is comical, because it is powerless, and its threats 
 become absurd on account of the impossibihty to 
 carry out the same. 
 
 It often happens that melancholy children will 
 not speak or eat for days together out of pure 
 sulkiness and temper. They do this in the hope that 
 the parents, getting really anxious, will speak kindly 
 to them and persuade them to alter their behaviour and 
 nothing delights them more than when the parents 
 are so foolish and weak as to do this. I once knew 
 a melancholy child who ate nothing and spoke no 
 word for two whole days. WilUe was his name, and 
 on being punished by his father, the sulky, aggravating 
 little rascaL determined not to speak or eat for the 
 rest of his life. On the first day WilUe was called 
 to dinner as usual with the other children — but he 
 came not, neither did he speak nor did he eat. On 
 the second day it was the same again, Willie was 
 called, but came not, said nothing and ate nothing. 
 On the third day — it was not the same — Willie 
 was called and Willie came and ate and talked and 
 behaved just as if he had never done anything else 
 — as if yesterday and the day before had not existed, 
 with the exception that his appetite had possibly increased 
 an idea. Father, mother, brothers and sisters took no 
 notice of the accurrence. The child had been treated 
 in the proper manner. Willie had certainly calculated 
 that Father and mother would become anxious and 
 beg and pray of him to eat something, and it would 
 have been a glorious triumph for Willie. He has 
 grown up now to be a clever and earnest man, and 
 told me this interesting little anecdote of his childhood 
 himself, and he further assured me that since that day 
 he never attempted the starvation - principle again. 
 I beUeve him as to the latter point and should have 
 believed it if he had not told me. 
 
— 31 — 
 
 The power of thought of the young melancholist 
 is slow, out thorough. His eyes observe little but 
 that little attentively. His ears do not hear much, 
 but what they hear is sure to be criticized and judged. 
 In the case of everything which a melancholist observes, 
 the first question which appears to its mind is in what 
 relation the object observed may stand to himself; 
 whether a pleasant or an unpleasant one, whether useful 
 or injurious, friendly or inimical. It has, in this 
 respect a quick and sharp reasoning power, and from 
 this standpoint it forms its estimation as to the value 
 or worthlessness of the object in question. 
 
 Its perceptions, ideas, feelings and endeavours are 
 excited slowly, but once excited the effect is deep and 
 lasting. When, for instance, it once gets angry, it 
 will remain angry for years. 
 
 The power of thought of a melancholy child is 
 profound and calm, it will meditate and ponder over 
 a thing for days together. It busies its mind preferably 
 with objects requiring earnestness and thought, than 
 with such as only occupy the imagination in a light 
 and passing manner. In the rule, it generally prefers 
 arithmetic to music and singing and at a riper age, finds 
 more pleasure in philosophical studies than in poetry. 
 There are few instances of poets having a tendency to 
 melancholy, while this is nothing uncommon in the 
 case of philosophers, mathematicians and astronomers. 
 Aristoteles had a very high opinion of this temperament, 
 since long thought and meditation over one idea is a 
 fine quality of the nature of the same. He considered 
 a genius in combination with a melancholy temperament 
 to be something extraordinarily great. This is certainly 
 not perhaps entirely incorrect, but at the same time 
 it can hardly be said to be perfectly correct. What 
 a disturbing effect a melancholy temperament may 
 exercise on the normal mental life, may be much better 
 observed in the case of adults than in that of children. 
 
 If we do not exactly know what the ancients 
 meant by the word (liXaiva xo^i] — »black bile«, we 
 
— 32 — 
 
 may still presume that they wished to express something 
 varying from the normal construction of the body, and 
 in fact mental impressions of an unpleasant kind such 
 as pain or fear can make every mortal at times 
 melancholy and exercise a disturbing influence on the 
 stomach, bile and the whole process of digestion. 
 
 If one has trouble, one feels oneself bodily un- 
 healthy and the head begins to droop. In the most 
 cases it may be assumed that melancholy children possess 
 some internal bodily failure, constituting a more or 
 less disturbing agent in the process of animal life, 
 and causing principally the melancholy; a disturbance 
 which may hardly be treated as a disease and which 
 may in no way endanger the life of the child. Indeed 
 the greatest melanchoUsts often live to a very old 
 age; but good health which sends fresh blood through 
 the system has a great deal to do with the diff'erence 
 in temperaments. That is why the merry Greeks 
 could find no better greeting than vyiaivsl »remain 
 healthy« and just so the more earnest Romans with 
 their »vale«. Looking at the matter from this standpoint, 
 we may say that it is frivolous to get angry with the 
 melancholy child who always takes things so much 
 more earnestly than the others, and a mistake to 
 attempt to destroy all its favorite ideas with rough 
 force. The melancholy child is considerate, tractable 
 and ready. The little melancholist has always got his 
 ear at the key-hole, because he is always speculating 
 as to what other people are thinking of him, but this 
 generally makes the matter worse for himself instead 
 of better. His calm, downward turned gaze, his slow 
 gait and his utter helplessness if fallen upon by the 
 heartless little scoff"er, make him an object of sympathy 
 to a real nobly thinking friend of children, and it is 
 impossible to deny him a certain amount of respect. 
 His great consideration, patience and constancy, his in- 
 dustriousness and punctuality tend to make a model 
 child of him. He is conscientious and self-mastering, 
 but this mastery over himself is apt to lead him to one 
 
— 33 — 
 
 great failure. He often becomes a really unpleasant 
 little judge of morals and is fond of criticizing the 
 words and deeds of his parents, teachers, sisters and 
 brothers and school-mates. For this reason the other 
 children do not generally care to associate with him. 
 When melancholy children find that people go out of 
 their way to leave them alone, they become retiring 
 and seek to hide themselves in solitude as much as 
 they can, only peeping occasionally timidly out of their 
 shell and then always cautiously spreading out their 
 feelers first ; they then generally loose what little bit of 
 courage and pleasure in life they ever possessed. If 
 a melancholy child has once withdrawn himself from 
 the merry company of his brothers and sisters and 
 school-mates, it is generally hopeless to try to do 
 anything with him. He worries himself with a silent 
 longing after better times and better associates, and 
 his state gets worse with every day; he ceases to love 
 and to be loved. 
 
 To sketch the character of a melancholy child in a 
 couple of pencil-strokes, sulkiness, jealousy, envy, love 
 of fault-finding, irresolution and hesitation, hindering 
 free and spontaneous action, love of solitude and a 
 tendency to dejection, on the one side, and on the 
 other side intelligent calm reasoning, earnestness, 
 patience and resignation; these are the light and shade 
 sides of a melancholy temperament. 
 
 Physically, the melancholy child is generally tall 
 and thin, weakly buUt, with head and neck bent forward, 
 it has a pale complexion, tired look, slow but steady 
 gait, excitable nerves and predominance of venous blood. 
 
 2. Tkeatment of the melancholy child. 
 
 It is fortunate for parents and teachers that few 
 really melancholy children exist. According to my 
 experience, among a hundred children I have found 
 at most five to be of a melancholy disposition. In 
 such a child there is absolutely nothing which can 
 
 Sellwig , B.j the four temperaments in Children. 3 
 
— 34 — 
 
 attract ^or raise the sympathy of the teacher. The child 
 regards its teacher as its torment, as a malicious one 
 who has determined to do his best to make its young 
 life wretched. Should the teacher treat the child in a 
 friendly manner, it invariably thinks he wishes to 
 deceive it; should he treat it playfiilly, it thinks it 
 is being made fun of. If he approaches the child, it 
 is annoyed, if he remains at a distance, he is accused 
 of not loving it. That such child does not look upon 
 its teacher with any degree of pleasure, is very certain 
 and that the teacher often looks upon the child in 
 exactly the same light, is alas, only too true! What 
 the pedagogue has most need of in this case is love 
 of his profession. He must persuade himself that he 
 occupies his position on account of the child. This 
 consciousness that he is there for the benefit of the 
 child, and not the child for his advantage, ought always 
 to be the ruling motive with teachers. This thought 
 alone must decide the teacher, throughout his whole 
 course, in what manner the child in question is to be 
 treated, whether the same be rich or poor, mentally 
 and physically strong or weak. Without this conscious- 
 ness the seed of his sowing will bear no fruits. This 
 will be the case always and everywhere but especially 
 with regard to a melancholy child. By clever and 
 carefiil behaviour we must endeavour to show this 
 unhappy child that we are fond of it, and that it is 
 not a burden to us and that is all that it is well 
 possible to remark over the treatment of the melan- 
 choly temperament. The teacher must always bear in 
 mind, that the poor child cannot be held responsible 
 for its unfortunate temperament, and should ever be 
 inclined to put down its many faults and unpleasant- 
 nesses more to the nature of its temperament than to 
 malice or disrespect on the part of the child. Pity for 
 the child must be the ruling motive in the actions of 
 the teacher. At the same time we would call attention 
 to the fact that teachers should never practise jokes 
 on a melancholy child, nor deceive it even in fun; 
 
— 35 — 
 
 otherwise it will at once become mistrustful. Since 
 further the little melancholist is generally most happy 
 when he may be allowed to remain in bed, or sit by 
 the fire alone and meditate over his gloomy ideas, 
 it should be the teacher's greatest care to keep him 
 constantly employed, so that he may have no time to 
 get lost in thought. If possible he should often bring 
 the melancholy child in the society of some merry 
 little sanguinist, and should himself endeavour to 
 preserve a harmless humour in his communication 
 with the child. Such harmless humour, where it may 
 be clearly seen that it is only meant to conduce to 
 the welfare of the children, has never discredited even 
 the most earnest of teachers. 
 
 If the teacher possesses tact, good will and luck, 
 the temperament will, with time, lead to good results. 
 Melancholy has a tendency to solitude, to securing its 
 position, to moral earnestness and retirement from 
 the outer world. When once the melancholist has 
 recognized the injuriousness of his inactivity, he will 
 work constantly for fear the evil might return again. 
 If he is properly trained, he will grow up to be a 
 man who, — if not born to greatness — will at any 
 rate, by his earnestness of thought, occupy an honourable 
 position in society. 
 
V. 
 d) THE PHLEGMATIC CHILD. 
 
 I. Characteristics of the phlegmatic child. 
 
 This is the coldblooded lymphatic child. In a 
 word we might perhaps term it the »indifFerent« child. 
 It is not easy to disturb its equilibrium. Everything 
 happening around it is a matter of total indifference 
 to the phlegmatic child, and it is difficult to fire on 
 such child or to inspire it with enthusiasm. The 
 phlegmatic child is the exact opposition of the choleric 
 temperament. Activity and energy are things unknown 
 to the phlegmatic one. Perfect peace is its ideal. It 
 needs nothing further, it knows no troubles, and 
 requires no particular pleasures. F it is only left at 
 peace, it will trouble itself about nothing further. This 
 little bit of phlegma lounges or strolls about, comfortably 
 and conveniently, its hands folded behind its back or in 
 its trousers' pockets, standing about everywhere harm- 
 lessly staring to the right and left, above and below, 
 looking everywhere, without particularly noticing or 
 remarking anything. It is easy to see that he has plenty 
 of time, always and everywhere. Everything is good 
 enough for him. It is a matter of the greatest in- 
 difference to him, as to wether his clothes are good 
 or bad, whole or in rags; he does not trouble himself 
 in the least about his toilette. His books lie about all 
 over the room, and his exercise-books are principally 
 
- 37 — 
 
 remarkable for blots. If his attention be directed to 
 his disorder and carelessness, he will probably answer 
 with one of the most pleasant smiles, that it is »not 
 worth making a fuss about. « Indeed when really 
 sharply scolded or put down, it is seldom tempted to 
 contradict its parents or teacher, or to show the least 
 sign of disturbance in its feelings by its behaviour. It 
 generally attempts to disarm the wrath of its teacher 
 by its calmness, even sometimes by a goodnatured 
 smile to allow it to pass over. This is probably the 
 reason why parents and teachers seldom scold or get 
 angry with children of such a temperament. Where 
 the teacher finds no hasty opposition to his will, he 
 has no grounds for becoming hasty himself. The 
 phlegmatic child is peaceful and agreeable towards its 
 school- and play-mates. He makes no particular claims 
 on them, does not trouble or annoy them and seldom 
 gives them an opportunity of complaining about him. 
 He submits to them the first place in the school with 
 all his heart and seems to consider it quite in the 
 order of things that he himself should occupy the last 
 place. He knows no ambition. He neither seeks the 
 company of children of his own age, nor does he 
 avoid it, and vice versa, his companions have no 
 particular liking for him but at the same time show 
 no wish to avoid him. He has nothing to do with 
 gross excesses of any kind. He does not exclude 
 himself firom the amusements and games of his school- 
 mates, but at the same time has not the slightest 
 objection, perhaps shows even a preference for obser- 
 ving the same calmly and quietly from some shady 
 spot in the play-ground. In this latter occupation he 
 generally amuses himself immensely, when the game 
 has demanded considerable bodily exercise and the 
 perspiration is running down the faces of his less 
 phlegmatic play-mates. To take part in such a game 
 would demand an energy which in no way harmonizes 
 with his phlegmatic nature. His requirements are very 
 modest. A comfortable fire, good food, long sleep 
 
- 38 - 
 
 and little work — this is the somewhat limited circle with- 
 in the circumference of which his whole requirements 
 and ideals exist. If he can secure a comfortable place 
 by the fire in winter, or a shady place in the garden 
 in summer, and is not too much bothered with walks, 
 learning or work, or troubled with much conversation, 
 he is perfectly happy, barring, at certain appointed 
 times of the day, a natural desire for eating and 
 drinking. He is fond of eating much, and good food, 
 but invariably shows that slowness and indifference at 
 the table, which characterizes all his actions. He is 
 not in the least disturbed at the fact that all the others 
 have already finished and are only waiting for him. 
 After what we have already said, it will not be difficult 
 to guess at the intellectual powers and mental feelings 
 of the phlegmatic child. His powers of mind are 
 generally of a very limited nature. Eyes hath he but 
 he sees not, ears but he heareth not. He interests 
 himself for nothing in the world, everything is a 
 matter of indifference to him. It is difficult to excite 
 feelings in him, either of pleasure or of sorrow. Where 
 the other children dance for joy, the phlegmatic child 
 merely smiles; where other children are moved to 
 tears, his physionomy remains unaltered. His opinions 
 and judgements are — in consequence of the unexci- 
 tability of his feelings, — cold and insipid. The little 
 phlegmatist is an arid and unpoetical being which 
 reminds me of the dry remark of a Hungarian in a 
 theatre at Vienna. — It was a touching and well 
 played scene and perfect silence reigned in the theatre. 
 Tears stood in the eyes of most of the audience. The 
 Hungarian alone stood, with his arms carelessly crossed, 
 staring alternately at the stage and the audience, in 
 the most disinterested manner. His more sentimental 
 neighbour asked him how such a touching scene codd 
 make so very little effect on him — whereupon the 
 Hungarian answered in broken German — »Erstens 
 geht's mich nichts an und zweitens, wer weiss ob's 
 wahr ist!« (»In the first place it has nothing to do with 
 
— 39 — 
 
 me and in the second place, who knows whether its 
 really true !«) Such a refreshingly cool answer would 
 have done honour to the best phlegmatist ! Certainly 
 philosophers might have had splendid opportunities 
 of studying the phlegmatic temperament, during the 
 childhood of such a man. This calm dry view of 
 things in general, prevents the phlegmatic disposition 
 from forming hasty and exaggerated judgements; but 
 at the same time fails to give the character the 
 necessary force of will. It is impossible for a child 
 which cannot interest itself for anything to take up 
 anything with enthusiasm. A certain amount of 
 indolence must necessarily originate from this lack of 
 warmth and interest, which has tendency to avoid 
 physical and mental activity because such nature has 
 no ideal which it may strive to realize. From the 
 same source originates a want of sympathy; the 
 phlegmatist approaches nobody heartily, he never seeks 
 friendship even of such persons who may repeatedly 
 have shown themselves worthy of it. He shows a 
 heartlessness and indifference with regard to the need 
 or sorrows of strangers, or persons not directly con- 
 nected with himself, which may be explained, — perhaps 
 excused — by his disposition, but which is revolting 
 to a man of heart and sympathy not making allowance 
 for the temperament. A phlegmatist stood on the 
 strand calmly observing an unfortunate mortal strug- 
 gling with the waves and whom he could easily have 
 helped without much inconvenience to himself. On 
 being rebuked for his inactivity he replied with 
 refreshing coolness, »the man has never been intro- 
 duced to me!« 
 
 In summing up the light and shade sides of the 
 phlegmatic temperament we have, — love of con- 
 venience, a certain physical and mental dulness and 
 indolence, lack of sympathy and friendship and a 
 weakness for good living, on the one side, and on 
 the other side calmness, patience, agreeableness in 
 intercourse and circumspection in action. 
 
— 40 — 
 
 With regard to the physical side of the tempera- 
 ment, it is generally remarkable for a fat unwieldy 
 structure of the body, inclining to corpulence on 
 account of an excess of lymph and phlegm, and in- 
 different look and careless uncertain gait. 
 
 2. Treatment of the phlegmatic child. 
 
 One must not expect too much from the phleg- 
 matic child, otherwise that little force of will which 
 it possesses, wiU befright ened out of it. It will wil- 
 lingly undertake to carry out an3d;hing which does not 
 demand much physical or mental activity. It would, 
 for instance, be a big mistake on the part of a teacher, 
 to review before the phlegmatic child the studies which 
 it will have to complete in the course of a year. His 
 work must be given to him piece by piece, and a 
 pause should be made after the completion of each 
 piece in order that he may be enabled to collect 
 energy and enterprize enough to tackle the next piece, 
 get through it quickly, and reach the next resting- 
 place. In this innocently deceptive manner the teacher 
 will gain his ends, and at the same time be able to 
 satisfy the demands of this rest-seeking disposition. 
 In the case of the phlegmatic child, teachers and 
 parents have plenty of opportunity of practising 
 patience. The teacher must in this case deny himself 
 the pleasant reward of his labours, viz. that of observing 
 the progress of his scholar from day to day, from 
 week's end to week's end. He must be satisfied to 
 be able to remark at the end of a month that his 
 slow pupil has advanced a very small slice further in 
 the course of his studies. It is of course sometimes 
 the case that a phlegmatic child is talented, but this is 
 not the rule. What the child however has once learnt 
 remains its mental property for ever. Another great 
 difEculty in the scientific direction of the phlegmatic 
 child, lies in its indifference. The teacher stands in 
 this respect powerless and with empty hands before 
 
— 41 — 
 
 the child. It is possible to inspire every other sort of 
 child with enthusiasm for learning either by promises, 
 praise or blame. Such means rebound however against 
 the impenetrable armour of want of feeling and in- 
 difference, which covers the phlegmatic child. It neither 
 knows ambition, nor does it feel reproof This may 
 sound hard but it is nevertheless true and we are 
 bound to say it. The teacher is powerless against the 
 child unless he takes refuge in threatening bodily 
 punishment and rebukes reasonably and moderately as 
 his love for the child may dictate — but with the 
 cane in the hand. The fear of a second punishment 
 generally gives him force of will sufficient to overcome 
 his indolence. The teacher must so watch the child 
 that it may be able to say of every moment of its 
 time, that the same has been usefully employed either 
 in one way or the other. Idleness is the beginning 
 of all evils. The teacher must see that the time is 
 well employed if he does not wish his pupil to spoil. 
 If the teacher is to supply the many demands of the 
 school from day to day, and to get through the many 
 and various examinations with the children, — at least 
 iti some degree, — honourably, he will find himself 
 compelled to reduce the play -time to a minimum. 
 For every other sort of child, this overburdening with 
 learning on the part of the school-authorities, against 
 which so many experienced doctors and pedagogues 
 are striving, may be mentally and physically injurious, 
 but with regard to the phlegmatic child this is in no 
 way the case. Idle hours in the true sense of the 
 word are neither useful nor necessary for a phlegmatic 
 child. To fill up the idle hours properly, demands 
 an amount of energy which is hardly found in any 
 sort of children but which may not even be looked 
 for in a phlegmatic nature. Although the teacher 
 always likes to give the children as much free time as 
 possible, he need never reproach himself for busying 
 the little phlegmatist as long as possible and even not 
 allowing him to occupy his spare time in his own 
 
— 42 — 
 
 way. The little phlegmatist would without question 
 choose a perfectly idle rest — whilst the teacher gives 
 him a rest which is more a change of occupation. 
 The teacher may never expect a particular amount of 
 thankfulness or love from the phlegmatic child, but 
 he will have the consciousness of having done his best. 
 This is of itself a reward. In this manner he will be 
 able to bring his pupil to that pitch of knowledge, 
 which will enable the same to attain the situation in 
 life corresponding to its position and abilities, and if 
 slowly, yet truly and honourably to fulfil the duties 
 connected therewith. 
 
VI. 
 
 SYMPATHIES AND ANTIPATHIES OF THE 
 FOUR TEMPERAMENTS. 
 
 It is not always easy to distinguish the four 
 temperaments in their differences and varieties. It is 
 still less easy to say with any amount of certainty, 
 after only a short time of observation, which child 
 may be of a sanguine, which of a choleric, melancholy 
 or phlegmatic temperament. It is easier to discover 
 the disposition of a boy than of a girl, for instance 
 in moments when he thinks himself unobserved or 
 when in the heat of speech or action he has lost the 
 consciousness of being observed. 
 
 The observation of a girl is much more difficult. 
 As soon as a little girl has attained the age of three or 
 four years, she begins to show that tendency peculiar 
 to the fairer sex viz. the desire to please. The constant 
 endeavour of the little girl is, only to show the good 
 sides of her character. She shows such attributes and 
 if she does not really possess them inwardly, she will 
 give herself the greatest trouble at least to show them 
 outwardly. In consequence of this, she makes it very 
 difficult for the observer to decide to which class of 
 temperaments her's may belong, and such decision 
 when arrived at is very often false. 
 
 Both boys and girls may best be observed in such 
 moments when their whole attention is concentrated 
 
— 44 — 
 
 on a single object. This is generally the case in 
 their games. A child plays with its whole heart, it 
 invariably concentrates its whole attention on the 
 game. It might well be possible even for a not very 
 sharp observer to be able to decide with tolerable 
 certainty among a group of playing children, which 
 may belong to each of the four classes. 
 
 In addition to this the bodily appearance as 
 previously described is sufficient to give the observer 
 ground for a conjecture as to the temperament of 
 the child. 
 
 In order, with more certainty, to answer the 
 question as to whether a child is of sanguine, choleric, 
 melancholy or phlegmatic nature, let us imagine four 
 children representing the four temperaments as here- 
 in described, placed under certain conditions, and let 
 us observe the manner in which each child may behave 
 under such conditions. 
 
 For this purpose, a merry philosopher once 
 imagined a sanguine, a choleric, a melancholy and a 
 phlegmatic child all tied up together in a sack. He 
 further imagined this to have been done without the 
 knowledge or will of the four children in question — 
 for instance whilst they were asleep — and then the 
 sack to be carried through night and fog into the 
 middle of a mysterious wood and then opened. 
 
 How now will these four little persons behave 
 under the circumstances? 
 
 The choleric youngster springs out of the bag 
 doubles his fists and seeks and takes fearful revenge 
 on the robber. 
 
 The sanguinist springs out of the bag too and 
 in the first moment doubles his fists too and swears 
 mightily. But his anger soon melts, he takes to flight 
 and is heartily glad that things didn't turn out any worse. 
 
 The melancholist creeps shyly out of the sack; 
 he is boiling for rage within but is outwardly calm, he 
 peers round in every direction to see that there is no 
 further cause of fear and sneaks off. 
 
— 45 — 
 
 The phlegmatist at last comes out of the sack 
 too, unwillingly enough, would possibly not be dis- 
 inclined eventually to help in taking revenge, swears 
 perhaps a little; but calms itself eventually and begins 
 to think about going home, finds however the way 
 unpleasant by night, so sits down in the neighbourhood 
 of, or possibly rolls himself in the fatal sack and 
 sleeps the sleep of the just until the golden aurora 
 awakes him. 
 
 The originator of this healthy and comical idea 
 probably had grown up persons in his mind's eye, but 
 the experiment woiild have given pretty much the 
 same results if it had been practised on children of 
 the four different temperaments. 
 
 Let us just consider the tendencies of the four 
 temperaments with regard to reaHty. 
 
 The little sanguinist sees more in the reality than 
 really is there; the phlegmatic child on the contrary 
 sees less. The choleric child sees exactly what the 
 reality is, but has go enough to attach more importance 
 to it than it is really worth. The melancholist with 
 a sort of half satisfying certainty is neither able to 
 comprehend what the reality may be, nor has he 
 imagination sufficient to see anything beyond the bare 
 reality. In short; the sanguinist is too ideal, the 
 phlegmatic child is too real, the choleric child is real 
 and ideal and the melancholist is neither real nor ideal, 
 for he swings in everlasting anxiety between the two, 
 not knowing whether to ascend to the one or descend 
 to the other. 
 
 We will now consider the four temperaments 
 with regard to time. 
 
 Old folks — they say — live only in the past; 
 they are continually telling of the days when they 
 were young, and they relate the same anecdotes of 
 their youth from day to day and always 'find exactly 
 the same amount of pleasure in telling a story for 
 the ten thousandth time as they found in telling it for 
 the hundredth time. Young people on the contrary 
 
- 46 - 
 
 live only in the future, towards which they longingly 
 gaze and which ever appears to them painted in the 
 dreamy colours of their hopes and wishes. Children 
 however, live only for the present, for them exists 
 neither past nor future time. 
 
 This theory is correct, but only in so far as 
 we may say that the aged live principally, but not 
 exclusively in the past, that youth lives principally, 
 but not exclusively in the future, and that children, 
 live principally, but not exclusively in the present. 
 Although children live for the most part in the present, 
 the sanguine child loves to peep into the future and 
 to contemplate the golden world looming in the 
 distance, behind the fatal veil. The choleric child 
 studies the present principally and thinks lightheartedly 
 and hopefully on the future. The little phlegmatist 
 lives for the moment and neither fears nor hopes for 
 anything from the future. The little melancholist 
 thinks on the future but with uncertainty and does 
 not know whether it will bring him joy or sorrow, 
 and in consequence does not know whether to fear 
 it or to welcome it. 
 
 No child troubles itself particularly about the past, 
 whether sanguine, choleric, melancholy or phlegmatic. 
 
 We will now observe the four temperaments with 
 regard to pleasure. 
 
 The sanguinist not only seeks pleasure, but revels 
 in it and satiates himself in it. The choleric child 
 loves pleasure too, but does not become satiated there- 
 from. The melancholist knows no pleasure; the 
 phlegmatic child has no need of it, it is sufficient for 
 him and he feels himself perfectly happy when he has 
 no pain. When he is comfortable, — that is to say 
 when he has the pleasant feeling that he needs nothing 
 further — his longings cease. 
 
 The four dispositions may be distinguished from 
 each other most sharply perhaps, when observed in 
 respect to pain — or perhaps more correctly said — 
 to a painful recollection. 
 
— 47 — 
 
 It is generally believed, that man does not remember 
 pain so well as pleasure. This is certainly always the 
 case, but particularly in the case of sanguine and 
 phlegmatic children. With respect to the melancholist 
 it can hardly be said to be correct. Grievances suffered 
 depress the melanchoUst to a surprising degree, and if 
 at the time they had no lasting eifects, they had at 
 least the result of shaking his faith in everything and 
 everybody for a very considerable time. The teacher 
 who has once mistreated a melancholy child, may wait 
 a very long time until he succeeds in regaining its 
 fi-iendship. The choleric child too, does not so easily 
 forget any painful circumstance, but it is a pleasure 
 for him to remember that he held it out pluckily. Let 
 us imagine four children of the four different tem- 
 peraments all punished by the teacher for the same 
 fault with exactly the same corporal punishment. 
 During the punishment the sanguine child will do the 
 most crying, and yet he will be the first to begin 
 laughing and to forget the whole affair. A hundred 
 various objects occupy his lively mind, and the painful 
 impression left by the punishment soon melts under 
 their influence. The phlegmatic child showed little 
 susceptibility during the punishment and consequently 
 shows still less when" it is over. The punishment has 
 the effect of making the melancholist thoughtful, sulky 
 and mistrustful. The teacher will have, as we said 
 above, much trouble to regain its confidence and 
 esteem. The choleric one does not forget the 
 punishment, but he is proud to think that he bore 
 it with a haughty and disdainfial mien, and that it has 
 not had the least effect upon him. If ever a teacher 
 has need of coolheadedness, it is in the case of 
 inflicting corporal punishment, and in the case of a 
 choleric child he has double need of his cool- 
 headedness; a choleric child can in such cases aggravate 
 the teacher to such a degree that it is an even bet 
 who will hold out longest, — the inflictor or the 
 inflicted. 
 
- 48 - 
 
 We will now observe the four different tempe- 
 raments under the effect of music and singing. 
 
 The sanguine child loves music and song naturally. 
 He whistles or sings an accompaniment to all his 
 employments. The choleric child too, is fond of 
 singing and whistling, but not in the same degree as 
 the sanguinist. The little melancholist is always afraid 
 of getting laughed at, so prefers not to sing at all. 
 The phlegmatic one will — if he is obhged to — 
 join in a song. 
 
 The same may be said of the accompaniment of 
 a song viz. music. The melanchoUst and phlegmatic 
 child will at most succeed in reaching a very mediocre 
 stage, in a musical direction. The choleric child has 
 more talent in this direction, but the sanguine child 
 surpasses them all through his love, talent and tendency 
 to music. We have often observed the village-boy who 
 — apart from his capital singing and whistling — had a 
 wonderful talent for playing the accordion, flute, mouth- 
 organ and for producing the most astonishing music 
 from that primitive of all instruments, the leaf of a 
 tree held before the mouth. A sanguine nature was 
 the only teacher of this many sided musician and 
 would have made an artist of him if he had not 
 been a shepherd-boy. 
 
 Mentioning the voice, at this opportunity, it 
 will be remarked that sanguine natures invariably have 
 a soft clear melodious voice. It is to be remarked 
 that nearly all tenorists belong to the sanguine tem- 
 perament, whilst bass and baritone are generally 
 represented by the choleric nature; the phlegmatic 
 temperament even when accompanied by a certain 
 amount of musical talent, gives itself no trouble to 
 improve. The true melancholist has no ear for music 
 and invariably sings out of tune. 
 
 It is also possible to remark a sharp distinction 
 in the manner in which children of different tempera- 
 ments will behave towards teachers or pastors with 
 whom they have opportunity of associating, and whom 
 
- 49 — 
 
 they are accustomed to respect as their superiors. 
 We have at the moment a quiet tete-a-tete in our 
 mind's eye. That is generally a great trial for a child, 
 even when it has nothing to be afraid of. Every 
 child in such a position is awkward and embarrassed. 
 The little sanguinist generally blushes deeply : he tugs 
 at his sleeve in his embarrassment or shifts the cap 
 — respectfully held in the hand — nervously from one 
 hand to the other, as if trying by this means to let 
 off his embarrassment. But this does not last long, 
 he soon becomes confident, often indeed audacious. 
 
 The choleric boy appears with more self-con- 
 sciousness, he does his best at any rate to master his 
 embarrassment, and gets angry if he does not succeed. 
 
 The little melancholist is always shy, retiring and 
 uninteresting. 
 
 The phlegmatic child is, of all, the least em- 
 barrassed, often what we might term foolhardy, and 
 whereat we are more inclined to laugh than to be 
 annoyed. 
 
 Then the manner in which the different children 
 behave in the play-ground as previously mentioned, 
 forms a capital criterion for judging the characters 
 of the same — for an observer. 
 
 In the various games, every child endeavours to 
 play that part which is most suited to his disposition. 
 The sanguinist is invariably the merry wag. The 
 choleric one undertakes the direction, and decides the 
 rules of the game. The melancholist sulks because 
 he cannot play the most important part, and considers 
 himself the worst treated in the whole school. And 
 lastly the phlegmatic child takes part in the game, or 
 not, just as the other children may see fit to decide, 
 't is just as easy for him to ignore the whole game as 
 to play — sometimes for hours together — in the 
 most goodnatured manner. 
 
 The sanguine child seeks companionship in order 
 to enjoy and amuse himself. No joke is too jolly for 
 him and no fun to merry. The choleric child has 
 
 Hellwig, B,, the four temperamenin in Children. t 
 
— 50 — 
 
 generally less need of company, because he is more 
 independent, but nevertheless seeks company because 
 it gives him an opportunity of showing his real or 
 imagined superiorities. The phlegmatic child is fond of 
 leaning up against others, and will put up with a great 
 deal, without getting his even frame of mind disturbed. 
 The melancholist has the desire of communication 
 with others, but is in an eternal anxiety of doing 
 himself injury by the same. If he is not in society,, 
 he seeks it, if he has society, he detests it. 
 
 If we were desirous of inquiring into the real 
 worth of the four temperaments, and of questioning 
 which among all might be the best, and which we 
 should choose, could we form our own disposition, we 
 should be compelled to acknowledge that all of them 
 are equally good and equally bad. They are good it 
 we are accustomed to exhibit them in a good light, 
 and bad if we show them from their unfavourable 
 side. The advantages of every temperament — the 
 same as in the case of every other natural talent — 
 are entirely dependent on the uses to which such 
 disposition or talent may be employed. The next 
 chapter will place us in a better position to discuss 
 the point in question, as to the relative values of the 
 various temperaments. 
 
vn. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION AND COMBINATION OF THE 
 TEMPERAMENTS. 
 
 We have now completed the description of the 
 four temperaments as far as their pedagogical interest 
 is concerned. Of course the much respected readers 
 have practically experimented on their children. Every 
 tutor and every teacher has certainly asked himself 
 first of all: »What sort of temperament may the 
 child possess ?« After reading our remarks on the 
 sanguine temperament, our honoured reader whose 
 calling it is, to associate with and bring up children 
 has surely asked himself or herself: wis the child 
 which I have to train up, possibly a sanguine child ?« 
 They have observed, have drawn comparisons and 
 lo and behold! in many cases the description has only 
 half fitted — in many cases it has not fitted at all. 
 Other teachers have afterwards found their scholar 
 to be of a choleric, then again of a melancholic or 
 possibly of a phlegmatic nature. Whilst others have 
 read through all four temperaments and studied them 
 and are still uncertain as to which class the pupil, 
 which they have under their care, may belong. It 
 is neither sanguine nor choleric, neither melancholy 
 nor phlegmatic. It is impossible for a child to exist 
 without a temperament at all. — No man exists who 
 is without a temperament, therefore it is just as 
 
— 52 — 
 
 impossible for a child to do so. At present it may 
 be sufficient to remark that those parents or teachers 
 who have not been able to discover any particular 
 temperament in their children are in no way to be 
 pitied. Our next endeavour shall be to answer the 
 question: »How does it happen that many readers 
 have been unable to discover in their children either a 
 sanguine or choleric or a melancholy or a phlegmatic 
 temperament ?« 
 
 The various dispositions are not divided from 
 each other by a very sharply marked boundary. The 
 boundaries of the different temperaments do not lie 
 far away from each other, but adjoining each other, in 
 fact they run into each other. If we would make the 
 matter clearer by comparison, we should possibly refer 
 to the four ages of man. We may distinguish sharply 
 between childhood, youth, manhood and old age, and 
 we are well aware that every mortal must be counted 
 as belonging to one or the other of these ages. Yet 
 the passage from one of the stages of life to the 
 other is not sudden, is not made in a day. For 
 instance, it is impossible for us to say that a being is 
 at the moment a child, in the next instant he will be 
 a youth. We cannot even substitute the word »year« 
 for »moment« in the above question. The comparison 
 explains the matter sufficiently, if not entirely. 
 
 The ages lie behind each other, the temperaments 
 next to each other; the four ages lie in a straight 
 line touching each other at certain fixed points, but 
 the temperaments form four circles, partly running 
 into each other and all four coming together in at 
 least one point. 
 
 In showing the four temperaments it was our 
 endeavour to show each one in its full, pure, and 
 unmixed state — typical temperament. We have 
 endeavoured to produce typical sanguine, choleric, 
 melancholy and phlegmatic dispositions. But purely 
 typical natures are seldom found among children and 
 among adults still more seldom. As far as my 
 
— 53 - 
 
 experience goes in general, I have found about 20 
 per cent of the children to be of a purely typical 
 sanguine character; 10 per cent choleric, 5 per cent 
 melancholy and 5 per cent of phlegmatic nature. Of 
 the remaining 60 per cent many bore traces of two 
 temperaments, some of three and a few even of all 
 four, in which cases however it was always possible 
 to find one temperament more conspicuous than the 
 other, and which we might term the ruling tempe- 
 rament. 
 
 The proportions given refer to children in general 
 without distinction of boys and girls. If it is desired 
 to get at the proportion among boys alone, it is 
 possibly more correct to give 12 as the per centage 
 of choleric and only 18 as that of sanguine natures. 
 In the case of girls we should certainly arrive at the 
 most correct conclusion by reducing the per centage 
 of choleric and phlegmatic temperaments and by raising 
 that of the sanguine and melancholy nature in about 
 the following manner: about 28 per cent sanguine, 
 7 melancholy, 3 choleric and 2 phlegmatic nature. 
 It must however be remarked, that, in girls each 
 temperament is differently coloured and shaded up by 
 the very nature of a girl. A boy and girl may both 
 be of a choleric nature, but the choler of the former 
 is very different to that of the latter. A choleric girl 
 is certainly more nearly related to a boy of sanguine 
 nature than to a choleric boy. The one is a masculine 
 choler, the other a feminine. 
 
 In the earUest childhood from about 4 to 6 years 
 of age, a distinction in the mental qualities between 
 boy and girl, is hardly recognizable. Both find the 
 same enjoyment at the same games and the boy plays 
 with a doll and treats it in exactly the same manner 
 as his little sister. Later on, perhaps from the 6th year 
 on, the distinction of sanguine, choleric, melancholy, 
 phlegmatic dispositions in boys and girls becomes 
 perceptible. Both begin to look upon life from very 
 different standpoints. The boy is placed under the 
 
- 54 - 
 
 direction of a man and the girl under that of a woman. 
 Their ideals change, one finds his ideal in the father, 
 the other in the mother. The boy always rushes into 
 the open air at the first opportunity, and considers no 
 game particularly interesting if he cannot shout and 
 kick up a noise at it. He must knock and clamber 
 about after his own heart, and for this purpose the 
 play-room is much too small. — But it is quite another 
 thing with the girl. The little girl too shows a certain 
 desire to hop and spring about, but it happens more 
 seldom and not to the same extent , as in the case 
 of the boy. The little girl will hop and jump about 
 at most five minutes, when she must generally take 
 rest; this desire for rest is apparently caused by the 
 more delicate structure of the body. For the same 
 reason her games are of a more quiet nature. She 
 dresses her dolls, plays the landlady, plays at paying 
 visits to her playmates, or plays herself the lady of 
 the house — receiving the visits. These appearances 
 which we may observe daily in all the various positions 
 of life, might easily lead to the idea that it would be 
 better with regard to the figures given above, to notice 
 other and more important distinctions between boys 
 and girls. This difference, however, in the tendencies 
 of the minds of boys and girls, results from the 
 distinction in sex and not in temperament. The 
 sanguine character, for instance, shows itself in some 
 particular manner in the case of a boy, simply because 
 he is a boy, and in a girl in a diiferent manner because 
 she is a girl. The cholerism takes a very different 
 form in the case of a choleric peasant than in that 
 of a choleric officer. The circumstances rule the 
 distinctions, the temperament is the same in both 
 cases. How, for instance might. that great pattern of 
 a choleric nature Napoleon I. have behaved, if instead 
 of conqueror of the world, he had been a tradesman? 
 His choleric temperament would have remained the 
 same in this case. 
 
- 55 — 
 
 Although we have given certain figures, with 
 regard to the various temperaments in children, spoken 
 of here, the figures are only based on observation subject 
 to possible error, and it remains open for anybody to 
 entertain other opinions with regard to this matter. 
 It is extremely difficult to arrive at an exact statement 
 or even a statement which may be in some measure 
 exact; as there are too many moments influencing 
 the nature of the temperament, the weight of whose 
 influence is entirely dependent on time, place and 
 position in life. In England for instance, it is only 
 necessary to observe the coolheaded Englishman, in 
 contradistinction to the fiery Scot, or merry Irishman. 
 
 It does not lie within the scope of this little book 
 to prove that the temperament is connected closely 
 with the temperature of the blood. We presume this 
 to be already proved. The temperature of the blood 
 however, is governed principally by the climate of 
 the country which the person in question may term 
 his home. , 
 
 In consequence it will be clear that people in 
 general, and children in particular, differ very widely 
 with regard to their temperaments, and the distinction 
 widens in proportion as they approach the equator 
 on the one hand and the poles on the other hand. 
 That is the reason why the impressions and opinions 
 vary with the degrees of latitude, and these work in 
 the most various manner on the temperaments of 
 different peoples. In northern lands the people are 
 happy when they have nothing to suffer; the northerner, 
 Norwegian, Dane, Englishman as also the greater part 
 of the Germans, are glad, simply over the fact that, 
 they have nothing to grumble at. They are in a 
 position to rejoice simply at the absence of evil. 
 When the storm howls and the snows shut out the 
 surrounding landscape and compel the northerner to 
 confine his activity more or less within the limits of his 
 dwelling, to protect himself from cold and snow, the 
 family-father is perfectly happy and finds unbounded 
 
- 56 - 
 
 pleasure in the consciousness of having his wife and 
 children around him and his herd under protection. 
 He knows how to live in hope, and to appreciate the 
 pleasures of domestic calm. The fewer the sources 
 of pleasures provided for him by nature, the more he 
 rejoices in the thought that the number of ills is not 
 greater, and that he is well protected against such 
 existing ills. In the south, on the contrary, the mere 
 absence of evil is not valued to such a degree; there 
 is a greater longing for positive enjoyment, a more 
 restless seeking after pleasure. Like a king of the 
 universe, the man dwelling under the ever clear and 
 purple heavens of the lovely south is ever finding 
 new flowers and new fruits. Dazzled by the glance 
 of the moment, intoxicated by sensual pleasures, he 
 has no future ideal, the realization of which may 
 demand the sacrifice of the most noble and best of 
 his powers. He is a sanguinist without force of will 
 or energy. The happiness of the southerner, like that 
 of the flighty sanguinist, is dependent on exterior and 
 superficial objects. The inhabitant of the north is 
 more retired, because he finds his pleasures nearer 
 himself. The former, like a butterfly enjoys the 
 nectar of the flowers which his fruitful land brings 
 forth, the latter is like the bee which collects its honey 
 in spite of all exertions. He is phlegmatic with regard 
 to sensual pleasures, but choleric with regard to 
 exertion and sacrifice. A correct distribution of the 
 temperaments is indispensible in life. A purely san- 
 guine, or a purely choleric temperament, is unbearable 
 and just as little suited to the world as a purely 
 melancholy or purely phlegmatic temperament. The 
 world, on the whole, is not merry enough to look 
 at everything from its merry side, as is the case with 
 the sanguine temperament, whilst on the contrary the 
 same world is not dismal enough to take up everything 
 in such an earnest light as the melancholist. To carry 
 out everything by force, as he of the choleric disposition 
 may wish, is impossible, the world will not put up with 
 
- 57 - 
 
 such treatment and again it is impossible to achieve 
 everything by doing nothing at all, as the man of 
 phlegma may desire, life is much too hard. That 
 man shows the right well balanced temperament, who 
 is able to show enthusiasm, like the sanguinist, but at 
 the right time; who pushes on to the achievement of 
 his object with the energy of him of the choleric 
 nature, who is in a position to judge of the fitness of 
 his actions with the sober earnestness of the melan- 
 cholist and under circumstances to contemplate events 
 with the cool indifference of the man of phlegma. 
 The more the four temperaments are combined in 
 one person the more fit and useful is that person for 
 life. Onesidedness of temperament is ever dangerous 
 for virtue. 
 
 The time when a proper regulating and distributing 
 of the temperaments is possible, is during childhood. 
 It is one of the most earnest duties of parents and 
 teachers to provide for the proper regulating of the 
 temperaments in the children entrusted to their care. 
 The remark which we made above, will now become 
 clear, viz. that those parents and teachers who have 
 not succeeded in discovering any decided temperament 
 in their children, are in no way to be regretted. Their 
 work is already half finished, since the temperament 
 of such children is already mixed to a certain degree, 
 whilst other teachers have to do with pure tempera- 
 ments, and in consequence many difficulties to master. 
 Every temperament has its light and shade sides. The 
 shady sides must be removed, and the light sides must 
 be moderated and perfected by the good qualities of 
 other temperaments. The brightest colours are not 
 always the most pleasant ones. A merry man is 
 agreeable, but if he can only be merry, making his 
 jokes at everything and everybody, he soon becomes 
 objectionable. An earnest man is always an object of 
 our respect, but if he is always serious and cannot 
 understand fun at all, he becomes tedious. For this 
 reason, in speaking of the treatment of the various 
 
- 58 - 
 
 temperaments previously, we have always endeavoured 
 to impress the teacher with the fact that he has to 
 influence and tone down the nature of the child; 
 steadying the sanguine, cooling down the choleric, 
 encouraging the melanchoHc and firing on the phleg- 
 matic temperament. 
 
 Before the teacher contemplates a softening down 
 or moderation of the temperament, he must have made 
 sure as to whether the tendency of the temperament 
 of the child in question, is inborn or has been caused 
 by outward circumstances. In the latter case it is only 
 necessary to remove any such outward circumstances. 
 The reason of a disagreeable one-sided tendency of 
 the disposition, may often be found in the unhealthy 
 state of the body. When speaking of the treatment 
 of the little melancholist, we have already expressed 
 the opinion that melancholy, in children, often originates 
 from physical weakness. In such cases it is impossible 
 to achieve any pedagogical results without medicinal 
 aid. Just as it is unreasonable to expect that a child 
 should not be melancholy, for instance, after having 
 experienced heavy misfortunes, or in the case of poverty 
 or under depressing sternness of the parents and 
 teacher. It is, in such circumstances impossible to 
 influence the tendency of such temperament, without 
 at first having removed these obstacles. 
 
 We would further here remark, that reasonable 
 diet, and carefully chosen food, generally exercise 
 important influence on the disposition of children. 
 For instance the sanguine child will only become still 
 more excited by wine or any other such exciting 
 drinks; whilst experience proves that phlegmatic 
 children become still more phlegmatic from fatty or 
 mealy nourishment. 
 
 The character and behaviour of the parents and 
 teacher, is of great importance for the moderating and 
 toning down of the temperament in children. In fact 
 the character of all those persons with whom the child 
 may continually come in contact, plays an important 
 
— 59 — 
 
 part in this respect. Rough, harsh behaviour of the 
 persons continually in the presence of a child, affect 
 the formation of the young character most dangerously. 
 In every household where the members of the same 
 do not observe a certain amount of etiquette tow^ards 
 each other, the proper influencing of the temperament 
 of the children is diSicult as a rule. Fine, genteel 
 behaviour, ornaments every temperament and is inva- 
 riably the result of a proper distribution of the same. 
 Where the ordinary rules of society are not observed 
 in the communion of the members of a household and 
 where laxity bas become a habit, an inconsiderate, 
 quarrelsome and vulgar tone soon makes itself apparent, 
 which descends from father to son and makes all 
 attempts to tone down and improve the temperament 
 of the children fruitless. 
 
 The principal means of bringing about a proper 
 disposition of the various temperaments in the character 
 of a child, consist in its communion with other children. 
 It is much to be regretted, that the children of the 
 upper middle, and highest classes, who for the most 
 part enjoy private tuition, have so little opportunity 
 of associating with other children of their own age. 
 It is the more to be regretted since these children, 
 exactly on account of their high social position in 
 hfe, are generally destined to influence and govern in 
 some degree or other, portions of the human society. 
 God may never behold his equal, is said in the 
 scripture and such children — one might add — 
 semom see theirs. They are constantly confined to 
 the association with their brothers and sisters, who 
 are always, either older or younger than themselves, 
 and possibly have an opportunity, once a week, of 
 enjoying a couple of hours in company with the 
 neighbours' children. Of course such a child will never 
 harmlessly and innocently show the real tendencies of 
 its temperament, in the first place because the children 
 never have time enough to become really acquainted 
 and friendly with other children : and secondly because 
 
— 6o — 
 
 tutors and governesses generally prefer that their pupils 
 should always parade their talent and seek to impose 
 other children and their parents and teachers with an 
 idea of their superiority. In this respect the peasants' 
 children and those of the more quietly living citizens 
 or burghers have a tremendous advantage. The child 
 of the elementary and middle class school, has constant 
 opportunity of enjoying itself among a whole mass of 
 children of its own age and class. It never feels the 
 oppressing effect of the constantly watchful eye of its 
 teacher, and in consequence is not forced to suppress 
 the natural inclinations of its disposition. It shows 
 itself in its true colours. But it soon begins to feel 
 of itself that it may not do everything that it would 
 like to. It finds that it has tendencies, which annoy 
 its playmates or which are ridiculed by the same. It 
 is constantly endeavouring to accomodate itself to the 
 general temperament — and in this endeavour it will 
 be continually loosing certain traits of its own 
 character and assuming certain traits of other tem- 
 peraments. This is nothing else than a distributing of 
 the temperaments. We shall indeed experience, that 
 children of a big school generally seek their nearer 
 friends in children whose characters are diametrically 
 opposite to their own. Where the number of children 
 is sufficient, it will not uncommonly be observed that 
 the merry sanguinist has closed a bond of friendship 
 with the dismal melancholist; or that the hasty choleric 
 boy has found a bosom-friend in the lazy phlegmatic 
 urchin. Both profit by the association; they rub down 
 the sharp corners of their natures. The sanguinist 
 finds his regulator in the melancholist, whilst the 
 choleric finds his in the phlegmatic boy and vice versa. 
 The one becomes excited, the other cooled down by 
 the association. They are both studying in a school, 
 which has no teacher but the results of which schooling 
 are of incalculable value for their after life. 
 
 But the teacher too, often finds opportunities of 
 mixing himself directly up with this sort of melting 
 
— 6i — 
 
 down process. Every body knows, from his own 
 school-days, what a lively association soon springs up 
 between two children sitting next each other in school, 
 and which makes itself observable and often trouble- 
 some to the teacher, by nudging of the hands, jogging 
 with the feet, wispering, above the form, under the 
 form, in the most lively manner, often very disturbing 
 in the school. Such an association exercises a lively 
 influence on the temperaments of both children and, 
 if the temperaments are opposite in their tendencies, 
 often a most beneficial influence. The melancholist 
 profits by the association with his sanguine neighbour, 
 and the phlegmatic child wins through his companionship 
 with the choleric one, and vice versa. Two sanguine 
 children sitting next each other will only spoil and 
 lead each other into mischief, and if two choleric 
 children sit together they will not live at peace with 
 each other, one moment of time. Without doing the 
 children any wrong whatever, it is quite possible for 
 the teacher to arrange the places, not only according 
 to the knowledge of the children, but also with a view 
 to observing the foregoing remarks. If the fruits of 
 this practice do not make themselves immediately 
 apparent, they will in the course of time. 
 
 From this standpoint it is best possible to become 
 acquainted with the value and importance of those 
 educational establishments where the children — 
 especially the elder children, — generally live together 
 and receive their lessons together. As far as the 
 scientific value of boarding-schools is concerned, there 
 is no doubt that it is just as possible to impart the 
 same amount of knowledge to the children at home. 
 If an efficient tutor or governess be employed at home 
 it is easily possible for a child to learn as much in 
 six months as it would in a whole year at a boarding- 
 school. But one most important point can never be 
 learned at home, viz. the art of associating with others. 
 This is a science which will be much more missed 
 in after life than a knowledge of French or German, 
 
— 62 — 
 
 important and desirable as the latter are, in an age 
 where the railway has removed the word »distance« 
 in its old sense, from our dictionaries. In every 
 establishment, where several children of the same age 
 live together for the same purpose and governed by 
 the same rules, whether it may be called a school- 
 seminary or anything else, the deformities and rough- 
 nesses of the individual temperaments will become 
 rounded and smoothed off. 
 
 In the boarding-school the sanguine child soon 
 learns to remark that its flightiness is a subject of 
 ridicule for the other children, and that it has the 
 same earnest problem to solve as any of the other 
 children. The choleric child soon finds that there is 
 not much here over which he may domineer, and in 
 consequence he submits to the rules of the establishment 
 and behaves more modestly. The melancholy child 
 has no time to meditate over his gloomy fate, nor is 
 he able to entirely avoid the merry society of his 
 comrades, and in consequence cannot remain quite 
 impervious to the enlivening effects of the same. The 
 little phlegma must work and must sacrifice his 
 love of doing nothing to the relentless laws of the 
 establishment. Every child lodges in its appointed 
 room, works in the manner commanded, dresses itself 
 in the manner prescribed by the customs of the 
 establishment, and eats that which is set before it. 
 Each child is obliged to associate with the others, and 
 none may give way to the humours and weaknesses 
 of its temperament. In such an establishment the 
 character is moulded, and the child prepared for 
 future life. 
 
 From this it may with right be maintained that 
 a large family of children is very advantageous for 
 the bringing up of its separate members. It would 
 appear at the first glance that the troubles and cares 
 of the parents might be increased and divided, and 
 that for this reason the education of a large family 
 must necessarily involve a certain amount of inattention 
 
- 63 - 
 
 in certain cases, since the eyes of the parents cannot 
 be everywhere. This is very true, but the finishing 
 and toning down of the natures of the various members 
 of the family is in such cases effected by the children 
 themselves, instead of by the parents. The rough- 
 nesses and deformities of the individual temperaments 
 will be smoothed off, the sharp corners will be rounded 
 down, and the temperament will become moderated and 
 mixed. The flighty little sanguinist will be ridiculed by 
 his brothers and sisters. The other brothers and sisters 
 combine to put down the domineering and ambitious 
 spirit of the choleric child. The little melanchoHst 
 has no time to brood over his gloomy thoughts among 
 the noise and laughter of the other children, and the 
 phlegmatic one is drawn into the whirl-pool — volens 
 nolens. They all feel themselves of equal birth, as 
 children of the same parents; they know that they 
 are all equally loved by those parents, and therefore 
 there is no reason for the one to consider himself or 
 herself better than the others, in word or deed. It 
 does certainly often happen that children of the same 
 parents have in many cases like temperaments, but 
 then the ages and the sex generally differ so that the 
 fact remains that they are useful to each other in the 
 formation of their various characters. 
 
 As a further means of mixing and toning down 
 the characters of children, we would mention the nature 
 of their games, and the choice and employment of 
 certain branches of study, which may under circumstances 
 come into serious collision with the natural tendencies 
 of certain temperaments. To what degree the nature 
 of their games may influence the mental tendencies 
 of children, needs no further remark here. Industry 
 and love of children have been the causes of originating 
 and bringing into the market an endless variety of games, 
 but every game is not suited for every child, and it is 
 not so easy as it maiy appear, for a teacher to choose 
 the best games for his or her pupils. For one child 
 the game must be of a more earnest nature, whilst 
 
- 64 - 
 
 another needs more merriment; this one requires a 
 game demanding bodily exercise, that one requires 
 one demanding mental exercise. 
 
 In every case the choice of games and toys, will 
 have to be regulated in some measure, if not exclusively, 
 by the temperament of the child. Games demanding 
 the exercise of thought, for the sanguine and choleric 
 children, and those demanding bodily exercise for the 
 melancholist and phlegmatic child; games of a more 
 earnest nature for the former, and those of a merry, 
 exciting nature for the latter. The choice and employ- 
 ment of certain branches of study, with regard to 
 certain temperaments would form matter for fruitful 
 reflection. It shall however be sufiicient for us here, 
 to have originated the idea and to sketch its principal 
 features in outline. In public schools it is impossible, 
 but in the cases of private tuition, well possible and 
 advantageous to realize the idea and bring it into 
 practice. Every book may be said to be a mental 
 communication with the author of the same. The 
 book is at the same time a good friend, whose com- 
 pany we seek and whose pecuharities we endeavour, 
 either consciously or unconsciously, to make our own. 
 A book may in consequence have just as much in- 
 fluence on the mind and temperament of the reader, 
 as the association with other men in this case, for 
 instance the association with the author. We invo- 
 luntarily adopt his love or dislike, his opinions and 
 insight. We cease to be what we were and endeavour 
 to become what the author is. The well known 
 proverb, »tell me who your friends are and I'll tell 
 you what you area or »what you will becomect may 
 be just as well said in respect to books as to men. 
 In these days, when the power of the press in 
 influencing for good or for evil, is everywhere 
 acknowledged and valued, enough has been said and 
 written on this point. Semper aliquid haeret. Some 
 effect is sure to remain behind even if we do not 
 know it or do not wish it to. Many a man who 
 
- 6s - 
 
 professes to have his own principles, and who only 
 reads the opinions of others in order to see from 
 what standpoint his opponents view the matter, and 
 on what they base their opinions, has no idea of the 
 force exercised on his mind by such reading, until he, 
 the man of unshakable principles, finds himself in the 
 middle of tlje enemy's ranks. Such authority is 
 exercised by a book over the mind of a man, incom- 
 parably greater and more powerful is its influence 
 over the mind of a child. It requires a certain amount 
 of mental ripeness to get over the old superstition, 
 that everything which stands in print must be true. 
 It is however a fact, that no child under eight years, 
 attempts, and no child under 9 years feels itself to 
 have the right of doubting the correctness of a single 
 sentence in his book. From this it is easy to get an 
 idea of the influence of literature on the mind of a 
 child. The child finds his ideal in his book, and in 
 consequence its judgements are formed after the same 
 standard. Every book has its mind and temperament, 
 indeed every study has its temperament. A child 
 puts ofl" its own temperament in a more or less degree, 
 in order to adopt gradually the temperament of the 
 book, or of the object of study with which it is engaged. 
 The vivid description, fiery poetry, stirring music, 
 appear to me as little sanguinists, an arithmetic book, 
 a grammar or a geography appear like little melan- 
 choHsts. He who reads novels, or busies himself much 
 with poetry and music, soon adopts unconsciously the 
 fancifiil, enthusiastic, frivolous mode of thought and 
 comprehension, or rather observation, peculiar to the 
 sanguine nature. He who, on the contrary, busies 
 himself with dull figures, dry geographical names or 
 uninteresting grammatic-rules soon accustomes himself 
 to the stern and earnest mode of thought which 
 characterizes the melancholist. The science with 
 which one is for the most part or perhaps exclusively 
 engaged exercises such a penetrating power, that it not 
 only makes itself mentally apparent, but shows itself 
 
 Be II wig, B., the four temperaments in Children. 5 
 
— ee — 
 
 in the physical appearance of the man and characterizes 
 -whole classes of men. For instance no very sharp 
 eye is necessary to be able to point out among the 
 teachers of an educational establishment or college, 
 which is the music-director, or which the drawing- 
 master or mathematicien. From this standpoint it is 
 easy to understand the idea which we wish to convey 
 in this case. It is advisable therefore, that books of 
 fairy tales or those of romantic and poetic nature, 
 should be kept out of the fingers of the little sanguinist, 
 and that he should not be given too much opportunity 
 of busying himself with what we term the fine arts, 
 — music, drawing &c. — unless of course he intends to 
 follow them as a calling; he should be more occupied 
 with history, geography, grammar and arithmetic, 
 however much he may love the former studies and 
 detest the latter. The last named have always a 
 tendency to sober him down and to sharpen his in- 
 tellectual capacities. The method of treating melan- 
 choly and phlegmatic children must be exactly the 
 reverse, they should be kept at music and drawing, 
 and their literature should be of an interesting and 
 exciting nature, in spite of the fact that such children 
 generally exhibit so httle talent or desire for such 
 employments. Such mental occupation makes the 
 unpoetic melancholist, enthusiastic, and warms up the 
 cool phlegmatic child. 
 
 The last and best means of softening and mixing 
 the temperament is Religion, and especially that act, 
 through which religion most commonly shows itself 
 in children — viz. Prayer. Religion governs the 
 humours of the temperament. The melancholist will 
 be cheered and gladdened by prayer, whqn he feels 
 himself most depressed and deserted by his fellow- 
 mortals. The firivolous little sanguinist feels in prayer, 
 that the world is not all fun. The haughty choleric 
 child learns humility and highminded self-denial in 
 prayer. The phlegmatic child receives energy to 
 sacrifice his love of idleness, from prayer, for the most 
 
- 67 - 
 
 indolent of children will be awakened at the thought 
 of eternal punishment. 
 
 To sum up here again: onesided temperaments 
 are dangerous for the character and virtue. Distribution 
 of the temperaments is indispensible. The best time 
 for effecting such distribution is childhood; the means 
 of effecting the same, association with other children, 
 careful choice of games and occupations, and a religious 
 education. By a careful employment of these means, 
 a child possessing the strongest and most marked 
 temperament may be so trained that it will ripen to a 
 man of ideal temperament, that is to say a temperament 
 which combines at the right time the enthusiasm of 
 the sanguinist, the fire of a choleric nature, the 
 earnestness of the melancholist, and the coolheadedness 
 of the phlegmatic nature. 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE TEMPERAMENT OF PARENTS AND 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 Parents and teachers too possess a temperament, 
 and their behaviour to the children is often influenced 
 by their temperament. Onesidedness of temperament 
 is in this case also, dangerous for school and educa- 
 tion. If a teacher is sanguine, he will teach and train 
 the children as a sanguinist, and if he is of choleric 
 temperament, he will educate the children as a 
 choleric man, whilst he who is of a melancholy or 
 phlegmatic nature will teach and train the children 
 mutatis mutandis — in just such manner. The tem- 
 perament is a thing which it is not possible to put 
 on or take off at will, we must wear it everywhere 
 and always, in the home, in the school, in public and 
 in private life; it stamps all our actions undeniably. 
 Just as it is to the interest of the teacher to know 
 the temperament of his pupil, and to find out the right 
 sort of treatment for the same, so is it of the same 
 importance that he should know his own temperament, 
 and the manner of treatment of the same, in order 
 that the influence exerted by the same in the school 
 may be beneficial. As a supplement to the fore- 
 going we would here add a few remarks as to the 
 temperament of parents and teachers with regard to 
 its influence on education and in the school. We 
 
- 69 - 
 
 shall do this in as few words as possible, firstly because 
 these remarks are only intended to form a supplement 
 to the foregoing and secondly because, after what 
 we have said with regard to the children, much that 
 might be said over the temperament of the parents 
 and teachers may be anticipated. The former spreads 
 a light on to the latter. 
 
 The Hfe of man in its normal evolution, is a 
 succession of the advancing developement of his bodily 
 and mental powers, up to a certain point and then a 
 gradual sinking of the same until they entirely vanish 
 — in death. This continual advancing and retiring, 
 especially in the physical organisms, has a great influence 
 over the changes which take place in the temperament 
 of a man, with increasing years. A man may remain 
 a sanguinis! from the cradle to the grave, but the art 
 of the sanguinity, or the manner in which it shows 
 itself in childhood, youth, manhood and old age varies 
 widely. Every age is in its own manner, either san- 
 guine, choleric, melancholy or phlegmatic. In childhood 
 (that is to about 14 years of age) everything is new, 
 everything which a child sees or feels, appears new to 
 it, for it has never or at least seldom seen or felt the 
 same previously. Everything interests a child just on 
 account of this novelty. It enjoys merrily the pleasures 
 of the moment; in the rapid change of impressions, 
 it hurries from one scene or frame of mind to the 
 other, in short the temperament of the child has al- 
 ways a sanguine colouring, even when the ruling 
 temperament may appear ever so marked. The 
 choleric child is sanguine-choleric, the melancholy 
 child sanguine-melancholy, — the phlegmatic child 
 sanguine-phlegmatic, and the sanguine child sanguine- 
 sanguine. At the fourteenth year, a new period of 
 life begins for the child. The period called youth 
 (which lasts till about 25 years of age). The sanguine 
 tendency of the child begins to diminish. Anxiety 
 for the fiiture begins to show itself gradually, and to 
 busy the minds of youths and maidens and the hopeful 
 
— 70 — 
 
 imagination of youth, peering into the distance, sees 
 the prospects of a happy fiiture. The fiery phantasie 
 shows ideals which must be achieved at every cost, 
 in short the temperament of youth is sanguine-choleric. 
 Every temperament, however marked it may appear, 
 has in this period of life its sanguine-choleric side. 
 From this it is easy to understand the faults and 
 mistakes often made by young parents and teachers, 
 in the moral and intellectual education of their children. 
 It often happens that young parents and teachers in spite 
 of the best will — cannot succeed in looking at the real 
 objective side of life, and in deciding with resolution 
 and certainty the goal to which they have to direct 
 their children. They are obliged to experiment too 
 much. They like to amuse themselves over their 
 children, and are delighted when baby can play all 
 manner of funny tricks at an early age, forgetting that 
 by this means they are bringing up the child in a 
 manner not calculated to fit it for the earnestness and 
 reality of after life. They run the risk of training their 
 children to be mere figures and not men. The 
 education is theatric, and gallantry and bel-esprit are 
 its results. This is the reason why it generally appears 
 that the eldest child of a family is the most negligently 
 brought up. The fault lies exclusively in the tempe- 
 rament of the young parents. The young teacher 
 enters on his caUing with fiery enthusiasm, his heart 
 and soul are in his work, but he must at first make 
 a great many experiments. He has not yet thoroughly 
 learned the whole scope of his duties, and he attempts 
 to carry them out quickly, and imagines to be able to 
 do so easily, but often comes to the conclusion at 
 the end of a year that he has entirely failed his object. 
 Manhood, the period from 25 to 55 years, is the age 
 of mental and physical maturity. The man and woman 
 have at this age their fixed position in fife, and their 
 whole endeavours are to carry out their allotted duties 
 consciensciously and to the utmost of their powers. 
 The might of youthful ideaHsm is broken. Earnest 
 
— 71 — 
 
 understanding has won the upperhand, the idea of life 
 has become more prosaic and real. The duty of the 
 man is to work his way forward in his caUing, to 
 carry out his duties according to principles and rules 
 unshaken and resolutely, in short the temperament of 
 this stage of life is incHned to be choleric. The 
 rearing and education of children is most reUable and 
 certain when in the hands of parents and -teachers of 
 this age. They will not train the children to be mere 
 figures, but men. They have the earnest endeavour 
 to eliminate all frivolous and trifling tendencies from 
 the school and education. They steer their course 
 direct and energetically towards its goal; but run the 
 danger in their energy, of shooting past the mark and 
 of expecting the children to make more rapid progress 
 than Hes within their powers, thus treating * them 
 sometimes with undeserved severity. 
 
 In old age, which may be said to be that time 
 of life beginning at 55 years of age and ending with 
 death, a tendency to melancholy and phlegma generally 
 makes itself apparent in the temperament. The capa- 
 bility of directing school and education flags and 
 diminishes. The physical powers decrease, the intel- 
 lect, memory, powers of imagination and thought — 
 things indispensable to a teacher, — begin to decHne. 
 The range of thought becomes narrow, and the exterior 
 force of character and resolution begins to disappear. 
 The spirit concentrates itself within itself, moral and 
 religious feehngs spring up within the mind and warn 
 old age to look beyond the ever nearing boundary 
 of its earthly existence, and to contemplate eternity 
 and the immortality of the soul. It is natural that 
 from such thoughts, the temperament should receive 
 an earnest melancholy colouring. The strength of 
 youth is broken; the enthusiastic feelings, the reso- 
 lution and force of will, and the energetic endeavours 
 — are no more. The feeling of bodily weakness, 
 the consciousness of having been so often deceived in 
 hfe, and the fear of never being able to see the fruits 
 
— 72 — 
 
 of. its labours ripen, tend to make it irresolute and 
 wavering in its actions. 
 
 Old age has a host of dangers for training and 
 education. It is of course impossible to deny that age 
 has a vast deal more experience than youth, and that 
 aged persons in some cases retain their strength and 
 intellectual powers in a surprising degree, so that they 
 may be held as models to youth and manhood in fact 
 so that manhood may sometimes be ashamed of itself. 
 Exactly among those classes, which have devoted their 
 whole lives to the school, and have become grey in 
 the service of children, may we find in proportion 
 many aged persons, who, in spite of their 60 or 70 
 years, are still able to carry out- their duties as well 
 as they did whilst in the prime of life. Failings which 
 age ever brings with it are balanced and covered by 
 the riper experience and longer practice in the calling. 
 The lively temperament of the children amongst 
 whom they work, seems to lend them a fire and 
 enthusiasm not their own, and which their years would 
 otherwise deny them. But numerous as the exceptions 
 may be, the rule is not so. Aged parents and teachers 
 are themselves conscious, that, on account of the 
 tendencies of the temperament, peculiar to their age, 
 they are in many respects hemmed in and hindered 
 in their work of rearing the children. They often 
 find that they have not, in many respects, the necessary 
 understanding to satisfy the demands of the times. 
 They oppose new systems of teachings with a certain 
 amount of self-will, and will not understand how it is 
 possible that this or that is done to-day in such and 
 such a manner, whilst in their tim.e it would have 
 been done in a different way. They never get tired 
 of praising the good old times whose picture seems 
 to become ever more and more pleasant, the greater 
 the distance between it and the present may be. They 
 cannot understand that the lively frolicsome behaviour 
 of the children results from their nature, and they 
 expect an earnestness from the child which a child 
 
— 73 — 
 
 never can or ought to possess. They find fault with 
 everything that a child ventures to do or say, and they 
 make this mistake more and more, because they cannot 
 succeed to gain the trust and affection of the child, on 
 account of their grumbling earnestness. Aged teachers 
 and parents often make another mistake on account 
 of the phlegmatic tendencies which generally make 
 themselves apparent in the last years of life, which 
 may be termed an exaggerated overlooking of the real 
 faults and failings of children. Old teachers are often 
 not in a position to sustain the necessary quiet during 
 school-time and often do not trouble themselves to 
 attempt to do so. Aged parents often give way to 
 every wish of their children and do not feel themselves 
 strong enough to deny the same any of their wishes. 
 Their training is a system of spoiling. This is the 
 reason why it often appears that the youngest child is 
 a »spoilt child«. Our expression aspoilt child« is 
 quite correct, if we consider the child in respect to 
 its aged and indulgent parents. The public opinion 
 is not very good, with regard to such spoilt children, 
 neither does it entertain a very high opinion as to 
 the prospects of its future prosperity or progress. As 
 far as the religious part of the training is considered, 
 age recognises generally with clearness and sincerity, 
 what the ultimate result of the training of a child 
 should be. Age promotes this point in the education 
 with the greatest care and perseverance, but generally 
 runs the danger of overdoing the religious side of 
 the training of a child, which has a tendency to make 
 a bigot of such child. 
 
 The alterations worked on the temperament by 
 the various stages of live, do not effect the essential 
 feature of the same, they only modify it. The san- 
 guinist remains sanguine throughout his whole life, 
 and a man of choleric temperament retains the same 
 throughout childhood, youth, manhood or old age. 
 
— 74 — 
 
 The teacher must not ignore these modifications, but 
 must carefiiUy watch and direct the same, always 
 beeping a sharp lookout over his real, or as we may 
 term it, ruling temperament. The sanguine father or 
 teacher, in whatever period of life he may be, will 
 educate his children to think and live to a certain 
 degree in. a Ughthearted superficial manner; pleasant 
 easy manners in all its undertakings, and eloquent witty 
 chattiness are the results such father desires to attain 
 by his education. Profound knowledge does not 
 lie within his sphere of intellect, and he does not 
 trouble if it remains a matter of indifference to his 
 child. It is a system producing an attractive exterior 
 — for the moment — , frivolous flightiness, and in- 
 consideration. 
 
 The choleric father insists, with unrestrained 
 eagerness on a thoroughness in learning and rationality 
 in action. His child must occupy the first place among 
 the other children of his age and social position. His 
 child must, as soon as possible, succeed in making 
 itself a position in Hfe, a position of honour and 
 authority , wherein the father may sun himself. 
 Ambition and energetical firmness are the results 
 aimed at by his training. 
 
 The melancholy father expects a serious earnest- 
 ness from his child, long before the same has reached 
 an age to become earnest. He trains his child to 
 become prematurely ripe, and to look on the world 
 with the same mistrustful eye as its unpoetical unhappy 
 father. His system is that of misanthropy and egotism : 
 a system which generally shows its first fruit in 
 affecting the relations between father and son. 
 
 The phlegmatic father — is just phlegmatic. He 
 who is indifferent to everything else in the world 
 will also be indifferent as to the education of his 
 children. He is a gardener, who lets everything grow 
 just in the manner which it may please. His system 
 is no system at all. 
 
— 75 — 
 
 The temperament of the teacher in givmg 
 instruction and in training does not show itself so 
 marked as that of the parents. The parental training 
 is divided into two factors: the father and mother, 
 both of which factors influence the education of the 
 children in the same degree. The one factor acts as 
 regulator and moderator for the other, and since the 
 work is carried out by two, it is not the result of one 
 harsh temperament but the result of an advantageous 
 mixture of at least two temperaments. It happens 
 very seldom that both parents have exactly the same 
 temperament, and even in that case, even when both 
 temperaments belong to the same class, there still 
 remains the important distinction of sex. If for in- 
 stance both man and wife are of a choleric nature, 
 the one is a choleric man whilst the other is a choleric 
 woman and the distinction in consequence great. This 
 has a beneficial effect on the parental training. The 
 teacher has not this advantage of having his tempera- 
 ment regulated and moderated by another temperament. 
 He stands alone in the school and acts in autonomic 
 manner according to his own judgements and tenden- 
 cies. His temperament will — in the case of its being 
 one-sided — tend more to damage the good cause 
 and will assert itself undisturbed and unhindered. 
 
 The teacher of a sanguine nature has for his part 
 a tendency to direct a school with success. He has 
 a heart for the children and takes part in their joys 
 and troubles. He performs his duties with vigorous 
 intellect, and in a cheery spirit. He feels a desire and 
 takes pleasure in educating, and it is perfect enjoyment 
 for him to find himself surrounded by a crowd of 
 merry harmless children. His voice is generally good 
 and melodious and his speech fluent. He is well 
 understood, and pleasant to listen to. His discourse 
 has no touch of monotone, it is invariably lively, fresh, 
 exciting and interesting. His powers of thought are 
 quick and comprehensive. His eyes and ears range 
 over the whole school and observe each separate 
 
- 76 - 
 
 scholar. These are qualities of the greatest service 
 to instruction and discipline, and yet they have their 
 weak sides for a sanguinist. Because he can speak 
 fluently and well, he is generally fond of speaking, 
 and because he is fond of speaking he speaks often. 
 He generally belongs to that class of teachers of whom 
 it may be said that they prefer hearing themselves 
 talk, to hearing their scholars. Because he has a quick 
 eye and a good ear, he will remark everything and 
 wiU punish every wholly or half remarked disturbance. 
 He impetuously demands such perfect silence in the 
 school-room, as is impossible to attain or even to 
 expect. He punishes, abuses, terrifies and blusters in 
 order to secure silence, and at the same time has not 
 the slightest idea of the fact that he himself is 
 making the most noise. »Teacher« said an impertinent 
 youngster to a teacher of a sanguine nature, who had 
 been blustering about for a quarter of an hour trying 
 to secure silence — »Teacher, if you would only be 
 quiet, we should only be too glad to.« In such 
 moments the sanguine teacher looses courage, he abuses 
 his calling, and pities himself and his colleagues, but 
 he soon forgets his troubles and stands before the 
 children on the next morning with fresh courage and 
 cheery mien, certainly only to see the unpleasantnesses 
 of yesterday repeated. A sanguine man does not 
 learn so easily by experience. His pleasant behaviour, 
 graceful manners and the good taste exhibited in his 
 clothing give the sanguine teacher a certain something 
 pleasing and attractive, but place him at the same time 
 in danger of exhibiting a certain amount of gallantry 
 which does not exactly suit anybody and least of all 
 harmonizes with the earnest calling of a teacher, and 
 folks are not very willing to excuse this fault in him. 
 — With regard to the intellectual powers of the 
 sanguine teacher — he is generally more remarkable 
 for a correct and quick memory than for the profundity 
 or intensity of his understanding, and his knowledge is 
 more general than profound. Inexhaustible verbosity. 
 
— 77 — 
 
 that almost becomes chattering, often digressing from 
 the topic of discourse, strong aversion to the more 
 earnest studies, which demand deeper thought; these 
 are the immediate results of his temperament. Music, 
 singing, drawing, writing and such like are his favorite 
 studies; to these studies he sacrifices his time and is 
 contented to have brought his pupils to that pitch of 
 perfection in the studies, which just suffices the 
 demands and no more. The choleric teacher is far 
 ahead of the sanguine in earnestness, understanding, 
 perseverance and energy. He is a man whose courage 
 grows with increasing difficulties, but he has not the 
 heart of the sanguine teacher. He cannot descend to 
 the children's range of thought and ideas. His under- 
 standing is too cold, and his energy too overpowering, 
 his perseverance too capricious, his self-sacrifice for 
 the children too egotistic. His principal desire is to 
 make the lesson and the school pleasant and usefiil 
 for himself, and not for the children. If the children 
 will not love him, they shall be made to fear him; 
 the less he is able to attain the former on account 
 of his harshness, the more he generally achieves the 
 latter. He maintains order in the school, at whatever 
 price. When he enters the school-room, every one is 
 in a state of feverish excitement as to what is coming 
 next, and over whose unlucky head the thunderstorm 
 will break. Everybody draws a long breath of relief 
 if things go on satisfactorily. For mistakes made by 
 the children he has no indulgence whatever, indeed 
 the smallest discrepancies and sUps, which would be 
 entirely ignored by other teachers or punished at most 
 with a reprimanding look, — raise his anger and 
 harshness, which passion often gives itself vent in 
 immoderate punishments, indeed in some cases in 
 rough mistreatment. The choleric teacher uses up 
 his school-time well. He would achieve effects of an 
 extraordinary nature — if he were only a little more 
 mild. His teaching is thorough, the examinations 
 of his school splendid; but in everything that he does, 
 
- 78 - 
 
 he does not do it for love of the children, but for 
 love of his own dear self, his whole endeavours are 
 concentrated in himself. The school exists simply to 
 give him an opportunity showing and parading his 
 capabilities. He seeks to make everybody, who comes 
 in his neighbourhood, feel his intellectual superiority. 
 Positive as he is, he invariably declares his own system 
 of teaching to be the only correct one, his school better 
 than all others. Those of his colleagues, who are of a 
 peaceful nature, would do well to remain at a distance 
 from him. 
 
 The melancholy teacher is the man of a cahn 
 earnest thought and action. His entrance in the 
 school is earnest, — almost solemn,, his behaviour in 
 the same worthy and measured. His expression is 
 calm, his words few and well considered. These are 
 all very good qualities as far as they are concerned, 
 but it is possible to be too calm and earnest for a 
 school. Dry orthodoxy does not attract the Httle 
 hearts, that can only be appreciated at a riper age, 
 when the pupils begin to think for themselves and to 
 find within themselves a desire after knowledge. Since 
 man generally judges others according to himself, so 
 the melancholy teacher cannot manage to understand 
 why those things done by a child, simply because it 
 is a child — should be for this reason excused. He 
 cannot place himself on the same level as the children, 
 he cannot become a child among children. He looks 
 upon his scholars with more mistrust than trust, and 
 has a. sharper eye for their bad, then for their good 
 quaUties. He estranges the hearts of the children from 
 himself, making the school troublesome for them and 
 irksome for himself. 
 
 There is not much to say about the phlegmatic 
 teacher. We may say the same of him as we have said 
 of phlegmatic parents : he who is indifferent to every- 
 thing and only has his own peace and quiet in his 
 minds eye, will be just as indifferent with regard to 
 his school. The gardener who lets everything grow 
 
— 79 — 
 
 wild. He has himself no idea of order, and in conse- 
 quence, the children cannot learn to be orderly from 
 him. He feels himself in no way constrained to push 
 his children forward to progress, and is perfectly content 
 if they manage to scrape through their examinations. 
 It is fortunate for youth that temperaments of a 
 pure unmixed nature as we have here described them, 
 exist very seldom among parents and teachers. Education, 
 experience, age and own force of will, have worn down 
 the sharp corners and harsh sides of their temperaments 
 and mixed them to a certain degree, so that in tempera- 
 ments of the purest sort a certain amount of distribution 
 of the traits of other temperaments, be it ever so slight, 
 is sure to have taken place. Pure temperaments are 
 always disadvantageous in hfe, but in the case of 
 parents and teachers, directly dangerous. The more 
 the temperament is mixed and varied, the more useful 
 is it for the promotion of education and schooling, 
 and the less mixed and manysided a temperament is, 
 the less value is it in these respects. He who com- 
 bines all the four temperaments in equal measure in 
 himself, and under circumstances is just as able to 
 show himself sanguine and choleric as melancholy 
 and phlegmatic, is the best of tutors and the most 
 capable of teachers. 
 
By the same publisher: 
 
 Die vier Temperamente 
 
 bei Kindern. 
 
 Ihre Aenssernng und ihre Behandlung in Erziehung 
 und Schule. 
 
 Als Anhang: 
 
 Das Temperament der Eltern, Lehrer und Erzieher. 
 
 Von 
 Bernhard Hellwig. 
 
 Yierte Aaflage. 
 
 -$>^ Preis I Mark. ^<$- 
 
 Die vier Temperamente 
 
 bei Erwachsenen. 
 
 Eine Auleitnng znr Selbst- und Menschenkenntniss 
 
 uud ein praktischer Fuhrer und Rathgeber im 
 
 Umgange mit der Welt. 
 
 Von 
 Bernhard Hellwig. 
 
 Zweite vermehrte und verbesserte Auflage. 
 
 -$H Preis I Mark. ;<- 
 
 Printing office of Feid. S c h o e n i n g hT^adertorn. 
 
aEiiiffliilSi 
 
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