E-text prepared by Stephen Schulze
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE UNFOLDING LIFE
A STUDY OF DEVELOPMENT
WITH REFERENCE TO
RELIGIOUS TRAINING
BY
ANTOINETTE ABERNETHY LAMOREAUX
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
MARION LAWRANCE
1907
TO
My Precious Father and Mother,
in whose daily ministry
I have seen the beauty and learned the meaning
of Christian Nurture,
this book is affectionately dedicated.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
CHAPTER I - FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER II - EARLY CHILDHOOD
CHAPTER III - EARLY CHILDHOOD—Continued
CHAPTER IV - EARLY CHILDHOOD—Concluded
CHAPTER V - CHILDHOOD—SIX TO TWELVE
CHAPTER VI - THE JUNIOR AGE—NINE TO TWELVE
CHAPTER VII - ADOLESCENCE
CHAPTER VIII - MIDDLE AND LATE ADOLESCENCE
INTRODUCTION
Having read with much care the proof sheets of this book, I am preparedto say three things about it, and it gives me pleasure to say them here.
THE BOOK IS WELL NAMED. "THE UNFOLDING LIFE." Turn whichway we will, we see life unfolding all about us, and yet how faintly areits mysteries understood! And is it not the one thing above all others,which teachers, mothers, fathers and all of us, need to understand? Itis well that our attention has been called to this most vital of allthemes by a book, whose very name compels attention to its content, andwhose content is but its name in fuller treatment.
THE BOOK IS WELL WRITTEN. Such books as this should be read slowlyand pondered well; but this book by its fascination will tempt one toread too rapidly. Its line of argument is logical; its diction is aspure as the bubbling stream; its truths are evident and compelling. Itpresents the purest psychology stripped of all mystifyingtechnicalities, and clothed in language which even a child canunderstand. The reason for this is plain. It is the "BeatenOil" drawn from the rich and ripe experience of one of the beststudents of childhood and teachers of children in our land.
THE BOOK IS WELL TIMED. Teachers are seeking now as never before tounderstand the soil in which the living seed of God's Word is to becast. Nothing can be more important than this. The author deals largelywith the every day problems of the average home and Sunday School, thusrendering the highest service to the great army of ordinary teachers andmothers. While this book will be hailed with joy by all such, it willnevertheless command a place by the side of the highest grade books onthe subject. There never was a time when any book on any subject wasmore greatly needed than this book is needed now. It would be a boonindeed to every home, and to every Sunday School as well, if allteachers, mothers, yes, and fathers too, would read and re-read"THE UNFOLDING LIFE."
MARION LAWRANCE.