2. Inasmuch as children try to imitate what they see others do,[1] they should be permitted to have all things, excepting such as might cause injury to themselves, such as knives, hatchets, and glass. When this is not convenient, in place of real instruments they should have toys procured for their use; namely, iron knives, wooden swords, plows, little carriages, sledges, mills, buildings, ete. With these they may amuse themselves, thus exercising their bodies to health, their minds to vigor, and their bodily members to agility. They are delighted to construct little houses, and to erect walls of clay, chips, wood, or stone, thus displaying an architectural genius. In a word, whatever children delight to play with, provided that it be not hurtful, they ought rather to be gratified than restrained from it; for inactivity is more injurious to both mind and body than anything in which they can be occupied.
3. Now advancing according to their years, in the first year they will have sufficient mechanical knowledge for children, if they learn why they open their mouths for food, hold up their heads, take anything in their hands, sit, stand, etc.; all these things will depend rather on nature than nurture.
4. In the second and third years their mechanical knowledge may be extended; for now they begin to learn what it is to run, to jump, to agitate themselves in various ways, to play, to kindle and extinguish, to pour out water, to carry things from place to place, to put down, to lift up, to lay prostrate, to cause to stand, to turn, to roll together, to unroll, to bend, to make straight, to break, to split, etc.;
