ABSTRACT
The new pedagogical methods and modes of writing for children in the late eighteenth century were predicated largely on John Locke's model of the infant mind as tabula rasa, David Hartley's theories of associationalism and psychological materialism, and the recognition within medical circles of the child as a separate and important medical category. While the influence of Lockean psychology on the children's literature of the period is widely recognized, Hartley's seminal Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations (1749) was central to the rational theories of psychology that would become paradigmatic by the end of the century. 1 This chapter will examine scientific writings about the mind and body of the child. It will consider how the directions for parents and guardians given by medical experts in advice books, as well as the medical writing about children intended for an expert audience, participated in the construction of the child as a modern subject.
