Yet, amid all that, humanity somehow began pulling together, learning the arts of calmness, peering forward in time, like a neglected infant teaching itself to crawl and speak.

Although Wordsworth's own children, together with Basil Montagu and Hartley Coleridge, can hardly be called unqualified successes in their later life, this does not undermine Wordsworth's ideas, which anticipate the freedom of modern infant teaching.

'It occurred to me at the time,' said Ian carefully, thinking that two could play at infant teaching, 'that it was candlelight, not, that is to say'- he managed contempt in his tone with no effort at all -'electric light.'