lity begins to develop, two serious facts
must be remembered:

(1) Direction must be given in the beginning before tendencies are
fixed.

A beginning is always a time of easy adjustment and flexibility.
Business corporations can readily alter a course of action before a
policy has been established. The nurseryman can easily secure the
straight trunk of the mature tree in the yielding sapling. The law is
just as true when it touches human life. The trend of any possibility is
determined largely in the beginning of its unfolding. After that time
has gone by, conditions are practically fixed, and he that is unjust
will be unjust still, and he that is holy will be holy still.

(2) Future strength and vigor are largely determined in the beginning of
development.

It is well nigh impossible to overcome the effect of early neglect. If
the culture of the growing stalk is passed over, the corn in the ear can
not be full. If the bodily needs of the boy are unmet, he can not reach
his full development as a man. If his budding intellectual life, his
awakening feeling life, or the delicate unfolding of his spiritual life
is neglected, a complete, rounded out maturity is impossible. A starved
childhood is always the prophecy of a stunted manhood, while life
nourished in its beginning foretells vigorous maturity.

V. The very important question now arises, "How may these crucial times
be recognized?" The answer is given in the Fifth Principle. "A new
interest always accompanies an awakening possibility."

The increasing love of a story discloses a growing imagination. The
passionate hero worship of a boy's heart reveals the fact of a budding
ideal. The interest in clubs and desire for companionship tell of
awakening social feelings. Life is always the exponent of its own need
to one who cares to know, and it further reveals what should be given
it, and how.

VI. The Sixth Principle has already been touched upon in the preceding
discussion, but it needs the emphasis of special statement, because of
its importance. "Development is from within, out, through what is
absorbed, not from without, in, through external application without
absorption."

If development were a matter of external application, the post would
grow and the stone and the stick, because they have earth and air and
moisture around them. If it came from without, in, the most admonished
child would be the best, the most talked to pupil the wisest, but the
rever