s, therefore, pre-eminently the habit-forming period. From the
physical standpoint this means that those activities that are
essentially habitual must have their genesis during the period between
seven and twelve if they are to function perfectly in later life. The
mastery of a musical instrument must be begun then if technique is ever
to be perfect. If a foreign language is to be acquired, it should be
begun in this period, or there will always be inaccuracies in
pronunciation and articulation.

=B. Mental Characteristics.=--The instinct of curiosity is very active
in the earlier period of childhood, and this, combined with greater
language power, leads to incessant questionings on the part of the
child. He wants to know what, where, why, and how, in regard to
everything that comes under his notice, and fortunate indeed is that
child whose parent or teacher is sufficiently long-suffering to give
satisfactory answers to his many and varied questions. To ignore the
inquiries of the child, or to return impatient or grudging answers may
inhibit the instinct and lead later to a lack of interest in the world
about him. The imitative instinct is also still active and reveals
itself particularly in the child's play, which in the main reflects the
activities of those about him. He plays horse, policeman, school,
Indian, in imitation of the occupations of others. Parents and teachers
should depend largely upon this imitative tendency to secure desirable
physical habits, such as erect and graceful carriage, cleanliness of
person, orderly arrangement of personal belongings, neatness in dress,
etc. The imagination is exceedingly active during childhood, fantastic
and unregulated in the earlier period, under better control and
direction in the later. It reveals itself in the love of hearing,
reading, or inventing stories. The imitative play mentioned above is one
phase of imaginative activity. The child's ideas of conduct, in this
earlier stage of childhood, are derived from the pleasure or pain of
their consequences. He has as yet little power of subordinating his
lower impulses to an ideal end, and hence is not properly a moral being.
Good conduct must, therefore, be secured principally through the
exercise of arbitrary authority from without.

In the later period of childhood, acquired interests begin to be formed
and, coincident with this, active attention appears. The child begins to
be interested in the product, not merely in