me is true of the development of
all other virtues.

There is in the child an orderly sequence of development of mental
traits. While these powers are in their earlier, so to speak
embryonic, stages of development, they can be fostered and increased
or retarded. They are still plastic. Very early in a child's life
acquisitiveness shows itself; he begins to say "I," and "mine," and
desires things to be his "very own." And this can be fostered so
that the child will grow up a "covetous machine." Or he may be
taught to share with others.

Not so much later, while the child is still in the lower grades of
his school life, comes the period of moral development. If, during
this period, these powers are fostered and cultivated, they may, and
probably will, be dominant throughout his life. And herein lies the
dignity and glory of the unappreciated, underpaid, and overworked
teachers of our "lower" schools, that they have the opportunity to
cultivate these moral powers of the child during these most critical
years of his life. Repression or neglect here works life-long and
irreparable harm. The young man goes out into the world. Here
"practical" men continually instruct him by precept upon precept,
line upon line, that he cannot afford to be generous until he has
acquired wealth; that he must first win success for himself, and
that he can then help others. And, unless his character is like
pasture-grown oak, he follows and improves upon their teachings. _He
reverses the sequence of functions._ He puts acquisitiveness first
and right and sterling honesty and unselfishness second. For a score
or more of years he labors. At first he honestly intends to build up
a strong character and a generous nature just as soon as he can
afford to; but for the present he cannot afford it. If he is to
succeed, he must do as others do and walk in the beaten track. He
wins wealth and position, or learning and fame. He now has the
ability and means to help others, but he no longer cares to do so.
Loyalty to truth, sterling honesty--the genuine, not the
conventional counterfeit--unselfishness, in one word, character,
these are plants of slow growth. They require cultivation by habit
through long years. In his case they have become aborted and
incapable of rejuvenescence. But his rudiment of a moral nature
feels twinges of remorse. He ought not to have reversed the sequence
of functions, and he knows it. But he cannot retrace his steps. He
made th