but in the matter of tastes,
tendencies, moral inclinations, etc., do the children differ. Some like
this, and dislike that, and the reverse; some are attracted toward this
and repelled by that, and the reverse; some are kind while others are
cruel; some manifest an innate sense of refinement, while others show
coarseness and lack of delicate feeling. This among children of the same
family, remember. And, when the child enters school, we find this one
takes to mathematics as the duck does to water, while its brother
loathes the subject; the anti-arithmetic child may excel in history or
geography, or else grammar, which is the despair of others. Some are at
once attracted to music, and others to drawing, while both of these
branches are most distasteful to others. And it will be noticed that in
the studies to which the child is attracted, it seems to learn almost
without effort, as if it were merely re-learning some favorite study,
momentarily forgotten. And in the case of the disliked study, every step
is attended with toil. In some cases the child seems to learn every
branch with the minimum effort, and with practically no effort; while in
other cases the child has to plod wearily over every branch, as if
breaking entirely new ground. And this continues into after life, when
the adult finds this thing or that thing into which he naturally fits as
if it were made for him, the knowledge concerning it coming to him like
the lesson of yesterday.

We know of a case in which a man had proved a failure in everything he
had undertaken up to the age of forty, when his father-in-law, in
disgust, placed him at the head of an enterprise which he had had to
"take over" for a bad debt. The "failure" immediately took the keenest
interest in the work, and in a month knew more about it than many men
who had been in the concern for years. His mind found itself perfectly
at home, and he made improvement after improvement rapidly, and with
uniform success. He had found his work, and in a few years stepped to
the front rank in the country in that particular line of business.
"Blessed is he that hath found his work." Reincarnationists would hold
that that man had found his work in a line similar in its mental
demands with that of his former life or lives--not necessarily identical
in details, but similar in its mental requirement. Instances of this
thing are to be seen all around us. Heredity does not seem to account
for it--nor does envir