TRAINING FOR CHARACTER. 761 



fortunate if age comes upon one without giving him something 

 better than this simian and parrot-like disposition. 



These imitative motions, at first wholly involuntary, are the 

 ones which the will will take hold of to make them its own or to 

 suppress them. Habit, however, renders them indelible. Hence 

 it is never too soon to watch against them. As Preyer well says, 

 everything that could lead its imitative tendency into dangerous 

 ways should be removed from the child. The first duty of educa- 

 tion is to look after the surroundings of children, who can not 

 grow up healthy except in a wholesome medium. To comprehend 

 the weakness of the will against imitation re-enforced by habit, 

 we have only to recollect the struggle we have had against the 

 tendency to do what we have been accustomed to do. Usually 

 reason accommodates itself to the situation. Anticipated and led 

 on, it does what is easiest. It seeks, and always finds when it 

 seeks, reasons in favor of inveterate acts, and invents sophisms to 

 justify them. 



Voluntary motions are the intentional ones, or those which 

 depend essentially upon conscious thoughts and feelings, repre- 

 sentations and emotions. The will appears at a relatively late 

 stage of the general development, when the senses have furnished 

 a rich provision of images and the consciousness of a consid- 

 erable number of feelings. Not till then can there be at the same 

 time the conception of various possible motions, foresight of 

 what should result, comparison, preference, and choice, or a rela- 

 tively clear acquiescence in certain acts to the exclusion of 

 others. 



There is no sign of will so long as the child performs only 

 unconscious, automatic, reflexive, instinctive, or imitative motions 

 independently of its previously acquired ideas and pre-existing 

 affections. "Will begins when a thought properly so called be- 

 comes motive in itself, or in the desire accompanying it ; when a 

 movement known to be possible is anticipated with its results, and 

 is accomplished intentionally. Not that every detail of the mat- 

 ter is understood, for even adults are not thus acquainted with 

 the inner mechanism of their movements ; but it should be repre- 

 sented in advance, preconceived as a whole, and determined origi- 

 nally by the thought of the new that it will introduce into the 

 consciousness of the subject. Observers seem agreed that there 

 can be nothing of this kind before the fourth month. "Will ap- 

 pears when the child, for example, associates the thought of an 

 object to be taken with that of making a motion to take it. It is, 

 as it were, revealed to itself when after awkward and fruitless 

 attempts the child meets a sudden success, discovers his power, 

 and gains confidence in himself. From this time on the will 

 gathers force with the number of such associations as they are 



