FROM FOURTEEN TO TWENTY 129 



decisions for evil are made later in life than those for good. 

 Dr. Gulick says the reports do not show when the men were 

 put in prison, but that the " average length of a man's sen- 

 tence to prison in America is 4.07 years," and that we may 

 assume that, on the average, half of the sentence of these 

 men had expired. This " would make the average on enter- 

 ing prison, of the maximum group, twenty-one instead of 

 twenty-three years." Then he adds, " If now we could find 

 the age at which these individuals were committed to prison 

 for their first crime, it would be much younger yet, but this 

 is impossible and must be left to conjecture." He closes by 

 saying, " The tremendous fact remains that more individ- 

 uals take to criminal life at twenty or under than at any or 

 all other periods of life combined." His claim indeed is that 

 first decisions, both for good and for evil, fall within the 

 adolescent period. What is this period ? we ask. What are 

 the signs and symptoms of it ? Since knowledge leads to 

 self-control, the following facts are important. 



In all forms of life the time is sure to come when a great 

 change transforms the outlook of things for each individual. 

 Up to this point the body has been growing continuously. It 

 has taken nourishment, has developed after the fashion of 

 its ancestors, has been influenced by its environment, and 

 has become vigorous or frail according as the conditions of 

 food and of health have favored or hindered its development. 



Each step of this process goes on for a definite length of 

 time. But it is all mere preparation, for at the end of it 

 every creature that survives childhood enters on what proves 

 to be the most significant era in its history. 



Until the dawn of this new era, mature germ cells are not 

 found in the growing body. Now, however, the special ma- 

 terial which has been there since birth, becomes active, and 



