CHANGE IN CHARACTER. 117 



sesses it may be, average intellectual nerve power 

 conjoined with insufficient or distorted moral nerve 

 power : these gravitate towards the gaol. A con- 

 siderable group is characterised by weakness or 

 insufficiency of intellectual and moral and often of 

 bodily power : these tend to the workhouse. Of 

 necessity the groups are here spoken of in a broad 

 sense ; and, let it be added, we must not forget the 

 inadequate ' hoverers ' over debatable lines. It is to 

 be remarked that more can be done by circumstance 

 for the weak than for the distinctly good or the 

 distinctly bad. 



During recent years praiseworthy efforts have been 

 made to ' rescue ' a number of the weak and neglected 

 children of weak and, in their time doubtless, neglected 

 parents ; to train them in " Homes " for a lengthened 

 period; and finally to place them under the super- 

 vision and guidance of Canadian farmers ; to place 

 them, in fact, in grooves where natural and congenital 

 weakness would be least exposed to the trial of complex 

 and adverse circumstance. Probably there is no more 

 fruitful field for the exercise of philanthropic effort. 

 The children of the vast majority of human beings are 

 fairly and congenitally good and cannot easily be 

 made bad ; the congenitally bad children of the few 

 bad cannot easily be made good although with them, 

 as with their elders, fear of pain, derived from the 

 intellect and from sensation (intellectual and sensory 

 nerve), may do something to restrain actually evil 

 deeds. The progeny of the weak, let it be empha- 

 tically repeated, are much more open to the influence 

 of good and evil circumstance. 



And yet the children who are taken to " Homes " 

 afford a striking illustration of the irresistible pressure of 



