128 "THE COMING OF MAN 



name only one, the collecting instinct. This leads to the close 

 study of nature and of many realms of human activity. All 

 these studies broaden life and increase its joy. 



We must hasten on to the close of school life to the last 

 part of the period of adolescence in the study of which Hall 

 has done so fine pioneer work. Boy and girl have attained 

 nearly their adult size and proportions after alternating periods 

 of increase of height and girth. They feel the rising tide of 

 vigor and power. They are still far from adult endurance, 

 when the tissues have toughened and hardened. One great 

 danger is the exhausting over-excitement of too intense social 

 life. Here again moderation. 



The games of the period are equally characteristic. They 

 are group games played with sides, each of which represents 

 a gang, class, school or town. They demand high physical 

 development, self-control, quickness, endurance; more com- 

 plex movements, the use of finer muscles and of higher centers 

 in the brain. Strategy counts heavily. The boy plays with 

 his head, and is a practical psychologist; recognizing the 

 strong and weak points in physique, temper, character and v/it 

 of every opponent. Not a movement or gesture escapes 

 him. 



He is a member of a team and learns to submit to criticism, 

 training, discipline. We intellectuals may well grant that there 

 must be some reason for the preference by captains of industry 

 of young men who have excelled in athletics. It is a very 

 suggestive phenomenon. The chief sin of big business is that 

 it absorbs the men whom we need as teachers and preachers 

 to educate the generation which will make the America of 

 twenty years hence. 



The attainment of full growth and muscular power, the large 

 heart and lungs, the well oxygenated blood, the activity and 

 young vitality of all the tissues, give buoyancy and courage, 

 a sense of power and longing for entire freedom and revolt 

 against control. A new world opens before the boy as fresh 

 and fair as on the morning of creation, a new life boundless 

 in opportunity, endless in scope and time. He is sure that 



