THE DIFFERENT AGES. 



277 



EOUGII PLAYS. 



" I think you ought to call it the Ugly Age," said John. 



" No," rejoined Lawrence, "it is not exactly from a spirit 

 of ugliness that he does these things, but only from the 

 pleasure of exercising his growing powers in new forms. 

 To produce a disturbance or an excitement in a person's 

 mind involves the exercise of a higher class of faculties 

 than merely to make a din in their ears, and the boy likes 

 to exercise his highest powers. The Teasing Age comes 

 generally between ten or twelve and sixteen. After six- 

 teen the boy generally becomes too much of a gentleman 

 to take pleasure in troubling people in any way, especially 

 his sisters. He then becomes ambitious of making himself 

 agreeable instead of disagreeable." 



"J'ra between ten and sixteen," said John, " so I am in 

 the Teasing Age." 



