THE COMING GENERATION 



effort cannot be commenced too early. In infancy, 

 the web for the woof of mind begins to be woven and 

 what is then done can never be altogether undone. I 

 could point you instances where a child of three years 

 has had stamped on its brain the tendency to depraved 

 habits of activity that have been the bane of the life of 

 the individual as long as he lived. And it is beyond 

 question that the mind of every child is similarly 

 stamped with many a tendency that tells for good or 

 evil all its life, during those earlier years when it is 

 commonly supposed to be hardly a conscious personality. 



The child's observant eye drinks in every sight; its 

 quick ear nurtures every sound ; and its mind develops 

 ideas and interpretations long before its tongue could 

 give words to its verdict. Conscious memory does not 

 carry the adult back to that period, but beyond the 

 depths of memory, the indelible record is there, and 

 the man of fifty owes his personality in no small measure 

 to the influences that surrounded his cradle. The 

 warp of heredity and the woof of early training remain 

 to the end as the foundation structures of every mind, 

 however much the texture may be frayed, the colors 

 obscured or blended by later experiences. When I 

 reflect on this, and then witness the mental treatment 

 that the average child receives from the average parent, 

 I marvel that our race gets on even as well as it does. 



Yet, on the other hand, we must not forget that even 

 the worst home is better than no home at all, better, 

 for example, than the best public institution for child- 

 raising, as the societies for Child Saving are always 

 informing us. Even the most selfish persons show an 



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