the biological explanation of the unselfishness of 

 parents and of the selfishness of children as well. 



"But in the egoism of the child we can see 

 more than this of nature's plans; for she is never 

 inconsistent with herself, and the development of 

 morality is one of her chief concerns. Not only 

 is it true that morality does not suffer from the 

 natural selfishness of the child, but it is really 

 dependent upon it. In the development of almost 

 every one of its elements we can trace an egoistic 

 or selfish stage. The child feels resentment for 

 a wrong done to himself. If it were not so, how 

 could he ever feel indignation for a wrong done 

 to another? The boy is not content with simply 

 exhibiting his own attainments; he must outdo 

 another. The self-feeling which now finds ex- 

 pression in rivalry, will, by and by, manifest itself 

 in the positive form of self-respect and the nega- 

 tive form of humility, which seem more admirable 

 traits. But how can he ever feel humility unless 

 he measures himself by another? And how can 

 he so well gain his standards of self-respect as 

 by comparing himself with one who has reached 

 the higher level? Until a child has built up a 

 feeling of ownership in property that is his own, 

 how can he learn to sympathetically regard the 

 property rights of another? Surely God has not 

 blundered in shaping the soul of a child." (Sun- 

 day School Journal, 1910, p. 487.) 



The fact is that many things are charged 

 against the child sheerly because he can not de- 



