152 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



name six years, we would find it accompanied with 

 marked physiological changes : it is the period of 

 the second dentition; the brain has achieved its 

 adult size and weight ; now is the time of reduced 

 growth, and increased activity and power to re- 

 sist both disease and fatigue. (Hall: "Adoles- 

 cence," II, 451.) There is no other such marked 

 year between the third year and puberty. 



J. E. Street, of Clark University, conducted 

 an examination of one hundred and eighty-three 

 persons, from which he drew the conclusion: 

 "There was nothing to show that conscience 

 played any great factor in life before the age of 

 nine, and very little mention was made of it be- 

 fore thirteen. The cases, however, are altogether 

 too few to make any generalized conclusion con- 

 cerning the age at which conscience becomes a 

 potent element in the individual. Yet it may be 

 premised that it does not reveal its existence at 

 as early an age as many would believe. The 

 writer knows a child in whom it was abnormally 

 developed at the age of three. Impulse governs 

 most of the activities of early childhood." (A. 

 MacDonald: "Experimental Child Study," 1339.) 



When we reflect that brain cells are not suffi- 

 ciently formed for purposes of intellectuality un- 

 til about the sixth year, and that conscience should 

 follow reflection, we must not expect conscience 

 to be a factor before that age, and then only in 

 its germinal form. As to what things a child's 



