the human race.

He is filled with a new sense of power, and with a desire to use it as a man should. He becomes conscious of what the world is doing, and begins to realize its worth. He is eager to throw his energies into the real things of life and to do what there lies waiting for him.

A time of independence and self-assertion, then—but independence and self-assertion of a totally different sort from that of later childhood. Then the boy was independent because his interests were primitive; he was absorbed in the social life of the gang, and blind to the greater world beyond. Now it is the independence of vision, the self-assertion of one who has caught a glimpse of the great interests of humanity, and who feels his right to give and get, on his own account, as a sharer of the big world's life. The man is stirring within the boy, and it is a man's independence that he begins to assert. He has lived through the primitive interests of a former generation, and now claims his share of to-day. He is one of us.

This expansion of selfhood reveals itself in the desire to go to work, which every boy feels at this age. It is hard now to keep boys at school. They feel that they ought to be getting at a trade or beginning their business career, and that it is time they were making money. Recent studies show that the tendency to drop out of school is greatest within the period covered by the last two grades of the elementary school and the first two years of the high school.* Out of more than two thousand children answering a question as to what they would do with a small monthly allowance, it was found that over 80 per cent of those thirteen or more said that they would save it, against 40 per cent at seven and eight, and about 60 per cent from nine to twelve.†

man.

Early adolescence is genuinely and passionately idealistic. The boy is no longer a mere imitator; he is more than a hero worshiper. His version penetrates the outward act, and catches the spirit within a He begins to discern inward qualities, and to feel the intrinsic worth of truth, faith, self-sacrifice. And it is not simply that he admires these virtues in others; he feels them to be a forthputting of his own deeper self. They are directions in which his life would expand, forms in which his self would find expression.

The power to conceive abstract ideals is man's crowning glory and strength. It lifts him above mere intelligence and brings him into cooperation with God Himself. But it can become a pitiable weakness,

*Thorndike: "The Elimination of Pupils from School." Ayres: "Laggards in Our Schools."

+Monroe: "Money Sense in Children." Cited in Hall: "Adolescence," II., p. 393

for it makes possible a life of contemplation and dreams, whose remote devotion to transcendent things never realizes itself in action, and fails to redeem from sordidness the present deed. So the awakening of this power marks a critical time in the life of the youth. The divine moves within him. He glimpses the things of the Spirit; he feels the "torment of the infinite." He lives for that which is not yet real. He builds upon "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." He is full of ambitions; he makes decisions; he seeks service. It is life's very spring time. But he must be carefully dealt with. His ideals are yet evanescent; his decisions not abiding. He resolves things too great, and turns back in disappointment from the plodding path. He may easily enough become a dreamer and a scatter-brain-a mere idealist. He needs the friendship of one who is older, but who has not forgotten what it is to be a boy-one who can, through comprehending sympathy and co-operation, help him find himself and turn his life toward its real usefulness.

5. The social instincts now mature rapidly, and there is a definite recognition of social values. The independence of adolescence is tempered by a new sense of social dependence and by the desire to be recognized by others, to help and to be helped by them.

The social forms of later childhood persist in the first year or two of this period, but are gradually outgrown. We saw that the gang instinct, as witnessed by the number of clubs organized, is strongest at thirteen, and then declines. It is not that the youth becomes less social; rather that he is becoming conscious of a larger world. The opinion of his fellows remains a powerful moral force, as it does to the end of life; yet now he begins to recognize the wider bearings of his actions, and to look for judgment beyond his immediate companions. Later childhood had thought that it possessed reality when it lived to itself; adolescence now sees that reality is richer far than childhood had dreamed.

Life now first becomes genuinely altruistic. The youth is glad, in pursuit of his ideals and for the sake of others, to endure hardships and to make sacrifices. He wants to be more than square; he feels the worth of unselfishness. It follows that here, too, selfishness begins. The child who is a mere bundle of instincts, the boy who has not yet felt an altruistic impulse, may be self-centered, but not selfish. But the youth who feels the call to a bit of sacrifice, and rejects it, lets an unworthy thing enter his life. Genuine selfishness exists only when the higher impulse is present, but is denied. It is in adolescence, as a matter of fact, that real sin begins-the conscious choice of a worse, as opposed to a better way.

6. The development of the sexual instincts underlies every other change at adolescence. It strengthens youth's aspirations, and colors its social attitudes. Altruism and self-sacrifice are primarily, in fact, parental instincts.

New impulses, new sensations and emotions, new temptations, new problems, new meanings, a new conscience and a new heart-from without and within, the whole world and himself seem alike strange and wonderful to the adolescent who first feels the race-old forces by which life begets life. It is a time of unstable equilibrium, of strong yet shifting emotions, of purposes not understood. "Someone has said of mental adolescence that it is as if we were born over again, not from an unremembered past into which the new life can bring no surprises, but from one conscious life into another that cannot be understood by anything in our previous experience.

In the first years of the period, the sex-repulsion continues which was characteristic of later childhood; but the sexes begin to be attracted in its latter half. Boys begin to pay attention to their dress, and girls are no longer tom-boys. Few pass the age of sixteen without some little love affair.

From sixteen to eighteen the feelings deepen and acquire more stability. Emotions become sentiments; the affections are more lasting. Life is getting its "set." It is the time at which emotional religious conversions are most apt to occur.

7. Intellectually, adolescence is marked by the development of the higher powers. The youth is able to reason, not simply in terms of time sequence, but of cause and effect, and logical ground and consequence. And he becomes a pretty rigorous logician. He wants to understand. He seeks life's rational basis.

It follows that the adolescent is critical. He rejects mere author. ity. The springs of moral judgment are now within him: he will accept no bald imperatives. He is no longer credulous; he demands proofs. He is not content with scattered bits of knowledge; he wants to see things in their relations.

It is easy to see, therefore, why doubt should often be thought to be a characteristic of early adolescence. The sort of doubt that denies, however, is not natural at this period. It comes afterward, in later adolescence. Now there is simply the demand for reasons. If it turns to a more negative attitude, it is generally because we have not met that demand the right way. Clear, logical statement of beliefs and reasons will be accepted. But we can force the youth to doubt if we

* Coe: "The Spiritual Life,” p. 33.

press authority where he seeks reason, or if, in matter or method, our teaching is below his level.

8. Early adolescence is a time of more or less turmoil and confusion. Coe calls it a period of "general mental fermentation,” and speaks of its "yeastiness of mind." There is not disorganization, so much as lack of organization. The youth does not understand himself; he cannot at once coordinate the many new impulses that are welling up within him.

Physically, the boy or girl in the early 'teens is overgrown and awkward. The parts of the body do not grow at the same rate, and there is clumsiness and incoordination of movement. The boy's voice breaks. The girl feels big and restless and is afraid to talk. Both are very sensitive, and are too often made more so by the talk of parents and family, who speak of the awkward age, comment on their personal appearance, or tease them about their budding consciousness of the other sex.

The extremes and contradictions of adolescence have often been noted. The boy is now one thing, and now its opposite. He suddenly awakes to a new interest, and throws himself into it with the utmost ardor-for a few weeks; then it is forgotten. He is over-exact and conscientious in some respects, and careless in others. It is because of the very richness of his new life. He is not sure of himself. His instincts are as great a surprise to nimself as to anyone else.

This confusion of life may issue in an abnormal self-consciousness and a morbid habit of introspection. It then becomes hard to deal with because the adolescent is naturally secretive, and resents any intrusion upon his personality. It may be questioned whether most of the studies of adolescence have not tended to exaggerate the introspective character of the period. In any case, the cure is to give the youth something to do that seems to him worth while, and to see to it that he realizes something of its fruits.

9. Religious awakenings are natural in early adolescence. In the general expansion of selfhood the religious instinct has its place. As life opens to a larger world, and becomes cognizant of new social and spiritual values, the soul reaches out toward God.

As we should expect, the first definite awakening comes at the beginning of the period. At twelve or thirteen most children who have been brought up under religious influences desire to join the "Among 512 officers of Young Men's Christian Associations

church.

* Coe: "The Spiritual Life," pp. 38, 86.

the average age of the first deep religious impression appears to have been 13.7 years. Among 99 men who were studied with refer ence to all their periods of special religious interest, as many awakenings of the religious sense occurred at twelve and thirteen as at sixteen and seventeen. A recent study shows that in a group of 'growth cases' reaching into the hundreds. the most distinctive period of spontaneous interest falls at the age of twelve." *

There is a second period of religious awakening at sixteen and seventeen. Forty-one of the ninety-nine men studied by Coe experienced an increase of religious interest at this age-the same number as at the earlier period. At twenty again, there seems to be a third such awakening. Seventy-six per cent of the religious awakenings reported by these men came in the ages from twelve to twenty, and 50 per cent in the years named as times of special interest-twelve and thirteen, sixteen and seventeen, and twenty.† Other studies have tended to confirm the conclusions which Coe draws from these figures.

When we inquire into the age of conversion, the question is different. We are asking now at what age the decision is most apt to be made. As might be expected, Coe found that conversions were most frequent in the three periods of special religious awakening; but the propor tion is not the same. There were more at sixteen and seventeen than in the earlier period, and many less in the last period than in either of the other two. Collating a number of studies, he found that the average age of conversion for 1784 men was 16.4 years. Hall adds data from several sources which show that, of a total of 4054 men, 1329 were converted at sixteen, seventeen and eighteen, and 3053 at ages from twelve to twenty, with only 705 at twenty-one and over. Haslett summarizes a total of 6641 conversions of both sexes, of which 5054 were at ages from twelve to twenty; 1527 were at sixteen and seventeen, and only 1039 from twenty-one to thirty-four.?

We shall later inquire more closely into the significance of these figures. It is enough now that we see the tremendous importance of early adolescence in religious development. Both at its beginning and at its end life is especially open to religious influences. It is the age upon which the Sunday school must center its efforts.

10. We may sum up, finally, three great reasons why early adolescence is a peculiarly critical period:

• Coe: "Education in Religion and Morals," pp. 254, 255.

+ Coe: "The Spiritual Life," ch. i.

Hall: "Adolescence," II., p. 290.

Haslett: "Pedagogical Bible School," p. 165.