the best the parent can do. The playmates, the teacher, the friends, have much to do with the formation of habit, and the parents duty is to see that these be chosen with utmost care; that the companions be upright in heart and mind, and diligent in application to duties, are the chief considerations.

The books which the child studies in school are not particularly to give him a knowledge of Greek or of geometry; in the great majority of cases, with the exceptions of the common branches of reading, writing, etc., this knowledge will not be put to a practical test. It is the following of consecutive thought, the development of the reasoning faculties, the training to mental application, which equip him to use these faculties in future years.

The manner in which the individual child is developing should guide the selection of his future studies. The cramming process from a standpoint of mental development, leads to a habit of gaining a smattering of much and a lack of real consecutive con

centration and attention. It tends to superficiality.

Each child should be required to master tasks for which he has no special liking, if for no other reason than to acquire the habit of self-mastery.

By early training of the will, the thoughts, and the impulse, so that the nervous system is the help rather than the drawback, by constantly keeping at it along right lines, the individual will sometime awake to find his judgment relied upon and himself a power in the world,—and all this with less apparent effort than the man who is forever kicking against the pricks, because of lack of early training, and spasmodic, inconsistent efforts to change his habits. It is just as easy to form right habits as wrong ones.

The nerves are subject to training up to a ripe old age, yet there is no question but that the best time to train them is during their period of development. Before the eighth year, at which time, approximately, the brain attains its growth, habits are most easily formed, the anatomical growth

conforming to the habit of the brain; yet up to twenty years, the nerves, which are growing with other tissues, are particularly responsive to nerve training.

Accustom the fibres to carry and the cells to receive right nerve impulses. Through the medium of the nervous system, the different parts of the body are brought into harmony and the muscles into that coordination which tends to make bodily movements regular and effective in the execution of one's desires.

The more perfectly trained the nerves, the finer the co-ordination, the more accurate the body movements, and the less waste of nerve energy.

Why does the singer have a "true ear?" Because of the training of the auditory

nerve.

People say they cannot hear over a telephone;-one realizes that their trouble is due to lack of training, that their auditory nerves do not respond quickly to the stimulus of a sound carried over the wire. To the trained ear there is no difficulty.

During the early years of life, when the nerves and muscles are plastic, particularly during the first eight years when the brain is attaining its growth, the moral habits are established-so that the priest well says: "Give me the first fourteen years of a child's life and you may have the rest." During the period between twenty and thirty, the intellectual and professional habits are formed and by thirty, the capital of habits is acquired; the succeeding years are devoted to the investment of this capital in the application of the habits and the collecting of the interest.

The young man who is early taught selfdependence, self-control, the value and right use of money, with habits of industry and frugality, has his future life made easy for him; the longer this education is delayed the longer will he flounder and waste time in indecision as does the child in learning to walk.

The change of habit, depends upon the intensity of its first impulse and the length of time it has been fixed. The time required to change it, depends upon the

intensity and continuity of the impulse which prompts its change. The initiative in breaking up the pathway in the nervous system should be strong, and that pathway once disturbed, the change of thought will readily carve out a new pathway if the old path of thought be not traversed again.

"The question of 'tapering-off,' in abandoning such habits as drink and opium-indulgence is a question about which experts differ within certain limits, in regard to what may be the best for an individual case. In the main, however, all expert opinion would agree that abrupt acquisition of the new habit is the best way, if there be a real possibility of carrying it out. We must be careful not to give the will so stiff a task as to insure its defeat at the very outset; but, provided one can stand it, a sharp period of suffering, and then a free time, is the best thing to aim at, whether in giving up a habit like opium or in simply changing one's hours of rising or of work. It is surprising how soon a desire will die of inanition if it be never fed."-Prof. Wm. James.