In examining this subject, we first inquire (Sect. _α_) whether there is any connection between physical and moral or religious development; then (_β_), what indications of moral development may be derived from history. Finally (_γ_), a correlation of the results of these inquiries, with the nature of the religious development in the individual, is attempted. Of course in so stupendous an inquiry but a few leading points can be presented here. If it be true that the period of human existence on the earth has seen a gradually increasing predominance of higher motives over lower ones among the mass of mankind, and if any parts of our metaphysical being have been derived by inheritance from preëxistent beings, we are incited to the inquiry whether any of the moral qualities are included among the latter; and whether there be any resemblance between moral and intellectual development. Thus, if there have been a physical derivation from a preëxistent genus, and an embryonic condition of those physical characters which distinguish Homo—if there has been also an embryonic or infantile stage in intellectual qualities—we are led to inquire whether the development of the individual in moral nature will furnish us with a standard of estimation of the successive conditions or present relations of the human species in this aspect also. _a. Relations of Physical and Moral Nature._ Although men are much alike in the deeper qualities of their nature, there is a range of variation which is best understood by a consideration of the extremes of such variation, as seen in men of different latitudes, and women and children. (_a._) _In Children._ Youth is distinguished by a peculiarity, which no doubt depends upon an immature condition of the nervous center concerned, which might be called _nervous impressibility_. It is exhibited in a greater tendency to tearfulness, in timidity, less mental endurance, a greater facility in acquiring knowledge, and more ready susceptibility to the influence of sights, sounds and sensations. In both sexes the emotional nature predominates over the intelligence and judgment. In those years the _character_ is said to be in embryo, and theologians in using the phrase, “reaching years of religious understanding,” mean that in early years the religious _capacities_ undergo development coincidentally with those of the body. (_b._) _In Women._ If we examine the metaphysical characteristics of women, we observe two classes of traits—namely, those which are also found in men, and those which are absent or but weakly developed in men. Those of the first class are very similar in essential nature to those which men exhibit at an early stage of development. This may be in some way related to the fact that physical maturity occurs earlier in women.