The next phase of growth is still distinguished by this continued capacity for and dependence upon muscular activity, but the mind becomes more reflective, more productive. The power to initiate should develop during this stage of development, as well as increased power to control mental and bodily functions; and, throughout each of these periods, there should be a steady, unintermittent formation of good habits. At first, the nature of these will be chiefly physical; the habitual performance of the bodily functions should be safeguarded, until their neglect is attended by discomfort and their violation becomes almost painful. Then, by degrees, the moral and mental nature develops. Thus is the child prepared for the stress and turmoil of the long and anxious years of adolescence; when, under the influence of new emotions, of fresh temptations, of unfamiliar powers, the character built on the sands of parental indulgence is undermined, if not swept clean away; whereas when built on the firm rock of good habits it emerges unshaken from the storm. That childhood is an honourable estate must be now evident; pregnant as it is with possibilities, pathetic in the risks associated with its plasticity and dependence. Should it therefore be necessary in the twentieth century to point out that, when the fund of nervous energy is constantly exhausted by deficient sleep and poor food; when a demand on function in advance of what nature is prepared to comply with is persistently made, as it has habitually been in our schools; when exaggerated and pernicious stimuli are allowed to fatigue and to paralyse our child population; when inadequate training in the right conduct of life is provided, and no information given on the dawning functions of potential parenthood; when premature responsibility is imposed or precocious and unwholesome independence is permitted; worst of all, when, through parental disease or alcoholism, the brain tissue is of too poor a quality to resist the strain of modern life--it is no matter for surprise that mental instability and insanity are on the increase, nor that degenerates hamper by their helplessness and crime the productive capacity of the normal.