Again, the attainment of success after long and victorious effort may beget in one a spirit of selfishness. Not infrequently a student who has solved a difficult problem after painstaking toil, hesitates to pass on the fruits of his labor to a classmate. He reasons that the expenditure of energy which he has suffered is worth too much to be lightly transferred to another person. Particularly will this be the case if the sharing of his gain will reduce the lustre of his own glory. Another particular cause of selfishness, both in adults and in children, is the transition from poverty to plenty, from obscurity to prominence, from disesteem to fame. If the father or mother has recently emerged from some retired station in life, the contrast in the situation is very sure to be reflected in the life of the younger members of the family. If the change is from poverty to wealth, the parents are disposed to be miserly in the expenditure of their money. This attitude of mind reappears in the child in a refusal to share his pleasures and privileges with his schoolmates. He carries with him a caution to see that no one trespasses upon his newly achieved rights. In our western civilization such extreme transitions are not infrequent, owing to the freedom of opportunity for all. Many times people who are not widely acquainted with the world are selfish because they do not believe in the good will of others. This state of mind is very often found in young children who have not yet advanced beyond a sort of savagery in which they regard every man as a possible enemy. They refuse to give up to their associates because they do not believe any return will come to them. They fear that all of their possessions will be ravaged and appropriated, and so exercise excessive caution in lending them or in making presents to their friends. It is not unusual that certain interests of some society, class, or club, are so vividly conceived as to modify the attitude of the entire group. A fraternity or literary society or a senior class in a high school may hold inflated ideas of their importance, and think necessarily that school interests should rotate around their welfare. Individuals who belong to the club or society become intoxicated with this notion, and exhibit an almost barbaric class-selfishness. With these and other incentives to selfishness, the situation facing a conscientious teacher is by no means simple. Since selfishness is a very intimate trait of character, the question might be raised why a teacher could take interest in curing children of selfishness. The fault has been generated very largely in the home, and the cure should, naturally, be largely a matter of home concern. [Sidenote: Cure]