The first and second of these four methods are two degrees and modes of the general means of opposition. They are sometimes effective, and they are sometimes necessary and wise. If a very great evil is going on, for instance, it is fully justifiable to use any means to stop it, before its harmful effects cause too great suffering and injustice. If a teacher finds a bully imposing on a small child, even although he may know that a good example to the bully is the means for his ultimate conversion to kindness and justice, he should stop the bullying first by the best means at hand, and afterward set about the character conversion of the bully. Moreover, with very young children, in whom habitforming is largely a matter of pleasure and pain in the reactions of their deeds, punishment that is swift, sure and wise should follow the imitation of a bad act after its evil nature has been made clear. With older children, however, who have passed this early stage, the third and fourth means are usually more effective. Common sense, supplemented by a fair knowledge of child nature and the rudiments of psychology, will dictate where one set of methods ends and the higher set, which trusts more to the child’s developing judgment, begins. Imitation begins, as has been said, in infancy. Its forms will be found to belong to one or another of the following types: [Sidenote: Types of Imitation] 1. Imitation of commonly observed acts, such as shaking hands, eating with a spoon, making faces. 2. Imitation of a strong personality, or of strong mannerisms in any personality, which catch attention and command admiration or disapproval. 3. Imitation of an imaged ideal, brought to the imitator through fiction, vivid history instruction, seeing a play, etc. 4. Imitation which is unconscious, usually under stress of high emotion—mob action. Of course the most common of these types of imitation is that of the common customs of the people who surround the young child. Otherwise it would mean little to a child to be born into a family in which gentle manners and kind deeds set a daily example fit to be followed closely. The manners of most children are those of their homes; only with a certain degree of maturity will they see the manners of other homes and elect to imitate them instead. Next in importance to this imitation of the social example, is that of some strong personality.