ll the considerations had been carefully weighed; if he could
feel the confidence of father and mother that he would do the manly
thing because he is almost a man, he would rarely fail to meet the
issue, for "at no time in life will a human being respond so heartily if
treated by older and wise people as if he were an equal." The result
will be not only renewed zest in the erstwhile hated task, but a new
bond between parents and son that will help to hold him true when
greater crises come.

The strong appeal that sympathy and consideration now make to the
adolescent is due to the new consciousness of self that has come to the
life. It has many manifestations. There is a welcome external one that
is evident in care for the personal appearance. The days of maternal
solicitude for linen and ears come to an end in this period, and it is
well, for the new standard of correctness is so high as to be
unattainable by any one save the individual himself.

A new sense of pride in one's family and position appears, and an
aristocracy based on the accidents of birth succeeds the democracy of
childhood. The girl who was sincerely thankful that she was not as
others and assumed Pharisaic superiority because she had been born a
Republican, an Allopath and, crown of all, a Baptist, lived in this
period some years ago.

This consciousness of self and of approaching manhood and womanhood
tends to make the life independent, and "any attempt to treat a child at
Adolescence as an inferior is instantly fatal to good discipline." In
this super-sensitive state, a public reproof, even in the home circle,
carries with it humiliation beyond expression, and inevitably arouses
resentment and not penitence. "At no time in life does a word of
encouragement mean so much, or criticism leave such an ineffaceable
scar." If those who touch a life through its unfolding only realized
that what they sow of gentleness and consideration or of harshness and
neglect when that life is defenceless and they are strong will be reaped
when they in turn are without recourse and the child has become a man,
would there not be more tenderness and love in some homes? "For with the
same measure that ye mete, withal, it shall be measured to you again."

Another condition of great import to nurture appears in the increasing
power of the social feelings over the life. Society begins to fascinate,
and the problem of a High School education is complicated with the
problem o