his hero in his entirety. Whatever
he does is right and is the goal of effort in imitation.

The physical element enters largely into the ideal of this period
because of the prominence of the physical in the child's life, and,
unhappily, physical and moral strength are not always balanced. Too
much of the literature written to supply the ravenous desire of this
age for reading portrays physical strength in criminal and in
daredevil molds, and the moral side of the ideal is not only unfed,
but perverted. The Sunday-school teacher must help the home at this
point to supply the boys and girls, through books and living
personality, with all the elements of worthy and imitable ideals,
since the task of finally shaping these ideals lies in the years just
beyond.

(4) _Memory in the height of its power._ The broader the
responsibilities to be assumed, the greater the demand upon the soul's
resources to meet them. Just at the threshold of a larger life, the
mind comes into its greatest power of retention. During the years from
about nine to fifteen, conditions never to return so favorably make
possible the fullest, broadest, and more accurate storing of the mind.
The exact wording of a passage of Scripture is as easy to secure as
the general sense of its meaning. Whole chapters do not tax the pupil
beyond his mental ability. The mechanical, literal side of
instruction, which deals with maps and names and facts about the Word,
written and incarnate, should now be given. Held tenaciously and
exactly in memory, they will reveal the spiritual treasure they
contain to the larger spiritual vision of the next period. The careful
selection and explanation of that which is to be memorized, so
necessary in the preceding period, is not as necessary during these
years. The enlarged experience of the child will make some meaning
inhere in everything which is brought to him, so that it is not the
dead weight it would have been earlier. Yet an abundant supply of
food, intellectual and spiritual, for the present needs of an active,
investigating, and tempted life must not be overlooked in eagerness to
store for the future.

(5) _Habit formation._ The two physical conditions necessary for habit
formation, easily impressed brain cells, and activity making these
impressions, are at their best during this period. Every time an act
is performed, a nervous force passes through the brain, stimulating
nerves and muscles to action, and leaving the