on helped to make him responsive to both helpful and harmful
influences. After being at the same table for two weeks with a
talented man whom he admired, he acquired the latter's habit of
constantly twitching his shoulder and making certain gestures. These
habits in turn quickly produced a nervousness that interfered with his
power to reason straight.

Nervousness is often confused with aggressiveness, initiative,
confidence. "Think twice before you jump, and perhaps you won't want to
jump" is a very difficult rule to follow for any one whose bodily
movements are not under perfect control.

It is said that the confusion of city life causes habits of
nervousness. Unfortunately no one knows whether the city children or
the country children have the highest percentage of nervousness. There
is a general feeling that city life causes an unwholesome degree of
activity, yet one finds that those people in the city who least notice
the elevated railway are those whose windows it passes. City noises
irritate those who come from the country, or the city man on returning
to the city from the country, but a similar irritation is felt by the
city-bred man on coming to the country. Mr. Dooley's description of a
night in the country with the crickets and the mosquitoes and the early
birds shows that it is the unusual noise rather than the volume or
variety of noises that wreck nerves. At the time of the opening of the
New York schools in 1907 a newspaper published an editorial on "Where
can the city child study?" showing that in New York the curriculum, the
schoolhouse, and the tenements are so crowded and so noisy that study
is practically impossible. Lack of sleep, lack of a quiet place in
which to study at school and at home, are causes for nervousness,
whether these conditions are in the city or in the country. What
evidence is there that the country curriculum is less crowded or
country work better adjusted to the psychological and physiological age
of the country pupil? The index is there; it should be read.

In breaking habits of nervousness the first step is to explain how
easily habits are formed, why their effects may be serious, and how a
little attention will correct them. When a habit loses its mystery it
becomes unattractive. Children will take an interest in cooeperating
with each other and with the teacher in curing habits acquired either
at home or at school. My pupils greatly enjoyed overcoming the habit of
jumping