e other parent holds to the opinion that the child's
nature is good, and to the belief that all will come right, then often
enough the child's conduct shows the effect of these opposite
influences. In contact with the first he steadily deteriorates,
affording proof after proof that judgment against him has been rightly
pronounced. In contact with the other, though his character and
conduct are bound to suffer from such an unhappy experience, he yet
shows the best side of his nature and keeps alive the conviction that
he is not all bad.

The force of suggestion is still powerful to control conduct and
determine character in later childhood. The impetus given by the
parents in this way is only gradually replaced by the driving power of
his own self-respect--a self-respect based upon self-analysis in the
light of the greater experience he has acquired.

CHAPTER X

NERVOUSNESS IN OLDER CHILDREN

In older children the line which separates naughtiness, fractiousness,
and restlessness from definite neuropathy begins to be more marked.
The nature of the young child, taking its colour from its
surroundings, is sensitive, mobile, and inconstant. With every year
that passes, the normal child loses something of this impressionable
and fluid quality. With increasing experience and with a growing power
to argue from ascertained facts, character becomes formed, and if
tempered by discipline will come to present a more and more unyielding
surface to environment, until finally it becomes set into the
stability of adult age.

We may perhaps, with some approach to truth, look upon the adult
neurotic as one whose character retains something of the
impressionable quality of childhood throughout life, so that, to the
last, environment influences conduct more than is natural.

All the emotions of neurotic persons are exaggerated. Disappointments
over trifles cause serious upsets; grief becomes overmastering.
Violent and perhaps ill-conceived affection for individuals is apt to
be followed by bitter dislike and angry quarrelling. On the physical
side, sense perception is abnormally acute, and many sensations which
do not usually rise up into consciousness at all become a source of
almost intolerable suffering. To these most unhappy people summer is
too hot and winter too cold; fresh air is an uncomfortable draught,
while too close an atmosphere produces symptoms of impending
suffocation.

In some neurotics there is an excessi