wth and development. That is the obvious meaning of
the old adage--"As the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." To change the
inclination of a full-grown tree, requires a great deal of
determination.

In the case of human character, it may occasionally be done, through a
great inspiration of the heart, or the soul. For a deep, ennobling love,
or a new-born, exalted faith, the spirit and will are capable of almost
any transformation. But usually good intentions, whose origin is
confined to the reason and which are at variance with an established
inclination, don't persist very long.

The natural inference and expectation should be therefore, that most
people of mature years, however much they might approve of other
people's mending their ways, or even of mending their own, will be found
to limit their effort principally to talk.

In the absence of a great inspiration, the chief influence which keeps
acting on them is the example and standards of their associates--the
prevailing style and custom. Most people are very susceptible to
this--women especially. For the sake of being in the fashion--or for the
sake of not being considered out-of-date--many a nice woman may be led
to do things which her instincts tell her are not nice at all.

To a slightly less degree, the same thing may be said of men.

But as the people who set new styles and establish new customs, in a
selfish, materialistic age, are not apt to be guided by any great
reverence for the finer traditional feelings, there is little help to
be looked for, from this kind of influence. The immediate tendency is
all in the opposite direction. A woman's own reason might tell her that
it is more becoming to pencil her eye-brows and paint her lips and face
and yet, if left to herself, an inherited instinct might keep her from
doing so. But as soon as she finds that has become the fashion, she
hesitates no longer. Women of innate modesty are to be seen, exposing
their legs and bodies in public, drinking, smoking, gambling and dancing
in a sensual manner with sensual men--things which they would revolt at
doing, if it were not for the style. It matters not that the people who
set the style were devoid of modesty and prompted solely by material
considerations of self-indulgence and immorality.

Under such conditions, how can people who are headed in this direction
be prevailed upon by any amount of advice, however well-founded and
helpful it might be? They may feel th