This is the case much more than is apparent
upon the surface. The child seems very unmoral, the mere prey of
passing impulses; but latent in his brain are many aptitudes and
tendencies which will at the proper time ripen and manifest themselves.
The period of adolescence is that during which the changes in mental
structure which were effected during the later stages of evolution
are being made in the mind of this new individual; he reenacts, as
it were, in a few years, the history of the race, and emerges without
any conscious effort, the possessor of the fruits of that long struggle
of which he was always the heir.
(2) In all the later stages of animal evolution, however, moral
development is largely conscious, or semi-conscious. Besides our inner
inheritance of altered brain-paths there is a social inheritance of
habits which each generation adopts by imitation of its predecessors.
Without any deliberate intention, the young of every species imitate
their parents, and then the older members of the flock or herd.
"Suggestion" is said by some to be the chief means of moralization;
we are brave or industrious because we see others practicing these
virtues and naturally do as they do. At any rate, whichever are more
important, the inherited tendencies or those acquired by contagion,
both of these factors play a large part in the development of the
individual's morals.
(3) The third method of moral development is that which we call
"learning by experience.
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