Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/104

 child's personality is gradually developed, as it acquires these traits and qualities which it imitates in others. In this way it transfers to itself qualities which it sees in others, and which seem desirable to it. Prof. Baldwin has explained clearly the kind of process that takes place. "Last year I thought of my friend W. as a man who had great skill on the bicycle, and who wrote readily on the typewriter; my sense of his personality included these accomplishments. &hellip; My sense of myself did not have these elements. But now, this year, I have learned to do both these things. I have taken the elements formerly recognised in W.'s personality, and by imitative learning brought them over to myself. I now think of myself as one who rides a 'wheel' and writes on a 'machine.' &hellip; So the truth we now learn is this: that very many of the particular marks which I now call mine, when I think of myself, have had just this origin. I have first found them in my social environment, and by reason of my social and imitative disposition, have transferred them to myself by trying to act as if they were true of me, and so coming to find out that they are true of me."

(c) But the child does not imitate every quality in those it sees around it. To some qualities or traits it has a natural repugnance. Its attitude to them is one of opposition. There is no doubt that many children early come to develop an attitude of opposition towards all that "grown-ups" are and do. The conduct of adults may excite opposition,