Although the tendency to make collections is most prominent at nine, the beginnings of it may be found before the child is five.  Moll finds that the sex instinct begins its development at about six years of age, despite the fact that it is always quoted as the adolescent instinct.  Children in the kindergarten can think out their little problems purposively, even though reasoning is supposed to mark the high school pupil.  The elements of most tendencies show themselves early in crude, almost unrecognizable, beginnings, and from these they grow gradually to maturity.

In the second place how quickly do these tendencies fade?  How transitory are they?  It has always been stated in general psychology that instincts are transitory, that therefore it was the business of teachers to strike while the iron was hot, to seize the wave of interest or response at its crest before the ebb had begun.  There was supposed to be a “happy moment for fixing in children skill in drawing, for making collections in natural history,” for developing the appreciative emotions, for training the social instinct, or the memory or the imagination.  Children are supposed to be interested and attracted by novelty, rhythm, and movement,—­to be creatures of play and imagination and to become different merely as a matter of the transitoriness of these tendencies due to growth.  When the activities of the adult and the child are analyzed to see what tendencies have really passed, are transitory, it is difficult to find any that have disappeared.  True, they have changed their form, have been influenced by the third factor mentioned above, but change the surroundings a little and the tendency appears.  Free the adult from the restraints of his ordinary life and turn him out for a holiday and the childish tendencies of interest in novelty and the mysterious, in physical prowess and adventure and play, all make their appearance.  In how many adults does the collecting instinct still persist, and the instinct of personal rivalry?  In how many has the crude desire for material ownership or the impulse to punish an affront by physical attack died out?  Experimental evidence is even proving that the general plasticity of the nervous system, which has always been considered to be transitory, is of very, very much longer duration than has been supposed.

In illustration of the third fact, namely, the effect of environment to stimulate or repress, witness the “little mothers” of five and the wage earners of twelve who have assumed all the responsibilities with all that they entail of maturity.  On the other side of the picture is the indulged petted child of fortune who never grows up because he has had everything done for him all his life, and therefore the tendencies which normally might be expected to pass and give place to others remain and those others never appear.  That inborn tendencies do wax, reach a maximum, and wane is probably true, but the onset is much more gradual and the waning much less frequent than has been taken for granted.  Our ignorance concerning all these matters outweighs our knowledge; only careful experimentation which allows for all the other factors involved can give a reliable answer.