FORMATION OF CHARACTER.—If somebody should give me a diamond to carry to Europe, I can know exactly how much would be lost to the world were I to drop it into the sea; but if a seed should be given me, I can only regard it with awe, as concealed within it is the food of untold generations. That is the difference between looking at the truth as a diamond or a seed, as final or germinal. In all training of character, continuity and economy must be supreme. The notion that character is spontaneous is held by most people in the earlier portions of their lives, and is wrong. When they discover this, nine-tenths change to the other extreme. This is wrong, too. Hosts of young men think that their character will form itself and they will necessarily become better as they grow older. Hosts of old men believe that their character is fixed, and that it is impossible for them to become better. Such beliefs are foolish. People are also wrong in thinking they can put off their bad traits and put on good traits. The old failures cannot thus be transformed, but out of the old habits new can be formed. This is what many a poor creature needs to know. We must make what we are to be out of what we are already.