The man who has led a life of kindliness and sobriety not only has a fund of agreeable sentiments upon which his friends and neighbours can rely, he actually could not be mean and selfish and sordid without an herculean effort, for his nervous system contains imbedded in its structures the tendency to altruistic deeds. When we describe the development of character as a process in which our impulses become coordinated with one another, we have in mind a very specific course of events. Thus, for example, the little child in learning obedience to his parents may be engaged with the impulses of love, of fear, and of anger. We may suppose that the child has been forbidden to do something. This occasions disappointment and anger.
Disobedience is threatened.
The parents may appeal to the child's affection or to his fear of punishment in The effort to secure the desired action. The competing impulses must be ordered with reference to one another. Anger and obstinacy may carry the day, love may win, or fear may triumph. Now, whatever the actual outcome, the set given to character by the result is undoubted and will make itself manifest on the next occasion when obedience is at stake. At first sight it might seem as though in such a case as that of our illustration the question were not one of coordinating two impulses-, but rather of allowing one to suppress the other.