The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-08-26
FOURTH LECTURE
Most Interesting Of The Series in
Subject and Detail.
THE PERIOD OF ADOLESCENCE
Particularly Favorable 10 Religions Awaken
ing and for Confirmation il the
Churches.
THE PERIOD OF ADOLESCENCE

The fourth of Professor Dewey's lee
lures on Child Life" was presented
last evening at the High School By
far it was the most interesting of the
series thus far, III subject and detail.
The lecture dwelt with the impulses
and emotions which come into the
youths mind during the period of
adolescence, and the feeling of con-
seriousness as given expression in his
feelings toward others. The emotions
bring about moral awakening and
mark change in his intellectual atti-
tude. Continuing generally along these
subjects, the Professor said:
This particular period is generally
known as the period of adolescence.
and comes at about the age of Is. Be-
fore touching upon this feature | wish
to speak of the emotions in general
Adolescence is perhaps more irregular
in its manifestations and it is not
quite possible to fix upon any one
phase which is the most important but
there is a large mental change con-
nected with this period, decided
change in disposition, especially in
the social feelings. The simplest state
ment We find Of all our activities is
that they are responses or adjustments
to stimuli Each one of us is a force
into which is continually streaming an
indefinite number of stimuli, and the
conduct consists in responding to this
stimuli in such way as to success
fully maintain any act of ours. My
hi Il. a
ent upon the stimuli which comes from
contact with the soles of my feet and
other articles which come to the eye:
if one of these stimuli is diseased my
ability to retain my equilibrium would
be affected. Take a wood-engraver, for
instance; see how every motion he
makes is a response to the stimuli as
he works upon the wood. Our muscu-
lar system is to take hold of these
stimuli in a regular way that we are
perfectly adjusted. AS to the bearing
of that upon the emotions, Professor
James of Harvard has advanced the
suggestion that our emotions are ac-
compartments with the responses
which we make to the stimuli; only
in this case we have to think of the
responses not only of the muscles, but
also all of the internal organs, the
breathing, etc.
Some one told me today that a ply
stefan told her that if she could notice
herself, for instance at a lecture, she
would probably find that she was hold
ing her breath uncOnSciOuSly, and that
if she only knew it, there was a great
loss of energy in doing that. On the
other hand, if she were to keep on
breathing normally she would not find
herself losing any energy. Then with
the emotions there are changes IN the
circulation of the blood. We blush I'M
der certain circumstances; we grow
white with fear, showing that the reac-
ton extends to the circulation as well
as to the muscles. Children, too, have
a heavy feeling in the pit of the stom-
ach when saddened or greatly de-
pressed. If you take the terms for joy,
or elatiOn most all of them show
superabundance of energy. Mr.. James
theory is that our emotions are the
way, really. in which we feel. He says,
and violently, too, that we do not run
away because we feel afraid; We feel
afraid because we run away. That we
do not strike because we are angry;
we are angry because we strike. You
can see that a person feels AFRAID
when he doesn't run away. In this
way a gross response and movement
of the whole body is suppressed, but
you find the movement of the muscles
shows a changed breathing, a change
of feeling even in the pit Of the stom-
ach. The theory seems paradoXical in
the extreme, but you will see there IS
a good deal of truth in it. If you no
tice yourself walking along a dark
street at night and you hear noise
suddenly that noise is stimulus.
Walking in the dark, where you can
not see, the stimulus has an effect
which it would otherwise not have.Prot.
James wrote an article in one OF the
magazines a short time ago pointing
out that the nervous drain on the av-
erage American is due to the fact that
he never quite relaXes himself, his ner-
vOus tension. at any time completely.
When you feel worried, if you take
great pains to unravel your brow, you
will be surprised to find how much Of
the mental worry and depressiOns goes
along with the unravelling. In sub
stance. then. emotion is due to the
change in the breathing apparatus,
blood activity, due to the activity
which responds to the stimulus given.
When one gets TO doing something
habitually and we do it without think
ing and without fear, the habitual ac-
tivity is automatic. but any disturb
ance in it, any difficulty coming in, or
in other words, any break in the habit
occurring, which arOuses or eXcites us,
emotion comes. Now when we have an
emotional Outburst accompanying
adolescence great changes can be
looked for in our character. At this
period there are new stimuli coming
into the system with great force, and
there are no habitual or fixed modes
of response to these. The chief stimu-
lus which comes at this time in the
physical system is that accompanying
sexual maturity: it means mOdifica-