" There was "the resolute
action from instinct and the setting at defiance of calculation and
reason, the want of any definite desire to marry, while all her
conduct tended to promote proposals." Exaggeration, although not the
perversions of this age often found in adult characterizations, is
marked trait of the writings of adolescents, whose conduct meanwhile
may appear rational, so that this suggests that consciousness may at
this stage serve as a harmless vent for tendencies that would
otherwise cause great trouble if turned to practical affairs. If
Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the adolescent tyrant slayers of Greece,
had been theorists, they might have been harmless on the principle
that its analysis tends to dissipate emotion.
Lancaster[14] gathered and glanced over a thousand biographies, from
which he selected 200 for careful study, choosing them to show
different typical directions of activity. Of these, 120 showed a
distinct craze for reading in adolescence; 109 became great lovers of
nature; 58 wrote poetry, 58 showed a great and sudden development of
energy; 55 showed great eagerness for school; 53 devoted themselves
for a season to art and music; 53 became very religious; 51 left home
in the teens; 51 showed dominant instincts of leadership; 49 had great
longings of many kinds; 46 developed scientific tastes; 41 grew very
anxious about the future; 34 developed increased keenness of sensation
or at least power of observation; in 32 cases health was better; 31
were passionately altruistic; 23 became idealists; 23 showed powers of
invention; 17 were devoted to older friends; 15 would reform society;
7 hated school.
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