But just for this reason, if the damming-up be liberated, not in the channels of healthy assimilation, and duly correlated growth, but in the forced discharges of violent emotion, followed by conditions of melancholy and by certain unsocial tendencies, then the promise of genius ripens into eccentricity, and the blame is possibly ours.
It seems true--although great caution is necessary in drawing inferences--that here a certain distinction may be found to hold also between the sexes.

It is possible that the apparent precocious alertness of girls in their school years, and earlier, may be simply a predominance among them of the motor individuals.

This is borne out by the examination of the kinds of performance in which they seem to be more forward than boys.

It resolves itself, so far as my observation goes, into greater quickness of response and greater agility in performance; not greater constructiveness, nor greater power of concentrated attention.

The boys seem to need more instruction because they do not learn as much for themselves by acting upon what they already know.