And in the very word _disposition_ is indicated the finality of
its arbitraments as contrasted with all _proposition_.
Now, with respect to this disposition: Nature furnishes its basis; but
it is the external structure of circumstance, built up or building about
childhood,--to shelter or imprison,--which, more than all else, gives it
its determinate character; and though this outward structure may in
after-life be thoroughly obliterated, or replaced by its
opposite,--porcelain by clay, or clay by porcelain,--yet will the
tendencies originally developed remain and hold a sway almost
uninterrupted over life. And, generally, the happy influences that
preside over the child may be reduced under three heads: first, a genial
temperament,--one that naturally, and of its own motion, inclines toward
a centre of peace and rest rather than toward the opposite centre of
strife; secondly, profound domestic affections; and, thirdly, affluence,
which, although of all three it is the most negative, the most material
condition, is yet practically the most important, because of the degree
in which it is necessary to the full and unlimited prosperity of the
other two.
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