Outline:
- Origin of the quotation
- Childhood shows all the traits of an adult person
- Example of seed Importance of nature
- Destiny Genes determining the personality
This line from Wordsworth, a great nineteenth-century English Romantic poet, has now become an oft-quoted proverb. It expresses a universal truth that there are often enough and early indications, perhaps unrecognized, of future events and changes. Wordsworth has been a great poet of nature and humanity. The above line occurs in his poem, which begins with “My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky”. This quotation reminds of another saying which says, “Coming events cast their shadows.” There is always a sequence between past, present and future events. It is like cause and effect.
There cannot be any effect without an action. Similarly, childhood shows the man. In childhood, there are hidden all the traits, trends and characteristics of an adult person. Childhood, adolescence, manhood and old age are the stages closely and inseparably interlinked. What is sown today will grow tomorrow; attain flowering and fruition the day after tomorrow. It is an established fact that future is just a projection of the present and nothing else. It is the latent qualities of a child that find full manifestation in adulthood. What is, there is childhood, though hidden and latent, would be there in adulthood.
There is a tree hidden in the seed. A mango will grow into a mango tree and a neem seed into a neem tree. There cannot be any deviation. Similarly, the future man is there in the child. Things are almost predetermined and pre-set in the sense that the future has its roots deep in the pást. We see the tree, flowers and the fruit but seldom the roots. It is the formative years of childhood, which are of vital importance. Childhood is like a foundation on which the mansion of adulthood is constructed. Impressions received in childhood are forever. The experiences of early life make indelible impressions in life of all of us. There cannot be any exception.[the_ad id=”17141″]
Nature is very important. Nature may effect some changes here and there but the basic and fundamental nature and its traits remain the same. There cannot be any significant changes. It is our subconscious, which is of vital importance. The impressions and experiences of early childhood remain recorded and embedded in the subconscious which later on, in adulthood blossom into full-fledged activities and actions. The quotation from Wordsworth’s poem brings into focus a general rule and there is no general rule without exceptions, but exceptions prove the rule. Thus, a general rule is more important than an exception, which may be just a freak of nature. Influences, good or bad received and recorded in childhood cannot be erased. They wield lifelong influence. Childhood environment, circumstances and experiences play a key role in shaping the destiny of a child. The child of a sinner or criminal cannot be expected to be a gentleman or a saint but exception are there.
The inevitable must happen because it is destiny. Many a time a promising child displays its exceptional qualities in his very childhood, which give a fair indication of his great adulthood to come. For example, his mother sitting on a heap of eggs one day discovered Thomas Elva Edison. He was trying to hatch them. Edison was really a genius and has many valuable discoveries and inventions to his credit. Quaid-e-Azam in his very childhood revealed the qualities of great promise and leadership. As a child he was very bold, courageous and adventurous and played only such games, which gave full indulgence to these qualities.
It is the genes, which determine the personality and character of a human being or any other organism. Genes are hereditary and are found located in chromosomes. They not only transmit hereditary traits but also determine the entire process of life. The chromosomes are located in the nucleus of the cell. The genes mastermind all functions of the cell and body growth. The blue prints of all the traits of a personality are coded in the genes. They contain all the instructions for the genes can also be interpreted and what a child would be in adulthood can be exactly predicted. This has given rise to cloning whereby an exact replica of the donor can be reproduced. Thus, the child is truly the father of man. A child holds within himself all the secretes of his adult life.
