Why Is the Formation of Moral Virtue So Difficult?
In the first place, we must remember that the habitual disposition that constitutes moral virtue must be acquired in childhood and youth, the earlier the better. The longer we wait, the more difficult it is to alter the character of a person who has formed bad habits when very young. In the second place, we must remember that we are asking not about the difficulties to be overcome by an individual in the formation of his own moral character, but rather about the difficulties to be overcome by parents in their efforts to develop moral virtue in their offspring while still quite young. When the question is understood in this light, the answer turns on three points. First, and perhaps most important of all, is the fact that the repeated acts by which any habit, good or bad, is acquired are all matters of free choice on the part of the individual forming that habit. Acts of free choice can be guided in one direction or another, but they can never be compelled to take the direction of those
