Miss Steele failed by placing before her class a motive so remote in
time that it could not be very intense as a stimulus to self-denial.
Thirteen-year-old boys have not done a vast amount of thinking about the
possibilities of the distant future. For them the present and the
immediate future are the all-absorbing topics.
How could the three desirable conditions—nearness in time, innocent
enjoyment, and intensity of stimulation—be combined so as to supplant
the undesirable conditions which had led to the smoking habit? This was
the problem over which Miss Hardy was pondering.