ABSTRACT
In adolescence the young attain physical maturity, the height of their sexual powers, 1 the peak of intellectual capacity. 2 These attributes are susceptible to measurement; and while the ‘spread’ may be wide—some adolescents will achieve physical, sexual and intellectual maturity some years before others—the culmination of development in these respects during adolescence is open to verification. Those adults who would not dispute this may yet maintain that at 16, 17, or 18, young people are far from maturity—they are lacking in ‘wisdom’. It is fortunate for their case that wisdom has no generally agreed definition, cannot be measured, and its distribution established.
