ung women.

There is also the possible criticism, made by a school of moralists for
whom I have nothing but contempt so entire that I will not attempt to
disguise it, who maintain that these are unworthy motives to which to
appeal, and that the good act or the refraining from an evil one,
effected by means of fear, is of no value to God. In the same breath,
however, these moralists will preach the doctrine of hell. We reply that
we merely substitute for their doctrine of hell--which used to be
somewhere under the earth, but is now who knows where--the doctrine of a
hell upon the earth, which we wish youth of both sexes to fear; and that
if the life of this world, both present and to come, be thereby served,
we bow the knee to no deity whom that service does not please.

How then should we proceed?

It seems to me that instruction in this matter may well be delayed until
the danger is near at hand. This is not really education for parenthood
in the more general sense. That, on the principles of this book, can
scarcely begin too soon; it is, further, something vastly more than mere
instruction, though instruction is one of its instruments. But here what
we require is simply definite instruction to a definite end and in
relation to a definite danger. At some stage or other, before emerging
into danger, youth of both sexes must learn the elements of the
physiology of sex, and must be made acquainted with the existence and
the possible results of venereal disease. A father or a teacher may
very likely find it almost impossible to speak to a boy; even though he
has screwed his courage up almost to the sticking place, the boy's
bright and innocent eyes disarm him. Unfortunately boys are often less
innocent than they look. There exists far more information among youth
of both sexes than we suppose; only it is all coloured by pernicious and
dangerous elements, the fruit of our cowardice and neglect. Let us
confine ourselves to the case of the girl.

Before a girl of the more fortunate classes goes out into society, she
must be protected in some way or another. If she be, for instance,
convent bred, or if she come from an ideal home, it may very well be and
often is that she needs no instruction whatever, because she is in fact
already made unapproachable by the tempter. Fortunate indeed is such a
girl. But those forming this well-guarded class are few, and parents and
guardians may often be deceived and assume more than they