ertain and irregular way must of necessity be very unreliable. Many
times--generally, in fact--it is of a most corrupting character, and
the clandestine manner in which it is obtained is itself corrupting
and demoralizing. A child ought to be taught to expect all such
information from its parents, and it ought not to be disappointed.

Again, while it is true that knowledge is dangerous, it is equally true
that this dangerous knowledge will be gained sometime, at any rate;
and as it must come, better let it be imparted by the parent, who can
administer proper warnings and cautions along with it, than by any other
individual. Thus may the child be shielded from injury to which he would
otherwise be certainly exposed.

III. _Young people should be left to find out these things for
themselves._

If human beings received much of their knowledge through instinct, as
animals do, this might be a proper course; but man gets his knowledge
largely by instruction. Young people will get their first knowledge
of sexual matters mostly by instruction from some source. How much
better, then, as we have already shown, to let them obtain this
knowledge from the most natural and most reliable source!

The following paragraph from Dr. Ware is to the point:--

"But putting aside the question whether we ought to hide this subject
wholly from the young if we could, the truth, it is to be feared, is
that we cannot if we would. Admitting it to be desirable, every man
of experience in life will pronounce it to be impracticable. If, then,
we cannot prevent the minds of children from being engaged in some way
on this subject, may it not be better to forestall evil impressions
by implanting good ones, or at least to mingle such good ones with the
evil as the nature of the case admits? Let us be at least as wise as
the crafty enemy of man, and cast in a little wheat with his tares;
and among the most effectual methods of doing this is to impart to the
young just and religious views of the nature and purposes of the
relation which the Creator has established between the two sexes."

_When Shall Information Be Given?_--It is a matter of some difficulty
to decide the exact age at which information on sexual subjects should
be given to the young. It may be adopted as a safe rule, however, that
a certain amount of knowledge should be imparted as soon as there is
manifested a curiosity in this direction. If there is reason to believe
that the mind of