ey would help the others,
she may be able to do him an incalculable benefit. Even though he may
argue against instruction, that will give an opportunity to put in his
way sources of knowledge, and if he does not feel inclined to read the
books recommended they can be left in his way where he can read them
without being detected, which he will be apt to do. Generally young
people are eager for instruction, though where they have been neglected
and have formed false ideas and ideals they sometimes become perverse,
particularly toward members of their own family. This may often be due
to fear in one form or another, and the wise parent will leave no means
untried to give the youth somehow the help he needs. Many parents feel
it wise to give the youth some good book on the subject suited to his
age, a book of his own which he can keep in his room to consult whenever
he is puzzled or doubtful about his rule of conduct.

XII

VIGILANCE

That the facts concerning the normal reproductive life throughout nature
can be presented in such a way as to create a worthy image in the mind
of the learner there can be no doubt.

The question naturally arises, "Is this enough to insure morality and
personal purity in the youth?" Few knowing the tendency of the age would
hesitate to say most emphatically that it is not enough.

The end in view being to prepare the young soul for the great battle of
life, to put upon it the armor of a knight which shall be borne
untarnished, the first instruction concerning the facts of the
reproductive life may well be impersonal, poetical, beautiful, filling
the mind with sentiment,--not sentimentality,--so that the mental vision
of this side of life shall be one worthy of the glorious mind of man.
To keep the mind of the child wisely impressed with the beauty, the
achievements, of the great reproductive force in nature, which is
directly responsible for every living thing on the earth, is to help
immeasurably toward branding a high instead of a low ideal on his
soul,--an ideal which he cannot lose when he reaches the great climax
that transforms him into an adult capable of reproducing his kind, and
when whatever most powerfully influences him will become a determining
factor in the administration of his whole after life.

Side by side, however, with this illumination of nature's methods should
go the most careful training and watchfulness in the care of the child's
own person,--not that he