need connect the two in the least. Later, of
course, he will, and should as time goes on, have the most careful
instruction concerning his own body and its functions. There are a few
simple observances that every human being should learn from childhood,
and learn so thoroughly and so fix as a matter of habit, that he can
never break away from them.

At first the parent attends to the child's wants, later the child must
care for himself; and while he ought not to be burdened with too much
thought of his body, yet there are a few simple rules of hygiene which
he should follow as a matter of habit, and there is one subject upon
which he should be most carefully instructed,--that is, maintaining the
sexual purity of his body. He should be taught from the beginning to
think of his body as the sacred temple of his soul, which it is a sin
against nature and against God to defile. That the child's body be kept
uncontaminated is one of the most priceless gifts his parents can bestow
upon him; the value of this was so keenly felt in antiquity that at a
certain period of Greek supremacy the laws were most stringent
concerning it, a youth sinning against himself being put to death.

There seems to be a growing need of watchfulness over children in this
respect; few who have not looked especially into the matter have any
idea of the prevalence of harmful habits. Sex abuse has been called "the
disease of civilization"; and where it takes firm root, it is
exceedingly disastrous to the life of a nation, not only destroying,
directly or indirectly, individuals, but so weakening the stock that the
whole nation degenerates.

The root of the difficulty perhaps lies in the low ideal of this age on
that subject. Where the ideal is low there can be no hope of a high
result. That the current theories which control the lives of the many in
this direction are false is the conclusion of the best scientific work
of the present times. Where these theories, however, have been bred into
youth for generations, they may to an extent be true simply as a result
of this breeding. Darwin in his "Descent of Man" says: "It is worthy of
remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of
life, whilst the brain is impressible, appears to acquire almost the
nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is
followed independently of reason."

For the parent, then, to inculcate this quasi instinct against sex abuse
in