when at the zenith of his powers. Consequently, it is of the utmost
importance that the right thought and the high ideal be firmly implanted
at this new birth. Undoubtedly the habits of childhood make impressions
in the same direction more easily received, and where self-indulgence
and gratification of the senses have been prominent, they will be sure
to exert a tremendous power now, and _vice versa_. Thus a clear
understanding of this period is of the utmost importance to whoever
undertakes the guidance of youth.

The central point about which everything now revolves is the coming to
maturity of the sexual system. It is as absurd as it is harmful to
ignore the fact that this is primarily what the change means, and that
with the physical power to become a parent there normally appears,
either initially or with greatly increased force, the sex appetite. This
is normally true of both boys and girls, though the forces that have
gone to make our present civilization have, at least in many cases, made
the physiological sense cry subordinate in the girl, and occasionally
this is also true of the boy.

There is no period in the life of the human being when he so needs help
in certain ways as now, and no time when it is so difficult to help
him, as every youth now more than ever before affords an individual
problem. One of the difficulties attending this period is the tendency
to unsymmetrical growth. Oftentimes the body shoots up with amazing
rapidity, this quick growth of bone and muscle drawing heavily on the
whole system; parents recognize the condition by saying the child has
outgrown his strength. He has often outgrown much more than this, for
his intellect may not have been able to keep pace, and we not
infrequently have the anomaly of an adult body with the mind of a child.
No one is more conscious of this incongruity than the subject himself,
whose anatomy seems to have run away with him. This rapid growth is
generally marked by excessive development of some parts over others, so
that the child becomes clumsy and awkward. If the subject is a boy, the
sudden change in the size of his vocal chords often causes a distressing
"breaking" of the voice which adds materially to the general sense of
disharmony.

Those who have not experienced this sudden and unsymmetrical
development can have little idea of the trials of the young soul going
through it, a suffering so great that suicide is often seriously
contemplated as the