who have been allowed these unfortunate
occasions. The boy of the present generation has more practical
knowledge of this instinct at the age of fifteen, than, under proper
training, he should be entitled to at the time of his marriage; and the
boy of eleven or twelve boastfully announces to his companions the
evidences of his approaching virility. Nourished by languishing glances
during the hours passed in the school-room, fanned by more intimate
association on the journey to and from school, fed by stolen interviews
and openly-arranged festivities--picnics, excursions, parties and the
like--stimulated by the prurient gossip of the newspaper, the flash
novels, sentimental weeklies, and magazines, the gallant of twelve years
is the libertine of fourteen. That this picture is not overdrawn, every
experienced physician will bear witness.

"And as for the Public School-girls, they return from their '_polishing
schools_'--these demoiselles--cursed with a superficial smattering of
everything but what they ought to have learned--physical and moral
wrecks, whom we physicians are expected to _wind up_ in the morning for
the husband-hunting excitements of the evening. And these creatures are
intended for wives! But _wives_ only, for it is fast going out of
fashion to intend them for _mothers_--an 'accident' of the kind being
regarded as'_foolish_'!

"We assert, then, that the present system of education, by its faults of
omission and commission, is directly responsible, not, it is true, for
the bare existence, but for the enormous prevalence of vices and crimes
which we deplore; and we call upon the civil authorities to so modify
the obnoxious arrangements of our schools, and upon parents and
guardians to so instruct and govern their charges, that the evils may be
suppressed, if not extinguished."

The attempt to prepare man for his duties in social life with morals and
religion left out, is not only a failure, but a crime. Yes, it is not
only a failure, but a crime of such magnitude, that society has already
begun to suffer its consequences in a demoralization and _general
libertinage_ of the most shameful kind. This education without religion
and morals is the poisoned fountain from which flows, and will flow, if
not purified by adding the essential elements now omitted, the impure
streams of all kinds of vice. If God is despised, governments will be
trampled on; if God's law is hated, the laws of men will be violated;
man