published last year a pamphlet entitled
_Private Knowledge for Boys_.[D] This embodies just what, in my
opinion, should be said to an intelligent child, and it has, in my own
hands, proved effective for many years past. In the case of _young_
children the teaching should certainly be oral, _provided_ that the
mother knows clearly what to say, has sufficient powers of expression
to say it well, and can talk without any feeling of embarrassment.
Unless these conditions co-exist I recommend the use of a pamphlet. As
I have found that children often do not know what one means by the
"private parts," I make this clear at the outset.

[Footnote D: To be obtained post free for nine stamps from Mr. M.
Whiley, Stonehouse, Glos.]

Some into whose hands this book may come and who have boys of twelve
and upwards to whom they have never given instruction, may possibly be
glad of advice as to the manner in which the subject can best be dealt
with in their case. For boys of this age, I am strongly of opinion
that it is better in most cases to make use of a pamphlet than to
attempt oral instruction. Probably they already have some knowledge on
the subject; possibly some sense of guilt. If so, it will be found
very difficult to treat the matter orally without embarrassment--a
thing to be avoided at all costs. I was interested to find that on
receipt of my pamphlet Professor Geddes--one of the greatest experts
on sex--placed it at once in the hands of his own boy, a fact from
which his opinion on the relative merits of oral and printed
instruction can easily be inferred.

Many of my readers who have boys of fourteen and upwards to whom they
have hitherto given no instruction will, I hope, feel that they must
now do this. I venture, therefore, to give a detailed account of the
manner in which I should myself act in similar circumstances. I should
arrange to be with the lad when there was no danger of interruption,
and in such circumstances as would put him at his ease. I should tell
him that I was conscious of unwisdom in not speaking to him before
about a subject of supreme importance to him; that I took upon myself
all blame for anything he might, in ignorance, have said or done; that
through ignorance I had myself fallen and suffered, and that I should
like him now to sit down and read through this pamphlet slowly and
carefully. When he finished I should try by every possible means to
make him sensible of my affection for him. I sho