here are no conceivable conditions of modern social life not
fraught with grave peril to a young boy, if once he has been allowed
to face them quite unprepared, either by instruction or by warning.
And this manifestly applies to life at home, or in a day-school, or
in a boarding-school to an almost equal degree."[A]

[Footnote A: _Training of the Young in Relation to Sex, p. 1 et
seq_.]

One of the facts which I always tried to elicit from boys was the
source of their information, or rather the character of that source,
for I was naturally anxious not to ask a boy to incriminate any
individual known to me. In many cases, information came first to the
boy at _home_ from a brother, or cousin, or casual acquaintance, or
domestic servant. In one of the worst cases I have known the
information was given to a boy by another boy--an entire stranger to
him--whom he happened to meet on a country road when cycling. Since
boys meet one another very much more at school than elsewhere and
spend three-fourths of their lives there, of course information is
more often obtained at school than at home. My own experience leads me
to think that in this respect the day-school--probably on account of
its mixed social conditions--is worse than the boarding-school.

Before passing from matters of personal experience, it may interest
the reader if I give particulars of a few typical cases to illustrate
some points on which I have insisted.

_Case A._--The father and mother of a boy close on thirteen came to
see me before entering the lad. They had no idea that I was specially
interested in purity-teaching; but they were anxious to ascertain what
precautions we took against the corruption of small boys. They struck
me as very good parents. I was specially pleased that they were alive
to the dangers of impurity, and that the mother could advert openly to
the matter without embarrassment. I advised them to give the boy
explicit warning; but they said that they were anxious to preserve his
innocence as long as possible. He was at present absolutely simple,
and they hoped that he would long remain so. It was a comfort to them
that I was interested in the subject, and they would leave the boy
with confidence in my care. As soon as I saw the boy, I found it
difficult to believe in his innocence; and I soon discovered that he
was thoroughly corrupt. Not merely did he begin almost at once to
corrupt other boys, but he actually gave them his views on