———
A Complete and Comprehensive Guide to Parents for the Proper
Instruction of Their Children, Concerning the Delicate
Questions of Life; Timely Help for the Boy and Girl,
at the Ages of Greatest Danger, with Warnings
of the Pitfalls which Lie Hidden in
Their Pathway,

TOGETHER WITH

Vital Information for the Marriageable; Safe, Sane, Scientific
Counsel for the Married of all Ages, including Knowledge
Vital to those in Middle Life and Declining
Years, with a Word of Warning Against the Prevailing
Ignorance of God’s Sacred Laws of
Sex and Heredity

BY
Professor T. W. SHANNON, A.M.

International Lecturer on Moral, Social and Reform Topics; Member of Advisory
Board World’s Purity Federation; also Author of Eight other Purity Books
———
With Special Chapters by Hon. Stanley Finch, Special Commissioner for
The Suppression of the White Slave Traffic, U. S. Department of Justice;
B. S. Steadwell, President World’s Purity Federation and
Charles W. Eliot, Former President Harvard University
———
INTRODUCED BY

B. S. STEADWELL

Publisher “The Light,” Official Organ of The World’s Purity Federation

PUBLISHED EXCLUSIVELY BY

THE S. A. MULLIKIN COMPANY
MARIETTA OHIO



Copyrighted, 1913, By
THE S. A. MULLIKIN CO.


Agents wanted in all English-speaking countries. Address publishers
at foot of title page.



Dedicated
TO   THE   GRANDFATHERS   AND   GRANDMOTHERS,
TO   THE   FATHERS   AND   MOTHERS,
TO   THE   HUSBANDS   AND   WIVES,
TO   THE   BACHELORS   AND   MAIDS,
TO   THE   YOUNG   MEN   AND   YOUNG   WOMEN,
TO   THE   BOYS   AND   GIRLS,
TO   THE   BABES   THAT   BE   AND   ARE   TO   BE,
THIS   BOOK   IS   AFFECTIONATELY   DEDICATED
BY   THE   AUTHOR.

Truth like gold is unaffected in quality by its environment, but the environment of truth does affect the character of the person receiving it. Half truths clothed in obscene language and imparted by the ignorant or vicious have made mental, moral and physical wrecks of millions. The same truth received from a pure mother, noble father, a good book or a wise teacher, safeguards the youth and accomplishes untold good.

The purpose of this book is not only to enable parents, teachers and all matured people, to inform themselves more fully concerning the vital facts of life, but it furnishes a specific guide to all parents, who would know how to tell their children the sacred story of life, and counsel intelligently with their sons and daughters at the ages of greatest danger and give them clean, concise and scientific sex instruction with a view to safeguarding them against the demoralizing half truths of vicious or ignorant schoolmates, servants or companions; and to all others of sufficient age, who have an opportunity for service to innocent and helpless children, who would have a wise word at the right time; and to the young man and young woman, married or single, who would avoid the pit-falls lying in the pathway of those ignorant of God’s sacred laws of nature; and to all mankind who seek to make the world better by more intelligent and better living.

The author of this book is sacrificing home life, financial interests, and much that is dear to all human hearts, to humanity’s cause. He lectures by day and works and travels by night and is unable to meet half of the calls for service. During engagements of two or three days he labors at night without money and without price in private interviews with young men after his lectures until midnight, one, two, three and four o’clock in the morning, hoping thereby to lend a helping hand to thousands to the end of nobler, purer and better living. In this work he has met with marvelous success. He now hopes to send his vital messages to the four corners of the earth in book form in order that the influence of his work may be felt in wider circles than he may ever hope to reach in personal endeavors. The spirit in which this book has been written is best expressed in the words of Henry Van Dyke:

“There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher. There is a nobler character than that which is merely incorruptible. It is the character which acts as an antidote and preventive of corruption. Fearlessly to speak the words which bear witness to righteousness and truth and purity; patiently to do the deeds which strengthen virtue and kindle hope in your fellow men; generously to lend a hand to those who are trying to climb upward; faithfully to give your support and your personal help to the efforts which are making to elevate and purify the social life of the world.”

Prof. Shannon observes that the spirit of society and the attitude of our government has been to protect our forests, inspect our swine and neglect our children, but that a wiser and more hopeful day is dawning. More interest in the study and application of the laws of Heredity has been taken in the past ten years than in the previous ninety. Newspapers and magazines contain articles by leaders of eugenic thought; purity organizations are springing up throughout the country and sounding the word of warning against the prevailing ignorance of these subjects; books are being written; sermons and lectures delivered and the masses are becoming interested. In this Prof. Shannon is doing his part. The sale of his books to date have reached in excess of a quarter of a million copies with no organized effort behind them. Each copy sold seems to sell two others, and with the business growing by leaps and bounds and getting beyond his control, the present publishers with a sales system unexcelled, were selected as a medium for placing his messages literally into the homes of millions.

Prof. Shannon is a member of the Advisory Board of the World’s Purity Federation and lectures under the auspices of this movement. Eight years as teacher of Biology, after his graduation from college, his experience in writing eight other purity books and years of research and lecturing on these subjects have eminently qualified him for the high position he holds to-day with the World’s Purity Federation, and as author of a number of books on moral, social and reform topics which are to-day meeting with such an enormous sale. He sends forth this volume on its mission of usefulness to the human race with the implicit faith that it will be the means of safeguarding the youth wherever it goes and make thousands of homes happier and brighter and the world a better place to live.

The Publishers.

{1}

The saddest thing in all this world is a human wreck,—a man or a woman, young or old, who is undone and who, in one or more walks of life, is a failure. There are so many of them! Mental wrecks, physical wrecks, nervous wrecks, social wrecks, business wrecks, character wrecks. The aspect of these derelicts is the more pitiable because of the possibilities before every well-born human being, who, with the endowment of intelligence and other gifts and powers bestowed upon him by a kind Creator, is capable of rising to heights of human perfection. Ample provision made for man’s every need and want by God, and yet we find misery where there ought to be happiness, poverty where there ought to be riches, darkness where there ought to be light, ignorance where there ought to be knowledge, vice where there ought to be virtue, and turmoil and strife where there ought to be peace. Only too accurately do the poet’s words apply:

This problem of human wreckage becomes more depressing when we consider that in the breast of{2} every person there is an innate desire to live true, to win success. The day dreams of every boy and girl picture themselves as the hero or the heroine in the story which weaves into its plot their ideal men and women. Their ideals may be low, that is the fault of their environment and training, but their ideals always represent their own highest conceptions of manhood and womanhood. But sooner or later struggle comes, appetite craves, and passion cries out, and if they are unprepared for life’s real conflict, they go down, and another failure is recorded and another wreck left to float and endanger every other craft upon life’s seas, until human wreckage is becoming so enormous that it is a question in the minds of scientists and sociologists as to how long humanity can keep up its present pace and survive the centuries.

The causes of human wrecks are many, far too many to be tabulated or enumerated. In a sentence they result from the principle that it is easier to coast than to climb; so much easier to float than to struggle against the current. Like the weeds that kill out the crops, just so is humanity beset by enumerable temptations at every turn, social and economic customs force downward a great many who would otherwise rise to higher things, and, it is suspected, that in the very nature of man there is a strong tendency to evil which can be overcome only by divine grace. Appetite{3} and passion are the two forces to which man’s higher aspirations most often give way. Intemperance and impurity, in their broader meaning, are the two bars upon which most human wrecks have stranded. Social impurity, or the abuse of the sex function and nature, is by far the most insidious, and with respect to the number and degradation of its victims, the greatest evil in the world to-day.

This book is one of the most valuable ever written because it treats fully and wisely this question of personal and social purity; it points out the reefs, the bars, the snags, the icebergs, the shallow and dangerous places where human wrecks are made; it guides those who accept it as their pilot into the deep waters of an unobstructed channel where the voyage of life will be ever safe, successful, glorious. Here will be found an incentive to climb rather than to coast, an inspiration to struggle even against the current if in the struggle may be won some of the more valuable prizes of life. Here is a book that holds high the single standard of morality, and demands that men shall be as pure as women; it stands boldly for the education of the young in sex hygiene, and proclaims a truth that ought long ago to have been universally known, that it is the right of every person to know every knowable fact pertaining to themselves, and that such knowledge ought to be imparted to them{4} before the lack of it has brought injury to their lives. This is a book that will help to forever banish that false modesty and prurient thinking which has made the tremendous growth of public vice a reality, until every girl is in danger of enslavement and every boy threatened with its corruption.

This is not a pioneer book on these questions. Other most excellent works have preceded it, for which we should all be grateful, and have paved the way for this latest volume. The excellence of this work consists largely in its completeness. It is a book for the home, for every home, and for every member of the home. It tells exactly what ought to be known concerning the sex nature and life of the individual, and the normal relations of the family and society, and best of all it teaches parents how to impart this saving knowledge to their children. Any and every home that takes this book as a friend and counselor, and faithfully studies its pages, will fortify every person within the portals of that home against the baneful influences of impurity and vice.

The writer has known Prof. T. W. Shannon, the talented author of this book, for some years, and we have watched his efforts with interest and admiration. A voluminous writer, a wide traveler, he has probably reached more people with his uplifting message of purity through his books and upon the platform than{5} any other living man of the same age. His methods are never sensational and he does not stoop to uncovering all the cesspools of sin and vice, but he leads people upward by directing their minds and hearts to the beauty and rewards of pure living and right thinking. Through the strength of his personality and the profound truth in his message, he has helped thousands of college students and other young men to avoid the pitfalls which have brought disaster to so many young lives. By education and experience Prof. Shannon is eminently fitted to prepare just such a book as this and his authorship should at once entitle it to a high place among the standard works of the day dealing with these problems.

As the volume has received my own endorsement, even so I trust it may be most cordially received into the homes of America, that our sons and our daughters may be fortified through the truth, presented in an attractive and safe and sane manner, against the temptations which constantly meet them; that human wrecks may be fewer, and that every life may have a fair chance to attain all for which it was created.

B. S. Steadwell.

La Crosse, Wisconsin,
December 18, 1912.

{6}

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The basic incentive for marriage.—A completed home embraces a father, mother and one or more children, bound together by natural love for each other. The initial step in home building is taken when a man and woman decide to assume the duties, responsibilities and functions of marriage. Courtship and marriage may be prompted by a number of motives. There is but one natural and worthy motive—LOVE. This motive may be a little out of date in some circles, but it remains essential to a normal home, a happy productive home. This expression of love is awakened to conscious activity through acquaintance and friendship, becomes a joyful reality in courtship, is consummated in marriage and is perpetuated through life, because{16} of a chaste, pure, unselfish sex preference of one man for one woman and that one woman for that one man. If for any reason, this sex preference is ever broken, the bonds of love between husband and wife will be weakened, if not severed for all time. This bond of union may be broken in a number of ways. There may be other causes of domestic inharmony, all of which can be adjusted so long as sex preference, or love, binds the two as one. Under the guidance of unselfish sex selection, few mistakes would ever be made, in the choice of a companion.

The tests of true love.—A man and woman bound by pure love for each other, may live in a shack or a humble rented cottage, they may have to toil late and hard to support a family of growing children, but they and the children will be happy and usually healthy and strong, bound together by mutual love. They will remain true to each other through adversity, sickness and death.

Mismated.—If husband and wife are not bound to each other by a natural sex preference, or love, though they may hold in their possession broad acres of land, railroad bonds and heavy deposits in the bank, live in a mansion and move in the élite circles of society, they will not love each other, their children, or be able to build a REAL home.

Other incentives for marriage.—It is quite customary,{17}

{18}

in some grades of society, to choose a life companion for social or financial advantage. Such unions are not natural. They are cold business transactions. A man prompted by these motives sees in a woman the qualities of a good housekeeper, a social queen, or a financial gain. A woman prompted by unnatural motives sees in a man opportunities for social prestige, a life of luxury and ease. They drift apart instead of their personalities blending, through love, as one. Soon he spends his days in his daily vocation and his evenings in the lodges. She finds her only pleasure in following the latest fashions and devoting her time to various social functions. Each have their secrets and manage to avoid public disgrace.

Should a child be born into such an unnatural home, it would receive an unfortunate heredity and a still more unfortunate environment. The initial of its life was accidental, its prenatal rights were not regarded, its advent was not welcomed, it is now turned over to a hired nurse. Such a child is more unfortunate than an orphan. In no true sense has it a father or mother. This child, when visitors are about, or when the family is making a public display, may be petted, pampered and spoiled by its parents and on all occasions lavishly supplied with dress and toys; thus egotism will be stimulated and propensities gratified and this child will be placed at a decided disadvantage in life. Compared{19} with this child, the little ragged street urchin is to be congratulated.

When the natural, God-designed and God-honored, sex instinct is perverted and base desire supplants love, in the choice of a companion, the home instinct is degraded, love dethroned and inharmony prevails.

The Romance, of Courtship and the Honeymoon, is Transitory. There is a certain amount of the glamour, mystery, novelty, romance and poetry connected with courtship and the honeymoon, while perhaps natural at the time, but in the very nature of the case cannot be permanent. The plain, practical, everyday experiences of life must become prominent in every successful home. The fairyland, of flowery visions, rippling streams of sentiment, poetic fancies of bliss and the lunar and stellar raptures of love, must yield, after a period of such experiences, to mundane realities where these beautiful dreams terminate and air castles are destroyed and life once more becomes real.

When the termination of this romantic period comes to the young wife, whose vision of marriage was received from sensational novels, fashion journals, the theater and gay social gatherings, and to the young husband, kid-gloved, well-starched and much-cravatted, it will be unexpected and very disastrous to their imaginary love. Cruel and prudish are they, who are responsible for creating artificial social{20} visions in the minds of the youth. But when the termination of romance comes to the young husband and wife, whose courtship and marriage have been true to nature, this will be supplanted by the dawning consciousness of life’s real mission in marriage and they will discover that the truest, sweetest and most enduring pleasures and joys of life have only begun.

The first born.—Fortunate and happy is that young couple, who, before the romance of marriage is over, becomes aware that preparations must be made for the first little stranger into their home. If the faint prophecies, of the approaching advent of their first-born, thrill their lives with hopeful and joyful anticipations, marriage will now have a deeper significance, the bonds of love and dependence become stronger and the pleasures of life more real. The supremest moment of marriage comes when the young husband, who for the first time, in the birth chamber, stands by his wife’s side, holding her hands in his; stoops and kisses her lips, cheeks and brow, as she bravely and beautifully endures the throes of parturition. Such an experience is enough to transform a brute into a man. When the first-born is placed to the young mother’s breast, a deep, profound, but quiet happiness knows no bounds in two hearts that beat as one. This is the primary purpose of marriage. A cooing baby is nature’s own sequel to the honeymoon.{21}

Health, happiness and life worth living is made possible through parenthood.

If a child was intelligently planned for and warmly welcomed into every home, the first year of married life, then one by one at reasonable intervals until the family consists of four to eight healthy, happy, well-cared-for children, most of the problems of marriage would be solved.

The childless homes.—All efforts to evade the fiat of nature and God, “multiply and replenish the earth,” not justified by the authors of this law, will lead to health blighted, happiness destroyed, a home wrecked and two souls will be arrested in their endless progress. In homes, voluntarily childless, and in homes where one or two little intruders were accidentally and unwillingly admitted, can be found the most serious and perplexing social problems.

Childless homes made happy.—The involuntarily childless homes, and the homes voluntarily childless, because of justifiable reasons, need not be unhappy. Their paternal and maternal natures may be developed by adopting homeless children. In this land there are many such happy homes. If the mother love, in childless homes, annually wasted on poodle dogs, was expended on homeless children, there would soon be no childless homes, orphan homes and homeless children, and more happiness in the world.{22}

How shall family troubles be solved?—While natural sex preference and the birth of children solve almost all the domestic problems and make possible the solution of all family troubles, they do not render the husband and wife immune to all differences, disagreements, incompatibilities and perplexities. It is not possible for the husband to see everything from his wife’s view point, or the wife to see everything from the husband’s point of view. If they differ in taste, retain their personalities, have lofty ambitions, possess sensitive natures and have their individual ideals, they will often differ in their opinions, and, occasionally very good people will find themselves in disastrous disputes. Commendable ideals and virtues, as well as faults, may become the sources of domestic trouble. What should they do—separate? No. Secure a divorce? Certainly not. Let these steps be the last possible resort. Where a family of children are to be scattered and injured by the disgrace, perhaps a divorce should not be sought, on any grounds. The bleeding hearts and blasted hopes caused by one divorce is greater than that caused by a score of deaths. Divorce degrades morals, withers ideals and causes untold human suffering. What is the remedy? Agree to let past differences, disagreements and quarrels remain in the past. Don’t bring the dead yesterdays over into the living to-days. Each{23} morning, give each other a clean slate. Resolve each morning to please, rather than to displease your partner. By doing this, irreconcilable differences will gradually disappear. This does not mean that they should lose their individualities, or compromise with their convictions. This is not a radical or expensive remedy, but one that works in nearly every case.{24}

The father is the head of the home.—The character of the home determines the character of the church, society and the nation. The home is the most important of all earthly institutions. The problems of society, the church and the nation, if ever solved, must be largely solved in the home. The home is both a civil and divine institution. Civil and divine law place the husband and father at the head of the home. No teacher sustains a more vital relation to society, no minister to his congregation, no king to his empire, or president to his republic, than does the conscientious father, who does his best to build an ideal home. He is truly serving God and his country, in the highest sense. In the work of building a home, he is serving society and the church in a higher sense than he would be, were he neglecting his family, by writing books, teaching school, delivering lectures or preaching sermons.

His relation to his wife.—The relation of husband and wife is a partnership affair. In every sense they are equal partners. Their rights and privileges are{25} equal. Their part in building a home is not, in all respects, the same. The service of one is as important as the other. Neither can build a home without the other. Their service is incomparable.

He is to furnish financial support.—Nature has fitted man mentally and physically for devising means of earning a support for his family. Whatever occupation, calling or profession he may engage in, he should put forth the best effort of which he is capable to produce an income that will support his family decently.

The amount of money he can furnish his wife, will depend upon his earnings. They should talk over this matter as partners. One has as much right to the income as the other. They should not spend more than is produced. If the income is small, both should economize. They should endeavor to save something each year, even if the income is small. Money is stored-up human energy. If the income is large, they should be more liberal in the use of it, but it is always a sin to waste money. The husband has no right to cause his wife to beg him for money, to meet her personal expenses or the expenses of the children. The money is not exclusively his own. Home building is a partnership in which every member of the home is interested in every dollar produced. Legally the father may spend his money on his selfish indulgences. Morally{26} he has no right to spend the home company money in a way that will not benefit each member of the home. For a father to annually spend fifty or more dollars on tobacco or drink and refuse corresponding amounts to his wife and children to be spent needlessly by them, is as dishonest, as for a member of a firm, or the president of a bank to misappropriate the funds of a partner or a depositor.

He is to furnish moral support.—For a man to build a reputation for honesty, truthfulness, sobriety and virtue and to possess a good character are of more value to his wife and children, as a home builder, than to be able to produce large earnings and to be free with the same. When a man assumes the responsibility of building a home, his family have a right to demand of him honesty, integrity, sobriety and virtue. He has no more right to rob them of one than the other.

He is to love his wife.—While the romance of courtship and the honeymoon cannot be continued for life, yet he should always show her a deep respect, a manly courtesy, a true love and absolute loyalty to his marriage vow.

The relation of the father to his children.—Each child born into the home is a new member added to the partnership. The children have financial, social and moral rights that should be respected by the parents. While civil law and God place the father at the{27} head of the home, this does not give him special rights and privileges, or constitute him a boss or ruler, but he should so conduct himself that the family will regard him as their protector, supporter and adviser. He should not swear, tell vulgar stories, use tobacco or indulge in strong drink unless he is willing for each member of his family to follow his example. As partners in the home, they have the same moral rights as himself. He should be to his children a chum, a friend, a companion. He should constantly endeavor to make the children happy. There are times, in the home, when the father’s decision must be law. He must support his family. The law holds him responsible for their support and for their deportment as citizens. As long as they are under age, if they contract a debt or damage property, the law holds the father responsible. This responsibility makes it necessary for him to decide some things, in a way that a child may not wish to coincide. This should be done in a dignified and pleasant way.

The father should never allow himself to become angry or to use hasty and abusive language in correcting a child. If he does, he demonstrates his own weakness and inability to be a real father. Punishment of some natural kind is sometimes necessary, but corporal punishment, as a rule, is brutal.

The father should so conduct himself as to command{28} the respect, reverence and love of his children. He should be sociable and gentle, as well as dignified and strong. He should have their complete confidence, so they will come to him with their problems and troubles. The sacred service of a true father in the home, can only be equaled by the service of the mother. The fathers who toil long and late, study and strive to support, educate and train a family of children to become good citizens and devoted Christians, will receive a rich reward here and a royal welcome yonder.{29}

Husband and wife equal partners.—In the partnership of building a home, the wife is, in the truest and fullest sense, an equal partner with her husband. Equal rights and privileges should characterize their financial, social and moral relations. They are complements of each other. Neither is ever completed until the other half is found. They are essential to each other’s highest development. Neither can build a home without the other. Their relations to the home are of equal importance.

How they differ.—They differ in their functional relations to the building of a home. While their interests are mutual and their duties often overlap each other, yet they differ in some respects in their relations to the home. The husband is the producer; nature and God place on him the responsibility of feeding, clothing, sheltering and educating the family. The wife is the housekeeper; nature and God place on her the duty of motherhood and the love and care of children. Both husband and wife need special preparation{30} before and after marriage for their respective relations to the home.

Marriage means motherhood.—Unless a woman loves little children and desires to teach and train boys and girls to become ideal men and women, she should not think of accepting a marriage proposition. Marriage is for the purpose of offspring. All girls should train and develop themselves with a view to the sacred functions of motherhood. Those who are mentally opposed to and physically incapable of motherhood should decline marriage. Such women can and should find some other occupation better fitted to their tastes, or physical condition, where they can be contented and help make the world better.

A farce.—In apartment houses, hotels and lodging places are to be found men and women living together under a form of legal matrimonial alliance, where the true idea of home is not contemplated, children are not wanted and no domestic happiness anticipated. These are human abodes, where the echo of birth is never heard; where the thrill of joy, caused by cooing babies, is never felt; and where conversation is never disturbed by romping children. This is a home only in name. This is a place of lodging where two miserable selfish beings are waiting for death to step in and end the farce.

A good substitute for a home.—I was once entertained{31} in a home where the husband and wife had crossed over the half century line of life. During my first day in that home, every few hours, the husband or wife would bring in from two to six boys and girls introducing them to me as their boys and girls. When the number had run up in the neighborhood of twenty, that home got interesting. When I inquired how often they had been married and how many children they had, I was informed that they were only borrowing them from the neighbors. I never saw a home with a greater influence for good. Though childless, their home was a heaven; for the neighboring children resorted, played games, and received instructions of the highest order there. The children were trained to hunt up the old, the sick and the poor and to daily carry them flowers gathered from the yard and garden of this old couple. This was an ideal imitation of the real thing—a model home. I wish every childless home could be converted into such an ideal imitation, or a real home.

A good housekeeper.—One of the qualifications a wife should have is a reasonable practical knowledge of how to keep house. It may not be necessary for her to do all her house work, but she should understand how it should be done. A man has as much right to demand that his wife know how to wash clothes, bake bread, sweep a room, and make a bed, as she has to{32} expect him to be industrious, know how to form or conduct his business or profession. She must know how to do these things in order to properly manage a well-ordered home.

She should know the value of a dollar.—The wife should know the value of a dollar and how to invest it in food, clothing and household comforts. To do this, she must make these things a study. Unreasonable extravagance of wives has caused many unhappy homes.

She should keep herself attractive.—She could never have won her husband had she not made herself attractive. Marriage does not lessen man’s interest in his wife’s attractiveness. The wise woman will not permit her husband to become ashamed of her.

She should be industrious.—A reasonable amount of physical exercise is just as essential to a woman’s health as it is for a man. The indolent wife who settles down in an easy chair and reads novels all day, satisfied with the fact that she is married and unconscious or indifferent to the fact that she must keep her husband’s respect, is likely to lose his respect and love.

She should take an interest in her husband’s affairs.—A wife should know enough of her husband’s business or professional affairs to enable her to appreciate his ambitions and to sympathize with him in his trials. In this way, some women help to make their{33} husband’s success. There is quite a difference between interest and encouragement, and in interference. One leads to success; the other to failure.

Home first.—A good wife or mother will make the interests of her home first. If her home is first, in her mind and heart, she will not find time or inclination to gossip about her neighbors, or to contrive new ways of amusing herself. Her home interests will completely fill her life, consume her time, satisfy her æsthetic nature and furnish her the greatest opportunities for Christian service in the world. This does not preclude membership in a humanitarian society, a reading circle, or church. Great as this service may be, it is not equal to the home. A home builder is never justifiable in neglecting her home duties for her obligations to a club, a lodge or the church. By spending a few hours, in practical contact with other housewives at a social meeting or church, she is all the better able to perform her home duties. But these things should be subordinate to the duties of home building. Christ in the home will mean Christ in society, the church and the nation.

The anteroom to heaven.—When a woman has entered married life with her prince, determined to make a real wife and mother, she has chosen the highest and most fascinating career that is possible for a woman. Her home will be an anteroom to heaven.{34}

The boy problem.—The boy problem is becoming one of unusual interest to writers, teachers, lecturers, ministers and parents. Books, teaching, lecturing and preaching can aid some, but the real problem of the boy must be solved in the home.

A boy should be treated differently from his sister.—The mental make-up of a boy, his superior strength, his natural aspirations and his duties in life, require that some of his training should differ from that of the girl.

He should be taught to work.—One of the most important steps in the solution of the boy problem is to have the boy actively engaged in some wholesome, pleasant and rational way. He should be given work that is worth doing well and that will be of use to him in future life. This training should begin in childhood and continue until he is matured. Every day he should have some task to perform and he should never be allowed to neglect his work.

Boys enjoy making money.—A boy should be{35}

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given a chance to make some money. Rarely should money be given to a child. It is far better for him to earn it. He will in this way learn the value of a dollar. He should be encouraged to deposit his money in bank, to loan it, on interest, or to wisely invest it. It is a great deal better for a boy to invest and lose than to spend his earnings for candy or a ticket to a ten cent show. A boy had as well be allowed to swear, drink and steal as to waste his money. If started right most boys would take pride in saving their money. Usually when parents wish their children to have candy or some other luxury, it would be wiser for them to pay for it, than for the children to do so. A child should be encouraged to give, out of his own money, to the needy, Sunday School and church.

Boys should have their own room in the house, their own things in the room and their property rights should be respected. When he fails, he should be encouraged; when downhearted, he should be boosted and when he succeeds, he should be praised and commended. Give the average boy a chance and he will make a man.

His future vocation.—Very early, boys show aptitude toward special vocations. When they do, they should be encouraged in every way possible. However, they should not be nagged and forced to follow any vocation for which they may have shown interest{37} and natural skill. Furnish them helps and books and allow them to develop their own individualities. Parents should not choose the boy’s vocation for him. They should not interfere with his choice, unless it be pernicious.

Morally, his training should be the same as that of his sister.—Parents, who hold to two sets of morals, do right for the girl and do as you please for the boy, are not qualified to train a boy. A boy should be trained to believe that whatever is morally wrong for his sister and mother is equally wrong for him; it is just as ungentlemanly for him to swear, as it would be unladylike for his mother and sister to swear; that it is just as wrong for him to use vulgar and obscene language as it would be for his mother and sister to do so; that if he can drink and be sexually impure and remain a gentleman, his mother and sister can indulge in the same vices and remain perfect ladies. If parents believe in the double standard of morals, that the boy must sow his “wild oats,” most likely he will. There is no sane reason why a boy should swear and his sister should not, why a boy should use tobacco and his sister should not, why a boy should drink and his sister should not, or why a boy should be sexually impure and his sister should not. The boy, with the single standard of morals instilled in his mind, is incomparably more likely to make a useful, successful,{38} great and good man than the boy trained to believe in the double standard.

Boys should play with girls.—Boys are, by nature, inclined to be rough, rude, coarse and untidy. They need to associate with girls who naturally have just the opposite tendencies. It is refining for boys to learn to enjoy the games of girls.

A girl’s ambition is to be beautiful; a boy’s ambition is to be strong. These preferences are natural and they should be encouraged in them. All boys delight in displaying their physical powers. Thus, they are led to test their strength with their sisters and often display roughness and rudeness. They should be carefully instructed that it is natural for girls not to be as strong as boys, and that for this reason they should protect girls and never be rude with them. Boys should have a place and the proper means of taking exercise.

The boy and his mother.—The mother and her boy should be chums. They should keep on the most intimate terms. The mother can often instill, into the mind and heart of her boy, a refined nature, gentle feelings, pure motives and a manly purpose, in a way that is not aggressive, and yet it is permanent.

A boy’s companions.—It is important for a boy to have good companions. If he has been trained as indicated, he will not rebel when his parents offer{39}

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suggestions. However they should endeavor not to appear to be choosing his companions.

Going to college.—Many boys would be better off never to go to college. The contaminating influences of some colleges cannot be overestimated. Of all rowdyism, college rowdyism is the most demoralizing. In very recent years special efforts have been made in some of our colleges to eliminate this objectionable feature. There are some colleges where the manly, the moral and the religious predominate and the boy is fully as safe as at home. Before a boy is sent to college he should be fortified and safeguarded against college contaminations. Parents should investigate college morals before making the choice of a college for their boy.{41}

The girl in the home is a member of the partnership plan of the family. She should have the same financial, social and moral rights of her brother. Her moral training should be no better than his. If she is properly trained in the home, her services are as valuable as her brother’s and she should have the same financial rights.

The girl and her father.—The father, if worthy of being such, should have the confidence, respect and love of his daughter. She should feel free to approach him with her wishes and her problems. His advice and council will be of great value to her in her social relation with young men. Many girls fail to show themselves interested in their father. Girls should be attentive, kind and loving in their relations to their father.

The girl and her mother.—A mother should not forget the experience of her girlhood. Though busy and burdened with many cares, she should take time to talk, often and intimately, with her daughter, of her own girlhood, her own temptations, her own experiences{42} in the various vicissitudes of life. By wisely cultivating the relation of a sympathetic companionship, the mother can often bridge her daughter over that period of adolescence, when many girls come to regard their mothers as “old fogies.” This is a stage of growth in a girl’s life. It usually occurs when they are in the high school. They openly and unkindly criticise their mother’s dress, speech, advice, council and religion. This is a period of development that girls pass through. The right relation between the girl and her mother would save the mother from many tears and heartaches and the girl from many regretful memories of misconception and blindness.

Fortunate, is the girl, who has never had an attack of “high school snobbery,” who has never spoken lightly of the imaginary deficiencies of mother; but, who has always found it a joy to divide gifts with mother, to hand her the prettiest rose and to read her a choice story.

The girl and her brother.—Girls do not always appreciate the influence they are exerting over their brothers. A boy’s estimate of woman is often received from his sister’s influence. A sister has it largely in her power to make her brother gentle, true and pure. She can make home attractive and pleasant for him and thus save her brother from seeking pleasures in questionable places and ways. Brothers and{43}

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sisters should grow up together, be educated together, play together and, as far as possible, help each other. Their joys and sorrows, aims and purposes should be mutual. Her lack of physical strength, her natural tastes and aspirations, her duties and mission in life, being in many respects different from her brother, require a line of preparation unlike her brother receives.

Her first and most valuable training.—Marriage is not the only goal toward which a young woman may turn, but it is the most natural, important and worthy. Most all girls look forward to marriage as a possible and desirable goal. Perhaps no woman would refuse marriage, if the right man should propose. It is for this reason that every girl should prepare herself thoroughly to be a housekeeper, a wife and a mother. This should be her first and most thorough training. She should not rest satisfied until she has learned every phase of how to keep house, to care for the wants of small children and to manage hired help. This training should begin in childhood. A girl should be able to dress herself and to keep her own room by the time she is ten years old. Whatever may be her career in life, she will always be the better off because she is a good housekeeper. She may not have to be a housekeeper, for she may have servants, still she is all the better off, as she will understand how to manage the servants.{45}

The independent girl.—In addition to having prepared herself for a housekeeper, a wife and a mother, she should now prepare herself for some vocation in life. The right man may not present himself, she may be called upon to support an aged mother or father, or an invalid husband, and she will need to know how to earn a living. A girl, unprepared to support herself, waiting year after year for some man to come and marry her, is an object of profound pity. If the right man comes along and marries her, all is well. But she often marries the wrong fellow, or waits for many weary years and yet, he never comes. A generation ago few opportunities of earning a support were open to a girl. Conditions have changed, woman’s ideals have grown and the world offers her other vocations than housekeeping, wifehood and motherhood, and unless these come in very attractive form she can choose the vocation of art, music, teaching, stenography, book-keeping or some other calling. By the time she is eighteen, a girl should be able to keep a house or earn a living in some business way. This will give her an assurance of independence. Regardless of the wealth of her parents, she should have these two qualifications. If her parents are poor and she is ambitious, she can now work her way through college, if she desires.

If the morals of a girl have been properly safeguarded by her mother’s training and teaching, the independent{46} girl is little more likely to fall than the girl who remains at home and waits for a husband.

The independent girl who goes out into the world with her brother, shoulders the same burdens, wrestles with the same problems, fights the same battles and overcomes the same difficulties, will meet a better class of men than those who would likely seek her out in her home. She is more likely to be happily married, than if she remained at home. She is now better fitted to be a housekeeper, wife and mother, than if she had remained at home. She has learned how to produce a dollar, she now knows the value of it and how, wisely, to spend it.{47}

Home a unit of government.—As already observed, the home is a partnership. It is a unit of government. In an ideal unit of home government, every member is governed by and through an intelligent understanding of the customs, rules and laws, a conscientious recognition of what is right and wrong and the golden rule of love. Each have equal rights. What is wrong for one is equally wrong for each and all. What is right for one is equally right for each and all. Such a home is a unit of government where parents and children are organized under a constitution of intellect, conscience and love; for the purpose of building character, fitting themselves for larger citizenship in this life and the life that is to be the sequence to this one.

The home is the biggest institution in the world. Home building is the noblest and highest vocation in life. Its responsibilities are stupendous, its possibilities are limitless and its rewards are infinite. Home builders should be the best qualified and the most skillful of architects.

The training of a child.—Solomon said, “train up{48} a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” The thoughts, actions and habits of childhood have much to do with a child’s future character and possibilities. When a child’s training is commenced in early childhood, was it begun soon enough? After a noted surgeon had examined a patient, turning to a friend he said, “If I could have had this patient two generations ago, I could have saved his life.” When Oliver Wendell Holmes was asked when a child’s training should begin, he replied, “At least one hundred years before he is born.” Sometimes it happens that good children are made bad and bad children are made worse by the company they keep before they are born. The little boy was not far wrong, who, when he found his mother lamenting the choice she had made of a life companion, said, “Mamma, we made a bad choice when we chose papa, didn’t we?” Some children have made an equally bad choice of their mammas and some appear to have made a doubly bad choice of both parents.

Each child must be studied.—A child is not easily understood. No two children are alike. Each child has a very complex nature. He is the product of the ages. The complex nature of his parents are blended into his being, producing a more complex being. He is not a duplicate of either. He has received from his parents a blending of their natures; in a limited way,{49} what they inherited from his grandparents and their grandparents back to Adam. Parents and teachers should try to discover his latent forces, his slumbering passions, his genius, his inherent propensities and native goodness. They should wisely use nature’s laws and God’s gifts, in constraining, controlling and eradicating the inherited and acquainted tendencies that are pernicious; also in drawing out, giving direction to and developing the inherited and acquired good in his life.

Importance of early training.—Children in the home are to be trained. Their prenatal culture, the most important part of a child’s education, may have been respected or neglected. This cannot be altered now. The next agency to be utilized in the child’s training is environment. This can be applied from its birth. The child is more susceptible to external influences in babyhood than in childhood, in childhood than in youth, in youth than in maturity. The child becomes more fixed in disposition and character and more difficult to change as he grows older.

The training of parents.—If I were a perfect sage, philosopher or Christian, or all three combined into a perfect teacher, I would much prefer the task of training one hundred little children than the task of training ten parents (including the author) how to train their children. Most parents need to devote three hours, to a careful analysis and study of their inherited and acquired{50} weaknesses, to one devoted to a similar study of a child.

A study of disposition.—Such peculiarities of mind and disposition as cruelty, ambition, firmness, conscientiousness and affection may be so pronounced in one’s life as to bias his judgment and unfit him for the training of children. When one of these characteristics is very dominant in a father or mother, it will most likely appear in an exaggerated form in one or more of the children. Like excites like, is a law that should be thoroughly understood by parents. Where firmness is very pronounced in both parents and child, there will be a constant clash unless one or both exercise full self-control. Such a child should be controlled largely by love. A severe or cruel parent will make a coward of a timid child and a criminal of a self-willed child. The over-conscientious parent will disgust one child and make a fanatic of another. The over-affectionate parent will appeal alone to the affections and leave the will of a child undeveloped. Appealing alone to the ambition of a very proud, ambitious child is likely to make him conceited and egotistical. For a parent to quarrel, have a fit of anger or to use violence is degrading and demonstrates his weakness and incapacity to be at the head of a family. At the same time, these mental states tend to awaken similar feelings in the child, which usually result in a clash. If{51} the child had first displayed anger, this could have been overcome by self-control, kindness and love on the part of the parent.

The law of influence.—If you want to arouse a desirable feeling, sentiment, emotion or conviction in another, you must be controlled by that mental and moral state and allow it to emanate from you. If you are controlled, by an undesirable thought or feeling, others must have self-control enough to resist your influence, or soon they will be controlled by a similar mental state. Thus, we see that unless parents exercise judgment and self-control, they will often use methods that are unwise and harmful.

Defects in our homes and schools.—One of the saddest defects in our home training and our system of education is, that when a child reaches maturity in the home or graduates from the high school or college, he knows more about other things than he does about himself and the essentials of building a home. How to analyze, study, know and control one’s self; how to understand, train and govern children would be of far greater value in the education of young men and women than many departments of study we now emphasize.

The function of the home.—The children are in the home for the primary purpose of being developed into ideal men and women. To accomplish this end is{52} the mission of parents. To do this effectively parents must possess high ideals. These ideals include such training and education as will lead to a strong and healthy body, a keen and well-trained intellect, a moral and religious character and an abiding faith in God.

Physical training.—The physical, mental and moral natures are intimately and vitally related. One influences each of the other two. The physical health and strength of a child hinders or helps the mental and moral life. The proper time to overcome the weakness of any physical function, or inherited physical weakness, is in childhood. This is done by proper dieting, hygienic living, bathing, exercise and sexual chastity. Improperly prepared and unwholesome food are the chief causes of death among infants and a leading cause of impaired indigestion in childhood. The kind of food used, effects the mind and character of the child. Too much candy, rich pastries and meat are not good for a child, or grown people either.

Use of medicine.—One hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) are spent annually on patent medicine and fully that much or more on mineral drugs. We are not animals. We do not know how to live. Few men would be willing to give a lawyer ten dollars to tell him how to keep out of trouble, but he will give him all he has to get him out of trouble. Few would give ten dollars to a doctor for preventive advice, but{53} they will pay a doctor all they possess, for a cure. Oliver Wendell Holmes had a custom of saying, “If all the drugs of the world were thrown into the sea, it would be a blessing to humanity, but a curse to the fish.” Children should be kept healthy by hygienic living.

Use of condiments, coffee, tobacco, etc.—Condiments, tea, coffee and tobacco are not foods—they stimulate—they do not strengthen; they create unnatural appetites and inflame the passions. No one would drink tea or coffee were it not for the tannin and caffeine contained in them. If these drugs were removed, these drinks would be no more tempting than a cup of warm water. Most people, who use these drinks would consider it a sin to go to a drug store, buy some pure tannin or caffeine, dilute it with water, sweeten it with sugar and drink it.

The tobacco habit is an enormous evil.—It creates a demand for something stronger. It paves the way for the whisky habit. Drunkenness is largely due to a pathological physical condition. Remove the causes, coffee, tobacco and sensuality and it will do more to check drunkenness than all the legislation that can be secured in the next century.

Mental training.—The mental training of children is very largely committed to school and college teachers. Parents should take a very intense interest in the{54} child’s education. They should study the talents and discover and strengthen the weaker faculties of the child. Most children get their minds “stuffed” with unassimilated facts. Nothing is clear to them. They do not remember what they have learned. They cannot reason logically. They have had their minds “stuffed.” Parents as well as teachers, can largely prevent this. From the earliest mental training of the child, he should be trained to take a personal interest in knowing things. He should be taught to think. Encourage a child to ask questions. If he asks questions which he should understand, have him answer them and give his reasons for the answer. In some cases ask him questions that will suggest an answer. Getting a child started right is the more important half of his education. He will look after the other half.

Moral training.—The object of all moral training of a child is self-government or self-control. Before a child is capable of self-government, he must be taught to distinguish between right and wrong. This is largely the work of the intellect. His conscience must be awakened and quickened. Conscience is a natural instinct through which God’s spirit and man’s conception, of right and wrong, prompts him to moral action, and which condemns the action he conceives to be wrong and approves the action he conceives to be right. The will must be so trained and developed that a child{55} is able to will to do what he knows to be right and his conscience approves. He is now a perfectly free agent, a law to himself. He is governed from within and need not to be governed from without. This moral training requires years and should begin in infancy.

Let the baby alone.—Good babies are made bad by receiving too much attention. The baby should not be lifted from the cradle, fondled and coddled, kissed and talked to, simply because it gurgles or makes an innocent attempt to be noticed. This is needless attention. At first it is disagreeable to the child. Later a demand is created and the child is spoiled. If left alone babies would entertain themselves much of the time.

When a baby is learning to crawl and walk, observe the “let alone” policy as much as possible. Keep an eye on the child to see that it does not get hurt. What you do not want it to have, put out of its reach. It should be safeguarded from places of danger. If these precautions are taken, you will be saved the excuse for that endless round of “don’t get hurt,” “don’t touch that,” “don’t do that,” etc. By these endless “don’ts” children are taught disobedience. If the child falls, unless it is hurt, do not run and pick it up. Let it alone, it will get up. In this way you teach it to be independent and self-reliant. If you run and{56} pick it up, the child gets the idea that you were to blame. Later, when it falls, it screams, cries and gets angry. Perhaps you hit the object and teach the child that the object over which it fell was at fault. This is deception and has a bad effect.

Give the child something to do.—Teach it to dress itself, to take off and put on its shoes and stockings. It should have a special place to put these, on retiring. It should have a drawer or a room where it can put its individual belongings. This teaches the child the idea of responsibility.

The first idea of wrongdoing.—When a child eats some forbidden thing, or does some forbidden act, from which it suffers, it can be led to see that it has violated the laws of nature. If possible, alleviate the pain, but the lesson which nature would teach, through pain, should be emphasized. The child should see that the pain came as a result of violating the laws of nature. A little later in life, the child can be taught that all desires, thoughts, words and acts that are helpful to self and others are right and those that injure self and others are wrong. These principles can be applied gradually to the laws of the home, of society and God.

Parents should agree.—There should be a perfect agreement between parents, with respect to the government in the home. Where parents disagree,{57} children lose all respect for parental authority. Differences should be discussed by parents, only when the children are not present.

Punishment in the home.—Whipping, slapping and cuffing are relics of savagery. Whipping should never be resorted to except in extreme cases. It is not the natural consequence of disobedience. It never appeals to a child’s sense of justice. Punishment should always be natural and consistent with justice. Some examples will illustrate these principles, as follows: A child is called to breakfast—it does not come. Stubbornness or disobedience is the cause. What should be a natural punishment? Scolding, slapping, jerking the child up and forcing it to the table? No—there is no logical connection. The punishment should consist in the child’s doing without its breakfast. This should be explained to the child: A boy loses his toy. Should he be pitied and another bought for him? Certainly not. Should he be whipped? This would not be natural. He simply goes without his toy until he finds it: A boy steals some object. Should he be whipped? No. His attention should be called to the nature of his sin. He should be compelled, if necessary, to return the stolen object and confess his wrong. The deep sense of humiliation is the natural punishment. Let him feel the full force of it: A boy uses tobacco. Should{58} he be whipped? Certainly not, as long as his teacher, the family doctor, the minister and the father use it. No child on earth could see any connection between the wrong and the punishment. What should be done? Nine times out of ten, under present conditions, the boy will use tobacco, in spite of all that a mother can do. So long as doctors, teachers, ministers and fathers use tobacco, legislation against the cigarette will increase our youthful criminals. If a father has a moral right to use tobacco, so has his boy. If the boy can be led to see clearly that the use of tobacco is wrong, if his conscience can be awakened and if his personal will can be brought to constantly oppose the use of it, then he can be saved. THIS IS THE ONLY REMEDY.

Study the offense.—Find the natural consequence. Become an example of obedience to every law, for your child. Show the child the results of wrong living and the benefits of right living. This will usually obviate all punishment, aside from what nature inflicts.

Corporal punishment.—If corporal punishment be unavoidable, it should not be administered when either parent or child is angry. This would only increase the cause that made the punishment necessary. In most cases it would be best to postpone the punishment until the next day. Only a very rebellious child can be helped by this method.{59}

Scolding and threatening.—From a hotel window I heard a mother say to her twelve-year-old girl, “I will gouge your eyes out.” “I will slap your head off, you little hussy.” A child treated in this way becomes willful or spiteful, loses self-respect or respect for the parent. Scolding and threatening children are sins against their finer natures.

Three good rules.—The author’s father would not employ men on his farm without the understanding that they were not to swear, speak vulgarly about a woman, or tell a “ghost” or “bugaboo” story in the presence of his children. A servant, man or woman, about your business or home, can undo or counteract in a few hours or days, in a single statement or story, picture or book, act or habit, the life efforts of a noble father and a pure mother. One of the purest men recently said to me, “When I was only fifteen years of age I heard a servant utter one sentence that required a score of years to get its effects eradicated.” Men have told me of the pernicious effects of servants, dating back to when they were two and three years old. Frightful stories and startling statements, of impending dangers, destroy the natural freedom, independence and courage of many children for life. Once I sat by the side of a nervous mother holding a nervous four-year-old girl in her lap, as our train sped forward at the rate of fifty miles an hour, over one of those magnificent{60} stretches on a western prairie. We had discussed heredity, child training and other interesting and vital subjects, when she referred to her nervous little girl and told me how at night she would notice her little body twitching, jerking, floundering and all at once she would awake with a scream having dreamed that she was falling from some dizzy height toward jagged rocks and certain death beneath; or that some huge angry beast, poised on tiptoes and in the act of pouncing upon her and tearing her body into shreds—a horrible nightmare. About the time she had finished describing one of those fearful experiences and was in the act of asking me for advice, we were passing an object on the outside that interested the little girl; quickly she turned and began peering through the window. She was in no danger. Her head was not projected beyond the window. The nervous mother grabbed the little girl by the body and cried, “You are falling! You are falling!” My reply to her request for advice was, “My! if you should handle me that way, I would have a half dozen nightmares here in open daylight.” I told that mother that her daughter’s nervousness was due to bad heredity and bad environment and that she was responsible for both.

Personal purity.—As soon as a child begins to enquire about its origin, it is old enough to be told{61} the truth in the right way. Some children become interested when they are three and four, all normal children by the time they are seven. Since the inquiring mind will not rest satisfied until a plausible answer has been received, and since the ignorant and vicious youth is ever alert and anxious to give this information in a pernicious way, it behooves the thoughtful parents to safeguard their children with the truth told in the right way. No normal boy should reach the age of eight, or girl the age of ten, before they have been told the story of life.

Children often discover, or are taught, the secret vice at a very early age. Sex consciousness and pleasure may be early developed because of some unnatural conditions of the sex organs. For this reason, parents should know that these parts are normal in their children. When children are observed to frequently handle, or scratch these organs, unnatural conditions should be suspected. The child should not be slapped or scolded, rather call in the family physician. Trying to keep a child ignorant concerning this vice is impossible, therefore unwise. There is not one boy in fifty who does not know of the vice, and understands the language used to describe it. Trying to keep a child from vicious companions is good as far as it goes, but the facts are that the child is most likely to discover the vice himself, while it is hardly possible to keep a{62} child entirely away from the vicious. The only sane method is to teach the child the laws of personal purity. If the secret vice is to be prevented, some children should receive council when they are six, others at eight, all by the time they are ten or twelve. Children have inherited lustful tendencies. Their troubles are more largely from within than from without. Hence the children that have been most carefully guarded from bad company and kept in ignorance are usually the ones who are most injured by the secret sin. A single talk to a child is not sufficient. We frequently instruct and appeal to the child to be obedient, truthful and honest; in like manner we should at reasonable periods instruct and encourage him to keep his thoughts and desires pure.{63}

Social conditions of childhood changed.—The social conditions of childhood have changed much in the last fifty years. Just as our children have opportunities and possibilities far greater than had we when we were children; so they are exposed to temptations and dangers greater than were we, when we were children. The suggestive, and oft-times positively obscene pictures on post cards, in books and on billboards; the viciously immoral literature; the cheap moving picture shows of to-day, were not social problems threatening the purity of our childhood.

Knowledge of self important.—There were ethical, biological and vital truths that our parents, because of mock modesty and a false and inadequate education, failed to give us in our childhood. This was a serious defect in our early education. We met with temptations, were often overcome by them and we are not{64} what we might have been had we been safeguarded by a better knowledge of ourselves. But, because of the better social conditions of our childhood, we were better able to grow up without this information and with less injury to ourselves, than our children can, without this information, under present social conditions. If we would safeguard the character of the children of to-day and the youths of to-morrow and the manhood and the womanhood of the succeeding day we must give our children a correct knowledge of themselves.

The confidence of childhood.—When children are born, they have a capacity for learning how to stand alone, crawl, walk, love and hate, speak and read, to judge of what is right and wrong. All they may come to know in the future, true or false, good or evil, they must learn. Coming into our homes without knowledge and utterly helpless, they naturally come to recognize their parents as their rightful teachers and to have absolute confidence in them. Ask a child from three to ten years old who he thinks is the best man in the world. The reply will be, “my papa.” Ask him who he thinks is the best woman in the world. The instinctive reply will be, “my mamma.” The answer may be true or false, but we do not question the sincerity of the child. The greatest calamity that can come to that child, comes when he is compelled by convincing evidence to reverse in his judgment this sincere{65} and implicit faith in the goodness of his parents. No greater misfortune than this, can come to the parents. This natural and complete confidence and dependence of the child gives the parents a very decided advantage over all other teachers in the future training of the child.

Inquisitiveness of childhood.—It is because of this natural confidence that the child goes to the parents with his many questions. The almost ceaseless activity and playfulness of a child, are in response to nature’s call for exercise in the natural and healthful development of every organ of the body. The many questions of a child are in response to nature’s call for exercise in the development of every faculty of the mind. The unfolding, growing, developing mind of a child naturally asks questions. It is for this reason that a child is said to be an animated interrogation point. Some of the questions of a child may perplex a philosopher, tax the patience of a Job, or embarrass a brass monkey; but the naturalness and sincerity of the child demand honesty, frankness and wisdom on the part of parents.

How did I get into this world?—At the age of three, four and five the child will begin to ask questions as, “Where does the rain come from? Where does the snow come from? Where do the clouds come from?” When kittens, pups, pigs, a calf, a colt{66} are born, the child very naturally asks about their origin. The child is told repeatedly that he is four, five or six years old; that he has had that number of birthdays and has seen that number of Christmases. He remembers only half of them. He listens with interest to his parents as they relate some thrilling event of years gone by. A bright inquiring child will naturally ask, “Mamma, was I in the world at that time?” The mamma replies, “No, darling, that happened six months before you were born.” How very natural it was for the child to ask, “Well, mamma, where was I at that time? How did I get into the world?” An angel could not be more sincere, or ask a purer question. This was no evidence of the child’s depravity. When I find a child of seven or eight years old who has not asked about his origin, I know that one of three conditions will explain this unusual mental state of the child. (1) The parents have not encouraged the child’s mental development by permitting him to be free in asking questions. (2) The child has heard the story of life told by vicious companions, in half truths, clothed in vulgar language and is keeping his information a secret from his parents. (3) The child is not developing quite as fast as I would like for my child to develop.

The unsatisfied mind.—When the inquiring mind of a child has once become interested in this question,{67} it is not possible for him to be satisfied until a plausible answer has been received. The child’s future, physical, mental and moral life more largely depends upon the answer given to this question, than to any other question of his childhood.

The most vital part of a child’s education neglected.—In the past, parents, teachers, reformers and ministers have very largely held to the old theory, that, if children are to be kept pure and innocent, they must be kept ignorant of all information pertaining to sex. We have them learn the physiology, anatomy and hygiene of their brain, heart, lungs, digestive and nervous systems as if their very lives depended upon a correct knowledge of these parts; but we have allowed them to grow up in total ignorance concerning the sacred sanctuary and function of human reproduction, upon which so much of health, happiness and success in life depends.

Mistakes of the past.—In the past all faithful parents have loved their children as much as we have loved our children. They were as much interested in safeguarding the virtue of their children as are the parents of to-day. They endeavored to train their children in harmony with their ideals of right. Our parents, in their childhood, got the idea that all language and information concerning sex was essentially impure. All their information was received from vicious, ignorant{68} sources. In matured life, they came to see that all the words and language they had heard pertaining to sex and all the mental and moral impressions they had received, had done them great harm. Their experience led them unwisely to conclude that all information of this kind is injurious to a child. They failed to see the difference between receiving only half-truths, expressed in vulgar words and phrases, taught by the vicious and ignorant; and in receiving the pure truth, in chaste language from the lips of a wise teacher, a noble father or a pure mother. A nugget of gold may be pure gold, whether found in a mud hole, a slop bucket, a tar bucket, or a clear stream of water. But, if you come in contact with the surroundings of the gold, your remaining clean, becoming cleaner, or becoming soiled, will depend on the place where you find the gold. The effects, good or bad, of sex knowledge, upon a child are largely determined by where and how he gets his information. If he gets this information from a careful and wise teacher no harm can come from it. If he gets the information from the misinformed and the impure, only harm will follow.

To teach sex truths, two qualifications necessary.—You would not think of having your child taught mathematics by one, who, himself, was never properly taught, or who knew only half-truths about mathematics.{69} You might not demand of him a moral qualification, if he possessed the intellectual equipment. But, in the teaching of sex, a moral qualification is even more necessary than the intellectual. But few adults are prepared to tell the story of life to a child, and fewer still are prepared to give additional instruction as the child grows older. For one to do this work successfully two qualifications are absolutely necessary. (1) Parents and teachers must have a moral qualification. They must regard the organs of sex and their functions as pure and sacred. If they have the taint of lasciviousness in their thoughts of the creative function, it would be a dangerous experiment for them to attempt to teach their children about the origin of life, or to give other instruction to those more advanced in years. The misinformation and false education they received in childhood and the consequent mock modesty, are the greatest difficulties in the way of their performing this sacred duty to their children. For this reason the adult classes are as much in need of correct instruction in sex as are the children. (2) Parents and teachers must have a mental qualification. One-fifth of the names referring to the organs of sex, their functions and their abuse, that adults are forced to use when they try to express their thoughts about sex, could not be found in the dictionary, and, one-half of those that could be found{70} in the dictionary would not refer in their meaning, even remotely, to the sexual system. They picked up these words in childhood from ignorant schoolmates and companions whose minds were tainted with debasing thoughts of sex. The use of these vulgar words, in the presence of a boy who has heard them before, suggests to his mind that which is lascivious. Those who would teach these things, to the young or old, should be able to command a chaste, clean, plain, language.

How a father failed.—During one of my courses of lectures, a cultured lawyer invited me to his office for an interview. He reproduced, in language and gesture as best he could, a speech he had made to his twelve-year old boy warning him of the dangers of the secret sin. I saw the lawyer was deeply interested in his boy. He loved him and was deeply concerned about his future. The language he used was the same he had learned when a boy and the same his boy had evidently heard on the playground. I question whether the father’s advice did his son much good. Here was a case where good service was neutralized by suggestive language.

How a teacher failed.—A few months ago I lectured in a city where immorality was appalling. The superintendent of schools called into the chapel about six hundred boys, from ten to eighteen, and attempted{71} to lecture them on social purity. He soon became embarrassed, used some street terms, excited lascivious thoughts, looks, smiles and laughter among the boys and utterly failed in his efforts. If this lawyer and teacher failed with the advantages and solicitude they must have had, would not the great mass of parents, teachers and ministers fail for the same reasons.

Parents not wholly responsible.—A few editors, doctors and reformers have censured parents severely for not teaching their children the truth on these subjects. They should remember that ten years ago a very few parents had read a sane book or listened to an intelligent lecture on these subjects. Their only information had been gained from the playground and street on the sly. Courses of lectures, adapted to age and sex, should be given in every community. Ministers, teachers, physicians, merchants, parents, young and old, educated and uneducated, all should hear them. A few standard books on sex-hygiene and social purity should be put in every home. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” More people are in physical, mental and moral slavery because of ignorance concerning the laws of sex, than all other causes combined. It follows that those who have learned the truth should impart it to those who have it not.

How children have been treated in the past.—We{72} have seen how parents have been led in the past to conclude that all information as to the origin of life is injurious to a child. For a child to inquire, “Where was I before I was born? How did I get into this world?” was a sure sign of his depravity. As a result of these traditionary ideas some parents have slapped a child for asking about his origin. Still, others have scolded and ordered the child from the room, commanding him never to ask such ugly questions again. What must be the feelings of a child treated in such an unappreciative and heartless way! Such treatment has never satisfied the inquiring mind of any child. Under such treatment a child will go off alone, pained and puzzled to know what was wrong in that simple, natural, honest question. In most cases the child’s question has been evaded by some one of a hundred falsehoods about “swamps,” “sinkholes,” “hollow logs and stumps,” “bird nests,” “storks,” “old women,” “doctor’s satchel,” and “under a cabbage head.” When only a small boy, I was called from my bed early one spring morning to see a beautiful colt the mare had found. For awhile I looked at the colt with admiration and wonder. Then I very naturally inquired, “Where did the mare find her colt?” I was told that she found it in a nearby brush pile. For the next six months no brush pile escaped my eager eyes.{73}

An example.—On my second lecture trip through Canada, a father told me how he answered his little girl’s question, “Papa, how did I get into this world?” His answer was as follows: “Daughter, God dropped you out of heaven one day while it was raining. Papa saw you falling from a cloud and ran out and caught you in his arms and brought you into the house.” That father was boasting of his tact and wisdom.

Another example.—A mother in the South, in reply to a similar question asked by her five-year-old boy, said: “Son, God sent you into this town on the Cotton Belt train, about three o’clock one afternoon. The doctor was at the depot and saw you. He knew that we wanted a little boy, so he put you in his satchel and brought you to mamma.” When this mother related this to me, her boy was nine years old and had not asked her another word about his origin. At the close of my lecture, with tears in her eyes, she said: “Professor, do you suppose that my little boy has been hearing vulgar stories and is keeping his information a secret from mamma?” “Yes, nine times out of ten, if you have a bright boy,” was my reply. Upon investigation she found that her boy had been hearing vulgar talk for about three years. How long do you suppose it will take that boy to eradicate from his mind and heart the evil effects of such training? It is not a question whether your{74} child and mine shall get this information or not. That question is settled. The child will get the information. The questions for us to settle are: When shall this information be given? Who shall give it? What shall be given? How shall it be given?

Results of the old method.—I shall not call in question the love, sincerity and honesty of these parents. In most cases they were sincere and did the best they knew how. I am concerned about the results of this time-honored method. Did the old method of deception, misleading and false replies ever satisfy the inquiring mind of a child? Did the old method ever make a child wiser? Did it ever lead a child to regard human reproduction as delicate, sacred and pure? Did it ever lead a child to greater love and faith in its parents? Only negative answers can be given to all these questions.

How the child finds out.—As a rule, it is not long after a child becomes interested in his origin until some older child, a playmate or servant will say, “I know something that you do not know. You would like to know it. It is how little children come into this world. I will tell you all about it, if you will not tell your mamma and papa about it.” I do not care how good the child may be, how well trained, or how obedient: such is the intense interest of a child in the{75} mystery of his life that he will agree to keep the story a secret. Now the child listens eagerly to the half-truths, couched in impure language and gets a perverted vision of the origin of life.

What are some of the results?—Five very sad misfortunes have come to the child. (1) The child has learned that his parents evaded his question; in most cases, he discovers the answer to have been a falsehood. (2) To the extent that the child comprehends the falsehood, does he lose confidence in his parents. (3) He has learned to keep these vital matters a secret from his parents. (4) The child cannot think of his parents’ relation to the initial of his life, except in terms of vulgarity. Early images do not easily leave the mind of a child. Ugly words, impure pictures, obscene language, with all their vile suggestiveness, ofttimes remain through life. (5) He regards the organs of sex and their functions as vile and sinful. God never planned that any human being should entertain any such degrading and demoralizing views of the divinely created organs and function of human reproduction. It is impossible to estimate the evil effects of this false training. Yet, there are many people, often very religious, who estimate their modesty, refinement and culture by the degree of conscious shame they have when questions of sex are referred to. Just to the extent that we fail to see that God is{76} the author of sex, that sex is sacred and pure, our glory and not our shame, has a false training degraded us.

Boys lose confidence in their parents.—You ask, does a child lose confidence in his parents when he has discovered that they have told him a falsehood about his origin? Certainly he does. In the past three years not fewer than seven hundred and fifty young men from eighteen to thirty-five have written me for advice in regard to their youthful indiscretions. One question I have invariably asked those young men, “Did your father ever warn you of your sexual dangers?” Only two have replied in the affirmative. Those young men were once as innocent and pure as your little boy. They first went to their parents for information about these delicate matters. They were treated as I have described. They received their information from sources and in a way that led to sexual abuse.

Girls lose confidence in mother.—While on a seven thousand-mile lecture trip, in company with twenty other lecturers, conducting purity conventions in many of the large cities in the United States and Canada, after the evening sessions were over, in company with one or two detectives and other parties of our crowd, we visited the “red light” districts and saw several thousand erring girls from twelve to twenty years old.{77} Those girls were once as innocent, pure and sweet as yours or mine. They first went to their mothers and asked about the origin of their lives. Those were golden opportunities for safeguarding the virtue of those girls. More easily than at any other time in life could those girls have been impressed with the sacredness of sex. At no other time in life is it so true that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Much more of Christian effort is put forth to rescue the fallen than to prevent the youths from falling. More churches are open to lectures on rescue work than on preventive work. More money can be raised for rescue work than can be raised to prevent youths from falling.

Boys and girls want to know the real truth.—One morning a number of high school boys requested that I give them a lecture more advanced than the one I had given. While passing through the hall, at the close of this special lecture to the young men, I was approached by the lady principal with the request from the high school girls for a special lecture. She told me that fourteen had made the request and that several added: “We wish that Prof. Shannon was a lady lecturer. There are so many things we would like to know, but would hesitate to ask a gentleman lecturer.” Then the lady teacher added, “I said, girls, why do you not ask your mamma for such information?”{78} With hands uplifted, a look of surprise, a gasp for breath, those girls replied: “I would not think of asking mamma such questions.” Why not? Let me tell you why. When they were little innocent girls they went to their mothers with their first questions of sex. They were treated as already indicated. Their inquiring minds and unsatisfied interests in the mysteries of life led them to go elsewhere for this information. It was at this point in their lives that a chasm started to form between themselves and their mothers. There is not one boy in twenty-five who will go voluntarily to his father for information or advice about his sex-nature. The same statement is almost as true about girls and their mothers.

1,000,000 children adrift.—1,500,000 children are born annually in this Christian nation. One-third of this number die before they are ten years old. Annually one million children inquire, “How did I get into this world?” Not more than one in twenty receive a kind, truthful and intelligent reply. More than nine-tenths are treated in one of the following ways: (1) Told some one of fifty falsehoods. (2) A slap, with orders to clear out. (3) Some form of ridicule, such as “shame on you.” “Don’t let me hear you ask such an ugly question again.” “I am disgusted with you.” That settles it. The golden{79} cords of confidence and influence are severed. Never again will those children go to their parents for information pertaining to sex. Elsewhere, they will find friends who will gladly give them the information. These children, one million strong, are now adrift on the storm-tossed sea of passion, without chart or compass; drifting, drifting, drifting for years toward ports, to them, unknown.

{80}

The virtue of a quarter of a million of boys sacrificed.—Time passes. The boys are now sixteen to twenty-five. They have boon and base companions. Their imaginations are at fever heat with morbid interest and their ambitions are aflame with daring. One quarter of a million young men annually sacrifice the priceless gem of manhood’s virtue just here. Now, they are nearing the fearful rapids of vice where most of this number annually become diseased and many perish as sex-maniacs in the awful maelstrom of lust.

60,000 girls annually.—With the passing of time, the girls from twelve to seventeen, many without the safeguard of knowledge, are associating freely, gayly with their boon male companions, exposed to all the temptations and dangers incident to young womanhood. Many, many thousand young women annually sacrifice the priceless gem of womanhood’s virtue just here. Owing to the double standard of morals, sixty thousand of this number are forced against their own wills into the public maelstroms of immorality.

Who is to blame.—Thousands of poor prudish parents line the shores, and, with broken, bleeding hearts are crying out in anguish, “My God, my God, why has this awful blow fallen on us?” The poor, ignorant, diseased, exiled, passion-ridden children, in many cases beyond the reach of the home, society and{81} the church, exclaim, “Oh, if I had only been told of these dangers!”

All along the almost socially inaccessible rock-bound shores of this sea of human passion, the churches and philanthropists are building and maintaining rescue and foundling homes at an outlay of millions in money. They are not, and cannot, rescue one in twenty. The foundling homes are crowded to a dangerous, unsanitary overflowing with illegitimate children, whose mothers are out in the rapids of vice, or entirely lost in the maelstrom of immorality. Too long have the churches been satisfied with snatching, here and there, a piece of human wreckage from the waves of vice, instead of erecting a lighthouse system of properly warning and informing the childhood of the land.

The new way.—We have seen the results of the old way of dealing with children in matters of sex. Is there a new and better way? We shall see. “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” The new and better way is to tell the truth to the child.

How shall a child be told.—One day when our little girls were four and six, wife said, “Husband, I am in trouble about our little girls. They are asking where they were before they were born and how they got into this world. How am I to answer them?” “Tell them{82} the truth,” was my reply. “But, they are not old enough to be told the whole truth,” was her reply. We talked over the problem and arrived at the following solution of the problem: Since I had been a teacher of biology for years, and it was presumed that I was familiar with the stories of life among the plants and animals, it was agreed that I should at once tell them a nice little story about God’s beautiful plan of bringing all the little plants into the world. Six months later I was to tell them the story of life about the oysters and fish. Every six months to a year I was to tell them a more advanced story. As they were girls, wife reserved the right to tell them the last story to be told when they were nine and ten.

These stories were all told in the order given. Our girls are now twelve and fourteen. We have never had an occasion to regret that we have followed this natural method of instructing them. They seem to have no morbid curiosity about questions of sex. They look upon the facts as being natural, sacred and pure. Wife and I can approach them on these subjects without embarrassment to them or us.

When should a child be told?—The average boy should be told all these stories by the time he is eight, not later than nine. The average girl should be told all these stories by the time she is nine, not later than ten. The developing mind of the average child and{83} the social influences to which he is exposed, demand that he be safeguarded by the whole truth, this early in life. While the girl and boy develop alike until they are ten or eleven, the boy being exposed to vicious companions more than is his sister, he should be told the story of life earlier than she. At the age of seven, boys know more about these things than the girls do at ten and twelve. You had better tell the child the truth at six, than to have him told by the vicious at the age of seven. If a child could understand the story of life at three, and was properly trained afterward, this information could not do him one particle of harm. This statement is either absolutely true, or God is the author of a plan of human increase, the knowledge of which is essentially sinful. Personally, I decline to believe the latter.

If the child has been informed by vicious playmates or servants and his mind has been tainted, the only sane and safe method is to tell him the full truth as quickly as possible, regardless of his age.

If the child has been allowed to grow up to the age of nine or ten, ignorant of the story of life, I would tell him all the stories, beginning with the first story, telling them only a few days apart. Where parents are not prepared to do this, I would advise them to place a suitable book, presenting these stories in a clear, chaste and interesting way, in the hands of the{84} child, saying, “Here is a very interesting little book telling you just what you will be interested in knowing and what I would like for you to understand.”

The ideal way.—The ideal way would be to start with the child when he first inquires about his origin, telling him the first story about the plants. Promise to tell him other stories about the oysters, fish, insects, birds, animals and man as he grows older and can understand them. Where a child is naturally very inquisitive and insists on knowing more, I would not hold him off too long for the next story.

How to introduce each new story.—I would introduce each new story by reviewing the story of the plants and flowers. There are at least three reasons for this. (1) You can go into all the details of reproduction in the flower without danger of awakening the sex consciousness of the child. (2) It saves going into the detail when you have come to the higher animals and man. The child’s mind usually comprehends more than we give it credit for. If he understands the details of reproduction in the flower, his innocent fancy will fill in the details when he hears the other stories. (3) If he has been so unfortunate as to fall in with bad company at any time and his mind has been tainted with their stories, there is no means you can use in ridding his mind of impurity,{85} quite so effectively, as by telling him the story of life in the flower.

Teaching these truths in the public schools.—The violation of the laws of sex is the chief cause of physical, mental and moral degeneracy. The degenerate classes are increasing at an appalling rate. Correct sex-instruction in childhood is the most important and effective step in the solution of this problem. There is a growing conviction among the students of sociology that sex-hygiene should be taught in the public schools. There are some teachers in all departments of school work, who, in morals at least, are not fitted for this delicate work. At present, an extremely few have the educational qualification for this delicate work. When teachers are required to take a course of training in these subjects, there will still be but few who are possessed of the natural talent for effectively and wisely presenting these subjects to children of the different grades.

Already colleges and universities and even a few high schools have begun to teach sex hygiene in a limited scientific way. This work will first be introduced into the high school work and later, gradually be introduced into the lower grades. Definite instruction will not be given, for many years at least, and possibly never, to boys under eight, and girls under ten or eleven. If this statement is true, it will be seen that{86} the schools will have left the first and most important part of this training to be done in the home. The teaching of morals in the public school can never be substituted for the teaching of morals in the home. The present great awakening on these subjects will shortly result in three-fourths of the parents teaching these truths in their homes. Since one-fourth of the children do not get any moral instruction in the home and they do not go to Sunday school or church, the public school is the only place where they can be given moral training for citizenship.

How this can be done.—In my opinion, the safest and most effective method of dealing with these questions in the public schools, for the present at least, would be for the school boards in two or three counties to select and employ a gentleman and a lady lecturer, having natural gifts, moral and educational qualifications, whose duty it shall be to lecture to all the boys and girls; the male lecturer, lecturing to the boys and the lady lecturer, lecturing to the girls. All other teachers should be required to be sufficiently versed in these matters to enable them to solve any individual problems that may arise in their social relations to the pupils in school.{87}

The author’s experience.—When our girls, Fay and Fern, were six and four years of age, they became interested in learning about their coming into the world. Their mamma had told me of their puzzling questions. We agreed that I should tell them a story of life, every six months or a year, until they were nine or ten. Then their mamma should tell them the last story, the story of their life.

A few days later some young men, whom we were helping through college, and I were working among the flowers, when one of the girls made some inquiry about the relation of birds. This naturally opened the way for my first talk. I promised her and her sister a very interesting story at the rest hour at noon. As ever, they were both anxious to hear a new story. Dinner over, they followed me into the greenhouse. I gathered a number of flowers and invited them to be seated near me while I told them the story.

Praise a child for asking.—I opened the story by saying, “Mamma tells me that you have become interested in knowing where you were before you were{88} born and how you got into this world. We have talked together about your interest in this matter and we are glad that you have asked these questions, and especially because you came first to us. For you to ask these questions so early in life indicates that you are very bright and intelligent. We are your natural teachers. We love you as no one else does or can. In the future, anything you wish to know about yourselves, come to us and we will take pleasure in telling you all that is best for you to know.”

Why the child should be told gradually.—You would like to be able to read and understand all there is in the fourth reader. There is nothing in the fourth reader that could do you a particle of harm. There are many things in the fourth reader that you could not understand. Papa and mamma might read and try to explain them to you. Still, there would be some things that we could not make plain to you, for the reason that you are not old enough for your little minds to grasp them. You understand that you must learn first what there is in the first reader. When you have learned all there is in it, then you are ready for the second reader. The mastery of the second reader prepares you for the third and the third reader prepares you for the fourth. There are some things that you understand to-day, that you could not understand six months ago. This great world is full of things{89} that you cannot understand now; but, as you grow older and your mind grows stronger, step by step, you will learn and understand things that you cannot understand now. There are so many things in this world that may be known, that no one lives long enough to learn them all. Just so, you would like to know how God brings little children into this world. This is God’s wonderful plan. It could not do you a bit of harm to know all about it, if you could understand it. But you are not old enough now. Papa can tell you a beautiful story about how God brings all the little sprigs of grass, weeds, vegetables and trees into the world now, and in a few months I can tell you about the mussels, oysters and fish. Then, when you are a year older, I will tell you about the birds; later, I will tell you about the higher animals. When you are eight or ten, mamma will tell you the last story—God’s beautiful plan of bringing little children into the home.

Some things right one time and wrong at another.—You are both old enough to know that there are some things we do that is right for us to do under certain conditions, but would be very wrong for us to do under other conditions. Some things would be right to do during the week, but wrong if done on Sunday. Every few days you take an all-over bath. It is perfectly right for you to take these baths and for{90} your mamma to help you. All people, who desire to live cleanly lives and enjoy good health, take frequent all-over baths. But you have noticed that when you take baths, other people are not invited to be present, not even papa is present. This is because our bodies are sacred. We wear clothing that our bodies may not be exposed to the gaze of other people.

We do not speak the name of God and Jesus in a light and frivolous way because these names are sacred.

Why we do not talk about the origin of life.—One of the most delicate, pure and sacred experiences connected with human life is God’s beautiful plan of bringing little children into the home. It is so sacred, pure and delicate that good people seldom speak of it, and never in a light and foolish way. It is for this reason that you have never heard your mamma and papa speak of it. It is right for fathers and mothers, husbands and wives to speak to each other about this matter; also, for grown people, when there is some good reason for doing so. It is not wise or best for little children to talk about how children come into the world except to their parents. We are your natural teachers and we want you always to feel free to come to us with questions about things of this nature. When you are older you will understand better why papa gives you this advice.{91}

Many men and women, boys and girls have not been carefully trained to be good. They get angry and quarrel or fight, use bad language, break the Sabbath, and do many other wrong things. Some appear to take pleasure in doing wrong and in leading others to do wrong. This class of people do not look upon God’s plan of bringing little children into the world as being pure and sacred. They use very bad language when they try to talk about the story of life or tell it to others. When little children hear these people talk about the story of life, their little minds and hearts are filled with bad words and very wicked thoughts. In this way many little boys and girls are started wrong in life and they are sure to have a hard and painful struggle to rid themselves of impure thoughts, words and habits in after life.

It may not be very long until some schoolmate or someone older than you will say, “I know something that you don’t. You would like to know it and I will tell you, if you will not tell your papa and mamma about it.” Now, girls, whenever someone wants to tell you something and asks you not to tell your mamma and papa, you may be sure that it is wrong, that it will injure you, and most likely it is false. Mamma and papa would advise you to say to them, “We don’t want to hear anything that we cannot talk about to mamma and papa.”{92}

Story of the plants.—The story of life that papa will tell you to-day will be about the plants, vegetables and trees, how their young come into the world. Papa has gathered some beautiful flowers with which to illustrate the story. This will be our first lesson in Botany. Every part of a plant has special names. Many of the names are too difficult for you to remember. When you get older you will learn and remember the names. The story of life in all flowering plants begins in the flower.

The outer parts.—At sight, we notice that the many parts of a flower are arranged in whorls or circles. The outer whorl is called the (1) calix. You will notice that in some of these flowers, the calix is highly colored, in others it looks like little green leaves and in some of the flowers the calix is absent. You will observe that in some flowers the calix is composed of four or more parts. These separate parts are called (2) sepals. In other flowers the sepals have grown together so they appear to be only one sepal. In such flowers we count the sepals by the small notches on top.

The second whorl is called the (3) corolla. This whorl is usually the most highly colored part of the flower. If either of these whorls is absent in a flower, it is the calix. Sometimes both whorls are absent. The separate parts of the corolla are called{93} (4) petals. Sometimes the petals are separate from the base of the flower. In other flowers they are more or less united.

The papa parts.—While the calix and corolla form the most attractive and beautiful parts, they are not the most important parts of a flower. The prettiest things are not always the best or most useful things. Let us now carefully examine these central organs. They are called the essential organs. Were it not for these organs in the flowers, no new grasses, plants, vegetables and trees would come into this world. Such a misfortune would rob this world of most of its beauty and much of its value. In this flower, the next whorl consists of a number of small slender organs. These are called (5) stamens. They are the father parts of the flower and possess the father nature. On top of these organs are little delicate bodies, poised lightly, and filled with a very fine dust. These little bodies are called (6) anthers. The fine grains of powder are called pollen. You can rub the pollen off with your finger. This dust varies slightly in color in different flowers.

The mamma parts.—The central organ in this flower is called the pistil. The pistil is composed of three parts. At the base of the pistil is the (7) pod, more correctly called the ovary. In the ovary little seed are formed. On top of the ovary is a slender{94} organ called the style. On top of the style is a spongy enlargement called the (9) stigma. The stigma, style and ovary form the mother part of the flower and possess the mother nature. In some plants each flower has more than one pistil.

How the papa and mamma natures unite.—When the pollen is ripe, the anther cells burst open and the{95} little, light, powdery pollen falls out and it is carried by gravity, the wind or by insects to the stigma. The little pores of the stigma open and admit the grains of pollen and the style carries the pollen to the ovary where it unites with the little seed. The seed are then said to be fertilized. This means that the father and mother natures have united in the seed. The seed grow and develop in the ovary. While this is being done, food for the little baby plants to live on while only a day or two old, is being stored up in the seed. In such seed is the tiny beginning of a future plant. The seed ripen in the pod. The pod bursts open and the seed fall upon the ground, or men gather them, and later plant them in the soil. The spring sunshine and rain cause the seed to sprout and as tiny stems appear above the ground, only an inch or so high, they are nothing in the world but little baby sprigs of grass, little baby weeds, little baby vegetables or little baby trees.

When God created the first grasses, plants and trees, He commanded them to be “fruitful and multiply.” In this story you have learned how all the grown-up plants and trees obey this command of God.

The two natures do not always exist in the same flower.—In the flowers we have studied, we found both the male and female organs in the same flower.{96} Each flower possessed the two natures, male and female. But this is not true of all plants and trees. In some plants and trees flowers can be found having only stamens. These would be father-flowers. They could not produce seed or fruit. On some plants and trees may be found flowers having only pistils. These are mother-flowers. Flowers of these two kinds may be found growing on the same limb of a plant or tree, or on different limbs, or on different trees. The poplar and willow trees are examples of the last kind.

In the case of the Indian corn, the ear of corn, including the cob, the grains, shuck and silk form the mother part of the cornstalk. The tassel of the cornstalk is the father part and contains the father nature. The tassel produces a great deal of pollen. You have, on passing through a patch of corn, noticed the pollen falling everywhere and covering everything. Ears of corn sometimes have as many as 1000 grains of corn to the cob. Each grain sends out one or more little silks beyond the shuck to catch some of the pollen. Should these little silks fail to catch the grains of pollen, no grains of corn would form on the cob. The father and mother natures must unite if little seed are formed. From this we learn why it is that every little sprig of grass, weed, vegetable, and tree must have a father and mother and their natures must unite.{97}

The three methods.—We mentioned three ways by which the pollen from the male organs is carried to the stigma of the female organ: wind, gravity and insects. In the corn, the ears are below the tassel and gravity is all that is necessary to carry the pollen to the silks. Where one tree bears bloom having only stamens and another tree of the same species bears flowers having only pistils, nature may use both the wind and insects in carrying the pollen from the male to the female tree. In some plants and trees the blooms are so constructed that gravity and the wind are of but little service. In such flowers a sweet juice is formed at the base of the flower. This attracts the bees and insects. As they press down into the flower to sip the sweet juice they rub off some of the pollen on to their wings, legs and back. The next flower they enter, some of this pollen is rubbed off on the stigma of that flower. In this way the seed are fertilized. From this we see that the real purpose of the sweet juice in the flower, is not produced for food for the insects, but for the purpose of attracting the insects so they may carry the pollen from one flower to another.

A most wise, sacred and beautiful plan.—In this little story, you have learned in a general way God’s plan of bringing all little grasses, plants, vegetables and trees into being that come from a seed. You have learned two great laws, namely; every plant that comes{98} from a seed must have a father and mother, and, the father and mother natures must unite in the seed. These two great laws are just as true in the animals and in the human family as among the plants. When we most admire a beautiful bed of flowers or a blooming tree, when we gather a bouquet of flowers to wear, or offer to a friend, at that very moment the two natures are uniting for the purpose of increasing their kind. God is the author of the male and female organs of the plants and for this reason the union of their two natures is sacred and pure. Plants were the first living things that God made; man was the last. The plants were at the bottom of God’s work of creation; man was at the top. If the same laws we have found in the plants, that enable them to bring their little children into the world, are the same laws that enable human fathers and mothers to bring their little children into the world, and since we found this plan to be sacred and pure among all the flowers; then this same plan, when used in the human family, must be pure and sacred. If man is so much higher in the scale of life than the flower, then these laws must be even more sacred in the human family. This will show you how very degrading it is to entertain low and vulgar thoughts about the coming of little children into this world, as some people do.{99}

The story of baby oysters.—Before telling this story to my little girls I reviewed the story of the plants. This refreshed in their minds certain very important laws that they had learned in the first talk. This talk was given when they were about six and eight years old.

In studying the story of life among the plants, you will remember that we learned that in most plants the male and female organs of sex were in the same flower. Among the lower forms of animal life, we find both the male and female natures in the same animal. The oyster furnishes a good example. These little animals are surrounded with and fastened to a very hard and heavy shell. These animals live in great masses and their shells are cemented together. Growing in this way they cannot move about, or mix and mingle with each other. The mother parts of the oyster produce little eggs which are fertilized by a substance formed by other organs containing the father nature. The fertilized egg, when laid, floats off and becomes attached to the shell of some oyster on a nearby rock.{100} Later, it hatches and the little baby oyster forms about its body a hard shell that is made larger as the little animal grows. In this way the little oysters come into the world. Among the oysters, we find the same laws that we found in the plants, i. e., each baby oyster must have a father and mother and the father and mother natures must unite. In the plants the father and mother natures unite in a little seed; in the oyster this union takes place in a little egg.

When God made the fish, lizards, snakes, birds and higher animals, he gave to one a papa or male nature, with suitable sexual organs; to another animal of the same kind he gave a mamma or female nature, with suitable female or sexual organs. In the plants we find that the female sexual organs, the ovaries, produced little seed. We found that the male sexual organs, the stamens, produced a fine powdery substance called pollen. Among the animals, the sexual organs of the mother produces little eggs and the sexual organs of the father produces a fluid called semen.

The story of baby fish.—Now we will study the fish. In the spring season of the year thousands of tiny eggs are formed in the ovaries of the mother fish. When these eggs are matured, the mother fishes swim in large crowds, called “schools,” from the deep water of a stream, river or sea to some shallow place that seems to them to be suitable for a nest or home for their{101} young. The mother fishes lay their eggs in a mass of albuminous substance, like the white of an egg, that spreads out in a very thin sheet holding the little eggs one in a place and close together. The father fishes swim along sometimes a foot, a yard or more behind the mothers and expel from their bodies the semen that unites with and fertilizes the eggs. This special fluid of the male fish is formed by his sexual glands, called testes. In this way the father nature unites with the mother nature to produce every little fish that comes into this world.

Why the mother fish lays so many eggs.—The female fish forms thousands of these little eggs in her body each year. The female codfish has been known to lay as many as 6,000,000 eggs in one season. You could not count as many in a lifetime. The reason why the mother fish produces so many eggs is, that not one fish egg in twenty-five, on an average, will ever hatch and not more than one out of twenty-five little fishes ever grow to be an inch long. They have little, or no, protection, and they have so many enemies. There are hogs, turtles, crocodiles and alligators; the ducks, geese and other water fowls; as well as most of the fish that feed upon fish eggs and small fish. That the streams, rivers and seas may be kept supplied with an abundance of fish, God has planned for the mother fish to lay thousands of eggs.{102}

All baby fish are orphans.—Most kinds of fish leave their eggs as soon as they are laid and fertilized and never see or know their young. There are a few male fish, known as game fish, which swim over and around the eggs until they are hatched to keep other kinds of fish from eating the eggs. As soon as the eggs are hatched, he leaves. In this way all little fish grow up as orphans. They never know or enjoy the presence of their parents. The parent fish do not labor or sacrifice for their young, and, for this reason, they have no love for them. Should they ever meet their young in the river or sea they would have no way of knowing them or of feeling any sense of joy.

Fish do not pair off.—We found in the study of the plants that the seed were fertilized while in the pod or ovary. In the fish we found that the eggs are fertilized outside of the mother’s body. In nearly all the animals above the fish the eggs or ova are fertilized while in the mother’s body. There is no love between the male and the female fish. They do not pair off and live in families. Among all the spiders, lizards, serpents, many of the insects, crawfish, frogs and toads there is a tendency, at certain seasons, for the male to choose a female with a view to a home and family. But among all the animals we have named, many of the male and female animals part or leave each other as soon as the eggs are fertilized, and all{103} the others leave each other as soon as the eggs are hatched. The love of the male for the female lasts but for a little time; while there is no love for their young after they are hatched. Before the young are hatched some of their parents show interest in their eggs and make some provisions for their young when hatched. But this is all done before the young are hatched. The young all grow up as little orphans.{104}

When our little girls were seven and nine this talk was given. The previous stories were reviewed bringing out the resemblances and differences. They were permitted to ask questions. In this talk they were very alert to see and apply all the lessons learned from previous stories.

The beginning of love.—In this review of the story of life, among the plants and fish, we found no love or personal feeling between the male and female. Among the insects and reptiles we found that the males and females choose each other, when led by instinct to bring their young into the world. From the fish to the birds we find the simplest form of love and interest on the part of the parents in their young. This is shown by the care the parents take in the protection and care of the eggs and the food prepared for the young before they are hatched. The male crawfish picks up the fertilized eggs with his feelers, that are arranged in a double row underneath his tail, and, by means of these feelers, he carries the eggs close to{105} his body until they are nearly ready to hatch. The frogs and toads show great tenderness for their eggs. A great many books have been written about all these animals and when you are older you will be greatly interested in learning more of the detail of reproduction among these curious animals. Among all the animals we have studied the male and female separate as soon as the eggs are fertilized and laid, in other cases as soon as the eggs begin to hatch. The parent animals show no interest in their young after they are hatched and their children never know their parents or love them.

The ant and the bee.—Two exceptions should be made to the above statement, the bee and the ant. They do not pair off and mate, as do other insects, but they live in colonies, or societies. They do not seem to have any special interest in their offspring or even a mate, but in the whole community of bees or ants. The perfect social organizations they form and the homes they build rival the skill and intelligence of man. There are some interesting books written about the bee and ant by persons who have spent years in studying them. When you are older you may be interested in reading such books.

Baby birds.—We will study God’s plan among the birds. In studying the family life of the birds we find a higher form of instinct, more love and care for{106} each other and their young than among the animals we have studied.

We often feel disgusted at the ugly, slimy toads, lizards and serpents living in swamps and pools. But not so with the birds. Most of them are very interesting and beautiful and some are fine musicians. Among most of the wild birds of the fields and forests, in the spring time the male chooses among the females the one that most suits his fancy and they are mated or married. When they decide to raise them a family they build them a nest. This is their home. The partridge and lark build their nests on the ground, the swallow in chimneys, the pigeons in barns, the woodcocks and woodpeckers in hollow limbs, the wild ducks and geese on the ledges of rocky cliffs, or in the high grass and weeds on the edge of a lake, but most birds build their homes in bushes and trees. The cuckoo does not build a nest, but lays her eggs in the nest of other birds, to get rid of all labor and trouble of hatching, feeding and rearing her young. We feel a natural contempt for the cuckoo. In every female bird there are organs called ovaries where at certain seasons little eggs are formed. While small or soft they are fertilized by the male bird. As the egg grows in the body of the mother bird a hard thin shell is formed around them. When the eggs are fully formed and the nest is completed, the mother bird lays{107} the eggs in the nest, usually one egg a day. For several days these eggs must have some extra heat or they will not hatch. Among most birds, the mother sits on her eggs so that the warmth of her body will cause the fertilized cell in each egg to form the little bird. While she sits on the eggs the father bird gathers fresh berries and worms and brings them to the mother bird to eat. When not bringing her water or food, he is usually found perched upon a nearby limb cheering his wife by talking and singing to her. When her little legs become tired, he will take her place, while she goes and finds fresh food or water. When the little birds are hatched, from sunrise to sunset the parents are busy catching worms and insects and feeding their young. As their children grow older and larger, in some mysterious way, they teach them the danger of men and guns, cats and snakes. When they are about grown they are taught to fly. From this time until the next spring they will live in flocks, when they will again mate and raise a family. In this way all the beautiful feathery songsters are brought into this world.{108}

As the days and months glided by, our little girls were greeted one autumn morning by the advent of a little baby brother. Wife had given consent, years gone by, for me to tell the foregoing stories of life; but, only a few months before the above event, she had requested the privilege of telling this last story, as the girls would naturally ask of her how the little fellow came. This she told them, in a way no doubt, better than I could have done.

In lecturing to multiplied thousands of boys and many hundreds of girls, I have told the stories of life much as I did to my little girls, with this story added.

Baby animals.—We will now study God’s plan of increase in the higher animals and man. We shall find many striking resemblances and interesting variations between the lower forms of life that we have studied and the higher forms that we shall now study. All along the ascending scale of life we have found male and female organs of sex, possessing male and female natures. We have found that the male organs of sex produce a fertilizing substance called pollen in{109} plants and semen in animals; that the female organs of sex produce seeds in plants and eggs in animals. We have found that every new plant, fish, insect, and bird comes from the union of the pollen with the seed, or the semen with the eggs. This last fact is true of the higher animals and man. We found that the seed of the plants are fertilized in the ovaries of the mother organs; that eggs of fish are fertilized outside of the body of the mother; that the eggs of insects and birds are fertilized inside of the mother’s body. This last plan is also true of the higher animals and man. We found that the seed of plants were sown or planted in the soil; that the eggs of fish were deposited in water; that the eggs of insects and birds were laid in some specially arranged place for them, usually called nests. In the higher animals and man the young starts from a tiny fertilized egg and grows in an organ in the mother’s body, called the womb, until it is strong and old enough to be born.

The earliest stage of plant life in the little seed is called an embryo. When the seed has been planted and the little embryo appears above ground, it is then a little baby plant. The earliest stage of animal life in the egg of the fish, insect or bird, is an embryo. The mother part of the plant stores up food in the seed and the growing embryo feeds upon this food, until its little roots have grown down into the soil where they{110} can take up food from the soil and the blades or leaves are large enough to receive light and heat from the sun and food from the atmosphere. The mother fish, insect and bird store up food in their eggs for the little embryos to live upon until they are hatched. Among the higher animals and man, the embryo begins with the tiny fertilized egg in the mother’s womb and receives nourishment and life from the mother’s blood through a duct, called the placenta, which is connected with the mother’s womb at one end while the other end connects with the body of the embryo at a point called the navel. In this way the mother furnishes the young with all the air, food, water and life that it gets until it is born. Among the higher animals and man the young when born are very tender and helpless. For several weeks or months they are fed on milk from their mother’s breasts. In higher forms of life the birth of young is attended by greater sacrifice and suffering than in lower forms of life. For months, and in the case of man, for years, the parents must labor and sacrifice to feed, protect and educate them. Birth in the human family is attended by greater suffering and the little baby is more helpless and tender, and for this reason requires more tender care than the young of any other animal. You have observed that in the lower forms of life where the parents do not have to suffer to bring their young into{111} the world or labor to provide for them food or shelter that they do not love their young. As we ascend the scale of life in our study, we find that love exists between the parents and young just in proportion as the parents suffer and labor for their young.

One of the most impressive and effective ways of telling the story of life in man was told by a wise and queenly mother in the following true story. This mother introduces the story by telling how solicitous she became about her little boy when he was about seven or eight years old. He was in the public school where he was likely any day to hear the story of life from some wicked boy. She was anxious that her boy should hear this story first from his mother’s lips.

How a mother told the story of life to her boy.—In telling the story, the mother said:

One morning, the opportunity that I had been praying and watching for, came. I observed my little boy playing rather roughly, not cruelly, with the pet cat. Speaking kindly to him, I said, “Son, don’t be rough with the old cat; handle her gently.” “Why, mamma?” he replied. “Son, mamma cannot make the reason clear to you now, but you obey mamma and in about ten days, mamma will tell you a very beautiful story, and, then you will understand.” As those days glided by, with pride I observed the unusual attention and kindness{112} he showed the old cat. One morning, about ten days later, he came running into my presence, perfectly delighted, wonderfully elated, and overflowing with joy, he invited me out the back way to see what he had found. I anticipated his discovery, but I wanted him to have all the pleasure. So, I offered him my hand while he proudly led the way. As we stepped from the back porch, turning he pointed his finger under the floor; I looked, and there was the old mother cat and by her side were four as beautiful little kittens, basking in the sunlight, as the human eye ever saw. He bragged about having found them; called my attention to their color and markings; and claimed two of them as his own.

We sat down on a rustic seat where we could still see them. We admired their plumpness, color, eyes and playfulness and chatted together about them. At length I said, “Son, do you remember about ten days ago when you were playing rather roughly and I asked you to handle the old cat tenderly?” Promptly he replied; “Yes, mamma, and you promised me that in about ten days you would tell me a beautiful story that would explain why I should handle the old cat kindly. Can you tell me that story this morning?” “Yes, son, mamma is ready to tell you the sweetest and purest story that a mother can tell her son. When mamma asked you to be kind to the old cat, those four{113} little kittens were then in her body. That was why the old cat was larger than she is now. The little kittens were then much smaller and very tender, and, had you been rough with the old cat, you might have injured them; and, then, they might have been born crippled, deformed or dead. When they were born three or four days ago their little eyes were so tender that the full light of the sun would have put out their sight, so they were born with their eyelids closed and glued together. The old cat knew how tender their eyes would be, so three or four days ago she went away back under the dark floor and gave them birth. As they have grown older and their eyes have become stronger, every few hours the old cat has brought them a few feet nearer the light. Meanwhile, their eyelids have gradually opened until they can now look up at the sun as well as you can. If they had been born out in the open, the full light of the sun would have made their tender little eyes very sore or put them out.”

By this time I saw that my boy was very anxious to ask me a question. I was just as eager for him to ask it. I believed that he was going to ask the very question that my mother heart longed for him to ask; the very question that I believed God wanted my little boy to ask. I paused and looked into his little upturned face. As his deep, true blue eyes met mine, spontaneously, naturally, seriously he enquired,{114} “Mamma, was I once in your body, too?” “Yes, son, you were formed in mamma’s body, in a little nest or home underneath mamma’s heart. You started as a little cell. For two hundred and eighty long days, nine full months, nearly a whole year, you were growing in mamma’s body. Mamma knew that you were there and loved and prayed for you long before you were born. Mamma had to be careful not to meet with an accident lest you might be born crippled, deformed or dead. Mamma had to be cautious about the food she ate, the air she breathed, the water she drank, the exercise she took, all she thought and did; because you were united to mamma by a little cord filled with blood vessels, through which mamma was supplying you from her blood with all the materials necessary for your forming body, mind and soul. In this way you were being influenced by mamma. Mamma was anxious that you might have a healthy and perfect body and grow up to be a smart, good and great man. If mamma had been angry, untruthful or dishonest during these months that you were a part of her, you might have been born with an ugly disposition, tendency to steal or be untruthful. Mamma was very careful about all she thought, said and did during the months you were a part of her body.

“Mamma knew about the day that you would leave your little home and come into this world. For hours{115} mamma suffered great pain. The faithful doctor was present and did all he could to lessen mamma’s suffering. Papa stood at my side, held my hands in his, often stooped over and kissed my lips, cheeks and brow. As soon as you were born, the air rushed into your lungs and you cried, just as all little babies do when they are born alive. Mamma heard your baby cry and it thrilled her with joy known only to a mother, when she knows that her little baby is alive. But, son, when you were born and for many weeks and months, you were tiny, tender and helpless. No one in this world, and, God could not have found an angel in all of heaven who could have cared for you as well as mamma could. Mamma fed you at her breast, held you in her lap, fondled you in her arms and sung lullabies to you. When you were only a few weeks old you would have the colic. All night long your little body would be racked with pain and mamma would walk the floor with you, rub your little body and sing to you.” By this time my little boy was standing up close by my side, had both arms thrown around my neck, his little lips were kissing my cheek, and tears were rolling down his on to mine. Then he said, “Mamma, I am glad you have told me that story. I love you better now. I did not know that you loved and prayed for me before you ever saw me; that you were so careful that I might be well born; that you had to suffer so much when I{116} was born; and that you cared for me so good when I was so small and when I was sick. This story will help me love you better and I will try never to disobey or tell you a falsehood.”

Do you not see how much better it was for this boy to hear the story of his life from the pure lips of his loving mother, than to hear it first from the lips of some ignorant and wicked boy or man? Well this is the story of your life. You cannot understand now how much your mamma suffered in bringing you into this world. Then, both your father and mother have made many sacrifices for you and are deeply interested in your future. If you should make a shipwreck of life, I am sure that their old days would be spent in grief. How can you repay your parents for all their sacrifices? If you will keep your thoughts, words and actions pure, every time your parents see or think of you, they will be thrilled with joy and appreciation. Will you not now promise yourself and promise God that by His forgiveness of the past, grace and help now and in the future, that you will keep yourself pure? When you have done this will you not go and kiss mamma, and tell her that you love her better than ever before and that you are determined to live up to her prayers and wishes?{117}

When should parents begin telling a child of his origin?—When a child asks about his origin he is old enough to be told the first story. Some children will ask about this by the time they are three or four years old, others not until they are five or six. A normally developing child will certainly become interested in this matter by the sixth year. If a child has not asked about his origin by the time he is six, it would be wise for the parents to ascertain by questioning him whether he has received this information elsewhere.

If they find he has gained this information from the vicious, what should they do?—I would suggest that they wisely, tactfully and kindly ask him to tell them all he has heard, promising him that they will tell him the real truth in a number of very interesting stories. If he has received only very limited information, I would tell him at once the story of the plants and promise him another story in a few days or weeks about the oysters. If he has received considerable information in half-truth and learned several vulgar expressions,{118} I would tell him these stories of life, one at the time and one each day until I had covered all the half-truths he had learned. I would endeavor skillfully to impress him with the sacredness of the laws of life. I would try to induce him to discard every false name he has learned by giving him the chaste pure names. I would teach him that we should be modest and discreet regarding these organs, and when and how to speak of them; that we should carefully avoid entertaining the idea they are in themselves sinful or that they are our shame and humiliation; that these organs and their functions are sacred, delicate and pure; and that they are our pride and our glory.

If this advice were universally followed by teachers, ministers and parents among all children over ten, youths and adults, it would immediately reform and purify society.

“If a child, especially a boy, is not fully satisfied with the information contained in these stories, and should ask for a more detailed explanation of the child’s origin, how would you answer him?”—I would first try to decide whether the child is prompted by natural or morbid curiosity. If the child is sincere, very bright and inquisitive, you will have a very pleasant task and one that should result in only good to the child. I would start with the plant and show just how the two natures reach each{119} other in the seed. Then I would pass in my detailed explanation to the oyster and fish. I would call his attention to the real visible examples of mating among the insects, birds, and domestic animals. I would call his attention to the father and mother of insects and birds as they build their cells and nests to receive their eggs when laid. I would call attention to the fact that food is stored up in the egg or cell for the young before and after it is hatched. I would call his attention to the fact that among the animals where the young is born alive, that the mother furnishes the young with food before it is born. If the child has witnessed the mating of the birds and domestic animals and this is explained to him in detail, the necessity for a detailed discussion of human mating will be avoided. The child could be informed that human mating is practically the same.

If the child is prompted by morbid curiosity, the task is a more difficult one, the ideal results are not so certain, but the above method is the only one that can be safely followed.

To be able to give sex and social purity truths effectively to children and youths, what qualifications should parents and teachers have?—They should have tact or skill. It is possible to approach them in such a way as to do great harm. This qualification comes to one as a result of careful study of these subjects, the{120} consciousness of personal responsibility and a realization of the child’s need of being safeguarded by a clear knowledge of the truth. (2) They should be able to discard all words and phrases they learned from the ignorant on the street and playground. They should be able to use a chaste, simple, scientific sex vocabulary. (3) They should be free from all mental and moral taint. No one can tell or willingly listen to a lascivious joke and then be able to tell effectively a child of his origin, the functions of his sexual system and his temptations and dangers in connection with them.

“Would it be safe for all parents and teachers to give sex information to children?”—It would, if all possessed the qualifications mentioned. A thief is not the proper person to teach honesty to a child. A liar is not the proper person to teach truth. A tobacco-using father is not the one to teach his boy not to use cigarettes. A swearing man is not qualified to teach his boy not to swear. Occasionally a child is saved from one or more of these vices by becoming utterly disgusted with the vice in his father. The child is an imitator. The child is quick to detect the difference between teaching and practice. One must practice what he teaches, if he expects his child or pupil to accept and follow his teaching.

If parents and teachers do not possess these qualifications,{121} what should they do?—It is their duty to prepare themselves for this service. Under present social conditions, they are not qualified to be at the head of a family, or to teach children unless they have these qualifications. Those who have these responsibilities upon them and feel that they cannot at present effectively perform these duties can secure the services of others or they can place in the hands of a child or youth a safe and interesting book containing what the child needs to know.

If a child is told these delicate truths will he not tell other children about them?—That will depend upon the nature of the child, the way he has been trained and the tact used in telling the story of life. Some children have inherited a gossipy nature and some have been unfortunately trained. They would. But most children would not seek to inform other children; they would not seek this information from the vicious when they know they could obtain the truth from parents and teachers.{122}

Similar information needed by the boy and girl.—Thus far the author has dealt with the best methods of telling the story of life to a child. These stories can be as effectively and appropriately given by one parent as by the other. Where children develop early or where they are very inquisitive, it would be well to begin earlier and tell the stories faster than you would to the other class of children. Boys and girls are neuter as to gender until they are ten and eleven years old. The information given to one may be given to the other. Carefully ascertain if your child is perfectly normal in his or her sexual organs. This is too vital to be neglected. A simple operation performed on a boy or girl when only a few days, weeks, months, or years old would often save a child from a life of impure thoughts and vicious habits.

How to satisfy morbid curiosity.—Every possible{123} means should be used to keep small boys and girls from acquiring and cultivating morbid curiosity about the sexual organs of each other. This is not accomplished by telling them that the difference between a boy and girl is that one wears trousers and the other dresses. This can be prevented or overcome by having small boys and girls in the home both together under the mother’s watchful care. While bathing or dressing the baby, the older boys or girls may be permitted to view and admire baby’s body. In one of these ways the mother can in a perfectly natural and modest way make it possible for the children to observe the difference between boys and girls. Most likely one will ask some question pertaining to this difference. The mother can then explain that the organs of sex make the difference between boys and girls; that these organs of the boy will cause him to grow up to be a man and these organs of a girl will cause her to grow up to be a woman. The earlier in life the boy and girl becomes acquainted with this difference, the less of morbid curiosity they will develop.

The boy of ten.—When the boy reaches the tenth year he begins to look upon life from the masculine point of view and his father is his natural teacher. If the father is dead or careless the mother should see that her boy is given such information as his developing boyhood and manhood demands. The informed{124} mother could do this herself, other mothers could have the family physician give her boy talks or she can secure suitable books that will furnish him this information. The mother should be careful to purchase for her boy only such books as are perfectly chaste, accurate and adapted to his age.

The girl of ten.—When the girl reaches her tenth and eleventh year she begins to look upon life from the feminine point of view and her mother becomes her natural teacher. But if mother is dead or indifferent the father should see that his daughter receives from himself, a lady doctor, or buy for her a good and appropriate book containing what her developing girlhood and womanhood demands.

Advantages of beginning early.—There are several advantages in beginning this instruction early; your child’s first impression regarding the organs of sex will be that they are pure and sacred, you retain your child’s confidence, and your child will feel free to come to you for future instruction. If you do not begin early your children get this information from the vicious and ignorant youths, their mind and hearts will be filled with impurity, you lose their confidence and they may reach a condition where they will not allow you or anyone else to advise them on these matters.

Wise instruction needed.—When a girl is eleven{125} she has reached an age where her approaching womanhood demands other lines of sex instruction. The study of social questions has made rapid progress in the last ten years. There are few sincere, thoughtful parents who do not recognize the need of wise instruction in these matters for children. Wise mothers are asking, What, When and How Shall the Truth be Told?

A talk on the dawning of womanhood.—The mother should give her daughter instruction concerning her approaching adolescence. This should be given before the courses start. This change usually occurs when the girl is from twelve to fourteen. In girls of precocious development, this change may occur in the eleventh year. Many mothers say nothing to their daughters about this period of life. This is a very great mistake. When it occurs in the life of the uninformed girl, she is often greatly frightened and resorts to some injurious device, such as cold water, to stop the work of nature. Through doctors, husbands and wives I have found that many women owe their poor health to mothers who failed to give this natural and vital information.

The female form.—In this talk the mother should inform her daughter about her organs of sex, their God-given functions and the meaning of the change that is likely to come to her at any time. Don’t intimate{126} that she has organs to be ashamed of, but teach her that these organs form the sacred sanctuary which will one day enable her to become the sweetest and holiest of God’s creatures—a pure, happy mother. Ask her to notify you of the first signs of this change and promise to give her another talk about how to care for herself at the time.

Be a companion to the daughter.—A true mother will be her daughter’s best “chum” cultivating the most intimate confidence and companionship. If you will do this, your daughter will be free to come to you for information and advice pertaining to her sex problems and you will rarely have to say to her, “Thou shalt not.”

A confidential talk.—By the time the girl is twelve the mother should have a confidential talk with her about the secret vice. While girls are not so likely to be taught or to discover this vice, and are not likely to practice it to the extent of boys, yet authorities claim that one-third of the females practice the secret sin at some time in life and to some extent. It is claimed by some authorities that more women, than men, are in the asylum because of this vice. This is because their nervous system is so much more delicate than is the case in men. In schools and sometimes among servants in the home may be found a sex-pervert who will take a fiendish delight{127} in teaching this vice to a little girl. Mothers cannot be too cautious about these dangers.

A real transition.—Few mothers begin to comprehend the mental phases that attend the dawning of womanhood. The building of the new sex life means a real transition from one distinct period of life to another, from the experiences of girlhood to womanhood. For the first four years of adolescence there is a constant clash in her mind between the feeling of the girl that was and the woman that is to be. This is caused by the creation of a new life, the sex life, whose immediate functions is to change her from girlhood to womanhood. This new life is stimulating rapid growth and changes in many organs of the body, awakening the social nature, quickening every faculty of the mind and giving new impulses to the moral nature. No wonder that the girl does not always understand herself. The mother needs to be tact and wisdom combined, if she is to understand her daughter and assist her in giving proper direction to this new life. Inform your daughter that these strange experiences are due to the changes that are taking place in her body and mind; that she will often have tendencies to be peevish, irritable, cry and take offense, to be sentimental and self-conscious. Remind her that you have not forgotten the experiences of your girlhood, that you are sympathetic, that you are interested{128} in helping her overcome all wrong tendencies and that you will gladly aid her all you can in the direction of this new life to the development of charming, ideal womanhood.

Important advice to mothers.—Gradually everything pertaining to her womanhood should be told her. Instill into her mind slowly and cautiously the beauties of wifehood and the sacredness of motherhood and teach her that these glorious honors in their perfection come only to those who know themselves, think pure thoughts and live pure lives. Don’t tease little girls about sweethearts. Don’t rush them into society. Allow them to remain innocent, playful girls as long as possible. When fourteen or fifteen, tactfully impress upon her mind that unkissed lips will be the most queenly gift that she can offer her king at the marriage altar; that virginity of mind and body will be appreciated by him as of more value than the most costly jewels. Teach her to demand a white life of her male friends and admirers, and, to demand as pure a life of her coming prince as he will demand of her.

{130}

You have been told God’s plans in bringing all the little fish, plants, birds, animals and human babies into the world. You have enjoyed all these stories. We have not gone into detail in these talks. When you are older, if you desire you can study the laws of life more thoroughly. We have tried to satisfy your inquiring mind and lead you to see that God’s laws of increasing life are pure and sacred.

All these years you have been a little girl. You have been growing larger and wiser all the time. You have worn short dresses, loved your dolls, played with little boys and girls; you have been innocent, free from care, jolly and happy. You will be a girl for several years to come. You should not be in a hurry to get away from the joys, pleasures, and ways of girlhood. However, God has not planned for you to be a girl always. He has wisely planned for you to grow and change in body and mind, from a girl into a woman, that you may some day be a mother.

A review.—In previous talks we found that every{131} little baby plant and animal had a father and a mother. We found that the pollen produced by the small organs of the flower had to unite with the seed formed by the mother organs, before a little plant could come into the world. We found among the animals that little eggs were formed by organs in the mother’s body, called ovaries, just as seed are formed by ovaries in the flowers. We also found that these little eggs formed by the mother organs could not become baby animals without the union of a life-giving substance from the father animals. In the higher animals, where the mother nurses her young with milk formed by the mother’s breasts, we find many resemblances to the lower animals, with some very interesting additions to the reproductive organs.

Among some of the lower animals, such, for example, as mussels and fish, no provision is made to nourish and feed their young; some, such as the bee, store up food in cells; while still others, such as the bird, provide food for the young for some days after they are hatched.

Mothers of the higher animals and man.—In the higher animals, the mother supplies her young with food for weeks or months after they are born, by means of organs called breasts or udders. These organs are not found among the lower animals. They are vitally associated with, and therefore a part of,{132} the female organs of sex of the higher animals and man.

How mothers in the lower and higher forms of life differ.—Among the higher animals, the eggs are formed by ovaries, just as in the case of plants and the lower animals. Here we find another important addition to the female organs of sex. As soon as the egg is formed by the ovary it passes, by means of a duct called the fallopian tube, into a pear-shaped vessel called the uterus, or womb. Here, if the egg is fertilized by the male substance, it becomes attached to the wall of the womb. At this point of the womb, a cord is formed, containing a vein and artery, called the placenta. The placenta connects with the body of the young at a point called the navel. The forming young receives its air, food, and life through the cord from the mother’s blood.

There is a very close resemblance between the creative organs and their functions in the higher animals and man. We could not become fathers and mothers without these special organs of sex.

The essential female organs of sex.—These consist of ovaries, oviducts, womb, vagina and breasts. All these organs, except the breasts, are on the inside of the body—in the lower part of the abdomen.

In a mature woman the (1) ovaries, two in number, are small almond-shaped glands just below the navel{133} and are four or five inches apart, one located in the left side of the body and the other in the right. The ovaries are enveloped in a broad, thin, strong membrane and connect with the upper part of the (2) womb by slender cords called (3) oviducts.

Location and function of the ovaries.—There takes place in every girl, when she is from twelve to fifteen, a remarkable change, called puberty, or adolescence. From this time on, until she is forty to forty-five years old, there will be formed in one of the ovaries every four weeks a tiny egg, or ovum. The ovum is less than 1/120 of an inch in diameter. When this little egg breaks through the membrane of the ovary, it would drop down into the cavity of{134} the body were it not for a most wonderful provision. The oviducts, or, as they are often called, the fallopian tubes, are ducts connected with the upper part of the womb, are three inches in length and have finger-like ends. When the little egg breaks through the membrane of the ovary, the little fingers of the oviducts close about the ovary and receive the little egg which then enters the tiny mouth of the oviduct and is conveyed through its small cavity to the womb.

The location and function of the womb and vagina.—The womb, or uterus, is located midway between the ovaries on the right and left, and between the bladder in front and the rectum behind. The ovaries and the womb are supported near the center of the abdomen by means of cords and muscles stretched across from the walls of the abdomen. The womb is a pear-shaped muscular organ with the small end pointing downward, and in a matured woman is three inches in length, two inches in width and with walls one-half inch thick. The cavity of the womb is small and has three openings, two near the top leading into the oviducts and one at the bottom opening into the (4) vagina. It will be seen from the cut that the lower end of the womb dips into the upper end of the vagina about one inch. This part of the womb is called the (5) os uteri, or mouth of the womb. The vagina in a grown{135} woman is from four to six inches in length, of firm but very elastic tissue. It aids in holding the womb in position, serves as a passageway for the menstrual fluid to pass from the body, and has other purposes that will be mentioned in another chapter.

The breasts.—The form and position of the (6) breasts, or mammary glands, being known to you, it is not necessary for me to describe them here. Through the nerves they are closely related to the other sexual organs. With the approach of puberty they make considerable growth. However, it is not common for a girl’s breasts to develop to any considerable size before she is married. When she becomes a mother, the hundreds of tiny glands in her breasts form milk from her blood with which to nourish her child.

The creative energy.—From the dawning of puberty, all through life, day and night, asleep and awake, the breasts and other sexual organs are generating an energy that is being distributed throughout her entire being. It is this energy that helps to develop the girl into perfect womanhood. If the breasts and ovaries of a small girl could be painlessly and skillfully removed without injury to any part of her body, she would not develop into perfect womanhood in other respects. This experiment proves that these organs are secreting an energy that is necessary{136} in developing and maintaining an ideal womanhood.

Information concerning the external organs.—The word vulva is the name of the lower external female organs of sex. It is composed of the following parts: (1) The labia majora are the outer and larger lips or folds; (2) The labia minora are the smaller and more concealed lips; (3) The mons Veneris is the prominent, eminence formed by fatty tissue situated just in front and above the labia majora; (4) The hymen is a very thin membrane which partly closes the opening to the vagina; (5) The clitoris is a small organ of an erectile structure and is the site of passion in the female. This organ is situated near the upper and front part of the opening into the vagina and between the folds of the labia minora. Connected with this organ is a small tough membrane or ligament called the frenum which corresponds to the frenulum of the male. Sometimes, though rarely, this is short and tight or broad and hooded. When this is the case the parts become irritated at times causing sex consciousness and passion; and when it does the girl will rub or scratch these organs. If she does this often she will become conscious of a sense of pleasure. She will then handle the organs for the purpose of producing this pleasure. In this way a girl will learn a vicious habit, the nature and effects{137} of which we will study in another talk. While only a few girls have this trouble, it is very necessary that the causes be removed. Should you find yourself frequently rubbing these organs you should speak to mamma about it.

Confidential advice.—In the mucous membrane of these external organs of sex are thousands of little glands that secrete a foul, filthy substance called smegma. If this is not removed frequently with a damp cloth, it will irritate these organs and produce an offensive odor.

If you should discover that you are frequently scratching those organs, or have an unnatural feeling, you should consult your mamma for advice. Your health, happiness, life and character are, to a considerable extent, based on these organs’ being natural and normal.{138}

An interesting change in a girl’s life.—In the previous talk, we found that God has planned for a most interesting change to take place in a girl’s life. This change from girlhood to womanhood, called puberty, and covering a period of eight years, is brought about by certain changes in the sexual organs. At birth these organs are inactive and remain so until the girl, in this climate, is thirteen or fourteen years of age. In the Southern states it occurs a year sooner. In Central America, puberty comes when the girl is ten and eleven. In Canada this change comes a year later than here. Thus we see that climatic conditions either hasten or retard this change. In climates where puberty is delayed to the fourteenth and fifteenth years, girls are healthier, more energetic and live longer than in warm climates. This would indicate that the longer puberty is delayed in a girl’s life, if she is otherwise healthy, the better for her. If the girl keeps company with wild girls, enjoys obscene jokes, reads cheap novels, entertains impure thoughts or handles her{139} sexual organs, she may cause puberty to come on six months sooner than it naturally would come—a misfortune indeed for her. In a few girls, especially those who develop rapidly, puberty may occur in the eleventh year.

Signs of puberty.—During this period of puberty, or adolescence, which usually lasts for eight years, she is changing from a girl to a woman. This is one of the most important events in a girl’s life. The approach of this period is usually heralded by an uneasy feeling in the small of the back, heaviness about the ovaries, sometimes by headaches and possibly by pains in other parts of the body. One of the ovaries has formed a little egg or ovum. A flow of mucus tinged with blood, formed by the mucous membrane of the womb, passes from the body by way of the vagina. This usually lasts about four days. Meanwhile the ovum is conveyed by the fallopian tube to the womb where, after the flow has ceased, it remains several days, before passing from the body by way of the vagina.

Menstruation.—The discharge is called the menstrual fluid. If the girl is healthy, this will occur once each lunar month, or every twenty-eight days. It is for this reason that the flow is called menstruation. This word comes from the Latin word “mensis,” meaning a month. This monthly experience is known{140} by several names, “Menses,” “periods,” “courses,” and “unwell.” The doctors use the term “Menses,” and this is doubtless the best one to use.

How made regular and painless.—When a girl has good health, does not expose herself so as to take colds, dresses so as not to compress her body and push these organs out of their proper place, takes plenty of outdoor exercise, keeps her mind pure and free from ugly thoughts, and does not abuse her sexual organs, she will be regular in her menses and will feel but little inconvenience or pain. Experience shows that just in proportion as a girl fails to follow the rules I have just stated, will her menses be irregular and painful.

Physical, mental and moral changes.—It will be noticed in the first stages of puberty that the limbs are growing larger and more shapely, the shoulders are growing backward and downward, the chest is expanding, the breasts are enlarging, the skin is becoming more delicate and rosy, the hips are growing broader, the hair is growing thicker, longer and more glossy, and the voice is developing richer tones. With all these physical changes that are taking place, the mental and moral natures are changing as well. The girl will now take a keener interest in society, and in mental and moral matters. These changes show that the developing sex life is making a woman of the girl.{141}

The charms of womanhood.—This new life is making her attractive, lovable, sociable, brilliant and attractive. This new life adds very much to the natural charms of a girl, making the naturally beautiful girl more beautiful and the homely girl more attractive. The girl with a “doll face,” and weak in her sexual nature, will not be as attractive as the more homely girl whose normal sexual life has given her these personal charms of a healthy, strong womanhood.

When you see or feel the first signs of this change, consult your mamma, and she will give you directions and advice about how to care for your person during the menses. This is a perfectly natural experience that all girls have. It indicates that the special organs are developing and preparing for motherhood. Menstruation is not a disease; it is a natural function. Girls should be proud of this new accession to their girlhood. Health, happiness, and beauty of womanhood and the sacred function of motherhood, which will one day declare them the sweetest and holiest of God’s creatures are vitally related to this function. Girls with perfect health, who are usefully and happily employed, who entertain no base ideas of this function and who pay no special attention to it, experience little or no pain and little flow.

Meaning of menstruation.—Ovulation and menstruation{142} usually occur about the same time. Ovulation consists in the formation of an ovum or egg by one of the ovaries once a month. Without the formation of the ovum motherhood would not be possible. Menstruation consists of a flow of bloody mucus formed by the velvety lining of the womb. This has the effect of purifying a woman’s blood and preparing the womb to receive the ovum. After this change first takes place several years will be required before she is old enough to marry and raise a family. Until she is married, the ovum each month lingers in the womb a few days and then passes out. When she is married, if she and her husband are strong and healthy, at the close of some menstrual period a cell from the husband will unite with one of these little eggs, which will become attached to the velvety walls of the womb, the door to the womb will close, and this beginning life will grow for two hundred and eighty days, when the door of the womb will open and a little baby will be born into the home.{143}

Early Adolescence.—You are now entering upon that period of a girl’s life known as the adolescence period. You are now passing from girlhood to womanhood. This period will be about seven to eight years long. The first four years will be the most important years of your life. This is true for many reasons. During this period you will be largely a girl and partly a woman. The mind of the girl that was and the woman that you will be, will occasionally cause you to have confusing experiences. You will have many new and strange feelings, emotions, impulses. During these years you will need the advice of those older than yourself.

New social desires.—One of the new experiences you will have, will be the desire for social privileges. You will want a little girl chum. This is perfectly natural. God has given you a social nature. You should cultivate your social gifts. This will enlarge your happiness and usefulness.

Why a girl wants a chum.—The reason small girls desire chums is because the new sex life stimulates{144} and awakens the social nature. This is a period in a girl’s life when she is especially interested in things romantic and sensational. Girls naturally choose their special chums, and it is so easy for them to engage in conversation that they would not want their mothers to hear. This sensational friendship might lead to exaggeration, disobedience, and the secret meetings with other girls or boys. It is not hard for a mother to see how her daughter might become thoughtless, rash, indiscreet and be overtaken in some very great wrong.

A girl needs two chums.—In this period of life little girls need two chums, her mother and a girl friend. She will often need her mother’s advice in the choice of a girl chum.

Choosing the right chum.—If you wish to have one or more girl friends, you should exercise great care in your choice. If you find a girl inclined to exaggeration, to use by-words, to use improper language while talking about her boy friends, to desire secret meetings with boys, however attractive she may be, you should not be chummy with her. To form intimate friendship with such girls would be a great risk. You will find it safest always to be chaste, sincere and dignified in conversation, even with a girl chum. This does not mean that you should not have innocent fun.{145}

The wise girl.—The wise girl will take her mother into her confidence and ask for advice in the choice of her chum. Mamma will always appreciate the opportunity to be to you a chum, a friend, a companion and a mother.{146}

Organs of sex can be abused.—In other talks we learned the names, position and functions of the different parts of the female form. In this lesson we will study one of the abuses of the organs, and the effects. In childhood, youth and middle and old age the organs of sex may be abused in several ways. If girls knew their delicate nature and their sacred mission, I am sure they would never abuse these organs. The more delicate and sacred an organ is, the more serious will be the penalty following its abuse. The abuse of these most delicate organs of the body results in poor health, poor development, much suffering, and should the victims marry, their children would be puny, sickly and short-lived. The bearing of strong, healthy, beautiful, playful children is woman’s highest mission. It is for this reason that girls should understand the nature and functions of these organs and the results of abusing them.

The secret sin—how learned.—The special abuse we shall consider at this time is one that small{147} girls are liable to learn or to have taught them by companions or servants. This habit has several names. It is called the “secret sin,” or “secret vice,” for the reason that every organ of the body, faculty of the mind and power of the soul is abused by it; “self-pollution,” because it is filthy; or “masturbation,” which comes from two words meaning the abuse of the body with the hand. This abuse consists in rubbing or handling the sexual organs so as to excite them and bring on a feeling of pleasure. Usually this vice is taught a girl by some companion. If a girl does not keep these parts clean, they become irritated and she will be disposed to rub or scratch them. In this way she would likely awaken a sense of pleasure and finally discover the vice. It sometimes occurs, not often, that a small ligament or membrane, called the frenum, is too short or broad, and this causes irritation and leads a girl to discover the secret vice. If you should find yourself inclined to rub those parts often, you should mention it to mamma. A girl may, by pressing this part of her body against some object, or by sitting with her feet underneath her, with the sole or heel of a shoe pressing or rubbing against these organs, discover this vice.

What you should not do.—From these illustrations you will learn that you should never handle or rub these organs except to wash and keep them clean.{148} When you study these organs with a view to understanding them, or when you think of their sacred functions, these mental relations to these organs never do them harm. But when you entertain thoughts about them that you would not be willing to express to your mother; when you read an immoral book, look upon an obscene picture or engage in improper conversation about these organs, then these mental states cause the blood to rush to these organs and sex consciousness and passion follow. A girl cannot keep from the secret sin if she permits her mind to engage in wrong thinking.

The moral effect of the sin.—Perhaps the first effect of this sin is to be seen in the moral nature. The expression in the girl’s face often indicates that she is conscious of wrong doing. She will likely become irritable, peevish and disobedient. She will not take the interest in prayer, the Bible, good books and the church she once did.

The mental effects.—The constant excitement of the organs of sex leads to many forms of nerve trouble. The mind becomes sluggish and stupid. Memory fails and sometimes the poor victim becomes insane. This habit leads to a gloomy, despondent, discouraged state of mind. One does not longer enjoy life. Because of this mental state many commit suicide.{149}

The physical effects.—Perhaps the most noticeable effects of this vice are to be found in the physical system. The eyes become hollow and lusterless, complexion sallow, cheeks haggard, lips and ears pale, muscles soft and flabby, the breasts shrink, the bodily form is stooped and weak. Every time the life-giving blood is caused by this sin to rush in undue quantities to these organs, it returns to the heart with less of life and more impurities. Such girls will grow up to be weak, puny women and will suffer from dyspepsia, consumption and nervous troubles. If you have learned to misuse these organs, you must determine that you will never do it again. By keeping the mind pure and never abusing these organs you will develop a healthy and perfect body, a bright and cheerful mind, a charming, winning personality, and live to be useful and happy.

Two letters from young women.—From a large number of letters received from young ladies who have heard the author’s lectures or read his books, the following letters are added to this chapter. A big-hearted man in Canada gave 500 copies of Perfect Manhood to that number of young men. Fortunately, a young woman who was greatly in need of help, read one of these books. These letters tell the sad story of thousands, whom the author is anxious to help.{150}

First Letter.—

Some four times a year, for three years, I received a letter from her. For eighteen months her letters indicated{151} a hard-fought battle, small victories and a strong determination to win out. Each succeeding letter indicated greater victories. In her last letter she assured me that her womanhood had been restored and that she was entertaining a marriage proposition from a worthy and very superior young man.

I gave her the following advice:

{157}

The social nature.—You are now of an age when you will appreciate a heart to heart talk on the social relations of small girls and boys. God gave to us our social natures. It is our social nature that leads us to desire new acquaintances, to be with old friends, to be in large gatherings of people, and to have special friends. A reasonable amount of social activity is essential to our well-being. Most of our real pleasure in life grows out of our relation to society. Genuine innocent pleasure is nature’s greatest tonic. Innocent games, a big romp, a good laugh, all help to develop the body, prolong life and increase one’s usefulness. Plays, games, a good time, should form a large part of childhood. The boy’s masculine nature leads him often to prefer games that require strength, endurance and daring. The girl’s feminine nature leads her often to prefer games that require less of strength, endurance and danger. It is for this reason that boys enjoy games of football and baseball and girls enjoy their dolls, tennis and croquet.

Boys and girls should play together.—While{158} boys prefer to play with boys much of the time and girls prefer to play with girls much of the time, yet their opposite natures lead them to enjoy being with each other in conversation and games. In most homes and communities, boys and girls are nearly equally divided as to number. This would indicate that God planned for boys and girls to be much with each other.

The sex and social nature.—God has given us a sexual nature as well as a social nature. If boys and girls have not learned bad language, engaged in impure thoughts or formed habits of vice, they have been rarely conscious of their sex nature before the dawning of puberty. After puberty the organs of sex are generating a sex life that results in occasional sex consciousness. This is not an injury, not a sin. If we keep our minds pure, avoid everything that would excite these organs, this new sex life will make wonderful changes in every organ of the body, faculty of the mind and power of the soul. The consciousness of sex, or what may be correctly called passion, simply means that we are in possession of creative energy. By keeping the mind pure, taking plenty of physical exercise, mental study and sympathizing with and loving everybody, this sex life will be built into the muscles and brain tissue, giving strength of body, brilliancy of mind and warmth of soul. The developing{159} sex life is slowly and gradually preparing them for fatherhood and motherhood. This preparation is not completed until they are matured. The girl does not mature until she is about twenty and the boy until he is about twenty-four. During the eight years of adolescence for the girl and ten for the boy, she is gradually passing out of girlhood into womanhood and he from boyhood into manhood. During the first half of these periods, she is more girl than woman, he is more boy than man. During these early years the boy may be a manly boy and the girl a womanly girl, but they are still children. They should still play together without any thought of being sweethearts. It is natural for a girl to admire one boy more than she does another because he is gallant, kind and manly. For like reasons, it is natural for small boys to admire one girl more than another. Occasionally these little experiences of admiration take on the more serious form of love. If older people do not encourage or tease them their little spasms of love will soon disappear. It is best for boys and girls not to think of each other as sweethearts and lovers until they are nearer matured.

The “boy-struck” girl and the “girl-struck” boy.—They range in age from ten to twenty. They excite the pity of some, the disgust of others and the love and appreciation of none. They will carry on an{160} insane or ridiculous conversation over the phone for an hour, or stand on the street corner and engage in the most silly nonsense. He is usually a cigarette-smoking nonentity and she a simpering, giggling, flirting, amusing imitation of what she would like to be. In the schoolroom they pass notes and receive low grades. She carries her dressing to the extreme limit of idiocy, disfiguring her body and ruining her health. As she grows older she takes lonely midnight strolls and buggy rides. It will be a miracle if the “boy-struck” girl does not fall. Even if she does not fall into disgrace, it will be difficult for her to regain her self-respect and the confidence of her neighbors.

Confidential social advice.—While the association of boys and girls is natural, enjoyable, and has its blessings, it is not without its temptations and dangers. Passion should never be aroused. In associating with boys, girls should be very careful in regard to their dress. They should not wear dresses that unnecessarily expose their breasts or limbs; they should never use a word or expression that would suggest wrong thoughts to their boy friends; they should never go off alone with boys; and they should never permit a boy to hold their hands, pinch their arms, play with their hair, hug or kiss them. All these things tend to arouse passion in a way and to an extent exceedingly dangerous.{161}

A class of dangerous boys.—It will be well for you to remember that many boys are very wicked. Poor boys! In many cases they have not been trained to be polite, kind, and pure. They have no idea how sinful it is to use obscene language, to be immodest, and by these methods to seek to ruin the character and life of a girl. Such boys would rather ruin a girl than be president. Girls should be careful not to associate with this class of boys.

The true, the pure boys.—Some boys are as innocent and pure as most girls are. Good boys and young men who have been well trained are always kind, courteous, brave, true, and pure. Association with this class of boys is always helpful.

Girlhood comes but once.—Don’t be in a hurry to grow into womanhood. Be a joyful, playful, happy little girl just as long as you can. Of course you will not want to play or be with your friends all the time, or even most of the time. You will be in school much of the time. You will want to spend some time on your music, in learning how to make your clothing, how to care for the bedrooms, and how to cook. You will wish to form high ideals and gain inspiration from reading books of travel, of history, some fiction of high moral and literary tone, biographies of great and good people, the best magazines and, of course, you will not leave the Bible out of your daily reading.{162}

A girl’s vanity.—When girls reach the age of fifteen and sixteen their personal interest in personal beauty is apparent. Their frequent use of the mirror, a mania for primping: poring over such glaring headlines as, “Become Beautiful,” “Don’t be Fat,” “Be Plump,” “Beautiful Dresses, a Woman’s crown of Glory,” “Cure for Pimples and Black-heads,” found in the papers and magazines, all indicate a girl’s interest in being beautiful.

There are two kinds of beauty.—Physical beauty and intellectual and spiritual beauty. Not all can have the first, but all can have the latter. The first, unfortunately, may be a source of temptation and danger; the latter, fortunately, a blessing. Physical homeliness, entire or in part, may be outgrown, or cured by hygienic living and judicious treatment, or it may be over-shadowed by the possession of lovely traits of character.

Beauty and the sex nature.—No young woman, however beautiful physically, can develop a charming, attractive personality unless she possesses a normal{163} sex nature. This end may be achieved by maintaining a hopeful, cheerful and perfectly chaste state of mind and perfect freedom from all habits of vice. In this way the vital energy of womanhood can be easily directed so as to carry life and health to every organ and part of the body.

Puberty pimples.—Soon after the dawning of puberty, many girls are troubled with pimples. They usually appear on the face, often only on the forehead. The back may be affected in the same way. They usually last two, three or more years and resist every effort to remove them. The girl had just as well make up her mind to endure them until nature takes them away. It was once thought that they were evidences of the practice of the secret vice. In some cases this is true. But in most cases they are inseparable from the early years of puberty.

Treatment.—By following certain simple rules this trouble may be very much reduced. Avoid eating highly seasoned foods and rich pastries. Take plenty of open-air exercise. Massage the face with the hands, using a good quality of absorbent cream. If cold baths are begun in the summer time, so as not to shock the system, this is very valuable. During the menses, plenty of warm water should be used. Absolute cleanliness will prevent many forms of female troubles.{164}

How to correct some kinds of homeliness.—Stringy, greasy or dull hair may be made a crown of beauty by scrupulous care, tasteful arrangement and the use of suitable decorations.

Where the bodily form is too thin or too fat, or scrawny and angular, correct habits of eating and exercise are the natural remedies. Very thin persons will usually gain flesh by taking open-air exercise and eating nutritious food. Fleshy persons can usually reduce their flesh by eating two meals a day, eating a less nutritious diet and by taking more exercise. If this advice is introduced gradually no inconvenience will be noticed.

A substitute for physical beauty.—There are some forms of physical irregularities, such as prominent ears, large and irregular teeth; a receding chin or forehead; thick or thin lips; a long or ill-shaped mouth; small, expressionless eyes; a large, flat or pug nose, none of which can be remedied by the advice given. She must develop the truest form of beauty—a charming, winsome personality, a lovely character. She will then possess a charm that cannot be excelled by any physical queen of beauty, and that she may retain long after the glow of physical loveliness has faded.

Some “musts” and “must-nots.”—She must cease frowning and learn to smile; she must repress{165} anger and resentment, and turn the other cheek; she must not seek favors, but discover the joy of bestowing blessings on others; she must intensely interest herself in everything that will stimulate and develop the intellect, expand the soul and enlarge her spiritual vision; she must revel in the sweetest strains of music and the most bewitching beauties of art and nature. By following this advice, the naturally beautiful girl will add a new charm to her attractiveness, and the homely girl will transform her defects into seeming beauties and develop the indefinable loveliness of a beautiful character.{166}

The importance of fatherhood.—In the past we have written, talked and sung of the duties, responsibilities, faithfulness, sacrifice and love of motherhood. Is there any reason why the father should have less of these sacred parental qualities than the mother? Did not God in his early revelations to his chosen people honor fatherhood as much as motherhood in his relation to the training of children? In no other way has God bestowed larger capacity, power, honor and responsibility upon man than when he made him capable of fatherhood. Fatherhood—the giving of life to another—makes man a co-worker with God in the creation of human beings. This creative relation to children gives dignity, sacredness and immeasurable responsibility to fatherhood.

The father is the son’s natural teacher.—If a man at the head of a home is to measure up to the{167} full meaning of fatherhood, he must assume the responsibility of teaching purity and sex truths to his boy, instead of leaving him to get his primary sex culture from the playground; his preparatory sex enlightenment from the street; and his complete course of sex education from the saloon, the gambling house and the brothel, where the moral atmosphere is saturated with all that is vicious and polluting; where the vilest pictures are to be seen, vilest conversation is to be heard and the vilest associations are to be formed.

The wise father looks after less important phases of his son’s education.—If his son decides to be a farmer, he tells him all he knows about farming and sends him to an agricultural college. If he decides to practice medicine, he tells him all he knows about medicine and sends him to a medical college. His interest in his son would lead him to follow this plan should he choose some other calling or profession. Compared to the education, training and development of a boy in relation to the teaching of purity and sex truths, all other training pales into insignificance. The boy can just as easily become a successful farmer without a knowledge of agriculture, horticulture and stock-raising; he can as easily become a successful physician without a knowledge of medicine; he can as easily become a successful lawyer without{168} a knowledge of laws, as he can develop into a pure, virile manhood without a correct knowledge of his sex nature. Since half truths are often more injurious than ignorance, and since the enfolding sex life of a boy demands information, and since he will get this information true or false, it logically follows that correct sex education is the only safe method to be followed in the complete education of the boy.

The father who holds to unethical ideals.—The father who holds to or practices the double standard of morals is not qualified to teach these truths to his son. If he believes that it is a smaller sin for his son to be immoral than for his daughter; if he believes in the “sex necessity lie” for his son and absolute virginity for his daughter; if he uses vulgar words or indulges in lascivious stories, he is disqualified for this sacred duty of a father. Recently I lectured in a town of several thousand inhabitants where the mayor boasted of taking his seventeen-year-old son to St. Louis and introducing him to an immoral life. Such a father’s influence on his own son is a withering, paralyzing, blighting curse. The sons of such beastly sires are to be pitied.

The model father.—I assume that I am now addressing a model father, one who, at least, desires to be a worthy example and a wise teacher and trainer{169} of his son. The model father should not only be pure in outward life, but he should regard the organs of sex and their functions as pure and sacred, he should possess a fair knowledge of sex and be able to use only pure language in his confidential talks with his son. I am fully aware that very few fathers have had an opportunity to hear a series of lectures or to read a good book on these lines that would help them perform this duty. The mission of this book is to aid and inspire every sincere father in his duty of supplying his son with these truths.

How to proceed.—This is not a difficult problem to the young father who is fairly well informed and who has strong convictions of his duty. He can start with his son, as soon as he asks about his origin, and tell him the stories of life, six months or a year apart, and continue to give him such information as his developing boyhood and manhood demand. But to the uninformed father, out in middle life, aroused for the first time to the great need of this teaching and to his personal responsibility to his boys ranging from five to twenty years old, this is not an easy problem. In this case I would suggest that, if possible, he should avail himself of hearing a good course of lectures, and buy for himself a practical and complete book on sex for himself and smaller books adapted to the age and sex of his children. If he{170} has a boy from five to eight years old, begin by telling him the story of how plants are brought into the world. If he has a boy ten to fifteen, I would advise that he put in his hands a book containing stories of life from plants to man and encourage him to read it. If there is real companionship between the father and son, a better plan would be for them to read the book together and talk with each other. When this is done and a few days have passed the father should give him a book containing such information as a boy from ten to fourteen should know. And if proper companionship exists, they should read this book and talk over its revelations together. When this is done the boy should be encouraged to talk over any personal problem he may have. It would be well for the father to inquire of his son, if he has any irritation or soreness in his sexual organs, if the prepuce is capable of passing back and if the frenulum is too short. The boy should understand that he will be welcomed at any time to return with his problems and to ask for information.

If he has a boy over fifteen he should be presented with a book that covers the problems of a young man. If there is a companionable relation between the father and his son, it would be well for them to read and talk over the revelations of this book. The son{171} should be encouraged to ask questions and to talk about his personal problems.

When should a boy be informed of the secret sin?—In no case should this be postponed until a boy is twelve. Out of one thousand of the young men who have read “Perfect Manhood” and in that way were lead to write me about their troubles not one in twenty-five learned the habit after he was twelve, many commenced when they were eight and ten, a few when five and six, one stating that so far as he knew he was born practicing the vice.

Lecturing to nearly one hundred thousand young men a year and having several thousand a year to interview me, in this way the conclusion from my correspondence is confirmed. When a boy is fourteen he should be given a more complete talk on the nature and effects of the secret sin. If he is found to be guilty he should be induced to break off. If his sexual desire is due to a tight prepuce, this should be treated by the family physician. If due to a tight frenulum, this requires the attention of a doctor. As a rule his sexual excitement grows out of a mind that has been filled with lascivious thoughts from some schoolmate or servant. This can be corrected by satisfying the boy’s morbid curiosity with the truth and a faithful warning of the dangers of this vice.{172}

Fathers should not be suspicious but watchful.—A wise father will have a frank, positive understanding with every servant in the home and employee on the farm, or in his business, that he is not to encourage vice by vulgar conversation, vicious practice, or by presenting the child with a vile book or showing him a lude picture. Keep an eye on the little visitors—and the big ones too. There are in circulation some most inconceivable immoral books that teach children every phase of sex perversion. I recently secured such a book and it was estimated by the school board that two hundred or more boys from twelve to sixteen had read it. Only a few months ago the president of a female college living in the girls’ dormitory told me of how one of the college girls had introduced his three-year-old boy to the vice. About the same time and in the same State, an editor said to me, “Professor, you don’t realize the temptations to which the small Southern boy is exposed in his relation to the colored help about the home.” A wise father will be on the guard from the time his boy has quit the cradle until he has passed safely through the stormy period of adolescence.{173}

Trees are grown-up sprouts; dogs are grown-up pups; horses are grown-up colts; and men are grown-up boys. A crooked, scarred sprout will produce an ugly, useless tree; a starved, neglected and abused pup will grow up to be a cowardly or vicious dog; a spoiled colt will make a vicious horse; boys who are not trained to work, study and be moral will grow up to be lazy, stupid and bad.

A perfect tree, dog, horse must be trained.—If you want a perfect tree, one that will be straight and shapely, one that will afford perfect shade or bear large, luscious fruit, you will have to give it proper care and training while it is young. If you want to have a perfect dog, one that will be large and handsome, one that will do what you want him to do, you must give him good care and training while he is young. If you would have a perfect horse, one with elastic bearing and beautiful form, one that will be gentle, go the gaits and travel fast, you must feed, groom and train him while he is young.

Boys need training.—If you would become a perfect{174} man, you must be wisely trained and taught. A large part of this you can and must do for yourself. You must get a true idea of what it takes to make a perfect man. You must desire and purpose daily to live that life that will help you to reach your ideal. You must be willing to be trained and taught by those who are older and wiser than yourself.

Boys want to be men.—All boys really want to be men. They are great imitators. They look at men and decide what man they would rather be like. What a pity that all men are not what they appear to be to the inexperienced boy. So many appear to the boy to be real men, when they are not. Boys try to follow their examples and fail. It is so easy for a boy to make a mistake in what is required of him to become a perfect man.

How one boy tried to be a man.—I am quite intimately and personally acquainted with a man, who, when a boy, lived on a farm near a small town. Like all boys he longed to be a man. Some of his ideas were good and some were false. When he was about eight years old, he decided that if he could only ride a big bay horse and take a sack of corn to mill, then he would be a man. It was a happy day when he was allowed to do this. Having carefully balanced a sack of corn on the horse’s back, his father placed him on the horse behind the sack and started him to the mill.{175}

That was the happiest day of his life. As he rode along the street of the village, all the boys and girls, men and women, seemed to be out on purpose to look at him. He could almost hear them saying, “Yonder goes —— to mill this morning. See what a big man he is.” That boy never felt more like a man in his life than he did that morning. What do you suppose happened as he went back home? It was the saddest experience that boy ever had up to that time. His sack fell off. Then he cried like a boy. He felt like a boy. He acted like a boy. He knew that he was only a little boy. For several weeks he was willing to be only a little boy.

Use of profanity.—It is perfectly natural for a boy to long to be a man. So, it was not long before that boy again wanted to be a man. This time, a boy, some three years older than he, was visiting his home. His friend was some three inches taller, twenty pounds heavier and a few grades higher in school than he. As these boys rambled over the fields, climbed trees, and played together, my little friend had to listen to a constant stream of oaths, pouring from the lips of his visitor. He had been taught that swearing was a very great sin. Had he heard a little dirty street waif, or an old bloated, swaggering drunkard swearing, it would have been disgusting. But this time, swearing did not sound so badly. His friend wore fine{176} clothes, his family had wealth and culture and this seemed to change the nature of swearing in this case. Before that day was over our little friend had decided that the only difference between him and his friend was, that his visitor could swear and he could not. He felt, that, if he could only swear, instantly he would grow six inches taller, twenty pounds heavier and a great deal smarter. He finally decided to try it. While they were walking by the back porch, he made the effort of his life and out came a big ugly oath. His heart hurt him. His conscience condemned him. He was sure that God heard him. He had dishonored his father and mother. He had insulted God. He wondered if his mother was not near. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, he saw his mother on the porch, and the expression on her face showed that she was much grieved. When the visitor had returned home and our little friend had danced at the end of a peach tree switch for some moments, he decided that swearing would not make a man. This was his first, last and only oath. He has never ceased to thank and love his mother for her faithful training.

Almost all men and boys who swear started where he did. They thought swearing would make them taller, heavier, wealthier, and smarter. This sin has never helped a boy to become a man. If a boy can swear and be manly, his mother and sister can swear{177} and be perfectly ladylike. No man or boy can give a good reason why he swears. Intelligent people are supposed to understand and mean what they talk about. Idiots do not. Not one man or boy in a hundred, who swears, understands and means what he says. The words that he uses make him call upon God to send something or someone to hell. He does not understand or mean this. Idiots would be excusable for swearing; sensible men and boys are not. The kind of clothing a boy wears, the house he lives in, and the carriage he rides in, do not make his swearing manly.

Use of tobacco.—Months went by. This boy’s noble father had crossed over the river into heaven. He and his widowed mother were visiting among their relatives who lived in a rough country, many miles from their home. One night, after making a long journey on horseback, he slept so well that he did not wake until the sun was an hour high. On arising, he found that his cousin, a boy fifteen years old, had been out in the woods and had killed a number of squirrels before breakfast. In his estimation, his cousin was a hero, a great man.

Breakfast over, they rambled over a large tobacco farm. They became very chummy. At length they came to a large tobacco barn. His cousin pulled off a leaf of tobacco, rolled up a shapely cigar, lighted it{178} and began smoking. As our friend stood and watched those dense clouds of smoke pour from the mouth and nose of his cousin, he whispered to himself, “Now I know why you can kill a mess of squirrels before breakfast. If I could smoke, I could do the same thing.” Once more he decided he would try to be a man. He selected the largest leaf that he could find. When he had finished making his first cigar, it resembled a saw log about as much as it did a first-class Havana. His cousin noticed that he could not get it into his mouth, and said, “You take my cigar and keep it going for a few minutes and I will make you one.” He kept it going for a few minutes, then it kept him going for about three hours. He lost little less than ten pounds of his former weight in a hurry. He was soon so weak that he could scarcely walk back to the house. His mother and friends were greatly frightened. His cousin’s face was as pale as a sheet. There was not a doctor in ten miles of the place. Many remedies were thought of and used. None did any good. Finally, his uncle’s father, quite an old man, suggested that the best remedy, ever used in those parts of Kentucky for sick stomach, was a sweetened toddy. This boy had been taught that the use of tobacco was a great sin and that the use of whisky was a still greater sin. He had acted very much like a fool and felt like one. He understood his case better than they did. He{179} reasoned like this: “if whisky is worse than tobacco, the remedy they want me to take will kill me.” But, he was between two fires. If he confessed what he had done, he would get a switching, and if he took the remedy they were offering, he would die. What do you suppose that boy did? He was determined to keep his secret and he did not want to die, so, for convenience, he became a Christian Scientist, denied that he was sick and got well. This was his first, last and only experience in the use of tobacco.

Why boys are tempted.—Perhaps the average boy has no greater temptation than to use tobacco. He sees merchants, lawyers, doctors, occasionally a minister, and often his father using it. He does not see the expense side of the habit, because prosperous business men use it. He does not see the filthy side of it, because nicely dressed men use it. He does not see the injury to body and mind, for doctors use it. He does not see the wrong in the use of it, for good men use it. He does not see that thousands of children are in rags, live in rented cabins, go hungry and are deprived of many comforts and pleasures because the father has spent $50 a year for one or two score years on tobacco. He does not quite understand that doctors and sometimes ministers, like other men, die of a tobacco heart. He does not desire to imitate the dirty, ragged, stupid tobacco using wag on the street{180} corner. He wants to be like the man dressed in broadcloth, wearing a fine beaver hat, twirling a golden-headed cane, with sparkling diamond ring and shirt studs and smoking a twenty-five cent cigar.

The cigarette habit.—The worst form of the tobacco habit is the use of the cigarette. When a boy falls into this habit, at the age of ten to fourteen, he never develops properly in his body or mind. You will understand this statement better, when it is referred to in another chapter. The boy who uses tobacco does not progress well in his studies. This has been tested in nearly all our military and naval schools as well as in other schools and colleges. Boys who use tobacco will gradually lose respect and courtesy for ladies. It is claimed by those who have studied the effects of the cigarette habit that it causes the boy to become dishonest. It is for these reasons that many business men will not employ a boy who is guilty of this habit.

There are many other wrongs that boys are tempted to engage in, that if yielded to will result in habits that prevent boys from becoming perfect men. It is hard for boys to see the injury that dishonesty and gambling, disobedience to parents and breaking the Sabbath will do for them. Some boys take pleasure in doing wrong and leading other boys to do wrong. If you keep company with them, do as they do, you will get a{181} wrong start in life and find it a hard struggle later in life, when you would like to be a real man.

The kind of boys who make men.—Someone has said, “A dead fish can float down stream, but it takes a live one to swim up stream.” Any kind of a boy can float down the stream of life, have what he calls a good time in the world, live and die and never be missed. It takes a boy with a strong, healthy body, a sound mind, a pure heart and clean life, brave, determined and true to make a perfect man. You will need more than a strong will and the help of true friends, if you would resist the many temptations that are sure to come, be a perfect boy and become a perfect man. Christ alone can purify the heart and help you to live a clean life.{182}

Why we are given sexual organs.—You have learned God’s beautiful and sacred plan of bringing into this world baby plants, fish, birds, animals and human beings. You learned from the stories of the plants and animals that God provided them with organs of sex, for the purpose of increasing their kind. When little children are born they have organs of sex. A boy’s sexual organs have several important uses. They are as important to a boy as his mouth, ears, eyes or heart. They are just as pure as any other organs of his body. These organs are very sacred. It is through their proper use that men and women obey God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.” Without sexual organs, new plants, animals and human beings could not come into the world.

They are not sinful.—We should never think of these organs as being sinful. They are not. The true names of these organs are as pure as the words baby, home, mother, Bible, heaven, angels, God, so far as a word is concerned. The true names of these{183} organs are found in the dictionary. Your sister and mother can find these words in the dictionary and just what they mean. They are placed in the dictionary because they are clean words and are a part of our language.

The names of these organs are pure.—Unfortunately, almost all boys have received their first information about sex from the vicious. Such teachers are ignorant for they do not know the true names of these organs or their true purposes. They are vicious because their teaching is largely false and they fill the minds of boys with impure thoughts and ideas. Let twenty boys write down on paper all the names of their sexual organs that they have ever learned and not less than thirty names would be found among them. Now go to the dictionary and look for these names. One out of every five cannot be found, for the reason that it is not a part of our language. The other words do not, even remotely, refer in meaning to the sexual organs. This is a sample of the ignorance of such men and boys who are always ready to tell a boy something that he is not to tell his parents. Such teaching is a very great evil. It has poisoned the minds and hearts of thousands of boys and started them on the road to ruin. It is very important that you fix the thought in your mind that these organs are as pure as any other organ in the body and that{184} their names are just as pure as any other word in the language. There are many reasons why we should not expose these organs or talk about them, except when it is right or necessary for us to do so. We should learn all we can about our lungs, hearts, brains and other organs of the body. When we can see these organs or pictures of them, they help to make many things plain to us that would be difficult for us to understand. For this reason we have placed the cut of a boy’s body in this book, showing the urinary and sexual organs.

The urinary organs.—The urinary system consists of the following organs: Two (1) kidneys, only one can be shown in the cut. The kidneys are located just above the small of the back and in front of the spinal column, or backbone. The kidneys take up water, waste matter and impurities from the blood. In this way the kidneys help to keep the blood pure. This liquid mixture is called urine. The use of tobacco and strong drink injures the kidneys, and prevents them from doing all the work that they need to do in order to keep the blood pure and the body healthy and strong. As fast as the kidneys form the urine it is carried by two ducts, called the (2) ureters, one leading from each kidney, and emptied into the (3) bladder. Here it is stored until we wish to discharge it from our bodies. The urine is discharged{185} from the body by a duct that leads through the external sexual organ, and this duct is called the (4) urethra. This process of discharging the urine is called urinating. This is a perfectly natural act. There is no more sin in urinating than in shedding a tear. Because of unfortunate training, many boys think of this act as sinful. The words and expressions they have learned for this act have been associated for years with low thoughts. It is for this reason that you should cease to use those false words and expressions and learn to say, “I desire to urinate,” or “I have urinated.”

The sexual organs.—Some of the sexual organs are on the outside of the body and some are on the inside of the body. Those on the outside of the body are perfectly familiar to all boys. The external organ through which the (4) urethra passes is called the (5) penis. This organ is not shown in the cut, its position being shown by the figure (5). At the end of this organ is a sheath of loose skin, called the prepuce or foreskin. In some boys the prepuce is quite long and tight. When the boys of the Jewish race are eight days old they are circumcised. This act consists in cutting off that portion of the prepuce that extends beyond the head of the penis. The act is performed with a sharp knife and causes but little pain. Ninety millions of Mohammedans practice circumcision. This{186}

should be performed on many boys in this country when they are only a few days old. There are a number of reasons for this. Underneath the folds of the prepuce are hundreds of little glands that secrete a{187} substance that should be removed daily with water, or a wet rag. When the prepuce will not glide back over the head of the penis, it cannot be kept clean. In such cases the secretion becomes white and hard and causes irritation. Boys in this condition will often scratch this organ. In many cases, these boys do not get along well in school, they are nervous, have fits and spasms, and this scratching often leads to a bad habit.

When the prepuce of a boy will not glide back, becomes red, sore and swollen, he should ask his father to have a doctor treat him. The doctor will know how to enlarge the opening, break up the adhesion and glide it back.

Underneath the penis is a sack, called the (6) scrotum, in which are suspended two glands, called the (7) testicles. The (7) indicates where these glands would be if placed in the cut. Leading off from the (8) descending artery are two small arteries, called the (9) spermatic arteries. They carry pure blood to the testicles. Leading back from the testicles are two small veins that separate from the spermatic arteries and are called the (10) spermatic veins.

Connected with each testicle is a duct, called the (11) vas deferens that passes up through the loins and over the bladder and becomes enlarged into a small vessel called the (12) ampulla. The ampullae open into the urethra. Near the ampullae, and behind{188} them, are two larger vessels, called the (13) seminal vessels. These vessels connect with the urethra by a small duct, at the point where the ampullae do. Surrounding the neck of the bladder, the lower portion of the ampullae, the seminal vessels and the deep urethra is a very important gland, called the (14) prostate gland. Connected with the urethra and only a short distance from the prostate, are two small glands, called the (15) Cowper’s glands. These glands and vessels are all very tender. They are protected by being placed on the inside of the body. Because of bad habits connected with the organs on the outside, many men suffer much pain from diseased conditions of the organs on the inside.

Puberty.—When a boy is born, he has all these organs. The testicles and the glands on the inside are inactive until he reaches the age of fourteen and a half. Until this time he has been only a boy. At about this age the glands become active and begin to slowly form from the blood a fluid called semen. This period in a boy’s life is called puberty. It is at this time that he starts toward manhood. We shall find later that he will not be a perfect man until he is twenty-four. During these ten years he will be changing gradually into a man. There is no way by which a boy can come suddenly to manhood.

Some things hasten puberty.—There are some{189} things that will hasten puberty. Several thousand miles South, puberty comes on a boy a few months sooner than it does here. Several thousand miles North, puberty comes later than here. Thus we see that a warm climate tends to hasten the arrival of puberty, and a cold climate will tend to retard it. This is the main reason why puberty, in the colored race, comes a few months sooner than it does in the white race. For centuries the negro lived in the hot climates of Africa. In this country he has lived largely in the South. Vulgar language, impure thoughts and the cigarette habit will tend to hasten puberty. These bad habits arouse passion and lead to the formation of semen before the body is prepared to absorb it. This leads to the habit of wasting this energy from the body. It will be noticed by you that the cigarette smoking and vulgar boys grow up to have a pale or a dark complexion and many are stunted and ugly. Using cigarettes before you are fifteen will do you more harm than to use them after that age.

The nature and value of the creative life.—The wisest doctors tell us that one drop of semen is worth twenty drops of blood; one ounce is worth twenty ounces of the purest blood. If a discharge of this energy were taken from the body of a healthy, strong man, twenty-five years old, and placed in a small glass test-tube and allowed to settle for ten hours, it would{190} divide itself into two unequal parts. The upper and smaller portion would be thin, clear and slightly oily. It would look just like joint water. The lower and larger portion would be thick and milkish in color, with many little (16) sperm cells. These cells can be seen only under the microscope. They are in the shape of a tadpole, except they are longer in proportion. They are very active at first, but when the fluid becomes chilled they soon die. They are formed from the blood and contain life.

The condition of an unwell man.—If a discharge is removed from a man that is in poor health, a man who drinks liquor, uses much tobacco, or wastes this energy from his body, it will be found that the amount, as a rule, is much smaller, the parts reversed, sperm cells fewer in number, smaller in size, slower in movements, than in the discharge taken from a healthy man. This illustration shows how bad habits injure the blood and rob a man of his energy.

How sex helps to change a boy into a man.—We are now able to study how this new life, this vital force, changes a perfect boy into a perfect man. We find that this energy is formed from the blood and contains life. These sperm cells contain physical, mental and soul life. This will be made plain to you, when you learn, that, when one of these sperm cells of a father unites with the cell of a mother, under{191} proper conditions, the result will be a child having physical, mental and soul life. A boy has physical, mental and soul life when he is born, but he has not as much as he will have when he is grown. If he grows up to be a man, he will need more of this energy and life. This is the work of the sexual glands. They form, by the help of the blood, this energy. This energy is absorbed by the body and carried by the blood to every part of his being. It is in this way that this energy helps the body to grow, and the mind and soul to develop.

Two full brother colts.—The use of this fluid can be illustrated in several ways. If two brother colts grow up side by side, they will look much alike when grown. If one of them be castrated when young, he will not develop as well as the other one. The castrated horse is called a gelding. The other one is called a stallion. The stallion has a high arched neck, dilated nostrils, sparkling eyes, a heavy thick mane and tail, broad, deep hip and chest muscles and an elastic bearing. He commands the attention and admiration of all beholders. A boy can’t manage him. It takes a strong man to control him. Turn him out in the field with one hundred geldings and he will rule all of them. The only difference between these horses was that one had had his testicles removed and the other had not. The gelding could not form from his{192} blood any of this valuable energy. This energy was formed by the stallion and absorbed by his body where it gave him perfect development, an elastic bearing, fiery eyes, strong muscles and lots of vitality.

Two full brother chickens.—Take two full brother chickens, put them in the same pen, give them the same food and shelter and when they are grown they will look very much alike. Suppose that when these roosters were small one of them had been caponized, that is, his glands had been removed, what would have been the result? The one not caponized would grow a large red comb, ear lobes and wattles, long glossy neck and tail feathers and long, strong spurs. In the case of the other bird, his comb, ear lobes and wattles, neck and tail feathers and legs would resemble an old hen that had not laid an egg for months. If food is scarce, the first bird will scratch for worms and catch insects for a living; the other one will starve. If food is thrown down for the old hen and her brood of chickens, the first bird will step up and pick up a bit of the food with his beak, drop it, then step back, point his beak at the food, glance up at the old hen, look down at the chickens and cluck to them to come up and eat the food. When they are through, if some food is left, he will eat it. If not, he goes out and finds him a meal. The capon will rush up to the food, with one foot crushing the life out of a chicken and{193} the other crushing the life out of another chicken; he hurriedly eats the food and does not offer any to the old hen and her chickens. If an old hawk or owl comes to catch the chickens, the first bird will fight the enemy until the hen and chickens find shelter. The capon sneaks under the floor.

The first bird retained his glands, formed that vital energy, absorbed it back into his body; this made him industrious, gallant and brave. The capon formed none of this energy, and he could not develop a perfect body, be industrious, gallant and brave.

Eunuchs.—Long years ago, men would select some boys that they wanted to be slaves and remove their sexual glands when they were quite young. Such boys were called eunuchs. When they were twenty-five years old they differed much from other men. They grew only a few scattering short hairs on their faces; their vocal organs never developed so as to produce a deep base voice; their shoulders never became broad and square; being cowardly they were never sent to the battlefield, they did not care to own property and had no desire for an education. Now, compare in your mind, the manly man with the eunuch. This energy gives him his beard, square shoulders, bass voice, brilliant mind, snap and vim, push and enterprise, bravery and attractive manliness.

If you would be a perfect man.—While it is now{194} very rare for a boy to be made a eunuch, yet it is very common to see young men who are dull and stupid, lifeless and lazy, stunted and ugly. In most cases this is due to their having wasted this energy.

From these illustrations we see that the sexual energy strengthens and develops every organ of the body, faculty of the mind and power of the soul. If a boy would have a strong, healthy and perfect body, this energy must be kept in the body and built into the muscles. If he would have a strong and brilliant mind, this energy must be directed to the brain. If he would be strong in moral character, he must learn how to use it in his moral nature. In the chapter on how to live a pure life this will all be made plain to you.{195}

Why some trees, kittens, calves, colts, do not become perfect.—In the last chapter we found how perfect boys become perfect men. In this chapter we shall find why some boys do not become perfect men. If a crooked sprout is not made straight before it gets to be a young tree, it can never entirely outgrow the defect. If it received a wound before it grew to be a young tree, nature may heal the wound but the scar will indicate a weak place when it is grown. If the wound is a deep one, decay may follow and its life greatly shortened. If a kitten, calf or colt be starved or crippled while young, they will rarely outgrow these defects.

Boys may injure themselves.—There are many ways by which a boy may injure himself physically, mentally and morally and prevent perfection in his manhood. We have learned that when the mind is kept pure and no bad habits are formed, that the sexual life will gradually change a boy into a perfect man. Now we are to study the bad effects of wasting this{196} energy. Why are there so many men with defective bodies? When we study the lower animals in their wild state, or when the domestic animals have been well kept by their owners, we find nearly all of them to be perfect. This is due to the fact that the lower animals have not violated the laws of sex. They do not waste their sexual energy.

Many defective men.—If you were to visit some of the insane asylums and look into the faces of from one to two thousand of the unfortunates, you would see some who do not possess a sign of intelligence. Many of them were born of parents who had violated these laws. Many are personally guilty and have brought on their own ruin. In the penitentiaries and hospitals we find that many are there because they have been guilty of the same wrongs. If many of these poor people had read the book you are reading, they would now be well and happy.

The following story is told by an author:

Robbing a vine of its life.—“When I was only a small boy, one lovely spring morning, I stepped up to a vigorous young grapevine, at the time the sap was rising and flowing out the branches to every bursting bud and cluster of blooms. I had watched my father bore holes in the sugar maple trees, a century old, and we would use the sap to make syrup and maple sugar. I did not know that this{197} really injured the old trees and that tapping them when ten or twenty years old would have very seriously injured them. So, with my knife, I cut a hole in the vine some two feet from the ground. At once the sap flowed as freely as from an old sugar tree. I stood by proudly and watched the sap flow out. Soon a puddle of sap had formed at the foot of the vine and the ground became damp all around. An hour passed and still the sap flowed. I became frightened. I wondered whether, at that rate, the vine would not disappear after a while. With mud, made from the sap and soil, I tried to stop up the wound and stop the flow. Quickly the flowing sap dissolved the mud and washed it down. After repeated failures, I ran to the house and got some rags and strings and tried to stop the flow, but soon the rags would get damp and the sap flowed as before.

“I decided to leave the vine to its own fate. The next morning I ventured out to see what had occurred. The vine looked as it did the day before. I found that kind nature had formed a reddish substance and had filled the wound and stopped the flow. That day I cut another hole in the vine. Again the sap flowed but not so freely as the day before. Day after day I repeated this for ten days. Will you be surprised when I tell you that the buds never matured into full size leaves, the clusters of blooms never matured into{198} large clusters of grapes, and that the vine did not live many years? I had robbed the vine of its very life.”

Some boys and men sap their life.—Now there is an act that is performed by many boys and men by which they waste the vital fluid from their bodies. This act soon becomes a habit. It has the same effect upon them that we found in the vine. Instead of their eyes glowing with luster, they become dull and sunken. Instead of their cheeks having the rosy look of youth and health the face becomes pale. Instead of offering a hearty warm handshake, it is lifeless and cold. Instead of muscles being hard and elastic, they are soft and weak. Instead of bright, alert minds, they are dull and listless. Instead of an elastic bearing and a straightforward step, there are the languid movements and the swaggering walk.

Boys do not know that it will hurt them.—Very early in life some boys learn to handle the sexual organs so as to produce a sense of pleasure. Not one in a hundred has been told that this habit will injure him. They have an idea that this will make them men. You will some day, if you have not already, hear boys boasting of committing this sin; or they will want to teach it to you. These poor ignorant fellows have not been taught that it is wrong and will injure them. They are to be pitied. They need a friend that will take them off, one at a time, and have{199} a friendly talk with them. You may some time have a chance to give such advice. Where a boy will not take your advice, it is not safe to make him your companion.

The habit is often commenced early.—Many boys begin this habit before they are twelve, sometimes as early as five and six. They have watched young men and boys older than themselves. They do not know that the glands do not begin the secretion of this energy until after they are fourteen to fifteen. They try to follow the example of older boys. While there is no waste of sexual material, it injures the nerves and pollutes the mind and starts a habit that, unless stopped in the early teens, will be hard to break off from later. Usually when a boy gets to be fourteen his conscience begins to tell him that the habit is wrong. Fortunately, many boys quit at this age, some check themselves, others go recklessly on to their certain ruin. When a boy breaks from the habit at fourteen or fifteen, this new energy soon overcomes the bad effects of the habit. If he continues until he is a young man, eighteen or twenty, he will have a harder struggle to break from the habit, and it will require a longer period for nature to overcome the bad effects of the habit. Boys who go on through life practicing the habit never amount to much and in many cases shorten their lives.{200}

How to keep from the habit.—I hope you have never formed the habit. It is not necessary to do so. It is far wiser never to commit the sin. If you will keep your hands off your sexual organs, refuse to let your mind entertain impure thoughts, your lips to speak vulgar words, your ears to listen to obscene stories, your eyes to look upon impure pictures, you can master your passions, be pure and clean.

Some effects of the habit.—Some of the effects of this sin are as follows: It injures the morals. The victim will take on a guilty look; may become irritable and cross; may avoid good company and seek the vile; may quit reading the Bible and going to church. This is one class. They are called bad boys. There is another class that are affected differently and would usually be called good boys. They are very modest, retiring fellows, rather shy of girls and would be shocked at immodest language. As the habit fastens itself more firmly, they become more sensitive, stay more alone, the presence of girls becomes more embarrassing to them, they become quite suspicious and feel that everybody knows of their guilt. In both of these cases, if the habit is continued, it will get the mastery of them and will be very difficult to quit. The latter class will feel gloomy and discouraged. They feel that everything is going wrong and that everybody is against them. This is due to the{201} effect of the sin upon their nervous system. It is hard for them to dismiss this idea. This state of mind will unfit them for business of any kind. Unless they break from the sin and dismiss these gloomy feelings, they can’t hope to succeed.

It injures the mind and morals.—The boy who practices the secret sin will one day find that he is falling back in his classes. His memory is not as good as it once was. He cannot solve problems as easily as he once could. If a kind-hearted, wealthy man should offer to put all the young men in a town of ten thousand people through college and meet all their expenses, on the conditions that they study hard and stand their examinations, not half of them would accept his kindness. Why? They have wasted this energy and are without ambition. The young men who have been wise enough to live pure lives, have so much manly ambition that poverty will not keep them from graduating.

Many young men who die from consumption when from eighteen to thirty years old are victims of this sin. In a few cases the sin leads to epilepsy or insanity.

It injures the sexual organs.—The sexual organs become soft and flabby, when this sin is practiced much. Sometimes they do not develop properly. The most common effect of the habit is varicocele.{202} This often occurs at the age of eighteen. The blood vessels in the scrotum become gorged with impure blood and feel like a mass of tangled cords. There will be felt a very unpleasant dragging pain in these cords and the left gland. Soon the left gland will waste away until it is no larger than in a small boy. Sometimes both glands become affected. Passion aroused by the mind and handling the organs, even when the habit is not practiced, will cause this disease.

There are other bad effects that do not occur until the boy is a man and it is not necessary to mention them here. You have learned enough for you to know that boys should not form the habit, and, if they have, they should break away from the habit at once.

How to quit the habit.—Where a boy has commenced the habit and desires to quit, there are some things he should know and do. The feeling of sexual desire, called passion, is caused almost entirely by the mind. As long as a boy can keep his mind on something else, he will not have these desires. He will need to avoid those things that lead the mind to think about these organs. Handling and looking at the organs direct the mind to them. Looking at the pictures of partly dressed girls, reading obscene books, talking vulgarly or entertaining impure thoughts will all cause passion. All these things must be carefully avoided. You can bring your will into play and become{203} able to say and mean it, “I will never again commit the act.” But, best of all, God can help you and offers to do so. Go often to Him in prayer. Ask Him to purify your mind and heart and give you strength to live a pure life. Ask Him to help you to keep all His laws, to be a Christian and to become a perfect man.{204}

The adolescent period.—The first distinct period of a boy’s life is his boyhood. This closes when puberty dawns. This usually occurs when he is about fourteen and a half. This is followed by a period of ten years, called adolescence. During these years he is changing from boyhood to manhood. In his feelings, thoughts, looks and ways, he resembles the boy he was and the man he is to be. In this mixed state, he is a problem. His whole after life is to be largely determined by this period. The most important part of this period is the first three years, from fourteen to seventeen. These three years are called puberty period. During these three years his sexual nature develops rapidly. Still he is much more a boy, during this period, than he is a man. This is the most critical period of a boy’s life. He is coming into possession of powers that are new to him, he does not understand them, he is not prepared by nature to control them. He needs the advice and instruction of a wise father, teacher or book at this period of his life. If a boy is wisely trained during these three years and{205} he follows the good advice given him, there is little danger of his going wrong in the future.

A boy can live pure.—There is an idea among boys and men, that it is not best for them to live a pure life. Some of them think that doctors teach that they should gratify themselves in some way. There is not one intelligent, honorable doctor who teaches this lie. There are a few “quack” doctors, whose practice is largely among wicked men, who teach this lie. When one of these “quacks” tells a boy this, the boy tells twenty other boys and each of them whispers it to twenty more boys, and in this way many come to believe the lie. They reason like this, “If I put my arm in a sling for a year or more, I lose the use of my arm through the non-use of it. Therefore, if I do not gratify my passions, I will lose my sexual powers.” To one, who does not understand his sexual nature, this looks like good reasoning. But it will not stand the test of a simple illustration. Here is a woman who gives birth to a child when she is twenty and nurses it perfectly at her breast. This is the first time her breasts have performed this function, though they have been capable of doing so for five years. Suppose she does not become a mother again until she is forty. Again she nurses her baby as perfectly as she did the first time. But, there were nineteen years in her life, during which these glands{206} did not feed a child. The breasts of a woman are a part of her sexual system. These organs have a double function. One is being performed all the time, day and night; that of secreting an energy that is absorbed back into her body and that adds to her strength, health and beauty. The second function is to secrete milk for her baby when she becomes a mother. The first function helps to keep her in a condition where the second function can be performed when she becomes a mother.

The sexual organs have two functions.—Now, in the case of a boy or a man, the sexual organs have a double function. The first function is to secrete a peculiar energy that is absorbed by the body. It is this energy that makes a boy a perfect boy when he is fourteen or fifteen, that changes him from a perfect boy into a perfect man, and that keeps up his perfect manhood through life. We usually speak of a boy’s sexual glands as being wholly inactive, having nothing to do until he reaches puberty. This is not true. It is true however that what we call semen is not formed by his glands until puberty. If two boys were made eunuchs, one when only a few days old and the other when puberty came, there would be quite a difference between them at the age of twenty-five. Both would be inferior men, but the second would be in many respects superior to the first. This can be explained{207} only on the ground that the glands of the second boy formed a vital energy before puberty, and it was this energy that made the difference between them. Now we see that this first function of our sexual nature is going on all the time. It is this function that keeps the sexual system in a condition, when at the proper age and under proper conditions, the man can become a father. These illustrations absolutely show that a boy, or a young man, does not have to gratify his passions. A boy can live as pure a life as a girl.

The effects of impure thinking.—The secret of living a pure life is in controlling the mind and knowing how to use this energy. The mind has the power to stimulate many of the glands of the body to greater activity. For example, suppose that you have been hard at work for six hours, then you come into the presence of some fine fruit or a table spread with good things. What happens? Your mouth begins to water. What causes this? The sight of food. Not exactly. The sight of the food caused your mind to think of the food, to long for it. You remember how the different things taste. The longer you have to wait, the more your mouth waters. Now the philosophy of it is this, your mind is stimulating the little salivary glands in your mouth and causing them to secrete the saliva rapidly. Just now you hear some one crying, Fire! Fire! Looking through the window,{208} you see the neighbor’s building is on fire. You rush over and for one hour you try to put out the flames, save some property or someone’s life. Your mind is wholly withdrawn from all thought of food. During that hour your salivary glands secrete just enough saliva to keep your mouth moist, perhaps the heat and labor left your mouth dry. Now you return home and your attention is called back to the food. Again the saliva is formed rapidly, ten or twenty times as fast as while you were fighting the fire. Now, when a boy has impure thoughts in relation to his sexual organs, the mind stimulates passion. If he is under the age of puberty, constant passion will injure his nervous system, lead him to form the secret sin and will misdirect that energy so that he will fail to be a perfect boy, when puberty dawns. After puberty dawns, impure thinking and all impure states of the mind will so stimulate the sexual glands that they will secrete more semen than the body can absorb. What cannot be absorbed will in some way be wasted from the body. It is in this way that boys become imperfect men. Nothing that a boy can do is more important than for him to keep his mind pure. Two things will help him; a Christian life and a strong will. One is a gift; the other must be cultivated.

Ways of using up this energy.—It is very important for a boy or young man to know how to use{209} this energy. We know that if this energy is wasted, it leaves the body weak, makes the mind stupid and hurts us morally. We have learned that when this energy is retained, our physical strength is increased, our minds are more alert and our moral natures develop better. This shows that this energy can be directed to these parts of our being. How is this to be done? Let a boy who is conscious of sexual desire, tempted to practice the secret sin, take a brisk walk for three or four miles and his passion is gone. What became of it? He directed the energy to his muscles and expressed it in labor. Here is another boy with passion, he too is tempted to waste this energy. He has a hard lesson in mathematics. Let him will to take his mind off sex and force it to solve those problems. In an hour or two passion is gone. What became of it? This time he directed it to his brain and it increased his mental power. Here is another boy. His body is healthy and strong, his mind is bright, but he is cold, unkind, unsympathetic and indifferent to the claims of the needy. He has passion and is tempted to waste his energy. What should he do? Let him spend an hour loving the unlovely, boosting the discouraged, speaking kind words and doing noble deeds and his passion will be gone. What became of it? He built his energy into his sentiments, feelings and moral nature.{210}

The meaning of passion.—The consciousness of passion is the voice of nature telling you that you have an extra supply of creative energy on hand, that you can use in performing physical, mental and moral service. If this energy is wasted, it will unfit you to perform the service. It is for you to decide what use you will make of this energy. Would you prefer momentary pleasure? Then, you can find it in sexual gratification. But you should remember that pay-day comes later. Inferior manhood, disease, suffering, sorrow, regret and failure lie in the road of all who live in vice. Only perverted ideals and views of life would lead one to seek pleasure on the plane of an animal. Man’s highest, truest and sweetest pleasures come from the consciousness of perfect physical, mental and moral development. Self-management, self-control, self-government will keep us in harmony with nature and God and result in true happiness and success.{211}

The true young knight.—A true young knight is a boy, or young man, who is strong, brave, ambitious, intelligent, gallant and pure. The knights of the Middle Ages were strong men. They practiced athletics, took their outdoor sports and were proud of their physical strength. In those days, one with a weak, defective body could not be a knight. They were also, brave men. They would die for what they believed to be right. They were very gallant toward women. They would offer every courtesy and respect to girlhood, womanhood, wifehood and motherhood. They had to be pure men to be strong, brave, gallant and manly. A knight would die in defense of womanhood.

The purpose of this chapter is to inspire you to become a true knight in your social relations with girls and ladies. The proper social relations of boys and girls, men and women, is one of the best ways of developing the social side of our lives, of improving the mind and strengthening our moral natures. God has made us social beings. He wants us to enjoy life.{212}

{213}

Treat all girls as you would have boys treat your sister.—Until girls are sixteen and boys are eighteen, when thrown together, it is wisest and best for them to engage in plays and games as children without any thought of being sweethearts. Small boys should learn that it is not manly for them to squeeze the hand of a girl, tease, pinch or pull a girl’s hair and he should not think of such an ungentlemanly thing as to try to kiss a girl. The reason for this advice is, these relations tend to create in the mind thoughts that a true knight will not entertain. You would not want a boy to treat your sister in this way. A boy who would treat another boy’s sister as he would not want her brother to treat his sister, is not a true knight. Nature and God teach that man is woman’s protector.

The truest bravery.—The boy who would expose himself to danger and death to save a girl from drowning or being crushed by a street car, is brave and deserves much praise. But he is not as brave and does not deserve as much praise, as does the boy who defends the honor and purity of a girl, not his sister. To positively refuse to allow a boy to talk about a girl in your presence in a way that you would not allow him to speak to your sister, is the courage of a knight. The good name of a girl is worth more to her than money, houses and lands. It is so easy for boys,{214} who engage in obscene language about girls, to invent and tell some story about some girl who is perfectly innocent, and, in this way, start others to talking about her. This is called slander. It is one of the most unmanly and cowardly deeds a boy can be guilty of. This is a very common sin among a class of boys. A boy cannot become a true knight who allows himself to have wrong thoughts about girls, much less to talk about them. All vulgar men were once vulgar boys. If you will cultivate a hatred for vulgarity while you are a boy, you will hate it when you are a man.

Bad company.—When hundreds of prisoners were asked, “What brought you to this?” they replied, “Bad company brought us to this.” No doubt that more boys go wrong through bad company than through any other agency. When a boy keeps bad company, it will be very hard for him not to do as they do. Many times he will do wrong rather than be called “baby.” A true knight will be interested in helping a bad boy to overcome his temptations, but he cannot run the risk of being injured by making a bad boy his companion. If he associates with the rude, listens to vulgarity long, he will become rude and vulgar.

Boys should protect girls.—The very thought of a boy’s insulting your sister causes a feeling of great hatred to rise in your breast. Why is this? Girls{215} are not as strong as boys. They need protection. That feeling comes to you because you know that you are your sister’s protector. This is bravery. But the knightliest young knight, is the boy who will not speak an unmanly word about another boy’s sister and will bravely and kindly rebuke the boy who does.

The true knight has one standard of morals.—No young knight would play and associate with a girl who uses cigarettes, vulgarity or swears. Then, if he is a brave, true knight, he will not ask for better company than he is willing to give. The true knight of the twentieth century will have but one standard of morals. Ever since the days of savagery, when man could swap, exchange or sell his daughters in the same way that he could his property, society has been accustomed to a double standard of morals—purity and temperance for woman, do as you please for boys and men. In the days of savagery, the value of a girl on the marriage market was determined by her being pure. If she had been impure, no man wanted to buy her to become his wife, but she was stoned to death or forced to become a slave. Man was free. No one owned him. He could live just as he pleased. Woman could not do as she pleased. Her very life, the privilege of becoming a wife and a mother all depended on her being pure. Is it not strange that people have allowed this relic of savagery to pass down{216} the centuries without correcting it. People take what is customary to be right. They do not try to decide whether a custom is fair, just and right or not. It is hard to rid our minds of this old custom. If you should see a girl or woman walking along the street of a city smoking you would condemn her as a bad woman. But there goes a man doing the same thing. Is he as bad as the woman? We judge that he is not. Unless we know him to be a bad man, we regard and treat him as a gentleman. On a street corner or in a hotel you hear a girl or woman swearing and using the most obscene language. You do not hesitate to believe that she is bad. You would frown upon her in society. You would scorn her association. Even the guilty man would not respect such a woman. This is because custom has biased our very thinking. The very best people are unfair to the girl and the woman. They forgive in man what they condemn in the girl and woman.

Will you enlist in the new knighthood?—There was never an organized effort to break down and destroy the double standard of morals until some twenty years ago. In England there are several hundred organizations of young men, in some of these there are several hundred members, and they have pledged themselves to live as pure lives as the girls they expect some day to marry. Every one of these boys and{217} young men is a knight. These organizations are being formed throughout Canada, and there are some being formed in the United States. The world has never offered such a grand and great opportunity for boys to become knights as it does in this century. In the days of chivalry, the young man who gave his life to protect the honor of a lady was a truer knight than the man who gave his life on the battlefield to protect his country. It takes a higher form of bravery and manhood to protect the virtue of girlhood and womanhood than it does to face whizzing bullets, booming cannons, and exploding shells. The great purity movement of this age, with its ever-increasing army of brave, determined and self-sacrificing authors and lecturers, is enlisting and marshalling an army of knights destined to overthrow this monster of savagery. All over this country thousands of brave boys and men are enlisting. This great twentieth century crusade against vice is summoning to its ranks every chivalrous boy and man and every good girl and woman. Here is the chance to be a true knight. Will you enlist? We invite you. We welcome you to become a true knight.{218}

Views of the past.—In the past, sex has been regarded as vitally a part of our physical organism. We are now learning that sex is vitally and substantially a part of our psychic nature—physical, mental and moral life. In the male, this sex life may become chemicalized and find expression on a purely physical plane, but this is not its true or highest function. Its highest function in relation to the individual, male or female, is the creation of new life—physical, mental and moral. Its highest function in relation to society is that of reproduction.

The unsexed male horse.—If the male horse be deprived of certain sexual glands when he is a year old, at maturity he will not have the sparkling eye; the high arched muscular neck; the heavy flowing mane and tail; the deep hip and chest muscles, and the elastic bearing of the stallion.{219}

The caponized male bird.—If a male bird be caponized, he will not grow a large comb, ear-lobes and wattles, long glossy, flowing neck and tail feathers, or strong sharp spurs on his legs; he will be without gallantry, courage and energy.

The eunuch.—If a boy be made a eunuch, when he is twenty-five he will have no beard, unless it be a few short scattering hairs; his voice will be devoid of the deep bass tones of a man; his shoulders will be round and drooped like a girl’s; he will be without bravery, gallantry, ambition, energy and will be very limited in mental capacity.

The unsexed girl.—If the ovaries and breasts of a small girl should be removed, when she is twenty she would not have the graceful outlines of limbs, body, shoulders, neck and face; her skin would not become thin and fair; her cheeks would not have the ruddy glow; her eyes would not be bright and expressive; her hair would not be long, heavy and glossy; her voice would not be rich and tender, sympathetic and musical; she would not take a keen interest in intellectual, moral and social questions; she would be a woman devoid of many of the physical, mental and moral characteristics belonging to attractive, beautiful womanhood.

Without these organs of sex it would not be possible for a girl to develop into attractive normal womanhood.{220} Should these organs be removed after she has attained maturity, she and her friends would notice a gradual loss in her physical, mental and moral tone.

The two functions of the sexual glands.—These easily recognized and well established facts show that these organs perform an involuntary and continuous function that is vitally related to the attainment and maintenance of perfect womanhood. We know that whatever interferes with this function will prevent the attainment and maintenance of these ideals. What is the nature of this function? The monthly creation of the ovum and the monthly period do not answer the question, for both represent a sacrifice. The function of becoming a mother does not explain it, for the reason that perfect womanhood may be attained and maintained in the single life. The explanation lies in the fact that the sexual glands of a woman, breasts and ovaries, each have two functions—a periodic and special function and a continuous involuntary function. After the dawning of puberty the ovaries, once every twenty-eight days, produce an egg or ovum. This is their periodic function. Should she become a mother and nurse her child, this function of lactation would be the periodic function of the breasts.

The continuous function.—Day and night, asleep and awake, both the breasts and the ovaries are generating an internal secretion that is being absorbed and{221} used by every organ of the body, faculty of the mind and attribute of the moral nature. This continuous function, not only aids in the attainment and maintenance of perfect womanhood, but enables her to perform perfectly the periodic functions of motherhood and lactation.

The generation, absorption, distribution and assimilation of the sex life in the development and normal functions of womanhood are controlled by natural laws, but these laws may be aided or interfered with by the individual. As a result of morbid sex heredity, ignorance of sex laws and a false education, most people misdirect their sex life. When we learn to plan intelligently for the creation of children, to respect their prenatal rights, to give them a warm and loving welcome into our homes and wisely to instruct them in regard to their sex natures, the sex life will then be intelligently directed towards the development of a more perfect manhood and womanhood.

The relation of the mind to the salivary glands.—It is quite important for one to understand the relation of the mind to the functions of the sexual system. The mind has the power to stimulate many of the glands of the body to unusual activity. In the presence of delicious fruit, or a table spread with tempting food, the mind stimulates the salivary glands to increased activity. The blood flows freely to the{222} glands and they secrete saliva many times as fast as they would when the mind is engaged in other things. If, when the saliva is being secreted so rapidly the mind should be suddenly directed to something else the unusual flow of saliva would cease.

The relation of the mind to the organs of generation.—The mind can awaken, intensify, and prolong a desire for food. This causes a rush of blood to the salivary glands, stimulating them to unusual activity in the secretion of saliva. In the same way the mind can awaken, intensify and prolong sexual excitement. This causes a rush of blood to the genital glands and stimulates them to unusual activity. In the male, this results in the dissipation of the vital energy by voluntary or involuntary discharges of the vital fluid. In the female, the internal secretions or vital energy does not become chemicalized as in the male, but is directed to wrong channels or is dissipated by radiation.

There are some authors who hold that the injuries sustained by the female, due to impure habits of thinking, the secret sin, or sexual excesses, are not caused by dissipated sexual life, but are due to the strain upon the nervous system. We have already observed that the development of the feminine physical and mental characteristics during adolescence and the maintenance of womanhood are due to the generation of an internal secretion of the genital glands. The{223} nerves, as well as all other organs of the body, faculties of the mind and powers of the soul, are injured by the dissipation of this energy.

What produces impure thoughts.—Whatever leads the mind to entertain lascivious thoughts about matters of sex will cause an excess of blood to flow to the genital organs, resulting in sex consciousness and passion. The reading of novels tainted with immoral suggestions, admiring obscene pictures, engaging in the public round dance or waltz, kissing, caressing, teasing, fondling, or what modern society calls “spooning” if indulged in by the sexes, will produce these results. Self-pollution, or the secret sin, is more common among the females than was formerly believed. These indulgences lead to abnormal sexual desire, weaken the will and make it possible for the girl to surrender the priceless gem of virtue.

Effects of impure thinking.—The dissipation of the sex life in any one or more of these ways will slowly undermine the physical, mental and moral health. The victim loses the snap and luster of the eye, the ruddy glow of health, plumpness of features, and becomes conscious of bodily lassitude, nervousness, loss of mental and moral tone. Dissipation of the sex life will explain many a nervous invalid and consumptive patient. It is for you to decide.—The continuous involuntary{224} function of the creative organs is to generate this creative force, this life principle. It is for you to decide what use you will make of it. If you keep your mind pure, eat only wholesome food, take plenty of exercise, breathe deeply, sleep in properly ventilated rooms, spend much time in God’s out-of-doors, this creative life will vitalize the blood, give elasticity and strength to the muscles, and will express itself in physical health, strength and beauty. By keeping your mind pure, following the forgotten physical directions, taking plenty of mental exercise in reading books of high mental and moral tone, hearing good speakers and indulging in independent thought, this vital principle will be directed to the brain, where it will be converted into intellectual brilliancy and mental vigor. If you keep your mind pure and follow the physical directions given, cultivate an unselfish interest in the well-being of others, sympathize with the sorrowing, boost the discouraged, love the unlovely, help to bear the burdens of others, recognize your need of Christ, surrender your life to Him, this God-given creative life will be directed to the moral nature. This is Perfect Womanhood.{225}

The introduction.—Since you were a very small girl I have very carefully selected the stories told you and the books and papers read to you. What we read very largely determines our thoughts, words, actions and character. In the past I have told you many stories of my childhood, stories I had heard, stories found in the Bible and good books, besides reading many good books to you. During these years I have selected many simple interesting books for you to read. I made the selection for you because I knew what books were too difficult for you; what books would interest you; what books would do you good and what books would do you harm. Then you enjoyed those stories which most appealed to a child.

Why girls are fond of novels.—Usually the novel craze comes on a girl when she is about fifteen years of age. This is because of certain changes that are taking place. God has made her a social being. About this time in a girl’s life the developing sex nature is stimulating and awakening the social nature. Thoughts of a lover, courtship, marriage, wifehood{226} and motherhood are occasionally entertained by her. This is perfectly natural. The reason she wants to read novels is because they deal with the social experiences and this appeals to and satisfies her developing social life.

She is in a period of transition.—Wonderful changes are now taking place, not only in the delicate curves of bust and hips, in the dainty coloring and superb vitality of body, but also in the thoughts, feelings and emotions. At this time a girl is passing from girlhood to womanhood. It is the developing sex life that is producing all of these new changes. With this new life and new experiences come new dangers. Prior to this time there has been but little difference between her mind and that of her brother’s. But, now, this new life is developing the woman in her. In this transition period, she is conscious of the girl she was and partly is, and of the woman she is to be and partly is. This is rather a mixed experience. This accounts for the girl’s changeable states of mind, emotions, feelings and sentiments. If this new life is properly directed, it will contribute much to the joy, charm, and beauty of an ideal womanhood.

The difference between a good novel and a bad novel.—The world is being flooded with novels, good and bad. They are very popular because they are light reading and appeal to the social nature. Their{227} authors write largely about courtship and marriage. Some of these books are good and some dangerously bad. A good novel is one that is high in literary and moral tone, true to life and gives one a natural and true idea of noble manhood and pure womanhood; of their social relations in courtship, marriage and parentage. A good novel can be read by a girl to her parents or before a company of young people without embarrassment. A bad novel is one that is either highly sensational, intensely romantic, untrue to life, tainted with immorality, or in some way gives one a perverted vision of all the sacred relations of life. A novel that a girl would be ashamed to read before her parents, or a group of friends, belongs to that class of literature that should be tabooed.

The effects of the vicious novel.—If the girl reads the questionable or vicious novels, fancies them, admires their heroes and heroines, and in her mind condones their indiscretions, excuses their sins,—as the author does,—the influence cannot be otherwise than bad. Such novels must give an unnatural tone to her thoughts, feelings and sentiments. Cause and effect are always inseparably related. The outward life is the enfolding of the inner life of feelings, sentiments and emotions. This inner life is affected by what we read. If a girl delights in reading novels that condone, excuse, or advocate a girl receiving caresses,{228} kisses and keeping late hours at night with a beau, she will not likely greet her prince at the marriage altar with the rare queenly gift of unkissed lips. If she delights to read the novels whose heroine was angelic in all things, except in the insignificant item of personal purity, she too will be in danger of lacking that same element of character when she marries, should she be so fortunate as to become a wife. If she delights in reading novels, whose married heroines lived “double lives,” she too, one day may be guilty of imitating the heroines she worshiped.

Novels which are untrue to life, tainted with immorality, certainly account for many girls going astray, many who overtrust their lovers, and many uncongenial marriages and many divorces. The title of a novel usually indicates its contents. Novels with sensational titles or titles suggesting unnatural and immoral thoughts, appealing to the morbid and baser feelings should be avoided.

How to direct and conserve the creative life.—This new life, the sex life of a girl, if rightly retained and directed will give strength, health, beauty and perfection of the body; alertness, strength and brilliancy of every faculty of the mind and power of the soul. The sex life is three-fold in its nature, being related to the physical, mental and soul life.

It is a law of human biology that the direction of{229} this energy is very largely under the direction of the mind. If one desires bodily development and will take regular and systematic physical training, this energy can be built into the muscles giving them the body of an athlete. If one desires intellectual development and will regularly and systematically exercise every faculty of the mind, this energy will be directed to the brain, resulting in intellectual brilliancy. The same law applies with equal force to the development of the feelings, sentiments and emotions of the moral nature. If we take normal physical, mental and moral exercise, this energy will be conserved in the blood, which is the life, and directed so as to produce a perfect development. Sin alone has brought conflict and inharmony into our three-fold nature and prevents perfect happiness and perfect development. This is an appalling fact. We are hereditarily degenerate. God’s grace and the right exercise of the will in relation to perfect self-control are necessary conditions of individual and race improvement. If lascivious thoughts are allowed control of the will, this creative life will be misdirected, the generative system will become abnormal, resulting in sexual weakness and depriving the entire being of the benefits of this energy.

The relation of reading to the disposition of the sex life.—A fondness for reading highly romantic, intensely sensational, untrue and immoral novels is abnormal{230} and lead to a misdirection of this creative life. There is the romantic element in our nature which should be developed, but it should not be over-developed. We should have a balanced development. The degenerate elements in our nature, inherited or acquired, should be suppressed and eliminated. The vicious novel increases the creation of the sex life and at the same time misdirects it. This intensifies our degeneracy.

Reading good literature, facts or fiction, or both, is normal and leads to a natural generation of and distribution of this energy. Girls should read a general line of good literature. The romantic nature is especially active in youth. It is for this reason that the youth is inclined to read only fiction. If in young life we would develop properly, we should choose a general line of reading, embracing some of the standard books of fiction, history, travel, poetry, biography, essays and religion.

Advice concerning books.—Every young person should possess some good books of his own, even if but few. They should read good books. Time is too valuable to be wasted in reading bad or even mediocre books. In this way they keep company with the great men and women of this day and of the past. In this way they become heirs to the intellectual and spiritual wealth of the past and are intimately associated with{231} and related to the mental and spiritual aristocracy of the present. They may not be recognized in their community as belonging to the “upper tens,” but they can keep company with the best men and women of the ages by reading good books.

Just as we have read and talked together about good books and stories in the past, so I trust we shall find it pleasant and profitable to be companionable in our reading in the future. I will be glad to aid you in the selection of such books and magazines as will be pleasant and profitable for you to read in the near future. I will always appreciate the privilege of hearing you read a book that you like, of discussing the merits of a book with you, or of giving you the best advice that I am capable of giving with reference to any book that you may desire to read.{232}

Why attractive.—Dancing is one of the social temptations that come to young girls when they are fifteen and older. The gliding, swaying movements of the dance, the brilliantly lighted halls, the intoxicating strains of fast music, the gay and jovial throng and the display of dress appeal strongly to the feelings of young people.

Dancing in itself is not sinful or objectionable.—There is nothing intrinsically wrong in the act of dancing. There is nothing sinful in the act of bathing the entire body. But the act can be performed under social conditions when it would not be only a sin but a crime. There could be no moral objection to the dancing together of young men, neither could there be any moral objection to the dancing of young ladies with each other. Individuals could dance alone, brothers and sisters and near relatives from homes of culture, refinement and good morals could dance together without committing a moral wrong. Or if society had remained satisfied with the old “Virginia reel” or the “square dance” little harm would come of it. Dancing{233} with these restrictions, is seldom engaged in to-day for the reason that the pleasure found in the waltz and round dance is so largely diminished.

The secret of the dance’s hold on society.—If modern dancing were restricted to the chaste and pure, and limited to the parlors of the best homes and safeguarded by the presence of the heads of that home, dancing would lose much of its attractive hold upon society. If the dancing of the sexes together were prohibited by law and should the government provide well equipped dance halls in every village and city to be used free of charge, with the one restriction that the sexes dance separate, there would be little temptation to dance. This reveals the true secret of the public dance. Here is about the relation assumed by young people in executing the dance as we have it to-day. The young man places his right arm around the waist of the young lady; she places her head against his left shoulder, her heaving breasts are against his, her right hand is held in his left, he places his foot, sometimes his leg, between hers. To this must be added, the young lady, if properly attired, must wear a sleeveless, low-necked dress exposing, in part, her secondary sexual charms, the breasts; wine, ale and beer are often indulged in freely by many of the young men and occasionally by some of the young women.

The public dance a menace to society.—From{234} this description you will easily see that the public dance, as we have it to-day, appears to have been especially contrived, in all of its appointments, to awaken and arouse the sex nature. It is for this reason almost all truly religious people and churches condemn the public dance. In almost all communities the public dance has been relegated by the best classes of society to a lower class. There are some communities where the dance is encouraged in homes of wealth, culture and refinement. For a few years at least, they pride themselves in the fact that only the best are invited. Here, of course, the harm would be reduced to some degree. Many erring women attribute their fall in part, or entirely to the public dance. Many vicious young men use the dance as their most successful means of accomplishing the ruin of young girls. When the young woman assumes for the first time the relation of the dance, her sense of womanly modesty is greatly shocked. If she continues to dance, this relation becomes less embarrassing. If she becomes very fond of dancing, this will usually be due to her passions being aroused by the magnetic, amorous influence of her partner in the dance. She will not enjoy dancing with men who fail to excite in her those agreeable feelings. She will be popular with this class of men to the extent that she is able to respond to their amorous nature. She will not fully realize that the pleasure she enjoys,{235} while dancing, is inseparable from her sex nature; she may never fall, but constant sexual excitement caused by the dance will produce all the evil effects of the secret sin.

Other objections.—Aside from this main objection, there are a number of other objections. The flimsy dress, late hours at night, over-exertion and poorly ventilated halls are in violation of the simple laws of health. It fosters unfortunate social distinctions, leads many young people to violate the wishes of their parents and their church vows, keeps many from Christ, and interferes with the spiritual life of others. It is responsible for not a few life-long invalids, premature deaths from heart trouble and consumption, ruined marriages and cursed children with illegitimacy. It has broken the hearts, bowed the heads, carved lines of sorrow on the face and silvered the hair of loving devoted parents.

Right information needed.—Few young people understand the nature of the dance. Those who have condemned it have rarely done so in the right spirit or given a satisfactory reason why the public dance is wrong. Owing to the relation of the modern dance to the sex nature it would usually be wiser to discuss it before single sex audiences. If young people, who are interested in developing a perfect manhood and womanhood, understood how the modern dance complicates each other’s sex problems, they would discard{236} the dance from their social programmes. I am sure they would arrange for other forms of diversions and entertainment. The cold-blooded facts are, few, if any, vigorous young men and women can persist long in the modern dance and maintain perfectly chaste thoughts and emotions. It is a sad thought that many young people are not interested in developing perfect manhood and perfect womanhood. They are not likely to heed the advice of this talk. By all who understand the value of the creative life, the importance of keeping the mind pure, this advice will be appreciated and heeded.{237}

Girlhood.—We have talked with each other about a small girl’s ethics, the proper social relations of girls with boys. Your girlhood has been one of innocence, playfulness and unbounded joy. I have noticed with real pleasure that you have not been in a hurry to leave the period of girlhood. Although you will soon be seventeen, and you are quite as large as your mother, you will not be a mature woman until you are about twenty.

Occasional association with young men.—You have had one or two schoolroom flirtations, of small consequence, a few times you have been escorted home from school or church by youths who had but recently reached the dignity of “long pants,” but you are now of an age when you will be thrown more in company with young men. Many will call to see you whom you will entertain no thought of marrying. For several years your social relation with young men will be only that of friendship. To associate occasionally with young men who are socially, intellectually{238}

{239}

and morally, your equal is natural, enjoyable and in many ways very helpful.

Girls should demand a single standard of morals.—You should treat young men as you would wish young women to treat your brother. Many young men will want to call, whose habits and character are such that you cannot associate with them, without injury to your social and moral standing. If you do not know a young man’s record, who seeks your company, have your papa or brother look it up. Be frank, kind and positive in your explanation that you cannot encourage his attentions because of his evil habits and his bad record. Assure him that you will gladly assist him to reform and to step up to the standard you hold for a young man, but that you cannot and will not approve of his life by stepping down to his plane. If all girls would demand a “white life” of young men, fewer would sow their “wild oats.” If all sensible and moral girls would frankly and kindly express their disapproval of the filthy, expensive and injurious habits of using tobacco and drink, there would be fewer “boozers” and unfortunate appendixes to the wet end of cigarettes.

Many young men are indiscreet or immoral.—In your association with young men be natural, be yourself, be frank, use good sense, guard against any indiscretion in yourself or in young men. It is a custom{240} with many young men to try to hold the girl’s hand, to play with her hair, to pinch her arms, to pat her cheeks, to drop carelessly their hands in her lap, or to place their arms about her neck or waist. Unless densely ignorant, such young men are vicious. All the males among the lower animals, at certain seasons, make a peculiar noise recognized by the females as a “sex call,” and the males have their peculiar methods of teasing the females inviting their consent to the sexual act. Whether young people put this sex interpretation on pinching, caressing, hugging and kissing or not, it is, in its final analysis, a sex call. These are the methods used by the seducer. These are the indiscretions into which uninformed youths easily drift to their ruin.

If a young man appears to be ignorant of the real nature of these indiscretions, he is to be pitied and helped. If he persists in these indiscretions, he should not be extended the courtesy of an invitation to make another call. If you allow one young man to kiss you, he believes that you allow others the same privilege, whether you do or not. Young men who possess one spark of manhood will admire and respect you more than the girls they may kiss.

Be sensible.—In your conversation with young men, have something sensible and interesting to say. Have some charming story to read or tell them.{241} Have them read or tell you a story. This will enable you to help them cultivate an interest in intellectual matters. Many young people get into the habit of indulging in the most insane and ridiculous conversation.

“Hands off.”—Moonlight walks along unfrequented streets or roads, night buggy rides, late hours in the parlor, low-necked dresses and suggestive post cards, photos and pictures are unnecessary sources of temptation. When young women permit these social privileges and conditions, young men naturally conclude that they are easy victims. The clear-eyed, frank, pure, common-sense girl will have but little trouble in letting young men know her disapproval of that which is questionable, indiscreet or undignified. They will soon learn to respect her convictions. She will seldom find it necessary to enforce her ideals in an aggressive way. She will kindly, tactfully and positively enforce the rule, “hands off”; she will keep ever in her mind the ideal of manhood she hopes one day to realize in her king. She will never do or say anything while entertaining young men that would displease the mental image of her future prince.

Letter writing.—If you should correspond with a young man, be interesting, sensible, cautious and sincere. You should never put in a letter to a young man, what you would object to your mother’s reading. You would be surprised to know how many young men{242} compare their letters from young women. If you will remember this and consider the possible consequence, you will be cautious what you put in a letter.

Ethics of the engaged.—Thus far we have studied the ethics of young women in their relation to young men, as friends only. Friendship may assume a more serious nature and ripen into love. Love is the strongest and at the same time the weakest, the most fickle; the most far-sighted and the blindest; the wisest and sometimes the most foolish, of human attributes. Love should listen to the voice of reason, judgment and will. That experience, called love, that makes courtship so delightful and beautiful, marriage desirable and sacred, that harmonizes differences, blends personalities, and makes the two one, is the child of the sex life. When the sex life is normal, the two having lived virtuous lives, love will be pure and intense. If one, or both have misused their sex life, lust, the child of sensuality, may be easily mistaken for love. Harmony, happiness and heaven will reign in the home where both have been pure before marriage and remain true to each other after marriage. Where one or both break their marriage vows the bond of love is broken. The deed may never be confessed, but the estrangement will be felt. Lust is responsible for most unfortunate marriages, domestic inharmonies and divorces. Lust on the part of one, and love on the part{243} of the other, can never make a happy marriage. Pure love on the part of both is the only thing that can stand the inevitable tests of marriage.

Some advice.—Shun sudden emotions, cultivate sincerity, covet neither beauty nor wealth, be true to the best that is within you; don’t be in a hurry to become engaged; the first chance may not be the best; wait for the coming of your prince. Until he comes, don’t trifle with your affections or the affections of a gentleman friend by making marriage engagements. This is dangerous, as well as a very great sin. When you have found your prince, you should not postpone marriage by a long engagement. It is not necessary or wise to wait until you are as well equipped for housekeeping as your parents now are.

Long engagements.—If your prince is healthy, industrious, economical and has a few hundred ahead; or if he has a good education and a good position, with the other qualities, he can make a living for his family. If either of these conditions exists, a long engagement should be avoided. If either of these conditions does not exist a definite engagement with a man would be unwise.

Hasty marriages.—The other extreme of hasty marriage is to be condemned. If marriage takes place when one or both are immature, the offspring must suffer. If an engagement follows a very brief acquaintance,{244} disagreeable qualities may be discovered later, to be followed by a broken engagement. Hasty and brief engagements often terminate in the divorce courts.

Closing advice.—When friendship has ripened into love, the vital question being asked and answered; fraternal relations established between the families; and the engagement is a blissful reality, what then should be the rules governing the young woman’s ethics? Inflexible rules would be difficult to give. Much depends upon the man to whom she is engaged and the length of the engagement. During the pending engagement both should remember that they are not married, and hence there are liberties in the married life that are not theirs until the civil phase of marriage has completed their oneness. All embracing and sitting in each other’s lap should be entirely avoided. Pictures, showbills and post cards have taught in recent years some very vicious lessons to the youth. An occasional good-by kiss between the engaged, at the close of a call, just before parting, unaccompanied by an embrace should result in no harm to either.

She should be frank, sincere and earnest, versatile, entertaining and affectionate, but very discreet. If she follows these simple and essential rules, she and her prince will be all the happier during their pending engagement and will respect and love each other all the more through life.{245}

Why most girls go wrong.—In my talk on a young woman’s ethics, I endeavored to give you such information and advice, regarding your association with young men, as would safeguard your character. Few girls have been as well informed by their mothers in these matters as they should have been. As a result of ignorance, many girls, even out of our best homes, annually fall. Were all girls taught by their mothers along this important line and could they see the tragic consequence of going wrong, it is evident that very few young women would ever go astray.

Few women go wrong from choice.—It should be said, in justice to fallen women, that but few would have gone wrong, had it not been for the seductive wiles of designing men. Man is woman’s natural protector. Women naturally trust men, and look to them for protection. The young man who lives a pure life, maintained by noble, pure ideas, is a safe guardian of a young woman’s virtue. Unfortunately such young men are the exceptions and not the rule. Most young men receive their first lessons in matters{246} of sex from ignorant, sinful men. From their early teens their highest ideas of manhood involve the ruin of some girl. The training that most boys and young men receive leads naturally to these perverted ideas. As a result of this false training the natural feelings of being a friend, a champion, a protector of a girl’s honor and virtue are gradually transformed into the sentiments of a libertine. Such young men are found in all grades of society. They cultivate the acquaintance of innocent, unsuspecting girls, make love to them, win their confidence and affections, set dates for early marriage, then practice their seductive methods with vows of marriage oft repeated, pluck the lily of virtue and leave their victims to suffer endless remorse, while they gloat over their successes, go unwhipped and lose no social prestige.

If motherhood does not expose her sin.—If this betrayal does not result in her becoming a mother, and her betrayer does not expose her sin to the public, her problems will be much more easily solved. But, even if she is so fortunate as to escape motherhood and her betrayer does not boast to others of what he has done, yet no pen can portray, no rhetoric can describe and no imagination can conceive her fearful dreams, her fevered memories and her agonies of remorse.

If motherhood does expose her sin.—The gravest{247} problems arise where the girl is to become a mother. To shield herself and to save her family from disgrace, her first thought will be to use some means to rid herself of the unborn life. In this awful hour of conscious guilt, mental bewilderment and soul agony the girl would gladly welcome death in any form rather than face the inevitable exposure that awaits her. God only knows how many girls commit suicide and how many mysterious deaths might be explained by this cause. Where they succeed in destroying the unwelcome life, physical health is often wrecked. But suppose that death or ill health does not follow, what must be the effects on the mind and soul that follow this cold-blooded act of willful prenatal murder.

If her lover refuses marriage, she should confess to her mother.—It is not to be wondered at that so many girls, when deceived in a love affair, rather than face unforgiving parents, a cold and heartless world, a social condition that excuses in man what is an unpardonable sin in woman, choose a life of immorality in a house of shame. This unkindness, this injustice, this down-right cruelty toward woman is a relic of savagery that clings on to civilization with a tenacity that even Christianity has thus far failed to eradicate. Until the truth of a “White life for two” frees us from this monster of injustice, what should the{248} wronged girl do? To commit suicide, to murder her unborn child, to run away from home and give herself over to an immoral life only adds greater sins to the one already committed. Poor, weak, ignorant, confiding girl, her lot is now a hard one. If there were anything remotely akin to manhood in her betrayer, he would now do the only thing he can do that is right—marry her. If he refuses, then she should at once go to her parents and make the most humiliating confession a human being can make. It may require more effort to do this than to try to solve the problem in any other way, but usually this is best. Sometimes the parents will pity and forgive, sometimes they will cast her out. The last should never be true. Could the parents only realize how much of her fall was due to their lack of proper education, how much was due to passion they may have bequeathed her, they would not cast her out from home at such a time.

Homes for the unfortunate girls.—Her parents, brothers and sisters have social rights that must be respected. For her to remain at home during her sickness would attract unnecessary attention to the event and subject innocent members of the family to needless humiliation due to the ridicule and scorn of the neighbors. There are homes in all our large cities for the unfortunate girl where she can spend a few months before and after the birth of her{249} child. Should the child be still-born, or die soon after birth, by going away from home, she and her family may be shielded from the curiosity and scorn of the friends and neighbors.

She should be true to her child.—New problems arise if her child lives. Most young illegitimate mothers give their children over to some “Home Finders Institution.” Circumstances may sometimes justify, or seem to justify, this disposition of the child. The child is bone of her bone, blood of her blood, life of her life. She is largely responsible for bringing the innocent, helpless child into the world; she should not add to her personal sin and to her sin against the child by deserting and leaving it to the cold mercies of a selfish, unsympathetic world. If her parents sympathize with and forgive her, they will most likely have her return to their home with the child. The women of the community will circulate the scandal on her return until they wear all the reports thread-bare. But the girl must make up her mind to face this, live an ideal life and endure the sneers until she lives it down. This will be a severe trial, but she will have a chance to show the world what a beautiful life a wronged woman can live when given a half chance.

If driven from home.—If her parents drive her from home, her experience becomes the bitterest{250} known to a human being. But she should not despair. He who said to the woman, “caught in the act,” “go and sin no more” is ever ready to help bear her burdens and speak to her the same words of forgiveness and cheer. In all large cities there are “Homes for the Friendless,” where friendless girls may go without charge until after they recover from confinement.

A real living incident.—I will tell you a real, living incident which is only one among many of the human tragedies, with shifting variations, occurring annually in nearly every community, enacted upon the dramatic stage of modern society’s double standard of morals. A young lady of twenty-four years, a teacher in a city high school, during a revival became deeply concerned about her spiritual interests. After seeking Christ for some four days, she said to her spiritual adviser: “I am in great trouble. I can’t get to God in the condition I am in. Since the death of my father and only brother, you are the only person to whom I have felt that I could confide matters of such a personal and delicate nature as I feel compelled to relate to you. Since I came to your city four years ago, I have assumed the title of ‘Mrs,’ allowing widowhood to be inferred. I have never been married. I am wearing the name of the man, who by every possible moral right should have married me and been a true husband to me. I am a mother and my little girl{251} of six summers is wearing the name of her father, which civil law says she has no right to wear. My mother, sisters, relatives and former friends all are under the impression that I am divorced.

“If I become a Christian, I want to unite with the church. If I give the name I am now wearing to be placed on the church register, I shall be living and practicing a lie. If I give my maiden name, I shall expose my mistake, bring disgrace upon my family, brand my child with illegitimacy, and lose my position as a teacher, whereby I make my living, support my child and am able to live a pure life. What must I do?”

The person to whom she related this story was greatly perplexed for an answer. Though a godly man, a minister, the double standard of morals had so biased his thinking that he was not prepared to give her a fair and just answer.

Hoping that additional light might help him out of his dilemma, he asked her to tell him what led to her fall.

She replied, “After the death of father and brother, our bread winners and protectors, mother, sisters and I made our living by keeping student boarders from a church college. One of our boarders, a young law student, made love to me, won my affections and complete confidence. We were engaged to be married on{252} the day of his graduation. Only a few months before this event he asked for privileges that belonged only to the married. I was perfectly shocked and dazed. I resented the request as an insult. He insisted that he meant no offense, that he considered that we loved and trusted each other as much as we possibly could after we were married. He insisted that we were as truly one as if we were married, that the mere legal phase was only a custom and had no moral significance and that it was very common for the engaged to enjoy this privilege. After many days of entreaty, promise of marriage oft repeated, and loving caresses, I made the profound mistake of my life.

“Some weeks before the commencement, I discovered that I was to be a mother. I pleaded with him for immediate marriage. He insisted that marriage would interfere seriously with his examination work and that he was to begin his legal profession in a distant state and that marriage could be safely delayed until commencement. On the gay day of his graduation he suggested that he had our future home in a distant state rented and furnished awaiting our arrival. He suggested that marriage there would be rather romantic. I accepted the idea. We arrived in the town, on a late night train, where he was to practice law. A hackman conveyed us to our new home. I found it as he had described it. We spent the night as husband{253} and wife. The next morning he suggested that we had thoughtlessly made a very serious mistake, that to get married there would ruin me socially and him in his profession. He suggested a plan that appeared wise to me, viz.: after a few weeks to take a train to some distant state and there be married. Later he suggested that we had better wait until the baby was born. Not until the child was two years old did I ever doubt his purpose of marriage.

“One day a doubt took possession of me. I grew desperate in my determination. On his return home, I faced him and demanded immediate marriage, refusing to live with him longer unless he took immediate steps to correct the mistakes of the past. I pleaded for the rights of his child, for my rights. Once more he renewed his fidelity and promised to arrange immediately his business so we could make the trip in a week or ten days. Meanwhile he secretly dissolved partnership, disposed of almost all his property, took a midnight train, without a good-by kiss, and left for parts unknown.

“I sold off our furniture, wrote mother that husband and I had disagreed and had separated, that I would send her my little girl and would help support the family by teaching.”

The minister’s mistake.—Then she said to the minister, “I never meant to be a sinner, I am living{254} a pure life. What must I do?” The minister advised her to confess to the church what she had done and said that he would plead with the church to forgive and stand by her. If this woman had followed the minister’s advice she would have lost her position as a teacher, she would have lost her social standing, she would not have been given a sympathetic and loving welcome into the church, she would have brought disgrace upon her home and placed society’s stigma of illegitimacy upon her child. The minister would not have demanded a similar confession from the man who was far more guilty than she. That conscientious minister would insist upon restitution’s being made for stolen property, as a condition of divine forgiveness, but a libertine may pluck the lily of purity from a maiden’s brow, and rob his child of sacred birth, allow mother and child to die in poverty, their grocer’s and doctor’s bills to go unpaid, the public to bury them in the potter’s field, while he revels in luxury and enjoys social distinction, and no restitution is required in his case, as a condition of divine favor, membership in the church, or a triumphant entrance into endless bliss.

Blinded by the double standard.—She could not meet the minister’s condition. He was conscientious and could not make what to him would have been a compromise with sin. Not fully appreciating that{255} moral law is higher than civil law; that what is sometimes civilly wrong is morally right; that centuries of submission to the double standard of morals has so biased the public mind that even the best of society are incapable of always giving the wronged girl a square deal; she at last postponed her decision for the Christ. The meeting closed, later the school closed and then she left the city and her whereabouts became unknown to the minister.

Was she scarlet or was she white.—You will observe that this girl is not to be classed in character with the girls who purposely give themselves to a life of shame. This girl never meant to be bad. She over-loved and over-trusted the man to whom she was engaged. She had no father or brother to advise and protect her. She was not informed as to the seductive wiles of the libertine. Hers was a profound mistake.

Suppose that her chum across the street had made the same mistake and her lover had kept his promise of marriage, would her chum’s sin have been less than hers? Certainly not. Of the two women and their children, the first deserves more sympathy, mercy and love.

She and her child had a moral right to his name.—When the world’s purity movement shall have relegated the double standard of morals back to the dark ages of savagery where it originated, and shall have{256} established in the hearts of men the Christ standard, the “single standard,” a “white life for two,” then civil law will be made to harmonize with the moral law and the wronged girl and her child will be given the legal right to the name of the man who ought to be to them a husband and father, with all the legal rights of support and a division of his property at his death.

Her deceiver was under absolute moral obligation to give them his legal name. Then she and her child had an absolute moral right to wear his name.

Is it ever right for a wronged woman to choose the title Mrs.?—If to avoid the scorn, sneers and jeers of an unChrist-like social condition, and as an aid in securing honorable employment while she supports her child and struggles to live a pure life, who would dare blame a wronged girl, if she would choose to call herself “Mrs.,” and let widowhood be inferred? If a wronged girl becomes a mother, if she is turned away from her home, if she desires to be a true mother to her own child, she will find it impossible to find honorable employment as a single girl with a baby and to avoid immoral solicitations from vicious men, unless she assumes the title of “Mrs.”

When she will find it necessary to tell her child.—When her child is old enough to understand and appreciate her misfortune, she will find it necessary to make an explanation to her child. This will be a very{257} difficult thing to do. But if she has been a true mother, she will not lose the confidence and love of her child.

Tell her story to her lover.—If an opportunity of marriage comes, she should tell her story to her lover. If he is noble, and his love for her is genuine, and her character is all he believes it to be, he will likely forgive and marry her. If her mistake is publicly known, or she is a mother, her lover will very likely find it out, and it will be easier to forgive before marriage than after.

When not necessary to confess the wrong.—If her sin has not been made public and she has not been a mother, I would not advise that she make confession to her lover. Men who have been even more guilty do not confess their sins. She will, all her life, shed many bitter tears and suffer many heart agonies because of her mistake. These sad experiences may make her all the more patient, kind and loving.

I have told you these sad, sad tragedies that come to many girls who over-love and over-trust, that you may more perfectly sympathize with and help the erring ones and be safeguarded against the wiles of men.{258}

Sublime miracle of motherhood.—My talks to you would not be complete without a study of the sublime miracle of motherhood, the creation of a new life. It is no wonder that motherhood, in all ages and by the great of all nations, has been treated with due respect and reverence.

Ovulation.—In this talk we shall begin with the beginning of life and trace life’s development up to birth. The formation of an egg, or ovum, by one of the ovaries once every twenty-eight days is called ovulation. When the ovum matures it breaks through the membrane of the ovary and the little muscular fingers of the oviduct, on that side, take up the ovum and convey it to the womb. This usually takes place during menstruation and the egg enters the womb near the cessation of the flow. Sometimes the egg may reach the womb before menstruation begins. It is possible for an egg to form at any time between periods of menstruation, but this is of unusual occurrence.

Impregnation.—If, in either of these events, the husband and wife, being both of matured age, vigorous,{259}

healthy and strong, engage in the reproductive act, the wife will conceive. When one of the sperm cells of the husband unites with the germ cell or egg of the wife, conception or impregnation takes place. This is the beginning of life, the creative moment of a new life, a new being. It is at this creative moment that an immortal soul is started upon its eternal voyage, nine months before it makes its visible appearance in the world.

All life begins with a cell.—Every living being begins life as a single cell of protoplasm. The cell from which a child is formed is produced by the union of two cells, the germ cell of the mother and the sperm cell of the father. The germ cell is much larger than the sperm cell. At the point where the sperm cell enters the ovum a new cell is formed. This new cell is the beginning of a new life and is called the embryo. The embryo receives its nourishment for several days from the food material stored up in the ovum.

When the sperm cell fuses with this minute ovum, 1-120th of an inch in diameter, the ovum becomes attached to the velvety inner surface of the womb. At this point of the womb the mucous membrane begins a rapid growth and in a very few hours has enveloped the ovum.

What takes place the first twenty-four hours.—In the rapidly growing ovum marvelous processes are{260} going on. In part the physical processes have been studied. The vital and psychical processes that are taking place, far more wonderful than the physical, cannot be understood or comprehended by mortal man. So rapidly has the embryonic cell divided itself into two cells, these two into four cells, and these into eight, then into sixteen, until many thousand cells have been produced in the first twenty-four hours.

The first thirty days.—During the next thirty days this multiplication of cells by division goes on rapidly. The embryo is now receiving life, air, water and nourishment from the mother through the rudimentary beginning of the placenta. The placenta when developed is a membrane composed largely of blood vessels, entirely surrounding the embryo and is attached to the womb near the top. At this point the umbilical cord, which connects with the child at a point called the navel, merges into and becomes a part of the placenta. These thousands of cells, under the control of some invisible agency or law within the mother and the embryo, begin to arrange themselves in layers and groups. In this way the rudimentary organs one by one, step by step, begin to form. At the end of the first thirty days the embryo is about one inch long and one-fourth of an inch in diameter. At this time it has no resemblance to a human being. Separate from all connection with the mother, no{261} scientist could tell whether it is the embryo of a rat, a rabbit, a dog or a human being. It is this resident physical, mental and soul-life received from its parents that will determine for it a human body.

The second thirty days.—During the next thirty days, new cells will be produced rapidly, new organs will be started, other organs will take on more definite form and the embryo will be many times larger and will have a very distinct resemblance to a human being. During the latter part of the second month this human embryo will possess a very distinct appendage resembling a tail; the neck will be nearly as large around as the body; the arms and legs, fingers and toes, ears, eyes, nose and mouth will all be quite distinct, and the head will appear overgrown. The embryo at the close of the second month will be about four inches in length and one and one-half inches in diameter.

The relations between the mother and the embryo.—The little embryo has projecting from its body, at the point called the navel, a large cord, larger around than one of its legs. This cord is called the umbilical cord and connects the embryo with the upper part of the womb. Here the cord seems to branch out and to form a rather thick membrane which entirely surrounds the embryo. Where the umbilical cord connects with the womb there are thousands of{262} small blood vessels. Here the blood of the mother bathes the blood vessels of the umbilical cord. In this way the embryo absorbs from the mother’s blood the materials from which its bones, muscles, brain, nerves and spinal cord are built. In this way the blood of the mother furnishes her forming child pure oxygen. In this way also the mother is furnishing the embryo with life—physical, mental and spirit life. Here, too, she gives it joyous or sorrowful thoughts, a good or bad disposition, a frail or strong constitution, mental brilliancy or mental dullness, and influences its character in many ways before it sees the light of day.

The order of special maternal attention.—During the first three and four months the mother should breathe the purest air, drink the purest water and eat plenty of wholesome, nutritious food. The physical health, strength and perfect development of the child’s body are largely determined during these months. During the fifth and sixth months the nervous system, including the brain centers, is being organized and developed. Attention to mental exercise during these months and the months following will influence the child favorably in after-life. The moral nature of the child is more largely influenced by the mother during the eighth and ninth months than during the previous months. This indicates roughly the order of{263} special attention that should be given by the mother to her forming child.

Symptoms of impregnation.—After impregnation has taken place and the days and months pass by, certain signs appear which tell her that she is to become a mother. The menses stop, the breasts enlarge, a dark color appears about the nipples, the abdomen enlarges and about the fourth month she feels the distinct movements of the fetus. This movement is called fetal life. However, life existed in the embryo from the beginning. Feeling the movements of the fetus only indicates that the fetus has grown to where it has strength enough to make its presence known.

Birth.—At the end of two hundred and eighty long days, nine full months, three-fourths of a year, the strong muscles of the womb contract, and all the muscles of the abdominal and pelvic cavities are called into action to expel the child from its maternal cradle or home.

All of nature’s maternal processes, from the initial of life in the tiny egg, through all the mysterious and interesting changes of embryonic and fetal development, until the babe is easily and quickly conveyed by muscular energy from its warm, cozy, maternal abode and introduced to a world of independent life and activity, are a sublime miracle—the miracle of motherhood.{264}

The maternal instinct.—The maternal instinct is inherent in every normal girl. It is this maternal nature that prompts little girls to play with their dolls and with childish glee and innocent sincerity to organize their doll families into beautiful imitation of real life. The natural desire of every girl, as she matures during the years of adolescence, is that she may one day become a mother.

A perfect body essential to ideal motherhood.—The beautiful ideals of wifehood and the sacred ideals of motherhood can come in their fullness only to those who make themselves worthy. The broad-minded, sensible girl will not bind her young growing figure with a corset, pinch her undeveloped feet by wearing tight, high-heeled shoes, ruin her neck with high, stiff collars, expose her shoulders and bosom to the varying changes of temperature by wearing low-necked dresses, ruin her health and throttle her mind and soul in a cradle of ignorance.

The independent girl.—All girls should qualify themselves for some vocation, aside from marriage. The girl who stays at home and has nothing to do but dress and primp and wait for some man to come along and marry her is likely to develop into a flippant, extravagant social nonentity. The girl who qualifies herself for some vocation will not be a burden to her parents. She will learn the value of money, will acquire{265} self-confidence and personal dignity, will multiply the red corpuscles in her blood, and thus be able to give her hand and heart to her coming prince with the knowledge that she is quite capable of entering upon the new duties of home-building.

All girls should have training for motherhood.—But whatever be the place or position to which you may aspire, you should also seek the training necessary to ideal motherhood. Your mother instinct calls for plenty of roomy quarters for the fetus. It is the mother instinct that demands open-air athletics, free chest expansion and a correct poise and carriage of body. It is the mother love that calls for books and magazines that give special articles on courtship, marriage and the sacred mission of motherhood.{266}

How young can a girl become a mother?—It would be possible but not likely for her to become pregnant soon after her first menstruation. If the ova should be fertilized at that time she would become a mother. In most cases the ova would be too weak for impregnation to be perfect. Should it occur, as it does in some cases, soon after puberty begins, it is always unfortunate for the girl and her child.

How old should a woman be before she becomes a mother?—She is not a matured woman until the close of her adolescence, which is about the twentieth year. Marriage means motherhood. Motherhood should not take place until she is matured or practically so. Marriage before eighteen should be universally discouraged. Children born of mature parents are healthier, stronger, and live longer than do the children of immature parents.

Is there any way to lessen the inconvenience and pain of menstruation and child-bearing?—Women of the savage races, women of the laboring classes of Europe, and to some extent laboring women{267} of this country, do not suffer the inconvenience of menstruation and the pain of child-bearing that most women do. If our girls and women took more outdoor exercise, if they did not displace their sexual organs by tight lacing, if they did not abuse these organs in other ways in single and married life, they would suffer less of penalties peculiar to women. Habits practiced for generations become fixed characteristics and are transmitted to children. Hence part of the suffering of present-day womanhood is due to the errors of the past.

What causes displacement of the womb?—By reading Mother’s First Talk you will be able to fix in your mind the location of the womb and ovaries. You will find that they are near the center of the abdomen, just behind the bladder and are supported from above by long, broad and round ligaments. These ligaments are stretched across the abdominal cavity and are attached to the abdominal walls. The small end of the womb rests upon the vagina. This tube being flexible affords but little support for the womb. If a woman wears a corset, or tight waist band above her hips, the organs of the abdomen will be pressed downward. This is the principal cause of the womb’s being forced down into the vagina, bent upon itself, tipped forward or backward. The displacement of the womb interferes with the functions{268} of the bladder and rectum. Leucorrhœa and inflamed conditions of the womb often follow. The fault is not in God’s arrangement of these organs, but in woman’s slavish devotion to fashion. Were all girls taught by means of charts the location of these organs, and their relation to the other organs of the abdomen, fewer girls would try to be like fashion plates.

Is there some natural method by which a woman can replace her own womb and avoid exposure, operation and expense?—Yes; if the following advice is followed early enough: Having removed your outer clothing, so as to give you perfect freedom, assume a position on the bed that will throw your hips above the rest of the body. This is easily accomplished by kneeling and then bending forward until the head and shoulders rest upon a pillow. Now contract the muscles of the abdomen in such a way as to appear to be trying to draw air into the body through the vagina. In this way all the abdominal organs are drawn toward the chest. When the womb falls into place, a gurgling sound will be heard caused by the air rushing into the vagina and the womb. This is the evidence that the womb has dropped back into its proper place. Now assume an easy position and be perfectly quiet for one or two hours. Then arise, dress and go about your duties. Don’t strain yourself or over-work. Very likely the womb will{269} continue to drop out of place for several days. Keep up this method and soon the womb will remain in place.

Very likely you will not succeed in replacing the womb, the first effort. It may be several days before you succeed.

What are the causes of ovarian trouble?—The answer to the last question applies in this case. Anything that interferes with the menstrual period, such as taking cold, lascivious thought, secret vices; if married, sexual excesses. These conditions cause a rush of blood to the sexual organs, and this keeps them inflamed.

Should a woman have her womb and ovaries removed because of these conditions?—Only in the most extreme cases, and, even then, only upon the united opinion of several capable and honest physicians. In recent years operations for these troubles have been too frequent. A woman is never quite herself after one of these operations. If women were taught plainly and scientifically how to obey the laws of sex they would in almost all cases recover without an operation. It is generally estimated by hospital authorities that from sixty-five to eighty per cent. of married women who are operated upon in their sexual organs have been infected by gonorrhœa. In almost every case they were infected by their husbands who{270} thought they were cured. In the initial stage this is usually treated by the wife as leucorrhœa; later she is treated by the doctor, or operated upon and the real cause is kept secret from her. In most cases an operation might be avoided, by going with her trouble at once to a doctor.

How may young women know they are marrying men free from venereal infection?—This will not be possible in all cases. A young lady should not become engaged to a young man until she is acquainted with his record. She could have her brother or father look up his record. Your family doctor, or some reliable doctor that knows him, might be profitably interviewed. When we have laid aside our mock modesty and foolish prudery and shall come to regard these questions in a practical way, matured young women will not hesitate to ask the young man for a statement from a reliable physician, showing that he is free from all communicable diseases.

What is the cause of pimples on the face and sometimes on a girl’s back from twelve to seventeen?—They are due to the change she is passing through. By some they have been considered as evidences of the secret sin, but they are not, at least in many cases. Many girls have these bumps who are perfectly free from the secret sin. It is true that they may be caused in some cases by the secret vice.{271}

What remedy would you suggest for these puberty pimples?—Tonics, lotions and cosmetics will do no good. Common-sense remedies may mitigate this evil. Avoid rich pastries and highly seasoned foods, take plenty of outdoor exercise, bathe frequently, forget your pimples and be cheerful and happy. This is the best you can do. Nature in her own good time will remove the pimples.

Is there a safe way by which a young woman can develop her bust?—Several methods are advertised. Most of them are fakes. The vacuum method is perhaps the least injurious. If a young woman keeps her body healthy, does not abuse her organs of sex mentally or mechanically, her bust should be normal. The greatest injury done by any of these artificial methods is, they lead a girl to be lascivious in her thoughts. By studying the lower animals we find that motherhood is nature’s plan of developing the bust. It is natural for single girls to have small breasts. There are some exceptions to this rule. It is, therefore, unwise to try to enlarge them.

What injuries may follow artificial development of the breasts?—Flabbiness, inability to nurse a child, tumors and cancers.

What effect upon the morals of men has the wearing of low-necked dresses by girls and married women?—All normal adolescent youths and{272} adults possess sexuality. Occasional consciousness of sexual desire is natural. These experiences simply indicate that we are in possession of creative energy. If we keep control of our thoughts about the opposite sex, this energy will be converted into physical strength, mental brilliancy and soul beauty.

It is through the influence of the sex life upon the social nature that the opposite sexes are attracted to each other and their association is made sacred, beautiful, enjoyable and mutually uplifting.

God’s greatest blessings to man may be abused by misuse. This is preëminently true of our God-given sexual nature. Improper thinking about the opposite sex leads to special excitement of the sexual organs and results in conscious sexual desire. In the normal man such thoughts and wishes are awakened by suggestive and inviting environment. A dress that only partially conceals the breasts of a woman, that reveals the delicate curves of hips and limbs, has this influence upon the mind of the normal man. The normal man usually fights off these temptations. Sometimes they overcome him.

Few men are normal. Licentiousness is transmissible. Most men have inherited very strong tendencies toward lust. Most men have received an unfortunate training from childhood. This has led to{273} mental sex perversion. Improperly dressed women are a special temptation to these weak men.

The time has come for a reform in woman’s dress. She should not dress in a way that makes her a source of temptation to men.

It is natural for a woman to desire the attention, courtesy, gallantry, respect, reverence and love of men. The normal sex nature in woman will develop those indefinable feminine physical, mental and moral charms. If she dresses modestly and becomingly, if she is discreet, versatile and entertaining, she will have her admirers.

Is there any relation between the nude in art and immodesty?—Yes and no. There are great masterpieces of beautiful figures of men and women, which stand for some lofty ideal, which represent some phase of ideal thought in life, some exposition of grace and strength, and, while they are nude, they are no more immodest than perfect landscapes. There are other famous nude figures of men and women which appear conscious of their nudity. Such have a bad influence. There are some ignorant or evil-minded people who would be injured as much by one of these classes of art as by the other.

Are there reliable tests of the virginity of a girl?—The only test which a man has a right to{274} make before or after marriage is a modest demeanor, absence of familiarity, a pure state of mind and an innocent expression in the face and look of the eye. The physical presence of the hymen, or a flow of blood at the consummation of marriage, should not be made the test of a young wife’s virginity. In some cases the hymen is absent from birth and in others only partially represented. Where girls may have had leucorrhœa the parts are relaxed and no blood appears. In stout blonds the presence of blood is the exception and not the rule.

What is the relation of “spooning” to the sex problems of young people?—This is a growing evil. It is the kindergarten to prostitution. Young people cannot engage in “spooning” and maintain a pure state of mind. When the mind is engaged in sensual thoughts and wishes the sexual system is stimulated and inflamed by a rush of blood to those parts and passion becomes more or less intense. In this state virtue is in great danger.

What is the relation of suggestive pictures and books to the problems of sex in young people?—The suggestive sentences and pictures on post cards, bill boards, the novel and serial story all tainted with immorality; and in the moving pictures found in most five and ten cent shows, are positively pernicious. They lead young people to believe that hugging, kissing,{275} lying or sitting on each other’s lap, and all other forms of “spooning,” are natural, harmless and a necessary part of the entertainment among young people. The young man who would offer to present a young woman with a suggestive post card or book is stupidly ignorant or viciously immoral. If young ladies value their virtue and have the proper regard for young men, they will not accept such cards and book, nor allow them in their parlors. All women and girls and all virtuous men should protest against the production, sale and distribution of all books, cards, and pictures encouraging “spooning” and the improper dress of the female as an insult to virtuous girlhood and womanhood and dangerous to the virtue of boyhood and manhood.{276}

Architects of beauty.—Nearly everyone looks upon beauty as an extraneous “something.” Here is a quality which is in the greatest measure a physical endowment, yet the average woman casting about for means of cultivating it never for one moment seeks for its acquirement through physical means. All sorts of devices and medicines and complicated and costly methods are believed in and followed, as though beauty were bestowed in about the same fashion that a poster is slapped on a billboard. Gazing at the stars, she sees not what lies to her hand. For beauty, poetical though its conception may be, has its roots in prosaic{277} ground. The same factors which build up flesh and blood, bones, muscle and nerves of the body are the architects of beauty. Beauty is of the body and not apart from it, and its builders are those processes which maintain bodily health: breathing, eating, drinking, exercise, bathing and sleep. Its acquisition does not depend on chance, but its development lies within the control of each one of us.

In the following pages I shall try to tell clearly of the simple, easily-to-be-observed methods that can make{278} each woman as beautiful as it is possible for her to be. When I think of how these simple, sensible and effective methods are neglected, through ignorance or thoughtlessness, and the torturous treatment so many members of my sex undergo: the face-skinning; the incasing in unbearable rubber undergarments to reduce flesh and the countless other “treatments” of which they are willing dupes, I marvel and am almost ashamed of the amazing credulity shown by my sex.

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Beauty building through the bath.—I shall discuss “Beauty Building Through the Bath” because the various forms of baths properly applied can improve the appearance to a remarkable degree and I shall therefore write at some length on this particular measure as a means of attaining or enhancing the physical charms. ’Tis a trite phrase that cleanliness is the handmaiden of beauty, and the first office of the bath is to clean. The skin is one of the organs by means of which the body is relieved of waste. Its depurating action is unremitting and thus there is constantly exuded on the surface waste matters. Hence, unless frequently bathed, the skin suffers in appearance, firstly, by reason of its uncleanliness; secondly, becoming clogged up, the wastes are not readily eliminated from the blood, which becomes impure. In consequence, the whole system suffers, the skin taking on a yellowish tinge, and the complexion becoming dull and sallow and coarsened by enlarged pores.

Cold and warm baths.—The warm bath is taken daily by many people, who believe that only thus can perfect cleanliness be insured. There are opposing views as to whether the daily bath should be warm or cold; but one should not be confused by the conflicting opinions, the reason therefor being that differences between individuals necessitate varying practices, some being benefited by the cold, some by the daily{280} warm bath, etc. When the daily bath is a cold one, a hot bath must be taken twice or thrice weekly to cleanse the body, for cold water has no cleansing power.

The cold bath is a stimulant or tonic. The effect of the cold bath is to close the pores of the skin, and the blood is driven into the body. But on emerging from the bath, a “reaction” sets in: the blood rushing to the skin in quantities, reddening it and making it glow with warmth. The body should be quickly and vigorously rubbed dry with a Turkish towel, as it increases the good effects of the reaction. The cold bath should be a very brief one, and the warm bath, when taken daily, should not exceed ten minutes in duration. The latter should be followed by a cold sponge bath.

If, because one is lacking in vitality or from other causes the reaction does not follow, the effect of the cold bath is to depress instead of benefit. The bath should never be taken if one is cold, one should be thoroughly warm before it, and it is best taken after exercise for this reason.

It is easy to inure oneself to the cold bath.—Begin taking daily baths at a comfortable temperature, gradually lowering it from week to week, till you can take it cold or almost as cold as it comes from the faucet. Or one can accustom one’s self to them{281} by taking a cold sponge bath in the beginning, standing on a cloth or towel wrung out in hot water, or by standing in a few inches of hot water, if this is required, to lessen the shock. But if despite these precautions you do not recuperate properly from the cold bath, it is not for you, for you are not benefited by it. Both hot and cold bathing accelerate the circulation, the first relaxing the tissues, the latter giving them tone and firmness.

The friction bath.—But, perhaps, one of the most valuable of baths for the skin, one that never fails to improve its texture and color is a bath that does not require water—the friction bath. It stimulates the circulation to the skin and thoroughly cleanses it. The friction bath is self-applied by means of two soft bristled brushes. Beginning at the forehead, the face and neck are thoroughly brushed, then each arm in turn (working upward from the hand to the shoulder), then using both brushes together, the shoulders, chest, sides, abdomen, back and lastly the legs, brushing from the ankles upward. The treatment is continued till each part of the skin is in a glow. It will be hard to reach the back of the body, but do the best you can. When taking the friction bath for the first time, it will be necessary to avoid vigorous brushing and not to continue the treatment very long, as in the beginning the skin is easily irritated, but as the treatment{282}

is continued from day to day, the skin becomes accustomed to it, and it may be made as vigorous as desired. The friction bath will put one’s skin in splendid condition, and it will not be possible for pimples,{283} blackheads, or other eruptions to develop when the friction bath is a regular practice. The ordinary Turkish towel may be used for the friction rub instead of the brushes.

The relation of air to beauty.—So much for baths and bathing. A great deal more that is both interesting and helpful can be said, but enough has been told{284} to point out their value. In the order of their importance will be described other measures which directly develop charm of face and form.

First of all, as that on which every moment of life is dependent we ought to consider air and its relation to the appearance. Oxygen has been called the “sweeper of the living body.” Every two minutes the blood loaded with wastes is brought to the lungs to be purified. Just think how important it is that the air be absolutely fresh and pure, and vitalized by the sunshine. If it has been vitiated from any cause, as by rebreathing so that it is lacking in oxygen and full of impurities, the blood, instead of being purified and vivified, is sent back, with but a part of its waste removed, impaired, and becoming more and more devitalized and poisoned from the breathing of the impure air. The whole system suffers from the effects of the bad air.

Effects of foul air.—During every moment in which impure air is breathed, uncleanliness is fostered within the body, and even if disease in acute or chronic form does not follow, the whole bodily tone is greatly lowered. Just what opportunity attractiveness has to develop in such a body is apparent. The eyes are dull, the complexion muddy, and scarcely in any way does the appearance escape deterioration. Yet it is so uncommon for the air of our dwelling and working{285} places to be pure, as to be a treat when it is obtained. It is true that the average girl or woman cannot control the conditions in her place of work, but she can in her home, or at any rate in her own room, and sleeping or waking, she should have her room thoroughly ventilated.

Air baths.—Choked in its shroud of clothing, the skin is greatly hampered in the discharge of its functions. Such a measure as the friction greatly mitigates this evil influence of clothing as it is worn nowadays, and keeps the skin in working order and health. Lacking this special care, it is not putting it too strongly to say that it suffers—and severely. But what the skin needs is that air and sun have a free access to it. How pallid and sickly of hue the skins of so many people are. And how, lacking especial care, can they be otherwise, in the darkened prison formed by the conventional clothing. Remember that exudations are constantly taking place from the skin, and that in a slight degree it breathes through its pores. Exposed to the air, the emanations from its pores would immediately be dissipated and diffused on the atmosphere instead of being retained by the clothing to cling about the body. We are compelled to wear what we can get in the way of clothing, but it is a simple matter to take a bath in the air and sunshine, and so for a few minutes daily permit these purifying{286} influences access to our skins. The girl who goes to business daily is limited in her opportunities to practice this valuable measure, but she who stays home can easily arrange daily for a sun and air bath. The business girl can take an air bath before retiring and in the summer an air and sun bath on arising in the morning before donning her ordinary costume. Remove every stitch of clothing so that the air can play freely over the body. These are only suggestions, for one’s own convenience must determine when air or sun baths can be indulged in.

Exercise is the elixir of youth.—If pure air and sunshine are the cleansers and the vitalizers of the body, exercise may be said to be the molder and beautifier of the bodily form. But exercise does more than make the muscles shapely and develop the body to beautiful proportions, and give it poise and grace. Exercise is the elixir of youth. It is the method whereby youthfulness of facial and bodily appearance is preserved, and which conserves youthful energies. It effectually wards off the dreaded old age signs. The physiological effects of exercise are these: circulation and respiration are accelerated, all the bodily functions are stimulated, and through lungs and skin effete matter rapidly thrown off, old cells are broken down and replaced by new. The body feels as old and worn out as the cells of which it is made up.{287} Regular exercise prevents the accumulation of half-dead cells; it breaks them down rapidly and eliminates them, so that they be replaced with fresh vital ones.

As to the sort of exercise, it is desirable and indeed necessary that a systematic series of movements which sufficiently exercise every part of the body be practiced daily. This is the only way to insure exercising regularly, which alone is of benefit, spasmodic exercise sometimes being valueless.

Exercise in the open air.—Exercise quickens the heart-rate, and thus the blood requires a greatly increased amount of oxygen. One should therefore never exercise in an unventilated room, and for this reason exercise in the open air is vastly more beneficial than when taken indoors. In fact, one should get outdoors often and where circumstances admit the outdoor life (a phrase on everyone’s tongue these days) should be lived as much as possible. One should not, of course, fail to adopt a special system of exercises, for this insures that every muscle will be regularly used, and it is quite likely that one’s activities, whether outdoors or indoors will but partly use the muscular system. Of outdoor exercise, walking is ideal, and can be taken at all seasons. And, of course, all outdoor games and sports are valuable. Exercise in play is the thing, for it so completely diverts the mind as well as recreates the body.{288}

Of all exercises, I personally regard, and authorities support my views, swimming as first in rank, the peer of them all. Every muscle is exercised by it, it is taken in the open air, and then there is the tonic of the water.

Diet.—There are other measures of which it is necessary to speak and they are too important to miss mention. She who seeks to improve her appearance or preserve it unblemished cannot afford to neglect her diet—for remember that it is from food that flesh and blood are formed. In greater or lesser degree, bad food and that improperly eaten can retard improvement from other measures followed. It is impossible to do more than briefly pass on this subject in its relation to this discussion on how beauty can be attained. It is of chief interest to point out that even where no other factors are at work, disfiguring eruptions on the face are not infrequently caused by errors in this respect. To be sure there are no special “beauty diets.” The only thing that is necessary is to avoid such foods as cause a maximum of work on the part of the vital organs, and give only a minimum of nutriment in return. Rich, heavy pastry, pickled foods, white flour products, are all in the above-mentioned class, while cereals, eggs, milk, cheese, nuts, fruits and vegetables, rightly prepared, properly masticated, can be depended upon to make good, rich, red{289} blood, firm flesh and muscle, and altogether help greatly in enhancing personal charm and appearance.

Sleep.—We hear much about “beauty sleep.” Really, all sleep is beauty sleep. It is then that the exhausted nerves regain tone, and the body generally undergoes a restorative process. Nothing more surely undermines beauty than lack of sleep. It leaves its mark behind in dull eyes and even loss of flesh. But in sleep, too, there is a right and wrong way. The right way is to sleep in a well-aired bed in a properly ventilated room. The outdoor sleeping room is the ideal one, but it cannot always be arranged, so the next best thing is the indoor one with windows wide open. One should awaken in the morning fresh and bright and strong. Do not cover yourself heavily, just enough to keep comfortable. The wrong way is—but why waste time in description. It is everything the right way is not, and consequently one wakes up tired, heavy and dull-eyed.

Hair, face and teeth.—Aside from the constitutional measures spoken of, there is a word or two to be said in favor of simple local treatment that the beauty seeker should resort to daily. I mean the little nightly attentions to the hair, face and teeth. The hair will be much healthier and brighter if carefully brushed and aired after the unnatural confinement of the day. The teeth must be well cleaned, so that there{290} are no tiny particles of food lodged between them to become decomposed and endanger the teeth. The simplest of tooth powders is all that is necessary, but the brushing after each meal, if possible, and especially the last thing at night, should not be neglected. The use of a pure face cream to soothe the skin from the day’s irritation and exposure is also advisable, though I do not approve of using cream instead of water, as is sometimes advised. Soap and water are the best cleansing agents.

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Fresh air and exercise are fast being considered the best health producers in the world, yet how sadly neglected; as hundreds of women give evidence every day, with the dull eye, flat chest and lifeless carriage. Every woman would like to be attractive, but few are willing to devote any time to its acquirement. What arouses our admiration when seeing a statue of Minerva or Venus? It is the abounding life of the whole body, finely developed chest and limbs and well-poised head.

Let us learn how to breathe, how to walk with a strong and graceful carriage. A small amount of time each day spent in systematic exercise with deep breathing would change many a weak woman to a healthy, vital, living person with the grace and beauty of perfect health and a fine physique.

Look around at any gathering of women and note if the majority are not very far from our ideal of physical perfection. I care not how beautiful the{292} face if it is accompanied by narrow shoulders, thin neck and a flat chest, the possessor must give way to her plainer sister who knows the value of daily expansion of lungs with every muscle under control, perfect digestion and fine circulation.

Naturally the plea is the lack of time for exercise; do not women find time for reading, fancy work, calling and a multitude of other affairs, which might a thousand times better be spent in preparing themselves for a healthy life? If more time were spent in the fresh air and in keeping the body under control, there would be fewer peevish, tired-out, nervous women in the world, for the one who realizes the value of these things is too healthy to be aught but good natured and happy.

Walking is one of the best exercises in the world, yet the crowded trolley with its impure air is largely filled with women who could not walk a mile. How many of my readers can walk three miles and have it only serve to make them feel how well worth while is life? The majority of women think several squares a long walk, and I know many who take the car for a quarter of a mile, walk through the stores and return on the car, then wonder why they do not sleep well.

Every girl and woman that works, either in the home or elsewhere, needs exercise to develop muscles not in use, and improve circulation. Isn’t it worth{293} a few minutes a day to feel yourself physically ready for any emergency, digestion good, nerves a thing of the past, and abounding life in every muscle?

Of course these things cannot come in a week or month, but let your daily exercise be as regular as your meals, walk with the idea of getting all the good you can out of it, when you are seated, don’t sink down in a heap, keep your lungs expanded and bend at the hips not at the waist as we are so prone to do while sewing, writing, and engaged in kindred occupations; a thing which leads to so many round shoulders and narrow chests.

When you are walking alone instead of planning your next work, give a little thought to breathing and how you are carrying yourself. Inhale as you walk, retain the breath for a few steps then slowly exhale. Hold the head well up, shoulders back, chest high, hips in and let your limbs have a free swing and you soon look and feel as if walking were a joy.

The exercises following are so arranged that anyone can do them. Ten minutes each morning should be given to them followed by a bath and a towel rub if convenient. If bath is not possible, a thorough rubbing of the body with a rough towel is the next best thing.

At some time during the day a brisk walk followed{294} by a few exercises before retiring and never forgetting the deep breathing will quicken the results.

Have plenty of fresh air at night as well as day and eat substantial food and see if the results are not all you could ask.

The value of exercise is in the amount of life and vigor put in it. Better not exercise at all than to do it carelessly.

Repeat each exercise from twelve to twenty-four times.

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Towel

Floor Exercises

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You are now old enough to be exposed to all of the temptations and dangers incident to your approaching and rapidly developing manhood. Previously, we have referred to many things in an elementary way, which you should now have more fully explained. There are a number of practical and vital facts connected with the sexual organs and their separate and combined functions of which you should have a thorough knowledge.

The nature of the sexual life.—The child resembles the father physically, mentally and morally, because the sperm cell formed from the father’s blood, that took part in the initial of the child’s life, had in it the essence of the father’s life, physical, mental and moral. For the same reason the child resembles the mother in these three ways. When the males of the domestic animals are deprived of their generative{305} glands they are not able to develop the peculiar physical masculine characteristics that distinguish them from the females. They are also less independent, more inactive and show less rudimentary manifestations of intelligence. If man be made an eunuch, when he is a boy, he never fully develops masculine characteristics, and he develops little mental and moral tone. Similar results would follow in the female, if her generative glands were removed in childhood. It is quite noticeable that any form of sexual dissipation usually underminds the physical health, weakens the mental faculties and leads to loss in moral tone. It is equally noticeable that the intelligent retention of this energy leads to physical improvement, intellectual brilliancy and soul enlargement. These illustrations reveal that the creative life has other uses than selfish gratification and unselfish reproduction. It is vitally related to the psychic life, health and happiness of the individual.

Other purposes of sex.—The primary purpose of sex is that of reproduction. There are many reasons why the reproductive function of sex should be limited to a period of twenty-five years—from twenty-five to fifty years of age. Statistics show that this is man’s period of greatest reproductive possibility. Children born to men of younger or older age do not receive as favorable heredity as children born within{306} the period mentioned. The sexual organs, like all other organs, require activity. Two boys are made eunuchs; one at six months of age and the other just before puberty. The last mentioned develops much better in physical, mental and moral tone. This shows that these glands are active, that they generate energy, even before puberty, which is essential to their health and the development of every part of the boy. But even the boy, made an eunuch at fourteen, will be a very defective man at twenty-five. This indicates that the sexual glands are generating a creative energy, during this period of adolescence, that is needed to prepare him for the period of largest possibilities of fatherhood. As a general rule, until he is twenty-four, this sex life should never be expressed for reproductive purposes. The young man has other needs for it. When he arrives at his fiftieth milestone, if he has conserved this energy, in youth, he will thus have added thirty or more years to the fifty already lived. The old men who wear a halo of health, energy, nobility, happiness and purity (there are but few), are men, who in youth, young manhood and middle life, conserved the energy of manhood.

Man is hereditarily degenerate.—Man cannot understand, why his hardest battles are not with enemies on the outside, but with his own inherent inclinations to do wrong; why he makes such slow{307} progress; why the mass of his fellow men are so indifferent to the development of ideal manhood, until he gets a vision of the real cause of human degeneracy. The one basic cause of all degeneracy in the past and present has been and is the dissipation of the creative life. It is possible and highly probable that the original cause of the origin of degeneracy involved the violation of the laws of sex. All practical and independent students of sociology are rapidly recognizing that this is the chief cause of the present day degeneracy. They are recognizing that most children are the products of uncontrolled desire, that their prenatal rights were not respected, that many were not warmly welcomed at birth, and but few are properly instructed in regard to the laws of sex and the importance of purity. They see that the hope of the nation and the human race is to come back to nature, be natural, not to substitute artificial laws for nature’s laws, but to intelligently study and apply the laws of nature. They see that the initial of every child’s life should be intelligently and prayerfully planned, prenatally protected, also the birth warmly welcomed, environment safeguarded and education natural and wise.

The sexual system has two functions.—Take three brothers who have received good heredity and give them the best environment. We will make this{308} difference between these boys; the first is made an eunuch when one year old, the second when he is fourteen, the third is permitted to grow up normal. When they reach maturity, we find they have developed differently. The first has grown only a few scattering short hairs on his face, his voice is like a girl, his shoulders are round and drooped; he is cowardly, without capacity for business, with but very little mental capacity and wholly without mental ambition. The second one has slight but noticeable improvements in all of these particulars. The third is normal. These facts show that the sexual organs have two functions, and that the organs of a small boy are not wholly inactive as believed by most people. Before puberty these glands are generating an energy of great value to the boy that cannot be chemicalized and ejected from the body. When puberty dawns, the sexual organs become more noticeably active and a part of this energy, at least, becomes chemicalized into a fluid containing active cell life which may be absorbed by the body or ejected from the body. Before puberty this sex life helps to change the baby into a perfect boy. From fourteen to twenty-four this sex life helps to change the perfect boy into a perfect man. In these two periods the sex life has the one special mission, making a perfect man. In the latter “teens” and early “twenties” it would be possible{309} to force this sex life into the function of reproduction. But this is not its natural mission during these early years. He now enters the period of greatest reproductive possibilities. This period should last for twenty-four to twenty-six years. During this period this creative life has two distinct functions. The first in importance is that of reproduction. This is the highest, noblest, purest and most sacred function of manhood. In rare cases, such as an unfortunate heredity, accident or disease, over which the man has had no control, may unfit him for normal reproduction. He is to be pitied not censured. Through the effects of bad habits, upon sexual manhood, many men are unfit for normal reproduction. The second function of this creative life is to maintain perfect manhood. Sexual excess in the married life is just as much a violation of the laws of sex as sexual vice before marriage. The fourth period in a man’s life begins when he is forty-five to fifty-five, and includes the remainder of his life. During this period the creative life has the one primary mission of maintaining his manhood. While the reproductive function remains possible it rarely would be advisable to express this energy in this way.

The creative life.—Until recent years nearly all students of sexology considered sex as essentially physical. Now the idea is growing that sex is vitally{310} a part of the physical, mental and soul life of the individual. The sexual organs are simply the generators of the creative life and mediums through which this creative life is expressed in reproduction.

The meaning of passion.—The consciousness of normal sexual desire is not an evidence of sinfulness and it is not an excuse for dissipation. Sexual desire rightfully interpreted means that we are conscious of the possession of creative life. This can be utilized in several ways. It can be built into the body, into the mind, into the moral nature, it can be used in reproducing the species, or it can be dissipated. Man must decide the way he will use it. The disposition he makes of his sex life will determine whether he and others are blessed or injured by the use he makes of it.

How to build this creative life into the body.—On the road might be seen a pair of strong draught horses pulling a wagon containing only an armful of wood. Becoming interested in knowing why those horses are not able to pull a larger load, you find, upon investigation, the wagon to be so frail that, if you should double the load the wagon would break down. The horses represent a strong, educated mind and the wagon a frail body. Such a person is handicapped in the march of life. Others with stronger bodies, but with less of mental ability, will win more{311} honors, receive larger remuneration and accomplish more in life. One needs a strong healthy body in which to train the mind and achieve results. In most cases, it is a sin and a shame not to have a sound and perfect body.

By keeping the mind pure, taking regular, systematic physical exercise, deep prolonged breathing and observing ordinary health laws this creative life can be built into tissue and muscle, developing the body of an athlete. There are examples where men, who by the secret vice, have brought on initial stages of consumption, afterward broke from the vice and by control of the mind and physical culture cured the disease, restored health and developed a fine physique.

How to build the creative life into a greater mind.—The organs of generation are life generators. They create life, physical, mental and spiritual. This life is embodied in a very nutritious substance. This valuable food material, with its essence of pure life, if not dissipated by vice, is absorbed by the blood. Nature sends the blood most freely to the parts most used. If physical exercise is taken and the mind neglected, the body will be strong and the mind weak. If both the mind and body are uniformly exercised, they will be uniformly developed.

If the mind is allowed to revel in lascivious thoughts many times as much of this creative life will be formed{312} as the blood can absorb. Thus the blood is robbed of nutritious material and life that should never have been removed. This surplus cannot be reclaimed by the body but must be dissipated. Keeping the mind pure is of paramount importance. To do this, the mind must constantly be engaged in some worthy activity. Keep company with great men and women by reading their articles in magazines and their books. Think great thoughts of your own. Be hopeful, cheerful and determined. The prize of a great mind will be yours.

How to build the creative life into a larger social and moral life.—Emotions, sentiments, feelings, hope, faith and charity are essential elements of a man’s nature. He is not a full man, a well rounded man, a perfect man if these elements of his nature are neglected. These elements of his nature are fed on spiritual exercise. Man’s degeneracy is an appalling fact. Regeneration, or Christ is a necessity in every life. Christ loved the unlovely, inspired the discouraged, wept with those that wept, and lifted the burdens of struggling ones. By following this example we will build His life, our creative life, into a larger social and moral life.{313}

It has been several months now since we had our last confidential talk. Many changes have taken place in your body and mind during these months. You have been inclined to be more with large boys and young men and this is due to the changes that are going on. With the coming months you will have less the feelings of the boy and more the feelings of the man.

The two forms of incontinence.—I have been anxious to have a talk with you on the subject of continence. By this word as applied to young men, we mean abstinence from all voluntary sexual gratification. Having given you talks on the subject of the “solitary vice,” which is one form of sexual gratification, I will now talk with you about the other form of incontinence, cohabitation or sexual relation with women.

A false idea.—There is a widely prevailing idea among young men that they must gratify their sexual desire in some way, and that if they do not they will lose their reproductive power, or their ability to become{314} fathers. They have an idea that sexual gratification is essential to sexual and physical health, mental development and manliness. They think young men are weak-minded and incapable who do not gratify themselves in one of these two ways. Where did they get this idea?

The wrong application of biological law.—They will tell you that doctors teach that young men should gratify themselves. They will tell you then that the non-use of an organ will lead to the loss of its function. The illustration they use is, “If the arm be kept in a sling for a year, one will find he has lost the use of his arm for several days. If the arm should be kept in a sling for ten years, he would likely lose the use of his arm for life and the arm would wither; therefore, if a young man should live a continent life for ten years, his sexual organs would atrophy and he would lose his powers of fatherhood.”

No reliable physician holds to the sexual necessity theory.—In reply to these arguments, no intelligent and reliable physician to-day teaches sex necessity. Some ignorant, unreliable, “quack” doctor occasionally tells a young man that his physical, mental and sexual strength will be ruined unless he indulges in sexual gratification. This young man will tell twenty young men what he has learned and each of these will tell twenty others. It is in this way that{315} so many young men get the idea that doctors advise sexual indulgence.

Continence does not destroy virility.—Ten years, twenty years, or even more, of absolute continent living will no more cause a man to lose his virility than twenty years of absence from nursing a child will destroy the function of lactation in a woman.

Only the unreliable doctors advocate sexual necessity.—In every profession of men there are some fakes. This is as true of the medical profession as it is of other professions. In all large cities and in many small towns there are ignorant, unreliable and unscrupulous doctors. In almost every State, I have had young men to tell me that they have been advised by doctors to visit the prostitute. Such frauds are a great social and moral misfortune to any community. The high-minded, capable, honorable doctors all advocate continence for young men. They are real friends to young men. Even the young man who has made his mistakes will find the advice and treatment of this class of doctors to be far the safest and cheapest in the end.

Unanswerable arguments.—It is not an uncommon occurrence to hear some very prominent citizen advocate the necessity for a few public characters in every community to conserve the health of young men by ministering to their sexual necessity and in this way{316} protecting the virtue of innocent girls and respectable women.

The test of sincerity and honesty of a man who claims to believe in foreign missions, is his willingness to go, to allow his child to go, or to help support those who do go as missionaries. The test of the sincerity and honesty of a man who advocates the necessity for the immoral woman, is his willingness to contribute a mother, wife, sister, or daughter to the philanthropic interest of masculine health and the safeguarding of innocent girls and respectable women. If he is not willing to make this contribution he is not honest and not sincere when he advocates public prostitution.

If public prostitution protects innocent girls and respectable women from the abnormal man, cases of rape and seduction would occur most frequently where there are no lewd women. But the reverse is true. The continent young men would be guilty of committing all the assaults on female virtue. But it is the incontinent men who commit all the crimes of this kind.

If the social evil is a necessity and the immoral woman protects the virtue of the innocent girls and virtuous wives, is she not a benefactor? Who is engaged in a more commendable, philanthropic or Christian service? Then why should she be treated as an outcast? Should she not be invited as a guest{317} of honor at our social functions? Should she not sing in the choir, or sit in a front pew in the most aristocratic church?

The pugilist and athlete, in their training for special tests of strength, endurance, and skill, abstain for long periods from all sexual gratification.

It is by living a continent life that the lower animals, unmolested by man, reach a state of physical perfection.

Effects of incontinence upon the married life.—An incontinent single life will naturally lead to excesses in the married life. Such young men get the idea that marriage means unlimited gratification. With these perverted views they enter and soil the sacred precincts of marriage and parentage. By marital excess, indulged in by no other animal or savage, their health is injured, their lives are shortened and their children are poorly born. This is a very common harvest reaped in the married life. Back of this harvest, and back of the sowing is ignorance.

From these facts and many others that could be had we see that absolute continence is not unnatural, but it is the only sane solution to a young man’s sex problems.{318}

We have talked over many of the problems of boys and young men. You are now sixteen and new problems are constantly coming up in your life for solution. I would like to speak with you on this occasion about the very vital problem of illicit intercourse with women. By this expression is meant all sexual intercourse with women outside of holy wedlock.

Men are as fallen as women.—When this sin occurs among single people it is fornication, when among the married, it is adultery. Whether this occurs among the single or the married, it is prostitution. In this sin there is no difference, in character, between the male and the female, the married and the single prostitute; in either case, the priceless gem of virtue has been forfeited.

Men think less of their virtue than women.—Partly due to a bad heredity and largely due to a false training and the existence of a double standard of morals, boys and men are more willing to sacrifice their virtue than are girls and women. There are a few degenerate girls and some who have been reared{319} in immoral homes who willingly sacrifice their virtue. But these represent only a very small part of the girls who annually fall. Most of those who are known as fallen women were induced to fall by designing men. Many methods are used to accomplish the fall of girls. Lady clerks, stenographers and servants in homes and hotels receive such meager wages that they are often unable to meet their necessary expenses. Men have taken advantage of their financial need and by skillful advances, artful entreaties and by offering to supplement their income for special favors, they succeed in ruining many girls.

Few women go wrong from choice.—Some men use the dance, the theater, alcoholic drinks, certain stimulating drugs, buggy rides and late hours at night as means of accomplishing their fiendish purposes. Victory once won, clandestine relations are continued until the girl finds that she is to be a mother, or her guilt becoming known, being often forced from her own home, ostracized by society, shunned by professing Christians, she now becomes an outcast. Few girls ever go wrong from choice. Great as her sin is, it is small compared with his. There is not greater sin and crime than his. Possessed of one spark of manhood, he would marry the girl; instead, he is more likely to boast of his achievement.

No less a sin because the fallen woman accepts{320} a “price.”—Young men often ask, “What harm can there be in seeking sexual gratification with a woman who voluntarily gives her consent for a price?” There are many reasons why this is wrong. The Bible condemns it as a very great sin. Civil law condemns adultery as a crime. By both civil and divine law it is considered as great a crime as stealing, murder or drunkenness. If men controlled their passions, there would be no fallen women. If men would not visit them, they would reform or become Christians. Thus men are not only largely responsible for the fall of women, but they are largely responsible for their remaining fallen.

Man’s appreciation of pure women destroyed.—Constant association with fallen women degrades or destroys a man’s conception and appreciation of pure womanhood. He may become so degraded as to believe that all women have their “price.” Such a man could not appreciate a pure sister, daughter, wife or mother. Such men become sensualists and should they marry, their excesses would wreck the health and happiness of their wives, and their children would receive an unfortunate heredity.

A great physical risk.—For physical reasons a visit to the fallen women would be a hazardous risk. These women are nearly always diseased. In this way young men become diseased and they infect their{321} wives and transmit serious troubles to their children.

Self-respect lost.—From a moral point of view a visit to the strange woman is wholly inadmissible. You could never wholly recover your self-respect. A young man has no moral right to demand purity of his sweetheart at the marriage altar unless he can offer her a pure life.

Danger of becoming an illegitimate father.—Finally, through illicit intercourse a young man is constantly in danger of becoming a father. An illegitimate father never loves, feeds, clothes, shelters, educates and trains his own child. Every instinct of nature demands this much of him. The child is blood of his blood, bone of his bone, life of his life; it is as truly his child as if it had been conceived in wedlock. Sin that will so degrade a man as to leave him without sense of honor, justice and right in his relation to his own child certainly has no equal in the catalogue of crime.

The pure man is worthy of a pure wife.—The young man who keeps himself as pure as a virgin will be worthy of one of God’s queenly women, he will be capable of making her a kingly husband, and, conscious of their dignity, purity and virility, he and his wife will become the happy parents of a brood of fair girls and lusty boys.{322}

The bad cold “fallacy.”—Most boys and young men are disposed to think of venereal diseases as a joke. They often compare them with a bad cold. They are often heard to boast of having had one or more attacks from which they easily recovered. This is due to the fact that these young men have no just conception of the grave consequence of these diseases.

Two principal diseases.—There are two principal kinds of venereal disease: gonorrhea, in street vernacular known as clap, and syphilis, popularly called pox. These diseases are due to specific disease germs and require a specific treatment. These diseases originate as a result of illicit intercourse, never originating in the married life where husband and wife are true to each other. Sometimes a husband or wife may be infected by accidentally coming in contact with the disease germs by kissing an infected person, the use of public towels, closets, etc.

As old as prostitution.—Venereal diseases are as old as prostitution. These diseases evidently originated as a result of prostitution. Venereal diseases{323} are known to have been in existence more than 2000 years B.C. All venereal diseases were thought to be one until 1838.

These diseases may be acquired by the use of a closet, towel or bath tub previously used by an infected person.

The immoral woman dangerous.—All immoral women, whether they live in public houses or in private homes, are diseased some of the time, and some of them are diseased all the time. No young man can know, not even a doctor, when a man may or may not be infected by having sexual relations with either class of these women.

Facts show that eighty per cent. of the young men of this country become infected with gonorrhea between the ages of eighteen and thirty. This would indicate that only a few who visit the immoral woman escape, because at least ten per cent. of our young men never visit fallen women. The ten per cent. of our young men is increasing.

Immediate medical attention.—Should a young man be so thoughtless and unfortunate as to visit one of these women and become infected, he should go at once to a competent physician and follow his advice and take his treatment. He should not postpone treatment one hour, send off for some remedy he sees advertised, or go and get some patent remedy to be{324} obtained at a drug store. Money, time, health and even life itself are too valuable to be hazarded in this way. If this advice were always followed the diseases could in many cases be cured in their first stage and most of the after evil results be prevented.

Discovery of the disease germs.—In 1879, Dr. Neisser discovered the specific germ of gonorrhea, called the Neisser gonococcus. In 1895, two German doctors discovered the germ of syphilis, spirochetæ pallida.

Gonorrhea.—The disease appears from three to five days after exposure, and is heralded by the swelling of the urethra, and an itching, burning sensation during urination. These symptoms continue for a week or ten days when a thick greenish yellow discharge begins. Under careful and prompt treatment the disease may be permanently cured. Even under prompt and skillful treatment some cases have a persistent tendency to run into a chronic condition.

Complicated chronic conditions often occur from poor treatment or neglect. When the disease reaches a chronic form it is likely to continue for years. Some of the complications of this disease are: chronic inflammation of the mucous membrane of the urethra, accompanied by a constant discharge.

Stricture.—A tightening or narrowing of the urethra at some point. This is called stricture. Urinating{325} becomes difficult and painful. A lengthy and difficult treatment may be required and sometimes a painful operation.

Inflammation of the prostate.—If the prostate gland becomes the seat of this disease, it will cause great inconvenience and may result in painful treatment, surgical operation, loss of health and mental vigor, with possible loss of the power to become a father.

If both testes become inflamed, the victim often becomes sterile. A dangerous and painful operation is sometimes required. He will never be what he once was, or might have been.

Gonorrheal rheumatism.—If the gonorrheal germs get into the blood and find their way to the joints of the bones, the result is gonorrheal rheumatism. This is one of the most painful and difficult diseases to be cured known to medical science.

Ophthalmia.—Should some of this poisonous pus be transferred to his eye or the eye of another, it would cause gonorrheal ophthalmia, a disease of the eye that often results in blindness in a few hours or unsightly sore eyes for life.

Wife and children the greatest sufferers.—If the guilty young man were the only one to suffer, it would not be so serious. His future wife and children may be the greatest sufferers. It is now known{326} that these disease germs may remain for years in a young man’s body in an inactive and weakened state; and that too, after he thinks he is perfectly cured. In this condition he is likely to infect his wife. These weakened germs will now take on new life in her body and produce gonorrheal conditions. She will mistake the disease for leucorrhea and treat herself for a time. During this loss of time, various complications have developed. One or more of her sexual organs are now inflamed and ulcerated. One organ after another may have to be removed by a surgical operation to save her life. Tumors, nodules, and ulcers must be removed by the knife. The doctor feels that it is best to leave the husband, as well as the wife, to believe that the whole trouble is due to the weakness of woman. Perhaps the wife dies under the knife and leaves a husband and children. In preaching her funeral, the pastor tries to console the bereaved by laboring to reconcile Providence and the unfortunate death.

Blind children.—If she becomes a mother before these operations are made, as the child passes from her body it gets some of the gonorrheal germs in its little eyes and in a few hours or days it is totally blind from gonorrheal ophthalmia. Or, if the doctor suspects this trouble and puts a drop or two of a solution of silver nitrate in the eyes of the new-born baby, no{327} serious trouble may come to the child because of the father’s sin. An eminent physician in Germany says that there are 30,000 blind people in Germany because of gonorrheal ophthalmia. No statistics have been kept in this country, but reliable physicians claim that there must be as many as 15,000. What right has a young man to engage in a sin that will cause his wife and child a lifetime of suffering?

Syphilis is by no means as common as gonorrhea, there being only eight to eighteen per cent. of the young men who contract this disease as compared with eighty per cent. who contract the other. The germs that produce gonorrhea have only to come in contact with the mucous membrane for infection to follow.

The germs of syphilis have to reach the blood by means of a sore or small crack in the skin or mucous membrane.

Three stages of syphilis.—Syphilis develops by three stages, known as primary, secondary and tertiary syphilis. If treated promptly and properly during the first stage, it may be cured without great injury following, or danger of return. In other stages a much longer treatment will be required, with many possible complications and dangers. Before the doctor can check the disease it may attack the bones, muscles, arteries and the internal organs. This disease causes 90 per cent. of locomotor ataxia, much of apoplexy,{328} paralysis and sudden deaths long after the disease is supposed to be cured. It is a prolific cause of insanity. The descendants of a syphilitic father or mother are often still-born, die prematurely, or become insane later in life. Syphilis shortens the lives of its victims one-third.

An innocent person can be infected.—By using or handling something used by a diseased person an innocent person may be infected. A person infected with one of these diseases is absolutely unclean and dangerous. There are better reasons for putting such a man in the pesthouse than one who has smallpox.

A certificate of good health should be required.—It will not be long before a young man will have to present a certificate of freedom from these diseases, obtained from a reputable physician, before he is granted a license to be married.

An example.—The President of a college Y. M. C. A. recently said to me, “Five years ago I was in poor health due to a long and excessive practice of the secret vice. I went to a doctor for advice. He suggested that I should occasionally visit the prostitute. I made but one visit. That night I caught syphilis. For five years I have been under the treatment of doctors. I have been to Hot Springs. Doctors tell me that I cannot be cured under two more years of this{329} treatment. Even then, the risk of its return will be so great they say, that I should never think of marrying.” Then he added, “That is what one visit has cost me. Three times in these five years I have planned to commit suicide.”

Another example.—Only a few days since a young man called at my office for an interview. His story was, “Three years ago I was induced by other boys to visit the ‘Red Light’ district of this city. On my second visit I was infected with gonorrhea. My income was small. The doctor’s fees were beyond my reach. I tried patent remedies sold in drug stores guaranteed to cure the worst case in three to five days. Failing to cure myself in this way I was compelled to go to doctors. At times I seem to be cured. Then I make another visit and the old trouble comes back on me. This has been repeated three times in two years. I am now in a worse shape than I have ever been.” He then asked my advice. I told him to select the most reliable doctor he could find, and regardless of price take his treatment until he was pronounced cured. Then twice a year for several years, to have a State Health Board to make a microscopic examination. If they find no gonococci for two or three years, he might consider himself well. But marriage will then be a risky proposition.

These two recent cases are selected from a thousand{330} experiences related to me in the last five years, many of which were far worse than these. The reader can judge for himself whether or not these diseases are no worse than a “bad cold.”{331}

You have a social nature.—This nature should be developed. Boys and girls, men and women, are complements of each other. Every boy needs a sister and every girl needs a brother. It is a good thing for boys and girls of different families to be schoolmates and occasionally to engage together in games. Where co-educational colleges are wisely managed, young men and women develop socially in a more normal way than when they are separated. The matured young man is never quite himself until he finds his mate. The same can be said with equal force of the matured woman.

Relation of the social and sex natures.—The social nature of an eunuch has been arrested in its development to such an extent that he appears to be without a social nature. He does not attract the opposite sex, admires no woman, has no interest in children, and does not care to mingle with people in a social way. The secret sin often causes a young man to be exceedingly indifferent and to shun the company of young women.{332}

These facts show clearly that there is a vital relation between the sexual nature and the social nature. If developed and kept normal, they will contribute much to the enjoyment of life. Like all great blessings they have their dangers. Whatever, in the social relations of young men and women, leads to the excitement of the sexual instinct means danger, temptations and ofttimes social disaster. Almost all men have either inherited or acquired a strong tendency toward easy sexual excitement. Most young men are ignorant of their weakness and the laws of sexual excitement. In these regards the birds and lower animals are much truer to nature than is, degenerate, man. Among them the sexual exciting relations, preparatory to the reproductive act, are never indulged in by the male except during the mating season. The lower animals never violate these laws of normal sexual excitement.

A pernicious custom.—Many young men, ignorant of these laws, prompted by an over-developed sexual condition, have the habit of pinching the arms of girls, patting their cheeks and chins, squeezing their hands, playing with the hair, hugging and kissing them, and other indiscreet and dangerous habits. These relations are known by modern society as “spooning.” It is seriously common. It is more dangerous to physical, sexual, mental and moral health{333} than the secret sin or prostitution. It is the kindergarten for both. Few young people would ever fall were it not for these pernicious and foolish customs.

You should treat every young lady as you would have other young men treat your sister. You should have a correct knowledge of these laws and by an intelligent choice and a manly, strong purpose, refuse ever to engage with young women in any social relation that would endanger your honor or their virtue.

Friendship and love.—For a number of years you may for social reasons wish to call occasionally on one or more girls for whom you will entertain only thoughts of friendship. However, friendship occasionally assumes a more serious turn and is transformed mysteriously into love. If this love is natural, prompted by your paternal nature, approved by your reason and judgment, no mistake will be made. Love can be blinded by lust, paralyzed by wealth and hypnotized by beauty and in either event, marriage would be a failure.

A good wife is a helpmate.—If a young man has perfect control of his sex nature, I would not advise marriage before he is twenty-three or four. If he has a few hundred dollars ahead, a good education, or a good paying position, has good health and has found the girl of his choice, he should not postpone{334} marriage until he has accumulated more. A good wife is a helpmate.

Long engagements.—Such engagements are seldom necessary and rarely advisable. Don’t be in a hurry. The first chance may not be the best one. Study her and her family well. Your children’s rights should be respected; choose for them a good mother. A young man should never trifle with his affections or the affections of young women by numerous engagements. This is a serious matter. The affectional nature can be trifled with until it cannot be relied upon.

Certain rights not yours.—After you are satisfied with the choice you have made, the important question been asked, a favorable answer received, and the engagement has been effected with the approval of both families, remember that there are privileges that are not yours until the legal phase of marriage has completed your oneness. Any violation of chastity before marriage is a sin against society, weakens self-respect, causes a loss of confidence in each other, and often leads to domestic discord in the future.

When you call.—After the engagement is made you will want to be with your betrothed much of the time. When together have something sensible to talk about. It is a good thing for lovers to read interesting stories to each other. While sentiment and the{335} occasional repetition of the avowal of marriage will add interest to these calls yet this can be over-done and becomes very monotonous. Be frank, sincere, versatile and entertaining, but be discreet.

The nuptial night.—In relation to the nuptial night there is some very delicate and vital information every engaged young man should possess. The primary purpose of marriage is reproduction. Marriage is said to be “Consummated in the first act of cohabitation.” In Greece it was a custom for three days to intervene between the marriage ceremony and the “consummation of marriage.” This was a very wise custom. The bride is usually nervous, exhausted and excited over the occasion. However much she may love her husband, he is yet to her a stranger. This nuptial night should be a night of sweetest, tenderest courtship. The bride should be promptly assured that she will be protected by her lover and that no sexual demand will be made until she extends the invitation. You have often noticed reports in the daily papers of the young bride deserting her husband a day or two after marriage, or committing suicide. Their husbands were ignorant, low and brutal, in almost every case. A young man should understand that his bride is not in a condition of body and mind to meet the sudden change which the marital relation brings.

The considerate young husband.—If a young{336} husband is considerate, awaits his wife’s invitation, practices self-control and moderation for the first few weeks of marriage, his wife will be spared much anxiety, nervousness, and possibly diseases of the genital organs and an invalid condition for life.

If an engaged young man is informed, sensible and pure, and his bride possesses these qualities, there would be nothing indiscreet, unmanly, or even unchristian for him to assure his betrothed that she need have no fear in approaching the nuptial night.{337}

Few perfect men.—When we study man in his relation to the world about him, in relation to his physical, mental and moral possibilities, we get a glimpse of what nature and his Creator planned for him to be. In sacred and profane history, on the farm and in the shop, behind the counter and at the bar; in Congress and in Senate, on the platform and in the pulpit; we find some splendid examples of ideal manhood. But look at humanity in the mass. How few perfect men do you find in a community! Look at the enervated and stunted fathers, the nervous and sickly mothers, the puny and weak children, the poorly developed babies and dwarfed minds, the crowded reformatories, penitentiaries and asylums. Why are sixty-seven per cent. of the children defective at birth? Why the aimless, shiftless, purposeless, ne’er-do-well men? Why so much of deteriorated manhood? The causes are many. Many people are ignorant of the most common laws of health. Many live in unappeased hunger and some are improperly fed. Whisky, tobacco, opium and morphine are all doing their{338} part in wrecking manhood. But the most prolific cause of blighted manhood is the sin of sensuality. It is fully equal to all other causes combined. One state health board asserts that if all men understood the laws of sex and kept them, there would not be the need of one doctor in ten that we now have. This indicates the injurious physical effects of this sin.

Wrecked minds.—An eminent doctor of France claims that the insanity of eighty-two per cent. of all the females and seventy-eight per cent. of all the males in the asylums of that nation involves their sexual mechanism, function, or both, and that early sex instruction would have wholly precluded much of it and postponed the mental break much later in life in many other cases. This indicates the mental effects of this sin.

Kept from Christ.—More people are kept from Christ and more fail to live the Christian life because of their sex problem than because of all other problems put together. This indicates the moral effects of this sin.

Regained—extent.—The extent to which injured, impaired or wrecked manhood due to dissipated sex life, may be regained, will be determined by the number of years he has indulged, the excessiveness of his vice, his age when he reforms, the exercise of his will and the help he seeks from God. When nature{339} is given a fair show, it is wonderful what she will do in a few years. When God is given a fair chance in a man’s life, it is equally wonderful what he can do for a man. God and nature work together in the restoration of manhood.

The diagnosis.—A study of the causes and the conditions of wrecked manhood will aid us to understand what must be done, if manhood is to be restored. Nearly all cases of sexually injured or wrecked manhood first originated in wrong mental relations to matters of sex. The mind has the power to excite to greater than normal activity many of the glands of the body. In the presence of food, or fancying that one is in the presence of food, the mind so influences the salivary glands that they secrete saliva much faster than at other times. In the same way, when the mind is called to the sexual organs, and thought and desire for sexual gratification are aroused by handling these organs, or when gazing upon lewd pictures, reading obscene literature, telling or hearing a smutty joke, “spooning” with a girl, reveling in lascivious desire, or when constipated these organs are stimulated to unusual activity. Blood rushes to the genital organs, the capillaries are dilated and gorged with blood and many times as much semen is formed in a given period, as would be formed, if the mind was otherwise engaged. The body has its limit in absorbing{340} the vital substance. Much of it that should never have been taken from the blood must be thrown off from the body by seminal emissions, the secret vice, prostitution or marital excess. When improper mental relations are continued for months or years, gradually there is established a tendency for too much blood to flow to the genitals, the capillaries become easily dilated, the organs are constantly excited and inflamed and the habit of generating too much semen is formed. This leads to impaired manhood.

All causes of wrong mental thinking must be avoided.—If constipated, this must be corrected. If accustomed to handling the organs with the hands, this must be stopped. Learn instinctively to shun the vulgar story teller, close your eyes to every lewd picture, burn every obscene book in your possession, keep company with only the discreet, chaste girls who wear a full dress, banish every lascivious thought, and keep your mind engaged in other things. This desired mental control does not come in a moment, an hour, a day or a month of effort. It will take a year, it may take more to become master of the mind.

A young man must quit the sin. It can be done at once, but not in every case. It may take months or a year.

If a true conversion to Christ means anything, it means a purification of the mind from a{341} willful choice to engage in impure thoughts. From my point of view this is one of the most important steps for a young man to take in the solution of his sex problem.

A pathological condition.—It is vitally important for a young man to understand that, even when he has fully decided in his mind on reform and has accepted Christ, that this reformation of mind and regeneration in his moral nature do not change the pathological condition of the genital organs, due to years of violating nature’s laws. These steps are all important. Restoration to manhood would not be possible without one or both. The physiological facts are, years of wrong thinking, the secret vice or prostitution has established a tendency for too much blood to flow to these parts and consequently too much semen is formed. This will continue until nature has had time to restore normal conditions. This could never be done by nature without the causes being removed. Nature’s work of restoration is always gradual. She cannot be hurried. She always does her best. Her best is always measured by the opportunity given her. Start in time, be faithful in removing all hindrances and she will accomplish results.

Hindrances and helps.—You cannot help nature in this trouble by using drugs, stimulants or galvanic batteries. Marriage only substitutes one{342} form of sexual waste for another. Prostitution is not a remedy; that simply destroys two souls and bodies instead of one. The use of tobacco and alcoholic drinks tends to inflame the passions. These habits must be entirely quit if restored manhood is desired. Absolute cleanliness, bathing of parts with cold water, eating nature’s foods, vegetables and cereals, meat sparingly, if at all, taking plenty of open air exercise, including deep breathing; these are the remedies nature delights in using.

A fact that should be clearly understood.—After one has fully decided upon a changed life, at certain periods he will be very severely tested by the constant recurrence of impure thoughts and a strong desire for sexual gratification. Many men doubt their conversion or decide that there is no hope for them. If they yield and practice the secret vice, they chide and condemn themselves, become despondent and decide there is no hope for them. They should understand that these thoughts and desires are not of moral choice, but they arise purely from a pathological condition of the genital organs. The changed mind and heart did not stop the usual flow of blood to these organs and the generation of too much semen. The surplus could not be absorbed by the body. It caused the ducts and vessels to become gorged. It was this{343} condition that caused the improper thoughts and desires. Nature has a relief for this while she is gradually producing a cure. The relief is a seminal emission. If these men would resist the temptation for a few more hours or a day, nature would come to their help with an emission. Then for several days they would be free from impure thoughts and desires. The next period would not be so severe. The will would be stronger and resistance easier. If this is kept up, less and less blood will go to the genital organs, less and less semen will be formed, and after one, two or three years a normal condition will be established and manhood restored.

If venerealized, consult a good doctor.—If wrecked manhood involves some form of venereal complication, the sufferer should go to the most reliable home physician he can find, take his treatment and follow his directions. Even in these cases, if the directions given are followed, the remedies given by the doctor will be made more effective.

All out of the asylum can if they will.—To the young man with seminal weakness, or loss of virility, we can offer no easy, short cuts to recovery. For years you have violated nature’s laws. The way back is not easy. Only the brave and the determined will make it. All out of the asylum can if they will.{344} There is hope, there is help, there is recovery. It is worth fighting a lifetime for.

To the great army of young men who are unchaste in minds, many in habits, conscious of no serious results, as yet, we would wave the flag of warning.{345}

Are men naturally more passionate than women?—The accumulated hereditary effects of the double standard for centuries and his acquired tendencies have made man more sensual than woman. Reasoning from the lower animals and from all natural conditions there is no reason why a woman should be less passionate than man. Centuries of false training in impure mental revelings, obscene language and vicious habits have had a growing tendency to establish lust in man. Most of man’s lust is the child of his own cultivation. If the double standard had never existed and men and women had been equally moral, men would be no more passionate than woman and both would be better sexed and far less sensual.

What are the causes of acquired sensuality in men?—The chief cause is wrong mental relations to matters of sex and reproduction. The following are contributory causes: The false impressions made by parents on the child; the half truths clothed in the most obscene language received from servants and playmates; obscene books, pictures, shows and the{346} dance. All these lead to sexual excitement through the mind. The use of tobacco and alcoholic drinks tend to inflame the passions.

What are the principal causes of sterility in men?—Some authorities claim that twenty per cent. of childless homes are due to men having had certain chronic forms of gonorrhea. Excessive use of tobacco and alcoholic drinks produces temporary sterility. The secret sin, when continued for many years, often results in temporary sterility. The inability to become a father, due to one of the last causes, may be regained on one or more years of abstinence from the cause. Loss of reproductive powers due to gonorrhea, in most cases cannot be restored.

Eighty per cent. of sterility among married women is due to gonorrheal infection. In nearly every case they were infected by their husbands who thought themselves cured. From these facts we see that men, not women, are largely responsible for sterile homes.

Are occasional seminal emissions natural?—If men inherited normal sexual conditions and never violated sexual laws, it is reasonable to suppose that men would be as free from sexual losses as are the males of lower animals. But this ideal state does not exist with men. Nature has wisely provided for the escape of all surplus secretions from the various glands of the sexual system. This occurs without{347} any special shock to the nervous system and the amount of loss is usually small. Often what is called an emission is but the loss of fluid from the seminal vessels and not from the testes. This does not contain true semen. Practically no harm results from these last discharges.

When do these emissions begin on a young man?—This depends upon the sexual development and the habits of the youth. In some it occurs much earlier than in others. If a young man has lived a continent life, he may expect an occasional emission when he is eighteen or twenty. If he has used narcotics, entertained impure thoughts, or practiced the secret sin, he may expect them sooner. All young men who practice the secret vice would have frequent emissions if they were not disposing of their surplus energy in this way. The young man who thus voluntarily gratifies his sexual desires is losing more energy than he would be doing if he were to discontinue the habit.

Among many letters received recently are letters from two young men living nearly a thousand miles apart. Their cases are very similar. Each began the secret sin when he was only six or seven years old; both were taught the vice by companions older than they; neither ever received a word of warning from a parent or teacher. One got to practicing the vice as{348} often as seven times a day before he was thirteen. He is now eighteen and having emissions as often as four times a night. He has varicocele on both sides. The other one is now twenty-two, has practiced the secret sin as often as four times a day, and now has varicocele on the left side. Of course these are extreme cases, but they are more common than most people think.

Are there some young men who never have emissions?—It is no doubt true that all normal young men who are living pure lives have an occasional emission. In a few young men it may occur during urination and therefore be unobserved. A young man who willfully dissipates his energy as fast as it is formed, by means of masturbation or prostitution, may not have emissions. But let him stop his bad habits and he will experience them.

Are seminal emissions injurious?—Unnatural emissions are injurious; the natural emissions are not.

What is the difference between a natural and an unnatural emission?—The natural emission is a discharge from the seminal vessels; the unnatural emission is a discharge from the testes. The natural one contains no sperm cells; the unnatural one does. The first is wholly involuntary; the second one is due to sexual excitement caused usually by impure thinking. If a young man keeps his mind pure and avoids{349} all habits that excite the sexual organs, practically all the sexual life formed by the testes will be absorbed. Whenever he maintains a high state of passion for several minutes, several hundred of the latent sperm cells in the epididymis will take on active life and be sent over to the ampullæ, and emissions under this condition would contain many sperm cells. This is why the unnatural emission is injurious. Owing largely to our artificial methods of living, when a boy is eighteen, the seminal vessels secrete more than can be absorbed. The surplus is thrown off from one to four times a month. This is nature’s plan of relieving the gorged condition.

How can one prevent too frequent emissions?—Such dietetic measures as eating non-stimulating foods, discontinuing the use of tobacco and alcoholic drinks, and such hygienic measures as emptying the bowels and bladder just before retiring, sleeping on the side, and preventing constipation, will aid in the control of emissions. But the most important measure to be used is that of mental control. The cure in all cases will be gradual and the time required will depend on the condition of the victim and his determination to conquer the habit.

Can seminal weakness or loss of manhood be cured by the use of medicine of any kind?—The idea that a young man suffering from this trouble, by{350} opening his mouth and swallowing pills or drinking medicines, can cure himself is an absolute false hope. No intelligent, conscientious doctor will advise the use of drugs for seminal weakness. The only safe, sane and sound prescription that can be given one in this condition is a strict continent life, aided by pure thinking, proper diet, and hygiene.

Would you advise the use of any drug or medicine in case of seminal weakness?—Absolutely, No. I have no confidence in medicine for such cases. In no case place your trouble in the hands of a specialist who claims to cure seminal weakness. Your home doctor is your best friend when you need medical advice. No well informed doctor will recommend the use of drugs in such cases.

How may manhood be restored?—One suffering from seminal weakness must abandon the secret sin, get control of his mind, have only pure thoughts, exercise the mind along other lines, take plenty of outdoor exercise and avoid all stimulating foods and drinks, especially narcotics. If not a Christian, become one at once. A genuine conversion will be the most helpful means of bringing his mind to a pure state of thinking. Remember that the creation and distribution of this energy is largely under the control of the will.

How long will it take a young man to recover{351} from the effects of masturbation?—There are so many things to be considered in each individual case that this question cannot be answered in other than general terms. The age when the habit was commenced, the age when the habit was quit, the frequency and the number of years of indulgence, the inherited constitution, the extent of lascivious thinking and the use or non-use of coffee, tea, tobacco and alcoholic drinks, all play a part in the correct answer to the question. I recall one young man of a frail constitution and a nervous temperament, who had practiced the vice two to four times a week for four years. He had nearly all the complications resulting from a greater excess and a much longer period of indulgence. He used coffee, tobacco, and had been addicted to much impure thinking. His will-power was weak. He had a long, hard struggle in breaking the habit. It required four years for him to recover. Here is a remarkable example. One of my correspondents, twenty-eight years old, began the habit at the age of eight and practiced the habit two and three times a day for twenty years. He had very few of the troubles following the habit of masturbation. Satisfactory recovery took place in a year’s time. He had everything to his advantage. He had inherited an ideal constitution and moral tendencies. He had never used coffee, tea, tobacco or alcoholic drinks.{352} He had never allowed himself to indulge in obscene language, to read immoral books, to associate with bad company or to have improper thought about women. He had cultivated studious and industrious habits, and tried hard to live a Christian life. These ideal conditions had largely counteracted the injurious effects of the secret sin and made recovery possible in the brief period of one year. I regard this as the most remarkable case that I have ever had under my advisement.

Where one has practiced the secret sin from four to ten or more years and had the symptoms of greatly injured or lost manhood, it will require from one to four years for nature to restore his manly powers. Nature cannot counteract the loss of vitality and restore years of waste in a few days or weeks of time. Where one has been a victim of this habit for years he must be patient with nature. Years of practice have established a stream of waste from his body. In most cases it will require six months to one year for nature to check this waste. Until this is done, the patient cannot hope to be conscious of the delightful thrill of manhood being restored. Just here, I find many of my correspondents become discouraged. Failing to realize results in a few weeks, they are tempted to feel that the advice found in this book will not bring relief when followed, or that their case is a{353} helpless one. They need to be patient with nature in her slow but sure method of producing real results.

What per cent. of children should be circumcised and when?—The best physicians are not agreed on this. Many would say one-fourth to one-third. It is best to do this when the boy is only a few days or weeks old.

Should a young man be circumcised after he is grown?—If the prepuce passes back freely and there is no irritation or soreness, I would not advise circumcision. If there is, I would advise circumcision. In extreme cases of the secret sin, circumcision would help in breaking off the habit.

Is there some method of dilating the prepuce and thus avoiding the necessity for circumcision?—Yes. In many cases doctors are able to break up the adhesions and dilate the prepuce as a substitute for circumcision.

In this matter most parents neglect their boys. When the prepuce is not passed back every few days and the secretion removed, an adhesion takes place between the prepuce and the head of the penis. A large number of boys labor for years, from the age of six to twelve trying to pass the prepuce back. They have not the right motive in doing this. It is impossible for them to handle this organ in this way, several times a day for months or years, without discovering{354} the secret sin. In this way they dilate the prepuce and break up the adhesions. It is strange that this experience among boys has not suggested to parents the following natural and practical method of solving this problem.

Where the prepuce passes back naturally in babyhood, the mother should occasionally take a damp cloth and remove the secretion. When the boy is two years old the mother should have the boy trained to do this every two or three days.

Where the prepuce is long and the opening small, if the mother, every time she cares for the little fellow’s body, would endeavor to pull the prepuce back, by the time the boy is one year old, nine times out of ten, the problem would be solved. This should be done so gradually and carefully as not to produce soreness. If this is done before the boy is three years old sex consciousness and passion need not be awakened. I would not advise the mother to begin this after the boy is two or three years old.

Is there a safe method by which small organs, due to the secret sin, may be enlarged?—There are some methods advertised by “quacks” and certain firms, but most of them are unreliable or injurious. The vacuum method is perhaps the most satisfactory. This consists of an appliance that removes the external pressure from the organ and allows the{355} blood to rush into the capillaries. This practice must be kept up for a considerable time to be effective. While this is the most natural method, I would not, in any case, advise the use of it. Any method used tends to call the attention to the organs and this leads to continual sexual weakness. A restored virility is of far more importance than the size of the organ. Because this organ varies in size, many men who have practiced the secret vice to some extent, fear that this organ has become in a measure atrophied.

Would you advise marriage as a remedy for weak manhood?—No. One would simply substitute marital excess for excessive self-abuse or prostitution. If a man has impaired his manhood he should recover his manhood by conserving sexual life, proper diet and physical exercise for a few years before he marries.

What effect will a period of self-abuse have upon one’s offspring?—Perfect children are born of parents having a strong vitality. This vice weakens the vitality. Where a young man has noticeably injured his nerves, his vitality, his health, he should seek to regain his manly powers before he thinks of becoming a father.

Should a young man marry who has for a number of years practiced masturbation?—It is always best for a young man who has practiced the{356} secret vice for five, ten or fifteen years to quit the habit and live a continent life for one or more years. During this time he becomes normal in his sexual life and sexual demands. If he has practiced the habit only in a very limited way, so that he is not suffering from any bad consequences, postponement of marriage is not necessary.

What should a young man do when he discovers that he has varicocele?—The approach of this disease is first noticed by a dilation of the cord leading to the epididymis of the left testis. When the veins become full of impure blood and feel like a handful of tangled earthworms and the left gland becomes painfully tender and begins to become much reduced in size, then the individual has a real case of varicocele. If, when the veins are only moderately large and there is but little soreness, the causes are abandoned, no serious results may follow. This disease is caused chiefly by the secret sin and impure thinking. In some cases it is caused by a bruise or the “falling of the mumps.” The patient must abandon the cause; if it be the secret sin, quit it; if impure thinking, quit that; if “spooning” with girls, a most common cause, be a gentleman and quit it.

Buy two silken suspensories, so they can be kept clean. The suspensory holds the testes up close to the body and prevents much of the uneasy dragging feeling.{357} If this advice is followed for several months a surgical operation need never be necessary. Not one of several hundred young men who have carefully followed this advice have had to be operated on. If the patient fails to get relief and cure after several months of following this advice, he should consult a home physician.

Does varicocele caused by the “falling of mumps,” lead to sterility?—It does not. If neglected, varicocele, however caused, may lead slowly to sexual weakness and this finally to temporary sterility, or inability to become a father. Prompt attention should be given to the advice found in the answer to the previous question.

When a testicle has become reduced in size can it be restored to normal size?—If in the earliest stage of varicocele, before the gland has become much reduced, the advice found elsewhere in this book is followed, the gland may become normal in size. When the gland has become much reduced in size, it will not be possible to restore it fully.

When a young man has become infected with venereal disease, should he treat himself with a patent remedy purchased in a drug store or send away for a remedy?—A young man’s money, health and life are too valuable to be jeopardized by resorting to either method. Most of these drug store{358} remedies advertised in gentlemen’s closets are guaranteed to produce a cure in one to five days, and, it is further guaranteed, that the disease will never return. There should be a law prohibiting the sale of such drugs. They are an encouragement to uninformed men to visit the prostitute. When the young man finds that the patent remedy has failed to cure him, he is then perhaps in a chronic state of infection. Now the best medical talent may fail to produce a permanent cure.

Should a young man who has had a venereal disease in a chronic form ever marry?—Few questions are more important and few more difficult to answer. The right of being a husband and father may be annulled by inherited defects or acquired conditions. The wife and child have incontrovertible rights. The specific disease germs producing gonorrhea have been found in the genital vessels and ducts ten years after the victim considered himself cured, and the germs producing syphilis have been found in a man’s brain twenty-two years after he considered himself cured. Sixty-five per cent. of married women who are operated on in their pelvic and abdominal cavities, a very large per cent. of imbecile children, and eighty per cent. of blind infants are traceable to uncured infection in their husbands and fathers.{359} Where the diseases have been properly treated and a cure has been effected in the first stage, no serious after effects will be experienced. Where the seeming cure has been effected several months or years after taking the disease, quite a large per cent. are never free from the effects. If such men marry at all, marriage should be delayed a few years after they consider themselves cured. At intervals of once or twice a year they should be carefully examined by the State Health Board. If no disease germs are found after two, four or more years, the individual may marry with some measure of assurance that he will not infect his wife or child. Even when these necessary precautions have been taken, children to the third and fourth generations may have to suffer for life for the sins of their fathers.

Can gonorrhea and syphilis be permanently cured?—If gonorrhea is promptly and properly treated, it can, in many cases, be cured without danger of return or any serious effects being transmitted to the wife or child. It is also a fact that in many cases of gonorrhea, even when properly treated, there is a strong tendency to run into chronic conditions. When the disease has been neglected or poorly treated, or when a case by its own persistency runs into a chronic state, many such cases are never cured so that{360} they may not return in some form. Weakened germs have been known to remain in a quiescent condition in the genital ducts for years.

In recent years many prominent physicians have changed their views regarding venereal diseases, as they are now known to be more insidious and persistent than was formerly thought. Some physicians claim that syphilis may sometimes be cured; but many eminent physicians claim that it is quite probable that when one has once been infected with syphilis that his body is never entirely free from the disease germs. Some authorities claim that the syphilitic germ has been found in the brain twenty years after the disease was contracted. Many leading physicians now consider gonorrhea worse than syphilis.

When a man experiences a sexual desire, does that not indicate that the desire should be satisfied?—Sexual desire results from the conscious possession of creative energy. This creative energy can be disposed of in any one of the following ways: (1) For procreation; (2) Built into the body and converted into health, strength, labor and length of days; (3) Built into the brain and converted into mental attainments and achievements; (4) Built into the feelings, sentiment, emotions, and converted into sympathy, love and service; (5) It can be selfishly dissipated and reveal its misuse in a blighted, wasted{361} life. What disposition shall be made of this creative energy is up to the individual to decide.

How can a young man judge of his sweetheart’s virtue?—In the same way that a sensible girl would decide upon the virtue of her best gentleman friend. She would consider his reputation, the company he keeps, his general demeanor and his facial indications of chastity. A modest demeanor, absence of familiarity, a pure mind, innocent expressions on the face, and look in the eye, are the only evidences of a young woman’s virtue by which a young man can be guided.

Would it be wise for a young man to test the virtue of his best girl by using the methods of the seducer?—How would he feel if he knew that some young man was practicing the same test on his sister? Not very comfortable, if he had a spark of manhood about him. There is no excuse for or justice in such a test. Under the pressure of the seductive methods used, promise of marriage oft repeated, a pure girl might be induced to surrender her all to the one she loves and trusts. As a rule, such a young man would then refuse to marry the girl he has ruined. If he does marry her, the mistake may mar their future happiness.

Would it be proper for a young man to ask his sweetheart if she has kept her virtue?—Certainly, if he can first assure her that he has kept his{362} own. If he cannot offer a square deal he should, at least, be willing to take chances.

If a young woman is not a virgin should she be expected to confess this to her lover?—If it were customary for men to make such confessions, then it would be fair for a woman to do the same. Since men do not consider it wise or necessary for them to confess their sins before or after marriage, they should not expect this of women. If the question of virtue is raised, let the innocent party introduce it.

If the arm is not exercised it becomes helpless, withered and weak. If a young man should remain single for five to ten years and live a continent life, will not his sexual organs lose their function, wither and atrophy?—These questions appear to present a most perfect analogy. Based on the information the average young man is supposed to have, even if he be a college or university graduate, not one out of a hundred could extricate himself from the conclusion, that he must reach, viz., continence in the single life leads to a loss of the reproductive powers and to atrophy of parts. When we consider that this is the argument of the immoral doctor, the ignorant and the vicious, the classes to whom young men of the past have been compelled to go for all their sex information, it is not surprising that almost all young men hold to the “sex necessity lie.” In the{363} past, ministers, teachers and parents have not been in possession of facts with which to combat this sexual heresy.

The solution of this problem lies in the fact that the male and female organs of reproduction have two functions. One is a continuous and regular function, taking place day and night, asleep and awake. The other is a periodic and special function. To illustrate: The breasts of a woman are a part of her reproductive system. A married woman becomes a mother for the first time at the age of twenty. She nurses her babe at her breasts. This function is called lactation. But, it would have been possible for her to become a mother at fifteen and to nurse her child. Then, there were five years during which she did not perform the function of lactation, and yet, she did not lose this function. Suppose she does not become a mother the second time until she is forty. Again her breasts perform this special function as perfectly as they did the first time. But, remember, there were nineteen years during which she did not perform this function, and yet, she did not lose this function. The other sexual organs of a woman have special and periodic functions, such as, menstruation and ovulation. The normal performance of these special functions is determined by their general and continuous function.

If the female sexual glands, ovaries and breasts,{364} were removed from a girl in her infancy, she would never develop the indescribable physical, mental and social charms of ideal womanhood. If these glands were removed at any other age under forty, she would lose in physical, mental and moral tone. This illustrates the nature of the general and continuous function of these organs. This function consists in these organs generating an internal secretion which, if not interfered with, will build and maintain a perfect womanhood. This continuous function gives constant activity to these organs; keeps them healthy and strong and prevents the loss of their special function, that of motherhood.

Day and night, asleep and awake, the male sexual glands are generating an internal secretion which, if retained in the body, will build and maintain perfect manhood. It is this continuous function that gives constant activity to these organs, keeps them healthy and strong and prevents the loss of their special function of reproduction.

What effect upon his sex problems has a young man’s keeping company with young women?—We have a social nature. It should be normally developed. The sex nature and the social nature are vitally related. Improper social relations lead to sensuality and proper social relations lead to purity of manhood and womanhood.{365}

If a young man would develop an ideal social nature, he should to a reasonable extent, associate with modest, discreet and chaste young women. This is natural and in every way helpful. If a young man who has sexual weakness, due to youthful indiscretions, purposes reform and desires to regain his manhood, he will find association with young women of the above type to be very helpful. The normal young man, as well as the sexually weak, should studiously avoid association with girls whose actions, conversation or dress suggests impure thought.

What is the relation of “spooning” to a young man’s sex problems?—A single example of “spooning” will answer this question. January 19, 1912, a college young man, in a personal interview, explained that since April 14th he had been completely impotent and wanted to know of me, if there was any hope for him to have his manhood restored. I assured him that there was. He then asked me what he must do. My reply was, “That depends upon what you have been doing.” I found that he had been guilty of the secret vice and prostitution to only a limited degree. Convinced that these habits would not explain his condition, I said to him, “The trouble is in your mind. You have in some way aroused and maintained a high state of sexual excitement for hours at a time and over a period of months or years. Can you explain?”{366} He confessed that for nearly two years he had spent two or three hours, two or three times a week, in company with a girl friend who permitted him to hold her hands, play with her hair, pat her cheeks and chin, kiss, caress and even fondle her breasts, but absolutely refused to permit further advances. Then I explained to him how this intense sexual excitement had brought on varicocele, loss of sexual power and spermatorrhea.

Spooning is a growing evil. It is more injurious than the secret sin. Our suggestive post cards, pictures on billboards, novels and serial stories, and the moving pictures in five and ten cent shows are all giving young people the idea that spooning is natural and expected as a part of the entertainment, when a young man calls to see his “best girl.”

The girl who permits spooning will lose many of her personal physical charms. The eyes that once sparkled with intelligence and glowed with luster become lusterless, stupid and sunken; the cheeks once rosy and plump become pale and poor; the handshake that was once warm and full of life, is now cold and lifeless. Health is gone. She ends her days in heart trouble, wrecked nerves or consumption.

If cohabitation is not a physical and sexual necessity, or conducive to health, why do married people live longer and have better health than{367} those who remain single?—As a rule married people are more temperate in their sexual lives than are the single. But this does not prove that sexual gratification is ever conducive to health and long life. All nature contradicts such a conclusion. The embodiment of life in seed is a universal sacrifice. Many flowering plants wither, fade and die as soon as they embody life in their seed. If young fruit trees bear fruit too early in life, they are stunted in their growth and die prematurely. There is a suspension of growth in all the vegetable kingdom as soon as the function of reproduction is completed. Among the lowest forms of animal life, as soon as the eggs are fertilized, the animal dies. Among all the higher animals, including man, there is abundant evidence of some bodily depression and nervous exhaustion after each act of cohabitation, showing the act to be one of sacrifice. The arrested growth, susceptibility to disease and premature decay among plants, trees and animals, when premature or over-production occurs, are significant illustrations of the baneful effects of youthful dissipation of the sex principle and of marital excesses.

All nature teaches that the normal expression of sex is the unselfish act of embodying life in a new being and that means sacrifice. The story of the cross is typical of all nature. Christ sacrificed his life{368} that humanity might have redemptive life through a process of spiritual reproduction, regeneration.

Through centuries of bad heredity, a misunderstanding of the nature and true function of sex and years of violation of sex laws have combined to give men an abnormal sex nature. It has remained for the people of this country to discover and apply the laws of heredity, to learn the true nature and function of sex and to restore to humanity a normal sex nature. The results of centuries cannot be corrected in one generation. Few men will be able to reach the ideal life, but it is the privilege of every man to struggle toward the ideal.

For young people to regard sexual gratification as the one reason for marriage is positively degrading and shows that our ideas of marriage should be corrected. There are many reasons why the married life is the ideal life. Man is a social being. He needs a companion. He is not complete in himself. He represents only one-half of a complete being. He is never quite satisfied until he finds the other half, the complement of himself. A demand for companionship is found in the very physical, mental and moral natures of man and woman. Their constant association, their mutual home interests and sacrifice for their children are very conducive to health, happiness and a long life.{369}

What is the philosophy of the relation of sex to a happy courtship and marriage?—The sexual life forms the basis of these experiences. Without the creative principle, these social relations would be impossible. The love and magnetism that draw the sexes together in courtship and marriage, that harmonize their differences and blend their personalities and make the husband and wife one are the expressions of the sexual life. Young people who get the idea that marriage means unrestricted sexual privilege, will sooner or later land in the divorce court, or be compelled to live miserably together. If they live in harmony with the laws of sex, their honeymoon will be lifelong.

My subject is before you. While we may differ as to some minor particulars, we are agreed that the violation of the laws of sex is the most prolific source of wrecked manhood, and that a pure life is the only possible road to perfect manhood. I have tried to lead you to loathe and abhor all forms of sexual impurity and to form a purpose as lasting as life and as strong as death, that you will never again violate the laws of sexual purity. The attainment and maintenance of perfect manhood, the recovery of wrecked manhood, the transmission of potential perfect manhood to your offspring, all absolutely depend upon your faithfulness to the principles of sexual purity{370} enunciated in this book. If the truths presented in this book keep one boy out of the pit of sensuality, or if they lead one poor faltering man to form an undying purpose to become pure, or if just one man finds help, strength and life through faith in Christ, the author is repaid a thousand-fold. It is a higher honor to wear a crown of perfect manhood than to wear the crown of an angel.{371}

The importance of physical culture.—This chapter is added for the reason that perfect health, perfect development, perfect virility, perfect manhood is not possible without physical culture. Physical culture includes bathing and exercise. The healthful functioning, of the entire digestive system, the kidneys, the liver, the lungs, the heart and the brain, are related, vitally, to physical culture. Likewise the retention, absorption, distribution and assimilation of the creative life are also vitally related. Bathing and massaging the body and physical exercise have a remedial effect upon almost all physical disorders.

The functions of the skin.-Stop the functions of the skin three minutes and death follows. The skin has two functions, one is to eliminate poisons from the body and the other is to conserve and regulate the heat of the body.{372}

The wild tribes.—In prehistoric times the people wore little or no clothing. In some of the coldest countries wild tribes go almost naked. Under these conditions consumption and many modern diseases are unknown. Clothing is not needed by these people. The skin is able to conserve sufficient heat.

Modern customs.—The wearing of clothing and the neglect of physical culture has to a large extent destroyed the natural functions of the skin. The function of conserving heat is nearly lost by the skin. When the skin is not kept clean and healthy it loses, to some degree, its power to eliminate poisons. When this occurs the kidneys are forced to do overwork. This results in kidney disease.

Getting back to nature.—For people to go naked again is out of the question. Modest, pure-minded, civilized people must wear clothing. Clothing conceals defects, improves bodily appearance and protects the body from heat and cold. Getting back to nature simply means that we are to restore to the skin its natural functions of conserving heat and eliminating poisons.

The air bath.—In athletic exercise the skin is incidentally exposed to the air and sunshine. This largely accounts for the benefits derived.

On arising each morning fifteen minutes should be devoted to restoring and maintaining the natural functions{373} of the skin. This is done by throwing off the clothing in a fairly cool room, exposing the skin to the air. The skin should be rubbed with the hands or a fairly rough towel until it is stimulated into warmth. It is well to vary the rubbing, using the hands part of the time and the towel part of the time. After the skin has become warm, one can take fifteen minutes of physical exercise, attend to shaving and other features of his toilet, remaining, meantime, entirely or partly naked, to a very great advantage. The open air bath can take place of much of the cold and hot water bathing. Water baths should be taken twice or three times a week and those should be followed by ten or fifteen minutes’ rubbing the body and exercising, in the open air.

Colds prevented.—A person who is able to warm himself by friction during an air bath, in a fairly cool room, renders himself practically immune to colds. Colds cause catarrh, tonsilitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy. Pneumonia causes consumption. If one can prevent taking cold he will escape many of the ills of life. In addition to this, when the skin performs its functions properly and the internal organs are doing the same, the person is practically immune to acute contagious diseases.

The air bath should be taken in a room that is properly ventilated. If the friction is performed vigorously,{374} with the mouth closed, this will enforce deep, nasal breathing. This will prevent catarrh, enlarged tonsils and adenoids, and, if continued long enough, will cure mild cases and will assist in the cure of all cases.

Rules for physical exercise.—Physical exercise should not be taken for one hour after a hearty meal. The best time for exercising is immediately after arising each morning.

If one desires to take a cold or warm bath, he should take the air bath first. Following the water bath, he should rub his body with his hands and a Turkish towel until a warm glow is felt all over his body. Then should follow his physical exercise. The lightest dress compatible with decency and comfort should be worn during the exercises described in this chapter. He should not continue any exercise to the point of excessive fatigue. Breathing pauses will frequently be required at first, but these intervals will be less frequent as the lungs develop.

Value of physical exercise.—The beneficial effects of physical culture cannot be overestimated. It strengthens and develops the muscles. It restores the natural functions of the skin. By exercising the muscles of the external organs of the body, exercise is given to the muscles of the internal organs. By restoring the natural functions of the skin and giving{375} normal exercise to the internal organs we correct the functional disorders of the digestive system, the heart and the lungs, and restore to them their natural functions.

The good effects will be noticed, in some ways, from the start; in other ways several months may be required.

Exercise No. 1.—Reclining on right side raising left arm, with dumb-bell in hand and elbow rigid from hips to high over head. Repeat this some ten or fifteen times. Now turn on the right side and repeat this exercise with the left hand. Inhale a deep breath each time as the arm goes back. This exercise{376} helps to expand the chest walls and to develop certain muscles of the arms and side. It is especially valuable for one who feels debilitated, and is of value in several phases of heart disease.

Exercise No. 2.—Reclining on right side, raising left leg as high as possible. Repeat this a number of times. Now recline on the left side and raise the right leg as high as possible. This exercise develops the muscles of the legs, hips and abdomen. It strengthens the digestive system and will improve an injured spine.

Exercise No. 3.—Recline on back and cross right leg over left as far as possible, and vice versa. This{377} movement brings into activity some muscles of the legs often neglected.

Exercise No. 4.—Reclining on back, with dumb-bells, or any object weighing one to two pounds in hands, at sides, raising same with elbows rigid, and cross arms over chest. This brings into activity several muscles of the arms, shoulders and walls of the body, stimulating the action of the lungs. This is especially valuable where one is unable to leave his bed.

Exercise No. 5.—Reclining, bring right leg up, clasp hands over knee and pull leg up as far as possible and vice versa. This exercise brings into play a large variety of muscles, especially the muscles of the abdomen. It is a constipation cure. With a little effort one can voluntarily exercise the muscles of the{378}

{379}

abdomen in such a way as to cause the intestines to move in a circle, first to the right, then to the left, finally drawing them up and down. This combined with the foregoing exercise, if practiced daily, will relieve and cure many cases of constipation.

Exercise No. 6.—Reclining with dumb-bells in hands, bring arms from far back straight upward with elbows rigid, to straight over chest; draw a deep breath and retain same during the movement. This is, in part, the exercise used in reviving half-drowned persons. In addition to the fine muscular movements, it aids in deep breathing and is a fine lung tonic.{380}

Exercise No. 7.—Reclining on back, raise left leg as high as possible, with knee straight. Repeat several times: also, repeat this exercise with right leg. This is a modification of Number 2. A splendid exercise for the hips and has a wholesome effect upon the spine.

Exercise No. 8.—Stand, with hands on hips, sway{381} the body in a circular manner, to the right, left, backward and forward. It is a splendid exercise for stimulating the intestines.

Exercise No. 9.—Reclining on back, with both hands, grasp some object back of head; now, holding the knees rigid, raise both feet to a vertical position.{382} This exercise is rather severe at first. It should be repeated several times. It exercises the abdominal and hip muscles.

Exercise No. 10.—Reclining on stomach, raise left leg, with knee straight, as high as possible; same with right. Repeat these exercises several times. This exercise{383} is tiring at first. It limbers up the joints. For a person who has been accustomed to inactivity, as in the case of bedridden invalids, this is a valuable exercise.

Exercise No. 11.—Recline on stomach, grasp dumb-bells in both hands, raise arms from hanging{384}

{385}

position to position illustrated. This exercise will strengthen the muscles of the neck and shoulders. If one has sustained some injury that threatens tetanus, or “lock-jaw” complications, the application of this exercise would often break the spell. “Keep moving your arms, keep moving your arms,” was Dr. Benjamin Rush’s constant advice to persons threatened with tetanic complications.

Exercise No. 12.—Reclining with arm hanging, raise dumb-bells upward and outward from the body, level with shoulders. Reverse this motion by bringing bells, from position illustrated in No. 11, to position on level with shoulders, as illustrated in this exercise. In value and results this exercise is very much like No. 11. Consumptive microbes will have a poor chance to effect a lodging in a body getting the benefit of these exercises.{386}

A critic answered.—During a lecture in a western city the author gave his audience an opportunity to ask questions and state their objections to his views on heredity. One of his auditors declared that he did not believe in heredity. He was then asked whether he believed in the improvement of mankind.

“Certainly,” was the objector’s reply.

“How do you suggest that this improvement may be accomplished?”

“I believe in ideal environment.”

“So do I; but, I also believe in the agencies of ideal heredity and the grace of God.”

“I don’t know anything about your last agency and I do not believe in your first; but I do believe in ideal environment.”

“Do you understand farming?”

“I am a farmer.”{387}

“Very good; suppose you have a field you wish to plant in corn. You have access to two cribs. One is filled with nubbins; the other with large, shapely, well-matured ears of corn. From which of the two cribs would you select your seed corn?”

“I would select from the one containing the better corn.”

“But, you have just stated that you do not believe in heredity.”

“Now, Professor, you are talking about corn.”

“Yes, I am telling you how to improve corn by the intelligent control of heredity. Suppose you have no stock, but you wish to begin raising stock. Your father has some scrub stock and some pedigreed stock. He is willing for you to select your breeding stock without cost. From which of the two grades would you select?”

“I would certainly select from the pedigreed class.”

“But you have informed me that you do not believe in heredity.”

“Now you are talking about hogs, cattle and horses.”