into activity, but an indefinable impulse takes possession of the whole
being," and a great excitation of the imagination also is perceivable.
Just here, then, the educator recognizes a duty. This increased force,
which we could not prevent if we would, and would not if we could, must
be guided into rational channels--and here I have to speak of a branch
of the subject which is not often considered. I mean the duty of the
mother, who is in this department the proper educator, to speak
earnestly, fully, and plainly to the girl of the mysterious process of
reproduction. Rosenkranz[10] says, somewhere, that when any nation has
advanced far enough in culture to inquire whether it is fit for freedom,
the question is already answered; and in the same way, when a girl, in
her thought, has arrived at the point of asking earnest questions on
this subject, she is fit to be answered. But just here let me call
attention to the infinite importance, in this part of education, of
perfect confidence and freedom between mother and daughter, and to the
equally important fact, that this confidence which does exist at the
beginning of life, if once lost, can never fully be restored. If there
is a shade of reserve on the part of the girl, it will manifest itself
just here and now. Instead of seeking the information which she really
desires, at its only proper source, at that source whence she would
receive it pure, and invested with a feeling of reverence and sanctity,
of which she could never divest herself, she seeks it elsewhere. She
picks it up piece-meal in surreptitious and clandestine ways, as if it
were some horrible mystery which must, from its very nature, be covered
up from the light of day. She talks it over with her young companions in
secrecy, and the charm of mystery keeps her thoughts unduly brooding
upon the subject.

In old times, and even now, in other countries, the danger was not, is
not, so great. Foreign girls have a much closer supervision exercised
over them, and their life in the nursery is far less nerve-stimulating
than that of American children. They do not ask questions so early as
the American girl, and when they do, they have at hand not nearly so
many sources of information. If this all-necessary love and confidence
is unbroken, and if the mother have been so educated herself, that she
recognizes the importance of the moment, and has the requisite
knowledge, there is no danger at all. The occasion is seized,