a mother's heart, but only on her lips on some marked occasions, such
as the first going to school, the last day of the holidays, or when your
boy himself gives the occasion by some question he may ask you, but
above all when he reaches a critical age, when a few words from your own
lips will be worth all the printed pages in the world. Only ever and
always make it an essential element of his idea of manliness to be pure,
and do not forget constantly to couple the words "brave and pure," or
"manly and pure," or "pure and high character," in his hearing; that he
may be endued, not with that pale, emasculate thing that passes muster
for purity nowadays, which always seems to me chiefly conscious of its
own indecency, full of the old nervous "touch not, taste not, handle
not" spirit, bandaged up with this restriction and that lest it fall to
pieces, and when it comes to saving another from defilement in body and
soul shuffling uneasily into a pair of lavender kid-gloves and muttering
something about its being "such a very delicate subject"--nay, not
this, but that militant sun-clad power which Milton dreamed of, rushing
down like a sword of God to smite everything low, and base and impure; a
purity as of mountain water or living fire, whose very nature it is, not
only to be pure itself, but to destroy impurity in others.

V

And now let me throw together two or three practical suggestions, which
will probably be superfluous to the most experienced mothers, but may be
useful to younger and more inexperienced parents.

In the first place, I think there are few of the heads of the medical
profession who would not agree with me that our English dietary is too
stimulating and too abundant. Sir Andrew Clark certainly held that a
large proportion of our diseases spring from over-eating and
over-drinking. I don't suppose that for a boy it so much matters, as he
is eating for "edification" as well as for sustenance, for the building
up of his walls as well as for the nutrition of his existing frame. But
"the boy is father to the man," and I would ask you not to accustom your
boys to a rich dietary, as the habit once formed will be prolonged into
early manhood, and undoubtedly such stimulating diet does greatly
increase the temptations with which young men have to contend. It is
perfectly unnecessary for the developing of strength and stature, as is
shown by the splendid Scotchmen who yearly carry off some of our highest
univer