ght knowledge now, the idea and the
ideal of his childhood may become the idea and the ideal of his manhood.
If the child's thought of the subject has been unworthy, the danger of
forever enshrining a wrong image in the soul of the adult is greater,
and the difficulty of placing there the right one is enhanced.

The outward signs of the girl's development are usually explained
beforehand sufficiently to enable her properly to care for herself. It
is unnecessary to add that this should always be done, as nothing is
more unjust than to leave her in a state of ignorance where the natural
expression of her maturity may fill her mind with fears which may affect
her nervous system ever after, even if they do not lead her to do acts
which may permanently impair her reproductive vitality, and injure her
health in other ways. All that she needs to know about the proper care
of her person should be told her in the most considerate yet explicit
manner, as should whatever is told her upon any part of the subject. It
is a mistake to be vague now. Whatever is told concerning the
reproductive processes should be said with the greatest clearness,
leaving no room for brooding and imagination. And here, too, the wise
parent will take into account the phenomenon of desire, which, so far
from being abnormal in the girl, is normal in the truest sense. It may
not play an important part in her life at this time, and often it does
not, but again it may. Nor is the girl of whom this latter is true in
any sense less fine or less worthy; perhaps on the contrary she is the
best product of her race. Nor should she be afraid or ashamed of her
nature, but only helped to understand and take care of herself and of
her powers.

With the youth at this period the changes that fit him for his new place
in the world are generally ignored. He does not know what is normal and
what abnormal in his physiological development, and is often the victim
of groundless fears that use up his strength or send him in despair to
seek assistance from the most easily available sources of information,
those baleful writings and despicable quack practitioners everywhere
soliciting and alarming youth, and whose career forms one of the saddest
commentaries on the state of our civilization.

The young man should know the truth about himself. He should understand
the vast range of the change that is taking place in him, and that no
two individuals necessarily develop just alike