has been so often
misrepresented to us.

He is a very lovable being, that boy is, at times. Oh, you are reverencing
him to-day; well, then bear in mind that probably about the same time
tomorrow morning you will be gripping for the scruff of his neck, and when
you grip him, grip him hard, it is no time for half-way measures. Never hit
a boy at that age with a switch. If you do you are lost. Either don't hit
at all or hit hard.

A great deal of the child still remains in him, his instability, for
instance. He might well say of himself, "my name is legion." In the
remainder of his young life everything that is trifling and worthless all
comes to the surface, just as it does in the fermenting liquor, the strong
and sweet are all hidden below the froth. You cannot see it. You can very
easily do him injustice. You must sympathize with him. Remember your own
foolish youth when you were his age; remember your own blunders and then
you will have a great patience with him and great admiration for him,
because these blunders are not a great deal worse than they are. If you
can't do this, then leave him to Nature, for you cannot help him.

We found, during the years of puberty, a physical metamorphosis, when the
body was all made over, and now, during those years of adolescence we have
a mental metamorphosis that is just as complete as the physical
metamorphosis. All things are becoming new. They have not become new yet,
but they are becoming new; hence it must be a time of instability, of
self-education, of the strange mixture of the very new and the very old,
the bad and the good, of that which is passing away and which has passed
away long ago, and that which has not yet come. Look a little deeper into
him; you will find he has a pretty good primitive system of morality; it is
a very primitive one, consisting mainly of loyalty to his friends. Treat
him "square," as he says, and fairly, and then you may purr and curb him
just as you will.

Remember that tides of religious power and influence have been sweeping
through him. The first one came probably at twelve, if we may trust our
statistics; the second stronger, at fourteen, and then the third--perhaps a
good many don't feel the first one or second--the third perhaps at sixteen.
The one which comes over him at sixteen will affect heart and intellect and
will, and everything, and he will stay converted probably. If you convert
him at twelve, he probably will fall from grace b