e animal to the spiritual in the
sex life.

It may seem unwise and unnecessary to put before young girls so dark
and distressing a subject as the social evil. Yet I know of no way to
combat this evil without teaching all girls what must be avoided. When
girls realize that the social evil

1. Rests upon a foundation of purely unrestrained animal
instinct;

2. That a single sexual misstep has ruined thousands upon
thousands of girls' lives;

3. That ignorance or the one misstep has led thousands to a
permanent life of shame;

4. That such a life means, sooner or later, sorrow, impaired or
destroyed health, disgrace, and early death to its woman
victims;

5. That the social evil destroys the efficiency and the moral
worth of men;

6. That it sets free deadly disease germs to permeate society,
causing untold misery among the innocent,

then, and not until then, can they be taught

1. To recognize and fear animal instinct unrestrained by higher
motive;

2. To guard their own instincts;

3. To hold men to a high standard of social purity and to help
them attain it.

Nor does this teaching necessitate morbid consideration of the
subject. It will, in fact, in many cases clear away the morbid
curiosity and surreptitious seeking after information in which
untaught girls indulge. Skillfully and delicately taught this
knowledge as an important and serious part of woman's work, girls will
be sweeter and more womanly for the knowledge of their responsibility
to society and to their unborn offspring.

Schools that attempt such a course for girls are finding their chief
difficulty in discovering people properly endowed by nature and
properly trained to teach it. To give such work into any but the
wisest hands invites disaster. To make it a study of the physical
basis of sexual life is disaster in itself. Service, through making
one's self a pure member of society, and through helping others to
keep the same standard--this must be the keynote of the teaching, an
education toward social efficiency and social uplift.

CHAPTER X

THE GIRL'S WORK

The adolescent girl, already the product of a general training which
has aimed at all-round development of body, mind, and spirit, is now
ready for the specializing which shall place her in tune with the
world of industry and help her to make for herself a permanent and
useful place in society. Hencefor