Sir Henry Knyvett, in 1596, warned Queen Elizabeth that the State which neglects to train and discipline its youth produces not merely rotten soldiers or sailors, but the far greater evil of equally rotten citizens for civil life; or, as he words it, "For want of true discipline the honour and wealth both of Prince and countrie is desperatlie and frivolouslie ruinated."
Discipline is not gained by punishing a child for a bad habit, but by substituting a better occupation that will absorb his attention and gradually lead him to forget and abandon the old one.
RELIGION.
An organisation of this kind would fail in its object if it did not bring its members to a knowledge of religion—but the usual fault in such cases is the manner in which this is done. If it were treated more as a matter of everyday life and quite unsectarian, it would not lose its dignity and it would gain a hold. It is often the best not to have religious instruction as a special feature, but to introduce it by "sips" here and there among other instruction, as I suggest in the chapter on "Chivalry" and elsewhere in this book.
CONTINENCE.
In the Handbook I have touched on many important items of a boy's education, but there is scarcely one more important than this, which, under advice, I have relegated from the body of the book to these "Notes for Instructors."
The training of the boy would be very incomplete did it not contain some clear and plain-spoken instructions on the subject of continence.
The prudish mystery with which we have come to veil this important question is doing incalculable harm.
The very secrecy with which we withhold all knowledge from the boy prompts him the more readily to take his own line, also secretly, and, therefore, injuriously.
I have never known a boy who was not the better for having the question put to him frankly and openly. It can quite well be done without indelicacy.