The nature of the studies given to the young and the way in which classical literature is taught require to be considered by parents. The corrupt literature of antiquity tends to corrupt the youthful mind as unavoidably as licentious modern literature. Its bearing on the healthy growth of youth must be considered. The advantages of classical education should be secured without employing works whose tendency is to degrade the young mind. The contrary opinion is the prejudice of custom. Our Catholic brethren have fully recognised the suicidal policy of imbuing unformed minds with licentious literature, and the Church has held more than one General Conference on the subject. No one can doubt the excellence of their scholarship, and it is much to be desired that a careful study of their methods in this respect should be required from all instructors of youth. The impulse to such a change should come from parents.
The dangers arising from vicious literature of any kind cannot be overestimated by parents. Whether sensuality be taught by police reports, or by Greek and Latin literature, by novels, plays, songs, penny papers, or any species of the corrupt literature now sent forth broadcast, and which finds its way into the hands of the young of all classes and both sexes, the danger is equally real. It is storing the susceptible mind of youth with words, images, and suggestions of vice which remain permanently in the mind, springing up day and night in unguarded moments, weakening the power of resistance, and accustoming the thoughts to an atmosphere of vice. No amount of simple caution given by parents or instructors suffices to guard the young mind from the influence of evil literature. It must be remembered that hatred of evil will never be learned by intellectual warning. The permanent and incalculable injury which is done to the young mind by vicious reading is proved by all that we now know about the structure and methods of growth of the human mind. Physiological inquiry is constantly throwing more light upon our mental as well as physical organization. We learn that nutritive changes take place in the human brain by the effect of objects which produce ideas; that permanent traces of these changes continue through life, so that states or changes connected with certain ideas remain stored up in the brain, capable of recall, or presenting themselves in the most unexpected way. We see the importance of the last impressions made on the brain at night, indicating the activity and fixity of the cerebral changes of nutrition during the quiescence of sleep. All that we observe of these processes shows us that different physical changes are produced in the brain by different classes of ideas, and that the moral sense itself may be affected by the constant exercise of the brain in one direction or another, so that the actual individual standard of what is right or what is wrong will be quite changed, according to whether low or high ideas have been constantly recorded in the retentive substance of the brain.
These important facts have a wide and constant bearing on education, showing the really poisonous character of all licentious literature, whether ancient or modern, and its destructive effect on the quality of the brain. It is necessary, therefore, to prepare the young mind to shrink repelled from the debasing literature with which society is flooded, and which is one of the greatest dangers to be encountered. The great help towards this object is the cultivation of strong intellectual and moral tastes in children, the preoccupation of the mind with what is good. Truth should be in the field before falsehood. All children and youth are fascinated by narratives of adventure, endurance, heroism, and noble deeds. The home library should be selected in order to brace the mind and character, and enlist the interest of the child or youth in what is manly and true. Every child also has some special taste or tendency which can be found out, if carefully looked for. It may be for art, for science, for construction, for investigation, adventure, or beneficence; but whatever it be, it may be made the means of intellectual and moral growth. The special youthful tendency is of extreme value, as indicating the direction in which a taste, even if slightly marked, may be cultivated into a serious interest and become a powerful help in the formation of character. The study of natural science and of all pursuits which develop a love and observation of Nature are of great value in education. Such pursuits have the additional advantage of promoting life in the open air. The weighty testimony in favour of the beneficial influence of outdoor exercises and amusements has already been noted. All experience shows us that the calling of the great muscular apparatus of the human body into constant vigorous life is an indispensable means for securing the healthy, well-balanced growth of the frame, and for preventing the premature development of the sexual faculty. It is a subject worthy of the especial study of parents in relation to the education of both sexes. Abundant exercise in the fresh air, with total abstinence from alcoholic drink, may be considered the two great physical aids to morality in youth.
The companions chosen by the child at school or the youth at college are of extreme importance to the growth of character, and the exercise of influence over this choice, without interfering with the freedom of the child, is one of the greatest aids that a parent can render it. The intimacy between those who are entering upon life together, and who have the same future before them, must necessarily increase and become a great fact in the young life; but it is essential that the parent should know who these companions are, and the character of the influence that will be exerted. If the parent be the friend of his child, he can also be the friend of his friend. Tact and sympathy are of the utmost value in welcoming and attracting the youthful friends, and the wise parental care thus exercised towards offspring, extends necessarily beyond the individual home.
The attention of the parent must always be ready to observe the signs of growing sex in sons as well as daughters. Numberless indications, which none but the mother can note, warn her of that approaching crisis of early manhood, now so fatal to our youth. No wise mother observes this change without a deepening of respect and tenderness, and of infinite maternal yearning to strengthen, guide, and ennoble her man-child. At this epoch is often thrown upon her an immense responsibility—a responsibility so grave that it may involve the ruin or salvation of her son—viz., the choice of his physician. The importance of this choice cannot be over-estimated by the parent. The young are easily alarmed about their health; they are at the same time utterly unable to judge of their own condition; they have no knowledge to guide them, no experience by which to measure their symptoms. They place absolute confidence in their medical adviser; his opinion and advice outweigh all other considerations and supersede all other counsel. The parent must therefore realize that when a physician is selected for the growing lad, an authority is placed over him which may become stronger than the parental influence, and be henceforth the most powerful support or antagonist in the moral as well as physical guidance of the son.
If medical science were a positive science, as is mathematics, and its professors able to apply its principles to daily life with the certainty of geometrical propositions, it would be folly to do otherwise than accept any medical opinion of established authority with entire confidence. This, however, is not the case, and the members of the medical profession would themselves be the last persons to lay claim to the possession of absolute truth. As centuries roll on, one medical school of opinion succeeds another, and theory after theory is exploded by accumulating facts. It is therefore no new thing and no subject of reproach to the self-sacrificing members of a noble profession, that different opinions should exist amongst them, in relation to subjects which affect that complex problem—human life. Indeed, it would be an exception to a general rule did not such difference exist. But we are now considering a subject so fundamental in human welfare, so much wider than any class interest, that any variety of opinion respecting it, is of vital importance to be noted, and must be recognised by all intelligent persons. It must therefore be thoroughly understood by all parents that there are now two distinct classes of medical opinion existing amongst physicians. Each class embraces men of high medical repute, but men who hold diametrically opposite views in relation to the guidance of the sexual powers, the one class considering Virtue, the other Vice, a necessity. Each class of physicians is honest in opinion, clear-sighted, wishing well to society; but the one class is far-sighted, the other near-sighted; the one knows the omnipotence of Good, the other sees the triumph of Evil. This diversity of opinion cannot remain as an abstract proposition, but, like all opinion, it expresses itself in action. In medical advice given to a youth, the slightest bias in one or another direction at the starting-point of life will set him on one of two paths constantly diverging to the right or wrong. One path leads to self-control, enlarged mental and physical hygiene, chastity; the other to doubt, yielding, fornication.
At this period of life, no uncertain advice should be given by the physician. Support and guidance are required from him, and his counsel must be strong, positive, and clear. The patient must be taught that chastity, properly understood, is health. He must learn that the indications of sex in early manhood are a notice that the new faculties must be restrained—not exercised; that they give a warning to guard against self-abuse and abuse of the other sex; that the great danger to be dreaded is stimulation; that everything that can excite, whether external or internal, must be studiously avoided. The vital fact must be announced and powerfully brought home to him—that if he will keep the mind pure, Nature will keep the body healthy. This mental strength is his one great concern, to be secured in every possible way. There must be no doubt in medical advice; it must ring like the words of true science spoken by our distinguished surgeon to his students:[43] ‘Many of your patients will ask you about sexual intercourse, and some will expect you to prescribe fornication. I would just as soon prescribe theft or lying or anything else that God has forbidden.... Chastity does no harm to mind or body; its discipline is excellent; marriage can be safely waited for, and among the many nervous and hypochondriacal patients who have talked to me about fornication, I have never heard one say that he was better or happier for it.’[44] The radical importance of the medical advice given to youth will therefore be evident to all parents who perceive the full bearing of the truths contained in the preceding pages. No lesser consideration, no false feeling of reserve, should ever prevent the parent from knowing to which class of physicians the medical guidance of his son be intrusted.
An invaluable provision for the education of the principle of sex, exists in the companionship of brothers and sisters. This companionship, established by Nature, should be carefully promoted, not thwarted. It is one of those provisions which make family life the type of wider relationships, the true germ of society from which national purity and strength should grow. Indeed, the more we study the capabilities of the family in each of its varied aspects, the more potent we perceive its influence to be, the greater the national importance of maintaining the family in its proper power and dignity. This natural grouping of boys and girls is Nature’s indication of the right method of education, and the time will undoubtedly come when the present monastic system of general education may be given up without incurring grave disadvantages. That the familiar intercourse of boys and girls in the kindly presence of their elders is of very great advantage is an observation based upon wide experience. Isolation, mystery, obstacles, produce craving curiosity, excitement—in fact, morbid stimulus—instead of matter-of-fact acquaintance and natural familiarity. Two opposite extremes tend to produce the precocity and morbid condition of sentiment which now prevail—viz., either throwing youth into the companionship of the vicious or rigidly separating the sexes. Each extreme is against Nature, each is injurious to the individual. The former practice is based upon the theory that sex is an uncontrollable instinct which must run riot. The latter practice proceeds from the theory that sex is a great evil, a temptation of the devil, and as far as possible to be destroyed. The true principle, however, consists in a recognition of the nobility of sex, and the necessity—1st, of its slow development; 2nd, of its honourable satisfaction.
Now, in the young and growing nature, sex may be richly satisfied by spiritual refreshment and refined companionship. Conjugal relations are not necessary to the very young in attaining true delight in sex. On the contrary, false relations are an outrage. They violently destroy the gradual unfolding of mental and physical joys, which alone produces exquisite and lasting delight. A large amount of honourable companionship between young men and women is of the utmost advantage in strengthening and ennobling young manhood and womanhood. This valuable result is only possible, however, as springing from the practice of chastity; in connection with fornication it is impossible. Parents are now justly afraid of the influences that may be brought to bear on their children. Nevertheless, abundant honourable companionship between the sexes is an important principle of future reform. Provide the necessary condition of adult sympathy and influence, and the wider the range of acquaintance can be made between boys and girls, between uncorrupted young men and women, the better, the more valuable, will be the results of such acquaintance. The possibility and practice of natural familiar acquaintance between unmarried young men and women in any society may be considered a test of the healthy human condition of such society. Any society where it is considered necessary to keep young people rigidly apart is a corrupt society, based upon principles of national degeneracy instead of natural development.
The companionship of brothers and sisters is now early falsified by the failure of parents to perceive its inestimable value, by separation in studies and amusements, by false theories or corrupt habits, through the influence of which the tie is weakened or perverted. The friendship and affection, however, of these natural associates should be sedulously promoted by companionship in studies, in music, in outdoor pursuits and amusements. Into a family circle where brothers and sisters were friends and companions, other boys and girls, other young men and women, would naturally enter, the ennobling educational influence would extend indefinitely, and those genuine sympathies which should lead to marriage union, would gradually display themselves.