through the years of childhood will indeed help now. But there awakens
for the first time a new force: the child is, in a literal as well as
figurative sense, being born anew. At this new birth, which is sometimes
very difficult, he enters into a hitherto unknown world of interests and
feelings. While the change from child to adult may proceed as a gradual
and placid unfolding in some individuals, in the great majority it
advances with irregular and disturbing demonstrations. This great change
takes place in girls generally at from thirteen to fifteen, and in boys
a year or two later, though it is not completed for a period of five or
six years. During this time the most profound alterations take place in
nearly all parts of the body; the mind undergoes a similar
metamorphosis, so that often the child so carefully watched from
babyhood seems entirely superseded by a new being.
This is preeminently the age of romance. It is the borderland where is
fought the battle of individuality, and it is probable that at this time
is decided in a very deep way what is to be the trend of the whole after
life. There is at this period such susceptibility to impressions that
there may be indelibly stamped mental images that are the exact opposite
of those of childhood, the childish memory remaining as a thing apart
and by itself,--a curious separation and continuation of two lines of
ideas, which every one has perhaps experienced to some extent and on
some subject.
It is probable that impressions received now are of more importance in
determining conduct than at any other period, or at least in determining
it for a long period of years, the period when the individual makes his
strongest impression upon the world. Reversion to the faith or the
ideals of childhood, which so often occurs in old age, is of slight
importance to society as compared to the influence of the individual
when at the zenith of his powers. Consequently, it is of the utmost
importance that the right thought and the high ideal be firmly implanted
at this new birth. Undoubtedly the habits of childhood make impressions
in the same direction more easily received, and where self-indulgence
and gratification of the senses have been prominent, they will be sure
to exert a tremendous power now, and _vice versa_. Thus a clear
understanding of this period is of the utmost importance to whoever
undertakes the guidance of youth.
The central point about which everything now revolves is the coming to
maturity of the sexual system. It is as absurd as it is harmful to
ignore the fact that this is primarily what the change means, and that
with the physical power to become a parent there normally appears,
either initially or with greatly increased force, the sex appetite. This
is normally true of both boys and girls, though the forces that have
gone to make our present civilization have, at least in many cases, made
the physiological sense cry subordinate in the girl, and occasionally
this is also true of the boy.
There is no period in the life of the human being when he so needs help
in certain ways as now, and no time when it is so difficult to help
him, as every youth now more than ever before affords an individual
problem. One of the difficulties attending this period is the tendency
to unsymmetrical growth. Oftentimes the body shoots up with amazing
rapidity, this quick growth of bone and muscle drawing heavily on the
whole system; parents recognize the condition by saying the child has
outgrown his strength. He has often outgrown much more than this, for
his intellect may not have been able to keep pace, and we not
infrequently have the anomaly of an adult body with the mind of a child.
No one is more conscious of this incongruity than the subject himself,
whose anatomy seems to have run away with him. This rapid growth is
generally marked by excessive development of some parts over others, so
that the child becomes clumsy and awkward. If the subject is a boy, the
sudden change in the size of his vocal chords often causes a distressing
"breaking" of the voice which adds materially to the general sense of
disharmony.
Those who have not experienced this sudden and unsymmetrical
development can have little idea of the trials of the young soul going
through it, a suffering so great that suicide is often seriously
contemplated as the only solution. And all this turmoil is kept within
the heart of the sufferer. To the outsider the boy, the girl, is merely
"cranky" or "contrary." If not constantly nagged at and reproved for his
awkwardness at home, he is sure to have it ridiculed by his schoolmates,
particularly by those of the opposite sex. He cannot help being
round-shouldered and loose-jointed, with protruding shoulder-blades and
awkward motions; and the pathos of it is, he thinks he must always
remain so, an ugly failure and a laughing-stock to the community. The
effect this has upon him will depend upon his temperament. Very
sensitive and fine natures often instinctively seek to cover the real
trouble by exaggerating the defects in every way possible,--making
believe they do it all on purpose, and acting the clown and the ruffian,
giving way to the irritability natural to the condition with a sort of
reckless despair which is sure to be misunderstood and censured by
those he loves best. When this stage is reached, it is easy for him to
imagine himself a social outcast, a useless encumbrance that nobody
loves, a clumsy dolt that nobody likes to have about. Again he may
become sullen, morose, resentful, and suspicious toward all about him.
Or, a timid nature may become more timid, shrinking, weak of will, and
despondent concerning life in general; or the subject may show an
exaggerated egotism which seeks by sheer intrusion of self to force
everything else aside.
In the course of a few years he grows out of these difficulties, but the
suffering he underwent may have made such an impression upon his
excessively sensitive nerve centres that he never entirely recovers from
it, and may be controlled by it in ways he does not suspect all the rest
of his life.
It is needless to say that a large part of this suffering could be
averted by knowledge on the part of the parents and of other adults with
whom the youth comes in contact, as well as on the part of the youth
himself. What he most needs in his "awkward age" is sympathy, patience,
firmness, and instruction, and his physical defects should never be
ridiculed. Perhaps nothing is more helpful to youth at this stage than
to have its vagaries treated seriously. Wonderful dreams of future glory
and accomplishment, remarkable theories of the universe, astounding
schemes for impossible inventions, new Utopias, wild adventures, and at
times even questionable escapades are the natural and luxurious growth
of the newly stimulated imagination. They do no harm, and are a safety
valve which should be understood. Honest sympathy, where sympathy is
merited, will give weight to warning and disapproval, which would have
no weight at all if the whole fabric of the imagination, which is so
real and so precious to the imaginer, were condemned without
discrimination. These dreams of youth are often the real stuff out of
which the fabric of life is later to be woven, taking new forms it may
be, but getting their inception there. Some one has said that if the
facts could be known, the thought germs whence finally came the steam
engine and the electric telegraph were probably conceived in the brain
of an adolescent; and we know that poets are born at that age.
Many of the dreams of the youth may seem fantastic and ridiculous, but
if the adult can only remember that they are not so to the dreamer and
that this is a phase through which he is passing,--a phase which in most
cases will pass entirely, leaving only, so to speak, a glow behind,--he
will be more sympathetic and thus more helpful. If he can also realize
that these dreams of the youth are an expression on the highest plane of
the creative instinct which is in a sense controlling his body, mind,
and soul, these vagaries, far from being ridiculous, will be recognized
as worthy of the deepest respect. Now, too, the parent who has won the
full confidence of the child through confidential talks on sex matters
can without difficulty instruct him in the meaning and control of the
new forces that are at work upon him.
The whole subject now changes. It becomes personal, and his thoughts are
clouded by new problems and by the imperious demands of the body.
According to the nature, inheritance, and previous habits of the youth
these demands assert themselves. And now is the time of greatest danger
from ignorance. Even though the boy has been well taught up to this age,
if he is cast adrift now on the turbulent sea of desire and allowed to
gather information from the sources all too available, there may occur a
split between the thought of his childhood on this subject and the
thought of his adulthood. If he is not allowed to drift, however, but
given a chart and compass, the knowledge he has already of how to sail
his ship will enable him to make straight for the right port, which he
will have a good chance of reaching, no matter how stormy the seas he
may have to traverse. With the right 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, either physically or
mentally; and he should understand what are its normal phenomena, and
how without fear to recognize and control deviations from them. Many
parents direct the boy to go at once to the family physician if he is
troubled or puzzled in any way. A few moments' talk with a wise doctor
may save much useless worry. The more nervous and sensitive the boy at
this time the more likely he will be to suffer from imagined troubles,
and the greater his danger of falling into real ones.
While the youth must know the physiological and anatomical facts and
must know in a general way the consequences of vice, he will seldom be
restrained or helped by the methods of the alarmist. It is far better
that his mind at this time dwell upon the normal and noble side of sex
life than on its abnormal and ignoble side. The value of diet, cold
water, exercise, and occupation should be understood by the young people
themselves, and also the tremendous value of thought in helping or
hindering. Faith in one's power to win is the first requisite in any
contest, and fortunately science to-day is saying what the inner heart
of man must always have told him was true, that a chaste life is both
possible and safe. Indeed the scientists of to-day declare it to be
advantageous, heightening the power of the individual in all directions,
and particularly at the growing age.
Every parent has an ideal as to how he wishes his daughter to be treated
by young men, and how he wishes her to conduct herself toward them. That
this ideal be reached in the case of the daughter, it is necessary that
the son be trained to a chivalry and respect for all women, which will
make it impossible for him to take liberties with any woman. A right
knowledge of the real meaning and the responsibilities and duties of
their lives at this time would be a better safeguard for most young
people than any amount of chaperonage. Nor will such training in any way
lessen the joy of life, or the charms of courtship, but on the contrary,
will enhance all that is most precious.
When the youth goes finally into the real battle of life, into the world
of business, of competition, and temptation, he will need all his
fortitude and all his knowledge to guide him aright in his personal
life. And then it is that he will begin to realize what his parents have
really done for him, and to appreciate their forethought and care. Then,
too, he not infrequently expresses in the strongest terms his gratitude
to the mother, the father, who have guided his course safely over the
dangerous shoals.
The life battle of the youth who has been carefully instructed and
preserved clean in mind and body is very different from that of him who
has been weakened in will and perverted in mind from lack of such
preservation; he knows that purity is both possible and good, and
desires it above all things for his sons, both for their happiness and
for their material success in life.
Habits of thought and action have an incalculable influence upon the
body as well as upon the mind; and here as everywhere else, the ideal,
whether it be high or low, will control the destiny of the man.
LIST OF BOOKS HELPFUL IN STUDYING PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I
BOOKS HELPFUL IN STUDYING PLANT LIFE
Andrews, Jane:
Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children $0.50
Bailey, L. H.:
Plant Breeding 0.75
Bass, Florence:
Plant Life. Nature Stories for Young Readers 0.25
Dana, Mrs. William Starr (Frances T. Parsons):
How to Know the Wild Flowers 2.00
Going, Maud:
Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers. Untechnical
Studies for Unlearned Lovers of Nature 1.50
With the Wild Flowers, from Pussy Willow to
Thistledown 1.00
With the Trees 1.00
Gray, Asa:
School and Field Book of Botany 1.80
Huntington, Annie Oakes:
Studies of Trees in Winter 2.50
Keeler, Harriet L.:
Our Native Trees and How to Identify them 2.00
Laing, Mary E.:
The Life of a Bean. For little children 0.15
Lounsberry, Alice:
A Guide to the Trees 1.75
Lubbock, Sir John:
Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves. Treats of fertilization
of flowers, seed dispersal, leaves, stinging
hairs, etc. 0.75
Morley, Margaret W.:
Seed Babies. For young children, showing how
plants come from seeds 0.25
Little Wanderers. For children, on the methods
of seed dispersal 0.30
Flowers and Their Friends. Stories of plants and
how they do their work of living 0.50
A Few Familiar Flowers. A book of methods for
teaching beginning botany 0.75
Newell, Jane H.:
Reader in Botany.
Part I. From Seed to Leaf 0.60
Part II. From Flower to Fruit 0.60
Parsons, Frances Theodora (Mrs. W. S. Dana):
According to Season. Talks about the flowers in
the order of their appearance in the woods and
fields 1.75
Rogers, Julia Ellen:
The Tree Book. North American trees, uses, and
culture 3.00
Roth, Filibert:
First Book of Forestry 1.25
Spear, Mary A.:
Leaves and Flowers. Botany for young learners,
giving the principal botanical terms 0.25
Weed, Clarence M.:
Seed Travellers. On seed dispersal; for older
children 0.25
II
BOOKS HELPFUL IN STUDYING ANIMAL LIFE
American Humane Education Society:
Publications, and "Our Dumb Animals," a magazine
Per year $0.50
Bass, Florence:
Animal Life. Nature Stories for Young Readers 0.35
Bateman, Rev. Gregory C.:
Fresh Water Aquaria 1.40
Burroughs, John:
Locusts and Wild Honey 1.25
Signs and Seasons 1.25
Wake Robin 1.25
Ways of Nature 1.50
Chapman, Frank M.:
Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America 3.00
Comstock, Anna Botsford:
Ways of the Six-Footed. Stories of Insect Life 0.40
Comstock, John Henry:
Insect Life 1.75
Dixon, Charles:
Birds' Nests 1.20
Eddy, Sarah J.:
Friends and Helpers 0.60
Howard, Leland O.:
The Insect Book 3.00
Hulbert, W. D.:
Forest Neighbors. Life Stories of Wild Animals 1.50
Jackson, Gabrielle E.:
The Adventures of Tommy Postoffice. The True
Story of a Cat 0.75
Jackson, Helen Hunt:
Cat Stories 2.00
Job, Herbert K.:
Wild Wings. Adventures of a Camera Hunter
among the larger Wild Birds of North America
over Sea and Land 3.00
Jordan, David Starr (_Editor_):
True Tales of Birds and Beasts 0.40
Keyser, Leander S.:
Birds of the Rockies 1.50
Long, William J.:
Ways of the Wood Folk 0.50
Wilderness Ways 0.45
Secrets of the Woods 0.50
Wood Folk at School 0.50
A Little Brother to the Bear, and Other Animal
Stories 1.50
Mathews, F. Schuyler:
Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music 2.00
Familiar Life in Field and Forest. The Animals,
Birds, Frogs, and Salamanders 1.75
Miller, Mary Rogers:
The Brook Book 1.35
Morley, Margaret W.:
Butterflies and Bees 0.60
The Insect Folk 0.45
A Song of Life 1.25
Life and Love 1.25
The Bee People 1.25
The Honey-Makers 1.25
Little Mitchell. The Story of a Squirrel 1.25
Our Four-Footed Friends. A Monthly Magazine.
Per year 0.50
Patterson, Alice Jean:
The Spinner Family. About Spiders 1.00
Repplier, Agnes:
The Fireside Sphinx. A Book about Cats for Older
Readers 2.00
Seton, Ernest Thompson:
Animal Heroes 2.00
The Biography of a Grizzly 1.50
Lives of the Hunted 1.75
The Trail of the Sandhill Stag 1.50
Wild Animals I Have Known 2.00
Weed, Clarence M.:
Stories of Insect Life
Spring and Summer. First Series 0.25
Autumn. Second Series 0.30
Wheelock, Irene Grosvenor:
Nestlings of Forest and Marsh 1.00
Winslow, Helen M.:
Concerning Cats. Stories of Historical and Other
Cats 1.50
Wood, Rev. Theodore:
A Natural History of Birds, Fishes, etc. 1.25
Wright, Julia McNair:
Seaside and Wayside. School reading books. 4 vols.
Vol. I. 0.25
Vol. II. 0.35
Vol. III. 0.45
Vol. IV. 0.60
III
MISCELLANEOUS
Ellis, Havelock:
Man and Woman. For those interested in the philosophical
and scientific side of the subject. In
the Contemporary Science Series 1.50
Geddes and Thompson:
The Evolution of Sex. Contemporary Science
Series 1.50
Hall, G. Stanley:
Adolescence. Two volumes 7.50
Layard, Rev. E. B.:
Religion in Boyhood. Chapter on How to Form
Character. This book has an Introduction
by the Rev. Endicott Peabody, head master of
Groton School, Groton, Mass. 0.75
Lyttleton, Rev. the Hon. E.:
Mothers and Sons 1.00
Training of the Young in Laws of Sex 1.00
Stall, Sylvanus, D.D.:
What a Young Boy Ought to Know 1.00
What a Young Man Ought to Know 1.00
What a Young Husband Ought to Know 1.00
What a Man of Forty-five Ought to Know 1.00
Wood-Allen, Dr. Mary:
What a Young Girl Ought to Know 1.00
What a Young Woman Ought to Know 1.00
What a Young Wife Ought to Know 1.00
Almost a Man 0.50
Almost a Woman 0.50
BY MISS MORLEY
The Bee People
_ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR_
Price $1.25
It is the story, told in most fascinating style, of the honey bee, how
it is born, how it lives, how it gathers honey, and all about it, not
omitting its sting. The bee is credited with powers of reasoning, and
the troubles of the queen bee in retaining her throne are set forth in a
delightfully fairy-story-like way which will win every child that reads
it.--_The Times, Philadelphia._
Probably no branch of natural history is more interesting than the bee
people, and when told by an appreciative student is doubly so. Miss
Morley carries out the human idea suggested in the title; and the
worker, the drone, the queen, and all the inmates of a hive are given a
life-like personality. Many illustrations aid in telling the story, and
many wonderful things concerning the habits of these little people are
constantly revealed.--_The Detroit News Tribune._
* * * * *
The Honey Makers
_ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR_
Price $1.25
Unlike Miss Morley's other works, this book is intended for older
readers. The first part of the book is devoted to the scientific
exposition of the bee's structure, habits, etc., and it is surprising
how much interest and humor the author has managed to infuse into the
subject. The second part performs an original and valuable service to
literature. To the bees more than to any other portion of the animal
kingdom has attention been devoted by poets and thinkers seeking
inspiration, and from this wealth of allusion and anecdote Miss Morley
has culled the choicest and most striking parts.
* * * * *
A Song of Life
_ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR AND ROBERT FORSYTH_
Price $1.25
With simple, beautiful phrases, with pure and admiring words to describe
the process of life, and with scores of gracefully outlined forms of
plant and bird and beast by a helpful artist, has this song of life been
sung and illustrated to delight and instruct in the happiest way many a
wondering child concerning the mystery of life.--_The Churchman, New
York._
The plan of the work is novel, and the narrative is accurate and
interesting to an unusual degree. Few writers on life's history give so
much of it in a space so limited.--_The Nation, New York._
* * * * *
Life and Love
_ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR_
Price $1.25
Margaret Warner Morley has written in "Life and Love" a book which
should be placed in the hands of every young man and woman. It is a
fearless yet clean-minded study of the development of life and the
relations thereof from the protoplasm to mankind. The work is logical,
instructive, impressive. It should result in the innocence of knowledge,
which is better than the innocence of ignorance. It is a pleasure to see
a woman handling so delicate a topic so well. Miss Morley deserves
thanks for doing it so impeccably. Even a prude can find nothing to carp
at in the valuable little volume.--_Boston Journal._
It is an agreeable and useful little volume, explanatory of the
mysteries of plant and animal life,--such a book as parents will do well
to place in the hands of thoughtful, or, better still, of thoughtless
children.--_Philadelphia Press._
* * * * *
Little Mitchell
THE STORY OF A MOUNTAIN SQUIRREL
_ILLUSTRATED BY BRUCE HORSFALL_
Price $1.25
Miss Morley's own words give the best idea of this most engaging little
book:
"Baby Mitchell was an August squirrel. That is, he was born in the
month of August. His pretty gray mother found a nice hole, high up
in the crotch of a tall chestnut tree, for her babies' nest; and I
know that she lined it with soft fur plucked from her own loving
little breast,--for that is the way the squirrel mothers do.
"This chestnut tree grew on the side of a steep mountain,--none
other than Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain peak in all the
eastern half of the United States. It is in North Carolina, where
there are a great many beautiful mountains, but none of them more
beautiful than Mount Mitchell, with the great forest trees on its
slopes."
A. C. McCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A great deal of confusion exists in many minds as to the
origin of pollen and ovule. There seems to be a general and almost
ineradicable impression that fertilization has something to do in
creating the ovule. This is not so. The ovule is a part of every ovary
just as the pollen is a part of every anther. Each will be produced
whether they ever come together or not; only if they do not come
together, both perish, while if they do, development of the ovule
continues.